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Why We’ll Miss Ernie Johnson. Plus, What's Pat McAfee Upset About Now?

October 29, 20260 comments♥ 0
00:00 This episode is brought to by Uber Eats. Hockey seasons is here. Uber Eats is delivering game day deals on favorites like wings, pizza, fries, and snacks. And you can order more than food, like gear to rep your team or fresh batteries for the remote. When your watch party gets hungry, you just need anything. Order in and keep everyone's attention on the ice. Score great deals on Uber Eats all season long because hockey is for the hungry. Terms apply.
00:23 Product availability varies by Regency App for details. This episode is brought to by Google Pixel. Whether you're at the game, your kid's party or a wedding, you want to capture the moment, but you also want to stay present. So you should probably check out Google Pixel 11 Pro with just one tap, magic capture on Google Pixel 11 Pro captures both video and high quality photos, then finds the best ones. So you can get back to what's important.
00:46 Ask more of your phone. Try the Google Pixel 11 Pro. Check it out at store.gookle.com. David? I mean, Troy? Yeah. Hi, everybody. I'm Joe Buck along with the Hall of Famer Troy Aigman.
01:08 Troy, what's happened to us? I don't know, Joe. We used to be friends. It was a beautiful friendship. Some might say more. And somehow, your eyes wandered. We used to be divorced dads together. We used to be two of the best friends in all of football.
01:27 And look what's become of us. To steal a phrase, you're absolutely right, Troy. Here we are. Apparently we're in the midst of a divorce. I'd like to try to do something about this. Troy, I think we need a peace summit. Oh, okay. That sounds reasonable.
01:46 You and me, neutral sight. Not my home. Not your home. What if we met at a cheesecake factory? You could bring some of that light beer you've been selling. Sure. We could tuck into some tie glazed ribs. All right, all right.
02:07 Am I not setting you up enough here, Troy? No, no, I, listen, I got to tell you, the mood's just a little bit down over here. After all, I've been through, yeah, it's a depressing time of year. Even my three Super Bowl rings can't bring me out of it. Normally they can. Indeed, indeed. We were one of the best duos once upon a time, weren't we, Troy?
02:30 One of the best in all football, that's right. That's a coin a phrase. We were. Apparently we're not going to be anymore, but hell, let's go out with a bang. Let's have a strong season. Peace summit or not, let's finish up at the Super Bowl. I'll be announcer guy. You be slightly, you know, more critical than normal analyst guy.
02:54 Lay out some quarterbacks. Be stingy with your words. Only say something when you really mean it. There you go. and it'll carry us all the way through our date together at SoFi. You know, I say it all the time, but now more than ever, things are never good as you think, Joe.
03:15 And Troy, after that Super Bowl is over, you and I won't have a confrontation in the booth. We'll have a nice big hug. We'll realize what those 24 years we've spent together meant. Jack shit. my shoulder a little bit. By the way, David, how long do I have to keep up the bit here? I think we're done.
03:36 Let's move on the show. If you're not watching on the Spotify app, David and I dressed as Joe Buck and Troy Aikman for Halloween. We're a long way from Mark Twain, buddy. And all the other literary ideas we had. I want to thank you for finding the cheap canary-colored sports coat section of Amazon
04:00 there you go and for printing out these beautiful ABC sports patches but to lose mine, yes also your hair looks absolutely exquisite there was a time in your life where you kind of had hair like this well it was a long time ago but yeah
04:18 long it's as it has it been I don't think I don't think I think I've been bald since Troy and Joe have been a team so I went to the Halloween store here in Los Angeles and I showed them a picture of Joe Buck on my phone.
04:33 And I was like, do you have a wig like this? And they're like, well, sir, we don't really do short-haired men's wigs. Very hard to find. Very hard to find. So finally, I was like, well, I just need something blonde. And they sold me a Trump wig, which is what this is. And I brought my daughter's beautiful pink brush here to... Fantastic.
04:52 To keep me in line. Joe and Troy, if this is it, we're going to miss you guys. We thought the least we could do is dress up as you for Halloween. to the best ever. A final goodbye. We love you. We're going to miss you. And David and I will own these canary blazers forever,
05:10 or at least another 20 minutes before we put them in the Goodwill bag. Oh, man. The real excitement here is I got to pick up my son from the bus stop immediately after this podcast. So do I have time to take off the blazer and the wig before I get there? That's the question. Steve Allman was noting right before we started that we're going to eulogize Ernie Johnson while dressed as cartoonish versions of other announcers. He's just leaving his job.
05:40 Not that serious. All right. I'm going to put on my glasses here to say, coming up on the press box, Ernie EJ is out at Inside the NBA. What was his legacy? Plus, David, Pat McAfee is invoking Charlie Kirk. What the hell is going on with our buddy Pat? Plus, we got an election to talk about.
06:01 Some crazy, crazy polls over the last 48 hours. All that and more on the press box. A put on the rigor, podcast network. Hello media consumers. It's Brian Curtis, aka Joe Buck, David Shoemaker, aka Troy Eggman, John Jones and Steve Allman, producing this here podcast.
06:27 David's some huge news from the world of sports television that was not the Joe and Troy divorce after 37 years of hosting inside the NBA, Ernie Johnson has decided to hang it up. Here, Ernie explains why. So why now? Total honesty here.
