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[Assistant] You've been very consistent with him. Yep. In 2020, he was number 20. Yep. Last year he fell to 21. This year he's back at 20. That's crazy. You've been very, you kind of see him as the same guy the last three years.


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[Assistant] This is what he needs to do. He needs to go find the next team that hires Matt Nagy. He needs to go play for him. And then he needs to go dominate and at that point


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[Assistant] Then you might say. Right. Alright, he did it. Right. Uh, but it's, it's tough to argue with that. I mean, Kyle Shanahan is, is known as an offensive genius for a reason. Let me go to this here, here, Pete. So 51% of Jimmy's passing yards


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Patrick Mahomes. Okay. And Aaron Rodgers. Right. And so it's not just the quarterbacks that need to get helped out with the yards after catch. Those are two of the elite quarterbacks who also have high yards after catch. Sure.


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[Assistant] Yards per pass attempt, we're second in the NFL last year, only to Joe Burrow, but...


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[Assistant] His average depth of target was tied for 31st and so you're not getting those deep passes, you're not getting those air yards intended deep downfield with Jimmy Garoppolo. So the question is then, I mean that's part of the reason why they drafted Trey Lance. Trey Lance can give him some of those downfield passing, that was the hope at least.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You have Jimmy Garoppolo though, ranked ahead of number 31.


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[Assistant] From all indications, Albert Breer reporting it over the weekend again. They're trying to trade Jimmy Garoppolo. Shanahan has said most likely they're gonna trade Jimmy Garoppolo.


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[Assistant] You have him ahead of Trey Lance. We don't know what Trey Lance could be, but for this year, you think Jimmy Garoppolo is gonna be better. This team is a Super Bowl team, potentially this year. Should they keep him?


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[Assistant] And there's only 11 places, 11 quarterbacks to separate these two. You got Trey Lanza at 31, you got Jimmy Garoppolo at 20. We got a couple heat maps on what those quarterbacks did last year that kind of illustrates your point here. Jimmy Garoppolo, if you're listening.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The heat map is over the middle of the field. Or behind the line of scrimmage in the middle of the field. Trey Lance has also got a few behind the line of scrimmage, but you see more outside the numbers.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] 23 games in 2018 and so that's been an issue and that's one of the main reasons why they wanted someone else too. They just gotta have a quarterback that's there.


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[Assistant] We'll never forget that interception on the screen right by his goal line. Right. And it gets the Tennessee


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[Assistant] Yeah, what's going on there? Let's dive into that since you brought it up here real quick. Cause I got some other numbers that I want to talk about, but since you brought that point up, we heard about it in Philadelphia where some people said Nick Foles is a better leader on this team than, than Carson Wentz. And, uh, your say, uh, the Colts owner just told reporters a little while ago. It was very obvious the Colts had to move on from the quarterback.


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[Assistant] Uhm, so you don't often hear, you don't often hear an owner say something like that. Really, never. Uhm, Wentz responded, he said, obviously I struggled down the stretch. Took accountability there. The timing was poor, but yea, I didn't expect that. I had an awesome relationship with every single person in that building, he says. Yea, it came out of left field.


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[Assistant] So you're saying he probably is overstating the relationships that he had with that team.


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[Assistant] If you were able to put Garoppolo's rapport with his teammates, his leadership ability in Carson Wentz, are we talking? We're talking maybe almost a borderline top 10 quarterback? Yeah, I mean Carson Wentz has top 10 talent.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, he definitely cut down on the interceptions if you're watching right now. 15 interceptions in 2020 with Philadelphia, just seven last year with Indianapolis. Uh, he was sacked 50 times with Philly, just 32 times with Indy. So some of the numbers, if you wanted to make a case for Carson Wentz improving significantly in those areas, you can make that case with some of those stats.


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[Assistant] I know, should I? Well, I could say more positive. No, you did, you did, you did. You said the talent is there. Here's the question I want, and we'll end with this on Carson Wentz, because, uh, let's take a look at their schedule, and you make a big deal out of this, how a team starts.


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[Assistant] He has done it before and he's got that Doug Flutie kind of it factor where he's like, I don't know how he did it, but at the end of the game, he pulled it out and made some plays. And so there could be some pressure on Carson Wentz early in the year. They do have Jaguars at Lions and then home against the Eagles. That's an interesting way to start.


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[Assistant] Alright, and he's not necessarily a great backup guy, kinda like you mentioned with, and I don't know that he has the...


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[Assistant] I don't know. It'll be interesting to see. You're right. You don't think of him as a, a team would be like, oh, we'd love to have Carson as a backup. I don't know if he'd accept that or what. Yeah, it'd be interesting. That'd be a tough situation. I hear you. Best for him to succeed, uh, this year in Washington if he wants to continue playing in the NFL. Number 18 we're up to now and this,


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[Assistant] Could get some chatter out there because it was a huge quarterback class last year. We've already heard Trevor Lawrence, we've heard Zach Wilson, Justin Fields, who impressed you a lot, but did not impress you as much as this.


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[Assistant] That's what a lot of people are going to say. People are going to say this is not a surprise. Because what we heard is that Mack Jones was the most pro-ready quarterback. So it's not a surprise that after year one, he looked the best.


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[Assistant] Sergio, Sergio Farrell too, just on this before you move on. About Zach Wilson specifically, who we know, you like Zach Wilson as a quarterback. He was your number one quarterback coming out last year. He goes, Sergio, uh, Sergio Farrell says that Zach Wilson was hands down, you said, the best rookie quarterback over the last two months.


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[Assistant] How is it that Mac Jones is ranked above him? Do you truly believe Mac Jones will be a better quarterback than Zach Wilson in 2022?


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[Assistant] Decision making is not just a throwaway skill. Exactly right. And being able to process quickly. That's just not a thing that all quarterbacks will eventually get to.


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[Assistant] Yeah, Mac Jones at number 18 for you. And one of the things that I said last year, you can take the tape, re-watch the tape from last year. I did say this about Mac Jones because one of the reasons people said you can't take him third overall, he's a little, he's a little fluffy, right? That body, well isn't that?


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[Assistant] Projection, isn't that projectable? You figure he's going to get a little bit better shape. Maybe he's with an NFL strength coach and a dietitian with the NFL. And that's exactly what's happened here. Some of the reports out of New England. Kendrick Bourne says he's in the best shape of his life, which is something you hear about baseball players in spring training. You take it with a grain of salt, but


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[Assistant] Apparently, he has done a lot of work with their strength coach and their dietician to get everything in gear. And so, yeaah, that makes sense, right? If you got a guy that's all ripped and he's already filled out in the draft, you go, there's not a whole lot of projection there. There was some with Mack Jones. He figured he's not gonna necessarily be fluffy for his whole life.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, no, no, that's good, because I think that's a concern. Now, that doesn't necessarily translate into a stronger arm, but it could. I mean, Joe Burrow last year, they talked a lot about it. Coming back from injury, he came back throwing as hard as he ever has thrown before. So you can, you can increase your arm strength in the NFL.


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[Assistant] No Josh McDaniels, which could be a little bit of a concern, but you figure Mack Jones learned a lot and he can coach the coaches there who have been there as well. Patricia on the offensive side, right? And Joe Judge will be over there as well.


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[Assistant] Uh, they should still be able to do what they've done in the past. Here's something interesting because you got the last two quarterbacks, the Patriots and the Commanders. So our friends over at points bet have an interesting graphic here.


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[Assistant] Uh, because with the odds of, of win total over-unders,


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[Assistant] The New England Patriots, they figure, are gonna be the better team. They got an overrunner for win total at 8.5, where Washington's is 7.5, uh, to win the division.


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[Assistant] You know, New England's a slight favorite to win their division, to win the conference.


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[Assistant] The New England's a favorite over, you know, they've got better odds than Washington to win in the NFC, but the one thing where it does favor the commanders, here's you take a look on Peacock and YouTube.


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[Assistant] To make the playoffs, Washington still has slightly better odds than the Patriots to make the playoffs. You got all that that goes in the Patriots favor, but that just kind of illustrates to you how much more difficult the AFC is compared to the NFC this year.


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[Assistant] So if you saw any of those odds and any of them jumped out to you, if they were attractive to you, you can download the points bet app. You can get a couple of risk free bets up to $2,000.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He's about to go to people's homes and just download it for him. He really is.


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[Assistant] We're into now the top 17. One more quarterback to talk about today.


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[Assistant] And that quarterback is a little bit in limbo. I don't even know what team he's going to play for.


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[Assistant] To back up your point, I was over on next-gen stats. Cool.


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[Assistant] The longest, and this surprised me, the longest pass, completed pass, in terms of air yards, the actual distance the ball traveled in the air, 66 yards, Baker Mayfield.


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[Assistant] Probably. I don't know what play it was, but it was 66 yards in the air, and I would have thought it was Justin Herbert. He was second, 63 yards in the air.


