Chokeslams & Cheeseheads: Paul Wight & Donovan Jennings

In sports, if you want to be the best, there are no off days. Welcome into the No Off Days podcast. We are back, and I'm in different garments than typical. Why are you dressed up? Why do you have a tie on? You make me feel uncomfortable. For our listening audience, which is not many of you, I am wearing a tie. I'm doing a lot of shows today. Passing it up. Yeah, I know. I just recently, I'm now, I've learned to tie a tie for the first time in my 40-something years of existence, and I wanted to show off. No, I'm just, I'm doing a lot of shows today, Scott. Yeah, you are. A lot of newscasts. So we'll make this an abbreviated No Off Days podcast so that you can get back to, OK, all right, fine. We like the distraction. We're in the wake of the 4th of July, but I don't know if you caught our guest last week in his Coney Island return. Of course I did. OK, what did you think of his performance? 66 dogs for old Joey Chestnut. I think in our interview with him, he kind of led on that the heat was going to play a factor. Remember he said that if conditions are hot, sometimes you're dehydrated and you go a little slower. And I think anyone who played the under, I think they said it at 72 and a half dogs. Sounds like you played the under. Made some money there. Yeah, 66 dogs and buns for old Joey. But he wins again. What's that, 18 out of the last 19 mustard belts? 18 mustard belts for old Joey Chestnut. Jaws there, and so again, if you missed last week's show, it was a great interview, a great discussion. We peeled back the onion, and then he ate it. He ate 15 of them in 30 seconds. No, this week though, he's on to his next competition, and not as popularly talked about after the hot dog competition, is the Soggiest Wings competition in New Hampshire. OK, the Soggiest Wings? No, Soggiest, S-A-U-G-U-S. That might be the company that makes the wings. No, no, no, I think it's a kind of wing. Oh, it's not from a bird? No, it's a, so, and thank you for asking, the wings are fried to be extra crispy, and they're tossed in a thick, gooey glaze, heavy soy-based sauce that is remarkably sticky and sweet. Oh, I'm looking at, oh, they look great. I'm looking at a photo of them now. But can you imagine how he devours this? That sauce is getting everywhere, baby. Well, he told us that his wing technique, what did he say it was? I think he said vicious. It's vicious. Did he say vicious? He said it was vicious. Yeah, yeah. He doesn't wait for the bird to stop making noise until he starts ripping it apart. You know, I wouldn't want to disrespect the Soggiest Wings eating competition, but that would be, as you pointed out, coming off the heels of Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs. That's almost like, what do they play after the Masters, you know? Yeah, no, that's a good point. What event is that, where you have fewer golfers show up for it? Yeah, I mean, right. But if Joey's there, that's what makes the event. So everything he attends is a major, you know? And it's going to be a majorly lopsided event. He likes the flats, by the way. All right, for more on today's big show, what do you say we bring in Brian King? Well, see, he's wearing a tie. Ladies and gentlemen, no tie. No tie. No, he's sitting there with his arms folded like he's upset with us. I'm just freezing in this control room. Well, tell Chris with a K to turn it up a little bit. Well, he's got other things he's working on right now. That bottle of bourbon? Is he still? No, he's trying to keep his show on air. Hopefully it's our podcast. Yeah, that's it. That's it. All right, very good. So again, what do we have on today's big show? Hey, we've got a great show, a doubleheader of guests for you there. We're going to start with a guy who played one year of high school football at Gaither, parlayed that into a four-year career at USF, and now going on three years at Green Bay. That's Donovan Jennings. How about him? Oh, yeah, big offensive lineman. Yeah, he's in town doing a camp over at Gaither High School, paying it back to the community some. We'll have him. OK. He's a good guy. What else is on the big show? This, I see what you're hitting at. This may be the biggest guest. I was trying to go through our files and our archives, and was this the biggest guest we've ever had? Or not. I don't know what Ira Kaufman is coming in, height-wise. But Paul White. The Neve Paul White. That's right. He's in town. They've got a huge wrestling event AEW does over at Clearwater this week, this weekend. So we're going to talk to him. I think Cato may be sitting down with him. I stumbled into this interview like some of his opponents stumbled into that big slap. He would do the big slap across the chest and send people flying. Yeah, most people know him as the big show, but he's not allowed to call himself that anymore. But we're going to call him that. It's OK. We can call him that. The big show. Yeah. Great dude. Shares a great story about Hulk Hogan, too. Oh, does he? Wonderful. Wow. We've got a lot to get into. And then at the end of this big show. This big show, we're going to have, I don't know if you know about the World Cup. It's been going on. Have y'all caught any of the World Cup field parks? I've heard rumblings. Has it started? I don't know. I haven't been caught up to. But I'll give you a quiz on that. We've watched it. We've been in depth with this thing, man. I've watched more soccer than I've ever watched in my life in the past two weeks. There's been so many fans, new fans in the newsroom. Soccer fans. All right. My answer to your first question is dysentery. That's what it is. Dysentery. All right. Very good. Cool, guys. Appreciate it, BK. All right. If you're listening and you want to watch, go to fox13news.com slash Nod Pod. If you're watching and you want to listen or subscribe, you can take your phone, zap the QR code, head to our show page. You can leave comments on our YouTube channel. Like, what do you think of the way the Windsor Knot. That's not a Windsor Knot. That's a half Windsor, sir. OK, half Windsor. And then a five star on iTunes. Full Windsor would be much fatter. All right. Very good. Please subscribe. Fox13news.com slash Nod Pod. All right. So obviously, we mentioned the World Cup. And this last week, the run for Team USA came to a disappointing end. I feel like there was full steam ahead. And there was confidence growing with this team, especially how they played early in group play against Bosnia in game two. And that without their top scorer in Flo Baligan to finish that one out. And then they just come out and they lay an egg, Chris. I'm just, it was frustrating to watch. And so I think the immediate response is, see, this is just the same old US. They can't measure up against these elite, especially European teams. And this has been the ouster, round of 16, the last few runs of this tournament. And it's against Belgium or Netherlands or I think it was a few years before that it was Ghana. So like getting through that barrier, getting through that round of 16. I feel, though, as if this team was better. And I think that what we watched on the pitch play out in Seattle was a really bad performance. But if we ran this thing out 10 more times, how many of those