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TRANSCRIPT – NBC SPORTS 43RD RYDER CUP CONFERENCE CALL

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Wednesday, September 15, 2021

Dan Hicks

Paul Azinger

Justin Leonard

John Wood

Tommy Roy

THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon or good morning, depending on where you are throughout the contiguous 48 states or perhaps abroad. Thank you for joining our NBC Sports Ryder Cup media conference call today.

We’re going to be joined in a minute by NBC Sports lead golf producer Tommy Roy, lead play by play commentator Dan Hicks, analyst Paul Azinger and Justin Leonard, and our on-course reporter John Wood.

We’re incredibly excited to produce the 43rd Ryder Cup, and it’s an event that NBC Sports has showcased for 30 years now since it came to NBC in 1991 at the memorable War By the Shore at Kiawah.

Since that tiny amount of coverage has skyrocketed, and this year we’re going to present about 100 hours of Ryder Cup coverage next week across NBC, GOLF Channel, Peacock, and rydercup.com, when you factor in live coverage, the featured groups, and studio coverage. The studio coverage is going to begin Monday, September 20th, on GOLF Channel. And that evening, 9:00 p.m. Eastern on Golf Channel, we’re also going to premiere a new Golf Films documentary, Cracking the Code, which details our own Paul Azinger’s captaincy of the 2008 U.S. Ryder Cup team. All of these folks on the call could certainly talk about that.

We’ll begin with a few words from each of our speakers. We’ll start with the man who has been a part of every NBC Sports Ryder Cup production since 1991, our producer Tommy Roy. Go ahead, Tommy.

TOMMY ROY: Thank you, Jamie. I am amazed at how big and all-encompassing this event has become. As Jamie can attest, we have these weekly meetings with the PGA of America, and we go over things like promotion and marketing and social and digital, sales, press and media, ops and fantasy. That’s all above and beyond the operations and the TV shows themselves.

So we have a love affair for this event. It’s right in our wheelhouse, where after all these years of dealing with the nuances of team match play, we’re scheduled to be on the air for 28 hours over the course of three days, and I’ll sit in the producer’s chair for every single second of it. I will not be tired at all at the end because every session, all five many them, will have the same intensity and even more energy than the back nine of a major.

Every match is like its own golf tournament. Every point is so valuable and so important. So we’re pumped and can’t wait to get it going.

DAN HICKS: Thank you, Jamie. Echo, obviously, everything that Tommy said. Ryder Cup is an absolute different animal than any other golf event we do and really any other sporting event we do. For obvious reasons. I think our appetites are whetted for this one even more because we’ve waited an extra year. I think Steve Stricker’s been the captain for like 31 months. He’s got to be jumping out of his skin to get this thing going, like we all are.

But I kind of compare it to an Olympics. It’s one of those events that I think brings in the non — it brings in more than just the golf fan. It brings in somebody who maybe even never watches a golf tournament. You’ve got grandparents and parents and kids watching the Olympics, and I think it pretty much mirrors the same kind of reaction you get from a Ryder Cup.

For instance, my wife Hannah Storm is a big sports fan, doesn’t watch a ton of golf tournaments. Probably watches more than her usual share because I do a lot of them, but she absolutely loves the Ryder Cup and is actually going to her first Ryder Cup in several years because it’s an event that she just connects with.

I’m also looking forward to it because the guy I’m sitting next to, Paul Azinger. I think this event, you’re going to hear things from Zinger that are going to really, really turn you on to the event even more. We’ve been waiting a long time to do it, didn’t happen last year.

Sitting next to Zing is something that I’ve been looking forward to and we’ve been talking about for a long, long time. With that, I’ll turn it back to you, Jamie.

PAUL AZINGER: He’s right. Dan and I have talked about it an awful lot, and we’ve been real excited about it. I think Tommy summed up exactly how every captain feels and how he wants to approach every single match with the same urgency, intensity, whatever it is, that that point provides to the captain because Tommy’s going to try to capture that.

It is so critical to get off to a good start for this American team. I look forward to being the analyst and to see how they react if they don’t get off to a good start or if they do, but in the end, this is going to be, I think, one of the most watched Ryder Cups because of the intensity level.

The fact that the Americans have only won five times in 38 years has us all wondering can this juggernaut of an American team with the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh ranked players in the world on their team, can those best players beat that team?

Because they’re going to show up as a bonded team, and our guys are going to show up — I don’t know how they’re going to show up. They’re going to show up as the best players.

But the fun part for us is we get to document this clash and record it for history. We’ve got a good team here because Justin’s played in the Ryder Cup, Bones has been on the ground there, and same with Woody. Tommy’s produced it. Hicks has covered it. Koch and those guys know what they’re doing. Roger’s been there a million times. I can’t wait. We’re all jazzed up for it.

JUSTIN LEONARD: Thank you, Jamie. I was so disappointed, as so many people were last fall, when the last Ryder Cup was cancelled. It would be great to have it be played with or without fans, just for another escape from what was going on in the world.

Looking back on it, that would have been a huge mistake. The fans are such a part of what the Ryder Cup is, to the people watching at home, to us as broadcasters, and to the players maybe most importantly. Having home crowd fans is the Americans’ will. It’s a huge boost to what they’re trying to do and trying to accomplish and to be able to show off their skills to people in person.

I know in my own Ryder Cup experience, people ask how nervous is it, or was I. I was more nervous in my Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday Ryder Cup practice rounds than I ever was in a major championship. When you’ve got that bag with your country or your continent on it, you’ve got your flag or symbol on your sleeve, on your hat, you’re coming together as a group to try to accomplish something. There’s no words that can really do it justice.

Then on top of all that, in those practice days, you feel like you’re auditioning a little bit because you want the captains and the vice captains to see that you’re ready to go because you want to get in there and play early. Those matches, as Tommy has pointed out, from the 1st tee on, it feels like you’re trying to win a major championship, but even more so because you’ve got other people relying on you.

It’s a great atmosphere. I’m so excited to be there. The fans in Wisconsin, I know, are going to be amazing, and the venue will be incredible, both on TV and in person. So really looking forward to it.

JOHN WOOD: Thank you, Jamie. I think anybody will tell you, if you know me, this is by far my favorite event. It pains me not to be working it as a caddie, to be honest with you, but I’m thrilled to be doing it as a commentator this time.

Hopefully I can bring some of the stuff that really isn’t talked about in terms of nerves and emotions out there because there’s so much more of that than in a regular event. You’re worried about your partners and your partners’ caddies, and the captains and assistants who are watching. So there’s a lot more emotions, a lot more nerves, and hopefully, I can bring some of that into the telecast.

There’s so many story lines coming in, who knows which one is going to raise its head the highest? Obviously, a very determined European team who is amazing at bonding. They get together, and somehow in this week they raise their games to a different level. Zinger mentioned the talent on the U.S. side, and it’s just going to be a matter of that talent bonding together, and if both teams play well, I expect the U.S. to win.

You look at it, and every Sunday at a Ryder Cup, I don’t care what the score is, you can have a four or five-point lead, every Sunday there’s a point where you look at the board and go, uh-oh, and you think the other team’s got a path to victory. So that’s fun to watch.

Tommy mentioned we have 28 hours of coverage. I’ve already petitioned him to work 29 of those 28 if possible. Justin touched on the nervous aspect of it. I’ve never as a caddie been standing in a fairway trying to add 140 and 10 and gotten confused except at the Ryder Cup. 150, does that sound right? Is that right to you? It’s just as nervous for the caddies as the players and the captains.

It’s by far my favorite event, and I just cannot wait to get on the grounds.

Paul, I’m curious about, obviously, you have some experience as a Ryder Cup captain, and I’m wondering what your advice would be to Steve Stricker and the U.S. team leadership as far as sort of creating a bond with the current team as it’s in its current form.

PAUL AZINGER: That’s always the challenge for the captain. I think it should happen naturally when you get there. It doesn’t always work that way. But Stricker, every captain is going to create an environment for these guys to be successful the best they know how.

I talked to Steve a little bit. He told me that the things that made him nervous, he was going to eliminate, the inspirational videos and stuff like that. And he was just going to sell the message of preparation really hard and try to get his guys to have an advantage on that course.

If the wind blows, I think they’re going to lose any advantage, really mainly on the greens. Everybody can handle the wind tee to green, but on the green somehow Europe makes all those putts in the wind.

I just feel like Stricker has just got to make sure our guys know the course the best. That’s really — in the end, that’s it in a nutshell. If those guys, as far as bonding is concerned, that’s a six-month mission, I think in his case. So we’ll see what happens.

If you were in the position of being the U.S. captain, what would you say to Brooks and Bryson and some of the guys who have had, I guess, prickly relationships in the last few months?

PAUL AZINGER: I would say, can you guys put your issues aside and then get a yes or a no and then deal with whatever their answer was. I personally feel like Brooks and Bryson can put the globe on their shoulder. Not the globe, but the United States on their shoulder and — shoulders and carry this Ryder Cup team, and they can also be a royal pain in the neck.

I personally think they can put this team on their shoulders and they will do it and put their differences aside. Brooks, when I just read that article, I’m not sure he loves the Ryder Cup that much. If he doesn’t love it, he should relinquish his spot and get people there who do love the Ryder Cup. Not everybody embraces it, but if you don’t love it and you’re not sold out, then I think Brooks should — especially being hurt, should consider whether or not he really wants to be there.

Then if you add the Bryson dynamic to that, that would be an easier decision for him. Brooks is one of the most candid, most honest guys there is, and if he’s blatantly honest with himself and doesn’t want to be there, he should come out and say it. I don’t know, I’m a fan of both players. I just feel like it’s going to be one or the other. They’re going to put the weight of the team on their shoulders, or they’re going to be a pain in the neck.

Paul, this U.S. team having the most rookies since your team in 2008, I’d be curious your opinion on the value of experience, and is experience that valuable when a team keeps getting beat all the time?

PAUL AZINGER: No, it’s not really that valuable if it’s always a bad experience. That’s the way I look at it. I love the idea of fresh blood. I think all of our guys on our team were real — I don’t know, they were energized and I think got them engaged.

For the most part, giving them ownership a little bit — Justin can attest to this. These guys had ownership in who they picked, and I thought that was real important. So I don’t know.

Shortest answer ever. Appreciate it. Justin, as we look — and I forgot who brought it up. I think Paul did — in terms of the amount of talent through the world rankings or victories or whatever you want to say, but Europe keeps winning. As a player, this whole argument of this team is better on paper, you want to ignore it. Is that really hard to do when you’re playing and you look at who you’re lined up with?

JUSTIN LEONARD: Well, I don’t think once they’re matched up that players are thinking, well, I’m higher in the world rankings and I won 12 times and he’s won 3. It’s about going out to get your point. But I do think that it plays a part in the attitude of the two teams going into it.

The European side seems to take this underdog role and mentality and use it to their advantage, whether they’re playing at home or in the U.S. With that comes a sense of freedom, of well we’re not really expected to win, so let’s go out and play freely. And I think you see that time and again at every Ryder Cup.

With the U.S. side, if I’m Steve Stricker, I’m trying to talk my players into, you know what, we haven’t won this in a long time and they should be the favorite and trying to embrace more of that underdog mentality where the U.S. team can play more freely.

Because it’s hard to play as a favorite. You see it a lot in regular TOUR events. The player that’s leading through 36 or 54 holes doesn’t go on to win because it’s hard to play out front when you’re the favorite, when it’s kind of yours to lose. I feel like that’s unfortunately been kind of the circumstances that the U.S. team has been under, and they just haven’t been able to perform as well.

So I think for Steve Stricker and his side, the key is to try and convince your players that, look, we’re not the favorite in this. Yes, maybe so on paper. We’ve got plenty of talent, but all that stuff on paper, you can take a match to it because it means nothing in the Ryder Cup. The European side’s won it consistently throughout the last 15 to 20 years, and try and get the U.S. to play with a bit more freedom.

Paul, what would you say is the single hardest part about making the player pairing, making those decisions?

PAUL AZINGER: It really shouldn’t be hard. The way I looked at it, I just felt like just about everybody could play with anybody. It just isn’t that hard.

But I think now you have to deal with these guys wanting to play with each other, which actually is liberating as well. That’s pretty nice. Making the pairings for day one, the first day or whatever, I wanted all 12 of my guys to play on day one. It was real easy to do. If you’re getting waxed, then I think the second day it becomes something different.

But all in all, I just felt like the pairings were so easy and obvious. Then I felt like the ones that you didn’t want were pretty easy and obvious, especially the way we did it with the three four-man teams. But even if you just had 12 individual guys, it always looks so clear-cut to me who should and shouldn’t be paired.

But at the same time, you did invest a lot of time into weighing personality types and all those things that are in Cracking the Code.

PAUL AZINGER: Well, here’s what I did. Because I had six guys coming back to the Ryder Cup who really hadn’t had a lot of great experiences. Justin Leonard had in ’99. But I felt like in my mind I wanted to get these guys engaged in something different, and that’s what happened.

They got really interested in what we were doing rather than dreading the event. It’s quite possible, when you get beaten every time, that you go into that event dreading it. What if Brooks Koepka deep down, if he’s thinking my reward is I have to go play the Ryder Cup because I played so well? It’s possible. I know there’s players in the past who have felt that way.

I’m not saying Brooks feels that way, but the Ryder Cup, it’s a different animal. Getting those right players together, like I said, like I did personality types, and I felt that trumped like games. So that was my philosophy. The players fell in love with it. I gave them ownership of it. They made the decision. So it worked out great.

But it was up to them once the bell rings. The worst part about being a captain is having no control whether or not you’re going to win or lose beyond creating the environment. But if that environment, if on 15 of the Ryder Cup one guy misses and the other guy makes, whatever you did in the team room, I don’t know how much that really mattered.

This is for Justin. Before you made the big putt in 1999, before, Johnny Miller criticized the American team and you in particular. I’m just wondering 22 years later how you look at that and how you look now at your role of what you should or shouldn’t say in the Ryder Cup.

JUSTIN LEONARD: Look, it was motivating for myself. I know it was for Jim Furyk as well. At that point in a Ryder Cup, you don’t necessarily need outside things for motivation. Johnny had the biggest voice in the game of golf. I wouldn’t say that it stung. I would say we just wanted to try and prove him wrong, and he wasn’t wrong at the time that he said it.

It was one of those things where it served as motivation, and Johnny was so gracious. I’ll tell you a story. About a month later there was a charter flight going over to Spain to play in a WGC event in Valderrama. Johnny was on the flight. NBC was broadcasting. He leaped over three rows of chairs and knocked over two small children to get over to me as quickly as he could to apologize for it, which was not necessary.

He apologized. I said, Johnny, there’s no need to. I said, you were doing your job, and you do it so beautifully. I may not have personally liked what you said, but you said the right thing, and I said just thank you for the motivation.

So hopefully, we won’t give either team motivation, but there will be times, I’m sure, where whoever is sitting at 18 needs to be critical in the moment, and Johnny set the bar for that. He spoke his mind. I think it’s all something that we all strive to do each and every day with broadcasting.

Again, no bad blood whatsoever. We had a funny moment when he was doing his last telecast a couple years ago at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, and we kind of relived that moment a little bit. So we’ve had a lot of fun with it over the years.

It was hard not to notice in Steve Stricker’s captain’s press conference that he name dropped both you and the pod system. I’m curious. You’ve seen a lot of captains since ’08. From whatever glimpses you’ve had behind the curtain, is he the most Azinger-like captain since you?

PAUL AZINGER: I have no idea. I have purposely not gotten too deep into what he’s doing. I actually called him the other day and left him a voicemail. I’m calling as an American. I should apologize up front if I ever say we or us or them or they. Tommy already two weeks in advance has let all of us know that we’re not to do that.

But I did call him as an American and just felt like I wanted him to know what I was thinking, just basic things, making sure he didn’t miss anything. But that’s about it. I really don’t know what he’s doing. He’s not told me if he’s going to do the full blown pod system or not. Nobody has delved into it the way we did with the personality types and using my Myers Briggs green light, caution light, red light stuff.

It’s so different now with social media anyway with the way these guys are. The way I did it wouldn’t even work today to be honest, even though the concept was good. Look, I’ll believe this forever — the Europeans are bonded by blood. They’re bonded naturally. This means everything to them. The Spaniards play together. The Englishmen, the Irishmen, the Swedes — that’s how they do it, and they’re bonded by something that really gives them a full blown 1 percent advantage no matter where they are.

Vegas can build hotels on a 1 percent advantage. So you have to as a captain figure out how to get yourself back in there where it’s evened up. But something happened, we’ve only won five times in 38 years. It’s sad really that this American side has gotten beaten like that, but they bring an intangible with them. It’s a fact.

John, there’s so much glory in the Ryder Cup, but you had a front row seat to the opposite of that, how much pain it can bring in 2010. I was just curious, I don’t know if I’ve ever heard you talk about that. I kind of want to hear what you remember from that and sort of how devastating an event this big can be if it goes the wrong way.

JOHN WOOD: Sure. Hunter (Mahan) was put out last, and it’s a huge position to be in. I was pretty happy for him, to be honest with you, that the captain trusted him, that Corey (Pavin) trusted him that much.

It’s weird being the last group out, though. Unless you’re Tiger or Phil or Rory, you play most of the day with not that big of a crowd, to be honest with you. Everybody is watching those opening matches. So we were playing Graeme (McDowell), and for the first 9, 10, 12 holes, it really wasn’t that big of a crowd. Hunter was playing beautifully, just couldn’t make a putt, and Graeme was making those Graeme putts.

I think we birdied to get within one and then we came to that par-3 and obviously hit a little fat off the tee. Hunter had struggled with his short game whether it was Tuesday in a practice round or the biggest moment in the Ryder Cup. That’s no secret, and he would admit to that.

So when we got up there, I was a little surprised that he reached for the sand wedge right away, because at that point, I was expecting him to putt it, but when he didn’t, I wasn’t going to get in his grill because he was very decisive about it.

When it happened, obviously, my heart sunk for Hunter. Obviously, it meant that we were going to lose as a team, but Hunter was my guy, and it hurt a lot for him.

The one thing I would say, and I think Hunter would say this as well, if I could change the outcome I would, but I wouldn’t have traded that experience to be last out in a Ryder Cup with everything on the line, with every single player on both teams and every single fan with your group. Not many people get to experience that. So, yeah, I would change the outcome, but in terms of the experience itself, I wouldn’t change a thing and wouldn’t want to trade it for anything.

It was one of the most meaningful moments of my career, and I think Hunter got over it fairly quickly. He had a great year the next year. It’s just one of those things. I keep harping back to it wasn’t so much that I don’t think he blew it, it just was a shot he’s not good at, bottom line. Like I said, it could have happened Tuesday in a practice round just as easily, but, yeah, I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything.

My question is for Paul or Justin. How big a deal is the course preparation? The captains are so secretive about it. But home crowd aside, are there certain things that can be done to Whistling Straits to give the Americans an advantage?

PAUL AZINGER: There should be something they can do, but you have to think to do it. Apparently, according to Kerry Haigh, I was the first captain on home soil to ever ask to control the course and how it was mowed and that sort of thing. Europe had been doing that ever since I was playing Ryder Cup. I was surprised by that.

I think (Steve) Stricker does have things he can do. He’s just got to set up the course, I feel like in some ways never to disadvantage your guy, if you can. If you can find an advantage, go for it. Yeah, I think Stricker can probably figure out with the makeup of his team how to mow that place.

JUSTIN LEONARD: I don’t know that there’s a particular advantage at the golf course. There’s no regular event that’s played there. So many of their players on the European side play in the U.S. They’ve played PGA Championship there.

I think the fact that the U.S. team was there this past week spending a couple days to really get to know the golf course is very helpful. I don’t know how many European players have been able to do that here recently.

Over the course of two or three days, it’s pretty easy to figure out a golf course, but to be able to go ahead of time and see it in tournament conditions but without all the galleries, without the distractions, where you can really take your time and do the things you need to do, I think that is an advantage.

But the golf course itself, I don’t see it being much of an advantage. I think the biggest advantage will be all the people there to support the U.S. I feel like that’s worth maybe a point in the overall outcome. It’s just the support for the home team, and I would expect, as I’ve seen there in Wisconsin, some pretty rabid fans.

PAUL AZINGER: Can I just add to that? The captain, I think, can control the length of the holes. There’s not a lot of trees out there, maybe zero. There are zero trees. You have bunker carries and distances and that sort of thing.

At Valhalla I was real specific about what my longest hitter’s carry distance was, and I just wanted all the holes to play at length and allowed them to carry the trouble. Then my shorter hitters were so accurate. That’s just kind of how we did it. That’s really about the only thing, and maybe you just don’t have any rough over some of those bunkers. That’s about it.

Obviously, golf is an individual sport for almost every single week of the year except this one, when players are asked to work as a team. What role do you think team chemistry plays in a team’s success or failure?

JUSTIN LEONARD: I think it plays to it in some part. I haven’t been in those team rooms since 2008, but I can tell you in the three Ryder Cups that I did play, we had very good chemistry. You come together really quickly.

As we talked about a lot on this call, in 2008 we were broken up into players of four. I was in a pod with Phil Mickelson, Anthony Kim, and then we picked Hunter Mahan basically to be my partner because Phil and Anthony wanted to play together.

We ate breakfast together. We ate dinner together. Now, we’re all in the same room with the whole team, but we sat at a table together. We played our practice rounds together. So we went in knowing, okay, this is who we’re going to play with, and if something changes up, I’m either going to be playing with Phil or Anthony.

That adds a level of comfort to it, but it’s also we talk about, as we have already, Bryson and Brooks. Ben Curtis was on that 2018, Kenny Perry was on that team, Jim Furyk was on that team. I hardly saw those guys other than at the big dinners where we’re getting dressed up and all those things. I don’t think they even do that anymore.

So you can break up into groups, and I think it’s real easy to avoid players that may not quite get along. You can keep them kind of separate for the week. Like Paul said, I don’t know exactly what’s going on there in the team locker room, but I know that Phil Mickelson was a big proponent of the pods. He loved that system. Him being a vice captain, I feel fairly confident that we’ll see something similar to that next week.

JOHN WOOD: I just want to jump in on Zinger’s strategy, one other thing that it did. We got there on Monday, and we immediately knew everything that was going to happen during the week. Who we can play with, what balls we might need to prepare with, what personalities we needed to know.

To have that taken away right early in the week — that week takes so much energy to play, to caddie, to captain, to do anything. What that did was take away that energy that’s wasted sometimes thinking, I might play with this guy, I don’t know. I’d better hit his ball a few times just to see or talk to him a little bit and see what he’s like. To know that immediately, right when you get there, your preparation is yours and yours alone and you don’t have to do A, B, C, D, and E, you prepare because you know what’s going to happen, that takes an incredible amount of energy waste off the plate that week.

PAUL AZINGER: That’s awesome to hear.

John, from being around the team for the 2017 Presidents Cup, what do you think some of Steve Stricker’s strengths as a captain are?

JOHN WOOD: I think Stricker will stick to his plan, and I don’t think he’s going to be one who, oh, boy, we’re behind on the first day, we need to change everything up.

That was huge in Melbourne with Tiger as captain because there was a point where it looked like we might be down 9-1 or 8-2. At that point, you kind of mail it in. You’re not coming back from that. But Tiger never seemed to waver in these are my partnerships. This is my team. We’re not changing anything. By the end of all these matches, we’re going to be ahead.

I think Stricker is going to be very much like that. This is my plan. I’ve been working on it for three years now. Just because maybe we had one bad session or two bad sessions, to throw all that out the window, which is the worst thing a captain can do. All of a sudden he’s panicking, and the team starts to panic. Oh, boy, we’re changing everything. We’re in trouble.

Whereas I think Stricker will be very — he’s an emotional guy, but I think he’s going to be very matter of fact in his decision-making, and I think that’s huge knowing that this is what we’re going to do, period. Behind, ahead, it doesn’t matter. It just gives you some confidence going in knowing that the captain believes in his theory.

Justin, a lot of talk about length at Whistling Straits, but we’ve seen a variety of players and styles have success there. Is it a place where a variety of players can fare well? Maybe there’s too much reliance on the length talk.

JUSTIN LEONARD: When playing major championships there, the two PGAs, I didn’t feel like length was a huge advantage because the golf course played firm. At least I remember that it did back in 2004. So precision was rewarded there as well.

It’s a different game that these guys are playing now. I would think that the golf course, it won’t be as firm or as fast as maybe it would be in a major championship because you’re not trying to — not that the PGA of America does for a certain score, but they’re trying to test the golfers as much and as thoroughly as they can.

The Ryder Cup is more match play. It’s a different animal. So I don’t feel that the golf course will play quite as fast, at least in the fairways. And I think a lot of that does come down to Steve Stricker, and if he feels like his team has an advantage in length, maybe it’s better to have the golf course playing a little bit slower so that his players will be coming into the green with a little less club, but kind of a softer golf course I feel like length is a bigger advantage. When it’s firm and fast, I always felt like I could get it out there and compete just fine.

But this is a different game. These players, they’re so good from tee to green. I think it will be interesting to see how it’s set up, and Kerry Haigh, who’s one of the best in the business — my guess is that Steve Stricker would have some control over that, and then I think once the week begins, it’s completely up to Kerry Haigh and the PGA of America how they want to set it up.

But, yeah, if you look back at the playoff in 2004, Vijay (Singh), one of the longest players in the game, and Chris DiMarco and myself in the playoff, Chris Riley played well there. In the past when it was firm and fast, didn’t think length was much of an advantage, but with a little bit softer, I think it certainly could be.

Not to belabor the pod discussion and this year’s team, but I’m curious, if you looked at the group, just from what you know of them and thought of possible pods that you would put them in or if you’d ever consider a pod of one looking at some of the issues going into this year?

PAUL AZINGER: Well, I’m not going to speculate on what his pods are. Looking at teams in four-man squads, it’s so easy to do, knowing some of them and using the generalization of their personality types. Are they influencing relaters? Are they steady supportive? Are they dominant controlling? When you look at them and you know what guys you should avoid putting together, it’s pretty easy to see the pods if they want to do it.

Look, it’s going to be an incredible event, whether they do pods or they don’t. I just think the pods — they don’t work all the time. We keep getting beat. If everybody’s still using the pods, pods isn’t the answer. It’s something bigger than that.

We have the best players this year, and obviously they roll in with the most confidence and maybe the best team. It’s going to be an intriguing matchup.

But the pods, obviously, it’s not the answer. There was something different there. The way we messaged that team was just to really take the heat off, to play great, play aggressive, show off for the crowd. We tried to embrace the crowd, and that’s about as big of an advantage as you can get on the Europeans really. That’s about it.

And just a quick question for Tommy. Just watching the Solheim Cup, it’s kind of a reminder that it looks like from the production side that Sunday singles is the hardest day to do because it seems like not a lot happens and then suddenly everything’s happening, and then there’s only a few matches left. I’m curious if that’s something you’ve ever tried to address and deal with, either asking for tee time spread more or situating commercial breaks so that you have kind of more of a window there in the middle, and it seems like basically everybody’s on the course and it’s just going crazy.

TOMMY ROY: Yeah, it’s complicated, the match play, because you never really know when a match is going to end. You have matches that are very close or they’re so one-sided. So it’s hard to pick a time when you can ask for that.

We do happen this particular Ryder Cup, when the last Sunday singles match tees off, we have a one-hour window there that’s commercial free courtesy of Rolex, which is nice. I haven’t seen the commercial load for the rest of the time just yet, but that being said, it is complicated. The thing you try to do is be live with the matches that are furthest along in the course that have a chance to end, the ones that are close.

We used to get criticized because a lot of times Tiger’s matches would be one-sided and we wouldn’t follow his match much at all. That’s in a day when everybody wanted to see every single shot that he hit, but we were concentrating on the matches that were closest and furthest along, about to be decided.

It’s complicated, but it’s a blast, I can tell you, just the whole Ryder Cup. If you’re in contention at a major championship, it’s because you’re playing really well. And what you end up having happen at Ryder Cups is guys are out there playing with all this pressure and everything on the line, but they may not have their best game. They may have qualified for this team months ago when they were playing great and now they aren’t necessarily playing great.

With all that added pressure, you tend to get the good shots are even better, but the worst shots are even worse. Bad shots are even worse. So it just makes for a lot of fun. Capturing all that emotion, it’s not about dissecting swings and the design of the course. This is about capturing the emotion of this whole thing, which is refreshing to do.

John, in general, how is Ryder Cup week different from a normal week for a caddie in relationship with his player? Do you have any stories of something that you felt you did really well and maybe a story to something you felt you did poorly as a Ryder Cup caddie?

JOHN WOOD: We don’t have enough time for everything I’ve done poorly in Ryder Cups. It’s a different week, and you really need to — especially with the pod system and you know your potential playing partners — you’ve really got to learn his game. You’ve got to learn what shots he likes to play, what shots he likes to avoid. A lot of that is talking with the other caddie. Does he like a certain number on layup shots. Would he rather chip, or would he rather play from a bunker?

More than that, though, it’s learning their personalities. Sometimes in these team events, you’re out with somebody and you can kind of tell that, for one reason or another, they may have tuned out their caddie for a little bit, and it happens to everybody, where you hear the same thing over and over and over again. Sometimes it just comes on blank ears.

Sometimes — I’ve had an instance where in Melbourne at the Presidents Cup — not this last one, but the previous one — Hunter (Mahan) was paired with Bill Haas. Bill was playing fine. He just didn’t have a lot of confidence at the time. He had his brother working for him, and his brother said, ‘Boy, you’ve got to go say something to Bill. He’s not listening to me at all.’ So that was a case where it’s easy for me to do that because I’m not worried about keeping my job with Bill. I can tell him anything I want.

So we were walking from 9 to 10, and I said, ‘hey, Bill, Hunter is playing good enough to win this thing on his own right now honestly. You make us one or two birdies on this back nine, and there’s no way we won’t win this match.’ That kind of picked him up, and he made a couple birdies, and sure enough, we won the match on the 17th hole.

There’s a lot more prep and learning other people’s games. And the other thing I would say is I didn’t learn this until my third or fourth Ryder Cup, but sometimes it can be a little unnerving early in the week when your player seems to be listening to everybody but you. Week in, week out, you’re the only guy he takes advice from on the course, reading putts, clubs. You get in the Ryder Cup, and all of a sudden Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, they’re listening to the other players and the other caddies a lot more than normal.

That can be a little unnerving, but you’ve got to know that, once the tee goes in the ground on Friday, you’ll be back in the game. That’s something I used to tell rookie caddies in that thing because it can be a little unnerving.

It’s a different week. You’ve just got a lot more to prepare for. At the same time, it’s such a meaningful week. Those are the weeks I’ll remember when I’m all done doing whatever I’m doing.

With six rookies on the team this year, how does that dynamic work then with trying to maybe — how does the caddie ease the tension, ease the anxiety that those guys may feel?

JOHN WOOD: I have a theory that rookies on home Ryder Cups aren’t rookies. It’s certainly nerve-racking and pressure filled, but not nearly as it is on an away team. I think that’s why you saw Strick pick some rookies and Padraig stick with some very veteran players who have been through this before.

Yeah, there are times when, if I’m paired with Austin Johnson and D.J. We’ve been out with them when I was with Kuch a little bit, and if Kuch is struggling, sometimes the best thing for Kuch is just forget about golf. I’ll pull A.J. aside and say, Hey, talk to my guy about basketball coming up this fairway, talk to him about something else, because sometimes that’s what’s best for Kuch. If I do it, he almost knows I’m trying to get him out of that, but if A.J. does it, it’s something new. Okay, let’s talk some basketball.

Yeah, it’s a good question. Those are some of the things you think about as a caddie in this event.

We talked about Strick a lot, but obviously in ’17 that team dominated. It wasn’t put under the blow torch as such. We also know him as a nice and accommodating individual. Is there such a thing as being too nice for this role if things do get a little bit fiery?

PAUL AZINGER: I don’t know if that matters whether you’re nice or not. I think the captain is going to try to control the controllables. Stricker is pretty organized. Padraig is really one of those cross the Ts, dot the Is guys. So you’re going to have two pretty thorough captains. They had an extra year to get ready.

His emotions and all that might inspire the players. The main thing is all the players love Strick and they respect him. They’d probably run through a wall for the guy if they can. I feel like that’s going to be the environment that’s created for the American team.

