[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, we have a little of a need here, but it did not even come close to meeting their board, and Pascal is, I mean, I think a phenomenal


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, they got potential. They're Seattle corners. That's what they are. They're long. They're not necessarily like the greatest, quickest, great feet type of players. That's not what they usually recruit up there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They got guys that are go, wait, they're going to jam you at the line of scrimmage and slow you down and stay on top of you and you're not going to be able to throw jump balls or do anything like that up against these big suckers and throwing it anywhere in that area is going to be scary because they got, you know, big time, uh, uh, you know, what am I?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Radar Wingspan. Thank you, Wingspan. Duh.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, that's what they are. Woollin', you know, it's, it's, it's a Richard Sherman-ish type of pick there. He's 6-4. You know, he ran 4-2. He doesn't play 4-2.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's what they believe in, and I like those picks. I think they have some value for the way they play there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeaah, that's a good question too. I'm gonna say there before...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I've got this jotted down here. Ultimately, I'm going to say they probably went, they go before Corral or Malik Willis.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't know about Ritter. It may be before Ritter too.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I know. I would say they'd probably end up right around before them. Because I just think, again, with these guys, everybody had questions. You know, nobody was, like, foolproof.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Mills, you knew what you were getting. Okay, might not be the greatest talent in the world, but man, he can play quarterback and make the decisions and put the ball where you need to.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hurts. You knew what you were getting as far as man, good athlete, great leader, you know, can throw the ball down the field a little bit, but we got to work on some of the intermediate throwing and short ball throwing. Okay, great. All right. We know what he is. And then there was some flexibility to maybe do other things with him too.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, I think with Malik Wills and Corral, I think, you know, teams had questions about that. Ritter, everybody liked the guy, but there was questions about the throwing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, I guess I would probably say those two ended up going, would go before. I would.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's funny. It's funny how this whole thing laid out, these quarterbacks. Fun with the drafts. Yeah. Fun with the draft a week later. Fun with the drafts. There it is. There it is. We did it. I think we'll still probably hit some draft stuff next week. No doubt about it. There's some teams that maybe we haven't hit on that we need to break down a little bit more. You know, again, even the teams that I brought up that, you know, we were negative on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, the, the Raiders, the Chargers, the Rams, the Dolphins, where I just said it wasn't special draft. They still, maybe we, I need to maybe pick a, like, show one or two picks of each team to go like, damn, there was still a pick or two that I really liked about them, for sure. Uhm, alright everybody, peace out, I'm done talking.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] NBC, Kentucky Derby this weekend. Watch that. Check that out. Alright. I'm a businessman. I'm good for the business, right? I'm trying to pump up the ratings. No, I don't. I mean, have a drink and enjoy the watch. I can't wait for it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Send in the questions. I think we're going to get big Phil back on the podcast next week. Definitely. You're going to be on next Wednesday. I've heard that. Wednesday, Paulie will be here. Monday we'll be back with Ahmed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yo, yo, what's up? Come on, man. Subscribe on YouTube to Chris Simms Unbuttoned Podcast. I need you. Please hit the subscribe button, please.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Don't apologize. No, don't apologize. It's awesome. The way it is. Yes. So. Facts are facts.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hi, I'm Mike Tirico and thanks for watching. Make sure to hit subscribe for the latest news and highlights from NBC Sports.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We'll take a wonder lick. I remember the Giants had me take a 400 question multiple, 400 question. No doubt. And I got this sweet windbreaker for it though. Yea, oh cool.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I heard we're talking O-Line today. Is that right? Yeah. I kinda sidetracked it there. Yeah, that's alright. Good. O-Lines and quarterbacks and whatnot.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Lot of first round picks there. I think we have some traffic up top, as we like to say. I sensed when we were talking quarterbacks a little while ago, I'm like, I think he likes Malik Willis a little bit more than he has him ranked. You said it. So go ahead and take it from there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think re-evaluating doesn't mean you're admitting defeat, it's just that you're open to change and that's just a smart thing to do.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, offensive lineman, thinking about you evaluating the offensive line, like the other positions that we've talked about, quarterbacks, skill positions, I mean these are all things pretty near and dear to what you're used to watching. How difficult is it to sit down and grind out tape and come up with a list for centers, guards, and tacklers?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Of all the positions that you evaluate in the, for the NFL draft, which is every position on the field.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was fun all those years when I was doing this with Mayok, at least once or twice a year he would call somebody a heavy legged waist spender.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There is a lot more athleticism, there's a lot more to it than size and toughness that I think people realize.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, putting this class in perspective a little more, the offensive lineman, before we get to your top five, let's take a peek at what you had last year, this time last year for the big guys up front, and how do you think this class compares?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We've hit wonderlick, uh, heavy legged waist benders, athleticism, maulers, like, we're all set up and ready for top 5 now, right?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But versatility is crazy here. 13 starts at right guard in 2019, 10 starts at left guard 2020, last year 7 at left guard, 2 at right guard, 2 at right tackle, 1 at left tackle.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Thinking about his athleticism, and I know what you see on tape doesn't always mean, okay, it's going to show up at the combine, but go ahead and take here his combine measurements and kind of how he compared with a lot of the others. And basically he had a very below average combine workout, which doesn't mean he's not a great football player, but when you're thinking about taking somebody in the first round,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Does this concern you? When you look at him compared to other people at his position at the combine, he was below average.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Nicky did a nice job of grouping together positions here because as we move to number five, we keep the guard thoughts coming here.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] 11 starts right tackle, 7 left guard, 11 left tackle, 11 left guard, I mean he was all over the place.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sum it up kind of in one question, one situation here. Let's say a team is taking a guard. We're taking a guard in the 20s with our first pick. Love both these guys. Chris, what's the biggest difference between them?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] BFF summed it up pretty well. He's not perfect, but he has no glaring weakness on tape.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, we oftentimes talk about hands as it relates to quarterbacks. 10 and 3 quarters, 92nd percentile. This description of his hands, I want to hear what you think about this. Big, strong and sticky. Does that fit and what does it mean?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I feel like in this class, no matter the position we're talking, we've hit a lot of 40 times. They're like, boy, these are fast this year. I always find it interesting. I don't know if it's meaningful or significant. Just interesting when someone who's 6'5", 3'10", like Charles Cross, comes down underneath the 5. So he runs a 4'9", 5", 94% out of the combine. Interesting observation, but does it matter at all?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It totally makes sense. I think that the main things I take away of this is someone who just walks in and wants to learn about him. Of the three offensive tackles, he's, I don't want to say significantly, but it sounds like... He's clearly three for me. Clearly. It's not like he's 2A to whatever your top two are. So he's a little bit distant back there and he might be a little bit of a project in your one-two.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We're gonna hit those two tackles here in a moment. Let's take a break from them. We get to number three. We go back inside.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Heard all about him forever. We had him in the All-Star game in San Antonio, we do. He looked really good there and he's had an awesome career at Iowa.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A lot of talk about, okay, do you take a center who's undersized in the first round? Uhm, so you can just pick it up and take it from there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't want to talk more about that. I have a pretty good comp for him too as well. There we see it right there. As you can see, 6'2 and 1'8, not very tall, he's less than 300 pounds. Wingspan was really bad compared to others. Arm length as well, hand size.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] None of it, just in terms of measurements, would say first round pick, but everything else about him when you watch him play, says first round pick. Really interesting video with him, and I think we have this Pete, he wrestled Tristan Werfs in high school, I don't know if we have the video.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So Tristan Worf's went to Mount Vernon, which is about five minutes down Highway 1 there from Solon. Next time you're there. That's amazing. Let's see it again.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like, Tristan Worf's like, we've all seen him. And he's quite a bit bigger than Tyler.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As long as we're on the Iowa theme, I, I think there's a comparison here that works very well. My junior year, my center was Mike Devlin. We played in the NFL for seven, eight, nine years. So then the next season, we got to have one. There was this kid who was really smart and pretty athletic, but he was only about 260 pounds. Casey Wigman.