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All right, Nick Wright's about to stop by. Every couple of weeks he comes on. Chop it up for about an hour. And before you do that, listen to Nick Wright. And before he does that, grab your phone and download the game Time app. You know, the drill takes about ninety seconds. Authorized ticket marketplace a pro Basketball which makes getting playoff tickets even easier. You can get them last second,
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there without the tickets. Right, download game Time Today, last minute deals, lowest prices guaranteed coach col I n twenty bucks off first purchase. All right, we do this every couple of weeks on the Colin Coward podcast. We bring in my buddy Nick. Right, we chop it up on a variety of topics hard to top. Last week we were bringing it. But I might as well start. Oh, I might as well start with a very serious topic which is near and dear to me.
How do you feel about this, that this is what you're going to be known for. Honest to god, how do you feel about it? I mean, it's now gotten to you know Lebron and shout out, Well, I'll let you set it up at your podcast.
You set it up, but go ahead.
Well Lebron reacted to it, and JJ Reddick reacted to it. So this started years ago. I think it was Tony. I was at the other place ESPN, and Tony Romo was doing something at the podium. And it's always been about the weekly Wednesday podium. When you're a franchise quarterback, I don't care if you're any other position. I don't
care about off season. I care about the quarterback face of the franchise on a Wednesday podium, looking like you know you're the face of the franchise Because you are the coach on the field and the highest paid player usually. And so I said something about it. And Steve Spurrier was the college coach at South Carolina, and in his weekly media session he literally said, in his southern voice, Now, I was listening to a radio host, Colin Coward, say
something here, Dan. I really agreed with him. And you know, he went on about it. He said, I kind of liked it, and I kind of agreed with it, and so I thought, see, I'm not that crazy. That's not a bad idea. So and I did it a couple more times. Now it's gotten a life of its own, and I think most people now, well I shouldn't say that. I think a big chunk of people sort of get I'm being theatrical and my outrage is somewhat manufactured.
I don't, but if it comes from a real opinion, it is you have you have. The further along it's gone, the more, I don't want to say ridiculous, but you you it's become a thing I'm totally here for.
But the and we we've talked with this once before, and.
I'm gonna reiterate the point and actually tie it back to today's thing, which is, even if people vehemently disagree with you on the specifics of backwards hat for forwards hat, everyone, if they're being honest, should be able to admit we all have a backwards hat thing that makes us judge people like there is there So it can be as simple as, oh, that person who I thought was like a big time you know, powerbroker, Oh he doesn't match his belt to his shoes, like, oh, he's not as
sophisticated as I thought, or again, I'm just making that up. So here's what I found so funny about today. I don't really give a shit that JJ Reddick was wearing a backwards hat at all. You know what, you know what happened today, though, that gave me another piece of evidence that said I would not hire JJ Reddick right now to be the head coach of Los Angeles Lakers. That he responded to the clip that to me was
far more damning than his hat. It's like, buddy, you can't be three days ago I saw you on the Internet arguing with a San Francisco radio producer.
Now you're watching.
Clips of Howard talking about you loling it like, I just I don't think you're gonna go from that level of Internet, that engagement, maybe even searching your own name, all that stuff that people do, by the way, and I'm not judging them for it, but I don't think it'd be healthy to do as the head coach of Los Angeles Lakers, and I don't think you'd turn it off in a week.
So I don't care about the hat.
I care that he reacted to the clip, like I really do. And by the way, I wouldn't care at all if it was like a broadcaster, like just in his current job react to whatever you want, but a different job we're talking about now, which again, I don't think you would care about the backwards hat if it's just he's the NBA announcer, but if it's like, oh, you're gonna be the head coach of my team.
So I get it. I actually get it. Well.
I mean, if you don't think appearance matters, Your daughter's on the emergency table in a hospital and a surgeon came in in a suit and they put his white or a blue robot or a backwards hat, what would you prefer? Or your pilot on a plane came in or he has his hat backwards, which was a preferred a turbulent.
Night well and so and I also think, you know, Lebron responded with two pictures and I wasn't sure who the first guy was because the second guy's Jason Kidd, and it's like, oh, he's done a great job. And it's like, yeah, but Jason Kidd also and JJ has this going for him as well, like you know, former athlete, former athlete turned coaches a little different, which is where I think JJ probably has more of a you know, margin prero here. But the other guy was like, who
is that? And then we figured it out. It's the guy who owns the jazz Well. At some point, you like, you succeed out of hat like now, all of a sudden, you never have to wear a suit. Like I don't know if you watched the show Billions, but the may I know it's fictional, but the main character Bobby Axelrod, who was the billionaire he'd go to work, everyone's wearing a suit. He's wearing a Metallica T shirt. Because it's like, ah,
I own the place. I kind of can like, yes, there is that element to it, but but I love it. I think it is my I mean, it is so funny that four times a year. I know, I'm like, oh, well, half of Colin's show is taken care of for no reason.
