NBA weddings, Sophie Cunningham’s right-wing grift, Gianni Infantino’s failed plan to sell parts of FIFA, and Aaron Rodgers is back on his high horse

I want to keep that, I wish that that had recorded, and Charlie did a countdown for this test. A silent countdown. And you know what I thought, you know, in like the morning show, and they always, they start rolling, and they show the producer point to the desk anchors. Yes. Oh, I guess it happens in real life morning shows too, but that's true, but it also happens in fake ones. And that's a story telling the test, we have that sounded. Hi, Charlotte, hello, Madeline, we're back with another episode of the sports gossip show. That's how to like a jingle that would be on a kid show on PBS. Yeah, that or a Pillsbury Doe Boy situation, you know, it Pillsbury Doe Boy gone rogue, the sequel. You know, it's only a matter of time in terms of like how IP has been going that we get Pillsbury Doe Boy the movie, like isn't that in development or is that, you know, that has to have been in development for quite some time. And it played by that who's that guy Paul Walter house or who the guy who plays like all of the guys. I'm just going to go with yes, yes, and well, and it's like the origin story of the Pillsbury Doe Boy, he was created by a baker and like he's just trying to find his dad the whole time. I do feel like the idea should have pun intended risen to the top of the stack of ideas. You know, but maybe it was just a little half baked when it got to the exact Wow, wow, wow. That was great. I love a crystal ball though. Professional show. Oh my God, we have a jam packed episode today. We have a couple NBA weddings to get to. We will be discussing those. We have an update on the Sophie Cunningham story. There's also a lot of drama going on in FIFA that I feel like has not stopped for one second since the World Cup wrapped up a couple weeks ago. Um, then of course some usual suspects Tom Brady and Aaron Rogers did some stuff. So, you know, it's kind of all the hits with some new things thrown in there. Yeah. Type episode. No, it is. It also is, as you said, all that the fact that it's not like we're, it's not like we shoehorn Tom Brady or Aaron Rogers into every episode. They just won't stop doing things. No, they don't stop. They really don't stop. They put themselves in a rundown, Madeline. Yes. It's, it's as if we gave Aaron Rogers and Tom Brady the log into our Google doc and said, hey, you want to mess around in here? Go for it. Hey, do you want to contribute? You want to contribute some events? Yeah. Just some things. There we can. Anyway, well, let's start with the celebratory stuff. Yes. The first wedding we are going to be discussing today, Charlotte. Well, Madeline. I'm so glad you asked. Donovan Mitchell, star of the Cleveland Cavaliers married Grammy winning artist Coco Jones. It looked like a good time. I look like they were having the best time. It's nice to see a couple out of wedding actually have fun because weddings can be quite stressful. No matter the size and no matter the budget, there's always some family drama. There's always, there's always just some drama, but it looks like they really were having a good time, the entire time from all the clips that I've seen at least. Yeah. They were dancing. They were just looking loose body language wise, you know, you see, we all look at weddings on Instagram and you see those ones where it's like, okay, it's like that, I think you should leave skit where it's like, I feel like you're just here for the zip line. It's like, yeah, I feel like you're just here for the eventual Instagram post. And I did not get that vibe for this one. No, but what I did get a vibe about were the flowers. We have not seen official photos yet from this wedding. So this is just based on Instagram story content that people pulled from athletes and Instagram stories and put on the internet for our consumption. But from their reception, I don't know, Charlotte, if you can click on the first link I put in the dock, shockingly, not only can I click on it, I can see it. Wow. That is rare. That is rare. But they have some white flowers coming out of what looks like the bar. And then as they're walking into the reception, there are some tree like statue sculptures that also have white flowers coming out of it. And I'm going to say just based on what we've seen so far, the flowers are on the more compressed side of things that are not compressed. I agree. But there is what I will say, yes, I think the overall vibe is more compressed. The things they're doing, the way that the trees sort of display out in an asymmetrical drapey kind of vibe is, that's interesting to me. No, it is interesting in the same way that that proposal we talked about a couple of weeks ago with the light post compression of flowers also was something we hadn't seen before. And I'm like, wait, once they release the credits, is it the same person or company who did the weeping light post that did these branchy tree internal foliage situation? I mean, that would be amazing. That would be because what that would mean is that whoever's doing these is an innovator in their field, they're disrupting the compressed flower scene, really? Exactly. Which is all we want, little disruption. We don't ask for much. No, just a little disruption here and there. Just a little disruption. One of the, my favorite things to come out of this wedding though, is a video that Jalen Brown took who is now playing, unfortunately not for your team Charlotte. Sorry, he's not playing with Celtics anymore. He is playing with Mr. LeBron James and Philadelphia for the 76ers. He took a video of Jalen Brunson, star of the next on the dance floor with his wife, I think his wife's in the background, Ali Brunson, and it's like a slow zoom in. And Jalen Brunson's face, it's like he's playing in the finals. He has the same expression as he did during the playoff run. Yes, he's also like he knows the cameras on him. Yes. He's like, he's like playing to the camera. I didn't realize that Jalen Brown took that video. Yes, he did. He did. You know, that's really something. I did. Well, I'm not going to talk about the Celtics. I'm not going to talk about the Celtics. Well, I think you can, because I talked about the knicks at every turn, at every chance I could during LeBron episodes, so that was like performance art. That was