Ryan McGee is a senior writer for ESPN and the co-host of the Marty & McGee show on ESPN Radio. He is best known for his work with NASCAR and college football.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Chapter 1: What is the introduction to the Matt Jones Show?
Hi, everybody. Welcome to episode two of the Matt Jones Show. Thank you guys very much for making episode one and the show successful. You can subscribe on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube. It's been wonderful to get the response. This is what we were hoping for. So every week, we're going to do two episodes, one of which will air on radio in Kentucky, and then the other of which will be on here.
Chapter 2: Who is Ryan McGee and what is his background?
And we'll put both episodes on the podcast feed. But really, there'll be one that is kind of podcast only, and we're going to start this one with an old friend of mine, Ryan McGee. He's done writing for ESPN for a long time, used to work on RPM Tonight. He covers college football and auto racing. More importantly, a smart guy with good Southern North Carolina roots.
And there's not a lot of us in sports media, actually, from the South. Worked with him on ESPN, and he actually put me – on the radio for my first time with ESPN. So we talked to him a little bit earlier today, and it's a big week with all the motorsports on Memorial Day. So we'll check it out. And then on episode three, we'll have Crystal Ball, my good friend who works in politics.
So we go from Bomani to Ryan to Crystal Ball. That episode should be out probably Thursday night or so. So with that. Ryan McGee. All right, episode two here of the Matt Jones Show. And you know, when I started these, I wanted to get people early on that I knew who've done these before who I know I can talk to and are fun to be around and interesting. And Ryan McGee of ESPN fits all of those.
He does college football. He does auto racing. And he's also a good Southerner, one of the few people on ESPN with a voice sounding like mine. Ryan, thank you very much. How you been?
I'm good, yeah. I'm petty enough that I hope that all of the professors that I had who said I could never – and the people I interviewed with for jobs who said I could never be on air because of the way I sounded. I'm petty enough to hope that they – Yeah, screw those people.
When I went to law school and I was going to Duke, it wasn't like I was going up in the Northeast. My professor said to me, you need to work on your voice or all of those folks will think you're dumb. And I actually thought that was bad advice because I thought the voice kind of helped. People underestimate you, Ryan, and then you can prove them wrong.
No, no. I say it all the time. I went to Connecticut to work at ESPN at the Death Star, basically a year out of college. And the company, ESPN is so much different now than it was 30 years ago. People from all over the country. But back then, it was basically just me and a bunch of guys who'd gone to school at Syracuse and Columbia. And everyone treated me like a foreign exchange student.
They literally would speak loud and slow to me.
Really?
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Chapter 3: What makes Memorial Day significant for auto racing?
And then the first after a couple of years, I tried to do it. I didn't feel comfortable doing that the first time because I thought they wanted me to be football guy. And now it feels like everyone's trying to do that.
I got in trouble. Rightfully so. Marty and I were getting feedback sometimes. Hey, you have to at least occasionally. If LeBron drops 64 on Friday night, you probably should mention it on Saturday morning. There was one week where you subbed for Marty. And you and I literally talked about county fairs.
Yes, it was awesome.
I remember that. It was awesome, but that was the one time where they were like, okay, you literally did not mention sports for two hours. I'm like, okay, you know what? That's a fair.
But you guys, I do appreciate this, and I thank you for this. My first handful of episodes on ESPN were on your show. You guys would be gone. It would usually be around Derby or Preakness or something, and they'd have me on. The worst episode of radio I've ever done in my life was on your show, which was the very first one with Nicole Briscoe, who couldn't have been worse to me.
I won't make you comment on that. But after that, I usually worked with you when Marty was at horse races, and that's what ended up getting me the job. So I always have appreciated it.
I appreciate it in return. When I was in the process of trying to convince people to let us do radio, you guys had me on your show. It kind of helped me. I made this transition. The first half of my career, I was a producer. I was on the producer track and really enjoyed it. I felt like I was pretty good at it. Then I started writing for USP in the magazine on the side.
I would produce these features and Like say I'm producing a two and a half minute story about Jeff Gordon from RPM Tonight, you know, back in the day. And I would call ESPN the magazine and go, I interviewed Jeff Gordon for an hour and we're going to use, we're going to use two and a half minutes. And so let me write something.
And so, and then when I, when I left ESPN for a minute and when I came back and I, as a writer, just strictly as a writer, no longer as a producer, they started putting me on some shows, but it was because of guys like you that would let me go on their shows and prove that I could talk, you know,
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Chapter 4: How has Formula One gained popularity in America?
Yeah.
And they had lined the paddock and were just screaming. That's crazy. Screaming every time these drivers came out. And that's just not, that's not something I've ever seen.
And the people, I think part of it, the people are good looking, right? Usually the drivers, it's so weird because when we were growing up, the NASCAR drivers were the opposite of good looking. They would be the least good looking people on earth. These people are handsome. They have like amazing hair, clothing, everyone. it looks like they could come out of a Chanel ad.
