The Press Box - The Democrats’ Big Night and ESPN’s New Bookie. Plus: Booger McFarland on Alabama-LSU, Playing Dirty, and More.

Episode Date: November 6, 2025

Hello, media consumers! Bryan and Joel discuss everything coming out of election night, including how the big news stations covered it, where Steve Kornacki has gone, how conservatives are coping, and the New York Post’s Mamdani headline. Next, Bryan and Joel dive into ESPN and DraftKings’ new partnership and ESPN Bet being no more (21:47), before talking about Drew Brees returning to the announcer booth (25:25) and Teen Vogue going by the wayside (32:52). The shows ends with the next installment of 25 for 25 as Booger McFarland joins to talk about Alabama-LSU, playing dirty, and the departure of head coach Brian Kelly (46:06). Hosts: Bryan Curtis and Joel Anderson Guest: Booger McFarland Producer: Bruce Baldwin Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

media consumers. Welcome to Pressbox Thursday. It's Brian Curtis. It's Joel Anderson. It's producer Bruce Baldwin. Coming up on the podcast, we will relive election night after a big, big, big night for the Democrats. Plus, ESPN has a new bookie, and Drew Breeze finally has a TV job. What happened to Teen Vogue and the McClatchie Washington, D.C. Bureau? Also, and this is a treat, the latest installment of our 20, 5 for 25 series. ESPN's Buger McFarland is here to get us ready for this Saturday's LSU Alabama game to talk about texting with former Tigers coach Brian Kelly, targeting opposing players injured limbs, and much, much more. But Joe, let us start with Tuesday night. How much election night TV did you actually watch? Well, I watched some. I mean, I think, and you can relate to this at one point in your life. The returns are coming in when I'm going through the dinner, bath, bedtime cycle with my toddlers. So I don't get as much of a chance to watch as I'd like.

But I did manage to watch some on my phone because I still have YouTube TV for now. And so, yeah, I checked in on MSNBC and CNN, but not like a, you know, not like I would have liked to, I guess. The next live stage for you will be a son sitting next to you on the couch watching the returns. Really? Okay. You think that's really going to happen? It happens over at the Curtis household. And let me tell you, every five minutes, he's, you know, running across the house to tell mom how much Mikey Cheryl is up on Jack Chittarelli. Okay. I'm like, this is great. He's really plugged in there. Yeah. He's a guy. I haven't gotten sports fandom to the level that I really want to get it to yet, the kind of sicko middle school sports fandom. But in terms of being a fan of politics, and taking an election night like, I would take in a football game.

We're there. Okay. All right. Well, you know, my son is into football a little bit, too. He's falling asleep watching ball with me a couple times already, and he's only three. So we're getting there. But the politics, yeah, he couldn't tell me a lot about what was going on in Maryland on Tuesday. I was toggling between CNN and MSNBC.

Okay. And my first observation is. No, OAN. No one America News Network. No OAN for me. I did not even get over. over to the Fox News funeral parlor, but I did hear some of what was going on over there. Okay.

First observation is, dude, there are so many people on cable news. There are so many resources being expended for nights like this for an industry that does not have a clear way forward. Right. Well, they've got to give, this is their Super Bowl, right? Like, this is their one night a year that they've got the. attention of the nation. They know that they're going to get that, and they have to put everybody on the payroll to work that night, right? And I think it's great. I don't know how you feel about it, but I feel like it's a valuable service because it's essential for keeping up with the

election results in a single place. Like, I don't have to like, you know, I'm going to check in results on the New York Times tracker or whatever or local outlets. Like I got one place that's kind of cycling through everything. And for all the criticism of the, you know, that medium. This is one thing that they do pretty well. It's better. It's not perfect, but it's better than like the alternative, I think. Okay. Let's

be honest here. Was it a great night because of all the resources being expended or was it a great night because winsome Earl Sears and Chittarelli were not winning their gubernatorial elections? I mean, well, you know, I mean, is that mixed in there just a little bit for your watching experience? It just,

I mean, it didn't hurt. I mean, there's some nights are easier to watch than others. And that wasn't a night that hurt my feelings or anything. So, yeah. And you say Super Bowl, but this was kind of, what do you say, like a peach bowl of an election night. We had two governor's races. We had New York mayor hours later, and you probably asleep by this point, we had Prop 50 in California. Oh, yeah, I definitely was out.

I was out by. So, wait, wait, wait, wait. Is MSNBC going to have another night bigger than this one in 2025? Like this has to be their most watch night, right? I mean, you and I could concoct some crazy news story that would happen, and we would probably be right, but there's not one on the schedule that's bigger than this until the midterms. Right. So, yeah, I mean, so, okay, maybe it's not the Super Bowl.

Like, what is it? You know what it is? So every four years is the Olympics, but every other year is the world championships. This is the world championships for them, right? So they're running in Oslo or something like that. Like everybody showed up in Oslo. All right, here was the press box for the world championships. MSNBC had Rachel Maddow and Nicole Wallace at the desk.

Did you see Nicole Wallace wearing a shirt that said democracy isn't a spectator sport? Well, I saw that and I saw the resulting controversy over that because apparently encouraging people to vote as a partisan, is partisan activity now, apparently. I just thought wearing the shirt with a printed message was so, MSNBC slash MSN now slash podcast era. I mean, you know, we need to get Nicole Wallace on because, I mean, I mean, you know, for all the talk about MSNBC being a liberal network, I mean, like she worked for Bush, man, you know what I mean?

Like this is a she's a Republican, but you don't even remember that now. Right. Because everybody's, I mean, we're watching, you know, Michael Steele's on the desk there. And I'm like, oh, right, he used to be a chairman of the R&C. Like, what? So there's two things about Michael Steele that people never talk about anymore. It's one that he used to be Mike Tyson's brother-in-law. And that...

Oh, my God. Yeah, he used to be Mike Tyson's brother-in-law. And I remember when, you know, it was 2008, and that's when he was the head of the R&C. And when Obama got nominated for president, Michael Steele said, you know, yeah, I mean, he basically said, how you like me now to Obama. Like, oh, yeah, we're on the same level right now. I just, I mean, a lot has changed in the last 17 years, but yeah. We need to get Michael Steele on the podcast for memories of everything you just said. We should.

So they had Matt Allen Wallace at the desk, and then they're just shuffling people in and out, like a defense that's trying to sub in a two-minute drill. Oh, yeah. Lawrence O'Donnell, Simone Sanders, Jen Socky, Chris Hayes with his cool 70s glasses on. Love Chris. Then I went over to CNN. And once again, CNN had just multiple deaths and multiple places. The main one or kind of the control center was Jake Tapper.

Okay. John King on the big board. Okay. That's where he belongs. Yep. Dana Bash. We know that John King and Danabash used to be married, right? Wait, okay. Hold on.

Time out. They're no longer married? They're no longer married. Oh, what an... I see. You broke some news to me there. That's a very awkward pairing. Okay.

Casey Hunt. That was one set. And then the second set was Anderson Cooper in a roundtable, which had Bill de Blasio and Rahma Manual, and I believe people were subbing it out of that one too. Then speaking of Star Power, Abby Phillip was sent to Mabdani headquarters to do a stand-up with a microphone

and interview AOC among other people. So she was, here's somebody hosting a show. She's on the scene. And Manu Raju, who apparently did something really, really wrong, was sent to Andrew Cuomo's victory party. Oh, man, don't you, but you know what? I remember when I was at the AP,

and there used to be a guy named Joe Kaye, who covered the Cincinnati Bengals, and they always say, man, sometimes covering the losing team is really kind of fun. There's a lot of stories in the losing locker room, you know? That's the old cliche of sports writing, but the Andrew Cuomo losing locker room, would that be a fun place?

Oh, well, maybe, yeah, I get, let me think about that. Not that you mentioned it, yeah, I don't know. Did you see the video of that guy with a New York accent just cursing out Curtis Lewa from the Cuomo

victory party? I did see that yeah. Well, he wouldn't say that to Curtis Slewa's face. I don't think

he would be that bold. Yeah. Well, that guy, he might. Most people wouldn't say it to Curtis Lewa's face.

