The Sheet with Jeff Marek - On the Sheet: Stephen Brunt

Episode Date: December 19, 2024

Stephen Brunt joins Jeff Marek to discuss his new series, Up Close, working for Keith Pelley, the current landscape of sports media, and much more...____________________________________________________________________________________________Up Close with Stephen BruntApple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/trailer/id1784718713?i=1000680017895Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0qQNAp0eleA4H3vuuWOZWp?si=196f81830f374255Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.ca/podcasts/1285b1e8-82fd-4d00-ae34-f48d596dd1ce/up-close-with-stephen-brunt____________________________________________________________________________________________Reach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us!If you liked this, check out:🚨 OTT - Coming in Hot Sens | https://www.youtube.com/c/thewallyandmethotshow🚨 TOR - LeafsNation | https://www.youtube.com/@theleafsnation401🚨 EDM - OilersNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Oilersnationdotcom🚨 VAN - CanucksArmy | https://www.youtube.com/@Canucks_Army🚨 CGY - FlamesNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Flames_Nation🚨 Daily Faceoff Fantasy & Betting | www.youtube.com/@DFOFantasyandBetting____________________________________________________________________________________________Connect with us on ⬇️Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/daily_faceoff💻 Website: https://www.dailyfaceoff.com🐦 Follow on twitter: https://x.com/DailyFaceoff💻 Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dailyfaceoffDaily Faceoff Merch:https://nationgear.ca/collections/daily-faceoff Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at one you need, whenever you need it. Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca. Here he is, Stephen Brunt, who is fronting a new podcast called Up Close. Here is Stephen Brunt on the sheet. Stephen, thanks so much for stopping by. It's full media tour for you.

And first of all, congratulations on the new podcast. Really enjoyed the first part. Listened this morning with Keith Pelley. I mean, a lot of it is sort of immediate. And the part about if they didn't land the gatekeeper deal for Sportsnet, that might have been the end. And I thought to myself, I would have been out of a job even before I was out of a job. But nonetheless, when you...

Me too. All of us at the old shop. If we could just sort of focus on that one moment specifically, I want to detour to some other things that you've done and how influential you've been on me. But first, I can recall where I was specifically when we heard the news, that tweet from Bob McKenzie at TSN, which was essentially TSN publicly throwing in the towel saying that Rogers got the entire deal. I was on the second floor doing a regional game was me and John Shannon and both of our jaws hit the ground.

It was one of those, where were you like when you're in our industry, it's one of those, where were you when do you recall where you were when you first heard the news yeah maybe i'm getting that maybe my time zones are wrong jeff but i thought i it was one of those ones where the clock radio went off you know the alarm went off and the radio came on and and and i heard it there and i went whoa yeah um so maybe maybe i'm off but that's where that's that's my memory and and i knew look we all knew the negotiations were going on and um they kept it pretty close to the vest though right like no one was none like people were telling us what they were up to but yeah i remember and again i i'd come over to sports net just before that uh full

time from the globe i was kind of at a foot in both camps for a while but i'd come over just before that and i knew you know scott moore keelley, they had kind of grand plans for Sportsnet at that point. But yeah, that was, I'll tell you, my biggest, my most vivid memory of that time, though, was the night, I don't know if it was the night, exactly the night of the day when they got the deal done. It must have been, maybe it was the next day. But a bunch of those guys, so Keith and Scott Moore

and a bunch of other people who used to be our masters over at Sportsnet, gathered at a bar over on Church Street, not far from where the Rogers campus were to celebrate. And yeah, it was a scene. And I also, look, I've got really good friends at TSN. You know, I worked, I did a lot of work for TSN. And those guys, I know friends of mine were out in, the Grey Cup was in, I think in Regina. Was it Regina? I thought it might have been Winnipeg. They it Winnipeg? Was it Winnipeg?

