Up Next
Transcript
I'm surprised, to be honest, Albert, that this hasn't become more of an issue, and it's almost like it was from 2016 to 2020 was an everyday issue.
And then I don't know if, at least in the NFL we sort of tired of it or coaches did a better job of diffusing it or whatever it was.
But if you missed this, uh, Jackson Dart, um, introduced our president at a, um, at a at a rally, I guess, or whatever in Rockland County.
Um, New York, and then Abdul Carter, uh, reposts it basically saying like, I thought this was AI.
What's going on here, you know, are you serious?
And then a lot of Giants people weighed in on it, um, mostly not on the side of Jackson Dart, and it, it really is, I mean, I'm, I'm just gonna say this, we are months ahead from an incredibly contentious midterm election that, and then we're a year away.
From this guy possibly hosting the draft on the lawn of the White House, which like, I still don't.
Really can't get gras.
It won't be on the lawn of the White House, will it?
Or is the White House gonna be incorporated into that because on the National Mall and you can see the White House off the National Mall, right?
Like, but like I don't, I, I, I, I don't know now.
I will say this like he was involved, like Trump was involved with, um.
Like the announcement, which I'd actually looked this up.
I thought this was sort of interesting.
That was the first photo op that an NFL commissioner had done with a sitting president since the NFL opener, I think it was 2003, and it was the Redskins and the Giants, and Lavernius Coles, and I, I can't remember who it was, but it was, it was, um, The kickoff game was gonna be in DC and so Lavernius Coles and someone and, and, and a Giants player, maybe it was, I can't remember, but they did a photo op with George W.
Bush.
That was the last time.
So, it had been at that 0.22 years since they had had a photo op with the sitting president and um Josh Harris, the owner of the Commanders, um, you know, Roger Goodell, the commissioner, um, did do that photo op with Trump, which would at least indicate that maybe he'll be Involved at some level in the draft in 27.
You can't, I mean, and again, this isn't like political commentary, but you can't imagine that this thing's gonna be right in his backyard and that guy's not gonna jump on, I say, you know, it's probably a pretty good bet that there's gonna be some involvement there and I look like I, I mean like just kind of like where I stand on this.
I like, I, I'll be honest, like I'm sort of, it's, it's weird.
Cause I feel like I'm from the generation, I don't know if you are Connor , because we're different generations, right?
But uh I I'm from the generation where you didn't talk about politics and religion, um, with people.
And like now, it feels like that's getting shoved in our face every minute of every day because Instead of avoiding the massive reaction, people run towards the massive reaction, run towards all of that.
Um, I think Jackson Dart has every right to do what he did.
I think Abdul Carter has every right to do what he did, and Don't mistake freedom of speech for freedom of consequences from your speech, dude.
That's exactly what I was gonna say.
You know what I mean?
Like you're allowed to, like, like Jackson Dart is completely within his rights to get up there and stand up there as the quarterback of the New York Giants and tacitly endorse the President of the United States of America.
At the same time, Abdul Carter is well within his rights to state his opposition to his quarterback doing that.
The Consequences, the fallout from that.
In this day and age is what it is, and you have to deal with that, but if you're willing to deal with that, it's fine what either guy did.
What really bugged me about it though, was It's May.
Like this idea that this was gonna be like some sort of killer for the locker room, and we have 4 months before they even play a game.
It's like, have we gotten to that point?
Where these two guys could do those two things and people think it could create irreparable harm to a football team which is full of guys in their twenties.
Like, are we at that point where we can't talk shit out?
I, I just, it bugged me because it was like, so you're assuming that these guys will never get along again.
Why?
Because you wouldn't get along with somebody if they disagreed with you.
That was what bugged me so much about it because it was like I have.
I have my own political opinions.
I don't have as strong political opinions as some other people.
I have lots of friends from with, with different opinions than mine.
It does not prevent.
They do not prevent me from being friends with them.
