"Mike Tirico"

So guys, welcome, it's time for another session of Smart List Cold Open.

Welcome to Smart List.

J.B.

It's disgusting, you know what? He's up at the gorge. These are, these are frames....

No, you don't. I said. you look kind of crunchy. I didn't say you look like a douchebag. I said you look like you grew up in Oregon. I'm not saying....

Wait, let me ask you this, what's a part that you would never get asked to play or would want to ask to play? oh?

Probably this guy.

Oh, for real.

Well, yeah, I mean, the part I'm playing, I mean, that's why I grew out. This dumbass beard and long hair is because I'm playing a guy. That is, you know, he's got a drug history and he makes a lot of bad decisions.

Well, we'll let the audience do the math on that one.

I was going to do the math for you, but.

Oh, you guys, wait, so what's going on? Have you guys had a dumb dumb busy day like me? I mean, today, it's just like it kept coming.

No, I had a super slow day today.

I did, I had a bunch of....

I went to the eye doctor, Oh, check this out, look at this. I went to the eye doctor today.

Which one was sick?

Can you see?

Oh yeah, it's still a little...

One's dilated. Yeah, two are dilated. So did Scotty have to drive you today? No, I actually drove myself.

I was like, I'm fine, I'm fine, and I pulled out into traffic. I was like, Oh, I don't think I'm fine.

J.B. I thought about you when I got dressed for this because I've been doing a bunch of stuff and I worked out. I did two different kinds of workouts today, but I'm in transition, I'm transitioning between different parts of my day.

Oh, here we go.

Because you're going to hate it so much.

You've already got on the baggy knee-neck, which is nice. He's got the crocs on, he's got white crocs on, guys with the heel strap, wow, that is....

And then camo shorts.

And camo shorts.

And then golf socks.

So you've got an indoor outfit on today like me, or have you been outside? I remember one time, did anybody see that today?

I went outside, nobody saw this, nobody saw this. But I remember one of my favorites was seeing you, you and I were hanging with Krasinski.

No, I don't think I said that, because that's the line we've always heard. I think I just said confident.

Oh, that was the other one, you said confident, huh? No, you didn't say confident, you just went confident.

Which is just so shitty.

It's so good, it's dumb.

But wait, how did?

Well, you know what? Thanks for the plug. My friends at Dicks.com sent me a bunch of stuff. Yeah, they sent me a bunch of stuff. They blessed their hearts.

Did you not get compensated for the commercial?

I did. You're looking at them?

They're called crocs God, those are expensive crocs.

They sent me crocs for the kids and me, so we all got them, and I've never really worn crocs, and I'm going to be honest.

They're pretty great.

They're really comfortable.

They're super comfortable, really quick. I have a crocs story, okay? So I was doing promises, promises, and afterwards I met.

Yeah, he said. How about you sign this for your croc of shit performance? Is that what he said?

No.

Didn't you tell me one time, in a really low moment of your life, you wore crocs to a meet and beat?

Wait, what's a meet and beat?

Oh sure, oh boy, listeners, can you just call Sean real quick for us?

Oh, a meet and beat. Okay, I do the math.

Okay, guys, do you like football? Hey, I do, Willie.

Yeah, sure, man.

Do you like golf? Yeah, do you like horse racing? yeah, do you like car racing?

Yeah.

Our guest today is a guy that's been holding your hand for about 35 years through some of the most exciting live television and personal excellence ever. He is as casual and comforting as he is knowledgeable and anxiety-inducing. He's your favorite house guest, but he's got no idea where you live, guys. He knows all the things about sports, but is not an athlete. He is as familiar as a family member, but you don't know a thing about him until now.

Oh wow, a big reveal there I am.

I mean, is that an intro?

God, I was trying to write that down, I want to repeat that.

That's awesome, man.

Thank you. How about through Jason's busy day? he wrote that intro.

Yeah, welcome Mike. thank you guys. it is very good to have you here.

I am a listener and it's an honor to be on, although I'm nervous as hell, to be honest.