06:52 I've always prided myself on my preparation, the hours I put in every day getting ready for the next show. I've always loved that part of my job. But I've always vowed that if that, That ever became more of a challenge than it is a joy, then I'll know it's time to step away. I know after 37 seasons, it's time. He also talked in that clip, David, about having some heart issues. He had bypass surgery a while back.
07:21 Talked as people do when they are 70 years old about treasuring the moments they still have. He is going to still be doing the NCAA tournament. So he will probably be working with Charles Barkley. and also producing stuff, where do we start with the legacy of Ernie Johnson? I mean, it's hard to not go in a trite direction here. I mean, every time somebody passes away, and I was just saying before we record, it's not that serious. We don't need to overemphasize the eulogic aspect of all this.
07:55 But you just wish that people could be around to see all the, hear all the nice things people say about them and read the nice tweets that people write about them. them in the modern era and everything else. I can't think of anybody retiring in my lifetime where the on-air goodbyes or reactions from their co-hosts, like, did a better job of just sending them off. You know, I mean, the on-air responses from Charles and Kenny and Shaq were just things of beauty. I mean, just absolutely wonderful, heartful.
08:34 felt and Shaq even got into sort of his legacy as a journalist and why Shaq was, you know, wanted to work with with him in particular. But, you know, I mean, if you, if you want to, you know, what's the really broad review of his career? What's the, what's the first line of, of the O bit? I mean, to me, it's in a sports media world where everything is, where they're trying so damn hard to feel natural. Ernie Johnson was the one person who could truly do it.
09:15 Man, I totally agree. He never seemed to be trying too hard. No. I don't know if that's the fact that he was a second-generation guy. And second-generation announcers often, to me, feel comfortable in their own skin. and may have taken my guy Joe Buck a little while to get there as he would be the first to admit to you, but they just seem to know who they are and what they want to be.
09:45 Yeah. Ernie sitting there with Charles and Shaq and Kenny never felt like he was straining for anything or reaching for anything. No. At least like a couple times in episode, he'll say something under his breath in a way that like if you didn't have the perfect announcer voice that he'd, has, it would just be indecipherable, right? I mean, he's like, he's barely even projecting
10:10 to the camera. He's just being himself. It's a really, it's a really incredible affect when you step back and look at it. I was thinking about his affect, and it's, he's way more downbeat than just about anybody else who hosts a studio show. He's right down here in the Ernie Johnson octave, whereas everybody else is way up here. And that just kind of calms that whole show. show. Charles is at that same level. Shaq is definitely at that same level, maybe two levels below Ernie.
10:44 But it just allows that show to be both mesmerizing, highly watchable, scenery chewing at times, but also very relaxed. Yeah. That feels like that all flows out of Ernie. Mm-hmm. And just being so unique.
11:00 You mentioned his quality of being beloved. I was hitting up somebody in broadcasting today and said, like, who has an approval rating like Ernie Johnson's? Who has universal acclaim, as I say, on Wikipedia when they're talking about movies. And the only
11:18 comp I could come up with was Vince Scully when he retired. And Vinny just feels like he's from another planet. I mean, that planet is Brooklyn. But he, you know, he goes back to Jackie Robinson. Like, you know, he's he was the guy.
11:34 Every other announcer seems like they either have a big group of people on Twitter who just don't like them or hate them. Or they just stay too long because everybody in broadcasting stays too long. Absolutely. And even the people that love them start to grumble and say, hey, you know, he's lost his fastball. He's not the same guy I used to love 10, 20 years ago. Ernie feels like he's getting out at exactly the right time. Mm-hmm. Where everybody is on board.
12:02 everybody's there and he still got his fastball. Like he could do this another five years, ten years. And he'd be great at it. Yeah. He'd truly be great at it. Us is funny to think about when were people mad at Ernie Johnson? The only example I came up with was 2016 after Trump got elected. Do you remember this?
12:26 He went on TV and was like, I'm praying for our leaders and also praying for the people Oh, right. Who are on the outside looking in. I'm basically praying for everybody. And people are like, this is a good example of laying up and not saying why we're in this mess. I think that might have been it for Ernie.
12:45 Yeah. Maybe I missed something there. As I mentioned, he has a resume that the internet is predisposed to hate. His dad, Ernie Johnson, Sr. was an announcer at Turner after his baseball career. They worked together at the same time. Ernie was also a product of Turner in so many ways.
13:06 Remember when we were growing up and the main event felt like it was on NBC on Sunday when they would have a triple header? Yep. And Turner was bonus basketball. You got your main basketball. This is the bonus stuff that's happening during the week. Yes, 100%. And Ernie Johnson is the guy who's going to give that to you. but in a way
13:28 he became almost bigger than Turner Sports he wasn't just bonus guy he was the guy for a lot of people especially as ESPN bumbled around and failed to have a show that was half as compelling as inside the NBA yeah
13:44 I think I think it's probably as much as we love you know Troy and Joe and certainly you know the big big game announcers get a ton of attention We talked before about, like you said, like you were just alluding to, it's hard to be universally beloved in this day and age, just in general. I also think being a game announcer puts you in an unenviable spot because all of those people who are sitting at home saying you're rooting against my team are now have voices on social media.