I thought it might have been Winnipeg. They were west. Yeah. And they had a dinner, right? So they always have a big dinner with all the TSN executives there at the Grey Cup. And they, you know, they were drinking really good wine. And they, their thing all blew up. Like their phones all blew up at the same time. And they found out about it over that dinner at the Grey Cup.

So I heard the other side of it from the TSN guys. But yeah, it was, it was like, Holy smokes. And, you know, and a little bit, it's like, you know, it's like the dog that catches the car, right? Like, okay, what are you doing? What do you do now? You know, that was, um, I mean, such a revolutionary, I mean, we don't, we have no idea what the next deal is going to look like. I think we're all throwing darts and I think Amazon's a wild card in, in, in all of you know, the gatekeeper idea was a pretty interesting one for Canada. And, you know, I don't know where this is going to head. But when you look at that format of a deal, I don't know that we're ever going to see that again.

There are just too many people that want to be involved i think the nhl looks at what they have stateside and perhaps looks at this and says it may make more sense to sort of piece things off differently than we did before like do you think that might have been like the the the only deal of its uh of its kind in in in in in sports history in Canada? It's hard to imagine. Like, look, number one, like the environment is really crazily different right now. It's so different, yeah. Well, like, look, there have been reports

that TSN and some of the Bell properties may be on the block right now, that Bell is going to divest itself at some of its media properties. So let's start with that. And again, I'm being told that's true from people who seem to know things. So that's a huge that. And again, I'm being told that's true from people who seem to know things. So that's a huge sea change.

Obviously, they've given up their stake in Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment. So it kind of lines up with that. Who knows what the future of the CBC is going to be beyond the next federal election? The election, yeah, that's the big one. And that was a huge piece of it is that Rodgers could do that deal with CBC.

CBC needed the content to fill up the spring, all of those playoff games, because otherwise they would have had to produce other content to fill that space and did that kind of ad swapping deal where they got no revenue, but they could promote their shows. I don't think that's going to exist. And then you have the streamers who are all sticking their toes in right now on live events or beyond that. We've seen Amazon get into hockey and I, yeah, I, I don't, I don't know if anybody wants all the inventory at this stage. But I also don't know, Jeff, I don't know who the bidders are.

Like I, I honestly, like at that point it was Bell V. Rogers, sort of CBC, but they were really out of it. And, you know, they were going to kind of CBC, but they were really out of it. They were going to carve the Canadian hockey market up between themselves. It's different now. I'm fascinated to see how it plays out. Let me ask you about Keith Pally. The first podcast is with Keith. I said, full of transparency, him and Scott were the two that brought me from CBC to SportsCenter.

I was going back and forth with TSN. I remember getting the call from Maury just out off the plane in London. He said, I understand the deal is not done. Call TSN back and tell them it's over right now and then call me back. And I'm like, well, there goes my leverage. He says, do you trust me? And I was like, he's the guy that brought me to CBC in the first place. And he lays the do you trust me line on me, Steve. I'm like, oh, okay, fine.

So anyway, that's my my background with with keith pelly what makes keith intriguing to you like i've always been fascinated with keith because he dips his beak in a lot of different fountains and he always has been that guy to me that's fascinating what is interesting uh about keith pelly to you well first of all look we were lucky to get to work for those two guys yeah 100 true yes scott moore and keith pelly to you well first of all look we were lucky to get to work for those two guys yeah 100 true yes scott moore and keith pelly like that the two two best bosses i'm ever gonna have in my life so um i i feel really blessed to work with both those guys um and both were very you know as you say scott brought you over and scott hired you at

cbc you know same thing with me like they were both guys who were very important in terms of my career and really supported me and you know i know, I love them. Um, I've known Keith forever, uh, like since he was a truck producer at TSN back in the day and, uh, seen him through his different, you know, and we ran like, you know, we ran the Olympic torch relay together out of Newfoundland. Like he's a, you know, his, the Pellies are from, or that's the Newfoundland name. He's from the West land where I live in the part of the year. And, you know, we ran through the streets of Cornerbrook and Pasadena, Newfoundland with the torch in 2020,

