The Press Box - Making Up Sideline Reports, Musk’s Latest Meltdown, and Weekend Audio

Episode Date: November 20, 2023

Bryan and David discuss the companies that have withdrawn ads from Twitter due to Elon Musk’s endorsement of an antisemitic post and what the next move should be for journalists (00:34). They then go over Charissa Thompson’s remarks on ‘Pardon My Take’ regarding fabricating sideline reports, the outrage from most of those in sports media, and more (06:10). After, they do a quick round of weekend audio, including the Rock being asked questions on Capitol Hill and Brandon Staley’s heated postgame press conference (26:41). Plus, the Overworked Twitter Joke of the Week and David Shoemaker Guesses the Strained-Pun Headline. Hosts: Bryan Curtis and David Shoemaker Producer: Eduardo Ocampo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What would you do if everyone said they heard your trailer a hundred times? You'd probably make a new one. I'm Justin Sales, the host of The Wedding Scammer, the ringer's first ever true crime pod. We've been hunting a con man for a few weeks now, and our hunt is coming to an end. Schemes, Heartbreak, How to Put On a Wire. We've covered all this and more, but there are still a few surprises left. Binge the Wedding Scammer wherever you get your podcasts. David?

I know they'll find this hard to believe, but we have a new Elon Musk controversy. Oh, we do? We do. Let me quote from the New York Times here. More major advertisers have paused their spending on X, the social media service formerly known as Twitter,

as the backlash continued over Elon Musk's endorsement of an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory on X. So the surface level issue, here is an escalation of the idea that Elon Musk didn't just bring the bad actors back to Twitter. He is one of them. Yeah. The secondary issue, which I continued to be fascinated by, is what should journalists like us do at this point? What is the move if we are Twitter users, we've built up this following, we are using this platform to push out articles, push out this podcast, which I'm going to do here in a few hours.

what's our move? In terms of using Twitter or reporting on the story? Well, I think we know how to report on the story. So I guess I'm more interested in they'd just leave, you go to threads, disappear into the ether. What's the move?

Start investigating those things, I think, obviously. It's, you know, Musk's behavior in general, but, you know, specifically over the past couple of weeks. It's been pretty abhorrent. Seems to be spending a whole lot of time now, waving his arms around about a,

filing a lawsuit against media matters for reporting on this whole story. But, you know, in the zoomed-out sort of sense, I mean, I think that we, as people, and specifically as journalists, you know, use platforms, conduct our lives, use businesses very generally that are owned by terrible people on a pretty regular basis and Twitter as a pretty specific function despite what it feels like Musk's numerous attempts

at disabling some of the core functionality of the platform. Yeah, I mean, I guess we have to see how it shakes out, but I'm a little bit of an nihilist When it comes to just like the politics, no matter how despicable of, of, you know, evil owners, I think, you know, we've learned how to navigate around those the most part. I think it's almost more troubling just that the functionality has been almost crippled by the racist hordes and whatnot that Musk has brought in his specific, just absolutely ridiculous ideology. I saw a journalist the other day saying, well, I have accumulated enough followers on threads. So now I am leaving Twitter, which seemed like kind of a weird place to draw the line. I am popular elsewhere. Yeah.

So now I feel comfortable. But I believe that a lot of journalists have made calculations like that during the entire Musk ownership, probably before that. Sure. I mean, I think that's, I think there would have been a much bigger migration had there been, any other option that seemed like it could functionally take the place. And so I think that's the sort of whether or not we say it out loud, that is everybody's calculus to some extent. It's that and, you know, just general gravity that are keeping people on Twitter, I think,

by and large. But yeah, it is, it is, you know, it's an interesting decision to make. coming up on today's holiday edition of the press box, David, we're going to get deep, deep, deep into this Carissa Thompson sideline reporter story that captivated the platform we just spoke about last week. We have some weekend audio involving both professional wrestling and Chargers coach Brandon Staley. Combination is always belong together in my mind.

All that and much more on the press box. A part of the ringer podcast network. Hello, media and consumers, Brian Curtis, David, shoe maker and producer Eduardo Ocampo who is sitting in for Erica. Where are you, David, this festive time of year? I'm in Princeton, New Jersey. You're still back home. Yeah.

