The NFL owners voted against the ban on the Tush Push, but by only a small margin. Although it won’t be outlawed this season, it is likely to be revisited, according to FOS newsletter writer Eric Fisher. We discuss that and more from the owners meetings.
Plus, 10-time Gold Glove winner Ken Griffey Jr. has experienced a prolific post-baseball career that’s only about to get better. He and Michael Collins of ESPN join to discuss their new show Caddie & The Kid, and Griffey’s second act as a sports photographer.
Key Moments:
0:47 – NBA ratings, Scott Hanson, Tom Brady museum
3:56 – Tush Push ban and NFL changes
9:47 – Ken Griffey Jr. and Michael Collins
17:30 – Phoenix Suns allegations
21:13 – Rockies fan suing team
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[Music] The tush isn’t pushed. The Eagles controversial play lives to see another season. Plus, a Rocky’s fan sues the team, saying their historically awful performance is why he was injured by a foul ball. Hello everyone and welcome to Front Office Sports Today from FOS Studios in New York City. and Baker Machado and I wonder what Eagles Nation thinks of the tush push ruler. I’m Renee Washington. Thanks so much for joining us uh representing my Philadelphia Eagles. But listen, every weekday we’re chatting the biggest stories happening in the business and culture of sports. Plus, we’ve got Ken Griffy Jr. and Michael Collins joining us later in the show. But first, let’s dive into the headlines in the shootaround. Yeah, let’s start in the NBA. The playoffs continue to be mustsee TV, Renee, as ratings for the first two rounds across ABC, ESPN, and TNT up 3% from last year, averaging about 4.1 million viewers. Renee, this is the second most watched playoffs through the first two rounds since 2014. This coming off of the good numbers we got from the regular season. Exactly. We saw a 6% increase from last year for round one, a 1% increase for round two, and now you have to wonder what will the conference finals look like. I think a lot of it is that sports fans are excited that there are some new teams. We talked about it on the show yesterday which is three NBA titles between these four teams. We’ve got new blood. You’ve got new excitement. I mean it’s the first time since 96 that a Western Conference final team is not going to come from either California or Texas. So the hard fought plays, the history that’s being made. I think it has people gravitating to watch because you have zero clue who’s going to win. Yeah, that California Texas stat is bananas. By the way, the highest rated game of the postseason so far, game four between the Timberwolves and the Lakers saw over 7 million people watch that game. All right, get ready for more Scott Hansen during the Olympics. FOS tuned in reporter Mike McCarthy scooped the news that the NFL red zone host will return for Peacock’s Gold Zone coverage during the 2026 Milan Winter Games. Renee Mike also is reporting that talks are progressing for Scott Hansen to return to red zone again for this upcoming season because he is a free agent right now. I know 16th years that we’ve had Scott being a part of red zone and so to see now this opportunity for them to return back to the Olympics. We saw him for the Paris Olympics how fantastic was got rave reviews and now this will actually be the first time that Peacock’s going to have this partnership for the Olympics next year. And also, it’s going to be great because it’s the biggest Winter Olympics yet with nearly 3,000 athletes and 116 events. And we get Scott Hansen in the midst of it all in the gold zone breaking it all down. All right, speaking of gold, Tom Brady continues to take over Vegas as the NFL goat is teaming up with legendary broadcaster Jim Gray to open a sports memorabilia museum in June at the Fountain Blue Hotel in Vegas. This will feature over 300 historic items, including seven of Brady’s Super Bowl rings. So, all of them. MJ’s first ever pair of Air Jordans and even a bat used by Jackie Robinson to break baseball’s color barrier. I’m also intrigued, Renee. Hall of Fame excellence, by the way, is what they’re calling it, is going to be a self-guided tour narrated by Oscar winner Morgan Freeman. You had me at Morgan Freeman. I mean, this is a great partnership opportunity. Okay, I will say for Tom Brady continues to expand his portfolio of business ventures in his retirement age, especially in Vegas. He already has been involved in the front office for the Raiders, the Aces, also the Night Owls of the who are a pickle ball team. And so to see him now who’s a big sports card collector and has collected them for 40 years, thousands of them to now expand into a museum. This is going to be great for people to be able to add to their Vegas itinerary of places to visit. Absolutely. Meanwhile, NFL owners in Minnesota are voting on a slew of important decisions, including a big extension for Roger Goodell and the future of the controversial Eagles tush push. So, let’s dive into what happened in our main event. And