KAYCE SMITH On Working At Barstool, Broadcasting Journey & College Football Show

It's like super early in the morning, and I was like, this is why Barshall exists, because these are the people that we're actually catering to. And it was really, really fun. And then we got on the plane and went home.

started out with Barstool, it was it was kind of media was all buttoned up. It was you really couldn't curse. You couldn't kind of be your authentic self. So that was a big risk because that was not the norm. So take us a little bit through that.

And we did a three hour five day a week show. So fifteen hours of T V to fill on the Red Sox, Celtics, Patriots, some Bruins, but not really. And it was nine to twelve. So it was like, you know, late at night and I we just let it, you know, let it fly.

And I don't know what David Price said. I couldn't even tell you. It probably was nothing, but for some reason I felt so compelled to call him an asshole, called right in, like, this is t this is television. This is not Comedy Central, like late night. You cannot call him an asshole. when I went to Barcel for the first time and I I said something, you know, swore or whatever and I kinda like

Button down it was and they were like, What are you talking about? Like swear all you want. That's what like that's my personality and I'm coming from Boston, but I will never forget that. I was like, Maybe network TV is not for me if I can't call this man uh

You don't think that it's weird when you're gr like born into it. My dad went to A and M, so it was completely normal to me. And then like I'm wearing my A and M ring, which is a very weird thing to wear your college ring, but for A and M it's not like your Aggie ring's everything. Uh, I realize that we are a cult for sure. And those are traditions that have been there since like the 1800s that maybe some should evolve now and they just don't.

But we love it. Okay. Like I say, if we're a cult, that means you love it, right? People are passionate enough. But no, we're very weird. I didn't notice it when I was there. I was there though when Johnny Manzel was there.

ESPN threw me on their set as like a live audition and said, If you can talk football, we'll give you a job. And it was talking about Johnny. Like it was just talking about the way AM was gonna reload without him and how AM had kind of taken over the SEC in two years.

and then I was on the college football sidelines for ESPN the very next year. And so that to me was so when I look back, I'm like if if A and M wasn't relevant, if Johnny wasn't who Johnny was at the time, who was, you know, at that time one of the biggest celebrities in sports

I might not have gotten that opportunity at twenty three years old. So I was with the SPN for a few years and then I realized and like I I have a lot of friends who are still sideline reporters. As I mentioned earlier, I love to say my opinion, maybe too much sometimes. And I was I want to go back into sports talk radio.

So I took the risk then and and ESPN didn't really see me as much more than a sideline reporter at the time. So we made the decision to split. I did sports talk radio, which led me to Boston, which then is how Dave found me. So it's kind of just like one of those like one after the other things.

Um, but if I was on TV fifteen hours a week and you live in Boston, you can't avoid me, right? So Dave saw that and then knew I had a college football background and he wanted to start college football with Barstool. So that's what he he reached out to me. And I every time I tell this story, people are like, What in the hell? It was midnight Boston. I had just gotten home. So East Coast time.

twelve o'clock and I look at my Twitter and at that time I had a very small following and I see that I get an inst or a DM from Stuel Presidente. I'm like, this is probably a fake like a fake person, right? It's not. And I make sure like my the guy I was dating at the time, I like had him look. I'm like, this is Dave Portnoy, right? And he said, I hear you like college football. And I was like, this is and I literally wrote back to him

sweet DM at midnight, dude. Like what are you talking about? And he was like, ha ha, to be fair, it's Vegas time. And I said, Okay, that's fine. He said, We're you know, then the conversation kinda went from there that he was wanting to start college football at Barcel. And the first time I ever met him in person was, you know, the infamous Roger Goodell Tal game, obviously, in the Patriots. I had lunch with him that day before. And it's so interesting to see.

how obviously he's gotten so much more famous. No one bothered us that day. Like he was talking to me about where I wanted my career to go then and then all of a sudden the next thing you know, he's everywhere with these towels. And that to me was

Like I wanna take this risk. Like I'm ready to like get off network T V and go be with this literal clown show that we have going on and I'll never regret it because that to me changed my career and now I get to, you know, call David Price an asshole if I want.

great career, but now I get to hang out and t say what I want, do what I want, and also get to talk sports. Like I can't complain Barcel is like the best of both worlds for me.

Yeah, it's just the real. It's authentic. So how hard was that? Not only, I'm sure, as you were watching Dave go through it, but Barstell as well to be authentic and not like look at all this backlash and criticism you guys are.

For me, it was like I had to be a certain type of way. I had to s like speak a certain type of way. So when I went to bar stool and I was able to have that freedom, it was really hard to actually let that go because to me, I was so used to having to put a personality on and say, Okay, I know football in and out. I know sports in and out, but you can't see my personality at all because that's a no no.

