A list of a few things that struck my eye, ear or fancy this week.
Like a lot of folks, I am fairly into podcasts - so much that in years past, it’s gotten in the way of me listening to new music - hence the 2023 Music Project. But this note is actually about a podcast, or rather a series on a podcast. In general, The Athletic Football Show is a terrific podcast about (you guessed it) NFL football hosted by Robert Mays. But this week they dropped a five-part series called “Playmakers” that was put together by Jourdan Rodrigue.
It focuses on Kyle Shanahan, Sean McVay, Matt LaFleur and Mike McDaniel in particular as the young play calling head coaches that all worked together as assistants together under Kyle’s father, Mike Shanahan in Washington, and how they operate, think, etc. Kyle Shanahan, McVay and McDaniel seem to have given a lot of time to Roudrigue (who does a great job with this, it should be stated). It’s fascinating to hear how they work, how they adapted their offensive thinking, etc. Highly recommended for any football fan. (Rodrigue, by the way, is the female reporter that Cam Newton mocked for asking - or caring - about football when she was doing her job as a beat reporter for the Carolina Panthers. This only highlights her football knowledge, and Newton should remain embarrassed for his petulant remarks.)
Speaking of podcasts, I also listen to several from The Ringer, which of course is run by Bill Simmons who made a bankload when he sold it to Spotify. I have been a Simmons fan since his days writing for ESPN2 as “The Sports Guy,” and I do wish he’d write more - because I’ve developed a mild allergy to his voice. He’s so smarmy and (often) a bit out of touch, and so I don’t listen to HIS podcasts, but he still does a few ad reads. And I don’t know where I thought I’d be with Simmons way back when, but I doubt it was listening to him read an ad for Shell Oil in the middle of a fantasy football podcast.
Simmons in a tux was also not in the prognostications. Recommendation - it’s back for its third and final season, but I don’t think most folks are really aware of the TV show Warrior. It is mostly like if you took Peaky Blinders but made it about 1870s San Francisco, and the gangs are Chinese … and they know martial arts.
It’s super fun, not just because of the fighting (though…that’s a lot of it) but the story is cool - it includes the police, government, an Irish leader trying to get jobs for his people, etc. It’s all on MAX (I hate even typing that) so check it out.
Like millions of others, I joined Threads when it started. (Find me there, I guess, at @greebs). And I very much agree that it’s a nice UI, the signup is great - though it turns out the accounts I want to follow on Instagram aren’t necessarily who I want to HEAR from on Threads - and so far, the tone there is pretty nice. But it absolutely cracks me up that people seem to believe that Threads will be the NICE version of Twitter. It’s a social media app. Even putting aside that it’s run by Mark Zuckerberg, it’s a social media app. They all become toxic, full stop. Some are manageable, like Instagram, but there are plenty of ways to get bent out of shape and harassed there as well. Threads is nice, for now, so enjoy it while you can.