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's like, Casey's gonna be pretty good. So he played 17 years in the NFL. I played with him. Played with you. In Denver.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Casey 285. I'm gonna guess Casey was probably less than 285. Uh, but the point is, I know it's easy because they went to the same school.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But it sounds like you're describing the same player. It's a very similar guy. And has the game changed that much where someone who's 280 at center, uh, 20 years ago, who was really good, can they still be with that size? Yea, definitely.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We have six offensive linemen. You have six, uh, on your quote top five. I think we've had three. Yeah, three interior. We've had two guards in the center. Only one tackle. So we're moving into the top two. The big top two. And we are nothing but tackles from here on out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In the ACC, did you have much film to look at where he was going at an ass kicker on the other side as well?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's a really clean film, this guy. I'm listening to you and I think that was a really good intro to the player for those of us who didn't know him that well coming in. I feel like my follow-ups and the questions I have are kind of in relation to your number one guy. I know, let's do it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Let's say I am the GM of the Texans, okay? And you know that I want to take the NC State kids. You're the online coach for the Texans. You've spent...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think you summed that up really well. I mean, if you're going to rate five areas, maybe your second guy is higher in all five, but the one he's better at, that is the skill.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Doesn't sound like you're describing somebody who would be a problem in the run game. No, it's not. Exactly right. He's not gonna be a problem in the run game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You want to have some fun watching a big guy do a great box jump?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Five times more impressive than a 320 pound offensive lineman running a 4-9-40. That right there. That's a better sign of like athleticism and explosion. That's where their game ends.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Thinking about the scouting world, this time of year, we used to always do this, I say we, I would see people and hear the conversations about Alabama running backs. Well, let's compare the other Alabama running backs the last 10 years. So let's do this a little bit here with the Alabama offensive linemen.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, do you think he's being overrated at all? And I think I know the answer. Uh, we're looking at past Alabama O-Tackles Taken. Uh, Alex Leatherwood last year, 17, to the Las Vegas Raiders. Yep. Wills the year before. Williams the year before. Ryan Kelly at center. Yep. Uh, Chance Wormack, DJ Fluker.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What do you make of this Alabama lineage there on the offensive line in the first round?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, it sounds like your evaluation of him. I'm a lover of him. I mean, the last 10 years, you haven't seen a left tackle better. It doesn't matter what his helmet is, what his uniform is in college. You're not going to say that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Unless you really, really think it, like it's not gonna get escalated just cause he went to school. No, exactly right. That's exactly the way to put it. You're not gonna make that comment. Exactly. Just cause he went to Alabama. Just cause he went to Alabama. You might push a third round pick into the second round.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's the guy I worry about a little bit with Icky. Let's take a look at your top six here as now we've been through the, all the way through the number one, Evan Neil, the offensive tackle from Alabama. And to me, I look at this group and I can think about one little thing or a couple little things you said about each one.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What I remember most from this last hour is you think all six of these guys belong in the first round. No question.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We're gonna get to the honorable mentions. Uh, let's visit a little subject here from our friends at Points Bet. First offensive lineman drafted odds. And I would imagine that Evan Neal is... I think Icky's gonna be the leader. You think Icky's up there first?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He's, uh, he's at negative 150 to be the first offensive lineman drafted. Evan Neal plus 140. Big, big drop off down to plus 700 for the next one. That's Charles Cross.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Connect the dots. Alright, read the tea leaves. Connect the tea leaves if you'd like. You can read the dots. So Pete, Pete has included one question here before we go away. Who's Pete's favorite team? Who do you think this might be about? The G-men. That's who we are. The team that gave you the 400 question.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, those assholes. True or false? Multiple choice. Okay, Giants, Graham Joyce, would it make sense for the Giants to bookend their line by taking two tackles at five and seven?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I've had a great 1-2 football lesson 24 hours. USFL last night. Wooo! Little, little offensive lineman talk with Chris next day.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's a locker room right down the hall. Did you know that? No. You can like come in from the airport and like, you know, freshen up. Is that what you did today? Yeah. Wow. You didn't go home yet? No. Wow. Yeah. I feel bad. No. I do.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We'll do it through... June? Yeah, we'll do June.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Timeless sports. Dion, who's Dion? Oh my gosh, Dion with Andrew Kramer.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hi I'm Mike Tirico and thanks for watching. Make sure to hit subscribe for the latest news and highlights from NBC Sports.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Two is a more aggressive decision maker. Pete, clip that off, and whenever TwoAnon, you know, tweets Chris, you clip that and send it to him. Have a bot, set up a bot. Right, oh we weren't recording that. That'll never be heard from again.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That is happening too, I think. But there's a cold too going around. But I was like, okay, I was like, uh-oh. I was like, alright, I'll take a, I'll take a test, negative. Yeah. Wednesday, really running. Right. Like, I was like, okay, I gotta take another test. Oh, you did, you say you tested up already. Twice. Yeah. Negative both times. Right.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, unless I've caught it since then, but no, now it's just been like up in there. I feel fine, but it's just up in my face.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I actually think it might clear up the nasal passages though. I don't know that that's been proven, but I think that's a possibility.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm a little tired. Yeah, cause we went right from Baltimore to the Preakness. Right. Hope you had early voting in that. That was fun. That was cool.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I was like, what if you finished second in all three Triple Crown races?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Again. Oh, the last time he had a free run, he just got caught. Right, got caught from behind. Um, but yeaah, so went from Baltimore, drove four hours, we had a car, I didn't drive personally. So that was the plan all along, to drive though. Yes, correct. Drove four hours to Pittsburgh, did the baseball game in Pittsburgh, on Peacock, and then, uh, trying to get out, our flight got cancelled.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's all a show because you see the pocket square I have right there? Yea, I see that. Not a pocket square. No? What'd you do? Index card.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean the only one. It was like 98 at our baseball game in Atlanta two weeks ago or a week ago. Ties. Full suit. Mike walks in.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're, you're more towards the spectrum of you can do things. You can, you're more towards the Tariko spectrum than the rest of us. Oh, thank you for calling.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yep. And then sat down about five minutes before the race and watched it. And now we can focus on continuing the top 40 countdown. Oh yeah. So you, I listened to that on the plane. Yeah. Over here, you and Paul. Yep. Breaking down the next five, what was it? 31 through 35 or something like that. Exactly right. Here we are. There we go.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think on balance we probably have a good chunk of 49er fans listening to the pod just because of your close relationship with Kyle. Sure. They feel like they can get some inside information.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So if you're a journalist out there, and you're gonna write the sentence, Chris Sims reports, take that out. Just say, Chris Sims talked about some stuff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On all these guys up to this point, and I think the five we have today, uh, they're gonna be some good ones here. Yeah, they should be some good ones. This is some interesting, interesting guys, and we start with a guy that I am very concerned about, because he leads my favorite team.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You ranked him 24th last year, he was 31st, so he's right around that same age. Yeaah. And I think we have the stats now because part of it, the discussion with him was like, alright, well, maybe Sean McVay just doesn't trust him, but maybe he's got abilities that other coaches would see in him and he would kind of have different stats. And so you can compare now as we take a look at the 2021 Detroit Lions and 2020 Rams here.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The numbers? I mean, they're very similar. Completion percentage is similar. And he, he was a lot of, in a lot of ways, the same quarterback. I looked at the, uh, intended air yards last year. Last in the NFL. Last in the NFL.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Tim Boyle's probably not going to be on your list here. No, he's not. John Walford's not on your list. That's interesting. Uh, but, uh, but there was a significant drop off when he was not in the game. And so as a Lions fan, you know, you know, he has his limitations, but also at the same time last year, you were grateful when he was able to play. Yeah, he does give you song.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I think for a couple years now, the Lions have said that they believe in Jared Goff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Brad Holmes was there in LA when they drafted him, and so they're gonna give him a little time here. There was some thought that they would take a quarterback in the draft this year, and they elected not to do that past multiple times. There was even talk that maybe at number two, as crazy as that is now, hearing that, that they might take Malik Willis there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, so, what do you make of them passing on this draft class?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, and, I don't know, are they just crazy enough to


