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Hi, everybody, after a great week weekend in the Northeast in Rhode Island and Connecticut. I am back. Listen. We got about six more weeks until football truly begins in Earnest. The camps are now games just down the road. You know, I thought I'm going to have at least ten to fifteen minutes here on what we've watched with our politics over the course of the weekend. I said this on Instagram about three weeks ago. I said, a month is a long time. Trump has a very high disapproval rating.
He's not a terribly strong candidate, either was Biden, obviously, but I think Trump has a history of stepping in it. Jd vance to a lot of moderates, myself included, can be a little extreme. So I think there's a lot of people out there that could change their mind in the next three months. Kamala Harris, I have no idea. Here's what I've watched, though, that's fascinating. A lot of the smartest opinions I've watched over the last month are people not involved on a daily basis with politics. I
mean Fox News predictable, MSNBC predictable. CNN actually has been willing to go after both sides, which is refreshing, and that drives by the way Liberals tend to believe that CNN is theirs, They're on their team, and CNN has not projected that over the last three weeks. As somebody, I feel, I'm kind of an independent that leans left socially right fiscally. I've appreciated CNN's coverage. I think New York Times has been willing to be highly critical of
Joe Biden. Again, Democrats tend to think the New York Times is on their side, and I do think the media mostly leans left, with some obvious exceptions. I think both sides, Republicans and Democrats, have shown an ability to bulldoze democracy. I saw Bernie Sanders get pushed down a hill by the Democrats and Hillary Clinton. I just watched Joe Biden get pushed down a hill. I'm not disagreeing with the result. I mean, think about this. This will
be the first time since nineteen seventy six. This is remarkable. This will be the first time since nineteen seventy six. Many of you watching not born that will have a presidential match without a Bush junior senior, a Clinton, Bill or Hillary or Joe Biden on a presidential ticket. That shit's crazy. You got to go back to nineteen seventy six to not have a Bush, a Clinton, or Joe Biden on the ticket as the president or vice president. I'm all for fresh faces, new blood, I'm all for it.
I have no idea who the vice president would be. Shapiro out of Pennsylvania wildly popular Democrats need to win Pennsylvania. That would probably be a logical choice. I have no idea about Kamala Harris. She's already being marginalized by the right as wildly extreme. Well, I mean JD. Van would favor a national abortion ban, complete and utter abortion ban. That to me feels extreme. I tend to be I'm not libertarian. I think you need government. I'm agnostic. I've
said that thousand times. I'm agnostic. Most of my friends are much more religious than I am. I'm pro choice within region. I think there's a cutoff at you know, ten, twelve, fourteen weeks, whatever the reasonable cutoff is. But I'm I'm pro choice, I'm pro business, I'm anti extremes. And a lot of the more common sense, thoughtful opinions I've seen over the last month are from non political pundits. People get into their camps. You got to be kidding me.
Politics is it's business. In sports, It's all about money and power. That's all this stuff is about. Democrats wanted Bernie Sanders to hit the road. He hit the road. Democrats wanted Joe out. You know, the donors dried up. Now they come flush with money. In for Kamala Harris. I get it. I'm fine. I'm just, I just I don't have to like jd Vance. I don't. I don't know much about Kamala Harris. I'm just looking for fresh faces, new blood. That's all I care about. The problem with
Kamala Harris go back to the twenty twenty primaries. For whatever reason, people just don't like her too much. Word salad inauthentic. You know, there's some private things in her past which are a bit turbulent. I'm not real judgmental on that stuff. I actually think the Democrats have an excellent bullpen. They're not terribly well known outside of their region. You know, Gavin Newsom is considered too slick. I'm not insecure on that stuff. A good looking guy whose articulate
doesn't bother me. It's like when Oprah years ago decided to lose weight and her ratings went down. Housewives felt out of touch that she didn't relate to them. That was according to research. I'm okay with a guy that's smarter than me, better look at than me. But Gavin Newsom is easy to marginalize. Even though California's economy is robust, even though California's got advantages over the rest of the country. You can put videos all over the internet of our
homeless issues. I mean, if you were homeless, where would you live? You get treated better here, and the weather's Mediterranean. I don't think he has a great deal of electability. I think there's this stigma he's just a little too pretty, and I think that turns the Midwest and southern voters off. Pete Poodu Judge. I think Pete Poodoo Judge is awesome. The guy speaks like six languages, seven languages. He's a Rhodes scholar, incredibly articulate, thoughtful. But again, he's gay. In America,
are we ready for that? It's remarkable to me that that has to be asked. But for a lot of Americans, moderate to conservative Americans, I guess we have to ask it. Gretchen Whitmer gets a lot done in Michigan. I think the bullpen's fine. Josh Shapiro governor, really popular governor of Pennsylvania. The Bullpen's excellent. But on a national scale, can you
introduce them to people? I mean, if you're asking me who I think, forget about easiest route, forget about anything other than what I think are people that would get stuff done and be electable. I would argue that Pete Buddha, Judge and Gretchen Whitmer, though I don't think there'll be the ticket, would get more done. I think they would get the most done. You know, Gavin Newsom's reputation nationally is WHOA, he's really woke if you live in California.
