The Hidden Power of Creating a Media Persona | The Schmo DSH #761

I'm a relaxed, easygoing dude, but when I put the glasses on, I'm in character.

It takes a life of its own.

Yeah, that's the part that surprised me actually.

When we met today without you with the glasses, you were totally normal.

Yeah, I appreciate that.

So you're really putting on a total 180 on your actual personality when you're not.

All right, this is the Schmo.

He's the pro.

It's the digital social hour.

We're wrapping this thing up.

Clearly, this is a completely different guy speaking than the one you were just listening to.

All right, guys, got the Schmo here today.

Thanks for coming on, man.

Hey, thanks for making it happen.

Yeah, it's rare not to see you in your uniform.

I appreciate that.

Well, actually, I had a basketball uniform the first couple of times we met.

Yeah.

We played it in the Mayweather celebrity basketball game.

You came out to the Fight Hoops game, I believe, too.

So I've actually seen you in like a basketball environment at the gym court.

Yeah, this is the first time we're not in a basketball environment.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You get hooped though, bro.

Just not like you.

You're scoring points.

I wish I had your height.

Yeah, the height comes in handy, man.

That was a fun game.

You organize that every year, the one with the UFC fighters?

I don't think that's happening ever again.

Well, Jamal Hill, Torres Achilles.

I remember that.

Dana called you up, didn't he?

Actually, no, they did not.

But, you know, everyone wanted to play.

Yeah.

It was a blast.

So much fun.

Dude.

I would do it every year.

I can't believe he still played on it, too.

He came in to take the last shot.

He's a hooper.

That dude's mental tough.

He's good.

But Phil Rowe, how good is Phil Rowe at basketball?

He was good.

I was upset we lost that game, man.

DC was, too.

DC blocked me.

He blocked me.

And how tall is that man?

5'10.

Yeah, I never told anyone that, to be honest.

I was pretty embarrassed.

No, no, no.

Yeah, DC was on our team.

That's right.

DC was on the other team.

I was on Jamal's team.

You were on DC's team, right?

I was on DC's team.

Yeah, you guys got us.

Yeah.

Man, I can't believe he blocked me, dude.

He was so pumped.

He's a competitive guy, right?

He is.

What you been up to lately, though?

I'm just chilling.

I'm diversifying.

I saw him on ESPN radio here in Vegas every Tuesday.

So not as much in the podcast scene as live radio.

I do a lot of professional sports outside of just doing combat sports.

We just had boxing.

We just had Javante tank Davis.

Oh, you were commenting that?

I was not commentating that.

I was still covering it as media.

Oh, nice.

I do commentate fights, though, for...

Up next Fighting UNF.

They're an independent organization in Southern California.

They're next event July 6th.

So I'm their Schmo Rogan.

I'm a post-fight interviewer, and I do commentary as like the third man in the booth for them.

It's a mix of both professional and amateur fighters.

So it's fun.

It's at the Commerce Casino Hotel, and it's like 15 to 17 fights usually.

Holy crap.

And, you know, Southern California is a hotbed.

A lot of good talent comes out of those gyms in that region.

So it's a fun event.

And some of those guys, they end up going into the UFC and fighting the UFC.

Taco Badilla just fought a couple weeks ago UFC fight night.

He's an alum from Up Next Fighting.

So I do that.

This week I'm in Salt Lake City.

I'm going to do some stuff with the PFL.

So that's more MMA.

I was just at Stanford because Helen, my fiancé's younger brother, just graduated Stanford Business School.

So I went up to that campus.

That's a big deal.

Stay busy, man.

I do NFL, NBA, baseball, MMA, boxing.

You got no time off, my guy.

Stay entertained.

Combat sports, how you made it like at first, though, right?

That's how I blew up.

That's how I got my social media following.

Got it.

From interviewing fighters, right?

I would say, yes, of course, interviewing fighters.

But my

first viral schmoment was finally asking a question at a press conference.

It's back in April of 2019.

They were doing a seasonal press conference in Atlanta.

And I got the mic and I asked Anna White a question in a very schmo way.

garnered a lot of attention and I've kind of been on a rocket ship going forward since then.

Nice.

Yeah, it took some balls to ask that question, right?

It did.

I planned it for three weeks.