Please, you don't have time to listen to dumb-ass podcasts.

Maybe you didn't catch the part where I'm wearing crocs, Mike, I did.

I did now. When do you squeak in the time to listen to anything like on planes, I'll bet?

Yeah, on planes, on a walk, I'm like a 1.75 podcast listener. I need to get them over quick, you know? So I try to squeeze them in. So you might go like a horse racing or auto racing around the events.

Well, listen, there's a little something for everybody on this dumb show. Yes, you, however, are right up my alley, mister.

Let's start from the beginning.

Let's start from the very beginning. Can we? So? Your dad's driving your mom to the hospital, right? she's in?

No, no, no, you were right. So in my family, we have two kids. My wife played basketball in Syracuse.

And you went to Syracuse, that's where you guys met.

Yeah, that's where we met, so we have a dog, There are five of us in the house. I'm the fifth athlete in the house, I play golf.

So I've got to figure that out now. How bad a golfer are you? let me guess?

I'm a 15.

I was going to put you at a 10.

Yeah, I was Covid, I was 10.2, I was feeling pretty good about life and I said, Here we go.

So wait, you got your index down to a 10, too.

I did during Covid, I was playing every day and I kind of knew what I was doing.

It was socially distant. Yeah, that's what got me back into golf.

That's when we started playing again was during Covid, we hadn't played for years. J.B. and I, Yeah, we started playing.

Because I have addiction issues.

Well, he does, and it was crazy. And then his wife is really mad at golf. And I said, you know, the fix to it is don't go mental, right, just do it, like, don't do it every day.

Yeah, I'm obsessive, but now, now that I'm working, I put them down for nine months. I won't even touch my clubs.

So when you go back, will you be good?

I will be terrible and I will stay out of the money games because I'll still be stuck with my old index.

But here's what's so weird. So this is, it's funny that. JB, So I said to JB Sunday we all saw each other for dinner. He'd been in New York for a couple months and I said, Why don't you? No, yeah, Sunday.

It's a trigger situation.

Well, it's just about moderation, my friend.

Yeah, I'm just I'm not good at five, I need every a ten or a zero, that's my problem.

Wouldn't you find it as a release? Just get away for a little bit, stop your mind, that's what I think.

Here we go.

Yeah, it's true, but then that means I've got to be kind of indifferent as to how I'm playing. And I got to care. You know, I mean, you know what I'm talking about? You don't call, see the way I'm going to bring it right back to you.

You're right, you nailed it. I'm paranoid that one day I'm going to wake up and we'll have Katie Ledecky riding one of the horses in the Kentucky Derby. Exactly, circuits have crossed.

No, no, no, stop, right?

We have unbelievable research teams. The story of the Olympics on TV in America, it has. The research department for the Olympics has been kind of the training ground for a lot of executives in TV over 30, 40 years. So a bunch of the people who were Olympic researchers in the 70s and 80s and 90s now run sports divisions at CBS and at NBC.

Really.

They're super smart people and they give you more than you can read. You've just got to figure out how to shorten the stack and how to keep it organized. Right. Because I'm not going to learn the rules for 30 sports and all the names of the 10,000 athletes for the summer Olympics.

That's my job, somebody's helping me out.

Who deserves the accolades for that? Was it Rune Arledge back in the day?

Yeah, going back to when ABC had the Olympics and remember Wide world of Sports when it started.

Jim McKay.

Yes, it was the ski jumper falling off the side of the hill.

The best, I mean, not for him, but the best for us.

The guy's name is Venko Bogutai, that was his name.

I sat at the top of that ski jump in Austria once. Yeah, you know, there's a big graveyard at the bottom of it. That's all you can see from the top of that ski jump is just this massive graveyard. Anyway, go ahead.

Explains why he took the exit ramp to the left.

Yeah, exactly, he got subtracted.

Yeah, but it was the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat, but it was up close and personal. That was their tagline for the profiles. And one of the great executives in the history of television, not just sports television. Dick Ebersol because he was involved with Lorne Michaels, with Saturday Night Live and all that stuff Dick really brought. He was working with Rune at ABC as a researcher in the 70s.

