The Press Box - Covering the NYC Suspect, Bill Belichick’s TV Rehab Flopped, and the New Woj Bomb

Episode Date: December 12, 2024

Hello, media consumers! Bryan and Joel reveal what the people have voted to call Joel’s new segment (2:40). Then they discuss the following How Luigi Mangione has been covered in the news (14:07) Whether or not David Zaslav was right when it comes to the NBA rights deal (26:09) Bill Belichick TV rehabilitation flopped, now he returns to the sidelines (36:54) Nick Saban becomes a TV character (43:50) The new genre of Woj bombs, how college football players enter the transfer portal (54:21) Brandon Graham calls out his teammates (60:00) There will be a stadium named after Sports Illustrated (63:01) Hosts: Bryan Curtis and Joel Anderson Producer: Brian H. Waters Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Did you know that scientific studies have found most people lie once every 10 minutes? In my new podcast, Truthless, I'm talking to people about the lies, they tell, from faking illnesses in high-pressure moments to making up stories on national TV. From Spotify and the Ringer Podcast Network, I'm Brian Phillips. Listen to Truthless on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Media consumers, welcome to the old press box. You've got Brian Curtis. You've got Joel Anderson.

You've got producer Brian Waters, who is back with us. Joel, the people have spoken. And they want the new Joel Anderson featured that will kick off every edition of the Thursday press box to be called the Joel enchilada. I don't want to disappoint everybody, but I'm still torn. I haven't decided on this. Do you, I mean, Brian, you're the one that raise some concerns about, are you sure that this is what you want the branding for this segment to be, remember?

My concern was that I like enchiladas, which is an opinion you and I share, by the way. It may not be the best reasoning long term, because then you will be stuck with a segment that is named after a, no doubt, delicious piece of Mexican cuisine. But that may not be the best solution long term. That was my only concern. I know, right.

I may not evolve. Like enchilada may not evolve where this goes in the future, right? And I got some calls from friends like, you don't want to do the Joel enchilada. People in media. Bermani Jones. That's who told me. He's like, don't, you don't want to be Joel enchilada, do you? Bumani waited on this?

Oh, yeah. Bumani is like, you don't want to be the Joel enchilada. And I was like, well, let me think about this a little bit longer. I don't, I hope that doesn't turn. people off because I really do appreciate everyone's interest. And I do like enchiladas and I do like the Joel enchilada, but I'm just not certain. Are we leaning toward Joel truth? Are we leaning toward Good Morning, Mr. Anderson? Are we keeping things open here? So the Joel truth kind of seems like a thing that's portable, right? Like you can kind of use it in a lot of different contexts. It doesn't

sound crazy. I mean, the Joel enchilada, you really kind of got to explain to people, I think, what's going on there, right? All right. All right. So let's test drive this for one episode, The Joel Truth. I'm going to give you a professional announcer intro. You see how this feels. Here we go. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you one man's run through the A-GAP of news and opinion. Here is the Joel Truth.

Well, thanks very much, Brian. I appreciate you bringing me in here. So, of course, the whole conceit of this segment is that I listen to what you and David do on Monday offer a little follow-up. And so I was listening to you guys talk about the plan to save TV news. And one other thing that sort of occurred to me while you were talking about it was the politics of waiting rooms. Because there really was a time in the not-so-distant past in America where you could go into an auto shop. they'd be playing, you know, CNN. But gradually, I realized it became a little to apparent, like, where your political

leanings might be depending on whatever station you were. So have you ever, for instance, anywhere in your life gone someplace and they were playing MSNBC on the main TV? Like, not an airport, not a doctor's office, nothing, right? You've never seen MSNBC playing anywhere, correct? Never one time. Right. It's only CNN, sometimes Foxx to pit to go where you're going. And even that has just sort of gradually gone away, I think. I don't, I've not, you all talking about, oh, like, HGTV or, you know, maybe, like you might probably go into a place and see first take playing, right? But, yeah, but I don't, I don't see that anymore. I kind of went away, I think. So that's fascinating that cable television becomes so politicized that even just something with a.

sound off becomes a political statement. And I love the connected thought there that Stephen A doing first take is the safe space. Right. Stephen A, who is friends with Sean Hannity, and is increasingly verbal about like his political opinions, right? But it just, it's, it seems like more of a jokey thing. And actually, it made me realize, especially this past week, my son had norovirus. And so I had to stay home with him and watch a little bit of more TV than normal. And it made me realize the utility of shows like today and Good Morning America because it's just very light and very funny.

It's a throwback to an old time where they bring on first. I mean, Kelly Clarkson is on TV all day long somewhere at America. I don't know if you know this, but she's on TV every day. Like whether she's singing or hosting, she is like the American mainstream right now. And so, but it is a very safe space. And I think that, like, what they should do is actually make those shows eight hours a day. Just never, it's kind of like a telephone. Just keep going.

Just keep going. Just keep inviting on celebrities, people who you've maybe heard before, maybe not older celebrities. Like, I would love to just see Nicole Kidman on, you know, you know, Jamie Fox comes on right after that. They do a thing. And I think it would do a lot to heal America. We need a new wallpaper as a man. America. We really do. I think so.

This country is going to be further divided. I agree. I think so. I would just like to go into an auto shop and not feel like it's a, you know, we're going to have some sort of tension over what's on the TV. But also, you guys were talking about Christmas movies for kids. And as you know, I'm recently a father of two. Like I have almost three-month-old now.

And I was thinking about the movies I watched for kids. And I heard you and David talking about you going down this. the movies. Is it not the case that the Rudolph, the red nose reindeer, the Charlie Brown Christmas, the Frosty, the Snowman? Because to me, when I was growing up, those were the Christmas movies. Like, they didn't make as many, like, the elf. Like, I've never seen elf because it came after I was basically an adult.

So I was like, that is now need for that for me. But, like, weren't those the Christmas movies for like a generation of kids? It does. It feels like the time after the. the Star Wars original trilogy where there was this content desert. And we didn't have home alone yet. We didn't have home alone.

Which kind of became the Christmas movie in a lot of ways. So we were watching this stuff that we weren't sure when it was made. It could have been from our parents' time. It could have been from any time in history. Right. Right. So there's this gap, right? Because I felt like there were the ancient films.

And I say that because they seemed old to me as a kid, Miracle on 34th Street. you just could not get me to watch that because it looked too old on TV or it's a wonderful life. These are like movies from the 40s. These are like our parents era programming. But that little run of the little drummer boy and Santa Claus has come into town,

like that was for us. But I was thinking about like how am I going to introduce my two-year-old to this stuff? And I was looking at it. And I was like, oh, this looks so much more, this looks so much worse than Leo the truck. I don't think that it's got what it takes to hold on to the youth of America today. What I've noticed polling some of my friends who are about my age is that there is a home

alone generation. Yep. And then there's an elf generation. Yeah. Okay. And that turns out to be kind of the A, B of go-to holiday movies. Yep. A lot of people watch both, but your favorite of those kind of depends on when you were a kid.

