Chris Berman, Super Bowl Week Is Here And Drive To 405 Recap

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On today's Pardon My Take, Chris Berman, the Schwam, in-person, 80 minutes, unbelievable interview. We've been wanting to do this interview for a very long time.
It finally happened, perfect, perfect way to kick off super bowl week we also have uh the finale of drive to the 405 the boys made it safely we'll recap with them we have uh some super bowl week thoughts who's back of the week all of it great great there's making a sandwich and then there's crafting a sandwich and when i want something perfectly crafted i go straight to boar's head for over a century boar's head has been dedicated to crafting premium deli favorites every ingredient is carefully chosen every recipe made with a purpose their oven gold turkey smoke master ham and ever roast chicken are made from premium whole cuts hand trimmed and perfectly seasoned the ultimate sandwich, oven gold turkey, cheese, pickles, and mustard. Simple, but unbelievable.
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And then I can't leave all on the sun. Oh, no.
We're gonna rock down to Electric Avenue. And then we'll take it higher.
Oh, we're gonna rock down to Electric Avenue. And then we'll take it higher.
It's Part of My Take, presented by Barstool Sports. Welcome to Part of My Take, presented by 1-800-Flowers.com.
Go right now to 1-800-Flowers.com click uh up top and put in the code PMT and do it right now get those flowers in right now because valentine's day is coming up 1-800-Flowers today is monday february 7th and we are in LA chris berman on the show what you guys have guys have made it here safely. I'm looking right now at Billy.
He's got a thousand yard stare. Yeah.
Give us the full recap, boys. Okay, so the vibes are currently high.
Overall, it was a great trip. I think everybody had a good time.
Every road trip's going to have a little bit of hiccups in it here and there. Some adversity we have to battle through.
Like big stakes?

Like maybe a big stake.

We can get to that in a second. It was a great time.
And to Billy's credit, actually, you know what? This road trip was Billy in a microcosm, 100%, because I'd say 90% of the time he was awesome and a joy to be around. And I feel like we got closer on this trip.
All of us did. but there was about 10% of the time

when after doing like some serious work

Billy got us through a severe ice storm And I feel like we got closer on this trip. All of us did.
But there was about 10% of the time when after doing some serious work,

Billy got us through a severe ice storm, got us into Memphis,

did some really tough driving, stayed awake the entire time,

wouldn't let me touch the wheel.

He's like, no, I got this.

Don't worry about it.

After about two days of that, Billy needed to go on another little rum springer.

Billy needed to have a little mini vacation in the middle of the road trip, so he did the steak challenge in Amarillo at the Big Texas Steakhouse. Crushed it, right? Well, Billy, don't answer that.
No, let Billy answer. He wants to answer.
He's got the words in his mouth. The video's coming out tomorrow.
I don't want to spoil it for Billy. I'll put it this way.
If Billy had absolutely dominated the steak, do you think that maybe Billy would have found a way to start talking about what a great job he did? I think he would have FaceTimed me from the stake, being like, look at this, look at this. Aren't you proud of me? Billy? You don't have to answer any of this, by the way.
No, I mean, the toughest part of the drive was probably Cincinnati to Memphis driving-wise. I thought it was the stake.
Well, then, when we were going on the road, that's when the ice storm had gone through all the areas. So we were driving at times through about two to three inches of just pure ice.
I've grown to really, really appreciate Billy's excuses, by the way. Billy's a fucking artist when it comes to excuses.
Yes, no, he is. He is so good at them.
Like just reading the blogs that he wrote, every night he'd get back to the hotel, write a blog, and then usually he'd like pass out in the middle of the blog. But there would always be an excuse for why he didn't finish it, which was usually like, so I was going to finish the blog, but then I was on my bed, and then I didn't remember anything until the next day.
And it's like Billy invented falling asleep. Which is totally understandable.
Being on the road is very tiring. Physically, your body's tired.
I know you're a young buck. So the steak? So, I mean, we had a great...
Honestly, it was the best road trip I've ever taken in my life. It was so much fun.
Across the country you taken across the country? A couple. Okay.
Not across the total country, but big sections of it. This is number one.
And it was awesome. I'll put it this way.
On our way into Hollywood, in the last maybe like, we were doing fractions the entire time, by the way, to make it go by faster. I think it was like the last, we were 219th of 220th of the way, all the way to the hotel.
And Billy goes, you know, I actually think that this road trip changed my life. And I was like, in what way? And he started to answer.
And then me and Bubba were like, actually, Billy saved that part. I want to know how Billy's life has changed.
It unlocks something in my brain that I don't think will ever go away. Which is? I just discovered a lot about myself.
Which, anything specifically? Just Wild Bill. This is great.
Wild Bill. He's like the kid who goes away for six months for school.
He started a bra. He started a bra.
Now you're Wild Bill. You got the cowboy hat.
I like this. I would like to meet Wild Bill.
Yeah, no. Wild Bill was a lot of fun.
And credit to Bubba, too. Bubba got thrown in last minute.
Well, that's 100% his fault. Correct.
We had an awesome time. But Bubba had a good time, too, I think, in Snapchat.
Steve, Steve Romano, he was also a great partner. We had solid vibes for most of the trip until the part where Billy got drunk and got off his lease for a little bit.
And that was, that was a little bit tough, but you know what? We bet Billy snapped back after when I was rumspringer, he was fine for the rest of the drive. I thought that was a very funny visual when I read the blog, Billy, of you just getting like drunk on purpose.
So you didn't have to drive and then taking a piss every 30 minutes and having Steve throw out your hot piss out the back window. Okay.
That's like, that was road tripping. Like that's awesome.
That's a great part of road trip. But I think the, we had such high positive vibes.
There's no energy vampires in the car. Everyone was going like balls to the wall.
We got in situations like we were in Memphis, right? And we pull into Memphis after white knuckling it through sheets of ice and the tennessee power grid had gone down and we were running out of gas and because there was no power at a bunch of the gas stations heading into memphis there was a possibility that we were not able to get gas to get to memphis and we ended up rolling into memphis barely skirting by having to find a gas the only gas station with power in like two counties. We ended up late into Memphis and all of Memphis had zero power.
So we finally got to the Bass Pro Shop pyramid. It was amazing.
Absolutely gorgeous. I mean, PFT had a gift that was left for him.
Yeah. So I should probably explain this because I'm not sure.
If you did happen to read Billy's blogs, he did a great job recapping the entire trip. Very funny blogs.
I got to the Bass Pro Shop Pyramid, which is better than the pyramids in Egypt. They put fucking lakes inside of a pyramid.
It's a wonderful, magical place. We go up to the lodge, which is also beautiful.
I go into my room. Great room.
Amazing room. All the bells and whistles.
But I open the door, and there's just a giant trail of rose petals as soon as I open the door. And it leads directly to the bed.
And on the bed I see a Victoria's Secret bag, a Bath and Body Works bag. I see a giant stuffed animal and then chocolates.
And I thought to myself, like, wow, this is really nice for them to put this out for me. I thought maybe they were playing a joke.
Maybe they're AWLs. Maybe that Maybe that would be, they would, like an AWL doing that would be objectively funny for me.
So I'm like, this is. Because the pyramid knew you were coming.
Yeah, they knew we were coming and they arranged a tour for us and everything like that. And so I go in, I start checking the bags and I pull out the Victoria's Secret bag.
Two really nice sports bras, a pair of yoga pants, some workout leggings. And I was like, this is very lovely.
I'm glad that they gave me these things. And then I walk into the bathroom.
More rose petals in the bathroom. It says the one spelled out in rose petals on the ground in the bathroom.
And there's another gift bag on the bathroom counter in there. I open it up.
I go through it. It's got two jars of weed and two special things of rolling papers.
And I was like, wow, they really – they knew I was coming. This is awesome.
Not a drug guy. Not a drug guy.
And then – Please put that in. And then I walk out to meet the guys going downstairs to try to find food.
Found Billy, found Steve. And I was like, Bubba, you were already downstairs, right, at that point? Yeah.
So I grabbed these guys. I was like guys I was like come check out the room I'm gonna do a cribs real quick on my room because they decked it out for me I bring Steve in start showing around start like bragging like look out look at the hook up here and then uh I think Billy sees the bag that's behind one of the chairs in the room and we have this all on tape we'll put out a vlog of it and I'm like oh my god whose bag is that and there were crocs and dirty laundry hanging out of the bag and then we look around we're like

this is not my room yeah they double booked my room and some guy is trying to get laid

so the hardest yeah no one has ever tried to get laid harder than this guy was trying that night

early valentine's day honestly it was a little he was coming on a little strong yeah uh but

so billy starts freaking out he's like tweaking out he's like wow bill yeah he was coming on a little strong. So Billy starts freaking out.
Yeah, he's tweaking out. He's like, Wild Bill? Yeah, Wild Bill.
We got to get out of this room. We got into the part of the country where everyone routinely carries firearms.
Right, but you are Wild Bill. Right, but if a guy walks in.
No, he wasn't Wild Bill yet. No, he wasn't Wild Bill.
Where did Wild Bill? Oklahoma. We got to the gas station in Oklahoma, and it was very apparent that it was a buy a fun hat part of the road trip.
Once we got past Arkansas, but then we were... So yeah, I thought if a guy was with his significant other, comes in and sees the three of us just like...
Smoking his weed. You know, he walks in, he just starts blasting.
Trying on pants. Yeah.
So Billy thought we were either going to get fucked or shot. If we stayed in that room, there's a chance that they come back into the room and the guy's like, wow.
Okay. I guess it's a bigger party than I had planned for.
So then we found out because there was also a big part of my take basket that they had left in the room for us. So you see where my confusion comes from same room so you see where my confusion comes yeah that's very you got set up yeah so that was like a minor set back and then we almost got killed in memphis well the thing is we pulled we were trying to find food when no one was serving food because there was no power but we saw hooters and the hooters was as pft described it a mirage in the desert uh-huh it was the only place open i'm dead serious The only place that had power in Memphis was the suitors.
Westy's was closed for locals who know. Shout out.
We didn't even go there. I don't know why Billy's shouting them out.
Billy's a Memphis local. No, I'm saying like, for those who know, no.
No, but like Westy's, everyone in Memphis is like, go to Westy's because it's open until 2 a.m. So if you're looking for late night food, they're all probably thinking, why didn't you go to Westie's? Westie's was closed and they never closed.
There was so many. There was at least a dozen people who were mad at that point of the podcast right there.
They're like, what the fuck? Why didn't you go to Westie's? Exactly. But anyway, show up at Hooters and we meet an AWL who also sees that Hooters is also closed.
And we were talking to him like, where should we get food? What should we do? And he says, maybe if you want to try fast food, go down this one road. And if you want to buy beer, don't go to the first gas station.
Go to the second gas station. We're like, okay, fine.
So we head down the road. We went to the first gas station by accident.
We're realizing that we're probably not going to eat that night. So we might as well just pick up some beers and try to get some calories that way.
Yep. Yeah, it was about calories.
Wow, Bill. That's a wow, Bill move.
Classic. Classic Billy excuse right there.
No, I think that's the beginning of wow, Bill. So if you look at beer, if you look at Coors Light, it's made of wheat.
That's in bread. Yep.
It's made of yeast. It's like you're eating a sandwich.
Yes. Sneaky protein in beer.
Yes. Yes, sneaky protein.
I've also grown to appreciate how often Billy puts the the word sneaky in front of things are just like extremely apparent like when he's like i was just going sneaky 110 miles an hour low-key yes keep going billy so we are in a camo chevy silverado a very amazing truck a truck that people would do a lot of stuff for it's a truck truck which i think it's think it's yours now. Really? No, so we show up.
So the gas station looks- I have a prediction that Billy thinks it's his truck now. The gas station looks very nice.
Like, newly done. Like, not an old, run-down gas station.
Looks a fairly great new speedway. Yeah, the good shit.
Like, you go in there, and there's all sorts of tobacco products. There's all sorts of energy drains.
Like,ky selection yeah like good stuff looks like so we pull up and you know we're like oh does this look like this is this looks like a good gas station this must be the second one so we get out of the car we walk in you know the gas station was was like you know it looked like a it was the worst gas station would you describe it? It was the worst gas station I've ever been in my life.

Everybody inside...

From a Pilot J to...

Yeah.

Everyone inside was like wandering around like they were zombies.

There was a guy that was getting cash out of the ATM,

actively like looking over his shoulder,

look away, typing in like his PIN number into the ATM,

making sure that nobody was coming behind him.

We probably should have left. We did not.
we started checking out getting all our stuff and everybody by the way was in this gas station not buying anything just hanging out hanging out and waiting at the counter billy thinks that they were selling something else in that gas station uh not an arc not not but look we did look like big time We stuck out like sore thumbs. And, you know, there was like some guy started whispering in PFT's ear at the register.
He called me a bitch. No, no, no, no.
He called me a hoe. Yeah.
He called PFT a hoe. And then he went and walked to one of the older gentlemen who was hanging out by the side of the door.
He said, use security. Use security.
And then it's like, why is he asking if that guy's security? he's trying to figure out if you know anyway so the security guard at that point shrugs his shoulders and takes a couple steps back meaning like he's he's he's letting them know he is ready to look away right at any given point so then we get our shit get out into the parking lot billy's freaking out and no no you no no i was i was cool man i was i was even killed maybe wild bill had to come because he was like yeah sounds like wow bill yeah memphis rattled billy was billy was saying like this sucks because i can't get into a fight tonight because it's still within a calendar year of fighting jose can say my hands are still registered as a lethal weapon no that's why yeah so no we're going we're going we're walking to the truck and like i'm just like looking over my shoulder just making sure because i had a few if you if we'd stay there any longer probably a couple phone calls would have been made and we probably would have gotten carjacked because once i went back to the bar at uh the bath photoshop pyramid i was like look man we were at this and the guy was just like you're lucky you didn't get carjacked because that happens all the time in that kind of truck and like anyway we um the truck to be fair probably gave off signals that we likely carry firearms well no but they couldn't see it no they could point yeah right so anyway you've been fine when we were getting into the truck in the gas station all of a sudden two vehicles pull off you hear a skirting noise and like we're just like what the fuck like how would you describe it it was it was uh tensions were high like the noise in movies before a drive-by shooting occurs yeah so long story short we got out of there uh and we're fine no no harm no foul but then we uh the next day we discovered there was a leak in our tire there's a nail billy hit a nail not damn it's not billy's fault but he did for the record drive directly over a nail and we were trying to find a place to get it changed. There were no places in Memphis except we found this one spot that was in a very bad, bad, like the buildings around it had been burned to the ground and the only person that was outside was like this 65 year old prostitute and it was like 20 degrees outside.
only person working in memphis yeah so cold it was credit to her uh and so we're like you know what let's just go over the bridge to west memphis see if we can find a place there we find a place and we have to walk to a we did a simulated hunt in memphis is what we said we had to walk down the street and find a sonic and then order at that uh fortunately we got everything everything squared away, hit the road. No more major hiccups after that except for Billy getting drunk.
And then we did. Well, that was Wild Bill.
That was Wild Bill. That Wild Bill came out.
I think Wild Bill doesn't count. Now, as far as the steak challenge goes, which, again, we won't spoil, but go watch the video that's coming out.
Billy. All I want to know is better or worse than the hot wing challenge Hot Wing Challenge? Better.
He didn't even finish a single wing at the Hot Wing Challenge. I would say 20 ounces would be the same.
Yeah, so we won't spoil it, but Billy officially tried the Big Texan Challenge at the Big Texan Steakhouse. Was this Wild Bill?

