Why FOX Sports’ Greg Olsen Wants to Shake Up Youth Sports

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0:42Welcome back to The Deal. I'm Jason Kelly alongside Alex Rodriguez. All right, Alex, this is the time of year where, you know, I always love talking to you, but I love talking to you about baseball this time of year because it feels like the storylines get more and more serious. We talked a little last week about sort of who's hot, who's not, you know, who may emerge as we get closer and closer to October. But over the weekend, there were some interesting comments from Commissioner Rob Manfred about the idea of expansion in Major League Baseball and with expansion, potentially realignment. And as is often the case, I see these headlines and I think, all right, note to self, ask Alex about this on the podcast because you're the expert on this.

1:26And you see it from lots of different perspectives, both as a former player, but also now as a team owner, albeit in a different league. So when you hear about expansion, what are your first thoughts, regardless of your role? Like, is expansion a good idea from a business perspective in your view? Yes, I think expansion is a great idea. I think it's really important to see where the two teams would land. I mean, to go from 30 to 32 teams to mirror the NFL, I think it's really smart. Jason, Atlanta has a little bit of a monopoly in the South. Yeah. That's your neck of the woods. You know, people in the South are just madly in love with baseball.

2:06Some of the best minor league teams and businesses are in the South, whether South Carolina, North Carolina, Vanderbilt, Oklahoma City is interesting. I mean, they've done such an incredible job with that franchise there. So, yeah, I've always wondered why does Atlanta have the South by themselves and then other markets. I know that Sacramento is thinking about putting their best foot forward and other markets, you know, Portland and Nashville. So wherever they land, I think, spend really a lot of time on the front end. Where do we take these next two teams? Yeah, it's interesting. On that note, I was thinking about it because I was looking at some of the potential city names.

2:42Nashville comes up a lot. And I was thinking, to your exact point, this idea. And listen, I grew up and still love the Braves, as you know. By virtue of the geography, the minor league system, TBS, Ted Turner. I mean, they really had such a – and still have such a devoted following across the Southeast. The other thing that is reflected in that – and I want to talk about realignment in a second. But just from an expansion perspective, and this goes to the point of our conversation later with Greg Olson, the youth baseball culture in the South, it is just much more of a sort of it's the spring sport, whereas, and I lived this as a dad, in the Northeast, it's lacrosse.

3:25Like lacrosse has like really eaten up and eaten away at baseball. Now, there are still some great programs, you know, out in Long Island in baseball, in Connecticut, New Jersey, et cetera. But down south, baseball is life, man. I mean, and you just see these great players. And you mentioned a lot of the great college programs. You know, earlier this year, we were down taping at Georgia Tech. And we saw their facilities and, you know, met with their team a little bit, just visiting. and it's incredible what southern you know fans and southern players are to baseball so let me ask you this question about realignment because manfred has at least talked about the idea of maybe that we don't have the american league and national league that look the way that they're going to look you have a little more geographic consistency what would that i mean does that make sense to you and and now i'm almost asking you to put it i'm asking you to wear two hats you know one as a former player, how it would change your life as a player, but also as an owner thinking about the sort of nuts and bolts and the dollars and cents of it.

4:28Yes, anytime the commissioner can make the game better for the players, it's something worthy to look at. And I think when you think about more convenient, more efficient travel, all that makes sense for players and for owners and for expenses and for fans. The one thing I would caution is this is the oldest game in America, right? Yeah. It's been around well over 100 years. You want to be careful not to destroy the legacy rivalries, whether that's Yankees, Red Sox, Mets, Phillies. As a fan, and now you're a New Yorker, I will call you, right? Debbie Kelly, if she's listening right now, is absolutely horrified that you just said that.

