Patrick McEnroe

we're out of the woods yet. Every day is going to be an adventure. And I think we're just touching the surface. And after you touch a surface, please wash your hands. And yes, I'm still talking to athletes and sports industry professionals about what they're doing during this weird time, hoping to figure out if famous competing as much as I miss watching it. This is the No Sports Report, with some sports now over forty episodes in and tennis legend.

Pat McEnroe is my first guest who was actually diagnosed with coronavirus. The former captain of the U. S. Davis Cup has had some success in singles, but was a highly decorated doubles player with sixteen titles, most notably one at the French Open. His brother John might be more remembered for his signature temper on the court, but Pat has went on to work in the development of young tennis players as an Olympic captain at Athens two thousand four and the former general manager of U s t

A player development. He's also a prolific tennis announcer and an analyst for ESPN. Who, yes, back in March, tested positive for COVID nineteen. He spent two weeks in his basement, avoiding his wife and teenage daughters like some sort of tennis racket, holding Bob a duke, and was able to actually be productive if you can believe it. Now, out of captivity, we speak about his symptoms, diversity and tennis,

and our favorite Ben Stiller movies. Let's find out more about this virus that halted sports in the first place with Pat McEnroe on this episode of the No Sports Report. With some Sports Now, Patrick back in Rome to except press one. Patrick, Yes it is Jensen. Yes, Well, I wanted to start off by just asking, we've been going through this insane time in American history. Where have you been quarantining sort of hold up with and who have

you been with? Well, I've been with my family. Luckily, we lived just outside New York City up in Westchester, and we moved here a number of years ago, so we were already sort of in a self quarantine, self imposed in early to mid March, and about a week or so into that, and my kid that already started their online school. I said to my wife one night, you know, I'm I haven't been feeling well for a couple of days. And looked at her and I said, yeah,

I think it's time maybe to take my temperature. So I took my temperature. Sure enough, I was over a hundred. Wasn't that bad. I was about a hundred point five. But I've been feeling weak and sort of tired and a key for a number of days. So then we put me in the basement. Luckily, we've got a basement which actually have access to go inside and outside the house. I was able to see my I was able to see my family just sort of from a since. But

I stayed in the basement. I could walk outside and you know, take my dog for a walk, and my wife would deliver me meals inside in my area to basement, so she would come down with gloves and mask and deliver me food. So that's how we survived for about a month doing that. Wow, I mean, I know you've been talking about it NonStop for months. You are actually my first guest who did positively test for COVID nineteen. We've had athletes who think they have, but we all

know those people. First symptom you're saying was just a little bit of a fever. That was truly the first feeling you had. Actually before that, I had a little more of a I would just say overall fatigue and body aches, and that was a little unusual. I was having a little trouble sleeping at night, so I just just wasn't really feeling myself for a couple of days. And uh, it was really when I took my temperature that I realized, Okay, I might, you know, maybe actually

have this. I had a little bit of shortness of breath, which kind of came and went throughout a month or so. In fact, I still feel that a little bit now when I take a deep breath, when I talk a lot, when I maybe run up a hill something like that. So it feels like there's a little something maybe left over from it. But I never felt at the point where I was in any danger I needed to go to hospital. You know. I was in communication with my

doctor fairly regularly. Of course, at that time, everything was hitting the fan here in this area, particularly in New York City and in Westchester, So my doctors and the people that were speaking to were dealing with generally much more serious cases than mine. Yeah, and so you have three teenage daughters. You also, your wife is a Broadway actress. Her obviously her industry was pretty much decimated at that time too. I mean, were there any nerves about you

passing it along? Did anyone else feel sick at the time, Well, no one felt sick. You know, my wife is pretty healthy. Obviously, we were. We were nervous about it. Our kids as well, but you know, they'd have You always go back and think, well, did someone have a cough at some point? And one of my twins, my twins are eleven, my oldest is fourteen. She had a a little bit of cough at one point, and and funnily enough, he actually went into the antibody

test just last week. And one of my eleven year olds was the only one to test positive for the anti bodo. I did not test positive for the antibis, so it's very strange. You know, the doctor can't make the heads or tails of it. So I think, like everything else that's happened with the virus, it's basically the medical community seems to be playing a guessing game as they get more information Seymour cases, and that appears to be basically where we are. Still, does that mean that