10 coming or coming up to 2010. You know what? I love, I don't know what we call it. Like I call, let's call it TV for the sake of argument. Cause I'm not sure, but people who make TV and then end up running,

you know, networks running like, cause it's not, not everybody, like a lot of people who end up running networks, running – because it's not everybody. A lot of people who end up running television networks or, again, whatever we want to call them now, content machines, are accountants or lawyers. They're not people – they're not creatives. And they're capable people.

They can do stuff I can't do. Sure. But Keith is a creative. He came out of it. He made TV you know he worked in the truck he produced games he produced games for TSN and then he produced NFL games for Fox

and NFL Europe for Fox then he came back and ran TSN and then he ran the Olympic Consortium ran the Argonauts but at the core of him was this kind of enthusiasm and I'd say the same thing about Scott by the way this kind of joy and kind of let's, let's have fun. Let's put on a show. Let's what, let's try it. Let's try this thing. Like that never, that never has left him. And it's, you

know, it's great if you're the guy on the other end saying, Hey, I've got this idea, you know, what do you, what do you think? You know, that, that essay I did in 2010 at the end of the Olympics with Matt Dunn, the great producer. But, but that was one of those things right where we kind of had this half-formed idea and ken volden who's tsn was involved in it and then took it to keith who's running this massive operation you know and all these things have been planned for months and and he said go for it give it let's give it a shot and then when he we did it he showcased it and you know put it in the most prominent place in the broadcast. It could have been changed my life, you know?

So that's Keith, right? Uh, and he's still that guy. Like, you know, I was talking to him about running the European golf tour in the middle of the live thing with the Saudis and, you know, like he's, you know, it's tough. And he always lands. The other thing is that Jeff, you may have noticed this. He always lands on his feet. He always lands on his feet. He always lands on his feet. Oh,

a hundred percent. He's, he's the road runner. Like he is, he, he is the road. It doesn't matter what the coyote does. He is landing on his,

that is a hundred percent Keith Belly. Totally. I want to swing back to Pelly here in a couple of seconds, but I mentioned something off the top of the show. You know, the show. You know, the show's got my name on it. So I feel like I should give something of myself as often as I can.

One of the most influential sports books I ever read, I read when I was, what I'm in 16 or 17 years old. And that's mean business. I had always loved boxing and I've always felt that great sports writing. Let me frame it like this. Great sports writing allows you to love something you already love, but in a different way and makes you love it that much more. And Mean Business, the story of Sean O'Sullivan, a Canadian boxer, both made me love boxing and made me hate boxing at the same time. And I've always maintained that one of the great things about sports is hating sports, that you're allowed to have your full kaleidoscope of emotions involved all at the same time.

I know a lot of leagues don't like to want to pretend that, you know, hate watching isn't a thing or hating your sport isn't your thing. But I think it allows you to be a fan that much more longer because you're fully emotionally invested in it and all of your feelings are valuable. Reading that book changed the way I looked at all of sports and specifically boxing. And from there, I think I picked up A.J. Liebling and then read Joyce Carol Oates later on boxing, all of it, right?

But at the beginning of all of that, like the first domino for me was mean business. Was there a mean business for you? Was there one book or one documentary or something, Stephen, that you read or saw or a conversation you had where you just said, I thought I knew this, but I don't? Boy, that's a good, number one, thanks for mentioning the book.

Like that's the- I love that book. First book I ever wrote, didn't know what I was doing. And I'll just tell you, I'll tell you a little story then. Well, I'm going to try and think about the other thing, but, um, you know, that book. So I, I'd literally, I'd, you know, I'd, I'd never, I'd never written a book and I was at the globe. Then I was, uh, the sports columnist at the globe and I love boxing. Although it's look, if you're sentient, you know, you've got to be ambivalent about boxing. There's terrible things.