Barcel was the opposite to the point where I was like, am I showing too much personality? And then once I did and I started to really fit in, then the questions came, well, how can you work with somebody who doesn't like women? How can you work with somebody who said this in 2010? How can you do this?

And what I said was, I'm not gonna apologize for something I had nothing to do with. So if like you took something a specific type away ten years ago, that's on, you know, that's your right. I wasn't here, it didn't come out of my mouth, and they treat me really, really well. They gave me an opportunity that no one else could give me and that's an opportunity to say my opinion with being authentic. And that's the best thing that he's done, which is why he is who he is.

in two thousand two, you know, started doing newspaper authentically. And now in in, you know, where we are now, it's like, okay, here, let's just like let it ride. And if you don't like it, you're still watching it. And that's what I've really learned to you can hate what I have to say, but it's actually what I mean and who I am.

College station with with Johnny Manzell though. I mean, watching the Netflix, the Untold series, that was incredible. That had to have been such a fun time to be on campus. Like how how amazing were those times?

But I mean everything there is about A and M and A and M unfortunately has not won a national championship in football since nineteen thirty nine. They haven't won a conference championship since nineteen ninety-eight. So it's not been great. But Johnny came in and completely changed the way people saw AM and became like all the things that you mentioned, which I s you know, I admit are weird.

He added a cool factor that hadn't been there yet, unless you grew up an Aggie fan like I did. Most of my friends were University of Texas fans and that was cool, right? Because you had the Ricky Williams, you had the Vince Young, you had all these guys.

Johnny came in and made it cool to be an Aggie. And then also just the influx of oil money started like flying in more than it already did. And Kyle Field, that was already over a hundred thousand people, became, you know, just like an absolute destination. And it really to me

Was the house that Johnny built because people were paying attention nationally and the black jerseys and everything that AM had never done. So to be there as a student and then to cover it and then he wins the highs when it's like, oh my God, we're we're nationally relevant. This is so cool. Now we haven't done shit since then, but it We had those here. So baseball.

And as soon as all that stuff happened at the College World Series this year, I was like, Well, I'm an Aggie. I can give my opinion and I just let it go. And the amount of Aggies that came, like, Thank you for saying that. I'm like, I maybe watched like five games total this year, but hey, it doesn't matter. I ha you know

You were a coward. This was like a student reporter. And to me, it's just like slimy. Like I don't know. Like for a coach to just flat out lie and then the next day take the rival job. I'm okay with the rival job part. It kind of stinks. It's like, all right, you're gonna go make Texas better. However, money talk.

that's the opportunity. Just don't lie about it. Like just don't make it like, oh poor me. I don't know. It was just a really slimy move and I understand coaches do it all the time. But I said this in my little rant that Aggies loved. It was like

People cheat all the time just because somebody comes home and is like, Hey, well everybody else has cheated before. You can't be mad. Like, no, the coach like still like screwed us over. But we'll be fine. It was just m it was just more in the moment of like, I don't know, dude, you're you're kind of like a coward for that.

So that that was I love the risk fact of it. At Barstool in the beginning, was there ever a moment where you're just kind of sitting around like, oh man, I don't know if I made the right decision.

I was just like interviewing the Celtics players after they won games. Like I was just sitting in Patriots press conferences and getting to talk about that. What am I doing? But it really was trusting that like I looked at what Dave had done at the time, our CEO, who's no longer at Barstall, Eric and Ardini, like they were really wanting to build Barshall into a different space. And they brought me in to do that specifically. And it was kind of trusting that process.

And I fell in love. Once football started, like our first roadshow that I ever did was in Ann in Ann Arbor. Obviously Dave being a mission guy. And we have like a gigantic stage and all these people and I got to say, Okay, I have my T V background, I get to host these

four grown toddlers talking about sports. So I get to do the T V side, but I also get to actually say my opinion and say what I want. And that after that day, I've never thought twice about it. It was like this is the perfect world. But no, there were definitely moments when I was like the Did he just pee in the sink? Okay, like that's crazy.

But the culture truly is like if you can make a name for yourself in whatever you were hired to do because you are being yourself, you're gonna be successful. And I think that's what Barcel has done such a good job across the board because it's not just sports. It started off as just sports and I'm in sports. We have pop culture, we have comedy, we have sex, we have the whole thing. And to me, it's like okay, we've got an array of of possibilities for you. If you can't find something that you

Don't like if you can't find something you like at Barshall, you probably don't like anything, you know? Like the we have, I mean, we have a veteran podcast. We have there's so much to do. So it's It's authentic in a way that again, whether you like it or not, you're probably gonna listen to it and then you'll find something that you like in the company, even if it's not specifically Dave oriented.

Her job was to come in, make it better, sell it, and then walk away. And that's exactly what she did. She five X'd it and that's what she was brought in to do. So when Dave bought the company back from Penn National Gaming, like her job was done. She was like, Look what I've turned this company into.

