← Youth Inc. with Greg Olsen
Youth Inc. with Greg Olsen
Jerry Ferrara & Matt Leinart on Entourage, Adversity, and the Evolution of Youth Sports
00:55:30
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- [00:00]
A
Youth sports in America are at a crossroads, and I'm here to help lead the conversation forward. I'm Greg Olson. Each week, we're sitting down with top athletes, coaches, and more to talk about what's working, what's broken, and what's next. Welcome to you think. All right, before we jump into anything of importance, I'm super pumped today, guys. From throwback Jerry. Matt. Dude, this is. This is going to be a blast. I don't even care about sports right now. Jerry, you mentioned my. My humble brag of my Emmys. That behind me, you start. Off you go. Wait a minute. Is that an Emmy? And I actually said there's two. You never won an Emmy? How is that even possible?
- [00:40]
B
Well, personally, definitely not. In fact, of all the cast members of Entourage, myself and Adrian gre, who played Vince, were the only ones who didn't get nominated for an Emmy. Everybody else. And then, famously, I think we got a of lot of our eight seasons. We were nominated for seven years of Emmys for best comedy, and we lost every seven straight years.
- [01:02]
A
Who are you losing to?
- [01:04]
B
Okay, I don't know if I have it in exact order. Early on, it was, like, Desperate Housewives. Then it was Ugly Betty. But then the four years in a row, we got caught in the office run. The office run. But Piven won three in a row. Who played Ari? He won three Emmys in a row.
- [01:20]
A
So.
- [01:20]
B
So that. That.
- [01:21]
A
Let me tell you what I can remember. Vivid moments of my life being shaped from binge watching Entourage. Like, remember back when it would come on, like, the DVD sets?
- [01:32]
B
Oh, yeah.
- [01:33]
A
Boxing. And, like, the hardest part was, like, you were done with the disc, and yet, like, who's gonna get up and, like, change the next disc? That was when our lives were so hard, we actually had to get up to go to the next episode. Dude, you guys were. That show was brilliant. Like, embodied every character, the dialogue, the. That show is as well done and as, like, impactful in my life as any show that I've ever watched.
- [02:00]
C
Jerry, before you answer that, Greg, the best part about doing this pod is exactly what you're saying is I've had. I've gotten probably 100 great entourage stories from Jerry in the last year and a half. It's been absolutely the best.
- [02:12]
A
It's now. Talk about humble brags. Jerry, this guy's got a Heisman trophy.
- [02:19]
B
As they pointed out on pmt, sitting on.
- [02:21]
A
Dude, I did. I got. It's on, like, a. It's on, like, a table. You would eat, like, a TV dinner.
- [02:28]
C
On no, it's actually on a. It's actually on a jump box. It's actually a jump box. Yeah.
- [02:33]
A
Like a cardi. Like a box. Like a plyo box.
- [02:36]
C
Like a plyo box. Yeah.
- [02:37]
A
Oh, got it.
- [02:38]
C
I couldn't hear. Let me see.
- [02:39]
A
Watch.
- [02:41]
C
Look.
- [02:41]
B
I got.
- [02:42]
A
That's the biggest flex. What?
- [02:45]
C
That's all, Greg. That's all I got, dude. It's all I got that.
- [02:49]
A
All you have is a Heisman. I ain't got. I got. That's all I got.
- [02:54]
C
Big Noon. We would love. Like, we would love. We've been nominated for, like, a couple sports Emmys, and. Which has been great, but, I mean, we lose to, you know, the TNT crew every year. I don't think we'll ever win one.
- [03:08]
A
I want to get out to one of your big nudes. I. I think you guys do such a good job. It's black. I think there's something super mag about being, like, in. In, like, in the wild, like I like to say, like, the studios are kind of. They're great, and our NFL Studio guys are obviously as good as it gets, but, like, there's something about being on site.
- [03:28]
C
They're. They're. I did studio for, gosh, like, 10 years, right? The. The original, which was a blast because that's how I. How I learned. And being on a Saturday all day, there's a lot. So it was great to learn from that. And. But we were just like, man, it'd be great if we could go on the road. It'd be great if we can go on the road and experience that. And you call games, so you get a. You get a feel. There's nothing like the energy of fans, especially in college, you know, I do think there's just a difference between college and NFL. Like, like, we were just at BYU last week, and it was bananas. And, like, when you're in there, you just feel like. I got goosebumps just thinking about. Because you're just like. It just makes the show better. It's just the energy of the show, and you can play off the fans and you can talk smack and. Dude, we had. We had Gronk out there one show last year, man, or two years ago, he came to Colorado and he. I mean, he lit it up, as you could imagine, dude. It was hysterical, dude. He was like.
- [04:22]
A
I'm sure he did.
- [04:23]
C
You got to come out there, dude. You got a busy schedule, so you're on the road every week.
- [04:27]
A
I'm. I'm traveling, you know, my Saturdays, and, you know, I'm On Planes, Trains and automobiles on Saturdays, traveling to get into our game. Jerry, have you been out there on. Have you ever been out there on set to do any of it?
- [04:39]
B
I haven't yet. We've talked about it a bunch, and I think that's kind of the next step for us now that we really got the. The workflow of the throwb AX podcast going, and I think that's the next step. But here in, like, to kind of land the plane here, too. Even hearing, like, what Matt has to do to get back home for his younger kids, and even always talks about how he missed so much of his older son Cole's games. Like, you know, it really. It's a blessing and a curse, and so, of course it's a blessing because you have a great job and it's something you love, but, you know, it being away from the kids so much must be really hard, especially when they start playing sports.
- [05:16]
A
Yeah. Yeah. And Cole's an absolute stud. It's been fun to kind of watch him grow from, like, the little boy we met a million years ago, and now he's. Where's he going? SMU.
- [05:25]
C
SMU.
- [05:26]
A
He turns.
- [05:27]
C
He's. He turns 19 this week. SMU in January, so graduating early. So we're going through all of that, the transcripts and all that. I got a couple games left in the season playoffs, and then, yeah, dude, we're sending him off to college, which is. It's crazy, dude. It's. It's. It's been the greatest thing. And I know you've had such an impact with, obviously, the youth Inc. And youth sports and all that, and you and I have talked about it a little bit, just coaching kids, like, it's been. It's been so. Like, just. I'm a very proud dad to watch him go to college because it's not easy, man. It's been. There's been a lot of ups and downs. There's a lot of hard times, a lot of learning times, and we're finally sort of at the. We're at the finish line, so to speak. Right. We just got a little bit more to push him over. But I'm excited for his future, dude.
- [06:12]
B
He's.
