Longtime ESPN Broncos insider Jeff Legwold joins Tom Green to share his journey from 366 rejections to becoming one of the most trusted voices in NFL coverage. They dive into how sports media has evolved from print to digital, the realities of covering the Broncos, and how social media has reshaped relationships between players and reporters. Plus, Legwold breaks down the Broncos’ roster building, the impact of a player like Jaylen Waddle, and why the NFL is ultimately about staying healthy. It’s a candid, behind-the-scenes look at football, journalism, and the mindset it takes to last decades in both.
Tom Green sits down with ESPN’s Jeff Legwold for a wide-ranging conversation on football, media, and the grind behind a decades-long career covering the NFL. Legwold reflects on his unconventional path into journalism—including 366 rejection letters—and how that shaped his no-nonsense, “be right over first” approach to reporting. The conversation explores the evolution of sports media from print vs. broadcast to today’s social-driven landscape, where speed often outweighs accuracy and players now control their own platforms. Legwold also shares insight into covering the Broncos, building trust with players and coaches, and navigating the increasingly guarded nature of modern NFL organizations. They break down roster building, why health determines playoff success, and what makes a player like Jaylen Waddle so impactful. The episode closes with perspective on the Pro Football Hall of Fame process and why coaching legends like Mike Shanahan face a tougher path under the current system.
Chapters:
00:00 Intro & evolution of sports media
01:15 Jeff Legwold joins the show
03:00 Covering the Broncos beat & media pressure
05:00 “Better to be right than first” in modern media
06:10 Print vs broadcast — how journalism changed
08:40 Transition to TV & adapting as a reporter
10:30 Early career, Illinois & finding journalism
12:00 Work ethic, upbringing & life lessons
16:00 First jobs, rejection letters & persistence
20:00 Learning on the fly — covering unfamiliar sports
23:00 Early NFL coverage & Deion Sanders story
26:00 Titans/Oilers era & covering Peyton Manning
31:00 Covering multiple sports & hockey experiences
33:00 Relationships with players & journalistic integrity
37:00 Film study, reporting process & staying curious
38:30 Social media’s impact on media access
41:00 Sean Payton, media dynamics & modern NFL
43:00 Hall of Fame debate & coaching backlog
47:00 Broncos outlook & Jaylen Waddle impact
49:00 NFL playoffs, health & roster construction
50:15 Closing thoughts & outro
‘OTGS is sponsored in part RedBird Farms. Visit: redbirdfarms.com
00;00;02;18 - 00;00;18;22
Tom Green
Hi, there. Welcome to another edition of the other Tom green show. I certainly like to talk about sports, and I like to talk about media. I've been around both for a long time. It's interesting, though, to think of when I started how media really had different channels, different lanes.
00;00;18;22 - 00;00;50;28
Tom Green
And it was the big difference between broadcast media and print media, print media, of course, far more legacy it had been around forever. And those people, especially in the sports world who worked in print media, you know, had had great gravitas. They what they wrote, what you read was very important. Whereas the broadcasters were oftentimes taken a little more lightly seen as hair and makeup, whereas the ink stained wretches who wrote these things in the, in the tombs of stadiums and locker rooms, were really highly respected.
00;00;51;00 - 00;01;15;10
Tom Green
Well, naturally, we've seen over the 40 plus years that I've been working at it, those two have genuinely homogenized. Always think of Will McDonough, the great Boston Globe columnist, starting to do his work on NBC and bringing that gravitas from print to television. Well, now you see it almost all the time, whether it's Adam Schefter or Peter King or anybody who has been a great writer.
00;01;15;12 - 00;01;34;27
Tom Green
They then become a great broadcaster, or at least a source for viewers. And it's a it's more direct line for many of them to reach the public. So we're going to talk about that, and we're going to talk about the state of sports, the state of the Broncos with one of the guys who has been covering the Broncos longer than anyone, 23 years now, a good friend, Jeff Legg.
00;01;34;27 - 00;01;45;18
Tom Green
Walt from ESPN is our guest today.
00;01;45;21 - 00;01;56;01
Tom Green
So Jeff joins me now. You and I have, had the chance to do some work together, but not enough. I'd left sports right when you were coming into Denver. You came in in 0304.
00;01;56;01 - 00;02;05;20
Jeff Legwold
Was my first season here. To the Rocky Mountain News for the Rocky Mountain News. That was the only kind of job that would have pulled me out of Nashville at that time.
00;02;05;20 - 00;02;07;24
Tom Green
And you'd been in Nashville a little while at that point?
00;02;07;24 - 00;02;28;17
Jeff Legwold
Yeah. Ten years. I covered the Titans Oilers for ten years as the team made the move. The Rocky Mountain News. It's funny, you know, they didn't know it at the time, but it was one of the papers I had always looked at. It and thought, you know, they're pretty inventive and they, you know, they've got a way about how they present things.
00;02;28;17 - 00;02;38;18
Jeff Legwold
And I thought, yeah, that's a really cool. And out of nowhere they, they called I played it pretty cool on the interview, but there was no way I was saying no.
00;02;38;21 - 00;03;01;16
Tom Green
So I always think of that as the number one pressurized job in Colorado. Is the beat writer for the Denver Broncos. And when I go back to the 80s, I think of, you know, T.J. Simas and, Joe Sanchez and Steve Cork and the incredible tension between oftentimes players and writers, but also between writers and writers, you stepped into a pressurized situation.
00;03;01;16 - 00;03;03;07
Tom Green
It still was. It still is.
00;03;03;09 - 00;03;27;02
Jeff Legwold
You know, I think, if you're going to do this for a living, you know, create things people consume, you want to do things that folks are interested in, I guess. And I've always enjoyed, the NFL. This will be my 41st season covering the NFL in some fashion. I like the the once a week game.
00;03;27;09 - 00;03;54;13
Jeff Legwold
Yeah aspect of it. But you want to be where where people are interested. And I've been very fortunate I covered the Steelers. Yeah obviously the, covered the bills. The Oilers and the Titans and and now the Broncos and everywhere I've been, it hasn't been a place where you know, I know guys who've worked in Atlanta. You know in Jacksonville they cover seats in the stadium.
00;03;54;13 - 00;04;16;05
Jeff Legwold
Yeah. You know just if they're NFL markets and you're doing a great job and all those things. But it doesn't have the same grinding intensity. You know. And for me that's part of the the return on the investment you do in the job is there are so many people interested. And I want to get it right for them.
00;04;16;05 - 00;04;29;05
Jeff Legwold
I want to tell them why things are happening. And, you know, I like that part of it. And it would be hard for me to be a place where you were sort of trying to convince people, hey, you should take a look at this over here.
00;04;29;07 - 00;04;39;15
Tom Green
I've always, heard some of the beat writers that I got to know. You'd wake up and you'd fear the other guy's paper. You know, the first thing in the morning, you had to see that they didn't kill you on something.
00;04;39;16 - 00;04;42;17
Jeff Legwold
When the paper hit the the doorstep back in the day. Yeah.
00;04;42;19 - 00;04;57;09
Tom Green
It wasn't, you know, what was in your paper. So you were worried about their paper? That's by the boards now. But now it's. You have to sit and stare at your phone all the time and wait for something that you didn't know about or see coming or weren't ready to report to go boom.
00;04;57;09 - 00;05;02;21
Jeff Legwold
You hope that list is short by the end of the season that there weren't too many things that got everybody surprised.
00;05;02;21 - 00;05;13;02
Tom Green
But you're the guy who does in Denver. You're the bomb guy. You're you're more likely the one who's going to break the news about what the Broncos are into. You're tied in as tight as anyone.
