The Press Box - The February Editorial Meeting

Episode Date: February 25, 2026

Bryan, David, and Joel are back together for February’s editorial meeting! They first discuss how they’re going to watch Trump’s State of the Union (9:03). Then they move on to some news items from the Olympics, starting with Kash Patel partying with the men’s USA hockey team (18:16). They also talk about Mike Tirico’s coverage at the Olympics (28:21). They talk about more bad news at CBS News (34:39), the newest Savannah Guthrie video (41:16), and the infamous photo of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor (45:08). They wrap up with a couple of reader questions (50:09), and Joel pays homage to a past coworker (54:38). Hosts: Bryan Curtis, David Shoemaker, and Joel AndersonProducers: Isaiah Blakely and Bruce Baldwin Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

David? Yes. Joel? Yes. I'm coming to you live today from Washington, D.C. Hey, what's up? I can see you from across the Potomac. You can. Maybe not. I don't know how that works. You're looking at my window of my hotel right now? Well, not really. No. I'm probably still about an hour away from you, to be honest. Do you see all the National Guardsmen that were in the elevator with me this morning when I was coming down? I thought that kind of had moved on a little bit, but evidently not. Again, the elevator, David, and there's all these guys in, you know, the full military regalia, if I may. And I'm like, what are these guys doing here?

Very little regalia outside of the military usage, by the way. That deserves to be on one of your list. That's a good point. That's right. Yeah, those two words go together and nothing else goes with regalia, right, unless you're talking about ancient British navies and other things. So that was sign number one I was in D.C. Sign number two is it's really cold.

I know this is falling on deaf ears for Mr. New Jersey, but it was a little colder than I was expecting. Yeah, I know that we're at that phase of life where we talk about weather and are like self-aware about how ridiculously old we sound,

but that blizzard was something, man. I mean, it was like, I don't think in all of my years of being alive if I've ever shoveled, like, legitimately 18 to 24 inches of snow, like, trying to make a path through that. You really went out there and shoveled yourself? I shoveled a, I shoveled a line from the, you know, from the front steps to the end of the driveway or whatever, so we could, so you could walk without getting soaked or whatever,

but, yeah, yeah, it was. In previous snows, I've just done it all myself. It's like, this is going to suck, but, you know, I'll do it. There was just no way. I got, I got about 20 feet and felt like I was back. to have heart attack. You know, it's just like, it's time to call it for the day. Yeah.

The other sign I was at Washington is I went and bought the Washington Post. Oh, wow. Okay. You guys heard about this? All right. You're supporting this terrible institution. Well, I guess you're still paying for you. Yeah, somebody's like, you're one of the seven subscribers left.

And I was like, actually, I bought this all a cart. I hate to tell you that. So this, I want to show you guys this. This is Monday's edition. This is the, you'll notice there's sports. right across the front page there. Oh, yeah. Got the Olympic hockey team, men's hockey team,

winning the gold. And I'm like, all right, read more about it. And in fact, there was a sports section. Okay. On Monday's paper. This is a set of... Are they still doing a sports section and they were just canceling it in the vague future?

Or is this an anomaly? Well, that's what I wondered. And at the time, remember, they still had writers in Milan covering the Olympics, even though they had laid off everyone else and canceled the sports section. Right. So there was a, you know,

rowboat of a sports section being published that had these final stories from Milan, very good stories. That was yesterday. And then I go to buy today's paper. And on the front page of today's paper, it says it lists a couple of sports stories in the little briefs at the bottom.

And it says page C7. Like, okay. Now, the first weird thing about that was the C section does not exist in the Washington Post. It's just A and B now. So a little bit of a little bit of a head fake there. I did go to B7 and I found a sports page again. And again, this is, I'll show you guys this in the camera here.

This is a, this is a sports section. So it's just mislabeled, okay? But it's all a P-copy. It's a zombie sports section. Come on, man. That hurts. So we didn't kill it. We're just, we're just, it's staggering along with.

with wire stories, TV listings, and sports briefs about whether the Cowboys will resign George Pickens inside. Man. How are you having no, like, my first reaction, the first part of it was that they should just have an Olympic section. If that's what their, if that's what their staff is doing. And it sort of fits the ethos of not doing sports. We're just covering this giant event, right? But why do you even have people spending their time choosing the wire? the wire stories to run about the Cowboys or whatever

when you're not even investing in the section. Right. And I think that is probably not going to last. Like I don't totally understand the idea of having a zombie section instead of just folding those three sports writers they have who remember we're supposed to cover sports from a societal point of view into the style section. So maybe this is just one of those things that we can't turn off today, but we can turn off tomorrow.

Honestly, what they're doing now, if they hadn't announced it really fits the kind of like just grand Republican conspiracy mold. Instead of eliminating the section, we're just going to make it as trash as possible until the people that actually love the section demand that we get rid of the section. And then we're just like, okay, we'll do it. It's gone. This is very like, you know, not to, you know, malign any local, you know, newspaper, but it's just like very Lafayette advertiser. You know, where they just, All right, we just, I'm running wire copy and that's it. Like, it just seems beneath the dignity of the paper to do that.

Like, if you're going to go, if you're getting rid of the sports section, like, get rid of it. Like, we don't, people are smart enough to figure out where they can find AP stories online if they really want it that bad. But that's, that's pretty grim. It's pretty grim. And you're right. Like every local paper, when you go around the country, this is exactly what it is. It's a bunch of wire stories, maybe one local column, one preps report. And it's just stuff.

Just stuff that's in there. And, you know, and by the way, I looked in the style section, there was something from the Baltimore Sun. We ran a story from the Sun. I'm like, oh, my goodness. Sinclair Group. Washington Post. A section.

A section. A little synergy. Yeah, some like-minded folks. Comes to the future of the medium. Do you think that there's an amount of money, like an extra amount of money that you could pay to not have to credit the original newspaper? Like if you're the Washington.

Post and want to give the semblance of this as someone that we employ writing a piece for your interest. You think you could work that deal out? I'm not going to give me any more ideas. Now, I remember when the Charlotte Observer, I mean, I would say pretty staffed out for the Panthers, you know, at times and stuff like that. But there was definitely a point where you would pick up the paper and you'd be like outside of the A section. And the A section in Charlotte is, well, it is what it is. But it's like they employ a movie critic and like a Hornet to Beat reporter. shouts to Rick Binella

and I couldn't really tell who else they employed. I mean, clearly there were like central staff workers. There were people choosing the wire stories. There was an editorial staff of some sort. But like, and that happened really early as far as this national thing went. It's very bizarre.

