Hello, everyone, Welcome to another SDH network one v one. I had the opportunity to catch up with former Atlanta United player and MLS legend in Dax McCarty. We talked everything about him starting out in his new job with MLS season past this season, as well as the transition from going from being a player to then being a part of the media and what that transition is like. And then we also talked a little bit about this upcoming thirtieth season for MLS.
Without further ado, here's Dax McCarty.
Dax, I think my first question is, you know, how's retirement life been for you.
It's been great. Retirement life is awesome. You don't have to run fitness with the other guys. You don't have to chase around a bunch of teenagers. You know, the aches and pains are more muted. I'll say, you know how aging is. You still wake up with a sore back every now and then, but now you don't have to to put that sore back and those sore legs through like rigorous workouts every day. I'll still try my best to stay in good shape, but it's been really nice.
Been able to spend a lot of time with the family. Just got back from a quick little ski trip where I was teaching my five year old how to ski. I mean, just little things like that where you can't you can't ever really do that, you know, in preseason or during the season. Definitely things that I'm very grateful for.
And I think my next one is, so, how did the offer come up for you to do Apple and MLS season pass?
Well, I mean that's a long winding road with how we got there, but I'll try to give you the cliff notes version. It's essentially just I started thinking about post what post retirement life looks like, you know, years ago. And it wasn't ever because I thought I would have to retire in my early thirties. It was just because I didn't want to be one of those athletes who, you know, older age and retirement sneaks up on you and then you're kind of just left not knowing exactly
what direction you want to go. So towards the latter stages of my career, when I was in Nashville and Atlanta, I really started to be intentional about the different things that I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to stay involved in the game. That was always priority number one for me. I mean, I love soccer and I love being involved with it, so I knew that it would be something in the game. And I explored both, you know, coaching media, potentially you know, joining a front office.
And when I added everything up, the media stuff really called to me more in terms of what my heart was telling me to do. Coaching. The coaching life is a difficult life. And if you're a player and you do become a coach, then you know, your schedule it pretty much doesn't change, and then it actually gets significantly worse with the time commitment that you have to be
prepared for. And that's not for everybody. And you know, I just decided, with a young family with two boys, my wife being super supportive and following me everywhere I went, that instead of living that nomadic coaching lifestyle that sometimes coaches have to live, I wanted to have a home base. I wanted to be settled. I wanted to be able to say that my kids can grow up in one
house for the most part. And so that's what I decided to commit to the media because you have a little bit more flexibility in terms of, you know, how you work where you work, the travel schedule, and so yeah, the conversations with MLS went pretty fast. You know, I'd been in contact with them a few times throughout the last couple of years, just kind of picking. They were picking my brain. I was telling them my interests and
that I wanted to keep playing. But everything kind of came together in Atlanta when I knew in the summer that it was going to be my last year. You know, we didn't speak officially until after the season ended, but we got a deal done pretty quickly because they knew it was what I wanted and I think they wanted the same thing. And then, you know, I'm on a flight out to MLS Cup as my first official gig, which is pretty cool if you really think about it.
You know, being able to say that your first official job as a member of the media is covering the final game of the season you just retired from. So definitely a surreal experience and I'm just very grateful for the opportunity and i feel like a rookie all over again. I'm really excited.
I was actually going to ask you about the MLS Cup, you know, just how quickly it was. What was that experience, like you know, getting your first taste of being on camera with MLS Season pass.
Well, it was a wonderful experience, if not a little bit stressful. I literally agreed to my deal with MLS and my contract on the Friday before MLS Cup on the Saturday, and so I flew out on the last flight out of Atlanta. I got into LA at about midnight, and it was all a whirlwind from there. You know, I woke up at seven in the morning, get to the stadium to prepare for the game and meet everyone. And there's probably I mean, I don't know if people
actually realize this. I certainly didn't, but putting together a big production is a lot more than just a couple
of camera operators and some talent and one producer. There's like fifty sixty people involved in a big production, maybe even more, maybe one hundred, And you know, just meeting everyone, trying to remember names, going over the show and the rundown of how you know everything is going to go, just coming up with storylines and for the game, and you know, being available, and it was just a and it was a really great experience, and it was kind of like something I've been hearing a lot is you
know on this in this job, you kind of drink out of a fire hose, and that's kind of what it's like. You just take on board all this information and you try to articulate that to the viewer, to the audience as quickly and succinctly as you possibly can. So really cool experience and definitely one I'll never forget.
That's something I'm gonna have to use because that's really really accurate with what you have to.
Do, especially being on air and stuff like.