let’s bring in FOS reporter Eric Fischer, who has been following us for us. Eric, good to see you. So, let’s start immediately with the tush push. It looks like it didn’t get enough votes to get rid of it for the next NFL season. Tell us what happened. Yeah, I think in true Eagles fashion, they pushed it over the line. You know, we had some late and impassioned lobbying from both the team owner, Jeffrey Lurri, and the former Star Center, Jason Kelsey, who was present at the spring meetings in Minnesota. And they both made a um very lengthy and passioned and fact-based defense that no reported injuries specifically from this play. and the play itself happens less than.3% of the time in terms of overall NFL action. And so both from a sort of incident uh standpoint and then an injury standpoint, we’re able to sort of make the case to enough voters that this was not the big deal that it was made out to be. Well, I’m going to reserve my biased thoughts as an Eagles fan, but I did see friend of the show Ian Rapaore tweet out that 22 to10 was the final vote, which is also the same score the Eagles beat the Packers in the playoffs, which was an what I love about sports. It was a very full circle moment, but I’m not going to make any comments on that. I am interested though because the Detroit Lions also withdrew their proposal for receding in the playoffs. This seemed to be a big ticket item and what do you know about maybe what led them to want to withdraw or even where this stands? I felt like there was consensus that everybody wanted this. I know. I wanted that. Yeah. This was actually not as close as the tush push. I think there was less support, which is why it didn’t even get to a vote because you don’t want to sort of have a situation where it’s embarrassing where it’s you three quarters against. This was something that that Roger Goodell did favor. And the idea behind this is to get more uh starters playing in those late season games and having each of those regular season games matter as much as possible. The problem on the other side though is does how much what is the unintended consequence? Are you taking away the significance of winning a division at all? And then there’s also a supplemental question about what do you do with the schedule? Because the schedule is all constructed. It’s a very detailed process. It’s based upon divisional format. And if you’re taking away the divisional format, you really need to address the schedule then as well. And so more details just needed to be figured out before they can even expect both issues actually to be revisited as soon as this fall. Yeah. Um, I want to go quickly back to the tush push. It seems like it’s only lived another day for this next season, but does that mean it’s out of the woods completely? Could it still be banned down the road? This is what I’m saying. To only go two votes short of the necessary 3/4 threshold. I would expect Roger Goodell and the other advocates of the ban to keep pushing, pun intended, and I don’t think we’ve heard the last on this at all. Yeah, your head’s about to explode. Speaking of Roger Goodell, all for all intents and purposes, it looks like he might get renewed for another three-year term. This would be his fifth uh renewal of his deal with NFL owners. Um he obviously he has driven a ton of revenue and profits for these owners. Do we think maybe this might be his last term? He sort of talked a little bit about maybe hanging it up down the road and and where do we sort of see his relationship with the owners here? Yeah, especially since as of this conversation, we don’t know exactly what’s going to happen. Yeah. as we’re talking. The owners are literally in the room uh hashing this out, but uh probably going to get done if not today, very soon. Uh Roger Goodell in ‘ 66, still in very good health when he signed the last extension just 19 months ago that carried him into the first part of 2027. He was non-committal at the time. And since then, everything’s been pointing up. Uh more viewers, more international, uh more everything as it as it relates to the NFL. And so again, as long as these uh things are going well, and they are, and he’s in good health, and he is, there’s no reason to change anything. H interesting because you wonder if if not Roger Goodell, then who who would be the who would be the guy who or the the gal? Well, I think Yeah. So, I think we’re potentially kicking this down to the 2030s in some fashion. So, we’re talking at least 5 years down the road now at this point. But, uh, the name that everybody sort of focuses on at this point is Brian Rolap, who is the chief media business officer and sort of is the number two for all intents and purposes and has his finger on a lot of the uh, uh, key uh, tent polls for the NFL and the key business matters. So, that’s a name I continue to watch. Yeah, that’s a name we hear. And something we do know that’s going to happen three years down the road for the 2028 Olympics in LA is that NFL players can participate in flag