Caitlin Clark on “Life Changing” Rookie Season, Chiefs Fandom, NBA Ratings Debate and more | Ep 117

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Like, they don't have many rules on much anymore.

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It's been great for everybody, honestly.

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Have you heard of anybody paying their taxes?

I definitely wasn't fucking ready to pay taxes when I was in college. Like, I wasn't thinking about that shit.
I know. That's what I always think about.
Welcome back to New Heights, ladies and gentlemen. How's it going? A wondry show produced by Wave Sports and Entertainment.
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Shout out Audible. We're your hosts.
I'm Travis Kelsey. This is my big brother, Jason Kelsey out of Cleveland Heights, Ohio.
Cincinnati Bear cincinnati bearcat alums subscribe on youtube 100 plus or wherever you get your podcast and follow the show on all social media at new heights show with one s jason let the people know who we have coming up i'm not going to beat around the bush guys uh this is a big one it's a guest you guys have all been waiting for that we all have been waiting for you've all i mean really been demanding and we finally got her uh one of the probably got one of the business schedules out there caitlin clark is here that's right you heard it that's right you heard it right she's in the building folks and we're going to hear a nice conversation from her in just a few seconds and we're not going to really do too much before that because we're going to get ready into this conversation because it was fantastic but first we are going to get to a little bit of that new news new news is brought to you by accelerator the orange ice pop there we go who knows accelerator do you like do you're finally i do i'm a fan of the orange i still prefer the grenadine i still prefer grenadine cherry ice pop but okay i think it's good i'm a fan. I'm always in of the orange.
Dude, it's so good. I still prefer the grenadine.
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They call it Late Night with Jason Kelsey premieres this Friday, January 3rd. Japhis, Jason, Japhis, Jason, can you give us a tease or an anecdote? A tease or an anecdote? I don't know.
I don't know what to say. I think we're going to have some awesome guests on hand.
Really, the whole purpose of this show is to just celebrate the sport of football. And, you know, obviously, we've got playoffs coming up.
This is the last week of the regular season coming up. You know, it's just honestly an excuse to get together a bunch of guys and bullshit about a sport that we all love, do a bunch of fun, creative comedy bits with some incredible writers.
Being creative is, is just a joy. And I think that we have between the band, between the audience, between the players and all the people that are going to be there.
I think it's just going to be a lot of fun, incredibly intimidated by it. I'm terrified of how this is going to go go that's such a good feeling to have at the same time it makes you feel alive there's something about being afraid that makes you excited right every time man so every time yeah anyways well that's awesome i'm happy as hell for you brother i can't wait you said something about a band and now i'm i gotta ask are you breaking out the sacks listen, I got what this is.
No, not focusing. I'm still too far away to be able to read that.
Oh, you got some new. Got some reads.
Got some reads. We'll see.
It probably won't happen to show one. I don't know what the plan is.
I didn't. No pun intended.
I didn't read that on the box. I just thought in my head, what could this possibly have to do with a saxophone? Yeah, the i bought some reads um i i still you know i don't know when we got some plans we'll see we'll see what happens i don't know if it's gonna show one we got some there's a whole litany of things that could happen in this episode so um anyways excited again that's friday january 3rd ladies and gentlemen they call it Late Night with Jason Kelsey,

the man, the myth, the legend. And we also will be back for our regularly scheduled episodes starting next week.

Football schedule and the holidays threw us off a little bit with me playing on Christmas

and having all these short games or short weeks back to back to back.

So it's making it a little tough to keep knocking these episodes out with you guys.

But New Heights will be back talking all things NFL playoffs and whatever else comes next week. Sounds good, Bubba.
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Our guest today is a six-foot guard from the University of Iowa, the NCAA all-time Division I scoring leader, the first pick of the WNBA draft, WNBA assist leader, all-star, and 2024 WNBA Rookie of the Year. She's the most requested guest in the history of our show and And the Time Magazine Athlete of the Year, Miss Caitlin Clark.
Please welcome everyone. Yeah.
I appreciate it. I'm excited.
I don't get excited about many things, but this is at the top of my list. We made it, Jason.
We've made it. How many accolades did we leave off? How many accolades do you have right now at this point, Caitlin?

I think you might have made some up.

I don't know.

Yeah, I don't think so.

I'm pretty sure not.

I feel like you're kind of like Wayne Gretzky for basketball right now.

Oh, Gretzky.

I mean, if you go to the Wikipedia page and you look at the list of awards and achievements,

it's endless.

It is.

We had to limit it to this

list just to get the show started i appreciate it is there any accomplishment i guess of all

these accolades that has meant the most to you oh gosh that's a good question well i'd give you the

answer my mom would say is probably academic all-american she was proud of me for being a

good student in college so nobody's talking about. Nobody talks about that.
Love that answer for mom. That's what I'm talking about.
I did all right in school, so hung in there. But other than that, I mean, they're all cool, but you don't really care.
It kind of just comes with it. It comes with having fun.
And I think the time athlete of the year was cool, too, just because you see the list of, like, all the athletes that they've had prior to me and a lot of those people I idolized growing up and LeBron's been the only other basketball player so and it's cool as a woman like they haven't had many females on the cover too so for women's sports it's kind of special but you know just kind of comes with playing the game and having fun as you guys know that's awesome I love it what did you what did you study in college what was it I in the business school i got my degree in marketing so you're a marketing major i'm a marketing major there we go yeah you guys you guys are great at marketing we're all right you gotta figure i gotta go on like dating shows just to get my name out there i actually have a funny uh made the dean's list like once in my life and it was when it was when i got kicked out of school and it was a part of the criteria that i had to get uh that i had to reach just to stay on the team so you weren't capable of doing it exactly that's all that matters ed kelsey always said i was capable just you just have to focus you have to you have to you have to give it your all no i um my mom was actually the one paying for my uh tuition at that point so um i had to make sure i did my mom right i couldn't just throw away the grades no mom was paying for him so that's right i share that with my mother let's talk about your biggest accomplishment uh being a part of chief's kingdom how long have you been a part of the kingdom i'm sorry jason i'm a midwest kid so there's this picture that's been circulating a couple from a couple years ago when i was on payton eli's monday night show um where i'm in a full chief's outfit i have have family in Kansas City and I grew up in Des Moines, Iowa, which is only three hours from Kansas City. So that's just the closest NFL team.
So my dad was a big Chiefs fan growing up. So people think I'm like a bandwagon Chiefs fan.
I'm like, no, I was there before Patrick and Travis. We were ride or die.
So we've been big fans. And now obviously all the success you guys have had has made it a lot of fun for us.
Who was your childhood? My brother loved Tony Gonzalez. That was his guy.
Yeah. He was the chief.
We would go to one game a year growing up with my cousins down in Kansas City. We still try, that's so fun.
And we still try to go. We went to the Christmas Day game last year.

I think the year before you might have played on Christmas Eve, maybe.

We went to that.

We were sitting outside for that one.

My toes were like about to fall off.

My fingers about to fall off.

I don't get how you guys play in that type of weather, but it's fun.

We got heaters on the sideline.

They let us cheer.

