Scott Van Pelt on Favorite ESPN Stories, Calling the Masters, Torpedo Bats and New Nieces | EP 132
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Oh, that was good. That's it. Travis, give us your best to 14 right now. All right, now here we go. Now over to 14. I'm changing the channel if somebody gives me a 14 call like that immediately. That was poor. That was poor to bad is what that was. All right.

Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, to New Heights, a Wondry show produced by Wave Sports and Entertainment and brought to you by HBO's The Last of Us. Season two premieres April 13th on Max. Looking forward to that. We're your hosts. I'm Travis Kelsey, my big brother, Jason Kelsey, out of Cleveland, Ohio, Cincinnati Bearcat alums. And yeah, subscribe on YouTube, Wondry Plus, wherever you get your podcasts. Follow the show on all social media at New Heights Show with one S. Jason, tell the people.

What we got coming up. We got another great episode for you guys. We're going to break down everything that's happening in the NFL owners meetings. We've also got some huge baseball news, huge barrels. Some would call torpedoes coming out. We also have a, have an incredible conversation with my co well with my coworker and host of Monday night countdown, Scott Van Pelt, Maryland's finest,

SVP coming on the show. You're not going to want to miss that. He brings it as always. He just has so many good stories and he's such a storyteller. The best. Pros pro. All right. Well, let's start with a...

With the baseball news. Listen, or with a little... Oh, yeah, of course. New news! New news! New news! Coming in hot. New news brought to you by American Express. Yeah, there you go. Shout out to American Express. And, yeah, the Yankees. The Yankees have been doing a little research and development into what...

can make a baseball bat better, and they have introduced the Torpedo Bat to the world. That's right. First of all, I love the name. I mean, that's a great name for anything. Torpedo Bat? That thing sounds lethal. It sounds like a Nerf bat that we had when we were kids. It does sound like a toy. It definitely sounds like something that would be really marketable to children. It sounds like something you'd tell your kids and they're like, I want it. I would buy it immediately. Well,

Kevin Smith at KJS underscore four. Yes, the Yankees have a literal genius MIT physicist, Lenny. I mean, I don't know any physicist that goes by Lenny. One person. Sure. Lenny, on payroll, he invented the torpedo barrel.

It brings more wood in mass to where you most often make contact as a hitter. The idea is to increase the number of barrels and decrease misses. Yeah, we have a nice little picture of this to demonstrate how much bigger that sweet spot is.

and how much further down the bat it has moved. I'm really intrigued about it. I mean, obviously they jumped out to some pretty crazy success. Are all of them – I don't think all of them are using this bat. I don't think – although I don't think the main one, Judge, he's not using it. But the guys that did use it, I think, had a number of home runs this last week, if I'm not mistaken.

15 home runs to be exact. Well, I guess it's just Yankees. So which one of the Yankees are using them? That's what I'm saying. I don't know if we don't have that information. Yeah, we don't. I don't think we have that. I'm not sure. They were playing the Brewers and they were smoking the Brewers. I think that's what happened. Yeah. Which apparently, according to baseball experts, not that hard to smoke the Brewers. A lot of Brewer hate going on these days, but there is a lot of Brewer hate.

It's unfortunate. I'm intrigued by it, though. I mean, the science adds up. I mean, Lenny, Dr. Lenny might be on to something. We'll see what's in the future for the torpedo bat. Ongoing investigation. It is a legal bat that does adhere to the parameters of Major League Baseball. And what is he determined to be a legal bat? I'm really interested in seeing how this plays out.

Yeah. I would love to see a list of the guys using it versus the guys that aren't, and maybe like a spreadsheet of how they did last year versus this year. Jake, we're going to task that with you. Good luck, Jake. I feel like you'd be able to figure that information out. Man, could you imagine Barry Bonds with a torpedo bat? I mean, we don't even know if it's good yet or not, but yeah, I mean, I think the bat Barry used was fine. Yeah.

What's better? Regular bat with copious amounts of steroids or no steroids and a torpedo bat? I'm taking steroids. See, these are the answers. Lenny, you're an MIT guy. Dr. Lenny, we want the... Can you figure this one out for us? What's a bigger advantage? Anibal? I don't even know what a real steroid's name is. The torpedo bat. There you go.

I just missed opening day at the park. I might have to catch. I mean, listen, we just had a baby. Yeah. Are you trying to show the niece? Do you want to show? You want to see your new niece? Yes, I want to see my new niece. Jason, you only sent one picture. Come on, Kai. You didn't even tell me what you picked yet. Ooh, look at that. Hey, little muffin. Look at you. Is it hanging out with mom? Tell Kai I said hello.

I'm glad everything went great. Trav says hi. Hi, Trav. Do you want some? I gotta go next to him. Hey, Trav. Hey, Kai. Jason hasn't told me if you guys picked a name yet. Is this still a nameless baby? No, she has a name. We had to fill out a birth certificate paperwork. I thought that's how that worked. Well, you can technically leave without it, but we wouldn't remember to fill out the fucking paperwork after that. So we have to do it when we know.

Is that a beer bat? That's what I'm saying. That's all we're focused on, too. That's impressive. Isn't it cool? They might sell them at Citizen Bank. And you're impressive, Kai. Thanks, Trev. You're impressive. It really wouldn't have been possible without your brother, you know? Is this Finney? Yeah, Finn. Finley and Kelsey. We're calling her Finn. Finn and. That's adorable. Jason refused to let me just go Finn, so.

I'm dead ass. I love it. Well, congrats, guys. Should we ask Finn a question? Finn, Finn, come here. She said sneeze. All right, go ahead. What do you want to ask? Hey, Finn. That's so mean. Finn, you just look adorable. I don't even have anything to say to you. You happy to be out? Huh? How was Kylie's uterus?

Too comfy. That's why we had to evict her. Get this guy out of here. Oh, man. I'm sorry. Your father's a weirdo. All right. We're going next door to record. All right. Enjoy. Love you. Love you, too. That was lovely. Thank you for that. Oh, she said she wanted to stay and see Uncle Trev. Not gonna lie. Listen, babies are awesome. They don't do a whole lot for like the first six months.

You would know you have four of them. It really doesn't get that exciting until they start smiling and like giving you something. I mean, it's amazing. Watching a birth is still one of like the most crazy things that you can ever witness. And there's a moment right when you see any baby. I feel like that's just like overwhelming. I love it, man. There's not, there's, there's a, this can't really do much right around the six month mark. That's when it's like Benny right now. Benny's right. A little bit over two.

She is a lot of fun. I mean, she is a spitfire. Doesn't even know when she's being offensive. It's the best.

I love it. I'll get up there. So, all right, I'll see you in like six months. Six months. Yeah, that'll be good. That'll be good timing for you. Let's move on to some football news. Football news. The annual NFL owners meeting are happening in Florida right now. Flo Rida. And of course, as we always talk about, the coach's photo, guys,

Got revamped a little bit. They did this on like a stage. Yeah. They got some lighting. Was it too hot to go outside? Everybody taking the photo like this? Because the light is just, the sun is just burning their face off. I don't like this. They're taking this way too serious now. I mean, that's a lot of coaches. It's like professional grade. All right. Oh, there was a storm. There we go. I got to keep reading. So it was raining.

Okay, that makes a lot of sense. Good choice, guys. Good choice. Good choice. Nice. All right. So instead of naming all the coaches this year, we are going to be tasked with naming the one coach missing. The one coach missing. All right. Who is missing from this photo? I feel like we're playing like Where's Waldo. All right. So I guess I'll start. How do you want to do this? You want to do conferences? I think whoever gets it first wins. That's all I know. Oh, okay. Okay.

Name people as you're seeing them. It's just dead silence. God, damn it. We got the NFC East. We got Dayball, Sirianni, Dan Quinn. AFC West is there. God damn it. Schottenheimer's there. Guys, this is the hardest thing. Dude, who is this guy? I have no idea who that guy is. Duvall's there. Is he? Taylor's there.

Miko's there. Gosh dang it. Todd. I have raves. I don't know who's in Seattle now. Who the fuck is this guy? Shanahan's there. Man, every year I feel like there's another guy added that I'm just like, I don't remember. Who's this Seattle coach now? McDonald. He's upper left. It's next to the table. I think I might know who it is. Nope. There he is. Fuck. And we're positive there's somebody missing. There's one coach not there. Could not make it.

Due to the storm. Storm? Due to the storm? Was that a hint? No, that was just the weather. That was just the weather. So this was in Florida. Somewhere. I'm not that clever. Are all the Florida coaches here? Yes. Atlanta. Who's... Goddammit. Who's Aaron Glenn coaching for now? Aaron Glenn is coaching the Jets. Who's Atlanta's head coach?

You should know this, Jason. You're so close. Jason, come on. To be fair, I don't know anybody in that division. Oh, my gosh. Raheem Morris. There it is. Jason, you won. You won. Oh, my gosh. That was tough. Maybe the most pointless game we've ever played. Congrats, Jason. What a big weekend for you. New baby. Winner of Guess the Coach game.

The NFL competition committee met to vote on banning the tush push, but discussions were tabled. That's right. It may be. Yeah, it may be discussed again in the May meeting that they have as a committee and could be pushed forward once more to support the

the more that is gathered. So what are your thoughts, Jason? I get it. I get why certain teams want to ban it for competitive reasons. I get why some people think that it's potentially unsafe. I think optically it looks unsafe. It's football, man. For me personally, I never felt like there's that much more of a risk of injuring somebody on the play. And I don't think there's any statistics to back that up. So anybody saying that it's

going to lead to more injuries is pure conjecture, not rooted in fact. I think the only argument I see for potentially banning it is, is there a competitive advantage? Is it unfair that players can push and should we allow players to push rather than

ball carriers or anybody to have to do things on their own. But, you know, I think that that's going to be a hard rule to enforce. Like when is that enforced? Like our gang tackles outlawed are, you know, open field. Like when big Creed Humphrey gets behind a running back and he's pushing the pile forward. Do we not want that? Cause I like that. No, cause that's football. Yeah. I think it's, it's hard to know, like, where do you, where do you stop?

from occurring. You can't just say like, hey, you can't do the tush push. That feels like a hard rule. Like it needs to be a rule that's enforceable throughout football. Although they do let defensive players push D lineman on the tush push,

But they don't let that happen on field goal. They did outlaw that because that was leading to an increase of injury. Man, listen, there are four downs that a team gets to get a first down or get in the end zone. If the tush push is just one play that you run when you have a short-yarded situation, those may come up a handful of times throughout a game. And it's like you can't get upset at that one play. You know what I mean? Like I understand the whole –

if you want to say it's not safe, football isn't a safe game to play. So I know we're trying to make it safer or whatever. It is what it is. I think it's a football type of play. It's a toughness play that you need to be in sync with the guys next to you and the guys around you. And that's on both sides of the ball. I don't think we, I don't think we need to be banning this or, or like you said, how far down the line does it go? Are players on the defense not allowed to hold guys up now?

to try and have somebody come in and get a strip like that. At what point are we just going to let football be football? Just from like the health aspect is like people see people misusing my quotes. Like the place sucks to run.

