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Peter King | Sportswriter Live In-Studio Plugs Brand-New Book: "The Game" · Sid & Friends In The Morning

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We've got a very, very prestigious man in my studio
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: right now, the esteemed Peter King. His new book is out.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: The name of the book is The Game. Forty years
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: in the making tells the story of how football, in
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: a virtual dead heat in popularity with baseball in the mid-' 80s,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: came to dominate the American landscape. And no one can
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: argue that. Look, baseball's a regional sport, okay? No one's
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: watching the Brewers and the Dodgers in Brooklyn, please, unless
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: you're gambling on it. No one's watching the Guardians and
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Rays anywhere, okay? But if you're a Giant fan or
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: a Jet fan, come 4 o'clock, you're invested in the
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: Raiders and the Chargers. Now, there's a reason for that.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: If we have an honest conversation, and it's one word, one, gambling.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: I don't care if it's fantasy sports or if you've
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: got 5,000 on the game. Gambling has taken football to
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: a brand new stratosphere that baseball, basketball, hockey can never touch.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: And they know what the NFL, that's why they publish
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: injury reports. It's kind of weird, right? Why does Irving
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: and Brooklyn need to know who's injured on the Patriots
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: on a Wednesday? Because they know it. But whatever the
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: reason is, it is what it is. Football is America's game.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: no longer baseball. And I know the great, great writer
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: and so many great years on NBC, Sports Illustrated, my
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: dear friend Peter King, I know you'd have to agree, right?
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: I mean, gambling has made football this dynasty.
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: Well, gambling gives people a reason to watch a game
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: they don't care about in any way and never would
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: have any interest in. And that's great for the NFL.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: I'm not so sure it's good for the young people
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: of America who, in high school and college, are getting
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: addicted to gambling. And it's so easy to gamble now.
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: That would be my biggest fear for this. And, hey, Sid,
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: 10 years ago, the NFL looked at gambling like it
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: was the plague. They looked at Vegas like, just keep
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: away from us. And obviously now things have changed mightily.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: Dramatically. I mean, there was a time where you can
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: do drugs. You can hit your wife, right? You can
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: smack her in the face. You can play football. But
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: God forbid they found out you bet on a game, right?
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: Paul Horning and all those guys. Alex Karras. Alex Karras.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: At that point, you committed basically something deserving of capital punishment. Now,
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: that's still the case. You still can't gamble if you're
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: a player. But you're right. The way they look at
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: it is completely different. It's money. Let's face it. It's money.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: Roger Goodell. who is not liked by most of the
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: people that like me because I'm not a woke guy. Okay.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: But I admit he does a good job. His job
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: is to make the owner's money and say what you
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: want about the woke NFL. Roger Goodell makes the owner's
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: money because football really, Peter is all about money. It is.
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: And Sid, listen, you know, you talked about the total
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: explosion of football. The first year I covered the NFL
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: was 1984. In 1984, the National Football League on Monday
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: Night Football, that was the 25th rated show.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: Behind, by the way, Scarecrow and Mrs.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: King.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: And it was a 25th rated show. And so you
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: know what the NFL did? They said, we are going
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: to have a hot stove league like baseball. They got
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: free agency. It was forced down their throat in 93.
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: Rupert Murdoch comes in. He makes it a far better show.
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: television product, Rupert Murdoch and David Hill. I wrote a
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: chapter about David Hill in my book. I mean, these
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: are people who changed the landscape of pro football. Paul
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: Tagliabue takes it from being a five-month sport, six-month sport.
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: He starts expanding it. Roger Goodell has gone crazy with it,
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: mostly in a good way. But now, Sid, instead of
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: being in a dead heat with baseball, the last Gallup
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: poll 2025, football, asked about your favorite sport in America, football, 41%, baseball, 10%.
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: Not even close. And so that is what has happened
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: by the NFL making it a year-round sport, embracing gambling,
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: embracing streaming, and all the different ways of watching. and
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: everybody else is in the rearview mirror.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: No, I lived in South Florida for many years. You
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: know that Peter King, I did radio down there. All
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: they care about is football. You know, he can win championships,
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: and the Marlins could be good, and the Panthers won
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: two Stanley Cups under Vinny Viola. They don't care. They
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: want the Hurricanes. They want the Dolphins. You got guys
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: down there that would call my radio station and complain
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: to my program director that I wasn't covering the combine.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: I said, these men, or these boys, are wearing shorts,
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: and they're jumping over I don't know what What do
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: you mean, obstacle courses? You want me to cover that? Yes.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: And they actually sit there by the millions and watch it,
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: Peter King, by the millions. Yeah.