That guy might have been, had enough courage in him. Also, interesting for election night, MSNBC lost Steve Kornacki in the divorce.

Man. Steve Kornacki was on NBC News now a free streaming service, which even as someone who hosts a media podcast, I have not gotten around to sampling myself. I mean, I don't want to criticize streaming because I'm sure that, you know, our company will be engaging in that at some point. It just streaming seems really out of the way. Like, it just seems really, really difficult to access at any point. Especially on nights like

this. Like this is, as you say, this is old media night. Yeah. I'm not, this is cable news night. I'm not going out of my way. And let's say you're working at a construction site or you're, you know, you're taking a break from the Chipotle line or whatever or whatever. Like, I'm just not going to fire up the streaming service on my phone. But I will say, which is bad news for Steve Kornacki, because my mom in particular, like, she sent one text to me that night. She's like, where is Steve Carnacki? Where's that guy? And I was like, I don't know. I don't think his contractor. There's no way that they got rid of him. And I didn't know that he had been. side-lined or not it's not sideline but like i mean they put you into nbc so when they when

they consciously uncoupled you had to pick one or the other and jacob sober off he picked msnbc and steve cornacky he picked nbc yeah i mean NBC is that probably you know the more stable you know place to be but on a night like that i feel yeah okay i mean yes is the answer but yeah but that's not where i want to be on election night if i could help it did your mom have opinions on how Ali Valshi handled the big board in Kornacki's absence? Not really, but I think she's just, she got used to Steve. Like, she's lived, you know, through a lot of triumphs and defeats with him and was expecting him.

But I felt like for Ali, the reviews were mostly positive that I saw, right? And I thought he did, I mean, I really like Ali because he's, he's very versatile. Like, he can thrive in multiple roles. And it seems like he did a pretty good job late night, right? Here's the thing I realized, because he had a few moments. where he would just get a little, I don't know if tongue tight is the right word, but he'd say one thing and actually mean another thing.

And I was like, the great talent of the big board is not understanding election so much because I think the computer can do a lot of the work for you. Like, you and I would not be able to do this job, but we would be able to do like 10% of this job because we had the almighty touchscreen in front of us. Oh, yeah. Now let's take a look at,

Fort Ben County here. We'll speak these results. Break them out. Exactly. The talent is being able to just keep talking and spitting things out and saying the right name and pronouncing the county correctly and knowing, okay, we're going to Passaic here, which Trump won. But now it flipped to Mikey Cheryl. That to me is actually the crazy talent of doing that job. Right.

And you could tell with Velshi, like that you say about quarterbacks, he's catching up to the speed of the game. Yeah. This is his first. I mean, has he done that before? I don't think I've seen him in that role before. Well, I mean, since you don't believe this is the Super Bowl, he's getting his, or whatever, he's getting his chance at the Peach Bowl of the World Championships. This is, you know, you run him through this one to get him ready for the big one next year.

So the Democrats won everything. Yeah, pretty much. Two governorships, mayor's election in New York City, Supreme Court retention in Pennsylvania. Then, of course, Prop 50 in California, which officially started the Gavin Newsom presidential campaign. Right. Well, okay, they want everything if you don't include. everything that happened in Texas, but that's fine. Yeah. Yeah, well, everything that was tangible. Yeah, right, everything you could understand on the ballot in Texas. If not that, then yes.

Did you find yourself looking for any conservative cope online after the returns came in? I mean, well, again, there was a lot of people yelling at Curtis Llewa. Oh, my God. That one George Santos tweet. Oh, man. I just, you know, I mean, that is sort of the interesting thing is that Republicans spend a lot of time villainizing Democrats, right? But it's they are people, one thing to sort of underrated is how much they fight amongst themselves. And like you could see a lot of that infighting. I mean, because also we've got the heritage found. This is happening against the backdrop of the Heritage Foundation thing going on.

That's an interesting story. Yeah. I found myself watching a lot of that all hands meeting yesterday. Oh, yeah. Oh, my goodness. Some of those questions. Yeah, man. I mean, they are in, they're trying to figure out their next direction, right?

I mean, and it's important to America because on one side you've got Nick Fuentes. Okay. They don't know. Other side, I guess you've got mainstream Republicans. Like, I don't know, Ted Cruz, I guess, right? So. Yeah, I don't know where George Santos fits into that. Yeah, he would say.

Yeah. His tweet was, F you, Curtis Lewa, I hate you, your dumb wife, that stupid beret of yours, and all your effing cats. I mean, we're getting the cats in there. Go see Sleewayne's streets, George Santos. I don't think you're going to do that, man. I don't think you tough enough to say that to Curtis Lee Wendham Streets. Did you see the Bill Ackman tweets by any yes? The very gracious and very short Bill Eggman tweet.

Yeah, the shortest tweet he probably has ever sent that I've been familiar within the last year, right? Somebody, I was going to say this for Monday, but somebody had a great tweet that said, under socialism, Bill Eggman's word count has been redistributed. Really good. Well, let's hold on because I felt like he kind of extended, he graciously extended his offer of help to Mom Donnie that night. And the last few tweets seems like he's going, he's decided to go in another direction. He's back on his bullshit.

Back on his bullshit, as it were. Speaking of which, you know, the New York Post was so ready for that Mom Donnie victory. Oh, man. they couldn't wait. I mean, how many high-level meetings, Zoom calls, Slack channels had been created so that they got the wood just right that night? We need to get somebody from somebody who's worked at the New York Post that can tell us about all the work that goes into picking out the page one cover for that day

because, yeah, you're right. There is a lot of deliberation, I imagine, and a lot of work that goes into something like this. Like, it doesn't just happen. Like they are building towards everybody is waiting for them on a on the morning like a Wednesday morning after an election right and it was the night. I mean, it wasn't even. Right. I feel it was less than an hour later.

Yeah. You know, Mom Donnie's race was called pretty quickly and I got to give my son credit here. He goes, going to be less than an hour after polls closed. And it was like 35 minutes later. Man. The network started calling it for Mom Donnie. Man. I mean, he needs to get up at the big boy with Carnegie, man.

I was going to say a Kornacki like future. This is what the post came up with. So we have an illustration of Mom Donnie holding a hammer and sickle. The headline is the red apple. Yeah. And then the subhead is, on your marks, M-A-R-X. Get Set, Zo. Socialist Mom-Dani wins race from error.

Can I do a little non-ideological editing here? Sure. Because I respect the work of the New York Post and, some of the headlines they put on the front page there. The simple, elegant solution here was on your marks. Mom Donnie wins mayoral election or socialist Mom Donnie, if you prefer. There's a cleanness to that. There's a simplicity to that.

You could still go with the illo of the hammer and sickle if you want to. Yeah. This is a little busy for me. Oh, well, I mean, I'm glad you said because I just thought, yeah, you did, you're doing too much, New York Post. Right. Like, I mean, just say, yeah, like, I mean, get set zo. What? Yeah. You're really kitchen sinking it. It's like, oh, but see, ready, on your marks get, no, no, you, I understand like you can get there, but you don't have to get there. On your marks was the correct headline. I mean, bro, yeah, it's just, I mean, again, I know they felt like they had to hit this one out of the park and they really want to let you know what they think of Mom Donnie and this, right? Like, they got to get it all in. But yeah, the guess if we didn't know. Right. But the get set zo thing. was a little flummoxing to me. I was like, I just kind of, you don't have to do that. Like, just maybe a little less word, an economy of words would have been helpful there. Exactly. Yeah, but so to your, but Vincent Cunningham, friend and the New Yorker writer and

Potter, he tweeted that this one's getting a frame. And I think that if I were a New York person and the election had unfolded the way that I wanted, I probably would do that too. It seems like it'd be kind of fun to have up on your wall somewhere in the, and in your one bedroom, 33, $3,700 a month studio. As you worry about affordability to put that up in your one-bedroom apartment. Yeah. Uh-huh. I wonder what the sales of New York Post were that day, because that could have been

an all-time record day for the Post. Absolutely. Man, but man, I'm just trying to think the readership. I mean, because some people probably were very upset about that day, right? Like, the normal post reader, they're opening it up that day, and they're like, I did not want to see that. Like, I didn't see, and we were talking about conservative cope. That is a day of morning for a lot of people who are typical post readers, correct?

