I learned she was going to be there at Arrowhead for her debut appearance.
Her first game, yeah.
So I knew all week, or four or five days ahead of time, and I had to sit on it.
Well, we're back in New York.
I'm so excited to have you on again.
Courtside Club Season 2, Jordan Stoltz, OG, back on the show.
Yeah, I was early, because I came on in August of 23, 22.
When it was warmer.
It was beautiful.
I think I came in and I had a t-shirt on.
Now it's, you know, multiple layers.
I feel like I'm going skiing and, like, shog.
You look lovely, though.
You look, like, very professional, put together.
A lot has happened in a year, too.
Yeah, absolutely.
You look awesome, too.
This is a good look for you.
It's very New York.
I'm, like, very New York.
Yeah, it's, like, New York trendy.
But, no, thank you so much for coming on.
Courtside Club again.
I'm excited, one, to catch up and also introduce you even more.
More so to my audience who might not have seen, like, everything that we did last year
with the show being on ESPN.
But I want to catch up because I feel like your career in general, even since we last
talked, has just skyrocketed.
I've been seeing your stories, like, breaking or whoever's, like, retweeting you via Jordan
So tell me about some of the stories that you've broken this year.
Thank you so much.
When I first came to this show a year ago.
I guess it was a year and a half ago, basically.
I was still in the somewhat infancy stages of becoming the insider.
So two years ago, exactly two years ago, I was basically doing three or four different
I was, like, covering the NBA, but not really.
I had been writing college basketball features.
I was interested in the NFL, interested in the draft.
I didn't really have – my compass was all over the place.
I was a little rudderless.
I got really close with my guy, Max Kellerman, who – because our daughters were in the
same class, same school, and they were best friends.
Mira is his daughter.
My daughter is Wren, and now they're nine.
But they became really close at, like, five and six.
And I started to become really friendly with Max, and we watched boxing together, and he
had me on first take, and I really liked him personally.
And one day, we were having a beer, and he said to me, you know, I got to be honest with
I think – he was very honest.
He said, I think you're a really talented guy, but we don't really know where to put
You're a bit of a generalist.
You don't really have one role you're doing, and the producers don't necessarily think
of you with A, B, or C.
They just put you, like, in this big box, and it's actually hurting you.
And I thought this whole time, Rachel, that everything I was doing was helping me.
Being able to be, like, a jack-of-all-trades or a utility player.
But it was – I think it was hurting me.
It was hurting me because nobody really – if there was a breaking story about this player
or this team or this league, I wasn't necessarily going to be the call because I was doing all
these other things, too.
So it was confusing.
And so I really took it to heart and realized that I had to pick one.
And it was a really difficult decision in the sense that I had put in a lot of time
with the other sports.
Basketball was actually my first love, not football.
I played basketball my whole life.
And I made the decision, though, I'm just going to go NFL.
I'm just going to go NFL.
Basketball was dominated by Woj and Shomps.
And I got respect from my guy, Chris.
And I just decided I got to move into the NFL full-time and start to cultivate more
relationships within football.
So I started to do that going into the free agency cycle of 2022.
And then what happened was over the summer, like August, September, I ended up signing
with Bleacher Report.
Which was big for me.
I've loved their platform for so long.
And I've been a big fan.
And so when they were interested, I was interested.
And so that was obviously a big plus.
And it just continued to push.
But I told you the Gronk story last time.
I think the one story recently that happened was one of the biggest I've ever had was the
I don't know if you saw this one, but it was like Christmas Day or maybe the 26th.
This is like three weeks ago.
And Russell Wilson gets benched.
That was not the story that I wanted because I knew that this was percolating and I knew
there was a really decent chance.
I thought there was a good chance he was going to get benched.
That was not the story.
I knew everyone was going to have that story.
The story I wanted was what happened and how did this happen?
And so, you know, Russell Wilson, they had won five in a row.
He was playing pretty good football.
He had, I think he had, he was basically top 10 in every quarterback category, but then
he gets benched after they lose to New England.
And they're still technically.
They're still technically in the playoff hunt.
And so it was an entire day of, and I was on vacation with my family.
It was Christmas vacation.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
It was an entire day of locking myself in the room.
It was beautiful outside.
I don't even think I ate, just drank water.
I was on the phone for the, I think, eight hours, like phone calls, which is not, you
know, it's not great.
And then at the same time, I was also locked out on my Twitter.
I got hacked on Twitter.
Wait, how does that happen, though?
You have to have, like, the two facts of all the things, right?
You didn't have it?
I'm an absolute joke.
Okay, that's a rookie move.
I didn't have 2FA.
That's such a rookie move.
