Useful Idiots – January 6, 2026

If you're the purchasing manager at a manufacturing plant, you know having a trusted partner makes all the difference. That's why, hands down, you count on Grainger for auto reordering. With on-time restocks, your team will have the cut-resistant gloves they need at the start of their shift. And you can end your day knowing they've got safety well in hand. Call 1-800-GRAINGER, click grainger.com, or just stop by. Granger for the ones who get it done.

Is the season to be jolly? After vacationing across America and throughout Europe, this holiday season, the Wetzels are going to play it safe. Dan, Sharon's got a butter knife. It's gone. That is not painful by them. That is painful by the people of Detroit. I'm not qualified for this job. Let me tell you something. You want to go right now? Okay? You want to go right now? Hey, kids, it's your old pal. Back from a long vacation. I missed you guys, and by you, I mean the listeners, because...

No offense, but Mark's no treat. Sean's not here. Erica I kind of missed, but she's under the weather. And I did miss Dan Wetzel, but I kind of feel like I spent the holidays with Dan Wetzel because every time I turned around... I was reading another big scoop from Dan, who has been watching the growing pustule that is U of M sports that finally ruptured into a maize-colored ochre.

Wow. Ochre-colored, whatever it is. Anyways, there's all kinds of goo all over the place. And so we wanted to have Dan come in because one of the reasons we... do this show is to take you behind the scenes of journals and let you know what it's like to do these jobs and from time to time to ride that wave and uh dan i don't know what you had planned

for the holidays, but if you had plans for the holidays, I think you owe everybody in the Wetzel family an apology or a trip to Great Wolf Lodge or some shit like that. It's really the way you apologize. Yeah, you know, when I worked at Channel 2, we had our photographers occasionally would help out with the advertising department. And one of the guys was sent out to do some shoots at Great Wolf Lodge.

The person who was doing the promo said, okay, I think we're good. He's like, no. It's like, what do you mean? It was perfect. It was a perfect take. He's like, no, take a look at the video again. They'd go every time they did it.

There was like somebody wearing inappropriate clothes covered in tattoos walking into the shot. And they're like, yeah, that's Great Wolf Lodge, man. So the Sandusky, Ohio, Great Wolf Lodge is when you realize the neck tattoo is far more popular than you would have thought. This is not South Beach. A lot of people are getting that panther on the neck.

Thought that was a good call. My one rule in life, never mess with somebody that has a tattoo, neck or higher. Neck or higher, yeah. Because that's a different level of intensity that I see. Or all the names crossed out on their arms, you know, me and Tanya forever. It's like, not Tanya now. Yeah.

That's not Tonya next to me. It was like, wasn't that the joke? Like, COVID can't get me. I used to vacation at the Great Wolf Lodge. Yeah. I think that's where it started. Great Wolf Lodge is a good time. You just got to go with it. It's a good time. Our sponsors, by the way, are Luke Nowack and Pinnacle Wealth Strategies. Not Great Wolf Lodge. Could be, though. Could be. Maybe.

Maybe if this gets cleaned up in post. Yeah, what are we talking about? We would do a live show there if they paid us. I mean, come on. Yeah, you'd drive down there every week and do it. And we'd have a blast. We'd come back. Are you too good for the Great Wolf Watch? Yeah, what a snob. It's a fun time.

Come back smelling like chlorine and neosporin. That's not my idea of a good time, but hey, that's me. I went to Vegas, so who am I? So needless to say, you did not go to the Great Wolf Lodge or anywhere over vacation because you were busy.

tied to your phone, like you usually are, though. Yeah, so obviously this year there was a lot of scandal at Michigan. What do you mean this year? It has been a bumper crop lately. It's good for business. Good for business. But there's usually one somewhere. So if you cover sports and crime, it's like being a crime writer. Yeah, never stops. I started my career. I was like an intern.

at the chicago tribune and i covered they wanted me to do crime and so i'd come in every morning in chicago yeah and 8 a.m not much to do there yeah and uh go through the police reports and there'd always be like two murders. Like there were more Americans got killed in Chicago during the Gulf War than in the Gulf War. Oh my God. Right. So Chicago, there'd be three, four murders a day.

And so by 8 a.m. and you just pick and try to figure it out and then you try to go write about the best one. But the difference is. So you never worried like what if there isn't a murder? Yeah. Okay. Cause you just, or it wasn't just any big city. It'd be same in Detroit. Like a safe falls out of a building or, I mean, you know, there's a fire. There's always going to be something. So you don't really worry about it. So college.

football or the nfl there's going to be some stuff whether it's like lane kiffin acting up or but it's far more competitive to break stuff it is hard in that so you can't Look away for a second. No, you cannot. So like, yeah, and even just like the hiring of Kyle Whittingham, that was like Christmas night at like 10 o'clock. 10 p.m. When did it break? I think we broke it at like 7 the next morning. But you could have broke at Christmas night? We would have been right, but we weren't.

We weren't 100%? Well, yeah, you want to be right. Is that why? There really weren't any other coaches available, so I mean. Yeah, but he took Christmas. He wasn't doing any negotiating on Christmas. Yeah. Well, you hear, I mean, I think the tweet would be like, it's emerged. Emerge is the focus. Yeah, we got to hedge a little bit. Wink and a nod. Hedge a little bit. Yeah. Always be specifically correct. Never.

No, always be generally correct, never specifically wrong. That's a journalism motto. Well, you know, last time we did kind of a you-were-there recreation moment, it was Michigan State's pursuit of Luke Fickle, and I think they had the same thing where... where Jim Camperoni at Spartan Mag and David Harns at Spartans Illustrated were reporting things like...

Luke Fickle's getting on a plane to East Lansing. We're not saying he's getting hired. Oh, nothing better than a flight tracker. They're booking a flight. I don't like specifically putting someone in a spot either. But it was accurate. He was looking to fly to Eastlands. He just kind of diverted to Madison. He flew right over it. Yeah.

That's how the earth curvature. And I don't know whether we're better off or worse off. I don't think Mel Tucker was better, but I'm not sure that Luke Fickle was the answer either. But Whittingham might be. Whittingham is a good, solid hire. I mean, he's a very good coach. And also what they need of the – that'll be the end of the – Never say never. Yeah. But not a Michigan man. Jay could return. At all.

Never say never. Not a Michigan man, but he is, man, that guy is straight laced. So, you know, he'll be driving around his Harley. He's got an old pickup truck. Skiing. Skiing, working out every day for years. I know. My first thought was, oh, boy, that guy's old. And then I realized that guy is in way better shape than I am. He's 16 years older than me. Any chance to be speeding around that pickup truck with an unlicensed gun under the seat?

Probably not. I would think he would follow all local ordinances. I would think so. He seems like a pretty solid citizen. Until he's lost to Ohio State, would it matter? No. As long as you're beating Ohio State, then the weapons charges tend to go away.

So what were you doing when, I mean, did you have holiday plans? I mean, Chris, you're always working. So I got to imagine you have a use it or lose it vacation policy at the end of the year. Although, I don't know, a new guy at ESPN, does that mean you work all the holidays? You've got to build up your thing. No, look it, most sports writers had it. I mean, they're at Lions. Sure, bowl season. They had to travel. CFP. Yeah, right. So you worked weekends.

Well, and your old colleague, Ross Dellinger, had to break news, I think, at a bachelor party. One time we were doing a conference realignment. The Big Ten was breaking up. Or they were adding. No, they were adding. They only get bigger. So Ross was hosting. He's the host. He's the best man of this wedding, like boyhood friend. It's the middle of June. So you kind of plan. Safe area. Safe area. And he's like, I have to go ahead. You know what? We're working on it.

And those were tough because it's like these are big moves, obviously. So we're waiting on to see whether Oregon and Washington were going to go. And we had broken it in the morning that they were. Close. I can't remember the thing. We had broken that part that, yeah, there were schools of interest, whatever the heck it was going to be. But then he literally was on a river raft floating down this river by Austin, Texas.

And he gets a call. His phone actually works. And someone calls him and is like, we're doing it. And he calls me. He's like, we're doing it. I'm on the raft. And it like clucks out. I'm like. Boom, we go with the story. He hit a hydraulic. He's over the side. It's got about six tequilas in him down a river. I mean, you know, it's journalism. We do this so we don't have to grow up, right? That's kind of lucky because at most bachelor parties,

You can't have a phone in those places. Yeah. No, he was on a river. He was on the river. This is the daytime activity. Oh, I got you. He's floating down a river. Okay, let's go back even further. Were you planning to work? Did this just mean you're doing a different story? No, it was like 10 o'clock at night at Christmas night. That one was just... The Whittingham hire. Yeah.

