The Season with Peter Scheger is a production of the NFL in partnership with iHeartRadio. What's off, everybody, This is Peter Schreger and you're listening to you this season with Peter Schreger. It is the Tuesday of Week three of the NFL season. So we closed the book with two Monday night games last evening, two ugly games. To be honest, I mean Steelers win, but they had negative seven yards of offense in the fourth quarter.
And the big story is Nick Chubb, who's a beloved.
Player in the league and my favorite pound for pal running back in the sport, out for the season with a gruesome injury. And then Saints Panthers again, like the storyline is Saints defense played well.
That's not it was a tough watch. Saints win. Panthers are a year away, maybe more. That offensive line gave Bryce Young no help. That's it. That's the NFL.
You know, week two putting on a bow of it, and like you have these two Monday night games and you're like, gosh, Saturday night Colorado, Colorado State was so much cooler. And I know we're doing an NFL season podcast, but you can't tell the season of football without talking about this Dion effect.
Let me just take you through it.
Aaron and I'm with Aaron wan Kaufman, my great producer and friend, and Jason English is here as well from my heart list.
I'm on a flight. I'm on a Jet Blue flight.
And I'm in one of those deals where the TVs are on all over across, all over the place, so you could see all the TVs. I flew out on like ten am Eastern, which means that like both Game Day and Fox's new show Fox Big Noon Kickoff are both on it too. They're both at Colorado and in the same flight. I would say that usually it's you're getting people watch and the Housewives. You've got someone watching, you know, Taken as a movie. You've got some kids
watching every TV's watching Colorado Colorado State pregame. And I'd say it was split down the middle between the Fox and the ESPN. But the fact matter is on one camera you've got the Rock in ESPN sending you know, their talent.
And having McAfee with the Rock over there. On the other camp, I've.
Got Lil Wayne performing, who then tosses it to Gronk, who's there inexplicably, but like it's the hype man and was great, and then Dion's on camera and he's doing interviews with both on set, and the wild thing to me is that it was like eight am Local. They didn't play for another twelve hours, and the fans and the students had to like go nuts per game day, go nuts for the Fox show, and then like somehow bottle it and go out there and do it all
over again during the game. Then once the game starts. Did you see the rating this morning, Aaron? See the number come out?
No, I mean from the sheer amount of people talking about it, I have to it's incredible, all.
Right, So.
I'd love I wish we had Like there's a guy named Mike mulva Hill who does Fox ratings analysis, and there's all these other ratings people online. There's a guy named sports TV Ratings, the Twitter feed, there's another thing like Paulson they do the ratings. It got a nine point three unlinear, so forget all the streaming thing. They already said it was the most streamed college football game of all time on ESPN, but at nine to three means it had nine point three million people watching.
Now think about when this thing was on.
It started at ten o'clock Eastern, meaning it carried an audience through midnight to one. I'll be honest with you, you know I told you my routine not a big go out guy. Charles Woodson is a great idea. He says, let's watch the start of Dion at the hotel bar and we'll get some food.
I at the start. I want to see the starts.
Yeah, they come out, well, they come out and there's a pick six out of the gates and there, and then there's a it's called back.
And then there's another play, and all of a sudden.
It's this date of this backyard brawl where Hunter is getting the shot from the Colorado State kid, but Colorado State will not back down, and they're doing crossing patterns and they're killing Colorado and you're starting to I can't turn this off. It was amazing. Stayed up watched the entire thing. I was fortunate enough to be watching it with one of the greatest players of all time, with Charles Woodson breaking it down, and we're having fun watching.
But I'm getting text from my friends on the East Coast who are watching. So if I'm on the West coast and it ends at at like nine to ten pm. People are watching on the East coast that want all right, So, to me, this Dion craze is the story of the football season right now. I love Tua, I love Lamar, but like I know, we're the NFL and this is the NFL season. But if you're kidding yourself, you don't think Dion has been the story of football. And now they go to play Oregon. Now what's crazy is they
might lose to Oregon. Oregon's really good. They're without Travis Hunter, obviously he got injuries. To me, had a couple of weeks. The following week, they host usc and did you see what time that.
Game is at?
That game is at nine am local Colorado or ten am Mountain time.
Like Fox is doing their pregame. Fox is gonna be there.
They're gonna be at Boulder, and they're like, we're going straight from big noon kickoff to this one. They're playing it at ten am, and it's Caleb Williams, the Heisman winner, versus coach Prime and his sons and the.
Crew they have.
And like, as I'm watching football on Sunday and I'm on the jet Blue flight back and I fly Jet Blue if I can, if the timings work out, because they have again a lot of air travel talk with me.
This is the season they have.
It's not like you have the log into a Wi Fi and then work and stream. It's they have it in the back of the seat. They've got the direct ticket, which is a great thing. And I was worried that the Sunday ticket would be gone with the new deals. No, no, still there. So you're watching and then the Sean Payton game goes to overtime versus Ron Rivera. I love that matchup. Ron a great friend, Shawn a great friend. Two guys used to battle it out in the NFC South. That
game goes to the final play to Hail Mary. Then a two point conversion should have been a past interference call, there wasn't crimea river We go then we go to sixty minutes and who is John worthtime sitting down with Did you see erin.
H I wonder if we've mentioned him already to that coach Prime?
Actually I don't know if it was in the same episode. What's the Ukrainian President's name? This is why I don't host a morning show like I'm Nate Berlason or a straight ahead Lensky. So I don't know if it was this week or last week, but someone did a thing. The Coach Prime sixty minutes interview has like ten million viewers already online, like they could like count that the
Zelenski has two millions. So if you're just looking for cultural relevance, and maybe that's a statement on America's interest in Ukraine at this point, I don't know.
I'm not trying to.
Get political here. The NFL is gonna strike that from the podcast. I'm just saying Prime has a bigger footprint online than Zelensky right now. Although Zelensky did meet Ben Stiller and Sean Penn On that note, we're talking celebrities. Do you know that Zelenski actually was the voice of Paddington for the Ukrainian version of the Paddington Bear.
They's dubbed over Paddington did the voice?
Yes, he was an actor and like a comedian in a game show host before he was Zelensky. God Jason's nodding, Jason knows he knows facts. Speaking of celebrities, I don't know if Zelensky's been on hot ones, but uh, I'm not surprised if he's if his people have reached out to our host, and that's something against Lensky's six guy gets the best guess in all of sports entertainment news.
I love this guy.
We've become friends over the past few years and he's a diehard Bears fan.
Sean Evans from Hot Ones is next.
For my money, he's the best interviewer in the game. I've said it before, I'll say it to his face. He's also a diehard Chicago Bears fan and a pal of mine. From Hot Ones, Mister Sean Evans joins the season with Peter Schrager.
What's up, buddy, I'm doing good, buddy, Thanks so much for having me.
You're in a busy season too.
As I'm doing football, you guys are filming a new season. Is it usually secret on like who you're doing your interviews with and who you guys are doing the hot Ones challenges with or do you kind of are you allowed to share who you've been working with already?
Yeah, yeah, we kind of.
We keep it under wraps.
But we do have a season premiere coming up this week and it's with in sync all five of them, and it was all five of them, all five of them, sixty wings on the table record for us, and it's an awesome episode. I can't wait for people to see it.
Five different microphones or one microphone and everyone huddled around each other.
Five lobs, like four booms. It was stress testing our production for sure.
Yeah, justin Tim, really cool guy.
Awesome guy. I've worked at them before.
He's done hot ones before and yeah, but an awesome guy. Joey's done it before. So it's kind of reunited with a couple of them. But it was an awesome shoot. I can't wait for people to see it.
I saw them at the VMA's.
Are they like I don't know the history of like instinct, whether they've done reunions. I know Backstreet Boys is still like, is it a big deal they're back together? Is this the first time in twenty years?
