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Summary
In this episode of Giant Conversations, hosts Hari Nam Khalsa and Kevin Weldon discuss the recent Super Bowl, the performance of the New York Giants this past, and the implications of the co-owner Steve Tisch being involved in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. They reflect on Daniel Jones' impact on the team's trajectory, and the coaching dynamics that have shaped the Giants. The conversation touches upon the cultural aspects of football and the impact of ownership decisions on team performance. Last but not least, we speak of magical places we've visited, in this case the Maldives.
Takeaways
- The Super Bowl showcased strong defensive plays from both teams.
- Daniel Jones' performance has been a topic of discussion among fans.
- The Giants' journey has been tumultuous, with ups and downs over the years.
- Ownership decisions significantly impact team dynamics and performance.
- Coaching plays a crucial role in shaping a team's success.
- The Maldives is highlighted as a unique travel destination.
- Cultural influences in music and sports are discussed.
- The NFL's image and ownership controversies are critical topics.
Giant Conversations YouTube Channel:
- (00:00) -
- (00:00) - Chapter 2
- (00:00) - Introduction and Super Bowl Discussion
- (07:56) - Reflections on Daniel Jones and Giants' Performance
- (13:15) - Super Bowl Game Analysis
- (20:09) - Cultural Reflections on Music and Society
- (28:05) - Team Building Strategies in Football
- (35:49) - Experiences in NFL Stadiums
- (43:17) - The Evolution of Music Consumption
- (49:04) - Ownership and Accountability in the NFL
- (55:08) - Reflections on Team Management and Fan Experience
Creators and Guests
Host
Hari Nam Singh Khalsa
Hari Nam is a renown spiritual teacher, whose passions include opera, philosophy, photography and travel (to name a few). But on Sundays in the fall you can find him living and dying with his beloved New York Football Giants, following since 1959 and a season ticket holder since 1964!
Host
Kevin Weldon
Kevin is a lifetime Giant fan and long time season ticket holder. Currently a PGA golf professional after many years as a semiconductor technologist. He enjoys history, traveling, music and spending time with friends, family and the cats.
What is Giant Conversations?
Hosts Hari Nam Singh Khalsa and Kevin Weldon provide their insights on the latest happenings in the world of the New York Football Giants. Drawing from twelve decades of Giants football fandom, their perspectives offer a unique and comprehensive view. They will also integrate their shared passion for world travel and curiosity for unique new experiences into each episode. Join them in their lighthearted and wide-ranging conversations, always infused with their unwavering love for everything Big Blue.
Hi, here we are on Giant Conversations, episode number two, post-Super Bowl again.
uh I'm Hari Nam Sengh Kalsa, and I've got my buddy here, Kevin Weldon, and we'll be here
with you on every episode talking giants, football, and whatever comes to mind.
So I guess the good place to start, we got lots to talk about.
We've got the Super Bowl.
uh
We've got petitions to talk about.
We've got assistant coaches to talk about and wherever else it goes, right?
the way, I am not on Epstein's private island.
In case you're wondering.
Well, I'm certainly not from from from my virtual background I'm certainly not but you you
uh you look like very you this actually that island looks very much a Caribbean island All
right, and yeah, and it's you know, he's a disgusting person as we've heard and you know
it whatever you've done in your life That was a long time ago.
And if you only had known
ah You wouldn't have done those things.
So we all understand.
You know, well, a couple things first from our first episode.
I just noted a couple things.
I always had a problem with Daniel Jones when he came up to speak.
First of all, he never said anything interesting, but he also had these, yeah, how did you
feel your plays today, Daniel?
Um, yeah, gotta make more plays.
Um, and he had these long, long ums.
And I have nothing against him personally, by the way.
I don't mean to demean him in that regard.
just had that.
I realize I haven't done this before.
I do that too.
During the last podcast, I was arming a lot and I had kind of a little bit runny nose and
I noticed my face was flinching.
So two things I noticed about myself.
But I live in Boston and it hasn't been above
freezing since Thanksgiving.
So my wife and I are heading to tropical places here on Thursday.
We're going to the Caribbean, but the picture behind me is actually from the Maldives,
which is a very interesting, is a great experience.
you look, and you know, we like, we love to swim and we like tropical places.
So we generally try to go someplace tropical.
not Florida, not that I have anything against Florida, but you know, one went to, we went
to Sri Lanka, one went to, you know, we went to Madagascar, you know, we try to go to
different places, but the Maldives are a very, very interesting place.
And if you don't...
of India, isn't it?
It's on the Indian Ocean, isn't it?
the Indian Ocean.
It's off the southwest corner of Sri Lanka.
We went to both places at the same time.
But it's unique in that its highest point is only, I believe, 17 feet.