JUSTIN LEONARD: Along those lines, I think any coach who knows his team knows there’s certain guys who will respond to a pat on the back and other guys who will respond to a kick in the ass. I think Stricker knows who those players are and knows how to go and approach them if he needs to.

I’ll tell you one great story about Strick that’s kind of unrelated. At the Presidents Cup at Muirfield Village, it was Jordan’s first team event and he was amped up. He’s always amped up and very animated anyway. Fred put Stricker out with him to kind of settle him down and talk to him out there and lead him through some matches.

I remember he came through the first match, and Strick came up to me and said, ‘Woody, somebody’s got to calm that guy down out there. He’s so animated and so amped up, I can’t take it.’ I looked at Strick and said, ‘yeah, I think that’s your job. I’m pretty sure that’s why you’re playing with him.’ He kind of flushed a little bit and said, ‘oh, yeah, you’re right.’

I think Strick is prepared for everybody on that team and knows what to do and how to handle it and knows that you don’t necessarily handle everybody the same way.

THE MODERATOR: Great. Appreciate everybody joining the call. A full transcript of this call is going to be available later this afternoon on NBCsportsgrouppressbox.com. Additionally, for members of the press interested in watching a screener of the new documentary Cracking the Code, as I mentioned, that’s going to premiere Monday evening at 9:00 p.m. eastern, but I do have screeners available that I can e-mail to you. If you’re interested, reach out.

Other than that, again, appreciate everybody’s time. Can’t wait for next week at Whistling Straits. Thanks again. Have a good day.

TRANSCRIPT – 2021 FOOTBALL NIGHT IN AMERICA CONFERENCE CALL

By

Tuesday, August 31, 2021

Mike Tirico

Tony Dungy

Rodney Harrison

Drew Brees

Sam Flood

THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon, everybody, and thank you so much for joining us today for our Football Night in America conference call to preview the 2021 NFL season.

As we announced yesterday, Football Night in America, which is the most watched studio show in sports since its inception in 2006, has a slightly new format this year. At the desk in the studio is going to be Mike, Tony, and Drew. Also in the studio will be our new co-host Maria Taylor alongside Chris Simms, and then at the game site we’re going to have host Jac Collinsworth, along with Rodney Harrison who will be stepping outside the studio for the first time.

Mike Florio will continue to provide updates on the biggest news of the NFL that day. Another new element for Football Night this year is that we’ll be streaming all season long for the first time on Peacock.

Also, of note for this call, Mike and Drew are our game callers for Notre Dame Football along with sideline reporter Kathryn Tappen, so Fighting Irish questions are welcome on this call.

The season begins and ends on NBC this year as we have NFL kickoff next Thursday, and Super Bowl LVI in February. Before we begin here today, just a quick reminder that we will have a transcript of this call a few hours after its conclusion. You can find that at our media dedicated website, NBCSportsgrouppressbox.com.

Let’s begin now with opening remarks, and first up is Sam Flood.

SAM FLOOD: Well, thank you all for joining us. We’re really excited for the season. This past Sunday night, I was in Atlanta and got to spend time with Tony, Rodney, Mike, and Drew, and the energy of getting back inside buildings and the season ready to roll was fantastic, and seeing this group together fired up to get the football season going is a lot of fun.

Mike has turned off his Tokyo Olympic hat and turned on his NFL brain, and he’s ready to go with the season. Really fun seeing everyone there, and we’re so excited knowing we get to start and end the season, as Chris just mentioned. Nothing better than that, and the Super Bowl in Los Angeles is going to be spectacular. To the guy who spent way too much time in Tokyo and is now back stateside and getting comfortable in this time zone, Mr. Tirico.

MIKE TIRICO: Thanks, Sam. Hi, everybody. I’ll be brief so you can get to your questions and hear from our team of analysts. Like both guys said before, it’s always great when you know you’re going to bookend the season, and to start it in Tampa and to then end it at the Super Bowl, with Super Bowl LVI at SoFi Stadium, will be a great experience I think for all of us. Most of the team is back together, as we’ve been together for the last few years working with Rodney and Tony and Chris Simms and Jac joining us last year. We’re super excited to have Maria Taylor. Maria worked with us on our late-night show, our prime plus show at the Olympics, and we really enjoyed spending the two and a half weeks working with Maria, and she’ll be an awesome addition to our team.

And Drew, you know, I spent 20-some odd years talking about Drew Brees back when he was a backup at Purdue for Billy Dicken at the Alamo Bowl that I called in 1997.

And then over the years, whether it was the Chargers or his decade and a half Hall of Fame run with the Saints, it was always a pleasure to go down there and cover Drew and get to know him and his family. He’s going to be a perfect fit with Tony, who is the absolute best, and Rodney.

I’ve learned so much football the last couple years sitting amongst that group, and to add Drew to that mix will be great.

The last thing I’ll say is that hour-fifteen that we’re on the air is as fun a 75 minutes as any host can have on TV, surrounded by Hall of Fame analysts, games are going on, games are finishing, putting all the plays of the day in context, showing the best highlights, giving analysis, getting ready for Sunday Night Football.

The schedule is awesome, as usual. Just talking about this has me ready for the kickoff game here in nine days and then our first Sunday Night and our first Football Night on September 12th.

TONY DUNGY: I’m excited, too, about this year, having Maria and Drew with us is going to be fantastic and working the new people in. But I’m also excited because of the way this has taken place, getting fans back in the stands. There’s so much buzz down here in Tampa where I live for those fans to be back. I think that’s going to be great for us, the schedule that we’ve got.

But I’m also excited because I don’t know what’s going to happen this year. I’ve never been through a preseason like this where everybody is a little different, nobody is playing a lot of their guys. Usually, you can look at that third preseason game and say, well, I know this team is going to be good because when their regulars got in, we saw this, this, and this.

I don’t really know how these teams are going to be, so I think it’s going to be an exciting year.

And then to finish with the Super Bowl is going to be fantastic. Looking forward to seeing the unknown, and I think it’s going to be fun to broadcast it.

With that, I’ll turn it over to Rodney Harrison.

RODNEY HARRISON: Hello, everyone. As Coach talked about, I’m extremely excited about this opportunity heading to my 13th season with NBC. I really enjoyed watching the preseason games. I felt like guys played with a sense of urgency, and I believe that’s because of the one less game.

Unfortunately, the guys that didn’t get a lot of reps in the preseason, I think you’re going to see a lot of mistakes early on and you’re going to see a lot of sloppy football.

However, I love our schedule. I think our schedule is fantastic. Looking forward to that week 4 game with the Patriots and Tom Brady coming back.

With that, I’m happy to hand it off to my former teammate and future Hall of Famer, Drew Brees.

DREW BREES: Thanks, Rod. It’s been a while since I’ve been a rookie, but here I am stepping into what I think is the absolute best team, and I get to join Rodney again, as he mentioned. He was a veteran that helped show me the way during my rookie year and second year in San Diego. Great to join him.

Also, the opportunity to broadcast games with Mike Tirico for Notre Dame Football I’m extremely excited about, and obviously to be in studio with Mike, Maria, and Coach Dungy.

I’ll also say all the people behind the scenes. I think it’s been such a welcome to join what I think is the absolute best in the business, and that is just not the people you see on TV, but also the people behind the scenes. It’s been an incredible team to join, and I’m really excited about this season.

Hey, Sam. Just wondering what your thoughts are with the league this year in terms of the embracing of gambling more. I saw yesterday that your partner PointsBet got approved as one of the Sportsbook operators from the league, and just with the evolution the past couple years, do you think there will be increased talk during broadcasts or on pregame shows, or how do you handle that balance?

SAM FLOOD: Well, the running rules are still going to be established by the NFL. They’re moving into this space and being very smart about it, making sure they go through the right processes and they’re working with us, letting us know what they feel is inbounds and out of bounds.

So we’re working with them and understanding their running rules to make sure we accomplish what’s needed for them and for us.

It’s a brave new world. I think we all know it’ll be a walk before they run, and we’re doing the same thing. Let’s figure out what works.

Let’s also make sure we’re engaging the audience the right way. We’re the No. 1 show in studio television, and we want to make sure we’re inclusive to everyone that’s watching. We don’t want to alienate any fans, so we’ve got to walk that line and work the right way to make sure we engage the audience properly and make sure everyone feels welcomed the whole time.

For Mike, is your understanding that maybe the rules about gambling talk and stuff, there’s more of an inbounds? As a host, how do you try to marry the two?

MIKE TIRICO: I’m sure before we get going we’ll have a full read on what exactly the parameters are. Obviously there have been times where in the booth or in the studio you make a reference to what happens in a game relative to the spread or the total, and people who need to get it, get it, and people who don’t, don’t.

Remember, not everyone is watching because of gambling. A lot of people do have interest in the game, but they also have their fantasy football interests. You’ve got to serve the majority of the viewers, and I think for the majority of the viewers they want to hear from Tony, Drew, Rodney, and Chris Simms about what happened in the game and why.

I think if you wagered on a game legally, or illegally, you can figure out the impact of the score on your bet. I don’t think we need to necessarily discuss it all the time.

When we know what the exact parameters are we’ll use them as we see fit. I don’t think it’s going to become, or any of the pregame shows are going to become these full-out tout shows that you used to see on Saturday afternoons on syndicated TV. I don’t think the NFL pregame shows will go to that length of conversation around betting.

Since Chris invited Notre Dame questions, I just wanted to ask Drew, I don’t know how much you’ve gotten to see of Jack Coan yet or from his past performances, but how do you think he will fit in in that role?

DREW BREES: Yeah, so I followed Jack obviously in his time as starting quarterback for Wisconsin. I had a chance to be at one of the Notre Dame spring practices in April to watch him and the team. By all accounts, and in speaking with the coaches as well, I think he’s really assimilated himself into that team and the system very well.

They say he’s got great leadership ability. I think the team is really responding to that. I think he brings a level of poise and experience that obviously the other younger guys who were competing alongside him don’t necessarily have quite yet.

Ian Book being a three-year starter and then departing, it kind of left that void. He seems to be filling that role. They’re excited about him. I think it’s unique, as well, I didn’t realize this, but I guess Jack was quite a lacrosse player coming out of high school and was actually recruited to Notre Dame to play lacrosse, and obviously he goes on to Wisconsin and plays quarterback, and here now as a graduate transfer. He’s making his way back to South Bend to play football.

But interesting backstory there.

Coach Dungy, I was just curious about you spoke to the team when you were here for Hall of Fame weekend. Just kind of what precipitated that. Was it because they had such a loaded roster? They say your message was basically about chemistry. Have you had any takeaways of Coach Stefanski, and what impressed you about him while you were talking?

TONY DUNGY: Well, I actually was invited there by Coach Stefanski. He and I became friends when he was with the Vikings. We were talking a lot about culture and creating that winning atmosphere before practice, and he asked me if I wouldn’t mind speaking to the team and addressing them.

So it was a lot of fun. My son Justin is a huge Browns fan, so I got to collect some autographs for him and some pictures, and he was pumped up about it. But I really enjoyed talking to them because I feel like it is a group that is bought in to what Coach Stefanski is bringing to them, and that is that atmosphere that we have to be together, we’re in this as a unit, we’re going to be physical, and that’s how we’re going to play.

It was kind of exciting to watch. I think they’re going to be a very, very good football team. Obviously, my Steeler roots, it was tough being there in the midst of the Browns, but I enjoyed it, and I think Coach Stefanski has really brought something special there. They’re going to be very tough.

Obviously you knew him, but what he was able to do in a year, how impressive was that?

TONY DUNGY: He’s got everybody to buy in. They’re on board. We talked last year, he told me that the one thing he wanted to get to the offense was being physical, knocking people down. They kept charts of who got people off their feet on defense. The leaders of that race were the wide receivers.

When you get guys like Jarvis Landry buying into going down the field knocking people down and then the running backs see this and the linemen see this and everybody is on board, that’s what you see. I see a team that really believes in their head coach, and that’s why I think they’re going to be good.

Drew, another question about the sports betting space. I know you’ve recently partnered with PointsBet. How do you see sports betting as something that grows fan engagement?

DREW BREES: I think as Mike alluded to, there’s many reasons why people will want to watch, people will be engaged. Obviously so much of our country loves sports. They love competitive athletics. They love college football. They love NFL football. They’re going to watch it because it’s entertaining, it’s fun.

What fantasy football brought years ago was just this kind of heightened level of interest based on being able to build your teams, made up of players from different teams, different positions, and competing against friends, competing against others.

Now you add another level, which is the gambling element and the opportunity to win and that sort of thing, I think you’ve just added another level of where you can engage more people or even a heightened level of interest in the outcomes of these games.

For Drew, you’re going to be a Hall of Fame quarterback; obviously had a great career. Why did you want to be an analyst? What motivated you to say, you know what, that’s what I want to do after my career on the field?

DREW BREES: So listen, I love the game of football. It’s been a huge part of my life for a really long time, and obviously coming off being an NFL player for 20 years I figured the transition from being a player to, I guess, being a civilian was going to be a bit of an adjustment.

You figure the ways you can still be involved and engaged in the game that you love and continue to foster those relationships and maybe even develop a different skill set, which I think what I’m learning going through this process is certainly that’s something that broadcasting and being in studio will do for you.

It allows me to stay involved with the game. It allows me to show my love and passion for the game in a different way and develop a skill set and develop other relationships.

I’ve had the opportunity to be around guys like Mike Tirico for a long time, and Coach Dungy, obviously, playing on the other side of the field from him quite a few times, but being able to go deeper with these relationships and being able to sit side by side in studio or in the broadcast booth, and, again, like I said earlier, be involved with a network like NBC that sets you up for success, and I think it does a tremendous job of pulling people together and putting forth a show and a broadcast that we can all be very proud of and that our fans can be very proud of.

I always felt like this would be a potential transition for me. I had the opportunity three or four years ago to attend a Purdue game in Lucas Oil Stadium as they were opening up the season at Louisville, and I was actually invited into the broadcast booth just to talk about the upcoming NFL season. But when I threw the headphones on, I started being asked questions about what was happening on the field at the time, and in a very impromptu manner for about five minutes, I became a broadcaster. I had never done that before, and in doing that, I think I immediately got the juices flowing and my mind thinking that this would be something that I would love to do when I was done playing.

Sam, is there a strategy in terms of how you’re trying to develop Drew?

SAM FLOOD: Yes. We’re giving him the great opportunity to learn. We’ve done a lot of coaching, a lot of meetings out west, whether at his house or at stadiums or team practices or in Atlanta this past Sunday.

It’s a process. It’s a training camp, no different than what Tony and Rodney did with us back in 2009 when they came on board to Football Night in America.

It’s a training process, getting ready, learning new skills and learning how to make television and tell stories and get people to care. The one word we ask them all to do is tell us why, why are things happening on the field, and take us places we can’t go otherwise. That’s the strategy with Drew. We did it, and we loved what we did with Tony and Rodney. They enjoyed the process back in their time, and now it’s Drew’s turn.

Drew, it’s about the 49ers’ quarterbacks and a possible rotation to some extent with (Jimmy) Garoppolo and Trey Lance. Obviously you can speak from experience on that. I’m sure as a starter you didn’t always love seeing Taysom Hill come in, but as an analyst, to this situation specifically, do you see the wisdom in that, and what do you view as maybe the possible benefits and even potential pitfalls?

DREW BREES: I’ll say this: As a starting quarterback, and I’d say this applies more so maybe in my last four to five years with the presence of Taysom Hill, and that is whatever we needed to do to win the game, to put ourselves in the best position to win, I was all for that.

So if that meant Taysom Hill being able to come in and take two snaps at quarterback or 10 snaps at quarterback, if that gave us the best chance to win, I was all for it.

As that situation plays out in San Francisco, I had a chance to view joint practices between San Francisco and the Chargers actually just a week ago. So I had a chance to see both Jimmy Garoppolo and Trey Lance up close. Had a chance to talk with the coaching staff and observe. It’s obvious Trey Lance is a great talent. The 49ers have quite an investment in him when you look at what they gave up to move up to that third spot to grab him.

I think that they’re in a very good position right now because I think you have an established starter in Jimmy Garoppolo. Keep in mind, these guys were in the Super Bowl two years ago, in large part because of their defense but also his ability to execute that offense.

I know a lot of that team was hit with the injury bug last year, including Jimmy, but as I look at that team, I think they’re going to be a real contender in the NFC this year, and I think Jimmy Garoppolo is going to be a big part of that.

I’m not sure exactly how they see Trey Lance’s development thus far. Personally, I think they should not be in a rush to get Trey Lance on the field. I think that there is a development process that will take place with him. Let’s remember that this guy only played one game last fall, and he only started for a year before that.

You’ve got a guy with a ton of these expectations but who’s played a limited amount of football over the last two years. He’s stepping into an environment where there’s a lot of pressure and a lot of expectations.

I think all that’s doing is setting him up for failure. I think you have the opportunity to bring him along slowly. Different than the situation with me and Taysom Hill. Taysom Hill came on the field for us, you didn’t know what position he was playing when he was on the field. In most cases he was playing tight end, maybe receiver, kind of this F- or H-back type position where he was doing something else other than quarterback.

When Trey Lance comes on the field in a game you know he’s playing quarterback. From a game plan perspective or the threat that that poses to an opposing defense, I don’t think it’s in the same realm as a Taysom Hill. All of a sudden playing quarterback and launching the ball 60 yards down the field or running over you in a short yardage situation.

I’m not sure how that ends up playing out at this point, but I think in my opinion and in watching it, I think Trey Lance is still a little ways away from being in a position where he’s really going to be able to provide value at the quarterback position for them.

Do you feel like especially with a guy like Jimmy Garoppolo, do you feel like that could harm his confidence, because this is a guy that, yeah, he’s played, and when he played they won a lot of ballgames, but this is kind of a guy that his confidence kind of goes up and down. Are you afraid that if they start rotating quarterbacks maybe his confidence is affected?

DREW BREES: Well, I think competition brings out the best in everybody. I can certainly draw on my experience back in 2004 when the Chargers drafted Philip Rivers with the fourth pick to basically come in and take my job.

But you’re a Hall of Famer; Jimmy Garoppolo is not.

DREW BREES: But I think he’s playing really well right now based on everything that I observed, and everyone who I talked to during those joint practices, they say Jimmy Garoppolo is playing some of his best football right now.

Listen, we’ll see once the season rolls around if he doesn’t start playing well and two or three games into the season he hasn’t put forth the production that they want. Is he on a short leash? Maybe. But I still think Trey Lance is a ways away from being a full-time starter for San Francisco.

Where they’re positioned right now, they’ve got a great team around them. They’ve got a great defense, great defensive line, great offensive line, a good run game, a good scheme. Those are a quarterback’s friends. At the same time, I think Jimmy gives them the best chance to win right now and let’s see how it plays out with his performance.

Drew, the Broncos’ new quarterback, Teddy Bridgewater, the 11th starting quarterback since Peyton retired, but he was your backup for a couple years there in New Orleans. I’m wondering from your perspective what kind of a player the Broncos are getting in Teddy, and what do you think about the talent that is around him on offense?

DREW BREES: I think Teddy is a great fit for Denver. You’re talking about an experienced quarterback. He’s got a lot of starts under his belt. I think wherever he’s been, the players have loved him. He’s really endeared himself to the team. He’s got great leadership ability.

They obviously were bit by the injury bug on defense last year, losing Von Miller early and others, so if they can stay healthy and play the type of defense that I know they can play, I think they’re poised to have a good season.

Listen, they’re in a division where they’ve got to play the Chiefs twice and they’ve got to play the Chargers and Justin Herbert and the expectations that come with that team twice, so it’s not going to be an easy road.

And yet at the same time I think they’ve made an upgrade with him obviously going in there competing, winning the job, winning over the team, and now being in a position to help them win some games.

I was hoping both Rodney and Drew could answer this question if possible. I’m just curious what each of your thoughts are on Mac Jones and what you make of the Patriots’ decision to make him the starter and cut Cam Newton today.

RODNEY HARRISON: I think first and foremost, I believe, and I said it the entire time, that I felt like Mac Jones was ready. That he was everything that the Patriots wanted and needed as a quarterback.

I think when I watch him play, sometimes I sit back and say, what if that zero that’s on his jersey was a 2? Then he would look just like Tom Brady. He would look just like a young Tom Brady. The fact that they had so much trust in him early, to put him in a no-huddle, to give him different things, their offense was never limited with Mac Jones.

People say, well, the lack of athleticism. Well, they’ve got four or five running backs that can run the football. They need somebody that is going to take care of the football, that can take control of the offense, not only know the offense, but also be able to know the defense and be able to get the offense into the correct play. I think Mac Jones can do that.

Now, did I think that Cam was going to get cut? No, but I understand why. Number one, maybe it’s because he wasn’t vaccinated, and that has to be a concern with most teams, with all teams. If your leader, if your quarterback is not vaccinated, it’s going to affect the dynamic of the team. But I thought Coach Belichick, everything that he preached as far as doing what’s best for the team, making every guy earn his spot.

And I was disappointed with Matt Nagy. I was disappointed earlier with Coach Belichick when he named Cam Newton and he said Cam Newton was going to be the starting quarterback. I didn’t believe that because I believe everyone should compete, and that’s exactly what he promised when I came in in 2003. He puts up a chart and says, hey, you make the depth chart. It’s not about giving someone a job, it’s about earning a job.

When you have a young guy like Mac, you don’t want a 10-year veteran or however many years Cam had played behind him looking over his shoulder, and I think that was ultimately what led to Cam’s demise. But Cam will be fine. He’s made a lot of money. He’s done some wonderful things in his career.

But in order to give the Patriots the best opportunity to win, this was the best decision. If Coach Belichick would have made a different decision, I would have been highly disappointed in him.

DREW BREES: So as I was watching the draft, the minute the Patriots took Mac Jones at 15th, I said, that’s the steal of the draft. It’s probably the guy who is most ready to play NFL quarterback right now, of all the guys who were taken before.

His level of execution last year at Alabama, and I know we can sit here and argue he’s got the best players on the field on his side, on both sides of the ball, but in watching the National Championship game, that’s where it became very evident to me.

This guy’s level of execution, his understanding of offensive football, his timing, his rhythm, his ability not only to make the routine throws, but to make throws that you’re going to need to make at the next level in order to win games and take care of the football the way he did, I felt like he was the most NFL ready.

And to couple that, he goes to a team who has a culture and a foundation already established, different than the top three quarterbacks taken in the draft who unfortunately typically are in situations where there’s a reason those teams were drafting at the very top. They had the worst records, they probably have the most rebuilding to do in regards to building the culture and the foundation, getting the pieces in and around him.

For all those reasons I think Mac Jones is going to have the most success of any rookie quarterback, not just this year but probably for the next few years.

Rodney or Drew, just wondering with the investments that the Ravens have made at the wide receiver position, but then again being a run-first smashmouth team, what do you guys see being the right balance to strike in the way that passing trends are happening, but also how good we saw the Ravens working offensively two years ago during that MVP season (for Lamar Jackson)?

RODNEY HARRISON: I think the Ravens, their goal is to win a Super Bowl, and they’re not going to win a Super Bowl just running the ball and thinking they can play good defense. They’re going to have to push the ball down the field.

Talking of Coach Harbaugh, he was really excited about Sammy Watkins, Rashod Bateman, Marquise ‘Hollywood’ Brown. But the key is those guys have to be able to stay on the field, and if they’re continually getting hurt, especially with a quarterback that’s not the most accurate quarterback, you need that time on the field with your quarterback. You need that communication. You need that timing.

I played against Peyton (Manning) plenty of times and I’d still see those guys an hour or two before the game working on timing routes.

Yeah, I think Lamar is going to have success, but the most important thing for them, is offensively they’ve got to get healthy at the wide receiver position. I don’t doubt that they’re going to be able to run the ball.

And J.K. Dobbins is a huge loss because he came in, he gave them energy, he gave them power, he gave him quickness, he is a guy that can take the hands off and go 60, 70 yards for a touchdown. That’s a huge loss for them.

Now it’s going to be a little bit more responsibility on Lamar Jackson to be able to step up, make the plays down the field outside of the tight end position to the wide receivers. But unfortunately some of these guys, they have a history of injuries. Sammy Watkins, he’s a really good player, but everywhere he goes, he’s injured.

That’s something that they’re going to have to strongly consider.

DREW BREES: That Baltimore Ravens team, and I’d say the success of that team, is built around the run game and defense and their ability to — more importantly on offense, if you execute the run game the way you should, that’s what opens up the opportunities in the pass game.

The design of that scheme is not just to drop back and beat you throwing the ball. The design of that offense is to dent you with the run game to make you play extremely disciplined defense, because in many cases Lamar has the opportunity to pull the ball at any moment and with his legs create an explosive play; but at the same time you’ve got to be able to tackle the runner if he hands it off. And then, oh, yeah, by the way, I’m going to pull it and then I’m going to launch one in the play action game.

That’s what creates the problems for opposing teams and opposing defenses when you play them. But they’ve got to be able to run the ball. I think they’ve been very consistent playing great defense, or a style of defense that is very opportunistic, that focuses on pressure, that focuses on taking the ball away.

Their success is very much predicated on their ability to run the ball.

RODNEY HARRISON: Let me just jump in. There’s no question that a big part of their success is about running the football, but we’re talking about getting to the next level. Okay, I was there when they got their butts kicked by Buffalo in the playoffs because Lamar couldn’t push the ball down the field.

Yeah, there was some weather, but at the end of the day, we know they’re going to run the football. They’re going to have success running the football. For them to get to the Super Bowl, and that’s the goal, to win a Super Bowl, they’re not going to run, they’re not just going to run to get in the Super Bowl. Their defense is going to be a good defense, I don’t think it’s going to be a great defense. They still have question marks of who’s going to be the pass rushers.

When I look at it, Drew, in order to get to the Super Bowl you’re playing against Kansas City, you’re going to be playing against the Chargers, you’re going to be playing against a team like the Patriots, and they’re going to pass the ball.

All these teams can run the ball, but you’ve got to pass the ball to get to that next level.

How are you going to beat Kansas City if you can’t sack Patrick Mahomes and you can’t throw the ball down the field? I just don’t see it.

Coach, you tweeted that you did not like the NFL getting into business with all these sports betting companies. Can you tell me what is your objection, and why do you think the NFL changed its stance after so many years?

TONY DUNGY: Well, I don’t know why the NFL changed its stance, and my objection is just personal. I don’t think we should encourage people who are watching the NFL to gamble, especially young people. I’ve got boys, and I want them to enjoy the game for what it is, the headiness of it and those kind of things. It’s a great game. I know people gamble. I know it’s legal. I just don’t want to see the NFL promoting it.

That’s just my personal opinion. I know a lot of people don’t agree with it. They say it’s money, people are going to gamble anyway. I understand all that. Just my personal opinion, and I know when I came into the league we didn’t. We were counseled about it. You couldn’t be involved with the gambling process.

Now it’s different, and I understand times change, but again, for me it’s just a personal opinion.

I was wondering if any of your colleagues share your objections.

MIKE TIRICO: I do think there should be a little bit more of an understanding that there’s a percentage of the audience we’re talking about. It’s not everyone. So it doesn’t have to be every conversation related to what happened to the NFL.

I think at the end of the day, the higher percentage of a team’s fans, let’s say Lions’ fans in Detroit, they’d be happy if their team won and was making the playoffs as opposed to their record ATS.

I think we need to be reminded that this is something that is new in terms of how prevalent it is in conversation.

As for personal opinion I do see Tony’s point, and in some ways agree with him. Maybe not 100 percent. I think the gambling process has been going on for quite some time, whether in back channels, illegally, however you want to describe it, for people not going to Nevada to wager on a game. So that’s been happening.

So the fact that it’s now legalized in some ways may just legitimize the process a little bit. But I do think it is having an influence on or can have an influence on younger fans, and I think we need to be wise of that in general.

It’s another part of a society where you have more options to do things, and with more options come more consequences.

I hope that the people who are wagering are wagering wisely, like they say in the commercials, but that’s not always the case. I think the balance of not making it the preponderance of our conversation covering National Football League is appropriate for that reason.

THE MODERATOR: I know we have a few questions in the queue, but this does end our call for today. I really want to thank everybody for joining us. Don’t forget, tune in next Thursday night, 7:00 p.m. eastern, NFL kickoff, Cowboys-Bucs; next Saturday Toledo-Notre Dame exclusively streaming on Peacock; and for the first Sunday Night Football game, the Bears-Rams from SoFi Stadium. Coverage begins with Football Night in America at 7:00 p.m. eastern on NBC. Thank you, everybody, for joining us.

Transcript – NBC Sports’ Tokyo Olympics Conference Call

By

Tuesday, July 13, 2021

Ato Boldon

Rowdy Gaines

Nastia Liukin

Molly Solomon

 

THE MODERATOR: Welcome to today’s NBC Olympics conference call. The Opening Ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics is just 10 days away, next Friday, July 23rd, on NBC.

Joining us on today’s call are analysts from three big Summer Olympics sports: Track and field analyst Ato Boldon, a four-time Olympic medalist; gymnastics analyst Nastia Liukin, a five-time medalist who won the all-around in Beijing in 2008; and swimming analyst Rowdy Gaines, a three-time Olympic gold medalist. And we are joined by our NBC Olympics executive producer, Molly Solomon, who is working her 11th Olympics with NBC. All will have a few opening comments and then we will take your questions.

MOLLY SOLOMON: Good morning, everybody, from Tokyo, a very early morning. I’m probably waking up someone in the room next to me. But I’m glad this is an audio rather than a video call at 6.00 a.m.

But we’re getting a very early start here for an important point. We’ve been on the ground eight days. Right now, NBC has nearly 900 folks working in Tokyo, including our primetime host, Mike Tirico, who landed yesterday.

And as the world emerges from these challenging times, we really believe the Tokyo Olympics will be the most meaningful games in our lifetime. And we’ve got some once-in-a-generation athletes and some incredibly compelling storylines. And that’s why we have our outstanding and insightful analysts on this call today to talk more about what we’re going to see here in Tokyo.

Couple of notes from here, as we begin. We visited the brand-new swimming venue yesterday. It’s spectacular. Along with gymnastics. We stopped by skateboarding, beach volleyball — and they actually have a new sports pavilion. So it’s really, really cool to see the sport-climbing wall and the 3×3 hoops court.

We understand the decision of the Japanese government for there to be no fans, but of course we wish the fans of the world had an opportunity to cheer on their athletes in person.

That being said, NBC and OBS, which is the Olympic Broadcasting Service, which produces the world feed, we’ve been preparing for this potential outcome for some time.

We’ve created sound-design plans with this in mind. We believe there’s an opportunity to bring viewers closer to the action than ever. And it’s sports like swimming, gymnastics, track, basketball, beach volleyball, you’re going to hear the sounds of the games like you’ve never heard them before — from the thrashing and splashing in the pool to those intimate conversations between competitors and coaches.

You look at gymnastics and think about the distinctive intricacies of each apparatus, and we really feel like we’ll be able to bring the viewer closer to the athlete’s experience here in Tokyo than ever before.

As we planned these, we look back on some of our past Olympic experiences. When you look back at the downhill, the women’s downhill and the super G races in PyeongChang where we showcased Lindsey Vonn in that start house, and viewers could very clearly hear her breathing as she prepared for her runs. It was incredibly dramatic, and we plan to access those kinds of sounds and moments in Tokyo.

We’ve also been making plans to connect the U.S. athletes to their relatives back home and inject reactions and energy into the broadcast by integrating watch parties from the U.S.

We’re treating friends and family, as we call it, like a sports venue in our strategic planning. The coordination of cameras each evening in primetime is rolling out with a team of athletes, bookers and technical support in Tokyo and stateside.

Our largest footprint will be at Universal Resorts in Orlando. We, alongside the USOPC, are putting together a two-week long watch party in primetime where family members of Team USA will attend and be able to watch coverage and cheer for their loved ones together.

We’re going to have a reporter there, Kerith Burke, and the ability to connect relatives with athletes. We’re hoping for some chants, some spontaneous chants of “USA, USA!” to erupt each evening each day as these invested fans band together and support their loved ones.

Additionally, Olympian’s relatives have reached out to NBC. For example, BMX world champion Hannah Roberts’ dad, he’s hosting a watch party on a big screen in an outdoor park in Buchanan, Michigan. We’re also excited about two watch parties that Simone Biles’ gym in Spring, Texas — they’re creating an event for budding gymnasts who train there. They’re actually hosting a sleepover because it starts rather early in Texas.

