Hey everybody, and welcome to another edition of the Dave Pash Podcast. I'm your host, Dave Pash, ESPN and Arizona Cardinals broadcaster. My guest this week is a fellow announcer, Kevin Harlan, who works for CBS Television, west Wood Win Radio, T and T TV doing NBA games and college basketball. Kevin is one of the most accomplished broadcasters in the business. He has been doing high level games on network television
and radio for four decades. He's called so many memorable moments in sports history and in particular NFL history, including this past Monday night when he was on hand for Aaron Rodgers debut as the New York Jets quarterback, which, unfortunately for Rogers and Jets fans, lasted only four plays.
There was no visible sign of Aaron of oh my god, I know exactly what's happened, or oh my god, the pain is excruciating. I knew and he sat down. This was not good.
Kevin also talks about what it's like working with former Cardinals quarterback and Hall of Famer Kurt Warner on the Westwood One Monday night football broadcast. We'll talk about a very important aspect to broadcasting. That's eating and what we do the night before games, as well as some of his favorite moments over the course of his long career in broadcasting. We are presented by BETMGM, the official partner of the Arizona Cardinals, and by HeLa River Resorts and Casinos.
Use code cards one thousand and get back up to one thousand dollars in bonus bets. If you don't win your first bet, visit betmgm dot com for terms and conditions. Twenty one years of age you're older to wager Arizona only. New customer offer. Please gamble responsibly. Gambling problem called one eight hundred. Next step all right, Time for our conversation with one of the greats in broadcasting history, Kevin Harlan. Well, keV. The last time I saw you, I saw a lot
of you doing Eastern Conference Finals for TNT. I was doing ESPN Radio. So we had a seven game series and I think we probably had at least ten to twelve meals together. And is that not one of the more underrated aspects of what we get to do is finding a good restaurant and getting a good meal.
Well, you know what, it's more important. I think both of us would have tesked in finding a kind friend. And while you and I have crosspaths over the years in the bubble or wherever, we have had this nice friendship, but from afar and the best thing about those meals you're talking about having the great opportunity in this business to be on a series like that is to spend
time together. I've told people for years that one of my favorite broadcasters is Dave Pash and so for a chance to have that kind of time, which you really haven't, but had that kind of time face to face and meal to meal, uh, and then joined with other people in our in our little sphere, covering that series was definitely the best part of it. It may have been a seven game series, but maybe for you and I enjoyed this stuff outside of it, and that was a part of the series outside of basketball.
Oh yeah, And I appreciate the kind words. The feeling is certainly mutual. I remember the one place it was you, me, Doris Burke, Ali LaForce. It was somewhere in Miami, some exclusive place that I don't know how we got into. And you and I, though, were a little concerned because after about an hour and a half in they just had appetizers, and you and I looked at each other like, okay,
is this it? And then we were outside and I was outside and you came out and you said, hey, come here, and we go back, and now there's this huge spread. The problem is nobody told us that we were paying for all of it. And then we got the bill and yeah, there went pretty for the month.
Yeah, but the food was good and the restaurant, don't you ad it was cool? Oh yeah, like one of those bucket list my daughters. My daughters saw that we had gone there, and they just went ballistic. Dad. You know how hard it is to get in there, Dad, That's one of the best restaurants in Miami. Like, everybody
wants to go there. And you and I just thought we were just out for kind of another and yeah, and the bill was hefty, but it was nice and and yeah, you and I sat right next to each other and we looked at it and goes, I think you're the first keV. I don't think there's enough here to feed us. I say, you know what, there's got
to be another all night place around here. We'll stop buying and go back to the hotel, we'll have to stuff, but we didn't have to, and it was a nice night and chance to be a Doris and Ali people that we just have so much respect for, and and some other people. I guess some of the people that were in that group, and I don't know if we should. We won't name names, but they were like big social media slash like known internet people that you and I
had no idea who they were. They were there and they were eating with us, weren't they.
I mean, I don't mind saying because I don't remember his name, but it was the creator of Cameo who was sitting with us. We had no idea. We're like, so what do you do? He's like, oh, you ever heard of Cameo. I'm like yeah, it's like, yeah, I invented it.