Sure. But isn't the post kind of always a hate read? Like, it's not, you don't read the post because you're really happy. You know, the tabloids have always worked on something awful happened in our city read the latest. Yeah, fair point. The headless body and topless bar was not like, oh, here's a, here's a laugh while I get on the A train today. Fair point, fair point, fair point. I take that.

So yeah, you're probably right. Yeah, I mean, I would love to know for the new stance that still exist in this country, yeah, how many of them still had posts at the end of the day? You know my favorite ever New York tabloid headline is? What's that? So this is when I lived there. Obviously, you and I were never in the city during, you know, headless body or Forta City drop dead. But Martha Stewart got convicted.

And if you remember, that trial was downtown. It was in New York City. Mm-hmm. And then this was actually the Daily News, not the post, but the next day, the simple Martha Stewart headline was curtains. Oh, man. That's a certain elegance there, certain simplicity. Very tasteful. Very tasteful.

Yeah, I mean, again, economy, the economy of words. That's what, I mean, my journalism professors, I always talked about it. You know, never, never used 30 words when three will do. There you go. funniest final stretch election story had to be Andrew Cuomo driving an OJ-like 90s Ford Bronco around the city and then making a video explaining that

his Bronco was not in fact OJ's Bronco but was a distinct kind of 90s white Bronco what in the hell was that what is he what I think is what was he trying to convey, I guess? Like, did, you know, when they have like an old, like, Andrew Luck will probably, you know, pull up in an old, you know, Pinto or something or El Camino, you know, old car, you know, to say, well, you know, I don't, I didn't want to spend a lot of money on a car.

I don't care about cars. Well, we know that that's not who Cuomo is, right? Like, that's not, that's not how you get down. So what are you actually trying to convey to us with this old-ass truck that we know that you don't probably really drive? I think it was just like desperate attempt to have a social media moment. Yeah. I mean.

But you're just like, wait, but you're driving OJ's Bronco or an OJ adjacent Bronco? I think that's no good. That's not it. Absolutely. I mean, it's so weird. I would love to know how many of those are still in circulation. Actually, I know. By the way, 90s Broncos awesome, awesome car.

And I have friends like me who are like, man, if there were just something that looked like that, I would go buy it. Really? I would buy it right now. Okay. I just remember being piled into that to, you know, go to stuff with friends. And that's just a, it's like the Volvo station wagon, too. It's just there's a certain, there's a certain lure of the 90s. Yeah, that's true. That's true.

I mean, I hate that OJ had to ruin that one. But, yeah, I mean, again, you know, Cuomo, your days are pretending to be an every man over. Like, you know what I mean? Like, you're the inheritor of a political dynasty. Like this. And you just don't have to do it anymore. You don't have to pretend to like campaigning anymore.

Yeah, this is it. It's over for you. That's right. ESPN has a new bookie. Mm. We got two press releases from the worldwide leader today. Press release number one said that ESPN is breaking up with Penn Entertainment, the gambling company they partnered with to create ESPN bet.

That's the logo we saw magically vanish from the screen when the Chauncey Billups news, bro. Man, I mean, they ran away from that so fast. Press release number two said that ESPN is making a deal with draft kings. Okay. It will be exclusively integrated across ESPN's ecosystem, according to the press release. Now, I saw some hopeful tweets out there. Is ESPN getting religion after Chaunceygate? Are they stepping back from gambling?

No. Of course not. No one is, folks. They are not stepping away from gambling. They're not saying, please don't give us the money. Right. Nobody can afford to do that. No. And Peter Kafka had a great story in Business Insider where he just succinctly explained this whole thing.

He said, the real story is simpler. ESPN tried to push its way into the sports betting market and sports bettors didn't care. Dot, dot, dot. Even the biggest brand in sports couldn't convince betters to abandon the platforms they already use. Fan duel and draft kings now control roughly two-thirds of the U.S. market. ESPN couldn't loosen that grip in 2025. How many times has ESPN lost so decisively when it tried to nose its way into another sort of medium or business, right? Because I feel like this has only happened a few times in the history of the company, right?

Well, it was so weird when it happened. Right. It was two years ago. And for those who don't remember the play-by-play here, Penn Entertainment bought Barstool Sports in 2020. Right. two years ago they sold barstool back to Dave Portnoy

apparently for nothing or close to nothing. Like a dollar or something like that, yeah. And then partnered with ESPN. And at the time, the sports betting landscape was close to what it is today and the biggest reaction from

nearly all of us was, wait a second, why did you partner with them? Like ESPN, we've seen what, especially this regime at ESPN, loves big deals, loves stars, right? If anything, their first class all the way inside the NBA put a Super Bowl on their ear. And that just seemed very small time for them. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And it was really, really confusing at the time, even if there was going to be a rebranding,

what you could do because it was Penn Entertainment as ESPN bet. I mean, the thing is, man, is that ESPN still, you know, is the industry leader, right? But the name just doesn't ring out like it used to, right? Like, you can't just put ESPN on something and guarantee that people are going to partake of it or that they're going to be sold on it, right? Like, the quality of the work or the work itself is going to have, not necessarily stand on it.

Because anybody having the imprimatur of ESPN is going to help them, right? And maybe ESPN bet did more for Penn Entertainment than it would have done otherwise, but it still doesn't mean that that's going to be enough. to be competitive in a competitive market. Totally, especially at that just time and place, right, by 2023. Yes, right?

Markets had changed. Yes, everything had happened. So VSP had used whatever might it has and its name recognition, which is still huge. At an earlier moment, maybe, but not anymore. Yeah, not anymore. There's a big news story this week that just made my head hurt in so many ways. Oh, man. Andrew Marchand in The Athletic reports that Drew Brees, your guy.

after a podcast barnstorming tour across America has been signed by Fox to call NFL games. He is apparently replacing Mark Sanchez. Mark's not coming back, huh? Well, Fox had an opening. It turned out.

Oh, man. We need to say somebody's check in on Mark, man. Is he still in Indianapolis? Did he get to go home? I think you finally got to go home. Did he get to go home? There's some adjudication that needs to... He's going to have to go back.

He's got to go back. There's going to be some appearances that need to happen. Yeah, well, I mean, they did have an opening. I guess they're going to continue to try to make Drew Bree's work. They are. And you know what? When I saw this, I felt like I was reading those insider tweets, you know, in like a failed number one draft pick signs with a new team.

Oh, yeah. And Ian Rappaport does a so-and-so's getting a fresh start for the former first round pick. And it's like just like presented the most glowing terms. I was just like I just feel we need to actually talk about the Drew Breeze backstory here, which is he was on NBC. He called one playoff game with Mike Tariko, Bengals Raiders in 2022. It was really bad. NBC and Drew Bree's parted ways.

And then he's been on this long, long tour just saying, put me in, coach. I'm ready. I can call, I can be a number one announcer. But what it resulted in is him going from someone who Marshand and others said at the time was a possible heir apparent to Chris Collinsworth at NBC to somebody who is the heir apparent to Mark Sanchez at Fox. He's the number three guy at Fox. So it's like one of those things like, I don't know, man. I'm like, that's just sad to me.

I mean, that's like, that is a big, big, big come down from where he was. They're going to keep trying. But, you know, I mean, since we're bringing this name up in the show, do you know what it reminds me of it reminds me of OJ? Because OJ, they did much the same thing. They tried, when he retired, it was a big deal. And they tried to get him. And he did Monday night football.

They wanted him to be, you know, the next big thing. And he just wasn't up for the challenge, man. Like, that's just not what he was good at. Right. And so then every year after that, it's like his jobs got smaller, you know, right? And they did college football, I want to say, post Monday night for ABC and then went to NBC. That's right. I think when he went through his legal trouble, he was doing college football, for instance.