But it sucks because of like an exertion, like an energy level. It takes so much to try and get a yard. Yeah. It's not a high impact collision. There's not, for the most part, people don't even get rolled up on because you're keeping your feet moving. It's not going to be a play, in my opinion, where you're going to see this huge increase in chance of risk of injury. It's just not. So I don't think it's really that dangerous from a health perspective. And I don't, listen, I've done no studies other than anecdotally what I've been through.

But typically injuries happen when guys get rolled up on because they're locked out in blocks or there's a high impact collision that occurs. And neither of those happens on a play like this. It's so tight quarters. It just ends up being like you're just pushing against each other. Yeah. You know, I get it. I mean, it's a play that.

Some people don't think represents football. I disagree. I think it represents football really well. Some people think it's more of a rugby play, but when we have like a guy who played rugby, Jordan Milati, he's like, it doesn't have anything to do with rugby. It's physicality. It's intensity. I think it perfectly represents football that I like, you know, but at this point, I mean, I'm tired of the back and forth with it. If you're going to ban it, just ban it. It ends up being a topic every single year.

Before the tush push was allowed and we started doing it, we just used to do regular quarterback sneaks and was still a high rate. So I don't think it's going to really change the Eagles approach that much. They are going to keep doing this because it is a higher percentage with the push, but it isn't that much more. Like the Eagles just generally are good at quarterback sneak. That's why they execute this play at a high level because they're good at that first. If they take this play out, I still think the Eagles would be really good at quarterback sneaks.

because I think Jeff Stoutland coaches it well, and I think they have good players to execute it. So I'm kind of over the back and forth of it. Do whatever you're going to do with it. I think the health thing is kind of a bogus claim that people are using that just want to get it banned. I can see that for sure. The fairness and competitive fairness to the defensive side, I get the argument. I just don't know where you draw that line at. One of the quotes I saw was like, I'm most concerned for the center. I was like, yeah, I get it. Yeah.

I mean, it sucks. It is a grueling play because of the amount of exertion. It's less of like a grueling play of like being blindsided, like cold cocked. And it's more of a grueling play of like, you got to take a shit and it just won't come out. And you're just squeezing forever until that thing comes. That's what it's like. That's what's grueling about it. It's like...

I mean, I think everybody's been there. That's more of the grueling nature behind it. The exertion that I'm talking about. I don't think I've ever done that taking a shit, but I know I get what you're saying though. Jeff Stoutland did it one time and it was the funniest fucking thing I've ever seen a coach do. It was so funny. All right. One of my former teammates, good friends, and the last of the core four remaining with the Philadelphia Eagles, Lane Johnson had this to say on Twitter, hate us because they ain't us.

There we go. Talk your shit, player. All right now, player. All right. That does it for a little tush push and new news. New news is brought to you by American Express. Yes. Yes, it is. And let's move on into some fan mentions of the week. Some trap fan mentions. Yeah. Yeah. This is pretty crazy. There are a few people that when I look at them, it's like, damn, that's crazy.

That's my cousin. This is one of them right here from Sky Dog on X at New High Show at me. Travis, when did you start playing baseball? Well, I've been playing for a long, long time. But the Brewers, Bryce to rang. Hopefully I'm saying that correctly, Bryce. Yes, where there's some there's got to be some lineage down the line. He's got a little bit of the Jonas Valanciunas vibe.

Look to him too. Yeah, I think there might be some Lithuanian in there. I mean, I see it a little bit, but I don't think it's like that. I think it's more so just the red beard. He's got that, as it grows out, mine gets like more red. I'm going to let you know what it is. Here's what happened. I've never done a 23andMe, but I can virtually guarantee that

There is somebody in a lot of people's like, you know, Genghis Khan. Have you ever heard of this? Like Genghis Khan? There's like a 10% chance or something ridiculous that anybody is related to Genghis Khan. It's something absurd. Like this dude just like was banging women nonstop. Just being honest. I forget what the brand. Can we find that stat about people being related to Genghis Khan or having like Genghis Khan's genes? It's absurd when you look into it. Okay.

You don't know anything. Can we get the Genghis Khan stat? I have the Genghis Khan stat. Quit yelling at me. I'm not yelling at you. You're yelling.

Genghis Khan is estimated to have over 16 million male descendants alive today. That's crazy. How crazy is that? Approximately one in 200 men globally sharing his Y chromosome. Fuck, that's insane. 0.5% of the global population has Genghis Khan's Y chromosome. I want to see if I'm related to Genghis Khan. And I believe that goes up if you're of Mongolian descent.

Historical accounts suggest he fathered many children, both through his marriages and concubines. Sons, grandsons continued the trend, further spreading his genetic lineage. The claim that so many people are related to Genghis Khan is supported by a 2003 genetic study, which identified a unique Y-chromosome haplograph group, haplogroup, yeah, whatever that means, okay, shared about 8%.

of men in regions once part of the Mongol Empire. These Khans are getting after it, man. Yeah. So I think that there's somebody. There's somebody with one of these Y chromosomes in all the basic white bearded guys that we kind of embody. I think that there's some guy that just had a half red, half brown beard and was just running around with an axe up there going through Europe.

Well, shout out to Bryce. And finally, he had to show some brewer love today. So shout out to Bryce. We also got this from the New Heights page of Reddit from Adam Bomb 661. Interesting name, bud. Dude. This church mural in my neighborhood looks oddly familiar. Why? Travis. I've never seen Jesus look like this. Like you? Dude.

I've never seen this. How did they do this? Somebody painted this in your image. This looks like Travis Kelsey. No, it is not. If you had long wavy hair, this would be exactly what this picture would look like. You're hilarious. I love it. So you're Jesus Christ? There's no way. I've never seen Jesus painted like this, though. Travis, would you ever do your hair like this? This is a good look. This is like an 80s Travis Kelsey right here.

That is, that is like, that's like me if I was in the Bee Gees. I can tell you almost assuredly someone who, dude, you do, I don't want to gloss over that. The Bee Gees is such a good fucking reference. You look just like that one motherfucker. It's so good. That's great. Living on a rock.

Barry Gibbs. All right, that does it for fan mentions. Yeah, it does. Let's see what SVP's talking about, huh? Maybe get this episode back on the rails. You guys are in for a treat. Let's send it to them.

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Our guest today is from the University of Maryland. He is also the host of Monday Night Countdown Sports Center and the SVP or SVPod. He's an eight-time Sports Emmy nominee and the voice of the first two days of the Masters. Please welcome Mr. Scott Van Pelt.

Yeah, baby! Thank you. Welcome on, big guy. Thanks for doing this, man. Nice to be here. It also says a member of the 2023 class of Montgomery County Sports Hall of Fame. What's that? What's Montgomery County Sports Hall of Fame? You know, we're an area where...

not a ton of people have made it to the big time as evidenced by the fact that they were like who can we put in like van pelt yeah he threw like 75 and when he was in high school we don't have a ton of people from around here that have made it but that you what makes it cool is the people that have that have made it to the league where wherever those folks are a big deal and um

It was an honor that they would – this is all just a broadcasting piece of it, and it's flattering. It was not for my sports – Prowess? Yeah. I mean, I was like the classic high school guy. I was a good basketball player. I was a good pitcher, but that was the extent of it. Were you better basketball or better pitcher? I'd say hoops. Before the age when people started redshirting their children in elementary school, I would have really benefited from one more year. Yeah.

I'm not kidding. I'm not kidding. Like in the area where I'm at, like there's like 20-year-old high school seniors that have been like held back a few years and then they end up getting scholarships to go play lacrosse at an Ivy League. And you're like, you know, there was a method to the madness. But I was like a 17-year-old high school senior. My nickname was Fungo. I was 6'4", 170. And by my freshman year in Maryland, I'm 6'6", 205. Like I'd have been –

I'd have probably had a chance somewhere just because I was just physically completely different. Size-wise, yeah. You know what I mean? For sure. Whatever. I was a decent hoop player. So, I mean...

At Maryland, there were a bunch of people in the intramural system that could have played college somewhere, but just whatever. But that's it. I was frustrated. When I was little, I thought I would be the guy people were talking about. But as it works out, I get to be the person talking about the people. And that career lasts a hell of a lot longer, thankfully, as we sit here now. Much longer. Dude, you're one of the best, man. You're one of the best. One of the icons. I appreciate that.

Speaking of hoops, before we get into your heralded career as an analyst, we do got to ask, a couple days removed from the Terrapins' exit in March Madness, how are we feeling? It was a big bummer. They looked good. They were looking – Had a chance, but Florida's really good. And then the end coincided with the coach leaving, and we talked about that on the pod just because Kevin Willard went to go to Villanova, which is a great job, and I think totally get why –

that job would be appealing. It's just the way it ended, like there's a way to go. And it got really sticky. And so the Maryland folks were really bummed about that. But the good news, the really good news in our household is my wife is a Gator. And this was the coolest thing on SportsCenter. We had Coach Golden on in advance of it. And I'm like, look, I got a problem in my house. If Maryland plays Florida, my kids are just, they're really stuck because they love the Gators and they love the Terps. What do I do?

And he had this great answer about being a supportive husband and tell him that it's, you know, you support mom and you're just going to be happy for the Gators. And if Marilyn loses, it's fine, blah, blah, blah. I'm like, that's a bullshit. That's wrong. That's not true. What you just said is a lie to my kids. It was a great answer. It was a great answer, but it was wrong. And then we had just gone on a trip. We come home and the Gators came.

They sent a box, fellas, and I believe that my name, image, and likeness of my children belongs to the Gators because they got more swag from Gainesville than they knew what to do with. And so I believe that the combination of Florida winning that game and the swag that was sent from down in Gainesville to my kiddos, I believe they belong to the Gators. So we're all good, man. It was a fun run. The end got real bumpy. That's how the SEC gets you. That's how they gift boxes you.

So you're telling me Charlie can be bought. Charlie can be bought. Oh, hell yeah. Yeah.

Bro, he had on a Gator headband. He's like, Dad, look at this, man. I'm like, you want to go to the closet. We got plenty of Terps gear, but the Gators represented in a SEC level, Trav. You called it, man. They do it different down there. They do it different, man. It just is what it is. That's why they thrive. Yeah, shout out to the Terps. Hopefully you guys can get it back to the old, the Juan Dixon days, man. Back in 02 when the Terps were on top, baby.

My man. Let's move this topic to what really a lot of the fans want to know about on this show. And I desperately want to know more. How was it working with Jason on live television? Oh, well...

We started off with a bang. I believe the first on camera he said his tits were out. Something like that. It was either first or second. Yeah, it was that first show. It was early. Just lost them out. Yeah, forgot to pack his clothes. Talked about his tits within the first five minutes. It was glorious. Immediately. Just set the expectation. I think in life, most of life is managing expectations. No, listen. I'm interested in his perspective because it was right around now.