00;05;13;03 - 00;05;20;25
Jeff Legwold
Or my organization is. Do I mean, now I work for a big I'm part of a, sort of a bigger team of people.
00;05;20;26 - 00;05;21;16
Tom Green
ESPN.
00;05;21;16 - 00;05;46;15
Jeff Legwold
Of ESPN breaking things. They don't much care whose name is on it. I mean, obviously Adam Schefter works for us, and that's, he has plenty of of news bombs that come his way. So. But I think I've, I guess I've always approached it better be right than first. Yeah. If you can be both. It's spectacular.
00;05;46;18 - 00;05;48;08
Tom Green
It's not that popular anymore though.
00;05;48;08 - 00;05;52;00
Jeff Legwold
Now it's, social media has changed the game a little bit.
00;05;52;01 - 00;05;54;05
Tom Green
The first. Don't worry about right. We'll get to right.
00;05;54;05 - 00;06;10;13
Jeff Legwold
We'll get to right. You'll say, you know, after further review or and checking out this and you can tweak it later. But no, I, I've always felt like being right was job one. And if you could do that as quickly as possible that was good to.
00;06;10;18 - 00;06;33;19
Tom Green
What about that transition I was talking about at the top of the show about how the writers, I think there used to be a genuine, I wouldn't say distaste a disregard for the TV guys, the the radio guys. Not as much, but but that there was a wall between writers and broadcast media that's come down. And I get the feeling a lot of it has to do with money just where the money is.
00;06;33;19 - 00;07;02;03
Jeff Legwold
Some of it back in the day was because, you know, TV folks did better than sports writers did back in the day. And, you know, probably still now, you know, the front line television jobs are still going to be better paying them than just a writer gig. But I think the delineation was even in schools, most universities made you pick back and then you couldn't major in both.
00;07;02;06 - 00;07;03;13
Tom Green
In broadcast and.
00;07;03;14 - 00;07;25;26
Jeff Legwold
Print. You couldn't do it. You and a lot of journalism schools now, they call them multimedia schools or communications. They lump everything together. It wasn't done that way before. And, you know, we were talking, I think, at the University of Illinois, I had to actually check a box on the print on the application for the journalism school.
00;07;25;26 - 00;07;45;24
Jeff Legwold
Which track are you getting into? So a lot of it was you had to make that choice before you had a choice of of jobs. I think the other part of it, too, is and especially in local television, you have to have your fingers in a lot of things. Yeah. Whereas a lot of times at a newspaper you were given one thing.
00;07;45;24 - 00;07;58;03
Jeff Legwold
This is your beat, this is what you cover. So I think some of that was, you know, some people were out here every day and you drop in when they're good or you drop. Yeah. There was some of that.
00;07;58;06 - 00;07;58;29
Tom Green
Provincial.
00;07;59;00 - 00;08;00;07
Jeff Legwold
Back in the day. Yeah.
00;08;00;07 - 00;08;05;21
Tom Green
But your TV work, you've been with channel four now almost the whole time you've been in town.
00;08;05;24 - 00;08;22;18
Jeff Legwold
Yeah. This was the first real. I had done some sporadic television before I got to Denver. But Denver was the first place where the people in charge at the Rocky Mountain News, I mean they had their own digital presence was just starting just.
00;08;22;18 - 00;08;23;03
Tom Green
Yeah, they were.
00;08;23;03 - 00;08;43;07
Jeff Legwold
Just starting and they had a studio when they built the new building, eventually there was an actual studio in there. So they were just starting that. And, and that was the first place that said, we need that diversification that's going to be part of your job, whether you like it or not.
00;08;43;07 - 00;09;07;04
Tom Green
Some sportswriters made the transition look seamless. Like, you know, it just I remember when Adam was working and he started to do some work over channel nine, and he, you know, he didn't mind being on TV. A lot of writers not comfortable, a lot of people in general, not comfortable in front of cameras and stuff. Your transition. Well, you always I mean, you're always confident because you always talk about things, you know, you know what you know, and you know what you don't know.
00;09;07;04 - 00;09;32;10
Jeff Legwold
No one's asking me about astrophysics or cold fusion. So I don't I don't look uncomfortable. But, I guess I've always figured there isn't much I can do about this. So, you know, just. Here it is. You know, apologies. I'm not taller, but, you know, I didn't get a choice. So, you know, I think some of it is just that I'm never really worried that I always just figured if I.
00;09;32;13 - 00;09;42;11
Jeff Legwold
If I just tell people to people straight, and I get it right as much as possible, then they'll put up with my messy hair. I guess that'll do it.
00;09;42;14 - 00;09;47;28
Tom Green
You talked about Illinois. I got some clips from, days when you were writing for the Daily Align. I can't.
00;09;47;28 - 00;09;48;20
Jeff Legwold
Believe these.
00;09;48;20 - 00;09;52;17
Tom Green
Exist. And somewhere this is from 85. So this is a near the end of your.
00;09;52;18 - 00;09;56;29
Jeff Legwold
Oh, this is when I'm a senior. I am so I know everything at this point.
00;09;56;29 - 00;10;11;29
Tom Green
Well, the last bit of this graph, it says here, I'm still wrestling with the fact that soon my living will consist of writing about the sports I have so many questions about. I will write about success and question failure, and someone hopefully will pay me to do it.
00;10;12;02 - 00;10;19;29
Jeff Legwold
Look at the hair. Yeah that's a, that's a like a $3. That's probably a barber school.
00;10;19;29 - 00;10;30;05
Tom Green
You know, reading through some of these, you remind me of myself in one way. And that I knew I wanted to be a sportscaster from kid.
00;10;30;08 - 00;10;30;25
Jeff Legwold
Did you?
00;10;30;25 - 00;10;38;16
Tom Green
Yeah. Yeah. And it looks like when I read some of your stuff from college, you. This is going to be your career, I know. Did you have a plan B?
00;10;38;19 - 00;10;59;07
Jeff Legwold
I did not I did not even have a plan A really that I, we didn't really have a high school paper really. And and that was in Elgin, Illinois. I went to high school. I, I grew up in parts of Chicago, right, South side, West side of Chicago proper. But we moved a lot by high school.
00;10;59;07 - 00;11;19;06
Jeff Legwold
I was out in the western suburbs of Chicago. And Elgin High School is where I went. And they they had a, sort of a school paper that came out once in a while, but I never wrote for it. I had not written a word for any type of publication by the time I went to college. So would.
00;11;19;06 - 00;11;22;03
Tom Green
You. Are you reading the paper? Were you loving the newspaper?
00;11;22;03 - 00;11;43;12
Jeff Legwold
I did every day back then, and the Daily News still existed in Chicago, so there were three papers. I delivered the Daily News for a while because they paid, I, I had to go to work early in our house because we needed help with some things. So I was working construction when I was 13, which isn't exactly legal, but but it paid.
00;11;43;15 - 00;12;04;21
Jeff Legwold
It was day labor, and they paid me every day in cash. So, so since I was 13, I had been working sort of lift heavy thing jobs and, but I had a, a teacher in high school. Tell me, I think you can write. I had no idea. And we just had an assignment and I did the assign.
00;12;04;21 - 00;12;06;12
Tom Green
You don't measure yourself against anyone.
00;12;06;12 - 00;12;33;27
Jeff Legwold
I didn't know any better. I just read a lot of the papers, and he said, I think you could write. I hope you give it a look in some fashion. When I got to the University of Illinois, I was going to have to put myself through school. So I had to get a job, and I knew when I got there I had to get a job, and someone on the dorm floor who actually ended up working at channel nine in Chicago forever said, you know, the the daily.
00;12;33;27 - 00;12;39;07
Jeff Legwold
And I know pays. So I went and got a job with the daily.
