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Hi everyone, and welcome to the Deal. I'm your host, Jason Kelly here with Alex Rodriguez.
Well sort of here.
We're going to get to an interview with your good buddy Alex Kevin Burkhardt, your partner at Fox Sports. That's coming up later in the episode, but first our listeners are going to be so excited. One of the things we love about this format that we're doing is it's wherever we are at any given moment. I happen to be in New York, You're in Paris, and you are, at least based on Instagram, having the time of your life seeing everybody who seems to be there. I've got
a lot of fomo. So I want to talk to you about it before we get to KB. I mean, tell me what it's like on the ground. It it feels like as the kids would say, it feels like a vibe.
Jason, you would have loved it. I thought about you a lot if you think about Paris. Look, he needed a big comeback. Let's be clear, Brazil was a little bit of a flop. Japan obviously you have the building excuse with COVID in twenty twenty. But this is a perfect storm and you need a big numbers and his hats delivered an enormous, enormous way.
But just walking.
Around even last night, Jason in Paris, what a perfect canvas. I mean, on one end you have it anchored by the Eiffel Tower. The other one you have the love. You have all the arches, the shopping entertainment district and his high fashion capital of the world right and then the sports.
It was just it was awesome.
Yeah, I mean money and sports colliding in a really massive way. As you say, all the luxury brands are very much on display. The city has put on quite a show by all accounts, and I don't want to get too far past your point and really underscore it. The Olympics needed this. It was really on the downslope. I think people are now looking ahead to La and I think you would agree LA's got some big shoes to fill coming off of Paris.
In Paris to me is one of the big winners here.
I mean, they did an outstanding job of being gracious hostess all the French people. They made you feel at home. If you look at some of the revenue numbers, one point two billion for Comcast and Peacock, who absolutely crushed it. And you have forty one million people watching the opening night where Lebron had the big flag, the US flag.
Look in a time where the world is so divided, our country so divided, you can actually have a flag and be non controversial, which is really nice by people around the world were very respectful to each other.
And that's the special place that we have in sports.
That's why we do our podcast because we do like to educate, share our experiences, but also bring people together.
Yeah.
Absolutely, I'm really glad you said that. As you say, you know, sports is this commonality, and it's fascinating to me to look at those numbers that you mentioned, the viewership numbers. I have to think as someone who is an owner of a couple of basketball teams, it's very
reinforcing to you to see live sports still rates. I mean, people have been tuning in at work, they've been tuning you know, the afternoon, like you walk around I won't say Bloomberg, but you walk around another office and you see people like they're watching the Olympics and then they're watching it again at night. So the pull of live sports is very real when it comes to actually keeping people watching. So I want to ask you what did
you watch? What have you been to Sea? I know you've seen you know, some of the players who play for the Wolves and the Lynx. Tell me what you've been looking at.
I mean, the big time game was Frans beating Canada and a huge upset right before US beat Brazil, which was a bit of a dut It was over probably in the middle of the first quarter. But you think about it, in what other than the Olympics, can you have the best players in the world in basketball have four games in one venue and you clear out and you come back in and you know what, Jason just pivoting to US basketball.
This is probably the best.
Team since ninety two, the original Dream Team, but they have the whole trifecta're working when you look at talent, coaching, and chemistry. Steve Current is staff or just doing a fantastic job.
Yeah, it's a great moment for the business of basketball, it seems because to your point, I'm glad we're talking about this because what you're seeing is that obviously the NBA via Team USA is a massive business. But then you look around there are a bunch of NBA superstars playing for their home countries, and so you're getting these amazing, you know, rivalries that you normally only see in the
NBA season on the world's biggest stage. And that is just a testament to how fast this game is growing, owing to the efforts of Adam Silver and others who see this global growth as the real future of the NBA.
You know, I had a chance to see three of our players yesterday. We had Rudy Gobert playing for the France, who's got a little bit of a jam finger, Nikole Alexander Walker playing for Canada, and of course Anthony Edwards.
But there's a look in their face.
That usually you only get to see either in the finals or a Game seven or a super Bowl. Yeah, there is an important there's a pride, there's an electricity in the building that you see no other place but the Olympics.
I mean, obviously you're there in a number of different capacities in addition to all the other business interests you have. I mean, does it feel like deals are getting done on the sidelines. I mean, obviously we're gonna have some stars come out of this who we're going to get big endorsements, But is there a feel of like there is a a super Bowl or a US Open or an NBA Finals that like the big hitters are there and they're talking shop.
