The Dave Pasch Podcast - Mike Tirico

the Cardinals are whole, they're the best team. Doesn't mean they're going to win the Super Bowl, but watching these teams in person just gives me the perspective of the Cardinals are better, They're deeper, they're better on both sides of the ball, and Kyler Murray is still deep in the MVP conversation. The Dave Pash Podcast is presented by bet MGM, the official sports betting partner of the Arizona Cardinals,

and by Hila River Hotels and Casinos. Today's guest on the Dave Pash Podcast is NBC Sports Mike Tarco, longtime ESPN and ABC announcer. He's been at NBC now for a while doing a number of things, play by play on Notre Dame, NFL play by play, hosting Football Night in America, the Olympics, hockey, you name it, Mike tarco has done it. We have a great conversation about his broadcasting background, his mentors, and also why he's been a mentor to me and helping me in my broadcast career.

Mich will also give his thoughts on the Arizona Cardinals and Kyler Murray and if he's a believer in the Cardinals for being a potential Super Bowl team this year, and Mike reveals his top broadcasting moments from his career. So here he is NBC Sports Mike Tarrico. So Mike, let's start first of all by just tell everybody what this week is like, because I know every week for you is different. You're doing so many different things. What's this week looking like for you? It's about twenty percent

of your week. So that's okay. I'm not a dave past schedule anymore. I'll leave it to you young guys. This week we have Navy against Notre Dame in South Bend. But I'm also a trustee at Syracuse and we have a board of trustees meeting, so I'm going to be heading up to Syracuse for a few days, spend time on campus, then head to South Bend. Unfortunately, I've seen the Irish back to back week, so we three in

a Rosa will be easy. We'll take care of Davut and then they get to town on Friday and then after the game Saturday head to probably New York or Connecticut for Football nine in America. At some point in there, I'm thinking about trying to squeeze in a quick run to Chicago to my daughter's parents weekend cheese in college in Chicago Land area. So as you live as we live,

these weeks are never the same. They're always hectic and they're blast and then Sunday we'll do Football nine in America with Dungee and Breeze and Chris Sims and Maria Taylor and that crew, and then then start the hampsto reel back up again on Monday. So obviously you were working last night and I ended up doing that game for what Wood. So we both watched Cooper Rush and what he accomplished. And look with Dak Prescott, my clearly they are a great team, but it seems like with

Cooper Rush. Maybe they can hang on depending on how long Deck's going to be out enough, certainly in the NFC East, to stay atop that division. What are your thoughts on kind of where the Cowboys are right now? That's it. I think they can they can hang on enough. I believe that what your number two quarterback needs to do is be able to win two out of four games. You know, just have somebody there who can get you

maybe three and one. Like when Breeze was heard the last couple of years with the Saint Scott out of Teddy Bridgewater and then James Winston, you just said, need to have somebody who can do that for you, because especially Nowaday, given how much quarterbacks are running. But you've watched this evolution doing college games and then get into NFL games. Right, the college stuff, the Thursday and Saturday stuff is showing up on Sundays. They are big, growing, faster,

defensive players who hurt guys a lot quicker. There are more hits, more contact, more injuries in the NFL. Because of that, and because quarterbacks are running far higher percentage than they used to. I think you need a guy who can save you a couple of games. That Cooper Rush helped save the Cowboys the game on Sunday night.

He threw for over three hundred yards. He looked like he'd been in the system for three or four years, and he executed the system and when it came down to gotta have it drive, as Chris collins Worth said, like one of those lifetime moments or Cooper Rush. He came through just like Mike White did for the Jets with over four hundred yards. I think Dave one of the biggest mistakes the NFL has made in the last couple of years. He's not mandating that the third quarterback

to be active for every game. And more importantly of that third quarterback is a young developmental guys, second year, third year guy you are going to allow to develop because five or six teams a year of loose third quarterback for significant stretches. So you want to have continuity of play. When but he's in the system, they can step in and perform and play. Not the level of starter. Hoop Rush has been there a while. If you watched Hard Knot and his knowledge of the systems comforted with