14:19 And there's always going to be a thousand people that agree with you. And that makes it seem like a big deal. also social media in general distracts from game call in a way that not that it doesn't distract from you know other television shows but you kind of have to choose to watch inside the NBA you know and you could be listening like one quarter percent or percent one quarter of your brain could be paying attention to Troy Aikman Joe Buck you know um what really made inside the NBA work is that once they established themselves they became appointment television and people
14:49 sat down and stared at it you know and and those that didn't could catch the clips online, you know, people don't generally circulate short videos of game announcers unless it's to make fun of them, right? It's not because no one's like, look at the great, except for Troy Aikman's first year, I mean, except for Tony Romo's first year, I can't, I can't think of another time where someone's like, look at the good job that this color or play-by-play guy is doing. So, you know, regardless of what got him there, he found himself in a somewhat enviable spot, but that's all sort of separate from the fact that he's just, you know, he's one of one. It's really, it's really hard. You know, we talked to the other day about who should replace
15:31 him, and I stick by my, I'm sticking to my guns. I still think that Scott Van Pelt would be the, would be the easiest and best person to slide into that chair. But the more I've thought about it since, since he announces retirement, if they were determined to keep the show the same, there would be some sort of beauty and just put doing some, either putting someone, who's exactly opposite him in there, just like whatever up-and-comer that is just as the volume at 11 and just like, you know, visceral anxiety shooting out of their head,
16:00 just so the rest of the crew can just make fun of him all the time, you know, just to give him an easy target. Or just put someone who's actually bad, do like a Joe Millionaire bit and just put, put a fan in there reading, you know, just reading the teleprompter. Because it would really, it's really hard to, it's really hard to imagine that anybody's going to get in there
16:19 and do their job. I mean, part of the lure of SVP, I don't want to go too far off field, is that he seems to have a sort of emotional maturity that Ernie Johnson did from the very beginning. Would it be the same chemistry? It's impossible to tell. But literally everybody else on the leaderboard,
16:39 one would assume from inside ESPN, is at the opposite end of the emotional maturity spectrum. Right? I mean, it's just like every up-and-comer, and this is not a knock on them, but like everybody that that that that not just ESPN all these sports networks seem to like you know put a gold star on is it's antic energy you know it's just like can I mean it's in justifiably it's like well someone stop when they're scrolling through TikTok and watch this guy one for one second you know like it's that sort of stuff has value but does it have value to inside the NBA? I don't know it's striving energy is what it is yeah striving to have these moments on campus. camera to do something that isn't putting your ego in check.
17:25 And that, and that to me is part of his genius on inside. Like, dude, rightfully speaking in terms of just pure star power, that should be the Charles Barkley show. That's what it should be. Charles Barkley is one of the greatest sports television personalities of our lifetime.
17:40 You could argue he's like number two behind Madden. If we're just talking about just pure magnetism, pure I have to watch this, he's up there. Yeah. So you could absolutely. imagine that show where it's like, hey, you know, we're all standing in the corner waiting to shoot a three-pointer once in a while, and Charles is just chewing scenery.
17:57 But I think partly because of Ernie and also Barclay, that show is approaching, hey, we've got four guys here. And everybody's going to get their touches. And nobody's bigger than everybody else. We're all going to bust on each other. And again, you're just like, who's the announcer who could have replicated that? over the last 25 plus years that Barclay's been on the show. Who could have done that?
18:24 And I'd say the other part of the challenge is, I mean, that show is blessedly less formatted than so many studio shows. Where we're not, oh, highlight, now you talk, now I talk, it's just rolls into the night. Yeah. And we're going to do another segment,
18:40 another segment, and eventually we'll put up a funny picture on the screen or do Kenny's pictures and he gets a sprint across the studio. It takes real skill to do that. Yeah. And just be like, hey, man, we're kind of off-prompter here. We're just hanging out. That's hard.
18:57 That's very hard. You know, it's easy to be like, oh, but another, here's some Geico play of the week again. I think it's harder just to let loose and let those dudes run. Yeah. It's true. I mean, listen, I mean, it reps is one thing. You and I both know that like, anytime you've done any TV spot, as soon as you sit in the studio and the chair behind the table, you're just like, you, it feels,
19:19 like you're sitting on pins, you know? It's just like, how does this thing work? I've never sat in one of these things before, you know, but, and it was just so comfortable. I mean, he was literally looked like he was sitting on his couch at home, but he'd been doing it for so long, it makes sense. It's, it's, it's, it's, I mean, it's like what I said before. It's like everybody, everybody that's ever done a show or a podcast or any sort of broadcast has, has at some point said. I just wanted to feel like, you know, my friends having a conversation at the bar. And Ernie Johnson might be the only successful bartender in the entire sports media world. No pregame show has ever attained that quality, except inside the NBA.
20:04 Like, I love Game Day, which we're about to talk about. It doesn't feel like your friend's talking at a bar. No, not at all. I mean, it is interesting. I was thinking about this, too, if you look at the newer media landscape or the whatever, the more recent changes in the NBA media landscape. The players that they've brought in to Peacock and Amazon definitely have more of a inside vibe,
20:30 a low-key vibe. When you talk about Vince, yeah, Vince Carter, Tracy McGrady, Carmelo Anthony, I mean, just the most laid-back guys in the world. Blake, Dirk, Steve Nash, just a Eudanus. I mean, just a very sort of, very sort of, like a quiet confidence
20:49 to all of them. them, right? But, you know, as good as Maria Taylor and Taylor Rooks are, I mean, it's like, it's not, it's just hard to imagine, it's hard to imagine going out and trying to find somebody that's like Ernie Johnson, you know, there's just, there's just not, there's not a lot of Ernie Johnson's hanging around. And those players you mentioned, isn't it possible that they're doing inside the NBA, subconsciously or not?