They do not prevent me from having a good relationship with those people.
It doesn't prevent me from having conversations that aren't involving politics with those people.
And I just think like it's.
Things have gotten so toxic where it's like there's this assumption that those two actions, a 60-second.
Introduction at a political rally .
And then, uh, I think it was a nine-word tweet, are gonna completely blow up someone's football season, you know, like, I don't know.
I, I just, it bugs me because, like, I just, I, I feel like we can all disagree on certain things and work past those things, and Like I, but again, like I respect everybody's opinion on these things too, so I'm not saying you're an idiot if you view it another way.
I think there was a good example of um one of the places that I was at this weekend had this like a lawn games kind of thing, right?
And uh there was like a, a crowd , right?
And there's this dude, cut off sleeves, you know, red, white and blue hat and a shirt that says, I'm Ultra Mega, F you if you disagree, right?
And so, you know, I'm walking by and someone's like, hey, do you want to do like the lawn games thing?
And then I'm just looking over and I'm like, No, like, no offense, but just like, you know, like that just doesn't seem like kind of where I wanna go right now, but I'm sure everybody's great and having a good time.
That's what Jackson Dart is walking into now, where it's like, you know, maybe a player walks by him in the locker room and, uh, you know, He's like he was gonna say something and it's just like, no, I just don't think we're gonna agree on that.
And if you're the quarterback of a team, if, if, if you think that your responsibility is to have all 53 guys under one umbrella and to be that true heartbeat of the team, I, I, I do think that you made your job a little harder, um, you know, because there's, but there's such a vehement opposition, right, in, in one way or another.
That said, I think this is a maturity thing.
When I was Jackson Dart's age, or when I was the age of the average age of the Giants' locker room, 2016 came around, and I'm just being honest and talking for myself.
I made the mistake of cutting myself off from people who didn't believe the same thing as me, and I took a long time repairing those relationships, and I think it was a waste of time to be so adamantly against someone else who I think is just kind of understanding the world in a different way than I am.
Um.
You know, but I think that's where it is, where, you know, these guys are not as old as we are, certainly not as old as you are, Albert.
And it's like one of those things where, you know, you're very wise at this point.
You're like a Buddhist, you're like a tree, like you've soaked up all of life's energies in your sixth decade.
And, and it's one of those things where you, you can see that now.
Uh, whereas I think a lot of these guys, and especially as the rhetoric turns out, Heading into midterms, I think it's one of those things where does it become a minefield?
Does it become one of those things where parents are like, well, I don't wanna buy that guy's jersey.
I, I don't know the answer to that.
Yeah, I mean, I think generationally, again, I think I can include you on this one is that we grew up with like the athlete that was non-offensive.
You know, didn't offend anyone, and I'm not saying like that anything anybody here did was offensive, but the non-offensive athlete, which is Michael Jordan, right?
Like a Michael Jordan was the Republicans buy sneakers too guy, you know what I mean?
Like, and Michael Jordan made a ton of money like off of being able to bring everyone under the tent.
Like everyone could be a fan of Michael Jordan, you know what I mean?
Like, and, and if you think about it, like you think about other athletes of that era, I have no idea.
What Joe Montana's political affiliations are.
I don't know what Dan Marino's are.
I don't know, uh, you just don't know.
You know what I mean?
Deion Sanders was another one, like, I couldn't tell you, Dion is so out there, right?
And Dion's our generation.
Dion is so out there.
I couldn't tell you a thing about Dion's political.
Stances, I don't know, and that's probably by design, you know what I mean?
Like that's probably because back then it was, you don't put yourself out there that way, you're looking to appeal to a broader audience.
Um, you know, and then you have like this kid that, the, and, and, and I think like what's really interesting about this one too.
I No one should be surprised by the, where, where these two guys stand, right?
You have a Mormon kid from Utah who went to college in Mississippi, right ?
And then you have an inner-city kid from Philly.