Absolutely everybody's there. I mean, you name it, they're there. Obviously, the King of France. When you think about LVMH and Bernard Arnault, I mean they run that town. Think about him as you think of Steve Jobs back in the day, or even an Ela Musk today, Mark Zuckerberg. The way they imprint their power of that brand. And obviously they're a very global brand. But the other thing that I saw the big winners for me in one kind of semi loser, the big winner was NBC Comcast.
Yeah, they've had an incredible quarter.
I mean, if you think about just what happens over the last few months, telecast is the British Open, obviously, the big announcement on an eleven year deal where they'll be paying the NBA two point five billion according to you know, public reports. And then these Olympics they put on a masterclass. Peacock has really showed off the way
they've telecasted has just been really great. And the numbers again forty one million people watching, already one point two billion in AD sales, and I think now is poison set up for the next Olympics in LA. There's a lot of chatter on tnt NBC Nike, they're a big sponsor. The word on the street was how heavy handed Nike was. And disclaimer, I wore Nike my whole career. I did my deal with full Knight. I love Nike. But look, they're at an inflection point right They're now into their
fourth CEO. Their stock is down seventy percent from the all time high, They've cut marketing by seventy.
Percent, and they're still doing four billion in marketing.
But the silver lining for them is they made a big, big bet in this Olympics. They are hoping that next quarter things start trending in the right direction.
Again.
Yeah, I'm sure, Like as an athlete, you're like so jazzed up seeing these people at their absolute peak and relating to that. But as a business person, what are you taking away? Like, what are the things you and I are going to be talking about when you get back to the US as we continue the show.
Who are the people?
What are the interesting trends that you're seeing that we should be thinking about.
I think that sports is here to stay if you think about adjacent sports and live sports is the only thing that alter human behavior as far as scheduling. People will schedule their day around their big game, their team playing. There's no other thing that does that besides live music or live sports.
All Right, has there been a surprising sport that you watch? You're like, I hadn't really seen this before, but just like lit you up.
The most impressive venue for me was beach volleyball, which the backdrop was the Eiffel Tower. It was one of the most incredible scenes and hottest tickets.
I thought the three on three is.
A pretty cool concept because it's a little bit like pick upball is to tennis. Three on three ists to basketball for older guys like me. I actually like half court and I also like pick a ball. That was interesting to me. Jason, the biggest loss opportunity was Major League Baseball not being here. And if you think about it, if the goal is to get younger, get more global, show off your biggest and shiny stars like Aaron Judge, Shoheil, Tani, Juan Soto, Garrett Cole, these guys should be here.
And if you think about it, what a great.
Time in twenty four and twenty eight Paris in La to pilot.
Maybe you shorten the season to one hundred and ten games.
You take a page out of the WNBA, have your US Olympic team go up against the rest of the stars that should have been then also game just a month ago.
And then if you fast forward to La do it again.
Let's see how the season looks for one hundred and ten games, make it four months, prolong the postseason from one month to two much like the NBA, and give it a rip and it only happens, you know, once every four years. Imagine a home run derby kind of going into the tower. It was just perfect, and it made me really sad with all these sports that my favorite sport is now represented in the biggest venue in the world.
All right, well, I am so excited for you to come back, tell me more stories.
Thank you for taking some time to weigh in on this.
It's the perfect segue, especially talking about all this media into our interview with Kevin Burkhart.
Thanks partner, you got.
It all right, Alex. We've got a special guest this week. You know him very well. It's Kevin Burkhart. He's a sportscaster of course for Fox Sports. It's the lead NFL played by play announcer MLB studio host Kevin. Psyched to have you on the show. How you doing, I'm doing great. I'm excited to be with you guys. Jason, nice to meet you. And yeah, Alex, we've known each other a long time.
I do.
You know, it's actually crazy.
When you think how long we've been together, it feels like it was yesterday.
So I'm just thrilled to be here. Guys.
That's where I want to start.
Act you went there because I want to ask you, and then I'm going to ask Alex the same question, like do you remember the first time you met and when you started working together? Oh?
Yeah, I mean I'm not counting the times like we met when he was playing. I'm just talking you know, television stuff. Yeah, I remember the first time we met for sure, because before he started we talked and Alex fazed out to me and said, Hey, anystance we could go in earlier and just kind of go over some basics of television and kind of and I was like, sure.
You know, he's being very humble because I actually said, do you mind coming into the studio with me and actually doing like a dry rehearsal, and he was kind of did a double take. He's like, really, what, of course, yeah, I'll come in, so on his day off, so generous. He comes in. We literally are sitting in his chair and I'm sitting on my chair, except my knees were trembling, and I think he felt my energy. And I was really nervous because I'm one that likes to be prepared.