Everyone that says that to me, like, are you kidding me?
It's really embarrassing.
Yeah, it's difficult to hack nowadays because there's so many different steps.
Yeah, you need to have the, if you have the 2FA, and I think unless you have the physical
phone, it's really hard to get hacked.
Sometimes, it's not always the case, but sometimes the tweet is only, like, a five-minute tweet.
A small fraction of it.
That's only, that's what's going to last 10 minutes or 20 minutes.
But the deep story of what really happened, and this goes to me really wanting to empower
players, what happened with Russell Wilson?
So, I learned that on October 29th, they win against the Chiefs.
He has a good game, throws a couple touchdowns or three touchdowns.
They beat the Chiefs.
Two days later on Halloween, he gets approached by the Broncos.
Sean Payton, they tell him, we need you to defer your 37-millimeter.
million-dollar injury guarantees to the season after, and if you don't, we're going to bench
you and make you inactive the rest of the season.
So, they threaten him, and he says, no.
Wait, I don't, wait, explain that like I'm a five-year-old, so.
Well, this is what I had to explain like I was a two-year-old, because there's so much
language in here, and I'm, you know, I'm not a lawyer.
What happened was, when he signed with the Broncos, he negotiated, and that was a massive
He negotiated an injury guarantee.
If something were to happen like an Alex Smith injury, if he had a catastrophic knee
problem or knee injury, an ACL, if he could never walk again, if he could never play again,
he had 37 million guaranteed in injuries, so that he would be taken care of from the
And they negotiated that, not only in good faith, but it was in the contract between
the Broncos and Russ.
So, when that happened, you fast forward now two years, and Sean Payton's there, new head
And maybe he's not happy with how Russ is playing, but they actually have this big win.
They're midway through the season.
It's not even November.
And they go to him, and they tell him, if you don't waive this injury guarantee, or
sorry, if you don't defer it a year down the road to 2024, or 2025, not only are we going
to bench you, but we might just make you inactive for the remainder of the season.
Because basically, if he got hurt, then he wouldn't get it if he deferred it?
That's what they, that's what he was worried about.
And also, he, yes, that's what he's worried about.
And, you know, I think the most extreme example is like an Alex Smith or a Joe Theismann, where
your career is threatened.
Your life is threatened to a degree.
But even if he had a catastrophic knee injury, or a really bad shoulder injury, whatever
it is, he still wanted to be protected.
And football's a violent game.
He's the quarterback.
And he's getting older, too.
He is getting older.
He's getting older.
He's in his mid-30s.
Which was what every player would do.
So now, over the course of the next six weeks, eight weeks, they're threatening him every
Nobody knows this.
The fans don't know this.
But they're going to him saying, we got to talk to you.
And he's thinking every week I might just get benched.
So even if they're not threatening him every week, I should say, they're teasing it.
And Sean Payton's meeting with him behind closed doors, unbeknownst to the fans.
I don't even know if his teammates knew about this.
And they're telling him.
And so he's now playing under the guise of, I might get benched this week.
Is this the meeting where I'm going to get benched?
And I didn't know this was going on at the time.
But I knew stuff was getting bad.
And then they rattled off a couple big wins.
I think they had won five in a row.
They won a couple primetime games.
They beat Cleveland, Minnesota.
And then they lose to the Pats, which was a really bad loss.
Because New England was out of it.
And that essentially derailed their playoff hopes.
And that's when Sean Payton finally came to him, George Payton, the GM, and they said,
now you are benched because you didn't defer.
Now, they're not going to tell him that, but that's why he was benched.
And so this is the story I'm navigating this entire day, trying to understand the language
now, because now you also have the NFLPA getting involved.
It's a story that goes way beyond just football.
And ultimately, Wilson is benched for the rest of the year.
But so I'm on the phone.
I'm also writing it up and I'm I'm locked out of Twitter.
Now, Sean Payton has I know he has a two thirty mountain time press conference and I have
I have to beat that.
That's so it's not like, you know, under normally maybe I would try to get out by the end of
Maybe you dump a Sunday morning story before the games.