like, that was incredible consistency, I love that. It was like, you know, when you have an essay, when you would learn how to write an essay for AP exam or something, and they told you how to structure it, like you had to do it a certain way and do like transition sentences or whatever, like that's what I was doing by shoe warning and the knicks into our discussion about LeBron James being traded to Philly. Yes. You were doing much like the New York Knicks, the, you know, it was like every, every paragraph started with the, no, it was incredible. I mean, I saw a rumor that the Celtics were reaching out to Stefan Curry, star of the Golden State Warriors. Uh-oh. And then I got excited because then I convinced myself they could win a championship with Steph and Jason Tatum, even though Jalen Brown's not there anymore. So, you know, being a sports fan is an exercise in delusion, in lying to yourself, in bargaining. I mean, it really is just like the seven stages of grief all the time, even if it's like an act being a sports fan, unless your team is actively in the process of winning a championship is kind of like the act of grieving the way that you're, the emotions you feel. Right. No, it's true. It is. It's not only just struggling, anyway, the thing that, the thing that I found most interesting about this Madeline was this was, it's so fascinating to me when athletes who play so hard against each other, like the Cavs and the Knicks played in the Eastern Conference Finals. And then these guys are at each other's weddings. It's almost like the epitome of being a professional of being able to separate like work and your life. These guys are also so competitive that like they can, to them beating each other is a part of their friendship as opposed to a detraction from it. Of course, there are players who hate each other and opposing teams, but if you're friends and you're playing each other, you want to beat each other so that at someone's wedding, you can say, hey, Donovan, congrats, I'm so glad you're married now, but do you remember when I swept you in the Eastern Conference Finals? Right. I feel like it's just a very expensive, high level version of beating your friends at a card game or something, you know, like on a vata vacation. You're just competitive. They're inherently competitive. It just happens to be their job that they need to beat their friends in a professional sport, such a great point, such a great point. So yeah, and then there were some other celebrities there again. We haven't seen all the photos. I'm sure there were many more, but here in Russell Wilson were there. Bam out of bio was there. I don't think Asia Wilson was there because I'm assuming she was playing basketball. I would assume. I don't think she was there. I think she had to go to work. Yeah. She had to go to work. Yes. Yes, yes, yes. But yes, I would imagine we'll be getting some professional photos, probably a Vogue exclusive. Maybe people magazine. I kind of could see a people exclusive from us. I could too. They had. They had a lot of people articles about this already. So you never know. Yes. You never know. Moving right along to another NBA wedding that we've We don't have any photos of, but we do know happened and there is one video that we have seen. Tyree's Haliburton star player for the Indiana Pacers got married to his fiancee J. Jones. They seem to have a very lively celebration. 50 cent performed at their wedding, slash attended. He sure did. Apparently, did you know that 50 cent is a huge Pacers fan? What? Yeah. Since he's like the Reggie Miller era, I don't know. He's just like being court sided Pacers. I couldn't believe it. I was like, wait a second, because he plays the song, I get money, and there's the intro to it where he says, "I run New York," and Tyree's Haliburton is like dancing on stage to that, because they beat the next now, I would argue that that's like sort of a lame thing to do, because the next just won the championship, but like whatever. And there was a whole page six article about how 50 cent is a Pacers fan. Wow. News to me. News to me. Same? Okay. All right. But it looks really fun. It looks really fun. It looks really fun. It looks like a very fun wedding. The couple they did meet at Iowa State when Tyree's Haliburton was playing basketball, and Jade Jones was a cheerleader. So. Yes. Nice little kind of rom-commy situation there. Yes. Big time. Big time. We like to see it. I'm sure we will get some more flower photos, and of course we will give the updates on whether they are compressed or not. Don't worry. We are on it. Yeah. So, okay. Well, I'm not sure to do a hard pivot and just don't think that sucks. Yeah. But you know, this is the, this is the world of sports gossip. You never know. You never know what's coming. Madeline Sophie Cunningham, one of the players of the Indiana fever who is just constantly in the news for something recently has been going on this anti-trans women in sports crusade. We talked about this with Elle Duncan last week on our show. But we, Elle is a, as a colleague of Sophie's on USA Network, and she is a policy which I completely understand I'm not talking about her co-workers. So we sort of, we didn't talk about Sophie's role in all of this quite as much. And it has, it has continued to just get, Sophie Cunningham has just continued to fan the flames here. And she most recently posed with Riley Gaines, who was a swimmer, not even a very good one, who is super anti-trans women in sports. And she also posed for a picture with the Levi's executive Jennifer Say. And this was at a game. And both of the Riley and Jennifer wore t-shirts that were anti-trans. And Cunningham even held up Riley Gaines' sign, which read Sophie, thank you, from a girl mom, which we have talked about this. This is trans women in sports is not the biggest threat to women in sports in any by any means. I would say it isn't a threat to women in sports. It is so clear at this point that Sophie Cunningham is doing a pretty blatant like right wing grift. Yeah. She's doing a hard pivot right. And I just think that she knows what she's doing. And she knows that ultimately her basketball career is only going to be so long. She's not the best player. She's, she's not. And so she clearly is making a choice to be publicly endorsing anti-trans views, talking about them in interviews, posing with some of the biggest anti-trans