And it wasn't Cameo the rock group that the group this is. This is Cameo the app. And yeah. No. My daughters went just nuts when they saw where we were, and uh, I actually told my wife when I got back, I said, I said, I've got a new place. I don't know if we can ever get in, but I'm going to try. If we ever get to Miami's South Florida again on a trip that will we'll make that
a part. It was. It was a beautiful, beautiful place and but one of many, as you say, now, some of these meals and we ate well, and but our group encompassed a lot of really known and respected reporters. In addition to Ali who was not with us every night, or Doris who is not with us every night, we had some guys from your ESPN group that were there covering. We can see Brian Windhorse can't wait. But it was that it was that kind of guy that was in
this group, and it was so much fun. And yeah, it was really the best part of that two week Miami Boston back and forth in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Well, you work with Kurt Warner every Monday night during football season, and obviously Kurt has strong ties here to the Cardinals, still lives in Arizona. How much time do you guys get to spend together off the air. I know you're always coming from a Sunday game and then you're always trying to get home to see your wife for a couple of days before you, you know, start all over again.
Well, the same schedule that you have, you know, it's your weekend is ungodly, but I know that we both feel like, how lucky are we to be in this position to get to do you know, these kind of games and have that kind of life and and and live out our dreams right as little kids. Is what we dreamed about and here we are. Here we are doing it. But you know, one of the nice things aside from doing the game and being a part of
it is who you work with. I know you enjoy all the people that you work with at ESPN with the Cardinals, and I feel the same about Trent Green with my CBS games on Sunday and my Monday night partner, Kurt Warner. I don't know that I've met a more humble, kinder, more generous person than Kurt. And he is the consummate professional. Dave, you and I have talked about. This is his study for each week of the NFL is off the charts. He will watch every snap of every game, usually does
it the three hours where before Monday night broadcast. He'll then go back to his room because nobody can sleep after a game that we do, and he'll stay at maybe to two three in the morning. As I'm sure he did a couple of nights ago and in the Meadowlands and at our hotel in Newark that he would pour over more games and get ready. And so by Wednesday night, I think he has told me that not only has he taken copious notes of the games he has watched, but he's watched every snap of every game
from the previous weekend. So is his preparation is just off the He's incredible that way. And as you know, the confidence we have and how you and I prepare another play by play guys prepare, you know, puts us in a comfort zone. But when you know that your analyst has maybe gone above and beyond that and done a completely different set of preparation things, it just makes you feel so confident when you put on that headset and go into the game. And that's what Kurt adds
to our Monday night broadcast. He is prepared, he knows. He goes on the field and does a hit with the NFL Network every pregame of these Monday night games, and they get the chance to talk with a couple of coaches, a couple of players, so he gets more of a pulse just before kickoff of what each team is feeling and brings that to our broadcast. But then just as the person, I love him. I love him as a friend. He's been so wonderful to me. We've grown close over the years. We've done ten years of
Monday night football together. And before that, I was lucky enough to work with Boomerasia and had the same exact relationship with Boomers. So I've been blessed in so many ways, and but one of the ways of having great partners on these Monday night broadcasts, and just I'm so thankful I have the chance. And he's so respected, he's in the Hall of Fame clearly and has all that. But as a person, Kurt, there's none better, none better.
And I don't think I told you this story when I saw you but two thousand and nine, which hard to believe that it's been fourteen years since Kurt retired. But in two thousand and nine he started kind of giving me a heads up that hey, this might be it. And obviously, you know, I was sworn to secrecy and didn't say anything, but he said, I want to, you know, look into broadcasting. Can he come up to the house and show me how to do a board and maybe just sit there and kind of do a mock game.
So I did that with him. But part of the quote unquote like initiation was I had to go play basketball with him at the YMCA. And I'm telling you, now, this is a guy that just went to the Super Bowl and we are playing basketball at the YMCA. He's got a mouth guard in. I mean, he is like setting hard screens. Have you have you I mean he's so competitive, which I love. Have you not? Have you know? Have you seen that side of him? That competitive side come out?
