"Mike Tirico"
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So guys, welcome. It's time for another session of Smart List Cold Open. Yeah. And who would like to begin? Anybody want to begin? Willie's in hysterics over a joke that Sean just told that America, you cannot hear. Because if you did, you'd never like Sean Hayes again. Welcome to Smart List. Ha ha ha!

Smart.

JB, you look... JB looks like a guy with the glasses and the hat and the beard and the hair. He looks like he's just... He's spending the weekend. He's parked the van up in Bend, Oregon, right? Yeah. He's up in Bend. He's going to do some windsurfing on the river at the gorge. It's disgusting. He's up at the gorge. These are...

These are frames. They look good. I like those frames. Listener, these are frames that like you would see on Plastic Man if you're as old as I am. Yeah, for sure. They're kind of like tragically hip now that my wife made me get. I just keep them at the house. But I wore them today and they're transition lenses so they get that little smoky kind of half tint. So –

And so the problem is, like, I'm keeping them at home so no one sees them, but I've been on Zooms all day, and so Will's just reminding me that I've looked like a freaking douchebag all day. No, you don't. I said you look kind of crunchy. I didn't say you look like a douchebag. I said you look like you're up in Oregon. You got this hipster little trucker hat on and everything. The glasses look like you could have a neck tattoo. Yeah, bro. Right? You could be... That you live in Highland Park. Wait, let me ask you this. What's a part that you would never...

Never get asked to play or would want to ask to play. Probably this guy. This guy. For real? Well, yeah. I mean, the part I'm playing, I mean, that's why I grew out this dumbass beard and long hair is because I'm playing a guy that is...

You know, he's got a drug history and he makes a lot of bad decisions. They usually get cast as like some smart middle-aged white dick, you know? Yeah. Huh. Yeah. Anyway. Well, we'll let the audience do the math on that one. I was going to do the math for you. Oh, you guys.

What's going on? Have you guys had the dumb, dumb, busy day like me? I mean, today, it's just like it kept coming. No, I had a super slow day today. I did. I had a bunch of... I went to the eye doctor. Oh, check this out. Look at this. I went to the eye doctor today. Which one was sick? Can you see? Oh, yeah. It's still a little... One's dilated? Yeah. Two are dilated. Yeah.

So did Scotty have to drive you today? Or did you take risks by yourself? I was like, I'm fine, I'm fine. And I pulled out into traffic. I was like, oh, I don't think I'm fine. Jamie, I thought about you when I got dressed for this because I've been doing a bunch of stuff. And I worked out. I did two different kinds of workouts today. But I'm in. I'm transitioning between different parts of my day. And I thought, you know who's going to love my look? And I'm going to have to give you the full. Here we go.

Cause you're going to hate so much. You've already got on the baggy neck. He's got the Crocs on. He's got white Crocs on guys with the heel strap. Wow. And then camo shorts and then golf socks. So you've got an indoor outfit on today like me or have you been outside?

Did anybody see that today? I went outside. Nobody saw this. But I remember one of my favorites was seeing you. You and I were hanging with Krasinski. This is minimum 15 years ago. And he was wearing some stupid little socks with his Vans. And you just look over and you go, laundry day? No, I don't think I said that because that's the line we've always heard. I think I just said, confident? Confident.

Oh, that was the other one you said. Confident, huh? No, you didn't say confident. You just went confident. Which is just so shitty. It's so good. But wait, how did, sorry, sorry, guest, we're going to get right to you because you're even busier than all three of us combined. How did the White Crocs find their way into your closet?

Well, you know what? Thanks for the plug. My friends at dicks.com sent me a bunch of stuff. We've seen it, Will. They sent me a bunch of stuff. Oh, that's nice, didn't they? Yeah, they sent Crocs for me. Yeah, that seems fair. Did you not get compensated for the commercial? I did. You're looking at them. They're called Crocs. God, those are expensive Crocs. They sent me Crocs for the kids and me, so we all got them. And

I've never really worn Crocs and I'm going to be honest. They're pretty great. They're really comfortable. They're super comfortable. Really quick, I have a Crocs story. Okay. So I was doing Promises Promises and afterwards I met, thank you, thank you, thank you. And afterwards I went out and did the meet and greet that you have to do sometimes when people want to say hi and there's a very buttoned up

and the little boy, he was like nine years old, he had like a suit on with the Crocs and the girl had a little dress on. And after the show, you're like fired up, you're doing bits, you're doing bits, you're trying to be funny, you're trying to still entertain them. And so the little girl, she's like, can you sign my program? I was like, sure. What's your name? She's like, Sue. I go, what, a tsunami of a performance or some stupid joke. And then I looked at him and he took off his Croc and he said, uh,

Wait. He took off his crock and he said, can you sign this? I go, yeah. Wait, shit. Yeah, he said, how about you sign this for your crock of shit performance? Is that what he said? No. No.

Didn't you tell me one time in a really low moment of your life you wore Crocs to a meet-and-beat? Wait, what's a meet-and-beat? Oh, sure. Oh, boy. Listeners, can you just call Sean real quick for us? Oh, a meet-and-beat. Okay, I did the math. Okay, guys, do you like football? Hey, Willie, Sean, do you like football? Yeah, sure, man. Do you like golf?

Do you like horse racing? Do you like car racing? Do you like basketball? Do you like the Olympics? Our guest today is the guy that's been holding your hand for about 35 years through some of the most exciting live television and personal excellence ever. He is as casual and comforting as he is knowledgeable and anxiety-inducing. He's your favorite house guest, but he's got no idea where you live, guys. He knows all the things about sports, but is not an athlete.

He is as familiar as a family member, but you don't know a thing about him until now. Will, Sean, listeners, please welcome the star of the highest-rated television show 13 years running and the host of the upcoming Summer Olympics in Paris, the one and only Mr. Mike Tirico. Oh, wow. They were

Reveal, there I am. I mean, is that an intro? God, I was trying to write that down. I want to repeat that. That's awesome, man. Thank you. How about Jason's busy day? He wrote that intro. Yeah. Welcome, Mike. Thank you, guys. It is very good to have you here. I am a listener, and it's an honor to be on, although I'm nervous as hell.

