Welcome to the Crown and Anchor Greyhounds. This is Richmond Till We Die,
a conversation about the Apple TV Plus show ted Lasso, where we explore the
characters, their relationships to each other, how they can make us laugh until
we can hardly breathe one moment and feel with the deepest parts of our hearts.
The next I'm Christian and my favorite Beatles album is the Gray album mash
Up by Danger Mouse featuring Jay Z. I'm Brett and before we recorded this
episode, I thought warmballs was something that you had to get treatment for.
But our guest today is Jimmy Conrad. Jimmy is a former professional soccer player
who played twenty six games with the US men's national team and twelve seasons in
Major League Soccer, where he was named to the MLS Best eleven on four
occasions, and won the mL Cup with the San Jose Clash in two thousand
and one and the US Open Cup with the Kansas City Wizards in two thousand
and four. Jimmy hung up his cleats in two eleven, but has continued
his career in sports media as a host and analysts since then. Currently,
he co hosts the CBS Sports podcasts in Soccer Wee Trust alongside his pals and
former men's national teamers Charlie Davies and Heath Pierce. In addition to his CBS
duties, Jimmy oversees a production company called Radical Creative Group, as well as
the online community of do gooders known simply as the Warmballers. More on that
later. He also serves as the sporting director for the San Francisco Glen Soccer
Club, whose men's and women's teams both play in the fourth tier of the
American Soccer Piramid. Of course, Jimmy's a massive fan of Ted Lasso as
well, so we invited him onto the show to talk about Ted, Jose
Mourinho, Latan MLS, and the US national team. Warmballs and lots lots
more so Greyhounds please join us as we give a warm welcome to Jimmy Conrad.
Thanks for being with us, Jimmy, I love in the energy boys.
Yes, I'm excited to be on the podcast. Thank you so much
for the invitation. We are excited to get a chance to shout with you.
And the most important question that we have for everybody is how did you
get into Ted lasso, and especially for people who are professional soccer players,
like what kept you with the show? Well, it wasn't the soccer plane.
That's a shout out to all the guys that I know on the cast
who picked up who picked up the game considerably by season three, which is
pretty cool to see. They take a lot more pride and what they're doing
in the background and all that type of stuff. For me, I came
into it not too late. You know, you still hear about people just
watching it for the first time leading up to season three, and I was
maybe five or six months late enough to hear that there was some buzz like
you gotta watch this show. I heard enough of that you gotta watch this
show. So I sat down and watched it, and the human side of
it was very endearing for me, that side of the locker room that maybe
doesn't get talked about a lot, where you are working through things together.
You are dealing with adversity either by yourself but also within a group, and
when you lose, you're not just losing collectively, but you're also probably losing
a starting spot. You could be losing playing time, you could be losing
a whole bunch of different things, all while trying to balance what's going on
in your personal life and that compartmentalization that that exists. So to shine a
light on that I thought was was pretty cool. I'd say the the big
tie in for me, which really got me in was was Roy Kent.
You know, I mean, there's there's always there's always a jerk in the
locker room, you know, who was a bit of a softie, but
he had to put on that front because he'd put on that front for so
many years or that's how he got led when he was a younger player.
So I really resonated. He really resonated with me. And so when he
comes in and you know, says I gotta be coached by Ronald fucking McDonald
or whatever, and then you know, Ted and Coach Beard look at each
other. I wait till we win them over. That for me was the
biggest hook that I was going to really enjoy this show because I knew that
at that point, at that moment, that the sport side of it was
just going to be the backdrop and it was just going to be a vehicle
for them to really get across these really incredible messages of being a human did
you ever lobby to audition for the show for season two or season three?
Like, you're good on camera, You're a funny guy. You could have
helped out with some of those soccer scenes. Christian, you should be my
publicist. I no. I mean, obviously we knew that they shot over
in the UK, and we knew that coach Beard Brendan Hunt was a big
US men's national team fan, but there was never I didn't know how I
was going to get over there. I didn't know what my link was going
to be. And then at one point Brendan followed me on Twitter and I
remember setting him. I was so excited to send him a DM and like,
hey, I'm such and such your favorite former US men's national team player.
I used to play blah blah blah, and he's like, I know
exactly who you are. I was at the World Cup in two thousand and
six sitting in the stands and I was like, sweets, Brenda, I
know. So I'm like yelling at my way. Brenda knows who I am,
you know. So it was pretty cool feeling. So when I had
the opportunity to be over in London back in August and reached out to Brendan.
I got invited to the set, so that was cool to go do
a tour of the set and to meet everybody at that level and then get
to go to the arsenal game with them the next day, and I got
to hang with Joe, Kelly and Jason and Chip and all these really important
people to the show, and you get to understand why the show is the
way that it is, and it's really these incredible human beings that are bringing
all these other people along for the ride and building the sense of community and
purpose and it's incredible. And so what was really interesting for me and you
guys have just like I'm like one of those wind up dolls. You just
you don't even have to ask like half the question. I'm gonna go.
But but I usually when you're on any any any kind of team environment,
right you're trying to build something as a group, you always wonder how the
how the people with the smallest role or maybe aren't as important, how are
they being treated by the people that quote unquote are more important? Right?