Last, it was last spring when you had made the official decision that you were going to head into our world on the TV side. And, you know, you were coveted by everybody. And I mean, I've sort of shared this backstory. I reached out and I was like, look, man, I appreciate your space. I'm not trying to get in it and try to bother you. But I also wanted to represent that I knew ESPN was interested in having your brother and whatever capacity was going to be.

And so I try to be as honest as I could about what I thought our place was. And now he comes in. And the thing about the business is there's a million things about, this is where I'm going to talk about you, Jay, like you're not there. Okay. Okay, cool. There's a million things about your brother that make him perfect for TV. Now you can keep the cans on. Perfect for TV. But you still, there's a process of learning the mechanics of TV that,

it's not innate. He's innately entertaining and engaging and people love him, but learning how to, okay, when's it my turn? And what I would try to tell him is, look, man, your mic's always on. You don't need me to ask you to go when you're ready to go, go. But

But there's a couple of guys in swag and RC that we have a built in kind of chemistry. We know how it goes and swag can get going on a tangent and like you just got to let them go. And so it's a challenge when it's four people that are talking to figure out, you know, how to get in where you fit in. And it was a blast because the things about, you know, the stories and what's genuine about him, what's authentic about him is all right in front of you. And then seeing it get better and better where you're like, OK, you can tell everything.

that he's more comfortable. And, and by the way, you're more comfortable by the end of the year than you are at the beginning, obviously. And he'll get only more and more comfortable as time goes on. So I had a blast. We blew out a port. My guy dump blew his ACL out. We, we too in Philadelphia. Yeah.

mcl mcl is intact acl is intact as mcl we were sure that his knee acl pcl mcl all blown out somehow they were intact no we we had we had fun and i mean it's but it's a the tv piece is it's a different kind of grind man you don't gotta get a tour at all to be on but you're on planes and you know you're trying to figure out how to uh to bring entertainment to the masses but again what he's innately great at that you can't learn how to do and so we were we were thrilled with it all i just

I'm curious what your assessment of it was. Man, it was a lot to learn and take in. I think...

It's so much different. Obviously, we have this podcast trail, but live TV is so much different. We cut so much of this stuff out and have so much leeway to just say whatever we want. When you're on live TV, you got to be concise to the point. You got to make space for people to talk and have a conversation. And part of it is getting to know everybody. Like, that's a huge part of it. I really feel like after the first year is just like having a conversation.

a knack for you know what the other person likes to hear what gets them revved up how to like throw things back and forth and for me i just was trying to learn as much i mean i reached out to scott early on we went golfing you're trying to get a lay of the land like we know what what do i expect how do i prepare and i'm still learning all that like i watch more football this year than i've watched legitimately in my 13 years playing yeah that's fine in terms of

League wide. You know what I mean? You're focused on your own team when you're in the building, but you got to know everything. It's like your team and the team you're playing and you're getting really hyper-focused on those. And I still like watching the game and that hyper-focused game plan oriented focus. It's not feasible to do that really in the same way, in the same depth when you're trying to watch all teams.

17 games that happened with it. You can't watch the all 22 of every game by, by, by the time you get to the Monday. Cause we're, because we're not going to break. Although like we're not going to break down all of it, but if there's something, cause what we try to do is talk ball and you've been kind about that, that like,

what's the role of a show? And I think if you can educate and entertain, I mean, everyone's going to say some version of that, but I think that's really the core of what we're trying to do. And I think like what we had Jason do is break stuff down. Like you don't want to limit it to just tackle the tackle, but I think you can help people understand why something works, why a team's really good at it.

And I thought that was, I thought that you brought a lot of that to the table and the personality as well. But it's interesting to hear you talk about it because it's probably not unlike learning a teammate, right? For sure. If you've got, you know, a guard to your left that you know is really good at this, but maybe not as good at that, you got to figure out how to help him be good at the thing he's not as good at. And that's really what the TV piece is about. Like just figuring out how to make, put everybody, my job, try to put everybody in the best lane to do what they're great at

even better. You know what I mean? And for sure. It's, I don't know. It's we, we had a blast doing it for sure. Cause it's, it's big man. Monday night football. I mean, it's a, it feels like a thing. Yeah. It feels like a thing. And you hear that thing in your, in your ear. And like, I mean, you guys lived it where you were the guys in the arena. I, I wasn't, but for me, Monday night football, as you're watching back in the day, Howard Cosell, whatever, there was nothing bigger than that. And like, you hear that music,

and you're the one sitting there you're going to talk and you're like you know this is an event man it's it's it's a blast i love it man we grew up it was it was the pinnacle of football growing up it's still right there we're in the league guys are looking forward to like man we're playing on monday night this week you better get ready boys prime time everybody's watching right not everybody gets to play on monday night that's

That's true. One of the things I really just, I consider myself really lucky is not only was I with you, Scott, I was with swag. I was with Ryan RC. Everybody was more than willing to help. And just like a teammate, they were the veterans. And I could tell like, you know, we're on the middle of the desk. We're in the middle of the show. And Ryan's like, yeah, what do

think about that like he's like all right it's your turn to talk idiot like get going here oh my god I got you so it's I don't know it's it's really fun looking back and seeing how everything evolved over the course of the year how much closer

everything got and looking forward to this next year for sure. I think it's going to be awesome. For sure. As VP, how did, how did you get into the Monday night countdown stuff? Was it always, cause you were originally just like, I think it was 2001. You started with ESPN doing sports center. Yep. And how did you gravitate? Like you said, you're a hoops guy. Yeah.

How did they get to the NFL, biggest stage in the NFL? I think the one thing that has happened for me, Trav, throughout my career, and I'm grateful, grateful, grateful, grateful, is I've never been a guy that was playing chess. I was never planning three or four moves ahead. I didn't have my eye on anything as much as my eye on right now. I think I've been really good at that, being present in my present,

Be appreciative of this moment. Try to be as good as I can be at what I do and trust that if you do that, then you'll get another shot at it tomorrow in some other role. Yeah. I've told the story before, but it's true. I have a I have a post-it note that's in a little window box frame that sits on my desk and it says, I will never work at ESPN.

And when I was at the Golf Channel, which is where I started way back in the day, I had a producer that's like, "You're going to go to ESPN someday." I said, "Man, I'll never work at ESPN." He said, "Oh, really?" He wrote it down. I signed it and he said, "I'll bet you a hundred bucks." I said, "Fine."

I saved it because it was a great reminder, even to this day to me, don't say the thing you won't do. Right. Because look at me, it's damn near 30 years. Well, no, it's 25 years of me being at ESPN. And I came there to be one thing. And then I moved up there. And then I started doing SportsCenter. And then I worked with some of the all time greats, you

Yeah.

So cool. And I did that. And then I started to do radio and I was like, holy shit, this is so difficult to do radio. I thought it would be easy. And I learned how hard that was. And then I took a little bite of the apple with game day. I spent a year doing college game day. And I guess what I'm saying is that I just kept trying things that were put in front of me. And then around

10 years ago, they said, we want you to do your own version of SportsCenter, which no one had ever done before. And that was obviously a lot of fun. It was a huge challenge, but it was fun. But there's nothing at our place that's bigger than the NFL. And so when they asked me, hey, is this something you would consider doing? I'm like, absolutely. It's the NFL. There's nothing bigger. We want you to go to the games. I'm

I'm in. And so it wasn't anything that I, I guess this is a long winded answer of saying I didn't pursue it, but the way the path goes, there's things that are sometimes pop up or the opportunity arises. And when it did, I was, I was up for it and I did it for one year. And then last year was when your, when your brother joined. And so it's only been a couple of years, but I looked at it like the, there is nothing bigger than that night. And if there's something that has to do with college football, uh,

down the road. I don't know what it would be, but I mean, I went to the national championship game this year and we did our show from there. I just think being at the biggest events, covering the biggest events, being in the arena, nothing substitutes the juice you feel when you're there and you feel a connectedness to the fans and the moment. That's my favorite. And being face to face like you and I this year, Trav, what game was it? Maybe it was the Saints. I can't recall, but you came out and you, it might've been a playoff game.

You came out and you were with me afterwards. It might have been Houston. It all kind of becomes a blur. But when you're face-to-face like with Ryan Day and Will Howard after they won the national championship, the conversations you have, the intimacy of that moment, man. Coach Tomlin said it the other day at the coaches' meeting. There's no substitute for intimacy. That man has a great way of saying just one sentence better than I'm saying all of this. I love that, being face-to-face with the people that have just been in those moments. So good.

cool, man. Well, I met you on the biggest stage back in, I think, 2016, maybe? It was 14, 15, 16 at the National Championship. I see the man himself, SVP, the guy that drove our... We talk about this all the time on here. Those ESPN SportsCenter days growing up with...

you know, Stuart Scott, yourself, Rich Eisen, Steve Lee, the whole gang. It was just so much. You guys drove our love for sports. It's so cool to hear, you know. Dude, I'm telling you, I loved every single sport because, and it was the only channel that I went to. Jason, he would go to, he would watch Dragon Ball Z. I would go straight to ESPN. Cartoon Network sometimes. Cartoon Network. That's fine. Dad would have Law & Order on every once in a while. We'd have to beg him to turn it off. There you go.

But no, I saw you at the National Championship Ohio State versus Oregon. And I was in Dallas. I was kind of in that underground bar area. And it was when you had just started doing bad beats. And you came up and you...

You were the nicest guy in the world. I'm shaking because I'm actually meeting the man himself. And you were just so cool, so calm. And we're talking about how I opened the bad beats. That's a legendary moment, by the way. Belk Bowl is all time. All time. And that montage is some of the legendary moments in the gambling history where something went completely sideways. But the Belk Bowl against Duke.

And you're right there in the middle of it because you take it to the take it to the house and then it went sideways. But you're in there. That'll never change. We may change certain things in that montage. Belk Bowl will never not be in the bad. I'm honored. I'm honored forever, man. You've done OK since then. You're going to have a gold jacket like your brother someday. It's going to be all right. You've elevated beyond being in the bad beats montage.

If only I wouldn't have lost the helmet right after he scored that touchdown. Oh, yeah, that helmet that I scored with. Immediately after he scores that touchdown, Scott, I'm in the end zone stance. He runs over and gives me his helmet and tells me, don't give this to anybody, or

We're partying afterwards at the bar. I'm letting everybody wear it. I look back. It's gone. So wait, you go out and get wrecked after the belt bowl lost your brother's helmet. Yeah, it's a bad story. It's not a great story. We can laugh about it now. But yeah, it was not. No, it's an incredible story. It's made its way back. OK, he wasn't allowing me to. They told me if I didn't pay all my parking tickets on campus that I couldn't have the helmet.

because it was like the bowl game helmet. It was like the special helmet. The seniors got to keep their bowl game helmets. So, but it made its way back to you. It made its way. Did it? It did.

