The Press Box - Radio Row Mega-Show With Nora Princiotti and Chris “Mad Dog” Russo

Episode Date: February 8, 2024

On the Final Edition, Bryan is live in Las Vegas at Radio Row ahead of the Super Bowl. He is joined by two guests! First, by The Ringer’s own Nora Princiotti, and they kick off the show by discussing their favorite Radio Row moments (1:30). They then talk about the race to defend Taylor Swift in the media (7:17); whether or not we need to make new passwords once ESPN, Warner Brothers, and FOX create their new sports network (18:30); and what type of announcer Tom Brady will be this fall (28:52). Then, he is joined by Chris “Mad Dog” Russo and they immediately get into Mad Dog’s interesting relationship with Dan Orlovsky (49:50), whether or not he has been confronted by athletes (51:34), why Tony Romo has a lot of pressure calling this year’s Super Bowl (55:10), and whether or not Mad Dog grades his radio shows (55:15). Host: Bryan Curtis Guests: Nora Princiotti and Chris “Mad Dog” Russo Producer: Brian H. Waters Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Galaxy lights, Coachella, Lightning Bolt necklaces. Did you catch all the Scandival clues? Last March, one cheating scandal launched a reality TV investigation that generated hundreds of conspiracy theories, thousands of podcast episodes, and millions of dollars in revenue. I'm Jody Walker, host of an American Scandival. Ahead of the Vanderpump Rules premiere, relive the pop culture phenomenon that rocked a reality nation,

starting January 23rd on Ringer Dish. Hello, media consumers. Welcome to Press Box final edition. Brian Curtis of the Ringer here, along with producer Brian Waters. Coming up on today's pod, Chris Mad Dog Russo of Sirius XM is going to talk about everything from first take

to coming up with takes, from Tony Romo to meeting his wife on a plane while reading Jurassic Park. Wow. That's for real, Nora. But first, let me introduce our Radio Roe guest host. She is Nora Princeati.

You know her from The Ringer NFL show from every single album from her stories on The Ringer.com. She's got a new one up about Taylor Swift right now. She is working on a book about Swift and other artists, which has been recently retitled Hit Girls. Hey, you're the first person to know this other than like my publisher. This is our Super Bowl splash right here. Breaking news.

Hit Girls. This is your Super Bowl. Nora, welcome to the press box. Thank you. I'm very happy to be here. Can we do some top radio row moments before we dive into today's subjects? Absolutely. I got so many for you.

First of all, these are my top three. Boomer and Gio, number one, booking not the wide receiver Randy Moss, but the horse racing announcer Randy Moss. Do you hear about this? That's really good. What are you doing with mint juleps, Randy? Unbelievable radio row moment. That's a good bit.

It's a good bit. You got to hand it to them. Second one was Tony Pollard. Dallas Cowboys Running Back was over. here on the Pat McAfee show yesterday. He was informed mid-interview that the Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn had taken a head coaching job elsewhere. I did see this.

This was really good. And he was like, well, I'm not on social media this week. You know, like, nobody called? Nobody texted. Nobody texted. Michael Gallup, C.D. Lamb did send a text like, hey, tough news about Quinn, huh? Some insights into the, into how active the Cowboys group chats are there. I know you love a good Boston.

sports radio throwdown. Always. That is the basic unit of Boston sports radio. That's actually, and it's what fuels me. It's like it's a vampire situation. I live off of takes between. Absolutely. And confrontations, right?

Simmering feuds that come to a head. Absolutely. You know, the radio wars, you've got the Globe versus the radio host. You've got the NBC Sports Boston angle. All that stuff is deeply important to me. So, but I don't know what this is. Mike Felger. Amazing that he was at the center.

of this. I know. Mike Felger and Mike Lombardi having a showdown about the legacy of Bill Belichick. Oh, no. And I started to watch it and I was like, Feltger anti-Lombardi Pro. Yes.

That's it. At least as far as I got, I'm watching this. I'm like, okay, this is getting going, wait, this clip is 24 minutes long. 24 minutes. It's a whole show. That's really good. Unbelievable. I used to do when I worked in Boston, there was a brief period where I did this web show.

And it wasn't like a part of my job, but I think I knew the guy. And, you know, I was really early in my career and I wanted sort of like experience on video. And I would do this web show that clearly some organization, I forgot if it was like a batting thing or whatever, was paying Felger to do for, and you know, if anyone associated this is, listening, we've all got jobs to do. And there was some good stuff on there. But I'm pretty sure for an audience about 12 people. So for like 25 minutes a week, this like very young, eager host, myself and Mike Felger would like talk about the Patriots. And nobody knew. Like Felger didn't know who I was. He would mispronounce my name all the time. This kid was just like doing the best he could. And I was like, I don't know. I have maybe regret saying yes to this. But it really like,

It's one of those just sort of early journalism career, like, how did I get here moments? Unbelievable. And that's my main sort of interaction with Belgar. You didn't ask, but. But no throw downs on that show. No throw downs. Although we did get in an argument about something weird once. Like maybe it was the Malcolm Butler Super Bowl benching.

I remember once one episode got like weirdly heated. I think this is all like lost to history. and you probably couldn't find it on the internet if I'm tried. I'm not going to try. My favorite radio row moment so far, I don't know if you witnessed this yesterday, but a PR guy named Joe Faberito. It's actually sitting right over there.

Hi, Joe. Runs up to me, and he's just jumping up and down. And he's like, Brian, Brian, Dr. Oz is a Wednesday guy. You lose a Senate election and you're a Wednesday guy. And I was like, it's all take a breath. Whoa, whoa, tell me, you know, let's get it out. And he said, no, no, no. Dr. Oz, the television doctor,

unsuccessful Republican Senate candidate in Pennsylvania, is here. Memet, Memet Oz. Memet Oz, yes, thank you for doing the full name here, as I neglected to say. So I go looking for him because I need to, you know, I need to have some information about that.

You can track him down. Yeah, get it on the paper. Right, get it first, but first get it right. That's what we like to say here at the press box. So I'm walking around and I'm looking. And then Joe reappears, he's like, he's right over there. He's right over there.

So I walk up and I see a person I think is Dr. Oz. That's not totally in my wheelhouse. Right. It could be Mike Florio with a cool new haircut. We got to get some more information here. So I walk up to a woman who's standing near this person and I say, hey, is that Dr. Oz? And she says, yes, it is. And I said, what's he doing here?

Is he doing interviews? Yeah, he's doing interviews for NFL health and safety. Probably an interesting topic to explore later, how that partnership got hooked up. And we talked for a moment and I, you know, have a couple of laughs. And I say, I'm sorry, I didn't ask who you were. She's like, I'm his wife. Madame Oz, in the flesh on Radio Row.

