I was at the local coffee shop.
There's a coffee shop called Joe Coffee which is in our hood, and like everyone goes through there, and Matt Damon was in there and he had a Boston Red Sox hat. And I'm like, all right, do you say something to Matt Damon or you just let Matt Damon be? Of course, as a fellow celebrity, I'm joking. I know you don't bother him.
You let him be.
But then Damon looked at me and gave me the nod, and I think he knew who I was, and I was about to engage, and then he was gone out of my life forever.
That friendship never materialized either.
Hi. My name is Peter Schrager and I am so juiced every day I get to wake up.
Hi, everybody, and welcome to Off the Beat. Get it. I just said it, Off the Beat. It is me as always your host, Brian I. Gartner, and today football fans rejoice, but also fans of really good, interesting people. You rejoice as well, because we have a spectacular guest who knows just about everything and everybody involved with the NFL. Peter Schrager, NFL Insider joins us on the podcast Today. He is a brilliant analyst and a sideline reporter. He's
also a podcast host. He's a best selling author, he's an Emmy winner, and well, I'm proud to say a friend of mine. His show Good Morning Football, three hours of live television every single weekday of the year. It's the best if you want to keep up with NFL news. You can also see him on Fox NFL Kickoff on the Sidelines at times for Fox Sports, and he's a regular on The Heard with Colin Cowherd and The Dan
Patrick Show. Basically, anywhere there's football, there is Peter. And anywhere there's Peter, you know it's going to be gold. I'm not going to keep you waiting any longer. One of my favorite people in the business. Peter Schrigger, everyone.
Bubble and Squeak. I love it.
Bubble and Squeakna.
Bubble and Squeak.
I cook it every month, left over.
From the night before.
Peter. Yes, yes, what is happening?
Oh man, you look great? How are you on the course? Right now?
Where are you? I'm not on the course, but you are definitely getting vacation. Brian It I am here from beautiful hilton Head Island.
Oh that's so good. So much miniature and the regular kind.
That's right. I think we're doing miniature golf this afternoon. Big family reunion. It sounds like I'm doing a commercial for it. My parents live here in hilton Head Island. My parents retired down here.
Awesome.
Yeah, we we are doing our I think it's our first actual like an official family reunion. I don't know.
I don't know the family reunion people. That's not what we do. So I love doing it like.
We've never done it. We got a huge house. We're all staying under one roof.
There could be a show about that.
It's uh yeah, it's very entertaining last night. Now, I was not up this morning, but my sister, this is unbelievably cool. In hilton Head Island. At this time of year, the sea turtle's nest and you have to turn your lights off if you're near the water so that the babies don't get confused, and they go they follow the moon back into the water. Well, this morning they had hatched,
and my sister walked down. They saw the tracks of the little baby sea turtles going back into the sea, and about this time they have people who go up and down the beach and they're helping the sea turtles or whatever. They show up and they know to like look around and make sure there are no stragglers. And there was a straggler.
Oh my god.
They crawled into a crab hole and they got it out and they saw slash held the volunteer held it. But they got to see the baby sea turtle and watch it take its first steps into the ocean.
That's the most amazing thing. I love that.
And you know that in about six months or a year from now, there's gonna be like a giant raising canes and that exact spot that's built.
Or there's gonna be a TD bank there instead. So enjoy that. That's beautiful. That sounds awesome.
We saw the last of the turtles. Yes, exactly right, you got it. I'm so excited to be talking to you. I mean, this is hot. I mean this this constitutes is our official NFL pre season episode. For sure. We're going to talk about that, but I want to talk about you first. I know you grew up in New Jersey. Tell me about little Peter.
Okay, little Peter.
Was not little Peter. No, tell me about little Peter.
That conversation would be quite short.
Brun were sports? Were you into sports?
I was diehard, Like I was the kid that would memorize the baseball cards and know every factoid on the back. I grew up in Freehold, New Jersey, which is a town in central Jersey. It's not quite Jersey short, it's not quite North Jersey. We're kind of our own little world. It's Springsteen Country. So if you want to think like blue collar this is, you know, we're going to make it out of here someday and get to the big city about an hour away.
That that's where it was.
And my childhood was getting a pack of tops cards, watching Sports Center in the morning, memorizing statistics, waking up every morning and getting the newspaper and checking the box scores.
And I could tell you basically every player where they went to college from the age of ten years old, probably now, because my mind works that way and I just was lucky enough to fall in love with sports, realize at a young enough age I'm not going to play sports professionally, kind of pivot into being a sports media guy, first a writer and then eventually on television.
Now well, so okay, well, a couple of things. One, you're from you're from You're from Mid Jersey. Now are you? Are you Philly? Are you New York? What are you? And what are the people around you?
Where Mammoth County is, which is like Freehold, manelopin more Bro Howell. I'm sure you're very well versed on your Central Jersey geography, but in those towns.
I know, northeastern Pennsylvania.
How about it? It is split three ways.
You're either Eagles fans, right Jets fans, or Giants fans. I so happened to be very fortunate as a kid to watch the eighty six Giants, to watch the ninety Giants, and then to also get another bite at the apple with Eli Manning and seven to twenty eleven.
I grew up a Giants fan.
On the Good Morning Football Show, I say I'm objective, I don't, but I'll tell you.
With all my family and all my friends, we come from.
Giants Country, Giants Country. Okay, what about baseball and hockey and stuff? Are you are you in New York? Then?
Yeah?
It's it's funny because the Devils came around when I was a kid and all that, but it was I was Giants, I was New York Rangers, I was New York Yankees. And in hockey, it was a New York Rangers in the New York Nicks.
So those are the teams. I was in New York.
You were in New York all the way. So you said you realized at an early age you weren't going to play professionally, But I mean, did you play as a kid.
I played basketball and soccer as a kid.
Football oddly enough, like it wasn't Pop Warner at the time, isn't what it is now. We didn't have flag football when I was a kid, so I basically played in like my street with the kids from the block. And yeah, and the thought of playing high school football. I went to a big high school and there was kids who were playing like I just wasn't in the cards for me.
So I would go to all the games on Friday nights and I'd get into it and I would know everything about it, but never thought to actually play actual football.
