Summary
Tony Kornheiser and guests Michael Wilbon and Jason La Confora discuss Seattle's dominant Super Bowl victory over New England, analyzing the defensive masterclass by coordinator Mike McDonald, Drake May's struggles as a rookie, and the broader implications for NFL coaching trends. The episode also covers Super Bowl commercials, the passing of Sonny Jurgensen, and Olympic coverage decisions.
Insights
- Seattle's conference strength (tougher division, harder playoff path) was the primary predictor of Super Bowl outcome, not narrative appeal
- Mike McDonald represents a potential defensive coaching dynasty similar to McVay's offensive influence, challenging the NFL's historical bias toward offensive coordinators
- Defensive league dynamics in 2024 shifted hiring patterns, with two defensive coaches (Vrabel, McDonald) reaching the Super Bowl despite systemic preference for offensive minds
- Media consolidation at major outlets like Washington Post is fundamentally reshaping sports coverage infrastructure, eliminating road coverage for mid-tier programs
- Drake May's rookie season MVP consideration was premature given his performance against elite defenses, highlighting the gap between regular season success and playoff readiness
Trends
Defensive coordinator elevation to head coach positions gaining momentum after years of offensive coordinator dominanceSports media consolidation reducing local and regional coverage depth, particularly for college athletics and secondary professional teamsYounger generation driving vinyl and physical media resurgence across record retail sectorNFL playoff outcomes increasingly determined by defensive scheme sophistication rather than offensive innovationSystemic barriers in NFL coaching pipeline limiting opportunities for Black defensive coordinators despite proven successSuper Bowl commercial strategy shifting toward nostalgia-driven content targeting aging demographicsConference strength and divisional competition quality emerging as more predictive than individual player narratives in playoff outcomesOlympic coverage prioritization conflicts with traditional sports broadcasting schedules during major events
Topics
Super Bowl XLIX Game AnalysisNFL Defensive Coordinator Career TrajectoryRookie Quarterback Performance Under PressureSports Media Industry ConsolidationConference Strength vs. Narrative in Playoff SeedingCoaching Diversity and Hiring Bias in NFLSuper Bowl Commercial EffectivenessSonny Jurgensen Legacy and Washington Sports HistoryOlympic Coverage Scheduling ConflictsCollege Sports Media Coverage GapsDefensive League Dynamics 2024Mike McDonald Defensive Scheme InnovationDrake May Rookie Season AssessmentWashington Post Sports Section Closure ImpactVinyl Record Retail Resurgence
Companies
Washington Post
Sports section closure discussed; elimination of road coverage for Wizards, Maryland basketball, and Georgetown
NBC
Olympic broadcast decisions criticized for prioritizing Super Bowl pregame coverage over Olympic events
USA Network
Received Olympic coverage when NBC moved to six-hour Super Bowl pregame show
Bethesda Bagels
Sponsor mentioned; bagel sandwiches available at D.C. area locations
Publix
Grocery chain praised for soup, sandwiches, and customer service in Savannah area
Zionsgate Records
Seattle-based record store representing vinyl resurgence trend among younger collectors
People
Mike McDonald
Seattle Seahawks defensive coordinator; elevated defense to Super Bowl championship level in year two
Drake May
New England Patriots rookie quarterback; struggled against elite defense, questioned MVP candidacy
Sam Darnold
Seattle Seahawks quarterback; adequate but unremarkable performance in Super Bowl victory
Sonny Jurgensen
Hall of Fame quarterback; passed away at 91; legacy discussed regarding Washington sports history
Mike Vrabel
New England Patriots head coach; defensive background, first-year success from 4-13 to 17-4 record
Kenneth Walker
Seattle Seahawks running back; superior to New England's Travion Henderson in Super Bowl matchup
Hideki Matsuyama
Professional golfer; struggled on 18th hole twice in playoff, missed fairways but remained competitive
Lindsey Vonn
Olympic skier; crashed during downhill run, airlifted off mountain; overshadowed Breezy Johnson's gold
Breezy Johnson
American Olympic skier; won gold medal but received secondary headline coverage behind Vonn crash
Brian Flores
Defensive coach; discussed as potential McVay-level defensive innovator but facing hiring discrimination
Leslie Frazier
Seattle defensive coordinator; hired by Mike McDonald; successful head coach and defensive coordinator
Michael Wilbon
Co-host; sports commentator discussing Super Bowl analysis and sports media landscape changes
Jason La Confora
NFL analyst; provided detailed game analysis and betting perspective on Super Bowl outcome
Vince Lombardi
Historical coach; referenced for 1972 Redskins Super Bowl run with Sonny Jurgensen
Paul McCartney
Musician; referenced for performing at multiple Cincinnati sports venues across decades
Quotes
"This was the men versus the boys. Seattle's got the better offense, the better defense, the better special teams, the better quarterback, and the better coach."
Jason La Confora•Mid-episode game analysis
"Sports coverage, as you and I grew up knowing it, is done."
Jason La Confora•Washington Post discussion
"I think McDonald is brilliant. And I think he might be like we've been waiting for the McVay of defense."
Jason La Confora•Defensive coordinator analysis
"If Brian Flores was white, Brian Flores probably had three jobs by now."
Jason La Confora•Coaching diversity discussion
"Game over, good night."