So uh there's not a lot of climate change deniers in the Maldives because...
They have a very little margin of error before they need snorkeling gear.
But the place itself is this fabulous.
uh It's a series, it's been around for 2,500 years.
People have been inhabited there.
uh And it's a series of little islands and atolls.
And you go to these resorts and basically it's self-contained.
It's like something from Gildedon's island.
There's one palm tree.
and a small island, maybe an acre or two, and it's just a fabulous experience.
And right before we left, they lifted the ban on allowing non-Muslims to visit inhabited
islands.
it's a, you know, I'm not sure if it's an Islamic Republic, but it's definitely a Muslim
country.
You're not even allowed to be a citizen unless you're a Muslim, which is interesting.
But none of the tourists go to Mali, which is the capital.
They just go to the islands, which I understand.
But I mean, my wife and I are more interested than, well, we're just interested in
different experiences.
So we went to Mali, which is the capital.
And it was just absolutely fabulous, one of the best places I've been.
I mean, just incredibly interesting.
People are incredibly friendly.
And you really get a real inside peek into this country, uh which you'll never get in one
of these resorts.
So we love that there, it's a long way to get to, but if you're so inclined, I would
highly recommend it.
I'd say it's the most unique tropical place I've been.
I'm not saying it's the best, but it's the most unique.
And we took this picture and this was the beach.
and our little island and I could snorkel around the entire island in about an hour.
had a reef, you know, about maybe 100 yards offshore.
It took about an hour, an hour and a half to snorkel around it.
It was just stunning and a very unique experience.
So that's a digression from our football chat, but.
we have such a library of things to talk about.
My connection with the Maldives, Maldives, Maldives Islands, right?
Maldives, right?
You can print...
some say tomato, Maldives, Maldives.
I think the British say it one way and I'm not sure how to say it.
You know, when I was uh a uh criminal appellate lawyer, which I was for uh state of
Oregon, my uh secretary was actually from the Maldive Islands.
And so she always had pictures of it and we would talk about it.
And uh you know, you're kind of slight ambivalence about living in Oregon.
And she actually moved from the Maldives
dive islands to live in Salem, Oregon.
So that's probably, having given that background to the islands, uh you'd probably
consider that a uh serious move down.
By the way, I don't have anything against Oregon.
I'm just an East Coast guy.
I went out there, I enjoyed my time, but I like the grit and wit of the East Coast.
That's just a personal preference.
I think most of the Oregonians are very happy.
That's what I like, because I'm gone.
especially when it's not raining.
I'm just kidding.
But anyway, ah so what did you think of the game?
What did you think of the Super Bowl?
from the background, you know, it's funny because you're talking about Daniel Jones.
And I had that thing with him too right from the beginning.
It was the, ah and it was actually irritating.
And the funny part is he's like a very highly educated person.
He's not a stupid person.
You know, he went to Duke, he could have gone to Princeton.
ah And everybody says he's like a really intelligent guy.
uh
I would have thought that he would have said, ah that much.
And then I went over our first episode and I realized between the two of us, I think that
the artificial intelligence told me that we had about 400 us between us in one hour.
know, either we have a lot in common with Daniel Jones or he's actually affected our lives
subconsciously without us actually ever knowing it.
But we're self observant enough to realize that.
I don't know if I'm going to improve because I don't know.
But I'm conscious of that.
I'm going to try not to go uh during this podcast.
But I know I am.
But you would figure somebody in Daniel Jones's sphere of influence would have told him
that he would have had a coach, coach or something.
And again, it's nothing against him personally.
I mean, he's a great athlete.
And he tried his darndest.
And I admire him for that, but I wish him all the luck, not on my team.
Let's put it that way.
Yeah, it just didn't work out.
now, intro, now, there's a little interesting thing about Daniel Jones.
Now, I put this artificial, I did this virtual background behind me and this actual, I
took this picture at last year's, not 2025, in the 2024 Giant Seahawk game.
I took this picture from our seats.
Armin, another friend of mine, I don't think you were at that game.
But I went to this game and I took this picture from those seats.
oh that was the last game.
The Giants actually won that game, even though there was some drama at the end.
oh Yes, but they made that usually much more interesting than it needed to be.
They actually definitely carried the game.
and uh they deserve to win.
And the interesting thing, that game was only played a little more than a year ago, maybe
a year and three months ago, right?
And at that game, Seattle looked terrible.
Geno Smith was their quarterback.
Damon Jones played a pretty good game.
And the Giants uh looked actually pretty good.
And...
Leonard Marshall, I'm just trying to think, think that, no, they had traded him at the
end.
They had traded him, I guess they traded him the year before, right, at the end of the
year.
And ah he was on that team, and love was also playing for them.
