Good morning and welcome to this week's episode of the Sports Curious podcast. I'm your host, Amy Buchan Siegfried. And this week we are talking about everyone's dreaded or celebrated time together, family time around the holidays. We're rolling into Thanksgiving and that always puts us in opportunities to have conversations with people maybe we don't see that often and maybe some scenarios that we might get stuck in.
So here to join me in talking to you about some scenarios where you might be able to spin that into the world of sports and much safer landing zone than something else is my co-founder, my brother, who I never have trouble talking to at a Thanksgiving dinner table. In fact, we're usually next to each other trying to hide out. Scott, Scott, welcome to the podcast. Thank you for having me on as we head into Thanksgiving week and Thanksgiving. Sports can be the ultimate conversation deflector.
And we're here to give you all the topics you'll need, especially I'm sure this Thanksgiving will be polarizing for many people. So this is a great opportunity to shift away from perhaps other contentious conversations you may be having throughout the holidays with your family.
Yep. I distinctly remember when I was thinking about you and I being sitting next to each other at the dining room table is when we first moved back from overseas, you and I were sitting next to each other and I think by dad and there was a political discussion going on and it was an intense political discussion that I did not care to partake in and neither did you and neither did dad. The three of us were just at the end like...
And I think every once in I'd like, how about those Dodgers or something like that, just to mix it up because it can get a little heated. And sometimes the best scenario is to just, you know, take a step back. Deflect or remain quiet. remain quiet or totally change the subject. But in that case, there was no chance we were changing the subject. So it was just safer to be on the outskirts of that conversation. But that's why this podcast is here.
When you feel like you can't change the conversation, we have so many different scenarios. You'll be able to. That's exactly it. I think the one we'll start off with is the one that everyone, I don't care if you've been married for a hundred years or you're not married at all, we've all been in this scenario when someone at that table or someone at a holiday event keeps asking you why you're not married, but it's like repetitive, right?
You've heard that question 15 times today and you want to poke your eyeballs out. So talk to me about a scenario where that might happen and how we might change that subject. That's the ultimate go-to question for family members. It may not be malicious, but at times it can be. And you're going to hear it a lot if you're in that demographic. And the great ones to talk about, while you may not be able to commit to anything, Thanksgiving is known for football.
And of course the Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys have been committed in a relationship with Thanksgiving, playing on Thanksgiving. As long as we can remember. I think the lion started in 1934 and the cowboy started in 1966. So you may not be in relationship, but there's a relationship that you can deflect to your grandma or uncle or aunt that keeps peppering you. That's true. And the Lions, this is their 85th annual Thanksgiving Day Classic.
I that is a commitment that goes way back longer than most people's marriages, let's be honest, or probably all people's marriages, because you'd have to be really young. I mean, you look at that. And I mean, the relationship of Thanksgiving and football has been around forever. This has been, you know, typically NBA would get Christmas, NFL will get Thanksgiving. NFL is now taking over both. Mm-hmm. we'll save that for closer to Christmas.
But it's something to just keep in mind that if you're going to be in a household with a TV, chances are, and hopefully for you it's not on some sort of polarizing news station, it's on football, because that's a much safer bet. It's always a safe bet, eat a lot of food and then go take a nap watching football. And would you say 85 years? That's probably the longest marriage in history, I would say. And many of those years were not great. There's a lot of tumultuous years in that relationship.
And now they're peaking 85 years later with the Lions and Dan Campbell. That's right. What do we need to know about the lines for this year? I mean, up until this point there, so far the best team record wise in the NFC. So. There you have it. and things like that can happen, but at this point they seem to be the top pick for many people. Excellent and also happening at that game.
We have music that is filtered through the halftime shows For the NFL and we will have six time Grammy nominated artist Shabuzy taking the stage in Detroit And he's during halftime, is that correct? So he's going to get the fans riled up maybe out of a food coma while the team's going to locker room for a little bit. And then Lions storm back on the field to take on the Chicago Bears, which is probably a good thing for Lions fans. That should be a good thing for them to be playing the Bears.
That's fantastic. Now I want to talk a little bit about, have one of these, but for the relative who will drive 14 hours because they're afraid to fly, let's think about NFL legend and broadcaster John Madden, who is basically synonymous with Thanksgiving. And yes, he's a Hall of Fame broadcaster and he has a video game, but he used to take his Madden Cruiser bus, Krantz Country, for games. Now this is something Kirk Herbstreet could not pull off doing college and NFL at the same time.
