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- [00:00]
Ryan McGee
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- [00:58]
Ryan McGee
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- [01:34]
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- [02:05]
Matt Jones
Hi everybody. Welcome to episode two of the Matt Jones Show. Thank you guys very much for making episode one and the show successful. You can subscribe on Apple, Spotify and YouTube. It's been, it's been wonderful to get the response. This is what we were hoping for. So every week we're going to do two episodes, one of which will air on Radio in Kentucky, and then the other of which will be on here, and we'll put both episodes on the podcast feed, but really there'll only be. There'll be one that is kind of podcast only. And we're going to start this one with an old friend of mine, Ryan McGee. He's done right writing for ESPN for a long time, used to work on RPM. Tonight, he covers college football and auto racing. More importantly, a smart guy with good southern North Carolina roots, and there's not a lot of us in sports media actually from the south worked with him on espn and he actually put me on the radio for my first time with espn. So we talked to him a little bit earlier today, and it's a big week with all the motorsports on Memorial Day, so we'll check it out. And then on. On episode three, we'll have Crystal Ball, my good friend who works in politics. So we go from Bomani to Ryan to Crystal Ball. That episode should be out probably Thursday night or so. So with that, Ryan McGee. All right, episode two here of the Matt Jones Show. And, you know, when I started these, I wanted to get people early on that I knew who've done these before, who I know I can talk to and are fun to be around and interesting. And Ryan McGee of ESPN fits all of those. He does college football, he does auto racing, and he's also a good Southerner, One of the few people on ESPN with a voice sounding like mine. Ryan, thank you very much. How you been?
- [03:55]
Ryan McGee
I'm good. Yeah. No, it's. I always. I'm petty enough that I hope that all of the professors that I had who said I could never Or. And the people I interviewed with for jobs who said I could never be on air because of the way I sounded, I'm petty enough to hope that they.
- [04:13]
Matt Jones
Yeah, screw those people. When I went to law school and I was going to Duke, it wasn't like I was going up in the Northeast. My professor said to me, you, you need to, like, work on your voice or all of those folks will think you're D. And I actually thought that was bad advice because I thought the voice kind of helped people, like, underestimate you, Ryan, and then you can prove them wrong.
- [04:34]
Ryan McGee
No, no, I say all the time. When I. When I went. I went to. I went to Connecticut to work at espn at the Death Star. Right. I mean, basically a year out of college and in the company. ESPN is so much different now than it was 30 years ago. People from all over the country and, you know, but but back then, it was basically just me and a bunch of guys who'd gone to school at Syracuse and Columbia. And everyone treated me like a foreign exchange student. Like, they literally would speak loud and slow to me, like, you know, really, like you couldn't understand sandwiches. So if I, if I just did my job, they thought I had overcome some obstacle. Right. So, yeah. No, no. So, yeah, it worked out.
- [05:14]
Matt Jones
They need you. You needed to be rescued by them or something like that. I like that. Well, so I have a lot of stuff I want to talk to you about. You. But real quick, on the, on the being Southern and on ESPN, I joke you. We're on ESPN radio. You do Marty and McGee and I do Matt and Myron. Did you know we're the two longest running ESPN radio shows now? Did you know that?
- [05:41]
Ryan McGee
Yeah. So. So for years on Saturday we would lead into Daria Mel with her buddies, you know, Darienoka and Mel Kuiper. And when Dari and Mel ended, I guess it was in 2024, all of a sudden everybody was like Marty McGee. A show that, quite frankly, there were people at the time didn't really want us on their radio.
- [06:03]
Matt Jones
I understand. Yeah.
- [06:04]
Ryan McGee
And we, and we've been on now longer than, I mean, it's not even really close. We've been on now. We've been on since. Marty and I are talking about the day we. We started doing a podcast no one listened to, like more than a dozen years ago.
- [06:16]
Matt Jones
Yeah, you've been on since 2015. You, you on the radio.
- [06:19]
Ryan McGee
Then we moved to Saturday afternoon, like at 3 o' clock in the afternoon, which the family really liked. And then Saturday morning. Yeah, I'll tell you a story about that. So I, the hilarious thing is all of my friends know I'm not a morning person at all. And I co host a morning show and but my family, I am. I'm in a house of night people. Like, we sleep in, but we work all night. And my jobs have mostly been like that. But my wife was so mad when I told her one night at dinner, I go, hey, they're thinking about moving Marty McGee to Saturday morning at 7 o' clock in the morning. Oh my God. You know, Friday night's when we go out and it's not. Yeah, yeah, you're right, you're right. And so I didn't bring it up again. And later on we're at dinner and she goes, what did they decide to do with the show? I said, they decided to move it to 7am She's. What are they going to do it. I go, they did it five weeks ago.
- [07:12]
Matt Jones
She didn't even know. Okay.
- [07:13]
Ryan McGee
She didn't know. My family sleeps in. Yeah. So I come home from the show at 10:30 in the morning or whatever, and I'm usually waking Everybody up.
- [07:21]
Matt Jones
You're 2015. We started in 2018. And not only are we the two longest, we're the only shows that have survived Covid. Right. Like, we're. Which is. Which is crazy. Shows you how much turnover is in that business. And it's interesting. It really has changed because when we started, you guys, I thought were the only people doing like a personality based, not just sports thing. And. And then the first, after a couple years, I tried to do it. I didn't feel comfortable doing that the first time because I thought they wanted me to be football guy. And now it feels like everyone's trying to do that. I think that's.
- [07:57]
Ryan McGee
I got in trouble. So Marty. Marty and I were getting. And rightfully so. Marty and I were getting feedback. Sometimes, hey, you have to at least occasionally. Like, if LeBron drops 64 on Friday night, you probably should mention on Saturday morning, but there was one week where you subbed for Marty, and you and I literally talked about, like, county fairs.
- [08:18]
Matt Jones
Yes, it was awesome. I remember that.
- [08:20]
Ryan McGee
It was awesome. But that was the one time where they were like, okay, you literally did not mention sports for two hours. I'm like, okay, you know what? That's.
- [08:26]
Matt Jones
That's. That's right. But you guys, I do appreciate this and I thank you for this. My first handful of episodes on ESPN were on your show. You guys would be gone. It would usually be around Derby or Preakness or something, and they'd have me on the worst episode of Radio I've ever done in my life was. Well, on your show, which was the very first one with Nicole Briscoe, who couldn't have been worse to me. I won't make you comment on that. But after that, I usually worked with you when Marty was at horse races, and that's what ended up getting me the job. So I always have appreciated it.
- [09:00]
Ryan McGee
Yeah. No, and I appreciate. I appreciate that. Appreciate it in return because you. Because, you know, when. When. When I was in the process of trying to convince people to let us do radio, you know, you guys have me on your show, and so it kind of helped me. You know, I made this transition. So the first half of my career, I was a producer. You know, I was always on the producer track and really enjoyed it. Felt like I was pretty Good at it. And then I started writing for ESPN the Magazine on the side. Like I would produce these features like, like say, I'm saying I'm producing a two and a half minute story about Jeff Gordon.
