An award winning family owned business with exceptional diamonds, engagement rings, jewelry, and time pieces. Continental Diamond is the jeweler Minnesota Adores in Saint Louis Park or online at continentaldiamond dot com. Hey guys, welcome to another episode of The Tailgate presented by Continental Diamond. My old friend Dan Soder. You might know him from his endless amount of comedy specials. You might know him from the Showtime show Billions. You may know him as the voice of the NFL's Top one
hundred plays on NFL Network. Diehard Niners fan, also childhood friend of Mike McDaniel. This is a really fun episode. I think you guys are gonna love it. Please give us a rating and a review. If you like the show, enjoy it. Everybody Condo, Tom Data.
Go, We gotta go.
Thank go time joining me on today's program. This is a fun one. You know, well, you don't know if you're listening. I was about to say, you know, when you do comedy festivals, But what a stupid thing to say to people who aren't comedians. When you do comedy festivals as a comedian, you get a chance to see people you haven't seen in one hundred years, and it's it turns into this unique bond, Like that's how I feel on this show. It's Dan Soder. Yeah, every time
I see you, I get so excited. Yeah, almost like I want to wrap my arms around you and not let you leave. So this I don't know how this episode's gonna go, but it's nice to see you. Man.
It's gonna go the distance, and it's great seeing you because it is comedy becomes adult summer camp, so your friends you only see at summer camp. You know, comics are on the road every weekend, but in different cities. So when you are when you happen to be in a city with another comic that you're friends with, that's incredible. And then the second thing is comedy festivals, where you're like, we have so much to talk about.
What's happening?
Yeah, A lot of times you just picked back up from when you saw each other last. So when you reached out to me and you were like, hey, do you want to come talk about the forty nine ers, which A I always do and B you're like, dude, come on my podcast, I was like, one hundred percent I would love to do that. A meeting of two worlds.
Yeah, and our main goal here, like I will do my best not to unravel this thing into a two hour you know, mutual ted talk. Let's start. Let's start Niners here, because you are you're a die hard, lifelong Niners fan.
Yeah, first piece of clothing I was put in was a forty nine Ers onesie.
And it's just that's my question because you grew up in Colorado.
Well, I was born in Hartford. My dad, my parents, my dad specifically is from the Bay Area. My mom is from Fresno. They met in San Francisco and were married there and lived there for years. And then my mom worked for ETNA and she got transferred to Hartford, Connecticut because that's where their home office is. That's where I was born. And then my mom got her her whole family is from originally from Colorado, and she's an opportunity to go be transferred to Denver and she was like, oh, Dan,
I'll have cousins and stuff like that around. So we moved to Denver when I was five, but I was locked in as a forty nine Ers fan. There was like I was born in eighty three, so I missed the eighty one Super Bowl. But I you know, you're born in the eighties to the forty nine ers, you're a forty nine Er fan. There's just yeah, And then it went through. You know, I was always a forty
nine Ers fan. But the thing that really makes it set in stone is and you know this, and every NFL team fan knows this, except maybe a young Patriots fan. The lean years are what make you a diehard fan, the least years where you know, after Eddie de Barbolo Junior had to sell the team to the York family, his sister and her husband.
Pause right there, Let's take a moment and do something that I never get to do with anyone. Let's and I know there's some stuff at the end there that I'm not I don't need to like get it. But like Eddie de Bartolo Junior is the pre eminent example of good. Like the way that guy he introduced giving players their own rooms, like all that, Like the way he treated players.
I could argue greatest stoner in the history of the NFL. He I yeah, he bought the team. He's from Youngstown, Ohio. Bought the team for a million dollars from his dad, and then that was nineteen seventy eight. I believe he bought the team nineteen seventy nine. He brings in Bill Walsh,
they draft Joe Montana. By nineteen eighty one, their Super Bowl champions, and then they go on a run until he honestly he sold the team, I believe in Like I might be wrong about the actual year, but it was around two three and the forty nine ers were winning a division every year, almost every year, and almost every year in the NFC Championship game. So it was a question of you know, you go from Bill Walsh
to George Seffert, you stay good. But then you go George Seffert to Mooch to Steve Mariucci and you stay good. It's like, well, that's that's ownership. That's just keeping a culture. And the thing that I love about Adea Bartolow Junior, every single player, I think it's every single player from his tenure as owner that's became a Hall of Famer, has had him and duck them into the Hall of Fame. That's nuts.
That's the crazy thing. And what a lot of people don't know is, and I'm not saying it was his personal Yoda, but when Robert Kraft was buying the Patriots. He went to Di Bartolow and was like, like, so this this way of treating players, like to Bartolo, the whole thing, standing in the hallway, greeting the players after the game, knowing their families, spending this different sort of time, I think makes you want to play for him exactly.
And he just built this culture. But it's interesting that you grew up like you were real little when they were on that amazing run. So you probably have a couple memories. Yeah, But then like there's that core moment of sports fandom, you know, like thirteen to eighteen where the world is different.
But again still fine. Forty nine Ers wonted. The last time the forty nine Ers won in Super Bowl, I was eleven. It was nineteen ninety four in Okay. Yeah, it was the seventy fifth anniversary season. We beat the Chargers in the Super Bowl, and then the next year NFC Championship lose to the Cowboys in ninety five, and then we go through the Green Bay Brett Farv the early Brett fav years, which you guys saw them turn around.
