REShow: Brendan Hunt - Hour 3

This is the Rich Eisen Show. When you talk about Lamar Jackson, you're treading into unknown waters. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles.

What if Lamar Jackson had shown up at this owner's meeting and was shaking hands and walked straight up to Arthur Blank in a hallway? Earlier on the show, USC wide receiver Jordan Addison, senior writer for the MMQB, Albert Breer. Coming up, co-creator, writer, and actor from Ted Lasso, Brendan Hunt. And now, it's Rich Eisen.

Yes, can confirm. There I am. Welcome to Hour 3 of the Rich Eisen Show here on this terrestrial radio network coast-to-coast Sirius XM Odyssey. We're also on our podcast. Every single day, all three hours of this show is available through the Cumulus Podcast Network. Wherever you get a podcast or download a podcast, we're there.

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A lot of folks follow us that way. YouTube.com slash Rich Eisen Show. Our relationship with the Roku channel has a video on demand avenue as well for you to catch this show through clip form every single day on the Roku channel through that way. The Rich Eisen Show collection is how we've called it. Very highfalutin. And Brendan Hunt is in our green room. We'll bring him out shortly.

Can't wait to chat with him. Love Ted Lasso. It's one of my favorite shows on television. And there's so many reasons why.

I told him in the back. A beautiful show. Makes you think, makes you cry, makes you laugh, and makes you cheer. It's just dynamite. And it's the final season of it.

That's kind of a bummer. And we just saw episode three, as the kids say, dropped last night, I believe. And they're all like supersized, right?

They're all almost an hour long. Yeah, absolutely. It's been awesome. Lovin' it, lovin' it. Lovin' it, lovin' it. 844-204, Rich is the number to dial here on the program.

Couple people have been waiting a while. Let's go to Al in Atlanta. Get ready, TJ. I think something's coming your way.

What's up, Al? Good morning, Rich. Good morning, gentlemen. Happy opening day, sir. Happy opening day. Happy opening day. Every team is scheduled to play for the first time since 21.

And hopefully they'll actually successfully play for the first time in decades. But I am calling with an offering. For the entire room and even the back room. Oh, OK. So as you remember, last year, TJ and I had a season long head to head Mets versus Braves bet that a certain someone is still yet to pay his bet. Oh, what?

I mean, I don't have Twitter. This has been established. I believe the original bet was I had to wear a Mets jersey to the Braves game and you had to wear a Braves jersey for a show. No, that was never it. OK, what is all right now? Let's talk about the year now, then.

OK. Let it go. Last year's last year. This year, since every team will play every team, I figured we could have an entire Rich Eisen show, AL versus NL challenge, where the head to head record of every team versus everybody else's team will be your record.

And whoever has the most series wins at the end and gets to be the champion. I don't know. Hold on a second, Al. Wait a minute.

You're already confusing the hell out of me, and I'm difficult sometimes to confuse. So I would be taking the entire league against you. Obviously, you'd take the National League. I would take the American League.

Oh, no, no, no, no, no. Everybody gets their own team. So Yankees, Red Sox, Mets and the Braves. I will take the Yankees against the Braves.

Let's go. But you get Yankees versus Braves as one series, Yankees versus Mets as another series, and Yankees versus Red Sox as one. No, Al, this is an us thing. You want to go Yankees against the Braves in the head to head?

What is it, a three game set? Do we know where it is? Do we know where it is? I do not.

I'm not checking the record. Here's what we're going to do. Let's table the discussion. You call back and we'll hammer this thing out.

But we're willing to put, I'm willing to put some pinstripes on the line. Thank you. Al, don't worry, bro. We'll figure something out. I haven't forgotten about you.

It's just like wearing a Braves hat or something. All right. Let's move back to the phone lines here. Joe in Florida.

You're here on the Rich Island. What's up, Joe? Hello, gentlemen. Happy opening day. Happy opening day. Always good to see the judge hit a home run.

We always love that. So, Mr. Eisen, I just got to put it out there. I am a die-hard Atlanta Falcons fan. Been it since 1998.

And I live in a house divided like Mr. Brockman, except like Sarah, I root for the good guys and my brother roots for those Patriots and whatnot. OK. I really need to just talk about this Lamar Jackson situation with you guys, because I don't understand how everyone is saying that Atlanta should have gone after Lamar. I get the whole Deshaun Watson comparison from last year. We went all in on him. We're not going all in on him this year. But if we look at how Atlanta's gone with their roster this year, nobody's even given them any credit for maybe getting Calle of Campbell or signing Jesse Bates. We're getting C pluses, C minuses.