- [06:13]
C
He's worked hard. He's got all the talent in the world. You know, he can do it. And I'm hoping he just enjoys it, man, and. And realizes the opportunity.
- [06:21]
A
Right. That he has.
- [06:22]
C
But, yeah, it's been fun, dude. It's just crazy, man. Like. Like Jerry said, just miss missing the games on Friday. Absolutely. Just Breaks my heart, dude. It just, it kills me. But I stream it, I stream it, I watch it. I'm, I'm yelling through the TV screen every Friday.
- [06:35]
A
I get it, man. It's the hardest thing. All right, well, that's the perfect segue. Again, appreciate you guys joining me Our, our show here. You think? We love having conversations with as many different people as we can. Of course, our lane, our world is youth sports. The parenting, the crazy stories, the really good things that are coming out of sports and, you know, just having the opportunity to just talk to people that are coming at it from all different perspectives. So with that being said, like, I want to hear your guys stories. Like, my favorite thing, you talk to Olympians, super bowl winners, famous actors. I mean, we've had multiple different, you know, all sorts of different people on, but like, everybody has their like, big youth sports moment and like, it's not winning the Heisman Trophy, it's not playing Super Bowls. It's like, dude, at 12U, Pop Warner with the Mustang. Oh, yeah, right. Like, so I want to hear your. I'm Jerry. I'm going to start with you because we've heard Matt's stories. We, we know what he's.
- [07:32]
C
I actually have a great story for you after this that you've never heard, Jerry.
- [07:35]
A
I want to hear, like, give me your best, like growing up as a kid. Like, give me your best. Best youth sports memory.
- [07:42]
B
So I grew up in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, late 80s, early 90s. So single mom raised my brother and I, and my brother has never played nor really watched a sport he didn't have money on in his life. He still thinks Peyton Manning's in the league. I, my mom was a huge Yankee fan. My mom always watched sports. So I get all the sports stuff from my mom. I, I feel like I subbed in for my brother. He walked off the little league field when he was like nine and I was seven and I took his spot and I never let it go. So I'm just a sports junkie. My favorite memory early, I mean, man, we were one game away from going to Williamsport in the Little League World Series. And it was like, I'll never forget this. Talk about coaching, Greg, and I want to hear your thoughts. You know, the final tournament to get there was in Connecticut because it's the Tri state area. And we got to this hotel, ragtag group of kids from Brooklyn who never left Brooklyn. The hotel had an indoor pool. We didn't even know they made indoor pools back then. Right. So after every game we Were like, the underdogs are whipping teams. And then we go in the pool, right? We get to the finals to go to Williamsport, and the coach says, guys, no one's going in the pool today. And we're like, why? He's like, well, I don't want anyone getting hurt before tomorrow. I don't want anyone getting sore. You guys are horsing around no pool before the final game tomorrow. And we got so tight at that moment, and all of a sudden it was like, whoa, this must be really important if we can't go in the pool. And we got shelled 161 in the final.
- [09:16]
A
Who'd you play?
- [09:17]
B
It was a team out of Connecticut. It was a team out of Connecticut. None of them were big, but these kids hit line drives back up the middle. Every. Every. Every B bullet back up the middle. I felt bad for a center fielder, but I just never forgot that my coach banned us from the pool. And we got so scared and nervous off of that.
- [09:36]
A
I. I get it. And listen, I. I've probably in my youth coaching days overdone. Like, you're. You're so close, but you're like, no one can get hurt. Your arms are going to be sore from splashing, right? You're like making up in your brain. But, man, there's also an element with these young kids. Like, ignorance is bliss. Like, yeah, let them. That you could swim in the pool before the rec league all star game, or you could do it in going to Williamsport. Like, it's almost like the. Keeping it normal, keeping the routine, keeping everything the same. It feels like the pool was like your guys juice, and then it got taken away in your kryptonite. And you guys, you lost your mojo. You got kids from Brooklyn. That's the moral of the story. We got to get kids in Brooklyn more in the pool. Exactly. We'll be better at baseball. What's up, guys? Do you want custom fanware like this cricket shirt? For Charlotte Christian School, we've got premium apparel from your favorite brands. The best part about it is I don't have to just wear it to Charlotte Christian's events. I can wear it to golf. I can wear it to lunch. It's turned into my uniform. Go right now over to youth.in Sign up for our new newsletter that talks about our podcast for that week, our interview guests, all the breaking news across the landscape of youth sports, and you can win one piece of merch for your school by going to sign up today. And remember, it's not dotcom. It's youth.in now back to our episode. All I can think of is indoor pools is, like, you go in there, and the chlorine is just so overwhelming. Your chest burns for three days.
- [11:05]
B
Bloodshot eyes.
- [11:09]
A
But that's incredible, man. One game away.
- [11:11]
B
Yeah, I never forgot that. That's always stuck with me. And then for me, you know, once, obviously, DNA and genetics caught up, and I still played as much as I could till around sophomore year of high school. But I never dropped sports. It's such a big part of my life. And to land the plane. One of the biggest blessings of Entourage was how much it clicked with athletes. For some reason, less with actors and more with athletes. And I've had some amazing encounters with athletes over the years who just related to Entourage in their own way. So in my own way, I got, you know, I got an inside look into professional sports and being a professional athlete.
- [11:49]
A
That's awesome. Well, you talk about DNA, it's because Leinert took all of the DNA in the world. He got it all. Seven feet tall, throws it a mile, lefty, handsome. I mean, we can go down the list.
- [12:02]
C
You're describing yourself, Greg. You're describing yourself to.
- [12:06]
A
I don't have a Heisman Trophy. But. No, all seriousness, dude, like, we all. You played in arguably the biggest, the most memorable, whatever you want to classify it. You're that national title game, your career. Reggie, you. USC with Pete was like. You guys were like the 33rd NFL team, so to speak, as far as popularity. Like, But I'd be curious, like, what are your best sport? Like, do you. Do you go back further than that? Or, like. Because I know I go back to, like, high school playing with the boys. Like, not Super Bowls, not. I'd be curious, with every. With everything you've done, how far do.
