Lots to Say with Bobby Bones and Matt Castle is a production of the NFL and iHeart Podcasts.
We Got Lots to save, We got lots to save?
What the backer here? And we hope you say because we got lost?
Just say, yeah, we got lots to say.
Here's Bobby and that.
Everybody welcome. We are getting an episode before Thanksgiving, which feels good. Well, this show comes out on a Wednesday. So what are you doing for Thanksgiving? I'm gonna be out in California with the family. You guys have Thanksgiving over there? We do.
It's shockingly even with the weather still being like seventy degrees, it doesn't feel like.
It doesn't feel like the Holidays. I'd like to say, no place that gets that doesn't get below fifty, you shouldn't have Thanksgiving. I would that's your rule. That's my rule. If it doesn't get below it doesn't have to be below fifty on Thanksgiving. But if your city never gets below fifty, you should not get to celebrate things getting Well, they got the.
La Nina out there right now, so maybe they do drop temperatures and it'll get to like forty nine.
In the morning. Acceptable, But until then, it's going to go back up. Yeah, what do you guys do? Like, what's the what's the tradition? You know what?
The last few years, my wife's been taking the kids out there because I'm normally traveling for season, but I happen to have a game out there. We've got UCLA Washington at UCLA this weekend prior to Thanksgiving, so I'm just going to stay out there, and my whole family's coming out on Friday, so we get together, we see both sides of the family, will probably do a Thanksgiving
on Wednesday, and then my wife staying for Thursday. I've got to go actually back to New York to go do studio Friday, Yes, and then guess what, I'm coming right back for US UCLA. Oh do they at least give you a lay down bed? No, No, it's just Southwest probably. I don't know LA New York. No, I have no idea what they're flying me out on. Oh my god, I haven't got that far ahead yet. So it's going to be a lot of travel. But yeah, it is what it is. What are you doing? We're gonna go to Oklahoma?
Okay, Joe with me? I don't even sing it right, stupid song plays all the time because Oklahoma's actually good at football. It sucks. They are good, Yeah suck, It doesn't suck. I root for them because of my father in law, not because of my wife. I want everybody to know this. I root for them because of my father in law because I am happy when he is happy. My wife like rubs it in. Oh, she talks a little smack. Well, we're not good, not good. It's really
just an easy target at that point. And she's like, oh, I wonder what it's like to have to wait for a game that's at six but you already know you're out of it. Kind of stuff that burns deep too. So it just like it's a I'm my guts are all confused on who to root for and not. But I do root for them because I want my father in law to feel good. So but they play that song all the time. Okay, h I don't know how it goes. But we'll go to Oklahoma and we'll go
to Fatteville. We'll do both. Yeah, and luckily they're close, so we'll do that and you know, eat food and come back home. But it won't be anything crazy. My wife's very pregnant, So it's not like you can do lot.
You're not gonna do much, but you're gonna eat some food and hang out and.
Be merry and watch football, watch football one hundred percent. We have Scott Porter coming up in a second. So Scott Porter was in Friday Night Lights, and I got to admit this now, I've never seen an episode. Really, don't tell him that I won't. And when he comes on, we just finished the interview when they were there. I remember them being there and I'd probably interviewed them a time or two. But I've never seen an episode of Friday Night Lights. And I'm not anti Friday Night Lights.
I never watched it new then when I got old at other shows I wanted to watch.
Yeah, it's a good beinge watch to be honest. They do a good job with the characters and all that stuff. It's entertaining a lot of drama mixed in with some football. So I mean, I I've watched some episodes.
My wife. Have you not seen every episod?
No, not at all. I figured my wife, I think seen every season. She used to binge watch. So like if you come in and see the treadmill rolling the peloton over there and she's walking it out. She was for months on end was watching Friday Night Lights.
Kevin, you watch it. I didn't watch all of it, but I watched some of it. But the movie is my top three. Movie was awesome. Yeah, but the show I've watched like I think maybe one season. My like my morning show. People they think it's their favorite show, all of them and they're like usual, it's still so great and so uh. He played Jason Street. He was the quarterback that was in the wheelchair. Yes, he was basically Drake under grassy. Dang, dang, you went there? What?
No?
I was like, dang, that's a that's deep, that's that's a good one. Yeah, that's either. I just know that Drake was in a wheelchair on the grass and he said dang.
I was like, I don't even know he's referencing, so you went there, Maybe that'll spark something.
He didn't like, what do you mean? I was like, I don't really know. I also, he's not gonna remember this.
Well.
I justad we just talk to him, so I kind of acting like we haven't talked to him yet. But I did a movie called Band Slam where I had nine lines. Was he in any of the scenes, Yes, briefly in one, but we were to I had my own trailer, like I was Fringe principal. Okay, so I was considered a principle. I was on the sheet and they gave me a trailer because I had to work like three days on saying I'm not an actor. I've
never claimed to be an actor. I never really wanted to be an actor, and I've ended up acting a bit, like I've done like three episodes of Nashville, but I've played different people on that show if you look, because that shows on Netflix now, Nashville. Okay, at first, I'm like a random reporter who's like, hey, the parallel is
Connie Brittens in both shows. Okay, she plays Randon James and Nashville and she's the mom and Friday Night Lights, I believe, right, Yes, So I played reporter in the first one episode and then in another episode, I'm like somebody else. But then at the end that's different character. Yeah that's but at the end of I'm playing myself really and I have real lines with Rana James. Oh that's cool. At least you get to play yourself. Yeah. It wasn't any easier. It wasn't no, because it was weird.
That's not what I do, right, And so all the cameras and you're working with real actors and they're doing their thing, and all you don't want to do is you just don't want to mess it up. Did you ever mess up your line? And you're like, I don't know going to mess it up? But I don't know that I was good at it. But this movie Band Slam that we did with Vanessa Hudgens and Phoebe from Friends like Sekudro, Yeah, I had nine lines. I think I had like fourteen, but they cut five five of them. Okay,
so basically you crushed. It was fine. I didn't have I didn't want my glasses and I had like a white, like curly haired afro. That was my normal hair back then. Really yeah, I get curly. So that's what I know. Scott from Scott's Big Broncos Fan, So uh yeah, let's go all right, Hey Scott, good to see about it.
