From Sidelines to Speaking Out - The Journey of Michelle Tafoya :: Ep 45 Try That in a Small Town Podcast
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This whole phrase, trans women are real women, is so... Then what part is trans then? Why do you have to say trans? Well, because you're not a real woman. And it's... Look, you can do whatever you want. You can live however you want. But once you start to impact fairness in sports or your...

Look, we know there are people who have abused this. There was one time in a commercial break, and I'm sorry, Joy Behar, I am going to call you out on this. Yes. I had mentioned that my brother was not getting vaccinated, that he didn't want to get vaccinated. And she told me to tell my brother he's a, you know, she called him a name. Oh, my God. And.

And I said, you know, yeah, like a selfish SOB. And I said, well, yeah, I'm not going to tell him that. But, you know, I respect your feelings, even though whatever. We're going to let you do this, Michelle. We're going to let you break news on the Try That in a Small Town podcast. Come on. You can either confirm nor deny. Uh-oh. Are you going to make a run for a Senate seat? The Try That in a Small Town podcast begins now.

Try that in a small town.

I'm Kurt, and tonight we're super excited. This is going to be awesome. We have a guest. You've seen her on Monday Night Football, Sunday Night Football. You've seen her on the NBA, March Madness, the Olympics. I mean, four-time Emmy Award winner, host of the Michelle Tafoya podcast. We have Michelle Tafoya. Hi, guys. What a nice intro. Yeah.

Well, I mean, that's a pretty stupid resume, actually. I was writing that down. I'm like, oh, my God, are you kidding? That's...

The Olympics, like I said, that's four or five times at the Olympics. You did the NBA. Of course, I said March Madness tennis. You ended up in football. Was that kind of the end game? Is that where you wanted to be? What was kind of like where you wanted to get through your career? It was always the NFL. I always had my eye on the NFL. I grew up a massive 49ers fan. My dad was from San Francisco. My mom was from Northern Cal State.

And I lived in Southern Cal, so it was tough because I was surrounded by Rams fans. The Rams were in L.A. before they went to St. Louis and then came up, yada, yada. But I absolutely loved everything about football, particularly NFL, the NFL. And I was an obsessed fan, and I wanted to get into broadcasting. I thought, you know what?

So, yeah, so I started in sports radio and worked my way up and fortunately just things aligned. You guys know how it is. It's interesting.

It's you work hard, you get luckier, right? And the harder you work, the luckier you get. And I found myself on Monday Night Football with the great John Madden and Al Michaels. And I think I was like in shock for a while and then went over to NBC's Sunday Night Football, still with Al Michaels, but then Chris Collinsworth at that point. So what a joyous career I've had. Yeah.

Wow. Well, talking about football, I have to get right to it. Okay. I'm a huge, like, I mean, Pat's fan, Pat's Brady, the whole, the whole thing. Okay. So you're there. I know your time. You're there. You're there. The Superbowl 49, right? Pat's beat the Seahawks. You're standing behind, you're standing behind Bill, Bill, Bill Belichick, right? When, when the, when the intersection happens, right?

To end that game. Marcus Butler. And for people that don't know, the Seahawks were about to run the ball in and they were about to win the game. As a Pats fan, I'm saying, oh, great. This is over. You're going to run it in. It's going to be over. Why not? They should have ran it in. They should have. I mean, anyway, so you're behind Bill. When that happened, I mean, I can't imagine...

what that was like. Cause on the side, I mean, I've seen that of course watching it and everything, but being there, what did Bill do? Did he just scream or what did he, what did he do? The whole scenario was so interesting because I, I was on, I happened to be on their sideline. Normally I'm on the sideline of the team I think is about to win. I did not think that at that point, mind you, I just happened to be behind that sideline. And one of the things was Bill was getting ready to call a timeout. He,

He expected them to run the ball in and score. He wanted to call a timeout and immediately regroup, put Brady back on the field, et cetera. You know, Marshawn Lynch is trying, trying second down three and they, they go and they throw the pass and Malcolm Butler, who no one had ever heard of before steps in front of that football and picks it off. And Bill's fist just,

This just went in the air. He went from this poised position of I'm going to call a timeout as soon as this score to just this, I mean, victory formation, if you will. So then my job became I got to figure out who this Malcolm Butler kid is, and he's got to be in my post-game interview, right? So I start stalking him. Every move he made on the bench, I was behind the bench stalking him.

And, uh, so finally game ends. I grab him and I'm waiting by the camera, waiting, waiting. Come on, Al, throw it to me, Al. Come on, Al, throw it, you know, but he's putting a bow around the game and everything. Al says, okay, let's go down to Michelle. She's with Malcolm. But right at that instant,

Malcolm Butler takes off. He's waited long enough. He's waited long enough. He's like, I want to go celebrate. Well, I had to run him down on live television. You know, it's like, I've never seen it. I've never looked back at it someday. I will, but I've heard it's pretty funny. I'm chasing him down. I turn around and then I get a couple of questions and,

And so, yeah, it was one of the more fun moments. And I can still visualize, like, every second of it. I just want to give Pete Carroll a big hug as a Pats fan. Like, because there's no way. Yeah. There's no way.