Tony Kornheiser•Text to Wilbon at 16-0 in fourth quarter
Full Transcript
Hey, it's Tony. On today's show, we'll talk about the Seahawks' dominant win over New England in the Super Bowl, first with Michael Wilbon, then with Jason Locke and Fora. But first, commerce. Previously on The Tony Kornheiser Show. The only way Jeff can screw this up is to do 23 prop bets and lose them all. He's too smart to do that. He went to MIT. Before we get to the game, the waste management happens this week. You were out there, yes? Yeah, I was just out there. I just left the ground. Yeah, I was at 16 for some hospitality there. Did you throw any beer at anybody? Did you take off your shirt? The Tony Kornheiser Show is on now. Obviously, we're going to talk about the Super Bowl on all levels with Michael Wilbon and Jason La Confora. We're going to skip a lot of stuff, but we'll do a little bit of Olympics, too. I just want to get the bets right for everybody. Chuck Todd was 2-0. He had Seattle minus 4.5, and he had the under. So he is now 75-72 on the season. That is plus 3. The monkey had another bad day. The monkey was 1-2. The monkey had red Gatorade. It was the orange Gatorade. So the monkey finishes what? Was there a shot of Pope Leo in the crowd? I didn't know. Maybe in the fourth quarter that you and I didn't see? No. Okay, so he didn't win that. They showed it. The monkey finishes 28 and 40, which is not bad for a monkey, but not competitive with the humans. No, no. James Carville with a series of double plays and single plays finishes five and three. He had the Seahawks. He had the under and missed almost everything else except Drake May will throw an interception. He had that. Yes. So he finishes five and three, 62, 58 and two. That's plus four. Jeff Ma, one and two. He had New England. He had Kenneth Walker as the James on the under on 73 and a half, which you thought was a good bet, except he got about 125. And how many players will attempt to pass is the only thing Jeff Ma got right. There were no trick plays, to my knowledge. Less than two and a half. Less than two and a half. So he's one and two. He finishes 55, 47, and one. So he's plus eight. He wins. He's plus eight. Carville is plus four. Chuck Todd is plus four as well. Back to the game. Are you colorblind? What do you mean? What color did you see? Orange. Orange, yellow. Lemon lime. Oh, whatever it is. But it wasn't red. It wasn't red. Yes, I'm just... It wasn't red. Orange is a distinct color from lemon lime. Okay. Well, okay. Then I can't hear and I can't see. Let's just talk about what we did the other day when we had Jeannie on. And we talked about the end of the Washington Post sports section, which you have not felt yet. Because they have people in Milan Cortina and they had somebody at the Super Bowl. You haven't felt it yet. You're going to feel it. Yeah. A couple of weeks. You're going to feel it, but you haven't felt it yet. Anyway, this is from Mike and Olney. It was great to hear Jeannie's voice on the podcast today. It was like hearing the voice of an old friend or a favorite aunt that you've missed. I could hear the emotion in her voice talking about the fate of the post sports section and her former colleagues, and that hit me hard like many littles out there, I'm sure. The post is meaningful to me, just like this podcast has special meaning. Thank you to Jeannie for her role in both, and to you all for continuing to put a thoughtful, entertaining, and comforting product that I can count on in a world that seems hell-bent on stripping away valuable institutions that I've taken for granted. That speaks for a lot of people, for Mike and Olney. That speaks for a lot of people. So I sent Gene a picture of our boys just because she hasn't seen them in a while. And as I'm writing to her, I realize in the picture, two of our three boys are older than I was when you guys took the bandwagon tour. Okay. Yeah, in 1992, you were five and a half years old. Yeah, yeah. Gene and I and Norman Chet. Yeah, it's a long time ago. I still have pictures, of course. Let me just speak briefly to the Olympics. Lindsey Vonn, very early in the run, crashed. And she got her arm, her right arm, caught up in a flag. Yeah, it looked like a pole cotter. You know, and she went down and she had to be airlifted off the mountain. I don't think it diminishes her attempt at all. No. But she didn't win. I mean, the greatest story would be win, get some sort of medal or get the gold medal. it was not to be. The interesting thing to me was an American won that race. Breezy Johnson won that race. Nobody knows who she is. Everybody knows Lindsey Vonn. So the headline is, Vonn crashes, Breezy Johnson wins gold. Vonn is the headline, and Breezy Johnson is the second line. It's a great name. Breezy. Oh, sure. So, you know, everybody tried to watch that. I know everybody watched that. I watched that. I tried to watch other things in the Olympics, but... The skating? I didn't watch the skate, because sometimes it's on and sometimes it's not. And yet the quad guard did very well last night and we got a team gold medal. I don't know if that hurts him for the individual gold medal. Eli Malinan or something like that? Something like that, yeah. Ilya Malinan? Locally, I think he's from Vienna or something. I didn't know that. Not Vienna, Austria, like Vienna, Virginia. Yeah, no, I didn't know that. Vienna, Virginia. So I'm going to watch more of that as time goes on, but you can't really compete with the Super Bowl. when NBC kicks the Olympics out and puts it on USA all day so that it can do six hours of Super Bowl preview that tells you what the Super Bowl means to America as opposed to every other sporting event every other sporting event which now we get to oh can I get to one other thing so you're saying if you're a PGA Tour you would not want to see it go to a playoff that starts I don't know 10 minutes before the Super Bowl I watched it I watched the playoff but I was going back and forth Hideki helped you out Back and forth I will get to this With Wilbon I'm sure he watched it too Hideki Matsuyama Is a great player He gagged on 18 Twice in a row Twice Well to be fair He had been gagging Off the tee all day He was spraying it And the broadcast Did an interesting analysis As to his setup He was leaning Into his left side a lot Which is why he saw A lot of those misses But the miss In the playoff Into the water Was clearly an overcorrection Yeah and Goderup Who you know Has come on like gangbusters In the last year And his five Birdies five of the last six holes. Yeah. And then he gets in the playoffs, and then he birdies the first hole, and he wins. So that was good. What's interesting is that – DG hangs out with him. DG knows Goddorup. Our DG? Our DG knows Goddorup. If you want to think that the game of golf has changed, just looked at the top ten of that event and to see how far they hit the ball. And, again, ball speed does not lie. These kids are hitting 185-plus, and this is usually a good event to see who's playing well because a lot of players carry this form into the Masters. You've seen this with Hideki. You've seen this with Brooks Koepko. Hideki's a great player. Yeah. He just had a really- Great putter, great chipper, the ball. So anyway, so we get to the Super Bowl now, and we get to it after six or seven minutes on the air because it wasn't much of a game. I mean, the Seattle defense was throttling New England. Drake May looked out of his league. Yeah, well, that left tackle couldn't handle- Okay, but you know, but they- Before the game, if anybody listened to me, either here or on PTI, you would have heard me say the following thoughts. One was that I thought the better story would be New England winning because of Mike Vrabel being in his first year and Drake May being so young. And that would give us reason to talk about Vrabel and May in the context of Belichick and Brady. I just thought it was a better story. I think Seattle is mostly a faceless team. Wilbon said the better story would be Sam Darnold winning and exercising all of the ghosts in his life okay that's not I I disagree with Wilbon but that's a legitimate point last night Darnold wasn't very good he was okay he didn't do anything wrong yeah he didn't do anything great at a couple almosts yeah yes you know and was trying to fit it in uh you know pretty into as they say tight windows and he was fine. He just wasn't very good. When it got to 16-0 at the beginning of the fourth quarter, I wrote Wilbon a text that said, game over, good night. I was done with the game. Wilbon wrote me back, oh, Sam Darnold could screw it up, don't you think you'd sit? No, I didn't. I didn't. And then what was it? It was no game. It was just no game. Now, why does this happen? Why did someone like me say that even though the better story