And there was a real sense of we're all in this together when I visited
the set, and I wasn't surprised so so what you're seeing, that energy
that you're seeing on camera definitely permeates to what's happening off camera, which I
thought was was exciting. Yeah, so you just mentioned that you've hung out
with Brendan Hunt and Chip Hamilton and a bunch of the cast get to do
go into my flex of the day. How many flexes am I allowed?
I was gonna say, we're just it's gonna be a flex fest and that's
okay, We're just gonna roll with it. But our question is, is
Brendon Hunt more or less on edge and those type of high stress situations than
coach Beard or what's the I was actually because I was there, I'm a
social butterfly. I think everybody's picked up on that by this point, and
so so I'm work in the room, you know, saying hi to everybody,
and dam watching the game. It's Arsenal Fulham as a couple of Americans
out there with Anthony Robinson and Matt Turner. I got to see him warm
up as he watched Aaron Ramsdale play and Tim Reeve's out there doing a thing,
and this is pre World Cup, so I was excited to see how
he was performing in Fulham overall and Arsenal ended up winning two one. But
I wasn't really paying attention to the game. I did a little bit,
but I was mingling. Coach Beard was like on it, he's watching.
He is like focused. So Brendan is definitely focused on what's happening. And
if there was any questions about what was going on, because we had some
new bees, some relative newbies sport with us, Jason would say, hey,
you gotta ask Brendan, and I'm like, dude, I'm sitting right
here. I feel like I might know just maybe just as much as maybe
I had. Well, I saw Brendan on Jeopardy, so he probably knows
more about the sport and the game than I do. But at that moment,
I was like, I could I could also answer some questions about what
offside is. You got to absorb that pressure. He doesn't want to be
answering questions while watching too, and that's true. So I was a good
plan B. I was a good plan B for that. That was like
a recurring theme on his and Rebecca Lowe's World Cup podcast. He like the
watch party etiquette is like, don't come in and start asking questions. Everyone's
watching the mat What's funny about that is that I would call those guys before
the US game. So I was in I was in Doha and Qatar with
Fox Sports see all their digital coverage, and right when we went off air,
because we did all the pre and post game for every single game,
which was a lot of work, and I'm still trying to relax from all
that stress. Intention but no, I had I had a blast. But
I would call. I would call Chip or Brendan and I would face time
with those guys and they're all bleary eyed at seven am, ready for the
US game, and I've got my boobas HeLa and I've got my megaphone.
I'm like, come on, god, watch go just ramp and right when
they're about to start talking, I'd hang up every kind So that was kind
of think, Yeah, I just come in with some super hot energy for
thirty seconds, and then I'd hang up before they could even say anything.
And they're probably this guy is an absolute maniac. But yeah, I loved
it. And I could tell right then or even when I got to spend
that time with Brendan at the Arsenal game, that he doesn't want to answer
too many questions. He is focused on what's happening, and he's a student
of the game, and that's probably the highest compliment, highest praise I can
give him. As the show continues to go on, they keep folding in
tidbits that people who follow soccer will recognize. In season two, it was
Nate's metamorphosis into Jose Mourinho. In the season three, now we get this
character that's referred to as Zava, and for those of us who follow the
game, and even people maybe who don't, will recognize that that character is
based at least in part on Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who's just an iconic character and
an iconic personality and someone that you have had the privilege of interviewing before.
How would you describe Ibrahimovic to someone who has not heard of him before and
thinks that this character that they have in the show is just made like fully
out of cloth and can't at all be real. I had the opportunity my
extra flex of the day, I went to the premier, so I got
to see the first two episodes. Hey, and what's funny is that I
went out the night before with them and I got introduced to the guy that
plays Zava. Yeah, Maxis say yeah, And Chip introduced me to him,
and I was like, I don't know who this guy is. I've
never I didn't see him when I was on set, Like who is this
guy? And then I slowly started to piece it together and Chip started to
fill me in, and obviously when I saw the episode, it all starts
to tie in and yeah, he's larger than life. To answer your question
directly, Christian, and I'm very good at deflecting and not really answering.
So I should probably run for political office in some capacity. But maybe maybe
I can run from mayor of Kansas City one day. Christian knows I got
some got some name recognition there. Well, I will say, well,
Jason would definitely win in a light landslide if he every goes back to Casey.
And but I's lots On is larger than life. So to give you
an example, he took out a full page ad when he went to go
sign with the Galaxy the Los Angeles Times, a full page ad that said
You're welcome. That's about a joke. Slaton said, dear people of Los
Angeles, You're welcome. Slats On. That was it. The full page
ad, big it's nice to meet me. Energy, It's unbelievable. Here's
what this is what makes lats On special. Slats On can back it up
on the field. Yeah right, we had We've We've seen a lot of
people that they can talk a big game, but they can't necessarily follow it
through. And multiple sports doesn't have to be related to this one, but
slats On is one of those guys. And he is an incredible character.
He's got so much belief in himself and he can back it up, and
that's what makes him special. And and he's so when I asked him a
question, I said, hey, do you think slats On can do this?
Because lots On slats I just said slots On as many times as I
possibly could in this question, and he answered in the third person for me,
oh well, yes, Latson does think that he could. It was
amazing. I set him up perfect and he answered it perfect and he it's
fantastic. I will say I had a chance to mingle with him because PSG
when he was playing in Paris, they came to New York for some couple
of tours or a game and doing their thing or whatever. So we got
to go hang out with them at the top of this building in New York
right by Rockefeller Center. Really nice, but like any of these types of
team functions where these kind of random people show up to hang out with the
team, the team just kind of hangs out by themselves, and the random
people are like, how do we actually go say hi to these people when
they're not actually out and about. You can't be seen. So so finally
the team kind of get there's like a light introduction, informal introduction, and
so you know, I want a photo as lats On. I don't want
it. So I take a photo is lats On and the dude doesn't smile.