They don't get that touchdown if they run it. You felt that way, didn't you? Yeah. Oh yeah. As a fan, you're not, not stopping him and it's, it's Lynch, you know? Oh yeah. And you're not going to stop them. I know. And, and, and Pete Carroll, if you're out there, thank you. But it feels like as a Pats fan, that that's how, like, that's how they want a lot of those Superbowls. Like teams beat themselves a lot and overthought it or whatever. Anyway, what a great, I just loved the,

I read that you were standing behind Bill and I thought that was like, what a cool. It was really cool. It was really cool. Michelle, I'm sorry to interrupt you, but it makes me think, okay, that's such a fun time and you get to do the post game interview and that's all happy, but.

I consider a lot of what you had to do to be the hardest gig in sports because at halftime or in game, but I'm just saying at halftime or in game, you've got to go get the coach who does not want to talk to you. I don't know if I've ever seen a coach that, Oh, I can't wait to talk to Michelle. But you've got your one or two questions. What was that like? I mean, you had to be prepared, had to ask the right questions, I'm sure, but it's, that's a hard gig. Yeah.

It is a hard gig. And thank you for acknowledging that. Yeah, you got it. Damn it. No? We need more credit. You know, seriously, it was very challenging, particularly with certain coaches. Like who? Well, you know, Bill did not love that halftime stuff. And listen, I get it. I don't hold a grudge against anyone, Jim Harbaugh.

Against anyone because you're right. They're in the middle of this battle, right? It's like – and you get – you only get so many games in the NFL season. This isn't the NBA. It's not Major League Baseball. It's not hockey. You get this finite number and every win is so critically important. So –

So, yeah, at halftime, they're thinking, what is my plan going into the second half? And they're not thinking, gee, I want to talk to Michelle or any other reporters.

So a lot of them are really gracious about it. Believe me, 90% of them treated me so well. And you work really hard to establish those relationships. And, you know, sometimes you're going to ask a question that comes off stupid and you have to live with that and you don't sleep that night. But for the most part, you know, you really, listen, we prepared like crazy. Like there were no days off during the football, no days off.

You know, you finish a game Sunday night, you're on a plane Monday morning and you're already prepping for next Sunday. I am not exaggerating. You're on the plane home and you're starting your prep for the next Sunday. There's no celebration. There's no calming down. There's just you're on your way. And every day until the next Sunday, you're focused on that game. Yeah. You look back a little bit and you critique. We always watch film and critique our performances on every level, but

and but then you prep and you, you don't. And that's really what it comes down to. It's like, you know, I kept telling myself when I got tedious, you know, failing to prepare is preparing to fail. So you can't do that. We're not failing here. This is Sunday freaking night football. This is Monday night football, you know, and it's a crew that holds everyone to the highest standard. So, so,

failure was not an option. So, and it looks like that's how you treated your whole career because I, am I right in this, uh, your on-air debut was, uh, it was 94 at the U S open. Yeah. So yeah. Well, yeah. Yeah. Is that right? I mean, as far as like,

I don't remember what my very first on-air assignment was for CBS Sports. Honestly, I remember my very first assignment when I moved from CBS to ESPN. I remember they put me on World Cup skiing. That was interesting. I broke my arm. But that's another story. Oh, my goodness.

But yeah, no, you really, you know, at that time there were, there weren't as many women doing it as there are now. So there was that sort of, you know, you got to work twice as hard, which by the way, I,

would never complain about. And I would never suggest anyone complain about it. You know, that going in, it's what you sign up for. And so it's what you have to do. And so it was never like, poor me, I've got to work twice as hard. No, it was how cool is this? I get to show my stuff, man. I get to work really hard and show everybody. So I was competing with everybody, but yeah, so you had to work hard. And that was, and that was cool. I mean, I think

Agassi won that year. So that had to be pretty cool to, to be, I mean, if that was early on, you know, it's, it's pretty cool. Yeah. He was still married to Brooke Shields. Oh, wow. That's amazing. How long ago that was? I mean, it's, it's a, did you get to interview him at all? Yeah, I did. I've interviewed Andre. And that's like, those years are kind of a blur to me because when I first got hired at CBS sports, I,

I was sort of like in shock. Seriously. I had done very little TV. I had done mostly sports talk radio. I get hired by a network as my first television job, not a local network. And I thought that I could do it, but I went through a lot of hell along the way, making a lot of mistakes and,

But as Winston Churchill said, when you find yourself going through hell, just keep going. And so that's what I did. And believe me, there were times where I dropped some serious mistakes, but I wanted it bad enough to just stick with it and learn. I thought that was Rodney Adkins that said that.

That's the first time I'd heard it. Hey, and Michelle, do you get any hazard pay? Because you mentioned you broke your arm at a skiing event. Do you get hazard pay included with some of the... Because you're around a lot of dangerous sports and contact sports. Hell no. Nothing extra?

The stupid thing about that broken arm was we were in Kitzbühel, Austria. It was beautiful. And I was covering World Cup skiing, which I don't know why they put me on that. I was brand new at ESPN. I had been doing mostly college football and college basketball my entire career. But you show up at ESPN and they're like, yeah, we'll throw on skiing and see what she thinks of that. So I'm over there in Austria and I'm coming home from dinner one night to our little inn where we were staying. And I'm crossing a bridge and

And my stupid boot slipped. And instead, you know, I don't, I'd never like practiced falling. Like my husband played baseball. You learn how to slide and fall and all that and get your arms out of the way.