But you early on you thought you were going to be involved in sports.
I wanted to be as a kid, Yeah, I really wanted to be like I did everything you can imagine and took every angle. Like when I was in college. I went to Emory in Atlanta, which I've told you before, not a football program. They don't have a football program, not a huge sports media department. And all these kids were going to like ESPN. All these guys and gals.
They were from Syracuse, where you go to New House or Northwestern, you go to Medill or USC, you go to Annaberg, Like there's like a factory where you can go and become a sports center anchor, you know, Like.
That's what I was.
I went to a school to have So I showed up at the ESPN Sports Zone in Buckhead in Atlanta on a one hundred degree day in I think two thousand and two, dressed in a shirt and tie, and I tried out for an ESPN reality show called ESPN Dream Job Okay, which was like the American idol to be on sports center.
Okay.
I didn't make it, but I made an impression with some of the people who were there from ESPN. They thought I was funny, charismatic, high energy out to junior in college and they said, here's our card.
When you're done with college, let us know.
And my first job out of college was writing for ESPN dot Com as a freelance writer, and it's because of that venture to the Buckhead ESPN sport Zone, trying to make an impression on them.
Yeah.
Wow, Now I can't remember if I've told you this or not. My father, who was again is staying in the same house with me forty two years. He spent at Emory University. My sister went there. I didn't know this, yes, and quite frankly, that's where I should have gone, because when when you're at a big research hospital like Emory is show me, it's world renown. You're also a teacher, right,
so you're teaching residents. You're teaching and actually was the head of the residency program and was very interested in that. And your kids get free tuition, is that right? So I was going to go to Emory. That was what I was going to do. And then at a certain point when I decided what I wanted to do, they didn't have a huge theater trade program, they didn't have a conservatory program, and so you know, I made the decision to go to SMU. Hail to the Red and
the Blue, the Mustangs of SMU. And my dad was, I mean, was very practical about it. It was like, okay, great, how are you going to pay for it?
I mean, how cool is your dad for understanding that? But wouldn't he just say, like Emory is a top fifty university, it's free to it, like don't do don't don't go out one of the lines here. What a cool dad for letting you pursue your dreams?
Right? One, yes, and two. It then meant and I was fortunate in a way. I was recruited SMU, and so I was very transparent with them, even as whenever I was eighteen year old, I said, guys, I want to come here too, but you've got to give me some money, because otherwise.
In SMU at the time, this is pony Express, I'm thinking football.
This is Eric Dickerson and.
All that is a little after that.
But they had they had a great theater department.
Great theater department.
So give me some I like going through the history of the football. Give me the history of the theater department at SMU. Who the Mustangs? Who they have?
Well, Kathy Bates, okay me.
So when Kathy Bates goes to the office, are you like, hey, we're fellow SMU?
Like yeah, In.
Fact, I'll tell you this. We opened a theater when I was at SMU. We opened up it was a thrust stage. That's not a joke, this is what it's called. And to open up this theater, they invited back a lot of old prestigious alumni, alumnuses, alumni, and Kathy Bates was one, and my mom, unbeknownst to me, I guess, got Kathy Bates's agent's information. I don't know how people even do this and sent her a book and Kathy Bates and signed the book said pursue your dreams. And
I still have it to this day. And so in the makeup trailer, it wasn't the first day Kathy. I knew she was going to be around a little bit, but I brought in the book and I told her the story and no.
But what a cool story. And you still had the.
Book and I still had the book and uh yeah.
And she was coming off Misery and Fry Green to May like this, Yeah.
This is yeah. She had won the Academy Award for sure for misery. I'm not going to remember right now what year that was, but she had she had already won when she came back. So yeah, that was that was that's pretty cool. So I went there and it all worked out. I didn't. I didn't go for free. Dad did supplement slightly, but but very slightly. And that was the deal because of of Emory.
For me, it was Emory, which I wanted to go to a school that did have sports. So I applied to Duke and to Carolina and to Northwestern and to Wake.
And I got into Emory. So that's where I went.
Really really, that's surprise. I mean Emory. Emory is a good school. That's surprising that you got in. If you got not in there, especially North Carolina. A'll take anybody and he come on, you start their writing and you have a little radio show there as well. Is that right?
Yes?
That was the sports.
Yeah.
So I was in a fraternity shocker, and we were in the Pike House and my roommate was a guy Aaron Luber, who I still think to this day is the funniest person to walk the earth. You know, you've got your college friends that you're like, I know you didn't go into entertainment, but had you have done that, you would be bigger.
Than Jim Carrey right now.
You know, Like he was that guy and the two of us loved doing prank calls, and this was like the height of Howard Stern and the whack Pack and that they would have their salon Richard Frank and I'm like, we would do print calls. And then the Emery radio station. It was like very early on where you can It wasn't streaming, but there was a cable access channel that was just seen in the dorms and it became a
thing where once a week on Tuesday nights. We called it the Old Crow Show because we would drink Old Crow whiskey when we were you know, when we were doing the show, and we would prank other people on campus and we would do funny, cool voices and characters, and eventually it got a little bit of a following and it would be on TV too, so people would tune in, and you know, it was my first brush with like, Okay, this isn't just in my imagination that
this could happen, Like it is possible, and we do have something going here. So I got into radio. I never called any sporting events. I had a stupid comedy sketch show for three hours once a week, but I had the bug.
I loved entertaining. I loved it.
You loved it well. And it sounds like by going to the ESPN Zone when you were a junior, like you have already started thinking about it. So when you graduate, that's your first call is you have the card of the people at ESPN and you call them.
Yeah, it's an amazing you know for all these I get, I'm sure you do too. I get hundreds of emails from prospective college students. Here are my clips, what do you think? And it's like, you just gotta do it. You gotta do it. You go out there and fail and do it. And my story is not glamorous because in the One Breath, Yes, I got a look from ESPN and it was page two at the time, which was like where Bill Simmons was writing and Ralph Wiley
was writing, and it was this really big site. And it was one of the editors who gave me a couple of things. But it was freelance and I probably wrote one article a month for six months, and those articles paid six hundred dollars.
So you better believe.
I was living in my parents' house right after college, and I'm back in Freehold, New Jersey after my dad dropped how much money on my college education?