And so I just kind of feel like, you know, they think, well, they got this name and he's got this charisma and people kind of like. But, I mean, the thing with Drew Brees, man, no, you know, no shots. You know, I'm saying? He's a Texas guy just like me. But he doesn't appear to have any charisma, right? Like I just, you know, maybe the charisma that he has that was effective in huddles in locker rooms is not apparent on screen. Yeah.

And again, it hasn't been unlocked if it's there. And what's funny when I would talk to people in the industry about him, because I would just see all these podcast interviews and I'd be like, why are we still doing this? Like it's not, not everybody has to be an announcer. And people would tell you that in those production meetings that the NFL producers do and the announcers do with the quarterback of the team that's game they're about to call, he was fantastic. Like he crushed it in there.

By the way, Tom Brady did too back in the day. It was like really good. And that's how they scout for these guys is they go into those meetings and they look for guys that are really charismatic and really talk football with them in a kind of quasi-on-endant. the record off the record setting. And also, guys are interested in the broadcasting business that asks them questions. And apparently Drew Breeze, like, ticked those boxes to an incredible degree. Fox had been interested in him.

And by the way, if you're Fox, and Marcia notes this in his story, which I encourage you to go read, it's pretty good deal, right? Like, he's your number three announcer. Yeah, I mean, great. Sure. Open box special. Give him, I mean, give him a shot. And I mean, it's evident.

to me why Drew Brees would want to do it because it pays so well. You get to be around the game. Okay, dude, but here's the important thing. It does pay so well if you're in one of those big slots. Number three at Fox. I don't know what the number is, but I guarantee that does not pay so well. Wait, what do we talk? Which pays so well. Is that a million dollar job? Shit. Hell yeah. I mean, that's pays well to me. I mean, what else is he going to do for a million dollars now? Well, but it's not a Tom Brady's making 35 million. Troy.man's making 18 million. Yeah, man. I mean, a million. Don't you think he can make a million dollars just being Drew Brees and signing footballs over year? You know, maybe I don't know enough about that market, but you're not in the game.

And dinners in New Orleans. You're not in the game if you're doing that, though. That always looks sad. I mean, no offense to the people that do that circuit. But if you're on TV, you get treated in a different way. You get to travel. People treat you a certain way. You're sort of, you know, apart.

You're still sort of not in the locker room, but you're still a part of the NFL family. Like, once you're outside. of it, that's not the same thing. I agree. And it replaces, I think, that in a lot of people's lives. Not just being close to the game, but having a team, a traveling team that they go from city to city with, exactly. A team.

And I mean, that other going from card show, you're hustling. And you got to do with people that you ordinarily would not talk to on a day-to-day basis. Like, you got to, you know, show up and perform, you know, like, oh, well, great. You watch me in the same. To Joel, peace and love. Drew Louise. Like, nobody wants to do that shit if they don't have to, man. You got to do it to make money, but a million dollars to be flown first class or do private planes and call a game.

Like, that sounds like a lot more fun. So I can understand, keep trying. So here's the happy version of the story. Fox gets Drew Breeze as their number three announcer. You already got Brady. You already got Greg Olson. Hey, great. Put him on their number three game.

Let's see what he's got. And happy version of the story for Drew Breeze is. he's actually committing to announcing games in a much more low profile environment than Tom Brady started with or Tony Romo started with and he actually wants to learn the trade and get better at it

and then maybe there's a bigger job down the line that's the happy version you know what probably in that way everybody does I mean not everybody deserves a chance but sometimes people can get better right like Arch Manning you know Arch Manning you know he started out pretty terrible

and like by the end of you know, by November, he looks a lot better, you know? It's a good quarterback now. So, you look like a good quarterback. Now you just cheered me out. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. So sometimes you just need some reps, man. I mean, how do you get better if you don't get reps?

So this is a way to do it. What a pep talk from you. You sound like you would crush one of those production meetings too. They want to give me a million dollars. I promise you, I will not sneeze at it. All right, Joel, a couple more stories before we get to Booker here. All right. You and I have gotten used to certain verbs used in moments.

of media sadness. Mm-hmm. Shutters is one that comes to mind. Shutters, yeah. Here's another one. Absorb. Ooh. New York Times reports that

Teen Vogue is being absorbed by Vogue.com. That means people are losing jobs. It does, including Teen Vogue's editor versus Sharma. Oh, man. Who is leaving the company

according to the Times. the magazine industry is in hospice care, man. You know? I mean, again, you know it from going to Hudson at the airport or wherever else that not a lot of these places are standing up anymore. That there's just not, you know, people aren't reading them in the same way. They can't command what they used to for advertisers. And, yeah, like, I mean, I remember when Team Vogue had that fleeting moment is one of the nation's most important publications. It was like, you know, sort of the face of the resistance when the resistance was a thing.

And yeah, I mean, I guess you look up and it's nine years later now. Yeah. And to be clear, it hasn't been a physical publication since 2017. Right. So times are also tough for websites that used to be physical publications. Websites are hard sell, man. I mean, again, think about the media company like ESP. for instance. A lot of places, if they've got their money and TV, podcasting, whatever else,

like the website is the thing they care about the least. Yeah. So, yeah. Well, and I think it's, I believe if you look at Conday, the whole company, the New Yorker has been the one company, I think that's kind of really figured out. I mean, I guess we put GQ up there too. Yeah. Like, you know, this transition to the internet. Family Fair didn't care very much about it, you know, as the Gilded Age of Magazine was coming to an end. And it's hard, right? Like you were essentially fighting a two-front war.

Like you have to do, I mean, there's no physical Teen Vogue anymore, but there is a physical Vogue, right? You have to do that. You have to sell, you can't shut that down overnight. And then you have to figure out

a way to bring all those readers or new readers, hopefully, over to a website. It's just incredibly hard task for anybody, even if you have the best, people running at people you're really committed to the bit.

Brian, if you go to a, okay, let's just say that. If you go somewhere and you buy a magazine, you know, you buy the New Yorker or whatever, are you going to look at it online? Like you pretty much are going to make a, you're not going to do go to both, both a website or read it, right? Like you're going to do one or the other for the most part, correct? I don't have that like in my life right now. Like I either read something, everything's online.

I mean, what would even be the point of it? I guess the New York Times I do that. I look at the physical paper and I also read it on. Yeah, that's about maybe that's it. I don't even, I don't even, yeah, like I don't, I don't, I'm not around a physical New York Times anymore. So yeah. I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was a couple seats over from our pal, Connor Nevins. And I was reading the New York, the day's New York Times.

And I might have been, you know, writing a unicycle through Spotify headquarters. I mean, it was just, it was, it feels like you're doing something weird to get attention. I told I told the story about flying home with the Houston Chronicle. Like I had my son and I was reading the physical Houston Chronicle of a flight back home. And the guy sitting next to me, he's like, man, I like you guys do that old school shit right there. Like read the paper. I was like, yeah. I appreciate it.

But yeah, it does look weird to be reading a hard copy in public anymore now. Team Vogue was started in 2003 by Ono Venture. As you pointed out, got very political during the Trump era. Starting with a story that Lauren Duka wrote in December 2016, Donald Trump is gaslighting America. Man, Lauren Duka, what a, that is a Justine, saccoass, like just a name from a whole generation ago on the internet. Lauren Duka, I felt like I read and heard so much about her once upon a time.

It was a good note in the New York Times piece about Teen Vogue 2 from Casey Lewis, a former editor over there who talked about how look you can talk about it in terms of politics and the resistance and diversity in terms of the staff and the subjects they covered you can talk about that going away because we've seen that go away at a lot of other publications

yeah for sure she also talked about how platforms like ticot and instagram i'm quoting the time here times here give teens access to much of the content they would find in teen vogue as she put it what can teen vogue offer that a million other creators who specialize in these topics can. I mean, I hear what Casey Lewis is saying, but I see a real difference between consuming content and reading. And maybe there are some educators or somebody that can tell me if there's a meaningful

difference between the two. But as a kid, and you tell me, I liked it when there was a publication meant for me. Like, I didn't, like, you know, Sports Illustrated for kids, I would eat that shit up, but I also was read Sports Illustrated. And I kind of thought that the kind of person that reads Teen Vogue also probably reads Vogue, but it was kind of cool to every now and again have something targeted toward me that I could read. And I just, I don't, I mean, maybe this is me being a Gen X or whatever and not, you know, appreciating the variety of content out there. But I just don't think that's the same thing. I'm sorry.