You know,

yeah, I just, I knew it was going to go one of two ways, exceptionally well or exceptionally bad.

It was either going to be my last like UFC event or it was going to catapult me into doing more and more of these.

He's polarizing.

Depends what day you catch him too.

That's true.

I've been on both sides.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He's got those days, right?

That Nina girl really blew up recently.

Yeah.

She's like the female version of you.

A lot of people tell me that.

A lot of people say that.

Yeah.

she's she's doing it yeah and it seems like she's doing that she's she's got to go seems like out of nowhere too like past year i don't know how long she's been there but yeah she's she's blowing up in that space for sure yeah i think it's a really unique way and and a personal way of connecting with the athletes absolutely you gotta find ways to showcase their personalities that's exactly why i created my character and she's found a great way to to do things in her style too so and that's what people want to see yeah people want to see that side of their favorite athletes yeah no it's cool to see you do that because a lot of athletes are kind of, what's the word?

I don't know if they like reporters.

You know what I mean?

There's a very bad stigma with the media.

And I don't even know if it necessarily derived from sports media as a general media.

But look, when I started doing Schmo stuff and I was working in corporate America back in 2015, we're talking nearly a decade ago.

I noticed back then there was a disconnect between athletes and media.

I just felt like media were getting so lazy with how they're asking questions and going about their day.

It's like, oh, you just want, how does it feel?

Or you just like just basic generic things that they're not even really putting effort into their jobs.

And I think a lot of what you see today is in re uh, that's a repercussion of people not doing their jobs the way they should have been doing them.

Facts.

You saw the Mavericks go out, the media heavy displayoff run.

Oh, yeah, just stupid questions.

But that's why I think there's so much more athletes now that have become their own media, start their own podcasts, send their own message.

I see it in all sports, not just MMA, but NBA, NFL, baseball.

Everyone's getting their own podcast now.

So it's kind of forced in the hand of traditional media.

Hey, how are you going to respond to this?

How are you going to stay afloat?

Because right now it's not looking good.

Yeah, it's a new era.

They're going to lose viewership with all these podcasts.

LeBron started one, Shaq, so many people, right?

They've already been losing it.

And that means they're losing sponsors.

And just, there's just been this whole shift in the whole media industry the past few years.

And it's still shifting right now.

It's interesting to see how it all unfolds.

Yeah.

I know NBA, especially though, even the reporters, a lot of them are former players now.

Reggie Miller.

Yeah.

And I even think like NBA and TNT, they started doing a couple of years ago.

I'm not as familiar with it this year.

I don't know if I watched it as much this year, but I feel like they do like Tuesday nights.

They do like players only nights or something like that.

So the broadcasters are only guys that played in the league at some point, which I think was a unique spin.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You found a great niche because the players respect you and like you, right?

Because there's certain reporters that get a lot of heat.

I'm not there for clickbait or just to like a got you type of moment.

I'm there to entertain and have fun.

Yeah, because a lot of guys go at Skip.

Yes.

Well, Skip's got a very specific brand where he knows he's pissing people off.

He knows he's marginalizing a certain audience just to get a reaction out of you.

Yeah.

I see a lot of players go after Shams.

Yes.

I actually, Shams, Chicago guy, right?

Yeah, the Indian guy reports on NBA news.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think I know who he is.

I've met him before.

Are they going after him?

Sometimes he'll report something and then the players don't think it's true.

So that's the problem with breaking news.

Sometimes it's a bad source.

Yeah.

So with the whole breaking news bit, like sometimes I get breaking news.

There's been occasions where I've done it, but I don't, it's not my brand.

I don't really care to be the one to break news.

Yeah, you never cover the drama, I noticed.

I'm just in it to have fun and entertain.

Like, I don't, I'm not, I'm not a drama type person.

Like, this is my personality that we're talking to now.

Like, I'm a relaxed, easygoing dude, but when I put the glasses on, I'm in character, it's, it takes a life of its own.

Yeah, that's the part that surprised me actually.

When we met today without you with the glasses, you were totally normal.

Yeah, I appreciate that.

So, you're really putting on a total 180 on your actual personality when you're in that.

Completely.

It's like, well, I come from Chicago, right?

So, I have a lot of influences in the second city, Chicago legends, and there's been so many characters, even in broadcasting.

Harry Carey had crazy big glasses.

