Will Cain Country - Live From New Orleans! Will Gets You Ready For The Big Game

Episode Date: February 7, 2025

On this special edition of The Will Cain Show Friday sports episode, Will is live from New Orleans on Bourbon Street ahaed of Sunday's Big Game. He is joined by Super Bowl XXVIII Champion and 1983 National Champion, Quarterback Bernie Kosar, Former ESPN CEO and NFL Network Founder Steve Bornstein, and former Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader and NBA Scout, Bonnie-Jill Laflin. Tell Will what you thought about this show by emailing [e-mail]   Subscribe to The Will Cain Show on YouTube here: Watch The Will Cain Show!   Follow Will on Twitter: @WillCain Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For a limited time at McDonald's, enjoy the tasty breakfast trio. Your choice of chicken or sausage McMuffin or McGrittles with a hash brown and a small iced coffee for $5.5 plus tax. Available until 11 a.m. at participating McDonald's restaurants. Price excludes flavored iced coffee and delivery. New Orleans. Urban Street, Super Bowl 49, a special Canaan Sports Edition. of the Will Cain Show. It is the Will Cain Show streaming live at foxnews.com

on the Fox News YouTube channel, the Fox News Facebook page. Some three dozen radio stations across this great United States of America, always available on demand by subscribing to Apple or on Spotify. Or join us every Monday through Thursday live at 12 o'clock Eastern time at Fox News YouTube. Here we are from the Crescent City, from Bourbon Street. Let's back it up. Let's zoom it out. Let's give them a taste of what we are.

doing and where we are. We are at my bar on Bourbon Street. Right here is the party, right underneath me. They're building the set for the Fox pregame show right now. So if we hear jack hammers and drills, fellas, that's what's going on. No beads, no babes, no parties right now at this time in the day. I'll tell you what is going on though. F.S.1 all around me. Got a green room over here. Let me just tell you some of the guys I've gotten to hang out with so far today. Yeah, tell us. You'll tell you who my favorite.

Okay, I'm going to give you my favorite conversation, too. So, um, I met the goat. I think it's the first time I've met the goat in person. How was he? Just met, just met Tom Brady. He was really cool. He was nice. You know what?

I didn't ask for a picture. I said, should I ask him for a picture? Rookie move. Rookie move. He's very, he's very managed. He's very managed You know Hitting his schedule

It's like a politician But Yeah But I mean I like the guy I played the name game with him like a dork Hey hey I'm friends with Larry Izzo You drop names? You know

Oh I'll tell you another name I dropped I'd say another name I dropped You guys want to know I did last night What? That's my That's my one I dropped James When I really want to be like Relax buddy

I know Donald Trump Um, relax. I know the secretary of defense. Yeah. And in fact, don't run me the wrong way because I'm calling a drone. Yeah. No, last night, um, I just take everybody behind the scenes. I don't care. I'm going to tell you, so I went out. I met my agent. My agent's like, come down. We're going to have dinner and hang out for a bit. I'm like, okay, it's late. I got to get up early. But I want to because he told me, uh, some of his other clients are going to be there.

on to meet him. So, like, one of the guys that I had kind of been around social media and he's friends with my friends is Matt Liner. And so I got to hang with Heisman Trophy winner Matt Liner last night, and he's just a dude, just a normal guy. I like him a lot. Jeff Darlington, one of my old friends from ESPN, was there. Lewis Riddick from ESPN friend was there. And then who I met last night that this is one of my favorite dudes, and it's hard to explain, Matt Castle. former NFL quarterback, also USC quarterback, Matt Castle. I love Matt Castle. So he and Liner were at SC together for four years.

They're like bros, you know, they were teammates for all that time. So being with them together, I know this is like water polo, football, not the same thing. It was just all of a sudden I felt like I was back in it. And I'm going to tell you something, Castle's a, he's a wild man. I'm going to tell you right now Matt Castle is a wild man. he went 11 and 5 for the patrons he could be dropped into my Navy SEAL swim and be indistinguishable in eyes attitude and in every way from a Navy SEAL like I just don't want to get on Matt Castle's bad side let me put that way I don't want to be on Matt Castle's bad side uh hanging out here in the

green room I've seen a lot of old friends Emmanuel Lacho uh Greg Jennings uh and the one of my favorite conversation this morning was former Eagles running back Lashon McCoy, who I have a love-hate relationship with. I met Lashon back at the NFL draft in Philadelphia, and I've watched him on FS1,

and he is probably the biggest Cowboys hater that exists. Like nothing but horrible things to say about DAC, nothing but horrible things to say about the entire organization, and he came straight up to me, and he just started in. And I was like, man, why do you

have to be this way? Why do you have to talk like this all the time? And then he started laying into me about like, you know, second time the Eagles are here, you're never here, Cowboys are never. And I'm like, I know I can't say anything, but you say too much, LaShawn. But I really liked him. He's, he's fun. I like that kind of, you know, I don't know what I can say. It's a digital show. Busting. You know, I like that kind of ball busting sports talk. It's It's fun. I can say it. I said it. You can say it. It's not on TV. We've got a special edition today of this show. Let's tell you what. I want to make predictions. I want to predictions from the three of you, tinfoil, young establishment James, and two a days.

I'll make my Super Bowl prediction before this hour is over. But before we do, I'm going to let you get some information, some research. Because coming up on the show today, we have Bernie Kosar, Super Bowl winner. I've had two jerseys in my childhood formative life. I had a Troy Aikman jersey, and I had a Bernie Kosar jersey. I had a number 19 Cleveland Brown's Bernie Kosar jersey. He's going to join us today, as will McLevin, Andrew Perloff. He and I had some bets last time we were together, and I think it's time to settle to score a little bit on some of those.

Bonnie Jill Laughlin is the first female NBA scout. She was a cheerleader for the Cowboys and the 49ers. and Steve Bornstein is a former CEO of ESPN and a big-time media executive. We want to talk to him about the business of the Super Bowl. So we've got all that coming up today. Are you guys going to be ready to make your predictions at some point? I think so.

We're just, we're waiting on Bernie. Bernie's having a little, he's in a bad cell area, so we're just waiting on him to pop on. He's here, but. Oh, okay. We're not ready for Bernie. I was getting ready to go straight to Bernie. I know you were.

