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everybody? Happy Fugazi Friday.
1:35
Hopefully everyone is having a
1:37
great day We
1:40
got some football stuff to talk about and
1:43
I thought you know kind of we
1:45
got we got a week calm before the
1:47
storm right now Couple things I want to
1:49
hit on so I thought let's just do
1:51
a little football rapid fire hit on five
1:53
topics From Rogers saying what
1:55
he is willing to play for
1:57
to a coach talking about
1:59
Travis Hunter's ability to go both
2:02
ways and Lee Corso officially
2:04
has retired from college game
2:06
day the long -standing show on
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ESPN and one of I would
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2:19
fire, hit on a couple of topics,
2:21
get in and out of here. Nothing
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2:27
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Well, I
3:35
watched What I thought was like gonna
3:37
be the whole Aaron Rodgers interview and then he
3:39
just went on and on and I just clicked
3:41
it off and did something else It looks
3:43
like Aaron Rodgers is
3:45
Still unsure and to me the
3:47
funniest thing that happened today
3:49
by far was when he
3:52
told McAfee, he's like, you know, I'm
3:54
willing to play for 10 M's. Like what?
3:56
What did he just say? And then Pat
3:58
was like, you're willing to play for 10 million.
4:00
But the way he just nonchalantly, and
4:02
it shows you, I mean, this is
4:04
a guy who's made hundreds of millions
4:06
of dollars to 90, to even rich
4:08
people like, well, you're to make 10
4:10
million dollars. And it is a huge
4:12
pay cut for him. But how he
4:15
threw that out there. is I audibly
4:17
laughed. I was actually watching it on
4:19
the Stairmaster because it was like, hey,
4:21
I'm going in and out. You want
4:23
something? You're like, yeah, get me two
4:25
cheeseburgers. He's like, yeah, I'll just play
4:27
for 10 M's. But while very
4:30
funny, I do think
4:32
like, listen, I give him credit. You
4:35
know, now I'm not acting like even if
4:37
he was dead set on playing and was
4:39
really like, was already willing to show up
4:41
because he didn't have off the field stuff
4:43
going on. It's not like he was going
4:45
to get 40, 50 million dollars, but like
4:47
coming into it like I don't need that
4:49
much money to play. We just saw
4:52
Russell Wilson get what? 10 .5
4:54
million dollars guaranteed. And
4:56
we know Russell Wilson isn't nearly as good
4:58
as Aaron Rodgers. Now both aren't nearly as
5:00
good as they once were. But listen,
5:02
I give the guy credit for
5:04
it's pretty clear that if he does play,
5:06
this is going to be his last year. And
5:09
he's making it pretty easy on the
5:11
teams that are somewhat interested in him.
5:13
Pretty funny story about how he rented
5:15
some. Again, shitty car
5:17
for him. Chevy Malibu. No
5:20
hate to anyone out there driving Chevy
5:22
Malibus. I drive a Chevy, so
5:24
pro Chevy's here. But how
5:26
he tried to go in
5:28
to the Pittsburgh Steelers, very under
5:30
the radar, and clearly someone
5:33
in that building tipped, quote unquote,
5:35
the press. But who
5:37
knows? I left the portion of the
5:39
interview that I watched. thinking it's
5:41
not guaranteed that he plays. And
5:44
I think we're at the point where we're either
5:46
getting one more Aaron Rodgers season, right?
5:48
He ends up playing for the Pittsburgh Steelers. I think
5:50
the New York Giants are clearly not happening. And
5:53
Minnesota is kind of the curveball.