No, my arm just went instinctively straight down. And the next thing I know, it was laying in the snow like the shape of an S. You know, it was just literally just, I was like, oh my God. And they take me in an ambulance to this hospital in Austria. And this guy is yelling at me in German. And then he starts saying, stop.

you're crying. You are not hurt. And I'm like, I'm not, I'm really in a lot of pain here, man. Then he took an x-ray and he saw that I had broken both bones in my wrist. And he came back and said, I'm sorry, you are really hurt. So, but, but no, no hazard pay. Well, on, on your way out, as they're, they're wheeling you out on the stretcher, did you,

Dramatically, slowly reach up your finger and number one like that. Anything that happens, Mark? Well, there were no cameras rolling. So I figured no one would see it, you know? Well, actually they walked me, they walked me up to our end. This is one really funny tidbit. Walked me up to our end, our innkeeper who didn't speak any English looks at me. He had to cut the glove off of my hand cause I was so swollen and

And he handed me this glass of liquor and he said, drink it, drink it. And I took a little sip. He goes, no, no, no, no. Drink it down. So I just went, you know, and it kind of helped. Yeah.

That's awesome. We've been talking about your interviews and stuff, and I don't want to get too political, but I'm going to. It's all right. I'm going to. I just want to know what your interview would be like with the legendary coach Tim Waltz, if you've got a chance. On the sideline. One of our finest coaches. I'm just curious what you would ask him at halftime. That's amazing.

I would probably say, do you have any idea what the hell you're doing? We're going to...

Are you just playing a part here, Coach? Listen, I happen to live right now in Minnesota where he is still the governor and he's still a fool and he's still a fraud and he's still a clown. And I seriously have zero respect for the man. He has driven this state into the ground. And so there are a lot of people in my neighborhood who are moving and

Uh, not just my day out from all over Minnesota who have left, uh, who are, you know, probably heading your way. And, um, you know, it's just, it's, it's been really sad. I've lived here for half of my life now. I grew up, like I said, in Southern California and spent the first half of my life in California and then came here. And, um, I, I,

I'm so sad to see this state the way that it is. So I would have a, you know, I'd honestly, I'd love to sit across from him and interview him, but it would be more like a, he would not enjoy it. Trust me. That was a very awkward, um, campaign and, and watching him out there and, and watching him with the hand waving and the awkward and the double wave. Yeah. It just, uh,

I can't remember who it was, but you, you, you called someone out on X, didn't you? Or someone or another ESPN analyst, I think, um,

had mentioned him and about his masculinity or something. Mina Kim's or whatever had said something. Mina Kimes. Yeah. She said, she said on the Dan Levitard podcast, which I don't recommend. She said, she said that, you know, this was a good kind of, he represented a good kind of masculinity and,

And I just said, what is that? What are you even talking about? Like, I mean, you're pitting now variations or gradients of the masculinity spectrum against one another, which is really what the left is so good at. It's just pitting people against one another. And to describe this man as a good person,

The good masculine versus whatever she thinks, I guess, is toxic masculinity was just a joke to me. And so, yeah, I disagreed with her adamantly. My name is Glenn Story. I'm the founder and CEO of Patriot Mobile. And then we have four principals.

First Amendment, Second Amendment, right to life, military and first responders. If you have a place to go, put your money, you always want to put it with somebody that's like mine. Of course. I think that's the beauty of Patriot Mobile. We're a conservative alternative. Don't get fooled by other providers pretending to share your values or have the same coverage. Go to patriotmobile.com forward slash smalltown to get a free month of service when you use the offer code smalltown or call 972-PATRIOT.

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I don't know anyone who can look at Tim Waltz and say, that's a picture of masculinity. I mean, it's, you know, it's really sad for me. I love Minnesota. My wife is from Minnesota. Her family is from there. I'm from Iowa, so I spent a lot of time in Minnesota. And I would say probably outside of Metro, you know, Minneapolis, St. Paul, it's still maybe mostly red, but obviously the cities are very blue, but

You know, then there's this thing with, you know, the men and women's sports. And how is that going to go in Minnesota here? Because it looks like a slippery slope they're getting in. It does. And this has a lot to do with Tim Walls. And we've got a very slim majority right now in the House in Minnesota, a very slim Republican majority. But.

This is this issues the no brainer, right? And it should be a no brainer. It should be a no brainer. So I will say as we're recording this, I'm getting ready to do a panel in a few days with Riley Gaines, who's coming here to rally at the Capitol and some other folks. And, you know, I've I've been in touch with Riley and I got to know each other very early on in this fight. And.

And I think her courage and her willingness to just be steadfast and keep speaking out on this, and she has absolutely no fear, has been great for this movement. So we're going to keep trying. Like I said, I don't know why you would choose this hill to die on, but I think that we are so far left in our politics here in Minnesota. Like you said, outstate, outside of the Twin Cities, outside of the metro, you

you see Trump flags all over the place, right? But you get here where there's just dense population. And by dense, I mean, they're kind of dense, but there are a lot of people and they think, you know, that Tim Walls and Keith Ellison are attorney general and, and, and the left are really cool and really great for standing up for, you know, they, they position it as we're standing up for trans rights and,

And they're forgetting that there are victims in this. And those are the girls. And, you know, where are the women standing up for these girls? And I hope they come out of the woodwork here.