5:13And unfortunately, it's true, but go on. Yeah, she just said objection, Your Honor. So what I would say is, as a fan, you still have the moonshot potential of what happened in the year 2000, right? The Subway Series with Yankees-Mets, or you still want to have Red Sox-Phillies, Red Sox-Mets. That's still very fun, and I wouldn't want to disrupt that. At the same time, if you see less legacy issues, could you make it easier and simpler? I think it's worth looking at. Yeah, I mean, it's such a hard puzzle piece because you're right. And it's such a good point around the legacy of baseball, because even I feel like newer fans who come in, the teams, and I think the Dodgers do a really nice job of this.

5:56obviously the Red Sox, the Yankees, obviously maybe more than any. So celebrating the rich heritage of these teams and to your point, like disrupting anything that threatens that history, because that's part of what makes baseball great. Now I will be, you know, I would be the first to say baseball, and I think you would agree with me, can be a little bit fusty at times. I think they're a little bit, you know, set in their ways. And there are a lot of things that we've talked about a lot on this show that we feel like baseball could do from a fan service. They've been late to change some of the elements of the game, but the game is better.

6:34The game is commercially more successful because of some of these changes they've made, like the pitch clock and some of the not being able to shift and all those sorts of things. More people are watching the game. So that delicate balance, it's not an easy job, but I would imagine now sitting in the owner's seat in the NBA and the WNBA as you do, even there you probably have to think about how do we maintain this history while also sort of looking to the future. That's not easy. Well, I would tell you one way. Something about the Mets, Phillies, Dodgers, and the American League would not feel right.

7:09The Yankees, Red Sox, the National League. There's something about the history that is so beautiful. It's such a romantic story that goes back again over 100 years that you want to keep intact some of that beautiful history that we have above any other sport in America. Yeah. With that said, when you look at teams like the Marlins, the Rays in Tampa, when you look at maybe Minnesota, some of the newer teams, maybe there's a little bit more flexibility there, and they're also looking for better revenue, more resources. So anything where I think the Yankees, the Phillies, the Dodgers, they're doing really well on any metrics, they're winning.

7:46So I would lean into it whether as an owner or as a player. if we're not married to that history, then the more change, the better. Yeah, that's interesting. That's a really interesting point. Yeah. And I do, you know, just to go back to the New York of it all for a second, and I am showing my stripes as someone who is like deeply entrenched in New York at this point. I think I've told you that there's this incredible book that came out earlier this year, late last year called The New York Game. And it really just talks about, it goes, you know, from the late 1800s up until the mid 1950s, We talk a lot about the intersection of business sports and culture.

8:20And, you know, baseball teams, especially in New York, were just so richly embedded into, you know, what it means to be a New Yorker. You lived it. You knew, you know, I mean, you were sort of maybe in that final stretch when the Yankees were the most important team in New York. I mean, you know, sorry to all the other sports and the Mets and all that. But, like, the Yankees are the Yankees. And managing to hold on to that. But as you say, maybe with some of the other franchises, being a little bit more aggressive and a little bit more innovative could help the bottom line. So on the subject of baseball, Little League World Series wraps up this weekend.

8:59And I know we've both been watching it. It's always exciting to sort of see those kids out there. It also is a reminder of the huge business of youth sports. We have Greg Olson coming up on the show. He is your partner of sorts, albeit a different sport, on Fox, on Fox Sports, but also heavily invested in the business of youth sports. And it's a really interesting conversation. You and he traded some insights that I think people are really going on to hear because it's not necessarily what I expected from you and not what I expected from him in terms of what the right moves are for youth sports going forward.

9:37Yeah, and you buried the lead because the best thing about Greg Olson is he's an alum from the University of Miami. You really love that. You always call me out for not mentioning that at the top of the list. I do, man. The U. We got to always remember that. No, but I think, look, Greg is an incredible person who's doing really cool things in the world of youth sports. And I think for our audience, this is very relevant. and not to forget what I think is the most important part about youth baseball. Number one, youth sports is a$40 billion business. This is a real, and it's also one of the most fragmented businesses in the U.S.

10:16Yeah. All right. Coming up, all that and more from Greg Olson.