00;12;39;07 - 00;13;04;07
Tom Green
Allina so the way you just described growing up, you know, hardscrabble, however you want to describe it, but the no nonsense is, is a piece of the way you conduct your business now, both in doing interviews and, and in the way you write and the way you present yourself. Was that is that DNA, or is that because of the way you were raised that you learn point A to point B is a straight line?
00;13;04;07 - 00;13;28;20
Jeff Legwold
You know, I don't know, maybe both. I just I think, one time I was, my dad worked for the railroad for almost 40 years in a rail yard, which most people wouldn't last 40 minutes, on that job. But he worked at almost 40 years, and, we couldn't really afford daycare or anything. So I would go with him on the weekends when he had to work weekends.
00;13;28;22 - 00;13;50;11
Jeff Legwold
So I'd go with him to work and they'd have me sort mail and shovel gravel and just hanging out with him all day. The guys in the yard. And I was whining in the car one time about, we could do this again, do it. And he pulled over, actually pulled over in Chicago and pointed at all these people walking on the sidewalk.
00;13;50;13 - 00;14;03;16
Jeff Legwold
He said, listen, everybody out there has got something going on. You just got it. You just got to handle it. And then he drove, kept on going.
00;14;03;18 - 00;14;04;14
Tom Green
Yeah, you remember it.
00;14;04;14 - 00;14;12;02
Jeff Legwold
And I remembered that. Oh yeah. And I and when I interview people or I meet people, I try to remember everybody's got something going on.
00;14;12;02 - 00;14;12;13
Tom Green
Yeah.
00;14;12;15 - 00;14;42;28
Jeff Legwold
So, you know, you know, in my, in the business, you. Now I want to know, what do you got going on, you know, type of thing. But I always remembered that. And and, I don't know, I just, I think I think it's like any job, you know, I've had jobs where, you know, I worked on a garbage truck for a while, and, you know, people may not think that's a great job, but, again, my dad, I never saw my dad read a book, but I quote him all the time.
00;14;43;01 - 00;14;56;06
Jeff Legwold
He said to me one time, you said, you know, an awful lot of people need you to do a good job. You may not like that job and it may not be a great job, but he said, an awful lot of people need you to do a good job.
00;14;56;08 - 00;14;57;24
Tom Green
Where did he grow up?
00;14;57;27 - 00;15;08;19
Jeff Legwold
He was from a very small town in Minnesota. His graduating class had ten people in it, but he, he went to Normandy instead of college.
00;15;08;19 - 00;15;09;15
Tom Green
So did he.
00;15;09;15 - 00;15;11;17
Jeff Legwold
Really? Yeah. So that's like.
00;15;11;17 - 00;15;11;28
Tom Green
On.
00;15;12;01 - 00;15;16;20
Jeff Legwold
June. Yeah, he was he was, up the beach on D-Day. So.
00;15;16;22 - 00;15;18;11
Tom Green
Well, you know, you just.
00;15;18;14 - 00;15;19;19
Jeff Legwold
So that that's the.
00;15;19;21 - 00;15;21;00
Tom Green
Rest of your life, you know.
00;15;21;07 - 00;15;21;12
Jeff Legwold
Yeah.
00;15;21;13 - 00;15;23;01
Tom Green
Friday against that day, it.
00;15;23;01 - 00;15;32;22
Jeff Legwold
Was kind of gravy after that. You know, he's in the battle of the bulge. The last thing is, my God, the last thing his unit did in World War two was they liberated Buchenwald.
00;15;32;24 - 00;15;33;09
Tom Green
Oh my.
00;15;33;09 - 00;15;34;03
Jeff Legwold
God. So he,
00;15;34;06 - 00;15;35;03
Tom Green
Sites that they.
00;15;35;03 - 00;15;44;28
Jeff Legwold
Must have. Oh, he he didn't talk about it much. No, I you can see pictures he went to. He went to Europe with black hair and came back with white. Yeah. So whatever.
00;15;44;28 - 00;15;46;06
Tom Green
Happened? Unbelievable.
00;15;46;06 - 00;15;46;18
Jeff Legwold
Anyway.
00;15;46;18 - 00;15;54;21
Tom Green
But when you go to Champaign, you get into Illinois. I have one of your first, beets, I guess was the Illinois women's rugby.
00;15;54;21 - 00;15;55;26
Jeff Legwold
Women's rugby? Yeah.
00;15;55;26 - 00;15;56;27
Tom Green
The mother Rutgers.
00;15;56;27 - 00;16;07;19
Jeff Legwold
Nobody wanted that beat. But I took it. And I probably wrote some of the worst stories ever written about sports just because I didn't know what I was doing. But, were.
00;16;07;19 - 00;16;09;13
Tom Green
You getting input? Was.
00;16;09;16 - 00;16;32;23
Jeff Legwold
Yeah. There were other students that were editors. The the D-I was actually, they paid like you got paid to work there, which was rare at that time for college newspaper. And they had a non student, non university publisher. So there was an actual, you know, an adult in the building. So you were getting it was a good place.
00;16;32;23 - 00;16;39;05
Jeff Legwold
I mean a lot of people at that time had had a very good journalism school and a lot of people had gone through. I didn't know any of that.
00;16;39;09 - 00;16;43;23
Tom Green
But where do you end up out of out of college because you've decided you're going to be a writer?
00;16;43;28 - 00;17;09;24
Jeff Legwold
Yeah. I also probably set the record for failure, out of the gate. I, I've never heard a higher number from anyone I've ever asked, but I back when people wrote you letters, you had to write and you get letter heads. I actually got rejection letters from 366 daily newspapers in this country to say I could not work there.
00;17;09;27 - 00;17;11;02
Tom Green
Were there any yeses?
00;17;11;02 - 00;17;22;14
Jeff Legwold
No. Well, one finally. But it took a year and a half to. I'd been an exterminator. I worked in a garage as a mechanic, trying to make ends meet. Freelance.
00;17;22;14 - 00;17;22;29
Tom Green
Sound like.
00;17;22;29 - 00;17;30;23
Jeff Legwold
Fun? It wasn't awesome. Painted houses and worked at the paper at night through an agate. The the page?
00;17;30;24 - 00;17;31;21
Tom Green
Yeah.
00;17;31;23 - 00;17;51;20
Jeff Legwold
Cause I did all that stuff until, 367, finally said yes. And the Saratoga Springs, New York newspaper, which at the time was the smallest seven day a week newspaper in the country. So I started at the actual bottom.
00;17;51;23 - 00;17;53;13
Tom Green
Well, it's a beautiful place, though, so the.
00;17;53;13 - 00;17;54;14
Jeff Legwold
Least year it was not the.
00;17;54;15 - 00;17;54;26
Tom Green
Spring.
00;17;54;26 - 00;17;55;10
Jeff Legwold
Summer.
00;17;55;16 - 00;17;56;20
Tom Green
Beautiful summer's.
00;17;56;20 - 00;17;57;21
Jeff Legwold
Beautiful winter.
00;17;57;21 - 00;17;59;29
Tom Green
Is not hard to work.
00;18;00;04 - 00;18;01;26
Jeff Legwold
Yeah.
00;18;01;29 - 00;18;10;21
Tom Green
How do you how do you manage? Especially at, you know, in your early 20s, 366 rejection letters? I mean, that didn't beat you to a pulp.
00;18;10;26 - 00;18;12;24
Jeff Legwold
I guess I'm a little dense, and I.
00;18;12;26 - 00;18;13;16
Tom Green
I didn't get it.
