Latest / Tigs Bits Podcast / Maddy Hudak - Sports Journalist and Tulane Sideline Reporter

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Maddy Hudak - Sports Journalist and Tulane Sideline Reporter · Tigs Bits Podcast

0:06
All right, everybody. Welcome to Tigs Bits.
0:09
Today we have with us a rising star in sports journalism, Miss
0:14
Maddie Hudak. Maddie wears many hats as we're
0:17
as we're going to be getting into.
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She's the sideline reporter for the Tulane Green Wave football
0:22
team host an awesome podcast called Before the Whistle where
0:27
she utilizes her education in psychology and law to come at
0:31
football in an analytical way and keeps it very interesting,
0:35
which is not easy to do. She's a graduate of both Tulane
0:39
and the Scouting Academy. So in other words, she is a true
0:43
student of the game and knows her stuff.
0:45
And what's even more incredible, and we'll be getting into this,
0:48
is that she's only been doing this for a few years.
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We look forward to hearing your story and talking some ball.
0:54
But before she joins us, let's welcome back as always.
0:59
Mr. Chad Blasi, the one man Posse and Jr. the handler, just
1:04
slid in air hot from the road touring with Justin Moore and
1:08
Cody Johnson. So boys, boys, boys, welcome to
1:14
the show. It is good to see y'all.
1:17
Up, man. This is awesome.
1:18
Jr. I'm glad you can meet everybody.
1:20
I know you always are extremely busy.
1:22
This is going to be a good one, man.
1:24
After you sent me some stuff on on Maddie a while back.
1:26
Black. I've looked at you know a couple
1:28
of our podcast and then looked at kind of the the most recent
1:31
one yesterday on Greg Gasparado, the defensive coordinator now
1:34
Tulane dude, she reminds me she's like the Jeff Petrowski of
1:39
of sports. I mean she can go, brother, you
1:41
know what I mean? She brings it.
1:42
It's all this information coming at you at this really good rate.
1:45
Like it's it's pretty Dang cool, man.
1:47
So I'm I'm really looking forward to catching.
1:49
Up with perfect, that is. That is the perfect analogy.
1:52
And and Maddie, you'll have to look who Jeff Petrowski is after
1:57
this. He's a storm chaser.
1:58
He's the best storm chaser that we know, by the way.
2:01
He is. He is, but without any further
2:04
ado, and let's welcome Miss Maddie Hudak to the show.
2:07
Maddie, we're very pleased to have you on here.
2:10
This could be a therapy session a bit for Blasey.
2:16
I'm sure that we will touch on John Sumrall at some point in
2:20
this because thank you so much for coming on, Maddie.
2:23
Thank you guys for having me. Actually, power being backstage,
2:25
you can quickly Google the name that you just compare me to.
2:29
I appreciate that comparison and always found the gift of gab so.
2:33
That's awesome. Absolutely.
2:35
Absolutely. Yeah.
2:37
So, so look, welcome to the show.
2:39
I'm. If you guys are not familiar
2:42
with Maddie, you need to check out her podcast.
2:44
Of course she she is the sideline reporter for Tulane
2:48
Athletics, which is freaking awesome.
2:51
Tell us a little bit, Maddie. I know your story will kind of
2:55
just start at the beginning and you can go check her podcast
2:58
out. You have a great podcast on
3:00
telling your story. It's super.
3:03
It's super interesting. So where did you start?
3:05
I know you played sports in high school.
3:07
I think I've heard that you played soccer.
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Where did your drive really come to get from where you started to
3:14
get to New Orleans, to being on the sidelines covering sports?
3:18
It's certainly been a journey and definitely not a
3:20
conventional one. Yeah, I grew up playing soccer.
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I started playing when I was four years old, and I played
3:24
competitive for about six years or so until I ran backwards into
3:29
a pothole and took myself out of the game relatively quickly.
3:32
I was also getting to the age where all these girls were
3:34
starting to tear their Acls, realizing I probably wasn't
3:37
going to get a scholarship to college, so wanting to just keep
3:39
my knees intact. But I I do think having that
3:42
athletic background has lended me just a lot of understanding
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of obviously not a translation per SE over to football, but
3:50
understanding what it means to be an athlete.
3:52
I I went into, I went to Tulane. I have a undergraduate degree in
3:56
psychology. Took AP Psych in high school,
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and I figured that that was what I wanted to do.
4:01
And I it's something I frankly do recommend as a degree for a
4:05
lot of people. Just learning how people make
4:07
decisions, what it's not. You know, psychology isn't just
4:12
having mental health problems and you know the like.
4:14
There is a lot of neuroscience that goes into it and it's
4:17
really helped me understand mental processing in the game,
4:20
understanding how concussions, I've also sustained one myself
4:23
can really impact spatial processing, those kind of
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things. But when I went to work out of
4:29
college, actually in the field of psychology, I realized that
4:33
just to be totally frank, I went to therapy and I realized that I
4:37
would make a terrible therapist because I'm too much of A.
4:39
Problem solver and. Sometimes that's not really what
4:42
they need in that moment. And I also was just not wanting
4:45
to go to PhD program for seven years to be honest.
4:48
So I worked in jury consulting after that, which is kind of has
4:53
a stupid rap of, you know, being able to predict which jurors
4:57
kind of thing. In jury selection, it's mostly
4:59
running mock trials and focus groups and trying to simulate
5:02
that and seeing what kind of arguments cause.
5:05
The idea is you can have the best legal argument in the world
5:07
but if you don't say it in a way that a person's going to respond
5:10
to empathize with, evoke certain emotions, then it's just going
5:14
to go right over their heads. And so it's it's just been it's
5:17
been an interesting career path in really seeing again how all
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these things go into decision making, what really matters to
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different groups of people, how they all come together.
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And then I figured, OK, well I'll go get a a law degree
5:30
because you can do that instead of going to get a PhD for jury
5:33
psychology or I'll go into the law like the rest of my family.
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So I went and gone to masters in legal studies.
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I was working at a class action law firm during the Pandemic and
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I'd started writing about sports on the side, just about the
5:46
Saints. You know, I grew up, my family's
5:47
from New Orleans, so I've I've been a Saints fan growing up my
5:50
whole life, although I've kind of I'm tired of them nowadays to
5:53
be honest. But you know, I was just kind of
5:55
mentally bored at my job. It didn't feel like I was doing
5:58
something that I really enjoyed and had any idea of an upward
6:01
trajectory. So it was just something to keep
6:03
my mind occupied in the pandemic and everything sucked.
6:07
And it was a very good escapism. And I got laid off in about
6:11
August of 2020. And to be transparent, I was
6:14
actively hoping to get laid off because I didn't like my job.
6:17
And I knew that unemployment. But it also awarded me an
6:23
opportunity to say, you know, while I'm on unemployment, why
6:26
don't I just try taking sports writing a little more seriously
6:30
while I have this kind of unprecedented ability to do so
6:33
and still not, you know, be in a financial hole.
6:36
And so I started caught writing about the Saints more seriously
6:38
that season and talked a lot about psychology.
6:41
One of the first pieces I did was when I believe it was one of
6:46
the Saints fullbacks. False positive for COVID.
6:49
But just hearing the story about that whole night where, you
6:51
know, at 2:00 AM they were still up.
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And this guy is like blaming himself for all of this when he
6:57
didn't even do anything wrong. It wasn't even a positive test.
6:59
And so just kind of talking about the psychology behind
7:02
that. And then I got my start on
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sports talk radio. I moved down to New Orleans in
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March of 2021 because my family was like, if you want to cover.
7:10
I lived in Philadelphia, not my favorite place in the world.
7:13
I wasn't covering Philadelphia sports.
7:16
It wasn't awarding me any benefits to be elsewhere once
7:19
the pandemic was starting to kind of end.
7:21
So I moved back down here. And I always say shout out to
7:24
Marshawn Lattimore for getting arrested because that's how I
7:26
got my start. Sports talk radio was when he
7:29
got arrested for that stolen gun possession charge.