Hey, good to see it. A long time?
Why do you say long We were just talking about this. Why do you say long time?
Because Austin, Texas, we talked way back when Friday Night Lights was first coming out.
Okay, I had a Yes, Austin, Texas is correct. I have a slightly different version of that story, but that's absolutely true because they filmed that in Austin when I was living there. I forgot all about that. That's right. Did you go off to the set? No, I never went to the set, but I thought they would use your athletics. You thought that, Yeah, it would be one of the guys that you know had I had nine lines in a movie called Band Slam, which, ye, you
were like the star of the movie. You and Vanessa Hudgens were like the stars of the movie. And so yeah, we all my scenes were like a theater on campus. And I was like, I don't know if Scott's gonna remember me, but hey, here we are, and he obviously didn't.
Remember. I was just going back any further because we had chatted a couple of times prior to that. Yeah, you were. You were an Austin legend.
So good to see you, buddy, I see I see Longhorn stuff behind you. And now I'm I lived in Austin for thirteen years and it's my favorite city, Like it is my favorite City. But I'm from Arkansas, so we hate the Longhorns, So why do you have long horn stuff behind you?
My wife was actually a cheerleader at the University of Texas. She was there the years that why was there, and she actually cheered in the National Championship.
Game Vince Young at USC. I wasn't there. I was a year after.
I thought I was gonna make a lot of money in that locker room, and I sure didn't that.
That was brutal. I also see you're looking like you're looking like a coach here.
I mean, you've got the Broncos swag on your radiar roll, so obviously your Broncos fan. Big big win this last week and probably the biggest sense what Peyton Manning.
Air, Yeah, I would say, man, I mean getting that big of a lead in the A West against that good of a team. Even still, you know the Chiefs, I know they haven't been putting it together. You know, in all three phases this season. That defense is still very good. When Chris Jones is motivated, they're still very dangerous. And Pat Mahomes is still the best in the game.
So to get that win, get a cushion in the AFC West, angling for some home field advantage where you can actually play a game or two in Mile High It was huge. But yeah, massive Broncos fan have been all my life from Nebraska originally, and when you live in Omaha, Nebraska, you're a free agent. You know, Proximity Chiefs, Broncos, Bears, Ish and those Cowboys fans everywhere. So but I grew up watching Lway play in the eighties. Lose a lot of games, but just play with Moxie that I had
never seen before. So yeah, Broncos fan my whole life.
Evaluate Bo Nicks this performance this year as a fan, well.
I don't want to be Dragonslayer sixty nine hiding in the basement of this moss house to drink it out, you know, drinking his mountain dew like the drop and said. But you know, at the end of the day, I think everything that Bo has said is what a lot of people are seeing. You know, feet are moving a lot, He's you know, running out and back from danger, throwing
off his back foot a lot. And in Sean Payton's office, you really, you really need to be able to hit these these middle deep ends, these you know, outbreaking routes, these corners, you know, to get past that press cover two coverage that a lot of people would like to run on him because you know, he likes to get the ball out to the flats and likes to run a lot of screen game. So you've got to be
able to hit that mid level throw. And Bo has missed it a lot this year, but he hit it in the big moment in this last game, uh, dropping one into Troy Franklin, you know, over the corner under the safety, setting up the final field goals. So for me, it's just, for some reason, it seems like there's a clarity for Bow in the fourth quarter of games. And I just as a Broncos fan, I think I speak for all of Broncos country. We'd love to just see
that clarity for four quarters, you know. But hopefully we can keep pulling it out. Hopefully he keeps on taking a step forward. But you know, he said this last week, I got to settle my feet down. I got to make sure that I'm planting and then I'm giving what the defense gives me. And he played a heck of a game this last week against the Chiefs that that
defense is no slouch. So you know, Bo is what I do love about Bo, and what I see from the players is that they believe in him, that he is their quarterback and they know they will go to war and win with him. They don't feel like they're dragging him anywhere. They just feel like this is a complete team game and defense is stepping up and doing its job. And you know, if Bo keeps that locker room in that way, I think this team's got a chance.
So you basically hate bow Knicks until the fourth quarter, is what you're telling you.
I don't hate Box.
We Bo leave baby.
But at the end of the day, it's you know, the week before ten to seven against the Raiders team that you see Dallas just tear apart on Monday Night football this week, and the games have been like that consistently, you know, I mean seven to three and outs against that Raiders defense, a turnover against that Raiders defense. You know, you only get thirteen drives in the game, and you've only got five what to go get some points and you only get ten against the Raiders. I mean, it's tricky,
it's really tough. And that game was in the balance until the fourth quarter, and you can look at the way that we've been winning this year. It's all one score games, and a lot of that is just because the offense just does not want to move the ball in the first half of the game. And I don't know who that falls on. I just know what I'm seeing, you know, and I watch every single moment of every single one of these games. You can go back and look back against the Texans. I mean, it's the same
story over and over again. Hopefully we can just start fast here after we get this bye week coming up, and just be a quick starting team the rest of the year. But no, man, we love bo. I think he's a really you know, as long as he sat his accuracy down, he's a great fit for what Peyton wants to do, and the rest of the offense believes in him.
So I think this is the part of the interview where we actually declared that Scott knows ball because we don't always know.
Yeah.
Well, I mean, I am thoroughly impressed with his knowledge.
With actors and musicians, Scott, we kind of weighed in with them to see, we never want to go over their head, or Scott knows ball. So I feel like we could talk about anything. Yeah, man, let's do it now. We go though, to the questions about movies and exactly do you find that people young kids are recognizing you from Friday Night Lights and even now because maybe they're just starting to watch it streaming.