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Think that when they get to the Super Bowl or make the playoffs or whatever that is, that Jared Goff's gonna be the guy to do that for.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I was talking about the Rams of a few years ago, not just this past Rams. So, Jared Goff is number 30 on your list.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Who is the quarterback who is just one quarterback better than Jared Goff?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So those are, if you're watching on Peacock or YouTube, you see his stats from last year. Completion percentage was quite high, 7th best in the NFL, but as Chris is want to point out, it's shorter passes, 27th in the NFL in yards per game, 23rd in passing yards per attempt, and so,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're talking about two passes of 20 or more yards downfield. He had only 7% of the time was he doing that. That NFL rank was 34th. So there were 33 other quarterbacks that had a higher percentage of passes deep downfield. Completion percentage was good. Yea, you see it. But just didn't do it very often.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well that's something too, that was interesting. He threw into a tight window more than any other quarterback last year. 19.3% of the time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So that's the thing, that'll be what's interesting, and that's not part of your evaluation here in your top 40, but his teammates around him, those wide receivers, their weapons right now, and in fact, the Dolphins tweeted a picture from one of the training camps or the mini camps where


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't believe that this tweet though had the affected intent. Because he threw it and you can see that Tyreek Hill is waiting for it as though it was a punt.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I hope they're not fired, Pete. I hope they're not fired, but yeaah. I think it was kind of a fun, he was like, oh I got the football the whole way, I'm gonna use that one. Uh, yeaah. But Tyreek will help, production wise.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Pete has informed me we have the video where Tyreek respond. Yea, so here we go.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Here's the passes. Oh, that's a better spiral. Oh, in stride.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What you can't tell is these receivers are only 13 yards out of here. You're funny. Those look good. Yeah, no, again, he's...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He's, he's smooth? Yeah. He threw, he threw 7,000 passes, they could pick three.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It'll be fun to watch how it develops. It'll be fun to watch how it develops with Tua, who even at times last year, I think even the most ardent Tuanon believer, there were times last year where they're like, I don't, maybe he's not the guy. But who knows, maybe he will be with the guy with these cast of characters. Well, I feel like at least last year got off


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Alright, save it for the questions next week when 2anon fills your Twitter feed with replies.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's what's gonna make it worse. Right, I think the next guy in front of him...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Similar in a lot of ways. Very. Top draft pick, a lot of expectations. Now you're wondering whether he'll live up to those expectations. Yes, it came to me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So that's what I'll do. He was 36 last year. And now he's 28. And last year he threw two passes. Completed one. Four yards. He did have 87 rushing yards on the year. One rush TD. But he did very little in the regular season.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Robonic is a good way to sum it up, I think, cause when you think about Marcus Mariota, when he was coming out of the draft, and what was he, the number two overall pick, you were kind of thinking like this ultra-athletic guy, cause he did all the running.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, at Oregon. And then you, you see him, and it's almost like he's trying to do the right thing, trying to follow the play, you know, it's like there's not as much improvisation, and he's not just letting it fly. I don't know that I've ever seen a moment where Marcus Mardiota has just been on the field and let it fly.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think it's interesting that it's Arthur Smith. Right. Is the guy that brings him back, gives him his next starting job because he was there at Tennessee when they drafted him. Right. Number two overall in 2015 and then he was also there when Mike Vrabel made the decision to bench him and in a lot of ways,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think that's why Arthur Smith has a head coaching job with what he did with Tannehill after that and the offense making it so dynamic, throwing the ball down the field, great running attack. So it's, it's, it's very strange. You got Arthur Smith here probably would not be a head coach unless the decision was made to bench Marcus Mario.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Tell me how you break these ties just to kind of hammer this point home again. We probably should do this once a podcast. You got Mario out of there, you got Tua, and you got Jared Goff. Do you sit down and you think, alright, I'm the GM of a team, I'm in a make or break year, I've got to get to the playoffs, which of those three quarterbacks do I want on my team? Is that kind of how it-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He'll be the starter, we expect that for sure. But he will have some competition throughout the year. Desmond Ritter was drafted by them out of Cincinnati, so he'll be the backup quarterback we would expect. And so as we take a look at the schedule for the Falcons in 2022, a few months from now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I, I expect it to be a pretty long leash with Marietta. So you would not expect Desmond Ritter to go there in practice, be lighting it up to the point where they'd be like, well, we gotta give him a, give him a shot. See if it turns things around.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Alright, so 28 Marcus Mariota. Yep. This list is actually working well together because 27 has a lot of same...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Maybe the starting quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers. We'll see where it goes. Alright, so here's another one. Not ranked last year. Was 38 in 2020. And now, he just threw the ball eight times in Buffalo.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're trying to use all information. I am, I'm trying. You're using information, most of it is your own evaluation of what they did on the field. Exactly. And in the preseason he was pretty good. Pete just put in the rundown, 21 of 30, 70%, 231 yards, had a touchdown there, you never know the competition or who you're facing. It was the Bears game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So a couple things here. Yes. About, uh, three minutes ago, you said, kinks in the armor. Is that a new one? Has that ever been said before? Pete, is it? I don't know. Kinks in the armor?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, he's not, he's not. He's leaking them. We found the mole. The leaker. Greg faced. Yea. Hey Chris, do you think the Steelers had to draft a quarterback this year? With Trubisky, I think they could have stayed with him this year and used that first pick on another more highly rated position of need, like Linderbaum maybe, who I predict to be a monster for 10 years.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Trevisky's not starting week one, right? I think he signed the guy like Dalton last year, right? Uh huh. I think maybe Trevisky's got more potential than Dalton too. I agree. I'd be very shocked if he wasn't starting there. Bengals, Patriots, At Browns. Now the question comes when they're playing the Browns the next time, which is the last game of the season. Say, barring injury,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You think, I mean, you think Mitch Trubisky can make it through the whole year? You think Kenny Pickett gets a start at some point?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well that's the thing, it should be an upgrade too, cause we have Mitch Shurbisky, what, 2020 with Chicago and then Big Ben, 2021, so I mean, the numbers, if you look at, well, Big Ben was not, I mean, you can make the argument that Big Ben was the worst starting quarterback in football.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well that was a huge surprise last year, I remember talking about this with you, is that he led all quarterbacks last year, not last year, two years ago, when he was a starting quarterback, who had more than 15 scrambles in yards per scramble.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And he didn't play that much last year. Had a couple scrambles. He did it again. He had 30 yards of, uh, positive yardage. He can take off.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Maybe a big year for Justin Fields. Who knows over there. Hopefully he's not listening anymore. Let's do an over under for the Steelers. So you think Mitch Trubisky is going to get the start play as long as he...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Bumped up by that fan base. Such a big fan base, probably supports the team. Like the Cowboys, right? Never been on the Cowboys. Right. Got a bunch of Cowboy fans out there bettin' on the Cowboys. Man, healthy defense? I just think they're gonna still be a pain in the butt. And like we said, Trubisky, maybe you'd be like, aw, it's Mitch Trubisky, but I think he's better than what Ben was. I agree.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Alright, so if you want to take the over on the Steelers, seven and a half wins, you can do that. You can download the points bet app to do that. Yep, and you know it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Don't just bet, live your bet life with points bet. You know what they say, no risk it, no biscuit. Which leads us to our number 26 quarterback here, who no longer is in that system, and has been showing some positive improvement.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, his numbers from 2019 versus what he did last year are completely different.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, 2019 of course is that 30 interception year, which was his worst. It's not like he was doing that every year in Tampa. Like the 30 interceptions was an anomaly for him. It's not like he...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He's throwing that many every year. He did have a few, but yes, not 30. Last year, yea, as you mentioned, 14 touchdowns, 3 interceptions, I looked it up too. That's his best touchdown percentage, you know, touchdown passes per passes thrown, of his career.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And his best interception percentage of his career. So in a lot of ways before he got hurt, he was, he was off to a, to a career year. You think Sean Payton and now he's gone there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, but do you think they've unlocked something that will be long lasting for him? Or, how do you think, do you think he needed Sean Payton there?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We do want to make sure to specify that we are not doctors, right? Cause if anyone was out there being like, oh, Chris is a doctor, I think. Yeah. We're not. We're not doctors. Definitely not. Don't take what we say medically as sound advice. Yes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Energy drinks are fine. You know, that's what I think. So Chris would disagree with me. And I'm a doctor and I say they're not. Alright, so that's our uh, that's the next five there. Pete notes here, this was interesting. All five quarterbacks that we revealed today were taken with a top five pick.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Four of them were either first or second overall. That's funny, isn't it? That was pretty good. They were all guys with a lot of potential. Of all those, you know, so you got some guys with some physical, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That was a tough one. That was a tough grouping right there. Those were tough. I'm curious to see how all those quarterbacks do, uh, this year given an opportunity. Let's go through rapid fire a few of the comments on your last ranking here. And Pete, I'm gonna go right to Trey Lance here at number 31. Pete's best friend is a 49ers fan.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] After listening to the pod though, Pete notes, the next morning he said that quote, Chris's points were fair. I take back my hot take. So you convinced him. That's great. That's good.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think Pete's best friend tweeted, uh, or texted him a shot chart. Yeah, he takes it all back now. Passing chart. Here's the passing chart. I think it kind of outlines the things that you mentioned there, that one long touchdown pass. Yup. Uh, the other touchdown pass was right there at the line of scrimmage.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well you had him higher than Tyler Huntley on the list and Tyler Huntley probably showed a few more things and very positive things last year filling in for Lamar. Pastor Kevvy Kev says if Huntley is 34 and a rising quarterback, then would you rather pay Lamar 50 million dollars or pay Huntley cheap and build the roster around him?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So what's behind door number C? Right. Right. Right. Uh, Davis Mills was behind door number, what was he, the 8th highest, uh, where was he drafted last year? He was like that. Yeaah, he was 30, well he was in the second round.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You had him ranked number 35. And third round, he was third round last year, Ann Dunn says Davis Mills was maybe the best rookie quarterback and drafted the latest of a very overhyped and very underwhelming rookie quarterback class of 2021. So why is he dead last amongst them?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We don't know that yet though, do we? I mean, we have, you could have left him off the list entirely. No, you're, I didn't, so he's dead.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're getting more fired up as this podcast goes. You're starting to really get the engine going. Uh, maybe this will get you fired up too. Project FX. As far as guys like Gnogo, who you had ranked number 33. Don't you think that at some point he is who he is? Sure he can come in, play in a pinch, but you play him next season, you are playing for draft picks.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yep, that, that all makes sense, and it's not like you had him three. You had him thirty-three. No, again, he's still at the end of the...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Cause we got one on Sam Darnold and your non-ranking of Matt Corral, who you like. He really had us in the number one quarterback in the draft this year. You got Sam Darnold at 32. Season Panther says, I want to know where Chris