21:17 Sure, I mean, like, we know, I mean, Carmel, I mean, Carmel, has. a podcast. Like we have a lot of, we know that that's sort of how he always is. I don't think anybody would accuse Dirk or Steve Nash of like putting on a character on the air or whatever. But yes, certainly. I think it's the, it's not necessarily that they're acting. It's that they're like is that inside the NBA has given them the structure or the confidence, the permission structure to not overdo it. Right. We can see what works. And what works is just sort of being yourself, you know, even if that's low key. Be in yourself. Let the show breathe. Like a podcast, as you say.
21:53 Remember a couple years ago when Daryl Morey had the Hong Kong incident? Yes. ESPN just went to absolute battle stations. We can bring our friend Zach Lowe on to talk about that sometime. I'd love to have some memories of what that was like inside the mother ship. It just so happened that inside the NBA was out here in L.A. a couple days later for their first show since the whole thing went down. And they had a media day.
22:24 And, of course, everybody's surrounding Barclay. It's L.A., so everybody's surrounding Shaq. And Ernie was kind of sitting off by himself in this restaurant. And I went and, you know, saddle up next to him. I was like, oh, I'll just talk to Ernie Johnson. How cool is this? And I was asking her about it. I was like, how do you guys approach a story like this,
22:41 which is so thorny and it feels so dangerous if you have money invested in the NBA and China and everything else. And he said, well, you know, we just said we were going to talk about it. We didn't like script it out or talk about what we would say in advance. We just went out and did it. And, you know, again, it's part of the magic of inside the NBA that you're like, of course Charles Barkley is just going to weigh in and say whatever he thinks about this. But at the same time, I don't think you could have discussions like that without knowing
23:13 Ernie is there to rein things in. to once in a while and its very gentle way say, Chuck, you're full of shit. Come on now. Let's not do that. And just pull it back.
23:25 Again, it's a very podcast ethic. It's not about don't say the wrong thing. It's like, say what you think. We'll pull you back if we need to. I mean, it's so basic, but to be able to have the brain to think on your feet
23:37 enough to like react appropriately to what someone says, you know? There's no, I mean, the number of media, of personas that would be allowed to just go on live television and just
23:49 feel their way through a subject like that is like a three-person list. I mean, it was inside the NBA in that case, and that was it. I refer you to lots of reporting about what happened inside ESPN. I was like, no, we're not going to wander out and talk about this
24:05 unless we abscess is scripted within an inch of its life. Ernie wound up doing a lot of jobs at Turner Sports. Somebody posted video of him doing play-by-play of the 2010 American League Championship series. Connor forgot that happened. I was trying to think of like,
24:22 what job would Ernie have done in television if it wasn't inside the NBA? Mm-hmm. And I actually thought less of sports jobs than hosting drive time on NPR. I absolutely believe he could have pulled that off. Absolutely. Just interviewed anybody.
24:42 Mm-hmm. Treated everybody very fairly and very humanely. Yeah. Talked about what was going on. Been that kind of real steady, familiar voice as you change lanes on your way home. Ernie Johnson could have done that. I'm not sure how many people in sports TV I could say that about.
25:00 I mean, I guess on some level you never know with with on-screen personalities that agree to which they are like editorially involved with the product, you know? I mean, like, there are certainly public-facing announcers. And there have been examples of this in the past that, you know, if they lost their voice, they could be the VP of whatever company they're working for or whatever, you know? But you just, you know, it's easy to imagine that there's a lot of empty suits out there, too. I mean, Ernie, you just sort of immediately assume that there is depth there. You know, you don't know what the depth is exactly.
25:34 You might not agree with all that depth. But, like, there's certainly some depth there. What's going to happen inside the NBA now? It's really interesting. I mean, so much of the story up to this point has been about Barclay and by extension about Barclay's relationship with Ernie. You know, I'm agreeing to stay this last time
25:53 supposedly because Ernie asked him to to kind of get the show off on a good footing, let people keep, let their employees keep their jobs, you know, a pretty valiant mission. But I think that the unspoken piece to all of that was not just about the job security of the cameraman, but also just the stability, like the,
26:14 corruptibility of the show? Like, ESPN has done an amazing job of not changing the show format-wise or in any other way at all. Would they have the same confidence? Would they be so willing? Could they resist staying away if you remove Charles, if you remove Ernie, you know, if you make any change at all? Because whoever replaces Ernie, if they try to keep it the same, I mean, it's the job of the
26:42 ESPN executives to give notes now, right? Like, they got to decide whether or not they or whoever made the right call to put the person in that chair. It's hard to imagine that it will stay an impenetrable fortress moving forward. I can't imagine. I mean, losing Ernie and Charles at the same time. Yeah. Like I said, in just pure monetary terms, television, stardom terms, Charles Barkley's a star. He is a star of Inside the NBA.