When Holmgren, again a former forty nine Er guy, goes Coast yep and turns the West Coast offense with Brett Farvre. So then I hate the Packers from ninety six to ninety nine, but we get the we get the taroll Owens catch, we get like you know, there's still moments. The last great moment I remember of the forty nine Ers being like the old like when they were running on fumes of gas, which a lot of people don't remember. This was in the playoffs. The forty nine Ers came
back with Jeff Garcia against the New York Giants. We were down like seventeen.
Is this the taroll Owens crying moment?
No, that was the Packers. That was that was That was the Packers. Yeah, okay, that was a wild card game against the Packers in ninety eight. That was still Steve Young. But later turn of the century, Oh, I think it's two. The forty might be one. Two. The forty nine Ers beat the Giants on this massive comeback win in the playoffs, and then that was it. We lost to somebody, and then it was like, I think we lost to the Rams. Were the greatest show on turf. And then it got real dark, and then it got
real bad. It got I got it got.
Real, but not for that long all of a sudden.
That I disagree. I disagree. Your eight years is a long time.
Stop, dude, I will not do this with you. Well, I will not do this with you.
Here's the analogy I always make growing up a forty nine Ers fan in the eighties and nineties foot NFL wise, I grew up riches and then we found out my dad had been a part of a Ponzi scheme, and we lost everything for eight years. I mean we lost everything, We lost the house, we had to go live with family. And then you get this like business idea that your dad invests in that gets you money again, and you
got horriball and you've got three seasons of going. You go to a super Bowl, you go to three NFC Championship games, and you're like, we're back on top, baby, and then you find out that was a Ponzi scheme, and then you lose it for three more years and you're like, what's going on? And then Kyle Shanahan was like, all right, I'm gonna put your family, you know, And then now we're back in the mix where you're kind of like you don't trust the wealth but it's nice to be back.
Yeah, you're right, it must be really hard to have been rich a bunch of different times. Right, thirty years.
And I realized I'm talking to a Vikings fan after you guys went ow and four in the Super Bowl in the seventies and eighties and they haven't been back since. If the forty nine Ers win a Super Bowl this year, it will be one of those things where I'm like, I am I can rest. Yeah, I would cheer for the Vikings. I'll tell you the four teams I would cheer for, which surprisingly they just beat us. I would cheer for the Browns. Sure, I would cheer for the Vikings.
Sure I would cheer for the Lions. And then, of course, I mean, I'm gonna cheer for him regardless of the Miami Dolphins, because of Mike McDaniel.
I can't budge off of how I'm feeling watching you describe your hardship, and it's interesting. But you're right, But it's like to watch one of the things. When I was thinking about this episode, I wanted to I had written down. I was like, I should ask him how great it feels to have Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch. But just then listening to you say that, I want to set your apartment on fire. So but it is, it is wild you there's those rare moments. I felt it. In ninety eight, Oh my.
God, your guys's team was the best team in the NFL. And you know I told you about growing up in Colorado. My uncle, my dad's half brother, had Bronco season tickets and he had no one to go with. And I'm a massive NFL fan, so I would go to these Bronco games and it kind of got me a little bit for a while to be like, oh, I like
the Broncos. It's fun watching John Elway. And then when Mike Shanahan came over from the Niners he was ro coordinator and left after that Super Bowl and came to the Broncos, I had more of an ind of like, okay, go Broncos. But I was at the nineteen ninety eight AFC Championship game my uncle, and I'll tell you right now, when you guys lost to the Falcons, there was a and I mean this in anyone that was at Mile
High Stadium will tell you this. There was a collective sigh of like, okay, if the if the Broncos win today, they'll win the Super Bowl. Like there was that like, oh, if everyone knew in Mile High Stadium that the Vikings were the best team in the NFL. The nineteen ninety eight Vikings were the best team that year.
And I feel like right now your your team is living in one of those moments I don't want to put I don't know where your superstitions lie. I don't want to put a lot.
I mean recently, it's yeah, it's been so hard. Last season's NFC Championship game was so heartbreaking that you're like, I don't even know if superstitions are real anymore. Now it's just like I'm like a war torn guy where I'm just like, yeah, bring it whatever brother is.
And I can't. I can't believe I'm gonna give this to you, but I believe it in my heart it will be. If you guys do win the Super Bowl this year, that journey not for all of them. I'm investing in you, my friend, who I care about. Sure that that personal journey of eleven years old when we won our last one and then getting too experience because I think every sports fan I know, oh, it's not possible.
The world isn't magic. I think every die hard sports fan should get to experience their team winning a title when they're in their youth and a title when they're an adult. That would be sports world perfection to experience that.
Now, you gotta understand. When I moved to Denver, there was a lot going on my family. My dad ended up moving back to San Francisco. My mom raised me in Denver. When I was ten years old, I made the choice to become a Denver Nuggets fan. I was like, you know what. The Golden State Warriors were our team I did. They traded away Tim Hardaway. I didn't like that.