00;18;13;16 - 00;18;33;16
Jeff Legwold
Yeah. You know, I, I had a moment a few times where you're just like, you know, but we I didn't think I'd get off my street when I was a kid. And, you know, I've traveled so much for this job. It still fascinates me even now, because I really didn't think getting off the street is going to be really hard.
00;18;33;18 - 00;18;54;18
Jeff Legwold
And but I just, I guess I felt like I'm just going to keep asking until someone says yes. And I, you know, there were times where you're like, this is stupid. I'm tired of get my teeth kicked in because some of the letters didn't say, gosh, we don't have room for you. Some of the letters said, you ain't it?
00;18;54;19 - 00;18;55;17
Tom Green
You're not. You're not any.
00;18;55;17 - 00;19;16;23
Jeff Legwold
Good. Get to work. Yeah, you know you're going to need help, etc. but, you know, my dad, again, my parents basically said, well, if we quit, then they're right. Yeah. These that's three. And I kept them in a box, I bet, for a while. And then when the Saratoga hired me, I torched them in the grill.
00;19;16;23 - 00;19;18;10
Tom Green
Got to be a big box, I'm afraid.
00;19;18;10 - 00;19;19;23
Jeff Legwold
Yeah, it was a big box.
00;19;19;23 - 00;19;23;22
Tom Green
I always felt getting the first job has always been the hardest. And in my line of.
00;19;23;22 - 00;19;25;08
Jeff Legwold
Work, I still tell people that.
00;19;25;08 - 00;19;44;07
Tom Green
Yeah. And then when I got my first job, I was in New Haven. I always say the best thing I ever got was the key to the back door, and that meant that I could go in when no one was there and work on it, try to learn the rest of the craft and stuff. What was your you're working at Saratoga Springs and.
00;19;44;09 - 00;20;08;25
Jeff Legwold
I just dove in. I covered things I knew nothing about. I just, I took my, When students ask me now, I always tell them, be curious. Yeah, don't ever lose it. Don't ever think you know, be curious. So I, I just took that I remember the best was I had the cover. I'd never seen lacrosse. We didn't have lacrosse.
00;20;08;25 - 00;20;17;14
Jeff Legwold
Sure. But they do now. Yeah, they do now in Illinois. But we when I grew up, that didn't even exist. I knew Jim Brown, who played lacrosse.
00;20;17;14 - 00;20;19;21
Tom Green
Right. It was all Maryland, Long Island. Yeah.
00;20;19;23 - 00;20;51;03
Jeff Legwold
Syracuse. Yeah. But I get to Saratoga and there's there's some Division three colleges and people playing lacrosse. So I get sent to a lacrosse game. I've never seen on a cross game. I haven't I haven't read about it. I know nothing, I'm. And there's no internet. Then I, you know, so I'm trying to find. Yeah, I'm at the library looking up lacrosse and I'm reading through stuff at the paper and I gotta do it an hour because I'm panicking because I got to go to this lacrosse game and I show up, and it's a really good team.
00;20;51;03 - 00;21;16;12
Jeff Legwold
And, and I tell the story a lot because I walked up to the coach and I didn't pretend I knew. I told him, I'm from the Saratoga, and, I have never seen a lacrosse game. He said, I'll tell you what, you stand next to me during the game. So this guy coached a game and then would, like, tell me, all right, now I'm subbing these guys in because, yeah, so I'm standing next to him.
00;21;16;12 - 00;21;18;20
Jeff Legwold
The whole game is great. Just taking notes.
00;21;18;24 - 00;21;20;03
Tom Green
It's like Sean Payton.
00;21;20;06 - 00;21;24;06
Jeff Legwold
Yeah he would, he would. He wants me to stand next to him during games.
00;21;24;11 - 00;21;28;12
Tom Green
So when you talk about writing about things, I got you here in Fort Myers.
00;21;28;14 - 00;21;29;24
Jeff Legwold
That's where I was painting houses.
00;21;29;26 - 00;21;31;05
Tom Green
This is 1988.
00;21;31;05 - 00;21;31;27
Jeff Legwold
Now. Yeah, I'm painting.
00;21;31;27 - 00;21;42;21
Tom Green
Houses and I'm reading your your fishing report. You talk to Walt Harvick of Tackle Haven. Yeah, yeah. And he's telling you that good bass up near Cape Coral and the shark fishing.
00;21;42;24 - 00;21;45;17
Jeff Legwold
I had to do that. I had to do the math. Outdoor report.
00;21;45;19 - 00;21;47;22
Tom Green
So you knew nothing about fishing.
00;21;47;27 - 00;21;57;03
Jeff Legwold
Or, you know, my cousin who lived there like to fish. So I would go with him sometimes. Yeah. I didn't know much about fishing until I hadn't been on the water till he took me on the water.
00;21;57;05 - 00;21;59;01
Tom Green
You missed the fishing. Beat it all day.
00;21;59;02 - 00;22;20;01
Jeff Legwold
No, it was it was easy. It was easy. You know, I tell us, I tell the story all the time just because Dave Fleming is one of the best writers I've ever met. He worked at Sports Illustrated forever, worked at ESPN The magazine. Now he writes books, right, you know, and and makes a great living writing books. But I always tell Dave I want to write like him when I grow up.
00;22;20;03 - 00;22;20;25
Jeff Legwold
But he.
00;22;21;00 - 00;22;21;07
Tom Green
Got me.
00;22;21;07 - 00;22;39;28
Jeff Legwold
He worked at the Cincinnati paper. And it's a lesson for us all, but and the editor came out one day and said, hey, some guy caught a record fish out at the dam. Anybody want to go? Right? And everyone refused to do the story. And Dave took the story and wrote maybe the greatest story about a fish ever written.
00;22;39;28 - 00;22;46;26
Jeff Legwold
Yeah. And Sports Illustrated called him, said, we saw your fish story. We want to we want you to come work here.
00;22;46;28 - 00;22;53;16
Tom Green
It's like what I wrote me in there. And she said, one of her key things is always say, yes, yeah, whatever the whatever they ask you to do.
00;22;53;18 - 00;22;55;17
Jeff Legwold
Be the solution. Yeah, that's the problem.
00;22;55;17 - 00;23;14;08
Tom Green
Say yes. All right. Deon Sanders from upstate New York here. This is, 1989. No, he is, kind of between football and baseball. And he refers to Albany as the coldest place I've ever played in and the coldest place I ever hope to, Jeff Legg, well done. On the date line there from up in Albany.
00;23;14;15 - 00;23;16;19
Tom Green
So you you got to Deion as a young man.
00;23;16;22 - 00;23;19;25
Jeff Legwold
He was still in college. Yeah he was the draft was coming.
00;23;19;27 - 00;23;21;14
Tom Green
But he was already in the Yankees.
00;23;21;14 - 00;23;25;19
Jeff Legwold
He was already playing the leverage card in case somebody drafted him.
00;23;25;19 - 00;23;26;13
Tom Green
He no way.
00;23;26;20 - 00;23;38;20
Jeff Legwold
He didn't want to go to. Yeah. And, I just I had been on my that's 89. So I'd been to two combine. That's my second third combine that year.
00;23;38;20 - 00;23;40;21
Tom Green
Now where were you working then. You work in upstate.
00;23;40;21 - 00;24;02;17
Jeff Legwold
That was, 89. I'm at the Saratoga game, but I, I went to the combine in 87 the first time. The very first NFL combine in Indy Indianapolis was 1987, and I've been to all of them. But I went there. I was a cops reporter in Chicago, but I went to the combine to try and meet.
00;24;02;20 - 00;24;05;14
Tom Green
A Cops reporter. You're doing the crime beat? Yeah, in Chicago for.
00;24;05;14 - 00;24;06;17
Jeff Legwold
The city news bureau.