But the Giants ended up winning it, and we're at the game, and uh went back to friend's
house in Portland, and we were pretty euphoric thinking the Giants are.
really gonna are kind of gonna be on an ascent here.
Daniel Jones even looked pretty good, but little did we know that that was actually gonna
be the last game he ever won for the Giants.
And he actually, think what he's only gonna prove to play another three or four games
because he completely collapsed after that.
And I don't think they won another game until they infamously
beat the Colts in the next last game of the season.
I think they lost like 10 games.
So I was at this game, the Giants looked really good.
met, uh what's his first name?
Dwayne Belton.
What's Belton's first name?
Yeah, I think that is.
I think it's Dwayne.
Dwayne Belden?
Yeah, I met his parents and had a good talk with them.
And you know, it was a beautiful day.
The Giants won easily and little did we know, leaving that game that they would lose the
next 10 games in a row, that the quarterback they had signed to a four-year contract was
going to play another three games for them and never win another game for them.
And the whole thing would fall apart.
So there you go.
That's the backdrop to our conversation.
then they land up, this team, I guess you could take a positive message is that this team
that I saw the year before that actually looked fairly uninspiring, they landed up getting
better as the year went on.
They didn't make the playoffs, but they landed up actually winning the whole thing the
next year, which was this year.
And leaving the stadium, if you had told me that that team would win the Super Bowl the
next year, and the Giants who've three or four games between then and now, that would be
shocking, but there you go.
Listen, I've just, an interloper has just entered the studio.
He wasn't supposed to get in here, but this is Pedro the cat.
And today's actually his seventh birthday.
He's born on Valentine's day and happy Valentine's day to all the viewers out there.
But the door was supposed to be closed, I mean, he, we call him Cuckoo Pedro because he
has some odd idiosyncrasies, but he's.
incredibly intelligent cat but has a lot of everything but anyway we don't want to talk
about him for too long he had he had his 15 minutes of fame there so uh what
Mucho gusto.
uh So anyway, uh I was out in Arizona for the game, which was nice.
Got on a couple of rounds of golf.
Went to the waste management tournament on Saturday, which is, you know, if Woodstock was
a golf tournament, that's what that place would be.
There was 300,000 people at the tournament that day.
playing naked like it would still?
No, but it's like a fashion show.
uh It's quite a happening.
mean, it's like of the 300,000 people, a dozen are actually watching the golfers, but it's
quite an experience and it's worth going to once in your life.
You know, it's like the PGA version, PGA Tours version of the Oregon Fair for you, Harun.
But I was out there, we watched the game outside, you know.
on the patio with the big screen TV.
you know, I really thought it was a pretty good game.
And I really like the first half.
I like contested football.
I like when every inch is contested.
And I thought both those teams played their butts off in the first half and the defenses
uh were problematic.
And I like that kind of football.
And that's the kind of football Baltimore played.
So I'm looking forward to that.
But overall,
first half I thought was good.
I miss halftime talking to you.
I didn't see it.
I didn't go back and see it.
Some people loved it.
Some people hated it.
Um, but, uh, I know the guy, the guy that's bad, bunny guy, he, he hosted Saturday Night
Live a few weeks ago and, he was, he was good.
mean, not musically, I'm, you know, it's not my style of music, but he's a talented guy.
mean, he, he hosted well.
He was funny.
Uh, so.
I have to go back and uh look at that, it's not really...
a little old school with that kind of music, to be honest with you, because now I speak
pretty good Spanish, so I actually understood every word that he was singing.
You know, we're, we come from another age and so the popular music today, to me the
lyrics, more than the beat, the lyrics kind of turn me off that.
mean, it just doesn't, it seems wherever I'm in the world, whether I'm in India, Europe,
the United States, South America, the lyrics to the popular music are like a common load
denominator.
uh
There's nothing inspiring in the words.
uh It's just very, to me, just very low consciousness in general music.
uh In general, kind of celebrating materialism, gratuitous violence and disrespect of
women in particular.
And people seem to be okay with this.
so the actual lyrics of his music,
It was very much the same that I hear in other music.
I'm just sad that that's what uh is...
It's either what's influencing younger people or this is actually reflecting where the
culture is.
But the beat and all that, you know, it was great.
I thought it was very imaginative and very creative, the whole setup and the music itself,
you know, the...
beat and I really like Latin music a lot.
love, love, uh, cumbia and, uh, cumbia, cumbia and salsa and all that.
love that music, but, but now it's just kind of, it's gotten very gross.
So that's, that's sad.
Yeah, well, a couple of things.
if you love Latin music, the place to go is Cuba.
mean, yeah.
So Cuba to me is like the eighth continent.
It's in the Caribbean, they speak Spanish, but it doesn't feel Caribbean and it doesn't
feel Spanish.