do you think they win? Do you think they win any? I think they could win four or five if you run it out 10 more times. I think so too. I think we played our worst game. Yes, we did. And helped the Belgians way too much. Yeah, and that's part of the disappointment is that there's still this feeling of like, what if? And if they had just kind of throttled up here right out of the gates. I felt like early on in that match, Belgium just came in a little bit more physical, started pushing Christian Pulisic around. They kind of dictated terms where we saw the US do that early on. Now I'm not trying to play off like I'm some soccer analyst. I don't know. I don't know what I'm watching. I know when the ball goes in the net. But I felt like this team was a lot more capable and I didn't think Belgium was that much better. But again, they won. So I'm not trying to discredit them. You know where they seem better was, and again, I know less about soccer than you, but just watching, contested balls, is that the right way to describe it? Where they're meeting in the middle, going after the ball, and it seems just like Belgium always came up with those. Yeah, they were way too tentative. Way too, not nearly aggressive. And that part of it is like, you worry about making the mistake so much that you make the mistake, you know? Or you make the mistake that you weren't anticipating making and you do it in grand fashion. I mean, clearly that happened. I mean, I would say that of the goals that Belgium made in that game, I mean, the first one, I'll give them that. The second one, the U.S. lets that thing drop. To your point, the contested ball, I mean, the ball drops right there. The U.S. defenders are just standing around looking at it. And the guy with the long neck just hits the header. His neck was so long. And then what happened with the goalkeeper in Matt Freese, I mean, that was a disaster. And that's not gonna happen multiple times. I mean, that was obviously a fluky situation. And then in garbage time, they attack on another one. So all that being said, these are all how to prevent goals, how to score goals, that was another issue. And the U.S. didn't put themselves in enough good situations. Obviously, Malik Tillman was fantastic in the World Cup, coming up with a couple clutch free kicks. But so anyway, I guess the question is, is Christian Pulisic, for as much as we've talked about him, and he is, you know, Captain America, he is the captain of this team, he is the future, like, how would you grade out his performance? It feels like it's like a C, like maybe. I was gonna go D, just based on expectation and what we see there. It wasn't just the fact that he ended the final match there injured. It was just kind of a lack of cohesion with the rest of the team during the group stage matches as well. We saw other stars rise, but we just didn't see, okay, this is our captain, this is Captain America. I don't know, I just didn't see that fire. I didn't see that. Now, I believe in the first match, well, they put him in in the game that didn't matter against Turkey, right? They plugged him in at the end, and yes, he gave a spark. But that's, you know, that's with a different squad than he's usually playing with. I felt like it was a disappointing performance overall. Yeah, I agree. But now coming out of it, like there was a lot of, he got a lot of backlash because of his comments. I don't know if you heard these. This was the quote. He was asked, so after the match, about his injury and just the toll that his body had taken. And so he said that he twisted or sprained his ankle, and it's frustrating for it to end like that, of course. But now, time to rest so it'll be okay. And people kind of took that like, how could you say now, you know, it's time to rest so it's gonna be okay? Like you're already moving on. You're not processing this. It's not hurting you enough. And I think a lot of people bagged on him because of that. And I don't know, BK could jump in here if he wants, because I know he probably has an opinion. But I thought that it was like too, that was a little over the top. It seemed like he was- You thought the reaction to his comment was over the top. Yes, yes, yes. I thought people were taking it and twisting it to make it seem like he does not care as much. BK, what were your thoughts on his comments? It came across that way, but he's kind of always been that way a little bit, where he's just kind of, I don't know if it's he just doesn't know what to say at the right time or when to say it at the right time. But every time there's always a comment where you just, you kind of cringe. I mean, but come on. I mean, he, I think had, I don't know how many touches in the first half, like 27 touches or something like that. Turned the ball over 11 times in the first half. There was a lot of that. Come on. Yeah, there was a lot of that. He's supposed to be Captain America. He's supposed to be, you know, he just didn't. So what do you think? You think that like, he's not, he's not the guy? I don't know if he's not the guy. I just don't think, and I hate saying this. I just don't think the team is at that level yet. I mean, sure they played their worst game of the tournament, you know, the other night, but it's like saying like Southern Miss playing Mercer and always, you know, small teams leading up to go play Ohio State and they get blown out. Well, we played our worst game against Ohio State. Yes, you did, but you play them 10 times, you're gonna lose 10 times. Okay, so you may not agree with what I said earlier where I said maybe we win four or five out of 10. Yes, I just don't, we're just not at that level yet. Okay. It's not. All right, so you think you run it out 10 times against Belgium, are we winning any? Maybe twice, is my opinion. Okay. Because they got so much talent. We do not have like a superstar talent on this team. I mean, we do have a lot for the first time, a lot of guys who are playing elite soccer for European clubs, right? We can agree that this was supposed to be our best roster, but it's still obviously not at the level. I'm just curious if you guys buy into what we see a lot on social media during, you know, after the US loses from soccer fans who probably have watched as little of it as I have, who say things like, well, if we took our, you know, 11 best athletes in the US and train them, then we would have the best team. Do you guys buy into that? That if we just don't invest, our best athletes are, you know, deciding to play other sports. Basketball players, yeah. Or is it a cultural thing? Yes. And is that why we're behind? That's part of it. I think that there's a passion for soccer in other countries clearly that we don't have as a whole. And maybe, but that's like the, who knows? Like what NFL, you know, running back are you saying? Oh, well, obviously he would be an incredible soccer player. Like it's a totally different skillset. Like it's, and so who knows? I mean, I don't know. Do you, Brian, do you feel like if we trained our best athletes to be soccer players that we would be, we would be Spain, we would be France? I mean, at some point there's a disconnect because it seems like every kid under the age of eight is playing soccer somewhere. You know, it's the easiest game