Charlotte also is another one who owns charlotte.com, like owns the city.com, the observer. And you got to wonder, we were just talking about one last week that did that, Brian. that oh it was i know cleveland does there's a couple of cleveland dot com but but it's like it's wild that they couldn't figure out a way to monetize that you know like of all the thing to own such a domain like you own the city and you and you're still and somehow charlotte dot com is

worse than like like what's up charlott news with a z dot com you know i love that uh URL and and by the way if all these newspaper companies have sold the precious downtown real estate what's to keep them from selling charlotte.com. Isn't that the next thing? That's worse something. The only people that will want that, though, is wouldn't that be possibly the municipal government? Who else?

I mean, maybe an enterprising, you know, hedge fund person. What's up Charlotte News wants to move into Tony or Diggs? Maybe the New York Times wants to buy it and just redirect to the athletics, like Charlotte sports coverage. Yeah, that's fair. That's right.

Otherwise, it's just. Lots of bad ideas. otherwise it's just like yeah it is like USA today going to go out and scout like just take all of these local URLs and absorb them or something like there's it's it's a bad idea no matter what all right coming up from the press box and also from Washington tonight is the state of the union who's going and who ain't plus we will talk about cash Patel parting at the Olympics Savannah Guthrie's new video how a British photographer got that snap of former Prince Andrew and we answer some reader questions.

All that much more in the press box, a part of the Ringer podcast network. Hello, media consumers. It's Brian Curtis and David Shoemaker. It's Joel Anderson. It is producer Isaiah Blakely and, hell, Bruce Baldwin's probably along for the ride as well. State of the Union tonight.

Guys, there's a newspaper near you that is printing a story right now that says, what time is the state of the union? Yeah. We got you covered. 9 p.m. Eastern Time. How can I watch the State of the Union? It's on all the channels. How long will the State of the Union be?

It will be incredibly long because Trump's speech before Congress last year went one hour and 40 minutes. He likes to do standoff. Yeah. Trump deposes a strong man, but he speaks like strong man when he is talking to a joint session of Congress. How are you guys going to consume tonight's stay of the union? Oh, man. I guess I'll have it on the background, right? Is there anything exceptional that's supposed to happen?

Are there, is the hockey team going to show up and, like, be rowdy? That's one question. The thing I found really interesting in Trump's, like, phone call to the, you know, the U.S. men's hockey team was that he invited them kind of, it seemed extemporaneously to the state of the union, but also seemed to be really stoked about the event itself. Like, Trump is not historically a dude who's, like, very into the obligations of office. You know, but he was like, oh my God, the state of the union. It's just the best.

Like, is there a great after party or something? Like, what is Trump? What do you think is excitement? Is he just excited to go speak for two hours? He's a TV guy. Yeah, it's programming. Yeah. I mean, I'm wondering about the after party so that Joel and I can go, but continue, please.

No, that's my question. If people would like to get a little hint of this norovirus, you know, please invite me to your party. I'll go in solo, Joel. I'll tell you all about it. Yeah, you're going solo tonight. That's right. No, you know, I'm going to be watching it on the YouTube TV app on my phone in the dark, laying aside my hopefully sleeping sun.

And yeah, I mean, I know that there's a lot of other, because I've seen on Blue Sky. Don't laugh at Blue Sky folks, but they're going to be counter programming. There's like a bunch of Blue Sky creators that are going to do, you know, talking about things that are very passionate to them over the course of that. So, I mean, there's other things you could do. you know, it's trying to counter-programmer, but I kind of, I don't know about you guys. It's my responsibility to watch. I work in news media.

I'm supposed to have opinions about the stuff. I feel like I got to go. And, you look, I mean, yeah, like you mentioned Brian, like him looking at the Supreme Court justices. And also, I mean, man, I mean, to be honest, Trump talking, I mean, I know that he's got a speech in the prompter. But there's a real good chance that he's going to be, you know, going off the dome a little bit. And, you know, I mean, I want to, I want to be privy to that. There's not an hour and 40 minutes speech in the prompter. No.

So 20 minutes of that or 40 minutes of that is just Trump riffing. Anybody who cares about him, it's irresponsible to let him talk for more than 15 to 20 minutes at a time at the next point, I would say. Well, I mean, there's something sort of impressive about it sometimes, but at this point, it's like it's after 15 minutes, it's. he just starts playing the hits, right? I mean, he just starts saying the same stuff he says in every interview at this point. Is there over, under on how many, like, Rosie O'Donnell mentions there are, things like that? Yeah, where's the broad. Can you bet on that?

Get that, that or the NFL kickoff rule. I think those would be in the bottom of the parlays. Oh, man. They would definitely be there somewhere. I think the Supreme Court thing people will look at. I mean, look, we should say this. There's a lot of useful information the American public could learn tonight, for instance, are we going to attack Iran?

And if so, why are we attacking Iran? Because the administration hasn't explained that at all, just like they didn't explain it with Venezuela before we took away their head of state. We could talk about Cuba and the blockade of Cuba that's also just kind of simmering in the background of Trump decides to do foreign policy. But I think what people will be looking for are made for TV moments? Like what will Trump say the Supreme Court that just took his tariffs away? Will we get like a reaction shot of John Roberts? Like wacky Supreme Court reaction shot, that's also way down the parlay list.

Like, there's no way those people look at anything but stoic. I'm doing something that we've never done on press box before, and it's slightly embarrassing, but I'm looking at the polymarket odds here. Oh, there you go. This is a first. I'm sorry. Let's see. I think the over under on America is 25 and just mentions of America, uses of the term

America are Americans. This is just the home page. There's not all the details here. How long will the state of a union address be is a hundred, 100 plus minutes has 54% of the vote. So over 100 is slightly leading. Let's see. There's a 97% chance.

It says here that he will mention Iran. Of course. 97. 71% odds that he'll be wearing a red tie in case you were wondering. Okay. That sounds right. Let's say, I mean, there's just all kinds of good stuff on here. There's one that says what nicknames or just turns of phrase will Trump say during the

State of a Union, 54% are saying green news scam will be used. All right. That's always so bottom of the barrel. It is really bad. Also, there's a 99%, there's 99% odds in the supply market that Erica Kirk will be in attendance. Just in case you were wondering. Oh, my God.

