Prince William on England's World Cup, Travis at Wembley, NFL in the UK & America's 250th | Bonus EP

Well, let's talk a little bit about the origin story of, uh, of your football fandom. Um, our dad was Cleveland Brown fan growing up. Like we grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. And he, I don't want to say he forced us, but he integrated us into being fans of that team. Did your dad get you into Aston Villa? Or is this your, your own doing? Absolutely not. My father hates football. Thanks. Thanks to our presenting sponsor, Xfinity. Welcome back to new highs, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. A one-jury show. We are your hosts. I'm Travis Kelsey. This is my big brother, Jason Kelsey. A boy that we have a good one for you again. This is a unique one that, uh, that we've been pretty excited about to, to maybe get in the books for you guys. And, uh, what a more perfect time than, uh, talk about a little world cup action with, um, somebody who's a little bit more familiar with the football version of soccer. Yeah, we're not going to waste any time. There's no new news. There's no other segments. This one came out of nowhere. Still don't really know how the fuck we're doing this. Yeah. But ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, our guest today is Prince William of Wales. Haha. Here you go. All right, Tran. It's the World Cup. And we haven't had any soccer fans on. Yeah. No, man. Do we know any soccer fans? Well, maybe our guest today, the six foot three prince of London. What? That's right. The president of the English football association, the vice, vice royal patron of a Welsh rugby union. The Duke of Cambridge, the Duke of Cornwall, the Lord of the House, Prince of Great Stuart of Scotland, Earl of Chester and the Prince of Wales. That is, please welcome his Royal Highness Prince William. That is quite quite an intro, guys. Amazing. Well, we had to do a big for you. Had to do a big Prince William. Well, I got the chance to see you now too long ago and invite you on the show because we were talking a little Aston Villa soccer. So I'm excited about the World Cup. How we feeling about England's win over over Croatia yesterday or a couple of days ago? Very good Travis. So please, it's gotten away. I'll be looking forward to the World Cup for ages. It feels like a long time between the years. It comes around again, but it's so good it's back on in. So obviously we were very much knowledgeable in the world of American football. You know your soccer. You've been around the game for a long time. You've been 20 years. I think the head of the FA, the football association. Yeah. What is it about this team that makes you extra confident? You know, I think there's a, it seems like a good blend of experience and youth and all that. Where do you sit with the team? So first of all, Jason, I have to correct you. It's football. So I'm second of all. Yeah, I beat them. I was president of the FA, the football association for it's about 2010. I'm not patron. And yeah, I've been watching many, many England teams and back of the day, you guys may not even heard of Wayne Rooney. Oh my gosh. Come on now. Okay. That was if I would have played soccer, I would have wanted to play like Wayne Rooney. The aggression. Just all hard muscle all over the field. You know it. He's a fast, he's a fast guy. He's aggressive. And when I was growing up watching in play was really exciting. I always felt we had a really good chance. But as each World Cup goes on and the results don't quite go away, a little bit of hope gets chipped away each time. Yeah. And so I'm just, you know, I'm taking it calmly and quietly and like come on, we're going to do well and see how we go. But I am quite confident. I think Thomas Tuckle, who's a manager, the coach, he's got them into a really good frame of mind. The team playing with more freedom, more fluidity. I think Gareth, who's a previous manager, his philosophy was very much of defense. So if we don't let goals in, we'll win. Thomas, I think, for first to go a bit more out there. And if we lose, we lose playing the way we want to play. And if you're going to score four goals, we'll score five. I think that's a really good, really good attitude. I know it's fun to watch from high flying action man. It sounds like when we got all patty my homes, Patrick, my homes for the Chiefs, when we got him, it was just like man, we're just going to try and outscore you then just touch down you to death, man. Do you know what a touchdown is? Personally, I know what a touchdown is. I can't say I've done one for real, but I've tried to do a couple of touchdowns and he put out my shoulder blade, but apart from that, yeah. We do have a clip you throw in the ball. You can sling it pretty good. That was a good throw into the net there. Well, we had the NFL over here. I would see they're playing quite a few matches and I went to see