That's an influence.

But I always say Craig Sager, remember long-term NBA clothing with the clothing, meets Rodney Dangerfield, sports versus comedy second, but a lot of influences.

John Belushi, Chris Farley, rest in peace, Mike Myers, like both those guys, all three of those guys, huge influences throughout my childhood and just humor and being a weird, goofy guy.

I love that.

And so you want to do this for a while then?

I've been the Schmo for nine years.

Holy crap.

Holy crap, right?

It's been a full-time gig for nine years.

I mean, look,

I love waking up, talking sports, and making people laugh.

That's the premise.

So,

however, I can do that.

When I created the character, no, I didn't expect to be a Schmo full-time or for life or whatever it is, but like, I could easily create another character like I did with the Shmo and make it completely different.

Wow.

But, um, you know,

I'm having fun and that's what it's about and I'm evolving.

Like what I'm doing today is looks a lot different than last year and even two, three years ago.

Even the media games different because I'm a credentialed media member and I've just noticed a lot of things shifting.

And I'm just even looking at ways to just evolve my content now and just expand because I'm doing so many things.

Like I'm doing a lot of local things.

I work with Ford Country here

locally in Nevada at that dealership and I'm kind of like their spokesperson.

So I'm doing more local Ford vehicle content.

And then I've been doing a lot of stuff with Better Media and Jake Paul's company.

Nice.

So that's always important for the fight content.

And I just find ways to stay involved and grow.

That's what's important to me.

Yeah.

You said you've seen a lot of shifting.

What did you mean by that?

Yeah, to kind of going back to what we said a couple of minutes ago about kind of athletes empowering themselves to be their own voice.

Like I feel like guys creating more content, being content creators.

content creators themselves outside of competing inside a ring or a cage, starting their own YouTube channels, creating content.

So

the interview like content that's always been my bread and butter i don't know if the demand's the same for it as it once was the access is is different now because a lot more i think creators are trying to get into the media space and there's a blend between what's media what's a content creator because when i started this like

I was the only one who these traditional media would be like, well, how do I classify this guy?

Because I take the best of the influencer content creator world and I take the best of the media world which is what I come from and I find a balance and I find what works between them but everyone wants to classify you and put you in a bubble for something and I've always blurred those lines but now I feel like traditional media is at this point where they're just taking so much from the content creator world and blending it to the media world it's like I kind of was ahead of my time yeah you were nine years ago Super that was before influencers even like came out yeah and I always took offense to being an influencer like I'm not an influencer but it wasn't until like two years ago.

I'm like, all right, call me an influencer for whatever it is, as long as my bank account's going on.

Yeah, facts.

Yeah, it did have a negative stigma, though, being labeled one.

It did.

It did.

Yeah.

So I guess you're moving into a new vertical then if these interviews are dying out.

Well, yeah, I mean, I'm just doing, I'm doing everything.

Like, my whole vision when I create the character is this over zealous, like over-the-top character.

that's not just limited to one specific thing.

Like when I blew up an MMA, I doubled down to that.

The audience wants to see it.

I'm going to listen to it.

People started following me that were fight fans.

And I'm like, I'm a big fight fan.

And if fight fans want to see that more of those interviews and that content, I'll give you more fight-related content.

But for me, sports is entertainment.

Entertainment is everything.

It's food.

It's travel.

It's fashion and sports, among other things.

I want to do it all.

Yeah.

Which major league sports do you think does the best job at media integrations?

Well, I think in this country in particular, NFL is king.

I think when I look at the NFL, if you look at their metrics, if you look at how they're able to own the calendar, not just in football season, but outside of football season, because if you really break it down, 17-week regular season schedule, but they do such a good job of owning the calendar year in and year out.

Because look, I come from, I'm doing a sport, mixed martial arts, so there's no offseason.

So of course there's a fight or an event going on every single week, as there should be in combat sports and boxing, whether it's that or MMA.

There's got to be something going on.

But if you look at what the NFL does in a a team, you know, team sports, with their popularity, the NFL and the NBA dominate popularity in this country and from the sports world.

Everyone talks about the big four, hockey, baseball being the three and four.

But if you go and you look at what the NFL is doing, just like the NFL draft, how people celebrate the NFL draft and these OTAs and these offseasons, like right now, at this particular time we're doing the show, this is the most dead time, they say, in professional sports at this midway through the summer with like, you know, basketball coming to an end with the NBA Finals potentially

could end tonight.

