SPEAKER 02 : 0:00

Everybody’s crowded down one side of the field for some stupid reason.

SPEAKER 01 : 0:03

It’s really weird.

SPEAKER 02 : 0:04

It’s to avoid actual tackling.

SPEAKER 01 : 0:05

The line can’t move until the ball’s touched by the receiver. And all of that looks weird. And then I also gave a lot of thought to the analysts. I think Chris Collinsworth does a great job. And he gets a lot of haters. And so does Tony. Tony Romo gets a lot of criticism. But these guys, do you know how good they have to be? The formula to me just fascinates me. I get so distracted by stupid things. Like, I was thinking about the Trump microphone. You ever notice there’s a Trump microphone whenever he speaks? What? There’s a Trump microphone. There’s an absolute specific kind of microphone that clearly he insists on. And here’s what’s weird. Even at the Charlie Kirk Memorial, the podium had, like, conventional microphones until it came close to him and they changed it out so i noticed things like that it’s like a black it’s you’ve seen it’s like on a spring arm and it’s just one single like a lot of times now they have two different mics on either side no no not for him why not leave it why not leave it would they allow would they mind if they left out i assume it’s because it’s it’s it’s the best microphone ever it’s great it’s the best he likes it why not leave it up for the whole thing So I know there’s a story behind that with Trump and his microphone. And I also think there’s a formula with NFL games. And, again, I’m not a diehard. You know, Denise and I used to have season tickets. I’ll never forget walking to that brand-new, beautiful stadium for the first time with our friends Pam and Ginny from Tyler, Texas. And we just always had such a – we made such a day of it. And watched the whole game on TV.

SPEAKER 02 : 1:36

Watch the whole game on that massive industry.

SPEAKER 01 : 1:39

Yeah, yeah. But I just think about the formula. You’ve got a good play-by-play guy who calls the action. Then the color analyst always has to say something pithy about every single play. And it’s annoying to some people, but I think it’s fascinating. I think they’re all great.

SPEAKER 02 : 1:54

You want a little secret that I’ve probably shared at some point? That was one of the first things I did. I’m in West Virginia, 1979. Right. I’m a reporter and anchor and stuff. And there’s this little semi-pro football team league called the American Football Association. We had a team. I think it was the Texas Wranglers. They played at the Mesquite High School Stadium, which is better than some small school. And our station carried the games. We went and got a guy out of Ashland, Kentucky named Dick Martin, who was just great on play-by-play, had this wonderful drawl, but he was really quick and skilled. And they came to me and said, you want to do color commentary? Do you want to be the analyst? I did that for two seasons of West Virginia Rockets football, traveled to Jacksonville, Charlotte, Shreveport. It was one of the most fun things I’ve ever done. I was probably terrible for a while. and then became sort of okay, never excelled at it, but it was exactly what you said, because the play-by-play guy tells you what happened, and then I am supposed to be able to provide some type of here’s why, help to paint the picture for the radio audience, and it was a challenge, and I just absolutely loved it. My chemistry with him was great. We loved each other. It was just the best. I had an incredible time.

SPEAKER 01 : 3:11

You were probably as good as I was when I was the actual sideline reporter for the Clemson Football Network. I hosted the Tiger Tailgate show. I knew that. Which was the pregame show. But they would send it down. Let’s go to the sidelines and here’s Mike Gallagher. They kept expanding my duties and I wound up being the sideline reporter. Now, what I don’t know about being a sideline reporter would fill all of Death Valley. Yes. I mean, I didn’t know what I was doing. And what I did, though, I was a showman. So I knew how—like, for example, I ran down—you know at Clemson, at Death Valley, they come down the hill at the very beginning, and they call it the most exciting 20 seconds in college football. So I would run with the team down the hill. How my fat butt didn’t wind up getting a broken neck is a miracle. It’s tremendous. And I would scream. I mean, they kept my voice on a loop for years.

SPEAKER 02 : 4:05

Oh, Lordy, I hope there are tapes.

