College Football // Serena Williams will move on from tennis after the US Open

This is the best of the Adam Gold Show Podcast. Brought to you by Coach Pete at Capital Financial Advisory Group.

Visit us at capitalfinancialusa.com. This is the Adam Gold Show. Do you think it's more likely than not, and I can hear what you're saying already, but do you think it's more likely than not that you won't come back? Would that be your last singles match? Um, that's, that's a, that's a question I can't answer. Like, I don't know. I feel like, um, you know, I don't know. Who knows?

Who knows where I'll pop up? It is the end of an era, and we are all going to be part of it. This is the Adam Gold Show. Welcome to the Adam Gold Show. I'm Adam Gold. Dennis Cox on the ones and twos.

I appreciate, appreciated how you folded in. That was a wrestling thing, wasn't it? It was actually. Folded that into the end of, uh, potentially the last time we hear from Serena Williams. We'll hear from her again because she's going to be in the field at the US Open. Otherwise, she wouldn't be playing in Toronto right now. So she won her match yesterday, and I think a lot of us kind of believe that when we're going to talk about her in a second, but a lot of us kind of felt watching her lose in the first round at Wimbledon a year after being injured in the first round at Wimbledon. And that was her first match since the injury. That it was probably pretty close to over. But some of us don't know a world of tennis that didn't have Serena. One of the Alzheimer's absolutely one of the Alzheimer's. My guess is that the US Open will be her final.

That's it. Yeah, I could see her coming back to play Wimbledon simply because it's the easiest on her body. But I just don't. I can't see her playing clay clay court because the matches are too long. And I can't see her playing hard courts because man added that just beats you up. But she's got to play her first match at the US Open at night.

Just in case it's her last match at the US Open, and that will be that will be a tear jerker for a lot of people. So welcome to the Adam Gold show. I am him. All right, Dennis Cox, you're in charge of this.

Am I fine? Neither of us. Okay. We have a poll out, right? We do, actually.

So what were our options? And we'll hit this at one o'clock today. Our options include Serena Williams, who is, I mean, arguably the greatest of the greats.

So, not just in tennis, but I think in all of sports, one of the greatest of the greats. We'll get to some of the other things here in a second. But Big Ten TV with a very interesting twist that I want to bring up.

Kevin Durant still wants that of Brooklyn. And after we're done today, we'll get a verdict on Liv versus the PGA Tour in terms of the three players that want to play this week because the tournament starts on Thursday. So those are your options in the poll. Dennis has put it out there. I am about to hit RT and retweet it.

I have to figure out if I want to vote in it or not. But let's get to business. All right. I would also like to say my condolences to the family of Olivia Newton-John, 73 years old. Sandra Dee.

Let's get physical. Have you never been mellow? Or ever? Have you ever? I think it's have you ever been mellow? Gosh, you should get the titles of the songs right.

People doing cover songs at bars get the lyrics wrong. Yes. Yes, indeed.

I can no longer crack on that doofus lead singer at Ocean Annie's. But Grease is one of the great cinematic triumphs of our time. Did you see you've seen the movie Grease? Oh, yeah. Gosh, just amazing.

Celebrating just the awfulness of being a high schooler in the 50s. The absolute awfulness of that. You know, she's she's making herself, in my opinion, less attractive. Right. And and he's like setting his friends aside and try to be so be who you are. If you're Sandra Dee, be Sandra Dee. And if you're Danny Zuko, just embrace the Danny Zuko in all of us.

Those are the two. Never mind. Yeah, let's.

Should we get to sports? I lost Dennis. I'm here.

I'm here. All right. I've seen the movie. Victoria, you've seen the movie, right? You get it. Victoria gets it.

Gosh, can't wait for tomorrow. No, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Adam Golden Studio with my man Coach Pete DeRuta with the Capital Financial Advisory Group.

We're talking retirement and coach. I'm a simple guy, but I like colors. Tell me how I can color code money and get ready for retirement. I like colors, too. I like pictures. I like graphs.

I don't like just a bunch of words. And so what we try to do is we try to break down all those words on your statement, all those numbers into three colors. Red, green, yellow. People are amazed when they come in and most of their money is in the red category.

Yeah, I don't want that. Red means high horsepower potential. It also means high loss potential. So you have to, it's a give and take. You could be willing to do that or that. Yellow means liquid money. You can get it anytime.

It's not going to earn anything. Green gives you safe growth, but also gives you a lifetime income. As we get closer to retirement, we need some green accounts. We need the green zone, we call it. And Baghdad green zone was important. Green zone's important for you, too. The next 10 people, Adam, it's $1,000 value. Golden ticket, we're going to put together for you, your very own total plan that has a green zone. It's a traffic light. I hope it's green for you.

