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Prime for details. All Right, Danny Parkins has gone from the most talented young sports talk radio show host in the country to one of the co hosts on Breakfast Ball in FS one. An interesting guy who's got a lot of different thoughts and a lot of different things, and so I'm going to try to bring him on regular to hear on the volume. So obviously when I bring you on, there's Chicago stories, and there's you have
real keen insight to Chicago. And it's interesting because I think Caleb Williams is one of the most talented quarterbacks I've ever seen in college. I think there's an lway a little Andrew Luck. He's like Josh Allen, he's not consistently accurate out of college. You have to work on that with Josh Allen. Aaron Rodgers was very accurate in college. Certain guys are that's not what he is.
He is.
You got a sandpaper him. And when I talk about the Bears dysfunction, you and I get it, you especially.
We tend to.
Think of Detroit, Loserville in Cleveland. But because Chicago did have one of the great teams ever and because they had Michael Jordan, and we've had Oprah and Siskel and Ebert, and it's a big city and everybody loves it, you tend to think, oh, the Bears are well funded, the facilities are this, that's the outside, but take the audience to the mccaskey's the dysfunction of this organization since you've been a kid.
Yeah, I mean they got an indoor practice facility with a roof that was high enough where you could hunt a football within the last decade, like it's every other team in the league had it, so multiple practice facilities. Like John Fox, to his credit, did kind of bring them forward. Him and Ryan Pace of like, hey, we need to upgrade these things. But like that's twenty seventeen. We're talking about here, so just in terms of the investment,
the practice facilities. I mean, the old thing on the mccaskey's back with the eighty five Bears was that they would throw around, you know, nickels like manhole covers, like it is a historically cheap organization. They are owners that inherited it, right, it's a charter heritage franchise.
But so their wealth is the Bears, right.
They're not an oil tycoon, they're not real estate magnets. Their wealth is in this valuation of a football team that they don't have of hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars just sitting in cash from some other business. They're not the Walmart people.
And so it is.
It's a big family. It's a dysfunctional family. It's been passed down. There's like nine siblings. Some of them have no interest in football whatsoever and want to get out and want to cash in and liquidate. George McCaskey, who's kind of the face of it now, is self admittedly just a fan. He's like, I know nothing about football.
It's like, George, you've been doing this forever, Like either learn something about football, or stop saying or stop saying that you don't know anything about football, because then you're like in the meetings hiring all these people. So there's been there's countless examples of the historic dysfunction and the cheapness with the Bears. I do think it's gotten a lot better in the last five to ten years, and the money has gotten so crazy with the national television
contracts that it's it's harder to be cheap. There are some ways still, like they were going to hire Jim Harbaugh. That was never going to happen. They were not going to give someone twenty million dollars a year, fifteen million dollars a year with that type of go and celebrity.
They were just not prepared to do it.
And that is a huge bummer because he wanted to be the Bears coach, or he was at least very intrigued by being the Bears coach for the last like two hiring cycles.
So it holds them back in some ways. For sure.
Ryan Poles I think is really smart and I think he's been a very good hire overall. I would not have kept Matt Eberflus. I think that was a mistake when they got the number one draft pick with Caleb Williams.
I would have lined up Caleb Williams with the best offensive head coach you could get, because my thing was, like, by definition, you are limiting your talent pool, Like you're only able to hire coordinators for Caleb, who then could leave to go be head coaches somewhere else Whereas if you fire Matt Eberflus, I think Ben Johnson leaves Detroit like that would have.
Been pretty good.
Like if you don't get Harbaugh Ben Johnson, he leaves your division rival and he comes and coaches Caleb, that's a pretty good spot to be in.
So I thought keeping eber Fluse was a mistake and.
Where there What I'm afraid of right now is not Caleb Williams. I think his talent is so undeniable that he actually will be able to overcome some of the stink of the Bears. We've seen that before, like Josh Allen, to use your example, he's had a defensive head coach and Sean McDermott. He's had one guy who is maybe a borderline top five receiver in Stefan Diggs. Other than that, not much in terms of elite playmakers.
Just got a run game, just got one this year.
Yeah, and that's it is what I mean. He had Dable and Dorsey and now he's got Brady, so he's had three different play callers. Defensive head coach terrible Drafters. Took him a couple of years, but the talent was undeniable that he got there. So the Chargers have changed over a bunch with Justin Herbert, bad coaches, different play callers. He hasn't won big, but as a talent has overcome it. So I think Caleb is going to be fine. What I am worried about, though, is when it was John
Fox with Mitch Trubisky. Everyone knew that Fox was not going to be the guy from Mitch long term, but they didn't want to fire him a year early and pay him to go away. So it was John Fox and Dow Loggins for a year of Mitch Trubisky. Then they fired the whole staff and hired Matt Naggy. So now it's two systems in two years, and that put Mitch Trubisky behind the eight ball. And then they did
the exact same thing with Justin Fields. He was there for one year of Matt Naggy and then they fired him and.