7:32
I actually took a law school course, independent study in
7:36
criminal procedure because I considered becoming, yeah, a
7:40
prosecutor or defense. And so my dad is a lawyer.
7:42
He told me to really actually see if that's something he
7:44
wanted to do. So, like, I can actually speak
7:47
on these laws really well. And it's, you know, one of those
7:50
weird meech things that really only I was kind of possessing
7:53
that authority in New Orleans. So that's how I started to get
7:56
on sports talk radio and then just making connections here.
8:00
Pod Rafanini is the voice of the Pelicans down here.
8:02
He's really been my mentor and he's who connected me both on
8:05
that sports radio show and then I hosted a few of those myself,
8:09
and they're three hours long. And so that's why the podcast
8:11
doesn't seem that bad to me, because once I got one of those
8:14
out of the way, it's a long time even.
8:16
Just that's a very long time, Maddie.
8:18
No doubt. Yeah.
8:20
So I. Don't know how you do.
8:22
I don't know how you do a solo show twice a week, 45 minutes or
8:26
so. I don't know how you do it.
8:29
I can't, to be honest. I kind of joke about this, but I
8:33
was a theater kid growing up. I did a lot of musicals before I
8:36
got vocal nodules from screaming at summer camp, and then my
8:39
voice went down to this. But I really liked the acting
8:42
side of things. I actually, I took acting
8:44
classes as a kid. I do think that it was extremely
8:47
valuable class that I did both in improv.
8:52
I think improv definitely really makes a difference.
8:54
But also having to memorize something performant in a room
8:58
full of peers watching you and then have to watch it back and
9:01
get critiqued. I mean the cringe that that felt
9:03
like I have No Fear of public speaking, No Fear of any of
9:06
those types of things. And I really go back to doing
9:09
that as a kid and actually learning, 'cause I I always
9:12
think about that when I get asked to go on local television.
9:14
You know, I know where to stand on a marker.
9:16
I know where to look in the camera.
9:17
But if I hadn't done kids on camera as a kid when I was 11,
9:21
this would be the moment would be too big and I wouldn't be
9:23
able to focus on what I was doing.
9:25
And that's how I felt with sideline reporting, where I'd
9:28
lost out on another opportunity the day I got called for that
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job. And I always say it's the most,
9:32
the most aggressive job interview I've ever had in my
9:35
life where I warned Corey, my boss, I was like, I'm at 11
9:38
today. I did not get some great news.
9:40
So you called me. This is what you're getting.
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And I guess my passion shone through in that way.
9:45
And so, you know, I got that job and that's really when I started
9:48
to sink my teeth into this industry.
9:50
But having that experience, because the first time I went on
9:53
air, I did have minor stage fright for a second.
9:55
Well. What did you start?
10:00
Was it kind of like a therapeutic process?
10:03
Whenever you first started writing about the Saints, what,
10:06
you know, were you just writing for yourself just to?
10:08
Yeah. What?
10:09
Just want to write something? You know what?
10:11
How did that start? I used to be, like, really
10:14
emotionally connected to the Saints.
10:15
So my whole family, my mom's born and raised here.
10:18
My family still lives here. And Hurricane Katrina, when that
10:21
happened, you know, my mom and I flew down in December of that
10:25
year to volunteer down here. I worked at a dog shelter.
10:29
We passed out backpacks to kids. I came back to, I say, build
10:33
homes. It was actually to demolish
10:34
them. We were supposed to paint half
10:36
the other days and the girls that didn't want to em like
10:38
leave me here at the crowbar cause honestly this is really
10:40
fun. Like I've never been just
10:42
hitting the crowbar and they're like wait down this wall.
10:44
Like it was awesome, I'm not gonna lie, but being here that
10:48
close after Katrina, I mean a lot of people that didn't live
10:50
that lived here weren't even back because they couldn't get
10:53
back from wherever they were. So that was really sobering.
10:56
I was 11 and I didn't understand it on TV but once I was there I
11:00
got it and I just remember my mom's reaction.
11:02
I wrote this all when Sean Payton retired.
11:04
I kinda did this diary of all of my memories with this TV in my
11:08
kitchen because I remember my mom crying at Katrina on it.
11:11
And then I the next thing I remember is her screaming at the
11:14
top of her lungs for the Steve Gleason blocked punt.
11:16
And that was, you know, my own microcosm of what that stadium
11:21
was like. And when they went to the Super
11:23
Bowl, they actually, that championship game, my birthday's
11:26
tomorrow. So it was the day before my
11:27
birthday when the Saints went to the Super Bowl.
11:29
My mom and uncle both got on the computer and they're like, this
11:32
is never gonna happen in our lifetimes again.
11:34
We're booking tickets. And I was like, can I come for
11:36
my birthday, please? So we came down here to watch
11:39
it, which I'm so glad about, because I I mean Jesus, but you
11:44
know. Yeah.
11:45
So I I really had all those experiences first hand, despite
11:49
growing up in the Bay Area back in California.
11:51
And so I, I and my dad and I. So I'm an only child, but I I
11:56
played sports growing up and my dad and I always really liked
11:59
talking football. He was the one that bought me
12:01
take your Eye off the Ball in like 11th grade.
12:04
And we always really liked the kind of philosophical
12:06
conversations back and forth about things.
12:08
So when I I was just so bored at the job that I was at, I was
12:11
mostly doing phone calls. And then I I was leaving a bad
12:15
work environment to go to that job and they told me that I was
12:18
overqualified for it. And so I was just so bored out
12:21
of my mind every single day. And I wanted to work on my
12:24
writing. I loved writing and I realized
12:26
that I was trying to find ways to write within every job that I
12:29
had. Like I loved writing the the
12:31
juror profile reports when they would let me.
12:33
I loved always doing the writing things, so I figured why not try
12:37
to do that? Everyone around me always says
12:38
that I know a lot about football, so why not write about
12:42
this team that I pay so much attention to as it is and so
12:45
kind of grew really organically like that?
12:47
And then I I do not know how the pandemic not happened, if this
12:51
would have all snowballed into your career though.
12:53
Right. Yeah, Yeah.
12:55
And like we alluded to at the very beginning of the show, you
12:57
have many hats, you wear many hats and everything that you do
13:02
from hosting a podcast, you're on TV, you're just that.
13:05
You're you're everywhere. What all do you do?
13:08
What is a day in the life for Maddie Hudack?
13:11
Like like when you wake up, what?
13:13
What's a day in the life like? It depends on if you're in
13:16
season. Or if you have water.
13:18
If you have water is a fair question.
13:20
I mean, that's pretty as it's not a, you know, infrequent
13:25
thing that happens here. Usually you just have to boil
13:27
it. But this time it's a boil one.
13:28
But none's coming out. I'm in the.
13:31
Austin. That's right.
13:34
I don't want. No, we're not going there.
13:35
I have. My wife's from Houma, LA, and I
13:38
remember when we lived there we would get the messages on the
13:41
report boil water, boil advisory Brain, eating amoebas.
13:45
And I'm like, I don't know what that is, but I don't want none.
13:48
Whatever that is. Does it say I have down here in
13:49
Louisiana? Wow.
13:52
There's yeah, we have. We have a lot of scary things
13:54
down here, to say the least. What was the question again?
13:56
I had it, and then I just lost it again.
13:59
Oh, a day-to-day. Like, yeah, what's your day?
14:00
What's a day-to-day like? One in the offseason now, so I'm
14:04
still kind of trying to figure that out.
14:06
And every year has been different for me, to be honest.
14:08
I primarily did writing and a lot more sports talk radio the
14:12
first year that I started, and then the second year I spent a
14:17
lot of time doing the Scouting Academy, which is something that
14:19
I'm restarting now. So I graduated from the
14:21
defensive back position group, but I'm getting through
14:24
defensive line right now. I started it over this summer
14:27
and then my mom actually broke her knee.