- [09:34]
Matt Jones
Yeah.
- [09:34]
Ryan McGee
RPM Tonight. You know, back in the day, I would call ESPN the Magazine and go, I interviewed Jeff Gordon for an hour. And we're going to use, we're going.
- [09:41]
Matt Jones
To use two and a half minutes. Yeah.
- [09:42]
Ryan McGee
And so let me write something. And so, and then when I, when I left ESPN for a minute and when I came back and as a writer, just strictly as a writer, no longer as a producer, they started putting me on some shows. But it was because of guys like you that would let me go on their shows. It proved I could talk. You know, it helped me.
- [10:01]
Matt Jones
I think it's great to have the little bit of Southern culture we bring to, to Bristol. And this is a big weekend for you. You do a lot of college football, a lot of auto racing. So this is the, this you said to me, this is May for college basketball people. That's what we would say. This is March. So I want to go through on. Would you, first of all, would you say Memorial Day Sunday is the biggest day of the year for auto racing in America?
- [10:27]
Ryan McGee
Yeah, it's not even close. I think it's for the Globe because the, and I wrote this column a few years ago, you know, and there are stretches where this isn't going to happen, but for the most part, it's happened every Memorial Day Sunday for the last several decades, which is you start with the Grand Prix Monaco in the morning, Formula One, and then you have the Indianapolis 500. And those are two races that are watched all over the world.
- [10:50]
Matt Jones
Yes.
- [10:51]
Ryan McGee
And then you have the. I still call it the world 600, but the cold 600 here in Charlotte, where I live, is that night. And so, yeah, auto racing starts before breakfast and it goes until way after dinner.
- [11:03]
Matt Jones
Yeah.
- [11:03]
Ryan McGee
And what's cool is when I was.
- [11:05]
Matt Jones
A kid, that was the only time I ever watched racing was that day. Now that changed as I got older, but when I was a kid, that was it.
- [11:11]
Ryan McGee
I think most people are like that because the reality is, is that the Monaco race is not a great race. Those car, you know, these cars weren't built to race on the streets, certainly not the streets of this winding, but the spectacle of it is second to none. And then Indianapolis, you know, I think is the greatest race in the world and has become a phenomenal race over the last decade and a half. It used to be an endurance race. Now it's a race race. And then you have the Coke 600 on Sunday. What's cool is like, for example, Sunday morning. So McLaren, who's dominating Formula One this year, you know McLaren also fields Indy cars. Yeah. And so I'll be watching the Monaco grand prix with the McLaren guys from Indianapolis. And then later on, my colleague Nate Saunders will be watching the Indy 500 with the McLaren guys as they're packing up in Monaco. And then they'll all watch the Coke 600. That's what. What's changed over the last 30 years is all of these racers watch different types of racing. When I first came along, you had to make a choice. Are you an NHRA guy or a NASCAR guy or Formula One guy or IndyCar guy? And now there's so much cross pollination. Everybody watches all of it. And that part, to me, yeah, it's. I don't think it was even close that it's the biggest day of racing in the world.
- [12:28]
Matt Jones
It's also a day to kind of look back and go, okay, what's happened in the last few years? Let's start with the first thing in the morning, the F1. So I find F1 racing to be horrendously boring. And that's because I probably grew up with nascar watching people rubbins racing and passing and all that. And even on the best tracks, there's not a lot of passing in F1. And then you get one to Monaco, there's like no passing. But it has become a spectacle and a phenomenon because of the Netflix show. But there's also become like a party sort of social atmosphere, which I think existed in Europe forever, but now exists in America to races. Have you been surprised how F1 has kind of captured this segment of the American sporting public?
- [13:13]
Ryan McGee
Oh, yeah. And you mentioned Covid. That's all it is. It was. What people don't realize is, you know that Netflix Formula one show, which one of sports Emmy. You know, just as we were recording this again, that show had existed for a couple years before COVID and no one watched it.
- [13:30]
Matt Jones
Is that right?
- [13:30]
Ryan McGee
I didn't know that when everyone was stuck at home for Covid, they're just looking for something to binge and people started watching it. And the attraction of Formula one has always been two things. It's the spectacle of it. The cars are phenomenal. They don't race particularly well against each other. Like, there's not really a show. But the cars have always been the most technologically advanced machines on the planet.
- [13:54]
Matt Jones
They're like jets on wheels.
- [13:56]
Ryan McGee
They're phenomenal. But the other part is the soap opera. And you know, when I was, when I first started working at ESPN in the 90s, it was Michael Schumacher versus Damon Hill. And I just saw Damon Hill in Miami at the Formula one race a few weeks ago. And we're talking about this and the racing itself, with the exception of a couple of races weren't great. But the drama, the story of Formula one was what happened from Monday morning all the way up to the green flag. And it was this guy doesn't like that guy or this guy. You know, we had Spygate and we had people stealing secrets and guys changing teams and taking technological, you know, secrets from one or the other, all this stuff. And so what the form, what the Netflix show does is it, it underlines all that, it highlights all that. And it, and, and takes these robotronic seeming people and gives them personalities. And so yeah, the reality is that's what they love.
- [14:47]
Matt Jones
And it's also. They're good looking.
- [14:48]
Ryan McGee
Miami, man, it was 16 year old girls as far as you could see.
- [14:52]
Matt Jones
Yeah.
- [14:52]
Ryan McGee
And they aligned the paddock and we're just screaming.
- [14:55]
Matt Jones
That's crazy.
- [14:56]
Ryan McGee
Screaming every time these drivers came out. And that's just not, that's not something.
- [14:59]
Matt Jones
And the people that I think part of it, the people are good looking. Right. Drivers. It's so weird because when we were growing up, the NASCAR drivers were the opposite of good looking. They would be the least good looking people on earth. These people all are handsome, they have like amazing hair, clothing. Everyone, it looks like they could come out of a Chanel ad. And I think some people just like it for that. I mean I. The only people I know that go to the F1 Miami race are women that go in the best fashion they have. And I'm like, that's so different than going to Martinsville in Virginia.
- [15:35]
Ryan McGee
Yeah, that. So that weekend when we did Marty and McGee, I was in Miami for the Formula One event. Marty was at the Derby.
- [15:44]
Matt Jones
Yeah.
- [15:45]
Ryan McGee
And Marty was like, well, I'm at the derby where the most beautiful people in the world are. I go, I don't know if that's true anymore. You know, and there were a lot of people that were at the derby on Saturday or in Miami on Sunday. And it was like, you know, Timothy Chalamet and you know, he's dating one of the Jenners and she was there and we just, it was funny is I have a 20 year old daughter and I'm in the paddock just kind of you know, walking around just, honestly, I'm just creepily stalking famous people, like, all right, who's here and who's not? And you know, seeing NFL guys, guys I covered in college, in the SEC or in the NFL now and seeing it was great. But like, you know, I would, I would take a picture and text it to my daughter. Like, who is this? Well, that's so and so. She is 22 million Instagram followers. Yeah. Okay. But you know, there was a lot.