them train and play and had a couple of Welsh guys who were also training at the time. And I love the Mercafelport. It's brilliant. I used to play on the beach with friends and stuff like that, but how you guys do it as many times as you do and all the tactics, it's really quite intense. It is interesting. I mean, you know, the NFL has been playing over in London for a long time now. Do you feel like the fanbase in London is growing for American football? Definitely. It's getting more and more popular and I think the more people that see it, the more it's televised. I think if we could understand the rules a bit more over here, that might help. Because like I said, it is quite tactical and it's the sort of short breaks of play that I think we over here a bit were used to a match running for 90 odd minutes. It doesn't really stop. So that bit of it is kind of explaining the tactics behind it makes a bit more appealing to those people over here. That's good. Good to know, good to know. We're going to be over there this year. Eagles are playing in the new Tottenham stadium. We've played in Wembley before. You've played in Wembley. I've had the fortunate playing in Wembley and it was one of the coolest experiences I've ever had in my life. Yeah. I remember I scored a touchdown there and I was like, where's that football? I need to put that thing in a glass case. I need to get it painted and everything man. It was a it was a it was a unbelievable experience, but the the London crowd is so it's like an American football. Typically the excitement isn't every single play. When you're when we played at Wembley, it was every single play was exciting for the crowd. And it's just you could you could feel the passion and the desire for it over there. We love playing overseas. That's for sure. You think the US is doing pretty good as a host city so far? Yeah, it's fantastic. I think it's been a brilliant woke up. It's been really well sort of started and I think the Tottenham it's been well balanced. Logistically for everyone being in Canada, the US and Mexico makes it really hard for the teams moving around. It does feel like this is the most spread out of World Cup has ever been, which is one of the down. I mean, it's really nice that all of North America is getting highlighted. But I went to Brazil for the World Cup in 2014 and one of the things that was just incredible was how many different countries are all brought together to unite over the game. And obviously everybody's trying to win, but there's so many people all over the place from different nationalities. It's one of the great joys of watching the World Cup and why it really takes over you. It's just there's something special about that event in particular and how much it means to the entire world. Well, let me ask you this, Prince William, we are for all the English fans that have come over or are coming over for the World Cup. What do you think the biggest culture shock is over here in America for them? Oh, good question. I think the light beer is at the. Yeah, the beer definitely is going to taste different. I think for them. I think you haven't met your match. You see a lot of beer drinkers from the UK. There we go. We can hand on our own beer to anyone. But I think the scale of your stadiums, I think the size of them is going to be quite a cold shot for a lot of fans that we really know are football. So to see stadiums that are bigger and kind of an amazing atmosphere that we can also emulate here, that's quite a big deal. Yeah. Do you think one of the things that stands out to me, I've talked about this a lot, the United States, we lack the veracity of soccer chance, like the tenacity and passion. And one thing that the UK has down is soccer chance, like I don't. I mean, I love watching those clips. The man United Champ for his Latinie for Him or Vitch, like all that stuff is just incredible. But it leads to. It points out the difference in the culture between how England views soccer and how the United States views it. How do we get that in the US? What do we need to do to build a foundation of just such passion? It's a good point. I think you guys have so much passion already in terms of your American football, your baseball, basketball, those are massive parts of your cultural heritage. And I think trying to create that same tribunce around football would be really useful. So over here, the tribality of your club team, and it's like a second family for a lot of fans, really means it plays very importantly in your emotions. And, you know, my weekend goes from being either the best weekend in the world when we win, or to frankly, I don't want to see anyone on Monday morning because I'm really down. Yeah. And that lasts for quite a few days. So, you know, you guys get that in other ways, but I think if you can attach that to football as well, then you or soccer, then you get it. Yeah. And it does feel like the