It is. Streaming extended the life of Friday Night Lights in a big way, and I don't think any of us expected it to be handed down generationally the way that it is currently. And when I was growing up, I don't know that there was a lot of shows that my folks were able to hand down to me, just because it was harder to ever find those unless somebody decided to put you know whatever, Cheers on VHS or some late eighties early nineties show like Coach on DVD.
Like I would never have seen these shows, you know what I mean. And there's a lot of really impactful television back from back in the day that you can start to finally watch now, and I think that's really really cool. Friday Night Lights was kind of right on the cusp of that. I remember we were one of the first shows that NBC actually put up on their website and you could stream it on the website, which was,
you know, that was crazy for us. In two thousand and six, and seeing where it's at now, where it's on like four different streaming services, it's just so easy to say, hey, this show that allowed these people loved twenty years ago, and you know, maybe their kids were too young to watch at the time, and now they're watching, you know, with their kids. It's awesome, man, It's really
really a cool thing to see. And so yeah, you know, I would expect that Jason's read eventually would not be a character that as many young kids recognize, but I have a lot of and and and the fan base is really cool because when they come up, they always come up with like a measure of respect and they're really heartfelt. And the way they speak about the show, which is not the same way that all fan bases are with other shows, but they're really respectful fan base,
even the the younger kids. And you know, we have really cool conversations about a show that you know, was canceled twice and almost didn't make it past season one or season two, and now it's had this lasting effect. So we have streaming to think for that, and it's really cool.
Well, my wife's a big fan. I'm not gonna lie. She watches that show religiously. Still, if there's if there's a moment where we get into the bed and we finally get to watch something late at night, she wants to watch that.
It's comfort, that's her comfort, that's.
Her comfort show. I don't know if it was because she's an athlete or anything like that, but she loves the show and I love the show, So congratulations on that. But I want to talk about acting in general, just because I'm always fascinated by people that go into that profession because it's so competitive and there's a lot of parallels in terms of playing in the NFL or what Bobby does that it's super competitive and you got to go in, you got to nail something when you're going
out for a specific role. But talk about what that's like for you to go in for a specific role and what that breakthrough moment was when you were younger.
You know, for me, I was never in the line of thought that I would be an actor. I played football in high school and was an invited walk on to University of Socral, Florida. I played receiver, and I thought I would use athletics to help my academic you know, cost come down a little bit I knew I was never going to be a pro, but I did. I ran a four five, a good hands. I was all right. But you know, at the end of the day, I
went to school to be a structural engineer. My grandfather was an Air Force colonel, very much wanted me to be in the realm of academia. Parents were very artistic.
They had a rock band back in the eighties. I'd go and help my dad set up his drums and then spend the night like chilling with the bouncer playing foosball, or like falling asleep in the office manager's you know office in some saloon in the middle of Nebraska when I was growing up, and you know, I had a little bit of the bug from them, but I always thought it'd be something that I do in my spare time, make a little cash here and there. That's what my
parents did. That was their goal. And then things started to kind of break the right way for me, and I just kept saying yes. And for me, having the athletic background actually played huge into, you know, moving into the world of acting, because every audition is a game in itself, right, and you don't stack yourself up against the other team but you got to stack yourself up against yourself. You got to answer for every loss that you have. You have way more of them in this business.
You know.
I think I've gone out for I don't know, two hundred television pilots and I've booked five of them, and I'm a success. So it's even worse than base ball. You know, the hitting percentages are kind of low, but you just got to keep on competing. And my first pilot season, I was told by somebody that I should just stay in the world of theater because I was up in New York. I was doing an off Broadway show. It was it was a bit of a hit, you know.
I got a singing voice from my mom and a sense of rhythm from my dad, so he's a drummer, and I was I was doing the live music thing. You know, i'd have been having success. And somebody from Disney Theatricals told me when I said I wanted to try to, you know, see if I could book a TV show, that I wouldn't amount to anything, that I'd just be the fourth guy on the left on some WB show and be quickly forgotten, and I should keep
doing theater. And I took that as a big old okay, just watch yeah, watch this, and I started really digging in, you know, watching film, you know, watching as many shows as I could, studying other actors, you know, so there's that kind of element of you know, when when you're breaking down a game versus what you're trying to do to prepare for an audition. And just got myself in
the right mindset and went out and competed. And Friday Night Lights was the fifth pilot I ever went out for, and I knew that that show was going to be special, and I just did my research. Man, I went and watched that film over and over again. I've probably seen the film of Friday Night Lights, you know, fifty times, and I just kind of knew what the film style was, I knew what they were aiming for. I knew what
the performance level they were looking for was. And I just tried to deliver that set of plays when I walked into the room and it worked out. And you know, there's a lot of like you said, there's a lot of parallels between the world of athletics and the world of you know, artistry, especially in cinema, because you don't always find a coach or the right offensive fit for you.
And it's the same thing in film. You don't always find the director or the right writer for you, but if you keep at it, maybe you're end up in the right system. And luckily I've been able to find the right systems.
I have some buddies here in town because we live in Nashville. Somebodies in town that are artists, like Sam Hunt who played college ball, played you know, a little in the NFL. Riley Green played college ball, but a lot of male artists. There's a lot of former athletes, and you look at your career the juxtaposition of being able to sing, being able to do theater and act, also being a great athlete, and again it seems like that juxtaposition, it feels odd because both usually don't happen
at the same time. But what I've noticed with them is as well, and I've talked about this with them, is that a lot of what they learned in sports, like the dealing with adversity. It's what you just talked about is actually what makes them a great artist because they can take a lot of the nose when they come to town. Work ethic is a massive part of it. So it's dealing with diversity. It's listening back watching bag
tape and then just continuing to go and grow. And I feel like that's kind of what you just said. But were you an athlete or a creative first?