00;24;06;17 - 00;24;07;01
Tom Green
Okay.
00;24;07;01 - 00;24;11;16
Jeff Legwold
Old school. Why are local? Basically the pool report.
00;24;11;16 - 00;24;15;04
Tom Green
Did you have to go to murder scenes and.
00;24;15;04 - 00;24;25;27
Jeff Legwold
Yeah, we that's why city news existed. Because the Chicago Police Department didn't want every paper sending a police report to to every scene all night.
00;24;26;01 - 00;24;31;02
Tom Green
Did that enhance your desire to become a sportswriter, going to fires and murders and.
00;24;31;07 - 00;24;36;22
Jeff Legwold
Well, you didn't get to write at the City news bureau. You only dictated. Yeah, you didn't not get to type a single word.
00;24;36;25 - 00;24;39;06
Tom Green
You you just dictate. You were facts.
00;24;39;06 - 00;24;42;19
Jeff Legwold
You were boots on the ground, as they say.
00;24;42;22 - 00;24;49;28
Tom Green
What do you think of Dion then? You know, obviously he did he run off. Did everyone do everything at the combine because he would have been a combined killer.
00;24;50;00 - 00;24;59;26
Jeff Legwold
Yeah. No he they he wasn't going to run. And guys back then often chose not to because they didn't like the turf. Yeah. In the old Hoosier Dome.
00;24;59;26 - 00;25;00;22
Tom Green
Yeah. The RCA.
00;25;00;29 - 00;25;05;03
Jeff Legwold
It was the RCA dome after the it was originally built as the Hoosier Dome.
00;25;05;03 - 00;25;06;08
Tom Green
Yeah.
00;25;06;10 - 00;25;21;24
Jeff Legwold
But people didn't like the turf. They thought it was slow, so. But he ended up just getting out of his sweatpants and running like one of the best forty's ever. They talked to him. They sort of talked him into it, but he didn't, like, warm up or anything.
00;25;21;24 - 00;25;43;17
Tom Green
He just same as the legend I always heard was I had friends of mine who were Kansas Jayhawks, and they would always talk about John Riggins running track, and they'd say, Riggins would show up, hung over, and he'd be like in sneakers instead of cleats, and he'd, you'll go win the big eight or big seven, whatever it was at the time, you know, win 100, you know, and he's built differently than all the other guys.
00;25;43;17 - 00;25;45;18
Tom Green
And he was different.
00;25;45;21 - 00;25;51;06
Jeff Legwold
Yeah. He wasn't. If you're fast, you're fast. It doesn't much matter what shoes your wear.
00;25;51;08 - 00;26;01;21
Tom Green
All right. So I get you here. Right in in Tennessee, the dateline. And this one is Cincinnati. But I just love the lead on this one. This is 1996. It says.
00;26;01;24 - 00;26;04;04
Jeff Legwold
These all exist somewhere. I don't even know.
00;26;04;07 - 00;26;15;18
Tom Green
Kidding me. You're all there. But the lead is. If angst were a football fan, it would certainly have Bengals season tickets. There you go. Well, that's changed now. I guess it hasn't. I guess it had.
00;26;15;19 - 00;26;16;23
Jeff Legwold
Briefly it changed.
00;26;16;25 - 00;26;24;09
Tom Green
So now you, in Nashville are writing a new are on an NFL beat because the team has moved already.
00;26;24;09 - 00;26;53;10
Jeff Legwold
That's why you I did I covered for the Tennessean. I covered two of the people forget now but the Oilers announced they were moving in 1995. They announced in Houston, we are moving the franchise. They couldn't get out of the lease of the Astrodome. Right. And the people, the governmental bodies in Houston, we're going to make it as painful as possible for them because they were mad.
00;26;53;12 - 00;26;59;20
Jeff Legwold
So they held them to the lease. They played two seasons in Houston after they announced.
00;26;59;20 - 00;27;01;02
Tom Green
The foot out the door.
00;27;01;04 - 00;27;07;23
Jeff Legwold
And I covered both of those seasons. I would go to Houston four days a week from Nashville.
00;27;07;26 - 00;27;09;03
Tom Green
And cover them as the home.
00;27;09;03 - 00;27;15;23
Jeff Legwold
Team and cover them as the team, and then I would go to the games then, so I would often be home on Tuesdays to do laundry.
00;27;15;26 - 00;27;17;05
Tom Green
And you like Nashville?
00;27;17;07 - 00;27;45;28
Jeff Legwold
I it was it was a great place to live. And the paper was good for me because I had a wide swath. I got to do a lot of things and, and shape how I wanted to cover teams. Yeah, do this job. They gave me a lot of freedom. And for a guy who, you know, I was one of the first newspaper guys to invest as much time in the draft as I do.
00;27;46;04 - 00;28;09;03
Jeff Legwold
Yeah. Back then, nobody did. Everybody. It was not the industry it is now, but, probably me, Rick Gosselin and Dallas. Bob McGinn and Milwaukee were the early newspaper guys on the draft. And The Tennessean. Part of my job at The Tennessean was I had to do an SEC game every Saturday.
00;28;09;04 - 00;28;09;25
Tom Green
Okay.
00;28;09;27 - 00;28;12;13
Jeff Legwold
Because the SEC was over there.
00;28;12;13 - 00;28;13;01
Tom Green
And yeah.
00;28;13;01 - 00;28;37;01
Jeff Legwold
And Tennessee is like a religion. Yeah. Tennessee football. But so I and I the edict was you have to get from whatever SEC game you're at Saturday to the Titans on Sunday no matter where they are. So if that meant driving six hours to the closest airport from Auburn so I could get to play. Yeah, I had to do it.
00;28;37;03 - 00;28;41;25
Jeff Legwold
But I got to see the best college players every Saturday.
00;28;41;25 - 00;28;42;26
Tom Green
Was Peyton still there?
00;28;42;26 - 00;28;43;24
Jeff Legwold
Yeah, I, I.
00;28;43;24 - 00;28;44;08
Tom Green
You covered.
00;28;44;08 - 00;28;48;21
Jeff Legwold
Covered probably 26 of Peyton's college games.
00;28;48;23 - 00;28;50;11
Tom Green
And was Todd Helton still.
00;28;50;13 - 00;28;51;29
Jeff Legwold
He was kicking around but.
00;28;52;01 - 00;28;55;07
Tom Green
I know he's played baseball all the way through. But he was done with.
00;28;55;07 - 00;29;00;27
Jeff Legwold
Football after after it. The number two quarterback at that time Peyton Manning was.
00;29;00;27 - 00;29;03;01
Tom Green
Handed the yeah that's that.
00;29;03;05 - 00;29;24;17
Jeff Legwold
I have a great Peyton story. If you're if you yeah I'd love it. But yeah. When he got here, you know I, I covered him all those games at Tennessee. And then when the Titans had a bye week, he was such a huge figure in the whole state. It's the Titans had a bye week. I would often go to the Colts right that week and do a Peyton story.
00;29;24;20 - 00;29;48;25
Jeff Legwold
However, his season was going at the time, so I had a lot of interactions with him before he got to the Broncos. So he gets to know the Broncos and we're after practice one day. And you know he's giving me the business. I'm giving him the business. And then I tease him for throwing a ball against Florida where the receiver Joey Kent just got crushed on the sideline.
00;29;48;25 - 00;30;09;10
Jeff Legwold
Just he had to reach up for a ball. I say you got you almost got poor Joey can't kill. And he proceeded to say something about what kind of route it was and everything. And I was like, you don't remember that? Because it was like, this is like 2012. That game would have been in 1997.
00;30;09;10 - 00;30;09;28
Tom Green
Yeah.