Who knows to go to Emirate Tratuta School And.
I'm right back where I was senior year of high school, in my same high school bed, going to the same you know, college bars I was going.
To in my hometown.
And that was really the time where it's like do I want to do this or not? Because I'm sure I could take the LSATs and put that together. I'm sure I could work in marketing somewhere. And I also had friends from Emory who are making real money in finance and doing some things in the city. So it was like this very humbling thing and I would just tell anyone you have to stick with it, because I wrote those freelance articles and I kept with it and
it felt like there wasn't going to happen. And then eventually Foxsports dot Com reached out to me and it was like, we do a full time position years later, I mean years later. So it was a lot of putting together clips and writing for publications. Freelance went off, but as you know in your in your field, the Timothy Shamalays are one in a million, you got to put the work in like before you become the big star.
I'm not saying he didn't put the work in, but you know what I'm saying, like, yeah, very few of us are going to be stars at twenty two, So you got to put the work in during those years.
Right at this point in time, you know, having the radio show and people laughing, having your improv group. Well, and you could talk to now too. You consider yourself a journalist or an entertainer?
Wow?
Wow, Ryan, Because I think I fancy myself a journalist because that's where I grew up, and I had the different websites I wrote for and the different publications, and you had to go through the fact. And my role on Good Morning Football and on Fox is that I'm the NFL insider, right, so I'm the one giving you all the information, who's playing, who's not playing, what's happening in this free agent contract, who's this team going to draft?
And I play the role of journalist. But if I'm being honest with you, I didn't go through the journalism chops of working at the Washington Post and having to go investigate local school districts at a small paper.
I didn't go down that road.
I came from an outside road where I was going to put it together and get to where I was going to be.
So I yes.
Journalists, but gosh, good Morning football. If you watch our show, I would say it's far more entertainment than necessarily journalism.
Right early on you start working for Fox Sports and covering stories on Fox News in those early days, was there anyone coach player that you met where you were starstruck?
Yeah, I mean some of my early interviews on camera, it's like watching Chris Farley and the old SNL skits talking to McCartney.
Like, oh, what was it Like?
That was awesome.
That's a great, great one to go because like it was one of those deals where I also wrote for GQ magazine. I would do a lot of the player profiles and Okay, one of my favorite gigs because you'd get a budget, you were allowed to take the player out in New York and then you can write what And I remember I went out with DeMarcus Ware who was a fantastic linebacker for the Dallas Cowboys.
I just hung out with him, did you.
I mean, he's seen not the nicest guy in the world.
He's the nicest guy in the world. And now a Hall of famer. I just played with him at the American Center. Oh that's so cool, me and DeMarcus and Charles Barkley.
Come on, Brian, do you pinch yourself like this?
It's unbelievable. Yeah. DeMarcus super nice guy. Sorry to interrupt you, but anyway, and.
Here's the thing for the listeners. He's the most one of the most ferocious players in the history of the sport. Absolutely menacing outside linebacker. His job was to tackle and hurt quarterbacks and then off the field. Is a true renaissance man. So he and I we have a date to meet at the Soho Grand and this is like two thousand and five, two thousand and six for breakfast, and then I have a assignment for my editor. The guy's name was Devin Gordon from GQ, and he's like,
here's your budget. Do what you want to do with DeMarcus and come back with a great, great article for the for the fall issue of g Q magazine. And DeMarcus ware says, you know what I'd like to do. I'd like to go antique shopping. I go You couldn't that, Yes, Yes, let's go antique shopping. And we spent the day going to different antique shops in the village in New York City, and along the way, I'm asking him questions about football.
But I'm really getting to know this guy, and I remember at the end of it just being like, gosh, I just want to be your friend, Like can I have your number?
Can we keep in touch?
Like this guy is like so unique and so one of one and such a special person. And then time after time I would meet these guys who are in the top one percent of the world at what they do, and it's hard not just being so in awe of them.
But the really first few times that I got liked is that was when I was on TV and Fox Sports was launching a network called Fox Sports One, and it was their cable network and it's still around, but at the time, it was twenty thirteen, and it was like this big moment, and I, at just the same time, was just starting to do a lot of TV stuff, so I was aside. I went from being a writer to a sideline report to kind of a guy who's
in the studios. And one of my first days on air, I'm on set and on the set with me, the other three people on there are Randy Moss, Brian Urlacker, and Rendez Barber, and I swear my hit must have been like when they went to me like, so, Peter, what do you think I abdo bab bit of abitah bit of about and in the green room, I'm like, I'm like, so, Randy, do you remember when like you like faked, pulled down your pants and like Joe Buck went nuts and like Randy Moss is like yes, So anyway,
that kind of stuff never gets old. But now I'm you know, I speak to Mahomes now or I speak to Josh Allen.
Now, I'm fifteen years older than these guys.
Not the same as it was maybe ten fifteen years ago from me when I was talking to the guys that that I just wasn't of right.
You have said before, speaking of Randy Moss, that your most unusual job related incident was fishing with Randy for three days on Big Bear Lake.
The greatest assignment ever in the history of sports.
So this was what were you filming this?
Yes, this is The producer's name was Michael Bloom. And Michael had this idea and said, Okay, we've got this new football studio crew. We're going to be unrolling, and they don't know each other that well. Obviously Moss and Erlacker probably know each other.
Ronde knows it.
The other guy was Joel Clatt, who now calls college football. Let's do a preview show. But Randy's greatest passion is not football. Randy Moss's greatest passion is fishing.
Yeah, so we're.
Gonna play to Randy and say, okay, right, So we went to Big Bear Lake. I consider myself Northeast city guy everything I had never fished in my life. And the show was and I think it was like an hour long NFL football preview that might have ran once on FS one at three am in the morning, you know, one of those deals. But if you find the footage, probably the greatest piece of footage ever out there Randy Moss, myself, Brian r Lacker, and Joel Clatt on a boat fishing,
talking about football, and Randy's hauling in huge fish. I mean, Randy casts out a line, reels it in and it's like bringing back like you know, twenty eight inch this and and this and he you know, this is the kind of fish that it is.