would be new england winning that I thought seattle would win You heard me say i'd be very surprised if seattle if new england won by a lot I would not be surprised if seattle won by a lot I wouldn't be surprised if seattle won on the under or won on the over, you know, seattle is better I thought that they were going to win. Why did I think that? They went through the tougher conference and they went through the hardest division in the conference and they beat san francisco go on the Rams twice. These were the better teams. New England faced an easier schedule. New England faced a less daunting position going into the final because Denver's quarterback, starting quarterback, was unable to play. I'm not taking anything away from New England. New England was 4-13 last year, 4-13 the year before, with two different coaches. Belichick's last year, 4-13. Gerard Mayo, 4-13. and out. They bring in this guy, former Patriot player, with three Super Bowl rings, I believe, from New England. Yeah, two or three, yeah. And he changes everything. Yeah. You know, they go from 4-13 to 17-4 or something like that. You know, so, you know, nothing to take away from them, but that game wasn't much of a game in the Seattle defense, and that guy, and we'll talk to Jason about this, McDonald, who is a year younger than my son. Thank you. Yeah. What have you done? Has just won He's just won a Super Bowl, and he sustained the great defense of the Baltimore Ravens before leaving and created a logical heir to the Legion of Boom at Seattle on defense. And New England could do nothing with it. Couldn't do anything. New England went three and out like six times in the first half. And you had a couple of back-to-back drives at the end of the third where you had a chance and may have the opening and just did not make their throw. No, they didn't do it. No. It was not good enough. And it was a great season and it ends on a... Meh. And now you see what you do next year with the schedule. Yeah, they get a much tougher schedule. I did pay attention. Any commercials for you? Yes, I paid attention to some commercials. I'm now in the sweet spot where they are now preying on nostalgia for me. I'm now that old. Wilbon hates all the commercials. Hates them all. Unless there's a famous basketball player in them. You can't hate the Backstreet Boys. Come on. Howie D finally got his moment. I thought of you. Gave him the fair time. Kevin? The Lox? I'm going to put down the ones that I thought were good. Ones that I thought were good. There's one that clearly rises to the top. Mike Tyson had one for eating real food that was tremendous. I said, what is he doing? Mike Tyson said, I used to get drunk. I used to eat junk. And now I was fat. And now I eat good food. Love to see the- That was really good. The Goodwill Duncan one. I don't know how they did it, how they re-aged. They went backwards on all the ages of these people. I don't know how they did it. AI. I liked it. Yeah. I liked it. Who was in that? How do you like donuts? Yeah. So Damon was in it. And Matt Damon and who's the other guy? Ben Affleck. Ben Affleck. They were in it. And the guy from Cheers was in it. Ted Danson was in it. Like, I didn't really understand how they did this. Jason Alexander was in it. I really thought that was fun. The Fibonacci. I thought that was fun. The Budweiser ad With the pony and the bird That turned into a Clydesdale And an eagle was tremendous It's a beautiful ad To see my almost 9 year old react when he sees the eagle You're like yep this is how they They know the emotions Pringles is always good and the Pringles ad Was pretty good Sabrina Carpenter Yeah making the Pringles man Yeah so I thought that was pretty good Girl meets world come on What else did I like Oh, there was a father and a daughter for Lay's. They grow their potato farmers, and he retires. And it was very moving. It was very lovely. I felt like that should have featured Buster in that ad as a potato farmer. Yeah, but they missed on him. But it was really good. It was good. There was a T-Mobile ad with the boy band that was tremendous. That's the Backstreet Boys. That was tremendous. Tell me why. That was really good. The polar bear ad for Pepsi was lovely, quiet and lovely. What did you think of Guy Fieri? I hated that ad. I'm a guy. I don't like him. Guy. I don't like him. Bosh. There was a Redfin Realty in a new neighborhood that was pretty good. I hate, I don't hate, I'm not crazy about Matthew McConaughey, but was he with Bradley Cooper? Yes. And it was pretty good. There's a whole Uber Eats thing that they're saying. It wasn't the other thing. It wasn't that AI thing that he does with the bartender from Cheers. Yeah, no. There was a lot of AI last night. That was like when they did crypto a couple years ago. And people were critical of AI, which I liked. Yeah. But no, that's an ad campaign been doing a while with Bradley Cooper where they say the subliminal, everything with the NFL is about food. So there are two that I really, really liked with famous people. I don't understand the one with Ben Stiller at all for bananas. I loved it. It was Instacart. Yeah. I loved it. It was just bananas. Yeah. They were rock stars. Who was the other guy? Was that Benson Boone? I think it was Paul Pascal. I don't know who that is. Well, he's going to play one of the Beatles in the Sam Mendes movies coming up. Okay, I'm just saying. Yeah, yeah. I didn't know what it was for. I didn't understand it at all, but it made me laugh the loudest of anything. I really liked it, and I loved the Adrian Brody ads. Oh, yeah. When Adrian Brody at the end, when he says, this is for tax, and he says, if there's no drama, there's no Adrian Brody. So I loved all of them. Wilbon wouldn't have liked any of them, I'm sure. He would think they're all junk, but I liked those. Were there any I left out that you liked? I did not get the Pokemon one, but my son loved it. Yeah, I didn't get it. There was the Kurt Russell, I think it was Ultralight Beer, where he coached the kid up. Yes, I thought that was either Kurt Russell or Jeff Bridges. It was Kurt Russell? It was Kurt Russell, yes. Okay, it was okay. And then there was some Brad Pitt movie that I was- I didn't want to see it. Yeah. What movie? I can't remember. All of the movies that they showed, I didn't want to see the movies. It wasn't for you. I felt like I kind of wanted to see the Brad Pitt one. It looked like it might be fun. They re-aged him the other way, too. He's 60 years old. Yeah. They do this weird stuff. But the boy band one was fun. That was the group Backstreet Boys. Yeah, Backstreet Boys. I immediately thought of you. It's a great documentary that you can go back and watch about the relationship of Nick. Yeah. But the Ben Stiller ad, where he falls off the stage, was just tremendous. He's jealous that the other guy is stealing his headlights. I don't know what it is. I thought it was actually for bananas. Well, they were singing about bananas, but I think it was for something called Instacart, where you can shop online. So that was for, I loved it. Yeah. Yeah. Always got to split your bananas at this point. Wilbon's not going to like any of them, right? He doesn't know. It's all hocus pocus junk to him, isn't it? Yeah, it's too bad. All right, Wilbon, when we return, I'm Tony Kornheiser. You're listening to The Tony Kornheiser Show. This is Emmy Wildwood. This is a song called Falls on You. The note says, long time, first time, I'm currently digging myself out of about 18 inches of snow in the Massachusetts area, but wanted to reach out. My brother and his wife are musicians in the Brooklyn area. I can't believe I didn't think of this beforehand, as I've been listening to the pod for many years, but just dawned on me to have them send me some of their songs. My brother Nick Williams was in a band called Twin Wave and has since gone solo as his alter ego, Nick Poole. You'll hear from him later. My sister-in-law is Emmy Williams, who performs as Emmy Wildwood. She's also in an all-girl Guns N' Roses cover band called Guns N' Hoses that plays in the Brooklyn area frequently, including the famous Bowery Ballroom and Arlene's Grocery. Isn't that great? That's great. So this is Emmy. Emmy Wildwood, and this is Falls on You, and it plays in Michael Wilbon And I told people in the open that at 16 I texted you and I said game over good night And you texted me back what about Sam Darnold And my thoughts were, my thoughts were that game was over. And when I woke up this morning, I realized that game was over. It was a great, great NFL season and great, great NFL playoffs. And this was not, it was not. Nope, it was a dud. But, you know, one thing I appreciated, Tony, or the thing I appreciated, was Seattle just putting the beat down on the New England Patriots. Yes, yes. A