I was kind of a home alone guy, but let me tell you, like, I'm going to just throw out a couple of Hollywood, I mean, of movies from Hollywood that were Christmas-ish movies, but people don't tend to think of it. And I'm not going to do the die-hard thing because I haven't re-watched die-hard in years. And in fact, in my mind, I confuse it with the last Boy Scout. Yeah. Also, America's most played out content, die-hard Christmas movie. That's unsubscribe. So, yes, please continue. So let me just, let me just make a case.

for when Harry met Sally. A very delightful, like I feel like the high points of the movies happens around the holidays. It's just a very fun, easy, just well-shot, well, just not very stressful. You know, you don't get the Santa of it or anything like that, but it feels very, like, and in fact, I was realizing, I was like, so much of what I enjoy about Christmas and so much of what, you know, we think of as Christmas growing up in Texas, is what's going on in New York.

And I was like, oh, it's because of when Harry met Sally for me. Like, I'm just like, when I think of the holidays, I think of that scene of, you know, Meg Ryan dragging a tree down the street back to her house without Harry because they're having a little problem at that time. That's a really good one in the New Yorkiness of it because New York and Christmas is really a magical place and feels different. And anything that conjures that goes right up the list.

Absolutely. Rockefeller Center, man. Like, it seems corny, but like when you go there, There, it's just like, it works. It works. Or even the Rockettes where you get Santa and you get the Jesus story in one show. It's like, wow. Something for everyone.

There's a lot of ways to celebrate, right? And so the third thing here, because I'm going to try to keep it to a tight three for the Joel Truth or the Joel enchilada, whatever this becomes. I couldn't help but be delighted in you buying that 1959 issue of the National Lampoon. First of all, because it reminds me so much of our mutual friend, Josh Levine. It seems like the thing that Josh would do and just get, your mind just goes down this path, right? But I was thinking about the joy of old magazine covers, man. And I don't know if kids get that today, but like, do you have a magazine cover from your youth that comes to mind immediately? Like the one you're just like, I stumbled across this.

I'm going to give you two. But me too and then while I think. Yeah. Okay. I'm going to give you my two. At my cousin's house in Texarkana, he had the neon Dion Sports Illustrator cover. And I don't know if you're me. This is when Dion was a senior at Florida State.

Of course I remember is the answer to this. But yes, go ahead. The Jerry curl, the glasses, all that good stuff. And this is going to be a little more embarrassing. I probably shouldn't say this because it's aired my father out. but I figured out that my father kept his playboys in a closet in the guest room in a little small brief, you know, like a little small briefcase. And it was the Pamela Anderson playboy.

I think it was the very first one. Yeah. I don't know where that is. I'm sure that's worth a lot of money today, right? You should check that closet when you have a chance. I know. I'm pretty sure he figured out that I'd been digging around in there. So it wasn't there, whatever the last time I went to look for.

very old school but those are the two that I think of the most when I'm thinking of like a magazine cover magazine covers from that era were really like tweets are today because it was a it was a quotable thing it was like an image and you know more than any specific one I just remember so many SI covers from the late 80s early 90s especially after a Super Bowl and they had some of the lamest headlines ever it would be like Doug Williams and it would say wow exclamation plane and tiny type Doug Williams wins the Super Bowl. You're like, okay, that's cool. But it was, in a way, it arrived and you'd be like, oh, my God,

I hadn't seen like a picture that looked this good from the Super Bowl, not even on TV. Oh, of course. This looked amazing. And then we'd come in the mailbox. There was a little bit of a reveal element there. But yeah, that's, you know, those SI covers all go together. But in a way, I would like wait for Thursday.

And that would be kind of a just, again, of an announcement, a tweet, a something. Absolutely. Every week. Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, man, I mean, really, I mean, kids, there used to be a time of being on the cover of Sports Illustrated meant something in this world. And it would, it would, it could indelibly, it could, it could leave an indelible image on your mind like busted, Ben Johnson running on the cover of Sports Illustrator.

That was a big one. Never forget it. I'll always have that. Like the bice up in the right head. Yes. Yes. I will always have that burned on my brain. So anyway, but I thought it was really delightful.

And it made me want to start ordering up more old magazines now, Brian. So thanks for sharing it. I'll share some eBay links with you. That's what you do. Because you go for one story and then you wind up just reading the whole thing and you're like, this is fascinating. What your time caps up this is? Actually, I have, and my wife would probably love if I sold a lot of the magazines that I have here in this room.

So maybe I can even start my own little collection and start selling them off to people. So got a couple of things I'd love to talk to you about. One is Luigi Mangione. Oh, man. He is the suspect in the murder of Brian Thompson from United Healthcare. When we recorded on Monday, he had just been taken into custody at a McDonald's and Altoona, Pennsylvania. What do you make of the way that Luigi Mangione has been covered so far?

Well, it kind of depends on where you're getting your new. from which is in everything right like if you're on social media and depending on which stream you're in he's a hero which is a really awkward thing i mean he murdered somebody right and i he is he is a suspect in a murder right that's a legal term excuse me sorry about that but so what i think about with luigi is that if he had been anybody else anybody else from a different group of folk you know like let's say he was brown, black, trans, whatever, homeless. I don't think that that killing would have been categorized in quite the same way. And so it is sort of interesting to see him sort of be elevated in that way.

But, and I do think that like in the larger coverage of it, it's a killing. Like somebody got killed in broad daylight on a New York street. And I feel like there's been a lot of talk about like the health. insurance piece of it and there definitely is a place for that. But like in terms of like a big citywide spectacle, if it had been anybody else other than Luigi, I think we would be, this would be categorized differently. And I can very easily imagine a world in which people start to say, crime in New York City is out of control. Look at this. Especially on the same week with Daniel Perry gets off for, you know, essentially choking out a homeless person to death on

the New York City subway. that's that's a fascinating way to look at it and i totally agree that you really see the two worlds of media and you really see how one world has receded and the other world meaning tick tock reddit threads twitter social media has grown in importance because if you look at old media they are doing the most basic function and have been since monday which is go who is this guy yeah you know you and i've both been in reportedly situations where that's the That's the question. And no scrap of evidence, no good reads post, which actually came up with this guy was too

small. Right. To try to figure out what a manifesto is, right? Like how many words does it take to become a manifesto, right? It was a 262 word manifesto according to the New York Times, which was on the short end for me. But then there's also a notebook that was found with Mangione in which he wrote. And this is again, according to an official, I guess a law enforcement official talking to the Times.

What do you do? You whack the CEO at the annual parasitic bean counter convention. It's targeted, precise, and doesn't risk innocence. They say that was one passage written in the notebook. So all these little scraps of info you're putting together to try to figure out. And then his family history in Baltimore, he comes from a well-to-do family. He was high school valedictorian. How many times will we heard that?