Hockey coming to an end.

You know, you're in the thick of baseball season.

Some people don't really start paying attention to the pennant race in the fall.

So like it could be the most boring time.

But the NFL, they do such a good job.

If you talk about those pundits in TV, the ESPNs, the Foxes, they talk about the NFL every single morning.

They have you talking about them.

That's the conversation.

That's why I think they do the best.

Yeah, I could see that.

Do you think any sport will ever take over the big four in America?

I think MMA, I think UFC, what they've done with the brand has the closest thing to butting in into the big four.

Yeah.

Whether you want to call it the fourth one being hockey, which probably is.

I think baseball is ahead of hockey

in a lot of metrics, just mainly because baseball is like 162-game season, which is there the most time of the year, and there's so many players, so many moving things.

Contracts are bigger, too.

Contracts are bigger, and there's no salary cap.

And they're all global sports, but I think baseball is even more global than a sport like hockey.

Right.

Just in terms of just where popularity is region-wise and whatnot.

But I think if there's ever a chance for a sport to penetrate or a sports leak, it would be the UFC.

I agree.

I think it might eclipse hockey in our lifetime.

Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, think about it too.

Like, 30 years, this sport.

Where was the NFL 30 years into their sport?

Were they still wearing leather helmets?

If not, they may have just graduated from leather helmets, but it looked completely different.

The evolution you've seen in this this sport in 30 years has been astronomical.

I can only imagine what it would look like 30 years from now.

Yeah.

Who's your favorite sports commissioner?

Well, I'm biased, though, but that would be

Dana.

I'm not going to say that.

But it has to be.

Why?

Because what other sports commissioner will you get access to like you would for Dana White?

You're not going to get the same with Adam Silver or Roger Goodell and stuff.

Go to Roger Goodell.

Look at him during the NFL draft.

He gets booed when he's going into the other side.

Wow, I didn't know that.

He gets booed.

Well, not as much now as as it was like five, 10 years ago, because when he first came into the league, like early, mid-2000s, took over for Paul

Taglibu, he was just like this iron fist commissioner, like giving out fines and suspending players for all these crazy things.

Like obviously marijuana, the leniency now versus back then, completely different.

But like...

People would be suspended for longer periods of time back then.

And what really, I think, disconnected him and fans is

there would just be no continuity in the punishments.

Someone like Ray Rice, you know, on camera with beating his wife, that punishment so much different than like

someone else, like with domestic violence and whatnot.

There was just no consistency.

And I think the fans pointed that out.

But I would say over the past couple of years,

he's really relaxed in a lot of those ways and changed things.

And at the end of the day, who's paying his salaries?

It's the NFL owners.

The NFL owners love the guys.

I'd agree.

Dana, the access is crazy.

Yeah.

But Dana's got to be it.

Yeah.

I don't see other interviewers interviewing commissioners of other leagues, just pulling up to them and asking them questions like that.

Yeah, absolutely.

UFC press conferences are goaded too.

I swear I made my bread and butter initially.

Yeah.

What were some of your favorite press conferences?

Well, it's got to go back to UFC for me.

Clearly, UFC 236 because of my moment, my viral schmoman, asking Dana the 165-pound question.

But literally, you could throw any Connor McGregor press conference in there

because he always makes an entertaining.

You're never going to get like, you know, him and Adiaz, you know, iconic throwing of the water bottle, any of that type of stuff.

So obviously, I have my bias and then for my moment, but then I would say also anything Connor McGregor related.

You can't deny that.

I was bummed when the fight got canceled, actually.

Yeah, of course.

I think his shin is just toast, man.

It's, I mean, it was completely shattered.

And a lot of people forget, too, that going into that Dustin Poirier trilogy fight, he had injured that leg that snapped.

He was contemplating pulling out.

I remember, you know, whether it was a documentary I saw or he had somewhere I saw video footage of just like the struggle of him dealing with that injury leading up to the fight.

Wow.

Damn.

If he pulled out, he could have still been fighting now.

Should have, coulda, woulda.

You never know.

Yeah.

That nerve damage is no joke, though.

It's crazy.