- [12:42]
C
You go back, man? The best. Well, two things. The best football. The best experience is high school football. There, to me, there's nothing better than Friday Night Lights with your boys. Right? I mean. And three. I mean, my three best friends still to this day were my high school teammates, and they never played college, but we still talk all the time. My. My. My youth sports experience was predominantly baseball. I was. I've told. I've told this story before. I was a pitcher. I was a big lefty. My dad played at lmu, played in the minors for a little bit. My brother played high school baseball. He was five years older than me. So I just. I was like. I looked up to my brother, my dad, and that's what I played. I played flag Football a little bit for my school, a little bit of basketball that was, I was decent at, but baseball was my ticket. And so I. You're talking about Williamsport. I'll never forget, man. One of my greatest memories is we played for Fountain Valley. We played Pony at that point. Pony was a lot bigger than Little League for, for in our, in our area in Orange county and we were really good. Fountain Valley youth baseball, we, we went to the Pony World Series or the Bronco world series like three years in a row from like nine to 12 or something like that. And I'll never forget, dude, I was 11 years old and we played up in Monterey, California and to win like your district SoCal, then we would go up to Pacific Grove which was like the west coast, which was us, Hawaii, those types of teams and then it was the World Series. And in the World Series that year it was Puerto Rico, Chinese Taipei, Seoul, Korea and then all the national teams. And so we always had a little beef. We're like, oh, we're better than all the Little League Williams sport teams because we're pitching from further back. These were the Pony rules or whatever. And my story is this, dude, I was pitching and I, and I was, I was the young kid on the 12 year old team. So I think I was 11 on the 12 year old team and I, this is when I, Greg, I was big and fat as shit, dude, I was so fat but I was throwing keters, dude, I had a little 50, I had, I was, I was throwing gas. I had a very weak curveball and like a decent change up, right? So I had enough mixed, mixed speeds. And we're in like the bottom of the six or something. It's how you can draw it up. Like they bring me in, we're up like four, three, whatever it was, couple runners on. They bring me in, I have to get this big old righty hitter out there, four hitter for Puerto Rico. And I'll never forget this. So I'm in there, I'm warming up and all of a sudden and these kids from Puerto Rico look like they were 16, dude. And we were all 10. I swear to God.
- [15:08]
B
It might have been Danny.
- [15:10]
A
Oh yeah, Danny Almonte, of course, from the Bronx. He was, he was New York, right?
- [15:14]
B
Yeah, he's Bronx.
- [15:15]
C
Yeah, he, he. There was eight of those kids and they start chanting Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico. And my brother, I'll never forget, my brother's like USA and dude, I literally get, get goosebumps and I'm up on the mound and this I Always say this is part of like, I probably why I like playing quarterback because like you just kind of like those, those pressure situations. And long story short, I'm like an eight pitch at bat and I finally strike him out. Dude, I just, I just threw a high heater. And we start celebrating it. It was probably, it's probably one of the greater. I still remember to this day. It was such a great moment. And then like I tore my arm like two years later going into high school. And that's when I quit baseball and focus on football. So, you know, everyone's path is super different. Mine is kind of crazy. Like I never. And I always say this just to end it, like, I don't think I loved football like how I should have if you know how it is. Like, you got to really love the game at the highest level, like that if you want to succeed. And obviously I played at the highest level, all those things. But like, I love baseball, man. That was like my thing. Like still to this day, Dodgers baseball, my kids, all that. So that's one of my core youth sports memories, dude.
- [16:27]
A
I love it. It's funny because I, I think back on my high school, I played for my dad. Like quintessential old school. I lived in North Jersey, Jerry. So not far from you.
- [16:36]
B
Oh, no way.
- [16:36]
A
Right outside. Right outside. Right outside of the tunnel. Like down Route 3 in North Jersey, 20 minutes from Giant, from the Meadowlands.
- [16:43]
B
Yeah.
- [16:43]
A
Only Jersey people still call it the Meadowlands.
- [16:46]
B
I guess everyone else calls it like met, not metlife. It's always the Meadowlands.
- [16:49]
A
It's the Meadowlands.
- [16:50]
B
Yeah.
- [16:52]
A
So, like, I grew up, my dad was our football coach. Hard nosed, tough on us. All my brothers played football and whatnot. But like, I think back on like winning my high school state championship, coming off with your buddies and going to the outback after the game. Like people always ask me, they're like, you know, was it the Super Bowl, Pro Bowls, you know, playing at Miami against Florida in the Orange bowl, like, some really cool moments. I'm like, there was nothing cooler, man, than on a Friday night playing with your buddies. The whole school was coming, the other team hated your guts, and you just went out there and beat the brakes off. I'm like, that was sports at its purest. And it didn't matter if it was football, basketball, whatever it was. Fast forward now. And a big reason why I like do this show and love having these conversations, a, because you get to reminisce with the boys about the good old days. But dude, this summer I'm coaching my kids 12 year baseball team and we go to Cooperstown, New York which is like a rite of passage for boys. We're playing teams from Hawaii, California. It was super cool. So dude we're living in a barrack with 14 boys, me and two other coaches, old school barracks, we're eating crustables like uncrustables for lunch. But dude we make a run and we make it to the finals. There's like 100 and something teams, we make it to the finals. So I'm standing on the field, there's fireworks, they're singing the national anthem. I'm standing here, I'm like I've been in a Super bowl pregame, I've been in BCS bowl games back when that was a thing. I don't know if I've ever been more nervous. I was getting goosebumps. I'm looking around, I'm like these 12 year old kids, unfortunately for them this is the best moment they'll ever had and they have no idea. True. And man there's just something so pure and unique about the whole youth sports journey and it's just cool to hear. For the most part regardless of what you, what levels you go to or where you grow up, everyone's experience is kind of the same.
- [18:45]
C
How, how about Greg like you say that and how many nights of sleep have you lost coaching? Because I know you coach your kids football team and baseball like I, I've told Jerry this like I coached, I've coached baseball like the youth basketball but the football for us like I coached Colton the flag football which is, you know, flag football is big. It's growing up and it was super competitive as it got older and my wife would always make fun of me because I'm watching film. Like I'm like. Because they would film our games which is really cool in this league I'm drawing up plays I and we went to the super bowl like six, seven years in a row. We won most of them but like I lost probably three weeks of my life just, just because of the stress. I couldn't sleep tonight. But she's like they're 12. I said yeah but you have no idea how important and how much this means to me and the team and all this stuff. So I'm right there with you dude. Like I can only imagine because my nephew's going to Cooperstown I think this summer because he'll be 12 and a lot of kids from Manhattan beach went when Cole was 12 and I've heard nothing but but just, like, it's cool. It's the experience, right? Like, they'll never forget that experience. But, yeah, it's. Dude, it's. I've lost a lot of.
- [19:50]
A
We just had our last middle school football game. I don't think I was a functioning member of my family for, like, a good two weeks. Like, if I was home, I was in my office. I had paper scattered. I'm doodling, sketching. How are we going to stop this running back? What fronts can we present to give them trouble in the run game? Like, it became obsessive. And my wife would be like, are you nuts? And I'm like, do you want to lose? Do you want to lose?
- [20:17]
B
Do we care about winning in this house?