Now, those are opinions. I have to respect that. So why is it that Lamar Jackson would suddenly make a team that everybody last year said was the worst roster in football by a large margin and was on number one overall pick watch this year from last season? Yet suddenly, Lamar Jackson just removed that moniker, even if, hypothetically, it would cost us Chris Lindstrom, Grady Jarrett, AJ Terrell and all the young guys that we currently have on our roster. Yeah, I don't think Lamar's walking through that door. They've already cast their salary cap where it needs to be.

I'm assuming you can figure it out to fit everyone in. It's just numbers you can move around. The Atlanta Falcons are drafting eighth overall after having a 7-10 season that, I would have to say, a roughing the passer call kind of hosed him on. They could have been 8-9 with a chance to win the division, quite frankly. Believe me, I'm well aware on that one.

That one was actually my birthday weekend. I watched that game. The Falcons should have had an opportunity. I'm not saying we would have won that game against Tampa, but we had an opportunity taken from us. And I appreciate the call, Joe.

Thanks so much. You know, and look, we've got Arthur Smith on tomorrow's program. I will do my best to get an answer that Joe would want to hear. I was trying to pick up what he was saying. He thought the Falcons should have gone for Lamar Jackson here.

Is that what it is? I kind of thought the opposite of it. Yeah, I think he did. He thought the opposite of it.

It was tough to follow both our callers. He was trying to wonder why people were saying they should go after him. Well, it's obvious. Brady's gone. You want to take over the division.

You want to take over people's attention span. I mean, right now, you know who would love Aaron Rodgers to go to the Jets right now? The schedule makers.

Because if Aaron Rodgers is on the Jets, they know the Jets are going to be making six nationally televised appearances in the fall. Six? Right now.

Oh, yeah. They will hit the max. It could be a seventh if they wind up allowing a flex for Thursday night games, as was discussed.

You kidding me? Aaron Rodgers on the Jets? They will be under the lights in a way that the Jets have not for quite some time. And if Aaron Rodgers is acquired by the Jets, that's going to change it. How many nationally televised games do you think the Falcons are going to have right now?

One. Thursday night, right? Thursday night, yeah.

That's it. They might show up on a Monday? I don't know, maybe. They might want to put, what, Saints, Falcons on a nationally televised game just because it's a longstanding rivalry that might be a good game?

I doubt it. Lamar Jackson shows up on the Falcons before the schedule comes out? How many times do you think Falcons are going to be on national television?

Max. The Ravens will probably be on national television a ton of times. The Lamar stuff won't be handled by the time the schedule comes out.

And so, I don't know. They might shy away from the Ravens. They put them on the prime spot of super wild card weekend Sunday night football. Turned out to be a terrific game, but do you think they'd have put them on Sunday night if they knew Tyler Huntley was starting? Maybe not.

I don't know. Choices and windows get tight when it's just six games on a playoff weekend. I say all this to say that the Falcons would be everywhere if they got Lamar Jackson. And that's got to be of some interest to Arthur Blank. But if Arthur Blank wasn't going to give Deshaun Watson all that guaranteed money, and it might've just been the guaranteed money plus whatever was going on off the field, would he give that guaranteed money to the guy who has none of those things hanging over his head like Deshaun Watson had last year? Maybe. I doubt it. Not now. They've already made their bets in free agency.

That's it. So I proffer to say when I ask Arthur Smith about this, his answer will be, I'm talking about someone, I'm not talking about somebody else on anyone else's roster. We could have signed him into an offer sheet.

Did you consider that? I bet you he would just pass on that. I will try. He can do his ass.

I will try. And the reason why they might not have been interested in Lamar from get go is exactly what Thomas Dimitrov, their former general manager said when he was on this program last week. They just got through cap hell. They were willing to endeavor for Deshaun Watson for a hot minute, a hot week. And then when they lost out on him, they made a completely different change of plans. And then they've cast their die with Desmond Ritter in last year's draft. They're ready for him. They built the team to support him certainly defensively.

And they're not ready to go flip the script. And if Lamar winds up somewhere else and starts winning divisions and winning championships, we will remember you're one of the teams that didn't go for him when you could have and you stuck with a guy who washed out. You stuck with a guy who didn't do what Lamar's doing. Imagine what you see Lamar doing somewhere else could have been doing for you. Obviously Desmond Ritter and Arthur Smith can change that by narrative by never being in that position because they've been terrific with their new plan. That can absolutely happen. Another team in that position, if they don't go get Lamar Jackson is Indianapolis. Another team that's in that position, if they don't get Lamar Jackson as they say they won't will definitely be the Washington commanders. That is for sure. Could have done it.

Didn't do it. Now look where Lamar is now, what he's doing with his new team. Tennessee is in that position.