I mean, we've, we've been lucky enough to have Riley on here and yes, what she's done, what she's done over the years is, I mean, everyone has to appreciate what she's done, the fight that she's fought. It's been incredible. And we can't believe she had to fight for that. Yeah. That was even a fight. It still, it still feels like we're making this up. I know. What are we, what are we arguing about men and women's sports or is that a thing? That's a thing. We all agree.

We always talk about it. It's crazy. It feels like the world is tipped off its axis. Oh, man. We're just like, what's happening here? Did we enter some other time warp or weird form of gravity around the Earth? Yeah, it's ridiculous. And

This whole phrase, trans women are real women, is so... Then what part is trans then? Why do you have to say trans? Well, because you're not a real woman. Yeah. And it's... Look, you can do whatever you want. You can live however you want. But once you start to impact fairness in sports or your...

Look, we know there are people who have abused this. People in prison who have decided to transition while in prison so they can be transferred to the women's prisons. I mean, this stuff is so absurd. At least that makes sense. At least, okay. At least that's a last resort. I need to get out of here. You know what I mean? You got to have something to do. That's a lot of time to kill. Yeah.

No, that's a very good point. But, you know, yeah, this is absurd. And you look at these biological boys who are competing and you go, really, Leah Thomas? The photographs will live in infamy and they will be in our history books. And 50 years from now or 100 years from now, hopefully, people will be saying, what in the hell were they thinking? Yeah. I still don't know what those people are, though, not to end this topic, but like,

Who supports it? I mean, I know they're out there. I just, I've never met someone who says, yes, men and women's sports, you know. It's hard to meet somebody down here that supports it. It's really hard to meet somebody. Oh, well. No, there was a girl that just, I saw today, a 15-year-old basketball player that refused to play.

Her name is Frances Stalt or something like that. I can't remember her last name. And really, that's what they should be doing. They should just be refusing. But now she's getting backlash for refusing to play. I mean, you would think they were just like, okay, she didn't want to play, so we'll continue on. But now she's getting bullying. Yeah, I think they've accused her of bullying. Yeah. Exactly. It's like, who's bullying who here? You know, yeah, I have said on X and I've shouted from the rooftops,

Don't play. Don't compete. And, you know, we had that Nevada women's volleyball team that did that, that said, we're not going to, we're going to boycott or we're going to, you know, throw in the towel on some of these games. We'll forfeit because we don't want to play against the San Jose state team that has a male, you know, a trans female, a trans gal playing on the team. We don't want to do it. And,

And they took a lot of guff even from their own university. But I am so happy to see these developments. And we're seeing it. We're seeing some signs of courage. And I think courage begets courage. So I hope that this is kind of a movement among young girls that starts to grow. You know, that's what we're hoping for.

I hope so too. Yeah. You mentioned Riley as being fearless, but I would argue that you're pretty fearless as well. Uh, I've seen you go into the lion's den. I've seen you go on Bill Maher, uh, speak your mind. I've seen you co-host the view. This is Neil's favorite show, the view. Yeah.

Neil, come on. But you have to tell me what that experience was like, because I think you were on there a couple of days and you talked about you were just giving objectionable views on Colin Kaepernick or COVID or the vaccines, which at that time, well, don't you dare do that. Can you share what that experience was like? And did you expect the kind of backlash you got following that?

I was prepared for it. And the interesting thing about it is some people think that NBC fired me because of that. And that's not at all what happened. It, it, it,

What happened was that this was going to be my final season on Sunday Night Football because I wanted to go speak my mind more. So I asked permission to go on The View when I had a week off at the end of the season. And they said, OK, yeah, just, you know, be careful. I guess I wasn't careful enough. And I said some things, but.

I got to tell you, sitting on that set and even in the early morning, you go into the New York studio and you have this meeting and you're all sitting there all, you know, whoopee and everyone. And you're talking about what the topics are going to be. And it is like it's not exciting at all.

It's not energetic. It's not happy. It's not whooping joy and sunny. I mean, yeah, everyone makes a point of that. It's so ironic, isn't it? Whoopie joy and sunny. And it's like none of those things. And so, you know, I,

Honestly, and they were considering me for the conservative chair. And I remember one of my last times there, the head of talent came down and said, well, what do you think? And what I wanted to say to him is you don't have enough money to get me to do this show because it was really, it was honestly depressing. It was. Well, they're, they're very sad people.

Yeah. They're very grumpy. Bitter, angry. Yeah. They're very grumpy. And just, you know, there was no joy. There was no joy. I'm sorry, joy. There was no fun in it. And I tried. And I put on a brave face and I smiled the whole way through and I thought, I'm just going to be a happy warrior. And if it had been honestly, you know, like informed debate, informed discussion, I

That was respectful. I could have lived with it, but it wasn't. And in fact, there was one time in a commercial break, and I'm sorry, Joy Behar, I am going to call you out on this. Yes. I had mentioned that my brother was not getting vaccinated, that he didn't want to get vaccinated. And she told me to tell my brother he's a, you know, she called him a name. Oh, my God. Ooh.

And I said, you know, yeah, like a selfish SOB. And I said, well, yeah, I'm not going to tell him that, but, you know, I respect your feelings, even though whatever. So, yeah, there was some, I mean, and for someone like me who prepares super hard for stuff and does the research, I was kind of amazed at some of the stuff that they would just say without any backing at all. Now it's an opinion show. They're allowed to do that.