But this considering it's Russell Wilson, it's Sean Payton.
he has the presser at 230 he speaks once a week this is it yeah because he could also
like maybe not lie but spin it in a way to make it seem like well he did he did we were not we're
not satisfied with the way he's playing exactly they didn't mention anything about the injury
guarantees which was again 37 million dollars and a lot of folks have said to me well Russell
Wilson's rich anyway that's not necessarily the point the point is you negotiated this
it's it is a tremendous amount of money and as a player this is your right and it was in the
contract the Broncos had no right they can ask him but to make him pay for it essentially is
is really wild and so anyways I finally get back into Twitter after I think I was two or three days
of a hack and so I got back in just in time that's good I think within 20 minutes to spare
and I had written up so that's actually though it might have been a blessing in disguise because
well because if you would have put out your story like two hours earlier and maybe the coach would
have seen he could have also spun it like he didn't have enough time to change what he was
going to talk about you know what I mean that actually might be true to think about it like
that that's not a bad point yeah so I'm on the phone with like everyone at x I'm on the phone
with learning about Russell Wilson I'm typing on my phone letting br know I'm gonna go live on br
I'm gonna go live on fox sports
or fs1 I'm in all these different shows and I finally get it out just in time like right when
he's going up to the press conference and then the phone just erupts and what surprised me
was the litany of NFL teams reaching out saying this is it was by and large incredibly positive
even the teams were really positive yeah but what was really surprising to me was how many
NFL teams reached out saying this happens all the time with much less known players and it's good
that you're bringing a light to it because it's it's not a story that's told often you know when
it's when it's a guy who's you know barely on the roster or maybe a backup player or even a fringe
starter you don't hear about it because the money's so much less significant of course and
the team keeps it in house and so even that some of the teams that were it might not have been
advantageous for this type of team but it's good that you're bringing a light to it because it's
a story to get out they were saying like a really good job that's real investigative reporting it's
yeah it was a real story well it also just like sheds light on contracts and I think you know
obviously me being more of like an NBA niche a lot of this stuff with NBA players like their
contracts are guaranteed they are and I've always thought it was so interesting with the NFL because
it is such a more like violent sport and the lifespan of your career in the NFL is a lot
shorter than even the average NBA player so it's a lot shorter than even the average NBA player
so to me it is kind of crazy because you don't even have to have the worst injury in the world
for that to be the end of your career if you have a ACL injury at the wrong time and you're easily
replaced that's the end of your career like good luck trying to get you know on another team like
it is very disposable so I feel like the the contracts again good on you that you're able to
figure out those details but that is something like I can't imagine how many guys have just
been benched or not played or had an injury or taken what they said like defer that injury and
gotten injured that season and then been shit out of luck you know that's so absolutely I mean
listen I don't know how we're at the point in 2024 yeah where NFL contracts are not guaranteed
yeah you have signing bonuses right um oftentimes you have a significant signing but the contract
is not guaranteed right so when a quarterback signs for let's just pick a round number 100
million dollars oftentimes it's really 40
30 50 that's guaranteed but the other half or 70 percent of it right can be completely eradicated
and that's what's really really difficult um about the NFL are you getting something
um also if we need to because you're in your twitter account now we have to factor we do
authentication on now so if you need to do anything during this interview go for it um
this is small it's just a little bit of a thing but I think it's a little bit of a thing because
it's just a coaching uh a potential um assistant coach for the NFL I'll show I'll show it to you
so how many unread text messages do you have in your phone right now it's good right now it's uh
only 51 oh great which is really good yeah by the end of the day I think that'll balloon to like 130
150 so yeah you know is it hard to keep up you're pretty quick responding to people though even me
when I asked you to come on the show again well you're Rachel I'm not a huge news story though
I was ecstatic to come back on um
I am pretty quick normally do you want to see mine is it it's pretty bad let me see
oh my gosh you'll never ever be able to recover all those no did you can you say that on the
camera so I have 2086 unread messages but it's different okay so when I'm expecting a text from
someone I'm normally very quick if it's something if it's like from someone I haven't seen in a
while or it's like almost like if I'm expecting a text from someone I'm normally very quick
I'm expecting it I'm good if I'm not expecting it that's where I fumble because I'll just be doing
something and if it's something that's not like urgent I'm like oh I'll get back to it and then
I forget I you know what I mean I do it all the time yeah do you think if you don't get back to
it then you never get back to it though so then that person has to reach out a second or third
time so my good friends all know yeah like if I'm not responding just hit me again or call me
because I'm it's not like a malicious thing I don't try to ghost people I don't any of that
unless I there's maybe
very few that I'm like over the most part yeah so those hit me again or I'll get back to it
sometimes it does take me a couple days and I'm like oh I like scroll back to someone I needed