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Would have, uh, ranked Coral in Sam Darnold's 2018 draft class. Where he would rank Darnold out of college in this year's quarterback class. So, coming out of college, you liked Matt Corral a lot.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, you did not like Sam Darnold coming out of college. You've grown to like Sam more now as the hate has gone too far.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That tends to bring me over. But out of college, how would you have them ranked? If they were both coming out this year. As they were when they were in college.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Did I answer it, you think? Yeah, yeah, but we should not be surprised if Matt Corral gets some run next year, plays, plays pretty well.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We want to know if you can get inside Chris Simms' head. It's a dangerous place to try to venture into. You know, it can be scary, intimidating, but it can be cloudy, but it can be a fun place. It can be a lot of fun. Coach Mills says this, where do we submit our guesses for the perfect top


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So we got the Sims Perfect 10 countdown. We're gonna do it. We're gonna do it, right Chris? We are gonna do it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I, so I told Pete this. I think it will be, you know, a lot of people know you and know the way you think.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't know if anyone's gonna get 10. You saw the list. Yeah, you got to see the whole list. I've seen the list. Yes. But if, well...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now if I say that. You question whether people can get the top five. Okay, now this is new information that people know though. Now they know that I've seen the list. Yes. And they know that I don't think anyone's gonna guess this list. Right. And so now maybe, now having said that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No yeaah. Now I feel like people might actually get it now. I feel like they might throw a few names out in different spots.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, alright, so that changes things. I don't even know if people get the top 5 though. Before we talked about this, I thought top 5 might be difficult, but the homies know you, so maybe. Alright, we'll see. We'll see how well the


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We're gonna put her to work, so she's the merch seller now. Exactly. Down our basement, we'll get a hot press down there. We'll get it figured out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You gotta get all up in there to clean it well, plus I got long ass arms and it feels weird to be sitting. Have to use wipes too. Long arms would make you think he could sit and do it easily. He could do anything. Yea, these arms reach anywhere. Right. But, but no. Wipes aren't good for the toilet. Correct, I've heard that before.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We're the only football podcast that talks this much about hygiene and how we, uh, wipe our butts. Yeah, we do. That's great. It's a great, great podcast.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What's your, what's your t-shirt you're wearing today? They're red and blue. Oh, it's a, it's a curling, it says curling team from, I think I got it for the Olympics or something like that. Oh, curling team, yes. It's just a generic, what I wore in Pittsburgh before I got on the plane and came right here.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is a picture from the 1930s of Catherine Dewey, an American Bob's letter.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Back then, bobsleds looked kind of like a toboggan crossed with a go-kart. Much different from the sleds we see today.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Dewey often competed as a pilot or driver in four-person bobsledding events. And in 1940, she won first place in a national championship.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Dewey was never allowed to compete in the Olympics. In fact, it wasn't until 2002 that female bobsledders were invited to participate in the Games.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But this year, a new women-only event was introduced. The Monobob.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, does this event actually level the playing field?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] From the outside, all types of bobsledding look pretty straightforward.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Athletes push a sled, jump in, and let gravity pull them down an icy, windy track at speeds averaging 135 kilometers per hour.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] After four runs, the times are added together and the fastest sled wins.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The run can look smooth to spectators, but inside the sled it's a brutal and technical event.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Bobsled athletes traditionally competed in teams of two or four. The women in pairs, the men in pairs, and quartets.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But they also have to make sure they're navigating the run as smoothly as possible.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sleds move so quickly down the track that pilots have to rely on muscle memory.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In a four-person sled, the two center athletes are push athletes, named because they help push the sled at the start. And the athlete at the back is the brakeman.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But their job is to help push the sled and get it up to speed at the beginning of the race. Get in, and get down.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Maybe pray? All the way down, just please don't crash, please don't crash, please don't crash. Oh, and pull the break at the end.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Despite the similarities, the three types of bobsledding are much different in terms of equipment and technique.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] All sleds have specific minimum and maximum weight limits. The heavier the sled, the faster you go. But the harder it is to get going at the beginning.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There are other regulations for safety, like how thick and warm the runners can be, the overall size, and the material used to make the sled.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But other than that, two and four-person Bob teams are allowed to adjust their sleds to maximize aerodynamics.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Top teams can pay engineers to research and design faster slits. They tap into technology from Formula One racing and even aerospace engineering.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When all is said and done, the price tag for a sled could be over $100,000.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The technological advantage speaks for itself.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you look at the list of teams that have medaled at the Olympics for bobsledding over the years, it gets repetitive very quickly, with five countries really dominating the