- [20:19]
A
I mean, everybody, but, like, Jerry. And I'd be curious your take on this because, like, you guys, what I love about your show is you guys get, like, all different people, great stories, pop culture reactions. Like, you guys have had some pretty fun, pretty cool, like, youth sports on the really good side and on the. Oh, my God, these people are nut side. Like, what are your favorite kind of stories? Like, Jerry, like, are you. Do you love, like, watching, like, the dad loses shit at the game? The coach, like, what. What is your favorite one to come across where you just. You look at it? You're like, these people are nuts. I mean, I've been the nuts guy before, if I'm being honest.
- [20:57]
B
So my kids right now currently are 6 and 4.
- [21:03]
A
And so you're in it.
- [21:05]
B
I'm in it in a different way. Better.
- [21:07]
A
Favorite sport. By right now, they don't have time, and they're falling behind.
- [21:10]
B
And there's something I do want to discuss with you if we have a minute on this show, because I. I have tons of time. I do need a little advice on how to handle my older son. But so far to this point, it's been pretty chill, right? Because they're so young. But I have seen, like, you know, you could spot the kid that maybe is already a little advanced and already a little ahead of all the other kids at this age. And. And there was one kid who in coach pitch was just hitting, like, nukes, right? This kid was like, ohtani, just like, how far is he gonna hit it? And he leaves. And I heard the dad talking, and, like, they were going to another game, like, a whole different league. I'm like, the kid's like 6 years old. And I was like, I finally cornered him. I'm like, well, how many teams is this kid a part of? And he's Like a ringer already. This kid, like he plays up to 8 years old, he's a full on professional 6 year old baseball player. His service, I want to say he has an nil deal already. And I was just blown away. Like also like I remember when a kid was advanced at my age, it was like, oh, that's like your star player. This kid is like a star in the area already. And I've never seen anything like that. For us, I mean we're talking about 6 year old, not 12 or 13. 6. And this kid's got the big league chew. He has a chain on. This kid's got it. And I was just blown away and very intimidated because that is not my, my boys at all.
- [22:38]
A
Well, wait till you get to the part where they are 10 or 12. And that same type of kid, instead of just getting in the car and driving with dad cross town to go play in the other wreck, he's playing, you know, he's playing rec here and he's playing little league over here or whatever it is at that age. There's a time and my kids are in the thick of it. I mean we, we don't do it but like our age group, I'm saying that kid is gonna play a game in California and then he's gonna fly to Louisiana and he's gonna play for a different team the next weekend and then he's going to be at a big showcase event in Florida and all these events, the really, really good kids, they don't really necessarily have a team. They have like a main team and then when they're not playing, they're, they're not for sale. But yeah, they're, they're for sale. They're being flown in, they're being paid, they're, they're bills are being paid. Their travel, their flight, their hotel.
- [23:34]
B
Really?
- [23:34]
C
Food.
- [23:35]
B
That's. I was gonna ask you who covers.
- [23:36]
A
All the travel and all the, those really big organizations. I know baseball better than I do the other sports because our kids have done more of it. But like in the baseball world, these teams are funded by individuals, companies, big conglomerate industries that have like charitable sidearm. Like the main national teams that are comprised of kids from all over the country. Those teams are a couple hundred thousand dollars a year teams all in.
- [24:04]
B
Wow.
- [24:05]
A
Flights, hotels, stipends, food.
- [24:08]
C
Oh yeah, we saw that.
- [24:09]
A
I haven't seen anything yet. Dude, wait, I'm telling you.
- [24:12]
B
Wow. That's why I'll save my question for aftermath.
- [24:14]
A
Your mind is going to be blown.
- [24:16]
C
Well, I, yeah, because my the baseball thing again, I'm. I'm a little different because Cole didn't. Cole played baseball, but he didn't really. He didn't love baseball. So we were more the club hoops, which is out of his mind. And I know baseball a little bit more now because my brother Greg, his son might be the same age as your boys or he's 10 or 11. So he's going to Cooperstown. He's a stud catcher. Like, he's.
- [24:39]
B
He.
- [24:39]
C
They're all in on club or travel baseball every week just to your. It's wild. The club hoops thing. I remember when Cole was like fifth or sixth grade and we're playing in some of these Orange county tournaments that are pretty big. A lot of the west coast teams and a lot of. Actually a lot of the kids now that are going to college were like, we saw Cole play and like there's some of the top players in the country. It's pretty cool.
- [25:01]
A
We.
- [25:02]
C
There was a. There was a kid, I forget his name. He played in one day in a pretty big tournament on three different teams in the same tournament. And it took. And it was like, we just played him. He literally took his jersey off and like an hour later had another jersey on playing for another team in the same tournament. I was like, how does that even happen? How does it happen? And to great points, like, well, one, a lot of these programs want some of these kids to play from like, you know, in basketball it's a lot. A lot of the names are like players. Like, so Russell Westbrook has team. Why not? Paul Pierce has the truth out here, which Cole played for Paul Pierce's team. There's, there's. Chris Paul has a team, actually.
- [25:39]
A
Chris Paul by us.
- [25:40]
C
Yeah, he's big by you.
- [25:42]
A
CP3.
- [25:43]
C
CP3. So they've come out to the west coast and played. So like a lot of these obviously NBA players have their names attached to their programs. But you know, to, to Greg's point, like, it's, it's, it is like feast. They just feasting on these kids, trying to get them to play for their program. The club basketball was wild for me. Like, that opened my eyes to be like, holy crap, dude. Like this is. And then just like it's a little different than. It's probably more similar to baseball. But like football is a little different because football is more the 7 on 7 circuit and all that, at least for like the club part. But like. And then you're right on top of the, you know, on top of the court. So I Saw dude one time I saw Matt Barnes, who I've become good buddies with because his boys were on the same. They're like a year younger than Cole, but they were on the same kind of circuit. Like almost fought. Like Isaiah Ryder, who had a team almost like all these Isaiah Riley.
- [26:31]
B
Nice.
- [26:32]
C
Isaiah Ryder had a team out of Arizona. Anyway, it's just like, it's, it's crazy, dude. And yeah, I mean, you're in it now, Greg. I'm going to be in it again here in about five or six years with my two little guys. It's wild.
- [26:44]
A
Yeah. Jerry, I want to hear your. I want to hear what your.
- [26:47]
B
Okay.
- [26:47]
A
Where your concerns lie.