He went to Penn. He moved to Hawaii. disappeared for six months, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Doesn't this sort of just really confuse all of the, I mean, I felt like everything that we sort of presumed about this going into it was wrong, right? Like, oh, this was a professional hit. Well, that's not quite what this was. I do think that there probably is, and there deserves to be some conversation around

the larger concern around health care, the health care industry, right? It brought up to me. Like, I was reminded during this incident that my father had had some stuff denied by United Healthcare. I was like, oh, that's right. And it's good that, you know, people are looking more into, like, United Healthcare's business practices. But I just kind of feel like everything that we sort of assumed going into it, that this

was a professional hit or maybe that, you know, somebody else wanted Brian Thompson dead. Like, none of that stuff kind of held up at the end of the day. Or if we're looking at Luigi Mangione, that somebody who, would be a suspect in this case would have a particular beef with United Healthcare or a particular beef with the healthcare industry. And again, from what little we know about him and he's just a suspect at this point, that doesn't appear to be the case. He certainly doesn't come from the kind of family where you would be bankrupted by some kind of health emergence. Have you, so there have been two different narratives on this two. One was that he, and I think

he mentioned this in one of the writings that has made it into media, that it was because of his mother, that he got tired of dealing with United Health Care because of how his mother was treated after a surgery, or that he had a back surgery and was in a lot of pain, and that, and I just, I've not seen, I'm sure that there, that is being clarified as we speak, but I feel like there's still just a lot of information to sift through as we're finding out who Luigi Manjone is. Totally. And I mentioned this to David on Monday, but it's a lot easier to do this when you don't

have a living, breathing human identified as a suspect. In that period between the murder and between Mangione's detention, you can just create in your head whatever a character. What was the person called the adjuster? The adjuster. The adjuster. That was a thing.

We had that just picture of half of his face. And so you're just sort of writing whatever you want. And if you want to use this as a time to go after the healthcare industry, you can imagine all kinds of narratives that fit that really well. Now we have, again, just as a suspect, but we have a living, breathing person. And you're like, okay, does that match up? And I guess my question after thinking about it for a few days is, does it matter if it matches up anymore? You know, do we live in such a kind of redity world that it's just like, you know what?

if I want to make this guy into my, you know, a figure that I'm pouring whatever meaning into that I'm just going to do it, no matter who he is and what he is. Well, and he's not scrutable, right? Like, there's not a coherent ideology here. So you can do that. Like, he can kind of be whoever you want him to be. He can be a, uh, uh, anti-insurance, you know, anti-capitalist hero.

Or he could be a frustrated right winger who, you know, listen to Rogan. and Tucker Carlson and, you know, use violence against a political enemy or whatever. So he can be anybody that you want to be. It's just, I mean, you know, he's alive. He's going to go through a trial, presumably. We'll find out more about him, but I don't think we're ever going to actually know a lot more about why he did this at the end of the day. That's when we find these people. We never do, right?

We go through this mad scramble to figure out all these details, and we do, and we figure out details, and we figure out, like, the rough idea of. motivations, but then the leap from that to an act is the leap that's the hardest thing to figure out at the end of the day. By the time you kill somebody, right, by the time you, or by the time that you have been accused of killing somebody, like, it's just kind of hard to take you at your word on a lot of things anyway, right? Like, I mean, that is a very dramatic act. And so, yeah, I just, there's not going to be, we're not going to get clarity here. not going to get closure. We may get a conviction, though. We may get a conviction at some point.

By the way, speaking of frustrated attempts at journalism, did you see this weird subplot involving Sean Morrow, who was a journalist at More Perfect Union? I did hear about this a little bit. Yeah. More Perfect Union is a nonprofit newsroom. And Sean Morrow posted that a TMZ reporter called him up because people had come to TMZ, I guess the rumor or the tip line, and said, hey, check out this guy because he's covered the insurance industry and his fact has made like YouTube videos.

And I guess in the mind of the tipsters somehow vaguely resembled pictures of the suspect that they had seen. So weirdly he got drawn into this whole thing. So in my lifetime, TMZ was not a media outlet that people trusted. And then Michael Jackson happened. And they reported Michael Jackson's death. And then people were like, oh, okay, maybe they're a little credible.

And a lot of these stories got a lot of truth to it. But if you listen to the call that person made to Sean Morrow, it made me sort of reevaluate what I thought about them in their reporting methods, right? Because it's just like some people have been saying that you may not know this, but, and I was like, is that how y'all are really doing your? reporting for real the news gathering i mean but again like right like just imagine this point you know this is not something where you have probably nailed down things you're probably and who knows who that was right you know was that the ace reporter of TMZ or was that the person the intern answering

the tip line like hey right right right right call this guy up because somebody ran to dispatch people right right right right yeah it could have been anybody but it just was also it just kind of shows you like how easy it is i mean that's really scary like I mean, if Sean Morrow, like, if there were less sane, I mean, there are plenty of people that are willing to heart people out there on the internet. And just the fact that, like, his name was invoked in quite in this way, some people are never going to believe the news and who, they're not going to believe it's Luigi. So he could still be a target, man.

It was really scary for that to get out there like that. Absolutely. And he told The Washington Post, he actually canceled plans that night because he's like, you know, for something like that or even the NYPD, you know, if they were to come. knock on my door, I want to be, you know, in one place and, and have this all together when when that moment happens. It weirdly reminded me, there's, there's this, and by the way, feel free to go down this rabbit hole sometime, but there was an episode of America's Most wanted back in the day where they showed a bank robber. And I think it was a, I think they actually

had video the bank robber. And for whatever reason, the bank robber looked exactly like the 80s W.WF wrestler, the big boss man. Oh my gosh. And so they were flooded with calls saying, I know where this guy is. He's on Monday Night Raw right now. There's a video about this. I did not know this. I did not know this. I'm going to check this out. Feel free. And they even did a little thing on it after the fact. Hey, man, anybody who's ever been identified as a suspect, it's kind of a scary thing, man. I've known people who've been in that situation. And I

This is crazy and weird. There was a time at TCU and there was a guy who was going around, I mean, he was assaulting women on campus. What I remember that was the most scary was that the suspect profile was, it was 5'6 to 6 foot tall, 180 to 230 pounds, black male. I mean, so just like moving around TCU, at that time. And people that went to TCU and lived in Fort Worth at this time,

probably know what I'm talking about. It was really scary, man. So, you know, yeah, man, you don't want to, you've got to be really careful when you're, you know, outlining suspects and saying who's involved in this sort of stuff. I mean, it can impact the person's life forever, man. God, absolutely. A couple sports things to get for you.

Remember the NBA rights in that whole auction that we were so consumed with or maybe I was so consumed with a couple of months ago? I do remember this. I think people are more consumed with that than they are actually NBA basketball. Yeah, well, that's definitely true. Like a lot of things with the NBA. So T&T lost their NBA rights. And when they did, there was a general consensus that they might have actually lost twice

because NBC got the NBA rights. But NBC is also owned by Comcast, which is, of course, a giant cable operator. So after they lost the NBA rights. after they lost the ride, something very funny was going to happen to Turner and Warner Brothers Discovery and Warner Brothers Discovery Chief David Zazlap, which is they were going to have to come over to Comcast and be like, hey, so we have this network T&T that is like full of Rosoli and Isles reruns or whatever the hell's on there during the day now. Charmed. Charmed reruns. It does not have NBA basketball. And we need you to pay us a fee to get. carry TNT, even though you're the ones who just made TNT less valuable. Right. I mean, which was like, and by the way, we got Mountain West football, so don't count us out.