And it was so cool to have a female CEO that you could just walk into because right, you guys have all worked for people that, you know, you know who the CEO is, but you're not gonna get time with it. Like Dave and Erica both from the very beginning are like our offices are open, come on in.

And she was so down to earth, so casual. Like I'll uh the first time I ever went into the office, she was wearing like a excuse my language, ESPN shirt. Like as the CEO of Barcel Sports. I'm like, oh my God. You know, and like that to me was like she's so laid back and so like down to earth.

And she did exactly what she was brought in to do, was make Dave a whole lot more money, make the company much bigger and then move on to the next thing and she'll do the next thing with the same company she's with now. So Um, I I mean she's fantastic and I'm thankful for without her, I probably wouldn't have ever been at Barstool because I would have never been somebody they would have ever looked at. I was a girl in traditional media from Texas.

you know, was on the sidelines for ESPN. That wasn't something that Dave was necessarily looking for. And then Erica said, hey, we can make this more legitimate. And there are also people that out have personalities. And so because of her kind of opening his eyes to that is why people like me ended up at Barstall.

just catch up, talk about something, talk about what's happening. Because I feel like so many times there is when when a boss comes in, there's that time where it's like tense and you sometimes don't get off your chest what you really wanted to. So How important is that communication from from someone at the top like that to be able to communicate with people?

People aren't afraid to share information. They hoard information. They're they're they have these little whispers by the water cooler and it doesn't make anyone better. No one checks the CEO, no one checks each other because everyone's trying to save themselves. But when you have a place like this,

with a leader like that, uh she or he models, hey, we're open. I don't have it all figured out. One of us is not smarter than all of us. And let's do this together. Sounds like she was just like that.

you know, especially Dave has been so outspoken about certain things. He's okay with you pushing back. I can't imagine when I was in network TV ever doing that. Just because like not because I was scared of somebody, because it was a a respect thing of like, okay, this is my CEO. If I have a problem with it, I kind of have to internalize it.

and then not be myself and not be authentic. At Barstool, especially at our old office, like it was completely wide open. We had a bar, we had a, you know, basketball hoops, whatever, but their offices

were on either side with like open doors at all points and you could just walk in and say what you want when you want. Now it's all on camera. You know, you're gonna have a camera in your face and like if it was serious, you know, you needed to say, Hey, I need to actually speak with Erica off camera.

But you had that opportunity and that's really why it's worked. I mean, truly, like there there's not there's no place like it. I know I'm biased, but it's because we aren't afraid to say anything. We're not afraid to voice that opinion. And she allowed that and then also added the professionalism. Cause I'm sure you've seen too. It's like if you have no structure and nobody to be scared of, then it's absolute chaos.

too ugly to be on camera in five years. No, it was like one of those in the argument type of things and he didn't actually mean that. But the way that it came off was obviously awful. And then it became one of those things in the office where it was like, No, he really shouldn't have said that. Like that was not something that I'm gonna accept that he's and I said I was like, this is absolutely not what we should be putting out there. Not that you actually

think that about her. But the fact that you are now pushing into the narrative that you are hard on women, that women working here don't have a voice, that women work here are gonna feel bad about themselves in five years.

And they ended up working it out and he apologized and she's been very vocal about hey, like things happen, things are said. But it was very hard for me whenever I'm getting all the text messages and I'm getting the calls, being like, Do you see? Like your boss is actually an asshole. This is how he feels about you too.

And now, you know, in my thirties and having an eighteen month old son, I feel completely different. Like if that was really how he was, right, I wouldn't be still working for Barstool. He'd be like, Hey, keep it moving, we'll find somebody else. But that was that was really tough. And and she handled it perfectly.

But it was really like, come on, why are you giving the guys out there like we already have enough noise from the outside? Let's not do it like in the clubhouse per se, right? Like in the clubhouse needs to stay together. Don't tell a twenty-one year old girl she's gonna be too ugly to be on camera. Like that's not good.

ha communicating with a female because there's certain things men joke around about and I can say this to you, it's not gonna hurt your feelings, but there's certain things too where it's like, Hey man, these are do's and don'ts. So I bet that communication with Dave, he probably appreciate they appreciated that so much with you and other

females in the office because you need that level of communication and you being a girl dad, I know, you know, with your your perspective and and all that stuff changes after after having a daughter.

was crying on camera and it became this whole thing, but inside it was like, No, we're a family. Families fight all the time. We all know that. Like we all have arguments. Unfortunately for Barstool at the time, you know, it's on camera and it's for everybody to see. But just like in professional sports, people are gonna argue, people are gonna fight and say like really mean things to each other, and then it's how you move forward. And that to me at Barstall has been

And it's been very hard sometimes. You know, it's been something where like even things I'm not involved in, like you see kind of the turmoil, but everything keeps it moving. And he is a great person of like, you've got something to say, say it, we'll keep, you know, we'll keep the conversation going.