Arrowhead's not too bad, so good spot. It's a blast.
You already know. Have you ever messed with those heaters on the sideline? Have you ever seen those things? So we played a basketball game outside in college, like an exhibition game.
Oh. And they had those on the sidelines.
And I was like, I didn't really never know what they were, but they had them. And they get so hot.
It's too hot. It too hot i know yeah it's funny you'll see you'll see some guys throw on those winter coats and if they get too close to the heaters you just hear them pop they're just like really you'll just see feathers start flying everywhere it's crazy i had to tell them to like turn it off i'm like just let it be like a normal bench like yeah i'm not i'm out on i'm out on the heaters it has to be like below 20 degrees for me even to think about sitting on the heaters.
That's why I'm sitting on the water coolers right now. Every time we're off the field.
I hate it. I can't feel too hot.
For sure. If I feel too hot, I'm going to start to like it's like a heated blanket or something.
I'm going to start falling asleep. I think they like said like, yeah's a fire marshal over there watching, make sure he doesn't

catch on fire.

Why don't we just do our own safety check here and just cut these things?

Yeah.

So you said your brother's favorite player was Tony Gonzalez.

Who is your favorite player or is?

Oh, is?

I mean, obviously Travis is up there.

Yeah!

I made it.

But I'm obviously a big Patrick fan, too.

I'll see you next time. I mean, obviously, Travis is up there.
Yeah! I made it. But I'm obviously a big Patrick fan, too.
How can you not be? Like, the both of you. You're pretty great.
I'm here. But it's been fun.
And obviously, I've known Brett Veach for a while. It's actually kind of crazy.
So when I was in college, we played the Big Ten tournament in Indianapolis. And it was at the time of the Combine combine.
So Brett was staying in our hotel and that's kind of how I first like got to know him, like my sophomore year of college. And then we kind of have just stayed in touch ever since.
Yeah, Brett's the man. Yeah, he's obviously done really well and he's fun.
He's cool too. Oh, the whole family is, the Veach family is the best.
Yeah, good people. When I first got into the league, Veach was like Andy's assistant in Philadelphia.
How crazy is that? So to see where he's at now and the success he's had, it's pretty awesome. Yeah.
The Eagles had all this right there and there. No, don't shut up.
We're not talking about this right now. We're doing just fine.
You guys are doing great right now. That's funny.
All right, Travis, earmuffs. Put your earmuffs off.
Take your earmuffs off. They technically are on.

Okay, well, take your earmuffs off.

What do we think about 2024 Chiefs, Caitlin? What do we think about

where the team's at?

I'm feeling good.

You feeling good? I'm feeling good.

I mean, we're what, 13-1

right now. Pretty good.

Did someone say 13-1?

That's not too bad. But also, like like you guys have made it interesting as a fan like we're just keeping everybody at the edge of their seat i know and i think that's what i appreciate about you guys the most and like you and patrick especially is like you guys just have that edge to you like that clutch factor and like a lot of people don't have that so when you get the ball with a minute 30 you need to go 80 yards and score.
I'm feeling pretty good. We like the ball in Pat Mahomes' hands for sure.
We do. Our defense has been saving our ass a lot.
Let alone our field goal block team. It's been a full team effort this year.
Is it 10 games, consecutive one, single score games or something like that? Yeah. I don't know.
There's some some crazy stats, like the first team ever to do that, but. Something like that.
You killed it. Great performance.
So last time 92% saw you with Travis was the heiress to her. How was that? Oh, that was selfless.
Electric. It was great.
My mom was like begging me to take her. She's like, I got to go.
like everybody's talking about it i'm like okay okay

yeah it was right there in indianapolis yeah i literally live right downtown too like right next to lucas oil so i'm like nice the night i didn't go i'm like on my balcony trying to listen but no obviously it's just a great show and a lot of fun and uh full swifty turned my mom into a full Swifty now. Nice.

Two of my puppies were there too.

Good time.

You mentioned and uh full swifty turned my mom into a full swifty now nice so good time oh yeah good time was that you mentioned that was like your second night going to it right yeah second night in a row and that was my third show i went early on when taylor first went on tour um in minnesota at u.s bank went for early concerts and that was a lot. Went with some of my college friends, and we had a good time together.
It's hard to not have a good time at a concert. I don't know how you couldn't have a good time at something like that.
This is so fun, man. Well, we mentioned earlier that a few weeks ago you were named the Time Magazine Athlete of the Year.
Time asked you to define your year in one word, and you said historic. historic we can do better we can give you two words to define your year uh what would what would they be if you could do that two words two words that is hard yeah one word is here and i can't use historic yeah i mean i guess you can it's your it's your definition it's yours majorly.
I would say like, I don't know, life changing maybe. That's a great one.
I think that's all in a good way. Like, I mean, things just change really fast.
Like as you guys know, like that's just how the world works. And especially with social media, people see a lot of your life, but that's what makes it fun and why I've had so many cool opportunities, too.
So it's crazy, like looking back at a year ago today or around this time, like I was just beginning my senior year of college. And obviously, you know, people knew who we were and people attended our games, but it's obviously not in the magnitude that it is now.
Yeah. So like life just changes fast, but that's that's what makes it And, you know, quickly started a new chapter of my life too.
Like moving here to Indianapolis and feel lucky. I'm still in the Midwest.
I know you guys like the Midwest. So I think, yeah, I've been in the Midwest my entire life.
Jason's officially an East coaster now. Philly of all the East coast cities kind of has like some Midwest feel to it.
I don't think Philly wants to hear that. They'll probably hate that I said that, but whatever.
Yeah. They're not going to like that comment.
They want to be far from the Midwest. No doubt.
I mean, it was just a crazy year because you go all the way up to the national championship game and then you're playing right away. Yeah.
You know, one of my coaches early on in my career said, you know, your rookie year is always so hard because you're in a new city, you're in a new place, you're with a new team, new coaches. There's so much that's not part of the routine that you're so used to.
And you had that as like magnified. I mean, are you looking forward this year to like kind of having some like, I don't know, more of a routine? Yeah.
Yeah. The familiarity.
Yeah. I mean, it's just so unlike any other professional sport, really, from the standpoint of, so I played in the national championship and I basically went to the draft right after, got picked.
And then you basically pack up and move. Like you're moving in April.
You don't even finish senior year of college. And I guess for you guys, like, what was it? You go to the combine.
How long do you have to prepare for the combine? A few months. And then you get drafted and you got, still got a little time to get acclimated to the new city.
For sure. You have camp, whatever.
Like, it's not like that. Like camp for us is like a week and a half.
Yeah. But I think it was good a little bit too.
Like you don't have time to overthink things. Like, it's just like, boom,, boom, boom.
Like you're just onto the next. But at the same time, like you don't like, I feel like I never really ended the chapter of college.
Like it was just like, you left, but maybe that's good. You don't have a lot of time to think about it.
So I think that's definitely the weirdest part of, you know, women's professional basketball and obviously college basketball too. It's just that change, but that's kind of how it has to be too.
So it's just different but i think i feel lucky too because we had the olympic break so i got a month off in the middle of the season because we had to pause the wmba season because you know the 12 girls go go and play in the olympics and everybody else you're not doing much so got like a month off which i really needed obviously because i've been playing basketball for just a year straight. But obviously, so much different from the NFL or the NBA or whatever it is.
I remember coming into the NFL, one of the biggest challenges for me was finding my professionalism, in a sense. I was such a leader on my team at Cincinnati.
At least I felt like I was like the main one of the voice of the team.

And when I got to Kansas City, there was guys that had just been perennial pro bowlers

and guys that had already had that culture set.

And then on top of that, Coach Reed.

And I struggled trying to find my lane and really feeling like I could give a piece to the team

or find a role on the team.