All of that sounds so grim. Let's all agree that we're going to watch right now here together. We're going to watch the Candice Owens' Erica Kirk documentary. We're going to, let's all agree right now that we're going to watch it. We're going already, the three-man we've, always goes really just wild, I know, but am I about to take us even further into the into the weeds here? I just saw that Tucker Carlson's brother is currently in a Twitter feud with Dan Bongino over whether or not Dan Bongino is part of a Manchurian candidate-esque

conspiracy now to activate someone to kill Candace Owens? Like, that's literally what the conversation is about right now. The girls are fighting. All right. I like it. And that's a sentence that none of us will be able to understand if we listen to it back in a year. So yeah, that's a, it's wild. I will watch that documentary.

I will also commit to watch that. Joel, as your child sleeps peacefully next to you, can watch the Kansas, Kansas Owens Erica Kirk documentary as well. What a beautiful tap blow. Our Fort. Our Fort back. Yeah. Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries, has told Democrats he doesn't want them to interrupt the speech tonight,

a.k.a. no more Al Greens. The options are to either attend with silent defiance or to not attend. I know that the Democrats, and I have in some ways some sympathy for Hakeem Jeffreys because this is the big tent party. Lots of people that ordinarily would be in different parties and different parts of the world have to come together and coalesce as Democrats here in this kind of. country. It's just frustrating that they can't all get on the same page about this man. Like it would be so much more powerful if either they decided to boycott it once or if they

all decided to be there with the Epstein survivor and something else, right? But like, it's just not as effective messaging of like half y'all are over here and half y'all are over here. You know, maybe that's, you know, my, uh, an unpopular opinion. But maybe people think that he doesn't, you know, as long as they're doing something to show some sort of resistance. But I just, it doesn't feel, you know, this makes it seem like, oh, Democrats in disarray, you know. Yeah, I mean, and they're particularly just kind of fraught position. I mean, I'm sure, don't get me wrong. I'm sure there's some people out there that are like, you know, speaking their own truth when it comes to making those sorts of decisions.

But there's a lot to be gained from like what you were talking about, Joel. like the Democrats kind of operating in unison. And there's also a lot especially as we're like people are positioning themselves for a presidential run. There's a lot to be gained from like bucking the Democrat establishment. And so unison is like anathmet or whatever they're, you know, they're thinking. I mean, it's not even just the people that are that are angling for the presidency. It's like, you know, Hakeem Jeffries is kind of a great point of reference, how he's, you know,

kind of came in as a sort of party savior and just immediately became what he replaced in terms of people's perception of him. And maybe that's the truth. You know, and kind of going against him and I think there's a lot of more liberal Democrats that would probably gain more from bucking the party line than following along, even if that's not necessarily the MSNBC point of view. Don't you mean MS now? Sorry, MS now.

I only know that because I saw it on at a bar today, which is only can only happen in Washington, D.C. Oh, yeah, I was about to say, well, maybe L.A. You know, I could see MS now on the bar TV in L.A. I mean, come on. What would y'all have one then? TMZ, would that be? It would just be like Dodgers.

They always show these weird Dodger like highlights or Fernando Valenzuela documentaries. To your point, Joel, a lot of Democrats are opting for the people's state of the union at the national mall, including Jeff Berkeley, Ed Markey, Chris Murphy, Tina Smith, and other distinguished members of the Senate. It'll be cold out there. It's going to be cold out there.

I say that as a Texan. Cash Patel, partying at the Olympics. I mean, I saw somebody say that this makes him more likable in a weird way, and it was obviously a Keshe Patel supporter, but I don't entirely disagree in theory. Like, I think we should have more government officials who are like doing the shit they like, but it's just like how. What is it they like? Can we just clarify that before we? Well, he's a big hockey fan. Like, whatever.

You reach a certain point in life and you're like, like, I have earned these good tickets to this, to this event that I really care about. You've sold enough cases today. I deserve to treat myself. Exactly. No, imagine if he was just like, I'll pull all night or had to get to my 20. 20 case threshold of where I let myself go. But it's just, I mean, I don't know that there's anybody that's more emblematic of just whatever's going on in the Trump, you know, White House right now that you have a person who is on tape multiple times criticizing Chris Ray for using the FBI jet to go places.

A guy who's already been called out and apparently admonished by Trump for using, for spending all this, this FBI money, the plane to, like, fly his girlfriend or around and to, you know, provide SWAT team, uh, protection for her and everything else. And that he's still just like, again, if you're going to go, just fucking go. Like, why are you making up like excuses and having your, your spokesman saying, this is not what's happening? Just like, just, just go at least, you know? He said he had meetings in Italy.

That was the excuse. He like met with the ops team that was because the FBI did have some sort of like, you know, policing duties there at the Olympics and whatever. But it just felt very, it just seems. It's just obviously a lie. You know, it's just such a, and it's just, I don't know, it's just so unnecessary. Is there a, there has to be somewhere online, just like a, some sort of like tote board where we look in one column and we see how much money Doge saved the government and the other

column, it's like how much money Patel and Trump's like weekend flights are being, or, or, are totaling up to. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's like tons and tons of money, you know, and it's, it's, it's, it's, uh, Usually that stuff, I think, is a little bit over, not overblown, but overplayed. It's like what it like, like anytime the president goes anywhere, it costs $10 million. You know, there's just like so many moving parts and everything else.

But, you know, that's the entire, not the entire, that's a huge part of the, the, the, the platform for this presidency. And it's, and they're just, it's just ridiculous. Yeah. There's just something about the disappearance of dignity. I feel like that we kind of expected of our statesman once upon a time. time that, you know, that again, it was totally fine. I thought it was cool when I was a kid that President Clinton was a fan of the University of Arkansas basketball team and that occasionally he would sit sideline and watch those games, you know, that even President Bush, big baseball fan,

right, former owner of your guys as Rangers, right? I don't claim the Rangers, but go ahead. Oh, okay, yeah, well, yeah. But, you know, that they had a life outside of their office. but this just was goofy. And also, I mean, the celebratory locker room is kind of a sacred place. And I mean, as a reporter, I've been in some of those before. And the thing is, is you're like, I don't want to draw any attention to myself. I just want to document what's going on here. Let me make sure to stay out of this so they don't think that I think that I'm actually a part of this team.