Um, I d I do think and this is one of those things where there it's parsels not for everybody. And there have been people who have worked at Barcel who can't handle certain levels of conversation and that's okay.

That's something that I learned. I was like, Okay, I know exactly who these guys actually are, who these girls actually are, and what we're doing for entertainment. And I can also separate certain things. You know, people do forget we are an entertainment business and we are an entertainment company.

And so I just learned a long time ago, like I my personality can handle that. It's not for everybody. And that's totally okay. If you don't want to work there because you can't handle that kind of stuff, I totally get it. I can and I I like it.

stands on overly emotional, but you can you can talk to him on a level that like fathers can talk to, right? And even before he had his first

kid, it still felt that way, a little bit less, but definitely now, where Dave is like, I don't deal in emotions, I deal in fact. Like I will tell you exactly how I feel, when I feel it, whether you like it or not. And you do need both of that. And Erica Erica did add in an element of like she was definitely like the nurturing mom and she was also the professional too, where she had, you know, like the the experience of working with companies and advertisers.

So Dan has kind of taken a little bit more of that now in her absence. He also moved the Chicago office to Chicago. Like now we have a big sports headquarters there. So he is now in charge of an entire operation in Chicago and everybody that works there. he is their direct boss, but at the end of the day it's still Dave's company. So you kind of know where you need to go. And and it's interesting because I've been there for so long and I work with both of them so closely.

I can say anything to either one of them, right? There are a lot of people who feel like they can only go to Dan or only go to Dave or go to the people below them because they don't feel like they have those relationships.

That's just what happens when a company gets really big. That's just what happens. Like uh you know, it's not because Dan or Dave are closing the door, it's just because the company's gotten so much bigger. But, you know, Dan Dan's definitely more of a nurturing soul. He probably doesn't like me saying that, but he is. Like he has more of that

kind of calming, like, let's sit down and talk about it, where Dave's like, you like it or not, I'm gonna tell you how I feel. And then, you know, we're gonna go make content gold. So deal with it.

Here's where you're gonna do highlights, here's where you're gonna do commercials, here's the topics, and you can put your opinions in there, right? I get to Barstool and I'm like sitting there like Reese Witherspin on Legally Blonde, like pulling out my notebook instead of a laptop. Like I had no idea what I was doing.

Because they don't give you direction. And that's the whole thing that Dave has said: is like, we're gonna give you an opportunity to create content on a massive platform, sink or swim.

You can figure it out. And the bigger that you get and the bigger shows that you're on, the more money it brings in, then you're gonna get those resources. You're gonna get those producers. You're gonna get those, you know, directors and everything else. But if you don't prove that you deserve them, you're not gonna get them. So there have been plenty of people who've been like, this is not for me. I need to go back.

I've been lucky enough to where because I am in in the sports world and because I am really there we have some female gambling content personalities, but I'm really the only girl that only does sports that I got to be on these big time shows because I helped start that kind of whole space.

to where I've always had that balance because I would go crazy if I didn't have that structure. So like I said, I'm kind of a babysitter of these guys because they're creating the content. They're the funny personalities and I'm the one that gets to say, okay, I'm gonna sit with this producer and we're gonna do it. But that took me to prove it to in order to get that, if that makes any sense.

Not going to the red. Let's just do whatever we gotta do. And then as you get bigger, more structure. And then, okay, now we can get taper, uh get a little bit more structure. But early on, it's like, hey, we're just a group of people who we we have ability to figure it out.

on the outside are like, oh my God, this guy is like such an asshole. But these the people that are in like I always call like Dave's circus, like they love it because they're like, I get to like,

be on TikTok doing stupid things and maybe Dave will like insult me every once in a while on a podcast, but it's fun and it's funny. And I'm like, if I was part of that, like I wouldn't like that. But that I that's not why I was brought in. But that's kind of what makes again Barcel is so different. It's because

He is just like, I'm gonna hire you because I think you're funny, because I think you bring value to the company, or because you know, you're a part of something that's bigger, right? Like when he brought in like million dollars worth of game or busting with the boys or something, they already had something that he wanted under the network. Then he creates people, not creates because she did it on her own, but he brings in people like Alex Cooper who don't have

you know, the platform and then she comes on the whole world is like this girl, like what is she gonna do? Like all she does is talk about sex and now she's like the you know biggest female podcaster on the planet. He just sees things differently.

and we all fit a different role. Unfortunately for some people it's just for him to make fun of, but it seems like they're okay with it. I don't know if you I don't know if you guys ever saw this. Like so in our when we first moved into our new office, which is like right around the the corner, right down the block, we had a Sirius XM studio and they had they they painted this like really like

way too classy for Barstell portrait of like Erica, Dave, Dan, PFT. And Dave walked in and saw it. He was like, this is way too like structured and organized and classy. He was like, I want a fat pen. And he had an artist come in and create a literal pig pen and put all the employees that he deemed as the fat pen. This was painted on our wall. HBO comes, and HBO's like doing an inside barstool thing.

down and he's like so this is our fat pin and keeps going and like and like Glenny balls is just like painted on the wall in this fat pin. I'm like what and it and like look when I say it out loud I'm like oh my god like this is crazy. But Glenny Balls loved being in the fat pen, you know, that was his whole thing. And so like that's the way that people like they're like, I can't believe you all work for this guy. And it's like you have to understand that this is part of the entertainment.