I think Sean Strickland, someone who's a very colorful personality, posted some sort of x-ray of his leg bones and and how all the damage and the wear and tear it just doesn't look like a traditional human leg

um

it's it's a very brutal unforgiving sport um but you know that's why we love it so much high risk high reward have you ever gotten to interview sean yeah plenty of times uh what'd you ask him so many different uh so many different things uh

Outside of fighting is great stuff.

I mean, the thing about Sean is you don't have to really ask him anything.

He'll dictate where where the interview is going to go.

He will bring in politics.

He'll bring in gender.

He'll bring in anything.

It's hilarious.

He likes to make fun, and that's great because the character, the Schmo, if you Google it, it's a stupid person.

My whole shtick is being self-deprecating.

So if I'm going to have an athlete poking fun at me and what I'm wearing and what I'm doing, it makes my job that much easier.

Yeah.

He either hates you or loves you, I noticed with him.

Yes, I'll have a good relationship with him.

I know he doesn't hate me.

Yeah.

You didn't box him like Sneeko?

I did not box him like Sneeko.

That takes a lot of balls.

I've gone in there and done like Schmo vs.

the Pro with some guys.

Yeah.

But he's not one of them.

And the thing with Strickland is I don't think he really has an off switch.

So I know he was legit.

Yeah, maybe he's not throwing with 100% power, but legit when you watch Tron Strickland fight, he never really throws 100%.

with power anyways.

He's just there to touch guys up, maybe 60 to 70%.

And then sure, occasionally he'll throw something with power, but most of his stuff is high volume just to touch you up anyways.

But I don't think he really has an off switch for if he's going up against sneko or for he's going up against drique as duplicate yeah that makes sense what is your favorite sport to watch

it's probably nfl and ufc wow nfl's too slow for me really yeah well the thing is for me um

i watch red zone and i've been playing i've been in fantasy football since i was 10 12 years old and I've been a commissioner with all my my frat buddies for a decade.

We've been in this league and it's super competitive.

There's 14 of us.

So the stakes are always high.

It's a deep league.

It's deep and there's bragging rights on the line every time.

And we do this in-person draft every year.

So like I have such like sweat equity in the season.

That makes sense.

And I'm from Chicago, so I've been this diehard Bears fan since I was a kid.

That's a rough one.

So I more have just allegiance to my city.

And I think that's what associates.

But if you look at the sheer number of sports time that I watch, my eyes are glued to something, I don't think it beats mma there's no doubt yeah especially in the past six seven years it's hard to beat mma man especially in person especially in person and and helen and i have been so blessed to see so many great fights in person and a bulk of the those blessings came during the pandemic just being on fight island and being there and like like no very limited humans being involved to see what's going on behind the scenes just to get the fights to go off just the crazy things we did.

Like, traveling to Abu Dhabi, like, is a 16-17-hour flight, but then getting quarantined into a room and then bringing you three meals a day for 48 hours.

Like, it's just like you're locked in your room, and the only time you leave the room is to get tested to make sure you don't have the COVID, which no one talks about anymore.

Yeah, no one talks about anymore.

Funny how that is.

Crazy.

So, you went to the bubble.

That's cool.

Yes.

That wasland.

Yeah, the first big bubble.

Yes.

That was like experiences that I'll never forget.

Yeah.

So you couldn't even interview anyone then.

No, we did.

Oh, you did?

And I was interviewing people with like a mask on and like a plastic thing.

If you look back at some of those old interviews, it's hilarious.

But the thing is, too, is I didn't do it by choice.

I didn't want to wear any of that stuff, but we had to.

I'm sure that the people on the UFC side that were enforcing it were just doing it to cover their ass, to save their job.

They were not necessarily doing it because, oh, my God, you're going to do this.

They just want to protect themselves.

Yeah, they didn't give a shit.

Yeah.

They're going going to look.

Future generations are literally going to laugh, I think, at what we did during that pandemic.

Yeah, I mean, people are still laughing now.

Facts.

And they made a lot of people in your industry get the shot, too.

You know what's crazy, too?

It's like, I only got it because I figured

I had to get it because that's how we could travel.

And if you didn't get it, they would put you into all these extra like things and hurdles to just to cover it.

Like there was a wristband for people that had the shot, first didn't have the shot.

And again, like

at least they're putting this on because had they didn't, I'm sure the networks and the investors would have shut it down.