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A monobob sled costs around $15,000, a much more affordable price tag. Not to mention, countries only need to train and fund travel for a single athlete, which makes the sport much more accessible. So in one way,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This has already proven to change the game. In the 2021 World Series, athletes from Jamaica and Brazil both earned medals.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Adding the monobob did give women another opportunity, but there's no denying that it's not equal. Not yet. But the sport itself hasn't ever been equal. Not really.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Bob's sledding prices are so high that many countries can't even afford to send a four-person men's team to compete.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So it's a step in the right direction. And for now, at least for the monobob, may the best woman win.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Long-term, short-term memory loss, anxiety, fear, depression, the inability to really stay focused and, uh, have emotional regulation.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just the fact that I was losing something of myself that I didn't realize potentially could have been contributed to.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Multiple vibrations, the concussions that actually I'd never been diagnosed with.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hey, if you got out of that sled and you're just a little bit dizzy and then all of a sudden it's like, no, I'm good and you're full of adrenaline and essentially if you have the will and the desire to get back up and dust yourself off and do it again, so be it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The beauty of this is that it can actually see where your brain is firing, not firing at all, or partially, or too much.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's America's newest sport and it's called skateboarding.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's a great similarity between the sport of skateboarding and the sport of surfing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What you find is the NBA is the sport that's farthest away from random. And then you go down the line, hockey is actually the sport that's closest to randomness.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Basketball, they're coming down and they have a shot clock and they have to take lots of shots. They're forced to take shots, so there's a lot of samples, they go back and forth. Ice hockey, of course, it's much more fluid, the possessions are much less discreet.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Not quite, but you can have LeBron James playing most of the game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Whereas the very best hockey player, Sidney Crosby, is going to be on the ice, you know, 22, 23 minutes per game. He's their superstar.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think that football does boil down to a few skill players typically, and I would really say probably the quarterback head coach combination becomes the most important determinant or predictor of success.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So what happens is is you shrink your sample size and anything, your small sample size, you get a lot of variance. Saying that differently, there are seven foot players who are really skillful and there are seven foot players who are not quite as skillful and they're both in the NBA, right, just because they're by virtue of their height. So as a consequence, you get more variance and that means skill tends to assert itself more.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I learned this by the way from the sports analytics guys, so I wasn't clever enough to come up with this myself. But there's a really interesting concept in statistics, uhm, and it's actually called sort of the Pythagorean theorem statistics.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So you think about how we apply this to sports, unless we'll use basketball as an example. So what do we know? We know the actual variance of win-loss records of all the professional sports teams, right, basketball teams. So that's a known.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So instead of playing every basketball game, the teams just went out and flipped a coin and whoever won the coin toss, they went back and took showers and went home.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now we have two out of the three pieces of the equation and what that allows us to do then is estimate the contribution of the other distribution.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We're there to enjoy the journey. We're there to have the highs and lows, and having both highs and lows is what kind of makes it engaging as a fan.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Upstairs, Haroon Hanafi. Haroon herds perfectly. Now nobody has ever managed to successfully evade Haroon in the history of World Chase Tag.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Somebody I'd worked with on the darts, uhm, had got in touch, just sprung me a speculative email saying, look, I'm, I'm doing a, doing this thing. It's like a, it's, it's like a sport, but it's like, like tag, you know, like the playground game. And then as soon as I, I Googled it and had a look, like I was, I was blown away.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I was aware of parkour, but only like when I was a teenager, I think when...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You think in your head, your, your little vision of yourself, you go, yeah, I can do, I can do all of that. Absolutely all of it. And then you realize that you can't even carry your washing upstairs without tripping over the cat or something.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] At the time when lockdown first happened, we were sort of tentatively talking about having quite a few events. I think we had a European Championships sort of penciled in, we had a potential event in Saudi Arabia penciled in, we also had an Amer- what was going to be the World Championships in America.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then as soon as lockdown came up, we just realised that none of that was going to happen.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] These players all have one thing in common. This logo.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's also on this team in Serbia, at games in England, and on sidelines in Italy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The logo belongs to Gazprom, a Russian natural gas company.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Logo sponsorships are normal in soccer. Teams make money offering jersey space to sponsors selling things like credit cards, cars, and cell phones. But Gazprom isn't like most sponsors. Private companies with products soccer fans can buy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Instead, it's a company owned by the Russian government that makes money selling natural gas to foreign countries.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yet it's everywhere in European soccer. So if soccer fans can't buy what they're selling, why is Gazprom spending millions to sponsor soccer games?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The answer is part of a larger story that's changing the sport of soccer. Foreign countries using companies they own to burnish their reputations abroad and to understand why Russia is involved. You need to look at a map.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Russia has the world's largest natural gas reserves, and most of them are located in arctic gas fields controlled by Gazprom.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The company is led by Alexei Miller, a close ally of Vladimir Putin.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Since 2005, the Russian government has owned a majority stake in Gazprom, meaning company profits are under Putin's control, and gas sales, along with oil, account for around 40% of Russia's annual budget.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This map shows how dependent various European countries are on Russian gas. And you can see that Eastern European countries are more dependent than countries further west.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] At the end of the 20th century, Germany represented the biggest opportunity for Gazprom.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder had announced plans to phase out coal and nuclear power, which meant Germany would need more natural gas to maintain their energy supply.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Gazprom wanted to get it to them, but there was a problem.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To get to Germany, Russia's gas needed to pass through pipelines crossing countries charging Gazprom transport fees.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And most of them went through Ukraine, a country that has a complicated relationship with Russia.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So starting back in 2005, Russia began working on a strategy to bypass Ukraine and ship their gas directly to Western Europe.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is the Nord Stream Pipeline, a route through the Baltic Sea straight to northern Germany.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In late 2005, Gazprom was in the final stages of financing the project, and Germany's chancellor was preparing for an election.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] During his time in office, Gerhard Schröder had become friendly with Putin, and critics in Germany were increasingly concerned about the Russian leader's growing influence.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just a few weeks before the election, Schroeder met with Putin to sign an agreement officially approving the pipeline.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Two months later, Schroeder lost his re-election, but by March he had found a new job.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Soon, the story of Gazprom's big project in Germany was becoming a story of scandal, corruption, and the creeping influence of Russia. But then, the story changed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In 2006 Gazprom signed a deal to sponsor the German soccer team FC Schalke 04.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] At the time, SHELKA's finances were worrying team officials and Gazprom's sponsorship provided money the team desperately needed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] At a press conference announcing the deal, a Gazprom chairman said Schalke's connections with the German energy sector were why they decided to become their sponsor.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Schalke plays in Gelsenkirchen, a town in Germany's Ruhr Valley, where much of the country's energy industry is based.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's also close to the town of Radin, a hub for pipelines to the rest of Europe, and home to Western Europe's largest natural gas storage facilities.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Schalke wasn't Gazprom's first soccer deal. The year before, they had bought a controlling stake in a team on the other end of the Nord Stream route. The Russian team, Zenit St. Petersburg.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Gazprom's investment made Zenit a major force in soccer.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Two years after taking control, Zenit won their first ever league championship. They've been able to sign expensive foreign stars like Belgian midfielder Axel Witsel and the Brazilian forward Holt.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And Gazprom uses Zenit for marketing stunts.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In 2006, as Gazprom logos were revealed around Schalke Stadium, German headlines were hailing the Russian gas giant for pumping millions into the German team.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And over the next few years, the Gazprom logo would become a team symbol displayed at Schalke Games and printed on official merchandise.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Schalke also won a championship in 2011, and by then Nord Stream had been completed. And that year, Gerhard Schröder, Angela Merkel, and other European officials gathered to celebrate as it began pumping gas to Germany.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There was also another struggling team whose jersey started featuring Gazprom's logo. The Serbian team, Red Star Belgrade.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Redstar was about $25 million in debt when Gazprom signed to become their jersey sponsor. And again, there was also another pipeline.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That project closed in 2014, but Gazprom has continued increasing their access to Europe by building Nord Stream 2.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Gazprom has also expanded their soccer empire to include energy partnerships with Chelsea Football Club, Champions League, and the sport's most famous tournament, the FIFA World Cup.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] These sponsorships have made Gazprom's logo familiar not just to fans in Europe, but across the world.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's in commercials before games and on jerseys and sidelines once it starts. FC Schalke fans have also started to see Nord Stream 2 ads at home games.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And while climate activists like Greenpeace have staged protests to point out Gazprom's threat to Arctic resources,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Gazprom has had no trouble renewing their sponsorships.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now, Russia controls nearly half the gas consumed by Europe, and other countries are learning from their examples.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Etihad, Emirates, and Qatar Airways are all owned by sovereign states in the Middle East, with interests that go beyond selling airline tickets.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As the example of Gazprom shows, having a prominent soccer sponsorship offers a way around bad publicity by winning approval on the field. If you're a fan that can feel like a big opportunity, their money helps teams win major tournaments. But it's starting to change the sport itself.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now that it's become common to see a Serbian team, sponsored by Russia's gas company, facing off against a French team sponsored by Dubai's state-owned airline.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's starting to seem like the field is hosting two competitions at once.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's a lot of nerves and excitement. You gain quite a bit of speed in a short period of time. So you start kind of getting like tunnel vision almost. And then when you get into the flying, you see the whole mountainside just open up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] My name's Anders Johnson and I am the women's world cup coach for USA Nordic.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This Swedish guy Jan Boklöf, he struggled with keeping his skis parallel, but he noticed on some of the jumps that he, you know, opened up his skis a little bit wider into a bigger V, he was achieving longer distances.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Somewhere along the lines in the early nineties, people started to notice that it was effective. Other teams and other athletes kind of started to test it a little bit.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It sorta just became, you know, probably one of the biggest progressions in the sport.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The sounds inside a stadium can be unpredictable.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But parked outside every major sports event in a semi-truck full of broadcast TV workers, there's an audio engineer tasked with bringing those sounds into your living room. They're called A1 Mixers, and they're hired by the network that's broadcasting the game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But we don't want to just be placed among the crowd, we want to hear the sounds of the game itself. And that requires microphones near the action to capture what they call field effects.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Parabolic microphones use a dish to focus sound waves from far away. For big budget games like the World Series, you can see those mics around home plate too, but the setup becomes much more elaborate. They put wireless mics in the bases. They have handheld parabolics out in foul ball territory. And they wire up the outfield wall.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's harder to capture field effects when the players roam around a big field.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A handheld parabolic mic can do a better job following the action, and that's long been the standard for NFL games.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But the effects mics can pick up angry players too.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The A1 is constantly adjusting levels throughout the game, and not just to keep the show family friendly.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The game effects in hockey come from 10 microphones taped inside the glass, and the mixer will fade them up and down to follow the play.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They can get those effects to pop even more by tweaking the EQ or equalization.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, we love our Carmen. What can I say?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then in the free skate, I wanted to show like a softer side. I wanted to show off my like lyrical skating style.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I found throughout my whole entire career that if you see somebody doing something that they really love to do, that really translates so much that even if you're not a big fan of the music, you just enjoy that person enjoying what they're doing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the other rule is that the knee must be straightened from when you make first contact with the ground until it passes under your butt. Okay, so it looks like they almost kind of lock their knee. That's what gives it it's sort of unusual look.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So that helps them get longer steps. Okay. And they also drop their hips down lower. It will keep your center of mass low. So you don't end up with a bouncing motion, you kind of end up with a smooth motion.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I am honored, Max, to be the first. And, uh, I hope there are many more to come and I hope there aren't that many stories like this one, uh, in the near future.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What came as a big surprise to me, honestly, Max, is that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's been happening to young fit athletes. I mean, that's sort of the focus of the story and what.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What you come to realize when you hear about long COVID or that's what they call in the UK, uh, COVID long haulers in this country.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is that the temperament, the mentality of athletes is, you know, if you don't feel good, you know, tough it out, tough it out, you know, just work harder and.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you are an athlete that has long haulers, it's the last thing in the world you want to do because it just makes things


