Speaker 1: County Crows are in town tonight at Usana Amphitheater, Gaslight
Speaker 1: Anthem opening.
Speaker 2: That is gonna be a damn good show.
Speaker 1: And our next guest is in town only to be
Speaker 1: in studio to do a hit with me and actually
Speaker 1: has run into.
Speaker 2: Some good fortune because he gets.
Speaker 1: To see his buddies tonight, our guy Roxy Bernstein, live
Speaker 1: and studio.
Speaker 2: Great to see him, man, how are you. I'm great, Spence.
Speaker 2: It's good to be here.
Speaker 3: Good to see you face to face for sure, and
Speaker 3: come on this time of the year. It's great to
Speaker 3: be here, and I'm excited for tonight. It's gonna be
Speaker 3: a great show. It's gonna be a fun couple of
Speaker 3: days for me here in Soul one hundred percent. And
Speaker 3: you've been coming on the show.
Speaker 1: We just turned six last week, so I feel like
Speaker 1: we've had you on pretty much since the start of
Speaker 1: this show with our old connections with a PAC twelve network.
Speaker 2: But face to face is different, man, So it's good.
Speaker 1: I don't know that I've ever even you've been in
Speaker 1: town when I've been at games and you've been calling,
Speaker 1: like at Huntsman or whatever. But I'm not gonna like
Speaker 1: roll down in the middle of the first quarter and
Speaker 1: like interrupt you and Bill Walton may he rest.
Speaker 2: In jee tap us on the shoulder.
Speaker 1: But it's great to actually kind of put a face.
Speaker 1: Even though I've seen you on television, I'm not sure
Speaker 1: that we've ever met face to I don't.
Speaker 2: Know if we have.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because yeah, I've been here, but then you've had
Speaker 3: other engagements when you've been out of town. It's like
Speaker 3: two ships passing in the night. Yeah, So finally we're
Speaker 3: physically in the same place.
Speaker 1: Yes, and it's excellent to have you in. So have
Speaker 1: you talked to I know Adam is your boy, the
Speaker 1: lead singer accounting crist Does he know you'll be in
Speaker 1: the house for the show that?
Speaker 2: Yeah, we were texting earlier day. He knew I was
Speaker 2: coming out.
Speaker 3: Like I always, I always try to pick a place
Speaker 3: Spence where there's gonna be none of our friends, right,
Speaker 3: it's we can just hang out because like they played
Speaker 3: Berkeley last week and it was a complete zoo, just
Speaker 3: chaos backstage, and I did get to spend some time
Speaker 3: with him, but there's he's getting tugged in so many
Speaker 3: different directions. We're here, we can just go hang out.
Speaker 3: So literally, when I get done here, I'm gonna hop
Speaker 3: in an uber and head out to Asana and just
Speaker 3: hang out. They got i think sound check at four,
Speaker 3: and I'll just hang without him until the show tonight.
Speaker 1: Now, the reason that's pertinent is, you know, Adam from
Speaker 1: cal right, so he has a lot of friends in
Speaker 1: that market, and.
Speaker 3: He grew up there and we didn't go to college.
Speaker 3: Adam's older than we are. You and I are the
Speaker 3: same age, but we had a bunch of mutual friends
Speaker 3: and that's how we became friends. And we've been connected
Speaker 3: now for I don't know thirty plus years. And he's,
Speaker 3: as you know, a huge sports fan, a huge cow fan,
Speaker 3: but he's a huge Warriors fan, Oakland A's fan. I'm
Speaker 3: not going to say the Sacramento As, but the Oakland A's.
Speaker 3: He was an Oakland Raiders. He still follows the Raiders
Speaker 3: even though they're in Vegas. Loves hockey, He's just he's
Speaker 3: a huge sports fan in general.
Speaker 1: That's and you know, as a child of the nineties,
Speaker 1: as a proud Jet xer, the Crows have a very
Speaker 1: special place in my heart. I've probably seen them six
Speaker 1: or seven times, so I'm not as jealous that you're
Speaker 1: seeing your guy tonight. But I'm jealous you're seeing Gaslight
Speaker 1: because I've never seen them. I've never seen them live.
Speaker 1: I've listened them for years, but Gaslight anthem and you're referenced.
Speaker 1: Their lead singer is a huge sports fan as well.
Speaker 3: He is so Brian is a huge fan growing up
Speaker 3: in New Jersey, New York area, Like, how did he
Speaker 3: become a Niners fan? Well, a bunch of people in
Speaker 3: his family were Jets fans, and the Jets are the
Speaker 3: Jets right, And when he was growing up, he's a
Speaker 3: little younger than we are, not much, but I think
Speaker 3: of a few years, but the Niners were dominating with
Speaker 3: Montana and Rice and then to Steve Young and Ronnie Lott,
Speaker 3: all those great Niners from yesteryear.
