Super Bowl LX Radio Row Interviews: Day One

25:28You got the drive. You got the drop. I have the drive. Yeah, the drive for sure. So you got 130. The drop. I'm not talking about the drop, but the dinking. So how is your finesse game? Are you nice with the hands? Yeah. You know what? I'm really decent at a backhand. You know, I can get cross court. It's like my thing. Oh, I like that cross court. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I like cross court. So, I mean, obviously also with your brand prototype 81, you also have pickleball clothes. Yeah, cross court essentials. Yeah. So if you go to prototype81.com, I have some performance wear, which obviously like shorts, your dry fit shirt, your workout attire.

26:04But my elevated brand line is called Cross Court Essentials. It's going to be really fire. I can see. That's like fashion. Pickleball. That's a market. Do you feel like it was missing? Yeah. It's more of your social club vibe. Obviously, your wide leg, comfy with a little fashion to it. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, yeah. All right, so let's talk about football a little bit. Right now, when you're looking at young receivers, who are you excited about that you think gives a little bit of that T.O. vibe? Maybe they're not there yet, but. I don't really see. There are some that have the physical aesthetics, but I don't think on a consistent level they haven't been able to do and replicate what I did.

26:44I've been showing some flashes. So you think of your D.K. Metcalfs, your A.J. Browns. outside of those two, there's really not any big receivers that can obviously play at every level of the game. You got your short game, your middle game, you know, over the middle and then take the top off. I was able to really kind of, I think, perfect and craft a little bit of all of that, you know, playing in the slot, playing outside, being kind of like a Swiss Army knife, being multi-purpose in a sense, you know, I played out of the backfield a little bit, you know what I So to be that type of athlete and then the offensive coordinator, offensive staff, to have the confidence to put you in those situations to excel, that really kind of shows you what type of athlete you really are.

27:31Those guys that I just mentioned, they definitely have the skill set. They just got to be consistent and really just be game changers. There's playmakers and there's game changers. Right now, they're on the cusp of being game changers, But when you're with A.J. Brown, I wouldn't say he's a game changer because if he was, the offensive coordinator would put him in a position to be that. There shouldn't be a play or a series where he shouldn't touch the ball. They have another receiver on the other side of him, Devontae Smith. I think they should utilize him more. But obviously the lack of success that they had this year is due largely because of the offensive coordinator.

28:09And I didn't know that because everybody was like, everybody wants to replicate and duplicate what they did the year prior. The success that they had, they figured that the Eagles would have gone back. I honestly felt like they would have gone back with the crew that they had because they didn't have a lot of injuries really, to be honest. I think they were playing with the same and not better players this year than they did last year. So they should have been a shoe-in to get back to the Super Bowl, but some of the things that plagued them throughout the beginning of the season that A.J. Brown alluded to kind of came back to haunt them in the playoffs.

28:40When we wrap up here, I want to get your take on this. The NFL's been doing a lot to expand globalization, play all these other different places around the world. How do you think about that? Do you think they're doing a great job with it? Would you like to see a team based in another country? Do you think that would be helpful? I don't know how that would work. How far away? The only way I could see that is having a team like in Canada. but to have a team like overseas, that's a lot of travel. So as a player, you wouldn't want that? I don't know. I don't know how feasible that would be. I'm sure they probably want to tinker and experience it, experiment with it.

29:29But, yeah, I don't know how many players would sign off on that. Yeah. T.O., thanks so much for the time. We really appreciate you joining the Bloomberg Business of Sports. Absolutely. Thank you for having me. That was Hall of Famer Terrell Owens. Next up, we will hear from dynamic wide receiver duo for the Cincinnati Bengals, Jamar Chase and Tee Higgins. So, guys, welcome to the Bloomberg Business of Sports. I'm so excited to have you here. I'm joined by Cincinnati Bengals stars, Tee Higgins, Jamar Chase. We're fresh off the Pro Bowl. Tee, you look like you guys were having so much fun out there last night.

30:02How'd it go? I definitely had a great time. You know, it was my first Pro Bowl. You know, I'm blessed to even say I'm a Pro Bowler, you know what I mean? But I had a great time, you know, him and Joe made it easy for me. So, yeah. Yeah, how was it, like, having everyone there together, right? I mean, that's a special thing, right, Jamar? Yeah, I felt like it was the Bengals Pro Bowl, if I'm being honest. We had a lot of weapons over there, so why not? So, I mean, you ran back for a touchdown last night. Are you getting used to this flag football stuff, Jamar? Ready for the Olympics, you think?