Wow. And wife. Whoopsie. I'm interested in not becoming sort of like a family affair, you know? Oh. Like does she go everywhere with him? Like the Oz's? The Oz's.

That feels like a reality show, doesn't it? Or at least a podcast. There's potential there. Yeah. All right. Let's dive in. this stuff here for you. Topic number one, guess what? It's Taylor Swift. No. Yes. It is. Because this brings both of our interests together. You spent a lot of time thinking about Taylor. I do. I spend a lot of time

thinking about Colin Coward, among many other people. A hero to us all. Oh my gosh. And last week I'm watching Colin Coward monologuing about Taylor Swift. What did you make of that whole race to defend Taylor in the media. It really, so the thing that's really funny about it is that,

I mean, of course, this has been sort of an odd season for me personally because I've covered, I've covered the NFL

professionally for eight years. I've covered Taylor Swift professionally for four. I've been very interested in her, her career for a lot longer than that.

And to have them converge in this way is deeply strange. It's a lot of fun, but it's also deeply strange. And, you know, part of why

someone like Colin Coward is monologuing in defense of Taylor Swift, who does not need Colin Coward's defense, is because there has been this sort of controversy or whatever we want to call it about her screen time, and, you know, the dads, brads, and chads was her line and people being upset about it. That stuff I sort of don't feel a lot of need to engage with because I think it's a lot, it's mostly attention-seeking.

I don't think a lot of people are actually deeply angry when they see Taylor Swift for 25 seconds on a broadcast. Beneath that, though, the thing that I really enjoy is that there are these two audiences that are trying to communicate with each other. And in some ways, they speak similar languages. We're dealing with quite possibly the last two like bastions of monoculture in American society,

or Taylor Swift, National Football. But they don't really speak the same language. and one of the core kind of disconnects my sort of thesis has become about it is that hot music stands and people who follow Taylor Swift we don't really speak in in like grand statements that often our metier is like weird minutiae so even when she becomes like time person of the year the way that we consume that article is we go through it with a with a fine two of comb and go, she used this particular word, which might be an Easter egg that this album is coming on this day.

Because remember, in 2017, she put out the Instagram and it had the trees in it so we knew the next album was coming on Arbor Day, a real thing that happened. And like, that's sort of our, that's our mode of consumption. And that's how the thought processes work. sports media writ large is more comfortable in like grand sweeping statements. We're really good at talking about legacy and like conflict. And they're just there, that is an oil and water thing. Like Taylor Swift used the word legacy in a song for the first time in 2022.

And it wasn't even important. It was just kind of a throw. Like we don't, it's not, it's not really what we do. So I think to someone like Colin Coward, people being annoyed, it fits into a framework that we're used to in sports media. So it's very easy to be like, I am on the pro Taylor Swift side. And I am going to go hard on that tape. This is like we're, you know, we're doing LeBron versus Jordan, but we're doing Taylor Swift versus people who are mad at Taylor Swift being in the broadcast. And that is just not the conversation that I am having with any fellow Swifties.

But you got to give him credit for going for it. But it's just very, it's like, you, you go Colin Coward. Stephen A. Smith is doing this too. Stephen A. Smith is like retweeting every Taylor Swift video being like, you go, girl. Oh my God. Charles Barkley was in on it. It's great. He had a monologue too.

she makes such a good point about the way we talk about sports. And I guess that's what the Magaverse getting involved in this allowed these people to do. Right. Because there was a debate about like, are we showing Taylor Swift too much on TV, which is also really stupid? But that was harder to kind of parse because it wasn't good guys, bad guys. And it was not, it wasn't elite or terrible the way we usually talk about sports. But then it became like, oh, Magaverse. Right.

So they went to the corner as we are contractually obligated to call it. here at the ringer and said, I got it. Right. I'm pro Taylor. I'm pro Taylor Swift. I'm on the Taylor Swift corner. And that's going to be my whole. Whereas like if you talk to the most avid Swifty,

the way that they will speak about their support of Taylor Swift will be to say, this woman has ruined my life. Or like, Taylor Swift can run me over with her car. It just like deals in these layers of absurdity and just specificity. that I think are really foreign to who's the goat. Like, we don't do goat talk with Taylor. We do, like, we sometimes do, like, you know, like Michael Jackson Thriller era, was that at the same sort of level of intensity as current Taylor?

But it's just, we just don't, we don't spend a lot of time on goat talk in the Taylor first. The coward monologue in particular. Oh, my goodness. First of all, it was long. It was almost as long as that Boston Sports Radio segment. And it had so many amazing lines. It was like, I'm reading a shirt. 50% of you do not have sex.

I mean, I'm sorry. You do not engage with women. And I was like, what, what, whoa. Like, how did we get here? He did, he went to none of you have sex really fast. I know. It's like, oh my gosh. It is also like, there's this sort of.

And to me, this is very interesting, but also a little thorny. Like, there's this sort of idea of the NFL engaging with girl war. old. And like, just Colin Coward is just not the person that I want. He is our ambassador. It's just, yeah, no, I don't know that he's quite, that that's exactly his metier. But I think, I think we get a glimpse into Colin Coward sort of processing that dynamic. And again, it goes very fast to none of you have sex.

I woke up this morning. Speaking of sports media trying to process Taylor to an athlete. headline that said which Taylor Swift songs best described the 2023 NFL season. So now we've gotten back to like Bill's column from 2003, you know, which sopranos quote explains the NBA, which wire quote explains the NBA. Just come back to a whole other era of sports media. That's what that's what this has brought us to. I mean, I, you know, I'm not going to name names here, but like I do, and I say this with love over the course of the season.

I would say there are six or seven prominent NFL media members who I've gotten a message from being like, can you explain this woman to me in like football terms? Like who is she? Is she Mahomes? Is she Brady? And like she's probably closest to Brady. But like she's just not. It just doesn't fit.

We can't put Taylor Swift through the meat grinder of like, is she? You know, is she a Shanahan or a Belichette? Like, it just, it's not working. What a weird thing to ask. But I think it's like, I sort of get it, though, because you see the, you see the intensity and you see how much people care about her. And I think if someone doesn't sort of intrinsically understand that, of course you want to understand it.

You want to go like, why does this person matter so much to so many people and put it in terms that I can understand? But it's, it, it doesn't work in those terms. Have you been struck by anything Travis Kelsey has said this week when he's been asked repeatedly about Taylor Swift? I just get really nervous for him. Like anytime someone asks him a question, like, have you heard the new album? I just go, oh boy, Travis. Like, don't.