And then and what's the word like a magledon. You ever heard of a magledon? Is that the word? Like, it's like it's like monster from the sea. I don't know.
Yeah, that's his shark. That's his shark. Right, is a real shark?
I don't even know.
I asked Randy because I was like, I'm gonna jump in the water, and this big bear like I don't give a crap, I'm gonna go jump. So I dive in and I'm like, Randy, come in and this I just met Randy Moss and he's like, no, no, no, no, no no. I saw a documentary on the what is the word a magledon? Is that what it's called?
Yeah, well it's the movie with the make right the Man with Ray Wilson by the Shark, Right, That's all I can think of, Is that what you're talking about.
Randy's just refusing to go in. We'll not go in the water, and I'm like, you know, He's like, I know how to swim. I just thought that I don want want to swim. I just I'm not gonna know. The Magledon's are out there and I'm like this is all on film. I'm like, this is incredible. Randy Moss refusing to jump out of the boat.
But it's experiences like that where I'm like, that's the greatest I would That's like, you know, you pay he guy's paying auctions crazy money to have a dinner with Randy Moss. I got to go fishing for three days with them, and Randy was incredible and we've been good friends ever since.
Twenty thirteen, same year, you win your first Sports Emmy for Inside the NFL on Showtime. What was the story?
Yeah, I was again young but coming up in the business, and I hit it off with a guy named Pete Radovich, who at the time was at CBS, but also was bringing NFL's Greatest show, Inside the NFL from HBO to Showtime, and they rebooted it with a new crew and it was James Brown, Chris Collinsworth, Phil Simms, and they brought me on as what was known as an editorial contributor, so very little airtime, but if Sims needed, Hey, Schreker, what's the latest with Cam Newton and Carolina? Like, what's
going on over there? I was filling him in off camera, or if it was the Packers are playing the Saints this week? Can someone you know tell me what Brett Farre's record was against the Saints when he played there, Like that kind of stuff, right, But that season in twenty thirteen was the start of like social media really
taking a big role. And I wasn't a huge social media guy, but they would bring me on for a for a segment and I would read tweets about the show, kind of like Jimmy Kimmel's mean two yeah tweets, and it was always just shitting on collins Worth and Sims and like those guys would respond and we had such a good time. And then sure enough I get this invite to go to the Emmys as part of the crew. I'm like, all right, like you know again, this has
pinched me stuff. We go and we win Best Weekly Show, and to this day it's one of the coolest moments I got to be there. We won, We were freaking out, and then like six months later, a trophy shows up at my studio apartment or one bedroom apartment, and it's the biggest thing in my apartment. It's like that in a you know, empty gallon of milk and some beer cans, and my wife's like, who are.
We gonna put that thing?
I'm like I don't know, but we're we're outing it, we're keeping it, We're keeping it. Also in twenty thirteen, you put on your writers hat Strength of a Champion with O Jay Brigatt's tell me a little bit about one why that story needed to be told and why you I.
Wrote a book in twenty eleven with Victor Cruz from the Giants. Now, Victor Cruz had this big breakout season, won a Super Bowl. So local kid from Patterson, New Jersey. I spent three months kind of with Victor with an open recorder, and I just like, tell me your life story. And it was incredible. And this book came on the heels of the Giants winning a Super Bowl, Victor Cruz being the hottest guy in sports, right, and it's sort
of number like something on the best seller's list. We had a New York Times bestseller And that was my first book out of the gates. And I wrote it with Victor and I was like, so, so at that point, I've got this publishing company and want you to write what do you want to write?
Yeah, right, what do you want to write?
Go write a book on whatever, Like let's go.
And I had been really touched by a story from the Super Bowl Ravens the following year, and the story was they had this player who used to play for the Ravens back in the early two thousands who was suffering from als and his name was Oj Brigance, and Oj was working for the Ravens when the diagnosis came in and obviously it rocked his world, it rocked his wife Chandra's world, it rocked everyone's world, and in a lot of situations you'd imagine, Okay, he's gonna take some
time away. But the Ravens continued to employ Oj, and as his diagnosis would go from one year to two years to three years, he would eventually lose the ability to speak, he'd eventually be able to lose.
The ability to walk. And Oj would have this motorized vehicle that he would take to the building every single day with assistants from nurses, and he was able to talk to the players through a machine where he would use his eyes to type out words on a machine and then an automated voice would go to them, well, sure enough, OJ is in the building and he's you know. Ray Lewis would talk to him for hours.
Every day, and Ed Reid would rally around him, and the Ravens go on this incredible miracle super Bowl run where Joe Flacco goes into Indian Apple Or goes into New England and beats Tom Brady, goes into Denver and beats Peyton Manning and they go on this great super Bowl run and the story of the season is incredible.
But I wanted to tell the story from OJ's eyes, so we wrote this book and it's it's with Oj Bergants And although the Victor Cruz one is the best seller, the OJ book is truly one of my most I guess my gift, like to his family and to him, but also what was something I'm most proud of. And I don't know if it's sold many copies, to be honest,
and it wasn't a bestseller. It didn't get a ton of you know, love on the list and all that stuff, but that book meant everything to me and Oj to this day in twenty twenty three, that was ten years.
Ago, is still alive, Jesus.
Suffering from als and I still correspond with him and his wife Chandra, and it's and he still goes to the Ravens facility.
It's incredible stuff.
Well, I tell you something, Uh, you're going to sell another copy. I you know, in doing this research talking to you, I just found out about this book and looked into him a little bit. You know. It's weird, you know, the relationships that you have through this business, you know, and as you know, I have similar relationships
with weird people that you would never expect. If there is a team still currently and I used to tell him all the time that I hate more than any team in the world, it's the San Francisco forty nine ers. I mean, I just but I had a relationship with Dwight Clark, who also suffered from ALS and unfortunately succumbed to it. And watching that happen, that disease, it's just horrible. I mean, there's just no other word to say, just horrible. And I'm going to ask you, because I'm ignorant, is
there a connection? Do you think?
I don't know the scientifically, they haven't put the connection together. And there's between football obviously, Yeah, there's.