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[Assistant] Exactly. He's had a roller coaster career so far, so you're seeing here 2020 might have been his most efficient year, his best year in 2020 with the 26 touchdown passes and 8 interceptions. Took a step back in 2021, playing part of the year injured, was


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A little pedestrian, maybe in 2019, 22 touchdowns, 21 interceptions coming off of a really good rookie year. So he has had these ups and downs, seems to oscillate every year. So if you're a team that's looking to trade for him, maybe you're like, okay, this is going to be as good year, back healthy again.


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[Assistant] Chris and I, I'm gonna try to pull an audible here. If you can get graphic 6230. It was what we started the show with. Sims's 21 through 40 quarterback countdown. Cause if the Browns have, have screwed him here.


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[Assistant] Uhm, then, then there may be a team that could save him, right? We've heard of the Carolina Panthers and there's been some dabbling there. They got Matt Corral. Uhm, but Kristen's done it again. Great job, Kristen. So you've got him, Baker Mayfield, at 17. So in your mind, he would be an upgrade.


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[Assistant] For all these teams that have all these quarterbacks here, 21 to 40. Now you know why some teams are going to stick with, you know, the Bears are going to stick with Justin Fields because of the potential there. That makes a whole lot of sense.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But, I mean, you see a bunch of teams here, listed, who you think Baker Mayfield would be an upgrade for.


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[Assistant] I mean even Miami, right? Tua, right? I get it. You invested in him. But you got a team now that's stacked. He's an upgrade.


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[Assistant] A team that really jumps out there is Seattle. With Drew Locke at 40 for you and Geno Smith, what, at 33?


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[Assistant] We're gonna stop the count down right there at 17. Four more quarterbacks there. We went 20 through 17.


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[Assistant] Couple of good interesting conversations. Garoppolo and Carson Wentz, very similar. They got Mack Jones, a second year quarterback that you're still very high on in there. And we just finished with, uh, Baker Mayfield. So let's get a couple questions, uh, from the homies now as this will continue to fill up as we go. And Hawk Panther 11 is a good one here. By next year, uh,


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[Assistant] Oh no, that's not the one I want to go to. Hawk Panther, I'm sorry to do that to you, because I almost... Ah, let's do it. Actually, I gave Hawk Panther the, the pub. We gotta do it at that point. That's my bad, but hey, Hawk Panther, it's your benefit. By next year, who would you guess would climb the most spots up this list, who has the biggest potential to drop down the most spots?


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[Assistant] I was gonna keep that one because I think it's good to do at the end when we're all done, but give him a little what's on the top of your mind here.


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[Assistant] David Pepping says Dr. Sims. He's given you a doctorate. Thank you at this point. Thank you for your hard work too. Wow. Thanks David.


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[Assistant] At what point are we thinking, quote, you could win a Super Bowl with any of the players from here forward? Guys that could level up their teams chances. So that was, I was thinking about this one. I kind of think we're there. I think we almost started today. I think so. Doesn't that kind of feel like it? What do you think?


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[Assistant] Well that's illuminating. That's illuminating because I think a lot of people would take the opposite stance. I know. And they say that you need, in the NFL it is crucial that you have a top ten, maybe even a top five quarterback. But I think what it does is a top five quarterback always puts you in the conversation.


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[Assistant] A couple of the rookie quarterbacks that you just mentioned there. Let's hit Trevor Lawrence, a question here. Superchargers.


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[Assistant] Ask you, this is uh, hindsight, did you rank Trevor Lawrence number two last year in your draft rankings only because you knew?


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[Assistant] Uhm, but I guess Superchargers thinks that you love Mac Jones more than Trevor Lawrence and always will.


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[Assistant] One more from the homies here. Connor McGinnis says, love the show. Have not missed an episode since day one.


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[Assistant] But both lock onto their first reads too long. What's the biggest difference between them?


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[Assistant] And their rankings. So you do have a little bit of a delta between those two guys. Not that much though. You got Trubisky and they're fairly high. Right. Uhm, but what's the biggest difference between those two and their rankings?


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[Assistant] Right? Because you saw some concerns in Columbus and those don't always get fixed right away. I know, I know. You might have to give Matt Nagy some credit. We haven't done that on this podcast. Damn, how dare you? What are you doing?


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[Assistant] Alright, good. We close the book on the homies questions. We end here.


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[Assistant] With something that we're bringing back from last year. The final segment on today's podcast.


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[Assistant] The super brawl is back. So what this is, and we did this last year, which by the way, the Miz we had on WWE called it a horrible lesson.


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[Assistant] He said, actually it was a horrible list. So if you're unfamiliar with the Super Brawl, what this is, is we take, uh, it's a fight. It's like a bar room fight, a brawl, maybe a battle royale, where you take the quarterback and coach,


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[Assistant] Uh, if, Kristen did you put that up there, the super braw rankings from last year? Yea, there it is right there. A huge mistake at the bottom, and that's where we started the list last year, and so I-


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[Assistant] Super Bowl contenders, Joe Burrow and I had Zach Taylor as 32. Uh, in retrospect, a huge mistake.


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[Assistant] Two and Flores were number six. And a lot of this goes into, and we talked about this last year, yes, size is a factor.


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[Assistant] Uh, age of the coach. Sure. And physical ability of the coach. No doubt. That's the differentiator. It is. Because all the quarterbacks, you got some bigger quarterbacks for sure that could give you an advantage, but all the quarterbacks are gonna be in this ballpark. Yea, somewhere in the same wheelhouse, right. There's a little more variance with the coaches here.


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[Assistant] So we'll do 12 today, we'll do 10 our next podcast, and then we'll do the final 10, the last one. Uhm, so let's go through them. You gotta give last place to someone.


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[Assistant] I don't like it. This is not the, this is my least favorite part.


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[Assistant] Number 32 this year in the Superball rankings, the Miami Dolphins, Mike McDaniel, Tua. So you got McDaniel, young, but he's smaller. He's slight. 5'9", 180.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He did play wide receiver at Yale. Right. Uhm, but that's a, that's a significant drop from number six last year with Brian Flores. They go all the way to last.


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[Assistant] I don't want to be mean, but I'm just saying that every other coach-quarterback combination would beat up Mike McDaniel and Tua. I'm sorry. That's just what he said. That is exactly what this rookie says.


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[Assistant] Number 31, we got the Seattle Seahawks. Pete Carroll, 70, turned 71 in September. I'm sure he was a fighter back in the day. I'm just not banking on that ability today. And I'm pairing him up with Geno Smith, I think he's gonna be the starter day one. So they weren't that high last year, they were 24 last year with Russell, they've dropped down to 31.


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[Assistant] Gino's tough, but, you know. Gino's tough, yes. Uhm, so they're 31. You're not gonna like 30. Oh, you're disrespectful. Number 30 is the Kansas City Chiefs. We got Andy Reid, we got Patrick Mahome. So Andy Reid, 64.


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[Assistant] Was an offensive tackle back in the day at BYU, so he has that.


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[Assistant] That's a concern, right? That's a concern. Defense is part of the game here. You maybe not be the most physically gifted offensive fighter, but can you take a punch and can you take several?


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[Assistant] Patrick Mahomes, I question, how much does he wanna fight? He's got all, he's got half a billion dollar contract. He's got a great career in the NFL. Is he gonna really be that motivated to fight?


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[Assistant] Like bigger than me. He is the son of a former FBI agent too.


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[Assistant] We don't know. They're an unknown. Prove me wrong. Pairing in with Kurt Cousins here. Last year this pairing with Mike Zimmer was 17. That was because I thought Mike Zimmer, while old, knew some stuff that could take people down.


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[Assistant] Old mantras. Do some sort of neck pinch and you're dead immediately.


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[Assistant] One of the rivals in the NFC North, the Green Bay Packers, at number 28, Matt LaFleur, Aaron Rodgers here. LaFleur, 42, former wide receiver and a quarterback as well. They were 25 last year, so they're going down. And I saw some things, I saw some chinks in the armor last year from Aaron Rodgers, I'm like, oh no.


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[Assistant] Has he lost a step? Has he lost a swing? On the right hook?


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[Assistant] Yes, exactly. Uhm, and I don't think they could. I think they'd get beat to a pulp. Most of these teams. So they're 28, 27 here.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is the Indianapolis Colts with Frank Reich and Matt Ryan. Frank is 60. We all know about his long 14 year career in the NFL. Which should help him, but at the age of 60 and now they were 16 last year with Carson Wentz. Matt Ryan bumps him down to 22.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He's a big dude. But I feel like overall, you're kind of agreeing with the rankings so far.


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[Assistant] Uh, they were 27 last year with Gruden, cause I thought Gruden was more bark than bite. I wasn't buying it.


