"Cooper Rush is the flip side of Tim Tebow"
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Here we go. This is the Skip Bayless Show, episode 36.

This is the Un-Undisputed. This is everything I cannot share with you during the two and a half hour go through the throat debate show that is Undisputed. In episode 36, I will tell you about the scariest confrontation I have ever had with a professional athlete. The night I thought I was going to die. This in the back of the Dallas Cowboy team plane on the way home from Detroit.

And I'll tell you how that confrontation actually impacts Cooper Rush versus Dak Prescott. Bear with me. Then I will compare my life to Tom Brady's life again. And then I will tell you how my Oklahoma Sooners ripped my guts out again. Then I'll answer your questions about LeBron about 2 a.m.

about what I would be doing if I weren't a sports commentator. And finally, I will tell you about my friendship with Mickey Mantle. Yep, that Mickey Mantle. And how it impacted my trip up to Fargo, North Dakota to cover the funeral of Roger Marris. And how all of the above might just impact Aaron Judge. But first up, as always,

It is not to be skipped. Let me begin with a flashback that will also serve as a flash forward. Let me tell you the story of the night my life was in grave danger while flying home on that cowboy team plane. This story has everything to do with the great problem the cowboys are facing as we speak. I'm talking about Dak versus Cooper Rush.

This story took place in 1991, though the life-threatening conclusion of this story didn't take place until January 5th of 1992. But a whole lot was going on in December of 1991 for me and for the Dallas Cowboys who had gone from 1 in 15 Jerry Jimmy jokes

in Jerry Jones' first year of ownership, obviously 1989, to all of a sudden in '91, an eight and five team on the verge in mid-December. At that point, all of a sudden, the Dallas Cowboys had become hot again in Dallas, the hottest they had been for 10 years, since that year that Danny White took over for Roger Staubach, 1981.

And since Dwight Clark rose up into the fog at Candlestick Park and snatched that pass, the catch from Joe Montana. For 10 years, the Cowboys had sunk slower and lower and slower and lower into the Dallas sunsets. But now they were back. Now, quick backstory from me. On December 8th of 1991, my newspaper, the Dallas Times-Herald,

had been bought by the Dallas Morning News and closed for competitive purposes. Obviously, ad rates skyrocketed after that in the Dallas Morning News. And the owner of my newspaper, the Times-Herald, told me that the moment the deal was concluded, that Robert Deckard, who was the owner and operator of the Morning News, had said to my owner, "Well, I finally shut Skip Bayless out of this market."

That was quote unquote what I was told. Hmm, not so fast. More backstory. In October of 1978, that same Robert Deckard had hired me away from the Los Angeles Times to come to Dallas and make a splash as the young gun columnist for the Dallas Morning News. Before I arrived, the Morning News for years and years

had run a daily half-page liquor ad on the lower half of the front of the sports section. So the whole lower half of that page was a liquor ad day after day after day. And yet, the Morning News had offered

to me to drop that ad revenue, which was extraordinary, to open up the entire front page of the morning news just so they could run my sports column, my young guns make a splash column down the left-hand side of the page all the way to the bottom. I was 27 and I was honored and I took that job and I ran with it. Soon I was told by

powers that be at the Dallas Morning News, that readership surveys showed that I was already the best read columnist in the city in any section of any newspaper. And this during a fiercely competitive Dallas newspaper war. Many thought it was the last of the great newspaper wars in America. So after three years at the Dallas Morning News and several awards that I won, I believe that I deserved a raise.

Yet we had a new executive editor at the Morning News, and he was not that keen on giving me that much of a raise. I had previously worked at the Los Angeles Times, which is owned by Times Mirror, which then owned the rival paper sort of across the street in downtown Dallas, the Dallas Times-Herald. So I called a friend of mine at the Times-Herald, and I said, look, my negotiations were not progressing at the Morning News.

And he said, "Hold the phone, give me 10 minutes." And 10 minutes later, he called back and said, "Could you be at the home of the Times-Herald's executive editor that night at 7:00 PM sharp?" And I said, "Sure, I can do that." And said executive editor named Ken Johnson met me at the door and immediately said to me, "I'm about to make you an offer you cannot refuse."

Back in the days of the Godfather, obviously, that was the line of the moment. He made me an offer that I'm pretty sure reset the standards for what sports columnists made in this country, and I took it. And the morning news, everyone at the morning news, furious at me, and obviously the newspaper war escalated. And finally, on December the 8th, 1991, the Sunday the Cowboys would beat the Saints at Old Texas Stadium,

to climb to nine and five. The morning news bought and closed my paper, then the Times Herald. Yet the following night, a guy named David Vaughn, who became a good friend of mine, got word to me that he had an idea. Remember, this was pre-internet. This was way, way, way ahead of its time. This was all-time cutting edge. David Vaughn said, "How about if I pay you exactly what the Times Herald has been paying you,

and we fax your column to subscribers. So, like Jerry Jones, I've got a lot of plunger in me. I'm a risk taker. I have what Jerry calls a high tolerance for ambiguity. So we immediately launched. We launched immediately because we were hoping to ride the stunning new success of the Jerry Jimmy Dallas Cowboys.