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: I got a chapter in my book that explained the
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: phenomenon of the combine, but the greatest thing in there,
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: Mike Mayock, who was one of the people who made
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: the combine so big, Mike Mayock said that the first
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: year they did it, he called his dad, who's a
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: high school football coach, and he said, Dad, what did
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: you think of our coverage of the combine?
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: And he goes.
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: Nobody's ever going to watch that stuff.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: Are you crazy?
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: Who wants to watch people running around and practicing football?
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: Nobody's going to watch that. And then, you know, now
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: it's just one of those tentpole events. Sid, the NFL
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: has invented things and shoved them down America's throats.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: And you know what?
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: America says, more, please.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: You're 100% right. So if you want to take one person,
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: this is very difficult. I know that. You've got Steve Sable.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: a dear friend of mine over the years who did
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: all those great NFL films. You've got Paul Tagliabue. You
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: talked about the great police commissioner, the great NFL commissioner,
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: Howard Cosell. Let's go back to Monday Night Football, right?
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: I mean, they had a huge impact on the popularity,
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: even though back then it wasn't. Who would be the
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: person that you would say was really the one that
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: started this craze?
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: Well, the person who started... and who's the most significant
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: person in pro football history is George Halas. He was
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: one of the 10 people who invented the league. He
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: played for the Bears. He coached the Bears. He did
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: everything with the Bears, scouted, drafted. And Sid, he lasted
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: 60 years. He was one of the guys who founded
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: the league, and then he drafted Jim McMahon. That's how
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: long George Halas was in it. So he's huge. But
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: as far as people who've changed it today... and who've
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: made it incredible today, I have to say it's Roger Goodell.
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: Because he basically said, like, give you an example, 2014.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: We're going to take the draft out of New York.
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: I said, huge mistake. Every player wants to come and
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: walk on the red carpet at Radio City Music Hall.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: They feel like big stars. And then, I mean, four
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: years later, they're in Nashville.
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: With 600 fans.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: Thousand people I remember in downtown Nashville watching the draft
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: it has become they closed schools in Pittsburgh for two
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: days this year because the draft overwhelmed the city and
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: so he realized everything that it could be a 24-7
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: 365 sport and business so I think he's the guy
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: right now in a modern sense who's done the most.
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: You know, we have these arguments on Sports Talk Radio
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: all the time. It's one of the reasons why I quit.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: I couldn't stand it anymore. It actually got silly after
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: a while. He's Carmelo Anthony, a great player, a good player,
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: a fantastic player, a Hall of Fame player. Who's elite? Right.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: Is Joe Flacco elite? Right. Is Eli Manning, should he
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: have made the Hall of Fame on the first time?
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: Truth is, no. I'm a Giant fan. You know that.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: I covered the Giants. I did their pregame show for years.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: I love Eli. I will forever love Eli. He won
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: me two Super Bowls. But at no point in his career,
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: outside of those two amazing runs, did I think he
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: was a great quarterback. His brother, totally different story. So
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: we argue all the time. But I think of all
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: the sports, when guys go like Chris Russo does, hard
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: to talk about it. It's a different era. And I
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: think you're right. You know, football, you had 14 games
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: and you had 16 games. Now you have 17 games. Football,
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: we saw those bruising running backs over the years. Jim Brown, O.J. Simpson,
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: they ran the football mostly, did not throw the football much,
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: and they still won Super Bowls. Now every quarterback is,
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: he starts off on first down, he's already in a
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: transformation on first down. So of all the games, I
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: think the one that has changed most dramatically, I think,
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: is the NFL, yes?
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think so, because look, even though, for instance,
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: baseball now has the ABS challenge, and everybody has replay now,
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: Football has fundamentally changed because, in my opinion, first 50
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: years of the NFL, 1920 to 1970, absolutely no question
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: that you can't say that a quarterback was the best
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: player or most important player in the game. It was
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: Jim Brown, okay? But the last 50 years, the most
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: important players are almost all quarterbacks, probably LT as well.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: So glad you said that.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: Well, because Lawrence Taylor became— Can I tell you a
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: great story from my book? You're going to love this story.