30:32I've been hearing this so much lately. I must be the number one pick for everybody on the Olympics team because I've been hearing this every day. If I'm being honest, I wouldn't mind playing. I think that would be pretty cool just because I watched, you know, the USA basketball team growing up my whole life. So just being a part of that as history, I think that would be the coolest thing ever. Right, because it's a new thing, right, for football players to be able to be a part of that and represent Team USA in a different way. I think it would be dope to have the opportunity to win a gold medal.

30:56Yeah, right, for sure. So you guys came out with this new announcement today, really exciting, Chasing No. 1, the talk show. Tell me about it, Jamar, tell me about it. Yeah, yeah, Chasing No One, Chasing No One. It's like a run on, you know what I'm saying? It's just a podcast for me, myself, and Tati to explore and talk about any topic we can and just open ourselves to new things. You know what I'm saying? We're trying to do a lot of stuff off the field and on the field, so off the field we're going to start a podcast called Chasing No One. T, tell me about why you guys want to use your voice in this way to talk about stuff off the field, everything like that.

31:35Yeah, people only see us with our helmets on and don't really, they hear us in the media. And in the media, it's always about football, you know what I'm saying? We want people to pick our brains, not just about football, you know what I'm saying? Give people a different perspective of what we do off the field, what we like to do for fun, and things like that. So it's going to run the gambit of just all things, everything. It's just more than an athlete, you know what I'm saying? You're just doing a lot. So why do this platform? Why with Overtime? Why was this the right move, Jamar? Well, Overtime was, you know, one of the best people that helped us the most.

32:11Also gave the most production for us and most of the viewers. So I think that's the biggest thing to help us reach worldwide, especially as far as all age gaps. And it's just like, why not? I did stuff with Overtime when I was younger, too. So, you know, it was a no-brainer for me. So it was keeping that partnership going, that family you already have. Yes. Yeah. So tell me about who you're trying to reach, what stories you want to say. Because you said people only talk to you about football teams. So what else are you really looking to get out there that you want to talk about that you haven't been able to?

32:40Yeah, like sometimes we're going to do, like, you know, live shows on Twitch, his Twitch, which we're live right now. And, you know, just I might go fishing. I mean, we're talking while we're fishing. You know what I'm saying? Things like that. You know what I'm saying? Things that we are into outside of football. So it's not just locker room talk. It's not just stuff like that. It's on the mic, whatever you guys are talking about. Fashion, cars. In the headset that you're talking about when you're playing, whatever. Yeah. Yeah, awesome. So people can expect. What would you say when you're trying to think of one characteristic that you're trying to get people to understand from this show?

33:15Jamar, what would you want them to walk away with? Well, really, I feel like the biggest thing from podcasts is learning from others' examples. The only way I can relate this is from the podcast show called The Pivot. with Ryan Clark, and I've been on there. So I can understand the deep conversations that we've had and the other topics that we've been on that I never sat there and thought about and had a conversation with another person, especially as an athlete. A lot of times we go through stuff and we don't talk. So I feel like this is another way for us to just talk and express ourselves and let off steam without talking trash or anything.

33:54So when you're sitting there having those conversations, How long are these episodes going to be so we can really get into those sorts of conversations? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not going to be too long, you know what I'm saying? We want to keep everybody interested, you know what I'm saying? You can't drag it too long. But we're going to have some episodes where it might be cut off leading into the next episode. So it might be like series sometimes, you know what I'm saying? So it's definitely going to be interesting. Tell me about the role that media plays in your life, T, as you're trying to get your voice out there more and the way that it plays right now just being an athlete.

34:25Yeah, I mean, if I'm trying to get my voice out there, you know, guys like Overtime, people like Overtime, people like Bloomberg Radio, you know what I mean, just put us out there and, you know, try to get our show to, you know, more viewers and things like that. As for athletes, like, it's just football, you know what I mean, and things like that. And we just want to be different. When you guys started creating the idea for this show, What did other things start, like, turning in your head, like, oh, I really like the idea of being in charge, owning something? I mean, yeah. I mean, we were going to both say yeah on that, but I feel like a lot of things now that we're trying to get into is more off the field for longevity.