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11:02Welcome back to the DLF, Jason Kelly, alongside Alex Rodriguez. So excited to have with us as our guest today, Greg Olson. He is, of course, an Emmy-winning sports broadcaster, former professional football player, and the creator of Youth Inc. We're going to talk about all of it today. Greg, really good to see you. Great to see you guys. I appreciate you having me on. All right, so let's talk about some shared experiences here between you and Alex Rodriguez sitting here next to me in New York City. the transition from being a player to being a broadcaster is a key moment for anybody. You got to it pretty early.

11:41Like even while you were still playing, you were starting to dabble in it a bit. Why? What made you want to sort of be on TV and be behind a mic? Yeah. So if you would have asked me, you know, four or five years into my playing career, what I was going to do after I was done playing, I would have said, I have no idea. I'm going to play until the wheels fall off and I'll figure it out. But I had some really unique opportunities that came my way. And like everybody knows, life's about it, you know, an element of luck and an element of opportunities. And then what you make of them kind of dictates where those paths ultimately lead.

12:13And so 2015 Fox actually was nice enough. Both Kevin Burkhart, who's Alex's partner, obviously with the pregame show and the great job they do there at Fox, who was my first partner at Fox. We go way back to North Jersey together. We grew up, I've known Kevin for a long time since I was in high school. So Kevin actually, yeah, so Kevin did a audition for me. So anyone who's been to one of these auditions, you sit in a sterile studio out in LA at the Fox Studios, and you just call a game off of a television monitor. And it's as simple as that. So I was lucky enough that Fox asked me to do a dry run game with Kevin.

12:49And then in 2017, on the bye week of my 2017 season, I joined Kevin and his partner at the time was Charles Davis. And we did a three-man booth. And then in 2019, Fox had me back again. And I did a two-man booth on my bye week. So I did all of this as a current player. And it just gave me such an opportunity to really see what I liked. And I had done some studio and I had done some game stuff. I did college. I did NFL. But it was really stepping into an NFL booth and a real live game back in 17, where I walked away from the stadium saying, like, I could do this. Like, I feel really good about this.

13:27This might be my niche. And I did it. I called XFL games. You know, people always say, oh, man, in two years you called the Super Bowl. Why did you rise so fast? I was like, well, you just didn't know any of the games I did before. Like anything, right? These overnight successes take a long time to get there. So I was very fortunate the opportunities I was giving during my playing career. And it just kind of organically found me as much as I found it. And I've loved doing it ever since. Greg, I'm kind of spooked right now because, first of all, my partner, Jason, who is the best, he did forget to mention the greatest thing about you is your University of Miami alum.

14:03I sat at that board for 20 years and, you know, really had an incredible time watching you and your excellence there. So thank you for your service. but in 2015 it's ironic you mentioned that that was exactly the same year that Fox was generous enough to talk to me and I came back that year for my suspension which was a vital year for me to get back on track I ended up having a really nice year and you know getting my career back on track a little bit and I went on an off day once they signed me to say okay can you do the playoffs once you guys get eliminated and I agreed to that and then we had a day off and I went into the Fox studio in Century City in LA.

14:37Yeah. And I sat there for like two and a half hours and we did a mock pregame show. And I was nervous. I remember my knees were shaking. I'm like, wait a minute. I'm used to playing in Yankee Stadium in front of 55 ,000 people at the old stadium. And I'm nervous about this. But Kevin, I call him Magic Johnson. He's a little bit like Jason. He's the ultimate giver. He sets you up to win. I'm interested to know, because we share in Kevin and we both love him so much, what is it about him that made you feel better? I mean, you won an Emmy with him, but what makes him such a great leader and a great broadcast partner?

15:08Yeah, I'm glad you brought it up because I think all of us, yourself, me, I'm sure Tom Brady would now say it, like everyone who's ever worked with Kevin, the first thing they say is like, it's just easy. Like everything he does is easy. He takes you exactly where you want to go. He keeps you out of maybe where you don't want to go. And I think your Magic Johnson, he is the ultimate point guard. He's the ultimate kind of weave in and out, do all the hard work. And then his ultimate goal and what he does so well is he just makes whoever sitting next to him, whether it's on the desk with you and, and big poppy and Jeter, or whether it's sitting in the booth with, you know, the different guys he's worked with in the NFL, whoever works with him, he makes them always look awesome.