And because there's always new people in the ecosystem, there are people who this is their first experience with you and backwards at and so they don't get any of again that not that it's a joke, but that this has been a twenty year thing, and those people replying are the best.
They're like this guy.
You got I mean, it is the best, and you don't have to explain the joke.
Just let them go. It's it's the best.
Yeah, it's you know, I as you know, I love football. I try never to take myself seriously. I think I laugh at myself all the time, but I do take my job seriously. But it is something now that's takes you know, It's got a life of its own. It didn't bother me, JJ Reddick responded, because JJ wasn't outraged by it. He was laughing at it.
Yes.
Steve Kerr, before he became big, was a hilariously funny, whip smart analyst. And you know, a couple of years later or a year later, he transitions from being kind of funny with Mike Breen to being a GM the most serious job in the world. So I think I think JJ's a really bright guy, and it doesn't bother me that people respond, but I do, like, you know, I've if I think if JJ walked up to me in a story, he'd be like, and I'd say the same thing. I'd be like, I really, I think you're
really bright. I really like your work. And I think he'd probably laugh to and this to me, you know, I think about this all the time, is that my bones are are I think a little bit in like breaking an occasional story. Although I know what I am now, I'm a generalist, but I do think whether it's Nick Wright, Steven A. Smith, Me McAfee, whoever it is, Tony and Mike, you know, Will bon Corneiser, who whatever it is, shows should be a bit whimsical and fun.
It is sports.
Like I I don't watch outside of right near the election, a lot of political coverage because I think it's so exhausting and heavy and kind of mean spirited. So I think it's Oh, I always think it's okay, like your show, you don't you do. I wouldn't call them gabs, but you do not gags, but you do.
We do a lot of ridiculous things on the front end and back end of what I consider smart analysis. That's right, like today he had you you thankful, by the way, thank you for doing it. Wild is out sick. So like the introt, we do nix tiers, which is you know people, some people call them power rankings. We do different things.
What you know. Ours is a little different flavor to it. But we're not reinventing the wheel here. It's ordering teams. But on the front end of it, we have this whole giant introduction about how big of a deal it is and Wilds can do it. So we had you, the face of the network, come in just to do the intro ands out and then it's real analysis and it's fact ridiculousness. I do think it's important in sports to somebody else said this, by the way, this is
not my thought, but they were smart. I wish I could give them credit. It is important to take sports seriously, but not yourself seriously. Like you got to give the audience.
You can't act like the games don't matter, because the people who are watching really care. I care like the games. You can't you but you can't take yourself like. One thing that I appreciate about the way you do it is you have no loyalty to a previous opinion. You were like, I've got new I don't give I got new information. I changed my mind, and people will get mad, They'll be like, but you can't. It's like, well, I just did screw you. What are you gonna do about it?
And so like it's just I'm not gonna act like what I said previously is gospel if I get new information on a thing, and so, you know, I think some people have trouble, you know what I mean, either taking it like it is life and death or just making a joke out of the whole thing, kind of trying to straddle that line.
Yeah, I mean it's it's you know, one of my favorite sayings I once heard in life. I really I try to live by it. Outline your life in pencil, not pen Shit changes when you get new information. Stockbrokers, doctors, pilots, comedians like something. Culturally, some things you can talk about today and then not tomorrow. That's right, right, Like comedians Now, oh, I can't use that term, that sentence, that word outline your comedy in pencil. You may have to shift because
of some cultural changes. And again, if you're able to do that in life, you don't get angry much. You don't have a lot of grievance. I hear whenever I hear people say, you can't joke about this anymore? All right, change three words.
Who cares?
I'm glad you said that. I thought Seinfeld's thing yeah was such a cop out, and it was so weird coming from him, because buddy, the co creator of your show, Larry David just finished a twenty year run of I think the funniest show ever that made every inappropriate risk, whether it's about race, sex, gender, anything, that joke there
was and it had never been more popular. You know what I mean that the idea that you that that all of a sudden, oh man, you can't make good content because the woke mob is going to cancel you.
It's just not true.