influencers in America, maybe in the world, I would say Riley Gaines is one of the most prominent voices of that. So she clearly, she clearly is making a choice that she's like, this is what my post-retirement strategy will be whenever she does decide to retire from being a professional basketball player. And to say that she, she said that it didn't cross her mind or her team is that this could be a distraction. Anyway, it's like, please, you really, you think that this wasn't going to be a distraction. You spoke about this issue in an interview with ESPN and didn't think, oh, this would maybe be a headline that would be attached to my name and would continue to just snowball. And then you posed with Riley Gaines and executive from Levi's and hold up that sign like, really? You think we're dumb? I just think we talked about this so much on our show, but that I think sometimes these people think that the public is stupid. That's sort of what it feels like that you don't, like this feels very transparent in what she's doing. It does not feel subtle or like, oh, she's being like mysterious with what she's, it's like, it's very blatant and obvious what she's doing. >> Yes, absolutely, especially because it was announced shortly after she started doing all of this sort of ramp up of being anti-trans, that she has a shoe coming out with a deedis. >> Yeah. >> Right. >> And that shoe sold out after she made those comments and after she posted that in-feed Instagram post doing her tunnel walk where the caption, I believe, was I said what I said, then her shoe sold out. It's like, this is all very strategic and also very obvious. >> Yes, exactly. And I think that there's an element of it where, you know, when if I were in the fever locker room or any locker room, really now that everybody's being asked about trans women in sports because Sophie sort of lit this fuse, I would be pissed. I don't know how they feel. Like Caitlin Clark was asked about it and she gave an answer. She said, I think it's for leagues and governing bodies to work with their athletes in fine solutions or focuses on basketball, blah, blah, blah, you know, it wasn't like an anti-trans. I agree with Sophie. It was pretty down the middle. And I think the fact that now Caitlin is being dragged into yet another political situation. If I were her, I would be pissed regardless of our feelings about Caitlin and needing to speak up a little bit more to have people not be bad actors in her name or using her name to do so. >> Right. >> I think, you know, the Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve were a shirt that said trans kids belong and she gave what I thought was a really great nuanced answer before the Lynx played the fever where she said, you know, to me it's a human rights issue. Every kid has a right to sports. We need to protect trans kids. And she said, I also err on the side of inclusion, you know, like we're going to figure this out. And this is, she said something that was interesting, which, you know, there were sort of young girls sitting at these games holding up anti-trans signs. And Cheryl Reeve was like, do those girls know what is actually threatening women's sports? Like do those girls know how underfunded women's sports are, how we get continually less than male athletes? Like, and just listed all these things and it was a really great point of like some people are who maybe don't have the critical thinking skills or haven't been taught how to think about these things, are just being used or falling for these grifts in a way that is clearly working. And you know, now all these anti-trans processors are showing up at outside WMBA games. And Sophie is still fanning the flames like the owner of the storm got into, she cursed at some girls who were outside holding, you know, teenage fans supporting Sophie's stance on all of this. And in response to it, Sophie wrote on X quote, "Truly embarrassing of the co-owner unfortunately shows the type of leader she is." So she's just, she's treating this as like a WWE beef when it is actually a human rights issue that is just making life harder for people who already do not have it that easy. And it's, it's, to your point, it is, it's very transparent, it's very see-through. Yeah. Well, it feels like a move out of Trump's playbook. Everything is television, everything is pop culture and tabloid-y, even one to your point, this is really a human rights issue. This isn't like a fun, oh, this is like a fun, a weekly headline, you know, with some celebrity drama. But that's how these issues are treated by the right, I mean, I don't know if we've talked about this before, other people have said this a million times, but the conservatives are truly the best marketers because this issue, it's like it is so polarizing and yet it's not really the main issue affecting women's sports, as you said. But that people just get up and arms about it because Republicans know that people will get up and arms about it and they're like, oh great, now we have another mouthpiece that can distract from all these other things that we're doing that are horrific, like snatching people off the street, and murdering people on the street, that they're like, oh great, this is a perfect distraction. And it's horrible and terrifying, but it's like, oh great, they've just found another mouthpiece who is a woman in the public eye that we can use to say our talking points. That's really what this is. Like, I guarantee you, at the next Republican National Convention, who do we think's going to speak? You think Sophie Cunningham's not going to get up there and speak, please, I'm calling it now. Like, this is all what this is. It's not, it's not complicated, like no, it's horrifying, but it's not complicated. It's also there is a lot more money in being a conservative mouthpiece than there is in being a liberal mouthpiece, because all the rich people have an interest in in having these conservatives win because they don't tax billionaires and they sort of let them do it for a market. Baby, you know, so it's clear what this, it's also funny because Chuck Losterman on Bill Sons' podcast the other day said, or a few weeks ago said that he could see Sophie Cunningham being a candidate for vice president in a few years. And everybody kind of, everyone was like, what is he talking about? And now it's like, well, seems, doesn't seem unlikely. It's