I mean, Tree Pain is Taylor's publicist. And Tree Pain is sort of a mythic figure among Swifties because she's always in the background. She has this beautiful red hair. And she had not been Taylor's publicist for the first half-ish. of her career. And then in the early 2010s, Taylor switched up some of her management. She hired Tree.

And all of a sudden, she's much less available to the press. And it just, the whole thing got a lot savvier. So Tree is just like, Tree to me, Tree could become the president. Like, Tree is, tree is very important. And I, so I just, whenever I see Travis answer a question, and I go like, oh, I don't get a call from tree.

Like, I don't want you getting a call from tree tonight. Just be careful. Tread lightly. It's so fascinating. I'm not sure we've ever seen that where you have somebody like that that the press conference becomes about someone else in that way. But even just the amount of attention on him. I mean, I've never seen any, even during the Patriot Super Bowl's that I covered that were

sort of like referendums on Deflategate, which had a lot of. lot of a lot of sort of swarming and the scrums were big and and there were a lot of people there. I don't think that there was ever a crowd around Brady at a meeting night the way that there was around Travis. Really? I don't think so. Just in terms of 45% of the people who are in that room, maybe more, were ignoring everybody. I mean, Patrick Mahomes had a fifth, like a third, a fifth.

I mean, a much smaller crowd. And it is like, the other thing that I think is, is sort of part of the disconnect is like, the NFL is not, the NFL and celebrity have, I think, a very funny relationship where everything, you know, it's, it's this huge media and entertainment property. So on the one hand, like, of course, this is all spectacle. Like, Dr. Oz is here, you know, we've got your, your, everyone you care about. But, like, celebrity at that scale is sort of discouraged because you're supposed to subvert the individual to the team.

And she just, I think, is in a very, is, she's in a unique position because she appeals to all the people that the NFL wants to appeal to more. So, and also she can't be stopped if they wanted to. But so they're sort of letting her get away with it. But like, this is a rare, this is a rare thing in football where we're sort of allowing the cult of one personality to be a dominant story. That's a really good way to put it.

You're right. Thank you. all my teammates you know i want to credit my teammates credit my opposition right they've played a great game they're great team taylor swift is here that language does not exist taylor swift is here what's taylor swift wearing i love taylor swift is travis going to kiss taylor swift on the field where's taylor swift she's going to cross the international date line all right topic number two can i interest you in a new sports streaming package oh my goodness brian what a by way what a letdown after taylor talk It's not, it's no, I'm actually really happy to, because now you are sort of the expert and I get to learn from you here.

Do I have to make a new password? Is that what's happening? It might be, but I think when you hear this, you're going to be okay with your current passwords. Okay. Let's talk it out a little bit because I'm still trying to wrap my mind to read what happened. There was an announcement this week. ESPN, Fox, and Warner Brothers Discovery, aka the Turner Network, are all coming together. There's going to be a new service

that's going to give you all the sports networks and semi-sports networks that are under their umbrellas in one spot. So you get the ESPNs, you also get ESPN Plus, ABC, because that has sports on it. Fox, FS1, TNT, TBS, True TV. I'm not sure how many games are on True TV, but let's go with it.

Big True TV fan over here. Mm-hmm. So it's a bundle of sorts. Right. It's a sports bundle. What's interesting is the early word is that the price, and this is according to Alex Sherman of CNBC, is going to be something like $45 or $50 a month. Wow. That strikes me as a lot.

It's a lot. And that is speed bump number one here. Because you think there are people that have YouTube TV, which you get almost all of that, plus lots of other channels, CNN, stuff like that, for what, 70-something bucks a month? Right. So is there going to be a customer that's going to say, you know what, I just want the sports for 50. So this is for the person who, this is for the person who is a sports fan and wants to spend a fair bit of the time that they're watching, quote unquote, television, watching a ballgame of some kind. And they could have this and have access to most of the content of the major, like most broadcasts of major sports. and then they can have Netflix and Amazon Prime or something.

They would buy those on the side. They buy those separately. And then all together they're spending 80, 90 bucks a month to kind of have something that approximates most of the content. Something like that. Yeah. So I guess I'm fine. I mean, it seems like they're trying to thread the needle of if I, so like I subscribe to cable. I am I am I am I am I am I am I am 29 years old I have I have a cable

subscription I like having it I like being able to just turn it on and watch something and like I watch you know get up sometimes in the morning while I'm like unloading the dishwasher and that's nice for me we're admitting all kinds of things yeah no I know this is like this is very vulnerable stuff here and don't you like not ever tweeting where is the I don't have the game I can't watch this right like I don't ever want to be that person there was when I lived by my there were a couple years when I didn't have it. And just Monday night football. Just every week Monday night football was the, like the start of the Monday night football game was the worst moment of my week.

Because I was like, am I going to, oh, God, I have to find this. And I can watch it on my phone, but I don't want to watch it on my phone. And this is terrible. So I like my cable subscription. I will admit that here. Presumably this is $50 so that I don't unsubscribe for my cable subscription, in part. Well, I think. Because they don't want me to do that.

They want someone who's not me to buy this. Yes, that's correct. So now you're getting into what's interesting here. The cable operators are potentially threatened by this. Right. Somebody's going to come in and say, you know what? All I want from my cable is sports. So I will come in and get this.

I saw it was Lockland Car, or, excuse, Lockland Murdoch. I'm not looking at Lockland, Murdoch of Fox the other day. He said, no, no, we're going off people that never had cable for people that never had cable. they're not in. And we think they'll come in for this because what they want is sports. I can see my question is like how big of an audience is that where they're motivated to spend $50. I'm sure they've done research. Maybe they're right.

I mean, done research. It seems like a lot. It seems like a lot. Maybe it'll be lower. But done research, I think we're at this moment in media where do all the research you want. We don't know.

I don't know what people are going to do. We're trying to solve a problem. Here's another question for you. I am presuming that this is going to be something where, you know, does it have a name? It doesn't have a name. I get it. No? No.

So let's call it sports zone. So I open up my laptop or I have an app on my smart TV and I click on the SportsZone app or I click on or I go to www. www.com. I wish I hadn't called the SportsZone. That was awesome. Yeah. But we're stuck with that now. We're stuck with it now.

So I go to Sports Zone. And I see something that looks similar to my Netflix screen or Amazon Prime where there's, there's tiles and I can search and it has that a la carte feel that streaming apps do, which is different from just turning on your television. This is sort of maybe I'm making a leap here. But to me, that implies the relationship to the content that's on it because this is not, It's not just for games, right? There's going to be like studio shows and all of T&T.