It's my favorite part of the Olympics because these are people that are not making money in sports yet they have to be an amateur to be –.

Well, that's kind of changed a little bit.

Yeah, it's some sports, but for the most part, it is. You are tuning in to see these very sort of the people that you live next door to. That are having these two minutes, this opportunity for personal excellence that they have been training for for 10, 15 years. And are they going to be overwhelmed by the moment, by the media, by the stress, or are they going to soar to new heights because they're charged up? Yeah, the pressure's incredible and I just met them with this five-minute piece that started way back then, and I think was Runaud's idea, right?

Because now you're invested, yeah.

You guys are storytellers in your own way, so you get it, here's the difference. Now you don't have five minutes, people aren't going to sit around for your story in five minutes. Our adjustment has become make it bite-sized, make you care about somebody, and then show me their event. Or even the night before. Hey, here is this athlete's story. And tomorrow night they go for gold.

Right?

Well, you had Sean at bite-size, by the way.

I'm in, I just showed up.

You started it even at the opening ceremonies, you guys started it by sort of just dropping little breadcrumbs on certain guys.

No, it's really cool.

So, Mike, let's go back a little bit because obviously you're at the top of the game. As Jason pointed out, Sunday night, football is the number one show on TV, right? Yes, and you've been doing this at the top. What is that moment?

A little bit.

You just drove down the street to Bristol and, just like, circled the building a couple of times, right? throwing headshots out the window.

No, seriously. When I was a little kid, you asked my mom, This is what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a sportscaster from being a little kid, really. I am 55 years later, living my dream still.

That's so great.

Where was that?

Queens, Queens, New York. When I grew up, I was listening to Marv Albert broadcast in the Rangers and work at NBC.

Garbage time.

Extensive garbage time. Marv did everything right, he did boxing, football, the local news, the Rangers, the Knicks, and so I always thought, You know what?

Do everything.

Just figure out a way to become proficient at every sport that you can be invited to do. And Jim McKay, who somebody mentioned before, Jim McKay, was the same thing, and those two guys were the models for me to. Hey, go figure it out. Went to college in Syracuse, interned at a TV station. They went through three weekend sportscasters in seven weeks.

Let me ask you, hang on, Sorry, I'm just kidding, you gloss over ESPN.

And they saw you on the local station there in Syracuse, I'm assuming.

There was somebody who actually is still a friend and we work at a different capacity now. Who saw me doing local TV and was an executive at ESPN. And they told me, send a tape in a year, I sent a tape in 10 months. Got hired a few months later and did Sportscenter. I was there in the salad days, yeah, Sportscenter.

I love it. You guys were like the beatles of sportscasters, that was like the first, like that generation you guys were. Because nobody was doing it, nobody had done it the way you guys were doing it before. And you set that tone, and everybody after that was trying to replicate that, really.

Yeah.

And we will be right back.

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I love the station. But I never knew what ESPN stood for, and I've figured it out a few times, and I've still forgotten it. What does ESPN stand for?

It did stand for the entertainment and sports programming network, because, you know the story at the start, in September of 1979. A little bit before that, they went up on a satellite and had a satellite. And the original idea was they're going to broadcast Connecticut sports around the state. And they're like, wait a minute.

Chris.

Chris Berman, you know, Chris, with the nicknames and the shtick and the whole deal, the back back back. Chris made it cool, and a lot of people tried to emulate Chris or be like Chris. But I think the ones who succeeded, like Rich Eisen, Craig Kilbourn, Stuart Scott. Guys who came on after the main group I talked about, they found their own shtick.

Dan Patrick, too.

Dan Patrick right.

What was your favorite Chris Berman nickname? Because I know mine that I have.

Bert Behome, Bly Levin.

That's funny, that's so good. Mine was Eric sleeping with Byanime?

That's exactly so. Here's a stupid story. So Syracuse is big for sportscasters, and a lot of kids who want to be sportscasters go there. And 30-something years later, it's almost 40 years later now.