entertainment. It's entertainment for Republicans. That's what it is. And this is just like another form of entertainment to push their right-wing agenda. One thing I do wonder to your point about audience, that people thinking audiences are stupid, I don't think audiences are stupid. I think that listeners and readers, and I think people are actually can sniff out something sort of transparent more easily in terms of, like, Nara Smith, the influencer that everyone said was a tradwife who cooks bubble gum from scratch because her husband wanted it wearing like, you know, scaparelli, whatever. It's the whole thing. She went on, call her daddy, and said she didn't understand why I ever thought she was a tradwife and sort of tried to gaslight everybody. And she was wearing jeans and a sweater and being like, I'm a working mom. And in her, she's not stupid. So to know that audiences are kind of starting to shift away, maybe from that, like, conservatism as an aspirational lifestyle, it makes me wonder if this grift isn't actually going to go quite as far as Sophie Cunningham wanted to. Like, is there a vibe shift, or it's just gonna work. But it was something, it did make me think about that. - No, I do think that's a good point because you do see, like, ballerina farm, for example, she has like 11, however many kids, is Mormon, I believe. And she's also even like, I'm a working mom. So I do wonder if there is some sort of cultural distancing from those sort of views. But then also, I don't know, 'cause then there's, like, I've been getting served with this woman on this has nothing to do with sports. But I've been getting served this woman on TikTok who is 19 and is married and talks all about. And it's almost rage, baby, talking about how she wants to be a wife, she's not in college. And she serves her husband, she makes her husband all this food, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And it feels sort of rage, baby. So I do think that there is still a large, at least online discourse around tradwives and these traditional gender roles. But I do think maybe for some of these, like she has, I think, maybe 60,000 followers, which is a lot, but not as many as Narsmith or not as many as Sophie Cunningham, has that maybe for these larger public figures, they could realize that this is not gonna serve them ultimately in the long run. And I hope that's the case, but I also, I'm not holding my breath. - No, same. I know, I'm like, vibe shift. And then it's like, well, Sophie Cunningham is actually running just straight up president. - Yeah. - All of that to say that it's pretty obvious what's going on here. And good for good for the people in the WMBA who are finding ways to stand up for human rights and inclusion when it's almost easier to just do what Sophie Cunningham's doing. - Yeah, totally. - Anyway. - Okay. Hey, here's a question. Do you wanna talk about another grip? - Yeah, let's talk about some more human rights violations. - Oh my God. - FIFA. - FIFA. - FIFA. - You know, they should, Johnny and Zintino should start something in Nevada and then it could be FIFA Las Vegas. - Don't give them the idea. - So he'll just send a season to assist you our show just for mentioning FIFA. - No, it's true. - Yeah, they're like, they're like so controlling over the media rights and all that from clips and (laughs) - Yeah, well, that's actually, that's a perfect segue into what we're talking about here. Speaking of media rights, Johnny and Fantino last week prepared a proposal with JP Morgan and support from Thrive Eternal, which we will tell you all about. That they wanted to create something called FIFA Forward Enterprises, FFE, where it would be a subsidiary to manage the commercial and operational rights of competitions, including the World Cup, and would sell off large minority rights to private investors. So that's the headline. Before we sort of unpack the actual idea, which spoiler alert isn't going well for Johnny, can you tell me what you discovered about him and can we talk a little bit about Thrive Enterprises? - Oh, please, yeah, so Mr. and Fantino, he has an interesting past. One thing that I found, I mean, we could spend probably four hours talking about just his rise within FIFA and within the soccer world at large, but what I did find interesting was that he's been awarded a few medals or fake prizes by countries that are either under dictatorship or military-esque ruling. And I was like, that can't be right. I have to look this up and double check, but that's true. He was awarded the Commander of the Congolese Order of Merit by the Republic of Congo. And then in 2017, he was awarded by Niger, the Commander of the Order of Merit. And then my personal favorite was in 2018, his pal Vladimir Putin gave him the medal of the Order of Friendship in Russia. So that's interesting. And then in 2025, so just last year, he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Dull Stick from Uzbekistan, sorry if I'm pronouncing that incorrectly. So that's just a little taste of, he's gotten other fake awards before from countries that are not under some sort of dictatorship or military-esque or authoritarian rule. But I do think that paints a nice picture for who his friends are globally and how he operates running FIFA. And why this decision didn't seem that surprising that he wanted to do this. - I think that is a great point. I also think it's interesting. He was awarded all of these kind of fake awards. So then when he made the fake peace prize for Donald Trump in 2025, he was probably like, oh yes, this is a totally normal dish. It's like when you go to someone's house and you bring them like a dish towel. And you're like, I just wanted to, or you stay with someone for a long weekend and you're like, here's pancake mix. Like that's what all of these awards are too, Johnny. Okay, so that's a little bit, it's also just interesting that he was the guy who took over after the former FIFA president set bladder, had to step down, amid all of this corruption stuff. And including accusations that he took bribes from Russia and Qatar to have the World Cup there. So it is interesting. And he is, Johnny took over in 2016, interesting that he got the medal of the order of friendship in 2018 from Putin. Makes you think what's going on there. - Right. - But you know, we're not doctors who's to say. So in that same vein, part of this new proposal