And I think some people just like it for that. I mean, the only people I know that go to the F1 Miami race are women that go in the best fashion they have. And I'm like, that's so different than going to Martinsville in Virginia. Yeah.
Yeah. So that weekend, when we did Marty and McGee, I was in Miami for the Formula One event. Marty was at the Derby.
Yeah.
And Marty was like, well, I'm at the Derby where the most beautiful people in the world are. I go, oh. I don't know if that's true anymore. You know, and there were a lot of people that were at the Derby on Saturday or in Miami on Sunday. And it was like, you know, Timothee Chalamet and, you know, he's dating one of the Jenners and she was there. And it was funny that I have a 20-year-old daughter.
And I'm in the paddock just kind of walking around. Honestly, I'm just creepily stalking famous people. Like, all right, who's here and who's not? And seeing NFL guys, guys I covered in college in the SEC or NFL now and seeing it was great. But I would take a picture. and texted to my daughter. I'm like, who is this? Well, that's so-and-so. She has 22 million Instagram followers. Oh, okay.
But you know, there was a lot of that.
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Chapter 5: What impact does NIL have on college sports?
Man. The good news is it's a lot of people. People ask me that all the time, and I always say the number of jerks.
Well, I'm going to ask you that in a minute.
But, yeah. But, I mean, Sam Pittman.
Okay.
is one of the nicest people around my life. He's just, well, all I ask of anyone, that's why I like you. All I ask of anyone is just be the genuine article. Like if you're a jerk, be a jerk. You know, if you're a nice guy, be a nice guy. You know, if you, if you, if you're a Bible thumper, thump that Bible, but don't, only do those things when the cameras are on and to be somebody else later.
And Sam Pittman is the same guy that you see on TV that you would run into at the airport or that you would see on his pontoon boat on the lake.
You think that keeps him an extra year at Arkansas? It's hard to fire a nice guy. We had that issue with Tubby at Kentucky. It's tough.
Right. They root for him.
Yeah.
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Chapter 6: How do college football and basketball differ in their evolution?
These coaches are dealing with groups of players, often young African-American men, that come from families that would tend to lean to the left, generally speaking. And a lot of coaches, if not all, but a lot, tend to lean the other way politically.
In times like this where it seems like that's so much more a part of the culture than it was when you and I were kids, I didn't know what people were growing up. Do you think that ever comes into play or just like they just put it all aside and play? It's sports.
I think that it's not any different than I think that's probably the situation in a lot of houses. I think that the parents might lean one way and the kids might lean another way. When you and I were growing up, you just voted however your parents told you to vote.
That's true.
And I don't think that's the case anymore, primarily because of social media. I mean, kids are so much more politically aware, active, whatever, than they ever were. But I think that the way that you – the coaches that are able to navigate that are the ones that are willing to say, all right, I want to learn from these kids.
Okay.
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Chapter 7: What are the implications of new state laws on NCAA rules?
And on the flip side, I want to explain to them, they have real discussions about it. I mean, I remember talking to Gary Pinkle about that, you know, when there was all that political unrest, you know, in the state of Missouri and how he navigated that. I think they had a whole SEC story at 30 for 30 about it. Yeah. You know, Nick Saban has talked about it, about, you know, navigating the team.
All these guys that navigate their teams through 2020. Yes. 2020 was it's easy to just go to the pandemic and forget about, you know, everything else that was going on. And it was it was an incredibly, incredibly divisive time. And it really, really kind of set the stage for all of this now. But to me, that's what it is. I mean, you know, and I used to see that. I talk about this all the time.
I mentioned I was a Senate page. I was a Senate page in the late 80s. And I was from South Carolina. So a lot of times, you know, I would be assigned to Strom Thurmond.
I was going to say, did you have Fritz or Strom?
So I had both. But Strom was the guy that, you know, and I knew Strom's daughter. But Strom and Ted Kennedy was across the hallway. And a lot of nights, I mean a lot of nights, Ted Kennedy would come across the hallway after everyone had left, and he and Strom Thurmond would sit in there and have drinks and talk about stuff.
And all of this is while Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill were doing the same thing at the White House. You can't do it now. If you do it now, cable news cameras are going to catch you, and now you're a betrayer to the cause or whatever else. But I think that's the perfect illustration of – You don't have to agree, but can we have a discussion about it without immediately turning it into a fight?
And so I think the coaches who can navigate that as teachers, because most of these guys started as teachers. And so when they can sit in a room with 150 kids that come from a very different type of background, most of them, and probably are registered a very different way to vote. All right, let's have a discussion about that.
Can we talk about what this why I believe this or why you believe that or why we're why the nation is doing these things? And, you know, I think. I think that – I wish everyone could do that. And the reality is that no matter what side they're on, the politician's job now is to keep all of us pissed off. Their job is to keep all of us mad at each other all the time.
You and I are totally in agreement on that.
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