He's just like, this is the most obligatory. I don't give a
shot, Like okay, you want to get fined exactly kind of thing.
And as I take a photo with him, my buddy's taking the photo.
I said, I'm like, god, this guy smells amazing. He smells
fantastic. So I take the photo and I turned to him like, dude,
you honestly you smell awesome. And he started busting up like he because
he did he knew he smelled great, and he started laughing, and so
my buddy's like, oh, I want a photo, alats On, and
I was like, all right, and slots On's got the biggest smile for
this guy, like he's the best photo he's ever taken. I'm like,
this bullshit. I got the one where he's unhappy, and you get the
one where he's looking like he's having the best time. Anyway, that's my
slats On story. He was very very kind one on one, and I
think he knows, you know, everything's done with a wink. He knows
that he's playing a character. He knows that he's being a villain or a
cartoon character. He knows all that and that's what I think makes him endearing
in some ways. And I hope and I hope that Zava is going to
be the same in this season. So I guess we'll have to wait and
see. It's been ten years since you did interview him for a kick TV
and you undersold yourself as a journalist as you explain that interaction, and amazingly
enough undersold lots On. So I just want to read for people the back
and forth, just yes, just so that they understand this is the question
that you asked. You asked whether or not Zlatan would kick Christiano Ronaldo extra
hard for taking aways Latan's opportunity to go to the World Cup. And you
asked him that before Real Madrid was getting ready to face psg and in a
friendly, and this is his reply verbatim. No, I think Zlatan will
be very cool with Ronaldo. Zlatan will do a good preparation and Zlatan will
play the game, and then Slaton will focus on the rest of the season
for twenty fourteen. Laton is very happy for Ronaldo that he's going to the
World Cup, and Slaton will see what will happen under the World Cup.
It's classic, classic lat It is classic, what a legend he is.
So I have another question about personalities that show up in the show, and
that is going back to Nate's metamorphosis into Jose Mourinho, because I saw that
in one of your videos you made the case for Jose Mourinho to be the
US men's national team coach, and I have been lobbying for there to be
parallel universes occurring at once where there's a spinoff where Nate becomes the US men's
national team manager as Jose is becoming in real life the US men's national team
manager. What parallels do you see between Jose and Nate as someone who follows
the game and Ted Lasso. Woh wow, that's a great question. First
of all, I really love Jose Rino as a manager. He's another one
Baries lots On esque who completely believes in himself one hundred percent. And that's
where I think there might be a bit of a difference between him and Nate
because Nate, well we're seeing obviously, we didn't see Jose in his dark
moments right where he's trying to potentially put on a mask of confidence when he
doesn't necessarily have that confidence himself. And then it eventually evolved into that confidence
because he had the trophies and the success to back it up. So I'm
sure there were times where he very similar to Nate, where he's kind of
working into this this character that he wants to become. And we even saw
it an episode one of season three where he has to go down and spit
to kind of like embody that who he thinks he has to be to be
this manager. And I do think there is a lot of that. I
think every manager, when you have to go out there and face the music
a little bit you have to put ye. Remember when Clint Dempsey wore sunglasses
to do some coverage for the US men's national team, like in his first
foray into TV, And I think he needed to put those on to kind
of be this other version of himself. And I think Nate is very similar
to that, and I think Jose was probably there. And I wonder how
Nate does with west Ham, of course, in terms of his success and
whether he can continue to drink his own kool aid, which which I think
is is still that sounds negative, but I still think it's a necessary component
to be successful at anything, Like you have to believe in yourself. You
have to buy into what you're good at and what you're not. But I
think it's it's you don't have to treat people like shit along the way to
get to where you want to go. And I think that's what Nate's gonna
learn the hard way, if he hasn't learned it already. Well, I
don't think he has, guys or still on episode one, but I would
say that there's a very clear way that Jose Marinho wants to play the game.
And when I see what Nate's trying to do or what he was doing
as an assistant, and as he's now when we see in the early shots
of him with West Hamley, there's a clear way of how he wants to
play the game. And if you're a player that can't buy into that or
not going to live up to that standard, then you're gonna stand in that
one area and be made fun of and ridiculed in some ways until you can
figure it out. And so there's a lot of different ways to lead.
This is one way. This is a choice by Nate to make that happen.
But I do believe that Marinho was probably in that same spot. This
is the way we're going to play and if you don't like it, you
can get the hell out. And I think that Marinho softened a little bit
in his age since he's had tremendous success, and I think that it might
be the right time now to turn it into real life for him to take
over a national team because he's only done the club scene for a long time.
But we'll have to wait and see his contracts up with Romo, or
at least they can talk about it in the summer. It'd be an interesting
higher for sure, and I don't know if he'd be busy enough because the
national team there's a lot of waiting around until you get to see the guys,
and I don't know if Marino would be up for that. But that
said, I think there are some comparisons to Nate for sure, and I'm
curious to see how his character evolves throughout the season. Speaking of Apple stuff,
this season, soccer fans in the US can watch every MLS game on
Apple TV Plus with the MLS Season Pass, which is huge. And you're
a former MLS player. He played twelve seasons, so you know that's huge
for the league. So I'm wondering if you could just briefly talk about your
experience in MLS and just kind of the progress of the league at since you've
been a player, and kind of the hopes for the future everybody listening.