I'm sitting here in my childhood bedroom in Fort Worth. Oh my gosh, your childhood bedroom looks so different. Well, the autographed pictures aren't on the wall anymore. No, wrestling posters at a minimum. No, there's a tasteful painting over the bed. Everything's, I don't know. I just see a tastefully decorated room with white walls and, you know, a wrought iron bed frame. And I just assume you're in a, you're in a formal guest room somewhere, although that might be where you are.

Mom did a little redecorating. Yeah. For sure. I mean, I never imagined when I was 17, 18 years old that I'd be looking into a magic Zoom device at my friend David Shoemaker about to do a segment about Carissa Thompson. No. But here we are, David, because I know you saw this story. Oh, yeah. Carrissa Thompson of both Fox and Amazon goes on the Pardon My Take podcast.

And this was a very quick exchange at the beginning of a 40-minute long interview that got everybody onto one side or another, mostly one side. Here is Carissa Thompson on Pardon My Take. And I've said this before, so I haven't been fired for saying it, but I'll say it again. I would make up the report sometimes because A, the coach wouldn't come out at halftime or it was too late and I was like I didn't want to screw up the report so I was like I'm just going to make this up because first of all

no coach is going to get mad if I say hey we need to stop hurting ourselves we need to be better on third down we need to stop turning the ball over pressure the quarterback yeah exactly and do a better job of getting off the field like they're not going to correct me on that I'm like it's fine I'll just make up the report

so I listened to the whole interview to a lot of people out there were encouraging people to do. And I will say this, right before this clip, which made its way around the world, she was talking about her friend Aaron Andrews. And she said, I'm always amazed at how much Aaron Andrews studies for an entire week to then go on television and talk for 15 or 30 seconds. She's a great sideline. She works so hard at this. I wasn't good at this job. and then she segued into that example. So if we want to bend over backwards

to have the most generous reading of what she just said, there's the context. I wasn't good at this, but there are other people, including my friend, who are very good at this job. And they're good at it

because they work really hard at it. That said, what she described there, dude, is the most normal, cut and dried penny annie first day of J-school case of fabulousism.

I've heard. You get somebody who's young, who has a job, they can't deliver what they're supposed to deliver, whether it's their fault or not. And so they cut corners. That's what that is. And I want to get into the whole idea of sideline reporting and the bigger issues that are swirling around this. That that's what she's saying she did. Sure. I mean, you know, we can, we can talk about it in a hundred ways, but that's what it is. And that, you know, again, We went through the stacks of the Columbia Journalism Review and looked for every journalistic controversy like this, we would find those particulars, more or less word for word. And we would also find that last part, whereas I did it and I didn't think anybody would catch

me. Sure. I did it in such a way that nobody would come back. Hey, you said I'm benching Patrick Mahomes at a half time. No, no, I did it in the way that I would say the most bland thing possible. as nobody would even notice. And I would have done my job. Am I wrong there anywhere?

No, I mean, no, not at all. She released a statement that basically said she didn't say what she said, but I guess... I want to get to that in a minute, but let's go with what she actually said. The only part that I will draw... I mean, if you really want to give it a generous reading, you could...

I could see a world in which she didn't... mean made up in the most literal sense, right? That she sort of, you know, puzzled together some sideline reports based on other existing information as opposed to just Ryan Curtis told me that he, you know, likes vanilla ice cream. Shocking, I know. But, yeah, no, I mean, when you listen to it, it's just really hard to, to hear anything, but someone just saying, uh, I create.

things out of more or less whole cloth and attributed them to people who did not say them. Yeah. And these are very, very small things in the grand scheme of things, that little 10 or 15 second hit right after the kickoff of the second half. Oh, yeah. I mean, come on. People like us make fun about the existence of sideline reporters all the time. Not the existence, but sometimes the questions that are asked.

Yeah. Let's get to the existence in just one second. But I just think there is something important within the media world we live in, even sports television, which is a different animal than print journalism, of not skimping on the small stuff. Sure. If we had an employee at the ringer and they said, okay, my job is aggregation for the next couple months. Like I'm kind of putting together some stuff and aggregating.