pub is a central, like, part of just English sports. Like you mentioned, like rugby as well. It feels like there's that communal aspect where everybody comes together. And those are all the videos I see online, right? Or when everybody's going crazy at the pub watching the games. Is that a part of it? Just like coming together and bonding over the sport and, you know, enjoying the wins and relishing the losses, yeah. Definitely. I think, you know, those rowdy evenings, those long afternoon's few drinks, the social elements of it. You know, there's plenty of chance you guys don't want to hear. Sure. They're pretty, they're pretty spicy. They're quite rude to broadcasts. Those are the ones we want. I will say this. So England is back to a little bit of the English coming to America. England's home base is Kansas City. And I've got a lot of pride for Kansas City. It's kind of slowly become like one of American soccer, footballs, U.S. hubs. Like we love our soccer in Kansas City. And I think it's doing a great job right now, a hosting, but coming to Kansas City, have you had barbecue before, Prince? Probably not one of your barbecues, Travis. No. Do you know what a burnt end is? No. No. You got to get you some end of that brisket big guy. Come on down. It doesn't sign great, Travis. I promise you, you'd love it. Let me ask you this. You've been the president of English of the FA for 20 years. You might say, what do you view is the role? What is your role within that? Just don't mess up. That's good. I think the role I've wanted to play with the FA has been very much cheerleader, supporter of all things England team, supporting the FA who are the governing body. I'm making sure that they feel they've got the backing of sort of the country and getting on with what they need to do around football. I think trying to support our World Cup or European bids. This country, particularly, is mad about soccer and football. So trying to get a World Cup to be hosted here or a Euro's here is fantastic and being trying to do a bit of work on that. But also I think I'll be trying to help and reform the system of it as well. So some of our football legislation and the way we do football, sort of regulatory stuff goes back a long way and try not to update it at times and make sure it's more relevant. By the way, the women's game, particularly has come out of a small out world to now being massive. And I'm not sure we quite reflect that in how we look after the football game. What do you view as football's role within society or just sports in general? Like, it's ability to unite people to bring people together. I love it. I think the more sport we can do, not only is it good for health, particularly mental health, mental fitness. It's a way to let out some steam. I think you guys won't know it yet because you're younger than me and well, Travis just still playing as well. But when you stop playing any sport, it's, you really pine for it and it's that competitive sort of spirit and that camaraderie, particularly around teammates and like having that, you miss it a bit. And I, you know, for me, sport has been that bit that's filled the hole that's been missing in my life since I've not been able to carry on playing sport. Here you go. Let's talk a little bit about the origin story of of your football fandom. Our dad was Cleveland Brown fan growing up. Did your dad get you into Estonville or is this your, your own doing? Absolutely not. My family haven't got a particularly long history with football. There are a few of us who support teams. My, my football lover came from friends, taking me to my first match. And at school growing up, you can't, you can't avoid the football chat. It's everywhere. And some school friends, so charter friends of mine took me to my first game. And actually, I saw Garrel Southgate the other day, just this week. And he reminded me that the first match I saw was he was playing in it. So the previous England manager used to play for Estonville at a club level. And the first, the first game he was a defender playing in the match that I watched in 2000, which was Estonville versus Bolton. Oh god, time flies man, that's cool. Yeah, it does. We got to ask we're going to go to this last section here. All right, Prince. Code America is turning 250 years this year. Be honest, are you surprised we made it? There were times. There were times. Yeah. But I'd like to think you can, you asked to be together for those 250 years. Oh, yeah. It's a good, it's a good brotherhood. It has been. It has been a really good brotherhood. Alrighty, this one's a very obvious one, I feel like. But what is the more iconic moment at Wembley Stadium? Travis scoring a touchdown in 2015 against Alliance or Travis is a backup dancer. To the one and only Taylor Swift. Travis is a backup dancer. Definitely a very proud moment of my life, for sure. Bring it or bring it again. Exactly. Listen to