Bretta said briefly, I don't know where you get me and giving you brief
answers, but I'll do my very beast, Brett, I'll do my very
best. It's all relative, man, that's true, and I need to
find brief I did my coaching Kansas City Bob Gainzler, who Christian knows quite
well, he told me that brevity is an art form that I have not
mastered, which is pretty much. And this was me like during a game,
trying to put people in good spots to make place. So he always
used to poke fun of me. But yes, with regard to MLS Season
Pass and Apple TV, it's such a huge move for the league in general
to be able to be number one in somebody's book instead of being a second
class citizen for other outlets that were out there. I think at times ESPN
did give it the red carpet treatment but didn't stick with it, and at
times Fox gave it the red carpet treatment but didn't stick with it. And
now you feel like there's a real commitment from Apple TV to put it on
the red carpet for quite some time and to see where it could go and
how it could grow. And so it's incredible to be able to go to
one place where you feel like you're getting all the information that you need and
it's being treated in the right way with respect instead of it's like knowing,
you know it's going to be good stuff as opposed to hoping. And I
feel like for so many years we were just hoping that somebody would treat it
with respect. And now we're at Apple TV and we know that it's going
to be treated with respect, and that is the biggest difference, and I
think it makes all the difference. Yeah, and guys like you deserve a
lot of credit because MLS like you really had to grind back in the day.
You know, you guys played, you were Were you in the Arrowhead
Stadium era? Is that where you was? I was? Yeah? So
you know you could get a great MLS crowd of twenty thousand people, but
the place would feel empty because I held eighty thousand. And you know,
you played at Chivas USA for a while and like they had their issues.
And so when you now look at soccer culture overall, in then MLS culture,
how do you reflect on the journey from what was going on when you
played to what now we experience as fans of MLS. Ooh, night and
day, Christian night and Day. I would say that when I came through
and I started in ninety nine with the San Jose clash, Okay, they
walked into the earthquakes. The following year we won MLS Cup. In two
thousand and one, we came back to downtown San Jose to have a victory
party. And I don't even know if I want to say this number out
loud, but if there was a thousand people there to celebrate with us,
that would be that that might even be a reach. But it was people
that cared and they loved the team, and they were way in and it
felt very it felt very niche. It felt very cult's esque to a team,
and you could see it grow slowly, right and as it as each
team, that felt like there was some permanence to it, like this team
wasn't going anywhere. San Jose is an interesting example because they ended up moving
to the Houston to become the Houston Dynamo, and then the earthquake started up
again a couple of years later. But I'll use Kansas City, where I
played the bulk of my career for eight years. We were at Arrowhead,
then we went to Community America Ballpark, which is the minor league baseball stadium,
and then moved into Sporting Park now, and it's it's incredible, but
I think that journey was really important to not only understand where we came from
and how hard we had to work to get to that point, but also
to lay of the foundation of how important the sport can be in a community
and how it grew. And even though we did You're right, we drew
twenty to twenty five at Arrowhead, which is a healthy number, it just
didn't feel like it was as big of a deal as it is now.
And that's actually without kind of a TV contract, as we were alluding to
before with Apple TV, that was wasn't really giving it everything that they had
now. There was local broadcasts and all that, but it didn't take that
big step and now it feels like it is. I will say, I
think what makes the sport unique and what separates it from all the other American
sports is that it feels like you're part of something bigger than yourself, and
that when you go to the game, you're still a part of the game.
You're still a part of the fabric of what's happening on the field.
You can have influence and impact in a way that I don't think you can
in other sports. When I go it went to a baseball game with my
dad, it felt like it was just a moment between me and my dad.
If I went to an NFL game, all that all the fun stuff
was happening outside the stadium and the tailgate right inside. The games are slow
for me, there's not a lot going on, and I was just drawn
to the sense of community you go in. And I think Atlanta is probably
the best example of it. They didn't think it was going to work in
Atlanta, and then all of a sudden they get into an NFL stadium.
But everybody wanted to be part of this and they created something special and they
thankfully had some early success. It kind of got everybody that's shot in the
arm of adrenal and like, wow, this is amazing. Look how good
we are. And now they're going through some tough times. They're working through
it. Now the season's been pretty good. But but I think that's a
really good example where if you and people would go to those games and say
that it's better than going to a Falcons game. It's better than going to
a Hawks game where a Braid's game, because you're just you're part of it
in a way where you get the tailgate, that the party continues within the
game and you're still talking about how much fun you had afterwards, and it's
and it's always two hours, right. That doesn't go any longer, and
there's just a lot of special things about it, but I think that sense
of community is number one, and this is where we're obliged to uh to
say that if folks want to hear more of your thoughts about MLS, you
have a podcast that you you talk about MLS and all sorts of other soccer
things three times a week with your pals Charlie Davies and Heath Pierce called in
Soccer We Trust and that. So that's on the CBS Sports Network and so
you know you can get you can get all of the Jimmy you want there.