We called it inside Bayless, and it began to take off. But speaking of those Cowboys, an equally shocking subplot had developed. On November 24th at Washington, Troy Aikman, former number one overall pick, face of the franchise, had sprained his knee. And a backup quarterback by the name of Steve Berline had taken over. And Steve Berline, as a good backup should,

played beautifully down the stretch third and fourth quarters at washington arch rivalry he went seven of nine for 109 yards scored 10 points in the fourth quarter and he brought that game home huge 24 21 win steve berline was a fourth round pick out of notre dame and

He was very different from the Cooper Rush we're seeing today because, obviously, Cooper Rush undrafted out of Central Michigan. Berline had already started 15 games for Al Davis' then L.A. Raiders, gone 8-7 as a starter. So he had way, way, way more experience than Cooper Rush. By the way, Steve Berline would go on to start 83 more games after he left Dallas. 83 more games in the NFL.

for four different teams and in 1999, eight years later, Steve Berline would make a Pro Bowl playing for Carolina, just to put him in perspective. So it was not shocking at all that Steve Berline played very well as the Cowboys starter. Obviously that was four days later on Thanksgiving against Pittsburgh. Not shocking at all that 10 days after that, December 8th, the day my newspaper was bought and closed, Berline played very well.

But on December 15th, Steve Berline went to Philadelphia and he beat the Reggie White-led Philadelphia Eagles. And all of a sudden, I was starting to think exactly what Jerry and Jimmy obviously were starting to think. The offense just functioned a little better, a little more smoothly, a little more efficiently, just had a little better look to it with Steve Berline at the controls, in part because

Steve Berline just seemed to suddenly have a hot hand. Again, Troy Aikman was the face of the franchise, the former number one overall pick, but he was just in his third year and he was still trying to figure it out. He was just prone to make more mistakes than Steve Berline was, especially after his 15 starts with the Raiders. So the regular season concluded.

At home at Old Texas Stadium, Cowboys outscored the Falcons 31-27. Berline threw for 228. Emmitt Smith ran for 160. And by the way, Cooper Rush does not have an Emmitt Smith, just for the record. And what did you know? The 11-5 Dallas Cowboys were on their way to a playoff game.

Up in Chicago against Mike Ditka's Chicago Bears. I was faxing to the max. Yet that week, Troy Aikman told Jimmy Johnson he was 100% ready to return. I mean, this is going to be Troy's first playoff game. Couldn't blame him. He was ready. I think much of the locker room was ready for him. And Jimmy Johnson said, nope, Jimmy ready.

with the okay obviously from above from Jerry, the cosign, stuck with the hot hand. And lo and behold, hot hand beat Ditka in Chicago 17-13. Facts, baby, facts. And Jimmy, believe it or not, stuck with that hot hand as the Cowboys headed to Detroit for another playoff game that could vault you all the way into the NFC Championship game. Hmm. Troy Aikman, not happy.

completely, understandably not happy. I mean, yeah, he was the first overall pick. This was his team. This should have been his time in his mind. And yet it felt like he was losing his job and losing luster with Cowboy Nation, fickle as it can be. But still, to the eyes of the majority of Cowboy fans, to my eyes, Troy had struggled as a still young quarterback.

Steve Berline was operating, slicing, dicing, playing at a little higher level than we had seen Troy play as of yet. Obviously, I'm deep down, you know me, lifelong diehard Cowboy fan. I just couldn't help getting swept away by Berline mania. Steve's a good guy, glib, cool, tough-minded. Did a radio show on KLIF in Dallas during those days, and

He agreed to do interviews with me a couple times on radio. He was fun to interview, fun to listen to. Go Stevie, go. The truth is what happened in Detroit on January the 5th at 4 Eastern time was not really Steve Berline's fault. He went 7 of 13 for 91 yards first half, didn't throw a touchdown pass, did throw a pick.

But what happened to the Cowboys that day wasn't Barry Sanders' fault. He didn't run them out of the stadium in Detroit. He had 12 carries for 69 yards. But the Steve Berline fairy tale, one game short of the NFC Championship game, was blown to smithereens by another hot-handed backup quarterback by the name of Eric Kramer, who had taken over for Rodney Peet in Detroit, and he had gotten hot. I mean crazy, crazy, go-nuts hot.