Because that would be, that would make me feel kind of weird if they're like, do you think, is this stolen valor? Do you think you won this championship, buddy? You know? This is like, who wants some random goofball in the middle of it stealing all the spotlight for themselves? So you didn't chug a beer when you were in a winning locker room

or put on a medal that the team had won? Didn't go, yeah, that kind of shit. No, I didn't. No. I mean, there's people who win championships that don't do that, right? Like, some people win championships that aren't, is like out of control

elated as Cash Patel was. And again, like, I don't think the enthusiasm is wrong. It's just you're there in your capacity. only reason you're there is because you're cash Patel and it's like it wouldn't just it just seem it wouldn't be a lot to ask for it to be dignified it maybe that's a changing more and maybe I'm the old fuddy-duddy on this but obviously obviously joel hates america yeah i'm sure there are a lot of people that would agree but but i just am like have you have you all ever seen anything

like that before the history of sports too like just somebody in the middle of a celebratory locker room other than a current player coach executive member of the family member like who have you ever seen anybody ever do that in the middle of a celebratory locker room ever no absolutely not first of all it's why like i haven't seen a coach literally a coach do that right right usually the gag is that the coach gets sprayed a little bit as they're passing through with as you said dignity right it's not it's it's it's pretty crazy could you imagine how many segments on the press box it would be if it was a member of the press. Oh, my God.

If Peter King was in there back in the day, playing the role. Yeah, just like celebrating with, I mean, that would be such a, it would be ridiculous. I mean, I think honestly, the bigger question I was left with, and I know this, whatever, I know this is my own blindness. But who are the people that are excited to have Cash Patel in the locker room? Isn't that weirder? Like, it's one thing to be to have, like, President Trump in there and that's like, that's your dude and you're really excited about him.

But what is the, what is the Cash Patel audience? The hockey The weird part is the hockey players Did seem kind of excited to have him And I don't know that's just like, hey, it's the FBI director And they don't like, I don't know how much they know about Cash Patel or care who he is. It's just kind of like there is an important government official who's parting with us. That's awesome.

Yeah. But they generally seem like, hey, let's go. Let's go Cash Patel join our celebration. Of course, if you just beat the Canadians and won the first U.S. hockey men's gold medal in 36 years, you're probably pretty psyched up and I mean who you would really worry about anybody being in there at that point right I mean that's the other thing Joel

let's say you win the Super Bowl equivalent are you really policing who gets to celebrate at that point? I feel like athletes are weird like that man like I do just you know just in the times that I've had to be in locker rooms I think they do police the locker room in that way like who is this guy

like what are you doing in here? I do think that even after like a Super Bowl oh my gosh upset kind of moment like that I've been in locker rooms after national championship games, like, you know, the last few national championships, like last year, when we went to Atlanta. And, you know, after, who won that game again? Ohio State beat Notre Dame. That's right. And I just, you very, because even then, it's like, it's very segmented. And it feels like they're looking at you because they're like,

hey, look, if they're smoking a cigar, they're like, who's that? Who's a person that's observing us got their camera out trying to be down with this? Like, I think that they are actually policing it in that time. And, um, but, so. But, Speaking of athletes being weird like that, I mean, there is a professional athletes definitely skew more cash Patel rabbit hole, YouTube rabbit hole than the general populace, I would say. I mean, the solo artists, the MMA fighters and boxers are probably more susceptible than this than team sports. But you spend an awful lot of time staring at your phone alone with your like, you know, legs in an ice bath or whatever. And people seem to go crazy. I don't know.

It's a, it is a very weird thing. I wonder if this year we're going to get, or this election cycle, we're going to get treated to if you draw all the sort of points in that locker room celebration. Like, we love Cash Patel. Who did you say they were listening to? Toby Keith. Toby Keith. We know all the early. Toby Keith. If you, if you like, if you like American hockey, if you like Cash Patel, if you like Toby Keith, is this like, is this going to be a like, you know, hockey bros?

Is that going to be the, the, the, the soccer moms of the 20, of. of the next presidential election cycle. Because we have a lot of data points now. We'll see if these guys continue to vote Republican. All right. So two moments within that that we absolutely need to unpack to use the podcast word du jour. One is Toby Keith. Everybody knew the words.

Joel, what's your favorite Toby Keith? I love this bar. You know, that was so fast. That's also your favorite sports bar? Yeah, well, you look, man. I lived in Oklahoma. Toby Keith's, I love this bar and grow. I lived in Oklahoma for a year.

And he was a big sooner fan. And so you had to get up on your Toby Keith shit if you were Oklahoma fan, you know, covering Oklahoma. David, what's the real answer to this question? Was I ain't as good as I once was or whatever? That's funny. That's, yeah, I ain't as good as I once was. What? Beer for my horses is.

Like, what is the cowboy, right? Oh, yeah. Oh, but you never heard. Although, I mean, although, and I know this is there is some, this will be a hilariously unpopular answer, but like Red Solo Cup is a perfect song. Oh, man. That's not like, that's not like the best Toby Keith song, but like the, if that comes on, everybody's singing along. The other funny part was, so Trump is calling in and he's calling on a cell phone that Cash Patel is holding. The president calls into the locker room is a longstanding tradition of sports that happened when we were kids.

But he's asking them if they want to come to the State of Union and he's talking about how he's going to get them to Washington. And Cash Patel said, I got it, boss, like in terms of the Iran. which is just I mean that's again like what John Stewart says when he's making fun of cash Patel which is very funny to hear those words come out of his mouth you guys want to hear mike terraco's wrap up on NBC yeah because that got a lot of attention and also what got attention with sportscasters coming out and being like you know who did a great job mike tariko guys sportscasters praising other sportscasters is not the most you know this is news genre I've ever seen nobody's going to be if somebody came out and said you know who was horrible at the olympics mike terrico now that

would be news somebody's like you know who's great it's not really news anyway here's terrico after the big men's gold medal hockey game but what you saw today was the build of a generation inspired perhaps by that team that lost in 2010 in vancouver to the sidney crosbie golden goal in overtime or the team where tj oce had all those shootout goals in 2014 that's when these guys were doing what you're doing, watching on TV. And they were young, and they were living the dream. So for all the young people out there, not just the hockey, but all the Olympics you've watched,

those dreams are formed now. Go chase them and go get them. Because our country loves sports, and it brings us together unlike anything else. And if you didn't know that, if you haven't been watching the last two weeks, you saw it in Team USA hockey, winning the goal over there are tribal Canada here in Milan

to wrap up these 25th Olympic winner games. I mean, I think he's right. Sports does bring us together, unlike anything else, which just as, I mean, it's kind of sad because it really doesn't anymore. So I don't know what it is if it's not sports, because we can't even agree on the Super Bowl at this point as a culture anymore. He wasn't aware that Cash Patel was in the locker room when he was making these statements. Just FYI.