that would sell a piece of, FIFA is a governing body. He wanted to sell a piece of that governing body to private investors, which is like, you can't do that. You just can't, it's like what? It's like selling a piece of the US government, which I guess Trump is sort of trying to do. But the reason that this does actually tie into Trump is because Thrive Eternal is a subsidiary of Thrive Capital. And Thrive Capital is Joshua Kushner's company. Investment firm, whatever. Joshua Kushner is the brother of Jared Kushner, Jared Kushner is married to Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka. Yep. So just putting that out there. - Putting that out there. - And something interesting about Thrive Eternal is that this seems to be a piece of Thrive Capital that is quote, the permanent capital investment vehicle launched by Thrive Capital to pursue long-term ownership stakes in iconic franchises and cultural assets. So this is like, not only are they coming for, you know, buying up private dental practices, but they're coming for your sports teams and for your art museums, essentially. 'Cause it's a way to own a piece of culture. You're paying your way. And Joshua Kushner, through Thrive Capital before launching Thrive Eternal, had become a minority owner in teams like the Miami Heat and the Memphis Grizzlies. So clearly there was some interest in sports. And then I would imagine he was like, let's just launch this arm because it's the last, the final frontier is capturing culture. Which I can't imagine Joshua Kushner, listen, I don't know you personally. However, I feel like you don't have a lot of culture in your soul. So you're like, well, I might as well buy my way in. And this is my way to do that, yes. Just saying. - Let's put some money into it and see how cool that makes me look. Yeah, also he's married to Carly Clause. - Yes. - Model. What is she now? - Investor. She's a model investor, author, coder, founder, code with Clausey has invested in a lot of startups. She also is a minority owner most recently into the New York Liberty, the W.A. team. So another spoiler. connection there. Her and I believe Joshua Kushner together formed Bedford media. If you remember to purchase ID Magazine and Life Magazine and it is interesting. I mean, I could spend lots of time talking about Carly Claus. Charlotte knows the same. I know a lot about that woman. But she is on a very interesting PR tour right now. She, well, she attended Carly Claus. I mean, Taylor Swift's wedding, which famously they used to be besties and were on the cover Vogue together and then there seemed to be a falling out. You can go on a more deep dive on that one. But then she's now most recently launches book and she sat down. I think it was with Bloomberg to do this kind of deep dive into why she wanted to launch Bedford. She's been doing a lot more press and posting a lot more on her Instagram. Anyways, it just all feels connected and yeah, I don't know, that's a different episode. But I do think it's connected to her husband, Joshua Kushner in many ways. Yes, I also think it's not necessarily coincidence that Thrive Enterprise was started the, I mean, Thrive Eternal. The website that we found for them is dated April 2026. And Kushner had previously invested, as you said, in sports teams. So all of a sudden, there's this other arm that comes just a few months before Infantino announces us it's hard not to think maybe this had something to do with that announcement. Anyway, so so so Johnny Infantino and these bankers tried to say, let's sell off a piece of the governing body of soccer. And I guess in a in a backlash that felt like some of the it felt hopeful in a way that a lot of things haven't felt hopeful because everybody was like, no, essentially, everybody was like, no, thanks. The, you know, part of it was that Infantino, he would be the, the quote, commissioner of the FFE. And his salary would be around what Roger Gidell makes, which is estimated to be $64 million a year. We don't know because the NFL made that secret a couple years ago. So that's that's everybody didn't like it. UEFA, who's the European football association said that it crossed a line that football's governing institutions should never cross. Also, the COO of FIFA, Kevin Lamore, who is a long time colleague of Johnny Infantino's both at FIFA and at UEFA weren't Infantino was before FIFA. He he's basically, I mean, it was sort of like you can go ahead and fire me because he said it is he that the staff of FIFA felt deceived when Johnny announced this. And he said, it is the project of one person. Not only must this project not go ahead, but the time has now come for football political leaders to ask themselves the right questions and make the right decisions. So all these confederations rejected the idea and a bunch of governments also got in on it, including the U.S. government who was like, you can't do that. So now, didn't go well. It didn't go well. And I feel like Kevin's statement is an indication of maybe how other federations feel, which is maybe it's time for a little bit of vote of no confidence. Which could happen. The English and Welsh associations, they did formally withdraw their support for Johnny, but I don't know if that's likely to happen. Again, it could trigger vote of no confidence, but we'll see. I mean, I guess what I would say though is how can he stay in his job? I mean, what an awkward situation. If if you have all of the different federations who you are working for against you and have killed your idea, and then you just stay in your job, I mean, that is a little bit awkward. I mean, I just don't I don't see a world where he doesn't step down. They might not trigger a vote of no confidence amongst the different associations, but I do think that he is very likely to just step down. Well, I think he was really feeling himself. I think he felt like he'd I think he felt like he had done corruptions without being caught or without being held accountable. And he was riding high and he thought, well, you know what, if all of this the world cup made so much money, all of this is going so well for me. No one's really calling me out on anything because we kind of live in an age of corruption. I'm just let's just sell part of FIFA. And he thought that was yeah, he thought that was going to work, which I think also shows he's sitting in his, you know, ivory tower in Switzerland