Was there anything like that that happened to you early on, knowing that it all happened so fast? For sure. You come in as a rookie, and like you said, you're trying to figure out a new environment, new teammates.
You don't want to say too much. You don't want to say too little, and it's just so hard.
But in my scenario, and obviously you guys too, you're already highly thought thought of, like people are turning to you to like be something or be someone. So it's hard.
Like you're trying to find your, get your feet wet, but also not do too much. And I think that's kind of what I struggled in early on is like, I don't know what to say.
I don't know how to say it. I don't know how they're going to react.
For not knowing you nailed it. But also like I had a lot of really good vets around me too.
So I feel very grateful for that. And we had a fairly young team too.
So like people had been through it fairly recently. So they knew how I felt, but like, I feel like that definitely is a huge challenge.
And that goes for whatever professional sport, like you're trying to learn, but also people are looking at you, like you got to perform and like be what they drafted you to be. And can be tough yeah i remember jason you got tossed into the into the fire early your rookie year and especially because you guys didn't even have all the workouts yeah so we we missed the whole off-season workout and if you weren't a first or second day pick you didn't get the playbook so i got the playbook like two days before training.
So we just started right from there. But that was one thing.
You mentioned the vets. And I think, you know, there's, for me at least, there was a lot.
Some vets were incredible. Some of the vets, obviously, are competing for jobs.
So there's a little bit there. But you lean so much as a young player on your vets.
And you lean so much from like, even just like in Philly, there's so many great players that played for the eagles that like harold carmichael who was a legendary philadelphia eagle was like always around and willing to uh lend advice or anything did you have many former players or current players like reach out to you that really helped you in transitioning into the WNBA? Yeah, there was, you know, quite a few. Somebody that comes to the top of my head is Tamika Ketchings, who was an MVP in the WNBA.
Yeah. She won their championship here.
I think I want to say 2012 when the Fever won their championship. She was like what made the Indiana Fever really good.
Like that was our prime. That was when we were really good.
And then after Tamika retired, the Fever kind of went down a little bit as every team does once your franchise player retires and moves away from basketball. And she's still really big here in the Indianapolis community.
And she was one of the first people to text me after I got picked and still checks in on me. So it's cool.
It's like somebody that's not in your building every single day, but it means so much to your community and to the organization. And to have that, like, she's like a legend.
Her, her numbers up in the rafters, like that's somebody I idolized and looked up to and for her to just take, you know, two seconds to check in on me and see how I'm doing. And, um, that's obviously really special.
So I would certainly say her, um, and we still have that relationship and it's still growing and she still comes around now and then, and her championship trophy that she won,

like sits in our locker room.

It's like right next to my locker.

I'm like,

great.

The coach is probably motivation.

Yeah.

Hey,

no pressure.

Yeah.

So I have to look at it every day.

These are the shoes.

It's got like its own like glass case.

I'm like,

great.

Oh yeah.

Better.

Hell yeah.

Better.

Just a little motivation. Just this is what we're working for.
No doubt. Absolutely.
So, yeah. We were not drafted in the first round.
What was it like being a first round pick? Oh, well. The first pick.
So, it's crazy. Yeah.
Because of COVID, I could have actually gone back to school for a fifth year. Were you considering that? Well, early on, yes.
It looks like you're having a good old time over there in Iowa. I'm not going to lie.
It looked like you were having a good time. I mean, it's college.
You're there with your friends, and the game's just easier. It's just how it is.
You don't want that chapter of your life to end. It's fun.
I hear you. You do fun things.
You guys know how it is. It's easygoing and whatever.
I imagine imagine that decisions probably made even harder now that there is on nil like when travis and i played like there was no ability to make any money it was like way different yeah i gotta capitalize on this check but yeah so i was like kind of considering that but then i got to the point where i was like yeah i'm totally leaving like i i know this is going to for me. Just like, I felt very content in that.
And then obviously like I had a very good feel that I was probably going to be the first pick, but like, you're still sitting there and like you, everybody gets nervous and jittery, no matter where you're projected or what you're going to be. Like, this is a moment you've always dreamed of as a kid.
Oh, Jason was a train wreck. Are you kidding me? He was, guy was pacing back and forth in the room.
Yeah. Like how did you guys feel going into, going into the draft? We, I knew, yeah, I guess Travis, do you want to, I guess I'll go first.
We'll go chronological. I'll go first.
Then you go. All right.
So first day I wasn't doing anything because I knew I wasn't going to get drafted. I was just like, man, this is cool.
Watching the draft. Second day for, for, I think the later on guys you have, your agent is like taking any inkling of like positivity he can.
So he's like, there's a chance you'll go in the third round, even though there's no chance you'll go in the third round. So I'm like watching that.
I'm like, all right. But the third day, me, Trav, mom, and dad, Uncle Don, we all went bowling because I didn't want to sit there and watch it go by and watch a bunch of people get picked that like, it's like just pissed me off even more.
So it's like, all right, I'll just go bowling, ignore it. And somebody will call me at some point.
We finished bowling and I still hadn't got a call. So it was super awkward.
It was like, all right, let's just go back to the house. We paid for the two hours.
We did the two hours. Do we keep fucking rolling these things? The third day was still going.
Yeah. So it was like the sixth round.
We went back to my house and then finally got a call from a 610 number, I believe it was. Or was it 216, 215? I think it was.
Yeah, it might have been 215. Either way, Philadelphia area code popped up up and so it all kind of went down there dad came rushing and crying uh there's nothing better than uh and then you can hear when it finally because i was in a separate room and they were all in the living room kind of watching on tv and uh i was still on the phone and then i knew when they all knew because they all started cheering in the living room so that was exciting but it was nerve-wracking until the moment you get picked and then it's like right you forget about all the other crap you're just like yeah i'm in the hotel now yeah my situation was a little different because i did have the year that i missed uh playing but that ended up being the year that i switched into the tight end room so it was uh it was a perfect match for me um That's when I really thought that, oh, wow, I actually love this game.
Before, I was just back there playing the old backyard sport. Now I have like, I don't know, I felt like I could give more to the game, give more to the team.
I was in Pittsburgh because that's where my agent was, had all the friends and family out. I knew first round wasn't there, but I always thought in the back of my mind, I could, like all tight ends that were that were going to get drafted.
I could play with those guys. You know, I might not have shown on film that I'm better than them, but I know that I'm I've shown that I could play in the NFL just as much as they can.
Yeah, I ended up just getting kind of like Jason said, getting told that maybe second round here. If this guy doesn't get picked, they're thinking about you.
And finally got a call from a Missouri number thinking I was going to St. Louis because I had no idea that Kansas City was even in Missouri.
And from there, it was Coach Reed on the phone telling me, you better not mess this up. You didn't? No, I didn't.
I almost did a few times. How many rounds are there in the NFL draft?

There's seven now.

It's been seven for a long

time. There used to be something crazy.

It's like the MLB where they

had a thousand rounds.

Exactly.

Now it's seven and then

undrafted. Once it gets to

the later rounds, sometimes it's better to even be undrafted.