I was just sitting in my living room. But you also broke the Sharon Moore. The Sharon Moore one was... So what was that? That was like a... Wednesday? Tuesday or Wednesday? That was just a regular day. It was a Wednesday, yeah. About Wednesday evening. No, it was like, yeah, like afternoon. Yeah.

It's kind of like news desert, like nothing is going on. It's very quiet. So you never know who's going to text or you never know who's going to call. But that's what's interesting. So, I mean, we've talked before. there were so many rumors about him um but it wasn't really a thing until it's somebody that works at the university specifically underneath him you know pun intended

Stay classy. Stay classy, Ann Arbor. But you can't report on a rumor, right? Did you know that there was an investigation that... asked them about it had you heard i had heard that there was an investigation and they had denied the the the investigation that's where the story ends um it's well It's a tricky one. So unless you get paperwork, in my opinion, look, there's one person in this room who won a Pulitzer Prize, and it didn't me. So I'll defer to him. Guess what, though? He got a pay cut.

Yeah, you got a pay cut for that. And mine was for plagiarism. So we just reprinted text messages. It doesn't matter. But you got them. But you got the text messages, right? So in my opinion- I'll come back to that in a minute. On something like this, you tell me. where there's an investigation. I want to see the paperwork that there was an investigation. Because the term investigation is extremely loose.

Now, did they bring in an outside law firm? Did they interview 40 people or did someone say, hey, what's going on with you and the girl? What? OK, that's it. Like, what was there? And so you can't be wrong and say there was an investigation into whether. Sharon Moore is sleeping with his assistant, you know, someone in the office.

like that's a that's a that's a bull now if you have paperwork that there was an actual thing that i think then you could report that but other than that you don't really have it and they're saying and then you know look i'm very suspicious of everything um as we do right we don't really believe the official narrative but like people are like oh michigan michigan waited to fire them or they were covering it up they weren't covering it up like they did do what you're supposed to do

If everyone's going to lie, what do you do? Well, they did hire- You check his emails. You check his texts. You put an investigator on him. You follow him. I mean, it sounds like he was going to her place. Sure. Yeah, you hire PIs. But they did hire an outside law firm. They did do that. They did not follow as far as I know. But again, who knows? And maybe they stopped. But the big thing with an affair is like you can just, I mean, you could always just stop.

Mm hmm. Which he obviously should have. And he'd still be the coach. Well, it kind of sounded like. They did because they were conflicting reports. They called it off and then got back. Yeah. Finally, that final. It's very dicey trying to report something like that because it's like, what is an investigation? What is an affair? What is the. Like, how do I know that? Like what?

so i don't know how much what what until you got like video like how do i know what the heck didn't they also say that they did an investigation and everybody denied it and they had no proof so they closed the investigation without a finding i think they brought in then another then they brought in the outside firm yes but then that didn't they had an hr investigation and then as my understanding they had rehired an outside firm or hired an outside firm but that investigation hadn't like

Concluded? Concluded or gotten very full. And that's who she reported it to. She didn't report it to the university. It's either HR or, yeah, I don't know. I want to come back really quickly to a point because I hear from my Spartan friends about the blue wall and all that other bullshit. But Spartans, God bless them, are always like, oh, we're always getting screwed. I'm like, you sound like Wolverines. Shut the hell up.

We had the text messages months before we reported that Mayor Kilpatrick had committed perjury under oath because once you have stuff, you need to confirm it. You can't just do that. And for people who heard, I mean.

Dude, I heard for years that he and Christine Beattie were kicking it. And I personally, my philosophy is screw who you want. Just don't screw the taxpayers. But until we had text messages where somebody said, I love you. We're like, well, they're old friends. That must mean something. We got to get the.

already by the way and then when it said okay i love you oh they're old friends people say it then it said you know like damn you got some mad oral skills and we're like okay i think we might be on to something pretty definitive here but um But you need some time to confirm this stuff. And for everybody saying that the media was sitting on this Sharon Moore story, until you have something, particularly something that seismic, dead nuts.

But it's got to be annoying, though. You can't report it. And you take the shit on the back end because when you're wrong, you're wrong forever. And if it takes a little longer to be right, it's worth the time. Do you get annoyed, though, when it's one of those things where it's an open secret, everybody knew, and it's on Reddit? I mean, you can't beat rumors, right? You can't beat Reddit. Well, you just, I mean, you just...

that's just how it is i mean you can't again like i i totally agree even if you got the you had to say well who's sending me these text messages you have to be so Like there's, you know, right. You've heard of the term like useful idiot. Right. So.

I think that was what we're going to call this show. Yeah. I would be quite prone to being the useful idiot because I'm an idiot. I mean, because of us, not because of your class. Right. No, but like you've got to make sure. Well, maybe someone slipped you fake. text messages where where are these coming from who is there's so many things you have to go through ask dan rather about the george bush national guard memo cost him his career okay so so let's go back

to the day where you get a message from somebody. I don't know how much you trusted the first thing you saw that, hey, Sharon has been let go. Can you take us through the steps then? Do you follow up with trusted people inside? I've known this guy was nuts since the Penn State game, but I wouldn't have reported that he was having an affair. How do you verify it? Because you got it out there before there was an official statement.

You need more than one. Just as an exercise, you just need more than one person to tell you that. Now, the problem with some of those things is it's very small. circle and then it's it's also like what's a trusted would this person know like no no Okay. So like, look, if it's Sharon Moore, let's say Sharon Moore had called me and just said, Hey, look, man, I just, I did this and I just got fired and I'm walking out right now. Okay. That's, that's one level. Then it's like,

If it's just somebody at the school's herd, he's going to get. And you also have to be really careful of like one where. Where is the information coming from? So like what you would ideally want in a coach situation, let's say they fire, let's just take it out of Sharon Moore, but let's just say they fired Dan Campbell. Dan Campbell's not going to get fired, but let's say Dan Campbell gets fired.

OK, well, you would want to hear from the team and ideally his agent. OK. Or right. You want two separate sides. If you hear from three people at the same side, they can just be telling the same. rumor to each other. The backfeeding of information. I forgot about agents and lawyers. There's lawyers, there's agents, there's people. So you want, ideally, and I think this would be the same case, you'd want...

And when you, a great journal, if there's someone wants to be a journalist out there, ML's column every week does a really good job of going through the process that you go through. And that's it. You can't just be like, well, I heard this, run it. It's like, no, I tried to call them three times. And then when you're calling somebody and like, hey, and you're texting them like, just heard you got fired for having an inappropriate, like that's going to generate.

a response generally people don't just be like what like it's not like you want to play golf in march you know like it's just like right you got to be really specific and try to press and then but you want good sources on the side just as an exercise doesn't mean you can't go with one it just depends on what that one is yeah you can go like an agent or yeah right or it's like i'm the president i'm i'm i'm uh sheila hemp ford for some reason calls and says, I just fired, okay, that's a...

Yeah, I'm on the board of trustees or board of regents at U of M. We're getting a new football coach. That's someone you could. You'd have more faith in, but I don't know that I would go with the whole thing unless it's like I personally just did this. Yeah. Even then, because it's like...

Somebody who works at the school, whether it's someone in the athletic department, there's just so many variables. Were you fired? You just have to be careful. And this is for not attribution sources. And I think the general rule is... If you have two not-for-attribution sources, which means we don't use their name or their exact title, and they're somewhat independent, so it's not like...

And Fellhauer said that Drew's opening a restaurant and Brandon said it too. Because you probably both heard it from the same place. You'd want to know that, yeah, I heard from a good source in the athletic department that Sharon's out. And then I heard from somebody at the Ann Arbor Police Department that they're bringing him in. Or Drew's Restaurant. I'm the real estate agent for the building. And, right, you get a second guy. Because here's the thing. You don't want that echo chamber.

something powerful like a region or a city council member or something or a senator, right? Well, there's 100 senators. And they're very political. We're doing the stuff with the Big Ten and private equity and trying to figure out who was going to vote where.