14:28
So things went a little haywire this season and I did not have
14:32
time for that. But it also is really hard to do
14:34
during the year because again, that's a totally different
14:37
thing. But you know, twice a week I, I
14:39
record this podcast, but when I'm not going to Tulane
14:42
practice, it's mostly reading articles, trying to take notes
14:45
and get myself oriented to get back into the scouting Academy
14:48
where you know you have to grade five players per position group,
14:51
you have to watch five games on all of them, do this whole
14:53
report and pass. You know, you don't just turn in
14:56
their reports and you're done. They get graded, you get
14:58
feedback. So that's why I really recommend
15:01
it to people that really want to gain such a great understanding
15:05
and improve their skill set because I don't feel like
15:07
there's any opportunities to get football school where you get
15:11
graded on it and get that kind of feedback.
15:13
So that's really what I want to focus on again this offseason.
15:17
But during the season I'm all too late and I take advantage of
15:20
the fact that they've been so open with allowing us at
15:24
everything at practice. We don't have any type of
15:26
restrictions at all being able to.
15:28
And you know, obviously it's going to be interesting to see
15:31
what it's going to be like with this new coaching staff.
15:33
But already meeting John Sumrall and and just having him already,
15:37
he joined our broadcast in for the military bully hopped on.
15:40
And you know he remembers our color analyst Steve Barrios
15:43
because he was a Co defensive coordinator here.
15:45
And Steve Barrios, he's in the Tulane Hall of Fame, he's a
15:47
wide, was a wide receiver. He's is his 42nd year, I think
15:51
41st or 42nd as our color analyst.
15:53
So I don't really see any of those things kind of changing
15:57
for us. But they're such great guys,
16:00
such high character guys at Tulane.
16:01
And I, you know, genuinely like spending time with them.
16:03
But I just feel like, especially with the podcast now, it gives
16:07
me an additional opportunity, not just on air, 'cause even
16:10
though I do really get a lot more airtime than most sideline
16:14
reporters do. And that's I I really
16:15
appreciate, again, Corey and Steve for giving me that much
16:18
space. But I do feel like I have all
16:20
this information swirling in my head just from practice and and
16:23
all those things. So having this podcast has been
16:26
a good way to kind of get that out.
16:27
And then I, I travel with the team.
16:30
But you know, that's primarily kind of what it's like for me as
16:33
of now. Wow that's it's that's plenty
16:36
that that sounds like a freaking full day a full freaking day
16:40
especially rolling through scouting you know the the
16:43
scouting Academy that that is interesting can just anybody if
16:48
you want to go through that process can you how does how do
16:51
you how do you do that. Yeah, you you can.
16:54
I don't think it is for everyone because because, I mean watching
16:58
film, you're sitting there in silence and you're having to
17:02
watch it several times in a row trying to get all these
17:05
intricate things down. Some people that just.
17:07
So what you're saying is Johnny Manziel would not do well in
17:11
this scouting account, Jamarcus Russell?
17:13
Jamarcus Russell's a no go. I definitely, I definitely have
17:16
to take my Vyvanse before I I start.
17:19
But yeah, you just sign up. You have to pay for it
17:23
obviously. But I think especially for
17:26
people that because it works. I I the reason that I initially
17:29
went into it was because a a lot of the media members that I
17:33
followed along with in New Orleans, they had all gone to
17:35
the Scouting Academy and I just didn't feel like there was a way
17:37
for me to bridge the gap of not ever being able to play a snap
17:41
of football and I was able to make actually quite a few.
17:44
I somehow came to understand defensive backs using my soccer
17:47
background. But once it kind of clicked to
17:50
me that you know a diamond defense in a flat 4 is very
17:53
similar to how cover one, cover 2, cover 3, cover 4 all break
17:57
up. And I understand you know
17:58
triangle assignments because that's all soccer was and so
18:02
understanding kind of pattern match coverage.
18:04
Once it clicked for me, then it all kind of rolled through.
18:06
But it was definitely really tough at first.
18:08
It just, you know, again, as someone that had never played
18:10
the game before it, it is definitely a very difficult
18:13
thing. But I just, I couldn't fathom
18:16
really being able to do all that I'm doing right now without
18:19
doing even just one position group.
18:22
And I'd have heard defensive back is a very difficult one to
18:25
start with. But it just again the one I
18:27
resonated with because I was a center back in soccer.
18:30
Right, there you go. And my son, he's, I was picking
18:33
him up from school the other day.
18:34
He was listening to, I was listening to you explain that.
18:37
I don't remember which podcast it was on.
18:40
And it resonated with him. He understood it.
18:42
He plays soccer. He's 11 and it he's heard these
18:46
guys that are on sport because you know generally if we're not
18:49
listening to music or whatever we're going to be listening to
18:51
sports talk radio. I'm like, you know we're not
18:54
really a sports talk show here Tigs bits and we talk about
18:57
sports music, culture, food. We're going to get into that but
19:02
but Haley but you know just everything but, but but I was
19:07
telling him I was like he's listening.
19:09
I'm prepping a little and he goes, wow, Dad, I I that made
19:14
sense. I understand what she's saying.
19:16
I always hear them talk about cover two and all that.
19:19
I don't know what they even mean.
19:21
And I'm like most people don't, Riley, just to let you know
19:24
unless you know what it is and Madden and you know beyond that.
19:28
But to really understand how those players work, where
19:32
they're supposed to be assigned, how they moved.
19:34
You were able to break that down in a simplified way that an 11
19:39
year old boy could understand. So.
19:41
Thank you for sharing that with me.
19:42
That's really, I really appreciate hearing that.
19:45
And I was, you know, when I worked in my legal job that I
19:49
didn't like because I had actually gone and got a masters
19:51
in legal studies, I understood the case law and I knew that
19:55
people actually want to understand these things in a
19:58
way. But I if you give them jargon,
20:00
they're not going to understand that.
20:01
And that was something I always got feedback on, was the ability
20:04
to break down really complex things into simplified.
20:07
Ways and and I almost feel like because I'm kind of learning it
20:10
in real time. I think about you know if I like
20:13
my cousins or both teachers thinking about you know what
20:16
would I do if I was teaching. And I always try to make it
20:20
something that other people can relate to in a different way.
20:22
Because if you're not understanding it from a football
20:25
perspective sometimes changing the angle of it once you get the
20:28
concept and you're not like you said there with all the jargon
20:31
and the three tech this kind of thing and you just understand
20:34
from a fundamental level. I just, I feel like stripping it
20:38
back helps, but that's really cool and that is very inspiring
20:40
to keep kind of working on trying to help people learn.
20:43
Yeah, for sure. I mean it it is it's it's
20:45
awesome. Just to hear how you break it
20:47
down it just makes every makes makes sense you've talked about.
20:51
Do the two, the two podcasts I've listened to, I've learned
20:54
so much in both of those, you know, and it's like I was
20:56
telling Brantley earlier, it's like, man, I listen to talk
20:59
radio all the time and coaches come on and I hear things.
21:03
But I'm not getting this granular level that you were
21:05
able to bring. And I'm not just saying that
21:06
because you're on the show. I was actually found it to be
21:08
very informative. I thought it was awesome And
21:10
it's cool that you're taking the time to sharpen the pencil.
21:13
Not only right as a as a journalist and what you're doing
21:15
there and covering like you know with the psychology of of of
21:19
players and understanding people and you know having the
21:21
emotional intelligence, but you're also on the other side of
21:24
this really sharpening the pencil when it comes to your
21:28
football acumen, right. And just understanding the game
21:32
at that level. I mean that's a nice, I mean
21:34
even in my world I'm in surgical to buy sales.
21:36
So I do this on the side believe it or not.
21:37
So it's not our full time gig. So it's the same thing there.
21:40
Like there's really good sales reps and then there's really
21:42
good sales reps that are also really have really high clinical
21:45
acumen, so they can bring this value and it's those that really
21:49
end up achieving more. And so anyway, I think you're on
21:52
to something awesome. Like, I think you're going to go
21:54
really, really, really cool places, so.