If the Jets crap out with Aaron Rodgers, if Aaron Rodgers turns out to be far of 2.0, which as you know I've already said I don't believe, they'll be in that position. Well you gave up all that for Rodgers. Look at the first round pick you chose. He busted out. You could have used it for Lamar Jackson.

You didn't. In the same way we have to wait three to five years to see if a draft panned out or not for a certain team or for the entire league, this one's going to have a tail to it. This is a big fat stone thrown into the NFL pond and there'll be a ton of ripples. We'll see what happens.

I'll do my best with Arthur Smith tomorrow, I guarantee you that, and I can't wait also to ask him, hey, next time you take that coach's picture, can you tell your face to smile? That's what it's there for. You're supposed to say cheese, not like, what am I doing here? There he is right there in the middle. Be careful. What am I doing here? What, with him? I don't know, just telling anybody, hey, you should smile more.

It doesn't really go as you intend. You know what I mean? Hey, did you not, you didn't see Hamilton.

Talk less, smile more. You didn't see that, did you? No. Okay. You need to. You need to. You should be. Why? Because it's dynamite. Incredible.

One of the greatest things I've ever seen in life. I don't know what that means. All right. I'm going to say that to Arthur Smith, best I can.

I'll tiptoe around it. Chris, what did Roy say? He's not frowning. He's not frowning. He just didn't smile. Roy Kent. That's right.

Roy Kent, yeah. He's not frowning. He just never smiles.

Never smiles. Oh my God. That's a perfect way to bring in Brendan Hunt. I would like to see Coach Beard sitting in the chair to my right and that will happen next right here on the Rich Eisen Show. Don't go anywhere.

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Call clickgrainger.com or just stop by. Again, I've got from Ted Lasso right here on the Rich Eisen Show, the man who plays Coach Beard, none other than Brendan Hunt. Again, this show is a beautiful show, man. It is an absolutely beautiful show.

And I'd love to dive in to how you created the Ted Lasso character. I know it came from an NBC Sports just one-off, right? Pretty much as a promotional character, correct?

Yeah. Jason, I think, was contractually obligated as a SNL cast member to do some kind of promo for NBC at some point. And then NBC Sports bought the rights to the Premier League and they wanted to make a big splash. It was going to be easily the largest network that a big European soccer league had ever been on.

Right. And this ad agency came to Jason and said, hey, here's three different ideas of a coach thing. A coach could do this, or a coach could do this, or a coach could do that. And Jason's like, uh-huh, uh-huh. This one where he coaches a Premier League team, but he doesn't know anything about it, I'm going to twist that around a little bit, but we're going to do that.

And I'm going to bring in my buddy Joe, being Joe Kelly, and my buddy Brendan. And yeah, last meeting. And they were like, oh, OK. Oh, great. Are we done?

And then we went over to England and we basically just riffed it for a few days, which, I mean, they hired a professional crew of professional people who are used to having a script every day. And we never had even the tiniest thought of furnishing one of those. So the promotional shit you're talking about. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. And we just had the biggest blast doing it. And it turned out pretty well.

And they had us come back the next year. And yeah, from these strange origins, now here I am sitting with you. So when did the idea of a show exist off of this character?

When did that happen? After the second round of commercials we did in 2014, at that point, the three of us had an awareness that Jason sort of verbalized first of like, this is fun. This is particularly fun.

This character is fun. The three of us getting to hang together, making this thing is fun. We'd all work together in different capacities, but never the three of us, Jason and Joe. And we weren't sure if it was going to be another commercial or a movie or a TV show. And we eventually settled on, well, let's go to Jason.

We went to Jason's for a week in Brooklyn in 2015. And we banged out an ARC structure for a couple of seasons and a special. The same model as the original UK Office. Sure.

Yes. And it was fairly typical of English shows at the time. And we were thinking of it always as like, we'll do an English version of this, because that's kind of the hook.

And we'll honor the English comedies we love so much, as much as we can. So six episodes, six episodes special. And we always saw kind of those three parts. And then we wrote a full pilot. And then nothing happened for four years. Four years?

Yeah. Well, Jason kept having babies. Jason and Joe, their careers were going great. I was baking on a rock, still waiting tables at a club. What club? It was called Supper Club.

It was a LA offshoot of an Amsterdam institution. How were you as a waiter? Were you good? Poor.

Poor. I'm a horrible waiter. I'm a great waiter if you're one of those people who's like, I'm going to talk to this waiter, and we're going to connect.

But the actual nuts and bolts of waitering, not so good. I was doing my gosh honest best, but I definitely was a guy who would come back to the table to hear, like, I said a Cosmo. Oh, Cosmo.