the eleven year old did have it? We don't know for sure. I mean we think it's it's certainly possible, but you would think so. Actually, our neighbor next door neighbor is a family of five as well. They have older kids that are also in a ten ten year old girl, and she was the only one to test positive in their family. So who the heck knows. Maybe I gave it to my daughter, maybe she gave it to me. You know, most kids luckily knock on wood,

don't um, you know, fight it off pretty quickly. I was lucky to also fight it off pretty easily as well. So sense of smell and taste, all that that weird thing we hear from people. Did you lose that I did? Not lose that, but I had a quite a few friends I actually live in my neighborhood that had lost that. I had a few other friends and men in my age group forty five to fifty five in that range that I communicated with. I had much worse symptoms at night,

especially with the sweats and the very high fever. Really, skies have really struggled with it. So I felt again that I was pretty lucky that I never had that. In fact, when I finally went to the test, I was a little surprised that I still had it, because I felt pretty good. Had been down to my basement at that point for about two weeks. It took me a while to actually get the tests, you know, the state was just getting the testing system up and running.

So I went to one of those drive through locations. Finally it took about a week and just booked the test and they asked you all the questions, you know, have you been out of the country, how sick have you been? Have you been in contact with people that have had it? Of course I had no idea. I've been to Australia for the Australian Open at the end of January, so I was a little surprised when it came back positive. Uh. And then I went back for a test with my wife a couple of weeks later,

and we both tested negative. I mean, it's so confusing, Like you said, there's so many conflicting reports about what we should be looking for. I mean, one of them that I think I'm I'm most bewildered by is if we can catch it a second time or not as someone who's already had it. What do you know about it? I don't know much about it other than it's possible. So every time I go out or uh, you know, I'm wearing my mask, you know, look to me, is

change at least in the last month or so. Is that doesn't appear where it's concerned about getting it by touching things. You know, initially we were you know, it's wearing gloves to go to the store, to go to the pharmacy. I was sort of the one that would pick by the family to go out and pick things up when we needed them. So I would do that, I would wear the mask, the gloves, et cetera. That doesn't seem to be what the current you know, medical

uh knowledge says. It's more about the transmission through the air. So you see a lot of people, at least here in this part of the country where I go, wearing masks when when they're out going to the store, etcetera. You can't even go into a store if you don't have a mask. So, uh that that to me seems to be the biggest issue at this point. But the short answer your question is who the heck nots? Yeah, who knows you? You're a busy guy all over the place,

so many different jobs over your career. You quarantined yourself in a basement until you were negative, you said about a month. There's a part of me that would love to be completely shut out, not have any responsibilities. What did you do in the basement? But when you got this time to yourself, what did you check off the list? Did you did you finally watch the wire? Did you did you take up a hobby? Well, I finally cleaned my office which is downstairs here in the basement, So

I I did that. That took me a couple of days. And then, uh, you know, I watched some shows that you know, being a being married and having three young kids, you don't have we don't have that much time to get into a particular show. So I watched a lot of old episodes of Homeland and I started um Ozark, so I like, I enjoyed that. That that lasted for a little while, but then I got into this podcast.

I had a podcast portable machine in my basement that I had been preparing to start my own podcast really going back to last year, and so it was some and that I had on my mind for a long time. Then I had the idea to interview people that were successful in their own right, in their own world and had an interest in tennis, but tennis wasn't necessarily their profession. So I was stared at this machine. I said, you know, maybe now be a good time to figure this thing

out and learn this. And so I did that, and then I you know, started looking at people that I've come across over the years that I know and basically just did it myself, figured out how to use the machine, started calling people, and started my own podcast. So that's been a lot of fun. That's kept me busy. In the last month. We've been able to get back, you know,

our tennis academy. I work at the John Macino Tennis Academy that my brothers started here in New York City about ten years ago, so I joined up with him there about four years ago. We haven't been able to yet open our facility in Randall's Island, which is part of New York City, but we've been able to open other clubs that the company owns in the New York era.

