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TABLE TALK: Women's Sports Rule! · The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views

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Hey there, everybody, it's Jeff here. Wanted to let you know that
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we've recorded this podcast episode on Monday, April eighth, twenty twenty four.
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By the time you hear this, some things may have changed here there,
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but we hope you enjoyed the show. All right, everybody, you're listening
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to Table Talk here at the Philadelphia Sports Table podcast show, the longest running
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weekly Philly sports podcast show in the world, eleven years strong. And we
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love being in your ears, love talking Philly sports and the world of Philly
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sports. I'm Jeff Warren here. We've got a great, great discussion coming
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your way. I want to talk about the world of women's athletics, the
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world of women's sports, specifically, you know, on the collegiate level.
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But I got a great guest. He was actually on our Table Talk show
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last week talk about the Philadelphia Union. But we really wanted to get into
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the cultural aspect of what women's sports has become. And I'm feeling we're going
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to have a great discussion here. Let's get to it right now. You
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heard him last week when we were talking about the Philadelphia Union, and now
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to get into what women's sports really is becoming in this day and age here
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in twenty twenty four. It's a very relevant topic based on what we recently
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saw with the NCAA women's tournament and just how you know women's sports and the
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sports that our kids are even playing, who are females and little ladies,
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what they're doing with their school and their after school activities with regard to the
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sports world. Got some interesting discussion topics for you this week here on Table
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Talk we have with us from Philadelphia soccernow dot com. You heard him a
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decent amount during our Eagles postgame podcast shows this past season. Josh Schuster,
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Josh, Buddy, thanks for jumping on the Table Talk show again. Always
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a pleasure. And we're just covering all topics, all topics we are.
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That's what I love. I mean, we can get into a heck,
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we can get into you know, we can get into some hockey. The
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flyers are just crapping to bed right. Oh geez. Yeah, let's keep
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this positive, exactly positive, exactly. I mean, I I loved your
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you know, we just to pull back the curtain a little bit, folks.
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You know, Josh and I were texting each other just about you know,
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you know, talking about some some topics here on the PST podcast show
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that might be of interest and of course relevant interest to all of us.
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And it's the fact that women's sports, whether it's in the collegiate level or
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professional level, or going going down so far as to like our kids and
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what our kids are doing from an athletic and sports standpoint. I was really
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happy Josh that he kind of brought this up, because you know, we've
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talked about how this pass NC Double A women's tournament really meant so much to
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a lot of folks, and not just women, but a lot of men.
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I mean folks have probably heard Len Eric and myself talk about how the
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product of NC Double A women's basketball was just a much better product, you
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know, this year, I mean even last year as well, it was
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a great product, a lot, frankly, a lot better than collegiate men's
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basketball. I can. I can say that without hesitation at all. So,
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you know, as we're diving into this here, you know, we
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were talking about, you know what's more impressive, you know for somebody like
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Caitlin Clark, you know, becoming the all time leading scorer in basketball history,
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or an entire undefeated season, and I think when we look at where
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women's sports is and the echelon that it's gotten too. I think it's a
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really relevant topic to really start with here because it means dominance. You have
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a goat, you have the one of the greatest of all time who is
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doing amazing seeing things in front of us on our screens, or if you're
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fortunate enough to be able to go to one of the games. We're seeing
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this history being made right now. So I don't know, let's get the
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topics started here in terms of what I just said, You know, with
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Caitlin Clark becoming the all time leading scorer in basketball history on the collegiate level,
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or an entire undefeated season, I don't know, what do you think
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is more impressive here? So I looked it up yesterday because I was I
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was curious kind of before the championship game, how many times in college basketball,
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between men and women's sports, you have two sports where the team has
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gone undefeated. South Carolina yesterday did it for the nineteenth time combined. But
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if you think about how long college basketball has been around and the fact that
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they play upwards of forty games to go undefeated, is it's incredible, pretty
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incredible. But at the very end, during the presentation of the awards,
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if you noticed, Dawn Staley took time to thank Caitlyn Clark for all she's
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done for women's sports, and she talked about the fact of what's going to
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happen at the next level at the WNBA, and Don Staley's right, yep.
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And so I guess my argument is if the coach of the undefeated team,
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which rarely happens, is uplifting the person on the other team, I
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guess that's the more impressive feat. And I think the fact that generally women's
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scores are lower, the fact that Kaitlyn Clark set the record is astounding.
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And I don't know, I mean, she's Steph curryesque. I mean,
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she can shoot it from anywhere. It's she's she's incredible. Yeah. I
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like where you're going with that, because you're looking at with your answer to
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that, what's more impressive. You're looking at it from a more macro standpoint.