21:56
No doubt. You've already stated that I was
21:58
going to ask a question with that, though, but it's really,
22:00
you know, you said you couldn't imagine doing this without being
22:03
able to really, really entrench yourself in that knowledge, so
22:07
that's awesome. It's.
22:08
A very high competition. Seriously, I thank you.
22:10
I'm like. Yeah, we're Maddie fans over
22:13
here. I'm sorry, but we just.
22:14
We are. I've been following you, really.
22:16
I think it was with the Lattimore stuff is where I first
22:20
started to see you started to follow you on Twitter.
22:22
X, whatever we want to call it. And and I mean and and and can't
22:27
believe that you're actually on the show with us like I can't
22:30
boys Can you imagine this like a year ago when we well I didn't
22:33
even really know Jr. at this point.
22:35
Blasey and I was just thinking about that this morning like a
22:38
year ago and how far we've come and to have Maddie on here.
22:41
It's just it's incredible. It's just, oh, it's awesome.
22:43
It's, I mean we you know we've arrived when we have a guest on
22:48
that has their own promo code so you can get discounts on.
22:51
Drinks right at A at a barbecue joint, man.
22:54
At a BBQ place. Yes, it's a was that the, the
22:57
Chicory espresso martini I believe?
22:59
Right. It truly was 12 out of 10.
23:03
But no, y'all, y'all are too much.
23:05
I really appreciate that. I I like understood, you know,
23:08
very much. I feel like I'm still on my
23:11
first day at the job here. I'm not very good at soaking
23:14
things in, but I really. OK.
23:16
I listen to. I listen to I guess it was the
23:19
first episode of your podcast that Tig sent me last week when
23:22
we had he booked you for the show.
23:24
And I was listening to it a few days ago.
23:26
And man, it was interesting to listen because there's I work in
23:29
the music business. I'm a tour manager for a country
23:31
music singer, been for 20 years. I've been doing this and I kind
23:36
of, I thought a lot of similarities and parallels with
23:38
your coming up in a different field and then pivoting into the
23:41
sports world and having to somehow find your niche in the
23:46
sports world, but not being a former player or an athlete or a
23:49
coach or something like that. And I'm just kind of the same
23:51
way and listening to your stuff about school, I realized I
23:54
probably had ADHD too. And in the 80s we just didn't.
23:57
Nobody talked about it in Eclectic AL, So I just got, I
24:01
just kept talking and they'd stick me in the corner and make
24:03
me stand somewhere so I could talk to the wall, you know,
24:05
whatever. And now I talk for a living.
24:07
So it's that's a trip. But but I thought the parallels
24:11
there were that you didn't have it, so you had to emerge
24:13
yourself with, immerse yourself with the culture and to be a
24:16
student of the game. And I kind of did the same thing
24:20
wish and looking back, I wish I would have had the psychological
24:23
background that you did. Because in my work, that's not.
24:26
People ask what a tour manager does and 95% of it is being camp
24:29
counselor to a bunch of adults, dudes on the tour bus going
24:32
around the country. It really is.
24:33
It's it's negotiating personalities is what it is.
24:37
You know, you know how to talk to this one.
24:39
You got to know how to talk to this one.
24:40
You got to decipher the language so everyone can speak the same.
24:43
But me not playing an instrument didn't know anybody in the band.
24:46
Similarly, I just immersed myself.
24:48
I became a historian. I know way more than I should
24:51
about who played fiddle on a Bob Wills record, but I know that
24:55
stuff and it keeps me in conversation with an actual
24:57
fiddle player who plays in a band, you know, and things like
25:00
that. But I thought it was.
25:01
I thought it was it was cool that that all the things come
25:05
together, 'cause we always say that, 'cause we're friends with
25:07
a lot of athletes and athletes are friends with a lot of
25:10
entertainers, and they all want to be the other one.
25:12
You know, the entertainer wants to be an athlete and the athlete
25:14
wants to be an entertainer. But I thought the coming up and
25:17
learning yourself, I thought, Dang, that's kind of the same
25:18
thing I had to do because I'm just an outsider until I had
25:22
that knowledge bank to where when a conversation came up, I
25:25
could get in the conversation, you know, and stay in the
25:27
conversation. So I just thought it was neat
25:29
that the parallels come up. And your trajectory though is
25:33
way took me 20 years to get where I'm at.
25:35
You're on a you're on that speed track to that.
25:37
But like you said to the the pandemic shook the whole world
25:40
up. And it's a great, it was a great
25:41
time for a lot of people Find your passion.
25:44
We don't know what's going to happen around the corner.
25:45
So find your passion and go for it.
25:47
And I think you found your niche here for sure, because what I've
25:51
listened to and what I've seen so far, it's like Blasi said,
25:53
you you got, you got nothing but the bright future ahead of you
25:56
for sure. I appreciate that.
25:57
But I I totally do agree about the pandemic.
25:59
I I think a lot of people really just said, you know, if it in a
26:03
way that they really wouldn't have before.
26:05
And I think also to the audience of people looking for something
26:08
to distract themselves from the news of doom every single day
26:12
really created that kind of opportunity.
26:14
But I was actually surprised when I've had my first several
26:17
guests on my podcast that none of them had conventional sports
26:20
backgrounds, some that I didn't even know about.
26:23
I had just assumed because they have such high up jobs at this
26:27
point, but I think there is something to be said.
26:28
It's just about different perspectives and but I think as
26:32
much as you kind of laugh about the camp counselor to a bunch of
26:35
people, I mean I kind of feel that way in a way when I'm with
26:38
some guys on the side, you know, it's just kind of learning how
26:41
to be present and and be there for them without be overbearing.
26:45
And you know, it's 'cause that's not really my job, but when
26:48
you're ever present with people, making them feel comfortable
26:51
with you, that really just helps.
26:53
And and it's going to be a different guys every single
26:55
year, different coaching staff for me every single year at this
26:59
point as well. But I I think it is definitely a
27:02
chaotic way to come in and enter the industry.
27:04
I do think that there is a value though and not necessarily
27:07
having that conventional background where you think that
27:10
you or you have to be in one lane or the other lane and
27:13
that's the only way that you see yourself in.
27:16
I think you just kind of go for it more sometimes when you have
27:18
nothing to lose and you have no defined pathway and that's at
27:22
least worked better for me than trying the traditional one for
27:25
the first six years of my. And you've got the fire, you've
27:29
got the passion, you want to do it.
27:31
You know, That's a lot of things when you come into a gig you
27:33
want to do and you, you were in, especially if you were in a gig
27:36
you really weren't loving. And you're like, man, I can make
27:38
a living doing what I really I'm passionate about.
27:40
Then when you're doing the, then when you're on the sideline with
27:43
these people, it's if it's all come from a place of sincerity,
27:46
it's not BS to anyone. And they can feel that they know
27:49
you're sincere and being true. So they want to buddy up with
27:51
you and chit chat with you, maybe give you some inside scoop
27:53
or whatever. And you're not trying to trick
27:55
them into give it you sincerely care.
27:56
Whether they give you that info or not or whatever it is, you're
27:59
just like, I'm just going to be a cool person and if things are
28:01
going to work out and and it does, I mean, I see that 100%.
28:06
Yeah, I mean, it was something that pushed me out of my comfort
28:08
zone, to be fair, because I am relatively introverted and I can
28:11
be kind of shy. And I'm an only child that just
28:13
very used to being off by myself.
28:15
And I'll default to that sometimes of, you know, I'm
28:18
mentally, I'm sitting in a tree, which is what I used to do at
28:20
the park growing up. But I had quickly realized, you
28:23
know, I have to really get out of my comfort zone here and just
28:25
start meeting people. And I feel like as much as the
28:29
hurricane was a very poor experience all around, being
28:33
evacuated to a renovated hotel in Birmingham with a subway that
28:37
was about to go out of existence.