Please. You don't have time to listen to dumbass podcasts. We're losers. Maybe you didn't catch the part where I'm wearing Crocs, Mike. I did. I did. So. Now, when do you squeak in the time to listen to anything? Like on planes, I'll bet. Yeah.

On planes, on a walk. I'm like a 1.75 podcast listener. I need to get them over quick, you know? So I try to squeeze them in. So you might go like a horse racing or auto racing around the events. And then, like, I need a little bit of a change. So actually one day one of our PR guys said, you know, look at the top ten podcasts in America. And I saw this one. I said, well, this is the only one that really appeals to me. Right.

So I'm not an every week guy, but I'm here every once in a while. Well, listen, there's a little something for everybody on this dumb show. You, however, are right up my alley, mister. So let's just get into it, Mike. Let's start from the beginning.

Let's start from the very beginning. Can we? So your dad's driving your mom to the hospital, right? She's in... All right. So let's... Well, where did it... Were you an athlete? Are you an athlete? I worked that into the intro there because it kind of rolled nice, but I'll bet you're a bit of an athlete, right? No. No? You were right. So in my family, we have two kids. My wife played basketball at Syracuse. So...

So we have a dog. You went to Syracuse. That's where you guys met? Yeah, that's where we met. So we have a dog. There are five of us in the house. I'm the fifth athlete in the house. You know, I play golf. It's not pretty. I love it. I feel like I'm this close. I'm the king of the range. I've won more titles on the range than maybe any golfer alive. And I feel really good in the short game area. And then for some stupid reason, it doesn't translate.

Now, how bad a golfer are you? Let me guess. I'm a 15. I was going to put you at a 10. Yeah, I was. COVID, I was 10.2. And I was feeling pretty good about life. And I said, here we go. We're going. We're going to get to single digits. Life's going to be good. And that hasn't happened. So wait, you got your index down to a 10 too? Yeah.

I did during COVID. I was playing every day and I kind of knew what I was doing. It was socially distant. Yeah. That's what got me back into golf. That's when we started playing again was during COVID. We hadn't played for years, JB and I. Yeah, we started playing. And...

And then it just, and then JB went absolutely mental. Because I have addiction issues. Well, he does. And it was, it was crazy. And then his wife is really mad at golf and blah, blah, blah. And I said, you know, the fix to it is don't go mental, right? Just do it like, don't do it every day. But he couldn't, he couldn't hear me because he's watching swing videos. Yeah, I'm obsessive. But now, now that I'm working, I don't, I put them down for nine months. I won't even touch my clubs. So when you go back, will you be good?

I will be terrible and I will stay out of the money games because I'll still be stuck with my old index. But here's what's so weird. So this is-- It's funny that JB-- So I said to JB, "Sunday we all saw each other for dinner." He'd been in New York for a couple months. And I said, "Why don't you--" No, yeah, Saturday. I said, "Why don't you come to the range?"

with me just because you're here this week just come to the range over where we play he's like no I can't I can't do it until October trigger situation well it's just about moderation my friend yeah I'm not good at five I need every ten or zero

That's my problem. Wouldn't you find it as a release? Just get away for a little bit. Stop your mind. That's what I find. Yeah, it's true. But then that means I've got to be kind of indifferent as to how I'm playing. And I got to care, you know? I mean, you know what I'm talking about. You don't call... See the way I'm going to bring it right back to you. You don't phone in your work there. You make it seem very casual, but it takes...

a tremendous amount of preparation, I would imagine, especially just in switching sports, but then having to know all the specific players and the relevance of that game per the rivalries between those teams and where it sits in the season and all of that stuff is just like...

Talk to us about your preparation, about your team. I'm sure you've got people that you're reliant on that are incredible. You're right. You nailed it. I'm paranoid that one day I'm going to wake up and we'll have Katie Ledecky riding one of the horses in the Kentucky Derby. Circuits have crossed. No, no, no. Stop. Right? Right.

We have unbelievable research teams. The story like of the Olympics on TV in America, it has the research department for the Olympics saying,

has been kind of the training ground for a lot of executives in TV. Wow. Over like 30, 40 years. So a bunch of the people who were Olympic researchers in the 70s and 80s and 90s now run sports divisions at CBS and at NBC. Really? They're super smart people, and they give you more than you can read, and you just got to figure out how to shorten the stack and how to keep it organized, right? Because I'm not going to learn the rules for...

30 sports and all the names of the 10,000 athletes for the Summer Olympics. That's my job. Thank you. Somebody's helping me out. Who deserves the accolades for that? Was it Rune Arledge back in the day? Yeah. Going back to when ABC had the Olympics and

Remember Wide World of Sports when it started? Sure, Jim McKay. Yes, it was the ski jumper falling off the side of the hill. Oh, the best. I mean, not for him, but the best for us. The guy's name is Venko Bogatai. That was his name. I sat at the top of that speed at that ski jump in Austria once. You know, there's a big graveyard at the bottom of it.

It's like that's all you can see from the top of that ski jump is just this massive graveyard. Anyway, go ahead. Explains why he took the exit ramp to the left. Yeah, exactly. He got distracted. Yeah, but it was the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat. But it was up close and personal. That was their tagline for the profiles. And one of the great executives in the history of television, not just sports television, Dick Ebersole, because he was involved with Lorne Michaels with Saturday Night Live and all that stuff. Yeah.

Dick really brought, he was working with Rune at ABC as a researcher in the 70s, and he brought that sensibility and that storytelling to NBC way before I got there, when NBC got the Olympics. And that has kind of defined our division since Dick was there and all the people who learned from him who are now in charge. Tell

Tell a story. Make me care about the people. It's my favorite part of the Olympics because these are people that are not making money in sports yet. They have to be an amateur to be an athlete. Well, that's kind of changed a little bit. Yeah, it's some sports. But for the most part, you are tuning in to see these very sort of the people that you live next door to that are having these two minutes.

this opportunity for personal excellence that they have been training for for 10, 15 years. And are they going to be overwhelmed by the moment, by the media, by the stress, or are they going to soar to new heights because they're charged up? And I just met them with this five-minute piece that...

that started way back then, and I think was Rune Arlidge's idea, right? Like, get to know the athlete, and then as soon as you're done with that story, you cut right to them on the starting line. And it's just like, oh my God. Because now you're invested. Yeah. And you guys are storytellers in your own way, so you get it. Here's the difference now.

you don't have five minutes. People aren't going to sit around for your story in five minutes. So our adjustment has become make it bite-sized, make you care about somebody, and then show me their event. Or even the night before, hey, here is this athlete's story, and tomorrow night they go for gold. Right.