It's it's crazy, like the stuff you have to know and like what you have to see you out and it's nuts.
I've never heard that one before.
I'm mighty, it's a good one.
Take that one for me, Take it, steal it.
When looking back, I mean being a player and now being on air, what were some of the biggest challenges for you when you made that transition or for you.
Was it a little bit easier because it's different for everyone.
Right, I'd say that the transition hasn't been too bad at all. I was, like I said before, I was very intentional in the way I went about preparing to go into the media world. I said yes to almost every media obligation that was offered me to myself when
I was in Chicago, Nashville, Atlanta, even New York. Going back to my New York days, I just really wanted to make good relationships and show my personality a little bit, because I feel like in this day and age, especially, you know, when you're a player, you can get your voice out there in a number of different ways. You can show people who you are off the field in a number of different ways, and so I wanted to make sure that, you know, my face was out there,
my voice was out there. How I spoke about the game with my teammates, was how I spoke about the game with the media, because I think there's too many athletes who, you know, and this is not a slight on these athletes, but there are a lot of athletes out there that just don't really care and they just don't really want to give, you know, media members the time of day when it comes to trying to answer questions or you know, break games down. And so that's fine,
you know, some people are like that. That's that's some people's personality, But that was never mine. I was always an open book for better or worse, and I think that really, you know, translates well when you're trying to transition from playing to then talking about the game. And so I started my own podcast. Obviously that's been a great help with trying to get me prepared for what's to come. And so just being in front of the camera as much as possible, speaking about the game as
much as I can and having fun. I feel like, honestly, like I'm not just saying this, I feel like, other than playing the game, being able to talk about the game with smart, like minded people is the second best job in sports. And so I'm just, like I said before, really grateful. I know I'm gonna make mistakes. I know it's not going to be you know, smooth sailing the
whole time. Like I said, I'm a rookie all over again, and so I've got to ask questions, I've got to learn, I've got to be open minded, and I'm just going to do my best to make sure that I'm authentic. That's the one thing that I think keeps popping up in conversations I have is just be yourself, be authentic, and I think that'll translate to the viewer.
And you got some good good names to help you out with that. You got Kevin Egan, you got Sasha Question, you got all of them. We've been doing it for a little bit.
Oh yeah, great.
We know Kevin.
He's a friend of the network.
He helped me actually in my early years of doing this. I met him in twenty twenty one.
So I'm not just saying this, but they the entire MLS three sixty crew is brilliant. Obviously, I know Sasha Question and Bradley Wright Phillips very well, so that transition has been pretty seamless. Obviously, we you know, we have a great rapport right off the bat. I think k and Kyle is one of the best in the business. She can host, she can be an analyst, She's very
knowledgeable about the game. And then Kevin, like you said, for me, I knew Kevin just because we cross paths before and randomly in the soccer world, but also, you know, living in Atlanta and being able to see him and be around him a little bit. I didn't realize how great at his job he actually is until you see how he prepares, you see how he treats everyone. He treats everyone with the utmost respect, whether it's the top producer or his coworkers or a showrunner or you know,
the person who's setting up our mics. Like he's just he's a great He's been a great influence for me for the last two months and just asking questions, helping me through with different things, picking his brain on different ways to you know, articulate things. He's just been wonderful. So I truly feel like I couldn't be a part of a better crew, in a better cast. I'm just, you know, gonna try my best to keep up with all of them, because they're all really really good at their jobs.
Yeah, everything that they do over there up in MLS three sixty and Apple, they've done a phenomenal job, and especially with promoting the game and everything.
And this season's going to be fun.
And speaking of this season, we'll go ahead and talk about kind of what you're expecting from this season.
What are some of the.
Biggest things that you're excited to see about from this season from all over MLS.