Yeah, it just didn't hold up. But I think his point is fair, even if it's like, you know, It's just as a sign of, who we're in really bad shape because it really doesn't, it didn't really work quite in the same way anymore. I said to one of you guys a couple weeks ago, I think after this is all over, people are going to be saying Mike Torrico's best play-by-play man we got. And not because of any, you know, any electoral votes came in because that's not how it works. People just have seen him do football on Sunday nights, the Super Bowl, the Winter Olympics, and then maybe the Western Conference finals in a couple months. And they're just going to be like, yeah, that's the guy now. And you heard it, baby, on Twitter, right after this.

ended even during the Olympics people like he's the guy there's our guy now is anybody better than Mike Tariko with when Costas was the Olympics guy and also you know fulfilled a lot of other roles too along the way I mean maybe he just has a sort of ease to his delivery in terms of storytelling that sort of belies what you know the amount of work that goes into it you're talking about Costa or Toriko costis but Turrico is definitely like a like he has a very intense style where you can't listen to Tariko for more than 30 minutes without thinking about the amount of work that went into it, right? Or just the robot brain that's powering it. You know, I mean, even just that the clip that you just showed is like just an immense amount of research and retention to be able to, to, you know, make that point.

Somebody said that just on that note, somebody said that to me that like Mike Tariko makes it look easy. That's not the words I'd choose about him, actually. Joe Buck makes it look easy to me. He makes it look like he's so. relaxed and yet just doing it at such a high level. Torrico feels to me like he is locked in. Yes. Like he is on it.

He's performing. Yeah. He is. And but Tariko makes it look like he's worth the amount of money that they're paying him too because it's just like look at everything that he's done. And that's all to say nothing of the fact that he's a great announcer. It's funny, Joel, you mentioned the Super Bowl. You know, I mean, inevitably there were, I'm sure a million people out there tweeting

about how Tariko was bad during the Super Bowl because that's what we do during big sporting events. But like, it always sort of, it always was a little. bit perplexing to me that the Olympics was such a goal for so many sportscasters because it's just it's not basketball and football in the modern world. Obviously, it's huge in the moment. But you look at it now and I guess it's crazy for me to think up because the Olympics might be like the one desk where you get nothing but praise. Yeah. You know, I mean, obviously there are some color commentators of the different sports that get it. Bob Costa just picked up a phone and said, did you read those columns? No, I guess the opportunity for this level of praise comes very,

because it comes from nowhere else. You're right. It's not, you don't, you're not automatically praised, but there's no great Super Bowl. There's no great NBA finals that gets you the amount of praise

that Toreko is getting right now. It's a captive audience. Right. Yeah. It's an American audience that's watching NBC. So you, you are, you are,

you are, you are humming the fight song, even if you're not being a ridiculous, you know, Homer, which neither cost us nor Trico are. It is a funny when you're right. It is,

it is an interesting showcase. It's just a little bit different than everything. else. Yeah. I do think it just requires a ton of dexterity to just remember names. And you can tell, by the way, if you watch, if you go, if you go down a few levels and watch like what's on USA with the Olympics and you see the non-Torico hosts on there, there's a very different level of skill, folks about this, just knowing everything about every sport. And in his case, doing it right after the Super Bowl ends, you didn't have six months to ramp up where you weren't doing anything else, but studying binders.

It's a lot. It's a lot. I do. And he still knew with this job. I think David is part of it too. Because I think, remember, Costas did it starting,

I want to say full time in 92, you know, into the 2010. So he had just this giant run where he was on every single year. Toriko is a little bit of a new guy in that respect. But he was waiting in the wings for how long, though. For almost a lot,

not quite 10 years, but it was something like since i think he's starting on an embassy like between the olympics and the NFL he might be like the only person in broadcast journalism that actually like made the waiting work for him right you can like usually it's a terrible thing you know it's just where you make a lot of money to not ever do anything or whatever you know but especially in this era where like he could have just been snapped up by a by a by a you know over the top by an amazon or a or a you know Apple TV or something at some point but it's it's um it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it It's pretty impressive.

I mean, he's, he's just so good at his job. A couple more things. Peter Attia is out at CBS News. He was one of the 19 new CBS contributors at Barry Weiss announced last month. One of those contributors, our friend Derek Thompson had had to raise his hands that actually I've been contributing to CBS for seven years,

but I'm in this press release like I just got hired, which was kind of funny. Peter Atia's name was in the newly released Epstein files. according to the Washington Post gotten over and Dan Gilbert it was mentioned hundred appeared to be mentioned in hundreds of the newly released files a Washington Post analysis found

there are a couple of real doozies too one said the biggest problem with becoming friends with you this is from 2015 Atia writing to Jeffrey Epstein the life you lead is so outrageous and yet I can't tell a soul you're afraid to read that other one

Brian I see that other one well it's a word it's a word that starts with that I will not say on the press box. That word is indeed low carb, he wrote. Still awaiting results on gluten count, though. It's interesting to me how slowly this sort of played out.

I'm speaking, I mean, obviously, slowly I'm grading on a curve for whatever internet age that we're in right now. But there are a lot of calls for his firing or removal or whatever when the files first dropped. And has it been two weeks now? And the stories at the time were that Barry Weiss was trying to protect him, like it was insisted on it. And who knows what the truth is there.

But a lot of, most of the leaks coming out of CBS have been, have been correct since, uh, since the ownership changed hands. And it's interesting that it took this long for Weiss to lose the fight, if that's indeed what happened. Or if it's a thing where,

I mean, usually if you, for the network would either freak out and fire him right away. Or they would, make some milk toast statement about how he's a contributor, you know, he's freelancer, there's nothing we can really do to fire him.

And then, and then let him on TV. No, and then never put him on TV and let him leave of his own accord in six months, right? Or something to that effect. So this, the,

the, the, the timeline here is a little bit confusing to me. Like, why wait, why wait just a week to let him go anyway? Do you all have a sense for how much money that you get for a role like this? I don't.

I could believe. just about anything. I would think it's at least six figures. Okay. And I'm guessing it probably differs by contributor, right? Because the only thing that I would think about if I were Peter Attia is that this is embarrassing. Like I just don't want anybody to talk about this anymore. Like I would just kind of, you know, you would think, again, in terms of dignity, integrity, you know, like shame, you might just be like, this might not be the time for that, like right now. Like, you know, maybe I should just walk away from this. The opportunity would have been great some other time, but this is not my moment.