They're listening right now, and they are filled with shame.

They hired you and they still didn't give you credit.

A meeting was just convened in one of the conference rooms, everybody in.

Mike, I have a question, have you ever when you are calling a game and you do it all the time, week after week, after week after week? What do you do? When you're just like, Yeah, I'm really not in the fucking mood to do this thing. You must have days when you're like, How am I going to get it up for this?

What's your pill of choice, Mike?

You know, what one? Well, it's a couple of things. Fortunately, you're at games almost all the time. Yeah, and it's 50,000, 60,000 people.

So you just tap into that and like.

A little bit of that, but also the crowd.

It's exciting.

Those people are spending money.

And the millions of people watching, too.

Yeah, exactly. But even like you, where do you look for just the raw energy for you if your energy is a little bit low?

Yeah, look at these people.

They tailgate it, they park, they've been there for eight hours, and now they're screaming at the top of their lungs. They painted their faces.

They're wearing their jersey. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Like, that gets you going, how does it not? So when it's a bad day or it's not the best day, that usually picks me up.

You know, Mike, you say they painted their faces. It always seemed to me like a really funny tableau. Would be like, one of those guys, one of those crazy Raiders fans. He's got the silver and he's got the horns, and he's wearing the shoulder pads with the spikes and stuff. And just like, half a mile from the stadium, exchanging insurance information with somebody else.

I was also thinking about Mike, like, when you were saying that we've all performed and stuff. I used to watch football. I have three older brothers, they all played football. I was surrounded by sports, you know, growing up, and I played sports too.

No, we don't, let's hear it.

What happened?

And then I didn't like sports.

I do.

And I'm going to say that this amateur psychological analysis of this, I think it's the generation that's grown up in front of cameras.

Yeah, I agree.

They know where the camera is, how to play to it, they know I score a touchdown. This is my marketing moment. You know, you got guys who have their TD celebrations all rehearsed. They know it's on me right now and point to the name on the back of their jersey.

Yeah, Terrell Owens started it with the sharpie in his shoes. Yes, exactly.

But even the broadcasts have specific cameras set up and screens set up in the end zone for them all to gather and do basically their selfie.

So that was a Covid thing, that was a Covid thing, because there were no fans, so there was like a fan cam. So you could watch the game on a Zoom and you sit there and you're watching the game. And hey, in the third quarter, your face will be in the end zone.

But the drama seems to always just be a little bit more than usual.

Talking about performance, you talk about soccer, right? Will? I mean? The flopping is just like it keeps me away from watching it a lot.

No, yeah, but it does look. It is bad and certain leagues are worse than others, La Liga is the worst.

Guys don't get will started.

No, it's true, some of these guys. I watched that Champions League final the other day, the Borussia Dortmund Real and there was a Vinnie Jr. who's a tremendous football player. He didn't even get touched.

My two favorites are the triple barrel roll, when the guy goes down, he rolls and he rolls, and he rolls again.

Gains speed.

Yes.

And then when they bring out these million, million pound players in terms of their financial remuneration, and they're kind of carrying them on. This rickety little thing with two wood sticks and a piece of canvas, they carry them over to the sideline and all of a sudden they realize their team has the ball, they're right back in the game.

Well, the other one Mike I like is the guy. He gets sort of tapped in his thigh. And he grabs his face and you're like, Wait a second, why are you grabbing your face? But I will say, you know, so thank you for bringing up football, soccer, if you will, because that is one of those sports that for me, I was able to get into it. I'm really a new super fan to it in the last 10 years.

Yeah, I mean, will always used to say that to me. I was like, how can you watch it? He's like, Sean, watch the story.

Like the Formula One show on Netflix that got a bunch of folks into Formula One.

Yeah, so I started watching like, Sunderland till I die, I was already into it at that point, but Sunderland till I die, all those other things.

It's like reality shows, it's like any time a reality competition show, you get to know the people.

It's the human story, you can relate to it at that point, you can relate to it on a human level.

