Speaker 1: The Around the NFL podcast is huge in England and
Speaker 1: other surrounding territories. Hi, everybody, it's Around the NFL special
Speaker 1: edition of Around the NFL. IMP Dan hansis joined by
Speaker 1: Mark Sessler. We were in England earlier this month as
Speaker 1: many of you know listeners, doing our annual trip there.
Speaker 2: We've done five trips to England now as part of
Speaker 2: the Around the NFL.
Speaker 1: Podcast and connecting with our great listeners overseas and Mark.
Speaker 1: Part of our latest adventure was a trip to Sky
Speaker 1: Sports and their studios there in London and meeting with
Speaker 1: a good friend of ours, Neil Reynolds, the anchor of
Speaker 1: the NFL coverage for Sky Sports, and we got to
Speaker 1: do actually something pretty special with him, sit down with Neil.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't think we've ever done anything and like
Speaker 3: it before, and Neil was kind of like the perfect
Speaker 3: host for it. We cycled back through the ten plus
Speaker 3: years of doing our show and the reason I say
Speaker 3: that I think he's an ideal person to host it
Speaker 3: is that, like our relationship with England, is this incredibly special,
Speaker 3: strange and unexpected aspect of the Around the NFL podcast,
Speaker 3: Because you know, when we started it, we're just like
Speaker 3: we just want to talk football together. And we thought
Speaker 3: maybe we'd have some like Jabbroni's from like Chicago and
Speaker 3: LA and you know, surrounding parts into it. And then
Speaker 3: we have this like massive group of people from London,
Speaker 3: UK and beyond, and it's like this connection is the
Speaker 3: most special part of what we do. And Neil's always
Speaker 3: been a friend to us an ally, is someone that
Speaker 3: whenever we've gone over there, we've been on Sky Sports,
Speaker 3: a bunch, hung out with Neil, had dinners with Neil.
Speaker 3: So I thought this was a really interesting half an
Speaker 3: hour to go through the lineage, the history of not
Speaker 3: only the three of us, but also Chris Wesling of course,
Speaker 3: and everything that happened over the past decade plus.
Speaker 1: Yes, it was a really nice conversation with Neil, who
Speaker 1: we go way back with and he has always been
Speaker 1: really great to us as well, so we were comfortable
Speaker 1: talking with him. And even though it's you know, it's
Speaker 1: about us and about our show, and we talked about
Speaker 1: internally whether we wanted to to kind of amplify this
Speaker 1: on our podcast. Ultimately, I think we all were happy
Speaker 1: with how the conversation came out, and obviously we are
Speaker 1: so blessed to have the loyal listeners that we do
Speaker 1: in England and the UK and as you said, Ireland, Germany, Australia, Scotland.
Speaker 1: I mean you could go on and on and on
Speaker 1: with the sport that we.
Speaker 2: Have overseas and we're very lucky.
Speaker 1: So we touch on that and other things, and yes,
Speaker 1: get into how Chris Westling affected our show when he's
Speaker 1: with us, and how we still think about him after
Speaker 1: he has moved on. So let's throw it now to
Speaker 1: that conversation with Neil Reynolds and we'll see you on
Speaker 1: Sunday night for the flagship program.
Speaker 4: Welcome to a very special edition of Neil Meats. I've
Speaker 4: met Odell Beckham Junior in the past few months, justin
Speaker 4: Jefferson brock Perdy, but this is the one.
Speaker 2: This is the one.
Speaker 4: A room filled with heroes. Can I take your line,
Speaker 4: Don Greg Rosen, So, Dan Hanss, Mark Cecily around the
Speaker 4: NFL podcast heroes straight out the in your lines.
Speaker 1: Pulling back the veil, Neil here that we did our
Speaker 1: preview episode on our podcast and I was sitting in
Speaker 1: your spot and you were sitting here and I could
Speaker 1: tell just like you're seething with anger that I would.
Speaker 2: I would dare touch your territory.
Speaker 1: So now you've you've put me in my place, and
Speaker 1: now you've amiliated me on your on your network.
Speaker 3: So congratulations, Reg and I are good little boys, and
Speaker 3: we'll go along with this long standing bit between the
Speaker 3: two of you.
Speaker 4: Gone on a while as it has, it's probably enough.
Speaker 4: Although to be fair, some of the bits on your
Speaker 4: podcast they run around.
Speaker 5: They're funnier as they age, and I'm happy that Odell
Speaker 5: is a warm up back for absolutely.
Speaker 4: So we're going to talk about your journey from when
Speaker 4: you first became NFL fans, all the way through your
Speaker 4: early years at the NFL to what you are now
Speaker 4: is podcast powerhouses.