I mean, don't they get one of the like, don't they get a channel during the NCAA tournament too? Like, you know, there's some games on T&T every nine again, right? So, you know, you get something once in a while. They're going to get some bowls, right? They're going to get some, the first round games in the playoff. As a middle age person, I, I would miss T&T if it went away because of that reason.

I'm sort of in the habit of it. Yeah, I need to there. Who does not want to watch a Star Wars movie that takes three and a half hours and complete with commercials? Well, actually, I mean, I really became a charmed fan through the NBA. I don't know if you had the sensation, especially if you live. Joel, I did not have the sensation. You did not have the sensation?

Okay. Well, I had the sensation. And you get, you watch the late game. You're watching Chuck Kenny, Barkley, Shack. you go to sleep with it on and you wake up and Charmed is on. Like, I don't know how. I feel like millions of NBA fans have that experience, like waking up and charmed is on. So what am I going to do?

How am I going to replace that? So T&T and David Zazlov go to Comcast. And this is quoting here from Oliver Darcy's newsletter status. Zazelov must have been all smiles on Monday. The Warner Brothers Discovery Boss inked a deal with Comcast to renew its distribution agreement and scuttle, only in journalism, a legal battle over its forthcoming Harry Potter series. notably WBD actually increased rates for some of its channels while T&T remained flat. So they lost the NBA in this $2.5 billion deal, 2.5 billion per year, by the way,

and the cable and the rate for T&T remain the same. Does that make you question the value of the NBA as a TV property at all? A little bit. I think so in a way I mean I look this was this was one of those crazy auctions right where all of a sudden NBA regular season programming was going for crazy amounts of money but I would also just say like I think it made me question the idea of with sports rights do you win the deal if you get the rights right that's the way we've halt thought of this thing you get the rights you win you lose the rights you lose the rights you lose you lose you. is that always going to be the answer with these crazy increasingly crazy auctions? You tell me, I mean, has it helped ESPN? Like, do they seem like a more robust company by stockpiling all these rights to these leagues and these games? I mean, they're using it to float, right, to keep themselves afloat until they can figure out something else, like,

so they can do a direct-to-consumer thing. But, like, has having all these games, that's the thing. It's like nobody else, it's very hard. You can't really replace games, right? Like that's a form of programming that, you know, people think that they need to have because you can't really, can't watch it later, you know, this, whatever. But like, do people watch games like that anymore?

I mean, did they watch NBA regular season games specifically anymore, ever? Did they ever, except when it was on Sunday afternoons on NBC? Yeah. I mean, look, I just. think it's an interesting question. I mean, we could say no to ESPN because we could point to all the problems, but I think there's a fairly compelling case. Like, look, we're going to have to, we are changing the whole nature of this network from a thing you pay for, even if you never watch it on a cable bundle, to a thing that we need people to subscribe to. Right. And the only way that

works is if we have tons and tons of games, which we have paid massively for. But we don't know if that's going to work or not. Right. It's also fair to say, we don't know. Like, maybe, or maybe we just took on tons of debt and we're not going to get anywhere near the money we got in the glory days of the cable button. Absolutely. You know, right? So like if you're just running, you know, nets versus, let's just say nets versus kings, um, that's probably not going to do much for you. But the thing they really met NFL games, because people will sit around and watch a shitty NFL game. And like that is like that, that actually seems to have some value and some meaning. All this other stuff, though, I'm not sure if that inventory, but look,

man, I love college football. I love college football, man. It just keeps me going. I really don't remember sitting down watching the tax slayer bowl. Like, you know what I mean? Like, do you? I just, like, how often, like, if they showed the blue, I'm really dating myself, the Blue Bonnet Bowl or the galleryfurniture.com bowl. Like, I mean, I watched it theoretically because it was on TV, but like, I was not engaged. And if it did not come on, I probably would not miss it. And I feel like, if I'm like that, there are probably a lot of other sports fans that are like that. No, and like college football regular season, I think we'd put that in the category of something that does have a steady audience that's going to show up.

Absolutely. You're going to get it. The game. The game depends on the game. It depends on the game. Produce the Northwestern, not turning them out, bro. I don't know if you saw that list of the Nielsen, like the top 10 teams in terms of average viewers per game that came out this year. I did.

I did. The SEC plus Michigan and Ohio State. By the way, God bless those University of Kentucky fans turning up. week after week? I mean, we call it a basketball school, but it rates ahead of Florida viewers, man. I mean, we had a University of Florida. That's, that kind of was a shock to me. Tough season for Florida. So maybe you didn't want to watch some of that quarterback play that was put out there when DJ Lagway was on the bench, but, but I digress. I wouldn't want to watch Graham Merts either. No offense to you, Graham Burtz, but I mean, come on. Grand Burntz, I'm sure you're listening to

the press box right now. Yeah, right. One last note on this. If David Zazloff somehow was redeemed through this. I mean, talk about America's softest target. I mean, something that you didn't even have to know anything about this and I don't even claim to be an expert on like, you know, Hollywood chieftains, but you didn't have to know anything which is like, this guy is messing everything up. Right. If he somehow

comes out on the other side of this and he says, I was smart or I was accidentally smart because I didn't pay $2.5 billion a year for NBA rights, that would be an unbelievable turnaround. I mean, there's been a

vanishing if maybe even non-existent cohort of pro zazz people on this beat and if that were to somehow become a thing I was totally expecting him to shuffle off this particular coil you know what I mean like I did I expected like you

Craig Mac said this in a song he said you're not going to be around next year okay so I thought I thought that was going to be uh Zaslov but uh seems like I mean it may just be enough to keep him in the mix for a little bit longer? I think part of the reason this is hard to process is because we think of getting rights is winning and that's been the case for so long.

You know, like with CBS in the 90s and then NBC, they lost the NFL rights and they spent like, you know, four or five years in the wilderness like, we have to get the NFL back and they've had it ever since. But I'm old enough to remember when CBS went all in on baseball in 88, 89, and they paid a million dollars for for four years and it was a mess because they lost tons of money and they didn't recoup it in in any possible way so it can happen you can lose a rights deal even if you win a rights deal man again i just i i i'm sure that like we will untangle this as we go on and um i i i i was i need to read a lot more but like to me sort of the precarity of the regional sports networks they're airing all this they're airing all this content like all the content that is supposedly valuable and they're in dire straits, right? Yeah, it's true. So how valuable is it really?

Speaking of how valuable is it, let me give you Bill Belichick. Oh, man. I've been writing about that for the past 24 hours, man. Okay, so I'm going to need to pick your brain on this. He is, as you may know, a former NFL coach. He heard of that guy. He's the Browns, right? He coached the Browns.

He coached the Browns. I believe he may have made the playoffs one time. He's had a gap year in media, and now he is the new coach at the University of North Carolina. Yeah, man. Where do we start with this? Man, this has got to be one of the more shocking coaching moves in modern college football history, right? So Brian Kelly leaving Notre Dame to go to LSU was a huge deal. Lincoln Riley going from Oklahoma to USC huge deal

and that all kind of happened kind of together so I don't think people could assess them each on their individual merits but Bill Belichick is going to be like on the sidelines in Wake Forest you know what I'm saying? Like he's going to be coaching games against Duke Duke. He'll be coaching games against TCU.