So I've actually been going out and and working with the kids and even adults, giving lessons to the club to try to help the club just back on his feet, and so that's been a lot of fun. So between the podcast and obviously managing the home front with my wife, who's been amazing through this aduce at her career, at least performing live um in front of people has disappeared, but she's been able to do a lot of performing from the house and doing a lot of shows. You've

got another one coming up shortly. So she's really learned as well how to use a certain mic, use a certain lighting system. And I've had obviously do some of that as well with the podcast and also with just doing interviews here at home. More with Patrick after this now let's get back to Patrick. So on the tennis front, the US Open is set to be one of the largest American sporting events back up in action quickly set to begin at the end of August. But there's still

some mystery around if players will be comfortable. You're seeing that in the NBA and Major League Baseball. There's so many regulations and questions about safety. If you were still playing, what would you do well, it's a great, great question. I mean, first of all, let's put this on the table that tennis is arguably the most global sport there is as far as players coming from all over the

world and having to travel all over the world. Even the Gulf Tour, which is very global, it's essentially the most of the American players play in America and most of the European players play in Europe. They don't hop scotch the world as much as tennis players do. So that's a complication for tennis because you've got to deal with many different countries and governments and where they at in this process. But tennis of the sport is a

very easy game to manage, so I think as a professional. Uh, the other thing, you have to remembers that most tennis players essentially go paycheck to paycheck. I mean, they make their money, how well they do in tournament. Of course, you hear about Nadow and Fetter and Serene Williams and and they've made tons of money. They don't need, per se the money that the tennis tour provides uh to

keep them going. But a lot of players, even players that are pretty highly ranked, I mean, they're not making any money. You know, they're not like athletes in basketball, uh, in hockey and baseball. Baseball is having their own issues at the moment, but you know that they're in team sports where they're stilletting a paycheck. So tennis players, I think have the way that against obviously traveling, most of

the players coming from Europe coming to the US being quarantined. Essentially, you're having to stay in one hotel by JFK Airport and deal with all the parameters that are being put in place, which is completely abnormal to what they're used to. They could usually have their own entourage, they can stay in New York City, they can go out, they can

basically do whatever they want. But if they're gonna come and play in the US Open, at least as far as the way the rules are now, they're gonna have to bide by a lot of rules and regulations that

they're not used to. Yeah, and that brings up another question that we we see in every sport also, which is, you know, Serena Williams saying she will participate in adult you know, won't Will this be a real US Open, because I'm nervous that all of these sports that are gonna, you know, come back in are gonna have these weird asterisks next to whoever wins these things. Oh well, it's not the same. It was a different surrounding, different environment.

All the players weren't there. Well, tennis has been through something like this or nothing like the pandemic obviously, but there's a strike at Wimbledon, you know, back in the seventies, and so that affected who wanted. The Australian Open for many years was sort of an afterthought until it moved to Melbourne Park. It used to be a tournament over Christmas time and most of the top players, a lot

of them didn't even go. So of course there will be an asterisk, I believe, just like there will be if the NBA plays, you know, if if baseball plays eight games and the NHL just goes right to the playoffs. So I think that will happen. But I think you have to weigh that against Okay, what's the alternative you'll turn the I mean, assuming it's safe. Okay, that's that's number one. Have to be safe and healthy for the players and participants in the people involved with putting on

the on the game, whatever sport it is. If you assume that's the case, then it's like, well, you know, as I've said many times, if my choice is to have a US open with no fans and all these other issues and potentially not every player playing for the reasons that you outline, or having um no U S open, I mean I'll take the former every time. I'll take a US open with with no fans, and because I think that's in the best interest of the game and

certainly for the majority of players. At least you give them the decision. Uh, it's in their hands. If you come, you can play, and you can make a living. It's also obviously just important for our entire country, in our society, right to get back to some semblance of normalcy, whatever that may be. Restaurants in my town are opening, they're all outdoor seating. You know, things are starting to open up. At least here in the New York area. So I think that this would be a step for tennis to

do the same. And you are a prolific play by play announcer. What what does broadcasting of tennis look like at the US Open? Do do we see a change in that as well? You guys gonna be on the other side of the court. I think there's gonna be a huge change. I mean, first of all, with no fans, it's gonna be a whole different sound that you hear over over. In fact, that was on a zoom call with all of our announcers at ESPN and our our coordinating and producer just the other day when the USC

announced their plans. So it's going to affect our plans, you know, in a big way, not just obviously the production side. How many people are allowed on the site, who's allowed to get into the facility? Well, what if we have a courtside person that we normally do, the players will be able to hear them because there'll be no fans, you know, there's no buzz, even even the commentators.