smackdown. Yes. They're just a better team. Yes. Better at every position. Didn't we say that on Friday on the show? We both talked about it. I mean, I know we disagreed on what the better story would be, but we both said they're just better. Better. Yeah, yeah. They were, they are. You look at the MVP. I mean, I know New England's got a nice rookie running back, Travion Henderson, that they like. He ain't Kenneth Walker. Nope. You look at the offensive line play, and New England is just not ready for prime time in that way. Right. And, you know, maybe a runner-up might have been a little bit too high in the MVP calculations for Drake May, who has a wonderful career ahead of him no matter what. He had no game yesterday. The point I made was Sam Darnold was okay. Wasn't very good. He was okay. Didn't lose the game. Didn't win the game. Drake May was no good. He was no good yesterday, right? Well, Drake May was no good because he had a defense kicking his ass. Oh, it's true. It's true. They were in on him all the time. You got to get – Yeah. You know, everybody will tell you, you got to get rid of the ball quicker, son. You got to. Well, I mean, he couldn't get rid of the ball any quicker. I mean, he had – this is all Seattle. This is, to me, no failing of anything New England did. New England couldn't because they got overwhelmed. Maybe the performance is not exactly what New England, the same franchise, faced in 1985, but it was close to that. They had nothing going on, and Seattle wasn't going to let them. So, to me, framing everything is necessary. The framing is that of a superior Seattle team. So if you were writing a column last night, your column, even though you've said to me that Sam Darnold winning is a great story for Sam Darnold, your column would have been the Seattle defense, right? Probably, yeah. Yeah. Kenneth Walker. It would have been those two old-fashioned sort of defense and running game. Yeah. You know, everybody likes to talk about the new age of football. There was nothing new age about that. And you know what, Tony? This still would have been a touch of Sam Darnold. Sam Darnold did enough, and he was also under some pressure. New England's defense did nothing to embarrass itself. That's right. You hold that team to the first half. It's 9-0. You stopped them from getting in the end zone. Three different things. Yeah. The New England offense was non-functional. Well, you know, it happens. But, again, to me, this is a product, and I know you will agree, it's a product of being in the tougher conference and being in the toughest division of the tougher conference. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, we saw that. Seattle had to contend with that all year. I wonder what's going to change, if anything, next season. You know, they go back, they start playing with two other teams, the Rams and Niners who are going to look to be formidable again. That's right. No, that's right. That's where Seattle starts. That's where the NFL starts the season next year. No, you're right. So now, in the beginning of the show, I talked about the seven or eight commercials that I really like. You generally hate the commercials. Was there anything you liked? No. I think the commercials are just overstated, overrated. They're obnoxious. They all try by five times to be cute. And no, no. You didn't like Mike Tyson for real food? Well, by then, I had probably stopped paying attention. Oh, okay. There were a bunch I liked. There always are. There always are. I always, like, for example, I am always moved by the Budweiser ad. The Budweiser ad this time, the small Clydesdale pony, has a bird on its back. and it grows up to be a big Clydesdale with a bald eagle. It was just beautiful. It was just beautiful. I am philosophically troubled by every product that tries to attach itself and tell you how American they are. That, for me, is a no-no. Oh, okay. Well, we're not going to go down this road, because there are a bunch of them that I like. But let's go down another road that is meaningful to both of us, The passing of Sonny Jurgensen at 91 years old the other day on Friday. You worked with Sonny. You love Sonny. Love him. Yep, Tony. I was very lucky to be able to. Every Thursday night, you know, because you were involved on Thursday night, sometimes on Redskins reporting. You know, people, the show Full Court Press, which is a basketball show, I just told quickly how this show came to be. So, Jordan Michaels' ratings, as you know, were so ridiculously high on Thursday night at these weird times, 7 and then at midnight. He would have a share that would be in the 60s and 70s, meaning the percentage of televisions turned to him and us on Channel 4 on Saturday night. And so NBC said, George, you can't just do this for 20 weeks. Come up with another show for 20 more weeks. come up with a basketball show that's going to be on the same time in basketball season. And George was completely annoyed, didn't want to do it. And Sonny said, what are you talking about? This will be easy to do. It'll be great. And Sonny Jurgensen essentially executive produced the basketball show. And what you know that people and I know that people don't know is that Sonny Jurgensen grew up fancying himself and wanting to be an NBA player. Yeah. Sonny was a point guard. You see that footage of him whipping like a 30-yard pass behind his back with a football. Sonny was that in basketball. He went to Duke, and he was supposed to play both sports. And he was so good as a football quarterback on the freshman team, somebody, an athletic director or coach, somebody said, you're done with basketball. We can't afford to have you get hurt. and therefore a Hall of Fame football-only career was born. And Sonny, you know, loved all sports. He had this huge satellite dish at his home in Virginia, and he'd stay up watching all these games long before it was vogue, long before it was trendy. Sonny did that, and he was just, you know, he was a great storyteller. And to sit around with him and John Riggins for, I got to do that for 13 years was irreplaceable. I am grateful I got to do it. I saw John recently at dinner, and, of course, we talked about those days and about Sonny to some degree. And, yeah, for those people who got to enjoy Sonny Jorgensen in his 91 years. Tony, how about this? Sonny Jorgensen lived 91 years, and he spent a chunk of that, like 15, getting smashed around by people like Deacon Jones. That's right. And it's amazing that Sonny got to live that long. Live that long and kept his brains. To our knowledge, we didn't think he had CTE on any level. There was one Super Bowl. I remember this. You and I were sitting with Sonny and Sam Huff, and we had lunch. And when they left, I said, whoa, we just sat with Sam Hoff and Sonny Jurgensen. Whoa. Yeah, it was. Whoa. It was so great. And on Sundays, Sonny would sit in the locker room postgame. He would just sort of sit in the middle with a notebook. And he would share the observations. My God, all the times I wrote columns where Sonny would say, hey, did you know, did you see this? Did you know this? Of course I didn't see it. No, he's Sonny Jurgensen. That's right. That's right. Damn it. That's right. You know, and it was so cool to then have benefit of Sonny's eyes and wisdom and what he saw during a game. And, yeah, you know, we're at that stage, Tony, where the people that you and I both grew up watching and then having some professional discourse with dialogue, sitting around at the Palm, sitting around a TV studio, Those gentlemen are leaving us. They are. Sonny was great. Sonny was great. He really was. He was friendly and open and very nice. You watched the golf, didn't you? You watched the golf yesterday. What did you make of him on 18 twice having terrible drought? Come on. This is Matsuyama. He's a great player. Well, it just shows you that the great players can have moments that aren't so great. Wow. And, you know, it was interesting because there was, you know, discourse with him in his caddy and, of course, on television with Nance about whether he was going to pull out Driver or not or whether he was just going to hit three words to just get it in the fairway, stay away from the church pew bunkers. Yeah. And he decided to go with Driver both times. And you're like, oh, my God. But, you know, look. Great player. Three fairways all day. Three fairways all day is all he hit. That's all he hit, and he was still in the lead at the end. He was making birdies from the desert. Yes, I was going to say, it's not like having a flat shot 122 yards out of a bunker. It's scaring Hideki Matsuyama. It's not. But he just, you know, when you heard that sound of him hitting the back of that ball and that low trajectory, it was like, oh, my God, I do this, not Hideki Matsuyama. All right, we'll