00;30;10;01 - 00;30;34;08
Jeff Legwold
So I was like, you don't remember that? I said, you tell everybody, you remember everything, and I'm just talking the talk. And he proceeded to do and I'm taping it because we were doing an interview. Right. He proceeds to do the whole drive. And I said, there's no way that's true. And I went back to the media room with the Broncos, and I called up the play by play from the game.
00;30;34;10 - 00;30;43;26
Jeff Legwold
I'll be he got every single play right in 2012, from a game in 1996 or 1997.
00;30;43;29 - 00;30;44;18
Tom Green
Different guy.
00;30;44;19 - 00;30;45;09
Jeff Legwold
Unbelievable.
00;30;45;09 - 00;31;04;23
Tom Green
Different guy. One of the things you did there, and I've had a chance to talk with you about hockey a little bit. You because you, you covered some hockey along the way. And I loved your hockey stories. But when you were in Nashville, the predators were coming to that. So yes, you were doing some of that. And I saw you covered some of the Stanley Cup Finals.
00;31;04;23 - 00;31;07;04
Tom Green
I don't know if you got to the Avs Panthers of 90.
00;31;07;05 - 00;31;08;07
Jeff Legwold
I did not that year.
00;31;08;07 - 00;31;09;07
Tom Green
But I think the next year.
00;31;09;08 - 00;31;34;28
Jeff Legwold
The next year I went and, they didn't have anybody on staff that had covered much hockey. So when it's announced that they're getting an expansion team, yeah. They really until they hired more people, they were like, yeah, because there was going to be a wind up. They had to build the arena. The team had to there was going to be a couple years between the announcement and actual hockey game.
00;31;35;01 - 00;31;59;19
Jeff Legwold
So they needed somebody to. So I would do the Titans as my job. And then I would check in on the predators and you know, so they sent me to the draft, the NHL draft, the expansion draft. I went to the cup finals a few times, but I had done minor league hockey. And right when I covered the bills, I did minor league hockey in the off season.
00;31;59;24 - 00;32;03;07
Tom Green
Minor league hockey when it was slapshot. Yeah, I mean, it was.
00;32;03;08 - 00;32;03;26
Jeff Legwold
The way.
00;32;03;27 - 00;32;04;27
Tom Green
It was.
00;32;04;29 - 00;32;28;26
Jeff Legwold
That the some of the characters and people you met along the way were amazing. But that was my off season. You know, when I covered the Steelers. Yeah, I covered some of the, Penguins. The, the, the Penguins teams that won back to back Cup. Lemieux I covered the them in the playoffs a bunch. So when I covered the bills I did minor league hockey.
00;32;29;03 - 00;32;33;16
Jeff Legwold
The Rochester hammocks. Yeah. American Hockey League.
00;32;33;19 - 00;32;34;06
Tom Green
Well.
00;32;34;08 - 00;32;35;18
Jeff Legwold
Anyway, but you.
00;32;35;18 - 00;32;46;09
Tom Green
Know this because you've done it. But I think to a person, anyone who covers all the sports as the hockey guys are the best and that's that. It's like they can't even discuss it.
00;32;46;11 - 00;32;59;06
Jeff Legwold
That's why it was always funny to me when when high school kids were going to go to the NBA and there was all this angst about, oh, they care what I was like. Well, baseball and hockey guys have been doing it for, yeah, 30 years. Where were you then?
00;32;59;06 - 00;33;00;19
Tom Green
Yeah. Nobody cared. Where were you.
00;33;00;19 - 00;33;18;01
Jeff Legwold
When and then when, you know, when they were signing 16 year olds, you know, in the major leagues, but, so, yeah, I think they're pros, you know, they go away to play junior hockey, they move away. They live with a a billet family and.
00;33;18;01 - 00;33;24;18
Tom Green
Right. But it used to be hockey players. In baseball, players were all between 510 and 6 one and 170 and 100.
00;33;24;18 - 00;33;25;14
Jeff Legwold
You look at me 5.
00;33;25;14 - 00;33;29;05
Tom Green
Pounds and now they're all six foot four, 215.
00;33;29;05 - 00;33;30;07
Jeff Legwold
Oh, guys. All sports.
00;33;30;07 - 00;33;54;24
Tom Green
It's just unbelievable. The line between friendship and relationship with athletes and with coaches when I was young, especially in my late 20s and stuff, you're the same age as the players, and you're bound to become friends with some of them. And I always thought that was a very tricky line to walk as far as the work we do.
00;33;54;26 - 00;34;04;22
Tom Green
Did you ever find that difficult again? I see you as a no nonsense guy who sees things generally in black and white. Did you ever find that to be a problem because you need the relationships?
00;34;04;22 - 00;34;31;17
Jeff Legwold
No, I if you're honest, it's not a problem. I guess that's like when I'm doing a story I look a player or coach in the eye and I say I'm doing a story. Hey I have to ask you about the DWI, right. Hey, I have to ask you about the interceptions. Right. I'm right up front. I don't, I don't do the, the smiling walk around.
00;34;31;19 - 00;34;43;06
Jeff Legwold
Hey, how's it going? Hey, how about that fumble? No, I, I tell them right away what? I'm. What I'm up to. They've always told me they appreciate that. I just think it's respectful.
00;34;43;12 - 00;34;49;26
Tom Green
Yeah. I don't know if it's right or wrong, but it's definitely. I would expect that to be the way you would work it. I think they they know what's coming.
00;34;49;26 - 00;35;04;06
Jeff Legwold
I think it's the most respectful way to do it, person to person. And if I'm talking to them about personal things, I, I don't have my notebook out. I don't have my recorder out. I, I always make my recorder visible.
00;35;04;10 - 00;35;04;22
Tom Green
Right.
00;35;04;22 - 00;35;07;13
Jeff Legwold
You see, so they can tell I'm taping right.
00;35;07;13 - 00;35;08;16
Tom Green
Now or on the record.
00;35;08;20 - 00;35;32;23
Jeff Legwold
Yeah. I, I'm, I'm very clear upfront. And if it's off the record, I never use it. I don't care how good it is. I don't care how much it would help me in my career. I will not cross that line. I never have, and I just won't do it. And, I think too many people get, start making exceptions and then it gets easier to make exceptions.
00;35;32;23 - 00;35;53;20
Jeff Legwold
Yeah, but one of the things I'm most proud people have often been angry at me for what I've written. They don't like the tone or the fact or the numbers or what I've used. They've yelled at me, they've screamed at me. But I've never had a single person in my career say they're never talking to me again.
00;35;53;23 - 00;36;14;11
Jeff Legwold
And I've always taken that as, a good thing. And just the number of times I've called former players Broncos, Titans, coaches and they pick up, yeah, I, you know, like I, you know, I talked to a kid to leave not too long ago. It's one of my favorite people to talk to you.
00;36;14;11 - 00;36;15;23
Tom Green
Never we wondering what he's thinking.
00;36;15;24 - 00;36;47;10
Jeff Legwold
No. And I, I always tell people, Peyton Manning's probably the most prepared football savant smart I've ever been around. The key to leave is, is in that tier of football intelligence, knowing the game and understand. So when I had questions about, you know, that's the other thing I always would tell young reporters is be inquisitive. Don't assume you're right just because you watch the game film.
00;36;47;10 - 00;37;07;01
Jeff Legwold
Yeah. You know, a lot of people now are like, oh, I watched the film. What people got to show you how to do that. Yeah. And I take it to players and I say, am I right on this? I don't get to coaches. Am I right on this? And they'll say, no, you're wrong. But they appreciate you coming that.
00;37;07;02 - 00;37;08;18
Tom Green
Yeah. Instead of just saying.