- [16:30]
Matt Jones
Of that that's coming at the derby too now. Like the derby is intentionally bringing these TikTok influencers in. And I walked around a lot of the dirt on Oaks on Friday and there were all these people that people were going crazy for and I was like, I don't know any of these people. And that made me feel, I felt old at my own Kentucky Derby for the first time.
- [16:51]
Ryan McGee
So it was a few years ago. In fact it was, it was 2021 because it was the first, it was my first post Covid trip or during COVID trip. And it was the Formula one opener, was in Abu Dhabi. But they were having this event in Beverly Hills. So they sent me and Marty to Beverly Hills and we drove around, you know, a three hundred thousand dollar Aston Martin and they had a pop up drive in movie theater on the roof of this parking deck at this swanky mall in, in Beverly Hills and Hollywood Hills all around us and the whole thing. Well, Marty and I are, you know, six, seven o' clock in the morning on this rooftop, sitting in his car. All these other cars start pulling up and they look like Tokyo Drift. Look at Fast and Furious. Yeah, they start pulling up. Well, I'm, I'm posting pictures, whatever, on Instagram. My daughter's like, dad, you don't understand. This girl that's in this car next to you, you know, she's so and so and so and so. I'm like, okay. And. But, yeah, but they kind of rule the world now.
- [17:52]
Matt Jones
Yeah.
- [17:52]
Ryan McGee
At the SEC championship at the certainly at the cost of all playoff, there'll be a box of these people that all look like they were made in an AI machine. And it's the influencers, but it's, it's a thing and.
- [18:05]
Matt Jones
God, it is a thing and good, good luck.
- [18:07]
Ryan McGee
I mean, try to do that back in the day.
- [18:08]
Matt Jones
Yeah. You and I, we could have been influencers. Like why not? Why could. Right? We could have been Josh Richards.
- [18:14]
Ryan McGee
I can't influence the people in my house.
- [18:15]
Matt Jones
That's true.
- [18:16]
Ryan McGee
You know, let alone 3 million people, you know, In Tokyo.
- [18:19]
Matt Jones
So the race, the F1 race, is always terrible at Monaco, but it's worth seeing. And I saw that you have to pay, like $280,000 to just pull your yacht to where you can see it. Then you go to indy, the Indy 500. And I will admit, I tuned out on the Indy 500 for years. Just kind of. I think after Ari Lyon Dyke, I was just kind of done for a long time. And then in the last few years, I've started turning it on. It may have started the COVID year or soon after. And I do agree with you, it's a lot more entertaining, even though I don't know the people in it anymore. It is. The racing is, like, kind of crazy good. Why is that?
- [18:59]
Ryan McGee
They've overhauled the car significantly. You know, they're not. They're not spec cars, but they're. Yeah, they are. I mean, the cars are. The cars are almost identical.
- [19:09]
Matt Jones
But that's good for racing.
- [19:11]
Ryan McGee
It's great. No, it's great. And I would. I would argue the same thing about nascar, you know, which is. Which is, you know, y' all all wanted stock cars. Well, you. Now you've really got stock cars. And there, as a result.
- [19:21]
Matt Jones
What was that series where they used to just randomly assign them the cars?
- [19:24]
Ryan McGee
Yeah.
- [19:25]
Matt Jones
What was that called? They'd bring people from all the different organizations, and it would be on iroc. It's kind of like that, Right?
- [19:31]
Ryan McGee
Kind of like that.
- [19:32]
Matt Jones
And.
- [19:33]
Ryan McGee
And also. And I think this is true in NASCAR, too. In IndyCar, the talent level is through the roof. You know, you have all these guys that were on the Formula One track that jump to IndyCar because there's money in it now, and there's. And there's fame in it now. And now you can go from IndyCar to Formula One if you still want to. And so. But the cars are particularly Indianapolis, where they're. When they're qualifying to average in 230 miles an hour, which are the speeds that you and I see back in the day. But, you know, but IndyCar ripped itself in half. You know, I lived through all that and covered all that in the late 90s. And. And. And, you know, I say this all the time in terms of collegiate athletics, which is, you know, NASCAR made a lot of really bad decisions in the mid 2000s and ran a lot of people off. IndyCar ripped itself in half. I mean, killed the goose looking for golden eggs. And I always throw those out as cautionary.
- [20:26]
Matt Jones
Live. Live in golf. I think they've done to a Smaller version, I think they've done the same thing.
- [20:33]
Ryan McGee
Yeah. And I throw these things out as cautionary tales to our friends in college at the collegiate athletics because all of these things are done with the assumption of your core audience is just going to. We can't do anything to run them off. Yeah, yeah, you can. You totally can. And, and, or they age out. And so the question isn't, you know, what are you doing to make the gray headed guys in the, in the colored blazers mad? The question is, what are you doing to make the 20 year olds decide they want to do something else?
- [21:01]
Matt Jones
Yeah.
- [21:01]
Ryan McGee
And so it's, it's a really. I use it. I wrote when Oklahoma and Texas won the sec. I wrote that. Or no, it was during the. Is when USC and UCLA went to the Big Ten. I wrote that column like be careful because you think they'll just stick around no matter what. But the reality is if it looks too far away from what they grew up loving, then they will 100% go find something else.
- [21:21]
Matt Jones
Yeah, USC and UCLA did. The Big Ten I think was a huge mistake and. Well, let's just switch. Well, I'll come back to NASCAR in a second. Let's, let's just take this line of thought and I want to see what you think of this. This is my thesis about college football and basketball. College basketball, I think nil and the transfer portal have actually oddly helped because it has made it to where a lot more teams are good. The level, because guys are staying longer, the level of play is higher. I think the last last year in college basketball, especially in the SEC is the best it's ever been in my opinion. So I actually think it has oddly really helped college basketball. Now college football I think is different because it has so many players and it has so many things you have to deal with. I think it has made it. People turn off the college football from January to September, but yet when the game start, I still think everybody's back all in. The ratings were high. I thought the quality of play was good. So while I think it's been universally a positive for college basketball, I kind of have mixed emotions about it for college football. What do you think?
- [22:30]
Ryan McGee
Yeah, what I, what I worry about. I think that while everyone is so distracted by nil and all that stuff, transfer portal, all that. I worry more about the calendar.
- [22:44]
Matt Jones
Okay.
- [22:44]
Ryan McGee
Because the season's getting too long.
- [22:47]
Matt Jones
Okay.
- [22:48]
Ryan McGee
You know, the reality is that the ratings were up until they got to the national championship game with two of the biggest brands in the history of the Sport, you know, in the game and, you know, basically two weeks between the semifinals and that. And at this point, cost of all been going on. If you go back to week zero, since the third weekend in August, so, you know, the reason that spring football games were a big deal is the same reason that the NFL draft became such a big deal, which is. It's all you had. Right. You had nothing from January 1st until Labor Day. And so you're talking about your core audience when you start messing with the rhythms of their calendar. And now you're. You're back in the championship game up into the middle of the NFL playoffs.