28:38
And we kept in existence by how much we ate during the time that
28:42
we were there. But it was kind of a trauma bond
28:45
in a way, where you'd walk by, there's a player drawing their
28:48
uniform of the blow dryer in the ballroom kind of thing.
28:51
You know, it was just really stripped back.
28:53
And do you think that allowed? Because, you know, I came in the
28:55
same year as Corey, our play by play guide.
28:57
We were both new. So in a way I think the
29:01
hurricane really kind of helped strip back all those layers and
29:04
you know, let's all just kind of be miserable together kind of
29:06
thing. But also being there for the 2
29:08
and 10 year and not leaving when the going got tough, I think
29:12
that really meant a lot to them. And it helped in a way too
29:14
because I knew they weren't really trying to talk that much
29:17
that year because things were going poorly and no one was
29:20
having a good time. And so I was just there if they
29:22
wanted to speak, but why not trying to kind of push myself on
29:26
them and and be kind of overbearing in that way.
29:28
And so everything was just kind of natural in that way.
29:30
But I do try to make a conscious effort every year to try to do
29:34
something a little more than you know what I was doing the year
29:36
before, be it start kind of doing these interviews with
29:39
players and and things. So that's something I always
29:41
recommend to people too, is just even if your job doesn't require
29:45
it, you know what, maybe pick something every year that you
29:48
want to try and improve on or something that'll push you just
29:50
a little further out of your comfort zone.
29:52
I think sometimes people try to go way too far in One Direction
29:56
and don't understand that baby steps can be super valuable in
30:00
that. And yeah, baby steps 1000.
30:03
Well, you know, And during the pandemic, the the singer I work
30:06
for, we did the same thing. We were sitting home and
30:07
couldn't go on tour. So we started a podcast and I
30:10
failed speech six times in college.
30:12
Most people who know me, I can talk the paint off the wall, but
30:15
when it comes to people I don't know in a big crowd, not my bag,
30:18
never was. Couldn't pass it in college, but
30:21
doing the podcast, getting out of my comfort zone.
30:23
Next thing you know, I'm having to talk to celebrities and this
30:26
and that, but it's still growing and to get there, this past
30:30
weekend we're we were actually in in near your old neck of the
30:33
woods. We played in Anaheim at the
30:35
Golden One Center this past Friday night and we have a new
30:38
thing to wear when the band comes on stage.
30:40
I have to do an intro. I go out, say Sacramento, CA.
30:43
Welcome to the stage. I practiced it in practice in
30:46
rehearsals 20 times. No problem.
30:49
Well, that was not 12,000 people screaming at me when I had to do
30:51
it. So when I get out on the stage
30:53
Friday night and do, I'm getting ready to do my thing and it's
30:56
pretty cool because I can't see anything.
30:58
It's just on lit on the stage. Then they throw all the big
31:00
lights up on the House. When it's my turn to say
31:02
something, I'm like. But.
31:06
Had I not practiced? Podcast.
31:08
Yeah, right. That's all I kept thinking in my
31:10
head. I'm like, I'm on Tigs bits.
31:11
We're about to talk to DDP. Marty Smith's going to pop in
31:14
for a few minutes. Everything's golden, you know?
31:16
Everybody can follow. Yeah, I see.
31:19
I show but but I got the nerves. But then the next night we're at
31:23
the the Honda Center in Anaheim where the nerves gone.
31:25
So it was just that I had built myself up you know talking on
31:29
the podcast talking to doing this being in front of crowd
31:32
then boom. That first night little nerves
31:33
second night golden hopefully from here on out I don't have
31:36
any problems but it's it's like this practice makes perfect and
31:38
when you and when you're passionate about something you
31:41
want to do good at it. You know, if even if you go a
31:44
little too far, hell, at least you trying, you know?
31:48
Oh yeah, exactly. And I just think 2 reps make
31:50
such a difference. I've noticed how much easier it
31:52
is for me to do TV hits and and radio hits now that I've started
31:55
doing a regular podcast because when the season's over, I do
31:59
guest spots here and there. But I always felt like I forgot
32:01
how to speak when the season came back around because I would
32:03
kind of go back to writing. So it is also, you know, I think
32:07
that they're all skills that you have to actively keep up.
32:11
And yes, we can all talk but for an extended period of time
32:14
without saying. And losing your train of coach
32:16
is difficult for me again. You know, I have ADHD on my
32:19
attic and I my short term memory is not totally always there, but
32:23
I also have again just growing up and and doing all that and
32:27
also embarrassing myself enough as a kid to be honest, like my
32:30
friend and I during a performance we were supposed to
32:32
sing a duet started laughing so hard they had to close the
32:34
curtains on us. So, you know, I've had those
32:36
experiences kind of go wrong when I was 11 years old.
32:39
And so it's not that deep. If I'm 29, you're going to be
32:42
OK. 12,000 people, so I can't. Say that I would just roll that
32:47
exact same way, but I think reps definitely make a difference.
32:51
And even if you don't have a podcast, just doing them in your
32:53
room, just doing reps, yeah. Yeah, talk to your buddy well.
32:56
Like you said, having that background too, and and acting,
32:59
coming up, doing commercials and things like that early in your
33:01
life, you already 'cause I did a little background acting, too,
33:05
just kind of like you're saying it was in New Orleans, 'cause
33:07
obviously we film a ton of stuff down there.
33:09
But for a few years while I was doing that and I basically did
33:12
it just to learn the lingo, How does that work?
33:14
You know, if I'm going to be an entertainment, I have to go to
33:16
these award shows. We have to go to these, We play,
33:18
you know, today show, we do all these things.
33:20
I see stuff going on. I know what happens in our tour
33:22
world, which a lot of people don't.
33:24
You know what a lighting camera OPS guy is with the monitor
33:27
engineer does? What?
33:28
What everybody does and what the lingo is?
33:30
Upstage, downstage, house right, house left.
33:33
And I thought, well, if I'm going to be around this stuff,
33:34
why not learn it and go make a couple bucks?
33:37
So I was doing the background thing.
33:38
But like you, it taught. It teaches you where this is,
33:41
what this means, what that means.
33:42
Then when you go into a situation where it's live,
33:46
you're not a deer in the headlights because you've
33:47
already heard those words. You're like, what?
33:49
What are they talking about? Because you know what they're
33:50
talking about. So it's just arming yourself,
33:53
just having tools, you know? And that was, I was thinking
33:55
about that when you mentioned something earlier.
33:57
I can't remember what it was, but I thought, that's a good
33:59
tool to have in your bag too. And and now that you've done it,
34:02
you have it. It's not redactable.
34:04
It's not going to disappear. You've learned that knowledge.
34:06
Oh, it was the the Academy. You know you you do have to even
34:09
if you pay. But that's a tool that that's in
34:11
your bag now and you've got it's like taking another college
34:13
class, you know. And I and I don't remember
34:15
everything I learned in college but I remember the things I need
34:18
when it pops up to use them in in real life.
34:20
You know, so keeping those tools sharp and having different
34:23
experiences, I think you you're you nailed it on that for sure I
34:26
I think I heard. Someone say at some point if
34:30
you're a podcaster, you can't really consider yourself a
34:33
podcaster until you've done 100 episodes, you know, which is
34:37
that's I don't I was that's a kind of a crazy statement.
34:40
But I think what they meant by that is that you're not
34:42
comfortable. You know, like this is our 71st
34:46
or whatever. I think we've been rolling
34:47
pretty well since about 20, but you know, but but it but it
34:51
keeps getting. It just keeps getting better.
34:53
It's smoother. Little things, little hiccups.
34:56
It'll happen. If they happen before it would
34:58
have just made us derail or something, you know, now we
35:01
just, you know, it just meant you're more comfortable.
35:04
You do the rest you're more comfortable.
35:07
That's exactly right. That's exactly right.
35:09
Well, we do have some news, Maddie.
35:11
We had, we didn't get to this at the top of top of the show.
35:15
But LSU, Of course. I'm a big LSU guy.
35:20
But like I said, this is not a total sports show.