that. He's going to sign up for a tour. I'll happily make sure that we bring her back to life. No, that was honestly one of the coolest moments ever was meeting you and the little ones that day. Me and Jason joke about it all the time. We were so nervous to meet you guys and the royal family and Jason has this running joke where he didn't know what to do with his beer. Yeah, it wasn't a joke. It was real. I don't know. Well, you want to be respectful and know what the protocols are. Of course. But no, it was awesome. You were fantastic. The kids were great. Yeah. Our princess Charlotte was still the highlight for me. I have four daughters as well. So I mean, she she was great. No, congratulations. I mean, four daughters. I don't know how you do that. That is definitely a difficult task. The hardest job. We're going to ask you a Mount Rushmore. We do this with a lot of our guests. It's a carving on the side of a mountain of four of our greatest presidents. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln. We do this to say who are the four greatest in whatever field. So we're going to ask you, Prince William, who is on your Mount Rushmore of English soccer players? Or a football player? Yes, English footballers. Yes. Yeah, football players. Okay. That's really hard. So they've got to be English, yeah? Yes. That is the one. Let's say, yeah, we throw the England team, the English teams. Okay. So the best best of all time English players, what we're saying? Yes. So for that, David Beckham's got to be in there. Yes. Love that. Probably the best roster of the ball I've ever seen and probably ever we'll see. He's up there. I would say, oh, it's difficult because Gary Linnaker would be in there somewhere with his goals, but then Harry Kane just about to overtake him. Yeah. So, you know, those two are very tied together. Harry Kane could end up being one of the greatest English strikers we've ever seen. Yes. I think who else? I grew up watching, I try to think it's a different position, so Steven Gerrard. Yeah, absolutely. An amazing midfielder as well. Absolutely fantastic player. Frank Lampard, him as well. And Wayne, Wayne, he's got to be in there too. At that generation, I was really hopeful for and absolutely loved them, but if you're going, you know, long way back, it's Bobby Charlton as well, you know, one of the greatest of all time English players. There's selection there, different, different genres, different genres. You know, you bring up, first of all, outstanding list. Do you do tonight? Everybody you just said? I tried to. Yeah. What is one of the things that you would run at Wayne Rooney earlier? One of the things I always loved about his game is that he didn't, he, I mean, maybe he has and I just don't remember this clip. I don't remember him ever taking a dive. I always remember him fighting through contact and continually going hard. One of the things that happened in the USA game against Paraguay, Reem was given a yellow card and they looked at the official review and they found that the player had taken a dive from Paraguay and they reversed the yellow card. Do you think this is good for the game of soccer to get that kind of aspect out of it and that replay is now getting rid of something that I think a lot of fans have been frustrated about? Yeah, I think so. It's a really hard one because we've got this technology now and there's been a lot of a lot of chat around VAR, the video assistant referee and all reviewing everything. But the problem is that because we have a technology, we, it's hard to say, well, don't use a technology. So we've just got to get to a system and a point where it's better. Yeah, it's working quicker because I think the delays are the hardest thing. Yeah. But I think being able to iron out diving is good. But then you see some of the times watching the matches, you see actually a proper like American football style tackles going on inside the penalty area for a corner. Yeah. And yet VAR never steps in for that. So you've got to be careful what you wish for is that it kind of, it can become so staccatoed that you don't end up having a free-flowing game at all. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we deal with similar issues in American football, even though there's way more stoppages just in general. So it's easier to, there's, it's not as flow, free-flover game is obviously of soccer football is. Sorry to interrupt. Are we going to call it soccer/football? I mean, I mean, it's messing with my head. We just don't want to confuse anyone on which sport we're talking. But the, it's, it is the same thing. When the subjective calls come in and it's hard, the slow motion doesn't necessarily tell the whole story, right? The tugging of a jersey feels different when it's in slow motion sometimes and it does in real speed in a real time to the rough on the field. That's where I feel like sometimes it's really difficult