But John Madden, back in the day, had the capacity to cruise across the country in an RV slash bus to get to his games. Yeah, traveling in style. Didn't have to worry about squishing into, you know, the second row of a commercial flight, which I'm sure they took back in the day. He rode in style in his gigantic bus, maybe like one of your relatives coming from halfway across the country who doesn't want to get on a plane. So you have a conversation started there. Hey, I know you drove 14 hours.
Did you know that John Madden also did that? And he had video games. Yes. and also created the world famous Turducken that you'll see given out on the broadcast on Thanksgiving as well. Well, I mean, who wouldn't think about having a turkey with a duck and a chicken all inside? mean, that just, let's more is more, Scott. Yeah, I mean, I think that's the ultimate conversation center, isn't it? Yep. mean, there were a of Thanksgivings that one of those showed up at our house, I think.
I don't know if I was part of that. I wish I was. this was probably back when I lived at home and then the Turducken was like new. So yeah, this is. the best of three worlds, right? Unless you're a turkey, a duck or a chicken or a vegetarian. Yes, turducken is not vegan friendly. I don't even know if I want a vegan turducken. think it'd be quite gross. It would be really gross. I'm sure it exists though, let's be honest. I might have to make it. Yeah, mean, you get right on that.
Now, one of the cool things to think about, maybe next Thanksgiving we'll have this to talk about, but your favorite actor is scheduled to play John Madden in a biopic piece. There we go, and for the movie buff, we go from someone who doesn't wanna fly to the movie buff in your family who loves incredible acting and award-winning acting.
There's a movie being filmed about John Madden, and obviously the only person to play this role was Nicolas Cage because his range is so wide and his acting ability, it just spans genres. So they're currently, they're filming it. We've seen pictures of Mr. Cage dressed as Mr. Madden and it's impeccable, the resemblance. Is he wearing like prosthetics because Mr. Cage is much thinner than Madden was at points in his life.
I don't want to discredit Mr. Cage from being a method actor and gaining 200 pounds. I don't know, maybe he did. So presumably he's wearing prosthetics is what I hear you say. but we're not ruling out that he gained a lot of weight for it. So stay tuned for that release date. Yes. speaking of people who would do things for money, the first NIL basketball tournament is happening.
So if you have that family member who only wants to talk about money or how much money they make, we can talk about the player era, players era festival, which is, like I said, the first of its kind basketball tournament happening in Vegas over Thanksgiving. And they're getting paid, the teams that show up. They are, and I'm envisioning Derek from Step Brothers. I'm not sure how familiar everyone is with that, where all he talks about is how rich he is and all his cool stories.
And he made over 550K last year. So this is a great conversation started for him that these NIL rules, they've changed to college basketball and the Players' Era Festival taking place over Thanksgiving week is the first tournament to promise.
massive payouts to the team is playing to the players playing so I think that at least a million dollars to like the winning team and then in total nine million dollars so they're really getting a lot of interest we'll see how it goes it's the first time they're doing it and I'm sure every program the country is going to want to play in it you know next year moving forward as I think this field's expanding next year it's in Las Vegas too so that that always helps That always helps.
we have, I can't real quick, what, six, eight teams? Alabama, Houston, Texas A Creighton, Rutgers, all ranked in the top 25. San Diego State, Oregon, and Notre Dame all playing in that tournament. Yes, I mean there's some serious competition there which is also good. Some big names will come out of that and they'll have quite a bit of money. And we encourage responsible gaming, but if you want to go put that on black, it'll probably hit. There you go. mean, take that million and do it.
Vegas was built on winners, everybody. Speaking of Black, let's talk about Black Friday. So some people are hitting Black Friday deals. Last year, the NFL got an eye on Black Friday and said, you know what? People are home. Let's go ahead and roll out some football. And part of that Black Friday this year is your favorite. Black and Silver team, the Raiders, who will be playing the Chiefs.
And you're definitely gonna have that, maybe multiple family members, where all they're gonna wanna talk about is Black Friday deals and how much they're going to save. And also they're going to be using Amazon Prime most likely, which the game is on. So that's the ultimate Black Friday correlation there. And we'll have two rivals playing Chiefs and Raiders. And at the time of this recording, the Raiders were the last team to beat the Chiefs. That could possibly change, but.
last they beat them on Christmas Eve last year or yeah last year so they're the last team that actually beat them. Nothing says Merry Christmas like a loss and nothing says Happy Thanksgiving. Now, I will say, the Raiders were a little bit better last year than they are this year, if I remember correctly. Things are not going as well this year. Last year was like the one week bump they got where they just, they bullied the Chiefs a lot and that kind of woke the Chiefs up.