And we went through it, and He's taught me so much about the business, Jason, even as far as like we were doing a game with the Mets and Jose Reyes got a big hit and he kind of hit his mute button and said, let's lay out here. And I said, Kevin, what's laying out mean? Right, I'm just a baseball player. I'm not a broadcaster. And he says, like that just means we lay out. We can't do anything better than the moment, the sound of the game, the sound of the crowd. And I'm like, oh, yeah,
that's kind of cool. That makes a lot of sense. And so many little things like that. I remember a few weeks ago at the Allstar Game. I wanted to land a point about the Yankees, and he actually helped me kind of have my first sentence. So what Kevin does, both what he's going to do for Tom Brady and what he's done for myself, Derek Jeter and Big Poppy, I can't even describe it. Because he's great at what he does. He might be even a better leader in that clubhouse for us.
Appreciate that, brother, So how do you develop that skilled Kevin? You know, is this something that you felt like you had from the beginning or is it a matter of reps, because like sort of tending to these guys is a very specific skill.
Well, I think you.
Know, I'll use Alex's references, right, I mean, I think the role of a host should be point guard or quarterback, whoever you want to look at it, right, you want to distribute the ball? I mean, like, you know, the reality is no one cares what I think? You know, I mean, I have three of the all time players ever in the sports sitting next to me.
What are they going to care what I have to say?
So you know, whether I'm doing studio with you know, Alex and the crew, or whether I'm doing play by play, and I've had multiple partners, you know, the play by play booth in my career, and you know, this year'll be Tom Brady, and you know, my goal is to make the analysts be comfortable and look and feel good.
Like that's the whole goal of my role. And I enjoy that role, like, yeah.
I'm totally content throwing up the lob and having someone reverse dunk it. You know, I think, to me, that's a great day. So the biggest thing is always Jason, it's trust. Right in this industry especially, it's trust. And so I want whoever I'm working with understand that I've got their back and I'm not going to let them fall and you know, if they forget something, I'll pick them up. And also knowing that I have their best interests, I'm not going to intentionally lead them into a bad spot.
So I think that's always the mindset, you know, and then you get past that, and you know, you get comfortable and then you start busting shops and then it's just like old friends hanging out. So I don't know, I just think to be in this role, I think you have to have some level of unselfishness and hopefully I have that.
I've had that for my partners.
So before we get too far away from it, I do want to make one sort of historical note, which is, before you guys were in the booth together, you called Alex's last game, right the last time he trots off the field.
What do you remember like about that?
And then I'm going to flip it to Alex as well.
Yeah, I mean it was actually it was an honor and you know, Eric Shanks are CEO and President Fox said hey, KB, You're going to go call Alex's last game.
I was like, great, So I just remember it was cool, you know, text and Alex is going to do it, and.
Then being there in the hole, I saw him, you know, in the tunnel and just gave him a hug and he was so supportive, like, I'm so glad you're here doing this, and you know, it made me feel good and just the whole night, I honestly, one of the big things I remember that I felt so terrible for him because we're there, we have this whole pregame show, and we have the whole ceremony and then it starts downpouring, like as he brings his family out of the field, I'm like, come on, you'll wait a.
Little bit longer.
So we had a little bit of a rain delay, but I just think I felt onnored and it was enjoyable the fact that, you know, in my crazy head, it was like, okay, kind of helping transition him from the field to us, you know. So that's the way I looked at it. It was cool to be a part.
Of because you had done your deal before that game, you knew you were going to work together.
Yeah, because the prior year, we did the World Series while I was playing, which was an incredible training ground for me actually, and helped me understand the media a lot more. I've often told people that I wish I did an interim with Fox when I was a teenager because it really helped me understand that there's a lot of good people in media that they have a job to do. That their job is not to just go
get you. Their job is to tell a story, and if you can help them tell that story, it could be more of a.
Win win situation.
So the year before, we had done the World Series with the Mets, Kansas City already friends. We're obviously much much better friends today, but I felt really honored and grateful and happy that it was Kevin's voice that one day I can share it with my kids or my great grandkids. If you think about the Gibson home run by Vin Scully or a lot of the big moments,
touch them all, Joe. We have all these moments that connect the great moments, the great players with the great voices, And in our generation has been Bob Costas has been Ben Scully, has been Harry Carey. In this next generation, I believe Kevin Burkard is gonna have a big dent in American sports history, obviously with Super Bowls and World Series's and all these things.
So I was very happy.