800-661-7383 or text ADAM to 21000 for coach Pete DeRuta. So the big 10 is this close to finalizing their television rights going forward. I believe it starts in 24, right? Since this year and next year of status quo. And then starting with the 2024-2025 academic year, even though this is athletics, although that's athletic, too. Then they will go Fox main package.

And then it does appear that CBS and NBC will get the second and third tier rights, which means that for the first time since 1982, if I read this correctly, ESPN will have nothing to do. With the big 10, which, sorry about this, SEC people, is America's premier conference. Yeah. And this is not about prestige. It's not about championships, which the big 10 has struggled to achieve other than the Ohio State national championship in football and what Michigan State did in 2000.

That was the last one. It's still in terms of university size, global or national reach, forget global reach, national reach, eyeballs. It's the number one league in America.

Yeah. And ESPN won't have it. Here's what's interesting to me. If ESPN was presented with, I guess an offer by the big 10, seven year deal, just under $400 million annually, and ESPN cashed out. They went, nope, sorry, we're done.

Worldwide leaderfolded. Like, no, toss the cards in, we're not doing that. I don't know if it was for the second tier rights or the third tier rights, but they didn't. Right now, they're the second choice for the big 10. Fox gets first choice. ESPN goes next. And sometimes they put those games on in the middle of the afternoon. Sometimes they put those games on in prime time. But ultimately, the way this deal is structured now, it looks like it's going to be Fox gets the noon game. CBS will get 330. NBC will get a prime time game. And whether NBC puts it on USA or Peacock, now my favorite network, wherever that's going to end up, that's the way it looks like it's going. And I think ESPN probably wanted a little more flexibility, if I could guess. And maybe they balked at ultimately the price for what amounts to a third tier package, which I don't blame them. They've already been, you know, for a long time, paying the biggest price to the NFL for Monday Night Football, which they got maybe the sixth or seventh best game of the week, occasionally got a great game, but had no flexibility.

It's changing, by the way. Monday Night Football has some flex opportunities this year. And it's always been amazing to me that other than the Thursday night package, ESPN was paying the most money and getting screwed by the NFL, but they wanted so desperately to be part of the NFL.

And I get it. I think ESPN would have rather been part of the Big Ten television package, but they have moved away. Here's the other thing that I read today from Andy Katz, who works for a lot of different people, including the Big Ten Network. So there's a lot of non-conference games in basketball. So according to Andy Katz, ESPN cannot show any game involving a Big Ten team. Unless it's at one of those preseason tournaments, Maui, Bahamas, there's a bunch of those.

Great Alaska Shootout, whatever they are. Unless it's one of those, or unless it's a neutral site game that isn't within the Big Ten's footprint, which that's the United States now. So my question is, Michigan State, Kansas, Kentucky, and Duke are part of the Champions Classic. It is basically the kickoff or the tip-off of the college basketball season with arguably the four biggest draws in college basketball.

That's been an ESPN property since it was invented. There's also ACC Big Ten challenge implications here too. So my wonder is, Chicago is part of the Big Ten footprint.

Indianapolis is part of the Big Ten footprint. New York is not. New York City, well I guess it is. New York has Rutgers. It's in New Jersey and it's really not part of New York. Nobody in New York gives a damn about Rutgers.

It's in their market though. Sort of. Rutgers is actually in central New Jersey.

It's as much Philadelphia as it is New York. But Los Angeles is now in the Big Ten footprint. So I'm curious, can ESPN not show a Michigan State game in the Champions Classic? On top of that, the ACC Big Ten challenge might be dead as a result of this. Interesting.

I haven't thought about that. It's an ESPN property, right? So are you going to tell ESPN that, I'm sorry we can't do this, I guess they can. It used to be the ACC Big East challenge. So the Big Ten took over when the ACC had basically left the Big East to die. So then the Big Ten stepped in. The only other way it really survives is if ESPN splits that package. Maybe with Fox. Big Ten Network.

Whatever. We don't know the future of it. Frankly, I think college basketball will survive without it. The ACC can simply do an ACC-SEC challenge at the start of the season.

Which would be fine. SEC plays very good basketball in the last few years. SEC has arguably been better than the ACC on the court.

So that would be fine. And the ESPN owns the SEC like they own the ACC. So that would be a logical step off for the ACC. But that still, those have been early season staple games which this Big Ten TV deal could kind of euthanize. I'm wondering if they would reach some sort of agreement where the home team essentially has the broadcast, right? Like football.