You can just try to pick a good situation to go exactly yeah you get autonomy in that but right yeah what was harder high school college or going from college to the pros oh that's a good question yeah well my high school to college transition was so weird because i was coveted so like i didn't even know when i was going to go to college. It's like, I didn't even like technically graduate high school.
Like I did obviously, but like, I didn't ever walk really. We had like an outdoor thing, but other than that, like it was, it was so weird.
And then like two weeks before they're like, we're in the summer and I was like, yeah, like we want you to come to campus. And literally the only people there were like us in the football team and men's basketball.
Wow. so weird like in the dorms it was literally just athletes in the dorms no RAs it was like a huge like mansion with just college kids running wild I'm not gonna lie that sounds so much fun it was a bit concerning but it was awful it was a lot of fun um I don't know if they knew that I don't think they know that that was the situation.
At least that was the situation where on a few floors that I was near, but it was a good time, honestly. And it was just so weird.
Like I didn't have that normal college experience. Like I think my first semester, like I was taking everything online, um, just trying not to get COVID cause we're testing every day and just trying to play.
And gosh, thank God we're out of that. I know.
So just kind of crazy. But and then obviously going from college to the pros, I think it's just like the time span.
That's just what's so weird about it. It's just so short and condensed.
Like you don't have much time. But yeah, at that point, it is what it is.
Everybody has to deal with the same thing. So that's what I told myself is like, there's no no point in complaining.
Everybody's dealing with it it's not any different it's a good mindset to have yeah what's your uh what's your welcome to the wmba moment if you could have one oh welcome to the w i tell people this i it was early on i want to say it was like our 10th game of the year we're playing in new york versus liberty who ended up winning the championship this year yep yep and somebody set a screen on me and Like i hit my ear like just perfect on on the girl where like my eardrum popped and like ruptured and i knew it i knew it right away because i've done it before and i was just like it hurts so bad i don't know if you guys have ever done that but i've done it how did you do it before can i guess can i guess oh yeah i guess it was very midwestern you did it in You did it in water. Something with water.
I got launched. Why did you just get so excited? What are you, some brainiac? Because that's how I did mine.
I went off the diving board and tried to do as many flips as I could and smacked the side of my head in the Heights High School swimming pool. Jason was a male swim cadet, so he had to be a performative.
This wasn't during swim cadet. Don't put me on blast like that.
That's funny. But yeah, I got launched off a tube in the middle of a lake.
I was like underwater. I'm like, am I okay? That's the Midwest stuff right there.
But yeah, so that was my, my welcome to the W moment. Wait.
So when you pop that, pop your drum, what happens to that? There's like not really much you can do. It takes like months to heal.
So like after the season, the doctor had to like go back in and look and see if it closed. And if it doesn't close, you have to have like a minor procedure.
But lucky enough, it closed. So it's fine.
But thank gosh. Yeah.
You have to like be careful about like getting water in there. You can't go in lakes and pools.
Like it it's weird sometimes it'll bleed when it pops but

mine didn't thankfully so yeah it's just really annoying like your hearing is like really off and jason you're probably not it's like your hearing is just kind of off for like a few few weeks yeah it's like muffled and just like feels weird yeah what um because you brought this up because you're from the midwest i love the fact that you hurt your ear tubing what is are you a lakes are you an Are you an ocean? We're big. We're pro get outside.
Because Kylan's big time ocean. And I'm outnumbered.
I love both. It's hard because like my family would always vacation down to Florida.
Like that's for spring break. Like that's what we would do.
I'd go with my cousins. So like we love the beach.
My parents are beach people. But like you just grow up around lakes in the Midwest.
Like you just, that's what you what you do what beach down there in florida st pete's nice we were marco island okay yeah yeah so that was our spot but i love lakes and they're just easier and i'm not as scared going in the water like i'm not going too much in the ocean for sure i don't know what's down there i'm not messing with that salt water exactly like you feel a little more confident um but yeah there's a snake going to get me? How about you guys? Doubt it. I'm not messing with that salt water.
At a lake, you feel a little more confident.

But yeah.

What, is a snake going to get me?

How about you guys?

Doubt it.

I'm a lake guy for sure.

Yeah. I mean, like you said, I like both.

We actually have a shore town in Jersey.

They call it the shore.

Jersey Shore.

Jersey Shore.

Not the North Jersey Shore.

All the shore.

We're South Jersey. We're civilized down there in South south jersey all the shores over there in jersey are the same he's trying to hype one up over the other but yeah we've i do love the shore i love the ocean and we used to and we grew up going to florida but there's just something about lakes and in particular i like four season lakes i when the lake freezes over.
We played hockey growing up. I like going on snowmobiles.
I like the summers. I like hiking.
Like, I think there's so much. Big hiker.
All right. I have been hiking, and I enjoy it.
That's his new hobby. He picked it.
Had to pick it up. I didn't know you were a hiker.
Well, you did. You've hiked Mount Kilimanjaro.
That's right. I'm lighter now.
He's a retired athlete. He just picks up hobbies.
God damn. All right.
We don't need to put me on blast. All right.
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You guys played hockey? I didn't even know that. Yeah, Jason played a little longer than I did.
Once I got to high school, I switched over to basketball because it was the same season. Trav hurt the entire Cleveland Heights hockey community because he was the best hockey player ever in Cleveland Heights youth hockey.
He was very dominant. And then when he chose basketball, it just really deflated.
You had to be a pretty solid basketball player. I just couldn't dribble.
We were known for basketball and all the basketball games were absolutely rocking. Really? Sold out? Yeah.
And I had hoop dreams, so I chose basketball. But yeah, I definitely loved playing hockey the most.
Hockey was so much fun. It was probably because of the guys that I played it with more so than actually getting out there.
But yeah. Yeah.
That's half of the youth teams I was on anyways but yeah i just like i like to put a

helmet on you get on the ice and play a little or what were you always a hooper or what other sports did you play i played soccer growing up it was soccer and basketball honestly like hockey isn't really that big in iowa like it wasn't really a big thing which is kind of weird like you think it would be but it was more of nobody really did it i feel like wrestling's wrestling so big in Iowa. Wrestling is huge.

Wrestling is huge.