Well? You know, I do know that he is competitive about the business. I have not seen that side, but clearly know for stories like yours are just what he did as an athlete and how to begin his NFL career with such a struggle, and how he just would never take no and never not given up to where whatever his goal was and clearly the goals were within reach and beginning in ninety nine and on to the you know, Hall of Fame induction in Kenton, he has he has met those challenges and is is fueled by
those challenges. And but I love your story. It does shed another kind of you know, mark on him and just the kind of person he is and how he feels about life. I think he just feels that everything about life has a challenge, and he wants to whether he's the most prepared analyst, or whether he's the best dad or the best husband. I just think he takes all these things in life very seriously, knows how blessed he is and how he has been able to live
a life that he dreamt about in his living. So he's he's a he's a he's a world class eater. By the way, there are not many analysts, especially Hall of Famers, that leaving a press box with food laid out that may have been out for a couple hours is the kind of guy that will go get a plate full of what a couple of nights ago. We're in the Middlelands, so we've got a hamburger or hotdog. I don't know how long they had been out their day,
but clearly hour upon hour had been exposed. He grabbed it and took it back to his room so he could con fuel more energy, so he could watch watch tape. The guy is The guy is a machine and and thrives on He's taken late night flights after doing his stuff. Sunday in the NFL Network studio. Then he flies home to spend the afternoon with kids and grandkids and his
wife Brenda in Phoenix. Then goes back out to the Phoenix airport after arriving there from la where he's done his show earlier that day, goes back after about ten eleven o'clock at night something you have done, and takes a red eye to our Monday night game and then arrives at you know, five six in the morning. And there he is when we get in the car at about three three thirty, and he's ready to go. He's and I always admire his stamina, it's incredible, but he's
fueled by all these things. And so the why basketball pickup story with you probably probably doesn't surprise me as much as it might surprise others.
Well, you mentioned the game that you did keV on Monday, and you and I were texting about it a little bit. But I'm curious, what was that like, What was the moment like for you? Calling the play that Aaron Rodgers tears his achilles's It may end up being the most important moment in the NFL in twenty twenty three, and it happened very early in week one. What was that like, what was your reaction? What were you guys talking about
during the break? Did you both feel like, you know, when you had a chance to kind of take a breath, that hey, that's an Achilles and he's done well.
We were the First thing that kind of came out in the cars we're driving back to the hotel after the game was think about our last two Monday night
broadcasts that we've done, going back to last year. It was DeMar Hamlin, we did that game in Cincinnati, and now the very next Monday night game we do is the opener in New York with Rogers and the Jets against the Bills, And this happens four plays in and we're thinking, holy smokes, like we have seen two of the definitive moments over the last couple of years in the NFL, and moments that will resonate for years to come.
And in those moments, you just clearly just try to report what you're seeing because we're doing we're doing radio as you would do, and you just kind of go with what your eyes are telling you. But the game then resumed, by the way, unlike the Hamlin game, which was in limbo for quite some time. Would it restart or would they call it? And eventually, you know, called
the game this. You know, they took him off. We're trying to follow the story of his examination in the blue tent and then his emergence and then getting on the cart and take into the locker room wearing a boot. And the only thing that was perplexing about it was that there was no visible sign outwardly of Aaron of oh my god, I know exactly what's happened, or oh my god, the pain is excruciating. He just he was stonefaced. He didn't He got up to his feet, he put
a little weight on that leg. He knew immediately. He knows his body very well. At this age. You've got to because you're trying to survive all the hits, so you know every inch of every part of your body and what it can sustain and when it doesn't feel right. And he knew, and he sat back down again and again did not make an expression. I knew when he sat down this was not good now. And I didn't know it was an achilles. I didn't know what it was. I wasn't even sure it was a leg or a knee.
You just don't know, and you don't guess, but you can say, well, they've looked, they're looking at the ankle, and that's what they we could see and you say what you see, as they say, when you see something, say something. And that's exactly what we did, kind of like with the Hamlin thing here before in Cincinnati with the Bills again and the Bengals. So but the emotion in that building and you've been you've done many games
at Metlaine Stadium in the Meadowlands. The the emotion in that building, Dave was as he was carried as he ran out with the American flag in a city that he clearly an area, tri state area that he is. He is clearly embraced and they have embraced him back and represented everything that was a part of their season. Uh. And we know experts had picked them to go deep into the year, you know, the playoffs with Rogers if
you were healthy. So for that to happen, after the elation before the game and seeing now this quarterback, you know, wearing that number in their colors on the field ten then take the field for those fans was the kind of exuberance they haven't really had a chance to express an emotion they haven't had a chance to experience in such a long time, and then for it to end and stop, and it's tracked so early in the game and not even really get a chance to feel what
it was like to celebrate a guy like that was the range of emotions from that, and then you know, then some life shown by the Jets, and then eventually win it on the dramatic historical return for a punt by a rookie free agent in overtime. It made for a myriad of emotions by broadcasters and certainly by Jet fans. There it was an incredible and incomparable Monday Night something that I can't recall except the Hamling thing that had preceded it in the final Monday Night last year.
keV, You've done so many big games and called so many big moments over the years, whether it's NFL or college basketball or NBA, and obviously I'm sure you'll never forget the tomor Hamlin moments. You're probably not going to forget this game with Aaron Rodgers. Do you have a handful of games. I'm sure you get asked this a lot that you'll that you recall vividly important moments or that you'll look back on and say, man, I can't believe I was there for that.