All right, So Alice teed it up perfectly.
He's learning from you, KB. This is great.
You know, He's like leading into the next subject seamlessly. Come on, now the new guys come in, and he's like, cut, come here, Derek, come on, let me tell you. Let me tell you how this goes. So how did you get into this business? I mean you're working at a car dealership at some point, Like, how does this all happen?
Well?
I always wanted to do it because I really wasn't very good at playing anything as much as I love sports. So I was like, Okay, how can I be involved in something that I love? And so really, as a kid, I wanted to be an announcer.
You know, I had so many.
Idols, and I just always love the art of calling a game, and you know, listen to everything. I could listen to sports radio and pre and post game shows.
And all that.
I was just so into it.
So longer story short, you know, I would practice on Nintendo games as a kid. I would play games that I would announce them into a tape recorder. That's how I got, I guess my start. How I practiced, and I did it with like my best friend and my brother and we would just sit there into a tape recorder and called the play by play and play the video game. And it actually was good practice. And so did that. And then in high school we had like
a one camera situation. We went to the football games and announced on like a local cable access.
And then I took it to college and.
I was serious about it, and we had a good program at William Patterson where you know, we did a lot of games and learned how to do games and what a television broadcast was all about and then just you know, kind of a winding pass station, right, like I have a fun journey. As you mentioned, I kind of quit to sell cars for a while because I was frustrated, and it ended up being one of the
best things I ever did. So, yeah, you know, from selling Chevy Tahos they calling super Bowls in the World Series.
Who knew, right? Just wild?
Yeah, So Kevin talking about inspiration before you came on, I was telling Jason to some of my inspirational people were Magic Johnson, a man of color that was great in sports, and then you know Parlay that's a great business obviously, Keith Hernandez Strawberry, Doc. Those were my guys growing up. Who were some of the voices that really inspired you.
I think the answer to that question is there's a lot, right, kind of like you alously have a few different ones and for different reasons. I think, for in terms of actual announcers, I had a lot of different ones. I mean for football, it was always summer all in Matt and I just I got the chills when they came on because it just signified a big game. And even to this day, I'm always like thinking, like Okay, what
would Pat Summer all do in this situation? I just admired him and so I love that and they were big in our house, you know, our household. We grew up Mets fans, and so Bob Murphy and Ralph Kiner and you know a little later Gary Cohen, who we got to work with, who's still doing the medsine, who's just fantastic, and we've become close friends over the years.
I just tried to pay attention now and just realize, okay, like what kind of styles or what who does this differently and what I liked and then kind of try to form some version of me out of all that without you know, not copying, but just kind of taking bits and pieces I liked and trying to find my own style.
I think I often get asked what's been the biggest jump in your career, and everyone thinks is like, you know, the big leagues, right, And for me, it was from a ball to double A because I thought double A you have the best arms.
They're effectively wild.
You don't know if it's going to be a strike on the corner or someone's going to throw one out of your head, and that's usually where our best prospects went. And I thought that jump to the big leagues was the easiest because you had better stadiums, pitchers through more better control, they were more in the zone. Umpire is called better strikes, but the lights were really a big difference to see the ball better. I'm going to ask you the same question, like you covered the Mets, you
covered the Jets. Is it going to Fox or is it going from tier two NFL coverage to the top team now? Now with Tom Brady and Greg Olsen in the past, what's been the biggest jump and why for you?
Yeah, it's a really good question, and I think your analogy is similar. Look, I'm not going to say that going to Fox on a national gig wasn't a big jump, but I think I kind of agree with you.
And I feel like I was ready for it.
Like it wasn't like I was going into it and nervous or I didn't think I could handle it, you know, And I was older. I didn't get a break when I was twenty five years old. I mean, I'm fifty years old now. This will be what my twelve year at Fox. So I was comfortable with who I was at that time, and I was not nervous about it.
At all, even though it was a big career jump obviously.
You know, I started out doing high school sports and then you know, I was doing minor league baseball Alex for you know, twenty five bucks a game, and you're going to these random places with ten people in the stands, and you know, you're doing a game by yourself, like you know, I had a couple of games, like everybody in my position that's done this, right, you're doing these
games by yourself and you've gone extra innings. It's a five hour game and you're having Peede in seven hours, and you know, you're just you're just trying to survive.
Man, you know, it's it's crazy. So I think going from that, and you know, it wasn't like.
The next day, but going from that, and then you know, kind of jumping into my.
First foray into New York, which was w CBS radio.