It's not the same thing, but isn't it hard? And look, we're in the journalism business. Like we're not battling other publications only. We're battling creator TBD who, you know, can capture your attention in a way that maybe we can't. Do you know what those creators do? That's the point, right? It's not that it's the same thing, but it's the thing that they're going to opt for that instead of us. The majority of those creators, and I'm going to take the, this is from Jelani Cobb from our earlier 25, 25 interview.

A lot of the information they're passing along is from publications. like Teen Vogue. Oh, absolutely. There's a lot of looting going on. It's just the looting. Yeah, they're taking that stuff and just repackaging it and using graphics and, you know, using themselves as a way to get into the into an article that somebody was sitting at

a desk writing, right? 100%. 100%. But like, you know, the argument that like, by the way, this originally came from us. So please read us instead of enjoying the, you know, man shouting into the camera. Like, that's not going to work. Nobody, nobody, nobody's going to do that. because we appeal to your better angels.

Oh, this is where it actually came from. Learn more here. They're like, no, no, I will not do that. Oh, yeah. People set it down. They don't go to the, I mean, I think the thing is, is we're learning increasingly that people do not click the link, right? Or they don't go to the show notes.

And the creators, there's no link. You know, there's not even a link to click. Right. We're lucky if we get accredited at all. I have hope for us someday that we will get back to reading. I don't know how it's going to happen. I don't know, you know, what's going to make that movement go go go go on but i i have hope for us in the generation that comes that people will embrace reading

again but maybe that's just me being an optimist but uh you probably i love you i love your optimism yeah i'm trying i'm trying uh last note before we get out of here rip the mcclatchie washington bureau man oliver darcy wrote about this in status mcclatchy newspaper company uh that owns the Miami Herald, Sacramento, B, and others, is, according to Darcy, shuddering, there's that word. It's Washington, D.C. based team. The move means the company will no longer employ reporters dedicated to covering Congress in the White House and withdraw from the White House pool where it has been a longtime member, Darcy reports. Just really sad, man.

And this includes a paper that was very important to us and still is, the Fort Worth Star Telegram, a friend of mine who works there. hit me up to say that he had lost his job in this thing. So, yeah, man, I just, I just, I mourn the faith of newspapers. I mean, you and I mean, we don't have to, you know, go over this every time a newspaper or a chain shuts down something. But I don't know where the kids that want to do news are supposed to be doing news as they get older or what they're supposed to aspire to anymore. I really don't. I don't either. And I look at a move like this and I'm like, okay, the DC Bureau.

That was something that existed decades ago. Just about every local newspaper of any size had a DC Bureau. And that might be effectively one person, two people. Some of them were more extensive than that. But they had people in Washington to cover national politics with a special focus on the representatives, of senators from that area. Right. So everybody did.

Now, if we're in here in 2025, you're like, there's almost two questions. If you are making terrible choices every day, and we know newspapers are making terrible choices every day. Yeah. Do you keep the D.C. Bureau? Right. Versus the local news.

Are you trying to compete with Politico and Axios and the Times and the Post? Or are you going to do local news that is the one unique thing that you can do? Man, it's just tough because there actually is some value in finding out what is going on locally at the federal level. 100%, but you have to make a terrible choice here, right? Like, there's no good choice. Yeah, there's no good choice.

There's no good choice. I actually, the thing is, I don't know what the readership is. I mean, the thing is that why I would love for people to get invested in municipal politics, I'm not sure that people read that stuff necessarily more than they read whatever their Washington representatives are doing, right? I don't, I don't, I guess I have to trust McClatchy that, that their Washington Bureau is not, the, the people are not reading their work out of Washington as much as they would be their local stuff. But yeah, I mean, there's just, there's just no right way to do this. But it's just, I mean, it's just terrible, nonetheless. And I don't even know if it's readership, by the way.

I mean, to me, if you give somebody like, here's a story about Graham Platner and the Democrats winning back the Senate versus here's your municipal politics story. I think they're reading, they're going through door number one every single time or most of the time. Yeah. So I don't even think it's a readership thing. I think there's just, there's just no resources. And the second, but the second part I was going to say about cutting the DC Bureau is, do I trust a company like McClatchy to reallocate those resources? In a way, no, no, hell no. I mean, man, none of the, I mean, again, I just, I, is this continues.

I mean, they've just, I mean, they have all withered on the vine in the last 20 years. I just, I want somebody from Gannett or. McClatchie or whatever to say like what have you guys done like all the people that are working in these sweets you know and that have you know doing all this consolidation and they sold us the dream of like well you know we're just you know marshalling resources and you know figuring out how to do what have you guys done like what do you have wins yeah what is the win like what have you done to show me that you know what you're doing it's not evident I don't see it yeah they have a forum to come on here anytime and list off the way I would love it as long as we get to

comment bag. Tell me if I'm wrong. Tell me if Brian is wrong, but we would love to have you on. Last thing, and can I just go back to Vogue for one sec because I forgot to say something? Oh, sure.

Here's a funny part about Vogue. We're absorbing Teen Vogue, which was very political, into the Vogue.com mothership. Do you remember who was on the cover of Vogue last year? Trump? Oh, time's up. Jill Biden.

Oh, wow. Jill Biden. Anna Wintour is a very political person, right? Like she has been a bundler and fundraiser for Democrats. She's come out and formally endorsed Democrats. Like that's a thing that's happened. So I think some of the interesting background music is, on the one hand, you have kind of a normy political focus of the Vogue mothership. Right.

You have Teen Vogue, which is a little more aggressively resistance, a little more white range. and probably much more wide ranging in its coverage. TeamVo's going away. I just want to put that out there. I mean, I bet if Team Vogue had a magazine cover, they probably put Mom Dani's wife on it. Don't you think they were doing it?

Or just, how about Mom Dani, right? Do we have to, yeah. Yeah, I don't know. They would not put Jill Biden, I think. Joe Biden probably would not make the cut. Would not have made the cut. No.

All right, here's our next edition, 25 for 25. All right, Joel. Let us bring in Booger McPh, Farland. Yeah, Bougar's one of the best analysts at ESPN on college and pro football. And yeah, he's a two-time Super Bowl champion. But with LSU Alabama this Saturday, Booger's business card also says that he was a former All-American defensive tackle with the Tigers, who knows what this rivalry is really like. Booger, welcome to the press box.

Glad to be here. Thanks for having me, guys. So I think most of us think we know what Alabama LSU is like, but of course we're only seeing it from 10,000 feet. When you were playing for the Tigers, how did you feel about Alabama? You know, it's amazing because the robbery was just starting to develop during the time that I was playing.

And so, like, my freshman year, if I remember correctly, we played at Tuscaloosa. I was actually a player at a game, that game as a freshman. And you could sense the mutual respect from each program toward one another. And the robbery was just getting started.

It was two programs that that were steep in tradition with Bear Brind and obviously with LSU and the history. And it was a lot of mutual respect. And I think the rivalry really kicked up over the years, especially, you know, when, you know, you get, Donardo was there initially. Then it turned into Sabin and Les Miles.

And it's just continually to continue to gradually rise, get more fierce. They don't like us. We don't like them. But I think at the end of the day, there's a mutual respect. They've won national championships. we've won national championships.

And I think although they are kind of trending a little bit more upward than we are right now, I think it's one of those games that there I say, you know, you kind of throw the records out because I think there's a lot of pride from each school when those two teams are on the same field. Louis, you talk about, you know, being there in the late 90s, you know, you signed there. I think you're a class of 95, right? Class of 95, myself, Kevin Falk, kind of headline that class.