on our field to like, is the passing appearance do we want? Replay assist to interfere with those type of penalties and things. Nope. Put it on the ref. - Yeah, yeah. - Same as put it up. - Whatever. - What are some of the tactical fouls that you guys can do in your game? - So it's, are we talking about where we play a sister, we're just talking like in general? - In general, so of course, things like taking a dive is can be seen as a professional foul. What's the equivalent of an American football? - I don't know that there is a, I mean, if somebody took a dive, which I don't think of, some guys do, you, like, - Whoa, whoa, let me point fingers over here. Sometimes you gotta help the rest see that he's holding you, 'cause it can be, it can get some physical games to get real tight. - Yeah, it's a good, it's a good question. I don't think that it has been waved as much of a flag on that. There are definitely guys in the game you know when a guy is trying to get a penalty, right? Like a defender might be out, he might not be able to get to the ball carrier. So he'll put his arms up like this to try and get a holding call, to take a big run back. A receiver might fall down to make, it look more like it's past interference. I guess it would be on sports when like content, but I've never seen that called. - No, I haven't seen it called. I think it's more-- - I wouldn't mind it being called. - Yeah, it's more frowned upon by the fans, I feel like, then it is a penalty of any sort. - Yeah. - 'Cause you can, you know, the players now, if it's football, say the attacking team are getting away, and they're gonna look like they're getting a good chance to score, the first person that comes in just basically takes out the player. And they'll receive a yellow card for it, but it's basically a professional foul because they're stopping the game, knowing full well what they're doing. - Yeah, absolutely. - Yeah. - That's a cutthroat fucking mentality to Jesus. (laughing) - There's some rules in place with American football, where if a guy is like often running, and it hasn't happened, but like if somebody commits a foul way behind their penalty way behind the play, you can get ejected. You can also decline and accept these penalties in American football. So like if it does try to affect the play in a negative way, the other team usually just declines it because they still get the yard to join it. - All right, Prince, we got one more question for you. We ask everybody what's their welcome to their profession, their fandom moment in their league when they had this realization of an epiphany that they're doing it. What was your welcome to football moment? - My welcome to football moment. So my biggest kind of moment where I felt I loved it. - Yes, or you're in for the long haul. - Yeah, so I think weirdly this sounds very odd, but I got into football more than ever when we got relegated. - Uh-oh. - So when Asavila went from premiership to championship, I suddenly really enjoyed the battle to get back in the premiership. You do almost, I think you do 40 matches, I think in the championship, which is way more than you do in the premiership. And I got really into that. And it was midweek games and you could watch it coming back in after, you know, being out to the day. And yeah, I loved all that. And it got me straight back in there. But obviously my highlight, having beat a fan for how many years now, the Asavila is the Europa League final. And winning a trophy is just the best thing because I was born a month after they won the European Cup in '82. So I felt like I'm, I'm, and that generation has missed out on, on many big opportunities. We won a cup in 1996. That was a domestic one. But a European one we haven't won since '82. So it's a big deal. - Hell yeah, it is. - Hell yeah, hell yeah. Prince William, the guy you won the Foxhole, they get regulated, he gets more into it. - That was it. - That's what I'm talking about. - Relegation, I really love that concept in European sports in general. But I think that's something that in the United States, we deal with a lot of teams tanking at the end of the year to try and get better draft picks and improvements. The idea that not only are the best teams going to be recognized and honored, but the more seems, you're actually out of the league. - Oh, yeah, it puts an extra amount of emphasis and pressure on those teams trying to be competitive. And it also, it also builds the foundation of the game. Like you just said, more, there's more depth to all these other communities that don't really, you know, maybe they don't have the same amount of resources or whatever, but they're in those leagues and there's a chance they could get into the Premier League. And obviously, yeah, go ahead. - And Jason, that's exactly the point is that, that the idea that any club can get to the top of the Premier League is potentially there. Now, realistically, it's