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[Assistant] The Cleveland Browns. Kevin Stefanski, Deshaun Watson. This was a hard one. Deshaun's a total wild card. Who knows where his head is, what's gonna happen in this fight right now. Now, Stefanski...


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[Assistant] He is tough. He is tough. Played DB. I know. In college. At UPenn. Two time honorable mention for all Ivy teams. So he's smart. Yeaah. He's tough. Yeaah. That's a, that's a team where, you know, who knows what's going to happen, but with Kevin Stefanski, I can see him proving me wrong.


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[Assistant] Barroom, barroom brawl. Oh my gosh. Actually, if I just put Baker back there, they would shoot back up the rankings here.


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[Assistant] A couple more, number 24 in the New Orleans Saints. So Sean Payton is out of there. I had them nine last year with Taysom Hill.


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[Assistant] The Saints moved down. A team that moved up. The Denver Broncos. They were 30th last year. This year they're 23. Nathaniel Hackett and Russell Wilson. Now, I don't know a whole lot about Hackett. He's 42. You know him. I do. How would he do in a fight?


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[Assistant] Which is why he's in the bottom third. Which is why we had to put him in the bottom third. Number 22, and this is another fall for a team, the Jacksonville Jaguars. We got Trevor Lawrence, who was the quarterback last year. We got Doug Peterson though, replacing Urban Meyer. And I think this makes sense, because while


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Proving to be a horrible head coach in the NFL, Urban Meyer did prove that he's, he will mix it up with some people, including a kicker. He'll fight dirty. He'll fight dirty. He'll kick a kicker.


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[Assistant] Okay, alright, the final one we'll do today, number 21.


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[Assistant] The Dallas Cowboys, Mike McCarthy, Dak Prescott, McCarthy 58, he's roughly 6'3".


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[Assistant] I couldn't get a current weight on Mike. It's up there. It's up there. It's in three bills category. Played tight end at Scottsdale Community College in Baker University. They were 18 last year. You thought I was low on them last year, so now you're really thinking I'm low.


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[Assistant] I need to see it. I need to see it. I need to see Mike McCarthy because I think like Andy Reid, I think defense is solid.


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[Assistant] If this fight drags out, do they have a chance? If it was a one round fight, yeah, maybe, maybe so. But are we going to three rounds here?


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[Assistant] Alright, so that's the first installment, 33% of the way through.


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[Assistant] The bottom 12, sorry to Mike McDaniel and, and Tua, if, if Tua Nunn wants to respond to that, which I'm sure they, they will, they can do that. And they can make their arguments against it. I hope they do come after you. So uhm, so there's the, there's the bottom so far. We think, you know, most of these guys,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And quarterbacks and coaches would lose in a fight. I'm sorry to say that.


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[Assistant] It's a mission, you gotta hike around, you gotta try to dodge anyone you see that might try to kick you out because there's plenty of patrols there. And then there's this legendary gap, there's sort of rite of passage, you have to jump over it if you're going to be a true baldy participant. I jumped the gap for the record.


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[Assistant] It was pretty notorious because a lot of the 70's skaters rode it when they went to Hawaii or Hawaiian skaters were riding it. And it's this drainage dish that just keeps going down different shelves. There's no drainage dish really like that.


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[Assistant] And it's just a perfect scenario too because there's a pole next to it so he kinda can push off and start himself spinning and also brace himself as he comes off. That doesn't make it any easier.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There is a set of stairs that goes from one level to another at the schoolyard and then next to it was a patch of grass and the grass went down at the same angle as the stairs for the most part, but was actually a little bit less steep and then there was just a wall drop off at the end. If you're jumping the gap,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Most sports in the Olympics are really pretty easy to watch. You cross a finish line, you hit a target, jump the farthest, or score a point. But fencing is really different.


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[Assistant] It's so incredibly fast and precise that even after watching several matches, for the average viewer, it's hard to understand exactly how a point was scored.


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[Assistant] This is footage from three different bouts at the 2015 World Championships. Now on the surface they look pretty similar.


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[Assistant] But what you're looking at is in fact three very different events.


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[Assistant] There's the foil, a pey, and the saber. They each have their own weapon and set of rules, and their roots can be traced back centuries.


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[Assistant] So I decided to travel two blocks from our New York City office to a veritable fencing oasis in the middle of Times Square, the Manhattan Fencing Center. It's produced three Olympians just this year. That's me struggling. That's my very patient coach for the day, Brando Messinesse. Perfect, very good.


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[Assistant] But it all happens in a half a second. It happens pretty fast. So where did fencing come from?


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[Assistant] An early form of fencing for sport can be traced back to ancient Egypt. The fencing as we know it today derived from the European duel.


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[Assistant] The design of swords evolved from a defense and hunting strategy of cutting and slashing to thrusting because it was far more deadly and effective. The foil is the lightest of the three fencing weapons and it appeared around 17th century Europe.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As a practice weapon for the small sword, a fashionable weapon often used in a duel to settle disputes.


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[Assistant] Around this time, fencing schools were established in Italy, Spain, and France, elevating the practice to a form of art and exercise.


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[Assistant] Foil fencing rules are the most limiting. You can only hit the torso and back and only with the tip of the foil blade.


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[Assistant] In the 19th century, a sturdier weapon called the epay was introduced.


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[Assistant] That's because it's the slowest of the three events due to the whole body being a target area. Fencers are more hesitant to initiate an attack, exposing their whole body to their opponent.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It is also the only of the three weapons where the right of way rule is not enforced. What's the right of way?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, in a classic duel, the only way to win if you're being attacked is to parry or deflect your opponent's weapon and then repost or attack your opponent. With the appais, simultaneous hits can occur and both fencers will receive a point. And now, the fastest event, the Saber.


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[Assistant] That means the blade is moving almost as fast as a bullet.


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[Assistant] Instead of just thrusting, the saber fencers can score on any part of the upper body with slashes and thrust. And because the right of way is enforced, saber fencers are more incentivized to attack first. You'll immediately recognize the difference between an epee and a saber belt because of the shape of the handguard and the speed of play.


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[Assistant] Fencing holds a special place in Olympic history because it's one of only five sports to be featured since the first modern games in 1896. It was a hugely popular sport.


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[Assistant] In the mid-20th century, electricity replaced red chalk to make judging easier. In between the 1900s and the early 2000s, mini-fencing maneuvers further distanced the sport from its dueling roots. Nothing did that more than the flick.


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[Assistant] Because a flick was so quick, it's less likely to register as a hit. Despite that, prints are still attempt this maneuver today.


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[Assistant] The International Fencing Federation and the IOC have done a lot to try and draw outsiders to the sport.


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[Assistant] At London 2012, the lighting systems alone look like a techno dance floor, and the masks closely resemble Daft Punk headgear.


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[Assistant] Duels were formally banned by the 1920s across the entire world, but in 1967, two French politicians, Gaston Defair and René Rubier,


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[Assistant] Renee suffered two wounds, he lost, and of course because of that,


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[Assistant] Clearly the first blood drawn rule was still in use.


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[Assistant] Mental torture almost of like antagonizing somebody and getting them.


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[Assistant] Frustrated so you know what they're gonna do. You know? Like, telegraphing something is something that's really really important. I think that fighting is really really similar.


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[Assistant] That's Mirai Nagasu, who's competing in the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.


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[Assistant] While her Olympic teammate, Brady Tanel, perfectly completed the easier double axle. Despite the stumble, Mariah's jump was worth almost two points more than Brady's. Figure skating scoring is complicated.


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[Assistant] And the new scoring system has changed how competitors skate and how they win.


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[Assistant] Here's how the current scoring system works. Skaters perform two routines, the short program and the free skate, and they receive two sets of scores for each. The technical element score evaluates the difficulty and execution of a skater's jumps, spins, and footwork.


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[Assistant] Each element has a base value and a panel of nine judges provides grade of execution scores, which range from plus three to negative three. The highest and the lowest scores of the judges are ignored and the average of the remaining seven scores is added to the base value.


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[Assistant] Altogether, the combined total score of the short and free skate determine the final standings.


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[Assistant] That's Tara Lipinski. In 1998, she became the youngest person to win an Olympic gold for the ladies' single event.


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[Assistant] Or completing a jump with your hands in the air. But arguably, it seemingly gives less incentive for skaters to simplify the routines and perform elements cleanly. If they do, they won't be able to win.


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[Assistant] At the 2017 Four Continents Championship in Gangnam, South Korea, Mariah's fellow Olympic teammate Nathan Chan won gold and became the first and only skater to complete five different types of quadruple jumps in competition.


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[Assistant] Based on the difficulty of his elements, Nathan's technical score was 32.97 points higher than Jason Brown, who had no quads in his routine.


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[Assistant] Unlike the program component score, there is no point limitation on the technical element score.


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[Assistant] But artistry is still important, as it can be the difference between two skaters competing with similar technical elements.