Speaker 2: They were winning him and so.
Speaker 3: It's easy to become a forty nine er fan back
Speaker 3: then the team of the eighties and into the nineties,
Speaker 3: and so he's been a huge Niner fan. It was
Speaker 3: funny because they were at the Forum in La last Tuesday,
Speaker 3: then played the Greek Theater in Berkeley on Wednesday, and
Speaker 3: he asked Adam Durretz, Brian, did are we going anywhere
Speaker 3: near Levi Stadium.
Speaker 2: I want to go in, Like, well, it's fifty miles away.
Speaker 3: But then he took Brian into the Cal equipment room
Speaker 3: at Memorial Stadium. They rated it. He puts on his
Speaker 3: Cal football T shirt for the gig that night. It's
Speaker 3: awesome and he's like, yeah, now I'm a cow fan.
Speaker 3: So you know, bribery kind of worked its way, but
Speaker 3: now Cal's got a new big fan and Brian from
Speaker 3: a gas line anthem.
Speaker 1: One more thing before we get into some sports. Is
Speaker 1: our guy Adam dating right now?
Speaker 2: Yes? Okay, well, and do we approve? Yes, we do
Speaker 2: very much.
Speaker 1: So now the only reason I bring it up is
Speaker 1: my potentially my favorite bit because when you first said
Speaker 1: this on my show, I'm like, he's can't be serious.
Speaker 1: Is the fact that you legitimately were beefing with Courtney
Speaker 1: Cox because of the way she treated your friend Adam.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's there's a lot there. There's a lot to
Speaker 3: unpack Spence in that statement there.
Speaker 1: But but I really I'm like, he's got to be
Speaker 1: pulling my leg, like, there's no way our And you know,
Speaker 1: Adam during the nineties had a run.
Speaker 2: Where he dated Courtney for two years. Was there two
Speaker 2: full years. Two years. Wow.
Speaker 1: I felt like every couple of years he was moving
Speaker 1: on to the next like celebrity, right, I mean, because
Speaker 1: he for a while he did okay for himself. But
Speaker 1: for a while rock Syed the Counting Crows were potentially
Speaker 1: the biggest band in America for about four or five
Speaker 1: years in the nineties.
Speaker 2: When they were in that conversation, they burst out of
Speaker 2: the scene.
Speaker 3: Was almost like overnight now they Adam struggled for a while.
Speaker 3: He didn't make it till his late twenties, which is
Speaker 3: kind of a rare story for somebody to make it
Speaker 3: that late. But when mister Jones and the album August
Speaker 3: and everything after, it just took off and it exploded
Speaker 3: to the point where he had to get out of Berkeley.
Speaker 3: Like he was living in Berkeley still and he had
Speaker 3: to move because it was just he was getting oversaturated
Speaker 3: in his front yard. People were coming to hang out.
Speaker 3: His parents still lived there for a long time, but
Speaker 3: Adam moved to la And then of course, Recovering the
Speaker 3: Satellites was the second album, a great follow up, but
Speaker 3: it just amazing over the span of a month how
Speaker 3: much the band exploded.
Speaker 1: It must have been so cool as a friend to
Speaker 1: watch that success, because you know, we only hear about
Speaker 1: it when they are in our consciousness, when they become famous,
Speaker 1: we rarely see the backwork. And it sounds like Adam
Speaker 1: was probably grinding on smaller tours for years with other bands.
Speaker 2: That's so cool.
Speaker 3: Like he was at a band called the Himalayans where
Speaker 3: if you kind of google that, there's the original version
Speaker 3: of round here, which is very different from the one
Speaker 3: Counting Crows performed. But he brought it over and they
Speaker 3: tweaked it and it was on August and everything after.
Speaker 3: But like the Himalayans, it was almost more acid rock
Speaker 3: than it was what it became. And it's interesting to
Speaker 3: hear the difference between the two.
Speaker 2: That's really cool. That's really cool.
Speaker 1: All right, let's start with I think most everyone including
Speaker 1: me around here, we know you from the Fact twelve network, right,
Speaker 1: and that obviously I don't know if you've heard it's
Speaker 1: not a thing anymore really. Yeah, So your full time,
Speaker 1: your full time with the ESPNS. Yeah, for some reason
Speaker 1: I just thought you were like contracted out all over
Speaker 1: the place. But your full time with the ESPN. So
Speaker 1: what does the roxy Burnstein fall calendar look like.