15:51And he makes them always look great. And it's the greatest compliment that you could pay a guy. He has no ego. He is selfless as the day is long. and it's the best teammate to have, especially for guys like us who you might know baseball and I might know football, but we don't know TV in the early days. At least I didn't. I didn't really know TV. And in a lot of ways now, Alex, I don't know how you feel about it, but like there's still elements of TV that I really still don't get. But like when your partner is just so good at managing and directing traffic and managing all of the technical stuff and you can just do what you do well, which is talk the game and provide insight and analysis, it just makes everything work so smoothly.

16:32But yeah, I could go on. We could do this entire segment about Kevin and now my partner, Joe Davis, who's also on your guys' World Series and postseason crew. Our team at Fox, as it is for the baseball crew, equally for the NFL crew, is just a really good collection of really talented people who can make the analyst job look a lot better than we probably are. To that exact point, Greg, Like, what is the thing that you feel like you had to learn the most? Because I know from working alongside this guy, it's like, you know, if there's one thing about professional athletes and professional athletes, you guys are grinders.

17:07You're coachable. You like to learn. You like to get better. What was the thing you had to get better at that you have sort of accomplished in these intervening years? Yeah, so I think the biggest thing is, and I don't even know if I've necessarily completely gotten over it or completely fixed all the problems, but I think one of the challenges that a lot of guys have that have played the game, and I'm sure for Alex to sit there when he watches a Major League Baseball game, Alex can probably find 25 things on any given at-bat or any given pitch sequence or any different defensive rotation in the field.

17:41and he could probably talk 25 minutes about why it's so important and why he finds it so interesting. It would be great television. But we don't have these unlimited boxes of time. We have to talk in these very clear-cut, succinct, especially doing an NFL broadcast where we're talking between plays in 20, 30-second intervals. So I think early on for me, it was just because I see five things that I might find interesting and I want to bring the viewer in on, I probably only have time to make a case for one of those interesting things, but I have a three hour broadcast to come back to some of the others.

18:16I think early on, I wanted to tell everybody everything I saw on every play because I'm fascinated by it. I love it. I find it the most interesting thing in the world, but it doesn't always make for great television. So I think that's something I'm still working through where less is more, you know, see a little, see a lot. Like all those phrases we used to have as athletes to simplify things. I think we can lean on a lot of those now in the broadcasting, in live television, where when you go too long is often when you get yourself in trouble. And that's been something that I've had to continue to remind myself as I've done this now the last couple of years.

18:54So, Greg, I want to dig in there a little bit because that's a great answer. And I'm really wondering, you go to 2015 and now you cut to 2025 and you're a completely different broadcaster. Like Jason said, you won an Emmy. You've covered a Super Bowl. Like you're one of the most respected guys in the industry. But talk to me about 2015, 2016. What were a couple things besides the one you just articulated, things you were doing probably wrong that today it would be a big no-no, that today you do more naturally? Yeah, I think it's a great question. I think a lot of the things would probably be what doesn't come on air, aside from just being more succinct and more clear and have better clarity and conversational is probably the best way to phrase it, that you and your partner just come across like they're two guys sitting on the couch having a beer together and just talking ball.

19:42That's what everyone wants from a viewer's perspective. I think when I look back on those early years where I had a lot of trouble, maybe not trouble, but had a learning curve was managing the picture of what we were saying. For example, we want to do a replay after a scoring touchdown, right? And I want to talk about, before we get to the ball and the throw and the catch, I want to make sure we spend some time, because the running back and the offensive line did a really nice job picking up a really elaborate blitz scheme that gave the quarterback time. Mahomes has time now to throw a touchdown to Kelsey.