You're gonna get a lot. Welcome Welcome to the party if you come
hang out with us. Yeah. But besides having an amazing podcast, being
our favorite former mlser and usmntier, you are also known in the Internet for
warm Balls. So can you tell our audience a little bit about the warm
Balls conspiracy, the community in the organization that grew out of that. Yes,
yes, I almost want to reverse engineer it. So when I for
the TV, we were part of the kind of the emerging YouTube worlds.
Yes, and YouTube was just starting to like, hey, can you get
to a million subscribers? And we were friends with a guy that's got fifteen
to twenty months subscribers now KSI who's based in London and doing boxing now.
And we knew him when he was a couple hundred thousand and really sweet kid.
He's still super sweet even though he's like the Michael Jordan of YouTube.
But he had a thing called KSI Army, and so we're like, oh
man, we gotta have we gotta call our community something. As we started
to get into the hundreds of thousands of subscribers and and so I put it
out there for the audience and they came up with warm Ballers and we were
like, that's perfect, warm Ballers, Like that's our community now. As
we learned as we try to sell merch parents weren't buying their kids shirts and
said warm ballers on them because they thought there was some sexual connotations there.
So talk about a failed thing that maybe that wasn't the best name of all
time that said it was perfect for the community because because and everybody loved it,
and I still have people come up to me even though the channel hasn't
been around in a while that was still shout out warm Ballers to me from
across the street. It's pretty sweet. But it all started that the name
comes from. The origin story is that back in two thousand and twelve,
twenty eleven, I tweeted out that I think that the balls in the Champions
League draw when they did the Champions League draw, Yeah, they're ping pong
balls. One of the I think they're warm. I think that whoever's doing
it around, even though it's like a former player that's you know, they
make it seem like it's that one of them. It has a different temperature.
So I thought there was my warm balls theory. And that's where the
guy and we talk about it everywhere. A happy warm Baller's Day everybody,
or warm balls Day, because this is the moment where they're gonna get Bayern
muting versus Arsenal. It was like that in the round of sixteen of the
Champions League, like six consecutive years, something crazy, and it was just
too much, too much of a coincidence, and they kept getting these high
profile matchups that they wanted and I don't know, man. And so it's
funny is that at the time FIFA president was set bladder and he is uh
now a disgrace, grace for President Bladder, and he came out out maybe
three or four years ago, so we're talking seven or eight years after I
stated the SERI saying that those balls were either warm or cold. Isn't that
insane? That is absolutely insane. So yeah, so I was ahead of
it. So the Warmball's theory is true. It's real, and disgrace fee
for President sept Ladder and I finally agree on something that fostered and he validated
my theory from a long time ago, my conspiracy theory, and it's true.
But yes, that's where it started, the warmballers thing, And so
there there are quite a few people out there rocking the Warmballer stickers and Warmballers
t shirts and anytime I travel, I try to do pickup games and hand
out as much gear as I can because nobody's buying it, unfortunately, even
though all the money goes to charity. But yeah, warmballararmbars dot com exists,
even though don't think anybody's bought a shirt in two years because I don't
talk about it much anymore. But I appreciate you bring it up because I
think it really was a community that was trying to be a positive force for
good, just like you guys are doing with this podcast. Well, and
just the fact that you sort of called that as like amazing to me,
like I had somehow missed that and all of that, Like I had heard
eventually about the temperature being different, and that I had no idea that there
was this prophet in the wilderness like shouting. So that was amazing. Yeah,
I was ahead of it. I was ahead of it. Now,
I've probably put out a whole bunch of theories out there and that's the only
one that's stuck. But you know what, I'm gonna stick with it.
I'm gonna run with it. It's the law of averages, man. It's
my badge, my badge of honor. In your career, we've mentioned that
you were a US men's national team player. What was it like to represent
your country at a World Cup? That's that's a big question. I would
say it's the biggest honor that you can have in your career, whether you're
representing the US or any other country. Because at that moment, that first
game we played in two thousand and six against Czech Republic, I didn't I
didn't play that particular game. I got to play in the next two against
Italy and against Ghana. But in that first game when you hear the national
anthem, Now, I'd heard the national anthem plenty of times through my college
career, through my professional career, but it hits different. It hits different
when you're out a World Cup because at that moment, you know that everybody
back home has your back. You know, at that moment, casual fans
want to see you do well. It's the most incredibly powerful feeling to know
that we're all in this together for those ninety minutes and that everybody back home
is wanting you to succeed. And I've never been able to chase that feeling,
or I've tried to, but couldn't make another World Cup team after that.
But I had a couple opportunities to feel that, and it is.
It is really special. And I would say that for me too, for
everybody that doesn't know my story, and I don't expect you to know my
story at all. But I was a walk on in college and I won
the national championship with UCLA my senior year, and I thought, oh man,
I'm going to get drafted in MLS for sure, because I'm on the
best college team in the country, and I was only I was the only
senior out of US five that didn't get drafted, so so I was the
little engine that could. I had to go down to lower leagues, had
to fight my way into it. Than I eventually signed with San Jose and
played four years there and eight years with Kansas City and a cup of coffee
with Chiefs USA before I had to retire due to concussions. But I would
say that to be in that moment, knowing my career and how hard I
had to work to get to that point, to not only make the national
team, but to play in a World Cup and to represent my country at
the highest level, and then to go out and kind all. So that's
one, right, You're very proud of that, and you can always nobody
can ever take that away from you. But then there's that's personal satisfaction of
I went out and hung with the best players in the world and the biggest
competition in the world with millions of people watching, and I handled that pressure.
