The Press Box - The CBS Disaster and NFL Sound, The New Yorker Turns 100, and More Tales of Journalistic Failure

Episode Date: January 27, 2025

Hello, media consumers! Bryan and David kick off the week by discussing The New Yorker turning 100 and what it has been throughout time (0:00). Then they get into the sounds of the NFL playoffs: Strangest moment from the Eagles-Commanders … from the referee (32:00) Tom Brady on his future in the broadcast booth (40:34) The CBS disaster with the phantom flag in the Bills-Chiefs game (44:12) Then in the Notebook Dump they follow up Thursday’s episode of how failed profiles came apart with a couple of stories from listeners (50:32). Plus, the Overworked Twitter Joke of the Week and David Shoemaker Guesses the Strained-Pun Headline. Hosts: Bryan Curtis and David Shoemaker Producer: Brian H. Waters Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A restaurant's best dishes tell stories. Their flavors embed themselves in our memory like song lyrics or lines from a movie. So much so that a little slice of a restaurant's story can become part of our own. I'm Danny Chow and this is ShiftMeal, a new video podcast from The Ringer where we're sharing a bite and chopping it up with chefs and restaurant people during their off hours. All episodes of Shift Meal are out now on Ringer food. David? Yeah. Yes.

We've got a birthday to celebrate. Oh. The New Yorker is turning 100 this year. Oh, good. I was afraid I forgot to buy a gift. Yeah, that's a big birthday. 100 years, the New Yorker. Happy birthday, New Yorker.

Eustace Tilly is reaching for the Centrum Silver. We got some birthday celebrations over at New Yorker headquarters. A Judd Apatow-produced Netflix doc is, being filmed. Wrap your mind around that sentence. New York magazine Charlotte Klein writes, writers have been popping in for cameos, gamely acting out journalistic duties,

taking phone calls striding down the halls. Mr. Gobnick, could we get a little more B-roll of you striding down the halls, sir? There's going to be a hundredth anniversary issue of the New Yorker out next month. And there are some succession questions. David Remnick, who has been the editor since 1998, may be leaving. I thought we'd start here. What is the New Yorker in 2025?

That's a good question. I mean, I feel like it's in some ways, just like one of the most unassailable sort of bastion, of modern, of journalism, I guess a modern, is the old school journalism that still exists in the modern age, although it does, I'm sure, have its detractors. But I think in a broader way, it's sort of like, okay, hear me out. The New Yorker is the Trilby hat of journalism.

You're familiar with a Trilby? It's like a fedora with a smaller brim. It's like when you first saw a hipster wearing, a felt hat, it was a Trilby hat, right? When we first moved to New York, you would see occasionally, at some point, someone in a Trilby hat. I remember there being like a famous photo

of like Heath Ledger hanging out in Lower Manhattan wearing a Trilby hat. And at that point, if you were like, oh, I want to wear a hat like that, you would maybe Google, look for it, whatever. But you couldn't go to the store, any of your normal stores and buy a Trilby hat. you might have to go to like a hat,

a haberdasher or whatever to get a trilopee hat or maybe luck into one at a secondhand store. Now if you want to buy a trilby hat, you just go to the mall. There's 25 stores in which you could, where you could buy the hat, which is all to say, the New Yorker is a very like New York specific thing.

By the way, I have a quote here from the founder, Harold Ross, who said, The New Yorker will be the magazine, which is not edited for the old lady in Dubuque. Dubuque's just a great call out there. It will not be concerned with what she's thinking about. That is not meant in disrespect,

but the New Yorker is a magazine avowedly published for a metropolitan audience and thereby will escape an influence with Champer's most national publications. It expects us considerable national circulation, but this will come from people who have a metropolitan interest. It's that metropolitan interest.

I don't know if metropolitan is a word with any currency anymore. but just like when we first moved to New York, you couldn't dress like a hipster without going to the second-hand stores. Now you can dress like a hipster by going to the mall, right? The world has sort of,

everything is accessible to anyone now. So anyone wants to dress a certain way to see somebody on TV, you can have that outfit tomorrow, no matter where you are. And I think it's the New Yorker's Metropolitanism that has given it to sort of reach and power that it has today because it's sort of still aspirational.

The New Yorker is a magazine that, you know, it's like the hat Heath Ledger was wearing. You see it, you hear about it, you know about it, and you're like, oh, I want to be, I want to know what all those people know. And so even if you don't live in New York, you can still be a part of New York. It's also the last great New York institution. I mean, alongside the New York Times, it covers, I mean, it still sort of defines what it means to be New York in a way that no other publication does. Totally true.

I agree with all of that. And thank you, by the way, for coming all the way around with the Trilby metaphor. Because I was riding there on the side of the train with my hands holding on, waiting to see where that was coming in. Your Trilby just blew off. It blew completely off. But I agree, dude. I'm looking at the website this morning. And what do we have?

We have a reporter embedded with the firefighter. who were fighting the Eaton fire here in Los Angeles. I know that we say this a lot about various publications and whatever. But the New Yorker is one of the, is like the New Yorker's big piece on the LA fires. If you could only read one, might be exactly the one you would want to read, right? It might be.