Speaker 2: It just heads up me like Greg is opted to
Speaker 2: be directly in our eye. I'm like sitting down.
Speaker 5: I already am like like a mini mic.
Speaker 2: What am I going to look? I'm just checked.
Speaker 4: So if you're so, do you put your backside up
Speaker 4: against the back of the check could your feet not
Speaker 4: touch the ground?
Speaker 3: Look at that it's already gone in this direction.
Speaker 2: Checking. Yeah, I'm just checking.
Speaker 4: So as the host and you respect, I was uncomfortable
Speaker 4: for the first minute or so there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you kind of took a dig there at Greg though,
Speaker 1: and he's a friend of mine, and you've made things
Speaker 1: really awkward for everyone just.
Speaker 2: Ten years.
Speaker 3: I'm a friend of dancers.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there you progress. I took that.
Speaker 4: We're going to talking about football growing up. Give me
Speaker 4: a give me a football memory, what kind of something
Speaker 4: that stands out that you prey passionate about the game.
Speaker 4: Early on, it was a different time.
Speaker 3: I like find it interesting that we had practices five
Speaker 3: nights a week of two hours of contact and I'm in, like,
Speaker 3: you know, like fifth grade, and the coach was.
Speaker 5: With relationship with professional I don't know.
Speaker 2: What my career career.
Speaker 3: The coach would call us ladies. He's like, come on, ladies,
Speaker 3: so try to jazz us up. You couldn't do that today.
Speaker 3: So I like learned the rough and tumble way about
Speaker 3: the game. And then when I started to watch the NFL,
Speaker 3: I was like, I'll apply this to my career, and
Speaker 3: none of it applied at all. I couldn't translate it
Speaker 3: at all, and just became a football watcher.
Speaker 4: I put some questions down here. I knew it would
Speaker 4: just still go out of the window within three minutes.
Speaker 5: I remember going to see Doug Flutie the first game
Speaker 5: I ever went to it. And I only went to a
Speaker 5: few games at Foxboro Stadium because my dad was more
Speaker 5: into basketball and baseball. But we went and we saw
Speaker 5: Patriots Colts nineteen eighty eight. Patriots weren't a great back then,
Speaker 5: but Doug Flutie ran an end around to win the
Speaker 5: game with about two minutes to go, and I was hooked.
Speaker 5: In that place, went freaking crazy. There weren't actually even
Speaker 5: seats there, it's all. It was all bleachers, one of
Speaker 5: the worst stadiums ever, and just the excitement in that stadium,
Speaker 5: and even when they would only win six games a year,
Speaker 5: it was like each one of those wins felt like
Speaker 5: it was like, I don't know, like winning a postseason
Speaker 5: series or something. It was such a big deal.
Speaker 2: Then I was hooked.
Speaker 1: Yeah, my first Jets game, and you know, it was
Speaker 1: October nineteen eighty eight, and my dad, who's you know,
Speaker 1: grew up a Namath guy, never even warned me as
Speaker 1: a child, like, hey, this is gonna be bad, like
Speaker 1: just the heads up, Like fandom with the Jets is
Speaker 1: very difficult and painful, and you're gonna have your heart
Speaker 1: broken and ripped out in ways that you can't even imagine.
Speaker 2: And Week one this year is another example of that.
Speaker 1: But the we were it was Chiefs Jets in a
Speaker 1: downpour at Old Giants Stadium, and I remember Freeman McNeil
Speaker 1: inside the twenty yard line and fumbling and overtime to
Speaker 1: ensure a seventeen seventeen tie, and it's just feeling really
Speaker 1: unfair as an eight year old, and then realizing that
Speaker 1: the fact that they tied the game was kind of
Speaker 1: a win for the Jets, so kind of like I
Speaker 1: learned to it would even get darker in the future.
Speaker 1: So that's my introduction to Jet's vandom and torture was
Speaker 1: a seventeen seventeen.
Speaker 2: Tie in the rain.
Speaker 3: I think my career retrospective was maybe a little more meaningful.
Speaker 4: Well well, I think as you will go through the
Speaker 4: development of the podcast and how much it's grown, you're
Speaker 4: the only one who's played the game.
Speaker 2: Out of the curve. So I like to remind them,
Speaker 2: must bring you closer to that.
Speaker 3: It actually it gets them on the same island against
Speaker 3: me very quickly.
Speaker 1: Because I don't think they like any remarkable Neil that
Speaker 1: we're doing a television show, right now and you asked
Speaker 1: him to share an early memory as like an NFL
Speaker 1: than and it started talking about.
Speaker 2: When he was an eight year old playing.
Speaker 5: I mean aditionally, my son kind of practiced flag football,
Speaker 5: you know, out of here this that's about the same
Speaker 5: level of football that Mark, as.