football, which is exciting. Now, there are some other nuances and logistics that need to be figured out, especially since the proposal also alleges that only one player per team can participate. You’ve got Justin Jefferson who said, “This is a dream come true because who doesn’t want a chance to win a gold for their country?” And then others like AJ Brown that have said, “I don’t want to be involved because it’s too much in the summer around getting ready for the start of the season.” What do you think this is going to help provide the league in terms of the growing their global presence, which Roger Goodell has talked about so much, but also providing these players this opportunity? We’ve got like 30 seconds left. What are your quick thoughts on that? Oh, I think it’s going to be huge that just very simply, every other major sports league participates in the Olympics or in the case of baseball, the World Baseball Classic, but they’ll also be in LA 28. Everybody else gets to do this. There’s no reason why the NFL shouldn’t be involved in some fashion. Yeah, you think Justin Jefferson, Tyreek Hill, all these guys would be incredible team. This literally is a dream team for the very first one. Uh Eric, thank you so very much for your insight on all this. Eric Fischer, FOS reporter, joining us. And coming up next, guys, on Front Office Sports Today, Ken Griffy Jr. is joining us. The kid, yes, he’s talking about his YouTube show, plus advice for aspiring photographers. That’s all coming up next. Don’t go [Applause] anywhere. And welcome back friends to Front Office Sports Today with Renee Washington. I’m Baker Richadow and Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Ken Griffy Jr. is hitting the road. that alongside former PGA Caddy and comedian Michael Collins in a new YouTube show called Caddy and the Kid. This is where they play legendary courses with stars like former NFL quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick and even Seattle Mariners legend Suzuki. So to check that and a whole lot more, let’s bring in the kid and the caddy as well, Ken Griffy Jr. and Michael Collins. Guys, great to have you here. Uh so Ken, let’s talk about this first. What how did the show come about? How did you guys sort of create this? Uh, it was simple. Mike and I have been friends for years and he happened to be going to Hawaii and I figured that I’d get like a free vacation out of the thing. A good idea. Um, right. You know, he said he was going to play golf and but he didn’t say that he was he was working um that he had to do a couple things. I wanted to go play golf during this whole thing. And so I brought my golf clubs everywhere. I mean on a bus, on a a in a pineapple pineapple. Yeah. Yeah. In a place and then brought his brought his golf clubs to a glass blowing studio. We went to the place the cabaloo that makes the the trophy for the for the tournament and he had his golf clubs and may have knocked over and broke or they got what? But we knew from that moment on, like traveling that whole time, we were having so much fun together. It was like, we kind of got something here. We need to turn this into something. That was the the glass breaking moment for you guys to realize that you had something special here. What makes a Caddy and the Kid this great blend of sports, comedy, and fun, and even just why you wanted to be a part of this network specifically? Um, I think we have the same moral issues. Uh uh we’re so much alike that it it it it’s we’re like brothers on certain things. Uh except packing. [Laughter] You know, some of us pack lighter than others. Oh, here we go. See, he knows this one cuz he’s been traveling so much for you. You’re a caddy. Yes. Which means I’m going to be overprepared. No, I mean they make that big ass tour bag and you got you got another person carrying another bag in the you got your own caddy in the stands, you know, carrying a bag cuz you got so much stuff. He’s got He can go on a 10 to 12 day trip with a carryon. Oh, a carry-on and a backpack, which I exactly the look that you have right there of kind of confusion. I have the same I can’t and I don’t understand it. What led you to want to do this now to have this show, this bucket list trip, aside from Michael maybe dragging you along, Ken, uh what made you guys decide this was the right time for this show and even these guests to join you on your show? Um my kids have are pretty much out of the house. Uh and I think that my wife wants me to be out of the house also. Okay. Okay. No. Um, you know, people who know me know that there is there there’s two sides of Ken. There’s baseball Ken and there’s not baseball Ken or retired Ken. Uh, baseball Ken was a little difficult um because I had to stay focused. Like people think that, you know, play in the game is only from 7 to 11 or day game 12 to or 1 to 4, whatever. It’s not for for guys that play at a high level and and constantly think about it. It’s a 24-hour a day job. You know, it’s so difficult to to is people think, you know, we’re