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] An elite collegiate runner training for the upcoming season. The picture of physical health. But these days, Hakala gets around by wheelchair. Six months after being diagnosed with COVID, a disease that took hold of her back in July and never let go.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Haccala caught the virus on what she thought was a safe camping trip with a few friends.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She lost her sense of smell and rode out two weeks of piercing headaches and fevers at her home in Oregon. And then it was over. Or so she thought.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hackler began experiencing searing chest pains and was rushed to the hospital.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But while doctors monitored her for three days, they couldn't figure out what was wrong or how to fix it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hakala has not been able to run since. In fact, the star athlete now rarely even walks, instead using a wheelchair or a motorized cart.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But mostly, she just sits here in her parents' house.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And copes with her lingering symptoms, which she chronicles here in her journal.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is there any part of you that you allow to think, you know, why the hell did this happen to me?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Natalie Hackla is one of a growing number of COVID patients becoming known as long-haulers. Those who didn't die from the virus, but also never fully recovered. Their bodies now crippled by a range of symptoms, including debilitating fatigue, difficulty breathing, brain fog, and vertigo.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Many of the long haulers are athletes, or were athletes, now robbed of their life's passion.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Dr. Emily Brigham runs a clinic for long haulers at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Can you give any of your patients a time table as to when they will feel better?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Nearly a year into the pandemic, experts remain baffled as to why some COVID patients never get better. How to best treat them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And why, mysteriously, the majority of them appear to be women.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Until recently, Nicole Knudsen had never known life without hockey. Growing up, she played the sport year-round.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Working on her wrist shot in the summers and skating around her backyard rink in the winters.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Knutson became an all-state player in high school and led her team to the Illinois State Championship.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Instead, Knutson now spends her days not at the rink, but in doctor's offices, being treated for crippling joints and neck pain, vomiting and fainting spells.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A full six months after her diagnosis of COVID.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When she tried to work out one day in the preseason with her college hockey team, she found she couldn't even endure the warmups.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the work ethos of an athlete is that you tough it out. You push through it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Making matters worse, blood work and scans on Knudsen's body have failed to uncover any underlying health issues, leaving doctors vexed as to how to help her.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But the syndrome could have troubling implications, not just for amateur athletes and weekend warriors, but for those hoping to make sports their career.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Over the past six months, hundreds of big-time college athletes, many of them aspiring professionals, have tested positive for COVID.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] After schools summon their players together at the height of the pandemic.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] At some schools, nearly the entire football team was diagnosed with COVID.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For those young athletes, it may become no laughing matter. They can already look to a cautionary tale. Oh, what a pretty move!