I didn't run. I didn't like run. Tmcbing broken up, so I was like, you know what, I love the new They just switched the logo of the Nuggets to the Mountain. Yes, we had Matumbo, we had Lafonzo Ellis. There was like a lot of people and I was like, I'm going to choose the Denver Nuggets because I don't have any other Denver teams. I didn't like the Rockies.
They're in the same division as the San Francisco Giants, So I was like, I'm love the Nuggets one of the most painful decisions I've made, because then I watched the Nuggets be mid and terrible for so many years, and then I watched the Warriors explode. And you have to understand my dad's family. My grandmother specifically stayed a Warriors fan. Everyone loved the Dubs. You would be in the Bay Area and everyone's like, oh, the Warriors, They're unbelievable.
They're never gonna lose, and they would always kind of beat up on the Nuggets, and I was like, damn, But the Nuggets winning the championship this year felt so surreal because you were like, I never thought it was gonna happen. That being said, I do believe if the forty nine ers won the Super Bowl, I would become very emotional. I think I think that would I I
was happy when the Nuggets won. I do believe when you have your team, like your team, you can have several teams in a city you like, but you always have one that you're like, it's your favorite child. Yeah, and you're like, this is this means the world to me. Twenty nineteen to get into Mike McDaniel, I was very lucky when Kyle Shanahan took when Kyle Shanahan took the head coaching job after losing to the Patriots in the
Super Bowl with the Atlanta Falcons. When the forty nine Ers named John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan head coach GM, I was like, great. Then I get the text from McDaniel. I'm a forty nine er. I was like, this is unbelievable.
Mike McDaniel, head coach of the Dolphins, is a I would say, childhood friend, lifelong friend. You described it how you want.
He described it in a way that I never that I was really touched by. When I went to a practice in Miami, this training camp, he introduced me to one of the coaches is his oldest friend. And I was like, oh, man, that's so nice. I was like, that's great. It made me feel old as hell, but it also was like, yeah, that's so nice.
Are sweet?
Yeah, he's one of my and he is. He's one of my oldest friends that I have and I grew up you know he If you know the story of Mike McDaniel, him and his mom lived in Greeley, Colorado, where the Broncos had training camp. He met he lost a hat at practice because he used to go get interviews. A man that worked for the Broncos organization went and bought him the same hat as a Charlotte Hornet's hat at the mall and then gave it to him. He went home told his mom about it. His mom wanted
to meet the guy. They met, They hit it off, They dated, got married. Gary, his stepfather, who worked for the Broncos, moved Mike and his mom down to They lived in unincorporated Arapo County aka Centennial. I lived in Aurora, which is it's the same, and they Mike and I became friends in seventh grade and became very close in seventh and eighth and ninth grade, and then have remained friends till now. You know, well, And.
The wild thing about it is, and I know you've said this to me before, is you guys as because when you're that age, you're like twelve thirteen, you're like, I'm gonna be a I'm gonna be a comedian, I'm gonna be a football coach, and everybody okay, and then you are, well, you know.
What's funny is that it's like when you make when you make statements like that as a kid, you have to be willing for it to not fall exactly what it was, because I believe what it was was he was going to play in the NFL. I was going to be the biggest comedian in the world. And you're like, then you scale those down to size and you go like, what about great head coach and successful, great career comedian. You know, you're like, let's bring those down a notch.
Let's just chill out on Because when you're in seventh grade, you're like, I'm going to be the president and also be the heavyweight champ of the WWE. And then you're like, chill out, dog, why don't you become a VP of Merrill Lynch and do pretty well?
Yeah, I'm what I I'm gonna wind up running the wrestling event at the VFW. That's how it lands for you.
Know, I got a backyard match where a guy's gonna get set on fire. That's where I'm gonna be.
The thing that I noticed a lot about because I've kind of existed in this world at ESPN and here, Yeah, you run into a lot of athletes who would love to be stand up comedians, and you run into a lot of stand up comedians are like, I feel like I would just be really good at being an athlete, Like is there do you guys have that that shared like back and forth like loving and kind of living through each other a little bit.
Oh? Absolutely, one hundred percent. One hundred percent.
He's so funny.
He's he's so funny. And what's what's crazy is in the offseason he like loves stand up comedy, Like he like loves it, Like I'll send him I sent him Joe Lists Special on YouTube, like I'll send him people that maybe I'm like, oh, I think you would love this dude, you know, and he'll be like because he's up at two forty five. Yeah, and he busts his hump the whole time. But I know there's times where
he's like he texted me before we went out. We went down to Miami last year for the Browns game, and I get a text from him at like four in the morning. He's like, Hey, you're HBO special is playing right now. I'm watching it, and You're like you aren't you prepping for the Browns?
You know, ready for this?
Yeah. He's like, well, I've seen the special. I just there's a couple of bits I want to see and then I'm gonna go back and you're like, oh, that's awesome, And there's what he's done for me is I don't know. I knew. I knew I was an athletic by the time I hit high school. But what I did realize with Mike was like I view football sometimes through the lens of like what what he's explained to me. It
gets interesting in different ways. It's not just like the collective like let's go team, everybody's everybody's great and everybody on that side's bad. You just kind of realize all the intrapersonal relationships and like who's been affected by who and and how like, you know, he did a fun thing for the forty nine ers. I don't know if I'm speaking out of school on this, but I love that he did this. One season with the forty nine ers.