He pushes back on the wokeism regularly out of Sacramento. This is a very difficult state. I mean, we're bigger than Canada. What's our population, thirty eight million people. This is not an easy place to govern. California is not I've lived here eight years. I feel safe, I feel fortunate, I feel grateful. We have a homeless issue. We have the perfect weather in America. It's not overly humid in the summer, it's not harsh in the winter. Our shoulder months,
spring and fall are very pleasant. Listen, you're not going to get the perfect state. But I think there's a lot of interesting candidates. And I think if Democrats would have seen Joe Biden as a one term president from the beginning and could have marketed and promoted many of these candidates for the last three years. They would be much more viable today. And some of this stuff is name recognition and momentum and what people know. I think if you listen to Pete Buddha Judge talk on any issue,
he is whip smart. I think he is. When I hear him talk, he reminds me of President Obama. Is that any topic, any issue, ask him a question, sit back and listen, and smart stuff comes out. And that's generally where I'm voting. I don't want extremism, and I don't want dummies, and I don't want angry, and I don't want old politics. It's interesting because I'm paid to
largely watch things, observe things, and have strong opinions. So during the course of the football season, I mean like Labor Day weekend until about February twenty fifth, I'm locked in on NFL College Football World Series and the start of new seasons. The only exception is during a political season. But in July and August I got nothing to do. I take a lot of vacation time. The preseason in
the NFL now is mostly useless. Veterans don't play. The practices from the CBA are down padded practices have virtually been cut in half. So the NFL preseason used to be something, especially Week three, it's nothing now. A lot of stuff in the summer is niche, which doesn't really drive interest for a large audience, which we're always seeking
in my business. But I have watched a ton of political coverage, and it makes me prouder of sports coverage, where I do feel there are a lot of people, perhaps not in the middle, but feel a responsibility to be somewhat moderate in their fandom. I get none of that with politics. I got about five people I watch in politics that I trust and respect. After that, and again, I'll say it, I thought CNN, which the left things they own, I thought CNN was reasonable. I mean, if
you're bitching about coverage. In my career, if somebody's complained about coverage, I know I've said something very close to the truth. People don't get mad if you're wildly inaccurate. They get pissed off when you're accurate. And so the fact that see N's gotten major pushback, that's a pretty good sign. Because mostly we know that conservatives watch Fox, liberals watch MSNBC. My guess is that Trump will step in it in the next three and a half months,
and this will be a fairly close race. You know the idea. I think swing voters if you looked at a couple of the recent studies on swing voters, and I'm more of a swing voter. The big turnoff in this is Trump's sort of authoritarian lean and Biden's age. Well, Biden's age is off the ticket. So I think actually Kamala and preferably Shapiro to a lot of people, I think they'll make it competitive. Trump's actually very unpopular. He'll step in it. He's gotten better at this time not
stepping in it, but he's still Trump. And I think we'll have a very very close race. I don't think swing voters get talked about much, and I don't think because we're such a tribal nation, they have the impact they used to. But I think it's going to be really close today, just based and I think Kamala is so unknown, very much a fresh face. How much of a footprint can she create in three months. It's a lot of work, but she's younger and got more energy,
very telegenic. I think it'll be close. I think a lot can happen in three months, but I'm interested and I'm going to talk about it. The discussion I recently got into with somebody who's very political in my social circle and very knowledgeable on this stuff. You know, I got into about two weeks ago. I got into a discussion with this person and I said, you know, what really strikes me is how weak the presidential candidates are now,
how weak they are. Who wants to run for president Biden Trump and RFK in a country of three hundred and forty million. Really, that's it. Two guys who would be eighty something in their presidency. In RFK, who's kind of a conspiracy theorist and a little strange. That's that's what we have, Like between the vile nature of social media, which is an attack dog on people's families, between let's face it, in the private sector, you can make so
much money. There's no money in politics unless you know your Nancy Pelosi was stock. And I look at it and I think, to myself, my biggest fear isn't one side of the other bulldozing democracy. They both do a pretty good job at it. And I'm not a Trump.
Guy at all.
I'll never vote for Trump, but that doesn't mean I like the left. I can abstain. My biggest concern is are we going to get better candidates? Is this It's it's Koop's, it's conspiracy theorists, it's old timers, it's extremists. That concerns me. Not the American people, not the our government, not the levers we generally have in place, not even the Supreme Court, which leans far too right for my taste. Look at the quality of candidates were getting. It sucks,
it really does. It's bad. And the weaker the candidates, the weaker the president. So I just want to watch Kamala Harris and her running mate. I just want to watch and listen new ideas energy. We'll go back to it. Since nineteen seventy six, this is the first time not a Bush, not a Clinton out of Biden. I'm good with that. May the best team win.