That's just for me, right, I mean, yeah, people can
they can judge you and whatever, but I know that I know what I
did and I know what I had, and that is incredibly satisfying, and
it makes all those sweat and tears and work and all the sacrifice worth it
times a million. It was. It's an incredible I can't even believe I'm
I did it At this point, it feels like I'm talking about somebody else.
But it was an incredible ride. You've been a part of a lot
of different soccer organizations, and now you've been able to see a lot of
different soccer organizations as a media personality and a journalist. What is one aspect
of the AFC Richmond organization that you wish you could experience at a real life
soccer club. That is a great question. I would say having a relationship
with the owner, you know like that. I guess that Rebecca isn't really
hands on per se, and when she comes in it's more to kind of
tell her story or to be a part of somebody else's in a meaningful way.
And I guess I did have it a little bit in early days of
Kansas City with Lamar Hunt, rescue piece who was kind of in the trenches
because he was trying to help. He was cold calling people to buy season
tickets to come watch his Kansas City Wizards play an airhead, and he gave
me a big hug after we won the US Open Cup back in two thousand
and four. So there's some really cool moments that I have with Lamar and
I maybe those early days as it kind of feels Rebecca esque, I guess,
in the most positive Rebecca vibe, not the one where she's trying to
undermine everything. But there's something about that collective we're all in this together,
that you maybe didn't always feel every single season. And that's not a disrespect
too to any of the clubs that I played for. A lot of it
was just because you had maybe one person wearing fifteen hats. They had to
do so many jobs. You never really got to know them because they were
so busy just trying to do so many different things. And and I feel
like that's changed a lot too as a pertained suit to the game in America
and MLS in particular, they have they've hired enough people now to manage all
that type of stuff. So that's a really good question. I always felt
like I was pretty close with my my the kitman, and nice the team
managers. You know. I still still talk to Matt ben Ben in particular,
his dad, Rick coached Casey Comments and UMKC for a long time,
and I still talk with Matt and he was our equipment manager by first couple
of years. I'll see my old trainer back San Jose every once in a
while that I'm back here in the Bay Area. So those connections, right,
those are these really meaningful, powerful relationships that continue to be maintained outside
of the results of the wins and losses. And I think I can relate
to that a lot to what Ted Lasso tries to focus on as a show.
But yeah, I don't think I answered your question directly. I might
have to come back to it or just be have to skip it all together.
Boys, these days, you do get to travel the world, and
you get to interview and interact with teams and supporters and various players. As
you've done that, is there a team or a league or a supporters group
that you feel like you've had the most fun or a particularly enjoyable time getting
to know As a media personality, I would say because I'm welcome some warmly.
This is me being a bit of a homer. But I love hanging
out with the Cauldron. I love hanging out with my peeps in Kansas City.
They supported me for so many years so that when I go back that
love, I can feel it and I want to give them back my energy
and love as well. So anytime I get to hang out with the Cauldron,
it's great. Now when I think globally that the times that I've gotten
to spend in Rome with the Roma supporters was really neat. I got to
see a couple of games there at the Stadio Olimpico, and they are a
passionate bunch. That's probably the best way I can say it. But I've
had the benefit of going to see some big Derby's. I got to see
Super Classico between Book of Juniors and River Plate, so being amongst the Book
of Fans in particular, it was a law. Bambanera is a bucket list
side and I highly encourage everybody to go check out that game if they ever
get a chance to get down to Buenos Aires. That was awesome. I'm
a Book of Fans, so you know I'm still GREENO. Of course you
know there's there, but they know that I care and want to be a
part of it. Yeah, I mean, I'm just drawn to supporter of
groups in general. Because it means so much to them, the wins and
losses. But it's always it's not just that that feels so basic to say,
it's also about how is the team playing, Like are they representing me
out there on the field. I like that they don't suffer any fools that
if anybody's dogging it out there and not giving their all, because anybody in
the supporters section would kill to be on that field playing for those colors,
and if you're not working your hardest to represent them in the best possible way,
they're going to hold you accountable. And I love that, and so
I really tap into that side of it because I tried to lead the same
way when I was on the field, because I was grateful for that opportunity.
And sometimes there are some players that that that they're not grateful, They
just lose a little bit of focus and some of that perspective that is necessary
to make sure that you're like, hey, this is a privilege for us
to be out here. Let's make sure that we reward the people that are
paying their harder money to come watch you play. So I relate in that
sense too to a lot of the supporters groups, not the ones that are
trying to incite violence, of course who are taking it to the extreme,
but the ones that really just care about being a part of something bigger than
themselves, which I've mentioned before, which is really a straight line between we're
saying and what what ted Lesso was all about too and and but yeah,
the Roman supporters stand out for me, I thought, there they just when
they start singing Roma Roma, I mean, it comes from that, It's
from deep down, it's from the heart, you know. And you know,
when I was early on in the early days, you might had one
or two people really belted it out like that, but we didn't have the
same type of history. You know, you come and you go over to
these different countries and they just got so much more of that. But that's
being developed now we're almost two year thirty of MLS or getting closer to that.