They moved on to the next guy.
And so then Justin Fields had two systems in two years, two different went from Matt Naggy to Luke Getzi. So now you're learning two different offenses, two different play callers,
two different sets of you know, ideas and fundamentals. And so if this doesn't work and you end up firing Eberflus and Shane Waldron, it will be the exact same thing that you did to your last two first round pick quarterbacks, and that just I don't care who it is, it stunts your development to not have continuity of coaching. So I'm not worried about the talent. I am absolutely worried about the coaching around him. And the line is clearly regressing and even worse than it was supposed to be.
But I think a lot of that is also Shane Waldron because and I'm giving you a long answer, but you wanted all of the context. Yeah, they were the second ranked rushing team in the NFL last year. It's the four of the five offensive linemen are the exact same, and in theory they upgraded at center, though it looks like they maybe somehow it downgraded and Ryan Bates has been hurt. But that's not all justin fields. But Khuil
Herbert was a five yard per carry guy. So, like I would have told you coming into the year, Kevin Jenkins their left guard, Nate Davis their right guard when he plays, and Darnell Wright their right tackle, who was the tenth overall pick. All better run blockers than pass blockers, and they're the worst running team in the NFL.
Yes, there's no question the O line has significantly regressed. And most of those guys were young, ascending players, right.
And so to me, I don't believe that these guys just forgot how to run block. I think that there's something in and I can't I'm not able to tell you what it is, but I think Shane Waldron clearly is not doing a good job. Another example, week one, Gerald Everett out snapped Cole Kmet. That makes no sense.
It makes sense, It makes no col Commett, top ten tight end in the NFL for sure, young athletic, good blocker, good pass catcher, coming off the best season of his career, homegrown kid under contract in his athletic prime.
That made no sense.
And they corrected it in week two and Week three and week three at a Monster game. But it's like, how do I know more about the personnel of the Bears than Shane Waldron does? And I get that there's a learning curve, but come on, man, you're a professional coach making seven figures. So I think Shane Waldron's been a disaster through three weeks, and I hope that he can correct it.
Well.
I think sometimes we all know there's about six great coaches in the NFL and about six great quarterbacks. Well there's maybe six great coordinators. Like, for instance, Brian Flores for the Vikings defensively is a great coordinator, just absolutely fantastic. Brock Purty and c J. Stroud the last two weekends have said, yeah, I've never seen any of these coverages.
I don't even know what I was looking at.
Like Brock Curty is one of the cognitive guys in this league. That is Sam Donald played with him for a year and Donald's like, I've never seen anybody that good at the line of scrimmage. He's I mean, it's almost like on the spectrum, like you're like, how does he know that? Like he's just different. There's a rain Man quality, Like how does he memorize all this stuff? So Brian Flora is Viking defensive coordinator, He's just better.
Shanahan is an offensive coordinator. I made Matt Schaub. You know, Brian Hoyer had a winning record. I don't think people think about this. It's like when you get in a plane, but every sixth pilot is great. The rest of our guys they take off, they land, they got They're not doing Sully on the Hudson. They would have crashed that plane into the Tapanzie Bridge h Hudson. You know, they
would have hit a bridge. And so I think when I watched the Bears and I look at their talent, is would the Bears have like Washington spent big money on Kingsbury like the new owners. I mean, I know Sean, they went after Sean Payton. Money was not an object with Washington. Now it just so happens. The Denver owners are richer than the Washington owners. But Kingsbury like got top dollar. I wonder about the Bears, is it like
you should I've had? I mean, it's I look at it and I think to myself, Brian Flores he got fired. Maybe he got a discount. But I always feel like some organizations don't hire well.
Listen, I I it's undeniable, man, and first time coaches are cheaper, and you don't fire early because you don't want to have dead money on guaranteed contracts, like paying guys not to work for you. That is a place where you can win. I'm saying in the margins. That's not to minimize coaching. It's just the Packers can spend the same as the Jaguars, who can spend the same as the Cowboys, who could spend the same as the Rams in free agency because there's a salary cap.
There's a salary for on players.
But that is a place coaching where there's cap that you could just throw, catch the problem that's and get the best. And that is a place where ownership can make a difference. And that's why I said, like far ball was just not on their list. They were not willing to do it. And so yeah, I definitely think that they go cheap in that regard and that that's undeniably an issue now. But I gotta be fair man Like once they high once they said they were keeping Eberflus,
I thought that Shane Waldron's resume made sense. He had been a play caller before, and he had had top you know, the eleventh ranked offense, the sixteenth ranked offense, the seventeenth ranked offense with Gino Smith, and I was like, Okay, I've seen the Bears hire first time play callers my whole life. At least this guy has done it. And he was a part of the thing that rejuvenated Gino Smith put him in the Comelayer the year conversation thirty
touchdown guy. I was like, if he can turn a mid level talent into a high performer, imagine what he could do with a high level performer, right, or a high level talent in Kayleb Williams.