for kids to start out. Then as they start growing, you know, athletically, get bigger and everything, there's a disconnect. They just completely leave soccer. They go to football, to baseball, to basketball. The incentives aren't there. Exactly. And so that's where the problem lies, I think. And so, yeah, we could, we do have the greatest athletes here and they could be the greatest soccer players, but we will never know because they never played soccer beyond, you know, 12, 11, 13, 14 years old. There's a handful that do, but. Yeah, yeah. We need more long neck guys. Longer, we need to breed Americans with longer necks. Mike Glennon, get Mike Glennon out there. Two podcasts in a row. You know, yeah, maybe that's it. We think it's a kicking sport, but no. Get it, get it long neck. It drives me crazy. I want it to work so much, but it just frustrates me. Yeah, no, I mean, I think that you're right. The structure of what we have in youth sports up into through high school and in the college, the incentivization is always to play a sport that's going to get you a scholarship or make you some money or something like that. And so, yeah, natural athletes. I mean, even soccer players that are good, they'll go out and try out for the football team and, you know, and they may be able to, you know, play four years at a university because of all their soccer like background and they're kicking field goals and doing kickoffs. So, I mean, yeah, it's the incentivization structure here is, you know, we just have a wider menu, you know, like you're going to the cheesecake factor here in the US. Like there's everything, we got everything. And what do you want? We do it all good. You know, where other places it's like, it's more boutique, you know, it's not as many options. The menu includes three things, you know. It's a set menu. You get what you get. You want the duck or do you want the escargot? That's what we got. We got two things. So, I don't know. And we will never know. Like that's the reality of it. But hopefully like it grows in such a way that we can make room for great athletes on the soccer pitch and, you know, and football's not going anywhere. Other sports aren't going anywhere. So, yeah. Okay, very good. Did you get an invite to the Kelsey Swift wedding, by the way? I did not. I did not, surprisingly. But I want to get invited to parties here at the station. It's true. You don't? No. You and me both, my friend. We're not getting invited. We're part of the old guys club. We are, aren't we? That's what we are. We're part of that. All right. Okay. Come on. Don't wallow. The Kelsey Swift wedding. Obviously, I couldn't wait for this story to disappear. I just, and I'm bringing it up. I realize that. But I felt like some of these things are worth talking about. The guest list and the people that were there, it just seems like such a weird amalgamation of entertainers and sports icons. Literally, when they were selecting the invitee list, did anybody from their childhood make the cut? Or was it only Tom Hanks and Paul McCartney and the biggest names? Was this just a TV spectacle kind of thing? I don't think any of Travis's Little League friends from the Heights, Ohio were there, were they? His high school quarterback was not at that wedding. I don't know that, but. Yeah, no. It looks like they just wanted the biggest names that they could find. Anyone who would say yes. Adam Sandler was the officiant. Yes. As I do, so Jesus has his way. Well, he should have been the wedding singer, too. Yeah, he should have. Oh, man, that's true. But what do you get them, like as a wedding gift? You get invited, all right? Let's say you're on the list. Like what do you, are they registered somewhere? What do you get them? Are they registered at Target, or like where? What do you get the couple who has everything and needs nothing? I don't know. Maybe better bodyguards, or some way to keep more people off of your back. I don't know, I was surprised. Personalized koozies, that's what you do. That's it. Something personalized. Class it up. A nice toaster. A his and hers towel set. Oh, yeah, Mr. and Mrs., yeah? I don't know. I'm glad we don't have that problem. I was surprised that they did such a tremendous job of keeping the leaks and also keeping photos from the wedding reception out of the public eye. Well, that can fetch a lot of money. They're just waiting for the cost, the ante to go up a little bit. They're producing a documentary right now. They gotta make their money back. They spent $20 million, supposedly, on this wedding. 20 million bucks. Did you see they gave 26 million to charities, though? Oh, wow. Ahead of their wedding. We should mention that any time we talk about the enormous sums of money they spent on themselves. They did give 26 million away to some local charities in the Kansas City area, in Cleveland. Okay, you don't wanna hear about that. He doesn't wanna hear about that. I'm just like, I want it to be about football. I know it's not, I know it's never gonna be, but anyway, it was worth touching on it, at the least. And then finally, you talk about outrage. So I've kinda dipped my nose into this, the latest on the Bears' stadium situation. Obviously, they're leaving Soldier Field, and they're gonna be the Indiana Bears now. They were not gonna call themselves the Indiana Bears. No, I am not. You are, okay. I just think it's a tragedy. It's a travesty. It's a travesty mockery of when these teams have to leave, and they, especially, I mean, you're going out of state. I know, it's only like 30 miles south. But you have one of the most iconic venues in all of sports, in the heart of Chicago, right on the lake. It's not the prettiest looking stadium. I realize it's a mix between ancient architecture and Roman colonnades and a spaceship, but I get that. But the location is just, it's the best. It doesn't get much better than that. I mean, outside of, I don't know, can you think of a better location in all of sports for a stadium than the heart of the city, right there? It's a good one. It's hard to find. You don't see many like that. Detroit, I think, now they finally have a downtown stadium. Yes, but it's Detroit. I mean, I'm talking about, Chicago's one of the great American cities. Even New York, they're playing their football in East Rutherford, New Jersey. They're playing, Yankees, they're up in the Bronx, but it's not like, that's not the best part of New York. You know, you got the Mets up in Queens. Like, I don't know, I just can't think of a better, in such an iconic place, to have a better location. It's Soldier Field in Chicago. It's gotta be, and I just think it's a shame that they're moving, and I get it. I understand all the, or at least the big picture idea is that now we're in a place where, just like what's happening in Tampa, like, you have to build out an event space. You're bringing in mixed use, you're bringing in different businesses and other ways to generate revenue, and man, if they're not gonna do that. Like, it's gonna be hugely profitable, I get it. For Hammond, Indiana. Hammond, for the Bears, like, fans will go. They're gonna sell out games still. They're gonna go out and it's gonna be a giant sportsplex, and it's probably gonna be tens of tens of acres or whatever it is, and