The closer reruns will also be available to you. It implies a relationship to the content that's a little bit more like Netflix, producing some of their own stuff, but also just buying the rights to a bunch of stuff, which is particularly in light of ESPN is interesting to me because I feel like that one of the, you know, the big story of ESPN this year has been this loosening of the grid. on, you know, we're the producers. We decide we can boss around the people who are on our air and we're choosing what this is going to look like,

what we're going to talk about. I don't fully understand the inner structure of how this organization would work, but there's a little bit of an implication to me if I open up an app and click on a show, that it's sort of just like the people running the app have lucked a show and said, you guys make what you want to make, but we're going to host it on our app, which is what it seems like ESPN,

particularly with the McAfee show, has sort of started inching towards doing. So I wonder if it, you know, does it grease the wheel in terms of more of that being how they do business? More inching in that direction. More inching. Yeah.

We might be doing more inching sort of regardless, but. Yeah. Whether they want to or not. Yeah. Especially when Stephen A's contract comes up, it's like, oh, why don't you be the boss? And now he's got the Swifties. Oh, my God.

He's got an army. No, but it strikes me It's like they're trying to solve two problems Which is one is the old cable bundle Was very handy because it gave you everything. Right. So we need to assemble something that is like the old cable bundle. And the second one is the sports fan thing

It's like, I just want to watch all the games. I want to have a solution to watch everything. Right. And what's interesting about this is there's no CBS NFL as part of this. There's no NBC NFL as part of this. I don't know what an app does. It's like,

here are some of the sports. Well, because think about what you and I said to each other five minutes ago. It frustrated me so much to not have easy access to one game a week on my television screen in the way that I would prefer to watch a football game, that I completely redid how I spend money to have access to television and sports TV and sports broadcasts. So I very much agree with you because sports, you know, the blessing is that it's one of the last things that people still watch together live. But also, there's a lot of FOMO. If you have the thing that doesn't have the great game that's going on and there's a Chiefs Chargers game that's going down to the wire and it's funny and you don't get it.

Like that's going to make me feel really upset about my Sports Zone subscription. Yeah, and I don't know sports fans like that that are like, I want some of the sports. I want some of the NFL. I want a lot of college football, but not all the college football. Yeah. Which is what's weird. I was like, I remember I was looked this up yesterday because I thought I'd imagine this, but in October max sent out a press release and said we have a sports tier of max.

So you have max. You watch True Detective season four, whatever you're watching. For $9.99 a month, you will be able to watch NBA and hockey games that are on Turner only. Right. So it's like, no, who is this person that's like, I want True Detective and I want. want just the TNT basketball games. In fairness, may I offer you another moment of vulnerability and perhaps a non-sequitur? Here we go.

My Peacock subscription, man, are they earning their $999 or whatever? I subscribe for that stupid football game and I made so many jokes about it. And since then, I've watched the holdovers on Peacock, really enjoyed that. I got into traitors. I mean, I just, I got to hand it to them. And I'm using this platform to do it. My peacock subscription is worth every penny. So it works.

When I, I'm probably going to unsubscribe when I finished traitors. So it kind of worked. But I thought I was going to unsubscribe the day after that game. And then I saw that they had the holdovers, a movie I wanted to see. And then somebody on Bowen Yang's Las Culturacist's podcast, they recommended traders. And I was like, you know what?

I'm in. I'm in on Peacock. That's amazing. This is a moment of vulnerability. Yeah. Thank you for sharing. This is where the host just gets out of the other way. And I am a proud peacock subscriber.

Look at that. Cable and peacock. Oh, my God. Topic number three. And kind of related to what we talked about. And as a former Pat's beatwriter, Tom Brady is going to be an announcer this fall. He is just going to be a regular old announcer.

It's not going to be a Brady cast with all his pals on it. He is going to be sitting in a booth next to Kevin Burkhart calling games for Fox. What kind of announcer do you think Tom Brady is going to be? I have simply no clue other than I think he will either be very good or very bad. I was encouraged this season by Brady seeming really interested in talking about how bad he thought the quarterback play around the league was. Because it made me think, okay, if we get him in the booth, he'll want to go there. Maybe he'll be willing to go there. This is telling us that he'll say so when he thinks a throw was terrible or a decision was terrible.

And that's what I want from Brady, right? I want the maniac who knows everything there is to know about quarterbacking, telling us what he really thinks. Brady historically does not always do that. No. And Brady, particularly on his podcast, really doesn't like to go there very often. So when I thought, I don't know if this is going to be very good, it's been mostly based on the fact that the let's go podcast,

I find to be a tough listen. So that's, it's interesting because he could say something about a quarterback that's not like Stephen A. Smith saying something about a quarterback. Yeah. He could get 60% of the way there. But because it's Tom Brady, it'd be kind of passive aggressive. It will, it will hit. And he will pay attention.

Right. It'll be like, oh. Because even, I mean, what he said about. you know, he didn't say these guys are a bunch of chumps and I can't believe, you know, Foxborough High, the quarterback would be better than this. But he said,

I just, I look around the league and I'm really stunned by the level of quarterback play because I don't think it's very high. If he will, if he'll make a statement like that in the booth, I want to see it. Like, let's at least give this a try because I would find that

to be compelling television. Yeah, you have to try, I think. It's worth trying. because it's so fascinating for everybody, right? Like, what's that going to be? Was there ever a world in which, I mean, this is something that I saw someone tweet once and just thought it was really funny. Is there like an amount of money

they could pay Bill Belichick to have to like do broadcasts with Brady? Or even like studio, if you're Fox, don't you just try to find a way to get those two in a room together? Oh, my God. And like, that's not off the table. It's not off the table. Belichick needs a job.

Fun employment. It was so funny because there were a couple of tweets from some of our Boston media friends, Chad Finn at the Globe and Tom Curran, who's across Radio Row from us, before the whole Falcons thing happened with Belichick that said, you know, maybe Bill Belichick should take a year off and get a media job. Right. And I thought those were the kind of I know something, but I'm throwing it out there. And I actually went and asked Kern yesterday.

He said, no, no, I was just actually throwing it out there. But it may happen. And if Brady goes, excuse Brady goes already at Fox, if Belichick were to go to Fox, I mean, I think, and let's credit this halfway to current, but like there is a kind of like, oh, we're back together, you know, we had some weird times. It would be interesting. I mean, that wouldn't you watch that? It would be really interesting. I mean, if Brady's coming in from the booth and Bill's sitting there in the pregame show and they're talking to each other. Right.