35:08You know what I'm saying? We have kids now. We got family we got to worry about. So at what day and age are we going to set ourselves down and teach it to ourselves? and put ourselves through situations instead of hearing it from somebody about how they did a situation. You know what I'm saying? Because everybody has different situations. And I feel like when we sit down and have these topics and have other guests on, we get to learn from them, they get to learn from us, and we get to hear different universal situations. I think that's the biggest thing. So you're excited to not just have these conversations but to learn as well while you're doing it.

35:39Exactly. Yeah, absolutely. So getting a little bit back to football here, now we're looking into next season. For you guys and yourself, Do you have the same routine every offseason, or are there things that you do, T, that you try to elevate every year? For me, I kind of keep it the same. Obviously, you know, I elevated, well, last year I elevated, like, on my, you know, I'm going to say my muscles and, you know, getting better because I have a history of, you know, soft tissue injuries and things like that. So that was my biggest thing was working on that, making sure I stay healthy offseason, which I did, you know what I'm saying, other than concussions.

36:15but for me it's been the same thing that I was doing last year. Mark, what about you? Same thing every year in the offseason or try to add new elements? I would always say I try to add new things. You know what I'm saying? That's the biggest thing.

36:30Just expanding your game in so many ways is hard but easy, and you're only going to know if you're trying it. You know what I'm saying? I think the biggest thing is me every year trying to work on something new or work on more than something than I did last year so I could be better at it when the season comes, that's all. Is there anything you've tried in the offseason that you were surprised about that really helped you elevate? I mean, no, not really. You know what I'm saying? I don't know. I don't know. My production has been good, so it's not like I'm looking at a particular thing on my film where I need to get better at.

37:08You know what I'm saying? It's stuff that I want to get better at, but I can't look at my film and say I'm not doing it the best. You know what I'm saying? Right. So it's just about me remembering sometimes of the mentalness when I'm tired. That's the biggest thing. When you're mentally tired, that's the biggest thing. Yeah, absolutely. So what are you guys thinking about when you have to do to get back here next year? Obviously you guys can do whatever you can. Yeah. But as a team, when you go into the locker room at the start of the season, what are those things that you're going to be thinking about for your goals?

37:38Just really playing, covering football, you know, starting fast. I think that's the main thing. Usually we start a little slow and put ourselves in a, you know, get behind a little bit. I think we start fast and play Compton Mary football. I think we'll be all right. So one of the other things I want to get both of your takes on as we wrap up here is the NFL is doing obviously this incredible job with trying to expand the game globally. And they just announced the game in Paris next year. They're going new places. Yeah. Paris is happening in 2026. I really hope it's us. The Bengals, like, one of the only teams that haven't been overseas to play.

38:13Yo, I really hope that's us. So they did announce the Saints so far. They did? Yeah, we'll see. I don't think we play the Saints this year. Yeah. So hopefully you guys will get a game. Yeah, it's nice. So that's interesting. You guys want to be able to play overseas. I think it would be dope. You know what I mean? Especially for me personally. I don't travel that much, which I need to start. You know what I'm saying? But I think it would be dope. Yeah. If you had to choose somewhere to go, to have a team based out of another country, what would you say? Where would you go? Barcelona. Barcelona?

38:43Spain. Yeah, I was going to say Spain. I was going to say Spain. Guys, thanks so much for joining Bloomberg Business of Sports. I super appreciate it. Thank you. That was Pro Bowlers Jamar Chase and Tee Higgins. There's more Bloomberg Business of Sports coming up after this.

39:04This is Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio. Welcome to the Bloomberg Business of Sports where we discuss the big money in the world of sports. I'm Vanessa Perdomo and we're recording these special episodes on the ground of Super Bowl 60 in San Francisco. Now listen in for a conversation with retired NFL tight end Kyle Rudolph who is working to make you sports more accessible. Kyle, welcome to the Bloomberg Business of Sports. I'm so happy you're here and we're getting to talk to you this year. Likewise. Thanks for having me. You're working with good sports. And tell me about it.