Speaker 3: So, I've got some college football lined up. I've got
Speaker 3: Arizona State's opener coming up on August thirtieth. Then i
Speaker 3: jump back into Major League Baseball Labor Day. I'll be
Speaker 3: in Detroit for the Mets and the Tigers. I have
Speaker 3: a family situation going, our family thing down in La
Speaker 3: so I'm not working college football week two, but then
Speaker 3: week three I'm jumping back in. And I've got TCU
Speaker 3: on September thirteenth, and I'll be doing the first two
Speaker 3: rounds of Major League Baseball playoffs more than likely National
Speaker 3: League Wildcard and Division Series, which I've been doing for
Speaker 3: them for years and can't wait for the playoffs and
Speaker 3: down the stretch. And I'll do a number of Pennant
Speaker 3: Race games for ESPN Radio as well.
Speaker 1: So I always have almost like a reverent respect for
Speaker 1: people like you, because you know, another front of the show,
Speaker 1: Iron Eagle, Yeah, who can do anything. And you do hockey,
Speaker 1: you do basketball, you do football, you do baseball.
Speaker 2: Is there one that you prefer?
Speaker 1: And what are the challenges of bouncing back and forth
Speaker 1: between sports?
Speaker 3: The way you do the pacing is very different bence
Speaker 3: in terms of baseball, for example, hockey and basketball are
Speaker 3: so quick, but baseball has that deliberate pace to it,
Speaker 3: and the back and forth unless you're prepared mentally, can
Speaker 3: be a little different.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 3: And like I'll be going from football to baseball a
Speaker 3: couple of days later. But I love the versatility that
Speaker 3: I get to deal with in the variety of sports. Like, Okay,
Speaker 3: you have to have a certain amount of bandwidth to
Speaker 3: be able to comprehend everything and remember all that stuff.
Speaker 3: But I follow it religiously, like I you know, I'm
Speaker 3: so invested in football, in basketball where most of my
Speaker 3: relationships are, but major League Baseball I've worked for a
Speaker 3: long time and the NHL. It's funny when ESPN got
Speaker 3: the NHL package back, I hadn't done a hockey game
Speaker 3: in probably twenty years, Like I worked for the San
Speaker 3: Jose Sharks years ago, okay, and then my pat took
Speaker 3: me in a different route. But then when ESPN got
Speaker 3: the NHL package back, I'm like, hey, you know, I
Speaker 3: do hockey, and they threw me on some games and
Speaker 3: I've been part of their stable of coverage since this
Speaker 3: will be what now four years now that ESPN has
Speaker 3: had the NHL package of that seven year contract and
Speaker 3: at least three more years and we'll see where it goes.
Speaker 3: But it seems that ESPN's invested in hockey and they're
Speaker 3: going to stick with it.
Speaker 2: Is there a endgame that you have in mind?
Speaker 1: Because it's you know, like Joe Buck did baseball for years,
Speaker 1: and he did a little bit of everything for years,
Speaker 1: and then he's the voice of money that football, and
Speaker 1: so I would imagine if you got the offer to
Speaker 1: be the voice of money at football, that'd be a
Speaker 1: good endgame for you. But I have a little bit
Speaker 1: of a layered question because you are a utility guy
Speaker 1: for ESPN, and you know, it's important to have a comprehensive,
Speaker 1: complete skill set while you're working your way up to
Speaker 1: whatever that endgame looks like for you. I wonder if
Speaker 1: you have that, you know, that vision in your mind
Speaker 1: about what the endgame would be and what's it like
Speaker 1: to kind of be the guy that ESPN relies on
Speaker 1: for a number of different job opportunities.
Speaker 2: I'm so happy with where I'm at now.
Speaker 3: That's cool. ESPN's been great to me, and for example,
Speaker 3: they let me work for the PAC twelve network. Yes,
Speaker 3: I was fully invested in the PAC twelve. As you know,
Speaker 3: and I born and raised, grew up on it, and
Speaker 3: it was gut wrenching when everything came crashing to a
Speaker 3: halt like it did. But ESPN has been fabulous to
Speaker 3: me and my family, and I love that they let
Speaker 3: me do all these different sports and they give me
Speaker 3: that freedom, that flexibility. I don't know if there's like
Speaker 3: a Okay, I have to have this job or that game,
Speaker 3: or this is my end game right now?
Speaker 2: You know what I do it.