I know you were. He's getting in a better at. I loved Bernie. By the way, I loved him. Sidearm quarterback, University of Miami. In 1987, 88, the Cowboys were bad. Bad, bad. It's getting bad.

And I would have been like 12, 13. Yeah, they were on their way that would eventually was 1 in 15 in 1989. And I was 12, 13 years old, or whatever I was. and it's the only time in my life that I have flirted with sports bigamy. You know I'm a big sports monogamist. You are allowed to have one team and one team only in each sport. You don't really get to choose that team. You are born into that team by geography or by your father's brainwashing.

Those are really the two ways you get to be sports fan. You're not a free agent. You don't get to choose the best team. It's my beliefs, and you don't get two. But I was young, and I didn't yet know the value of monogamy yet. So at that time, I decided I need to adopt a second time, a second team, to root for besides the Cowboys. I didn't replace the Cowboys, and I didn't like them more than the Cowboys. But I needed a second team to root for.

And so this was complete sports-free agency. I picked the Cleveland Browns. I liked their uniforms. I liked everything about them. They weren't the frontrunner, but they were good. You could watch them in the playoffs every year. Now, these are during the time when the Browns lost in the playoffs every year to John Elway and the Denver Broncos.

And in heartbreaking fashion, the fumble, the drive. Are you guys all too young to know these things? Yes. The fumble. I think that was Ernest Biner. The Browns were on their way to winning. I don't know You know Kevin Mac?

No. These were stud Browns running backs back in the day. Like to me... Biner went on to be a running back for the Washington Redskins and won the Super Bowl in the early 90s with Mark Rippin and that whole crew. But he was a Brown before that. To me, the Browns...

But Bernie was their quarterback. You know, my lifetime. No, but not during Bernie's career. The Browns, the Browns at that time were like, I'm going to say they're the bills. They were the bills. And the Broncos, you can't say the Broncos were the Chiefs

because they would go on then and lose the Super Bowl. But the Broncos kind of dominated the AFC under John Elway, and it was really hard for anybody to overcome Elway, and Co-Star and the Browns ran into them every year. The only thing that kept that from being a perfect analogy is that then Elway would go into the Super Bowl and lose to the NFC, lose to the Giants, lose to the Niners.

what's up james from were you a browns guy at all from 1991 to 1995 now there's a little cowboy getting no no no when the cowboy started their climb back then i gave up my secondary team i literally needed something to root for on sundays besides certain loss like the cowboys were a certain loss when i was and so i just need something to had an outcome of a possibility of a win I did that. Speaking of New Orleans, and this is bad fanhood, but I was nine, so there's an excuse. My family went to New Orleans for a year, or a week, and it was the year that Brady tore his ACL, so I decided for that year I'd be a Saints fan, and they won the Super Bowl that year.

One year? One year of Saints fanhood, they won the Super Bowl back to New England. That's luck, baby. Love Jubilee to this day. Yeah. I don't want to take a break two days. I just keep going I think Bonnie Jill's there

so we can go to her while we're waiting for Bernie Kossar maybe throw them on together if we want so we're going to wait for her to come up to you okay yeah she's here in the building yes so she'll be coming up to you very soon all right

yeah Dallas Cowboy cheerleader but she's here or there not here James where Will is she's coming right now yeah I think she's coming right now there we go yeah come out

come her out yeah come out Yeah, Bonnie Joe Laughlin. Yep. Joining us before Bernie Kosar. We'll try to get them on. We'll still efforting. Here she is.

Come on. We just do this relaxed. Okay, perfect. Thank you. There you go. Bonnie Joel Laughlin here on the Will Kane show. Nice to meet you. Thank you, so, Ma.

Nice to meet you. What's the setup is fabulous. Beautiful, right? Well, it could be about. late tonight. Yeah. Have you hung out here a lot? Yeah, I've been here quite often.

You know, college championship games have been here and Super Bowls and so forth. So I love New Orleans. So it's nice to be here. So I was reading up on you, Bonny. So first of all, let's start with football. So you were a Niners cheerleader and a Cowboys cheerleader. Yes, sir, both. I know.

Which one came back? Cowboys, right? Niners. Niners came first. And then my daddy was really upset when I went to the Cowboys because at the time in the 90s, that was like the villain, you know? I don't hear about cheerleader free agency, or was it a trade? How did it work?

Kind of a trade, you know, they got a lot for me, and, you know, it worked out. Is that a, is that a very different experience? Like, I mean, the Cowboys cheerleaders are iconic. Absolutely, very iconic. And for me, it was, you know, I had so much roots in Texas, and I was going to school, University of Texas at Austin. So I wanted to, you know, cheer for America's Sweethearts and America's team and made it. And, yeah, and the rest of the kind of history, it was a great stepping stone for me able to network

and meet so many people in the NFL and sports. And I knew that's what I wanted to do is be somehow involved in sports and was able to do a lot with my career. What, so you, but you were part of one Super Bowl. That was with the 49ers. Yes, I'm actually wearing my little ring. Oh, I didn't know. Yes. So did they give, here, hold it up wherever I can see it.

Yes. Is this, I didn't know, how does this work? Is every cheerleader get a ring too? So Eddie de Bartlow, who was our, like that compared to the? It is dainty, yes. That's so funny. You say that. So the 49ers, Eddie to Bartolo was our owner at the time.

and he actually was like, I want to give the cheerleaders a ring. So we were the first cheerleaders to get a ring. And it is dainty, it's very small. But when I worked for the Lakers, we had five championship rings that I was a part of. And mine are huge. Or like Shaquille O'Neal's really big and not dainty, Will. Wait, how many championship rings do you have? Six.

One-niners, five Lakers. Yes, sir. I'm going to take this conversation where I want to go. Because were you an NBA, that's with the Lakers. Yes, I was a scout. Yeah, so it was the first female scout in the NBA. And so I was able to be there for five championships, the Shaq, Kobe days, and I was blessed to be there. What do you know about how the Lakers were able to fleece the Mavericks out of Luca Donchich?