USC has like 46 regions or trustees, right? So one trustee is telling you, there's no way we're doing this. Well, you're one of 46. I don't know if you're the crank that no one listens to. Penn State, same thing. Some of their trustees... are like elected and some are appointed and some are like some have power and some know so you can't just be like well trustee told me now at at some some places that would be you'd be like oh okay there's like

three of them that are running the school or I don't know you just you have to really that sounds like Michigan it takes more it takes more than um um It's just, I don't know. You deal with it all the time. You just have to be, you gotta be right.

Like, that's it. You've got to be right. If you're not right, who cares if you're first? You don't want to be first and wrong. I mean, college football is such a rumor mill, too. Do you find yourself constantly chasing down rumors? Oh, you waste time on stuff, and then it comes out somewhere else.

Because we, I mean, from our perspective, we had heard that, oh, yeah, he's fooling around. Like that's just, you know, Drew and I had heard that. And then it really picks up steam. When you lose to Ohio State, that's going to pick up steam.

Well, I had heard, that had broken contain to the point where people were just, everyone was talking about it. Yeah, because people wanted him out. Right. You know, the joke my buddy said was I didn't know Christmas was on December 10th now because nobody liked Sharon. Everyone wanted him out. Yeah. So that kind of happened. But what I was getting to, then the rumor that really kicked it into high gear is that he's knocked this woman up.

He's got this woman pregnant. You want an abortion, which none of that, you know, I don't know if you even bother. No way I report any of this. I haven't seen that reported anywhere. No, because you can't. No, but it's going to be, but I think.

It makes the story juicy. I would never report that. I wouldn't report that if I had the medical record. I mean, it's just certain things. You have to treat people with some dignity, and you have to try to do this thing right. What do you think about when there's a story?

is having the relationship. However, it progressed is beyond the point. I agree. We hit the first milestone, and that's it. We don't need any more. Right. There's no more details necessary. We don't know a doggy style. Inappropriate relationship. Ball gag. think about when there's reporter and i don't know if any particular reporter has done this but when there's um what no when they'll put something out there that's i know we've all taken it that way you know internet rumors say

blah, blah, blah, because it kind of absolves them. So there's all sorts of media now. I always talk to coaches or owners and stuff, and I'm like, boy, you guys really hate the media. But guess what? We're better than social media.

the old school media at least I'm trying to like be correct you know one of those examples recently was Trump in Venezuela I mean he rails on the new york times but after it launches who does he go to to talk to about it right right the new york times because they still yeah so that's the way it works all the all the half-assed people who put rumor out there

you know talk about how the mainstream media doesn't have any guts but the minute we report something they've been talking about like see it must be true because they validate it and the corollary is all the other shit you said we didn't validate so it must not be true dan bongino So there's an economy out there where you are willing and able to be wrong. And there's not a punishment to your...

Like if you push the envelope and you're wrong. The publisher can't get sued. Or Alex Jones and you still somehow survive. This guy's a cockroach. Right. That's the worst. But like. You know where you're saying like your eight-year-old didn't get murdered. That's I mean, that's hold on but like you're willing to sit there and say hey, they're gonna hire something totally benign. Okay

Dan Campbell's going to get fired or something like that. Well, of course he doesn't. And you just look like, but you actually gain followers and you gain attention. And so there's people willing to do it. And there's a market for that. There's an industry for that. And that's just – I don't really complain about it. That's just how it is. They can do that. You're at the Detroit Free Press. You're at ESPN. You cannot –

You just can't be wrong. So if I'm wrong, which, you know, everyone in their career has been wrong about stuff because we print what we're told. and sometimes things change and so i've had like the best i've had i had a coach one time say i am leaving and taking this job tomorrow and then he didn't and i got crushed on it and you're like everyone's like your sources is it too sore to say who it is yeah i'm not doing it but it was like um

What a dick. Yeah. And I'm like, what the hell, man? He's like, ah, it changed my mind. But at the time, yeah. I was, but I didn't. And I learned a lesson there. Thinking about leaving didn't do it. Did you just walk out of your... office and say i just quit i'm on the like because people change things happen so um you just it's it's the it's the frustrating part but the fun part but you just

I don't know. ML, I mean, like being wrong on one of these things, even though it would be so gut-wrenching, even something completely, okay, no innocent people would not have died if I had sit there and said, Michigan is zeroed in on Kyle Winningham, and then they aren't. Okay, whatever. This is a harmless story. But then they had gone and hired whatever, somebody else.

But it's a story. But I still would have felt like, oh, my God, I feel so defeated. Because so many eyeballs are paying attention. I feel so bad, even though nobody got hurt, let alone there's an inappropriate – and that's why that night when it was – The hopes of a fan might have been hurt. I knew the story of why Sharon Moore was being detained. Yeah. But it was like.

That's what I want. This is really wild because did he threaten suicide? Now we're into a whole like, do I want to report that? What does that even mean? who's saying like you just sit there and go this is all we have he was detained and we sat on that for two days a lot of people kind of were putting stuff out and you wait till the prosecutor in washington county says this is what happened because you just

You don't want to be wrong and you don't want to be part of being right is being fair. Yeah. Well, I mean, you came on Drew's show and said, you know, I just want to be fair to these people. Yeah, there's a lot happening here. What's going on? There's kids and there's... We should also point out that he's still innocent until proven guilty. These are all still just charges. Absolutely. And the charges are...

one person's word against his right so you got to see how that all plays out um i don't know i don't i have i don't care something i mean he shouldn't have gone over a house and he terrorized just showing up but Makes it a more incredible story. But it's all innocent until proven guilty. Until you get into trials, ML certainly covered trials. All of a sudden, a lot of stuff that gets thrown out there by prosecutors on any case.

anything that's in indictments all of a sudden there'll be entire charges will get dropped yep they'll like we charge them with 46 counts and then at the end they convict them a three And they all high five. And it's like, what about the other 43 things you just accused this guy of doing that you couldn't prove, didn't even try?

Like, he won 43 to 3, but he's... Yeah, the most heinous charges usually get dropped and they get you on something like wire fraud. And you're like, what the hell is that? Or tax evasion. It's like, no, you took bribes. It's like, well, I didn't... so it's a tax charge yeah they they back this stuff down and so you you again you don't want to you just it's you just got to try to you know i don't it's i don't it's not it's not the era for like

Try to be reasonable. No. The way it works, and of course, nobody cares about the media crying about our plight, but if you're on social media, every time you get something right... You brag about that. You never talk about the ones you get wrong. If you're in the mainstream media, you get something wrong once and that's all anybody ever wants to talk about. And we talked about it on this show. I reported that Mary Sheffield, who's now our mayor, had her windows tinted on her city car.

That was based on information provided to me by the city of Detroit that maintains the vehicles. It knows everything about the vehicles as a complete history record. It turned out not to be wrong. Not through any fault of my own. We corrected it promptly. And 12 years later, she and her dad are still mad about it. So that's what happens when you make a mistake, even when it's not your mistake. It follows you.

Like the worst case of BO you've ever had. And everybody smells it and points at you. And the rude ones will say, stinky over there got something wrong 12 years ago. We can't trust anything they've ever done. I'm like. I'm batting 995. Ted Williams would hate my ass because of my batting average. And there's other people out there who are like,

You know, there's one time you looked at a third strike, you suck. And that's what we deal with. And that's fine because in our jobs, we're dealing with people's reputation and you have to be meticulous. And scrupulous about that. And so sometimes it takes a little while to report these stories and people think you're in the bag or you're covering up. It's like.

why would i be in the bag to be responsible yeah what what do i get out of b like why would i do that i'll give you one before i say this but people they view it what when you're when you're on the other side so like if i was in crisis management i would do the same thing You, you could print the free press could print a corruption story of you could done the whole Kwame Kilpatrick story. And if I find one thing wrong.

right one thing you said i my car was a chevy tahoe and i was actually driving a you know whatever something else a blazer this is wrong yeah This report is riddled with mistakes. And what they want to do is make it like it's a chain, like you're holding a chain. And if one link breaks, the chain drops. It's the loose thread. Instead, it's a rope. And if one thread frays, the rope is still strong.

But what they want to do is go the other way. So you can't give them that. You can't give them the small thing because they'll just torture your whole story that the overall arching thing is, yeah, Kwame was corrupt as hell.

