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O-Zone Podcast: Pete Prisco · The Jacksonville Jaguars Official Podcast Network

0:08
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Ozone Podcast featuring Jaguars dot Com Senior
0:13
Speaker 1: writer John Oser and Jaguars executive producer Dave the Kennis.
0:18
Speaker 1: This week is one I'm excited about, and not because
0:21
Speaker 1: it's necessarily a new voice to Jaguars fans, but it's
0:27
Speaker 1: an old friend of mine. I think most people who
0:28
Speaker 1: follow the Jaguars know that's Pete Prisco, who is our
0:31
Speaker 1: guest and I go way way back. We cover the
0:34
Speaker 1: Jags together. But one of the things in the Ozone
0:37
Speaker 1: podcast that we wanted to do was perhaps give the viewers,
0:42
Speaker 1: the readers, the listeners some insight into people that they
0:45
Speaker 1: hear from in a way that they normally don't hear
0:49
Speaker 1: about that person. So in today's oz own podcast, we're
0:53
Speaker 1: gonna talk to Pete Prisco, maybe not as much about
0:56
Speaker 1: the Jaguars per se, but get into a little bit
0:59
Speaker 1: of Pete's back round, how he and I met some
1:02
Speaker 1: of the early times with the Jaguars, and give fans
1:06
Speaker 1: a chance to get to know somebody who they have
1:08
Speaker 1: certainly heard from a lot. So today's podcast, Pete Frisco, Pete,
1:13
Speaker 1: how you do everybody oh so quick telling people I'm
1:15
Speaker 1: a friend of yours. I mean, come on, well, if
1:20
Speaker 1: we aren't friends in this business, I don't know who is.
1:22
Speaker 1: I mean, that's kind of the nature of this podcast.
1:26
Speaker 1: And uh, we've talked over the years on Jaguars channels
1:32
Speaker 1: a lot about the current team, and goodness knows, we've
1:36
Speaker 1: talked enough about Tony Boselli that we're tired of it.
1:39
Speaker 1: But beyond that, we covered this team for six years together,
1:44
Speaker 1: wrote a book, saw a lot of things that I'm
1:47
Speaker 1: not sure that the people who listened to the Jaguars
1:51
Speaker 1: no much about your background beyond CBS and the Times
1:55
Speaker 1: Union or some of the stories that we saw in
1:58
Speaker 1: six years. And you, me and Mike be Honky, we're
2:00
Speaker 1: traveling with this team. So I'm hoping over a couple
2:04
Speaker 1: of podcasts to get into that. I think it'll be fun.
2:07
Speaker 1: So it's uh, I there won't be Nova Sally talk
2:11
Speaker 1: or though I'm sure you might like that with him.
2:15
Speaker 1: I mean, that's all we do is talk about the Sally,
2:18
Speaker 1: get him in the hall, get him in the hall,
2:19
Speaker 1: and off with it at some point. And there's other
2:22
Speaker 1: guys I'd love to get into, Jimmy and some other
2:24
Speaker 1: guys who I think ought to be in the hall
2:26
Speaker 1: from that time and hopefully we'll get into that as well.
2:28
Speaker 1: But before we start, um, I see a couple of questions,
2:32
Speaker 1: and maybe even I don't know that well. I know
2:35
Speaker 1: you went to a s U and then took some
2:37
Speaker 1: turns through Denver and Tulsa before the TU. But tell
2:41
Speaker 1: people how you got to the TU and sort of
2:46
Speaker 1: how you became a Jacksonville sports media guy. Yeah, I
2:51
Speaker 1: went to as you, um, majored in broadcast journalism, which
2:55
Speaker 1: is kind of funny now because most people have majored
2:58
Speaker 1: in journalism and most of the stuff I even now
3:00
Speaker 1: it is all broadcast and so that worked out well.
3:02
Speaker 1: Even though the school at the time wasn't great for that,
3:05
Speaker 1: it is now it's probably the best school in the
3:07
Speaker 1: country for broadcast journalism. They have a giant facility downtown now,
3:12
Speaker 1: Walter Cronkite School of Journalism. Although they've never honored me,
3:15
Speaker 1: so I don't. I don't you know, they haven't. It
3:19
Speaker 1: never brought me back to speak or anything. Maybe they
3:21
Speaker 1: remember how you worry when you were there. Yeah, we
3:24
Speaker 1: worked in the school paper. I was a good guy,
3:26
Speaker 1: you know, that was the fun part of that. We
3:28
Speaker 1: all worked on the school paper and I was the
3:30
Speaker 1: sports editor and got to go on road trips. Well
3:34
Speaker 1: we had every we had like four of us. We
3:36
Speaker 1: got to divide up the road trips and we traveled
3:39
Speaker 1: with the media relations director and had to stay in
3:42
Speaker 1: the room with him, but we got here's what we
3:44
Speaker 1: got when you got on the road. You got all
3:45
Speaker 1: the you know, free food you could eat on the
3:48
Speaker 1: plane and everything, which was huge for a college kid.
3:52
Speaker 1: And then status for the TV broadcast, which they paid
3:54
Speaker 1: just like thirty five bucks, which was gold for the
3:56
Speaker 1: next month in college back then. So it was a
3:59
Speaker 1: great experience. I picked first and l A and then
4:04
Speaker 1: somebody picked I think that year was they picked Stanford,
4:07
Speaker 1: and then Oregon, and then I picked Washington had the
4:10
Speaker 1: last one was mine. I got Washington State and uh
4:13
Speaker 1: I went to Idaho to because it was only eight
4:17
Speaker 1: team Washington at the time was and the bars closed.
4:20
Speaker 1: John and I had no way to get home back
4:22
Speaker 1: to the hotel and there were no calves. I had
4:26
Speaker 1: begged for a ride. Finally got back and had to
4:28
Speaker 1: be on the bus in like five hours. He was.
4:33
Speaker 1: There was no uber then, but you'll you'll remember this.
4:35
Speaker 1: There was actually a sports bar in Idaho, where they
4:40
Speaker 1: had a nail hammered into the wall way up, and
4:43
Speaker 1: I said, well, what the hell is that? You remember
4:47
Speaker 1: gust uh what was his name, gust Johnson who played
4:50
Speaker 1: for the Bullets and Wizards back in the day forward, Well,
4:55
Speaker 1: that's how high he jumped, and it was there to
4:58
Speaker 1: challenge anybody who wanted to try and reach it. And
5:01
Speaker 1: I think because he went, I think he went to
5:03
Speaker 1: Ido and and that thing stayed there forever until DJ's
5:08
Speaker 1: little brother broke the record, Joey Johnson, and he ended
5:11
Speaker 1: up playing a little bit too. So so anyway, so
5:14
Speaker 1: I go to Issue. Then I get out of school.