5:55
If they go back to him, you
5:57
know, after OTA, he's not being
5:59
confident with with MacArthur with JJ
6:01
McCarthy, or he just never
6:03
plays again. You know, he just
6:05
never plays again. The big
6:07
headline that's going viral is the
6:09
Aaron Glenn. Aaron,
6:11
I think, dramatized. Now, in his
6:13
point of view, Aaron Rodgers
6:15
has never been fired. Aaron
6:18
Rodgers has never been fired. In
6:20
a business where everyone gets
6:22
fired. Beside a tiny,
6:24
tiny percentage of players that
6:27
just retire on their own,
6:29
but literally everyone else in
6:31
his world, coaches and players, get
6:34
fired. And I
6:36
think he has never had that
6:38
happen. Like the amount of players
6:40
who have been called into the
6:42
GM or head coach's office, whether
6:44
it's a new head coach, whether
6:46
it's a head coach that you've
6:48
been playing for and been told
6:51
your services are no longer needed
6:53
or going in a different direction,
6:55
is the overwhelming majority of the
6:57
league. I would say just about every
6:59
coach in the league. Has been
7:01
directly or indirectly fired working for a
7:03
staff maybe the head coach was fired
7:05
and they get fired because of it
7:07
But it happens all the time in
7:09
football and for Aaron who has lived
7:11
a pretty good life Like when you've been
7:13
flying, you know in first class for
7:15
20 years and all of a sudden
7:17
you're at the back of Spirit Airlines
7:19
It's like it would rattle any human
7:21
being right so when he gets called
7:23
into the office and Did it happen
7:25
smoothly? Who knows is it ever easy
7:27
to tell someone like you're done? And
7:30
I know he was offended that they didn't
7:32
pick his brain about everything. I
7:35
just think once you're told
7:37
like you're done, that just
7:39
rattles the situation, especially to
7:41
new, new first time head
7:43
coach. It's going to
7:45
be awkward, you know, like welcome to
7:47
the club, Aaron. People get fired
7:49
in the NFL and it took 20
7:51
plus years for this guy's career for
7:53
it to happen. So it's a
7:55
testament to how good he's been. But
7:57
it ends. you know with the
7:59
jets and listen because it's
8:01
the jets it's easy for him to take
8:04
shots and you know kind of flame it
8:06
on the way out and you know he's
8:08
probably you know telling the truth it would
8:10
have been a lot more difficult for him
8:12
to you know it's like when he tried
8:14
to give his side of the story and
8:16
one thing i would push back on erin
8:19
loves playing like uh you know i don't
8:21
know what's going on If it
8:23
wasn't for my sister and my cousin
8:25
and that other dude in my inner
8:27
circle, I wouldn't know anything. I
8:29
wouldn't know nothing. It's like,
8:31
Aaron, I mean, let's, we're all born
8:33
at night. We weren't born last
8:35
night. Like, come on, buddy.
8:37
Let's, let's, to act like you
8:39
don't have somewhat of a feel for
8:41
what's being said about you is,
8:43
to me, a little disingenuous at this
8:45
point in time. And
8:48
then he, you know, he loves going on these
8:50
like, long drawn out just
8:52
and I get it like listen
8:54
you I have Vandettas and If
8:56
I was him and bunch of
8:58
people talking shit about you I
9:00
get it But he loves playing
9:03
that if it wasn't for someone
9:05
shooting him over the information He
9:07
would have no clue it would
9:09
just exist somewhere on the internet
9:11
and he'd be living his life
9:13
with his dog Apollo, but 10
9:15
m's man. He's willing to play
9:17
for 10 m's John Harbaugh
9:20
I gotta give John Harbaugh credit. He
9:22
said something that I have to agree
9:24
with. And he said that he didn't
9:26
think there were enough hours in the
9:28
day to play both ways in the NFL. And
9:31
I think, listen, we're
9:33
all in agreement. What Travis Hunter
9:35
accomplished last year is unprecedented. I
9:37
mean, it's remarkable. It's
9:40
a very
9:42
deserving Heisman candidate. It
9:45
was badass. You know, tip
9:47
my hat. You're a badass, bro. That
9:49
was sick But to think
9:51
that you're gonna be able to do
9:54
it in the NFL and I hate just
9:56
naturally taking like you can't do this
9:58
I hate that mindset right of just like
10:00
you can't because I think you can get
10:02
into very uh I think negative people
10:04
tend to have that but I also think
10:06
sometimes in life you got to be