No.

No, this is Wild Bill.

Wild Bill showed up in Oklahoma.

So that's not Bill.

Billy might have been able to finish it.

Well, Wild Bill doesn't play by the rules.

So Wild Bill didn't do the extensive prep work.

I'm scared about Wild Bill in LA.

There's a lot of rules out here.

Yeah, I know.

Also, does Wild Bill wear a mask? Wild Bill doesn't like to be told what to do. I don't want to just gloss over what Billy just said right there.
You said, I didn't put in the extensive work necessary to take on this challenge. The only work that he had to do was not get drunk before he tried it.
Right. And it was also in the morning, right? And it was also, also yeah we got there at 10 a.m so um we think it'd be a fun idea to have billy going around from coast to coast like man versus food but like just getting getting body always wins getting just jacked up by food you're the washington generals he's the yeah yeah he's the bro adam i mean like so many people fit like do those challenges and finish like we want to see someone who, you know.
You can't finish any of them. Yeah, that actually would be a good video.
It's like watch Billy just show up and with all. Because the nice thing about you is that you would show up to every food challenge being like, this is the one I'm going to do.
And then just get bodied time and time again. Let's just remember the challenge, the steak challenge is the steak plus other stuff.
Right. So let's qualify.
And you ate the whole steak. Definitely ate the whole steak then, right? I mean, there's grizzle.
You're allowed to cut off grizzle. There was actually not any grizzle.
Anyway, watch the video. It's an amazing video.
And then the most beautiful... It's not an amazing video.
It's not out. it will be an amazing video beautiful after Amarillo was some of the most beautiful country I've ever seen in my life this is where you're just like staring at the western sky you guys don't understand you're laughing Hank and I have driven the exact same drive yeah but you weren't doing it after miles like the transition we did we did it in a rv we literally did the exact same drive also billy was drunk it changed my life on that billy passed out like completely passed out it was billy left the steak challenge put on um a han zimmer soundtrack compilation of just orchestral music and then proceeded to pass out in the in the passenger seat shotgun for the next four and a half hours now now he's right about the drive through the west part of new mexico it was beautiful it was gorgeous yeah but i do like like he's the first person to discover road trips yeah no but it was just really awesome yeah i mean i'm coming sick drive we literally we're recording this literally 30 minutes after we valeted the truck.
And I've been walking. I'm just like, wow.
You got like a driver's high. I don't think that wild Bill would let a valet touch his car.
Yeah, I was going to say that. The worst part about the fucking road trip was the last five minutes.
We were trying to find the goddamn place. It's a concrete jungle.
You can't have wild Bill in here. Yeah.
Bullshit. At point uh you know i saw one tweet in the beginning like at any point because it worked out it was a great bet i think every everyone was happy with the content that came out of it but any point where you like i kind of regret purposely losing these last few weeks because i kind of wish i was just like flying on sunday yeah there was there was one point i think on the very first night when we're going out to cincinnati and it's really it's registering that we're not going to get there until after 3 a.m and then we have to wake up super early the next day and once you've been on there sometimes it's hard to fall asleep so none of us got a good amount of sleep on the entire trip that was really there was a little bit of doubt at that point but then honestly like billy's vibes brought the entire thing up billy's is very, very good road trip partner, like I said, 90% of the time.
Was the drive straight through to Cincy the right move? Yeah, 100%. I'll accept your apology.
Actually, Billy, you agreed. I was talking that type of, I want to think that first night to drive through the night.
Yeah, you crushed it. That was road dog life.
It was road dog lifestyle. I'm sad that the trip's over because we had such great vibes between Liam.
There's no rules when you're on the road. It's not real life.
Let's keep it up this week. It's just dudes out on the road.
Like traveling man. Yeah, there's nothing like it.
Can you explain the picture you tweeted today, too, of the guys that somehow found you on the road in their car and put a sign up on their window yeah that was i have no way i have no idea how they found us because we were yeah this is a trick that big cat taught me when i when i first joined barstool and we started doing the podcast when you're in a different place like stagger your posts a little bit keep people guessing as to where you are so i was never letting people know exactly where we were show up and like tweet immediately like i'm eating at this place right now yeah so sit there for three hours somehow uh this awl and his girlfriend found us like i don't know if they waited on an overpass for us to drive underneath but they had i think it was like a dodge charger so it was a pretty sweet loud car and they got stuff to write on their windows on the back it, it said, thank you for your service, Billy. And then on the side, it said, PFT has no eyes.
And so then they pull up behind us. They speed around us.
We don't know who they are. They honk their horn as they pass us.
So my antenna goes up. I'm like, okay, that's probably a listener of the show.
Then they get in front of us. Billy doesn't hear them honk.
They get in front of us, they roll their windows down and start waving. And Billy goes, that guy just flipped us off.
And he's ready to, he goes into war mode real quick. I just see one finger fly up.
You're ready to fucking fight. Wait, is this officially, are we officially in the zone where you can get in a fight? Yeah, Billy can get into a fight now.
You can get in a fight again. I'm not, no, that was the joke.
My license has expired. So you can get in a fight.
So just everyone in LA, be careful. And also it wasn't a joke because I busted Billy's balls about this a little bit when he was taken on the stake challenge on the anniversary of boxing Jose Canseco.
And Billy's like, no, but like legitimately, if I get into a fight and I hurt somebody. So it's not a total joke.
We know it's not a joke. You've said it many times.
It is. There's legal precedent.
So the person flips us off that Billy thinks. And Billy's like, they just flipped us off and we're about ready to fight in Billy's mind.
And then I was like, Billy, no, calm down. They're an AWL.
They're a fan of the show. And so then...
Billy kills someone who lives on the first day he's legally allowed to. I thought, no, no, no.
I thought because they beeped and then they swerved in front of us quickly. And I was like, what's going on? Like, I'm focused on the road, not what's back right.
Anyway, they were really nice. There was another couple that found us in Oklahoma, too, who took a video and they tweeted it, put it in the blog.
Very cool. And then- Yeah, you got to just like come up with ways to keep yourself entertained and engaged on the road because it's there's only so much that one playlist can do yeah and uh we we managed to kind of mix it up and and keep things keep things spicy on the road all in all yeah i know i mean you got the piss and vinegar of a 22 year old that like you are a perfect road trip guy it was it was so fun

yeah i i don't know i'm telling you just get back in that i don't know if i'll ever catch that high again just cruising i can you can drive back i do think billy should just live on the road well so my prediction was that billy is going to drive the car back and then just like leave it in his house and then like in like two or three weeks he was going to come up to my desk and be like, so that truck, can I keep it now? I was just like, you know what? If no one says anything to me, you can. I don't give a fuck.
Yeah, he was great to have. Bubba was awesome, too.
So was Steve. It was a solid group.
And I think we're just road dog brothers for life now. We'll always have the drive to the 405.
There it is. We saw a crater.
Okay. That was kind of cool.
It was the most well-preserved crater in the world. No, it's a crater.
A meteor struck like 30 miles west of Winslow. So we stopped and went and checked out.
It was a big hole in the ground. Sick.
As far as holes go, it was one of the bigger ones I've seen. That is sick.

Probably the biggest.

When did that hit?

50,000 years ago.

Oh, fuck.

I don't know.

I just made up a big sound.

It's been a very long time.

Yeah.

It's a big old hole.

All right.

Anything else from the drive

or any other stories

before we do who's back

and get to Berman?

I'm sure we'll remember other stuff,

but everything happened so fast.

If you're on the corner

in Winslow, Arizona, look up to one of the top floor windows on the corner. Good surprise up there.
A little Easter egg. Oh.
Did you guys put it there? No. No, no.
It's just Billy thought it was really funny because they painted a guy and a girl making out. You sent a picture.
Yeah, you tweeted a picture, right? Yeah. Yeah.
Billy thought the make out session thing was... I mean, it is.
Guy and girl, like you could imagine. Yeah girl like you could imagine yeah what are they doing it's like they ended up together to that song like an additional part where they start smashing and mushing okay let's get to who's back uh who's back ever had one of those days when it's just too cold to keep working nah neither has ariot ariot work jackets and boots are packed with all thestopping waterproof protection you need to get the job done under any conditions so you can take any job out there and always deliver.
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Okay, who's back of the start who's back the week is the olympics yeah we're boycotting oh that's right except the women's hockey yeah the women's hockey team we're supporting because they're friends of ours and we coach them but we're boycotting it yeah someone told me that the olympics are back i was like no i would have seen something from the opening ceremony or something like no it's it's actively going on and yeah right now as we speak there's someone doing some kind of weird thing on ice yeah it was it's always weird to hear the announcers go out of their way to say like where the republic of china roc when they're talking about taiwan because they're not allowed to say taiwan and then when they're russia the russia that's our yeahC. Yeah, ROC because they were banned.
Rock Nation. So they were, yeah, they were taken out of the Olympics.
Russian Olympic Committee. Yeah, so it was like they're not allowed to actually fly the flag.
And then my other who's back of the week, Deja Vu, but, you know, I should amplify it. We kind of predicted the future, but Harambe.
Oh, yeah. I said it last week.
Harambe was back. He kind of went viral.
We had Sam Hubbard on. The clip was very funny where he very clearly was like, it's something we don't talk about.
He was very clearly joking, but he did say the words, we're doing it for him. Yes.
And that's all it took for that interview to get picked up by every single news station in the world with a dead serious quote that's like, we're doing it for him. Sam Hubbard says the Bengals are playing for Harambe.
It's perfect. With no sense of irony.

It was amazing.

It's so perfect, and it's the perfect time for it to all come full circle

because we've had this conversation off air many times,

like, when do you think Harambe jokes are going to be funny again?

And it's, like, perfectly coincided with the Bengals.

There's a formula.

I think we can extrapolate from this that, like, five years, they they always say that like, what is it, comedy equals pain plus time. I'm probably mixing up the pain part of the equation, but time is always the factor in it.
I think five years is now officially the amount of time when something can become funny again. There was that one article that was so funny.
It was like, well, first they, like it was, Big J wrote it. Right.
They referred to me as PFT commentator. And then they said, host Big Cat, Dan Katz, asked, do you think it's fair to say that you would have stopped the Harambe situation? And then they gave his answer to how he would have bowed up on Harambe.
So, yeah, that was very funny. Shout out Mike Francesa.
Yes. Watch that clip again.
His gorilla. The gorilla.
Just the way he says gorilla. The best.
All right, PFT, you're who's back. I mean, my who's back was going to be Billy.
I guess Billy really showed up this week. He really did.
Wild Bill or Billy? I'm very proud. No, Billy.
Billy, because even underneath the cold, hard, wild Bill exterior that we all know and love so much, there's Billy in there somewhere. The formula with Billy is let him fuck up once out of every five days.
Let Billy just be a real piece of shit. And then he'll come back.
It's like you've got a dog, let it run away. If it loves you, it will come back.
If it doesn't, it was never meant to be. And then my other Who's Back of the week was going to be just what happens in Vegas staying in Vegas.
Because it looks like, well, actually, this is proof to the contrary. Looks like Alvin Kamara has a warrant out for his rent in Vegas after the Pro Bowl.
Wait, didn't? Wasn't? Already? Yeah. No, it looks like he got it.
It says right here at approximately 5.50 p.m. They were dispatched to a local hospital where a person was reporting a battery.
Was battered at a nightclub located in 3,500 block. So this was probably yesterday? No, because he played in the Pro Bowl, I think.
Oh, they arrested him after the Pro Bowl. Have you ever noticed that when it's an athlete getting into a bar fight, it's always a nightclub? Yeah.
They never just say like at a bar it's like at a local nightclub establishment maybe if they were tackling at the pro bowl guys would be it was pretty crazy watching that like it was i know that the pro bowl has always been weird but there did they did try a little bit back in the day this was that that uh pick six that patrick mahomes threw which was like did you see the highlight i didn't see that one it was no one even came close to i think winfield from the bucks picked it off but like they no one even wanted to tackle him like they were running out of the way yeah i saw i did see the mac jones scramble for the touchdown we're like three guys two hand touched me he didn't play by the rules he just ran all the way to the end zone which credit to mac i probably would have done that too they also they had the new rule they're trying out the new rule to spot and uh start whatever i don't know what it's called where you basically instead of a kickoff you this is what the ravens proposed for overtime uh i think a year ago or two years ago where you pick a spot on the field so like if i say okay the 10 your ownyard line, then the other team decides whether they're on defense or offense. Oh, I like that.
Yeah. So, I think the AFC did have, like, a 97-yard drive or something because they picked the three-yard line.
They're like, all right, we'll still take the ball. Yeah, imagine electing to play defense in a Pro Bowl.
Right. You're like, nope, I'm going to bury you guys deep, play the field position game.
But it would be cool to be like in overtime and be like, all right, we're going to do the one-yard lines. Like, okay, we'll play defense.
Yeah. There was one point where I was watching the highlights of somebody running.
The guys don't want to get hit. They don't want to tackle.
I understand that. Why would they? I wouldn't either.
They should let the players play while they're all on Instagram Live on their phones like the antonio brown rule and have everybody with one hand with their phone facing themselves broadcasting to their own audience during the place personally to their own audience that would be sick yeah um it was i mean it was a fun over to have even though we didn't have wi-fi on the plane but uh a lot of people were like dude why would you take the over in the Pro Bowl? I think there was a few unders in a row, but who the fuck cares? Why would you ever bet on the under? Yeah. Yeah.
On the Pro Bowl? What are we talking about? What are you going to say, Billy? Body craves content. Contact.
Body craves contact. Camara just didn't get enough in the Pro Bowl.
Ooh. Sorry.
That was bad. That was mean.
I'm sorry. We're road dogs.
Wait till we see the video. Yeah.
Right. Anything can happen.
Wait till the facts come out. Maybe you could edit it.
You could CGI it. No, maybe it looks different than what he remembers.
Maybe it's a great sell, yeah. He totally thinks it's going to come out, and he's going to be like, I finished it in the video.
Yeah. All right.
My back is blue bloods because kentucky and duke are

awesome and uh and kansas duke had uh coach k last game at chapel hill got his fucking drunk grandson in the game at the end i don't know if you saw that jake but he got in he had trouble bringing the ball up the court i'm just gonna say that i was watching he's got shire doing the half game interview. Okay, so I tweeted that.