what was going on. Is the reason that they're still sitting on one loss as we turn the calendar to November, and when you look at the injury situation here with the Cardinals, we don't know yet about Kyler and whether he's going to be able to go Sunday. If he weren't able to play, obviously, you'd be Cole McCoy. And then Chris Travelers your backup. I know you're dialed in on everything. I don't know how much though you've got a chance to really watch the Cardinals. But based on

what you've seen, are you a believer? Yes? Absolutely, the Cardinals get your attention. So we'll sit in a room on Sundays and watch the NFL games and the Cardinals. Obviously, because the time zonner usually in the late window, we watched all the early games. So there are nine screens up and there are maybe twelve of us in a pretty large room. But I'm sitting with Drew Brees to my right, Tony Dungee to my left, to myself because you're sitting by one Hall of famer and a future

Hall of famer. A coaching question, defense question, question about quarterback play offenses, you get an answered, just do by going like this, And then Chris Sims is in the room and Sims is into the film every day and all that stuff. So with all of us in the room, we pretty much have an eye on every game. And there's more, Hey, look at the Cardinals. Hey Kyler, Kyler's

doing this. Kyler's doing that. And I think the less circus plays and the more picking out those moments that he's gonna do, it's going to keep him healthier and keep him around for when you need him to make those circus plays in December and January. I think Russell Wilson and Aaron Rodgers are the two mobile quarterbacks different levels of mobility, who have shown these young quarterbacks like Kyler Murray, there's a template out there to use your speed,

your elusiveness, your ability to throw on the run. You use those sidelines to use that slide, use those rules, man, and Kyler has done a pretty good job to this point of it, and that's going to be important to keep it going. But I love that this team has.

I love the talent that's been built on both sides. Obviously, the jj W want injuries a bummer, but there are people they are on both sides of the ball, and they've restopped this Steve Time has restocked this thing really well in a short period of time, and I think they're staying power to stay with the Rams in the NFC West, no doubt. I agree, And I'm I know people probably think, well, you have to say that, but I think most people know twenty years are doing this.

I'm pretty fair like I'm a fan when things aren't going well, I wear it on my sleeves that the listeners can certainly sense that. But I feel Mike, you know, I've seen Dallas now in person. I've seen the Rams twice in person, and obviously saw Green Bay Thursday against the Cardinals. I still feel like when the Cardinals are whole, they're the best team. It doesn't mean they're gonna win it, but I feel like their roster is the best in the NFL. And part of that has to do with Kyler.

If he keeps playing the way he is, he's going to be. In the MVP conversation, you're right when you get to see the other really good teams in and you walk away with a good feel for if your team can hang there week in week out. And I'm glad you said it the way you said it, because yes you can. We can I don't know what you think. If you've done a bunch of Syracuse games, you obviously if you've got twenty years of Cardinal Syracuse as your school,

it's my school. Um, there's a there's a different feel when you're calling a game for a team that you will root for when you're not doing their games. And we can do that. We can stop if if somebody can play football against their brother and tackle their brother and hit them right physically, do harm to your you know, your same DNA essentially right. If you can do that, we can put aside our loyalty or our fandom for three and a half hours in calling down the road

or down the middle and be even. Um. I think when we do that, we see the flaws of the team that we care about the most. I used to remember doing Syracuse games back in the old Big East days of basketball. I could see syraciss flaws which helped me know when they had a good team. And you are in that same boat, I think with the Cardinals, because you want to know if the Cardinals really good, you can be honest with your listeners, and I think you're right on. I think they're good. I like what