In that game, Eric Kramer was 29 of 38 for 341, three touchdowns, no picks, Lions 38, Cowboys 6. Postgame locker room, Troy Aikman not happy. Troy Aikman had been allowed or forced to mop up that day in the second half. He actually...

Threw 16 passes later in that game, completed 11 for 114, but he was not a happy camper in the postgame locker room, and I do not blame him. That night, I flew back to Dallas on the Cowboy team plane. I occasionally hopped a ride on said team plane to a remote outpost like Green Bay. It's just so hard to get there and get back.

But because I was now faxing to the max and business basically for myself, it didn't hurt to save a couple of bucks by hitching a ride back to Dallas. So as always, I sat in the media section, which was in coach just behind the first class coaches section and just ahead of the players section, which went all the way to the back of the plane in coach. And what I did on the way home from those games was I

I furiously typed, and usually, because I had to, I would finish my column by the time we landed back in Dallas. Perfect. Kill two birds with that one stone. But on this night, I got interrupted from writing my column. By the way, the mood I'd sensed among the players on the plane was this weird vibe of sort of happy-angry. I think they were proud of the run they'd made. They knew they were

going to be very, very good. The next year, and would they ever be, they're about to go win a Super Bowl. They should have won five in a row. It's a whole other story. Yet that team in that plane was still seething over the fact that Eric Kramer had humiliated and annihilated them. So as I typed, I heard a deep voice come over the plane's PA system from the very back of the plane

"Skip Bayless, please report to the back of the plane." I knew it was a player's voice, I just didn't know which player. Several media friends around me, eyes widening, looked at me and said, "Don't go." Players in those days were known to smuggle various beverages aboard the plane for the trip home.

And there was a very good chance that at least some of those players had, let us say, imbibed maybe to the max. So a bunch of intoxicated NFL players who'd just gotten their asses kicked could be 100 proof trouble for a highly opinionated sports columnist.

But I think you know that I have lived by one rule. It's my golden rule in my career. I do not run and I do not hide. If an athlete or coach or executive wants to confront me, many, many have. Those are stories I'll tell in future podcasts. I will make myself available. Now I do it mostly on television, but anytime, anyplace, any way, I will make myself available.

I knew what I had to do. I got right up out of my seat and I marched as confidently as possible all the way down that aisle back through the entire Dallas Cowboy football team to the very back of the plane where I was surprised to find Mark Tuane waiting for me. Mark Tuane. Didn't see that coming. I'm not sure what Mark Tuane had or had not had to drink.

I can just tell you that he was extremely agitated, and I immediately knew I was in the wrong place at the very worst time. I didn't know Mark Tuna well at all. I might have spoken to him a couple of times, some post-game locker rooms. He didn't have a lot to say. Quiet giant. He was born in Oceanside, California, but raised in Honolulu. Actually played on the same high school basketball team with a guy named Barack Obama.

But in those days, 1991, nobody cared about that because in 1991, Barack was working at the University of Chicago Law School. Mark 2 and 8 had played defensive tackle at UCLA, and he was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Dallas Cowboys to play defense. But Cowboys found right away his size and his rare strength and his athletic ability, his feet,

were best suited to play in the offensive line and by 1991, Mark Toonay was becoming one of the best left tackles in the business, in the NFL. He would make Pro Bowls in 1994 and '95. Mark Toonay stood six feet five, weighed around 320 pounds, and was considered the strongest man on the football team.

He was also considered one bad, pardon my language, MF. I'd become close with, by that point, former Cowboy cornerback Everson Walls. And a couple of years before, he told me a story about going out on a Wednesday night off during training camp and running into 2 and A at a bar. Told me that 2 and A had gotten belligerent and threatening, used language that Everson Walls considered racist.

And Walls had told me maybe two years earlier, "Stay away from 2NA. He's one crazy MF." He said the two words, "MF." So here I was, back to the rear bathroom door, face to face with Mark 2NA. And I said, "What do you need?" And 2NA bodied me up against that bathroom door, and he said, "Why have you been so hard on Troy Aikman?

and it hit me like I thought or feared 2-and-A might hit me. Mark 2-and-A was Troy Aikman's blindside protector at left tackle, and he was that on and off the field. Mark 2-and-A was extremely angry that I'd been driving the Steve Berline bandwagon. Facts, baby, facts. So by this point, maybe eight or ten players had gathered together

behind 2-and-A, a little semicircle, silently to watch this inquisition unfold. And I did see Troy's head, he's 6'4", at the back of that pack. So I said to 2-and-A, you didn't want Steve Berline to start today? And he said, this isn't about Berline, it's about Troy. And I said back to 2-and-A, I have absolutely nothing personal against Troy,

The offense was just performing at a little better level without him. I said, I didn't start Steve Berline today. I didn't start Steve Berline at Chicago. I said, Jimmy did. You know that, and I know that. And this seemed to further enrage Mark Tuane, who began to shove me against said bathroom door as he spoke. You showed Troy no respect. Shove. No respect. Shove.