Millions of people who suffer from ALS that didn't play football. If anything, these gentlemen Steve Gleeson, Dwight Clark, O J. Brigance, the fact they have these platforms to write books. Gleason wrote an amazing book. Dwight Clark was maybe the greatest ambassador for you know, what could possibly be done towards research. The fact that they have these platforms and these fan bases and these teams, it could be, you know, a blessing.
And they're truly the ones who are serving raising awareness around ALS because I didn't know much about the disease. It's the strength that these families have, especially when these men are in their thirties and forties and these women are going through it.
I know I don't and you and I have a lot of fun.
Together, but this is like a very serious topic to me and thinking I'm very passionate about and having written this book, it changed me in a lot of ways. And watching OJ's strength, you put it in perspective what they're going through when I start complaining about whatever I got in my day to day.
Yeah, strength of a champion. I am going out myself and read it and I encourage anyone who doesn't know about ALS. It sounds like an amazing story check that out as well. In twenty sixteen August the first of twenty sixteen, Oh, We're like this is the anniversary right right now when we're recording this. Good Morning Football premieres on the NFL network. You have been on Good Morning Football since its inception. How do you deal with the schedule?
Yeah, so our show air seven to ten am every day during football season, not during football season, when the furthest thing you're thinking about is football season. We are on the NFL network every morning and they I think a fellow actor friend of yours, Paul Rudd, said it best he was on our show. I like your show because it's not the news in the morning, and I'm like, thank you, because that's it's just light, it's fun and
it's football. And Brian, we have been so blessed and fortunate to have you not only on as a guest, but you served as a host for several days on our show and did an outstanding job.
Thank you, Peter. I have to tell you, and this is not this is not a joke. I've said this to other people, not publicly. If it wasn't for the schedule, I might try to come for your job.
Honestly, I get it to come for your job.
I love doing it. It's so much fun. But guys, this is not so. I mean part of it is admittedly that I'm West Coast, so my body and my brain is on the West Coast. It's hard to to
change that. But it's like four thirty or five in the morning, you're on before in the coast, you're up at four in the morning, and while you're doing I'll just put it this way, while you're doing your morning routine, whatever that may be, filling the blank in your head, whatever your morning routine is, you are on a conference call where the entire show is being talked about the first day when I was hosting it, I was afraid
of getting in the elevator. Now, I guess the elevators work really well there in New York and you don't have to get off the phone. And I mean like you are on the phone on a conference call, walking through every segment of the show as you're getting ready, as you're coming down the elevator. And again the first day that the drivers know it, they they pick you up in the morning because it's really early and you got to go through the thing. It's down World Trade Center.
They like know what I'm They open the car door. They don't say a word. They know that you're on this conference call. It's the call, it's our Bible and you and you, And basically what happens to give you a perspective is they're like, okay, everybody, that's it. We'll see you guys soon. And start at seven and you hang up and remarkably, you're outside of the building and then you you walk in the building and go up and you know, get a little makeup.
It's a wild routine.
It's up before you're.
Up before thirty in the morning. You're on this call at five thirty in the morning, you're in makeup chair. By six thirty in the morning, you're getting dressed, and all the while you got to think of someone to say for three hours. But Brian, I don't I imagine a lot of the listeners of this podcast probably aren't.
Everyday Good morning football.
My biggest thing that I preach people because I meet people all the time and they're like, we do I do, Oh, I do the football show on NFL Network, the morning Show, And they go, oh, I'm not a football fan. You don't have to be a football You do our show, our show with entertainment. So my colleague Kyle Brandt is hysterical. Jamie Erdall, our host is wonderful. Jason mccordy, a former player, has more pop culture references than any of us.
Like it is, it is about what's like we've spent so much time time.
I interviewed Aaron Rodgers this past weekend and I asked him about Oppenheimer, and he had seen it and he had thoughts. We spent more time talking about that than Rogers and the Jets, Like Rogers' thoughts on Oppenheimer is where we focus. So it is a fun show. There's trivia, there's games, there's all sorts of stuff.
So it gets tough.
In May and June, and again it's all relative. It's my dream job, so I'm happy. But when there's literally no football news and they're like, all right, for three hours, go fill the air with hypathetically, you have to just realize that, Okay, you're putting the work in now, this is why they pay it. And then once football season comes, the stories are kind of easier to talk about.
What do you think is changed the most in the NFL in your time? Let's just say on Good Morning Football. Yeah, the last decade.
I think the players have a lot more power even in the last decade than they did in the previous one.
And it's not because of the collective bargaining agreement. I think it's because of the rise of a the way society is moving towards maybe some marginalized voices more than it's been in decades past, but more so the free access at they have to social media, to Instagram, to a platform where if a player has something he wants to voice about his team, or about the league, or about society in general, they don't need to call a press conference and invite reporters, they don't need a podium.
They can go on TikTok and do it and it's gonna have the same exact impact. So I think the player of voice has gotten a lot louder, And whether that's a threat to the NFL or not, it's the way that things are going in the world, and we have to listen to those voices because they have a platform, just as the league does and the owners who put together the game.
Do you still love the sport as much as you did when you were a kid.
My gosh, dude, I get jaded a lot. And when you find me Week eleven, Week twelve, and I've been. I fly to la every weekend for Fox and I do their studio show from New York, and it's brutal, and I'll I'll sometimes be in a miserable mood and it's cold in New York and someone spits on me on the subway and you know, a car drives by and there's a subway puddle or does a big puddle of ring. But I was at Jets camp over the weekend.
It was the first time I've been at a football event since probably the combine of the draft whatever it is. And I was on the field and this sounds so cheesy, so you know, roll your eyes whatever. I've been doing this twenty years. But the grass was just freshly cut. The guys are coming out, everyone's got their the best
shape that they've been in a year. And Aaron Rodgers comes out, and the Jets fans, who are drunk with optimism right now, are chanting Aaron Rogers and I look to my producer, Christine, and I'm like, it's not the best job in the world. I get to do this for a living, so yes, I love it. Everyone always asks me, like, what's your favorite? The Super Bowl? To me, once a year. If you can go at any time, you must go. It's the greatest spectacle and it never
gets old. During the national anthem this year, I was ten feet behind Chris Stapleton and I shed a tear because I was like, this is the most beautiful thing.
I'm here for it.