We wouldn't be like, okay, you can make that up as long as you don't make up a big essay that you write later. Yeah. Like, no, no, you actually have to do that. that well, and put all your effort into something that might seem thankless and a very, very small part of the cosmos, and then in a place where nobody would notice if you were cutting a corner. And that's the gateway to do the bigger thing. And to untrust to do the bigger thing. Absolutely true. I mean, the nobody would notice thing is I think what's interesting to me because it's not just that nobody would notice

based on the sort of sideline reports we normally get the questions that were asked, but also the answers that are given, right? I mean, it's the reason why one could make these things up is because 99% of the answers that you get are just so wrote,

you know, so trite. So, you know, cut and paste. That, yeah, I mean, it's, there's not a lot of, no one's shy. when you don't, when, when you, when your report is the most bland thing possible. So, yeah, it's, it is a very interesting genre. But you're right.

But it has to be defended. I mean, someone, you can't, you can't fake it. You just can't fake it. Or you're not doing that job. If you and I were coordinating producers of the entire world, I would hope that one of the first things we would say is, hey, If a coach comes out of the locker room at halftime and gives you some bullshit about we need to play better defense, we need to stop the run, I want you to feel empowered to get on television and just completely ignore that. And just tell me something interesting about the game.

Something interesting you saw with your eyes on the sideline, something that has nothing to do with the coach. A bigger point about the coach maybe that you learned that doesn't just rely on the boring quotes because that's all he was willing to give you. Yeah. It's you. But that's not what we're talking about here. No, no, no, no. I mean, you could take it a step further. I mean, places like Amazon who are building sports net, you know, sports broadcasts and trying to, as we've discussed many times, make their shows feel like the thing you're used to watching. Like, it wouldn't make a ton of difference if you got a veteran sideline reporter who went out at the moments we're used to seeing sideline reporters to comment on the weather, right? Just to just to try out there in that. And at the exact moment, man the exact voice to say like, second half is going to be really interesting because a lot of the fans in Section A have gone to the bathroom, you know, like, whatever. Like, it would, it would, it wouldn't change your viewing experience that much. But if you're going to actually report on something, you have to do the job. I heard a lot of people say, and I think people

asked me this in, in text messages over last week, they said, why would you go on a podcast and admit something like this? this is a good don't go on podcasts argument or don't go especially don't go on like free flowing comedy podcast and we know we know it's just like the old and again I don't want to insult anybody here by proxy but it's kind of like the old Howard Stern thing

where you get famous people in broadcasting that go on pardon my take and they want to be quote unquote edgy and just a little bit dangerous and they want to please the hosts and show that you know they are not what whatever the conception of a boring square sports television personality that most of the public has.

That's, and that feels exactly what's happening here, like what's happening here. But to the question of why would she admit it, I just thought, why would you do it? Why would you do it in the first place? I mean,

just, that, that just, you know, and if the end, again, if the info is so obvious, there just feels like to me that we don't even need to wave that.

magic one that most trucks would be like just give us something else you know do the creative thing where Mike McCarthy talked to us all week about how important it was to stop the run we saw that the Cowboys struggle with that in the first half they're going to need better performances at a Neville Gallimore just go for it yeah again you and I watching and hope would not probably be on first glance able to detect that they didn't talk to the coach we just think oh good point or yes that is that is the Cowboys focus in the second half I thought the tick talk of this whole thing was interesting. This was a big story online on Thursday and not just among media podcasters like you and me

but among other network sideline reporters who got on Twitter slash X and made their feelings known about this. Dude, I cannot tell you. Network broadcasting. The people that do pregames and games. So I'm not talking about like Skip Bayless and Stephen. I'm talking about network sportscasters that call games. These are not people who publicly criticize each other ever.

It's a little bit like the Supreme Court. They'll do it in private. Yeah. But they will not go out and criticize a fellow member of that group. Yep. Ever. So to see Tracy Wolfson and Lisa Sultors and Catherine Tappen and Laura Oakman and on and on get on Twitter to be like,

this is not cool. This is not, you know, and I saw some people characterizing it as a pile on or anything. I just want to reiterate, this is the most unlikely pylon you've ever seen. Yeah. People like us being outraged, of course. People like Tracy Wolfson getting on Twitter to comment on that.