All the Iowa football players usually are really good high school wrestlers. Tristan Wirfs, freaking Tyler Lindenbaum.
Jason was a wrestler. Athletic, but big and athletic.
Great wrestlers, state champion wrestlers, but that would be like freak O-linemen or like good tight ends or whatever it was. I love watching me two big old muscle-bound dudes wrestle it out.
Give me the heavyweights. I want to see the heavyweights.
That's funny. How did you end up at Iowa? You almost ended up at Notre Dame.
I did, yeah. What led to the decision to go to Iowa? So I basically narrowed it down pretty early on.
I was going through my college recruitment that I wanted to be like in the Midwest, just kind of a homebody family person, just wanted to stay fairly close to home. So that narrowed a lot of stuff down.
And I visited like Oregon and Texas and a few other places. And I liked them, but it was just like I knew it was too far.
And then visited Notre Dame of times. Um, and I was like, I love Notre Dame.
And I like, as a kid, like you want to go to Notre Dame, like it's the same with Notre Dame football. It's like, it's like the coolest thing in the world.
It's Notre Dame. It has that tradition.
They've had so many great players go through there and every single sport, but like, I just knew like something like you could just like, I could feel it in my gut. Like I was like, ah, I'm not supposed'm not supposed to go there yeah so I picked Iowa and we were I was really good at women's basketball before I went there too like made a few sweet 16s made the lead eight um our coach had been there for quite a while um but they hadn't been to the final four since like 1992 so I wanted to go somewhere that was good but like maybe hadn't been like a blue blood for say in like quite a few years and kind of help them get back to that.
And then it was obviously my home state too. And two hours from where I grew up.
So perfect distance where like your parents can't show up, but also like you can go home if you wanted to. No doubt.
It's important. It just kind of all worked out perfect.
And obviously I made an okay decision and it worked out pretty well, but. Worked out real well.
Yeah, it did. Did you take visits to Notre Dame and Iowa? Yeah.
I took quite a few to both. Yeah.
Okay. What was your guys' dream schools growing up? Or did you even have one? Because I wouldn't even say Notre Dame was like my dream school.
It was more so like I just thought it was super cool. It just sounds cool.
No, for sure. I would say dad was a big Notre Dame fan.
He grew upolic and he went to catholic school growing up i think that like anybody who's like irish catholic like that's like the like i grew up especially in the football world and then ohio state was really good yeah it was probably the the one school that i was like as a kid i was like that's the school no you like michigan you just stoping right now. You were always a Michigan fan.
You can't like Michigan and Ohio State. Exactly, Caitlin.
The thing is, I can, and I did. I mean, you can, but Michigan and Ohio State fans are not going to be happy about that.
Exactly. I didn't go to either one of them, so it's all good.
I will say, this was when he was younger. This was when he was younger.
By the time he was high school, he was on the Ohio State. It was just like – anyways.
Ohio State Stadium is legit. When we would go to Ohio State, I would be like – we would drive past, and I'm like, it would make Iowa Stadium look so small, and it still seats 70,000, but that place is just gigantic.
I do love Iowa Stadium, though. There's something like very awesome there.
Obviously the thing they do with the children's hospital is awesome. The wave is really cool.
What's I'm trying to remember the name of it. I watched the game.
I took a visit to Iowa. Kinnick.
Yeah. Kinnick.
Yeah. Yeah.
Great atmosphere. It's great.
And the wave is pretty awesome because the children's hospital looks right over on the, on the stadium. So it's cool.
It's always been a thing. But the Wave has really become a thing probably in the last eight years, I want to say, because we have a kid captain for every game because the hospital is such a big deal.
And it's usually a kid battling some sort of disease or has beaten some sort of disease. Not always cancer, but whatever it is.
And that's always fun. They get to pick a song that plays after the first quarter quarter and i get the chills every time it's it's sick it's probably one of the best traditions in all of sports if not the best honestly wait so what's this thing about the wave the wave just started so yeah so after the first quarter everybody turns because the children's hospital like looks on top of the football stadium and so i remember seeing.
Yeah. I thought you were talking about the wave.
Can't they start doing the wave? They're incorporating the wave? Maybe we can get that started too. Maybe you're onto something, Jason.
Iowa fans are going to be fired up now. They're going to be doing it at the same time.
Exactly. That's so stupid.
But no, it's pretty cool. We heard you got your first recruiting letter in seventh grade yeah is this true yeah so at the time like that's insane it's insane were you playing with high schoolers at this point yeah it's honestly sad like we're college like recruitment has kind of gone it's just insane but also i got you i feel very fortunate like my fortunate.
Like my parents were just like, they told my older brother, like, go get the mail. Like, we don't want your sister to see that.
They like wanted me to be in seventh grade and like enjoy middle school and like hang out with your friends. Like you shouldn't be worrying about where you're going to college.
I love that so much. Yeah.
So I didn't really take any visits until like after my freshman year of college. And then I didn't decide until my senior year.
So I was never in a rush. And my parents did a really good job of like, make sure, you know, I have a good circle around me.
Like it wasn't always about college recruitment. I wasn't like posting my offers.
Like also that wasn't really a thing when I was growing up. So.
But it is now, I mean, it was, it had to be close to when you were growing up. I mean.
Yeah, it was close. Like people were starting to do it.
Like posts like, oh, I got an offer from here.

I got an offer from here.

And especially in basketball.

Now it's all you see on social media.

It's like only people talk about.

It's crazy.

But obviously times have changed too, but.

Oh, times have changed.

Yeah.

Seventh grade was wild.

And I was playing up like two years.

So I was playing with high schoolers.

But yeah, I didn't really like think anything of it. Like I was just going out there and hooping and having fun and it's kind of just what came with it how much basketball did you play because nowadays like these kids play it's like non-stop it's like I know it's crazy crazy yeah it's crazy and I so I played AAU and then I played for my high school team but my eight my mom would be, she is not playing more than like three games or two games in one day.
Like that's crazy because sometimes they want me to play like for the seventh grade team and the eighth grade team. So my parents were like really good about that.
Like they didn't want me to lose the love of it. Like you don't want to get burned out.
Like you still want to be having fun when you're doing it as a pro if you're lucky enough. And maybe as a kid, I was like, mom, no, like I can keep going.
Like I can keep playing. But looking back, like I'm very fortunate for that because I haven't lost that fun of it and that passion for it and always wanting to get better.
And sometimes that's why people get burned out is because they did it too much as a kid and their parents forced it on them or whoever forced it on them too much. And that was never something I really had to deal with.
So I feel very fortunate. Got to have that balance.
That's awesome that your parents, you know, made sure of that or at least were cautious of it. Yeah, absolutely.
I think the only recruitment letter Travis got in seventh grade was to San Ignatius. San Ignatius was trying to get him over to the high school.
To play hockey. Is that what it was for? Yeah.
That's the only sport anybody wanted me in seventh grade, seventh, eighth grade. It was that and lacrosse.
We need the hockey highlight tape. We're going to get back out there.
We got to get out there with the Watts. That's the goal.
We got to get out there with TJ and JJ and all those dudes. All right.
Let me ask you this. We're going to try the segment.
We've never done it. It's probably going to be very short-lived.
It's called name a person. We're going to go around the horn and each name an athlete from Iowa until we can't anymore.
Oh, gosh. I feel like you're probably not going to struggle.
Can you name current players? No, no. They just have to be an athlete.
Have to be former players? Can they be current? No, they can be former. They have to be former.
They have to be former. No current? No, they can be current.
I'm going to try to do NFL current players, see if I can do. Okay.
You might beat us in that, too. Travis has the – actually, we both really have the positions.
So let's see how it happens. All right.
Who's starting? I'll start. George Kittle.
I knew that was going to be the first person he was going to say. I'm going to say Sam Laporta just to take Travis's answers away from him before.

I'm going to go Tyler Linderbaum on the rave.

Nice. I'm going to go

Claire Kittle. Tristan

Wirfs. That's right.

Solid answer. The Eagles

actually, rookie, Cooper DeGene

from Iowa.