Well, I don't know if it's just the stage of my career, Dave, and probably, like you, the things that really stand out of the things that have happened in
the last couple of years. If you go back for you and I ten, fifteen, twenty five years, some of that stuff kind of blends together, right, I mean, yeah, but some have been In the nca Tournament, there was this kid for Weber State against North Carolina back in nineteen ninety nine, and I stretch and back here by a kid named Harold Arsenal who grew up under a vidoc in New Orleans, who was homeless, and for one shining moment for weaver State they eventually knocked off North Carolina.
He had put like thirty seven points in. Then there was Ari Farrukbanash of Northern Iowa who beat number one overall seed Kansas as an eight or nine seed for Northern Iowa. He's now an assistant basketball coach. I think at Nebraska, if I'm not mistaken, maybe Colorado. He's bounced around a little bit, but he's coaching now, but he
was like five to nine and like seven threes. This past year we had Furman upsetting Virginia, and there were it was a thirteen over a four and a Final four Virginia team with their starting guard from that Final four championship team a couple of years ago. Inexplicably throws the ball in the air with time running out. Made no sense, like a kind of play that that I might make. You know, I'm at a ye game that's thrown it away just because I've too much pressure on me.
He throws it right to the opposing Furman guy, who feeds to a sharpshooter who hits a three that wins the game. The the interception by Malcolm Butler at the goal line in the Super Bowl against Russell Wilson in Seattle, that was a big play. The twenty eight to three comeback by Brady in the Super Bowl to win it in overtime, that was I remember those plays. We had a Jared Goff Mahomes high scoring Monday Night game a couple of years ago in the Historic Coliseum in La
I remember that. I remember Tooa tongue of Iloa. A couple last year early against Baltimore was six second half touchdown passes, four hundred and sixty plus yards and come from behind win against Baltimore. This past weekend we did the Chargers and Dolphins, you know, so you remember some of it, and that was a big four hundred and fifty yard plus performance by tongue of Iolo again two hundred plus yards receiving by Tyreek Hill. So yeah, I
kind of remember things like that. Now they'll stay eventually and it'll take someone to bring Hey, do you remember that gaming off to think? Oh yeah, yeah, No, I do remember that now and what happened. But you know, so I remember my first NFL game ever back in nineteen eighty five when I was twenty four, Remember that game with Len Dawson for the Chiefs radio network. I remember my first NBA broadcast when I was twenty two
doing that. I got that job out of colle So I mean, I remember like things like that, and it takes a while, but you know, once a game ends, man, you pack it. You're onto the next game. We're on to Cincinnati, right, You're onto the We're on to the next game. And so I guess I kind of I don't erase it and know it was special. But if I'm not getting ready for the next game, then I'm going backwards. And I can't. We none of us can afford to go backwards in this business. So I guess
I kind of look at it like that. But yeah, lucky, with a lot of moments and individual performances. You and I have called Kobe, You and I have called Lebron You and I, you know, are are going to call wembn Yama. We've called Kevin Durant. You know, we've called Curry. Like how lucky have we been to call these NBA guys over the years, And now we're calling these NFL players Rogers and Brady and everybody else. And so we've all got memories, and I guess it just takes a
name to kind of spark something. But off the top of my head, aside from the ones I just mentioned, because they happened in the last couple of years, i'd have to go back and have to be kind of jolted a little bit with my memory to think about, oh, yeah, that's right, that's what happened. Here's here's my recollection of it. And I'd have to go back like that in the files to think about what happened.
Well, I mean you've, like you said, you've you've been doing this for so long, I mean starting when you did getting and it was the Kansas City Kings, right, it was your first Yeah, yeah, And you grew up in the NFL with you know, your dad longtime executive with the Packers, and then you know your brother was a longtime public relations chief for the Bears. Did you and I don't think I've asked you this, did you always know you wanted to get into broadcasting.
Well, not until my dad wanted to be a commercial airline pilot. My dad took a look at my math grades when I brought him home one time when I was in grade school, and he looked at the grade and he looked at me, and he looked at my math grade is like a seventh or eighth grader, and looked at me and say, you know, I think I'd stick with journalism. I think I'd stick with being you know,
in the business. But at an early age, Yeah, the first voice I really ever remember taking note of that may have sparked that interest was John Facinda narrating highlights from Super Bowl one. So I was about eight or nine years old, and remember that and then being around.