It is crazy. I mean, the biggest thing to know is that Nico Harrison, who's a GM of the Mavericks, and Rob Polinka, who's a GM for the Lakers, they're friends because of Kobe. And so they were able to get this deal done and have no one know, and it still seems so lopsided. So I think there's more that's going to come out, Will. Do you know something? There is something a little bit shady that's going on, I think. What? Yeah, I don't think shady, but something there's more to it that we don't know,

because the way that it was, like I said, so lopsided, it just didn't make any sense. Exactly. You've got a five-time All-Star, a rookie of the year. Rookie of the year. Right. And so much problem is potentially future Hall of Fame or will. And now all of a sudden you're trading off for a 32-year-old AD who doesn't, you know, Are you speculating, or do you know something?

I know a little something maybe. Okay, well, I'm asking a couple questions, and you can just dodge if you want. You need this more to come out about Luca or about the Mavs organization? The Mavs organization. Really? Yes. I think there's something with the new ownership. I got to know what you're talking about.

It's killing me. By the way, I live in Dallas. I'm from the area. Okay. And it's killed us. Right. It's really ripped the soul out of Dallas. Well, the fan base, MFFL.

I have been since the 1980s now you've got so many fans who want to boycott what is going on why are we going to put my butt in the seats the whole point was Luca

right he was the franchise player everything so I think the fact that the Adelson's had bought the Mavericks they're from Las Vegas they want a team in Las Vegas Silver has said

no more expansion teams for now a team has to basically not be doing well to move I'll leave it at that well I will say I do know the ownership

group a little bit. I have been assured that is not happening, what you just described. I have been told there's no way that team is moving to Vegas. One of us... Yes. And I'm not saying I'm right, you're wrong. I hope I'm right. Yeah, I hope I'm wrong too. I just, being

in the NBA for so long, I've just heard some things. And things can change, but they definitely want a team in Vegas. And the Super Max contract that Luca was going to get, that's nothing when it comes to Adelson's. They have so much money. I mean, they... And I don't think people really have the money, they have.

The Adelson's don't own any casinos in Vegas anymore. Not anymore, no. And Texas looks like it's pretty close to legalizing gambling. And they're trying to do that. Adelson's are very behind that. And I think it will happen. Greg Abbott, the governor of Texas, said this week that he's supportive of, it requires a constitutional amendment, which requires the support of Texas voters.

But they want to build a casino and hotel and Maverick Stadium altogether in Dallas. Yes. That's what I've always understood is the big business play. It is. But then why are you training away your future, your everything? I mean, this is a young, young player who had so much promise. Because Nico needs better friends than Rob Blinken? That's goodwill.

That's goodwill. No, but just there's so, it just still doesn't make sense. I think it's the craziest trade, not just in NBA history, in sports as a whole. I think you're right. It just doesn't, and they're saying we want to win now, defense wins championship with Anthony Davis, and I get all that. And people have said that these next two years, math stands are going to see that this is a good trade. But if they don't win at all, this season,

season or next season? Well, the hard thing is about this, and I've said this several times, winning is not going to cure it, to be honest. Look. I mean, it's going to help the fans get over it when you win a championship. I'm born and raised Dallas area, our outside Dallas. I remember when Jerry Jones bought the Dallas Cowboys, and I remember when Tom Landry was fired. He was fired.

And there was a huge contingent of the sports fan base that was like, I'm never coming back. Right. Now they won three Super Bowls and created a dynasty, and it did bring most people back. Right. But there are some people, you're right, that still think there's a Landry curse, and Jerry's never going to get the other ring that he wants because of what he did to Landry. Right.

I never heard it as the Landry curse, Jimmy Johnson curse, I don't know. Yeah, Landry Curse as well. But my point is, like, I don't think one championship for the Mavs is going to bring the heart of the Mavs fan back because there's just sometimes an athlete owns a city's heart. The best example, that is Dirk Novitsky in Dallas, or Kobe Bryant in L.A. And Luka was, if not already that, really close to being that guy. I'd say he was the most popular athlete in Dallas. even probably more so than Dak Prescott.

Oh, absolutely. And I think he was a heart and soul of that team because what he did in the community as well, he went to hospitals without being filmed. He did so much. He just has the house he just built. He just had a baby. He thought he was going to retire as a Maverick,

have his jersey in the rafters be the next dirk. And now he's so upset. I think the fans, it really affected the fans to see how upset Luca was. And that he didn't know. You hear he is upset. He cried. Right.

So if it's like, oh, he wanted to go or there was some mutual agreement, but the fact that he didn't want to go and then you see the presser in L.A. It looks like a funeral. Everyone looks upset. It's like, this was supposed to be a great trade.

Why is even Rob Polinkas seem like he's not that happy? Does that make sense? It was just. Okay, back to football for a minute now. You've depressed me. I'm going to think about it. Well, the NBA kind of took over the Super Bowl week for a hot minute because of the trade.

Hang out 30 minutes after this show so I can ask you off camera if you have more to tell me. Which else here? The audience, of course. Super Bowl cheerleader. Like, how big of, tell me about that experience first, the weekend, week out, process of being sure. Like, this game is so different for the players.

Absolutely. It impacts their performance. It really does. The lead up to it, everything about it is different for the players. It really is. What about for what you guys do? Yeah, for the players, it really is because there's so much pressure because you're now on this big stage.

You've got all your family and friends that you're trying to see, you have all these media pressers. But then when you get into the game, all the players tell me it's just another game if you try to make it seem like it's bigger than it is then you're gonna put too much pressure on yourself but for the cheerleaders we were so I was 18 years old cheering in the Super Bowl it was in Miami against the Chargers the NFC Championship games during that time as you probably know that was a Super Bowl so we blew out the Chargers in the first quarter you know so it was for us just knowing wow like we're gonna win the Super Bowl we're gonna be at the celebration party I'm 18 years old in Miami like it was it was a blast and all the lead up to it we we did something with Prince during you know on that Wednesday before we performed with Prince and you know just so many things you normally yeah yes so things that you normally wouldn't do we got to do yes I mean all of us got to meet him oh it was great yeah you know it was as small as me so but it was it was such an honor to be there during that whole week representing the San Francisco 49ers at the time and just all

the lead up to it all that pomp and circumstance is so fun I think it's what's more fun for the cheerleaders and the players I'm gonna try to say they're trying to focus on the game right and we had a a lot of rigorous practices as well leading up to it, but I loved it. It was, you know, and getting the police escort to the stadium, you know, all that fun stuff. So what is the difference? We started there, but what is the difference between the Cowboys cheerleader and a cheerleader somewhere else? I think when you think about the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders, as you know, Will, they are America's team. They're America's sweethearts. Globally, they're internationally known. So you see that uniform. You may not know anything about

football. You know the DCC, correct? Yeah. Where the 49er gold rush, Okay, I think they're cheerleaders of some team, you know what I mean, but they not know if they're college, they're not sure, but the DCC. And I think how much they've done with the U.S.O tours, like I've done 20 U.S.o tours overseas, even after I cheered, downrange to support our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. So all of that, how patriotic they are, I think all of that just is, they seem kind of like untouchable when you look at the cheerleaders. It's where we have all the security, gold rush. We kind of just, all right, where we go? There's a different level, if that makes any sense. I saw that in your bio and what you've done.