So the thing with soccer, football, soccer, whatever we're in America soccer, the thing with that is it starts. It's rooted in tribalism. It's those small towns like a Sunderland, which you mentioned in England, the city. Like, you end up going to the grounds and a lot of kids walk there and it becomes part of you. Now. It's kind of grown from a very tribal and local thing to regional, national and global, which has just allowed the expansion of all this to happen.

Mike You know, so a couple of weeks ago I went over to go to see Jurgen Klopp's second to last home game.

Jurgen Trouble.

And I'm a huge fan of his.

Is that a Chris Berman nickname?

Yeah, Jurgen trouble.

Sean just does it on the first name stuff.

I had the great fortune of being able to spend a little bit of time with him the past year. Yeah, yeah. And so I got to go over to Anfield and you walk into that stadium and you listen, first of all. And I went to Chelsea as well. My friend joked that I went to watch Tottenham lose twice in a week.

Well, there's something will, there's something about sports, like most of us never meet the athletes who we wear their jerseys. You know, the old hockey line, you go to a hockey game, especially where I live in Michigan. And you got a bunch of people walking around with other guys last names on their back, right?

Right, right.

But it's the one place. Not only is it acceptable, it's encouraged, and it shows that you're a real fan, right?

And it brings people together that don't know each other.

Well, that's it.

That's the last thing we have, right?

I think so, too. My stump speech about sports and the value of sports is, let's go to New Orleans for a Saints game and let me take one section of the Superdome. And I'm going to get black and white, I'm going to get male and female.

Mike, Has anybody ever said this to you? Because this is my own personal experience is that, no matter what's going on in my life, we all have ups and downs. As you said, we have moments in the family. Whatever. And the one thing that I can do to kind of self-regulate is I come home and if I can turn on sports, I kind of go, everything's okay.

Yeah, me too.

Right, do you do that?

It settles me.

Yeah, both of you. Check out when sports are on.

And I love nothing more than primetime sports when you put on a game that's on at night.

It's like watching this old house on PBS on a Sunday afternoon.

Oh, Sean, you know, we're having a good conversation here.

I'm an HGTV guy, Sean, if you want to know the truth.

No, Sean, you turn me on to that show. No, I like this old house.

Wait, Mike, where are you from?

I'm from Queens, from New York, grew up as a New Yorker, you know, lived in the Northeast most of my life.

Does that make you a Mets fan?

I wasn't, I'm Mets and a Jets fan.

Yeah, of course.

What did we say was you had to be agnostic as you went into your profession?

Well, the Mets thing was, I just wanted to see them win the World Series once in my life and they did, and I kind of outgrew it. It's like an allergy.

Right, my guide kid goes there.

Oh, really.

Yeah, Sammy.

The Orange Men, right?

Awesome, we're the orange. we used to be the orange men and women, now we're just the orange.

Now just the orange, all right, I get it.

It can be a color, a fruit or a spirit you take your pick.

My godson lives in America.

You strike me as a fella that would have great chemistry with anyone because you're such a kind guy. But I'll bet Chris Collinsworth doesn't make it difficult. He seems like just about the best guy in the world. I've talked to him a couple of times, but not longer than when I'm talking with you, but still, he seems just incredible.

A thousand percent. I'll give you just a quick anecdote. You do this so you kind of know people, but you're not around them. Then I start working at NBC and I get to be around Chris a little bit more and I get to know him. Chris and Al Michaels were a terrific team doing Sunday night football for a long time.

Al is a buddy of Will, and I's we love Al to death.

Yeah, he's great on the Mount Rushmore, one of the best, if not the best in every sport, to ever do it. So I get to start working with Chris, and Chris made it so easy for me.

Yeah, that's what it feels like.

That makes it easy on Sunday night at 9 o'clock. You're not listening to two people trying to compete, we're trying to be our parts in the symphony.

Yeah, no, you guys nail it. Because that's exactly the feeling that I get when I sit down to watch the game with you guys. Is that it just feels like you're right there in the cozy, on the couch, right there with us.