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When I take a look at and we were, you know, batting
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around these topics here, I look at at from a team standpoint, Like
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you said, you know, you're playing forty some games here and it is
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in my opinion in this moment here in twenty twenty four. Twenty twenty four
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saw some amazing women's basketball, but it doesn't happen unless you're a team,
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Like I think in the moment here, in this moment, it is more
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impressive to actually be able to do that as a team. You're overcoming injuries,
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you are game planning for the next match and the next game itself.
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You don't know what's gonna happen. At times. There are certain aspects of
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a season in sports that are outside your control. However, when you come
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together as a team and collectively defy the odds and to have an undefeated season,
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that to me is actually more impressive in the short term. But like
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you said, I think with Caitlin Clark and how her presence within the sports
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world is going to transcend women's sports long term again from a more macro stand
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point, that is probably more impressive as well. I mean, they're both
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impressive in their own regard, you know, but that's where I'm coming from.
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Yeah, And I think what makes this year for South Carolina so amazing
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is Dawn Staley had to replace her entire starting five. Yeah, she have
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a single player yep, on her starting five that played with her last year
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or for her last year, and this run by South Carolina. I know
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people think about the Patriots and different things like that. Dawn Staley, I
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believe, is now one hundred and eight and three in the last three seasons.
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I mean, that is just I don't know that. I don't know
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that there will ever be another college basketball program, men's or women's that will
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be as dominant over a three year stretch, other than maybe South Carolina if
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they go undefeated for the next two seasons. I mean, think about that.
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Yeah, three losses three years, Yeah, that's it's crazy. Oh
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my god, it's crazy. Oh geez. It's fun to think where women's
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basketball and the collegiate level is going to go and then how that's going to
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transcendo the WNBA perhaps, And I know we're gonna get to that in a
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bit. But we were also batting around another topic of if you could describe
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Kaitlyn Clark in one word, what word would you pick and why? What's
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that one word for you? Buddy? I would say offensive. And part
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of it is because I played high school basketball. I was never a big
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scorer. My main thing was defense. If you watch Kaitlyn Clark, she
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does not play defense. Like yesterday, I was impressed because she at least
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put her hands up, which was kind of amazing because she doesn't really do
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that. Right. She is a tremendous scorer, and I'm sure at the
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next level she will improve on defense. I would be shocked if she doesn't.
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But to me, there's one word, and it's offensive. She's just
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an offensive firestorm. I love how you were so dead on with that.
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In terms of her game, I when we were talking about this, I
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really wanted to go beyond the court in a way, and go beyond the
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play on that we have seen throughout her entire career. And for me,
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it's humble, you know, she just she's always had these humble messages understanding
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who she is, what she means to the game, and how her presence.
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Again going back to the fact that she's really transcended the sports world in
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so many ways. I mean, whether you're talking about the nil stuff,
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she's one of the top earners there. It's not necessarily all about the money.
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Sure, it's great, but again, every time she has interviewed,
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every time she has that microphone in front of her, face, and even
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when she doesn't, her actions off the court has this. She has a
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humbling presence about her, and I think it's good for sports. I think
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it's good for an industry with a lot of egos and a lot of folks
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that really are just in it for the money, of course, and there's
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nothing wrong with that. I want to put that out. There's nothing wrong
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with that. If folks just want to get in a professional sports they're talented,
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it's because they want to and they want to make money. Feel free.
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I mean, that's what that's part of this world, right. But
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her humble nature, I think, is that one word that I would describe
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Caitlin Clark as at this particular point in time in her life and as we're
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here in twenty twenty four, Yeah, I would. I guess you could
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also say transcended. There you go, and that's I mean, yeah,
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the word you use was perfect because there's only a certain type of person that
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has a championship winning coach who doesn't have the player who's talking about what an
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impact she has. Yeah, yeah, And it's because she's humble. It's
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because of who she is as a person. But I never, in my
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life ever thought that I would be texting with my buddies. We're all girl
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dads, and we've spent a while talking about the fact that we we were
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locked in for this game. We couldn't to watch this game. It was
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all over ESPN the first game of the Final Four. All they spent time
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talking about was Caitlyn Clark. I mean it was it was amazing. And
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she's transcendent, and she's humble, and she's offensive. Yeah yeah, in
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a positive way. Not offensive. She is offensive, not offensive anyway.
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Yeah, absolutely. But and how does all of this, then, all
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of this success at the college level, how is that going to impact perhaps
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the popularity of the WNBA. With Caitlyn Clark heading there next year, amongst
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some other very very talented ladies who are playing this game here, I think
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it's really going to help the WNBA in a lot of ways. There.