35:22
We we like. We really.
35:24
We talk about everybody. Jr. is an Alabama guy.
35:27
God, God help him. And of course Blasey's blasey's
35:30
our Troy guy. But I did see that that LSU has
35:34
signed the tight end two lanes. Our coach, he's the tight end
35:38
coach. I guess in other he wears many
35:40
hats as well. Slade Nagle coming to Baton
35:43
Rouge. So any thoughts on that to can
35:45
you tell us a little bit about slate?
35:47
I don't. I don't know much about him.
35:50
Listen, he took on a. Really difficult situation as
35:53
the interim head coach when Willie Fritz departed, just in
35:56
terms of the timing of it with the loss of the championship
35:59
game, them really finding that out the next morning.
36:02
And then you know Willie being on a plane to Houston and we're
36:05
all at this bowl selection party and no one wants to be there.
36:09
No one. They all fell asleep at like
36:11
7:00 in the morning. Half the players missed it
36:13
because they were asleep because they couldn't sleep.
36:16
And I had done ATV thing that following Tuesday he actually
36:19
was on it as well and he just looked like he had lived 5 lives
36:21
since I last saw him. And you know, with all of the
36:24
kind of fox in the hen house stuff that happened with the
36:28
previous coaching staff, you know, having to really temper
36:32
waters over A2 lane, especially, you know, after they hired John
36:35
Sumrall. But he was the the solely
36:37
interim head coach in charge of kind of keeping the ship upright
36:41
while it it could have really all gone sideways.
36:44
And he, you know, was someone that Michael Pratt really fought
36:48
for to be the offensive coordinator going into this
36:51
season. He's was, you know, one of
36:53
Willie Fritz's longest tenured staff members.
36:55
He came along with him in 2016 and he has worked.
36:58
I believe he was the tight ends coach my first season in that
37:01
2021 year. And yeah, it's a position group
37:04
that he knows extremely well and has taken on a lot of play.
37:07
You know he called the offense last year, maybe in principle
37:11
the year prior, but at least we had a lot larger role than was,
37:14
you know permitted at the beginning of the season.
37:16
And so he has all of that experience and he really again
37:19
handled an extremely difficult emotional situation here.
37:23
And Tulane could have lost a lot of guys to the portal if we
37:27
hadn't had someone like Slade Nagle keeping things in check at
37:30
the top. I just don't think there was
37:31
room for him on this new coaching staff.
37:33
So I I am really excited for him to get that opportunity.
37:36
I mean he we at Tulane since I've been there, there it kind
37:39
of depends on the player. So you know, the tight ends have
37:43
different skill sets. Alex Bauman's probably the most
37:45
well-rounded one I've seen since I got there, but what he's been
37:49
able to do with them, how much they assist in the running game
37:51
and Alex Bounder's development this year, I mean, that's really
37:55
all Slade Nagle's doing, so I'm. I'm really happy for him and
37:57
hope he succeeds over there. Yeah, that's awesome, man.
37:59
That's a that that's a that's a high compliment.
38:02
High praise sounds like he is a a guy who will be able to fit in
38:05
here and and continue his trajectory on the way up.
38:09
If he can do well here, then that leads to, you know, lead
38:12
leads to other things, so that maybe he'll come coach at.
38:15
Troy Well, you know, yeah. There.
38:17
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely.
38:19
Hey, you know, so, so I think it's cool though, that down at
38:21
Tulane, you know, congratulations, you guys got a
38:24
phenomenal coach. I know you lost Willie and
38:26
everybody. You know, it's like when that
38:28
happens, it's like what are we going to do?
38:29
Right? What?
38:30
What are we going to do? But I mean John Sumrall and what
38:33
he brings, that staff that he brings and what they were able
38:35
to accomplish at Troy, I mean it it it's right next to just like
38:39
it right next to phenomenal, right.
38:41
They're they're just that good. They're they're they're on that
38:43
high of a level. And he talked about attitude,
38:45
toughness, discipline and love and I'm sure none of that
38:47
changes, right. And then that's what he brought
38:49
to Troy when he came in with that level of discipline.
38:51
But that love for the player and putting the player 1st.
38:54
And man, watching those guys respond, I mean you take a team
38:58
that goes five and seven, a couple of two or three years in
39:00
a row and then suddenly we're winning 12 ball games, you know,
39:03
immediately, overnight. So all I'm saying is that that
39:06
Green Wave, I know it's been, it's been rolling.
39:09
I think it's going to keep pumping for you guys.
39:10
I think you're in a good boat. So I think you'll have some good
39:12
news to report in the next, you know, year or two until I think
39:17
you'll probably be plucked away again.
39:18
So just just just enjoy the wave while it lasts, right.
39:22
Yeah, I mean again when I went. There we We're just not winning
39:25
football games. And they played in the Superdome
39:27
the first two years I was abroad, the first year of Uelman
39:29
Stadium. Then everyone had a huge
39:31
hangover from going way too hard at the tailgating on that year
39:34
and not so much the attending of the games that neither of those
39:38
really happened. And so when I left Tulane
39:40
thinking, OK, I just didn't have a college football experience.
39:42
So to be able to come in and have this and, and, yeah, feel
39:45
like despite Willie Fritz leaving and you know, all that
39:48
he really did for my career personally as well, feeling that
39:52
huge void, even just my first impressions of John Sumrall, you
39:55
definitely get that feeling of all those things that you just
39:58
described. He's so personable and just in
40:00
the introductory press conference, but also speaking
40:02
with the media afterwards, speaking with our broadcast crew
40:05
for quite a bit of time. He was down in DC with us the
40:09
whole week for the Military Bowl, but, you know, just
40:11
really. Enjoying his time with his
40:14
family, coming on the tours with us, but being present and being
40:16
there and that really end was at practice when we were at Yeoman
40:19
before we left for DC And I mean this like you said, the staff
40:23
that he has brought over, the players that he's brought over
40:26
in the transfer portal. I mean I Tulane has not had
40:29
caliber of players like they have had coming in with Ty
40:31
Thompson, Mario Williams, Shaz Preston and you know those are
40:35
just the marquee game names. There's a guy from UCF Idaho as
40:38
well, a ton of guys at defensive back, Jalen Geiger from
40:41
Kentucky. So I'm really looking forward to
40:45
this. Just the the transfer portal
40:47
editions alone have me really excited.
40:49
And I, you know, I'm a defense person, but that's enough to get
40:52
me really excited about the offense as well.
40:54
And I am very much looking forward to spring camp and
40:57
seeing how another new coaching staff, even though you know
41:01
Willie's been a present, there's been a different offensive
41:03
coordinator and defensive coordinator and several position
41:05
group coaches my three years. So that's kind of the same thing
41:08
for me. But it feels like this one all
41:10
is going to have a cohesive identity in one and I'm really
41:13
looking forward to covering it. It's going to be fun.
41:16
It is going to be. It's one thing I know from.
41:19
I think I'm kind of in a neutral standpoint.
41:21
I'm I like even LSU guys I know go back of there's the bitter,
41:28
bitter rival long before we were around really with Tulane and
41:32
LSU and the Tiger Rag and all that.
41:34
Like I've always just I like Tulane and never had a problem
41:38
you know I mean I wish that LSU and Tulane would occasionally
41:41
play again. I I it's been a been a long time
41:45
I mean that's going to be the I. Think.
41:47
Can you imagine? No, it's not out of the.
41:50
Question at all. Could you imagine a playoff game
41:53
in LSU? Two lane playoff game.
41:56
Now See, that would get it going again.
41:59
That would get it. That would get the rivalry spark
42:01
back. Oh, that'd be fun.
42:02
But. But isn't being a neutral
42:05
observer of this, I can say having John Sumrall on our show,
42:09
visiting with him, knowing Chad, listening, talking to Chad for
42:13
hours about about Troy football and everything, Y'all got a
42:17
winner. There's no doubt that he's going
42:19
to win there and and win big, like like Chad says, until he
42:23
takes the next job. But that's a good part.