Nice. Nijay, what about a little

TJ Hakkasan? Ah, that's right. I always forget about him he's on the vikings right yes yes he's finally back healthy doing his thing that's awesome i'm gonna get a throwback here i'm gonna get a throwback throwback robert gallery his wife actually played basketball in iowa too what there we go look at that yeah they actually came to quite a few of our games last couple of years great people cool people oh gosh okay let's see hmm this is tough we stumped her we stumped i'm thinking about nfl i'm gonna go gino stone i think he i think he's on the bangles now i'm pretty sure he had to pick six this past week.
Ooh. All right.
All right. I'll take you word for it.
All right. We respect, Gino.
I'm going to go a little Chiefs tight end when I first got to Kansas City, Tony Mowiaki. Ooh.
My doll, my Chi-Town brother. Shout out to Timo, man.
I'm going to go another former teammate, Julian Vanderbilt. Julian Vanderbilt.
Did anybody say Dallas Clark? No, the legend. I was holding on to that one.
No gloves. I'll stay in the tight end world over there.
Noah Fant. That's right.
Seahawks, I think. Yes.
Yeah. 8-7 over there in Seattle.
All right. I'm going to go Marshall Yonda.
This dude is pulling out this random name. I'm pulling up the old schools.
I'm going to go Riley Moss on the Broncos. I'm going with the younger players.
He's going to be in school with me. Well, I'll show my age and Jason's as well because he was the same recruiting class.
He was also a Kansas City chief when I got to Kansas City. Ricky Stanzi, quarterback Iowa.
Oh, man. This might be right.
This is where it ends. I'm pretty sure Matt Tobin played for Iowa.
Pretty sure? Next to positive. Then you lost.
If you're pretty sure, you lost. All right.
We'll end it there. I think we all did very respectable.
We did great. I'm impressed.
That was fun. That was fun.
I knew a Tobin. All right.
There we go. That was a fun one.
All right. What was one of your most favorite memories from playing at Iowa, though? Ooh.
That's tough. There's a lot.
Yeah, maybe one that everyone doesn't know about. So every four years in college basketball, you get to take a foreign trip, and you go and play some teams overseas, like in the summer before your season.
What? Ooh, that's fun. That's great.
So we went to Italy and Croatia, like two great spots. Would you like more? Which one? Honestly, Croatia.
I've heard Croatia is awesome. It's great.
I went to Split and Dubrovnik. It's awesome.
I tell people, I'm like, if you're going to go one place, like overseas, like that has to be the spot. It's clean.
The water's beautiful. Things to do.
Oh, that's cool as hell. Food's great.
Nice. The basketball like wasn't that serious.
We beat everybody but like 80. But it was just like so much fun.
Like we had so many fun nights together. You guys were like the dream team over there.
Yeah. Like people don't get to hear about like those type of memories with your friends, like your college friends.
Oh my gosh. I can only imagine going overseas.
The Croatians. We found out, we just recently found out we were Croatian.
We didn't even know Molly. That's why I got so excited when you said Croatian.
I was like, yeah, yeah. He's proud.
I got some blood. That's me.
That's funny. We talked about NIL earlier.
How much did that change when that became a thing your senior year? Because you were unique where when you first got to college, it wasn't a thing. And all of a sudden, it became a thing.
It became a thing after my freshman year. And it was kind of weird because everybody was like, okay, so what is it? Trying to maneuver.
You know the NCAA, they don't have many rules on much anymore. So there weren't many rules.
And it was more so like, okay, what can we do can we not do? And like, we're also the first. So like you're trying to figure it out as you go.
My family helped me a lot. But as you get going, you know, you just figure things out and it's fun.
And like it obviously has been should have been a thing for a really long time. Like the NIL part of it, like the true like endorsements, like you're doing a commercial for, you know, the local coffee shop or like whatever it is, like it's something so easy and so simple.
And I think, you know, like a normal student can do that, but like, why couldn't an athlete, like, it's just like such a simple thing that should have been a thing for a long time. But also it was like challenging to navigate and it still is like seeing these college students that they don't have the right resources around them.
And right. It's, it's, it stinks.
Like it's hard. And's hard.
And I think that's kind of like something that needs to kind of become, I don't know, more prevalent. And I know universities are trying to start like having in-house like NIL people or whatever it is, or in-house lawyers or whatever it is to kind of try to manage that.
So they're doing the best they can too, but obviously there's not many guidelines or rules, so it makes makes it hard as well but it obviously changed a lot and it's made it fun and i think it's also helped women's sports grow too i think you've seen yeah it's a great point yeah women's sports is blown up with the nil stuff that's such a good everyone's becoming more familiar yeah absolutely so it's been it's been great for everybody honestly nice have you of anybody? You're a little, you're a little bit closer to the NIL world. Have you heard of anybody paying their taxes? Because that's what, in my mind, I'm like, I definitely wasn't fucking ready to pay taxes when I was in college.
Like I wasn't thinking about that shit. I know that's what i always think about and lucky enough

i had like obviously great parents and people that helped me with that but like right these people are like getting this money and like little do they know like you're not gonna you're gonna see like maybe half of that especially yeah and so i don't know like i just and like they're spending and like you just worry but if you guys got to pick any nil deal in college what are you going with oh adriatico's pizza i should sell that shit in a heartbeat i used to go there every fucking day if you're ever around uh university of cincinnati gone up there to clifton and have some adriatico's pizza get you a bearcat pizza it's one of the best all right i'm gonna do it i like it if i'm going for business wise you want to get in the P&G family. Procter & Gamble.
That's a marketing major right there. The correct answer is go to the biggest brand in the city.
The biggest oversight of all these brands. You need something a little more.
I would go, selfishly, the one that I would do would be Skyline. it's such a representation for Cincinnati.
I've never been. Well, do yourself a favor.
Don't go. You'll absolutely hate it.
Don't do it. It's very acquired.
You have to drink it at least three or four times when you're drunk. It's a really true appreciate it.
Before you actually enjoy it. Okay.
I've seen Jason eat more Penn Station at the University of Cincinnati than I did Skyline. We have Penn Station here.
Penn Station's good. Penn Station is good.
One of the best cheesesteaks in the land. Great cheesesteak.
What do you think about that, Jason, as a Philly guy? You're going to put me on blast because I love Penn Station cheesesteaks. And there's a heated debate between Kylie and I.
You're about to divide a family, Caitlin. Kylie, I took her to penn station to have a cheesesteak i'm like you're gonna love this cheese that get it so good and she was like this is a cheese and steak sandwich this is not a cheesesteak i'm like what the hell you can't just like switch it it's the same ingredients yeah she could not stand it was like flabbergasted that this thing would even be called a cheesesteak so i do love penn station cheesesteaksaks, but I'm Philadelphia.
Kai likes the nacho cheese on the cheesesteak, though. So that's a little.
See, I don't like the nacho cheese. She does American stuff.
I'm not going to let you do this to Kylie. The one thing that I think everybody's a little bit with is the transfer portal, right? Like there's a kid, Penn State, like more recently, what is it? Their starting quarterback just announced he's transferring right before the playoffs.
Yeah, I saw that. I was thinking it was their backup, but like...
Oh, was it? Okay, sorry. But he played in a few games, even like quite a few games because I think Drew Aller or whatever his name is got hurt or something.
That's what it was. But yeah, the transfer portal is crazy, especially in football.
Like I think that's where it's gotten the craziest because that's obviously where all the this is every year it's like twice a year right adam shefters like reporting like yes they've negotiated a new deal for him to stay at the university i'm like yeah like where else is he gonna go it's like crazy and it's kind of sad like i like it just so you lost a little bit of like i don't know amateurism of college sports and I don't know. That's why it's so fun.
But also, it's the world we're living in. The level right below being a professional.
It's like a minor league football, basically, now. Yeah.
That's exactly what it is. I don't know.
What do you guys think about the transfer portal? Do you think there should be different rules? I'm too old school. I didn't get the opportunity to transfer.
I don't think that people should be leaving before the playoffs. I think that they should figure that out.
Yeah. I kind of think that there should be a commitment level from the player to the university that there isn't right now.
And I don't know if that means signing like term contracts. Like maybe it's like a two, three-year contract that you're like agreeing to stick with a team or a university as long as there's not like a coaching change.
Yeah, that's what I thought it was. I thought it was the original reason why they came up with the transfer portal was one because of COVID, but two because coaches just were up and leaving and players were being forced to just be there with whoever came in.
Yeah. Knowing that the new coaching staff wasn't the ones that really wanted them or recruited them so they were kind of put on the back burner i i think if a coach leaves then a player or whoever on the team gets to be able to enter the transfer portal but it's for sure it should it should go back to the old rules if you ask a old timer like me to where if you transfer you have to sit out a year i know i agree i don't