And look, if Bill is going to take a media job, I kind of doubt he's taking one with ESPN. no and and then you're down to you're down to three it's not off the table yeah there's a lot of patriots in television right now there are yes so he could have you know some some old pals wherever he goes right devon mccordy great and kern was saying if he's on a pregame show he cannot he would not be just part of the panel the idea of like phil sims handing it off to bill belichick for a take. He's just going to have to be in his own zone, right? Coach's corner. People would ever, like, disagree with him.

Certain people would. Sure. But, like, to your point, I don't know that Phil Sims is ever going like, I just, that's a ridiculous take, Bill. That, that defense is much better than you think it is. You moron. I don't think Phil Sims says that to anybody. Fairness to Phil Sims.

By the way, speaking to Taylor, did you notice when Phil Sims got to narrate the moment when Taylor and Travis saw each other on the field after the AFC, championship game. Yeah. What a moment in sports television. And then he pivoted to a Ravens point. He was like, okay, enough of this. I'm like, no, no, actually no one cares about your Ravens point.

Everyone cares about this meeting on the field. And they didn't run the ball. Another question for you about Brady. What do we think his interest is in television besides $37 million? Well, first of all, $37 million is a lot of dollars. It's a lot of money. Brady has any idea what he wants to do outside of football. like Tom Brady has accomplished more in single days of his career than I or most people will do in their lifetimes.

So I say this with like full respect and understanding of this. Most of Brady's outside of football ventures have not been particularly successful. Crypto. Crypto. Crypto. Not great. You know, Brady brand just merged with No Bull, which is the sports apparel company that sponsored the Combine the other year. I'll just tell you that I see Brady Brand having sample sales in New York, which is not usually a great, you know, when you're having the 260 sample sale day, it's not a sign that things are going super well. That's what he was advertising on that car wash last week, right?

Yeah, because there was just a merger, the two, whatever, blah, blah, blah, blah. So maybe they're rebooting and trying to do it again. You know, the Tom versus Time didn't really pop. And I think he's searching. I think he's searching for something. I don't think he has. And I mean, he would say this all the time when he was still playing. He's like, I don't know what I'm going to do when I don't have this anymore.

And, you know, there's a real, like, football players go through that all the time. It's like a midlife crisis when they don't have, one, just the structure of being part of a team. But two, like the maniacal pursuit of this thing. And particularly for someone like that, it was an all-time great at what he did, I think he's sort of, I think Tom Brady's little drift. And now good for him that he can earn $37 million a year being a little bit of drift. But I do think that's what's going on. And let me tell you, Fox is counting on the maniacal pursuit thing, that he will get into broadcasting.

And he'll look at Troy Eggman, you know, look at Peyton Manning and Tony Romo to perhaps a lesser extent. And he'll be like, I want to be that good. I'm going to meet you. Yeah. I don't think that's out of the question at all. Like he thinks like that. He's not going to be like, I'm going to screw around and make a lot of money. Like he's like, no, no, I'm going to learn this.

I will be the absolute best at what I am doing. And I will figure now, will he be able to get that out of himself because this is a performance-based medium? I don't know, but he'll try. And he is, he's a good communicator. I mean, and I do think that there's a chance that that ends up being a really good bet. Because all the other stuff that he's done, I don't imagine that you're sort of in the, you know, in the boardroom talking about what combination of poly spandex blends you're using on the next line of Brady brand hoodies and going Adidas, Nike? Like, I'm going to bleep you up. Like, it's, it's on MFer.

I don't think he had that. And get the competitive juices flowing in the same way. No, I don't think so. I don't think that, like, I don't think that the, you know, the SBF conferences were giving him that either. I don't know that he has had that since he played. So maybe it will unlock the competitive instincts in him and he'll be really, really good. I wouldn't, I wouldn't count that out. It's much more mono on mono.

Right. That other guy versus me. He does what I do. He was, and we were both quarterbacks. And we used to do the thing. Yes, I won more rings than you and you and you and you. So now we're in this new thing and. And it's much more, look, it's football.

It's much more related to the game than the other things that he's done. Yes. And I think the thing that will help him right off the bat is announcing now is more about teaching than blowing people up. Kind of to my regret, because I grew up in an age where Chris Collins was, and those guys would go on TV and just blow up people every week. That was how you earned your spurs in broadcasting. Like, those are not my friends. I think that guy sucks.

And now it's all like, let me show you a diagram. Let me show you what the tight end does on this play, which is cool. Let me get my pencil. But it allows you to kind of be smart, be a good announcer without worrying too much about, you know, criticizing other people. Right. Which I think will help him a lot because we know he can talk football and break down something. By the way, really weird story in Puck I saw right before we came on. from our old pal Teddy Schleifer

Sam Bankman-Fried, speaking of crypto, wanted Tom Brady to run for the Republican nomination in 2024 because SBF was anti-Trump. So his plan, and apparently he talked to Brady about this, according to Schleifer. He wanted him, like, you run for the

Republican nomination and that will stop Trump because you will win. What? I'm just like, so one of the years that I was in New England, was 2016

and we spent so much time you know because Belichick wrote the letter for Trump right before that he read in New Hampshire right before the election Brady's friendship with him

was such a big like it just like hung over that season obviously there was so much like the league's relationship with politics that year was such a topic I'm just trying to put myself back in those shoes

and think about hearing, like, understanding that nugget from that perspective. And it is really truly bizarre. Yeah. That was the plan. Yeah. It's a perfect like SBF idea of. Yeah. Bad.

Yeah. Bad. And like the most fancable idea of all. Tom Brady will save the country. Two more things before we go real quick. We do a feature in here called Only in Journalism. These are words that appear in news. articles but not in human speech.

Number one, we got a couple of nominees this week from Danny Tequito, the word unseemly. This was some of the Vince McMahon allegations and it's always something is not, it's actually much worse than unseemly but it's unseemly. Really dialing it down.

And then from Joe DeFazio coterie, a coterie of powerful Republicans. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Not quite a sports writing word. A lot of coderies in the Senate. Yeah. Yeah, do we have, could we have a coterie of something? I mean, a coterie of the Shanahan disciples are kind of a coterie. You know, a corary of offensive schemers.