5:16
Speaker 1: I got get a part time job in Denver, which
5:18
Speaker 1: was the best experience of my life because the staff
5:21
Speaker 1: was great and it wasn't a part time job. Denver
5:23
Speaker 1: Post was a monster of a newspaper, so they actually
5:26
Speaker 1: allowed me go do Brocos games, and I did college hockey,
5:30
Speaker 1: and I traveled with college hockey. Um I went down
5:33
Speaker 1: to Uston to do something on the Gamblers. When when
5:36
Speaker 1: they merged the two franchises in USFL to do something
5:39
Speaker 1: on Mouse Davis and June Jones, I found JR. Richards
5:43
Speaker 1: standing on the curb and wrote a story about him,
5:45
Speaker 1: which was a good story and ended up being the
5:47
Speaker 1: Sporting News actually, so we got to do a lot
5:50
Speaker 1: of stuff. Left there, I went to UM Tulsa worked
5:56
Speaker 1: at the Tulsa Tribune in the afternoon, which was a
5:59
Speaker 1: fun experience. Uh. Became hated in that city because I
6:03
Speaker 1: was like everything and anything. They weren't, you know, they were, oh, yeah,
6:08
Speaker 1: you Yankee New Yorker. They called me, you know, they
6:10
Speaker 1: didn't like But and Nolan Richardson, who was then the
6:12
Speaker 1: coach at Tulsa. That's where the infamous Prisco disco cisco came.
6:18
Speaker 1: And then uh, when I left there, part because I
6:23
Speaker 1: was an idiot and they wanted me out, but I
6:27
Speaker 1: deserved to be let go, let's put it that way.
6:29
Speaker 1: And then um went home, was thinking about doing something else.
6:33
Speaker 1: Started working for the St. Pete Times as a stringer.
6:36
Speaker 1: Remember that they had They paid good money for that job.
6:39
Speaker 1: I was there South Florida s fringer and then ended
6:41
Speaker 1: up at the Times Union and got hired to do
6:44
Speaker 1: college football. Initially, remember I was the Georgia beat guy.
6:49
Speaker 1: You started out on Georgia and then quickly worked with
6:53
Speaker 1: your friend Jeff Freeze on Florida two years, two years,
6:58
Speaker 1: and then in eight nine and I moved over and
7:00
Speaker 1: I started doing the NFL and we did the NFL.
7:03
Speaker 1: I would go to games every weekend and I went
7:05
Speaker 1: to the Super Bowl. From that point on, I've been
7:07
Speaker 1: in every one since that. What was blistering in the
7:13
Speaker 1: in the super Dome that year the Broncos I got
7:17
Speaker 1: killed by the four nine, And that was so long ago.
7:20
Speaker 1: I love to tell that story because I was so
7:22
Speaker 1: long ago, John, that the players in the locker room
7:24
Speaker 1: were screaming, we got the speed limit. Remember because of
7:28
Speaker 1: speed limit now pre Jaguars and the TV, you guys
7:34
Speaker 1: covered it and I was there, but I wasn't on
7:37
Speaker 1: that level yet. Um, when do you recall at first
7:44
Speaker 1: you were covering games and a lot of papers back
7:47
Speaker 1: then had NFL guys even though they weren't in NFL city.
7:50
Speaker 1: That was common. It would never happen now, obviously, but
7:52
Speaker 1: that was common back then. When did you get the idea,
7:56
Speaker 1: P that you were covering and expansion race more than
8:02
Speaker 1: you were in the NFL, because it it's sort of
8:04
Speaker 1: changed for those five years, didn't it. It did. That
8:08
Speaker 1: was the number one priority, which is why I went
8:11
Speaker 1: to every meeting that they possibly had if the NFL
8:14
Speaker 1: had a meeting and they were you know, remember those
8:16
Speaker 1: spring meetings were very limited on access, but we went.
8:19
Speaker 1: I had to go manufacturer story. I hope I get
8:21
Speaker 1: one owners have a lot of lobbies didn't. Oh yeah,
8:24
Speaker 1: I hope I got one story where an owner. I
8:26
Speaker 1: could trick an owner and saying yeah, they have a chance,
8:28
Speaker 1: and then get a headline Jacksonville has a chance. You know,
8:30
Speaker 1: I was begging for stuff like that. It's actually where
8:34
Speaker 1: I got to know Roger Goodell, which you know that
8:36
Speaker 1: that whole experience was invaluable to me. I mean, he
8:39
Speaker 1: was a young guy in the league office at the time,
8:42
Speaker 1: and he was kind of the point man on expansion,
8:45
Speaker 1: and you know, we used to kid him. There were
8:46
Speaker 1: a bunch of us that traveled around that in the
8:49
Speaker 1: expansion cities, and we kind of all bonded together, and
8:52
Speaker 1: we used to call him the boyer would be commissioner.
8:55
Speaker 1: And he didn't like it because he was He perceived
8:59
Speaker 1: it as being if he his name kept getting out there,
9:01
Speaker 1: then they would do the exact opposite. And as it
9:04
Speaker 1: worked out, he ended up becoming the commissioner. A relationship
9:07
Speaker 1: with Roger. In fact, shortly after he became commissioner, I
9:13
Speaker 1: was at a Thanksgiving Day game in Detroit, and I
9:18
Speaker 1: was sitting there at the pregame meal, and all of
9:20
Speaker 1: a sudden, I feel this flick in the back of
9:22
Speaker 1: my ear and I look up and it's Roger Goodell,
9:24
Speaker 1: and I go, come on, Roger, commissioner. And now I
9:26
Speaker 1: ken't be doing that to me anymore. People don't know
9:29
Speaker 1: who he is as a guy. He's actually a down
9:32
Speaker 1: the earth, easy, easy to get along with guy if
9:35
Speaker 1: you know him. And I've got to know him over
9:37
Speaker 1: the years, and I think he's done a good job,
9:39
Speaker 1: by the way, and he uh. The expansion process is
9:43
Speaker 1: fascinating because I was covering Florida. I was covering high
9:47
Speaker 1: schools when it first started covering Florida before I joined
9:50
Speaker 1: you on the Jags when they got it, so I
9:53
Speaker 1: wasn't with you during a lot of the reporting for that.
