Latest / Your Dark Companion Podcast / World Cup Media Center Stories Goes Nutz | Mike Leslie | Ep 236

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World Cup Media Center Stories Goes Nutz | Mike Leslie | Ep 236 · Your Dark Companion Podcast

• Nobody would have thought that I would be the one. Ryder, sports talk. Baseball. Baseball. Baseball. Baseball. Baseball. Baseball. Oh, with the big mic. Oh, okay. Alright. Yeah. Okay. Now I get it. We got a lightning strike, boys. What happened over there, Grego? We had a little lightning strike right outside the window. The Texas Rangers win the world series. Alright. Alright. Here's a tip for all these Americano League teams. Don't what? You said tip. Yeah. Tip. Okay. With a p. I would keep jamming. The ticket colon, nothing but a big Gen X jerk on set. Is this a cool night or what? I know somebody would hear that go, bullshit. I'm back, bitches. Great tables are hard to find too. Indeed. Indeed. And that's all this was, This is a $35 unit. Team Moo taking care of business. Man, it's pretty solid. Folds up nice and nice and small. Does it really? Yeah. I mean, you can see that the case for it's maybe it was a it just sits right there on my dolly. We got a little shelf in here. Storing stuff up. Keeping it clean. Awesome, man. One of the better remote tables I've ever seen. Wanna get a sunset lounge sticker, big sticker for the front of it. That'd be pretty neat. It'd be very very nice. Need like a beer tap right here. Well, it's actually pitched as a portable bar. Oh, really? Yeah. I can see that. I can see a bartender bringing this into a party somewhere and setting it up. Yeah, you'd have everything down here. Yeah. It comes with the skirt too, so it just Velcros it all up there and put your put your little scanner for people to pay off right there and boom, there you go. Is there enough room here for a big old ball of booze? Done. You'd you try hard enough, you can do anything, make anything fit, really. I guess you could. Yeah. Hey, we're at the World Cup, man. Talking tables. Talking tables, bars. Table talk in the World Cup. What else do you need in this life? Well, is table talk right there. That is. That's the most serious table talk. Yes. But we are in here at the media Center, media headquarters of the World Cup in Dallas, and we're watching World Cup action before us on a very, very big screen. In fact, two big screens that are joined together. So you get two different angles. Because we are officially in double time. We are officially in double time. What's the situation over here to the left? Right. We have, Scotland and Brazil playing in Miami, and then we have Morocco and Haiti playing in Atlanta right now. And that one just kind of started not too terribly long ago. They both started at the same time. Oh, they did? Mhmm. Yeah. Every from here on until we get to the round of 32, both matches will start at the same time, three three time slots a day. And then round of 32 will start middle of next week. Shouldn't Haiti shouldn't they worry more about feeding their people than fielding the team? You you qualify, you qualify. Yeah. You know? And it's it's also good PR for your country too. For their people, fielding the team probably is feeding them. Fair. Give them cake. Let them have cake. Yes. Let them eat cake. But the the action's been great. Been been been enjoying all the matches as we've been watching her. Now this now you get to the point where you've got things going on at the same time, and that gets a little bit more difficult. But, I've got, I've got Alex looking into making sure Hulu can do the sports mix thing so I can have both matches on my my screen at the house at the same time. I can't say I'm too terribly keen on the idea of the split screen. I'm having a hard time watching that. I don't know enough about this game to be able to focus in on two of them at once. You know? I think when it comes to this game, the beautiful game The beautiful game. Yes, sir. One at a time is about about capacity for me. I'm I'm always big on having the multiple games at the same time up regardless of the sport. Have you? Yeah. And that way because I I don't have to click back and forth. By the way, aren't you Mike Reiner? When I last looked. Because you you haven't told them who you are. Oh, I don't know. I just kinda assume they they they either they either know or if they don't know, they don't care. They all care. That's the way I look at it. They all care. I can tell you though that he is Grego. Yes, he is. He is Rob Irvin. Hi, Internet. And we're here to edify you for the next hour or so here on Your Dark Companion today. And yes, we've been here all day at the media center and in surrounding vicinities, watching this event unfold here in our Fairburg. In the air conditioning. Yes. Oh, yeah. Well, you could definitely tell the difference. And we stepped outside for a minute and went and saw the the, the cattle drive statues and then came back in and just felt that whoosh of cool air. Oh, that As we walked out of the inside. Beautiful whoosh. Is this Texas is a different kind of hot. If this is the beautiful game, then that's the beautiful whoosh. You are not wrong. I I tell people all the time when I go back to Florida that they're like, what's it like in Texas? And I'm like, well, you see the stuff that makes the trees move? They're like, what? The breeze? I'm like, yeah, we don't have that. And if we do, it's like somebody's following you around with a hair dryer all the time. Yeah. Texas is just a different kind of hot. Or when it when the wind does blow, it'll blow your barn over. Yeah. Yeah. That happened to our pastor. We he lost his barn. I go to a cowboy church, and he lost his barn a couple of weeks ago, which could be the most Texas thing I've ever said since I've lived here. But this is I think at this point because we have 48 teams, all what groups a through l, I think is what we're up to now. Should they have started this part of it maybe a little bit earlier and come out of the gate that's You tell me. I I'm kind of in the dark because I on the structure of this thing and how it's set up. Really, I'm I'm kind of a pagan, and I'm just sitting here watching the game and enjoying the competition and trying to understand what's going on down there and why they just did whatever they did and why it worked, why it didn't. But as far as the setup of the tournament, that I don't understate. So the setup of the tournament's done by random draw. There are multiple events that happen between World Cups that you have friendlies, which that's just almost like a scrimmage, you could say, and then you have qualifiers. And you have to and I don't know what the criteria is for the qualifiers, but once you qualify for the cup, then all the names go into a hat and each group of four countries is by random draw. Now that there are 48 to get to the round of 32, the top two teams in each group automatically go through. So now how many did they start with? 48. Oh, 40. To qualify? Yeah. Everybody that wants to try out can qualify. Okay. If you if you can feel the team, you can try to qualify. We've got four countries this year that have never been in the World Cup ever in the history of ever. Okay, but then they narrow that down to what, forty eight? Forty eight. Okay. And that's where we are right now. Yeah. So Now they expanded to 48, right? This time around. Yes. What was it before then? It was 32, and even before that, it was less than It it went from 32 to 48. This year. That's a lot. Yeah. It's it's it's almost doubled in the last probably thirty years. But the way it works round one of the group stage is is round robin. Everybody plays everybody. Then, like, the top the top record automatically goes through. If there's a tie, they've normally, it used to go to gold differential. This year So now you're talking about in these groups of four? Correct. Everybody plays everybody. Correct. Okay. Goal differential used to be the first tiebreaker. This year, they've instituted head to head as the first tiebreaker. So if you've tied, then they go to there's like six different tiers kind of like, you know, when we get to December and we start doing complicated NFL math, it's kind of the same thing. Yeah. Once you get to the round of 32 Except I understand the NFL. You're not wrong. Once you get to the round of 32, that's what they call the knockout stage. Now we get to the point of winner go home. Okay. And we get down that, and we go, and we go, and we go, and we go. And then the finals will be at New York, New Jersey Stadium five days after the MLB All Star Game. Okay. Now are we to the knockout stage yet? The US has automatically they have officially won their group by being the only team in their group to win two matches. No one else can can do better than they can because there's only one match left. Okay. And they'll play that match tomorrow night. Really, for that is just to I mean, they