It's a completely different scene and my wife absolutely loved it.
Absolutely loved it and we'll go we'll go we'll go back at some point, you know, we went
You know in like 2018 or something or before that so you could fly directly there.
There wasn't any hassle now You know, I don't want to get into the situation, but it was
easy.
It was easy to go It's still easy to go.
All you really have to do is go to the Dominican or Different ions and you can fly there
and they don't check your passport.
That is a unique
place and it's a place you can feel completely safe too.
mean there's virtually no crime there and certainly not against visitors and talk about
gracious people.
But that's like grass and by the way I'd also like to say in Harinam he says he know kind
of speaks Spanish.
I think he kind of more than speaks Spanish you know he's uh
Like I said in the first podcast, he's a mid-level celebrity in South America.
think he's been on the equivalent of Good Morning America and Buenos Aires and is pretty
well known in those circles.
So a little shout out to you there.
Hari, now I'm in...
can't believe that I'm these things.
It's out of my imagination.
But God has been very loving to me.
I have lot of gratitude.
which means I, you know, basically I can't kind of believe that kind of stuff happened in
my life that I'd be in South America and doing all those things.
There's nothing that would have prepared me for that, but...
That is what's happened and so I'm very grateful.
God is very good to me in this way.
uh yeah.
so we're digressing from the Super Bowl.
By the way, I wanted to agree with your point uh and I don't think we have that much
company is that I was hearing from so many people how they thought the game sucked.
But to me, and this goes back to our conversation before the game is that
I don't think either of us had a really strong rooting interest in the game.
We just wanted to see good football.
oh I think the game went almost three quarters without there being a penalty called.
It was a very well coached.
I one of the teams I think was just a better team, but the two teams are very well
coached.
They made very few penalty types of like mental errors.
um
It was great defense and really on both teams, defense was terrific and we both like
watching defense very well coached teams too.
uh The difference in the game I thought was that uh you can almost say that Seattle really
couldn't throw the ball either.
Seattle could run the ball and at least a little bit and New England didn't even try.
And I think
It really gets specifically down to the point that even if the teams were perfectly
matched, and I don't think they were any, think Seattle had the edge, there were two
players that I thought really caused the difference in the game.
That was the left and right, left guard and the left tackle of New England couldn't
protect quarterback.
And even if everybody else was doing their job, they just couldn't do it.
And the other team knew it and they just kind of took advantage of that.
hole in the dike, you know.
And it essentially meant that New England was not going to really move the ball because
they couldn't protect their quarterback.
And I think that was the game.
I thought strategically it was an interesting game.
I think that the New England, you know, their offensive coordinator is widely acclaimed,
but I think they never really adjusted to that.
Yeah, well, feeling I had was that you were waiting for Sam Donald to make a mistake.
That was going to be the Patriots opportunity.
Because if they both played mistake-free football, you would think that...
To me, it was fairly clear that Seattle was the better team and they...
They would win, not handily, but they would win.
They would win 12 to three, something like that, which is not a bad game, uh like we
mentioned before.
But in the first half, he tried a little bit.
There were opportunities.
Wasn't anything blatant, but there were opportunities.
But I just said, oh, so I apologize for that.
So.
Because of that by the end of the third quarter the game was pretty much out of steam.
And oddly enough, quirky, the Patriots had like two long pass plays in a row.
One for like 30 yards and another one for 40 yards for a touchdown.
I don't know where that came from.
They looked at the same time skillful and completely lucky to me.
At the same time.
that was after when the guy ran on the field.
They had no momentum and then there was like a five minute break with the guy running on
the field and the next two plays they gained like 60 yards.
Ah, see, I must have gone back to the buffet, but I don't remember the guy running on the
field.
know, congratulations to Seattle.
They deserved it.
you know, how they got so quickly from where they were to where they are is very
impressive.
Their coach, I'm sure, has a lot to do with their coach.
Has a lot to do with how their quarterback played.
And I'm sure it has a lot to do with who they drafted.
I don't know.
I know very few people.
I mean, I knew the ex-giants on the team who both played great and both pro bowlers and I
don't know, we can get into that, but the other guys, same with New England.
I mean, I don't know anybody on New England's team except for the quarterback and the one
wide receiver.
Those teams are amazing, both of them.
but there's a huge difference in how they were built because New England, and the guy
you're talking about is John Schneider, he's the GM.
Maybe that's not the title, the football operations head, whatever.
He's been running that team really since the last 15 years.
Since we've been down, they've been up.
And this is the second group of players that he's taken to the Super Bowl.
a completely different cast.
And even in the time between their two very strong runs, the team's always, they've had a
couple of down years, but they've been basically a highly competitive team the whole time.
They've been at least respectable during this time.