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Some days I feel great, I can go to the store and clean. That's your idea of a great day now?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] DER has been fighting a losing battle with the disease.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Durr was too sick to play for the Liberty at all this past season. And though she had a contract to play in France after that, the 23-year-old had to miss that season too. But perhaps worst of all, Durr has no idea when or if she'll ever heal.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When was the last time you picked up a ball and tried to test your body after COVID?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I wonder if you're ever gonna be able to play basketball.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For Natalie Hakala, the collegiate runner, the latest worry is the health of her heart. A recent MRI raised some concerns. So she's been sent to cardiac rehab once a week.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Alongside far older patients, many of whom are trying to recover from open heart surgery, Hakala works to recover from COVID.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hakela's rehab therapist won't allow her to run. She's only allowed to walk. Slowly.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For a young woman used to moving in a hurry, it hardly feels like success.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But for Hakala, becoming a COVID long hauler has required a full recalibration of both body and mind.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] How much, Natalie, have your goals shifted? You used to want to change the school record. What are your goals now?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I guess I was one of those people who thought that, I mean, I consider I'm, I'm older than the, the people we interviewed for this story, but my attitude was I'm, I'm fit. I don't have any bad habits. I don't have any pre-existing conditions. Um, so if I were to get COVID, I'd be able to, you know, kick it off pretty quickly.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it turns out that so many of the people who get long haulers, not just athletes, so many of these people don't even have pre-existing conditions. I mean, normally you'd think, all right,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You get COVID and after about two weeks, it's out of your system. That's not the truth at all. And that is what.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Really scared me, uh, learning that. You know, we talk to athletes who've had it for as long as eight months and there's no end in sight. And the scary part, Max, is that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They go to all manner of doctors. They go to cardiologists. They go to pulmonologists. They go to rheumatologists. They get scans. They get MRIs. Nothing shows up that you can point to and say, alright, there's your problem.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that's what's so scary, you know, that you might not ever get back the health of fitness that you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Enjoyed and just assumed was going to kick back into your body, you know?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, that's the problem. I mean sometimes it's, and it's interesting.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, sometimes people, they might have, they might feel crummy, you know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Maybe their stomach feels lousy for a couple of weeks or they have headaches or they lose their sense of taste and smell. That happens quite often if it, if the virus is really affecting your head. Um, and then slowly, maybe they'll get their sense of smell back, but not their sense of taste. And that's, that's about as bad as it gets. And then.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, to a degree that's awful and two of the three athletes that we spoke to for this story said that when they tell people, you know, they, what their symptoms are, they said, Oh my God.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Not, not having the ability to taste or smell, that must be the worst part.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He said, oh no, that's, that's the easiest part. I, that's, it's everything else that's so much worse as a long hauler. So much worse. Keep in mind.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The athletes we spoke to for this story.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] All have access to doctors. They all have access to rehab.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] How many people, men and women, are going to be suffering from long haulers who don't have access to that? And who don't even want to tell their bosses that they feel lousy because they don't want to get fired. They don't want to get laid off. I mean, think about how big a problem this really can be, right?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, Aja Durr, the WNBA player, the 23-year-old who missed all of last season, and this didn't make the story, but I want to say that she was really hoping to


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The 800 runner, her mom is a nurse. So, and her mom was diagnosing things because she was seeing that her kid was just


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A shadow of what she'd been. So she was able to say to doctors, why don't you look here? Why don't you look there? But again, most people.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're right. It's becoming better known. It's becoming a better recognized problem. There are 40, uh, they call it long COVID in the UK. There are 40 clinics.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In this country, the woman we spoke to, Dr. Brigham, she works for Johns Hopkins. There's also Mount Sinai, University of Pennsylvania has a long haulers clinic, George Washington University Northwestern.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Ask me an interesting question and it's one that all three of these athletes had to face. Ah, it's in your head. You look fine. That's what they're...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You look fine. This is, this is, you know, Brian wondered if it was psychosomatic.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It ain't psychosomatic. This is very, very physical, but of course the toll it takes on, on these people and especially again,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The heart of an athlete, the whole idea is, alright, I'm gonna beat this thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm gonna toughen up. And what has happened is when they just try to go for a light run, it sets them back two or three days. They can't get out of bed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] People don't watch this story and say, well, the majority of people who are long haulers are women. You know, women aren't as tough as they need to be. Women aren't as tough as men. That galls me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That Dr. Brigham, I asked her a couple of different times, you know, why would that be? And again, these doctors are hesitant to give.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Even to give theories about it, but she said it could be hormonal.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It could be, it could be that, you know, a woman's hormonal system reacts differently to this virus than men's. Uhm, and it also could be that men are much more reluctant to report


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, their symptoms and their problems after they've gotten it. So it could be, it could be any number of things in the, but it's tough. It's a, it's a tough thing and there's still so much that's unknown, but what they have come to respect about the long hauler.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, and Asia was wonderful. I mean, she was so candid and so honest and forthcoming, Max.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Every time of the three athletes I spoke to, I told them every time, if you get tired, let me know and we'll shut down for a while.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because just the act of speaking for a long time can set them back and Asia, I kept checking with her.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because her agent said, hey, she may need a rest after half an hour.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And she went on longer. We were supposed to get an hour with her. We got longer than that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, she was so gracious and kind and if there's one thing that I wish we could have talked about more is what so many long haulers feel which is brain fog. Now it's one thing to have that as you get older, right? But not being able to keep a thought in your head


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, to, to, not like, I'll give you an example with Asia.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She said she finally felt well enough to go to Kroger's to go food shopping. It's three blocks away from her house. She got in the car.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Who's having again what they're calling brain fog and the other two athletes I spoke to had the same thing where they can't even concentrate on a TV show, let alone read.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, uh, one of the athletes said the only thing she can read


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is something she read ages ago, the Harry Potter series. She read it as a kid. She's rereading it now cause she knows what happens.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So when she loses her way, she can pick it up again and say, oh yeah, I remember we're back at Hogwarts. I think this is how scary this is.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I wonder about anybody who's got long haulers, but especially athletes. I mean, you don't want to let anyone know if you're, if you're weakened, if you're suffering. And I talked about it a little bit with Bryant.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, if you're a high school athlete and you're trying to get a college scholarship or if you're a scholarship athlete and you want to go into the pros, I mean, you don't, or if you're a pro and you've got a big contract.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, I'll bet there are a lot of, we talked about how many teams have suffered from COVID.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They don't want to lose their contracts. You know, this is how, you know, it's something like the NFL where the average career is only three, three years.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They don't want people to know that they've been diminished in any way.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] My guess is that it's happening to a lot more athletes than we know about.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The mental toll max and the emotional toll. I mean, these are people who.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, if you're any kind of an athlete, you're sitting in a chair and you want to jump out of that chair and take off.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, that's just organic to who you are. Uhm, but I think, uh, they talk about suffering from depression. They talk about, uh, how hard it is that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They can't even see their friends, you know, talk to people about it. Like they're so isolated because of the pandemic anyway. Uh, they're away from their teams. Uh, they're used to being part of something bigger than themselves. And a lot of their friends have had COVID as well and they get over it quickly. And again, they question how bad, how bad can you really be hurting?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, I had it and I'm on your team and I'm good.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I-I-I mean, some of them are doing a little better, uh, Natalie Hakala is improving slowly.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For some, the brain fog doesn't happen until months later. Months later. That's scary. You know, you think you're getting better physically and now all of a sudden...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You can't focus on anything. So it's, yes, I feel for them, uh, I hope only for the best. And again, they're getting treatment that a lot of, a lot of people aren't going to be able to get. And that's why


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Wear a mask, man. It's not a task. Wear a mask. Social distance. You know, be smart about all of this, cause this stuff is scary.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Can work. We learned about that in the WNBA and the NBA. Uh, we know that if you take precautions, that can work. But the idea that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Especially college athletes, the ones who aren't getting paid and are putting their physical health in such jeopardy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That is really, that's hard for me to take. It's hard for me to, to look at that and say, ah, they'll be okay because after,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] After working on this story, I know that they may not be okay at all. This could be a really bad thing. So the answer to it is, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] How dangerous COVID could be even to a young fit athlete. And maybe this story will help get that word out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And when you knock us down, we're going to get up and on the way up, we're going to bite a knee cap off. All right.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We're gonna get up, and on the way up, we're gonna bite a kneecap off, alright? And we're gonna stand up, and then it's gonna take two more shots to knock us down.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Alright, and on the way up, we're going to take your other kneecap and we're going to get up and then it's going to take three shots to get us down. And when we do, we're going to take another honk out of you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then, of all things, had builders recreate an old Western frontier town, from the saloon to the chapel.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But when Earnhardt decided to have a proper home built on his property, his bachelor ways came to an end. Because one of the interior designers hired to decorate it was a woman named Amy Ryman.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When you came to understand how big Junior Nation was, was it a bit overwhelming to you?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] These feminine phenoms play in the All American Girls Baseball League.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If I stop now, the girls that had this dream of playing pro baseball, that dream will be gone. I feel like I have to keep going.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think, not all of our players, but most of our players have caught it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Nothing touches me so much as uhm, people first of all write me in and say I was affected by the book or I even meet