- [26:49]
B
Well, here's, here's where I'm at with my 6 year old who all sports have kind of exploded for him in terms of interest. But basketball be. And maybe because I'm a psycho Knicks fan, in case you haven't figured that out. Like the. It's a different. Like I still love the Giants and football is still king. But like for me, because the torment that the Knicks have given me for 46 years almost is enough to make me want to cry. So he's kind of followed me. I took to a Knicks game. So basketball's exploded. He loves like today, you know, I would tap in this. I don't know when it's going to air. Knicks play tonight. He went in his Carl Anthony Towns jersey. But he's a weird kid in the sense where like he's so smart about like the players and the stats. Like, he'll talk to you about Yelli, who's the Knicks ninth guy that they signed for $2 million a year. He's not talking about Towns or Brunson. He's like, I think Yelli really could take this team to the next level. So the question is, he has all this love and passion and knowledge at a young age. I'm five, six, not a spoiler alert. The DNA and genetics not on my side and they're showing so far. And I heard PMT on your show where he said, if my kids grow up and prove me wrong, great. And I'll say this to my son too, Jacob, if you grow up and you're playing somewhere, God bless you, you prove dad wrong physically. The coordination is not there. He loves to play, but he's now getting to a point where he's getting put in some of these games in basketball. And some of the kids who aren't as knowledgeable just physically are at a whole other level. And I don't want to kill the spirit and the love that he has because it's. It's infectious. Like, we go to sleep every night, we do 20 questions, and he asks me 20 basketball questions, random stuff like that. Why are the nets so bad? And I get to fill him in. And I'm a little worried now is, like, they're asking me to coach him and. And then it's like a. Two practices a week in the game right now. He's not quite there, and I haven't bumped him up to that next level. I actually, like, held him back a little bit because it's. It's comfortable for him. And am I doing him a disservice by not throwing him into the. Not the fire, but just, you know, let him figure it out and mess up and. But he's only six, so that's where I'm at, Greg.
- [29:01]
A
All right, well, obviously, I don't have all the answers, but here's my initial. Here's my initial. Just as my gut instinct that, dude, he's six. Just play. Just play on the field. Continue to cultivate the love for the sport. Be out there. The nice thing about today's world in sports is the negative is there's a lot of decisions, right? There's a thousand teams, a thousand different levels. You can take it to a million different degrees of competition. The nice thing is there is a level for everybody, right? So, like, I don't think you need to throw them to the fire. I don't think at 6 years old, you need to figure out, like, do you have that competitive spirit to be up? He's six, right? He should love it. He should go up. And if he goes on a team and they're okay, who cares, right? Like, if he continues to learn the skills, which you can help him with as a dad, you can help him with as a coach or whoever else is coaching them. Like, my biggest priorities for all of this, for these, for my kids, especially as they're getting older, but when they were young, is the person they're around, if it wasn't me, is the person they're around teaching them the baseline skills of the sport. The level of. Of. Of greatness, the level of is gonna vary. What he is at 6 is going to be different than 8. He's going to be different at 10. It's going to always be different, right? Like, any moment in time, the best kid is no longer always going to be the best. And the kid that was at the bottom all of a sudden hits a growth spurt or all Of a sudden there's so many unpredictable variables. If he loves the sport, talks about the sport, lives the sport, play the sport, man. Play it all day. Play it every day. If you have to adjust up, down, even. We don't. A bunch of his friends are going to play on some Travel team at 8. That doesn't mean he has to, right?
- [30:53]
B
Like keep the passion.
- [30:54]
A
Keep the passion. We have this phrase now that I've kind of like summarized all this as. We've done a million of these interviews and just lived through making bad mistakes as parents. It is not a race to 12 years old. No matter how many people want to tell you it's a race to 12 if by sixth grade you got to have your sport, you got to know if you excel, you got to have three trainers because you got to go all in. Those people are full of shit. It is not. It is a race. By 18, 17, 18, we'll know what kids have a future and what kids high school is going to be. And guess what? For the vast majority of kids who high school was the end of their road.
- [31:33]
B
Great. You still talk about it.
- [31:35]
A
Memories anyway.
- [31:36]
B
Yeah. You still, both of you still talk about the high school stuff?
- [31:39]
A
Yeah, some of my best buddies from high school were just on my basketball team or on my track team or on my football team and that was the last time they ever played a competitive sport outside of like, you know, intramurals in college or something. And who cares? Like whatever your destiny is, whatever your ceiling is, if you're a hard worker and a great kid who puts in the time, there's going to be varying degrees of God given abilities. We're not all going to be 6 5, throwing 80. I'm from the left side like my kids, like for as tall as I am, like my older son loves sports, super competitive, Lefty. He's 14. He's not big now he might be big, he hasn't hit puberty. He looks like a little boy compared to some of these men. But people walk out of the thing and they're like, where's your son? And they think he's going to be the 6 1, 14 year old he's not. But like we tell him all the time, so what? Like let's go compete, man. Just be as good as you can be and if you love it, you'll find a way to figure it out.
- [32:42]
B
Yeah.
- [32:43]
C
Do you, do you worry? I'm curious, Greg, because you're so like ingrained in this and you kind of answer the question, but is there a point where you like at some point? Because I talked to my brother about this all the time and my, my again my nephew solely baseball. I play some of the other stuff but like it's like all in and he loves it and he's all in catching drills and this and that. Like, at what point do you start, like I would say specializing because I, I think kids should play multiple sports as long as possible. And I don't. Maybe it's 12, maybe it's like because I do think there is a level of competition now that's more so probably than we were younger because of all the access and all this stuff. Is there a point where you're like maybe at this age you can start to specialize or does it like it probably varies from kid to kid, you know, because I get asked that question all the time and I, and I have six, I have five and four and I'm already in my mind thinking like, gosh, my four year old is so talented, I don't even know if he loves it. My five and a half year old would run through a wall. He's not all there upstairs, he's half coordinator. But the dude just love like he's a beast, works harder than anybody. So like, you know what I mean? Like is there, is there, is there a time when it's like you kind of have to start pushing a little more?