I was an athlete first. I mean I grew up, like I said, in Nebraska, where you know, Husker football is your religion. The College World Series happened in Omaha where I was growing up. We went every single year. And you know, there is a drive that you learn through athletics that you can apply almost everywhere. There is a stick toitiveness that you have to learn, you know, get knocked down, get back up, get knocked down, get
back up. And I think a lot of people don't understand in the world of music or television film, you get knocked down so much and you just have to be able to keep getting back up. And yeah, those parallels are are all there. But I was athletic first, and I was also academic first. You know. I took AP courses in high school and college j ap CAALC and AP physics and set myself up, like I said, to be a structural engineer. And music to me is all math and really filmmaking kind of has their own
formulas as well. So I think I come at this business a little bit different than most people. I come at it from a number standpoint to inform the artistry and then allow the artistry to kind of come in at the end. But I look at the numbers and the formulas and you know, the rhythms and see how to get everything lined up and then make you know, like the last decisions. And that's kind of what like a quarterback has to do. Right. You get up to
the line, you've got to play. Everything's all set, You've completely prepared. You've done this thing over and over and over again hundreds of times in practice. You walk up and you see that the defense is doing something you've never seen before, and you get the freestyle. And that's
like how I look at what I do. Kind of you know, we prep, we prep, we prep, We get to set, and then the actor on the other side of you know, scene from me says something in a way I'd never heard before, and then we get to play and that's you know, that's that's set.
Hut.
Now we're we're moving and free freestyling, and that's kind of cool.
Yeah, Bobby I don't know if you saw last week he's done with reality television, but you also were on Reality Tells. You're on the Mass Singer. I don't know if you saw that he went off, but you gotta look it up. And that was awesome, by the way, But do you have a beef with reality television? But more importantly, talk to me about why you did Mass Singer.
You finished second, right, you were incredible on it.
I did finish second to somebody that Bobby mentioned earlier in this interview, Vanessa Hudgens. We were we were competing in the same season together, and I should have known from the start that I wasn't gonna get it. But at the end of the day, again like I did it because for a long time Hollywood had rules and boundaries set up that if you wanted to be a film actor, you could be nothing but a film actor.
If you were a film actor and then you went and did something on television, oh my god, you're not allowed to be in film anymore. If you were a you know, a television actor, and you went and did like a run and a musical, oh my god, now you can't be a television actor anymore. And it was such an odd thing. So I came from a very musical background and I came out to Hollywood and I still wanted to sing, and a lot of people were telling me, oh, that's cute. You did you know musicals
in New York. But now you're a television actor. Now you got to be a television actor. And I had to kind of put that part away for a while. And it was such a big part of my life
growing up. And when they showed up and asked, I mean, at first, I was definitely like, I don't know if I can do this, And then I was like, but wait, Meryl Streep's on a half hour on Hulu, and you know, people you never knew could sing are on Broadway doing It's like, it's such a cool world now where everybody's really allowed to do all of the things that they're good at, and it's applauded now, whereas it used to
be kind of poo pooed back in the day. As far as reality television, you know, I'm a Survivor fan, have been ever since it came on, Like to the point that I lived in Tokyo for a year singing and beatboxing, and my mom recorded Survivor Amazon on VHS and sent it to me so I could watch it when I was living in Japan. So massive fan of the kind of competition reality stuff, not all of it,
but the stuff that has like real competitive elements. I am a fan of because I look at them as kind of like the world's greatest game shows, Like it's a million dollar prize at the end of Survivor. That's a game show. So I kind of, you know, I lay out on most of the other stuff, the housewives stuff all that. The only show I do watch with my wife every week is Below Deck on Bravo, So got to give that one a shout out. But I'm not a huge fan of reality, but the experience of
Mass Singer was really pretty freeing for me. And everybody does a show like that for different reasons, but that was really for me, and it's rare in this business you get to do something for you and and that was my one.
Yeah, I did Dance with the Stars because the network made me do it still and then and then I won, and then people still kill me for it. That's what he's referring to. Ad A. I have a heart, I can see my foot, but I tore my ankle recently, and I was on pain pills last week and I was just melted down about Dancing with the Stars. So is a whole issue, Scott, Hey give me.
But yeah, wow, you got You've got the Golden Crystal Ball or whatever it's called.
Yeah, the mirror Ball. I mailed it back because I was pissed. I mailed it back. But I did win. I did win the show. But hey, give me your Mount Rushmore of I'm gonna do this double Mount Rushmore of Denver Broncos all time your favorite, and then I want non Bronco Mount Rushmore as well. So it's two different sets of four.
Oh man, you are really catching me here, All time Mount Rushmore, Denver Broncos players, D Marius, John Elway, T D Steve Atwater, M.
That's a great list. Wow. No no, uh no McCaffrey. No McCaffrey, but I mean Atwater unbelievable. But no Peyton, No Peyton, but Peyton was only there for a few years. But Peyton did win the Super Bowl. I'm not judging his lest.
Here's what you guys got to understand as an eighties kid who is a Broncos fan, I don't think there's
many of me around. I came up. I watched Elway's magic against the Browns, you know, a couple of times, and I watched him take teams that were lower in talent level and go up against these NFC Juggernauts, uh, you know, losing against the former Redskins you know now commanders, but Doug Williams watching them get you know, crushed by the Giants and they get blown out fifty five to ten by the Niners in nineteen ninety and Elway dragged those teams to Super Bowls and then finally got to
in the late nineties. So anybody who's my age that's been around for this long, I don't. I think a lot of young fans are like, oh, Peyton's one of the greatest of all time. But when Elway retired, he led the league and wins. The one stat that matters more than anything else. He also led the league in fourth quarter or overtime comebacks when he retired, and that is just a will to win, man. And that's where like Bo gets little shades, you know, little shades of that.