move on. Did you watch Lindsey Vonn? I waited for it. I scheduled my day on the replay to watch it. Okay, you didn't. But last week, we led a show with Lindsey Vonn, and you were the most enthusiastic person. You said how courageous she was, how great this was, and how you would absolutely watch it. Well, no, I said how courageous she was. Right. I, you know, I wish somebody had told you this last night via text. I wish somebody close to her had gotten in her ear and said, don't do this. It's not what you said on TV. It's still courageous. It doesn't negate her courage. But it doesn't mean I have to watch it. I watched it. And it doesn't mean I want to watch it. Joe Zeisman is courageous. I don't want to watch it. It is interesting, though. I mentioned this at the top of the show. The American Breezy Johnson won the gold medal there, and yet the headline has to be, Vaughn crashes, second line, Breezy Johnson wins gold. Vaughn gets the headline, right? Has to. Yeah, it has to. There's no question, Tony, about that. And so I was, I don't know, I was going to get a car wash, which right now takes about six hours. Six hours. Anywhere east of Denver takes about six hours. to get a car wash. So I was doing that. I'm sitting in my car, and I'm looking at my text messages. And there are like three of them that come up that refer to Lindsey Vonn's fall. And I was like, nope, that's it. I'm not watching. So you didn't watch. I'm not watching this. Did you watch the quad god? Did you watch him at all? I watched zero Olympics yesterday. I watched golf. Really? Okay. I went back and forth until they shut it off and stuck it on USA Network so that they could do a six-hour pregame show. Six hours. Yeah, yeah. Wow. I just, and you know what? I admire a little bit further down on the admire meters, not on the same level as Lindsey Vonn. I mean, the NBC folks, including my friends, our friends who are Maria Taylor, Mike Trico, they left. By the time you and I were, well, you weren't, I was looking at Kenneth Walker receive an MVP award. Yeah, I didn't stand up for that. Everybody else was on a flight. On a plane to Italy. On a aircraft. Yeah, they're going to Italy. On a plane to Italy. Yeah, I get it. I mean, that's what you're supposed to do. What else did I have? I'm glad you didn't watch any of the quad guard. You have to watch him at some point. He's David Thompson. It's different. He goes up in the air and does something that nobody does, and he does it six times. So you need to just see it. It's like Usain Bolt. You love Usain Bolt. This is Usain Bolt. It is. It's different. Or than anybody else ever, Usain Bolt. It's different. This quad guy, is he a skater or a skier? Skater. Skater. I won't see it. Oh, you have to. Oh, you're just being ridiculous. I mean, skating was on a TV in my home, and I just avoided it. I just said, if you're going to watch that, then I'm going to go to a bigger TV somewhere else. I can stream something. This will make for a wonderful show today. A wonderful show. So, Tony, what do you think of this? Well, Mike didn't watch it. I'm not going to watch skating. No skating. Ever. All right. Never. All right. That's it. I don't believe in it. You know what, Tony? I will say this. It is spectacular. You know I've watched it in my life because I've been there. But is it sports? It's a spectacle like a few other things. But is it a sport? Is diving a sport? Maybe not. That's, yeah. I mean, because we're talking about things that are judged and how it works. I understand. But is diving a sport? Is gymnastics a sport? I see what they do. I have a problem. I have a problem with that. And I watch it. I am amazed by it. The people who do it are among the greatest athletes on the planet. Yep. But if there's no clock or person involved in the judgment. Yeah, I understand that. I mean, that's like we can argue that golf is not a sport on some level in the way that we understand sports. But when the ball goes in the cup and you win, there's no ambiguity. You win. There's some objectivity. You win. You know, and so there's not the skating. And then, Tony, part of it. So being there, you know this because you covered it. Yep. Like the judges are there in their fur coats. I don't want to see it. All right, get out of here. I'll see you later. All right, Tom. Michael Wilbon in a freshly cleaned car. We will take a break. Jason Lock and Forer will join us when we return. I'm Tony Kornheiser. This is the Tony Kornheiser Show. Tony Kornheiser Show. This is Nick Poole, whose real name is Nick Williams, But he goes as Nick Poole His brother sent this in this is called punk rock and ice cream. It's great. It's a great title Yeah these are these are lovely songs Michael if people like Nick Poole and Emmy Wildwood want to get their music played here how do they do it Send us your music by emailing it to jingles at tonykornheisershow Plays in Jason La Confora. Not much of a game. I was eager to have you on to talk about the game and the turning points in the game and this, that, and the other thing. and there were no turning points because Seattle, coached by someone I assume you know from his days in Baltimore, the Seattle defense smothered New England, and Drake May looked like a kid. He looked like a kid. What are your thoughts on all of it? Yeah, I mean, look, sometimes you overthink things and you get yourself twisted up in a pretzel. and sometimes you've studied and watched and looked at data and looked at film and watched these games and talked to people you trust in the league. And sometimes it just is what it is. And this was the men versus the boys. And I felt that. I think we talked the Monday after the championship games, and I'm like, boy, maybe Seattle's got the better offense, the better defense, the better special teams, the better quarterback, and the better coach. So that's going to take a real – and Drake made it look right to me. He looks like a 22-year-old who's over his skis and hasn't faced anybody. And that's a knock on his MVP credentials. It's just a fact. And unfortunately for him, he's going against the NFL's arguably number one defensive master tactician at the height of his powers with two weeks to prepare for a 22-year-old whose right shoulder doesn't seem right to me. So I think it's a bloodbath, and I think you should be willing to lay 10 points with Seattle. I think you should look into alternate lines. And I don't think Drake Mays is doing anything with his arm, and he better do a lot with his legs. And the only New England player we were on in receiving props, at least I was, was Matt Collins to have three or more. Everybody in the world is telling me Hunter Henry is a great matchup. I said fade Hunter Henry and put your money on the other tight end, on Seattle's tight end. And you can get two to one on Seattle's tight end to have more receiving yards than Hunter Henry. That was pretty much over at halftime. Correct score? What do you think the score is going to be, Jason? I think it's going to be 30-13 or 33-13. Shame on me, Tom. No. Shame on me. Yeah. I was way off. I was way off on that one. Yeah, off by a full point. Yeah, I felt the same way that Seattle was better, that Seattle was going to have to lose the game because I didn't think New England was going to be able to win the game at that point. You are familiar with McDonald. McDonald was a defensive coordinator with the Baltimore Ravens, and he sustained the Ravens' defense. He didn't create it. He sustained it. Then he goes to Seattle, and he does this. What are your thoughts on him? I would say he did more than sustain it. I would say he re-elevated it. He had fallen under Wink Martindale. And look, the first eight games under Mike McDonald, I know we live in a world where everything's mythologized. He was getting his butt chewed out by Marcus Peters. He was having people in that building, you know, asking some questions, and they went out and they made a trade for Roquan Smith. And in hindsight, they overpaid financially. But the draft picks in real time, once he got Roquan Smith in the central nervous system of his defense and the guy who could impart all that wisdom quickly, then things took off. And his second year was absolute master class all the way through a historically significant defense. And he is most certainly in Baltimore right now, the one that got away. There's also a real-time mythologizing that because they hired a 40-year-old who was in their building a long time ago, who also did a good job running in defense for two years as a coordinator, in this case Jesse Minter with the Chargers, that this is McDonald 2.0. I think McDonald's got a lot of unicorn in him. I don't think you can extrapolate that. I also think McDonald was smart enough to go and find Leslie Frazier immediately as successful, not just