So I was.
I was upset that they were in the situation where they could only interview people for the coordinator spot, but I actually thought on paper at the time that it made sense. So I'm I'm very down on how it's looked through three games. I'm not completely writing it off, but they could but they could fire him at the end of this year for sure.
Yeah, it's interesting.
So you were.
Optimistic with Shane Waldron taking Geno to the sixteenth best offense. Kevin O'Connell has made Sam Darnold, Joe Namath and his prime. So now that's the gap I'm talking about.
So the really great well and that's why I wanted an offensive head coach. Yes, yes, yes, exactly well and and man the NFC North like.
Matt Matt Lafleur, Okay, Matt Lafleur.
People were legitimately having the conversation of if Aaron Rodgers was done, like six or seven years ago, Matt Lafleur replaces Mike McCarthy, he gets two more MVPs and a couple of NFC Championship Game appearances out of Aaron Rodgers. Then Jordan Love comes in and is instantly awesome, and he gets two hundred and twenty five million dollars.
And then Jordan Love gets hurt.
Malik Willis had been in the building for nineteen days and he is undefeated. With Matt Lafleur, they put up thirty this past week. You got Kevin O'Connell doing that in Minnesota, and you got Ben Johnson doing what he's doing in Detroit. There are damn good offensive coaches in the NFC North. Like Shane Waldron is a distant for us, which was another reason why I was You've got to hire an offensive head coach to try to compete with these guys.
So you know, we've talked on the podcast. I don't I don't spend a lot of time. In fact, I've always argued because Skip Bayles's talk Cowboys incessantly and lebron so I don't talk Cowboys as much, mostly because the lead. Yeah, and I'm not. It just doesn't interest me. But it is interesting that the Lakers and the Cowboys have become sort of the same business where the brand is way better than the product, and that they're basically a family business.
I mean, the Lakers are run by Kobe's agent, and I know Kurt Rambis and like him, but the Rambas family is involved. It is a lot of it's a lot of people close to the Bus family. And that's the same thing. It's Charlotte Jones, it's Stephen Jones, it's Jerry Jones. There's not a lot of outside influence, but they're they're remarkable brands. I don't the Lakers are. I think Anthony Davis is just fantastic. I thought last year he was easily the best defensive player in the League,
and you know, Rudy Gobert whatever. But I don't think they're a championship team. They just don't have They're not close. These teams like Boston have like eight really good players. Seven are the good players. But I look at the Cowboys and it's this is what I'm about to say, is really insane.
Oh good that the if you really take.
A deep breath, the Cowboys have not won multiple playoff games in any year in twenty nine years.
Now.
Just think of that's that's not a big ask at the NFC. The last four they've had good quarterback play. Romo and Dak are b plus to a minus quarterback. They're a very good quarterback play and the Kirk Cousins mode. They've had offensive coaches who are more than competent. I mean, I've had some offensive coaches, and I'm always fascinated by really successful people Jerry Jones that have a blind spot that is so obvious. The radio hits the fact that he wants to be called GM and I'm like, Jerry,
you're this oil maverick. You're a brilliant businessman. He and Stan Kronky are two of the smartest guys in the league other owners lean on Jerry. Does he not get how disfunctional? I mean they really they always lead the NFL in retaining their own draft picks. And so is it ego? Is it a blind spot Jerry's vanity and personality. I'm fascinated when I see like Elon Musk similarly, does he not see what he is?
Well? What are the sociopathic? You know? Yeah, I think.
You've probably met a lot more billionaires than I have.
You know, a lot of normal ones.
It's not it's not a you get into this like stratosphere of ego entitlement, you literally own the building. It's just, you know, it's it's just it has to warp your sense of reality and things that make sense. But I do think that the media sometimes gets it wrong with with Jerry. And I'm not saying he's crazy like a fox or that like everything is calculated, but.
He likes it. Chaos is his fuel. He does not.
Believe that us talking about Ceedee Lamb's contract and Dak Prescott's contract and Mike McCarthy's contract and his radio appearances and weird things that he says, he does not believe that that has any impact on wins and losses. He doesn't and and in fact, he probably thinks that it has an absolute impact on the ratings that they get on Sunday Night Football and at four twenty five on Sunday on Fox. And he very well might be right,
because they are everyone cares about him. You might hate him, you might love him, but the numbers bear out people care about him. So I think that he is feeding the sports take industrial complex because it's oxygen for him. He wants to be relevant, he wants to be talked about. It's clearly an ego play, but also it programs a lot of airtime and that has to be good for business. I guarantee he subscribes to the all publicity is good
publicity mantra. We're talking about him and that's making him money, either directly or indirectly. So that's what And by the way, I also think, and I said this on the first week of Breakfast Ball because we were on before the season started, I was like, these contracts all get done, no one holds out anymore, Like they not really, Yeah, Jonathan Taylor for a game, Melvin Gordon for four games, Chris Jones for a game, like host Levy on Bell.