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: In 1986, the Giants were emerging from slumber. Parcells had
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: them fired up and they were playing great. And Parcells,
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: really good friends with Bob Knight. And so one day,
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: Bob Knight is walking through the locker room before a
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: game against the Philadelphia Eagles. And Lawrence Taylor yells out, Hey,
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: there's the chair thrower. And Bob Knight's turns at him.
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: And for those who don't know, don't remember, Bobby Knight
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: got in huge trouble as the coach at Indiana University
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: for once taking the chair he sat on on the
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: sidelines at Assembly Hall, Bloomington, Indiana, throwing the chair across
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: the floor. Iconic video, iconic picture. So Taylor goes, hey,
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: there's a chair thrower. And Bobby Knight stops everybody in
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: the locker room saying, uh-oh. And Bob Knight turns to
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: him and he says, hey, you better forget that chair
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: throwing bleep. You better go get the quarterback today. Taylor said, okay.
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: Taylor goes out that day. He sacks the Eagles quarterbacks,
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: two of them, four times. And Taylor was so happy
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: with himself that day.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: Now did Taylor go back afterwards and see Bob Knight
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: and put up the number four? Yeah, four.
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: I don't know whether he did or not, but he
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: should have because that's who LT was. LT responded to
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: challenges better than anybody.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: God, I love you. Peter King's coming back every day.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: Long time. It saved my life. It's actually a very,
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: very well-known story that when I was in the midst
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: of my drug and drinking days and And I was dying.
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: I was in bad shape. I had just gone to Cleveland.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: And I needed to get into a rehab right away
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: in New Jersey. I called my agent who represents LT2,
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: Mark Lepselter. And Lep said, call Lawrence. I go, I
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: don't really know Lawrence well enough to call him. Come on.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: He goes, call Lawrence. And I called LT. And he said,
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: my man Sid. I never seen a white guy get
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: in so much trouble back then. That was true. And
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: I said, listen, LT on a serious note. I never
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: called him LT. I only called him Lawrence. Never called
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: him LT. I said, Lawrence, I need help. And I
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: know you went to Sunrise in New Jersey. I just
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: called them. They're out of beds. Would you make a
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: call for me? And I figured he was going to say,
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: come on, man. He did. And he called me back.
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: Lawrence did 10 minutes later and said, get there in
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: three hours. That was how long the ride was. And
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: I drove there and I got into a bed. And
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: that was kind of the beginning, the beginning of a
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: long process to get sober and better. But Lawrence Taylor
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: made that call and actually saved my life. Bob Raisman
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: wrote a big story about that years ago. Yeah. So
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: he's actually, you know, for a guy that's been in
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: the news for doing some, you know, I guess questionable stuff,
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: down deep, he's actually a pretty decent guy, Lawrence.
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: You know what I always liked about covering Lawrence Taylor?
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: He would not know me if we passed. I covered
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: him for four years. He would not know me.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: He didn't. He was not.
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: Into this to be in the media.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: Not at all. At all. At all.
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: He just didn't care, which is fine with me. All
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: he wanted to do was be a player. A lot
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: of that I admire.
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: Even now, he's been offered so much money to sit
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: on those panels on those silly pregame shows. He just
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: wants to play golf. That's all he wants to do
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: is play golf. That's it. Yeah, yeah.
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: But here's the thing about LT that I really love.
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: Do you remember, do you happen to remember the time
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: in the strike year, 1987, Lawrence Taylor crosses the picket line.
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: He's losing $ 60, 000 a week. He said, enough of this.
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: So he crosses it and goes and plays a game
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: in Buffalo. Giants lose the game, but he plays this game.
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: And in the game, he is being blocked by a
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: truck driver from Illinois who crossed the picket line. And
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: who got seven penalties called on him for fouls on LT.
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: But after the game, LT goes after him and he goes, hey, sucker.
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: And the guy like balls up his fist.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: He's ready.
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: He thought Taylor's going to fight him.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: And he goes, great game. Because Taylor loved it. It
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: was like a WWE match. He did that too, by
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: the way. Yes, he did. He did. He thought, I
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: should know this. Ah, come on. It'll come to me
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: before you wrap this up. Chief J. Strongbow. No, it wasn't.