Yeesh, that's an orange juice. I apologize. I'll be right back. Okay. I don't mean to digress. So four years goes by, and then you get a call saying, let's do this thing? Yeah. In kind of a typical Jason way. So Jason has a couple of charity events he does in KC every year, but the big slick. And then one called Thunder Gong, which is more like rock based and is for Steps of Faith Foundation and it helps get prosthetic limbs to people who can't afford them and who also need them.

They don't just have them as a hobby. And we did the first one. It was a blast. We'd been together for a whole weekend at this point. And then we're at LAX, we're getting our bags and baggage claim.

We hugged it by. And then the last footnote, oh, real quick. All that stuff we wrote up for the show or the Lasso show is that. And by the way, at this point, I'd officially given up.

That's never happening again. It is unhealthy for me to keep thinking about this Ted Lasso thing. But he goes, yeah, that Ted Lasso thing, does that still exist online anywhere? Which is another way of saying, hey, I don't know how Google Docs work.

Can you explain Google Docs to me? But I was like, uh, yeah, yeah, Jason, it's still still online somewhere. Oh, great. Because I have a lunch with Bill Lawrence tomorrow and Bill Lawrence being the TV mogul behind such Scrubs institutions and Scrubs and Spin City and Cougar Town. And now shrinking now, which is also on Apple TV, plus with our with our good friend, Brett Goldstein, a.k.a.

Roy Kent. Anyway, once once that lunch with Bill Lawrence happened, things moved very, very quickly. And boom, now we're here and you're I'm not ready to get to the here part because to me, it is amazing, you know, how the show blossomed. And I'm just wondering where where did the the idea of the where did the humanity of this come from? Because, again, it's not it's not it's not a sports show. OK, it is a show about a sports team and it's about coaches and then there is some competition scenes in it and what have you. Yeah, it's that's not what this is. This is a different show about relationships, about obviously mental health and mental awareness and things of that nature.

Where did that DNA come from? Yeah, I mean, we always knew it was going to be a workplace ensemble comedy that happened to take place in the world of soccer. And, you know, as we were making this and, you know, I'll try to get too political here, but as we were making it, we were in the in the throes of of of Trump time. You know, we were a couple of years in and and the main way I was thinking about that was like, how does that how does this era affect how people think of Americans?

You know, and like I lived in Amsterdam for five years and like a go to of the comedy we were doing there was like playing on European stereotypes of Americans and back and forth. And and like, yeah, this is this guy right now running his mouth on our behalf. I don't think is what we are actually like. And none of us thought that, you know, like the if nothing else.

The discourse was being poisoned. And so we just had this notion that had begun with the second commercial, really, that that Ted is a guy who is, you know, he's he's Midwestern and he cares about people and he's curious about people and he does not judge people at first go. And and as opposed to being someone who is who thinks, you know, it's the hope that kills you. He thinks, you know, do you believe in miracles?

We wanted to on some level restore, even if it's a myth, what what we think, you know, sort of the best part of being American is and and what's different about America vis-a-vis the rest of the world. Right. And was there a was there an awareness at the time as you're creating this, that there was kind of a major league vibe to it with the female owner of the team trying to jettison the team's hopes of being successful for her own personal reasons?

One hundred percent. Yeah. We're I mean, we drew from many sports movies of our youth and minor league was a major league was a great starting off point, because in major league, that character, she's just evil.

Like she just wants the team to tank. Right. But then, you know, we in the writers room and there, you know, there's there's four women out of 10 writers in our writers room.

OK, but why is she like that? But there has to be a reason. Yes. And and once you start getting into the why, well, that opens up a whole thing for us of we're going to bring in lots of sports movie sort of archetypes and maybe even tropes in here. But we can go deeper in each of them, go deeper in the in the pretty boy, you know, punk superstar, go deeper in the aging legend, find out the why instead of the what. And then the whole world and every character becomes richer.

And therefore, hopefully the comedy does, too. So Roy Kent is the Tom Berenger character of this, if we're just continuing the connective tissue and I know what kind of crash Davis Roy Kent is really where we're at, you know, you're going there. Bull Durham on me on. Yeah.

Yeah. The Roy Kent character. I've got Brendan Hunt here on The Rich Eyes and show played by Brett Goldstein is one of my favorite characters. And I'm not saying this because you're here and you're part of birthing it and it's truly one of our favorite characters.

I include everybody here ever created. And I truly mean that. I just think everything out of his mouth is hilarious or poignant and there's hardly anything in between. And and how how how did you get hooked up with Brett? And is this all him? Is that all him? Roy Kent?

Is that all? I mean, he's a he's a big chunk of it. I mean, how Brett got the part is his own great little story. He was he was a writer on the show, first and foremost, and that was that was going to be it.