where they protect all these bank accounts. And he's like, yeah, no, this is definitely going to work. And there's a little bit more backbone in the world than he expected, which is which is great. But I'm with you. It's sort of like what you're just going to stay there. Well, like what's what's what's he what are he in the COO talking about it right after the COO said we they felt deceived. Yeah, that's a little bit awkward. What I also don't think these people understand we talk all the time in this show about PR. We've already talked about it with the Soviet coming down situation 10 minutes ago. But what was he thinking? Did he think from a PR perceptive perspective that this would be treated with praise. And people will be so excited. And there would be all of this positive feedback for this proposal. Like genuinely, like clearly, he was operating by himself because I would imagine there were advisors close to him that were like, we don't think this is going to go over very well. I don't know if we should do this. And he's like, I don't care. I want to do it. But it's just amazing to see someone who makes so much money and has so much power makes such a horrible PR decision. And how many people were involved in this? All of the people who work with thrive eternal, whoever else was involved in this from the the money standpoint. Like all of these people are like, oh, surely this will go over well. You really think this this was the PR move you wanted to make post the World Cup, which everyone loved the expanded bracket. Everyone, I mean, yes, there was a lot of issues with the World Cup, of course. But I do think overall the tone was positive. And it felt like everyone was like, wow, this really ended up being a good World Cup. And then you want to go out on a high note and then come right back with this low note. I mean, just like I am not an advisor, but I'm like, hire us. I mean, truly hire an intern. Someone would have been like, surely this isn't a good idea. I mean, I think to your point, I think this also kind of goes back to powerful people who've maybe lost touch with a general population and think everybody's stupid. Because I looked up one of the bankers who was involved in this who went to prep school in New England and then went to Dartmouth and then went to Harvard Business School. And you know, he, there's a level of hubris that I think a lot of these people have who've made a lot of money or who have power who think, well, we can just do whatever we want. And like the small people with less money, they don't matter. And also, I think they tried to frame this as the money that we make from this private investment. We'll go back into development for these other federations, which is hilarious because it's basically trickle down economics. They're saying, look, look, look, like bring in private money and it is going to benefit everybody. And we know now that that is just not how it works. So I think that they thought everybody was stupid again. I think they thought they could just fool everyone by saying, but it'll end up in in your pockets. And everyone's like, that's simply not true. No, not true. No. Never underestimate the power of public perception. Amen. Amen. It's just horrifying. I'm speaking of public perception. We got to talk about a man on the show. We talk about quite often, Mr. Tom Brady. Tom Brady's birthday was yesterday. Happy birthday, Tom. Happy birthday, Tom. And he posted an interesting Instagram post yesterday. It is a three slide carousel. The caption says the 40s farewell starts today. It's not the destination. It's not the journey. It's the company with three heart emojis. Very sweet. However, when you click through, the first photo is him on, what is that? Like a wakeboard? That is that is what I believe is called a hydrofoil. Hydrofoil. Yes. Where it's I don't understand how these things work. I've even looked it up. That's how I and I still don't get it. But basically you can like pump your feet in a certain way on a skateboard with like a thin attached in the water that you end up skating above the surface of the water and moving forward. Right. So that's the first photo. There's clearly a giant yacht behind him that he is presumably staying on or hanging out on. Second photo is with two of his kids, but it's just like a side hug. This photo actually is not a very tom Brady photo of one to post with his kids. Wouldn't you agree? I mean, now that you say that, yeah, because you can't see, we don't know which son that is, but it's his daughter. Yeah, because you can't see the son's face. You can barely see the daughter's face. Also, in a in a previous post he made, I noticed that his daughter, you couldn't really see her face that well in many of them. And there were more pictures of him with his sons. I can't help but wonder if she has said something like she doesn't maybe want to be featured as prominently. That's total speculation. Maybe, but I wonder. I don't know. Yeah. Oh, that could be true. Yeah. He because he usually does have these more front feel like post photos when they're skiing or at the Olympics or these places. And it's like a forward facing post photo. You don't say this very often, but yeah, I wonder if it's because they don't want to be seen as much that's that's possible. And then the last photo is just what I think is him tiny in the background on the hydrofoil, I'm assuming. And I just feel like this photo is a nice metaphor for where Tom Brady is at in his life. He's kind of out to see all alone. And it's a little sad, I will say. I feel for Tom. And I think he's hashtag going through it, but as hashtag been going through it through it for quite some time. And this Instagram post, maybe he didn't think about it, but I just feel like it was his subconscious talking. And it's like, he's feeling a little lonely. I think you're right, Madeline. I think this, this was one of the more vulnerable posts it feels like because I think he often tries to make his life look amazing with a lot of pictures and each carousel with, you know, all of his friends and his kids and look how busy my life is. And it was just sort of strange that for his birthday, two of the pictures to your point are him alone. One of them is with his kids where you can't really see them. One of his kids isn't there. And then it says the 40s fair well tour starts today because this is his last year of