Right. Well, you had Sean at bite-size, by the way. I'm in. I just showed up. You started even at the opening ceremonies. You guys started by sort of just like dropping little breadcrumbs on certain. No, it's really cool. So, Mike, let's go back a little bit because obviously you're at the top of the game. As Jason pointed out, Sunday Night Football is the number one show on TV, right? Yes. And you've been doing this at the top –

What is that moment? You're Mike Tirico at Syracuse. Mm-hmm. How do you become sports commentator, play-by-play, sports host of the biggest... What is that thing? Are you like...

Are you calling games when you're in your bedroom when you're 11? A little bit. You just drove down the street to Bristol and just like circled the building a couple of times, right? Throwing headshots out the window. Let me in. No, seriously, when I was a little kid, you asked my mom, this is what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a sportscaster. Oh, that's so cool. From being a little kid. I'm really, I am 55 years later living my dream still. That's so great. Man, I do love work. Where was that? Queens. Queens.

Queens, New York. So when I grew up, I was listening to Marv Albert broadcast. And the Rangers and work at NBC. Garbage time. Extensive garbage time. Marv did everything, right? He did boxing, football, the local news, the Rangers, the Knicks. And so I always thought, you know what?

do everything. Just figure out a way to become proficient at every sport that you can be invited to do. And Jim McKay, who somebody mentioned before, Jim McKay was the same thing. And those two guys were the models for me to, Hey, go, go figure it out. Went to college at Syracuse, interned at a TV station. They went through three weekend sportscasters in seven weeks. The GM said, I'm going to hire somebody young and cheap. I was interning there. I was young and I was cheap. Uh,

And I got a tryout. I got a tryout on the air for six weeks, got hired after four weeks.

spent four years there and then got to ESPN in 91, was there for 25 years. And now eight years at NBC. So hang on. Sorry. I just could you gloss over ESPN. So you go to ESPN and that's where a lot of us got to know you first on a national level, obviously. And they saw you on the local station there in Syracuse, I'm assuming. There was somebody, there was somebody who actually is still a friend and we work at a different capacity now.

who saw me doing local TV and was an executive at ESPN. And they told me, send a tape in a year. I sent a tape in 10 months.

got hired a few months later and, you know, did SportsCenter. And I was there like in the salad days. Yeah, SportsCenter. I was with Chris Myers, who works at Fox now. The weekends were Carl Ravitch and Linda Cohn, who are still there at ESPN all these years later. And the main group was Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann and Bob Lee and Charlie Steiner, Robin Roberts, Gary Miller. We just had like this...

that is still, for the most part, all on TV doing national sports almost 25, 30 years later. I love that. That was like, you guys were like the Beatles of sportscasters. That was like the first, like that generation, you guys were, you set, because nobody was doing it, nobody had done it the way you guys were doing it before, and you set that tone, and everybody after that was trying to replicate that, really. Yeah. And we will be right back.

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And now, back to the show. I love the station, but I never knew what ESPN stood for, and I've figured it out a few times, and I've still forgotten it. What does ESPN stand for? It did stand for the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network. Because you know the story at the start, in September of 1979, a little bit before that, they went up on a satellite and had a satellite. And the original idea was...

They're going to broadcast Connecticut sports around the state. And I'm like, wait a minute. This can be seen everywhere. So let's expand out the idea. And when I was mentioning all the names, I did mention the godfather of it all. Chris. Chris Berman. You know, Chris with the nicknames and the schtick and the whole deal, the back, back, back. Chris made it cool.

And a lot of people tried to emulate Chris or be like Chris, but I think the ones who succeeded, like Rich Eisen, Craig Kilbourne, Stuart Scott, guys who came on after the main group I talked about, they found their own schtick, right? Yeah, yeah. And there was room for somebody like me, who's a serious, call the sports, you know, have a little fun with it, but it's not about me cracking one-liners, all the way to the guys who, you know, truly came out of comedy, like Rich Eisen and Kilbourne, the

Rich was a stand-up comedian before he came to SportsCenter. Dan Patrick, too. Dan Patrick, right? What was your favorite Chris Berman nickname? Because I know mine that I have. Bert B. Holm Bly Levin.

That's funny. That's so good. Mine was Eric sleeping with Bionomy. That's exactly. So here's a stupid story. So Syracuse is big for sportscasters and a lot of kids who want to be sportscasters go there. And 30 some years later, it's almost 40 years later now. God, it's still the case.

So we had just a bunch of nerds and that was our fraternity. We were all wannabe sportscasters and a bunch of us turned out to be. So we would keep a legal pad by our TV and write down every Chris Berman nickname when it was there. No way. It was like a community list. And we sent it to ESPN. We were pissed because ESPN never sent a thank you note back, whatever. You know, months later, ESPN put out a list of all the Chris Berman nicknames. So we take credit for that, at least in our own hearts. Oh.

They're listening right now, and they are filled with shame. They hired you, and they still didn't give you credit. A meeting was just convened in one of the conference rooms. Everybody in. Mike, I have a question. Have you ever, when you...

When you are calling a game and you do it all the time, week after week after week after week, what do you do when you're just like, yeah, I'm really not in the fucking mood to do this thing? Like, how do you... You must have, like, days when you're like, how am I going to get it up for this? What's your pill of choice, Mike? That's where Sean wants you to take this. He wants to make some news here. You know what? One, well, it's a couple of things. First...

you're at games almost all the time. Yeah. And it's 50, 60,000 people. So you guys have performed in front of audiences. There are nights everybody doesn't have it. Something's going on. Family, you're sick. You've traveled for 15 weeks. Nobody cares, right? You're always trying to make sure that you reach a standard that you've established over the year. So you just tap into that and like,

A little bit of that, but also the crowd. Yeah. It's exciting. Those people are spending money. And the millions of people watching, too. Yeah. Exactly. But even like you, where do you look for just the raw energy for you if your energy is a little bit low? Yeah. Jason? Jason?