Speaker 3: I was doing Major League baseball in Miami. I worked
Speaker 3: for the Marlins for three years, and my wife and
Speaker 3: I did not want to raise our kids there. We
Speaker 3: were determined to come back out west. And I grew
Speaker 3: up and born and raised in the Bay Area. My
Speaker 3: wife's from Santa Barbara, but we wanted to raise the
Speaker 3: kids somewhere out west, and coming back home was a
Speaker 3: natural fit. I was still doing radio in the Bay Areas,
Speaker 3: doing colgames on the radio. Even when I was doing
Speaker 3: baseball in Miami. I was by coastal, Oh Okay, and
Speaker 3: so that made it tricky, especially come spring training and
Speaker 3: heading into March Madness.
Speaker 2: Sure, but I.
Speaker 3: If some opportunity presented itself, yeah, I'd take a look
Speaker 3: at it. But right now I'm thrilled where I'm at.
Speaker 3: My I just sent my oldest off to college. She's
Speaker 3: a freshman at TCU very nice. And my son has
Speaker 3: just started his sophomore year of high school. So we're
Speaker 3: in trench in the Bay Area for now. It doesn't
Speaker 3: mean I'll be there forever.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what if like a team came calling, Like, is
Speaker 1: that the type of dream gig, you know, baseball, basketball, football?
Speaker 1: I guess it depends on the team, depends on the market.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And look, I've had opportunities and I've looked at him,
Speaker 3: and I've talked with teams, and some have been pretty
Speaker 3: close to happening. But it's it's tough with the family
Speaker 3: because look, it was just me Spence or just my wife.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's different.
Speaker 3: The kids are in trench all they know, and to
Speaker 3: rock their world and turn it upside down would be
Speaker 3: very difficult for me to do.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I was eleven when we moved back east when my
Speaker 1: father took the job in New York with MSG, And
Speaker 1: it was a hard thing. Man like when when you're
Speaker 1: uprooted from your friends, and certainly there's a little bit
Speaker 1: of a culture shock when you go from Salt Lake
Speaker 1: City to New York, I mean, you know, and then
Speaker 1: back again too. And my family's still back east. But
Speaker 1: I want to ask you about Bill Walton. You're wearing
Speaker 1: a shirt that says Walton on it, and you know
Speaker 1: one of the you know, met Bill several times over
Speaker 1: the years. But when my father retired from Madison Square
Speaker 1: Garden about a week after, I was home visiting from
Speaker 1: college and he called me and said, Spence, come down
Speaker 1: in my office listening to this. So Bill Walton had
Speaker 1: left him like a five minute voicemail and it was
Speaker 1: just like I'm doing the chef's kiss thing. It was
Speaker 1: quintessential Bill Walton for five minutes, non sequiturs, from the
Speaker 1: Knicks to the beauty of the Wasatch Mountains where our
Speaker 1: family's from. Like and it, I mean, I I very
Speaker 1: much from a distance.
Speaker 2: I didn't know him like you did. Really loved him
Speaker 2: in a way.
Speaker 1: That you know if you're a sports fan and appreciate
Speaker 1: the way he approached the craft. I know he wasn't
Speaker 1: for everybody, but that's all right. You know, our job,
Speaker 1: it's not unlike a band, it's not unlike counting crows.
Speaker 1: Discretion is important sometimes the albums are great. Sometimes the
Speaker 1: songs don't land whatever. Everybody has their own preference. But
Speaker 1: what was it like working with him side by side
Speaker 1: and then getting to know the man outside of just
Speaker 1: the broadcaster.
Speaker 2: It was awesome. Bill was the greatest, He really was.
Speaker 3: And I think of Bill every day, and you know,
Speaker 3: I honor him wearing this shirt wear pretty often. It
Speaker 3: became a staple of my wardrobe. It's great. But just
Speaker 3: his impact on me, Like we became friends. And I
Speaker 3: remember the first game we did together, and it was
Speaker 3: we were doing an n game at the University of
Speaker 3: San Francisco years ago and it was LSU at USF.
Speaker 3: First off, Bill was ecstatic to be there because Bill
Speaker 3: Russell was his hero and that's where Bill Russell went
Speaker 3: to college, won the national championships with the Dons back
Speaker 3: in the fifties, and so he was super excited. He's
Speaker 3: always extremely excited to be anywhere he's at, that's the
Speaker 3: best thing about him. But he was really really pumped
Speaker 3: up to be on the hilltop at USO the Bill
Speaker 3: Russell statue and all that. But this was the first
Speaker 3: game that I was working with him, so it was
Speaker 3: a little nervous and I knew about Bill obviously, and
Speaker 3: as custom with Bill, we don't talk during the day.
Speaker 3: He tries to keep it fresh and organic for when
Speaker 3: we go on the air. He did introduce himself to
Speaker 3: me at shoot around. I'd met Bill before, but you know,
Speaker 3: Bill plays the joke what's your name again?