A coder. That would not, you and I both know, that would not get past the sports page copy editors. It probably would not. I've been using Metier a lot. You used it today, I did. So you know where it came from? There was an article in a couple months ago in the New York Times style section, or maybe it was the wedding section about, um,

I'm blanking on his name, but he's a Harvard Law professor who was asked to, like, help draft the Iraqi Constitution in 2003. And he'd been married to a fellow Harvard Law professor. They got divorced. He had something of a midlife crisis, and during the pandemic went to Burning? No, he didn't go to Burning Men. There's a woman who's sort of a socialite in New York during the early aughts I read this piece Who's a spiritual guide yeah

Julia Allison right yes Julia Allison is her name and she had sort of an epiphany at Burning Man and felt that she needed to To call him and I really people should look this piece up because it's one of the best Examples of journalism of just the writer getting out of the way and just saying like I have pure gold here and I'm just gonna lay out the facts And there's this part where they're describing, anyway, they got married. And this woman is very wacky and this man sort of used to be very stiff, but now he has a lot of new friends. And one of them, there's a line where they're describing one of her friends.

And it just says, his metier is bodywork. I don't know what that means, but it really stuck out to me. And so I've been using metier. What a medier. Yeah. Yeah. His medier is bodywork. His bodywork.

The guy had a weird name, too. This is a fabulous article. If I impart nothing on the press box audience today other than like, please look this up, it's a great read, then I will be happy with with my morning here on Radio Row. This is a high-end only internalism word. I used to do that when I was younger. Just anything like that that would give my, you know, my prose a continental flavor. Right. Especially if it's like from languages I don't actually speak.

Right. Oh, just, you know, metier. Very nice. Yeah. So that's mine. All right. Nora Princeati, Taylor, NFL, Peacock subscriber. We learned so much today. Nora, thanks for coming on the press box.

Thank you, Brian. All right, Chris Mad Dog Russo is here. Do you know how much I look forward to this chat? Oh, I know. You've done a couple of nice interviews. Two years ago, we did a great one there in L.A. I remember correctly. Remember you came in L.A.? You did a great spot with me?

I thank you for saying that. I do remember our interview very well. Yes, you did. And here we are again now for a Super Bowl that, you know, I don't like the game. I want to Detroit in here in a worse way. I want to Detroit as I, you know,

the Lions, a feel good story. And I've seen this game before because you started in 2019. So I would have preferred the Lions. But listen, at San Francisco, Kansas City, they got a little rivalry.

A lot of people here. Away we go. You know how interested I am in Radio Row. Yes. Looking out here, what is the health of Radio Row this year? I guess it's pretty good. You know,

and I remember too, right, that on the West Coast, a lot of the East Coast morning shows don't come because they're on at 3 o'clock in the morning. Right. So normally you'd see a little less folks here on a West Coast scenario, but it seems like there's plenty of people here,

so that's not in play right now. Like our morning show didn't come, not until later in a week because you're on at 3 a.m. You're not getting anybody on at 3 a.m. You start at 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning makes it tricky. But listen, I think Vegas is an attraction. You know, this first time it's ever been here, here, the stadium,

Mahomes. I mean, you know, people are looking to cover something. You know, they're not going to go to the NBA, not in February. You know, they're not going to spring training.

You know, they're not going to the hockey. I mean, what else you're going to do? You got to do you got to roll with the football as a talk show host as long as you can. Because once it goes away,

you get a little juice out of the draft, you get a little juice out of the schedule, a little juice out of free agency. You don't have a game to analyze, really until, after Labor Day. It's a long time. In terms of temperament, were you always an afternoon radio guy versus a morning radio guy? I like doing the morning the one time I did it when I got suspended then fired.

I did the mornings, Mike and I rotated because he did some afternoon and I did some morning and vice versa. And I like the mornings for whatever the reason. I got home at 10 o'clock in the morning. But I think my style of radio has to be in the afternoon. The morning stuff is not as much intensive. It's goofiness. and although I can be goofy, you know, I want to break down things.

And so I was fortunate to be in the afternoon portion instead of the morning portion. I did do it, though, for a summer, in and out. And I loved it because I was done at 10 o'clock in the morning. Getting up is a pain in the neck, but I love being done at 10. Especially on Fridays. Sure.

You basically got a three-day weekend. You were always more of a sports talk guy than a goofy bits guy. Yeah, absolutely. Goofy bits comes with the sports talk, but it's sports talk first. In the morning, it's goofy bits and a little sports talk. In the afternoon, it's a lot of sports talk and some goofy bits. I'm walking through the casino this morning.

I look up at the screen and there's first take. You're on doing a segment about the Los Angeles clippers. Yeah. Now, can you do a clipper segment out of the top of your head or do you have to study today? I looked a little bit at their schedule and their stats. I am not wrapped up yet in the NBA on a game in, game out basis. On that show, you've got to be a little more attentive to it, obviously. Stephen A loves it and a partner of the sport.

So I have to be a little bit more on top of it than I normally would be paying attention to. You know, I haven't seen the Clippers play much. So it's not like I'm going to break down. But we all know, we all know Leonard. We all know George. We all know Westbrook. We certainly know Hardin. I've seen Tyrone Lou coach.

So I got a little. I know the team, but it's not like I'm watching, you know, five, six Clipper games this year. So I had to do a little work on it. I just keep a look at the scoreboard, but my mind will be able to come up with something to get through four or five minutes of it. And karma is the key for the clippers. They need to be healthy.

They never are at the end of the year. See, there's your hook right there. That's it. You're doing it right now. Yeah, doing it like now. See, I can think when I talk about them, it comes to me what I should say. And the clippers, Leonard's got to play,

Hardin's got to play. George can't get hurt. And if they can stay healthy, and right now they've played a ton of games, They have 32 and 15. If they stay healthy, they got a chance. Do you find that when you're doing the radio, you'll start talking about a subject and then midstream?

Yes. The thought will hit you like a lightning bolt? Absolutely. Yes. No question about it. The stream of consciousness works in radio. He has my mind's all over the place sometimes covering sports. I will say that first take helps with the radio

because we do a lot of those kind of radio themes in first take. So it gets me warmed up. So when I get on the radio, I can use some of the first take themes that I've used. and I can put them on radio to get me through a segment, a little period there when it's a little slow, calls a little slow, and I can do seven minutes because we did this today on first take.

You know, quarterback, who's the best quarterback, what coach in the NFC East? I have the most confidence in, those kinds of things, and I can do it on the radio if, in fact, I think I need a little change of pace. So first take helps. What pleasure do you get from doing first take that you don't get from doing radio?

You know, I'll be honest with you, all the attention. You get a ton of attention on that first take. Some of them are not always positive, but you get a ton of attention. People watch that first take. And ESPN is a machine. They get the clips out. So even if they don't watch it right away, people hear about it. People are on top of it.

It's on two hours. He's a huge personality. Radio sometimes you get a little lost in its vacuum. You know, I say a lot of the things I've said on radio. I say it on first take. Nobody said a word about a radio, and I say on first take, the whole world cares. So it is interesting. It's TV, it's ESPN, and it's the way people consume sports.