A lot of fourth quarter comes back for this little kid, you know, for this younger guy. You know, he's he's a long way off. But Elway, I don't think people understand how great Elway was and his arm oh god, and the guy that I really struggle not putting up there. And if DT's not on, there is Shannon Shark. Shannon Sharps also on that Mount rushmore uh for me. So if it's not DT, it's Shannon Sharp. And that's the biggest decision point. That's why I took the pause in
the beginning. But but Atwater was just he was the hardest hitty you've ever seen. TD came in and is in the Hall of Fame with a shortened career because they tours me up and in ol Way, I just don't. I don't think there's an argument there.
Do the other do the non Bronco for non Bronco for non Bronco fur.
He's like, I don't know anybody else that plays in the league, Bronco, Broncos.
Non Bronco four. I mean, it's got to be it's got to be Brady, it's got to be Rice and oh man, this is man. This the league is so deep, it's been around for so long. Barry Sanders, I gotta find somebody defensively, man, and it's it's really tough. You've you know, you've got Dion, You've got Lawrence Taylor. LT changed the league completely. The reason left tackles get paid the day is because of what Lawrence Taylor did. So
I'm going to put LT on there. Lawrence Taylor, Barry Sanders, Jerry Rice, Tom Brady.
That's a solid that is to put Mac Castle on there. My favorite quarterback of all time. But you know what, that's you, it's yoursmore.
Do you actually get to get out to any games because that that environment, the Broncos Stadium mile at mile High, There's not many places that you go and you're a little bit intimidated by. But they yes played there multiple times because I used to play for the Chiefs and every time we went there. I mean that crowd gets after it. Great cheerleaders too, We.
Love it, man. I mean I get to go to games. Yeah, I get to go even more now that the Chargers are in LA as well, and I get to go, you know, one game a year where I live, which is kind of cool. But I go to Denver and I still call it mile High. I know it's got a bunch of other names, you know, but it's still it's still to me mile high. But the coolest thing was two thanksgivings, a go great game Broncos Vikings Thanksgiving weekend, and I got to take my kids. My son is
a Rams fan. He's come by it naturally through the pandemic. His favorite color was green. When he was four, he thought he was an Eagles fan. Then he came to his senses when he was five, Aaron Donald was his favorite player. He's seen the Rams won a Super Bowl, so, you know, and my daughter is kind of split. And I asked him if they wanted to go, and they said, yeah, we went. We got to go down on the field. They got to meet Thunder, which is the horse's name.
We got to see the flyover. We got to see guys parachute in. But the coolest thing about it is, and even you can even hear it on radio calls. Every time a quarterback throws an incomplete pass, the stadium announcer comes on and says, and the opposing quarterbacks pass is in. The entire crowd yells complete at the quarterback, which is so good. They have little metal stanchions down the on you know, over the cement. So when you when you stomp that medal is hitting that concrete, it
gets so loud, it gets so great. I mean, you played in one of the loudest stadiums that this world has ever seen in Arrowhead. But I like to think Mile High gives it a run for its money. And we we love our franchise, especially the fans that came up with Pat bowl and who's maybe you know what
he should be on Mount Rushmore. Pat Bowlan is the greatest Bronco of all time because what he did as an owner for so long, I mean set the record for you know, consecutive playoff appearances by a franchise, made all the right moves, made great coaching hires, really loved and knew the sport of football. So you know, I think we respect him so much and we were just you know, I think we have a really solid fan base because we had owners who cared and we had
players who would fight for them. And it's pretty cool club to be a part of.
Final question, greatest in person game you've ever been to?
Oh man, you know, my wife would tell you it was the Big Twelve Championship where Sue and Dominic and Sue almost single handedly destroyed Texas, and Colt McCoy threw a ball out of bounds and somehow there was still one second left on the clock and then they kick a field goal to beat us. That was one of the greatest games I've ever been to, even though the Huskers came out on the wrong side of it. But man,
let's see probably and it doesn't evolve my team. I mean, I should say super Bowl fifty, you know, defensive battle. I was there in Santa Clara. I watched a very similar perform rmans by the Broncos defense shut Cam Newton down and actually get the win. That was That was I should say that. But I was in the end zone as Plexico Buris caught a touchdown to beat the undefeated Patriots in the Super Bowl in Arizona.
And Day I was there too.
He was there too, I mean, even as a even as a guy, like as a Broncos fan at Super Bowl fifty, but as just a fan overall. Like the magnitude of that game and the plays that happened in it, the Tyree catch, and I mean just so much happened in that game.
It was insane, so funny to hear two different perspectives on that game. Yeah, that one hurt. That one hurt for sure.
I was right there witnessing the same thing going. It's from such a different perspective point. Scott Porter knows ball. That's awesome. Hey Scott, congratulations man.
I know you're in the middle of filming Jenny and Georgian now, but congratulations on it, and uh, just just everything. It's really cool and it was fun to talk to you because again, we we we tiptoe when we have actors on because we don't know if they actually know anything about ball. So thanks for coming on. I really appreciate it. And what are your for the Broncos man? I hope for your sake, I hope they continue to perform.
Well, yeah, man, I do too. You know, Broncos country stand up. You know we're gonna We're gonna stick by our team. But let's do this again. Sometime we'll actually jump in and talk a little bit, a bit of deeper football or or whatever sport you know. But I appreciate you guys having me on. You know, we finish up season four here soon, so the fans will hopefully settle down. Jenny and Georgia season four.
Well, they told us not to ask them. They told us not to ask about it at all. So they said, don't ask about he's not saying anything. Yeah, So we just said, hey, we know you're shooting it. So when it's done, come back and we'll talk that way. That we've cleared all the like life questions, we'll just talk ball. Yeah, he's into that way, all right, Scott, good to see about it, Thanks, Scott.
Take it easy, all right.