You've continued to stay involved with America's fighting class. Yes. Why is that? I came from a military family. Both my grandfather served in World War II, Silver Star recipient and Purple Heart. My uncle was a gunnery sergeant in Vietnam. And then my dad is a law enforcement undercover narcotics for 47 years. So it's always been something that I wanted to do is be able to give back.

So I continue to do my tours, continue to do U.S. So tours during Christmas, during Thanksgiving, when the guys really needed the most, boost morale, bring America to them, show that we support them instead of some of the mainstream media that has a different narrative. And so that was very, very important to me. And then after, I want to make sure when they came back home that they had something that we still cared about them. So I make sure to go to the VA hospitals and Walter Reed and all of that. And then continue that with forming my own nonprofit where it's called Hounds and Heroes and Horses. and we rescue dogs, and then we pair them up with veterans, combat veterans that are suffering from PTSD, TBI, amputees as service and therapy dogs, and the same with the horses.

Well, we rescue horses off the track thoroughbreds and different horses from, you know, rescue places, wherever it may be, and then we have our disabled veterans and children of fallen soldiers come to the ranch, my ranch in Fort Worth, and do some equine therapy as well. Is it hard logistically to match up guys with animals? Um, no, it's actually, we have them be a really a part of the process. And everyone who works on my ranch are veterans as well. So we really make sure that they tell us their needs, what their triggers are, what they, what they're needing to help. So the dog has a skill set. And then they get to pick. Like we have different dogs, mostly a lot of German shepherds.

Are they service dogs? Yes, service dogs. So we train them as service dogs. Sometimes they're therapy dogs. Sometimes they're companion dogs for the military families while their spouse is deployed. So there's so many different ways that these animals are able to do. do something that we don't want these men and women who serve to be over-medicated. And so we see that the dogs and the horses and animals can do something and touch the souls that humans can't help and nor meds as well. Why so many German shepherds? They're just, they like to work.

You know, that's why you see a lot of them as military working dogs. So they just seem to be the dogs that really, they want to do a job. That makes sense, well, they, you know, they want to work, they want to serve. and a lot of them end up being discarded in the shelters. And so we end up finding a lot of them. A lot of Texas for a German Shepherd. Yeah, right. With all that hair, right?

But there's so many dogs. A lot of pit bull mixes and some lab mixes as well, but a lot of German Shepherd's we've paired up. Interesting. I love dog breeds. I'm a Doberman guy. Are you? Yeah, I've got two.

But, yeah, between Belgium, Malinwas, Dobermans, German Sheppers. You're talking about it for your dogs. Yes, exactly. And they're scaling up the walls. And malon laws don't make good pets. They don't. Nothing against the Malinua, they're brilliant, and they're athletes.

But they got to work. But they got to work a lot. And so the Malawas don't really sometimes do as well as service dog because they need a lot of energy. When you're having to walk across the street, they're like, no, we're running. You know what I mean? And so that doesn't work sometimes. These buildings.

Yeah, so that's not going to work sometimes for a disabled veteran. So the German Shepherds seem to have a very calm, cool, collective type of demeanor, and it translates very well as a service dog. That's awesome stuff that you're doing. Thank you so much. Tell us the name. again hounds and heroes is dot com so hounds and heroes.com and hounds heroes and horses is the actual name yeah but it's fantastic and i appreciate you supporting what we're doing absolutely well thank you

for joining us today here on the will cane show you broke my heart a little bit and i'm only going to think about it and if you're around when this show's over i'm going to wear you out about it are the mavericks are the mavericks gonna leave dallas but will let you know i'm hope i'm wrong but that was what people were that that's the rumor in the NBA world okay I'm gonna ask guy next week. But I hope not. Let's hope the MAVs win the championship, right? And then people can just forget about it for a bit, for that moment, Will. Bring you back. Yeah, I doubt it. Bonnie, really good to meet you. Thank you. Thank you so much. I appreciate you doing this. All right. There she is. Bonnie, Jill Lathlin, you can just, you can walk off.

There's no commercial breaks. There's no nothing. All right. I got to get my head clear here on whether or not Luca was given away to make the MAVs stink to move the MAVs to Vegas. Um, that was really, that was really something. The makeup artist wants to put more makeup on me, but she, but there's no commercial breaks. Uh, two days. You can come here. Two days.

Here, this is the ultimate example of what happens in TV. Yeah. Can we get makeup? Can we get makeup? Um, we, yeah. Mr. Kosar is ready for you. Two days need some. Yeah.

Oh, Bernie's ready. Yeah. All right. Thank you. Uh, there he is. Nothing like getting makeup put on in front of one of your childhood heroes. Bernie Kosar joins us here on the Will Kane show. What's up, Bernie?

Hey, Will. Good to be with you. And I have to say, between the Larry Izzo shout-out in the first segment and then trying to follow Bonnie, as impressive as that was. I was hypnotically fascinated on the Mavericks and the Luca conversation. And then what Bonnie ended up talking about, what Bonnie ended up talking about the military and the awesome work that she's doing with our veterans and stuff is something that I'm incredibly passionate about as a guy who, with this awesome Super Bowl going on, you're at Bourbon