He is so loyal to Glenny Balls. He's so loyal to these guys and he's gonna take care of them for the rest of their lives and they're gonna have a job. And if he puts him in a fat pen, they're like, whatever, man, the paychecks are checking, you know, like the paychecks are cashing. But yeah, no, that that's painted over now, by the way. That's that's no the fat pen is no.

fat pin and he had like Frank the Tank sitting on a bale of hay. Like for the whole world to see by the way. Like this is not something that he's like hiding, it's like a bullying thing. Like it's just like this, but it's entertainment. Like that and that's hard for I think some people to separate because they're like this is how he treats people behind the scenes.

No, it's not. Like he's not like walking around being like I hate you, you're fat, you know, it's like No, but like that at the end of the day it's like that's that's just h how it's been, you know, so successful is that he just who he is and some people don't find it funny, a lot of people do, so it depends on your on your taste, I guess.

internally t towards me, like you would think that I'd probably dealt with it just'cause I'm in a male dominated space and it's by far the least amount that I've ever felt anywhere I've been.

Like I don't feel like I have to prove myself. I never felt like I had to like break down offensive and defensive schemes or name as many players. They're like, I don't care. Like w who do you think is gonna win the national championship this year? Like who do you think is gonna win the Super Bowl? And like tell me why. And the amount of arguments that I've gotten to get in.

proving like that without having to prove it is great. Because like they're not like, hey, like prove your worth. They're like, no, let's argue about it and you're gonna prove your worth by what you're arguing. So

And we still have that personality driven show where and and I have a lot of friends who work at ESPN and I respect what they do. But like, you know, when you're at a bar and you're you're hanging with your buddies or hanging with your friends watching games.

You're not sitting there breaking down the depth chart. You're not sitting there like, all right, well, you know, h what kind of pitches is this guy gonna throw today? Maybe you do, I don't know. But you just wanna talk about like what, you know, what's actually happening, like what the gambling lines are. Like I don't you d you're not trying to like Suit and tie X's and O's. So that's the difference between our show.

like really, really wealthy gamblers because they were always doing that before. So Dave and Dan saw that from a long time coming and they were like, We understand it's not, you know, like cliche, like it's not you're not supposed to talk about these things.

we're gonna do it because we're doing it. And because that happened, I mean the fact that Dave and Dan created a company where our we had our own sports book for a little bit is wild. Like if you go back and look at the early like the early times of Barstall and they're just talking about, you know, all their bets and how crazy it was

And at some point we added Barstool sports begin now with DraftKings we all have our own futures and like we get to do all that. That's their dream come true. I had never gambled on sports until the day I walked into the Barstool offices.

and it was March Madness and I was like, Oh, I guess I need to like sprinkle some money here and now I'm like checking, you know, I'm like, this is crazy'cause like it's becomes like this whole, you know, personality for this company, but it's because they actually were doing it. It wasn't forced on

on like other companies, no names, had to evolve and kind of force, like, oh, we're gamblers now. They've always been gamblers and now they're just doing it as a living. So I don't know. They they probably they probably regret some of their decisions, but it's okay.

the lot was, I mean, so packed that people were like spilling over, everyone is drunk. It's you know, all these drunk kids. It's like super early in the morning, and I was like, This is the type of atmosphere that I want to be in because these are the real college fans, the real fans of this school.

And everyone's doing jump around. The brewers were in the hunt that year. So like they're all excited in that area for all of that. Like everything was so cool. It was like October. And I remembered sitting there thinking, like, this is why Barcel exists, because these are the people that we're actually catering to. And it was really, really fun. And then we got on the plane and went home and I was like, God, I wanna do this for the rest of time. You know.

So we get there and like we knock on the door, I call Che. He's like, Uh, hello. And I'm like, We're outside, bro. Like you knew I was coming, we're here. He's like, Uh yeah uh we'll be right there and like answers the door And the whole day, like he was just so weird and awkward. And I'm like, all right, I've heard some stories about this guy.

So I ended up talking to him after he was like, dude, I'm so sorry, but I couldn't say anything and I was just so nervous. I didn't know how to handle the situation. And then I hung out with him a couple other times. I'm like, Oh, okay, he's a cool dude. But that first time I'm like, What's wrong with this guy?