his 40s, which is also just a very athlete thing to do. It's like, you know, when you say you're going to retire before your last season so that all these stadiums you go to run, you know, hype videos of your life. And it, it does, it feels lonelyer than some of his other posts. And maybe, maybe, I mean, it feels, it does, it just feels much more internal than he's been lately, especially with all of his stupid fake fights with Logan Paul. Right. Right. Maybe, maybe he heard the public and was like, okay, I'm going to pull back and this is my more vulnerable side. I'll be curious to see if we get more posts like this. If we do, then I think he's listening. If this is a one off, then, and he's back to WWE rage baiting with one of the Paul Brothers, then I think that he's just back on his bullsh*t. Yeah. I'll be interested to see if this becomes a pattern for him. You know, one of my favorite things is that some of the comments that come up, sometimes like normal people commenting on celebrities posts is the funniest thing in the world, one person just wrote, hell yeah. And that's, and you know what, amen. You know what I mean? Hell yeah, Tom. Rock on, brother. Oh, man. All right. Okay. We'll move in another guy who deals with his family. He deals with his family and energetically feels like he should be retired, but he isn't. Mr. Aaron Rodgers. Madeline, this is interesting to me because we recently did an episode about Aaron Rodgers' timeline of a strangement from his family. Yeah. That was because he had posted an Instagram with his mom, his dad, one of his brothers. And, you know, says about bonding time, they'd famously not talked. And he, his first appearance, I think, since then, or most intense one, certainly was on the Pat McVee show on ESPN at Steelers Training Camp, I believe. And Aaron Rodgers was angrier than I feel like maybe we've ever seen an athlete publicly on a major broadcast network. Yeah. He felt like he was angry at the world, at the media, at, I don't even know just everything. It, it, his first response, I can't even remember what Pat McVee's first question was. It was about whether he was going to play another season after I think, right? Wasn't it something like that? Yeah. And Aaron Rodgers said, I plead the fifth and then went on a very long rant about Dr. Anthony Fauci, who also invoked the Fifth Amendment in testimony before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and governmental affairs that was so angry and so unhinged that even you could tell Pat McVee's like, he's like sitting there silent like, I feel like he's like looking off like a little he's supposed to do about this. >> Yes, not how he that this was going to go, even for Aaron Rodgers, who does go on to show quite frequently and does say unhinged things. This felt like another level. No, he came on, no matter what Pat McVee had said, Aaron Rodgers was going to go on a rant about, yes, Anthony Fauci, who he was calling Tony Fauci. And I think obviously part of this is that Aaron Rodgers City was immunized when he hadn't gotten the COVID vaccine. He holds on to grudges more than anyone, especially grudges with the media. He was just going off. And he also then started going off on the media and ESPN itself, which is the network that he was on. He gave double middle fingers at one point. He said, he, you know, he talked about being reunited with his family and how he doesn't post that often on Instagram, but how he wanted to. But at the same time, how it's nobody's business. He also said that his wife was instrumental. This was on a different interview in reconnecting with his family. And then went on a rant about how nobody should know anything about his family, even though he's talked about it, even in his own documentary. This is once again, the Aaron Rodgers playbook of saying, how dare you care or interfere with or be curious about my personal life and then telling you little breadcrumbs about his personal life and daring you to talk about it or follow up on it. And then, I mean, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's so transparent. Again, it's just like so obvious that this is what he does now. No, he's not an enigma in any way, shape or form. He couldn't be be more obvious with what he's doing. I mean, he posted his family on his Instagram when number one, as he talked about in the interview, he was, I hadn't posted it over here. And then posted his family. It's like that looks out of the ordinary Aaron. That doesn't look normal because it's like, he's like Tom Brady out here posting all the time on Instagram. It's like, this, this was a rare post for him to do and then getting mad, but he's also showing off his family and showing off that he's no longer strange for them because he clearly wants to be a quote, good family man and look like, look, I'm married, I'm reunited with my family. I'm in my last year, every year, everyone should like me. When all it does is I think distance people from him because they're like, you clearly are a ticking time bomb with just exploding and going on rants about things and you contradict yourself in the same sentence about the same topic that it just does not feel surprising in any way, shape or form. And it's exactly what we've talked about with him time and time again. He is in no shape or form and they go, he is the most predictable person in the NFL. It's true. He's also, this was alarming because he was angry in a way like the male anger. I mean, that was a kind, that was like, yeah, that was, that was an uncomfortable to watch. And yeah, I mean, Pat McAfee too, he kept sort of looking off camera a little bit and being like, you know, at one point he said, okay, well, we have four minutes till the heart out. So like, essentially, can I, can we, can this be normal now? And I think that Pat McAfee is someone who obviously likes living on the line of like, I'm a bad boy of broadcasting and even he was like, I would like to feel a little come fear in this situation and I'm feeling right now, you know, and he, I just, this was almost a scary version of Aaron Rodgers because he said, you know, I used to not care very much. Now I don't care at all about what he says or filtering himself or what other people think of him, which just couldn't be clearer that he does care. And the best way to tell someone, I don't care about you is to go on a rant about how much you can't stand