Dallas has. I really do like what Green Bay has. Remember the Green Bay has been to the lip of the Cup, They've been to the championship game twice in a row. And the pieces may not be as talented, but they've come a little bit of something about them when Aaron brings that group together. You all saw that in person on Thursday nights. So I think I think they and the Rams and Dallas are going to be

the top of the list of tough outs. But certainly this is a team that belongs in the conversation, is going to stay in that conversation with them the entire way. And they're not for good Tampa obviously the simple chance, So let's not forget those guys. I think their roster is talented too. But you see when Gronk is hurt, right and they're hurting on the back end, their vulner their roster compared to the New Orleans roster, it doesn't

match up right now. But New Orleans defensively got after them, and they couldn't stay with New Orleans on the edges with the corners. And it's in the run game and the past game. So five terrific teams in the NFC pretty much I've only lost to each other, so I think it's gonna make it a really good second half of the season. Well, look, Mike, one of the reasons I wanted to get you on was to talk football, but I also want to talk about you. I want

to talk about broadcasting. I want to talk about our friendship because I've known you since I was a freshman at Syracuse. You were doing at the time local television at Syracuse and like the next year you got to ESPN. I remember one year I'm talking to you and you're a reporter at a local TV station. The next year I'm watching you hosting Sports Center, and then obviously you took off and it become, you know, one of the

greatest broadcasters of all time. And one thing that's always stood out to me because man, you you have been so impactful. You're one of my mentors, and you've always been there for me. You've always been supportive of young broadcasters, and I'm curious, was there somebody particular that mentored you, that gave back and put into you that you said, you know, I want to do the same thing for guys like me. Well, it's nice you to say thank you. I appreciate. I appreciate all of that. You know. I

think the world that you two pounds. So proud of you. Every time I hear you're doing a game, I'm just like, man, it's one of our one of our guys. It's part of the family. You know. There were some people like Dick Stockton and Bob Costas and Marv Albert who came back to Syracuse and shared a little bit of insight of what the industry was like for all of us as students. I always wanted to be the guy who came back was able to do that at some point

down the road. Just a little bit of that. But it's also a little bit of the college radio station that we worked at, WAER Radio, where all the names I just mentioned and hundreds, I mean hundreds of others, including people outside of the sports realm like Ted Copple and Dick Clark, Dave's now part of the Hall of Fame and Waar for his great career. You know, that sports department. We had a bunch of people who went

on to be successful in the business. And Sean McDonough and great Papa who has been a long time voice in the Bay Area with the Raiders and now the Niners. Those guys when they would come back to town, they would share with us, and I always wanted to be that person to be able to do that, and that kind of grew into a love of our industry and seeing an industry where we can root for each other,

you know. And we've been lucky because all of us jumped into the radio TV world covering sports at a time when ESPN Crew and regional sports grew and now digital platforms, so turkeys field hockey games are on TV right Arizona State as a great communication school. The kids to Cronkite School are broadcasting sporting event today. You know, Big Big ten Network, PAC twelve network, there's Student Involvement ACC Network. So the think continues to grow so we

don't have to be fighting over the same jobs. There are a lot more jobs out there than there used to be. And I just enjoy being able to share a little bit of my experience with folks and kind of give back because I felt like along the way people were really kind to a kid in his twenties to know what the heck he was doing to help

me out. So that's what I love to do. Why I love to do it, and I enjoy seeing the next generation come on and come through and just not ready to kick us out the door just yet, but pretty soon they will, and they'll be doing it better than we are for sure. When I got the Syracuse radio job, you and Sean mcdonneh were part of the

group that got me hired. There were several other Syracuse people in the mix, and you know, eventually got the job and I got to work with you and Sean and Marv Albert and cost Us and call a game with you guys, which was an incredible experience. And I get to ESPN and again you and McDonough were the two guys who were always kind of you'd see me doing the great outdoor games or a softball game, you'd hit me, hey, keep it up, man. You guys were best my chops a little bit, but for the most

part it was encouraging. But the phone call that I will never forget because it probably in a lot of ways shaped my broadcast career was the phone call that I got in two thousand and six after the first game that I did with Bill Walton. You were Bill's partner on NBA. Was you Bill and John Barry, and you were doing Monday night football, so you couldn't do all the games, all the Wednesday games in November. So they needed somebody to do a handful of games or

ten games. And so it was my first year and the first time I worked with John and Bill. JB pulls me a sign and says, hey, you have to ask me questions because if you don't, I'll never get in. So that was the first thing. I was like, okay, and I remembered Bill growing up watching them on NBC. But then I did a game with Bill a few months later and Lebron took his head band off and threw it towards the bench and he started going off that it's a technical foul, and I just let him go.