a guy who coached as a head coach a little bit, a successful head coach and a master defensive coordinator himself who has a skill set like Mike McDonald, actually on the same side of the ball, and rather be threatened by that, he leaned into all that. And they go 10-7 year one, and they win a Super Bowl in year two. Jesse Minter, at this point, has been hiring people who are younger than Jesse Minter. So I think these immediate parallels that we draw in this day and age are really dangerous. I think, you know, I remember people telling me Brandon Staley was Mike McDonald before Mike McDonald. Brandon Staley put a staff of wankers together and a bunch of dudes who were less experienced than him. And it failed so bad in the Chargers that that's where Minter came in and immediately, you know, restored him and becomes a head coach in two years. So I think McDonald is brilliant. And I think he might be like we've been waiting for the McVay of defense. Again, it was supposed to be Staley. It's supposed to be a few other guys. Look, I think it could be Brian Flores if anybody would hire him to be a head coach. But, you know, he's not the right color. Like, that's just a fact. The way these billionaires operate, if Brian Flores was white, Brian Flores probably had three jobs by now. I think this could be the McVay of defense, that McDonald's the guy who sprouts the family tree and takes that hardball coaching tree that he's a part of to another level and does it on the defensive side of the ball, where to this point, one hardball was a special teams guy and the other one was obviously a quarterback. Let me ask you about this because it does seem, and I could be wrong. I'm going off the top of my head here. It does seem that on a two-to-one basis, maybe even a three-to-one basis, people hire young offensive guys over young defensive guys. Or am I making that up? No, no. That's part of the excuse they use to whitewash their systematic racism. But yes. And then they don't want to hire black guys, even black former quarterbacks, to rise up the ranks and become offensive coordinators. So, I mean, it really is a self-fulfilling prophecy when some of the best quarterback coaches and best wide receivers and tight end coaches who happen to be African-Americans and happen to have played the game at a high level. They get kind of – they hit their ceiling at top position coach. And, you know, it's a certain type of guy who keeps becoming the rising hot offensive coordinator, and then they all lean into that chasing the next McVay. Now, that eventually – it started – I mean, look, this should have been a year where more defensive guys got jobs. And several did, which was already a step. But then you look at who did and who didn't, and it's like, well, wait a minute. So, Vance Joseph doesn't. And, you know, Brian Flores doesn't, but these other guys do. Okay, Halfley does. But even if you eliminate that, even if you eliminate that, right, I'm saying that it does appear always that offense seems to be what people want to hire ahead of defense. That's all I'm saying. Oh, no, like they want to have someone who can help them figure out the quarterback position and then for a while, ideally win while the quarterback can't make any money because he's on a rookie deal. And so if you're a defensive guy, you've got to really try to be aligned with one of those up-and-coming offensive guys. The problem for the good defensive guys is those up-and-coming offensive guys in many cases skip a level. And they don't have to prove they can call plays before somebody gives them a chance to call plays. And they don't have to prove they're even an offensive coordinator before some people are willing to make them a head coach. So this was an oddity. You have two defensive guys here. Vrabel and McDonald are defensive guys. It's an honor to be, but I think it's also emblematic of where the, like, the pendulum swung too far to the offense. And so at some point, some smart teams would push back on that. The idea of retreads being a dirty word, well, I think you really need to dig down on what happened in Tennessee. And, like, I think Stathansky's got a chance to be injured. What was really, like, what was really going on in the Cleveland Browns organization while he was there? So not being afraid to hire somebody with some warts from the past regime if you do the right homework. And this was a defensive league this year. I mean, we're talking about Drake May as the two-MVP candidate. And this is his first season ever starting. Injuries played a role and the Chiefs tumbling and this and that. I think that's the biggest thing in the entire— It's a defensive league. The entire league, the biggest thing was the Chiefs fall. It was a mediocre offensive league, Tony. It was a mediocre offensive league. Okay. and Seattle and the Rams were two of the teams that had the best mix. Now, the Rams' defense fell off late in the year a little bit, but was still good enough that I think they would have beat anybody other than Seattle for the title. And Seattle had the combination of explosives in the pass game, more than anybody in the league, which they didn't even need. They didn't even have a pass play over 27 yards in that game, and it was still a blowout, but you knew they had, and Smith and Jigba missed half the game. But that element combined with the truly elite defense was probably going to carry the day. It's why New England got as far as they did. Yeah, the offense did some interesting things in a regular season against terrible defenses. But it was that defense that held it down for them during a playoff run where the 22-year-old looked like a 22-year-old. And they still got to the Super Bowl because of the defense. No, that's true. Well, they also had the great fortune of playing their last game against a team whose quarterback was out. In a blizzard. Yeah. So, I mean, that helps. Is there anything about the game that was interesting to you that we haven't touched on? Any particular thing that surprised you or impressed you? Well, I think the fact that Seattle didn't, I mean, didn't get anything deep downfield. And Smith and Jigba misses part of the game so they can then go put Gonzalez on Shahid, which did hurt me in my prop bet, and keep him from going off. Now, Gonzalez had at least two, maybe three deflected passes that were really good. I just needed one of those deep ones to fall, and we would have really been in. We would be juggling. I'd be eating a lobster right now. We still did fine, but that would have been over the top. But, yeah, I mean, the fact that they didn't get any explosives out of special teams, They didn't get any explosives out of their offense. And they got a ton of sacks, but I mean, the defensive score came when, let's face it, the game was pretty much already over. And they still had a vice grip around New England's neck from really, you know, midway through the first quarter on. That part of the script surprised me. Like, even that came. Did we lose him? I thought we just lost you for a second. Sam Darnold was 6 of 17 in the first half at one point. Sam Darnold was 1 of 6, throwing the Jackson, Smith, and Jigba, the greatest one ever in the game. He wasn't very good. Sam Darnold was okay. He wasn't very good. He was passable, barely. Yeah, it's not his game. It's the defense's game. They held him. They had three and out like six times in the first half. And then the first possession of the second half. And then you said to yourself, okay, it's over. It's over right there, right? And Rabel too. Rabel peed down his leg a little bit. Rabel, they needed to activate the kid's legs more. He needed to go to Josh McDaniels, like in the second quarter, and say, you know this is the last game one way or the other, right? Like, where are the RPOs? Like, we need to establish this kid's legs because it's the only thing we're going to do to sustain drives. I thought the play calling was uber conservative. I thought there were chances earlier in that game where maybe you try a fake punt, you do something to shock the system, you go for a fourth down to try to sustain the drive. And then some of his decisions, not going for two. he seemed a little punch drunk and asleep at the wheel to me. I don't think it was Rabel's finest hour. Now, he's dealt a tough hand. I get that. But it didn't really look to me like he was strapping and clawing and fighting as much as he probably should have been. And I bet in hindsight he'd recognize that. We can go to WannaBet. Do you want to say anything about the Washington Post? I do. I mean, I can... You've done it, but, you know, if you want to do it again because... The publisher He's not sure he quit or was fired. I don't know which one, but he's out. And I'm sure he got a pile of dough to do it. Yeah, he'll be