Yeah, maybe they've done a Grammy appearance together or something before, but this is kind of a big cultural moment and you know, a chance to kind of look back on this crazy ride that they've been and they're all on the other side of it and all in a good headspace, and it just felt like a guy's reminiscent about the good old days. And it's an awesome episode.
All right.
So for the listeners who aren't aware of Sean's work, and I don't think it's embarrassing.
If you're not, you might not live online. That's it. That's fine. It's an incredible show.
It's twenty to thirty minutes and Sean will interview celebrity guest and the questions will get increasingly more personal and more But as they're doing that, they are eating hotter and hotter chicken wings along the way, and the chicken wings go from like a level one to the level ten. And by the end of the thing, the guests is in their most vulnerable states and they are sweating bullets, and they inevitably open up to you, and you get some of the best answers around Sean.
Where did you get started? Like how did this come to be?
Because your face for a lot of people was new, Like I don't know that guy from that TV show, and I don't know that guy from stand up comedy. Take us back to like post college, like and how this thing got rolling?
Yeah, I went to the University of Illinois. I was broadcast dural asm major as big as I dreamed as I thought I'd graduate and then maybe get a job, hopefully as an assistant producer at ESPN one thousand or six, seven weeks four or something, and just be like a drive time morning talk like sports radio producer. That's as big as I ever dreamed. And I would always do interviews for whoever I asked me on like a freelance
basis out in Chicago. And then in twenty fourteen, I was down an All Star weekend in New Orleans and had interviews like two Chains and John Wall and all these basketball players and musicians, and at that time, every magazine was becoming a YouTube channel basically, and they were like, we put these on camera just because we need just videos to put on our YouTube channels. It's like, yeah, we just need content. So I said, sure, please do that would be awesome. And then they liked them enough
to offer me a full time job. So I quit what I had going on in Chicago and sold on my stuff and broke my lease. And I was in New York with four roommates, so I'd never met before, like thirty days later, and then I met Chris Schoenberger in the office and we became friends he's the GM of First We Feast. He had this idea, what if we interviewed celebrities but had the meat increasingly spicy chicken wings over the course of the interview.
I thought it was genius. We hammered out a pilot.
We shot a pilot with Tony Yeo, and we haven't stopped shooting him since that was almost nine years ago. And here we are twenty two seasons, over three hundred episodes.
It's been three episodes, twenty two seasons, and like the star power, it's it's getting bigger and bigger. Now. Of course we've seen the cliff with like Paul Rudd and Matt Damon had that great answer with you, But like this past season, I'm watching it and it's you know, Jake Joanall, and then the next week it's Karen Colkin, Like, you guys continue to get these A list actors?
Are they pitching you? Are you pitching them?
Because I watched all these other shows at late night and in the mornings and like they're not getting a list anymore.
Yeah, Well, I think that's we have to be resourceful. I think that's kind of an edge for us. And we have a spreadsheet that, you know, is all of our targets, all the times that we've pitched them over like the last decade, whether the trail is warm, whether it's hot, whether it's cold, you know, all those different things. What movies do they have coming out? With things they have coming out, is it time to pitch them again if it was a little bit warmer last time, you know,
and then just trying to find those dates. And yeah, it is crazy that it's gotten to the point where now I would say half of our guests are incoming and half of them are outgoing. You know, it's just us being aggressive and we can pop up the show. You know, if you're in LA we'll hop on a plane go meet up the show. Yeah, it travels. We could pop up in a garage if we want, so. I think that's been kind of an advantage for us,
and we do care. I mean, that's the driving force of everything that we do, is putting on a show that people are interested in. That our fans who've been so loyal for all this time and have allowed us to have a show with such longevity, and we just try to feed that beast. So that's always the motivating driving force with everything that we do and that's what keeps us up at night. And over the years we've gotten a pretty good at it, you know, but I
never take it for granted ever. You know, the guests that we've had in I think that's our crowning achievement of our show, and I'm really proud of it.
It used to be you'd want to do like a magazine cover, you've got a big movie coming out, and maybe you do a junket Like now, I feel like, put me on hot Ones with Sean all two questions.
It'll go viral, We'll have a.
Great moment and then people will be aware of the movie that's coming out.
Yeah. I think that's just shows how things have changed where those are the things that move the needle now. And you know, that's always the case that I try to make is yeah, there's this caveat where you have to eat scorching not chicken wings. But people care and they show up and they filled the auditorium and they cheer you on no matter how things go over the course of the interview, and it's a humanizing experience for
celebrities who are often put out a pedestal. We all know what it's like to die on hot sauce, So it actually kind of knocks that person off that pedestal humanizes them. And it's just one of those things where I think we accidentally invented that what's it like to have a beer with that person?
Show?
And it's a unique look for the guests as well. So as much as that, there's kind of a drag on it where it's like, yeah, you have to eat the scorching out chicken wings. The way I look at it, I see a lot of upside.
Yeah, and the wings are it's the shiny object. It's so secondary to the interviews because you're not asking typical questions. You're not telling me about it, what's this funny story?
On set?
You're doing your research and like deep research, and you're asking about their childhoods, their philosophies, and you must mind so much information. I think if you watch hot ones you know that, and if you don't watch it, trust me these questions. It's not like this is just your standard junket and you go deep. How do you do
your research for these interviews? You have a team of guys and gals that are doing this because a lot of times you'll reference things from interviews ten years ago that they've said.
Yeah, yeah, I mean, you just try to look at everything that you possibly can, read everything that you possibly can. If they're an actor, I'll watch their movies. If they've written books, I'll read the books. If they're a musician, that'll become the soundtrack of my week, you know. And
then I just try to marinate in that. I do have my little brother Gavin, who I've put out there to create these packets, these research dossier's, and Chris does it as well, and I do it, and we've just kind of kept that same process going for a really long time. There aren't that.
Many chefs in the kitchen. It's just kind of us.
But everybody's motivated again by that driving force to create a good show.
And I think that that's what you need.
If it were just people dying on hot sauce, I think the audience would have tuned out by now. It has to be an excellent interview show combined with this unique hook. Again, that's our driving force for everything.
That we do, and it's kind of fun.
I think I'm a naturally curious person and I really enjoy the process of walking a mile in someone else's shoes for a week, and so it never gets old for me, there's never any attrition that sets in. I really enjoy that, and honestly, what an amazing job to just even have that. You know, that can be your kind of nine to five existence. So that's it.
You just try to marinate in it and then do the best that you can and.
See what happens. You know.
That's but I.
Always think that it's important that we put an effort in for the guest because they're jumping through a lot of hoops for us, you know what I mean, Like, if it's a lazy, boring interview, then I think that's part of the reason people make it through so often and don't cut out, is because they're kind of roped in not only by this ridiculous wing stunt, but also by you know, an interview that's like, as we like to put it, the most comfortable, least comfortable.
I've done my research on you.
Nothing to dig up that's bad, But tell me about giving tours of Chicago architecture.
Tell me about this. So that was my.
Summer job from I think when I was a senior in high school all the way through college. So for all of these summers, I would just stack tours so it was a ninety minute river and lake tour and you'd have, you know, one hundred and fifty two hundred people on the boat every time. And I always think, you know, I was a broadcast journalism major, But I think the most important thing in my whole journey to being like where I am now, the most important sort
of side mission was these boat tours. Because you'd be up in front of people, You'd always be doing a performance, and I think it was that that really helped the story telling, that helped the pacing, that helped build my confidence. And I would just do these tours all summer long. You'd work like six days a week. They'd be really long days that could start at eight am and end at eight pm. And I remember you'd make tips and you'd work in like these boats with so many people.