But it was frustrating. It's funny to me how when you're on the left, you can have a very strong opinion about whatever you want and say whatever you want. And when you're conservative, it's like, be careful what you say. Why is that, do you think? I really don't know. We ask it every time on this show. That's what they did to our song. I mean, as soon as our song came out, the four of us were labeled racist immediately by Whoopi Goldberg and everybody on The View. I mean, it feels like in America, it feels...

obvious that we should be able to have an opinion either way. Why is it bad if you have a different opinion from someone on the left? They're very grumpy people. I tell you what, they're very grumpy and you can't really have a conversation with them. They get very sensitive. Yeah, I bet you saw your future if you took that job, what that would be like. I did. It would have been a constant...

Bombardment on you. You know, and you look at someone like Meghan McCain who quit because she just couldn't take it.

And I sat there and this was post Megan while they're looking to fill that chair. And I thought, I get it. I understand. You know, even when they had guests on that would come out and we do, you know, the chit chat with the guests, you could feel the guests just glaring at you. I mean, it was like, you know, hi, nice to meet you. And then it was, it was really quite amazing. And the audience was,

is the fifth member of The View. So you've got all these opposing opinions and the entire audience is in their palm and you're just trying to make a point. And it was, yeah, it was challenging. It was something. Yeah, and it feels like all of media is part of The View. So you're fighting everything. But like Kurt said, thank you for...

speaking up and it's so i'm curious so with the view because i've heard like elizabeth hasselbeck who was on there for a while say that yeah she's actually friends with whoopi even though they have completely differing uh thoughts especially on politics and stuff when you had those couple days with them did you like you said i just want to make sure i'm hearing right you just didn't have any camaraderie with those hosts at all i i

I would say that whoopie was probably the most open-minded, even though I disagreed with her vehemently about a number of things and still do. I would say that she was probably the most authentic. How did Ted Danson do it? I don't know. I want to have Ted Danson on and I want to ask, and I love Ted Danson. I'm like, bro, that's actually a great idea. There's a lot of questions I have.

So many questions, but how did you do it, Ted? Wake up in the morning and there's Whoopi? Yikes.

Sorry. That's just been eating at me for like 20 years now. Sorry. Sorry. The truth is that's where my brain goes. Oh my goodness. What have you, it was, it was really, yeah, I would have, that's why you guys are songwriters. Yeah. Those words in the right places. Yeah. It was just, I would say that Sonny and joy were the most hostile. I can't do it. Their names. I,

They're not. I'm sorry. It's something. It's, it's, it's truly something. And, you know, and I'll give Sonny a little bit of credit. There were times in the commercial, I felt like she was, she was asked behind the scenes, maybe to try to be nice to me in the commercial breaks. So she would just turn to me and say, so are you having fun? But it never felt, you know, it never felt authentic. And I'm, I,

Yeah, I just couldn't do that. I couldn't do it. And let me tell you this really quick. Chelsea Clinton was a guest on the show one time. And so each of us got to ask a question. And they sort of helped shape my question for me, which was fine. My question was going to be about the election and how, you know, the Democrats have all these issues, unemployment, inflation, what are you most concerned with?

So, you know, as a Democrat and her answer, and I wanted to go put my head in a stove. Her answer was, my biggest concern is that everybody has the right to vote, that everybody has access to the election.

And I wanted to scream. And I had to fight my instinct to say, what makes you think that people don't have access to voting in America? But I knew she would point at Georgia and she would just – and it just – there's not enough time in a show like that to really go back and forth. But damn, did I want to. And I really regretted that I didn't follow up with that. Chelsea Clinton was talking about dead people too. Yeah.

Well, Michelle, there may be a, I don't know if you've heard about this, but, you know, because you were raised in California, right? You were there for a pretty good while. There's a podcast that's newly launching that's supposed to be about truth and where you can really get some great points in and a great discussion on Gavin Newsom's new podcast. Wow.

And so I was wondering if anybody contacted you yet or if they reached out to you. Not yet. I'm so disappointed. Because you're from there and you're a huge celebrity. I mean, I don't understand. You know, I heard him say he wants to mix it up with the MAGA architects, the architects of MAGA. And I'm thinking to myself, you are so transparent. You want to run for president so bad and you want to distract people.

Everyone away from the disaster that you've made in California, the fires, the homelessness, the immigration policy, the sanctuary cities, the crime, the crap on the streets of San Francisco. Now you think if you have a shiny new podcast, we're all going to forget that?

because you decide to mix it up with the architects of MAGA. I can't wait to see who he has on. But I hope that they all really hold his... This is bad timing to say his feet to the fire, but I really do hope that they hold him to...

They speak truth to power. A lot of people have moved here from California. I got some friends that just opened a business here a couple years ago, moved here during COVID or shortly after COVID, somewhere in that timeframe. But they call them gruesome newsome.

Yeah. You know, and, and by no means are, are my friends necessarily conservative, but they're, they're probably moderate, like normal people with common sense. And now they have a business here and it's like, I don't know what, if you're from California, what good has he done?