a huge challenge depending on which club you support on what your finances are like in the side of the stadium and all that sort of stuff. But the fact that you could do it, and obviously, I don't know if you remember, but Leicester City, I forget which year it was, they were on that side kind of like Dark Horse to do anything. They went in one of the Premiership, but like there wasn't another football fan in the country that thought good on Leicester, that was an amazing achievement. So we love the idea of someone coming out of the, the normal top six, seven teams and winning the Premiership. - This is the World Cup. Obviously, you guys are coming off for the big game against Croatia. What in your mind is a successful World Cup for England? - I think winning it. (laughing) - That's it, that's the easiest answer. - He gets it, he gets it. They make it to the finals, you're gonna make the trip across the pond? - Definitely, if we're in the finals, we'll be in the middle of it. - I love it, man. - Maybe see you both there for the final? - Oh my gosh. Come on now, stand here. - Are we up? - You might be in training camp. - Yeah, probably. I'm probably gonna be able to go. I'll probably be in St. Joe Missouri, really. - We'll sneak you out for a night. - Tell me who I need to write to you, Travis. We'll get you out. - Hey, there we go. There we go. It goes, read, listen, Prince William call. (laughing) I'll be back tomorrow. - That's right. - I appreciate the time, the stories, the fandom is awesome to hear about and wishing England the best and always wishing you and the royal family the best man. - Yes. - You guys are awesome. - Thank you, Travis. Thank you, Jason. Really great to see you guys and catch up soon. - Yes, sir. - Sounds good. - Thanks to our presenting sponsor, Xfinity. Alrighty, soccer season is about to take over for everyone's summer. And if you're like most fans, you're not watching alone. You're packing the living room, firing up the grill and making it an event. - Everybody's over, your buddies, the neighbors, that one cousin who thinks he could have gone pro all streaming, all on their phones, all at once. - So, you need Wi-Fi that's built for that energy, the fiber-powered gig Wi-Fi from Xfinity keeps everyone connected, phones, tablets, TVs, all going at once, low lag and no drama. - Wi-Fi is so reliable, you can host the world. That's right, check out Xfinity.com/Socker to learn more. Restrictions apply, select plans only powered by fiber connected to premises by coaxial cable. - Hi, that is our conversation with Prince William. Thank you so much to the Prince of Wales for coming on the show. That was incredible. - Insane. - We have nothing else for you guys. That's a wrap on this episode. We hope you enjoyed it. We hope you're enjoying the World Cup. - Once again, New Heights is a wundry show. Father Sean also from media at New Heights show with 1S for fun clips throughout the week to the Prince of Wales. We appreciate you to England Good Luck in the US. Let's fucking go, baby. - Thanks to our presenting spots are Xfinity. - Thank you to the New Heights production and thank you to all the 92%ers. Enjoy the World Cup. Peace. (upbeat music) - Yeah, when we started this thing, I don't think. - We thought we were gonna be talking to like a fat offensive lineman, not King's Queens, princes of other nations. Yeah. - This is pretty much what is life. - It is, and it's also very fitting. I mean, obviously America is 250 years old this year. Having the World Cup in the United States and in North America. Some very fun world stage things happening this year. I was just at the crossing on the Delaware the other day. - Oh, I forgot to ask him about the Ascots, man. - Should I ask him about the Hessians? - The huh? - Hessians? - Talk to me. - When we were fighting the Revolutionary War. - Oh God. - Just thank God. - We were not only fighting in English, the Red Codes. We were also fighting mercenaries hired by England. They hired a bunch of German soldiers. - No. - They were known for like eating babies and a bunch of others. - No. - Bad guys. - Bad guys. - I'm so glad you didn't ask him about that. (laughing) - Wanted to keep it light, Brandon. Are you coming to tell us to stop talking about all this? - You can do whatever you want. I'm telling you where I'm sitting. Probably cut the Hessian stuff in half, probably. - Yeah. - I do. Can I point out something to you? Can I point out something real quick? - Yes. - Maybe we use it when we don't. The fact that our wheat consisted of you dunking with Will Ferrell. (laughing) - This is a crazy-- - This is a crazy-- - Blocking an Alex Morgan penalty kick. - Pregnant Alex. - Didn't we talk to (beep) and we ended the week by talking to Prince William? - Yeah. - It's a pretty crazy world. - What the fuck? - Yeah, no. This is insane. - Our podcast is great. - This has gotten out of hand. We gotta dial it back.