That was the story. It doesn't make it. Right. But he's going to be yelling about, you said I drove a, I don't drive a 96, Tom. I don't drive a 94, Tom. You get something this simple wrong, you're going to get the big thing wrong. You can't get anything right. They have the press council like, take a look at this.

This is my car. What else? Right. What else did they get wrong? You plant that seed. Right. You just can't give them that. And I'll get these ones, too, where they want you to do. investigate a really wild story, right? Or something. I'll give you one. There's an element of people out there. There's a small crowd that thinks.

um that they believe that like jerry sandusky was wrongly um convicted jerry sandusky's innocent okay okay so is that nambla who thinks i don't i mean whatever yeah so franko harris i'm like all right let me let me let me look into this right And then they'll be like, I'll be like, ah, it's not really enough there. Or I did another one with, um, this guy who committed, he's in prison for a murder and, um, he didn't do it. And I look into it and then it's like.

Yeah, I think he did. Yeah, Aaron Hernandez. Yeah, yeah, something like that. But then they'll be like, you're just too scared. You're just covering it up. Like, if I could prove that if I could come up with a story that told you that actually Jerry Sandusky was. Yeah. This would be the best, like, for personally, professionally, like, holy crap, what a story that is, right? If I could prove that this famous murder didn't happen, right?

I'd be, that'd be huge. I'm not, why, what would be my motivation to be like, ah, nah, I just would. Both M.L. Elric and Charlie Duff has told me, it's like, if that mansion story and killing a strawberry was true.

like yeah we both would have killed to have that story get the gong ready in this case the party not happen after the text message story broke we had multiple people contacting us and saying Yeah, pretty good story, but why are you still covering up the Manoogian mansion party? I'm like, wait a minute. We passed up on that story? We're not passing up. To say that he sent some naughty texts? I mean, you've got to be kidding me. I mean, that one's tricky because there were...

Parties. There just was not that party. Yeah. With the fight. My favorite about that whole thing, and I was... No, there was no party, by the way. There was no party. I've seen Kwame. Why are you still covering up for him? Kwame's actually believable on that one. I've seen him actually discuss it. The problem is everything else he did. Oh, that's the one you believe in? Every once in a while, you're like, you know, I think he might be telling the truth on that one.

I was like, he's got a good point on that. That's my thing. I'm open to all things. My favorite was the coverage back then, and I was just living in Detroit, reading the stories, right? But you guys would always refer to the... Where is Sean when I need him? Entertainer Strawberry. Like, oh, her! Like, you use a nickname because you don't... Like, you're like, I don't know, like...

Charo. Yeah, right. It goes by Prince's first name. Whatever that guy. What was Prince's name? I don't know. You don't just print that. Maybe you go, the artist known as Prince, right? Also known as Prince. Bob Ritchie, right? Kid Rock. Oh, yeah.

know that guy is she famous around town i've never heard i don't know her but like is i guess she's so famous oh strawberry how many people were reading the paper going oh i never heard that name fortunately she is now in death yeah strawberry most famous dancer

Yeah. Entertainer. Entertainer. One of the tips I got is that the other dancers were part of a group called the Mercedes Ladies, and one was known as Mo Money, another one was Pleasure Girl, and I think the third one was Electric. Oh, yeah.

And one of my one of my colleagues at the time had a passion for some of the some of the black strip clubs. And I said, hey, dude, you know these names? Because if anybody did, he would. And he's like, he's like, those names are whack. So, yeah. Okay. You know, it just didn't check out. But, you know, Dan reminded me of something talking about the coach who said, I'm going to do this. A story I haven't thought about in years, but this is how tricky our business could be.

This was before cell phones were ubiquitous. And I was doing a story where a prosecutor told me a fairly prominent person was going to plead guilty to something. And I was at the prosecutor's office, which is a small office. And they said, hey, you know what? They're in the lobby. You've got to get in this closet.

Because I got to meet with them. And I'm in this supply closet. Look at the postage notes, the legal pads, the pens, all this other typewriter ribbon, because this is in the nineties. And then, uh, eventually he comes and says, okay, you know, you can leave. And I'm like,

Okay, thanks. That was different. So I go back. I file my story. So-and-so is going to enter a plea deal. We go to court the next day. Person pleads guilty, and I caught up with it, and they said, oh my god i was trying to call you all last night they backed out of it after you left the office they changed their mind

But no cell phones. I couldn't get a hold of you, all this other shit. But then when they came to court in the morning, they're like, you know what? I think I'm going to take the deal. You were right, but you were wrong for a while there. And I was like, oh, my God. And then there was another case where this is a very prominent person. I, you know.

nailed him on a bunch of shit this small fry in their case um didn't plead guilty to something their company pleaded guilty to something and i reported that so and so you know how does a company what do they bring a building in there it says hey you got me you know my my roof is leaking you know i don't know and um and

It was a small thing, and I went back to the prize and said, well, no, they pled guilty. I said, well, no, they actually, you know, it was no contest, you know, whatever it was. It was a very, very minor, minor thing. Person still was going to face consequences. Also the shit, the very prominent person saw an opportunity to get me and they went all over town. They took out ads saying, you know, when is the Concord monitor going to stop there?

their their crusade of persecution and they talked the editor in the paper into doing a front page correction i'm like we never did those but when you get even the smallest thing like dan said is it a blazer or a tahoe they're both chevys folks They had a car. So that's why. Yeah, exactly. That's why your people. Generally correct. You see people say vehicle. Was it a Segway? I don't know. It got there somehow. A pair of sneakers. Yeah. Was it that skateboard that Marty McFly had?

It was a vehicle. It was a conveyance that it's so hard. But you did just some amazing work. I know you've got to go because you're breaking another big story. I should warn the Free Press Sports Department. But Sharon Moore's story, huge Whittingham. I mean, I hope you're going to get a break.

Yeah, I mean, we're not digging coal. And more importantly, was it you or Thamel? Because every report was reported by Dave. Sometimes. What a team you guys are. It was when Pete worked at Yahoo with me and Pat Forty. We did a... It was a long scandal of college basketball. The FBI had arrested all these. And we would just, every single story was a triple byline to try to like throw off. Oh, who had the key source? Yeah.

Wait, explain that. Explain how that... works so one of us would get a tip on something so this was a this was a case where the fbi it's a massive case that ended with nothing yeah ridiculous did this they were gonna try for shit this legal now oh guys went to prison and literally like got out and then it was legal yeah

Side note, there was a little bit of a ramification for Harbaugh because the NCAA changed the rules that made the head coach responsible for everything underneath them. Right? That came out of it. Because of Bill Self. I was under the impression that Jim Harbaugh wasn't responsible for anything. But that's another story for another day. I know. That guy is so persecuted. Poor guy.

Does he even know? Does he even remember? No, he doesn't. I will say this. One of the things he was accused of and found guilty of was being, like, not... forthcoming and distracted in an interview with the NCA investigators. I'm like, that's him. Have you ever seen the guy talk? I ask him, what do you think of the Michigan State game Saturday? Opportunity.

For men to compete. Iron spine. He grunt out that answer in a... press conference of course he was uh vague aloof vague and aloof i was like uh guilty as charged i'm not sure he's guilty of what you're saying but he's definitely definitely good for business though

Anyway, there was a huge thing. So there's 10 defendants and there's prosecutors and there's lawyers and there's this and there's that and there's FBI and all these things. So, you know, one of us would get something along the way. I mean, we're talking probably hundreds of stories over two years.

And we just triple byline everything because then they can't figure it out. And then if we got something, you always have to be wary when you're dealing anything with the feds because they could try to. Like if there's a gag order. They can be prosecuted for talking about the case. Yeah, so then we call everybody. And then make it so that if they ever invest – like every attorney got calls, every – like make 40 calls even though it wasn't going to –

We already had the story and it wasn't going to yield anything. But yeah, try to hide stuff. We talked to 36 people. Could have been any one of them. It's like, yeah, he called me. That's where I always, I'm like, when stories come out and they're like, we have eight sources. I'm like. That's probably seven of them are on that same side. You don't need eight. You need two. You bring the pair legally. It's like, yeah, my boss is right. Eight guys in the same office all think the same thing.