He told me he would take a play from the team they were playing the next week, and he would run it once in a game so that when they were watching film, they'd be like, is that our play? He would just do that to mess with them, just strictly to mess with them. He'd be like, we're gonna run it once and then you know that was it, and that's it's so funny. That's him being so funny through like his you know what he does, but he is. People ask all the time, They're like, is that really
who he is? I'm like, dude, that is him and those press conferences and him on the sidelines when he's miked up, that's one hundred percent Mike.
I have Ben Leeber played for the Chargers and the Vikings made a very large mistake by befriending me. We've gotten very close and so the same thing where you just learn more about the behind the scenes aspects and the on the field stuff where you're like, oh, like you go, don't check it down. He's like, what are you talking about? You're an idiot. That's not how football works. So you learn all this different stuff.
I remember the first conversation having that with Mike. My friend Chad Harder and I go to all the games. Chad and I grew up with Mike friends in high school, and Chad and I were living together in Tucson. This is after I graduated from U of A. I was still doing stand up. He was punting at the University of Northern Colorado and it came down to Tucson to stay in shape for audition, for auditions. For it.
Let's go with aud audition.
He had a football audition. That's such a lame showbiz terms.
But hey, damn, will you come help me with my lines?
I need to dude. He kicked the punt one time. You know how punters can make it go over or they can make it drop. So I didn't know they could do that. And I was helping him with one of his auditions, but he punted the ball and we were just at like this high school football field in Tucson, and I'm like I put a cigarette down to catch it, and h dude, the ball. The ball went up and then came down right on my face. I mean, just zero down. And we're like, well, that's it for the day.
We're not going to run lines anymore. You just busted my face.
When I was working at ESPN and we were like I desperately wanted the Vikings to just built a new facility, and I was just like I just need to just get me in the building, just get me. I can't remember what I pitched some dumb shit, Like hey, what if I did? They were like, we get it, we love you, just go do it. And so one of the things I did is it is basically letting me loose in the facility. Was they put me in pads
and I was going to catch a punt, dude. I from that moment on, I was like whatever, somebody could not even catch the ball, and like it's it's a very difficult task. It is a terrifying task. I don't terrify.
But I remember McDaniel called us. He was in Houston with Kubiak okay, and we were like asking him who are they going to draft? It was like Vince Young, Mattliner at Jay Cutler, it was that draft, Reggie Bush. It was like unbelievable. And we were like there were the number one pick. We're like, who are you guys gonna take? Who are you gonna take? This was day of the draft. The draft is already in. Apparently they had already like they knew they had already contacted him.
But McDaniel was like Mario Williams and we were like who. He's like Mario Williams from NCI State and we're like, who is that guy? Why would you do that? We were like calling him out, being like that's stupid. You should draft Bush, you should draft Vince Young or whatever. Yeah, well,
it was just the way his mind was. He was like, well, Kubiak explained it to us, when you're playing Peyton Manning twice a year, you need someone that's going to get in his face and disrupt him from destroying your team. And you're like, okay, So now when people make draft decisions, I'm like, well, they clearly know something. They're clear they're not just doing it to be like this will piss the fan base off. They're like drafting for a reason.
But I remember him telling us that that was like the first moment of us learning from him of like, oh, okay, you like, you guys know way more than we did. And he was like, you just want to keep it to that. And that's always how it's been where it's like, that's not my business. But man, I love I love hearing him talk about it, and whenever I see him, you know, during the season or offseason, it's always interesting to hear him talk his business.
And I think you're I think you deserve a fair amount of credit for the amount of chill with which you've handled yourself because I've seen pictures and I would have known if somebody, like if something had gone awry, and like, let me tell you this. My best friend from childhood runs a restaurant inside a hotel that you've never heard of, and whenever I go there, I act unruly like I He's like this, sigh, you can't come to my job. He's like, you can't just walk in
the kitchen. The fact that you have maintained your composure on the field, like I've seen you on the field of the sideline of Dolphins games before the game and you have it together, and I believe you deserve a lot of credit for that.
I mean, it's just I'm it genuinely is one of those things where no matter what happens, it's it's still surreal to this day. And the best part is he's just warming up. Like the best part is he's.
Just like, that's what I was gonna get at is and we'll get back to let's get back to Niners I got but we also have to talk about I believe you were at the Broncos game, weren't you.
Yeah, yeah, I was at seventy I was at seventy to twenty.
So we're gonna discuss that, and that's a part of this question here. Like it's hard to even put it into words, but he's this culmination of everything that's been happening in the league, like the the modern offenses and the way with which these young head coaches are changing the game. It's like he came around and I'm trying to explain, like you explain it in a in a
stand up way. Right, you have a bunch of people doing a certain thing, and all of a sudden, one guy You're like, oh, none of us could do it. It's he's the like, yeah, it's Jimmy Parto's crowd work, right, Yeah, it's He's He's just doing this thing that I think five years from now, ten years from now, you're gonna
be like, this dude changed the entire league. Like he's running plays his old boss is running the next week, he's like pulling schemes out and then the best coaches in the league are like, what's up, Okay, we'll do that.