00;37;08;18 - 00;37;10;15
Jeff Legwold
Sort of just said I watched it and I.
00;37;10;15 - 00;37;11;13
Tom Green
Know what's going on.
00;37;11;13 - 00;37;23;11
Jeff Legwold
I've been watching game film since I was 17. I don't assume I know every assignment of everyone in the in the picture. So I, I still go to people.
00;37;23;11 - 00;37;29;07
Tom Green
Yeah, that's the thing. Sometimes you see a guy get beat and you look at it and you go, you just get beat and you go, well, his job, he.
00;37;29;07 - 00;37;34;27
Jeff Legwold
Was cleaning up the mess. Why? Yeah. Yeah, it's a lot of guys are cleaning up the mess and they get blamed for the mess.
00;37;34;29 - 00;37;56;12
Tom Green
80s and 90s, PR departments were asking you to come cover the team players. The players would want to have some coverage. And now it's such a defense oriented a management of the media and it's it's it's not well, it's not as good in my mind, but it's just it's a completely different environment than it was 20 years ago.
00;37;56;14 - 00;38;27;09
Jeff Legwold
You you've got to I think you can still do the job with the same principles and you'll do better if you do. But social media, the speed at which the information gets out has changed everything. And the fact that the, the, the players can have their own platforms now. Right. So you're, you're dealing with a different level of, you know, if I'm talking to Bo Nix, Bo Nix has plenty of platforms where he can get out.
00;38;27;11 - 00;38;28;14
Tom Green
If he have something to say, hey.
00;38;28;14 - 00;39;01;12
Jeff Legwold
I'm doing this charity work or I'm doing it. He has plenty of platform you can post a photo on on Instagram where, you know, 30 years ago players didn't have that forum. Really? Yeah. But it doesn't change the fact that, you as a, you know, a journalist or a sportswriter or a content creator, you're still creating something and you're going to ask questions, but you have a platform and a player has a platform.
00;39;01;16 - 00;39;07;22
Jeff Legwold
And, you know, I think it's there's room in the pool for everybody, but it does change.
00;39;07;24 - 00;39;28;25
Tom Green
But I remember in the old days, again, going back that if, if need be, you could, you know, be invited up to Dan Reeve's office up on the second floor at 58th and Logan. Or you could, you know, just grab a player here and there or something like that. And, you know, Dan Reeves was not a media friendly.
00;39;28;25 - 00;39;58;19
Tom Green
No, but he was available. He was accountable. And he was always there and all that. And now, it seems like there is, much more distance. Some of that's personality. I mean, Sean Payton obviously is prickly with most media. You as the senior source of Broncos news here. It's it's almost as though nobody locally has really been able to establish some sort of relationship with him where he's comfortable with with the local media.
00;39;58;21 - 00;40;19;10
Jeff Legwold
I think he has a, a relationship. I think he would say he has a relationship with, with several people. I think he would say that I don't want to put words in his mouth, but, and I've, you know, had occasion to talk to him informally and, and off to the side or whatever, you know, those things are.
00;40;19;12 - 00;40;46;29
Jeff Legwold
But I think he, like most coaches now, are more guarded overall, because of social media, because of if you say one thing, you know, before there's no internet. So if you did an interview and somebody, suddenly got back to their office. And so I can't believe I said that, you know, they would call and try and talk you out of it.
00;40;46;29 - 00;40;50;21
Jeff Legwold
No, I didn't I didn't budge on that. No. Almost never.
00;40;50;21 - 00;40;53;02
Tom Green
But sometimes they could maybe explain.
00;40;53;02 - 00;41;16;22
Jeff Legwold
Explain it or whatever. But now it's it's out. Yeah. It's it's out the door and I think some of it here still is. And again, I'm not speaking for Sean. This is just my own. Sure. Theory is, his his first season here. He did an interview with Jarrett Bell view, say, today.
00;41;16;24 - 00;41;18;15
Tom Green
And that was the latest.
00;41;18;17 - 00;41;39;28
Jeff Legwold
I think that was the introduction. Yeah. For a lot of folks locally, you know, that's his first training camp. He had been here through the offseason and everything, but publicly that sort of took off. He was very critical of how the team had handled Russell Wilson the year before. And and the, you know, what the coaching staff had done.
00;41;39;28 - 00;41;49;06
Jeff Legwold
And it really kind of, took on a life of its own. And, you know, Jarrett's been covering the league as, as long as I have.
00;41;49;08 - 00;41;52;04
Tom Green
And transmit a head coach role on. And he, he's done media.
00;41;52;04 - 00;42;15;00
Jeff Legwold
He had to. No, but he has people he he know he he's still got close relationships with a lot of media. So I don't think people I don't think he's different than other people. It's publicly, whereas a lot of coaches, you know, sort of keep the smile on while the cameras are on, John is probably a little more honest about it.
00;42;15;01 - 00;42;18;18
Jeff Legwold
And then if the question bugs him, he's going to tell you it bugs him.
00;42;18;18 - 00;42;20;04
Tom Green
They all seem to bug him a little bit.
00;42;20;06 - 00;42;31;08
Jeff Legwold
Well, you know, I think some of it is if you it's like any proficiency, like if the plumber, like a master plumber, comes to your house and you're going to tell them what you did.
00;42;31;08 - 00;42;31;27
Tom Green
Yeah.
00;42;31;29 - 00;42;43;07
Jeff Legwold
You know, when I was looking at the, you know, they're not going to be very patient with you, the master plumber is going to look at you like, dude, you know, let me handle this. You go, yeah, you know, fix your pantry.
00;42;43;07 - 00;42;43;16
Tom Green
Or thing.
00;42;43;18 - 00;42;45;00
Jeff Legwold
Or something.
00;42;45;02 - 00;43;04;06
Tom Green
One story this winter, near and dear to your heart. You've been a big part of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. And and this past winter, was most notable not for who went in, but who didn't. It was about Bill Belichick. It was about Robert Kraft. And it's about the vote and the way the vote is done and the transparency.
00;43;04;06 - 00;43;17;25
Tom Green
And I just want to get your thoughts on it, because you've been in that room and you've seen the system change. You've seen the voters change. You've seen a lot of things come and go. Was it a bad year for the Hall of Fame?
00;43;17;27 - 00;43;46;13
Jeff Legwold
I think it's tough to, you know, that's a tough one to explain to the public. Yeah. Guy won more super Bowls in the Super Bowl era. You know, than anyone. You know I think more championships than other than Paul Brown. Along the way. So, and, you know, I think publicly, I think that's the first time the, the, the most glaring where people were like, okay, how's this if he didn't get picked, what?
00;43;46;20 - 00;44;10;13
Jeff Legwold
How is this getting done here? What are you doing? Yeah. So I, I but I think, you know, me personally, I the minute they changed the voting procedures, this was going to happen. I didn't know if it would happen. Was such a notable finalist. But it was going to happen. It had already happened to Mike Holmgren and Mike Shanahan.
00;44;10;15 - 00;44;11;13
Jeff Legwold
We just didn't.
00;44;11;18 - 00;44;14;08
Tom Green
Know. Created this choke point for coaches where.
00;44;14;08 - 00;44;38;14
Jeff Legwold
Lump this lump and you know you don't want to get too deep in the weeds. But basically before if a senior candidate or a coaching candidate or contributor candidate made it all the way to the end, you simply voted yes or no. Yeah. On that particular candidate, each one, they were not up against the modern era people. They were not up against each other.
00;44;38;17 - 00;45;10;25
Jeff Legwold
Now all those candidates are against each other in the final step, a choke point. So you're choosing the seniors or the coach or the contributor. And you know, I don't know what's on the mind of all the voters, but I know plenty of people who've been in that room over my 30 some years doing it that when push comes to shove, they're going to pick the players over the the all coaches and the contributors always.