But, you know, the reason it happens like that is.

Is because Jason's on a gummy.

Oh, no, sorry.

Everything just feels so smooth, it feels like I'm right there, It feels as far as I can hear you in my head.

Wait, Mike, where do you mostly work out? where do you live now? and then where do you work out? Where does he work out?

Come on, Sean.

Come on, Sean man, where do you work from, mostly?

I work most of the week in my house, I live in Michigan. And then we travel to the Games, usually for Sunday night football. We'll travel on Friday for the Olympics. We'll get there a week before the opening ceremony.

And you're not sick of traveling back and forth like you, like where you live.

It's a lot, it's a lot, but I've come to love America. I love the fact that I can drop. I can be dropped in like 40 cities in America, and I don't need a map. I know where the restaurants are.

That is cool, that is cool.

It is really cool, I really do feel like I've seen and know our country. Because, you know, you spend three days in Minneapolis, you spend three days in Chicago, three days in New England.

That's cool.

I love it, I really do.

Now was there an obstacle? Everybody's got a nice obstacle at the very start that they kind of decide they're either going to push through or they're going to hit, fuck it and try something else. Was there something that almost derailed the great Mike Tirico?

I always wanted to call games what I'm doing now, right? And my bosses told me, You know, you're a studio guy, we need you in the studio. So I volunteered to do games on my day off on Saturday and work a six day during the basketball season. To get a chance in 94 to start doing games, and that's what I always wanted to do.

Oh my god.

We'll be right back.

All right back to the show.

Can I just say something about the Tiger Eric so that we can?

And Mike calling the British Open.

And Mike, you called it?

Yeah.

I had a bunch of them. I think I've done like 60, 65 or 66 majors, and Tiger's played in most of them. And he's just so covered. A call, I should say, And Mike, the energy around Tiger is different from any other athlete, even Jordan.

Sure.

But when Tiger was 100 yards away, you could just feel it, you could just see the pack of people following him. Watching people try to go hole by hole, shot by shot to see Tiger was hysterical. People tripping over each other and trying to run ahead. It was a phenomenon that lasted for a full couple of decades. It was one of the most fascinating things we've ever seen.

You know, Sean, you have to.

I don't understand the eye brain body coordination to get it right so many times.

Yeah, I mean, he was just incredibly gifted. But what has been almost totally forgotten is how rare it was for a Black athlete to be doing this in what was traditionally a white world.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It was just.

Charlie Sifford, Lee Elder.

Yeah, exactly.

Those were a couple of Black golfers that were on the stage.

But in hundreds of years, like one of the oldest sports ever games ever, there were just a handful that you could look to.

But then to come and dominate the way he did.

And just dominate. It was like Michael Jordan.

And the thing about his dominance that was so cool to me was when he got the lead, he always closed.

He always all but twice.

He always closed the deal going into the final round and guys spit up the lead. Every other week, usually on tour, if not more than that, and every week. So he had the impact that Jack Nicklaus had.

And the ratings, too. If those guys make the cut, I'm sure your weekend ratings, it's a huge difference.

So a lot of people talk about Caitlin Clark and what she's done with women's basketball. And the ratings are the likes of which we've never seen before. She's had an impact on that sport like Michael did in the N.B.A. and Tiger did. Just in terms of this, they blew the roof and the ceiling off of where the ratings were. And that'll be the mark that's going to be so hard to get for years to come.

Yeah, but meanwhile, which I'm sure that they'd all be very proud of. They have exposed a ton of people that wouldn't otherwise have been exposed to the game. And once they're gone, those people are now already into the game and they're going to watch the next athletes that come through. So they're broadening the appeal of the sport. I mean, what Jordan did for basketball globally, right? Him and David Stern working hand in hand is just astounding.

Legacy doesn't happen when you try to make it happen, legacy happens when what you do naturally just brings people from all corners. Because there's something unique and captivating about you. And that's what happened with Jordan, and that's what happened with Tiger. You mentioned just Tiger being black. And in a sport that had been so dominated by white players and country clubs and membership and all that stuff, which I think Tiger's presence helped change over time.