That was the biggest deal because I went from doing minor league baseball that nobody listened to by myself, you know, on these random radio stations to w CBSAM in New York, which that was a big jump, and that was like, oh okay, this is a little different here. But at the same time, I always felt like if I could handle that, doing five hours of radio by myself, I felt like I could handle it. But I think just in class, I think that was probably the biggest lead.
Going from you know, the minor league ball to New York is pretty big.
And so along the way, Kevin like, you're having to make decisions about your career, You're having to negotiate. You know, this show is called The Deal after all, Like how did you handle your various deals? What were the negotiations? Like how do you approach that? Because, as Alex likes to say on this show, there are a lot of people out there listening who are doing whatever. The twenty twenty four version of what you did is, you know, calling games into their phone or you know, watching the
sound down as you guys do your thing. How would you advise them or what did you learn about sort of negotiating for yourself? And what do you remember about those talks?
The biggest thing about negotiating I actually learned when I sold cars.
That's why it was the most important thing that I ever did.
Because I like the thing of myself as a pretty easygoing guy and I'm usually not a rock the boat guy unless I get to the point where I'm really angry, which doesn't happen very often. And so I think I was apprehensive, maybe even afraid to ask for things that I wanted. You know, I was afraid of hearing the word no. And when you sold cars, you either asked
for what you wanted or you didn't eat. That's the bottom line, right, And so I got this great lesson, you know, when I sold cars from my general manager, who became a great friend and a great enabler to help me get back in the industry. Actually, he just was like, listen, you have to go out and find out what the customers want, but then ask for what you want, otherwise you're not going to get any deals.
Like that's the way it works.
And so I worked on negotiating, and really I just worked on asking for you know, what was right. And I wasn't the best salesman in the place, but I had the top customer service in the place, and I learned how to negotiate, and I had never had that
skill before. And so after that, I just said to myself, in this industry, no matter what happens, I'm going to ask for what I want and if it don't get it, that's fine, But I'm not going to go down and be like I regret that I didn't ask for this, or regret that I didn't inquire about this.
And so that's what I did.
And honestly, when I was trying to get into you know, the next step, I called a friend of mine at WFIN contact him who actually was a boss at one point, Eric Spitz, and he was the program director there at the time, and I said, Eric, I think I'm good enough to work at a fan like I would love to come in in audition for you. And he said, okay, how about Friday. And I was like, wow, you know, it was really the first time after selling cars that I asked for something that I wanted and it was
just a great lesson. And then I think from then it's just, you know, I think there's a fine line, especially in this business of not being in pain in the butt too, Like you don't want to annoy people, you don't want to be that person where you're a diva. But I think if you don't have a goal and ask for things you want and request things you want, well you're never going to get it.
So that's been my personal life lesson KB.
I love that concept about asking for what you want a little bit about that process. I mean, what kind of metrics are you looking at? Are you looking at? Well, the NFL package is one hundred and ten billion over eleven years, is it? You're looking at your contemporaries and say, hey, I'm just as good as that guy and I make similar Walk me a little bit through that process on how you talk about it, maybe with your wife, or maybe how you talk about it with your agent, or at least just internally.
You know.
I think there's two things to it. So I certainly know my worth and I know what my talent is. Think you could get in trouble to a degree in comparing yourself to others, Like I always felt like, oh he's making this and she's making that, and if I'm making this, I'm pissed off.
Well, I just don't think that's the way to go.
I think the difference for me is knowing what my value is and knowing what my worth is and conveying that, you know, to my agent, and then you know, having goals and setting my goals, like you know, I'm also a guy that I think there are deals to be had right, whether I'm, you know, signing a contract with Fox or whether I'm buying a new refrigerator, I feel like there's a deal to be had right that probably makes both parties happy, and so that is usually my approach.
Yes, I'll look at others to.
See the market. I'm not saying that we don't. I'm not saying my agent doesn't. But I'm not a guy that takes my contract to put sit up against the wall against somebody else. I just feel like that's a recipe for disaster for me personally.
Anyway, Let's talk about sort of where we are in this landscape. Because you mentioned you're fifty years old, we're all about the same age. We have seen one of the biggest upheavals in the world of media, certainly in our lifetimes. And yet everyone will tell you, whether it's you know, your boss at Fox, whether it's Jimmy Pataro at ESPN, whether it's my boss is at Bloomberg Live Sports are one of the most valuable assets out there.
With all this turmoil that has gone on, or at least all this change, does it affect how you think about doing your job, not even just as it relates to contracts, but more does it change the way you approach it knowing that the media landscape is so different.