it's gonna be very profitable. And Soldier Field was, I mean, yeah, part of the issue was capacity. I think it was just over 60,000 fans, so it was like maybe the smallest of all NFL venues, but, and it was very intimate. You're right there on the field, but. Y'all write a dollar. I don't know, when I think of hallowed NFL, or any state, when I think of hallowed state, I just don't think of Soldier Field. That's not one that comes to the top of my list. No, I think of Lambeau Field, you know, and I think of Wrigley Field in Chicago, where the Bears played their home games up until 1971. I mean, Soldier Field as an NFL venue isn't even relatively that old. I don't know, I just, I can't feel, I'm not gonna shed any tears for a football stadium in downtown Chicago. Well, I'm not a Bears fan, but I'm just saying, this is, I think that, all right, there's a new plot of land that the University of Alabama's gonna purchase, and it's sitting just on the other side of the border of Mississippi. That's not fair. And so they're leaving Bryant-Denny, and they're gonna have a mixed-use, it's gonna be domed, it's gonna be insane. Well, that would, well, those two things, that's apples and oranges. Alabama's played at that stadium since 1927. I'm just, just go with me as far as the metaphor goes. If you're gonna move Wrigley Field, then I'll cry. You would think it would be awful, right? I would think it would be awful, yes. Because there are hooks in the nostalgia of sports. Like, sports is not, you're not just watching it now, presently, and anticipating what could happen in the future. You live sports out from your past, all the great memories that you had, that you experienced. And those touch points, oftentimes, are the locations these games are played in. And I just think, I don't, you're right, in the big picture, am I shedding a tear over Soldier Field? No, but I have been there, I've covered games there, I've watched football games there. I think it's a great location. I think it's in a great American city. And for that, I just think, yeah, what if Fenway Park, like in Boston? Oh, you can't do that. I have never been to a baseball game in a setting that I've enjoyed more than Fenway Park. Even though your seat wasn't facing the field. I know, it was the worst, most uncomfortable seat, facing the wrong way, but I loved it. It was so great, and it's just like, we abandon history in some ways when we move on. And it's usually because, it's not because it's not safe, it's not because we can't pump more money into it and have added suites or whatever, it's really just because we're not maximizing the dollar here. More money can be made by moving elsewhere. To Hammond, Indiana. So it wouldn't surprise me if the Red Sox moved us. Oh no, that would be terrible. It would not. I mean, it seems unthinkable, but they could erect a green monster somewhere else. But yeah, so, I don't know. Bryant Denny, it's special to you, and I'm just saying, I know you wouldn't be on board with it. I know BK, I don't even have to ask him. I already know he wouldn't. That thing's going nowhere. It's not going anywhere. Well, because the campus, you're stuck to a campus, but once the NFL soaks up the SEC. That's where we're going. That's the future. Oh no. I'm telling you. All right. Now I'm sad. Okay, well, you're gonna cheer up on the other side because we're gonna talk some football. Don't go anywhere on the Knopf Days podcast. It's Donovan Jennings, who is a former USF Bull. Now he's playing for the Packers, so he maybe knows a thing or two. At a hallowed stadium. Yeah. In a Lambeau Field. Don't move that one. Agreed. That's coming up on the Knopf. Welcome back to the Knopf Days podcast with the World Cup now coming to a close. The football season, Chris, cannot get here soon enough. The real football. Yes, it's just, I think, about 50 days or so from the college football season kicking off. Ooh, yes. We cannot wait. We're gonna talk to somebody that not only starred here collegiately, but also is now taking his talents to the NFL. Our guest this week on the Knopf Days podcast, Donovan Jennings, former USF Bull, current Green Bay Packer. I know for as excited as I am for the football season to get here, our guest certainly is going into his third season with the Green Bay Packers. Former USF Bull, Donovan Jennings with us, and how pumped are you? Season number three in the league. I'm sure that the first season is like getting your bearings, trying to just stay afloat, but what's it like to go into now? Year number three. Exactly, man. You know, like you said, like the first year is just trying to stay in my head above water, trying to learn the playbook, learn this, learn the, you know, the dynamics of the NFL. And now going into year three, it's like, it's like so much smoother, so much easier for me. I'm going into the season so much more confident. And I just, you know, I can't wait to excel on the field. Like I know I can, and I'm so excited for the season. I gotta ask something. You're a Tampa guy. You're used to the hot summers, and then you go out to the coldest place on earth in Green Bay, Wisconsin. What, did the, did the body adjust? Will it ever adjust? What's it like? Man, yeah. Like first time I ever seen snow was my first year up in Green Bay. So the first time I ever seen snow. So it was definitely a bit of a change for me, but you know, I think my body's doing well adjusting now. You know, got a little good callus for the cold. So it's still, you know, those winters are still rough, but you know, I'm getting used to it. I'm sure that you have plenty of warm weather teammates that are like, man, just huddle up tight. You know, like, here we go. Yeah, exactly. Here comes the deep freeze. I do, have you been initiated into, is it, isn't the, one of the top foods out there, the cheese curds? Is this a? The official cheese curd, yes. I heard about it many times, and one of the first things I did when I got to the restaurant was, hey, give me your best cheese curd you got. So, and they're pretty good. I'm not gonna lie. There's fried cheese curds, but then isn't there like a fresh cheese curd? Have you heard of this? Yes, and when you take a bite of them, if they're good, they'll squeak. You know, they'll do a good squeak. That's right. It's squeaky, it's squeaky cheese. I know that we're looking forward to this season in particular, because October 4th, the Packers pay a visit to Raymond James Stadium. Have you thought about what that moment would be like to come back wearing a Green Bay Packers uniform on your old college football field? No, when I think about it, I get goosebumps. You know, it's just kind of a surreal moment for me when that happens and it comes to fruition. So it's gonna be just great to have all my family and friends actually be there to support me in the same place that they supported me in college. You know what I mean? So I think it's just such an awesome dynamic that I'm able to go back home, and I can't wait. You know what I mean? I can't wait. To go to a situation in the NFL with such a storied franchise and the legacy that is the Green Bay Packers, like to be able to experience that firsthand. What was kind of like the first pinch me moment when you step foot there at the facility and