We found it. We do know where it's at. We mentioned it on the pod like a year ago or two years ago. Yeah, it had like a circle sticker of 18 on it. Like, this has got to be his. That's incredible. I was just picturing like some guy in like Lima, Ohio in his living room and that helmet just watching games in the dark wearing a belt-full helmet that was trash.

He was doing it for a good decade. We just got it back last year. Oh, that's beautiful. The universe bends to the Kelsey brothers. All we needed was this show to tell the story. No, but I remember that day like it was yesterday and meeting your big guy. It made me feel...

Like, oh, man, I want to be that cool of a dude doing that to somebody that may have looked up to me at some point in football, man. You were just so down to earth and so welcoming and stuff, man. It was just awesome, man. I appreciate that. I appreciate that, dude. Well, likewise, I've said this quite a bit about... My dad had this line that I recite often. Oh, yeah. Treat normal people like superstars. Treat superstars like normal people. It's the best, man. And...

Just a quick story about a guy that was a legend in broadcasting named Dick Enberg, who called everything back in the day. He called anything that's big in sports. Dick Enberg called national title hoops, Super Bowls, the whole bit. When I was a little kid, I went to a Maryland basketball game, shocker. And I met Dick Enberg and he could not have been kinder and more present and just made me feel like, holy smokes, like this is this is a guy. But he was he was asking me questions and he was interested and he was present.

Fast forward a zillion years and now we're working together. I believe it was the U.S. Open in Philly in Marion. And we're out and we're at dinner and it's a small group. And I tell him the story about the way, the reason I act to people the way I act is because of how I'll never forget how kind and how present and just you made me feel like a big deal even though you were the big deal. So cool. Yeah.

Like I'm telling Dick this story and he gets like, he's teary eyed. And he's like, thank you so much for, for letting me know that something I did, you know, mattered to you. I was like, are you kidding me? Like, this is a legendary guy. So I don't know. I think what all I'm trying to say is it's, it's, it's real easy to be decent to people.

You know what I mean? And look, you guys operate in a different place. I mean, I've done this a long time. I'm six, six ball headed. People recognize me where I go, but like you guys have to deal with a whole different level of what that is. And I just try to be a mirror, you know, reflect what you get. And, and so that's what I'd say to the people is give, give something good and you probably get it back. You know what I'm saying? I don't know if that makes sense. I don't know. I remember that moment. We had a blast and we keep on trucking in the lanes we're in and I'm sure we'll,

keep trying best to stay happy and present in them as long as we can. I'm sure as hell I am. I did want to ask you one question before we get out of this Monday night gig. Have you ever considered actually calling games?

I mean, we do the Pro Bowl. We do the Pro Bowl, which in the flag space is among the most really prominent flag games, Trav. I don't know of a bigger one. There's foam pits. People do flips in them. It's quite a lot. No, I never have. And I watch people like the Bucks and the Torricos and the Nances and the Michaels and the whatever. And it's a skill set I don't have. I don't know anything.

I don't want to do it. I've never wanted to do it. I get to do golf, which is going to say you do that live. But yeah, but that's like, let me call a golf shot real quick. All right, here we go. Oh, this is awesome. To 14. Oh, that was good. That's it. Like to 14.

There's very little to say or do. I don't need to set up the down and distance. I don't need to know, did he catch it? Is he inbounds? Is he out of bounds? Does that look like a face mask? Calling golf is stealing money, okay? Stealing money. But I think you're really underestimating. You're underrating that to 14 call. Travis, give us your best to 14 right now. Let me get you to 14. All right, now here we go now over to 14.

I'm changing the channel if somebody gives me a 14 call like that immediately. That was poor. That was poor to bad is what that was. No, it's very, very, very understood. Think, you know, think Jim Nance. Hello, friends. Think. Ooh, nice guy.

To 14. See that? God, that's a luxury. Let's keep going over to golf. We got the Masters coming up. Yeah, baby. We got the Masters coming up. You're supposed to be doing the first two days of it, right? Yep. Thursday, Friday, Saturday.

It's by far and away my favorite week of the year professionally. It's just so cool. Have you, have you been? Yes. Yes. I got lucky. I went during the COVID year where there was no stands. Wow. There were no grandstands. So I just got to see how beautiful that course was. Oh my God. It's impossible to try to convey to people. It's a, and it's an impossible place to exist. Like every single blade of grass is thought about there. There you go. Every plant, every,

every tree it's perfection it's amazing it is it's all these things and the week is as i say it's my favorite week it's it's i've done it for a long time which is hard to process first year i went was 1997 when tiger woods was you know a kid and he

Laid waste to every record there was. Lowest score, youngest winner, biggest margin of victory, the whole bit. And that was when I started. And now it's all these years later. And I'm the guy in the Butler cabin on Thursday and Friday that brings this on the air. So cool, man. Believe me. That is so cool. I'm talking earlier about being present, being grateful. All the stuff I get to do is a blast. I'll go in tonight and we'll –

We'll do a show. We followed the women's tournament. You talk to Gino Auriemma after he goes to his 24th Final Four. He's got confetti in his hair. That's an amazing thing to get to share with somebody. I love what I get to do. All of it's insane.

The Masters is a completely different level of lunacy. Like when you know that it comes on the air and it's a picture and it's whatever it is, it's the Hogan Bridge or it's the 13th and it's like the iconic shots that you can. It's insane. Oh my gosh, corner that corner. Right. You can close your eyes and see him in corner and you hear that sort of melodic piano and you're the voice that says whatever it is that you have to say and the Masters begins and you're the one doing it.

there's no way I can explain the depth of appreciation for the fact that I'm the person sitting in that chair. It's something I share with my pop. My, my pop died when I was in college. And, um, I'm going to tell you a quick one about like,

So it'll be Thursday at three Eastern. We'll come on the air. Yeah. You know, you start, you rehearse a little bit. All right. We're going to show these highlights. Scheffler on six and Rory on 10. Okay. We just make, all right. I know how we're going to come on the air here. And at some point in the last minute, all right, I'm sitting there and I'm getting ready. And then there'll be about a 30 second bit where I'm,

I just sort of get into this Zen sort of place where I'm just, my mind is still, my heart is grateful. And I think of my father and I think, Pop, it's like, I don't say it out loud. I just think, let me be calm. Let me do my job well. Let me speak slowly and clearly and let me do my job well. And I think of him and I think, man, if my father were here,

They say a young man that loses his dad early in life spends the rest of his life trying to make him proud. And I know damn sure sitting in that chair that my pop is proud of his boy. And then we come on the air. Oh, yeah, yeah. And that last little five seconds, it's like, I swear to God, it's like time stops for just a second. And I'm like, we good? Here we go. Here we go. And then off you go and you do your job. But I give myself like that very focused time.

to that feeling, like what you feel in that moment. And it's just gratitude, just exploding and your soul, uh,

I don't mean for this to sound overwrought. I don't mean for it to sound too goofy or heavy, but it's sincere. It's sincere. And so I'm here and, you know, Jim Nance is there and, you know, Jim, it's his show. I'm just there to sort of welcome people on. I don't do a hell of a lot of heavy lifting, but that's the gig for the week. That's the main focus of it. Wednesday's my favorite day. I'm doing the par three contest this year, which is a blast. It's like, you know, a

the kids are caddying for their, for their dad. And it's just this beautiful day. And it's this minute, this par three course is sort of a miniature version of the big course. It's incredible. The whole thing's incredible, but there's a lot wrapped up into that week, as you can tell from what I'm sort of saying here. Heck yeah, man. That's awesome. Getting a lot of knowledge dropped on us right now. I love it. Yeah. And the masters, all these majors are so, they're so much more, I feel like ramped up because of the split. Yeah.

you get to see these guys coming from all over the world, all over the world, different leagues. If you're the top of the top, you're in these majors. Right. So we get to see the guys that were, you know, how we, I mean, don't get me wrong. It's always been like that, but I feel like there's a little bit more excitement when you don't, cause you don't get to see, you know, Bryson every single week on the PGA. There's a lot, a lot of big time guys. I think, I think Travis, that that,

I don't know. I don't know what the timeframe is. I think that they'll sort that out. I think we'll get back to a little bit. Trying to figure it out for what? Two years now, basically. Well, I mean, the whole thing got real sideways where dudes took money and the PGA tour was like, that's don't do that. And then the PGA tour was like, well, maybe we'll do that too. Yeah.

That's a funny game. We got to compete. Yeah. Yeah. That's an interesting trick. We're, we're, I mean, if you imagine being like Rory and you passed on, God only knows how many hundred millions of dollars and then tiger too. Right. Didn't tiger pass on. Yeah. Right. I heard numbers. I don't know what the truth is, but I, I'm certain that there were, that there were nine figures involved that much. I know, but, but the point you make about, uh, just not seeing them compete, uh, that often that does make the majors feel a little bit different, but honestly, uh,

We do the PGA Championship on ESPN. We'll be down at Quail Hollow in Charlotte in May. And that's a great field too. But to me, the star of the Masters Week is not even the players. It's the stage. It's the venue and the feelings associated with the venue. It's going back there every spring. It's the friendships that get rekindled among patrons and people.

people that work there and you know it's just the whole week is so so special so you're right that that those events have have added significance but the masters is just feels like what it feels like because of the place more than than who who's competing in it thousand percent i think uh golf in general it's it's such a sport that's rooted in history and when you go to a lot of these older venues that have so much history to them that was there in the back of your mind and it

It almost takes you back in time.

Sure. To every single person. No. And even like the person serving you beer to the person you walk by in the clubhouse or whatever, they all just make every single person feel so special that they're at an unbelievable place and we're all taking this in together. No doubt. It's incredible.

It's just such an awesome place because of that feeling, I feel like. Agreed. And I've been so lucky going there through the years. The people that you walk past, well, you know, I talk about my friend, Miss Nadine. She's a security. And years ago, I walked past her in her station by the Par 3 course, and I hear this voice say,

you look nice. And I stop and I look, and that's Miss Nadine. And so I walk over to Miss Nadine and she said, let me see that tie. And I looked at it. I'm like, okay. And she said, I'm Nadine. I'm Scott. I walked by the next day. She said, come over here. Okay. She's like, I don't like that tie. Like,

who asked you and she's like okay so like it became that week every day i go by and by the end of that week me and miss nadine were like this yes i get christmas cards from her she gets christmas cards from me we see each other and we hug like every single day i give her a hug that's my girl miss nadine like we've been friends for 20 years and this is a place where there's the there's this

grill where we're allowed to eat this room that, you know, it's the greatest sandwich and fries on a China plate you've ever had in your life. OK, years ago, is it pimento cheese or what? Well, yes, that that is part of the lore of the place for sure. But one year I ordered a grilled cheese and bacon with tomato wasn't on them. They just made it.