- [23:33]
Matt Jones
That's true. There's a rhythm to the sports calendar all year. We kind of know what's supposed to happen every. Every year. And then when you mess that up. That's an interesting point.
- [23:42]
Ryan McGee
And you, and you. You think that that messing with January 1st, which they've been doing for years now, was not gonna be that big of a deal, and people are kind of irritated with it. So I just. Those are the things that you.
- [23:57]
Matt Jones
If you.
- [23:58]
Ryan McGee
Once you get to Saturdays in the fall. Last season was. I thought maybe second, maybe the 2007 was the most entertaining regular season we've had in my lifetime. College football. But, but, but, but, but, you know, like any great movie, if it goes on too long. Goes on too long.
- [24:13]
Matt Jones
That's a great. That's a great.
- [24:14]
Ryan McGee
Yeah, that's the part of it that I, That I'm. And some of that was selfish. Honestly, when I, When I got where I was like, man, we would be done right now.
- [24:23]
Matt Jones
Yeah.
- [24:24]
Ryan McGee
And, and understanding that, you know, you and I both work for the company that, that, you know, that benefits from all this. And I'm all for it, but it's going to take a minute for people to get used to it. And I just think you need to be careful when you start playing a championship game on the 22nd and 23rd and 24th of January. It's just. It's getting. Yeah, it's getting long.
- [24:43]
Matt Jones
That's a really good point.
- [24:44]
Ryan McGee
You gotta. You gotta leave them hungry. Right. And when the season is ending while some teams are starting spring practice, that's. That's a. There's an adjustment period there. We'll see if everybody adjusts or not.
- [24:56]
Matt Jones
I'm going to give you a few arguments that I make on my show about college sports and see if you agree or disagree. So one was the one I just made. The second one is there was this worry with the portal. Oh, no. Parody is going to Go away. A few teams are going to load up. And I actually. And I actually kind of bought that, but I actually now think the opposite is happening, at least in football. Basketball is slightly different, but in football, dudes don't want to stay and be second team at Georgia and Alabama. They'd rather go to Kentucky and South Carolina and start. And it's actually made it to. Especially as the season goes on where injuries come into play. It is actually added some parity. Do you agree with that?
- [25:39]
Ryan McGee
Yeah, I mean, listen, I was in. I was in Nashville a month ago and spent some time with Diego Pavia. I mean, that's it. I mean, you know, I Write the bottom 10 for ESPN.com I have written about New Mexico State football for 10 years. Right.
- [25:53]
Matt Jones
Yep.
- [25:54]
Ryan McGee
And I knew how good Diego was at New Mexico State. And now he's the mayor of Nashville.
- [25:59]
Matt Jones
Yeah.
- [26:00]
Ryan McGee
And, you know, and he's.
- [26:01]
Matt Jones
And his brother, who's annoying but still gets a lot of attention. Yeah.
- [26:05]
Ryan McGee
But he's been given an opportunity. Opportunity to. To do something. And. And it's interesting because, you know, I cover college baseball, too, and obviously we're in the middle of baseball postseason now about or starting cranking it up. And, you know, I remember going down to LSU when they put together their first real giant nil class, the one that won the College World Series that year. And I'm talking to these guys that came from. I mean, skiings came from Air Force.
- [26:30]
Matt Jones
Yeah.
- [26:30]
Ryan McGee
And I'm talking to you, the kid that was the winning pitcher in the championship game. The game one championship. He came from ucla. And when I talked to them, you know, Skeens did not want to leave Air Force. He loved that place. But he said to me, he said, you ever been to game there? I'm like, yeah. He goes, how many people were at the game? I'm like, 40 people.
- [26:45]
Matt Jones
Yeah.
- [26:46]
Ryan McGee
And, you know, when I talked to the kids from ucla, they would play, you know, UCLA is really good at baseball. And when they would play Jackie Robinson ballpark on a Friday night against Stanford in a top 15 game, and there'd be 800 people there, and they go back to their apartment and they see the highlight of the South Carolina Kentucky game, and there's 9,000 people there losing their mind, and they're like. And like, the nil money's fine, but that's why I came here.
- [27:12]
Matt Jones
That's what you want. Yeah.
- [27:14]
Ryan McGee
Right. To me, it's opportunity. But then there's the flip side of that, which is. All right, now, if you're the Guy that's not getting to play now because the guy from UCLA and the guy from Air Force and all that came. Well, now you're exactly right. I can go to Kentucky and turn them into a college World Series team or I can go to, you know, a Dallas Baptist and still be a top 10 draft pick, you know. So I think, I think you're right. I think that we're seeing a giant market adjustment. And I think when the contracts come, because they're coming, it's also going to. It's going to. All this is going to hopefully level out.
- [27:43]
Matt Jones
Yeah, I do, too. I think the contracts will be an interesting adjustment to it. But I would look at all these sports and say, isn't it good for football that the Indiana game mattered last year, whereas it would not have mattered. The playoff made me care about games that I didn't care about before. I go to back basketball and when the tournament starts now St. John's matters again. And that hasn't happened in a long time. And then you go to baseball. And Kentucky had never made the College World Series and they were the number two overall seed last year. I think it just makes more people be interested in the sport. Right.
- [28:18]
Ryan McGee
It's the, the, the part of it I didn't see coming because quite frankly, I did not want a 14 playoff in the beginning.
- [28:27]
Matt Jones
Yeah.
- [28:27]
Ryan McGee
But I came around on it. And my argument about the 14 playoff was it should be difficult to get into the postseason. If it's not difficult to get into the postseason. Now you're the standard cup playoffs and everybody's in. Right now you're the NBA playoffs and everybody's in. What's the point? But what we saw with an expanded playoff, even though I hate 12, I hate buys, I don't that conversations maybe for later, but it opened up the conversation. You're exactly right. To us talking about all these other teams that we would not have been talking about otherwise.
- [28:58]
Matt Jones
Yeah.
- [28:59]
Ryan McGee
You know, it's making people on the west coast keep an eye on Indiana football.
- [29:03]
Matt Jones
Yeah.
- [29:04]
Ryan McGee
And it's making people in the Midwest, you know, keep an eye on Ole Miss football. And every, you know, we're talking about. I mean, and even when it came to the Sunbelt or when it came to whomever, you got to keep an eye on teams now that you wouldn't.
- [29:17]
Matt Jones
I mean, I watched Boise State play Nevada in that last game because I wanted to see if they would make the playoff. And you know, Kentucky was bad last year, but I went in. I get, there's a video. I get Mocked about a lot on. On the line. But I started the season and I go, you know, there's a path for Kentucky to go to the playoff. Go nine and three. These are the games they could win. I would have never had that conversation before. It's nice just to have that possibility out there.