42:25
That's part of being in the Group of five.
42:27
You know that if you're doing well, your coach is going to
42:30
advance and go somewhere else and you'll have to start over.
42:34
But the but the foundation stays and I think that's something
42:38
that has happened with Willie Fritz that's found he built a
42:41
good foundation to move on and then someone like John Sumrall
42:46
can come in and take that foundation and just build upon
42:48
it, yeah. I really just feel like, yeah,
42:51
Willie, especially just the the guys like Nick Anderson in these
42:55
last few years really just cemented that that culture that
42:58
was just so sorely missing from there and just the the winner's
43:01
mentality to be honest with you. And I think that's something
43:03
that John Sumrall sees in these guys and has really said that
43:06
and I think that's where you see that connection of getting these
43:08
guys. It it is the college football
43:10
playoffs that puts us in the conversation.
43:12
But you have to genuinely believe that you can get there
43:14
and like you said, if you get there then why not try to win
43:17
it? And I think just seeing
43:19
themselves as winners, that was really what I saw as a huge
43:22
difference maker this last season, even though they
43:23
struggled a lot of the time on both sides of the ball, offense
43:27
did not have good games a lot of the time.
43:28
They weren't ever too scared of the moment and really knew how
43:31
to hang in those tough games. And I just felt like that was a
43:34
huge difference than almost just being surprised by themselves
43:37
every week last year, the year before that.
43:41
For sure, a lot of people. I was going to say real quick
43:43
and a lot of people forget you know and this is a in in today's
43:47
college sports world this is a total reality that could come
43:50
back as Tulane's original SEC member.
43:53
You know and that was you know that should Tulane it would be
43:56
the Auburn to Alabama you know to and and I know people like I
43:59
said my wife's from South Louisiana.
44:01
The old timers there still wear their Tulane hats right with
44:03
their New Orleans jazz hats. You know they they remember when
44:06
Tulane was as big a school as LSU and it was it was a you pick
44:09
one of the other like we do in Alabama and and and on the way
44:13
and you know Georgia Tech and and Tulane both found that you
44:16
know didn't want to sign up for whatever.
44:17
I've heard rumors of why that went down.
44:19
But in today's world when we've got teams from the West Coast in
44:22
the SEC, totally. I would love to bring to like
44:25
school like Tulane back and and and and Louisiana have two big
44:29
major schools in the big conference and all that stuff
44:31
and you know on the right path I mean it takes winning and and
44:35
people watching you. You get on TV enough and you're
44:37
on the right track there. So who knows.
44:39
I was going to say on the path. I don't know.
44:41
You know, because before, I mean before this expansion, then,
44:45
yeah, you have to get out of this kind of thing.
44:47
But Tulane would have no shot in the SEC of getting the College
44:50
Football Playoffs. To me, they're probably the
44:52
favorite for the G5 year after year after year.
44:56
And if you're able to keep, again, that's the recruiting
44:58
pitch, that's the difference here, then yeah, then you can
45:01
definitely have that kind of conversation in a few years.
45:04
And again, as an alumni, that's awesome.
45:07
Not great, but no one. Cared.
45:10
Yeah, it was. Really just the separation and
45:12
being in the Superdome and and these students you know, they're
45:15
all just if you're taking them downtown they're just gonna
45:17
drink downtown. No one's getting on buses on the
45:19
thing. So it it was just it there was
45:22
really nothing to be had there and just even the students going
45:25
and selling out the basketball team.
45:27
There is just a feeling of a connection with Tulane Athletics
45:31
in a way that just felt very clinically detached while I was
45:34
there. Yeah, yeah.
45:35
Now there that. That totally makes sense.
45:36
Makes sense. Really does It does.
45:39
Hey. Speaking of ADHD, Maddie, so
45:42
this show, we always sometimes get into different things and we
45:45
jump around a little bit. So I thought this would be a
45:47
good time. I know we're getting up on it
45:49
here. We've been going for about 45
45:50
minutes, but I want to play a little game if it's OK with you.
45:53
Again, we we get into controversy on the show.
45:56
Sometimes things get a little edgy, kind of get out there.
45:58
So I want to get your, this is a little show we called Little bit
46:01
of controversy. OK.
46:02
So you've got three options. You can either pass, you don't
46:04
want to answer it, that's fine, you don't know or or you can
46:07
answer the question. So you cool with that.
46:09
Just like just a few questions, you're down.
46:12
This is a new segment. By the way, and I like it
46:14
already, it's a brand new segment I'm learning.
46:16
It with you, Maddie? Absolutely.
46:19
So how do you feel about beans and chili?
46:22
Yay or nay? Yay.
46:25
Okay. So you aren't Bean, Yeah.
46:26
I like. I like beans.
46:27
What about you, Jay? Are you a bean?
46:29
I'm not from Texas only. People in Texas bitch about
46:31
that, yeah. OK.
46:34
It is highly controversial. It do everybody Texas.
46:38
I hear that's all I hear from my Texas buddies.
46:39
But I like beans. Yes, I like beans for sure.
46:42
That way all four are in. Concurrence here.
46:43
That's a fan of the lagoon. Screw you.
46:45
Texas, yeah. What about what?
46:48
About potato salad and gumbo. I haven't.
46:52
Tried it. I'm not necessarily against it
46:54
though, but it seems kind of weird.
46:58
Kind of. I don't know category and I
46:59
didn't know anything about it until these two guys were
47:01
talking about it. The two together doesn't seem.
47:04
Yummy in my head at this moment, but if you already did it and
47:08
presented it, perhaps I'm very particular.
47:10
I tried it for the first time this past.
47:11
Weekend and it is phenomenal. I love cooking gumbo, but I've
47:14
always just done my rice, my gumbo, and I put that little
47:17
dollop right there in the top like a little ice cream ball in
47:20
addition to oh, it is. So in in addition you just add a
47:23
little once. Once it's all done you have.
47:25
Warm gumbo. You take a big dollop of cold
47:27
potato salad right on top or on the side of my bowl and I and
47:30
then you negotiate out just a little with each bite.
47:33
I never knew it either. I love gumbo my entire life
47:36
until I was like, if you have a good gumbo.
47:38
You don't know that but my wife though.
47:41
Like I said again from South Louisiana, the first Christmas
47:43
or Thanksgiving there they they look, they were like, I saw them
47:45
all do and I was like, what do what do y'all eat?
47:47
Potato salad with gumbo. Here?
47:48
They're like, we eat it in the gumbo.
47:50
I'm like, what? But I'll eat anything.
47:52
So I tried. It was like, OK, I see why you
47:54
do this. It's absolutely delicious.
47:55
It. Has a creaminess.
47:56
To it it's it's it's a little edge.
47:58
It's something new and different there, so it's fun.
48:02
Crawfish dusted at the end or not, or just the seasoning?
48:08
Like, you know what I mean? Dusting.
48:09
Where they? Put the seasoning on top, Yeah,
48:10
no, I was thinking. About it, No, I mean then that
48:12
gets all over your hands. It's already.
48:14
I'm like you don't need to add more to that.
48:16
And I mean if you season them before.
48:19
What are you seasoning? You're.
48:20
Seasoning the show. Thank you, man.
48:22
That's exactly I'm confused. Everybody north of I. 10 is
48:27
rolling, then it happens. But you have, correct?
48:29
Yep. You are?
48:31
Yeah. People dust them.
48:32
I don't understand. People will even dust them in
48:34
Lafayette. I've seen it happen.
48:35
I've been like the hell is wrong with you.
48:38
Why do you? Why do you want to touch your
48:39
face after you said it's just making them deposit?
48:42
I just don't get. The I don't get the points
48:44
either to trick to trick. Outsiders to trick people to
48:48
think that's the original. It's an experience.
48:50
You got to get messy, no? If you boil, make them hotter.
48:53
Yeah, if. You boil your water.
48:55
Yeah, if you have your boil, right your mixture.