He actually showed me that. He actually showed me that. I went down to the to the Dolphins Broncos game. Katie and I went down there a little early because Katie was doing Levatard and then we were gonna hang out. But we got in Thursday and McDaniel's you know, wife, Katie was She was like, well, why don't you guys
come over and watch the game? It was forty nine Ers Giants, and so I wore my Niner stuff over there, and it was it was like, you know, McDaniel was like, oh, cool shirt, and you're like, yeah, I still love him. I was like, I know you, but you left. Katie even said that, she goes, he's the one that left. You should you shouldn't feel bad. But what was interesting was like seeing kind of him watch his old team and assess certain things that maybe that me or you
would never pick up on on a team. But what I really realized was is that, like he's a culmination of your You absolutely nailed it where the NFL is going. But I think a lot of credit has to go not only to Kyle Shanahan, but to Mike Shanahan. Yes, I think Mike Shanahan coached in a way where he let his assistance, He let his coordinators have their own personality, be themselves. They didn't have to be this like exact
replica of what a coach should be. And I think that paid off of because when you look back to those those Washington coaches, that Washington coaching.
Still that that staff is dominating the league.
It's insane. You got Kyle, you have Mike, you have Matt lafleur, you have.
Our guy, Kevin O'Connell.
Kevin O'Connell McVeigh. There's like guys where you're just like, oh, well, that clearly all that's like when you know, and this is this will link back to comedy, when you see a group. We always talk about the Boston group that came up to New York in the nineties. That was Bill Bird, Dane Cook, Patrise O'Neill, Bobby Kelly, Al del Benny and all those guys, and you're like, oh, well, that made sense because they come in these like groups.
And I think it happens in groups, and I think people have been talking about it for years now, especially with McVeagh and Shanahan and the success they've had, and then Lafleur in the success he was having in Green Bay. And it was interesting because I was kind of sitting back being like McDaniel's coming. You can give of all the credit you want, but I know, the second McDaniel
gets a shot, he's coming. That guy has been ready for this, that guy has helped out so much, and in San Francisco, which I obviously loved, but it just was a matter of time. It was a matter of time before he got his chance. And to see him last year do well and kind of turn around to and make Miami, you know, a threat in the AFC East. And then when I got to go down there in the off season when I was at the Daniel Beach improv and they were in training camp and I went.
I got to see him before practice and talk to him after practice, and I asked him. I was just like, how you feeling. He's like, I'm comfortable, And I was like, that's going to mean that's going to mean so much because McDaniel, you know, like a good comic, McDaniel knows where do, what he needs to improve and how to
improve it. And I think when they went and got Vic Fangio, a former forty nine er decordinator, former Bronco head coach, to kind of control the defense, I think it has kind of made McDaniel go into sicico mode where he's like, now I can run all these crazy plays and I can put all these people in and you know he's also Italian. The thing that's overlooked about McDaniel that no one talks about is how insane of
a talent evaluator he is. Because now everyone's talking about a chain and you're like, yeah, he's been doing that
for years. He did it in Washington, he did it in Atlanta, he did it in San Francisco, and now he's doing it in Miami where he knows kind of what he needs out of a play or Raheem Moster killing It is one of my favorite things because after the NFC Championship game in twenty nineteen at McDaniel, I went which I got to go do and got to go on the field with him after they beat the Packers.
It was unbelievable. We were at his house and I was asking him about Raheem Moster because I saw him have a moment with Mostert down on the field, and I was like, what did you tell him? And he was like, I just told him. I always knew this is who he was. I always knew this is what he was capable of, and I just wanted to give him credit for how hard he worked knowing that he knew that and saw it out, because there was just this really emotional moment and you were like, that is insane.
But then McDaniel tells me, He's like, I've wanted Mostert since he was an undrafted free agent and when I was in Atlanta. He's like, I've been trying to get Mostert on my squad since the Falcons, and then now he here, he is in Miami, and you know, you kind.
Of have got eleven touchdowns.
Yeah, but you got Moster, you got a chan and Jeff Wilson Junior, another guy that McDaniel saw in San Francisco. If McDaniel and I aren't friends, there'd probably be a part of me that's a little upset because when he left San Francisco, he knew who to take. Yeah, he knew who to bring with him to build up this team,
and it was like so cool to see it. I'm so proud of the guy, and I'm very excited for the Sunday night football game against the Eagles because after they broke brock Perty's elbow, I've just wanted revenge on the Eagles by any means.
Necessary, even if it comes via your friend coaching the Dolphins.
Hey, dude, sometimes you got to have a friend beat up your bully.
If you can't, you got to get it where you can get it.
And you know what, December third is a while away, but I'm excited for December third, Niners at Eagles.
I think he's the king of maximizing what's available. Like it's like he looks at what's available to him, the resources. It's like all that crazy shit he did with Trent Williams pulling Trent Williams out, and people don't realize that was him. That was him. And so watching what he's doing down there with the guys he has, it's just it's just incredible.
I'll give you the example of the playoff game last year Dolphins at Bills. He had Skyler Thompson and we stayed Chad and I stayed at the hotel connected to him, you know, And he came in and messed with us before he went to the stadium, and I was like, how you feeling, and he goes, I'm gonna be honest.