Speaker 3: Greg Free practices on that team that I was on
Speaker 3: a humble outfit.
Speaker 4: Just as an aside, I caught your single on that monitor.
Speaker 4: Then the studio hasn't seen hair like that in years.
Speaker 4: I'm just going to say.
Speaker 1: It's it's I would say it's your hair people here
Speaker 1: at Sky, but this is this.
Speaker 2: Is how.
Speaker 4: Fantastic. So how did you guys all meet? When did
Speaker 4: you first Will meet Greg?
Speaker 5: Well, they knew each other before I came aboard at
Speaker 5: the NFL. I was hired. I was working at a
Speaker 5: place called Pro Football Talk, and I came over and uh,
Speaker 5: and these guys were there. We were actually at the
Speaker 5: NFL scouting combine. I think when I first we met
Speaker 5: first there met Mark and that was a good introduction
Speaker 5: to Mark because most of the time on league events
Speaker 5: has been out at bars like this.
Speaker 3: That is that is it was organized to meet up
Speaker 3: with Greg who was coming to the NFL I had
Speaker 3: joined I think a year plus before, I was working
Speaker 3: for a terrible corporation. I won't even say the name.
Speaker 3: I don't know if they're attached to this corporation on level.
Speaker 2: But it was football. No, not at all.
Speaker 3: It was like a terrible job, but it paid well
Speaker 3: because it was so terrible. And so the NFL I
Speaker 3: found out was hiring to a friend and I started
Speaker 3: as a three day a week editor, making what essentially
Speaker 3: like a high school student would make. About a month
Speaker 3: later Dan showed up who you came across from the
Speaker 3: East Coast, and I taught Dan how to use the
Speaker 3: computer system.
Speaker 2: I think that ever since, it's.
Speaker 3: Like, was this when we two thousand summer of ten.
Speaker 2: So yeah, now that's yeah.
Speaker 1: We both started as part timers three days a week,
Speaker 1: maybe a little older than most people that take that position,
Speaker 1: but I guess it was the allure of the NFL,
Speaker 1: and then we got opportunities.
Speaker 2: Once we were in the door, we just hung around.
Speaker 4: So what was it like the early days trying to
Speaker 4: get the footing of the podcast established in the NFL?
Speaker 2: It was difficult.
Speaker 5: When I moved out to Los Angeles, Chris Westling, our
Speaker 5: great friend, moved out at the same time, and the
Speaker 5: four of us were working on what it amounted to
Speaker 5: a blo a news blog writing and our bosses at
Speaker 5: the time when we suggested doing this podcast, there was
Speaker 5: a studio there for rich Eisen wanted no part of it,
Speaker 5: thought it was a complete waste of time. Kept that
Speaker 5: opinion going for about four to five years, even as
Speaker 5: the numbers started rolling in. They didn't understand what that was.
Speaker 5: But they had a rule initially that like, well, it
Speaker 5: was all extra. We're like, we're not asking for anything,
Speaker 5: we're just doing extra. It's like, well, if you leave
Speaker 5: someone on the desk that's still working writing up you
Speaker 5: know that. I'm trying to think oft Yeah, Percy Harvin
Speaker 5: missed practice, then it could be okay. So at first
Speaker 5: one person would be at the desk and we would
Speaker 5: call that person on the podcast and say hello. But
Speaker 5: that didn't last long and we just started doing whatever
Speaker 5: we want.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, it's Greg's origin. Story only starts with Greg.
Speaker 1: But we started a podcast Mark and I before Greg's arrival,
Speaker 1: called the atl Debate Club, which was originally was a
Speaker 1: column that.
Speaker 2: We wrote like it was like a he said he
Speaker 2: said another thing that wouldn't exist. Yeah, and I remember.
Speaker 1: Going into a Carmen, one of our bosses at the time,
Speaker 1: her office and saying, you know, we wanted to try
Speaker 1: this in podcast for him and Dave Damashek, who we
Speaker 1: owe a lot to, had put our mini Debate Club.
Speaker 2: It was like a ten to twelve minute show.
Speaker 1: On the back of his program, and so like we
Speaker 1: were kind of doing it without anybody even paying attention.
Speaker 1: It wasn't even technically our show. And then we were
Speaker 1: able to kind of spin that out into our own show,
Speaker 1: and then when Greg and Chris arrived, then we turned it.
Speaker 1: It kind of turned into the ATN podcast. But yeah,
Speaker 1: it was it took a long time for the people
Speaker 1: in that building to actually catch up to what we
Speaker 1: the progress that we were making, Like I remember took
Speaker 1: me a long time to even get like a full
Speaker 1: time job there.
Speaker 2: And like what I was.
Speaker 1: Essentially warned when they gave me the job, like this
Speaker 1: is you're not being hired to.