Yeah, I know. This is happening. I know. We welcome Dion to college football. Might as well get Bill Vileck. A lot of good at this DCUs program for welcoming them. So generously, by the way. This is one of the strangest stories to me because 99% of head coaches who take media jobs, do it for one reason. And that is to get their next head coaching job.

Yeah, man. It's a form of career rehabilitation. Well, they have nothing else to do. I mean, so I think that's true. But also it's like they want to be around the game. Like if you're not, because if you can't be on the sideline, and it's not Bill Belichick's not going to go be the DC for, you know, Jed Fish. A analyst at Ole Miss.

Yeah, he's not going to do that. He doesn't need to do that. There's only one other way really to be in the game and to be talking about ball and hanging out with coaches and players. And it's to be on TV. And so they'll settle for that. But what they really want to do is they want to be back at the head of the room, right? You want to get their next job. They want to get their next job.

And sometimes they have different problems. right like sometimes people look at you and be like you can't coach football you suck yeah so you go on tv and you talk about it and you sound smart and you make people forget that you had trouble with the whole football coaching part bill belichick's problem was slightly different bill belichick is either the greatest coach of all time or arguably the greatest NFL coach of all time i don't think we need to debate that here yeah for sure his problem was people thought he was a dick that was that was the problem so he was going to he was a dick His boy thought he was, right?

Right, yeah. And all these billionaire owners are like, I'm going to pay that guy. And he's going to come in and like undermine me, not respect me. So you saw this whole charm offensive where he comes on TV with Pat McAfee, with the mannings at the Brady Roast where he's toasting with that very same owner who didn't like him by the end of their tenure there. And he's like, see, I'm nice. I'm fun.

I'm available. I'm not Mr. On to Cincinnati. Yeah. But I have to look at this and I'm like, it flopped. It didn't work. And read this Seth Wiggershamp piece on ESPN.com today. He was sitting there with his guys with all his unemployed former assistants being like,

okay, here it is. Let's get on the Zoom call and figure out what NFL job we're going to get me and by virtue of me all of you next year. And the answer was none of them. He was not going to probably get an NFL job next year. he winds up in North Carolina. Brian, I mean, it is true that he's a dick,

but like that's not uncommon for the football coach, right? I think, and it's just tough to talk about it because we kind of only we glance at it a lot. This is ageism. If Bill Belichick is 63 years old,

I got to believe that he would have gotten a few more calls. But he's 72, going to be 73 when football start, when the football season starts up next fall, Like, there's just not a robust history of guys doing well after they get 70. Like Steve Spurrier retired when he was 70. Like his idol, Bill Parcells, his mentor.

I thought Bill Parcells was an old human being when he retired. He was 65 when he walked away from the sidelines, right? And so I just think that if Bill Belichick, you know, had burned enough bridges and he's old. And it's hard to go up there and introduce a 73-year-old man to your fan base and be like, this is the future because we know that he's not. Even if he's the greatest coach of all time, like even that doesn't defeat the 72, 73-year-old. Your guy, man, Tom Landry, man, Tom Landry got old, man. I mean, it's not like Tom Landry got fired.

Anybody could have been free to hire him. Right. That's what this reminds me of so much. Like Tom Landry, you know, was in that, was in that plateau. And then all of a sudden he was gone. Like it was over like that. They always want the new young, exciting person because like whether it's the development's an offense or whatever. Like it's just, I remember how was Dick Vermil when he got his shot?

Right. Like, and I remember like Dick Vermil, they talked about him like he was, you know, 80 years old. And Dick, Dick is, he's 88 now. So he would have been around in his late 60s when he got a chance to coach the Rams again. But he was old to people. And he had been out of the game. for a while, even at that point. So it's a, I mean, I would, I need 73 year.

I need people to want to hire 73 years because I don't think I'm ever going to be able to afford to retire. So I want to be able to work with I'm 73 years old. You think there's going to be a problem with journalism in the same way? They can't introduce you at the press conference and be like, this is the future. 73 year old Joel is the future. I don't think people are going to be checking from whatever the substack of, you know, 2040, whatever is.

But so I want older people, seniors to have a place in their industry. But as just, look, man, I mean, all the coaches who get to that age, they tell you, it is a grind when you get to that age. It's sort of an all-encompassing grind. And you've got to be able to project vigor and energy to people, to the players, to the fans and everything else. And like, is that Bill Belichick? Well, no, but like was Bill Belichick 20 years ago projecting Viggen,

in a conventional way. You're right. No, he was. I mean, he was Bill Belichick. I mean, that's the thing about him. If you hired him now as an NFL team, it's not like you wouldn't think that he was going to take it. Not like you'd think he's going to take it easy and not work.

No. I think you'd be suspicious of the assistance he was bringing in. Right. You know, Seth mentions this in his piece today that Belichick's whole system was that he didn't have a system, was that he would be like, okay, this is the team I've been dealt this year. We're going to win with defense. we're going to win, you know, we're going to win the Super Bowl, whatever that was against a round.

Like 14 to 3, something like that. We're going to power through and win ugly if we have to. But he seems now like he's got a system, which is that these guys have to come around with him to every stop, including his son. I mean, man, that's the thing, man. I mean, Steve Billichick, man. You know what I mean? I can understand looking at that and being you're not, like, even if you're going to work really hard, are you going to be working smart?

Like, are you going to have the best guys around anymore? And that was a problem in New England down the stretch, right? Toul-Losing Tom Brady, he papered over a lot of the deficiencies for a while. And, like, their talent acquisition and everything else. And, like, when he wasn't there, like, and I will say, get into the playoffs with Mac Jones as his quarterback. It, like, should be the high point of his career, like, one of the high points of his career. Because Mac Jones, God bless him. That man can't play.

can't play NFL football. That was Bill Parcell's getting there with Quincy Carter and Troy Hambrick. I mean, that was. Yeah, that was some magic. That was some magic. So we know you're a good coach. Let's pair Bill Belichick with his former defensive coordinator with the Cleveland Browns. That is Nick Sabin, who just completed his first year, almost completed his first year at ESPN on game day.

Also on the McAfee Show, everything goes through the McAfee Show at some point or another. What do you make of year one? of the Nick Saban experiment. I mean, I think it went about like he kind of expected. You know, every night again, he flashed a little personality, but he was still sort of the level, like sort of a lovable curmudgeon, right? And it was like fun to see him sort of play off Pat McAfee and others. And I do think, though, that he didn't quite live up to the billing.