No one actually holds out. You're like, oh, they should have signed Dak Prescott early. Dak didn't want to sign early. Dak wanted to to sign first. He wanted Jordan Love to sign first because that just gave him more money. Ceedee Lamb wanted aj Brown to sign first. He wanted Devonte Smith to sign first. He wanted Justin Jefferson to sign first, because they know that they have the Cowboys over a barrel, because Dak had a no tag clause and a no trade clause and Ceedee Lamb got one
hundred and eighty targets last year. If Ceedee Lamb isn't on the Cowboys, they would go from the highest scoring team in the league to awful. He mat he the more to Dallas than any non quarterback, matters to their offense, more than Christian McCaffrey, more than Tyreek Hill. Yeah, like, I just I think chaos is part of the formula to the popularity in Dallas, and I think it's all by design.
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But if you had a minute thirty left in a game, one time out and had to go seventy yards doable same players. Would you take Gardner Minshew or Deshaun Watson to be your quarterback? And I said, I'd take Gardner Minshew because he moves about his well as Deshaun. He plays with more confidence and I think he's more accurate. And he's like, no, that's crazy. And so we got into talking about this and I said, Jaden Daniels or Trevor Lawrence. And I said, here's what I know about
Jaden Daniels. He moves better than Trevor. He appears to be more accurate than Trevor. And I love Trevor Lawrence, but I have seen him now that Buffalo game, which was at least the first half a standalone game. Dude, he missed the crossing route that is a any college quarterback can make it effortlessly. He missed a pass in the flat that he was low and behind him. And
I said he's too loose. I said, he looks like a quarterback that if you said, hey, you want to go golf Friday afternoon or watch more film, he choose golf. He's too talented to be that loose and bad on the layups. It's not mechanical. Because he was great in high school, he was great in college, and he was he's shown signs. Yes, you put Trevor Lawrence down there right now, minute thirty in a game, I would take Kirk Cousins over him. I think I'd take Gardner Minshew
over it. I'm not joking on Trevor Lawrence.
No, I think that it is totally fair. I do think that you can lose your mechanics. He brought up clear, he brought up you brought up golf right like a yeah, yeah. Any any golfer will tell you that you can lose your mechanics, you can lose your swing. So I do think it is in play that Trevor Lawrence is. I mean, hell Mahomes said it this week that he doesn't think that he his mechanics are completely locked in, that he's relying too much on his arm and sat right now
with his feet and his footwork. So I do think that when you have an arm like Trevor Lawrence, which is a top ten arm in the NFL, it makes it possible that you you lose your fundamentals a little
bit more. And so I don't think they're gonna bench him like thug Peterson was like, anything's on the table, Like, I don't think it is, Like I I don't think you're benching a two hundred and fifty million dollar quarterback, but I do think that you need to be working on footwork fundamentals and breaking him down a little bit. Deshaun Watson in week one looked like he forgot how to play football.
We charted it.
He had six passes that landed out of bounce, like they're just like straight not catchable balls. And then that's not including airmailing guys throwing it at their feet hurtling up. So I think he's regressed. I mean, he's been a little bit better since, but he's regressed terribly. Trevor Lawrence has regressed terribly and Minshew, it's just funny you bring
him up. What I've always said about him is like he's gonna go down swinging, like he's a fun quarterback to watch, yes, oh, and like but like delude usional confidence, like he will he believes he can make every throw. It's like Mario Chalmers when he was on the heat and he had teammates that were Lebron, Bosh and Wade, and he was like why don't you ever drop up the final play for me? And it's like it's like I had a pretty big shot at Kansas in the
final four. It's like, yeah, buddy, but that's Dwayne Wade, you know what I mean? Like your Gardner Minshew, why do you think you can make that throw? But like one out of two or three times he can make it, and so he does it. So he's a fun guy to watch. But I will say too, man, it's hard. Quarterback play in the NFL is very clearly hard. It's hard to project, it's hard to pay, it's hard to be consistent in and so that's also why. And this isn't what you asked about, but I'm gonna say it anyway.
Everyone being surprised by Josh Allen it bothers me. He is clearly the second best quarterback in football, and he has been for a couple of years now. Yeah, yards, touchdowns, wins. Since twenty twenty, he's second in wins, he's second in yards, and he's first in touchdowns, all to the Mahomes.
You look at their numbers. Now, it's regular season.