Speaker 2: Do a podcast, Like it's not about the podcast.
Speaker 1: And I remember just shaking my head and thinking to myself,
Speaker 1: you have no idea what you're talking about.
Speaker 2: This everything is about the podcast. And it was true
Speaker 2: and that's our jobs.
Speaker 1: We do other things with the company that are important,
Speaker 1: but it's the Pod that I think has made us.
Speaker 5: You know, we have to wait for those people to
Speaker 5: end up leaving the company.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, to really I would say one thing that
Speaker 2: listed them. We I felt like.
Speaker 3: We became friends quickly, and we would we would go
Speaker 3: out to have beers after work sometimes and I'll remember
Speaker 3: a night that we were walking around this park with
Speaker 3: like cans of beer and talking about like the debate
Speaker 3: club in the show, and being like, we can't give
Speaker 3: up on this, like this is the thing, and you
Speaker 3: Dan always had that very strong vision for it, and
Speaker 3: there were I do think that when the four of
Speaker 3: us got together it felt different. I love, we love
Speaker 3: doing our thing together, but if something clicked. But I
Speaker 3: will say, if you go back and listen to those
Speaker 3: early episodes, our voices are quiet, like we are, We're
Speaker 3: just our.
Speaker 2: Inflection was no experience, especially and like.
Speaker 3: Like Wesling's first ever a couple appearances, like none of
Speaker 3: us had done it before, right, and so it was
Speaker 3: like really raw and it took a lot of time
Speaker 3: to figure it out, but you kind of just knew
Speaker 3: from the beginning it kind of felt right.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 4: So you've covered a lot of events, a lot of games,
Speaker 4: both sides of the Atlantic. Let's go around all three
Speaker 4: of you. Maybe a favorite game or a favorite event
Speaker 4: that you've you've really.
Speaker 2: Enjoyed, correct, I mean, there's so many.
Speaker 5: It's tough on this one Patriots super Bowl wins to
Speaker 5: choose from.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's gotta be to me.
Speaker 5: Patriots, Seahawks before we started actually Saints Colts. I'll always
Speaker 5: say it was one of my favorite moments of all
Speaker 5: time when Tracy Porter made that interception and I looked
Speaker 5: over and the Jaguars owner was right next to us
Speaker 5: in the media box and he was he was so
Speaker 5: mad because he hated the Colts so much. To that one,
Speaker 5: but the feeling I had when the Seahawks had gotten
Speaker 5: to the two yard line from that Seahawks Patriots and
Speaker 5: we're all in there together, and at that point it
Speaker 5: had been arguably the greatest ten year run any team
Speaker 5: had ever had, win loss wise and consistent success, and
Speaker 5: the Patriots hadn't won a single Super Bowl in those
Speaker 5: that ten year time and they had lost two heartbreakers,
Speaker 5: obviously in the Super Bowl, and that feeling of it's
Speaker 5: all they're gonna lose it right here, and then the
Speaker 5: flip in one second and to me, the greatest play
Speaker 5: in the history of football, Malcolm, Malcolm Butler, nothing tops that.
Speaker 4: It's great to see history when you watch you something.
Speaker 5: You know, you knew, you knew this second half, you
Speaker 5: could almost not believe that that had actually just happened.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think the being at Super Bowls is still
Speaker 1: to this day.
Speaker 2: I still like.
Speaker 1: When when it comes time to go to the game,
Speaker 1: like growing up just loving the NFL. It's so incredible
Speaker 1: to be kind of the center of like the pop
Speaker 1: culture universe. So like being around even though as a
Speaker 1: Patriot hater, like some of those great games twenty eight
Speaker 1: to three, Malcolm Butler, even though in the moment it's like, uh,
Speaker 1: like now.
Speaker 2: You remember, oh you were there. It's part of history,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 1: And and like I remember like seeing the Giants Patriots
Speaker 1: too with that ending with the hail Mary, like picturing
Speaker 1: that ball in the air where Brady tossed it and
Speaker 1: Gronk just missing it. That great Eagles went over the
Speaker 1: Pats as well.
Speaker 2: Stick to me.
Speaker 1: But you know the first time we came to London
Speaker 1: with with Wes as a group, and it was I
Speaker 1: think I think James Winston threw five interceptions in that game.
Speaker 2: Seven times. Yeah, it was.
Speaker 1: It was horrendous, but just like that whole week, it
Speaker 1: was such a whirlwind and being in that stadium and
Speaker 1: seeing how how first of all, this this this community here,
Speaker 1: the football community here in UK and as I say,
Speaker 1: the surrounding territories has always been so kind to us.