OK. But he had to leave early because he was the showrunner on his own show on AMC called Soulmates. And so he left, you know, with still like a month or so left of the of the writers room. By that point, we were starting to cast some of the characters. We'd cast Higgins, we'd cast Rebecca, and we're starting to look at Roy's. And Roy, we get into this separately, is based on a real Roy. This guy, Roy Keane, this legendary hardscrabble midfielder from Ireland. And we were seeing guys in that sort of macho, you know, vein.

Yes. On his way out the door, Brett filmed himself doing the the Roy audition scenes and he sent it to Bill Lawrence with the most humble, typically Brett apologetic email like, hey, I think I could play Roy. I filmed these scenes.

If you if you think it's it, pardon the language, but that's what he said. We never have to talk about it again. And they watched them that day before I got there. I was late for whatever reason.

When I got in, like there was a buzz about the place, like what's happening? Brett filmed himself as Roy. And I mean, truly, I was like, oh, yeah, good for him.

Fire it up. And and it was so clear right away, like, oh, no, that's him. That's Roy.

Yeah, this is this is great. So yeah, they hear the gravelly voice down to hear that whole thing down. It was not yet as gravelly as it would become.

Yeah. But he had the timing. He had the pain. He had the comedy. You know, he's he's a very, very talented man.

And he just happens to have finally found the exact right part to bring that out to the world. Because the there's there's a Twitter account. Do you run at the the AFC Richmond Twitter account? No, I have nothing to do with it. OK. Because there's there's I think there's some actual stuff, original stuff that's that he's in. I've seen it on on this Twitter account. Maybe.

Is it on the Lasso account? Maybe I'm I'm missing it where he's he's playing Roy Kent and he's doing interviews and they're they're outtakes. And hilarious. They're yeah, they have us film. They'll they'll take us on a Sunday during filming. Yeah. And like film the next eight months worth of like social media content, that stuff they write for us. And then and then, yeah, it's rolling out now. It really is brilliant.

All of it. And and just makes you think when the credits roll, you sometimes sit there and you're disappointed the show's over, but it leaves you there thinking about about stuff. It truly is amazing. Brendan Hunt here, again, co-creator, co-writer, actor in the most decorated comedy that that we've ever seen from the Emmys. Most Emmy winning comedy for the second year in a row broke breaking records with four total wins, including Emmys for Outstanding Comedy Series Lead Actor, which is Jason and Brett Goldstein in directing Ted Lasso.

The newest season and final season is on Apple TV Plus, which you can see right here on Roku, right here on The Rich Eisen Show. So do you sometimes sit around, you know, stunned that this has happened? Oh, yeah.

All the time. This is crazy. This is absolutely crazy. And the thing is, right now we're going on these press tours and there's all this stuff going on. And we went to the White House and I saw that grand marshaled NASCAR and OK, let's take that one at a time from the Oval Office is one thing.

OK. That had to be wild for you. Oh, yeah. I mean, good heavens. You know, I mean, they had us there because they watched the show and they liked the show, which is already cool enough. But you know, to talk about, you know, mental health a bit and continue to destigmatize mental health.

And but like I thought we were going to just walk in, you know, sit down, get some pictures. Mental health, huh? Tick, tick, tick. All right.

Bye, everybody. Right. We were in there for forty five minutes and then the whole cast came in and then he's shown us, you know, pictures of his whole family.

Biden is like taking you on a tour of the Oval Office. Yeah. And it's like, oh, this desk here, this is JFK's desk and there's a trap door in the front. There's a famous picture of JFK Jr. coming out of it. Hey, Jason's daughter, Daisy, would you like to go through there?

Yes. You know, she comes running through. Hannah, would you like to sit at the desk? You know, Madam Sherry woman, you know, just very, very generous, very cool. And you know, the whole time you're like, why am I here?

Oh, because I because I helped write a show about soccer. I had a similar experience when George Bush W was in the White House and they had me call the play by play for the White House T-ball games that they used to have on on the South Lawn there. And I remember they were walking me through the script about what to say and when to say it before the T-ball game happened. And there was on a card, you know, they say, read this when the president and the first lady come walking down from the from from the White House.

And it just said, ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States, George W. Bush and Mrs. Laura Bush. And I'm like, I don't I don't need that card. But thank you. I appreciate it. I'm a professional.

I do this for a living. And then I'm sitting there and it's now time, you know, and we just sang the national anthem and it's Hail to the Chief is being played. And I look up and here comes George W. Bush and Laura Bush. And I'm like, oh, where the hell is that card?

I went looking for it because I just panicked because it's an out of body experience to be there with the president of the United States. Unbelievable. Yeah. And you had that experience as well. How does that compare to NASCAR being well, I mean, you see it in all seriousness. So you were an official marshal for which NASCAR for the Austin race this last weekend? OK. I mean, between the two experiences, I wore different outfits, but golly at NASCAR, everyone's so nice.