So they’re going to have a big screen. All of the budding gymnasts will spend the night, and then wake up the next morning and watch the women’s team final and the women’s all around. Really exciting stuff.

We’re also working on international reaction as well. So a lot still to come, but the bottom line is if Americans can’t travel to Tokyo, we intend to bring America to Tokyo.

Before I turn it over to the analysts, I just want to say I went to the swimming, track and gymnastics Trials and saw up close how much the Olympics means to these athletes. And the unique circumstances of these games have really given us an extra sense of purpose to make sure we’re connecting them with their supporters back home.

I’ve also been asked about artificial sound. And NBC will not be adding artificial crowd noise to the audio mix that America hears. We’re told that some of the sports venues may experiment with ambient crowd noise to generate atmosphere for the athletes. That will be a work in progress and you’ll hear that on the mix that NBC uses.

In closing, we’re going to have more in-venue audio than ever before to share the sounds of the competition. And we’re going to be using technology to bring cheers and support of many of the athletes and their biggest fans to viewers at home. So that’s a look at what our plans are considering all of the circumstances. And I’d like to throw it on Ato Boldon to give us a preview of what he expects at track and field, Ato.

ATO BOLDON: Thank you, Molly. The U.S.A. Track & Field Trials were very eventful some two weeks ago. And I was privileged enough to be in Eugene, Oregon in the blistering heat for most of it.

I have to say that having covered now the U.S. Olympic team going to Summer Olympics for quite some time, I think this is maybe the most balanced USA track and field team that there’s ever been, certainly in my short career.

Allyson Felix, who of course is one of the faces of the entire United States Olympic team, is trying to create history. She’s already made some history in qualifying for her fifth Olympics Summer Games.

I think of some of the younger ones that made the team, somebody like a Sydney McLaughlin who set the world record at the Trials, becoming the fastest 400-meter hurdler ever. She could emerge as one of the big stars from Tokyo. Noah Lyles, the 200-meter world champion and Trials winner. Ryan Crouser, who set a world record at the Trials as well in the shot put.

What about Gabby Thomas? That’s a name that a lot of Americans don’t know going into Tokyo. But she just became the second fastest 200-meter runner in history, behind only Flo Jo, and that’s before we start talking about some of the international stars. I remember explaining to reporters five years ago when Usain Bolt was making his exit. And they were worried about who would fill the void. I said, it’s a global sport; somebody is going to fill the void.

So there are a number of very compelling stories. I think that for somebody, like myself, who was never supposed to be an Olympian; I started off in soccer — it’s funny that the Olympics have become such a part of my life. These will be my 10th Olympics as a broadcaster and athlete — four as an athlete, six as a broadcaster. But I remember Olympics the way I remember the birth of my children. They’re that important in my life.

I’m extremely excited to be getting on a plane at the end of the week to go to Tokyo.

NASTIA LIUKIN: I think, obviously, with gymnastics, Simone Biles is, of course, the favorite amongst, I think, not just in gymnastics but the favorite amongst many people, all across the U.S. and the world. There’s no doubt she’s going to be amazing. She’s favored to win five medals, possibly all gold, and further solidify her status as the greatest ever.

Personally, I already believe that’s the case, but five more medals would certainly prove that even more.

And on the men’s side, the U.S. men look to have a new star with Brody Malone. He’s really the great new face of Team USA for the men and came into the National Championships and kind of took everybody by storm. Won his first national title. Went on to the Olympic Trials and secured a spot there. And then the team also still has a veteran leader like Sam Mikulak, has already been to multiple Olympics.

Very excited to see them in Tokyo as well as some incredible gymnasts from around the world, especially Russia and China, and of course the home team in Japan will include kind of the Simone, if you will, on the men’s side, which is Kohei Uchimura. So we’re really looking forward to a lot of action. But, as we all said, on the balance beam, it’s going to be pretty quiet when there won’t be any fans there.

This will be, echoing Molly, we’re just looking forward to having an Olympics and for the athletes to compete especially after a year of postponement and to be able to see their dreams come true as they step into that Olympic arena will no doubt be special.

ROWDY GAINES: As Ato and Nastia will tell you, at the Olympic Trials it was exciting on the swimming standpoint as well. As most of you know, this will be the first Olympics since 1996 that we haven’t had the GOAT, the greatest of all time, Michael Phelps. He will be joining Dan Hicks and I in the booth on a lot of races. And I know he’s going to offer some incredible insight on especially those races that he has won so many gold medals in.

So excited about him being a part of the broadcast this year. Even without Michael, USA Swimming has been number one in the world of swimming for 65 straight years. The last time they were not the best country in the world in the sport was back in 1956, when Australia won the most medals and the most golds at the Melbourne Olympics.

This team will be no different. This will be a great team. It’s a young team. We have 11 teenagers on the U.S. team. So it’s going to be a young team. But a lot of those teenagers will be in the hunt for medals. No question about it. If you’re looking for big stars, like a Simone Biles, we have them on the U.S. side, obviously.

I know everybody is very well aware of Katie Ledecky, and in my opinion, just like Nastia said with Simone, the greatest female swimmer in history. I don’t think it’s even close. But she would certainly add to that legacy by winning a lot of medals in Tokyo.

She could be the first American woman in history in any sport to win 10 gold medals. And of course, she has to run the table in order to do that. But if anybody can, it’s Katie.

And then we have a bit of a Phelpsian-like swimmer in Caeleb Dressel, from the University of Florida, Gainesville, born and raised in Jacksonville. He has a chance to swim seven events, guaranteed to swim six events, and will probably be the favorite, I don’t want to jinx anybody here, but certainly be the favorite in five of them. And the sixth and seventh are certainly toss-ups, if he swims a seventh event, which is the 800 free relay. It’s not known yet. But I was with the U.S. team in Hawaii this past week and spent three days with them there. And he literally personally told me, I would love to be on the 800 free relay. That could certainly be a possibility.

A lot of other Olympians returned from 2016, gold medalist Lilly King, Ryan Murphy, Simone Manuel, Allison Schmitt, who won gold back in 2012. They join a lot of youngsters like Michael Andrew, who is going to swim five events, potentially.

And we just have a lot of really cool stories. It’s from Katie Grimes, who is 15 years old; she didn’t even have a cell phone when she made the team. They had to make sure she had a cell phone. To Lydia Jacoby, who is 17, the first swimmer and second Olympian in history to even be from Alaska. It’s cool; we’ve got great stories across the board. And, of course, there are some amazing international swimmers as well.

Q. Molly, what do you mean when you say we really believe the Tokyo Olympics will be the most meaningful Games of our lifetime? And I know obviously you don’t make the decision about whether to go forward with the Games, but NBC is obviously a big player. And what do you say to people that say going forward with the Games is a question of greed overcoming common sense?

MOLLY SOLOMON: When I talk about the most meaningful Games, you look at what brought the world together. We’re all emerging from this pandemic. And all of these athletes have been training a lifetime. And for so many of the athletes, the Olympics is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

So to have that dream deferred for another year, we really feel like, as a broadcaster of the Games, if there’s going to be an Olympic Games, we’ll be here to chronicle it.

We also are following the strict and rigorous pandemic protocols that the IOC and the Japanese government have put in place. So we’re fully confident that we can responsibly produce these Games.

Q. But you don’t feel that it’s, as some people say, that it’s greed overcoming common sense?

MOLLY SOLOMON: If there’s an Olympics Games that’s happening, as the American broadcast, we’re going to be here to chronicle the stories of the Games.

Q. You mentioned ambient noise that the broadcasters are putting forward at some of the events. And you said NBC isn’t doing its own crowd noise. What exactly is going to be happening there? I didn’t understand what that noise might be.

MOLLY SOLOMON: So right now the Olympic Broadcasting Service, OBS, the world feed provider, works with Sports Presentation in the venues. And so right now they are working to inject through the PA and create really an atmosphere for the athletes so they’re not competing without any crowd murmur or presence.

And we will track that, and you will hear that in the mix on television. But we are not going to layer on top of that swells of applause or anything like that. At the Olympics, there’s 339 distinct events, all of which have a really different cadence and pace, which makes it impossible to be authentic and reflect the spirit and sound of what’s happening now.

For example, Rowdy can elaborate on this, but in the breaststroke races, knowing that fans whistle during those races, we didn’t want to create an inauthentic experience. So instead we’ve pivoted to know that we’ve got access to all of these fields-of-play microphones. So, we really feel like we can enhance the sounds of the Games. But you will also hear any crowd presence that is actually being injected into the venue. You’ll hear it as the athletes hear it.

Q. Since you’ve been on the ground for a little bit and just covered lots of Olympics, what is the general feel with less press there and less presence? Is it kind of eerie? Give us a sense of how it is different, atmospheric-wise, this time around?

MOLLY SOLOMON: I think it’s difficult right now to say that because this early, this many days before a Games, you wouldn’t feel that much atmosphere because they’re still finishing up applying paint, they’re still putting up posters and things. So, the venues are still closed to public and athletes. So you really don’t get any sense this is any different from any other Olympics at the current time.

Q. What about packages that bring Tokyo to American viewers aside from the Games itself? NBC does a great job with feature packages and showing people the city. Are you going to be able to do that? Or do you do it in a different way?

MOLLY SOLOMON: That’s a really good question. Mary Carillo traveled to Tokyo two and half years ago. So we do have some profiles and sense of place that we will use. There’s also the Japanese baseball tradition, a terrific piece. There’s some pieces on Peacock that reflect Japan and the cultural ties to the United States. Those will all still be a part of it.

And I think how the U.S. audience will experience Japan and Tokyo, one of the world’s great modern cities, is through the Phoenix, is through these beautiful drones that we have going across the city. So you will still experience Tokyo and Japan. But as always, we do focus on the drama on the field. And that’s where our focus always is.

Q. Nastia, I’ve recently started covering gymnastics and I’m focusing on rhythmic gymnastics for my story. My question is do you think there’s a problem in that the conversation in the U.S. around gymnastics is always around artistic? Why don’t our rhythmic gymnasts get as much support as they do in Russia?

NASTIA LIUKIN: I guess just because of the interest level. My parents have two gyms in the Dallas area. And in Texas and in a lot of other states, it’s really just not as popular. And I’ve kind of actually felt the same way.

My mom was a rhythmic gymnast, competed, and was a world champion. It was — a lot of people have always asked me why I didn’t even consider rhythmic gymnastics. To be completely honest, I think literally just because the attention and the popularity of, when you say the word “gymnastics” you kind of think flips. So I think — I would love, I’m also commentating the rhythmic gymnastics, so I’d love to bring more awareness and also just make it become a little bit more popular.

But I think it having to do with the fact that when a little kid watches the Olympics and specifically watches gymnastics, they kind of watch artistic gymnastics. They look and they say, mom, dad, that’s exactly what I want to do. And for the most part it is flips.

And I think it’s mostly just popular kind of on each coast. So I know in California, and also in New York. But to be completely honest, I don’t exactly know why it is kind of on each coast that the popularity of it. But I’m kind of with you. I think bringing a little bit more awareness to a sport that is so beautiful would obviously be wonderful.

Q. What role do you think social media can play in raising awareness and rallying fans for rhythmic gymnastics?

NASTIA LIUKIN: It’s interesting because social media obviously has taken such a big part in the Olympics as a whole — the way that everybody watches it, the way that people consume whether it’s scores or results. Competing in the 2008 Olympics, not to outdate myself, but I didn’t even have an Instagram, which seems so crazy to live in a world without social media.

But I think, yeah, the more that people can talk about it and share, and like every Olympic sport, every single athlete that is competing in Tokyo, they put in the exact amount of hard work, effort, determination, dedication. Like, every single thing that you have to put into becoming an Olympian, like every single athlete in every sport puts that in. I think just being able to share more about it is something that can easily at least be spread among social media. But I’m also very excited to be covering it on NBC after we do finish artistic.

Q. I’m wondering about the look of the Opening Ceremony. Has it been decided how many athletes are going to be allowed to march? If that has been decided, how many, and have those athletes been identified for the United States? And how would the look of it, when people tune in at 6:55 AM ET next Friday, how would the look of it be compared to other Opening Ceremonies?

MOLLY SOLOMON: Well, they keep a lot of it secret, as you know. We haven’t had a preview of the creative or what it looks like. I would check in with the USOPC, because of the pandemic protocols, you’re only allowed into the Olympic village a certain number of days before an athlete competes. Therefore, there will be less athletes eligible for marching.

Usually the U.S. team is in the vicinity of 650. So I think there will be probably about 200 or so eligible to march, but traditionally swimmers or gymnasts also try to save their energy because they’re competing the next day.

I think it’s a good question for the USOPC to tell you how many athletes are going to march. But we’re confident that, with theatrical lighting and the creative and it’s in the evening here in Tokyo, there will be some really spectacular moments because this really is an amazing moment when the world truly comes together for the very first time as we begin to emerge from some really, really challenging times.

Q. Molly, what is the responsibility of NBC Sports when it comes to discussing Japan’s state of emergency and potential public health consequences of hosting this? Not necessarily talking about if anything happens during the Games, but certainly early on in the Games and prior to the Games, what is NBC’s responsibility in discussing those issues with the public?

MOLLY SOLOMON: I think you’ll see it in our very first broadcast in the Opening Ceremony in the evening and prime time. Lester Holt will set the stage and explain what exactly is happening, what is the state of emergency and what does that mean here locally and then how are the Olympics operating within that…

And I would say going on, I can also talk for the analysts as well, our policy and our coverage of news has always been, how does that impact the athletes, how does it impact the Games, how does it touch the Games going forward? So as news around any of these issues comes up, of course, we will cover it.

Q. For the analysts, particularly Rowdy and Ato, given how many Games you’ve covered, you’re obviously going to go and cover the sport, it’s what you do. You work for NBC, obviously the U.S. domestic rights holder. But do either of you — and Nastia, you, too — do you have any anxiety of heading into this environment? Because the reality is, at least health-wise, it will be unlike any other Olympics for anyone entering the country of the Olympics?

ROWDY GAINES: I’ll start real quick. I have zero anxiety. And I sincerely mean that, just because — and I have no knowledge of anything on the ground there — I know Molly’s reconfirmed everything’s going to be great, we’re looking forward to it and all that.

I can tell you that I worked for a Japanese company for seven years from 1989 to 1996. And I spent about six months a year in Japan during that time. So I’ve been to Japan probably at least 50 times. They are some of the most genuine, sweet, hardworking, dedicated people I’ve ever met on the planet.

And if anybody can pull this off and make sure that all the athletes are accounted for and everything is safe, it will be the Japanese people, the IOC, the JOC. So, I’m completely confident in my safety. I have no anxiety. I’ve gotten the vaccine, all that. So, I feel really good and I couldn’t be more excited to hit the ground.

ATO BOLDON: And from me, I can be as cynical as they come, but I remember when this country was plunged into mourning after 9/11. It was sports that helped to bring everybody back to normal.

If you know your history, you know that Japan is very good at overcoming adversity and, obviously, the polls indicate that not everybody is thrilled that the Games are coming. But I have no reservations and no anxiety, because I remember when we were going to London and they said, well, there could be terrorism. I remember when we were going to Rio and they said Zika could be a problem. I didn’t see a single mosquito in Brazil.

So I am not getting on this flight Sunday with anything other than, ‘okay, I know this is not going to be a typical Olympic Games,’ but I still feel like it has its purpose in not just the sporting landscape this year, but in the human landscape.

Q. Molly, considering the pandemic and all of the travel restrictions and obviously we’ve highlighted many of the U.S. athletes, of course over the years an integral part of coverage have been the international, up-close-and-personal features on athletes like Karsten Warholm and Federica Pellegrini that the U.S. audience doesn’t know too much about. Has NBC been able to shoot and produce any of these features? If not, how will you guys highlight some of these relatively unknown international athletes? And a brief question, any bells and whistles in regard to the golf coverage, whether it be from the world feed and obviously NBC’s embellishment? I know that’s very dear to your heart, the second international Olympic golf tournament over recent years.

MOLLY SOLOMON: That’s been really complicated. As you said, the heart of our coverage is the storytelling around not only American athletes, but international athletes. And when the world came to a stop and athletes really went into their homes and they closed down their training and access to it.

But I’m really proud of the team and how we’ve really pivoted. We’ve been working, for example, with a lot of the world broadcasters like the BBC and others in order to get the coverage and the profiles of the different international athletes. I’ll give you a couple of examples.

Luckily, we went down to Australia a couple of years ago. So, we have a really amazing piece on Ariarne Titmus that helps frame the USA-Australia swimming rivalry. We also found a way to get into Russia over the past two months because Nikita Nagornyy is a huge story that first weekend.

But really key to all this has been our partnership with other international broadcasters in order to tell the story of Dina Asher-Smith and how we could go safely and responsibly shoot in a park in London and get more information on her.

So I’m proud of the team on how we’ve pivoted, but we will have all of that, because as you know, it’s so much a part of the Olympics is the story of these athletes and also what they’ve overcome to get to this moment.

And then on the golf side, very excited about this parkland course. I was talking to Mike Tirico last night, who has visited out there. Because of the pandemic, I’ve not been out to the golf course, but I hear it’s in great shape, a terrific field. And we really saw golf resonate in 2016 when it returned to the Olympics. So very excited to see all of that coverage in a couple of weeks.

And when you look at the U.S. women’s team in golf, I think it’s a really formidable group. But you’ve got to say the fundamental favorites in golf are two of the Japanese entrants in Hideki Matsuyama and Nasa Hataoka. Can you imagine if they would win a gold medal here in golf? It would, going back to the international storylines, I just think there would be — there’s some amazing host-country stories here.

Q. Considering Japan’s love of golf and fantastic technological and digital enhancements, what about the technical side of the golf coverage, what can we expect?

MOLLY SOLOMON: It really does represent major championship coverage — shot tracer, it’s all of those elements that really bring to life golf tournaments. It’s what you would expect at a major championship.

Q. Molly, let’s talk Peacock. This is the new wrinkle with NBCUniversal’s coverage of the Olympic Games. The sense you get from Peacock executives, this has been building over the last year — Peacock started year two this month — is that this is going to be the ultimate viewing experience for the Olympics, calling up live, paid coverage highlights as much as you want. Less than five minutes of commercial time for maybe interactive ads. We can talk more about the products. And maybe interactive features where you can call up stats, medal counts and that kind of thing. How do you see Peacock in the firm? Is it going to be the ultimate consumer experience for the Olympics?

MOLLY SOLOMON: When we announced that Peacock was going to be seeing Olympics coverage time, it really was a producer’s dream. You have a blank canvas to say what are we not providing viewers and what can we do differently? How can we give them everything and anything?

And so if you’re a consumer of Peacock, there are so many different options, because in the mornings you’re going to have some of the most popular sports live, if you want to get up early and watch live women’s gymnastics. The second week you’ve also got live track & field. It’s going to serve the super fan. You can also go find U.S. men’s basketball games there as well.

But also, we wanted to have a curated experience for the viewers. So, we tapped into some amazing personalities to anchor those shows. I’ve always wanted to do the ultimate Olympic highlight show when the competition day ends. And so Rich Eisen will be hosting that. If you missed anything, you can go find that.

Similarly, in the evenings there’s a companion to primetime. And that’s going to be with Kenny Mayne, Cari Champion and Jac Collinsworth. As things are happening in primetime they’ll have quick turnaround highlights. They’re going to have interviews with athletes. You can get the best of both.

So we’ve really engineered Peacock to be everything for everyone.

Q. Is there any possibility for interactive features, let’s say calling up anytime you like on Peacock or through Peacock medal stats or highlights or athlete profiles or things like that?

MOLLY SOLOMON: You also have to look at it through the lens of our other apps. Because NBCOlympics.com actually has all of that. But you’ll also have quick turnaround highlights and be able to get a lot of that on Peacock. I would view it through the lens of both of them.

Q. Rowdy, how do you see the physical and the mental emotional competitive status of Simone Manuel going into the Olympics? And for Nastia, Simone Biles frequently gets, I think, perhaps, downgraded by some people because they do not see her as an artistic gymnast in the same sense that you were an artistic gymnast. Her response is she finds artistry in power. How would you gauge the artistry of Simone Biles in gymnastics?

NASTIA LIUKIN: As she said, there’s artistry in power. I think no gymnast, no person, should ever be defined by really any single thing, any single accomplishment, especially something like artistry.

I think in a sport like gymnastics, everything has always been because of just the way that the sport works and the scoring system, everything is pretty subjective. So, what one person might think as artistry, another person might disagree with.

But I think what Simone said is exactly right. That’s the beauty of the sport of gymnastics. You can be the best in the world and be the most powerful, run fast, jump high and be strong and win an Olympic gold medal, or you can be flexible and I guess, quote/unquote, more graceful and taller at possibly 5’2″ than the rest of your teammates and also win an Olympic gold medal. It’s subjective.

I think the word “artistry” in itself is subjective. So, I’m going to echo what Simone said there.

ROWDY GAINES: I’ll follow up with Simone Manuel, and I’ll say I was in Hawaii, as I said, last week, and got a chance to sit down with her for about a half hour, Dan and I did. She went through a tough time.

I think the pandemic certainly affected her. She admitted that. It was tough to watch that 100. You’re supposed to stay neutral, but I’ve always been a big believer in putting the very best people on our team and on the U.S. team.

And I think Simone represents the very best in the water but more so out of the water. And I think nothing is more evident with that than her being elected team captain of the U.S. Olympic swim team.

So I think — I talked to her about this — I think it’s almost a blessing in disguise because now she can just concentrate on the 50. She’s going to be right there in the 50 freestyle. She won the silver in ’16. She’s going to be right there. She doesn’t have to worry about the 100 freestyle. She can concentrate on the relays. I think she’s going to swim a lot of relays. I was talking to the coach — of course they’re not going to play their hand now — but she’s been looking so good in the water in Hawaii.

I wouldn’t be surprised if she showed up on that first day in the 400 free relay and even the medley relays, mixed medley, the women’s medley, the 800 free relay, there’s a lot of relays they could plug in and put Simone in. I think Team USA is in great shape having Simone Manuel be on board.

Q. Question for Rowdy, I think there were nine former Georgia swimmers in these Olympic Games, wondered which in your mind has the best chance to win gold or medal? And if you could speak to the influence that Jack Bauerle, who is the U.S.A. assistant this year, has made in turning out Olympic swimmers throughout the years?

ROWDY GAINES: First of all, Jack is a very dear friend and literally is one of the incredible legends of our sport worldwide. If there’s a Mount Rushmore of coaches, I’m pretty much going to put Jack on there because he’s been that kind of coach over the years.

He’s been a head coach of the Olympic team, now assistant obviously. He has a lot of swimmers on the team and it’s really hard to pick one to say, oh, my gosh, they’re going to beat — this man or woman is going to be on the medal stand.

Again, back to Hawaii, it was great because we got to be on the deck the whole time and watch a lot of the practices. I really liked the way Nic Fink looked. Nic Fink is going to be flying under the radar because the U.S. is not predicted to win a medal in the 200 breaststroke. And I think he’s got a great shot because he’s just looking better and better as the camp has come along.

And this is his first Olympics. This would be something that he could really step up. And I think she’s only swimming the relay, but Natalie Hinds, amazing story. Swam for Florida but swims for Jack at Georgia now. Took two years off. Was completely out of the water. Started swimming masters, pretty much had to beg Jack to even get on the team to be able to swim at Georgia. And I think she, along with Olivia Smoliga, have a chance to medal in that 400 relay. And there are others, of course, but those are certainly ones I’m going to be looking for.

MOLLY SOLOMON: Thanks, everyone. When I listen to these guys talking about their sport, it gets me pumped up to everything that’s to come. Reflecting back on where we are in the world and what’s happening, I really believe that people are craving a shared experience.

After all we’ve endured, what better way to come together than through the stories of the athletes that show us what’s possible.

I think about the Olympics as your next-door neighbor goes to the Olympics, you watch greatness emerge. And all of us at NBC really feel privileged to be able to bring these once-in-a-lifetime moments and these incredible stories of perseverance and resilience of these athletes and the world’s athletes to the American audience.

We can’t wait to get started and we will not only see you for the softball and soccer early next week, but for the Opening Ceremony. Don’t forget we’ll have it in the morning live and again in prime time when more of the audience can watch.

But we’re thrilled to be here and excited to welcome Ato, Nastia, Rowdy over here soon. For those traveling, safe travels. Thank you for your interest.

TRANSCRIPT – 2021 STANLEY CUP FINAL CONFERENCE CALL

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THE MODERATOR: Thank you for joining our NBC Sports 2021 Stanley Cup Final media conference call. We’ll be joined by our NHL on NBC commentators Kenny Albert, Brian Boucher and Keith Jones, as well as our coordinating producer, John McGuinness.

It is certainly a unique season, a condensed schedule, but I think one thing that’s stayed consistent that we all agree upon is the quality of the play on the ice that we’ve seen, especially through these playoffs. And we’ve been proud to bring it all to you on the networks of NBC.

To that point, we’ll start with brief remarks from our speakers.

JOHN MCGUINNESS: Even though it’s our final season, we’re very psyched about the playoffs and the Stanley Cup Final. From our very first year when we took over, we try to do our best and we think we’ve really pushed the production of the game forward.

We’re going to finish up strong here in our final hurrah, as it would be, and we look forward to a seven-game series.

KENNY ALBERT: It was great to get underway last night here in Tampa. I think it was a closer game than the final score indicated, 2-1 in the third period before the Lightning scored the three late goals. I think Tampa is such a well-rounded team, not just the high-flying Lightning of four or five years ago. They really changed their identity following the loss to Columbus in 2019.

Then with Montreal, there’s been something magical similar to their run in the Cup Final in ’93. And just to piggyback off what John McGuinness just touched on, I just wanted to say, and obviously we’re a little bit biased, but I think NBC has done such a remarkable job over the last 15 years presenting this game to a U.S. audience, over 100 games per year.

The Vin Scully of hockey is Doc Emrick, the best analyst out there. The advent of the Winter Classic and Stadium Series Games, which NBC was such a big part of, which has meant so much to the league and the teams over the last 10 or 12 years. And also the introduction of the Inside the Glass position 15 years ago with Pierre initially.

I think that’s really, when you think about it, that’s led to about 50 jobs around the league. Every team has either a former player or a reporter inside the glass, the Canadian networks as well.

I think when the history books are written on the NBC era with the NHL over the last 15 years, the entire network has so much to be proud of.

BRIAN BOUCHER: Well said. I’m one of the beneficiaries of those 50 jobs with the Inside the Glass position being introduced by NBC. So I’m certainly grateful for that.

And I agree with you — I think NBC has done a fantastic job over this time where they have the broadcasting rights and I’ve been extremely proud to be a part of this team since retiring.

You touched on a lot of the good stuff there, Kenny. What stands out to me in this series as well as the introduction of some younger guys in the playoffs and a chance for them to kind of shine and show who they are, and I think for Montreal last night, I think we saw a little bit of nerves from some of the young guys, although (Nick) Suzuki and (Jesperi) Kotkaniemi did terrific last year in the bubble.

When you get to the Final, it’s a whole new ball game. And their first stab at the Stanley Cup Final maybe didn’t go the way they wanted, but certainly some talent in Montreal’s lineup with guys like Suzuki, (Cole) Caufield, Kotkaniemi, so looking forward to them bouncing back in Game 2.

And also when I think about this series, this is really the first goaltending matchup in over maybe six, seven years where we got two guys that I think we’re going to see in the Hockey Hall of Fame going against one another.

And for two periods it looked like it was settling into what could have been a terrific goalie matchup, if not for the Tampa Bay Lightning opening it up in the third period. But I think it’s going to be a great goalie matchup. I’m looking forward to how it plays out.

I’m sure Montreal isn’t happy with Game 1, but I’m sure they’ll make adjustments to their game. I’m sure they’ll be a lot more comfortable in Game 2. And if they can get out of Tampa with a split, I think that’s all they were looking for when they came down here to begin with. Looking forward to a great series. Thank you.

KEITH JONES: I guess there’s two things that really stand out to me about this series. Number one is as a kid I always enjoyed greatness watching teams like the New York Islanders and their Stanley Cup championship teams, the Edmonton Oilers after that. The Colorado Avalanche, the Detroit Red Wings. And Tampa is one of those teams that’s looking like they’re similar in many ways.

They’re great. And I think we all enjoy watching teams that are extremely well put together and have star talent that have a chance to win multiple Stanley Cups. So I think a lot of fans like watching Tampa perform.

And also I look back at being a young person watching hockey and I always loved the underdog as well. And the Montreal Canadiens are every bit of that. They’ve been since the playoffs started. They’ve become a terrific story. And they’ve got Tampa right where they want them.

Tampa is heavily favored after that first game. And that’s right where the Canadiens like to be. I think it will make for an intriguing race to the finish.

I echo John McGuinness’ thoughts; looks like this one could go seven, even though Tampa performed extremely well. And by the end of the game a lopsided victory by score, but as Kenny Albert said, it was a lot closer game than that.

So that’s what I’ve got on the series so far. I’m looking forward to the rest of it.

This is for John. Could you explain exactly what the restrictions are going to be like for your crew in Montreal and exactly what the protocols are going to be?

JOHN MCGUINNESS: Sure. The Canadian government, as you probably know, is very restrictive on who can come in and out of the country. And we are sending our announce team up there along with most of our camera crew and a production truck on site.

And we’ll be taking that feed with our announcers back to Tampa, actually, in our truck there. And the producer and director will be down in Tampa communicating with the announcers.

There’s a lot of red tape that our announcers have to go through. There’s quarantining. They can talk about it. But even in Tampa, they’re not allowed out of their hotel rooms.

The only places they can go to are the arena and their hotel room. And to put all of our crew through that was just logistically going to be a nightmare for us, to be honest with you. So that’s our plan going into the Finals.

How many people will you have in Montreal total?

JOHN MCGUINNESS: Nearly 35 people will be a part of our production in Montreal.

First question I’ve got for John and then Brian. John, when you look at obviously this being NBC’s final Stanley Cup Final under this current deal before it moves on to another network, I wanted from your perspective, when you look at the legacy of what NBC did, Kenny touched on it — from your perspective just what some of the things that NBC did that, with hockey coverage, that you think you’ll continue to see those fingerprints moving forward. Brian, you talked about Inside the Glass role. Could you expand on that, too? See how that’s evolved over the years.

JOHN MCGUINNESS: First, I think the credit has to go to Sam Flood, our executive producer, who is a hockey player. He used to play at Williams College. I don’t know if he was any good or not. If you talk to him, he’ll give you a good tale about it.

He came up with the Inside the Glass position, so full credit goes to him for that. As Bouch and Kenny said, that’s really opened up the game. We’ve heard some great things in between the benches and some firsthand information down there.

The Winter Classic, I think, is another example of us working together with the league from our programming department, the outdoor game stadium series, the All-Star Game, where it’s now gone to a 3-on-3 format as opposed to kind of a shootout that nobody — sort of lost its luster a little bit. I think that kind of added some oomph to it.

So I think those would probably be the major things. We have also covered every playoff game with our announcers. We had an all-female crew production and announcers do a game recently. I’m very proud of that.

There’s a lot of things that we did sort of behind the scenes, just with different camera angles and replays and super slow-mos and X-mos and trying to use the technology as much as we could. We had drones out at the outdoor game in Lake Tahoe.

Personally, I wish ESPN and Turner success. And hopefully they’ll push the envelope even further and make the games more enjoyable.

BRIAN BOUCHER: I think your question was how has it evolved. When this position was first introduced, I was still playing. And then I come in, I’ve been doing it now for six years.

It’s a unique area to watch the game and try to analyze from. There are times when you miss things. It’s fast down at ice level. And you can’t pretend that you see everything.

I think you certainly see the game a lot better from upstairs with regards to how plays develop and whatnot. But you also get a different feel down at ice level for the temperature of the game, the speed of the game. And as John mentioned, sometimes you hear things that you would not hear when you’re upstairs.

And I think it’s just great to be part of a three-person broadcast in the sense that you get the perspective from upstairs, but you also get a different perspective downstairs and maybe the angles where there’s traffic in front of the net or the angle coming down my side of the ice that I see, that the goalie would see and that the benches see. I think those are valuable things to highlight. I think it’s benefited the broadcast in my opinion.