And I don't know if you remember this. You called me like the next day and said, man, you have to stop him. That's what you told me. You have to stop him. That's your job. I never forgot that because when they paired us back together doing the pack twelve games, I always remembered Mike, which you said, you have to stop him, and look, you can do any sport. You're great. The thing that has always stood out to me Mike, about you is how you work with various analysts.

What do you think is the key to that? Because you've worked with Bill Wall and you're working now with Drew Brees, who's a rookie broadcaster, hasn't done this before. What's the key to that, Dave? I think we have a job, and it's our profession to be announcers, journalists, hosts, who ever you want to call us, depending on the

moment in the role. I think the analysts this is their really third profession because they were either players or coaches, and then they decided to get into the media, and now they're in the TV side of the media, and they don't certainly have the area of expertise that we should have. We should have more than Malcolm Gladwell ten thousand hours of experience on the air than they did. That doesn't mean that they don't have that, but that's maybe the core answer to your question of trying to

connect with different analysts. I feel like I've got a moreph what I do to the person who is sitting next to me. Man woman, first year, twentieth year. You know, grew up in an IVY League, Ivy League educated house, grew up in a house where they were the first

gend to go to college, didn't go to college. Whatever it is, we've got to sit next to that person and make them the best version of an expert that they can be given the night the game, What experiences in their lives are germane to the audience, and I just feel like we have to change our game. I think it's been a little bit different than NBC. But I'll give you this. I'll do some games with Chris

Collinsworth and have the last couple of years. I probably approached the game a little bit differently when I'm with Chris than when I'm Withdrew or with Tony Dungee, who did the nerd name games last year but hadn't done games in the booth. But Tony knows eight thousand times more football than I've ever imagine knowing. But Tony's different personality. Chris and different personality. Drews a different personality. So I

think it's up to us. I'm sure you know with Wolf you're different than maybe you are when when you're doing an ESPN college football game with the various partners you've done, just like you do a game with Walton if you know you end up with Darris Burke during a game, you do your job a very different way because they're drastically different people. But we have to be point guards. We have to give them the ball where they like it, get out of their way. And with Walton,

I learned that the hard way. I'd sit there and Bill would just go and he just go, what are we doing? The producers got to show the viewers and Bill is just he's in Bill world, and you've got a good grab him. And when you do it, and you've you've become the best to do in this like better than anybody I've seen do it when you just got to do it in a loving way. Bill's grateful

that you do it. I mean, you kind of get him back to the game every once in a while, but you give him the space to have the canvas to be so enjoyable. My son goes to school, to pac twelfth school, and we're watching it and he's like, oh my gosh, this is insane. Does he ever talk about the game. And then like a year later, it's like it's hysterical And I watch in UCLA play Oregon State for no reason except Bill Walton. So that's the thing that becomes our responsibility to make that happen. And

you've crushed that. It's been fun to listen to. You've covered and called everything. So this is probably and I get asked this too, I have not done the level of events that you have because you've done so many. You haven't done just the stick and ball sports. You've done everything. But do you have a favorite moment or a few favorite moments that stand out in your career

that you've been a part of. Absolutely, Like there's one really parochial one that is no big deal, I think to folks, but Syracuse two Syracuse games, doing a Syracuse basketball game at the Big East Tournament at Matsison Square Gardens, sitting in center courts. You got a chance to do some of those two swire school. I grew up in

New York City. Madison Square Gardens my building that's like the mecca of basketball, and we got to sit for multiple years right at mid court, the best possible seat Madison Square Garden, a seat that I never dreamed of sitting in. I got to sit there two times of Bill Raftery, a bunch of times with Lenny Elmore, like you did and call my alma mater in my favorite basketball arena in one of the great tournaments in college basketball when it existed, the Big East Tournament. Like those

those are cool? I do the Syracuse Notre Dame game in Yankee Stadium, like seriously, Like it's Notre Dame in Yankee Stadium. That was the thirties of the forties against Army and all these legends, and that was a Top twenty matchup. Notre Dame kicked Syracuses button. I was calling the Notre Dame on NBC game, but still it was a great experience. The two that stick out for really