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[Assistant] Pushing the difficulty envelope is not an inherently bad thing, as it helps the sport to evolve.


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[Assistant] Because at the end of the day, when you strip the drama and the politics of the sport, skaters like all athletes dedicate their lives training and working towards this one specific goal. And they just want to be able to skate.


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[Assistant] Knowing they've been judged fairly. It's why we have the new system in the first place. When it was revealed that a French judge fixed the results of the 2002 Olympic pairs event so that the Russians would win, the new system was created as a step towards accountability and decreasing subjectivity.


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[Assistant] The International Skating Union, which governs the sport, says it wants to close the gap between the artistic and technical aspects of the sport.


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[Assistant] One for technical, one for artistic, and one for all around. And scoring changes have already been approved, like increasing grade of execution scores to range from negative five to plus five, and standardizing those intervals. These changes won't be implemented until after the 2018 Olympics.


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[Assistant] But to uplift my little brother who is sleeping on concrete floors today at America.


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[Assistant] I don't know. He's white. So in other words, I'd have to ask a white man, may I call myself Muhammad Ali Boss?


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[Assistant] I haven't burnt my own draft record. But what I'm doing is legal. This is why I believe I'll receive justice in the higher court.


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[Assistant] But if you notice, I've been the most persecuted. I'm not allowed to work in America. I'm not allowed to leave America. Home of the brave, land of the free. Are there times when you miss being heavyweight champ of the world? No, they miss me. I know that. No, I don't miss it. I'm not missing it.


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[Assistant] I think in a lot of ways, March Madness is more fun than the NBA.


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[Assistant] I mean, the NBA has elite players who have been working on their craft for years, but NCAA is a lot more unexpected because it features tiny schools like Georgia State beating off much bigger powerhouse schools like Baylor.


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[Assistant] That's not by accident. The very structure of the tournament increases the chance of upsets occurring compared to the NBA playoffs. There's gonna be an upset somewhere.


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[Assistant] The biggest thing by far is that each round is just a single game instead of a best of seven series. If you had two teams playing a thousand games, the favorite team would definitely win. But the smaller the sample size means there's a higher chance of the unlikely outcome occurring.


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[Assistant] And CAA games are also shorter. 40 minutes instead of 48. Further reducing the sample size.


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[Assistant] When you're on offense, the shot clock tells you how long you have before you have to take a shot. In college, you can take up to 35 seconds, which means the underdogs can slow down the game and cut down on the number of possessions for their opponents. All these games are also played on neutral courts, so the favorite team usually doesn't have any home court advantage. And oftentimes, if you have a neutral crowd, they'll start cheering for the underdog because they want to see the upset. Additionally, the three-point line is a lot closer than in the NBA.


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[Assistant] He's got great form. He's been practicing for decades. But he also sees a hidden pattern on every lane, every time he bowls.


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[Assistant] Understanding the hidden oil patterns on every lane is a key to understanding bowling.


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[Assistant] It separates the pros from the rest of us. And these nearly invisible patterns can completely change how you bowl.


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[Assistant] Here's your typical bowling lane, 39 boards. It's got targeting guides, like the dots and arrows. If you want to rule of thumb, each arrow is 5 boards apart, with the middle arrow at the 20th board.


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[Assistant] For a strike, you want your ball to hit between the 1 and 3 pins or the 1 and 2 pins. This area is called the pocket.


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[Assistant] That's just the beginning. Every lane is coated with oil. It started for protection, but today these oil patterns hugely affect strategy and score.


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[Assistant] Every bowling lane has a pattern, usually placed by an oil machine like this one.


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[Assistant] The PBA knows that showing oil patterns is crucial. Sometimes they even put blue oil on the lanes. Here's bone bowling off.


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[Assistant] Here's what typically happens. See how the blue is darker in some spots? That represents more oil on the lane. Your ball starts here, and because there's a lot of oil, it skids along the top.


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[Assistant] Think of your tires skidding on ice. As you get further down, the oil fins out. If you put spin on your ball, it starts getting enough traction to hook a bit as it grabs onto the wood.


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[Assistant] Less oil, more traction. When there's no oil left, that spinning ball will start rolling toward the pins, because it's picking up a lot of friction on the lane. That's really important. To hit the pocket, that sweet spot between pins, only hooking can help you do that, and hooking depends a lot on oil patterns.


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[Assistant] But for pros, knowing that there's oil on the lane is just the beginning.


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[Assistant] There's less oil on the side. Less oil helps his ball hook early because it skids less. And because cheetah is a short pattern, 35 feet instead of say 41 feet, the ball has more space on the boards without oil.


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[Assistant] He can play closer to the edge because there's more time to get back to the pocket.


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[Assistant] And hit the pins. On a longer pattern, you'd want to play closer to the middle because the ball would have less time to get back to the pocket once you leave the oil. A pro bowler adjusts their speed and ball type around this, and they have to make all these considerations with every different pattern. And that's not all. The oil on a lane is constantly changing.


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[Assistant] That means bowlers have to compensate by bowling more weakly or closer to the center because the lane has changed.


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[Assistant] You can see where this ball has picked up oil.


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[Assistant] For pros, it's more like a golf course, where every hole is different. Every lane is different too. So, how can people who aren't as good as Parker-Bone III use that to their advantage?


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[Assistant] Let's say you're a totally recreational bowler, a high school kid on Friday night, a half-drunk college student, a friendless video producer whose greatest thrill in life was standing on a bowling lane.


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[Assistant] You're not gonna buy a specially engineered ball or take classes on form. Bowling is complex. This is like giving advice for the first move in a chess game. But there are ways that you can use your oil pattern knowledge to improve your game. This is a house pattern.


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[Assistant] You'll find this in a typical neighborhood bowling alley, probably one like yours. It's usually about 32 feet, buffed out to 40 feet. It's designed to help you knock down pins. All that oil in the center helps you stay longer in the middle if you shoot your ball there so you won't hook too early.


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[Assistant] Less oil on the side helps you hook earlier if you aim too far from the pocket. The pros have a really flat pattern like this one in the US Open. They get no help at all from the oil.


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[Assistant] You get guided to the middle by the oil. It's like an extra bumper.


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[Assistant] The lane is built to help you, even if you have a cheap plastic ball and terrible form.


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[Assistant] So if you want to learn more about bowling, this video just scratches the surface. One of my favorite channels is the USBC's Bowling Academy. They have really in-depth videos that will tell you everything you need to know about bowling patterns and also higher strategy when it comes to bowling.


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[Assistant] The 1932 Olympics was the first time figure skating was set to music. It was live music.


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[Assistant] The skaters didn't get to choose the songs, the orchestra just played the same one over and over. Fast forward to today, music is very much the heart of figure skating, custom made for each performance. Oh, but can you guess their favorite?


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[Assistant] At almost every figure skating event he has ever competed in, he says there was at least one skate set to Carmen.


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[Assistant] And he's right. There was the infamous Battle of the Carmans in the 1988 Olympics. German skater Katarina Witt and an American skater Debbie Thomas both performed their long program to Carmen.


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[Assistant] So, what makes Carmen so popular in figure skating?


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[Assistant] Carmen is an opera written by a French composer, Georges Bizet, about a gypsy girl named Carmen. So it's not just one song called Carmen, it's actually dozens of songs. And the most recognizable is probably Habanera.


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[Assistant] But her story ends tragically when she's stabbed to death by her rejected lover.


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[Assistant] With Carmen, Hugo and other music designers can explore a full range of emotions.


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[Assistant] This structure allows skaters to start strong with jumps, grabbing people's attention. In the slower section, skaters can show more of a vulnerable side and also save energy for the big finale.


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[Assistant] That's why operas are so popular in figure skating. It's divided into acts with a clear storyline.


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[Assistant] But this long era of Carmen might be coming to an end. In 2014, the International Skating Union changed the music rules to allow skaters to skate to music with lyrics. It was an attempt to appeal to a younger audience. So skaters like Jimmy Ma have traded in Bizet for


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[Assistant] Now with more freedom and access to all kinds of music, they're looking for their new Carmen. Will it be Lil Jon? You never know.


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[Assistant] And maybe this rule change will spur new era in skating, like 1932 Olympics, when the sport was still new.


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[Assistant] In the official report, they realized that a new sport, or better, a new art, was being demonstrated for them by the world's best. At the games, they almost fought to get in the arena. Figure skating had arrived.


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[Assistant] The bottom line is where we are is unacceptable.


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[Assistant] You know, I don't know if it is at the time, but I know that the results are.


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[Assistant] I don't think any of us expected us to be sitting at three. It is a...


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[Assistant] Global collective failure from my perspective.


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[Assistant] You know, I don't know if it is at the time, but I know that the results are. You know?