I'd be just stuffing my backpack with cash every day. The best. It was the best job. And I often think that if there's one thing I could kind of go back to, like I almost think I could go back and do it.
Now, to it just like I just just be free and like liberated.
It was the best summer job ever ever, Ever.
Do you want to know what I did? What did you do?
Yeah? I am very curious.
Actually, dude, I was a telemarketer.
Oh my gosh, So you want to talk about you've seen the new HBO the I love that. I was a New Jersey telemarketer and it was all my boys from high school.
And we just we were selling and it was.
Like just the if the gap, get some on the phone and don't let them hang up, and just lead them.
To this point.
And all those skills you better believe I use them to say to Yeah, you have to absolutely and guess what.
I would love to go back and try it and see if I can still do it.
Yeah, I bet you've gotten better. You know, I'm the same with me. I bet, I bet it's a full letter grade or two better than what I had before. You know, I stopped building too early.
No, you get all these celebrities in now, you and I we've built to this career whatever. Still, there's certain football players that will walk in or celebrities and I'm like, I can't believe that's really Barry Sanders like and I like want to like look them in the eyes and be like do you realize do you get af struck?
I know you have everyone from Scarlett Johanson to to Jennifer Lawrence to you name the biggest stars, and like, do you get starstruck or do you just look at this as this is my job.
They have to respect it. I'm in my arena.
Yeah, that's how I look at it. I really do. I don't get starstruck. There is always the moment when they walk into the room and you see them where you get a little butterfly performance anxiety thing that's kind of fun to feel, you know, it feels.
A little bit alive.
So I definitely get that, But I don't get I don't think I get starstruck or anything. You know, there's just there's certain to use a football analogy. There are certain shoots that feel like playoff games, or you know, Gordon Ramsey coming in that felt like a super.
Bowl because it's culinary, or because he's such a enigma.
I think it's because, you know, when we first started doing the show, fans would request him at nauseum, almost to the point where it got hard to do the show. We'd announce the new guests like this week on the show, this person. All the comments would be like when are we getting Gordon Ramsey? Is this albatross going around our next? That almost made it hard to do the show. So I think it was this internet fever dream that had forced us both into the room together. And he felt
it too and I felt it too. So in moments like that, it feels like maybe there's more at stake than just a regular shoot, but that overall, I think it's there's a job to do there, and I don't think being sycophantic does anything to serve an interview. So if you even do have those feelings, try to check them as much as you can and just do your job.
Just do your job.
That's I'll let you get it. Belichick.
There's this, uh, this moment after an interview with a celebrity or an athlete, and there's like you're kind of hanging around and sometimes they'll be like, oh, I'm a fan of yours and maybe not in your case, I'm sure more than me. Uh, And there's like this moment of like are we are we friends?
Yeah? Has there been one of these actors.
Or athletes and things that you're like after the interview, they're like, here's my number, and you have kept up and like actually been friends with.
Yeah, I mean, my phone is kind of bananas, you know.
And then.
You know, and I sometimes me and beer girls actually had a conversation about this because there's just a predy I'm similar and that you go through this ridiculous thing and almost there's this trauma bond that happens, like we've been through some stuff together, you know, and uh, I think there is a natural inclination to keep the relationship kind of going, you know what I mean, or when you see them again, there's that natural like from across the room, like my guy, Yeah, exactly.
That's sort of a thing. So that's always fun to experience.
And and I've actually that's how really you and I met was, you know, it was the Paul ruddshoot and hot ones and then that ends up into a friendly relationship and you know, here I am a big slick and meeting you guys. But there's so many versions of that over the years, and that's been a really valuable thing. You know. It's like almost this clubhouse that you end up in once you do hot ones, and it's it's sauce and sauce out.
Who's the I guess most exclusive number in the phone, like one that you wouldn't give out or you wouldn't even feel comfortable like texting a lot of them, but you know, like would you textim like you just did this thing, would you text show we enjoyed.
It, Yeah, yeah, or you just be like, hey, that was so much fun, great catching up with you again, wishing you a speedy recovery.
It was great to see something like that, you know what I mean.
But yeah, I don't know, like Dave Grohl, and it's a lot like sometimes I'll even look at the messages and be like, this is kind of crazy, what's going on here? But it's been a blast.
Yeah.
Who was the surprisingly most fun interview that maybe going in you're like, I'm not sure if this guy's got the hut or gal has the biggest person to hang, but then they brought it.
We did one recently with John Stamos, just a couple of seasons ago, and I don't know what I was really expecting when you know, I know that he's a fun guy and I'd enjoyed watching the interviews the ones that I did, but he came in like a whirlwind and it was the most fun I think I've ever had interview, the most the most pure fun that while it was having, while it was going on, it didn't feel like there's any call structure to it whatsoever. Yeah,
it was just it was just becoming fast friends. And he called my dad and it was like, next time we played Ravinia, come watch us the Beach Boys. Like it was just so much fun. So, I mean, that's always what happens. Though. We used to kind of have a bet on how we thought it would go and way we think they'd tap out or like whatever.
We stopped doing that because we're just wrong all the time.
It's just it's this unique social experiment once you get the wings involved. But yeah, there's been so many of those where it was just like I had high hopes, high expectations going in, and that was just a lot more fun and better than I thought it would be.
I've never met him. How is Seth Rogan?
Oh, he's a fun guy. He actually gave us one of the great compliments we've ever received on the show after he did an episode. Who was like, these are not famous person hot you know, like this is this show, you know, and he's right, like it is kind of a wild, wild last crazy show. But I was That's what I take from Seth. That was one of the great backhanded compliments we've ever got.
Michael Sarah was on the show, how is it?
Yeah, yeah, amazing and actually up there in the pantheon the mount rushmore of people who we've served this bizarro lunch to and didn't react to the hot sauces like at all, you know, just complete yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, we're always worried about causing it harm really, you know, like that's really the thing that you know, we'll sometimes are The thing that I worry about is like when it goes spiraling out of control, and so rarely are these things where it's almost like we didn't sauce the
wings for them or something, you know what I mean. And that is what I remember from that episode.
I see so many different strategies and a lot of times it starts with water, then it goes to the milk. Can you talk about the milk and why people drink milk When the spicy is getting too spicy and they're freaking out, they often lunch for the milk.
Yeah, you know, I think that it's the fat that's supposed to cut the heat or whatever that you'd have in whole milk and dairy. But I've noticed that as the guests have gotten more and more famous, the milks have become more and more exotic. You know, they're very very weird sort of you know, all mind milk sort of offshoots that I think are just like water. I'm not sure there's the fat, there's the dairy in there
to cut those things, but that's I've noticed. But in my opinion, it's the it's the ice cream is the only thing that can that can really help once you're in that storm. You know, maybe a milk is maybe a sip of milk is temporarily relieving water I guess makes things worse, but psychologically I find it helpful. But yeah, the only thing that works for me is some ice cream.
Who breaks out the ice cream?
Haven't seen I don't think I've seen that the guys break out the ice cream.
Yeah, And that's something that we've we've gone to a little bit more recently. And then dom Our Producer will just always be standing by around Wing seven. If it looks like our guest is up up against the ropes a little bit, she'll pour a bowl of ice cream and then and then jump in like she'll give me a little give me a little like wave and I'll be like, bring in the ice cream. Yeah.
Yeah. Athletes. Who's been the best athlete that you've had on that had the most fun with.
The Shack episode? I think is early.
On to right this season?
Early on now is I mean we started stacking him. I'm not sure which season, but it was, you know, five years ago or four or five, six years ago. It's all lost in a spice dream. But that was a big episode and an amazing one. We had Israel Outasanya on.
Yeah, and that was I think martial arts, right, Yeah.