10:08
realistic Right and go yeah, I think
10:10
this is borderline impossible To like be a
10:12
full -time player on both sides of the ball
10:14
and what hardball was saying is like defense You know
10:17
and he's a defensive guy My
10:20
take has simply been the amount
10:22
of talent at wide receiver
10:24
in the NFL is has never been
10:26
higher in terms of team by team So
10:28
just look at his own division. He's
10:31
got DK Metcalf Assuming let's say
10:33
the Browns take him. It's like
10:35
well, we're playing the Bengals week
10:37
one and the Steelers week two
10:40
It's like who you got. He's like well
10:42
this week you got Jamar Chase and
10:44
T Higgins Then you got assuming
10:46
he tries George Pickens and DK
10:48
Metcalf Godspeed
10:51
like it's
10:53
This isn't the big
10:55
12 as Dan Hawkins said welcome
10:57
to the big 12 brother and I
11:00
think To
11:02
be able to do that and what
11:04
some guys have done in the past
11:06
of just going on to play wide
11:08
receiver and running the occasional go route
11:10
is a lot different than playing 40
11:12
50 snaps also on offense and running
11:14
routes constantly blocking constantly Uh, running
11:16
routes that are basically decoy. So
11:18
it just means you're flying down the
11:21
field. I think it's
11:23
borderline impossible. And I don't
11:25
even think it's from a mental standpoint. Obviously
11:27
it would be a lot from a physical
11:29
standpoint at that level. I
11:32
would say this in a weird way. And listen,
11:34
I don't blame him. He's so young. It's not
11:36
like he's ever played in the NFL. But
11:39
for anyone that says like, no, not only can he
11:41
do it, he should do it and he'll be
11:43
good at it. To me
11:45
that's kind of like
11:47
Almost offensive to the guys the
11:49
highest level in the NFL Like if
11:51
I was Jamar Chase or I was
11:53
DK Metcalf. It's like wait You think you
11:56
can split practice reps and fucking cover
11:58
me? Right if
12:00
I'm Patrick Sertan or whoever on
12:02
defense. It's like wait You think you've been
12:04
screwing around on defense and now you're
12:06
gonna get open on me. Do you
12:08
know this is all I do? Like
12:10
I got 80 million in the bank I
12:13
got three Pro Bowls. I was second
12:15
in the defensive player of the
12:17
year. I got seven Range Rovers, two
12:19
homes because this is what I do. And
12:22
I think you got to be very careful about
12:24
just thinking these things are as easy as
12:26
what just happened. I would
12:29
put more, you
12:31
know, more behind it
12:33
if he would just have done
12:35
that in the SEC. But
12:37
I'm sorry, I would say the Big
12:39
12 by far is the worst conference
12:41
of the group. And the
12:43
talent in that conference is just
12:45
not even remotely close to what he's
12:47
about to walk in to assuming that
12:49
he gets drafted by the Cleveland Brown.
12:51
So we'll see how it plays out.
12:53
But I'm in agreement with John Harbaugh.
12:56
Not possible. Andrew
12:58
Berry said something. It really, you
13:00
know, I wish I get why
13:02
I didn't do it. But if
13:04
Lamar had run the 40 when he
13:07
was coming out at the combine. He
13:10
definitely I'm sure I mean he was probably
13:12
a little lighter than probably the fastest
13:14
he's ever been was early on in his
13:16
career He's clearly still really fast, but
13:18
that college version of Lamar and then
13:20
like that first year or two Lamar
13:23
Jackson was I don't know four
13:25
to five and Andrew Barry said something today,
13:27
which I get it He's propping the
13:29
guy up and Jalen Milrow is going to
13:31
the draft like Jalen Milrow
13:33
I don't know exactly how
13:35
this works. I've never worked, you know
13:37
at ESPN at NFL Network
13:39
how they talk with the draft
13:41
prospects. I think clearly they've tried to
13:43
shrink the group that goes. But
13:46
I don't think it's just randomly like, hey, Jaylin,
13:48
you want to go to the draft? It's like,
13:50
oh, I might get drafted in the third or
13:52
fourth round. Not saying he's going to go in
13:54
the first round, but there's clearly some momentum and
13:56
buzz about his physical attributes. Like you talk about
13:58
a big project. I mean, we have seen way
14:00
less talented quarterbacks get drafted from
14:02
pick 15 to 30 in the last
14:04
10 plus years. Now, it doesn't
14:06
mean he's going to be any good.
