Listen: Brian Baldinger (9/25)

I mean you can. You can get yourself. You can get yourself, you know, T shirts and headbands and coffee mugs right from Carsting Creation. Yeah. I mean there's some people like they just they just want to decorate their desk. I love the headband. Yeah, I'm with you. I like the headbands too. All right, Baldi, So you go inside the film, inside the game. I want to go inside the breakdown. So can you take us through your routine of how you watch the games and what plays you

choose to put out there? If I can get the NFL films on Sunday night, I'll start Sunday night. But if I if I'm traveling back from San Francisco or l A or wherever, might not beat till money morning. But I start Monday morning at abound six in the morning, I just start going through games. Ethan, I just start watching games. What jumps out in really to look at statistics. I might know the final score, but I don't even

look at the stats. I just wanna see who played well, white players work, why they didn't work, what impresses me about a team or doesn't impress me about a team. I'm just gonna get a feel by watching eleven guys unite on one side of the ball, how they compete, who's playing hard, who keeps showing up, and then kind of going from there and that that's kind of how

I do it. And I'll start making some notes about a particular team, what I like, what I don't like, and uh And I'd literally try to go through as many games I can all day Money and all day Tuesday. I think what fans really appreciate air Greens is this guy has so much enthusiasm and past game, you truly enjoy getting into the film room. Because I don't even know if everybody knows this that on Sundays you're typically

doing Nash doing national games every Sunday. I do college games on Saturday, right so so Monday morning you start off, how do you determine the order you're gonna go through? Like, for instance, Kansas City played Baltimore last week, a lot of people would say that was the marquee matchup. Maybe you go there for well, I mean, so I fell in love last year with Quentin Nelson, the left guard

from Minnapolis Colts. I thought he was the best player in the NFL last year, so at any position, like he was just that dominant and as a twenty two year old rookie. But you know, and I got to know him, you know, at the Pro Bowl this year, and so like it started almost like that, like I gotta wat I gotta watch the Colts. I gotta watch I gotta watch the left guard because the game was

like pancaking players. So then you know, I was having fun and it's entertainment, right, So I'm talking about man all he wanted some flapjacks for breakfast on Monday morning. I gotta watch Q to get my pancakes, you know. And then people, the fans started kind of buying it. So then like it became like this thing, I gotta watch Q, you know. And then I live in Philadelphia, what are the Eagles doing when you're losing? How they're

doing it? And so there is a little bit of a pecking order, but it could be like there's certain teams right now that I just am so like watching Let's say, Patrick Mahomes, Like you have to watch it, because are we watching like Willie Mays as a twenty three year old kid. Are we watching the best player in the league this early? You know, are we watching who are we watching here? Like there's nobody else that you there's no comps of what he's doing, and it's

every week, it doesn't matter what the teams do. So then you go and you know, I did three years of Patrick Mahomes at Texas Tech. I did a lot of his games down there, so I kind of knew him, and now to see him just flourish like this, it's just so darn entertaining. When did you decide to take this social media with hashtag all these breakdowns? Because five years ago, I don't I don't know this phenomena was around. So, like, you know, I've been announcing games at Fox for twelve

years on television. I started doing radio ten years ago, so almost twenty five years as an analyst every Sunday, and you know, I'm I'm up there in the booth. If you're doing TV, you have maybe twelve seconds to describe a play, right, and typically it's either the quarterback or the receiver or the defensive back. It's not a

whole lot. Maybe you can watch the offensive line on a replay or something, but like, there's just so many things going on, and so then you listen to the analysis and or the reporters or read the papers the next day, and I just felt like there was a

big missing chunk of what fans weren't getting. So I just thought, so I'd be watching these games, you know, five o'clock in the morning, getting ready for different shows the NFL network, and I'm like, I'm not gonna be able to show I don't know, Jamal Adams blowing up this play. I'm not I'm not gonna be able to show, uh, you know how Colletchio assembly pulled and led Levy in bell through all, I'm not gonna be able to. So I thought, people need to see a lot of players

that they never hear about on Sunday. Do you enjoy the player's reaction to this? Because once it started getting popular and taken off the guys. This new generation Greens, the generation who live and die by social media. They follow this stuff, they see all the retweets, and then you have picked up so much respect from the younger dudes in the NFL. I remember last year vividly, where in Chicago you're calling the game, You're like, where's Jamala.