Honestly, I guess they'll argue with me on that, but I don't get it. You get no argument from me. None. I have a niece and two nephews out there who probably can't afford...

to live there. And so their solution is, well, let's build little single family or single person dwellings on other people's, in other people's backyards. That's one. The other is with all of this destruction in the Palisades, Pacific Palisades there along the coast, they want to put in

Instead of just letting people rebuild homes, oh, it's got to include affordable housing and we've got to include a bunch of apartment buildings. And, you know, it's, I don't, I, listen, I have a dear friend. I'm not going to name him right now because he's,

10 times more famous than I am, which isn't really saying a lot, but he's like 20 times more. Anyway, big time. And he's in LA and he's always telling me to come back. And I said, there's no way I'm coming back. And he said, things are starting to change. You know, Gavin's going to get that, that, that, uh, and Karen Bass, she'll get ousted. And,

I just, I'm not buying it yet. And until I actually see that, there's no way I go back. I go there all the time to see my mom. She passed away a year or so ago. And so I don't really get out there anymore. And I, you know, I, I, I,

It's so sad to me. What a beautiful, beautiful state. My dad was so proud of the Golden State, and he used to call San Francisco the jewel of the Western Hemisphere. And, you know, we felt so fortunate to be raised there.

And it's just really sad. It is sad. No, it's just such a beautiful place. And to have those type of characters that have overtaken such a beautiful place is not fair. And it pisses me off. It's really unbelievable because like you were saying, San Francisco, we were lucky enough to be there a long time ago. And it is one of the most beautiful places on the planet. No, it's not.

Or it was. It was. It still is, minus the people. Well, no, you go downtown and it's not good. Yeah, there are sections now, you're right, that are just impassable. So what brought you to Minnesota then? Was it work or was it?

It was work. It was work. I was, I was my first full-time sports casting job was in Charlotte, North Carolina. And I didn't have a real good experience there with the whole, the, the work environment, the person I was working with, et cetera. And so I really wanted to leave. And I want, and in this business, you just keep moving to the next biggest market, hoping to get like, you know, okay, I was in Charlotte. Uh, I want to move up to a bigger market where you're, you know, you have a bigger opportunity and,

And so I got a call from the station in Minnesota, a full-time all-sports station, and they did a great job recruiting me, and they offered me, you know, the position on the local Vikings broadcast, and I thought this is my first step into the NFL, which was the goal. So I took it. And, you know, then I met my husband, and so here we stay. But he is even tired of it now, and he's –

you know, he was raised here and, and we have room in Nashville. We have room in Nashville. Lots of people are moving here, Michelle. Minnesota needs her though. Minnesota. I mean, listening to you talk and how, how, like you said, very well spoken. I think you have a genuine care for the people there. It's like, they need you up there. I mean, Minnesota, if you're in Minnesota, you, you need something to look forward to. This is a good, this is a good thing. Yeah.

We're going to let you do this, Michelle. We're going to let you break news on the Try That in a Small Town podcast. Come on. It has to happen. You can either confirm nor deny. Uh-oh. Are you going to make a run for a Senate seat? I will neither confirm nor deny. Gosh, dang it. I'm sorry, guys. That's a politician. She's going to do it because they need her there. I mean, I'm going to confirm it tonight on the Try That podcast. Oh, God.

Wait a minute. I mean, you know, look, there are some really good potential candidates that we have here. And so I'm praying that someone good will step up because the governorship is coming up. We've got to get rid of Tim Walz. And yes, we have an open Senate seat coming up. I'm sorry, coach. Yeah.

How do you get there? So many names for him. So many names. Do you know anybody who actually knows him and can say anything?

Like he seems so like Bugs Bunny does. It's so weird. Like when he walked out, you know, and one of those campaign events, it just looks, it looks so disingenuous. It doesn't look real. He shakes his wife's hand. It's like, this is weird. Don't you think that at a certain point into the campaign that Kamala sort of went, what have I done? Okay. Michelle, you got to answer this for me. Cause we had this question here a lot.

Like when that was happening and she was picking her vice president, I think everybody thought Shapiro. Right. Like I would get that and I'd be like, actually, he's pretty good. I would have been worried about that. Me too. I would have been worried too. Yeah. And then the waltz thing came and everybody's like,

Like, I actually don't. What do you think that strategy was? I think he was the last one standing. I don't think people wanted to. I think Shapiro knew. Okay, that's fair. And that it was going to be a failure, that she was a disaster, and he didn't want to hitch his wagon. And he thought, I've got a political future, and I don't want to destroy it. And Tim Walz has clearly destroyed his political future, I hope.

I really like to believe Minnesota is going to do better. Listen, the local media here in Minnesota didn't do one iota of vetting this guy. And then you get the national media scrutiny and suddenly all these things are coming out. And, you know, it was a whole different story. So I hope that Minnesotans have opened up their eyes enough to say, you

you know, a doorknob would be better. You've got, you've got to come on this podcast all the time. It's one of my favorites. Yeah. Are you a country music fan? I am. Really? So who do you like?

I love Jason Aldean. You passed. Thank you. You know what? I'll be honest with you. This is sort of in the last five years, I've started to absorb more country music. And I do think there's, it's just become more,

of my style. And there, there's a lot of it that I just really am into. And my son is really into it. And that kind of, he's a, he's got a very eclectic music taste, but, um, he's introduced me to a lot and I wish I could remember all the names cause there's some really good stuff that he plays on his playlist. But yeah, I, uh, I want to get to, you know, my husband's never been to Nashville. I think actually he came down as a baseball player and played against Vanderbilt, but

probably got their asses kicked. But anyway, Vanderbilt's got a good team. But I got to get down there and I got to listen to some music. Yeah. It's a great place to be for sure. And yes, Vandy is always good. Always has a great baseball team. Hey, you know, before we go, I want to ask you this because yeah, Tony and I talk about this a lot. We take for granted what we've been able to do and be on stage. And yeah,

It's funny, like sometimes we'll have guests out and they're enamored with being backstage or side stage for a concert. But as sports fans, I'm looking at you and I'm thinking Michelle gets to be on the sideline. Oh, my gosh, she's courtside. Oh, my gosh. Did you ever get to look at that and just say, oh, I'm so blessed? Or was it always you were just so in the middle of work, work, work that you weren't able to appreciate it?

