Disney sells out the Super Bowl, the latest on Tony Romo and the Golics dish on their ESPN return

0:00Coming up on the pod, Disney sells out the Super Bowl, more fallout around Tony Romo and CBS, and the latest around the Preakness Stakes.

0:15Welcome into the SBJ Sports Media Podcast. I'm Austin Karp. And I'm Josh Carpenter. Austin, we finally have some football. It's been a long six months or so. We finally have some football on Thursday night with the Pro Football Hall of Fame game. My Carolina Panthers are playing. And this game really hits close to home for me. Let's go back to 1995. All the way back? All the way back to 1995. Six-year-old me, Panthers-Jaguars, the expansion Hall of Fame game. And the first touchdown in Carolina Panthers history was scored by... I do not know this. This is a great piece of trivia. Bob Sister Christian, as Chris Berman used to call him.

0:51Frank Reich rolls out to the right, throws a little pass to the flat. Bob Christian catches it, breaks three tackles, scores a touchdown. Bob Christian is a close family friend of ours, or was for a long time. Actually, in the offseason, Bob Christian worked at Alltel with my father. Fullbacks back in the 1990s make a little extra money on the side. So Bob Christian was a colleague of my father's. And so we were very close to Bob Christian, who scored the first touchdown in Carolina Panthers history. The story I didn't know I needed on this Thursday. And so great memories of the Hall of Fame game.

1:21I always get super excited about the Hall of Fame game, and then I turn it on, and I watch maybe a series, and then I turn it off because I'm like, this is preseason football. Why do we need to watch it? Well, you're not excited about the Kenny Pickett-Carson Beck matchup going on here? Carson Beck as a Tennessee Vol was in my nightmares for a while when he was with Georgia or before he went to Miami. Similarly with Georgia Tech. And so, like, I kind of hate having to see Carson Beck again. I'm excited for there to be football on my television, really for every Thursday night, seemingly going until January.

1:49From a fantasy football angle, that's what I'm paying attention to, particularly with Carson Beck. He might actually be a decent quarterback. Let's see what he can do in this first. And you also, of course, have the NBC debut of Mike Tomlin. So excited to see what Tomlin looks like on that broadcast, albeit for a kind of meaningless preseason game. But it'll be a nice kind of beta, you know, opening night for Mike Tomlin at NBC. Well, Joshua, let's get into it. Let's stick with the NFL, though. Got to talk about the Tony Romo fallout. fallout more going on there CBS coming out late last week saying he is suspended indefinitely not really messing around with the language there they are moving J.J.

2:24Watt into that number one analyst role I have to think though and a lot of people out there speculating about whether Tony Romo has a future at CBS Sports at all do you think he stays with the network do you think they keep him around see I've been looking at this a little bit differently than most a lot of people came out and said, CBS suspended Tony Romo. Did CBS suspend him? Did they put him on a leave of absence or did he go on a leave of absence on his own? And maybe I'm over reading this, but when that email came across and said, all of a sudden it didn't say CBS has placed Tony Romo on a leave of absence.

2:57It says Tony Romo is on a leave of absence. And he had really flown under the radar since that event happened. So kind of in the back of my mind, I'm thinking, all right, was this a self-imposed leap of absence just lets fly under the radar his court date is on September 21st that's a Monday that's after week two of the NFL season so is there a possibility that Tony Romo just goes dark for a little while and then reappears on CBS in week three I don't know what that game is for CBS if they're a national window that week but potentially that could happen and but then you also talk about is JJ walking to be there the entire season and then you go beyond this season Greg Olson's contract is up at Fox after this year we know that Greg Olsen is seen by many people as the top analyst in the NFL.

3:38Where could that be? If it's not going to be at Fox because it has that 10-year deal with Tom Brady, what other networks might be interested with him? This opens up a potential opportunity. So is this an easy out for CBS if they want to move on from Romo if somehow this arrest negates his contract or something like that? Can CBS bring in who many feel is the top analyst in the game? I think CBS is in a good position here. Let's say that all the reports are true and they really just aren't big fans of Tony Romo's work anymore. Maybe they think it has slipped to the point where we're like, all right, we maybe want to go in a different direction.