And if I walk in there now, my guy Tony will just give me a nod and they'll just bring it to me. They know I'm not a member at Augusta National. I'm just some bozo that's been coming for a few years. But these are my friends. And so that's so awesome. They know what to bring me. And you know what I'm saying? Like, yes, that's a level of attention to detail and the friendships that you that you.

revisit every year. And my wife may come down this year. And I said, I don't care if you see the golf course, I just want you to get to hug miss Nadine. I just, you know, cause she knows my family, like, like Christmas cards with, with each other every year. So like, those are the people that are part of it. And then as you say that the history of it, the actual golf history,

every hole right like 13 you remember when phil hit it off the pine straw past a tree and yeah you know 16 you remember tiger hits it up and it rolls down the hill and vern have you ever in your life and 17 again vern jack nicholas maybe yes sir i mean every hole has a picture in a moment in time i mean i could keep going the 10th hole bubba and a playoff watson dude that is still the

the most iconic shot I've ever seen in my life. There you go. No idea how that lefty hooked that thing that much. Bubba's not, Bubba can't see a straight shot in his mind. He prefers to have an angle on it. Exactly. It's actually better for him to be in there in a tree and go, all right, if I hook this son of a bitch 90 yards around a tree, I can, you know what I mean? And so everybody has their shots and their moments. And that to me is what makes, you know, that's what makes it,

what it is. That's awesome. So you've been working the event for a long time. The first time you were at the masters, were you a patron or were you working it? Oh no, I went 97 and I was covering it for, I worked for the golf channel at the time. And, um, you know, you'd never, and it's amazing. It's amazing. Trav, how much it's changed. I mean, and, and yet it has this incredible ability to evolve and,

and that, and yet stay timeless. It's, it's impossible. It's a trick that you can't pull off. And yet they do where everything about it every year feels like it's been this way forever. And yet so much of it has changed in terms of the golf course, how they stretched it out, made holes longer, tougher, change this undulation, that undulation, whatever. So, I mean like the snapshot of 97 in my mind, it feels like the same place. And yet it's, it's so very different. Um,

But they get everything exactly right. Every detail is just perfect. And I haven't been to every one since 97, but I mean, there's similarities for you guys maybe with seasons, with football, right? When you're in a sport...

And you do something every year and then like you there's a there's a pace to the season and then there's your offseason. And then the next thing you know, it's like, all right, we're back at OTAs and then we're in camp and then the season starts again. And it's like it feels like time's not passing in some ways. And so like I was just at Augusta in my mind, only I wasn't. I mean, it was a year ago and I'll be back there and it'll be Masters Week. And you think to yourself, oh, it's probably been three or four years since that. And then you go.

Oh shit. That was 15 years ago. You know what I'm saying? Like I, it can't possibly be almost 30 years since I was there with tiger in 97, but we're damn near there. And that's where I, that's where I just look at myself and go, good Lord. Like how, how lucky are you to be able to keep doing this? And so it's a, it's crazy how, again, how time passes. And yet when you're there, it feels like time hasn't moved. We're all fricking excited for this year's, uh,

And I know you'll kick it off right, big guy. Jason, man, I know you got a newborn, but I might slide down there for a Sunday finish. Don't do it without me. I don't know. I might just say screw you and just wander on there. All right. Come on now. Come on now. I know some people that know some people. There we go. If you left your boy at home, he would –

He would not be pleased with that, would he? Jason, just bring the baby. Come on. Travis, that baby is surviving off of mom. I cannot offer anything to that baby. How's that go? Let's workshop this. Let's workshop this conversation, boys. We're three semi-smart people. How do we play that? How do we say, hey, listen, we're just going to leave you alone with... Just mosey down there. I've tried, and I've failed. Mosey.

I think mosey's the key. I think it's not... I'm not going. I'm just going to mosey on there. It's just going to be a day. And then I'll zip right back. Mosey and zip. It's a mosey and zip scenario. Just go down, right back. Right back. Yeah. We know folks... A few pimentos. Yeah. A few eagle nests. The beers are the eagle nests. I forget what's going on. Get a little azalea. People enjoy an azalea. There you go, an azalea. I already tried floating it. I was like, you know, I'm...

Like, you know, a lot of dads, you know, they got jobs. They got to work. And they can't. I just feel like I'm just going to be one day and then I'm right back. And then I don't have anything else. Scott needs help for the par three. Scott's doing the par three. He can't do it by himself. That's right. That's right. You've seen him on TV. He can barely form a sentence. He can barely speak coherently. We need him. Come on. It has not gone well. It has not gone well so far. I'm sweating just thinking about this conversation again. Yeah. Yeah.

Sometimes you got to just know what you can and can't pull off. Hey, by the way, he mentioned just this in passing. We play golf. Your brother, his practice swing, like the divot pattern. Are you familiar with the flank steak size divots this man takes out of the earth? Ridiculous. Why are you doing that on the tee box on a par five, Jason? Yeah.

And we played on a day where it rained really heavily, and so the ground was super sort of... Oh, yeah.

It was not firm. And so those practice swings, you'd look up and be like, this is like a full yard of sod in the air. And that's just a practice swing. I'm like, well, you're going to have to hit the ball here. We're going to have a trench here where we can bury a squirrel, man. Big, he's got a nice, nice swing though. Obviously a lot of power involved. Big dude. Big dude. These, the line. Yeah.

He has a better swing for a lot of the old linemen that I've come across. The shoulders and the neck and the torso area, they're just – they're meant to be right here. They're not meant to turn as much. Well, getting that left shoulder behind the ball, that's important. Exactly. It's hard when you have like that – it's all fused together. Your tempo, though, your tempo is – I mean, you can really swing out of traffic.

Trav's talented. He's got a great swing. I can get it going a little bit. I'm trying to get a little bit more because I get out of whack. So I'm trying to – it's all about eliminating variables. Agreed. And the key for the big guy is to recognize that if you draw a line from the ball back to the top, back to the bottom, for a tall guy, it's a mile long. So I think – I always think Jon Rahm – and it doesn't need to be as abbreviated as Jon Rahm, but you also don't need to wrap that son of a gun around your neck

because the chance to get back is square. Really difficult. But if you just turn to the point, if your shoulder's behind it, all you got to do is get back to the bottom and you're going to knock it

a long way your swing's really good though i appreciate that what's your handicap come on trev i shoot in the i shoot in the probably low to mid 80s but you could like if you got a cook and you like you're thinking i might maybe i might could shoot something that started with a seven right yeah all right that's that's what i thought you're good if you're if you're shooting something that starts with a seven you're a good golfer no you're beyond you're 99th percentile right seriously yeah

I always get a kick out of people that like reverse sandbaggers. Like people that sandbag that say, oh, I'm probably like a 12 and then they shoot 75. You're like, that's bullshit. Yeah. But people that say, oh, no, I'm like a nine. And then they go shoot a hundred. You're like a nine one.

What would you rather have? Would you rather have the guy sandbagging it or undershooting it? That's a good question. That's actually a really good question. But the guy that says he's at 14 that goes to some member guest and shoots 75, that's very, very poorly looked upon.

So I think the person that says that they're a 12 that shoots 108, you could live with that. Like, oh, I just had a bad day. Well, no, you actually have a bullshit 12 is what you're talking about. And there are a lot of those. But don't be the sandbagger. Don't be a sandbagger. That's bad luck. Bad luck, man. Let's go back to when you started ESPN. How about that?

I'm happy to do it. Joined in 2001. How old were you when you first joined at ESPN? Well, let's do the math. I'm 58. So what did that put me at 2001? I'm not good at math. I was 24.

35-ish. Yeah, 35-ish. Mid-30s. Nice. And you were with Golf Channel up until that? I was. I was. I mean, I told you the story about having the note I wouldn't work at ESPN, but it was kind of... A lot of life is this, right? Sort of serendipitous. Like a guy named Jimmy Roberts, who actually is a Maryland guy and was at ESPN covering golf, left to go to NBC, and that was in the middle of Tiger Woods...

just laying waste to all humanity in the game. I mean, he was breaking records, you know, winning every major and ESPN really kind of needed a guy that had an in with Tiger. Sure.

I was that guy. There we go. Yeah. I mean, literally my entire career exists because of Tiger Woods. That is a fact. And maybe I could have found some of this without him, but almost certainly not. And so I went in 2001 because ESPN really kind of needed a golf guy. And I lived down in Orlando at the time and I stayed in Orlando and I was covering golf and a little bit of this, that, and the other thing. So that was when it started. That's so cool. What was your first day at ESPN like?

Do you remember? Oh, yeah. I remember it vividly because we were in Australia to cover a golf tournament. It was the world match play, and we're in Australia. This is actually cool. I can picture it as clear as day. We were going to follow a Syracuse basketball game, and we're just waiting for it to end. And I'm sitting in like this...

It's like a tent. When you're doing a golf event, they build these little... You've seen them. If you go to a major or whatever, it's a TV compound. You're outdoors, but there's a tent over the top of it. And I'm sitting there with my guy, Andy North. And when the game ends, there used to be this... And you guys are ESPN heads. There was this animation that was sort of a circle and it says ESPN. And there's this voice that says...

This is a presentation of ESPN, the worldwide leader in sports. And that's like I told you about the Masters moment where I'm waiting to talk. This is 2001 and I've never done it. And I'm like, oh, shit, I have to talk. And it's me and I'm on ESPN. Ha!

You know what I'm saying? It got as real as it could get. And I'm just like, don't talk fast. Don't freak out. This is what you do. You can do it. Only I got news for you, boys. I kind of couldn't do it like that at that point. And yeah, so I'm in a tent in Australia with Andy North at the World Match Play. And that's the first event I did. And then the next...

It was a two-week thing because we went from there to Kapalua to do what used to be the Mercedes. And I'm doing a two-week junket in Australia and Hawaii. And I'm like, bro, your boy's on ESPN and I am living right. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. No, this is a good introduction. It's Australia. It's Maui. And it's like life is good. I am wavy, bro. And this is real, real good. Look at your boy. Then that's how it started. And then it was actually a really –

unfortunately sobering moment because I come home and I'm sitting at my house one day. It's February and it was the Daytona 500 and I get a phone call from ESPN that says, hey, Scott, we're getting word that Dale Earnhardt might have died in this crash. I'm like, oh, that's awful. And then they said, I'm not processing this, right? And we need you to go there. And I'm thinking,

wow, I mean, I had only done golf, right? And so I had just done these golf events, which was a very familiar space for me. And now all of a sudden I'm hopping in the car, driving up to Daytona to cover as big a story as there could be in the sports world. And that's where it was a real reality check of the, like you're in the deep end of the pool, man. And, and, and I, I remember vividly sports center started that night with a report from me about,

at Daytona, given the news that Dale Earnhardt had died. And it was, it went from like everything's whatever to the reality of what the stage you were on and, and the fact that you were covering everything. And then, you know, obviously from there, there's, there's far less serious stories, but you added more to the plate as, as time went on. Yeah. Holy cow. I mean, that's a heck of a

Switch up. Yeah. Australia, Maui. And now I'm Dale Earnhardt is gone. But from my perspective as all right, can I do this? It was, you're not going to be asked to cover something more significant than that. And I was able to do it. And then it was just the recognition of, all right, you're, you're in a different place now than at the golf channel where you just go on to the next, you know, tour stop and,

That was all that we were going to do. And then, as I say, it was more... I used to do some NBA things like Tracy McGrady and Shaq and people like that were the magic at the time. You'd do some of that. And it was just around...