27:07 The show does a great magic trick every time out of convincing you that he's one of four, but he is a star of that show. So you can convince me that you could put in somebody like SVP, somebody who understands the job and keep it going as long as Barclay stays. And if this is yet another fake retirement, his 14th of them, if my count is correct. But if they both go, there's an interesting question of just, what are you buying? You're buying the name inside the NBA, not to diminish Kenny and Shaq,
27:40 but what is, you know, I just don't understand. It's very hard to imagine what that would be. And whether, by the way, those guys would want to do it. You know, it's like, Shaq's got a million businesses, I hear all the time. Like, is he going to want to come out and do stuff with strangers? Would they just show up for the NCAA? Jack has a show on ESPN and inside the NBA and probably spends more time on ESPN in commercial blocks than he does on his own show.
28:07 Yeah, no, I mean, I think that the, I think that, listen, we can't really fit. he booked this. But like if, but you know, in a very macro way, the smart move would be to, at a bare minimum, allow this to be the expansive show that it's been historically, right? Like, no matter what are the other NBA programming inside the NBA is going to be a place where you're like, where you're allowed to breathe, you're allowed to have conversations, you're allowed to adopt a tone that is not entirely over the top, you know, that's not reactionary, whatever. But again, once you take away Charles and Ernie, like, there's no, there's no way that notes creep doesn't happen.
28:47 Like, there's not, there's not just tweak and tweak and tweak until this is, it's like, how many times have I made the point? It's like everybody that starts a new, a new cable news show is like, this is going to be the one where people really have conversations, you know, like whatever. And then like five episodes in, no matter what they try, it's just two people yelling at each other. Somebody's yelling at Scott Jennings. Yeah, and, and it's like no matter how hard you try,
29:15 it's the hardest thing in the world and broadcasting is to be different. But ESPN executives, they would know what to do with an NBA pregame, a post game show, right? Oh, wait, they don't and wouldn't. And that's why they bought inside the NBA to fix their problem. Yeah, exactly. Just like they bought Joe and Troy to fix their problem. Yep.
29:33 Can I interest you in some studio host power rankings? Oh, yeah, please. Our lifetimes, here we go, roughly in order. Bob Costas for his lyricism, for making studio shows bigger than what the networks intended them to be. Mike Tariko, now doing Bob Costas' old job at the Olympics. I think you could put him on the today's show, tomorrow and he'd be fantastic.
30:06 Brent Musburger, chewing scenery like nobody's business on the NFL today. Chris Berman. Yep. Chewing scenery on ESPN. Chris Fowler, who is a ferociously good
30:20 pregame host and built college game day on ESPN much like Ernie built inside the NBA. Yeah. Kevin Burkart, who I am reminded every baseball postseason, that if he just did studio
30:35 instead of calling the NFL game of the week with Brady, he'd be great. Yeah. He might be the best. It's always funny to think about what his best skill is. Yes. Rebecca Lowe on soccer. Uh-huh.
30:48 Relatively new, at least here in the States, but she does a great job. Like, I think if you looked at all those people and you're like, what are their broadcast measurables versus Ernie Johnson? What is their DVOA? Yeah. it'd be higher. Sure.
31:05 They can do things that he can't do. Yeah. But if you're talking about what are your broadcast instincts, your sense of knowing what to do with the people that you are hosting a show with, and he's right at the top. It's true. He's right at the top. And as we discussed,
31:21 just part of his ability to kind of check the ego, to downshift, to make himself smaller when he needs to be smaller, it's unmatched. You know, the only person I would add to that list, is incredibly controversial. I only spent two years, I believe, as the NBA on NBC studio
31:38 ringleader, but Ahmad Rashad. As much, I know he's a punchline, and he is justifiably a bunchline in a lot of ways. If Ahmad Rashad came along today, he would be like bigger than Stephen A. Smith. I think you're going to say Jim Lampley for a second. No, no. And Amad had inside stuff, too.
31:55 Oh, he had lots of other broadcasts that weren't studio-centric, but he had an incredible ease to it in an era where nobody knew what that word meant. Speaking of people who can make themselves smaller when necessary, how about Pat McAfee? On Saturday morning, Game Day was in Utah for the University of Utah versus Houston. Utah, David, put up a video, a funny social media video where they interviewed people about McAfee.
32:25 These are people who were standing outside waiting to be on Game Day, just for the context here. Their comments, you can look up this video on social media, totally harmless. Bro, keep your shirt on kind of comments. Absolutely tweaking McAfee just like he tweaks people on the air. Well, McAfee whined about the video during game day. And then on Monday on his ESPN show, he doubled down. Did not enjoy University of Utah.
32:58 Did not enjoy it. I think everybody. Can't about a thousand. Yeah, can't all be great. Yeah, you're right. I guess that is true. You know why I didn't like it mostly? Right before I go out there, okay, right before I go out there, I see the University of Utah's Instagram page, okay?
33:16 The universities, this is, this is our universe, this is how we are. They put out of each, do an impression of Pat McAfee, and one kid goes, ah, he's corny. Another kid calls me creepy, okay? If these kids would have done this on their own blogs, all good. I mean, everybody's taking shots to me anyways for everything. I get it. If the two ladies that were hosting that put that out
33:38 on their own blog, I'd be okay with it. Hey, you're allowed to do with you. The university puts that out, like as I'm about to go out and do an infomercial for the place, and then I'm walking in front of thousands of these people, this is how the university feels about it. It's an uncomfortable feeling.
33:52 I'm like, this is, you know, I'm getting a lot of shrapnel from a lot of places. The university is putting this out. That is, something I just had never experienced really in my entire life. So it kind of sent me off a little bit. It made me feel a little bit weird, I would say, made me feel a little bit weird.