So the one part of it is it will likely be the only broadcasting company there because of this, So all the Europeans and the international television companies will likely not be there. So that means that all those areas where they normally rent them out from the US, they will be open. So I don't think we'll have any trouble, I meaning an ESPN distancing if you even have two commentators in a commentary booth, because they're usually pretty big, and if not, you could just put one here, one

there and spread us out pretty easily. Yeah, I mean, it is comical to think that they might hear you, guys. I know because usually Arthur asked, stadium we're about midway up uh in the stadium, but it's open, you know, because it gives you a feel, it gives a fresh air and get a feel for the environment. But if there's no um people there, the players will definitely be able to hear, you know, particularly in a broadcasting voice,

where usually up the volume a little bit. So you know, Wimbledon, for example, we're right next to the court when we do the Wimbledon finals from what's called the bunker. They're right by court side, so when the players play, we close the window. There's otherwise they could hear you very clearly. So close to the court so depending on what the tournament is, what the environment is, We're pretty much used

to whatever it is. I used to call tons of matches when I first started ESPN from the studio in Connecticut, you know, called the Italian Open, called the French Open. So and tennis channel still does that, So that's certainly doable. It's always better to be there and and to feel the energy. I was going to say the players and the crowd, but there will be no crowd. So the other question is do you bring in sound? You know, you come up with fakes, sound like they're doing that

in Europe and in soccer. They're having one channel where you can listen to just the sound of what's going on in the field, and then they have another one that has sort of simulated crowd noise as well. So I think they left the viewer decide which one they'd like to do. It's like an SAP button on your TV if you want to hear in Spanish, so they

might try to do that in tennis as well. It's an opportunity for us and broadcasting certainly to try some different things because obviously we're gonna have to keep the attention of the viewer um without having you know, the crowd and all the different shots you can show, because remember in a tennis match, you're just watching two players. You know, golf tournaments different you follow a golf tournament, you could pop around to each different hole and even

in the final round you can see loads of different players. Tennis, you've got to do a little more sometimes to entertain the audience than just having two players, particularly the matches, and that compelling after this more with tennis legend and

host of the podcast, Holding Court Patrick McEnroe. Right now, Feeding America is working tirelessly to ensure our most vulnerable populations, like students who are out of school, the elderly individuals whose jobs are impacted, and low income families continue to have access to food and other needed resources during the

COVID nineteen pandemic. The Feeding America Food Bank Network is committed to serving communities and people facing hunger in America, and they're gratest need is donations and support of local food banks. This podcast is committed to donating a portion of the proceeds from the show to Feeding America, and we hope that you can join us in this effort to find out how you can help feeding America dot org backslash covid nineteen. Now here's the rest of my

chat with ESPN tennis commentator Patrick McEnroe. Let's talk about some other world changes. I have a one year old, so people have been interviewing who have teenagers. I've asked them the same question, how you've been dealing with this

time while raising in your case teenage daughters. Luckily, we've been pretty lucky that they're a little bit older, so they've been able to manage a lot of the school side essentially themselves and a little help from us, a little more help from my wife probably in that department, but the school system, you know, has been pretty solid. My twin daughters, who are big into dance, are big in ballet school and they go they would actually commute

to New York City, so that school started online. Zoom dance class is pretty much right away. My older daughter is more of a competitive tennis player, so she's been trained with mad practice with me. As I said, tennis is an easy sport to the distance herself, so we were able to kind of keep up with a lot of the normal things that they do. Um they're able to get out we we we moved to the suburbs out of the city. So I think for the first time my wife loved you. The real city person loves

the city. So I think for the first time she looked at me and said, well, maybe we made the right decision leaving the city because now you know, there's a girls can get out and about ride their bikes and things like that. So we've been pretty lucky that they've been able to manage it. But obviously it's a lot more hands on from the two of us as

far as you know, managing the household. Overall. You've been incredibly active to switch gears here a little bit over the years with youth and tennis developing, young players representing the game, trying to push it further and further with what we're seeing around the world as far as the murder of George Floyd and so much it's going on, as far as opening the eyes of others towards the plight of black people. What what has Tennis done correctly

and what has Tennis done wrong when it comes to diversity. Well, I think you need to hear from from those African American players a little bit more about what they went through and you hear a little bit about Venus and Serena because they are so popular and they're so worldly famous.