That summer was when they said, hey, we want you to come up and maybe do some SportsCenter. And I was like, all right, I can do that. And then I went in. Then the next thing you know, it's like, hey, we want you to move up here and do it. I mean, leaving Orlando where it was 75 and sunny every day for Bristol, that was a different kind of reality check. Like, what am I doing? Sure, sure. That was a rough adjustment initially. Speaking of an adjustment, like –

going from the golf channel where you're obviously just doing golf, then all of a sudden you're doing all this stuff. Was there anybody at ESPN that kind of showed you the ropes and taught you, I don't know, how to now cover everything? I mean, I don't think I had...

as much of a sort of a, of a guide, as much as I just, there's, there's a person and you would know this name cause you know him. And he's the guy that's now in charge of, of all things that he has been a guy named Mike McQuaid. He's a behind the scenes guy who's has been as instrumental in helping me get where I am as anyone. Just what he did, what he did, Jason was, he basically just said, you know what to do, just go do it. And, and was great with feedback. Um,

You told me something when we played golf that day. You said, I like being coached. And I thought, that's great news. Because not everybody does. Everyone says they want feedback. You know what feedback they want? They want grab ass, you're awesome, attaboy. They don't want, hey, that's bullshit. You can't do this. That was bad. Here's why this sucked. But that's what you need. And having a guy like that that was really helpful in just trusting people

trusted that I would do the work and put in the work and wherever the bumpy spots where I'd figure him out. He was great from a behind the scenes standpoint, but then, you know, as I mentioned, you know, Stuart Scott was awesome. And we had this, we had this kind of admiration from afar because he, he and Tiger were boys and,

I was as well. And so we had kind of seen each other from across the aisle. And then when I came, I had kind of the endorsement from Tiger with Stewart. And then I was an ACC guy from Maryland. He was a Carolina guy. And we had that kind of common thing. And then he and I just...

found this rhythm with one another that was really helpful from a sports center standpoint. But I mean, I've been so lucky with people that I worked with from like, and if I start naming people, I'll leave them off. But like Stuart was big. Neil Everett was a partner of mine that I worked with a ton. And he's just like, that's my brother forever. So I've just been so lucky that the people that I've sort of shared the set with and, you know, traveled with and worked with were all great teammates that helped, helped elevate me that hopefully I helped,

make them the best version of them and you kind of ham and egg it. But, you know, it wasn't like we had a, you know, sit, sit down and here's, here's this and here's that. And here's the other, they just kind of trust you to figure stuff out. And what you don't, you know, they're going to help nudge you back towards the center. Well, I'll tell you what, man, the, the ESPN commercials alone,

Come on now. Made that place seem like the coolest workplace of all time. Outside of the cameos of the superstars that were in the NFL, the NBA and all that. The cast of SportsCenter, men and women, I mean, we talked about them already, Rich Eisen, Dan Patrick,

The Swami, Chris Berman, Linda Cohn, Steve Levy, Stuart Scott. Like you said, we're leaving off way too many. But how fun was that to go into work? Like, did you guys actually have cubicles? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. So this was actually like you guys were just hanging out with each other and just talking sports, I would assume. Yeah. And creating the show before. Right. And I mean, I...

You know, Dan and Keith made SportsCenter something different. They took it to a different place, I think. Berman's the godfather, Bob Lee as well, obviously. But then Dan and Keith took it to a thing where it was different. And then Stuart and Rich were a big time team. And, you know, they had a lot of us that kind of worked together and, you know,

you, you team up with different people at different times. But then the idea was if you could create, you know, people that work together quite a bit, then you create chemistry, which makes a ton of sense, right? Like you become like an old line. There's this energy and Hey, I could slide out the tackle if I need to. But if we can get some reps together, we can make this a thing. And so honestly, I mean, and it's still like that and it's different. I'm down in DC and I'm not in a cubicle and, you know, sitting,

next to Rich or Stuart or whomever back in the day. But it's the same idea. I'm going to go in and watch games and then I do a show. It's a joke. My dad worked for a plumbing company. I always say this. He wore boots to work. I wear Ferragamo's and a little light dusting of powder on the head. I mean, that's what I wear to work. And I just watch games all night. It's absurd. And so I think what the genius of those ads kind of captured

was that like people like this is what it's like like well yeah i'm not actually sitting in lebron's chair and a throne but it's like that and you know the cool thing about like that spot is it's

And he was on me recently. It's like still a joke that we go back to. Yeah. Like I saw when he was on with you about, you know, he's about when he this this fuckery won't continue. And then he's 40 and he's like, yeah, when I'm when I'm 50, I mean, I saw him reference that like the idea that holy smokes, like he's still doing this at that age. He was a baby when he did that ad with me. And so now we can kind of still reference it.

And, you know, I got a note from his folks, like, you know, clutch, like I was texting back and forth with Rich Paul about, I said, you know, what's cool is like, we've both been doing this for 20 some odd years and can still kind of do it. I'm not comparing myself as an anchor to LeBron James. But,

but but we're still in we're still in that respective place and we can still you know play at a certain level the biggest spots and that's kind of that's kind of cool going back to who he was as a 21 two-year-old maybe at the time when we did it might have been he might have just been 20 when we did that spot because i joked to them i said you know i i think when you and i did that ad i might have been around 40 and i

That was right around the age when I realized there was stuff physically I kind of couldn't do. And you're 40 and there's nothing. Like, what is it you're doing? You know what I mean? Like, how are you still this guy? He's not human. It's the freaking nature. My favorite one, other than the LeBron one, was me and Stuart were with Arnold Palmer. And all the ad is 15 seconds. And it's Arnold in the cafeteria. And Arnold Palmer makes an Arnold Palmer.

a little iced tea a little splash of lemonade no words are said then he walks off and it's me and stewart scott and all we say is that was awesome yeah and stewart's like i know yeah it's and it's a 15 second spot and that was that that's it and so it's like is this what espn was like like yeah kind of we just kind of sit in our cubes go to the cafeteria again arnold's not there making an arnold palmer but that that ad was just uh well i thought was just genius

Yeah. That was, that's probably my favorite one. Yep. So you just talked about LeBron has obviously changed, uh,

or still in the same space with you. You've been in the sports world for a long time. How have you seen athletes change? Has interviewing athletes gotten better or worse? That's interesting that you guys doing this and, and, you know, you were straddling the back end of your career, Jason Trav, thankfully run it back. I like that. That's great news. Still, still in it. Let's do it. There's a clear understanding among athletes that,

You own your voice and you are in charge of your voice and you have agency over yourselves to share that voice the way you want to. And I think it's been great for people to learn about athletes in a different way and

share your lives as much as you're willing to share, share your lives with the public. And that's tricky, right? You got to pick how much of it, how much of them do you want to know about your new baby? By the way, I had to say congrats and I didn't. Thank you. God bless you. That's awesome. But that, that's a tricky thing. And it's, it's up to you to decide how much you want to share it with people because athletes have a space that, that they control the, not the narrative, but what it is, the narrative, it's their narrative. It's,

it's very different. And you guys joked about it a couple of years ago, Jason, you were still playing for Philly and we'd, I thought we're going to talk to you and then you had cramps and they sent somebody else out. And I think I said on SportsCenter, I thought we were talking to Kelsey, but I guess he wants to save the content for the podcast. And I was just joking, but then you guys, you know, you guys covered it. I've had my backs like, how are you going to blow up SVP like that? Which you didn't, which you didn't.

But I think what I'm saying is I think that it is interesting that if you have something impactful and important that you want to say, you want to say it on your platform the way you want to say it. But I do think what I have with athletes –

is a, a, a trust. I think people respect that. I respect them and know that I'm not trying to, you know, you're not going to get got like, it's not what that's about. I'm trying to have a genuine conversation and I'm interested in, in the things that are related to the competition. And I think I'm good at having conversations that can pull out

The emotions and the answers that are related to that that are interesting to me in the audience. I still think we can have those conversations, even if you have a lane that you want to be the driver of that content. I get it. So it's different. But I also think it's made guys and men and women more comfortable talking.

And talking about themselves in a way that it's maybe less guarded when you do have the conversations. That make sense? For sure. There's just – there's a tonnage of voices and content out there these days. And so I've done it long enough that I don't meet strangers, if that makes sense. Even if we haven't talked, I've done it long enough that – I'm not saying this to be an ass, but I mean you probably –

have some idea who I am and I know who you are. So we're not, even if we've never talked, we're, we're familiar with each other and hopefully you're familiar with the way I approach things. Absolutely. Always a pros pro. How many, I got to ask you though, um,

Of the four major sports that you typically cover, even though it goes far beyond that, which athletes give you the best post-game answers? I think hockey guys. There's a sincerity to hockey guys. And they fascinate me because I can't skate. These guys will play through like a severed limb. What they're willing to go through is beyond my comprehension. Like I get...

You know, dude's got to take a shot to be available, and your availability is your best ability. I appreciate what you guys put through, yourselves through, rather. But hockey guys just totally fascinate me. Like, there's guys whose mouths, their teeth, it looks like they ate a fucking grenade, and they're still playing. Like...

It's a rite of passage. They brag about it. Right. What are you doing? If that happened to me, I'd be incapacitated for a week. And they're like out there for the next shift. So there's a curiosity I have about them. And I'm not talking about them like they're zoo animals. Like, what are you? But it's a little.

No, they are. They are. They're zoo animals. They're zoo animals. They just I played golf once with with Oshie and Carlson, a couple of capitals here. Yeah. She had literally he had literally just had surgery on like a sports hernia.

A week before. And him and Carlson are talking about that moment when you're passing out from the anesthesia bout, like that last couple of seconds. And they were talking about it with joy in their eyes before they go under for surgery. And I couldn't get over just how those dudes are wired, man. So hockey guys fascinate me. Those are the guys I enjoy the most because I have the least understanding of them.

there's a whole way they talk to that's like mesmerizing like the verbiage they use and there's like half of them aren't even americans right like they're canadians or they're from overseas and russia or whatnot and right there's like there's slang to it and and everybody's got a nick you know everybody's it's no one's just jason or travis it's you know it's uh jaybo and jen you know everyone's you gotta i'm doing a shitty job of what no that's good like

they call Wayne. Oh, way. No, that's what me and Steve, every time we bring up way. No, like this is the greatest player that's ever played. And the Canadian guys talk about skating down the ice side by each, like side by each. Okay. I get it. You're, you're next to each other. And there's, it is, there's a different language and the boys in the room, the way they talk about the room. I, that's my favorite thing. Uh,

It's the locker room, but the room, the way they talk about it, it's like a sacred place. Oh, yeah. And you guys know it because you live it, but the hockey guy's room is a whole other level. There's nothing like it. Last year, I talked to Paul Maurice after they won, the Florida Panthers won, and he gave the greatest answer ever.