How many times Tracy Wolfson done that in her entire career? I know. And I think that's the other thing that hit home about it was it was about the job more broadly. Yep. It hit a lot of people as being about sideline reporting. Not about something that Carissa Thompson did. But here is a job done by women in many cases who deal with all kinds of bullshit from Twitter,

from their own bosses, from people in the profession. And you're saying, oh, I did it. I made up some coach updates. And man, that just felt like it was, that is the way that comment was absolutely perceived by people up and down the industry. Yeah, I mean, you can understand why people are so motivated to defend it.

It's just a really, I mean, I think it comes down. I land exactly where you were before. I can't believe that anyone would say this out loud, but I even more so can't believe that anyone would do it. Right? I mean, it just seems, I guess there's a world in which you feel pressure to have that interview. But like, don't, the people that you're answering to,

aren't they aware that you didn't get time with the coach? I mean, when you say, when you didn't get time with the coach, like it, like, I think you could, I think you could talk to the truck. Imagine the amount of work it would take to, to, to, fabulize in such a way, you know, because it does happen so quickly. It's like you have to come in, it's like you have to be prepared to lie. You know, you have to be prepared to not do your job. Talking about the preparation it takes.

I mean, it's a lot of work just to fake that. So, yeah, just really, really bizarre. I think I told you before that in a couple of times I've been in TV trucks during football games. The sideline reporter is often the person that I pay attention to the most because it turns out you can see about 10% of their job and 10% of their output during the game on TV. Yeah. I've been in a truck when Aaron Andrews is doing it. game and the entire game the entire game she is on a mic which the whole truck in here going guys on the sideline right now these two players are having a very very tense exchange they are

right in each other's face or that coach is looking at the defensive coordinator in such a way that we need to get a camera on it or so-and-so is badly limping just came off the field and the announcers had not noticed it right and then so we get that great camera shot that becomes a meme. Yeah. Of a coach looking a certain way or a player looking a certain way on the bench. And that's the sideline reporters. I mean,

they're, so the sideline reporters. They don't get credit for it. No, they're reporting to the, they're reporting for the booth. They're reporting for the network, not just the,

what we perceive to be reporting for the, for the viewer at home. Absolutely. They're the eyes and ears on the sidelines. You know, we saw it really dramatically with Kaylee Hartung on that Thursday night game when Joe Burrow got hurt. Mm-hmm.

And you're just like, you need somebody down there, be like, here is what is happening right now. This is a huge story in the NFL. But there's all this hidden stuff where you're like, I never would have known that they were the person that found that. But they are. And again, they're radioing in for the entire game.

Maybe they appear on television. What do you think? Four times, five, six times if there's time to get that in. Yeah, and there's something they do want. I mean, right. I mean, like I said, you know, the answers that they so often get from the coaches are so. blah, the questions just so sort of wrote, I mean, you'd be forgiven for watching from home and say,

why can't you replace that person with a Zoom interview or something? You know, I mean, like, it doesn't have to be done in this way, in this age, but what you're describing is a totally different job description. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. And you need, again, you just, there's no way to do it that I know of without having somebody down there. And not to mention, it enhances the broadcast so greatly to have them down there and pointing out all these things that, again, other people aren't seen because their eyes are focused everywhere. Or the announcers aren't paying attention. So they didn't see it.

It makes the broadcast better. I was also struck after we had this whole thing on Twitter slash X on Thursday that Carissa Thompson just went on Amazon Thursday night. And Amazon did not think it was necessary to have a statement or to have her apology somewhere on social media. Yeah. That was just fine. That was one of those moments where I'm like,

who is, who's running this sports division again? Yeah. Again, I know it's television. I know it's different than print journalism, but we're not just not going to say anything. Yeah. It's not going to be addressed on the broadcast.

It's not going to be. And again, her apology, and we can get to that now or her explanation, was that she chose her words poorly. She said, I have never lied about anything or been unethical during my time as a sports broadcaster. Before that, she said working in media, I understand how important words are and I chose the

wrong words to describe the situation. Well, if that's the case, why wouldn't you just said that on the air or on social media that day? It's just that it's very, to me, it's very surprising. Again, I understand this didn't happen on Amazon, but if you're Amazon sports and you care about the credibility of your division, truly you want that to be addressed. Yeah, one would think. One would think. I also wanted to read a tweet here from our colleague, Lindsay Jones.