- [33:52]
A
Do you think so? I, I think it's, it's the million dollar question that's facing every parent in America. And I think there's a lot of parents right now in America that are making decisions that they don't even necessarily agree agree with, like they don't want to do it. But there is a reality for the vast majority of kids and just their baseline athletic makeup that if you don't at some point start putting all, especially in the baseball, the basketball, more of like the skill, you know, the skill oriented sports. If you don't start putting in that 12 month a year level, you're not going to play on the varsity baseball team or the varsity basketball team, you're not going to make that travel based travel, AAU team or volleyball or you know, for any of these sports. Because the reality is so many of the kids you're competing against, that's all they do. So like they might not be as good of an athlete as you, but if all I do is take BP all year and all I do is do infield work and you just grab your bat and your glove and you come onto the field after a full Season of basketball, I'm probably going to be further ahead than you and over time you might pass me up. But in this moment in time, coaches are so worried about just win this moment. It's not about what are you going to be in three years. My job's to win. Right now I don't have time to project you out. They go, well, it's in my best interest to stop doing all these other things because they're almost looked at like their impediments to being on the 6th grade team or on the 12 year old team or whatever. It is my approach with our kids in our houses, we are going to play as many different sports for as long as we can handle it, right? And now we're entering my, my older son is in eighth grade. We just did a whole summer of travel baseball and summer football, did a full fall of tackle football while also trying to play fall baseball, which is very hard to do. But football was like our priority the last three months. He had three days off and on Monday he walked into a school and tried out for the eighth grade basketball team. And today is good. So like next week they start games that will go through January, February 1st he's going to walk onto the baseball field and try to try out to make the middle school basket baseball team. As long as you can keep that going, at some point you can, right? Like at some point, as much as we all love the glory of our, you know, our glory days of going with our buddies from season to season, it's just not the reality anymore. I would love for my kids personally to get to high school. You know, could they get to sophomore, junior year and then say, you know what, I'm 16. I know how tall I'm going to be. I know how my skill sets align with whatever sport I play. And I'm going to go all in to try to have a great high school career. Probably I'm going to, we're going to try to hold on as long as we can because I just believe so much in what each sport brings. Different groups of kids, different types of kid, different coaching styles, different skill sets, different. So I think the kids that you see that are the three sport Aaron judges of the world. Like yeah, Aaron Judge could go for a thousand yards at tight end and score 25 in basketball and then hit 40 home runs his senior year. But like, my kid's not Aaron Judge. I don't know about your kids.
- [37:04]
B
There's not many.
- [37:05]
A
So like I think some. So often we hear Patrick Mahomes and these. Yeah, but we're talking about, like, the elite athletes of the world. They could walked into any sport and pretty much been athletic enough to just figure it out. Less and less kids fall into that category. So the parents are just saying, you know what? We're going to go all in on something, and just over time, we'll be good enough to at least have a good high school experience, if not more. That's. That's kind of just the reality of the world we live in nowadays.
- [37:34]
C
That's what I told my brother. I was like. Because he's, again, he's pretty hardcore with it, and in a good way, he's trying, you know, but it's like I said, what is. Like, my biggest thing is, like, what is your goal for. For him? Like, what's your goal? He's like, dude, I wanted to be a starter on the varsity baseball team. That was it. I said, all right, so then, like, just put everything you, like, you don't need to. Like, at nine years old, he doesn't need to be playing a thousand baseball games like, like, literally, like every day and all that. And it's just like, it's just such a. Like, it's such an interesting conversation about this because, like, we just, we. We're in a different era now. Like you said, it's just. It's so competitive.
- [38:14]
A
Yeah.
- [38:15]
C
You try and, like, you don't want the burnout. Right. Which is the big thing. You don't want the burnout. You want to keep the love and the passion, and every kid is different. So, yeah, like, it's. It's one of those things where I know in the next couple years, I'm already having the conversation with my wife about 6 u all star baseball next summer. And it. This is proponent.
- [38:32]
A
You're going to be the coach, and we're going to do this show two years from now, and you're gonna be like, everything I said I wasn't going to be.
- [38:38]
B
I am on him.
- [38:39]
A
Jerry. We're gonna have Jerry on. When Jerry's kid's 10 and he turns into a dude, we're gonna have. We're gonna have a. We're gonna do a reunion here. And Jerry's gonna be like, guys, hand raised.
- [38:51]
B
I was wrong.
- [38:52]
A
I'm on the bench. I'm coaching. I called an extra film session because I didn't like the way we broke the press against the warriors last week. Like, you watch every dad that I know that is early in their progress. So, like, that's not going to be me. I'm like, okay.
- [39:07]
B
I see us maybe being like, I don't know if you guys remember the movie Little Giants. Rick Moranis's son was his analytics kid guy. My son might be my analytics guy.
- [39:19]
A
The annexation of Puerto Rico.
- [39:20]
B
Yeah, like Moneyball for basketball icebox.
- [39:23]
A
Hey, I'll tell you what. If you had to put your. If you had to put your eggs in one basket for the future of your kid, if your kid has that sort of brain and that mind to process and analytics the opportunities in sports for a kid like that and the other five bazillion kids that all have dreams of playing in the NBA and just are living in la La land, like the opportunity in sports, especially for kids who love it, your long term opportunities are a lot better having that sort of approach than they are just dreaming about dunking as a 510 white kid. Yeah.
- [40:00]
B
How'd you know? I had that dream every single night for.
- [40:02]
A
Well, we all did, right? Like I've grown up.
- [40:05]
C
Could you ever touch the rim, Jerry?
- [40:06]
B
And you're down. I was able to nip it at 5 6. I was able to like, like Jerry.
- [40:12]
A
Were you the guy in warm up lanes? Like you came out and we all had. You had like, like the snap off pants.
- [40:18]
B
I had a head.
- [40:19]
A
And you could do a member a college layup where you could hit. Where you could hit the backboard.
- [40:23]
B
Clap it. The clap is got that. That's gone by the way style, man.
- [40:27]
A
Give me an idea. Give me Jerry high school. Jerry basketball se. You're in high school. You're a dude. Like talk me through your warm up. What your outfit is like I could just see you headband, dude. Like just competitive.
- [40:43]
B
I had a headband. I had a mount. Before the Steph Curry days. I had a mouth guard. Now this is 1995. No one in basketball is wearing a mouth guard. And it was the colors of the Italian flag. I'm Italian. All right. Shaved head for sure. Probably. Back then I was playing in Jordan fives, which are like a boot. It's like £40 of shoes.
- [41:03]
A
Where were socks?
- [41:05]
B
I went high socks all the time.
- [41:08]
A
I literally had in my brain.
- [41:10]
B
Keith and high socks. Michigan baggy shorts like Weber and the Fab five. And then. But here's where I knew was over for me in like layup lines. Our rival was this high school. Lincoln. Right? Lincoln High School. And they had a star player on their team who happened to be Stephon Marbury. And in the first quarter when I saw him catch a full court alley oop at six, one and pull it back behind his head and dunk it. I said, I need to figure out, maybe I'll be a pharmacist or something. What can I do when I get older?
- [41:44]
A
I'm gonna be doctor.
- [41:45]
B
Yeah. And then somehow I came into acting. Like maybe I could pretend to be a basketball player. I played a golfer in the movie. That's the closest I came to like a sports movie. But I knew right there, I'm like, there's levels to the stuff, and I am not near that level. So Stefan Marbury ended my high school basketball.
- [42:03]
A
Lincoln. Lincoln High School is, like, famous. Is that where, like. Is that Telfair?