Guys. They tailgated. They parked. They've been there for eight hours. And now they're screaming at the top of their lungs. They painted their faces. They're wearing their jersey. Like, that gets you going. How does it not? So when it's a bad day or it's not the best day, that usually picks me up. You know, Mike, you saying they painted their faces, it always seemed to me like a really funny tableau.

would be like one of those guys, one of those crazy Raiders fans, you know? He's got the silver and he's got the horns and he's wearing the shoulder pads with the spikes and stuff. And just like half a mile from the stadium, exchanging insurance information with somebody else. And with bifocals on, going, "Honey, can you pass me the other one? It's not the right-- I can't read this." I was also thinking about, Mike, you know, like when you were saying that, you know, we've all performed and stuff.

I used to watch football. My three older brothers, they all played football. I was surrounded by sports, you know, growing up, and I played sports too. But then I kind of, you know my story. So then... No, we don't. Let's hear it. Let's hear it. What happened? And then I didn't like sports. But...

But now I'm really into football and these guys know, and I do watch it every year. And I really, really am into the stories like you guys are talking about and outlining all the people, the players, and then you get to know them and then you get to root for them or whatever your team is, whatever. So I get it. But what I really honed in on in the last couple of years was the performance of the

and I never really noticed it before. So being an actor, I noticed that like, wait a minute, these guys are really kind of playing it up for the cameras because there's this, like you said, a stadium of tens of thousands of people. There's millions of people watching. If nobody was there and nobody's watching, they probably wouldn't get as angry or push as hard or kind of yell back as hard. You know what I mean? They kind of heighten their performance a little bit. Don't you agree? I do. And I'm going to say that, you know, this amateur psychological person

analysis of this. I think it's the generation that's grown up in front of cameras. Yeah. They know where the camera is, how to play to it. They know I score a touchdown. This is my marketing moment. You know, you got guys who have their TD

TD celebrations all rehearsed. They know it's on me right now and point to the name on the back of their jersey. So they get it. Yeah, Terrell Owens started it with the Sharpie in his shoes. Yes. Right? Yeah, exactly. But even the broadcasts have specific cameras set up and screens set up in the end zone for them all to gather and do basically their selfie. Yeah. So that was a COVID thing. That was a COVID thing because there were no fans. Oh, okay.

So there was like a fan cam so you could watch the game like on a Zoom and you sit there and you're watching the game and hey, in the third quarter, your face will be in the end zone and then they're going yay into their computers. And the guys were seeing them because they were just trying to find a way to create some atmosphere. Right, but the drama seems to always just be a little bit more than...

Well, you talk about performance, you talk about soccer, right, Will? I mean, the flopping is just like, it keeps me away from watching it a lot. Yeah, but it does, look, it is bad and certain leagues are worse than others. La Liga is the worst and I would also say League One in France. But La Liga is full of floppers.

And it's not just the Spanish guys. You guys don't get well started. No, it's true. Some of these guys, I watched that Champions League final the other day, the Barista Dortmund Real. And there was a Vinny Jr. who's a tremendous football player. He didn't even get touched. And he looked like he was shot.

That a sniper had taken. My two favorites are the triple barrel roll. When the guy goes down and he rolls. And he rolls and he rolls again. Gains speed. Yes. And then when they bring out these million, million pound players in terms of their financial remuneration. And they're kind of carrying them on this rickety little thing with two wood sticks and a piece of canvas. They carry them over to the sideline. And all of a sudden they realize their team has the ball. They're right back in the game.

Well, the other one, Mike, I like is the guy, he gets sort of tapped in his thigh and he grabs his face. And you're like, wait a second, why are you grabbing your face? But I will say, you know, so thank you for bringing up football, soccer, if you will, because that is one of those sports that for me, I was able to get into it. I'm not,

really a new super fan to it in the last 10 years. But because of the stories, because I was, I watched it with people who knew and they filled me and they'd say, this guy came from here. This manager came from here. Here's what the backstory is. Yeah, I mean, Will always used to say that to me. Yeah. Like, I was like, how can you watch it? You're like, watch this. He's like, Sean, watch the story. And that's what, like the Formula One show on Netflix. That got a bunch of folks into it.

Yeah, so I started watching like Sunderland Till I Die. I was already into it at that point, but Sunderland Till I Die, all those other things. It's like reality shows. It's like any type of reality competition show. You get to know the people. It's the human story. You can relate to it. At that point, you can relate to it on a human level. The thing with soccer, football, soccer, whatever. Sure. We're in America, soccer.

The thing with that is it starts, it's rooted in tribalism. It's those small towns like a Sunderland, which you mentioned in England, the city, like you end up going to the grounds and a lot of kids walk there and it becomes part of you. Now it's kind of grown from a very tribal and local thing to regional, national and global, which has just allowed the expansion of all this to happen. But at its roots, especially if you go over to soccer in England,

it's, it's our neighborhood. It's our team. There are guys and we can be mad at them, but you can't. And I love that about this. Yeah. Mike, you know, so a couple of weeks ago I went, I went over, I went over to go to, to see Jurgen Klopp's second last home game. Jurgen Trouble. And, and I'm a huge fan of his and I've had the, Is that a Chris Berman nickname? Yeah, Jurgen Trouble. Sean just does it on the first name stuff. And, uh,

I had the great fortune of being able to spend a little bit of time with him in the past year. Yeah, yeah. And so I got to go over to Anfield, and you walk into that stadium, and you listen. First of all, and I went to Chelsea as well. My friend joked that I went to watch Tottenham lose twice in a week. So I went to Stamford Bridge, but I went to Anfield, and I was sitting up there, and I was sitting in front of Sir Kenny Doglish, and the stand opposite us is the Sir Kenneth Doglish stand. Yeah.