know or or i think like you get one every situation is different but for sure or you get a free pass or whatever that makes that makes a ton of sense having one free yeah but now we got people on like their fourth school in their seventh year it's just getting agreed it's getting egregious insane i was uh i was being a kid and when ncaa football the video game came out i was like i just have to i have to buy that i have to play this i have to act like i went to every university and then i was like oh i don't have to just go and create a new like player i can just transfer so i played at four different schools won the heisman at each school and i'm just like man could you imagine a player doing this because NIL, if he won the Heisman at each school. And I'm just like, man, could you imagine a player doing this? Because NIL, if he wins the Heisman early on enough, they're going to get enough money to stay in college for as long as they want or as long as their eligibility will let them.
And what do you have to stay in college for three years in college football? What do you think about that you think that's good or you think that should remain yeah yeah i i'm kind of in favor of that yeah i don't know i don't like restricting kids like if they're good enough go but there's like a physicality that i feel like is still like very different yeah but it'll get to the point where it's not even the physicality it'll just be guys will leave knowing that they have the potential to become that, you know what I mean? So guys will just like get drafted based off of potential even more. Right.
All right. Now we end all of our conversations with a segment we call, we gotta ask, but you don't have to answer Caitlin.
So it's as simple as that. All righty, Caitlin, you, uh, you're up and, uh, you don't have to answer caitlin so it's as simple as that all righty caitlin you uh you're up and uh you don't have to answer these but you can tell us to just uh fuck off did you see the new nba all-star format i did i did and how do you feel about this oh see that's four four teams of eight with one team being the rising stars so i saw saw Kevin Durant said this today or maybe yesterday or whenever it was, but they should go back to the East versus West.
And that's when I loved it. I think it should be East versus West.
Like that's true. All stars like East versus West battle it out.
That's what it was about. Yeah.
So I think that's what it should be, but obviously not the commissioner. I'm on board for East versus West All-Stars.
I think that's the whole point of it. That's why you're an All-Star.
It's the best from the East versus the best in the West. Play each other.
See which side's better. I'm not going to lie.
I'm not a fan of any of these in-season tournaments that the NBA is doing. Yeah.
I was actually talking about this today. How are you? What is there to not be a fan of? All the funky floors, and then there's tournaments, and they don't mean crap.
The funky floors? Can we just play basketball? Can we just play basketball? I'm getting like a migraine looking at the neon green. Yeah.
But no. I feel like it was a hit the first year, theba cup the committee or whatever it was and it kind of like toned down a little bit this year but it's interesting they're trying to spice it up a little bit i don't know what team is what team the jerseys aren't the same the colors aren't the same jason is such a he's such an old stubborn dude this is hilarious all righty that's funny obviously cait, you don't need to help with the ratings, but it's been in the news a lot recently that the NBA ratings are down.
Should we brainstorm a few ideas besides changing the NBA courts to bring back ratings into the NBA? What do you think? That's a great question. You're the marketing major.
Come on. I've been asking a lot of people about this and why they think they're down, but also like, it's interesting because I'm pretty sure opening day was the NBA's best opening day in a while.
So it's interesting. And obviously I think, I think the Cavs are back, baby.
The Cavs are right now. You know what I'm saying? It just makes the league better when Cleveland's thriving.
They're really, really good. I can pull that out of my ass.
They are fun to watch right now. Well, let's ask this.
What are your suspicions potentially as to why the NBA ratings would be down? Honestly, I feel like the average basketball fan doesn't understand how good NBA players are, and they think it looks like they're not trying. I promise you they're trying.
They're just so good. That's why it looks like they're not trying.
And obviously the physicality of the league has changed a lot. And I wasn't around when it was like much more physical and maybe people want more like beef and physicality and people think it's gone soft.
But I think that's also because the skill has just changed. And like, that's, what's great about basketball.
Like it's always evolving. Like it's going to be different than when MJ played.
It's going to be different in 10 years than it is now. So it's hard for me to like put my finger on like why it has gone down.
And also it's competing against a lot of football right now. You have to take that into consideration.
Like football is just, you know, that's America's favorite thing. I think people should like, I mean, I love three point shooting.
I love seeing guys just like launch threes, but not everybody loves that. So I don't know.
What do you think about a four point line? I love that. Let's do it.
That's actually genius. That is genius.
Four point line. How does the criminal justice major come up with the best marketing plan right here? Sometimes you just got to open your eyes, Jason.
Look at the sheet of paper in front of you. Or we can get like just two spots.
Yeah. I, uh, what about, what about you're saying that everybody's questioning how physical the the game is what do you think a hockey style fight one once a game just everybody picks a fighter who doesn't like a boxing gloves two minutes penalty box and you can come back in you don't get ejected that's what i'm saying all right he's got some reach you want to bring that physicality guy wants that what yeah what about like an nba jam rule where like if you want if you start making like a third bucket it's worth more it's like heating up like you're on fire if you're on fire it's worth more so like i don't know that'd be that would be cool that would be cool just made me want to play nba jam have you ever played nba jam kaitlin yeah i i used to have this like it was like the whole arcade like the arcade It's oh yeah i'm jealous yeah i haven't played in a while but yeah is it potentially because they're playing too many games i think that's for sure probably something like 82 games on like somebody's body like so many it's insane like they like they're not practicing a lot like it's just hard if it's to the point to the point that your star players are having to take time off, why don't we just play less games? I know.
So the star players don't have to take time off. I don't know.
I feel like the NBA and Major League Baseball grew up in times where ticket sales was your main source of revenue. And now it's all driven by ad dollars from TV contracts.
Yeah. So to increase TV revenue, it's like just play less games in more impactful times.
I don't know. Yeah, there's definitely ways to solve that.
I mean, like 82 games and we don't even, we play half of that and that's going to go up as we add more teams to our league. Yeah.
But like, I can't imagine playing 80s. Kansas City is shopping around

for a team.

Patrick's trying to bring one.

I know.

And they got a good basketball arena there.

What is it?

The Sprint Center?

Oh, yeah.

Sprint Center.

Oh, yeah.

Or whatever.

You're right.

Golly, you just took me back.

It used to be Sprint.

Sprint sold to T-Mobile,

so now it's the T-Mobile Center.

I knew it was one of them.

Big 12 tourneys there every year.

Yeah, it's a great spot.

And then Power and Light District down there.