And Dave just, you know, put on everybody's calendar and the way he emails the whole company is like he's sending a text to a buddy. So it's like, but if you see it come through and he's like, All right, we're having an all hands meeting, like nobody really understood what was happening and it was like the biggest news ever. He was buying the company back for one dollar.

And we all had to keep our mouths shut, which is not hard. But Stephen Che does not surprise me that he was like, I mean, get it together. Like that is but that was a

And there have been plenty of shows throughout my entire career where something behind the scenes is going and it is not going well and it I'm sad or I'm upset or the opposite where I'm super, super excited about something I can't talk about. But as soon as that red light comes on for me, it is like a drug of like I have to be what I am paid to be. I have to be performative. And then as soon as it goes off, I'm allowed to go back and be who I am and feel how I am. But no one behind that camera

needs to see what's actually going on. That's why this is my job. That is hard for a lot of people. For some reason, that's been the best thing for me in my career. It's like that red light tells me you're on. And until your that can't light is off, you cannot be off.

And it was I was covering a South Carolina football game. And around that time there was some like water poisoning going on. They had had some flooding and like if you drank the water, you were gonna get sick. And I I can't even remember exactly. It was probably like a, you know, hurricane or storm or something.

And, you know, my dumb ass wakes up in the morning and I don't think about it. I'm in a hotel for like the millionth time that year, right? And I just, you know, brush my teeth, drink the tap water and go. And in the middle of the game, I started to feel really, really sick. And so I went to the athletic trainer and I was like, Hey, like I need, you know, a shot that's gonna take away my my nauseous stomach right now. My nausea's horrible. And they were like, Okay, we'll get you at halftime.

I was you know, when you're on the sidelines and they'll come to you for a little bit on camera and then you'll go off camera but you keep talking. And I was always so nervous at that point too. I was still so young in my career. And I had a producer that was really hard on me. If I even like messed up one word, you know, I'd get my attitude. So I was very like intently. And in the middle of this.

report I threw up all over the field. Now luckily the camera had been off of me. The camera had already gone off. But I remember as soon as I saw my camera guy walk away, I took the mic and it I just stopped in the middle of a sentence. National TV.

threw up on the sidelines and then went right back to talking and I thought about that forever. And then at the end of the game, so it was right after Steve Spurrier was literally the week Steve Spurrier stepped down. So Sean Elliott was the interim coach. And I have this awesome picture.

Of a Gatorade shower over him and me. And I'm holding the microphone. It's the exact same game. And it's still framed in my house in Texas because I remember looking at that and being like, I thought that was the worst moment of my career. I threw up. Like literally you could hear it on TV. I stopped talking. I got reamed out my producer, but this is one of my favorite memories because I got a Gatorade shower with a coach that will never forget this moment.

So that red light reminded me like you gotta keep going because nobody at home's gonna know what you're going through. Nobody at home's gonna feel that. But if you can keep going, then you're gonna feel so much better. No one's ever asked me that. So thank you. Like I feel like I'm gonna start like crying right now. Like that's

Like that's one of those like core that that's one of those like core memories because it really was like a moment where I'm like, Okay, if I now in like twenty years from now, if I look at that photo, I'm holding an ESPN mic flag, which was like my whole life's goal, right?

I've got a cool Gator HL. I look as happy as you could possibly be. If I showed you guys that photo, you would never know that I had thrown up and was like crying at halftime with the athletic trainers'cause I thought my career was ruined, right?

They would all be positive moments and there has been a lot. But the for you to look at that picture and be like, Okay, that's the moment, the red light, that's when I adopted that theory, that's incredible. I bet there's so many athletes that look at pictures and know like okay, I was going through this that day or I stunk in preparation and then all of a sudden during the game but that is such a that's inspiring, that really is. And I love that you look at that picture now.

And that's like hell yeah, I'm a beast, I overcame that.

I go back into my cookie jar and I open it up and I said, Oh, you did this so you can do this. Oh, you did this and you can do this. And so that's such a cookie jar moment. No matter what's going on, it's like I did that hard thing, so you know what? I can do this hard thing. And so I just think that's a cool that's a cool experience.