Yeah. Okay, and he was a former player, manager, legend, and a Liverpool legend, and a really tremendous guy. He's sitting right behind me with his wife, and they start playing at Anfield, You Never Walk Alone, which is their anthem, and the whole stadium is singing. You know, 60,000 people singing You Never Walk Alone, and I turn around, and his wife, who must have heard it,

50,000 times in her life because her husband was a player manager. And I look back and she's dabbing her eyes. It's so cool. And I thought like, and it was so incredible. It was so moving. So, so moving. There's something about the way that you're right, that they celebrate that. There's something, Will, there's something about sports. Like most of us never meet the,

the athletes who we wear their jerseys. You know, the old hockey line, you know, you go to a hockey game, especially where I live in Michigan, and you got a bunch of people walking around with other guys' last names on their back, right? Right, right. But it's the one place, not only is it acceptable, it's encouraged. And it shows that you're a real fan, right? And it brings people together that don't know each other. Well, that's it. That's the last thing we have, right? I think so, too. My stump speech about sports was,

And the value of sports is let's go to New Orleans for a Saints game. And let me take one section of the Superdome and I'm going to get black and white. I'm going to get male and female. I'm going to get straight and gay. I'm going to get different religions. I'm going to get everybody in that section. And they're all wearing some black and gold for the Saints. And that doesn't happen at the opera. It doesn't happen at the movies either.

That's why I still think sports has this place, whereas everything's become so fractured. People still love their sports like nothing else. Mike, has anybody ever said this to you? Because this is my own personal experience, is that no matter what's going on in my life, we all have ups and downs, as you said. We have moments in the family, whatever. And the one thing that I can do to kind of self-regulate is I come home and if I can turn on sports, I kind of go, everything's okay. Yeah.

- Yeah. - Yeah, me too. - Right? Do you do that? - It settles me. - Yeah, both of you check out when sports are on. - Yeah. And I love nothing more than primetime sports. When you put on a game that's on at night,

It's like watching This Old House on PBS on a Sunday afternoon. Oh, Sean. That, but good. We're having a good conversation here. I'm an HGTV guy, Sean, if you want to know the truth. Sean, you turn me on to that show. No, I like This Old House. Wait, Mike, where are you from? I'm from Queens, from New York. Grew up as a New Yorker, lived in the Northeast most of my life.

Does that make you a Mets fan? I wasn't. I'm a Mets and a Jets fan. Yeah, of course. What did we say was? You had to be agnostic as you went into your profession? Well, the Mets thing was I just wanted to see them win the World Series once in my life.

And they did. And I kind of outgrew it. It's like an allergy. You know, they say, hopefully I outgrew it. So I've saved myself generations of pain after that. And then the rest of it really do become agnostic. People say, well, how can you watch a game and not root? There's one team in sports that I root for, and that's Syracuse. That's my alma mater. Right. My god kid goes there.

Oh, really? No. No way. The orange men, right? Awesome. What? We're the orange. We used to be the orange men and women. Now we're just the orange. Now just the orange. All right. I get it. It could be a color, a fruit, or a spirit. You take your pick. My godson lives in America.

Continental. The Continental and the contiguous... You strike me as a fella that would have great chemistry with anyone because you're such a kind guy. But I'll bet Chris Collinsworth doesn't make it difficult. He seems like just about the best guy in the world. I've talked to him a couple of times, but not longer than when I'm talking with you. But still, he seems just incredible. Is he...

as nice a guy as he seems to work with? A thousand percent. I'll give you just a quick...

Quick anecdote. You do this so you kind of know people, but you're not around them. Then I start working at NBC, and I get to be around Chris a little bit more, and I get to know him. And Chris and Al Michaels were a terrific team doing Sunday Night Football for a long time. Al is a buddy of Will and I's. We love Al to death. Yeah, he's great. On the Mount Rushmore. One of the best, if not the best, in every sport to ever do it, right? So I get to start working with Chris, and Chris made it so easy for

For me, it's like, hey, do the game you do. We can do things a little bit different. It's fine. Yeah.

He's that way professionally, but he's also that way personally. Chris, his wife Holly, they're kids. They've become friends of me, my wife, our kids. And that helps because when you're on the air on Sunday night, you're just sitting with a friend watching a game. And I think that makes it easy on Sunday night at 9 o'clock. You're not listening to two people trying to compete. We're trying to be our parts in the symphony.

Yeah, no, you guys nail it because that's exactly the feeling that I get when I sit down to watch the game with you guys is that it just feels like you're right there in the cozy, you know, on the couch right there with us. But, you know, the reason it happens like that is... Is because Jason's on a gummy? Yeah. Oh, no, sorry. Everything just feels so smooth. It feels like I'm right there. I can hear you in my head. Wait, Mike, where do you mostly work out? Where do you live now and then where do you work out of mostly? Where does he work out?

Come on. Where do you work from mostly? I work most of the week in my house. I live in Michigan. And then we travel to the games. Usually for Sunday night football, we'll travel on Friday.

For the Olympics, we'll get there a week before the opening ceremony. And you're not sick of traveling back and forth? Like, you like where you live? It's a lot. It's a lot. But I've come to love America. I love the fact that I can be dropped in like 40 cities in America and I don't need a map. I know where the restaurants are. I know where...

Wow. Where you can go for a walk. That is cool. That is cool. It is really cool. I really do feel like I've seen and know our country because, you know, you spend three days in Minneapolis. You spend three days in Chicago, three days in New England. That's cool. I love it. I really do. Now, was there an obstacle? Everybody's got a nice obstacle at the very start that they kind of decide they're either going to push through or they're going to hit fuck it and try something else.

Was there something that almost derailed the great Mike Tirico? I always wanted to call games, what I'm doing now, right? And my bosses told me, you know, you're a studio guy. We need you in the studio. So I volunteered to do games on my day off on Saturday. Wow. And work a six-day during the basketball season to get a chance in 94 to start doing games. And that's what I always wanted to do. And I'm like, I'm going to prove to you guys

that I'm good enough. And it took a couple of years. And then in the end of 96, one of our bosses went to ABC and then he said, Hey, you told me that you wanted to start doing some other stuff. Would you like to do some golf? Two events in 96 and then 97, I got to do golf at ABC. And the best thing about starting golf in 1997, that was Tiger's first full year of playing golf. So I got right in when the Tiger era started and golf just

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Can I just say something about the Tiger, Eric, so that we can, because there's been, you know, there's a lot of stuff. We had the privilege, and people say, oh, you like Tiger Woods. I'm like, we had the privilege of watching

one of the all-time great athletic careers that's ever graced this planet. And we got to watch it in, as you say, JB, in prime time. It was all recorded. We got to see every shot. And I thought, what a privilege we had to watch this guy play at the top of his game. It was incredible. And Mike calling the British Open. And Mike, you called it. Yeah. I had a bunch of them. I think I've done like 60...