20:13Instead of just diving in and just saying, great throw, Mahomes, great catch, Kelsey, I wanted to be able to steer the truck to say, hey, I want the sky cam behind the quarterback, start on a freeze because I want to draw up the thing. I had a hard time in real time getting that across. I knew what I wanted. It was hard for me to speak television that the people in the truck knew that they could put on the screen what I saw in my brain. And now it's a lot easier for me to say, hey, I want an ISO bottom of the screen. Kelsey start on pause. Everyone knows what I want. Hey, I want behind the defense pit frame start on pause because I want to talk about the defensive tackle, whoever it is.

20:54Like I can now have a little bit quicker and clearer way to direct the truck so that they set up a picture that is in line with what I'm really excited to talk about. But I think like anything else, like it takes a little time to get a comfortable enough to say, Hey, you guys in the truck that have been doing this a really long time. I want this picture and I promise you like, it's going to be good. I think early on, you're a little hesitant and you're a little nervous. You're saying whatever you put up, I'll talk about. So as anything, there's been a little bit of an evolution where I'm a little bit more assertive and saying, no, I feel really strongly.

21:28I want to go this direction. And to the credit of my producers and directors, and you know, Macheska, he produces the World Series with you guys. Like, again, I've been lucky that the producers and directors that I had have trusted that growth and are just really good at their job. Yeah. And you know, one thing that obviously you've talked a lot about, Greg, and I have to give you credit for talking as much and as openly as you have, is, you know, getting a new partner, essentially being, you know, replaced by Tom Brady, which, you know, I mean, is tough on one hand and also very understandable given the Tom Brady-ness of it all.

22:01I don't want to make you sort of relive and say a lot of the things that you've said before, but it does strike me that a lot of people listening, you know, this is a business audience, many people have encountered that exact same thing where like someone else, you know, comes in, new guy coming into the company, new man or woman coming onto the team. What's your advice for somebody having now gone through this who faces something similar because you've handled it with a lot of grace, with a lot of confidence? How did you sort of get there? And what would you say to people is the best way to handle something like that?

22:38I think in a lot of ways through this transition, a lot of the lessons that I've tried to learn on the fly in a new industry have just been leaning on things that served me well in my former life, which was as an athlete. And anyone who's lived in a competitive environment, and obviously Alex can speak to this as good as anybody in history of sports, like when you compete at a high level and you have high expectations and the expectations of you, there's only so many people that have ever reached that level, right? And I certainly from a playing career didn't. But when it came to this new chapter in my life.

23:10So many of the things of my former career paid dividends. And this was one of them. And I think the biggest lesson, what I would say to people is there's nothing wrong with being incredibly competitive. There's nothing wrong with wanting to be the best player on the New York Yankees, but that doesn't mean that Derek Jeter has to go over. That doesn't mean that the other players on your team can't have a lot of success. So like that was my career as a player. Like every year there were guys drafted to take my position and there were guys on the offensive side of the ball who competed for targets and catches and yards and all of that.

23:44And my success did not have to mean their failure and their success didn't have to mean I couldn't be really good either. And so I approached this world of TV in really the same fashion. Like my expectations are to be amongst the best people in the industry and whatever game that is. There's a lot of moving parts outside of your control. But what I control is I control how hard I prepare. I control how much I know about the sport of football. And I genuinely enjoy doing it. And if there's someone else who comes along who also is good, great. There's plenty of room for all of us. And that's really just been my approach.

24:18And with Tom, like, I want Tom to do a great job. I want Tom to have success. I root for Tom and Kevin. Like, they're my friends. Like, they're people. They're my colleagues. They're my friends. I want them to have success. but I still want to be regarded as being the best in the industry. And that's not a knock on anyone else. It's just the only way I know. And I'm sure no one knows it better than, than Alex. Like the expectations for a long time are that Alex is the best baseball player in major league baseball. And then all of a sudden you go line up next to Derek Jeter, who's an icon in New York city.