- [29:45]
Ryan McGee
Yep. And. And this is why you leave it alone. You know, if you expand a 16, fine. But this idea of. And I want to make sure I'm perfectly clear on this, If. If this thing is rigged so that X number of team, SEC teams always get in, and X, you know, X number of Big Ten, that's really great for Marty McGee. I mean, it's phenomenal for Marty. It's good. Good for. Good. Good for business.
- [30:09]
Matt Jones
Yeah.
- [30:09]
Ryan McGee
But. But for the. For the overall health of college football. You know, the system's already pretty much rigged against Coastal Carolina. But now you're going to make it official. Right. So I just. I think that keeping. Even if it's. Even if deep down we know it's probably not going to go down, the fact that we are watching games because a team might have the path that you're talking about, and the more teams that are in that conversation, the better off the sport is. And what's interesting is when you talk to a Kirby Smart or you talk to A. Stoops, or you talk to these coaches that would benefit from that, what they worry about is, well, how does this affect Valdosta? How does it affect Youngstown?
- [30:51]
Matt Jones
Because a lot of them came from working at those schools. It's kind of like the wwe. The wwe. We all know it's fake, right? But there are people who think they screw up when they just acknowledge it outright. Like, let us live in this fantasy world. Don't make it to where you essentially say this is fake, which sometimes I think they walk the line of doing. Now, I see you. You're a Tennessee guy. You got a Tennessee Balls helmet there behind you. There is this. Maybe you know more about it than me, but I've been struck at how little has been reported about this state law in Tennessee that they just passed, basically saying, hey, Tennessee doesn't have to follow any of the NCAA rules. And then Ross Dellinger reported that the conferences are coming together and go make all the schools sign something that says, you follow our rules or you are you or you're gone. Is that something that could happen or is that just bluster?
- [31:49]
Ryan McGee
Um, I. You love politics, right?
- [31:52]
Matt Jones
I like it. I don't know. I write.
- [31:55]
Ryan McGee
When you write a book about politics.
- [31:57]
Matt Jones
Yeah. The Trump era makes it worse, but, yes, I'm not.
- [32:01]
Ryan McGee
I'm not. I hate it. I hate everything about it. I was a Senate page when I was in high school, and I saw enough for me to go, Nope, you're.
- [32:07]
Matt Jones
In D.C. a center page.
- [32:08]
Ryan McGee
Yeah, I was. Long time ago.
- [32:10]
Matt Jones
Huh?
- [32:10]
Ryan McGee
The. I got a pin right here on my wall.
- [32:13]
Matt Jones
Mr. Senate Page.
- [32:15]
Ryan McGee
Yeah. Well, it was just enough for me to go. Now it's like having an internship at a, like a law firm. And you go, no, don't want to be a lawyer.
- [32:21]
Matt Jones
You don't want to do that.
- [32:23]
Ryan McGee
I'm not, I'm not built for this. But I say this knowing that a lot of people just south of where you're sitting are going to probably send me ugly stuff. The Tennessee State House specializes in bluster.
- [32:38]
Matt Jones
Okay.
- [32:38]
Ryan McGee
They just do. There's just, there's certain state houses that do that. The. That's their job. Their job is to, you know, get the constituents fired up and make it. But the reality is, is that this is going to be a national thing. It's going to be a national fight. There's going to be things that override whatever they say in, in the State House, the State Capitol building, Capitol Hill, wherever. In all these states. At some point, it's become, Become a federal deal.
- [33:07]
Matt Jones
So you think that will happen? You think they will pass federal laws on the, on nil and stuff? They should, but you think they will.
- [33:13]
Ryan McGee
It's coming. It's coming and it's. And it's. There's. There's too many people on Capitol Hill that represent too many states that care.
- [33:23]
Matt Jones
Yeah.
- [33:23]
Ryan McGee
You know, that, that are homes to these powerful schools, that it benefits them to, to come up with something. And the reality is everybody's going to have to fall in line with it. And. But I, But I, I 100% understand, and I want to understand, appreciate the resolutions, and this is what it is and the so and so. But I think that this story isn't reported very much because people are just sick of it.
- [33:44]
Matt Jones
Yeah, they are. Cory Booker and Cory Booker and Ted Cruz are going to decide the future of college sports.
- [33:50]
Ryan McGee
White noise. It's just at some point, everyone's eyes glaze over. And that's what I'm talking about. What I saw a few minutes ago. What you can't do is you can't create a conversation that. That's all it is.
- [34:02]
Matt Jones
Yeah.
- [34:03]
Ryan McGee
Once that conversation you're talking about starts to creep into Saturday afternoons, now we got a problem. Because now that's the conversation. This Time of year, whatever. But once we hit Labor Day weekend, if this is what we're talking about, then, then that's when people are going to be like, you know what? This sucks. I'm going to play golf.
- [34:21]
Matt Jones
Yeah, no, that's. I actually really like that. All right, so one of the things that people want to hear about is when you know people in actuality. So I'm going to ask you a couple questions, and I want you to give me the name that comes to your mind first when you say this. All right? Let's talk coaches first. Who is in your mind the nicest coach that you've dealt with? If you're just saying, as a human being, the nicest coach.
- [34:45]
Ryan McGee
Man. The good news is it's a lot of people. People ask me that all the time. And I always say that the number of jerks.
- [34:55]
Matt Jones
Well, I'm gonna ask you that in a minute.
- [34:56]
Ryan McGee
But yeah, I mean, but, but I mean, Sam Pittman, okay, is one of the nicest people I met my life. He's just. Well, all I ask of anyone. That's why I like you. All I ask of anyone is just be the genuine article. Like, if you're a jerk, be a jerk. You know, if you're a nice guy, be a nice guy. You know, if you, if you, if you're a Bible thumper, thump that Bible. But don't only do those things when the cameras are on and to be somebody else later. And Sam Pittman is the same guy that you see on TV that you would run into at the airport or that you would see on his pontoon boat on the lake.
- [35:33]
Matt Jones
You think that keeps him an extra year at Arkansas? Like they. Like some. It's hard to fire a nice guy. We had that issue with Tubby at Kentucky. It's tough, right?
- [35:41]
Ryan McGee
They root for him. Yeah, but it's, It's. It's. Sam Pittman is. Is. I mean, he's Shane Beamer. And it's interesting because.
- [35:49]
Matt Jones
Oh, really? Because I find him. See from afar. He seems like the worst. But is he not gonna say.
- [35:55]
Ryan McGee
And I'm a little biased because I've known Shane for a long time. You know, Marty played high school football against Shane. My dad was a Big east official and acc football official. So, I mean, Shane and I stood on sidelines together, you know, way back when. I've known Shane forever. But Shane is. If Shane says he's going to do something, he's going to do it. But I think he is. But he also is very emotional, man. I was at the Citrus Bowl. I went to Citrus Bowl.
- [36:20]
Matt Jones
That's right. I forgot about that.