have to play it. But for The US, this this game doesn't really mean as much because nobody can catch them. What about the loser teams? Do they have to go home, or is there a consolation bracket? Or The only consolation happens, to my knowledge, and, Ashley, keep me honest on this. They do play a, like, a bronze medal, like a third place game before the finals. So it kind of like a bronze medal game. Yeah. If you will. That's I believe they actually call that the consolation match. Unless you're Iran, and then they execute you. Oh, dear. Yeah. That's what they do when they lose. Well, and Turkey They'll take you back there and hang you from a crane. Are they even in this thing? Yes. Yeah. They're here. They don't you didn't hear the big controversy? US won't let them won't let the team stay in The United States. They have to stay in Tijuana. Good. So they'll cut they'll fly in, play the match, and then fly back out. Now Tunisia has the problem right now. They lost their first match, fired their coach, and then just lost five nil in their second match. Now that's that is so World Cup. That is so different. Yeah. Your coach gets you all the way to the world cup and lose one game and you're firing. Good grief. And then they bring in another guy that's you know, it's it's like, how do you expect That's like win after that. That's like make it to the NFC championship game and then get fired. Yeah. It doesn't make any sense. Like, just fight through it. And when you get done, you get done, and then you make the change. In the middle of the tournament, you know, and then, I mean, they just got shoalacked in their second match. It just but it's also you were talking about earlier, Grego. It's international stuff, and we don't tend to know, understand, and all that kind of stuff when especially when it comes to international sports teams. The thing is, it's such a simple game. You take a ball and you kick it into a net. And but, boy, will they have some some rigid rules. Yeah. And just, you know, weird competition ways. Like, I I I still don't understand these groups and and and how they set it up with a round robin. I I I don't know why you just can't set it up like a regular tournament. But but then again, I understand because it's once every four years and you really can't have a one done. Yeah. I mean, that that wouldn't be fair. The the amount of work that these teams put in just to get to this point, you know, and then and they they've gone they have the same model that the Olympics have. Like we have the men this year in two year, we'll have the women's. So that way there's there's spacing there. So what are these teams doing when they're not playing in this thing? Most of them actually play on other teams in Europe. The first time we talked to Tyler, he talked about how there's, like, 19 different leagues in Europe, whether it's Bundesliga or Champions League or Oh, Bundesliga. Now I've heard of that one. That's the the the German league. Yeah. Obviously. But these guys are actually it's like the Olympics. They play professional sports for whomever pays them in between. You've got guys that play for the MLS, of course, because Lionel Messi being one of them, you know, for inner Miami. And so that's what these guys do in the meantime. Alright. Let's see. Our our guest just rolled right here. I can oh. And he's putting on the headset right now. We're getting Ashley's gonna get him set up. Gonna get him on camera because he's a really good looking guy. He belongs on camera. I was gonna say, I feel so inadequate right now. I don't know. You know him on camera. Everybody knows this guy on camera. If if And remember there was a guy that was made to be on camera, it's him. Am I am I up? She's she's framing you up right now. She's gonna put the mic on here in a minute. Put the mic on you. Wanna wait until I'm mic'd up. Brazil just scored again. Wow. There it is. We're not even doing a hydration break. Hello. Hello. Alright. Here he is. This is Mike Leslie. I am so sorry. I have been next door waiting around with not I'm just kinda getting some busy work done. I had it in my head that it was 05:45, not 04:45. So I just walked I'm thinking I'm early walking over at 05:20, and Grooves was emailing me like, hey, are you there? Yeah. They're they're they're saying you're not there yet. I'm like, what do you mean I'm not there yet? I'm running early. What are you talking about? I am so sorry. I had it off by an hour in my head. And so anyway, hi. Thank you for having me, and I'm very sorry that I'm walking in here late. I thought I was early and very clearly not. Well, hi. We're glad to have you, and these things happen. You know? Yeah. I'm very sorry. I'm very, sorry because I was looking forward to it. I was I was on the phone with my wife walking over here like, yeah. This guy's a legend. Like because my wife knows Dale. We used to live down the down the down that way in Waxahachie with he and his wife. And so I was like, this is this is like a Dale level legend in DFW media. And son of a gun. I'm I'm extremely sorry. I I we could be for sure about 45. You're here now. We're glad you're here, and and that's it. We're gonna change out of our tap dancing shoes, and we can get down to business. Yes. There we go. Ken. Sounds good. Sounds How are you? I'm good. I'm good. How are you guys doing? We're hanging right there. Hope you guys enjoying all the World Cup craziness? Yeah. I am. Yeah. I mean, I'm not a big soccer guy. I never have really gotten into this thing before. Yeah. But, yeah, I'm on board. I'm watching it. Yeah. Yeah. No. Listen. I think you and I are in a similar space with this. Like, I I've like soccer, enjoy soccer. I've called a little bit of soccer, but I'm not by any means a diehard. I'm not by any means an expert. Yeah. But there is a a different energy to having the World Cup here. It's cool. And it's I think it's it's pulling a lot of us in. And and the question is always, how long does it pull us all in? Does the does the does it grab us for longer than just the lifespan of the event itself? Yeah. We'll see. But at least for right now, I think a lot of people are in. Given that the coverage is from the guys on the other side of the tracks, how much you were allowed to talk about it? That's Joe Trahan and I were just having that conversation. And when I say, like, I'm just over there just shooting the breeze waiting to come over here. Like, I I could have easily been here at 04:45. I am so sorry. We're just telling stories and talking about you know, he he was telling because he's the only one he and Paul Melton, one of our photographers that I may that you guys may have come across over the years. Yes. They're the only two from our department that got credentials to actually be in AT And T Stadium for any of the matches. So I haven't been over there for a bit of Texas live a little bit. I've been over here a little bit, but that's it. And we're allowed to show some of it. I think the the rules are a little less draconian than it is, like, for the Olympics. Yeah. You you shall never show any of this. This is only in this peacock next to you. Yes. You you shall not touch this. It's a little less restrictive than than that is, but there are there are definitely rules that we've gotta kinda fall in line with. So If it's is it a little bit looser if it's you're covering America, or does it matter? No. It's it's pretty much across the board that and and obviously, I think, honestly, I think if anything and I don't think that it's stricter for The US, but I feel like if they were gonna go anyway, they'll be looser Right. With with with The US. And then, hey, if you wanna show Brazil and Scotland okay because our audience is not as interested as they would be in in team USA. But that's the thing that I think is is the most fun about this is holy smokes. Look at them go. Yeah. Like, that's that'll really get people to jump in with both feet if they can make a run here. And I I don't know that they're gonna win the whole thing, but if they're in the quarterfinals, if they're able to shoot, then you'll really start to see, I think, some energy behind this thing. We've been talking about this earlier today, and I wanna get your take on it. What is your vibe about the way things are around town with this thing here? It's interesting that they're, like, tearing that place down right next door to the Yeah, International Project it is. That's a little weird. I think What are they, building a ballroom over there or something? I'm not sure what is the the next step in that particular space. Tear down stuff, tear down a wing of something, and build a ballroom. And they just Maybe the next city hall. Who knows? Well, they just tore that down, what, not ten years ago when we had the tryouts for the Olympic gymnastics team here. And that's why they did the teardown was to facilitate that. Yeah, it seems like that would have been something you would have had done. Yeah. Before