9:56
Speaker 1: But what I've always been curious about. I've always told
10:00
Speaker 1: people that you knew or had a feeling about Jacksonville
10:04
Speaker 1: getting it long before anybody else, and everybody thought you
10:07
Speaker 1: were crazy. And I will get to that in a minute,
10:10
Speaker 1: But when did you first get the idea that they
10:15
Speaker 1: really had a chance, if you can recall that, because
10:18
Speaker 1: they got ninety four. But you started telling people way
10:22
Speaker 1: before that to the point, Pete where people of the
10:24
Speaker 1: paper didn't believe you. No. And you remember the one
10:28
Speaker 1: story I broke, which was infuriated a lot of people
10:30
Speaker 1: before that even got to that level because they thought
10:33
Speaker 1: I was going to ruin it for him to get
10:34
Speaker 1: any chances get any team. Was that Charlie Rice, the
10:37
Speaker 1: late Charlie Rice from Barnett Banks, was in negotiations to
10:40
Speaker 1: try and buy the New England Patriots and bring him
10:42
Speaker 1: to Jacksonville. Remember that one, and that one was seen
10:47
Speaker 1: in the league circles. They got mad about it because
10:49
Speaker 1: it got out. Charlie Rice and Gang were mad about it,
10:52
Speaker 1: and the expansion group in Jacksonville was mad about it
10:55
Speaker 1: because they thought they were going to ruin any chance
10:56
Speaker 1: that they had. So but it was that was legitimate
10:59
Speaker 1: because the Kayam at the time was trying to sell
11:01
Speaker 1: the team, and he obviously sold the team to to
11:04
Speaker 1: Bob Kraft. So that was one of the first stories.
11:06
Speaker 1: And then as the process played out, remember they awarded
11:09
Speaker 1: him in two different meetings. They first went to Charlotte
11:14
Speaker 1: and then it was all up in our up in
11:16
Speaker 1: the air, but who's gonna get the next one? And
11:18
Speaker 1: it was going to St. Louis, I mean it would
11:21
Speaker 1: have been St. Louis. Jacksonville would have never had a franchise. St.
11:24
Speaker 1: Louis was getting the team, and then one of their
11:28
Speaker 1: investors screwed it all up. And when that happened, they
11:33
Speaker 1: turned to Wayne Weaver and said, hey, we like you,
11:36
Speaker 1: we want you in St. Louis. And he said no,
11:39
Speaker 1: it's either Jacksonville or nothing, and he didn't go, and
11:41
Speaker 1: even though he was from St. Louis. So then I
11:43
Speaker 1: started getting winded that Jacksonville was really I mean, this
11:46
Speaker 1: league was really excited about Wayne Weaver and that would
11:50
Speaker 1: be a real strong point for them to push it
11:52
Speaker 1: over the top. And so they had that. Obviously, they
11:54
Speaker 1: had to sell all the tickets and touchdown Jacksonville and
11:57
Speaker 1: the whole thing it looked like it was falling apart.
11:59
Speaker 1: They brought it back the other But that's kind of
12:01
Speaker 1: where that started. And believe me that when I wrote
12:03
Speaker 1: that story, I got a ton of pushback from people
12:05
Speaker 1: saying jackson Will still alive. Nobody believed me. But that
12:09
Speaker 1: that source was rock solid. And there was a point where,
12:15
Speaker 1: as I recall, you told me the paper I didn't
12:18
Speaker 1: want to run the story because they thought you were wrong.
12:21
Speaker 1: If I remember my memories, because there were so many
12:24
Speaker 1: of them, they didn't run because they thought I was wrong.
12:28
Speaker 1: But on that when you were no, I e. The
12:32
Speaker 1: Burnell Coughlin riff, remember, so I bring that one up again. Um, oh,
12:37
Speaker 1: we'll get to that. They I think there was, yeah,
12:42
Speaker 1: because it used to remember it used to be you
12:43
Speaker 1: had to have eighteen sources to write a story back
12:46
Speaker 1: then and now you don't even need one. No, no,
12:51
Speaker 1: you don't. And even though this was like rock solid source,
12:56
Speaker 1: they were a little scared about it. So yeah, But
12:58
Speaker 1: eventually I got to convinced to write it. Run up
13:01
Speaker 1: the year when Kaughlin was the coach, but they didn't
13:05
Speaker 1: have a team, or the team wasn't there yet. I've
13:10
Speaker 1: always been intrigued by the relationship between you guys, because
13:15
Speaker 1: I was there for so much of it. When you
13:18
Speaker 1: cover a beat and you're dealing with the head coach,
13:21
Speaker 1: and that's really the head coach that you dealt with
13:23
Speaker 1: as a beat writer, because you weren't a beat writer
13:25
Speaker 1: after you left. Um, what was that year like? And
13:30
Speaker 1: I know the answer to it. When Tom didn't have
13:33
Speaker 1: a team and you guys were basically at each other
13:36
Speaker 1: every day. Well, it started off poorly because I wrote
13:41
Speaker 1: the story and talked to some of his former receivers
13:44
Speaker 1: and they called him maniac coach. After that, I think
13:49
Speaker 1: it was more talked to receivers in Green Bay and
13:52
Speaker 1: in Philly, right, and it was mark Ingram or one
14:00
Speaker 1: of those two use the maniac cop line. And he
14:03
Speaker 1: never forgot that that that you know, shot shot. You
14:06
Speaker 1: know how he would say, that's a shot, that's a shot.
14:09
Speaker 1: And so that didn't exactly you know, make it warm
14:13
Speaker 1: and fuzzy. Um. And then and then you know that
14:18
Speaker 1: whole season. Remember he had his tapes in that room.
14:23
Speaker 1: Remember you remember the first year was in that trailer.
14:26
Speaker 1: I don't know, I remember talking about the trailer. I
14:28
Speaker 1: came after the trailers. Well, in the trailer, you'd have
14:31
Speaker 1: to go into the trailer and walk down the hallway
14:33
Speaker 1: and go to his office. Well, he was very you
14:36
Speaker 1: know how he always was. He never wanted anybody in
14:38
Speaker 1: his office. Remember the story where he left Peter King
14:41
Speaker 1: in the office and Peter King got the story about
14:44
Speaker 1: the tapes on the that he was looking at, and
14:47
Speaker 1: one of them was Mark Grunelle, and Coughlin got angry
14:49
Speaker 1: about it. And from that point on, nobody ever went
14:52
Speaker 1: into his office. Remember that was the end of it.
14:54
Speaker 1: And yeah, no, I never saw I never saw the
14:58
Speaker 1: inside of his office ever. You believe that the whole
15:01
Speaker 1: time I covered that team. Remember he used to meet
15:03
Speaker 1: us in different rooms and stuff. He never let us
15:05
Speaker 1: go into his office. In part I found out later
15:08
Speaker 1: his desk was raised up so he can look down
15:11
Speaker 1: on the players when they came in. And after Jack
15:14
Speaker 1: del Rio told me that actually, and I wrote that
15:16
Speaker 1: story that he chopped the desk back down and brought
15:19
Speaker 1: it down to the level. And Kaufman read that somehow
15:22
Speaker 1: and said, oh, another shot. There you go, taking a
15:24
Speaker 1: shot the desk shot. He came back in two thousand
15:28
Speaker 1: and he left. Remember I left in O one when
15:29
Speaker 1: Kauflan still the coach, and you had left about six
15:31
Speaker 1: months before me. I went to the Colts for ten years.
