Speaker 1: Adam Sandler was trying to the Delta Center on October
Speaker 1: twenty sixth, twenty twenty five. That's his share tickets around sale.
Speaker 1: Now text Farley the three three nine eighty six for
Speaker 1: your chance to win. Porter, would you mind efforting the Sandman?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll get in. Maybe in studio, we'll try, Okay,
Speaker 2: not just effering.
Speaker 1: Adam Sandler's not in studio, but an old friend is
Speaker 1: in studio. We haven't seen her for a while. Amy
Speaker 1: Donaldson from Kesel, how are you, Amy.
Speaker 3: I'm good. I've probably seen every Adam Sandler movie, not
Speaker 3: because I'm a fan, because I had step sons.
Speaker 1: Sure, yes, yes, Indeed, there's like a generational gap between Sandler.
Speaker 1: Like people my age think he's funny, and I feel
Speaker 1: like the younger people.
Speaker 2: Just to kind of out on him because he's made
Speaker 2: so many bad movies.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that's right. Appreciate, I think it's I
Speaker 3: think there might be a little bit also of a
Speaker 3: gender gap for mister Sandler, although his recent affection for
Speaker 3: Taylor Swift because he has daughters, has brought him I
Speaker 3: think into the fold a bit. So there are some
Speaker 3: women now who are given given some movies ants.
Speaker 1: Okay, they didn't age very well. I guess back from
Speaker 1: back in the day type of stuff.
Speaker 3: Well, I don't think they've seen water boy.
Speaker 2: Wall was the one.
Speaker 3: What was the one where he was in the where
Speaker 3: he wasn't he had to go back to like elementary
Speaker 3: school or something.
Speaker 2: Billy Madison. Billy Madison was great.
Speaker 3: That was the one that my step sons loved.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was a good one. So what do you
Speaker 1: betut let's get an update. We were just talking off air.
Speaker 1: Eve been traveling. I following your Instagram.
Speaker 2: You're all over the place these days.
Speaker 3: I haven't haven't been very dedicated. I retweeted and re
Speaker 3: share what so other people are doing. But I went
Speaker 3: to Australia for a month and hung out with my
Speaker 3: My kid moved there last year and so I went
Speaker 3: there and the first two weeks Ed was with me,
Speaker 3: So we had to go one of the we wanted.
Speaker 3: He's a huge snorkeler beach guy.
Speaker 2: That is.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he loves I mean he I he considered like
Speaker 3: actually diving. But we didn't have a ton of time.
Speaker 3: So which sounds funny because we're there a month or
Speaker 3: I was there a month. He was only there two weeks.
Speaker 3: But so we did snorkel in the Great Barrier Reef
Speaker 3: and go out to some islands and I just love learning.
Speaker 3: I mean just especially like the mangroves, Like the nature
Speaker 3: is just so fascinating to me. And a beach entirely
Speaker 3: made of fish poop it's and it's the most amazing
Speaker 3: beautiful place you've ever been. Yeah, it's super cool. So
Speaker 3: but yes, we did that. And then he's a huge
Speaker 3: Mad Max fan.
Speaker 2: This oh cool.
Speaker 3: So Mad Max Too was filmed in a place called
Speaker 3: Brooken Hill, Australia, and everybody knows who knows Mad Max
Speaker 3: knows that is an Australian film in origin. So uh.
Speaker 3: We went out to the museum out there, and everyone
Speaker 3: thought we were crazy because it's in the middle of nowhere.
Speaker 3: But it looked I'll tell you this, it was so
Speaker 3: it was like going to Delta, Utah. Really, it looked
Speaker 3: so familiar. I loved it so much. It's super cool town.
Speaker 3: A lot of Aboriginal people live out there, a lot
Speaker 3: of old miners, I mean, miners are my family, Park
Speaker 3: City roots. So yeah, super fun and the museum was amazing.
Speaker 3: And then we went back to that I had come
Speaker 3: I had a pretty vicious case of food poisoning just
Speaker 3: as we arrived in Broken Hill. So we went back
Speaker 3: to our hotel room and watched men Max too.
Speaker 2: Do you know what you ate? Yes?
Speaker 3: I do?
Speaker 2: Was it?
Speaker 3: It was a spicy chicken wrap from the airport.
Speaker 2: Oh, that shouldn't do it. Spicy chicken should be safe.
Speaker 3: Well, I guess we just say that I have not
Speaker 3: eaten chicken since, and I'm not so sure I can
Speaker 3: eat a wrap.
Speaker 2: And take a little bit of a break.
Speaker 1: And then you were assisting your sister, who is a
Speaker 1: ultra marathon runner, try to get through a race in Alaska.
Speaker 3: Yeah, she was running the Dnali one thirty five, and
Speaker 3: I agreed to be a pacer. I said I could
Speaker 3: maybe give you fifty miles, but she got pretty sick
Speaker 3: about oh fifty miles. In made it about fifteen more miles,
Speaker 3: and then after about the halfway point we called it.
Speaker 3: We so we more so called it, I would say.
Speaker 3: My mom and my dad and I collaborated to convince
Speaker 3: her because I don't know if you know an ultrarunner,
Speaker 3: but they're not. They they don't want to quit.
Speaker 1: They'll die before I've got a couple of buddies. I've
Speaker 1: not like whenever they're telling me what, I'm like, what
Speaker 1: are you doing it?
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm not a good ultraarunner because I will quit.
Speaker 3: I'm not. I want to hike another day.
Speaker 2: You want to live?
Speaker 3: I mean, And I like, I guess for me, the
Speaker 3: experience like walking through into your Alaska with my sister
Speaker 3: in the you know, the middle and it's not dark,
Speaker 3: like it never gets pitch black in the summer, right,
Speaker 3: so it's like eleven twelve at night and it looks
Speaker 3: kind of like dusk and it's just the most beautiful place.
Speaker 3: I just for me, that was so odd inspiring. I
Speaker 3: was like, this is the thing. It's not the finish.
Speaker 3: I mean, she was trying to go for that would
Speaker 3: have been her second finish and made her the first
Speaker 3: woman to ever finish it twice. So she was pretty bummed.
Speaker 3: And I find know my sister she'll be signing up
Speaker 3: for that race again because she's not really good about quitting.
Speaker 3: The congratulations to my sister, I have to give her congratulations,
Speaker 3: say she was just promoted to lieutenant. Very cool teaches
Speaker 3: at the public Safety in South Carolina.
Speaker 1: The state good for her, The state all right, Amy,
Speaker 1: I was excited to see you on the rundown because
Speaker 1: a couple of things going on that I want to
Speaker 1: get your perspective on.
Speaker 2: And you know we were talking.