48:57
Right your boil. You don't need it.
49:00
Yeah, it's just. Good.
49:01
So that's a no for me. OK, I agree, I think.
49:04
Yeah, we're we're all on the same page.
49:05
OK, So sometimes we get into aliens, we get into our personal
49:09
UFO or UAP experiences. So can you.
49:14
Yeah, I saw, I saw your face kind of perk up on this.
49:16
So I'm really curious. Can you tell me about your most
49:18
recent UFO experience? Have you all had UFO?
49:22
Experiences. I'm sorry, I'm just messing with
49:25
you a little. Bit, but have you ever had one?
49:27
No, I've not. I think that.
49:28
You have? Oh, I for sure believe in
49:29
aliens. Yes.
49:31
OK. Yeah.
49:32
Absolutely. I saw the unexplained.
49:33
Lights when I was a kid going in the back of the van with my
49:36
parents, coming back from DC to to Alabama.
49:39
And I was lit with my little boombox listing my new Bon Jovi
49:42
New Jersey tape in the back of the van in 1986.
49:46
And I remember looking out the window and seeing what they
49:48
describe on TV now about the lights moving too fast and this
49:52
and that. And I remember I remember then
49:54
saying something they My parents didn't pay attention.
49:56
My brother was too little to care, but I remember seeing
49:58
those lights exactly like they say there's no way they were
50:00
airplanes and up and down and zoom.
50:03
But I I didn't know exactly the aliens.
50:07
Just pretty much felt like these are religious.
50:09
Absolutely. Yeah.
50:10
They they. Oh yeah.
50:11
Absolutely, Yeah, they came out of.
50:13
Two years ago and. Said yes, we absolutely have
50:14
aliens, we have their machines, we have some of their biology
50:18
and no one cared. Everybody said, hell, we'll just
50:19
watch the Kardashians or whatever.
50:21
It's crazy. No one cared very much.
50:24
That's a whole thing. Yeah, you can look at another.
50:26
Show and I'm going to spend a lot of time on this, but there's
50:28
a a moment where I had these three.
50:32
I guess it would be a UAP because I never saw the outline
50:34
of the image. It was these three like moving
50:36
objects and they took over the vehicle that we were driving and
50:40
disengaged me from being able to punch the gas and get away from
50:43
it. That was done Experience, yeah.
50:45
Unbelievable. And then?
50:46
What's his name? David Hirsch, Gesch Gersch and
50:51
he would show, Brantley had told me.
50:52
Tiggs told me that he was listening to him on the podcast
50:55
with Joe Rogan and he he described basically the exact
50:59
same experience that I experienced what 2530 years ago.
51:03
So we definitely, we are believers here.
51:06
You know, like you almost have to be dumb not to think that
51:09
there's something else out there somewhere, right.
51:11
It's a really. Statistical view, to be honest,
51:14
to assume that I agree I I agree I.
51:17
Agree spaces. I have two.
51:19
More questions? There's.
51:20
Nothing else there, you know. Yes, it keeps going.
51:22
And I'll let you off the hook here.
51:24
So we have a good friend of ours, His name is Dave.
51:27
Dave is a self-proclaimed women's arm wrestling champion.
51:30
He's 39 and O and he only competes in bars and most of the
51:35
women he have to be under £120, right?
51:37
So do you think that's OK that he goes around with this title?
51:41
It's a real low weight. As a women's arm wrestling.
51:46
Champion. Is that OK for him to go around
51:48
touting this? Not with that being the weight.
51:50
Requirement 100% No. I think he's, I think he's going
51:54
to get. Taken down and embarrassed one
51:56
night by somebody who can really go, Really.
51:59
He's going to get embarrassed. He's very selective because he's
52:01
being recorded. He's tall, but he's thin.
52:03
He's kind of jacked, you know? But I've seen a few videos,
52:06
yeah. But so he does.
52:07
He's going to be. 'Cause you know, it doesn't
52:09
matter size, it's all technique. He's going to run into some gal
52:12
who's a professional, a real professional arm wrestler, and
52:14
she's going to break his arm one night at a bar.
52:16
That's what's going to really happen.
52:20
Oh. That's awesome.
52:22
Yeah. Now he's a good friend of ours.
52:23
It's it's always funny when he does it ever.
52:25
He gets a good laugh. So but so, so last question, how
52:34
do you feel about Bubba the Love Sponge?
52:35
About what? Bubba the Love Sponge?
52:38
I don't even know what that is. I had the.
52:42
Same reaction I had. The same reaction.
52:44
I had to sit there and be quiet. I'm.
52:45
Sorry. He's a he's a shock jock and
52:47
he's a national treasure shock jock.
52:49
But he's out there outlandish. Either people love him or hate
52:52
him. I knew you didn't know who he
52:53
was. I thought that ought.
52:54
But we always ask our guest what they think.
52:58
About, yeah, we can just go with a probable on that one.
53:05
Yeah, look, but that's it. I appreciate.
53:06
You playing a little bit of controversy, the first ever.
53:09
You're the first ever guest to play that that show.
53:12
So yeah, thank you for being a good sport on that.
53:14
I like that, I think. I think that's going to have to
53:16
come back. I like that We'll have theme
53:18
music and stuff moving forward with this.
53:21
We'll have make this an. Elaborate.
53:22
Deal, yeah. And hopefully we can.
53:24
Hopefully. We can all meet in person at
53:25
some point. My wife and I, we still know
53:27
Pandemic messed everything up, but we still go to a couple of
53:30
Saints games a year. Obviously I grew up.
53:32
I was born in Jackson, Ms. my family's All Saints fan.
53:35
My granddad was a big fan of Archie back in the day, so grew
53:38
up that way. But we still go to pails games.
53:40
I try to go to at least two or three pails games every year and
53:43
I don't know if Troy. Yeah, I know.
53:47
And I remember when we, I remember when we traded AD and
53:50
then got the Zion pick and I remember I got the e-mail, You
53:53
better get your season tickets now and like we sold like 7000
53:56
season tickets that night when we drafted Zion, but we need to
54:00
hook up and we get back down that way, if not at one of those
54:03
games at some at one of those type deals and and you know hang
54:06
when we're in the area, like I said, need to get back over
54:09
there more but don't as much and don't.
54:10
Yeah, and don't feel surprised, 'cause when they first mentioned
54:12
the bubble, the lung sponge, I'm like that the guy with the Hulk
54:15
Hogan deal. That's all I knew.
54:17
So I didn't. Know I didn't know who he was
54:18
either. Maddie.
54:19
I don't feel any. Type of Yeah, yeah.
54:22
Yeah, you're thank you. Yeah.
54:25
We. Know any time that.
54:26
Any of y'all are down here for sure.
54:28
Hit me up on Twitter X Whatever. Well, I think I heard on.
54:31
Your podcast yesterday, you're going to be at the Senior Bowl
54:34
next week. Blasey and I for sure are going
54:37
to be there Tuesday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
54:39
I do believe we're just going to come to some practice this week
54:42
and and visit, so hopefully we'll run into you there.
54:47
Awesome. Yeah, we'll do that.
54:48
For sure, yeah, for sure. And I know you've got a.
54:51
Ton of you've got all the resources you need, but if you
54:53
ever were to ever need any inside stuff on that, you know,
54:56
we're buddies with Marty Smith and I know Bonnie Bernstein and
54:59
some of those. You ever needed them for your
55:00
show or anything. I'm sure they'd love to jump on.
55:02
I'm sure they love to, for sure. Yeah, no worry.
55:04
Thank you. Yeah, absolutely.
55:06
Absolutely. We'll look, we'll wrap it up
55:08
here with Maddie. Maddie, hang on for a second,
55:11
we'll we'll close it out. But really appreciate you coming
55:14
on today. Good to see you boys and
55:17
everybody. If you're in Louisiana, stay dry
55:20
out there. It is a rainy, messy, messy day.
55:23
But once again, thanks Maddie for coming on and we will see
55:26
you guys next week.