As I said, Kenny mentioned it, it added 50 jobs. I’m one of those guys that it added a job to. So I’m very grateful to be able to do it.

A question about the Lightning and specifically about breaking down the (Brayden) Point line against the Suzuki-Caufield-Toffoli line. What can that line do differently, what does that line need to do differently in this series to kind of, obviously, win that matchup or at least tolerate that matchup?

KEITH JONES: It’s going to be a huge challenge. Experience, obviously, is the advantage that the Point line has. And talent is also at the top of the chart. So the mixture on that line of (Ondrej) Palat with his physicality and his ability to win puck battles makes it challenging to try to slow them down. He’s going to be able to retrieve pucks if they do turn them over. The creativity of (Nikita) Kucherov drives some of the best veteran checking players in the league nuts. So that’s going to be a challenge.

And Brayden Point simply does it all and he does it at a high rate of speed, not just with quickness but he’s really fast also. And so are his hands.

So a lot of what we’re going to see from Cole Caufield in the next five years are things that Brayden Point excels at right now and has the experience to be able to know how to get it done at the biggest moments.

Looks like Caufield is going to have that type of career but it’s a big ask for him right now to face up against that line.

If I was Montreal, I would look to try to get away from that matchup. It’s a lot more difficult on the road. But for Luke Richardson, that will be one of the challenges for him, trying to get the nose line out there against Point line as much as possible and try to disrupt Tampa’s top line, which has been very difficult for every other opponent so far in the playoffs.

As for Suzuki, he’s an extremely intelligent hockey player. I think that’s going to benefit him in that type of matchup, but he’ll be asked to play in his own end an awful lot.

I think it’s obviously an advantage for Tampa. And it’s something, if I was Montreal, I would try to do some quick changes. I would try to avoid that matchup as much as possible.

BRIAN BOUCHER: The only thing I would add to that is maybe Richardson could get creative, too, and maybe mix up the centers. So maybe Suzuki goes with Gallagher and Lehkonen, and you put Danault with Toffoli in certain situations in case you get stuck. At least you have Danault out there to kind of help out. That could be another way that you do it. Or otherwise you just quick change as fast as possible.

But if you start doing that then you get out of the flow of the game too. It will be interesting to see how Richardson handles it. There’s a problem here in Tampa no doubt about it. It’s not going to get better really until they get to Montreal.

Maybe if it comes down to that, it’s about digging in. The guys will have to make sure they manage the puck better than they did because it led to offense for Tampa.

For Kenny and Keith what will you remember most about the NBC’s coverage of the NHL? And is there a specific moment or two, maybe it’s a game or series, that stands out and why?

KENNY ALBERT: To me I’ve been affiliated with NBC since the 2002 Winter Olympics. Worked the last five calling ice hockey at the Olympics…I guess my biggest memories, a couple. As far as things I would remember is women’s gold medal game in Pyeongchang in 2018…it was a remarkable moment to be part of.

I actually was in the building for the Crosby overtime goal and T.J. Oshie shootout against Russia. I wasn’t working those games, but I did have the opportunity to attend.

As far as the NHL being involved, I’ve been a part of NBC Sports’ coverage deep into the playoffs through the Conference Final over the last eight years — the LA-Chicago game in 2014, which went to Game 7 in overtime, in the Western Conference Final. For me personally, as far as games that I called, that’s certainly, probably the greatest memory on the NHL side. Also working Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final that year in LA when “Doc” Emrick had a personal family issue to attend to.

But also being involved in the outdoor game last year in Colorado Springs and many of these All-Star weekends as well and obviously the Stanley Cup Final this year. So from a personal standpoint, those would be the biggest moments.

But from the outside, games I was not involved in, watching all the Winter Classic games and the Stadium Series Games and Stanley Cup Final games through the years, called by Doc and Eddie and Pierre and Bouch and Jonesy. So many wonderful memories both in person and watching on television over the last 15 years.

KEITH JONES: I would add to what Kenny was saying, I think some of my fondest memories are when we would travel to the Stanley Cup Final and have the studio on-site, something we missed the last couple of seasons, unfortunately. But that’s really what brought everyone together, both game broadcasters and studio broadcasters. And not just from NBC but from around the NHL. That was always a highlight for me.

And I think of some of the seven-game Stanley Cup Finals series that we were lucky enough to be at. The one that stands out for me was the 2011 Boston Bruins seven-game series against the Vancouver Canucks, and the Bruins winning that on the road in Vancouver and all the craziness that followed after that.

It was such an intense series that had so many different twists and turns. And looked like Vancouver was going to sweep them after they won the first two games and Boston dug in deep. And Tim Thomas came up with an incredible performance.

The Boston Bruins kind of willed their way to victory. That is one of the things that really stands out to me.

The other one was the run that the LA Kings made to win their first Stanley Cup in 2012. And I think they were the eighth seed when the playoffs started. And by the time they won the Stanley Cup they looked like they were the best team in the NHL. It did not look like a fluke by any means. They just caught fire at the right time. Everything came together. And they would win another Stanley Cup a couple of years later.

So it’s always been about the big events, the big moments. And nothing has been greater than attending a Stanley Cup Final and doing live studio shows with all the great fans of the NHL around.

KENNY ALBERT: You think of the three consecutive years in Nashville, Vegas and St. Louis, when those three teams went on crazy runs — Nashville in 2017, Vegas in ’18 and then St. Louis in ’19 — just the passion of the fans in those cities and the great job that NBC did, Jonesy mentioned the studio show traveling during the Final. Some of those shows outdoors, outside the arena in Nashville with thousands of fans on the streets by Broadway. And then Vegas in their first season outside the arena and St. Louis.

And the NBC cameras and production folks were able to convey the excitement in those cities to the viewers watching at home. So I think that’s something that I’ll remember.

And then again from a personal standpoint, and Bouch was there and Pierre and Eddie, the bubble last year in Edmonton. Many of us were in either Toronto or Edmonton or both for 30, 40, 50, 60 days.

And it was such a unique experience to be part of with no fans in the building, all inside the bubble. I called around 30 games. I think Bouch probably did around 50 between the two cities, Toronto and Edmonton. We called two games in a day, we called three games in a day. Bouch had the five-overtime game involving Columbus and Tampa.

When I think back — I almost forgot to mention the bubble, but for those of us who were there, it was such a unique experience calling games in the empty arena and being among the few to be a small part of it in person last year in Toronto and Edmonton.

Keith, you mentioned about how captivating these storylines are in this matchup. Wonder if you could speak to just what we’re watching here in terms of the postseason that Nikita Kucherov is having, coming off missing the entire regular season, leading everyone in points, and getting hurt in Game 6 and coming out and doing what he did last night in Game 1?

KEITH JONES: I would say we’re witnessing some incredible performances from Kucherov. And I think it’s at a time when a lot is made of superstar players not being around when the biggest games are happening, including the Stanley Cup Final.

It’s pretty remarkable that Kucherov has gone through missing an entire regular season and has battled through the issues that would come with being in game condition to get to this point in the playoffs where he’s taking hacks and whacks every night.

He’s targeted on a nightly basis and he still finds a way to not just produce, but produce at an extremely high rate. It’s been phenomenal to watch. And the way he snaps the puck around, whether he’s passing it or shooting it, is kind of Patrick Kane-like to me. And Patrick Kane is the only other player that I can think of that missed an extended period of time prior to the playoffs.

I think he injured his collarbone going back a number of years ago and arrived just in time for the playoffs and helped the Chicago Blackhawks go on to win a Stanley Cup.

I think we’re witnessing something very similar and equally as remarkable in what Kucherov is doing. And I don’t think anyone should underestimate just how difficult that is to go through what he’s been through and perform the way he has been. It’s been a joy to watch.

Keith, you touched on greatness earlier in your intro. If Tampa wins the Cup this year, with the type of roster they have and the young talent they have, do you think they have the makings of a team that can stay at the top and compete for a Cup for the next handful of years?

KEITH JONES: Without question. The way they’ve managed their cap. I know this year was a little unique with Kucherov being unavailable. But the fact that their star players have taken team-friendly long-term contracts gives me hope that we have the real possibility of talking about a dynasty-type team.

And that seems remarkable under the cap restrictive systems that we see in pro sports, to think that we might have a chance to see a team win multiple Stanley Cups is really impressive.

It’s something really to get behind and to enjoy watching, not just if you’re a fan of the Tampa Bay Lightning, but a fan of the sport of hockey and a fan of watching greatness.

And I think back to other sports, including basketball, and I wasn’t necessarily a huge fan, but I became one when I watched Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls do what they did.

And I think that attracts casual fans to watch a sport that otherwise they may not be watching. So I think we’re lucky. I think we’re lucky to have a team like Tampa and Montreal will do everything they can to try to keep them from winning consecutive Cups. But I think we could be talking about a team that’s right back here next year and we’ll be having the same conversation. They’re that good; they’re that deep; they’re that well-managed under Steve Yzerman and Julien BriseBois.

John, is there anything in particular you guys are adding from a production element standpoint just for the Final, be it cameras, graphics or audio elements?

JOHN MCGUINNESS: Not really, no. We’re coming in with what we did last season and the season before that in terms of the number of cameras. We certainly haven’t cut anything.

In my opening remarks I was trying to stress that we are going to put out a first-class product through the final shift of the game. And that’s been Sam Flood and my edict since the beginning of the playoffs. And so far so good and we’re just going to keep hammering it.

From an operations production standpoint, how have the playoffs gone for you guys so far up to last night, up to this point, what are some highlights and things that you’re really proud of?

JOHN MCGUINNESS: Operationally, it’s gone very well. The difficulty this year or the challenge this year was the games have been up in Canada and Montreal, having to take a feed from the host broadcaster, but we’ve been doing that for the last couple of seasons, and supplementing that with our announcers on-site. So that was a bit of a challenge, but we got through that.

Overall, we’re very happy with the way the playoffs have gone so far. We’re looking forward to a long series here.

Obviously Canada was guaranteed a team in the final four this year. Now it’s down to the final two. How important do you think it is for this sport for Canadian hockey fans to finally have a team back in the Finals, particularly a team with this pedigree?

KEITH JONES: Yeah, it matters a lot. It’s been a struggle for them to get back into position. I think Vancouver was there in 2011 and looked like they had a really legitimate chance to win.

And the Montreal Canadiens are a team that’s not only popular in Montreal, but there’s a lot of Canadien fans scattered throughout the country of Canada.

I think that’s been a really rallying cry for them. I think it’s a really important franchise, similar to the New York Yankees in baseball. And I think that there is a gigantic amount of interest in watching them play, and not just because they’re Montreal, but because they’re an underdog that’s made an incredible run to get to the Stanley Cup Final and have continued to show that they’re an extremely resilient team.

And you can be sure that Tampa is not taking them for granted here going into Game 2. But they’re a great story. And they have some great veteran players that you have to cheer for, including Shea Weber and Carey Price. Add in Corey Perry and Eric Staal and you have a nice mixture of some guys that have had outstanding NHL careers. The last two guys I just mentioned have won Cups previously, but it’s been a long time between those championships for them. And Weber and Price are both searching for their first.

So it would be an awesome thing if they could find a way to rally back in this series and knock off another team that’s heavily favored in the Tampa Bay Lightning. I think the whole entire country of Canada is enjoying watching them go at it here and also under the circumstances, where a lot of Canadians are still not able to go about doing their things like we are here in the states, I think it’s that much more important that Montreal has given them a lot to cheer about and things to look forward to and things to watch on television when they get some time to do that.

TRANSCRIPT – 2021 NASCAR MEDIA CONFERENCE CALL

By

Tuesday, June 15, 2021

Rick Allen

Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Jeff Burton

Steve Letarte

Sam Flood

THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you so much for joining us for the NBC Sports NASCAR media conference call as NBC Sports takes over the remainder of the 2021 NASCAR season beginning this weekend with the series return to Nashville.

In just a moment we’ll be joined by our lead NASCAR team of Rick Allen, Jeff Burton, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Steve Letarte, as well as by NBC Sports executive producer Sam Flood.

Let’s begin our call with opening remarks from Sam Flood.

SAM FLOOD: Thank you all for joining us today. We’re really excited to get this season started. It just feels like in the last month, the world is coming back to the way it needs to be with fans in the stands and the energy of live sporting events with people at the venues.

Having been to the Kentucky Derby and the Indy 500 for our shows over the last month or so, it really felt right. It felt like life was back to the way we want it to be, and for this NASCAR and NBC Sports team to be able to engage with the crowd at the racetrack, to be at the track, to be at the place these four guys and the rest of the team love more than anything else in the world is being at the racetrack, and we saw last year how special it was when they got back to the track for the last five or six races of the season and the engagement, being around the sights, the sounds, the smells, the energy of a NASCAR race. It made it special, and it’s even more special and more important now that the fans are back in the stands. It just turns a race into an event, and we love events, and no one makes big events bigger than NBC Sports and the team we have here.

This very first opening weekend in Nashville, to think that Brad Paisley and Dale Earnhardt Jr. are going to be hosting this pre-race show from an amazing venue back where it’s all going on in Nashville, a place that should have racing, and it’s finally back where it belongs in Nashville.

This group is ready to roll. The team on pit road, can’t wait to get going, pre-race show, across the board. Big time, big energy, big event, leaning into Nashville, leaning into the start of our half of the season.

Our hats go off to our friends at FOX; what a great job they did getting the first half of the season going. They had a spectacular season. The numbers looked very good. The ratings were where we like to see them heading in a positive upward direction. So we’re ready to take that mantle, carry it to the finish line, finish off this regular season and lead into the playoffs.

We can’t wait to get going. Rick, I’ll pass it off to you. Have some fun.

RICK ALLEN: Thanks, Sam. To echo what Sam was saying, a capacity crowd expected at Nashville Superspeedway. We feed off that, the crowd, the electricity, just the excitement that these events bring, and like he said, FOX I think has done a wonderful job. They’ve touted it as the best season ever.

We’re picking off where one driver has incredible momentum, Kyle Larson, what a story he has to tell from being suspended a year ago to now being the favorite for a championship. He’s really hot right now.

We’re excited to pick this up, excited about coming back to Nashville. It’s been 37 years since the Cup Series has raced there. The likes of Petty and Pearson and Waltrip were the big names when the Cup Series was there. Now you’ve got Larson and Hamlin and Harvick and Busch and all these other superstar names that want to make a name for themselves in Nashville, in Music City USA.

We’re really fired up to get going. As a team we have been chatting and texting and talking every single race throughout the entire season. We have a great line of communication that we’re able to just enjoy these races all throughout the first 16 races, and now we get to enjoy them shoulder to shoulder, side by side, in the booth and call and do what we love to do, and that’s watching NASCAR racing and enjoying it with the fans.

It’s going to be a lot of fun. I’m going to hand off now to Jeff Burton, the Mayor.

JEFF BURTON: Hey, everybody. I think the word “excitement” may be overused today, but that’s okay because that’s how we all feel, not only to get back to the racetrack but to do it with friends, we all get along just unbelievably well, have a great time doing this together. That energy that comes from the fans that Sam and Rick just talked about, that’s real.

Going to races where we didn’t have fans, oh, my gosh, I so appreciate it now more than ever, that energy, that excitement, that enthusiasm they bring.

This town is ready for it. I was there a month ago or so doing a shoot with Mario Andretti, and the people in that town are fired up about this race, and that makes me fired up even more.

On track I’ve got to tell you, I think the drivers and the teams, they have been bringing it. It has been a really good year, a lot of on-track excitement. Clearly Kyle Larson has taken charge at this point in the year, but we know that that doesn’t always just go like that. Who can knock him off? Who can go and take that away from him? That’s going to be fun to watch.

It’s been a great year. I don’t see any reason why that’s not going to continue.

Our first race is a track that many of these drivers haven’t run on. Some drivers have in the Xfinity Series and in trucks. A lot of unknowns going into this weekend, and really in our first half of our year where we’ve got 10 races before the playoffs, there’s a lot of interesting racetracks coming up, and that uncertainty only adds to the pressure of the playoffs. That makes our broadcasts that much more fun, makes it more difficult on the teams, and as race fans and as sports fans, we all know the more difficult it is on the teams, the more fun it is to watch.

Can’t wait to get there this weekend, have a great time, feel that energy from the fans, and Jr., I’m going to turn it over to you.

DALE EARNHARDT JR.: I’m looking forward to getting back on the road and being back at a racetrack. When you go for a good period of time without being at a track and you come back and drive in and you hear cars running and carrying on, it feels like home, and you kind of remember — you have all these great memories that come rushing back, and you just get excited about what you’re going to see when the green flag drops.

It’s something that I need in my life, and lucky for me, I get to work with a great group of people that love to talk about racing and enjoy the same thing for the same reasons.

Yeah, it’s just a lot of fun to be able to go to the track and be a part of this broadcast. We’ve got an amazing season that’s starting to unfold. It’s kind of a good challenge and a unique challenge to pick the season up when we do. A lot of the playoff conversations are going to start happening — who can maintain not only the momentum that they have and the teams that are winning, but also where that cutoff is and who might make or miss the playoffs? All that stuff starts to really become part of the conversation. A lot of storylines start to really develop.

It’s a really fun part of the year as we close in on the playoffs. The playoffs have really brought a lot of good excitement and drama. They’ve delivered every year, and from a fan’s perspective, I guess I’m a broadcaster but I’m really just a fan to be honest with you. From a fan’s perspective, it’s been a great run here for the last several years, and we’ve got a lot of great momentum in the sport and a lot of energy in the sport. I’m excited to see how the season turns out.

Like Jeff said, we have teams that are really dominant right now, but I’ve seen this before. We see it time and time again, where there’s sort of an organization who comes out of the box strong and they have a great regular season, but then there’s someone that jumps out — comes out of nowhere and surprises — there’s a turning of the tide a little bit when the playoffs happen, and there’s a lot of reasons for that, and it’s a little bit different each year.

Some of these teams are going to change their performance a little bit and improve and bring the fight to HMS. I don’t think this is going to be an easy cakewalk for them in terms of crowning a champion in that organization like they did last year with Chase Elliott.

It’s absolutely theirs to lose, but I believe that they’re going to have plenty of competition when it comes down to it.

I’m going to pass it on to my favorite crew chief and broadcasting buddy, Steve Letarte.

STEVE LETARTE: Appreciate it, Jr. It’s been an amazing six months. I was able to be a part of the Rolex broadcast and I was able to go to Indianapolis and see my first ever Indy 500 in person, and those were both breathtaking events. There’s nothing like kind of returning home to your NASCAR family.

As you guys the three boothmates, have mentioned, we communicate and talk about racing all the time, but there’s nothing like standing above a full grandstand full of people covering the races live. I’m looking forward to that.

I would lie if I wasn’t — I really look forward to walking in the Xfinity garage on Friday and the Cup garage on Saturday. That’s a part that was taken from us through this crazy pandemic, and it’s the part of my job that I probably love the most. I appreciate the competitors’ commitment to Zooms, but I can’t wait to lean on a set of tires and see the competitors face to face and discuss their challenges, their opportunities and their approach to the weekend and then convey those storylines to the fans.

We’re also blessed to have a great summer schedule. I’ve been to Nashville Superspeedway many times. Never seen a race there in person. I’ll get to see Road America for the first time and I get to go to Indianapolis for the first time and see cars on the road course. Last year we covered that one remotely, so it’ll be good to be there.

These guys cover the storylines on the track. I think we’re very lucky to have not just storylines on the track, but like I mentioned, the track and the schedule itself is another storyline all in itself. We have a little sprint here to an Olympic break, and then when we get back from the Olympics the heat will be turned on completely for the NASCAR playoffs on who’s going to make it. And with already 11 different winners and some huge names yet to win, Harvick and Hamlin come to mind, I think that that playoff leaderboard is only going to continue to get tighter, and as the pressure increases, the entertainment increases.

It’s been a lot of fun to watch, but watching is a little bit of fun. It’s a lot more fun to cover, so I can’t wait to get there in person and do it again this weekend.

Dale, I think you’ve been heavy in the promotion for the Cup race and you’re part of the group on the INDYCAR race. Nashville is really hot right now. Everybody is talking about racing in Nashville again. I’m wondering why you think that the Nashville market will work for all this racing, and then there’s talk of the Fairgrounds, as well. How does the speedway differentiate itself from all this other racing talk and activity going on in the city?

DALE EARNHARDT JR.: Well, it’s such a unique track compared to the Fairgrounds and obviously the street course for the INDYCAR. I think the way that — physically they’re all different. They’re all going to provide a different type of entertainment, a different style of race, and I think that the town is big — there’s enough energy and enough entertainment to go around for everybody.

You know, I think a rising tide lifts all boats kind of thing, and the success from each event is a plus for the rest of them. They each can learn off each other and play off each other, and so I don’t see how it can’t work.

I think it is pretty interesting how all this — everybody is going to Nashville. Yeah, INDYCAR and NASCAR, everybody is kind of coming to Nashville and focusing on Nashville, honing in on Nashville as a place to be. I think it’s a long time coming to be honest with you. It should have happened years and years ago.

Nashville is a great fit. The town does have a lot of energy. When we were doing the Burnout on the Boulevard, that was a moment for me, I was upstairs in one of those buildings looking out the window watching all that happen, and it was clear as day that this was a great relationship and a great partnership with NASCAR and the city of Nashville. It just felt normal. It didn’t even feel new. It felt like an old friend and a buddy you hadn’t hung out with in a long, long time. I like it a lot, and I love the fact that we’re celebrating our champion there.

Vegas was a great time, New York was a great time. Very long way to go, but still a lot of fun any time you can get to Vegas. But Nashville for me can provide and be that same experience to where we feel like the crowning of the champion is the most important day in the sport in my opinion — where we celebrate the year and we acknowledge all of the things that happened in our sport in that one night.

I think that the fit for the city is a good one, and we need to be racing there. We need to have our product there. So now that’s happening. All of this seems to be coming full circle. It all makes sense to me.

I think it’ll be fun to see how it all works together. Like you say, with INDYCAR and NASCAR both trying to get into Nashville and make things happen, I think it’ll be fun to see how they might work together to make things better for everybody.

Just to be clear, you’re talking about the burnouts during the awards ceremony, you watched those from up in a building?

DALE EARNHARDT JR.: Yes.

My question is for Steve Letarte on the crew chief side. Of course you have Daytona and Talladega coming up on the schedule and just earlier this month there was the announcement that NASCAR is going to implement new safety precautions for the superspeedway, including they’ll reduce the whole spaces in the tapered spacer as well as the wicker on the spoiler being removed and the additional roof bar being mandatory, this of course coming after Joey Logano’s scary crash. I was curious, when fans watch Daytona and Talladega on NBC, what effect do you think this will have on the races and what do you think fans can expect when they watch the superspeedways?

STEVE LETARTE: So when we talk about the safety improvements to the race car, a bar was added to the car. I don’t think the fans will be able to see that. They’ll have no idea. It’s just continuing the improvement towards the safest product possible. NASCAR has done that for years and decades and they’re just continuing.

There has been an adjustment to the power, to the speed, and I will be a hundred percent honest, I’m not sure from the grandstands or on TV you’re going to see the difference in the six or eight miles an hour that it may slow them down. I think the aggression from the pack and from the second-place driver will be just as high. I think the leader will have to work just as hard to try to protect that lead.

It’s a small adjustment that’s needed just for safety. The physics of a car getting airborne has a lot to do with the speed when it turns backwards and sideways, and NASCAR obviously felt like they needed to make an adjustment, but I honestly think that the product on track is going to be just as exciting as it has looked. The plate races recently have been a great balance of aggression and strategy, and I think that’s continuing — that’s got to continue.

I will say Daytona we learned a year ago as the cutoff to the regular season has a completely different feel than I ever remember the night race at Daytona in the summer having. That last-ditch effort for everyone to find a seat at the table when the playoffs start a week later I think has a completely different energy to it. There’s a new level of desperation, and then as you go into the playoffs and you see Talladega, it’s kind of the same way. It has a different feel than the spring race at Talladega because of what’s on the line.

There are some big names protecting their playoff positions and other people looking for that win needed to continue.

I think that’s the beauty of the two speedway races you’re going to see on NBC is their position within the schedule. I think to end the regular season is great, and then being placed where it is in the playoffs, it makes Talladega even more vital.

Steve, you were saying on Nate’s podcast, don’t worry about any of the data from all those test sessions back eight or ten years ago, but Chase Briscoe did say that he watched some video before he went and did the tire test there and he felt like it helped him some. I’m kind of curious, do you feel like these races will be anything the same from what we saw in Xfinity and trucks in the past? Or do you feel like these teams should just not look at anything from 10 years ago?

STEVE LETARTE: Well, I think it’s two sides of a question. If I’m a competitor trying to prepare, I would absolutely look at the prior races. I would look at the data of the track. I would try to understand what made a good car good and a bad car bad, what point of the racetrack does your car have to perform the best. If I was a Cup driver and crew chief, I would be there on Thursday to watch Xfinity practice in person, watch cars go around the racetrack, understand as much as I can about that racetrack before going on the racetrack.

Now, flip that same question, if you’re asking me as an observer, I don’t believe that what happened over a decade ago really relates to what we’re going to see on the racetrack right now. I’m a true believer that you could race the same racetrack five times in a row and get five completely different products because every race seems to be its own kind of living, breathing thing and the way people approach it and who may be good or who may not be good.

I know that’s a two-parted answer, but I think the history of the racetrack is very important to the people competing. I don’t believe the history of the racetrack is fair in any way to have any idea what we may or may not see. I’m thankful there’s some practice and qualifying to be honest. It’s going to give me kind of a good idea by the end of practice I think what the challenge of that track is for this type of car in this realm of technology, but until we line them up there — double-file restarts, that comes to mind. 10 years ago there were no double-file restarts. There’s so many things that have changed, I don’t think we have any idea really what the product is going to be, and I think some of the unknown is a little bit of the charm. I’m looking forward to it without a big notebook full of expectations.

For Dale Jr., I’m curious, do you feel like it was important to get this race, get a Cup race in Nashville at this track just to build on that momentum on the vibe from the awards ceremony? And I think Jerry Caldwell told the Nashville politicians that he believes both tracks could coexist on a Cup schedule, that that market could certainly be a two-race market.

DALE EARNHARDT JR.: Yeah, I think that it absolutely can exist in the same season, and there’s a lot of different ways that can happen. The fact that the tracks are so uniquely different, it really helps that argument a little bit because you won’t see the same product or the same action at either one.

You know, there’s a lot of hurdles between that becoming a reality.

I think that there’s a lot of work that’s went into bringing back the speedway. There’s so much effort going into it.

I think that it’s important for us to be in Nashville. It absolutely builds on — imagine — I guess when we celebrated the banquet in New York City, it’s the big apple, it’s New York City, yes, it’s an amazing place, but we weren’t racing there, and so it was quite different as far as the vibe for me when we went to Vegas and we had a race in town. You could see us race and then we were going to be back to crown our champion. It seemed to make sense. The town embraced it.

I feel that same thing from the city of Nashville as far as how they — you want to feel welcomed or you want to feel wanted, and I absolutely feel like Nashville is eager to have NASCAR there, whether it’s the banquet, whether it’s the race, and they’re embracing that, and it’s a good feeling.

It opens up so many possibilities, so many possibilities for the banquet to grow into the marquee event that it is and for our NASCAR event to be an entertainment event, as well.

We have the race that happens on Sunday, but there’s so many other things or possibilities or opportunities to provide fans with an amazing weekend, things that can happen on Friday and Saturday outside of the racing events of the Truck and Xfinity and Cup Series, the entertainment side of that and the opportunities there are endless, especially in a town like Nashville that provides so much entertainment. It’s a hub for the music industry, and we can take advantage and tap into that and do so many crossovers with our athletes and musicians and so forth.

It’s just a great opportunity going forward to bring a ton of energy, and really our sport can take advantage of that. So I’m pumped up about the connection to Nashville, this new sort of renewed relationship that we have with the city.

I don’t know who wants to take this. I’ve got some big personalities on the call, including a many times over most popular driver. Chase Elliott is both the most popular driver and the champion, and yet he often is not in a very good mood after a race. I’m wondering how long you guys think that the way he sort of projects himself on TV and in those situations will work and if that’s a good look for the ambassador of the sport.

DALE EARNHARDT JR.: I guess I can take that. I’ve seen Chase in a lot of different moods, and we often sort of criticized him about how hard he was on himself and then he started winning races and started feeling like some of the attention was deserved. He seemed more comfortable when he started having the success that he thought he should be having.

Now he’s a champion, and I think that all of this is kind of happening so fast. He’s pretty young and still has a lot to figure out, and I think that to win a championship and have success and be thrust into this position that he’s in at such a young age, I don’t expect him to have it figured out. I don’t expect him to be perfect. I don’t expect him to know exactly how his personality rubs people, whether it’s the right way or the wrong way.

It’s all kind of trial by fire, and he’s kind of learning as he goes. He’ll make mistakes. He won’t get it right every time. I know that I didn’t. I think I guess what I’m saying is I can give him a lot of leeway and a lot of time to sort of figure out who he wants to be. He’s kind of struggling, I think, with really where he fits in.

We’ve been working on this piece with him. I have been working on this piece with him to know more about him and learn more about him and understand really who he is, and when you really get to know who Chase is, the thing about him wanting to stay connected to his roots, to his hometown so he’s not lured away from there by the need to feel — the feeling of needing to be in Charlotte near the race team and all this, he does his own thing.

I think once — he just does his own thing. It’s good enough for him, and like it or you don’t like it, it doesn’t really matter. I think when he wins, he’s happy. You get great reaction, and so far I guess — he’s got a long way to go. I think a lot has happened to him in a very short time at a very young age.

JEFF BURTON: I’ll add to that. I think that Chase has a real sense inside of himself as accountability, and I think that some of his comments and some of his body language is just a way that he — it feels like to me he holds himself accountable to whatever happens: Good, bad, and especially the bad.

I think that that comes across as negative to some people, when in fact I think he’s just saying, I need to be better. Like I’m not pointing the finger at somebody else saying, they need to do it. He just seems like he’s a very self-aware, I can impact this, and some of those post-race comments come across as really negative, but I just believe that he’s holding himself accountable.

I also think — Steve and I were in this conversation this morning talking about a lot of drivers. These guys are young, and they change. We all change in life, and we’re not the same people at 20 that we are at 30 and then again at 40. I think that we put the camera on these guys and we show them — what’s great about the sport, we have this unbelievable access to them, and right out of an event when you’re hot, mad, happy, whatever that emotion is, your life revolves around that stuff, we’re right there.

Everybody handles that differently, and they change and they grow and they mature. I think he’s actually — when you sit down and get away from everybody, he’s a very positive guy. He’s a very engaging person. But I think he’s very reserved around other people, but I believe that for my view of that is that’s for good reasons, and I think it’s all about self-accountability.

RICK ALLEN: I just wanted to reiterate, 25 years old. You look at athletes that come out of college that are 22, 23 years old, they’re thrust into the NFL, it’s a hard transition. You’ve got a kid who’s 25 years old who grew up in a household where his dad is a Hall of Famer, most popular driver forever until Jr. came along, and you just have great expectations. I’m sure he has unbelievable expectations for himself, and at the age of 25 he’s still trying to figure out how do I show these emotions, what do I give to people that are asking for so many things like Jeff says, right out of the car, just out of competition.

He’s going to learn, and at 25 years old, I think he’s done a pretty impressive job of showing us what a champion looks like in NASCAR. I think he’s a pretty exceptional young man.

Sam, with INDYCAR you’ll see very limited commercial breaks and side by side instead of just full traditional breaks. Given that INDYCAR does this almost every break, why isn’t that something we could bring in with NASCAR?

SAM FLOOD: We’ve been doing that for the last six years. We have a very similar pattern. NASCAR races are longer and there are a certain number of races that are on broadcast TV that have to be full screen. They’re called station breaks, and those will always be full screen commercials. When cautions happen, we try to get in our national full-screen commercials.

But the last hour and a half to two hours of race it’s always side by side. We’ve got a great structure in place. Our advertising community has embraced the technique and the policy, and that’s what we’ve been going with for a long time.

We’re on board with you, and we’re executing that.

Steve, this is probably something you might better understand as a crew chief. Chase Briscoe during the Goodyear tire test a few months ago said that the tires were cording after 20 to 25 laps in. Given that some tracks even with older surfaces we don’t see that happening, what exactly causes tires to cord during a tire test?