Quick aside, I got along fine with Troy. I liked Troy a lot. I enjoyed talking to Troy a lot, as he would call it, visiting. Troy has sort of a weird background mix of LA and Henrietta, Oklahoma, where he went to high school because his father was there. Henrietta's the sister, believe it or not, town to a town in Oklahoma called Okmulgee, where my father was from, where he grew up.

I spent some time in Oak Mogi. I know Henrietta. Troy and I talked about Henrietta. I like Troy because he's smart, as you know from his analyst work, deeply insightful, deadpan funny. Okay, full disclosure, maybe there was one stumbling block with Troy that I had early on. You might remember that Troy's first agent was Super Agent Lee Steinberg. I had become very close friends during my days in L.A. with Lee

in part because before he became an agent or a super agent, he lived about two blocks from me here on the west side of LA. We really hit it off, got close. So as his career progressed and all of a sudden Troy gets drafted number one overall by the Cowboys, maybe I started to go out of my way, maybe to overcompensate, to be completely objective about Troy. Maybe I

Just wanted to make sure that nobody thought I was selling out to Lee Steinberg and then, in effect, to Troy. So maybe I went a little too far to be too objective, but the truth was that I had no personal animosity toward Troy whatsoever. This wasn't about Troy. It was about winning games. It was about making the playoffs. It was about winning a playoff game in Chicago, but clearly...

At that moment, 2NA was having none of that. He was obviously going to have Troy's back, and he just might break my back in the process. Yet as concerned as I was getting about my safety, I got to tell you, I was stunned and awed, awed, flat out awed by how loyal Mark was to Troy. And it was coming clear to me his heart was not in having to protect Steve Berline. That really got me.

Mark Twain's loyalty for Troy Aikman would serve this team very well over the next four years, as you well know. But at the moment, I had one big 6'5", 320-pound problem. In all my confrontations with athletes, this was the only time I actually feared I was about to get hit. And I was frantically trying to process how or if I should try to defend myself.

I, in truth, I wasn't just flat out scared. I think I'm too proud to like lose my poise or look like some fraidy cat. I was still in control, but I just knew I had reached the point of no return. I had no answer, no escape route, and I was not going to apologize. All those players watching, they were going to have my back. No matter what happened, they were not going to intervene.

Maybe because they also had Troy's back. I didn't realize how split the locker room had become. But they all knew 2-and-A was one bad MF. Nobody wanted to mess with him. Nobody was going to try to reason with him. Hey, hey, Mark, back off a little bit. Who cares about this? Let it go. He's just some columnist clown. Forget about it. Nobody was going to say that. Nobody wanted to provoke Mark 2-and-A.

to turn around and take it out on them. So just when I thought all was about to be lost, all of a sudden that sea of players suddenly parted, and I looked up to see Jimmy Johnson. Somebody had run to the front of the plane, because Jimmy sat in the very front row, to alert him that trouble was brewing in the very back of the plane.

Jimmy immediately addressed me, not the players, he addressed me. And he said quite sternly, "Get back in your seat." Then he turned, voice rising, and said to all the players, but only indirectly to 2 and A, which I thought was very shrewd on Jimmy's part, don't confront him, just say indirectly to all the gathered players, "All y'all, get back in your seats."

He used words, if memory serves, that were a little more colorful, including a couple of adjectives. "Get back in your seats." Jimmy Johnson just might have saved my life. If Mark II and A had hit me, he could have killed me. But at that moment, there was one human on that plane even scarier than Mark II and A, and that was Jimmy Johnson. Those players were afraid of Jimmy. That was Jimmy's greatness.

They feared him. He motivated by fear in the greatest way I've ever seen. There's never been a greater force field as a motivator than Jimmy Johnson. And fortunately for me, he motivated every one of those players, including Mark Tuane, to sit down. I all but ran all the way back to my seat, and I live to tell you about it. But that brings us full circle to 2022.

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We now have another backup quarterback forcing now Jerry without Jimmy to make a big decision. You go back to the starter or you ride the hot hand. Only here's the big difference. Trust me on this. Cooper Rush is playing at an even higher level than Steve Berline did in 1991. In all my years,

as you've heard me say now for three straight weeks, I've never seen anything like Cooper Rush. I cannot remember a quarterback coming from nowhere and playing so beautifully and brilliantly, yet understatedly, in his first four starts of his career. It just doesn't happen.