Street. I'm over at the High Regency for the NFL alumni for the Hall of Fame today with the inductions that happened, that are happening here this afternoon. But as a guy who's gone through so much of the stuff that Bonnie was talking about with some of the veterans and as a guy who's had 60 surgeries will 80 broken bones 100 concussions 15 seizures it's awesome to be on with you this morning and I've been told you know six years ago that I have five years left a cognitive brain function so to be able to say cognitive and enunciate articulate communicate somewhat of a cohesive message and be on with you on your show today. It's a heck of an honor. Dang, Bernie. So give me those numbers one more time. Would you say 60 surgeries and 100

concussions? You know, I'm super proud, Will, to have played 12 years in the NFL, get a national championship at University of Miami, Super Bowl with the Cowboys in 1993. But yes, I've had more than 60 surgeries, more than 80 broken bones. probably north of 100 concussions, but the 14 or 15 seizures that happened and ended up being in a coma in the last couple for 72 and 96 hours. And I'm not proud to say this, Will, but from when I retired in 1997 and those surgeries started, I was on north of probably 80 to 100 pills for most of this century for parts of this last three decades. So as a guy who pretends to be extroverted, who is here down to the Super Bowl, hanging out with quite a few of my ex-teammates, but mental health and mental awareness and some of the things that as men that we've been masking in terms of suppressing our anxiety

and not feeling comfortable being able to say that we struggle sometimes with depression and anxiety. And I love Will, my number 19. I loved my number 18 when I was a Dallas cowboy guy, but 19 people a day will commit suicide just today in the state of Ohio. And what Bonnie was talking about about some of our veterans, and there'll be 22 veterans in our country today that commit suicide. Just in Ohio, in the last seven days, we had over 100 people pass away from the overdose death from the fentanyl issue. And I'm not proud to say, Will, that I could have or should have been one of those two statistics. So now as I'm getting into the late third quarter, early fourth quarter of my life, I almost feel like it's a responsibility to kind of talk a little bit about this

and let people know that if you have some of these issues, there's some help out there. Well, Bernie, I can't tell you how happy I am that you did not become one of those statistics. and I guess we have five to six years, as you said, according to your doctors, of what you just are described as, you know, cognitive ability to articulate your thoughts, which you're doing beautifully. I know you talked about you're dealing with the CTE issues, the concussion issues, the seizure issues. I believe also Parkinson's is something that you're dealing with.

So, look, man, I'm super honored to be able to talk to you today. Thank you. Yes, I was told 11 months ago I have early stage Parkinson's. 10 months ago I was put on a liver transplant list supposed to have my spleen removed and my gallbladder and I don't say that as a badge of honor

I don't say that for anybody out there listening to feel sorry for me I'm definitely not saying it to be cool or anything but I am saying it to show people that here I am today I haven't taken a pill or a drug or a drink in seven years

and to be able to be here on the show with a lot of action going on down in New Orleans and to be able to be cognitively present and to be able to, again, enunciate, articulate, communicate with you and I'm a fan of yours too, Will. So be able to maybe spread the message for people that there's alternatives out there

and I'm really big into functional medicine. Food is our diet. The stomach and brain is tied together. And if there's some simple things that I can bring a quality of life for, people out there listening like I'm trying to bring for myself and some of the things that I've gone through unfortunately I see other people and especially kids now doing some of the stuff so I'm really trying almost like a responsibility to try to help out now

while you're doing it by sharing your story and I want to go to football just a second Bernie but one more question because I just have to follow up when you lay all that out it's almost like I have to ask would you do it all again? would you play football? Would you, would you sign up for all this again? Wow, Will. So thanks for asking that question. I get asked it a lot and I absolutely would. I so love what football is done for me. And again, as a guy who just hit 61 years old, I really thought when I was young and I was playing that I, my, my meaning in life was to be a quarterback from Youngstown, Ohio and play football and then get to this late third quarter,

fourth quarter of my life, sign autographs, cruise around, but I really believe that all those injuries will were really for a reason that I wouldn't have learned how to heal myself. I wouldn't have learned this functional medicine and this regeneration of my liver and my brain. So I'm actually feel really blessed in a narcissistic or masochistic way to have had these injuries because it almost forced me to learn this stuff and to be able to not only help myself and my children, but to help others. Let me ask you two football questions, Bernie. Let's go past and then we'll go future.

I told you. And I don't say this stuff gratuitously. I don't tell people their dog is cute unless it actually is cute. You were the only jersey outside of a Dallas Cowboy jersey I ever wore or bought. It was number 19. It was the Browns. I rooted for you for several years there every Sunday. You always ran into the Broncos and the playoffs and it was something.

The fumble, the drive. whatever. I don't know if it was the Josh Allen of the time running up against Mahomes and the Chiefs, but I guess I just wanted to know how it felt. It's like you guys were, you guys were awesome, but you couldn't get over that final hump. Well, Will, thank you for the shout out. I'm buying the 19 jersey. And I actually feel for Josh Allen. And I think Josh Allen's exceptional. He's played awesome. But I am a little bit reflective. of some of that. And I'm even more thankful to Jimmy Johnson and Jerry Jones

for calling me to Dallas after the Browns to be able to play in the NFC championship game against Ronnie Law and the 49ers and get that monkey off my chest from the three John L.A. AFC championship games. Hey, and Will, from the football perspective, I don't want to name drop and stuff,

but in kind of the first segment where you were talking about being with the goat last night, the great Tom Brady and all the, and Matt Liner and all those awesome quarterbacks of Matt Castle. But the greatest of all was your shout out to my first teammate and great friend, the great Larry Izzo. Love that. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, Larry and I were a buddy to go way back. Yes. Yeah. He's actually a Texas guy. We're personal friends before he became Larry Izzo. But he's a wild man. So he was a rookie, Will, he was a rookie during one of my last years in the league. And here he comes as a small, undersized linebacker from Rice University.

And I gave him some of the best, I think, advice. And I said, hey, Larry, there's no chance you're going to make this team. You're going to get cut for sure. So you've got to go crazy down on special teams and knock out somebody who is not a pro bowl player. And that's just what he did. And he went on to have that awesome career. And now to have him coach him. Hey, Bernie, so this is what the Dolphins you're talking about.

So I just want to run this story by you, okay? We've been talking, his buddy's behind the scenes, I'll tell this story. I want to make sure it's true. So the story is exactly like you just described. He's early into training camp. He blows up somebody exactly like you said. Jimmy Johnson pulls him aside and says, Isso, what the hell are you doing?

And he said, I'm just trying to make this team coach. And he said, get your ass, go to the locker room, get on the phone, and call your mom and tell her you just made the Miami Dolphins. That's the story of how it went down. And then a few days later, and then the follow-up is a few days later, Johnson's mad at the whole team. And he said, I just want you guys to know, nobody's on this team. You're all playing for your job. There are only two guys that have made the Miami Dolphins, Dan Marino and Larry Izzo. Yes.