Yeah, I mean, I'm very lucky and fortunate that I'm in the live sports space.
I think live sports and live news.
No matter how much change we are enduring and probably will endure for the next you know, two, three, five, ten years, I just don't see that changing and so I think it's a great space to be. Now that being said, I have a lot of friends who are on you know, the regional levels, and there's been so much upheaval in that time in that space.
How do you navigate it?
You know, I've been asked for advice, and honestly, it's really hard to give because I feel like every six months it changes, you know, where friends don't even know where the next paycheck's coming from. Is it coming from a team, is it coming from a league, is it coming from a network, a streamer.
So I think it's a very rocky time in terms of that.
I'm fortunate to be on a national level and it's a little bit different, and I know I'm fortunate, but I do think that just overall, it will settle and find itself that I just can't see a way that live sports and live news is not the most important thing, no matter how much streaming, no matter how much the industry changes, whether we're packaging things together, whether we have cable or where we cut the cord, those things are what people want to watch. There's always going to be
a demand for it. And just look at the ratings. They tell you that's the case.
Sort of pivoting a little bit to sort of your day to day. You know, obviously it's baseball season as we speak, but very soon it will be football season. It always sneaks up on you. How do you juggle it? You know, how do you think about it in your mind? You've got to be hyper prepared on arguably the two most popular sports. Alex is involved in one of the three most popular as an owner, But like, how do you juggle that and how do you stay current and keep your mind right?
I guess I always look at it, Jason, like a midterm. You know, I think that the game or the show, what we're doing is the test. And if you study for the test, you feel pretty darn good going into it. It's not going to say it's going to be perfect and you're going to get one hundred every time, but you feel good going in and you feel like you can adapt to things that happen in front of you
because you're prepared. And the simple answer, without breaking down my exact routine every day is I just read and watch a lot. I read and watch a lot. I don't think there's any substitute for that. And then I take a lot of notes. I have my own database that I have in my laptop that I take notes in there, and I save, and I go back and reference and my own thoughts in there. That's the most simplistic way I get answered. I don't know a shortcut.
I just don't know a shortcut. How you can possibly do this job without being on top of all that, you know.
I think Kevin, our listeners are probably intrigued. I certainly am, and I know Jason is too. There's so much information. We're in the generation of, like data crazy, right, It just comes at you from every angle.
What are some of the.
Publications you read and what do you listen to in preparation to be up to date?
Yeah, that's a good question, you know, I think for the most part, al. I try to read everything.
You know, there's so much out there, right, so you know, I'll have my favorites. You know, I really enjoy it. For sports, I enjoy the athletic a lot. I think that's a great psyche. They have some in depth articles. They give you some perspective and human nature a little bit that's in there, and I really like that. So I'm not a big stack guy. I like it for content text, but I'm not in my broadcasting. I'm not a guy that recites stats off the top of my head.
That I just not the way. It's not how I believe it should be done. And you know, again, we're in a stylistic business. Everybody's different. And my brain also doesn't work like that.
I have a creative brain, So I am not a guy that could see a spreadsheet and go boom.
I'm a guy that give me a blank canvas and I'll fill it in. So the way I study is also different. I read everything I can get my hands on, you know, I watch everything I can get my hands on, and I try not to get too deep into the woods of some of the number stuff and getting lost in there. I'm looking really just for context. Because I think it's all about this alt and you know you know this. We sit next to a trail all the time.
But our audience could be a diehard fan who knows everything about the team for the last forty five years, a pretty big fan who.
Watches a lot and knows enough, a casual fan who will.
Flip it on, you know, once every two weeks, or someone who has never seen a game all year or in their lifetime. Doing the Super Bowl especially, we have people who never watch football, So how do you talk to all of those same people at the same time.
I think that's the key, So finding the information there and finding the right way to have it presented where you're not offending the people who are diehards, but also making it understandable for the people who really don't know exactly what they're watching.
That's what I'm trying to do.
That's an interesting segue into a question I know we both want to ask you, which is about the state of baseball, because it feels like the story of baseball is trending upward right now. Part of it, I think, Alex, I've talked about this on this show. You've got this sort of big brand name teams doing well. That always breeds a certain amount of excitement, you know, when the Dodgers and the Yankees and others are doing quite well.
It also feels like these rule changes, everybody's like, yeah, speeding up the game is really smart and even and Alex and I have talked about this, you know, even taking my family to a game.
It's so much more enjoyable.
You know, to go down to Yankee Stadium a when they're winning, but be also when you're not going to be there.
For four and a half hours.