Because do you remember when there was like the coach simulcast and like Nick Saban would come in or they would have him come in and he would like really break down like some very complicated concepts and it would be oh wow like he's brilliant right i remember louis reddick talking about how uh nick savin taught him how to play like in the cover two or something like that and i was like man like i wish i if he'd explain it to me i might have been a better safety um i don't think that came across as much uh this year but it was his first year and he wasn't bad but like will people remember him like will he leave an indelible imprint on that show in the way that like lee corso did or like or like you know like there used to be a model of like the kind of goofy loser like dick vital

like people don't remember dick vital was a coach once one time right so he didn't he he's not given that but like he did about what i expected what did you think he comes in all he comes in the opposite right corso was the oh yeah goofy guy who you know won a couple of games at indiana that one time right saving comes in it's like oh he is he is the goat i am the goat yeah i am the goat um I agree with you. We did not ever get to that level of Nick Saban's mind, which we're still trying to access with Tom Brady too, by the way. So maybe that just takes a while.

I do think him paired with McAfee, they figured out something. And I will take you back to like one of their very first shows this year. I believe it was August 31st. They were in college station for A&M Notre Dame. And remember that video, Pat McAfee is sitting at the desk, kind of dancing during a commercial.

And Nick Sabin is, just kind of like looking straight ahead, giving him the side eye, just completely. Yeah, just Nick Saban face. I can't tell you how many people, non-media people in my life told me in the week or two after that, oh man, Nick Saban, he hates working with this guy. You can just tell it. He hates it. And I'm like, oh, my God, it worked.

The bit worked. The crusty coach, the guy who will, the naughty cut up who will say anything. Oh, that's it. Like, they found something here because people believe it. You know, they're both leaning into the role. They both know exactly what the role requires. Oh, they're definitely playing that role. And I mean, the thing is, it's like, Sabin's not too far off of that.

Like, you remember, like, it was a year or two ago when it came out that Sabin is a huge fan of these nuts jokes. You know what I mean? Like, I mean, that is his thing. Like, his players are like, oh, you know, coach would say, hey, if you want to hold all these balls, you know, you got to really, and he's like, what balls, coach, these nuts? Like that is a

Sabin staple. So like, he's not as far off the Pat McAfee's as you think, right? No, but he understands it's, it's very profitable and it works for that show to go like that. Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, you know, and it's so funny, right? Because it's a, it's a very weird reboot of the Corso

Herb Street relationship, which was, here's the coach, here's the nice young man, And then, of course, as Lee gets older, it takes on something different because Kirk's helping him on the set and it's like kind of a surrogate son kind of thing. This is totally different. But to me, TV is always about relationships, right? It's not how smart you are about football. It's like people watching you and like, what is the relationship between those two people?

And they can look at Sabin and look at McAfee. They can either see it or they can imagine it. But that works as television. Oh, yeah. Like, I mean, we want to see like, oh, my God. like, you know, Sabin's dealing with this guy. How can he? You know, I mean, first of all,

Saban worked in a college, Saban worked in college locker rooms for, you know, I mean, he's dealt with some McAfee's and beyonds, right? So he knows how to handle a guy like that and like that he was able to sort of play into it without being too obvious, says that he does have some talent.

I mean, and it's like he has charisma. Like Coach Sabin, like, I mean, even, you know, when they, when they showed him, the blind side, right? And he comes in talking about the drapes and everything. Like, he has, he's got a side to him, man. Like, I mean, you don't become who he is by being a total, you know,

a total wallpaper or anything like that. Like, he's got, he's got some swag, man. Just the, just the opposite of being wallpaper. You also understand if you're him, how the media works. Yep. All those press conferences at Bama where he was sending those messages to people. man he I mean I will say one failure he's made and I was so I was at the rat poison game when Alabama played at Texas A&M and and I see that he's like he tried to deploy it during the playoff show the other day he was talking to a coach and he was like what do you guys do about the rat poison and I was like coach it's not going to catch on man that's your thing nobody nobody wants to use that we talk about his performance on the Sunday selection show

Because that was kind of amazing. It started with the wardrobe. Yeah, man. We were live texting each other as this was happening too. And I was like, is he wearing crimson? A crimson tie, a crimson jacket. And he's sitting in front of a crimson pool table. That was the cherry on top of the Sunday.

I just thought that wasn't allowed. I would have thought somebody at ESPN. I sort of wonder if maybe an email wasn't sent because that is something they talk to broadcasters about all the time. Don't wear like the colored tie because you're just going to get all this crap from Twitter no matter what you do. Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, you don't see Herbie wearing like red and silver all the time, right?

Like that's not right. Right. Like he goes into other direction often, right? And the only mystery on this show was whether SMU or Alabama was going to make the playoff. So dressing, you know, in Alabama colors was really, really not a good idea. And as soon as they came on, he seemed pissed off at the beginning of the show. And so did Herbie. And I was like, that means SMUZ.

Oh, they knew. I mean, like, he, it's just, there was no pretext of like, all right, I'm going to lay out the case in the argument here. I'm not going to, you know, I'm not going to betray my bias here, right? He leaned right into it. But in a way, it was sort of compared, like, that is good television. Like, I'm kind of surprised that they let him go ahead and do it because it's just like, you know what? I'm glad that he's sort of laying his cards on the table. Like, I think that he is wrong, right, as a college football fan about this stuff.

But, like, I'm glad that somebody was honest. Like, for the people that are always accusing the people on the panel, you've got this secret, you know, this secret campaign to get the SEC schools. And I don't know, Sabin's not into any of that shit. He's just telling you, without saying it, without saying it explicitly, he's coming as close as he can to saying, I don't believe in the sense of you shit. Why do you guys? Absolutely. I mean, the mask was ripped off as much as you can. No more Mr. Nice Goat. Like, no, no, we got this.

Absolutely. And the message to Kalin DeBore where he's like, none of these coaches should have any reason to complain. Kalin DeBore is replacement at Alabama if people don't know. None of these coaches should have any reason to complain because you controlled your own destiny, meaning you went to Oklahoma and lost and didn't get Alabama into the playoff like I did last year. I mean that was message received we got it you lost it vandy like I mean it seemed like a like oh vandy is really good vandy is six and six okay so yeah like don't we don't have to you know play up with what bammal was going through but yeah man like that was I thought that he and kailin dabor was sort of working together too that he kind of has an office there and he does kind of can peek over his shoulder um but you know sabin sends messages through the media and that's just another one right like Kaelin Dabor is another one of his like his minions.

Absolutely. I mean, this is way more fascinating than what people are worked up about Tom Brady and the Raiders. Oh, my God. He's, you know, stepping on like, you know, electrical wires or whatever it is. This is fascinating because what Nick Sabin says about Alabama is message received by every single person. Not only at Bama, but in the college football world. And that is. And I got to say, too, by the way, their SEC show that they did, which I saw had like,

gigantic television ratings for the SEC championship game. Did you just think of Lee Corso was out that day, but you just think of the star power on that set of Herbie, of Nick Sabin, of Pat McAfee, of Timothy Shalamee doing as the guest picker? I

kind of became aware of who Timothy Shalome, but I have to admit, I don't look, man, I don't know. Wait a second. No, no, I've never seen The Matrix to know this. Timothy Shalamee. Look, man, this is not a excuse. I have two children

in diapers. I just, I've not caught up on the timid. What is Timothy? I'm going to Google Timothy Shalomey right now. There's the whole Dune series most recently. Okay, yeah. So I'm just I disliked Dune so much that I took a

sci-fi English class in high school and Dune was the first book and I transferred out of class like that day. I was like, I'm not doing this. I'm sorry. This is my fault. I understand it. It's my ignorance. It's not casting a spokesperson to anybody else. This is just me.