Essentially. So when Michigan plays North Carolina, let's say, and the game's at Michigan, Fox would have that game. Right. But if it's at UNC, ESPN would have that game. So that way it's like an even split during the season, during the challenge of, you know, Fox gets half and ESPN gets half. But remember, ESPN invented it. That's also a very good point. It's an ESPN property. That's a very good point.

I forget that, yes. Much like bowl games. ESPN owns like 30 bowl games.

I don't think the number is 30, but it's pretty close. It's like 20-something bowl games. This is just, it's an interesting part of this whole story is, and this maybe kind of speaks to the power of the Big Ten.

So that is something to keep an eye on. I don't think it'll go final until late this week, early next week, based on our friend John Oran from the Sports Business Journal. I will say it is going to be nice moving forward that CBS is still going to have that 330 game on Saturday.

It's a staple. I've been telling Chip Patterson this for a while. Ultimately, when they lost the SEC, they will fall up. Because if they get the right games at 330, look, Fox's big noon Saturday, the noon kickoff, that noon kickoff might ultimately be the dominant window for college football. Noon games are great, but because Fox has first choice, you're going to see a steady diet of Michigan, Ohio State, Michigan State, Wisconsin, Penn State in that noon window, and it'll get big ratings. But the 330 game, which the SEC used to dominate, I think CBS will take that second game and do the same. Now ESPN is going to put the SEC game on there, so we'll see it going head to head with each other. If I were ESPN, I would put that game on ABC to get it over the air because CBS ain't putting the Big Ten on the CBS network.

They're going to put that on the mothership. Pardon me for using ESPN's first. I will say, though, a 330 kickoff Michigan State versus Wisconsin, I'd watch that. On CBS, yeah.

Personally, I wouldn't watch that because watching those two teams is painful. Okay, I secretly, all right, I'm going to come out and say this, I secretly enjoy Wisconsin football. That's a shame. I know.

And you know what? I'm proud to say it. I'm proud to say it. I enjoy Wisconsin football. I'm trying to think if there's a Big Ten team other than Ohio State that's watchable. Nope.

Can't come up. No, Southern Cal. I can't wait for the Southern USC. I'll watch them. With Lincoln Riley?

Yeah, I'll watch that. That's exciting. That's interesting football. Ohio State, absolutely amazing. I have no problem watching Ohio State, even though I hate watching them. I want them to lose every time they play, but they're amazing.

Everybody else in that league, unwatchable, except they had billions of alumni. Yeah. And they all think that those schools hung the moon. Talking like, hey, let's can't wait for Maryland versus Minnesota. Actually, Minnesota is somewhat interested. Minnesota is actually, they rode the boat. Yeah.

They'll do the whole PJ Fleck thing. I get it. I get it. Anyway.

Yeah. It's going to draw a lot of eyeballs, but my eyes would be glassed over watching that. Gosh, it's so bad. It's just such a terrible football. I mean, it's just boring.

It's boring and it's football from like 40 years ago. Gosh. All right.

Let me move on. June 19th, 2006, but it all started May 6th, 1997 with the announcement that the Hartford Whalers were coming to North Carolina. It's a story of transition, of heartbreak, of figuring it out on the fly. The Canes Corner look at the 25th anniversary of the move presented by the Aluminum Company of North Carolina.

Listen now, find Canes 25th anniversary wherever you get your podcast. So in a Vogue magazine essay, they called it an essay. Serena Williams has hinted at this being it. And she's openly talking about like her career winding down, wants to start, you know, focus more on her family. She actually said, and it was kind of interesting to hear her. She says, I haven't even been able to talk about this with her husband, Alexis.

She hasn't been able to deal with, you know, talk with her mother, her father, her sister about retiring. I mean, she's been playing since, professionally since what, like 17? If not earlier. Right? I think her first slam win was 99.

May have been. She's going to turn 41 in like six weeks. 41 years old. 23 Grand Slam titles. She's one behind Margaret Court, who has 24.

But my gosh, she'd wipe the court with Margaret. 33 Grand Slam finals, which means she's 23 and 10 in Grand Slam finals. The other two preeminent players in her era, Maria Sharapova and her sister Venus. She's dominated.

Dominated. Now Venus, I mean, it's tough to be second best in your own family. Venus is probably a top 15 player all time. I would say probably a top 15 player all time.

I think that might even be conservative. Seven time Grand Slam title holder. In Grand Slam events, Serena has a 10 and 5 record over her sister. I think she lost the first three and then went 10 and 2 the next 12. 7 and 2 in Grand Slam finals, including, I believe, winning six in a row at one point. She's simply one of the greatest athletes in the last quarter century.

I mean, there's just no debate about it. She might be the greatest athlete in the last quarter century. Here's her after losing in the first round at Wimbledon and the inevitable question was asked about whether she'd come back.