It's economically exploitive. It's incredibly dangerous. The tragedies, and Sean O'Sullivan is one of those tragedies. They're there, right? No one's making that stuff up. So you're always kind of straddling a line if you like the fights because um, because you, you see the other side of it, but you know, he was on a roll.

He'd, you know, he went into the 84 Olympics in LA. He is a gold medal favorite. Yeah. He was kind of a golden boy. People who hated, you know,

who wouldn't go watch boxing would go watch him because he was the clean cut kid from Cabbage Town and all that stuff, or, or boxed out of Cabbage Town. He's from Leaside. And, uh,

you know, and, and then they had a big showcase fight for him in Toronto against a guy named Simon Brown. It was a, went on to win a world title. It was on NBC. And this was the big showcase for O'Sullivan. Like Simon Brown was an afterthought. And I've got this book, you know, and I've got an agent and they bring in, invite all these publishing people and they buy them tickets to sit in like ringside.

And as you know, people know, history like shauna selden got shelved right he was way over his head and took a beating and that fight was stopped in the third round i think it wasn't close and it was like you know you could see the you know things with dollar you know like dollar bills with uh wings on them flying away right like this is over it's over um but one guy one publisher who was there, who was running Penguin at that time, a guy named Morty Mint, never forget it. He, you know, because I kind of thought, you know, geez, this story, like no one's going to want this book, but the story is completely different now.

And, you know, they built this guy up and then they got him beat. And, you know, with the Ray Leonard part of it, it was behind the scenes and a Mike Traynor and all these people like, well, there's something else here now, but I'm not sure anybody's going to want that book. And he said, yeah, let's do that book. So it turned into a completely different book. And I owe him a lot. And again, there's parts of it, if I was writing it now, I'd probably do it a little bit differently.

But it did take me down a completely different rabbit hole than I thought I was going down. I learned a ton. But in terms of books. If you're looking for flexible workouts, Peloton's got you covered. Summer runs or playoff season meditations, whatever your vibe, Peloton has thousands of classes built to push you. We know how life goes. New father, new routines, new locations. What matters is that you have something there to adapt with you, whether you need a challenge or rest.

And Peloton has everything you need whenever you need it. Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca. You know, like I, sports books, and you you mentioned it's funny you mentioned liebling because um people probably there's very few people listening to this right now who probably know who a.j a.j liebling was um you know he did marvelous writer yeah great writer he wrote

about food and he wrote about paris and he wrote about boxing famously in this in the sweet science and some other essays for the New Yorker magazine. There's actually a book of his called The Telephone Booth Indian, which is a series of essays that are not about sports mostly. And, you know, that's one, I've probably read that book 20 times. Not, you know, not that I wanted to be or could be A.J. Liebling. And, you know, some of his stuff now is dated in a way. You read it and you say, boy, you know, some of his stuff now is, is dated in a way you read it and you say, boy, I, you know, that, that's not the language people would use in the 21st century. Um, but as a, as a reporter, you know, as an observer, as somebody who was willing to listen to people and kind of capture stuff. Yeah.

He absolutely one of my writing heroes and reportorial heroes, but you know, like, look, my number one hero is a guy, the guy who I idolized in the business and tried to model myself after, not necessarily as a writer, but in terms of how he comported himself, was Milton El, who was the great columnist at the Toronto Star. And I got to work with him at the end of his career. You know, he wrote way into his 80s. And I was a kid. And we would sit next to each other, spit like at the fights. Um, I remember we were at the Leonard Hagler fight, you know, and wrote. Oh, best. And I thought Leonard, I thought Leonard won.