I gotta find Jamal because he would take a look at the way you put it's unbelievable. So so I I was told by a pretty prominent Fox director a long time ago when I first started. He told me, look, get to know the top ten players in every team, because that's who you're gonna spend most of Sunday talking about. And he was right. So I, you know, I always went to trainee camps and you know, got to meet players when you could. That was still limited by how

many players you could meet. But through social media and through Twitter and some of the outlets that Baldy Breakdowns are on, you can meet a lot of these players that you've never met, Like I've never met Jamal Adams until that day in Chicago. Now I feel like we're best friends. He did film sessions with this issue. We

couldn't kick him out of the room. You don't want to leave, but you do when you show players, especially once that maybe like a Quentin Nelson, who aren't left guards aren't on everybody's rollo dex as to who to watch. But if you can start making people watch the left guard and why he's so good like you, you sort of grow somebody's intelligence about the game and how they watch a game and so. And the players appreciate it,

they really do. And if you look, if I say something about Luke Kickley good or bad, within I'm telling I'm telling you ten minutes, he's already watched it and retweeted and common. I think a lot of people respect somebody saying I know what I know, and I also know what I don't know. I think there are a lot of people who watched the game on Sundays and say this guy should have done this, this guy should have done that. You go into the lab and you

are a former player. You understand the schemes, you understand the concepts, You understand how coordinators are trying to attack and what is happening out there on the field in great detail. So I think that resonates with every player in the National Yeah, no, I mean, um, the game is is moves really fast, and there's a lot of movie parts. And if you're just watching a game on television, the cart camera, the camera that typically shows a play,

usually just follows the quarterback. So if you're a safety in the NFL, you only get talked about if you get beat or you have a great hit. But the majority of the time you're not even watched. Now that's just the way the game is shot. But if you you have to go back in the lab, I like the lab and and really show angles. Why a free safety like Earl Thomas, Why that guy covers so much ground? Why like Earl Thomas doesn't save lives but he saves touchdowns.

I mean, you know, like all the so like then you just you know, we're in the entertainment business, right Eric, So like you just you have to kind of define fun ways to describe stuff over over So that just comes naturally to me. That's fun. And when you put stuff on Twitter, let's say, is it a one take for you? Because some of the things you say you have me rolling on the floor in tears, Like I remember last year you're talking about Jamal Abram Adams. I

almost said, Abrams Jamal Adams striking like a cobra. Like some people need a cup of coffee in the morning, not this guy. Boom all this time, you haven't crack it up. And just before you're talking about Quentin Nelson, how you need your flapjacks and you pop on film. Yeah, I mean the stuff just comes. I mean, you know, some weeks, Quentin Nelson was a plumber, right, like he had the plumber look, he was just fixing leaks wherever the offensive line was leaky. He was just there a

plugg you know. And then some weeks he was the trash man. He was just throwing defensive lineman into the trash compactor. I mean, you know, like it's a different way of describing kind of the same type stuff. But I think players are entertained by it, like they like, I've these players come up to me now they know, like I I met Jenevan Clowney for the first time, um,

two weeks ago in Pittsburgh. He was he's with Seattle now, and you know, and there was a time last year where like legitimately for the first twelve or thirteen weeks this season, he was an m v P candidate of the League. Defensively, he was playing at that level and I was just going like like this guy was just ruining the party, like he was just a wedding crasher, like like every play and so like I'm standing there and you know, he's coaches working with him, he's new

to the team and all that. So he sees me though I'm in a student. He goes, I know who you are, Like he's Reknews. I'm waiting for him. I go so I started laughing, and he goes, dude, he goes, I know who you are. He goes, I know you want to talk to me, and I will, But he goes, he goes your stuff like I watch all of I watch all your videos. Man, I watch it. I'm like cool. Je like that's cool. You're also close buddies with the Jets GM Joe Doug. When did that a relationship originate?