everybody arrived, before the world's media arrived here in That's what I was thinking. I mean, let's face it. This place loves tearing shit down. You know? That's all there is to it. If they're gonna tear down City Hall after that was such a big deal when it was built, you know, I am paying all that. And it has been standing there. And then really in in certain quarters, probably, you could say it's something of a logo for the city of Dallas. Yeah. And now they're talking about tearing it down. This place loves to tear stuff down. Robocop, baby. Yeah. It was the it was the for those that don't know, they just did a matte painting, and Dallas City Hall was the the evil corporation building in Robocop. Yeah. But to get back to where I was going with this, are are you It looked futuristic. Yeah. Of it here. Are you thinking people are into this yet? The World Cup in general or Or just people around town? I I think so. Are you getting a lot of chit chat chit chat about it? Well, I I think more than anything else, I think what people are enjoying is seeing all of the cultures that are coming here, seeing everybody from Croatia descend upon more Arlington than Dallas. Who the hell wants to see somebody from Croatia? The ugly American. But I think the the folks from the Dallas I mean, could've said with the big orange bust. You could've said France or or or Sweden. I mean, you go to Croatia. Fair enough. You you had a one in 48 I know. Croatians need love. We're giving you Mike, we're giving you Germany. We're giving you Switzerland. We're giving you Norway and their army, and you go right to Croatia. Know anything about Croatia, so maybe now let's see. About it to stay away from it. About having the folks from Japan come over and clean up their sections? That was kinda cool. Right? I had interfacing the other day with a bunch of Japan Japanese people. Yeah. This is a great story. I I I live in Grapevine, and a lot of people a lot of people stay at the Gaylord. Yeah. So I was downtown Grapevine. I saw a group of young Japanese. Okay. And so, you know, they come over to me and they are are you a cowboy? Very broken English. Yeah. I'm like, no. I'm not a cowboy. I said, but I did own a February Datsun z. Datsun two sixty Z. Yeah. And they go, what's that? They had no idea what a Datsun was. Really? I go, I go, is that a Datsun? Like a Datsun? Yeah. Or and and and then I said, you know, Nissan. Oh, yeah. Nissan. Nissan. Yeah. No. Nissan. They said, used to be called Datsun. I wasn't about to try to explain the Oldsmobile to them. Just realizing that, you know, this is old man Rob talking, but realizing that there are now two generations of humans, if not three almost, that don't know what Datsun is. Oh, yeah. Unless you're in and I hate even to call it classic cars because that's really what they are. You know? But I I agree with you. Like the, you know, just groups of people coming around the country. Yeah. There's a lot in Grapevine. I mean, you know, but they got that Wolf Lodge there and that Gaylord and it's full. Yeah. Oh, it's got to be money hand over fist over there because of all of the incoming visitors for this thing. They're up and down the street. Right by the airport. Yeah. In out quick. You're not that far from Arlington. I didn't think about that angle. Yeah. And because you got three or four other hotels over there too, that have to be just packed to the gills. Yeah. But but they're packed all the time. So It's a big deal, though. But it's This is truly a a a big sports deal. And some of us can compare it because we were here in '94. And it's not even it's not even on the same planet. I mean '94 it was a big deal. Yeah. But it was a big deal for like one week and that's it. But it was huge during that week. But, you know, it's not like we haven't seen it before, but we haven't seen it like this. Yeah. I mean, is I've I've I've never seen this kind of electricity on not one of the big four sports. Yeah. Yeah. I know it's I mean, this is like Indianapolis 500, something like that, you know, once a year stuff Yeah. That that that you get. Only this is This is once in a generation for us, at least to have it here. Yeah. You know? When when's it gonna come back to The US? If '94 was the last time and not that it's necessarily gonna be the exact same time frame between, but you're talking thirty two years. Well, that depends on when they count up the cash registers. I'll tell you what, this They make they make a lot of money. This is it for me. I'll tell you. Well, it's something like, if it comes back thirty two years from now, I'll be 70. Like, mean, this is this is a one off. This is a true one off opportunity that maybe, you know, maybe I'll have the Mike Reiner podcast at that point in my career. Maybe that's what I'll be doing that for. If it comes back thirty two years from now, I'll be 107. Hey, told you about that Dick Van Dyke book I just bought. If you read that, you're gonna make it to at least 100. Okay. I'll read it to make it a 100. There we go. But we talked all too about the technology playing a role and how that's I I think that's been the biggest factor, especially for this town. Yeah. And the and the popularity of the sport is because it's so accessible now. Mhmm. Like right now, we're watching two games at one time. There was a time where you had to have two huge satellite dishes outside your house just to maybe get one of them right. Right. And now I can just plug my laptop in. And on a Sunday, NFL ticket Sunday, I can put six games on my laptop, should I choose to do so. Yeah. Are you doing this legally? I will neither confirm nor deny any rumors that may or may not be out there. But I am fascinated the number of places that still use old school direct TV in their bars. It's like there's so much better ways to do Don't you be bagging on I love direct TV, but with the weather problems that it has, I would just go to You're gonna lose it. Done with it. When it rains, you're gonna lose it for twenty minutes. Just bake that in. Happens every now. I have DIRECTV two. I have the direct DIRECTV stream, and I never lose it. Well, that's the DIRECTV stream. You're not using the dish. Yeah. True. I've got the dish. You still got the dish? I've got the same account I've had since 1998. Wow. See, had Same account. I had it when that's and I could Ron and I lose it for twenty minutes when it rained. Ron and I got it on the very same day when they introduced something called DIRECTV to us. Well, in the interim, I went to the stream. Yeah. Well, you remember when the Sunday ticket was a $125 a season. That's when back in those days, you could get that Sunday ticket for next to nothing. And when that thing hit 200 a season, I said, I'm done. I'm out. What is it now? It's the better part of $3.50 if you wanted it for season. Yeah. And you but you can also pay it out over the year versus back in the day. You only paid it during the season. If you have DIRECTV, you can go to their their their boxes and watch the six games at once, and you don't need it. The sports mix. Now YouTube TV now has the Sunday ticket you want it there. But I've always said the NFL was missing a huge revenue stream opportunity. I'm a dolphin. I'll pay you a $100 a year just to be able to make sure I can watch all my dolphin games. Yeah. Yeah. Or as a Bucks fan too, I'll pay a 150 to get those two games because I'm out of market. It's never been a thing. So here's me. Get home from church. Hey, look. Red zone. Let's go. Yeah. Red zone is Yeah. Why can't just that red heart that? There's plenty of fans. That's only way to watch it. Do Cowboys fans live around the country that would wanna do that. How do you handle these things, Mike? To be honest with you, I don't because I'm not at home on Sundays. I'm in Arlington on Sundays, so I don't even bother buying any of these things. And the random Sundays where either the Cowboys aren't playing or I'm home seeing family or whatever, and my brother will, like, call up NFL Reds like, oh, right. This thing exists because I I just I don't experience it that way. I'm usually there in Arlington pregame, obviously, during the game, postgame. Seven, eight hours of my Sunday is spent at the game itself. So I'm not I'm not the target market for as much as I love football, I'm not the target market for for Sunday NFL packages of any kind. Yeah. I generally just roll with whatever they send me. You know? I I don't don't get any of the packages or anything like that. Just throw a game on at high noon, throw a couple on at three, and and then Sunday night football rolls around. I'm I'm good with whatever you give me. Where are you guys with things like the rangers have done with victory plus, what the stars have done, Mavs TV? Like, it seems like a lot of these teams and some of them are obviously, the Mavs are doing it with with us at Channel eight and and KFAA as well. But it seems like a lot of them are inching closer and closer