And I a deep deep I think a great example, oh deep was even more inappropriate.
Yes, and so the herb right, that's my point. So signed, like Julia leaves sign, Field goes and does beep, Larry Leifsteinfeld goes and does curb. Two of the most inappropriate if you will. Mainstream shows ever, they get between them twenty seasons, a million.
Times, wildly popular.
And then it's like, oh, you can't do it. Everyone like I don't.
I think that's a cop out. I think it's a cop out.
Be funny, like the the thing is, And we've talked about this before, I think, and I think it's a good lesson for broadcasters, particularly talk radio guys, because especially local talk radio, there is you know, some train of thought, risk a stuff, whatever it is. But the rules always been the same. Man, the riskier the joke, the funnier it better be. There is all like I, you know, a decade ago before he had you know, some run ins and you know kind of went out of the mainstream.
Louis c.
K at the peak of his powers, on one of his specs, ends a special I'm pretty sure, like it's back to back to back punchlines of like kids dying because of a peanut allergy, slavery and something else, and every joke kills and it's like, Okay, he actually can make fun of those things because the jokes work. What you can't do is make a totally insensitive or risk a joke that is lowest common denominator, not funny, So like, yeah,
you can still joke about really anything you want. Yeah, you better just have the skill to pull it off. And if you don't, then maybe color between the lines. We aren't good in trouble, but the best of the best can still say whatever they basically whatever they want to say, and the audience responds accordingly.
In my opinion, I think John Mulaney's the funniest stand up I've ever seen in my life. I think Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy. When I first saw them, I thought, that's the funniest thing I've ever seen. And then there's a lot of like Chris Rocks and a lot of great people.
Repel's my favorite ever. I just discovered John mullaney six months ago. I didn't know who he was I Chicago.
My wife flew me to Chicago to get seats A one and two at the United Center to watch mullany. She knows how much I love him. He absolutely killed. I've now seen all of his stuff. He's right now, like as we're recording this, doing a week of shows in La the.
And he's he's brilliant. So like I was late to the party with him. He's absolutely great. By the way, good seats at a comedy show are a risky proposition, man, because you always risk about being becoming a part of the act. Like I guess with a special it's different, you know what I mean, they're recording it. But my wife and I go to a lot of you know, one of the best things about New York City is there's great live comedy every night. So she and I go a lot. And sometimes when we get there, the
folks there know me. You know, I sound like an asshole, but sometimes they're like, oh, they're like, oh, do you want seats up front? Like, no, do not like seats up front. Don't want to become a part of the act. Because also, particularly just you know, getting started stand up comics there, it's there is no lower hanging fruit than white guy, hot black girl. How long y'all been together? Oh, what's your story? Like, Nope, not into it. Not I am sitting in the back and watching. I Am not
going to become a part of this show. But I love doing it. I love going Yeah.
Yeah. David Spade will call me once a year and say, hey, I'm at the comedy store in hermosa you want to get tickets, and I'm I'm always like, hey, if I see it, I don't I want I'll be behind the.
Pole in the back right exact se.
No, I think I disagreed with Seinfeld on that, and and I think deep curby your enthusiasm, David Chappelle. I mean, that doesn't mean you won't get pushback on a transgender joke. You're gonna get pushed back. But Chappelle delivers at such a high level.
By the way, if.
It wasn't for his his inappropriate personal behavior, Louis c K would still be a star.
Right, That's the thing. So that's what's really bothered me. If we may, I don't know, you know, we can, Yeah, take your time. No, I just I I don't. I think there are a few instances, and maybe a few years ago it was really at a fever pitch in a way that was brief and subsided. But I think there was there has since been a conflation of cancelation and consequence. Like I think that Luis c K did it seems like some really inappropriate stuff and paid.
Some content questions. Yeh, that is not Oh made a joke. People didn't like, and now they're pulling his stuff. The dude is a great actor. Kevin Spacey alleged to Douce I have done some really inappropriate stuff and faced consequences. That is not cancelation.
That is a tale as.
Old as time, which is you get caught doing illegal or nasty shit, you might get in trouble. Cancelation is would have been if Chappelle they were like, you're out, but they it's not what happened. Chappelle told you had told some jokes at the expense of the transgender community. Then I think got upset at how it was represented, so doubled and tripled down and by the way, still has specials stills on Netflix.
So you know what I mean.
There was pushback and there were certain people, and that's you know what's also always been allowed. I don't like you anymore because of something you said. I'm out watching you, and in fact, I'm gonna tell my friends not to watch you. That's also not being canceled. That is just how human beings work. I saw this play, it sucked.