them, right? Which is essentially what he's doing at the media. It was also interesting. Did you think that this was a shot at Tom Brady because he said that when he retires, he said he isn't going to be in the spotlight. He's not going to start a podcast, which is something that you and I've talked about for two years now. Please start a podcast. I don't know. But then Aaron Rodgers said, um, I'm not going to be chasing down weird ass parties on the East Coast and wearing white, which I think was an illusion to Michael Rubin's white party. Yes. And how public Tom Brady's meant, I don't know. That felt a little bit like a shot to me. Oh, no, that definitely felt like a shot directed at Tom Brady, especially because Tom Brady and retirement, as we've talked about extensively, has become more public and more out in the open. He's become a going out guy. And Aaron Rodgers, yeah, no, to me, this was a direct shot at Tom Brady. It's also interesting because Aaron Rodgers hates the media so much, right? That's his whole thing. He hates me. All the narratives are wrong. But never corrects the record with facts. But then also is going on national live television to talk about these things in a rant that clearly was not PR approved by anyone but himself. Um, that it just makes you wonder like, does he not know, is he not thinking about what the medium of his message, like sorry. You just said you don't like the mean about you're going on ESPN and you're going on Pat McVeigh, one of the biggest shows in sports, if not the world, and to talk about these things. And you know, people are going to be listening. So I don't know what to tell you. I think it shows how hypocritical he is. I think it shows how he's also an unreliable narrator. We can't really believe anything he says about himself. And it's almost to the point where when he says he's not going to start a podcast, I'm pretty sure that means he's going to start a podcast. I'm pretty sure he's going to take meetings with ESPN executives when he's done playing to talk about working for him. I know for a fact, I've been in the same room that Aaron Rodgers has walked through on his way to go meet with media executives. I have seen him take meetings with high up people at broadcast networks. It was a few years ago. Still, I think that this is all a part of his desperate desire to be relevant constantly all the time. I don't believe him that he's going to go gently into that good. No, I don't think so. And I also think it shows. I think how desperate he is to be seen and liked by football fans, because public perception around him. I think in a lot of ways, couldn't be worse. I think the people who are a long time fans of his, they'll always like him. I don't think that those people have swayed in their fandom of around Aaron Rodgers. But I do think when you think about these iconic quarterbacks, him making that dig that feels directed at Tom Brady felt like him saying, I want to be seen and talked about in the conversations around Tom Brady in the same way Tom Brady has talked about in conversations around being one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. And I think that some of his anger probably if I was his therapist stem from the fact that he doesn't have good will with the public. So then it's like he's almost doubling down on the anger because he is just so but hurt and upset. And this is what you get when really he should just be quiet. And like he could have gone on pat McVee and done just a very normal interview about he could have talked about being a stranger of Salon saying it's been really great. It's been a really big gift. My wife has helped with this process. And I'm very excited for the next football season. But he didn't do that. He went on a rant about the COVID vaccine and Anthony Fauci that has nothing to do with playing football for what will probably be your last year. And so I just think it it all feels like he is probably deep down very hurt that he does not have the same respect and isn't given the same respect that other people are because of his choices. That I'm a direct result of things that he has done and said that's like Aaron Rogers is kind of the, you know, that mean well, well, well, if it isn't the consequences of my own actions, yes, that is Aaron Rogers. But I don't want to tell you, buddy, you brought this upon that brought this money. So also, you know, it's funny having talked about so becoming him and kind of the right wing grift and how easy it is to do that in sports these days. It feels like Aaron Rogers is a couple years behind the trends. It's like, yes, I don't think you need to be doing Fauci anymore. No, I think if you're going to, if you're going to do like the right wing grift or the anti establishment, there are other topics that you can make yourself more relevant with. It just sort of, it's like, it's like someone posting with hashtags in 2026. It's like, you don't, you lose, you lose a little bit of credibility. If you're, if you're trying like Fauci, really Instagram, you don't need to do a hashtag. Yeah. And then Rogers was posting hashtags. Exactly. So, you know, I just think I think that he's not even really good at the thing he's trying to maybe do. So he's, no, it is. This is just never a dull moment. It's never a dull moment with this man and these other men that are in this sports gossip show cinematic universe. So they're so fun to talk about. They are. They are so fun. And they will continue. We'll continue to talk about them as long as they continue to do stuff, which they certainly will. They certainly will. Well, folks, that's our show. We have an episode coming to you on Thursday that we recorded last week that we are very excited about. It's another entry into the athlete aesthetic universe. We are not going to be recording shows next week. We're taking a nice little break because we are pretty tired. Yes. And because everybody deserves a vacation. So we will have some reruns of more evergreen episodes. If you'd like to check those out. Yes. And as always, please rate review, like, subscribe. It makes a huge, huge difference. You can follow us on Instagram at sports gossip and TikTok act sports gossip show. You can subscribe to our subsite at sports gossip show dot subsite.com. You can buy merch linked in the description. And I think that's it. I think that's it. All right. Well, okay. Bye. (upbeat music)