As you know, Cooper Rush has been shockingly, but sort of quietly, clutch in all four of his starts. Every time the Cowboys seem to be in trouble, Cooper Rush makes a throw, and then another throw, and another clutch throw. I keep asking my debate partner, Shannon Sharp, a Hall of Famer, what's wrong with Cooper Rush? And he really doesn't have an answer except to tell me he will get exposed.

Yep, he's an undrafted fraud out of Central Michigan. Is he? Obviously went through Tebow mania back on first take back in 2011 ESPN days. But Cooper Rush is so much better at throwing the football, at reading defenses. Tebow, yeah, I drove the Tebow bandwagon, but for three quarters, he threw it all over the planet. He was wild high, he was wild low.

He was just wild. He was wild and hard to watch. But in the fourth quarter, as you know, Tim Tebow willed himself to get deadly accurate, and all he did was win. Cooper rushes the flip side of Tim Tebow. He routinely makes every throw, short, mid, long. He throws a sweet deep ball. He's a really good thrower of the football. He is fearlessly poised in the pocket.

What's not to like? Cooper Rush is confounding the national media. They all wrote off the Cowboys. They're dead. Dak's gone. They lost 20-3 to Tom Brady. They are dead and done. Dance on their graves. Cooper who? Rush to judgment. Sat right here and told you the same thing that first week. No.

He can play. I saw him play at Minnesota. It was no fluke. It was no blip. He threw for .325 on Sunday night football at Minnesota. 55 seconds left, he hit Amari Cooper with a 20-yard touchdown pass to beat Kirk Cousins up in Minneapolis, 20-16. He clutched up against Joe Burrow and the defending AFC champs at Jerry World.

Last minute of the game, three straight huge completions to set up a walk-off field goal. They were in trouble at Giants. Arch rivals, Giants are back, baby. Defense is red hot, big blue. Saquon breaks loose. It's 13-6 Giants. The sky is falling on the Dallas Cowboys. And Cooper Rush says, no, I got this. He's unspectacularly special. He's not throwing his fist. He's not jumping around. There's no swag.

Two straight long touchdown drives and all of a sudden, the Dallas Cowboys are back in control at Giants. All of a sudden, against Washington, the defense is falling apart, allowing 142 yards rushing. All of a sudden, the Cowboys are going nowhere running the football for Cooper Rush, 2.1 yards per carry. It's pathetic. Can't run, can't stop the run. And Cooper Rush said, I got this.

unspectacularly special. He makes this throw, then that throw, and then here's another throw. And all of a sudden you look up and he brought them from 7-6 down to another win, three in a row. What's not to like? National media is saying, you'll get exposed because he keeps exposing the national media. The frauds are all those media people who said they're dead. No, you're wrong because Cooper Rush is right. Obviously,

We're not talking about a Mahomes. We're not talking about a Josh Allen. He just keeps getting rid of the ball quickly, smartly, accurately, which brings me to Dak Prescott. Dak Prescott is no Troy Aikman. He was a fourth-round draft choice who sometimes plays like the fourth overall pick, but more often than not plays like a fourth-round draft choice. Dak has been spectacularly spotty. Yes, he's a better thrower of the football than Cooper Rush.

he can put up more points more spectacularly than Cooper Rush, sometimes in defeat, sometimes when hopelessly behind. But have we forgotten how sorry Dak looked last year at home against the Broncos and then at Kansas City against Mahomes and then against the Raiders on Thanksgiving against Kyler, then at home against the 49ers in the playoff loss, against Brady on opening night?

I can promise you this, this locker room, this Cowboy locker room is starting to split over Dak versus Cooper Rush. I'm not sure what the percentage split is, and I'm not saying they don't still love Dak as a guy. I just think they don't love him so much as a performer anymore. Cooper Rush is non-threatening. He's unhateable, says and does all the right things.

just commands the huddle, just keeps making plays. You can call them little plays, but they're little big plays. I now believe that some of the players are now saying privately, "Man, I at least want to see what Coop can do out in LA against the Rams." It's also possible there's a couple of players in that locker room who would like to do to me what Mark Twain wanted to do to me in the back of that team plane in early January of 1992.

But to me, as a diehard Cowboy fan, I would forever regret it if we, Cowboy Nation, were denied the opportunity to see if Cooper Rush could do it out here against the defending champs at Rams. Just remember, even though Troy Aikman declared himself 1,000% healthy for a playoff game at Chicago, Jerry and Jimmy said no.