Yeah.

Did you get all four though?

No, no.

I think I got the first one and the second one, but I didn't get any boosters.

You should be fine.

Did you get any boosters?

Hell no.

Did you get any of the shots?

No.

But I was lucky I didn't have a job that required it or a setting.

It was so crazy, though, too.

It's like, I feel like the people that kept getting the shots and boosters were the ones who kept ending up getting COVID.

Facts.

Yeah, some people got all four.

I never got COVID until I got the first shot.

Really?

Yeah.

Wow.

It's crazy.

I got it at Dan Blazaron's house.

I thought I was dying.

I got like the first wave before it hit the news.

That shit was deadly.

Oh, man.

I felt like it kept getting weaker from there.

And I think it did because all the strains and it still exists now.

People think they're getting the flu or the cold.

It might even be some sort of descendant variation of the virus.

But like, yeah, what really sucks is like all the deaths being labeled as COVID deaths, but it was just they had other causes of death too.

And it's like, we never really know what the numbers are too, because did people all of a sudden start dying of COVID?

Now I hear nobody dying of COVID.

Yeah, it's like inflated.

And now I just saw ventilators killed a ton of people.

They just found out.

I'm sure they did.

Like when you got put on that, you pretty much died.

And it's like, too, it's like, what's the number one cause of death in the world or this country, heart disease and stuff like that?

Who are the people dying?

What are the numbers?

Were they overweight?

Did they have preexisting conditions?

Like, if you're gonna come out with data at least be transparent with the big full picture rather than just picking what's convenient for your argument yeah it was crazy I'm a stickler for that type of stuff no I look back and I'm like wow they really were good at manipulating people's emotions during that time if they got me for a bit dude I almost got it I almost got the shot I like I said we we did it because we felt we had to do it and there's also a lot of family pressure too friends I know my parents were it was super important to them my my parents my fiancé's parents, and it's like, damn, am I going to be a black horse?

What is it?

Black sheep of the family or something?

You know?

But time will tell.

Truth always reveals itself, doesn't it?

Dude, it's been

cool.

Anything events you got coming up next where people can find you up?

I'm going to be doing some PFL.

This weekend they're in Salt Lake City.

I'm going to do some content around that.

Next week's going to be the busiest week of the year with International Fight Week.

I'll be at the UFC Expo.

Will you be on PowerSlot?

I

don't know if I'll be at PowerSlap.

Okay.

Not sure yet.

Because there's also like a sack camp going on with NFL stuff, Max Crosby and some of the big football players.

But I will be at UFC 303.

Got it.

I do know that, which all leads up to that.

I'll be at UFC 303.

Not sure if I'll be at PowerSlap yet.

Just there's so many different

people and things pull me in different directions.

Will you be the one?

I will be.

I'd love love to see you at one.

Your reactions would be hilarious at PowerSlot.

Oh, yeah.

Have you been to one yet?

I've not been to one yet.

That's surprising.

I'm surprised because you go to all the UFC events.

Yeah.

You know?

Is it not your scene or is there a reason?

I'm just, you know,

it's not, I'll have nothing negative to say.

It's just not my cup of tea.

Really?

It's just not my cup of tea.

Like, you know, some people are into cricket.

I'm not, you know, or some people are into volleyball or some people are into motocross and some people aren't.

Like, people have their sports.

people have what they like and don't like.

It just, it was just not something that, like, um, I fell in love with.

I feel that.

So, you're a fight enthusiast.

I don't see it as a sport.

Well, that's a thing.

Yeah.

You know what I mean?

Like, I would not consider that.

What would you say?

Just entertainment.

Like, entertainment.

Yeah.

So that's the thing.

If I could take myself out of being a sports media world, which is if we're getting rid of labels, which I ultimately want, I could totally see that.

So if you want a label as entertainment, absolutely, I could get behind that completely.

Where I have trouble getting behind is the sport thing.

Got it.

And doing things from a sports perspective.

That makes sense.

That's my thing because

if I could go as a fan and not have to work and just be like an enthusiast of it, sign me up.

I'd be right there front row.

Reactions to everything.

But because I have to work and I'm media and I have to look at it in a different light and more from the sport angle, that's the reason it doesn't do it for for me.

That makes sense.