- [36:21]
Ryan McGee
That was a weird deal. But, yeah, but there, but there's a lot of nice guys. But Pittman's the one. I mean, Pittman is the guy that literally, if you had a 12 pack and you just said, I got a couple hours. He's, he's the guy that, if you could, you could bring him into the room. You need to do it.
- [36:37]
Matt Jones
All right, so this one, you may not want to answer, but is which one is the least nice? I'm not gonna say a jerk, but, you know, I've seen you, Urban Meyer.
- [36:46]
Ryan McGee
Is everything the opposite of what I just said about Sampo.
- [36:49]
Matt Jones
Okay, well, there you go. I think I got that. I think I got.
- [36:53]
Ryan McGee
What I really don't like is I don't, I don't care for people who really love to tell me how to be a man or how to be a leader or how to be whatever. And I mean. Yeah, and then you have your phenomenal football mind. Phenomenal. But I just, I just, that, that part to me, I don't, I don't need a lecture about, you know, here's my five points of how to, you know.
- [37:21]
Matt Jones
Yeah, no self help person, especially when they need help. Funniest coach who, who makes you laugh the most.
- [37:31]
Ryan McGee
I mean, the answer was Mike Leach. The. I mean, can't, can't hardly talk to the guy without. He was. And the thing about Leech was I went out to. I didn't know him really. I didn't know him at all when he was a Texas Tech, but I went to, I went to Pullman. If you Google me and Mike Leach, you'll get the story. But I went to Pullman. They had told me I had 20 minutes with him and I stayed for three days.
- [37:56]
Matt Jones
Oh, that's awesome.
- [37:57]
Ryan McGee
And we drank all the rum in Pullman and, and you were in Pullman.
- [38:02]
Matt Jones
Which is like the Pullman. Well, he was really into politics, wasn't he?
- [38:05]
Ryan McGee
Yeah, Utah politics. And I, he knew I was not. But, but, but, but that last night, you know, he, he had this one bar he'd go to in Pullman and he would famously walk home. It was a couple of miles walk through the woods and in the area around Pullman is stunningly beautiful.
- [38:19]
Matt Jones
It is, yeah.
- [38:20]
Ryan McGee
And he would walk through the woods to go home at 2:00 in the morning, wherever. And I'm like, coach, I'll just drive you home. Yeah, I got to go to Spokane, get on a plane in the Morning, he and I sat in the driveway somewhere. I have a recording and I'm. And I'll never share it with anyone, but I have it. And we talked about everything from Richard Petty to the White House to the NFL national anthem stuff, which is kind of the big topic at the time, which seems like 5, 000 years ago, to football to Geronimo and all. And I, I said nothing for hours. And then finally the newspaper guy, like walks over to the rental car in the driveway, hey, Coach, here's your paper. And that's when I was like, damn, I gotta go. If I want to get to Spokane to make my flight coach, I gotta get out of here. So. Yeah, but he was the one. He would just randomly text me something at 3 o' clock in the morning and I would wake up the next morning and just.
- [39:09]
Matt Jones
That's great. I dated a woman who he knew and one time he was calling to check on the person, to just see how she was doing, and he said, she said, I'm with so and so. And he said, let me hand him the phone. And I did not know Mike. He handed me the phone and he said, I hear you're a good guy, but if you ever screw up, you're going to wish you didn't. And then that was it. That was the end of the conversation. That's my only time ever interacting with Mike Leach. So, you know, at least he had that. Do you. You mentioned the politics thing? I. I'm always fascinated by somebody who works in college sports, especially in football, but it'll also be true in basketball. These coaches are dealing with groups of players, often young African American men that come from families, that would tend to lean to the left, generally speaking. And a lot of coaches, if not, not all, but a lot, tend to lean the other way politically in times like this, where it seems like that's so much more a part of the culture than it was when you and I were kids. I didn't know what people were growing up. Do you think that ever comes into play? Or it just like they just put it all aside and play. It's sports.
- [40:18]
Ryan McGee
I think that it's not any different than. I think that's probably the situation in a lot of houses. You know, I think that the parents might lean one way and the kids might lean another way.
- [40:30]
Matt Jones
Yeah.
- [40:31]
Ryan McGee
You know, when you and I were growing up, you just voted however your parents told you to vote.
- [40:34]
Matt Jones
That's true.
- [40:35]
Ryan McGee
And I don't think that's the case anymore because primarily because social media, I mean, It's. The kids are so much more politically aware, active, whatever, than they ever were. But I think that the way that you. The coaches that are able to navigate that are the ones that are willing to say, all right, I want to learn from these kids, okay? And, and, and. And on the flip side, I want to explain to them. They have real discussions about it. I mean, I remember talking to Gary Pinkel about that, you know, when. When. When there was all that political unrest, you know, in the state of Missouri and how he navigated that. I think they did. They had a whole deal SEC story or 30 for 30 about it. And, you know, Nick Saban has talked about it about, you know, navigating the team. All these guys had to navigate their teams through 2020. Yes, 2020 was. It's easy to just go the pandemic and forget about, you know, everything else that was going on. And. And it was. It was an incredibly, incredibly divisive time. And it really, really kind of set the stage for all of this now. But to me, that's what it is. I mean, you know, and I used to see that. I talk about this all the time. All right, I mentioned I was a Senate page. I was a Senate page in the late 80s, and I was from South Carolina. So a lot of times, you know, I would be assigned to Strom Thurmond.
- [41:47]
Matt Jones
I was gonna say, did you have Fritz or Strom?
- [41:49]
Ryan McGee
So, so. So we both. But Strom was. Strom was. Was the guy that, you know, and I knew Strom's daughter. But. But Strom and Ted Kennedy was cross hallway. And a lot of nights, I mean, a lot of nights, Ted Kennedy would come across the hallway after everyone had left. He and Strom Thurman would sit in there and have drinks and talk about stuff. And all of this is while Ronald Reagan and Tip o' Neill were doing the same thing at the White House. You can't do it now. If you do it now, cable news cameras are going to catch you, and now you're a betrayer to the cause or whatever else. But I think that's the perfect illustration of. You don't have to agree, but can we have a discussion about it without immediately turning into a fight?
- [42:32]
Matt Jones
Yeah.
- [42:32]
Ryan McGee
And so I think the coaches who can navigate that as teachers, because most of these guys started as teachers. And so when they consider a room with, you know, with 150 kids that come from a very different type of background, most of them and come and probably are registered a very different way to vote. All right, let's Have a discussion about that. Can we talk about what? This. Why I believe this or why you believe that or why. Why the nation is doing these things. And, you know, I think. I think that. That. That I wish everyone could do that. And the reality is, is that no matter what side they're on, the politician's job now is to keep all of us pissed off. Their job is.
- [43:13]
Matt Jones
Yeah.
- [43:13]
Ryan McGee
All of us mad at each other all the time.
- [43:15]
Matt Jones
You and I are totally agreement on that. And I hope.
- [43:18]
Ryan McGee
Sit in a room. Yeah. If you can sit in a room and have a conversation without it automatically being a fight.