And actually, even to add to that, he kind of teased it a little bit by saying, Hey, Larry Isso, do you have anybody that cares about you in this world? And Larry got all sheep as a rookie getting called out by the great Jimmy Johnson. And he goes, yeah, I think I have one or two people to love me. And he goes, yeah, we'll call him and tell him you're going to be an NFL player for the Miami Dolphins. That's great. That is awesome. All right, Bernie, before I go, give me your prediction.

What happens in this Super Bowl? So being a Cleveland guy coming up next to the Cleveland Heights where the Mr. and Mrs. Kelsey were so awesome to dress up Jason and Travis's little boys for Halloween and their number 19 Bernie Kosar jerseys. So I was massively conflicted, Will, when both the Eagles and the Chiefs are playing in their first Super Bowl stint. But since then, Jason has retired. So that makes it super easy for me. And since last night, you were out dating with Matt Linerd. I was out dating with Ed Papa Kelsey. So go Chiefs, go. Jason's retired.

So we've got to go with Travis. All right. Bernie Kosar. What a treat for me, Bernie. Thank you so much for jumping on with us today. Likewise. Well, Paul, any time for anything. You matter.

All right. Thank you so much, Bernie. Thanks. There you goes. Bernie Kosar. Before I bring in my next guest, can you guys hear all the construction? Two days? Can you guys hear all that? Yeah, we can. Yeah. Big time.

Yeah? Big time? Is, big time? Are we fighting through it? Yeah, we're good. We're good. Keep going. Okay, good. All right, good. Let me just see what's going on here. Hold on. Oh, I see it. What are they doing? It's starting to take shape. They're building a set. They're building the pregame show. Oh, wow. They're building the set for Sunday. Wow.

This whole section of Bourbon Street is shut off. This is all Fox. This bar, that bar, right there is all Fox. There's another bar down there. It's all Fox. They did three bars that are just Fox. And so this whole street, this stretch of bourbon is just, there's nothing going on down there but Fox where they're building a set. I like New Orleans.

You know, I've heard some pushback today. Some people going, I don't know about this place. You know, it's kind of old, sturdy. By the way, you guys can bring in Steve. Steve can come in whenever. I like New Orleans. I like character. You know what I mean?

Oh, there he is. Steve Bornstein joining us right now here on the wheel. How's it going, Steve? It's going great. How are you? I'm good. Steve Bornstein, president of Genius Sports, former president, CEO,

and founder of the NFL Network and former president and CEO of ESPN. Hey, Steve, you've been involved in sports NFL network, ESPN like this. What's the best place to host a Super Bowl? What's the best city? Well, I like New Orleans, just like you were talking about. I like the character. I like the tradition.

I mean, this is their 11th time they've hosted Super Bowl. They're number one along with Miami. So I'm a big fan of New Orleans, but I'm a fan of any place that has the infrastructure to support it, and you can walk around. And New Orleans clearly has that. That's a tough combo, by the way, isn't it? I mean, I was talking with one of the heads of Fox Sports a little bit of Mendego. The infrastructure key is always underplayed publicly.

Like, literally, do you have enough hotel rooms to host everybody that needs to be here for the Super Bowl? And it's looking like, Steve, it's like Vegas, L.A., Atlanta, these are going to be big places into the future where you'll continue to see Super Bowls. You'll get San Francisco. You'll get New Orleans. You'll get your Miami's here and there. But Atlanta, Vegas, and LA seem to be the ones that really satisfy that infrastructure. I think that's right. And I'd probably put Phoenix in that list as well.

You know, the difference is in Atlanta, New Orleans, in Vegas, you can walk everywhere. Los Angeles and Miami is much more of a drive, which makes it a little more inconvenient. But they clearly have the hotels and the restaurants and all the behind the wall stuff that supports a Super Bowl, which is important. I want to ask you this, Steve, the value of live sports has only continued to go up while we've seen a deterioration in traditional television distribution, cable and broadcast, right? But inside the value of those live rights, the NFL has held a very unique place high atop the mountain. NBA ratings, by the way, have not necessarily continued to hold strong.

I don't know about some of the more other niche sports, but what is it about football? And I guess college football to a lesser extent, but what is it about football in general that continues to be such a valuable thing to attract eyeballs? Well, you know, live sports in general is becoming the most, the only product that today, a programming out there today that's must-see television, appointment of television. I mean, it's a historical trend is that linear television is going to continue to fragment. And live sports is by clear the only event out there that you have to watch in the moment. And that's why you're seeing the decay of other content going faster and sports seems to maintain it.

In America, you know, American football is the only sport. I mean, there really is no second. And that's why you're seeing the NFL continue to be here. incredibly smart and how they deploy their product. I think if you look at even Christmas Day putting the games on Netflix having eight different carriers

of their content, all promoting that sport, all talking about NFL football, only makes it more important in our culture. And that's what you're seeing. And you're just seeing the vestige of fragmentation of scripted content, live sports becoming

continually more critical and the only appointment viewing out there. The only water cool a event really that people want to talk about and people gather around and the fact that American football is there is no really any competition to it in the sports environment. No competition to threaten its place atop the mountain, but because as you mentioned, live sports is the one thing you have to see in the moment. So the valuations of almost everything have gone up, right? F1, English soccer teams, everything from an ownership perspective has continued to climb, is that a reflection of all of those leagues and

properties also being something that continues to attract eyeballs because it's live sports into the future? If I understood your question, I don't see any decay of this. I mean, to me, I've been in this business now going on 40 years. And all you're seeing is that what we had predicted literally 30 years ago is that live sports will continue to be the most important content out there to attract large audiences. And if you're an advertiser, large audiences are still important. If you are a niche advertiser, then you're going to go to some of those events that are specific to them, like e-sports or to your point, Formula One racing.

And so all those boats are rising, but only because everything else is continuing to fragment faster than it was ever anticipated, if that makes sense. Is there any, it does, is there any zero-sum game nature to college football and NFL? In other words, at some point is an appetite satiated and you choose. As college football becomes more and more professional, paying the players, NIL, huge contracts for TV rights for the, for the conferences. is, do you think at some point it's not this symbiotic relationship, but it becomes even almost a competitive relationship between college and pro football?