Mahomes obviously has him in the postseason undeniable, but yards touchdowns wins. He's two to two and one in terms of ranks since twenty twenty. And he doesn't have Andy Reid, he didn't have Tyreek Hill, he didn't have Travis Kelce. He is a remarkable football player, and so be like, I'm so surprised that Josh Allen is doing this this year. Why because he lost Gabe Davis and Stefan Diggs, who like wit the last seven games of last season.
Like it just we need to do a better job.
I think of, like, oh, you're not Mahomes, so we can like pick you apart and criticize you. I'm not saying no criticism is fair. Mahomes has thrown three terrible interceptions this year for total, Like obviously anybody can be criticized, but like, if you've got a problem with Josh Allen at quarterback, then the only guy you're allowed to like is Mahomes.
He's the only one.
It's a really hard position to be consistently great at well.
It's also people have never I've read every Phil Micholson book and he doesn't have the discipline of Tiger mentally, like like physically, he didn't have it in his prime. If you take one person off the planet. Tiger Woods. Phil Micholson has like eight more major wins. Like it's there's some time. I mean, the Utah Jazz are like considered kind of a dynasty. They've got two titles without one player, Michael Jordan. Like we also, we don't appreciate
in life how these cacasional mediors change. Like Charles Bartley never won a title again, go to the final against Jordan, Jesus, Charles was insanely good. I mean, so they go back to those you go back to those Suns teams. This was before everybody took threes. Danny Google the games. They were scoring one thirty four regularly with mid range jumpers. They were in chanting. Barkley's team changed the league.
Like the CEO of Burger King does very well for himself. The guy who runs Pepsi, he's great. He's got a lot of houses. Like, yeah, it's not McDonald's and Coke, but it's okay. It's it's okay to be second best when you're Peyton manning square all time.
Now, Listen, I'm like one of.
The last people in the world who's willing to at least entertain a Peyton Manning was better than Tom Brady argument, but it's I think about Peyton is like, I've never seen a quarterback control a game more than Peyton Manning did.
I think he literally changed the position.
Correct, And the other thing that I love about Peyton's like legacy four super bowls with four coaches.
Yeah he was the system.
But yeah, four super bowls four different coaches, that's pretty crazy.
Peyton's lebron He is the system correct, Correct, Tom and Montana were part and elevated a great system.
Yeah right, And you can't deny what they have in the trophy chest and the winning and I'm not I'm not going to argue against it, but singular dominance of like this guy is the system and you win because of this guy, no matter what else you got. Peyton is in a class of his own in that regard. But yeah, it's like people are like, are you worried
Jaden Daniels is better than Caleb Williams. I'm like, I guess a little, but like it's because it's all a crap shoot and it's about situation and no one really knows. I think Caleb is gonna be great and gonna be fine, and I think he's gotten better week to week to week. But I mean, what would JJ McCarthy be doing right now if he was getting the Sam Darnold reps? Would we be talking about him as an undefeated quarterback.
In the preseason? It looked amazing, That's what I'm saying.
So like, who the hell knows? Right Bo Nicks?
One week, the guy can't throw the ball two yards past the line of scrimmage. Last week he's slinging it all over the field and signaling first down and like playing with a bunch of swagger. I'm like in the league is I can't believe that I gamble on it every week.
It's impossible. It is impossible to predict.
By the way, do you let me just say this for anybody that listening in our business, I love radio. It's therapeutic. It's good for me. Television doesn't give me the same high as radio does. But I like tape TV because I have a really nice crew and a team, and it's funny and it's it's basically I'm doing TV radio simulcast. So it's a little of both. Do you miss radio and the sort of the journey every day, The therapeutic journey of it.
Yeah, no question, there are just my life right now is really weird.
Like I'm living in a hotel in Times Square and trying to sell a house and trying to buy a house or rent a house, and the parent from Afar and be a husband from Afar. But then I'm also like doing a bunch of cool things in New York. So I've had like a lot of good weird stories and adjusting to being on national TV. There's just a lot of weird things that happened with being on TV.
But then it's like we're gonna talk about the cowboys and the Chiefs and the Ravens and the Bengals and the Bears, Whereas in local radio, I could sell an eight minute story about you know, Wardrobe at FS one, and like, I think it would be really entertaining and good. But there's no actual outlet for these types of stories.
So I miss it. I miss my guys.
I missed like the nitty gritty and the minutia of being there for the Caleb story. So yeah, I of course, man, it's radio is my first love. All I ever wanted to do was afternoon Drive Chicago radio, and I did it and I loved it, but it's not the same now as it was back in the nineties and the early in mid two thousands when I really fell in love with it. And so, you know, I just I'm an ambitious guy and this opportunity came along, and so I'll always miss it.
But you know, this is this is the right thing for me to do.
You know, people think big cities are all the same. So I spent some time in London in the summer, which is probably London's like Chicago, but bigger. It has the parks, great architecture, terrific food. Believe it or not, London's food scene has improved dramatically. There must be ten Gordon Ramsey restaurants alone. And when I was in London with my wife and my third or fourth time being there, I told her, I said, I love Chicago, and I think that's why I love London. People lament the weather
in Chicago, but the springs and falls are amazing. The summers are killer. You're on a lake, and the truth is wear a coat.