And uh he is a tremendous general manager.
they, now, of course, they got guys like Donald and Leonard Williams.
and our Julian Love.
But they built their team.
That's how to do free agency because those were just like little additions to refine the
team.
They're a team that is built almost entirely with draft picks, up and down the roster.
They've done a great job.
And whereas...
free agents.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, but you know, the thing and even then getting him is funny because I remember that
uh Gettelman was really panned for picking up Leonard Williams and giving a third round
draft pick on a guy who only had a half a season left on his contract.
That was very questionable.
But Seattle actually did the same thing and gave the Giants a second round pick in his in
his walk year.
Okay?
And they did the same thing, they did the same thing that Gettelman did, was that they got
him in the house, they had him for half a year, they didn't even make the playoffs, and
they ended up anding up for a multi-year contract after that once they had him in the
house.
So they did, the only difference is, is that they went to the Super Bowl the next year and
the Giants didn't get out of their own way.
But...
They built their team on the draft whereas New England, what they went three or four games
last year?
They won four because I remember they won their last game which allowed the Giants to get
Abdul Qaeda.
So if New England would have lost their last game, they would have had the third pick.
The Giants would have had the fourth pick.
So I remember watching that game with a big rooting interest for New England, who I like
in general anyway.
uh
That was, you know, hopefully that'll bear fruit as time goes on, but that's what
happened.
Yeah, but then the way they built this team, other than the fact they had this
quarterback, was that they space went on a spending spree on free agents.
and, and they did a really good job.
I mean, New England, Seattle did a really good job at drafting guys.
New England did a really superior job in getting every free agent move they made worked
out for them royally.
They got some great, I mean, they completely changed the theme in one year.
Now I would say that, let's see how they do.
think they got a really good coach, but I think that the way that Seattle is doing it is
more sustainable.
That it's hard to build a team primarily in free agency, which New England has primarily
done.
They've drafted okay, but, but Seattle's really drafted great.
And they've kind of only kind of added final pieces.
where I think over half the starters for New England this year were free agents.
So I'm not sure that's sustainable.
But we'll see, we'll see.
see.
mean, they have a great coach and obviously the quarterback looks good.
I know he didn't have the greatest playoff run, but you know, he's 23 years old.
Give the guy a little, but you know, John Harbaugh has been on the interview circuit
lately.
I don't know if you've seen it.
He spoke with Mike Francesa and he spoke with...
other folks and you know he just seems like a uh really decent human being to me.
uh Besides being a football coach and I'm sure his record speaks for itself but I don't
know him personally and I never played for him but he just seems like a good combination
of a
a serious football man that's also a very good person.
And that, you know, bowed it well for him for his time in Baltimore.
And I think both you and I really admired the way Baltimore played.
I mean, we spoke about that, you know, a little bit old school, but you and I are a little
bit old school and not by our own devices, it's just how time works.
uh But, you know, it gives you some confidence moving forward that you have, you know, and
he's filled out his staff and his staff is mostly very, very senior people, which I liken
him.
There's some probably younger guys mixed in there too, but I think that's what the team
needs.
They need a strong, honest hand.
and a lot of uh imperial experience.
uh
know, some of it in the end is luck.
that guy, I was watching that Pittsburgh Baltimore game at the end of the season, whoever
won the game, and Baltimore was all set up to win the game.
For all that we know, they could have won the, for all we know, if that guy makes the
kick, okay?
Now, I'm not saying they would have won the Super Bowl, but they could have won the Super
Bowl.
They're in that mix of teams and they played a certain style of football that was a little
different and we don't know how all the teams would have matched up.
But if that guy makes the kick, mean, maybe they get it while they're in the playoffs and
maybe they were on the table.
Nobody knows, but they were in a position to win that game.
And I was watching it and as I was watching it, I was like, okay, miss this kid.
Because I was hoping they'd hire Harbaugh.
And I really actually had a feeling that if they lost the game, that he'd be fired.
I just had this, this kind of gut feeling.
did happen.
And, uh, and it lands up that if he hadn't been hired by them, I can't say that there's
been anyone else who was hired that I was that thrilled about.
And they've, you know, when also they fired coaches in the last 10 years and
Yeah, you people are going, okay, the ownership moves on too quickly from coaches.
But sometimes they don't move quickly enough because you can see it's not going to work
out.
And sometimes you have to be lucky because it's not just that they fired coaches, it's
when they fired them.
They've had opportunities to have good coaches, but or draft good quarterbacks.
It just never was the right year.
ah you know, they, the year they, had Shermer, they and Joe Judge, there was like nobody.
these and who is available.
uh there is a considerable element of luck to this.
Yeah, who would have they hired?
If they had hired anybody else, you wouldn't have been feeling this way.