Shire also gets like, he's

I saw the other day

he the court i'm just gonna say that i was watching he's got shire doing the half game interview okay so i tweeted that shire also gets like he's i saw the other day he was like introduces the head coach of duke he's not yet he's not the head coach but i tweeted wow coach k is not gonna have time for the media at halftime apparently he's been doing that for a decade why do 357 head coaches take halftime interviews but one can't wait whoa are you are you you just realizing now that Coach K is a huge hypocrite and a fraud? Well, no, Jake is just realizing now because it's about a halftime interview with the media. Yeah, he never does halftime interviews.
Because he plays by his own rules. That's crazy.
I understand he's a legend 40 years, whatever, but just take the interview. It's 30 seconds.
They don't start the 15-minute halftime clock until the interview is done for fairness. Yeah.
He's Coach K. It wouldn't affect anything.
No, it would because he would, you know, he has to be different than everyone else. Right, Hank? It's crazy.
No. Well, I mean, it's, you know, the best got different rules.
That's just how it works. He kept on showing his face during the intro for the UNC players.
Like, what are we doing here? I think it's taking away from the kids. I care about the kids about the kids nothing like coach k coach has perfected the art of just being a dick all the time but once a year like cracking like a tiny little joke and smiling and everyone's like oh we love this guy yeah he's really he's set the bar so low for himself the best uh billy you're who's back these hands oh yeah they are let's go don't you fucking step Billy.
That was going to be my who's back just the whole year ago since it happened. Kind of crazy.
Time. He's learned a lot about himself this year.
He can't stop it. So a year, Pat, any thoughts about the fight? I wish it could have been better for the viewers.
That's not your fault. I know.
That's your fault i know you got in there i was ready he even tried to hit him after he got knocked down yeah jose's a scumbag through and through that's not your fault yeah fucking knocked him out what are you gonna do i don't know what was the question you guys asked like four times on his oh tell us about like your mindset that you got in when you were getting into the ring with him. Like, did you think that there was a chance that it was like kill or be killed? And what would you describe that as? Yeah.
He almost did it. He almost did it.
No, honestly, Billy, like all kidding aside, all kidding aside, when you stepped into the ring against Jose Canseco and you were about to fight him, like, what was going through your head?

It was just the most serious I've probably

ever been in my life.

If there was, like, a mode, what would it be?

War mode. I went war mode.

I mean, you did. You went

blinding war mode.

Oh, we should throw in this one extra

story here about what happened to us in Amarillo

at the end of the night, because we were going back to the hotel and there was a truck that was not a Chevy Silverado that was trying to drive down the same road we were on. But it was going the opposite direction.
Got stuck in the snow. We did not.
We went right past it. And then we pulled the ultimate alpha move on it, which is let's pull over and then we will push them out of the snow because we're in a big ass car that can get out of the snow so we get out and we start shoving this tiny little i think it was like a it was a low rider yeah it was like a low rider and we just start pushing the shit out of this thing and then these other guys come up and they're talking to billy they're like yo you're swole you should be able to push this out and billy's like, I am swole.
And so we tried to push it out.

We pushed as hard as we could, making a little bit of progress.

And then Billy goes, yo, what if I just got back into the truck and then I just hit that truck from behind?

And that was his suggestion.

A little push.

Yeah, you can do that.

A little push.

You get it, like, go slow until they're touching and then you push it.

But if you had seen this truck, it was halfway rusted out in the back. You could see both the wheels through the bed of the truck.
If we had touched that with a Chevy Soarato, it would just turn into a powdery dust. But yeah, that was a fun time when Billy got to push a truck out of the snow.
You are swole. He went warm mode on the truck.
Grimmel mode. It was so fun.
I mean, now that I'm finally out of it, it's just crazy. What about the open sky? It's enchanting.
It's like you look at it and it's just so wide open and you're just like, wow. He was saying, honestly, when you look at the open sky and you see how big the western sky is, that's the reason that our forefathers decide to explore the west coast because genetically it induces endorphins in your brain that make you want to explore.
He's right. Inspiring.
Yeah. All right, Jake, your who's back.
My who's back, aside from the investigation and the tanking, is the Dolphins. Oh, yes.
They hired a new head coach, Mike McDaniel. Watch that clip of his.
He seems a very media-friendly guy. Yes.
Big personality. He's going to save Tua.
Yeah. Yeah.
That's big for you, too. Expect us.
So it looks like it's an exciting hire. Shout out Deadspin.
They called it. Another white guy gets hired.
Well, so then Schefter tweeted out, and he says, Mike McDaniel, who identifies as biracial. What? I don't know.
Yeah. Do you have to put the identify word in? Yeah.
I think he's just biracial, right? Yeah. This is not a big deal.
What are we doing here? Yeah, but he seems like a cool guy. Very cool guy.
I don't know anything about what his responsibilities were. On the Niners, all I know is that Kittle said like I want

to close my contract saying that this guy's attached to me for the rest of his career that's good enough for me so he's going to be a dolphin Kittle so Kittle is going to go to the Miami Dolphins wait so Florida has recreational weed I think so I mean they must that was what I was my recreational that was big my big takeaway I think they have recreational everything in Florida. Oh, wow.

They don't.

All right.

Hopefully. I can look it up, though.
He can figure that out. Well, he probably has a card, right? Probably.
He probably can get weed other ways. I'm pretty sure in Florida, the law is like, if you're not actively killing someone, then it's just chill.
Just like, try to get away with it. Don't make us do too much work.
That was the first thing when I saw it. I was like, oh, wow.
I didn't know Florida. Medicinal, yes.
Decriminalized, no. Okay, so maybe he has his medicinal.
Legal status mixed. There we go.
Okay. Yeah, I actually like that hire.
So what do we have left? Texans, Saints, and Vikings got Kevin O'Connell. So I'm actually very happy because I was afraid that Jim Harbaugh was going to go to the NFC North.
You see who the front runner for the Texans is right now? Lovie Smith. Oh, Lovie Smith and Josh McCown, I think, as well.
It's looking like McCown is not going to get it. Okay.
And then Eric Biennemi in New Orleans is interviewing. I feel like if you're Eric Biennemi and you've been waiting for a good place to go, a place where you're set up to succeed, New Orleans seems like a pretty good option.
Yes. That's good for him.
Stable, yes. I'm a little bit upset that Harbaugh didn't go to the Vikings because it would have been so, so funny to watch how much he would have hated Kirk Cousins.
Yeah, and Dan Campbell. Yeah, they would have fought.
Yes. There would have been fights at midfield for sure.
Yeah. No, I'm, I'm very happy that the Vikings didn't hire him because he's a really good coach and he would have like, it's going to be weird because the NFC and we'll get into it more with Superbowl week, but like Tom Brady just retired.
Aaron Rogers may go to the AFC who the fuck knows where he's gonna end up like the nfc's gonna

be wide open for a little bit wait i just realized um mcdaniel and kevin o'connell i think were also coaches on that 2013 washington redskins team who josh mcdaniels no mcdaniel mike mcdaniel got it so I think that now like a sixth of the league or like a fifth of the league is

now former coaches from that team that sucks also bonus who's back retirement shout out Joe West we kind of know you're yes oh I can't believe we didn't yeah Joe West all-time guy uh uh Kevin O'Connell was not he was okay no he was not good he started his coaching career in 2015 good okay um yeah joe west i'm gonna miss him i tweeted out a couple clips the bum gardener stare downs all time all time melison cruz selfie and during the yeah the selfie i had the picture of him when he uh was signing autographs at wrigley for little kids not making the game about himself just respecting it also who's the guy he guy he fell on top of when there was a play at the plate and it took him like a minute to get off? Well, he didn't even get off of it. He had to be helped off from behind, like pried off.
Rajai Davis. Yeah, I'm going to miss him so much.
God damn it. And his country albums.
He's the best. He's a great singer.
He's the one guy who like he made it all about himself, and it was actually kind of endearing because it's like he makes it so much about himself that you have to respect it. You remember, didn't he get hit with a throw to second base at one point? Yeah, he did a flex.
He did a flex, and then he also obviously had the white armband so that people would stop being mean to umps across America. All umps matter.
Yeah. Yes though jake all right let's get to our interview with chris berman unbelievable interview 80 minute interview we went up to connecticut uh this is the interview that bubba did sleep through that's okay um because i know people were asking uh yeah well it's like god bless the broken road that brought bubba yeah on this car it also was the perfect scenario for him that it was like immediate punishment where all is forgotten.
Did your phone get fixed? No. His phone's still broken.
That sucks a lot. Okay.
When your home system or appliance breaks down, American Home Shield will help fix or replace the covered item, no matter its age. Visit ahs.com slash listen for 20% off any plan.
See AHS.com slash contracts for coverage details, limitations, and exclusions. Okay, we now welcome on a very, very, very special guest.
Long time coming. It is the Schwam, Boomer, Chris Berman.
We're very, very excited for this. This has been, like I said, a long time coming it is the schwamm boomer chris berman uh we're very very excited for this this has been like i said a long time coming an honor for us i was thinking about it because i'm actually nervous for this interview we've done listen we've done a lot of interviews we don't want to mess this one up so i was like you know what i'll do it for you yeah what could i start with though like oh hey schwamm tell us about 1979 i figured maybe an icebreaker if you have the wallet we could I start with, though? Like, oh, hey, Schwamm, tell us about 1979.
I figured maybe an icebreaker. If you have the wallet, we could just start with the wallet.
Oh, I want to start with that? Yeah, let's start with the wallet. You got to understand, first of all, nice to be with you, fellas.
This has been a long time coming, and I appreciate – I'll show you the wallet in a minute, but you don't get it right away. I appreciate, really, the respect that you've shown me, and I didn't know it so much in 16, 17, 18, but the time has gone on and I don't know what I've done to deserve it.
But in just playing back and Derek and Josh are PR mavens and sent me like the last six weeks so I could hear the two past the two minutes. I'm going to give you two.
And they're like throw lines. They're not.
No one circles the way. You know, I mean, I get it.
You know, and they're all the, you know, I get, I should have started the, the answer with a whoop and then you're set. Right.
But. Oh, we'll do some whoops.
No. Okay.
I have many questions. But, but, um, uh, there were two of them.
One was in the Jags lost to, or they won but they still clinched the number one overall draft pick as first reported by Adam Schaft. I lost.
That's like a throwaway. It was like, okay, that's funny.
And then Chris Boswell with the Steelers. I don't know if you used it before.
Chris kicked a field goal. Chris Boswell, New the UFO like these guys are this is yeah another level here it's well here's what I'll say because this is out of respect for you and reading everything your nicknames would always be spur the moment like pop in your head pretty much we it takes us a while to do those so that shows how hard it is to do and how good you are at it because we would sit we sit there every Sunday night for about an hour and a half going through all the games and everything I've read about you it's like if the nickname comes in 30 seconds it's there if not we go to the next guy pretty much that's incredible back in the day in baseball um I would do the 230 in the morning show and so you'd see a name and a you know the box score or whatever, like, okay, what kind of – but you don't sit there – you usually might have to have, like, one beer, not on a work day, but, like, you know, okay, one.
But if it doesn't – or let's say if you guys rode in or threw me a couple or guys on the crew or women on the crew, hey, whatever. If I laugh, we do it.
It's good to to have ghost rats. So here it is.
This is really slimmed down. It is.
It looked like you went on a diet. What happened? You had a bad week in gambling last week.
I'm supposed to say it. You lost some money on the Niners.
But no, this is not well oiled, but no, this is like at least a half, if not a third of what it was. But this is pre, you've got to understand.
I used to have cards of everybody in here, but this is pre-internet, pre-phone. So I had commissioners, senators, everyone was in here.
It's the Schwamm. Can I hold it? That wallet is the Schwamm.
Can I hold it? Yeah. I just want to feel it.
It's a full snake. It's a full snake that it took to make that.
There's a few 50s in there. Go ahead and take it.
This is a 60. Got some heft to it.
I got to knock it out. Yeah, but you know.
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
That's nice. I'm telling you.
Dieting. Oh, there you go.
That'll cost you two Hawaiians. When you pull it out in 60 minutes, though, one of the funniest things ever.
I didn't know that was happening. And it's like, one time I was on Leno, and I forgot it was because I didn't want to leave it in the back.
It's in my side pocket, just like, it's huge, right? And that was the side being interviewed on. I was like, I looked at it later.
Like, are you kidding? Looked like I had, like, a 20-pound weight in there. There's your wallet.
I love it. I came all the way to Connecticut to see the wallet.
Now, I will give you one thing and then I'll be done. So, nicknames.
Okay. So, our maven, Josh over here, started, you know, Big Cat.
So, Galarraga. Maybe others have called you that.
I don't know. But when he played, of course, came up with Montreal, as so many of them did.
What a great... So I started calling him Le Grand Chat, which is the big cat.
He liked it. I don't know how much French he knew growing up, but he'd be a bunch of Le Grand Chat.
So if you're Le Grand Chat, now I've got to do something French also. It's not a direct translation, but Le Raconteur.
It's not a common, but it's a storyteller. It's a purveyor of information.
So le grand chat, le raconteur. You didn't know we were doing French.
I did not. J'etem.
Is that French? Yeah. Did I just tell you that I loved you? You did, but it's okay.
That's your le rac the rock hunter you can say whatever you want um amazing speaking the nicknames i don't know if you're aware of this or not but we're friends of booger we love boog he's come on the show several times makes fun of me all the time makes fun of big cats wait uh he's in a bicycle gang with me and we decided one time we're going to try to incept you with a nickname because he watches the games with you sometimes on Sundays, right?