You know.
London similarly, I'm not a heat guy, so I love going to walk in Hyde Park. But you know it's interesting. You think, oh, New York and Chicago. Danny's lived in two big cities. They are the opposites to me, like New York and Chicago could not be more. Do people think La and New York are different? And they are, but give the audience some sense. Do you sense a difference between New York and Chicago? Not just tall buildings. I think there's a sensibility. I think the river running
through Chicago changes it. The Midwest changes it.
Yeah, it's it's definitely different. Listen, I'm biased. I love Chicago. Chicago's home. I think Chicago's the greatest city in the world. And yeah, I went from you go from a garage to a garage at work and then work in a radio studio the winter. The winter's never bothered me. Yeah, you know football is on in the winter. I'm gonna be inside anyway. I think this is I think the biggest difference is in Chicago we have alleys, so that
means so that means our trash isn't on the street. Yes, and that means you can park in a reasonable manner. In New York it's so condensed and no one has an alley, so the trash is just on the sidewalk, and there aren't really a lot of public parking garages, so it's a lot of street parking.
So it's just it's super congested.
In Chicago, it's it's obviously there's a ton of traffic on the highways. The traffic is brutal, but when you get into the city, you can.
Kind of hide your car, you can kind of hide your trash.
Like, so it's just it's it's clean and liveable and smooth, and it feels like a big giant neighborhood. New York is congested and dirtier and louder New York.
New York is Rome. Yes, Yes, New York is Rome, which is the same thing. It's just dirty and congested, and it's it's a lot. It's overwhelming, and there's they're kind of making it up as they go at Chicago's.
Stacked on top of each other.
In Rome, you like, it's like, here's a Michelin restaurant, here's a world class hotel, and then you know, two hundred feet down is an ancient civilization, Like, oh wow, that's crazy. They just kept building it on top of each other and then and that's kind of.
How New York feels. But there are things about New York.
The bodega scene in New York is the greatest thing in the world. Yeah, like there was like New York is so expensive, and it is. It is significantly more expensive than Chicago. But you can walk came to a place that looks like it should only be able to sell you, like a bottle of water and cigarettes and a stick of gum in the New York Post and you can get like the greatest pastrami sandwich you've ever had for nine dollars and it's the only meal you need to eat all day. So New York and there's
a New York's awesome. And also if you find green space in New York, it feels like it was an accident. Yeah, and you're like, oh my god, green space and then it's like the most peaceful, beautiful thing ever. So I've gone to like Central Park multiple times and just chilled out because it feels like it's a complete oasis amidst all of the chaos.
Yeah.
Then I always had a feeling whenever when I was in Connecticut. I didn't go to Boston ever. I went to New York constantly, and I always said, there's an energy in New York. That is, it's even much bigger than Chicago, and Chicago's got energy.
It is a Rome.
It's Rome.
When you're in Rome, it is just going fast. I mean I remember going to Rome with my wife and you know, you do a few touristy things, but you know, we got vespas and we just went through the city. We hired these two guys to take us around and it's like get ready, hold on, here we go and we're flying through alleys and just the pace of Rome in New York it's exhilarating. And I can remember. I can remember there was a night in New York.
It was the fall.
I took my wife in there and we went and it was just a gorgeous fall. It was just it was like sixty three degrees. It got crisp. But at night we went to a great dinner. It was a sexy night. And I remember telling my wife we were in I think we were in meat packing district or something. It was a lot of the hipsters and the good looking people. And I'm like, I understand why people in New York think the United States ends at the Hudson River.
Like Elliott, you get why They're like, Utah, is that in the country, Utah?
Like I get why they think that.
Oh, absolutely, Like New York elitism is earned, Like it's earned you. Anything can happen here at any time. So this is crazy New York story. And I'm out here alone and I'm trying to like make the best of it. My wife and kids are going to be coming out here, and I'm going to move out to the Burbs in a house and so like. But I'm in the city right now. And so I love stand up comedy. I'm obsessed with it. I watch documentaries about it, listen to
podcasts about it, go to any show. I've been to the Comedy Seller a few times already since I've been out here. I had been a dozen times before. But a guy I know, Chicago comedian named Pat McGann. He opens for Sebastian Maniscalco, and Sebastian just did five straight nights at Madison Square Garden, most consecutive sellouts by a comedian at MSG. I'd never been to anything other than
a college basketball game at the Garden. So I hit up Pat and I was like, hey, man, can I come to the show, And he was like, yeah, absolutely, thrilled that you're in New York.
Let's do it. I go.