The first half of the week, I was like a little filled with anxiety and panic because I have my third string quarterback against arguably the best team in the AFC, and then it just clicked, Oh man, this is fun, this is fun. And then they go down seventeen, they come back, they almost beat the Bills in Buffalo with a third string quarterback, and it was like watching him and his attitude has helped me with comedy, just be like, oh yeah. Sometimes you got to realize, like this is
all fun. We're all playing with house money, and sometimes you forget that if you have a job you love, sometimes you get so down and out about tiny things that you forget the big picture and you're like, oh, this is great, this is unbelievable.
It's it's absolutely because you I find that all the time. We're like, oh my god, the flight or the show, like whatever it is, dog or dog.
Shit in Rochester, that's where I'm going this weekend, and I'm like, no one's gonna show up. And then you go You're like, oh, this this is the best job.
In the world. I get to go, I get to go have fun.
I get to go be a silly boy for five shows and pay rent. Like that's fine, I'm fine with.
That this weekend. Here's here's the problem this. I warned everybody there was a reason I put a warning on the front of this show is because I knew what we were capable of. So let's talk. Let's talk Niners Vikings.
Uh.
I want to talk a little bit about your current team, but the one moment I have to ask you about, Yeah, because in those dark years, you know, in the Abyss, when you were right. I think it was right before. And I know a lot of people I know Huntsberger and other people are like, they talk about the Singletary years as though they were years they spent a lot on a mountain.
Can't win with them, can't win with them? I love it, dude, Singletary. Singletary does not get enough credit for his talent evaluation.
Yeah, for building the roster that Harbaugh ran.
With him and Mike Nolan mm hmm. Not my future father in law, but the former head coach of the forty nine ers went out and got pieces that Harball was able to come in and kind of with Vic Fangio, put in a pile and go like Oh Navarro, Bowman, Patrick Willis, Dante Whitner, all these guys that could go. Justin Smith getting him from the Bengals, drafting a young Alden Smith, getting all these guys that you were like,
oh my god, oh my god, we're winning. Like it wasn't like like Kyle Shanahan, it was zero to eight. First season, you put in Jimmy G. He rips five. Okay, Jimmy G's the real deal. Let's give him a huge contract, and that kind of built that was able to carry them. Moment with Harbaugh, it was literally he came in and
we started winning and no one expected it. Yeah, all of a sudden, Frank Gore is running well with under Greg Roman's offense and Alex Smith is a game manager and he's doing really well, but this defense is just killing people and just shutting people down. That was like, oh my god, we're oh my god, oh my god, we're back. Week one. The first game Harbaugh one was against the Seahawks, who had just kind of had us for like since since the divisions had been realigned. It
was just like the Seahawks had had our number. And then you just come in and you beat Pete Carroll for the first and you're like, all right, let's go. And it was just that kind of thing. It must have felt the same way you guys did when you got Farv.
And so now let's bring all worlds together. Yeah, because right before you guys went on that run and built we had it is what we felt like because we had Adrian Peterson. We had we had gotten Steve Hutchison, probably the most underrated sign in maybe the last three forty years in the NFL. We put a Hall of Famer at left guard. You have this unbelievable defense that doesn't allow anyone to get a hundred years.
By the way, you guys took him from Seattle.
Yes, sir, we helped you out of the.
Reason Sean Alexander fell off.
Yes, that's right, and so and then you stacked Farv on top of it. But everybody kind of forgets that. The first couple games of the far season we won, we were playing okay, but it just didn't look right. And no matter how many people want to deny it, there were people that were like, is this the right decision? And then you came to Minnesota.
I got I remember that game and it was a it was a fight, and it was like, okay, we're in it. I remember it because it was before Sunday ticket. I was at a bar and I was still drinking and Farve hit your tight end in the back of the end zone.
It wasn't even a tight end. It was it was Greg greg Lewis. No, it was a guy that we'd we had signed I think that week Greg Lewis. It was far Greg Lewis, and it was it was You're right, it was back of the end zone. It was toe touch.
I remember being in the bar being like, that wasn't a catch. I remember screaming that at the TV, being like, that's not No.
One thought it was a catch. No, Like we all got excited, but we're like, well, here comes the replay to ruin it.
Oh my god. I remember that run and then I think you guys were the favorite against the Saints, right.
Don't want to do it. I'd like to move on. I just wanted to talk about the happiness that was that moment.
It was one of the greatest MC Championship games of all time. I'm sorry, it just was. It was like no dog in the fight. I watched that game at a bar with Joe List and Nate Bargetzi and we sat there watching it and Nate this is how it always worked back in the day, when we were all out drinking. I would sit in the middle, and inevitably Nate would find a point and Joe would find a point and they would argue about it and I would have to sit there like a referee and break it up.
But I remember, I think it was I think it was Nate that was like, this is the greatest NYC Championship game of all time. And then it just started a conversation where you know.
We never feel that way here because of the pain associated with it, But if you're able to step away from it and you go all these turnovers, all this crazy back and forth, they drive, they drive down. I've said this on the show before. When Farv through that that pass to Sidney Rice on the last drive and he took it off the field, I made you're not gonna understand this with your lineage. But I had this moment where I literally in my head, I didn't verbalize it.
I was like, we're going to the super Bowl, yeah, and and then to get to twelve minute.