I don't think there's one other coach who was hired that you go, I'm really excited in the
way that you are with Arbois.
Yeah, yeah, mean, was the right time, right place.
And, you know, I was watching that game too.
And I was kind of rooting for Baltimore.
Not that I dislike Pittsburgh.
It's a great organization.
But when they lined up the kick, I said to myself, I think I want him to miss this kick.
Because I mean, because I mean, when we were going to get Tomlinson, I mean, we just
weren't.
mean, he he he's going to do what he's going to do.
To me it was more obvious that Harbaugh wanted a coach again because I had heard him speak
so that was a...
Excuse me, Cuckoo Pedro's at it a little bit here.
eh I have to say, I just say one thing quickly is that I've been to every NFL stadium
except for Green Bay, Minnesota and Cincinnati and overall my favorite experience was in
Pittsburgh because that stadium is right downtown.
and it's grass and it's not a dome, has a great tailgate.
People are fantastic.
I really enjoyed that whole experience.
And if you go to away games and playing Pittsburgh, the type of person that's there is
different than the type of person that's at their stadium.
They're much more entitled.
I don't know if it's actually people from Pittsburgh or it's just people that
like Pittsburgh in the 70s, but it's a very different experience.
Oh, they were such great people, mean, that's a really nice.
uh
thing about Green Bay fans also.
Yeah, yeah.
The nicest fans I've ever been to was in St.
Louis.
They're no longer there, but they were unbelievable.
I went to uh a Rams game there, and Giants actually went.
Justin Tuck returned to interception for a touchdown in that game.
uh But anyway, uh shout out to Pittsburgh's stadium, uh which is a wonderful experience.
finds fail.
I see.
Well, I know it's probably called...
They make ketchup there in Pittsburgh?
I assume they do, but right now I assumed it's AI meta stadium or something like that.
People aren't going to pass up the bucks for that.
I see Seattle in the background, one of the little shout out, I love 80s music, I'm stuck
in the 80s.
Matter of fact, I peaked in the 80s and I've been in a study
the sense, but I love new wave music and the grunge scene and I actually saw a Nine Inch
Nails last night.
I don't know if you know who they are, but it's interesting band, know, half industrial,
which is kind of like German techno and half, you know, rock based, but a very, very
interesting band.
The guy himself, Trent Reznor was from Ohio.
He was a janitor.
uh
in a school or something or in a building and he wrote all the music himself and played
all the instruments himself and created their first album which became a big hit.
He's quite an interesting guy.
ah But Seattle had just a phenomenal 80s night when we were there last time.
They had a live band and played all the songs that I liked from that era.
A lot of the music that you enjoyed in the 80s, I just never resonated with.
Is that music still popular and even popular among people who were not in their peak
years, as you say, in the 80s?
So like, Bob Weir just died of the Grateful Dead, for instance, right?
You know I'm a big dead head.
Big dead, I love the Grateful Dead.
that music, even with the passing of the members of that band, uh
even decades ago, some of them, that's still popular music among even lot of younger
people that somehow there's always been an audience for not just from the people who were
in their twenties back then.
Is that also the same for the grunge and the music you're talking about?
As a new audience, is it mostly people like yourself who liked it back then?
Well, I'd say this.
So when I was in college, I lived with three guys who loved The Grateful Dead.
uh to the point of our entire wall of our dorm room was the cover to, I forget the name of
the album, but it was the skeleton playing the violin.
That album cover was the entirety of one of our walls in our...
adorn them.
I was, you know, exposed to them.
I admire them.
You know, I've seen them and you know, they play their guts out and I like some of their
songs.
In particular, I like Scarlett Paganio, which I think is just a fantastic song on the
album.
Live, it's not as good, but, you know, I'm not a deadhead, but I like some of their stuff
and I admire, you know, I admire them because every night was a different show and every
night was three hours.
And same with Bruce Springsteen.
I'm not a Bruce Springsteen fan, but I saw him and he played three hours of music I didn't
like, but I admire the fact that he did it and everyone else there liked them.
mean, that's just...
So the music I'm talking about, you know, is stuff like the Pesh Mode and the Cure and the
Smiths and the Human League and things like this.
And uh they have niche...
they have niche followings.
And even people that are in high school or college, there's niche followings to that.
The Grateful Dead will always have a big niche following.
I mean, forever, for all time, right?
I mean, it's an acquired taste, but once you're hooked, you're hooked, right?
They don't have casual fans, per se.
And there's this one band that I like called the Smiths.
And years ago when we were over in the UK playing golf, and this is sympathetic, but four
of us went on a self-guided Smith's tour through Manchester.
I bought this book and we went to Morrissey's house and places where they wrote their
songs.
And that's another band, not to the extent, of course, of uh The Grateful Dead, but they
have a very strong niche following.
you know, again, the people that like that band love that band.