He gives me a little backstage pass. We're hanging out in his green room before I'm just alone. I'm pumped, and he said, yeah, you picked a good night to come. I'm like, yeah, man, of course, Madison Square Guard and it's kicking off this tour. It's amazing. He's like, no, no, no, no, there's three openers tonight. Normally it's two hats podcast co host me and Seinfeld and Sebastian had asked Jerry Seinfeld to open for him at MSG and Seinfeld comes out.
The crowd doesn't know.
Nineteen thousand people go ballistic, and Seinfeld famously hates arenas.
He really only likes to do theaters and like comedy clubs.
And he gets out there and he's like, this is so great, and he's doing like the Seinfeld books.
How cool is this. He's like, I'm a kid.
From the Bronx and I've never played Madison Square Garden before. And the place goes ballistic, and then he does twenty minutes of like Staten Island humor. You know you're in the city, but you're on the island and then you're in the Hamptons like he's just like he's just like being Seinfeld, but all about New York in front of New Yorkers that people are going insane. And I leave the garden at ten thirty and it's buzzing and it was like the Knicks just hit a walk off.
And I'm like, only here.
The only place that guy will do an arena is MSG and he'd never done it before and it was a complete surprise and it was just it was a Wednesday night, it was it was awesome.
Speaking of comedy, I was so fortunate and that that my favorite New York comedy story is I walked into Carolines and Colin Quinn in it like looked like he was going to bed. Ten minutes later walked in. He's like having a work on some stuff and he crushed for an hour, just and he was in like gray warm ups in a collared shirt that I think had spaghetti stains on it, and he just did an hour.
And I remember leaving with my friend, I think it was Brian, and I'm like, and this was fifteen years ago, and I remember saying, Dude, that guy is the most underrated comedian in the country like everything he's on. I laugh, and he hadn't quite hit yet, like he'd been on a shit but it didn't work. Now he's obviously done these Broadway shows that are fricking hysterical. He's always been Seinfeld's best buddy. But I saw Colin Quinn fifteen years ago.
New Yorkers knew him, New Yorkers understood how great he was, but like a lot of people, you know, Utah didn't. Now everybody like pays attention knows he's absolutely brilliant. And then I saw in speaking of comedy, my wife got me tickets in the front row John Mulaney at the United Center in Chicago on the rehab tour.
Helly, I was not in the front row, but I was there.
That's the best hour of comedy I've ever because it was so raw and so personal. And I told Anne, I said, that wasn't comedy, that was an hour of therapy. We just we were in an hour of therapy, an hour fifteen And the fact that these comedians Sebastian, who I'm going to in Chicago, I think in November ninth, eighth or ninth or something like that. He's good, you know, I've always said this about comedians and maybe I think this about you and I. In our art business, we
don't get a third take, Actors get twenty takes. They don't even write their own material. Sebastian Mulaney, Seinfeld, Colin Quinn. They write it, they perform it one take. I think comedians people just do not understand how lucky we are to have people that can stand in front of ten thousand people. I would be terrified.
They're brilliant, brilliant.
It's it's the most impressive art form to me, and it's the purest because this is not like an original observation by me.
I think it was Seinfeld who I first heard say it.
They are judged every eight seconds because that's about set up the punchline on average, somewhere around there, and they've got to be getting a laugh.
Now.
Some people will tell a longer, more drawn out story, and it can't They might not literally be eight seconds, but we can be giving a take on you know, breakfast Ball or The Herd or whatever, and we think we're crushing it, and maybe we are and maybe we aren't, but we're not getting any feedback, so we can live with the delusion that we're crushing it. They I mean,
Mulaney has definitely bombed. Yeah, you know, like Seinfeld has bombed, Quinn has bombed, Rock has bombed, like these and because they're they got to eat it sometimes to figure out what works and to get the new material. And they have that like feedback loop that we just don't get. Like Billy Joel knows when he performs piano, man, it's gonna crush, you know, Like Brad Pitt when he walks into a restaurant knows he's gonna get fond all over.
These guys every time they go out they could eat it.
And I just I think that it's so impressive to be able to create something from nothing. And the other thing is like we have games, like we are talking about actions of other things.
These guys are.
Creating and girls are creating their own material completely from experience, completely from thin air. And there's ten thousand people or forty people or whatever it is. We're basically sitting there with our arms cross being like make me laugh, funny man, and then they do.
It's amazing. So I can talk about this.
Davittel incredible, Neil Brennan incredible, there's so much good comedy right now.
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Speak.
You know, the hard job that has a committe feel to it and has instant reaction because of X or Twitter. Is being a football analyst because football is the most popular sport. You're judged every eight seconds, because that's about how long plays last. People aren't judging Joe Buck or Mike Tarico every eight seconds. They're following the play, but they are judging Chris Collinsworth and Tony Romo and Tom Brady. And it was thinking about this with Tom Brady. So
let me just tell you how I see. One of the things that offends me about bitcoin n FT. Success is hard, and people who invest in bitcoin, I always think it's a shortcut. I've been in the stock market since eighty eight. I've been buying and selling real estate over twenty homes since eighty nine to ninety. I've had swings and misses. My career has been since nineteen eighty seven. It's hard. We put in a lot of hours. Tom Brady's put in as many hours as I have or more.