65 or 66 majors, and Tiger's played in most of them. Wow. Wow. And he's just so... Covered a call, I should say. And, like, the energy around Tiger is different from any other athlete, even Jordan. Now, Jordan was... Michael was in a team sport, right? Yeah. And there was still this incredible energy and juice around Michael when he was there. Sure. But when Tiger was 100 yards away, you could just feel it. You could just see the pack of people...

Following him, watching people try to go hole by hole, shot by shot to see Tiger was hysterical. People tripping over each other and trying to run ahead. It was a phenomenon that lasted for a full couple of decades. It was one of the most fascinating things we've ever seen.

You know, Sean, it's hard to appreciate it if you're not a fan of-- like you don't follow golf or whatever. But to understand, to appreciate his winning percentage on that sport compared to other people when he was at his prime, it was like nothing anybody had ever seen. It blew everything else away. I don't understand the eye-brain-body coordination to get it right so many times. Yeah, I mean, he's just incredibly gifted. But what has been almost totally forgotten

is how rare it was for a black athlete to be doing this in what was traditionally a white world. It was just... I mean, there was Calvin Pete, for sure. There was... Charlie Sifford, Lee Elder. Yeah, exactly. Those are a couple of...

Black golfers that were on the stage. In hundreds of years, like one of the oldest sports ever, games ever, there were just a handful that you could look to. But then to come and dominate the way he did. And just dominate. Exactly. It was like Michael Jordan. And the thing about his dominance that was so cool to me was –

When he got the lead, he always closed. He always, all but twice, he always closed the deal going into the final round. And guys spit up the lead every other week, usually, on tour. If not more than that, every week. So he had the impact that Jack Nicklaus had. Because if his name was on the leaderboard, people would watch. I was just at an event with Tom Watson a couple of weeks ago. And he said, you know, when you saw Nicklaus' name on the board, you're like, uh-oh. Uh-oh.

And when you're thinking about somebody else, you're defeated. You're half defeated. And the ratings too. If those guys make the cut, I'm sure your weekend ratings, it's a huge difference. So a lot of people talk about Kaitlyn Clark and what she's done with women's basketball and the ratings are the likes of which we've never seen before. She's had an impact on that sport like Michael did in the NBA and Tiger did just in terms of this.

they blew the roof and the ceiling off of where the ratings were. And that'll be the mark that's going to be so hard to get for years to come because it was just the first time people have seen it. They wanted to be there and watch it. And there was something captivating about them. And they took it to a height that I don't think you'll see in those sports again. Yeah. But meanwhile, which I'm sure that they'd all be very proud of, they have exposed a

a ton of people that wouldn't otherwise have been exposed to the game. And once they're gone, those people are now already into the game and they're going to watch the next athletes that come through. So they're broadening the appeal of the sport. I mean, what Jordan did for basketball globally, right? Him and David Stern working hand in hand, you know, is just astounding. Legacy doesn't happen when you try to make it happen. Legacy happens when what you do naturally happens.

just brings people from all corners because there's something unique and captivating about you. And that's what, that's what happened with Jordan. And that's what happened with Tiger. And there, you mentioned just Tiger being black and, and,

in a sport that had been so dominated by white players and country clubs and membership and all that stuff, which I think Tiger's presence helped change over time. To the point where we don't even think about that anymore. Right? It's like a forgotten fact. Well, I don't think it still exists. No, but I mean, it's become...

I don't know how to put this, but it was such an anomaly back then. And now there are so many incredible... There's been such an expansion to the sport now. I thought Tiger was going to change the sport that way. And you'd see a lot more minorities playing and becoming the best players. What he did instead, his athletic legacy in the sport beyond his records...

He made golf cool, and now guys who are 6'1", 6'2", 6'3", started playing golf. And you look at the major... You've got guys like Brooks Koepka, Tony Finau, et cetera. You've got, like, some big guys who are now playing golf who would not have played the sport back before Tiger. It wasn't cool to be one of these big athletes who could be a tight end or a shooting forward in basketball. And that, I think, is Tiger's long-term impact on the sport itself. Yeah. Yeah, that's a great point. Wow.

That's a great point. Well, it definitely attracted a big guy like me, you know? Yeah, look at you. Otherwise, Will would have never gone there. My nickname is Big Boy. Yeah, go ahead, Sean. This is a standard Sean question from Mike Tirico. What's like, you know, the worst or most memorable or most embarrassing moment happened to you live that you called or you said something? Oh.

Not regret, but like that, or that just cracked everybody up and you were like, why didn't I just say that? Sean, you got some wood there? I'm going to knock on it, man. I have gotten through 36 years of doing this.

without really having a major all-time i'll find one screw up here come the olympics and i'm gonna blame sean there was one time i was doing a tv show a sports cast in syria i have a nut allergy and i was about to get i was about to get sick and i got away from the camera before that happened

So nothing's happened in front of a camera. You just blew it out? You blew it out. If you want the details, Sean, thank you. Now, are you as excited for the Olympics as I am? I'll bet you are much more because you know much more about it than I do. But just the little that I've read about it, it sounds like Paris is going to do something with this that we've never seen before like –

I think the whole, what, the opening ceremony takes place on the Seine, right, on the river. Yep. The events are taking place at all of the incredible monuments there, like volleyballs underneath the Eiffel Tower. Right. And surfing is in Tahiti, you know, because it's a French, you know. Long live French Polynesia, man. Yeah. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. They're going to do the surfing in Tahiti? In Tahiti. Yes, sir. Because it's a French...

I get that. I understand that. I have a full. But I'm surprised. Why wouldn't they just do it like down in Biarritz? Well, because it's not as sexy, man. That's right. That's exactly right. This is why you're not running things, Will. Well, no, but I might go to Paris. We begged. Oh, man, you should. We begged our bosses. Can we just host the whole Olympics from Tahiti? There's something going on there, right? Who cares what the background is?