People are incredibly friendly every step of the way and grateful that that we were there and everything. And it was it was pretty cool. Like, I'm not a NASCAR guy historically, you know, being raised in Chicago. I'm not even much of a car guy.

I'm a public transportation guy. Nice. But I've been I don't want to open up this can of worms, but like for the last 15 years, I've been in this 10 sport fantasy league that a friend of mine invented. It's I've stopped playing other fantasy games because it's the best fantasy game there is. What is called the All Sports Fantasy League?

What is it? All Sports Fantasy League, 10 sports. And anyway, NASCAR is one of the sports. OK, so now I like I need this in my life.

I like know things about NASCAR and I will turn on, raise it once in a while. I'm like, come on, Kozlowski, you know, get that pit stop. There you are. We found a photo. Look at you. Yeah, man, I went for it. You see the pants.

But yeah, it was it was a good it was a real good time. All right. Now, what do you mean?

What do you mean? A 10 sport fantasy league? It's a 10 sport fantasy league. What is this?

What are you talking about? It's called the All Sports Fantasy League. I understand what it's called. I don't understand. It's the four major pro sports, college football, college basketball, soccer, golf, tennis and NASCAR.

A friend of mine who is a genius, he's a he's a lawyer and he's a he's a hilarious improviser and he's a creator of games, invented it. And you don't have individual players from the team sports. You just have the teams. So you don't care how Rogers does.

You care if the Jets win. See I'm getting used to I appreciate you getting, you know, ahead of the game. Thank you. Thank you.

And it goes from August to July. What are the points? Like, what do you mean?

Like, well, the scoring system is proprietary, Rich. I can't get into that, but it's the best. So you would you play this, Chris?

You'd be in on that's got to be funny. I did get offered to play something similar, like what do you like a month ago? And I kind of passed.

It was like a little too much. So you have to choose a team and then points are associated with how well they do. And so you could crush it in the NFL. But your NASCAR team is dragging you down.

The golf might be middling. And so who does it when it all comes down to it? Brendan Hunt truly give an idea of who knows the most about sports, who wins it, or there's still so much luck and can't agree.

But like, no one quite knows enough about all 10. Of course. And one of the bonuses you can get is which I shoot for every year. It's my strategy.

There's many ways to win the NFL, but I go the balance bonus strategy where you're trying to have the highest, lowest score of any particular sport, which would suggest a wider breadth of knowledge. But yeah, we have a draft every year. It's a keeper league. Keeper league? Yeah, man. Would you keep a team in a sport?

Yeah. And I have some decisions to make coming up at the end of the season. Like what? What do you got?

How can we help? Well, I've got the Celtics and the Suns. You can only keep one from a given sport. I'll probably trade one of them before the end of the season for a keeper upgrade somewhere else. I got the Celtics and Yankees. I got Man U and then, you know, probably Kozlowski because NASCAR are very scarce. Very scarce. Texas football.

Manning's coming. Okay. I don't think about that. Who do you have in golf?

Who's your? Oh, well, very controversial because of the LIV situation. You know, you're not able to get if you have an LIV golfer, you're not going to get points for the regular events because we don't do LIV. We do PGA.

Okay. But now that they're all eligible. So the LIV players have been banned from your fantasy league as well? Like that's reality.

That's not fantasy. Really? I think it's more of like not wanting to open up that can of worms for the scoring system.

But now that they're all in all the majors and here come the majors starting next month, I have Koepka and DeChambeau and, you know, we'll see how they do. Okay. And what's the prize? Pride. Oh, come on. Not just pride. Pride. Really? Well, you also get a jacket. You get a master style jacket. Okay.

We share a team, Rich. It's like holy moly. Like, do you need, can somebody come in? Like how? It's not open.

What do you got? I mean, he did recently start the ASFL too because he had a lot of questions in the lower division. An expansive? Can you be relegated? You can be relegated. There are divisions in the main ASFL.

You can be relegated, you know, from the Premier League to the championship. It's full on. It's the best. That is full. I would say it's full on. It is full on.

That is wild, man. Oh, boy. Well, keep us in mind. Will do.

Will do. Ted Lasso again. New episodes airing on Wednesday only on Apple TV+. Brandon Hunt, you are the best man. Your show is amazing and I'm watching it with my wife.

We're watching it together, loving it. Like soaking in every second knowing the end is coming and we are lamenting that. And I know the final episode will just be rife with can't believe this is the last time we're pressing play on something that's new with Ted Lasso. Is this truly the end? We really don't know. What do you mean you don't know?