Being a quarterback.
So when people are trying to sell me an NFT, it's like, Oh, you don't want to put the work in. You're going to be diluted into This is a this is get rich quick, and of course it's a paradise for grifters and NFTs all bullshit and ninety nine percent of them are all bankrupt. And I think bitcoin similarly, you can't buy a whopper at Burger King with it. I don't care if you have eight million bitcoin, you can't buy anything with it.
Congrats. So and it kind of so.
When people pitch me on it, it just feels like, Oh, you don't want to put the work in in life, You don't want to have to, like study stocks, because that's what Warren Buffett does all day long, and he's eighty eight study stocks allfing day. And so I'm kind of offended by the idea of bitcoin, Like it's a lottery ticket, I buy it, talk to a loser on a Reddit board.
I'm sorry.
The economic future of America isn't going to be guided by a twenty six year old gamer in a one bedroom in Sheboygan. Like, you know what, Peter Warren Buffett like, this is it's hard, Jamie Diamond in New York.
These guys, No, it's it's yeah, it's I mean, listen, it's it's very hard. And the I mean I remember being told about bitcoin when it was at twenty five hundred and I was like, I don't get it, and it went to sixty thousand, and I'm like, oh damn. I wish I would have taken the time to actually understand it, because I know some smart people that have definitely made a ton of money in crypto.
I'm with you on the NFTs.
Completely, but is it real money, what's the future of it, what's the end game of it? I have absolutely no idea, but that's an interesting thought on like the get rich quicks because it does it does seem like a cutting of a corner in some way, but clearly there are people who have made a gazillion dollars. I would take that corner cut if if I was an early adopter of it.
So my point being as I move I segue into this, is that Tom Brady, because he's Tom Brady and signed for his zillion dollars, people are judging him and it's like time out. It took him from the time he started playing quarterback in high school to the time he got really good in the NFL. It was like nine year process. You're giving him three games. Bradshaw Terry Bradshaw started on games. Chris collins Worth did B level, C level games forever. We don't allow people. What we're doing
in society is we're increasingly harsh immediately. It doesn't allow anything to bake. So what becomes more attractive is bitcoin and NFT and overnight sensations. But to do that you have to take a shortcut, and to be great, there are no shortcuts. Michael Jordan, Scotty Scheffler, Tiger Woods. They
started at three six. So when Brady gets criticism. I'm like, you guys, understand it's gonna It took him nine years of high school, college and pro football practicing every day before you're like he And by the way, even when he was winning super Bowls the first several it was like, well, he's a system quarterback and nobody gave him credit. Mahomes is so brilliant you immediately gave him credit. But I
find it's one of the things in society. It's like we are killing the bake and bake is great is how the great happens, and we're killing it. We young people try stuff, they fail, and we crush them for it, and it's like hide, just keep baking. Shit takes nine years to be great at anything.
No, I mean, I think it's patience is very, very hard because we live in an instant gratification society and we can get anything at our fingertips. I think about this with my kids, like they will grow up in the world of Amazon Prime. They could be like, they see something at a friend's house, bring it up to us, and we have to be very disciplined to not like have it on their doorstep by the time we get home. You know, it's just you get this feedback on stuff
so damn quickly. And on the analyst front, what you're saying is objectively true. But I don't have a great solve for it because I don't think Tom Brady was going to accept the job to be on the D team to do panther smalcons right.
I don't think that was gonna happen.
And so because he's on the A team, and because he got the contract that was reported on, and because he's Tom Brady, we're gonna I mean, he's gonna call Super Bowls really quickly, and that's gonna be in front of one hundred and fifty million people, and it's gonna there's going to be stakes attached to it. But what I love about these players is they can handle it like they're They are fine being coached, they are fine being criticized, and they will work at it in order
to get better. Because you've been around enough athletes in the business. They want to know. They want like, am I doing a good job at this? How can I be better at it? They're way less sensitive than US broadcast types. US broadcast types could be sensitive, have egos, don't love feedback, think that we know everything that we're doing. I've worked with so many athletes that are like, Hey, this isn't what I'm this is isn't what I.
Know how to do. Teach me, tell me.
So. If he takes it seriously, which I think he clearly is, I think he's been better Game three than he was Game one. I've already seen a bunch of progress. If he really does work at this for ten years, He's going to be excellent at it. There's no doubt about that. Danny Parkins, what a fast fifty minutes.
Thanks buddy, oh anytime you know.
I love this, and I mean especially when my wife and kids are in Chicago. I literally have nothing to do.
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