15:35
Speaker 1: Came back and in the first couple of months Jack
15:39
Speaker 1: was still the head coach. I went down to interview him.
15:43
Speaker 1: That was in two thousand and eleven, and it was
15:46
Speaker 1: the first time in sixteen I had never seen the
15:49
Speaker 1: inside of the head coaches office. I told that Jack
15:52
Speaker 1: started laughing. Yeah, he used to laugh about it all
15:54
Speaker 1: the time. Kauflan used to, you know, get mad about it,
15:58
Speaker 1: but that's just who he was, and you know, we
16:00
Speaker 1: just have to go. He remember me and you hiding
16:03
Speaker 1: in them in the weight room when he came in
16:06
Speaker 1: because Kevin Gilbride, everybody was terrified. It was I'll tell
16:11
Speaker 1: you what, I couldn't being a beat guy. Really, first
16:16
Speaker 1: time in the NFL. I couldn't have asked for more.
16:20
Speaker 1: It was the greatest experience ever for me, being able
16:23
Speaker 1: to deal with him on a daily basis and being
16:26
Speaker 1: able to deal with a new bunch of guys in
16:29
Speaker 1: a locker room. They were all kind of coming together,
16:31
Speaker 1: it was, and you were there for all. It was great.
16:33
Speaker 1: The theater was great. The stuff that went on would
16:35
Speaker 1: never go on now. I mean, I think that's what
16:39
Speaker 1: is is most fascinating to me. Yeah, I've been doing
16:43
Speaker 1: this twenty five years and now you've been doing it longer.
16:46
Speaker 1: I don't think I realized, Like we talked about it,
16:50
Speaker 1: we were on the beat, we'd be on the road
16:51
Speaker 1: and we'd say, you know, expansion year. But at the
16:55
Speaker 1: age we were, I don't think we realized exactly was
16:59
Speaker 1: an incredible comtunity it was. Were storing a nube. I
17:02
Speaker 1: don't think. I don't think you realize until you look
17:04
Speaker 1: back that all the stories Leon Brown and Steven's point,
17:09
Speaker 1: Basselli getting hurt, there, guys yelling at us, and just
17:15
Speaker 1: the coming together of that team I've never covered. I've
17:19
Speaker 1: covered a super Bowl championship, I've covered that team getting
17:22
Speaker 1: to playoffs, but never a season quite like ninety. No,
17:27
Speaker 1: the six weeks of Steven's point, they beat the day
17:30
Speaker 1: like that, Remember it was, it was And you know,
17:33
Speaker 1: I still never I don't ever let Tony Basselli forget that.
17:37
Speaker 1: They sent him home on the private plane. Everybody else
17:40
Speaker 1: gets hurt, they go home, they sent the private plane
17:44
Speaker 1: playing for Tony Basselli. And and so yeah, I mean
17:48
Speaker 1: you mentioned Leon Brown. That was still one of the
17:51
Speaker 1: most And I saw him a couple of years ago.
17:54
Speaker 1: He's a police officer in Jacksonville. One of the most
17:57
Speaker 1: disgusting injuries we've ever seen. You where remember it was
18:01
Speaker 1: facing one way and his leg was going the other way,
18:03
Speaker 1: and well, and and we've talked before. It's the only
18:07
Speaker 1: time I've seen players who wouldn't look at an injury
18:12
Speaker 1: when it happened. They were running and looking away and
18:16
Speaker 1: not wanting to be around it. It was that bad
18:18
Speaker 1: and Leon Brown people who don't know it it was a
18:20
Speaker 1: running back from Paxson, who was a good player. I'm
18:25
Speaker 1: sure he made the team or not, but it was. Yeah,
18:28
Speaker 1: it was a horrific injury and obviously never played again.
18:30
Speaker 1: So remember remember the other thing, it was raining that day. Yeah,
18:34
Speaker 1: so there was some theory that I remember he went
18:36
Speaker 1: out and practiced anyways, and there was some theory that
18:38
Speaker 1: the wet field contributed to it. But then not only that,
18:41
Speaker 1: as most coaches would do, he moved the drink. Coughlin
18:44
Speaker 1: moved the drill over ten ten tenor hard the next
18:48
Speaker 1: play with Leon Foot facing um green Bay. And then
18:55
Speaker 1: it was the Ernest Gibbons um uh Desmond. So, I
19:00
Speaker 1: mean that was another one. It was just he was Look,
19:04
Speaker 1: I came to respect him with the utmost respect, I
19:08
Speaker 1: really did. But in that first year, and you know what,
19:10
Speaker 1: you were part of it, he was psycho And that's
19:16
Speaker 1: I think the interesting thing. There's so many of when
19:19
Speaker 1: you cover a guy the way you covered Tom and
19:22
Speaker 1: I covered Spurrier in Florida, and I was around coaches
19:26
Speaker 1: when I was in Indianapolis. But when you're the beat
19:29
Speaker 1: guy and you're talking to him every day and you're
19:33
Speaker 1: trying to poke and prode for information, I think you
19:37
Speaker 1: really get to know a coach on a level where
19:41
Speaker 1: you're thinking about him all the time. It's it's a
19:43
Speaker 1: weird level that you're trying to analyze a guy. But
19:47
Speaker 1: I've talked to you since then, and and the respect
19:50
Speaker 1: that you have for him, and I think it goes
19:53
Speaker 1: the other way too. I I guess the question would be,
19:58
Speaker 1: there's the persona of Tom, but you had a respect
20:03
Speaker 1: for him beyond that, And the respect really is real. You,
20:07
Speaker 1: I think, have an admiration for the guy, don't you.
20:10
Speaker 1: He's a good man. There's a lot of coaches in
20:13
Speaker 1: the league you aren't good man. Tom Coffin is a
20:16
Speaker 1: good man, and that's why you gotta respect him. Look,
20:18
Speaker 1: he can be as crazy and maniacal as any coach
20:22
Speaker 1: ever has been, and he was. I mean, we didn't
20:25
Speaker 1: you could tell stories all day about you know, painting
20:28
Speaker 1: the inside of the of the hallways instead of just
20:31
Speaker 1: painting part of it and then having him do it
20:33
Speaker 1: over and over again because he didn't like it. I mean,
20:35
Speaker 1: little crazy things. But you know what, he was always
20:39
Speaker 1: a good man. And we didn't see that a lot
20:42
Speaker 1: during football season, but me and you would always sit
20:44
Speaker 1: down with him at like the owners meetings, with him
20:46
Speaker 1: and his wife Judy, and we've always come away we say, God,
20:50
Speaker 1: why don't we get that side of him that much?