I thought it was a near universal experience for women in sports media, the feeling of needing to work twice as hard to be taken seriously, that you can't bear to make a mistake. So the cavalier way Carissa Thompson cavalierly admitted to making up quotes is unforgivable. That was what she tweeted. And then Friday, as I mentioned, Thompson puts that post on Instagram. Yeah, unforgettable, I think, is the word. I mean, I, it's, I'm loath to ever call for anybody's job.

I always think it's a kind of inane thing to do, almost always. But, and especially me calling for that job, I think would be sort of ridiculous. However, I don't know how you can continue, I don't know how you can continue to employ, or at least put the person on TV, right? I don't know how you can continue to keep them in their job. it just seems it just seems confounding. Well, and we got, and I guess through that

apology I just read on Instagram, we got back, no, no, I didn't make anything up. Right. What I said sounded like I was saying I made things up, but I didn't actually make things up. Yeah. So maybe she's going back to your generous reading, which I believe officially was the second generous reading of this podcast, which is, I didn't have much. or even any words from the coach.

So without putting words in their mouth, I just spun out a sideline report. Yeah. Which, by the way, is a universal experience everywhere in journalism. Someone's going to have to go through all the sideline reports to see. I saw people doing that, but how would you even know?

Rod Marinelli is going to be like, I didn't talk to her that day. Well, I guess there'd be a dispositive where you could, like, if there were a number of sideline reports, like, that were actually like the one that you made up, right? If she had a number of sideline reports that were like, Rod Mary Annale told us this week that blah, blah, blah, then she'd be like, that's what I was talking about.

That's what I meant when I said made up. Then maybe, but I don't know. I don't know either. Last thing I want to cover here, and it goes back to the idea of as journalists, as media members taking small things seriously, is I do think if you don't take that seriously, you wind up drifting into the Brian Williams zone.

Yeah. where part of your output or part of the stuff you say, and I remember in Brian Williams case, it was sometimes on like late night talk shows. Yeah. Becomes this amalgam of fact and fiction. And maybe you even forget what it is you're talking about. Yeah.

Because you've let yourself drift free of facts. Mm-hmm. And beyond just storytelling. You know, oh, I told a great story and it got embellished a little bit. No, no, no, it starts to become. that you don't quite understand where the line is between those things. And I think when you don't, when you don't see again, it's a sideline report. It's a status update from a coach.

I understand all that. But I think there is a chance that the moorings get cut and the blimp drifts away. And then you're in a world where it's not so clear which is which. Coming up in 30 seconds, some weekend audio from the halls of Congress in the press room of the Los Angeles Chargers. But first, let's do the overwork Twitter joke of the week where we celebrate a 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. Our runners-up were any tweets from Thursday Night Football with Carissa Thompson saying that Joe Burrow

was going to be okay. We saw that, thanks to Stephen Roderick, Tim, and Brett Cornfeld. But this week's winner comes from not pro football, but the world of artificial intelligence. You saw that OpenAI let its founder Sam Altman go.

It was an overword Twitter joke to write pretty wild that the first job open AI took was Sam Altman's. Thanks to CKD and Don Steele and David Wexelbaum, if you are making jokes about a truly frightening phenomenon

that could take all our jobs. Congrats. You made the overword Twitter joke of the week. All right, David, in the notebook dump some quick weekend audio for you. Did you see the wrong? taking pictures with Chuck Schumer.

Yes. In Congress. Not every day the Capitol Hill Press Corps or people that were glomming onto the Capitol Hill Press Corps get a chance to ask the Rocksome questions during what I believe is called a photo spray. But see if you can make out some questions that not only would America's political junkies want to know the answer to, but that even you, David Shoemaker, might want to know the answer to. but that even you David Shoemaker White might want to know the answer to. Do you know Mr. Johnson? You'd be a WrestleMania.

You plan to run for president. All right. Rate the importance of those questions for me in your life. Is the rock running for president? Will the Rock be at WrestleMania 40? And what was the rock cooking question? Yeah. Do you smell what the rock is cooking? I think that was.