I don't think I would come down to that conclusion. I kind of look at all boats are rising. You know, the professionalization of college football to me is frankly long overdue. I mean, it's a big business and a big industry, and everybody was profiting from that, whether it was Olympic sports or women's sports or non-revenue-generating sports, whether it was coaches and whether it was the universities, the only guys that weren't participating in were the athletes that were actually out there competing. So I look at this rationalization as a positive.

Now, you can argue, and rightfully so, that, you know, it's a bit of a wild, wild west, and now it's just open bidding, and, you know, you have $2 million quarterbacks, four million dollar quarterbacks. Is that really what you want the sport to be? And I would argue, no. There should be some guide rails. There should be some, you know, a system to it that makes rational sense. But we're in the early stages of that.

And, you know, there could have been better leadership from the NCAA. There could have been better leadership from the conferences and sort of taking charge on this. And I think that's what you're seeing now. It'll be rationalized. It'll be less of the Wild Wild West. And I think it's only going to be good for sports in general and for television. literature. What sport, Steve, I mean, you ran ESPN, I think under your tenure, is that when the X Games started? Did you guys start the X games while you were at ESPN? Yeah, we did.

What would you, like if you were looking for to invest right now, as a network or whatever it may be, in a niche sport that gets you into the game of live sports, I'm just curious that one that you think, I don't want you to say the NFL is undervalued. That could be your, answer. It's actually the NFL that's still undervalued. But, like, what is the other sport out there that you're like, that one? And I know everybody's done this. I mean, in Mad Men, they said in the 1960s, everybody's going to be into high lie, right? But I don't know what the next sport is that you think what we saw happen with UFC, right? UFC went from a niche sport into a big time consumer event. What would be the one you would pinpoint next? Well, I, you know, my theory is this.

I mean, there are culturally people like very simple sports. I mean, in the United States, culturally, people can only accept too complicated sports. In the United States, it's different than it's in the U.K. In the U.S., we like baseball and American football. In the U.K., they like, you know, cricket and soccer, for lack of a better word for it. And soccer is a universal sport. It is by far the only sport that will play internationally. And if you were in France, you know, you could like bicycle racing and soccer.

And so the kind of simpler sports resonate internationally. So boxing resonates across the board. UFC resonates across the sport. Darts is quite popular across the sport. So I would say to answer your question, you know, motorsports, you know, is basically cars going around either on a circuit or in a circle. It's not difficult to understand. That's one of the attractiveness of basketball. But I would tell you, if Iowa is a betting man, certainly in the U.S., a sport that I think is undervalued and fits culturally in our society, is probably women's volleyball.

To me, it's an exciting concept. It works well on television. It's simple to understand, and they're great athletes doing some serious competition. I think we've only scratched the surface. If I was looking in the U.S. and what the next big sport is, that's where I would probably look hard at. I love that answer. I wasn't expecting that.

By the way, like full team or beach volleyball? No, it's full team. I think beach volleyball, I don't know why I believe this, but it's certainly beautiful to watch and you like being on the water. It's not the same, it doesn't have the same complexity of the team sport or volleyball. So, and I think there's a little bit of complexity that makes it more interesting to me as a visual. Women's volleyball. Well, there you go.

Wasn't expecting that. One more. Do you think soccer ever follows the international trend here in America? Like MLS, you think MLS ever arrives? I don't know what. Not in the big three yet, not the big four yet. I'll give you the answer to I'll give my children. I said the answer to all your questions is money.

You know, do you think that MLS will be paying competitive salaries to what the EPL pay or the Bundes League pay or La Liga pays? And until you do, it's not going to be a first-year sport in the U.S. Is it exciting? Is it great? I mean, I've gone to some MLS games and they're fabulous. You know, L.A. Football Club, you can't have a better experience as a fan and as a spectator. But it's in our country, it's going to play a pretty distant fiddle to American football, American basketball.

All right. Steve Borenstein, genius sports president here with us on the Will Kay-Chow. Really appreciate your time, Steve. Fun talking. Will I enjoyed it. Take care. Okay, take care. Network. Hey there, it's me. Kennedy, make sure to check out my podcast. Kennedy saves the world. It is five days a week, every week. Download and listen at Fox Newspodcast.com or wherever you listen to your favorite podcast. It is time to take the quiz. It's five questions in less than five minutes. We ask people on the streets of New York City to play along. Let's see how you do.

Take the quiz every day at the quiz.com. Then come back here to see how you did. Thank you for taking the quiz. Following Fox's initial donation to the Kerr County Flood Relief Fund, our generous viewers have answered the call to action across all Fox platforms and have helped raise $6.5 million. Visit go.com forward slash TX flood relief to support relief and rebuilding efforts. All right, let's go back here on the Bourbon Street here in New Orleans where the drills are setting up the stages for Fox Sports pregame show. Let's do this.

We're expecting McLevin, Andrew Perloff, to join us here shortly on the Will Cane Show. I want to get your predictions, fellas. Let's go back to the Super Bowl. That was a pretty wide-ranging sports conversation, so we've got to get back to the game at hand. What's going to happen Sunday in the Super Bowl? Let's get us all on record. So, let's start with young. We'll go in reverse age order, okay?

Okay, so youngest first. Young James, your Super Bowl prediction. Did I finally lose the establishment? I just want to say I really appreciate that. And 26, 24 Chiefs. 26, 24 Chiefs. It's an odd score. I did one of those squares games.

Do you think that you guys ever do squares for the Super Bowl? Yeah. I hate them. It's randomized. You don't get to pick your number. You're excited if you get 3-7 or 0, right? That's what you want. You want 3-7 or 0?

Not 8. You know what I mean? 28. Like, how am I ever going to land on an 8? 28 in the fourth quarter? Yeah, I go 28. Yeah, the Super Bowl 49 of 51 was 3428. Yeah.

I got to look back at what numbers I got. I bought a lot of squares. All right. This is going to be fun because I'm going to have to guess who's younger. I think it's two a days. I think two of days is younger than tinfoil. I'm about to turn 37. What are you?

Almost 38. There you go. Just younger. Are y'all born the same year? There we go. 88. I'm going to go, I was thinking, Chiefs, I'm going to go Eagles by three. Really?