And and now you're starting to have people that went to the games that
are having kids and are passing along why it matters for them to support a
particular team. And that's going to be I think a pretty big tipping point
for the growth of the sport in this country. My wife's gonna think I
paid you for that. Segment because we're taking a trip to Italy next month,
and as I was looking at the schedule, I was like, oh
my gosh, we're not going to be in any cities when there's going to
be any games being played. And then when that Europa League draw came out,
now they're going to be playing fine ord Our first night in Rome,
and so I like floated the idea. I was like, so, now
there's a really big soccer match that we could you have to go see it
at nine o'clock at night. Yeah, said you tell her to call me
after this interview is over. I will tell her why it will change her
life in a positive way for her to go to Saudiolypico and watch that game,
because it is unlike anything you've been to. I promise. Okay,
I'm gonna ever call you. You gotta do it for that, and you
gotta do it for the ted Lasso parallels. Right, Yeah, it's what
I said. So Christians got to go there, like listen, honey,
Jimmy said this, and we gotta go because I gotta confirm whether he's bullshittingness
or not right right, And when when this podcast starts making dollars, then
I can write that off and my taxes as research. In your role with
the San Francisco Glenn's your sporting director right now, is like Higgins the closest
like sort of like parallel to your job there now, like what who is
there a character on ted last question? Anything we could kind of like adjacently
kind of come at that question with. I would say Higgins is still at
times, even though he's demonstrated he's not a puppet, that he's got more
puppet like tendencies, or did at least in season one. And I'm yeah,
I'm not a puppet, per se. I I like to have my
voice be heard. It doesn't have to be the one that you follow,
per se, but I like to chime in. And I think Higgins has
gotten there right, especially as the Diamond Dogs we've got kind of go in
and he got more confidence, which has been pretty cool to see his story
arc and I'm curious to see where it goes this particular season. But yeah,
yeah, yeah, I mean, I guess in terms of roles,
I'm trying to help sign players to make our team as efficient and as good
as possible, but I'm also trying to find locations for us to to use.
Yeah, so there's there's some elements of that. I think it ties
into that. And over the last couple of seasons i've been co head coach,
I've been a assistant coach. Kind of depends on some of the work
responsibilities that I have and how much how much time I can commit unfortunately,
but I do get to also input with like tactics and that type of stuff
too in players selection so so and I read run Training. So I've guessed
I'm kind of like a hybrid between kind of you know, early Nate roy
Kent, your coach beard reading, reading all of his uh inverted pyramid stuff,
and a little bit of the good nature of Ted Lasso of him coming
through with I like to joke with the team a lot, so you know,
you say something important. But there's something about the show that I absolutely
love and I want to say it now. The balance and even when I
watched episode one and two at the premiere, their ability to find that balance
between serious and lightheartedness and fun but meaningful. It's just that is that they
found the sweet spot, and it is incredible how good they are at finding
that and the people that right for the show and how they directed in the
acting, it's it's fantastic. Everybody behind it is unbelievable. Can you describe
what the vibe was like at the premiere because you come in and it's on
a giant screen and then they show season three episodes one and two, and
unlike you know, watching it at your house or with your family or maybe
a small group of friends, you're watching it with all of these people and
none of you. There's all this anticipation, but nobody has yet experienced what's
going to happen, except for the you know, doesn't select or whatever that
have worked on the show. So what was it like to be at the
premiere and receiving the show in that way? It was incredible. To see
it in the movie theater was different to your point, there's something intimate about
watching it at home, watching it on a screen that's quite close to you,
as opposed to one that you normally associate with these big Marvel blockbuster movies.
So that that was a little bit that threw me off a little bit.
But what I liked about it was the energy in the room was awesome,
Like everybody was so excited. You see, you know, Rebecca shows
up or or, and it's just a big round of applause. Everybody's getting
rowdy, you know. So the energy was a stage show. People were
so excited to see everybody an amplicent It's true, It's true. And I
also think I got to hang with the guys that are on AFC Richmond Um
and they just hadn't seen each other in a long time because the show had
wrapped, you know, a couple of months before, or four or five
months before. Yeah, and everyone's busy. Yeah, everyone's busy. Everybody's
got their own goal. So just so when you got to be a part
of them seeing each other for the first time, knowing that this journey that
they've gone through was was pretty cool, to be honest. And I actually
spent the most time with George. He plays Goodman on the show UM number
seventeen, I believe, and so it was cool to hang out with him
and he was kind of give me the lay of the land on you know,
who was showing up and who hasn't seen each other for a while,
and kind of just talking about the show overall and how impactful it was for
his life, and really cool to kind of get these little bits and pieces
from all these guys about what it meant to them and what it means to
their careers moving forward. Frankly, so so it was it was it was
incredible to be there. I am shout out to Chip. I was his
plus one for this. Chip is the nice and so it was just cool
to be there and be amongst it and to be treated like I wasn't an
outcast, right, I was just yeah, of course you're here, let's
go, you know. And so that is That's something I've been seeking.
This is like, I don't know how much I owe you for this therapy
session, but since I retired, I've been seeking that my whole you know.