Okay. What were the perks to be in Boogh McFarland in Baton Rouge and the late 90s? Interestingly enough, the perks that I was getting, I didn't really know. I'm from a small town, man. I'm sure you've heard of Windsborough, Louisiana.

Most people haven't. Man, it's a small town. And so the things that I consider perks, most people probably consider normal everyday life. Like I had three meals a day, big guy, on LSU. that was a perk for me. Being able to go around town,

and we were part of the class at LSU in 95, Jared Donato kind of had the slogan, bring back to magic. And so we were part of that class. And that 95 season, we kind of brought back to magic, LSU had been to a bowl game in six years. We took that team, we went to a bowl game,

and you started to understand what LSU football meant down in Louisiana. You go to restaurants, people want to buy your meal, they want to buy your drinks. And for a short little fat kid that had an afro coming from a small town, man, going around campus and people kind of patting you in the back, that was a different feeling.

And I'm very fortunate. I was grounded enough. But looking back on it, like, it was one of those things that I didn't know really kind of how to handle it because I had never dealt with that. But it was cool because I look at the class of 95. We were kind of the part of the group that was like key in the research disability. issue and it's only taken off ever since. Did you have a strategy of telling people in Baton Rouge that they actually couldn't

buy you dinner and couldn't buy you a drink in that day and age of the NCAA? No, I didn't. Strategy. I just kept eating and kept drinking. What do you mean strategy? Like, there was no strategy. I mean, I always kind of always paid for it. But, I mean, maybe I didn't use money, but I definitely paid for it.

So it was fun, man. It's funny you mentioned that, Brian, because here's what I look at now. I think back to those years. And I wonder if we had the same playing field as the kids have now. NIL, transfer portal, you got guys that are making a million, two million bucks. I wonder if I'd be talking to you guys now. And like I often have that debate because I think the thing that drove us in that era was the ability to succeed in make it to the next level and earn a living and make a lot of money.

Well, at 18 years old, if they gave Bougar McFarland, a million bucks, man, I honestly don't know if the motivation would still be there, if the drive would still be there, if I would still be there. And so, like, it's one of those things that I think everything has a time and a place in life, and I'm very fortunate. Some people say they wish they would be in the era now because of the money. I don't really wish that. I'm glad I came up in the late 90s because I think it's been really key to where I am today in life, and not only today, but how I got here.

Wow. So it's kind of what dig into that for a second. So you don't feel like you missed out on anything because you know with your name, your notoriety, the player that you were, that you would have tapped into a lot of stuff, right? Like, it wouldn't have just been, you know, whatever you would have been able to go shape, but all the NIL deals you would have been able to probably sign down there in Baton Rouge. You know, maybe you would have had a car dealership, you know, something like that down there.

So you don't think you missed out on anything. No, you know what? I'm sure I missed out on, like, you know, free cars and all that. But to me, the motivation I had when I left Winsborough was how can I, I know there's more to the world in Winsborough, Louisiana. How can I see it? And how can I make sure that my mother is taking care? I didn't know how I was going to do that.

I went to LSU at 17 years old, man. I started out 10th on the depth chart. And so when I got there, I was already kind of put in the same position that I grew up in. I was behind eight ball. I mean, I don't know if I mean, literally. I put every pad on that they gave me. I looked like State Puff, man, walking around on the football field. And just kind of slowly the work ethic took over.

And I started the first game in my career, started 44 out of 46 games with LSU. When I was hurt, one, I didn't start because the coach thought I was 10 pounds off away. That's a long story. But that drives a determination to succeed was always there because I grew up poor. So imagine the poor kid looking and scrapping and all that. And now I'm not even leaving. Like, I'm not even graduating yet and I already got $2 million in the bank. And I'm 18 years old.

Man, let's just stay in college forever. Like, why am I leaving? Like, where's the motivation to go graduate? I just don't know how these kids do it. I just know me. I know the fact that I had no choice but to succeed. I had no choice but to continue to work and grind was one of the reasons. why I am where I am the day.

And I don't wish to go and try it a different way because I honestly don't know if I would be in the same place. We watch all these SEC games on ESPN and we see Tiger Stadium and we see Tuscaloosa. What do those crowds sound like from the field when you're a player? It sounds like you're in, you're in the middle of something special. You know, when you're playing on the field during the play, you don't hear the crowd. I know it sounds crazy. But during the play, you don't hear the crowd,

but the moment the play's over, you hear the crowd, whether it's good or bad. And it's kind of like it's a unique experience being in the arena. Because it's a gladiator sport that's played in an emotionally high level that

it is so driven by emotion and adrenaline. And to be in that stadium, I think it's a top five stadium in the sport. Okay. College, pro, high school,

whatever you want to talk about. I think it's a top five stadium in the sport when the team is right and it's a Saturday night in Baton Rouge. There's nothing like it. I've experienced it on the field. I experienced the Tebow game. I went back when Tebow did,

when he went to the crowd and did the cell phone thing, I was standing next to my buddy. And our shoulders were touching and I couldn't hear. That's how loud it wasn't at play. And that's as a fan. And so I've experienced it both ways, man. It's amazing.

I played in Super Bowls. I've been in pro stadiums, championship games. There's no better feeling than to be in Baton Rouge on a Saturday night when that place is right. No disrespect to a lot of places around America. Obviously, I'm partial. But based on a lot of surveys, I don't think I'm by myself. You know, Booker, people talk about LSU is one of the best jobs in the country, which is not something you heard when you signed there in 1995, as you pointed out.

So can you just tell us a little bit about what that LSU was like when you showed up? Because obviously it had been years since they had tapped into the legend of the culture of the program that is there today. You know, the LSU I showed up at is it's kind of like when, trying to think of the best way to put this, imagine if you stumbled upon like a new car, that had never been driven, but it had been sitting outside. It had rained on. There was mud on it.

But you could tell, like, the car was really, like, it looked good, but it needed a lot of work, man. Like, it just needed to be cleaned up and polished and give us some TLC. That's what LSU was like. That's what they sold us on. The biggest recruit LSU ever had, and I tell people this all the time, is Kevin Fogg.

Because Kevin Falk was the number one playing in America, and he chose to go to LSU after LSU had lost for six straight years. And that single-handedly gave a lot of us, a lot of confidence that we could go there and we could do that too because we joined it. And that was the first class. And Kevin Falk became the all-time leading Russia

and everybody else, at that point, it became cool to go. So the LSU that I went to is different than the one now. We literally took the new car that was covered in a bunch of junk and we cleaned it off and we polished it up. And by the time we left, we didn't get to drive it. We cleaned it up, but we didn't get to drive it. And, you know, DeNardo got fired.

Nick Saban comes in, and Nick Saban says, okay, it's clean, but I need to tune the engine up. And next thing you know, it's clean, the engine is tuned, and they turn the thing on, they started driving, and away we went. And so I wasn't a part of the group that won a national championship, and they've won three since I left. But I feel really, really cool to be part of a group that came in, and took that new car that had been sitting outside forever,

and they got all the leaves and all the stuff on it. And we have cleaned it off to kind of make it look nice and shiny again because it's a top five program in the country. I think when you look at LSU, you look at Ohio State, I think you look at obviously, I think Georgia. And I'm basing this off recruiting the state it's in. You know, everybody will say Alabama, but Alabama's got to fight Auburn for recruits.

So, like, when you look at the places you can go where, where, like, it's just you. Like, when you start thinking about, like, Georgia, in Georgia, no disrespect to Georgia Tech, but it ain't Georgia. Ohio State. Like, LSU is the biggest fish in the state. Like, there are some places in America, man, that are just different. Wait, look, I just got to jump in here because our friend, Brian, is a Longhorn grad. You didn't mention Texas. So is Texas in that top five?