I think it was the latter, but I'll tell you this. I knew when my last game was going to be. I stayed a couple seasons longer than I had planned to. I wanted to get out and start talking, which you can't really do when you're on the number one show in primetime. You can't talk the way I've been talking here with you guys. And again, never complained. That's what I signed up for. I knew that. But after COVID and everything, I just stuck with the group and didn't

they're like, just get us through that Superbowl in LA. And so I said, okay. So I knew that Superbowl in LA and it ended up being the Rams and the Bengals. I knew that was going to be my last game. And after it ended, I was about to just walk off the field. Like I always do. Like I have this routine, I'd finish, I'd interview, dah, dah, dah. And then I'd go back to the trucks and I stopped myself. I went, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait, don't forget. This is the last time.

You'll ever do this. This is, this is it. So turn around. And I physically made myself turn around. I was looking around that stadium and that LA stadium is stunning. And, you know, the confetti was still coming down and,

The Rams were still out there on the field celebrating and all the rest. And I was looking and I started to cry and I went, Oh God, you don't want to do this. This is not what you want to do. You know, so I'm trying to keep it together. And Andrew Whitworth, who was, uh, you know, one of the offensive linemen for the Rams saw this and he came running over and he gave me a hug and I'll never forget that. Um,

That was a moment where I looked around and I said, you have really been lucky and privileged and blessed to do this for as long as you've done it on the level that you've done it and taken this moment. And so I have a very vivid memory of that moment.

that last moment on the, on the field. Um, I have been incredibly lucky and I think that every day I'm away from it, you know, I allow myself to reflect a little bit more right now. I'm so focused on sort of fighting the good fight and, and trying to speak for people who, who don't want to take that risk. And I'm willing to take that risk and I don't care, um, that I don't reflect a ton, but every now and then, especially when I get asked a question like this, uh,

I do know I was hella lucky. You know, there's a cool parallel as I listen to you speak about how well prepared you are and how your whole career you've prepared for what's next, you know, the following week or the following game. I think when people ask us the same thing, like about playing shows and touring and making albums, it just kind of hit me when you said that, like you spend so much time preparing that you forget to reflect, right?

Because it's like a hamster wheel. Well, and the work's never done. So you're always going. It just keeps going. And it's a really interesting parallel that we have with athletes too. I think that's why a lot of athletes want to play music and a lot of musicians want to be athletes. It's because it's very similar in the sense that you never really stop preparing. And then one day, you stop. It stops. And you're never prepared for that. I still think Brady's coming back. Yeah.

Can I just tell you, you need to stop thinking that. He's still hung up on Will Levis. I mean, he's got his Will Levis cup here, and he's still hung up. We're on the hunt for a QB here in Tennessee. I'm going to swap this cup for a QB. Okay. Well, maybe that cup will get you something. We don't know. What are the rumors? What are the rumors that you're hearing? None. Well, here, nothing good. Obviously, you know they've got the number one pick.

My thing is that if they blow it, I'm going to be very, very upset. Like, I know that those guys aren't generational quarterbacks, but you don't get the number one pick often, or you hope you don't, right? So if they don't take the Cam Ward or maybe the, you know. I got Cam Ward. I love Cam Ward. So, I don't know. I'll be disappointed if they don't because we can't go into the season with Will. We'll get Kirk Cousins and you'll like it. Well, I like Kirk. I like Kirk. I like Kirk.

I will tell you, you would love Kirk. I've gotten to know Kirk over the years. He's a great guy. He's a great guy, and he's a better quarterback than people think. He's been shuffled through so many different systems, it's ridiculous. I agree. But he's a very good player, and a lot of offensive coordinators really respect his game. It's going to be interesting. I will warn you this. That number one pick can be deceiving. Like,

Jamarcus Russell was taken with the number one pick by the then Oakland Raiders, and it was a terrible pick. It didn't work out so great for the Raiders. But it's really interesting.

the scouting and all the stuff that they do to find the right person, that's all evolved. And I'm sure gotten much more detailed, but it's kind of a blessing and a curse to have that number one pick. Cause like you said, if you blow it, your fans may never forgive you and you may never forgive yourself. Hey, I like taking QBs deeper in the draft.

Well, of course you do. You're a Pats fan. Look at Brock Purdy, though. Yeah, yeah. I know. You know, I mean, a lot of times those hidden gems are in there. I think Joe Montana was a third-round pick. I know. I think Michelle Tafoya would be a good general manager for the Tennessee Titans. Well, come on down. Hey, real quick, what are the Vikings going to do? What are the Vikings going to do? McCarthy? McCarthy?

I have no idea. I have no idea. I don't know how he's progressing. I don't have a clue yet. And that's part of the thing. Like, I don't pay as close attention to all of it as I used to. Like, I would have had an answer for you. But I really don't. And it's still a little bit early, so we'll see. But my gosh, April's creeping up, isn't it? It sure is.