Speaker 1: But then seeing looking at the crowd and not looking
Speaker 1: like any other football crowd, where it was everyone repping
Speaker 1: their own colors and their own team. It wasn't a
Speaker 1: typical crowd. And then you know, getting interviewed on the
Speaker 1: big screen, it.
Speaker 2: Was just like that.
Speaker 1: To me, it was like, oh, we made it like
Speaker 1: we're here and this is a whole new ball game here.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I think I was kind of cycling through some of
Speaker 3: the same things about that Seahawks Patriots Super Bowl. It
Speaker 3: came after the flat gate and there was a moment
Speaker 3: when you know, teams are coming out of the tunnel
Speaker 3: and it was thunderously loud, and I just remember being
Speaker 3: like I've been in a lot of football games, I
Speaker 3: had never experienced audibly something so devastatingly crazy as that
Speaker 3: When they showed Bill Belichick coming out and he had
Speaker 3: his hood on and he just looked like literally a
Speaker 3: villain from a science fiction film, and the place went
Speaker 3: absolutely crazy negative on you.
Speaker 2: You could say Vader it was, I mean, it was
Speaker 2: just like.
Speaker 3: He totally was leaning into the role. But then a
Speaker 3: couple seconds later, out of the darkness, like Tom Brady
Speaker 3: emerged and it's like, even though he was at the
Speaker 3: center of that, the place erupted and positive and just
Speaker 3: you could feel the energy. And I think the thing
Speaker 3: that connects for me a little bit is that after
Speaker 3: the Falcon Super Bowl twenty eight to three, you know
Speaker 3: we would decide for the game, you go to the
Speaker 3: winters locker room and the losers off the two very
Speaker 3: different environments. But I went in there and I was
Speaker 3: in the exact right place at the right time where
Speaker 3: when Tom Brady came over to hug teammates, like, I
Speaker 3: was just standing there recording the whole thing, and I
Speaker 3: was trying to process this moment. I'm like, I've been
Speaker 3: watching this guy since I was like a young young
Speaker 3: person not working in football, totally different and he's at
Speaker 3: the height of his profession, at the greatest comeback ever
Speaker 3: and I'm like, I'm just trying to measure the idea
Speaker 3: that I'm a foot and away half from Tom Brady'm like,
Speaker 3: I'm glad I chose his career versus that accounting.
Speaker 1: Now, so we all brought up Brady there. I think
Speaker 1: we're going to need more distance because he just retired,
Speaker 1: I think probably now, but like you know, five, ten,
Speaker 1: twenty years from now, like we were there for like
Speaker 1: that incredible second run that he had, right.
Speaker 2: And you know, I think we you know, we went
Speaker 2: to four.
Speaker 1: Or five of the Super Bowls, and it's just like
Speaker 1: it's crazy to for a guy that I think part
Speaker 1: of the reason because he was the dude and that
Speaker 1: the electricity that he produced just by being the building
Speaker 1: with him for that game.
Speaker 4: You just mentioned community and you've mentioned him a couple
Speaker 4: of times already. Wes and felt like we lost Wes
Speaker 4: on the weekend of the Super Bowl going into that
Speaker 4: box and Chiefs, I had the stupid thought that weekend
Speaker 4: West isn't going to know who won the Super Bowl,
Speaker 4: which is the weirdest thing to think at that time,
Speaker 4: but into what was it like what losing the reaction
Speaker 4: after losing him, obviously losing him you guys were devastated,
Speaker 4: But to have that sort of rally of support and
Speaker 4: love that was showing around the world towards West and
Speaker 4: towards you guys. Tell us about that time.
Speaker 5: Well, I just showed what you know, as someone who
Speaker 5: knew him when we were at Rootal World together and
Speaker 5: I hadn't even met him in person at that time.
Speaker 5: He was just this guy on AOL instant message for
Speaker 5: me for five years who I imagine living. He always
Speaker 5: was like I can see the water from here and
Speaker 5: he's drinking his beers while he's writing these fantasy posts too,
Speaker 5: you know, one of all of our great friends. When
Speaker 5: we all got out to Los Angeles, to see how
Speaker 5: many different people he touched, just it it meant a lot,
Speaker 5: because I think he was such a people person. You
Speaker 5: started to realize how everyone had this special relationship with
Speaker 5: Wes in different ways, whether you were one of his
Speaker 5: best friends, or whether you only met him a few times,
Speaker 5: or whether you were a listener to the show. So
Speaker 5: I'll always remember when they put his image and that
Speaker 5: was one of them right there up on the big
Speaker 5: screen at Tottenham Stadium a couple of years ago. It
Speaker 5: was very difficult, but it was also beautiful and it was, like,
Speaker 5: I don't know, one of the most powerful moments of
Speaker 5: our lives, and it not one that that that you
Speaker 5: wanted all but also something that just kind of speaks
Speaker 5: to the many list.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean that whole that whole period was because
Speaker 1: it happened in the middle of COVID and we were
Speaker 1: all just disconnected in general, and for his illness to return,
Speaker 1: and then really the way the way it all played
Speaker 1: out was heartbreaking. And I'll always remember like because he
Speaker 1: did do is he never gave up like.