Steve Berline had earned the opportunity to start that game. Will history repeat? Will Cooper Rush pull off a shocking upset at Rams? I know they're struggling, but it's possible. Could he pull off another shocking upset just the way Berline did at Bears, at Ditka? Then, is it possible Cooper Rush will be rewarded with one more start?

The best team in pro football as we speak at Philadelphia, Sunday night football, a week from Sunday, obviously. And will he, right on cue, a la Steve Berline, get exposed and exploited by said Eagles? Hey, that would mean the Cowboys are still 4-2 at that point without any questions asked. Then completely healthy Dak Prescott could be handed his job back and we'd all live happily ever after.

But again, Cooper Rush is better than Steve Berline and Dak is not Troy. I'm just not sure Cooper Rush is going to allow Dak Prescott to have a fairy tale ending. Enough of me. It's now time for you. Questions from the audience. How about Jake from Trenton, New Jersey? Before you were on TV, were you still waking up at 2 a.m. to work out?

Ah, no, Jake, I was not. In fact, in my days as a newspaper columnist, I was a nocturnal animal with late night deadlines. I often went to bed at 2 a.m., got up, I don't know, around 9 to work out. And as an author, a book writer, three times on pretty tight deadlines to finish books on the Dallas Cowboys, I invariably...

caught creative hot streaks from about midnight until 4 a.m. Those four hours when it was just deadly silent, I got hot as a writer. I'd go to bed around 5. I'd get up around 10 to work out. But now I'm in my dressing room every weekday morning here at Fox by 4 a.m.,

So TV has turned my life completely upside down and the truth is I despise getting up at 2 o'clock in the morning. There's nothing good, nothing good about getting up at 2 o'clock in the morning. It never gets any easier to get up at 2 o'clock in the morning. It only gets harder, but I love Undisputed. So I do. Frankie from Florida asks...

If you could ask LeBron one question, what would it be? Aha. There are many questions I'd like to ask LeBron. I cannot disclose. So I will keep those to myself. But for the purposes of this podcast and this question from Frankie from Florida, I'll keep it simple. I would love to ask LeBron James. LeBron, why just once in your career didn't you dedicate an entire offseason...

to improving your free throw shooting. How about Ty from Ohio who asks, "What career work, I'm sorry, what career would you be in if you didn't find sports?" Very good question. Actually, though, sports found me, thank God. But if not for commentating on sports, debating sports on television, I'd have been an orthopedic surgeon fixing knees

fixing shoulders. I have close friends who are orthopedic surgeons and I'm in awe of what they accomplish, what they've done for me, and I envy it to the point that I wish I could have pursued it. Quick left turn, quick movie review of Bullet Train. Watched it Saturday evening late at home with my wife, Ernstine. Zero expectations. 30 minutes in, Ernstine said to me,

"You sure you want to keep watching this? It's just so confusing." It was crazy confusing with all the flashbacks, but I said, "Hey, let's hang in for just a few more minutes just to see where it goes." And did it go. It flat out went. It sucked me in at 200 miles per hour. It somehow careens between

this extremely bloody, dark comedy to edge-of-the-seat thriller to I-didn't-see-that-coming drama. Five assassins, one bullet train flying across Japan. When it ended, two hours and six minutes worth, Ernstine heaped aside and said to me, "Who could write that? It is so deliciously complex."

for what in the end is just a big silly movie. But David Leitch directed it as he did two of my all-time favorites. The first John Wick, Keanu Reeves. I think it's his greatest role. That's just me. And then of course, Atomic Blonde, Charlize Theron went beyond Keanu, beyond Keanu as the John Wick of Atomic Blonde.

In "Bullet Train," Brad Pitt, as usual, is just nonchalantly great as the luckiest, unlucky assassin ever. And then Michael Shannon and Joey King and Brian Tyer Henry and on and on, Aaron Taylor Johns, Bad Bunny. They all take turns trying to steal the movie, and they all but do. I give "Bullet Train" an A.

A surprising A with a bullet. Quick thought on Tom Brady and the rampant reports of his marital problems. I have no idea exactly what's going on behind the scenes with Tom, but I did first guess this several times on this podcast. I've told you I have one thing and only one thing in common with Tom Brady. My career is number one with a bullet.

I told Ernestine on our first date 17 years ago in New York City, no matter what happens, where this goes from this night, I told her, I'm sorry, but you'll always be number two to my work, which is my life, which is my reason for being. She did rise to 1A to my work. We do remain together 17 years later, married now for six. But she knows if she forced me to choose her or my career,

I'd have to say sorry. I was married once before, right out of college to my high school sweetheart Liz. I had three long-term relationships with Nancy and then Peggy and Amy. All four wanted a little more of me than I was able to give. All four of those relationships ended very peacefully. No animosity on either party's side. I still consider all of them friends. I'm just married to my career.