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[Assistant] If you're looking for guys who are coordinators, there's examples of that. If you want a guy that's a proven, capable leader, there's Jim Carwell and Marvin Lewis. There's guys like Todd Bowles and Raheem Morris and others. There are capable examples of minority candidates no matter what the profile.


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[Assistant] The very existence of those workshops somehow indicates that there is a lack of talent in the minority pool or a lack of readiness, and that is untrue.


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[Assistant] Certainly, they're nice fellowship weekends, you know, where we get an opportunity to catch up with one another, but it's not the weekends that they're made out to be.


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[Assistant] We just can't continue to do the same things that we've done and think that the outcome is going to change.


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[Assistant] For the past 27 years, HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel


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[Assistant] Now you can go even deeper into our award-winning coverage and enjoy exclusive conversations.


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[Assistant] This bi-weekly podcast will offer an insider look at stories from the latest episode of each show and also look back at pieces from across the archives, revisiting our biggest interviews and stories. Whether you're new to real sports or have been watching from the start,


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[Assistant] And watch new episodes of Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel every month on HBO Max. Thanks for listening.


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[Assistant] Welcome to the Real Sports Podcast. I'm your host, Max Gershberg. You just heard an excerpt from Bernie Goldberg's 2016 report on then presidential nominee Donald Trump.


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[Assistant] It was something of an anomaly because for all of his controversies in politics, the game of golf has really been a safe haven for Trump. The sport has typically greeted him with open arms. He owns many golf courses around the world and has poured millions of dollars into golf.


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[Assistant] But five years later, that messy situation in Scotland seems to have been a preview of things to come. Not just a presidential term mired in controversy.


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[Assistant] But a Trump golf enterprise that is now facing a reckoning because as Trump leaves office, it appears the golf industry might be looking to move on from him too.


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[Assistant] You're about to hear that full 2016 report, which details the chaos surrounding Trump's course in Aberdeen.


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[Assistant] And afterwards stick around because I'll be joined by author and golf writer John Feinstein to talk about the new wave of problems plaguing Trump's golf business as he prepares for life after the White House. But first here's Bernie Goldberg's 2016 Real Sports Report.


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[Assistant] Welcome back. Now joining me, he's a celebrated author. You can find his work in the Washington Post and Golf Digest. He's been writing about golf for years. John Feinstein. John, thanks so much for joining us.


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[Assistant] So John, we just heard a story specifically about Aberdeen, but that's only one golf course that, that bears Trump's name. How big is his footprint in the game of golf?


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[Assistant] It's not just controversy that's found Trump in Turnberry or Aberdeen. Recently, the PGA of America made an announcement. What was that announcement and what were the implications?


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[Assistant] The events of January 6th at the Capitol for the power brokers of golf to make this type of decision.


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[Assistant] Implications for Trump and his business of these decisions. Is it simply a financial blow to lose the PGA of America or do you think for him it's more personal?


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[Assistant] Some have suggested that the loss of the PGA angers him almost as much as losing the election. Could that possibly be true? Have you heard that?


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[Assistant] As we sit here today, John, what's the state of his golf enterprise in Europe at Aberdeen and Turnberry? Are they the gems he's promised? What's their outlook moving forward?


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[Assistant] He's sunk hundreds of millions of dollars into those two courses. Allegedly. In Europe. Do they turn a profit for him as far as we know?


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[Assistant] You said that the PGA, the Royal and Ancient, they maintain that these are not political decisions.


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[Assistant] But some of it seems political, right? I mean, there are cities in the US, most notably New York and Mayor Bill de Blasio trying to get Trump's name taken off of courses. You mentioned Ferry Point, a very renowned, well-known course.


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[Assistant] Is, is this political in your mind? At least to some degree? Is it cancel culture, run amok?


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[Assistant] You wrote a piece recently in the Washington Post that said, Trump isn't going to take this lying down. He won't leave the game quietly.


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[Assistant] But in practical terms, John, what can he do? What will he do?


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[Assistant] I don't know if you're a gambling man, John, but if not, I would be broke if I was.


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[Assistant] In the future, in golf versus in politics.


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[Assistant] Uh, what do you think is the safer bet? Where do you think he has the brighter future?


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[Assistant] For those other reasons you mentioned, the national perception of him that the PR considerations, the political considerations for the leadership of the PGA and the RNA and the USGA


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[Assistant] Might mean that a lasting divorce from Trump is, is, is possible.


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[Assistant] And that'll do it for today's Real Sports Podcast. We'll be back with a new episode following the premiere of the next Real Sports on February 23rd.


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[Assistant] And a quick reminder to everyone listening, you can watch all recent episodes of Real Sports with Brian Gumbel on HBO Max. I'm your host, Max Gershberg. Thanks for listening and please join us again next time.


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[Assistant] Every morning, people gather on these cliffs, strap on their wings, and take off into the blue. You're flying. You're literally flying with nothing around you. Matt Thomas is a paraglider. Addicted, he says, to the feeling of freedom. You feel like you're a bird. I mean, you feel like Superman. But Thomas' love of flight


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[Assistant] Matt Thomas is paralyzed, unable to move from the chest down. He comes here for a simple reason.


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[Assistant] You know, we've talked about this before, which is an interview basically reveals who you really are. And I think if you were watching that, that kind of reveals who he is. And I still think that that kind of an exchange was the kind of exchange we had never seen Derek Jeter do.


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[Assistant] Allen Ivers. God put me here to coach him. Now he might not agree with that, but.


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[Assistant] You know, that was the most challenging thing that's ever happened to me in my life. He'd probably say the same.


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[Assistant] Oh absolutely, but greatest competitor of all time, toughest kid of all time, maybe the greatest athlete I've ever seen. I can't walk in an airport or walk into a gym.


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[Assistant] Where the kids in the gym don't come to me and ask me about Allen and tell me he's their favorite player of all time. And everywhere I go in


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[Assistant] And it was the most unbelievable talk I've ever heard. Our kids were spelled out. And he was so open and honest with them. He talked about the good things he did and the things he'd like to change, which weren't a lot.


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[Assistant] Uhm, but the one thing that stuck out of my mind, eh, one of the kids said, who's the best player ever to play? Who do you think he said? Himself.


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[Assistant] Alan Iverson. And he said, I'm not disrespecting Michael or Magic or Julius or any of those guys. He said, I couldn't have done what I did at my size if I didn't feel that way.


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[Assistant] He promised that, you know, he would treat Jordan as if Jordan was one of his kids and make sure nothing happens to him and make sure he's okay.


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[Assistant] We had to make a decision. The machines that he was on was keeping him alive at that point and, and there was nothing else we could do. What was that?


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[Assistant] There is a subliminal message that this ain't for everybody. This not. It's just not.


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[Assistant] We might go to the same church, we might go to the same school, but we don't have everything that's not the same, and that includes the play field.


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[Assistant] It's Saturday morning, we're out in the car, and I'm driving up and I'm seeing a large group of people. I mean, it's packed.


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[Assistant] And this is what happens. Hey, that's my friend Ava. Hey, that's my friend Lindsay. I know that's her. Why can't I play? She's playing. She's my friend, Mom. That's the difficult part.


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[Assistant] There is quite a bit of irony because you're coming to my town to come play and my kids can't do it. My kids, I can't afford to do that.


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[Assistant] I'd say this is equivalent of Tiger Woods putting, uh,


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[Assistant] A hole, 18 holes in his backyard. I mean, this represents action sports. I mean, you have, this is like the pool where skating started. Uhm, you got the BMX, like the dirt jumps. I mean, of course everything's made of wood now, but you got the half pipes, kind of where it's evolved to. You have the big air ramp.


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[Assistant] And to have this all where I can ride straight from my bedroom down and launch everything and then hey, if we want to go hit the foam pit down there, we can jump on a dirt bike and do that. We can go ride the trails in the back. This house has basically encompassed my entire lifestyle and that's what action sports is. It's not a job, it's not a career, it's a way of life.


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[Assistant] Every year our numbers dwindle from 8th grade to 9th grade to 10th grade. A lower percentage of students are participating in sports.


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[Assistant] Kids just simply are dropping out. And I think it's probably that way in any high school you would talk to. Dr. John Marshousen is the superintendent of the public school system in Hilliard.


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[Assistant] But there comes a point where the kids who played the elite club are just head and shoulders in terms of skill and talent. They've been working on it for 12 months a year, in some cases since they were in fourth grade. Where does that leave the kid that can't afford to do that?


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[Assistant] Well, we see them coming out to a point.


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[Assistant] And then when they see that this isn't going to be an option, they quit. This is an uncomfortable issue.


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[Assistant] For us as a public school district to say, we have kids who can't compete because of


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[Assistant] They're socioeconomics. And yeah, the opportunity is there because they can try out. But because they don't have the skills, it's not really there. It's a false sense of opportunity. Do you worry about the kid who's not in sports? Yeah, I worry about the kid who might leave a high school at 245.