All the time. We watch all of them.

So we tried to figure how can we get inside Chris Berman's head?

What is a nickname that we can throw out that he might actually pick up on?

So we told him that the first time Jalen Hurts threw a touchdown,

he should say, Hurts so good.

And it made it to the air, and you said it.

Of course.

That was from us via Booger, our gift to you. And we loved it.
We used it. You probably would have gotten there on your own.
Yeah. Because it felt like the Cougar, that's right up Boomer's Alley.
I mean, John Cougar, Mellon Ball. Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, that's a great song.
But then later on, like the playoff game, you know, Love Hurts. It was Nazareth.
I'm going back. Again, a lot of these are predating you guys.
We know a lot of the songs. We know a lot of them.
Yeah, yeah. So thank you for that.
The honor was all ours. Hurts so good.
Yeah. He had a few games.
They got into the playoffs. Yeah, I think he's a fine quarterback.
I think when he's playing within the system that they've got there,

he can be good.

Yeah.

Did you see him dodge the stands falling apart or at FedEx Field, though?

Yes.

That showed me composure.

Not only composure, but a sense of where the rush is coming from.

Yes, absolutely.

He knew exactly where he was coming from.

So I was reading before we sat down with you, right?

I knew the nicknames. I knew everything.
I didn't realize the story, and I don't know how often you told it, that the nicknames almost went away for a little bit. No, they did.
You had a producer who said, cut it with the nicknames. And then George Brett saved it.
Can you tell that story? It's incredible. So in the early days, look, and we, I mean, again, a lot of your viewers, listeners, and you have a million, nobody imagines your age group, even in your 40s, that cable TV, I'm going to pay $20 for 36 channels.
Why would I do that? I have to sleep. We didn't even have tape machines then, right? You have to sleep.
You have to eat. You got to go to work.
How could I? At any rate.

So who knows who's watching?

My first four years, I did The Late Show, which was 2.30 a.m.

It's 11.30 in California.

And it's, you know, 8.30 in Hawaii.

So a lot of people watching.

Yeah.

My friends.

And, well, at the time.

And I don't care if you're up late, even if that's your regular deal, stuff just comes out, right? So a couple came out from back in college at Brown. Like this is only four years later I'm on TV or three.
What was the first one? It was either Frank Tanana Daiquiri. Yep.
Or very good pitcher. Yep.
Really good pitcher. And John Mayberry, really good hitter, RFD.
And I said one or two of them are maybe both in a segment because probably they're both in the American League at the time. California.
We go to a break and I get in my ear, what was that? Now, that's not where you were going. Yeah.
They just came out. It wasn't a plan.

It just came out.

It was a quarter to three in the morning.

Frank Tenantatakuri.

I've been calling them that for four years, just not on national TV.

Although it's three, you know, it's late.

It was okay.

Nobody got hurt.

And the cameramen laughed.

So the next night or two, we did a few more.

At any rate, now we go about five years.

And I probably have 800 of them because it's baseball. You try to embellish a little bit because it's every night and not all the games were video.
A lot of them was Kansas City 5, Seattle 3 for 30 seconds. Jeez.
Okay, so don't make jokes and take information away. Don't do that.
But if I'm going to say Frank Tenenata Daiquiri struck out 13, it cost me a half a second. Right.
Hey, here's a funny joke. One, they'll tell me about the game, please.
So it was okay. So we had a new executive producer.
Hiya, name, it doesn't matter anymore. Like early September in 85, you can't use him anymore.
I've been doing it for five years like everybody likes him well you know we're trying to he had no real reason probably it wasn't his idea which is usually the way it goes right well what do you mean like no you got to stop there's three weeks left in the season first of all if he's any, you do it in November. Maybe nobody knows, and then they don't come back.

Right.

So, okay, so that's about three weeks.

I'm telling a little too long a story.

But the only way I could have my own fun was Mookie Wilson

that was William Wilson, you know, and Sparky Anderson,

manager of the Texas with George Anderson,

Whitey Herzog, I called him Durell Herzog.

So you cut all the nicknames, even the ones that were yours. He didn't tell me that.
I did. Yeah, right.
I like a silent protest. Durrell Herzog.
Who's that? Well, he managed the Cardinals. He said no nicknames.
I'm just telling you what he told me to do. Even Babe Ruth once I called the George.
So, but whatever, that's my own, he didn't know.

So,

the Royals,

George Brett was a great,

is a great friend of mine and he loved the nickname.

That's how we met.

And,

game one of the ALCS,

remember,

it's only west and the east.

They played Toronto,

I think.

And George Graham was covering it.

And George Brett,

he's George Brett,

right?

Here are the Royals. And so, there's 30 people and our George Graham was covering it and George British George Brett right near the Royals and so there's 30 people that and and and our George grand wonderful person one a great professional great friend said George can I get and of course ESPN I get boy are we rolling yeah but wait a minute what's the story with my man not being able to use his nicknames?

Well, these are all the baseball writers.

It wasn't out there.

There was no decree.

It's 1985.

And a couple of the TV writers were there.

Because this is George Brett.

Like, if you're going to interview a royal George Brett.

Right.

And by the way, they won the World Series that year.

But he said, I'll do the interview.

But this is... You can swear.
That's bullshit. No, no, no.
This is George Bratt. Yeah.
And of course, our management thought I put him up to it, or George thought George Graham was involved. No.
I didn't. The next April, they were back, and he was gone.
There you go. He fought the law, i'm sorry it's an incredible story that george brett and that innocuous that also speaks to your relationship with guys and you know being able to to be in the media but also be friends with some of these guys and it was like i just read that story i was like george brett saved he did saves boomer in the schwamm he did well he saved the nickname yeah and and he wouldn't trade he was like, George Brett saved Boomer and the Schwam.
He did it.

Well, he saved the nickname.

Yeah.

And he wouldn't trade.

He was pissed.

Yeah, he was mad.

This is game one of the – it's like, don't worry about that.

Worry about what the starting pitcher for Dave Stieber,

whoever was going to throw.

No, he was more PO'd about that.

Because he was mad he also didn't have a nickname, right,

when you first met him.

Correct. He goes, how come we don't have a lot of nicknames, the Royals? George, are you kidding me? He stuck out his head.
George Brett, how come the Royals don't have a lot of – I mean, I don't know, George. Like, you know, I can't call you Wonder Brett.
You've been established too long. I'm not going to go halfway through your career, Johnny Bench.
Now I'm on. I'm calling him Park Bench.
No, too late. Right.
So, and, you know, Quisenberry is hard to get, right? Yes. So, I don't know.
And then he said, what's your nickname? I said, well, you know, not really because you'll have one after the game. It was a pennant game.
It was like the last week of a season in 82. He had the winning hit.

And here's, again, an interview in the locker room.

He's describing the pit.

Well, it was low and away.

He goes, there he is, Ethel Merman Berman. I'm like, you just played like a big game.

Like, who cares?

He's my guy.

Amazing.

He's my guy.

How did you get the name Boomer?

Okay, that's my guy amazing he's my guy how did you get the name boomer okay that's uh and my first year late one of a man that became a legend at our place became the head of all the technical name chuck pagano local boy here waterbury connecticut who became executive vp just because he he worked hard and did his job. He goes, God, you're a deep voice, too.
You're loud on these highlights. We're going to call you the boomer.
Like, that came from a co-worker, if you will. And it stuck.
And, you know, we've had arguments. Josiasin, David Wells, you know, et cetera, who was, which was the bigger boomer.
You know, keep me out of that. But so it came from a coworker who worked the overnight shift with me, and it stuck.
You know, like in the early days, maybe even in your world, your first three, four, something really worked. You weren't planning on it.
You go with it. Yeah.
And it stuck. Yeah.
What about the Schwarm? Well, that was mine. And I love the Schwarm.
I'm picking games. Well, so now it's 1979.
I start October 79. That was football season.
I do the late. It's a sign-off the first six months.
Like, good night. Well, maybe not Friday night.
Maybe not Friday night. That we went neither here nor there.
I said, I'm going to pick five games against the spread of the wheat. You just said things like, it'll be closer than expected.
I mean, this is 1979, 1980, 81. There's all sorts of ways.
They're going to win much more handily than you think. You know, I mean, duh.
You know, what am I telling you? And I put the score up. Oh, yeah.
Always put the score up. So you could figure.
And it was never right on. It was always at least a field goal one way or the other.
Right. So I left no doubt as to what I was picking, you know.
And then I gave the record with Spray. And it would have the little thing next to it.
Because I remember as a kid being like, wait, he just picked, like, the Cowboys. But why is the thing next to the Dolphins? Like, what love the scores.
You're the only guy that would be like, all right, Cowboys are going to beat the Niners 19-11. Like, what? Where's that score? Or a defensive game, I go 3-2.
Yeah. I'm not telling you to bet the under necessarily.
It's just 3-2. It's two or one i had yeah i don't know you know like 74 70 like just you know what to do you get the point right like that's not that it's a wink without hitting you over the head with it which i think sometimes the audience feels like they're involved in they they're they have an inside joke with you something that's understood but you're not explicitly telling them which in turn will make the audience like you more because it's like oh I identify with this guy we speak the same language wasn't doing it with that in mind but I think that's true and another thing behind the scenes I mean we're primitive technically I mean and not only 79 but even 82 83 I told audio I I told Chiron, we called it, which are the graphics.
You have fun in this segment. And we did it live, too.
So Tampa Bay, put them in orange. Oh, it's not our format.
Like, we put them in orange. You know, we're picking the 49ers.
Put them in red. That was like a big deal for the person doing graphics.
Put me in reverb, you know, when I come to this game, which was, you don't do that. Like, it sounds like a complete mistake.
But when I go pick this wild upset, do that. So the audio guy would fire.
You know, it's just 3 o'clock in the morning on a Friday. And they're involved.
And a times I'd have the camera like moving, like wave it around. We're not really supposed to do that, but this is our segment.
And so everybody, my, my guys and ladies who are, we let, you know, we're working with, we all felt involved. And I felt that was, yeah.
And the, and the viewers. Yeah.
And it's, I mean, the, the one thing that I think that you've, you're so good at and why people are so drawn to you is that sports are supposed to be fun and you always had fun and that's like the that's the thing to me is like if the person's having fun you feel it and you you know that they they're enjoying this and they're not taking it too seriously and that's that's that that's what comes across don't you believe that i mean this is not necessarily where you want to change our jobs if you're walking down the street and someone's digging a ditch i'm making it up whistling and listening to music let's say has a boom box so you can hear having a good he might even stop and watch for a couple minutes not say good i want to be a ditch digger but okay yeah i'm in i'm like it's sports it's not brain surgery right right it's so yeah it's supposed to be a ditch digger, but okay, I'm in. Jeez, it's sports.
It's not brain surgery.

Right.

Yeah, it's supposed to be fun.

Watching sports is fun.

Watching people do highlights about sports, that's supposed to be fun too.

I think just like the contagious enjoyment that you brought to it

influenced everybody else that came up watching it.

I think we've gotten away a little bit from that in the last few years too,

where people think that sports, it has to be, it always has to mean something bigger. And while sometimes that's very true, sometimes sports are just like, that's what people use to blow off steam.
They want to enjoy themselves. It can be a break from something.
I think sometimes we have to remind ourselves of that. You're a good inspiration for that.

We've always appreciated that about you.

I'm not alone with it, but here's what I would say.

So for two-thirds of our career, for example, primetime, let's just do that,

not even the baseball sports center.

Primetime began at 87.

And until like 2005, pick a year, 2008, you saw three games.

Yeah.

You live in New York, Chicago, Washington. The Arizona-Seattle game that was 48-45, you might have seen one drop in because it was a 90-yard bomb in the middle of the game you were watching the late, the Cowboys, right? You have, well, that's the best game of the day.
Here's five minutes. So, and do it.
This is where they make a mistake now everyone assumes and they are you hear about oh there was a there was a play in the day and you call it on your phone in one second that's cool but even at the end of the day when you know everything here's a meal serve me the whole meal of week 12 yeah for example uh or even all the baseball or pick your sport give me the meal and those doing the highlights i've stayed with this 42 and a half years i am old um i have socks older than you guys i keep them for floods but um what about the ties what's your oldest tie oh ties i got about 300 you know when was the last time you bought a new tie though well i kept buying them up till covid now then i looked i went like the one i wore this week like i haven't seen this in 10 years i love this tie it's like i forgot it was in there you know and so some of them are you know 80s were even a hot color like just the color like purple or turquoise was you know I still got those

but 80s were even a hot color like just a color like purple or yeah turquoise was you know I still got those their producer ever say like hey hey boom that that tie like it's too much well well it can be but never wore the ridiculous maybe a doing a Giants Dodgers game and I wear you know palm tie, it'd stop. But back to just think, people should not assume that everyone watching has seen the game or the highlights.
Therefore, you owe it to the viewer to do them like they're alive, even though it says, and it's going to be, and he's going to leap over a tackler. Wait till he jumps and then say it.
Don't say it. He's going to leap over a tackler and score a touchdown.
Well, he's still on the 15th. Give it to you, the viewer, like it's happening live, even if it's a game that you've seen.
Like a playoff game, we've all watched him, right? Do it anyway. Just do it anyway.
I also grew up watching George Michael and the Sports Machine out of D.C. And he was an awesome broadcaster in his own right.
He did it the other way, though. He would always say the result before the highlight happened.
That's okay. Result of game is okay.
I mean the play. He wouldn't say he's going to leap over a tackler at the 10 and then score.
That's what I mean. That's okay because he's – that's fine.
George was great, as was for highlights. I mean highlights I mean Cosell is the obvious they taped him our fastest three in the day was live like you could make a lot of mistakes yeah I've did you ever screw up real bad oh live halftime I mean I used to have a thing with my director Jeff Wynn like just keep the puck in front of us you know and at the end of one of it was like I think they got one by us you know like but it's it's it's it's so true about uh prime time and it's hard to explain it now because you know we're we're both 37 we grew up in the 90s we remember prime time was the thing on Sunday night you sat down down and you're like, I want to watch every highlight.