We don't know. Like this will be the end of this story that we set out to tell, you know, as I said, like we always saw it as a three piece thing and we've always been aiming toward that. And like we didn't know we would get a second season, you know, like we went out on a streaming service that didn't exist. So we weren't particularly ambitious with this, you know, and we're going to finish the story we set out to tell, but it was never in our calculus the way people have responded to the show.

Like that's been obviously bonkers. So we are going to finish these, you know, this chunk of the story and then we'll take a little break. And when the dust settles, we'll come back around. It's possible we'll continue. It's possible there will be spinoffs.

It's possible none of that will happen. But truly, honestly, everything is on the table right now, but we will take a break. I'm thrilled to hear that.

And we have Jason Sudeikis coming in Monday. I will ask him the same darn question, but I'll tell him what I'm telling you now. Like, please keep doing it. And I know, and I know that this requires a certain amount of brain power, brain equity, and it just doesn't just fall out of your skulls collectively or you individually, but it's too good to stop. It is too good to stop and I'd love to see, you know, whatever the next venture could be and, and, um, I hope, I hope to see more of it and you certainly not only cause I want to see more Ted Lasso, I cannot wait to hear the next chapter of the ASFL and that stands for all sports fantasy league, rush Howell Esquire, rush Howell Esquire. This is the brains behind the operation and many other things, but particularly this.

Okay. How do we get an advanced copy of a Trent Crim's book that he's working on? I would actually read this book and I know I'm not alone.

That may actually exist. Um, I mean, he's definitely writing that book, that, that book does not go away in the course of the season. Um, but, uh, if I can zag a little bit on that question, um, uh, just to talk a little bit about Grant Wall, um, the great Grant Wall who died during the world cup and the great U S soccer writer, when we were putting this storyline together of Trent, you know, embedding with the team and particularly following this superstar as Zava arrives, who we've met the last couple of episodes.

Um, I reached out to Grant, like who I've never met, but I've been reading for decades and like, Hey, you did the Beckham experiment, you know, where he embedded with the LA galaxy when they had David Beckham coming. And um, you know, we were talking about it in the writer's room and just have a few questions for you. Like, like, would you be able to just, you know, take a moment and answer these? We'd be a much, uh, much, uh, much thanks from us. Uh, like John Feinstein's people were like, you're paying money, you're paying money before you get these answers. I'm like, Oh gosh.

Okay, fine. Um, I'm sure it wasn't communicated to him very accurately, but Grant Wall came back with paragraphs of answers within two days. He was incredibly generous with his experiences. Um, and, uh, and it was really, really great and, and pretty helpful. And um, and so, uh, we have a little, we have a little nod to him coming up in this next episode. Um, and this was, you know, this was when he was still with us, you know, we did not know obviously what was going to come to pass. So, so one great thing about the Trent Krim thing is, um, it brought, you know, Grant Wall to us a bit more.

Like he came to Richmond, we hung out for a day. Is that right? Yeah. No kidding. Yeah.

Like two months before the world cup. And so this character's arc is going to have his DNA in it. Pretty much. Uh, yeah, a little bit.

Beautiful. Brendan, you mentioned Zava. Just wondering what was the inspiration behind that character?

Cause my first instinct was a lot on, um, I just assumed that that's who you were shooting for with Zava's character. You know, the lawyers have told me to tell you, TJ, that Zava is a composite of many of the vivid and wonderful characters that populate the world of football. Um, Zlatan, one inspiration? Sure.

Sure. Um, but Zlatan's incredible. Like Zlatan, Google him people, Google, his goals are incredible. His quotes are incredible. Uh, and if we even have one 10th of him in Zava, then, then Zava's incredible. We're happy.

I cannot wait to see where he goes, the way sometimes Zlatan can exit a pitch is a of interest as well. For anybody who's out there Googling and I mean, I guess, and as we've established, one of them is not Jason today cause cause he doesn't know how to work that. So we've established one of many things in this interview, including the fact that I'd love to have you back anytime. Oh, what a pleasure. Yeah, man. Thank you for everything in the enjoyment you've given me and my wife and everybody else who watches this show in advance of more, uh, Brandon Hunt, check out brand at Brendan hunting, right at Twitter and on Instagram and of course, Ted Lasso every single Wednesday only on Apple TV plus, which is available right here on Roku.

You are right. We did need to see the pants can confirm to our radio audience. Check it out on the Roku channel later.

Back here. What a fun chat that was with Brandon Hunt. Fun chat with him, man. God, I love Ted Lasso.

He, and you could see his essence, uh, that he brought here to the, to the seat, uh, in this chat as part of that DNA right there. Glabor Torres hit a two run shot just as he sat in the chair and pitch clocks working in Yankee stadium. It's the top of the seventh with one out.