It is time for the weekend preview, presented by DraftKings. From first touchdown scores to anytime touchdown props or the thrill of live in game betting, every snap is loaded with opportunity. Let's look at the three biggest matchups coming up this week. I think it's super fun because two of these are on Thanksgiving and one's the Black Friday game. And we'll start with Chiefs at Cowboys, both teams coming off a massive win, both teams needing another win. I
think they both could probably lose a game. The Cowboys really can't afford to lose a game. The Chiefs can probably lose one more and be fine to go to the playoffs. But I think the loser of this game is kind of eliminated from can they make the playoff talk. I think the Chiefs win that game, but I thought the Chiefs were gonna win every single game for the past season. Packers at Lions. We're gonna go with the Packers going to the Lions. I think the Packers started
to come into form a little bit. They had a bit of you know, it just kind of depends on with every season. There's always two or three weeks for pretty much every team where they kind of suck. I think right now the Bucks are going through that, and who knows what's gonna happen with Baker, but I think the Packers already had theirs. I'm going with the Packers over the Lions. And Bears at Eagles. That's so interesting because the Eagles need to win. That's Black Friday. The
Bears they can actually afford to lose. If I'm the Bears, I don't want to play the Eagles this week coming off a loss, because the Bears have been getting by the hair of their chinny chin chin every single week. They are what eight and two, eight and three, eight and three? They are eight and three, but they're an eight and three again, they've been barely squirting by and the Eagles are coming in probably angry. So I'm taking the Eagles and they are in Philly on Black Friday.
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Now we're gonna go over and talk with John Madden's longtime agent, Sandy Montag. Sandy has represented some of the biggest names in sports over the years, like Bob Costas, Jim Nants, Mike Arco, Scott Van Pelt, and many more. Big thanks to Sandy for joining us as the NFL continues to celebrate and honor the late John Madden with their fourth annual John Madden Thanksgiving Celebration tomorrow. And with that being said, here he is Sandy Montag. Hey, Sandy
is Bobby here? How are you, hey, Bobby? How you doing pretty good? Where are you right now? You look like you're up tall in the building.
I am in New York City at our offices near the World Trade Center site.
Man, I love New York except for well, starting about December, because I don't like the cold. Do you get out of there when it gets cold? Sandy? Do you stay in?
Is?
Eat it?
Both?
You have to.
I mean we're based here, so you got to eat a little bit of it. I do have a place in Miami that I like. I like Miami better in the in the winter. But uh yeah, I born and raised in New York, went to school in Syracuse, so you just you just figure it out.
Yeah, your blood's probably used to a little more than mine. And you know, I was reading a lot about your life and your history as we're going to talk about John Madden a little bit. But when you leave Syracuse, how long until you actually meet John.
I was on the Madden Summer Role crew. I was a stats guy at Syracuse besides going to school once in a while, so I did, like when ESPN came up to do like the biggest game of the week, I did stats for the talent, and then when I got out, I got on the Madden Summer Ole crew, like doing stats in the truck. And then maybe two months into that, someone says, hey, Madden needs someone to travel with my train. You should talk to him, And I said, all right, you know, so I met with
him and told him I love trains. I'd never been on.
A train in my life and got the job. And so, you know, we've heard the story forever about how he did not like to fly. Can you lend to that a little because it sounds like it was true, But he just would not want to fly for any reason. Whatsoever.
Well, he flew when he coached the Raiders, he they charted and they chartered. I think DC ten is pretty big airplane. He was never a great flyer, just.
He but he did it.
You know, when you fly private and you fly and charters, you can move around. He sat with the pilots. Then when he started doing broadcasting, you know, you sit in even if it's first class, you're in Sea four B and you're locked in. And he just started having panic attacks and he didn't know. He didn't He went to a doctor, like, is there something wrong with me? And so he had claustrophobia, you know, And he didn't like
when he would stay at hotels. He wouldn't like going you know, one of the twentieth floor here would not come up to this office. He would always want to be like only the only person in an elevator. So he was not didn't have a fear of flying. He had he had claust your phobia.
And the relationship developed between you guys. What do you think it was about your personalities that matched?
Well?
I was, you know, I was pretty street smart and he was the smartest person that I ever met in any subject, not just football. And I think that, you know, we we just hit it off. Like I like traveling, I liked seeing the country on trains. I like talking
to people. He would talk to strangers for hours. You know, we just we just had a little just a fascination over different things really and you know, a deal making was kind of like growing up, I always had a newspaper route or bagels or selling T shirts or I just always selling stuff. And I think he liked the this this act. Amen. We just kind of bonded over certain things early on, you know, just as guys.
You mentioned how smart he was. And for me, in my mind, I can picture a few different things, but they're all larger than life, so they don't seem like a real person. Meaning I can see the videos. I wasn't obviously alive when he was coaching the Raiders, but I can see the videos of that. I can remember him in the booth and some are all as an Arkansas I gu I'm from Arkansas, so we were always
like super proud that that happened. And then I can see him, you know, as part of the video game, which I've had every single year since it has been out, Like that has been a massive part of my life. So I don't know. You say he was really smart. Was he extremely studious?
No, but he knew well, he read a lot. He was a student of history. He all types of history, you know, whether it's football history, whether it's American history. You know, he loved John Steinbeck travels with Charlie. You know, when we would travel the country, he would like to go into small towns. He wouldn't want to go to
you know, a chain up on the Highway eighty. It's always just like very inquisitive, you know, and just and he just there were a lot of times like you know, when I started traveling with him, I was twenty two, you know, and then I was meeting people, maybe dating, and he would, you know, he would tell me, these are the type of people you should be dating. And we just have an opinion about everything, you know, he he uh, you know, it's like a master psychologist in
a way. And that that's really you know, he studied that too.
So he just.
And throughout my life, you know, when I had a problem or a question, or you come to a fork in the road, I would ask him something and like I hang up the phone, I'm like, why did I think of that. He just he just knew a little bit about everything.
How would you prepare on the train for the games that you were going to cover.
Well, back in the day, he was a the first broadcaster to go to practice number one. So when he became a broadcaster nineteen eighty broadcasters basically what you did, you get in the night before, you meet with the pr director for the NFL teams, and you do the game. And he was like, well, when are we going to practice? Well, like, we don't go to practice, They're not going to let us in. He goes, I'm going to prow I'm going to get in a day early. I'm going to practice.