He thought Hagler won. He may have been right, but I would sit with Milt, you know, and he had this incredible kind of, he, like he, he was there for Bobby, the shot heard around the world, Bobby Thompson. Like he was at all these amazing events, you know? And I'd say something would happen. like the night Tyson fought Spinks and like all hell broke loose. I remember I'd say to him, have you ever seen anything like this before? And he's very quiet guy,

you know? Um, and he'd say, well, yes. And then he'd spin off something that happened like 50 years before. But you know, you know, Jeff, he, he always, he worked on, we were all deadline warriors in those days, right? You had the printing press dictated when you had to have your story in and you know, he would be an 85 year old guy sitting next to me and, you know, climbing. I remember the night after that, like after that Tyson Spinks fight, which was crazy and confusing and all kinds of stuff. And him watching this old man climb over a table to get to the press room, to get to the phone so he could file a story on deadline, man.

That's awesome. The ultimate pro. And his last column, a guy written for 60 years. And I'll tell you, a lot of lesser people have written the My Life in Sports column at the end and said, you know, me, me, me. He wrote a column about Larry Walker, who was kind of the story of the day that day filed it and said i'm done he's he's he's my hero you know i've all uh it's interesting that you talk about the relationship you know you can't be ambivalent about boxing and i'm of the same mind and maybe it's because we still have i don't know 98 percent

chimp dna in us like i don't like there's a reason like i got a chimp like over my shoulder here like that's i'm still closer to that so than any fully evolved species um but i've always looked at boxing and it is confusing and mma is kind of the same way as well i think part of the attraction for me is it's a sport that exists without metaphor and i think that's what makes it so distinct everything that you say you want to do is exactly what you want to do there are no metaphor it's it's only because there's some of the most but some of the most beautiful writing in sports is around boxing but at its heart it is an event that doesn't have metaphor and you've written um plenty about boxing facing Ali is one of my favorites I'm going to get back to your podcast here in a second, but I just want to bring up one thing.

I love the chapter on Ernie Shavers, who to me, boxing is full of tragic heroes, and here's a guy that could punch harder than anybody. Ernie landed one, you're counting the lights. You are counting the lights

if Ernie catches you. I read it again. I pulled it out. I'm like, okay, Stephen's coming on. I'm going to go back to my favorite chapter in Facing Ali. Someone sent me a text today saying, ask Stephen about meeting Muhammad Ali.

I got that text this morning. Do you have that story handy? Yeah, I do. I'm going to reference something you just said, which is you say about metaphor. Have you ever noticed how you, I'm going to just, I'm going to reference something you just said though, which is you say the, you know, the, about the, about metaphor. Have you ever noticed how often other things are compared to boxing though? Like that? Absolutely.

Like it's, it's like, it's, it's the kind of the ermyth, right. And people, you know, like if you're watching a football game and say, well, this is like too heavyweight slugging it out or, you know, feel or feeling they're feeling them out. Like the first round of a big fight, like it becomes the, the point of comparison for everything because of, you know, I, when I say it's pure, people are going to take that the wrong way. Cause Lord knows it ain't pure, but there is, there is kind of a purity and there is a direct connection to the lizard brain as you, as you, uh, mentioned that's a hundred percent true, but yeah, all things are compared to boxing. Um, and, uh, you know, Joyce Carol Oates, that's, I thought she

got a little too far from that part of it, to be honest. But anyway, that's me. Ali. Yeah. There's, it's a, it's one of the, you know, I look again, one of the things Milt always taught me, I learned from Milt was that you don't write about yourself, right? You never use the I word. And I, I, I wrote one personal story in the entire time I was at the Globe and Mail, which

I was there for 27 years. And I wrote one story where I used the word I, and it was about, I took, I was going down to Chicago to a wedding, actually a wedding where a buddy of mine who was in the boxing business, Lennox Lewis was one of the groomsmen. And so was I, and, uh, we were heading back and I knew, I knew a guy named Davis Miller who wrote a book called the Tao of Muhammad Ali, which is a cool book. And he had kind of become, you know, he, he had posts with Ali and his family and, you know, had been in Louisville a lot and had a relationship. And he told me that, you know, Ali's got this, he lives in Berrien Springs, Michigan, which is, uh, you know, kind of, uh, just the, the kind of the, on the Michigan

side of the border with Illinois coming back or Indiana. And, uh, it's got a big farm there. And he said, look, it's, he said, it's crazy. People show up from all over the world and they just, they, they, you know, they go to his gate and he lets them in and he sees them because he likes to see people. He likes being Ali, even though, and you know, and this is, you know, he wasn't in good shape, uh, even then, but he likes being Ali.