to text I'm like oh I didn't respond to them let me get back to them that's that's that's a nice
way of saying um like it's not the most important but it's kind of important because I'm gonna get
back later yeah I feel like you do that too nice no did I no not okay I was like no because this
is it's not a time sensitive so you think I give it 10 minutes 20 minutes exactly but then if I
forget because if I'm in the middle of doing something I don't want to like change that train
of that's fair I feel like family like my mom I always have to go back to my mom because she will
worry about my safety if I don't get back to my mom like in a timely manner she'll call the police
and then obviously my boyfriend as well but we like talk on the phone yeah we text also so yeah
she roms like uh I'm gonna follow missing missing person report yeah how long 18 minutes yeah I was
like or if my mom can't see my location because we should oh geolocation yeah yeah then she that's
fair though yeah she'll be like oh I'm like one time this is like going completely off topic but
one time my flight got canceled and it was an early morning flight so I went to the airport
and then went back to my hotel room because I was so exhausted because I was like what are my
flights like cancel I have to take another one and went back to sleep um and she was like looking at
my location she's like oh she's still at the hotel and then she was calling me and I didn't respond
in a few hours so I was sleeping and in her mind that I'm getting these like crazy text messages
like please just tell me you're okay she like in her mind she thought like your mom's amazing
somebody like murdered me and I'm like yeah oh that's really sad Rachel yeah you need to respond
to your mother I do don't worry she's not I do that's nice um yeah so anyways the NBA the the
contract system is way better um oftentimes in the NFL you don't want a long-term deal you want
three or so here's the most basic way to if you're a first round pick in the NFL yeah the team who
drafts you let's say you get we're in New York let's say the Giants draft you in the first round
they technically have five potential years of having control over your contract there's a after
three years you're extension eligible after the fourth year you can pick up an option there's five
potential years okay and then even more so you can get tagged you see what's happened with Saquon he
got tagged last year you get tagged you have no control the tag is set a set amount I think it
was 10.3 million for running backs
last year he can't play anywhere else he it's a really tough scenario so oftentimes you want
that by the time you are a free agent let's say you're 26 27 you don't want to sign a five-year
deal you want to sign a three-year deal because you want to get another deal when you're 29 or 30
as opposed to like 32 33 right and that might be your only big deal only opportunity to cash in
plus the contracts are not guaranteed the NFL is an ownership driven League yeah the NBA is a
players driven League yeah which I think
in some ways in the NBA some things have gone out of control when it comes to players because
it's it's different from the NFL in a sense where like if a player is unhappy they are they can be
outwardly spoken on like hey I don't want to be here anymore yeah and then that is like yes it's
good for the player it's not sometimes not good for fans though yeah when your player is moving
from team to team and I've even noticed that like just working in the NBA for as long as I can it's
been a different organization and it might be a big organization if the players keep changing every
single year or your Star Guys coming in and out you know like Golden State Warriors are an easy
team to get behind it's been that same core group The Bucks or is another thing like with the honest
there for as long as he's been there Miami heat's like another one that's like maybe easier to get
behind but I feel I see both sides and I'm not saying that it's like wrong for these players to
able to control their destiny and they also have families and they want to get the most money and
they want to make the most out of their time on the court but but don't you feel like a lot of
younger fans are just fans of players now anyway not necessarily uh not necessarily like freaking
uh hold on take this really quick yeah go for it hey jay is this urgent
oh i gotta let me let me hit you back in a little bit i'm recording but i i thought it might be
something with uh with somebody in las vegas see that that's a call that that i took because
he's a good friend of mine but also thought it might have been a news thing got it so i really
needed to is your wife cool with you always having to be on the phone the phone's tough man i
it's not for like any relationship at this point but well i don't even like i don't i have
separated myself from it to a degree what i've noticed is
my phone time has actually my screen time has gone down from double digits to now like you know
even anywhere from like seven to nine a day which is really low because this isn't the craziest time
starting to ramp up with coaches and gms but it's not as crazy and so i just i i have to separate
from it because i want quality time with the kids yeah and and her um it's been a really tough
balance but i definitely
have gotten better i don't want to say i'm tried i've gotten a lot better at it yeah because i
don't want to i i'm not i can't live like that like if you can there's more power to you i just
can't it's not how i i just can't operate like that you know there was a you're not going to be
able to get every single story if you want to have some type of balance in your life and i've just
accepted it i was at perfect example is last weekend i was at um uh the ice rink my son was
playing hockey at a game he scored his first
goal i was right there on top of the ice for it there was a story that was relatively sizable
that i missed okay because it actually had my phone on me but i didn't have enough vibrate i
wasn't even it was it wasn't a time necessarily i thought it would happen and i just missed it