They consume it in clips in little junkets. In radio, we don't have as a lot of people to get all the stuff out. So it takes a day or so sometimes. We don't have that unbelievably huge Mardorog Radio staff. so if I can throw something out there, ESPN, they get out there in five minutes. That's a huge advantage. So the notoriety you get from, again, good or bad, the notoriety you get from the TV is a jolt. And, you know, I'm a personality.

I like to perform. So I get a kick out of that. That's a big help. So this new attention, this new notoriety. I'm not going to dispute. I'm not stupid. I like it. And not everything is favorable.

Orlaski all upset at me, I quote him a scrub, things like that, had the issue with Jay Jay Reddick a couple years ago. So it's not always favorable, but for the most part, it's been a godsend. It's really renaissance of my career in a lot of ways. I walked in here with Orlovskine. I said, are you and Mad Dog okay? Because he was coming to do your show. But you guys are okay now?

Well, I texted him yesterday, so I sensed he was okay. I know Stephen A reached out to him, too. Nothing, no harm is meant by it. So I think he was okay with it. He's got a, you know, he's a good guy. He's from Connecticut. He, you know, he follows me, radio and everything else. He knows his football.

He has a much bigger issue if you get on his playing career than if you get on his opinions. You know, it doesn't have Montana in a top five all time. You know, he thought Campbell made the right decision and the field goals. He doesn't have any problem you're getting on. What are you kidding me? That's ridiculous. He's okay with it.

But he got on his playing, you know, they're athletes. And if you get on an athlete's performance level, that's when they get a little sensitive. So maybe they didn't get a touch sensitive there. I probably shouldn't say it. It was the throwaway line. What's the word? What's the maddest an athlete has ever gotten about something you said on the air?

Ronnie Lott. When I said that it was a cheap shot with Art Munk, a shot that Lott gave Munk in a jet redskin game. And then Munk the next year came to the Jets. And I asked Munk, Hall of Famer, both of them, during preseason. It was late in the year. It was a shot out. I think maybe you'd knock Monk out for a couple games. And I said, God, what a cheap shot, Locke gave you.

And he agreed. And Lott heard about it and was all pissed off. I mean, for a long period of time. I guess he was a jet. You know, he came to the Jets at the end of his career. And I went into that locker room a couple times, and he gave me the worst look of all time. Really?

So that was an issue. That's going back 30, 40 years now. You did the sports columnist thing where you show up in the locker room, in case someone wants to yell at you or get mad at you? Yeah, I mean, yeah, I did. No question about it. I showed up. I don't remember if I showed up.

of specifically because I'm thinking of a lot, but I would go to all the games on Sundays, and I go to the locker room on a Sunday afternoon, and, you know, after the game, and there was one that I specifically remember that he was annoyed at me because of what I said regarding the monk hit, which I said in preseason, and he must have got wind of it. He first saw it, and he got all upset. Yes, they know. There's been a lot of talk about Stephen A. Maybe his ESPN contract will run out someday, and he will go do a media thing of his own, be his own boss. Would you be interested in working with him if he did some other venture? You know, then he's the reason why I'm at ESPN, so he gets all the credit in the world for

that. You know, I know his contract's up, what, a year or so. I'd be surprised if ESPN and he don't reach an agreement, they're good for each other. He loves doing the show. ESPN, he's the face of ESPN. You know, I'm sure he will, you know, he's going to want whatever he wants. and, you know, there'd be a battle, as there are in 99% of negotiations. But at the end of the day, I'd be surprised if he's not there.

If he ever did leave, what would I do? Hopefully, I won't have to make that decision. I'll be 66 anyway. Maybe I'd be dead or quit at that point. No, no, no, no. I was rereading that wonderful New Yorker feature that was written about you and Frances a many years ago. This anecdote popped up to me. You met your wife on a plane in 1993 because you were reading the,

novel Jurassic Park? I sure was. Yes. That was, Jeannie was coming back from a Memorial Day weekend in Kalamazoo, Michigan with friends. And I was coming back from a Memorial Day weekend Bulls Nix. The last year, Jordan played against the Knicks before he took the hiatus. The Knicks were up to 2-0, lost four straight games. So I went to Chicago for the weekend. It's Memorial Day weekend. And on the way home on a Monday, I sat in 6A and she sat in 6B. and I was reading Jurassic Park.

And in the process of that, an hour and a half in, she asked me what I thought of the book. And then when I got engaged, a year and a half later, I sent her on a wild scavenger hunt through Rye, New York. And it started with Jurassic Park, which I put in her back shed.

So she'd have to go to get the book. There was a note in there of where the second clue was. Third clue, fourth clue, fifth clue. And finally, at the end of the day, I was at the oak room in the plaza. In the hotel. Yes. And you know who I got to get her going?

Call her up and say, listen, you're going to go on a scavenger on here. Wear your sneakers. The late great Steve Jones. Whoa. Steve Snapper Jones. Yes, who she knew because she used to travel and work for Northwest Airlines, who was out of Portland, Oregon. And Steve did the Trailblazer games.

19. Now, 19, later than that. 19. That would have been the summer of 94. This is an incredibly elaborate plan. How about that? And I had it all set up. Her shed, her club, the Haughtling's News, where I used to get the Boston Globe in New York, polo grounds where I used to watch the giant games before the dish.

And then the last spot was at the Oak Room, and there I was. Unbelievable. That's a good story. And that is where Jurassic Park began a year and a half later, and that was the first clue on her scavenger hunt. That's amazing. How about that?

I saw you talking on TV the other day about the guy you called Our Little Pal, Tony Romo. Yes. Where are you on Tony? I think he's got a lot of pressure on him in this game. I really do. I think that I know this sounds crazy. I think the two biggest people who have the most pressure on in this game

is Shanahan and Romo. I think, you know, Shanahan for obvious reasons, he needs to win one of these games. And Romo, you know, the bloom is off the rose. I don't think as many people love Romo as they used to, you know, his goofiness, which everybody found endearing four or five years ago and his calling the plays before the play established and all. I think that's worn itself out a little bit. And I think as a result of that, this is his first Super Bowl since his rise. I think this is a very important game for him.

And, you know, he needs to go out there and have a good game. This is an analyst. The Super Bowl is an analyst game. And he needs, look at Madden. made his take with these Super Bowls. He needs to go out there and have a good game. So I think there's some pressure on him. See how he does.

You've done daily radio for almost 40 years now. We're crawling up on... 83. Yeah. 40 years. Yeah, 841 years. Do you come out of a show and say, okay, that was an A plus show? Oh, absolutely. A minus show.