20:52
Speaker 1: You know, because he was so open and accommodated. And
20:55
Speaker 1: then there's the other Tom. And you'll remember this story.
20:57
Speaker 1: You remember at the seafood Jubilee at the Senior we
21:00
Speaker 1: was passing around the wages and how to pick up
21:02
Speaker 1: the plates and clean it up. Remember, I mean that's yeah,
21:07
Speaker 1: so yeah, but good man. And you can't say that
21:11
Speaker 1: about you know, there's some good coaches in the league
21:14
Speaker 1: and some good men in league. But one thing about
21:16
Speaker 1: Tom Coughlin, he is genuine when it comes to being
21:19
Speaker 1: him as a person. There's no question about that. When
21:23
Speaker 1: we flew home from Stevens Point after six weeks and
21:27
Speaker 1: you're sleeping at seven am and your brother says, hey, Pete,
21:30
Speaker 1: Tom's on the phone. Was you a good man that morning? Uh? No.
21:34
Speaker 1: And in fact, the stuff he said on there I
21:36
Speaker 1: cannot repeat on here. It was it was actually probably
21:39
Speaker 1: more like six and uh and I was hurting and
21:44
Speaker 1: the worst possibly and I picked it and I took
21:47
Speaker 1: the phone call and as soon as I said, I
21:49
Speaker 1: went oho, and we just went off. After they had
21:53
Speaker 1: lost the Lions in a preseason game, and you had
21:58
Speaker 1: written that players were saying in their legs were dead
22:00
Speaker 1: because camp was tough, and we and he didn't see
22:05
Speaker 1: the story until the next day. So by that time
22:07
Speaker 1: he had a fester and he called me. We flew home.
22:10
Speaker 1: Remember I went out there and he just ripped me.
22:13
Speaker 1: And I said to him. Finally, I said to him,
22:14
Speaker 1: I I all right, Tom, whatever, don't give him an excuse.
22:17
Speaker 1: Was the thing he kept screaming over and over again.
22:19
Speaker 1: And then finally I said, Tom, do I call you
22:21
Speaker 1: at six o'clock in the morning. He goes, no, I
22:22
Speaker 1: go good, And I hung up on him. Let me,
22:27
Speaker 1: I see this. Do you think the nineties six run
22:32
Speaker 1: happens if he had been any different that first season? Nope,
22:36
Speaker 1: absolutely not. Absolutely, he really did take the franchise. He
22:40
Speaker 1: did the right way. He did it. I mean he
22:42
Speaker 1: went overboard him some things, but he did it the
22:45
Speaker 1: right way. That's the only way. And he you know,
22:46
Speaker 1: he even going back years and you've been around me
22:49
Speaker 1: when we talked to him about ninety five and he says,
22:52
Speaker 1: I had to weed out that team. I had to
22:54
Speaker 1: find out who was here to stay and who's here
22:56
Speaker 1: to play. And that's why he beat the daylights out
22:58
Speaker 1: of him and Steve. It's point, so I get. I know,
23:02
Speaker 1: I think the foundation was built by that. What's your
23:06
Speaker 1: favorite rubber hallway story? We walked that hallway with him
23:09
Speaker 1: every day for five years. Anything stand out? Oh yeah,
23:13
Speaker 1: there's a there's a The one that stands out more
23:16
Speaker 1: than any is I. I was talking to him about
23:21
Speaker 1: contract extension and I said, hey, Tom, I'm gonna do
23:23
Speaker 1: a Sunday thing where I said it's time they need
23:25
Speaker 1: to give him a contract extension. And he goes, okay, okay,
23:28
Speaker 1: I go. But there's you know, when you do get it,
23:31
Speaker 1: and he's gonna get it, I said, I want you
23:33
Speaker 1: to make sure I get it first. You give it
23:36
Speaker 1: to me, Okay, okay. So I write the column. You
23:38
Speaker 1: know it was you know, he deserved it well. In between,
23:46
Speaker 1: I think the time that he got his extension at
23:48
Speaker 1: the time to call or they announced extent, or gave
23:51
Speaker 1: it to me, and the column came out. I reported
23:55
Speaker 1: of the Jimmy Smith hiding the injury. Remember that. Yeah,
23:59
Speaker 1: I had warned him, and you heard me many of
24:01
Speaker 1: the time. They said, Tommy can't hide injuries. And I
24:04
Speaker 1: went out in the parking lot, which was the greatest
24:05
Speaker 1: thing in the world because it was public property, and
24:07
Speaker 1: I waited for players. They told me Jimmy wasn't practicing.
24:09
Speaker 1: So I came back in. Remember you were right there.
24:12
Speaker 1: I called yellow and I said, enough of this, Greg.
24:14
Speaker 1: This is every week with him, he's hiding injuries. So
24:18
Speaker 1: about Jimmy jumped me the next day. He was mad
24:22
Speaker 1: for the dumb reason. I don't know why, because it
24:24
Speaker 1: was his injury. And a couple of days later, Cofflin's
24:28
Speaker 1: walking down the hallway. Know what happened? Was this before
24:30
Speaker 1: that they released his contracts extension? Remember the team gave
24:36
Speaker 1: it everybody. So then Cofflin's walking down the hallway a
24:40
Speaker 1: couple of days later and I go, tom you at
24:44
Speaker 1: me sure? And he looked at me and he goes,
24:47
Speaker 1: what are you talking about? I go, you told me
24:49
Speaker 1: you would give me the contract extension, and he walked,
24:51
Speaker 1: kept walking and he turned back and he goes, what
24:54
Speaker 1: you called the little lead, The deal was off. That's
24:59
Speaker 1: one of my favorites. The calling me out for his
25:03
Speaker 1: grade was always a good one. You remember that one
25:05
Speaker 1: too late in the afternoon. Do you remember that one?
25:09
Speaker 1: You gotta be minded. The first question was was anything
25:13
Speaker 1: so not worth the trouble? Then you're grades? No? Because
25:18
Speaker 1: the offensive lineman used to hate it, and they all
25:20
Speaker 1: hated it. It was just it infuriated them. But he,
25:24
Speaker 1: of all people, he said, don't pay attention to the media,
25:27
Speaker 1: called me out one afternoon and he pulled me out
25:29
Speaker 1: in the hallway and I go what. He goes, be minus?