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[Assistant] Do you feel in any way that you were misled that somehow you thought that, well, I'll build a golf course and then I'll build a hotel?


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[Assistant] And everything will be fine, and then some place along the way, they change the rules on you.


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[Assistant] has called you a bully and then others said just because Trump invested in Scotland doesn't mean he


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[Assistant] The Grand Canyon is one of the most breathtaking places on earth. Magnificent in both beauty and size. But if you visited the area in the last couple of days, something else might have caught your eye.


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[Assistant] A narrow wire, a quarter of a mile long, suspended 1600 feet in the air.


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[Assistant] That's as high above ground as the top of the Empire State Building. And that wire was there for only one reason. So Nick Willenda could


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[Assistant] He's never told, all he does is tell me he will not sell the team. He loves owning the team, he loves Miami, and he will not sell the team.


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[Assistant] I think that, uh, he's accomplished a lot.


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[Assistant] He's accomplished a lot. And if he were ready to step, step aside, I think he should. If he's getting, uhm,


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[Assistant] If he's not getting enjoyment anymore, then he should. But he loves the challenge. He wants to win more World Series. He loves making this ballpark better each year and trying to get more people and trying to do more things. He loves it.


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[Assistant] Yes. It's gonna be a tough year. It's gonna be a tough year.


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[Assistant] He walks in right now and says, uhm, David, I gotta, I gotta make a decision. Uhm, should I sell this? Uhm, is it gonna go, is it gonna get better before it gets worse? He would say.


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[Assistant] No, I enjoyed it. It was an amazing experience that I'm very, very grateful for.


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[Assistant] But it wasn't like a walking on sunshine road to get there, you know, it wasn't the...


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[Assistant] The Wheaties box of brand, perfect smile, Colgate-ness that everyone else has sold.


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[Assistant] It's a multi-multi-million-million dollar business.


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[Assistant] I got a little bit of fed up with the amount of hypocrisy and corruption that I saw. And I saw athletes just struggling and giving up their whole lives and not getting a good education and not getting work experience and just trying to get these medals for their country and their own pride and then afterward being left with nothing. Where does all that money go?


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[Assistant] Where does it all go? It doesn't go to us. I feel like, like a lot of American athletes.


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[Assistant] And uh, putting in all the work while a lot of other people reap all the benefits.


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[Assistant] Never the easiest thing to follow a legend. How did you deal with the whole paternal legacy issue?


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[Assistant] It's pretty nuts how many people actually love, love my husband just as much as I do. And they do.


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[Assistant] But I didn't show that as much as I did my concern because that was really more important. And how do we fix this and move on?


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[Assistant] The concussions in general, I don't think about CTE or anything like that.


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[Assistant] Did you fully believe, hey, I can be kind of like Bob used to be physically and now I'm out here and it's like, whoa. Absolutely.


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[Assistant] This is the kind of agony Gabby has always wanted. Because the body she's now running up and down the court in finally feels like it's the right one.


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[Assistant] Yeah, I mean, normal is definitely a relative term. When you come back, you're not, you're not leading a normal life like you would think you would. Uh, the daily activities become a chore. They become, uh... What do you mean?


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[Assistant] Well, I mean, if you're gonna wake up and go get a coffee at Starbucks and maybe get some grocery shopping done and go back home,


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[Assistant] Right, but to a combat vet who just got home, he's thinking, okay, what are the contingency plans on the drive? Are there alternate routes? Is that dead dog stuffed with explosives? If I'm driving and there's a cliff or ridge on my left, is there people above me?


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[Assistant] Yeah, these little hyper-vigilant, uh, tics that you have that saved your life on deployment become a hindrance when you come home because it causes anxiety, it causes, uh, anger and emotions.


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[Assistant] All that, they're just getting up for the game and stuff and they don't show like, the soccer side but here now.


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[Assistant] Lolo Jones was looking for a change, and she found one. The US bobsled team came calling, and so this winter, Lolo leapt onto a very different type of track.


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[Assistant] We followed Jones here to the mountaintops of Samarit, Switzerland, where she introduced us to her new sport, with her sights set on the next Olympics, the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.


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[Assistant] People have always paid good money to see Mike Tyson. After all, you never knew what he might do.


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[Assistant] And since you still never know what Mike Tyson might do, they're still paying to see him, this time in an unlikely spot, in a theater, on stage, in a one-man show that is touring the nation. Mike Tyson, the undisputed truth.


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[Assistant] F. Scott Fitzgerald said, there are no second acts in life. Somebody forgot to tell that to Mike Tyson.


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[Assistant] What happens is when it flips, your body, your back is now on the ice. And when you're on the ice, it starts to get hot. Your skin starts to like...


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[Assistant] Melts pretty much. You know, you have a burn vest on, but the longer you're on the ice,


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[Assistant] You just slowly start to feel your skin warm up and then, like, it can get really bad.


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[Assistant] We have the ability to really fit the games to our community as opposed to have to fit the community to the games.


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[Assistant] We like to say that the LA 84 games are actually what gives us the ability to have such great public support here in Los Angeles for the games.


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[Assistant] You can't walk around this city and not meet somebody who has a positive, uh, memory of 1984. And that's really the starting place for us.


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[Assistant] We are a no-build games and, and sometimes we like to say it's a part of our radical reuse philosophy around sustainability. The fact is, uh, the best, uh, venues are the ones you don't have to build.


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[Assistant] And really that's the beginning stages of infrastructure. But beyond that, you know, we really have just an extraordinary number of venues here.


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[Assistant] Uh, in LA and in greater Southern California, whether it's three facilities, three stadiums that are over 75,000 seats, uh, multiple arenas, different types of facilities. And so we're just tailor-made to be able to actually host a mega sporting event like the Olympics and the Paralympics.


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[Assistant] From day one in our budget in terms of how and what it is that we actually think about. And so we're trying to build against that contingency.


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[Assistant] I think it's incumbent upon all of us to think about everything that we do and think about it through the lens of sustainability.


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[Assistant] That's billions of dollars of economic impact directly to citizens of LA.


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[Assistant] Uh, and it starts actually with the kids that we want to be sitting in the stadiums thinking and dreaming that they too can be an Olympian or a Paralympian.


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[Assistant] There's a part of our PlayLA program, which is our $160 million...


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[Assistant] Uh, important parts of that is we've introduced adaptive sports into the Wrexham Park program in the city of LA.


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[Assistant] Alright, so we're talking LeBron for a second. Do you think LeBron's not being utilized in the best way?


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[Assistant] Having had the formula for success, for melding together two talents, when you look at a LeBron James and a Dwayne Wade, what do you say?


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[Assistant] And make, and make, or try to force you to act a certain way. Because I really believe I'm not going to get the best out of you as a baseball player if I do that. I have one rule among the position players. I want you to run hard to first base. That's it.


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[Assistant] I grew up in a pretty tough town in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, a little coal mining town. Uhm, you know, I wear patches on my clothes and, uh, you know, everything. We didn't have a whole lot of dough. Your grandfather died.


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[Assistant] We have a large influx of Hispanics into our community, over 40% of the population now.


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[Assistant] of the Hispanic community. I have a lot of great Hispanic players and coaches and people that I've worked with. These people are young, they're vibrant, they want a better life.


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[Assistant] Ticket sales were really the biggest proponent of revenue. Then as you start to move into the 1940s and 50s, you have the advent of broadcast media that allows for fans to start following more than just their local team.


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[Assistant] Buying you start seeing merchandising and sponsorship opportunities start to, to really take off.


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[Assistant] And now what we've really moved into in this digital age with the advent of the internet, of smartphones, of social media, we're moving into what we call the age of the fluid fan.


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[Assistant] Typically they will only represent 1-10% of a given fan base. They can represent as much as 50-80% of the revenue potential that you can drive.


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[Assistant] It's unlocking revenue, it's unlocking potential understanding of where fandom in general is going, but you have an opportunity to get in now with women's sports.


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[Assistant] UFC President Dana White said that Conor McGregor vs Dustin Poirier is happening July 10th at the


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[Assistant] We filed this case in December of 2014 on behalf of


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[Assistant] A group of mixed martial arts fighters who fought for the UFC.


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[Assistant] In broad terms, the case is an antitrust case where we're claiming that the UFC is both a monopoly and a monopsony, meaning it is a dominant seller of mixed martial arts services and a dominant buyer of mixed martial arts services.


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[Assistant] 50% or more of the revenues is generated, just like baseball, just like hockey, just like basketball, and if that were to happen,


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[Assistant] If instead of paying 20% of the revenues generated, it paid 50% or more of the revenues generated, the fighters would have made $1.6 billion more during the period 2010 to 2017.


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[Assistant] And the people that I would have in front of me, and I think the trainers who don't get into this technology will lose it. This is the future of fitness.