And I can understand why you wouldn't.
They're very quirky, different kind of band, a little dour.
But yeah, so, you know, there's an 80s night here in Boston every Saturday night.
And my wife and I and our friends go and we all love to dance.
And every year there's younger and younger people there.
So that's what I'd say.
I don't know what that means, but uh
To your point earlier about music, the ubiquity of technology has gave voice to a lot of
different people to get their music out there.
And some of them are fantastic and some of them aren't.
And there's different forms of music where
You may not...
There's different forms of music.
I'm not going to judge them.
There's electronic music where the music's created on a computer.
And some of that I absolutely love.
And some of it I don't.
But are the people creating that music, musicians?
Well, mean, the composers.
They're composers, right?
They're composing something.
And there's other types of music where...
You know, there isn't the physical overt acumen you associate with music, somebody's
ability to play an instrument, or so on and so forth.
That doesn't mean it's bad.
ah
I agree with.
And I listen to a lot of that music I have.
You now they have something we didn't have when we younger, is that they have streaming
services.
Like I get a streaming service called...
um called um Senility, because I can't remember things that I used to.
But, you know, we get these streaming services, like these titles.
That's the name of it.
I get a streaming service called Tidal.
I think it's owned by this guy, Jay Z.
But it's amazing because they have like a hundred million songs on this thing.
And so it used to be you went out to get a CD or a record because I used to collect LPs
and it'd be 20 bucks a shot, right?
So now
you know, maybe you could afford a couple of them a month, maybe.
Now you have access to like a limitless amount of music.
It's mind blowing.
So and it's also set up in a way that you could do a lot of experimenting, you know.
So I've been listening to a lot of electronic music without having to go out and spending
money for something that I don't even know what I'm getting.
So I really do enjoy that.
And I'm not that that
concerned about defining what music is and what music isn't.
It's about just making some kind of sound.
It's a vibrational quality.
mean, music is just uh sound waves and how it affects the mind.
And that's a longer existential conversation.
But uh in short, uh I appreciate anything that moves me personally.
And it doesn't matter.
Like, uh
Like what you say, I'm learning now, I'm 74, I'm just learning now how to play the
electric bass, because I really like jazz and the blues and that's a really great
instrument for jazz and the blues.
The blues in particular, I really enjoy this and I'm enjoying learning it, but of course
it takes a certain amount of dexterity and a certain amount of music theory to do that.
that doesn't mean you can't create great music without doing it.
Sometimes people don't want to...
I mean, you hear these people play classical music on the piano, it blows your mind, like
how somebody could actually be that trained in the dexterity of doing that.
It blows my mind, you know, but that's not going to be for everybody.
Yeah, I I used to be very parochial in what I liked musically.
You know, I liked certain forms of music and most of them are centered around alternative
rock.
And I became disenchanted with popular music, you know, probably since the turn of the,
since the new century.
mean, uh, now there's good things and there's things that I like.
That doesn't mean there's good things.
lot of things that people like, but I became a little disenchanted with it.
So I started to branch out a bit and listen to music, types of music that I wouldn't have
considered before.
One of them, which is more classical jazz.
So I know you were really into jazz and you had, I don't know, 1,500 jazz albums.
And I think I just sent you an email once and said, send me your five favorite jazz
albums.
And I still have a turntable and I bought all five of them and they're phenomenal.
They're really...
That's something that's a type of music.
I always like kind of like New Orleans jazz.
ah Just because it's fun.
And I love the town of New Orleans.
but that's one example, you know, and there's many others and I'm going to spend the whole
time talking about that.
uh I'm much more well rounded now musically than I was.
But
I found that in older style music as opposed to more contemporary music.
uh But eh anything else we need to talk about today?
think you know why before we because I think during the offseason I think we I think our
goal as we kind of kind of try to pull this together to be ah Kind of uh material that
people would really like to come to I think we were talking about trying to do this once a
month and then during the season, you know, because Once a regular season start hopefully
once a week after the games.
So ah
you know, since we won't be on for another month, you know, we're trying to deal with the
news that's up front.
We talked about Harbaugh and the change.
Really, I mean, such a dramatic change to the team that it's like, there's no sense in
even talking about what happened during the season because it's like, it feels like a
reboot, you know?
And so, and I think it will be a reboot.
So I don't really need to talk about what happened three weeks ago because it's history.
towards the Super Bowl and even having a couple of our old guys on the team that we once
rooted for, so we're happy for them.
uh I think the last thing I think I'd like to get here from what you think about this
whole thing with, and again, as I've heard on some of the other giant shows, it's not
specifically giants or sports related, but I think in some ways it is, and that
is this whole thing with Tish and the Epstein files and all that because that's really a
bombshell for the NFL.