It might be. If you're somewhere else, if you're not reading every LA Times iteration, that might be the one to go to. So we've got the Eaton Fire. We've got John Lee Anderson reporting from Damascus. We've got Gary Steingart writing about Capy Baras. I'm not making that up.

We have Carl Ovee Nussgard. Of course we have Carl Obey Nousgard in The New Yorker. And then on the same website, we have Tom Brady, the announcer, a column by Vincent Cunningham. we have our pal Louisa Thomas writing about the NFL playoffs those are stories we recognize as internet content here at the ringer.com where we are perhaps slightly south on the middle brow brow spectrum from the New Yorker. So we have to just to say what you were saying in a slightly different way,

we have the old New Yorker, we have that that New Yorker, married to the new world of content on the same website. And, you know, people, the thing to do right now, right, is to moan that the digital age has eaten so much of what we love about journalism and magazines specifically. And the New Yorker seems like its old self and its new self at the same time. Did you mention, I'm sorry if I wasn't paying attention, did you mention Charles Bothea on Ross Ulbrook's release, pardon by Trump.

I could have. That's a sort of perfect one for me too, because that's one where it's just like, I don't need an explainer, right? Like, I understand the issue here. But after like day three of this new cycle, I'm just like, I would like to understand more deeply what's going on here, right?

And so that's, it's a, it's, it's, the gravest thing possible for a reader like me. Yeah, but the essential New Yorkeriness of that has been preserved. Yes. It's not like, hey, here's a cheapo

explainer, which everyone's doing now. What's the deal with Rosulbring? Yeah. It's the New Yorker version of that story.

And it's also, I mean, it should be said, that this is quintessential New Yorker. The New Yorker is not a monthly magazine that has had to pivot

to responsive, reactive journalism, right? I mean, this is the same piece they would have run in a pre- digital age.

It's, you know, the next issue that comes out after the thing happened. Yeah. It's just that the metabolism is sped up and has sped up incredibly since their website really revved up more than 10 years ago. Some things that make me smile about the New Yorker in 2025, the difference between the headline on the website and the headline in the print issue. Yes. I mentioned Gary Steingart's piece.

Here is the headline on the website. how the Capybara won my heart, Long Dash, and almost everyone else's. Here's the headline on the print issue for Gary Steingard's piece. Capybara monker. So for our readers on the Upper East and West Sides, we went with the French. We know you guys will understand that that means my heart or my love. That's the metropolitan audience that they're not afraid to cater to. Yeah.

For Dubuque, How the Capy Bar won my heart and almost everyone else's. I love it so much. And I think I'd tell this story before, but when you and I were between marriages, that is between Grantland and the Ringer, I wrote a story for the New Yorker's website

about George Lucas and Star Wars. Oh, yeah. And the notes came back from the copy desk that said, I'm sorry, but we spell lightsaber, S-A-B-R-E. Because if the New Yorker is anything, It is standing up for umlouts and weird spellings.

It's totally true. I mean, it's a chicken and the egg thing, but certainly the institutions that have as serious a copy desk as the New Yorker are very few and far between, but it seems to coincide with longstanding greatness on a certain level. Of course, I bring the ringer. I count the ringer amongst those, although not as longstanding. We have an incredible copy team. but you can tell the difference

working in the journalism world I mean it comes up in every in like every conversation you have with someone that works at another periodical when you talk about how quickly what you file gets to the world and you're just like well you know but we have to it has to go through copy and some people are just like what do you mean

you know and that's close to this I mean that's there's similar situations at like name magazines now too they still have like legal departments and fact checkers that'll keep you out of trouble but the New Yorker has always been a place where the editorial process makes you better. And that's not always the case.

That's very rarely the case in mainstream journalism, especially a weekly magazine. I mean, you know, I mean, it's, I remember back in the day we used to always comment just like, you know, you could see it with fiction writers, right? Or people that you knew from other, writers that you knew from other parts of the world. Steve Martin turned into, you know,

modern Mark Twain every time he wrote in the New York, and I love Steve Martin's written word, but the editorial process clearly make them better. And so you know that that was what was happening, with just their staff writers on the nonfiction side too. New Yorker has been a big economic success story. Charlotte Klein says they have 1.2 million subscribers. The Washington Post with that big newspaper staff has 2.5 million,

just for comparison sake. The New Yorker makes money. They did have small layoffs like, other Konday Nass magazines over the last couple of years. It's worth noting that. An upside, David, if we think about the old magazine feature well, magazine would arrive in your mailbox and it would have an A story, which would usually be about politics, international news,

something quote unquote important. And then he would have feature stories that were B and and C stories. What we would think of as less important topics. Sometimes that celebrity profile would be so big that it would kind of become the A story. Yeah. So A, B, C and on from there. One of the things that's so interesting about the New Yorker to me is I get their weekly emails where they send a basically list of the stories in the feature well. And they have done an amazing job protecting the B and C stories of the world. those stories that are really interesting,

really important in their own terms, but are not the biggest rainmakers. Not going to be the things that are easiest to sell on social media. They're going to get the most clicks. So by protecting you mean they've not given up on them. Yeah, they still have them. And sometimes I think because the website of the New Yorker churns through so much, news that they have actually even more of those per capita in the magazine itself.