To the point where we don't even think about that anymore, it's like a forgotten fact.

Well, I don't think it still exists.

No, but I mean, it's become.

I thought Tiger was going to change the sport that way and you'd see a lot more minorities playing and becoming the best players. What he did instead, his athletic legacy in the sport beyond his records. He made golf cool, and now guys who are 6'1, 6'2, 6'3 started playing golf. And you look at the major changes, guys like Brooks Koepka, Tony Finau, et cetera.

Yeah, yeah, that's a great point, that's a great point.

Well, it definitely attracted a big guy like me, you know?

Yeah, otherwise Will would have never gone there.

Well, my nickname is Big Boy.

This is a standard Sean question for Mike Tirico, what's like? You know, the worst or most memorable or most embarrassing moment happened to you live? That you called or you said something that you regret, like, not regret. But like that or that just cracked everybody up and you were like, why didn't I just say that?

Sean, you got some wood there, I'm gonna knock on it, man. I have gotten through 36 years of doing this without really having a major all-time YouTube screw-up.

I'll find one.

Here come the Olympics. Mike, you got yourself all teed up.

And I'm gonna blame Sean, it's all on Sean. There was one time I was doing a TV show, a sportscast in Syracuse. I have a nut allergy and I was about to get sick and I got away from the camera before that happened.

So nothing's happened in front of a camera, you just blew it out, you blew it out.

If you want the details, Sean, thank you.

Now, are you as excited for the Olympics as I am? I'll bet you are much more, because you know much more about it than I do. But just the little that I've read about it, it sounds like Paris is gonna do something with this that we've never seen before. Like, I think the whole what? The opening ceremony takes place on the Seine on the River. The events are taking place at all of the incredible monuments there, like volleyballs underneath the Eiffel Tower. And surfing is in Tahiti, you know, because it's a French, you know?

Along with French Polynesia man.

Yeah, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. They're gonna do the surfing in in Tahiti, in Tahiti.

Because it's a French.

No, I get that. I understand that I have a full, but I'm surprised. Why wouldn't they just do it, like down in Biarritz?

Well, because it's not as sexy man who's ever heard of any of these places.

That's right.

That's exactly right.

This is why you're not running. Things will.

Well, no, but I might go to Paris.

We beg.

But I mean, it's gotta be.

It's gonna be.

What do you mean? No fans Covid? Oh, because people didn't, I see.

Because of Covid, there were no fans and you guys were mentioning this, somebody mentioned it before. You work your whole life to make the Olympics, it's four years of training for a minute, two minutes, whatever it ends up being for some of the athletes.

So is this the first time? It's going to be back in full force with just everything and you know, the way it's televised and the fans and everything.

Correct This will be the first time that fans are in the stands at the Olympics since February of 2018. So, six years and about five months or six months.

Wow, that's pretty cool.

I like the way you put that, Mike. I think you're right. The Olympics need this, they need Paris to work, they need it to be good.

It will be, I think it will be.

It probably will. Where are the next Winter Olympics?

Well, the next winter Olympics are Milan and Cortina, Italy, right in 2026..

And then L.

And that's why, to what? Will was just saying, that's why I think this is a big Games for the Olympic movement. And it's in a great place in Paris, because, as you mentioned the backgrounds, you know, Paris is just such an aspirational city. But L.A. 2028? We haven't had a Summer Olympics here since Atlanta back in the late 90s.

Right?

So now, you know, 30-year-old.

Well, you're speaking my language. Yeah, I don't remember that kidding.

You look terrible, though, Sean, for 25.

Sean told me once he went to Paris, he went to Lamy-Louis, you know, for dinner, and he had an Olympic movement. After that, he said, Oh, yeah.

Because he had the steak and the chicken. Yeah, all the rams came out, all the rams.

It was the duck.

It was the duck, it was the fries they cook in goose fat, which, by the way, Lamy-Louis, nobody does it better. It's a very American restaurant, but it's still great, it's still great.