Speaker 2: Wanting to be part of the show.
Speaker 1: So even when as he was getting sicker and sicker,
Speaker 1: he would come on to the Sunday shows and just
Speaker 1: for a couple of games. And but we you know,
Speaker 1: behind the scenes, we knew it was not looking great
Speaker 1: and we knew but right before he passed away that
Speaker 1: we were aware a couple of days in advance. It
Speaker 1: was time to prepare for this, and I just I
Speaker 1: remember we went to the hospital the day before and
Speaker 1: we couldn't even go up to see him because of
Speaker 1: like COVID protocols. But Nick came down his brother and
Speaker 1: Phil and we you know, we kind of shared that moment.
Speaker 1: I think Colleen was with us too, and then you know,
Speaker 1: I remember when we got the word and it was
Speaker 1: a couple of days before the Super Bowl. Thinking one
Speaker 1: of the things I thought of was like, listeners knew
Speaker 1: Chris was sick, and if you were watching some of
Speaker 1: the Sunday show you could see it physically that he
Speaker 1: was sick, but they didn't know maybe you know how
Speaker 1: bad it was. So thinking to myself like, now this
Speaker 1: news is going to get out and it's I was
Speaker 1: actually remember thinking in terms of the listeners that it's
Speaker 1: going to be such a punch of the stomach because
Speaker 1: they weren't aware of what we knew, how truly sick
Speaker 1: it was.
Speaker 2: So it was it was really sad, and.
Speaker 1: We miss him every day and these trips that are
Speaker 1: never never the same without him, the podcast will never
Speaker 1: be the same.
Speaker 2: But so many great memories.
Speaker 4: I remember that week one when you came over and
Speaker 4: you were on one table you four yes, and I
Speaker 4: was on another table hosting there with Rob Ryan and
Speaker 4: Solomon Wilcots, and was whispered to me afterwards, that's one
Speaker 4: of my greatest Sundays ever covering in the NFL, and
Speaker 4: I just flew out of the studio. It just was
Speaker 4: great that we'd all had that experience together. Mark, do
Speaker 4: you sometimes watched the game now today and think Wes
Speaker 4: would love that play, He'd love this. I mean he
Speaker 4: was sort of ahead of all of us on Joe Burrow,
Speaker 4: wasn't he. I remember that in you know when he
Speaker 4: would join us on Sky Sports. Do you think you
Speaker 4: see players now that you'd be like, I'd love.
Speaker 3: To Yes, Yeah, And I think it's there's just this
Speaker 3: reminder that Wes, I mean from an analysts standpoint, in
Speaker 3: a lover and observer of football, because I mean long
Speaker 3: before he did it for money, he just did it
Speaker 3: because he had like six other brothers. They'd be arguing
Speaker 3: about football on Sundays. And it's like he became a
Speaker 3: great analyst because of the way he grew up. And
Speaker 3: you know, he and I were the same age, and
Speaker 3: so there were some references that I think kind of
Speaker 3: had shared meaning to us, and like certain football memories,
Speaker 3: I think that we each lost like our favorite football friend,
Speaker 3: you know, And it's like doing the show in the
Speaker 3: wake of that was really tough, but I think it
Speaker 3: it brought us together. It challenged us a lot But
Speaker 3: the one thing that I think still trickles in daily
Speaker 3: weekly is you still hear from someone who's like, oh,
Speaker 3: but I don't know if you'll read this. It's like
Speaker 3: a DM on Instagram or something. I just want to
Speaker 3: let you know, Like people don't know this, but Wes
Speaker 3: reached out to me when I was having a tough
Speaker 3: time and converse with me one on one, and it's like,
Speaker 3: there's probably been like and this guy also blocked like
Speaker 3: seven hundred people on Twitter, so he you know, he
Speaker 3: he was. He took it, took it carefully. But I
Speaker 3: mean how many people he contained?
Speaker 2: Multitude?
Speaker 3: Yes, just like you find out that Wes changed and
Speaker 3: surprised and interacted and like helped so many different people.
Speaker 3: And it was like that who us was because like
Speaker 3: we had the football stuff, but the friendship that we
Speaker 3: had with him was paramount overall the work business in general.
Speaker 3: And it's just like you miss you hear his laugh
Speaker 3: in your head every day and you miss him.
Speaker 5: I talked to his wife, Lukeisha when we got here.