Like I can have the flu. I can have, you know, like my knee could be blown out, but I can still sit up on stage. You guys have to deal with that next aspect. And at the end of the day, the people that you're performing for and the people that you're entertaining, they don't care. And that's a really tough pill to swallow early on. And I'm sure as athletes, you're like, I'm doing my absolute best here. I'm going up to the plate every single time.

trying to hit the ball, by the way. Like I'm not trying to strike out. But at home it's like, you know, people are not giving you that grace. The second that I learned that no matter what part of this industry I'm gonna be in, if I can give myself grace, then that's gonna come off as

something that's gonna make me successful because if you don't give yourself grace in sports, in entertainment, people can tell. People can tell when you're like if I mean you guys know this in baseball. You get in your heads, right? You get into a slump and then people are like, well he's in his head. Like he's gonna like, oh, next strikeout, whatever. And you can't necessarily just get yourself out of that. I see it a lot of times, you know, we as we all do, kickers in in

in football, like especially college kickers or those poor kids. But like you get into your head and everybody can see it, they also don't care. So you have to learn how to give yourself grace in order to pull yourself out of that. What do you me

It's like I have to truly not care what people think. And that's a very, very tough thing to do, especially for a woman in sports. But I learned a long time ago, like, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Reddit, whatever, don't read that stuff because you're not gonna give yourself grace if you're seeking out things that are gonna be the opposite, right?

So giving myself grace is like I'm human. I'm gonna stumble on a word. I'm gonna use somebody's wrong name. I might say something really, really fucking stupid, but I'm gonna keep moving and not read what anybody else is saying.

And I would imagine for professional athletes, that's much harder because you're physically out there having to perform and you can lose your spot or lose your job, but you still have to internally be like, Hey, like I'm gonna go home to my wife and my kids, or I'm gonna go home to my family, and I'm gonna go home to people that love me no matter what happens.

So I'm gonna see myself the way they do, not the strangers that aren't loving me, paying me, taking care of me. And that's been something that in my twenties I wish I really

for a taped thing, right? And like the producer that was on site called him and he called me and he's like, Why did you mess up that report so many times? Do you think you're as good and named another female reporter and really kind of compared us. He was like, Do you think you've been doing a good enough job? Do you think and I just remember thinking like Oh my God, if I even have to redo something that's not live by the way, that nobody would have known.

even though the world's gonna see it perfectly, I still have to answer to that. And it was so hard to ever feel like I was doing something right. It was so hard'cause I was like, well, what the whole world is seeing and what the or not, you know, the whole world, whoever's watching ESPN at that time.

They don't see any issues. They don't see any problems. This wasn't live. Why are you giving me so much sh right now? And it was really hard to come out of that. Barcel allowed me to because we say dumb stuff all the time. But that's what humans do. Like humans are going to say stupid things. Humans are gonna mess up. That's what makes it fun.

But there's still something about that like last couple of hours and I'm like, I'm I used to not even go out till midnight. Why am I acting like five PM is, you know, the middle of the night? But that wine tastes a lot better at bedtime, I'll tell you that.

to be the best version of myself. If I'm hard on myself in a an aspect that I can't control because I said something or did something or somebody on the internet's calling me names or whatever, then like that's gonna take away from him and that's gonna take away from that. And that to me has really like snapped me into reality of like,

Do you really care what some like guy in a basement is typing on the computer because he doesn't think you know what you're talking about with college football when you have this like baby who loves you like ultimately, no matter what you say. Like he my son doesn't care what I think about Michigan football or what I care about Notre Dame. He just cares if I'm like loving him and taking care of him. And that's

cheesy, but that really helped with the giving myself grace. Like you're a good mom if you feel good about yourself. And like who cares what, you know, Bob in Wisconsin has to say about like my college football takes.

What anybody else thinks. And that is a lovely feeling because I didn't have that for so I cared about everything. Of course you care to a certain degree, right? We all do, we're human. But now I'm like, dude, I don't know. Like you're not my kid, you're not my partner, you're not my family. Like, I don't know. Like, keep your opinion and keep it moving.

But then y what you're doing is you start talking yourself. Well, what's the good that's going on in my life? Well, at least not this or what about this? You start asking better questions, you start filling your your mind with more productive thoughts and it just changes the frame

and I was pregnant traveling all over the country. You know, we we did a multi multiple show in one day we flew to Penn State, did a live show, got back on the plane flew to Michigan and did another show on the same day and I'm like seven months pregnant. I was so sick and I was exhausted. And I remember the guys on the plane and, you know, Dave does not have children. He has Miss Peaches, which I guess, you know, counts as d dog dad. But the other guys do. And I remember

Brandon Walker, who's also my podcast co host, being like, This is gonna be really hard whenever you have your son. And I'm like, You guys do it all the time. I looked at him and Dan, you know, Brandon has four kids, Dan has three. It's like you guys do it all the time. And they're like, No, no, no, it's different as a mom.

It's different as mom and I was so offended at the time. I was like, What do you mean? You guys do it. It's fine. Like you what it's not gonna be harder for me. He was a hundred percent right because the next season when my son was a newborn still and like, you know, ba like a potato, I was so hard on myself because I was that mom guilt was sitting there and it was like, well, why do I feel so differently than these guys who I work with do the same job as who have multiple kids?