And you both share a healthy respect for each other. What can you tell the folks about Joe? Maybe they don't know. Well, I mean, Joe you know, started off, as you know, he played football Richmond. He got into the you know, the business pretty quick after he graduated school, and you know, Ozzy Knewsom was running the Ravens, they moved their nine. I remember I was so fascinated by their first draft in nineteen ninety six. They drafted Jonathan

Ogden and ray Lewis in the first round. Okay, May two. Now nobody knew that they were gonna both be Hall of Fame players, right, But I remember, like I was just getting started nine, so remember so, but I mean, but what happened was I went down to Baltimore just to watch their mini camp, just to watch ray Lewis and Jonathan Ogden, like who are so I just wanted

to get to know and then I did. I did the Tony Sea goose A show in n and then the Ravens hired me in like ninety eight, like to do the pregame show out of the pregame preseason games on TV. So I was like I always was kind of a part of the organization. So I knew Brian Billick and Ozzie and then you know, then you start

to meet some of the scouts. So Joe's down there, and then my buddy Andy Wide went to work there, and so like you're in Baltimore preseason, regular season game, like they're your buddies, like you've known him since the beginning, you know, And so I just had this relationship with him, and you know, he's two thousand and twelve. They win the Super Bowl and that's the it's the crowning jewel.

You know, this entire industry to be a part of that, and you know, and see Joe how he worked up from the lowest level scout all right into scouting director to assist going to Chicago, assistant GM, coming to the Eagles, becoming the general manager, like all those just to see him climbed the steps and earn all of it, and then he gets the chance here, you know, and so you kind of know what he's about through all the how he's been trained, all the different stops, and all

of the conversations that I've had with Joe over the years about personnel, both pro and kids coming out of college and just cross check. I mean, there was a time, you know, when he was with the Eagles. I mean I sat we sat in the backyard cooking steaks and smoke the cigars and literally doing nothing but just talking ball. Like not like he's got three kids and they're all

growing up and all that stuff. But we sat in the backyard until late at night, turn the phones off and just talking football, you know, like we have that sort of you know, bond in respect both. When did you get involved in the communication industry. We talked about your career a little bit, but played collegionally a doo. You were not a fel for a little bit. And then when did you make the transition? So I was

in my twelfth year. I was in Philly, and I had a former teammate of mine, this quarterback Tom Ramsey said that Craig James, who was at ESPN at the time, pretty big guy in the college game day for him. He was starting a broadcast school for active players. So I always go with the media. When I was good with the media, like I loved like I never I never win or lose, played well, played bad. I'll tell you what I know. You know, I gotn't I wasn't

shy about it. I enjoyed talking to the media. Um, and I had a Monday night show for a while, you know, from different couples, different cities, whatever. But so I went to this broadcast school and it was for current players. So I was still active, trying to play another year, and Mike Goldick was there and Merril Hodge was there, and think it was you know, it was all these guys that kind of we all started together and we went to school and like the light just

went on. I didn't know how to really do it, but I mean I started my radio show, I started doing pregame shows in Philly, and then I but I wanted to do games, and I got a chance in with Fox to do games over in Europe NFL Europe. Me and Kurt Menifee started over there, and uh, and then they ended up. I did college football the first year and second year of me and Kurt menife You

were the six crew at Fox. You know, we started doing games and worked up to Joe Buck and Dick Stockton and you know, Kenny Albert and all the guys there for a dozen years. It was great. You know what, I like a lot Baldy. I like, I don't know why you decided to do this, but when it's a Baldy breakdown off of football, because sometimes you're in somewhere extravagant and warm weather and you still do the Baldy

breaks and I think it's hilarious. Yeah, well I do it's it's all tongue in cheek, right, and so it's like, you know, I mean I go to Costa Rica every year, to go to Hawaii every year, so um, you know, I'm a traveler. So I've been to sixty six countries, you know, on sixty six sixty six countries. I was in Poland the summer. So if you're you know, if you're looking, you know, if you're in Costa Rica and

it's just a great surf day. People need to know the surf day, that the surf conditions and just how somebody's inside that barrel and coming out of it right here, Like I mean, people to see that there's a pointed stories to like yeah, you can't like you went to Poland and you're taking it to social media and telling people how impactful that is on you to see a