and my initial reaction was like you know like i really wish i wouldn't have missed that but i got
over it really quickly because i if i was on the phone i know i would have missed his goal and i
just had to accept it and it was like i just had to accept it and i just had to accept it and i
was it was something that uh was worth missing so have you ever heard that phrase um where it's
like will it be important in nine minutes will it be important in nine months nine or nine days
nine months nine years i've heard iterations of that yeah and like that's how because i've had to
think back on that sometimes too like if i miss something or something goes wrong um it's like
okay is it important in nine minutes yes is it important in nine days
some probably not you know what i mean nine months nine months right so i think in your sense you
could think of it like that as well because you will get another story that will be yeah i don't
know unless this was this was no no once in a lifetime thing no but yeah usually you know
will probably be important in nine years his first goal yeah and um you asked about my wife
the conversations are often like um it'll be like do you really need to be on right now
and usually the answer is no yeah
actually almost always the answer is no um and if it's yes then you know i just have to deal with it
but i've also gotten better at like if i know i really have to be on the phone i might just
purposely stay home for maybe there's an activity like gonna go see a play or something and i'm
gonna just stay home yeah because i know that i'm gonna be having to be on the phone and you can't
really be on the phone at a play or a movie right uh that doesn't happen very often but that has
happened and usually it's like i'm gonna be on the phone and i'm gonna be on the phone and i'm gonna
usually it's beneficial because um i have to focus and hopefully it's done by the time they
come home but i need to be available yeah i also it's like you you said when we talked earlier this
week you said you don't talk someone about your background and i mean i don't really like i don't
promote it but i also am very i'm keenly aware of how i grew up and the fortunate just how fortunate
i was not having to worry about about food about education yeah about
family travel and i was exposed to so much at such a young age and i don't think i knew how
important it was at the time but looking back now i really understand how important it was to be
able to adapt to different scenarios and to be sophisticated or try to be open you know my
parents used to be like you're here you need to be here they always just because i was all i wanted
to play basketball and like not the girls but so they would always try to you know right i would
like not go i remember like they went to greece when i was in eighth grade and i was like oh my
and i didn't go because of like a pre-season jamboree yeah you know they went to spain when i
was a sophomore in high school i didn't go so i could watch a football game on tv well that's
actually really funny that you say your parents were telling you to be like this because my dad's
thing like when i was in a basketball game or when literally anything he would always tell me to do
this like focus put your blinders on like keep moving forward like tap in and i feel like that's
but i was the same thing like i missed a lot because i was you know dribbling in the backyard
like would you not go to was it like a party or a dance or something every time yeah but like you
go to prom or homecoming yeah i mean my parents also like we we weren't going over on overseas
vacations okay so maybe it was like less like big things but homecoming you it's not like you
missed that i went to homecoming yeah so or like uh we had um what was the one um we had a dance
this is so so i'm i'm about to turn 38 so i graduated high school 04 and this this dance
was probably 02 so let's say it was 20 something years years ago we had a dance called rob the
cradle which looking back that's such an awful name and it was seniors would ask sophomores
and juniors and it was only um that they could ask you juniors would ask freshmen
and seniors would ask sophomores that's it's an insane name right called rob the cradle
i got i remember i got asked by a girl i had a massive crush on i was a freshman in high school
yeah and she was a junior or maybe i know i was a sophomore she was a senior okay she was like
home one of the home whatever you know and it was a big deal yeah and um my friend was like
well i didn't get asked yet and we have we have a basketball game in the morning we can't go
and i was like fuck that i'm going with her you know it was like the one time i was like i'm
definitely gonna go i'm definitely focused with basketball unless
there's a cute girl yeah so i did um she ended up uh uh i don't think i don't think i would say
the dance went like great for me but i definitely was not gonna miss that one i can't get over the
name that's actually rob the cradle it was it's the one thing i look back on about my high school
that truly was i can't believe that i even happened yeah like at what point was rob the
cradle like banned like probably like oh seven yeah or oh nine they were like we gotta get a
new name that's so funny but uh no i don't know i don't know i don't know i don't know i don't know
i was so i was so um exposed at such a young age also for those who don't know and you know i
don't these are all things i don't really talk about but you know we're we're good friends and
i'll just you know when i was uh when i was in eighth grade eighth or ninth grade my dad bought
the sonics which i i don't know if we've talked about i don't think so but we've obviously talked
about starbucks i got a matcha today nice on postmates so it was a little more expensive than
you go into the store like eight bucks yeah but it was like 13 to get it here like 13 total yeah
that's fine it's delicious so it is good i get a like a little scoop of chai in there also so it's
matcha with chai it's really good anyway it's sugary though that's fine yeah it's courtside