And that's an amazing thing because, again, we know in analytics driven journalism today, the impulse is always to be like, oh, that thing got a lot of downloads or a lot of hits. Let's do more of that and do a lot less of the thing. New Yorker in a weird way has preserved a lot of that. In terms of downsides, I don't know that their feature coverage of American podcast. politics has ever been exactly up to their standards. Like you and I have been having this conversation since George W. Bush's first term.

Yeah. Put me in, coach. We got Nick Lemon. We got Joe Klein. We're going to try to figure out how to do this. And that job has gone through so many people. Yeah. I compare them to the Atlantic, which I guess is their most direct competition though everybody

competes with everybody today. Yeah. But the Atlantic will have a big piece about politics. And it feels like it lands in the middle of the news cycle more often than the New Yorkers features on politics. Totally agree. And I don't know if that's because the Atlantic is doing it better or the Atlantic is doing a better slash more shameless job of promoting those stories.

God, that's a good question. I mean, I think it's probably some of both, but I also feel like the New Yorker's politics pieces, man, I mean, I'm going to paint with a really broad brush here, but they seem to be more interested in, like, being thematic, and, like, finding the kernel of truth deep down buried underneath than breaking news, right? And the Atlantic's not purely about breaking news,

but maybe it's framing, too. I mean, Remnick is, Remnick is, you know, I'm sure not putting his hand on every single one of those pieces, but he's a historian, you know, largely a modern historian, but still, I mean, in some part, but also, but he's a historian. And I think looking at modern politics through the lens of prospective history might be more interesting to that editorial team than actually just like detailing the moment in some sort of newsy way.

Yeah, it's a, essentially a New Yorker story. Now that said, hey, Jane Mayer on Pete Hexeth, huge story. Susan Glassers, columns, Isaac Chottener's interviews that run during the week, does a lot of the work for you. Also, in 2025, if I see someone triumphantly tweet out a Barry Blit Donald Trump cover one more time,

as if Donald Trump will now resign disgrace because Barry Blit has graces with another New Yorker cover. I'm going to scream. In terms of podcasting, the New Yorker has podcasts, a Remnick hosted radio hour, a culture podcast, a politics podcast.

It feels like that's a start and that there's so much more to do there. Yeah. I don't know if Adam Gopnik wants to host a podcast or could be convinced to host a podcast, but I don't know. Adam Gopnik hosted podcast. Sounds like the most natural thing in the world.

Just feels like there's so much more they can do. I know they've done some experiments, but that feels like a big, big growth area for them. In terms of the next editor, David, I mentioned that David Remnick has been in the big chair since 1998. 1998, the last editor of the New Yorker

is still Tina Brown. Only been five editors in the magazine's entire 100-year history. Oh, my God. But those rare moments of succession have always been very, very telling. You go from William Sean to Robert Gottlieb. That is the official end of the old New Yorker. Yep. Of Harold Ross's New Yorker.

You go from Gottlieb to Tina Brown. That is, you know, the New Yorker saying, we have to embrace modernity. By this, by modernity in this instance, I mean the 90s, but 90s magazineing. We can't be as stuffy. We can't be as hidebound only in journalism. We have to have a little more glitz and a little more salesmanship. The next decision in 1998 was David Remnick or Mike Kinsley. Self of interesting two-way street of what's the next.

magazine going to be. Mm-hmm. So I would say this time, without knowing exactly when Remnick's going to leave, the New Yorker has two options. They could go with what we would understand as a conventional magazine editor or writer. Patrick Raddenkeef, let us say, would be a Remnick-like figure taking over the magazine and the website and everything else the New Yorker is.

those journalistic chops. Or does the New Yorker, and by New Yorker, I mean Condonass say, hey, journalism has changed so much. And the New Yorker has changed so much. So what we need is a digital impresario to run this thing. A person like Atlantic CEO, Nick Thompson. Yeah. And when I've talked to people in that world, that to me is exactly where the angst is. is the next editor going to be a journalist like us, a magazine person like us,

or is it going to be a magazine person who's a little bit different from us? It's a good question. The New Yorker a slightly different way. I mean, I think it's pretty easy to imagine the not like us version of events happening because that's what we see over and over again in the modern journalistic world. although you talked about the financials I mean they're doing New Yorker is incredibly successful

especially compared to where one might have imagined it would be if you had a crystal ball I mean if you were trying to look into the future 10 years ago or something I think it's also pretty easy to make the argument that there's a value in just you know keeping the ship steady

just going forward in the way that you're doing it and there's other options too I mean, you can, someone can say, listen, there's a lot of room for expansion and podcasts and digital and everything else and just PR without actually like just upending everything. And, you know, there's there's going to be a lot of people. I mean, I guess to me it would be, it'll be interesting to see to what degree. Like, is this the most desirable job in magazine publishing when it comes up? Like, is it, does everybody walk away from what they're doing where it's like, no, I mean, you'll keep looking inside. I mean, stay inside Condi Nest.

Like, Radica Jones could walk over from Vanity Fair, right, and take that job. She would be immensely qualified for it. And probably one of the best possible candidates. Do you leave Vanity Fair to go to the New Yorker in 2025 or whatever? It's happened before, but... No, I know. Obviously, it's happened before. Do you do that again.

I mean, like, is this the job? I mean... I think the answer, can I just answer the question? Yes. Yeah, I think so, too. And I think the most desirable job in magazines. That's a small list, small... smaller than it's ever been in history, but the answer is yes.