It's hard to explain now to kids who are, you know, 25 or younger

because they've always had red zone.

But it was it.

You would like Sunday night.

You sit down.

You watch Boom and Tiege.

And they tell you everything that happened in the NFL on Sunday.

Look, I'd watch it.

It had nothing to do with us doing it.

And Tommy is, you know, like my best friend.

I mean, we worked almost 30 years together. We talk every week you know he we he lives in cincinnati he's pretty fired up right now but um um prime time was a gift that we got to do it that espn got to do it that then he wasn't the president yet but at the time steve Steve Bornstein said, I'm doing it.
He invented it when ESPN got Sunday night games the last eight weeks in 87. That was like a big deal, ESPN 87.
World Series would be over. It was about Halloween, and then the last eight weeks was Sunday night, but we're also, I didn't invent it.
We're inventing this show that we have the right to show as many highlight minutes as we can in that one hour um and he also told Pete Roselle and I got we're gonna throw it and I got the guy to do it and that's how it happened um we can't we can't on the plus show and on the championship and then after the Super Bowl but but the regular because NBC has Sunday night when they got that in 06. They have the rights.

They. can on the plus show and on the championship and then after the super bowl but but regular because nbc has sunday night when they got that in 06 they have the rights they could make that show prime time you know right they have the rights to do it i'm not saying they should or they shouldn't but they don't and we can't remember we used to be on tommy and me and like we did it but we were limited in time.
But primetime was, okay, we have commercials. If you can stuff 12 pounds of blanket with 10-pound badges, go ahead and do it and run 40 minutes of highlights, say your name, and just roll.
Yeah, and that's what it was. Would you say that was getting primetime and that move in 1987 was the biggest thing for your career? and yet because like that was so huge for ESPN I'd imagine getting those biggest thing we ever did yeah the fact that Pete Roselle one of the smartest people I got to know him he liked me for whatever reason think he knew I like football just like I appreciate that of you guys yeah I like young guys that like football yeah it's really that simple that That's one test.
That's what you guys do. You like football.
You know football. You watch football.
And you'll admit like, hey, I didn't know that. Fine.
I like football. You like football.
It's not that hard. We're friends.
We love football. Yeah, we're good.
But so Pete, at any rate, Pete, the fact that he cable. Ooh, this is a big step in 87.
But if the NFL rubber stamped it. So the biggest thing for us, to everyone who worked there, we ain't going anywhere now as a network.
We're here. We always thought that.
Not always in 81, but by 85, 86, we're doing pretty good. We're here now.
And and then that show my favorite thing that i've ever done yeah how could it not be yeah you know i was lucky to be in the i would watch it as a fan and why wouldn't you you want to see what happened in these even the horrible games you can't there's no highlights you could show it you know on the network drop in of eight guys squealed pigging the ball, and you don't show that. We do.
And the music. The music is everything.
The natural thing that you would say if somebody was doing the squealed pig play, that would be a whoop situation. No, no, no.
Rumbling, bumbling, stumbling, and fumbling would be part of it. The whoop came from Barry Sanders.
Okay. So it came as a, whoa, there's no other way to describe Barry's.
I think his ankles were bionic. Tommy and I both think this because there's no way you could swivel as a human being like this.
At the so that was the whoop that was more barry's moves that come from barry sanders uh-huh he's he's the the impetus for that and now it's anybody that kind of does that yes now it because the sound i get stopped all the people like 15 20 years what like say itop. And they go nuts.
So now I've moved it to this wheel picnic, but it was started with Barry Sanders. And, of course, a Lamar Jackson type of player you would do it with.
But that's where it came from, out of respect for Barry. So what is the secret to a good whoop? I've heard you hit somewhere.
It bounces off the back wall and on the washington player what comes back mckissick yes he left it was like down at the right somewhere yeah it was um it was against the falcons it was like early like early october or something you let out this whoop that i swear oh yeah you could hear it it bounced off the back wall of the studio and came back to you yeah i heard it twice in the highlight. I was inspired by his leap.
Like, he took a five-yard. It was like someone trying to do the pole vault, you know, in the Olympics.
Like, you can run a long way to take this leap. It wasn't just a little leap because the tackler went low.
I don't even think the tackler went that low. He's a low guy.
Yeah. So he went.
It, it was like the first, it was at halftime, right? Yep. So it was the first real whoop of the season that I could crank out on a halftime play.
I do think of that every now and early in the year. Let's put more ingredients in it a little bit.
You got to warm up the pipes, right? You got to warm it up first. Yeah.
It was not the first play. It was like two minutes in.
It was like two minutes in. Yeah a little bit yeah so do you do you like open up your chest is it from the diaphragm is it just like mckissick did i took a running leap yeah it is i mean even you doing those little whoops for barry sanders like we do it but when you do it it's like oh yeah but you're doing it you like it Yeah, but the way you just did that.
The little whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop. It's not the same.
It's only you. We also love the Raiders.
I try to do the Raiders when we run the scores back. I do it as much as I can.
You do a good job. I've heard it.
Thank you so much. That means the world to me.
But when I do it, I feel like it takes my entire body about two minutes to recover from it. I don't know if that's something.
He does. It hurts.
Yeah, it's like. Well, that really is.
Again, it's taken on a life of its own. And everybody loves that.
And Scott, of course, Van Pelt runs it. I mean, he has my best couple, and he has it on a button.
Even if they're not playing, I think he presses it. It was really an ode to Al Davis who really liked us.
Al's voice in the 80s when I met him first a couple times. You know why I root for ESPN? Because you're the underdog.
Just like that. Okay.
Yeah. And then they were winning all the time then.
Of course, you heard him all the other Raiders. So that's really an ode to Al.
So a lot of these are ode to Barry, Al. But the Raiders, now everybody loves that again.
That's great. That's a Louis Tiant windup.
Yeah. Okay.
That's a Raiders. Not even.
Right. Yeah.
You're just taking batting practice. I haven't had a sip of water in a half an hour.
Yeah. So I'll be ready the next time you ask.
So, all right. So the whoop, the Raiders, we got to do circle the wagons because that's, I mean, that picture too of you holding the big Bills jersey.
And we're honorary members of Bills Mafia. We love the city of Buffalo.
We love Josh Allen. But there's just something about no one circles the wagons like the Buffalo Bills.
It just. Well, that team in the late 80s and 90s were, I mean, they never won a Super Bowl, but they only wanted to go to four straight.
So say no more. And it's Hall of Famers.
And obviously Jim Kelly and Andre Reid and Thurman thomas and bruce smith and you know they may have others and cornelius ben it was a great player we can go on marv's marv levy's in the hall of fame bill pullin one of the great executives of all times in the hall of fame ralph wilson the owners in the hall of fame and it's buffalo right you know it's it's other than green bay it's about the smallest now i mean it's the bills and this is the city in western New York. They asked for nothing.
I started picking them in 88. They were horrible for the whole decade.
They thought I was out of my mind. They started 4-0, and I got to the championship game and lost to the Bengals.
I actually thought these Bengals, except they've now gone to the Super Bowl, reminded me of the 88 Bills. I wasn't sure they were going to get past Kansas City, but they have already announced we're here for a while.
Like, we're really good. Yeah.
You know, I actually said that. So I forget what game it was, and I just cranked it out on primetime.
No one, you know, looking right in the camera. No one circles the wagons like the Buffalo Bills.
And it became a war chant.

Even the years they were terrible. I mean, up until Josh here and Coach McDermott, et cetera.
Not a lot of great, right? But it just became so much fun. And I don't want to do this, but I guess I will tell the story since you brought it up.
So if you're a rock and roll singer, let's say, because I saw Billy Joel in Fenway, and then you're singing Piano Man, and everybody knows the words, right? He played at Wrigley. He played all these places, any arena.
And you get halfway through, and then you lay out, and you hear, if you're Billy Joel, like hear them sing every word, and he's like, oh my, oh my, oh my God. Like this is.
So when Thurman Thomas had his number retire, it was only about four years ago. It was on a Monday night and they asked me, Thurman, would I come up in the Bills? It's a quick, I'm going to speak real quick.
Someone else is going to say something for a minute. Thurman is going to speak.
It's halftime. And I got up for 20 seconds.

And, again, the place is packed.

They're playing the Patriots when the Patriots still beat them a lot.

They played well that night, Buffalo.

They weren't ready yet, you know.

I think Josh was a rookie, okay.

So I think, yeah, he was.

And I said, okay, Buffalo, you know where we're going here.

We're doing it on three.

And like this, and it's 70,000. I went, no one, and then I stopped.
And I heard, circles, the records, like the Buffalo Bills. Wow.
That's Billy Joel singing piano, man. Incredible.
It was really my relationship. In my 43 years, the relationship that I've ended up by accident because I'm on ESPN and the Bills and it's Buffalo and the players, the team, the organization, the players, and the city 30 years later, it's the most rewarding relationship I've gotten through my job.
They're great people. They're great people.

We've experienced a little bit.

They ask nothing.

They ask for nothing.

Yeah.

Every time we go, it's like this place.

They're just so nice to us.

So you did do, I have to ask, the seven-year stretch.

The Schwamm predicted the Niners versus Bills.

And for people who don't like, they're like, oh, he was just putting on.

Seven years in a row, either the Niners or the Bills went to the Super Bowl.

And you predicted Niners-Bills every year to begin the season.

You were so close a couple times.

Close this year.

You were close this year.

I mean, I hadn't really thought of it.

It's not happening.

Hey, you could get it.

Yeah, the Swamp Bowl.

I picked them 12 years in a row.

And here's part.

Well, I'm loyal.

I'm a Taurus, too.

So I'm loyal and I'm stubborn. But the Niners were my relationship professionally in the 80s.
And I can call a lot of those guys. Obviously, the same with the Bills.
So when the Bills got good, 88, I started it then. I did 12 years around the first seven, one or the other.
Never the same time. There was always Alvin Harper running a slant at Candlestick.
There was always, well, 89, the Bills kind of had the bickering Bills and they didn't make it. But we were close so many times.
I have one of the balls. They used to send us the balls, the four possible team matchups for our championship Sunday countdown.
Actually, the one I saved was 92. That was the one that was going to happen.
Actually, that was the Frank Reich year. They almost lost.
But then the Niners, Dallas was up and coming, but not really yet. And Aikman hit Alvin Harperper on like a 70 yard slant post and i have that ball i bring it out every now and then you know that's amazing bills versus niners uh super bowl at the roast bowl you gotta keep that that's perfect can we go back just a little bit to before you even became a broadcaster because i read that you were a history major in college.
At Brown, yeah. At Brown, right? I like it.
So what inspired you? Like, why did you decide to study history? And then what made you change into pursuing broadcasting as a full-time gig? Well, Abe Lincoln wasn't a good football player, so I had to move on. That's the funny answer.
Although he probably could have been. You have interviewed presidents.
Probably a great tight end in the red zone. Well, Abe, yeah.
Post a tight end, just throwing the ball, he was good. No, no, to answer your question seriously, Brown, so a little different in the 70s.
Brown had a really good, I always wanted to do this, you know, Le Roche-Hunter. I always wanted to do this professionally.
I thought it would be cool. But I also didn't, I'm not saying right or wrong, didn't journalism school? No.
Not, no good. Don't get me wrong.
No. I'm fortunate enough to get into Brown.
I love history. I'm going to do it.
I wrote 40-page papers. I'm a pretty good writer.
I mean, I don't mean like as in a novel, but Brown had a really good radio station, 50,000 watts. So back then, it wasn't so much, ooh, I'm not going to take a course in it.
You do it on your own. Like, going to college, anything.
I think I want to go into drama. I want to do plays.
I want to do this. do it on your own.
Like going to college, anything. I think I want to go into drama.
I want to do plays. I want to do this.
Do it on your own. If you find you're not spending the time doing it, that's probably not really what you want to do.
And I became the voice of Brown, you know, Bruins football and basketball, et cetera. So it wasn't like a change.
I knew history was just doing it while I was there. And so my first job was a little radio station in Rhode Island right out of college for about a year.
And then radio, a little less little radio station in right near here in Waterbury, Connecticut. And then I got on for, I don't know how, because I had, didn't have the full, but I had, you know, you got the seventies mustache.
Yeah. And, a Troy Aikman huh I got the Troy Aikman I'm face bald well it's never coming in no but but you know late 70s so I had this and I had hair to you know we it's what we look like and not like I was anything what are you trying to prove I'm sure to look like the guy right next to me.
And I got on TV in Hartford just the weekends. $23 on Saturday night and $23 on Sunday night.
Hartford, I'm not talking about Presque Isle, Maine. I'm talking about Hartford.
$23 after minimum. Great.
And I was on for three months. So I'm just 24.
I'm kind of ahead of the curve a little. I mean, I wasn't really good, but I'm on.
It's not bad. You're doing hard for it.
That's a decent-sized market. I'm on.
Well, only because the second job was where the UHF station, we didn't have a full-time second gig, so they just needed somebody to come in on Saturday and Sunday night. I'm your guy.
And ESPN was just starting. And I said, I'm not even going to send you a tape, and I'm pretty raw, but go look.
And I mean, I know that's not the question you asked me, but it was, I always knew I wanted to do it. I love doing history.
I set out to see if it would work. And then we got on ESPN in October 1stst 1979 with three weeks three months had espn been three years in existence not 10 three years never would have hired me not on that experience no way so as we're getting espn off the ground how close did it come to failing right off the bat were there ever any times where you were like i don't know if this concept can work being dspn as a as a concept yeah well i was too young to worry about that so but to answer your question because i've certainly had a lot of time in retrospect to think about it we had getty oil was our benefactor and how that came together la is-ish, I don't know.
But they were making money, you know. And they were in it.
We knew they'd give us a couple of years. None of this trickled down to me.
I mean, look, I'm going home at quarter to four in the morning, you know. They didn't get me on the hot phone and say, well, what do you think we should tell our investors tomorrow? I wasn't in that loop.
But a year in, I thought, you know, this is a good idea. Who knows if cable's going to do this, which we didn't know, and who knows if we're going to do this, which we didn't know.
But I think there's people, just for us, there are people out there, well, here, you're too old. There are people out there like me because I'm running into people more on the West Coast, like, hey, you're the late guy.
Not ad nauseum, but people are watching, and people don't all work 9 to 5. Not that they ever did, but now we're in the 80s we the restaurant people they come home at 12 i don't mean out of a bender or anything just i'm putting something on for two hours it's great yep and you realize that there's all sorts of folks who are like us that aren't nine to five they They're not asleep at 10 o'clock.
You know, so give them a show. So I thought it was a good idea, but if you draw them one of those graphs like we all had in school that Ross Perot tried to run president on, like you, cable in the 80s was a rocket ship.
Yeah. You know? We...
I've said this before. We followed Cable's coattails, but they kind of followed ours a little.
And CNN was... I give them the nod at MTV.
79, 80, 82. So now you got...
You have sports, you have news, and you have music, and you're checking in a hotel in Portland, Oregon in 1986, and if they had some sort of, you got all three. That's your hometown station, even though you live in Chicago or Washington or wherever you are.
Oh, I get them here. They're pretty pretty good so we had a feeling it was a good

idea and cable was like this so who knew i i didn't have that kind of knowledge to predict that not even the swami could have predicted cable tv was going to be a rocket ship did uh did anybody ever back the brink's truck up for you anyone ever yeah try to get you out yeah um so

I mean

comparative Briggs truck

I mean we're

still cable but so 19 we started i started we started in 79 89 so that's 10 years so nbc came pretty hard.