Yes. Now, the young kid years are the years where culture doesn't exist. It's like if you can get the football games in. Yes, exactly. Look, man. That's all I was writing to, man. One more college football topic for you, which is I'm going to call the new Wojbaum. I don't know if you've been lurking on message boards or just looking at Twitter.

But there is a whole new genre. of Wojbom. Yeah. Wodgebom original recipe. That was about the NBA. New Wojbom is about college football players that have entered the transfer portal.

Man, yes. I'm going to give you some names here, and these are from Hayes Fawcett, who is one of the big newsbreakers on this beat. I want you to stop me. He's a big deal. He heard of any of these players. Okay.

Tennessee wide receiver, Nathan Leacock. No, sorry. Arkansas linebacker slash edge Brad Spence. Yes, I heard of Bryce Smith. Okay. Texas defensive lineman Sadiere Mitchell.

Yeah. You've heard of him. Yeah. You're in the top 5% of Texas fans, by the way. I wouldn't say fan. I'm a Texas football magazine head. Observer. Virginia Tech starting cornerback Mansour Delane.

Okay. No, sorry. A great name, though. These are just some of the people. some of the huge names that have entered the transfer portal over the last week. I mean, let me tell you something.

My critique of the whole insider culture, before we even get to the morality questions about agents and being tied in all this, and it was just like, who the hell are these people that you're tweeting transactions about? Man. But I'm like the ninth guy on the jazz's bench, and I'd just be like,

I'm sorry, I don't totally know who this is, and this has 800 retweets. Wait a minute. Do you not follow recruiting as closely as he used to then, Brian? Because I think like that's where the, that's where all, because I used to be a real big, I know who the top 50 guys in any class are.

Like I'm kind of, you know, I went, when Najee Harris played out here in the Bay, like I went and watched him play like four times. So I was like, oh, this guy's really good. He was really good. But so that's, I think, where it's coming from. If we're not plugged in quite that way, because if you don't do anything in college anymore,

like your freshman year, it doesn't really matter. Because, like, you were still. famous from being a five-star recruit, right? Right. And by the way, that's definitely a dynamic here because if you look at these tweets, the biggest tell is do they list where they ranked in the on three recruiting rankings? Right. So this is Nathan Leacock, top 45 recruit in 2023 per on three.

Here are Nathan Leacock's stats last year from the University of Tennessee. One catch for 13 yards and it was against Chattanooga. So you can always tell. right? Like if you're not listing their stats, if you don't even have an honorable mention, oh, sunbelt in there. That means that like this, this guy was a, was a bust. Or he just didn't play his freshman year and he's ready for a new start, which happens a lot of the time too. Dude, I don't know if Bear Alexander is a good player, right?

Like, goodness. How in the world would you know? He seems like he has a lot of talent. But he's played at a different school every year. I'd realize he's in the portal again. He's in the portal. He's in the portal. And by the way, I'm a lot of the world. I'm all for it. You want to work it. Go get that money. Freshman, you know, as a high school, do it. That's awesome to me. And there are guys like that that are just like fantastic stories. But if you're a fan, even if you're a recruiting fan, I just defy you to look at this just mountain of tweets and be like, how is this stuff relevant to me? If I'm a fan of Texas, like, one, does this, is this Texas even reached out to this person? Two, would they come here anyway? And if you just look at the number of these tweets that are embedded and message boards, I'm just like, dude, I don't, this is too much. This is, this is, this is, Wode was talking about vapor. This isn't even vapor.

This is just nothing. This is like, here's a guy. You're saying that up until the point that Micah Hudson signs with UT. And then you give like, well, he was a five star. Went to Texas Tech. Excuse me, what? Yeah, do you want to hear that? Right.

But it's sort of like, you know, the insider people figured out that there's a certain point where it's not a, about the player. It's about feeding the attention economy. Absolutely. A transaction has happened, Joel. Like we, there has been a transaction. Somebody has signed and you're like, whoa, whoa, what is it? And you're like, oh, that guy, I don't even know who that is. He never even plays. It's not going to matter. Imagine college football, right? So you have the recruiting part of it. Now you have the second season. Yeah. And you got, I mean, I know who it is. Somebody's in the portal. Like, this is amazing. It's hope.

And if your team signs them, it's, you, like when TCU signed, the running back named Sanders, and they signed two guys from Alabama. Well, there's three guys.

Break, Brockermeyers kid. There's a running back named Sanders. And I was just like, oh, man, I can't wait. Like,

oh, we got a couple of Alabama transfers. And I mean, you know, you can look up Sonny Dykes's record over the last couple of years and see how they've all worked out. But, um,

yeah, man, like, it's just endlessly feeding you hope because it's like, oh, man like that guy he was good once upon a time in high school like maybe maybe he's going to turn it on for us who knows jontay cook maybe this is his time you know he's Murphy he's back in the portal you know maybe he's going to you know finally put it all together this time when i see the ones from

big schools that's when i get nervous if it's like you know was absolutely studly at you know UT san antonio i'm like sign me up okay interesting or wyoming wide receiver one went off like here we go this is good when it's like leaving Alabama I'm like leaving Alabama huh what happened there that didn't get you on the field so you're not in Connor Wegman you don't think he's going to do big things at University of Houston oh my god see that see that it's so funny because I I'm all I'm all ready for this righteous indignation and then you listed like two guys I'm like oh I paid attention to that one I'm middle of moss man Miller Moss is in the portal you just I mean retract

everything I just say more woge bombs okay the new the new the new Wohge bomb is just as good as the original. Quick ones for you before we get out of here. Would you say one more? That's it. We're addicts. That's all I'm just said. This is addiction.

So yeah. It's over. It's over. A couple of quick ones for you before we get out of here. Eagles defensive end, Brandon Graham was on WIP. Well, let's play a cut of this. Here is Brandon Graham talking about a couple of his teammates. The person that's complaining need to be accountable.

And I'm just being honest. You know what I'm saying? And he noticed, you know, I don't know the whole story, but I know that one is trying. And I mean, 11 could be a little better with how he respond to things. And they were friends before this. It's like, man, but things have changed. And I understand that because life happens. But it's the business side that we have to make sure that we don't let the personal get in the way of the business.

And that's where we got to do better as right now. because we know it's the issue. Everybody's seeing some things, but we need to be able to talk things out as men. You know what I'm saying? But we need to let personal stuff go, and let's get right for this game because, man, it's like a lot of stuff most of the time

it's just a conversation that just need to be had. But the person with the problem, got to want to talk to the person other than others. That's all I'm saying. If you're not Shield Capadia or Chris Ryan, he is talking about Eagles quarterback Jalen Hertz and Eagles wide receiver, AJ Brown. Joel, you've covered locker rooms.