fine. Yeah. He'll be fine. I mean, look, I don't know where that's going. There's obviously a massive void in the mid— not just in Washington, D.C., in the mid-Atlantic region. I mean, I don't know if any of this was on your guys' radar. Like, I was struck by this because it became a little bit of a tempest on my Twitter. Do you know there's zero—and I know the team is bad right now. but they also were flirting with the Final Four a year ago. There's nobody traveling with the Maryland basketball team. I know. There's not a single independent – I mean, maybe the Diamondback. I hope the Diamondback, maybe. But there is no professional media organization that is staffing University of Maryland basketball games on the road. They don't staff – they stopped staffing Wizards games on the road. Stopped. And at home as well, they just reduced them to a type of AP kind of writing. Here's what happened. Here's what it means. There was no attempt to do anything more than that. Maryland is a big deal. Georgetown has fallen off, but they don't do any Georgetown on the road. They sometimes don't do Georgetown at home. At home. I guess the Big Ten Network was pissed off that Buzz Williams didn't do a formal sit-down. But it's like, Marilyn's like, well, he was on a Zoom with our reporters because none of our reporters were in Minnesota. So what's the point of him sitting at a dais when everyone he's talking to is back in D.C. or Baltimore or College Park? That's it. We are in the midst of something I do not know. It is shaking out right now. I do not know what the end will be. I will not understand it. I'm too old. But sports coverage, as you and I grew up knowing it, is done. Yeah. It's done. I went to the Washington Post sports page the other day just because I was talking to actually an agent, Don Yee, who represents Tom Brady. Don Yee knew Emilio really well. Don Yee wrote five or six op-eds for us about the state of football at various times at the Post. And he's like, do you think my articles are still there? I'm like, dude, Sonny Jurgensen died, and there's not a story on it. Like, I'm like, it's like they're literally, like, I'm looking at the front of the Washington Post sports page, and I want to throw up. Yeah. All right, plug one a bet for us. Plug it. How'd you do yesterday overall? How'd you do? I did okay. I did, I did, I did, I look, on the teams, on the sides, I did great. On props, there weren't a lot. Like, if you were over on anything in that game, you weren't great. But my three favorite plays of yesterday on yesterday's show all hit. Seattle minus 9.5. New England to have more turnovers, minus 130. The Seattle was 2-1. And Barner to have more receiving yards than Hunter Henry, plus 176. Yeah, WarnerBetWithUs.com, me and Betway Ben, you get all of our plays seven days a week, usually 11 a.m. every day. If you want it on the audio form, you can find it there for Spotify, Apple Podcasts. We're on my Twitter. We're on YouTube. Any markets that exist. We were on a Bundesliga game last night that we crushed. Hoffenheim, the Hoff, as we like to call them, and Bayern Munich. Obviously, college basketball, we're all over that. The NBA. I am doing a little bit of Olympic hockey. We give you all our picks, and we keep score, Tony. We tell you how we did last night, how we've done since we launched the show May 21st, and we self-scout. So before you bet, check with us about 30 minutes a day. Want to betwithus.com. Now that football's over, we forget about you, but we're not going to forget about you because if you can actually pronounce Bundesliga then when the World Cup comes you going to have to pick everything for us Oh yeah We all over that Champions League You and Taylor Twelfer Twelman. Twelman. You've got to pick everything for us. All right, I'll talk to you. And Sports Boom. You can check out my original NFL reporting at sportsboom.us. It does everything. Jason does everything. Thank you, Jason. Thank you, guys. Jason Lockenfora, boys and girls. We will come back with email and jingle. I'm Tony Kornheiser. You're listening to The Tony Kornheiser Show. The Tony Kornheiser Show. It's world champion. Chris Ullman. World champion. From Binghamton, New York. Chris Ullman, world champion. Whistler. World champion. When did the Bethesda bagel add? Bagel sandwiches. Yes. Always excited about that. Just go to BethesdaBagels.com for the location in the D.C. area nearest you. Then pop on in and you'll be thrilled. And before we get to the mailbag, let me just say close your eyes and I'll kiss you. Tomorrow I'll miss you. Remember, I'll always be true. And then while I'm away, I'll write home every day and I'll send all my loving to you. Those are the Beatles. And this is in the show because? Today in 1964, they made their debut on the Ed Sullivan Show. And they opened with that. They opened with that. They opened with all my loving. I want to believe a young Anthony Kornheiser was in front of them. I was watching. Yeah. Sure, I was watching. Everybody Yeah, everybody in the world was watching Everybody You think Super Bowl drew? That's true Thanks to our guests today Michael Wilbon and Jason LaConfora Thanks as well to today's sponsors Remember you can listen to us on Apple Podcasts Spotify, Odyssey Get the show through Apple Please leave us a review From my friend Michael Norwood Professional Development and Career Coach Honors Carolina Who I met You remember when we met him, Michael? We met him in North Carolina Oh yeah, by the rest Driving range Yeah. And he had been on the Carolina team. Right outside of Thistledoo. Yeah, that's exactly right. Have played several times with golf with the true UNC Michael. First team, me, what are we playing for? Mike, whatever makes you nervous. Yeah, that's what he says to everybody. He does, he does. Because he has all the money in the world. And you know why? Because Nike doesn't exist without him. Yes. It's that simple, kids. Justin Johnston, Arlington, Virginia. Every time you mention a small business, you appreciate it. It's such a kind gesture, and the publicity helps so much. This is reflected in the nice note and gift you received from the owners of Bin 66. I'm sure the owner of Grove 23 will be following suit, as the praise you gave on Wednesday show surely will help his business as well. Steve the Sycophant. Sonny Jurgensen's passing is another loss for Washington fans. I was here in 1969 in between tours of duty in Vietnam, and I remember the Lombardi-led Redskins, with Sonny chucking the ball to, among others, Charlie Taylor and Jerry Smith. that those were the days when it was not heard of for a player to have a few beers after practice or even right before the game. Sonny never was one to miss a good time, and I'm reasonably sure he never visited a weight room in his life, but he was a great quarterback. After football, he was a fixture on the local sports scene, and the trio of Sonny, Sam, and Frank was the best announcing team ever. I would always turn off the TV sound and listen to them on radio. Now only Frank Herzog is with us. Sonny was a joy to watch and maybe even more to hear. R.I.P. Mr. Jurgensen. Hope you have some good cigars with you. Yes, I neglected to mention how great that broadcast was, Sonny, Sam, and Frank. It's the best. And how people brought transistor radios to the ballpark to listen to them. They were great. They were just absolutely great. From Dave Lundberg in Silver Spring, I imagine there will be considerable discussion and many shared memories in the coming days related to the passing of Sonny Jurgensen on Friday. So I wanted to share my own brush with greatness story. I'm 63. I've lived in the DMV since I was a baby. Through all of the victories and defeats, I fell head over heels for both Sonny and Billy as a 10-year-old kid when the George Allen coach team launched my never-ending love affair with Washington football during their trip to the Super Bowl against the undefeated Miami Dolphins. Even though Sonny didn't play in the game, I was always partial to number nine. For me, no other team has ever stirred such passion, emotion, and enthusiasm as my beloved team that fought for Old D.C. Sonny's winning ways created a deep connection to Washington sports that has stayed with me for a lifetime. One of my fondest memories of Sonny came off the field. My first real job, the first one where I earned a paycheck, was as a bar boy at Indian Springs Country Club when I was 15. One evening, there was an event for Vince Lombardi alumni and Sonny, along with many other Redskins, was in attendance. As the event ended and everyone began leaving the ballroom, they passed by the open door to the back of the bar. I was stocking bottles of beer in the cooler when Sonny spotted me and said something like, how about one of those beers for the road? I