14:09
It doesn't mean his flaw of
14:11
some, some accuracy issues, but just in
14:13
terms of what, you know, to
14:15
mold a piece of clay, it happened
14:17
with Josh Allen, whatever, six, seven
14:19
years ago. So people are going to
14:21
like this guy as a project
14:23
with freakish talent. And Andrew Berry said
14:26
that he might be the one
14:28
guy that's immediately faster than Lamar. And
14:31
he ran a 440 with the Combine
14:33
Jalen Milrose, a freak athlete can fly. But
14:36
I, and listen, Lamar's.
14:38
whatever, 28, 29 years old.
14:41
He's probably not like if he just ran the
14:43
40, it'd still be fast. But would he
14:45
run of what he would have five years ago?
14:48
I just wish he would have ran
14:50
it because I think we'd be talking
14:52
like, remember when Lamar Jackson ran a
14:54
four to six at the combine or
14:56
a four, three, one, because I promise
14:58
you this early on, Lamar
15:01
Jackson was faster than 440. No
15:03
question in my mind. If
15:06
you listen yesterday, we had Jake
15:08
Dickert, the former Washington state coach who's
15:10
now at Wake Forest on the
15:12
podcast. He was really good, impressive guy,
15:14
easy guy to root for. Coach
15:16
Cam Ward for a couple of years, last
15:18
year coach John Matier, who's now
15:20
at Oklahoma, who was the big transfer portal
15:22
guy this year. It
15:26
was really interesting to hear him talk
15:28
about like how clearly he's really into having
15:30
a personnel department He's got a GM
15:32
that he brought from Washington State that he
15:34
clearly leans on and you know, I
15:36
was thinking about this in the pros There
15:38
aren't any rules, right? I mean technically
15:40
I think as a scout when you go
15:42
into college You're not supposed to talk
15:44
to like a freshman sophomore a guy that's
15:46
not draft eligible Right, especially about like
15:48
draft prospects. I mean you can run into
15:51
them in the hallway and bullshit with
15:53
them It's not like you're gonna get arrested
15:55
by the NFL But it's there are
15:57
some rules not that it really matters But
15:59
for the most part of like a
16:01
GM wants to go to a college football
16:03
game if a coach wants to go
16:05
to a college football game Anyone can go
16:07
to these programs during the week It's
16:09
actually on the college to be like, yeah,
16:11
we're actually closed this week But for
16:13
the most part anyone at any time from
16:15
the NFL can either set
16:17
up a time to go see
16:19
players can just go see the players
16:21
during the week. It's very easy.
16:23
It's an open door policy. I remember
16:25
the running joke was during the
16:27
Nick Saban era is like it is
16:29
by far the most pro friendly
16:31
program in the country. If a
16:33
scout wanted to come to the building at
16:35
3 30 in the morning, Alabama
16:38
would have someone to open the door for you
16:40
at 3 30 in the morning. And
16:42
in college, it's different. Yet, now we
16:44
have these GMs all over the country
16:46
that are clearly playing big jobs in
16:48
the program. I mean, I don't know
16:50
how many of them there are, but
16:52
there are definitely a handful that are
16:54
making over a million dollars to be
16:56
GMs. And then the majority of the
16:58
country is probably making between 500 and
17:01
a million dollars. So, all these Power
17:03
4 programs, these guys are making a
17:05
lot of coin because their job now
17:07
is really, really important. Yet, during the
17:09
fall, and I always thought this was
17:11
kind of Not just crazy, but also
17:13
difficult. Your
17:15
your scouts in college football historically
17:17
have always been the coaches. So
17:20
sometimes in my experience, you would
17:22
play on like a Saturday. And
17:25
sometimes by the time you got to Thursday,
17:27
you would send some coaches out on
17:29
the road. Like if you were at
17:32
Fresno State or Cal or USC, you
17:34
might not go to New Jersey or Florida,
17:36
but it would be pretty easy to go.