That's not canceling the play. That's saying you didn't like it, and so I'm not gonna act as if there wasn't a fever pitch at one point in time, like I get this person, I'll get that person out.
But that was brief and subsided.
But there should be consequences for bad behavior, and so I don't I thought, I think that there was a a overstatement of how many people get canceled for this, that or the third Like I don't, I don't. I didn't actually see that in my lived experiences.
Yeah, And I think artists realize actors, musicians, comedians. I think if you're not stepping in it occasionally or or missing, then you're not expanding your art. Like I'm I'm not an artist, but I do think I go with a blank page for three hours sixty hours a month, live, unscripted, and if I step into it twice a year, okay, all right.
Exactly how I feel?
Yeah, Like my takeaway has always been, I mean, you think about this. So I just tried to watch the Seinfeld movie. Liked about the first fifteen minutes. You had all these really smart.
This tart or whatever. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's.
Like Gaffigan and Seinfeld and Mennican Sebastian Menekowsko or Mascolo yep, yeah, yeah, and just really really talented people.
They had a year to.
Work on this.
It was not good.
So I'm not going to lose sleep if I have a bad segment, right, And they had sixty people writing for the movie, right, So my take and Will Ferrell, who's brilliant Anchorman, elf his head bomb after bomb, it doesn't matter. So my takeaway is if you are a comedian, a writer and artist, if you don't have a bad concert, if you're not expanding your art. So I don't a comedian. Richard Pryor probably had horrible shows and was mean spirited. That's why he's viewed as the most brilliant comedian ever.
So I think that's what worries me when you have an avalanche and artists. And I think there was a really small window in that.
I think there was. I think there was.
I'm not gonna act like it didn't exist, And I do think there was a thirst. I think there all of a sudden was a time where folks who had felt like they never had real power, all of a sudden had it and seemed to be like out for scalps, like right, you know what I mean, and retro like Chappelle did a whole thing where he's like talking about the audience, talking about the audience, like trying to go back in his archives to.
Find something he said.
And no, so I'm not gonna act like it never happened, but that not only did it subside, I think now it's swung in the other direction. Were any type of like it's common courtesy, like maybe don't use that word.
They're like, you woke pussy.
Like what it's like, okay, Like I don't like, I don't know, man like it just seems like it's just a lighte like I'm not and so I just I don't think we were that the time of where you know, the you say the wrong the wrong word accidentally and it's like, well, you lost your job this and I'll use I think a good example of it is a guy I've known for a long time, not well, but
I've known him. I'm sure you know him too, Greg Doyle, who had the really the writer for at least no of him, had the unfortunate and awkward moment at the Caitlin Clark press conference. And did he have consequences? Yet it turns out he's been suspended two weeks. Do those feel a little harsh to me?
Sure? But did he lose his job? Did he?
You know?
What I mean was it was it was a and to me that was honestly less about like a PC thing and more about the newspaper wanting to make sure it maintains its relationship with the team that is now the hot team in town because they got Caitlin Clark
and showing they take it seriously. Like I just think I don't have I don't go on the air worried like, oh boy, if I say the wrong thing here, it's gonna be you know, there's they're gonna be at the gates demanding that I'm that I'm run out of media like I just and I'm live like you, I'm live every day.
Yeah, can I let me throw something at you with Kaitlin Clark, it's not really a pet pee, but it's something the media does with regularity, is that they protect people who don't need protecting. And it actually I think it's disrespectful. It's okay to I'll give you two, it's okay to say Aunt Edwards reminds you me of MJ. He doesn't need protecting. He leans into it the shrug stop. I wouldn't have suspended Greg Doyle, although I thought it was really weird.
It was weird, but and it's one of those things.
If I made this, yeah, go ahead, if her name was Kevin Clark, no, and so that no, Hitlin doesn't need our protection. She is a strong, defiant, tough I mean, watch her in games. She is tough.
So I so I the on the Greg thing, like I also, I think my reaction to that was colored by the fact that I do know Greg and I know like he's a well meaning kind of awkward like you know what I mean, if you've been around him, you can see, Oh, that wasn't spoke.
He wasn't trying to be creepy. He's just, I.
Think, well meaning but a little awkward at times. And that's what came across. That's what I know him a little. I thought the same if I but if you had never met him, you might be like, what the hell is you know what I mean?
Who is this guy? So there's the context of it.