Speaker 2: I mean that was synonymous with Bill.
Speaker 3: And so we're about thirty seconds away from going on
Speaker 3: air and doing our open for the game, and Bill
Speaker 3: looks at me, takes out his gum, he says, what's
Speaker 3: your name again? I go Roxy, He goes roxy, I'll
Speaker 3: try not to get you fired. And then literally we're
Speaker 3: on the air, and that was the start of a friendship.
Speaker 3: We went to dinner that night, crazy enough in to
Speaker 3: hate Ashbury, right down the street from the University of
Speaker 3: San Francisco, which Bill probably spent many nights with the
Speaker 3: dead in that area.
Speaker 2: And it was the start of a great friendship. And
Speaker 2: still his day.
Speaker 3: I text his wife Laurie all the time, text one
Speaker 3: of his son, Luke, because we work in kind of
Speaker 3: the same circles.
Speaker 2: He's in the NBA. But yeah, now a day goes by,
Speaker 2: I don't think of Bill.
Speaker 1: Is Luke still coaching? You got he's an assistance with
Speaker 1: the Pistons. Yes, that's right. You know, it's interesting before
Speaker 1: my father actually took the job of the Jazz when
Speaker 1: I was a pop we lived in Boston, he was
Speaker 1: with Bain and so my first NBA experiences were the
Speaker 1: Celtics of the eighties and Bill was the sixth man
Speaker 1: on a Celtic team that won the championship.
Speaker 2: So I'm not.
Speaker 1: Old enough to remember Bill Walton like prime Bill Walton
Speaker 1: with the Blazers. But if you watch the documentary, if
Speaker 1: you listen to basketball historians, it feels like if Bill
Speaker 1: Walton would have just been able to stay healthy and
Speaker 1: play at that level consistently, we would be talking about
Speaker 1: him like the way we talk about Larry Bird or
Speaker 1: the way we talk about Magic Johnson, like he truly
Speaker 1: had a career arc that if he would have continued
Speaker 1: and not had the myriad of injuries that plagued him
Speaker 1: quite frankly his entire life, he could have potentially been
Speaker 1: one of the greatest basketball players of all time?
Speaker 3: Is that fair to say? Oh, it's fair to say.
Speaker 3: I mean, he was the MVP in what's seventy eight,
Speaker 3: and I'm like you, I didn't I'm not old enough
Speaker 3: to appreciate him from his prime, yep. And I remember
Speaker 3: that the broken down Bill that did come off the bench.
Speaker 3: It was a key part at Celtics championship team in
Speaker 3: eighty six, for sure. But the stories that I hear,
Speaker 3: for example from my uncle that he's a retired doctor now,
Speaker 3: but he was doing his residency at UCLA when Bill
Speaker 3: was playing there, so we got in a huge basketball fan.
Speaker 3: He went to every game the Bruins played and got
Speaker 3: to see Bill play every UCLA game of his career.
Speaker 3: And just how well Bill changed the poet, the really
Speaker 3: the game of basketball from the center position because with
Speaker 3: his outlet passes, his ability to see the floor, it
Speaker 3: was unheard of for somebody at that stage that big
Speaker 3: to be able to do what he did. Like people
Speaker 3: marvel at what Jokic does now, Well Bill was doing
Speaker 3: that forty plus years ago. Yeah, and probably even better
Speaker 3: than Jokic is doing, even though Jokic is an unbelievable player. Yeah,
Speaker 3: but Bill went twenty one for twenty two from the
Speaker 3: floor in a Final four game.
Speaker 2: Yeap, incredible.
Speaker 1: You know it's funny you bring bring up the Jokic
Speaker 1: thing because when Jokic kind of burst on the scene.
Speaker 1: Unfortunately for our show, Jeff Van Gundy is back coaching
Speaker 1: in the NBA, so I can't get him on. But
Speaker 1: when he was with you know, ESPN and NBC, I
Speaker 1: had him on almost every week, and Jeff was the
Speaker 1: first one when I asked him like, does Yokich remind
Speaker 1: you of anybody? Said yeah, Bill Walton. Bill Walton was
Speaker 1: like the original of what Jokich is doing. Now let
Speaker 1: me so we don't have a ton of time. I
Speaker 1: want to make sure and it's good you're going out
Speaker 1: there early. Let me just say this to you, Sana. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it's good you're taking maneuver parking and traffic out
Speaker 1: there can get wild, so I want to make sure
Speaker 1: I let you go on time. So let's move over here.
Speaker 1: Talking about this yesterday the current state of college football.