17:39
I don't know, 30 minutes away, and a
17:41
couple hours away, maybe even fly up
17:43
the state and watch a high school game
17:45
that Friday, even though you were playing
17:47
the next day. And if you
17:49
have access to, you know, private
17:51
transportation in the air or it's driving distance,
17:53
you just come back, meet the team either
17:55
that night or the next morning to get
17:57
ready for the game, assuming that you're playing
18:00
at home. and sometimes on the road you
18:02
do the same thing like go hit if
18:04
you're playing somewhere in Texas or Arizona or
18:06
an area where you're recruiting kids you go
18:08
see players but that's difficult you're trying to
18:10
get ready for a game and you're going
18:12
to watch a high school game that doesn't
18:14
happen in the pros because think about it
18:16
your your coaches don't leave the team during
18:18
the fall they don't even get in the
18:20
draft process till like a month or two
18:22
before your scouts do that so why do
18:24
the rules it shows you how archaic this
18:26
is and it needs to change and
18:29
Dickert was all over it as
18:31
like these GMs and personnel departments should
18:33
be able during the season on
18:35
a Friday night all over the country,
18:37
whoever you're recruiting, be able to
18:39
go attend those games and talk to
18:41
the kids and talk to their
18:43
family. Just like a coach, a head
18:45
coach, a coordinator or a position
18:47
coach would be able to. It
18:49
would actually make everything so
18:52
much easier on the program.
18:54
And I would imagine over the next
18:56
couple of years, it's inevitable that
18:58
That is the end of result. But
19:00
right now for that still being
19:03
quote unquote illegal feels kind of laughable.
19:05
I remember I don't remember. I mean,
19:07
it was just a couple weeks ago.
19:10
But when the national championship was going
19:12
on, you're seeing Kelvin Samson. He's coaching
19:14
coaching Houston. They're obviously I mean, they
19:16
probably should have won that won that
19:18
game. But I remember when he got fired. And
19:21
if you remember what he got fired
19:23
for, it was for texting people. And
19:25
once upon a time. you were not
19:27
allowed to text recruits. Think
19:29
how insane that is. I mean,
19:31
think how crazy that is. I
19:33
was just watching a clip from
19:36
Lane, who went on
19:38
Theo Vaughn's podcast, sneaky pretty funny. Theo
19:40
is, Lane's, Lane looks
19:43
skinny, sober, he's just
19:45
doing yoga. And
19:47
Lane was like, back in the day, you
19:49
could follow a guy on Twitter or
19:51
Instagram. It was a period
19:53
in which I couldn't text the
19:55
player, but I could shoot him
19:57
a DM and This is the
19:59
downfall of the NCAA which is
20:01
clearly crumbling day by day minute
20:03
by minute is they became so
20:05
bureaucratic and so like the things
20:07
that they stood for and Created
20:09
started to make no sense because
20:11
listen they're always gonna be rules
20:13
that people are gonna disagree with
20:15
it starts when you're a young
20:17
kid right? Even if there's merit
20:19
behind it, even if there is
20:21
like, this is the right thing
20:23
to do, people push back against
20:25
rules. Welcome to life. But there
20:27
also is a time where it's
20:30
like, yeah, this doesn't make sense.
20:32
Like this is insane. What
20:34
are we doing? I get like
20:36
in theory on the whiteboard, but in
20:38
practice right now, this got to stop. I
20:41
remember people, my friends that lived
20:43
in San Francisco during 2020, when you
20:45
could not go outside and the
20:47
parking tickets like you couldn't go anywhere
20:49
and they were getting parking tickets
20:51
on a daily basis like guys everything
20:53
is shut down like you need
20:55
to stop this and this feels like
20:57
one of those situations it's like
20:59
we need to rip this up right
21:01
now because a GM and a
21:04
personnel guy at a college should be
21:06
able to recruit a high school
21:08
player honestly they should be able to
21:10
go into the players living room
21:12
and have dinner like a position coach
21:14
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American express.com slash with Amax. We
23:21
live in a divided country. I
23:23
am a lifelong Republican with all kinds
23:25
of different people. You know, I'm
23:27
a mother. I'm a grandmother. That's
23:29
why we started the middle with Jeremy
23:32
Hobson. It's about bringing voices not from the
23:34
extremes, but from the vast middle into
23:36
the national conversation. Anna, I'm calling from Las
23:38
Vegas. Each week, we bring together an
23:40
all -star panel. Mark Cuban, so great to
23:42
have you on the middle. Thanks for having
23:44
me, Jeremy. Neil deGrasse Tyson, welcome to
23:46
the middle. Thanks for having me. And here
23:48
from ordinary Americans from all over the
23:50
country on the most important issues. Hi, my
23:52
name is Venkat. I'm calling you from
23:55
Atlanta, Georgia. And when you subscribe to the
23:57
middle, you also get an episode each
23:59
week called One Thing Trump Did that focuses
24:01
on just one item from the avalanche
24:03
of news. We should be examining what our
24:05
government spends its money on and are
24:07
these jobs necessary and what are we doing
24:09
here. But that doesn't seem to be
24:11
what we're doing in this situation. Listen to
24:13
the middle with Jeremy Hobson on the
24:15
iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you
24:17
get your podcasts. A
24:21
group of young women in a
24:23
tidy suburb of New York City
24:25
found themselves in an AI -fuelled
24:27
nightmare. Someone was
24:29
posting photos. It
24:31
was just me naked. Well, not me,
24:33
but me with someone else's body parts
24:36
on my body parts that looked exactly
24:38
like my own. I wanted to throw
24:40
up. I wanted to scream. It
24:42
happened in Levittown, New York. But
24:44
reporting this series took us through
24:46
the darkest corners of the internet
24:48
and to the front lines of
24:50
a global battle against deep fake
24:52
pornography. This shouldn't be
24:55
illegal, but what is this? This
24:57
is a story about a technology that's
24:59
moving faster than the law and
25:01
about vigilantes trying to stem the tide.