- [43:22]
Matt Jones
Yeah.
- [43:23]
Ryan McGee
Then that's how you grow. And so may I. So I think that's how coaches do it.
- [43:27]
Matt Jones
Well, I hope we haven't lost that, because I agree with you. That is.
- [43:31]
Ryan McGee
Feels like we have.
- [43:32]
Matt Jones
You know, it does. Although I do wonder when the cameras are off, if they're still doing it. There's a part of me that thinks there's a guy here in Kentucky that's a representative, Jamie Comer, who's very right wing. And he told me once that aoc, who's very left wing, they were on a committee together, and he talked about how much they liked each other. And I remember thinking. And then I saw him the next day and he went on TV and he blasted her. And I was thinking, you just told me the day before that you liked her. And that annoyed me in some ways.
- [43:56]
Ryan McGee
No, it's just. It's just their job is to keep us all divided. Yeah, it is. Because it's good for business. It's great for business. I mean, you know, and I. I grew up in North Carolina, which has all been a very purple state. You know, another part I hate, too. I don't like talking about politics.
- [44:10]
Matt Jones
We got on it. Yeah.
- [44:11]
Ryan McGee
One of the great disservices to the history of this nation is when they started painting the state solid red and solid blue. I live in North Carolina. The state's purple. Go back and look at the election results. And go back. You know, when I was growing up, we always had. You had Terry Sanford, you had Jesse Helms. Right. You. We had two Republican governors my entire life in North Carolina. The reality is, is that it's a purple state. But when I go to Manhattan, they think you're right. Everybody thinks. Everybody thinks. You know, it's not so. It's just. I just. The truth is, in the middle, it's always been in the middle. And those who live in the middle usually end up making it work. And at very least, Go in the middle and have a conversation. But it's just, man, I can't believe I'm talking about this.
- [44:52]
Matt Jones
That's okay. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get you on it.
- [44:54]
Ryan McGee
That's fine. But I think that's the answer to your question. The answer to your question is how do, how does an old gray headed coach who makes $12 million a year talk about serious fundamental issues with a room full of kids who most of them come from very, very backgrounds and those things? I think that's it. I think you walk into the door with an open mind and have those conversations. If you can't do that, then you probably shouldn't be.
- [45:22]
Matt Jones
See, I think more reasonable people like you should talk about this stuff because you are more like most Americans than the people we hear on tv. Let me ask you about a completely opposite end of the serious spectrum. You are in the state. I admit to being not proud of myself for how much I enjoy the Belichick story, but I am pretty. But I can't. I mean, when I saw he renamed his boat like, I can't help but want to talk about it. What's, what do you think? I mean, you've been around North Carolina football and now this whole thing has plopped in and you talk to college football coaches who also have to have opinions on it. What's your take on all of it?
- [46:04]
Ryan McGee
Well, my take is a bigger take on Tar Heel football. And I wrote this column when Belichick was named the head coach because I've literally lived in North Carolina my entire life, except for spent two years. My last two years of high school were in South Carolina, barely over the state line. And when I lived in, when I went to school in Tennessee, I was born in North Carolina, buried in North Carolina. I am half a century old and I've, in my lifetime, North Carolina's won one ACC championship. My dad started officiating ACC football in 1981 and retired in 2009 and never saw North Carolina winning ACC championship football. So when I wrote my column, when Belichick got the job, I said, it's going to be interesting to see how Chapel Hill manages to take arguably the greatest coach in the history of the NFL and turn it into a solid 8 and 4 Gator bowl season. That's what they're going to do. They're going to go to the Mayo Bowl. And what I didn't see coming was all this. Now they might get into the season and they might roll and it might not matter. But the reality is, is that the last time North Carolina won the conference, Lawrence Taylor was a linebacker.
- [47:25]
Matt Jones
Yeah.
- [47:26]
Ryan McGee
And until they. They. I wrote a column 15 years ago for ESPN magazine about these are the 10 programs that should be way better at football than they are. And I can't explain it. Ucla, Arizona, Arizona State. You know, I had all these. But. But. But at the top of the list was North Carolina, and I put NC State in there, too. It just doesn't make any sense that they're not great at football.
- [47:53]
Matt Jones
But what are those. All those old guys that wear. That I see at UNC basketball games, that dress, you know, in the. In the quarter zips, and they wear the. What do you think they think about this circus? Because. Because UNC is not a circus place. They're a place that takes themselves seriously as an academic institution, as a. They think of themselves as classy and cultural. Like, what do you think they make of all this?
- [48:18]
Ryan McGee
Yeah, they're not enjoying it very much. Yeah, they're all just. You know, and what's interesting, too, is they're. They're all having to make a decision right now because the basketball program is floundering.
- [48:29]
Matt Jones
Yes.
- [48:29]
Ryan McGee
And so they're having to make a decision. All right. There's only so much money. And. And I'm the. I'm the. I'm the guy that used to own the bank of Fill in North Carolina town here, Monroe.
- [48:42]
Matt Jones
Yeah.
- [48:42]
Ryan McGee
And, you know, and then that. And then that bank got sold to bank of America, and now I'm a billionaire. So I've got to decide where am I going to put my money? Am I going to fund this program with the girlfriend who, by the way, we just bought seven. Build a $75 million football facility and still couldn't win the ACC.
- [49:04]
Matt Jones
Yeah.
- [49:05]
Ryan McGee
Brought Mac Brown back and still couldn't win the SEC or acc. So do I put my money there or do I go get us a power forward, you know, or do I go get us a backcourt, which, quite frankly, you can do much cheaper? And so I think that's where they all are. So. But I'll tell you this again. If I was sitting here in Charlotte, if North Carolina wins 10 games and they play against Clemson in the ACC championship game and maybe have a chance to make the. The playoff or whatever, I guess none of that'll matter. But. But right now it is.
- [49:36]
Matt Jones
But you're interesting.
- [49:37]
Ryan McGee
Like, it's a good room full of guys in Carolina blue and bring up the girlfriend because.
- [49:42]
Matt Jones
So you are interested in it. Like, don't. Don't yeah. Okay. We have a mutual friend, Bomani. I had him on. We talked about how interested we were in it. Don't make us feel alone in this. You are.
- [49:52]
Ryan McGee
No, no, no, no. And Bomani. Bomani was a Triangle guy like me. I grew up in Raleigh, so.
- [49:57]
Matt Jones
And I lived in the Triangle. I went to Duke. I mean, I was. We all.
- [50:00]
Ryan McGee
That's. I was. That's where I spent most of my time. Childhood was. I grew up in North Carolina State. Fan. That's got nothing to do with how I feel about this. It's just. It is what it is. And. And I've seen the movie so many times, and, you know, it's. It's. It's just. This just isn't the movie I was expecting to watch. But if. But the end result will probably be the same. They'll be back here in Charlotte for the Deuce Mayo bowl, and God bless.