4:08Not only are they going to have a tryout here for J.J. Watt with Jim Nance in that number one spot, but yes, they have options in free agency when you have guys like Greg Olson coming up. So if they think it's time to move on and they can maybe say that he violated a morals clause, obviously they would come to some sort of settlement there. Tony Romo's not going away quietly with that, I think,$72 million or so that he's still owed. And CBS might have an option here to really go after somebody strong like a Ray Bolson. Yeah, that'd be a great effect. And just to point out, too, not saying that these guys would necessarily be an option to go over to CBS, but also kind of other announcer analyst deals coming up after this year.

4:46You've got Kirk Herbstreit. You've got Joe Buck. You've got Troy Aikman, all with deals that are expiring. I don't know if Troy Aikman would move away from Buck and go to a CBS like that. That'd be really tough for me to see. Everything we hear is that he is going to be asking for some serious dollars out there. I don't know if he's going to get the Tom Brady money. That Tom Brady situation involves a lot of appearances with Fox corporate, like a very overarching deal there with Fox beyond just the commentary on one football game a week. But I got to think the Olsen thing is incredibly interesting.

5:14You would get a proven commodity there. J.J. Watt was good in season one. We know what Olsen has done over the course of many years now and would slide right into that role. He would be an incredible number one analyst if CBS decided to go that direction. Then CBS will be hosting a Super Bowl. 2028? in 2020, a host of another Super Bowl. Austin, speaking of the Super Bowl, timely news. Disney has sold out of ad inventory for the Super Bowl next year. One of the earliest, maybe the earliest ever. They've sold out about a month earlier than NBC did last year. And really, this has been a little bit of a surprise that they sold out this early because just a month or so ago, there was a lot of kind of blowback around this$10 million for a 30-second ad that ABC and Disney were commanding.

5:56A little bit surprising to see this happen so soon. Now, that was news that broke on Disney's Q3 earnings call. You had Josh DeMauro and CFOQ Johnston on there talking about this. And I think they were very happy to break this piece of news that they were going to have this sell out so early. But let's think about what ESPN has here. You don't just have the Super Bowl telecast, that traditional telecast. They've got an all cast. They'll have a simulcast on ABC and also all of the other events going on around this. They've announced that ESPN beach thing they're going to be doing on the Santa Monica pier that's selling out some sponsorships there.

6:29And also this is over the course of the regular season. It's not just NFL commitments that they're getting. They have college football too. So I'm sure a lot of brands out there are buying into college football and the tonnage there on ESPN, as well as all the NFL and NFL network inventory that they have. Let's not forget that they added those games. Those are, it's not a Sunday afternoon game. Those NFL network games at 9am, those are still getting decent numbers. Yeah. And back to the Super Bowl, I think 58 total brands across the game for Disney, nine new brands across 34 different categories.

6:59So really a diverse set of brands coming in for the Super Bowl. I think they undersold that nine new brands advertising in the Super Bowl. That's a lot, especially this, you know, knowing this early. And I'm sure there'll be maybe some late people that come in, you know, in February, buying some of those last second spots. That is really strong to see in terms of new blood coming into the Super Bowl. And it seems like that may have happened, Disney kind of maybe backed off that$10 million price. They had to. A little bit. And the reason for this$10 million cost, it kind of happened late last year when I think NBC started a little bit lower on some of theirs.

7:33And there was such great demand around that game that they were able to push that late to$10 million. That kind of flipped to this year as Disney was in the market selling this game. And let's remember what that cost is. Yeah,$9 million for a 30-second spot. If you're a company like Anheuser-Busch where you have beer exclusivity, you're going to buy a few more ads. Maybe it's a little less than what people are paying if they're buying one 30-second spot. But it's also beyond that. A$9 million spend isn't just getting you 30 seconds and that's it. And that's not the last you see. It is usually part of a broader, full year marketing expenditure that a lot of these companies do.

8:07It can be closer to$50 million. Whatever it is, depending on what the company is, you can start with something big, a big announcement at the Super Bowl with an incredibly well-done campaign. And that can helped drive you through almost the rest of the year. First Super Bowl for Disney, ABC, ESPN in what, two decades, more than two decades at this point. So a lot of interest around the Super Bowl. So Austin, we spoke about NBC a little bit earlier in the football context, but let's talk about NBC in a horse racing context, another sport. You had some news this week around NBC and the second leg of the Triple Crown, the Preakness Stakes.