39:36Tell me about why you work with them. Well, I can't think of a better platform to have than Bloomberg Sports of Business because it's wild to think about like youth sports has become a business. We all know college sports has become a business. The term student athlete, like I was in college a long time ago. And even then, there was a business to college football. Now it's just insane. And it's worked its way all the way down to youth sports. So I've worked with Good Sports for about a year and a half now, understood their mission for the very first time at a panel I spoke on in New York City.

40:15And it just really resonated with me as someone who clearly played youth sports my whole life, learned so many lessons through youth sports. Yeah, I was fortunate enough to play 12 years in the NFL, and not every kid that plays youth sports is going to go on and play professionally. But that doesn't mean that they shouldn't play youth sports all the way through. And on this platform, talking about the business of sports, money has become a huge issue for youth sports. These parents are refinancing homes and taking out loans and working multiple jobs because they just have to afford to give their child the equal resources that other kids have to play youth sports.

41:03And, you know, over the history of the organization in good sports, they've donated over$130 million in resources to kids. And it's not just, oh, well, you know, I have an older brother and I've got hand-me-down cleats that are three or four years old. And it's about providing these kids, not just the cleats themselves, but giving them a new pair of cleats. So they can go out there and feel comfortable and be confident to perform to the best of their abilities. And ultimately, it's like one of the staggering statistics that I learned getting involved with good sports is it's like 75 % of parents consider taking their kids out of youth sports because of money.

41:50because it's too expensive just because of money and you know I get it there's the business opportunity across all of you sports but it's such a shame when kids don't get that experience because you learn so much about yourself you learn so much about you know working with people that come from different backgrounds you learn so much about handling adversity I have four kids nine-year-old identical twin girls seven-year-old boy four-year-old boy and it's like I love watching them in youth sports. I love seeing the passion that they have. It sounds crazy to say, like, I love seeing them fail and how they handle that failure and then seeing them succeed.

42:36Yeah. And the journey that started with the failure and then they work really hard and then ultimately overcome. That's such a professional athlete way of thinking. Yeah, because you have to learn from that, right? People just always think like, oh, yeah, you play sports because you're going to be a pro one day. If none of my kids ever play pro sports, who cares? I want them to love sports as much as I did as a kid because if you love something, you're ultimately going to work hard at it. And the work ethic that sports instills in you is what really matters in life, not if you play for 12 years in the NFL.

43:11It's such an interesting thing and an interesting point that you're making that it's become almost a professionalization at a young age. right 100 so how do you fix that how does the system get fixed do you think unfortunately like we've opened this can of worms and it's it'll be really difficult to fix i think it's just it's so incredible to have programs and resources like good sports that youth sports are what they are at this point so are we going to be able to put the cat in the back of the bag No, probably not. But how do we make sure that a child who is deserving of all these opportunities has the means and resources to be able to take advantage of that?

43:55And I think that's what good sports does, you know, as well, if not better than anyone else. Do you think there's an education piece for parents in it? Because I think some people don't know what they really need to be doing, what kind of sports are out there. And I feel like I've talked to some of my friends who are like, oh, I think I'm just going to put my kid in an AAU. not knowing that's a very high level to be at just to start, and it costs a lot of money. So do you think there's an education piece there that you can be in sports and not have to spend that money? Absolutely. There's a huge education piece, too, on, like, what are you trying to get out of sports?

44:30Like, what is actually important for your kids? Again, I see it. I laugh about stories of my kids, you know, being at the rink for hockey, lived in Minnesota for a long time, A lot of NHL guys, their kids are playing, and we're all, like, kind of sitting on the side, chatting up, laughing, and then you have a bunch of dads that are, like, expecting their kids to be in the NHL one day. And it's like, that's not what this is about. Like, this is about the lessons that they learn, you know, teamwork, adversity, hard work. So I wish, you know, I wish there was an education piece because these parents just can't help themselves.

45:10Yeah. Like they want little Tommy or Susie to like be a professional athlete at some point. And it's like, why don't you just let them be a kid? I think there's a statistic that I know it's either one out of 10 or one out of 11 parents think their child under the age of 10 will become professional athletes. So much changes from, it's under 10, which is crazy. Like so much changes from 10 to 14, 14 to 18, physically, mentally, emotionally. And we all knew that kid that was the best player on our team or in our league or in our city when we were 10 or 12 or 14. And they may or may not made it to play pro sports.