But I mean, it's got to be, you guys are just probably trying to figure out how do we cover all the things we want to cover, right? It's going to be, look, Paris is one of two things. Either you've been there and you can't wait to go back or you've never been there and you want to go, right? And the Olympics needs this in the biggest way. If you think back, the last three Olympics have been in Asia. We had the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea. Then COVID-19.

denied Tokyo 2020. So that was held in 2021, COVID, no fans. And then Beijing held the Winter Games in the winter of 2022, February. Again, no fans. So we've had two Olympic Games with no fans. What do you mean no fans? COVID. Oh, because people didn't... I see, got it, got it. Because of COVID, there were no fans. And you guys were mentioning this, somebody mentioned it before,

You work your whole life to make the Olympics. It's four years of training for a minute, two minutes, whatever it ends up being for some of the athletes. You want your family there. And none of the families could go to Tokyo or to Beijing to the last summer and winter games. So that is one of the things that I am more excited about. So is this the first time it's going to be back in full force with just everything and to tell, you know,

The way it's televised and the fans and everything? Correct. This will be the first time that fans are in the stands at the Olympics since February of 2018. So six years and about five months or six months. Wow, that's pretty cool. I like the way you put that, Mike. I think you're right. The Olympics need this. They need Paris to work. They need it to be good. They need to be successful. It will be. I think it will be. It probably will. Where are the next Winter Olympics?

Well, the next Winter Olympics are Milan and Cortina, Italy in 2026. And then L.A. is in the summer. And that's why, to what Will was just saying, that's why I think this is a big Games for the Olympic movement. And it's in a great place in Paris because, as you mentioned, the backgrounds, Paris is just such an aspirational city.

But L.A. 2028, we haven't had a Summer Olympics here since Atlanta back in the late 90s. And we haven't had the Olympics in the U.S. since Salt Lake in 2002. So if you're 30, right, so 26 years between Olympics in the U.S., if you're 30, you don't ever remember the Olympics being contested in America. Right. So now you're 30 or under, Alfie. Well, you're speaking my language. Yeah, I don't remember that. I'm kidding.

You look terrible, though, Sean, for 25. Sean told me once he went to Paris, he went to Lamy Louis, you know, for dinner, and he had an Olympic movement after that, he said. Oh. Yeah. Because he had the steak and the chicken. Yeah, all the rings came out. All the rings. It was the duck. It was the duck. It was the fries they cook in goose fat, which, by the way, Lamy Louis, nobody does it better. It's a very American restaurant, but it's still great.

It's so great. Well, all right. You convinced me, Mike. I'm going to come to Paris this summer. Don't give me your number, Mike. Don't give me your number. Let's retake it. No, I'm going to come and I'll share duties with you at the desk. Here we go. You can. You want to host? Go ahead. Do you? You know who's with me? Who's that? Snoop.

No way. No way. Really? Oh, no, no. Snoop is, it's not just like Snoop's going to show up for once. Snoop is part of our coverage and he is, he is all in on this, man. I love Snoop. He is such a great dude. Where did that come from? He just performed at Jimmy Buffett's memorial, you know, that concert we did. He was unbelievable. He's such an unbelievably great guy. But where did that come from, Mike? Was that your idea?

No, no, I wish it was. So, so we'll go, go back a few years ago to the, to the last summer games. And we're trying to, you know, we have Peacock as part of the NBC family. It's our streaming service. So we're trying to figure out what shows can we do?

Olympic related on Peacock. So Kevin Hart and Snoop did Olympic highlights, their version of Olympic highlights. They did like a couple of nights during the games. And Snoop, it's a great YouTube clip of Snoop and the equestrian as like, it's like a crip walk, right? So, you know, that's where the relationship started. Then the conversations continued. And,

And he's going to be part of it. So here's the deal. Like the Olympics are going to happen live. We used to hold events and just say, hey, we'll show tea at night, right? Yeah. That doesn't happen anymore. Everybody's got a phone. They can find out what happens. Right.

So everything's going to be live during the day. It's a six-hour time difference. Yes, thank God. It's going to be great. So at night, you're going to be shown everything that happens. So we're going to try to do a little bit of the storytelling, a little bit of the behind the scenes, give you a little bit of flavor of Paris. And who better to snoop around Paris than Snoop? So we're in. Let's go. Very, very good. That's really cool. Is the family going to go with you?

My family's going to come. They've been denied the last two Olympics, which is kind of a bummer. It's the fourth time that I'm the primetime host and they haven't been able to come to any of them. So they're going to come over for a week or so and get to it. I won't see them, but they'll have a great time. And they'll have a great time because they won't see me, actually. Are your kids loving what you do? Like, are they interested or like or what's the you know, what's what's the what's your favorite thing to do as a family?

It's a great question. Be together at our lake house in Michigan now because we're away so much with my travel. We have kids who've graduated college, just finished wrapping up their college careers. That's nice. You're not old enough for college grads. Yeah, we're old people now. And a lot of people who are listening who have older kids,

Like when your kids become your friends too. Yeah, yeah. It's so cool. So that is like... I can't wait to do that. And I'm excited that they're going to get a chance to do some of this. They come to some of the football games from time to time. And you get a chance to be around it. And they...

They love sports. They both played sports in high school and were big sports fans. We're in a sports house. It's always the topic of conversation. A game's always on. So they're all in on it and they love it. How did you get to Michigan? It's where my wife is from. Okay, gotcha. Yeah, she was an all-state softball and basketball player in Michigan. And we moved back near her family.

back in the late 90s and been here for a long time. It's funny because she asked me a few years ago, do you consider yourself a Northeasterner being born in the Northeastern school? I'm like, no, I'm a Midwest guy. I love living, especially doing what I do. I love not living on either coast. It's good to be part of the flyover world and just represent us every once in a while. Yeah, I get that. That makes sense. I bet it's a nice way of living. It is.