But clearly he wanted to make it work. And that's why I kept in the news for so long, because we could have moved on past this. And so I was also thinking, I was like, man, I know that this show, and not that we have like, you know, some massive audience or whatever, but one that, you know, people listen to. I know we're responsible for the tenor of the coverage here, but like, are they ever going to, CBS ever going to, CBS News, you ever going to have anything positive to report? I saw Barry Weiss's tenure here. Like, which the, is there anything that anybody's going to be able to say that says,

oh, yeah, well, now we get it, like, why you hired her in the state of the organization. Like, at what point are we going to get that piece of information or some evidence that this was the right move to make? Because I haven't seen it yet, and I'm willing to acknowledge that maybe I'm a biased party here, but I just haven't seen it yet. Like, what is it then? Well, the town hall would have been an opportunity and that sort of fell flat, right? When she did the Erica Kirk Town Hall right after starting the job.

Yeah. that was one of those where you, I'm sure she and they hoped that that would be a sort of, you know, hailed as a new way to do news or whatever. And it was just sort of like, no one cared. Town Hall is a new way to do news. Anyway, continue. Well, you know what I mean. Just sort of like, we're putting the face of our network out there, you know, whatever. I mean, that was it. And obviously, I mean, I think the big thing with that was just the utter misunderstanding of Erica Kirk's place in the sort of media ecosystem. Like, I'm sure everybody that Barry Weiss knows is,

knows exactly who that is, but the vast majority of people don't, you know, and so there was a lot of miscalculation there. Yeah, I mean, announced it when she announced all of these hires, all the Peter Atia and everybody else, you can see what the point was there. I mean, it was a very,

like, Tina Brown starts a new magazine, you know, comes to Vanity Fair sort of move. Like, these are all the people that are coming with me and look at it. But, like, again, nobody cared. Like, does any, nobody consumes network news in that way. You know, nobody really, it's only a conversation about power struggle and about, you know, about, you know, your place vis-a-vis the administration.

But I don't even know, I guess all that's to say, I don't even know what good news would look like. It heads either ratings or nothing, I think. When I saw the solicit contributors, I thought the same thing because it's like, what are these people going to do? Right. Like you mean, if you tell me that CBS News contains Peter Atia's podcast before the episode, before the Epstein emails. If you're getting him to do a podcast about longevity and health and all that kind of stuff, that's like a thing, right? That's a product that you're making and that people can subscribe to and listen to and be like, oh, CBS News is thing, right? Like that's a, but if it's just like you're

plugging them into existing network infrastructure that people don't watch to get a minor ratings bump to get them to tweet out their appearance, like I don't, that just to me is like, what? You know, like, who cares? Like, why, why is that? Why is that? interesting? Well, they're trying to build trust in the network. When you do that is by, you know, bringing on somebody who was in the Epstein files a dozens of times. Whoopsie. Yeah, I don't know. It just, I don't know, man. I would like to, you know, maybe somebody can send in some evidence that this was the right new, but like, you lost Anderson Cooper. Man, like, that's the other big headline, like in the last couple weeks. And it's just, all right,

are we going to get some good news at some point here? Like, how long are you waiting? to make a decision on if this was a good hire or not we should know peter attia has denied wrongdoing uh he says he's never been to the epstein island that was part of the statement he made he did acknowledge that the some of the emails were embarrassing tasteless and indefensible i accept that reality and the humiliation that comes with it there's a new savannah guthrie video man this was heartbreaking to watch yeah headline out of here is that the family's offered up to a million dollars for information that leads to the recovery. That was the word she used, the recovery of their mother, Nancy. Here's a little bit of

Samantha Guthrie's new video. Hi there. I'm coming on to say it is day 24 since our mom was taken in the dark of night from her bed. And every hour and minute and second and every long night has been agony since then of worrying about her and fearing for her, aching for her, and most of all just missing her. Man. One thing that was notable about that video, too, is that the family's donating half a million dollars to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. One thing Savannah Guthrie said in there is like look we understand this has been a lot of attention this is very painful for us this has got a lot of media attention but this is going on for happening to a lot of people it's not just us and we want to make sure that there are resources for those people as well which i thought was which i thought was

pretty amazing um guys we can hear more video i don't know i mean it's it's just incredibly sad at this point yeah no i mean i i watched it um the whole four four minutes and yeah just i don't She said something in there about if this is to be, then we will accept it. And I just don't know how anybody ever comes to accept this. And it just in a world where you think, I mean, there's cameras everywhere. You know, like we talk about all the time about how hard it is to really disappear or to like really be invisible in society. And it's just shocking that nothing and no one has just come forward.

There's not a kernel of evidence at this point. So, yeah, that they even have to resort to, putting up a million dollars and make a public plea over and over again. It's just shocking, you know. Also, I mean, I guess if I was, you know, charged the FBI, whatever, I probably would be focused on that kind of shit, you know, but whatever. So we were mad at the sheriff for going to the Arizona basketball game, which was in Tucson, but now the EPA directors in, yeah.

Yeah, right, yeah. I've not been following this story as closely as most people have, I'm sure, but wasn't there something about how the sheriff refused to let the FBI do some of the blood work or whatever and whatever lab he sent the stuff to, he was taking forever or was losing samples? I mean, there's all this weird story around the story. It all seems so weird to me. It's just like, can't the FBI just like duplicate the work? Like, it's like, you know, it feels like everybody's being extra ineffectual. But to what you said about the donation they made, Brian, I mean, if you've watched enough of these true crime documentaries, you know that like the family.

of people, of missing people, you know, one of the most important things they do is to get attention, right? They do stuff so that people will pay attention to this and maybe something good will come of it. It's weird that Savannah Guthrie finds herself in this reversed version of that where I'm sure she's grateful for the amount of attention, attention she gets in so much as it helps. But this is, at some point, it's just, it's just an overwhelming amount of attention, you know, compared to what the results have been. And not only is this. like incredibly tragic, but this is just world altering for that entire family. Like even when everything is said and done, it's like this is the family that such

tragedy has happened to. I don't even know what the point of reference would be. I mean, it's absolutely, it's, it's so sad. Quickly before we go, the Andrew photo. I'm going to need our art director to weigh in on this way. You might know him as the former Prince Andrew. Andrew. Mountbatten, Windsor. I believe we're calling him now. They're still calling him former Prince Andrew on TV, which is very funny and makes me just just a little, gives me a little hitch in my step every time I hear that former Prince Andrew. So the Prince formerly known as, wait, no, no, no, the Andrew formerly known. That was one, that was a royal formerly known as Prince Andrew. That was the David gets the headline, right? At some point. Anyways, arrested last week, the UK police said suspicion of misconduct in public.