45:54A lot has to go right. We were very lucky to get to that top 1 % of the 1 % to be able to play pro sports. The other interesting thing that is a problem right now in youth sports that people say is kind of plaguing the system is specialization at a young age. What do you think about that? Yeah, I mean, I grew up as a kid who played three sports. Would have played more if we had, but I grew up, you know, we didn't have lacrosse where I grew up. Like, it was baseball in the spring, and then you have track in the spring. And, you know, there's just so many opportunities now to play all these different.

46:29We encourage our kids to play everything. If you love it, you're going to work harder at it. You're going to fight through the tough times, the adversity. but we're not just going to play baseball. We live in Florida. You're not just going to play baseball all year round. You're not going to just play hockey all year round, basketball all year round. Football now, it's changed. Back in the day, it was 10 weeks in the fall, but now there's seven on seven leagues and all these different things. So I think it's incredibly important to play as many sports as you can. It's good physically. Develop a wide range of skills, but also you're not overusing the same thing that if you just skate 12 months out of the year, play baseball all the time, and you're constantly throwing the ball, your body at that age is not meant to do one thing all the time.

47:20And that's why I think we're seeing a lot more injuries in youth sports too. Yeah, absolutely. One of the things that's blowing up in youth sports in a positive light, flag football. Yeah. Tell me about that and about how that also able to introduce it to women as well and girls in football. Yeah, I think it's awesome. I think what Flag does is it ultimately broadens the reach of the game of football. You mentioned it, young girls. It's awesome seeing young girls go out there and either play against boys, kick the boys' butts, compete with the boys, but have the opportunity to understand a game that was, for the longest time, predominantly male, understood by men.

48:06men grow up in the game so men are the ones becoming coaches uh front office scouts um you know you look at what jim ursay's daughter's doing in indy you know takes over the team and it's like she's invested she understands it she's in meetings um and it's so cool to see that as someone who has two daughters uh they they play flag football at school like i remember they come home and like they're telling me about it my daughters are talking about football and it's Certainly something that I never would have expected 10, 15 years ago. Right. Now we're talking about the growing reach of football.

48:42I'd love to get your take on this. NFL has done a lot of jobs about growing the reach globally. Yeah. Tell me what you think about that, about playing in different countries and how that's been able to grow the game in a different way as well. I think it's cool. You're also talking to someone who played twice in London, once in Germany and was 3-0 abroad. So I never had to fly home after losing. which may change my perception on international games, but in terms of the league and reach and growth and fandom, it's like we have such a great game, and now they're educating others. I remember in 2013, I went to the U.K.

49:20for an NFL roadshow where we were literally going from city to city, Dublin, Manchester, Leeds, London, just talking about football. We ever heard of the sport? When the ball gets kicked, it's usually not good. Like, that's a punt or a kick. That's a change of possession. Because for them, like, they just cheered when the ball gets kicked. That's what they're used to. Yeah, yeah. And so it's been really cool to see ultimately, like, again, we're here to talk about the business of sports. How much room, you know, unless another Taylor Swift phenomenon is going to hit the NFL and bring new viewers in America to the NFL, So, like, the NFL market is tapped.

50:03It's pretty big enough here, yeah. Global. Right. So I think there's nine international games next year, going to Australia, going to Paris, multiples, you know, New Stop. I think they're in Brazil again. Like, just really, really cool places. Yeah. I loved all my trips abroad. I thought they were a ton of fun. So you as someone who's played in multiple and played in three and in different countries, do you think there's a feasibility that a team could be based overseas? Logistically, that's the hard one. I know there's been a ton of talk about a team in London. And, you know, can you do it with like, is there kind of a home base here where maybe they come over here for four weeks and they're not flying back and forth?

50:54If the NFL can figure it out logistically, I wouldn't put it past them. But, you know, I think the path is probably going to be more so do we add another game to the regular season? So now we're playing 18 games. Every team will play internationally at least once a year. So you're still bringing 17, 18 games internationally, but it's not just one team whose home base is there. Kyle, thanks so much for joining Bloomberg Business Sports. It was great to talk to you. Thanks for having me. That was retired NFL player Kyle Rudolph. And that does it for the first day here on Radio Row at Super Bowl 60.

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