Right. Yeah. The attorney, the assistant attorney, the paralegal, the court reporter. They all say, oh, yeah, we all think that. But if they've all seen the same indictment, then that's fair. It's tricky, but it's fun. It's not coal mining, though. Is it better than covering the portal?

it's better than the portal well the portal's its own bit of lies exactly lies yeah i hate the portal i hate covering that thing or any kind of free it's just like there's too much everybody yeah everybody's like yeah we're gonna go here and then again they just switch a lot yeah recruiting was crazy because at least the free agency just asked pat boris right or scott you have to have a good relationship with the right agent or the right um

But even back covering just old school reporting, like you've seen these kids. Yeah, they're going to go to state and then they get the hats in front and they put on Ohio State. I said state, you know. And so you can be wrong and you look, it's just being wrong. I just think gets in. It's just like, oh, no. How many portal kids have or athletes shouldn't use kids because they're getting paid now. Yeah.

But how many of them have agents? Because I keep seeing tweets like per their agent. Almost all of them. Almost all of them? Yeah. That used to cost you eligibility. The guy's going from SCS to FBS. They always deserved an agent. That was one of the NCAA's worst rules. Every adult deserves the right to a representation. Yeah.

And the NCAA somehow made it illegal to have representation. No, even 30 years ago, I was like, that's. Well, they didn't want him to be bagman. They didn't want, the coach didn't want to have to deal with it. So they just. How do you ban yourself from having an attorney?

yeah how is that how is that and i get it you also run into those situations like well my brother's an attorney he's going to represent me some of the agents are terrible i mean they're just a kid down the hall or the parent the parents try to do it yeah it's

The agents, you have an agent, but yeah, pretty much all of them. Really? That's such a... Not all. A lot of kids actually just show up and whatever the deal is going to be, they don't negotiate. Most kids don't have a lot of negotiation room. it's it's it's well i mean yeah outside of the soresby's or soresby's yeah i mean that's a five million dollar deal yeah you better have an agent you better have a lawyer you better have a all this stuff that's what's funny because underwood got so much

Shit. And granted, it was different because he hadn't proved himself like Swarsby has. And he has proved himself now. for getting two and a half million. And it's like, well, this is going to be like the NFL where the next guy is going to get more and then more. Yeah. And I don't even know what he, I don't know what this was like a multi-year and this incentives, like how much, but then there's stuff like schools would do stuff. I've, I've.

I saw one of these contracts, a school would say, okay, you're going to get, the kid believes I'm going to get a, I'm going to go to the school. I'm going to get an apartment and like a $70,000 car. And what they got was use of a $70,000 car during the season. So the car dealer lets the kid drive around in a car. He didn't get, but he's sitting there going, I got 70 grand here.

no you didn't you got during the season is he like well yeah but the season is you know spring practice well whatever but if you leave you don't drive out of town in your new car that you then sell on

carvana for 48 grand you didn't get anything you didn't own it you didn't own an apartment you didn't own so you need to if you're a if you're a top guy yeah you should negotiate but a lot of the guys Like there's three types of transfers. There's the ones that are moving up because they've proven themselves and they want that opportunity. And a lot of those kids are not in a position to negotiate. They're coming from Akron or.

Houston Christian. Yes. And they get in a shot. Michigan State's like, look, man, we'll take you. You play on our D line. We got 200 grand for you. Scholarship. Boom. OK, maybe you can ask for 10 percent more like a normal job. Right. Yes. For a little bit more.

Maybe you get it. Maybe you don't. But they're like, we got a ton of guys. Like, we're going to fill up our spots. You're not that good. You're not Nick Marsh. Right. You're not Nick Marsh. But so, boom, there's your deal. And you just take it. A third of them are moving down.

because they're getting replaced they weren't good enough and the new coach comes in or the coach like i'm bringing in four guys at your position yeah you know you're not going to play so now you're the michigan state michigan kid going i want to go and you're calling akron and they're like man we only got central florida who took a couple spartans right right whatever you're going to take but we only got we got 35 grand for you

And this is it. So that's like two-thirds at least of the portal. Then there's another third that are just moving around for the sake of whatever they're doing. But the vast majority of the portal, it's kind of – and so, yeah, you have these top guys. Nick Marsh was a desired player. What does Nick – approximately good. Maybe a million. Yeah.

But he could have got the million staying at Michigan State. More importantly. It's not like Michigan State wasn't going to try to re-sign him. He's a great player and a local recruit. He's important. He's sitting there saying, I just did two years of crap. I believed in this program. We did nothing. I don't know who the quarterback's going to be. Yeah, Fitz is good, but I go to Indiana.

I can play in a playoff. I can win. Google me. I can go to the NFL. They have a great quarterback coming in. They're going to bring in a quarterback. So did Indiana outbend Michigan State? I doubt it.

But either way, he's making good money. So then the other aspect to this whole portal thing that I find fascinating is that... And I think either Biff Pogey or Whittingham, one of them said it. I think Whittingham might have said it out loud where these negotiations are already going on before the portal opens. So is this Nick Marsh thing, when would that have started? Does that start during the season?

Well, they're not allowed to. So it's more like I think it's more like, you know, you either have someone who has a relationship with that agent. and you let them know, look, we want to be involved in this, and we know the basic parameters.

The same way you would in the NBA. This is the way I would date. I'm like, does your friend like me? Because I kind of like your friend, but I haven't asked her to the prom yet. I don't want to waste any time. If she's going to say no, just tell me. Do you have a car? No, I don't have a car, but I got a bus pass.

That ain't going to cut it. I'm out. Or she's fine with the bus. Okay. All right. Buck teeth and Coke bottle glasses and looking for a date and she's got a dress. So there's a lot of that the same way. So you might. Try to feel it out. Then it's okay. It's agents, but it's also.

This is why I think the tampering rules are stupid. Everything in life is tampering. Everything in life is tampering, right? You could just be like, hey, if you ever have an opening, you can work at McDonald's and be like, if the Burger King... Never got a job open. I'd love to go over there. Right. You tell your friend or, hey, we might have an opening. Would you be interested?

Everyone does it. So you have that. LSU waited for the Ole Miss season to be over before they contacted Lane Kiffin. They're all looking for jobs. And then. Okay, so let's take a powerhouse cast tech, right, or King High School in Detroit. Dante Moore. Dante Moore, right? Great player. sauce gardener like the king's got tons of guys great program great coaches down there great community um they got a terrific program and so they get a lot of kids go and they come out now if you're so if you're

You work at Michigan State, right? You are calling the coach at King High School. You're trying to get that guy on the phone. every week because eventually you're trying to get some of his guys you may not get dante more but you might get this guy you might not get that guy and like who do you know so you're always talking to them and then you sit there and say so um

I mean, obviously in this case, it wouldn't be it, but like, I thought they liked the West coast, you know, boy, if we'd ever, if he ever was homesick, man, I always wanted to coach that kid. I always want, you know, and it's like, are you tampering? Are you just.

checking in and being like, man, I love that kid. If he ever wanted to move back home, that'd be awesome. You still talk to Freddie? Because Freddie's a great kid. What a great kid. If I had two Freddies on my program, we'd be paying for an asshole. And you just happen to know Freddie only played three snaps on him.

dollars for those friends and freddy didn't get the ball thrown to him on saturday so maybe freddy's like you know i'm trying to make the league he'd be featured in our offense featured in but i had suspected that this just goes on all year round year round they're all friends You're recruiting. You're working because there's camps. You can't. That's why this whole someone's tampering. Get over yourself. That is life. Someone's tampering.

Everyone's tampering with everything. I mean, you'll point the finger because they're doing it better than you. They're tampering better than you. Tamper. That is the type of stuff the NCAA wastes enormous energy trying to police. That is a natural human emotion.

Natural human behavior is we're going to have that discussion, right? They used to get really fired up. I call it daydreaming. They had this thing called the bump. You are allowed to, if you ran into. So let's say there's a great player at East Lansing High, and you go into the pizza shop on Friday night to pick up a pizza. Just don't pay for his cheeseburger. And you see his dad. Are you allowed to say hello?

Are you allowed to say what kind of pizza? There was like, they tried to legislate like just whatever, man. Like Harbaugh and his cheeseburger. He walks in for carryout, sees him there, pays for his food. Or Izzo doing that cheering. You're not buying that? Come on. Now, that was, no. There were COVID rules. You weren't allowed to talk to Andy. You weren't allowed to host. That's a little different. They broke the rules. But they would try to legislate, like, you're allowed to do a war.

but not too formal greeting and a firm hand. Like, what is this crap? Like... Just let people be people. Like, dude, hey, I saw Jimmy eating three touchdowns last night. It was fantastic, man. Good to see you. Great to have you. Enjoy the pizza. I'm out, right? Like, is that what's going to flip this whole thing? And it's not fair to Ohio State because this kid's in it.