All right, go to practice. So now it's every broadcaster and every sport goes to practice. You also get game tape. Now it's sent on a you know, on the internet or back then I carried a sixty pound bill and hell projector where we would have teams would send us the game tape and we would watch that, whether it's on the train or whether it's when we got to
the city we're going to. And and you know, John was a student of you know, of watching film and even like on the Saturday before the game and the production meeting myself, Pat summer Ale, producer director John. We would watch hours of game tape and you know, summer All probably was good for the first forty five minutes to an hour, and then he a lot of times he'd say I think we we have this, and John
would got to look at him. We're only halfway. So it's it's John was over prepared, like he wanted to feel when he was doing a game. In his mind, he knew more about those two teams than any two people besides the coaches, you know, and that's and he wanted to feel.
That when was the graduation from the train to the bus that I think about when I think about the traveling.
So we did a couple of years. I did a couple of years on the train and then he had to be somewhere fast, so CBS chartered him a bus. It was Dolly Parton's bus, and he took it and basically got off that thing and said we need to get a bus. So he did an interview actually on PBS saying y'all, we're gonna look at and the president of Greyhound Lines in eighty seven contacted us and said herd John's looking for a bus. We want to give
him a bus. And that really started the first Madden Cruiser and really one of the first when I transitioned from Gopher to quote unquote agent, that was really one of the first deals I did. You know, Number one, we lucked into a computer game which we had no idea what it was or where it was going. And then the bus and then that changed his life. Really, you know, coast to coast Amtrak is seventy two hours.
You have to change trains in Chicago. He can now go coast to coast in fifty hours, NonStop sleep, satellite television, the whole Well, it just it's like having a private plane that went seventy miles an hour.
You talk about the Madden game, that to me is the game I've by far played more than any game of my entire life. I've had every year of it since its existence. You say, you guys didn't know what you were getting into. What do you mean by that?
Well, EA, which was Electronic Arts, was founded by the guy the name of Trip Hawkins. He went to Harvard, designed his own major applied game theory. He had like he had a basketball game. He had Larry bird doctor J basketball. He had an Earl Weaver baseball, and he approached us and said, hey, we want to do a football game and put you know, call it John Madden Football. And John was like, I have no idea what you're
talking about. So he came on for a train ride, kind of explained what it is and how they're doing it, and it came out on computers, on Apple computers, and you know, the problem back then with computer memory, you could only have eight on eight, so they didn't have enough computer memory to have twenty two players. And John said, I'm not putting my name on a game unless it's authentic, and so we thought, you know, this guy will go away.
It took two years really for them to figure the technology part of it out, but we never really had the confidence that this was going anywhere.
You know.
I mean we're talking late eighties, so there was no video games as we know it now, and we both you know, they wanted to give him money and put his name on it, and we just wanted to be more involved in it really, and you know, I remember us talking saying we should really ask for like a buck or two a game, and he's he's like it doesn't make a difference. They're never going to sell one. And you know, one hundred and fifty million units later,
it's kind of worked. But you know, at the time, we just didn't think it would ever come out.
There are just so many elements of popular culture that reflect John Madden's influence. If it's SNL when they would do sketches, and if it's drawing on the screen, even outside of SNL, if it's the video game. When for you guys, did you start to realize that he was being known as just more than a broadcaster.
W you know, he did a Miller like commercial in the early age that was number one, The Bus. You know, he teamed with tat summerle The bus kind of became a thing. And I think the video game came out in nineteen eighty nine, and I think it was wildly successful early on, and I think, you know, right around the early nineties. To me, it used to it just became like during that time, John and Michael Jordan were the two biggest things in advertising. We were getting offers,
ace hardware, can act in you know, diet coke. It just at that time we started, like, you know, I was busy the phone was ringing, something's going on here, you know. And and the thing about him though, like he he never took himself seriously, like when we there may have been articles on like the branding of John Madden, and He's like, what are they talking about? I'm a football coach, you know. And I think he was so authentic. But I think in the in our world, he was
larger than life. And I think the video game and I think the popularity of football on television really changed that. And then you have Rupert Murdoch getting into, you know, taking the NFL from from CBS, John moving over to Fox in nineteen ninety four, that was big too, you know, that was huge Fox getting in to the business. So I think early nineties was a time where I think he became larger, started to become larger than life.
Was it a hard decision for you guys to switch networks?
No, there's about eight million reasons why we wanted to go there. But it was just one of those things where look, CBS loses it, right, so we we have to go somewhere, you know, And there was ABC was interested in going you know, Monday night football. And you know, I've told the story before, but basically Rupert Murdoch calls me and Barry Frank, who is my boss at IMG, and says, give me a number for John Madden. I'll call you back in five minutes. And we gave him
a number. He didn't call back. A CFO called back within five minutes and said, what's the address for the contract? So it was just like Rupert Murdoch, it was It's not like you know, it's playing poker at a different level. Really, But I remember him telling me before John did the first preseason game in the summer of ninety four for Fox, Rupert said they earned back his entire four year contract already in the amount of advertising they sold.
Wow was it or how comfortable or uncomfortable was it? Because you come on with John and you are so much of an underlaying and now you're representing him and you are eros tentacles outside talking to everyone. How did that relationship mature? And was it so much easier for you guys to trust each other because of all those years you had invested each other in each other on the training on the bus, Well.
He didn't want me to leave the road, you know, I did. I think two years on the bus. I think I traveled with him with three or four years and then Super Bowl maybe it was a Super Bowl in eighty nine. You know, I said, hey, you know I had met someone number one, and you know, I was starting to represent you know, one or two other people really and I said, look, I I want to get someone else to go on the bus with you.