club day we got a little sugar oh i like this too this uh we're gonna get there i'm definitely
gonna try it because i see it's uh sugar is not too bad um so he bought he he bought the sonics
i think it was officially when i was in eighth grade and i remember he he uh we were driving
home from school it's probably from a practice and he picked me up from school and then he he
said i i really need to talk about something important and we got to the driveway and he
proceeded to tell me what he was about to do which i had no idea about at the time and so i that's
when i think for me learning about the players really started because as i i was coming of age
13 to 21 i think he had the team 13 to 20. um and i was seeing firsthand how poorly the players and
also my dad were treated especially by the local press and when i was that young it was really hard
to see that especially with my dad you were also meeting a lot of players too we talked about it
last time because your dad had these relationships and your shack story which i would love for you
to tell again that's someone you've been close with since you were a kid so i'm sure just like
knowing them on a personal level and then you know i'm not sure i'm not sure i'm not sure i'm not sure
i'm not sure i'm not sure i'm not sure i'm not sure i'm not sure i'm not sure i'm not sure i'm not sure
and understanding the business enough yeah when you're that young yeah it probably like hit a
little harder there were so many times where a report would get out that was a half truth or
yeah um not true at all and it would paint either my dad or one of the players really poorly
and that was really difficult because as i got older i became really close to the ages of the
players and so you know we'd have a lot of guys over and we'd have a lot of guys over and we'd
have a lot of guys over and we'd have a lot of guys over i think did i tell you the ray allen story
i don't think so ray allen broke my nose no i didn't yeah what yeah ray allen broke my nose
we're how did that happen these are the types of things that like so the experience is so crazy
that i don't even really talk about i rarely talk about it because i just feel it's um i'm trying to
separate myself from that and from my dad but this is a good story when i was a freshman in college
ray over to the house and we had a half court and this is seattle and uh we were playing cutthroat
which is like rotating one-on-one and you're playing one-on-one with right yeah it's kind
of like you could say it was kind of like you could say uh wait this story keeps getting better
yeah okay so you're playing 21 21 and ray allen yeah i'm talking shit and i and i think i had
game point and uh against ray allen well there was multiple people okay okay so i had probably
scored on him once or twice where he wasn't a great defender he wasn't taking this
seriously yeah you're playing on concrete and i was also in phenomenal shape and i was like you
know going to my sophomore year of college i was probably like 185 and i was i was a good player
i was talking shit i started a yap and i said something along the lines of
ray um you're not gonna lose in front of your family are you i said it just like that i was
like you're loose to me yeah i was like right this is this is low even for you i mean you're
yeah and he was like man i'm not gonna lose to you i'm not gonna lose to you i'm not gonna lose to you
fuck you and i was like okay and so i i'll never forget i i've he finally like really locked up
yeah i missed a bad shot and then it was his ball and we check up and i immediately sensed like a
a change he like went stone cold right and i was you know trying to like killer instinct yeah i
was trying to lock up and like really contest him and he didn't even take a dribble what he did was
he he swept the ball and he was like oh my god i'm gonna lose to you i'm gonna lose to you i'm gonna
lose to you i'm gonna lose to you i'm gonna lose to you i'm gonna lose to you i'm gonna lose to you
he ripped through and when he ripped through with his sharp elbows he literally shattered my nose
completely broken in like two places yeah blood gushing have to go to the emergency room
you know what he did after he sent me there was a system called
psp playstation portable yeah and he sent me a psp with nba live but he was on the cover
and he called me subsequently once a month or every few weeks for like the next couple
months and i every time i've seen ray since he always does the same thing he points at his nose
he like points oh my god and he laughs i love it kind of like it's like here's a gift sorry for
breaking your nose but also remember who you're playing one-on-one with next time because i'm on
the cover absolutely that was a humble pie 100 there was also times where like you know um when
rashard lewis was negotiating his extension there were articles coming out that were negative and
meanwhile he's like at the house
all the time and they were talking all the time him and howard never really got contentious
and he was probably like 24 and maybe i was 20 or something like that and so we were friendly we
play horse at the house and and watch games and i just remember seeing like richard's getting trashed
in the media yeah about like how contentious things are and it wasn't and not like that at
least and so that started opening my eyes of if i can ever get in the position to help players yeah
i want to tell their stories and that was
i think a good example of why that russell wilson story was so important to me because i knew how
up it was and i knew there was a bigger story to tell and i also knew it was timely there
was every all these elements into it so yeah that's probably in many ways why i do what i do now
even even though at the time um i didn't know how it would play out but now that's it's very it's
like crystal clear to me do you want to spill some tea yeah what is this okay so this is mobby t cheers
you know that's the word right next to the the mic so we can hear it it's time to spill the tea
that's spill it with mobby t i have a straw because i have lipstick on oh that's very good
um that's very good it's healthy also yeah i see that i love moby t caffeine free but it still