concentration Yeah, oh yeah. I mean when you go when you see you know, all these what what happened and you see the level of evil like it, you know, people need to know just how evil it was and why there is still a reaction to that whole era of what happened there in you know, Germany and some of the other countries that were involved. I mean, like you go to Normandy and you see that those beachheads

there at Point do Hawk and stuff. I mean, people need to know what what people sacrificed, you know, so you know it's I don't get political about things, but there's a history to certain things, and so, um, I think all that stuff is interesting because quite frankly, anybody could talk about cover too. Yeah, but like you know, can you talk about the Normandy invasion? Can you talk about what happened in some of these concentration games? Can

you talk about the surf report in Costa Rica? At sunrise? Do you have time to read? Yeah? All the time. Yeah, I'm addicted. Yeah, I'm addicted to I have certain books and certain authors that um, well, like you know, like um, Vince Flynn. Vince Flynn has got this character named Mitch Rap. So Mitch Rap, he's wrote in sixteen books and you know he's a counter terror terrorist worker for the c i A. And there's nothing that Mitch Rap can't do.

Like he's the greatest character in every book right now. And then Daniel Silvan's got a he he's a crime novelist and he has a character named Gabriel Alan Okay who works for UH Israeli's secret service, but he's also a art restorer by trade. And this guy is the most coveted yet most hunted person in the world, and he escapes danger everywhere in the world, and he takes you all of this. So I'm jumping on a plane and Greens and I are walking up past is Baldy

watching film with the headphones? Or are you read a book? I mean, I'm doing one or the other. Like I I did a game in San Francisco, San Francisco, Pittsburgh last week, and so I took the Red Eye back to Philly. So I was in the San Francisco airport and I got the NFL films to download or upload all the one o'clock games for me. So I literally

watched five hours of film coming back to Philly. So you land at five thirty in the morning, and I'm like, man, I want to take a nap, But if I take a nap, it's just gonna ruin what I got going on here. So I just went I just took a big pot of coffee and just went straight through the day. That's amazing. Well, I mean, it depends on the day. But like you know, if I get if I get six or seven hours of sleep, I'm you know, two cups, I'm fine. But if you if you go with no set,

like I can't sleep on a plane. So if you watch five hours, I gotta think weekends, you're going back and forth from l A to Philly all the time, going back out there to do the Rams game this weekend, and I'll go over to the NFL network after the game. I'll start watching the one o'clock game teams, and then I got a bunch of shows NFL Now and Total Access to do the money at the NFL Network. But those shows, I'm only good in those shows if I've

really prepped and know what I'm talking about. Like I remember the first week of the season, green Bay beat Chicago on Thursday night, So Friday, I'm doing Total Access in l A. And I gotta get the Lubbock for Texas Tech home opener the next day. But um, but on that in that game, that the thing that stood

out about Green Bays. They played a dime defense the whole day, so they had one linebacker, Blake Martinez, and they basically challenged Chicago to run them out of that dime defense, put another linebacker on the field, put another defensive linement on the field, and Chicago didn't do it. And I said, you know, Chicago, shame on them, Like they should have pounded Green Bay that night and they didn't.

They try to play all this perimeter offense and all these fancy plays and I'm like they played in a Green Bay's hands. That's why they couldn't score a touchdown. But like, if you could bring that and show that the NFL networth the next day that hey, look, I mean nobody really knows what he got. Time Defense says. If you could teach the time defense and then why they played it and why it benefited them, that's a good part of what the story was. But you only

get that if you watch it. So I want to go back to the books from me here, because you like it seems to me like crime novels anything. I got hooked on that. But I mean, I'm I'm a reader, so so are you? Are you a movie person? If I have time, I know, I know people that can receive lines to every single dummer, Like I mean, I just like I can't do that. But like, do you enjoy movies similar to the books. But the books are always better, like if you take a John Grisham like tales. Right.

So I've read almost all of John Grisham's books. But if you take say, um, a Pelican Brief and you you know, plug in and out like you can't. Those books never transcribe to a movie because they move so fast that the movie really can't show the speed. They can't. You know The Firm, right, The Firm was the great, first great book John, and they made it into a movie and it was a bad movie. I enjoyed the fir, but I didn't read the Funk. Yeah, see the book.