Speaker 1: I had Tim bon Tim Bontemps, excuse me on earlier
Speaker 1: from ESPN, and this the way the Ace Bailey story
Speaker 1: was covered. And I want to be clear, I don't
Speaker 1: know what's true and I don't know what's not. I mean,
Speaker 1: you and I have done this long enough where you
Speaker 1: know that you get messaging from players, you get messaging
Speaker 1: from agents, you get messaging from coaches in front off,
Speaker 1: and then there's what's really going on behind the scenes
Speaker 1: that they don't want to say out loud. So there
Speaker 1: could be several levels here. And I'm one like you
Speaker 1: that grew up elsewhere, but it's made Salt Lake and
Speaker 1: adopted home, and it's basically been my home for twenty
Speaker 1: five years. I don't think that's changing anytime soon, but
Speaker 1: I guess you never know. And I can get a
Speaker 1: little defensive when I hear people talk about our market,
Speaker 1: certainly juxtaposed with places like Cleveland or Oklahoma City, San Antonio, Like,
Speaker 1: I just prefer saw Lake over a lot of the
Speaker 1: NBA markets that I've been to over the course of
Speaker 1: my life, and maybe I'm biased here, so the whole
Speaker 1: thing comes out like, oh wait, it's not his preferred destination.
Speaker 1: And there were even people who said out loud, he's
Speaker 1: not going to report. He doesn't want to be there.
Speaker 1: He refused to work out for any team. There was
Speaker 1: a report that he actually told not a So I
Speaker 1: want to be clear, this is his reps told one
Speaker 1: team in the top five do not draft him. He's
Speaker 1: not reporting, and obviously wasn't the Jazz because he showed
Speaker 1: up on time, he did a great job with his
Speaker 1: press conference, had his introductory dinner, and he seems like
Speaker 1: a sweet kid who.
Speaker 3: Is exciting and durable. Right, yeah, So what's your.
Speaker 2: Take on this entire dynamic.
Speaker 3: Well, I think it's a collision of everybody wants to
Speaker 3: have a scoop and everybody hates us. It's our insecurities
Speaker 3: coupled with this twenty four hour news cycle where everybody
Speaker 3: wants to know something special. Everybody wants to give you
Speaker 3: something that you can't get anywhere else. I had the scoop.
Speaker 3: I mean I see it a little bit. Well, we
Speaker 3: see it on all these bigger stories, right, A little
Speaker 3: bit on the rets left thing in the last we'll
Speaker 3: get there the last twenty four hours. But yeah, so
Speaker 3: I think there. I mean, we're competitive people report. I'm
Speaker 3: talking about journalists, and we want the inside story. You
Speaker 3: want something when you're going to these press conferences and
Speaker 3: everybody's getting the same you know, pablem. We want something different,
Speaker 3: and so you're trying to talk to different people get
Speaker 3: different things. And I will say this, nowhere in my
Speaker 3: journalism career has there been more irresponsible speculation than in
Speaker 3: sports journalism.
Speaker 2: Interesting.
Speaker 3: There are people I once traced there was some some
Speaker 3: rumors going around on a story, and I started to
Speaker 3: call the people who were reporting them, say you know,
Speaker 3: and I know everybody, I said, I'm not reporting, I
Speaker 3: want to know. I'm trying to figure out the roots
Speaker 3: of this thing, where this idea, where this information came from? Right?
Speaker 3: And what ended up happening was it was a circle.
Speaker 3: So somebody was quoting somebody else, but if you traced
Speaker 3: it around, they were quoting each other. It's like if
Speaker 3: you and I told each other the rumor that we
Speaker 3: heard and we're confirmed it for each other, and then
Speaker 3: we both go out and say it's been confirmed by
Speaker 3: a source. For we are each other's source, we don't
Speaker 3: know anything. So that's what happened. So once that and
Speaker 3: that happened, I think it was around twenty twelve that
Speaker 3: that happened, so very early in my sports career, especially
Speaker 3: once I started getting out of high school sports. When
Speaker 3: you're talking about Olympic sports or college sports. Definitely in
Speaker 3: the pro ranks, people want, I mean, that's your bread
Speaker 3: and butter. Being the guy or the girl with information
Speaker 3: is how you make your name. And some people are
Speaker 3: reliable about that, and they're very careful about that, and
Speaker 3: they check and second check, and some people say things
Speaker 3: out of turn, you know, But yeah, I my experience,
Speaker 3: because I come from a news background, is if you
Speaker 3: don't know, I'm not going to quote you, even if
Speaker 3: you tell me something really solid. I know some really
Speaker 3: solid things I've never reported because I don't have a
Speaker 3: source on them. And I believe the people, but I
Speaker 3: just don't I don't have a firsthand source on it.
Speaker 3: So I think it was And then I think there's
Speaker 3: this natural and I think it's somewhat become a narrative
Speaker 3: in professional sports, especially the NBA a little bit in college.
Speaker 3: I mean it happened with aj when he committed to Buya, right,
Speaker 3: Why would anyone want to go there? It's Utah, right,
Speaker 3: you know, what have they done? Why? Why do you
Speaker 3: want to be there? They're and also ran have they exist?
Speaker 3: But they exist for us to beat them on the
Speaker 3: way to something else. You know. It's like they call
Speaker 3: flyover States the center of the country. We are a
Speaker 3: flyover place in sports, and so there is this narrative
Speaker 3: and we are all super defensive about it, including our
Speaker 3: reporters here, and then these things all collide. Everybody's looking
Speaker 3: for information. Somebody repeats a room or somebody says it.
Speaker 3: Everybody scrambling. I heard this. You got a boss. I've
Speaker 3: had this happen to me. You get a call from
Speaker 3: your boss at ten o'clock on a Friday. Somebody else
Speaker 3: is reporting this. What do you know? I don't know anything.
Speaker 3: And then saying I don't know as a reporter is
Speaker 3: like the worst thing ever, But it's the truth sometimes
Speaker 3: because sometimes there's not anything to know, and I don't
Speaker 3: know if an agent or somebody was trying to stir
Speaker 3: up some some interest or like again, how these things happened.
Speaker 3: We don't know. I didn't. I wasn't doing initial reporting.
Speaker 3: I heard these rumors coming out, and I saw journalists saying,
Speaker 3: another person who doesn't want to come to UTAB, this
Speaker 3: guy will be gone in four years, you know, all
Speaker 3: these things, and I assume they don't know anything because
Speaker 3: they're not in these rooms having these conversations. I thought,
Speaker 3: I'm just gonna wait, I've learned and see what happens
Speaker 3: with the kid, and couldn't have been nicer. Showed up,
Speaker 3: did his thing, you know, I mean, it happens every time,
Speaker 3: but I think it's just the collision of two really
Speaker 3: bad you know, sort of the insecurity coupled with this
Speaker 3: idea that like everybody's got to have a scoop. You know, yeah,
Speaker 3: I know something you don't know, you know, right.
Speaker 1: I wonder what, because again, without knowing exactly what's real
Speaker 1: and what's not, I will say that I like that
Speaker 1: Austin just took him like, all right, maybe you don't
Speaker 1: want to be here, but we think you're the guy,
Speaker 1: and we're this is the best player available at five.
Speaker 1: Because I do feel like there's been this undercurrent of
Speaker 1: fear tied into certain decision making, and I actually wondered,
Speaker 1: and again, if we operate off the assumption, which is
Speaker 1: never a smart thing to do. But there was so
Speaker 1: much noise around Utah not being Ace's preferred destination and
Speaker 1: so much reporting over the twenty four hour news cycle
Speaker 1: that I'm inclined to believe there's something there.
Speaker 2: I don't think it's with Ace.