And

it was a real

I'm loyal

I wouldn't say to a fault, but I'm loyal as hell, but it, I don't mind saying, I was making in the, I don't know, great. I mean, 150, 160, somewhere in there, not two.
They essentially offered four times. So this went on for like five months.
Not bad, because I had about seven months to go, but this was going to break the mold of what we do. I mean, it's the same as real life, some teams that can't afford it, right? Like baseball, let's say.
Right. Hey, right hey we're cable well we're all right but when i said steve bornstein um basic is i went to brown i can add you know don't fault me for this it's not a but in the end i said you don't have to match this you have to get within a nine iron.
And I don't know what that means. And he's not a golfer.
My nine irons suck, you know. But – and they did.
That was the best decision I ever made because – and that's really – I have one other interesting story that is more of a life story. I don't tell very often, but so back to that one.

We got the NFL in 87. If I went there, I would be waiting to be the NFL guy behind Costas was doing it at the time.
Well, I'm doing that, and I'm doing it for an audience, and I'm doing it every day. so and yeah

they had the Olympics

and they

I mean

it's NBC

and they

you know

had this

net

uh

you and I'm doing it for an audience, and I'm doing it every day. So, and yeah, they had the Olympics, and they, I mean, it's NBC, and they, you know, had this net.
So in the end, you don't have to match, but I can't stay. I mean, yes, so that was the Brinks truck.
Any other, other than that, not really. Now, here's the interesting one.
Not, ooh, Chris Brink. As I look back at life, you know how we look at life and always wonder, if I had done this or if this had happened, how would my life have gone? I mean, you could do that with your family.
My wife, it was somebody else or it was nobody else, or I might have taken that job and we wouldn't have gotten married, whatever it is, right? Even now, I'm talking about life decisions.

So San Francisco Giants are, of all, they're the number one.

Seven years old, Willie Mays.

Okay?

I don't have to say anymore, right?

1962, he's in the World Series.

I'm seven years old, Willie Mays.

I grew up in Connecticut.

He plays for San Francisco.

I'm a Giant fan.

And if you're a little kid, you know what a Giant is. Like, that's a giant, right? It's Willie Mays.
Pretty good, right? So that's my goals coming out of college. Pie in the sky.
Maybe be Brent Musburger, which I'm not saying I've become, but I had the job. But one was, I'd like to do the Giants.

And the owner of the team, that was named Bob Lurie, great guy, still around.

I mean, he doesn't own the team, but he's wonderful.

San Francisco, upper 80s now, I think.

Christmas cards, you know, we.

And I got a call from his office in 88. The Giants were playing the three games at the Mets.
He'd love to see you for lunch. Okay.
I'd met him. Okay.
Well, here's where we're going to meet at the 21 Club. No, I'm, you know, 21 Club's already, you know, I don't usually go into New York and have lunch at the 21 Club.
I might have it at Cats' Deli or whatever.

And he goes, next year, this was new at the time,

the team is going to hire the announcer.

It's always the stations.

Now it's the team, you know, it's a group thing.

But that was a big deal.

And I wondered to know if you'd be interested in being our announcer. And I went, oh, wow.
It's like my, from junior high, if I could announce the Giants and live in San Francisco. I love that city.
He goes, you'll have to tell me now. And we had a great two and a half hours.
No money was, I mean, wasn't the point. he goes you'll have to tell me now and we had a great two and a half hours no money was this guy I mean wasn't the point he goes but call me tomorrow here's I'll be at the such and such hotel I always have lunch in my room or whatever he said and now I'm conflicted I don't tell this one that often so and it probably would have been not the NBC money, more than living in San Francisco and, okay, doing your team, and I'm hired by him.
So I said, Bob, I can't believe I'm going to tell you this. You've come to me a year too late.
I can't believe I'm saying it. You've come to me a year too late.
I can't believe I'm saying it.

You've come to me a year too late.

I'm Brent Musburger.

A year later, two years later, he has paid and ended up getting Major League Baseball,

and I asked to do the West Coast games on Tuesday night

for a couple years so I could do a lot of Giants.

Then you would go on to manage the team.

But the Brink truck was backed up,

so by not taking the Brink truck, I had some pull.

I'm kidding.

Yeah, you got to manage the Giants later on.

Oh, that was great. Yeah, one and one.
Two springs in a row. If they even have spring training anymore.
They may not this year. I don't know.
But at any rate, here's how good a guy he was, because I want to finish this story i know we're going long but i've got nowhere to go and and you know you can run this in april you know um pause at the end of the line he goes after you telling me what you did yesterday at lunch this is bob lorry you made the right decision huh that's how good a guy he. He also took less money in selling the team in 93 not to have it move out of town.
To the trop, the Giants in the trop, really? Yeah, right. But then that's not a knock on St.
Pete. It's just, they're the Sanford.
I know they were in New York, but this is. Yeah.
But he took less. That's the kind of guy he is.
Less money. He got plenty, but less money because he's a San Francisco guy.
And he thought it was their pretty good group. McGowan and that group.
And they're, and they're going to stay. So speaking of San Francisco, we have to bring it up.
The catch. You were there.
Is that true? You were there. You've seen it.
We got to run it. It was 40 years ago last month.
I mean, we had to run it. You had to.
No, I ran it again. Just play it again.
I mean, it was the game itself. There were a lot of turnovers in it.
It was not as far as a pure game like Kansas City-Buffalo where there were no turnovers. I mean, we can get to football now.
I know we're going to get there eventually or maybe. We got all night so we can do it.
And I picked the Niners all year partly because I'm doing the West Coast show. They were 6-10 the year before.
I was on them every week. I go out to the championship game.

I don't know anybody.

They line up to do interviews, like 11 of them.

You're the swami.

You pick us every week.

I didn't know they were two years in.

We have plenty of time for you, and that's everyone,

from Joe Montana Wright to the offensive lineman to Charlie Young, the tight end, and then we go on and on and on. And then, of course, they win.
And I'm friendly with the owner, Eddie DeBartolo, and then here you go with – and now they win this. And we're on the field.
I mean, the catch. So now the game ends.
Now, to do a stand-up, you got one shot to your overrun. One.

You can try another one, but it ain't.

First of all, the cameraman's carrying a heavy pack, and the wire is in.

People can get hurt, actually, if you let every.

Here they come.

We run out.

It's about eight seconds.

Eight.

Ready?

Three.

We got one shot, so that was under pressure.

Yeah.

So I was a young kid.

I delivered.

But then again, Joe Montana and Dwight Clark delivered a little better than that.

Still remains an iconic game.

It does.

And it just, just.

And the fact Tom Brady was there.

It's the start of them.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's like the Tuck game was the start of the Patriots.

Yeah.

And look what they did with it for 20 years.

The catch was the start of 15 years. Yeah Look what they did with it for 20 years.
The catch was the start of 15 years. You didn't know it.
I played the Bengals. I love that clip.
It's the one shot. Roll it again.
One shot. And you got to think about it every time you watch it.
Like, wow, we nailed it in that one shot. Well, no one's thinking about that but i am like yeah i would have got my cameraman hurt yeah we we remember every and dwight who uh passed of als a couple years ago uh became of all those guys my best friend of that group other than the owner eddie debartolo they became all my and uh oh it's just interesting how we and when the last night candlestickick, we ran – Dwight and I resurrected it.
That's awesome. You know, I mean, I threw it.
Actually, he jumped, and it was December of 13. It was a Monday night game, pregame.
We got to do it one last time. That's amazing.
So you mentioned, you know, the modern era and the Super Bowl that we've got coming up here in a week and a half. What's the Swamp predicting for the Super Bowl? Well, as we sit, and you guys let me pass so far, so I'll throw it out so I know I'm immune from it.
You know what day this is. It's Groundhog Day.
Duh, duh, duh, duh. Yeah.
22-22. So now I'm good, right? Yes, yes, there you go.
That was smart um you can't write this stuff actually it's even it's almost written like you guys fast as two minutes you know the boswell new mexico god nobody knows about roswell new mexico um little green guys but um so as we sit it this is on groundhogs day so i'm not dodging because we talked about it before. We're not holding you anything.
This is a Super Bowl I didn't think. Yeah, I don't think anyone did.
I didn't count on this one, which is fine. I mean, the Bengals earned every bit of it, but if you really want to get into it, I'm very close with the Chiefs and the Bills.
So we had as great a playoff game as we've ever seen two weeks ago with Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes, and nobody made a mistake. And each – I mean, you've got to be – the record will show 13 seconds, but they both took the lead twice in the – I mean, I don't have to tell you.
Yeah. The only playoff game I could think of that was not the catch because there was like eight turnovers in that game.
It was great excitement. But I don't go excited.
You're talking about a great game. I go to San Diego at Miami in 81, 40 years ago.
Kellen Winslow. The Winslow carried off.
That's the only one. And by the way, San Diego, who won it, lost to Cincinnati the next week.
So maybe that's the problem. So here's Kansas City.
Did all that to beat Buffalo. And then they laid that egg in the second half.
Give the Bengals full props. I mean, whatever they did.
Patrick Mahoney, I can't. This is Wednesday.
I'm pretty close with them. I don't know what that was yet.
It was some team I don't recognize. And that's give Cincy credit.
So I'm not dodging. Because who's to say they can't win? One thing that Coach Reed told me in the middle of the week going into that game, I said, do you think, even though they've beaten you before, and so they're confident, that the moment could be all of a sudden or down in the third quarter.
I posed this to them. Down in the third quarter.
And I didn't predict down 21-3 or whatever, or 21-10, what have you. And they look around, and the moment becomes a little big for him.
He was quick to say, all those guys that won national championships on that team, and not only the quarterback and the receiver, but a lot of others who have played in, if we're counting on that, we're in trouble. They told me this in the middle of the week.
Now, that was not an XO thing. That was just a conversation.
He didn't count on it. I don't know.
I don't know what happened. So the Bengals, we're just missing the boat? Yeah.
Four points, too. We, too.
Pick the winner. Yeah, we talked about that.
Guys like us, once we figure that out, it's over. Once anyone figures anything out with gambling, it all comes back.
Right. What we're talking about is until the Niners, the Rams won but didn't cover, every other playoff game would just pick the winner.
In other words, if the 49ers won, they're an underdog. Easier said than done.
Yeah. Yeah.
If Cincinnati won those games, they're an underdog. You take them, but you throw the spreads out.
But given that the playoffs we've had, so at four, you'd think, well, it's got to be a field goal game, doesn't it? Isn't it the way you would? And you would hope so after the – of course, the first round of the playoffs were awful.

Yeah.

There were a lot of teams that shouldn't have been in. Yeah.
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One also has other delicious flavors like like birthday cake maple glazed donut and blueberry cobbler find all one bars at a retailer near you or on amazon.com what's the biggest what's the best bet you've ever won well because i love that you all i mean now we're obviously i got two gambling is gambling is big and everyone talks about you. Prediction.

We're not even talking about, you know, because I, first mortgage, I was done doing that.

Yeah.

So I'll be, I don't mind saying, 83 mortgage, I make my picks.

I make my five picks on TV.

I live and die with them.

Everybody knows that. I live and die with them.

Sure.

Because I want people to do, you know.

Yeah.

So that 81 season, I was on the Bengals who were 6 and 10 and the 49ers who were 6 and 10.

I'll see you next time. because I want people to do, you know.
So that 81 season, I was on the Bengals, who were 6-10, and the 49ers, who were 6-10, like all year. So I was like 68% because I have five picks.
Cincinnati, San Francisco, now let me think of three more, you know. But that was just, I've had other years when it's been horrible.
There's been a couple of funny ones. Like Mort always says, it always works out at the end.
When you bring the ball to the game, you make the rules.

So there was one year, but then I'll give you the greatest one ever, which was my walk-off Swami pick by accident. There was one.
It's one of the great football games. I was 12 under 500, you know whatever it is going into the last week of the season 93

and 800, you know, whatever it is going into the last week of the season. 93? And Cowboys at Giants.
Big game. It was the Emmitt Smith game with the shoulder, and he ran for 180 yards.
So it's a famous game, as it turns out. Said, I'm picking one game, and it's worth 13.
And you couldn't do that. Well, no.
If I lose, I'm 25 under. I'm putting it up.
Don't worry. but it's worth 13 and you can't do that well no if i lose i'm 25 under i'm putting it up don't worry yes but it's worth a 13 star special yes okay and i i said 16 13 dallas which was the score wow and so nobody in the building you i don't know i'm doing it off the top of my head i don't think it it was 19-16.
I think it was 16-13. If I'm wrong, it's one of the two, but I'm saying 16.
It's a long time ago. Overtime.
Score. Emmitt, great game.
Like, don't talk to me. I'm one over.
And then we go on to the playoffs. That's amazing.
And then the other one was my final. So in 2016, when I was, you know, changing what I was doing.
So the final ended up being New England and Atlanta, that Super Bowl. My pick in the Super Bowl, not the score, had New England by six.
Now, I'd be lying if I said, well, they're going to trail 28-3.

