Hey, everybody. Ay, me and TJ here in studio, and we are never thought we would take up an entire podcast talking about a friend of ours that was prompted by headlines we read in the morning. That sounds crazy, but that's exactly what happened. We got up this morning and we happen to be recording this on the Monday after the NFC AFC Championships, and we started seeing headlines about a very dear friend of ours.
That's right. We watched the playoff games all day yesterday, all night into the evening, and then went to bed and woke up and said, wait, what did we miss? It was, actually, you know, when you're open your phone and the Apple feed straight out that something about our dear friend, Michael Strahan. And we were confused because we watched as much as we thought we were supposed to and didn't see anything that would warrant a headline.
I hate using that word triggered, but it was something about this particular series of headlines having to do with straight hand and most of you be listening to our voices know it had to do with the postgame ceremony at the NFC Championship game between the Lions and the forty nine ers. So we started seeing these headlines. I don't want to misquote them. I think you have them in front of Yeah.
And I actually this is actually a little painful for me because I'm not a fan and I know you're not either of reading clickbait, but that is what this is because of the words they use. Okay, yeah, I mean, but it's just using words like butchering, brutal, ripped, you know, just all of these adjectives or ways to describe how he handled the postgame celebration giving the trophy over to the forty nine ers, And so we thought, oh my gosh, what did he do? What did he say?
We have to watch? We were like legitimately concerned, like there was such talk about it, and the words that were used were so strong, so aggressive, that we were terrified that, oh, my goodness, what has happened. So we went back and watched it. Because we didn't watch it live because the game had been decided. We turned it off earlier and moved on to something else, so we did not see it live. So we went back and
watched it today. And your reaction act, Okay, your reaction after watching it when I queued it up this one.
I said, huh, I mean, I don't understand what all of the fuss was about. I don't understand all these headlines. And I actually went and did something because it.
Wasn't about us.
I felt a little safer reading some of the comments. And if you read these comments, I mean, that's what's brutal,
that's what's rough. So I was expecting something terrible. I was expecting something just that would be jaw dropping, And what I saw was, you know, an excited, a little frenetic, a not perfect in a live event moment where someone's trying to be the leader of you know, a three ring circus, is it ends up being I think, you know, we know what it's like, not at that level, but in general, to be on live television and to have to not only interview one person, but maybe interview five, six, seven,
eight people after some huge historic game where everybody's hyped, there is so much chaos. There's probably there's confetti flying, there are fans cheering, there are you know, tiers of joy, tiers of set, and just there's so much chaos going on to have to then focus and bring this all to a live audience is no easy task.
And he did it, by the way, and he did a good job of it. I would argue, right, there's a misstep and this time you just said something. You said you it's not going to be perfect. It's live TV. Yeah, that's exactly what live TV is. Y. None of it's perfect.
That's what actually makes it kind of interesting. Sometimes it was perfect, it'd be boring.
It would right, but no, straight and we went back and watched I think we might. I've queued it up a couple of times this morning because I didn't know necessarily get it. And to some degree, we're talking about this because it was for us quite personal, given our longstanding friendships and close ties to Stray over the years. So we're always watching him, always rooting for him, especially in his football coverage, and so it is not a matter.
And I don't want to call it unfair. If you put yourself out there, you're in the public spotlight, and especially when you do what he does sports. There's nobody's crazier than sports fans when it comes to talking and criticizing. But this was it was He might not even be aware, but it was. It was uncomfortable and painful and unfortunate to see what was coming at him over what was clearly just a ceremony. It wasn't anything egregious that the man did.