Yeah. So, I mean, that's probably where I would place my bet. But who knows? I mean, it's really anything is possible. It's funny to hear you talk about how few editors have been in the magazine. My mind immediately goes to college football teams with coaches that have been there for a million years, right? There have only been, or like, there's only been how many coaches in Steelers history to take the pro example. or whatever, but these college coaches that hang around forever

and then you leave and there's a little time in the wilderness. It's like, well, now we need a more offensive-minded guy, so they hire somebody else and he's there for 10 years. Now these college coaches are signing their, they're signing their contract extensions after like two days on the job to theoretically keep them there for the rest of their lives. And yeah, there's a lot of, listen, I mean, I don't think the magazine world has proven to be as unstable

as the college coaching world over the past few years, but regardless, there's something desire about, going to a team where they're very, they seem very reluctant to fire the coach. You want to, and, and maybe in a less, in a less sarcastic sort of way,

to be part, to kind of have the ability to be part of history, right? So, I mean, to be, to be one of the five editors of the New Yorker. You know,

I mean, that's, I agree. And by the way, when you look at those, you know, coaching Wikipedia pages, there's usually like a failure or two in there.

Mm-hmm. Oh, that team hired so-and-so, and he was gone after two years. Remember when the quote-unquote failure in New Yorker history was Bob Gottlieb? Yeah. Like, arguably the editor of the second half of the 20th century, Bob Gottlieb? Yep. I mean, that's unbelievable.

That's unbelievable. I believe the cliche we are obligated to use here is big shoes to fill. Yeah. Over at the New Yorker. All right, David, coming up on the pot, a whole bunch of NFDA. sound from conference championship weekend. We got Tom Brady. We got Tony Romo.

We got a disaster at the end of CBS's broadcast of the Chiefs Bill's game. Plus, your heartwarming stories of journalistic failure. All that and much more on the press box. A part of the ringer podcast network. Hello media consumers, Brian Curtis, David Shoemaker, and producer Brian Waters here. David, we got some playoff sense. from the final weekend of the playoffs. What a fun Sunday it was.

First game, Eagles Commanders, a battle for NFC East Supremacy, just like those early 90s Tina Brown years, Kevin Burckhardt and Tom Brady on the call for Fox. And we can say at the completion of this game, that Tom Brady had finally completed his period of public scrutiny before the Super Bowl. Yep.

The takes are in. We have evaluated everything Tom Brady said. His next audience will be 100 million people two weeks from yesterday. Yeah. So here's my final take, getting in and right under the wire. I thought he had a pretty good game on Sunday. I again, thought that was one of his better games of the year, perhaps even his best game of the season. On the credit side, I thought he saw the field yesterday as well as he's seen it.

it this year. There was a play where the Eagles had fourth and five at midfield in the second quarter. He circles wide receiver, A.J. Brown at the top of the screen. And it's like, if Jalen Hertz wants an opportunity, it's here. Jalen Hertz throws it to A.J. Brown for a first down. And then on the replay, Brady notes that Sequin Bartley, Barclay, excuse me, has a big old uncalled hold on a commander's defensive player. Uh-huh.

Really good stuff like that. Speaking of seeing the field, there was a moment where Jordan Davis, who was that Eagles defensive tackle who weighs 336 pounds, I have never believed a number less than 336 pounds for Jordan Davis because he is absolutely gigantic. He gets a rare sack. He's not a sack guy. And Brady, the camera drifts over to the sidelines, and Brady just notes how big he's smiling.

Yeah. sometimes in broadcasting it's that simple. Yep. I have to talk about scheme. You don't have to talk about zone reads. You just have to let us appreciate the football players. He did that really well. He talks a lot, I think, interestingly, about the accuracy or inaccuracy of specific passes.

Yeah. A lot of, I feel, football television and, you know, normy football discourse is like, why didn't the receiver catch the pass? Brady can talk about why that pass was very hard for the receiver to catch. I think he does a good job of that. Also, if you listen to the game,

you absolutely know what Tom Brady thinks of quarterbacks. Early on yesterday, before he bawled out, listen to what Tom Brady said about Jalen Hertz. Listen to what he said two weeks ago about Jordan Love

when the Eagles played the Packers. I tweeted this out. out during the game yesterday and Booger McFarlane replied to me and was like, you don't even have to listen closely. He's not even doing the let me say the thing, but you know what I really mean? Yeah. You know what Tom Brady thinks about the quarterbacks. Here's my big downside for him.

He is just talking too much. Yep. He is trying to do narration of every single replay after every single play. Yeah. And there are times when you just don't have to say anything. Troy Aikman, either by design or by the fact that this is his innate Troyness, does this so well. Will there be a play?

Joe Buck calls it and Troy's like, nope. I'm just going to let this game breathe. I don't need to say something because sometimes you do it. It turns out you just don't have anything to say. Yeah. Chris Collinsworth, I find does it a totally different way. play happens. Mike Tarrico calls it.