- [50:23]
Matt Jones
I mean, he went to the Holiday Inn Express in Portland, Maine, for the Miss Maine contest. I mean, Ryan, come on. Come on. Like, that's. That's one of the craziest things of all time.
- [50:33]
Ryan McGee
Well, my buddy Seth Wickersham, who. My co worker, our co worker at espn, who's written so many ridiculously great stories and books about. About. About him. This is the. Keep telling. This is the book I want. I actually want.
- [50:46]
Matt Jones
No, this is. How could they not have done the reality show? I would watch every episode of the reality show. She can even be a producer. What do I care?
- [50:54]
Ryan McGee
I feel like she would probably sign up for that. My. My daughter and I just watched the Secret Lives of the Mormon Wives.
- [51:00]
Matt Jones
Oh, did you like that?
- [51:01]
Ryan McGee
They'll load up. They'll load up. Move to Chapel Hill. Shoot that right now.
- [51:03]
Matt Jones
The Secret Lives of Mormon. Was that good? I. I watched one episode, and I tapped out. Did you get through all of it?
- [51:08]
Ryan McGee
A little uncomfortable watching with your daughter, I'll say that. But. But it was. But yeah, it's. My daughter and I have always picked one Trash like reality show, and we watch it together. And. And this is no. This is no slight to my friends at Hulu because they know. They wouldn't. They know what that show is. It's a huge hit. But we used to watch Selling Sunset. I saw that.
- [51:28]
Matt Jones
Dude, I love Selling Sunset. I thought that was a good show.
- [51:31]
Ryan McGee
I saw one of the twins at the Miami Grand Prix and took a selfie with. And we sent it to my daughter, and he goes, you watch that show with your daughter? I'm like, yeah, yeah.
- [51:38]
Matt Jones
We had that girl from Kentucky. She was on there the first few years. She was, she was, she was great. All right, before I let you, let you go, this, the NASCAR thing real quick, we've had long conversations about what NASCAR can do, what they can't do, their problems, they've had, etc. Is NASCAR in 2025 upswing or downswing?
- [51:59]
Ryan McGee
No, it's upswing and it's. And it's in so much better shape now than it was in 2019. I tell everyone it's, it's hard to try to put a positive spin on the pandemic, but. The pandemic. NASCAR wisely used to grease the rails on trying stuff. Right.
- [52:20]
Matt Jones
Dark tracks and stuff like that. Right.
- [52:23]
Ryan McGee
You know, they, they, they, they like, all right, we're gonna run back to back races to so and so and we're gonna run a Wednesday night race in Martinsville. And, and ever since then, there's been a willingness to try stuff. Listen, I was born in, I was born and I will be buried in Rockingham, North Carolina. Well, and, and they just ran trucks and Xfinity there a few weeks ago. That track was. Literally had a tree growing up through the back stretch a couple years ago. So they just ran the all star race at North Wilkesboro. You know, I just voted on the NASCAR hall of Fame this week.
- [52:47]
Matt Jones
And I see Rick Mast made it. Or was it Harry Gantt?
- [52:51]
Ryan McGee
No, the Harry Gantt.
- [52:52]
Matt Jones
Harry Handsome Harry Gantt got in. That's a name from the past.
- [52:56]
Ryan McGee
But. Yeah, but it's, but they. And it goes back to what we're talking about earlier. NASCAR has finally, after years of trying to rip its roots out of the ground, they have finally started to figure out the balance between. You can go run a street race at Chicago or a street race in Mexico City, which they're going to do if you balance it with going to North Wilkesboro and going to Rockingham and running more short track races. And so I think that that teach people about the history of the sport as opposed to trying to bury it under the ground like they did for years. And so. Yes. Will it ever go back to 1997? No.
- [53:34]
Matt Jones
Was that the peak? I was just sitting here talking with Billy about. I said the peak was like 96 to 2003. Is that kind of what you think was the peak?
- [53:42]
Ryan McGee
Yeah. And I rode that wave. I literally started at ESPN and I, I started ESPN the week Jeff Gordon won the first Brickyard 400.
- [53:48]
Matt Jones
Okay. And that's 96. Right.
- [53:50]
Ryan McGee
Nightly Motorsports show. And I've been riding that wave Ever since. But it's, it is. But 100. I would, I would, I would, I would go all the way to the 2006, 2007, when the market crashed, the business crashed. But yeah, but they're getting there. I mean, they'll never get back to where they were, but they're in way better shape than they were even just five years ago, let alone 10, 15 years.
- [54:13]
Matt Jones
Most powerful moment for me as a sports fan outside of my team. So outside of the Kentucky wins, the 85 Bears, etc. I would say Earnhardt dying is the most powerful moment of my sports fan life. Would you agree with that?
- [54:28]
Ryan McGee
Yeah. And there is a. I've already seen it, but I think it drops next week or this weekend. There's a. On Amazon prime, there's a four part Earnhardt documentary just titled Earnhardt and it's executive produced by Ron Howard. And it is really so good. And I mean it's, it's really, really good. And, and it's. But yeah, it take, it takes you back to that day and it's. Yeah, there, you know, I wasn't around when Kennedy died, you know, but there's still those moments in your life where it's like it was everything before something happened, everything after something happened. And February 18, 2001, for, for a lot of us is that day. And that was personally, professionally, all of that for me might have been the most important people. People always talk about the legacy of Dale Earnhardt and it's the Intimidator and the man in Black and also up. No one has died in a top three NASCAR national series since he did that day.
- [55:26]
Matt Jones
And they'd had a bunch of them leading up to it, like Kenny Irwin and almost quit.
- [55:30]
Ryan McGee
Almost quit.
- [55:31]
Matt Jones
Did you really?
- [55:31]
Ryan McGee
Adam Petty, Kenny Irwin, Tony Roper, and It was in IndyCar Formula One. I was covering Funerals Monthly and I looked at my wife and I go, I can't do this. I'm gonna go cover a sport where people don't die. And. And then after Earnhardt died, it's when Superman died suddenly, everybody went, oh, it could happen. Maybe we should change some stuff. But yeah, that was, that was one of the most pivotal days in the history of sports, let alone motorsports.
- [55:55]
Matt Jones
Yeah. Good stuff. Ryan, thank you very much and appreciate your time.
- [56:01]
Ryan McGee
Hey, congratulations on the new show. And apparently we, you know, co hosting a political podcast.
- [56:07]
Matt Jones
I love it. Let's do it.
- [56:08]
Ryan McGee
You did the impossible.
- [56:09]
Matt Jones
All right, thanks. Okay. Have you heard about this last year degree changed the formula for their cool rush deodorant their fans rebelled and wanted the old sim. That and degree. Listen, that doesn't happen often. They admitted that they effed up and are bringing the original Cool Rush scent back. And it's exactly how you remember it. Cool, crisp and fresh. There's a reason it's the number one men's antiperspirant and is back in Walmart, Target and other stores for under $4. So try it and see what the fuss is about. Head to your local stores to try the OG Cool Rush for yourself.
- [56:43]
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