8:41We were able to report that not only is the Preakness going to stay with NBC Sports. It's been there since 2001. It is going to happen, this monumental shift in a triple crown calendar that we've been looking at, like you said, since the spring. That event, the Preakness, the second leg of horse racing's triple crown, it's going to move back a week in the calendar in May. Why is that important? Since 1950, that race has been two weeks apart from the Kentucky Derby. The way that modern horse racing has gone, so many of these trainers don't want to take their horses and give them only two weeks from the derby from the derby and so you've seen so many derby winners over the last couple years not even attempt to go to baltimore yeah okay if you look at all the horses around 88 of horses over the last five years that have run in the kentucky derby have not gone on to run in baltimore that's what the preakness wants to do they want to have that triple crown element those horses come in and try to win that second leg of the triple crown and maybe the most important thing is with that date move over the course of this six-year deal with NBC, that's going to be run on Sunday.

9:41The Preachers will run on Sunday. The Black-Eyed Susan is going to be run on a Saturday, both afternoon races. You don't have lights there at Pimlico. It's going to fall four times during this deal on Memorial Day weekend. Baltimore, the state of Maryland, they really want to create this into an event. There's not a lot going on in the spring on Sundays. You have maybe some golf or you have some basketball going on, but I don't think it's going to really impact the audience negatively in any sense for NBC. I'm a casual horse racing fan, but it seems like the Triple Crown specifically has lost a little bit of juice.

10:13You had American Pharoah in 2015 win it, and you had Justify win it in 2018 after really going back in 1978 and Affirmed having a Triple Crown winner before that. So me, having two Triple Crown winners in such close proximity, it sucked a little bit of juice out of the novelty of winning a Triple Crown and having the need to tune in for the Preakness. And then to your point, a lot of horses not even running in that race. So now with this change of date, you'll see a lot more of that, maybe some more juice added back to the Triple Crown. The New York Racing Association and the Belmont Stakes didn't do was they did not shift their race back another week.

10:46So now you have the element of only two weeks between the Preakness and the third leg. So if you have a horse that has won now the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, are they going to go to the Belmont? Is it worth going after the Triple Crown? I have to imagine it is. If you have a horse that wins those two races, not going after the Triple Crown after winning those, even only after two weeks. I know the Belmont is the longest of those races. It's a mile and three quarters. So that's a long race for a horse, especially coming off two weeks. So that's another element that these trainers and owners are going to have to factor in.

11:16And clearly, I think there's some sour grapes going on out there in horse racing because a couple of days before this announcement, you saw Naira and Churchill Downs came out and announced this Thoroughbred Championship Series, which is a collection of six races. They're going to try to create a new title, a new event, not to necessarily compete with the Triple Crown, but try to extend the horse racing calendar and interest in the sport beyond those five weeks. You're going to have the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont Stakes be part of that. Not Preakness, like I said, some sour grapes there because Fox is going to be involved in this.

11:50They have the stake in Naira. They obviously didn't get rights to the Preakness. And earlier in the spring, you saw Churchill Downs try to acquire those licensing marketing rights to the Preakness that was matched by the state of Maryland. I think that was a surprise to Churchill Downs. So they're kind of trying to do their own thing to drum up further interest in horse racing and not really involving the Maryland Jockey Club and the state of Maryland in what they're trying to do. So that's a really big shift coming for the Preakness in the coming years. And speaking of another shift, Austin, Mike Golick Sr., Mike Golick Jr., back at ESPN now with a new radio venture.

12:24And you actually caught up with both of them to kind of give us a glimpse at how that reunion came together. Well, there's a new addition to sports radio this week, but it's one that sports fans are going to immediately feel comfortable with. It's the Golicks, which hit the airwaves Monday morning. It's going to be in that weekday, 10 a.m. to noon Eastern time slot. Let's catch up with the new hosts of the show, Mike Golick Sr. and Mike Golick Jr. Welcome into the SBJ Sports Media Podcast. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thanks for having us. You knew Mike Foss, ESPN's Executive Vice President. He's the Executive Editor for Sports, News, and Entertainment.