Speaker 1: So Brian Rolap, who's the new commissioner or CEO on
Speaker 1: the PGA Tour, Friend of the show. We've had Brian
Speaker 1: on spend twenty two years in the NFL. For the
Speaker 1: first time, he spoke yesterday about his vision for the
Speaker 1: future of the PGA Tour and I thought it was
Speaker 1: just dynamite.
Speaker 2: He talked about innovation.
Speaker 1: I think he said innovation five or six times, and
Speaker 1: I juxtaposed that to change for change sake, which is
Speaker 1: what I feel like college football continues to do. So
Speaker 1: the Big Ten floats out this twenty eighteen playoff model,
Speaker 1: and you're like, dude, yes, I'm a grown up. I
Speaker 1: understand that means more revenue, but there's a limit. You
Speaker 1: can have a one hundred teams in the playoffs too,
Speaker 1: and you would make more money. But at some point,
Speaker 1: if you do away with what I perceive makes college
Speaker 1: football special, and that is the prescient nature of every weekend,
Speaker 1: the urgent nature of every game, certainly conference games. You
Speaker 1: kill conference championship games, you do away with the urgency
Speaker 1: of every single weekend. I do think you're in danger
Speaker 1: of diluting your product a little bit. And I guess
Speaker 1: the bottom line is there's nobody in charge. So the
Speaker 1: Big ten knows that they can float out whatever idea
Speaker 1: they want. So can the SEC and say, look, we're
Speaker 1: the Big ten, You're gonna have to deal with our ideas.
Speaker 1: Are you concerned at all about where we find ourselves
Speaker 1: now or in the future of college football? Or is
Speaker 1: it simply Saturdays in the fall are always going to
Speaker 1: feel the way they do to people that love to
Speaker 1: consume the product.
Speaker 3: I think for some, but that could be a small
Speaker 3: percentage spence of the traditionalist in college football. I'm with
Speaker 3: you worried about it. It's going to get diluted if
Speaker 3: you do expand that greatly, just the way college athletics
Speaker 3: is going.
Speaker 2: I've been worried for a while.
Speaker 3: And now that they're trying to get a hold of
Speaker 3: the NIL model and make it a revenue share. It's
Speaker 3: all fine in dandy if you take it for what
Speaker 3: it is, but there's still going to be people trying
Speaker 3: to circumvent it.
Speaker 2: And are we going to go back to the old
Speaker 2: days where.
Speaker 3: You're getting paid under the table, And because now there's
Speaker 3: this clearinghouse, if you have an NIL deal, you bring
Speaker 3: it to them and they have to approve it for
Speaker 3: anything over six hundred dollars. There is so much in
Speaker 3: the game of college athletics that's concerning and with this
Speaker 3: revenue share model, for.
Speaker 2: Example, well, what's going to happen to the Olympic sports? Right?
Speaker 3: Okay, football and basketball they're going to be fine, But
Speaker 3: what happens to baseball, to volleyball to soccer, and all
Speaker 3: these great athletes that could be losing opportunities. And that's
Speaker 3: something that's troubling to me, just the potential for all
Speaker 3: these sports to be pushed away and the revenue share model. Look,
Speaker 3: I firmly believe this, dude, athletes should be paid. I
Speaker 3: do because they're out there drawn eyeballs and these large
Speaker 3: television contracts or they're a big part of why the
Speaker 3: Big ten and the SEC and the ACC are making
Speaker 3: the Big twelve or making all this money. But at
Speaker 3: some point I'm worried for the Olympic sports that things
Speaker 3: could be pushed aside and we could be looking at
Speaker 3: a real cut down model of what college athletics is.
Speaker 1: Mark Harlin on Saturday of last week addressed some Utah
Speaker 1: alumni and Utah boosters. Utah Athletics reported like an eighteen
Speaker 1: million dollar loss last year. Final two years in the
Speaker 1: Pac twelve. They made a little bit of cash couple
Speaker 1: mill two or three, and Mark talked about the.
Speaker 2: Reserve they have.
Speaker 1: The president of the university right now is a brilliant businessman.
Speaker 1: His name is Taylor Randall. He's the dean of the
Speaker 1: Business school before taking over as president. So I think
Speaker 1: the athletic department's in a fine spot. But I do
Speaker 1: believe there's this narrative that every school is like printing money.
Speaker 1: And you know, I think Utah as they move forward
Speaker 1: in the Big twelve, will you know, inch closer and closer.
Speaker 2: To maybe being in the red.
Speaker 1: But did I read that Cal is considering doing something
Speaker 1: drastic with their football program?