And now they've been on this run since that game, winning the Super Bowl as you know, and then they just keep going. And you read actually credited the Raiders for that victory for inspiring them. So it may not have been a good thing.
Yeah, I think of what I just read like that Andy Reid actually thanked the at that point it was an interim but now permanent head coach Antonio Pierce to the Raiders for beating his team on Christmas Eve because that taught his team a much needed lesson about complacency. And then they won a Super Bowl.
they won the Super Bowl and then Antonio Pierce came out publicly and said they had the Mahomes rule on their team where they were going to basically hit him or annoy him the entire game just to piss him off. And so we'll see how that goes for them this time around. Okay, okay. Well, now we know their strategy, though. to see if Amazon Prime can offer you deal. if you order this now, you can get it by halftime maybe, or by the fourth quarter. So we'll see if Amazon Prime can get on that as well.
By the way, I was really impressed how you wrapped in Black Friday, Amazon Prime, and football all into the same sentence. I'm really, really impressed by that. That's like a mad lib, I think. Yeah. We should do that one of these days on here. Cause why not? Yeah, that should be a really, it should be a really good game. Now a scenario that, so many people are familiar with in their families amongst their friend groups, you know, because what is it?
The Wednesday before Thanksgiving is like the biggest bar night of the year. I can't say I ever came home to go to the bars cause I don't hang out with anybody from high school, but, you do. And people that, know, who traveled back home, go and hang out with all their buddies. on Wednesday before Thanksgiving.
But there's that scenario of the people who have been in relationship too long and it's not working, but they're still holding on to it and no better scenario than that than the Dallas Cowboys and Mike McCarthy. Thanksgiving Eve can be a prime example of this, where you run into your friends who've been dating for long time and you know it's not working and they refuse to acknowledge it. Or even Thanksgiving with one of your family members who's stuck and they aren't gonna do a thing about it.
They just live in misery. And we have a few examples on Thanksgiving that we'll get to see and hear a lot about actually. And that's... Go ahead. No, go please. I was just say, yeah, we have two scenarios on Thanksgiving with teams playing where we have coaches that are most likely not going to be coaching much longer, but the ownership refuses to do anything about it. And we have Dallas Cowboys, Mike McCarthy, who's in the last year of his contract.
And for some reason, Jerry Jones, ever since he got rid of Jimmy Johnson a long time ago after all those Super Bowls. He has refused to fire coaches and lets them hang out too long. So they're just kind of hanging out, even though it's quite clear that it's not going anywhere great after this year. So it's not the best relationship for the fans at least. Got it. I have a question for you.
How much of this is why I was actually watching something about because Dax Prescott, the quarterback for the Cowboys is having season injury ending hamstring surgery or for hamstring injury. How much of this is Jerry Jones being a total control freak and being the general manager and the owner of the team versus the coach? Or is it a little bit of both? I think even Cowboys fans would tell you it's 100 % Jerry Jones.
Cause he hires these coaches that are kind of, they're not, for lack of a better term, excuse me, if it's an alpha male, if you will. So he hires guys that kind of just go with the flow and aren't going to speak out. Like Jimmy Johnson, when he's winning all these super bowls, he gets, they hated each other because the egos. So now he just hires these guys. who were nice guys and are going to speak out and he just kind of walks all over them. Got it.
That's kind of what I gathered, but I had to ask an expert because these are my assumptions and I don't always have the knowledge to back it up. And then he gives them maybe not, he gives out some bad contracts and doesn't get the players he should and things like that as well. So there's a whole dynamic that we could do a whole podcast about that someday. about the Cowboys downfall.
Now a scenario that I'm gonna stick with the Cowboys, but a different scenario is they've had a sunlight issue and now dare to dream about being in the sun on a beach or something like that for Thanksgiving, but the Cowboys have had a sunlight issue and it's not pretty. No, yeah, like you said, if you're in a cold area of the country where there's snow, you may be dreaming of sitting on a beach in the sunlight, but not necessarily if you're on the field when the Cowboys play on Thanksgiving.
The way the stadium is built, have, you know, huge glass walls on one side and the direction that the stadium is built, the sun will beam in during afternoon games directly into the field. So you will see an example of this on Thanksgiving. And it's well known that like you can't see if you're on the field. And there's a great example.