I asked, you know, you've spent your life in pursuit of this thing and now you've done it. And in what way does that change your life? He took this really deep pause and then he gave this sincere thing. He said, I hope it doesn't. I hope I've lived my life in a way where it won't change me. And then he says, but next year when we go to camp, I'm going to skate the hell out of the boys because I got carte blanche. You know, it was like...

It was this surreal, sincere moment, but then right back to the way that he's going to give the boys a hard time. I don't know. Hockey guys, again, I'm being redundant, but they're mind-boggling. Different breed, man. No, I'm right with you. And I think anybody who's been in an ice rink or a hockey locker room, the culture of hockey, especially in the good spots, is nobody's –

Nobody's put on a pedestal. Everybody is like the moment you think you're going to be like a pretentious or like prima donna, you can't survive in that sport, right? Like it's all about doing stuff for your team. We had the Kachuk brothers on. Their dad obviously played in the league for a number of years. And his one rule, his two rules were be a good teammate and work hard, right? And that like sums up.

Who these guys are. Yeah, right. But that's life. Whoever's listening, the 92 percenters, that's it. Be a good teammate and work hard. But then I'm just trying to imagine what it is to be a guy and to understand that there's going to come a time when you got to go out there on the ice and you skate up to that dude next to you and you just look at the guy and you go, you want to go? Yeah. Yeah.

And you got to say, yep. And then down go the gloves. And like, you want to go. I mean, it's like an invitation. It's like, hey, you want to go get some lunch? And they're like, no. Do you want me to punch you in the head? Yeah.

But there's an invite. And then you got to – and if you don't accept that invite, you know, and then even if you can't fight, even if you get mopped, the boys are going to give you a stick tap because, you know, it was your turn to go. Again, that's not a space I'm familiar with. It's so epic. Steve Levy never once came up to me and asked me to fight. That never, never happened.

There's a weird thing in a lot of hockey players' eyes where I feel like if you punch most people in the face, they get pissed. They're going to look at you and there's going to be a look of anger. I feel like if you punch a hockey guy in the face, they would smile. It's almost like this weird...

mentality with some of these sports like hockey. I think rugby players are similar there. And there's certainly some football players like this where it's like, it's almost like you want to get punched in the face. It's weird. But I, I've seen like when, when D back DBS and wide receivers get at it and you grab the, you grab the face mask and dudes are swinging. And then it's more like lunchroom, like, like let's separate me and then let's get mad. We're like, but like you punch John Carlson in the head and he would be like,

Come on. Yeah. I mean, like all you did was light that fuse, buddy. And you're not what I wanted. You're not ready for what's coming. You're not pulling us back. Yeah.

You guys are getting me fired up for some playoff hockey here. Hell yeah. I love it. That time of year is great. Like postmasters and I get like, then it gets back into a great flow of you got, you know, one night you follow the Stanley cup. The next night you follow, you know, NBA playoffs. And it's just, there's a, there's a great cadence to this time of the year as we get to the, to the spring. You ain't lying.

Now, a moment brought to you by American Express. What's your favorite type of cuisine, Travis? Cuisine? I'm like an American cuisine kind of guy. Yep, yep, yep. Okay, are there certain cities that you think the food is better in? New York. Way to be super creative with your answer. I mean, Jason, you can get anything you want in the world in New York. I mean, it's good. I'm not going to lie. New York's very good. I think Philly's got good food, too. Philly's got great food. You know what's a really good food town, especially for anybody born in the Midwest? Chicago! Chicago's got great food.

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Well, uh, let's keep this cadence and, uh, in the show going. We got one last segment for you, big guy. Um, we call this one. We gotta ask. Uh, we close every convo. I was a little, we gotta ask and you don't have to answer. And you can basically either answer the question or tell me and Jason to go fuck off. First one off the board. What is your greatest personal athletic achievement? I play a par three tournament, uh, every, uh, summer at the beach. Um, it's a little course of gold, Bethany, uh,

Well, this, this, yes, we're, I, that's where our family's been for years. I don't know if we want to disclose this. Yeah. Yeah. Everybody in town knows where we live. Come by and say hi. Look forward to seeing you. It's a, it's North of there. There's Dewey beach. And then there's a little town called Lewis, Delaware and Lewis, Delaware has a par three course called the midway par three. Me and my boys have been playing a tournament there every year forever. Um,

I'm proud to tell you, last year, your boy won it. In a playoff over a guy that actually... Thank you. Thank you. Over a guy who actually played golf at the University of Maryland, beat him in a playoff with a birdie, and then I sent a...

I'm not trying to name drop or whatever. This is just actually me making fun of what an idiot I am. I sent a picture to Scotty Scheffler, who has won some tournaments. I'm like, you know what, buddy? You never won this. And it's a picture of me holding up the trophy. Oh, my gosh. Our buddy runs a bar down there called the Starboard. It's our guy, Monty. And like every year, the winner of this tournament gets

put up on the video board outside the starboard. And so seeing my smiling face holding that trophy, that's as good as it's going to get, boys. It's pretty much downhill from there. But I did win in midway last summer, defending champ. Actually, you know what? Not defending because no one can take it away from me. I'm the reigning champ. Reigning champ. Yep.

baby come get it yeah see you in july reigning midway dingle champion that's it grown this man all right you tweeted this at the new heights account please elaborate how close did you or mark schlareth come to shitting your pants on air okay so all right let's just say

Mark Schleyer, shout to stink. My guy, I taught him how to tie his tie and like it should have been a sports commercial. I taught him how to get that great dimple in the middle of his tie. And he to this day, we love laughing about that. But this was a this was a story. Show me a man who says he has shit his pants. I'll show you a liar.

has it happened on air? I explained Mark Schlereth is familiar with it. So there was a day where I was having a rough day, had a little, had a little bubble, little gurgle in the belly, a little bad tummy. Yeah. And I'm said to stink, buddy. Um, there's a decent chance that while we're sitting out here, I might shit my pants.

And Stink says to me, it's fine. It's fine. You just need to put some leaves in the gutter. I'm like, excuse me? What? You don't know leaves in the gutter? I'm like, what's leaves in the gutter? He's like, you just take...

a big giant ball of toilet paper and you ball it up and you put it in your ass crack. And then while you're sitting there, you know, in your boxers, you just, you got, it's basically like a diaper of sorts. You're just making a grown man's diaper. Because I wasn't going to full on shit my pants. It was going to be just a short kind of a moment. Just that, is this a fart? Oh, it's hot. No, that wasn't a fart. And so I...

had leaves in the gutter, and then that night, this gets better. It's a pro move. We're doing – he's there to do analysis on, say, the Thursday night game. For argument's sake, it's the Steelers and the Bengals. I don't remember. But I say it because a lot of what we do are inside jokes –

I said, you know, Stink, tonight, the Steelers defense, man, they really, they bottled up that run for the Bengals like leaves in the gutter. And Stink barely can get through the segment because I'm talking about the balled up toilet paper in my butt crack that he shared with me. And I'm happy to say I did not need the leaves in the gutter, but

Fellas, maybe ladies, when in doubt, if you need to go leaves in the gutter, there's a pro tip from Mark Schleriff to me, to you. And that's the story of how Scott Van Pelt almost shit his pants on TV.

Wow. I didn't know we were going to get into that, but that's a true story. There you go. I'm stealing that, too. I'm telling everybody that leaves in the gutter. Shout out to Stank. It happens. And if you've got a little gurgly belly, you want to make sure. That would be a real bad problem if it happened without the leaves in the gutter. Yeah, for sure. What do you watch outside of sports, Scott? This is a bone of contention with Stanford Steve. Nothing. Nothing.

I have so many shows I know I'm supposed to watch. He's like, you got to watch. And Steve is a consumer of content. He's up on all the great shows. And then he says, he's like, bro, White Lotus? And then he shows me the White Lotus scene where Goggins' character's talking to the dude about Lady Boys. It's so great. I'm like...

This is the show I'm supposed to watch? Like, my man's going through it. Oh, yeah. And that's a tough on-ramp for a show. If, like, what's this? He's like, oh, it's a resort. Like, what kind of resort is it? So I really...

I have three young kids. Maybe this is sad, but it's true. I just really love sports. And if I have free time and there's a game on, I find myself watching it, A, because I like it, and B, because it's my job to kind of be aware of what's going on. And so I largely, I don't think I've watched anything like

immersed in it since breaking bad and that hasn't been on the air in years yeah it's been a while i'm really really bad at this because i know what i'm supposed to know and i can kind of passively bullshit my way through a white lotus or a severance conversation like i saw you talking to to um to ban about waffles and all this stuff and i know what it's about

but only vaguely. And that's always bad. It's like if you only speak like a little bit of Spanish and people are talking Spanish and you're just nodding and you're like, biblioteca. Yeah. Sabatos. That shoes, right. I'm that guy that knows like eight words in Spanish. That's what I'm able to do when it comes to TV shows. And I always say I'm going to do it, but I'm not going to lie to anybody anymore. I'm probably not going to watch any of this. And that's my own fault, but that's where I'm at.

What about TV shows about sports? What about like Ted Lasso? I was in that. No big deal. Yeah. Yeah. There we go. Now that was actually really cool. This is this. And you had Jason on and he broke the news about that, which was cool. Yeah. I was told, Hey, Jason Sudeikis wants to talk to you. I said, what about like, well, he wants, they, they want, they're going to do the show and that he wants to talk to you about it. I said, well, just tell him, I'll just, I'll just do it. Whatever it is. It's fine. It's a cameo. No big deal. No, he really wants to talk to you. Okay. Okay.

So I end up on the phone with Sudeikis and we end up talking for like an hour about life and how we had, we held a lot of similar views about gratitude and all the stuff I was kind of talking about. And what a cool man, what a great dude, what a fun guy to talk to. And he just wanted me, it was really important to him that I understood what this guy was about. And then,

How much they wanted me to be sort of the guy that set the tone in that very first episode with the SportsCenter thing about this coach that's going to go over. And I'm like, sure, of course. But what I got out of it was this really, really meaningful conversation with this guy right before this thing became this phenomenon. And so it was really neat because...

Jason, you mentioned when you brought me on, it was nice. I've been nominated a lot. I've been nominated eight times for an Emmy. I've never won one. Well, when they won everything, I'm like...