Speaker 5: Today's just talking about these trips, and she had said
Speaker 5: that first trip because she came along with it when
Speaker 5: we went the one you were talking about meant a
Speaker 5: lot to him. Was actually a big turning point for him,
Speaker 5: because I don't think he realized the sort of scope
Speaker 5: that the podcast had in general, like we don't meet
Speaker 5: necessarily our listeners back home or like this and having
Speaker 5: this experience with you guys on Sky and doing this
Speaker 5: national broadcast and then meeting all these fans upon fans
Speaker 5: at their live show and it sort of blew his mind.
Speaker 5: And she said, like that trip specifically meant a lot
Speaker 5: to him and helped him because he was already having
Speaker 5: recovered from his first bat with cancer, like really appreciate
Speaker 5: those sort of moments and what he had made of
Speaker 5: his life.
Speaker 1: When people ask, uh, what's your favorite moment in the
Speaker 1: history of the podcast, it's always first trip to London
Speaker 1: after West got better. Yeah, and we it was so
Speaker 1: it was like a triumphant show. And I remember and
Speaker 1: we brought the Keysha up on stage at the end
Speaker 1: of the show, and I remember going to introducing each
Speaker 1: of the heroes one by one, and when introduced Chris,
Speaker 1: like the place exploded in.
Speaker 4: The underground play and it's been pouring on the way
Speaker 4: I was watching that night.
Speaker 1: It was fantastic and just like I think that's part
Speaker 1: of the I love that he had that moment for
Speaker 1: people to be able to show their love for him, and.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's he was a star. He certainly was a star.
Speaker 4: So I'm king to know, when you've met all these
Speaker 4: NFL stars and you do your interviews and all that
Speaker 4: in your jobs, have you ever been starstruck? Go down
Speaker 4: the line with that. I think it's interesting because we
Speaker 4: round so many big name players and various times.
Speaker 3: I think for me, like the like that Brady moment,
Speaker 3: like what was kind of huge, but I was functioning.
Speaker 3: I have a weird one like I named my son
Speaker 3: Carlton after cal McCoy, and but I never, you know,
Speaker 3: met Calt McCoy. And then at this last super Bowl,
Speaker 3: you know when you're at the Super Bowl hotel, if
Speaker 3: you ever have experience, if you're watching this, like you,
Speaker 3: it bubbles up as the week goes on and it
Speaker 3: more and more like people walk by where you're like, WHOA,
Speaker 3: that's that guy. He's like so I just was one
Speaker 3: morning waiting for these guys to come down and go
Speaker 3: do a show. And like Colt McCoy, who is pretty
Speaker 3: approachable and not really someone that a lot of people
Speaker 3: even recognize. I think in the hotel I saw him
Speaker 3: and I was like, I couldn't move. I was like,
Speaker 3: I just for some reason, was like this is the
Speaker 3: guy that I'm starstruck.
Speaker 4: Flight response, I realized, away, take me somewhere I'll never expected.
Speaker 2: They couldn't move.
Speaker 1: That's how I usually close with Mark, because it goes
Speaker 1: off in that direction. Well, a couple of ones like
Speaker 1: I met. I interviewed name It on the red carpet
Speaker 1: at one of the Super Bowls, and I don't even
Speaker 1: really remember that I blacked out, but I remember going
Speaker 1: back to the hotel room.
Speaker 2: My dad was there and playing him back the audio and.
Speaker 1: Like like seeing me, my dad was like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: like this is Utah to my hero growing up. But
Speaker 1: the one that kind of where I actually felt truly
Speaker 1: like starstruck in a way that I was cognizant of
Speaker 1: was the first super Bowl we got to cover together.
Speaker 1: Was the Super Bowl forty six, which was Giants Pats two,
Speaker 1: And it was in Indianapolis and they had us I
Speaker 1: think we had turned in time cards that had over
Speaker 1: eighty hours.
Speaker 2: On it that week.
Speaker 1: They just they had us sitting in this like bullpen
Speaker 1: pit basically next to the NFL network set and grabbing
Speaker 1: everybody as they came by, and Joe Montana comes right,
Speaker 1: and if you're a person of a certain age, it's Montana.
Speaker 2: He's the guy. He's always going to be the guy.
Speaker 1: And I grew up when Montana was Montana and the
Speaker 1: top quarterback ever. So I went up to him and
Speaker 1: if you could find this on YouTube, actually Neil like
Speaker 1: it's a very fresh face young zoozer and I'm interviewing
Speaker 1: Joe Montana asking him about Tom Brady and just being like,
Speaker 1: I can't believe I'm actually doing this right now.
Speaker 2: That that one's hard to beat for me.