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Look, there are times when I love watching the WNBA. I think it
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is a pretty darn good product. You know, during the course of the
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year, where you know what I want to look at some I want to
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watch some basketball, and there are a lot of talented ladies within that league.
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But how do you think, Josh, that the success that she has
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had on the college level amongst others again as well, how do you think
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that's going to transcend with regard to the WNBA. Well, I think there's
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going to be a lot of individuals like me now, particularly men who have
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never really watched the WNBA before, Like I don't really have a WNBA team,
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but I can almost guarantee you whatever team Caitlin Clark goes to, I'm
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not sure who holds the first pick in the draft, I will probably tune
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in for a number of their games down Yeah, because she is just she
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is so incredible to watch that you can't help but tune in. And I
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think that in terms of I don't know if you saw any of the numbers
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in terms of viewing that it's incredible from the final four games, but it
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broke it. There was more people watching a Final four match than there were
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watching the NBA playoffs, which the NBA playoffs next the NFL is king,
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yes, and I mean it was. It got like a fourteen point seven,
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which unheard of. They were beating out some NFL games too, correct,
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It beat out every NFL game except for five, I believe. Yeah,
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I mean, it's just amazing and I don't even want to know what
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the championship numbers are gonna be. Yeah, I mean I can only imagine
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it's gonna like break some sort of record because you have the South Carolina fan
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base as well, which is, you know, pretty rapid. So yeah,
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I think w NBA is about to get a major boost in terms of
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finances from advertisers and viewership. Tell you right now, Philadelphia needs a w
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NBA team. Get it done. W NBA, Are we do it this
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year and get the number one pick? Gosh, I would love it.
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I know. Good. Our good friend from the Lockedown Flyers podcast, Rachel
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Donner, her and myself we're talking about that on a recent table talk show
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just in terms of women's sports in general. Oh man, we'd love that
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for sure. But you know, it's interesting as we're moving along with our
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conversation here, Josh, because you mentioned that you know, both of us
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girl dads, and we've had our kids in various sports over the I shouldn't
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even say various sports. I've had two kids doing basically the same sport almost
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their entire lives. And it's interesting how we've seen the emphasis of women's sports
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change over these last few years, you know, especially within the last year.
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I mean, I'll say this right now last week, it's for some
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of the some folks out there that may follow me on social whether it's Instagram
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or you know, even on Facebook or Twitter slash x may have seen that
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my daughter was a very accomplished a gymnast. You know, she was provided
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a banner in her gymnastics facility for her regionals championship through USA Gymnastics, and
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the fact that she was the number thirty ninth top one hundred gymnast in the
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United States on the bars for one of her one of her performances, and
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also at that meet, we are not a meat but at that presentation,
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we weren't aware of the fact that my daughter's team from last year, they
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actually the team actually placed on two separate occasions through this is throughout the United
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States. In one period of time, they were the number seventy fifth as
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a team, seventy fifth on the on the uneven bars, and then at
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one period of time they were the number one gymnastics team in the United States
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on the bars because of their performance. And I remember we were at a
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meet in Long Island and every the girls were they were killing it. Nine
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point eight's nine point seven. I think my daughter did like a nine point
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or nine point eight two five or something on her bar's routine, which got
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her the uh uh, which got her into the number thirty nine in the
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nation. I was like, Oh, my gosh, just incredible. Your
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kids have gone through some sports as well. You know you again, you're
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a girl dad, you know you've you've been there as well, watching them
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grow in certain ways, and it's just it's amazing to see how we as
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a society are really starting, not that we haven't been necessarily because you know,
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we can all talk about Title nine from decades and decades ago, how
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that really shepherd in women's sports, specifically on the collegiate level, but just
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how important women's and ladies and girls athletics have been to our society, especially
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over these past few years. It's for me, it's something that's really special.
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I don't know if you have any thoughts on this here, Josh.
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Yeah, So my daughter is about a decade younger than your girls. Yes,
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she's not really involved in anything other than pretending to be on the phillies.
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Okay, Jack sounds good running around, But what I will say is
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what I've noticed is there has become an increased respect for women athletes and they're
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actually viewed as athletes. My profession is one where a lot of people struggle
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with women doing the job that I do. I'm a pastor. Yeah,
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and I've heard the stories of my colleagues. A number of my colleagues are
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very gifted, and I've heard the stories that they've gone through about the challenges
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that they've had to face simply because they are a woman. And to me,
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one of the most important things about this Caitlin Clark experience was not only
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that she became the all time women's leading scorer, but she became the all
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time leading scorer. And I wanted my daughter at four, to watch,
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and I wanted her to see and I kept telling her, I want you
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to see that you can do whatever it is that you want to do in
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life. Yep. Because and I even think back to like the ending of
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the show The Big Bang Theory, you know, they get on there and
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one of the emphasis was is that there needs to be more women in science.