My dad was at the Baseball Cardinals too, as the media relations director during the Bob Gibson, Lou Brock, Tim McCarver, Orlando cepaida Roger Merris years and two World Series appearances in sixty seven and sixty eight, and he used to bring me down there. So I'd be in the press box when I was like seven or eight years old, and I remember distinctly sitting in the back of the box. On my day was Sunday, we'd go to church, would
go down to Bush Stadium. We'd have breakfast in the press box, and we'd see the Ben Scullies and the Bob Princes and the Jack Bucks and the Harry Careys come in. You know, had a bite deep before the game. So I saw these guys, but you know, at eight seven, eight years old, it really didn't resonate with me. But I'd go sit in their booths and listen to them.
In the back of the booth. At that time, there was not a lot of security, and because I had a press pass, I could kind of roam around and I'd go sit in the back of these booths, and I remember Buck specifically, and then you know, followed him clearly once I got to know the voice and the man who was always incredibly kind worked with Joe at Fox, So you know, that was another blessing, another wonderful moment to be with Joe in that first group at Fox
when they began the NFL in ninety four, So you know, I guess, yeah, from a pretty early age, I kind of know. I used to do games in my room with the doors shut off of a TV, used to practice all the time. Went to a high school with the radio station, which was why would a high school and it was an all boys Catholic school in Green Bay, why would they have a ten watt radio station. But they did, and it broadcasts and I got to start
broadcasting there when I was fourteen years old. And but but I'd done all these games in my room, you know, from the time I was about ten or eleven, So yeah, I mean, and then and then when the Packer home games, had work in the press box and used to be a spotter. I was a spotterer for Lindsay Nelson when I was like twelve years old, when he'd come in with CBS and Tim Ryan and Jim Simpson, I remember doing stuff. So anyway, I'm going on and on, but
those are that that's what really fueled it. Looking behind the curtain, so to speak, what it was like to be in a major league press box, National Football League press box and watch these guys and know their lifestyle and the games they were covering. And and then I kind of thought, well, if I can't be an airline by at least I can travel and and and then I love sports and could do this thing, this this broadcasting if everything worked out, and I loved the business
and the challenge of being in the business. But obviously, this career that I've had, this life that I've had, has exceeded anything that I possibly could have dreamt. I mean, we all dream of something, but to be in this position, I'm sure like you, you just think, my goodness, how how fortunate have I been to be able to do the things I dreamt of as a kid.
Well, no one will disagree that you're. Among your amazing qualities as announcer is your energy and how you always meet the big moments. One of the other things that and I'm sure you get asked about this maybe more than anything else, probably similar to you know, when I talk to people or people ask me about broadcasting, it's
usually a question about Bill Walton. Like Chris Finch, the Minnesota Timberwolves head coach last year, after we did our production meeting with him, he goes, hey, can I talk to you for a second. I'm like, uh, oh, I must have said something, you know, like he and he goes, what's it like to work with Bill Walton? I just
didn't expect what. I'm sure people ask you a lot about you calling when someone a streaker or whomever runs out of the field and you have fun with it and you call it like you know, it's a game winning play in the Super Bowl, Like did that just come naturally? We like, just I'm gonna have fun with this. I don't if you even remember how it started, but I mean some of those are obviously legendary and you've gotten a lot of notoriety for it.
Well, I had. I had Dave a time with the Timberwolves. That was their original voice. I was still doing the cheaps on radio, and this was before I went to ESPN nineteen ninety one to do Big Ten for a couple of years before then went to Fox. So I worked with Kevin McHale, the great Celtic who is from Minnesota, and that's where he settled after he retired, and the Timberwolves brought him on to be a color analyst on TV games for the Timberwolves. And the Timberwolves, as you
recall back then, were god awful. I mean you could not watch them. They lost, you know, fifty sixty games every year. They always they just as all expansion teams do. They struggled early. But Kevin McHale was my partner, and you know, he's got a sense of humor that is probably quite a bit like his former teammate with the Celtics, Bill Walton. And by the way, you handle Walton like
only you can and beautifully. And it is one of the great things in our business to have some kind of a combination that really stands out, and that one does and people think it's Walton, but I know it's because of you be setting them up and playing the way you do during it, and you're a master at that, and that's just the one of many great traits you
have as a broadcaster. But with Michale, kind of the same, you know, kind of let him go and you start laughing, You'll say stuff, it's just like so off the wall, and then we would begin to you know, but like thirty points in Philadelphia, and we'd start laughing, you know, and we'd have to hit the mute button because you laughs, and we'd miss like a basket on both ends because
you're laughing so hard and we couldn't talk. So we kind of got I kind of got a little bit of that then, But when I went to the network in ninety well ninety one with ESPN, but then really with with the Fox in ninety four when they got the NFL, I kind of shelved that side of meat quite frankly, and was more straight down the middle. And so it's not until like the last handful of years that I felt comfortable enough to you know, kind of
be more relaxed and have more fun. I guess, you know, you never planned for those kinds of things because you don't know when ever going to happen, and rarely do they happen. But again, it was a bad game, and Kurt Warner and I were doing it on radio, and sure enough, somebody ran on the field in a boring early season Monday night game, and we just kind of ran with it, and a lot of it was fueled because Kurt was the whole time that we talked about the guy and what he was doing on the field.