12:59You guys have known him for a long time. But what was Mike's pitch to you guys in bringing this show to ESPN? At the time, there was an opening in that time slot. And so when Faw saw the news that Dad and I's time at FanDuel Sports Network and our show there was over and said, let's have a conversation. And, you know, basically the pitch was you guys are free at a time where I did not think that was going to be the case, given that we had just started at FanDuel Sports Network that year. And, you know, it was an opening there that just sort of lined up. And so it really was, hey, do you guys want to come back home?

13:37You mentioned I had worked with FOSS a ton in the ESPN digital department as that got going on some shows that we had been a part of there. And so one conversation led to another. And eventually it started to really dawn on us that this is a real chance to actually go back to a place that dad has such a multi-decade legacy at and that I got my start in sports media. It took me by surprise. We had a few other opt-ins out there, but once we were at ESPN, it was interested. is really where I wanted to come home again. We both wanted to come home again. Well, Mike Ciener, I want to stick with you here on this one.

14:12What does ESPN Radio represent in 2026 that it didn't when you left six years ago? I think continuity, right? I mean, that's what they're trying to establish. Back when I was there with Greeny, you know, we had a step lineup for a number of years. And I think for, you know, live radio, that's what people want. Obviously, content is the number one thing to come out with speakers. But after that, it's personalities, it's listeners getting to know the hosts and how much the hosts want to let them in. And it's something I have always tried to do with Greeny, with Trey Wingo, with Mike, is let viewers in, let them know about our families, let them be involved in our lives.

14:57I think this new lineup that started, I think the best thing that can happen is continuity. Let it bake over time. Let the listeners who listen in those time slots, let them get to know the host, know the personalities, know them personally. So it's not just some arbitrary voices that you're hearing come through the speakers. It's like you turn on the goal. It's, oh yeah, I know Mike, I know Junior. I know they're going to have fun on the air. I know I'm going to learn something about sports. I know I'm going to laugh. I know I'm going to talk about food, you know, and entertainment. And you know what you're getting.

15:31You have to let a radio lineup bake for years. I know I text with my brother and my dad about sports all the time, but the thought of like having maybe to work with them day in and day out, that would scare the crap out of me. So I got to put it to you guys. Are there any worries about working day in and day out with family? I think not at this point, just because we've done it for so long. You know, our time away from ESPN featured two shows where we did that. And And I don't know, I think part of that fear you described there is it's not always sunshine and rainbows. It's not always the loving parts of that.

16:05Family members in relationship with family members have plenty of disagreements, have plenty of areas where differing opinions pop up. And I think that's sort of the beauty of it. You know, having disagreements on sports talk radio is kind of what makes things sing sometimes. And for us, it comes naturally. We never wanted to force any of that stuff, but just by nature of me being 37 and him being 63 and a part of a completely different generation, a lot of that stuff happens. So I think that's part of the fun. The best notes that we got when dad left in 2021 and we were finishing Golik and Wingo were from parents and children who had the chance to work, no matter what industry it was, with their child or with their parent who said, we see some of us in you guys.

16:44And that's just as much the moments where I get on his nerves, where he says something that I immediately jump all over as it is the moments where the love shines through. And so I think like anything else, you want it to be a 3D picture of that relationship. Like Dad said, you're trying to give so much of yourself so that people are willing to and want to give you some time out of their day, the limited free moments they have between work and family life and all that stuff, where they can feel that kind of attachment, maybe see some of themselves like that. I just wish he would admit he's wrong more and that I'm right more.

17:18That would be a start. I mean, I would like that to happen if I wasn't right so much. Well, I was going to say, who gets the final word when you guys disagree? When the rubber meets the road, who gets the final word? You would think the aged veteran who's been doing this for a few decades would, right? But since he runs the show and hosts the show, he kind of gets the last word. Just thinking broadly, what's one topic or an area that can still start a genuine family argument between the two of you? Football, like when I played in football, when he played, the preparation, the training camp. I don't want to say players are softer today because the rules have changed.

17:58In fact, I'm jealous of the way that they practice now. But it was definitely different from when I played to when Mike played. And I tried to raise Mike and my son, Jay, who played football at Notre Dame as well, in the way that I was brought up on football. But there were just new ways of football. I think one of the biggest things that I kind of learned, but we butted heads on, I am a food locker room dog. Like things stay in the locker room. You don't talk about teammates publicly, this and that. And there was a time a few years ago where teammates were tweeting about other teammates and I was going off saying this is wrong.