They're going to go to overtime.

They're going to win by six.

You had to read on that game.

I didn't have that.

But the final was New England by six.

It's like, I'm done.

Yeah.

I'm not making another pick.

You nailed it.

I'm done.

That's got to be the best win of all time.

It is.

That's right.

I got to that.

But the Emmett one, I remember.

I took such flack in the building.

You can't do that.

I can do whatever I want.

It's my segment.

Exactly.

It's your show.

It's your podcast.

You want to do it?

I'm going to that. But the Emmett one, I remember.
I took such flack in the building. You can't do that.
I can do whatever I want. It's my segment.
Exactly. It's your show.
It's your podcast. You want to do it? Go ahead.
Did you ever... I have three game of the years already, and we're only in February.
I mean, it's true. I'm 3-0.
Game of the year. You got to have three games.
Yeah. And you got another one.
Maybe. People are like, how do you have this many game of the years? It's like, well, I keep seeing games that are game of the years.
Especially when you Yeah. That's right.
You know, what are you going to do? If you win it, it's your ball. You brought it.
Exactly. Did you ever happen to run into Hunter S.
Thompson back in the 70s, 80s? No. Because he was another big gambler.
I know he was tight with Al Davis back then. Well, Pete Axthom, who we worked with, was Hunter Thompson's buddy.
But no, I don't think I met him back then. I mean, all that stuff was legendary.
They all were the New York gin mills and the Greek circle. No, I didn't.
I mean, they ran an interesting life. I was not yet.
Remember, we're up here. We're two hours away from New York.
You didn't go in and do whatever and then try to make your way home. So the answer no it would have been interesting though yeah for sure that would have been an all-time hang I would imagine yeah Pete would have been there you know work with us Pete ax them was like Jimmy the Greek on NBC Pete was brilliant he was with us our first years in prime time and and countdown game day we called it yeah one thing I wrote down that I have to bring up, we're a big fan of yours all around, big fan of your golf game as well.
Love the wide brim hats. Has anybody ever told you like maybe don't wear a gray shirt when you're going to be out in the 95 degree sun? I always wear a colorful shirt.
Yeah. Sweating, I sweated at 12.
Okay, so I sweated a long time ago before I was, well, I'm better. You know, I lost a lot of weight now.
But, I mean, again, it's the Titanic losing a few deck chairs. So they're floating right out there right now.
So gray, I never wore gray. No, it's always colorful.
But, I mean, it's warm and hot and you got a carnation shirt, you know, or a nice, sharp purple shirt. Look, if you've ever come to my studio, which now, I mean, I'm only, but back in the day, three hours, you know, countdown.
Even in September, the camera people had to wear a jacket you can hang meat in there yeah because i sweat in an igloo yeah i run pretty hot too no after i do a show yeah yes they do it gets it's like a magic eye poster black and that would be black always but i wear black shirts well right but not on a when it's 88. Yes.
Can we tell you something funny that you probably have no idea about that's a very weird, you're going to think we're stalkers. Your suit cleaner in Connecticut had a signed poster of you.
Is it the grid father? We have that in our studio. He gave it to us.
I can send you as many as you want. We have that one from your dry cleaner.
No kidding. Because his son is a huge fan of ours.
That's very funny. And he said, I've had this.
My dad's done the Schwam suits for 30 years. I want you guys to have it.
It's sitting in our studio. It's up.
That's very funny. Every single time you come in, it's right there.
I have plenty of them. They were supposed to print 400 20 years ago.
And there's 4 000 so i i haven't gotten rid of all those okay they're in the basement but that guy here i mean your dry cleaners got a grid father we made it look there's even a knuckle ring there's everything it's pacino ish yeah but your dry cleaner he's probably had to do some work with the sweat oh yeah and some some was like just sorry i tried my best we did everything we could we don't make that to get rid of that yeah yeah they're not yeah sit you down and just be like listen that that's some people just run high yeah on the air three hours tie and the air isn't running right. And...
The lights, yeah. Oh, yeah.

Yeah?

TV, like i told i told tommy i told boy i told everyone i've ever worked with you gotta play with pain in tv they'll be like we played 14 years at linebacker what are you talking about oh yeah you'll see yeah yeah you know i did a podcast one time with a broken foot and big cat got bit by a dog right We still did a full show. Look, it's only game day.

Yeah. I did a podcast one time with a broken foot and Big Cat got bit by a dog.
We still did a full show.

Look, it's only game day.

Can you go?

The lights are on.

Go on.

Murder injured.

Take it up.

Yes.

All those things.

We're not taking you into the tent.

You're okay.

You're clear.

Let's go.

You got to go.

All right.

So this has been incredible.

We got to wrap.

I mean, we don't want to take your entire life here, but we got to do your best nicknames. What are your best nicknames? What are the ones that you, you know, at the end of the day, it's like, oh, that one.
Because we have some of yours that we love. No, I want to hear those.
But so are we going football? All right. Whatever you want to do.
Well, we'll do football last. Okay.
Because that's kind of, I mean, so baseball, a lot of them now will predate even so much you guys because I'm going to the ones that, because the 80s, I did 10 sports centers a week. We all did.
Bob Lee did. Tommy Meeze did.
John Saunders. Today's John's birthday.
We lost him, what, five years ago, six years ago? Great. We could go on and on.
all the guys we we did um 10 shows a week doesn't make us heroes but hey we're we're a network but we have one fourth of the staff so you okay to do the next show well i did the last yeah we got another one go ahead so to baseball all the time so the best i'll, I'll go right to that, Burt Blylovin, because that's B-Home Blylovin. Yeah.
Because you don't have to – see, a lot of these nicknames are, you don't have to know, A, he's a pitcher, B, he pitches for the Twins or the Pirates or whoever, C, he has a curveball, got him into into the hall of fame you are a kid and you heard from your parents be home by 11 and as a parent you've told your kid be home by 11 you don't have to be a genius to figure these out right so that's probably the best i mean the early ones baseball jose can you see cruz julio won't you let me take you on a seat? Cruz. A lot of them were from Rock and Roll, Vaughn, Purple, Hayes.
A couple that stuck, and I just saw him last month, Crime Dog McGriff. That stuck with him.
Doggy. Every player calls him Doggy.
He loves him. He's such a good guy.
Certainly borderline Hall of Famer. Didn't touch a thing, and he hit almost 500 home runs, by the way.
Chuck Knobloch is one of my favorites. New kids on Knobloch.
He liked it, too, even when he didn't make the throw correctly. Oh, now I'm – Roberto, remember the Alomar? movie.
Yeah, I love that one. I mean, food.
There was a movie, blame it on... Not food, but George Taco Bell.
I mean, like that with Toronto. Like, food.
Everyone knows what Taco Bell is. You don't have to know he plays for Toronto.
That's the best part of him. And it's...
Did I really hear that? And even if I get a chuckle out of them, that's even more so.

What do you have baseball? So one of my favorite baseball ones is Miguel Tejada.

Very good.

See, I don't forget these.

Tejada's become, Tejada they fall, right?

The best.

I mean, right?

Jimmy Cliff.

The best.

Oh, man. So I'm going too far back.
I'm trying to think of. We can go to football, too.
Football is incredible. Football is a ton.
Yeah. So football, the best ones are those you can deliver under the highlights.
You can sing with them. we've resurrected Leto Shito shepherd this year with debo you know which is boss skaggs debo whoa it's the lito shuffle one of the great wind-up songs of all time they we used to do for lito shepherd defensive back philadelphia the gm of the the niners john lynch texted me like a month ago, Deebo, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Like, you know, and I've known Lynch since he played, of course.

But so when Steve Bono would go back to pass and complete it,

you could go to do-do, do-do.

I got you, babe.

Completion, right?

Yeah.

You could go.

So Elvis Gerback. Again, these are all, but there are plenty right now.
If Elvis went back and was going to be sacked, caught in a trap, you know? I mean, okay. Mark Bolger, remember him with the run? Oh, yeah.
Well, that's the Scarecrow. Ray Bolger, right?

So he'd go back to that.

If I could only find a receiver.

You know?

And then the Kickers had a lot of them.

Yep.

Including David Greenacres.

And at the vet, they used to play the theme from the TV.

But this is old. So now, and a guy that should be a head coach is Eric sleeping with B enemy.
You know, like he should be and that was really, Curtis, my favorite, Martin. Martian was a TV show.
Obscure. Good for this audience.
Do you remember Steelers, primarily fullback, Chris Mafala? Yes. Fumatu Mafala.
Yes. We called him Chris Fumatu Bad Mafala.
And Tommy would chime in because that came out of Shaft. It was like, you dig it can you dig it shut your mouth we throw those in too we'll throw in like the Teej going back with the boom I know that you're absolutely right Beth so now see okay now I have yeah you're missing a couple of my absolute favorites I know PFT Super Bowl? Who's in the Super Bowl? So I'm going quick with Joe Mixon Match.
It's okay. It's not great.
It's okay. But I'm thinking it's Bengals.
I can give you one for the Bengals if you want. Go ahead, please.
So Joe Burrow throws a pass to Jamar Chase. Burrow and Chase hide and seek.
It works and seek Hide and seek or you could go What do we do for Joe For Joe Burrow do we do like January Joe All systems Joe Which is what it is Think about it Two years ago he won the national title And now he can win Yep. Two years ago, he sat in the box with us at the Super Bowl.
Yeah. Now he's playing it.
He might win. It's crazy.
It's not good for him. But why am I – I mean, we have – oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
The Chuba Missile Crisis. Yeah.
The Chuba Missile Crisis this year. Yeah.
Oh, there's – go ahead. Well, I mean, Jake DeLome.
Huh? Jake a missile crisis. This year.
Yeah.

Oh, there's a, go ahead.

Well, I mean, Jake DeLome.

Huh?

Jake DeLome is one of my all-time favorites.

Daylight come and you got a DeLome.

You got a DeLome. You got a DeLome.

Right?

That one's, and then John Kitna was my other favorite

that you always do.

Well, yeah, he, well.

Go ahead.

Kitna Caboodle?

Yes.

Yeah.

Okay.

I mean, I hadn't thought of him in a while.

Yeah, I know.

But that's. I love those.
Look at a lot of them – a lot of the kickers. And I – I think it was Jeff Fegels, Jeff Philadelphia Fegels, which is like so – it's so easy, but it's just so funny to say because he's playing for the Giants.
And you're like, Jeff Philadelphia Fegels. But when they work, when they're from where they're from.
Yeah.

Like Royce Clayton was a shortstop with the Giants.

Royce Aroni Clayton.

Mm-hmm.

The San Francisco treat, you know?

But Jeff, not Fiegel's, Jay Feeley, who TV now.

Yeah.

So I would do the who for that one.

On long ones.

See me, Feeley.

And you like to sing, right? Have you sung the anthem or something? Yeah, when we do our boxing, yeah. That's a hard song.
It is. It is.
I can sing. I was set to do it, and the Wailers, naturally, the last week of their final season here in 97, down their leg the last two or three, they were going to make the playoffs, you know, and lose to somebody in the opening round, three they were going to make the playoffs you know and lose to somebody the opening round but they were going to get in and i had a deal with the general manager jim rutherford not the national anthem i'm okay singing i'm okay as huey lewis told me as a golfer boomer you're a 15 as a singer you're a six you know so i was going to sing Oh Canada.
That you can get to. That range is different in English and French.
But they didn't make it. Yeah.
I did Oh Canada in Providence when we did a rough and rowdy, our boxing, our pay-per-view boxing. How'd it go? Everyone just started booing, and I started laughing.
Why? Because Canadians booing. Well, it was a Canadian.
Our main event was a Canadian versus an American. so I start singing it and everyone starts booing and I started laughing.
Why? Because it was Canadians. It was a Canadian our main event was a Canadian versus an American.
So I start singing it and everyone starts booing because everyone's revved up and drunk and I just started laughing hysterically and I couldn't finish the whole thing. It was such a scene.
You can do it go. You guys probably don't even know it.
One of the best. So the old gentleman that used to sing Oh Canada at the Montreal Forum, Roger Doucette, is gone.
Have you ever seen this on video? You need to find it. So they would wheel him out at the biggest games, silver hair, tuxedo, some of the great games when the Guy Lafleur was playing, and before that, but in the 70s, you can find it, Like 35 seconds.
You want it to charge through, you know, through customs. You just, Roger Doucette.
In English and French, it was man at the forum. Yeah.
Bowtie, tux, silver hair. It's like Kate Smith back in the day, you know, singing God Bless America for the Flyers.
But it was better because it was Montreal. Right.
No knock on Kate or the Flyers, but it's Montreal. Yes.
I mean, it's hockey. Yes.
We've seen you sing the second verse to Take It Easy before. Standing on the corner.
Yep. Winslow, Arizona.
Such a fine sight to see. We do a recurring bit on our show.
Do you? i don't know if you've heard about this one but um as an homage to you we just assume because we know that you're a big fan of classic rock we see the rod stewart album come out every year in late september you're good man you've done a hell of a yeah well i mean i well that's our life that's our life we watch football and highlights i'm just repeating what i've seen late september is maggie may comes out on the studio update desk which i always love for yep week four yeah week three was don henley boys of summer yep so so the first the first year we started to do this uh this homage to you actually i tried to put that in week three and big cat goes it's too soon yeah and he's like you gotta wait's right. Seasons later.
Yeah. Week three may be good now because we start late.
Yeah, it's true. But we might be okay.
There's a feel to it. It's like, it's right before the clocks and everything.
And it's like, oh yeah, it's not. It's late.
Summer's gone. It's late September.
Yeah, you gotta really feel. It's gotta be the final September weekend.
Yeah, your first sweatshirt day. It's like, ooh, okay.
It's football. And it's funny because I realized when I bring this album out that a lot of people a little younger than you don't even know what it is.
Yeah. What is this? Well, I have 400 of them.
Is it the same album that you bring out every time? Yes. It's always every picture tells a story.
Maggie Mae is on that album. Right.
It's the same physical album that you've had. Absolutely.
I love that.