- [42:08]
B
Sebastian Telfair in Coney Island, Brooklyn. They were so famous, they had to put their games at Madison Square Garden and they were on espn.
- [42:17]
C
That's how famous Sebastian Telfair was. Like, he was the next coming, right?
- [42:20]
B
He's Marbury's cousin. Yeah, he's Marbury's younger cousin. Same school, same everything.
- [42:26]
A
Yeah. Growing up. Growing up in North Jersey. New York and New Jersey, North Jersey, basketball. I mean, even South Jersey, we had like, oh, God, the kid that went to Camden, his son now is playing Duan Wagner. Oh, yeah. You know, we had St. Anthony's with. With the Hurleys and St. Patrick's and Saint. And then every year there was, like, the New York versus New Jersey All Star Game.
- [42:49]
B
Jersey was always. So did you.
- [42:51]
C
Did you ever play Burger Catholic, Greg? Did you play Bergen Catholic?
- [42:54]
A
We didn't play them. They were. I went to public school. They were in the private school league.
- [42:58]
C
Were they? Because that's where Cushion went. So, like, Brian Cushing.
- [43:02]
A
They're still loaded. Don Bosco. So, like, the football schools were like, Bergen and Bosco and then. But then the basketball school, St. Patrick's St. Anthony's St. Benedict's and then you had the New York schools. And, oh, man, it was New Jersey and New York basketball was real. Were you, like, the guy, though, that leading into the game, you're, like, talking all up your buddies and we're going to box him out?
- [43:27]
B
I was the hype man. I used to bring. It was my boombox I had to bring. And long before your Spotify playlist, right?
- [43:34]
A
What was your. What was your Warm up song? What was your song?
- [43:37]
B
Oh, God, I'll go back to.
- [43:38]
A
I remember ours in high school, dude.
- [43:40]
C
95, Tupac, Biggie. That was.
- [43:42]
B
I think it was like.
- [43:43]
C
It was.
- [43:44]
B
It was. Well, Biggie for sure, because we were Brooklyn kids. So of course there was definitely, like, where Brooklyn at? Where Brooklyn.
- [43:52]
A
If it wasn't. That's a mistake, by the way.
- [43:54]
C
Greg, you're giving me the best visual of Jerry walking into a house.
- [43:57]
B
I'll send you pictures. I'll send pictures.
- [43:59]
A
I literally can picture you, and everything you're saying is, like, in my brain. I'm like, I know exactly who you were, and you would have been my best friend, by the way.
- [44:07]
C
This guy is like the celebrity basketball all star MVP back in the day, every year.
- [44:12]
B
Because I'm the only one that takes it seriously. I have a beach ball MVP and a celebrity basketball game MVP because I'm the only one who tries. And, like, I actually get mad at guys who, like actors who come in there and, like, either don't try or never played before. I'm like, why watch him here? Go home. Yeah.
- [44:29]
A
All right, I'm gonna ask you guys a serious question, and this is one of my favorite things to ask the guys that we have on, Guys and girls that we have on. But, like, we talk so much about, like, if the idea of youth sports was to create professionals, we should just disband the industry because it's broken, right? Like that. If that's your goal, then you should just stop because the odds are not in your favor. Jerry, I'm start with you, like, what's something you take from, like, all the fun, the cool story, you know, the jokes and the fun, but, like, what's something you reflect back on now with all you've accomplished in a way different industry than sports that you look back on? You're like, I'm not sure if I would have done it without this lesson, without this moment. Like, what about that youth sports experience, besides the wins, the losses, the fun, but, like, really made an impact that you carried forward and paid off in a whole different light than in your early sports days.
- [45:20]
B
It's a great question. And it's something I think about, like, how do I get that for my kids? Because it really did help me was again, not always being the all star, but I knew at a young age, like, okay, you know what? I'm a great on ball defender. I'm like, Della Vadova. I'll hound you 90ft. I'm gonna be the best at that one thing, like, understanding your role, right? And then when acting comes into my life later, again, like, not being the tall, handsome leading man. I'm not starring in rom coms, but I. I have this relatability. So, you know, I'm gonna be the best I could be at, like, the thing that I know I can do. And it really was transferring all that stuff from youth sports and. And also really helped me with losing, to be honest, like, acting is, like, worse odds than baseball. Forget it. If you bat.300 with acting, you're like Marlon Brando. You're lucky if you get 2% of the parts you try out for. So understanding and, like, knowing, like, yes, it's competitive and you gotta have that dog in you, but also knowing, like, the rejection is just part of the journey. You gotta keep going. You can't let the loss or not getting the part be the thing that you wallow in, because then when that next one comes along, you're not gonna be ready. So I took so much from all of it, and that's the stuff I really hope for my kids, in addition to all the friendships. And to be honest, all the. The parts I've gotten in the last 10 years have been because I. I play pickup basketball and golf, right? So it's led to, like, a whole social business part of my career. That's been great. And now the show at Matt, but for me, it was like, how to handle winning and losing and also understanding, hey, you're a role player on this team. Because that's how acting sets are. There's roles, there's different divi. They function very much like a professional sports franchise. Like big TV sets, like Entourage. Right.
- [47:14]
A
And so. So. But take that analogy of sport and apply it obviously to the show. We all could name every episode in every line, but, like, break down that role. Those dynamics. I think people would be fascinated to hear, like, on the set, how that all played out.
- [47:28]
B
Well, let's just say one actor out of the main five had a little lateness problem for a lot. A long period of time. Right now, we're not like, late in the way, like, oh, we're going to miss kickoff. But if you're an hour late on the set, that's thousands and thousands of dollars, right? And you have hundreds of people who are standing around waiting for you to do their job so they can get home to their family. So that's one way. Or it's like, well, who's going to be the one that. We had to have a players only meeting, essentially. We had to have an actors only meeting where we were like, yo, this gotta stop. Like, it can't happen anymore. You're gonna. You're gonna mess this all up.
- [48:06]
C
And.
- [48:06]
B
And you're screwing with a lot of other people who do a lot of work that you don't see, and that's not cool. So we had an actors only meeting in a trailer like it was a locker room. And I was all excited for it. I couldn't wait to lead that meeting. I live for that stuff.
- [48:20]
A
So how'd it go? Did it fix the problem?
- [48:22]
B
It absolutely fixed the problem, 100%. And you know, every year we have a big rap party. Like that's kind of like our version of, you know, the season's ending. You have your exit meetings and you can exit me.
- [48:38]
A
He's got all the line.
- [48:40]
B
It functions very much to me. I saw the sports franchise.