And instead of describing what just happens, Chris Collins were just pivots to storytelling mode. Yeah. Let's talk about the Eagles defense and just tells the bigger story of the game and ignores the two-yard run that we just saw. Tom Brady, I think, will get better at that in future years, but that is something he really needs to work on. Because when he gets into trouble is when he talks too much and he just says something really, really generic. Yeah. was pointed out to me during the game that he just says the word great all the time

about all kinds of players. There was a really diminishing rate of return on great. Like calling people great players, not just using the word great. It's not just like a tick. Yeah, calling people great because you just kind of have run out of things to say. Yeah.

But you feel obligated to speak. Mm-hmm. And again, that's just one of those things where it's all about, touch and feel of a broadcast. Yeah. I think that's right. I think he does talk too much. And I think, I mean, I think Troy Troy Eggman is the sort of extreme example. I think it's what he does is just sort of magnificent, but it's almost impossible to teach that level of restraint, right? And remember, I think it was

the beginning of the season. We were saying Tom Brady wasn't saying enough. So you know that there's a lot of notes giving and taking, I'm sure, all season long. And oh, and Tom Brady is, like you said, just trying to find the right rhythm. And there's no way to teach it other than to just do it and to see how it sounds. I was trying to think of a comfort year one Tom Brady. I'm not sure I found it, but to me, the guy he is similar to is year one and beyond year one, Aikman. Because if you remember that Akeman, there weren't a lot of gimmicks.

There was no Romo-esque, I can see the future. Yeah. He was a very successful former quarterback who was calling the game. Mm-hmm. And that's what Tom Brady strikes me as right now. There are moments where he's really, really good, but there are moments when he's a former quarterback calling the game, who's figuring out the medium of television.

Yeah. To what degree do you think it's on Kevin Burkart? to sort of rein him in. I mean, it seems like he tease him up a lot. Seems like he tees him up a lot. You know, Bill mentioned this on the pod last week that he thought he wasn't teeing him up properly.

And that's an interesting one for me because he's been working really hard, right? You got a guy who's never called an NFL game before and you're trying to work with him every week, including in huge moments like on Sunday. I think his teeing up could be more specific. Yeah. Because if you're teeing up Collinsworth or Aitman, you can give them a broad prompt and they'll come in with a specific.

Yeah. Tom Brady, who's figuring things out, I think you got to give him a really specific prompt. That makes sense. Yeah. And maybe more of a what would you do in this situation kind of prompt. Right. He's not quite this. What's Tom Brady, the quarterback would do or through this.

Tom Brady is not the storyteller or the improv, the, the improviser that he will some day be. I agree. I mean, it's like yesterday watching Jane Daniels or the commanders, like, the commanders could not block Jalen Carter, Eagles defensive line. They just couldn't block it. There were surely games in Tom Brady's career where there was a guy standing across from him. He was like, holy crap. It gets in my face a second and a half after the ball snapped. So what do you do? If it's just not going to get blocked, how do you function as a quarterback? I would love to hear him talk about that. Yeah.

That's interesting. And Tom Brady functioned in those situations probably better than almost anybody functioned. Yeah. And without having Jane Daniels's wheels or even close to it. So that's the kind of stuff. I think he can do to do a better job of just being more specific, treating him like a year one analyst rather than a year 10, year 15 analyst. Mm-hmm.

Who knows where to go. Strangest moment of that Eagles commanders game. the Eagles have the ball at the commander's one yard line, about to go in and score a touchdown. And before Jalen Hertz can even receive the snap, Commander's linebacker Frankie Louvre flies over the line of scrimmage, propels his body into the quarterback. All right.

Penalty, that's encroachment on the defense. Right. So the refs move it from the one yard line to the half yard line. Eagles line up again, and before they snap the ball again, Frankie Louvre guesses the snap count, flies over the line of scrimmage. One more time. Encroachment, now the ball has been moved to the quarter yard line.

I saw J.A. Adande on Blue Sky put this out, watching Eagles Washington in Spanish, which I understand just well enough to know that they compared Frankie Louvue to Nacho Libre. All right, David, the ball's on the quarter yard line, Eagles line up again, and another commander's player commits encroachment. Our third encroachment penalty in a row. Yeah.

And at that moment, referee, Sean Hockeelese said this. Encroachment, defense number 93. Washington has been advised that at some point the referee can award a score if this type of behavior happens again. For now, it's a replay of second down. That's unbelievable. If this type of behavior happens again, so first of all,

all time ref moment there, right up with the, he's giving him the business. Just like, these are words you have never heard a referee say into a microphone. This is pro wrestling. This is when the referee is just like

doing the finger up in the air, threatening to throw somebody out, you know? President Jack Tunney has just told me that if they do not return to the ring immediately, they will surrender the titles. When they do the 10 count when you're using a closed fist or an illegal move, and you know they never, a match will never end with a referee counting to 10 to tell the rest of a stop, except sometimes it does.

Sometimes every once in a while, they'll pull that one out. And it's, you know, it's pretty effective. ESPN's Jeff Darlington found the rule that was being referenced there. Rule 12, Section 3, Article 4, I know you can quote by memory, David, but let me do it for the rest of the audience here. This is called, wait for it, a palpably unfair act. A palpably unfair act. It's a penalty in the NFL, and it's also a penalty only in journalism. culpably unfair.

And what's happening is you're just screw it around so much and not trying to even be on sides that the refs just have to take matters into their own hands. I mean, it's kind of brilliant, right? If they're just going to have to distance

the goal line every time, and you have a pretty good idea of the snap count, like better for you to be flying over the line right at the right second than to be start, than to be like starting your motion at that point. So why not do it?