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[Assistant] But when I came out with Tybo, the goal was to be able to speak to people and tell them the truth about fitness. I was not going to lie to him. I was going to say, listen, if you want to get in shape, it's tough. If you're willing to step out and use your will and use your mind, I'll be the person that'll help you out.


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[Assistant] With the videotape, I did my best to do that, but I did it blindside. But I knew, inside of my heart,


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[Assistant] You know, so I would just look at the camera and say, hey, I see you over there. I know you're tired right now, but come on, get up.


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[Assistant] You can push through this. And after I started doing Zoom, it changed. It really changed. Because now I can interact with people.


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[Assistant] Hating to win. He's been fast since he was a little guy. Running through the house.


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[Assistant] It's literally a glare of just white coming right at you. You can't even see the ball. He's like chasing perfection. We're getting the work in. Mobility.


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[Assistant] I mean, it's not like just an indoor commercial gym. We're gonna get after, we're gonna work hard, we're gonna be outside.


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[Assistant] Good. Tighter. Good. Faster. There you go! His biggest attribute is his size. I mean, he's a big dude. One of the hardest workers in the gym. His focus is by far one of the best.


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[Assistant] To receive the incoming calls from bettors, the bookmaker relies on several devices which may keep his location or private phone secret.


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[Assistant] Because effective this morning, DraftKings and FanDuel have both ceased and assisted from taking bets from New Yorkers.


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[Assistant] There were a few others doing it. Vanduul, Draft Street. So it was really just, you know, daily fantasy sports that we were pitching.


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[Assistant] We didn't really understand the political angle that could potentially ensue. We just thought fantasy sports is a skill game that's kind of settled and we went about building it in such a way.


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[Assistant] It didn't take long. Within about a year, sports betting was already bigger than daily fantasy sports.


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[Assistant] We expect our first profitable quarter on an adjusted EBITDA basis to be Q4 of next year.


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[Assistant] We can help deepen the affinity that their customers have for the game and deepen the engagement that their customers have with their content.


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[Assistant] I think our promotions are quite standard in the mechanics, not just with others in the US, but really with promotions that have been run throughout the globe, uh, for decades in more mature gaming markets.


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[Assistant] Every pitch of a baseball game, every point of a tennis match, every play of an NFL game on a free throw and you name it, you know, those are things that I think customers want and haven't necessarily been able to get in the brick and mortar setting.


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[Assistant] It really creates engagement at a deeper level, which of course makes people bigger fans and makes them tune into the content longer and pay more attention to it.


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[Assistant] We limit customers for a variety of reasons. Some of them are because we have particular customers that we think take advantage of certain weak lines and things like that. Obviously we want people to win. That's an important part of the experience. So we've never really shut off a customer for that reason, but we also have to limit our risk exposure too.


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[Assistant] This is Atlanta, Georgia. It's my hometown. It's also where I became a sports fan. I played some sports as a kid, and I love sports. In fact, my first real job in journalism was covering the 1996 Olympic Games.


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[Assistant] I've changed a lot since then. Can see it in my hairline alone, but the city has too. Especially in downtown Atlanta, which remains the epicenter of sports in Atlanta.


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[Assistant] The Hawks play within steps of the Falcons, and the College Football Hall of Fame is right across Centennial Park. Georgia Tech plays football at one of the oldest stadiums in the NCAA, just up the street. And all of this is located in the heart of Fulton County.


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[Assistant] A solidly red state for almost 30 years, back to when Bill Clinton was first elected, Georgia was suddenly in play in 2020. And record voter turnout ultimately played a key role in determining the balance of power in the United States.


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[Assistant] But if you were living in Atlanta last summer, record-setting voting seemed unlikely at best.


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[Assistant] But far from disaster, Fulton County became a model of turnout and voter efficiency, along the way creating one of the largest voting precincts in the history of the United States. At the heart of the effort, Atlanta's sports franchises and athletes.


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[Assistant] And while some owners would open their doors literally and figuratively to activism, others would oppose it and end up losing their teams altogether.


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[Assistant] By now we all know the results of those key elections, but behind the scenes were a series of crucial moves. I wanted to hear from the people who made those decisions and who once again turned Atlanta into a microcosm of race, politics, and sports.


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[Assistant] Now look, I know Atlanta doesn't boast the championships of New York, Boston, or LA. It's nowhere close, sadly, but Atlanta's long been a sports town, and the history of its athletes and teams, well, it's inextricably tied to its central role in the civil rights movement.


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[Assistant] The birthplace of Martin Luther King Jr. and the home to luminaries such as Andrew Young and the late Congressman John Lewis. Atlanta, which once built itself the city too busy to hate, has also been home to some of the most exciting, legendary and controversial sports figures, franchises and events of the past 50 years.


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[Assistant] In 2020, with sports largely sidelined by the global pandemic, those downtown Atlanta teams didn't fare so well, even if there was no one there to see it.


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[Assistant] Now I wish I could take you back to Atlanta, show you all of this myself, but the global pandemic won't allow for that either. So I'm gonna do the best that I can from here in my daughter's bedroom in New York.


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[Assistant] Okay, so let's look at the players here. Here's downtown Atlanta. This is State Farm Arena. It's where the Hawks play.


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[Assistant] They're owned by a group led by investor Tony Ressler in his family. The CEO is a native Atlantan and longtime Coca-Cola and Turner broadcasting executive named Steve Coonan. And up until recently, the head coach of the Hawks was Lloyd Pierce. He's part of a new generation of young activist NBA leaders.


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[Assistant] All three of these men played a huge role in turning the stadium into a voting center. Nearby is the giant, newly constructed Mercedes-Benz Stadium. This is where the Atlanta Falcons, along with Major League Soccer's Atlanta United, both owned by Home Depot co-founder Arthur Blank, play their games.


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[Assistant] It too would become an early voting center in the Senate runoff elections.


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[Assistant] Of course, where to vote was critical, but so too was getting people motivated. And that's where the city's athletes came in, spurred by local leaders as well as the activist heritage of Atlanta.


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[Assistant] Few played a more notable role than WNBA star Renee Montgomery. She gave up a year of playing for the Atlanta Dream in order to partner with activist groups like Fair Fight and More Than a Vote.


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[Assistant] We'll get into all of that, but where this story really starts is late May of 2020, with the killing of George Floyd.


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[Assistant] This is Michael Tyler. He also grew up in Atlanta and now he's the executive vice president of More Than a Vote. That's a group started by LeBron James in 2020 to mobilize voters by tapping athletes and entertainers to spread the word city by city and state by state.


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[Assistant] Renee Montgomery is a two-time WNBA champion, and as of last summer, she was the point guard for the Atlanta Dream. But in June, she announced she would opt out of the 2020 season, deciding to dedicate her time to social justice. And a big part of her message was relatively simple. Vote.


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[Assistant] It is not a light decision at all, I mean, and listen, I'm not a professional athlete, you are, but, but I can only imagine that, like, you've got your routine, you know what you've got to do, you literally know the steps you have to take to get there, to get the brass ring. This path is not so clear in terms of like, how do you get people out to vote?


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[Assistant] What do they do? How did you go about saying, all right, this is how I spend my time. These are the projects that I want to do.


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[Assistant] But with the pandemic in full force all around her, Boots on the Ground was largely virtual, and Montgomery set about mobilizing and motivating from her home.


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[Assistant] A room in her house would get fully converted, equipped with cameras, lighting, even space for photo shoots and music recording. I have major studio envy. Like if you could see like where I am, like I'm actually in my daughter's bedroom and I have like Anna and Elsa over here. Like it's just.


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[Assistant] Montgomery would also create initiatives around increasing involvement in local politics, she raised money to improve education at HBCUs, and spoke to a lot of people about voting.


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[Assistant] Athletes speaking out on issues off the field or court hasn't always been well received. Look no further than the way fans, national politicians, and the media treated Colin Kaepernick. After he spoke out against racial injustice, he couldn't get a job, despite being considered one of the top players at his position.


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[Assistant] LeBron of course was famously told to quote, shut up and dribble back in 2018, but his refusal to back down along with a growing chorus of black athletes, especially in the WNBA and the NBA, ensure that activism would be an integral part of their professional lives.


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[Assistant] But while Montgomery was working to get out the vote, those newly inspired folks had to have somewhere to show up and vote and safely given the global pandemic.


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[Assistant] This is Rob Pitts. He's the chairman of Fulton County's Board of Commissioners. A lot did go wrong in those early June primaries. And in a state with a long history of voter suppression, long wait lines disproportionately affected black citizens. For Chairman Pitts, the pandemic was creating both a health and a political crisis.


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[Assistant] A primary vote is one thing, but on deck was a critical series of elections. A runoff, a generationally important presidential election, and not one, but two U.S. Senate races.


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[Assistant] Intentions only increased as a city long accustomed to complicated racial politics took part in a national reckoning around inequality and injustice.