34:08 And then I thought to myself, has anything like really scary happened at like a college gathering in the state of Utah recently? Like, do we think we should be amplifying reasons for why people hate my guts? So we got from a video where Pat McAfee was called Corny and Creepy by Utah students to the assassination of Charlie Kirk
34:29 which also happened in the state of Utah at a completely different university. And as you can imagine, Utah took down the video. ESPN came and supported McAfee and said, hey, there have been some real safety concerns and issues here. But man, what are we doing, David? I don't.
34:51 How do we get to this place where this dude is on his show whining about a social media video? Well, it's fine on his shirt. I mean, like, whatever. If that had just been like a 30-minute rant on his show, maybe... Fine if he's going to Charlie Kirk? No, no, no, no.
35:08 I mean, I think that's over the top. But for him to be... But I think to me, the most... You're right. The Charlie Kirk thing is just, like, so beyond the pale. You know, you always want to think that when you... You always say when you reach a certain level of fame, he's only to keep the people around, you know,
35:24 who will call you on your bullshit. And he's, to some extent, seems to have done that. But, like, where's the person who is just like, on the most basic level, just like, what were you offended by? Like, what do you think you heard? And it seems like there's just some, like, incredible element of confusion on his part. Like, what offended him? Yeah.
35:43 If you're feeling persecuted, which he seems to feel all the time, this is not something to feel persecuted about. These are students having a good time. These are the same people that sit in the audience and cheer you or boo you depending on what you say. And I can't tell if he's being sincere. or not about the distinction between somebody's personal blog and the university itself. Who do you think is running the Utah Instagram account? Do you think it's just like a bunch of media bigwigs that are behind this thing?
36:15 Like, no, it's the kids who are on camera. Yes, and they put them on camera because what they were doing was completely harmless. Yeah, they're just like you're just doing kid stuff on like, you know, for your, it's like being a, like a college radio host or something like that. It's just so inconsequential. Pat McAfee, who works? The works the crowd is here. What do you feel about that?
36:36 Oh, he's a little corny. Oh, how dare you say that? I'm here for an infomercial. Yeah, that's another. The owning up to the infomercial stuff was great, too. Rarely do you hear a sports television program described in such blunt terms? Well, I think it opens up a really interesting line of questioning going forward. Like, if they ever go to a school where.
37:00 anything problematic has happened in the past 12 months or longer? Like, why is ESPN doing an infomercial for this problematic university? Right? We've admitted that it's an infomercial now. So why would you be giving them positive press? It's like, is this, is the entire existence of game day just sports washing to some extent? You know, like it's just, it's a really bizarre admission for an on-air talent to make. We've all been offended by things.
37:24 Maybe, maybe irrationally offended by things as public figures, a much low lower wattage than him, you know? But, dude, you've got to be able to just like steam, like, let the steam out of your ears in privacy for 30 minutes and move on with your life.
37:48 You know, like it's just to, what do you say? It's like people say, well, don't look at your mentions or whatever. Don't look at it. It's everywhere. It's just like, no, it's really not everywhere, man. If you've constructed a world in which this is everywhere, in which your only release valve is losing it on the air, then you've constructed your world wrong. You know? Especially if you're the host of Game Day.
38:09 Yeah. Game Day is about the crowd. Well, and it's about rivalry, too. Like, how are you not? How is it possible that 50% of the social media things aimed at you are not bad? Right? I mean, that's just sort of like, that's the very nature of the job. He has to pick a team at the,
38:27 the end of the show. And he's either going to pick the home team or the visiting team. And you know who did that before him? Lee Corso. And people were mad at Lee Corso or thought Lee Corso was corny and weird or whatever creepy or whatever the words were. And all those things. Yeah. This is the lifeblood of Game Day. And the fact that you're sitting there being like, hey, I get to screw with the crowd up here on the stage. But as soon as one of those people has a social media video that the university posts that says, I'm corny, I get to be offended, and then somehow I get to invoke an assassination that happened at a different university. Give me a freaking break, man.
39:10 And that's it. For all these problems to take it to the level of evoking Charlie Kirk, it's just like, it's just, there's a real problem here. You are smearing all these people. You may not think it. And again, I think you mentioned like sometimes you have to have thoughts in private. Pat McAvey's superpower is probably that he never has thoughts in private. Whatever pops into his brain, he just says.
39:38 That's the gift, right? There is no censorship. So I'm not sure that that's possible. But this is one of those instances. Whatever you feel about your own safety, whatever legitimate concerns there have been expressed by people inside ESPN, law enforcement, whomever. as soon as you say that, you were casting aspersions
39:58 on a whole bunch of people that were out there to watch your show, man? As soon as you invoke an assassination, like people that were just participating in a social media of a dude, I thought I was supposed to clown Pat McAfee. Wasn't that the assignment? Yeah.
40:13 Somebody put a microphone in my face. Other thing about this, Pat McAfee comes from the wrestling world. He's been wrestling. You know how this works, right? don't the evil wrestlers have lots of bad things said about them online and things that are scary and weird and personal? Mm-hmm.