gives you a little little cake this is this is excellent really nice caribbean new fan um
players but you also broke a story this year about a certain celebrity did you not which one
taylor oh yes i did i forgot about that taylor swift how do you forget about that story i she's
one of the biggest headlines in the end the biggest in nfl history you're absolutely right
so tell us about the story right how do how do we even begin right so okay so insight into taylor
well so it became um evident that her and her and travis were at least talking because he went
on his pod and we we started to get speculation it started to ramp up and i started to just ask
questions about what's going on here not really knowing how real it was um but believing that
there was certainly some smoke there and i i it wasn't like it's tough
it's not like the investigator it's not really like the nfl insider it's this was like a whole
other dimension like you said a pop culture yeah but it was transcending the nfl as you know it
took over the league for like a month and i think for me i noticed that this was a story that had
bigger ramifications than just like uh an nfl transaction so i i i started to ask questions
and i i learned she was going to be there at arrowhead and uh for her debut appearance her
yeah right in Travis Kelsey's but so I knew all week or four or five days ahead of time
and I had to sit on it and wait why well because there were security issues and what if she cancels
there was just all kinds of right question marks and also like it wasn't it was I was I was uh
beyond my skis I was out of my depth this wasn't something I really like I don't know Taylor Swift
my daughter's obsessed with her I don't really have any uh business like uh pretending like I
know so I really wanted to be patient but also I think any person any insider will tell you that
the hardest thing to do is sitting on valuable information knowing that other people are trying
to access it get it yeah and so I had to wait literally until probably an hour before kickoff
I remember that tweet because they wanted I was told you have to wait until she's officially in
okay and the biggest thing at that point was security yeah and so I just was waiting and
waiting now I had told bleacher report this is what's happening I'm on this story be it you know
be on the lookout but that it was a it was uh it was a huge story that's massive no so this is
coming from the NFL side then where I know you're you don't reveal your sources but it was from the
NFL side it wasn't from Taylor's team I don't want to say that I I won't say that there wasn't a
little uh a little leak there
little crossover it was a little crossover yeah so I should say that because her PR is tied up
tight they are yeah but I had a I had a again I don't know her but I had a I had an in okay um
maybe we could talk about off camera I had it yeah and so I had a little birdie and so that's how I
was subsequently also able to get the other I knew she was going to be at the Jets game I think I had
a couple more yeah you did have the Jets as well you know and then the story died down because she
was going to so many games right but uh it was the Bears Chiefs game that was the first one that I
think was going to be the Jets game and then the story died down because she was going to so many
took the lid off and then my phone just blew up with like that was super like what have how did
you uh how do you get that this is such an odd story um are you sure this can't be true yeah
it was so many like the russell wilson was like good job investigative this one was like this is
so this is so odd did you have swifties in your dms i did and also um i had people reaching out
to me that i didn't know saying like uh you know i'm now i'm a big nfl fan now you know thanks for
i love travis kelsey there was also that whole meme i think on tiktok where like girlfriends
were talking to boyfriends and wives talking to husbands about you know travis kelsey like
travis kelsey yeah yeah and my wife wanted to do that with me i was like this is so stupid
it's gonna be so fake you know because anyways well then uh pat mcphee actually called you that
was that tiktok was so funny that you posted oh because i was in there i was a kid just
yeah so you went on his show to like share the news that she was gonna be there and then he was
like okay yeah see you later thanks jordan taylor swift gonna be there tonight or not
the last i was told was no that she had to move her show and that she wasn't gonna come and that
they were thinking about i think it was the raiders game by christmas for the the parents
connect but that was that was earlier today she was in south america right she's been in
south america argentina
brazil and um you know travis was obviously there on his off week which was awesome but uh
the last i heard was that she was not going to be there tonight because she had to move her show
around all right we appreciate you have a great day over there that's it wait that's that's it
yeah yeah yep and i was like that's it so you were on for about a minute yeah well i was actually
in kansas city for monday night football eagles chiefs and i was in the car with my wife and we
were we had like a few hours to kill so we went to this
awesome museum they have there we had like three hours so we were like let's just go to the museum
and walk around and i think he had texted me patty had texted me in the morning when i was working out
because i always like to work out uh day of the game so because i know i'm not i'm going to be
really lazy to eat bad yeah so uh and i was like uh telling him what was going on but he didn't say
can you come on so i didn't really think anything of it okay and then they what he's something he'll
just facetime me if yeah if i get a facetime i know it's the show and i'm in we're in the car
museum and my wife's like is that is that what i think it is and i was like yeah i think it is
so so you didn't know that you're gonna be i had no idea that's why i was in the car otherwise i
would have probably been in the hotel it was it gave it a very authentic feel i liked it she didn't