Yeah. I always think that the athlete interview is one of the most difficult nuts to crack in the interview space, and that I thought he was, you know, one of the best interviews we'd have. And then you know Stone Cold Undertaker Sasha Banks in. Yeah, they're entertainers. It's like sort of sort of related a little bit.
But like I get it, like you see a great football player, like, oh, he's gonna be great, and then the personality's out there, well they're great at football, they're not supposed to be.
Yeah, they're paid to catch balls and score touchdowns and throw touchdowns and sack the quarter back, and so they're not.
It's it's just there's no incentive there.
We had fun. We go to that big Slick event. Now two years in a row. We hung out and your buddy Nick is always with you. That's my guy. We talked bears and then you're always asked to bring out the hot sauce and do a hot Ones challenge and First three Feast is there and it's this year. Mahomes and Kelsey were both a part of it. Did you get a chance to hang with either of those guys, Yeah, we've.
I've worked with Travis a couple of times, and then for a while there we had social circles that were kind of in orbit of each other. So yeah, so it was good to see him. Always good to see him. And then Patrick Mahomes. Actually I was playing third, he was playing short when for Eric stone Street that groundball that he threw behind his back to first base, I remember that having a front row seat to that.
You're in the clip if you watched it, you're in the background. That's why I that's your moment, that's charging that ball.
And then it was just blinding in front of me and then behind the back. So better that he got that than me.
Is there an NFL player you'd want to have on the show that you haven't?
That's a good I mean, Tom Brady, I think I'd love to have on the show. I think the most interesting interview might be Aaron Rodgers. I don't know. I think he seems kind of has.
He reached out. I feel like the two of you would hit it off.
I think there was a time where maybe the teams were like flirting for a second there. You know, sometimes we call it like a little flirting where it's like, well what about these dates and blah blah blah. There was kind of like there's some mysts, some fog.
But I couldn't clearly see Aaron's face there yet.
He just seems like an interesting guy in an interesting interview, So he'd be at the top of the mountain for me. I'm wishing him a speedy recovery.
We know who I want you to do this show with?
Who?
Yeah?
Yeah, i'd actually I should just consult with you.
You should tell me.
Here's who I want on Hot Ones next season. The Hoodie himself Bill Belichick.
Yes, yes, yes, yes, Actually we've talked about that. I think we've I think we've pitched him and Saban actually, but that's like our kind of our talk right now. You know, we've done a lot of actors, so we start thinking about directors, and we've done a lot of athletes, and now we're starting to think about coaches as you widen the scope, and I agree with you. I always
love it seems like once a year. You know, there's that clip where Bill Belichick got asked about long snappers and went through the whole history, you know, so it's like, wow, you know, there's obviously a well of knowledge there that it's like, yeah, if you could tap it the right way, you have one of the most compelling football interviews of anyone living.
I think, I mean, I think we're waiting for the quit essential Belichick interview. And I can help you write the questions like he could.
Have the third wing.
And then you're like, so, Mark Bivarro tell me about his time in New York and what you know, and Belichick sweating bullets and a hoodie while talking about Mark Bavarro and why he was such a good blocker.
You're hired.
Let's do it. Let's do it. McVeigh. Would be fun. I think it would be like very.
Like, oh man, I can't believe you got me sweating like this, bro Like, it'd be very much that. But I think that there could be an NFL version of this, And I'm sure you've talked with the NFL at length, as you've been a friend to the Shield for many years that yeah, yeah, yeah.
We've done some truth or dab stuff with the Chargers the last couple of years, and they have like a really fun social team. You know, they have like it's they have a media company there that's like bigger than First We Feast, you know what I mean. It's kind of nuts to see how that all works in there. But they're super fun to work with, and yeah, I'd like to expand it out and do more. I'm obviously a huge sports fan and football in particular, so that would be amazing.
All right, So before we get to some football talk, this is always the awkward part of where you're at in your career and what you have.
So you've got this awesome show and it goes viral. How many times?
Is like a B list celebrity like pitch you to your face and say I want to come on, and you have to like kind of dodge it and maybe maybe a little uncomfortable and explain that. Yeah, but you know, and you in your head, no, like this person's not going to ever get in that chair.
Yeah, but you know what you gotta You have to handle those things, I think delicately, because you never know, like in a couple of years they get a project here, you know, like people can go fly into the top.
So I every want to be someone who had like.
A charity event or whatever was kind of dismissive to somebody. Plus, who the hell am I'm a I'm a YouTuber that needs scorching hot chicken wings. You know, I'm a bigger clown than anybody. So I try to always keep that into perspective. But I guess my take is, and you're right, it does happen frequently, is to be like, yeah, for sure, do you eat spicy food?
You know?
I try to like go change the topic, talk about food, Talk about the food.
Yeah, are you somebody who enjoys spicy wing? Now I'm giving away my whole playbook, so somebody's watching this, they'll connect the dots that I do in a person, but you know, I just do that. I'm just Midwest nice
and then roll out of it. But there is a lot of Instagram dms, like people reaching out directly to me, and I'm just like, I just try to kind of almost I just ignore everything because at the end of the day, I don't even know my own schedule or what this season looks like, you know what I mean. I'm just a pac man that eats the next pebble, So when people bring stuff directly to me, I'm always like, I don't even know what to do. I'm basically an infant,
you know what I mean. I don't make any decisions for myself, so I always just try to swerve it as best as I can.
I guess you said something on an interview.
I believe it was with part of my take that really resonated, and I thought it was good for listeners to hear too, Like they were asking what's next, what's next, and like what do you want to do next? And I think your take was basically like I love what I do. Is it crazy that I'm good doing this
for the rest of my life? And I think that techn me because We're always trained in our careers to try to climb a ladder and kind of, yeah, is it okay to be satisfied with what you're doing and just saying.
I love what I do.
I've got an awesome job and an awesome life, and I'm pretty content.
Yeah. I mean that's the way that I look at and like I was telling you my dreams and aspirations were, you know, producer of a drive time AM morning sports talk show, you know what I mean. That's as big as I've ever dream So I feel like I've kind of already done ten laps around any expectation I ever had for myself. You know, I wasn't like and so I don't know if that maybe it's like a lack of ambition or something that I'm good, you know, like all the people that I work with, I love creatively,
there's nothing that really gets in my way. And to be kind of king of your castle is all that you can ask for. I had a TV short lived TV show thing for a second. Like now, if a TV offer came in, I'd be kind of I'd be suspicious of it more than anything, like, more than seeing it as an opportunity.
I just I kind of love the rhythm.
That I'm in and the track that I'm on, and I don't look around at anybody and think I wish I had that, or I would want that. I don't. There's nobody that i'd trade with. So in my head, I'm like, I could do this for a really long time. Now.
Obviously that's not necessarily.
In your control, and we're all just clinkle balls bouncing through this whole thing, and so I never think like that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to lock into this for a long time. But I'm happy, and I don't look at anything else and see a way to be happier.
So I'm I really like what I'm doing.
I don't aspire necessarily to anything bigger. I just I don't even need to like, I don't know, I just I don't need to get any bigger in any way. I'm just very happy with the thing I have now and I'm appreciative of it, and I don't really see there's no motivation to change things right now at the moment.
Well used to be used to be like all right, so something like this would be like all right, we'll have a late night talk show. But yeah, I think culturally cultural relevance, bro, I think Hot Ones is bigger than those night shows right now.
Well and two it's like, yeah, those shows, that's a that's a that's a grind, you know, to do that every single night, you know.
And I don't look at that and be like, oh, that's like a life that I want.
Or even on the interview, you know, you work through three guests every night or whatever, you know, And I would even my style and my preference is into like really marinate with something for a while, try to get a grasp on who this person or who this artist is, and then try to execute an interview against that. I don't I wouldn't want to be in in that sort of assembly line like next guest up, next guest up, next guest up, sort of car wash version of doing interviews.