I just I'm gonna tell you right now. I had that same exact feeling when my beautiful fiance got me tickets to the twenty nineteen Super Bowl forty nine Ers Chiefs Oh we were up by ten. I really was, like, I think McDaniel's about to win a super Bowl. By the way, just for future reference, I will never in my life say McDaniel's gonna win a Super Bowl until there is zero on the clock and they are lifting him up because twice now sigh, twice Falcons versus the
Patriots in the first half. At the halftime, I go, cool, McDaniel's gonna get a ring. Patriots came back, Chiefs Niners. I'm not saying. So You're never hearing that out of me until it happens, and until I know the game is over and the confetti is until he is in a shower of confetti, will I that's the next time I will say that.
That's welcome to the psyche of a Vikings fan. Oh my god, that is That is how we live all the time and forever.
I mean, especially with ninety eight and then yeah, the nine NFC Championship game.
Yeah, I can't, I don't. We can talk about well, we'll just keep moving. Let's talk about we were at Montreal together.
Yeah, twenty eleven.
Let's talk about if we're at Montreal together. And I I like you said to me, like someday I'm gonna be the voice of the NFL Network's top one hundred players that have been like, hey, guys, you know Dan is insane.
Yeah, he's out of my mind.
That's insane.
Yeah, it was. I owed all to former NFL Films producer Paul Manusky. I probably butchered his last name, but I just know him as Paul he is. He no longer works in NFL films, which is a crime. It truly is a crime, because he was one of the best producers I've ever worked with on anything. And he was a fan of the Bonfire on Sirius XM, which is still Monday through Thursday five to seven pm with Big Jafferson and Robert Kelly. I'll still plug the show.
Serious Serious XM Faction Talk one oh three. He was like, hey, Man, would you have any interest in doing some like voiceover for NFL films? And I was like, that's all I've ever wanted to do. I would love to do that. Besides comedy, all I've ever wanted to do was those recap videos where you're like and the forty nine ers knew that that they would be different from the rest, and he said, listen, we're doing NF Top one hundred for NFL Films. It's gonna be on NFL network, which
you want to do it? And I was like, yeah, dude, that sounds so good. He's like, well, we got Wendell Pierce from the Wire doing like the longer stuff, but we need someone that's like intermitted, like in between those. We need you. And I was like, sign me up. And I've been doing it for seven seasons now. Yeah. What's crazy is now I find out the list and I tell McDaniel how many dolphins got on it. Now I'm like, I'm going to tell you who's on it and where they're at so you can tell them because
so they'll know before. But my friend Chad Hard, who I brought up, was sitting at home watching it. This is like twenty and sixteen, twenty seventeen, and there's a clip where I talk about the Davonte Freeman and this is when he was with the Falcons, and I go like, number thirty two's Davonte Freeman, whose ability to get away from the and then it cuts to McDaniel coaching up Davonta Freeman on the Falcons and Chad sent me and mcdanie, you know the clip and he's like, it goes from
SODA's voice over to you coaching. He was like, I was freaking out in my house and You're like, yeah, that's awesome. That's like the coolest one.
That's like, that's the pinnacle moment.
Yeah, that was the moment where you're like, that's insane that one of our buddies is at home and he hears me do the voiceover into a clip of McDaniel coaching, and you're like, come on, dude, come.
On, let's talk. Let's and well, you got to get off. I know you got to get off here, but let's close with your lovely fiance. Yes, who I care about A great deal.
I mean you guys, but you guys came through the mud together doing Snapchat sports. I know about your guys' time and the suck at ESPN.
I always thought I was a hard worker, and I remember the first day at ESPN, I did the night show. She did the morning show, and I walked in from essentially my shift, and she was sitting like show long put out. Her show had gone out hours ago. She was sitting on the floor of a mutual friend, the incredible Steve Bray band.
Yeah, I love Steve Brayband and shout out Ashley Brayband and Ashley.
Both of them were Ashley, both of them incredibly skilled at ESPN.
Ashley was ended up being Katie's producer on Always Late and Steve is now with the WWE.
Which is, yeah, that's a big win for you. And so the I remember she was sitting on the floor like just ripping ideas, and I, you know, it was like when you walk into a green room and you see like and I always knew she was talented and I was a fan of hers, and I was excited to meet her. But you know when you walk into a green room and you're like, oh, is Chappelle in there just working on his bits before the show, and you're like, god, damn it. You're like, I am gonna
have to work, dude. She's so good.
I opened for Ali Wong at the Paramount Theater in Austin, Texas, And this is right after Baby Cobra came out, and I've known ally for a while and I opened for Ali and she rips it like absolutely destroys. And then after the show, I'm like, oh, you want to hang out? And she just goes and listens to the show and tries to add tags to the bits because she was doing a second show and I was like, yeah, I don't. I don't work hard. I don't work hard at all.
And you know what's funny is Katie's That is absolutely Katie's personality. She is one of the hardest workers I know, Like she is like a She's got like the mindset of a hunting dog where you're like, give her a smell and she'll just she'll just go after it. Like she's on Celebrity Jeopardy right now. She just advanced to the semifinal.
She is Rosie Perez. I know you, I know you, I know you said that, But like anybody who's seen herund there, You're like, what is happening? How is she this good at it?