He likes having people around him. And so we were driving back. My, my kids were my two sons. My daughter wasn't born yet. My two sons were, back. My kids were, my two sons, my daughter wasn't born yet. My two sons were, you know, one was, my oldest son was probably five years old. My youngest kid was two, or second kid was two. And my wife and we were driving. And I said, I said, wait, you know, why don't we, let's, you know, we're driving home. I'm like, why don't we take a shot? So who knows, right? So we do, we pull off. So I saw the sign for Berrien Springs,

Michigan, right? So we drive into Berrien Springs. We go to a gas station. I said, hey, who knows? Right. So we do, we pull off. So I saw the sign for Berrien Springs, Michigan. Right. So we drive into Berrien Springs. We go to a gas station. I said, Hey, you don't know where Muhammad Ali lives, do you? He said, Oh yeah, right down there, you know, down the road. So you'll see, he said, you can't miss it. It's a big gate. So we drive down the road and, um, and there's this big gate and it's locked and there's a little buzzer, like a, with a little, one of those kind of, you know, punched out name

things. And it says M Ali. little buzzer, like a, with a little, one of those kind of, you know, punched out name things. And it says M Alley. So, so I pushed the buzzer and, uh, the, a woman's voice answers on the other end. And she said, uh, yeah, who is it? And I said, uh, hi, I'm, uh, I'm from Canada and, uh, I'm a fan and, you know, I've been a fan all my life, which is true. And, you know, um, I, I just wanted to say hello and, uh, and the gate swings open, like the automatic gate swings open. So we drive in and, uh, this big, long kind of driveway and get up to the house. And there's a bunch, there's another car full

of people leaving who are from Germany, uh, which tells you kind of how things are. And, um, I walked up. So the, the older, my two kids came with me at first and, and, uh, you know, it's still kind of a toddler-y kid, though. And Ali's wife, Lonnie, was there, and she was making lunch for him in the kitchen with her mother. And she said, oh, yeah, he's in the TV room. Go say hi. And Ali was sitting in a big kind of leather chair watching TV, and I sat down next to him. And, you know, and it was, you know, like, again, he wasn't, and I met him, I ran into him a couple of times after that.

And, you know, look, he wasn't overly verbal. He was not the Ali that we remember. Sure. But he did say to me, he said, how do you, you know, why, you know, how do you know about me or where do you know about me from? And I started talking about Toronto and Shavalo and, you know, watching him fight Henry Cooper on Wide World of Sports and, you know, all this stuff. Right. And, and, and and meanwhile my kid's playing with his remote control like and screwing up his tv um which was which was great as well so

uh and then we um you know I didn't want to stay too long like it kind of felt like geez I'm in somebody's you know tv room and it's Muhammad Ali and holy smokes so I said look I'm gonna go thanks so much and we walked out and he came out with us and out to the driveway and he was, you know, moving very, you know, deliberately because of the Parkinson's symptoms that he had. And, uh, my wife was there with our, our, uh, our younger, the younger kid in, you know, babe

in arms basically. And, and, uh, Lonnie came out and they just adopted a kid, their son Assad, who, you know, would be the same age as my middle kid now, like in, you know, they're in his mid thirties. And so they had this little same age kid and, you know, Lonnie handed him to Ali and Ali kind of held him, but then he kind of, you know, it was, it was tough. And then he handed him back over, but the, the, the, the moment. So my son, my, my oldest son then was in kind of a knights in armor phase so if you've had kids you know it's one of the phases kids go through right yes it is he had plastic swords and all this stuff so he had this plastic sword and he brought it out and he