00;45;11;01 - 00;45;18;08
Jeff Legwold
That's why the coach category and the contributor category were were created. Right. Originally.
00;45;18;09 - 00;45;20;08
Tom Green
Well, Mike Shanahan belongs in the Hall of Fame.
00;45;20;08 - 00;45;23;14
Jeff Legwold
He should have been in two. But now we got three coaches.
00;45;23;14 - 00;45;26;11
Tom Green
It's going to take forever. And to get these guys in for.
00;45;26;16 - 00;45;42;28
Jeff Legwold
If you count Tom Coughlin you've got the winningest Super Bowl ERA. Coach Mike's one two and half. The league is run. And Mike's offense. Yeah. So his impact on the game is unquestioned. Holmgren was a finalist.
00;45;43;01 - 00;45;46;29
Tom Green
Can they fix it or is it or is it just going to evolve along like this?
00;45;46;29 - 00;46;03;04
Jeff Legwold
I'm not sure. You know what they'll do. I, you know, I if they ask me my opinion, I will say go back to the other way. Yeah. And some coaches will get in. I think it's going to be really hard for all of those categories to have their.
00;46;03;06 - 00;46;15;28
Tom Green
Well, with coaches and contributors especially, it's different because you do get into age, you know, and I like I always tell people to read Miller waiting and waiting and waiting to go in the Ring of Fame until after he had passed away was was a terrible.
00;46;15;29 - 00;46;17;24
Jeff Legwold
Yeah. You want him to see carriage?
00;46;17;24 - 00;46;18;17
Tom Green
Yeah. Yeah.
00;46;18;23 - 00;46;43;08
Jeff Legwold
And Mike deserves it. No, no, it's Mike cover. I covered Mike every day. You know, I've had my scraps with them. We go have coffee now. He's. He's one of the smartest football people I'll ever meet. I learn more from him in one film session than, you know, I could learn on my own. And years, but, you know, it's it's just going to be harder.
00;46;43;08 - 00;46;44;24
Jeff Legwold
He's going to have to wait longer now.
00;46;44;25 - 00;46;46;11
Tom Green
Because for no.
00;46;46;14 - 00;47;03;09
Jeff Legwold
Reason. Just because system is. And I'm not sure, you know, again, that the Hall of Fame doesn't, isn't going to ask me, but I'm just, you know, there was really no reason to make the change other than, you know, if you thought too many of these people were getting in. I think we've already seen the proof. We don't we don't have too many.
00;47;03;12 - 00;47;27;01
Tom Green
I got one Bronco question for you about right now, because this is the week of the Jaylen Waddle deal. Obviously it's a big piece. And it seems like in hindsight, when everyone was clamoring for some money to be spent in outside free agency, which they never did, this was probably their part of their plan was to leave money on the table, leave room to bring in a Jaylen Waddle.
00;47;27;03 - 00;47;33;17
Tom Green
Obviously, it's going to impact a lot of people on the offense, but in general, it makes their offense better, doesn't it?
00;47;33;19 - 00;48;02;04
Jeff Legwold
It does just because of the type of player he is. He's he's a very, very refined route runner who also happens to be, one of the better yards after the catch, guys, it's when you're evaluating players coming into the league, like in the draft or even as free agents. To find the combinations of things can be harder sometimes.
00;48;02;04 - 00;48;23;10
Jeff Legwold
The guy is an elite route runner, but he doesn't have the elite athleticism. Sometimes you have an elite athleticism, but he's not an elite route runner or his hands are spotty. Jaylen Waddle is is a top tier at all of those things. And when he when he was at Alabama, I thought he was the best returner on the board.
00;48;23;13 - 00;48;28;09
Jeff Legwold
But no one was going to let him return much. And in the pros, he's such a valuable player.
00;48;28;12 - 00;48;32;19
Tom Green
But he likes the middle of the field too. He does create a bit of a different no.
00;48;32;22 - 00;48;47;25
Jeff Legwold
He he can turn the like right now. They've had a lot of eight yard plays. Go for 12 eight yard passes. Go for 12. Yeah. He takes eight yard passes and turns them into 30. Yeah 3840 I mean that's that's.
00;48;47;29 - 00;48;48;26
Tom Green
Play calling fun.
00;48;48;29 - 00;49;11;24
Jeff Legwold
Yeah. And if you look at that you know they have all the with so many more metrics now than we used to. You can like break down routes. You know I used to have to do it by hand. Yeah. And go through play by play chart. And I still do unfortunately. But now you can, if you have the right tools, you can chart route specific routes.
00;49;11;24 - 00;49;32;23
Jeff Legwold
And his three best routes are also the three routes. Bo Nix throws the best. So it really is a merging of of skills. And you know in the NFL I try to tell people all the time it's not the two best teams in the Super Bowl. It's the two best healthy teams in the Super Bowl.
00;49;32;27 - 00;49;34;10
Tom Green
Yeah, because this year I.
00;49;34;10 - 00;49;39;13
Jeff Legwold
Got to keep everybody on the field. And if they do then yeah, they're they're back in the mix.
00;49;39;13 - 00;49;48;22
Tom Green
But weather notwithstanding, the AFC Championship game is one of the most poorly quarterbacked games I'd seen at that level. You know for an AFC Championship game.
00;49;48;25 - 00;49;57;29
Jeff Legwold
Well it's a tough spot because things as you know in the playoffs I don't care what sport we're talking about. The playoffs never look like the regular season.
00;49;57;29 - 00;49;58;14
Tom Green
Field gets.
00;49;58;14 - 00;50;07;19
Jeff Legwold
Small and the high flying stuff and it all goes away. It just becomes a it becomes a slugfest all the time.
00;50;07;26 - 00;50;15;04
Tom Green
Well, I could ask you a million about the Broncos, but I just want to stay focused on the Illinois Women's Rugby Club state.
00;50;15;11 - 00;50;16;14
Jeff Legwold
They were great to me, the.
00;50;16;15 - 00;50;16;24
Tom Green
Mother.
00;50;16;24 - 00;50;22;27
Jeff Legwold
Rugby. I didn't know what I was doing and they were they were spectacular. And it was it was it was fun.
00;50;23;04 - 00;50;43;00
Tom Green
Love your work. I appreciate you taking the time to sit down with me and, and, share some of your story, because that's that's the part I didn't know. You know, I know a lot about, you know, the way you write and the way you work, but the way you came to Colorado really does interest me. And I think it explains a lot as far as how you became as good as what you do.
00;50;43;03 - 00;50;43;27
Tom Green
It's terrific.
00;50;44;04 - 00;50;47;07
Jeff Legwold
I just thought maybe 4 or 5 people said they couldn't make it today, but,
00;50;47;10 - 00;50;47;21
Tom Green
The depth.
00;50;47;21 - 00;50;50;16
Jeff Legwold
Chart, I'll always come. I'll always arrive.
00;50;50;18 - 00;50;55;10
Tom Green
It's good to see you, Jeff. Thank you very much. You.
00;50;55;13 - 00;51;13;24
Tom Green
Thanks again to Jeff Legwand from ESPN joining us. Of course, you know, hopefully Jeff is kinder to ESPN than he was to his former employers. I mean, he he made the Rocky Mountain News what it is today. He he left the Denver Post and now the Denver Post. Flags along. So ESPN good luck. Good luck trying to survive.
00;51;13;24 - 00;51;21;03
Tom Green
Jeff Legwand. That's going to do it for this edition of The Other Tom Green Show. Thanks for joining us. We hope to see you back here again next week.