18:40And Mike was like, this is the now. This is the generation where players use social media and they do this. It's just the norm for them or wasn't the norm for me. And I still have a hard time with it. I'm still like, keep it in the locker room. Don't bring it up. But Mike is always like, that's kind of where we are in this era. So that's one of the things that I just can't get over on that he wants me to. That's one of the sports areas. One of the outside of the sports areas actually came up. We were guests on the Rich Eisen show today after our show wrapped up. And I pulled the ripcord on one of my favorites.

19:18I've never seen the movie Hoosiers. And for men of a certain age, that's like a cardinal sin. And people get really upset about that. And I made the point, I think everyone is allowed one irrational take that they don't need to really explain just to aggravate people. I obviously would prefer it be in a low stakes situation like this and not in other realms. But this is the one that I've kind of latched on to. I'm committed to never watching that movie and using that as a point of aggregation for my father, who feels like he failed as a parent because of that. So full. I love it. I love it. But you guys are not just football.

19:50You have clearly branched out to all areas of sports. But what is a sport, what is a storyline that you really want to learn more about? That's a great question. I think for me, you know, you look at right now, one that I am interested in getting more into the actual sport itself and how we can be beneficial. or just learn more in general about the WNBA is going through such a growth period right now. So much of the conversation ends up getting diverted to things off the court there, focusing on one or two players. And you have a few people who have been diehards, tried and true, covering the W forever.

20:28You have other people that have come in here and done a really good job of just covering the basketball portion of it because when you do tune in and watch, there is really good competitive high-level basketball. And so I would say just, you know, nailing it on that as you get closer and closer to the postseason, the W is like being able to help tell the story of the basketball that's going on there and not all the other things that people want to make covering the W about. So that's one area just because, again, you know, the coverage of it has ramped up so much in recent years with the popularity with Caitlin Clark's dominance in college and entrance into the league with the new CBA that just got negotiated.

21:04Because, you know, with everything else like Major League Baseball, we're going to have to get really well versed in legalese like I am through college football because we've got a potential lockout looming at the end of this season that everyone's getting ready for. So, you know, you've got all that. Like I just mentioned with that earlier today, we're talking through the, you know, protect college sports act and doing what we have to do every offseason covering college sports and learn legal jargon and pour through court documents. So you've got that stuff that we've done a little bit more. But, you know, I think for us, you know, as people that have covered the, you know, Men's National Basketball Association for so long, finding better ways to cover and help serve the W coverage is important.

21:46I got to work with Sinead Gwumake on a radio show. She always did a great job of that as someone that was playing in the league and now covers it at a high level. And so, you know, maybe we can do a better job with that. I'm interested in how well flag football is going to do in the Olympics. It's such a growing sport in the country, especially on the women's side, but really men as well. And it's a first-time Olympic sport, M28, in L.A. And I'm very interested to see how that's going to be received by Olympic fans. And I really hope it lacks. That's something that USA football has been working on.

22:21Yeah, they didn't tell you guys, you know, with all this legal stuff going on, getting back to Mike Jr., your point, you're going to have to have Esquire at the end of your title to understand all the things that are going on. in sports these days. No, we're going to have to bring someone on the show who has Esquire. Yeah, exactly. So how much different is an approach to a show that has a video element versus just a radio show? Then I actually went through the third year with Greeny where we went from just ESPN Radio to we were on ESPN News and then ESPN 2. And I had an incredible fear right away that I had to get up and do a show from 6 to 10 every morning and had to be dressed in a coat and top.

23:04Because basically, if you're in a studio show at ESPN, it's a coat and top. And I was told, no, you dress like you're on radio and act like you're on radio. You do a radio show and the cameras just shoot around it. So that is what I lived by all the time, doing a radio show that was simultaneously on TV or video or whatever. And I stuck with that. That's what I do. I just do a radio show. We don't really play the cameras or I don't. Maybe I have to more. I don't know. But that I've held that mantra since way back when. Just do a radio show and let the cameras shoot around you. I think the one thing that I would say I've made an adjustment on is just the process of communicating pre-show with the rest of our staff, because you do have a video production element to this, is being cognizant that everyone on our team has a job to do in the show.