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Yeah, this is something that can be done. And so as a
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girl dad, the thing that made me so happy in the midst of all
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of this is that there's women's that are shattering men's numbers for viewership. So
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that way, people who are gifted, people who are skilled, are able
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to do whatever it is that they want to do. Yep. And that
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was the biggest thing that I think that I've seen in terms of a change
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is women athletes are actually being respected as athletes instead of just oh yeah,
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they play a girl sport. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Two words that
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come to my mind as I look at my daughters over all these years.
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I've just talked about my one daughter with gymnastics. My other daughter is very
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accomplished when it comes to karate and her training. Probably by the end of
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this summer she's going to be a black belt and she'll be her first degree
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black belt. She is killing it and she has for many, many years.
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But the word drive and the word confidence, especially in a day and
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age where still it's getting better one step at a time, but where girls,
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ladies, women are told, now you know what you have to wait,
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either wait your turn or stay over here a little bit. Let you
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in a little, but stay over here and you can do what you want
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from the periphery. No, that's not it's not how it is with a
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lot of ladies that I have been seeing, whether it is in the gym
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with my daughter's gymnastics or in the karate world, especially with what my other
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daughter has been doing too. It's amazing to see the confidence in the drive
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and how that transcends into Okay, we're gonna do something special and potentially something
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historic with what Caitlin Clark did this past year. So it's a great conversation
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here, folks. Again. Josh Schuster from Philadelphia soccernow dot com and he
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helped U out at our Eagles postgame podcast is past season. Follow him on
19:48
Twitter slash x at flag Eye Josh ninety one. He is a great,
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great follow And I guess, you know, to close us out right here,
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like, what do we think that the next five years are gonna look
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like for women in sports? I mean, can the trajectory continue towards you
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know, greatness here with a lot of these athletes or may there be maybe
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a bit of a fall off. I think it's gonna be really tough in
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order to replicate o Kayle Clark has done. I think it's gonna be very
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difficult. But I think throughout the course of our history, we have seen
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women in general just defy the odds. Somebody has said, Okay, this,
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nobody's ever gonna be able to beat this, nobody's ever gonna be able
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to do this here. I think the next five years are very promising because
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it goes back to what I just was talking about with the word drive,
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the word confidence, and I think when you instill that culturally within a group
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of individuals, you're going to see some really good things in the future.
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So that that's where I'm coming out on this particular topic here. What are
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your thoughts, Josh, Yeah, I think I think it's going to continue
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to rise. Yeah, I think that there has been generations that have been
20:57
inspired by kind of what has happened. And a number of people have even
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commented to me that the women's college basketball they looked forward to that more than
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the men's bracket, and a number of people also said that the women's game
21:15
was far more fun to watch than the men's game because really, other than
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Caitlin Clark being able to shoot lights out, it's fundamentals, which is what
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anytime you bring somebody on to talk about six ers, one of the things
21:29
that's always talked about is the fact that the fundamentals just aren't there, that
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everybody's just chucking up threes. No defense played well in women's sports. You
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don't have a choice but to play defense. And so if you like that
21:41
old school basketball, like nineties era Michael Jordan, which is one of the
21:45
reasons why those who grew up watching that say Michael Jordan is the goat because
21:48
he played really good defense. Yep, then the WNBA and women's college basketball
21:56
is really going to speak to you. And so I see the trajectory continuing
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because you have the Olympics coming right there's one thing right after the other,
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and they've now started. The women's hockey has now grown, and so you
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have these sports that are rolling one right into the other, and I think
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it's just going to continue upwards. It's gonna be great. It's gonna be
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great to follow this over the years. We're going to continue to discuss and
22:22
talk about women's sports here on the PST podcast show again. Josh Schuster,
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Philadelphia, soccernow dot Com. Buddy Man, it was great having you on
22:30
the podcast two weeks in a row. Here. Come back join us down
22:33
the road and we'll get into some more great Philly sports talking, just sports
22:37
talk in general. My friend any time, Jeff, always a pleasure.
22:42
The future is certainly bright in the world of women's athletics. I think that
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we are going to see some great, great talent, some great individuals on
22:51
our screens in the future. Some folks like Caitlin Clark, who I just
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mentioned a short time ago, just a very humble individual who has done so
23:00
much for so many girls, so many women throughout this world. So I
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love that discussion with Josh. And again, thanks so much to Josh for
23:10
coming on the Table Talk interview show twice in two weeks. It was great
23:15
great having him, and that's gonna do it for us here on table Talk.
23:18
We got some great content coming for you this week. If you're new
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it for us here on table talk. We'll catch you next time.