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Women now, who were named after Alex. Right.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean it's extraordinary they come up to me and tell me, I mean it's just...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sports used to be one way to reach kids most in need. And in Atlanta, one group is hoping to make that possible again.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's why they've been building small soccer fields in a very unlikely place.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So Phil Hill, the executive director of Soccer in the Streets, set out to create a travel soccer program unlike any other. A league of stations. Kids don't have to be driven by a parent, and they don't have to fly to another state for their games. All they have to do is get on the subway, walk to a field, and play. And one more thing. It's free. The concept is a hit.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because while Hill is working to change the youth sports system in Atlanta, he's also a parent.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Whose son plays for one of the city's top travel soccer programs.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The top players in the world are always here. You can throw a rock and hit a grandmaster wherever you turn. It's just astonishing to see the star power that comes here.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The move king to h8 can be met by the move like bishop to g5.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It looks like you're watching an NBA broadcast. And then you get into time pressure. The guy defends like an animal. It's not two guys sitting in a pub somewhere drinking a beer and talking chess.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that's incredible. You wouldn't even find one Grandmaster ten years ago. And now you find so many that realize that this is the place to be.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Fabiano coming back to the United States was transformative for the U.S., for the U.S. team, for the young kids.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Who look up to the top players and to know that they have such a great champion leading the party.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We have the best players in the world playing for the US team. We've won a gold medal. We now have a challenger who could replicate Bobby Fischer's historic achievement.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And all the chess fans, all the grandmasters are thinking, this could be the time for chess in the United States.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Brownsville, Brooklyn. Mike Tyson's Brownsville. Brownsville was so rough, Mike had to get out. Unfortunately for me, I fell in love with Chess pretty early on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I was a teenager, 16 years old, and they wanted to know if you had 50 cents, take your lunch money. Absolutely, I wanted to play the best I could find.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Think before you make your next move. Be aware of


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What your surroundings are. Be aware of what other people are thinking. And then learning how to lose.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Gracefully and bouncing back from difficult circumstances.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm Bryant Gumbel with HBO's Real Sports. NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Jr. has just begun his second career, having moved from Pitt Road to the broadcast booth. The change was prompted by a series of concussions about which Earnhardt has said fairly little.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Tonight he reveals the startling details of the health battle that has changed his life.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Thanks for watching. Remember, you can catch the rest of the latest edition of Real Sports all month long on HBO.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No. Never? No. Very minimal. And that was pretty interesting where it could have been maybe the second week of preseason. I had no idea.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so I asked, uh, our then goalkeeper coach, uh, you know, who, who's the gentleman there? And he said, oh, that's the, you know, the president here, uh, Jose David. And I said, fantastic.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He hasn't said one word to any of the domestic American players, but, you know, he's high-fiving and hugging and chatting up, you know, all the Mexican or Mexican-American players. So, without a doubt, that was an instance and an occurrence that, you know, over a period of time that, you know, guys began to notice for sure.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, it did. It did. It went to, to Spanish. Yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right, the official communication did change, yeaah. We had a translator, the American players were translated too, uh, or being translated for, so that was a, an interesting dynamic. Again, it was one that we laughed about, I mean, we joked about, we, we went a, we went a, you know, about our way and did it and then, and tried to make the most of it, but without a doubt, I mean, the, the entire cultural, there was an entire cultural shift.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On that right side, I mean your button was the wrong way. That's why you hit those first two.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In November 2010, Thacker had another accident, this time doing a straight jump. This is where your accident happened, right?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just saying, you know, hey, are you okay? Can you, can you feel everything? And he said no.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] After that happened, I didn't want to do it anymore. I'll be honest with you. But, Paul, it was, Paul said to me, he's like, look man, it's not your fault. And, uh, I want you to keep doing it. You're good at it. So, you don't want to quit. He's like, you'll regret it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel. Tuesday, March 19th at 10.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Wake up every morning and tell yourself you're a badass bitch from hell and no one can fuck with you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I cannot even begin to explain to you the vibe that was going through the running community here when that happened in Boston.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We understand the terrorism. We understand what it's like to have been hit. Our runners, immediately.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They were trying to figure out how can we show support? How can we do something with our marathon to reach out and show love to these people?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I just, I took one look at that news coverage and it brought it all back.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I've always been open and honest about who I am and I share openly.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On social media. Sometimes I'm accused of actually oversharing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oversharing. Share because obviously I'm sexually frustrated. 30 years, that's a lot. And counting? 30 years and counting, yes. I believe you said I don't want to die a 30 year old virgin.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, so you are feeding into, you're almost daring people to come at you. You know, it's just my way of being like, hey, just because I'm a virgin doesn't mean I can't be lighthearted about it or, you know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't have to be the picture you painted for me. I don't have to be the...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The, you know, kinda none in the room. Like, I'm funny, you know? Like, I am a human, you know? I...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Virgin doesn't mean I'm like reading library books at night all the time. It's, you know. And then when I've gone on dates with guys and it's like...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You do tell them that. It's like their eyes are like popping out of their head and they're like, check please, you know. I feel like if you can show them your personality.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just give me, give my personality a chance here. Cause that's all I got. It's all, it's all I have at this moment, you know? If they know they're not hooking up with me, it's like, you know, what else does she have to bring to the table?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so hopefully I can show them my personality that, you know, like, okay, well, she doesn't, you know, put out, but she's kind of funny, you know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As last week's tragic shooting in South Africa would suggest, the business of myth-making in sports isn't going very well this year.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Charged with the murder of his girlfriend, Oscar Pistorius is just the latest celebrated athlete to recently show that he was more flawed than fabulous.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Whether it's Manti Teo and his imaginary girlfriend, Lance Armstrong and his half-hearted apologies, the drug evasions of baseball's Ryan Braun, or the endless alibis of basketball's Dwight Howard, stars in a variety of sports in recent weeks have not only shown themselves to be less than perfect, but in many cases, far from decent.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] While it's tempting to believe the problem is simply that we know too much about our sports heroes nowadays, a bigger problem might well be that we demand too little of athletes before we deify them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yes, the toys of modern media make it difficult to hide the flaws of even the best of people.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When you consider who's being promoted and why they're being lionized, you get the feeling the bar is often being set too low to begin with.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As a result, fans who routinely lead with their hearts are being ill-served by those eager to build a pedestal for people they barely know and rarely challenge.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In the end, it may be simpler to see athletes as either heroes or villains. But as the adage holds, there is no saint without a past and no sinner without a future. I forget who first said that, but I'm guessing it wasn't a sports fan. I'm Brian Gumbel.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On the next Real Sports. South Korea has less than 1% of the global population. Yet somehow this tiny mountainous country produces nearly half of the world's top female golfers.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now Real Sports travels halfway around the world to find out why women's golf is the soul of South Korea.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Plus, meet the ever resilient Lilla Jones, an Olympic hopeful who has overcome hurdles both on and off the track. The Emmy Award winning Real Sports with Brian Gumbel. Premiers Tuesday, May 22nd.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A month after the season, the Dodgers signed Kem to a new eight-year, $160 million contract.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He recently moved to this beautiful home in the Hollywood Hills.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He has a personal chef who cooks him breakfast every morning and a personal barber who makes house calls.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Kemp has come to appreciate the city he now calls home. Something he contemplates on his ride to work each day. A 30 minute drive from Hollywood to Dodger Stadium.