I mean, I, I don't think it's surprising that either guy is in, and, and, and what that locker room is, and what NFL locker rooms have always been are these great melting pots where guys like that that feel different about certain things have philosophically, the ideology is different.
They're able to like, come together and they don't need to agree on everything, you know.
So, I don't know.
I think it's interesting from that standpoint, just in that like the athlete has changed.
Um, and that they're more willing to put themselves out there in these ways, um, you know, again, like I think about the athletes I watched growing up, and I, I, I, I mean I could probably pull one or two out that maybe I, you knew if they were a Republican or a Democrat, but most of them, you just had no idea, you know what I mean.
And I don't know, maybe it, maybe it was better that way.
It, it was, right, because like I think that it felt like it's not who you are, you know what I mean?
Like I, I don't, I don't know.
I don't believe that.
Like it's not your identity.
I, I just, it's not your identity unless at least unless, at least unless you let it become that, you know, it's not your identity unless you choose to make it that way, right?
Um, and I, I, you know, I've kind of my life has been enriched, I think, by.
Having trying to understand people at like a molecular level who like couldn't be further off politically than I am.
And I, like I said, I've put a lot of work into that over the last few years trying to make that happen and try to see how that, you know, broadens my life and makes my life better, and it has.
But now that onus is on Jackson Dart, right?
And, and, and, and it's, uh, you know, I hate to say that it's unfair, it's unfair towards him versus Abdul Carter, but like, you are the quarterback of the New York Giants, right?
I mean, and how did Eli Manning succeed there for almost two decades by not saying a goddamn thing about anything, about anything, about anything.
Like, I remember, like, They were 0 and 6 or whatever, right, and there was a players only no one hates Eli Manning, right?
He's like that's pretty remarkable when you consider like a legacy kid like, like who his, who his dad is, who his brother is, and how he came into the NFL and More than 20 years later, no one hates Eli Manning.
I don't think, like, not that I know, maybe some people up near where I live because of what he did to him in the Super Bowls, but that's pretty remarkable when you consider that, you know.
Right.
I remember, like, when the Giants were like 0 and 5 or 0 and 6 or whatever, they had a players-only meeting that a player told me about and that Eli spoke at, right?
And so, you know, players-only meetings are big deals, right?
And that's the story, and so I'm on it and this is gonna be a little thing that I report, right?
And, uh, you know, I finally managed to chase him down in the locker room as he's going from here to there, and it's like, hey, can you, you know, I heard that you guys had this players only meeting, and he's just like, no, he didn't, and he just walks away, you know, and he just never said anything about anything.
And even now, like, Eli Manning's story about why he didn't take the Chargers, pick the Chargers, which we talked about a couple of weeks ago.
This is, I'm checking my watch, the 2026, OK?
This happened in, this took him 22 years to talk about, OK?
Uh, you know, and so, I, I think that You know, Derek Jeter, same way, right?
Um, where you didn't know what Derek Jeter thought about anything.
David Wright, uh, another, like, kind of great New York captain that I covered for a long time, no idea what he thought about anything, right?
He was a complete blank slate.
If Jackson Dart is this I argue Tom Brady was that way.
Tom, well, Tom Brady, Tom, well, no, but Tom Brady.
We knew Tom Brady.
Like his, his friendship with Donald Trump was more about him wanting to be friends with celebrities.
That's Tom Brady is from an ultra left-wing family, very, very left-wing family, and I, and I think like that hat was a That was just, oh, I'm gonna support my friend, and he didn't, he almost stepped in and not realizing what he was stepping into, and then it was quickly over, you know what I mean?
Like, but I think Brady is the same way, like doesn't want anyone to know of his affiliations.
He was trying to be a good friend to somebody who had been a friend to him in the past, and like, I mean, almost like I think it was naive, like in that like, I don't know what I'm stepping into here.
Like that was.