the same essential reason. One is September two thousand and six, the Saints returned to the Superdome the Katrina game against Atlanta. Michael Vick and the Falcons go three and out. They punched the ball. Steve Gleason blocks, Curtis DeLoach scores. It's fifty six weeks after Hurricane Katrina, the last time the significant number of people were in that Dome. It was truly a place of last resort, trying to just survive

from the hurricane. And the hole was cut the Superdome, the roof, the skin peeled off, all of that, and then fifty six weeks later it was Euphoria and it was important to me because that night cemented in me forever the value of sports, like sports matters. You know, the symphony in Phoenix, I'm sure it's incredible, the ballet is probably world class. They're not running around with Phoenix

or Arizona on their tuxedos or their ballet costumes. But the Cardinals are running around with Arizona, and so are the d Backs, you know, and that matters. That is a civic connection, and it's only through sports in a way unlike anything else in our country. And that night New Orleans told the world that one of the great celebratory cities of the world was opened for business again, and just to be there that night they cemented it

for me forever. And then the other one. David was twenty eighteen at the Winter Olympics doing the opening ceremony with Katie Kirk Like, I'm pinching my stuff, Like what am I? This is me? It's Katie Kirk is next. This is crazy, right, And it's my first Olympic opening ceremony. And here come the athletes from North and South Korea

walking together under one unified flag. And if the North Korean athletes one month before or in the four years three and a half years since, would be walking in South Korea, it would be immediately detained, questioned, and they certainly would be sent back back to their home country. Those two countries are technically still at war. Those two countries don't get along. They have a border where obviously there's always great concern about what's going on the other side.

But for two and a half weeks they came together in the name of sport. That's the only thing that's brought North and South Korea together. And to be there and to share without our country, that moment happening in front of us, and say, here's something you've never seen before I may never see again, unified Korea, North and South coming to compete as one of the Olympics like that, That to me was a time that I'll never forget. And the common connection with both events is that sports matters.

And you know, you may look at it as the toy shop, it's not real. It doesn't change the lives of your listeners. If the Cardinals win or lose, like they're happier or sad, but It doesn't affect the meal that they can serve or how much money they have in their bank account. But man sports matters in a certain special way that other things don't, and we're lucky to be associated with it. Another skill of yours that again I think you do as well as anybody in

our business, is when you interview people. Your interview skills the answers you get out of people, and part of that is whether you're hosting or doing a one on one sit down. Is there a person that is a more memorable interview to you than others? Maybe somebody that is listening today to the podcast that doesn't know much about this person, or they think one thing about this person, but the reality is over here and you've been able to kind of bring that out of somebody. I know

that's probably a tough question. Yeah, no, no, it is a good question because you don't do it all that often. I give you a really bizarre answer. Lindsay Vaughan, the

Olympic skier. I was just out to do a file on her for the for the Winter Olympics four years ago, and we end up doing the profile at the house where Lindsay's dad grew up and her grandparents lived as like a ski vacation type house and it's where Lindsay learned how to ski pretty much, and her grandpa was huge in building a little little snow area that she

was able to learn on that her dad also learned on. Well, that was the last time Lindsay saw her grandpa, and from that moment on, I understood like the fearlessness, the drive, the competitiveness, yet the fragility of the individual because of that. It's it's one of those things that and you kind of hit it a little bit there in your question. I don't ask that like sixty minutes gotcha question, you know, like what did you know and when did you know it?