understand the legacy that you wear? Yeah, you know, we say you gotta protect the G at all costs. You know, when you wear that G, you're wearing something that many great legends have wore before you. You know what I mean? Just being in the same locker room as some of the greats that played and just seeing the history of it, seeing the champions, seeing the Lombardi Trophy, seeing the field was just, it's an amazing moment because Lambeau is one of those special places that really make a mark. It's really, Green Bay, they're really prideful about Lambeau. So being there for the first time, I was just amazed and just in awe of the historic factors and just the people in general too. Green Bay is not just all about football, it's the people there too. It's the people in Wisconsin that just treat you friendly, they treat you nice, they treat you like one of their own. So I love Wisconsin, I love Green Bay. Donovan, the NFC North is no joke. It's tough. What do you think about this year's Packer Squad? How do you guys feel? You know, we feel confident. We feel like we left a lot on the table last year. I think we're gonna go into this season, go into this camp hungry, trying to prove stuff and just making our mark as a Packer nation. USF has undergone some changes since you left. I don't know if you've seen the latest, but the stadium is coming out of the ground on campus. You were there, obviously, it was always a discussion, it was a talking point, but to see this thing start to come to fruition, what are your thoughts on what's going on on campus? Yeah, that's a great question. It's just, from them using that as a recruiting tool on me when I first got there a long time ago, to it finally coming to fruition. And it's just, it's so fulfilling to see that USF, all we needed was just a stadium. And for that to come now, we're gonna be all set. We're gonna be one of the best schools in Florida with the setup, with the indoor, with the new on-campus stadium and just the layout of everything. I'm so excited. And I'm so excited to see former players that put blood, sweat, and tears back into that organization. I'm excited for them to come back and enjoy it and me as well. I'm going to enjoy the heck out of it. You know what I mean? And just know that I helped in some way. You know what I mean? For sure. I can see you there on the world's longest rooftop bar. Yes, yes. You'll probably be up there catching a game or two. Yeah. What do you think about the new hire in Brian Hartline? Yeah, I like him. I went to the pro day for USF when they had their pro day supporting some of my guys and I met him there and he just seemed like a real genuine dude, ready to win. That's the biggest thing. He's ready to win. He's coming from a place where they win a lot. So I'm just, I'm excited for him to bring that culture and bring that standard to USF. I know you love being back in the Tampa area. And as you're here, you're also impacting the community given the platform that you have. Tell us a little bit about what's going on at Gaither High School this weekend. I know Saturday, big family fun event that you're going to be behind and some other things in the works. Yeah. So, you know, I had this idea about what just giving back to my community, you know, through, I felt like, you know, there's not a lot of places you can go to meet and greet NFL player. You know what I mean? A lot of people do football camps and, you know, football camps are great and I love those as well, but I kind of wanted to do something different and give back to the community. So we'll be giving out free food, free t-shirts for the 150 people that show up. We'll have a lot of vendors there. We'll have free haircuts. You know, it's just my way of, you know, showing that, you know, I'm human. You know, I went to Gaither High School. I went, I walk in these same halls you guys walk through. I was learning from the same teachers, you know, just show that it's possible, you know, show that it's possible to make it to the next level coming from Gaither High School, coming from Tampa, Florida. And, you know, just having that, having that, you know, feeling of wanting to give back is just something I've always wanted to do, you know, and making it to the, to a place where I can give back. And it's, I could, you know, I'm, couldn't say anymore. I'm just grateful. I'm so grateful. And you're partnering with Habitat for Humanity as well to give back in that way, right? Yes, sir. Yeah. So all the proceeds that we get, whatever, you know, is left over, everything will go back to Habitat for Humanity. I'm not doing this for the dollar. I'm not doing this for whatever, you know, I'm not doing this for none of that. I'm just doing it strictly to give back. And then the rest of it was going straight to Habitat for Humanity. And they do a great job around the community helping, you know, families in need. And I'm just so excited to give back to them too. How long ago does it feel when you were walking the halls of Gaither? Man, I went there today actually and it just, it brought back memories. It felt like yesterday, but it also felt like 10 years ago. You know what I mean? At the same time. So it was just crazy seeing it and just all the memories flooded back. you know, it's changed. It's changed a lot, you know, but only for the better. Well, you know, I know that there's always a Packard cheering section when the Bucs play. Packard fans travel well, but I'm sure there's going to be one coming out, supporting you October 4th when y'all are. Hey, great, great time catching up with you and best luck to this weekend's event and the upcoming season. Third year in the NFL. Good stuff, man. Yeah. Thank you so much, Scott. I really appreciate it. Thank you. Great to catch up with Donovan Jennings. He's a big fella, you know, he's 6'4", you know, maybe 300 something. But I think he would look like just a little brother compared to our next guest. Oh yeah. We're going back to talking to one of them. Really, he was a legend in WWE, moved on. And now he's with AEW, Paul White, otherwise known as The Big Show. Yes, making our show all the bigger. That interview coming up on the other side. Welcome back to the Know Off Days podcast. It's not often that I can rope Chris into doing some extra work for this podcast. Rarely does it happen. But it happened this week and what a guest that you were able to grab. Well, he grabbed me. He did. And now I need to see a chiropractor. Yeah. So Paul White, otherwise known as The Big Show, like a lot of wrestlers, he lives where? In the Tampa Bay area. He's got a ranch up in Odessa. Got a few acres. Got some horses. You know why he moved there, Scott, to Odessa? Because a young man who was a mentor to him named Hulk Hogan said, brother, Tampa is the place to live. Get you some horses, brother. Get you some land. And so now that's really what brought Paul to this area. And he's now with AEW and is right, kind of a mentor to some of the young wrestlers there. But they did a big show this week at Ruth Eggert Hall in Clearwater. And I had a chance to sit down with him and talk about where he is now in his career and also share some stories about the great Hulk Hogan who passed away tragically almost a year ago to this day. AEW Beach Break presented