Do you think it's more likely than not, and I can hear what you're saying already, but do you think it's more likely than not that you won't come back? Would that be your last singles match for you then? Well, she's playing in Toronto this week as the hard court season really cranks up. There's just a few more weeks before, two more weeks before the start of the US Open and Flushing Meadows, and I believe that when that's over, whenever her run in New York is up, I believe she'll say that's it. It might not be in the post-match press conference, but I believe she'll say that's it.

With that said, I think if she comes back anywhere, it will be Wimbledon because of the surface, because of the length of the matches, even though the US Open was her coming out party, if you will. But my gosh, to still be, well, she's no longer great because injuries, motherhood, time have taken its toll. Also keep in mind, she nearly died about eight years ago with a staph infection.

Oh yeah, that's right. She nearly died. I forgot about that. And when she came, every time she was legitimately able to come back, she literally was the best player in the world again. It's sort of like Tiger before the back injuries really took over. Tiger came back, and people forget, won his last major in 2008, and then he had the knee surgery and all that, and he came back about a year and a half later, he finally got his game back, and he was the best player in the world again. He won five times in 2013. And then the back injuries really started to pile up and he couldn't play, and then he comes back and he gets back to it in 2019, he wins the Masters. Get out of here. Just ridiculous.

Serena's, I mean, you could argue that she's better than Tiger in terms of overall athlete in this century. All right, one more thing before we start, and we're going to talk to Ryan Wilson of CBSSports.com. We'll talk NFL stuff with him. Every year, NFL training camps, they get here, and there's all this hype, and everybody's pumped up, and oh, there's so many things to talk about, and then you know what happens?

We talk about the same thing basically every day. So for the last three months, all we heard about in Cleveland was Baker Mayfield, Baker Mayfield, Baker Mayfield. Every day, they talked about it on ESPN, because as we're finding out, there ain't that much to talk about. I'm not blasting football, it's just like every other sport.

When we get to the preseason, we get to spring training in baseball, preseason in hockey, preseason in the NBA, it's like, just get us to the regular season. There's very little to talk about, so Baker Mayfield's now traded to the Panthers, and now a team that might win seven games every single day on ESPN. There's a discussion. Every day, there's a discussion.

I was listening this morning, Dan Graziano's on Get Up. It's like, so Chris Canty and what, Chris Carlin are filling in for Greaney and whoever. So Dan, what's going on with the Panthers? Like anybody really cares outside of here. It's just proof.

There's not that much to talk about. So with that, as he says, as we're going to talk to Ryan Wilson of CBS in eight minutes. Anyway, here's Baker Mayfield, who's simply trying to get by. It's human nature to probably want more reps. Sam would probably say the same thing, but for me, it's just about improving. It's to get myself to be playing the best quarterback I can, and to be playing at a very high level, and just go from there. Take it one day at a time, put my head down and work, and that's what I know how to do, so I'm going to continue doing that.

Just get better one day at a time, put my head down at work. Man, I just got assaulted by clichés. Is that part of the NFL's personal conduct policy?

I believe it is, actually. I think Baker Mayfield picked up a two-by-four of clichés and hit me over the head with it. We should do an interview.

I will be whomever. Matt Ruhl, Baker, you ask me questions, and I'll give you all the clichés. It's just tremendous. I don't even know what the questions are, but I will answer them. Can I hear from the other quarterback, Sam Darnold, on the competition? For us, we understand the situation. This is a quarterback competition, and at the end of the day, we both want to be the starter, and we're just going to both put ourselves in a good position to try to be that guy for the team. But at the end of the day, it's not up to us. It's up to the coaches and the front office. I wonder if anybody has asked Sam, and I don't even know if this is a good question to ask him because it's really not a good answer, if Sam feels like Baker was brought here to take his job. Hey, Sam, do you feel like it's inevitable that the only reason they traded for Baker was because they don't believe in you?

Because that's why they traded for Baker. Are we afraid to ask that question? I don't know. I don't know.

I mean, it would be an uncomfortable question to ask because that is cutting right to the quick, isn't it? By the way, the first game action comes Saturday afternoon in the heat against the Commandos in command over. See what I did there? All right, we're going to talk to Ryan Wilson of CBS Sports. This is the Adam Gold Show. Over the crossbar, and the Hurricanes have won the Stanley Cup. June 19th, 2006, but it all started May 6th, 1997 with the announcement that the Hartford Whalers were coming to North Carolina. It's a story of transition, of heartbreak, of figuring it out on the fly. The Cane's Corner look at the 25th anniversary of the move. Presented by the Aluminum Company of North Carolina. Listen now. Find Cane's 25th anniversary wherever you get your podcasts.