So yeah, I don't look at that necessarily either.
You know.
So I don't know.
Just as long as the stomach lining holds up, I think I'm good.
And that's the thing.
There's like a physicality to what you do, and it's it's not Joey Chestnut, it's not uh, you know, you're not the guy was his name who did the man versus foodles his.
Name Richmond Richmond.
Yeah, like you're.
Not that but one so weak or however, Robin, you and you're in these hot wings and you're able to do it. Obviously you've trained yourself to be able to do it. Is it everywhere you go in public someone asking you to, you know, try a wing or do a hot time?
Is there a lot of that?
Like can you go through the airport these days without people hounding you to, like, you know, put hot.
sALS on time. I'm kind of normal. I'm like normal looking enough that I can rip through an airport. I think sometimes my recognizability because of how viral the clips have gone or sometimes bigger than my profile, and it can sneak up on me in weird ways every once in a while. But yeah, usually if I go to a restaurant at a decent percentage, wings will.
Come out from the kitchen, like you know this is from the kitchen.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, That'll happen a lot or whatever. If they make a spicy dish, like that'll come out like I'm always trying to chase the spice. But but that's it's also love and and you kind of you are what people think you are in this business, so totally whatever I try to, I try to embrace it all, even though, like I'm good on the spicy food off the clock.
Yeah, okay, let's let's go to a couple of years ago NFL Draft.
The Bears are on the clock.
With the forty eighth pick. In the twenty twenty two NFL Draft, the Chicago Bears select Jaikwan Brisker, defensive back Penn State.
Jaquan Brisker selected by the Chicago Bears via Sean Evans.
What was it like?
So that was in Vegas. I remember they have this massive green room, you know, and they have all those kind of like fake living rooms for the guys that are being drafted, and all there's families are out and stuff. So I remember walking through that and then you'll look to your left and see Keegan Michael Key, and then you'll look to your right and see Sebastian Manescalgo.
And then you'll look behind you and see Barry Sanders.
You know, that massive green room that's kind of like an emptied out ikea, and there's so much going on, you know, that's kind of a whirlwind. And then I remember, uh, you get backstage and I guess, you know, the one thing that you worry about is is because you don't really know who you're gonna It's not like you can study it the night before whatever. They just give you a card and then shove you out on stage to
do the pick. So I guess the anxiety that I had that I'd get some sort of five syllable last name.
You know that that was the thing.
That kid's moment you don't want to screw on moment.
That's what I exactly. That's the responsibility I felt for. Not that I'd look like an idiot, that's part of it, but yeah, that I you know, I'm permanently messing up this this dude's moment. So I got the card and said Jakwan Brisker Defensive backpen Stadium, Like that's an easy enough name. Then I went out there and I remember it was in Vegas and kind of outdoor, and I remember it looking like a scene out of three hundred or something. There was like some sort of like smoky
mist that was rising above the crowd. Is all these like the raucous NFL fans that go to be boots on ground at draft, you know.
Yeah, words said, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, it's a fun time.
And then I remember, you just get on there and try not to mess up the moment. And I was like a little quicker on the dry. I saw a brand. He had a whole production, you know. I saw that he had like the wings in his pocket and stuff. I was a little more grand opening, grand.
Closing, but hit the name walked off and then, you.
Know, as much as the Bears have been painful, I do believe.
In Jaquan Brisker, you know.
I think that he had a good rookie campaign and I like the way that he plays, and I'll forever watch him and follow him and root for him. It was a cool moment, for sure.
It is pretty cool.
You have a special connection him for the rest of your lives, Like you named him on the microphone when he when his biggest moment of his career, you know, was commenced.
It was pretty cool. I thought you were great.
What are those conversations in the green room, like are you bouncing? Are you talking to you introducing yourself or I feel comf to you, Like when I hear Barry Sanders and Sebastian Man of scalcol I'm like, this is some melting potman.
Yeah, yeah, for sure. I talked to Keegan for a while. Derek Waters, who did Drunk History, I was back there chatting with him for a long time. I had my buddy Dustin Pourier back there. He was doing the Saints pick, so I get to chat with him, and yeah, you just kind of look around and lock eyes and do some chats and talk football with everybody back there, and it was it was a cool experience. Really.
You get a chance to talk to commission at Goodell. I know he's usually back there too, but he was.
He was super busy. But when I was backstage waiting before they kind of shove you out there, I do remember like looking up and directly to my left is like Roger Goodell. You know, he had a lot of plate spinning. So I didn't I didn't tap him on the shoulder, introduce myself as the Chicken wing guy or anything, but I was like you, I did turn and he was just like right there.
All right.
So you live in New York City full time, but you're in La a bunch. I'm sure you go back to Chicago, Like, what's your Sunday Bears viewing ritual. Do you like block out Sundays or how are you guys checking the score on the phone? Like how hardcore do you get in a typical Sunday to watch the Bears?
Yeah, I mean, we'll see if I can keep the pace, but I have that is part of the ritually. All Like I like to on a Sunday morning, wake up and go to the gym around nine and get home around eleven thirty, and you know, make a nice breakfast sandwich and you know, get like a nice brunch spread going, and then fire up red Zone or the Bears game, whatever happens first. And it is ritualistic and sedentary.
And I like to just melt into the couch and watch.
A whole day of football whenever I can, whenever I have that chance on a weekend when things aren't super busy. It's one of my favorite pleasures of fall. I love doing that whenever I get the chance.
All right, Well, in June, you and I were together at this charity event, the Big Slick, and your buddy Nick is hardcore Bears also, and you guys pulled me aside, and Nick was like almost like adorable. He was so optimistic and he was so excited and he's.
Like we He's like we we we.
Signed Nate Davis as an offensive lineman.
And like Fields is gonna be an MVP candidate. And I wasn't.
I wasn't being an ass, but I just said to you guys, straight face, really, I lost.
The last ten games of the season, and I'm not sure.
Justin Field showed me that he's gonna be sure enough for two weeks in and I'm gonna play another clip and I'm sorry to do it. Here's Justin field'sturing an inexplicable pick six Sunday against the Buccaneers in zone that set the fighting at the goal line, brought pick six
that just fight sale that they owe for Tampa. Dude, you're owing to look at the worst team in football two weeks into this as we look across the next few months, and your excitement level for the Chicago Bears, how are we feeling about the team from the Windy City.
So for me, and you know, you can like put plural teams from Windy City, you know, like I roll Bears season into Bulls season into White Sox season, and that has been like a sports fans version of the Human Centipede, where you know, one team leaves a giant stink behind, the next team swallows it up, leaves an even bigger stink behind, and this sort of thing has been going on. This steam train has rolled uninterrupted for
like a decade plus. You know, it's getting insane. So I think that's that's where you see the patients of Bears fans being tested, because it's like we've seen this
movie over and over and over again. We're just caught in this death time loop and I think what is and it just never stops, and then you can almost you can almost see the next chapter of it where it's like they're the worst team, and then they draft Caleb Williams and we're on another two year development timetable, only to find out in year three that we can't develop him either. You know, like that's the movie that just plays over and over and over again, and then
it's cold. It's it's added to by like all of the teams kind of doing this and ending up in this never taking a step forward, only two steps backward.
I mean, it's gotta be.
Now. Yeah, I was thinking there'll be one in one or there'll be two and Oh you look at that, You're like Green Bay Home with Jordan Love and a bunch of unknowned receivers and then the Buccaneers without Tom Brady.
I'm not trying to be like.