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Okay, there was breaking news with the NBA and its broadcasting rights, so TNT matched the Amazon Prime bid. So as of now, the NBA will be on ESPN its current partner NBC, and it's going to come down to Amazon,
which the NBA would prefer. It's more global. The NBA wants to get off cable TV, where they've been very beholden to a platform that is losing the subscribers in the last five minutes, right, It's been hemorrhaging subscribers for years, and so the NBA though TNT had the right to match it and would go to court to fight the right to keep the end coverage. That's the Barkley shack Ernie Kenny Smith show. Win for the audience. So the
audience is familiar with that broadcast team. We're all comfortable with the TNT guys. The NBA is saying, yeah, that's great, but Amazon's got a much greater reservoir of money. It's a sending, it's got global reach where we want to get out of the cable business. The win for you and the win for fans has always been keep the current broadcasting teams ESPN and TNT. If you like the NBA, you know where to go. You start going to streaming
ventures Netflix and Amazon. You know, I've got seven different packages on streamers, Fubo, Sling, just trying to keep up with leagues. And you know, I would love if I had three channels. But you know, I'm a sportscaster. That's my life. So the NBA's real concern is to get off cable and to get into the streaming world. TNT, which will fight it in court, wants to remain relevant.
I said this a week ago on a podcast. TNT does not have enough of a sports library to keep me as a viewer if they lose the NBA, I'll never watch TNT again. It's like just not a viable channel. Now. If Fox lost a World Cup, Fox still has college football, College Basketball, World Series, NFL Big Ten, I'd still watch. If ESBN lost the ACC or if they lost Major League Baseball, well, they've still got the NFL, they've still got the NBA, they've got the SEC, I'd still watch.
For a TNT. They don't have anything after the NBA that draws me to a television I mean, they have sports, but not stuff that pulls me in. So for TNT, they I think David zaslof the President came to terms with this is it. If we want to stay in the sports business, you're gonna have to overpay. And you know what's very clear, and I'm knock on what. I'm very grateful for this. The only thing that matters on television in America outside of every four years in politics
is sports. Sports owns Linear TV they own. I mean, there's nothing else on cable that matters outside of sports. Maybe Fox News and Sports. That's it. That's your rundown. That's who dominates cable. And so I think TNT understands they're just basically it's a life preserver. TNTs like we're either irrelevant in our landscape or relevant for ten to eleven years, whatever the contract is. I don't think it's a prudent move by TNT. I think they'll lose eight
hundred million to a billion dollars a year. But if you want to stay relevant, sometimes you got to make deals where you lose money. My entire career in sports, I've seen it happen. If you want to stay relevant, I mean, Fox has to be in the NFL business. It's not a choice. They have to be relevant. You try to with NFL rights, you may hemorrhage money in the first few years, you try to get close to breaking even. In the middle years, and in the last two to three years of a contract with the NFL,
you try to make money. Super Bowls you make five hundred million dollars five point fifty maybe a profit two three hundred million dollars. Shareholders are happy. So I think it's just a matter of matter of survival for TNT. I don't think it's a great business move. It's a it's a money hemorrhaging move, but I don't think they have a choice. Finally, the USA today I always thought the Purple section was underrated, has made their football predictions for this year and they have the New York Jets
beating the Green Bay Packers in the Super Bowl. I'm not sure who's going to win the Super Bowl. That's not going to be the matchup. I'll bet you one hundred dollars it's not the matchup minimum. What I find funny about the media predictions is that the NFL, though we view it as the League of hope, and you can't there's no predictability. The NBA is currently the most unpredictable sport baseball. There's a hand full of teams that just make more money and buy better players the NFL.
The last twenty years, the league's overwhelmingly been controlled by two players, Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes NBA six year six champs. We thought Denver was going to be a dynasty. Potentially, No, I'm not even sure if they're a top two team in the West. Are they a top three team now? With the growth of OKC and Minnesota and Dallas getting Klay Thompson, So there is this sense that the NFL, oh, you never know what's going to happen.
Yeah, you do.
The Bills have won four straight titles. They'll make it five. Patrick Mahomes is going to win his division. It's going to be Trevor Lawrence or C. J. Stroud winning their division. NFC North and the AFC North are really good, so there's a handful of teams that could make the playoffs. But I mean NFC South, it's Atlanta. It's over Kirk Cousins. If he stays healthy, wins the division. Only Tampa can challenge them. So people tend to think I'm anti Aaron Rodgers.
Go to his last year in Green Bay and look at those numbers. Those are not top ten quarterback numbers. Since then, he's played four snaps behind a brand new, somewhat makeshift offensive line. I it is remarkable to me how a franchise with an impulsive owner, an unproven defensive coach, a forty year old quarterback off an achilles surgery, and an offensive line that is completely rebuilt and a rookie will start at one of the tackle spots is considered
a super Bowl winning team. That's crazy to me. USA today, I may never read your red section again. That's you. You've got to do better the volume. Thanks so much for listening. If you've enjoyed the podcast, take a moment rate and review.
Hey What's up Everybody? John Middlecoff Here from three Now Podcast. The NFL season is right around the corner, and if you want some of the best football content out there, I got you covered training camp, through the preseason, throughout the entire season. Subscribe and follow the three and Out podcast with me John Middlecoff on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your podcasts.