25:34
Speaker 1: And what are you talking about? He goes, we won
25:36
Speaker 1: twenty four to twelve or whatever it was. He goes,
25:39
Speaker 1: and you gave me a B minus. I said, okay, Tom,
25:42
Speaker 1: let me just tell you this. You say you don't
25:44
Speaker 1: read the paper, so how the hell you know you
25:47
Speaker 1: gotta be minus? My daughter told me. I said, well, okay,
25:50
Speaker 1: your daughter told you, and it really bothers you that much.
25:53
Speaker 1: Here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna give you this opportunity.
25:56
Speaker 1: You give yourself a grade and not put it in
25:58
Speaker 1: the paper to morrow. He started, Yeah, it's uh, it
26:06
Speaker 1: was a different time. I think maybe it's not like
26:08
Speaker 1: an old man here, But I don't know that the
26:09
Speaker 1: Beat guys today have the opportunity for a relationship like that. Uh.
26:15
Speaker 1: And and and maybe it's because the league is so different.
26:18
Speaker 1: There was national media back then, but there wasn't Twitter.
26:21
Speaker 1: There wasn't you know, time's changed. But I'm not sure
26:24
Speaker 1: that you know this, John. There were things that happened
26:28
Speaker 1: in that locker room that if they happened in today's there,
26:30
Speaker 1: they'd be instant fodder on Twitter. Oh yeah, and swinging
26:34
Speaker 1: and or you know, coming after us and yelling at
26:37
Speaker 1: us and screaming at us and everything else and threatening us.
26:41
Speaker 1: That you know that happens nowadays, and it's instant, you know,
26:44
Speaker 1: all over the place. It's you know, it's not gonna
26:47
Speaker 1: be a little small little blurb or something. So the
26:51
Speaker 1: room incidents where the team could kind of go to
26:54
Speaker 1: everybody and keep them quiet, and they weren't major. I mean,
26:57
Speaker 1: if they had been major, they had been reported, but
27:00
Speaker 1: it the minor desktops which were sort of part of it.
27:06
Speaker 1: And I think to Pete that that that's probably why
27:09
Speaker 1: there's a little less trust than there ever was between
27:14
Speaker 1: players and media, because there's no way to keep things
27:17
Speaker 1: like that from being out anymore. Yeah, and and I
27:21
Speaker 1: get it, I believe me. As I travel around the
27:23
Speaker 1: league and I get to know people, and the the
27:26
Speaker 1: access and trust is so much more limited than what
27:30
Speaker 1: it used to be. I mean, that's just that's the
27:31
Speaker 1: bottom line. And you know, like hovering around, you know,
27:37
Speaker 1: guys hovering around media relations directors, hovering around when you're
27:40
Speaker 1: talking to a guy didn't happen to us. It's a
27:43
Speaker 1: lot we got to talk to him. Yeah, you could
27:47
Speaker 1: always go over the locker locker and talk to a
27:49
Speaker 1: guy one on one, you know, it was it wasn't
27:51
Speaker 1: hard to do. And nowadays, even like me being a
27:56
Speaker 1: national guy now when I go out, sometimes you get
27:57
Speaker 1: a pr guy standing in the vicinity. You know, I
28:00
Speaker 1: don't need down here. The guys are grown man. I'm
28:03
Speaker 1: asking a grown man questions. He can speak for himself.
28:07
Speaker 1: I think the Jaguars people, to their credit or pretty
28:11
Speaker 1: good about that. But it is tough when when you
28:16
Speaker 1: it's hard to talk to somebody with the third person
28:18
Speaker 1: stand there. It just people will say. People will say,
28:22
Speaker 1: I'm saying this because I've been around that team for
28:24
Speaker 1: so long, but having traveled off, I've been through every
28:27
Speaker 1: team and everything, the Jaguars, media department, media relationship. For him,
28:30
Speaker 1: it doesn't get the credit it deserves for being as
28:32
Speaker 1: good as they are. And I mean that all the
28:35
Speaker 1: way that from Dan Edwards down there, you know, Tad Dickman, Brooks,
28:39
Speaker 1: all of them. When you need stuff, I've never had
28:42
Speaker 1: a problem getting things other than the Nile you didn't
28:45
Speaker 1: want to do it last year, but that's a whole
28:46
Speaker 1: nother story. But guys on camera, they let me set
28:50
Speaker 1: up where I need to. They give me the time,
28:52
Speaker 1: and you know that can with my camera. Guys that can't.
28:54
Speaker 1: That's not always the case in some cities. So I
28:57
Speaker 1: think if the Jaguars were a good team, people would
28:59
Speaker 1: really lies that how helpful they are. And I know
29:02
Speaker 1: a lot of guys come in there in the last
29:03
Speaker 1: couple of years and it's been and I hear for
29:06
Speaker 1: like guys say, how much better it is. You know
29:09
Speaker 1: that they remember the old days when there were you know,
29:12
Speaker 1: guards in the hallways and uh, you know that kind
29:14
Speaker 1: of thing, because it was tough back in those days,
29:16
Speaker 1: Tom put a security guard because you had a bad tooth.
29:20
Speaker 1: Remember I lost the crown. I lost the crown. It
29:24
Speaker 1: popped off, and you know there was no mirror there.
29:26
Speaker 1: So I go storming out in the security. No, the
29:28
Speaker 1: guard was there already, the story is, and he goes,
29:31
Speaker 1: you can't go over there, Piaza unto the bathroom. I go,
29:33
Speaker 1: I just lost the crown. I got to see what
29:34
Speaker 1: it looks like. So because that one had a mirror,
29:36
Speaker 1: and I went in there and looked. The next day
29:38
Speaker 1: we're on the practice field and Tom put that mirror in.
29:40
Speaker 1: Remember in the bathroom where I would have had there
29:43
Speaker 1: in the bathroom. Yeah, it was, it was. It was
29:47
Speaker 1: a crazy I remember the one year where me and
29:49
Speaker 1: you and everybody we weren't allowed if it remember even
29:52
Speaker 1: it was pouring, they didn't want us go down to
29:54
Speaker 1: the hallway, down the hallway. It it was just it was.
29:57
Speaker 1: It was so tight back then. It didn't need to be.
30:01
Speaker 1: Then when Jack came in, it probably got a little
30:04
Speaker 1: too loose, and then Gus it was loose. And that's no,
30:09
Speaker 1: it's not a reflection to them as coaches, just that's
30:11
Speaker 1: who they were as people. I don't you know. I
30:14
Speaker 1: don't have a problem now, but I know there's a
30:15
Speaker 1: few more when Coffin was around, there were a few
30:17
Speaker 1: more les rules the last couple of years where they're
30:20
Speaker 1: not yes here. But that's Tom. Don't you remember when
30:23
Speaker 1: he moved the media room. I mean he moved us
30:26
Speaker 1: into He moved because me and you were looking at
30:28
Speaker 1: it the hallway watching guys get cut right. Yeah, they
30:32
Speaker 1: moved it down and moved it back. So yeah, at
30:34
Speaker 1: first it wasn't even a media room. It was just
30:36
Speaker 1: like some hallway. We had to sit in it when
30:38
Speaker 1: the entrance. Then they moved us down and we had it.