Yes. Yes. There are gradations like that. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I'll give you an example. Yesterday I did Clark Cun at the start. I did Peter King.

I did Reggie Theis on the 77 U. UNLV running rebs because they got to the final four. He's coaching Bethune Cookman. And I did James Kaplan, who wrote the two volume set on Sinatra with Vegas, four guests, great show, B plus A minus. Today, DeAndre Swift, Carla Turley, Jim McMahon, Ira, a little bit all over the map today. It wasn't as good. I knew it as the show was unfolding.

Today was a solid B minus B, but it wasn't as good as you. And you would think the later in the week you go, the better the show. As today's Wednesday, more people around than yesterday or Tuesday, but Tuesday was a better show. I grade him all the time. Or talk show host, do. You grade and more the time. How long do you think about the grade you gave the show?

Oh, I forget about it. I mean, in the old days, you used to think about it a lot. I'll forget. I forget about it. You know, I'm over now. At this point, do the best I can. Hope the show is good. Remember, I'm a little tired of today, too, as I did the first take this morning.

I got up at 5 o'clock in the morning. So I may not be as sharp as I was, say, yesterday when I only had to, the one thing to do, that plays into it. So I try to get myself a little break of not being too hard on myself. 40 years, there must be days where you wake him to say. I don't want to do a show today. Absolutely. So we'll get you in front of a microphone.

You start talking. It comes to you. That's what it is. Once the mic comes and it's three o'clock and they say, geez, how am I going to get through 10 minutes? You get through 10, 12 minutes, get through the next 10, 12 minutes, and eventually it comes to you. And that's how I look at it.

So, I mean, I might start a little slow on certain days, especially when there's no football, especially middle of the week when there is football or Wednesday, but I usually can get into it as a show moves along. Maybe 315 isn't as good as it was at 4.30, but I can get into it. And if I have a guest coming, then I'm looking forward to talking to, that helps too. Sometimes I take myself, let's get the 4 o'clock and, you know, get the 4 o'clock. Don't have the show bleed to death, and then you can regroup. Sometimes I think along those lines too.

Bleed to death. Like tomorrow, I'm looking forward to McManus. It's coming on at 1 o'clock. This is Sean McManus, CBS. So the first hour, he's going to come over here. The first hour tomorrow will be a little trickier. But I know once I get the one o'clock, I got McManus, I'll be okay. His swan song is career at CBS.

Yeah, I'm going to have one more time. He told me you give me twice because the swan songs like the Masters. So I asked him this week, I said, Sean, you want this to be your swan song, or you want this to be about football and Super Bowl and ratings? And then I do the Swan Song and a Masters in your career, which one you want? He says, oh, you can get me out with the Masters. So that's what I'm going to do. I grew up in the age of sports radio.

People that grow up now are growing up in an age of other stuff, social media, that kind of stuff. What's the case for sports radio, somebody growing up now? To listen to sports radio or something going up? If you grew up, why would you want to be on top of sports radio, that kind of thing? Why would you want to listen to it versus the hundred other things you could listen to? Well, number one, it's the best interaction. Podcasts are done on tape. There's two a week.

Anybody can do a podcast. Here's what I would tell you about a podcast. And I know you're doing one right now. Yeah, I tell you what you... He's kind of meta, but go ahead. I'll tell you, a good talk shows can do a podcast and a sleep. A podcaster going on radio five days a week, three hours a day is a much different assignment because you got to, some days are going to be harder than others.

If you told me I got to do a podcast today and I got to set it up for Thursday with three guests, I can do three interviews. I can set it up properly. Radio, Chris, we can do Thursday for three hours. You're on live radio. It's a little different. It's harder. But what I would say to the person who wants to get adjusted to talk radio, it's spontaneous.

It's a situation where anything goes. You never know what you're going to listen to. There's a factor of it where it's a little, you never know what's around the corner. And it's a good conversational piece with fans. And I think there's something to that. Now, I understand they can get their information from a variety of other places and the athletes themselves doing podcasts, so I get them. But the spontaneity of a good talk show cannot be replicated.

When you're on an air live and something happens, your first up guest, a call, a death, a major storyline, and you've got to comment on it right away. You can't beat that. The immediacy of it's good. And that's what good sports talk can give you. It's interesting because when I started listening to it, I was 14, 15, 16, and I started to drive.

So for me, talk radio and sports radio kept you going that way. It was always associated with being in the car. Freedom, fun, with my friends, right? So I had the associations of it. I was listening to somebody like you in Dallas, Texas.

But it was about a sensation, you know, or waiting in traffic. And this is getting me through that way to the day. Right. And I just wonder if people, you know, a lot of kids are like, I just take an Uber.

They may not be. Yeah, they don't, maybe they don't want to drive. I mean, they got it on their phones. They listened to it on an app. They set up this. They set up that. It's probably different. I don't think anybody's going

into a cab, you know, in Dallas, Texas. They put on a local sports talk. I'm not sure if they're doing that as they used to. Or, you know, in New York put on ESPN radio or FAN radio. Or, you know, Cleveland. Let's hear what, you know, Sirius XM and Mardog Radio is doing. You know, you've got to build an audience for that fan to care about what you have to say. So I do think the casual fan just tuning into the local sports talk to see what the mood

of the town is, I think you probably have lost some of that with the plethora. of voices in certain cities. So I think you're probably right about that. They listen to a national podcast or something else. Well, doing that too, yes. Yeah, absolutely. Chris Rousseau, he's keeping the medium alive. Thanks for coming on the press box.

We love you, buddy. You're the best. Great questions as usual, Brian. Thank you very much, pal. That's the press box. I'm Brian Curtis. Production Magic, as always, by Brian Waters. All right, I'm going to attempt to escape

from the city of Las Vegas and go back to my home and you call it Los Angeles. But before I do, I want to give you the guest host schedule for the rest of the month because we have it locked. February 15th, aka next Thursday, Asted Herndon of the New York Times is going to be on this show. I cannot wait to talk to him about the campaign trail, his podcast, and all kinds of other stuff. That is February 15th.

February 22nd is going to be a week off at the ranger. Some rest, some rejuvenation, some reading. I might read a book. That'd be fun. Then we are back on February 29th. And our guest host will be Sean Finnessy, movie podcaster extraordinaire, ringer boss, extraordinary. He's going to come on and talk about the news of the week, plus the great 1993 documentary of the war room. What a month here at the press box.

Come back Monday, though, and join us because Shoemaker and I will have the entire Super Bowl wrap-up for you, the announcers, the commercials, everything that stood out about the game. Plus, of course, more lukewarm takes about the meeting. Have a fantastic weekend and happy Super Bowl.