- [48:45]
A
It's awesome. Matt, I'm gonna pose the same question to you. And obviously different. You know, you stayed in the sports path, but like, what about your journey was shaped by like one critical moment or one critical lesson early on?
- [48:59]
C
Yeah, there was the whole, the word adversity that we obviously throw around a lot. Like the cliche in sports, you got to go through adversity. It makes you better on that thing. But it's true. And I was thinking about this and that moment, which I'll talk about in a second, led to me to being a parent to my oldest and how he was going to handle it. It was such a teaching moment for me to him. A couple years ago, I remember when I tore my arm pitching baseball, playing baseball. I had. They told me I had the arm of like a 50 year old pitcher at 15, overuse, whatever it was. And I was just getting into football that time and my doctor said you'll probably never be able to throw again. As you can imagine, having boys getting to that age, my life was over. It was devastating. So this, this adversity hit me at such a young age. And then I was kind of rehabbing, kind of getting back. And I remember my dad was like, hey, you can, you know, you can be depressed and you can quit all these sports or you can, or you can attack this rehab. You can get better and get stronger and we'll see what you know. My dad was great. You'll see where you end up, right? And I was like, all right, let me do that. Right? So I was kind of faced with this big thing at a young age that I didn't fully comprehend at the time. Fast forward a couple years later. I'm at, I'm now learning quarterback, right? And I'm this big, long, gangly kid, but I could throw my arm, was feeling better and had a. I had a quarterback coach, I won't name his name, tell me that I was terrible and I'll never make it as a Quarterback that I should quit. And this was my. This was the summer before my junior year in high school. So this was like two years before usc. And I remember that. And, and it gets me fired up to this. And I said, you know what? F you, man. I'm gonna do something. Like, I'm gonna do something. And it was, it was just dealing with the strength and getting back from the rehab. It was all this thing. So you fast forward and obviously was able to play football. So that was a moment that I'll never. I'll never forget people telling me I couldn't do something. Struggling with injuries, all these things. So two instances with Cole and I'll try to make it quick. Sixth grade, Arizona. Travel. Travel ball. Basketball. He's on a team. One of the. One of the kids is co opied. He's like the number one player in the country, and I think he's going to Kansas or Duke or whatever. Actually, his brother's the lineman for the Saints. Pete, you know, probably know his last name.
- [51:17]
A
Andres Pete.
- [51:18]
C
And yeah, Andres Pete's his big brother. So KO Is this kid, like, yeah, Andres Pete. So he's. He goes on this team and Cole's pretty good. Like, he's, he's. He's not starting, though. He's on the bench and he's just, you know, he's. He's pissed, right? He's kind of. I can see it, his body language. And, and that's the stuff I'm like, the effort and all that, the attitude. I'll never forget. We're driving back to the airport and I said, I said, buddy, like, like, like, it's not all. You're not always going to be the best player on the team. You're going to have these challenges, but the body language, the effort, the ever. Like, this is a moment where it can, it can push you this way and you could grind and you can be better and you can show that coach, like, hey, I should be playing. Or you can quit, dude, and you can be that. You can be that kid. Like, I gave him that. He's like, no, no, no, fast forward. The. The same tournament we go, we make a run in the finals. He had 30 points in the finals. Off the bench. I had the video. I'll send you the video. I made a little highlight. It was like 18 seconds. He's playing Bull Bull's nephew. Like, this team is ridiculous. And I never forget the moment coming off and, like hugging him. I said, you see that conversation we had a couple weeks ago, dude, like, that's that's who you can be. The second story real quick was freshman at Modern day high school and close to this three years ago, and Modern day's premier powerhouse in high school football. And the best of the best go there from here. And he's competing with the kid on the freshman football team. Now he's the backup on varsity as well, but he's competing with his kid. And he was rotating and he was pissed. He's like, I'm better than these kids. I'm better than these kids. And he might have been, but the coach was playing all like, both of them and he was having good games and he was getting pissed. He was like, why am I even here? I don't want to do this. And I said, dude, like, if you don't handle this, we're never going to know how good you are in this. Like, you can't run from this stuff. And sure enough, and sure enough, I said, dude, just go be great. Go prove him that you need to play every. Like, go be great. He actually kind of got into it with one of the coaches, which I actually kind of liked at the time. I was like, good. It shows that you care and a little bit of passion. I think this kid threw like five touchdown passes. The next week they beat St. John Bosco's freshman team, which a lot of those kids are. Everyone's all going off to D1 schools now. And it was, it was a full circle moment for me as a dad. Right? Like, I dealt with it, I dealt with, like, giving up at point, at a point. I dealt with adversity, I dealt with injuries, I dealt with all these things. It's like. But it made me so much stronger and it allowed me to give those two teaching points to my oldest, which is something that, you know, like. And again, still into this day, like, like, life is hard. You're still going through all these things, you're still trying to teach them these moments and being a dad as a coach to all that. So those are the moments, man, that I'm proud of, that, that affected me, that still affected, that I've been able to kind of pass along to my. To my oldest.
- [53:56]
A
That's awesome. Well, those are the stories that everyone needs to hear because regardless of what your journey is in sports, man, cherish these moments with your kids. Cherish these moments as a kid. Because for the vast majority, I mean, maybe all of them, it doesn't ever get any better than playing sports with your buddies as a kid. Matt, Jerry, I can't thank you guys, enough, man. What you guys do at throwback, you guys, awesome. I love watching your shows. You guys are funny as hell. I'm looking forward to being a guest with you guys.
- [54:25]
B
Yeah, we did a little home and home.
- [54:27]
A
We're gonna do a little home and home. So now. Now going to. We're going to flip it. And now we don't have to talk about youth sports. We can talk about anything you guys want to. But just appreciate you guys coming on here.
- [54:36]
C
Appreciate you, man.
- [54:37]
A
Sharing stories as dads. Sharing stories as just regular guys, man. Sharing your unique journeys is super, super helpful for our audience. I really appreciate you guys taking a few minutes to joining us on you think and look forward to being on throwbacks.
- [54:51]
C
Thank you for bridging the gap, dude, between yes is important, like the youth, the youth, parents and all that with someone who played at the highest level, honestly, what you like the. The message that you're sending and the coaching and the parenting is awesome, dude. There's not a lot of guys doing that, man, so.
- [55:04]
B
And let your kids go in the indoor pool. Coaches, let them go in the indoor pool.
- [55:09]
A
If there's one thing we got, that's it.
- [55:12]
C
That is Jerry and his Boombox in Brooklyn, 1995.
- [55:16]
A
I want to go back in time. I need to see it.
- [55:18]
C
Thanks so much for listening.
- [55:20]
A
If you want more, make sure to subscribe. As always, check out more on youth.in or across our social platforms.