I don't think it was ever about politics for him, you know, it's close the loop on it because I think that you it became such a big deal because you never heard anything from him about that, right?
I mean, like, that's why it was a big deal because it was like, oh, like, like, here's where he sat, and I was like, no, that's not where I stand, you know what I mean?
Like, and then it was over, um, to close the loop on this because I think you put it perfectly, right?
I mean, the, the, I guess the point of a podcast is to have these conversations and not to just reduce it down to one line, but if you could, right?
It it's now Jackson Darts, like Jackson Dart got to do a cool thing, um, but to him, but like, now he has to deal with the consequences of it, right?
And, you know, it's like, again, freedom of speech is, is, is not free insofar as like if you say what's on your mind, you know, uh, whether tactically or not, you know, it's like I can, it's like when you're in 5th grade, you can call somebody a name.
In class, but that doesn't mean that you're free of that kid hunting you down at recess, and now all of a sudden you're in a fistfight or you know what I mean, or hitting you with a truck.
A kid, a kid got mad at me in high school because I, I, I used to bang on his locker, and it made like a really loud noise and he ran me over with a truck, so.
And you know what, I wrote a check that incident now the truck, we got lots of revelations here.
What I know my ran with a truck, hit me with a truck.
Yeah, followed me home from school and when he had like a clear shot at it, he just accelerated and knocked me, to be clear, I deserved it.
But, uh, you know, it's, it's one of those things that like, you know, actions was a hit and run then, right?
No, he stopped.
He wanted me to know that he did it, you know, um, so what did he do?
Did he like sideswipe you?
Kind of like, I mean, he hit me with the front of the truck and I shot like 15 yards, probably like, 1520 miles an hour.
It would, yeah, yeah, it hurt, you know, but the point is, I decided to do something to him and uh I, that was within my American rights to do that.
Uh, I guess that wasn't necessarily within his American rights because it's illegal to hit somebody with a car, but he decided to exercise.
Yeah, but I guess by the same token, like, I don't think the school would have viewed what you did with him.
The rules either, right, yeah, so, and then, you know, we settled on the playground like, uh, uh, we settled used to back when we were civilized.
That's right, uh, just a circle of people going fight, um, but, uh, I, I, the great thing about those is I, I tell my kids this too, like I, the great thing about that is like once you had the fight, it was over.
There was no like, like once you like, like I got in fistfights with my friends and I remember it would be like you'd have a problem with somebody for a couple of days.
Then it would boil over and maybe it got physical, maybe it didn't, but then once you, once the fight happened, then it was over and you were like friends the next day, not like that anymore, which goes back to my feeling that everybody at some point in their life should be punched in the face because it kind of regulates things.
It regulates the world.
You are a huge proponent of that.
Uh, I do agree though.
My life did change after I got punched in the face and hit by a truck.
And it does regulate the world.
You can tell there are lots of younger people walking around these days that have never been punched in the face.
Yeah, no, I can pick them out of a crowd.
Um, we have some more Giants items to tick off, but just a New York-centric thing to cleanse the palate after that one, Albert.
The New York Knicks are going to the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999, and, uh, Bill Belichick's girlfriend wouldn't have been born for 2 years, uh.
So, after that, that wasn't the math I was expecting on this, but here.
Anyway, uh, so Bill Belichick once coached and twice coached in New York, so there you go.
I think he would have been with the Jets when the, uh, Knicks last made the NBA Finals.
Yeah, he would have been, he would have been the defensive coordinator of the Jets.
That's right.
Yeah, that was a great gem, yeah, the husband's group chat, uh, in our neighborhood that someone.
Shout out to all the celebrities who um made the trip yesterday.
That was great.
That was, that was very heartwarming to see.
I, I will say this, my annoyance with, and it's nothing personal against like Timothy Chalamet or Ben Stiller or any of them, but like my annoyance with it isn't so much.