office. First, we got all the explainers about how King Charles the first was the last, I believe, senior royal to be arrested. That's how they put it. This was in 1649. So congrats to everyone who got assigned to write that explainer. Okay. And then we got this incredible news photograph taken by Phil Noble, who was a Reuters photographer, right after Andrew had been released by the police. And David gaze at this photo and just give us as, the ringer's art genius your sense of what makes this such an incredible news photo um well it's the one time in photo in photo photography history that red eye actually works to the advantage of the photo he's got he's just bizarrely has one eye afflicted with a red eye and one eye not so he looks

absolutely maniacal um he's reclining in the back of the car seemingly to avoid camera such as a camera such as this uh and looks absolutely startled by its presence which seems you know, I mean, just the look on his face is he, I mean, he looks like a cretan, right? He looks like a, he looks like a creepy fantasy villain or something. I mean, it's just, and his fingers are crossed. Like he looked, it's honestly like, there's something very like gargamel about him, right? I mean, he looks every bagel. What a reference.

Did Gargamel, like, cross his fingers like that? I don't know, but there's something just like very like stock villain, a bit like not in a, and not even in like a cool, you know, Cobra Commander sort of way. Like he's just, he looks just like the worst. But the crouch and the expression on his face, I think just really get at everything.

To be a paparazzi photographer or just a news photographer in this sort of situation, the thing you're going for is the look of surprise. Is the feeling that like the subject didn't know the picture was going to be taken and this achieves that in spades. This is an incredibly difficult photograph to take because the car was speeding away. They were not sure where Andrew was being held or questioned. As David said, he clearly did not want pictures and he's sliding down in the back seat.

So I want you to listen to Phil Noble of Reuters talk about how he got this picture. Isaiah played the second clip here. This is Phil Noble of Reuters who got the photo of the year. For every car shot that you do, the hit rate's really, really low. I mean, there's so many variables. If I've shot 100 of these and got 10, I'd be amazed. So last night was, it was one of those kind of pinch me moments where you look at the back of the camera, you're tired, it's been a long day,

you know you've got him, and then I said to my colleague, can you just double check? Is this him? Because you want to make sure you, you know, you can't believe that you've got him as well as I did. Is it the best photo I've ever taken? No. Is it up there with one of the most important?

100%. I love that so much I love when you interview journalists they're just regular people you know they're not 99% of the time they're not some dashing movie ideal of a journalist

it's just a guy who got his job and he pointed the camera into the car and boom you got it the asking to make to confirming who that person was is so incredibly relatable

that's not a security guard is it that's the actual former Prince Andrew Drew. Yes. Yeah. It's, that's it. It's just great stuff. I can't be this lucky, basically, what it is. I can't, I cannot be this fortunate. Yeah, because I don't, have y'all ever done a stakeout like that before? You ever been? I have not been on stakeout. No. All right. Okay. Well, yeah, I mean, sometimes you're just waiting around for stuff, uh, in the course of your journalism career. And you just, you know, you happen to be around. You're like, I can't believe I'm

the only one here or, you know, when this person walks by. And, uh, so yeah, I, I mean, good for him. I hope it, you know, hopeful whoever he works for, whoever he gets, you know, gets his money from, we'll give him a little boost for catching that one. This is the third damning news photograph of former Prince Andrew. It was the one where he was walking with Jeffrey Epstein in New York City in 2011. And then another one where he has his arm around Virginia,

Robert Schifrey and Galane Maxwell. So there's that. Let's do a few questions because I know you guys need to go. Peter and Minneapolis asked Since all three of you are Texans And seem to have traveled the U.S. quite a bit Would love to hear your opinions on Buckees Are the sandwiches as convenient for road trips

As I feel they are Or am I just a non-Texan buying into the hype? I've never been to a Buckees, Brian. Whoa. All right, we know where the next press box live event's going to be. What? Dave, are you serious? I've never even come across a Buckees.

I mean, I don't... I'm trying to think. No, that's not true. I was in Texas. a few years ago, but I don't remember ever seeing one. I'm sure I passed a few of them. But no, I've never been.

Next WWF, our WWP pay-per-view that's in Texas, you need to meet a wrestler at a Buckees. Like, that's a great bit. We'll get Ben Cruz, we'll get you, everybody's going. Can you imagine showing a wrestler? Well, they probably already seen it. Yeah, they probably know Buckees better than us.

So I know they have like a bunch of beef jerky. They have a fudge bar. Fudge bar. What is a fudge bar? Like chocolate, like chocolate syrup fudge? Or like, is that what we're talking about? No, like they like, you know, it's a dessert. Oh, like fudge.

Like the actual dessert. Okay. Okay. Yeah. They have a full bakery in it. Like you can get like sweet calaches and other stuff. Colaches? Oh, yeah.

They're not as good as West, but you know. Oh, okay. In a pinch. They also have a wall, David, which you would just love. Maybe all three of us would go. Forget the wrestler. There's just a wall that says gummies. and it's just every gummy

and it's higher than your head. And then there's another one that's, Joel, correct me from it. I think it says sours and it's just sour candy. That's right. That's right. Yeah. And it's just like a kid's idea

of how a store should be laid out. Beaver nuggets, man. You never had a beaver nuggets. Oh, man. And the, I mean, the turkey barbecue sandwiches, I mean, just. Yeah, they do have a barbecue station too. They have a barbecue station.

Fresh cut barbecue station. Really? Oh, my God. Is that a, is that? the sandwiches the guys asking about or are there like deli sandwiches that they're that are very well known all the above is what i think you get both yeah they can make one to order or you can pick one up to go if you're in a rush they've got you can get heated like uh pecans and almonds that just you know so obviously i'm a huge bucky's fan whenever i'm home i got to make a stop by

because you get also like different kind of jams and jellies and serps and just it's amazing Like I've been to Buckees all the time and like I can never go enough. Also, if you happen to be on the road, cleanest bathrooms you're going to find on the road anywhere, anywhere. I don't know. Out here we have Wawa and I'm not sure. I mean, we don't have all the barbecuing stuff. Wai not fucking with Buckees, man. All right.

It's not even close. I got a Wawa right up the street. Not even close. They're not fucking with Buckees, man. I really think we need a press box road trip. This would be incredibly fun. It's a road trip in the day. destination is just literally the places along the way.