Speaker 1: I do think it's with this agent of his who
Speaker 1: isn't even like he doesn't have his right Well, he
Speaker 1: didn't have the paperwork file to be like an actual
Speaker 1: agent when Ace first hired him, So he's new with
Speaker 1: this and he's probably trying to figure it out. So
Speaker 1: if there's even a sliver of truth to it, you know,
Speaker 1: the Jazz had that intel. But I like that Austin
Speaker 1: just said we're drafting him. We think he's the best player.
Speaker 3: But I also think Austin is savvy enough and everybody
Speaker 3: else at the Jazz that if it were true, if
Speaker 3: it felt true to them, I don't they're going to
Speaker 3: have conversations about that. Sure they draft him, they're not.
Speaker 3: I've this is happened before, where there's been a trade
Speaker 3: rumored or there's been an acquisition floated, right, and there's
Speaker 3: been open resistance to coming here. Those are conversations you
Speaker 3: have to have because the last thing you want to
Speaker 3: do is trade for or it is use your pick
Speaker 3: on somebody who's going to then blow up your whatever
Speaker 3: your plan is. Right, that didn't happen, so that lead
Speaker 3: if you say it was like some sliver of truth,
Speaker 3: some rumor got blown up into something else, or somebody
Speaker 3: said something offhand and it got somebody ran with it.
Speaker 3: Whatever happened, whatever the rumor mill was was doing, and
Speaker 3: whoever was doing it, I firmly believe, or at least
Speaker 3: I have this much faith in Austin Age, and that
Speaker 3: is that he had some conversations with people about whether
Speaker 3: or not or how much of that was true, or
Speaker 3: it may be. It may have been as simple as this,
Speaker 3: that someone said, you're probably going to go to Utah,
Speaker 3: or it looks like you might be going to Utah,
Speaker 3: and he's like, Utah, I don't know where the heck
Speaker 3: that place is. I wanted to go to X who
Speaker 3: he's eighteen, right, I could totally see that happening. Sure,
Speaker 3: and then that began. That's all these other things he's
Speaker 3: not going to do. He didn't work out for anybody
Speaker 3: they're looking for and this is where brains work, you know,
Speaker 3: we look for evidence that we're right. This is why
Speaker 3: we have the politics we have. You don't hear all
Speaker 3: the information. You hear your whatever bias you have, that
Speaker 3: whatever confirms that for you. E.
Speaker 2: Co Chambers.
Speaker 3: Yes, and so I think that's somewhat, but I mean
Speaker 3: it's happened so often. I believe. I mean, and I
Speaker 3: watched the press conferences one hundred percent believe that we're there.
Speaker 3: If there was a whiff of this before, there were
Speaker 3: conversations that were had so that even if there was reluctance,
Speaker 3: it was understood what that reluctance was about, and so
Speaker 3: whatever was going on, if it was nothing, I mean
Speaker 3: I heard somebody's it was nothing or whatever. How many
Speaker 3: times have we been the purveyors of an offen comment?
Speaker 3: I mean, I've been there when something like that's been
Speaker 3: said and people run with it and I think you
Speaker 3: got to be kidding me.
Speaker 2: Yeah that was a joke.
Speaker 3: Or you know, or that was just the reaction. Yeah.
Speaker 3: And again, the way things are now, this kid is eighteen,
Speaker 3: Like you have a kid, I have a kid. I
Speaker 3: hope nobody's holding my kid to what she says, you know,
Speaker 3: for sure. Sometimes me, sometimes I have a reaction like
Speaker 3: what I mean, there are so many things in a
Speaker 3: meeting or wherever where you're like, your initial reaction is
Speaker 3: that's stupid. I don't want that whatever, But like give
Speaker 3: people room to get educated and to get information into
Speaker 3: maybe evolved. But I was super impressed with the press commerence.
Speaker 3: I liked all the picks. I thought it was really fun.
Speaker 3: I have tickets to the Summer League with my grandson
Speaker 3: and nephews, so we're going to go. And my nephew,
Speaker 3: who's an airman at Hill Air Force Base, has been
Speaker 3: in a depressive state since the lottery. Oh texted me
Speaker 3: immediately all caps and is beside himself with joy.
Speaker 2: So yeah, good good.
Speaker 3: However it works out, we're going to enjoy it well.
Speaker 1: And the only time will tell. I. You know, when
Speaker 1: it comes to what I feel is really unfair messaging
Speaker 1: about the jazz and Utah and Salt Lake, it just
Speaker 1: makes it hard for those guys to do their jobs
Speaker 1: when they've got to answer all these questions misconceptions like no,
Speaker 1: it's not that weird here and again, you and I
Speaker 1: both grew up elsewhere. I'm aware of the oddities that
Speaker 1: exists here. I've never ran from them. They are real. Okay,
Speaker 1: it doesn't make it a horrible place to live. You
Speaker 1: just have to find out how you traverse the space
Speaker 1: and respect the culture that essentially is intertwined in everything
Speaker 1: that we do here, whether you like.
Speaker 2: It or not.
Speaker 1: But it just it makes their jobs so hard when
Speaker 1: they've got to do this all the time. Like another
Speaker 1: kid doesn't want to come here, another player doesn't want
Speaker 1: us to trade for him.
Speaker 2: Dennis Lindsay went.
Speaker 1: On a podcast last year and said that he had
Speaker 1: a trade done for a star forward.
Speaker 2: I know who is Kevin Love.
Speaker 1: He had a trade done for Kevin Love, and Kevin
Speaker 1: Love's agent called him and said, don't do this. He
Speaker 1: will not come live in Salt Lake. He will not report.
Speaker 1: And so if Austin kind of has this attitude, and
Speaker 1: again to your point, conversation certainly took place that were
Speaker 1: not privy to. But if he's just going to go
Speaker 1: all in and be like, look, we're drafting you, we're
Speaker 1: trading for you.
Speaker 2: And then you know, with Ace, they have seven years.
Speaker 1: Okay, your rookie contract four years, then you'll pick up
Speaker 1: the option for the final three unless he wants to
Speaker 1: be traded. We saw with Donovan Gordon left. You know,
Speaker 1: we do have the PTSD of players that we really
Speaker 1: latched onto leaving here. But no, if you're Austin Age,
Speaker 1: if you're Danny, if you're Justin Zanik, if you're Ryan,
Speaker 1: and Ashley said, no, we think you're the best player,
Speaker 1: and we have seven years to show you that you
Speaker 1: can accomplish anything you want here in Salt Lake. Just
Speaker 1: go about it unafraid.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I think they knew they know something about
Speaker 3: these players that we don't. They know more about their background,
Speaker 3: their histories, what their other interests are, because these are
Speaker 3: human beings. They're not like, they're not commodities, right right,
Speaker 3: And it's not so simple as to say, look at
Speaker 3: the statu sheet, you know, and look at what we
Speaker 3: need and let's go for this. I'm sure there was
Speaker 3: a lot of other input about how his personality, how
Speaker 3: you know, what kind of I mean, he's by all
Speaker 3: accounts everything I could read, he's a super gym rat.