That's awesome. I had it at college.
I played the wax off it, you know, at college. Maggie Mae.
Yeah. Oh, God.
The intro to that song, that'll wake you up. That's a feel-good song.
It's a great – now, the Eagles – so we – Glenn Frey was a – he passed, a great friend of mine. And we did two Super Bowl swamis.
He joined me for one of them, the one in San Diego, when the Broncos broke that long winning streak of the NFC, like 12 or 13 or 11 in a row, whatever it was, and they beat the Packers. But we did it in front of the Hotel Coronado, San Diego,

which is famous, and we did it at the Hotel California.

And he's dressed as a bellman who comes out.

I quote every line of the song.

My mind is Tiffany Twisted.

I can't pick the winner or whatever.

Chris, what do you do?

He comes out singing, welcome to the hotel. Glenn Frey, what are you doing here? He goes, I live here.
What are you doing here? And then we went on and on and on. Yeah, no, singing is okay.
Yeah, no, it's good. I've heard you sing that second verse before.
We do the standing on the corner as a tribute to Jameis Winston every week. We say Jameis Winston down in Nola is what we did this year.
It used to be Jameis Winston, Tampa, Florida, and then he got traded. So hopefully he goes, yeah, I know.
A song is a song, though. It doesn't matter.
If you still get a chance to sing, take it easy. The song that put the Eagles on the map.
Yeah, it's wonderful. And you got decent voice.
We heard you sing on stage. Okay.
I don't know if it was, it might not have been with the Eagles. It was maybe with a cover band.
You probably didn't even know that you were being taped. But some sicko out there was videotaping you singing it, and they sent it to us because.
Hawaii, right before. Yeah, probably in Hawaii.
But we said when Glenn passed away, Huey and the news when they could tour a few years ago, came through here about Connecticut about two months later, and I said, Huey, he's a friend of both of ours, can you guys work up, take it easy? Because Huey always would call me up, and I'd sing a song. He's nice enough to let me do it, walking on a thin line, that is not taking it from, it's an add-on.
Nobody wants to hear me sing The love or you know anything like that you know the heart of rock and roll but we would so i sang one is with huey lewis in the news you can find that on youtube it's somebody shot on their phone it wasn't any professionally they worked it up and i forgot about it he called me that afternoon you're gonna come over for uh you know we're gonna work up take it easy you you didn't forget yeah we practiced once you know it's always he calls me for an encore so that at least you've had a few beers by then you know and not too many but a few yeah and then i'm okay but one and out what's your nobody needs to see me throw 50 passes. Nobody needs to do that.
What's your all-time favorite band? Well, that's a tough one. This job has allowed me to be friends with somebody like Glenn Fry.
Bob Seger is a very good friend because they're sports fans.

So that would be Bob Seger.

Silver Bullet would be way up there.

But if you're asking me a rock and roll question,

I'd have to give it to the Stones.

I just think I would because they're still doing it, or they were.

And the songs from the 60s, they still could come out today. Yeah.
They're, you know, under my thumb. Dead Flower is one of my favorite songs ever.
The ones from the 60s, let alone 70s, 80s. So if you're asking me a rock and roll honest question, it would have to be The Stones.
I don't, do I know that – I met Mick, you know, a few minutes, but Bob Seger and Huey Lewis and the other Stephen Stills. It's really cool that – and what you guys are finding.
Yes, you have your hardcore audience that's sports and all, but you meet people from all over America, Canada, et cetera, white, black, old, young, who like, hey, we're football fans, for example. And sports has allowed me and us to meet you guys.
Football fans. You like football.
We like football. You like football? I like football.
No, we like football. I like football.
I like football. Let's have a meal.
You want to talk football? It's a perfect ending. You want to talk football? Some spread.
From a commercial. Howie Long, every time I see him, he says, some spread.
God, I tell you what. If I ever need to be refreshed, I'm 66 now.
Don't ask me what I had for breakfast. I could tell you what happened in the catch 40 years ago, but don't ask me if I had an egg or a cereal today for breakfast.
Do you know what I'm saying? But if I forget some details of my career. Yeah, we got you.
Yeah, we got you. I know where to call.
Damn. Look, I appreciate that more than anything you guys are, not forget me, fans of football, and you have, I don't want to equate cable in 79 and 80 to the podcast business but your first one was what 20 2016 yeah with podcasts like maybe that was the first year ish of them podcast started in about like 2010 2011 is when no one knew what they were no one really really did too many of them we had a few guys uh kfc at our at barstool started back in what 2012 yeah it was on that one yeah so um but we started in 2016 and uh it was we we were at the right place at the right time so we caught that wave um we had a little bit of help from espn who sent us a cease and desist letter after our first episode uh these things happen but then we just thought it didn't get lost in the mail no well we ended up using that to cease and desist letter after our first episode uh these things happen but then we just it didn't get lost in the mail no well we ended up using that to cease and desist them back saying you need to cease and desist cease and desisting us and then that obviously like it got more eyeballs on our podcast so indirectly i guess they call that the streisand effect yeah but uh but things were, you know, very fortunate for us at that time.

Yes.

Well, right place at right time.

See, so I was thinking about it knowing I was coming out like a month ago,

and then we had to – this is great.

I don't want to equate podcasts with cable TV, but in some ways it is.

Like you didn't know – you thought you guys had a good show.

That's your job with your crew.

Let's put a good show together, right?

Every week.

Do we hit a home run every week, every two days? Not necessarily, but it was every painting a Rembrandt. Right.
Some are finger paintings, right? Not really good, but bring the energy, bring the knowledge. And my point is is you guys took something that may not have taken off.
And I respect that because that's kind of what I and we lived 40 years ago. Yeah.
So I think it's really pretty cool. Our mindset is like if we can make each other laugh and have fun doing the show, then to us that feels like a good show.
And hopefully other people out there will kind of find the same things that we find funny to be funny for them. I agree.
Now, the only thing I did bring, and I'm surprised you're not going with it. I mean, this is, I'm supposed to at least.
Hawaiian shirt, I'm not going to change. Oh, yeah, shades.
I got to say, I took the shades off for you. And I opened a sign of respect that he didn't have the shades on.
Yeah, very much. There you go.
And I knew that. I just wanted to look you in the eye during this episode.
No. First of all, Hawaiian shirt shades, I got it.
Yeah. I'm with you.
Don't worry. All right? This is a good look.
This is a good look. I love it.
But I meant to start with it, and then we went to the wallet. Yeah, the wallet.
Everything went downhill from there on. This has been you guys are totally respectful and i i uh and i appreciate how hard you work not this show but i mean this particular but i mean how hard you work and putting it together like you and your listeners and your viewers respect it but now they expect it yeah and you respect it yourself yes i did Don't come easy, right yeah i got one last last question for you um just kind of looking towards the future what's what's next for boom where do you see the next like five ten years are you gonna are you gonna be happy if you retire getting getting off tv are you gonna feel that itch do you want to be in front of the camera which is why i full-time ended it at the end of 16 but we the next two years i was around you know because kind of you know i'm not george washington maybe i'm abe lincoln more like teddy roosevelt that seems more likely but i think you could get shot during a show and still finish well well yeah he yeah Hopefully we'll never find out yeah i would try to your point but um but then this reinvention of prime time on plus i know it's plus and i'm not knocking plus but it's we don't have the rights to do it anywhere else i sold that sold that i talked to our president jeremy paternity that we could get rights to this because i want to do that.
So where I'm at now, I got one year left of it, but that'll be 68. I certainly see me doing it to 70 if they'll have me.
And then we'll see. I mean, but yeah, there would be an itch.
Prime time has scratched it, the itch, because it gives me excuse. I can call my friends in the league anytime.
You know, coaches, not so much players, some. But you're doing the show.
There's a reason, and they know you're doing it, and you're on it half. And then ESPN put the halftime highlights back on a year ago, which I taped Sunday night, which is why the Sunday night game's not in there.
But not even the Swami can predict what's going to happen on Sunday night. But I'm in a good place like that.
Because 42 years, not that long, I'm so tired. Tell that to somebody in a coal mine, right? I don't think so.
But that's a good question and i thought i was kind of done but this has been reinvigorating by able to the prime time and the half time and the dip but then during the week if i want to go do something i'm good yeah you know uh so you'll have me to kick around for a few more years if they'll have me after one more we'll see i love it i love it they could send me that letter and i don't i doubt that yeah no way so you never know we riot if they send you that letter we will storm we'll treat bristol like it's like it's the capital on january 6th i'll line up outside and tear the tear the damn gates down we'll get it solved before it comes. Thank you.
You guys have been as loyal

as...

I mean, my goodness. I need

you in my backfield.

We got you.

We got you. But it's been...

Pleasure has been all ours. So thank you so much.

Chris Berman, Boomer,

the Schwamm, absolute legend. We appreciate it.

Le Grand Chat,

Le Raconteur, merci. There he is.
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That is the show. I just dropped my phone again.
Boomer was incredible. That was well worth the wait.
Yeah, we bullshitted with him for about a half hour before we even started the interview. We actually – Hank gave the look, which I know very well, where he was like, why are you guys just doing the interview before we do the interview? It was like a couple minutes was fine, and then you guys kept going.
And then PFT asked one question. I was like, you definitely wrote that down for the interview.
Yeah, well, here's the thing. One question.
Here's the thing. It was because he's old school.
So his guy, his handler, who I'd been in contact with, like constant contact with, was like, hey, Boomer wants to shoot the shit for a little bit before you guys start. Like, yeah, we're cool with that.
So I knew that we needed to do a little bit of that. My ears like perked up.
Yeah, I know. When you gave the look, I was like, oh, no, we got to get in there.
We got to start because we definitely were like starting to get into like conversation. I think we were talking about like him hanging out with like the 80s Niners or something.
And we're like, all right, let's go. Let's go.
It was a dream come true. There was one point where we were expecting him to start coming down the hallway.
And Big Cat and I heard him before we saw him. Oh, yeah.
And it definitely reminded me of when we met Coach O for the first time. Yeah.
And we heard him down the hallway and big cat and i heard him before we saw him yeah and it it definitely reminded me of when we met coach o for the first time and we heard him down a hallway and then got to walk out and see him you heard boomer coming down the hall everybody just like our ears perked up and we're like oh my god he's actually here and like dude is is a lot of fun to talk to we probably could have gone for four hours with him yeah he um they were i i like there was probably about three or four times this weekend where i just like had a little smile come over my face just replaying in my head him doing that subtle whoop and whoop with barry sanders saying that's how he created it it was like the funniest like two second clip where it's like something about his whoop it's effortless that's it and it can't it can't be like we replicate it but it's not. It's a total cheap knockoff.
Like his whoop is just, it's perfect. It's almost like if you saw like a great like diamond jeweler can see like a true diamond.
That's his whoop. And then you see ours.
You're like, okay, this is a Fugazi right away. Yeah.
Like throw it out. It's a fucking fake.
We're Smash Mouth covering Under Pressure by Queen and David Bowie at that point. No disrespect to mouth and it was uh man it was an all-time moment there were so many times where i was just sitting watching him and i was smiling his presence made me so happy and then we should actually give a shout out to evan longoria because boomer was telling us the story after the interview was over and he goes,

you know, in 2019, I know that you guys have been reaching out to me and I had, I'd put it off a couple of times, but then Evan Longoria came up to me in San Francisco and before a game in Boston, in Boston, excuse me. Cause it was, they were playing.
Yeah. Cause he had to, he was like, they're at Fenway.
So it went up for all three games and his big Boomer voice. Yeah.
Yeah. So, So Evan Longoria took out his phone.

It was on a Tuesday and he played Boomer our uh our Monday morning NFL recap the fastest two minutes and he sat he listened to it and he was like I like these guys I want to meet these guys and that's when he decided that he was eventually going to do the show. That like.
It was still two and a half years later. That makes me feel so warm inside though to know like Boomer heard us.
Yeah. And Boomer liked us.
And it was a slow. Yeah.
It was a slow process because I remember I would just text like every like three months being like, hey, any word about Boomer? Any word about Boomer? He's like, well, he knows he likes you guys, but he's like, it was a slow. He's old school.
He's old school in every sense of the word. But I actually am happy that we didn't interview him three years ago or whatever it was because it was perfect.
It was like the perfect time, Super Bowl week. Everything was perfect.
So shout out Chris Berman. And like speaking of old school, we had the – his guy rented a conference room and had a full spread.
Like we had a full lunch spread. I was like, this is not necessary.
He's like, no, no, we got to get a full spread. It's like, okay, fine.
Let's get a full spread. And they had sparkling water, Diet Cokes.
It was actually Diet Pepsi, but his guy was like. We need Diet Coke.
His guy's like, Boomer likes his Diet Coke. Understandable.
I get it. And so then somebody came down from the front desk with these two one-liter bottles of Diet Coke.

Everything was perfect.

Boomer, he was actually a very, very down-to-earth cool guy.

Obviously, everything that he says has the weight and gravitas behind it of Chris Berman is saying this thing.

And there's something about his presence that's just like, well, this guy, I'm picking up with this guy's putting down.

Yes.

All right.

Let's do numbers.

Great show.

Here we go.

Numbers.

40 years. This guy, like, I'm picking up what this guy's putting down.
Yes. All right.
Let's do numbers.

Great show.

Here we go.

Numbers.

44.

I'm doing 8.

56.

56.

You just stole my number that I've been doing?

The Super Bowl?

Oh, yeah. You get it.

I'm still a good one.

22.

All right.

What do you got, Bubba?

6.

What do you got, PFT?

I can't keep track of people's numbers.

I'm not doing the 8.

I'm changing it. I was only doing 56 this week, or last week.
I'm changing it to 71. 71.
72! Oh! So close. Roadrunners made for life.
Love you guys. Well, I just heard Talking away The news today I'm to say It saves my life It saves anyway It's gonna change Today is a I'll be coming for your love of peace Take on me Take me I'll be gone And I'll take home to Well I don't know Needless to say If I'm ready I'm all descended To be the man But I'll leave I have to be Stolen away I take away I take my by my side Say it all It's the better to be safe than time Take on me Take me on

I'll be gone

But in the day of tears