This, like this main guy, but oh and two No, I mean I just kind of I'm resigned to the fact that I just root for unseerious teams, you know what I mean. Like that's kind of where I've kind of had to, you know, in order to not react to it emotionally, the sort of place that you have to put yourself in. And uh yeah, I mean I think even that the organization is kind of on their heels about how bad things are, you know what I mean, Like they don't even really have a good you know,
they'll say like New Era and this and that. But to me, you know, you talk about the movie replaying itself that week one, it almost really did feel like remember when Naggy like were the Fedora and the.
Suit for that, Yeah, one's gonna be a Georgia Pallace.
It gets blown out and then that's kind of the beginning of the end. And I caught the same vibes like Poles kind of like pacing the field like he's the lion, like taking on his kingdom, you know, like that, and then they go and just come out flat and like are observably goofy, you know what I mean, Like that that whole thing has just gotten so old you think that you know them or one of these teams
would just like accidentally get it right. But that's sort of where we are, where it's kind of like been you know, like even the hope that you had, you know, there's just not much that's irredeemable from these first two weeks. And you know, what choice do you have but to stand by your man. And I'll still watch and I'll still route, and on every new regime and every new change, I'll chug all the cool aid and I'll get my
hopes up and then I'll get stomped out again. And thus that's the plate of a Chicago sports fan officially, especially these days. And I'm resigned. I'm resigned to that reality. It's okay, it's USUARS fan meme. That's just like when he's like, yeah, like that, I'm just like that all the time.
Now, were you alive?
I mean it was eighty five, but like, were you alive for now like you were too young.
Yeah, no, I've never. I've never. I've they had the one Bears.
Called Super Bowl when I was in college with the Colts that they lost. But yeah, no, in my life, I'm I'm approaching my uh, I'm approaching forty over here, and I've I've never seen the Bears win a Super Bowl.
I don't know.
It's not like I look around the look around the corner and see any daylight either.
You know, this might be the year.
There's nothing to.
You and I have become friends. But one thing that we really bonded on was our love for Howard.
Stern and love for Richards salca Vernale and like, yes, when you were growing up, I'm the same way, dude, listen to Mike and the Mad Dog every day on the way home from school and I'll just leave it on.
And I listened to Stern in the morning on the way to school.
And now, whether or not you're a fan of Howard's Turn or not, there's no doubt that he is one of the greatest celebrity interviewers of all time. Your influences as a kid, as an adult, as you got into this space where I think truly. I'm not just blowing smoke up your ass. I think I think truly you got the crown. I think watching your interviews with celebrities there it was like Charlie Rose and it's Sean Evans now like that you're the dude.
Well, thanks, Peter. I'm not sure I deserve that, but I appreciate the compliment. And you're right, you know, like to be a kid and uh be kind of raised by the Howard Stern Show and Loveline and David Letterman. Yeah, it's I think you don't flying in there, Corolla and Drew Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'd listen to that every single night.
That's probably the most important show to me. You know.
I think that's actually what kind of even pushed me into thinking about radio is is that was That was a show that every night from ten to midnight on Q one oh one. That was a that was a pointment listening to me every night.
So like you hear, like, have you ever met Corolla, Stern or letter Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I've met Adam, He's done the show. I've done his show, uh, Jimmy as well, and then same as I've been to some events and seeing him there and rechat and then haven't met Dave yet, haven't met Howard. But Stamo said that he sent the Hot Ones episode to Howard and that Howard said it was it was a good interview. So so I know that at least it's it's touched his it's touched his world.
A little bit, you know. So now we just gotta gotta get Dave.
You say Stamos, And it's funny because you say Staymos and obviously full house, and then you go through all the different you know things, and I immediately think of well, John Stamos as a friend of Howard Stern.
Like that's how I think of John stay monks. I'm like, he's in the Stern world.
And that's with our connection of Howard. But we got to meet Richard Christy. And if you're listening right now and you're like, I'm here for football, who's Richard Christy. Richard Christy is a character and an amazing guy on The Howard Stern Show. And with all these different celebrities in the room, and you've got Darius Rucker and you've got you know, legends of comedy, and you've got Mahomes and Kelsey you and I.
Were just obsessed with talking to Richard Christy, and I loved him. Richard Christy was amazing.
Yeah, every we cornered him in that suite and just talked to him about print calls until like three o'clock in the morning, and then the next day. I probably annoyed him by the end of the weekend because like, I want to pull up and I'd see a seat next to Richard, I just PLoP down next to him and just bombard him with even more questions about tradio. You know, I would just be like, but uh, what a fun guy and a very sweet guy and disturbed comedic genius for sure.
Stir comm and a great drummer to boot Earth iceed Earth Sean, Thank you, dude.
It took an hour of your time, so appreciate it.
Anywhere we can find these if people are listening to the first time in their football fans that are not necessarily in touch with the Hot Ones and the first wee Feast crew.
Yeah, just Hot Ones. New episodes come out every Thursday at eleven am Eastern season premiere actually this Thursday for season twenty two, within sync, So if you're at all interested, that's where to find it you.
Too awesome and go Bears, Go Bears, Bear Down, Let's go, Let's go.
Thanks dude, all right, that's Sean Evans. Great dude, right er.
Oh, I loved him. I don't think I've ever seen him in an interview before. It was cool to see him on the other side.
Yeah, you know, it's funny.
I recognized him obviously when we did this big slick thing, and then I was a big fan of some of the interviews he's done. And then we start talking to I'm like, oh, I love this guy and I get it, like he's totally authentic.
He's cool.
Now the rud story, which is interesting obviously, you know all the memes about look at Us and all this stuff. So Paul Rudd and I became friends, and then he was promoting I think the show that was on Netflix where it's he does a clone of himself called Living with Yourself. Yeah, and his son was in high school or something and was like, are you gonna do hot ones?
He's like, I don't know what that is, and he's like, watch a couple of these, watched it and did it based on his son, saying this is what people watch now, like it's not, and that's by far the most viral you know, interview that Paul's done, and he's done all the stuff with Conan and stuff. But like, in prepping for this, I go back, like, you know, he's really good, Like Scarlett Johanson and him like have a great chemistry,
and then Jennifer Lawrence did have a great chemistry. It's not easy not knowing these people getting in a room and then immediately hitting it off with them and then being so cool and so down to earth and putting their guards down.
I really enjoy watching the show. I watch it with my wife sometimes.
And she's like, I can't watch because all the hot like the hot sauce, and I almost think that's like, I don't want to say it's a gimmick, but it's almost a side show to the great questions he's asking.
Yeah, it's it's the I mean, I think you said it perfectly in the interview. It's the secondary part. It's it's the vehicle that gets you to the conversation. And if someone was like I have no interest in spicy food, it doesn't matter. That's not what this show's about. That's just like an ornament that's around it.
It's great. Yeah, the stuff that I love. It's like behind the seeds.
How many people go up to him like I want to come on the show, and then him had me to navigate those waters vegue.
He's never been asked that before.
But like, I know a lot of people in my world who are self involved and think very much van I'm not talking about any colleagues. I'm just saying like sports media who probably think they will. And I'm sure Sean Evans is like.
Ah, we're good.
Yeah.
Is that why you haven't returned to any of my calls when I keep asking when you're gonna have me on the pregame show?
Yeah, that's right, that's right, We're bringing you on. Sean was great.
All right, We're gonna bring on another guest in a second.
All right.
So for the first season of this podcast, I was looking for like our our niche, our thing, and we tried everything from like talking analytics and then another time it would be like, all right, let's break down five things you need to know for this weekend.
Nothing was clicking.
And then at the end of last season I started detailing my travel horror stories and the response was insane. People around the league, NFL people, broadcasters, everyone came out of the woodwork to be like, oh.
I could top that.
I've got one where I had to lay over in Columbus to get to Atlanta. Then I got to Atlanta and I had to take a car to Birmingham, and I think we found our thing. Last week I told a travel horror story that was so horrific that I'm still scarred ten days later, and I told the story on the podcast.