Like it's... We can go to the one in Luling, Texas. What do you have to think about Luling? Get some sausage right where we're there. I mean, this is the thing about Buckees. I've never actually been to Buckees on a trip. I've only been like, go to Fort Worth and drive like 25 minutes out of town to go to Buckees,

which is just weird and silly. But if I were driving and I saw all those gas pumps, like 120 gas pumps and clean restrooms with a little green light when you close the stall that turns to red, So nobody comes in on you. Doors that are fully clothed, closed? Oh, my God. I've been to like a dozen, man.

I've been to the one of Baytown, the one of Luling, the one to, you know, going on the way to Prairie View, the one, just every look, man. Simple. I've been to that one. Can I ask a very serious journalism question? Sure. Has anybody written the piece that's actually the best barbecue from in Texas is at Buckees? You know, because no one wouldn't say that.

No one. No one. No, just to get the reaction. Like, I feel like you would say it. Man, I don't think that's happened, but I mean, you would just, you'd be disqualifying yourself from the conversation. We're talking about, like, that'd be like saying the best barbecue context is that Rudy's. Right. Which is not, again, Rudy's, hey.

Very good. Fulfills a need, but nobody's, nobody's saying that. Yeah. Joe, before we go, do you have something you'd like to say under the rubric, the Hall of Departed Journalists? Oh, yeah, man. So, look, for a moment, I would like to remember. remember my former colleague Joey Knight. He's a longtime sports writer at the Tampa Tribune in the Tampa Bay Times. He passed away last Friday at the age of 57. He apparently had a battle a couple

years with stomach cancer. He leaves behind two daughters and a son. And this is kind of awkward because I can't recall having spoken to him since I left the Times for BuzzFeed in New York back in August of 2013. But it really hit me to read John Romano's moving tribute to Joey. And I only discovered this because I came across my friend's Facebook post about his death. And so I hate that I never got to tell him what I'm going to tell our listeners about him today. First, David, Ryan, guess how many high school sports writers the Tampa Bay Times had in 2012? This is full-time people, not stringers? Full-time people. They have more than two or three? Five. Wow. Five. Two people covering Hillsborough County.

two people covering Pinellas County, which is where St. Petersburg is, and one full-time high school columnist. And it was a robust, really talented team of journalists that I was joining at the time. And I remember I'd worked at the Tampa Bay Times previously, but it's like a cops and courts reporter in their regional office in Brooksville, Florida for three years. And I remember when they were coming to the office, if they had a event up there, and I'd just be so jealous because they were having fun and going out and talking to people. And so when I came to, back a few years later, I can confirm, man, it was so fun. And we just, it's just really reminiscent of a different time of journalism because there was so much time and resources that

went into high school coverage. Like, they sent me to the U.S. Army All-American game in San Antonio to cover, like when I was at Tampa, right? So it was just, and it's just a way that, and I've worked at a lot of different places, I can't remember anybody putting this much effort into their high school sports coverage. But what made Joey special was how good of a teammate he was. It would have been really easy to hoard all the best assignments and stories and leave me, the newbie, to do the grunt work, right? But that's not what he did. We were the two Hillsborough County sports reporters, and so we split it right down the middle. Like he got Armwood High School, which is the big power there. I got Plant High School,

which is the other one. And then we got a bunch of other terrible, you know, Hillsborough. I got Hillsborough. He got Sickles High School, stuff like that. And so it was just good mix of contenders and dormets. He took boys basketball. I took girls. He took softball. I took baseball. Now, found out later that he took softball because they played like two fewer innings than boys baseball, but that's fine. That's okay. You get home to file. Yeah. That's fine. He got to go home a little earlier, but he had kids at the time I did. He took track. I took volleyball, which actually gave me a fantastic opportunity to learn about that game, which I'll sit and watch volleyball now just because of that time down there. And he was really so

free and easy with sources and phone numbers. And like, that's just very rare if you go to a new place. Like, people aren't usually willing to, like, necessarily that free would give in your numbers. But I can't remember a time where he gave me the run around or shut me out to keep a story for himself. And so, like, in a situation that should have been awkward and could have been awkward, he was about the best kind of teammate I could have had.

And I wouldn't say we were friends. But, you know, some of your best teammates, they don't necessarily become your friends. but it doesn't mean that they're not important to you or that you don't think of them fondly. And I left, moved on, I'm here today. Joey kept on being like a great representative for the community. He covered USF, which is University of South Florida

for people that are not native to Tampa. He covered the Bucks for a few years. And as a Romano wrote in his column, quote, no matter what beat he was on, he always seemed to come back to stories of local characters and athletes. Maybe that's because he was a fourth generation Floridian. Maybe it was because his father, Allen was the football coach of Zephyriles High School and later the principal in the 1970s.

I did not know that at the time. He never even talked that up. But it's, John continues, whatever the reason, he's seen most content telling stories that would otherwise go unnoticed. And I can confirm he was truly jazzed to write about the kind of people who were most likely to read the newspaper and the kind of people who might only ever end up in print for high school sports or their obituary. And so that's why I really wanted to pay tribute to him, because I always admired that. And I really have tried to make that sort of my mission of work, that no matter what I'm covering or writing about,

that I'm keeping in mind, man, some people, this will be the only time to ever be in a newspaper, and they'll show that clip to their little kids or their family members, and they'll hold on to it forever, the one time I was in the Tampa Bay Times. And I've agonized about this more than I expected. 57 is really young, but I'm heartened and moved

that he seemed to be a peace in his final days. And I know that Joey was a devout Christian. And he told John Romano that I'm okay with this. I've had a good life. I've got no reason to complain. My friend Corey told me that all the Joey wanted near the end was to see his daughter get married. And he did that recently. But also in a time when my local newspaper, the Western Post,

has just done away with that lifeline to its local community. I'm really reminded that Joey dedicated his career to being that liaison to the community, man, and elevate the people who would never get that chance to be in the paper, man. And it's a real loss when your local sports section goes away. And I hope people remember that. It's the kind of work that often gets overlooked, but it's as important as anything that goes into a local newspaper. And so anyway, I hope people don't forget that.

And I hope people don't forget Joey Knight, man. So sending my condolences to his family. We'll miss you, man. All of our condolences, man. That is the press box. He's David Shoemaker. He's Joel Anderson. I'm Brian Curtis.

Predicted Magic by Isaiah Blakely and Bruce Baldwin. next week, regular programming, Tuesday and Thursday, plus a special surprise for Washington on Monday. And of course, more lukewarm takes about the media. See you guys later.

See you later, Brian.