STEVE LETARTE: Well, I would assume a big issue with the tire test is just a lack of track activity. When you look at any surface, asphalt or concrete, it really makes no difference, it has a certain amount of coarseness to it, kind of like a piece of sandpaper, and if you can imagine a piece of sandpaper and you rub it on a softer surface like a tire, it actually fills in some of the ridges on the surface and actually makes that piece of sandpaper less course, and that’s what laps do. The more a car runs around a racetrack, it over time fills in some of the deeper and more aggressive areas of the track, and as it does that, the next time by and the next times it wears less and less and less.

This is a major facility; it’s a huge amount of concrete, and it’s going to take more than three or four cars at a tire test to see a big shift, plus Goodyear has to bring back a tire and try to guess a little bit at these tests of what kind of car versus track, and now that they have that data, I’m sure the tire they’re going to bring back this weekend is going to give the teams a great opportunity to put on a good show, and that’s really what we’re looking for. So not a big surprise that wear was very high at the tire test.

Rick, can you talk a little bit about the atmosphere of calling the race now that the fans are back in the stands?

RICK ALLEN: Well, I think one of the greatest things that happened last year during the pandemic was when we got the call from Sam and Jeff Behnke that said we’re sending you guys back to the racetrack. We really appreciated Marcus Smith and him allowing us to call the races from Charlotte Motor Speedway, but there was just — it was really vanilla to be in a booth at a racetrack but not hear the crowd and not feel that energy and not hear the cars and smell the smells that you smell at a racetrack.

So when we were able to go back to the racetrack, it was an amazing transformation. We really appreciate being able to be right in the mix of what’s going on.

Our booth automatically has an energy because we love the sport so much, but that energy, it’s exponential when you add the crowd. When you see the crowd jumping to their feet and you hear them roar and you just feel that, we feed off of that. That’s something that we love as a broadcast team, just to feed off of that energy that the crowd gives us.

That’s why we’re so excited to go to Nashville this weekend, a sold-out crowd, capacity crowd. We’re going to feed off of that just like everybody in America is feeding off of it right now, being able to enjoy sporting events like we used to be able to. So we’re looking forward to this weekend.

Since you’ve been there before, what advice or message have you given your drivers at JRM about maybe what they can expect or what to look for coming up this weekend at the track?

DALE EARNHARDT JR.: Well, they will watch some videos of the races from the past there to be able to get an idea what the line is and where guys are making passes, how guys are setting passes up. But this track is pretty unique, and due to the concrete surface and the difference in how the tires grip the concrete versus an asphalt track, you think you can drive way deeper into Turn 1 than you can. You have to lift pretty early for that corner to have the grip you need in the middle of the corner. It’s easy to over-drive Turn 1.

That’s probably the first thing they’re going to learn, and they’ll figure that out.

And then the real challenge for a concrete track, especially a mile-and-a-half where you’re just constantly turning the wheel, is trying to get the car to rotate, getting the front to work without chattering the right rear tire because if you chatter the right rear tire or get loose at this track, you’re going to be really slow. It’s just going to be a balance of trying to get the car neutral to where you’ve got the car turning but not enough rear grip to lean on the right rear.

It’s a bit of a challenge. It’s very kind of frustrating to be honest with you. I always found the concrete surfaces to be super frustrating.

Now, I’ve had some fun and good races at Dover and Bristol, but those surfaces are aggravating as heck, and I think this one is going to throw a lot of challenges at the teams because it’s going to change so much throughout the weekend as more and more cars run on it, more laps are ran on it.

Harrison was talking about how he leaves a lot of the business stuff to you, and I’m curious when you’re trying to kind of manage or figure out what your son or driver should do, how do you do it when it seems like there’s all these talks of new owners and teams being bought out? How do you even know who to talk to and what’s going to — how to kind of try to set a path when you really don’t know potentially what teams are going to be out there in two or three years?

JEFF BURTON: I think as a sport in general, and we talk a lot about this, this new car is changing the Cup level, and I think that’s going to change Xfinity as well as Trucks. The big question is how? There’s a lot of unknowns in regard to what does next year’s Cup — how does their business affect what happens in Xfinity, Trucks, and then what opportunities get created by that.

So I think for Harrison, and I think it’s no different than for any young driver or experienced driver that’s looking for what is his opportunity next year is quite simply what’s available. What’s out there, what’s available? That all has to get sorted out.

Then does the new car create an opportunity that would not have been there? Does it take away an opportunity that would have been there?

I don’t know of a time in the sport where there’s been so many unknowns, and that’s not just for drivers, that’s for crew members, that’s for car owners, that’s for the industry in general. I think there’s a certain amount of wait and-see that has to happen. I think there’s also a certain amount of when you do see it and it looks right, I think you need to act. I think that’s going to be important, as well, because I think when things start happening, they’re going to happen rapidly.

Not just for Harrison, I look at it as a person that’s been around the sport a long time, is in many different roles, there’s just — next year I think is going to be crazy, and leading up to next year I think this silly season, as we call it, is going to be pretty intense.

I just think you have to look at what’s there. I think you have to respect the relationships that you have. I think you have to respect those relationships. I think you have to look at opportunities. It’s just eyes wide open, peek over and see what’s over there and see where you are, and that’s all you can do. I think that’s all everybody can do.

I think there’s just so much happening right now in the sport, and even though there’s so much happening, it’s hard to say right now these are all the opportunities. Some bit of patience I think is important, but at some point people are going to start to lose patience and start making decisions really quickly, but you just have to position yourself to see what’s available.

Again, I want to be clear, that’s not just for Harrison, that’s for everybody. That’s for every single person involved in the sport right now.

TRANSCRIPT – NBC SPORTS’ 2021 U.S. WOMEN’S OPEN CONFERENCE CALL

By

Thursday, May 27, 2021

Morgan Pressel

Kay Cockerill

Paige Mackenzie

Brandel Chamblee

Beth Hutter

 

THE MODERATOR: Welcome to our Golf Channel, NBC 2021 U.S. Women’s Open media call. Today we’re joined on the call by a number of members of our broadcast team, analysts Paige Mackenzie and Morgan Pressel; our on-course reporter, Kay Cockerill; lead studio analyst Brandel Chamblee; long-time Golf Channel producer Beth Hutter. Beth is producing the U.S. Women’s Open coming up next week and she’ll make history as the first woman to produce the U.S. Women’s Open.

We’ll start with opening remarks.

BETH HUTTER: I just want to say that I’m really excited about this year’s U.S. Women’s Open. I know it’s one of our oldest women’s majors, our national championship, and what I know I’m looking forward to most is seeing them play Olympic Club, which is one of the most iconic clubs in our nation. We’ve seen the men play there numerous times, and I know the women players are phenomenal. And I am really looking forward to seeing them bring their talents out to the Olympic Club.

THE MODERATOR: Speaking of Olympic Club, golfers are always looking for local knowledge. That’s a nice segue into our on-course reporter who certainly has local knowledge. We’ll go to Kay next. Go ahead, Kay.

KAY COCKERILL: Definitely, thank you. I’m a Northern California product. I grew up about an hour south of San Francisco and just to have the U.S. Women’s Open back in Northern California again, and then to have it at Olympic Club where I’m fortunate enough to be a member – I’ve been a member there since 2002 – makes this upcoming week incredibly special for me. I’m really proud of the fact that the Olympic Club is finally hosting their first national championship for women.

It’s come a little bit too late, but at least it’s happening and I can’t wait to watch all the women get a chance to walk the same fairways that the men have been able to walk for many years and create their own history.

Everything that’s going to happen next week is going to be a first. It’s going to be an inaugural. ‘First round shot in the 60s, the first hole in run, the first string of birdies.’ These women are going to put everything down in history next week at the U.S. Women’s Open and I’m really happy to be a part of the group that’s going to televise it.

MORGAN PRESSEL: I’m certainly excited to join the broadcast team for the U.S. Women’s Open next week. It’s a very special event for me, a lot of history that I’ve had in the championship and definitely my favorite event of the year — like Kay and Beth both said, the biggest storyline is definitely Olympic.

We’ve seen really a lot of work has been done with the different organizations in golf and the USGA certainly being one of them, trying to elevate the venues where we play. So to play at such a historic venue like Olympic Club where I’ve had the opportunity to play myself quite a few times, I think it’s going to be a treat. It’s going to be an incredible test of golf and obviously there’s a lot of other storylines in terms of players looking for their first major, and certainly many past U.S. Women’s Open champions that will be gunning for a repeat. But I think Olympic Club is definitely the biggest storyline next week. And it’s really tough, so I’m looking forward to seeing how the field takes it on.

PAIGE MACKENZIE: For me, this week is just so special. When I think about as a child growing up and wanting to play professional golf, this is the event that I pictured, playing for the national open championship. It was the biggest event on the schedule. It always created the greatest test for the players and it felt the most historic.

It felt like you were a part of the history of golf, and not even just women’s golf, just the history of golf. And I feel like it was a privilege to be able to call any of the U.S. Open action, because it really is just a really special week and a special event on the calendar. And I echo what the other women on the call have said, which is anytime you get a chance to play a golf course that already has history and that you can become part of history, it makes it extra special.

BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: I’m looking forward to being on site, sitting on the desk with Cara Banks. I believe Paige Mackenzie is going to be up there as well. And to talk about, I think, some very interesting storylines that have materialized, with Lydia Ko’s sort of re-emergence, and Inbee Park having played so beautifully in the U.S. Open’s — 14 times, she’s got nine top-10s, she’s got a couple of wins. If she were to win, she would join other three-time winners — Babe Zaharias, Annika Sorenstam, Susie Berning and Hollis Stacy — I think that’s certainly a story I’ll be having my eye on.

To echo Morgan Pressel’s comments, it is a beast, Olympic. A U.S. Women’s Open has been fortunate to be contested at some venerable venues like Oakmont, Winged Foot, Baltusrol, lower and upper. I think at least in terms of the golf courses I’ve played a U.S. Open on, I’ve never played a tougher one than Olympic. I played there in ’87 and ’98.

If you look at the yardage of the golf course and you think about not only it is at sea level, just how typically chip heavy the wind is — or, excuse me, the weather conditions are.

It’s at least feasible to talk about this as a golf course that’s going to play as the longest U.S. Open venue ever. We’ll take Broadmoor aside because that’s at altitude, but other than that you’re talking about Blackwolf Run. But this golf course will effectively play as the longest U.S. Open women’s golf course ever.

To that extent, how much will power play a role in the U.S. Open? It’s become an increasing aspect of the U.S. Women’s Open. The last three of four winners have finished eighth or better in driving distance. The one that didn’t certainly is not short on power – that’s Ariya Jutanugarn.

So, how much of a factor will power play in this? And the fairways at Olympic are notoriously hard to hit. I’m curious to see — I’ve seen and watched all of Kay Cockerill’s posts that she’s been putting out about the Olympic. It has a lot of doglegs, but the fairways will slope in the opposite direction of the doglegs. The over/under on us hearing the phrase “reverse cambers” is like a thousand because it’s a unique golf course in that regard. It’s very hard to hit the fairway.

I’m curious to see and wanting to hear from Kay and Morgan about whether or not these fairways are playing firm, whether or not they’re playing soft, because it will have a lot to do with the power, because most people will be — they’ll find it very difficult to find these fairways.

So, there’s a lot to look forward to next week. Some great storylines. But of course, at the top of everything is the golf course.

Brandel, who do you think this course favors?

BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: Good question. If you look at players that have prevailed there in the past, they’re certainly not the most powerful players. At least we’re talking about the men’s U.S. Open.

But again, it will have a lot to do with how the golf course is set up. If the fairways are firm and fast as they were in 1987, it was almost impossible to find the fairways. Didn’t matter how straight you were, you were still going to end up in the first cut of rough as they sort of slid down these canted fairways.

But, look, you can’t get too far past Jin-young Ko or Inbee Park. I’m curious to see how Lydia Ko will play here. She’s not the longest or straightest driver on the LPGA Tour. I’m curious to see how she’ll work her way around the golf course.

Watching again to the degree that power has played into recent major championships, I can’t wait to watch Patty Tavatanakit tee it up here. Brooke Henderson, I can’t wait to watch her tee it up here. I’m curious to see if the lack of power will hurt Inbee Park. She has such a great U.S. Open record, but again, I think this will be effectively the longest U.S. Open course ever. So, will it tilt towards the power hitters? I think it will.

Kay, curious about your thoughts on Paula Creamer coming back to the city where she was raised and first fell in love with the game? She’s had some time off, but getting this opportunity on a special exemption to come back home, so to speak. I don’t know if you’ve ever talked to her about her feelings about the Northern Cal/Bay Area, but just curious what you think about her coming back to play Olympic?

KAY COCKERILL: I think her being given a special exemption was an excellent decision. I can’t think of too many that are more deserving of that. She’s been such a big part of women’s golf and Northern California golf. And this is really important to her.

She spoke a little bit about it last week at Kingsmill. She definitely still calls Pleasanton her home. She grew up playing Castlewood, which is about 45 minutes east. She’s very much a NorCal gal, even though she’s transplanted herself to Florida. I think it’s appropriate that she’s there. I’m excited for her.

I think it’s going to be tough, really hard for her to manage and play all four days. What I saw out of her game at Kingsmill was a bit of rust. And unfortunately she was playing with A Lim Kim and Jessica Korda. And the difference in their distance off the tee was pretty significant at times, 25 to nearly 40 yards.

So Paula is striking the ball pretty solidly, but she’s not a big hitter. And I think it’s going to demand a lot from her off the fairways hitting longer shots in, but I’m glad that she’s there. She brings a lot to the championship. She’s a former champion.

She’s played in numerous USGA events through the years as an amateur, junior amateur. So she’s a big part of the championship this year, just being on site.

MORGAN PRESSEL: Yes, I certainly agree with just about everything that Kay said. Definitely giving her the special exemption in a situation where she wasn’t, she didn’t take advantage of her tenth exemption last year after winning at Oakmont in 2010, and being pretty much home for her I think she’s certainly really excited about it.

But I do think it will be interesting to see the rough. I think getting a couple of rounds under her belt at Kingsmill was important towards shaking off the rust and having another week here this week to work out some kinks. But having taken that much time off sometimes it’s really challenging to throw yourself into arguably the most challenging test that any player will see all year. I think she’s excited to have the opportunity and hopefully she plays well.

Brandel, you mentioned playing at Olympic in ’87 and ’98, I hope you can elaborate on the challenges. What makes it so difficult? No player in ’98 or 2012 finished below par for 72 holes. As you mentioned, the canted fairways are a big part of that, but here’s a course with no water hazards, only one fairway bunker, and it’s historically tormented the top men’s players. I’m curious if you can articulate sort of what makes it so difficult?

BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: I’ll give you an example. In ’87, I tried to hit it up in the left-hand corner of the 17th fairway all four days. I hit what I thought were good tee shots. Excuse me, two days, because I missed the cut. But let’s just say, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.

But we all stood on the tee, and we would all hit it in that left-hand corner of the fairway. We’d walk down there it would be in the first cut or in the rough and you’d have a 1-iron back then. A 1-iron was an actual club and you’d have some ridiculous long iron out of the rough to an uphill, very small target of a green.

It was almost impossible to hit that green in two. And that was to some degree true of even shorter holes than the 17, because the 17th was a converted par-5 that year. But that has a lot to do with it.

The thickness and the length of the rough was the worst I had ever seen. It was true that way in 1998 and the greens are notoriously slick. You can remember in 1998 Payne Stewart hitting a putt from pin high to the back, left pin. Hit a good putt, settled about a foot from the hole, and it rolled all the way to the front of the green. I was first off Friday morning, I remember hitting a putt from the middle of the green on 18. It stopped by the hole and then rolled back to me 20 feet away or something.

So, the greens were ridiculously slick, thick rough, lots of different, awkward lies. The ball above your feet, below your feet. It plays a little bit in terms of the awkward lies like Augusta National, except it’s chilly and the air is heavy and the ball just doesn’t go very far.

You add all that up, and the greens are really small targets as well. So, you add that all up — I always found it to be the most difficult Open golf course that I’ve ever played.

Morgan, I’m curious your take on Lucy Li, who is from here in the Bay Area. I don’t know how much you’ve seen her play, because obviously she’s not in the LPGA, she’s been playing the Symetra. If you could speak about the challenges of bursting on to the scene young, as you did and as she has. She qualified for the Women’s Open at age 11, as you probably recall, at Pinehurst. Now she’s 18. What are sort of the challenges, and what do you think about her path — turning pro at 17 and now being on the Symetra for a couple of years as she tries to make it to the LPGA?

MORGAN PRESSEL: I’ve not really watched Lucy play, so I’m looking forward to seeing it. My one real personal experience with Lucy was seeing her on the range at Pinehurst when she qualified. And I just remember looking at her and thinking, ‘Oh, my gosh, was I that small when I was that young?’

And it was cool to see her out there and her spunk and her passion and all of kind of the fun youthful energy she brought to the Open then. Yeah, it’s tough when you’re that young and thrown into a media spotlight. It takes a good team around you, great support from family to help you get through it all and manage it all.

Obviously, she’s got a lot of game to back it up. It’s a little bit unfortunate with the situation regarding COVID and how it’s just much more challenging this past year without the Q-Series and things like that to make it onto to the LPGA Tour. But I have no doubt that she will at some point and the whole world will get to see her game week in, week out.

And I think she might be feeling a little bit of pressure playing at home. I would imagine hometown events like that and on such a big stage, but a little bit of youthful exuberance and kind of a rookie mentality sometimes does you well in those types of pressure situations.

Beth, any unique or cool or high-end production elements that we can expect in terms of specialty cameras, graphics, anything of that nature? And as a follow-up to that, from your perspective, over the past year or two, whether it’s more live aerials, more graphics, what are some things that have become a more common part of golf coverage that you feel have really added to your ability to tell the story of a live golf championship?

BETH HUTTER: So, for this year at the Women’s Open, I think the biggest thing this year is just the amount of hours we’re on. Really excited to showcase basically as many players as we possibly can. We’re on for 26 hours over four days. In addition to our broadcast, we also have featured groups that are on throughout the day all four days, which will be a separate production.

We have the use of drones this week at Olympic Club. I think they’re going to be awesome showing a lot of the subtleties of the course that Kay and Brandel were talking about. We’ll be able to see those a lot clearer.

The tracer, I think, is the thing that we’ve been seeing a lot more on our broadcasts. And I think for the women players, it showcases their strength and accuracy, which is the best part of their games. And I think that’s what intrigued most people when they tune into the women’s game is, A, how powerful they are. We watched Patty Tavatanakit when she won her first major and the amount of fairways hit, how straight they hit a ball is really unbelievable. But if they need to cut it or fade it, they can absolutely do it.

So I think that tool on our broadcast is one of the neatest things to watch. And we’re going to have a lot of them out at the Olympic Club.

Paige, Kay, Morgan, what is it like working with Beth as a producer? And what does it mean to have her be the first woman to produce the first Women’s Open?

PAIGE MACKENZIE: Beth’s great. She’s incredibly organized, she keeps it very fun, especially on weeks like this where it’s going to be a lot of long hours. She takes her job very seriously in making sure that the audience is getting the good storytelling of the players as well as highlighting the great golf.

I’m sure Beth can speak better to being a female in this role, but certainly being in the sports world where it has been so typically male dominated, it’s obviously a big deal that she’s been given this responsibility and she works week-in, week-out on the LPGA Tour. It’s no surprise to us that know her. I don’t think for us it feels as big of a deal, because she deserves to be put in this position.

KAY COCKERILL: Very well said, Paige. I’ve gotten to know Beth now for over 15 years or so and she’s become a very good friend of mine.

That said, I really admire her for her work ethic and her organization and just how she runs a telecast from top to bottom. And she does it in a very professional way. She gets the most out of those working for her and everyone wants to do their best for Beth.

And Beth comes from an athletic background. She was a standout soccer player at UVA. And she played a multitude of sports. She’s very competitive. She’s taken to golf more recently in the last 10, 15 years, and has become quite a good golfer herself. So, she understands everything about the game and everything about competition and what it takes to win and lose. And really goes above and beyond in her preparation, thinking of other storylines and coming up with graphics and side stories. And she sometimes gets us to think outside the box, hey, what’s happening with XYZ players.

Like Paige said, she has produced men’s events as well. So she’s very versed as a producer and it’s about time that she does a U.S. Women’s Open. It’s hard to believe that this will be just her first one producing, because she’ll slip right into the chair and it will be like she’s done a dozen of them.

MORGAN PRESSEL: I agree with you, Kay and Paige. It’s about time. And I have only worked with Beth, let’s see, is this our third week, I think, now, Beth, it will be. She’s had a lot of patience with me, which I really appreciate, too. But like Paige said, she keeps it light. There’s a lot of laughs in your ear through the telecast and keeping it fun.

Helping, she’s especially helping me learn the ropes, understand my job, my role and how we can communicate better throughout the telecast to add more insight and to be the first woman to produce the Women’s Open, there’s nobody more deserving of that opportunity. And I definitely think it’s about time.

KAY COCKERILL: By the way, she’s also an out-of-town member at the Olympic Club, so has that connection as well.

Kay and Paige, following up on the question about Lucy Li, just your own philosophy about a path like hers, and I don’t know that you have to speak specifically to her, but incredibly talented at a young age, succeeds at a young age and now she’s chosen not to go to college. She’s grinding on the Symetra. Her stats aren’t that great, her results are decent. Can you guys speak to your own thoughts about a person taking this path rather than a college path to get more experience and have that experience?

PAIGE MACKENZIE: I think when you are speaking with somebody, whether it’s Lucy or any other, what I would call ‘prodigy,’ certainly the average 11-year-old is not going to be qualifying for the U.S. Women’s Open. So when you’re talking about such a gifted player, I don’t think there’s a playbook. I don’t think there’s a path that is the right way to do it.

I feel, and I’m empathetic towards the parents who are trying to navigate how do you best allow your child to challenge themselves and to continue to get better and to provide those opportunities but still realize they’re young. And so I don’t have a strong opinion on a player that’s just trying to figure that out.

I know there’s been a lot of mistakes made and a lot of successes in young golfers who have been successful at a young age. My path, I went to college, but I certainly wasn’t anywhere near the level to try to compete at the highest level at a young age. That was the path for me. That’s what I needed.

Other players that are young, they need the challenge to stay competitive and motivated and all that. That’s my general take on it. Unfortunately, it’s not real specific because I don’t think you can have one way to do it right.

Kay, do you know Lucy well, played with her much? And what are your thoughts about her path?

KAY COCKERILL: I haven’t really played with her, but I know she was out at Olympic Club. I saw her out there several times. I think she played the course at least three, if not four times. And I actually hooked her up with a member at Olympic Club, Daniel Connolly, who just played his last year at SMU. He was on the SMU team — and I think he’s pondering whether he’s going to turn pro or not. He’s going to caddie for her. He’s a fine young man and a really good player.

I’m a big proponent of going to college and at least having a couple of years of college to learn how to become more independent and more well-rounded and learn to be a little more on your own and separate yourself from your family and start like becoming that independent person that you hope to be for the rest of your life.

But Lucy is a very smart young woman. She’s very intelligent, and I think she would have flourished in college. But I think she’s also still working and always working on herself mentally to become even smarter and more educated.

It’s a tough grind to jump into professional golf at a young age. And I think even those that have won everything around them and transition into professional golf, there’s no guarantee that they’re going to succeed.

Who knows? Maybe she peaked at 14, 15. Maybe her peak days are up ahead. Who knows? But she’s a nice young kid and she has a passion for the game. She’s choosing to follow it. I wish her the best, but it’s not going to be an easy road.

Kay, you know the course as well as anybody on this call. How does the USGA handle all that we’ve talked about, all the challenges of Olympic? Because they’ve done a great job at Oakmont and Pinehurst of really kind of creating the same experience. And I know Shannon’s trying to do the same there. How do you think she can accomplish that? How can the USGA accomplish kind of making it the same test and not overdoing it?

KAY COCKERILL: Shannon Rouillard is the lead setup person, and she’s been looking at all the information from the last years of the men’s competition there and she’s been analyzing the fairways and how wide they were and what the percentage of fairways hit was.

And she also contacted quite a few players that played in various U.S. Opens and asked what clubs they hit in on certain holes, the average clubs they had in and she’s trying to set the course up sort of relatively speaking that the women will have roughly the same clubs in.

She’s not doing an intermediate cut. She’s doing fairway cut to rough, which is pretty, actually, severe, because when you do get the ball rolling and releasing on the side tilts, it’s going to end up next to the three-and-a-half-plus-inch vertical cut of rough. And that’s going to be very penalizing.

I thought that was pretty severe. And who knows, maybe she’ll change. You never know. We have another week, they might come and decide they’re going to rip through and put an intermediate cut in. She’s doing three and a half inches of rough for nine feet and then four and a half, four-plus inches there on after.

It’s pretty extreme. I don’t know that the fairways are going to be as tight and as firm and fast as they were for the men’s Open. And maybe that’s the way they’re going to widen the fairways just a tad, that they’re not going to be running 13 on the Stimpmeter and ending up in the rough like they did the last couple of times.

And maybe the greens won’t be as firm and fast. They might be a half a foot or a foot less speed. Those are things we’re all going to see next week.

Even Shannon, I’ve known her for a long time, she doesn’t give up everything. And she’s analyzed the hole location. She knows all the hole locations and what’s worked and what hasn’t.

She’s done a tremendous amount of in-depth looking at the past. She was also out for several of the practice rounds early that I went out and played with some of the gals in town. She watched us and she asked questions and she’ll talk to players, ‘What do you think? What about this?’

So she’s very, very — she brings in a lot of knowledge, and it’s not just — she’s not just flying by the seat of her pants. There’s a method to her madness, and we’ll see what they end up coming up with come next Thursday.

BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: Kay, did she say why she wasn’t going to have an intermediate cut? Did she give a reason for that?

KAY COCKERILL: She felt like the fairways were plenty wide and that they’ve done this cut, this no-intermediate cut, and there’s been precedent for it in past championships and she felt like the fairways were wide enough to not warrant having an intermediate cut.

I was like, well, they were kind of wide, but they’re really half as wide because they’re tilted. So there again I think, Brandel, I think if they’re not as tight and firm and fast as they were the last few, maybe that is true.

BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: Got it. It just sounds like there’s going to be a lot of people up against the three-and-a-half-inch cut because the ball rolls out sideways and that’s —

KAY COCKERILL: She talked about cutting the rough with like a bezel — I’m sorry, I can’t remember if it was bevel or bezel cut — which actually angles it a little bit, which would make it a little easier.

Beth, because you can go commercial-free, how excited are you? And what opportunities does this present?

BETH HUTTER: Great question. I love commercial-free. I do the Evian Championship over in France for the world feed, and we do not take commercials and I love it. I love not missing a single shot of action.

And that said, I mean it just opens the door to being able to show so much more. Getting the shot slightly earlier, as opposed to waiting for a break, trying to time that out, and seeing all the interactions — player/caddie as they get up to their ball, being able to maybe tell a few more stories.

You can hang on some players. And even just getting in more shots, I think that’s the most exciting part. And like Kay and Brandel, everyone said, just like everyone said, this course is so neat and all the different nuances of this course, we’re going to be able to tell those stories so much more.

Kay, has your phone been ringing off the hook with players looking to play some practice rounds with you and try to gain some local knowledge? And then in general, how fast can somebody learn this golf course, or do you think whoever else thinks this may play into somebody who has had some experience there before?

KAY COCKERILL: I was home for about three weeks the week before last and I played practice rounds with In-gee Chun and Austin Ernst, Gaby López, Sei-young Kim, Lydia Ko. I had played with Yealimi — Yealimi Noh had come in but I don’t think she qualified for the Open. Yeah, it was interesting to see some of the players that came in early, either on their way to Asia or coming back or after the ANA.

Funny though, they asked me a few questions and the tendency of the hole and where you don’t want to miss it, but most of the time they’re just kind of getting a general sense of the course and really the lines off the tee, where you want to hit it so that when they come back for real and they really dive into some of the more details, they’ve already got the kind of — laid the ground work. They know the course, the routing, the general lines off the tee, then they can work on the detail work.

Last week in Kingsmill, I had a lot of players come up to me and ask me about the course, what’s it like, what do you need to do to play well. So I was answering them as best I could and encouraging them, just saying it was pretty traditional. Like, you can’t go wrong if you end up in the middle of every green, because they’re small.

If you were in the front, middle front of every green you’d be in great position to have a relatively short-ish birdie putt or an easily two-puttable putt. And I said work on your short games and bring extra layers, just pack layers, because you think you’re going to California, it’s going to be 72 degrees, 75 degrees. Not the case.

Paige and Morgan, do you think this plays into those who have either come in early or have talked with Kay or have played with Kay, do you think there’s any kind of advantage for those players?

PAIGE MACKENZIE: I’ve not been on property. I’m one of those players, asking Kay for all the information. We set up a time where I’m going to walk with her and pick her brain. So absolutely, Kay is the most valuable asset out there, but certainly there’s the advantage to see the golf course ahead of time.

MORGAN PRESSEL: I mean, for me, I always like to see the U.S. Open course early. I feel like it takes pressure off the week itself. You don’t have to feel like you’re playing 18, 18, 18 to learn a new golf course.

I would always try to get a local caddie to come with me or whatever it might be somebody who knows the golf course. But in this situation, who knows this golf course and how to play a U.S. Open more than Kay Cockerill.

So that’s just any player who took advantage of that, and Kay was generous enough to help a lot of players and still continues to do so. And I think it’s really smart and the players will have a little bit more course knowledge and I think a little bit less pressure in their preparation going into the week.

People talk about how familiarity with a course helps a player. How does familiarity with a course help a broadcaster?

KAY COCKERILL: That’s good. Well, I don’t have to go out early and really scout the course before the round because I know it so well. I will of course be paying attention to hole locations because the USGA may put, they’ll put the holes in places we don’t see day-to-day as members.

And the tee box locations will change. Shannon has it set up at the max distance, but they like to move the tee boxes around.

But, yeah, it makes my life a little bit easier in that regard, because when you first go to a course, sometimes you can’t remember, what’s the 15th hole, what’s the 7th hole. I don’t have to tax my brain too much about thinking which hole, that hole location, wow, that’s going to be really brutal, that’s going to be one to pay attention to. So those things will come very naturally for me.

And that gives me extra time to focus more on the players and what they think of the course and how they’re attacking it and maybe their season leading up to this point.

— NBC Sports —

TRANSCRIPT – 105TH RUNNING OF THE INDIANAPOLIS 500 MEDIA CONFERENCE CALL

By

Wednesday, May 26, 2021

Leigh Diffey

Townsend Bell

Paul Tracy

Sam Flood

THE MODERATOR: Thank you and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us today for our NBC Sports Indianapolis 500 conference call. In a moment we’ll be joined by our lead INDYCAR team of Leigh Diffey, Townsend Bell and Paul Tracy, as well as NBC Sports executive producer Sam Flood.

Sunday’s race will be NBC Sports’ third broadcast of the Indy 500 and will feature roughly eight hours of coverage. Pre-race coverage begins at 9 a.m. eastern on NBCSN, followed by more pre-race coverage at 11 a.m. eastern on NBC. There will also be an hour-long post-race show at roughly 4 p.m. eastern.

We will begin with some opening comments. First up is NBC Sports executive producer Sam Flood.

SAM FLOOD: We’re really excited to be covering this spectacle, the biggest crowd we’ve had in this country since COVID started, probably the biggest crowd ever assembled since the COVID crisis got going. To get the sports world looking full with folks in the stands celebrating this great American tradition on Memorial Day weekend, we couldn’t be prouder to bring that to America.

Our producer Rene Hatlelid is really on top of this, has mapped out great content through the whole day starting at 9 a.m. on NBCSN, 11:00 a.m. on Big Bird NBC. They’ve got a drone flying around for us getting the great shots. The only thing faster than the drone is Jimmie Johnson, our new guest analyst for the show. Jimmie was really engaged this past weekend, hardworking, showing his personality. Gets to work with Danica, Mike Tirico and the rest of the crew.

We couldn’t be happier and more excited about an event like this on a beautiful weekend coming up, Indianapolis, as the world reopens particularly with an event with this many folks celebrating.

With that, I hand it off to the man who calls anything that is a race, announced earlier today that Leigh Diffey is the play-by-play voice of track and field in the Olympics, but is home now calling INDYCAR and the Indy 500 for the third time.