I think Texas is getting back to that point. I think the difference is it's in one of the top five states for athletes, but you got to recruit against, what, eight schools, eight powerful schools or something like that? And Texas, you know, often says we got a lot of money, but A&M says we got more. So, like, you're battling, you're constantly battling that battle. Now, Texas is the big dog in the state. But right now, A&M is the number three team in the country. and if they win a national championship this year,

it's going to be, it's going to start to be a long time since Matt Brown and Vince Young. That's all I'll say, Brian. It's a long time now. I'm glad you resisted Joel trying to get you into Texas's backtake because those aren't good, right? That just embarrasses everybody. I want to ask you, Booger, to fast forward a little bit to LSU 2025.

We heard that Brian Kelly, who just got fired, was not a quote-unquote culture fit in Baton, Rouge. And we all remember that Southern accent that he was trying on in 2021 after he got hired. What exactly does culture fit mean at a place like LSU? So let's just use people in food, right? Because I think those are the two things that everybody relates to. The food in Louisiana is different. Everybody loves the food in Louisiana because it's spicy, it's Cajun, it's flavored well. Everybody talks about New Orleans food, Baton Rouge food, man, the food is outstanding. That's part of the call.

culture, how we eat, how we talk. You heard a southern hospitality. Like, it's a real thing. How you treat people. Like, those things are real. And I think when it comes to the LSU, you have to realize this, is that take the food, take how you treat people, take that personality.

It's all throughout the fabric of Louisiana. And it's the number one thing in the state people care about. It's not the Saints. It's not the Pelicans. it's the LSU Tigers. And people eat, sleep, and breathe football in that state. It's football season. It's deer hunting, it's football season.

That's what it is. And so, Brian Kelly was a guy who, like most, I guess, eastern or northeastern CEOs, he is buttoned up. He is, like, his business acumen is tight. Like, he can run, He can run a company right now. That's how tight his business acumen is.

But those guys, they typically operate on the top floor. And when it's time to communicate, they pick the phone up and they call down and they talk to the people on the bottom floor. Well, when you're coaching down south and you're a part of the fabric and your culture, you don't pick the phone and call. You go down and you look people in the eye, you talk to them. You share your personality. You smile with them.

You show them you care about them. That's part of the culture. Like it is a, it is part of like what Louisiana is all about. So you add the foods, you add the Southern Hospitality. You add the people. And you add the fact that it's the number one thing in the state. And for years, kids grew up wanting to go to LSU. And so when we say that Brian Keller didn't fit the culture,

I think I would start with number one, his people skills, number two, his ability to relate. And I think how you go about just your day-to-day life, how you treat people, Southern hospitality. I think those are things that are part of when you hear the definition or you hear the statement, he didn't fit. And if I were to describe it, I would do it that way.

I just want to ask you this then, and I heard you talk about, for instance, that they didn't do inside run drill, right? For people that don't know, it's like when the, you know, it's like nine on seven. in football practice, right? It's the fabric of every football team.

I think if I were to relate this to the podcast industry, they didn't do any, they didn't, I don't know, but what's the best way to do it? They didn't have any openings and closing. They just got on to start talking. Like, in order to have whatever the fundamental thing is in your business, whatever your business is, whoever is listening,

we didn't do that under Brian Kelly. Why? I don't know. And, you know, I used to think that the old adage, a team takes on the personality of their coach, was kind of, but man, our team started to take on the personality of Brian Kelly, which is a little lack of days ago, a little soft. And I think it showed them the field.

And so I think the next coach is going to be the total opposite of BK. When did you realize it wasn't going to work out, right? Because, I mean, at the beginning of the year, I mean, they went in Clemson, right? And everybody's like, oh, man, BK finally got, you know, season opening win against the top 10 team on the road. Like, this is a big deal. And then two months later, he's not there anymore. So, like, when did you realize this wasn't going to work out? Well, if you really want to be honest, and I'm a full disclosure, like I'm, I've always been loyal to the three letters.

I'm lowered LSU. I'm not loyal to the coach. So every coach that's been there, starting with Donardo, who I played for, I've always had a good rapport. Like, I text, I call, I tell them what I see. And so I told BK two years ago we were a soft team, we couldn't run the football. And it was mass because Jay Daniels was a running quarterback. But unless you hadn't been in running football in a couple years.

But you couldn't, you know, you win 10 games, you win 10 games, you win nine games. Okay. All right. Then this year, we beat Clemson, and you come back. and now I see it because I'm I watched the tape on this very same iPad and so I texted and I'm telling him, hey man, it's not right. I knew he was in trouble based on the tenure in the time he'd been there and the fact that his answers to me over the over that period of time

became a little redundant. At that point, a leopard's not going to change his spots. And so at that point, I knew that it was only a matter of time. now. The end of all is wins and losses. And so if he would have won enough, he could have masked it a little longer, but you can't win this game without being

physical and but without having that connection to your players. The game is too hard. So I don't know a specific date, but I do know that as I saw it, even in the win at Clemson, if you ever go back and listen to me, talk on ABC, when LSU comes up, I always say the same thing under Brian Kelly.

They got to run the football. They got to be more physical. I'm echoing the same things to that I'm saying on television. Okay? And so I saw the writing on the wall. And finally, the wins didn't add up to protect what he was doing. So here we are. Let's talk about the college football playoff because we saw you on television on Tuesday night

talking about the new rankings booger. What still needs to be fixed about the college football playoff? I think we've gotten to a point, man, where I think we're pretty good, right? And full disclosure, I was in favor of four. I didn't want to go to 12. So they've kind of proven me wrong. I'll admit that. But now that I've been brought over to the dark side of 12,

I think we're pretty good. I like the four buys because you should reward me for the regular season, right? Like I should be rewarded for the regular season. In the NFL, you get by like one team gets a buy. So like every sport pretty much baseball, basketball doesn't do it. You get home court advantage. a little bit, I guess, but there's always some type of reward

for the regular season. So I love the buy. I love the home game because there's nothing like a home game of some of these stadium, man. You watched a playoff game in Notre Dame last year. Like, it was unreal, man. That's great.

I don't know if I changed anything, to be honest with you. I think, you know, we've tried to include everyone and this notion of inclusion. I think maybe the only thing I would tweak is like, like we're promising.

in a group of five a seat at a table. And I get it, we want to include a group of five. Do we really ever think a group of five school can win a national championship? It's a question. If anybody can answer it, I don't know. So do we continue to include them or do we just keep it with the power for? I think eventually that may be the only tweak that they make. But right now, I like it where it's at.

Well, I'm glad you asked this because this leads right into the question I was going to ask you. So there's this belief, right, that eventually that whether it's the power for or the Big Two, Big Ten and the SEC, you're going to combine, you know, whenever these contracts are up and they'll do some sort of merger to create a new division or League of College football. Is that something that you would look forward to? Do you see the value in preserving some of those group of six programs, you know, the Georgia Southerns, the Delaware's, the Middle Tennessee State still being part of that? there's always value, but I think you have to have a level playing field if you're going to compete. Like Georgia Southern, I'll just put it this way.

I don't think South Florida, Navy, and Memphis can stack up weekend and week out against the Big Ten and the SEC. Now, can they do it against the Big 12 in some of those schools? Maybe, the ACC, maybe. But like, weekend and week out, I don't think, like, Navy is not going to be able to,

to handle and like some of these schools just it's not an even playing field. And so why not have the power for Big 12 ACC, Big 10 SEC have their set up and then everybody else have their set up. I think that's eventually what we're going to wind up. I don't think we're going to get the big two

because I think the ACC and the Big 12 have enough seats at the table and have enough merit to continue to exist. But let's let's be honest. The two people that are running college football are Greg Sanky and Tony Petiti. The Big Ten commissioner and the SEC commissioner. They run college football. Whatever they ultimately want, I think is eventually going to happen.

I think Greg Sanky is the smartest man in the sport. I would follow his lead, whatever he wants to do. He's not only the commissioner of the SEC, but he understands the bigger picture. So he can think outside of his 16 schools, which has really been cool, like for me, I think it's a 16 or 18, however many, it keeps changing. He's always had the ability to kind of look at the bigger picture. Booker, last month, Oklahoma quarterback, John Mateer,

was playing Texas a few weeks after breaking a bone in his hand. You got a lot of attention because on ESPN, you said that's a thumb and a hand I'd be looking to step on as a defensive lineman. Yeah. Some people took offense that. I did not. I thought that was actually great.