Yeah, I mean, I would actually encourage anybody, especially if you've seen the headlines or read any of the comments, to go back and actually watch what happened on live television. And I do think there are some things that we know what it's like when you're in that position, like Michael Strahan, people are in your ear, they're telling you move on. There might be time constrictions, So a lot of people complain that he didn't let Joe Montana speak, and there was some issue as to whether or not
he should have. Who knows what the producers were telling him to do or what they weren't telling him to do. I mean, that's the thing that people don't realize when they're watching. You're not only trying to remember everyone's names, all the questions you're supposed to get to, all of the people you're supposed to congratulate, thank and recognize, but you also have a producer in your ear, very oftentimes
giving you time cues, hurry it up, move past. We don't know if the producer said, hey, we don't have time for Joe to speak, but just get him to get the trophy to who it's supposed to go to. And those are the types of directives you're getting in your ear while you're thinking, while you're dealing. And I know this is our job, and I know you're paid, you know, really good money to do and excellent, But I just wanted there to be some of those maybe
inside details that people don't realize. You have a lot of things going on at one time while everyone's watching.
I'm thinking about all the times and the coordination and the things that are necessary. And first of all, Stray does not need us to defend him. No, he's fine, And this is not some bull throated defense of Stray. It was just interesting to read the headlines this morning that didn't match what actually took place on television. Another point is he got the assignment late. This has been done for decades by Terry Bradshaw, who was under the weather and wasn't a part of the coverage. He usually
does this, so Stray didn't find out. She maybe got twenty four hours notice tops, but he didn't. This is not his regular gig. Still, I can't say this enough straight did a good job. Yeah right, and he did a good job. He's a football player, former, I should say. But he gets up there and he was still being his hype man. He is excited that he's at a football game Andampionship was just one.
People were complaining that he was yelling, and it was like, well, I mean, you're in a stadium, a major event just took place, and there's a lot of noise. So he had a microphone, yes, but he was probably talking over a lot of noise.
And there you go. So Joe Montana was staying so I of and you know this, this was my wheelhouse in what you say, in my former life. Yes, these big live events to where they come to you as soon as they say your name and you're live. You got so many things to coordinate. I have literally done stories where I start live in a basement. I have to walk upstairs on live television, go up, not just straight up the stairs at the stairs, whip around. So I gotta go up two separate flights. I gotta get
to the top. I gotta surprise this guy whose name I have to remember, the organization he's a part of. I need to remember the director over here, his daughter over here. I need to remember the name that's donating to this man, and I have to remember how much they're donating, and I have to remember to thank certain people at the.
End and do it all in a very specific amount of time.
With somebody in your heart. You're saying, ninety seconds, wrap it up, you wrap this whole thing is happening, and you damn right. I have messed up somebody's name. I have probably gotten a little loud because somebody was in my ear talking all you're.
Talking talking in your ear right, everybody, just everyone just jumped.
Sorry about that.
If you're listening with AirPods, that probably was a lot.
But that's what happens on live television. Note when you get done, you go wow, I wish I'd have done that, or I forgot to mention the vice president of the organization or you some little thing. But that's just how TV goes. So maybe we can sympathize one because it's a friend of ours. Also certainly empathize because we've been there and done that and it just bothered us so much to see how he's being dragged like nasty stuff. Not just nasty one thing. Somebody will say, come on,
why didn't you let Joe speak? Why do you let Montana? I don't say that. It was over that, over that.
And I asked you because I mean, I like to watch sports, but I'm not deeply invested in it. I don't watch all of the sports channels like you do. And I asked you, I said, are sports fans? I mean I've heard it, you know, just people talk about sports fans being really really invested in passionate. But you can see the badj is making passionate. I'm going to say that in a positive way. But these types of fans sports and politics.
Us, Yes, that's it. You don't want to you don't want to.
Piss anyone off in either one of those genre.
Doesn't matter what you say when it comes to sports. I could. I could put out a message on social media today that only says Michael Jordan was good at basketball, and I will get negative comments, you idiots. I will automatically get bad It's just how it goes. Uh.
And you you mentioned the forty nine Ers fans and something about Strahan not picking them.
I mean some weep were taking issue with him weeks past, like an earlier coverage of the season, like he didn't or he said something they didn't like about their team, or he wasn't completely positive about the team or support, or maybe he didn't pick them that we all that stuff comes back, so it ends up being a little it's a little silly, but this one we genuinely. I asked you first thing is wanted, like did you see this? What happened? You were like, oh my god, what did
he do? Did he perform a ritual killing on I mean.