So that has kind of extended a little bit to a couple of calls like that. It's you know, I never want to get pegged as a guy that only can do drunks and wild animals enter the playing field. But but that hopefully just be kind of a part of what I've done. And if people take it, and I don't want to offend anybody to show disrespect to the game or the broadcast or my employers or anything like that, I would doubt it's not my intent. But some of these people, as you would attest, you know,
there's some goofy stuff you see happen during games. Most of it happens in the stands, and sometimes it'll spill out into the field. You see stuff that just like like, like, what is this guy doing? Uh So anyway, but I hope people do take it the right way and I have that fun with it. But you know, sometimes you can go a little too far too and I've since the last time that's ever happened, which I think was
a super Bowl a couple of years ago. I've tried to stay away from it and just and kind of stick with the game.
Producer Jim O. Mahundro before you got on, was just playing me the call from the Super Bowl and I was dying laughing. I mean, it's so good. And then also how you work the sponsors sometimes into it. And I didn't hear the other night, but I guess it's a new Westwood sponsor, Honeylicious, and somehow you worked Honeylicious.
And do it call it's vix. It's like vix vapor rub and they're trying to describe it, and they and the copy. You know, I look at the copy before, like you do before games. Things you got to read and in game promos is what they're and you're promoting a game or out show or whatever, and we were promoting. I was reading this is actually a commercial, but I perhaps not you know, looked at the words closely enough. So when I read it live on the air, I go, Honey,
I said, I hope. I first of all, hope I'm saying it the right way. I should have. I should have looked closer at the copy. And then it came out and it just sounded weird and funny, and Kurt again giggled when I said it, and so then we kind of got into a thing about that. I guess we kind of look at it like like people are eavesdropping on a conversation that Kurt and I might be
having on Monday night. And he's got a great sense of humor and is really fun loving, And again, we don't want to disrespect the game, but there are moments of levity and sometimes it comes out of the commercial copy that you've got to read on the broadcast, and that was one of those one of those instances that happened on Thursday night from the season opener.
All right, a couple more cavib'll get you out here, because I think I've kept you longer than I told you I would, but a lot to talk to you about. I don't know if you because now CBS their CBS has more NFC games and Fox has more AFC games. Do you know yet if you'll have any cardinal games? How far out you know your schedule right now?
No, we don't have any cardinal games, not Monday, nor and we only find out kind of like you with ESPN, you know, your cardinal schedule, clearly, but we're in a world that we we don't really know our games nationally, and like sometimes a week out, sometimes thirteen days out, and we don't know yet when our next Cardinal game will be. Listen, we've done Super Bowls in that beautiful building. Kyler Murray, to me, was one of the more fascinating
players to come into the NFL. I'm sorry he got injured, and I'm sorry he's still shelved, but I'd like to think that they've got a plan for that team. I know they had a tough one against the Commanders this past weekend. I always love going down. I know we got a lot of Suns games. I'm hopefully get a lot of Cardinal games as well down the stretch.
Last one and this is you know, I'm purposely bringing this up because I think a lot of people maybe don't understand that when you go and call a game, that it's not just you know, you and Kurt or you and Trent Green. There's a truck, there is a producer, there's a director, there's a statistician, a spot are. There's so many people, whether it's radio or television that go into making a broadcast successful, and these people that are
behind the scenes often don't get mentioned. But I was so touched last year watching the NCAA tournament by how you and Jim Nantz and others talked glowingly about the late Pat McGrath, who was your statistician for a long time and was my statistician on NBA for you know,
almost two decades. And unfortunately, actually the day that we were supposed to do a game together in San Francisco passed away, and you know it was really I remember calling you and sharing the information because I just I didn't want because he was supposed to work the nca tournament that week. This was a Monday. He passes away, and and we're trying to figure out, well, how do we let see you know, we want a CBS to know about it, but we want to be respectful so
that it doesn't get out publicly yet. But CBS has to know so they're not wondering where's Pat when he's supposed to be there to to do the NCAA tournament with With Jim anything, you can share any fond memory that you have of working with Pat, and you know how much he and others behind the scenes have meant to you and helped you.