There's very few there's very few movies that are better than the books, like Jaws. The movie is better than Peter Benchley's Jaws the book, but that's one of them. Somebody recently told me that American Psycho of the movie better than the book. But I've never read the book. Is the first time I've seen it. Yeah, I think if you've never seen the movie before and it's fresh in your mind, it's fresh in your mind. All right, So, folks to see you on TV, and you know, for

those of watching at home. Everybody asked, but the Finger what's the story behind? Is there something wrong? We all got the same Yeah, I mean like some I still have ten fingers, you know. I mean this thing, the baldy is pinky. I mean, look it is, it is. It is world famous. People do want to see the pink. They want pictures with it, they want to see it. They want to try to exit. Um. It happened, uh in training camp when I was with the Cowboys, my

second year with the Cowboys, so I've been on the team. Um, we were a team that was dominated by our defensive line, Randy White, two tall Jones, Harvey Martin. We were dominant by a defensive line. So in the locker room, they dominated the team. So I ran through them. So when you so when it got jerked, like I got this hand caught in Randy White's jersey and it got ripped out so that the finger was dangling and I was and I screamed like I mean, so the defensive line

thought I I screamed like a little schoolgirl. You know, that got kicked. But I mean, you know that's that's fair. So um, anyways, but they they they went and they taped it together, you know, and I went back out to practice, and I taped it like that for the rest of my career. Now, when I walked into the cafeteria after practice, there was a defensive line the front row as you come down the steps to the cafeteria

to get your food. And as they saw me, they stood up in unison and they all went wow wow, like they imitated beyond the field. And so I felt like, oh God, here I go. I'm getting abused. And then like in unison, they all held up their hands and they all had crooked fingers and they're like, Baldi was just gonna let you know, join the club, you know, And so I'm like, all right, I joined the club

that day. I joined the fraternity. Just like that. You decided right there in Dallas that you were never gonna be saying this was part of who you were. I mean, you know, look, you're a young guy. You're in your second year, you haven't really done anything, and uh and and the defensive line is sort of taking into their fraternity. That's a big deal for you. By now, it's a

little bit different. Now, there's a lot of hazing. Back then, it was like there was a rights to becoming a veteran, but no aspirations to try to fix it or it's just too too loss of a cause at this point. So eatan, here's the deal. It's like, there are a lot of people like, for example, I used to play in this Uh, I was playing a winner basketball league with with Roger Stallballs. So I remember Roger had a finger.

He has a finger just like mine, and so it's on his other hand, it wasn't on his throwing him. So Roger was a he was a great athlete. Um, but he loved basketball like he was. He was a ballhog, you know, quite frankly. So uh, you know, he loved to shoot. And so when one year we're you know, we were friends and we were teammates this basketball. It's

a quarterback and I mean they're all the same. So, um, I remember one year we're like looking at each other's fingers and he goes, I'm getting mine fixed ball and I'm like, get out of here. You can't fix that. He goes, now, I'm going in there. I'm getting it fixed. My wife has like been on me about it, and

you gotta get a fixed. You're a public figure, you wear these suits, you look stupid, like, So he goes to get this thing operated on and they put it in a splint, and they said, okay, nothing for six weeks. Well tell Roger to do nothing for six weeks. Impossible. So the next week, the week after, he's out there with the splint on his finger and the ball hits the split, The splint flies off, the finger goes back to where it was, and it was like, I knew

it was a worthless cause. So I'm gonna saw a starbuck. He couldn't get his fix. I'm like, I ain't gonna get my So we started off talking about wardrobes. Here the Baldy Breakdown T shirt. But we've added uh Ethan Greenberg to the sex group. He's on Team Sex. Is that right? Yeah? Wow, no kidding. I'm going there for a fitting on Friday that. Like I'm telling you this, I I woarn a lot of tailored suits for a long time, even since I played, and all the way