With apologies to Yankee Stadium, But how does it feel to you knowing the game as well as you do, sitting alongside Alex and Big Poppy and Derek and sort of taking this all in. How does baseball feel to you right now?
It feels better. It feels better, no question. I think a lot of the rules changes that they made were his success. I mean, I think the game didn't need to speed up, and I think that it certainly achieved that, right, And you're right, it does make a difference when you're watching. I think that I think they've involved the base running more with what they did to the bases of the stolen base game going first to third. I think that part's been great.
Tap it into your creative side.
If you were the commissioner for twenty four hours, what are be two or three changes that you make to continue to grow the game?
Well?
I do think that they have to continue to work to market people and market players more Alex because, as you all know, could sit down and you're an owner, but you could sit down and most people could sit down and you could present I don't know, let's say twenty five NBA players in front of them. Let's say the top twenty five NBA players. You could put them on a piece of paper and you could take an average fan and they would name every single one of them top twenty five NFL players.
Easy.
Everyone would be able to name them top twenty five Major League Baseball players. If you did the same thing, would people be able to name who they are?
Now?
I'm not sure they would not close. I think that's something that's got to change.
I think it's got to be more accessible, Like you know, we're trying, and I know, like you know, we had the All Star Game a couple of weeks ago, and you know, Fox is micing all these guys and it's great,
You're getting them to see their personality. But I think the point is when you watch the NBA Finals and Jason Tatum is interviewing in the middle of the game, and baseball has been averse to that, Well, there's the reason why that's a good thing, because people understand who these players are, they get to know them, they feel connected to them, and without that it hurts the game. So I think you need the connectivity to the game
there for sure. And then I get why we've gotten to where we've gotten with the lack of action with the three true outcomes, which is homer, walk, strikeout. I understand it's because what the numbers have said and we're following the math, which I get, But I would find some way to penalize a.
Strikeout more than just ins and out.
There needs to be some way, and I'm not sure, just off the top of my head answering your question what it would be. But the strikeout has become all too commonplace. You know when you played, I mean, you've told me this, you were embarrassed to strikeout. You talk to all the greats that they were embarrassed to strikeout. Doesn't matter anymore, And I think we've got to find a way to make that a penalty to increase contact.
All right, So we do have to talk football for just a second, in part because this is going to be a very big fall for us as viewers and for you in the booth. Working with Tom Brady. It's probably the most heralded arrival of a commentator that we've seen in quite some time, you know, not since Alex Rodriguez took the booth. I mean, have we seen such anticipation. How do you prep for something like that or is it just sort of business as usual for you?
I prep like and yeah, I mean it's slightly anticipated, and you know, it's the greatest football player ever.
But I prep the same way that I prep with anybody. I've had multiple.
Partners in different sports, and I always feel like it starts with building trust and building chemistry. So the first thing that Tom and I did was simply get to know each other, you know, spend time together, go to dinner and go golfing, that type of thing, and then you build it all from there.
That's where the trust comes from.
And that's also where I understand, like how he works and how he thinks. That doesn't matter who you are, and then you know, Jason, just you know, We've had you know, a bunch of practices and talks and rehearsals, and it's just you want to get to the point where I don't even have to look at him anymore.
I understand, like exactly where he's going.
Like I've worked with Alex long enough, I know exactly what he wants to do, and I generally know like what he feels about something. And that's simply time on task for the most part, right, And that's my job. You know, my actual play by play chops are not going to change. I'm going to call the game the way I always call the game. Now, it's just incorporating him the way he's most comfortable.
And that part changes depending on the analyst.
I've had, you know, different analysts with completely different styles in my time, even at Fox, and I enjoy that process.
I like it.
keV.
I'm wondering, you know, you did your first Super Bowl. You're about to do your second one, this time with Tom Brady. You were fantastic in the first one.
Thanks man.
I'm wondering how you think about performing and being the voice to almost one hundred and fifty million people here. Do you have to be careful with the temptation of overloading your preparation versus a first game.
That you're doing early in the season.
What lessons did you learn from the first Super Bowl that you're going to take and apply to this Super Bowl.
Yeah, it's a good question.
So I obviously I had no idea what to expect, and you know, I talked to a lot of people
getting advice, and I had a good approach. I did a ton of my prep the week before because it was a two week break, So the week before I did a ton of prep as if the game was on the first Sunday, and I could have done the game that Sunday, which is what I wanted to do, because then Monday we leave for the Super Bowl, and we've got all kinds of commitments and media and different meetings and different things that go on through the week. And so I kind of was prepared for that, But
it doesn't really prepare you for it. I imagine it's like, you know, you prepare, you know, your whole career for trying to win a World Series, but then when you're at bat in Game seven, you know, it's still overwhelming, right, so that week it was just so much.