I tried to build it with KickTV when we had our YouTube channel and
we had ten or twelve people in the same space, so it was easier
to do that. And now I don't have that. I'm by myself,
and obviously the pandemic made us even more isolated, and now we're starting to
come out of that. But I'm always thirsty to be a part of a
team, and so when I'm around it and I can see it and there's
that energy, I'm definitely drawn to that. I could feel when I went
on set and I got to feel it again when I was around them,
and they're so welcoming and inclusive and it's not exclusive, and I think that
makes it pretty special too. But yeah, to be there to see it,
to experience it in that way, to hear the oos and os and
like kind of ride a roller coaster with everybody, because it was the first
time to see these first two episodes and where it's going, and it was
great. It was great and I'll never forget it. So shout out again
to Chip. Yeah. I think people maybe don't realize how real that Roy
Kent trajectory is once he retires and then it's just like trying to figure out
his place, you know, in the world, and he's not so much
like he's trying to figure out he's not so much chasing like sometimes you see
athletes do. But as you're talking about like just trying to find community,
trying to find something, your identity shifts. So suddenly, Yeah, and
something that recreates not the people cheering for you necessarily, but the camaraderie that
you have as a team. It's really tough outside of sport. It is
it is. I'll jump in on the identity thing when I got forced to
retire due to concussions. But when that decision was finally made, I was
down where the LA Galaxy play in their stadium, that's where Chiefs was playing
at the time, and well, I was just trying to wrap my head
around Okay, this is this is it. That was it. So I
go back up to the car and I call my wife to let her know
that this is it, like with the decision has been made and it's done,
and I could not get it out. I was just I was crying.
I couldn't get She thought somebody my mom, my mom had died or
somebody like somebody in my life had died. And and and what's interesting is
somebody did die, like my identity was dead. Like my mom knew me
as a professional athlete. I was her professional athlete's son. I mean that's
how many years I had played. All my friends knew me as a professional
athlete. Friend I identified as a professional athlete. Everything was wrapped around that.
My whole life, being an athlete was what drove me, which is
how I knew myself, which is where I got my confidence, which is
how I dealt with adversity and you know, my kids still like we not
have any more sports cliches to solve any problems, so like we're done with
those things, which is pretty funny. But but when that it took me,
it took me a long time. I'd say nine to ten months to
really I'm not that guy anymore. I need to find something else. And
so I was depressed. I don't I don't know, Like in the moment,
you're like, no, I'm fine, I'm working through it. But
but now looking back, I was definitely depressed and I felt lost. I
didn't know where to go or who to talk to and does anybody want to
hear my sob story? Like I had an incredible career, I've been the
life I've led it unreal, Like who wants to sit and listen to me?
Complaint? Necessarily complain, but feel lost? And so you bring a
lot of that, that kind of tough guy mentality to your problem solving because
that works in a previous life, but it doesn't work when you're outside of
that and trying to establish yourself again. And only I'll say this, only
when I got into this media stuff and we were at kick TV and we
were in studio and in New York City and it felt okay, I felt
a little bit uncomfortable. But then we lobbied to take a trip to the
Euros in Poland and Ukraine in twenty twelve, and at that moment, when
I was back amongst the people and basically getting paid to get drunk with fans,
I was like, I think I can. I think this is I
can do this. I think that I can and this isn't so bad.
And that is actually was such a pivotal trip for me to kind of get
out of the studio and kind of showcase what we could do as a channel,
what I could do on camera, and I had a blast and that
really was the switch for me. But it took me nine or ten months
to get there. Well, I think we can wrap things up with a
question about music. We talk about music a lot on our show, and
this is a bit of a deep cut bringing this back to your Kick TV
days. You have a video that's kind of the story of your life in
quotes, and you talk about how your name you're named after Sir Paul McCartney
because his first name is James. Yes, that's right. So I'm curious,
do you have a favorite Beatles song. Yes, it's Here, There
and Everywhere, which is not the champ from the Stadium, but the battle
Oh No, No No, which is kind of funny. Well, I
kind of wanted to be both now that you said that, But no,
I Here, There and Everywhere is an incredible song and from the best Beatles
album objectively, from Revolver Revolver. That's right. I think that came out
in sixty six. My dad's a big Beatles nut, so if I didn't
say that or got that right, he's gonna be really disappointed in me.
But I yeah, Here, There and Everywhere. What what a jam?
And there's another There's another great bit of trivia just about that song that it
is the only song that the John Lennon complimented Paul McCartney on his songwriting.
It's like a way, it's it's Paul McCartney's favorite song. He have a
row and it's one of the only ones John Lennon said he liked. So
yeah, I picked a good one. And I just assumed the lady in
that song as lady Football. That's how he's talking about that goes about that
goes without saying that's who I've always envisioned it to be. Man. Well,
Jimmy, thank you so much for coming on the show. It has
been a blast tucking soccer and ted Lasso with you and uh Man, we're
so glad you came on. Thank you bretton Christian and say hi to your
dog for me. But yeah, we'll do and that's our show. We
had a blast chatting with the legendary Jimmy Conrad. You can find links to
his podcasts, his production company, his social media accounts, the Warmballer community,
and everything else we mentioned in the show notes. We'll be back soon
with more ted Lasso goodness, but you can keep the conversation going with us
on Twitter and Instagram in the meantime. Our handle on both is at ted
Lasso Pod. This episode of Richmond Till We Die is brought to you by
Gin and Kerosene Productions. It was produced by Me Brett and Me Christian.
If you're enjoying the podcast, please take thirty seconds to subscribe to our feed
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both. As always, we appreciate all the ways y'all share your love and
support for the pod. Okay, I'm Christian signing off for Brett and Jimmy.
Thanks for listening. Until next time, Cheers y'all, A high court