23:59It's not just us. And so if we've got things that we know we're going to get to, I am always trying to get better at this. It's always a work in progress. But how much information can I give the people in charge of the graphic and video elements soon enough so that they can build something to support that so that they can do their job to the best of their ability, all to try and help us look better and sound smarter on TV. So to dad's point, once you get there, then I'm with him. Like I'm a simple creature. And if two people are in the same room, I'm going to talk to the other person in the room and do it like that and keep it simple.

24:34But for the preparation portion, I think that's probably where I've made the biggest adjustment or been trying to. I got to ask you, what's the first thing that you read in the morning to get exposure to what's going on in sports? It's actually not reading in the morning. It's staying abreast all the, from after the show one day, you just stay up on all the sports. And then sometimes you get breaking news. Like we had breaking news before our second show, Bajon Robinson, the running back from the Atlanta Falcons signed that monster deal. So you have a rundown already set that's going into the show that can change.

25:11And it did. That became our lead story. But really, it's not about getting up in the morning and saying, OK, what are we going to talk about? It's every day. Stay up on sports. We obviously, with our producers, have a daily text going, an email going, and we're constantly putting things in. And I'd say all dad's points are correct there. You kind of have a toe in the water at all times. But in terms of waking up, usually I'm 37. seven, the first place I go is social media and scroll through and see, all right, you know, what's been big enough that it's hit the timeline. Usually a lot of like overnight trade moves and stuff like that make their way there.

25:50And from there it's ESPN.com. Let's see how things are racked on there and what's near the top of the inbox on the website there in terms of like, there's newsletters. I follow, we mentioned the like sports business element of things, Matt Brown, who does the extra points newsletter, I think is incredible, especially when it comes to the coverage of college athletics, channel six, Spencer Hall and Holly Anderson do a great job again a lot of college uh sports tilt uh with some other fun stuff built in there the athletics daily newsletter that kind of goes out so all those in my inbox or other places where it's like all right let me see people that are going to get together groups of stories that are interesting and see what i react strongly to there so i would say a bunch of those are you know places that are good ones that i check going into the show or going into the body of the day trying to see what pops first thing i do in the morning is have breakfast there you go that's the important thing come on Let's just be honest.

26:41That's what we need to do first. You know, guys, I saw another father and son duo, Eugene and Dan Levy, host the primetime Emmys before. So I got to ask, would you two ever be up for pulling off that sort of task? I don't know, maybe for the ESPYs? You guys know anybody? Oh, absolutely. Listen, I love Schitt's Creek. I mean, I love that show. Mike and I have been in the booth together calling a football game. I'm hoping Mike has been fortunate enough to call the hot dog eating contest July 4th. on ESPN. That's one of my regrets of the 25 years of ESPN. I never got to work that. So maybe we'll work that one together.

27:20But yeah, we're certainly open to working pretty much anything together. Yeah. I would say the hot dog eating contest would be our version of hosting like an award. Because honestly, I don't have the stomach. So many of the hosts of those award shows, you got to come in and kind of rip everyone in the crowd for a little bit. I wouldn't be able to look at all these great athletes and entertainers and say anything sideways to them. I don't have the stomach for that. So, you know what we'll go and do? We'll go if we would be fortunate enough to get to work with the Nathan Hot Dog team again. I got to call that twice.

27:51I want Dad down in the splash zone. I want him by the stage with the rain jacket on within chewing distance of Joey Chestnut and the rest of these great athletes. Mike, I got to follow up. I'm like, how did the Oreo and the mayo come together from the Dukes Mayo Bowl in 2021? I've been wondering. That moment was the culmination of such a fun season and the trust built up between the people that were a part of the broadcast. Like, Anishroff and Taylor McGregor are still two of my really close friends. I spent that whole season with them. And we all had the same disposition when it came to college football and covering this sport, which is we want to cover it really well, do a good job in service of these teams.

28:33these players, these fan bases, but we're going to have fun because I say this lovingly, college football, and I've always maintained this, is an inherently stupid sport. As a reformed 18 to 23-year-old, you can never be surprised by the wild things that they do on a football field that make college football Saturday such a unique animal. And so the Dukes-Mayo Bowl, all these bowl games where you had strange sponsorship deals that opened up the idea of all these different things that went on, that was the year we called it, that had the first mayo bath for one of the head coaches who was going to get dunked.