to we're just going to deliver to the audience Yeah. Ourselves, take out the middleman, take out the TV stations. We don't need any of that. We're just going to give you the product like the Rangers and Stars are doing on our own app or on a partner app or whatever the case. Are you guys in on something? You good with spending? We're gonna spend a $100, and here's a 162 rangers or a 159 or whatever. Take out the couple of national games or whatever, but here's your full ranger season. I would do that. Yeah. I'd be alright with that. Here's I've the philosophy that once again, go back to DIRECTV. If I get it on DIRECTV, I watch it. If I have to go anywhere else, I don't. I don't go to Netflix. I don't go to any other thing. If I can get it on DIRECTV, I'll watch it. It's just like last night, the Ranger game wasn't on. I didn't watch it. I didn't pay for it. I've always said that from the beginning. But, you know, paying for Ranger games, that's not nothing new. Mean, back in the day, you know, there was, you know, a broadcast crew called HSE. Yeah. Or if you wanted to watch Ranger home games, you had to buy that. So paying for Ranger games is not anything that But that was just part of the cable package, though, wasn't it? No. You had to pay extra for HSE. If it was blacked out. Yeah. But whatever it was, I did it. Yeah. I did it gladly. Yeah. Back then because that that that was when you did you know, you might get, you know, 20 games a year. Yeah. Before HSE came along, they would show, you know, 20 or maybe in a good year, 30 random games a year. And it was on channel eleven. That was back when they had a bad signal. Mhmm. And so, I mean, it it it's it's great now compared to the you know, back in the day when you when you got, you know, like like college football now. I love college football. There was a time where you got two college football games a week. That's it. Notre Dame and somebody. Yeah. Yeah. And then a a Southwest conference game. Yeah. And that that that was it. Forbid. Michigan play. I never saw Michigan play until they played in Rose Bowl. And God forbid if you were watching your favorite team and it was a blowout either way and you'd get that announcement of we're gonna take you to a more competitive game. No, I wanna watch my team. And I've said this since the beginning of streaming and it's we're starting to see it now. It's gonna do this, and it's gonna hit critical mass, and then it's gonna come back down again. Well, don't you remember when when when satellite came out, the big deal was cut the cable. Cut the cable. Well, now when they're bundling everything together, all you're doing is creating your own cable system. That's all you're doing. I worry that the teams that are doing their own thing like the Rangers are with RSN, they're going to do the same thing. They're trying real hard to make it work, and so far, think it is. I hope it is. But there's a ceiling out there somewhere for it. Yeah. And I think they're gonna bump up against that. And then I've been saying that for forty years. It's gonna be going to something else. Well, Mike, I I'm asking this because I honestly don't know because I just thought about If I don't have RSN, but I have ESPN plus and I've got the major league the MLB package because that ESPN bought that. Yeah. Will I still get the Ranger games? I don't know. I'm not sure. I mean, literally just No. Into my brain just now. No. You gotta have six you gotta have channel six seventy seven. That's the Rangers channel on on DIRECTV. That is crazy. That's why you get DIRECTV and don't worry about it. Just get it. You're gonna overpay. Oh, I grossly overpay for that. Oh, do I overpay? I feel like we've mentioned DIRECTV more than anyone on the planet. You know why? Because it and Spotify are are are great. And like I said, DIRECTV, if it rains, I'm gonna lose it for twenty minutes. That's just baked in. But that's why you keep everything recorded. You keep you nice. Go to the stream. I never lose it when it rains. You know, I've I've I've considered going to that stream, but man, just don't wanna I make just don't wanna make the commitment to have to be there when the service guy comes. Yeah. That's that's a big commitment. Having to be there when the service guy comes is a big commitment? To me, is. Yeah. I mean, they give you that window, that four hour window, and, you know, I I just don't like their attitude on that. I it's a four hour window that then turns into a seven hour window because you you just you gotta block off a day. Yeah. You do. But it's not like we'll come between, like, eight and ten. So maybe I'll go to work late. I was like, we're gonna be reaching ten and two. And if there's one minor, just minor problem, they gotta leave and come back next week. Well, let's get back to talking to our guests, shall we? Let's do. Because I wanna know more. What do you wanna know? As do I. How long at WFAA now? Little over eleven years now. Yeah. I got here in April 2015. I was the replacement for George Reba when he retired. Oh, wow. George Reba was retiring after a thirty seven year career at WFAA. Had worked with Vern Lundquist, had worked obviously with Dale, had worked with everybody under the sun. And I was 27 years old. I was a decade younger than his career when I took over his position, and I had no idea what the heck I was doing, but I thought I knew everything about everything, and it took me until about last week to stop thinking that I knew everything and that I was, you know, God's gift to Dallas media. I was so it was pretty annoying the first, probably at least four or five years that I was here, but hopefully I've worked my way out of that. I don't find you annoying at all. Well, first step to solving the problem is admitting that it exists. So how long was it in your mind? Because your perception is your reality before the comparisons died down? Because you're filling shoes of somebody had been here for That's a generation and a good question because I don't know. I mean, the way that our department worked before I got here and worked certainly for the first few years that I was here for somebody that was in my role or George's role, we were just a cog in the wheel. You know? Dale was the guy. You know? And and then beyond that, Joe was the guy. So for either one of us, we were just turning stories and just, you know, filling in, anchoring whenever we needed to. And so I don't know that there was maybe necessarily direct one to one comparisons. It was just, hey, just just keep punching the clock and do decent work and and we'll figure it out from there. But it it was just to walk into that department at 27 years old. At that station. Yeah. A station that's so old school, it still has the W in the letter. Right. The only one West Of Mississippi with a w. For those that don't know, if you're East Of The Mississippi, your call center letters start with a w. If you're West, it's a k because that's FCC law. Right. And so when I first moved here from the East Coast, I was like, wait, hold on. I took TV radio. I I know this this is we oh, they were grandfathered in. Yes. And then you learn more about the history of channel eight. Yeah. Oh. But we used to have WBAP TV then too. Oh, wow. Always had five. Always had WBAP radio, but channel five, yes, they were WBAP TV back then. But even to have a W on the radio side. Yeah, that's What WOAI, that's another one that was grandfathered in. And legacy, you kind of have to be. Was there a moment leading up to all this that you can point to and say that was the moment that I decided this was the thing I wanted to do for the rest of my life? Oh, I knew I wanted to do this when I was 11. Just watching SportsCenter as a little kid. I mean, I was I was you could probably go back earlier than 11. I because I was I'm the oldest of three boys, and my two younger brothers both love sports and loved sports as kids as well, but they were quote unquote more normal in terms of they wanted to watch cartoons. They wanted to watch, you know, what most kids I wanted to watch SportsCenter at like five all the time, except for if they were talking about the OJ murder trial. That was one thing I was like, I I have no time for this. But if they were showing highlights, I was in. And I just I devoured SportsCenter So and you on a loop from a very young age and pretty early on decided that's what I want. And the timeline you're establishing that was sports center owning the world. Oh. We're talking mid nineties. Peak sports center. Yeah. I was born in '87. So we're talking I think I broke a hit when he said that. Not God almighty. Oh, yeah. We're talking early to mid nineties. Well, you really are a shade out of your teens, aren't you? Listen, man. I can I can see four forty is around the corner? So oh. I know. I know. But for me, that's, like, that that's that's hard to reconcile a little bit. But, yeah, that was that was my childhood, was watching SportsCenter, watching