Somehow, in my amazing dreams, I am on the field for the Super Bowl National Anthem and I get to talk about the game, and at the end of the day, that's my job as providing for my family. So yes, I love it so much and I love the stories, and it hasn't gotten old.
Before we dive into football a little more. You also do cover some other sports from time to time, the NBA Olympics. What's your favorite thing to cover besides the NFL.
I love the NBA playoffs and I love the NBA playoffs when the Knicks are like a team that's willing to be talked about on television, like it's been dead for twenty years in New York with basketball nets haven't been good. This past spring was really cool. I got to go to a few games. I am not a celebrity so on celebrity row, but you better believe my eyes are like, wait a second, that's Hanka's area. Okay, wait Saron Rodgers, Oh wait, that's Jessica Alba.
Oh is that turtle from Entourage? Yes? It is, like it's so cool.
When New York is alive and it brings out the audience because I missed that in my twenties and thirties. It wasn't a thing. But it's like the Laker games, like it feels like an event.
So I love that. I love when the Knicks are relevant.
Yeah, you know, it's so funny. There was a period of time where I was in New York a lot, yeah, and the people at MSG were just really big fans of the office. And I met a person I'm not going to give his name out, I want that name came out up to me and was like, whenever you want to come now. Sometimes people say this as how yeah, yeah, whatever, but I that's you know, I was there a lot, so I was like, yeah, I would, you know, love to go to a Knicks game and went and yet
there is kind of that MSG down there. Find a Yankees hat and put on the Yankees hat and it's like, suddenly you are New York. I don't know, it's a weird I can't even describe mysteria. Oh bizarre.
Yeah, it feels like it's the only show in town. It's a Broadway adjacent building, it's the Madison Square Guard and you know, Spike Lee is still there, and like for years it was Woody Allen and Matthew Modine and like you had like just institutions at these Knicks games. And then to think, okay, it's coming back with today's like today's guys and today's gals that are relevant.
It's cool. It felt like an event.
So from a basketball standpoint, yeah, I love covering the NBA playoffs, but to me, going to the NBA playoffs this past spring, that had a really cool feel. And if you want to pass along that guy's name after the podcast, that's great because I'm the schmuck buying tickets for three hundred dollars and sitting in the rafters and screaming on the top of my lungside.
That's Emily Radakowski down there.
I've kind of asked this once, but I'm going to ask it in a different way. I mean, look, you've written for tons of publications ESPN, Fox, Sports, GQ, Esquire, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Are you a writer or do you prefer broadcast?
I am a writer, that is where because everything that I'm doing on the show, it comes from my writing skills. Am I writing background? And how I'm presenting things and how I'm interviewing people. It's the writing side of it. Broadcaster, sure, But to me writer first, second, third, fourth, TV Guy fifth.
Your conversation with Aaron Rodgers got quite a bit of press the last few days. Tell me about that. How was he? Does it seem like in a good mood?
Can I show you something? I know this isn't on video for some of but I want to show you this.
No, that's all right. Oh this is a jersey, a Rogers eight jersey. Did he give it to your Jubi? Oh?
We didn't give it to me. A purchase was made. That's a gift I'm going to give to my friend for his birthday. But I'll tell you what. I have the Rogers Jets jersey in my hand. Here's the deal.
I'll give you the longest short of it. Sean Payton is a friend of mine and a former Fox Sports colleague, but a long time renegated of the league who was coach of the Saints, And he came out a couple of days earlier and in so many words, said, the previous coach of the Denver Broncos is named Nathaniel Hackett, and he says, I don't know Nathaniel Hackett, but this coaching job that he did was an embarrassment. And to sum it up, he really aired it out on the
former coach of the Broncos. As Sean Payton is starting a second chapter with the Broncos, Nathaniel Hackett is one of Aaron Rodgers' closest friends and is now the offensive coordinator for the New York Jets. So Rogers hadn't spoken since Sean Payton made his comments. And you know, Aaron Rodgers doesn't do interviews with everybody. He'll do them with you, He'll do him with Pat McAfee. I think in the
past he's done stuff with the guys at Barstool. And part of my take, Pete Holmes did a very famous interview with him once and Rodgers, as you know, is one of the most authentic, curious, intelligent athletes he will ever come across. But he isn't fans of everybody, and if he ain't a fan of yours, he ain't given me the time of day. I didn't know where I stood with Rodgers. I'm on the show every single day. I give objective analysis. I think he's one of the greatest players of all time.
I don't think I've ever talked to.
Anything negative about But I didn't know if He's gonna grant me an interview. But I've always appreciated his independence and his curiosity about the world. So the practice ends, he's not any interviews, and I'm on the NFL network from there, and I give him that look and I'm like, yeah, do you think maybe, and he's giving me the nod, like all right, I'm gonna come over.
I'm like, all right, this is the interview. I'm gonna get it. I'm gonna get it.
And then Jason Garrett, the former coach of the Cowboys, literally from Mars. I didn't see him coming from anywhere. I didn't know he was at practice, walks right in front of me and starts talking to Rogers and they have like a twenty minute conversation, and.
I'm like, well, there goes my interview with Rodgers.
There's no way he's gonna do a twenty minute conversation with Jason Garrett, fellow quarterback, fellow guy who played in the league for twenty years coaching the league.
They went through each other, they had great battles against Outher.
There's no way Rogers is gonna finish that and then give me the time day Still, sure enough, finishes with Garrett, comes over, taps me up. And I did something that Brian, I think you'd appreciate. When I interviewed Aaron Rodgers. I didn't come right away and say, all right, so, what are your thoughts on the Sean Payton comments.
Yes, I saw by the way.
I started off with how you like in New York.
I saw you at the Tony's Broadway and he said, I've seen Wicked and I saw Back to the Future and he said it's a mussy and I'm like, this isn't the We're not talking about parade or you know, Sydney Bluestein's window here, We're talking about Back to the Future, the musical, and I'm all right. And then we talked about Oppenheimer a little bit. He gives me his favorite Christopher Nolan movie, which is prestige. Now you can tell you, Rogers,
you know this. He could hang in any crew, any Hollywood crew, any New York crew, and talk movies.
He's a cinephile. The guy loves film.