25:04
I'm Margie Murphy and I'm Olivia
25:06
Carville. This is Levitown,
25:08
a new podcast from iHeartPodcasts,
25:10
Bloomberg and Kaleidoscope. Listen to
25:13
Levittown on Bloomberg's Big Take
25:15
podcast. Find it on the
25:17
iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts,
25:19
or wherever you get your
25:21
podcasts. And
25:25
last but not
25:27
least, it was
25:29
announced today that
25:31
Lee Corso, the
25:33
legendary iconic figure
25:35
for ESPN, is
25:38
retiring. And I
25:40
was I was reading a little
25:42
bit about like this college game
25:44
day Officially started in 1987 and
25:46
that's pretty crazy. We're just a
25:48
couple years away from that show
25:50
being 40 years old But for
25:52
the first six years of the
25:54
show they didn't go on the
25:56
road So I think early on
25:58
on that show they were in
26:00
studio and then in 1993 they
26:02
started doing what they've been doing
26:04
forever now is go to these
26:06
big games and make it a
26:08
big production and over the last
26:10
what 20 plus years uh it's
26:12
i i i feel like one
26:14
of the biggest sports shows you
26:16
could argue college game day and
26:19
nba on tnt with barkley and
26:21
urney and and kenny you know
26:23
are probably the two biggest pre
26:25
post game type shows of my
26:27
lifetime and i think i was
26:29
thinking about this You
26:31
know for a long time
26:33
sometimes I'll see clips from
26:35
like ESPN radio or something
26:37
on ESPN. It's like who
26:39
the hell is that? Like
26:42
what? Who are they
26:44
promoting at that company? And
26:47
I was kind of hit me
26:49
today like that company is not
26:51
gonna create stars anymore and when
26:53
I was a kid at ESPN
26:55
the the stars that were created
26:57
under the umbrella of the four
26:59
letter network Was
27:02
pretty remarkable and those days are done
27:04
like they don't get credit for Pat McAfee
27:06
He just did his show and they
27:08
just added it to him. They had nothing
27:10
to do with him, right? They hired
27:12
his show and they don't even get to
27:14
touch it And if you think about
27:16
probably two of their biggest guys in the
27:18
network Steven A Smith and Scott Van
27:20
Pelt I mean, I think Steven A Smith's
27:22
58 years old. I think Scott Van
27:24
Pelt's over 55 years old The young talent
27:26
and the young stars or just people
27:28
that are gonna be stars like those days
27:30
are dead and
27:33
Lee Corso and Dick Vitale are
27:35
two examples of, now these were
27:37
former coaches, but they
27:39
went to ESPN after their coaching
27:41
careers ended, slash they pivoted, and
27:43
they became the faces of the
27:45
network for college football and college
27:47
basketball. And if you think about
27:49
it, like the two guys, there's
27:51
really four guys when I think
27:53
college football and college basketball that
27:55
are synonymous with ESPN. It's
27:57
Jay Billis and Dick Vitale and
27:59
Kirk Herb Street, and Lee Corso.