LEIGH DIFFEY: Good afternoon, everyone. I was reminded just so harshly the other day how fast and exciting these cars are when I came in for the final couple of days of practice. I drove through the turn two tunnel, I stopped my rental car, got out near the museum there, watching the cars go through one, down the short chute to two. It was such a wonderful reminder of how extraordinary this place is with those cars.

We’ve been here for the last two weeks. But from watching them go around the Grand Prix circuit, standing there and watching the brutal speed and sound, then to look up and see some people sitting in the turn one grandstands, it just kind of felt right. It felt fantastic. To see the hubbub in the garage area, Gasoline Alley, the concession area, to see people back, people happy to be back.

I think I’m more excited and looking forward to this one perhaps even more so than our maiden one in 2019. We’re back on Memorial Day weekend. The fans are back. We get this unbelievable gift of calling the biggest race in the world when the championship and the series is arguably at its strongest point. Five different winners in five races.

You have the superstar veteran names blended with these exciting new young guys who aren’t afraid to do anything. I just think we have this amazing gift right now and we’re not going to squander it, we’re going to cherish it, give you guys and all of our viewers a fabulous Sunday afternoon of INDYCAR racing.

Townsend, you’re ready to roll, mate. Take it away.

TOWNSEND BELL: I’m glad you mentioned speed because over the last few years I’ve been encouraging INDYCAR to continue to push the limits. Ever since I was a kid at 11 years old, 1986, going to the Indy 500, the Greatest Spectacle in Racing was built on one single ethos, which is how fast can the cars go, how fast can these drivers push these cars, what kind of limits can they break with new track records.

I’m pleased that this year is the fastest field in Indy 500 history, at over 230 miles an hour average for the entire field from qualifying. It was an electric day on Pole Day there at Indianapolis with the Fast Nine shootout. Scott Dixon getting his first pole position in two years.

So exciting, as Leigh said, to see this wave of new young talent that has come in with incredible skill, bravery, and an amazing ability at such a young age to kind of guide these missiles to record speed.

To see (Rinus) VeeKay go out and do what he did in Chevrolet, Colton Herta answer him. VeeKay is 20 years old. Colton Herta is 21 years old. You thought when Colton ran, what a magic lap that was, hanging it out there. We all thought at that time it was probably pole. Lo and behold, here comes Scott Dixon at 40 plus years of age, the veteran with all the experience, but still all of the courage to put it on the line was a great story.

Super pumped to get back there. Glad the cars are breaking records. When you talk about one INDYCAR by itself, it’s something special to see it and feel it, like Leigh pulling over and watching and listening. We have to remember this is the only race in the world in terms of the top level where you’re going to grid three-wide, 11 rows deep, fire it off into turn one at these incredible speeds.

Super pumped to get out there. As long as Paul Tracy doesn’t interrupt me, we should be great. Paul, over to you.

PAUL TRACY: I have to reiterate everything that Townsend just said. We truly last weekend had a treat of seeing the fastest field ever assembled. I think lost in that, in all the excitement of that, we had a David versus Goliath monumental battle between Penske Racing and A.J. Foyt and R.C. Enerson, the lone one-car team, trying to topple the giant of Penske Racing and force them out of the field. It was truly something to watch.

It just shows now how competitive this field has become and how important it is to have every I dotted and every T crossed when you come to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. If you even just hiccup, you’re not going to make the field.

When you look at a guy like Will Power, who is arguably one of the fastest INDYCAR drivers that has ever sat in an INDYCAR, just look at the amount of pole positions he has scored over his career and wins, championships. For him to be hanging it out there, banging into the wall trying to out-qualify R.C. Enerson was a sight to behold. It was truly nothing like I’ve seen him have to go through because it always comes so easy for him to score these poles. It just seemed so effortless.

For the race, what I’m looking at is Scott Dixon is obviously the man to beat. He’s the odds-on favorite to win the race. Clearly he has shown that. But he’s got a tightrope to walk. He’s got a seventh championship on the line. Is he willing, a double points race, to put it all on the line for an Indy 500 win and forego the championship points lead if he gets into a wreck with somebody or gets into a situation? He is so good at managing his overall year-long program. Is he willing to put it all on the line for the 500? He hasn’t delivered a 500 in many years, but he certainly delivered a lot of championships in between.

When it comes down to it, there’s guys like (Alexander) Rossi, (Ryan) Hunter-Reay, they’re ready to kill themselves for a race win. When it comes down to it, is Dixon willing to do that? I feel Rossi and Hunter-Reay are ready to do it.

Sam, not the easiest question. I’m going to try to ask it in a way I might be able to get an answer from you. It is a contract year with NBC Sports and INDYCAR. There has been different reports and speculation out there that says NBC Sports is out of the running on this. I’m wondering what you can or cannot say. Does NBC Sports want to be back with INDYCAR?

SAM FLOOD: We love INDYCAR. We love the Indy 500. We love the partnership we have. We hope we can continue that partnership. So whatever reports are out there, all I know is, we are fans of this relationship and want it to continue. I’m on the content side of the business, and the commerce side of the business has to navigate that side of the equation.

As partnership and as the growth we’ve meant to the sport, working with the team at INDYCAR, we’re really proud of all that’s been accomplished over these years and hope it continues in the future. That’s the way we proceed into this season, planning on being partners for a long time to come.

I know all three of you love the series. I know what it means to you, that you take great care in presenting the series professionally and respectfully, showing it for the strong series it is. What does it mean for the three of you to be part of this series and to be the storytellers of the series?

LEIGH DIFFEY: That’s a great question. To me I came to America for INDYCAR, so it means everything to me. To use the old adage: I’m living the dream.

The team that Sam and his staff have put together for us to blend, one of the most common statements made to us by fans or even people within the industry, they say, Sounds like you guys are having a lot of fun. It’s true, we are. It’s not manufactured. We treat the environment that we work in seriously, but with flashes of humor. That comes throughout on the air and through our delivery.

We take it seriously because it is serious, but we’re also in the entertainment business. I’m pretty sure you’re going to get a similar answer from Townsend and Paul. It means the world to us.

TOWNSEND BELL: It’s a privilege. The privilege is no greater than when we go to Indy this weekend to cover this race. I didn’t know what to expect back in 2019 when we had a chance to call our first Indy 500. What I realized in that moment is that the race and our job to tell the stories is one of celebrating. I think the passion that not only the three of us have in the booth for the sport, but the 250,000, 300,000 fans that gather with us there.

I’ve always felt like Indy is just that one big celebration where, sure, there’s fans that are rooting for different drivers, but I think it’s different than a Super Bowl or a national championship college football game where you’re either a red team or a blue team. At Indy it just feels like it’s more of a religious experience where everybody is celebrating speed and the glory of going after the biggest prize in racing.

It’s a tremendous honor. I think we all bring something pretty unique to the table. I think even our opening remarks, just look at the insight that Paul brings. He just brought up something about Scott Dixon that I hadn’t thought about. Paul has said that on the broadcast, said, Hey, think about Dixon racing for points versus an overall Indy 500 win. That’s something that we could debate whether that’s the case, would he go down that path. I think people enjoy the different perspectives there.

I enjoy the fact that I hear about these things and am surprised by some of those insights as they’re happening in real-time. It’s not like we rehearsed this out. It’s a stream of consciousness that we’re proud to deliver, hope we get to do for many years to come.

PAUL TRACY: I guess when I stopped driving and I wasn’t around for a while, I didn’t realize that once I got back into the sport with NBC when they had me come onboard with them, I didn’t realize how much I missed the camaraderie that I had with the drivers. I didn’t have a lot of that when I was racing because I was so competitive and I was so fiery. I kind of kept guys as an enemy.

But as I’ve grown into this broadcasting role, I’ve become very good friends with a lot of the drivers. They’ll express to me a side of things that they typically wouldn’t say to a journalist or a pit reporter, will talk about things. They let me on the inside of things. Some things I can’t say on air and some things they’re okay with me saying on air. I really enjoy that part of it.

Also being around the fans. When Townsend and I walk around the paddock together, go to lunch, the amount of people that come up to us, Diffey as well, say, Man, you guys are the best, the best team ever that’s been calling races. We hear that at every single race that we go to, every single market.

Sam has put together a fantastic team of people that are all really good friends. I think we do an amazing job at putting out a product, putting people on the inside of the product and giving them the information that they typically wouldn’t get anywhere else in any other sport.

Do you think anybody could do a better job than the job NBC Sports is doing with INDYCAR?

SAM FLOOD: The bar is very, very, very, very high.

Mr. Flood, to have the race from a TV standpoint back on its traditional date, how important is that rating-wise? I know there was a little bit of disappointment with the ratings from last August, the fact that maybe a lot of casual sports viewers didn’t realize the Indy 500 was happening that weekend.

SAM FLOOD: I don’t think that’s specific just to the Indy 500. It’s the way the mismatch of the sports calendar last year was very different. The Kentucky Derby was run on a different day, the NBA Finals, the Stanley Cup Finals, all on different days. All these sports had different time frames. The comparatives aren’t real.

We don’t worry about that. We worry about what’s in front of us, which is the time to have an incredible Indy 500 with the world coming back to normal, fans in the stands, and the story of the race is great. Even better yet might be the story of the people that finally get to get back into that environment and celebrate this great American tradition.

Have you seen a realignment of data from what you saw with this year’s Kentucky Derby? Did it compare favorably to other May Derbys and expect the same thing for the Indy 500?

SAM FLOOD: I can say the Kentucky Derby number was up dramatically. Obviously 2019 for the Derby is tough to compare because it has the controversial finish that extended the drama for 22 minutes after the finish as they decided to throw a horse out of the race for the first time ever. For that reason, the number was exceptionally high. But our Derby number from the first Saturday in May was up in that stratosphere.

History tells us that there are good numbers out there. As we all know, there are a million factors coming into ratings. Weather is a big part of it.

You’re in the storytelling business. You brought in some additional storytellers to tell the story this weekend. Jimmie Johnson is an INDYCAR rookie, but of course he’s a seven-time NASCAR champion. You have Steve Letarte, Dale Jr. is going to be back, Danica. Do you believe having a broad-based group of storytellers from the INDYCAR side, the NASCAR side, helps bring in a bigger audience?

SAM FLOOD: Our goal is to serve the fans, and we’ve got a group of talent that serves the fans exceptionally well.

The one thing I’ll tell you is the three gentlemen on the phone with us right now call the race and have exceptional ability to see what’s happening before it happens and tell you why it matters. Then we’re going to add context with a group of talent we have in and around them.

Nothing at NBC Sports is a bigger message that it’s a big event than Mike Tirico as the host. That lets the world know this is big-time. Mike is going to have some fun people to play with and work with over the weekend. We’re thrilled.

Our lineup tells you how important it is to us and this company.

Sam, obviously you produced the show last year without any fans in the stands. You’re coming back to full stands. How will the fans play a role from the actual visual part of the broadcast after not being there since 2019?

SAM FLOOD: You obviously shoot the race a little bit differently. The spectacle is back. Last year, empty stands all around the racetrack is a very different visual. You could have the greatest football game or the greatest basketball game, if there are empty seats, it’s not an event, it’s a game.

When you have a packed house or a very full house at a car race, it becomes an event again. It’s more than a race. Our job is to lean into that, celebrate that. Some of the content in the pre-race show is going to be looking at the people who are so passionate about this event that aren’t necessarily sitting in a driver’s seat, but their passion is sitting in the stands outside turn two, or down the backstretch, wherever they might be, what is their preferred angle of watching this race. We’re going to tell that story and show how special it is to be back home.

Do you know the applications of where that drone will be and how much that drone will add to the broadcast this year?

SAM FLOOD: It’s always a process. We’ve had great success with drones on other events. Sean Owens is this exceptional young director. He’s got great ideas. He’s going to work it in and make sure the camera has the quality and the look that takes us to the next level.

The one hard part about drones is they’re not up in the air for a very long time, so they’re up in spurts. He’s got a time when he wants to do it. Does he want to do it for a restart? Does he want to do it for pit stops? When do you want to utilize it? They’re up, then got to come down and re-power before they go up again.

It’s a bit of a math equation. No one said the directors have to know math, but Sean is going to have to know some math on Sunday to know how he wants to deploy it the right time in the race.

It certainly is going to be beneficial building the hype.

What would a Scott Dixon win this weekend do to further cement his legacy?

LEIGH DIFFEY: I think that it adds to the story, like it adds to his incredible story. He was so mad last year with the way that the race finished, that he was denied a chance to beat (Takuma) Sato and get his second win.

Across the spectrum of his career, he doesn’t rate last year when he won his sixth championship as his best year clearly because he didn’t win the Indy 500. He rates 2008 as his best career year. That’s how much it means to him.

I think it just elevates him further in the sport’s history. I think it would be appropriate if he won. He’s such a good steward of the sport. He’s such a great ambassador of the sport. In my opinion, he deserves to be a multi-time 500 winner.

TOWNSEND BELL: I’ll add to that and say I think if you look at the multi-time winners at Indy, (AJ) Foyt, (Rick) Mears, (Al) Unser, (Helio) Castroneves, et cetera, Dario (Franchitti), Dixon with one, that doesn’t seem fair or appropriate when positioned next to his six championships and potentially a seventh this year where he’s well on his way at least in terms of the first five races.

I go back to Paul’s point earlier. I think it’s going to be fascinating to see how he decides down the stretch of the Indy 500 to play his hand. Last year the strong indication was that you obviously had to make your move early, like Sato did. It wasn’t going to be a last-lap thing.

Based on what we’ve seen in practice, it seems like that is still going to be the case. INDYCAR has increased the race-ability of the car with some of the aero changes. But the last 10 or 15 laps in a tire stint are difficult, the field tends to spread out. If there’s a restart in the last 20 or 30 laps, it’s going to create huge urgency to make moves. There’s going to be some guys willing to take some huge risks.

How big of a risk is Scott willing to take, knowing what he learned last year, a painful lesson about Sato making the move early enough, Scott just couldn’t really counter, couldn’t get close enough to respond before the final caution, versus wanting to drive for championship points, extend his current lead in the championship. I think that will be fascinating to watch.

No question the lessons from last year, what all the drivers have learned this year in practice so far, is going to put a huge priority on those first probably five laps on a restart. That creates a lot of drama and a lot of high risk for the drivers. That’s where it’s fun to watch.

PAUL TRACY: I’m thinking of how to put my answer to that. A second Indy 500, a seventh championship, what it does to change his status in the sport? I don’t really think it changes too much, other than he’s going for these individual glories as a driver and competitor. There’s no denying his level of talent, his level of commitment, his level of fitness.

But does it change his perspective from the outside looking in? I don’t know. He’s the type of character, and this is no disrespect to Scott, I think he is one of the most talented race drivers that has ever sat in a race car, but if you sent him out in downtown at any race we go to, people don’t really recognize him out on the street because he’s so understated, mellow, not controversial. He blends into the crowd.

From a sporting perspective, from a general public perspective, I don’t know how much it changes if he wins another Indy 500 and another championship. Certainly within the sport, there’s no denying that he is going to go down as one of the greatest drivers of all time. Whether that resonates with the casual fan, I don’t know.

Do you think there are any concerns with Team Penske thus far this season? What are your expectations for the team on Sunday?

TOWNSEND BELL: Yeah, I think there are concerns. Team Penske has not won a race in the first five races of this season. The last time that happened was 2013. 18 Indy 500 wins, they’re head and shoulders above any other team in the sport. The qualifying performance was a shock to everyone, including their drivers, and I’m sure ownership as well.

The crazy thing about the last week is that if you watched Peacock in the 40-some hours that we broadcast live during the week, for each practice day, certainly Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of practice, with a ton of laps run, a bunch of group running and race simulation running from the field, I would say 60% of our praise was heaped on how strong the Team Penske cars were in race configuration, how excellent the balance looked, how close their drivers could trail another car in turbulent air. We were surprised as anybody to see them struggle in qualifying trim.

But, boy, doesn’t that train up for an unbelievable Indy 500 to have the most successful team in the history of the race starting mid to deep in the pack with four drivers and four cars that in practice look to be better than anybody.

It’s almost like an accidental reverse grid or something in that there’s these incredible race cars that are going to be fun to watch. They certainly don’t appear like they’re going to finish anywhere near mid to tail end of the pack. They have a lot of great cars and drivers to pass. The excitement will be there from the very beginning with those four drivers.

I think we’re in for a real treat. I hate to say it, but I think we’re lucky to have them struggle in qualifying because they’re going forward, for sure.

LEIGH DIFFEY: I think the interesting thing, too, is when was the last time you saw Will Power have that look of shock and disbelief? He’s normally got those piercing eyes on his target. He looked like a deer in the headlights. He was seriously concerned, knew the threat was real he wasn’t going to make the field. That’s one side of it.

The other side, too, is their qualifying performance this year very much mirrored what occurred last year. Josef Newgarden was not far away from those top four in last year’s race. Have Dixon and Sato swapping for the lead, Rahal right behind them, Santino Ferrucci. The next one in the field was Josef Newgarden.

Townsend’s point is very accurate. I think it’s going to be spectacular to watch and come through.

PAUL TRACY: I agree with both of these guys. I think Penske’s cars in race trim are fine. I think they have good handling cars. For whatever reason, they’re lacking the qualifying speed. That really all just comes down to — it’s not one thing you’re going to put on the car that’s going to fix everything — it’s a hundred little things, minute things that make the difference.

Certainly in this field, in a 500-mile race, you can win from anywhere in the field. To give you an example, I started 32nd in ’02. Guys have started from the back and won 500-mile races before. But it certainly doesn’t make your job easier.

You kind of put yourself in the danger zone we call it, Townsend and I, where the things that happen in the back of the field, you get caught up in other people’s mistakes, the things that happen. The guys in the back, the middle to the back of the field, actually race you harder and are more aggressive than the guys who are running inside the top five.

You’ll see the top three or four runners, there’s give-and-take, they’re kind of letting each other go, shuffle back and forth. When you get back 10th on back, those guys are not willing to give up a position to anybody. They’ll run you into the pit wall if they have to.

Like I said, the guys in the middle and the back of the field get really aggressive and territorial about their running position, and do not want to give up a position at all.

Coming through from the back of the field is extremely difficult. You’ve got to take risks, big risks, to make it happen, and also take big risks on your strategy and do something different than the leaders are doing which can either hurt you or help you when it comes down to the end of the race, whether it turns into any type of a fuel mileage race. You can either be on the good end of it if everything goes right, or you could be speckled at the front and be light on fuel, have to save fuel to make it to the end when other guys don’t.

It’s a juggling act. It’s a three-hour, five-balls-in-the-air juggling act to win a 500-mile race.

TRANSCRIPT – NBC SPORTS’ KENTUCKY DERBY CONFERENCE CALL

By

Tuesday, April 27, 2021

Mike Tirico

Jerry Bailey

Randy Moss

Eddie Olczyk

Steve Kornacki

Larry Collmus

Rob Hyland

THE MODERATOR: This marks the 20th anniversary of the Kentucky broadcast. Joining us today are Rob Hyland, who has worked on NBC’s Kentucky Derby every year in that stretch. This is Rob’s tenth year as the lead producer of the Kentucky Derby. We have host Mike Tirico; analyst Randy Moss; two-time Derby-winning analyst Jerry Bailey; handicapper Eddie Olczyk; Larry Collmus; and the newest member of our Derby team, from NBC News and MSNBC, Steve Kornacki.

I’ll turn it over to Rob Hyland, our coordinating producer.

ROB HYLAND: Thanks, Dan. You make me sound old. 20 years ago I was part of NBC’s first Kentucky Derby. I think I’ve said it before but it was about a two-hour show, with a small team of reporters, a couple of feature story elements, and that was the lead-up to the big race.

This year, we have more than a dozen announcers, a production staff of more than 200 and about 15 hours of coverage. And the big difference is last year we produced the show out of Stamford, Connecticut, our rural headquarters. This year we’re back in Louisville and we’re very happy to be back.

MIKE TIRICO: Good afternoon, everyone. Rob is a little bit older. It’s his birthday today. But in all seriousness this is my fifth Derby. I’m only around for a quarter of these 20 years. But I’ve always admired what NBC did from afar in raising the quality of the Kentucky Derby presentation to one of the most watched shows of the month, one of the most watched shows of the season.

And super proud to work with Rob on the shows that he produces. I think all of us can tell you his work ethic on these shows is nothing short of complete and thorough — I think our whole group was really proud with the difficulty of last year’s show — not being in Louisville to see it nominated for a Sports Emmy just talks about what the folks over the last 20 years, led by Rob and everyone else, have put into this show.

It’s an honor to be part of it with an amazing group of analysts who you’ll hear from in a minute. People often ask, do you get nervous before you go on TV? I’ve been doing this for 33 years or 34 years. So, the nerves are gone. But I was nervous on the first Saturday in May last year. There was no Derby as you know. We re-aired the Kentucky Derby from a few years before. And the Kentucky Derby trophy was in my house on the makeshift set in my office.

And I was never more nervous when they shipped the trophy to my house and I had the gloves — you had to handle the trophy with the gloves and put it in place because we’re all doing everything in work from home on our own.

I will be a lot less nervous this year on Derby day, first Saturday in May, than I was last year the first Saturday in May when I had the Kentucky Derby trophy under our roof and in my hands.

Needless to say, it’s a thrill to be back in Louisville, to be back at the Derby. When you work with Randy, Jerry and Edzo and Larry and the rest of our group, you just shut up and get out of the way. So it’s a great day to be a point guard and pass it off to some of the best in the business. It’s an honor to be part of the show one more time. Randy, I’ll let you go next.

RANDY MOSS: This is my — let’s do the math — my 41st Kentucky Derby. I know I can’t possibly be that old, either with newspaper or television, my 11th with NBC. And it goes without saying that last year’s Kentucky Derby, such as it was, not just from the TV end of it, but just in general, was unlike any other Kentucky Derby in the history of the sport.

So we’re getting closer to normal for the 2021 Derby. Not quite fully normal yet. But at least the Kentucky Derby is back in its usual spot on the first Saturday in May. And that’s a lot of progress right there. Jerry?

JERRY BAILEY: I’m just happy to be out of my bedroom doing these shows. I’ve only left my house twice, once for the Derby last year up in the studio and at the Breeders’ Cup in Lexington last fall, so although the commute to the dinner table is only five minutes, I’ll miss that. It’s so good to be around the crew again, the fans.

It’s particularly hard, I thought, to get a sense of what Randy and Mike are thinking when I’m sitting all by myself with a camera on me. So back on the set we can kind of work off of each other. That’s going to be a lot of fun being able to do that again. And what a Derby we have.

To me, in prior years we had a stand-out horse or two. It’s not that way this year. There’s three, at least three that I think have a really, really good chance, and not that far apart in talent. And there’s three or four or five right underneath those. So it’s a wide open event. And it’s a lot of talent — three undefeateds, as was mentioned. I’m looking forward to a really good race.

EDDIE OLCZYK: Great to be with everybody. Great to be on our way, some of us. Some are there. To be back together and with the leadership of Rob and his entire team behind the scenes and Mike being our captain on the set.

We’re going to do it as well as we always do. And just looking forward to getting back and seeing some familiar faces, socially distanced, probably behind masks a lot of the time. But that’s okay.

And last year I was in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, in the bubble, doing the NHL playoffs for NHL on NBC. And I was in an empty rink for about seven hours trying to pick the winners, and something I’ll never forget. And our crew did an amazing job to even allow me to be a part of the show, with all the moving parts last year trying to navigate through the pandemic.

Jerry touched on it from a handicapper’s point of view, from a gambling point of view, with the way that the draw ended up today, there is value up and down the board. If you don’t like the favorite, which will be Essential Quality, who is perfect in his career, you have an opportunity to make a lot of money if you’re going to go against the favorite.

I’m certainly leaning that way. But that is what we call a tease in television. And you’re going to have to tune in on Saturday to see my final pick. But I’m just really excited to be back with our team.

And usually at this time of year we’re right in the middle of the NHL playoffs. And I’m missing a playoff game here or there. But with a 56-game season this year in divisional play, I’ll be missing a couple of regular season games. But still the atmosphere and the points feel like playoff games because of the way the format is with the North Division and then the three divisions in the U.S.

So pucks and ponies in my life. There’s nothing better. And I’m just looking forward to seeing everybody in Louisville here in the next 24 hours or so.

So I get to pass the puck. I know Larry is a big hockey fan. Larry, I’ll pass the puck to you — the voice of Triple Crown on NBC, the legendary Larry Collmus.

LARRY COLLMUS: I appreciate the introduction. It’s hard to believe it’s been 10 years since I got the unexpected phone call from NBC asking if I would be interested in calling the Kentucky Derby.

But here we are for the 11th time. And it’s really exciting. I think I might have been the only one that was in my usual position for the Kentucky Derby last year, up on the seventh floor of Churchill Downs.

But it was a little bit different for me because when I looked outside my window there wasn’t anybody there. The whole place was completely deserted. It was a pretty odd feeling to be calling the race and not seeing so many people with their hats and suits and different colors. But it will be back to that this year. I’m really excited about seeing everybody.

It’s also a really intriguing Derby, three unbeaten horses for the first time in many, many years, and one of those is 50-to-1 on the morning line, which is Helium. I think that’s pretty interesting considering he’s undefeated.

Also it seems like it’s a race where we’re not going to be too sure who the early leader is. It’s not that clear on paper. So there’s a lot to look forward to. And I can’t wait for Saturday. Very much excited for the Derby.

ROB HYLAND: Thanks, Larry. Newest member, Steve Kornacki.

STEVE KORNACKI: Yeah, I’m the newest member. It’s a thrill to be on this call. I’ve been watching the Kentucky Derby just as a viewer, as a fan, really my whole life. Just to be out with Mike, Jerry, Randy, Eddie, Larry on this call and eventually on the broadcast, is going to be a thrill.

You mentioned 20 years on NBC. I definitely watched every Derby, run-up to every Derby on NBC all these years. I think the first one must have been 2001, I think Monarchos would have won. I would remember that one as Dollar Bill who was one of the many losers that I’ve picked in the Kentucky Derby over the years. If he didn’t run dead last, he came pretty close. And I’ve certainly picked more than my share of those.

I’m really looking forward to getting the chance to be in Louisville. I’ve never actually been to the Derby in person before. So I’ve only known this event as a television viewer. Really excited to get the chance to do that. And just to take a look at — everybody’s talking here about the opportunities for bettors with the morning line coming out today. Really curious to see where the money starts to move, who the public kind of gets behind here.

Question for Steve and Edzo, just wondering how the interplay will be between you two during the weekend? And for Edzo, do you see this as kind of, you’re the old-style handicapper Daily Racing Form type guy, and Steve might be more of a new age handicapper?

ROB HYLAND: Steve will be integrated throughout the show with trends, history says what about the Kentucky Derby as we look at the field. Edzo will handicap every race throughout the five hours on NBC. And Steve and Edzo will be together for specific topics, i.e., long shots in this year’s field. Or bias if you’re a late closer in the Derby.

So I think Steve will have more of a big-picture lens looking at the trends of the Derby, what history tells us, where the money’s moving. Edzo will be a little more granular to each race and his selection, but the two will interact. So I’ll set that as sort of the context and Edzo and Steve can take it away.

EDDIE OLCZYK: I think as far as my philosophy or my handicapping tools are, I think I’ve become much more aware of how the track is playing — is weather involved whether it’s the day of, the day before, whether it’s the turf course or the dirt.

Having an idea on all the races of who I like going in. But you could like Known Agenda going into this morning about 9:55 Central Time and then all of a sudden he gets the number one post position even though it’s a new starting gate and then go, okay, is that going to change my thoughts.

So, I think for me, yeah, I am old, first off. I’m not as old as Rob, I know that. And second of all, I do rely on the video and just the feel of how the race is going to play out, and getting the chance to talk to Randy and Jerry as good as they are as analysts in our sport and just pick their brain. And how do you see this playing out? This is what I see. Tell me that I’m crazy or that I’m wrong and that’s some of the best stuff.

I wish we had a camera going on in the trailer and, again, to be able to see the dialogue and the questions that are asked because I think that’s where you really get an opportunity to kind of talk to the best, learn from the best. And then it’s up to you as a handicapper to apply it, agree with it, disagree with it, how do you see it. And the money management part becomes the biggest thing, because you can like a couple of horses, but how do you play it? How do you wager it?

And I say all the time, you don’t have to wager a whole heck of a lot to make a lot of money when it comes to Derby weekend with the Oaks and the Derby on Saturday.

But I’m old school when it comes to handicapping and I’m pretty damn proud of it.

STEVE KORNACKI: I think for me, the parallel I kind of see here to what I do with elections and with political numbers kind of in general, really does have to do with watching the odds change, watching where the odds are moving during the course of the day and the run-up to the race. Who suddenly is getting a lot of support. Who looked like one of the favorites early on, but the public maybe is backing away from.

I think it’s kind of looking at the trends, looking at the movement that way. Looking at the historical view of it. How the favorite’s done before, how horses have come in with strong closing times and prep races, things like that, just looking at some of the bigger historical trends.

I think there’s a bit of a parallel there to maybe the kind of stuff we’re doing with politics and elections. In terms of handicapping, I’ll happily defer to Eddie on that. I love racing. I love to go to the track. I love to bet on the races, but there’s nothing sophisticated about what I do.

I’ve got my uncle’s system from Suffolk Downs from the 1960s. It’s a lot of hunches and mysticism and just completely illogical stuff. So, I’ll happily defer to Eddie on that.

ROB HYLAND: Hey, Steve, you’ve got a 13 horse in the race, too, with King Fury, right?

STEVE KORNACKI: There he is. I was hoping he’d be more than 20-1, but there’s a 13-system horse. This was — the 13 system — this is my uncle’s system from Suffolk Downs; when I say unsophisticated, take the last three horses that the horse has run, add up how he finished — 10th place, second place, first place — if it adds up to 13, bet the horse. And guess what? King Fury is at 13. So that’s the level I’m at.

Larry, I know in years past, when we’ve spoken, you have a set preparation for how you call a race. But I’m wondering this year, in terms of anticipating, last year you called it without noise. And this year you’ll call it with sound. And I just wonder taking a guess how you think sound will impact your call of the Derby this year?

LARRY COLLMUS: I remember last year that it seemed odd, especially the lead-up to the race to not hear all the noise from underneath. And it almost made the Derby a little bit easier to call. I think, last year, because a lot of times all that noise you hear can accelerate your heart rate a little bit, make you a little more hyped up.

And without that noise, all of a sudden your heart rate slows down a little bit and maybe you’re able to see more during the call than you would not normally have been able to see.

I think it does play a role. This year’s sound won’t be quite like the ones from 2019 and the years before that because we won’t have the full house. We’ll have about a third of the normal audience. So, that certainly plays a role there.

But when the race runs, I don’t really — I guess subconsciously, like I said, my heart rate went down a little bit because of the crowd — but I don’t really notice.

I have myself kind of cranked in the headset so I don’t hear the track announcer outside and I don’t hear too many noises around me. So that all seems to help. But I guess we’ll see what happens this year. But last year was definitely different, that’s for sure.

Jerry, in your estimation, what does Hot Rod Charlie need to do to win this race?

JERRY BAILEY: I guess the short answer is that he has to run faster than everybody else to the wire. But that’s tongue in cheek.

To me, he’s one of the most, if not the most improving horse in the race. He was second last year in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile to Essential Quality, who is the favorite. He wasn’t beaten far.

And his first race this year was a good race. He was only beat by a neck, although he was a third. But he was also in between horses; he was sandwiched down the stretch, which to me is a pretty good effort because it’s hard for young horses to take that — fighting on either side and still running well.

And of course he inherited the lead in the Louisiana Derby and won, so he’s versatile. And Luis, he was three or four or five lengths off the lead, then he led.

I would expect that he’s going to be in a stalking position. I think he’s got to avoid anything worse than a three-wide trip on either turn because even though he might be best, he’s not good enough to go wide on both turns and still win, in my opinion.

So, he’s going to be forward. I think if he can avoid wide trips, no more than two, three wide at tops, but preferably two wide on the first turn and then the second turn, then I think he’s got an excellent chance to win. Randy?

RANDY MOSS: Like Edzo said earlier, we won’t necessarily give away the store before the show on Saturday. But just suffice to say that both Jerry and I have Hot Rod Charlie picked, let’s say, in our top three. A lot of respect for him.