He shows up to the Tony's not to be seen, but because he loves live musical theater. Like this is that kind of guy. And then I ease into football. And then I just said this, and I think this is a good question for any journalist out there. You don't just give him a yes or no, and you don't say talk about I said, we saw the Sean
Payton comments. Those are in the past. Why don't you tell the audience about your coach, Nathaniel Hackett, And Rogers started off talking about how Hackett is arguably the greatest coach he's ever had. He's one of his dearest friends, he's a family man, he is a lifelong coach, and then he took it himself and gave the quote of the summer and basically said, Sean Payton should keep my coach's name out of his mouth.
And that's like Will Smith talking. I'll like, keep my coach's name out of your mouth. And that went crazy and viral.
And you know, fortunate enough for my vanity and my ego, I'm in the shot when he says it, I'm the one asking him. So ESPN had to show my mug for two days, and I take that.
That's free publicity for me.
But we finished it up and Rogers and I tapped it up and I'm like, gosh, that was that was awesome. That's awesome when you get a guy like that and he's candid and he can talk as much as he wants or as little as he wants, but he gives you the time and the effort and defends his guy and I loved it.
Well. You know, he and I have spent quite a bit of time together. He seems to me to be in a very good mood. He seems to be very happy, very positive. I believe he said I don't have to pretend to be a journalist, so don't quote me on this. I believe he was at every but two of the off season practices and seems to be enjoying his new teammates. One, two, three or four. Where do the Jets finish this year?
I don't want to spoil it. I'm feeling I'm feeling really bullish on the Jets.
I don't want to.
I gotta do all sorts of predictions and we're coming up with that. Yeah, I don't know if they win the regular season title of the division. The Buccaneers didn't win the regular season crown in the NFC South the year that they won the Super Bowl. It happens time and time again. It just he had to get the time. I don't think there's gonna be a long adjustment period for Rogers. And if you're listening at home, you're like, well, didn't Brady go to a new team and win right away?
And didn't Matthew Stafford. They both did, and they were playing with coaches they'd never met before. He and Hackett, this coach that he's with, He's won two MVPs with this guy. He and Allen Lazard, they have a long history. Randall Cobb was there when I was there on Sunday and Brian, I'm.
Like, Coby's on this team.
I've almost forgot that Cobby's on this team. Like Rogers not only is coming, he's coming with his boys and with his coach. I don't think it's gonna be a long adjustment period. The schedule is tough, and it's questions about the offensive line, and their defense is untested. But I'm not counting out an angry, angry Aaron Rodgers. And when I say angry, I don't mean he's got a bad soul right now. I just think he's got a chip on his shoulder. He wants to prove some things.
Yeah, you know the last time something like this happened, I think he won two MVPs in a row.
Yep, and they drafted Jordan Love.
You said it, not me. Yeah, it'd be very interesting. Your favorite team in the NFC this year. I know you're still putting it together or for your exclusive announcements on Good Morning Football, but.
The world is waiting.
But NFC, I'm going to go to I don't I don't know where your loyalties lie with the Packers without Rogers there, but I'm gonna go with one of their rivals. I'm going to say the Detroit Lions of the team, and I know everyone's hot on them right now on a title since fifty seven. They got a really good young team, a really good offensive coordinator and Ben Johnson. I always here's if you want to get the keys
to the puzzle here. I always the last five years, I very humbly have predicted the right Superworld champion for the season. I'm not saying the Lions are gonna win. I always look at offensive teams and offensive coaches and I think this Ben Johnson, who's the offensive coordinator of the Lions, is a whiz kid. He's thirty seven years old, and what they were doing at the end of season last year was revolutionary stuff. I think they pick up
right where they left off. I think the Lions are going to be significantly better than they've ever been before. And I think they might be talking you know NFC title.
That good interesting.
So you're a believer even though they start. I mean, I have to tell you, I was shocked that they open the season at Kansas City.
It's the ultimate honor, right, it is the league. The league could pick any team.
To play the Chiefs, and they chose the Detroit Lions, the team that everyone on Thanksgiving is like, oh, really, we got to watch the Lions.
The League chose them this year.
In the morning game, the morning game when you're ever one on, no one's too drunk yet, the game is coming on and it's the Lions. And against the Bears or somebody.
Mitchell Trubisky versus the Lions thirteen years in a row.
Yeah, interesting anybody else?
Yeah, I think the Niners and Eagles are step ahead of everybody and they're going to bring it right back. I think those are the three power teams of the NFC and the rest is a wide open. I really do see the Lions in that conversation.
You know, it's interesting. The forty nine ers just called me yesterday about trying out for their quarterback position.
I don't know if you might be the healthiest.
I don't know if I don't know if you heard they were, They've been.
They've been right now, they say block.
I mean, we're doing this on August August first, whatever we're doing. This rock party is apparently healthy. But if you watched football, the Niners quarterback position is as cursed as any position in sports.
Yeah, it's gonna be an interesting year. AFC teams, other AFC teams.
Gosh, isn't it great this year? So the NFC is kind of weird this year. There's not a lot of power teams. It could be anybody's. The AFC is so loaded. There's three heavies obviously the Bengals, the Bills, and the Super Bowl champion Chiefs. I'm gonna put two more teams that I think are going to be really good this year. I think the Jets are gonna be really good this year.
And then the other team that I think is going to be excellent that I haven't heard a lot of buzz on is the LA Chargers, and every year we hear that. But I think Justin Herbert this is his coming out party. I love again the Keys to the Puzzle offensive coaches. They just hired Kellen Moore from the Cowboys, who was there the last few years. He's the offensive coordinator. He's gonna be working with Justin Herbert, and they've got
a bunch of skyscrapers at receiver. I think the Chargers are going to be really good this year, might actually be better.
Than the Chiefs in the AFC West. Wow, I'm talking.
Look, you don't get paid like I get paid the big bucks without making a big.
Are you pick? Are you picking the Chargers to win the West?
I might? I might? Interesting?
Wow? Uh you mentioned it before? You do your five mornings at Good Morning Football in New York. You get on a plane every week to go to l A want Why do they need you in LA.
That's a great question. That's a great question.