by Visit St. Pete Clearwater will be taking place at the Baycare Sound. And look at this. We've got a special celebrity mystery guest here tonight. Emphasis on big celebrity mystery guest to chat about it. Let's give a big welcome to AEW star, Paul White, known to millions of you worldwide as The Big Show. Paul, thank you for your time. Thank you very, very much for having me. It's pretty exciting. I live in Odessa, so I'm excited about the fact that it's a real close drive to work. Yeah, you're just up the road. All right, so you've won 23 championships over your storied 30-year career in pro wrestling. I gotta ask, at your ranch there in Odessa, where do you keep all that gold? Is there a Big Show trophy room, or are these things just kind of scattered about like knickknacks throughout your living room and maybe in your kitchen or on your mattress? It's surprisingly, no. I have one piece of memorabilia that I have up. And other than that, I'm not one of those guys that builds a shrine to myself. I've always been a what's today, what's tomorrow kind of guy. Those accolades are great. I'm thankful for all the opportunities I have the memories, but for me, I don't wanna sit and wallow in it. That's never been my thing. I don't have all my action figures displayed. And some of the things that I've seen some of the other guys do, to me, that's a bit much. When I step through the door at home, I'm just the rest of the guys at the front door and the family guys at home. So that's how I run things. Oh man, if I- Keeps me hungry, keeps me focused on moving forward. I understand that, but I gotta say, if I had an action figure of me, I would probably wake up every morning and kiss it. That'd be the first thing I do every day. All right, so you're talking about looking forward to what's next. So what makes AEW Beach break? What makes this episode different from a normal wrestling show? What can fans expect there? Well, one of the things that makes it different, we got a great little sponsorship from Visit St. Pete Clearwater. That's great. I mean, I live here in Odessa, so the more little local community things we get involved, I'm super excited about. We're gonna be on HBO Max. We're gonna be on TBS. It's our Dynamite. It's one of our flagship shows. Amazing talents, amazing card that night. We're gonna have MJF versus Kenny Omega for the AEW World Championship. That's a huge match. We're gonna have TeKesta versus Kyle Fletcher, two amazing young talents. And yours truly will be making an appearance that night. So like I said, it's a short drive to work. I haven't done a lot of in-ring stuff and beach break is our first tiptoe back in the ring, so to speak. Now, wait a minute. I think you just broke some news here. Are you telling me that Paul White is getting in the ring? I will be doing something. I haven't found the creative on it yet. Like I said, I'm recovering from a few surgeries. We're doing really good. Rehab's doing good. Conditioning, training, everything's on point. It's a local show. So yeah, I'll get in the ring and do something. I'm sure, let's figure out what's going on. So I don't know to what extent I'll be involved, but I know I will be doing something. I'm excited to compete over there at BayCare. Who knows? I know that it'll be more than talking. I know that much. Somebody's gonna get yanked around a little bit. So I'm gonna have some fun in front of the local fans and it's gonna be a good time. It'll make me really popular when I go to Publix next week. So there you go. Hey, we saw you at BayCare. I got a feeling you're always popular at Publix. You mentioned the surgeries you've been through kind of stepping out of the ring in terms of not doing as much of the physical stuff, but you've been really coaching and mentoring these young wrestlers in AEW. What's the biggest piece of advice you give them? Know who you are as a talent. You can't believe everything you read good or bad about you. You have to have that honest relationship with yourself as a talent because the fans come to be entertained, yes, but the fans react to authenticity. So be authentic. If you believe in your character, if that character is an extension of you, is a part of you and you've made it yours and it's not fabricated for you, the fans will gravitate toward that. That's how you build a career. Just know who you are as a talent and you're gonna make mistakes and that's okay. There's gonna be highlights, there's gonna be lowlights, there's gonna be successes and there's gonna be losses. Consistency, just consistency. And to build that relationship, it takes time. And you learn from some of the best to ever do it and you learn from everyone together. That was my first match. That was my first match, yeah. You must learn at the penthouse, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was nervous that night, you think? Just a little bit, maybe? I'd say that, Paul, just to say, a year out from Hulk's passing, I wanted to hear your thoughts on Hogan and kind of everything that he means to the thing that we still enjoy watching you guys do in the ring today. I mean, he was so instrumental in me being discovered, getting my opportunities. He taught me a lot about business, knowing your worth, doing business. Just in my life in that time, he was such an incredible, positive influence that I could count on. I mean, he was solid. He loved the Tampa Bay Clearwater area. He's one of the reasons why I moved here because I could live anywhere I wanted to. He was like, oh, brother, you want to live in Tampa? It's a great airport, the people are cool there, the food is good, the beach is awesome, but that's where you want to live. And it was one of the deciding factors of why I moved to this area and fell in love with this area. But he had such an amazing influence around the world for the fans. Like, I've been in countries from Malaysia to China, Japan, Australia. They all knew who Hulk Hogan was from South Africa. Everybody that's ever seen the rest of Moscow, they all knew who Hulk Hogan was. So to have somebody that made that kind of an imprint on the industry that built so many fans, he paved the roads for a lot of us today to be successful and have careers and have opportunities for guys like that. And he was one of the main big global stars. I mean, it was him and then it was Andre. Anywhere in the world at any time, you knew who Andre the Giant was and you knew who Hulk Hogan was. So definitely there's a part that's great for that. It's a personal relationship there. I was very close with him. He always treated me like a kid brother. Sometimes he was a little hard on me when he thought I'd done something stupid. I remember I'd done a couple of crazy bumps in Japan and I got back to my hotel in Japan and there was a message light. And the message was called Terry Collect. Oh, okay. So I called him and says, hey man, he goes, did you do such and such and such and such? I went, wow, you found out about that already? He says, I got the phone call. He says, don't ever do that again, brother. I'm like, okay, got it. He was referring to things you did in the ring, let's be clear. Things I did in the ring, yeah, let me clarify that. I did a moonsault in Japan and he was so mad at me for doing that because he had a