It would be a great place. Go down there.
there every year. Yeah, it's a great spot.
And then Power and Light District down there, it would be great. Great women's basketball could be great there.
So I'd support it, but yeah, I don't know. I think 82 games is a lot on somebody's body and mentally.
That's hard. What is it for football? I mean, you're playing, what, 15? You're playing 17 regular season.
17 and they're trying to add i think i think the nfl should be playing less regular season games but i'm losing that and what are you playing travis you're playing like three in the next three in like 11 days or something like that yeah so it already started uh i'm gonna be playing two in the next uh what is it eight game eight days yeah like how do you even prepare for that like that's crazy you just put your shoes and pads on just like the other team we're in this together and you put your face in the fan you just know it's coming we're all in this shit now to be honest we're ending that skit on or like the three games in 11 days we're ending Christmas. And it's like, who can't get excited to play on fucking Christmas? That's true.
We didn't last year and you saw that firsthand, but this year I think we're ready. We're going to rebound on Christmas.
On Netflix or whatever. We learned from last year.
Yeah, exactly. You recently played in a pro-am with Anika Sorenstam.
I did. You hit a person on a tee box.
I don't know how you do that. Okay.
Who would hit a person on a tee box i don't know how you do that okay i would hit a person on a tee box yeah we i know i can relate jason i don't know if you've played in enough pro-ams yet to hit anybody but the video that was going viral where i like completely topped it so it's crazy like we're playing like these long par threes that are like 200 yards i'm like i'm not good enough to hit a par three like 200 yards like so i whip my hybrid. I'm like, teen up my hybrid club, just top it like straight up.
But I think they dodged it. Down the third baseline.
But I nailed somebody on a different par three, like some woman, like right in the shoulder, like shoulder. I saw, I saw a tick tock like the next day, just like black welt on her arm.
Well, that's just, she's's got a black welt are you more competitive in golf or uh basketball that's hard i think like golf makes me more mad because i'm not as good at it like i'm just like the average hack and like you want to be good like you're competitive just like basketball or football like it's like why am i not good at this so and it's like it's like it's an individual sport and we're used to team sports so i's what pisses me off too. It's like, it's all on me and I know it's all my fault.
So I share your pain. Are you more nervous on the free throw line or at the first tee? First tee, not even close.
I'm like shaking. I like can't put my ball on the tee.
You're like, can't get it to stay on the tee.

You're shaking so bad trying to put the tee in the ground.

I mean, you're average at golf.

At least you're confident in the actual sport you play.

Touche.

According to your teammates, you are quite the karaoke person.

What is your karaoke song of choice?

Or what's your go-to?

That's tough. It switches up.
Yeah? Dep depends on what mood you're in yes you know what's you know what's good where is the love by the black eyed peas that's a good song it's a good karaoke song she gets it yep honestly it changes up i like a little duet action so you could go up there with your friends. Okay.
Nice. I haven't done karaoke in a while.

What's your guys' go-to song?

If you had to pick.

I have one song and I go to it routinely.

And that is Total Eclipse of the Heart by the Dan Band.

I will sing that at any time.

I'm anything 80s rock and roll.

70s, 80s rock and roll.

Throw it on.

Springsteen. You name it.
Any it i'm i'm like uh acdc um i can only do one though if i'm gonna do acdc i can only do one yeah that takes a lot of you i can only stay i can only stay like that for so long and then my voice is gone so i will go Colt 45 Afro Man if I am feeling like the crowd is the right

Colt 45

that's what i was like i can do the ones that's about it but they look cool hooping yeah yeah they look cool and trust me i've sprained my ankles a thousand thousand times there's no stopping it anymore i forget which number it is but he came out with the ones i think after he uh popped his achilles with the the actually like went up like halfway up the calf. Yep.
And they're making those again.

Yeah.

Are they really?

Yeah.

I got a pair in like white and maybe red.

So that should be,

that could be the shoe you hoop in.

There it is. It goes all the way up his leg.

Make sure he does it.

I'm not rolling my fucking ankle.

I know that for sure.

Just wearing a winter boot.

Yeah,

literally.

If you weren't playing basketball,

what would Caitlin Clark be doing? You said you were a marketing major. Would you have gone more into that world or you think you would have jumped into something else? Oh man, that's tough.
I think if my basketball career would have ended, I still would have loved sports just because it was like, so such a huge part of my childhood and like what I did. Yeah.
So I don't know, maybe like try to work in like a front office of a sports organization or something like that. I think that would be cool.
Not like the coaching side of it, but like the operations side and getting to do like free agency stuff. And I think that would be really cool.
Apparently you have talked about opening a rib restaurant. Is this true? Yeah.
I, this was like such a random thing when I was growing up, I like told my mom, like, yeah, there was like this plot of land, like by where we would like, where we lived. And I like had this weird obsession with like ribs.
It was like what I asked my mom to bake me for my birthday. Ain't nothing weird about it.
Let me tell you a thing. Ain't nothing weird about that.
So I was like, yeah, I'm going to open the rib crib, like have this barbecue joint. Heck yeah.
We'll see.

I've kind of phased out.

I love ribs still, but I've never made ribs for myself.

But I'll just hire a chef.

Maybe he can run the restaurant.

Who knows?

You can just be the face behind.

There we go.

Are you baby back or spare ribs?

Baby back.

Baby back.

All right.

All right.

You're giving me my baby, baby, baby.

Are you Kansas City style barbecue sauce?

I'm Kansas City, yeah.

Yeah?

All right.

That makes sense.

That adds up.

Thank you. Baby back.
All right. All right.
You're my baby, baby, baby. Are you Kansas City style barbecue sauce or you going? I'm Kansas City.
Yeah. Yeah.
All right. That makes sense.
That adds up. What about there? What sides are we having? What sides are we having? This dude didn't talk about it.
He's all in. I haven't had offensive linemen at heart.
Have you ate today, Jason? We'll just watch her. I haven't had dinner yet.
I got to go like some mac and cheese. Okay.
What else are we going with? Cornbread. Some cheesy corn.
I have to have cornbread. Yeah.
Maybe some like green beans with bacon or like. Green beans with bacon.
I don't even know. Baked beans.
Baked beans. Baked beans are great.
Jason's just answering his own question. Baked beans are great.
I love baked beans. I haven't had barbecue in forever.
You're going to make me crave it. My mouth is legitimately watering right now.
Come on down to Arrowhead. We'll get you some barbecue.
Can I get that banana pudding for dessert? All right. Piece of advice for the next Caitlin Clark watching.
That's tough. I think just enjoy every single moment because it goes so fast.
And life changes so fast. And you only get to do a a lot of things once so have fun enjoy it remember why you do it because like you love it you're passionate about it you know don't take it too serious so i would say that that's trying to that's how i've tried to live and obviously some moments are better than others as you guys know you get competitive and caught up but you know just enjoy it have fun fun and keep loving it.
I think that is a very wise answer. Yes.
Especially for someone going into their second year. I took so much shit serious when I first got in the league.
I was just like, I have to do this. I have to.
And this and this. And now I'm just telling everyone, you know it's not that serious.
Yeah. That's funny.

Before we wrap, do you have any questions

for us?

Feel free to ask none.

I don't have any.

It was fun. You guys were great.

Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.

Caitlin Clark!

Yeah, baby!

Thanks, Chelsea Gross.

You guys were awesome. You're absolutely amazing.
Can't wait to see you and the Fever go at it again next season. When are you guys starting up for a training camp? April.
April? Oh, nice. You got some time.
I got some time. So hopefully I can make it to a Chiefs game here soon.
Maybe a playoff game or something. I'll tell you what, we punched our ticket, so we're definitely going to at least have – I would assume we at least got one at Arrowhead.
But, you know, you're invited to them all. All right.
Appreciate you guys. Thank you so much.
Thank you so much for coming on, Caitlin. All right, and that wraps up another episode of New Heights.
Thank you so much to our guest, Caitlin Clark. We will be back next week for a brand new episode.
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