My annoyance with it is more like when they wind up on the floor, and they're like, and that's when it becomes a little much, you know what I mean?
Like, I was on the field when we won the national title in football, um, in Atlanta.
And I felt so awkward and weird, and I was, even though I knew the people on the staff, I wasn't gonna go running.
That's their moment, you know what I mean?
So I always feel like it's weird when you see like someone who doesn't belong there, and not that I'm, I'm, I, but I would say like LeBron, LeBron was at the game in Atlanta.
LeBron didn't wind up in the middle of the celebration when Ohio State won.
You know what I mean?
So I always think it's a little weird when they wind up in the middle of it.
And to be clear, like, just so you know, I like, I got annoyed with some of the Boston celebrities too over all of those years when the same people would keep showing up at certain things .
I just think the, I think it's kind of a strange thing.
I, I just don't like, and I know that James Dolan invites them, and that's something that he likes, um, and it's like his version of guy too, right?
Notoriously.
Um, but, uh, it's like the Lakers thing, right ?
It, but, but what I don't like about it, like, uh, one of my really good friends is a huge Knicks fan, like, has been watching every regular season game, even during, like, the most meager times, and this is like a very special.
Um, time for him, and I'm happy for those people to be clear, 100%, but those people should be allowed to go to basketball games and not have to spend $6000 to get into the arena, and I think that the celebrity culture kind of perpetuates that, that, like, price get-in price for game because game 3 would be their first game, right?
Would be their first home game.
So, all right, yeah, their first home game would be Game 3 because I think they're, I, I think the Spurs and Thunder would both have home court on them, right?
Yeah.
So let's take a look here at Game 3.
So, the get-in price I see here, OK, that's at Oklahoma City.
Hold on.
The get in price on this is on SeatGeek.
For one ticket, if you're buying a single, is 38.99. Yeah, I got 3741, and then if you want to do, there's only 2 left of these, not even courtside, OK, um, behind the section behind courtside, um, 42,276.
OK, because I'm looking at SeatGeek here and I have one here that is not courtside.
It is section 5D.
Row 2.
So this is, it looks like to me, just looking at this, it looks like it's 5 rows up, right?
So behind the scoring table, like behind the 2, there's 2 VIP rows, and it's 3, it looks like it's 3 rows up from there, but it's listed as row 2.
$92,435.
Almost $100,000 for, will someone buy this?
That's what scares me about the, cause I, I have been watching some of the games because I always see that, you see this, is somebody actually gonna buy that ticket probably.
They'll write it off as a business expense too , right?
You know, because at that point, right, yeah, is this like, is this like Goldman Sachs selling their tickets?
Well, right, because you would buy, like, say you're going to close some deal with some giant bank from, like, you know, whatever, Switzerland or whatever, you bring the guy to that, and then you write that off as a drop in the bucket business expense, right?
But I, I will say when I've been watching these games that, you know, you're like, oh, there's Timothy Chalamet, there's Tracy Morgan, Spike Lee.
115, 115,000.
Jesus.
Now that's like center court, but that's even further up.
That's like 56 rows up in this section that's behind the two VIP rows.
Holy crap, unbelievable.
Yeah, congrats to the Knicks.
Like holy crap.
So do they get a cut of this?
Do the Oh, on the resale market?
That I don't know.
But I know the teams are involved in these things.
This is crazy.
But anyway, but the thing that should I do, should I like you, should I do the get notified if prices drop with a $100,000 ticket and just track it for the next week?
I would love that.
And then you're gonna get on some really problem is, is like, like the problem is, is like, like somehow like what if something goes gets weird, and then like all of a sudden they get charged like $9,000,000 like.
Listen, guys, yeah, I would, like, it would be so funny if like, if this was the heyday of magazines, and we could go to like the publisher and be like, listen, uh, what a great first-person story it would be to write about sitting courtside at the Knicks game, right?
All I need is $90,000 you know, and, uh, you know, can't do that anymore.