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: Bruno Sammartino. No, it wasn't them. It'll come to me.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: Peter King is my amazing guest in studio. What a
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: great conversation. His book is out the game. So when
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: you look at the modern era, guys, okay, and a
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: couple years ago, it was all about Andy Reid, Patrick Mahomes.
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: It looked like the Chiefs were going to be in
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: the Super Bowl every year, win the Super Bowl every year.
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: They took a beating at the hands of the Eagles
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: two years ago. So do we have a team right
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: now that you would put together in that category of
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: all-time greats, maybe dating back to Otto Graham and Dante
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: Lovelli and Brown and those Browns of the 50s?
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: Well, the Chiefs are not dead. They are going to
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: be heard from in the next two or three years
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: because to me, Patrick Mahomes is the heir to Tom Brady.
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: Still is. Still is. By the way, to your point,
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: there's only three teams still unbeaten in the national football league.
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: One of them is Kansas City.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: That's right. Minnesota, San Francisco, and Bam Bam Bigelow was
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: the guy I was trying to think about. Okay. All right.
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: But I don't think there is a team. And that's
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: one of the reasons. I mean, I didn't stay up
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: for the game last night. But another ridiculous, crazy six
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: lead changes in the second half and Just a totally
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: crazy game. But let's be honest. Those games happen every
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: weekend in the NFL, and that's why people love the game.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: It's true. So Tom Brady, you know, I've had people
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: say to me, I know he won Super Bowls, but,
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: you know, you got to put Peyton Manning in that mix.
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: You got to put the old-timer, say, Johnny Unitas. Some
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: say that the best quarterback ever to play Even though
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: he never won a Super Bowl, he was 0-1 and
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: that got blown out by the 49ers.
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: Dan Marino.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: Dan Marino. So you want the stage after seven Super
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: Bowl wins where it's Brady and that's it? Best player ever?
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: Well, I happen to think Jim Brown... Because, listen, I
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: honor history. And I tell people, don't forget Don Hudson,
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: don't forget Otto Graham, and most people have never heard
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: of those guys. But Jim Brown... in the first 50
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: years of this game, was the best player, and I
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: don't think there's a great argument to be had otherwise. Now,
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: then it becomes a quarterback game totally, and I would
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: say right now, if you're ranking the greatest of all time,
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: I would put Brady number one.
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: Me too.
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: I would put him number one because the quarterback position
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: is about winning, and he won more than anybody. He
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: sacrificed his family for it. He sacrificed his family for it.
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: And that's just who he was and the way he is.
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: And I think all of the other guys, I rank
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: Namath higher than most people do just because of the
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: meaning of Super Bowl III and how important it was
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: to the future of football.
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: Well, that's true, but he did throw more picks than touchdowns.
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: He threw more picks than touchdowns. You're right about that.
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: But I look at players as not only what their
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: individual stats were, but what they meant as a team.
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: to the history of the game. Sid, I mean, look,
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: we would remember this. You'd remember it less than I would,
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: but as the 1970s dawned, the three biggest people, three
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: biggest men in America... Richard Nixon, Elvis Presley, Joe Namath.
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: And I don't even know in what order.
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: No, it's true. Okay. And I got to tell you,
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: Lamar Hunt is in that mix too.
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: Lamar Hunt. Well, Lamar Hunt, to me, he's one of
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: the all-time greats. I have him ahead of Al Davis
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: on my Mount Rushmore.
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: Oh, me too.
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: Of people important in football history.
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, me too. Two more. We got to run quickly here.
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: Bill Belichick, greatest coach ever?
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: No.
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: No. No, I don't think so. No. Brown, Paul Brown.
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: I would say, I would put Paul Brown number one.
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: Just because he invented so much. I mean, he founded
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: a franchise, coached it, won four consecutive championships, forced the
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: NFL to take the Cleveland Browns in 1950, and then
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: in the first five years of the league, won three
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: more NFL championships. I mean, and then he had so
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: many innovations.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: So I would say he's number one. He's number one. Shula,
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: of course, is the all-time leader in victories. Last one,
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: I was talking to Dr. Oz about this a couple
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: of weeks ago. Less and less kids are playing football
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: these days. Parents are very, very nervous because of the
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: head injuries, because of ballplayers like Junior Seau that actually
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: killed himself. All these brain injuries that result in all
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: kinds of crazy psychoses and suicide attempts and suicide success.