East Lansing well they got a kid they got a piece it'll even out the deals will even out so okay going forward just prediction will they ever make um athletes in college um

Employees. Because that would solve a lot of the ills. It's not going to solve tampering. It's not going to solve... A lot of things, but it will. Yeah, I think there's more realization. It'll slow the portal down. Because that'd be part of the bargaining. Contracts. The problem they have is they've waited so long. They fought this. They always are fighting. The last battle. Amateurism, amateurism. Amateurism was almost obviously dead in 2014 when the...

The NCAA lost the case against Ed O'Bannon. Oh, yeah. When Ed O'Bannon was like, that's me in the video game. It's my number. I'm bald. I'm lefty. I play for UCLA. What the hell, man? I'm still mad for ending EA Sports. They argued, no, it isn't. Yeah. Right? And you're like, dude, and they fought and fought. But the problem is now, you...

The power is all in the players. Players always want one-year free agency. So why would they want to be employees? So even if you make them employees, everyone's like, just employee and then collective bargain. They'll agree to all our rules now. Well, I don't know if they're going to. Why would you?

Well, I mean, you might want a pension. You might want long-term health care. Sure. You're going to have to give a lot up. You would give up portal moving, right? I think that would be a big one. You would cut the portal moving down. But players like the movement because, A, they can... they can dictate how their situation is. Are they, and people don't think about what was wrong before. There were so many kids that would go to a school and get buried on that depth chart, never got to play.

or their position coach left. There's so many. The system changed. The old system was, yeah, the system changed. I'm a dual threat quarterback. Now we're drop back pro style. I'm out. And now I'm like, oh, well, I can't really leave. And so. I'm doing this. And it's like, well, you know, was it so bad that you just left and then you went to Miami, Ohio and graduated from there and gotten a, a grad degree in your last year of eligibility? Like, is this so.

That's so horrible about life to you. And maybe the coaches, these coaches are crazy, right? I mean, what if you, what if you were a believer in Sharon Moore and he just does this to you? And in the old days, you just had to take it. You had to take it, and you're like, this guy, I didn't do anything. He did it. Well, coaches and affairs, it's not a unique situation at all. I know a guy whose kid played mid-major college hockey, and he was a senior.

and they brought a new coach, and he's like, my kid's never going to play because the new coach brought all his guys in. I knew a women's soccer girl one year in, and the coach said, in like June, you're not going to play next year. I got... These other kids, she had a fine new school in six weeks. And it's like, she didn't want to leave. Wow. But that's how it is. And so it's okay then. Or nobody tells that story either because it makes the player look like it doesn't.

help them in the portal you you need to have no leverage right you don't want to sit there and say hey i got those little messages that they put out yeah you know right wolverine for life and all that they can't be like coach thinks i suck And I'm not going to play and I don't work hard enough. I'm now entering the portal. Someone give me a scholarship. So they have to be like, I'm just looking for new opportunities. Right. Yeah. Welcome to Lindenwood. The portal is extremely frustrating.

I get how people are just like overwhelmed by it. But if you go to each individual decision, we were talking about this sooner. If it's your kid, you're like, oh, this makes a lot of sense. Yeah. And because it's like, yeah, what am I supposed to do? And so what if you were that soccer player and you're like, you're not going to play. And you're like, well, I always wanted to play college soccer and I don't. And I can't. I can't. Now I can transfer and take time, but.

It's just, you know. We had Tom Tofelsky on a year or two ago who does some sports agent and some others. His kid. was a running back at Central Michigan. Never was going to play. They had the one guy, Lou, there who ran for 2,000 yards the first year. Then McIlwain wasn't going to put him in. He didn't fit into his system, whatever. He went in the portal.

He played the last two years at Notre Dame. He got a graduate degree from Notre Dame. So, you know, the portal, not all bad. Not all bad, yeah. Pretty good story for Jake Tafels. Right, and maybe they do do that, or they look for programs. Like, there are... Not every kid is like most of these people are come from good families and they're like, well, if I go to this place, I can get a year graduate and an accounting master's or something like that and be on my way.

One time I thought I'd make the NFL. I'm not. I once thought I was going to be the NBA, and I realized. That's the one thing that drives me nuts about college athletics. People look at it and go, they don't even care about school. I'm like, well, yeah, the top. Echelon? The cream? Maybe, maybe not. They probably don't, but...

The majority of athletes do. How many kids did I go to school with that didn't care about school? Yeah, but you didn't go to those kids for seven years who take an English Lit 101 19 times on 14 different campuses. I remember I had a class with Robert Traylor.

He actually did go to a class and sat and ate like four candy bars the whole time. I did not pay attention to the presentation by the professor that day. I just watched him going, how many candy bars is this guy going to eat in one sitting? This is great. Yeah, try and move him out of the post. Hey, Dan Wetzel, ESPN, thanks for taking your vacation with us. And you can hear Dan on the ESPN College Game Day podcast.

You guys are doing a remote from the Great Wolf Lodge, right? I would love the Great Wolf Lodge. The last two episodes were fantastic, by the way. They were really, really good. There you go. Listen up. Listen up. Breaking news. Breaking hearts. I will not stand for Great Wolf Lodge. Treated me well. I heard there's a swim-up bar at one of the ones. I was in Sandusky for a soccer tournament, and someone said then. It's either Great Wolf Lodge or Kalahari has a swim-up bar. I go, that sounds...

Great and absolutely awful. I've never been at one of those where I felt the parents weren't drunk enough. I never got there and was like, boy, there's not enough alcohol consumption here. Just throw bottles in the water. How many bloated Uncle Freds are they scraping off the filter on that pool? Somebody's got a swim-up bar in Sandusky. Well, that's just what I want. A slob who's drunk vomiting in a hot tub. The chlorine kills it. It's all good. Hey, thanks, Dan. Great to see you.

Oh man, the geeks have inherited the earth. Did I do that? What a dork. Does him wanting to play with us again mean that he's turning into a geek? Or we're turning into cool guys? Before we get to this week's geek, I want to tell you a little bit about Luke Nowacki, who just set up a couple of Roth IRAs.

for my daughters. That's right. Because if you can't decide if a vocalist is a member of a group or not, or you believe that your glove box is the correct storage place for your birth certificate, should you really be trusted with something complex like preparing your investments? to provide for the rest of your life. When you sober up enough for your phone to recognize your face and unlock,

Call or text Luke Nowacki at 248-663-4748. That's 248-663-4748. He did the math, and Led Zeppelin is clearly a four-piece, and Green Day is... a three-piece and if you call luke He'll make it all about you, sweetheart. Securities and investment advisory services offered through OMAIC Wealth. Sync member F-I-N-R-A-S-I-P-C. OMAIC Wealth. Sync is separately owned and other entities and or marketing names, products, or services referenced here are independent. OMAIC Wealth. Sync.

Having great journalists like Dan Wetzel on the show reminds me of one of the greatest journalism sayings I've ever heard. It was by a columnist at... Newsday, which is the big newspaper on Long Island. His name is Murray Kempton. He's dead now. He's kind of a quirky guy. He used to ride his bike everywhere because it's Long Island. You could do that. Anyways, he had a saying that said,

There's no excuse for kicking somebody when they're down. Having said that, I'm going to make... All right, who are you kicking? The New York Jets, who are always down. What is a cheap shot? And I'm kicking them because they tried to ban a longtime fan who participated in their halftime field goal contest, or she was chosen to participate in it.

You could win $100,000. And what ended up happening was Ashley Castellano Gervaisi. Boy, talk about a Long Island name if ever there was one. She's a high school soccer coach on Long Island. lifelong Jets supporter, and she had been told that she was no longer eligible for the team's kick-for-cash promotion because of her coaching status. Apparently... Oh, come on. There's some little fine print that said you can't have some, I guess...

aptitude for kicking a football or any football. This reminds me of two stories, if I can interject here, because I already am. Wetzel, who was here, talked to a kid who I want to say was at a Purdue game. and he kicked the ball and they said nope it doesn't count because the clock had already gone to zero when he kicked it right at zero like went to the tape and the uproar the upper was so bad about it they eventually relented and they got the toyota or whatever it was

to the kid. They did the right thing in the end. The other one it makes me think of is Joey Marasso, who we all know. Oh, yeah. Love Joe. His brother kicked at Wayne State and was chosen to kick the field goal. for the Lions game and nailed it. Just drilled it because he was a college kicker. And did he win anything? Yes. They didn't have a rule against being a former college kicker. So what is wrong with the Jets? Well, apparently the...