Speaker 3: Okay, no, no, no, that was somebody just threw it
Speaker 3: out there to be a troll it. It was an
Speaker 3: Oregon State fan that did that. Problem with Twitter, it
Speaker 3: took off. There is Ron Rivera is now the general
Speaker 3: manager for Cal football. He reports directly to the chancellor.
Speaker 3: He circumvents the ad they are firmly committed to football,
Speaker 3: that they're determined to be successful. That's why they brought
Speaker 3: it wrong.
Speaker 1: Good, good, good to hear, and you know, it's it's
Speaker 1: interesting to hear Mark talk about, you know, the plans
Speaker 1: with the rev share. Every school now has twenty point
Speaker 1: five mil. That doesn't include nil. But the other element
Speaker 1: that I and I've always said this, college football to
Speaker 1: me has always been the hardest sport to predict, no
Speaker 1: matter what. Now it's even more so because most every
Speaker 1: school has at least thirty to forty new players.
Speaker 2: Ronco Menanol has eighty new players in Logan.
Speaker 1: For Utah State, it just makes them possible to kind
Speaker 1: of predict the landscape of what college football is going
Speaker 1: to look like because of the changeover. When it comes
Speaker 1: to the Big Twelve, it feels like once again, seven
Speaker 1: or eight teams could be in the mix.
Speaker 2: You know Utah football, you know the program.
Speaker 1: Well, what gives you faith that year two in the
Speaker 1: Big twelve will look a little bit better than your
Speaker 1: one did?
Speaker 2: For the youths.
Speaker 3: Kyle Whittingham is number one, Yeah, just because of the
Speaker 3: culture he's established, and I know it's been a couple
Speaker 3: of rough years, but the consistency throughout his career gives
Speaker 3: me optimism that Utah can push and make a run
Speaker 3: in the Big Twelve. Look, nobody thought Arizona State was
Speaker 3: going to do what it did last year. Picked last
Speaker 3: and they wanted and were in the College Football Playoff.
Speaker 3: Now all of a sudden, they're in the crosshairs.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: Everybody's trying circling Arizona State on their schedule because of
Speaker 3: what they did last year and what Kenny Dillingham has
Speaker 3: done is phenomenal. But you know, I think Kyle's happy
Speaker 3: if Utah and just kind of lay in the weeds
Speaker 3: and people will look other places and he can just
Speaker 3: go about his business. But when they have the fifth
Speaker 3: up front, which they do on both sides of the ball,
Speaker 3: that's where it's established for a Kyle Whittingham team. So
Speaker 3: for me, in my perspective, the Cam Rising soap opera's
Speaker 3: gone now right for years was.
Speaker 2: Hovering over the program. Is he going to play? Is
Speaker 2: he not going to play? What's going on with Cam?
Speaker 3: You've moved on from that, which I think makes it
Speaker 3: easier for everybody to operate up up the hill.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: No, for sure, there's no ambiguity about who's under center.
Speaker 1: It's Devin dan Pierre, who's a New Mexico transfer, and
Speaker 1: they bring his offensive coordinator, Jason Beck, a running back
Speaker 1: and a wide receiver that played in New Mexico a
Speaker 1: year ago. I do think there's a little trepidation about
Speaker 1: taking a step up in competition.
Speaker 2: From the Mountain West to the Big twelve.
Speaker 1: But we saw cam Ward do it right and we've
Speaker 1: seen other players do it as well. What experience, if
Speaker 1: at all, do you have with the BYU Utah rivalry.
Speaker 2: I've done the basketball game on.
Speaker 1: You've done the basketball game on TV a few times.
Speaker 3: One of my funnier moments we were doing the game
Speaker 3: down at the Marriott Center and Bill and I did
Speaker 3: the game. It was back in December. This was years
Speaker 3: ago when BYU was still in the WCC and of
Speaker 3: course the youths were in the PAC twelve and Larry K.
Speaker 2: Stoviac was coaching Utah and I don't.
Speaker 3: Even think I think it was still day Rose was
Speaker 3: coaching BYU at that time, and so I couldn't get
Speaker 3: into town first off, the night before to have dinner
Speaker 3: with Bill. So I set him up to have dinner
Speaker 3: with Tom Holmo the a d at b YA. And
Speaker 3: first off, Tom grew up in La a huge UCLA
Speaker 3: fan and a huge Bill Walton fan. So this was
Speaker 3: like geeked out night for Tom. He was so excited
Speaker 3: to have dinner with Bill. I was doing a game
Speaker 3: the night before. I couldn't pick up my phone. But
Speaker 3: Tom calls and leaves me a voicemail and he says,
Speaker 3: I understand it. Now, I get it because Bill at
Speaker 3: dinner was peppering Tom with question after question after question
Speaker 3: about the provost, City Library, the faculty at BYU, the campus,
Speaker 3: everything he wanted to know. And I did tell Tom,
Speaker 3: be careful what you tell Bill, because there's a chance
Speaker 3: no matter what you say, will get on the air.