But I I immediately thought of a lot of the players I grew up playing with, Omalavia Washington, Brian Shelton, Lori McNeil, Katrina Adams, you know, hosts of African Americans that um to be honest that the kid growing up, you know, you never thought there are any issues, but now you you kind of realized, Wow, we're white people playing a predominantly white sport, and these players likely went

through lots of things that we never knew about. So I think it's it's about James Blake, obviously, guy who played Davis Cup who had that Hartle incident with the police in New York in New York City where he got attacked and he had done nothing wrong. So he's been out there, uh talking about a lot of which I think is great. Uh. The one thing I think about tennis that is a little bit different in some sense is that, you know, my kids are my twinter

in ballet school. So they did an online thing for dancers, and there was some very successful African American dancers. They talked about how difficult it's been for them in that world, and that you know, because they didn't look a certain way, they wouldn't get certain parts, it wouldn't get chosen for

this school. And my oldest daughter we were watching it together, she said, the New World tend I said's interesting, you know, thinking about this in tennis because we see, we see lots of people of color in tennis, junior tennis, especially these days, which is great, okay, partly because the success of Venus and Serena, but we we sort of wanted to all imagine what they had to go through. My

daughter said to me, said, well, yeah, in tennis. So it's a little different because in tennessee, either win or your loots, you know, from a performance standpoint, so it's a little different from being insane actor or you know, even applying for a job in a company. You know, tennis, if you're good enough, whatever your background, um, nobody can stop you. And then that doesn't mean you haven't had to deal with a lot of issues of racism, et

cetera and prejudice. Obviously, that that I think is the opportunity to pre tennis to hear those stories a little bit more from those people that have gone through the junior system, the college system, the professional system, um and tell their stories because I mean it's time for us as uh as white people and people that have had a lot of the opportunities they have and to listen. Yeah. I mean you see sixteen year old Coco goauf and

and Taylor Towns and obviously the Williams sisters. I mean they continue to sort of shift the scene from sort of what we know is I guess has been sort of stereotyped as an old fashioned kind of country club sport and become more of a face associated with the game, which you see sort of with Francis Typho who recently said he thinks that may be participating in the US Open takes away from the social message that we need out in the world right now, which we see with

some of the players in the NBA. Do do you expect tennis players to be protesting, taking a knee during the anthem or anything during the U s Open. I mean, I'd be all for. I think they have every right to do what they want. I love what France has done as a great young kid. Actually knew him as a kid growing up, and the juniors watched him as a fifteen year old, saw him developed as a kid, and he's a great, great what as a young man Now he's not a kid anymore. But so I think

for those guys to speak up, it's awesome. Uh. There's no doubt in my mind that Tennis Blare should do that. Uh. If that's what they want to do, absolutely, that's what this country is about. So I believe they will, and we'll just have to see what happens. But it's certainly they have every every right to be able to be heard, and Uh, I hope they used it. I think they will. Uh. Well, I like to end every podcast with something a little bit positive and then I'll ask you a dumb question.

But first I want to know, you know, with all these things that we're facing, whether it's the quarantine you faced it head on, or or with the racial conflicts that we're seeing in our world right now, what do you hope comes out of it? What do you hope even when we're out and about and eating in restaurants or you know, uh, maybe some of the protests are to die down, what do you hope that we continue with? Uh? Maybe a pattern or a behavior that you hope sticks around. Well.

I think, as I said in my last come and listening. I think listening, whether it's to your spouse, listening to your kids, listening to your neighbors, or what what people have different back grounds are saying. I think that's an opportunity also to slow down because I think the fact that we've had this pandemic and we've seen some of the some of the police brutality and some of the abuse. Uh,

it's been because everybody has been in this position. It's kind of steam role where people are able to get out in protests and and bring these things out into the open, into the forefront. So I think that's been a positive and hopefully bringing all this stuff to the surface, we can realize that we really are in this together, you know, whether it's beating the pandemic or you know, moving forward in the in the race department, or it's sexism department for that matter, which was a big issue

before you know, this whole thing started. So I think there's a lot of things that we can all do individually, you know, And I would say listen number one and then collectively as well. Well, let's get into your new podcast. As you talked about earlier. It's called holding court, something you picked up during quarantine. You've already had guests like Alec Baldwin and col McLaughlin on a lot of people, like you said, who have fame outside of tennis but

love the game. Who do you see as your dream best? You know, I'm inspired by people that that take up tennis later in their life when tennis is extremely difficult Um to get good at, even if he started as a kid. So um chasing down Elton John because he is a great tennis enthusiast and has played where much of his adult life. He's very tight with Billy gen King.