Speaker 5: Wait did you say that was the young zeuser? So
Speaker 5: he actually gave himself the third person new nickname.
Speaker 2: Even the operating on levels that that doesn't even think
Speaker 2: we're possible.
Speaker 5: I gotta hand it to you, like sometimes you just
Speaker 5: gotta give it to good enough.
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness.
Speaker 5: I think it was asking Bill Belichick a question at
Speaker 5: a Super Bowl press conference in two thousand and seven
Speaker 5: that because I just remember, I think I had been
Speaker 5: thinking about what question can I ask to really impress
Speaker 5: Bill Belichick? Like I had been reading I was He's
Speaker 5: my favorite football figure and I read Education of a Coach,
Speaker 5: but Halberston I had like read all the books. I'd
Speaker 5: read the scouting book that his dad had written in
Speaker 5: all the books, like he suggested about Paul Brown and
Speaker 5: all this stuff, and I just thought, this is the
Speaker 5: smartest guy ever.
Speaker 2: And it was the first Super Bowl I cover.
Speaker 5: I was with NBC at the time, but I was like, well,
Speaker 5: at the very least, I gotta just like ask something
Speaker 5: in the middle of a press conference, and my stomach
Speaker 5: was just like royaling as like Brian McCarthy, the PR
Speaker 5: guy for the NFL, because it was it was in
Speaker 5: it was the one in the big you know, the
Speaker 5: ballroom or whatever where there's fifty It was like it
Speaker 5: was some stupid thing trying to compare Antonio Pearce of
Speaker 5: the Giants to like his old Giants linebackers. Like I
Speaker 5: was really trying to get like mister and I knew.
Speaker 5: I was like, well, he doesn't talk nice about his players,
Speaker 5: but if you ask about the other team and it
Speaker 5: will go deep on end.
Speaker 2: Well you tried. Yeah, he gave a great answer. It all,
Speaker 2: it all was great.
Speaker 5: But I just like when he handed me the microphones,
Speaker 5: like this is going to fall out of my I
Speaker 5: was just.
Speaker 2: Too nervous last one.
Speaker 4: Your growth has kind of coincided with the international growth
Speaker 4: of the NFL all these regular seasons.
Speaker 2: I know, that's not even.
Speaker 5: It's all been part of our mutual friend Henry Hodson's
Speaker 5: master plan. We're actually been implanted, got a great game here.
Speaker 2: Yet do you think we've taken out once they don't
Speaker 2: need this anymore?
Speaker 4: Do you think we're living through historic times? Like if
Speaker 4: you look back at, you know, on this period of
Speaker 4: growth in the NFL, it feels as a real story
Speaker 4: being told.
Speaker 1: It feels like from when we join the league to
Speaker 1: picture like where we are now. Like the the idea
Speaker 1: of the NFL could become a global game, I think
Speaker 1: is it felt like a bit of a long shot
Speaker 1: years ago, and because it just felt like such a
Speaker 1: uniquely American game that would be difficult. And you know,
Speaker 1: the football football thing has caused some heat. I feel
Speaker 1: like through the years rule and it's so the fact
Speaker 1: that the game is not only caught on it now
Speaker 1: feels like there's like really like a really educated football
Speaker 1: fan base.
Speaker 2: People know there's stuff out here.
Speaker 1: It's and you see the way these stadiums fill up,
Speaker 1: like we were talking about earlier in the show, just
Speaker 1: how everyone gets to go to these games when they
Speaker 1: come to London and rep their team or their favorite player.
Speaker 1: I think it's incredible the growth, and I think the
Speaker 1: fact that there's three games, I think you can make
Speaker 1: a case where they're being more because I think there
Speaker 1: is the demand for it.
Speaker 4: Dan thinks he grew to internationally. I'll just show you
Speaker 4: this promo and you can make up your own mind
Speaker 4: because you can watch more Neil Meets because I've been
Speaker 4: around some of the biggest start.
Speaker 2: That's with an ellipses or colon where I.
Speaker 4: Just feel like there should be more punctuation on them.
Speaker 2: But there's they're all on demand.
Speaker 4: Neil Meets Odell Beckham, Justin Jefferson brock Purdy and Dolphin's
Speaker 4: head coach Mike McDaniel. And of course now.
Speaker 2: That is just my headshot.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we'll put them kind of the other two, well
Speaker 4: we'll put We'll go Greg Dan and some other guy, like,
Speaker 4: we'll do it that way.
Speaker 3: I'm just I'm just starstrucks sitting next to Dans all right.
Speaker 4: But thanks to Mark Sesler, Dan Hans as Greg Rosenthal,
Speaker 4: and thank you for joining us for this special Neil
Speaker 4: Meets and we'll see you next time.
Speaker 2: Both now