It seemed like maybe he killed someone and that's kind of where it was. That's how awful it was apparently. So anyway, we were very relieved and puzzled a little bit once we actually saw because I thought, why was that so bad? What? I'm confused? Anyway, Like you said, straight does not need us defending him. We just felt compelled to say something. And dude was a Giants player. He knows what the fans are like.
He really really aware.
I remember him telling me like, whoa, there was just some cities that were tough to play it.
I mean, he gets it. He gets it better than anybody. And again, this isn't a we are out here in this public spotlight. There is going to be criticism that's okay and understood, and you're not looking constantly for praise, and sometimes you get constructive criticism. Over the years, I've changed things before I've been on live TV. Somebody complained about a graphic behind us. Some people were writing in being nasty and saying and somebody say, hey, it's a
little distracting when the da da da da da. I said it to my director live on CNN. They changed the graphic. That stuff happened. That was a criticism that came a certain They didn't say, hey, what bleeping idiot made that graphic behind you? They should be fired. That's different.
There's a way to give, as you say, constructive criticism or to have an opinion. It just doesn't have to be so nasty, right, Okay.
We say nat this was just vicious over what was essentially nothing. We get it to a certain degree. But we started talking today about this morning, like if someone could have seen that thing I did on TV, if because he did it on a stage. I don't know what the viewership was last night, but one of the largest thoughts I've probably never been on TV with an audience that large.
I know I haven't right.
I have done things throughout my career and messed up on TV to the point that I never thought I would. I wouldn't. I didn't want to come back the next day.
I'm so grateful that I started out my career in nineteen ninety five, that is before YouTube or actually was the internet even.
Around that was the internet.
If you have to ask, I'm telling you that if it had been recorded like those early days, oh my goodness. No. I have actually forever been grateful that social media did not exist, Twitter did not exist, nothing. So any mistakes I made were made in front of a very small audience who hopefully have forgotten, and it hasn't been recorded, and if it was, it was on tapes that can't be played on any current Now.
What did you do? What was your mistakedy? Can you remember a mistake? A legitimate not just stay we but somewhere you were solely responds when you messed up almost to the point of embarrassment, well on TV.
So the story that stands out the most to me was my first job in Charleston, South Carolina, and they actually made a Christmas reel of bloopers for the newsroom at the Christmas party at the end of the year, and I was highly featured, and in fact, they kept going back to the thing that I did that was the most embarrassing. So I am rushing to the scene of an alleged plane crash in Orangeburg, South Carolina, and I get there just in time for the eleven o'clock news.
I was an alleged There's a reason why I say it like that.
Just you wait.
So Russ McCaskey of w CBDTV two Action News came to me. This was my first, like real live report where something was happening ongoing. I had no script, I didn't know what was happening, and I did my first report and I thought it was pretty darn good. I gave an assessment of what was happening. They were searching for the wreckage because several people had reported, you know, fire in the sky streaks. They said it must have
been a plane. So when he came to me at the end of the eleven o'clock newscast for an update, and there was no update, So Russ McCaskey asked CUB reporter Amy roboch Amy, is there any new information to report? And I said on live television. No, Russ, there is no new news to report.
You told me this story before. I don't. That was not your fault. You gave an honest, accurate assessment of what the hell was going on. There was nothing news.
I was honest to a fault, and everyone died laughing.
I was so embarrassed.
I couldn't recover. I was stammering then at that point, and I just quickly threw back because I knew I shouldn't have said that, and then I couldn't get out of the hole I had dug for myself. And by the way, it turns out, there was not a plane crash. There was nothing to report. Again, every time I hear that that is accurate. He you never that never had you know what? That's not your fault. That was would Market?
Was that again? That was Market?
One of seven Charles in South.
Caroline, So everybody was learning. So you had a lot of inexperienced people, and what that producer was supposed to do is what, hey, do you have anything? They ask you that in your ear before I say, oh, she's got nothing, then we don't come to it.
So I could have just described the scene and said it's ongoing. The search continues. I didn't need to say there is no new report.
What time is news on Local new lately?
That was the eleven o'clock news.
So it's eleven to thirty and you're ready to go home?