You just don't respect it as a sport.

It comes down to that.

To each their own.

Like for me, for sports, like there's offense and there's defense.

You can't play defense in that sport.

So for that reason, like, and for me, when I grew up playing sports, whether football, lacrosse, basketball, I love playing defense.

I'm a defensive guy.

It's part of the sport.

Like,

in the greatest basketball player of all time conversation, you got LeBron and Michael Jordan.

What Michael Jordan will always have over LeBron James is how many defensive player of the year awards does LeBron James have?

And how many does Michael Jordan have?

Jordan got it.

LeBron never got it.

He never got one?

Never got one.

Wow.

It's an important aspect of the sport.

LeBron James is 6'8,

260.

Michael Jordan's 6'6'215.

Considerable size difference between the two.

Playing different positions, different eras, and one was a defensive MVP, one wasn't.

A lot of respect to defenders because it is tiring, man.

I'm in the lifetime league out here.

Whenever I have to guard the best player, I am gassed.

You're gassed, right?

And that's why, even in a sport like football, you have 11 guys on the field, but you don't have the same guys playing offense as they do play defense.

How many guys in the NFL right now are on both sides of the ball?

I can't think of one person at the time of my head that's playing both sides of the ball.

Maybe on the punt return and offensive.

Special teams, but that's a little different too, because you're coming in for one play, and that play

happens every, maybe

three to eight times every game if that

yeah no that's that's true you got to factor in the defense 100 what about pickleball you respect that sport of course it's like human tennis it's human like it's that's i like my i know older people are involved in uh getting involved in that because they can do that but like yeah i i

anything where you can build sweat equity i i think is uh is a sport yeah it gets a lot of heat because i i study people comments on on social media and whenever i see a viral pickleball clip all the comments are like this is not a sport and they hate on it but I respect it but some people will then argue is golf a sport it is yeah I mean and some people say is NASCAR a sport yeah yeah requires a lot of skill it requires skill I mean to each their own and that's where you could make an argument too that power slap is a sport because then the slapping requires a specific skill set and maybe your chin has to have some sort of

Bone bone structure density, but that's the thing too is once your chin goes you can't get your chin back.

Yeah, well, there's too much luck involved in that sport for me to consider it a sport.

That's true, because you flip a coin, the other guy, you get knocked out, you never got your chance to slap.

That always bothered me.

That bothered me too.

Because the guy who goes first, 95% chance they're winning or have an edge to win.

Yeah.

So I wish there was more a way to get it.

Is there a way to change that?

Maybe the first stop should be at the same time.

Okay, now I'm on board.

All right, now I'm on board.

Now you got equal chance, equal defense.

Maybe there's a way you could, you know, just like, you know,

like with boxing, you know, you throw the jab and

yeah, you know, oh, yeah, maybe if you could play some D a little bit, like have a hand in there because some of those knockouts are vicious.

Can you imagine, like, they, because it's a new sport, right?

They're going to change the rules.

Can you imagine they just create some sort of new surface space where you can stand in?

It's some sort of like box structure that allows you to move your head to a certain degree.

I don't know how you can make a slap in that, but I'm just thinking of ways out loud that you can maybe switch the variations of it to allow something like defense and strategy to really come to play.

That'd be cool because this can only go so far with the current format.

Right.

Like how far can you take it?

Like how many people

can enjoy a live experience?

Like how big can the arena or the venue be?

And then like how do you make a real show out of it?

Because like they're blessed that a lot of the overhead, a lot of the cost, it's just using what they've already built with the UFC.

Right.

But how do you grow it beyond that?

100%.

Shmo, it's been cool, man.

Where can people find your site and your social media handles?

Yeah.

So so the Schmo312.com is my website.

Follow me on all socials at the Schmo312.

The YouTube's at the Schmo, T-H-E-S-C-H-M-O.

Again, the way I'm talking now is not how I would be a character.

You got to get something.

Yeah, let's do it, man.

What do we want to do?

Do your closing statement that you normally do.

All right, this is the Schmo.

He's the pro.

It's the digital social hour.

We're wrapping this thing up.

We appreciate your time.

Clearly, this is a completely different guy speaking than the one you were just listening to.

Absolutely.

It's been an honor, man.

Thanks for coming on.

Thanks for watching, guys.

See you tomorrow.