Speaker 3: I mean, honest to god, he reminded me a lot
Speaker 3: of Karl Malone. You know, this idea that like I
Speaker 3: got something to prove and what makes What makes it more,
Speaker 3: what will feed that more is being in a place
Speaker 3: that has.
Speaker 2: Something to improve, right, Yeah, good point.
Speaker 3: I think there. I mean Carl Kyle Whittingham, which, by
Speaker 3: the way, there's another guy who's had rumors floated every
Speaker 3: single year that he's retiring, right, But Kyle Whittingham is
Speaker 3: bread and butter. Is getting people to believe that no
Speaker 3: matter what, no matter who's on the rust or no
Speaker 3: matter what they're ranked, no one respects them. Right and
Speaker 3: in sports, that can be a huge, huge, huge bonus.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, for sure. So we'll see, we'll see how
Speaker 2: we'll see how it works out, all right.
Speaker 1: You referenced the Jake Rehts Jake Rehetzlaf story. We'll get
Speaker 1: to a catch or break and then we'll do that.
Speaker 1: Coming up on the other side, the civil lawsuit has
Speaker 1: been dismissed and Jake, according to Pete Thamil, has plans
Speaker 1: to transfer because he believes he's going to face the
Speaker 1: seven game suspension for by lating the school's on a code.
Speaker 1: So we'll get to that with more local storylines as well.
Speaker 1: Amy Donaldson live in studio for another big segment coming
Speaker 1: up on the other side.
Speaker 2: Right here on ESPN seven hundred. Amy Donaldson is live
Speaker 2: in studio.
Speaker 1: I always appreciate Amy's time world traveler back on the ground.
Speaker 1: Have you been watching any RSL soccer? I know you've
Speaker 1: been traveling. You've been watching any any RSL?
Speaker 3: I did. We didn't watch the most recent game, but
Speaker 3: the game before. And yeah, when I got back, like
Speaker 3: I said, I feel like I was living in another world,
Speaker 3: especially because rugby is so huge in Australia.
Speaker 2: You were there for a month and they have.
Speaker 3: This thing, this origins game where it's super cool. Actually,
Speaker 3: so all these professional players go back to their club teams, okay,
Speaker 3: and of like if all these NFL players went back
Speaker 3: to their colleges and they had a little tournament, oh
Speaker 3: like an East West East US West or like they
Speaker 3: go back to these rivalries and it's a huge deal.
Speaker 3: I had to kind of get an education about like
Speaker 3: who the rugby like because my daughter in laws family
Speaker 3: is so like, you can't cheer for the wrong team.
Speaker 2: Oh okay.
Speaker 3: And then of course, so my daughter and I were
Speaker 3: in this place called Cans. She was there for some training.
Speaker 3: That's when one of the origin games was the women's
Speaker 3: was the day before we saw part of that. But
Speaker 3: we went with a bunch of people from the training,
Speaker 3: a bunch of social workers. We go to this pub
Speaker 3: and watch rugby and it was a blast, and yeah,
Speaker 3: I just I love for me the cultural aspect, Like
Speaker 3: I watched the gold medal game in the twenty sixteen
Speaker 3: Olympics in Brazil.
Speaker 2: Rugby, Brazil, no soccer, soccer, so they So.
Speaker 3: Brazil was playing in the gold medal game in the
Speaker 3: twenty sixteen Olympics in Rio Macarina Stadium, and I'd been
Speaker 3: to one of the semi round games and then in
Speaker 3: a pool game at Macarena with her buddy Chris Camronnie
Speaker 3: very nice. That was when I was live using periscope
Speaker 3: and showing video of my ride and somebody flashed me.
Speaker 3: So that was, yeah, super cool. Learned my lesson about
Speaker 3: live video and so but I decided on the gold
Speaker 3: medal night, listen, I want to go. And these people
Speaker 3: Brazil had not won a gold medal in the Olympics
Speaker 3: in their sport, I mean soccer. There the number of leagues,
Speaker 3: the number of teams, it's just ridiculous. And so I
Speaker 3: went down. They had this pier, they had these amazing
Speaker 3: TVs on the edge. I don't know how how they
Speaker 3: were massive. They were like a drive in movie theater
Speaker 3: size four of them in different locations. And I just
Speaker 3: ate Brazilian food and hung out and talked to people
Speaker 3: and just soaked up the atmosphere. And to me, like
Speaker 3: the cultural aspect of sports is as interesting as what's
Speaker 3: happening in the game. Why did they win? Because I
Speaker 3: know that's what everyone expects from a sports writer, and
Speaker 3: so I was tempted to do that. It's so hard
Speaker 3: to not, you know, to not be there for the
Speaker 3: gold medal game. But I am so glad I did it.
Speaker 3: It was really incredible, and especially because these are people
Speaker 3: who they couldn't afford a ticket, so they're not in
Speaker 3: the stadium, right and maybe they've never been inside Macarina Stadium,
Speaker 3: but they've been to the parties outside and yeah, and
Speaker 3: so I think it was a little bit of that.
Speaker 3: I love when I go somewhere to just even if
Speaker 3: I don't know the teams, I don't know what's happening.
Speaker 3: And of course you get into it, right, Like I
Speaker 3: got into an argument with a guy about whether or
Speaker 3: not there was there should have been a foul. I'm like,
Speaker 3: oh my God, you're such a home or it wasn't
Speaker 3: a foul, you know. So and again I keep saying,
Speaker 3: I'm like, I'm not biased, so my opinion is right.
Speaker 3: But but you know, I covered rugby seven's in at
Speaker 3: the Olympics and a little bit of rugby here with
Speaker 3: the Utah Warriors, so I know the game and know
Speaker 3: the rules, I should say, but so much fun and
Speaker 3: everybody plays. I mean, little girls are getting their stuff
Speaker 3: to go to their footy practices. My little grand adopted
Speaker 3: grandson over there, my daughter in lawst nephew. He's my
Speaker 3: little grand baby too. Now he's playing or soccer on
Speaker 3: one field with his buddies. And adjacent is these little
Speaker 3: kids playing rugby. Everybody plays. It's so huge, it's so
Speaker 3: I mean, my daughter has signed up for Who's this
Speaker 3: is a kid I could not get to play sports
Speaker 3: like she did cross country running and I coached her
Speaker 3: in softball for two years and she's like, this is
Speaker 3: not my game. She played little kids soccer, but yeah
Speaker 3: I did not. But she's playing in a rugby tournament,
Speaker 3: you know. Oh it's also yeah, so it's just a
Speaker 3: huge huge. I did do a CrossFit competition while I.
Speaker 2: Was there in Australia.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so my kid, don't listen, your kids will rope
Speaker 3: you into stuff.
Speaker 2: Well do you just.
Speaker 3: You're so desperate to be with your children when you're
Speaker 3: an adult, right, Like, so they say do you want
Speaker 3: to take me a lunch? You'll buy lunch for them
Speaker 3: because you want to be with them. Right. So my
Speaker 3: kid was like, I want to do this CrossFit thing.
Speaker 3: We need a third do you think you could do it?
Speaker 3: And I was like sure, I've been lifting weights and
Speaker 3: I do waits twice twice a week. You know, our
Speaker 3: old people waits. So she sends me the word out
Speaker 3: and I was like, this is going to be hard.