I really like to make the other person opposite chair feel comfortable. I like to hear hear them to tell their story. I think, deep down I'm a curious person. I want to know about people and what they do and who they are and what makes them tick, what makes them fearless or special or great. So I would say that that is kind of what I try to go into things with. I really almost never come in

with holding a list of questions. I always felt like, when you're holding that list of questions, the other person feels like they're on the defensive. So I try to remember just some themes. Maybe I'll write down a word or two to remind me the next topic. And I

just love sitting there and talking to somebody. I hopefully it puts them at ease, gives them the best opportunity to share a bit of themselves that maybe they otherwise wouldn't And we can do that for people that that's what we want to do in those interviews, and that's what I love to do. All right, back in football for a few and then we'll get you out of here. Now that we have a seventeenth game in the NFL and we've had playoff expansion to the level of a

wildcard team per conference, do you like? Do you do you want to see more? Because the ratings obviously are going to continue to go up, the television revenue is off the charts. You think we're good with seventeen regular season and one more playoff team per conference? Or do you think eventually we're gonna get to eighteen and more playoff teams? And should we? I like one playoff team. I like where we are right now. You know, fourteen out of thirty two means about half the league is in.

It means ostensibly two thirds of the league is usually holding on to some if then tiebreaker scenario hope in the second and the last week of the last week. That's fun. That's great. I mean, how great of those moments when you know, like the one team's in the locker room and they're watching another team, and the fans are sitting in the stands watching our buddy Andrews Siciliano on Red Zone channel and de Eric TV and Scott Hanson as well. They're watching to see if their team's

going to get in. While some games ending there and some of the wild finishing, but you've been a part of a couple of those. Those are fun. So let's extra team allows a little bit more of that, more people to be invested in the party. Like the stupidest thing in sports right now, Dave, is the fact that the college football playoffs, four teams, like five big conferences, all with intelligent leaders went in and said, let's make a system where one of us is out no matter what.

That's the dumbest thing ever ever. Like they how they did that as beyond me, and I think they're paying a price for it will expand here in the next few years. But I like us in the NFL at seven. You know, the seventeenth game still worries me because look at all the players who are getting injured. This game is more physical, not necessarily because the guys are hitting harder, they're just bigger. You know. The field is the same size as it was when Red Grange played without a

face mask. These little tiny guys no, and you see these guys. The speed in the contact is so ferocious that I don't know the a play gets better if we go to eighteen weeks. So I'm still even for sixteen. But the seventeen ship has sailed, and I think we're in a good spot right now. Let's let's keep the where it is. I think this works. You mentioned the

college football playoff, and I'm with you. The four doesn't make sense, and they obviously realize that it doesn't make sense and that there's a lot of money to be made by expanding it. So it's going to get expanded. But right now you're stuck at four. You had Notre Dame, Cincinnati and Cincinnati right now, I'm curious. You know what

you think about them? Is the Notre Dame win for them good enough if they go undefeated for the first time since the invention of the college football playoffs seven years ago. For a group of five team to get into the top four, it should it should be. If it doesn't, this system is really fun. I can see how you can say they're eleven or oh, they didn't go any place and beat anybody. They beat Notre Dame, who was in the playoff last year. They're not even

sound as good as they were. But if No Name ends up ten and two, that's pretty good in a year. Whereas you've seen firsthand, there are a lot of average teams in college football, a lot of average teams. There's there's the velvet rope group of the VIP teams that are inside those velvet ropes like in a movie theater. That's a really small group. This year, I'd love to see Cincinnati get a chance. I think they deserve a chance. I hope they have the opportunity to play when they

played in the boat. Did you do that ball game last YEARNS Bowl Game? No? I did not. I had that's right, since Cincinnati in the bowl game. I know there were opt outs on the other side, but they hung in there. Yeah, Nome no names a good team. Uh they Cincinnati physically was a better team on the field in South Bend on that Saturday, and they had a little diversity. Norda got back to within three and

they came down. We won those championship drives. They scored. Yes, I definitely want to see them, and I hope they go eleven and O hope they win their conference championship game and get into the playoffs. It would be good for the sport, not just to change it up, it's change it up with a program that has built without the opportunities and resources of some of the legacy programs. One of the things that the Cardinals are doing is

called Cardinals Folk Tales. And one of the things we're doing is the Monday Night meltdown from two thousand and six when the Cardinals had the lead over the Chicago Bears. It was a game that you called for ESPN on Monday Night Football. It was also the game where Denny Green went on his famous rant post game, and that's really what Cardinals Folk Tales is about. But I had Greasy on earlier the season to get his perspective on