He wrote a song for Billy. Jenny used to do a big event of the year that raised money for AIDS in his charity and a big tennis event which a lot of tennis people supported. So he's always been an amazing person inspiring people. So he would be certainly at the top of my list, because I'd like, I watched a movie about him, and you know, I've met him over the year and just in some of the pro celebrity events, and I respect him so much for what you know, who he is, what he's done, his

love of tennis and also trying to help people. Very good answer. So you had on Ben Stiller. Will round out with this. You had on the great Ben Stiller on the podcast recently, a comic legend, in my opinion, one of my favorite directors as well. I was I listed out my top three Ben Stellar movies. I I figured, I'm springing this on you at the last minute. I'll go first, but you tell me if I'm missing anything or if your list is any different. Again, okay, you're ready.

So I have I have a movie that has had a little bit of gotten a little bit of fire lately because it was made during a different time. But I have my number three, Tropic Thunder. I think it's incredibly directed. It all right, Okay, so that's my three. My number two is I think it's off the beaten path. I think it's something that more people should see. A movie called Flirting with Disaster, very good. Ti Leone's in it, you have u an incredible list of actors and actress

is in it. The play The Parents. I know Lily Tomlin really really good, uh, sort of untapped. And in my number one, he's barely in it. He's not in it a ton but he directed it. Uh I, Cable Guy is my favorite Ben Steller movie. Yeah, Cable Guy definitely put in my top three. Absolutely loved that movie. Obviously,

Jim Carrey is amazing. I have to put Meet the Parents in there because I love, you know, this sort of deadpan uh and the way he worked with the nero and that I thought was off the charts phenomenal. And I think I'm gonna have to throw it just because for the outrageousness of it and for what what he was able to pull off in that one was zoo Land. I love zoo Land, and I thought that was hilarious. You said, you you you you dig a little deeper than I do. And Ben in all of

his movies. But he's a great guy. I got to know him, you know, just fairly recently. He's always been a big tennis fan, but he started coming. He clearly texted me because he wanted to start playing where I moved back to New York, and uh, I set him up with one of our great pros at our academy and he was coming like three or four days a week away and I'd see him out there, and he's working unbelievably hard. He's got a nice little lefty serves.

He's sort of spunky out there pretty quick. So you know somebody like that, he's still get so dedicated to trying something that they've never As I said, you know he didn't start in his boarding. Um. I admire that a lot about people that take up something that's really difficult to learn and commit themselves to it. I like it. Well, that's that's our picks. I also Escape from Danamorro is incredible as well, which the TV show he directed in EP I don't know, did you see that one? You

saw that one? All right? They're all good? That was awesome. Well, thank you for talking to me, man. I'm so happy to hear your healthy and I'm excited to see you back out there for the US Open and happy to hear your coaching again. I appreciate you talking to me today. Thank you for having me on. I'm really enjoyed it. The No Sports Report is produced and distributed by Tree Fort Media. The show was executive produced by Kelly Garner,

Lisa Ammerman, Matthew Coogler, and me Jensen Carr. Tom Monahan is our senior audio engineer and sound supervisor with production and editing by Jasper Leek, additional production help from Tim Shower, June Rosen, and Haley Mandelberg. Our theme music is composed by Spilkus. If you've enjoyed what you've heard, please subscribe, rate us and review us on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts, and please visit Feeding America dot org if you're able to make

a donation. Any amount makes a difference, and you can learn more about other ways you can help on their website. For more information on the No Sports Report, links to the socials, and for show transcripts for our hearing impaired listeners, go to tree Fort dot fm. Be Safe and be Well. The No Sports Report is a production of I Heart Radio and tree Fort Media. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.