wanted to show it to ali and he was doing and ali took the sword from him and you know kind of did a weird little sword fight thing and then he said to him he said he said i'm gonna i'm gonna show you something you know i'm gonna i'm gonna i'm gonna do a trick for you and he said step back so we all step back a little bit and he did this trick which you know i only had a bunch of kind of weird party tricks he could do kind of cricket noises and he could throw his voice but he did this it's a levitation trick you know and it's a weird kind of trompe l'oeil thing, right? Like, uh, it, where he raises off one foot and then the other foot. And, and by, if you stand in a certain place, it looks like he's lifted off the ground, you know, it looks like he's three feet off the ground and he did

it and it was fantastic. And my, and my son, you know, and I remember my kids saying, you know, that man, he could fly that, that man could,. That man could, you know, how did he fly? And I just said, well, you know, it's magic. As it was, right? We're talking about this weird beam of light coming down right now. I know that feels kind of ethereal. Let me hang on a second. No, this is good.

We're talking about, you know, one of, if not the greatest boxer of all time. As Stephen does a little bit of housework, does some chores around the house here. Well, I'm trying to, I'm kind of improvising. I just stuck my socks in the hall up there. It's perfect. But yeah, so that was it. And it was amazing, you know?

And then I saw him, he came to Toronto. Remember Garth Urbinski had him in during that weird Argo phase? And brought him, they did this all the time. Every Argo game, there was a different circus.

It didn't work that well, but I interviewed him for TSN actually. I interviewed him for TSN, actually. I interviewed Ali for TSN. But to be honest, he couldn't really do an interview. I ran into the Super Bowl one year that he came in and sat with a bunch of us watching. I forget what the fight was, but there were a bunch of guys covering the Super Bowl.

And I was with Hugh McElvaney, the great British boxing writer. And there were 12 of us sat with Ali and watched a fight on TV. That's awesome. Yeah, it gets my heart beating so many great alice i still think of uh george plimpton in um when we were kings the story at harvard uh uh champ give us a give us a poem me we the world's shortest poem ever uh we're gonna play the trailer and on that we're gonna we're gonna bid you good day on that we're gonna we're gonna bid you good day i know you're busy uh promoting this outstanding series um listen if the rest of them are as good as a keith pelly interview this one's a home run thanks so much for parking some time with me today uh continued success and i look forward and i'm not jealous

at all of who is the subject of podcast number two from North Carolina. You got a tip? I was wondering if you would. Reveal that at a later. No, don't worry. The secret stays with me. But not jealous at all. Not jealous at all. That was a real, that was a kick, that one.

Yeah, people are going to enjoy that. But hey, look, congratulations to you, by the way, on your new home. Oh, thanks. And I think we're both with some really good people here. We are. You talk about Pelley and Moore and people you want to work for and people whose default setting is yes, and then they try to figure out how to get it done.

That's these people here. Glad to call you a colleague, my friend. You be well. Continued success. Thanks, Jeff. Every day this week, every day this month. I can't get out my head. Lost all ambitions day to day. Guess you can call it a run. I went to the dark man.

He tried to give me a little medicine. I'm like, nah, man, that's fine. I'm not against those methods, but I knew. It's me, myself, and others gonna be fixing my mind I turned on the record I turned on the music I turned on the record I turned on the music

It's enough, it's enough It's just full time losing I've been on the dissapearant Wasting up, they're about to get you sometimes losing. Have been on the dance the way I roll. Mmm, in the dead dark night. If you're looking for flexible workouts, Peloton's got you covered. Summer runs or playoff season meditations, whatever your vibe, Peloton has thousands of classes built to push you.

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