40:30 And you go out and sit in the stand in the ring with a microphone and yell at the crowd even more and get them worked up. Like, he knows how this works. He should. I mean, listen, I was a huge fan of Pet McAfee in his work with WWE, not just because I'm a wrestling fan. I thought he did a really good job. Although when the anti-Maccafee noise from fans,
40:49 which, like, it's inevitable, right? everybody turns on every announcer, especially with Biggs personalities. When the anti-Machy sentiment sort of ramped up, he kind of took off. He made a comeback at the end as a straight-up heel. He was like a heel manager with wearing all-black and sunglasses and stuff. That didn't work very well, but that wasn't his fault. But then he just sort of pieced out again. So maybe he might get the premise.
41:13 He certainly enjoys the art form. But, you know, maybe the noise was too much for him there too. I have no freaking idea, man. It's a very, it's a, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's really hard to process, you know. And, and, and, you know, not for nothing. You said, like, he's casting aspersions, you know, and he is, you know, and then all those kids on tape thought they were doing anything wrong. They didn't set out to do anything wrong.
41:39 And now he's talking, he's comparing them to assassins, but. Well, at least just, let's just say invoking the assassination, right? I don't know if he's comparing them. I guess, yeah, it could be raising the temperature of whatever. But yeah, you're, but you're blaming them for something that they clearly weren't doing and and and you know not for nothing it's not the first time that he's you know run a college kid's name through the mud so uh i don't really know where like i don't know that he's got a lot of ground to stand on from this whole thing let's pull back the reins for one second because i want
42:08 to have some secular grace for pat maccuffy if that's possible i should i do think it's important to frame it like i have all the we both have all the secular grace for him in the world and i think the vast majority of our Pat McAfee segments are just like, you know, or largely forgiving, you know, or laudatory. Oh, yeah, but of course he will not remember those. So let's just underline the secular grace here if it's possible. Sure. Number one, we always talk about how Pat McAfee has replaced Stephen A. Smith
42:37 as the most powerful announcer in ESPN history. He has also replaced Stephen A. Smith as the guy you cite when you're mad at whatever you think ESPN has turned into. Correct. He's that guy. It's not easy to be that guy. Again, legitimately putting myself in his,
42:57 you know, sleeveless shirt for a second, it's not easy to be that dude. And if you're mad that Pat McAfee is all over ESPN's airwaves, you should be mad at ESPN bosses. Because Pat didn't make out the run sheets. They have chosen to do that. So that's one bit of secular grace. Number two, the safety concerns.
43:16 I am sure they are very legitimate. I'm sure they worry him. I'm sure they worry his family. I don't want to drag Mina Kimes into something she has nothing to do with. But every time I see Mina vaporizing some racist creep on Twitter, I'm like, just imagine the 5,000 people she is not quote tweeting right now. Yeah. Who are in her mentions.
43:41 Like you and I will just never, ever understand what it is like to be, you know, to have those kind of messages come to you all the time. You're right. You're absolutely right. And the Utah thing might have been a minuscule straw that broke the camel's back. And, you know, the load of straw might have all been very legitimate. But the reaction was just aimed inappropriately. But I do agree with your larger point there.
44:05 And he had that long-form tweet last night where he said, you know, he was talking about the Charlie Kirk assassination. And he said the next game day after that, which I guess was at Tennessee, it was suggested, that maybe he wear a bulletproof vest, he's working out in public in a way that a Stephen A. Smith or somebody like that is not some legitimate concerns. Again, secular grace, underline all of that.
44:26 But you have to understand that when you are talking about people in the video and then you're talking about a really, really awful and serious subject than next, you're smearing people by extension. You are, and you're just, again, you're just missing the premise of the show. Actually, it was funny. I love Game Day, as you know.
44:44 I love old game day and I love new game day in you umlaut I was up at 6 a.m. on Saturday morning maybe it was about like 607 and I rewound to the beginning of the show because I love the open where it's like Reese Davis there's another by the way great studio guy
45:02 does that like old-fashioned dramatic studio narration and then they do come into Yostita and then they have the actual game day theme song and then they come to the set and they have this new format where Pat just cuts a promo, as I say, in wrestling for like several minutes at the beginning of the show. And we asked Reese Davis about this, Kurt Goldsbury and I did. When I was in Austin, I was like, what's the deal with that?
45:26 You know, is that like in the script or how do you even note that? It's just Pat talks. Yeah. Is what he said. Pat speaks. And away we go. And I'm watching it. And he was kind of already annoyed in that promo.
45:39 I didn't know for what, but he was already annoyed. It was still really good. It was incredibly good. The thing is, though, it just, it has changed game day in a way. From an inside the NBA show like show where everybody is seen as co-equal to a show where one guy is right at the top, just saying what's on his mind while everybody else is standing in the corner waiting to shoot a three-pointer. Yeah.
46:06 That's the difference. And he's mad at the Jerry Brewer. He's one of the nicest guys in the world who writes with the athletic because he wrote a column saying, that. That hasn't ruined game day. It's just changed game day. Jerry Brewers right. Yeah.
46:22 All right, before we get out of here, let's talk some election. Yeah. Shock poll yesterday from South Carolina. Darlene Graham, sister of Lindsay Graham, 4848 with Annie Andrews.
46:36 Is this the Democrats dare to dream segment of the election? I mean, there's a great study to do on Darlene Graham about, you know, we always talk about the advantage of incumbency. And Darlene Graham is like literally non-existent except for an inherited incumbency, right? I mean, there's like, there is nothing positive to be said. Or negative.