28:02
But when you think about the four guys, Herb
28:05
Street and Billus are very similar. Good
28:07
looking guys, very professional, just
28:10
really high level guys,
28:12
former players at really high
28:14
levels. Herb Street, quarterback,
28:16
Ohio State, Billus, Coach K,
28:18
Duke, mid 80s. Yet
28:21
when you close your eyes and think
28:23
about the two big stars of the
28:25
network for those brands, it was
28:27
the guys with the huge personalities.
28:29
And I just saw a clip Not
28:31
a clip but an article where
28:33
Lee Corso early on told Tim Brando
28:35
I want to become the Dick
28:38
Vitale of college football and one thing
28:40
with Dickie V just like Lee
28:42
Corso is They were a huge huge
28:44
part of the explosion of the
28:46
game and the explosion of celebrating the
28:48
sport and listen I love golf
28:50
and they use this term a lot
28:53
with live and the PJ Tour
28:55
and YouTube golf of like growing the
28:57
game I do think
28:59
Lee Corso and Dick Vitale, who
29:01
obviously Dickie V has been
29:03
battling cancer. I mean, Lee Corso
29:05
has two things can be
29:07
true. Today is a celebration day.
29:09
It's an awesome day to
29:11
just celebrate this great show, this
29:13
great man, this iconic
29:15
figure in the business, enrolling him
29:17
out the last couple of
29:19
years. And I understand it's never
29:22
easy to end with a
29:24
legend, right? And this transition has
29:26
been tough. But them rolling
29:28
him out the last couple years
29:30
has been very very difficult to watch
29:32
and that there have been times
29:34
where it's like Kind of sad, right?
29:36
It's like how are they putting
29:38
him on television right now? And they
29:40
clearly have been trying to transition
29:42
the last couple years adding Saban last
29:44
year adding McAfee the last couple
29:47
years trying to get a younger vibe
29:49
and at least done less and
29:51
less but now it's officially over and
29:53
Like Saban is is good, but
29:55
it's not the same There's an element
29:57
and I think what they tried
29:59
to do is basically McAfee and Saban
30:01
were like combined into one to
30:03
equal Lee Corso. And it's
30:05
just hard because there's only one
30:07
original and the same thing
30:09
with Dickie V. Like they didn't
30:11
replace Dickie V. There's no
30:13
replacing Dickie V. There's no replacing
30:15
Lee Corso. Now, I think
30:18
Lee, you know, I
30:20
don't, who knows what he'll
30:22
be able to say on
30:24
his last show, but the
30:26
game is in a better place and
30:28
it's as popular as ever because of everything
30:30
that's going on even if it's kind
30:33
of weird with the NIL, with the 12
30:35
team playoff that's probably going to expand
30:37
even more. I mean we got a lot
30:39
of moving parts here. But
30:41
when I think college football, one
30:44
of the first things I think of is
30:46
college game day. And obviously a guy putting
30:48
on the mascot at the end of that
30:50
show as we go in and transition into
30:52
the first games of the day, he
30:54
was a massive, massive part of
30:57
most of our lives that love the
30:59
sport. We
31:08
live in a divided country and our
31:10
media couldn't be more polarizing. That's why
31:12
we started the middle with Jeremy Hobson.
31:14
It's about bringing voices not from the
31:16
extremes, but from the vast middle into
31:18
the national conversation. Each week we hear
31:20
from ordinary Americans, from all over the
31:22
country, and when you subscribe to the
31:24
middle, you also get an episode each
31:26
week called One Thing Trump did that
31:28
focuses on just one item from the
31:30
avalanche of news. Listen to the middle
31:32
with Jeremy Hobson on the iHeart Radio
31:34
app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get
31:36
your podcasts. a
31:38
group of young women found
31:40
themselves in an AI -fuelled nightmare.
31:42
Someone was posting photos. It was
31:44
just me making. Well, not
31:46
me, but me with someone else's
31:48
body part. This is Levitown,
31:50
a new podcast from iHeartPodcasts, Bloomberg
31:53
and Kaleidoscope, about the rise
31:55
of deep fake pornography and the
31:57
battle to stop it. Listen
31:59
to Levitown on Bloomberg's Big Take
32:01
podcast. Find it on the iHeart
32:03
app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you
32:05
get your podcasts.
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