I was just anxious to get to the game, you know.
Worried about staying healthy and making sure like I had my voice, and you know, it's obviously the biggest day of my career, so you just want to get there. And then when I woke up Sunday morning, I just felt normal because I was like, I can do this. I know how to do games. And it really didn't bother me Sunday at all. I embraced it, and I told myself that too. I said, Hey, if you don't have fun doing this, then you're never going to have fun, right, this is what you dreamed of as a kid. And
so truly, Sunday I had the best time. So whether it's two hundred people watching or one hundred and twenty million people watching, I don't really that part doesn't bother me.
That part's never bothered me.
But until you actually go through it, you just can't fully comprehend, like how many ways you get pulled that particular week.
Yeah, all right, so it's time for the lightning round. So this is where Alex Cann to ask you a number of questions. When to hear your quick response is just off the top of your head.
So are you ready for this?
Let's go, Jason, all right, what's the best piece of advice you've ever been given on deal making or business?
Just trust yourself, be you, and it'll work itself out. And that kind of lets everybody kind of calm down. And I've gone by that.
What's the worst advice you've ever been given.
In regards to deals or anything at all?
Yeah, you call it.
I was told that.
I didn't have the skill to be a play by play guy. That has been motivating my entire career. I've used that one as fuel.
So you've worked with Alex Derek, Big Poppy, You've worked with any number of analysts. You're about to work with Tom Brady. Aside from those guys, who's your dream partner? You can take it from any moment in history. If you could just like snap your fingers, who would you be in the boothbom Wow.
I mean, look, I'll give you, I'll give you two answers, try and keep it quick.
I can name a million people, I mean, but for one, it would be John Madden just because I grew up idolizing the guy and that would be so fun to sit next to him while he was doing his thing. And then you know, I'm so lucky to work with who I work with. But it would be cool to do a show with Charles Barkley. I think he's the best. I've only met him one time, but yeah, I think that would be a hell of a lot of fun. I think he fits in with a lot of the stuff that we do.
What's your hype song before a big game on TV?
Oh? Well, here we go.
I'm going to tell you this is I got to go back to my roots. I'm a Jersey kid. So if you're giving me like one song to play, I'm going to pump on a little Bond jovie like a living out a prayer.
That's where I'm going to go.
Oh that's amazing, love it is.
You could take the boy out of Jersey.
Some things don't ever change, all right.
So finally, what's your advice for non athletes or you know, aspiring people who want to work in the sports world.
This is what I truly believe in. It's two simple things. It's follow your dreams because you're going to regret if you don't. Right, and you don't know where it's getting up. But I always say that it's so important because people will get dreams, get squashed and they don't ever really follow through and what they want to do. And then the other thing is I think set goals, but I'm just not a believer in saying, where do you want to be in ten years?
I want to do the world's here is in ten years.
And the reason I don't believe that is because I feel like if you do that and you're not there, then you look at yourself as a failure. So the goals that I like to set are improvements, things that make you better. How can you be better? How can you improve your life, improve your career. I don't like to say, you know, in five years, I'm going to be making X, because I feel like if you're not,
it's a failure. That's at least from my personality. So I always find when I talk to his students and like, wow, I want to call the super Bowl too, and I hope to be there by thirty. Well, let's just puts thing on the table that's achievable and then when you get there, you check it off and now you're on to the next goal. That's the way I view goals. That's what I tell young people. Whether it's right, I have no idea, but that's how I feel.
Well.
It seems to have worked very well for you. You're a good partner to my partner. This has been fun to sort of compare to us. We're going to have to maybe have like a session just the two of us about Alex when he's not there. But you've been very kind with your time, and everything that Alex has said about you is true. You're clearly a great and thoughtful guy.
So we really appreciate you doing this.
Kevin, Kevin, thank you so much. There's been so much fun.
Brother. Then I'll see you soon.
The Deal is hosted by Alex Rodriguez and me Jason Kelly. This episod was made by Stacy Wong, Annamazarakus, Lizzie Phillip, and Victor Eveyez. Our theme music was made by Blake Maples. Our executive producers are Kelly Laferrier, Ashley Honig, and Brendan Newnham. Sage Bauman is the head of Bloomberg Podcasts. Additional support from Rachel Scaramzzino and Elena Los Angeles. Thanks for listening to the Deal. If you have a minute, please subscribe, rate,
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I'm Jason Kelly.
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