And I didn't just get one text or two.
No one wanted to talk about my interview with Hanka's Area about Aaron Rodgers. No one wanted to talk about my analysis of what's next for the Jets and Zach Wilson.
I got like.
Fifty texts of people responding to the travel horror story I had going to LA last weekend. And one of those texts was from one of my dearest friends, a guy I've known for twenty years. He's my buddy, Jay, and he said I can top that, and then some Jay, Welcome to the season with Peter Schrager.
How are you doing this morning?
Thank you so much for having me on under these circumstances too, I'm doing fine. Frankly, I'm not a travel complainer. I put this out of my mind. This is from July, but I tuned in last week for the Jets Commiseration podcasts because I needed some uplifting at something uplifting there, and I was triggered by this man. I heard this, and I said, it brought back these memories that I put away. But I think I had the travel story to top all of them.
And it's a two part all right, So let's first come. I am typically okay. I have rules. I will never tweet or instagram or post about my travel woes. I will never complain about them because I always say disclaimer, my flights are paid for, it's for work.
I'm not complaining. I'm just sharing what it is.
On the other side, it's not just all hair and makeup and roses. There's this stuff too, yours though, this is out of your own pocket.
Why don't you take it away? Jay?
All right, yeah, this is out of my own pocket. This is a family trip.
My family already already I'm sick.
I have a family of five. I have a nine year old, a seven year old, and a one year old. Right, and so we decide we're going to go this summer to France, and we're going to meet up with my brother's family who lives in Florida, a family of five, my parents, my sister. There's thirteen people. So so just to just take a step back, am I allowed to say the name of the one?
Yeah? Yeah you can.
Well, they don't deserve my discretion anyway. This is United Airlines, So so those of us who live in Brooklyn, like we do, we booked a flight on United. The rest of them booked a flight on Delta JFK. So it was just my own way.
You go to Newark, you think it's quicker New Work because of the Arizona.
That's what you thought it was quicker in New Wark. I had some United points. I figured let's just bundle this up right.
Okay, every detail matters when we're doing this, by the way, so don't ever feel shy of sharing every detail. Brooklyn's on the southern tip of Brooklyn, so it's closer geographically, you're avoiding the traffic to JFK.
It's about the same on a Tuesday when school ends. This was the easiest way to do it. So it's my family of fount and my sister. Right, So we have these flights in United and we're going out on a Tuesday, and this is the flight there. My brother's Chami's leaving me an hour later. We're all going to be up in Paris. Is going to be a little wonder full French vacation together. And so wake up in the morning seven to thirty am. We get that dreaded text from United. Your flight has been canceled.
Not the wady canceled out of.
The canceled right at the game. We're canceled. The reason was the pilots have to sleep some you've heard that one, right nine.
I learned about it the nine hours new to me. I love pilots. I didn't know this really existed.
So they direct you to the United app to find your replacement flight. Right, So I go on the app with my wife. We're trying to figure it out. The flight they offer is on Saturday evening in.
DC Tuesday, Tuesday, Saturday.
From so obviously we can get on the phone. We call them, We get on their app and chat them. There was just the same music. We look over and over again. We have four phones going. Six hours later, we get through and we respond to simply because I figured that United they have the Star alliance with other airlines that might have options. Maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow, whatever it is, we'll get there. And they basically reiterate, you had an offer for a flight on Saturday that offers
we don't have that flight anymore either. We're talking, we're talking a week at So we got no satisfactory at nothing like nothing, no solution at all. And so we hang on the phone. It's like two three o'clock in the afternoon. Our flight was supposed to be six. My brother's family is already at the airport, and I say, what do I do here? So I start expedio whatever. I'm looking to see other airlines that might fly and.
So and you would buy it just I mean, and you would say, I'll just buy a fresh flight.
What's my option?
At this point?
I know?
So No, this is this is like late June, early July. There is nothing available. The same day I find one airline, well, I said, my sister found one airline that had a couple of tickets left called Norse Airlines. You ever hear of that this airline?
Never heard of this? No spell it r.
Se Norse and they have a couple of seats in their premium section, which is only like a step above with their regular And so we look at twelve o'clock the same night, in midnight with three kids. Let's do it. Let's do it.
Unknown never saying do you google the airlines?
Even that afterroid bought Now this is seven thousand dollars later for the for the one way, we bought a ticket seven thousand dollars.
Swipe that.
So I started googling and the reviews and nourse. It seems like it's the new nor Region airlines. It seems like the super international airlines. Right. They do not terminal, they don't have flight numbers, they don't have electronic tickets, they have no information other than the review saying they actually are on.
Time a lot.
So okay, we head the JFK. It's not even it's not even part of the real terminal. I think we may have went to city field. I don't even know where we were. But anyway, they're way are checked. They're weighing our carry on that there's no electronic pics. We're waiting online, there's no global entry or nothing.
Why are they wearing you? They're weighing your carry on.
So this is happening, and and they're already in the air. So I text my family. I said, look, we're getting on this flight. If you don't hear from us in the morning. In France, we're hanging out with the Titanic submarine crew. That's where we wound up. Start, That's where we wound up. So just to just to put a cap on this side of story, Norse was incredible, premium incredible.
It was.
It was great. It was like business class. You know, they never heard of Wi Fi or anything like that. But who cares. We took out all time we got there. So this sad story on leg one end up with a fairly happy ending less seven thousand dollars. But I have nothing bad to say about Norse.
It was great.
So you know, have our have our trip to France. We got there three hours six hours after we would have all good. Now let's talk about let's top that. Let's talk about the way home.
All right.
Wait, so first of all, you get there, your brother's family's there, your family's there.
This is how many days are you there?
About two weeks?
Okay, two weeks?
You guys have this amazing Never forget once in a lifetime vacation. The grandparents got to come and now it's time to finally call it quits and get back to real life. We're headed to the airport. What happens, then.
We're back until we're back flying United home. I still had that way home with United. So we're back with them, and so wake up in the morning. We have a noon flight France time. We get the text at said and thirty exact same time. It wasn't a cancelation. It was the flight is deleted three hours. No problem, at
least they tell me in advanced no problem. We hang out, we have a nice French breakfast, We kill a little bit of time to get to the airport for our three o'clock light now and everything seems to be going okay. They bored at the time they three hours lee at the time they said they would be bored. We sit down and then answer cummes, we got a bit of a paperwork issue. We're going to get that sort of problem with boarding, with paperwork issues. I have the one
year old who is not sitting. This is a nine hour flight. Adding to adding whatever is to you is a problem already.
I just had my heart just like I honestly like skipped the beat when I thought of a one year old in addition to two other kids who are probably hyperactive as all health.
Put them in front of the screen. They don't even know what's going on the vision. The one year old is the problem. So the paperwork issue is about two hours. The baby at this point is screaming. She we just put her on the floor. She's eating other people's popcorn and thumb. It doesn't matter.
We don't care.
Do whatever you want.
You're just crawling through the aisle. It's fine. Flight takes off a little after two hours, sitting.
On the ground.
Okay, so okay, we're taking off.
Good story, good ending in second so we fly to nine hours.
We land in Newark. We were supposed to landree o'clock New York time, and land around six o'clock New York times. Land they say, welcome to Newark. We're going to taxi around. We're gonna try we're going to find a gate. There's been some problems at Newark, as you way may know. We're told the time to a gate is going to be about thirty minutes or so, okay, it's thirty minutes after landing is no problem.
How the one year old do on the nine hour flight.
Didn't sleep a minute, just awful, And so my wife's face is just like she can't take it anymore.
She can't take it anymore.