The Jets said that she was disqualified because the rules prohibit current or recent coaches in soccer, football, or rugby from participating in the promotion for insurance reasons. insurance that would protect their safety, but probably insurance that says if some idiot actually hits it, we've got to pay out the $100,000. So she qualified for this by kicking a 20-yard field goal at a Jet-sponsored tailgate.

In October, she's told, listen, hey, you can't do this. But she said she disclosed her college soccer background and her coaching role during the qualification process and was never told you can't do this when they scheduled her. I'm on Team Ashley. Yeah, so she said that this $100,000 prize, which was sponsored by Hellman's, would be life-changing if she won it, and that she planned to use anything she won towards buying a home. And here's the kicker. A lot of kicking analogies.

supporting cancer related so the jets like yeah well we wouldn't want to we wouldn't want to have anything to do with that or are they doing the right thing or are they suing her or is she suing them well it gets even worse oh no so she said the opportunity Carried particular meaning because she's attempting the kick in memory of her father, a devoted Jets fan who died. A 9-11?

Esophageal cancer in 2011. Oh, boy. Yeah. She should also kick for 9-11 survivors. Well, the family continued to attend games together after he died. kind of one of the things they did together they raised tons of money for cancer education call also anyways the jets find themselves you know i mean it's not like just do the right thing they're the worst team and uh and horrible and always screw shit up With this storm of bad publicity. Which, it's funny, it's probably not even the Jets. It's...

Probably the insurance company. Or Hellman's. They just say, hey, man, we want our name on this. But now the Jets are going to have to do the right thing, which is good. They should do the right thing. And then pay extra to the American Cancers. Or do a matching thing. Of course. You don't think the owner... $100,000 is a rounding here. They've wasted millions of dollars on quarterbacks. Yeah. So you can't fight anyway. They need some cornerbacks. They changed their mind and they said...

They would allow her to kick. And then hope she misses it. And because I was on vacation, I don't know whether she did it or not. So if you've been keeping up with this, folks, and you want us to know how it went, let us know. But Jets. We're kicking you while you're down because you're always down. We don't have any other time to kick you. You're our Geek of the Week.

And you can dance together all night. You've got the time. You know, I had an impromptu geek of the week that I passed on, but I just can't resist. When I was driving here on 696, which is a mess, I passed a guy driving a pretty fancy-looking SUV, and when I passed it, I realized it was...

A Lamborghini SUV. If you want a Lambo... Oh, those are sweet. Why are you getting an SUV? Come on, dude. They're still pretty cool. I don't know. That blows the whole... I remember when Porsche came up with an SUV. I was like... I don't know, man. If I want a Porsche, I want it. But then they were kind of cool looking. But then the GM who I had a disagreement with at Fox 2 drove up.

a porsche suv so i'm back to my if you want a sports car don't get the suv version you want the update on ashley cassiano oh yes i do 33 so she was invited nailed it no yes please i'm gonna read you the whole story okay Um, my husband said to be right before money's money, but you can never put a price in the way you're going to feel during this experience. So they did a whole interview with her.

being a diehard jets fans getting on that field being in the tunnel it was awesome there's such a roar to cheer for me because of course the fans were going ape shit because they knew the story so it's a 30 yard kick for cash oh no it was totally on target oh But apparently way short. Oh, dear. Did she get like 50 grand? I don't know if she got. There's a picture of her right there. Okay. Nice looking lady.

I liked it. She's got good hair. Oh, damn. Is that her and her dead dad on the field in the one? Yeah. Yeah. Let me go back to that one. Now, of course. You can see what I'm talking about if you're one of our Patreon subscribers. If you're one of our soulmates, you can watch the show. You get to dodge all those annoying insertion ads. And you get to stick with us when we both show these great graphics. Kick in the gut. I know. There's the cover for the post that they kick in the gut.

Yeah. Kind of a, kind of a weak headline for the post. They always come up with such great ones. Like one of the greatest of all times. I'm sure Drew's favorite beat the needles when they had the story about. how the Beatles used to masturbate together. Oh, really? Oh, that's funny. Yeah, the headline was Beat the Beatles, which was, and they had the fab.

Four on there. There were multiple kickers, by the way. None of them made the kick. Good form, though. Look at that. Yeah, not too bad. She's ripping it. But anyway, the other thing you can do if you're a soulmate and watching us is you can watch the video for Rumi.

seven six or nine and this week we picked a special video because uh well the artist is new wave which sean wouldn't like but he's soft which sean might like but erica's trying to overcome a little a little bug and sean has been laid up we we may tell you more about that but if you haven't been reading his stuff i know you're missing his stuff in the free press like i do i would call him serious but stable is that fair

He's responding to texts, which is good. I talked to him over the break. Yeah. But if you are inclined to do these kind of things, and I don't want to make it sound more dramatic than it is, but say a little prayer for Sean Windsor. And of course, if you have any illicit drugs, he's probably interested in those based on... his youth as we have learned uh over the past several years on this show but so in honor of sean

We are bringing our friend, I don't know, Howard Jones. Sometimes he's good, sometimes he's bad. His hair, always terrible. Flock of Siegel's level hair with his classic hit, Things Can Always Get Better. Or only get better. They can always only get better.

We have to realize. Clinging to the things with pride I have a feeling I'm going to be walking around all day going... I struggle with Howard Jones because I think, you know, as an artist, he's pretty good. He has some good... poppy songs i think he's what are some of his i don't even know entertaining um i'm drawing a blank there's one song um you know i love you don't you that that i think is the best howard jones song and it's this great line

In there where he says, no man is an island on that. You can depend on a man on his own as a sinking ship. It will be that way till the very end, which I think is really, really poignant. Yeah. So I really like, but. He brought into that whole, let me be a clown, the ridiculous hair, the shiny orange silk suit, and the video. Our soulmates know this, but-

Charlie Chaplin's in your video. Dude, you have a karate guy who's hitting himself in the head with nunchucks or nunchaka. Well, things will be better. And then he does a little, he tries to break it down while you have people doing a swing dance. I mean. One of the worst videos of all time, and we've seen some horrible videos, but yeah, he's terrible. I like to get to know you well. Do I know that song? I probably do.

Not that you're deep into the Howard Jones catalog, but I think that's a little deeper cut. But that's actually a pretty catchy song, a pretty clever song. What is love? New song? Oh yeah, that's not one of my favorite ones. But yeah, he's just one of those guys where it's tough to take him seriously because...

The hair was so ridiculous. I mean, same thing with Flock of Seagulls. Some other stuff isn't bad. He still has hair, but it's not nearly as big. Yeah, no, it's tough to support that level of hair, which reminds me there's this great... This great story that the Smiths tell, I think it was Mike Joyce or Andy Rourke, that when they went on Top of the Pops, they were following Paul Young, who we've played on here. Great.

bass player pino paladino and he has one of these blue-eyed soul guys from england um great great singer but um the smiths were kind of famously down market you know they they'd go on to these shows wearing jeans you know and you know whatever t-shirt and they were getting ready to go on after Paul Young and Paul Young's band was coming off the stage

and they're wearing these wide-shouldered outfits, and their hair is all poofed up like six feet above their head with hairspray, and they're wearing all these flashy outfits, and like, oh shit, are we... I mean, the right place and, and the, the costumes they were wearing were so outrageous that they could barely like fit through the hallway to get backstage. And like, well, we're on. So they just went out and, you know, of course they killed, but.

That's the way it was in the 80s, man. Just let Sean know. Things will get better. Thanks.

Things can only get better. Yes, that's right. Can't get much worse. You want to talk about a positive prognosis, there you go. And of course, we love your stories and your songs. So please, we had a nice backlog we worked through at the end of the year. Some great stories, some great suggestions.