That, I believe, is some of, if not a lot of, what's going on in Brady's life right now. Tom Brady was born to be the greatest football player ever, maybe until he's 50 years of age. That's just who he is. I, for one, have no problem with that.

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That's BlueNile.com. Now, a final quick thought as I put to bed my Oklahoma Sooners, for whom I live and die and always have since my days growing up in Oklahoma City. I told you last week that the Kansas State loss at home in Norman was the single most excruciating and blindsiding loss of my sports fan life. And last Saturday at TCU, all-time worst loss

somehow got even worse, if that's possible. But it did. It got even worse. I had welcomed back Brent Venables to replace stinking Lincoln Riley, who bamboozled us, slipped off in the night to Hollywood, took Caleb Williams, quarterback, with him.

Stinkin' Lincoln, as I told you last week, coaches no defense. Defense is obviously Brent Venable's calling card, or so I thought. I thought after we went 3-0 at Nebraska, we finally have a defense. Playoffs, here we come. Stinkin' Lincoln, take that. My men here at Fox, Joel Klatt, Colin Coward, said Oklahoma is a playoff team.

And after last Saturday game at TCU, in all seriousness, I do not believe my Oklahoma Sooners will even qualify for a bowl game. In all seriousness, we went in just one week's time from a playoff team to a non-bowl team. And I am not kidding or exaggerating.

I do not believe we will win another game. I don't believe we can beat Kansas in Norman. I don't believe we can win the regular season finale at Texas Tech. I watched them beat Texas the other day. Seriously.

We gave up 41 in the first half at TCU. 41 in the first half. We gave up 361 rushing yards, 6-6-8 overall. 668 yards Brent Venable's defense gave up at TCU. That's what our wishbone used to do to big eight rivals back in the 70s. We are even worse on defense

I can't believe I'm saying this, than we were under stinking Lincoln, even worse than under stinking Lincoln on defense. In my life, I have never, ever been more shocked, more fooled, more befuddled and blindsided and humiliated and devastated by a football team than by my beloved 2022 Oklahoma Sooners. Boomer Sooner, Bloomin' Sooners.

Get them out of my sight. Now, because Aaron Judge and the Yankees have obviously captured the nation's imagination of late, let me flash back to, in my opinion, my view, the most famous New York Yankee ever. Yeah, I know about Babe Ruth and I certainly know about Derek Jeter. But let me tell you, Mickey Mantle had...

maybe the greatest name in baseball history, Mickey Mantle, mystical mystique. And let me tell you how I actually became a friend of Mickey Mantle's. Growing up, I loved the St. Louis Cardinals, as I've told you before, Bob Gibson, Lou Brock, because we got all their games clear as a bell on radio in Oklahoma City, thanks to 50,000 watt KMOX out of St. Louis.

But the one Yankee I rooted for was Mickey Mantle because he was from a little town up in the very northeast corner of my home state, Oklahoma, called Commerce. It was near Joplin, where my father was actually born, Joplin, Missouri. Mickey Mantle, magical mystique, switch hitting, power hitting center fielder, who was the fastest man in baseball from the left-handed batter's box to first base.

Mickey Mantle, all-time greatest switch hitter, three MVPs, Triple Crown in 1956, 12 World Series, seven rings, still to this day has hit the most home runs and had the most runs batted in in total World Series. If only he hadn't wrecked his knee running through the outfield in a World Series.

against the Brooklyn Dodgers at age 19. 19, he wrecked his knee and he was never quite the same, but he was still Mickey Mantle. You wanna talk about a five-tool superstar? The Mick, as they called him, had a sixth and a seventh tool. He had that name, coolest name ever, and he had Yankee pinstripes. That's why his 1952 Topps baseball card recently obliterated the all-time auction record.

going for $12.6 million. And I can tell you, Mickey Mantle, had he still been alive, would have been flabbergasted by that amount. Trust me on this, Mickey Mantle could never understand why so many people made such a big deal about him being able to hit a baseball, and it just ate him alive. So how did I meet Mick? My first year in Dallas, mentioned it before,

I did manage to win Texas Sportswriter of the Year. It was awarded by the National Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association, which was based in Salisbury, North Carolina. So I traveled to Salisbury to receive my award in April, just ahead of covering my first Masters in Augusta, Georgia. I knew Mickey lived in Dallas, but I'd never met him, never crossed his path, had no idea

that he was about to be the keynote speaker that night in Salisbury as I received my award. So before that awards presentation at Catawba College, all the honorees, all the award winners were required to attend, I don't know, one of maybe 15 or 20 cocktail parties around Salisbury at the stunning homes of NSSA patrons. Little did I know Mickey was assigned

to the same mansion cocktail party that I was. At that point, the last thing Mickey needed was another drink. His battles with alcoholism had become part of his legend. So there I was in suit and tie in a group of, I don't know, eight or ten people, living room of said mansion, trying to make small talk about the cowboys or maybe the masters. Up walked Mickey Mantle, drunk as a skunk.