through my Intelligion career. And then I met Bill Winn at Sacks and Big Daddy in the whole group, and I wear these suits now. I swear it's the most unbelievable thing. Everywhere I go, I get stopped like I In fact, I went I ran into, um, well, it doesn't really matter. At the NFL network, there's there's nobody that can come close to trusting like me. Nobody no good. And it's it's now the players on the field Sundays or Saturday's they come up and they're like, dude, like

do you have any suits? That don't or they just aren't like you look great in every suit? Again when players? When players, because the players, every players a fashion police, right, I mean they get on a plane, you get on a plane with him, you're taking a trip, like if the fashion police are out. I mean you know there's guys, there's chicken wings, and there's fashion police on every flight I've ever been on it, right, So like everybody is

looking at everybody and judge them. And you know, some guys can dress, and then some guys think they can dress, and you know they can't. So I don't have that worry at all anymore. I know that I look good. You're going out, no doubt about it. And you're right about that feeling that jumping on the plane because some guys you look at and say, is he just trying to make a statement and trying to be out or is that like a fashion forward because it's almost like

a runway model sometimes where no pun intended. Literally, yeah, you you see these, you know, you see people on the runway sometimes in the way. The biggest clothes horse I've ever met in this whole industry was Irving Friar Early Friar. You know. It was the number one pick in the in the in the league, gout in Nebraska, you know. And he came to the Eagles in free agency and and I we were doing a show together,

so that's how. And he never wore the same suit twice, which is almost impossible, but he did Larry Fitzgerald that he'd have one suit for travel, one sup per game day, and so two suits in every trip. Wow. Okay, yeah, that's a lot of suits. That's a lot of suits. Yeah, I hope so too. Yeah, that's a lot. All right. Well, before we let you go here, I want to know you said you've been the sixty six countries top and bottom of that list. Well, I mean I used to

go to Brazil. I had of mine. He's still one of my best friends. But he was an exchange student in Brazil and he was in high school as a soccer player, so he lived with six families in Brazil. So I used to go down to Brazil with him all the time, and my brother was going down with me. I went down for Carnival. So I've been in Brazil nine times now. They like Brazil is sort of It's

not a third world country by any stretch. But when I first started going there, it was it had a little of that element to it, and it was fun. It was a lot of fun. Like the stuff that we did and the trouble we got into, Like, he really can't do that anymore, but I was young and stupids. I always loved Brazil. I go to Coasta ric every year. I love Coasta Rica. I go to a certain section

of Coasta Rica I really like. UM. I lived in Italy. Uh, you know, you can drop me into There's twenty three states, and it really put me in any of the states. Lazio doesn't matter. I Basilicata, Um, it doesn't really matter. He put me anywhere in Italy. I'm fine, I can speak the language. I'm good. UM. I lived in London doing NFL Europe Games. I lived in Amsterdam, I lived in Barcelona. Um, all those places are fantastic. Go to any of those. Um, there's some hidden jewels out there.

Like Scotland's just an awesome place. I'm just you can't have a bad time in Scotland. Everybody plays golf. Um, their courses are impeccable, and they like golf when the weather is at the worst because that's when they think that you really learn how to play. So you know, you could go east, you could go south, you could go west. I mean, I don't know. I've had a good time climbing Mount Killamgaro in Tanzania. You know, it's just great members all over. Well, there's so much we

can talk to you. But if we should have you out later this year and we could just do a little travel podcast. Oh yeah, I'd love to do that. I love to do that. All right, that's next episode when you come back on promise you gotta I gotta request though we're all gonna wear sex, but I want a ball these you know, I had been and a sweatsher. Do you guys do a hood at sweatsher yet or not? We we we we we haven't done it yet, but we just got started last week. This is like a

week old. Let's let's like girls want to v neck, you know, T shirt. I've got the hoodie coming. Like you know, we're just we're just taking this kind of slow here. He ate, but I would say that by the next time you have me on this podcast, that will all be in hoodie. Yeah yeah, I was gonna say hoodie is your headbands and travel a headband guy beginning, so it's just fissical. All right. Well that's all we

got here on the Official Jet Podcast. Here in the play MGM Studios again, New York Jets dot com, YouTube, Apple podcast, Google Play, and SoundCloud. Baldi, thanks a lot, and we'll see silver. Yeah. Well, I'm glad we talked so much about football. That was great.