one way in that sport. That means our whole whole life is like that. And it’s not. It’s it’s I come to work just like everybody else comes to work. I just know that I’m going to be seen whether it’s good or bad. you know, on TV. So, I’ve got to go out there and prepare myself like nobody nobody does. I mean, look, Ken, we know you have other things you do, too. I mean, photography as well. We saw you at the Masters. I mean, I’ve seen some of the great shot you you’ve taken. You’ve had this great one of Otani. You have this great one with Tiger and his son. I guess my question is, is Michael ever asked you to take his head shots? Baker wants you to take me down that rabbit hole. this I I started doing photography now too because of him. Really? I’m down the same rabbit hole because of him. Yeah. Okay. But no, he he was at where where were you? And I said and I said, “Is Sony out there?” He was like, “Yeah.” I said, “Man, go borrow go ask to take a camera and just take pictures.” I was like, “I’m not walking into Sony. I got this little wallet looking camera thing I can put in my pocket.” And he’s like, “Oh, go talk to him and get one of them big ones.” No. What? No. And he wouldn’t leave me alone till I I did it. And then of course I told the, “Hey, you got to set this up. I don’t know what I’m doing.” And ended up getting some good shots. And then Yeah, but how many pictures did you take? Oh, cuz I know the number. If you hold that button down, it just flutters a little bit. I was like, “Wow, that fluttered a bunch.” I wonder how many. And then you know when’s the last time it said there’s no room on the memory card? So when I called him, “How many pictures did you take?” I was like, “Uh, about 3,500. There’s got to be a good one in here somewhere, right?” And none of them are good. Well, that was the thing. It was like 12 good ones out of almost 4,000 pictures. But then both him and the Sony guy were like, “Hey, you actually got some really good shots.” And of course, that’s I’m done. I’m I’m running down the rabbit hole now. Yeah, I want more lenses, too. Let me get a couple more camera bodies. Oh, that is great. That is good. Ken, really, really quickly, any advice to aspiring photographers like Michael out there? Yes. What would you tell them? Keep working. I mean, you know, I tell everybody this. I didn’t start off in the big leagues. I start off in little league like everybody else. Uh, and the same thing, I mean, Michael worked at small clubs before, you know, he got the shot and then he he pattied for somebody before he got a call up. You know, you guys worked somewhere else to get prepare you for what you’re doing now. I learned to fly a plane. Um, got my Pil license in ‘ 07. And the two things that I learned about photography and PL and and flying a plane is everybody wants to help you get better. Uh, everybody wants you to take better pictures. Everybody wants you to be a safer pilot. In sports, I’m not telling you a damn thing until I retire so you can use it against me. Guys, good point. Very good point. I like that. I like that. Keep your cards close to you. Amen. Um, gentlemen, this was amazing. Jr., Michael Collins. The first episode of Catty and the Kid available to watch right now on Kevin Hart’s Laugh Out Loud YouTube channel. And just based off this conversation, I feel like this is 40 seasons in the trailer alone. I’ve been cracking up. Thank you guys for joining us. Thank you guys. Thanks for having us. All right, guys. We got a lot more front office sports today coming your way right after this quick break. [Applause] And welcome back everyone to Front Office Sports today. And a lawsuit filed against the Phoenix Suns by their former director of security has a bombshell allegation in it. Renee, it claims the team CEO of the Phoenix Suns was having an affair with former Phoenix Mercury star Sophie Cunningham. So to get into this and more, let’s bring in FOS deals reporter Ben Horny. He’s of course also the author of the asset class newsletter. Ben, thanks so much for joining us. This is also important because the Mercury and the Suns are owned by the same company. Uh but tell us what’s alleged in this lawsuit. Yeah, so this is a pretty crazy situation. The uh Phoenix Suns who uh are owned by Matt Ishpia. Now he bought the team in December 2022 from the former embattled owner Robert Sarver who himself had a lot of uh issues. Um they have now been sued four times by four different uh either current or former employees since November. They all have somewhat similar allegations, but the details are different. But it’s all basically toxic workplace. Uh there’s racial discrimination. There’s retalatory practices. It’s not a good look for the Suns. And this lawsuit that Gan Trailer has brought up against the Suns, it just mentions their relationship with WNBA star Sophie Cunningham and Josh as part of a way to show an example of painting the picture and adding more context. Yet, because of social media catching on to this and it going viral, it