This is exactly right. And this had this whole news cycle then began on social media about the tush push or as the Eagles call it the brotherly shove. Because people said, look, if this play is completely unstoppable or almost completely unstoppable because the chiefs actually stopped it once in the league game, then you might as well just try to guess the snap count and jump and jump off sides because you're going to give up the first down anyway or the touchdown. So this is the rule.

Palpably unfair act that prevents you from just jumping off sides over and over again. And that may be, again, we talk about TV moments that change history. That was so crazy that that may be the thing that gets the NFL to get rid of the tush push.

Maybe so. Or maybe that was just a little Chekhov's gun. Maybe they'll find some other way to use it, Powerably Unfair Act in the Super Bowl, and that'll be the big storyline coming out of it. This is just introducing us to the concept of the palpably unfair act. So then the referees can use it. It's a palpably unfair act at the Chiefs of this good. That's all I got to say. Bill made another point on his podcast last week, which is asking the question, do we have a bumper music crisis in the NFL? Bumper music for the uninitiated. These are the songs. they play when you're going to commercial. Here's some of the

songs I logged yesterday. In the early game, feels like the first time, which is a song I feel the Fox crew absolutely loves. Greg Tepper tweeted to me and noted that John Mellencamp's Hurts so good came on after the first

Jalen Hertz touchdown run. Yes. CBS had Give It Away by the Red Hot Chili Peppers after a fumble. Mr. Brightside after the bills tied the game in the fourth quarter. Yep.

Any through line there? Do we need to change up the bumper music in the NFL? I mean, maybe I just have never paid attention to it, but it feels much punnier than it has in seasons past.

At least we've reached a pun a pun bumper music apex right now. I don't know. I mean, to me, it's like I notice it a lot more. I notice it just about every time and you make the connection and you chuckle.

And I guess that's about all you can expect that of bumper music, although I don't know that I was actually enjoying that moment of realization more so than I would have been enjoying myself. Had they just been playing some like, you know, exile on Main Street Rolling Stones or something where I could just be like, oh, yes, I like this song. You know? I don't know. I mean, it's a little bit neither here or there, but I don't know if we're in full crisis mode. I mean, it feels like if you're going for the pun, they've signed it.

kind of just got it down to a science at this point, right? Yeah, the pun is good. I like the thematic stuff. I do like the mix of old and new. I know you're always going to lean old because you don't want to, the NFL audience is everybody. And you just don't want to risk turning anybody off. So you will lead toward either what used to be known as oldies when we were kids or what's

known as oldies now, which is like music from the 80s. Yeah. and 90s. But it's just such a funny mix. My only thing is I just want the song to be upbeat. Because NBA, you know, during the NBA finals, ESPN would do Mr. Big stuff or whatever. It's like, this song is really cool, but this is not good for like an exciting NBA

finals game. I want something upbeat. Yeah, I would rather the tone fit more than the pun. I certainly think that should be number one. And I don't know. I mean, listen, I think that there's a, I see a lot of people tweeting about this stuff now. and I don't know if it's because Bill started the conversation

or I think it's just this is just if it's not a national crisis it's a national issue people are always tweeting about it I feel like the majority of the tweets I see are people who are like I have a better idea for that song at that moment than the one that they chose which is fine but that's not necessarily evidence that there's a crisis right

just because like you know for a couple of plays you you read the defense better than Chris Collinsworth doesn't mean that you should be in the booth. You know, it just, it's, it's, it is what it is. I really appreciate you dignifying my use of the word crisis and taking that seriously rather than just brushing it off and actually answering the question. That's, that's why I love you so much.

A final note on the subject of Tom Brady. He was on Colin Coward's show last week, David, and he was asked if he truly is going to be one and done as a broadcaster on Fox. I've loved kind of just the whole process and diving into all these different teams. It's been a lot of growth for me in one year. And I really can't wait to see what it looks like in year two and way beyond that too. So I got nine years left on my deal. And maybe longer.

You never know. If Fox wants me, then I want to go. We'll just keep going because it's been really fun thus far. Try to tell you. Try to tell you not to trust scoops from David Sampson. least scoops about broadcasting I mean he didn't I don't know how many ways you can interpret that

but I felt like the least definitive way you could possibly say that I guess but it's like no I'm not going to quit yeah I got signed a 10 year contract anyway we'll see maybe maybe David Samson's right and I'll be doing a long and heartfelt apology just say never say never you know anything can happen

in this week anything can happen Eagles won 55-23 Second Super Bowl in three years And speaking of the NFC East David I know this will shock you The Dallas Cowboys were in the news over the weekend Oh no Adam Schefter tweeted the news

That the Cowboys have a new head coach Brian Schottenheimer And the Schefter tweet announcing the news was unusual Because we know Adam Schefter It's usually just the scoop Maybe the agents tag, but that's it. It's a very spare presentation. Adam Schaefter adorned this tweet with a quote

from Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. I'd love to read this quote to you. Please do. Quote, Brian Schottenheimer is known as a career assistant, Jones said. He ain't Brian no more. He is now known as the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys. Now, as a Cowboys fan, I stared at that tweet for an untold number of minutes, David, because I'm like, wait a second. Brian Schottenheimer

gets to be coach of the Dallas Cowboys. But the one thing he has to do is stop being called Brian? That's the one thing we ask. Oh, it's so great. It's so great.