He's asking the Rock if you can smell what the rock is cooking. He did. I guess I would like to know the answer to that one just in a philosophical level. Did the Rock ever smell what the Rock was cooking or was yeah. Am I required too much introspection? No, will the Iraq be at WrestleMania 40, I think,

is the most interesting one? We saw, you know, the Rock as president is of no interest to me. You have investigated and written about the philosophical mysteries of pro wrestling better than anybody ever. But I await your piece. Does the rock know, does the rock smell what the rock is cooking?

Truly a philosophical inquiry. It's the Schrodinger's cat of pro wrestling. I don't know if it will ever be answered, but I'll look into it. You know that you and I maintain a prohibition on any, how blank is like professional wrestling talk on this podcast? Yeah. But I learned,

I think this is from Bleacher Report, that the WWE and the Big 12 conference are announcing a partnership for the 2023 Big 12 championship game. The most outstanding player in that game gets a WWB Big 12 championship belt and a wrestler will be presenting the belt on the field.

Is this the perfect capstone to a year in which college coaches were cutting promos? I don't know. Is this just a thing where WWE is figure out that the title belt is now valuable enough that they can charge money to give it out as awards,

opposed to just shipping it off for free to get the logo out there. Yeah, it is the Big 12, too. So, you're talking about the, you know, the stateliness of the occasion. That is not the SEC championship game. Sure. Between George and Bama, which would be huge or, you know,

it is the Big 12 championship game. But I don't know. The Big 12 might be willing to, to go all in. No, but that's good. You see, WWE, I mean, it makes sense to them to be sponsoring the lesser conferences because that's where they recruit from, right?

It's the Division I athletes that don't make it to the pros. That's your future WrestleMania main eventer right there. So it's more like a talent, more like a talent hunt. Yeah, oh God, they're all over the place at these events now. They had to get people at the Senior Bowl, just like look at it folks who, you know, and names who you certainly don't know. Forty's time was a little slow,

but, you know, if you're just bouncing off the ropes. Exactly. That'll speed it up a few tenths of a second. Yeah, no, it's, it is. It's a perfect capstone. I mean, like you said, we don't do the like wrestling, the so-and-so is like wrestling, probably in some sense because it's offensive to us because it's too broad, right?

If a professional wrestling contains multitude. So you've got to explain why something's like, Trump is not like wrestling. You know, it's the one you kept hearing over and over again. but there is a certain element to this coach, to the college coach and pro coach, um, you know,

heal interview schick that's been going on all season long, that it's, it's sort of like, I think it's sort of crystallized in my head is this is like the Bobby Heenan year of, of football coaches, right? I mean, this is the year that,

that all the coaches realized, like all the great managers, there's no good baby-faced managers. There's, you know, occasional seconds, right? There's the advisors and the valets or whatever, but the real managers are always heels,

and that's because they realize that to protect their clients, to protect their team, they got to just take all the heat, right? And also to recruit to make money for themselves. They just have to be larger than life characters. And I think that you see these coaches figuring that out, whether or not they're deliberately doing it. I think that they've certainly really,

reach the same endpoint. It's really interesting, right? Because it's like that same throwaway sideline interview we just talked about. If you heanize it, all of a sudden you get a big pop out of it.

You get that clip that travels social media and the message boards. Yeah. You get that us against the world thing, which every single college and every single athlete is trying to create it all times. Yep.

I saw Micah Parsons had like two and a half sacks this week. in being like, I heard what people were saying. It's like they were saying you're the best defensive player in the NFL. You heard that part? Speaking of coaches cutting promos, Brandon Staley,

the Chargers coach, I think qualifies as extremely embattled. Oh, yeah. Lost yet another one score game this weekend. And his press conference was fascinating because it started off with tough questions from the Chargers press score. Did a fascinating job,

a fabulous job, as far as I could hear their actual questions. They were very measured, but very, you know, we need some answers here. This thing is broken. We need you to talk to us. And it started out with Staley doing it. We'll get it fixed. And, you know, it's on me.