Rich Eisen and Stuart Scully. I don't know if you see Rich Eisen started doing this. This was Yeah. I'm I'm fully caught up. I am. You were talking about the this this was SportsCenter. Greg, have you seen this? I did. It's I'm loving every minute of this. And knowing that Kilborn's the season finale, I cannot wait. Alright. I gotta get by the channel on this. Yeah. Know. That'll be that'll be really good. So you grew up where? Upstate New York, around the Albany area. Just about a half an hour north of Albany, which is the capital. Oh, that's about three hours. Yeah. Born in Schenectady and grew up in the Saratoga area. A little it's a little closer to, Boston Spa, if you know the area very well. But like eight minutes from Saratoga Racecourse where they've been holding the Belmont the last couple of years. And, so, yeah, that was home for me all the way through high school. Went to college on Long Island at Hofstra University. And then my career, just kinda hopscotched around, went to Western Massachusetts. Springfield, Massachusetts was my first job. Had a cup of coffee freelancing in Boston for three or four months. Tried to make that a full time gig. Couldn't quite make it happen. Went to Charlotte for about a year and a half. Got fired in Charlotte, and then came to Dallas about four months later. Got fired in Charlotte ten days before Christmas, 12/15/2014. That was a dark day. God, I can imagine. So did you just start sending out tapes and stuff or however it worked back then? And you sent one to WFAA and I emailed Dale Hansen and Sean Hamilton, who is still the sports boss at WFAA to this day. Sean is. Yeah. Wow. Didn't know that. And heard back from Dale on December 16. Literally like a dark day and then the light became was coming back. Monday. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. It was it was kinda and, like, I didn't know that it was gonna turn into, like, I didn't get hired until I didn't get the word that I was going to be hired until, like, March. It was a, you know, there was Wow. There was a process, and and my wife and I still jokingly refer to that time between jobs as the famine. Like, we were eating, you know, cheeseburgers and brown rice every night for dinner for, like, three months because, you know, we were just fearful of, like, what is this gonna do to our future? I know. That sounds like me. I had napalmed my career. Got in a tiff with the assistant news director over a an expense report, and it was it's kind of a funny story. I was going to You like funny stories around going to Minnesota for panthers vikings because I was covering the Carolina panthers. I was right there in Charlotte covering the panthers. We had a two person department. So I'm going to Minneapolis by myself. Know nothing about Minneapolis, just going there to cover the game and turn around and come back. And that week my grandfather had sent me a text message. Hey, heard you're going to Minneapolis. I used to go there all the time for business. There's a place there in downtown that you gotta check out. He said, I can't remember the name, but just Google butter knife steak Minneapolis. It'll pop up. You gotta go try this place. It was like, I think was Murray's, I wanna say is the name of the restaurant. Cool. That's what I'll do on Saturday night after I fly in. Sit there at Murray's steakhouse, have a nice steak, have a really nice meal. The bill just for me was a $103. The rule at that station that I was working at, the max you could spend was 50. So I knew when I got back to Charlotte, okay, when I put the expense report in, I can put the 50 on the expense report but the other 53 is on me. That was how I put it in. I abided by the rule. Right. A week goes by, it's a Friday night, I'm out shooting high school football and I'm getting emails from this assistant news director who I will leave nameless, giving me a hard time about the fact that I had spent $50 on my dinner when I was in Minneapolis. I'm like, that's the rule. What's what's the problem? Oh, just because $50 is the rule doesn't mean you need to spend all $50 You could have spent 35. And I was like, if you want me to spend 35, then make 35 the rule. Like, what are we talking about here? I have actually been there, my friend. Oh, the way, did you notice that the next morning I got breakfast at McDonald's for like $7.32? Like, it averages out okay. I think we're alright. And every time I tell this story, I tell it the same way. This assistant news director that I was going back and forth with in these emails was every bit as sarcastic and, I'll edit slightly a jerk as I was in this email exchange, but I was absolutely a sarcastic jerk in this email exchange. I will absolutely fall on my sword and admit I was a sarcastic jerk in this email exchange. And Monday morning I was gone. Wow. I was I guess at that point I would have just turned 27 a couple of months prior. And again, we're talking about, you know, 27 year old me thought he knew everything about everything there is to know about the world, and I was always right. And I was right in this in this email exchange, and I was gonna make sure he knew about it. And my time in Charlotte was over. And a couple days later, had the email from Dale and the honestly, the fact that I got fired in Charlotte is part of what attracted me attracted Dale, I guess, to me. Yeah. Because he had a similar past where he said, of the 11 jobs he ever had in his life, he was fired from eight of them. And he just there was something about my story that resonated with him, and that was, I think, part of why I stuck out to him in the whole thing. And I remember his story about one guy in particular who re I mean, that one just really rubbed in the wrong way. It was just really a big row between the two of them. Yeah. I can't think of the guy's name. Jerry Orr? No. No. No. No. Somebody Hansen His Jerry his Jerry Orr story is pretty good. I don't know if that's the one that you're referencing as I can think of one other. This is a guy when that Hansen worked for when he was Oh, that Hansen worked for. Yeah. Don't know if I know that story then. Okay. Yeah. God, I wish I could remember the guy's name, but just ask him to tell you the story. Yeah. I've heard talking about. I've heard my fair share of Dale Hansen stories because I don't know if you guys know, we actually lived there on his property for, what, it ended up being about two and So a when you said that earlier, you literally meant that. Like, it wasn't like, hey, we live down the street. Like No. No. No. On on Casa Del Hanse? So I I kept this a secret for a while because there was a certain level of of ego, I guess that I probably had to get over with this whole thing. My wife and I both worked in the business. She was a meteorologist. She used to work for Channel eleven until about a year and a half ago. She had been working in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina when I first came here to Dallas. And about a year and a half in, she gets a job in Waco. So we moved to Waxahachie right before we got married to have a semi midway point. And during the year that we were living in Waxahachie, we had had dinner with Dale and his wife six, eight, 10 times, whatever it was. And they knew, you know, kind of our story, freshly married, trying to save money to buy a house, you know, do all the things that you do. You start a family at some point. Sure. Whatever, whatever, whatever. So almost a year into living in Waxahachie, our lease is getting close to wrapping up at this apartment we were living at. And we're standing there in the sports office one day, a whole bunch of us, we've eight, nine of us, we had the whole department practically in there just kind of talking, shooting the breeze about whatever. And Hansen all of a sudden says to me, hey, what are you spending to live in that apartment down there in Waxahachie? And I told him I was on a 1,200, 1,300, a little two bedroom that we were in. He says, okay. How'd you feel about spending $1,200 less than that a month to live in Waxahachie? You have my attention. Dale, that sounds great, but what the hell are you talking about? You know? Come to find out, this is something he and his wife have done for, like, thirty years, whether it was the place they had in Keller way back in the nineties, the fancy I don't know if I gotta imagine y'all have been down to the lake house that we used to have all the parties back in in late nineties into the February or the place where they are now in Waxahachie. They have always had some second dwelling, farmhouse, pool house, garage apartment Yeah. Whatever. And they have just let some young professional, you know, whatever, just live there for free. That does not surprise me at all. Right. He's That story doesn't No. It doesn't surprise me either. That doesn't surprise me. I mean, it's so great that, you know, I'm just sitting over here just giggling because that that's exactly something he'd do and keep it a secret. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's Yeah. That's a great story, Mike. We we had to kinda chew on it a little bit because, like, I was 31 years old. I'm making a decent check. I've been working in Dallas for a few years. Like, there there was a little check your ego at the door to the whole thing. Like, it felt a little bit like a handout, like charity, you know, but we were, you know, we're trying to pay down student loans. We're trying to save for a house. We're trying to do all these things. We're like, this this is too good opportunity to pass up, you know? So he's like, yeah, come do this. You know, come hang with us for nine, ten months, a year, whatever. Save up some money and go buy your house. So we move in July 2019. So right as we're hitting that nine, ten month timeframe, here comes COVID. And all of a sudden we are doing shows from his back patio for a year, and the housing market also went stupid nuts during that stretch as well. Mhmm. And so we ended up living there for two and a half years. By the time we moved out, our daughter had been born, and that was really the, okay. Now we gotta go because we need space for our almost four month old by the time we had actually finally moved out of the place. And now the woman that was our nanny and is our still to this day all the time babysitter is the one that's living there for free because they've continued this trend. Very nice. Yeah. When you when you say this is the like, Dale Hansen is every bit the ego that you have been told that he is, but he is also incredibly, incredibly generous. And the story that I love to tell that that shows both of these things is from the first time I ever went to Cowboys training camp. August 2025 2015 rather. Dale's birthday is August 2. So every year, we're at Cowboys camp. Oh, I've been to some of those. Yes. Yes. Oh, boy. You might have been to this one for all I know because the table is big. I feel like birthday parties. I feel like the word allegedly is gonna show its head at any This one's actually relatively tame, but it just kinda shows the duality of of Dale relative to both the ego, but also the gener the generosity. Ask him about the birthday party at the Cedar door in Austin. Okay. Okay. I I You were about 11. Yeah. Probably. So we go out. We start the night. It's myself, Arnold Payne, Jose Gant, two of our legendary photographers at Channel eight, Sean Hamilton, Dale Hansen, and Chris Hanks from Fox four was out with us. That was the initial six that when we rolled in. And waitress comes to the table, starts taking drink orders or whatever. And somewhere in that conversation says, alright, so how are we doing the check or whatever? And immediately Dale's hand goes in the air and says check comes to me, which for Sean and Jose and AP, they're used to that. They didn't even blink at that. But both me and Hanks are like, wait, what are you talking about? Because this is the first time I'm experiencing it. And I'm sitting there thinking, I'm here on the company dime. Like what? I don't even care. It's not actually coming out of my pocket. What are you talking about? Check comes to me. Check okay. Over the next fifteen minutes, in walk a couple of guys from channel eleven, couple of guys from channel four, couple of guys from channel five, couple of guys from the Star Telegram, couple of guys from the Tyler station, and like, all of a sudden, we got like 25 people at the table. And I'm under the table with my phone texting Sean Hamilton, like, gotta get the waitress back over here because the the math has changed. Like, there's no way he's picking up the check now. This just got real. And the waitress comes back a couple minutes later and had and kinda does the same mental calculus that I'm doing of like, oh, okay. Now we gotta reassess here. How are we doing this? And again, he throws his hand in the air, check comes to me. And now the whole table's like, what are you talking about? Like, we're not paying for this. Our company is. What do we we don't even care. You know? What what what are you doing? He was gonna pay the check. That was the end of the situation, and this is the case this has been the case for a very long time. You go out with that dude, he's picking up you go to the cigar bar, you go whatever you're doing, he's picking up the check. But there's so there's there's your generosity piece of it, but the ego piece of the pie comes out when the check comes and he really? Really? 22 of you, and we couldn't even get the $600? Like, this is the really? Just to make sure everybody knows just how much the check is and that he's not bothered by this at all. The the absolute flex. Oh, I love He loves to sit at a poker table and have somebody, like, think they're busted and then have a buddy just be like, dude, you're you're not even into his radio money. Like, what do you he's he's not he's not concerned with this. He hasn't cleared the cash level yet. Oh. So, yes. The ego's definitely there. Listen. I I love this man. That we this is one of my favorite people on the planet. My children call him Papa Dale and his wife Cece. Like, they are my my kid's third set of grandparents at this point with how long we lived there, and now we are down the street, you know, whatever, twelve minutes away still in Waxahachie. And part of why is because we got shoot. During COVID, we got incredibly close with he and his wife because the four of us were each other's social lives. Yeah. That, yeah, that had to have been it. All we were doing for a year was sitting on his back patio drinking wine and smoking cigars and some you can do worse. That's living your best Worse ways to hang out for sure. But that was our life for a year, sometimes dangerously so. You know, I used to think he was a big obtuse blowhard, and I didn't like him at all. He knows this. He knows this. But over time, I began to hear stories like that about what he does for other people and without anybody knowing about it or anything like that. And I just got to know him a little bit better. I've had him on podcast a couple times and everything. And I see him a little bit more for what he is and I'm right there with you. I love the guy. Listen, I caught tail end of his career, Dale. I did not catch fire in Brimstone Dale. Like, I've I've heard stories of what it was like to work for him and in his department in the eighties and nineties and even early two thousands. He pony excess days. Yes. Yes. From everything I've heard even from him, that was a different time. He was a different person to work with back then. Yeah. And he was also like, the first he'll maintain the first twenty years he was here, '20, '22, '23, whatever he said about o '5, o '6 is where he kind of tailed off of this. But there was a decent chunk of time where he was working his ass off, always everywhere, doing all the things that you'd expect him to be doing and then some. And then the back 15 or so, he's like, I kinda did nothing and just hung out at the station and was in the studio and kinda never went anywhere else. And and, like, he tells a story about going golfing with with Rick Carlisle when he got hired by the Mavs. And they're playing 18 holes of golf or whatever. And as they're walking off the eighteenth green, Carlisle says something to him about, hey. See you. Immediate day on Monday or whatever. And Dale's like, I I I got people who will handle that. You are you're not gonna see me. He that that's who he was on the Immediate day in my ass. I caught very chill, very tail end of his career. Mostly what he cared about at that point of his career was I wanna do kick ass commentaries, and that's kind of all I'm really concerned with. Like, highlights and ball scores, as he would call it, did not entertain him anymore, did not excite him anymore. But Dale is the guy that perfected the live shot. I mean, he he's the guy that did it more than anybody in town. I mean, if if the rangers were playing, he had a he had a player on every game. Yeah. And he was he was the one you know, because Channel eight, because they were throwing out the money. And then Yeah. Know, back then, you had to buy that satellite time for that. Right. And he he was always I mean, it was nothing to see Hanson do a stand to to to do his sports from reunion Mhmm. And then do something live at the ranger game. Yeah. In in in the box at the old at the old stadium. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, Dale was a worker. He was a pack mule. I mean, he he he was out everywhere. Yeah. He He will maintain. There was a He was having fun and partying at the same time, but he he he used to work. Oh, between shows? Are you kidding me? The the number of times he would go out between shows and be I've sat with him at Louie's and looking at my watch, and I start getting nervous. I'm like, Hansen, it's ten till ten. Oh, yeah. His his favorite ten. His favorite Louie story is from the night of Republican National Convention in '92, where he had extra time because there was the convention was on. It certainly wasn't gonna be over at 09:59. The 10:00 show wasn't starting at ten that night. So he goes to Louis, and he's carrying on with everybody. And forget it. I got I got the alphabet as my guide. You know? I look, oh, we're in New York. Alright. I got time. He said at some point, he looks up and saw that we were in Rhode Island or whatever and then somehow missed Wyoming and West Virginia and looks up at one point, we're on the air. And he says, not only are we on the air, I don't know how long we have been on the air. He said that was the one time that he was whipping down 75 trying to get back to because this was still when we were doing the shows at the station. They hadn't gone to Victory Plaza and wouldn't for another, whatever, ten or fifteen years. He said that was the one time where I genuinely considered, do I just crash into a telephone pole because then I've got an excuse? But he made it back just in time, and he got back in the commercial break between weather and sports. And Jose Gant, our legendary photographer, producer, assistant sports director, did everything for that sports department for forty plus years, is meeting him in the hallway with his jacket, and they are running to the studio. And Jose is trying to tell him everything that he's got in his sports cast. And I Hansen's flawless. Oh. Absolutely. The landing. Doesn't miss nothing. His favorite thing to do would be exactly in the scenario you're talking about where you're with him at Louie's and ten to ten and you're going, dude, you gotta go. You bet and oh, not only do you have to go, but you've been here, and I've just watched you have three or four drinks. You're like, how are you gonna go do television right now? I promise you. I have ordered a beer before, and he's been there. And he left, and we watched him do his sports from Louie's. Yes. And he would get back before I was finished with a beer. Because he loves this happened before. He loves especially if it's somebody that's not like yourself that lives in the area and knows what he does. But if he's at a bar with somebody that is here from out of town and just happens to especially when they had the cigar bar that was right next door to our Victory Plaza Studios, Havana's, I think it was. Yeah. That was super convenient because he could walk across, didn't have to worry about driving, didn't have to worry about anything, have a couple drinks, have a cigar, hang out, and talk with somebody. And he'd be talking with somebody that wasn't from here, didn't know who he was. And all of a sudden, it's 09:45. Alright. I gotta go do the show. I'll be back in a little bit. Wait. You have to do what? Just watched you I just watched you have three drinks. What do you mean you've gotta go be on TV? Hey, Jimmy. Flip the TV on for him so he can go do the show, come back, and walk through the door like, how'd I do, boy? He had his own he had his own How'd I do? He had his own parking space that that was a great getaway at the Loon. Yeah. You know? He That's the end of the I'm sorry. I missed that part of the 92 story. He went out he went outside that night, he says, and he was double parked in by somebody. Said he ran back into Louie's, stood up on a table, and said, whoever drives the whatever Toyota Corolla with license plate XYZWhatever, You got thirty seconds to move it or I'm driving through it, and somebody comes scurrying out the door. When you live with the man for two and a half I I can basically do these stories the same way. I've heard these stories so many times, so many times. Great stories. I've got more Hansen stories than I have my own stories. But sometimes that's kind of the best way to do it because you hear it from somebody else's perspective. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. That's good stuff. He did one of the guttiest things I've ever seen in my life. It was after this is an infamous plane ride coming back from Washington where the Cowboys blew a 13 lead in the last one minute. And Jimmy was hot. This year, won the Super Bowl the first time. Okay. And they were coming back, and Jimmy just threw a fit and and made you know, it's it's legendary trip and legendary story. He he made everybody stop serving the the the stewardesses stop serving meals and went back there and just screamed at everybody. I mean, he he was going nuts on the plane, Jimmy was. Jeez. And we always played poker, and I was always playing poker with Hansen. And so Jimmy comes back there, and, man, I cowered like a dog in my seat. I I didn't want Jimmy to even see me. Yeah. It was so tense. And Dale sat there holding his cards just staring Jimmy down. Just daring Jimmy to say anything to him. Just staring at him. And Jimmy did and Jimmy didn't say a word. He smacked the lips and turned around and fell. Oh. Fell right on his face. Oh, Dear. Fell. Fell. Fell. You gotta remember, it's it's in the plane. The plane was flying. Yeah. Yeah. And he turns around and balance. Wow. Yeah. And Hansen just staring him down. I mean, he he was like the movie five card stud. You know? He's sitting there looking at him over the cards. Yep. Did anybody laugh? Laugh? You coulda heard a pin drop. Oh. It was the 14 people get, oh, Jimmy, I got you. Come here. It may be the it may be the most intense I've I've ever seen Jimmy Johnson. Yeah. That's still not a hair out of place. Right. No. No. Not a hair out of place. Like I said, I was cowered down, man. I didn't wanna make eye contact with him or anybody else because it was, I mean, Jimmy ran that plane. Yeah. Jimmy ran everything. Yeah. And boy but but, man, he and I thought he was gonna challenge Dale because Dale was he was telling everybody to sit down. Jimmy was screaming, sit down. Sit down. And he went up to Ken Norton junior, and he said, sit your ass down. Ken goes, coach, I can't. And his knee was swollen up five times. He said, shut your ass down. Boy, he did. He sat down. God. Lord. Is he there? Oh, yeah. I break the break the table, man. Shout out Timu on this quality table. Good table. I'm gonna be wrapping around. Care for $30. Bucks. Bucks. But, yeah, it it it was so intense. Yeah. But but Hansen didn't blink an eye. And he was the only one on that plane that didn't. Everybody else, players, coaches, owners were scared. It it makes like, it makes a little bit of sense just because what reason would Jimmy have to give any of the media on the like, I I can understand why he'd be barking at Ken Norton, why he'd be barking at any of the players and coaches, but, like Because he could. Is he well, there is that. Yes. Because Jimmy hated the media more than anybody. Yeah. Do you have any good run-in stories with sports figures? Because I feel like we talked so much about the great Dale Hansen. What could you possibly be referencing? I I don't know. That's why I'm asking. Oh, I thought you were I thought I am not leading anything. I'm ask I am asking I am not that bright. The obvious one that comes to mind for me is Trayvon Diggs. Okay. This was this was 2024 season, it must have been, couple years ago. He wasn't here that long. He wasn't here that long. No. But this was still he still hadn't like, his perception amongst the fans hadn't dropped off at this point, at least not much. He wasn't, you know, in his zenith, you know, 11 interceptions or whatever, but he was still thought of as as a quality player in this league. And and I don't mean that as a shot relative to who he is currently, but cowboys at niners, October '24, and George Kittle catches a drag route over the middle, turns up field. Diggs wasn't covering Kittle on the play. He was covering another one of the Niners receivers. So he wasn't responsible for the initial catch. But as you as you watch the playback, Diggs just kinda looked to me to be loafing it. Just jogging along Yeah. As Kittle nearly scored. And I see this play happen in real time, but more than anything, I saw the highlight pop up in my Twitter feed a couple minutes later and that was where I really noticed. And I was like, what is he doing here? Like, it doesn't look like he's I didn't understand what he was doing. So I quote tweeted it and said, what is Trayvon Diggs doing on this play? Candidly, I didn't think much of the tweet when I sent it. An hour goes by, hour and a half. It was probably a third quarter play. So maybe an hour or so goes by. Mhmm. Game's over. I'm downstairs outside the locker room as we always are waiting for the players to make their way off the field and myself and John Machota and Pat Doney and so many others. And we're all getting video of the players walking off the field to the locker room as we do every game. And that part of the story is only relevant because that was when Diggs apparently noticed that I was physically there. He goes into the locker room, and I don't know if somebody texted him my tweet or if he just goes