vision of how the giant characters work. He of course worked with Andre, which is the greatest giant of all time. So, and I was young and I was up to do anything. Yeah, I'll jump off the top rope. I'll do drop kicks. I'll do this. I'll do that. That's not the character we're presenting. That's not business. And it was funny because I didn't get it when I was younger, but now that I'm older, everything he said makes sense. It's funny how wisdom works like that. You hear things when you're younger, you're like, well, I don't know what they're talking about. And then when you get older, you're like, oh yeah, they knew exactly. When it came to the wrestling business, he was one of the smartest guys I've ever known, just from A to Z. And he loved his relationship with the fans and he was always very good to me. Always very good. It's a real sad. I talked to him, I wanna say about three weeks before I talked to him on the phone. And we had mentioned about grabbing some food at some point, some sushi. So unfortunately, that never got to happen. But unfortunately, that's why you gotta tell people you care about, that you love them. And you never know what tomorrow brings. Seize the day. Carpe diem. Make it count. Absolutely. Paul, thank you so much for sharing those reflections on Hulk Hogan with us. And we know that he is smiling down today right now on what you are doing as you continue to, they lay the foundation, you stand on the shoulder of giants quite literally, and you are a giant yourself in the sport. And you're bringing it to us. AEW Beach Break presented by Visit St. Pete Clearwater. Paul, thank you so much. Go back to the ranch now, figure out what to do with all those acres you got up there in Odessa. I'm just gonna sit back and just enjoy the quiet time before I get to get into all the chaos at work. So I'm just gonna enjoy the quiet. We really appreciate your time, Paul. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. Chris, his finishing moves, we have the KO Punch, otherwise known as the WMD, the Choke Slam, the Colossal Clutch, and then the Final Cut, which is a spinning headlock elbow drop. Did he do any of those on you? Oh, wait, this was a Zoom. Thank goodness. That's why it was Zoom. But I still feel like he could have if he wanted to. It was the big slap that always bothered me. The big slap. He would just smack someone so hard you could feel the vibration in the back of your teeth. But nice to have if you ever have a choking event near the restaurant. Get over here. Get that hot dog out of here. We got that and my lungs. All right, coming up on the other side, it is time for what is more trivia, right? Yes, we can. This is World Cup trivia. This is World Cup on in. All right, BK's back with the Fun Block on the other side. My answer is Kate Burdick. Welcome back to the Know Off Days podcast. You have dialed in for our Fun Block. It's about that time when we bring in the king of fun, Brian King. He's back with us. We've been all over the place in this show. Now it's time for you to land this plane. Oh, wow. It's a little pressure there. Yeah, well, we got one engine's on fire, so. Still chilly in there? Dude, it's cold. But Griffin says he's hot, so he may be getting sick on us. Uh-oh. He's like hot. He's upset. He's running hot. Here we go. You ready? We got some trivia questions, some questions about this World Cup, and it's simple. Brooke will have you at, like, I think it was last week where I had those obscure ones where you had to get it. Oh, that was hard. That was tough. I kind of eased it up some, and it's just more or less. I'll give you a total, and you just gotta tell me which one is more or less of the other, okay? But interesting facts, okay? You ready? Two less options to screw up. Yeah. Okay, here we go. You know, the FIFA this year, the World Cup's expanded to 48 extra teams this year. 48 teams, I'd rather. It's a record-breaking 104 matches for the World Cup. Is that more or less than the total number of episodes in the Seinfeld series? Oh, it's less. You think you said less? Yeah, there's fewer World Cup matches than Seinfeld. It's 104 World Cup matches. Let's see, but Seinfeld, how long was the series, how long did it run? Seinfeld ran for a while. Let's say, let's say it went 10 seasons? That sounds about right. Okay, so how many episodes a season? Maybe 20? Maybe, they would do 20. I don't know. They would order, like, I think they would order 12, 12 episodes a season. Okay. That's 120, though. I wanna say, though, that Seinfeld, maybe it wasn't on a full 10 seasons, and there were slightly fewer. I'm gonna go more, more World Cup matches. Awesome. It is actually Seinfeld that had 180 episodes. Do you realize that Seinfeld debuted 37 years ago this week? Really? 37 years ago, guys. Yeah. It doesn't seem like that long ago. That makes me feel really old. Well, you were four, so. I wasn't alive yet. You weren't alive with Seinfeld? No. You weren't? I wasn't born for another 15 years. Wait a minute. It's that math. Wait a minute. That math doesn't matter. All right, good. I love this game. I'm leading. You're leading, all right. Here we go for the next one. The total payout for the teams in this year's World Cup is $171 million, all right? Now tell me, is that price pool more or less than what Taylor Swift pulled in during the Eras Tour? So the prize pool is $171 million. $871 million. $871. $871 million. Oh, there's no way. There's no, I mean, I know she's rich, and she spends, you know, she's got a $20 million wedding, you know. Like, there's, yeah, it can't be. You think she would make more than $871 million on a tour? Now, I don't know anything about the Eras Tour. Did this last for years? She milked this one. This is the one where she, and there were international versions of it, and then she did a whole second one. Oh, so this was like. This went on for years. Oh, years. It went on for an era. Eras, oh man. Then maybe. So that's possible. Gosh, though, I can't believe that the prize pool for this tournament was $871 million. Does that sound right? It sounds way too, none of this sounds right. Check your AI device there, Brian. I'm telling you it's right. Okay, it's right. Oh my gosh. All right, I'm gonna say that I'll take that Swift's was more. Okay, golly. Just to be different, I'll say that Swift's, I say prize pool was more. Swift was less. Wow. The answer is June. Taylor Swift. Holy smokes. $2.1 billion, are you insane? I mean, can you believe that? Oh my goodness. Man, we need to start a Nod Pod Eras tour. Do you think we could generate anything close to that? We need to start writing some good songs. That's what we need, and to build a cult following. That's what we need. We need to talk about all our bad breakups. You need to expose a little more leg on this show. Oh my gosh. I wanna. Then and then. 2.1 billion off of one tour. My goodness. Okay, I'm 0 for two on this one. Now I see what Travis sees in there. No, I'm just kidding. Okay, part of that money, let's see the next question. That $871 million means that every player gets a bigger cut, okay, in the winnings. The winning team, well, I better not say that. May be a question ahead. Player that starts every single game, they get paid per game in this World Cup. If you start every single