I just signed an extension, so I'm not going anytime soon where I'm not but there. Look you're hearing me on this podcast. You're like, this guy must have a lot of caffeine. The argument is that my presence in studio. Uh, I'm a I'm a catalyst. I bring energy, I bring uh, I bring juice. So I love doing it and that
show is a really fun crew. And you know it's Carisa Thompson who does the Amazon show as well the pregame show, but Michael Vick, Charles Woods, and we had Sean Payton for years and we're going to be adding someone new. It hasn't been announced yet.
But like, I love it when I'm there and I love doing.
It and my job is to kind of give you the insights but also bus chops a little bit.
But you're right in a in a zoom world.
It was one year COVID where I was doing it remotely, and I'll be honest, I wasn't as good as I am when I'm in studio, Like I was like doing it from like outer space. The producers are like, you're much better in studiom, Like I get it, and I
understand it. And yet, gosh, when I'm sitting there at the Delta gate and they're like it's actually a ninety minute delay, and I'm looking around and someone's asking me who they should start on their fantasy team, There's nothing I would love more than seeing my catch.
Oh well, the new season is coming. Your time is heating up. The busiest man in football is I mean, the Giants are going to be good. The Giants are going to be.
Interesting, relevant, relevant, if nothing else.
I'm so excited. I can't wait to come back on your program at some point.
Can I also plug my podcast, which, Oh you gotta have you on. It's called It's really Good, and it's called The Season, and I'm so proud of it, and I want you on soon.
The Season, I hear it is very very successful. Now, you had Flying Coach with Sean McVay that was also very successful, talking about your relationship with Sean McVay. But yes, now the season, how do you find the time?
That one is like that one?
So I'm not a part of an ensemble crew on two different shows, but that one is like my deal. So it's like my chance to do my own thing. And I think you could probably appreciate that. Where hey, I'm not just NFL and Center. I also haven't I listen.
I look at your podcast guests, and you know I've been listening to your podcast Back to the Office ones, yes, And it's you bring in everybody, and you connect with everybody, and you and I are kindred spirits in that way, and that I'm not just talking to football players and gms. I'm talking to actors, comedians and talking to people who are difference makers.
And it's had a lot.
Of success and some of the most highest listened episodes are from people who aren't necessarily in the football world. So right, really proud of it. And where do I find the time? You find the time?
You know that you find the time the season Peter Scheger available wherever you hear your podcast. You're also you have another job.
By the way, do you like this, I'm just showing it your book and.
You've got my book right there. Welcome to Dunner mifflind love it.
It's a coffee table.
Yeah. I mean, although I think I gave it to you, so I didn't that was free. You also you have another job, John Krasinski stalker. Now you and John are neighbors.
I I live a block away from the dude, and I know him as Jim from the office.
Obviously, this is pre Jack Ryan, this is pre everything.
And I and I run sometimes when you know, I'm after the show and ever, and I've seen him walking his dog and I want to go up to him and not fanboycause I have no interest in being a fan. I just want to be like I'm Brian's boy, like Brian's my guy, like we have a connection. But I've got too much respect for him. And you know, he's a Brooklyn Heights resident, and we don't mess with Brooklyn Heights residence like Vegas you don't, or whatever, fight club like, we don't.
You don't do that.
It's just it's understood. When Daniel Craig walks by, you don't say, oh my god, I love you. And James Bond like you just kind of let him buy and you not. So we are quote unquote neighbors. I don't think he knows how exist well.
He is a sports fan, so you might be surprised about that. You have my permission to go tell him.
I'll give you.
I'll give you a good one there for me. I wanted to, but I didn't want to go off to him at all. I felt like it was weird by the way he's jacked. He's a great looking guy, Like there is nothing that's very plastic looking. Man.
He is very sexy.
I was at the local coffee shop.
There's a coffee shop called Joe Coffee which is in our hood, and like everyone goes through there, and Matt Damon was in there and he had a Boston Red Sox hat and I'm like, all right, do you say something to Matt Damon or you just let Matt Damon be. Of course, as a fellow celebrity, I'm joking. I know, you don't bother him. You let him be. But then Damon looked at me and gave me the nod, and I think he knew who I was and I was about to engage, and then he was gone out of my life forever.
So that friendship never materialized either.
Yeah, he gave you the nod, like like you know who you are?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's what that's what you do. You just not you just do the nod.
I loved you in I love you in rounders like I was given a real good reference.
Goodwill Hunting. Yeah, I have loved you since Goodwill Hunting. Listen. It's so great to see you. Thank you so much. We're gonna I'm gonna be on the podcast. I'm also gonna come back at Are.
You in New York any tom soon? Are you in the city.
I'm sure that I am so I will uh, I will let you know and to be continued, congratulations on all the success and uh yeah, I look, by the way, don't be don't be afraid to text when you have that insider information. It makes me look smart, you know.
I will.
Jamiir Gibbs, that's your fantasy sleeper of the year. He's a first round pick from the Detroit Lions. They're gonna use him like Deebo Samuel's used in San Francisco. That is a That is your fantasy tip, Jamiir Gibbs. And on that note, Brian, I'll say farewell. Look, honestly, you're one of my favorite guys. You've been so kind to me and I'm so honored to be on the podcast. I listen every week so means a lot.
I appreciate you. Thank you so much, Jamiir Gibbs, all of you listening, this is going to help me win the Office Fantasy League. All right, thank you, my friend, Thank you, buddy, Peter as always great talking to you on my show this time. I'll see you on yours very soon. And I hope at maybe a game or five this season, maybe up in Green Bay, who knows, maybe New York, Vegas, LA. The choices are limitless. And
to everyone listening, thank you. If you like what you hear, would you please do me a favor and review us on the Old Apple Podcasts and follow us on Instagram at Off the Beat. And if you want to hear more, well just come back next week because I'll be here I hope you will as well. Until then, everybody, have a great week. Off the Beat is hosted and executive produced by me Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executive producer Ling Lee.
Our senior producer is Diego Tapia. Our producers are Liz Hayes, Hannah Harris, and Emily Carr. Our talent producer is Ryan Papa Zachary, and our intern is Thomas Olsen. Our theme song Bubble and Squeak. Performed by the one and only creed brat