Michelle, we're thankful for you. Listen, we know you didn't have to come on here. We appreciate you. We appreciate your voice. This was so fun. Please come back. I mean, you should be like a regular on here. It's such a, it's so, it's expensive. Let me know. All right. When you declare your Senate run, we'll have you back on. I can tell it's happening. I'm going to call it right here.

You do what you want. You do you. Seriously, Michelle, we appreciate you. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you so much. Thank you, guys. Good to see you. Thank you, Michelle. All right, guys. That was pretty awesome. Michelle Tafoya, to me, she's got like a Hall of Fame career, dude. You're talking about Olympics. You're talking about NFL Super Bowls. I didn't even know the U.S. Open thing. March Madness. She's done it all. No, she's a pro. Live TV, sports.

Superstar. To be that smooth. So smart. I was thinking of that too. Live TV. I was going to ask that because it's like...

That ain't easy, right? You know, Tony and I are talking about sometimes, you know, we'll do award shows or late night shows and doing something live is obviously a lot different than when you get the chance to say, ah, screw it up. Let me do another take. She's on live TV for a living. A hundred million people doing, watching the Superbowl. You better be on. Oh, she's a pro. She was, hopefully she comes back. And one of my favorite we've guests we've had, I mean, she was so smart and quick and,

Really, really fun. The one thing I wanted to ask her, I wanted to know when she got into football, into sports.

What age? I wish I would have asked her that. She alluded to it really briefly. I wish we would have expanded on it. I think she grew up a 49ers fan because she, didn't she say she was from California? So I think during the Joe Montana years, Steve Young, but yeah, we should have gotten into that a little bit more. But I think football was like her thing because that's what I was curious. Like she did. She did it all. I think politics is going to be her thing now, though.

Dude, right? She didn't answer straight up. Hey, you know what? Minnesota needs her. Minnesota's a great state. We've played up in Minnesota and all over the place so many times. Great people.

What's going on up there is it's a shame, really. So hopefully she can get in there. I mean, she's so smart. Oh, yeah. She's a tough lady. I mean, go from the NFL to politics, she's ready. She's ready. She'd be ready. Or general manager, Tennessee Titan. Could be. Could be. That's what we need. We got a new stadium, but no team. It's going to be rough.

We just need a quarterback, guys. We just need a quarterback. Cam Ward? Cam Ward. C-dub. All right. C-dub. You know, I agree with her, though. I think, I don't know about, I like going quarterbacks deeper in the draft. Well, I mean, it's just not. Here we go. It is. But the thing is, it's like, okay, you can cite Brady and Brock Purdy. Mm-hmm.

But that's about it. And that's over 20 years. And yeah, the number one pick is probably a coin flip. It really is. And it's a lot of investment. But if you don't got a QB, man, you got to get one. You got to try. Do you think they need to build, though, like...

Okay, so you start building other pieces. They'll then get a veteran to come in for a year or two? Maybe it is. Like, if that's the thing, do you bring, like we talked about this, do you bring Aaron Rodgers in? Do you bring Kirk Cousins in? They're in a bad spot, though. I mean, they have to think about, they're dancing between quarterback, offensive line. It's like they've got to get the offensive line that's going to be cohesive with the right quarterback. I mean, it's such a hard gig. I wouldn't want that gig. Yeah, it is. At all.

But that's the dilemma that they're in right now. Well, listen, we appreciate you guys. You know, we have a lot of guests, right? And it's like sometimes we're right down the middle. It's our bread and butter is music. We love having musical people on, talking with them. And sometimes we venture out. It's sports or it's sometimes it's political. Like with Michelle, sometimes it's a little of both. Yeah.

you never know what you're going to get. You never know what you're going to get. That's true. And I think that's the fun of it. Um, listen, so make sure this is important to us. If you're, if you're watching on YouTube, like subscribe, comment, that means a lot to us. Follow us on the socials. Kayla will always tell you to download. That's a good thing for us. Definitely. Yeah. Download, download, download, download, download. Uh,

Seriously, we appreciate you guys sticking with us every week. It's been an awesome ride. By the way, Ed, leave us another good comment. He's always first with a comment. And do you notice with Ed...

He'll give us like a play by play. He'll give you a comment. And then like 20 minutes later, he's like with another part of the podcast. I read some good ones today. Did you? Yeah. He's, he's, he's very affirmative of everybody. He compliments, encourages, you know, he's, he's really good. And, and he was talking about your nickname with the new nickname. Currently it's Cobb for, for Kurt of which I'm not a hundred percent sure I'm on board yet. And that not that matters if it's Cobb, I'll go with it. Yeah. Yeah.

He mentioned another one. He had one more I thought was pretty good. I can't remember it right now, but we're going to keep working on that. Ed, you just keep sending them in. He's from Iowa. I'm right in the middle of America. Middle, the heartland. You're right in the middle. It is what it is. We can come up with something that has to do with right in the middle. You.

You are the heartland of this podcast. Oh, yeah. Thanks, Neil. I appreciate it. And happy birthday, by the way. Ah, thank you. We are coming to you from the Patriot Mobile Studios. This is a Try That in a Small Town podcast. We'll see you guys next week. Make sure to follow along, subscribe, share, rate the show, and check out our merch at trythatinasmalltown.com.