And then it got a bit testy. Here's a little bit of Brandon Staley at the podium. I have full confidence. Like I've told you and like I've told you from the beginning, I have full confidence in our way of playing. Full confidence in myself is the play caller and the way that we teach and the way that we scheme, full confidence in that. We got to bring this group together and do it consistently.

And that's where it's at. So you can stop asking that question. I'm going to be calling the defenses. So we're clear. So you don't have to ask that again. If I was an embattled coach, would I want to be heenanizing my post-game press conference? Terrible.

Or would I just want to lay as low as humanly possible? and do, you know, we're getting better. I think we're getting close. Got to execute. What's the way to go there if you're Brandon Staley? I mean, he's been laying low most of the season. I don't know if he was just... On the sidelines?

Yeah. I don't know if he's just kind of at his wits end or if that was a very specific exchange that got him going. I mean, everything you hear about the guy as a person, is that he's not exactly a Bobby Heenan in real life, right? I mean, he's, he's, no. That would offend, they would offend the memory of Bobby Heenan.

But, I mean, at the, from what we were just talking about, after this long season, I'm inclined to view everything like that is deliberate, but I don't know. I mean, do you think it's a bad look? I, well, I think he just, I mean, if you watch the press conference,

he just, he just lost his school. Yeah. Because the rest of it wasn't like that. And then all of a sudden, it got pretty rocky. Yeah. And he probably heard the same question twice in that press conference and for the 10th time that season and he was just done with it. But of course, if you're those reporters, that's the question Chargers fans to the extent they do actually exist want to know. Yeah.

They want some answers after you keep losing games like that. Yep. That's what you want from your embattled coach. Mm-hmm. But now Embattled Coach has a soundbite out there that says, I'll be doing this. There's no choice. I will be calling the plays. I got this.

Yeah. Which to me, if I'm in Battle Coach, I'm not sure I want the owner hearing, no, no, it's my way or the highway. It's like, ooh, highway sounds like a great option for this franchise going forward. I've got a new headline complaint for you, David. Go ahead. It's spent a lot of time wondering about. the three example headline. Oh, yeah.

So and so, so and so and so, an oral history of the Los Angeles Chargers. Here is the new go-to headline that everybody's doing now. It is a statement of what the piece is followed by what is surely the most boring quote in the whole story. I'll give you an example. This is from the New York Times this last week.

Jezebel, the oral history. Okay. Sounds good. Colan, quote, there was this riotous sense of fun, end quote. Hmm. Pretty dull for Jezebel, don't you think? Yeah.

If you notice this, especially do it with celebrity interviews, they'll put a quote in the headline. Yeah. And it's always like it was a blast. To prove they got some quotes. To prove they got some quotes, I guess. but it's always it's never it's never a wonderful quote it's never what would be the

pull quote if we still had magazines and newsprint and papers it's never i just made up my sideline reports no it is not that it is there was this riotous sense of fun look for that the boring quote headline i love the boring quote headline you heard it here first on the press box podcast no other podcast is giving you this kind of information we got to only in journalism nominee from Clifford Ball. This you hear a lot in political journalism. Coffers. Oh, yeah.

Tim Scott, his coffers might have been drained right before he dropped out of the presidential race. There's been a whole lingering issue about how George Santos, so I guess his run is the most written about and juiciest political story of all time, how money got into his coffers. Coffers. Very old-fashioned word. Love coffers. I keep all my money in coffers.

All right, it's time for David Chewaker. Guess is the Strain Put Headline. Yeah. Last Monday's headline about a bear who grabs some Mexican food off a person's porch was hostile talkover.

Listener, Chill Mickelson, had a great alternative headline. Wait for it. Ursa Diner. Oh, that's great. Sometimes you just got to tip your cap. Well done, Sheld Nicholson.

Today's nominee comes from literally everybody. I can't give credit. I think we got it for more than 30 times. Well, they may check that at least more than 10 times. I don't want to get over my skis here, David. Comes from the Atlantic. It's by our old friend Charlie Worsall, who went to Las Vegas to the sphere.

Everybody's talking about the sphere. KOC's at the sphere. That's the level of bold-faced name we're talking about. He was made for the sphere. Come on. He was made for the sphere. And he wrote a piece, the subhead of which is My Night in front of the world's largest LED screen.