You've been in them. What'd you make of that? I mean, that is gold. That's what you're dreaming. You're dreaming of a player opening up in quite that way. And this is why, I mean, all those, you know, team spokespeople and PR folks are, like, hovering and why they don't want you to talk to players, because if they get comfortable, this is the kind of stuff that will come out, right? And normally, that's in-house.

We keep that in-house. We don't talk about that. spilled at all. And it's just kind of, it's going to be really, that Eagle's locker room, man. Like, I mean, first of all, they fell apart last year, right? And at the end of the year, and I thought, man, they might,

I thought Siriana is going to get fired. But like, this is the sort of stuff that, like, if you have a locker room that isn't a water court, it doesn't get out. And my only thought is that maybe Brandon Graham was trying to send a message through the media, right? And he thought he was.

He's a pretty savvy guy. I would think so, man. This isn't Michael Parsons just going off, you know, just saying stuff on his podcast where he doesn't have anybody to set him up, right? Like, Brandon Graham, like, this was his show that he did this on. So it made me wonder, it was like, okay, maybe this is some sort of a message. And he thought this is the only way I could get through to A.J. Brown. I had that written down.

There's Brandon Graham, the new most off-message defensive end in the NFC East. Replacing Micah Parsons. By the way, I met him because he was at the NFL network does like a broadcast boot camp during the summer. They have players come in that are interested in careers in media. He came this year. And I sat down with him for like five minutes after he had done his, you know, first take style segments because they do some pretend segments and stuff. And I was like, you could put this guy on a show right now, a talk show. And he'd be fine.

He would be good at television. Also, isn't this a way to sort of build your resume for that sort of stuff? Like if people are saying, is he going to say anything interesting? Well, let me refer you to this clip, right? I'm on the team and I'm already being interesting. Yeah. Number two is that we're going to have a stadium, Joel, named after Sports Illustrated. Sports Illustrated has spent days, weeks, months, years in the last decade,

questionably still being a media entity. Now they're going to be the, they have the, they have the naming rights of the Red Bulls MLS Stadium. Eben Novi Williams of Sportico says this Sports Illustrated stadium deal is wild. Sports Illustrated, in quotes, is now many things, a publication, a separate ticket business, and a whole host of authentic licensing deals for the venue. The Ticks business is paying $100 plus million to advertise for all those parts. I didn't know they had that much money.

I didn't either. I bet the writers for SI didn't. But is this one of those things where the license ticketing business that is not actually, this is the thing, right? Like we've entered this age with everything, but really SI in particular where it's like we don't understand what we're talking about when we say the word Sports Illustrated.

It's a shell. Sports Illustrated is a shell that they're slapping onto things, right? Yes, that they're putting on things, including a ticket selling business. apparently. So does the ticket selling business have $100 million or can it commit to spending $100 million? The magazine

cannot, what is left of the magazine cannot obviously spend that money of money. It's just shocking to me because if Sports Illustrated had that much cash, you'd think that the magazine would have been able to sort of hold up a little better. Right? Like if you can throw that name on something and people will respond

to it, then it does tell me that like Sports Illustrated has some value, right? It's unbelievable, right? I mean, this is This is like the on steroids to use one of our favorite terms here at the press box version of naming the airport news stand after, you know, remember you go to New York and it's it's the daily news place for you know, you're like, well, I didn't know the daily news was still a thing, but here's where I could go by my combos for my plane ride. Yeah, man. And this is like the crazy version of that, a stadium named after Sports Illustrated. I mean, again, I don't, obviously they, I guess the thing is like there must be some, I don't know, maybe there's not a broader plan. I don't know like what they're hoping to do with this.

But yeah, I just, you know, I, you would hope that you wish they could plunge some of that money back into like the publication, right? And pay their writers and everything else and, you know, staff up in the way that they used to be. obviously they don't think people read, but they go to soccer games. There's there is that. Last thing for you, this was this was one of those things where I had to kind of rub my eyes after reading Mark Gastonow. Oh, man. Former New York Jets defensive inn who might have been in the Brandon Graham,

Michael Parsons, outspoken defensive end rankings had he played at a different time, confronting Brett Farve about taking a dive or allegedly taking a dive so that Michael Strayhan could break. Gastonoe's single season sack record. Yeah. This was part of a New York Sack Exchange documentary

this clip. Yeah. Which is going to be on ESPN. By the way, congratulations to the New York Sack Exchange for making, like, for having a viral media moment.

I did not expect that when I saw this project. It was, I didn't even hear the audio the first couple times that I saw that video, but it looked like gripping, right?

Like I was like, oh, Wow. Like, first of all, to see, I've not seen Mark Gastino since he was, you know, on the Jets and like this big, robust, you know, big football. Like, it, like, for people that watched NFL back then, like, like the Lao-Lao Zado era, you know, it just like it just reminds me, it brings back a time of football to me. And to see him sort of, it just seems sad and diminished.

But, you know, everybody gets sold if you're lucky, right? Yeah. And then Brett Farve had to do a whole Twitter thread, which was. kind of an apology. It was more magnanimous than I thought it would have been, right? Like I know Brett Farv is a villain in a lot of ways now for a number of reasons, but like, were you surprised that he was as kind and accommodating and his thoughtful publicly as he was to Mark Gaston.

Absolutely. And also the kind of interesting sort of shades of gray in there where he says, in a different gamer situation, I would have made a bigger effort to avoid the sack or tackle for loss, but at no point was I thinking about hurting Gastanone. Maybe it crossed my mind to help Strayhan. I didn't think it through. That wasn't my forte at the time. Again, that's a lot more fine grain

than I thought we were going to get from Brett Farf Twitter thread on this subject. Absolutely. I mean, I've watched that video. And I was, I mean, I was like, I wouldn't want to get hit by Michael Strayhand under those circumstances either. Like, I mean, I thought he had a pretty good out.

It never occurred to me that there may have been some other subtext to it. So, yeah. Like, I mean, that they were able to get that out of him. That's pretty impressive. But you should apologize to those people on welfare in Mississippi, too, while you're at it then. There were a lot of people. That was the overworked, I don't know, the Twitter joke for the week.

But it was definitely people like, oh, now while you're doing a Twitter thread, got some other subjects for you. All right, he is Joel Anderson. I'm Brian Curtis. Production Magic by Brian Waters. We got one more show, Joel, to do in calendar year, 2024. Wow.

Next Thursday, it's going to be our year in review. We're working on some things. Yeah. We're cooking some things up. And they've got a big meeting this week that we're not supposed to talk about. I'm sure, you know, this is behind the curtains kind of stuff. But you know what I mean? We air all of our business here on the press box, right?

We're going to have a little meeting. Yeah. Yeah. We talk to each other. I mean, yeah, in case you all didn't know, we talked to each other and we're not on air. Wait, what? That happens? I was going to say I was talking to the viewers.

Yeah, I was just like, yeah, you know, hey, look, me and Brian talk to each other sometimes when we're not on air. You know what I mean? Like we game plan every now and again. We have our moments. And Monday, Shoemaker and I return with more lukewarm takes about the media. Joel, have a fantastic weekend. Man, you too, Brian.