I want to stay in our offices. And i'mg in New York and we and so we had an argument about it, but we had a real emotional conversation about it that you know, he said, you're never going to amount to anything having your feet up on a desk in New York eating a bagel that you got. If you're going to be successful, you got to got out there on the road. You have to meet people, you
have to you know. And even to this day, I go to a lot of games and I see clients who are broadcasters or gms or executives, coaches, and you know, it's I think he instilled in me, like, to be successful in this business, you can't just do it in an office. So it was a hard thing. It worked, you know, we found someone else to do the road job.
But you know, our relationship was deepen up where he trusted me, and I made a point of I still probably went to a half a dozen games of his h each year, so you know, it worked, but I couldn't really you know, Mark McCormack founded I AMG and I really had something going at IMG, and I really couldn't further that career, always being in Lincoln, Nebraska.
How much did it matter to you that John made the Hall of Fame?
I he you know, he said to me, besides his kids being born, it was the happiest day of his life. You know, I was. We were there in Detroit when you know, they announced it on the Saturday before and it was on NFL network, and you know they announced the names. There were six people that year, five it's just his name and I, you know, it was just like euphoria in that room. There were maybe half a dozen of us, Fred Goadelli, john Son, Mike al Michaels
and you know, a lot of tears. It was he he wanted to go in as a coach, not as a contributor or as a broadcaster. You know, he was one hundred and eight and thirty two. That's the highest winning percentage of any coach who's coached one hundred games, and you know, it was a long time coming, and that was two thousand and six. He coached his last game in nineteen seventy nine, thirty two losses in ten years. I mean, he should have been in the Hall of Fame earlier, but it was for him, it was just
it made it all worthwhile. And he went back every year after that just to be part of the ceremony. We donated the original Madden Cruiser to the Hall of Fame. So underprivileged kids in the Midwest, can you know, come to the Hall of Fame and learn about football history. There's a broadcasting wing there name for him.
It's just.
You know that in the Super Bowl win super Bowl eleven or the two biggest professional accomplishments for him sixteen Emmys, he could care about.
You know, we were actually worked for the ni This is an NFL podcast. It's a property of NFL. And so you know with the NFL and Mad and Thanksgiving in that relationship and that celebration, how did that get started? Like what were the strings and like what was the what's the goal of it?
Well, first, when when John retired in o eight oh nine, and I got the sense he was just not enjoying traveling as much. He missed his grandkids and all that. And you know, his wife called me and said, look, I don't know what you have planned, but I didn't sign up for this retirement thing, so you got to
keep him find something to do. I had a conversation with Commissioner Goodell about and then they have become friends, and I said, you know, let's find a role for John within the NFL where he can be have a meaningful, you know, relationship and also do some meaningful work. So he became a special advisor to Roger and also co chaired the Player Safety Committee, which reported to the Competition Committee. So he was engaged for a decade and then look,
he passed. It will be four years next month. And you know, Roger is one of the first people I called. I thought the NFL should announce this really, and you know then we we kind of Roger wanted if he formed a small committee. He said, all right, we want to honor John in some way. What should we do?
And you know the.
Committee all agreed. John loved Thanksgiving. It was his favate holiday. It's yeah, there are six legged turkeys and Turduckan and he loved Thanksgiving. He loved being at a game, whether it's Detroit or Dallas, he loved it. And I think he became part of America on that day. And we all agreed that, you know, we need to honor him on Thanksgiving, and you know, the commissioner and the teams that are playing, you know, basically agreed that with that.
And there will be you know, his name will be on all on all three fields that are playing that day. There'll be a special coin which I could probably show you. I just got a copy of it, which will be you know, flipped with his head and a production on the tail, and they'll be a player of the game. And you know it's I think he's probably looking down saying, you guys got it right. If you're gonna honor me, this is the way I want to be honored on Thanksgiving.
And I think, you know, I think we did get it right. And it feels it just feels like Madden.
Sandy. I really appreciate the generosity coming on with me giving me twenty twenty five minutes to talk about John. And I'm a massive fan of just all that you've done in many capacities. But to be able to spend this time and just talk about John means a lot. So thank you for your time. I hope you have a I.
Just want to show you. I just want to show you the coin.
Oh, let me see. I didn't want to make you get up.
Oh it's okay. So they these are the coins.
That will be uh oh, that's cool.
Flip banks on Thanksgiving Day. All three those are three different ones with the teams that are playing. So it's gonna be uh real cool. And it was great being with you and a happy Thanksgiving.
Yeah you too, Sandy. Have a great day, man, Thank you very much.
Take care.
All right, before we go, I've adjusted my power rankings for the week. We are still sitting with the Rams at number one. The Eagles fell from their loss with the Cowboys. We'll hear more from them in a second. I do have the Broncos at number two, even though again they've been winning barely, barely barely. And I got the chiefs Now number three at six and five. That's right, they were number four last week. But I've got the chiefs Now sitting right in that third spot with a
record of six and five. I got the Eagles at fourth with eight and three and you know your past. Oh I'm leaving them. They're not there for what are they tended to? Yep, their fifth. I'm not letting them jump over the Eagles quite yet. The Eagles did lose. What the Pats do beat the Bengals. Yeah, but that count. It shouldn't have been a tough, gritty win. You know, Drake May's never thrown for three hundred yards. Yeah, when they said that on the broadcast, that actually surprised me.
It surprised me too. The Colts were on deck last week. They're still on deck. So I did think it was a pretty good look for the Colts in a loss. Meaning they did go to to Kansas City and lose a close game. They played their faces off. So not a lot has changed except the Chiefs are exactly who I said they were. Everybody giving up on them. I'm not even a Chiefs fan. I don't know why to fit them so much. Okay, that's what's up. Thank you guys for being here. I hope you have awesome holiday,
and thanks to our guests. And that's Matt Castle. That's Kickoff, Kevin, that's Brandon. I'm Bobby Bones, We've had lots to say goodbye, Everybody lots to say with Bobby Bones and Matt Castle is a production of the NFL and iHeart Podcasts. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.