When you do the Olympics, you end up doing a lot of interviews too as well as calling events. Do you have a preference or do you like them both equally? So in the Olympics, I don't call events. I'm hosting. So I just do the daytime and then the primetime hosting. And I love when athletes win medals and they come to sit on the couch with their medals on. Right, yeah. Because that's the moment they dream of, right? And not necessarily sitting with me, but just –

Being there and being interviewed. You've got the little fireplace going. Yeah, the winter fireplace. The summer this year will be the Eiffel Tower in the background. And they just got this heavy metal around their neck and they're just sitting there. And I've loved that. Every time I see an Olympic athlete and get a chance to talk to them or interview them, I always end it with like, hey, I hope I get to interview you with a metal around your neck, right? No matter what color metal it is. And it's just so – that's like one of the terms that translates –

You can be in a village in Africa. You can be in Australia. You can be anywhere. Olympian translates. And the coolest part of that opening ceremony, which you mentioned before, is going to go down the River Seine with a boat parade of the athletes. It's going to be very different. Hopefully it'll be spectacular. It's going to be in Seine. It is.

No. Come on. You guys, this is insane. It is. It's going to be insane. It's our little teaser bite right here. It's going to be insane. For most of the athletes, that's their Olympic moment, right? Because they don't get on the podium and sing their anthem. Only about 350 or a little bit less than that win gold medals. So their moment is being in the opening ceremony with all the best athletes in the world who made it there. I get a little melancholy and a little sappy about it, but it's so dang cool.

If you could have anybody on that couch, it doesn't need to be an Olympic couch, but talking to any athlete, alive or dead, that you haven't interviewed, do you ever think about one that you'd love to sit across from and ask some questions to? That I haven't interviewed? Yeah. Or maybe one you'd like to interview again that you forgot to ask certain questions to. No, that's a really good question. I'd like to talk to Babe Ruth.

Yeah, yeah. I'd like to talk to Babe Ruth because, like, you know, here 100 years ago, you had no idea people would still be talking about you. There'd be a candy bar named after you. Or that no one else would be a pitcher and a hitter until Shohei Otani. Otani, right? Exactly, right? What do you think of Otani, Babe? You know, with AI, we could probably do that. He's a hell of a kid. Hey, Mike, I'm here for you.

Ask me another one. I've had 12 bottles of beer and I'm ready to play. Put me in. Did Ty Cobb actually spike you, babe, when he slid into you? Yes, he did. Well, I ate two steaks and took a nap and let's go. I had 16 bottles of beer. Let's hit a ball.

But think about it. It's 100 years later. You say Babe Ruth, everybody knows. And that's the era before any of sports in its popularity level existed. Yeah, talk about a community game. In those days, it really was. It was a team for your little area around there. Can I ask you guys a France question? Has anybody been to Normandy?

I have not. I would like to. And Will, I know Will would love to. He's a real student of history. I am. Massive. I would say, you know, and we've gone a couple of times –

I would say if you had to ask me what's the place you've been as an American that has impacted you, it's going to Normandy. And here we are, 80 years of D-Day, that anniversary in June. And man, when you sit there and see and read and hear the stories, and when you sit there and look at that cemetery with the white churches and the hill,

It's one of the most powerful things that I've ever done. And every time I think of France, and we went to do a little pre-Olympic story a few months ago.

We went down to Normandy just to go back. It was the third time I had a chance to be there. And it is the most powerful thing. Anybody who's listening, if you ever are blessed enough to be in France, you have the chance to go. As an American, you need to go. Just the geography, that bluff, what they were up against. Just the physicality of that. Some of those beaches were, and some of those stories that haven't been told widely, too. There are some of those stories that haven't been. But it's incredible. I agree with you. I've never been to Normandy. I can't believe it. It's strange.

because I do, I have read so much about it. Work that into your trip on your way to go see Mike in Paris. I'm coming to see Mike. Well, I got to go to Portugal, so I'm at Michael's in Paris. Okay, let's see if you can work it in. Thank you for an hour of your professional time. Yeah, this is your personal time. Mike Tirico.

Very, very nice to do this. Hall of Famer Mike Tirico. This was an honor, guys. Thank you. Keep making us laugh. Will you please? Thanks, guys. Cheers. Well, you keep delivering these stories. All right. Thank you, buddy. We'll see you on the TV soon. For sure. Thanks, guys. Bye, pal. Thank you. See you, Mike. Bye.

Well, I mean, that guy, you know. Nice. He's a good conversationalist. Well, he's a professional on-air fellow. He's on air on television. I tell you what, you know, people say, what kind of superhero power would you like? Well, I'd like to fly. What kind of job would you like? If I could pick one job, I think I'd take his job. You love that. Well, it's just he touches. I thought you said that about late night TV. Well, but I don't get to go to. I thought you said that about doing a multi-cam. I guess I want a bunch of jobs.

Why don't you just enjoy what you got? You're right. That's a good note. Sorry. No, sorry. Tell me about it. You get to go to like every single great event in the best seat possible. And then you get to talk to the people who won right afterwards. Yeah. That is pretty cool. It's pretty cool. I like my job in that I get to sit and listen to have him describe it to me. Right. It feels like such a luxury. Yeah. You know, get him to like walk me through it and...

There is something like cozy about...

What you're saying, Jason, I think, or Will, I can't remember. And he does, you know, for any of you out there that are still listening to this episode that are not sports fans, which I hope there are still many, hopefully you agree that, like, this guy, the reason you kind of like him is because you might watch a sporting event that you don't really like or know how the sport's played, but he's kind of explaining it to you, and he kind of, it's a familiar, cozy kind of voice and presence that...

I guess it's a talent and an intent. That's kind of where I was going with that. That's what you were about to say.

But I said it longer and more boringly. And interrupted him. But, you know, he covers all the sports, right? Like he covers. Here it comes. Here it comes. Yeah. Oh, no. He's the NFL. You can always sniff it out because whoever's going to do it teased themselves up. Yeah. No. They just nudge their way in. Oh, yeah. But he calls all the sports, right, during the year. But he's going to be the host of the Olympics. But he's not going to be doing any play. Bye. Play.

Very good. Land that steel bird. I wrote down play-by-play. Smart. Less. Smart. Less. Smartless is 100% organic and artisanally handcrafted by Rob Armjarv, Bennett Barbico, and Michael Granteri. Smart. Less.

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