back and searches his own name on Twitter. I'm not sure exactly how he came across it, but he came across this tweet and I'm in my phone. I'm posting whatever video maybe even of Trayvon as this as this moment begins to happen. And I'm posting away. And the tweet was just what is Trayvon Diggs doing? The entire Now when he said that, I remember this now. Yes. I'm just I am sorry. I did not No. Mean No. No. I really it was just it's an entertaining story. It was the transitional question. When you said the tweet, I now remember this incident, but I wanna hear how this And it wasn't anything more harmful. Yeah. And it should have been as harmless as that. The Honest question. Yeah. Honest question. It was I I'm trying to remember the exact verbatim, but I'm pretty sure it was simply what is Trayvon Biggs doing on this? To my memory, that's what that was what it was. I think. Yeah. Okay. Maybe put it this way, at least from a like, that was the point. Yeah. That was that's that's at least 98% accuracy of what the words of the tweet were. It was nothing. It was not incendiary. Yeah. No mouse. Just I mean, it was What the heck happened? A pointed question. Right? Like, there there was definitely a point to the question to say why like, the subtext to the tweet was definitely why is he not going a 100% here? Yeah. Mhmm. And I'm bopping away, posting about, you know, whatever video I'd gotten of Dak walking to the locker room or Diggs or CD or whatever. And so I'm here and I didn't really fully clock what was happening at first, but he's right here and just that's what you took out of that play? You don't know what you're talking about. You can't play football like I did. And just just goes on a rant. And he's like, from me to you right here in the hallway and everybody else that we're all standing there waiting for them to open the locker room doors for us to go in and talk to the players. They're all standing around me. We're all doing the same thing. And so now all of their phones turn to capture this moment as I'm like, where am I and what is happening right now? It took me a half a beat to kind of gather myself and realize, okay, he's talking to me and he's absolutely coming in hot. Yes. Yes. And so eventually, I kind of gather myself after whatever three or four seconds worth of what's going on and start kind of barking back like, well, what were you doing on that play? Well, like, we can talk about it. You know, what what's going on here? What happened here? And honest to God, the punchline of the whole thing that made the whole thing go viral, I did not hear in the moment. And the punchline being don't know how well you guys remember this story or not, but it went viral for a minute and for the first three or four days of that week, was all I could hear about anyway. As I said to him, hey, we can talk about it more. He turns and he's walking back to the locker room. And I don't know if it was because I was saying still to him, hey, we can talk about this more or whatever. I didn't hear him in the moment, but he apparently turned around and said, you can talk about these nuts and walks into the locker room. Wow. And the world obviously thought that was hilarious. I didn't hear it. And ten, fifteen, twenty minutes, whatever go by, and I'm in the locker room and we've talked with a player or two and we're waiting for somebody else to come over to where they kind of stage him to have all of our cameras around and somebody else from our media group, I guess, wasn't there for the moment. And I hear wanna say I wanna say it was Saad Youssef, I remember, if I remember right, that was telling the story to somebody else. Maybe it was Joe Hoyt or what. I can't remember exactly, but I think it might have been those two is what's sticking out in my head. That one of them was there, the other wasn't. Right. And it's all anybody could talk about. So like he's telling the story and I'm just kind of smiling as I'm listening to him tell the story. And he gets to that part where what Dig said walking in the locker room, was like, wait, he did? I didn't hear that part. And they were like, you didn't hear that? Was like, no. I didn't hear that part. I didn't catch that at all. So, yeah, it went crazy viral. I heard from people I hadn't heard from since elementary school on that It was it was the Lauren Ross, a buddy of mine from, like, third, fourth grade texted me off of that. I was like, I haven't thought of you in thirty years. Like and you saw this thing? It went everywhere. But we we I feel like I my tagline is a high. I like powder kegs. I don't know. Because I again, I remember the tweets. See, I I feel like in the moment, you just post a picture of two walnuts having a conversation and then nothing with it. Right. Nope, no caption. Yeah. And just see what happens. Because there's a, think there's a level that of allowed pettiness to that. You know, you wanna talk about me as you're walking away. As as Samuel L. Jackson once said, allow me to retort. You know? Yeah. It was it was entertaining. And we did eventually I think it was Wednesday of that week, went up to Cowboys locker room, and I didn't know where it was gonna go. But I knew, like, I didn't at that time, Wednesday, Thursday were my off days. So I was not ordinarily up there midweek for availability, but I reached out to Cowboys PR, and I was like, hey, when is he gonna talk this week? Because I feel like it's the right thing to do for me to be there whenever he does his availability. Gotta show your face. Oh, that's the Randy Galloway rule right Exactly. Exactly. You whip somebody, you gotta be there the next day. Exactly. Even though we had already kind I knew either side of the room. Let's go. But so I I wanted to be up there, but I didn't know what path this was going to take. He had some explanations for what he was doing on the play. He said it was he said it was slow playing it to avoid a cutback from Kittle because I think it was Donovan Wilson maybe had a better angle at him. So he was pursuing him fully and Diggs was trying to play if Dono over pursued and Kittle tried to cut back, Diggs would be there for that purpose. Yeah. Okay. So I kind of made my apology for misreading the play. He made his apology for the for the dust up in in the hallway, and he presented me with a canister of d e e apostrophe s d's nuts, and that we Very interesting. Made up and that canister is still somewhere sitting around by my desk at channel eight. And, yeah, so it was it was an entertaining it was an entertaining week. He made a crazy interception in the very next game, and just for fun, I remember Trayvon Diggs, that interception was nuts. Just to kinda try and bring the thing full circle and then have a little just a little bit more fun with it and, you know, do do it in a cheeky but not inappropriate way. And I I was thinking, I do know what he did here. Wow. That that could've worked too. I know exactly what you were doing on this play. That that would that also would've worked. Well, this show has been pretty nuts too. Yeah. Well, I started off by missing you guys by, like, whatever, forty five minutes compared to when I was supposed to be here, so I didn't exactly set us off on a great pathway. No. This has been has been a lot of fun. I mean, this has been a great day. Yeah. You made up for it, man. Great day. I appreciate you saying that. I I still can't believe, like and I went back and looked at the email. It's clear as day. It said 04:45 for a 05:00 start, and apparently, I went, like, dyslexic on it and put the five at the front of the forty five or whatever. It happens, man. It's like, was it on mountain time? Oh, no. Alright. He is the great Bonk Leslie. And we thank him for being with us. And we thank you out there watching. We must ask you the best thing that we always do at the end of these things, and that is put us on your social media. Get us out there. Yep. Help us keep doing this, and we will help you. I I don't know. Maybe come over and mow your yard or something. I ain't know when I'm in tomorrow night. What? Tune in tomorrow night because me and the me and Alex will be here. Oh, you will? Yeah. We're gonna be here tomorrow night for our show. Alright. Well, there you go then. 08:00 eastern, 05:00 Pacific. There we go. This time. Yeah. Check out Rob and Alex. Hang out, dude. That would be amazing. I'm here for that. If I I'm at Texas live tomorrow night because they got the the match out at AT and T tomorrow. But Well, well, there's that. A minor I can't even get in, man. I can't even get in. Have you been to FanFest? I actually haven't yet. I've been at Texas Live more than anything so far with where they've had a set up. It's looked like it's unbelievable. Yeah. I'll have to check that out at some point. All right. Thank you, Ashley. Thank you, Becca. Thank you for being by the channel. Bye. Alright. I'm gonna go take my pants off. You're Dark Companion is a stolen water media presentation.