Speaker 3: So I really I put my mind to it for
Speaker 3: a solid months. I worked really hard. We get there,
Speaker 3: and what I learned is that's one of the workouts.
Speaker 3: It's across the competition. There is a series of workouts. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and that was one. I thought that was the whole thing.
Speaker 3: In fact, when they said you have to climb a
Speaker 3: rope and touch the ceiling, I just looked at my
Speaker 3: husband and was like, what is happening? Where are we?
Speaker 2: It's a big ass.
Speaker 3: And then I started assessing I was the oldest by
Speaker 3: fifteen years and I was like, this is not happening.
Speaker 3: But I'm telling you there is something about your competitiveness
Speaker 3: never goes away. Because they told me what we had
Speaker 3: as a team, we would have had to do these burpies.
Speaker 3: If I didn't do the rope climb, Oh, my whole
Speaker 3: team has to do it. And I was like, I'm
Speaker 3: not penalizing my team. I did the rope climb, broke,
Speaker 3: I did it. Yeah, So but yeah, it was super
Speaker 3: fun and the now I'm super I want to watch
Speaker 3: more rugby. It was really fun.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And you point about the cultural significance of things
Speaker 1: that are away from the competition.
Speaker 2: I find to be.
Speaker 1: Very applicable for sports like rugby or soccer that I
Speaker 1: just wasn't raised with. Right, Like when we first brought
Speaker 1: Ursel here in two thousand and four, I was, I've
Speaker 1: told you very lukewarm to the whole endeavor. I'm like,
Speaker 1: what are you doing? Soccer doesn't work in Like I
Speaker 1: told my father, I'm like, this is a bad idea.
Speaker 1: You know that now obviously he was right.
Speaker 2: I was wrong.
Speaker 1: And my friends who were soccer fans still soccer fans
Speaker 1: that you know, they all said the same thing. You've
Speaker 1: got to go overseas, you've got to see something in
Speaker 1: the Premiership.
Speaker 2: You got to go to Germany. You got to see
Speaker 2: what it's like over there.
Speaker 1: And my first eye opening, oh wow, okay soccer means
Speaker 1: everything to these people was seeing a Tottenham game in London,
Speaker 1: you know, seeing a Premiership game.
Speaker 2: Because I think we have some parallels here.
Speaker 1: You and I have talked about like football is our soccer,
Speaker 1: Football is America's soccer.
Speaker 2: But like, I don't even know that that does baseball.
Speaker 3: I mean, I think I grew up more with baseball,
Speaker 3: but you know, and when I was like boxing, my
Speaker 3: dad was super big into boxing. I mean, I think
Speaker 3: it's probably whatever you grow up around, right, like whatever,
Speaker 3: but baseball was the thing, and I do think there's
Speaker 3: a big I mean, and then when I went to
Speaker 3: high school in Alaska, hockey is bigger than football. I mean,
Speaker 3: like I can't it's hard to imagine, but all the
Speaker 3: cute girls wanted to be hockey cheerleaders, right, And I
Speaker 3: was like, why would you want to wear a skirt
Speaker 3: in a hockey arena? Right? Right?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 3: Yeah, But you know, we took hockey for pe Like
Speaker 3: there was just this culture of toughness and like eighty blow,
Speaker 3: Well let's play hockey. You know'st's outside. We need to
Speaker 3: had you know, I don't need gloves, you know it.
Speaker 3: It was uh and there is this whole cultural you know.
Speaker 3: Watching the gold medal game between the USA and Canada
Speaker 3: here in Salt Lake in two thousand and two, yeah,
Speaker 3: one of the greatest. That was one of the greatest
Speaker 3: sports experience in my life. And totally because I had
Speaker 3: done a previews, I had done the story about the
Speaker 3: scalpers outside, so I just was My assignment was sit
Speaker 3: and enjoy the game. So I just watched the game.
Speaker 3: I did end up writing a feature about Wayne Gretzky
Speaker 3: Canada one, but that was the last minute call from
Speaker 3: the boss. I was just sitting at center eyes eating
Speaker 3: my cinnamon covered nuts, thinking like I've died in gun
Speaker 3: Heaven because you grow up with this culture of like
Speaker 3: we would play hockey on any surface, like we would
Speaker 3: fall down one thousand times because the ice was so crappy,
Speaker 3: but there's this toughness that comes with it. And that
Speaker 3: was in the women's game too. It was just so
Speaker 3: much fun. So yeah, I love watching sports in other
Speaker 3: countries and other cultures, and again the difficulty is understanding
Speaker 3: what's happening, but being with people. If you understand the
Speaker 3: game a little bit, or even though the rules, there's
Speaker 3: nothing like it.
Speaker 2: No, for sure.
Speaker 1: And I was actually talking about this with Pablo last
Speaker 1: week because Diego, Diego Luna, who has been the lone
Speaker 1: bride spot for this soccer club that just can't figure
Speaker 1: it out.
Speaker 3: Not lone brice spot, I mean Johnny Russell. When I
Speaker 3: came back and found out that Johnny Russell had come
Speaker 3: to RSLU, I was like, wait, what, Yeah, but that's
Speaker 3: one of those things that could be cultural, right, sure, sure.
Speaker 3: And then the two games I think I've seen him score.
Speaker 3: He has two goals.
Speaker 2: He has two goals games.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So so the reason I'm bringing up the Diego I
Speaker 1: was announced last week, right before Pablo jumped on the show,
Speaker 1: that Diego was named an All Star, Yeah, for the
Speaker 1: second straight year.
Speaker 2: And then you pull up the list Diego will.
Speaker 1: Be playing in that game next to Lino Messi, and
Speaker 1: I fully admit that I don't think I have frame
Speaker 1: of reference for what that means in the ecosystem of
Speaker 1: of who Messi is in the game of soccer World football.
Speaker 3: But imagine meing Diego.
Speaker 1: That's what I'm saying, like that it's Michael Jordan, it's
Speaker 1: Tiger Woods. But that might not even do a justice
Speaker 1: with how big the sport of soccer is worldwide, and
Speaker 1: most people believe he is the greatest that's ever done it.
Speaker 2: It's a really cool thing.
Speaker 3: Well, and I just saw someone made a TikTok about
Speaker 3: Diego when he broke his nose. Yeah, and I don't
Speaker 3: know if you saw this, but he said, like if
Speaker 3: this is the mentality of our US men's team, this
Speaker 3: is he said, this is American, you know, And I thought,
Speaker 3: it is that like we love that sort of you know,
Speaker 3: as much as we love the like lone Wolf, you know,
Speaker 3: individual is rugged individualism type of thing. When it meets that,
Speaker 3: I'm not I won't quit. I could have a broken nose,
Speaker 3: put a put a rag up my nose, and send
Speaker 3: me back in the coach game, you know that that idea.
Speaker 3: I saw people going nuts and he's like all these
Speaker 3: floppers and you know, fakers and whatever. And then we
Speaker 3: got this guy and I was like, that's actually, like
Speaker 3: that is a thing that's a crossover because that's one
Speaker 3: of the reasons people love football so much. My dad
Speaker 3: loved about boxing. Is you get, as I used to say,
Speaker 3: losing in football so painful because it's so painful. You know,
Speaker 3: you don't just lose, you don't just walk off and
Speaker 3: say that was humiliating. You also then feel it in
Speaker 3: every bone and ligament in your body for the next week.