And I think it's worth talking about because it really gets back to how this team has been
run, by who it's run, and what their priorities are.
And the other thing is that, of course, the NFL is trying to project this certain image
and they're always...
And I think rightfully so, trying to legislate behavior off the field by their players and
even suspending players when their behavior is just, it really reflects really badly on
the league.
And now they have an owner, a multi-billionaire, who is really showing himself to really
be a really kind of a no-gooder.
they're gonna have to do something about it.
And so I think it's an interesting topic because here you're saying a guy like Harbaugh
comes in and he's a man of faith.
As they say, man of faith, he's a straight dealer, strong man, he's a good man, he appears
to be a leader of men and really knows what he's doing.
I think we both agree to that.
And he's talking about how a big draw for him.
to the Giants was the ownership, specifically talking about the Marys and what good people
they are.
Okay, now this thing, this bomb gets dropped a week after the guy comes on board.
I don't think it's that little of an issue, actually.
What do you think?
Oh, well, you know, I think the ownership of the team is with the Tisch family and he's
one member of the Tisch family.
He happens to be the face of the Tisch family.
I don't think he'll he will no longer be the face of the family.
So I, you know, I don't think that's what I think.
I think his brother or his sister or somebody else.
uh
will be the face and that face may be much smaller than it was in the past.
may be 90 % Mara, 5 % Tisha.
I don't know, but I can't imagine that he's gonna be.
you know, he's still going to be the face of ownership.
yeah, I know.
gonna look at him sideways.
I know, well, you know, these things have a way of...
There's twists and turns with these things and it always seems to end up a certain way
depending on your privilege in life.
I mean, there's other owners in the NFL that had experiences like this.
And I don't know these people.
For all I know, just because you're a billionaire doesn't mean you're a lonely old man.
But life's full of choices.
You ah and it's, uh you you would expect someone, you'd expect someone in the public eye
to make the right choices in these cases.
But I don't know him.
I don't know all the circumstances, but all I'd say is I'd be shocked if he's still, if
you see him again around the football team.
You know, the other thing is that, and again, I think this gets back to like how much
suffering we've gone through following this team in the last 15 years, for the most part.
And, and, know, you're reading some of this stuff about him and I'm not even getting into
the sordid details of what he obviously was involving himself with and what kind of person
he's, know, you know, it's like,
It's almost like these people living double lives.
mean, he's kind of like presenting himself a certain way, but his real life is like very
different than that.
And there's a lot of that going on, but having to do with the Giants itself, guess that
there's this, and it's something we'll probably, like you said, it will probably never
know about a lot of this stuff, but it's like the team has been dreadful for 15 years and
we have always talked.
And I think both of us have agreed that if you're looking to put blame somewhere, you
know, they talk about the coach, they talk about the general manager, they talk about
this, but ultimately it's the people running the team.
Okay.
And they're the, they're the constants.
There's been general managers have come and gone, coaches have come and gone, but the team
still has sucked.
And the one constant is the people running the team.
Those are the owners.
And so.
Even if he wasn't a football guy, I'm talking about Tish.
He's involved with, he's somewhat involved with the team and just from the stuff that's
been revealed, let's just say that it just would come off that he's distracted by other
things and that he, by privilege, had billions of dollars and lives a certain way.
ah We're all flawed people in some way, sometimes getting into his personal flaws, but it
just seems that...
If his attention, let's put it just this way.
We've been through so much with the team forcing uh even to buy, and he must've had a big
say in this, forcing the fans who supported the team for decades to buy these very
expensive licenses for the privilege of going to the game in a stadium that they didn't
even want, but we're told that it was only needed so the team could stay competitive.
That was their.
That was their argument and the team has not done nothing but suck since they've got that
new stadium.
They've gotten worse, not better.
And they've been trying to, so basically they got the fans to buy the stadium for them.
And so in general, I guess my issue with this guy is, is like, are you, are you really
concerned?
Is your focus really making this a better team or is your focus um on the kind of side
Benny's that you get?
in that kind of uh company that you're keeping.
I don't, as I say, may not be, somebody with somebody, it may not be everything, but it
doesn't mean everything, but it doesn't mean nothing.
And so I think there's something about the character involved here that we're innocent
fans, but you don't know what's going on behind the scenes.
Yeah, I think you won't see too much of him anymore.
and that's probably a good thing.
That's probably a good thing.
Yeah, anyhow, too interesting.
guess time...
Yeah, but isn't it like 10 degrees outside?
uh
Okay, while you're getting, or you're gonna jump in for a little swim out in the Maldive
Islands, I think I'm gonna walk down from my seats here in the Seattle Stadium and get
myself some peanuts and popcorn underneath in the rotunda.