I so with Caitlyn, I think it's happened in a different way as far as protecting when she didn't need protecting the world, you know, when I shouldn't say. The world a big portion of the population really turned on Angel Reese in last year's title game because she taunted Caitlyn and there and that there was now there was a lot of racial dynamics there. She's big, she's bigger than Caitlyn, she's black. It's a lot of things led
to Angel Reyes being the villain. But the fact of the matter is Caitlyn Clark was not bothered by it because Caitlyn Bark's a badass and was like, you know what, I'll do it back to you and I'll get you back. But there was some like, you know, because she was a woman, because she was a white woman. There are a lot of things where people were trying to, you know, put on the capes and rush to go save her when she.
Didn't need the saving. Flatley didn't need the saving, like and so yeah, I think that's a I think that's a I think go ahead.
I think the media is well meaning with Caitlin, but it is a very regular occurrence of protecting people who don't need to be protecting. And the ultimate respect for women's athletes is that Serena is Roger Feeder's equal emotionally and in her sport, she's his equal. We don't protect Roger Serena's remarkable. She's the greatest tennis player I've ever seen. She's the most dominant tennis player. I mean, I've been watching since Chris Everett, Billy gen King, I've never seen manage question.
It's not even close. So that's right, and that is you know.
So when we when during the NCAA tournament, all of a sudden, the women's conversation turned to the goat of women's sports and a weird or the goat of women's
tennis in a weird way. I was like, this is a profound moment in the trajectory of women's sports because it is now popular enough that we are going to have the dumbest conversations about it, you know what I mean, Like, who's the goat of This is the dumbest, but it is also gets people riled up, people have opinions, And in my whole career leading up to that, we would only be talking about women's sports.
In such like a bespoke way. It wouldn't be that.
But now it's just like sports, like, hey, is she the best? Is she gonna suck as a rookie, like it's just regular stupid sports talk. Like I think that what I'm really interested now. I happen to think Caitlin is going to immediately be awesome in the WNBA.
Same if she's not.
I think it will be patronizing and insulting if people don't ripper. I know that sounds ridiculous, but same if if you come into the like if you in men's sports, if you are this super nova and you come in and fall flat, nobody's putting. Nobody's treating you like a high school athlete like you know they are, and so there is a level of like this sounds silly, but equality of criticism that I think that that I do think now is going to come to the w NBA like I do.
I don't. I don't think it's going to be a.
Direct, straight linear growth, but I do think they now have enough star power that it is going to be a topic. Like I think Caitlin, how well she does, is going to be on our show.
Isn't Isn't it the ultimate sign of respect? They say that's about people in Boston. When a Boston guy pitches your shit, you're part of the club. Yes, that's right, exactly right, No, that's right.
When you don't and I think this is if we can you know again me and er further, I think this is probably something I don't know this obviously, but I'm a smart guy.
I bet it's true. I think it's probably something women outside of sports deal with as a hurdle to their growth in male dominated businesses, in executive spaces, which is, the guys feel comfortable going out for drinks and busting chops with the other guys, which creates a camaraderie and a relationship and you know what I mean, a kinship outside of work. And I'm sure there's a lot of women like man I get.
Left out of that because you know, they're trying to be polite or you know, whatever it is. But it actually prevents my ability to really be fully included and to potentially move up the way people move up through relationships.
Yeah, I think I think you use the word patronizing. I think the WNBA will arrive. I mean, it only had seven hundred thousand people watch the WNBA finals. That's not as good as the UFL. It will arrive this year, and it will arrive because the discussions will be authentic and critical, not flowery and protective, and I'm looking forward to it. I've said this, I think I told my audience this today is I always think fewer games is better, and I don't love the NFL going to seventeen games
and very quickly eighteen. But I think they will get a second bye week, which is fair and the players will love. But here's how I view it. So July and August are dead. That's the vacation time for us. So the football season now will be Labor.
Day to President's Weekend, will do a week talking about it, will take a vacation, all come back on March third into March madness and free agency, quickly into the draft, into the NBA playoffs.
So my take is, if you can.
Give me if the WNBA becomes a topic, and I think it will be with Caitlin Clark, you're expanding my football.
I now get a new topic.
So I'm rooting for Caitlin Clark because selfishly, if I get eight to twelve on slow days or days I have opening, not in the middle of the NFL season, You're giving me Caitlin Clark topics. I try to get Candas Parker on my show today. I am for it.
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Thanks for listening to part one of the conversations with Nick.
Don't forget to check back for part two.