a lot of things. But also on that because he was Rex Grossman's backup, he thought he was getting into the game. Rex obviously stayed in the game, and he led the Bears to the Super Bowl. Do you remember much? I mean, you've done so many games. Do you remember that night? So Davir charts from games by the way, Yeah, I don't you know. I did. My wife, Hallie and I when we were redoing we accidentally threw out about a thousand of them. So I from from like two

thousand and three to two tho ten. There's no evidence that I ever did a game for ESPN or the Arizona Cardinals. Let me just let me just say, did Hallie accidentally be the one who accidentally put that in the accidentally get rid of this pile? Mike? I don't know that I could answer that, because if I did, because if I do, brother, I might I might not have a bed to sleep in the night when I get home. Well, I only ask that because I have

looking at it right now. I've got a stack of folders and legal pads from almost every game I've done going back to my ESPN time. So there's like some weird, weird stuff in there. Right, There's like Philip Rivers. I found the chart of Philip Rivers first started North Carolina State, which I did, and like I brought it to Philip when we had one of his games last year because we kind of do. It was near the end, so that was fun, right. But to your point, the Monday

Night stuff I kept it was ten years. I just kept throwing credentials. I don't know what we were gonna do that. I'll probably rim at all. But I've got my production meeting notes from that game. And the best part of the Crownham quote from Denny was that Denny told us that in our production meeting on Saturday. So I'll give you the quick story. So it's it's meet Kornheiser and Jaws, Jay Rothmans, our producer Chip Teams, our

director Susie Covers, our sideline repporter Michelle as well. But I don't know from the shows in the room with us she might have been. So we're out there. We did the meeting, same same meeting room, the same area the Cardinals still do their stuff in, at least over the last couple of years since I last was there. And Denny is telling us about the Bears because the Cardinals played the Bears in the preseason. It was the third preseason game, so it was good against good for

a half. When that still happened a fourth preseason games and the Bears, people were building up the Bears in Chicago. They started asking is this team as good as the eighty five Bears? And Danny played it right down the line, right down the traditional line. During the week, they're good, they're good, they're good. But we got in and so I'm kind of going down this line of question and Denny's you know, Denny can could have when during when he was with it, he could run a little bit

hot at times. You could just see him a getting frustrated. I'm gonna tell you they're not as good as the five Bears. Denny's voice again, the eighty five Bears. People want to crown them, People want to crown them as champions. It's October. Don't crown that. Don't crown them like the eighty five Bears. So when he says at the podium, um crown him, and he bangs his arms and he says, bangs his hands and shot we had to and we let him off the hook. Like that was the continuation

of our production meeting on Saturday. So when that cores, like commercial ran, and when that clip runs, I immediately flashback to that meeting and just laugh because we saw that first hand. That was an incredible night and Liner plays and they got a chance to beat him and Hester with a kick return as only Devin Hester could do and all that stuff. That was one of those nights.

So we because Corneiser didn't love to fly, we had a bus for Monday night football that we didn't take everywhere, but the bus whatever with the same bus driver, bus driver Jeff, and we're pulling out of the stadium and we are watching on a TV. It took him to direct TV the live postgame one Sports Center, and we saw that. We broke out laughing in the bus because we knew exactly what Danny was saying about want to crowd. Crowd the hook is one of my all time favorites.

I'm so glad you asked us. Every time that comes up, I relate that story to somebody. It was just like cool to add some context to the quote that became a commercial last one. As I mentioned, Mike, this is an audio podcast for those that are listening that may not see if we if the Cardinals put out a video clip, you have a guitar behind you. Is that your guitar? And is this something I don't know about Mike Terrico. Does Mike tric play No, I can't play. Um,

it's kind of strapped in here. I can't get this out. It's probably expensive. Don't don't do anything. There's a big hat here, the big straw hat that was from the World Cup in South Africa in twenty ten. There was a show called Last Call and we put somebody wear the hat and I actually did shows, which I couldn't believe with that hat on. It looked so stupid, but we passed it along. We had one of the great