30:41
Speaker 1: We're in the middle of the I mean, granted, I'm
30:43
Speaker 1: gonna sit there and say this, that was one of
30:45
Speaker 1: the best rooms ever because we was right in the
30:46
Speaker 1: middle of everybody. We could get that. Coaches used to
30:49
Speaker 1: come by and talk to us. That that drove him
30:52
Speaker 1: up the wall. Dania used to come in and look
30:54
Speaker 1: at his stats every week. Remember that's I still tell
31:01
Speaker 1: of Keenan. He's still why you know, he's a wide
31:03
Speaker 1: receiver coach there. He used to come in and remember
31:05
Speaker 1: he picked up this league because league stats were always
31:08
Speaker 1: by paper back then that's and he picked him up
31:10
Speaker 1: and where am I on this? And we'd go me
31:13
Speaker 1: and you would look at him. Do you know exactly
31:15
Speaker 1: where you are? Keen and stop it. We'll close this week,
31:19
Speaker 1: U because we're talking again next week. A cord at
31:21
Speaker 1: the same time. Um, how much did that time, I
31:26
Speaker 1: guess shape you for what you're doing now? A ton
31:31
Speaker 1: a ton. It made me I want to be aggressive.
31:36
Speaker 1: It made me learn that I could be aggressive and
31:39
Speaker 1: not be, you know, fearful of the repercussions if I was.
31:43
Speaker 1: And it told me how to get a story. I mean,
31:46
Speaker 1: I could always get a story. I mean Fred Taylor,
31:49
Speaker 1: Fred Taylor will tell you I tricked him to this
31:51
Speaker 1: day into saying he could rush for two thousand yards.
31:55
Speaker 1: I didn't trick and I just got a good story.
31:57
Speaker 1: And you know, and so I could do that. I
31:59
Speaker 1: could get guys to talk. And I still to this day.
32:02
Speaker 1: You know, one of my bosses said to me recently,
32:03
Speaker 1: he goes, you know the best thing about you is
32:06
Speaker 1: you talk to everybody the exact same way. It could
32:10
Speaker 1: be the CEO of a major company or the guy
32:14
Speaker 1: you know, wait waiter at the at the at the restaurant.
32:17
Speaker 1: You talk to him all the same way, and and
32:19
Speaker 1: that's a good thing. And I think that's something that
32:22
Speaker 1: helped me in the locker room and help me throughout
32:24
Speaker 1: my careers, being able to talk to everybody and handle
32:28
Speaker 1: him all the same way. I was never in all
32:30
Speaker 1: of them. I respected him, but I was never in
32:32
Speaker 1: all of any of them. Is there anything you miss
32:35
Speaker 1: uh being be guys? Yeah, the interactions. I love talking
32:39
Speaker 1: football with players, and I love being able to you know,
32:43
Speaker 1: Tony Vssli was great to be just walk over and
32:45
Speaker 1: talk to him. I would never admit that to him
32:46
Speaker 1: now and talk football and going over to talk to
32:49
Speaker 1: Fred Taylor and you know, just talking about stuff away
32:52
Speaker 1: from football and getting to know the guys on a
32:54
Speaker 1: personal level. I missed that that that, you know, and
32:58
Speaker 1: I tried to do that a little bit. And I've
32:59
Speaker 1: got the you know, skies I never knew before. I've got,
33:02
Speaker 1: you know, I've made relationships with him, like Honey Badger
33:05
Speaker 1: for example. I've got to know him over the years
33:07
Speaker 1: and and after I don't know if you saw the video,
33:09
Speaker 1: but after the Super Bowl this year, I was doing
33:11
Speaker 1: a live hit and he was coming over to do
33:13
Speaker 1: a hit with us, and he just, you know, naturally
33:16
Speaker 1: in the flow of things, he jumped on me and
33:18
Speaker 1: like tackled me almost, you know, and and it went viral.
33:22
Speaker 1: And that's how I missed those kind of relationships with
33:25
Speaker 1: players because you don't get a lot of them in
33:27
Speaker 1: our business anymore. Fortunately for him, he didn't have to
33:30
Speaker 1: jump very high right go, But my back hasn't been
33:32
Speaker 1: the same. With the next episode, for people listening, we're
33:40
Speaker 1: gonna dig deep on some of the nineties the Glory
33:45
Speaker 1: Year teams because Pete and I were up front for
33:47
Speaker 1: all of them. Pete will talk to you then, got it,
33:51
Speaker 1: And we're gonna talk to Pete again next week. There
33:53
Speaker 1: was so much to cover with him, and we decided
33:55
Speaker 1: to break it into two episodes. We both up and
33:57
Speaker 1: went really really long. But Dave, I think theest thing
34:00
Speaker 1: about Pete, and I was trying to think of how
34:02
Speaker 1: I wanted to verbalize this um media guys sometimes get
34:08
Speaker 1: associated with teams rightfuly, so that's who they grew up covering.
34:13
Speaker 1: And as we were talking to Pete, we really didn't
34:16
Speaker 1: even intro Pete as being from CBS Sports, and he's
34:21
Speaker 1: obviously been with CBS for twenty years. But I think
34:25
Speaker 1: to Jaguars fans, the point of getting at is to
34:28
Speaker 1: Jaguars fans, he's still a Jaguars writer. There's still a connection,
34:35
Speaker 1: and he's not a Homer, He's not a fan of
34:38
Speaker 1: the team per se, but he is the guy that
34:42
Speaker 1: there's certain people in the media, there's certain experts and
34:45
Speaker 1: analysts who really really know the Jaguar as well. And
34:50
Speaker 1: I would put Pete still yeah, because he does the
34:54
Speaker 1: show every week with Tony, because he has still been
34:57
Speaker 1: tied to Jacksonville. Maybe not quite to the levels when
35:01
Speaker 1: he was covering the team, but I would still I
35:04
Speaker 1: would still put Pete up with one of the two
35:08
Speaker 1: three four most knowledge with people about this team. And
35:11
Speaker 1: I think fans of this team will always feel a
35:15
Speaker 1: connection and I think he will too. With this organization.