29:04And we just wanted to lean all the way into it. And I credit to Anish, who was always our captain on that ship early in the week, he was kind of pushing us to try and figure out what was something fun we could do. He knew I had a very adventurous palate, I think to put it kindly. And so we just kind of started throwing some things out there. And when the idea of, hey, what if every quarter, we kind of found something that we could dip in mayo. And we just happened to start with the Oreos. And I had no idea that it would prompt the reaction that it did. I mean, I had a writer from a publication in Australia basically imply that I was part of the downfall of Western civilization.

29:41Dionne Warwick said that I should be suspended with pay for my actions on air. So I appreciate her at least, you know, letting me still get paid. So it was a ton of fun and combined so many things that I love all at once. But I, you know, I always point back to like, doing any of these jobs, you're trying to recreate that feeling of being a part of a team. And that was one of those awesome moments where because I had teammates who had so much trust in each other and loved this thing in a similar way, we got to do something pretty fun. And I've never been so proud as we've been. Proud dad moment.

30:13I love it. Yeah. All right. We'll get you out of here on a college football question. One last thing. You guys bleed for Notre Dame. You're Notre Dame through and through. Are you happy? Are you content with how the school now sits within this evolving collegiate sports landscape, especially with regard to the future of the college football playoff? I definitely am. I mean, Notre Dame gets ripped all the time for not being in a conference. And my answer to that is why should they be in a conference? The number of teams in the playoff has expanded, making it, giving them more spaces to be in it every year.

30:46They have a fantastic coach who does a fantastic recruiting job. obviously they make their schedule, don't play any FCS team. So it's going to be power four teams or division one teams all the time. And it is an ever-changing landscape. You're right. And we don't know what the future has been over. While the changes to the conferences have come pretty quickly, changes overall in football, what's going to go on with the portal and NIL and the sport itself, those come a little slower. I think Notre Dame is right where they want to be. I think it's where they will be until the rules basically force them into a conference, if that ever happens.

31:26I don't know if it will, but I'm very happy with where they are right now. Yes, I agree. I was not certain how Notre Dame was going to adapt to the new reality of college athletics, where now you have rosters where player acquisition is done with dollars as much as it is with the traditional recruiting relationships and facilities. And to watch Notre Dame at a brand new facility in Shields Family Hall on campus that's the envy of college football right now, to see them taking undergraduate transfers this last offseason in the portal cycle to bring over and supplement a roster that returns so much talent, you know, to see them talked about as one of the habs in the sport in a way that traditionally they've been.

32:09But in terms of that investment to the level of, you know, the teams that have been winning national titles like Ohio State, like Georgia, like LSU in my lifetime, like Alabama for so long, now to see that in more material ways as this program continues to grow in the modern era has been really encouraging. And I think it's reflected now by how this team's talked about nationally heading into the season. Awesome. Well, guys, congratulations on the start to the show this week. It's the Gullicks from 10 a.m. to noon on weekdays. Mike Golick Sr., Mike Golick Jr., really appreciate you guys coming on the podcast.

32:41Thank you. Thanks for having us. Appreciate it. Austin, great interview with Mike Golick Sr., Mike Golick Jr. One thing you didn't touch on in that interview is that Mike Golick Sr. is the new color analyst for Notre Dame football on radio. So I'm sure they're just chuffed about what's happening in South Bend coming up this year. The Irish, I don't know where they're ranked preseason, but I'm sure in the top five of that Cupcakes. Oh, I thought it was every season they get an automatic top five. It's every season, regardless of the team, that they're going to be in the top five. Well, congrats to Mike Golick Sr.

33:08on that. Congrats to both of the Golicks on the new show. I want to thank them for coming on this week's episode of the Sports Media Podcast. A big thank you to our production team of Chris Mason, Reginald Walker, and A.C. Wyatt. And finally, thank you for listening. Be sure to like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. For Josh Carpenter, I'm Austin Karp. Make good choices out there. We will talk to you all again next week.

33:34Daddy, I love you. Aww. I love you. Sorry.