I'm not going to, this would be another great professional wrestling tie in, too, but I'll skip it. Was it just a misstatement? A misquote is the implication? is the implication at least that he's not just an assistant coach anymore. Now, you know, he's not Brian Schottenheimer assistant coach anymore.

Now he's clean it up. He says the quote was supposed to be he's no assistant anymore. I don't know how the ain't disappeared between the first quote and the second quote. I don't know if Jerry said that and now we're, this is what Jerry meant. Or if Adam Schaefter mistranscribed, but I don't tell. totally know what happened there. But yes, he will be allowed, he will be able to call himself

Brian as head coach of the Dallas Cowboys. It's like if Bill hired me at Granlin of the ringer and said, I like your writing, but we're going to have to call you Blaine Curtis from now on. So I just don't think Brian works. You ain't Brian no more. Second game of Sunday was a big one, David,

the really big one. Chiefs versus Bill's on CBS. Jim Nance and Tony Romo on the call. I think I'll skip over the chief's referee conspiracy stuff, unless you want to go there. I did love the Josh Allen run on fourth and one that the chief stopped. The rare time,

they actually stopped a quarterback sneak, tush push type play. Yeah. And we're looking at the replays. It's very, very hard to see. And Gene Stereator, who's the ref on CBS said, oh, I think he had the first down by a third of the football.

which is an incredibly precise reading of the entire play Tony Romo used a phrase in the second half I loved he called something a pretend fake as opposed to a legitimate fake and Jim Nance referred to a stadium as a building yeah I love that

the previous classic Chiefs Bill's playoff game was in this building. No way, that made me smile. There was a lot of good stuff in this game from the CBS crew, including that absolutely unbelievable picture of Bill's running back James Cook stretching the ball into the end zone. It's crazy. Again, sometimes TV is simple.

It's not what's said. It's that unbelievable picture that you will remember forever. And perhaps you would have remembered longer than forever if the bills that actually made the Super Bowl. but then there was a bad moment for the CBS crew Bill's have fourth and five a minute 55 left in the game this is just about their last chance

yeah and oops there's a phantom flag on the play he's going to have time here Jim whole season for Buffalo on the line here they'll come he just desperately throws it up in the air incomplete Kincaid was right there

there is a flag I didn't see a flag thrown there I told there's a flag I know but this is Spagnola pretended to not blitz safeties are back and he sends a corner blitz

no flag it comes free he waited all game to send the most exotic pressure so a lot to unpack there as podcasters like to say first of all Tony Romo says before the play

begins Tony Romo doing his prediction thing, Josh Allen's going to have some time. Turns out that Josh Allen had absolutely no time on this play. Yeah. This is why you don't do predictions before a play begins because you could be wrong on the biggest or the last important play of the game.

So that's not great. Then Jim Nance is told that there's a flag on the play. Can you imagine, dude, every Chiefs fan at home just absolutely sagging thinking, oh my God, this is D Ford Part 2. Yep. And every Bill's fan at home being like,

oh my God, we got another chance. It's going to be roughing the quarterback. It's going to be something like, we got it. They even put the penalty graphic up on the screen, but there's no penalty. And so what you just have there is mass confusion.

Yeah. When Nancy, no, no, I was told this. And Romo said, I don't see a flag. that is not good. Yeah, not an ideal situation. So what was the deal?

Was there a flag? There was no flag? Like was there a physical flag? Did someone see a, someone threw some trash and someone saw it? Or was it just someone pushed the wrong button? Oh, so I sent a text about this and said, how does a screw up like that happen?

And the answer I got was either someone in the truck says in Nancy's ear, there's a flag. They see something in a monitor or they're told something or Nancy's spotter accidentally sees a flag. Again, just see something that looks like one. And it's wrong. But needless to say, on the last big play of the game, that can't happen. No. I mean, first of all, in addition to being bad television, you just confuse the living hell out of the audience.

Yeah, of course. And then it turns out on that play that as Josh Allen is, rolling backwards with pressure in his face. He throws this ball up. And it is actually a fairly catchable ball that Bill's tight end, Dalton Kincaid just drops. It's like a miraculous quarterback play that will get no credit in history

because the tight end just didn't catch it. Yeah. But CBS, and because it's CBS, does not have that replay that you can see for several plays. Yeah. So now the chiefs have the ball. They're trying to run out the clock,

and we don't see the good look at Dalton Kincaid dropping the ball for a couple of plays. Like, guys, how many things can go wrong on your last big play of the season? All right, coming up in 30 seconds, David, your heartwarming tales of journalistic failure. But first, let's do the overwork Twitter joke of the week where we celebrated gag that was so obvious that all of media Twitter made it at exactly the same time. Send your nominees to at the Pressbox pod where they are always, always gratefully received. Today's winner, David,

the jokes about that referees warning to the commanders for their palpably unfair acts. It was an overwork Twitter joke to write. That was the don't make me turn this car around of NFL penalties. Thanks to Eric Martin and Bruno Alves over on Blue Sky.