Eagles by three. I think it's going to come down. You're just trying to be different? a little bit but I also think I love their offense I think they have a shot I really do wishful thinking I think I genuinely think they have a shot tin foil I honestly think Bobby Burak has convinced me that the Eagles are going to win this thing but I'm still not betting against the Chiefs because they also have the official on their side so 27 24 Chiefs pull it out

I don't like giving exact scores. I don't either. You did it two a days. Yeah, I'll give the margin. How about that? I think it's moronic to bet against the Chiefs. I think it's moronic to bet against the NFL refs. I think it's moronic to bet against Patrick Mahomes.

By the way, I had Mike Pereira on this morning on Fox & Friends, and I asked him about the Chief's conspiracies. You know what he said? They've acknowledged it. They've talked about it. Goodell has said there's no intent involved. But in that answer, there's an acknowledgement that the numbers bear out. The chiefs get the benefit of the doubt.

Now, you can ask why, right? Is it the Michael Jordan rules for Patrick Mahomes? Do the chiefs actually coach it up well in how to avoid holding and how to elicit, you know, roughing the passer calls? You could go into all the why. but it's clear the Chiefs get the benefit of the doubt. And so I don't know how... The bottom line is this, two days.

If there's a minute left in the game and the Chiefs have the ball, they're not losing. If they're within one score. If they're within one score, they're not losing the game. I think Steve Spagnola is a genius. He's the Chief's defensive coordinator. What game plan do you have for Seguan, though? That defensive line is...

It's like hard to... How do you even stop that? It's hard to game plan... It's hard to game plan stopping a running game, right? Well, you load the box, is what you do. Right. You load the box, you put more defenders, you know, at linebacker, safety's dropping down along the defensive line. And you say, we're going to lose a lot of ways, but the way we're not going to lose is Sequin Barclay.

Coach Kane. Now, in the end, if they can't stop them, that's it. Right? That's the game. I agree with you. The difference in this game is Sequin Barclay. But I think Steve Spagnola has shown that he can do this. He can game plan.

He had two weeks notice to do it. And I would dare Jalen Hertz and A.J. Brown to beat me through the air. That's what I would do. I mean, that's a tough task to stop either. You know what? If you want to get into – and, by the way, if you want to get into an aerial shootout with Patrick Mahomes, have at it. Have at it. You know what I mean?

The Eagles, what you want to do is shorten the game. Run the ball, run the ball, deprive the chiefs of possessions. Deprive Patrick Mahomes of possessions. You've got to do what the Giants did in Super Bowl 42. They get the first drive, seven and a half minute drive to open up the game, keep Brady off the fields. You've got to do the same thing with Mahomes. Do you think Travis Kelsey scores a touchdown? And by the way.

And Steve Bagnola was the defensive coordinator in that game. Right. Right. How many times do you do with the Giants? He's done it several times with the Giants. He's done it with the Chiefs. They hired... I don't know, man.

I think betting against Patrick Mahomes is stupid money. Tom Brady was on Fox & Friends this morning, and he said that the chiefs hired... Someone told him that the chiefs hired Spagnola because he was the guy that beat Tom in the Super Bowl. He said that on Fox & Friends this morning? I didn't watch it, but I read the transcript. I couldn't hear him.

I was in the other room. I couldn't hear what he was saying on TV. Brady seemed... I just stared at him. through the window He's so goddamn handsome, isn't he? Very handsome. Yeah.

You got the boodle fat removed. He's a handsome dude. In the face, like I talked about. You think so? Yeah. I thought you get injections. Filler on the cheekbones. No, you take it away and then you get filler.

You should not know that. What is boofle fat? It's from my wife because she works in the fashion industry. I learned about it. Everybody. I know. It's under your cheekbones, basically. What is it?

It fills out your face. It's under your cheekbones. Under here. Under here. Not here. Not here. Oh, here? Yeah, yeah, under there.

It's right here. Yeah, so if you take it out, it gives it more concave look in your face. Don't. Okay. Yeah, don't you do it. Another year of the TV show. No, don't get it taken out. He's going to get taken out.

It's going to get taken out. All of a sudden, Will's face is just. caved in. What happened to O'Kane? No, I swear, guys, I've just been eating right. Yeah. Speaking of Eagles, I don't know where Andrew Perloff, do you see him on set? I haven't heard from him, so he might have to get him on.

Is Andrew Perloff here? No. They're checking. Why, are you getting a note that he's here? No, I'm not, which is worrisome. So he might have to get him on. No, he's not here. Might have to get him on a Zoom on another sports edition.

Maybe, maybe got scared. of all the people that were going to ghost me today, if you've taken bets. Would you have put Andrew Perloff number one? Maybe. Huh? Maybe. Is he at the bar last night? You know him.

Maybe he did it to mess with him. Maybe he did it to mess with me. I don't know. Yeah. I mean, at say at 10 a.m. central time, you've recovered from last night. So not a good excuse if it's, we partied last night. I just hope he, he. Remember that I said Eastern time for the show, not Central Time.

That's my only worry. I don't have his number. No, it's all right. And the sun is starting to beat down on me. I don't know if you guys have noticed this. It's making me nervous for the 4 p.m. show today. Shouldn't be in my eyes. Where are you doing the 4 p.m. show from?

Right here. Right here. Right here. Love it. I didn't give you my prediction. Chiefs. Chiefs by four. I think it's a game winning. touchdown drive chiefs by four chiefs by four

it's a real catch 22 because I'm gonna go 28 24 something like that 31 27 type's not bad 31's a lot for a Super Bowl I feel like for the Super Bowl the over the over under is 48 and a half which is why I got very specific with my score because I feel like it always goes right to it so you're more likely to get your score right if you just make it up to it. Okay.

There's your predictions. This has been a freewheeling edition of the Canaan Sports Edition of the Wheel Cane Show. We appreciate you tuning in at this special time and downloading this on Spotify and on Apple. I will see you again this afternoon, 3 o'clock Central, 4 o'clock Eastern for the Will Cane Show on Fox News Channel, live from Bourbon Street in New Orleans for Super Bowl 49. Listen ad-free with a Fox News podcast plus subscription on Apple podcasts. And Amazon Prime members can listen to this show, ad-free on the Amazon music app. This is Jimmy Phala. join me for Fox Across America where we'll discuss every single one of the Democrats' dumb ideas.

Just kidding. It's only a three-hour show. Listen live at noon Eastern or get the podcast at Fox Across America.com.