memories on that show. We all worked together. We made a blast and I just said, I'm taking a hat with me and I did. And I've had it for almost a decade now. Hang on to it. Love it. The guitar is a gift from my wife. It was a birthday gift. Fun It was like a fortieth or something signed by Springsteen. I'm a Springsteen junkie and she got me signed Springsteen guitar. So I can't play it,

but my members does and that's my musical getaway. So it sits here in the office with a Mike Rouzi only hockey stick and a master's picture of Gary player Jack Nicholas, Arnold Palmer, Curtis Strange and me and I got Arnold, Gary and Jack to sign the starter's chief from that day. It was the first time the three of them together with the honorary starters, and they came in to do a sports inner hit with us. Curtis went to wake forest On and Arnold Palmer golf scholarship,

so he knows Arnie obviously knows Jack and Gary. So that's my little corner office there. I got those guys to sign the starter chief from that Day's one of the only autographs I've ever asked for my life. I got them to do it in my orange sharpie. That was the coolest part of it. So I got Arnold, I'd probably have the only Arnold Gary Jack same thing signed in a range sharpie in America. So that's my

little collection here. That's awesome. That's awesome. Man. Well listen, Mike, I could talk to you for hours, but you have a life, and I've just appreciate spending forty minutes with him me. Man, I really do. I appreciate our friendship, and again, thank you for just continue to lead the way for so many of us. Man, you're one of the most talented people in our business and stop one of the best of all time. Man, stop it, stop

and stop it. Thank you. I I love hearing you driving in a car listening to Westwood on a Saturday and I'm sitting around waiting to do my football games with Walden late at night. I just laugh and smile. I'm I'm so proud of you and your association with the Cardinals. I'm jealousy. You remember telling this around playoffs times and Super Bowls and stuff. I'm jealousy because you have an association with the team that I've never had.

I'd love to do that at some point because there's a whole generation of Cardinals fans who forever will associate your voice with that team, and I think it's just the coolest part of the ride. I'm I'm so happy for you and so happy for everybody in your in your world. You are the best and you're eating better person in our broadcaster and most of the listeners know that and we mean that. So thanks for having me on It's an honor to be with you, budd great

stuff from NBC Sports Mike Tarico. So many things that stood out to me in that interview. I think first of all, the conversation that he had with Denny Green in the production meeting leading up to the Monday night football game against the Bears. The unique perspective that Mike had, the fact that Denny had told him days before in response to people comparing that Bears team to the eighty five Bears, that Denny said, it's crazy and they're not who we think they are you thought they were, and

people shouldn't be crowning him yet. And then he said those exact words after the game. Just hilarious to get another perspective on for Cardinal fans, but was a devastating night back in two thousand and six against the Chicago Bears.

The other thing that I really connected with was when Mike talked about some of his favorite moments from his broadcasting career, in particular calling the Saints game in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and how important that game was to the city of New Orleans and the people of Louisiana. I live on the West coast. It was important to me.

I connected with it. I remember Steve Gleeson and what happened on that night, and I actually went down with a group of friends to Louisiana to do some post clean up a group from our church after her came Katrina. I saw firsthand the devastation that that did to that community. So to see it come together and to see the importance of the Saints to New Orleans and Louisiana and how it played out that night a national TV and

how well Mike documented it for all of us. It goes back to his line about that sports matters because it's entertainment and it's fun and we get to root for our team, but it also provides an escape, and it also allows us to connect with the athletes and the team. I think last year during the pandemic, not being able to go to sporting events, having to call

events from the stadium here or in my house. I'll never take for granted again being in a sporting event, because when we're there, we feel a part of it. We connect with the players, the coaches, the events, and these things stick with us. And obviously that moment, that game stuck with Mike and as he said, will for his entire career. That'll do it for this edition of the Dave Pash Podcast. You can follow us on Twitter

at Pash Pod. We are sponsored by bet MGM, the official sports betting partner of the Arizona Cardinals, and by Hila River Hotels and Casinos. The Cardinals play the forty nine Ers this Sunday in Santa Clara. We will talk to you next week on the Dave Pash Podcast