47:03 There's nothing to be said about Darlene Graham, except for the fact that she was Lindsay Graham's sister. And she's still pulling, she's still running even. That's pretty impressive. But it's, you know, at South Carolina, obviously about as red as you can get. And as good a candidate as Annie Andrews is, it's still got to be shocking, you know? Totally shocking that they're there. But as you say, she is like, she's not a known quantity. She's never run statewide in South Carolina.
47:30 And again, Trump was the one who wanted her in that spot. So here we go. Also quickly out this morning, CNN, Adam Hamilton of four points in the Kansas Senate race. That is a real, I'll believe it when I see it kind of election, just like Texas. But holy moly, if that's right, James Talleyco up six in that same poll. These are CNN polls, 49-43, Troy Jackson, up four in Maine, and Abdul El-Sayed up 49-42 in Michigan. By the way, once upon a time, he called it that he was going to win by seven points. Really?
48:03 He did. See the future, too. So if that holds up. I love that, by the way, the El-Sayad thing, I love that there's just still these just inane establishment liberal, quote-unquote, liberal voices out there that are just trying to compare his lead to the national average. If he wins and somehow wins by less than what the blue wave predicts, there's going to be so many people that they're saying, y'all, let's see you that just shows you he was a bad candidate. I mean, I just can't imagine, I mean, the degree of bad faith
48:32 inherent in these subjects. I mean, it's just, it's like, it's like, it's like going to watch your kid's soccer game and you just like pick out a kid and trip him every time he comes by. See, he's not that good of a player, you know? It's like it's just so, it's just so bad faith. And I think everybody knows it. It's like Haley Stevens would have won by nine points. Yeah, Haley Stevens, who won't say Abdul Sade's name in when looking him a lukewarm endorsement. She did yesterday, by the way, and just said it in the most awkward possible way when she went on to talk about how her fiancé is voting for Mike Rogers.
49:09 Well, you can Google her fiancé, but, you know, if you want more information on the subject, We won't go into it here. But yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, I can't imagine, listen, I don't want to get conspiratorial about this, but like, it is in her best, it would be in her best interest to be a team player here, right? And just in, in a, in a, in a, like, generic political landscape, right? There is like, there, there is, there's really no downside to this. Um, you can even, like, have carve outs for your massive disagreements and stuff like that.
49:43 You've seen how nimbly El Cayed and Barack Obama, you know, glossed over El Ceyed's past statements on the ex-president. The fact that she's not willing to do it, it just feels like, like, it's not a measure of her disapproval of him as a person or a candidate. There's others, there's, there's a much, there's something stronger going on, you know. There is like somebody, there is somebody like, I don't want to say holding a gun to her, it's really inappropriate. but there's somebody like that's just whatever advice she's getting is just so divorced from reality. It's ridiculous. You can say the same thing about Jasmine. She has.
50:24 Jasmine Crockett in Texas. Yeah. Like if James Tala riko wins, then what? Mm-hmm. Now maybe, maybe you know, maybe you think James Talarico is going to lose and then you'll be the person to say, see, I told you so. I told you not to nominate the progressive. Told you to nominate the centrist and win by a few more points. I don't know.
50:43 I don't know. But again, there's literally nothing, I mean, like, from a political point of view, you know, a political career point of view, there's nothing to be lost by, like, being, by rah-raying next to the dude, the whole way through. That's what usually happens, right? Even when there's a big hug and we did it,
50:58 and how many times have Bernie Sanders done that in his career? Yeah. I'm not sure that either of the people we're talking about would take any advice from Bernie Sanders. I don't think so. All right, sound for David Chewmaker, I guess is the strain pun headline. Yeah.
51:14 Today's headline, David, comes to us from the New York Post. Okay. From the back page, the sports section. It's a story about Jorge Posada. Remember Jorge Posada? Of course, yeah. 90s Yankees. Well, he feels unwelcome right now.
51:33 Cannot come back to team events. Should be, you know, sitting there getting cheered by the crowd at Yankee Stadium. Jorge don't feel that way. What was the New York Post? strain pun headline. You're going to go with Pasada here. I know. Because you called him Jorge.
51:52 I immediately went to that. Pasada. He's not wanted. We don't want it. Posada non grata? There we go. Pasada non grata. That's a hell of a headline.
52:04 That's a great one. That's a great. There's some like potato pasada pun or something in there that could be used for another subject. You say Pasada. I say Pasad. All right. He's David Chewbaker. Brian Curtis, or otherwise known as Joe Buck and Troy Eggman,
52:18 but Xim Magic. By Steve Olman and John Jones. Thank you, gentlemen. The October issue is up right now. Check that out. It went up Tuesday. Interviews with Michael Connolly and Chris Ryan. Two of the preeminent detective novelists of our time.
52:34 But a genre that I love and David loves very much, the detective novel. Please subscribe to my newsletter. Now they tell us I've got a new story up today about the joys of reading aloud to your kids. So, so good. So good. Thank you so much. Pressbox Ringer at Gmail if you need to reach us. On Instagram, we are at PressBox Ringer.
52:52 We can see David's amazing cover for the October issue. That went up on Tuesday as well. David, I will see you out of costume on Monday, the day before the election where we will have a full preview of Tuesday's night's action. Teaser, spoiler, preview of that episode. Nobody knows anything. Thank you, William Goldman, for that. We will also have more. lukewarm takes about the media. See you then, David.
53:17 See you later, Brian.