Speaker 3: But that that was I thought that was an I thought, oh,
Speaker 3: this is this is that moment. I'm looking for that,
Speaker 3: like where Americans see themselves in an international game, where
Speaker 3: they see themselves in players who are steeped in this
Speaker 3: international games culture.
Speaker 2: Before we move off of RSL.
Speaker 1: I'm just realizing, because you've been away for so long
Speaker 1: that I don't think I've talked to you about the
Speaker 1: ownership transition.
Speaker 2: The Millers are now the majority. You know, we may
Speaker 2: have we.
Speaker 3: May have discussicked a little bit because I went out
Speaker 3: to the press conference.
Speaker 2: That's right, That's right, we did a little bit.
Speaker 3: I think it's super exciting. I think I told the
Speaker 3: Larry Miller stories.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1: It also appears to be a bit of a paradigm shift.
Speaker 1: Now I've had three different RSL guests with three different
Speaker 1: messaging you know, three different messages about this. It was
Speaker 1: kind of funny because Pablo joined the show, and I
Speaker 1: always complain when RSL sells great players that they've developed,
Speaker 1: like why can't they play for us? I understand the
Speaker 1: economic value, Andres Gomez proof of concept twelve thirteen million,
Speaker 1: you know, goes over to I get it, but like,
Speaker 1: Diego is the guy that I do not want to
Speaker 1: see go anywhere. He's so bright and he's so young.
Speaker 1: So Pablo hops on the show and he's like, Hey,
Speaker 1: we're not looking to sell our young players anymore. Jason
Speaker 1: hopped on the show and he's like, well, that's not
Speaker 1: entirely true, and then Kurt kind of echoed jason sediment.
Speaker 2: But it does appear.
Speaker 1: With Steve Stark's and the Miller family now running things,
Speaker 1: there might be a bit of a paradigm shift where
Speaker 1: if we develop some of these young players to the
Speaker 1: academy and they turn out to be good players for
Speaker 1: the senior team, maybe they'll be around here for the
Speaker 1: long at least that's my hope.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that paradigm shift you're talking about has
Speaker 3: something to do with what we talked about at the
Speaker 3: beginning of this whole thing. And that is they understand
Speaker 3: how hard it is to convince people this is a
Speaker 3: great place to be right, And so internationally it's a
Speaker 3: little bit less of an issue because coming to America
Speaker 3: such a culture shock, there's playing in the MLS is
Speaker 3: so different. But I think there is still when you're
Speaker 3: trying to trade for players and when you're trying to
Speaker 3: get respect, there is still this underdog you know, nobody
Speaker 3: wants to play here thing. And so if you can
Speaker 3: grow them yourself and they and they have loyalty and
Speaker 3: they have roots here, that is I think the thing
Speaker 3: that the Millers understand maybe better than anybody else.
Speaker 1: Well, and talk about proof of concept. I know the
Speaker 1: Jazz never won a championship under the Miller regime, but
Speaker 1: they were more often than not really good and really competitive.
Speaker 2: We got spoiled, we did, we did.
Speaker 3: Were we going to talk about Jake?
Speaker 2: Oh, we're getting there. Yeah, we're getting there.
Speaker 1: I'm keeping it still about ten minutes. I figured we
Speaker 1: end with that, So let's move over.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: We were talking about, you know, football tribalism and when
Speaker 1: a story like this surfaces, and let me just say
Speaker 1: this right off the bat, I've never loved covering honor
Speaker 1: code violations at BYU. I don't really love discussing it,
Speaker 1: like I just think it's weird societally where people are
Speaker 1: obsessed with who other people are sleeping with.
Speaker 2: It's never been like a thing for me.
Speaker 3: I look at the honor code as team rules. So
Speaker 3: like when a coach talks about somebody being it happens
Speaker 3: in every program they broke team rules or whatever. So
Speaker 3: the honor code is just a probably more strict than
Speaker 3: most team rules and more personal. Right it feels more personal? Yeah,
Speaker 3: you know, yeah, for sure, those are the things that
Speaker 3: make us uncomfortable.
Speaker 1: So for our listener's frame of reference, Jake Rhetz Laugh
Speaker 1: had the civil suit filed a few months ago, and
Speaker 1: our friends of the Tribune have done a good job
Speaker 1: with this, uh, and the civil lawsuit was dropped. It
Speaker 1: has been dismissed. Excuse me, probably a settlement, you know,
Speaker 1: I think it's okay to say.
Speaker 2: That out loud.
Speaker 1: I have no idea, but that would be my guess.
Speaker 1: And then Jake has elected according to the Tribune. According
Speaker 1: to Kyle Bonneger and Pete Thamil from ESPN, Jake has
Speaker 1: elected to transfer because he's facing a seven game suspension,
Speaker 1: and all.
Speaker 3: Of these things are reports there. Nothing is direct from
Speaker 3: that correct, and nothing is directrom school because under Tom Holmo,
Speaker 3: that used to announce when an honor code violation had
Speaker 3: occurred and what the punishment was. Yes, they wouldn't always
Speaker 3: tell you what happened, but you would know his honor code.
Speaker 3: So we would all be like, something has to do
Speaker 3: with sex or drinking right right and then, and that's
Speaker 3: a bad assumption because we don't know. But whatever. So
Speaker 3: Tom Holmmell and I think very wisely said look, this
Speaker 3: is not this is not necessary. We're going to let
Speaker 3: you know that you know, there's been a violation of
Speaker 3: team rules or whatever, and the discipline will stay private. Yes,
Speaker 3: And I think that was a good call. I don't
Speaker 3: know what I heard. What I heard and read, and
Speaker 3: I was reading Jay Drew's stuff from Desright News as well,
Speaker 3: and that is that he was telling friends and family
Speaker 3: a couple of days ago that I think Saturday nights
Speaker 3: when I read it that he was going to be
Speaker 3: transferring because he had a meeting with coaches and administrators
Speaker 3: and they had said, hey, you're probably gonna have to
Speaker 3: have a seven game suspension, And I mean I think
Speaker 3: everyone's question was and I think one thing that's important
Speaker 3: to note is that his attorneys responded to the suit,
Speaker 3: and that response was incredibly detailed, and I people were
Speaker 3: having many feelings about the response and the detail of
Speaker 3: it and what was alleged and what his def was.
Speaker 3: And I think that it is not surprising to me
Speaker 3: that after that response, which was really brutal, two things happened.
Speaker 3: He gets told you're going to get an honor code
Speaker 3: violation and decides to go, and the suit is settled
Speaker 3: or dropped.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's where we're at. That's that's what's happened.
Speaker 1: It's just, you know, I can remember when these things
Speaker 1: would kind of either publicly manifest themselves or there'd be
Speaker 1: rumors of what's happening behind the scenes. A lot of
Speaker 1: people that do the jobs that we do in media
Speaker 1: would cry that this thing needs to be changed.