Well, we have those kind of people. You and I work with those people all the time. They're people that are watching or listening. They don't know them, but for you and I, these are indispensable coworkers who are right there. And we always say before every broadcast, we're all only
as strong as our weakest link. You know, you want to make everybody in the truck, everybody upstairs, your engineers, all these people radio or TV feel like you know, their fingerprints are on the broadcast and as you know it. Pat who had been in this business, you know, since the seventies keeping statistics. I mean he was a legend in the business as a statistician and his whole life was based on statistics and numbers and traveling and working.
You work with Jack Buckenhanks Straham on Monday night back in the day. He worked with you and I to the time that he worked his final games. So he was into this, into this business like nobody's business. And he was a character as most of these people are. It's a very nomadic lifestyle like Pat would do. At the height of his career, he was doing a Saturday game I think for brad Nessler on CBS. Then he would drive all night to make a flight to join
us on Sunday at CBS. Then he would travel with me, probably on his beloved American airlines. That's what he loved to play to the Monday night game. And then he would have like a Tuesday NBA with me, and then a Wednesday or Friday with you, and then he'd start all over again. Like the guy was a maniac. He was doing like five or six games, you know, a week, and he did countless Super Bowls, countless Final fours, worked every one of them with Jim Nantz, worked with with
about every broadcaster you can think of. He somehow Someway had worked with them and had devised his own format of keeping statistics and whenevery once in a while, and you know this better than anybody, he'd hand you a note about some you know something, Oh, how do you even think about this? But he spends his summers doing all this work about you know, the teams knows all these things. He called it sweat equity when there's no season going on, and that's where he would kind of
delve into the numbers and make him mean something. And he was great. His mom was a Pan American reservationist, so as a young kid, Pad had a lifetime pass on pan AM, which then evolved into both Delda and United as they broke up that that airline. But he had a love of flying from and he took advantage of it and flew all over the place. And I think he ended with American airlines like over ten million miles. So sometimes he would help us with with flights, as
I'm sure he did with you. But you knew that. So like we would have fun with the audistillas one short story, have fun with them in the booth. And I was working with Richd Cannon because rich was at a kind of a devilish side to him too, And I'd say, rich let's pretend like you can't get a
flight home tonight. Don't see what Pat does. So and he always carried the OAG, which was a thick book that they published once a month with every flight of every airline in all you know, four corners of the world, and and you know, to be a quiet moment before the game, and I'd slammed my fist on the desk, a dog on it. I cannot believe you can't fly home tonight on uh to Minneapolis to get home. I
can't believe you can't find a flight. And then out of the corner of my eye'd look over at Pat and he'd quickly fling open his briefcase and started summoning through that oag goes when it was you can there's a flight on Delta, there's a flight on Northwest, there's a flight on DETA. You know, we just we'd laugh and laugh and laugh. And McGrath knew he'd been caught again. Uh, but he knew it. He was like a walking oag.
They say that, but he was and uh. And he was a unique guy and always uh you know, he never married. He loved his family, his brother had kids and and he really became kind of a father to his nieces young kids. He kind of served as as the grandfatherly type for them. Loved his mom, who passed away unfortunately a couple of years ago in her nineties. But his mom was his whole life, and he was he was a special guy. You and I will never
work with anyone like him again. And thank goodness because the Good Lord made only one Pat McGraths and and from Jim nance to you and Luckily to me and and countless others in this business, they've had a chance to work with him, and I know we all feel better for it.
Yeah, no question. Before Apps, before all the airline apps, there was Pat. He knew, he knew everything. Speaking of airlines, I know you got a few days at home before you're heading out. You got Buffalo Sunday, and then which Monday I gave you doing because I know there's two.
Yeah, they're just going to broadcast one on Westwood One. So they picked I think we're doing the Cleveland. I know we're doing Cleveland Pittsburgh. They they've got the choice. I think there's another week coming up where they have a choice of games, and so they put us on the game that they feel as the most national because it's a national broadcast, national appeal. And so the Steelers and Browns will be this Monday, and we'll work our
way through. I know you and I have got some preseason games and mid October we're going to do and then the season opens up. That that October twenty fourth for us, and I think the twenty sixth for you guys, or twenty fifth and maybe twenty ninth for you guys. So we we've got NBA coupled with with everything else.