So here's what I want to know. How did a D-Linman target an injury, like that without looking like they were targeting it. It's a physical sport. So if I'm going to sack the quarterback and he's got the ball, I'm swiping. Now, you may not be able to hit it on purpose, but I'm in contact with his arms, his hands, I'm tackling, I'm squeezing, I'm raking, I'm hitting. If he's dodging, if he's on the ground, and I may just put my hand on this on this hand

and get up and like it's going to be natural. Like it's a contact sport. Like if he plays the game, it's going to get hit. And everybody said, well, man, you shouldn't do that. That is so egregious. Man, it's football. Like if you tell me your foot's hurting by any means necessary, I'm going to step on your foot. Otherwise, don't come out here or don't tell me what's going on.

Like, I'm trying to win and I'm trying to succeed also. So people have got to understand that this has been going on a long time, man, a long time. If I see a quarterback that has, and that's most quarterbacks wear rib protectors now, but if a quarterback just put on rib protection because he got hurt ribs, you best believe if his arm is up, man, I'm trying to hit him in the ribs. That's football. I'm not going to say, oh, I know your ribs hurt. Let me go around to the other side.

Man, that doesn't work like that. Like, this is the sport we play. people love to they love to eat the sausage but when you tell them how the sausage is made I don't really like it anymore we're a tough luck wait a man

so has anybody ever gotten you like that like they've seen 100% like I have played games and there's been something hurt like I've been stepped on I've been kicked in the places that you shouldn't be kicked

like it's a part of it I never had an injury like that maybe as a show or something like that. But I'm different. As a defensive lineman, I don't get covered like quarterback's team cover.

So I can actually have a shoulder, nobody ever knows about it. John Mateer, who at the time was probably the front runner for the Heisman, his thumb, surgery, the whole nine, we didn't know if he was going to play. So everybody in the sports paying attention to that thumb. I'm a defensive tackle, man.

Nobody cared about my shoulder or my knee or my hamstring. So it's happened because there's a rule. When we step on the field and we strap it up, You are healthy enough to play. All else doesn't matter. If you can't play, don't step on the field. That's the way, that's the rule of our game. It's always been that way college pro high school doesn't matter.

If you strap it up and you cross the white line, everything's fair game. I got one more for you, Booger, before Joel hits you with a lightning round. As a broadcaster, you've worked with Joe Tessetor, and you've worked with Chris Berman. Can you compare the energy Boomer gives off with the energy that Joe Tess gives off? So Boomer has the ability. Both of them are super high-energy people. Joe Tess builds to a crescendo. I love watching and listening to Joe call games.

They call it the test effect. I'm sure you guys have heard it online. Because Tess can make any game sound like it's the most unbelievable game in the world. And if you give him a storyline, he can write a lifetime movie. It's unreal. It's unreal what he can do to a game.

Berman doesn't build to it. Berman comes out of the game. I mean, he is ready to go from the moment the worry goes. And I think that's the biggest difference. They both have high energy. One builds to it. And maybe that's because of the type of broadcaster

or the type of genre test is in as far as calling games and Boomer is kind of in studio. Maybe that's the reason. Either way, Boomer starts, he goes zero to 60 in the first two minutes of the show. usually test doesn't like the test effect takes a little while for the expressos to hit and then he kind of gets in there I love it I love it all right well you know but one of the things we do here is a lighten around so I'm going to ask you a few questions and we'll get through and see how you handle it if that's okay let's do it all right who in your life still calls you Anthony people that don't know me what school finished second in recruiting you

Is the reason you didn't go to Arkansas because Danny Ford put his feet up on your mama's table? That's number one. Number two, my best friend at the time was there the year before. And I just made a decision that I kind of wanted to never get my own path. I didn't go. But Danny Ford putting his feet on my mama coffee table didn't help.

If you need to win one game for LSU in the history of the program, who are you taking? Nick Saban or Kevin Falk? Kevin Falk, players always play. You take players over coaches. Best offensive player you ever played again. Best offensive player, best offensive lineman, Alan Fannica.

He's a Hall of Famer. He was unreal. Best offensive player, ah, man. Michael Vick was special, man. He was special. That's the tough I never thought about it. Like, Michael Vick would probably be definitely the most exciting guy I played against.

Best coach you ever played for? Best coach you ever played for Tony Duns. It's not even close. Wow. Okay. Dirtiest player you ever played against. Kevin Golden, without a doubt. Offensive lineman, he would just grab you by the balls.

He would spit on you. He was a dirty S-O-B. Cavalors and Raiders legend, Kevin Gogan. Yeah, like, he was just the dirty S-O-B, man. Oh, my God. Okay. Hardest place to play in college football that's not Tiger Stadium.

The swamp in Florida. Best game you've ever seen in person, you know, as a fan. Probably the 2019. Actually, it wouldn't be that one. It would probably be the 2000. LSU played Ohio State in New Orleans for the national championship. I was at that game.

That was a good one. I don't go to many games. unless there's some hard work I'm going to be handing out. And so, yeah, probably that game against Ohio State than I think about it. Your favorite restaurant in Tampa? Favorite restaurant in Tampa.

It's called Street Light Taco. Unreal, man. I know that sounds crazy. A kid from the South talking about Mexican food, but it is a, it's called Street Light Taco. Brian, I know you travel a lot. When you come to Tampa, text me, I'll take you to Street Light Taco.

would have changed the life, brother. I love it. I'm in. Are you not a Burns guy? Well, see, Burns is great, man, but I don't feel like dressing up and putting on nice clothes and go sit down and burns and eat steak. And fun fact, I'm not a steak guy. Okay. I've gone to burn several times. I've never gotten a steak there. What? Nope. You just went to the dessert room? No, I eat other things. I eat there's a chicken dish, there's a seafood dish, and then I go to the dessert room. I'm not a huge steak guy. I'd rather have a hamburger than the state. Same piece of meat, just cut, just, just processed and prepared differently.

If you gave me a choice between a great burger and a great state, 11 out of 10 times I'm choosing a hamburger. Okay, okay. That's what so. And the final question, this is going to be tough. I'm putting you on the spot right here. Your choice for the next head coach of the LSU Tigers. Oh, I have.

You know what? I've been asked that question like 100 times this week. Here's how I've answered it. I think the next coach of LSU, if you go back, to the reason why Brian Kelly got fired, the next coach has to be the opposite of all of those reasons. I don't know yet because I haven't talked nor kind of dove into the candidates that are out there.

I'm starting to do that. I'm going to give my opinion, without a doubt, but I think it's going to be the opposite. But as far as name, I would be doing a disservice to start just throwing out names of people who, I don't know if they fit the bill yet because I don't really know. Fair enough. All right, Booger McFarland.

Catch him Saturdays and Sundays on ESPN. Buger, thanks for coming on the press box. Anytime, man. Appreciate you guys having me. Thank you very much. All right. He is Joel Anderson. I'm Brian Curtis.

Production Magic by Bruce Baldwin. This is a part of the show, Joel, where we request that you follow us on Instagram. Oh, man. At Press Box ring are already a thousand plus followers there. Oh, really? That's pretty good. The press box has joined the 21st century. This is unbelievable.

We got clips up there. I'm taking pictures of all the crap that I buy, use bookstores. Can I admit something to you? Please. I didn't know what David looked like until I saw him on Instagram the other day. I know he's a handsome guy. I didn't know. I've never seen him before.

We're not a video podcast yet. Yeah, all right. There we go. All right. Coming up on the press box, David, the aforementioned Mr. Shoemaker is going to be back here on Monday. We're going to talk about the MSNBC rebrand, which is finally here after all these many, many months. and those commercials that they were plugging on election night.

And the next Thursday, Joel, you and I are going to talk to another very special guest, NBC's Chris Collinsworth. Oh, man. It's going to get us ready for that big Lions Eagles game and much more. Chris Collinsworth back on the press box. Can't wait for that and can't wait for more lukewarm takes about the media with you. Looking forward to it, buddy.