want me to put her on but i was like this is too funny yeah and so they're like they're like mrs
schultz report yeah um so that was funny yeah i forgot about that one yeah i just think like
i don't know this this this insider like rat this is a this is a crazy yeah it is a
four seven game and uh you're not gonna get every story but it is really fun and it is entertaining
i love building the relationships and it is a relationship game i think that's what you need
and i and i think you like even you know you talk about maybe like a more privileged upbringing but
you're so like humble and normal and real and i think that's why you're able to build the
relationships that you are like you're not you know what i mean it to me when i sit down with
you it doesn't feel like it's like it's like it's like it's like it's like it's like it's like it's
like that's my dad like you yeah like like this is jordan like no it doesn't like i had like it
doesn't seem like our childhoods would have been that much different like you're so easy to talk
to and so i think like you probably come off as non or at least to me but to everybody else like
non-threatening you're not like slimy you're not going to get give information that people don't
want out just so you can get a story but i think doing it maybe the slower way to like build up to
when you do get that stuff you know people are like i wanted to build that relationship with you
tell jordan like i want him to break my news so that's very kind of you rachel and i really
appreciate that it is a long game yeah yeah you know it's like the whole um it's such a nice thing
for you to say seriously no i mean it but it'd be like um my parents always you know it's it's not a
what is it not a sprint you know it's a marathon marathon not a sprint or uh uh you know play a
long game or all these like uh i'd say like howardisms you know when i was um i know we're
but i'll tell you one one quick story okay and then we get our guy jared yeah uh who's way better
than it guys jared freed's awesome he's amazing um this is a great this this epitomizes i think
my childhood and why um i always say i was born on home plate like not even on third base like
i went around the bases um when i was uh whenever even before we had the team before we had the
sonics my dad and this is
probably where i started to get it from he was all about relationships and he had gotten really
friendly with shack and you know about the shack starbucks story right yeah i told that one yeah
where he said i didn't buy into starbucks right away he said to howard black people don't drink
coffee i can't invest i don't believe in it yeah so that that's always like shack will tell you
that's his biggest regret and then magic ended up investing yeah right they they did a collaboration
yeah very very smart decision yeah so shack whenever the lakers were in town he would come
before before the game like uh if they had time he would come over but i didn't know my dad surprised
me this time and i was probably 11 or 12 and i was doing homework in my room and he did not tell me
that shack was coming over so i was just in my room doing like math and all of a sudden i get a
knock and i was like what i thought my mom my dad and i was like come in and he runs in and jumps on
i'm like here did he break my homework he i think he broke part of it like it wasn't like totally
shattered right but it was definitely like a big dude jumping on your bed yeah and uh he like hung
out with me for an hour he helped me with my math which was like i never forget he was like helping
me with multiplication tables he's like a plus eight is 64 and uh and then he stayed because
they had a it was an off day they weren't playing till the next day so he stayed for dinner and he
announced tomahawk steak and uh he was unbelievable the greatest he was so nice to me he was like a big
brother and i'll never forget he ate like an entire cake like he literally ate the cake and he was
eating chocolate look what i can do and uh and then we just like fucked around and played nerf
basketball after and then went to the game the next night and like i would see him at the game
and give me a hug and like these are the types of experiences that as a kid i knew were special but
i realized how insane they were until i got older yeah and so that's again like that's why i love the
players like because the players are people yeah you know and under that helmet is a person not a
fantasy football player so last super quick question before you go most famous person in
your phone is it shack shack's up there uh he's up there most famous person if you facetime them
right now they'd answer oh that's a that's
uh wow should we we can try let's try it and we'll get jared teed up
did you get that one okay because you want an athlete right most famous person that you think
would answer oh if you don't have to be an athlete no what's up big what's up bro well i'm taping a
show and i wanted to tell you that i think your guy's gonna get the gig ap i think so he's the
man so i'm on a show right now so i'm just gonna i'm gonna reveal who's gonna be the guy
who we're talking raiders most yeah most famous this is the most famous person in my phone who i
who i really love dame dolla hi get a massage that's so funny dame dolla we're talking raiders
and i said this is the perfect person to call he loves the raiders more than anybody in the world
in fact he knows more about the raiders than i do courtside club i agree ap is that dude
what are you gonna say i was like tell him we we gotta wrap the show but enjoy yeah dame you
are the best bro i'm so glad you're joining us enjoy the massage i'll love big dog i'll be in
touch about ap our bro peace jordan thank you so much tell everybody where they can follow you
find your own socials okay so um i am uh on a twitter at schultz underscore report
instagram jordan schultz tiktok at real jordan schultz because that's the only one
and i started a youtube channel but that's a
not to crack you gotta help me on that one so those are my handles i got you
thank you so much for having me i appreciate it that was awesome appreciate you