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: What are your thoughts on the safety of playing football
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: moving forward?
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: I'm a little bit conflicted by it, but Sid, I've
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: reached this conclusion. I've thought about this day after day
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: after day. America needs football.
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: You're right.
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: America needs football. America needs its young people to have
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: something really hard to do and to work as a team,
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: to work as a unit, and to accomplish something together.
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: Get together.
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: Kids out of the house, get kids away from the
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: video games, get them off screens, get kids outside to
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: do something hard. And that's why I think football, even
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: though you have to invest much money in helmet technology
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: and in making the game as safe as possible. You know,
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: a couple of three, four years ago, I was in
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: Dallas covering a game Sunday morning, open the Dallas morning news.
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: and it's a broadsheet newspaper, two pages, facing pages, and
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: they were filled, the entire two pages, was high school
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: football scores from Friday night in the state of Texas.
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: They love it.
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: You're not going to walk into Waco, Texas, ever, and say,
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: football's unsafe, we're not playing it anymore.
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: Florida's the same thing. Never. I live in Boca Raton.
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: in Boca Raton for 15 years, 16 years.
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: You're not. And I don't think you should kill the game.
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: No.
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: But you need to make it safe. You need to
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: have trainers who are smart. You need to have people
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: who recognize the effects of concussions.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: Agreed. But.
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: You can't kill this game.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: No, you can't.
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: It's too important to this country.
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: Me?
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: I mean, every Sunday. I love college football, too. Final
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: 30 seconds. Should my friend President Trump make the Monday
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: after the Super Bowl a national holiday?
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: I don't think so. Aren't there too many days that
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: are already holidays because of football?
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: Nobody goes to work that Monday morning. If they do,
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: they're all hungover. All of them. All of America.
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: Okay, all right.
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: Then listen, Sid.
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: Why don't you put the Super Bowl on Saturday night
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: instead of Sunday night?
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: That's not a bad idea.
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: Why don't you do that? And you know why the
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: NFL won't do it? Because TV ratings are traditionally higher
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: on Sunday night. People do other things on Saturday night.
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: That's true.
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: But if you move the Super Bowl to Saturday night,
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: people's habits would change. They'd watch football.
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: You're a genius. I love you. What a great guy
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: and a great writer. The book is Peter King's The Game.
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: You've got to buy this, folks. You have to. If
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: you love the National Football League, he goes all the
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: way back from You know, obviously the early days of
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: the league and Bill Walsh and Peyton Manning and Bill
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: Belichick and Steve Sable and Mahomes and all that great stuff.
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: You're going to love my chapter on Steve Sable.
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: You're going to love it. I love him.
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: You want to know why? He choreographed his own death
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: in memorial service. Choreographed it. And wait until you read
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: about where his ashes are spread.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: I don't know any of this. Oh, yeah. And I
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: love Steve. He was on my show every week for years.
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: Steve is the greatest.
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: He is. He is the greatest. What was the name
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: of the guy? Facenda. John Facenda.
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: John Facenda with his voice. But how about this? I
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: make an argument that the reason why Vince Lombardi is
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: so famous and such an iconic figure is to a
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: large degree because of Steve Sable. You are going to
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: love the chapter on Steve Sable.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: I agree with that statement, and I can't wait to
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: read the chapter, and it's great to see you. Thank you, Sid.
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: You look great, you sound great, you're an amazing guy.
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Sid.
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: You're welcome.
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: Great to be on with you.
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: You too. Peter King, the game is getting a round
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: of applause behind the glass from Lou Rapinoe.
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: Thanks for listening to Sid and Friends in the Morning.
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: You can hear Sid and Friends in the Morning weekday
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: mornings at 6. If you like the podcast, share it
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: with your friends and listen anytime at wabcradio.com and download
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: the WABC Radio app. Hit that subscribe button on all
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: major podcast platforms. Plus, follow WABC on social, on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook,
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: and X.
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: See you next time for a.
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: New episode so you never have to wonder.
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: What the heck is going on here?