And I'm telling you right now, if you're in the semifinals of Celebrity Jeopardy, get ready because I watch her study and I'm like, You're gonna body, everybody. She's just like her. Katie's Jeopardy training montage is clubber Lang and Rocky three, where like all the other celebrities are at like, you know, like a golden gym, like barely they're like, oh, I love this, and then Katy's like, em, she's just doing pull ups just like nails. It's wild. I'm watching
your study. I'm like, she's gonna body everybody in this Celebrity Jeopardy semifinal coming up.
It's a weird spot for you, because I know, the thing that is cool about my house is I'm the funniest guy in it, undisputedly.
There's been moments where she says stuff where I go like, you know, that's like a full bit, right, and she's like, oh.
It's wild. We did this thing where she like it was we were doing fake brackets. Yeah, right, fake brackets for March Madness, and you know, we walked in to start filming and it was one of those things where everyone every response she had and everything she said, I was like, should I be a comic? Is that what I should do with my life? Yeah, I'd probably be a teacher from now on. She was so funny.
Oh she's hilarious, and it's it's like one of the greatest things is finding someone like her to be in love with. That I'm just like, oh, you're the you. Just every day she makes me laugh and away room I'm like, this is the best. This just rules, this is and also you'll enjoy this because you know her one final McDaniel story. I knew he was leaving the Niners right through him and his wife. I kind of knew that they were going to explore him being a
head coach. And he was in the kitchen and Katie goes, I go, I think McDaniel's leaving the Niners, and she goes, oh, that's so awesome. Just don't end up in the AFC East because she's a Pats fan. And I was like, yeah, yeah. And then he got hired by the Dolphins and Katie goes, no Dolphins stuff, no Dolphin stuff in this house, and I was like, all right. And so i've over the past two seasons, I've able to begin in three items
of merch. I have a T shirt, a sweatshirt, and I just ordered a new sweatshirt because it's really cool. But at the we were talking about the Broncos Dolphins game. That felt so good to watch because I remember when McDaniel knew he was going to leave the forty nine ers, the Broncos wanted nothing to do with him, no interview, and he was a ball boy there. He was like, it made the most sense for h him to go
back and turn that organization around, and they didn't. And then he hung seventy seventy and then he took a knee. He still showed grace even though he had the knife at their throat and he removed it. I love it. I love it. I told my clup line after the game, I wrote, Broncos, that's gonna be the best breakfast they've ever had in their lives. Then they put the gun to the to the liquor store guy said, I was like,
that's gonna be the best breakfast. You just save them, you know, advanced Joseph, that's gonna be the best breakfast of his life. But yeah, it's insane. It's like, but forty nine ers Vikings, I know we got to go. I love Kirk Cousins. I love him. I know how good he is because of how much McDaniel and shanahan have talked about him and his time in Washington and how much they enjoyed coaching him, and how great he is. Like there's always that rumor that Cousins that shanahan or
McDaniel are gonna go for cousins. I think that's a sign that you got a keeper right there, when you're like, oh, this guy stays even killed. Even with your record right now, I don't you guys are still a threat. You're still a threat. I think there's a lot of parts of the Vikings team that's like have been building over years, and I think similar to the Lions, I think the Vikings are kind of that upnext mentality. I think the
Bears are in disarray. I think the Packers are. They have to do that reset like they did after.
Cut them down, cut him down, and.
It's like that Monday night football game is gonna It's gonna be interesting to see how the forty nine ers respond after losing to the Browns and how comfortable the Vikings are just in general, playing a very good team, playing a very solid team.
It's going to be It's always some fans want, you know, stack w's that's the point. Get the best, get the best you know place you can in the postseason, then see what happens. But I always love the moments when you get to see where your current version of your team team stacks up against the best team or one of the best teams in the league. It's one of those moments. So I think it's gonna be really fun.
And I think this is like, this is the part of having a good team that should make you nervous, but it's also kind of a cool thing where you're like, yeah, man, they're coming for it every Vikings an Vikings are going to show up and really try to take the Niners out because the Niners, I mean, I saw what it did for the Browns. They've had a whole week of like, we beat the Niners, and you're like, so it meant it means a lot for teams to beat the forty
nine ers right now. So I'm just hoping that doesn't.
Happen last thing we do. I know you're gonna hate it. I need a score prediction.
I love you, and I want you to know that before I say this, I love you.
Okay.
I think it's gonna be thirty one fourteen forty nine ers.
That's interesting. I also love you, and I did think the Vikings defense would show up a little better than you're thinking, because I thought it would be Niners fourteen, Vikings one hundred and thirty eight. Dan, It's nice to have you, buddy, I'm saying.
It will be close. It will be close till the third quarter, and then the forty nine ers will find a way to pull away. That's that's what I think totally.
I don't care about that at all. It's my show. The show's over.
Thanks, Buddy, Sigh, you rule, dude. I'll talk to soon, Letter Bud.
Thanks again to the great Dan Soda for joining the show tonight, and thank you to our sponsor Continental Diamond. Be sure to like, subscribe, and download the podcast anywhere you listen to your favorite shows, and we will see you all again next week. Join Pa at the Crystal Buffalo Wild Wings this Friday from nine to noon for Friday Football Feast presented by Coors Light. Enjoy food and drink specials and a chance to win Viking tickets and more.
Visit vikings dot com slash bww for full schedule and details