That is very true.
Get out of here.
I went home with my uh yeah, with my tale between my life. I was so embarrassed, and no one let me forget it. It was continually brought back up for my entire time that I worked there. And you know, I learned my lessons.
I am always looking for ammunition, right, I'm always looking for something you use against you. This isn't one of them. This is actually one that was I Actually I get.
Read in the face thinking about it now. Still, how about you?
Oh, I got a lot. The most inmbarrassing. This is the most embarrassing I can remember is top five market. I just made it to San Francisco's five number five market at the time KNTV out in the Bay Area. I had been there less than a year, maybe a matter of months, but it's a big deal. I was the five o'clock anchor, so it's a big deal. Always to fill in on the main show at eleven o'clock, Big deal, made it top five market. I'm twenty six, twenty seven years old, about to fill in for the
main guy at eleven. This is my moment. It's hatving it. Okay, So the show is starting, the music's going, prompter starts rolling. I'm sitting next to my co anchor. Now, of course, the prompter has all the stories you're gonna be reading through, but at the top there's kind of a template that's never changed, and the names the anchors or the tag for the show stay in there and don't get touched that.
It wasn't touched for the new guy who was filling in, so the names and the teleprompter were still the names of the two main anchors and not the fill in guy. I see where this show starts. Homegirl says good evening. I'm blah blah blah. I say, good evening. I'm Alan Deentton. What did you do? Did you start to last?
So? Did your coakers start to last?
I is the first broadcast that I ever did where I was physically under the news desk the whole time? Is this why you ever read the prompter?
Now?
You know what you make? You the point I don't trust it.
It's true. So I was always in awe of you because all of us would write our scripts out, we'd put them in prompter and we're in the studio and we'd read our script from the prompter. You never did, And you could have a minute long intro that had lots of details and numbers and things you don't want to mess up, and you preferred to memorize it or have it in your head versus read it from the prompt and that might be the root cause of it.
Trauma is what it was. It was trauma. I don't even trust my own name, but yeah, they left it in there. And I said, I think I stumble over and eventually said my own name, but I read fully and I didn't say Alan. I catch it. I said, I'm Alan Denton.
Did you and Alan Denton ever talk about this?
I don't know. I don't think I ever looked at him again. No, it was fine. And you know, he's a I think he's maybe twenty plus, maybe even thirty years older than I am. White dude, blonde hair. We do not even funny air, you can mix that up. So we have moments. Everybody has a moment on TV, and some of them you can laugh at. But I don't know to encourage people to give folks a break, to give folks just a just a little break on times. I know, it's social media and it's how it is.
It's not what you should expect. It just we shouldn't expect people to be kinder in those situations. But it was just it was just weird to see the headlines and then go back and watch and go what the.
Hell when it comes to dealing with those types of opinions. I remember I once had a friend who was a co anchor at MSNBC, and I'm sure, I'm oh my gosh, I made a million mistakes. And there was one day I was beating myself up and he looked at me and said, hey, Amy, you know what, it's just television. We're not saving lives. You're gonna be fine, and so.
Is the audience. And to that point as well, you need somebody to get in your ear like that. And I was reminded, man, thank god, you get to come back and do this tomorrow, because there are some right these guys lost a football game yesterday, and some guys had a bad game, and they're getting talked about in a really vicious way. They have to wait until next season to get back out there and try to prove themselves or try to do better. And we we do.
We work in an industry that does allow for you to come back on the next day and try it again and have a clean slate. So obviously we love Stray, but we don't need to defend Stray. Stray's good, but it was just something that was on our mind that was funny and painful and triggering to a certain degree.
Yeah, just you know, I don't know, maybe everybody can just remember, if you don't have something nice to say, maybe think twice even longer before you say it, or even more importantly, put it in print and send it out for the world to see.
That's uh, I'm sure that'll turn everything around.
I'm sure I've just convinced everybody to be kind. All right until tomorrow.
All right, folks, appreciate you listening. As always. You can find the show at Amy and TJ Podcast. But for now, I'm Alan Dinnon
And I'm Russ McCaskey b Its the en