This game started an hour and 49 minutes ago or first pitch might've been five after. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. Game's flying. There you go. Plus it's difficult to hit great Garrett Cole. Who's out of the game. It's no, uh, no runs. Six innings pitched. Opening day is up and running.

Great chat right there. Our monster.com athlete of the week is a no brainer. Best player left in college basketballs tournaments, plural talking about Kaitlin Clark. She is without a doubt a revelation of Iowa Hawkeyes hoops. She came up with a 41 point contest, 12 rebounds, uh, 12 assists, 10 rebounds. She scored or assists. She assisted on 70 of Iowa's 97 points in the regional that she, uh, personally helped lead Iowa to cut down the net. She was the most algae outstanding player of her regional, um, Iowa. This just did is in the final four. She's playing tomorrow night and, uh, she's taking on South Carolina, the undefeated defending national champion who features a Leah Boston. Who's last year's last year's AP women's player of the year, which as of today, Kaitlin Clark is this year's she was named this year's player of the year.

And it's just a no brainer. Watching her play basketball is just a joy. She's a joy playing it. She's a joy watching it.

And um, for some reason she didn't, she wasn't a unanimous selection, obviously. Um, you know, this vote was taken before the NCAA tournament that she is as the junior guard for, for Iowa, getting Iowa to the final four for the first time in 30 years, it, you know, she is a truly amazing to watch and spectacular and a no brainer choice for this week's monster.com athlete of the week brought to you by our friends at monster.com. And the Iowa player is again, uh, one of the best in the sport and monster.com can help you tackle the job search and make your next career move.

It's time to get off the sidelines, go to monster.com and win the job hunt. She's terrific. Yes, she is. And um, and, and Iowa versus South Carolina tomorrow night, that's what's called must see television. For as busted as my men's bracket is, I've got three out of the four females winning at all. I have South Carolina repeating the Don Staley's just, she has taken her competitiveness, her fire that she had as a player and she's infused it into this. These lady gamecocks. Did you see the video of Sue bird surprising the Iowa shoot around on Sunday morning? It was like they saw their Lord and savior when she walked in and talked to her.

They were like so starstruck. Yeah. Cool.

I love it. You know, when Susie was last hosting, I specifically told her, you know, we were talking about Taylor playing basketball and she didn't really know Kaitlin Clark. I was like, that's one you need to look out for. And she, I don't know, again, as a girl, dad, as a girl, dad, I look at someone like Kaitlin Clark and I'm like, could that be my daughter one day? It could cause Taylor's got range, please. She's got range in everything. Literally, literally, there's a palm in her hand and she has me consuming from it every single day.

Understandable. Cody Rhodes will find that out. I think he already knows, right? I mean, his baby girl's just too, but wait till, wait till she's nine. I believe they're all, they're all at Alcatraz as we speak right now because it's spring break.

Susie took the kids up north. Oh, okay. Sweet.

Yeah. Bachelorette pad. What do we got?

You know what? It's coming over. We go to lunch after the show.

If you watch Thursday night and watch some NBA tonight. If you come over, bring food. I've got nothing in there. Honestly, I don't, it's absurd how unable to fend for myself. I really am as a 53 year old man. It's absurd, it's absurd. Like anybody will can attest to this, someone's in my position with kids and whatever, is the first night that they're gone, it is, it's, it's glorious. Like you're, you're, you're just, it's the fact that I would be able to leave an unwashed dish just next to the bed without having to go downstairs and put it in the sink because nobody's telling me what's going on.

It's great. And then, and then you wake up the next day, you wake up the next day and you just, you know, you do your own thing. You don't worry about whether the kids, this, that, it's glorious. Then you get home and it's like, wait a second, man, it's really empty in this house. The dogs don't pay attention to me. Every single time I opened the door, they run out hoping it's Susie and the kids and they love me and I love the dogs, but they're, you know, I feel it. I sense it from the animals that they miss them too. And then I opened the fridge and I'm like, damn.

And it's, I think to myself, you know, you, I hear Susie's voice, like, you know, you could go shopping. You need some Ziti, Rich? Yeah. They're bringing Ziti tomorrow. I can't wait.

They come back tomorrow. There's no way he's making Ziti. He can't.

He can't make Ziti. He's got, he's got floors being put in this guy. They're done. We're done. We're done. We're done.

I'm literally sitting here hungry because I haven't eaten anything in 70 hours. It's WrestleMania season and the podcast heat network has you covered podcast heat has shows featuring many of your favorite wrestlers and personalities leading up to the showcase of the immortals showcase of the immortals and talking about the results afterwards. And now it's not just WrestleMania being a day, it's a week. I don't know if there's anything quite like it in the form of entertainment. There's not. Listen to the WrestleMania spirit with the podcast heat network wherever you listen.