And without introduction, Mickey Mantle with a huge smile said to me, "You write some weird shit." That's what he said to me. "You write some weird shit." And I couldn't help but laughing and saying, "Thank you." Because I'm pretty sure Mickey Mantle was trying to pay me a compliment in only his way. Everybody laughed, maybe a little nervously. And Mickey and I began to talk and Mickey and I hit it off.

Then a couple hours later, I had to watch from the audience as Mickey Mantle tried and failed to deliver his keynote speech. He kept losing his place. It got harder and harder to watch until finally the emcee for the night had to go up, take him by the arm, and escort him away from the podium. Much to the horror and the pity of the many Mantle worshipers in the audience that night, including me.

Still, even as he was escorted away, we all gave him an ovation, some of a standing, because he had given us so many magical Mickey Mantle moments. When I got back to Dallas, I left a message for Mickey at Preston Trails Golf Club where he hung out. I'd heard all the stories about how Mickey and his buddies sometimes played golf naked at Preston Trails.

a very private club enclosed by very tall trees. They played golf naked while intoxicated. Heck, I knew all the stories because believe it or not, well, first of all, as a senior in high school, I had read the breakthrough bombshell book by Jim Bouton, one of his former Yankee teammates called "Ball Four: A Tell-All," maybe the first ever tell-all. Actually inspired me to pursue this business. And also believe it or not,

At the time I met Mickey, I had also become friends with his longtime mistress. They weren't together at this point, but she happened to live in my little condo cluster in Dallas. And she had told me many, many stories of Mickey's alcohol-fueled escapades. Mickey was 20 years older than me at this point. And I must admit, I saw some of my alcoholic father in Mickey, and I felt for him.

Mickey called me back from Preston Trail Golf Club and I told him I'd like to interview him and he invited me over to his house, which was a shockingly modest little three-bedroom house in North Dallas. We sat and talked about baseball and more about life, alcohol abuse for maybe, I don't know, four hours it seemed like and we did stay in touch. And in December of 1985,

Roger Maris, his Yankee teammate, passed away, and the Dallas Times Herald I was working for sent me up to Fargo, North Dakota, to write about Roger's funeral. All the Yankee greats attended, Whitey Ford, Moose Scourin, Bobby Richardson, on and on, but the most famous of all was Mickey Mantle, far more famous than the other half of the M&M boys, as they were called, Roger Maris. Obviously, Maris' claim to fame

was that he passed Babe Ruth. He had 61 homers in 1961, but obviously Mickey Mantle was the far better hitter and player. So at the Holiday Inn that was serving as sort of the headquarters in Fargo, all the Yankee greats were staying there.

I waved to Mickey Mantle in a cordoned off section, the back of the hotel for family and friends, and he waved me inside the ropes. And we sat in the corner and he cried and cried and cried about he deserved to die before Roger Maris died at just 51 of lymphoma. Mickey went on and on and on about how he deserved

had never taken care of himself the way Roger took care of himself, how he, Mickey, had never been the family man that Roger had been through thick and thin. Mickey went on and on about how he had squandered so much of his talent while Roger had maximized his. Mickey just sobbed and sobbed and kept asking me, "Why him?" I tried to console him, tried to comfort him,

And to his credit, Mickey Mantle, over the next few years, did get sober. I'm pretty sure through the discussions I had with him that he did get right with God. He was a little better father, I think, to his four sons. Mickey died at 63. That was 10 years after Roger Maris passed. Just believe me on this. Mickey Mantle was a good man who could just never get comfortable with being Mickey Mantle.

Mickey Mantle, the player I held in the utmost awe when I was a little kid. But the Mickey I got to know was astonishingly human. I've gotten to know many, many superstars in my time. You and I worship a lot of them. But always, always, there's just one common denominator. Every last one of them is so vulnerably, painfully, often quietly human.

All of them wondering deep, deep down how they got so lucky to be able to play a sport better than just about anybody else on this planet. Here's hoping that Aaron Judge, now passing Maris and becoming a true Yankee legend, will be able to live with forever being known as the man who broke Roger Maris' record.

That's it for episode 36. Thank you for listening and or watching. Thanks to Jonathan Berger and his All Pro team for making this show go. Thanks to Tyler Korn for producing. And please remember, Undisputed every weekday, 930 to noon Eastern, the Skip Bayless Show every week.