35:19
Speaker 1: It's not fair to say that it made his career,
35:22
Speaker 1: but there is certainly a strong association with Pete Cristo
35:25
Speaker 1: and the Jaguars, and one on some level I think
35:28
Speaker 1: that he feels is very important to him. Yeah, when
35:31
Speaker 1: you said twenty years, I was like, really, twenty years,
35:33
Speaker 1: it's been that long there's been at CBS Sports, And
35:36
Speaker 1: it's funny with everything he's the longest running and I
35:40
Speaker 1: don't think we talked about this on anither podcasts, but
35:43
Speaker 1: he has been with his internet site, if you call it,
35:48
Speaker 1: at CBS Sports and he's now more TV, but he
35:52
Speaker 1: has been with the same organization longer than any other
35:56
Speaker 1: national writer. Meaning Peter came as the sports illustrati, He's
36:00
Speaker 1: left Sports Illustrated. Michael Silber is the sports illustrator. There's
36:03
Speaker 1: there's guys who have been national guys longest, but Pete
36:06
Speaker 1: left for CBS and it will be twenty years in October.
36:12
Speaker 1: Because I can remember we were walking through Dallas Stadium,
36:18
Speaker 1: Cowboys Stadium, the day that Alvis Wood has scored the
36:21
Speaker 1: winning touchdown, which you can probably remember it overtime. Before
36:24
Speaker 1: that game, he and I were walking to the Cowboys
36:27
Speaker 1: Stadium the press box, and he got the call from CBS,
36:30
Speaker 1: and that's when I knew I was gonna be taken
36:31
Speaker 1: over the Beat, and it's when I knew Pete would
36:33
Speaker 1: be leading. And this isn't to discredit any Beat writer
36:36
Speaker 1: that's been here before, but it seems like it went
36:40
Speaker 1: Pete Priscoe and then whoever the current one is. But
36:44
Speaker 1: I know that's not true. It just seems like he's
36:46
Speaker 1: so ingrained with the Jaguars and and so knowledgeable and
36:50
Speaker 1: kind of I don't want to call on an advocate
36:52
Speaker 1: because that's kind of a wrong context, but he's definitely
36:56
Speaker 1: like the national voice that has info on the Jaguars,
36:59
Speaker 1: which I think most don't. I think that's what kind
37:03
Speaker 1: of makes him unique for Jaguars fans, and and even
37:06
Speaker 1: now since recently with the Vasselli Hall of Fame stuff,
37:08
Speaker 1: he's been very vocal about it um And I've always
37:13
Speaker 1: appreciated Pete since he's been with CBS, where he's still
37:18
Speaker 1: he never turned to like, Okay, there's the big market
37:21
Speaker 1: teams in Green Bay and then no one else. I
37:24
Speaker 1: really appreciate he's always been always has his eye on
37:29
Speaker 1: the Jaguars and always kind of knows what's going on
37:31
Speaker 1: and has an opinion about it um like. And the
37:34
Speaker 1: one thing I thought was really interesting about a conversation
37:38
Speaker 1: where your conversation with him was kind of his path
37:41
Speaker 1: to Jacksonville and how it all worked out. It just
37:44
Speaker 1: kind of, you know, being in the business, it just
37:48
Speaker 1: seems like everyone kind of has the same story. Where
37:50
Speaker 1: you you work at your college paper or your college
37:52
Speaker 1: TV station, and then you go work somewhere and cover
37:56
Speaker 1: the Olympic type sports, and then eventually you get to
37:59
Speaker 1: the NFL. And uh, it was just interesting to hear
38:01
Speaker 1: his path because I didn't know it. Um, but I
38:04
Speaker 1: always appreciate Pete and he's he's a good guy to
38:07
Speaker 1: work with. He's on our Monday show with Tony and
38:10
Speaker 1: j P and uh he's always you know, he's always
38:14
Speaker 1: easy to work with. Yeah, I met Pete. Uh where
38:18
Speaker 1: did my first stage of the newspaper. He was full time.
38:20
Speaker 1: I was part time, just starting out. And uh, I
38:23
Speaker 1: gotta admit we were not kindred spirits when we first
38:27
Speaker 1: met me. He was a little bit older than I was.
38:30
Speaker 1: He was this guy from South Florida, from my New
38:33
Speaker 1: York I was. I was sort of a Jacksonville kid.
38:36
Speaker 1: We were not one in the same personality wise. I'm
38:39
Speaker 1: much quieter. Uh, he's much more outgoing. But we got
38:43
Speaker 1: the beat together and I was his backup in and
38:47
Speaker 1: I worked for five or six years together. I respected
38:50
Speaker 1: as much as I respect anybody in the business. And
38:52
Speaker 1: I probably the final thought for today on Pete, I
38:55
Speaker 1: would say you mentioned him not being in an advocate
38:58
Speaker 1: of the Jags and I would say that's true. Not
39:00
Speaker 1: an advocate of anybody, but what he is is he's
39:03
Speaker 1: very aware that there are times when this team, this
39:07
Speaker 1: market gets treated unfairly because of what I think most
39:13
Speaker 1: readers and fans realize. There is a little bit of
39:17
Speaker 1: national people look at Jacksonville and think, oh, you know,
39:20
Speaker 1: how do they have a team? There's a certain reputation.
39:23
Speaker 1: Pete's always defensive of that, and and if defensive is
39:28
Speaker 1: the right word, but he's always a defender of the market,
39:31
Speaker 1: and he feels an affinity for this town. It's where
39:36
Speaker 1: he grew up. Professionally, he's very tied in. He respects
39:41
Speaker 1: this town. He knows what this town has gone through
39:44
Speaker 1: to have the NFL. He was as tied in as
39:47
Speaker 1: anybody to that. So I don't know if it's fair
39:51
Speaker 1: to call him, uh an advocate for the team on
39:55
Speaker 1: the field necessarily, but in terms of the franchise, in
39:58
Speaker 1: terms of making an effort to eat this franchise as
40:01
Speaker 1: fair as a as as he possibly can, he's probably
40:05
Speaker 1: the number one A think in the Jacksonville media, and
40:08
Speaker 1: uh not everybody in his position would necessarily do that.
40:11
Speaker 1: So I think fans, I think they have that Fuel Compete.
40:15
Speaker 1: I think most fans would follow the team, respect him,
40:18
Speaker 1: and they get that vibe from him. So uh, that's
40:21
Speaker 1: probably Daves the best way to end this week. Those
40:25
Speaker 1: own podcasts, Repete, I want to thank you as always.
40:28
Speaker 1: Thank Joe Fortunito was always making these things sound as
40:31
Speaker 1: good as it possibly can with me involved so much,
40:34
Speaker 1: and I look forward to hearing Compete next week as well.
40:37
Speaker 1: Thank you everybody,