Please help us load up for the new year. Send us your songs and more importantly, your stories to mlsoldetroit at gmail.com. Room 7609 is best when you do the booking. That's what Sean and Mark always tell me. Eric's too polite to say it. Lessons your workload. I'm just thinking of you. I just love the stories people come up with. Music means so much to people and how they associate songs with experiences and people.

It's just, it's really great. So, you know, the best part of this show is you. So here's a great chance for you to weigh in. So please send your songs and suggestions now. Mark, I do have a little good news in terms of our financial support. So if we have a little music for the occasion to raise the level for those people who are raising some dough from us.

We made an appeal at the end of the year because, as you know, we're down a sponsor, which means this is becoming more of a hobby than a side hustle. And some folks stepped up. This doesn't mean that everybody else is off the hook. I guess you dirtbags can come up with five bucks a month or pretty much any amount. But Zach McLaughlin jumped up and said, keep up the great work, ML and crew. I love listening to you guys.

Whatever the topic, it's always interesting and fun. Love room 76092. Love from Ontario. And Ontario is for lovers. So thanks, Zach. Alberto Tapia says, Merry, merry. keep it going so thank you very much for your support we're saving up for a cough button so maybe that's coming in the new year oh my god also peg mcnichol

made a very generous donation. We really appreciate that. Dan Linick stepped up. Dan, thank you so much. Val Lamb, great to have you in the Soulmates. Thank you for support. And 76 Verge. Very generous donation. We really appreciate that. So thank you. It's your support that keeps us coming back week after week. And we hope more of you will become soulmates. We're coming up with some new premiums for our soulmates.

in the coming year but of course you know you get to watch the show you get before anybody else you get to avoid all those annoying insertion ads that do help pay the bills a little bit and you get our monthly bonus episodes now over the holidays mark crammed a couple of those bonus episodes together for the last two episodes of the year. So if you're wondering, what am I missing in these bonus episodes? You're missing a lot.

Great stories about the mob from Scott Bernstein. Neil Rubin, one of the most talented storytellers in Detroit journalism history, telling some of his greatest hits. Bernie Smilovitz, how he got his start in journalism. What a crazy... Bernie stories. origin story. I re-listened to it and I was like, wow, this is a really good interview. Oh, me too. The phone call and then all of a sudden he's got a big scoop working the night desk in Washington, D.C. I mean...

Amazing stories that you're only going to hear, folks. And John Keating also telling some great stories. And, of course, you can catch more of Keats on the Keats and Ozzy podcast. But, you know, just wait for him to come back. You don't need to step out on us as you were, as you will, as you may, as you shouldn't. So those bonus episodes come every month. We're working on January's. Next week, guest, by the way, big one. Oh, yeah. I'm excited about this.

to have Rob Walcheck, who's retiring from Fox 2. We're hoping to have him on the show, and we're hoping to also cut a bonus episode with some of his great stories that you'll only hear here. So please, never a better time than now to become a soulmate. Make that your resolution.

Do it today, today, today. Ah, there we go. Hit the reverse post. So we have just a little bit of feedback catching up from the holidays. Janet says, curious if ML and Sean consider Spartans Mike Valente and Rico Beard on 97.1 to be reporters. What does reporter even mean in 2025? I mean, anyone with a podcast and Twitter account can be a reporter, right?

And she uses an example. They could, but yeah. Justin Spear, also known as Darko State News. Yeah, he's one of the guys, like we were talking earlier with Dan Wetzel, who may put a lot of stuff up. before anybody else, but may not always have it locked down. But he does break a lot of news. And if you're looking for hot takes from East Lansing, holy crap, this guy is, you know, he's Frank's hot sauce on steroids.

The reason Janet asks is because Valenti went scorched earth on his radio and print reporter peers for covering up the coach more open secret scandal for months. If not for over... Now, I think we addressed that earlier in the show. But she says he basically called them all foot soldier propagandists and cowards for the so-called blue wall, even naming top hosts at his own radio station. Well, first and foremost, they're entertainers. Yeah. And they're entertaining.

She says, I thought that was pretty rich coming from a guy with an MSU journalism school degree who makes 10 times the salary of the average U of M beat reporter with 100 times the audience and connections at the highest levels. Why didn't he and Rico have the stones to scoop this?

Rico also has media degrees from MSU and is an adjunct professor at Lawrence Tech. I agree with him that there was clearly some sort of media cover-up going on, but Mike and Rico were just as if not more complicit as the little guys on the beat and even student reporters at Michigan Daily.

Merry Christmas, Jen. Of course, we're catching up. I think we addressed most of that. And I think that Valenti's smart. I think he's entertaining. But let me tell you a little something about who the cowards are. Mike, you ever go in a locker room after you blow somebody up? Mike, you ever go on the sidelines? Mike, you ever go to a press conference?

Mike, you ever go one-on-one with one of the people you're flaming? I don't think you do. In fact, I've heard him say that I intentionally avoid all that stuff, I guess, to preserve his objectivity. Well, a lot of my colleagues and a lot of the guys at the Detroit News and some of the other sports reporters in broadcast media, they tell the hard stories and then they face the harsh music. So it's really easy.

to sit in the cheap seats and throw grenades. Or as Janet points out, if you knew it, why didn't you break the story? You guys are pretty wired.

So you can kiss my ass, Valenti. Rico I really like and have a lot of respect for. But you guys want to take shots at us? Hey, if you had the story, you break it, pal. But you didn't. And we explained to you why sometimes it takes a little... time to get the news out there because when we report it it's news it's not some shit we heard and somebody whispered to us or that we saw on the blog so uh so janet uh great

Great question. I think we've probably covered it ad nauseum. But I do want to acknowledge somebody who works at 97.1, who I do consider a real reporter, and someone who, I'm sorry to say, Broke some bad news just today. That's Pat Caputo. The book. The book on sports. The S on my chest stands for objectivity. How does he explain that? But it's not for Spartan.

He announced that he has stage four pancreatic cancer. If you know anybody who's been afflicted by this, very few people beat this horrible, horrible condition. But Pat... Went to the practices. Pat knew the coaches. If you ever listen to Pat, his stories about the one-on-ones with Sparky Anderson in his office at Tiger Stadium. Epic. And another one of our friends who was gone too soon, Pat. God forgive me, I'm a little overcome here, but killer.

Tom Kowalski. Tom Kowalski. Kowalski and Caputo going at it on the radio. Those were some epic battles. Both worked at the Oakland Press. Yeah, iconic sports columnists and beat reporters. They didn't always agree. And when they would go at it, man, that was a heavyweight clash. It was way more entertaining than anything involving Jake Paul. But we hope that Pat's going to be one of those guys who beats the odds. But when he has a hot take, he's faced the harsh music. He's stood up.

to what he's written and he stood behind his work and i've always had a lot of respect for him i've enjoyed listening to him i know a lot of people say he's not the most polished broadcaster so But he knows what he's talking about. When you want to talk about- I liked his voice. Distinctive voice. Everybody's got a Caputo. Yeah, everybody's got a Caputo imitation. So do I consider that guy at 97.1 a reporter?

Absolutely. And not just a report, but one of the best. So I hope that Pat has got some good news ahead. But regardless of what happens next for him, his body of work speaks for itself. It is epic. And, you know, I miss him on the air. I hope he'll be back. But we only have the best in our hearts and souls for what we hope is next for the book.

And even though he is a big Spartan, he'd roast the Spartans too. So I think he liked roasting the Wolverines as well. But we're hoping for the best for Pat. So... Mark, I think a big show coming up next week. It was great to have Dan here. You know, we like to take you behind the scenes. Dan's terrific. Follow him at ESPN. I mean, he's never going on vacation, so you should probably check the site every day. And as Mark mentioned, he's got a new pod.

Podcast, good stuff. So check that out, too, of course, after you listen to our show and after you listen to the Drew Lane show and after you catch. If you like college sports and college football, it's a good one to listen to. Listen, Dan. He works for a national news outlet, but he breaks a lot of Michigan college sports news.

Definitely, definitely worth your time. We hope you'll be back with us next week. We're grateful for the new year and everything that lies ahead. Thanks for sticking with us over the holidays. And until next week, we turn to our friend Cyrus to take us out. Can you dig that? Can you dig it? This year, let Dan Wetzel light up your holidays. Board manuals last Christmas in Ann Arbor? That thing had nine lives. She just spent them all. You will crack up.