SPEAKER 01 : 4:08

Oh, and then I would be on the sidelines. I blocked it out of my memory because I don’t know about injuries or who’s out or what’s the hamstring. And I would lean on other people on the sidelines and say, what’s wrong with 27? Okay. All right, and then Jim Phillips, the legendary play-by-play guy, said, let’s go down to the sideline. The sideline. He had to know that I didn’t know anything about anything. But you’ve got to fill 15 seconds. You’ve got to go. But they tossed to me. I know right now Jim’s in heaven, and I know he’s looking down saying, I never liked going to Mike on the sidelines because Mike didn’t know anything. Mike knew how to be a big-mouth talk show host, and somehow, I mean, there were days I was roaming those sidelines thinking, what am I doing down here? Because it’s a big-time program. Oh, yeah. Of course. With all due respect, this isn’t the Texas Wranglers. This is Clemson football. You are correct.

SPEAKER 02 : 4:57

It’s not semi-pro and mesquite. It’s a real, real program.

SPEAKER 01 : 5:00

No wonder they fired me. All right, let’s get into some hot topics. And let’s go to Friday because we’ve got to pick up where we kind of left off. Tell me you saw Serena Williams triggered by cotton in the hotel lobby.

SPEAKER 02 : 5:13

A woman tough enough to rack up some of the most amazing victories in the history of women’s tennis and yet triggered by a cotton plant display in a New York City hotel.

SPEAKER 01 : 5:22

In a luxury hotel. And she’s upset about it because cotton. Now, and by the way, a woman who not only should be tough, but is worth, they say, $350 million. Mm-hmm. She got that in America, and somehow this country is still so racist. And what’s funny, I loved the memes all weekend about how she must really get upset about the cotton bowl or Q-tips. She must be in a fetal position over Q-tips. I’ve got something in my ear, but I can’t get it. Victimhood, Mark. Victimhood, victimhood. And then let’s talk about real victims, the victims of this church shooting in Michigan. I am so less inclined, and people can debate all day long and maybe take exception to what I’m about to say. I am so over trying to study the ideology of a shooter. There are bad people on the right. There are bad people on the left. There was a filthy racist. Now, let me finish this. There was a filthy racist in South Carolina. I’m not excusing the rhetoric, Mark. I’m not giving anybody a pass. I’m sensing both sides. Nope. But the truth is the truth. Instead of worrying about the ideology, these things are happening with an alarming frequency. You know what we’ve got to do? Is we’ve got to make sure people in churches are protected. Mark. I mean, I am so sick of hearing about the gun-free zones, and apparently Michigan was one. Churches are largely, you’re not allowed to carry a weapon. Baloney! Everybody who wants to be armed ought to be armed who’s trained and capable of doing so. I hate the thought that people were killed and terrified by this lunatic until the police showed up. You know? I mean, if somebody, a parishioner, you know, was carrying, boom, take him out! Yep. That, to me, that’s the only issue right now.

SPEAKER 1 : 7:13

100%.

SPEAKER 02 : 7:13

That, to me, is what matters. And you’re right. Here’s the thing. And I know you’re not fully into it. You haven’t turned into Jessica Tarlow on me on the both sides-ism. And you’re right, especially if this one is one of ours. Yes, conservatism will hatch its occasional murderous lunatic from time to time. But the myth of equivalency is problematic because while if this guy was a MAGA hat-wearing veteran with flags in the back of his truck, there’s nothing we said, there’s nothing we’ve stood for that made him do this. There’s nothing in our rhetoric that energized him. On the left, there’s Their culture is filled with things to energize their lunatics because Trump is Hitler. Stephen Miller is a fascist. ICE is the Gestapo. So when your side is saying these kinds of things, you are lending, you’re putting kerosene on the fire of your side’s lunacy. We’re not, and that is a difference worth observing.

SPEAKER 01 : 8:14

I don’t disagree with that. I mean, I guess to me, you can absolutely connect the dots of saying if you call somebody fascist often enough. But again, the other side, the whataboutism, they’re going to say, oh, ISIS ripping up families. Tell me you saw the story out of Iowa. This one, oh, my Lord. Ian Roberts.