game in the tournament, is that total more or less than what the baseball minimum salary is? Well, I wish I knew what the baseball minimum salary was. I don't know. I would say it's probably high hundred thousands. Like I'm guessing like in the eights, sevens or eights. Or MLB? Yeah. I think so. So I'm gonna say there's tournament salary for each game, is that? The total, if you played the full seven games. Full seven games. It all accumulates as it goes up. Well, I think give the US goalie less. Start there. I would say it's, I'm gonna say more because I'm not sure what that major league baseball salary is. And I think we're gonna be surprised by how much the soccer players make. Yeah, and I feel like the major league minimum salary is gonna be lower than we think. Like maybe 500 or less. Maybe like 250. So I'm gonna agree with Scott and say the soccer players made more. Man, the soccer players, they get $10,000 per game. So if you play the full games, that's only $70,000. I mean, so only when you bring it in, 871 million as a prize pool. The, you see it right there, the baseball minimum salary is $780,000. Okay. Yeah, how about that? I miss again. So you have an 871 million dollar prize pool, but these guys, this, where is this going, Mr. FIFA? Teams are getting, the winning team gets $50 million. Yeah, but so what does that mean? The losing team, the losing team that did not win, did not score one goal in a game is getting $9 million. The winning team last year, Argentina, only got $8 million. So they really ramped up their prize pool. Yeah. So Cape Verde got more money this year than what Argentina did last, or last World Cup. Wow. Cape Verde will spend it well. Good for Cape Verde. They will. You ready for the next one? Yes. The World Cup trophy weighs 13 pounds. Okay. And it's made of 18 karat gold. You guys know this. If you were to melt down this trophy, all right, and sell the raw gold value, would it be worth more or less than the minimum salary of an NFL rookie? Okay. Remind me how much it weighs. 13 pounds? 18 karat gold. How many? Okay. How many ounces are in one pound? 16. 16? Yeah. Gold's doing well. I don't know if you've heard. It's about 4,100 an ounce. Where's the ticker? It's around the, oh, there's silver. I see silver. Yeah. Okay. Minimum salary in the NFL, I think that is, that's lower than baseball. That's, I'm gonna say that's in the fours. It's the rookie minimum salary. The rookie minimum salary. Which may be less. I'm not sure what that is. I'm gonna say it's like in the threes maybe. Okay. So, I can't do the math. I'm gonna say, I'll just say more. That the gold would be, the value of that gold from that ugly trophy melted down would be more than the minimum salary. Yes, I will agree with that as well. I think it is. I think it's gonna be way more. Oh, do you? If you melted down that gold trophy, it would be valued at $713,000. NFL minimum salary is, for a rookie, 830. Is it really? Yeah. That seems high. That's, yeah. Yeah, how about that? Maybe we're paying these football players way too much. Way too much. Can we just give them a trophy instead? Yeah. Or some gold. Yeah. Okay. I've not gotten one of these right yet. Maybe you get this one. Ryan's gonna keep asking until you get it right. Maybe it's this tie. I need to take this dang tie off. You look smart with the tie, but go ahead. Are you ready? Yes. Okay, it goes to the money that FIFA's making off this thing. Because FIFA introduced dynamic pricing in the U.S. for the first time and these premium tickets are for the World Cup Final at MetLife Stadium are currently skyrocketing, guys. What costs more right now? A premium front category ticket to the final or a brand new Honda Civic 2026 straight off the lot? I mean, I used to own a Honda Civic. Me too. I don't know what the going rate is on a good old Civic. Very trusty, reliable cars, Chris. It was a great one. It was, it gets you to point A to point B. I mean, it's not, you're not gonna be drag racing anybody, okay? But if you want economy, smart, you know, pack a few friends in. Low maintenance. Just do the oil change a couple times a year and you're set. Couple times a year? Couple times a decade and you'll still be fine. These things will run forever. So I don't know what you're spending on it nowadays, but I would guess that a Honda Civic 2026 is probably coming in at about $33,000. That's gonna be my guess. Maybe a little high. I don't know. You think it's more? I think, oh, new cars are just ridiculous right now. Well, I'm going base model. Does the Civic still do roller windows? You still have the manual windows? No, Civic's got tech now. I don't know, I don't know what the base model, like the L. Well, we don't know if he's using base model for this. The L size base model. He better be. I bet it's higher than we think just because new cars are a dick right now, but. Just please say ridiculous so I don't have to believe you on this podcast. I'm gonna say that the ticket costs more. The ticket has to be, there's gotta be some crazy, yeah. This would be for the final that's played in MetLife State of, yeah, I'm getting this one right and it's gonna cost more than that beautiful new Honda Civic. You're gonna get more value if you buy the Honda Civic. Buy the Civic. But you'll pay more for that. Although the person buying the ticket probably isn't in the Civic market, I'm guessing. Saved their whole life for this ticket. Yeah, I'm gonna say the ticket to the World Cup final costs more. A base 2026 Honda Civic runs $25,000 to $27,000. Right now, front row tickets at this World Cup game, $38,000. You kidding? Well, it says 32.9 on the screen. 32.9, yeah. But that's where it is right now. That's the base, but they said secondary markets. We're going up to 38,000, yeah. How about that? Well, the Civic's still affordable though. That's not as high as I thought the Civic would be. I know, that's a good value car right there. But you could buy a Civic, drive up to New York, drive into the parking lot, cheaper than what you could for walking in the stadium. Yeah, crazy. I had a 2001 Honda Civic, put over 300,000 miles on that thing. Nice. My Siri's talking on my watch. Yeah, I think that's what you were supposed to give Travis Kelsey and Taylor Swift. A 2001 Honda Civic? Yeah, a 2001 Honda Civic. Something that they don't have, you know? I think they would value the economy, the gas mileage. They would. And the practicality of it. Like, you want to connect with the normal people that don't have $20 million weddings. That's one way to do it. Very good, BK. Is that all we got? Please, that's enough. Finally got one right. Let's stop there. All right. We'll save it for another week. Okay, very good. Thank you, guys. Thank you, BK. All right, walk off, there we go. And much thanks to our guests this week. We had Donovan Jennings, former USF Bull Green Bay Packer, and Paul White. We call him the Big Show, but you may know him as Paul White. And then much thanks to our crew here at Nod Pod headquarters. We got Rochelle over here on the jib doing some fine jib work tonight. Chris with the K on the ones and twos for BK in the booth, and Chris with the tie. I'm Scott. Until the next time we are on, there are no hard days. It's called a draw, not a tie. Oh, too much soccer.