I admire you from AFAR because it's these are schedules that are not easy, and you're thinking a lot, and people don't know what you did this past weekend to go from New Orleans through Newark to get to Washington on a car in a late flight, and so I admire everything. I keep tracking you every week, by the way, I always I always look where are you on Saturday? And then where the Cardinals are on Sunday and think, how in the world is you know? They're only a
couple of guys that do it. Jean Deckerhoff did it with Tampa Bay. He no longer does Florida State. He just does the Buccaneers, the cup. Bill Hillgrove did the pitt Panthers and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Not many people combine the college with the pro but you're one of the last ones that do it. And I'm just amazed every time Bob was Shoes and I know does it with the Jets. You guys are a special breed man that's tough, and they put you in some far flung areas and
their travel is not easy. So I but I'm always curious to where you are and follow you every weekend, and love your work is always I always sit in my hotel room on Saturday afternoon and watch your college games. I you know, I think people can tell by our conversation.
I have as much respect for you as anybody in the business, and love your call, and and it amazes me how you can get so many college kids in and they all play right, invariably, they all play, and then you go back and then you do the Cardinal game flawlessly on Sunday afternoons. It is a gift and I am always in awe of how you pull that off. It's amazing, just absolutely amazing.
Likewise, again, you doing three football games in five days and doing the Sunday Monday every week and continuing to do it with the energy you do. And then like you mentioned basketball starting soon. That's you know, your passion and energy to me is among other things, I mean, the way you describe it, your radio calls are so descriptive, your storytelling, how you have fun. I mean, it's all
just You're a great mentor to meet. keV. I appreciate our friendship and I do appreciate you spending forty minutes with us on the pod, my honor.
I love you as a friend, Dave, and love you as a broadcaster, and know the kind of family man you are and the kind of husband you are, kind of son you are, and my life has been made much better by us being together. And I hope, I hope for the next how many years we're in the business at the same time, and you're a little bit younger than I am, but that we continue to cross paths and have more meals. We began talking about food,
we'll end talking about food and meals. And while we enjoy the games, it's the friends we make along the way that really make it a rich experience and a blessed experience. But thanks for having me on. Always great to hear your voice, and I'll be watching this Saturday, and I'll try to catch your highlights on Sunday and look forward to the next time we do. Indeed, cross paths in person, and it's always fun to give you a hug and say hello and talk about our business
and our families. We enjoy that so much.
The Great Doug Collins, a longtime announcer, former Bulls and Wizards coach who worked with you, and then when he came to ESPN and worked with me, said, every play by play guy that he's ever worked with is always famished, and I think you and I can attest to that. Thanks, Brother green right.
Always talked about Breening. Mike was the same, Mic has always wanted to eat and so I bet if it's me, you and him, how lucky am I to be included with two guys like you and Doug was for both of us a mentor and a friend, and a lives in the valley right, he's right there, and then beautiful Scottsdale so's He's always in our thoughts, even though he's retired now and watching from afar. We love Doug and Dave.
Good luck this weekend. I'll be watching, I'll be listening, and how fun to be I'm with you on your podcast. Thanks so much for the invitation.
Obviously, the story about being on hand for the Aaron Rodgers injury is timely, but I got a kick out of the Kurt Warner stuff too, Kurt grabbing cold hot dogs and hamburgers, cleaning out the press box so he can have a postgame meal while he studies film for his next assignment I thought was great, and then just thinking about all of the moments that Kevin has witnessed, going back to calling Kansas City Kings basketball four decades ago, and then growing up in the NFL with his dad,
longtime executive, his brother who was with the Bears for a long time, and I just love the fact that Kevin has fun. He doesn't take himself too seriously, the way he handles the sponsor reads during the broadcast, working in honey licious into a broadcast. He's one of the best and probably one of the most underrated announcers in
our business. Even though he's multiple Broadcaster of the Year nationally, still does such a great job, such a high level, always as energy and passion, and I know some one that the fans really appreciate. We are presented by BETTMGM, the official sports betting partner of the Arizona Cardinals, and by Heila River Resorts and Casinos. You can follow us on Twitter at pash pod, and we also ask you to rate us and review us. You can do that
on your favorite podcast platform. Tell us what you think of the show and if there are any guests you'd like to hear from. In the future, our thanks to Kevin Harlan, and our thanks to you for listening to this edition of the Dave Pash pok Yes