The stewards are coming over, they're like, she did so good and no she didn't. No one, everyone knew she did not do well in this flight, and they look, she's won. So now thirty minutes becomes it's going to be another thirty minutes sitting on sitting sitting on the tarmac, and they're blaming you, They're blaming Newark. They're saying they get gate problems. Now we're at two hours sitting after the.
Flight, damn network, and everyone's ring to.
Get crazy, not just us. People start to get crazy now because now we're in.
The middle of the night.
Friends, let me just let me off one.
Two am France time.
Now and you're literally less than a mile away from the airport.
You're sitting there. We could walk, we could all walk.
Now we're two.
Now we hit three, and it's the same message. We're still trying, We're still trying, and.
There's just no real to get the game.
Now that the stewardess are just throwing peanuts at us and things like that, like take this. And then we look out the window and we see fire trucks everywhere out the window. This is three hours in and so they get on. They go, don't worry. This is nothing to do with our plane. Some plane needed to have an emergency landing and they just landed here. There's some engine trouble. Uh, they're going to take care of that. But this is certainly going to delay us a bit more. So don't worry.
So now we get Meanwhile, you're thinking emergency landing after them, Why do.
They get They get the gate, So now we get we get four hours, which we learned four hours is a time by law you have to offer passengers away off. So all the other passengers are having their phones to the stewards and saying we need a way off now, and she goes, I completely agree with you.
You do, you do.
But this goes for five total hours.
Oh my god, on top of the two hours in the beginning, two hour.
At the beginning, nine hours flying, five hours sixteen on this flight, we get off, it's.
Kiss the ground, Kiss the Newark ground.
Eleven o'clock New York time. It's eight am, France time, whatever it is, and we're just we're done.
And so I remember.
Thinking, while this is going on, I'm like, this is this is this is the worst. Right, Like the seventy thousand dollars you chalk, it's done, can't do anything about it's not there the trip.
But this is traumatics.
So this is the one. And I'm not, like you said, I'm not tweeting anything out.
I'm not.
I'm not doing any of this stuff. I'm just telling my close friends what happened here. But I call Newark the next day and they did this smart move. They separated their reservation department from their complaints department. Complaints apartment is no phone. You cannot reach them. You have to
email them. So to me a long story short, I now have four one hundred dollars credits for all four to the United Airlines, which I can't I can only use mine and my wife's because my kids are unaccompanied minors. They can't even use them. So I have two hundred dollars now for a future United flights that I got back to that imp find United for the rest of my life. I cannot get it. And so and at this point now I've given up there. No, I'm not going to get I'm not going to be made.
Pole for this. I'm done. That's it.
So that's basically the.
Story that well done, well told.
I'm going to bring in our producer, Aaron wan Kaufman as well. Can I tell you something that's so sick. I had multiple delays this past week, and it felt like it was nothing at all compared to I I went through that.
I'm so scarred, I'm so callous.
I have such scar tissue that like, if I'm delayed four hours, I'm almost at the zen point now where I'm just like, all right, it's four hours.
It is what it is. But Aaron, your thoughts to Jay's story right there?
I hated that, I like, I want to throw up, like the blood left my face the landing and then get sitting on the tarmac, and I mean, I have no children. I can't imagine what would be like with one, not to mention two, not to mention three. I hated that that was it's.
A terrible story. Oh my god.
You see these horrible like horror stories on like and it's like the Saw or blair Witch or whatever you hollow.
These are worse story. This is far more horrific. This story is horrific.
There's nothing worse with the I mean, it's bad enough if you're on this flight, right, We've we've had bad travel experience. It's normally, like I said, I don't complain about I'm happy to be going right. But to have the kid and the five hours after this, after all the other crap that was that was too. I mean you could you could see people starting to lose their mind on these flights.
Yeah, you see insanity.
That's when I saw that lady screaming in the aisle and being like that person is not real.
I'm like, there's nothing weird about that. I've been She's going insane, she's on a flight. I get it. I get it.
And the and like you keep on talking about the flight attendant, and like you go from we're in this together to then they're your your enemy because you blame it on them somehow and they have information they're withholding from you. And then at the end it's like we're all just survivors on this thing, Like we're all just trying to get off this thing.
One thing to add is that so united on that fire of the United kept blaming Newark, like Newark, Newark this Newark. The next day tweeted out that just so everyone knows, the airline controls the gates, not the airport. So I know they've been blaming us. It's like there's something.
Going on there, like a public.
Who's following Newark International Airport's Twitter.
And they're ping it out there.
We don't want to take the blame. This is this is, this is there, this is it's hubbed, this is there, this is there in zone? How can they not deal with this?
I love this that they both have hired high powered PR firms to talk about.
The gate gate.
It's gate gate.
I do love that. Norse Airlines comes out looking good.
Yeah, Norse.
I'm that I have a platform plugged Norse Airlines. What are the light this airline? So now when you search for your flights next time to Europe, they fly London in Paris, you're going to see that as the as the cheap option. I couldn't recommend it.
Hire it.
It's great.
Norris was great Norse.
I flew I flew Iberia this summer to what is that's associated? Yeah, but but I hadn't heard of it before and I was looking at it and I was like, there's not a ton about this and similarly loved it. Incredible experience.
So uh, you know.
Sometimes like these little small it's yeah, they're great.
It was.
It was business class for I mean for seven thousand dollars, but it was. It was great.
Jay, I'm gonna wrap with this. You're a diehard Jets fan. What was worse that flight or the start of the season.
So the one thing I said to you after I listened to your podcast is that I am constantly surprised when other Jet fans are surprised about what happened. That was the most predictable thing. Maybe not exactly that I was at Vinnie ninety nine game. The flight was way worse than that.
I mean, this is were you at Were you at the Jets opening? Did you go to that?
No, I can't go to I was at Vini ninety I can't. I can't be at that anymore.
Vinnie ninety nine like anyway, mean, doesn't it They're coming off an ANC championship game and the same exact thing happened in nineteen ninety nine Week one. There was so much hype for the Jets and Vinie Pop's Achilles the first and then sure enough Jets organization not thinking about it, trot Vinnie test the verity out.
On the field right before Aaron Rodgers first game. What I mean, it's I.
Can't thick about that.
He was going to be out there and for nine to eleven. I said, oh my god, I started like just like talking about this flight. I started getting this PTSD. I'm like, I remember, like I remember this, Verry or clearly, the Jets were the Super Bowl favorites that year. For sure, they should have beat the Broncos the year before, and then that happened. It's the same thing that's happening now. Remember the Jets putting Rick Meyer after that, and they waited so long to make a move and then Ray
Lucas came in. It was was great play him earlier.
Great.
I mean the Jets are going to try it out there with with with Zach now when there might be someone else who can actually have This is a good team. I mean they didn't look great this weekend.
They are good and they didn't look good.
But Zach did three picks at the end, so like the cleanest thing and here's your football for the listeners, The cleanest thing would be to go trade for cousins, but there's so many dynamics to that, like and my thing was not speaking to them about this.
Are they are?
They at the behest of Rogers where like, he doesn't he doesn't want that, you know.
He doesn't want that. It's it's a really tough spot. You probably have to do what they're doing. It's a it's a bad spot and ruin what could have been a really cool season.
Yeah, on that note, Jay, thanks for joining buddy.
Thank you guys for having me.
It was great, uh, for Aaron Wan Kaufman, for Jason English, for myself, for our guest Sean Evans, who's the host of Hot Ones. Everyone go watch those They got en sync this week.
Pretty good.
Get this is the Season with Peter Schrager, Dion go into Oregon. Let's watch it and talk about it next week. Oh yeah, and some NFL stuff too. Thanks for listening. Subscribe Tell your friends. The Season with Peter Schrager is a production of the NFL and partnership with iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts wherever you get your podcasts,