If that ref made you reconsider the driving trip you're taking with your family this spring, congrats. You made the overwork Twitter joke of the week. All right, two quick things in the notebook, Dom. On Thursday, we talked about Walter Kern and his failed attempt to profile David Lynch, the film director who just died.

You and I, David, said, we need more stories not of how great profiles came together, but how failed profiles came apart. Yes. Well, our listeners answered. And I've got two. I'd love to read to you. First one comes from Matthew Moore. he's a producer for KUAF, which is a public radio station in Arkansas.

Matthew Moore writes, a longtime fan of the pod, here's my one unwritten story. I'm a radio reporter in Northwest Arkansas. Back in 2021, an upstart, only in journalism, electric vehicle company called Canoe, announced they were going to move their headquarters to our region. I reached out to their communications person about once a quarter, and they always claimed they were in the process of making the move. Finally, in May 2022, they leased a building but still hadn't moved their headquarters. They also invited reporters to come talk to the CEO and see the vehicle in person.

I spent an hour talking to their CEO who showed off multiple versions of the car and even recorded myself while I test drove the car. When I got back to the office, I told my editor that I wasn't going to report the story until they actually made the move. I didn't want to be their PR wing highlighting their vehicles if they weren't going to keep their word and move here canoe filed for bankruptcy on january 18th there's a happily unwritten story that's fantastic uh second email comes from stephen rodrick proud profile writer not once proud profile writer proud as can be of subjects like johnny dep and paul strater he's out here working

on a story about the la wildfires which i cannot wait to read you knew he would have a good one david Stephen Roderick writes, I was writing a profile of the Wainwright family. Went on the road with Martha Wainwright, she was lovely. Talk to her mother, she was lovely.

Then I met Luden Wainwright the third on the set of Knocked Up. He said, eh, these family stories never end well for me. A few weeks later, I then had lunch with Rufus Wainwright at Chateau-Marmo. Halfway through, he went to

used the restroom and he never came back. Later, his publicist showed up. She asked me what my star sign was. I told her, Libra. She grimaced and said, no wonder you two didn't get along. Thought of this last week in L.A., Stephen continues, when Rufus showed up to sing at a Van Dyke Parks Farewell Show. I was going to say something, but I was distracted by the fact Parks began his show with an

unannounced 50-minute performance by a Ukrainian quartet while he walked around in overalls and drank a soda. I let it go. Wow, that is amazing. I also want to read the piece. But yeah, I want to read more of those too. Yeah, please. Do we have to send some emails to the gods of long form? Please. Do I need to send an email to write Thompson, Chris Jones? Yes, do it. And if anybody that here is listening, it doesn't matter if you're a god or just a demi-god. just give us your funniest stories about the stories that never made it to publications. Send us stories and hit us up on social media

if there's a writer who you want to hear a story from. Oh yeah. Because we will bother them and ask them for their favorite failed profile. Only in journalism, dude. This is a rarity because Bruno Alves, by the way, rare only in journalism and overword Twitter joke from Bruto.

Thank you for your service. Bruno Alves pointed out a word I had never heard before. it's in the Atlantic in an appreciation as it happens of David Lynch written by Emma Stefansky

I'm going to read the passage here and you're going to have to bear with me because this is a jack-in-the-box late-night munchy meal of only in journalism okay Emma Stefansky writes but Twin Peaks as many officinados know that this

synopsis belies its true genius Lynch and his co-creator Mark Frost drew on the director's affection for both the Eldridge and the ordinary Oh Eldridge That was my reaction

I know the name Eldridge What does that even mean? We know the Philip Dick We know the Philip Dick novel, right? Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldridge Yeah Miriam Webster tells us

Eldridge means strange or unnatural, especially in a way that inspires fear. Great usage then. Feels like an appropriate word for David Lynch, no? Yeah. But I have never heard of the word Eldridge. I never have either. All right.

It's time for a feature that honors both the Eldridge and the ordinary and all of us. It's time for David Shoemaker guesses the strain pun headline. Yeah. Thursday's headline about Vivek Ramoswame getting expelled from the Department of government efficiency was get out of doge. Jake Watson suggested it might have been get along little dogey. Dogey. Today's headline comes to us from Grouchy Broderick and David Putnam.

It's from the Toronto Star. David, there was a little problem with public transportation in Toronto. They have got public transport running on those overhead wires. Uh-huh. Ooh, those wires got crossways with a garbage truck. Listen to this. Tuesday evening's commute is much of the same as the morning commute. Trashed after a garbage truck downed power lines at the intersection of King Street

West in Spadina Avenue, killing the power to multiple streetcar routes. Okay. I think you've got enough. What was the Toronto Stars strained upon? The garbage truck hit the way. wires and and made the public transportation unusable. Did you catch what the particular mode of public transportation was? Was a streetcar?

What it was it? What did say? Yes, it was. Street car, oh, a street car named the fire? What was severed here? The wire. A street car named the wire? A street car blamed the wire.

A street car. named DeWire. Oh, D-Wire. Okay, that's great. A street car named DeWire. He is David Shoemaker. I'm Brian Curtis. Braxton Magic by Brian Waters.

Joel Anderson's here with me on Thursday. David's back Monday with more lukewarm takes about the media. See you then, David. See you later, Blaine.