Speaker 2: B WHYU needs to change the honor Code? It is
Speaker 2: too punitive. They're not going to do that, Okay.
Speaker 3: I don't ever think people shouldn't change their own, you know,
Speaker 3: whatever their rules are exactly. I just want you to
Speaker 3: apply your rules fairly and consistently. Yes, that's always been
Speaker 3: my issue I had one of the my only interest
Speaker 3: ever in the honor code was when it was applied
Speaker 3: more strictly or more unitively to women than to men,
Speaker 3: And that was a problem. But outside of that, like
Speaker 3: you know what you're signing up for, I mean.
Speaker 2: One hundred percent.
Speaker 3: I mean think about like Duau was Jake's third school,
Speaker 3: right right, So the fact that I mean, and that
Speaker 3: is the way it is now was it was it
Speaker 3: Walt that had been to three schools also, I mean
Speaker 3: like two.
Speaker 2: Florida.
Speaker 3: And then who's the second round pick the Yeah, he's
Speaker 3: a four or three. He's a three school. So I
Speaker 3: mean like that's sort of the way we're going now.
Speaker 3: So I don't I don't know who's going to take.
Speaker 3: I think it's the timing that's the problem for Jake.
Speaker 3: But I think that response was as they say, it
Speaker 3: was no holds barred, that he was defending himself with
Speaker 3: every everything he could throw at this woman.
Speaker 1: Do you think the weight of his response motivated her
Speaker 1: to try to come together and just get this thing
Speaker 1: figured out?
Speaker 3: So absolutely absolutely, Because here's the thing. Sexual assault victims
Speaker 3: don't report crimes because there is as you said, there's
Speaker 3: this uncomfortability with reporting on on our code violations that
Speaker 3: have something to do with premarital sex. Imagine trying to
Speaker 3: report a crime that has something to do it's a crime,
Speaker 3: but it's also a personal violation that people still see
Speaker 3: as a purity or a moral failing that this happened
Speaker 3: to you, right, And so there's so much tied up
Speaker 3: in it. There's so much psychologically and emotionally, and I'm
Speaker 3: sure physically that I think it's difficult to deal with
Speaker 3: a system that wants to deal with facts and evidence.
Speaker 3: Your body is a crime scene. Think about that, right,
Speaker 3: That is a difficult thing to even for me to
Speaker 3: even fathom. And so that reality was a struggle for her,
Speaker 3: and that she admitted that in her suit when the
Speaker 3: response came and it was allegations about there were he
Speaker 3: wasn't the one who did it. It was a different player,
Speaker 3: and the other player was famous. You know, it wasn't first,
Speaker 3: it wasn't a nil money. The brutality of the of
Speaker 3: what you can do to defend yourself in civil court,
Speaker 3: I think that was probably I think it was a
Speaker 3: painful thing to realize it. Now. I'm not saying that
Speaker 3: you didn't say I want to go and you know whatever,
Speaker 3: I don't know any of those details, and I can
Speaker 3: imagine that reading that was incredibly whether it's true or not,
Speaker 3: whether however you see it right and and listen, I
Speaker 3: don't fault Jake's attorneys for doing what they did, ye
Speaker 3: rightee I everybody there were people who were critical and
Speaker 3: talking about how brutal it was and unfair. Look, Jake
Speaker 3: would make you the same argument. We don't know if
Speaker 3: what he did. We don't know if we don't know
Speaker 3: who's telling the truth. So that's what the courts are for.
Speaker 3: But hashing out something like that is so emotionally painful,
Speaker 3: and it's going to go on for years. And so
Speaker 3: I imagine that if there was a settlement that was incredibly
Speaker 3: persuasive thing because that I can't imagine reading that stuff
Speaker 3: about myself, my loved one and thinking I can sustain
Speaker 3: this kind of fight for years.
Speaker 2: No, it's good perspective. You know.
Speaker 1: One of the reasons I always don't really enjoy covering
Speaker 1: honor code violations like this is it's a sports soccer
Speaker 1: radio show, so there is a sports angle to it,
Speaker 1: but it feels like it's so much more heavy. There's
Speaker 1: so much weight to it as opposed to like, all right,
Speaker 1: let's debate who the backup quarterback is and who's going
Speaker 1: to start. Like, No, there are very serious allegations that
Speaker 1: were alleged, and to your point, we don't know what's
Speaker 1: true and what isn't. That's not for me to litigate
Speaker 1: on air. I just try to look at the information
Speaker 1: and then just try to go from there. But as
Speaker 1: far as the optics of how this looks for the school,
Speaker 1: what are your thoughts on that there? Because I can
Speaker 1: remember when Brandon Davies had his suspension in twenty eleven.
Speaker 1: I mean, that was a basketball team.
Speaker 3: That's the one that I remember them changing the policy.
Speaker 1: And it's hard to say like they would have won
Speaker 1: the national championship because the NC DOUBLEA tournament is.
Speaker 3: Ridiculous that way.
Speaker 2: You just felt like, well, they were good.
Speaker 1: You know, he was so good and Jim Er was
Speaker 1: full Jimmer at the time, and Brandon was a perfect
Speaker 1: compliment to him. And I can remember when that came down,
Speaker 1: when Brandon was suspended for the NC DOUBLEA tournament. We
Speaker 1: had two factions. One faction was what are we doing here?
Speaker 1: We have a really good team, and the other faction
Speaker 1: was no, this is who we are, and so I
Speaker 1: don't really know where to land with that. I wonder
Speaker 1: what you how you feel about the way a story
Speaker 1: like this with Jake looks for BYU in.
Speaker 2: The athletic department.
Speaker 3: Well, I think, like.
Speaker 2: Does it dissuade kids from wanting to go play football there?
Speaker 3: Well, I mean it might disswade some kids, for sure,
Speaker 3: And it might disswade some kids from going there and
Speaker 3: thinking they can get away with it, right, And it
Speaker 3: might dissuade you from, you know, as a coach, it
Speaker 3: might dissuade you from recruiting certain types of people or
Speaker 3: you know, or how. But I think Sataki is cut
Speaker 3: from that same cloth. This is who they are. They're
Speaker 3: not changing the honor code, and they're going to embrace
Speaker 3: the fact that everybody abides by the same rules. It
Speaker 3: doesn't matter if you're the superstar. It doesn't matter if
Speaker 3: it costs us the NCAA championship or or an NCAA
Speaker 3: championship run. It's brutal, it's sad, but it's not It's
Speaker 3: not any different than a star player pulling up injured,
Speaker 3: you know, right there and costing a team or you know,
Speaker 3: and I would say this that if you embrace the
Speaker 3: idea that you hold yourself to these standards and you
Speaker 3: really do it, then I think that that becomes more
Speaker 3: meaningful thing. Yeah, that's all I think. I feel like
Speaker 3: people who say have been saying a long time, be
Speaker 3: why you can't keep competing if they don't plan on
Speaker 3: Sunday b why you can't keep competing if they have
Speaker 3: the honor code. They're not getting rid of either one.
Speaker 3: And they're doing pretty well.
Speaker 2: Yeah they are.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And now you see teams accommodating their Sunday play.