I don't think you need much more than that. What was the Atlantic's strain pun headlines? Is it sphere and loathing in Las Vegas? Is it something with sphere and loathing in Las Vegas? Happy Thanksgiving, folks. All right. We're all good. Can I tell a Halloween story since you didn't take very long to.

Yeah, do it. All right. I know this has been, I'm pretty sure there's been a bit on Jimmy Kimmel, but this really happened. daughter eight years old, right? Uh-huh. It's Halloween candy.

Yeah. Exciting, right? A big old bag of candy. So happy. This sounds so generic, but when we got home, we were reminded that your class of taking donations, quote, for the troops. What? You give some of your candy to the troops.

Again, this may have gotten garbled in some former fashion. I don't know. There was some candy that was supposed to be set aside for the troops. Okay, so let's look through the bags, my son and my daughter and get the candy for the troops, which, let's be honest, nothing against the troops, but the tootsie rolls, they were going in that bag. Yeah. You know, the banana, whatever it is, that's going in that bag.

Anyway, school next day, candy goes out to the troops, goes off to school, come back. Next night, my daughter says, where's my candy? Where's my own candy? No. No, it's right over there. The pumpkin. Look at the pumpkin. Tootsy rolls.

Is the troops candy? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Oh, no. Dude, I felt like the worst parent. Well, but thank what you did for the troops. This is the one good day in their candy delivery regiment. There's going to get one jack-o-lantern full of actually good candy.

You mean we got the baby rose and the kid cats? That's terrible. It's interesting. I don't know how your kids do. I mean, I feel like Halloween is, a much different event than it was when we were kids for our kids. I just, I don't know. I feel like people must have had this really boring conversation a million times,

but I don't know, trick-or-treating is not as a big deal, not as big of a deal. I mean, it's fun, but it's not as, when we were kids, I feel like we just, like, left home and disappeared for, like, six hours while our parents handed out candy, and we just ran wild, you know? And this said, I feel like it's just a much more regimented thing now.

Yeah. I don't know, I mean, my kid, my, my teenager, goes and hangs out with friends and they go trick-or-treating for a while but mostly they're just hanging out with each other and then my four-year-old just, I mean, I don't have anybody in the middle, so maybe I'm just missing the real sweet spot.

But yeah, I mean, my four-year-old goes to like, you know, eight houses, and then that's enough candy that'll, until he forgets that Halloween exists for 11 more months, you know? I think it would be pretty, he would definitely cry if I gave away his candy. It would be very sad, But also, I think one thing that we have that the previous generations don't have,

didn't seem to have is the knowledge that we can buy candy, right? Yes. Like, especially the day after Halloween. Like, there's no better time. Can Amazon get here tonight with this? I mean, like, do a midnight drop-off? You can go to the Walgreens or whatever and get like the leftover Halloween candy for 25 cents. You know, just come on with buckets of it.

So, I mean, it's, our parents, our parents did not seem to be privy to the concept that you could go to a store and buy a Snickers bar. certainly not in bulk, right? Yes. Well, at least your mom and my mom did not. Yeah. Might have been other kids who had moms who were just wild and crazy bringing home 20 peckers. Sometimes you'd go to a friend's house and there'd be a full-sized candy bar somewhere

and you'd be just blown away. He was like, you could just go to the movies or something? I had you get this? Yeah, exactly. When we were kids, the smartest thing that like any of those brands ever did was when Twix started selling like Little Debbie's style cardboard boxes of individually wrapped twigs to sort of get them into the snack aisle as opposed to just the candy section. Anyway, yeah, it turns out you can buy candy.

So we did replace it with some store bought and also one of my wife or I might have been dispatched to the school to dig into the, with permission to dig into the troops fund, just to recover some of the. I couldn't find it, but I did find some other ones that I thought of it. I just want to say, no disrespect to the troops. This is a podcast that does not be better. trampling all over the flag to find some candy. He is David Schuemaker.

I'm Bradker's production magic by Eduardo Ocampo. Thank you, Eduardo Shoemaker. And I return Monday with more lukewarm takes about the media. Happy Thanksgiving, David. Happy Thanksgiving to YouTube, Brian.