CD land, the star wide receiver a few weeks ago, wide open, perfect pass, but it was in the, in the end zone where the sun shines and he just didn't see it at all. And the ball just goes right by him he had no clue where it was. And once again, that's a Jerry Jones issue that he is all in on the sun. And they can put curtains up, they do it for shows and concerts and things like that, but he refuses to do it for games.
He called it a home field advantage, even though it's not a home field advantage. it's not, yeah, it hurts his team too. Interesting. So sun on the beach, good for vacation, not good for afternoon Cowboys games. Correct, yes. And speaking of concerts, we might remember, I'll remember Dolly Parton singing at the Cowboys halftime show last year. That was quite phenomenal.
And if you've not looked up the Chelsea Handler sort of clap back about Dolly Parton at the Superbowl to people, it's fantastic. But this year we have Laney Wilson, the Grammy award winner, CMA entertainer of the year. she's going to performing at the Dallas Cowboys game where they're playing the New York Giants who are not good either. And so maybe there's a chance for the home team to win and we get Laney Wilson for halftime.
The giants may also be in that category of coach and owner that perhaps are in a bad relationship. We'll throw that in there as well. Got it. There's a lot of bad relationships happening this Thanksgiving. Yeah, in the NFL there's quite a few, but there is a good relationship associated with that performance. I briefly spoke to you about it before we got on here that Laney Wilson is dating a former NFL quarterback, former Steelers starter slash backup for a while, Doc Hodges.
So there's a good relationship we can talk about for Thanksgiving. Yes, well, mean, anybody named Duck would not like the turducken. No, no, it'd probably just be duck and turkey. But hopefully, hopefully Jerry Jones cannot screw that relationship up. I don't think. One never knows though. One never knows. And speaking of kind of an interesting relationship is the halftime performance at the Green Bay Packers game. They're playing the Dolphins, the evening game for Thanksgiving.
Violinist Lindsey Stirling, who is phenomenal. Don't get me wrong, she's a dancer, aerialist, does a lot of phenomenal music. But know, violin doesn't speak to me clearly as a halftime performance for for a NFL game. Maybe the violinists can get the crowd going with some electric violin play. I'm not quite sure how it will go in the Green Bay weather.
Yeah, because that's a, well, you know, yeah, when we used to do an event when I worked for the Diamondbacks and it was on the field, you might remember, evening on the diamond, and we would have the symphony come in to play during dinner, the Phoenix Symphony. And there were times where certain instruments could not be played because it was too cold, because it was not good for the, the instrument would not sound the same if it goes below a certain temperature.
So that'll be actually really interesting. didn't think about that perspective. and some sort of heating device contraption. Keep your eyes on that and I'm sure the Dolphins will be bringing their own heating contraption devices as they They're out of place in in Green Bay Yes, I would also be at a place in Green Bay. Yeah, so there's that. Well, thank you for sharing those Thanksgiving scenarios, the ways to change the subject, ways to adapt to the conversation being had. You all got one more?
I saw the finger go up. Okay. We have the scenario that everyone dreads and that will happen on Friday to where you've eaten so much food all week. And then somebody decides they want to do family pictures that will be displayed across your home and to family members for eternity. And as there's a great correlation there with the conversation started with cheerleaders and the Dallas Cowboys once again, unfortunately, we'll speak about them one more time on this podcast.
with the famed Cowboys cheerleaders, have the jiggle test, which. Well, if you ever see the Dallas Cowboys, was it making, becoming a Cowboys cheerleader, the show on Netflix, really interesting, but yes, this is something that has happened in the past, the jiggle test to assess the firmness of cheerleader's bodies during the season. They don't pass, they are benched. so, something to keep in mind, these women typically put in 34 hour weeks during the season, but most of them are required.
to have a full-time job elsewhere. And so they're not making a lot of money. Probably on average, you're making about the same as the lifeguard down at your community pool. So we have to feel for them because none of us are certainly passing the Jiggle Test on Friday. the jiggle test, not a chance in hell, no. No, so. This is why I'm not a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader. There's, there's other reasons too, but that's really the primary reason. Well, thanks for bringing that one up.
And hopefully we've given you something to talk about with your family and friends and to either get you out of those awkward moments or to just completely change the subject if things do start to get awkward. And of course, follow us on social at last night's game for all kinds of conversation starters during your Thanksgiving. Week and throughout the holidays, we will have you covered.
And of course, you can always catch us at lastnightsgame.com or subscribe on your favorite listening platform. Thanks, Scott, for being here. Thank you.