seems like that’s taken over. Not the exact lawsuit. That’s just something mentioned in there as evidence, I guess you can say, to help support the lawsuit. Exactly. So, this has been I mean, it’s a perfect example of what the internet does. Uh, the internet has taken this and run with it. Uh, this is it’s not even necessarily an allegation. It’s like a claim, like you said, to illustrate a different point that Gene Trailer, the former director of security for the Suns, was trying to make. And the point that he was trying to make is that the team, he claims the team hired a different uh person, Cornelius Craig, and that that man’s hiring was basically meant to get uh Gan Trailer out. So in trying to illustrate that the person Cornelius Craig was like kind of in behaving erratically, he mentioned that there was a conversation that h took place where Cornelius Craig said this claim about the alleged relationship between the Sun CEO and the WNBA player. So it was just a piece to illustrate the craziness of the guy. Um we didn’t even actually report on that. Our original story was all about the underlying claims which are pretty explosive and interesting themselves. Uh this the allegations are that the Sun’s security is not up to par. There was um a whole thing where the local police force uh undertook a test to like basically test the arena security and they were able to get in plane closed officers were able to get into the Suns Arena with knives and handguns uh were able to get through security. So that’s the point of the lawsuit is that this guy’s trying to bring to attention, hey, they need to address the security issues and they were also, you know, retaliating against me and this claim has just taken on a life. Uh, Ben, we have about a minute left with you. Uh, Sophie Cunningham was traded from the Mercury to the Indiana Fever. Has she responded to this? Has the team responded to this? What What is everybody saying? Uh, no. So, good question. She has not responded. The her new team has not responded. The Suns emphatically deny that allegation. They have not responded to the actual lawsuit yet in court, but they emphatically deny uh the allegation about the relationship and they say it’s totally false. Wow. Well, in addition to the internal issues around the alleged relationship between CEO and Sophie is also he is a married man as well. Josh has been married to his wife Sydney for two years. Lots to find out here because this is very fresh news. So, it’s a crazy story to follow. Ben, thank you so much. And of course, you can sign up for Ben’s uh big business of news uh businesses of sports newsletter asset class over at front officeports.com. All right, Renee, speaking of more lawsuits, let’s dive right into the FOS water cooler and see what’s bubbling over there. And Renee, let’s keep the wild lawsuits going. A Colorado man suing the Colorado Rockies for negligence. This after he says he was struck in the face with a foul ball while sitting in a Korsfield luxury box. Now, he claims the architectural elements of Korsfield hindered his ability to see that the ball was coming his way. This during a visit in 2023 and that the injury caused him quote catastrophic and permanent injury. But Renee, this is the best part. He says, “The Rocky’s terrible performance on the field, I’m going to quote him, contributed, quote, to a game day environment in which spectators, particularly those in the luxury suites, are less engaged with the action on the field.” He is requesting an unspecified amount of money in damages. This has to be one of the most wild lawsuits ever. But my favorite part of this is the Rockies ended up winning the game that he was at. Got to win for that game. What’s up with Colorado and lawsuits? I mean, we already saw the fan that’s that filed a lawsuit against the NFL for the Shador slide. Uh, and now we get this. And I I will say it’s crazy to me because we’re talking back in 2023 and as you mentioned, couldn’t see the ball. He was there for this company and he had such terrible seats. I say that sarcastically in the tweet that he couldn’t even see where the ball was coming from and actually is blaming them and even appointed to uh file a complaint against the Denver district court of that incident of like this is again some legal allegations that ballparks have to have something for fans to protect them from any foul balls. So I think he’s reaching a bit here. He would have been fine of just saying the construction of the stadium was not built to make it easy for them to see the ball. But then to try to bring in how bad the Rockies are when they’ve been notoriously bad and haven’t had a winning season in how many years a stretch for maybe the judge might sympathize with him. Coming up guys on FOS tomorrow after 23 years we say goodbye to Around the Horn. Tony Reality joins us tomorrow. We’ll see you later. [Music]
3 Comments
Thank you to Ken Griffey Jr and Michael Collins for joining the show!!
Hope you guys enjoy todays show!!
Wow, Ken Griffey Jr, nice!