Speaker 3: And the next night, of course, he just rattles off
Speaker 3: all these answers that Tom gave him and all the
Speaker 3: information he's able to dig up. But we were doing
Speaker 3: it on camera and some BYU student walked over with
Speaker 3: like a solo red cup and handed it to Bill
Speaker 3: and he drank it. And I'm like, Bill, did you
Speaker 3: know that guy? He goes, no, And you took a
Speaker 3: drink from somebody in a cup? He goes, yeah, it
Speaker 3: was thirsty to look good. I go, well, if you're
Speaker 3: gonna do it a place anywhere in this country, BYU
Speaker 3: is probably your safest place to do it.
Speaker 2: I was gonna say, was it milk? You know? Because
Speaker 2: it was some punch, That's all. I'll say.
Speaker 1: Fair enough, fair enough, all right, before I let you
Speaker 1: get out of here to get to the show. We
Speaker 1: are a hockey city now, yeah, And you were one
Speaker 1: of the first guests that I thought of Devon as
Speaker 1: soon as the announcement came down. It's no longer the
Speaker 1: Utah Hockey Club, it is the Utah Mammoth. They were
Speaker 1: right in the mix for a wild card until the
Speaker 1: final couple of weeks. They've made a couple of good
Speaker 1: acquisitions in the offseason. What should we expect is it?
Speaker 1: Do you think playoffs are reasonable for our hockey team
Speaker 1: this year?
Speaker 3: You've got to stay healthy this year, Spence, especially on
Speaker 3: the blue line. The injuries that they dealt with, Whether
Speaker 3: it was Jersey last year, they were beaten up on
Speaker 3: the blue line, missing Marino for as long as they
Speaker 3: did then it was it made it tough for them.
Speaker 3: And then with connering or Minnato lineup with his stuff
Speaker 3: going on off the ice. But I do believe that
Speaker 3: their talent is there. Certainly, Keller made a huge jump
Speaker 3: last year and has turned into one of the elite players.
Speaker 3: I think you make a tray with Buffalo to get
Speaker 3: a twenty five goal scorer, which just don't grow on trees. Okay,
Speaker 3: you gave up kessel Ring, which is a I'd like.
Speaker 3: It is a nice piece to have, sure, But the
Speaker 3: one thing that worries me for them, do I think
Speaker 3: they have the talent to do it?
Speaker 2: Yes? I do.
Speaker 3: The Division is so tough when you look at Colorado
Speaker 3: and Dallas and those two teams. You start there with
Speaker 3: Winnipeg and then Saint Louis made that push last year.
Speaker 3: Central Division is hard, and unfortunately, I think they're in
Speaker 3: the toughest division. I'm not saying they can't do it
Speaker 3: and get to a wild card to finish in the
Speaker 3: top three, but they need things to go right, and
Speaker 3: they can't have the barrage of injuries they had a
Speaker 3: year ago.
Speaker 1: Well said, all right, favorite Counting Crows opener and closer.
Speaker 1: What do you want to see him do tonight?
Speaker 3: Well, I kind of know you. No, No, I don't
Speaker 3: because they make it up like it's not all of
Speaker 3: a sudden, this same generic set list every night.
Speaker 2: But you'll you'll know the set list prior to the show.
Speaker 3: Roxy jeez at a time, my bathroom breaks properly and
Speaker 3: if I have to.
Speaker 2: Go fair enough, So can I ask you what they're
Speaker 2: opening with tonight? I don't know.
Speaker 3: I really don't know what they're opening with. It seems
Speaker 3: on this tour they have been opening with, uh, the
Speaker 3: new song, Oh Tulsa Spaceman in Tulsa. Okay, that's a possibility.
Speaker 3: I'm not saying that's going to happen, but it's funny.
Speaker 3: I had him as he's evolved over the years, realized
Speaker 3: there's about five songs I have to play every night.
Speaker 2: Sure, and I would say more than that to be honest.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but he's also trying to push the new album. Yeah,
Speaker 3: but mister Jones, Rain King Long December, and King hanging
Speaker 3: around round here. Those are songs omaha. I mean, those
Speaker 3: are songs that are probably gonna be I'm guessing. I
Speaker 3: don't know, but they could be in the setlist today.
Speaker 1: All Right, man, Well we'll set you loose. Thanks so
Speaker 1: much for enjoy the show. Okay, the great Roxy Bernstein
Speaker 1: from ESPN