Oh Man, there's too much to talk about. I will I will try to keep it fairly brief for me. The biggest this might be slightly biased, and I admit that The biggest storyline for me is easily a Landa United, the amount of money that they've spent in this transfer window. You know, Garth Loggerway is putting his money where his mouth is or Arthur's money where their mouth is, and so they said they would spend and they did. Obviously, Miguel al Maron's return is a major major talking point
for me. I'm absolutely fascinated to see how he does in the sequel because obviously the original with him and Joseph was it was must ce TV, and so at Lanti and Nighted's attack obviously adding Emmanuel Latte lot as the number nine, the most expensive transfer fee and MLS history, it's gonna be box office stuff, and there's gonna be pressure, you know, Landy and Night it always comes with pressure, But now I think that's ramped up and the expectations
are high with a new coach and some very very good players, and so I think at Lanti and Night it's going to be a fascinating watch in the you know, in the season into Miami, how do they how do they recover from a very disappointing end to their year. Obviously the best team at Regular Sea team in MLS history, setting the points record and then you know, kind of floundering in the playoffs and losing to an Atlanta United team that was quite frankly, probably overmatched in a lot
of ways, but managed to get the upset. And so I think that they have a bitter taste in their mouth with how the season ended. Be fascinated to see if the new players that they brought in, some younger players that maybe are a little bit less experienced, can come in and make a big difference for them. And then how do Messi, Suarez and Busquetes hold up. You know, they're all a little bit older. You know, Messi had a pretty bad injury last year with Argentina and he
missed a significant amount of time. If Messi stays healthy for twenty five to thirty games, I think it's realistic to imagine him winning MVP again and setting lots and lots of records in the league. That's how good I think he still is so fascinated to watch inter Miami and then out West. I'm fascinated with with with two teams that were very bad last year, San Jose Earthquakes and Austin FC. I think both of those teams are going to make the playoffs and be much much better
than they were. Obviously, Bruce Arena coming back int MLS. I think it's a great thing for the league. I think that he will want to end his career on a high note, and so I'm fascinated to see how San Jose does. And then Austin spending ten million dollars on Brandon Vasquez to be your number nine. I think that's a great acquisition. But the transfer fee, again, it comes with a lot of pressure, and so I think
Austin will be better. I expect them to be better, but there's a lot of pressure on Brandon Vasquez the shoulders. And then the La Galaxy are the defending champions. They have so many question marks going into the season. I mean, I think they lost four or five starters. They lost the MLS Cup MVP. You know, obviously Ricky Pooge one of the best players in the league. He's not going to be back for a number of months. So there's a lot of questions surrounding the Galaxy at this moment
in time. And they were the rightful champions of MLS last year. They were brilliant pretty much all season, played a really exciting, aesthetically pleasing brand of soccer. I think it's going to be a challenging year for Greg Vanny to try to make the pieces fit together and navigate through these injuries. Joseph painTill is out for the beginning of the season, and so I think Greg Vanny is one of the top three coaches in MLS, so I
think he will be able to navigate that. I still think the Galaxy are going to be one of the top five or six teams in the West. But again, you know there's a lot of question marks surrounding that team, so those for me are the big storylines. And of course season thirty in MLS, San Diego thirtieth team coming into the league. How do they fare. I, obviously as an expansion team, know what it's like. I have San Diego last in the West. I hope they proved me wrong.
It's just hard to know with expansion teams, it's just hard to know how they're going to do because these are a group of players that have never been together. So I'd love nothing more for them to prove me wrong and make the playoffs and make a big splash. But that remains to be seen.
That's the biggest question mark for me too, is definitely what San Diego is going to bring, because you know, they brought in these players and you look at it and you say, oh, well, this is this seems like it could work. But expansion teams, it's so all over the place, because you know, we've had experiences where expansion teams are bottom of the table. Then we have expansion teams who make it all the way to the top and they win MLS Cup and like they're able to
do it in their second year. Like it's very, very It could be interesting to see how it fares.
Anyone who says that they can accurately predict an MLS season before it starts is a fool. It's not possible. I don't care what anyone says. You can come up with, you know, a couple of teams who you think are going to be great, the usual suspects that have great coaches and that spend a lot of money typically are very good. And then the rest of the conferences it's a crapshoot. I mean, every team I think feels like they can the playoffs, right, and when you feel that way,
that is what MLS wants. It's parody, and it's just a very difficult thing to do to ask people to accurately predict in the preseason where things are going to shake out. So fascinated to see how San Diego does. Like I said, I would be I would be the happiest guy in the room if they prove me wrong.
Well, Dax, I wanted to say thank you so much again for coming on to the network to chat about the thirty season. You making your first ever appearance, not ever you did MLS Cup, but sure.
Started this MLS three sixty.
Sixty first run.
I know that everyone here in Atlanta's looking forward to seeing you on there and looking forward to seeing your journey with it, and it's going to be a ton of fun.
Thank you. I really appreciate it. Thanks for having me. I'm actually kind of bummed that I'm not going to be in Atlanta for that. For that first game, it's going to be electric. I mean, someone need I mean, I'm sure I'll see it on Twitter, but someone needs to record, you know, when they introduce Miguel al Moron to the crowd again and just hear the roar, it's going to be an electric atmosphere. I'm excited to watch that game.
Don't worry, I'll send a video to you.
Don't worry.