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[Assistant] This is Steve Coonan. He's the CEO of the Atlanta Hawks and State Farm Arena.


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[Assistant] This is the owner of the Hawks, Tony Restler. He made his fortune through Aries Capital, an investing firm he created in the 1990s. He put together a group to buy the Hawks back in 2015, and while his main residence is in Los Angeles, he and his wife, the actress Jamie Gertz, have become hands-on team owners.


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[Assistant] So the plan was, the then empty State Farm Arena would be turned into what was known as a super polling location, meaning anyone in Fulton County would be able to come to the arena to vote.


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[Assistant] The Court of the Arena would be dedicated to socially distanced voting machines, 100 machines for the July runoff election, and then tripling to 300 for the general election in November. Conference rooms would be converted for poll workers to process votes, including mail-in voting.


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[Assistant] The Hawks Foundation would also provide 1,500 free parking spots in the surrounding area to accommodate voters. And in addition to the site, the Hawks added a critical piece, some 350 full-time staffers, 200 of whom would be deputized as poll workers.


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[Assistant] But while the owners of the Hawks were busy creating a super polling location, another basketball owner in Atlanta was making their own headlines.


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[Assistant] And Kelly Leffler, of course, wasn't just the co-owner of the Atlanta Dream. She was running to keep her seat as a U.S. Senator from Georgia. Leffler was objecting to a league decision to allow players to wear black warm-up jerseys with the words Black Lives Matter and say her name on them.


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[Assistant] In a letter to the league's commissioner, Loeffler argued that instead, they should place an American flag on every jersey. And she stated that there needs to be less, not more, politics in sports.


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[Assistant] Players from every team in the WNBA would go on to wear shirts saying, vote Warnock.


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[Assistant] So here we've got a pause to marvel at a hard to make up element of this story. The owner of a team named to evoke the work of the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. effectively turned the team against herself to the point where that team endorsed her opponent.


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[Assistant] That opponent had the same job, pastor of the famed Ebenezer Baptist Church, that the late Dr. King and his father once held.


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[Assistant] But the Reverend Raphael Warnock was part of what they call a non-partisan blanket primary. Part of a crowded field looking to challenge Leffler.


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[Assistant] And according to research by the Washington Post, the exposure helped boost Warnock's campaign at a critical time. 48 hours after the WNBA players started to wear his name, the campaign raised $183,000 and attracted 3,500 new grassroots donors.


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[Assistant] And by the time the election in November rolled around, Warnock was the only real challenger left for Loeffler.


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[Assistant] And it was only a few weeks after the WNBA players endorsed Warnock that NBA athletes would grab the sports world's attention.


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[Assistant] The Bucs would boycott the game after police shot and paralyzed Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The other teams in the bubble in Orlando followed suit, and NBA playoff games came to a halt, along with most of the rest of the sports world, from Major League Baseball to Pro Tennis. All eyes turned to the NBA for the next move.


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[Assistant] This is Lloyd Pierce. During the 2020 season, he was the head coach for the Atlanta Hawks.


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[Assistant] Of course, weren't in the NBA bubble at the time, having missed the playoffs for the third year in a row.


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[Assistant] Have I mentioned that it's a little tough to be an Atlanta sports fan?


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[Assistant] But the Hawks, from afar, ended up playing a critical role in the negotiations between the owners, the league, and the players. Two key agreements emerged. First, the league would set up a new committee on racial justice, and coach Pierce would head it up.


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[Assistant] The second thing spoke directly to the voting issue, which had become the most tangible form of activism.


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[Assistant] Any NBA facility that could would become a voting center. And the Hawks had the blueprint.


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[Assistant] More than 40 sports arenas in the US were ultimately converted to polling places during the 2020 elections. And some 300,000 people around the country were able to vote in the general election at NBA facilities alone.


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[Assistant] About 40,000 of those votes were all cast in State Farm Arena. Now keep in mind, the presidential election in the state of Georgia was decided by less than 15,000 votes.


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[Assistant] And when both U.S. Senate races would require a runoff, which would determine control of the U.S. Senate, this time the Hawks would be joined by the Falcons and their home, Mercedes-Benz Stadium.


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[Assistant] This is Steve Cannon. He's the CEO of AMB Sports and Entertainment, the parent company of the Falcons in Atlanta, United. He oversaw the election process at Mercedes-Benz, which would split duty with State Farm Arena as a super polling location.


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[Assistant] And tell me a little bit about the, the fans in, in this regard, who I dare say, you know, reflect the changing demographics of, of Atlanta. And I mean, there is an element I would imagine to this that is enlightened self-interest. You, you want to.


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[Assistant] Keep your fanbase happy and reflect their values and their wants and needs. Tell me about that.


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[Assistant] The shift on the part of the owners to not just embracing but encouraging activism can't be overstated. It has spread to the college and even the high school level.


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[Assistant] So Tony, as an owner, it feels like you've witnessed a really important moment, a shift of sorts, when it comes to player empowerment, in terms of activism, in terms of having a voice. It's not just tolerated anymore, it's really expected.


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[Assistant] In the runoff, Kelly Leffler, of course, lost that Senate seat. She ultimately decided as well to sell her stake in the Atlanta Dream. And Renee Montgomery would go from player to part owner.


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[Assistant] In fact, just a few months later, as LeBron and the rest of the NBA were headed to Atlanta for the All-Star game, the GOP-controlled legislature in Georgia was aiming to roll back some of the efforts that made it easier to vote in the state. One of the key activists, former senator and former dream owner, Kelly Loeffler.


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[Assistant] Well by now my bias toward Atlanta is clear, but there is a massive story here.


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[Assistant] It's undeniable that something new and important happened in the past year.


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[Assistant] The fact that it happened in Atlanta shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who knows its history, its economics, its demographics, and its politics. But few could have predicted that sports would play such a key role.


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[Assistant] Former senator Loeffler remembers she said there should be less politics in sports. Having looked into this, I think it's fair to say there's gonna be more.


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[Assistant] What happened in Atlanta says something bigger. Something about sports and business and culture and how they're inextricably intertwined in a new and different way. It's a complicated world to be sure, but it sure is fascinating.


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[Assistant] Thanks so much for watching. Would love to hear what you think about this and other episodes about the business of sports. I'll be in the comments section. Can't wait to hear what you think.


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[Assistant] In the non-weightlifting world, the ability to squat double bodyweight, much less do it when you're 12 years old or 13 years old, is insane.


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[Assistant] Clean and jerks, whether he's come from practice or whether he's going to practice. Uhm, so we let that kind of be the determining factor of how hard we go that day. For the most part, he moves really well with the bar.


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[Assistant] Uhm, I tell him all the time, it's unfortunate to me because I...


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[Assistant] Do coach weightlifting that he's so good at tennis, because he would be a really good weightlifter as well.


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[Assistant] On the movement that he's doing right now on the clean and jerk, he can jerk with either leg forward, and that would be something most people can't do.


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[Assistant] A lot of times we'll do two reps and he'll do, if we do two reps, he'll do jerk one way and then jerk the other way. Most people do it one way.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I had an injury, tendonitis, which is like a, an injury that uhm, was inflammatory. It was in my knee and I was struggling. I tried everything to get rid of this injury. I couldn't shake it and it was costing me, it cost me money because I wasn't playing. So I had to kind of try and find a way to get rid of it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I was gonna go for an operation, I was thinking of all different options and I'd just seen an athlete in America talking about how he had suffered from it and changed his diet and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It had gone. So I said well, that's what I've got to do now. I mean, it worked for me, hands down.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Let's just rewire you a little bit in terms of maybe things that you wasn't as conscious of before, do you know what I mean? Is everything, I mean, is everything involved with Forest Green? I didn't even know it was possible for a t-shirt to make that copy, do you know what I mean? I didn't know that was a thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, you know, she's just marking them off, like, you know, I did this skill, I'm about to get this skill, you know, and she just, you know, has her little checklist and she's just determined to just, uh, conquer it all.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Work ethic, I don't know if she just watched him or if it's because they're just two days apart, but, um, she's a lot like him when it comes to, um, her work, you know, and what she puts into it. Um, and he, I think he kinda like pushes her a lot too.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, she normally gets what she wants. She's extremely funny.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, she's all, she's the one with the one liners.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If she's going at it with her siblings, she's the one that you don't want to mess with because she's going to hit you hard and your feelings might get hurt.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The Milwaukee Bucks were the team that decided they weren't going to play, but it also took the rest of our leagues.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The rest of our league and the rest of the teams that were playing that day to make that same decision


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This was in essence the moment that we were preparing for. Uh, we had had our meetings as coaches and trying to strategize on what we could do.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, best to support our players when the time was right.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well that was the time, that was the moment.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is leverage what we can do as a league with all of our owners, all of our players, all of our coaches so that we can take the action and the conversation from Orlando.