looked over at my boss, Joe, the head bartender, and he nodded, okay, and I handed Sonny a beer. Rest easy, Sonny. Thanks for the memories, the Sundays, and the stories, both on and off the field. You'll always be number nine on the field, number one in our hearts. We get a lot of these. And by the way, some people will be offended by me using the word Redskins, but that was the name of the team at the time. We don't do that anymore, but you cannot historically do that and pretend that wasn't true. From Brian Kearns, listening to your joy about a soup and sandwich from Publix, I thought, hey, I know that place. It's my new grocery store. We recently moved from Reston to the Savannah Quarters neighborhood in Pooler, Georgia, a quick 15-minute drive from Michael's favorite airport. On the next trip down to the Lowcountry, I'd be happy to host you for a round. If you get hungry after playing and the turkey club isn't up to par, you can walk to that aforementioned Publix for a sub. They will gladly take your cash at any of the registers since there are no self-checkouts at this location. God bless them. All open registers are staffed with friendly and helpful live human beings. Plus, there is no store card or an app for discounts, just a phone number that they will gladly key in for you. Since, again, all open registers are manned by a live person. Sounds like your kind of place. Hope the DMV thaw has started. We can get back to the course soon. No way till March. No way. Maybe mid-March. There's just no way. Gordon Kast in Bluffton. Bluffton, South Carolina. Next time you're in a public, try the fried chicken to die for. I recommended you get the chicken dinner. You've said that. You've said that. Andrew in L.A., in your golf report, you gushed about meeting lots of truly great players at Jordan's course, L.T., Gretzky, Smoltz. But in describing your pitching history, you mentioned a lesser pitcher, Sal the Barber Magley. He was known mainly for two things, playing for both Dem Bums and the New York Gents at a time that was akin to being a spiritual advisor to both the Hatfield and the McCoys and being mean as a snake on the mound, reportedly saying he would brush back his own grandmother to get an edge. My experience with him was more benign. I was about six or seven and went to have lunch with my dad. He skipped his usual chicken salad at the lunch counter at the drugstore in favor of a real restaurant, Monty's, I think, that had tablecloths and proper glasses. We sat down and my dad asked me, do you know who's sitting over there? That's Sal Magley. I was a baseball fan, so I knew he was a really good starter who had a reputation for being nasty. Magley must have known we recognized him as one of the people his table came over and invited me to meet him My dad knowing that I was shy urged me to go Magley could not have been nicer He invited my father and me to join his group and when I said no, thank you He shook my hand and told me to keep practicing and maybe I would be a pitcher one day Years later when my dad and I reminisced about that lunch He reminded me that I did not wash the hand that Magley shook for a week. It's a lovely story Andrew in LA It's a lovely story Dan in Hamburg, New York just wanted to share with you and the crew that our office recently held what we deem the snack Olympics as a way to bond during our lunch break as we watched the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics. The rules were simple. Everyone had to pick a country and make some type of appetizer or small plate dish or dessert that represents that particular nation. We had a wonderful selection of food, including but not limited to fried plantains, Democratic Republic of the Congo, baklava, grease, and a chocolate chip cookie cake, United States. My entry was potato varniki, which is the Ukrainian version of a pierogi. I served them with dice onions that were pan-fried and a side of sour cream that featured a mini Ukraine flag planted in the center of the dish. At the end of our feast, we voted as a group and awarded the following medals based on taste and plate presentation. Gold, Boric, cheese turnovers from Armenia, silver, farmer's cheese, pierogies, Poland and bronze, pork sausage rolls, Ireland. The point of all this is that it reminded me of the infamous snack down call-in segments that aired annually as part of the Tony Kornheiser show when you hosted your own wonderfully entertaining program on terrestrial radio. That is classic content Classic Tony Beeson I heard an amazing piece of Cincinnati trivia today Don Gullett pitched at Crosley Field and Riverfront Stadium Was a pitching coach when the Reds moved to Great American Ballpark Joe Nuxhall pitched at Crosley Field And also broadcast Red Games at Crosley, Riverfront Stadium And Great American Ballpark However, Sir Paul McCartney outclasses all of them With the Beatles' wings and as a solo artist Paul McCartney has performed in Cincinnati At the following sports venues Cincinnati Gardens in 1964 Crosley Field in 66 Riverfront in 76 and 90 Riverfront, that was Riverfront Coliseum Riverfront Stadium in 93 And the Great American Ballpark in 2011 There's nobody like Paul McCartney No, there is not Stephen Benbrook Zionsgate Records in Seattle, Washington I am pleased to share that record stores are thriving Both across the country and globally This resurgence is largely driven By a younger generation eagerly collecting music from all genres across various formats, including vinyl, CD, and even cassettes. Additionally, major labels have reissued a vast catalog of classic music, and most popular releases are now readily available in multiple formats. It's reached a point where it's harder not to find what you're looking for on vinyl. Since I am now two for two on emails, Red, I would like to propose that Zionsgate Records become the official record store of the show. Sure, it's fine. Yes, please. Sure, absolutely. Dan Passacantilli, north end of Boston, I've been listening watching to you for years and finally realized that the Connie in the background of your TV position is not Connie Francis Keep hitting him long straight. No, it's Connie. Yes. Yes. And from Jim McManus No relation to Jean McManus that I can't believe you had Jean McManus on the show three days after Chuck Negron died and did not discuss her affection So I will close in a in not the usual way I'm gonna tell you the most funny Sonny Juergens story of all time and it goes like this Sonny and his wife, Margo, this is 30 years ago, 35 years ago at least. Sonny and his wife, Margo, are in the Palm. And someone comes up to Sonny, and Sonny recognizes him, and they embrace. And they chat for a while, and Margo says, who's that? And Sonny says, I went to school with him. And Margo says, you went to school? He went to Duke? He looks 30 years younger than you. And Sonny says, no, drunk driver's school. Get on your bike tonight, everyone, as always, do wear white. The city never has witnessed the excitement stirred by these youngsters from Liverpool who call themselves the Beatles. Now, tonight, you're going to twice be entertained by them. Right now and again in the second half of our show, ladies and gentlemen, the Beatles. You are in a bonfire of Vanity Got nothing to give you But my arms, baby Love, love Love makes you lose yourself I just want no shit Love can't increase the mission I won't let the end of the show True, this falls on you I don't think we're fighting about The same things I don't think you're gonna admit anything Love, love, love makes you lose yourself Or I just want to hit Love can confuse the mission I would die for it Love, love, love Don't shoot This is all on you I see you getting closer, babe And anytime you have it made I see you getting closer, babe And anytime you have it made You lose love Love makes you lose yourself Well I just wanna know it Love can complete your mission Now and after all Love comes so true To me Jan svg währenddheim gratitude I'm a jelly belly psycho. Hershey kisses him. I think she likes me. Bikini killer. Bikini Killer nicely, sugar cold what's frightening. Bikini Killer nicely, sugar cold what's frightening. Punk crackin' ice cream, punk crackin' ice cream. Pump a little pixie sticker Gobstopper deluxe for dinner Grenadine at first and liquor Rebel girl on vinyls quicker Coke crackin' ice cream Echo Park, I think she likes me Bikini killer nicely Sugarcoats frightening Bikini killer nicely Sugarcoats frightening Buck rides and ice cream Buck rides and ice cream What's she say? Baby baby Valentine Never seen her make you mine Don't fight for a last time Rock, rock, basic size Beanie, baby, Valentine Never seen her make you mine Don't fight for the last time I'll grab you ice cream Apple Podcasts Burn glass and ice cream Burn glass and ice cream