SPEAKER 02 : 8:37

Ian Roberts is the superintendent of the Des Moines Public Schools.

SPEAKER 01 : 8:40

Wait a minute. Dr. Ian Roberts to you. That’s right. Olympian Ian Roberts. Dr. Ian Andre Roberts. He’s from Guyana. He was an active ICE fugitive with the deportation order. Now, according to Bill Malugin at Fox News. He fled from ICE agents in his car. He ran into the woods. He abandoned the car. They found a loaded gun, $3,000 cash, a fixed blade hunting knife. Now, this guy, and you know what they did in Iowa? They marched on his behalf over the weekend. Of course they did. The lunatic left. They always go to the wrong side of all of these issues. That’s it. How about the woman convicted of killing a cop? They called her Assata Shakur. Her name was Joanne Chesimard. She was part of a violent, violent group that robbed banks and killed cops. She was convicted of participating in the murder of a state trooper. She flees to Cuba. She was never held to justice for that. That poor family of that murdered state trooper, the Chicago—and she died in Cuba, finally. Good. I don’t want to say good, but okay, shit’s over. I don’t mean good, but I mean, I don’t care about anybody’s death, but okay, her chapter is over on earth. She gets away with murder, literally, hiding in Cuba, living the good life all these years. She dies. The Chicago Teachers Union issues a statement. Rest in power, rest in peace, Assata Shakur. Today we honor the life and legacy of a revolutionary fighter, a fierce writer, a revered elder of black liberation, and a leader of freedom whose spirit continues. That’s a Chicago teacher’s union, Mark.

SPEAKER 02 : 10:33

Find somebody to love you the way they love radicalism. And speaking of radicals in our last minute or two here. If she’s your hero, you hate America. Check yourself in the mirror.

SPEAKER 01 : 10:43

You hate this country, Mark.

SPEAKER 02 : 10:44

We all hate this country. We don’t want somebody who hates this country as the mayor of New York. So does that mean that your friend, our Republican hero, and we love the guy, Curtis Lewa, should get out of the New York City mayor’s race? It was 80-20, Mike, in my Twitter poll of a largely conservative audience saying, Curtis, we love you, but you need to get out with Eric Adams getting out so that we can have Andrew Cuomo and Zoran Mamdani because Cuomo can probably prevent the Islamist communist mayor, and that’s the greater good.

SPEAKER 01 : 11:14

You want to know how hard this is for me? Curtis took me under his wing. He’s a friend. Radio guy. I admired him. He’s a radio guy. I love him. He’s a life story. He’s a lifetime movie. Guardian angel. Shot by the mob. Recovered. One of the toughest guys. He would be so perfect. It kills me that I know he can’t win. Okay. It kills me to feel like I’m abandoning my friend and throwing my friend under the bus. It kills me to say if Curtis loves New York the way I know he does, he’ll step down and give at least liberal – he can’t win there. He ain’t getting out.

SPEAKER 02 : 11:55

I mean, maybe it’s posturing to the moment. Rhonda just handed me his schedule for today. He’s doing like 10 interviews. He’s everywhere. He’s all over Twitter saying, I’m the only guy that can beat Mom Donnie, which is probably almost 100% wrong. But I love his drive. I love him. I love him. And I, too, hesitate to call on him to get out. But is the greater good preventing a communist Islamist mayor?

SPEAKER 01 : 12:18

Well, we’re going to have a big online screamed town hall on October 7th, the evening of October the 7th. Joe Piscopo, yours truly. I’m going to be in New York for this event. Hugh Hewitt’s going to be there. Our buddy Kevin McCullough is going to moderate. And everybody can stream it for free. It’ll be, I think, a great evening for ticket information. And again, it’s all free. It’s just a stream. It’s all like a giant Internet stream that you can watch from your smartphone or your computer. Just go to MikeOnline.com if you want to get tickets and reserve your slot now. Because we’re going to break it all down and just pray for New York. All right. Happy Monday. Happy Monday. Glad you’re here, as always. That is Mikey.

SPEAKER 02 : 12:58

By the way, real quick, as soon as we’re done, on 660 AM, The Answer.