Hey, man, I was in an episode. Do I get a do I get a trophy? Like, how's this work? You told me how important it was for me to be part of it. Like I was in one. Like, how far down the line of credits do we go? I was kidding. I didn't really want one. I'm not that thirsty. But anyway, it was it was it was it was cool that he asked me to be part of that and that he had this sincere love.

want for me to understand what it was about so anyway um no like i watched i did watch ted lasso uh the wife and i watched that i think that's the sweet spot for me i need something that's about that long that you can kind of watch on demand when you know you're not refereeing wwe between the boys in the basement do you have a favorite sport to watch whatever is whatever's on well i wouldn't say that like i love college basketball i love the tournament

When the Stanley Cup is on, I'm mesmerized by that. Like, playoff hockey overtime is the most tense thing there is because at any moment, the game just ends. And then when I'm watching that, I'm like, there's nothing that's cooler than this. But then, like, look, college football, you turn it on if it's a big Big Ten game, a big SEC game, whatever, whatever league. I don't care. But then, like, when we're at Monday Night Football and it's, you know –

A couple of years ago when, you know, when Philly came to Arrowhead, like it, you knew what that, that the stakes for high for a regular season night, there was juice. There was real. That's hard to fab, hard to manufacture. So I guess what I'm saying is I'm, I'm real, which whichever way the wind blows that the

place that I'm at right now. I'm just, I love that. And I love baseball. It's just that it gets, you know, by August and we're dragging, you know, it's, you're just waiting for football to kick at that point. But then when we get to the playoffs, man, playoff baseball is incredibly intense too. So I, I, I'm like you all, man. I grew up with it. I love it. And whatever we got tonight, I'm, I'm excited because something will happen that I don't know is going to happen.

Yes. Well, one last question for you, big guy. What are your Mount Rushmore of SportsCenter top 10 plays? The all-time greatest plays ever? Of yours. Not to put you on the spot. For me? Yes. Things that happened to me or things I did on SportsCenter? Or things I saw, things I called? There you go. Bro.

Your boy's done. Just tell us to fuck off. Just tell us to fuck off. This is where you just tell us to fuck off. Fuck off. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen.

I'm old and feeble. This brain is mush and I've done a lot of shows, man. I, you know, I don't know. I don't know. Already so many fucking golden stories. Thank you for your time, brother. We appreciate you. Hey, listen, continued success in all things, boys. You guys, you know it. Yeah. Be grateful for what we get to do. I know you guys are and do, but I think it's important that people hear that, you know,

That Enberg story I told, I just, I'm sincere about it. You know, the going to the masters, being present, being grateful. I just think that's a great sort of place to stay. I try my best. That's, I love, I love what you guys have. I love the bond. I love you guys sharing your lives with people because they're interested in, you know,

it's fun to stop in and say hello. So keep doing what you guys are doing. You're the best brother. Complete honor to have you on Scott. Thank you so much. Thank you, dude. You're the best. Fuck, fuck off. Scott. Gold man.

How awesome was that? Dude. Told you, man. Guy's the best. It just felt like we were in the living room and he was just speaking the gospel to us. Like telling us like the stuff that his father said, how he's still, dude, just an all-time great dude. Just an all-timer, man. Can tell a story like nobody else, man. And yeah, I mean, leaves in the gutter forever. Leaves in the gutter. Ha ha ha ha ha ha!

So let's keep it moving. Let's get to some no-dumb questions brought to you by Perplexity. That's right. We've spent most, so much time on this show looking up answers. We are now sponsored by a search engine. How about that? Shout out to Perplexity. Discover fast and reliable search with Perplexity today. From M, no-dumb questions. If you could make one of your body parts detachable, which would it be and why? Detachable? It's a very weird question, M. I'll wait for you to answer first.

What would I want to be detachable? I don't know. Maybe my ears so I wouldn't have to hear people. That's what I was thinking too. You can right away just like I'm done. Nose? Nose? Because I think smells can be... You're going senses. Yeah. I think smells can be a little more like... There's some mayonnaise in the area. You don't want to have to smell that. I'm not trying to smell that shit.

I'm going senses, though. I'm going ears or nose. Ears or nose. Ears would be nice. You're trying to get some shut-eye? Trying to go to sleep? Just take your ears off? Yeah. Ooh. Sleep tight. That's real nice. Then you're never waking up. You have to get something that shakes the room or something. All right. I'm just going to throw it out there. I mean, if we're being honest, it usually just gets in the way. Jason. I mean...

It's an inconvenient appendage at times. I mean, listen, I'm very happy I have one. The ball's in chain? I feel like it's a one... I think it's a one... No, there's two different... It's a one-stop shop. I think it's all the same appendage. I don't think that's how it works. If you could just take it all off, I mean, it would just... It would eradicate... I mean, it just gets in the way sometimes. You know what I mean? Like, if you're running...

You got to think there'd be less friction without that in between your legs trying to play sports, right? No. I don't think about it. It doesn't bother me at all. And then if like you could take, I mean, let's just be honest. If you can detach it, that means you could probably attach an upgraded one. You know what I mean? You could go bigger. Assuming it's like a universal connection point, I could attach another one. You're a fucking psychopath, man.

I was waiting for you to make it make sense. And you're, you never disappoint. No, there you go. Like, is it like the iPhone charger where they went to all just USB-C? Like we're going to one standard connection, whatever thing those are called. They're hilarious. I thought one of the things is we're asking perplexity. These questions. What question would you like me to ask the machine real quick? I'll do it. I'll do it for you, Jason. What is, what is, what is, what is the best body part to make detachable? Yeah.

We'll see where this goes. What is the best body part to make? Appendix, boring. Tonsils, boring. Gallbladder. Ooh. Ooh. Arm, hand, legs, head. Head. You can make... I mean, head is catchable. That's like...

What is that, Futurama, where the heads are detachable? Mm-hmm. Get a new body. Just get a whole new body. Not a bad idea. I wouldn't mind that. Okay. It's a great answer, perplexity. You already mentioned you wanted to. Why would I make my dick detachable if I can just make my head detachable and put it on somebody with a bigger dick? Brandon, why did you even go to perplexity?

Because he asked me to. My job is to do what you guys asked me to do. I don't. This is hilarious. All right. All right. Perplexity wins. Every time. Can you imagine coat checking your dick? Hilarious. Coat checking your dick is fucking funny. I'm not going to need this tonight. Can you hold on to this?

What did dad used to say? You'd lose your dick if it wasn't attached. I think it's what dad used to tell us. He used to tell me that all the fucking time. Maybe that's why I thought of this immediately. You're right, dad. I don't want it to be detachable because I would definitely, I would lose that motherfucker. Jason, you of all people, your dick would be like in the car in a sock. That's funny as fuck. My fucking dog would eat it. I'd find it. Balloons got in his mouth. Jason Kelsey. Balloons gone.

Dick is lost in a vat of chili. Yeah, you're right. We don't want that to be. Oh, you need to keep it. Yeah. I'm not responsible enough to have a detachable dick. Jake, Jake, you're always like, what do I make? Quote cards. What do I make? Quote cards. There's your quote card for the week. Jake, make that a graphic. Put it out immediately. Jesus Christ. Let's hit the brackets. Let's get out of here. God damn it.

All right. That does it for No Dumb Questions brought to you by Perplexity. Discover fast and reliable search with Perplexity today. Let's move on to some March Madness Challenge updates. That's right. We're all the way to the final four. Oh, where are we sitting? Where are we sitting? First time in a long time, the men's final four is all one seeds. It's only happened one time before from our data analysis. Thanks a lot, NIL. Thanks a lot.

You got to love it. Nice. Auburn, Houston, Duke, and Florida for the men's bracket. And let's take a quick look at the leaderboard for the New Heights March Madness Challenge and a quest for the Golden Cup. Demetrius Asrat is on top of the leaderboard with Jeremy Wendt.

It's going to come down to the Houston and Duke matchup. Yeah, that's a good point. I guess that is it. They play this round, right? I think there's a few other things that could go into it too, but yes. Oh. Like who else? I mean, if it's 181, whoever wins that game is probably going to, I guess it depends on who their other Final Four team is and then who, yeah. I don't know how these points work. I think it matters also who wins the other game too and who those two picked. But Demetrius, Jeremy, congratulations on getting it to this point. That's pretty damn good. Yeah! Yeah!

Somebody's going to win it. Amy Waldrip is up there. So is Amanda Frias, Casey Qualls, Nicole Winkle. This is still anybody's game. I mean, these points are close. Everybody's kind of right there. Everybody's kind of right there. So shout out to all of them for making it.

uh, making it this far. Yeah. The tie for first and a little five way tie for second. Um, the women's final four is Yukon, UCLA, South Carolina, and the university of Texas. That's a Brandon writing that and me just reading it. 92 percenters. Uh, the standings are just two points separate first place and a three way tie for second. Um, shout out to, uh, Nick Sterling, Adam, a unit. Um, and, uh,

Cody, I'm just going to say Cody because that's a crazy last name. And Katie Plummer, shout out to Katie. Going into the final weekend, here are our New Heights team standings. The men's bracket, Brandon is winning by one point. Surprise, surprise, Jason is dead last. Yeah, I'm out. I'm out. And in the women's bracket, though, Jason, you got me by a point right now. My average height of roster is paying off.

You got me by one point. Yep. I had UConn and South Carolina. Well, we'll see. I'll tell you what. It's going to be a fun Final Four. I'm pumped. Obviously, all the one seeds in the men's bracket. The women's bracket is getting real exciting here going into the Final Four. I'm pumped, man. There's just something about March Madness that keeps me glued to the TV. It's the best. It really is. You got to love it. You know it.

Great TV happening, live sports happening all day. We're in the tail end of it where it's only at night now, which kind of sucks. But these are the best games, too. You know it. Going to be a great week of basketball, baby. That wraps up another episode of New Heights.

Make sure you're subscribed on YouTube to the New Heights channel and follow New Heights on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes of New Heights early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Once again, New Heights, a Wondery show produced by Wave Sports and Entertainment and brought to you by HBO's The Last of Us.

premiering soon here in April. Follow the show on all social media at New Heights Show with 1S for fun clips throughout the week. Thanks to the production and crew for always editing out what we shouldn't say, Jason. There's things we're not supposed to say. And to the 92%ers, love you guys. We'll see you next week.

Follow New Heights on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to New Heights early and ad-free. Plus, enjoy exclusive episodes of the show by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify today. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. Every big moment starts with a big dream. But what happens when that big dream turns out to be a big flop?

From Wondery and At Will Media, I'm Misha Brown, and this is The Big Flop. Every week, comedians join me to chronicle the biggest flubs, fails, and blunders of all time, like Quibi. It's kind of like when you give yourself your own nickname and you try to, like, get other people to do it. And the 2019 movie adaptation of...

Like, if I'm watching the dancing and I'm noticing the feet aren't touching the ground, there's something wrong with the movie. Find out what happens when massive hype turns into major fiasco. Enjoy The Big Flop on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to The Big Flop early and ad-free on Wondery+. Get started with your free trial at wondery.com slash plus.