Speaker 3: You see people respecting the fact that they if you follow.
Speaker 3: All I'm saying is whatever your code of ethics is,
Speaker 3: just follow it. Because I know programs who have a
Speaker 3: code of ethics, but they are quick to violate it
Speaker 3: if it's their star player.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And nothing will teach you entitlement quicker than having a
Speaker 3: coach cut you some slack when they really should sit
Speaker 3: you on the bench.
Speaker 2: Yeah. No, I think it's good perspective.
Speaker 1: So ultimately, when you look at to your point, the
Speaker 1: spot BYU is in as an athletic department, they're in
Speaker 1: a very healthy spot. Yeah, Because and I said this
Speaker 1: my old producer Brady sent out a tweet because I'd
Speaker 1: forgotten that I'd said this when I said it. But
Speaker 1: about five years ago when Nil kind of started to
Speaker 1: become like, wait, this is going to be real, and
Speaker 1: then it became real about four years ago. Now I said,
Speaker 1: if you're a BYU fan, this is excellent news. This
Speaker 1: is a way that you can And this was before
Speaker 1: the Big twelve. They were still independent. Now they got
Speaker 1: the Big twelve in by which is also even the
Speaker 1: playing field. But when Utah had their PAC twelve invite
Speaker 1: and BYU in a reactionary move because it was they
Speaker 1: don't level When I say that went independent, it allowed
Speaker 1: Utah to evolve past Bergham Young and football in the
Speaker 1: way they quite frankly it never had. I mean I
Speaker 1: grew up in the Lovell years. It was nineteen and two,
Speaker 1: I think over twenty one years. And then coach Mac
Speaker 1: comes in and kind of evens it up a little bit.
Speaker 1: But two things, when Kyle said no to his alma
Speaker 1: mater and yes to Utah and Utah gets the PAC
Speaker 1: twelve invite, that sent Utah football kind of on this
Speaker 1: path where it was a generation of dominance in a
Speaker 1: way that I never thought it was possible.
Speaker 2: So now we have house.
Speaker 1: VNTAA, we have nil and with those two things combined,
Speaker 1: it feels like there are a lot of very rich
Speaker 1: people writing a lot of checks for Byu'd add talent
Speaker 1: right now?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think there were a few other things. And
Speaker 3: I'm going to give Tom Holmo massive credits.
Speaker 2: As you should, because in a great job, I.
Speaker 3: Was completely opposed to independence. I was a worry this
Speaker 3: is a kiss of death, because I feel like you
Speaker 3: need something to play for, especially in football, Like you know,
Speaker 3: the minute you're not in the running for a conference
Speaker 3: title or you're not in the running for now we
Speaker 3: have the playoffs, right, there's just less incentive to play
Speaker 3: in bad sport, especially in combat sports. There's just this
Speaker 3: idea that what are you playing for? Why are you suffering?
Speaker 3: Why is this happening right? What are you sacrificing for?
Speaker 3: And so I felt like taking away not just the
Speaker 3: chance to win those conference titles, but get conference awards,
Speaker 3: you know, have those rivalries, like all the stuff that
Speaker 3: goes with it. The culture be creating this culture, right.
Speaker 3: I was like, I don't think they have notre Dame.
Speaker 2: Level culture, and they don't. No one does.
Speaker 3: But yeah, but I would say they have their own
Speaker 3: version of it, whether it's less or not, it's still theirs.
Speaker 3: But the one thing that independence allowed Tom Holmo to
Speaker 3: do that I think was it led to this situation
Speaker 3: where in now, including the Big twelve invitation, was he
Speaker 3: could play during COVID Yes, everybody else was subject to
Speaker 3: was subject to conference rules. And the Pac twelve shut down,
Speaker 3: they were all those West Coast schools were like, we're
Speaker 3: not playing. You can't come here. Everything's remote, and Utah suck.
Speaker 3: And Utah is in a state that politically was very
Speaker 3: different than the West Coast, right, and so you have
Speaker 3: your biggest rival BYU. They're independent, they can leave over there.
Speaker 3: And that game against Coastal Carolina in the postseason was,
Speaker 3: I think, such a light, such a moment. I remember
Speaker 3: just feeling so much joy and thinking because we're so
Speaker 3: much should we be doing this? Should we be playing?
Speaker 3: And now people are like we shouldn't. And I remember thinking,
Speaker 3: like there's so much grief and loss everybody's because in sports,
Speaker 3: especially combat sports, you get a limited amount of time.
Speaker 3: The average career length for a running backs four years,
Speaker 3: so every minute does count. And somebody said to me,
Speaker 3: the reason football so special is it's you know, in
Speaker 3: high school, it's ten Friday nights. You know, that's it.
Speaker 3: That's what you get. You might get eighty two games
Speaker 3: in a basketball season, but football is like fifteen, sixteen
Speaker 3: games now or eight. I think it's up to eighteen now.
Speaker 3: But like it was, it's just so limited. It's so
Speaker 3: it's so delicious because it's so rare. And then and
Speaker 3: Tom gave us that he could play because they were independent,
Speaker 3: and they played good opponents, and they played and they
Speaker 3: played well, and I think it was I remember thinking
Speaker 3: I talked to him. I did an interview with him
Speaker 3: in a story for the Desert News. But I remember,
Speaker 3: you know, talking with him throughout that and it was
Speaker 3: a terrifying, stressful. I can't imagine being an ad during COVID, right,
Speaker 3: But he said, we have to make money. They laid
Speaker 3: people off dream as everyone did.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: But he was like, we have to figure this out,
Speaker 3: we have to navigate it. Because they didn't have anybody
Speaker 3: to rely on. They had this like creative innovative ability
Speaker 3: and opportunity that other teams didn't because they were in
Speaker 3: a conference. The conference dictated what happened. Yeah, and I
Speaker 3: think that led to them being seen in a way
Speaker 3: and maybe they hadn't been seen.
Speaker 1: It also helps that they're writing very big checks to
Speaker 1: attract talent.
Speaker 3: No, no, I think no, listen, but I think that
Speaker 3: was it was like, look at this invest Look how
Speaker 3: well they are, look at these ups. So then you
Speaker 3: have these people who want to get on board with us.
Speaker 3: The nil thing comes out that next year. The settlement
Speaker 3: takes a couple years, but you know this is going
Speaker 3: to be an opportunity. The collective started forming I think
Speaker 3: at twenty twenty two, right, Yeah, So I just think
Speaker 3: that that there were just again a few alignments, but
Speaker 3: like I went from like this is a worse mistake
Speaker 3: anyone's ever made to being like genius.
Speaker 2: Yeah you know.
Speaker 3: Also you know Domino's follow in your favor too.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that happens. That's our time. This is not a podcast. Unfortunately,
Speaker 2: we do have to break to keep the lights on. Amy,
Speaker 2: It's always great to see you.
Speaker 1: We'll see you soon, okay, Yeah, for sure, our friend
Speaker 1: Amy Donaldson from case we've missed her, it's been too long.
Speaker 1: ESPN seven hundred welcomes Maroon five to the Delta. Center
Speaker 1: coming up on October the twenty fifth. Tickets go on
Speaker 1: sale on June twenty seventh,