Don't give me your number, Mike, don't give me your number, let's retake it.

No, I'm going to come and I'll share duties with you at the desk, here we go.

You want to host? Go ahead? Well, you know, who's with me?

Who's that?

Snoop.

No way.

Really.

Oh no, no, Snoop is. It's not just like Snoop's going to show up for one. Snoop is part of our coverage. And he is all in on this man.

I love Snoop, he is such a great dude. Where did that come from? He just performed at Jimmy Buffett's Memorial, you know, that concert we did. He's such an unbelievably great guy.

But where did that come from? Mike? Was that your idea?

No, no, I wish it was. So we'll go back a few years ago to the last summer Games and we're trying to. We have Peacock as part of the NBC family, it's our streaming service, so we're trying to figure out what shows can we do Olympic-related on Peacock.

Yes, thank God, it's going to be great.

So at night, you're going to be shown everything that happens. So we're going to try to do a little bit of the storytelling, a little bit of the behind-the-scenes. Give you a little bit of flavor of Paris, and who better to snoop around Paris than snoop?

So we're in.

Let's go.

Very, very good.

That's really cool. Is the family going to go with you?

My family's going to come. They've been denied the last two Olympics, which is kind of a bummer. It's the fourth time that I'm the primetime host and they haven't been able to come to any of them. So they're going to come over for a week or so and get to it. I won't see them, but they'll have a great time.

Are your kids loving what you do? Are they interested?

It's a great question be together at our lake house in Michigan now because we're away so much with my travel. We have kids who have graduated college, just finished wrapping up their college careers.

That's nice.

You're not old enough for college grads.

Yeah, we're old people now.

How did you get to Michigan?

It's where my wife is from.

Okay, gotcha.

Yeah, she was an all-state softball and basketball player in Michigan. And we moved back near her family back in the late 90s and been here for a long time. It's funny because she asked me a few years ago, Do you consider yourself a Northeasterner being born in a Northeastern school? I'm like, Nah, I'm a Midwest guy, I love living, especially doing what I do.

Yeah, I get that.

I get that that makes sense, I bet it's a nice way of living, it is.

When you do the Olympics, you end up doing a lot of interviews too, as well as calling events. Do you have a preference or do you like them both equally?

So in the Olympics, I don't call events I'm hosting, so I just do the daytime and then the primetime hosting. And I love when athletes win medals and they come to sit on the couch with their medals on. Because that's the moment they dream of, right? Not necessarily sitting with me, but just being there and being interviewed.

You've got the little fireplace going.

Yeah, the winter fireplace, the summer this year will be the Eiffel Tower in the background. And they've just got this heavy medal around their neck and they're just sitting there and I've loved that. Every time I see an Olympic athlete and get a chance to talk to them or interview them, I always end it with like, Hey, I hope I get to interview you with a medal around your neck, right? No matter what color medal it is.

It's going to be in seine.

No, it will.

Come on you guys, this is in seine it is.

It's going to be in seine.

That's our little teaser bite right there.

It's going to be in seine.

For most of the athletes, that's their Olympic moment, right? Because they don't get on the podium and sing their anthem. Only about 350, or a little bit less than that, win gold medals. So their moment is being in the opening ceremony with all the best athletes in the world who made it there. I get a little melancholy and a little sappy about it, but it's so dang cool.

If you could have anybody on that couch, it doesn't need to be an Olympic couch. But talking to any athlete, alive or dead that you haven't interviewed, do you ever think about one that you'd love to sit across from and ask some questions to?

That I haven't interviewed.

Yeah, or maybe one you'd like to interview again that you forgot to ask certain questions to.

No, that's a really good question I'd like to talk to Babe Ruth.

Yeah, yeah.

I'd like to talk to Babe Ruth because, like you know, here, 100 years ago, you had no idea people would still be talking about you. There'd be a candy bar named after you.

Or that no one else would be a pitcher and a hitter until Shohei Ohtani Ohtani, right?