MIKE TIRICO: I’m going to jump in for a second, not on the analyst side of it. But I was out in Southern California — I’ll tell you why in a moment — and had a chance to visit with Doug O’Neill and see Hot Rod Charlie last week in the barn, great disposition. Doug is so excited about this horse and the path to get here.

There’s a lot to like about Hot Rod Charlie in so many different ways, including the story of the nephew or Doug’s nephew, Patrick, and he and his four Brown football teammates being a part of this.

There’s a lot of energy and enthusiasm around the horse, which I think is really going to help tell one of the stories in the lead-up to the Derby that people will get attached to.

I just wanted to point out that trip out to California was to do an interview with Bob Baffert that will air on our show. In addition to that, we have a three-way interview with me, Bob Baffert and Bill Belichick. Baffert is going for his seventh Kentucky Derby as a trainer. No one has won as many as he has. He’s tied with Ben Jones, six all time. Baffert has won six Kentucky Derby’s, the Super Bowl of this sport. And Belichick has won six Super Bowls as a head coach.

We got the two of them to chat. They know each other a little bit. And the conversation was fascinating. I left completely jealous of Baffert because he got better answers out of Belichick than any of us in the media have for the last 15, 20 years.

It was a fun chat. Hopefully people will enjoy the two six-time champions in the biggest event in their sport talking with each other about horse racing and football and preparing athletes, or in Bob’s case equine athletes, for the big game.

Randy, I’m writing a story, in 2020, a year where seemingly everybody had money for both recreational activities as well as investments. We saw the sale of thoroughbred horses decline 26 percent year after year. We saw people buying digital horses and breeding digital horses. Why the decline in thoroughbreds?

RANDY MOSS: There’s really two primary reasons for that. First of all is that when horse owners purchase horses at auctions, they rely heavily on bloodstock advisors who like to examine the horses in the flesh.

Every sales company this year had a virtual element where people could actually look at horses and bid on horses online. But so much of picking out a young race horse and gauging his future ability has to do with these bloodstock agents — boots on the ground, examining the horses in person. A lot of times they can’t necessarily tell you what they’re looking for, but they know it when they see it. And the pandemic took away all of that in-person element to looking at horses prior to sales. That’s one part of it.

The second element of it is that horse ownership is, by and large, a money-losing proposition. And the reason why so many people enjoy owning racehorses is the experience that goes along with it — being able to go to the barn, watch your horse train in the morning, feed him peppermints, show up to the race in the afternoon, the excitement of the race with all your friends at the racetrack, maybe getting your picture made in the winner’s circle if your horse wins.

All of that went away during the pandemic. And I think a lot of owners sort of felt like, hey, if I can’t enjoy that aspect of horse ownership, I’m just going to sit out until I know when it’s going to come back.

Rob, saw you guys are going to be using a drone this year and a couple of live rider cams. Could you tell us a little more about that and how you and (director) Drew (Esocoff) are going to utilize them in the broadcast?

ROB HYLAND: Sure. Every year we walk away from the Derby and we’ll review, as a production team, the coverage from the last year and say to ourselves, ‘How can we enhance the viewer’s experience?’ And we thought about a live drone in ’20, but then obviously the Derby got pushed and re-imagined as a production.

And so the idea of a live drone came up a couple of years ago, but for the first time we’ll have a live drone that our director, Drew Esocoff, can utilize and really take you places that we haven’t before with our traditional cameras, specifically wrapping around the twin spires, going between the twin spires to the paddock, from the paddock back to the front side, around the track, back to the chute where the mile chute is – where it’s hard to get cameras, a very narrow area.

We believe this camera perspective will be a great, call it, magic carpet ride, for the Derby viewer of five hours of our telecast.

Then something that’s not new to horse racing and especially over in Europe, there will be two RF jockey cam systems, something we’ve done before on the Breeders’ Cup World Championships. But we’re bringing over the vendor from England, Jockey Cam. And for the races throughout all of our broadcast windows we’ll effort to have two live cameras on jockeys in every race that we are televising.

And we think it will be a really cool replay for both the turf races and dirt races. And, again, an effort to bring the viewers closer to the action and give them a sense of the speed and the decision-making that goes on in each race and how fast it is. So we’re really excited about these two new additions.

And we are bringing back a camera that we have had in the past. We debuted the bat cam in 2018, which is a two-point rail cam system suspended about 20 feet in the air, and it covers the entire back stretch of Churchill Downs. So that will be part of the complement as well.

And Drew and Kaare Numme, our MSNBC director, are very excited about the new toys we’ll be playing with on Friday and Saturday.

Jerry, I guess part one about Essential Quality, do you regard him as maybe an unusually vulnerable favorite based on some of the speed figures? And the second one is about his trainer, Brad Cox, an incredible rise to the top of the sport in the past year. What strikes you about what Brad’s been able to do?

JERRY BAILEY: Let’s go to the horse first. Essential Quality, I believe, Randy, if I’m not mistaken, on the sheets number he might be the fastest. He’s not the Beyer’s, from the Daily Racing Form, which I subscribe to most often. But even if he is or isn’t, it’s not much between the top three horses. It’s really not. Maybe very little, but he’s got so many intangibles that he has already been through.

He’s had trouble here at Churchill Downs, still won. He’s been close to the pace. He’s been far off the pace. Depending on the pace, if it’s fast he can be farther back. He’s not pace-dependent. I think the biggest obstacle Essential Quality might have is loss of ground on both turns from his post, but that’s with any come-from-behind horse. He’ll be a come-from-behind horse in the Derby. It’s just according to the pace how far back he’ll be.

RANDY MOSS: He’s very solid, as Jerry pointed out. Not that many weaknesses on paper. He hasn’t run that fast for a Kentucky Derby favorite historically. I would say he’s solid but not spectacular. He’s slightly below-average, I would say, for a Kentucky Derby favorite historically.

Now, looking at the other horses on paper this year, that might be good enough to win. But if there are any other horses in the race that are capable of jumping up and running an above-average Kentucky Derby, then they’ll probably beat him, but he’ll be right there plugging away. He’s a very, very consistent horse that doesn’t have to have things his own way.

Now, we’ll transition to the trainer part. Brad Cox has made a meteoric rise. I think I just heard a stat that he’s one of two trainers in history that have won an Eclipse Award as champion trainer of the year before they even had their first Kentucky Derby starter. Allen Jerkens one, and now Brad Cox two – last year’s champion trainer.

Most of the owners that deal with Brad Cox on a regular basis attribute his success to his all-consuming approach to training horses. They say that’s almost all he thinks about, all day, all night. He’s a walking encyclopedia when it comes to the history of the sport. He just puts so much time and effort into all the little details surrounding his horses that it’s really impressed the owners that he works with, and so, consequently, he’s getting better and better horses to train.

ROB HYLAND: We have a camera crew outside of his house in Louisville just a few blocks away from the track…for a story we’ll have on Saturday.

I want to ask everybody, for everybody I want to know what’s the longest shot you have to hit the board or hit the superfecta. That’s the question for everyone. For Mr. Steve Kornacki, I want to ask you about how are you going to break this down and what is it going to look like compared to what you do for the election? Are you going to have a big board? You mentioned that you’re going to look at the odds, how the odds change, and I know from watching your other work that you have tons of data. And I want to get an idea, what kind of data are you looking at. Are you looking at post position, speed figures, percentage of time the favorite wins? I’m really interested to learn how are you going to work this.

ROB HYLAND: I’ll begin. Steve joined us on the ‘triplecast telecast’ that we’re apart of at the beginning of April, featuring the Wood Memorial, the Bluegrass Stakes and the Santa Anita Derby. He’ll have plenty of data. He’ll have a big board. It will look a lot like his presentation on either NBC News or MSNBC. I’ll let Steve take it from there, but he’ll be equipped with his big board and plenty of data.

STEVE KORNACKI: I mean, I think I was mentioning earlier parallels that I kind of see to what I do with elections and what we can and will be doing here. And I think one of the things in the political horse race that we’re looking at, in sort of the run-up to the election, is trying to use historical data to put polling data in context.

So we might look at a poll that shows a candidate leading by five points two weeks before the election. We would look to historical data to put that into context. OK, how many other candidates have had a lead like this this close to election? How many went on to win? How many lost? How many won going away? How many won in squeakers? I think we’re constantly looking to use historical data as a way of providing context for what’s in front of us right now. That’s the approach I take here in the run-up to an election night, and I think that’s sort of the parallel that I see to what I think what we can do here in the run-up to the Derby on Saturday.

And so I think what you’re mentioning there, actually a lot of those things are things on our mind here, where you talk about, look, obviously movement on the board itself, movement in the betting. I see what’s his name — the mattress guy — is throwing what? $2, $3 million on Essential Quality? Curious to see how that moves the odds. That’s a big chunk, potentially, of the win pool right there. I’d be curious to look at that piece of it alone.

I think it’s everything you’re saying about the history of favorites in the Kentucky Derby. And more recently the favorites have been doing well. You take a step back about two decades, they couldn’t win for years. But looking at the historical trends when it comes to favorites, when it comes to horses running near the front of the pack, the speed in the Derby, how that’s been doing better lately than it had been 10, 15, 20 years ago.

So, I think it’s just trying to find historical trends, historical data that will provide context for understanding what we’re kind of all building towards and anticipating here. And I think if election night is the parallel to the Kentucky Derby, that’s kind of how I’m thinking about it.

ROB HYLAND: We worked closely with our data provider, SportsMEDIA, to be able to take snapshots of money movements throughout the day, which is a feature we’ve never really had in the past. Steve will be able to track money that’s coming on any of the individual horses in the race on Derby night, and we’ll be able to take snapshots of that and explain it to the public.

RANDY MOSS: First of all, Steve has already demonstrated his passion for the history of the sport with his reference to Dollar Bill. This is the 20th anniversary of Dollar Bill, who is the only horse in Derby history that can get in trouble in a two-horse race.

Secondly, maybe Jim McIngvale, Mattress Mack, will have as much success with his bet on Essential Quality as he did with his seven-figure bet on Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Bucs to win the Super Bowl against the Chiefs. So Mattress Mack has shown some ability to do that.

Finally, to answer your question, Jerry and I, superfecta, I really, really like a long shot to hit the board potentially in the superfecta. His name is Dynamic One, trained by Todd Pletcher, who was beaten in a photo finish in a very weak Wood Memorial, but he probably was four, five lengths the best horse in that race. And he’s looking really good in Churchill Downs in the run-up to the Derby.

JERRY BAILEY: After Randy explained to me what a superfecta is, I’ve landed on King Fury, the winner of the Lexington Stakes. He’s in form. What’s he got to win, fourth or better? It will be a photo, but he’ll be right there.

Eddie, aren’t you the best handicapper there? Who is your —

EDDIE OLCZYK: That’s Randy and Jerry. That’s their cup of tea. I’m still trying to figure that out. Unfortunately, I think what I need to do is teach Jerry what an exacta is, trifecta, superfecta.

MIKE TIRICO: If I ever own a horse, I’ll name him Elusive Edzo, because that’s what he is when you ask him around this time, ‘What do you think, what do you think?’ He saves it all for Saturday.

I’m going to throw my hat in the ring with Midnight Bourbon, 20-1 morning line odds. When I was in California speaking with Mike Schmitz, he really likes him. How can you go wrong in a state that produces 95 percent of the world’s bourbon? Want to have some fun? Throw a horse in there that’s been in the money all seven starts, second in the Louisiana Derby — Midnight Bourbon.

It’s a great country when you can say “the mattress guy” and “the pillow guy” and a lot of people know who we’re talking about.

Jerry, you know a little bit about trips. If you were on Rock Your World, what do you think?

JERRY BAILEY: What do I think, how would I ride him? I would ride him just like John Velazquez rode Authentic last year. Be very careful with him the first quarter of a mile. He’s got the outside post, there’s that, and let your speed take over as you approach the turn.

I’m curious your thoughts on Kendrick Carmouche as a rider, he’s the first Black jockey in this race since Kevin Krigger in 2013, only the fourth in the past century. Your thoughts on Kendrick and his ability to aspire as a young rider?

JERRY BAILEY: I don’t know Kendrick well, but I met him several times, had some discussions with him. He’s a very likable guy, really likable and some would say cocky. I would just say he’s confident. He’s very confident in himself and his ability and he’s a very aggressive rider. Whether he means to or not, he intimidates a lot of guys out there just by his self-confidence and aggressiveness. I think he’s tailor-made for this race, but he’s got his work cut out for him because Bourbonic is going to be a very, very long shot. But it’s good to have him here.

RANDY MOSS: For anybody out there that doesn’t know the history of Black jockeys in the Kentucky Derby, it’s phenomenal. Obviously there haven’t been many in recent decades, but you go back to the early years of the Derby, the late 1800s, early 1900s, Black jockeys dominated the Kentucky Derby.

Guys like Isaac Murphy, Jimmy Winkfield, if anybody is interested in reading about that, there are two fantastic books on the topic, both written by the late Ed Hotaling. One is called ‘Great Black Jockeys’ and the other one is ‘Wink,’ the story about Jimmy Winkfield. It should have been made into a major motion picture a long time ago.

Rob, using the 20-horse gate with a 20-horse field in the Derby, I’m wondering how much better is it going to be for the inside horses, for instance, No. 1, Known Agenda, and how are you going to show it?

ROB HYLAND: Good question. We saw this gate a year ago in the Kentucky Derby. I’ll let Jerry speak to how a rider would get out of the gate quickly, but we will have a camera isolated on stalls one through 10 and a second camera isolated on stalls 11 through 20.

The 14 horse will be isolated out of the gate, your favorite, Essential Quality, and we always have the full field covered out of the gate, and the overhead will always show the start of the race and any movement a horse makes from overhead to try to avoid that rail if that is in fact an issue.

JERRY BAILEY: You know, but many on this call may not know, that with a double gate that they had prior in past years, to make it fit on the track itself, the 1 post had to essentially be looking at the inside rails. If you were in stall 1 on a horse, if you ran straight, you would run right into the rails. You had to do a little bit of maneuvering as you broke and ran the first hundred yards.

But that’s pretty much typical with any race — you do a little maneuvering once you leave the gate. The benefit of 1 gate, it’s deeply placed into the track, so as the No. 1 horse looks down the track, he won’t be looking at the inside rail. He’ll be looking at a running lane. But honestly, I don’t think it’s going to be that much different in how the races are run.

ROB HYLAND: I’ve got two things to add to that. Number one, the notion that the No. 1 post position is a huge disadvantage and horses get buried down on the rail and they’ve got no chance because they draw the 1 hole. Even with the old starting gate, it’s a bunch of malarkey. It defies geometry. Some people think you get to the Kentucky Derby and suddenly geometry doesn’t matter. Data proves that, and the new starting gate will only help that. And the other thing I have to add…and down the stretch they come!

For the analysts, looking past the Derby, looking to the Oaks and other big stakes on Friday and Saturday, who are some of the horses you’re looking forward to watching or horses you think might make for some good value in some of those stakes?

JERRY BAILEY: Let’s start with the Oaks. You’ve got the first four favorites are the winners of all the major preps. It’s a pretty good race in itself. The Derby you have, in my opinion, three pretty closely grouped. I think you have almost four pretty closely grouped in the Oaks. The winner of the Fair Grounds Oaks, the winner of the Ashland, Malathaat, the Fantasy, Pauline’s Pearl, and then the Gazelle winner, Search Results.

Malathaat is the favorite but I think Search Results, she could have some value.

The Eight Belles is a terrific race. The Turf Sprint is a terrific race. Randy and I just looked over Friday’s card and almost every race is a great value race to bet and a lot of talent.

RANDY MOSS: The great thing about the Kentucky Derby is that with 20 horses, now 20 different betting interests since the early 1990s, it’s not difficult at all to find good value on a horse that you like, that you think has a chance in the Derby. I mean, the challenge is just picking the right horse, which is a challenge that Jerry and I and everybody else have from year-to-year.

But you can go down the line and you can look at Dynamic One, a horse that I mentioned that should be a good price. O Besos, who was just beaten for second money in the Louisiana Derby. Midnight Bourbon, the horse that beat him for second, he’s going to be a good price. All sorts of value everywhere in the Kentucky Derby and fantastic undercard races all weekend.

JERRY BAILEY: Some of the headliners on Friday, you have the Oaks winner from a couple years ago Shedaresthedevil. On Saturday you have Charlatan. In the Sprint Race, you have Gamine, last year’s Filly and Mare Sprint champion. There’s some big names out there this weekend other than the Derby and the Oaks.

EDDIE OLCZYK: Friday’s card is — I’m looking at it. You can go three- and four-deep in the majority of the cards, but specifically in the Eight Belles, you’re asking for a specific horse, which is just a tremendous race.

I like Li’l Tootsie, with Flavien Prat for Tom Amoss, going to be a nice square price. Going to be using that horse up and down and hoping to pad the bankroll for a bit later in the day for Oaks and into the Oaks/Derby Double. A lot of my plays on Friday will be in Race 9 with Li’l Tootsie.

Rob, on the use of the drone, do you plan to actually use it in the race? Is there a wind restriction? And I assume it’s in addition to the blimp rather than replacing?

ROB HYLAND: It is in addition to the blimp, and we’ll be doing rehearsals with the vendor tomorrow afternoon and Thursday after training and just establish our comfort level with the camera. It’s a new toy but not the only camera we have. Churchill Downs has been great in working with us and the vendor has been great. Our number one priority is safety.

We were worried about the bat cam years ago. Horses have never noticed it in a race, so I’m hoping that we will effort a shot of the race or each race from the drone from the infield, sort of mimicking what the bat cam does in the back stretch, perhaps the drone handles on the front stretch. That will be determined over the next 48 hours of testing.

Mike, what has been your favorite memory with covering the Derby all these years that you have covered it?

MIKE TIRICO: Well, it’s only five years for me so I’m new compared to everybody else, but certainly the 20-some-odd minutes we all sat there with Maximum Security and Country House. There have been 146 Derby’s to this point and there’s never been an end to the race quite like that. That time was I think the best of what you hope for when you’re involved in live television.

Tremendous job by our producer, Rob, and our director. The best is Randy and Jerry walking us through a situation we hadn’t had happen before. The foresight of our group to have a camera with the stewards and watching them agonize over this decision that eventually changed the course of history — and for one horse, a Kentucky Derby winner; one horse has the biggest asterisk you’ll have in Derby history. Of the four, that’s the one that sticks out for me for the moment.

And the joy of live TV is that what we saw this year, we’ll have no idea what will happen, and we hope we’ll handle it the best we possibly can.

TRANSCRIPT – LIVE FROM THE MASTERS CONFERENCE CALL

By

Wednesday, March 31, 2021

Brandel Chamblee

Justin Leonard

Rich Lerner

THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you for joining today’s call. We’re going to be joined by NBC Sports’ lead golf studio team featuring Rich Lerner and analysts Brandel Chamblee and Justin Leonard.

RICH LERNER: Thanks for joining us. Now that I live in New England, in Connecticut, the GOLF Channel has moved, I’m more acutely aware of the waiting game that golfers play. Wait for the snow to melt. We had plenty of it. You wait for that first warm day. And obviously if you love the sport, you wait for The Masters. It’s always nice when the waiting is over.

Last time we were together at Augusta National, we were talking, if I remember correctly guys, we were talking about Leo Diegel and Denny Shute and Willie Fernie, who are the only men to have won majors later in the year than Dustin Johnson last November. Brandel can give you a full debrief on Willie Fernie.

The storylines that I have my eye on, I think a lot of people would like to see, if I had to sort of rank them pre-tournament, I think the best story would be Jordan Spieth winning again at last, his first time since Birkdale in 2017.

Bryson at Augusta. Rory completing the slam in his seventh try. Dustin becoming the fourth to repeat. I’ll throw a curveball here — Phil at 50. And though he hasn’t been great of late, you never discount someone like Phil at Augusta. And I think the other story, I think if it happens, if he plays, Brooks Koepka on one good leg.

A lot of really good storylines going in. Brandel, how about you?

BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: Look, there’s a lot to look forward to this week. Starting off for me, I’m going to be watching and talking about the Augusta National Women’s Amateur. The inaugural gave us an epic back and forth between Jennifer Kupcho and Maria Fassi, not only of athleticism but of goodwill towards one another.

I think that was the sport represented at its highest. Jennifer Kupcho did her best to duplicate the shot heard around the world in 1935 when Gene Sarazen, not at the 13th but the 15th holed it out. But who could forget Kupcho’s shot in the 13th for a final-round 67. Of course, she’s gone on to have a good start to her LPGA career.

Also looking forward to the Drive, Chip and Putt National Finals.

And as the week goes on, just watching Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Lee Elder get The Masters started. It’s been two years since we’ve had one in April. And while it was nice last year for us to get to see The Masters played, and it was beautiful in fall colors, I think most people are looking forward to the golf course playing more with players who are accustomed to — a little firmer, a little faster.

I’m also looking forward to Bryson DeChambeau take two. I think the first go-around was not what he was looking for, not what anybody was expecting.

And then, of course, the shortest time elapsed between a player winning in his defense, Dustin Johnson, not much has happened since then in terms of his game falling off. It’s still almost as sharp as it was coming into the event. So, looking forward to watching Dustin Johnson try to successfully defend and just be the fourth player to do so.

Justin, there’s always a lot to talk about, those are just headlines for me. But we can go on and on and I’m sure you could as well.

JUSTIN LEONARD: Certainly could. You guys hit on so many great storylines that we’ll be really detailing starting Monday night, first part of the week, and then kind of see how the golf plays out.

It seems like I was just driving from Augusta to Atlanta to catch a flight a couple of weeks ago. Even though it was four months ago, it seems a little strange for such a quick turnaround.

I know that, I believe the last two editions of the Masters Tournament has set scoring records. I’ve also heard through a couple of different folks that the golf course right now, or at least in the last week or two has been playing very, very firm.

And I’m guessing that, and I look forward to finding out for sure, that we’re going to find a little tougher Augusta National. I think they want to put a little bit of teeth back into it. Certainly, you know, we’re under some constraints weather-wise and the overseed everything in November. I think they’ll have a little more control over the golf course starting this weekend.

And it will be really interesting to see if they keep the golf course firm. I doubt it will be as firm this weekend. But going into this tournament, starting Monday through Wednesday, how the golf course firms up, the weather looks to be pretty good.

And, like you say, Dustin Johnson, can he win two in a row? Bryson after his first go-around, what adjustments did he make? And then, of course, Jordan Spieth. And also one name you didn’t mention was Rory McIlroy, trying to complete the career grand slam.

I don’t think he has a whole lot of confidence in his game right now. But maybe he can gather some this week and find something magical next weekend.

Q. I’m wondering if Augusta National does play as difficult as some people are pontificating, who do you think that benefits next weekend?

JUSTIN LEONARD: Well, I think Brandel has convinced me that the angle of descent is very important at Augusta National, even more so when it’s firm and fast. When I played in it in the years I did, I always looked forward to playing fast because it meant that I would be hitting 4-irons into all the par-4s.

But knowing what I know now, and thanks to Brandel just continuing to hammer this home with me, it’s the guys who can bring it in from a steep angle.

And I think if the golf course turns out to play fast, I still love Dustin Johnson and his ability to play that golf course. I think Rory McIlroy, I still think that when he gets to Augusta, having such a shorter timeframe from November to April rather than having to think about it for an entire year, probably suits him.

Then you have to go to a guy like Bryson, with as high as he can hit the ball with less clubs than anybody will hit into the greens and especially the par-5s, I think a firmer golf course plays even more into the longer hitters’ hands. And certainly a guy like Bryson would be somebody you’d have to consider. If not the favorite, then certainly one of the top four or five.

BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: I would agree, it’s somewhat counterintuitive. The softer the golf course plays, the more it opens it up for everybody, even those with lower ball flights and less spin. And the firmer it plays, the more it’s sort of imperative to control your landings with angles.

So I would look at Justin Thomas for sure under any circumstances, but certainly Justin Thomas and Bryson DeChambeau. And beyond that I’d go to those players — if it’s playing firm, obviously what a player does tee to green is important, but around the green is hugely important. So I look to the most well-rounded players, and that’s Patrick Cantlay. He’s certainly in that group.

I hope Rory McIlroy finds something with Pete Cowen and his team. I hope he’s able to show up with some sort of semblance of form, that he’ll have an aha moment sometime between the last time he played at the Match Play and we see him at Augusta.

I hope he has one of those aha moments. Justin can certainly can speak to this, you just never know. You can go out to the range one day completely lacking in confidence and think you stink, and walk home that night and feel like you’re Jack Nicklaus and think I found it. Nobody else may know it. But he could really show up and be a completely different person because we’re talking about — two weeks I think one of the most exciting things going into this Masters really for me is to see what Pete Cowen and Rory McIlroy are capable of doing when they’re home for a week and they have time to work on — if you’re arguably looking at the most talented golfer in the world and you’re already talking about arguably the most talented teacher — I’m curious what those two could do.

I don’t think it’s going to take the two-year incubation period that Nick Faldo took or Tiger Woods took, or at least I don’t think it should have to. I think teaching has improved since those two-year incubation points, as the ability to measure with more accuracy golf swings, because of the devices they use teaching has improved.

So, I’m really curious what Rory McIlroy shows up with at Augusta National.

RICH LERNER: I would throw in one other name among others, but Jon Rahm. To me it’s not a question of if, but when. And I think it will be soon and I also believe it would be a Greg Norman/Ernie Els surprise if he never won a Masters. So well suited does he appear to be for Augusta National. I think he has a ton of game. Jon Rahm, another guy, I think that will play well.

Q. You already mentioned a little bit about Bryson. What do you feel like he did wrong last time when he tried to take apart — he tried to just overpower Augusta National. Is that something that can be done?

BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: Look, I believe him when he says he wasn’t feeling well that week. I think some weeks you show up and you don’t have it physically. And I think it was an off week for him. I also think he was hugely unlucky at the third when his ball — I’ve never seen anybody lose a golf ball there. We’ll be watching The Masters for the next 20, 30, 40 years, you’ll never see another golf ball lost where Bryson hit it.

It was a hugely unlucky break. He got off to a bad start. I think one of the more, if not the most, ironic moment of 2020 was him making double bogey at the 13th hole in the first round after all the buildup to what he might do there.

So a lot of things have to go your way for a player of any skill to have a great week. And one of them is to feel well. I take him at his word, if you’re paying attention, he’s altered his diet. He’s come a long way down from the four, five, or 6,000 calories a day; he’s having 1,500 calories a day. And I’ve thought this all along, that a larger part of the equation of him hitting it far was not his diet and his bulk, but the changes he made in his golf swing.

He says as much when he talks about the more sinewy build of Kyle Berkshire. He’s going to come into Augusta more sinewy than the last time we saw him, less bulked up and hopefully feeling better. And Bryson DeChambeau take two at the 2021 Masters, I wouldn’t be surprised if he gave us all the excitement that we were expecting in 2020.

JUSTIN LEONARD: I think for Bryson is not trying to do too much as far as there may be a hole where it’s fine to hit a 5-wood or a 4-hybrid, if he had his cracked one replaced, which I’m sure he has from THE PLAYERS.

But not try and completely overpower every single hole on every single shot. There’s times when it’s a good idea just to play to the corner. I think of the hole like 5 where if it’s a stretch for him to get over that last fairway bunker. If he hits a 3-wood out where most of the other players are playing from, he’s still coming in with a shorter iron than they are. He’s still coming in with a steeper angle.

So I think it’s a void — the need to overpower every single tee shot there. I think it’s take advantage of the ones he’s comfortable in doing and maybe driver at 13 is not the right play. Maybe it is.

Obviously he can hit it very high. He can do it from right-to-left. But I just would like to see him avoid some pressing and trying to do too much off the tee, because his game is solid enough to get around that — he doesn’t need to drive it perfectly on every hole in order to put himself in position.

He can play to certain spots where the rest of the field is playing from and he still has an advantage. And yet on the holes where he’s very comfortable off the tee, those are the ones where he needs to put the pedal down.

RICH LERNER: I would just add that I think Bryson, what makes him so intriguing is that he’s pushing the sport to its most modern edge. But I think with that, he’s having to figure out how to manage every aspect of it, when you come into a big championship. And so it’s not just, to Brandel’s point, managing his diet but it’s managing the media and managing expectations and managing the hype.

And so as Bryson figures that end of it out, and I think he’s in the early stages, I think we may see something really extraordinary, because I think we’re just — this moonshot has just been sort of liftoff. The other side of that is how long can Bryson, at full throttle, he always appears to be at full throttle, how many events have we been to where the round was over — it was at Winged Foot and deep into a Saturday night, he’s still hitting driver full force.

So the other side of it is how long can he last without sort of the engine blowing. And I think Bryson and his team are smart. And I think they’re looking holistically at his program and how to best manage it. So to that end I think there will be a much better performance from Bryson this time around.

Q. Justin, but please, Brandel, can jump in as well. You’ve heard Phil say many times that no matter how poorly or indifferent he had been playing before The Masters, that once he got there and drove down Magnolia Lane, that everything seemed to change. Do you think a lot of players feel that way? Or maybe just players who have won there before, or just Phil?

JUSTIN LEONARD: Well, I think there’s a few players. That list is pretty short. It certainly works for Phil Mickelson. I think Jordan Spieth is another player. He’s probably not — there probably isn’t another golf course in the world where he’s more comfortable, he’s more excited about playing than Augusta National. I think he and Phil, of the modern players, they’re really the only two players I can think of, maybe Tiger Woods as well — and the reason I just didn’t say it immediately is because he’s not playing.

But for those players, I don’t think it matters what sort of form that they’re in when they get to Augusta National, because they’re so confident in what they do on that golf course, in particular.

And that their recent form doesn’t really matter. Now the fact that Jordan Spieth is coming in regaining his form rather rapidly over the last two months says to me that’s a little bit dangerous for the rest of the field because he’s got to be one of the favorites. Phil, you wouldn’t have him as a favorite, but it’s certainly fair to watch because of his record there. And he’s talked about it. It’s his favorite week of the year.

And while I know he’s playing this week in San Antonio, I don’t think it matters a whole lot how he plays, because the shot that he’s hitting this week in the tournament, it’s all with next week in mind.

So those two players, I think, you have to keep an eye out for them no matter how they’re coming into the week.

Q. Rich, you’re such a big sports fan even beyond golf. And so often in sports we always talk about the teams that kind of sneak into the playoffs under the radar and then do something once the playoffs begin. So you were out there in Austin last week, obviously, calling golf for five days. Is there somebody off the radar that you think we should keep in mind that maybe you talked to on the range or saw something that you think could have a big week next week?

RICH LERNER: Well, personally, I can’t quite expunge from my mind the image of Tyrrell Hatton, who seems to have perfected the art of club flip. And as questionable acts of decorum go, his happens to be mildly endearing. But as I called it, sort of the peaky blinders put on, shouldn’t detract from the fact that Hatton can really play.

And I think you look at his body of work — in the last two to three weeks he hasn’t been great and he wasn’t especially good at the Match Play. But if you look at his body of work over the last two years, oddly enough, after a wrist/hand issue — and here’s another guy you could look at, though he’s more of a little low ball hitter, that typically is not the best at Augusta — but that’s Daniel Berger, who also had a wrist/hand issue and has rebounded nicely.

I’ll give you Tyrrell Hatton. I’ll give you Danny Berger. I’ll give you Webb Simpson. Again these aren’t prototypes. This is not Jon Rahm, high ball hitter, for the obvious reasons that you like.

Webb — and Brandel and Justin can correct me if I’m wrong here — Webb would fit into the category more of a Patrick Reed — excellent short game; hard, competitive streak; doesn’t give much away.

And he’s a Wake Forest guy. Right? I think he went to Wake on the Arnold Palmer Scholarship. He certainly would know what Augusta National meant to Arnie. But those are a few guys I would throw out there.

Q. To the point about Daniel Berger, and Justin and Brandel you can weigh in on this, he’s had to wait the longest for this because he won the first event out after the restart.

When you’re someone like Daniel Berger who thought that they should have figured out some way to get him in for 2020, he did not. He’s been waiting and now he finally gets this chance, how do you keep yourself mentally focused going into Thursday knowing how long you’ve been waiting for this moment to happen?

BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: I don’t think he’d have a hard time keeping mentally focused. Quite the contrary. I think he’s probably never been more focused in his entire life because you work your whole life to have these sorts of opportunities. And you could make an argument that since the restart after the pandemic, there’s been maybe two or three players play as well as Daniel Berger.

So he must realize you can go in and very easily calculate your own World Ranking points accumulated since the pandemic. And he would see right there plain as day, and he would know this as well, that he is amongst a handful of favorites to play well.

So I mean I’m sure it’s focused like using a magnifying glass on the sun on paper. That would be how focused you’d be. And he would be doing everything in his power to have the right mental state.

And in terms of players off the radar, look, it’s a very hard tournament to win if you’re outside the top 15 in the world, flat out. It’s the easiest tournament to predict who is going to win of all of them.

THE PLAYERS would be the hardest. The Masters is the easiest because, one, there’s the smallest field in major championship golf. And some of them are past champions, well past their prime. So it’s even smaller than the number.

And then once The Masters sort of identifies those with the talents necessary to play well there it has more repeat winners than every other major. And basically those talents are, it allows you to have wiggle room off the tee, but if you have the ability to hit high cuts off of hook lies or in the case of the lefties obviously the opposite of that, you’ve got a tremendous advantage at Augusta National.

So ball-striking is important everywhere, of course. But you have to look at players that are capable of hitting high cuts. And because we are asked so many times there, even a back, right hole location on 6 on Sunday is so important. If you think about what Dustin Johnson did last year on Sunday, after bogeying 4 and 5, the hole location’s over on the right on 6, the high cut of his that he only went to in December 2015 is when he stumbled onto that cut. And that’s when he’s done his best work. And that high cut on that hole like 6, you just have to have it.

So I look at sooner or later, another first timer is going to win at Augusta National. So outside of 34 and 35, Fuzzy Zoeller is it. So the question always is, who is the first-time player there or who was the someone with the least amount of experience who is likely to win?

I almost look at November as sort of a wash because you wouldn’t have learned what you needed to know from the November Masters to play in an April Masters. But I look at Will Zalatoris, who is amongst the elite, and I’m talking about the top-five-strokes-gained-tee-to-green players in the world who can show up and — I say surprise; he wouldn’t surprise his peers, but he would surprise the sort of the casual golf fan who mostly tunes in to watch the bigger events and certainly The Masters is one of those.

JUSTIN LEONARD: I was sitting here going through the World Golf Rankings, and there’s always debate on what’s off the radar. It’s hard to say that a player is off the radar if they’re ranked top 25, top 30 in the world. But as Brandel laid out, it’s typically guys up there at the very top of the World Rankings that seem to do well. But I look down and think of a guy like Harris English, a guy who likes to hit high cuts, who’s putting as well as he has in his entire career.

And I think somebody like a Harris English has a great chance playing on a firmer golf course, hitting those high cuts, and obviously he’s played with a lot of confidence through the last two years, and then finally getting that victory back in the fall. He’s somebody that I’m definitely going to be watching with a lot of interest.

Q. Brandel and Justin, curious your thoughts on why Jordan Spieth — and you touched on this a little bit already — why is his game so well suited for Augusta National? Is it as simple as it’s a good draw and there’s a number of holes that set up for a draw? And then obviously the short-game skill-set there. Or is there something more to it than that?

JUSTIN LEONARD: Well, as you know, Augusta National did not allow green reading books. So many players are so used to using those books each and every week and I think for Jordan Spieth, he gets there and he sees the line of putts on the greens and he doesn’t have to go to his book to kind of reconfirm that. I think the fact that he’s got some room off the tee, he understands the angles, hole locations, certain places where you can miss it, other areas where you can’t. And you don’t have to hit the ball perfectly around Augusta National, but you do have to manage where you miss it and when you miss it, and I think that’s something that Jordan has done so well around Augusta National and throughout his entire career.

But I think the big thing is on the greens. He’s just so comfortable there on the greens with his short game, being able to get the ball up-and-down. And it is, it’s going to be at more of a premium assuming the golf course is firm and fast. Ball-striking is going to be important, but got to have your wits about you on the greens, understand where you can miss it and then play the right shot from there.

So, to me, those are his biggest strengths, and I think they’re on display at Augusta National.

BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: And I certainly agree with everything that Justin said. I’ll go back to this time and time again. You look at the man who won the most Masters ever, Jack, and his release pattern. You can just scroll through any Masters he won and watch. You can just watch his release pattern and watch how high he finishes. You can see the way his left arm works through impact.

It’s very much sort of the chicken-wing look that Jordan Spieth has. It’s funny how he was criticized for that, so was Jordan Spieth. But the very thing he’s criticized for is the thing that makes him great. It’s his release pattern. And his release pattern goes left to right. And you think about how many times you have a ball above your feet or a hook lie, and if you have a draw, you’ll slam that club into the hill and get a surprise pull left. But if you’re cutting across it, you get no surprise. You hit high soft cuts into the greens and you can always sort of – the ball’s general working left to right on greens that are sloped from front to back. And they stop quicker and more often than not they end up underneath the hole.

It’s a combination of Jordan Spieth being able to, yes, as you said, work it beautifully right to left when he needs to. Mostly he does that with his 3-wood. He’ll hit 3-wood at 13 mostly, he’ll hit 3-wood at 2 mostly, and he’s a smart enough player to know when to hit 3-wood and when he can go with driver.

Beyond that, it’s his extraordinary iron play coupled with his ability to pitch the ball like Phil Mickelson. There’s been very few players come along who have been able to trap — everybody talks about using the bounce. And, look, I get it, how using the bounce works. But Phil didn’t. He trapped it, covered it in his pitch shots. So does Jordan Spieth. They sort of trap cut them in their own way and on tight lies where there’s very little room for mistakes, Jordan Spieth, more often than not, hits the most amazing pitch shots.

The audio on his pitch shots is like Phil Mickelson’s. And it’s like Jose Maria Olazabal’s and Sergio Garcia’s. I mean, these are great pitchers of the ball.

So, again, it’s a place where he gets to show off and the golf course is a perfect fit for him because he’s not the best driver of the golf ball, but it allows you room to recover and then he can work his magic.

RICH LERNER: One other thing I would add — this is obviously not as technical — but if ever a play seemed to be sort of born for a place, it was Spieth. You think about the depth of his experience at Augusta and he’s only 27. In 2014, he’s chasing Bubba (Watson) on Sunday. He led it early and then Bubba pulled away.

2015, he tied what was then Tiger’s scoring record, since broken by Dustin (Justin). 2016 he has the mini meltdown at No. 12 and (Danny) Willett wins. So, he experiences the range of emotions inside of two years.

In 2018, he shoots 64 in the coulda, woulda, shoulda game. Had a chance to be 61 or 62, which I thought at that moment would have been the greatest Sunday in the history of the sport had he come all the way back to win and then (Patrick) Reed ended up winning.

So just the depth of what he’s already experienced there is uncommon at any single venue for any player. He obviously loves it there.

BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: And to Rich’s point, he’s the only player since 2000 that’s shot multiple rounds of 64. It is just a perfect fit for him.

Q. Brandel had a great post on Instagram yesterday where he wrote when you watch younger players come up, you wonder if there’s any of him or her left in their swing or are they simply chasing some emulative dream. Could you expound on that and why is being more results-driven tending to yield better results than players who pursue this technical perfection? And of the young guys that you mentioned — Morikawa, Wolff, Scheffler — who has the best shot of winning the Masters?

BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: In an age of so much data and information and video to sit down and ponder, there are a lot of ways you can use that. And when I see players chasing some aesthetic ideal, I see them not really ever taking ownership of their game. They essentially turn over their entire swing, ideas, their thoughts to teachers or other people who are around them.

When you see somebody take ownership of their game — and I’m really thinking of Viktor Hovland or Matt Wolff or Collin Morikawa, the players I posted — they take ownership of their game. And there’s vitality in that and there is a certain arrogance in that.

Lee Trevino certainly had that in great quantity. And I think — it’s curious to me, in an age where we have so much data about the golf swing, and there’s so much video on YouTube of all these great golf swings — and I see this even on the LPGA Tour. I see some of the best golf swings losing to golf swings that are more idiosyncratic like Inbee Park. If you looked at Anne van Dam and you looked at Inbee Park on the range, you’d never in a million years guess that Inbee Park can beat Anne van Dam handily. Mind you, Inbee Park beats almost everybody handily. But I think there’s a difference in chasing an aesthetic ideal and learning from the ball flight.

This is one of the great things about Butch Harmon, is that none of his players swing alike. And Butch uses the ball flight more than anything else. He talks about how the ball flight never lies.

And I think these players have come along in an age of data and they’ve used it to shape their strategy, and they’ve used it to sort of complement their, I guess, intuition about how to play the game; but they haven’t used it to conform to an aesthetic ideal or to methods that are everywhere out there in the world.

And every teacher has an idea about how to swing the golf club and they differ. Almost every single teacher differs with one another.

But to see the players come along and look so idiosyncratic and look like — I quoted Bob Dylan in that speech only because the singer Bob Dylan reminds me of the players I was sort of posting about. There’s this beautiful imperfection. There’s this wonderful sloppiness to their work, like a Jackson Pollock painting. You can’t quite make it out but it’s amazing. It works. And I love that about this generation.

And to answer your question, I think Collin Morikawa is the obvious choice, because simply, of all those players I posted, he is the best iron player, he’s the best ball striker, and that allows you to separate yourself from everybody else quicker and more consistently.

RICH LERNER: Brandel, quick comment on top of that because it’s fascinating. But you still play golf; you don’t swing golf. It’s a game to be played. And that’s entirely, the swing — not to minimize the importance of certain sound fundamentals — but you quoted Dylan, I’ll quote Hal Sutton, who said to me once, ‘You show me a guy with a homemade swing and I’ll show you a guy who believes in himself.’ So you think about the long history, right off the top, it’s Arnold. It’s Hubert Green. It’s Lee Trevino. It’s Raymond Floyd.

BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: It’s even Jack Nicklaus, by the way.

RICH LERNER: Right.

BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: Yeah, Jack Nicklaus’ golf swing would have been nothing that anybody was teaching. You think Jack Nicklaus took up the game in 1950, that was the year that Hogan came back from the accident and won the U.S. Open, and the whole world was in love with that flat golf swing. And Jack came up with this fly-the-right elbow. His swing would have looked as homemade then as Bryson DeChambeau’s does now.

JUSTIN LEONARD: And to throw a couple other names, to prove Brandel’s point, Scottie Scheffler, with his really high hands and his footwork is kind of all over the place. And Joaquín Niemann. Those are two golf swings that you don’t — probably don’t — you probably don’t have a lot of junior players that are putting pictures of those two swings up on above their bed.

BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: Right not at all.

JUSTIN LEONARD: But they’re two golf swings that work beautifully for them and there is beauty in imperfections.

BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: Think about it. Those are the players that made it at the youngest age — Scottie Scheffler, Joaquín Niemann, Viktor Hovland, Matt Wolff, Collin Morikawa. And you look at those people and say how did these players — go to any driving range at an NCAA event or top amateur event and you’ll see nothing but Adam Scott’s.

I’m not disparaging Adam Scott’s golf swing. It’s amazing. But the point is you’ll see nothing but technical perfection and they didn’t make it. These kids did and it begs the question, ‘How? Why?’ And you have to say at some point it’s empowering to be different.

RICH LERNER: How about Jon Rahm?

BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: Jon Rahm, much the same way. You wouldn’t teach that swing. You couldn’t teach that swing.

RICH LERNER: Right.

Q. Brandel, what have you seen in Jordan’s swing that’s different in this little resurgence?

BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: Well, if you watch him when he rehearses before he hits a shot now, it’s weird. Even when he’s hitting bunker shots, he’ll make this very flat golf swing and then in transition, he’ll bring his right elbow much closer to his left elbow than I’ve ever seen him, and then he will round it off and sort of curve the hub.

He’ll swing very much around and to the left. The only other person I’ve ever seen make practice swings like that is Jason Dufner. So it would not surprise me in the least if he was not — if he wasn’t taking lessons from Jason Dufner, talking to Jason Dufner about the golf swing, or watching Jason Dufner make golf shots. Or Cameron McCormick is.

RICH LERNER: He has, Brandel. I spoke to their camp at Bay Hill and he has confided in Dufner, which sort of caught me by surprise.

BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: There you go, because you can see it in the moves. And, look, anybody who watched Jason Dufner hit golf shots knows that, for a guy who doesn’t have great club head speed, there’s still an audio to his shot that is arresting. And he’s a high-quality ball striker and he’s spent a lot of times studying the swing — mind you it’s a very golf machine-oriented view; but, listen, the answers are wherever you find them.

And this has worked wonders for Jordan to keep from getting stuck. It’s got the club flipping out in front of him again so he can get on top of it. And it’s teacher-speak. We say swing left or whatever, but it’s getting around and getting the club back out in front of him and stop getting it stuck.

Q. D.J. has been doing this for years. Have you seen more guys with the bowed left wrist? You look at Rahm, Morikawa, Hovland, do you think there’s a reason we’re seeing more of this, or just idiosyncrasy that some of these guys share?

BRANDEL CHAMBLEE: I don’t think we’re seeing any more of it. I just think that golf is on TV 24 hours a day so we’re noticing it and we have high-speed video and cameras so we can see it in slow motion. But there was a great teacher, unheralded teacher by the name of Kelvin Miyahira, who almost every teacher today has either, I say steal from, borrowed from, been influenced by — sadly he had a stroke a few years ago.

But Kelvin did a deep dive into the number of bowed left wrists, shut faces, and the majority of major winners since World War II have had bowed left wrists and shut faces. The majority of them. There’s obvious benefits to it in that you have less work to do on the downswing and you only need clear your body as fast as you can to hold off the face. And it helps you hit cut shots which, again, is the more preferable ball flight when it comes to winning major championships for the height with which you can hit it, the way it works left to right, so forth.

But I think the equipment, too, has allowed guys to have stronger grips, which has made the face even more shut at the top; allowed them to sort of hang back a little bit with their upper body, have more spine tilt, stronger grip, and launch it higher. So the equipment is contributing to it to some point, and maybe that’s why you’re seeing even more shut faces. But the bowed left wrist — Palmer was that guy. Claude Harmon was that guy. Loads of players are shut-faced players in the past.

RICH LERNER: I want to say thanks to all the guys. It’s obvious you’re covering this sport and not soccer. Those were some great questions. And we look forward to seeing you guys next week at Augusta.

TRANSCRIPT – DREW BREES INTRODUCTORY CONFERENCE CALL

By

Wednesday, March 17, 2021

Sam Flood

Drew Brees

THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon, and thank you, everyone, for joining us today for our call to introduce Drew Brees as the newest member of the NBC Sports team. In just a moment we’ll be joined by Drew as well as NBC Sports executive producer Sam Flood. As you all know, it was announced on Monday that Drew will be joining our team as a studio analyst on Football Night in America and as a game analyst for our Notre Dame broadcasts. Let’s begin with opening remarks from Sam Flood.

SAM FLOOD: Thanks, Chris, and thanks, everyone, for joining us today. We are thrilled that Drew is officially on the NBC Sports team. He scared a bunch of people when he was pushing that sled and getting that massive workout in a few weeks ago, throwing people off the scent and even giving us pause.

But we’re really excited to have a Super Bowl-winning quarterback and future Hall of Famer working for us, coming in in a Super Bowl year, joining Football Night and Notre Dame, and he’ll be part of big events at NBC like the Olympics and the Derby as we go forward, and a perfect year to have him join the Super Bowl out in LA. We can’t wait to get going.

Then for the Notre Dame games, Mike Tirico and Drew will have a lot of fun in South Bend. A Boilermaker calling the Notre Dame games. Should be a fun listen and a good chance to experience college football again, which is one of the things that’s exciting about this deal, touching multiple parts of the company and of the sports world.

With that, we welcome Drew and want to pass it off to you because he’s the person everyone wants to hear from right now. So, Drew, take it away.

DREW BREES: Thank you, Sam, and thank you to everyone who’s tuned in. I could not be more excited to be joining the NBC team. Certainly, in my opinion, it is the best of the best from the top down. My experience thus far with every member of NBC has been first class, and I’m really looking forward to jumping on board. Again, being part of the college football broadcast as a game analyst with Notre Dame football and then as a studio analyst with Football Night in America. I look forward to working very closely with the team, especially Mike Tirico, Rodney Harrison, Tony Dungy and many others.

At this point, I’ll turn it over to everyone for questions, and I’m excited to get started.

Q. Sam, how do you foresee it working out with Mike Tirico and Al Michaels with Al in the last year of his contract and then also with Drew and Cris Collinsworth in terms of Drew potentially doing Sunday Night Football and maybe the Super Bowl one day?

SAM FLOOD: Well, first of all, with Mike and Al, that process, conversations continue. It will be similar to this last year in terms of how we map that out. In terms of the booth for Sunday Night Football and Cris, Cris remains among the best to have ever done it, and the plan is to have him in that chair for a long time. So, the opportunity down the road is not something we’re looking at right now. We’re focused on Football Night in America, the Notre Dame partnership with Mike Tirico, and that’s really what this opportunity is about.

Q. From the Notre Dame side of things, what do you remember about your trips there, however many years ago, and what you may remember coming forward this year when Purdue will actually be their second game?

DREW BREES: Yes, don’t think I didn’t see that on the schedule right away. No, I remember vividly my two experiences at Notre Dame, both in 1998 and 2000. Both games, in my opinion, we should have won and somehow, someway Touchdown Jesus got us in the end. But I’m extremely excited to be in the booth with Mike Tirico broadcasting those Notre Dame games. There’s no question that that is really one of the epicenters of college football. The history and the nostalgia that exists there and I think just what that place represents to so many people, it is a special place.

I will say this, I will be impartial for every game with the exception of the Purdue game because my bloodlines run deep with the black and gold and the Boilermakers.

But on a serious note, I’m excited to be a part of that and really continue, I think, the legacy of what Notre Dame football has meant to so many and obviously extremely excited to be in the booth with Mike Tirico.

Q. Even though you’re not initially doing the booth for the NFL, any quarterback coming into this business these days is going to be judged a little bit against what Tony Romo has done. What do you think about the way he made that transition and how much of what he’s done do you kind of study as a template for how you might make that transition?

DREW BREES: Sure, I think Tony has done a great job. I think that what Tony did was — I think he very quickly showed football fans everywhere just the way that an NFL quarterback can see and process the game, and it’s obviously maybe much different than what they’ve seen or heard before.

Obviously, he’s had a ton of success and, listen, Tony has his own style, and I think that the best piece of advice that I’ve gotten so far when stepping into this business and stepping into the booth is just to be yourself. I think that’s exactly what Tony has done. I think that if you look at all the great broadcasters from Cris Collinsworth to Troy Aikman to Jon Gruden to all the guys from history, man, everybody had their own style, right? John Madden. You certainly want the fans to kind of get a glimpse into the way that you see and process the game but also feel your love and passion for the game.

I think that’s what was so intriguing about this transition from being a player to going into the booth is that I love this game, and I love watching this game, I love talking about this game, and it gives me the opportunity to stay very closely connected, to show my love and passion for the game but in a different way, and also for fans to get a glimpse into how I see it, how I process it. And then the trick is to be able to articulate that in a way where fans can not only understand it, but I want them to walk away from the game after listening to me talk about it saying, ‘Man, I know a lot more about the game now’ or ‘I know a lot more about that play or that team’ or ‘I have a new appreciation for it’ and also feel that it was very entertaining.

Q. With everything you have going on with your pro football career, how much Notre Dame football have you been able to watch recently? And within that question, what are your impressions of the Notre Dame program at this point?

DREW BREES: You know, ironically, I watched quite a few games last year. Obviously, they had a phenomenal run. It was fun to watch them on that journey. I feel like just from watching them this last year, I got a bit of a feel for their team and their style of play, their offense. Obviously, they had those two big games with Clemson along the way, as well, so those were fun to watch.

Obviously it’s one thing to watch it on TV, it’s another thing as you begin to really study the team and study their personnel and the coaching staff and just — college football is so interesting, right, because you get your recruiting class that comes in, and in most cases you know that you’re going to have these guys for four, five years, and so you build your team, you build your program off of that. Obviously, the NFL can be very different from the perspective that, man, the complexion of a team can change very quickly from year to year with free agency and the draft, etc., etc.

I’m interested to dive back into college football and understand the style that’s being played. I think more so now than ever, you see this crossover of NFL and college. You’ve got coaches that are jumping back and forth, and I think you have the styles of play that are beginning to mimic each other because you have quarterbacks going from college football into the pros and they’re so versatile, they’re so athletic, they can do so many things that you see these offenses in the NFL skew more towards really catering towards the skill set of those players coming from college.

I’m really intrigued to dive into it and understand it further, study it further.

Q. Just wondering when you were at Purdue, had broadcasting been something that you always thought about? Just thinking that former Purdue QBs Bob Griese and Len Dawson have had successful broadcasting careers.

DREW BREES: You know, I probably didn’t think about it until two or three years ago. I’ve always loved watching football, even when I wasn’t playing it. People would always ask me, ‘Do you go home and just shut the TV off because you just have had enough of it?’ And I was like, ‘No, absolutely not.’ I love the game. I’m a fan of the game. I love watching college football, I love watching NFL. So, if a game is on, I’m typically watching it. Usually I’m sitting back and watching it from a quarterback’s perspective, I’m studying the game, I’m studying the offense, trying to anticipate what moves are going to be made on both sides of the ball. That’s kind of the way we process it as a quarterback.

Over the years I really started listening to commentators and listening to their delivery and how they would set things up and the topics they would choose to talk about and the game became even more interesting that way just feeling like that was something that I could transition to.

I’d say the defining moment for me was a few years ago, actually before the NFL season started. I believe this would have been 2017. I flew my family up to Indianapolis because Purdue was hosting Louisville and Lamar Jackson in Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. It was before our NFL season had started. We had a weekend off, so flew the family up there to watch the Boilermakers and was watching the game and was invited into the studio to chat football and the upcoming season, but also to comment on the game.

I’m telling you, when I put those headphones on and I started seeing the game from that vantage point and then beginning to talk about it, it was like the lightbulb went on, and I said, ‘Man, I can do this and I would love it and I think I could be really good at it.’ I think that’s when I started to think about it and take it serious.

Q. How much does football and the preparation of it, how much do you think that transfers over to the studio?

DREW BREES: I think it transfers a lot because, listen, I went from playing the game to now talking about the game, right? There’s a way that I would study opponents. There’s a way that I would prepare to go out and play my very best. I think the analysis of a game, of an opponent, of a team, is very much the same in that regard.

From that perspective, I think that especially having a great familiarity with the teams certainly in the NFL and once I have a chance to really study Notre Dame, I think that you’ll begin to anticipate, have a really great understanding both offensively and defensively what’s happening. Be able to anticipate what’s coming, the things that are happening. You watch players grow and develop and mature and you’re able to talk about that. I just think there’s so many positive themes and so many great things that we’re going to be able to talk about, and also just allow fans to see the game obviously, again, from a quarterback’s perspective and a guy who’s fresh out of the NFL game and certainly sees and processes a game differently than probably what they’ve heard before.

Q. You have obviously talked a lot in the past about feeling like you could play until you were 45. I probably would have taken the over on 20 years. What ultimately made you come to peace with this being the time and feeling like you were ready to walk away?

DREW BREES: Well, you know, you’ve heard me say this before. The last — I’d say ever since the 2017 season — I have truly approached each season like it could be my last. I’ve approached the off-season that way and then I’ve approached each and every game during the season that way. There was no additional pressure with that because I really tried to play every game like it was the Super Bowl, like it was the most important game of the season. So my preparation was always the same. It was always consistent. I always wanted to put my absolute best on the field every time out.

What I started to do was just enjoy some of the little things a bit more, the bus rides home, the plane rides home, the locker room after, just smell the roses, so to speak, and really just stay in the moment and enjoy it, and knowing if something happened where all of a sudden it was an injury or something and that was my last game, then I know that I poured everything I could into it.

I’ve just approached each year for the last four or five years that way, with that mindset, and I feel like that’s served me well. I think I’ve played some of my best football during that time.

At the end of the day, the factors that go into this are — I’ve always said as long as I could play the game at a high level, I’m having fun doing it and able to stay healthy — then this is something I’ll do forever. Obviously I’ve had some injuries the last two years that have been frustrating, both of them kind of freak things. I don’t think they were injuries that were saying I was getting old, but nonetheless, I have the thumb that holds me out five games two years ago and then had the ribs and the lung that holds me out for four games this past year. Could I keep playing? Yeah, I’m sure I could, but I’m also looking at my kids, my family, the age of my kids, and just gauging all of those things, there’s a balance there.

I also just felt like I would just feel it. I would feel when it was time. And I felt that it was time.

Q. Obviously you played college football in West Lafayette and played the Colts numerous times in your career, now you’re going to be going to South Bend in the fall for college football Saturdays. What stands out to you about the passion of fans from the state of Indiana, and did Notre Dame show any interest in you as a recruit out of Westlake High School?

DREW BREES: No, Notre Dame did not show me any interest and I do not blame them because there was nothing memorable about me, I don’t think, as a high school quarterback, or certainly nothing that would have jumped off the page. We had a ton of success as a high school program, and we never lost a game, won a state championship my senior year, went 16-0 and won the 5A State championship, I was the 5A State Player of the Year.

But I really wasn’t recruited by anybody. I was recruited by Purdue and Kentucky, and then I’d say the only reason I was recruited by those guys is because they had two brand new head coaches, Joe Tiller coming to Purdue from Wyoming, and Hal Mumme came from Valdosta State to Kentucky. Both of them had spread offenses, and both of them had gotten hired in late December and had to throw together a recruiting class, so those guys I think just kind of went out and took who they could get at that point, and I certainly ended up in the right place at Purdue, got an incredible education and four years of Big Ten football where we went to bowl games every year and won a Big Ten Championship and had a Rose Bowl appearance my senior year.

I would say the passion of the fans in Indiana — it’s a shame that that Purdue-Notre Dame annual match-up went away for a while. I hope that it comes back in perpetuity at some point. I’m really happy to see that Purdue will be at Notre Dame this year. That’ll be a great matchup and kind of renew that rivalry.

But when I got to Purdue, man, we were playing Notre Dame every year, we were playing IU every year, so just these in-state rivalries, and you’re playing for the Old Oaken Bucket or you’re playing for the Shillelagh (Trophy), all these trophies that are involved in the games and the history, and obviously the state is divided because you’ve got all these alums from three schools all spread out, it just made for an incredible atmosphere.

Q. You mentioned what you’ve seen and learned from Tony Romo in his transition. Have you had a chance to talk to him about that transition, and if so, what did he say?

DREW BREES: You know what, I have not talked to Tony yet, but he’s certainly on my list of people to talk to.

Q. You’ve of course been the Saints’ unquestioned quarterback for 15 years. How did you tell your teammates of your decision to retire and what message did you give Jameis (Winston) and Taysom (Hill) about carrying on the torch?

DREW BREES: Yeah, I’ve had some great conversations with my teammates. I think really over the last few years, I’ve been very up front about my mindset going into every season, and that is I’m going to play every season like it’s my last, and I will take time at the end of each season to evaluate where I am, both mentally, emotionally, physically and then make that decision one way or the other.

I’ve taken that time the last few off-seasons to do that. I think everybody probably felt like this was going to be my last year, and I think that created a great sense of urgency for all of us as we made our way through the season and had a very successful season.

I’m really excited for the opportunity that both Taysom Hill and Jameis Winston have. I can’t tell you how much fun we had together as a quarterback room, really a great group of guys, a great group of human beings — guys that really love the game of football, love their teammates. We love to work hard. We love to push each other. It was highly competitive. At the same time, we were there to support one another and help one another because we just wanted the team to win.

As you saw last year, there were moments where Taysom obviously had to start and did a phenomenal job for four years. There was a moment where Jameis had to come off the bench in the second half of the 49ers game when I had the ribs and the lung injury, and he came in and did a phenomenal job. I’ve seen so much growth and maturity from both of those guys over the last few years for Taysom and then last year for Jameis.

We’ll see how it plays out. It sounds like there’s going to be a pretty good quarterback competition, but it’s going to bring out the best in both of them.

Q. I was wondering what was the most difficult part of ultimately making that decision to walk away from the game?

DREW BREES: This decision was, of course, it’s a difficult one. I think the biggest thing is you have been a football player for so long, going back — I’ll count high school because high school football was very important to me. From high school to college to the NFL, that’s 28 years, so that’s two-thirds of my life. I’m 42 years old, so for two-thirds of my life, every decision that I’ve made has had football as the focus. Every decision you make is based on you as a football player, what’s going to help you be in the best position to succeed as a football player, every decision from the perspective of diet, what you’re putting in your body and how you’re working out and how you’re recovering and the amount of time you’re dedicating yourself to being the very best you can be at your craft.

You know, I understand why guys have such a hard time with the transition from football. I would compare it to if you are a heart surgeon and you have trained a majority of your life to be the very best heart surgeon that you can be, from college to your postgraduate studies to med school to your residency to then finally becoming a doctor, being a heart surgeon, having the chance to do something that so few get to do, but you’ve trained your whole life and have these dreams and ambitions of becoming this and all of a sudden, you wake up one day and somebody tells you you can’t do it anymore.

I get that — I’d say that’s where the biggest maybe fear and stress for most guys is, just from conversations I’ve had with so many, is man, there is a transition. There is a transition from playing the game to going and doing anything else because you can’t replicate the locker room and you can’t replicate running out of the tunnel. There’s just moments and feelings and emotions that are really, really hard to replicate after you’ve been a professional football player.

Now, I think the great thing about the opportunity that I have is, number one, I transitioned from one incredible team to another incredible team with NBC, the best of the best. I transitioned from a locker room, where man, I had so many great relationships and so much love and appreciation and administration for the people that I work with. I know this — Mike Tirico has been one of my favorite guys in the business for a very long time, and I’m as excited to be in the booth with Mike Tirico as I was to throw passes to Michael Thomas on Sundays, and I’m dead serious when I say that.

I get to talk about the game of football. I get to eat, sleep and breathe the game of football still. I get to show my love and passion for the game still, but just in a different way.

I feel like that’s certainly what will help ease the transition for me from being a player to now this role.

Q. What’s your ultimate goal? Do you want to do a Super Bowl? What’s your ultimate goal as a broadcaster?

DREW BREES: Most importantly for me, I want to create as great a fan experience as I can. I know what it’s like to watch a game, and I know what I would want to hear while I’m watching a game. I think what’s so unique, again, about the position that we’re in as an NFL quarterback, now transitioning into the booth, is I’m excited to show fans how I see the game and how I process the game and the things that I’m thinking about and the things that I’m anticipating and articulating it in a way that’s both educational and enjoyable to listen to.

Listen, I’m going to have my own style. I don’t even know what that style is yet, but I’m going to be myself, and I’m going to talk as if you’re sitting right next to me in my living room and we’re just watching the game together.

It’s going to be as authentic as it can possibly be because that’s the only way I know how. I hope people enjoy it. I hope people love it. At the end of the day I am going to work as hard at this as I do everything in my life.

And as far as what the future holds, I have no idea, but I do know I’m a part of the best team in the business with NBC, with one of the very best play-by-play guys in the business in Mike Tirico, and others that will be great mentors for me, guys like Cris Collinsworth, guys like Al Michaels and others that are part of the NBC team and I think do a phenomenal job. I’m very excited with this opportunity.

Q. A lot of people in New Orleans are wondering if you and your family will continue living in the city as much as you have during your time with the Saints, or if you will now relocate to San Diego or somewhere else. Just was wondering if you could take a moment to discuss what you and your family envision on that front.

DREW BREES: We will always have a strong presence in New Orleans. I have more things going on in the city of New Orleans right now than I have since we’ve been there. I’m sure you might have seen the article that just came out in regards to the proposal we submitted for the RFQ for the Jazzland Six Flags piece of property, where we intend to bring a nonprofit urban farming initiative that’s just going to be incredible for that community, for New Orleans East.

There’s that, and there’s about three other things that will slowly become public knowledge over the next weeks and months.

I’m as excited about that as I have been about anything that we’ve ever done in New Orleans, and honestly I feel that now, not being a football player, that I will have more of an opportunity to be involved in community initiatives and helping continue to push New Orleans forward as we’ve always tried to do.