And it's because as a mom you have those negative thoughts going in your head of like, well, you're not being a good mom because you're working. And then when I'm at work and I think Well, I'm not doing a good enough job at work because I'm thinking about my kid. And that is a female thing. You know, that is so much more. It's like when you're on the road playing and you know that Casey is at home, you know she's doing a great job. You know that your your children are gonna be taken care of.

Where it's like, oh I'm I'm supposed to be the one at home. I'm supposed to be doing this. So I've had to really work on that is be like tell yourself positive things. Like your son's gonna think you're a badass when he grows up and sees what you do. He's not gonna think, oh, she left me so she could go cover football. He's gonna be like, I had a really cool life, but I'm really working on that because it's hard.

I'm trying, okay. I'm trying my best.

Doing both is is very hard and I think Barstoel again, that's another perk of Barstall. I'm sure your schedule's a little more lenient than what we've been calling the button up world, but to me That is that's a huge part of the of the difference of that question.

And, you know, just a complete side note, like I you know, I call it airport noisy. Like we get to fly private, you know, because Dave he only flies private. So like but that you know, as the before it was like, Oh, this is so cool, I get to fly private. Now I see it as I get to get home to my son much faster because it's day in, day out. So it's little things like that where I'm like, okay, these are the perks of my life that I get to do because of my job.

How do I manage that into okay, look how like you get to be home with your son in the even though it might be the middle of the night, he's gonna wake up and you're gonna be there as opposed to looking at it as like, well, I'm traveling. And I also look at it now, it's like, you know, you ha females in sports, um, especially in football.

I feel like a lot of times in traditional media, they're put there to be in the middle of of guys arguing, right? Like they're the host. They get to do those things. And a reason I love my position is because I do get to put my opinion in it.

And that's kind of a nurturing thing to do, right? So like my organization skills now that I've kind of honed in as a mom, like, okay, when I leave, this is everything, all the information people need to know that are taking care of my son. Then I go to work and I do the same thing for four grown men.

But it's like, oh, I have this skill set because I am a nurturing female and now I'm doing it in real life for a kid. So why not take those skills into work? And so that's kind of how it's helped me balance is like you can just do it in different ways, just use your skill set. And you're gonna be successful at it.

It's almost easier to deal with an eighteen month old than four grown men that work at Barstall Sports. So it's like you know, and they're I always like I had the the luxury of learning babysitting toddler men before I actually had a toddler. It's crazy the amount of fights like without me we'd still be probably in the two thousand nineteen show in Wisconsin, they'd still be arguing about like cheese curds or something. Who knows?

Me, Dan, Will Compton of Bussin' with the boys, and then a an NFL player of the week. So I can get under these guys' skin however you need me to. So all you need to do is shoot me a text and I'll just let it fly because done. You know, that's Like I I love that I love that I'll have like a little insight. Dan, don't watch this. I love that I'll have like a little insight.

And then all he needed was Michigan to be like fully invincible. And that's what's happened. So like we we do our first college football show next week and I cannot imagine the gloating that will come out of this man because he I mean, why wouldn't you? Like everything he's ever had and now he's like

Whatever, I don't care if they said we cheated. I don't care. It was like Michigan won. So for the rest of time he'll have that. Uh it's gonna be probably pretty insufferable, I would think. But it's that's what makes us great, I guess.

out the Manny, he's the man. He literally this guy can get anything done. But it's been so cool Case talking to you. Be I mean What you guys have done with Barstall, what is so cool about it is because it's this generation of Boston fans taking it amongst themselves to just create this powerhouse and it really has changed sports media as a whole to the point where

You know, when I first started playing, players were not like about being a part of the media or doing any kind of podcast or anything.

And he did during COVID, like he was play I don't know, did you ever play rock, paper, scissors with Jared during COVID? Do you know what I'm saying? He did this thing where like he would just call up it MLB players and over Skype or Zoom or whatever would play rock, paper, scissors and then he would put it out as content.

And it was so cool to like see where everybody was like quarantined and like doing but it was all major league baseball players and you know, he he like created this whole thing and it was like, Oh, this is the type of entertainment people want to see and it's because Dave started that so long ago. And at the end of the day, it's like it's just a bunch of random fanboys and random dudes and guys that like to drink beer and talk sports.

that created it. And I I mean I say this all the time and people from Texas give me so much sh for it. Like I grew up in Texas. We loved college football, right? I'm a Boston sports fan because when I moved to Boston, I learned what professional sports love was. And so like now it's like it's not just coming at Barstall. It's not just because I worked in Boston. It's because like that world of sports up there is so different.

And I only know that from college football. So it's like, why wouldn't we make this a company? Why wouldn't this explode? Because it's like look people spend their whole lives caring about Tom Brady and the Red Sox and like the Celtics just win, you know, the NBA title. And it's like, there's nowhere like Boston. And so I'm I'm full, like I'm from Dallas.