Crime in Sports - #339 - You Take The Whole Bottle - Golden Richards

Episode Date: January 24, 2023

This week, we look at a man who played for the Dallas Cowboys, with his golden hair, matching his name, and flowing from the back of his 1970s helmet. But there was definitely more going on than most knew. He was using pain pills to an absolutely insane level. He got so bad that his morning ritual will make you want to gag. This obviously ends up with legal problems, and an exorbitant amount of health issues!! A simply crazy story of the downfall of a "Golden Boy"!Be the perfect Mormon boy, until you get to Dallas, tell everyone that your teeth hurt, and rummage through a college student's medicine cabinet for pills with Golden Richards!!Check us out, every Tuesday! We will continue to bring you the biggest idiots in sports history!!  Hosted by James Pietragallo & Jimmie Whisman  Donate at... patreon.com/crimeinsports or with paypal.com using our email: [e-mail]  Get all the CIS & STM merch at crimeinsports.threadless.com  Go to shutupandgivememurder.com for all things CIS & STM!!  Contact us on... twitter.com/crimeinsports [e-mail] facebook.com/Crimeinsports instagram.com/smalltownmurderSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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A first listen is waiting for you when you start your free trial at audible.ca. Each week on the Mr. Ballin Podcast, now available wherever you get your podcasts, you'll hear strange, dark, and mysterious stories about inexplicable encounters, shocking disappearances, true crime cases, and everything in between. So go listen to Mr. Ballin Podcast, strange, dark, and mysterious stories on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Crime and Sports. Yay! Yay, indeed, Jimmy. Yay, indeed.

My name is James Petrigallo. I'm here with my co-host. I'm Jimmy Wissman. Thank you, folks, so much for joining us on another wild, crazy edition of Crime and Sports. And we have a crazy edition for you today, obviously. It's really just a terrible story, honestly, of a guy just falling apart. And we'll talk all about it, of course, because that's what we do here.

Quickly before we do that, also would like to tell you to head over to shutupandgivememurder.com where you can get tickets for live shows. Oh, boy, new live shows up, by the way. An added show in Seattle, an added show in Portland. Cleveland is February shows up, by the way. An added show in Seattle. An added show in Portland. Cleveland is February 10th leading off the tour.

So get your tickets to that. And this is for Small Town Murder. But get in there. Do that. Shut up and give me murder.com. Also, you can find all your merch and every other damn thing through there. You can do that. Patreon.com slash crime and sports is where you get all of the bonus episodes we have

tons of bonus episodes a shitload of them for you to binge anybody five dollars a month or above you're gonna get all those you're gonna get new episodes every other week two new episodes as a matter of fact one crime and sports one small town murder and you get it all all uh for crime and sports this week we are going to to talk about the rise of the biggest thing in the world, honestly. It's fantasy sports. We're going to talk about how it started and how it ended up going from this

backroom thing with journalists doing it because they knew the stats and stuff to the major cause of divorce in America. How did that happen? The reason why people don't pay attention to their kids. Shut up. I've got to see if...

There is, for four months a year, daddy doesn't take you to the park. Yeah. I need Kirk Cousins to get 27 points today. Shut the fuck up. I have to beat this guy at work so I can brag all year about it. That's what it is. It's crazy. And then first...

I've got to beat this guy at work. It's what it is, though. and then first it's what it is though it's all it's for it's so funny uh then for small town when you say that right when you when you condense it to what it really is it's like well that's silly jesus that's stupid um for small town murder we're going to talk about a very interesting thing kai the Hatchet-Wielding Hitchhiker. There is a Netflix documentary right now, which when I planned this episode, I did not know there was a Netflix documentary. Oh, really? Yeah, this was this crazy guy who's got a crazy story,

and we'll talk all about it. The guy's nuts. He looks like Sideshow Bob, talks about attacking a guy with a hatchet, and then much worse things happen about three weeks later. So we'll talk all about that. That is patreon.com slash crime and sports and you'll of course get a shout out at the end of the show because god damn it we're excited we want to talk about it so there you go that said i think it's time to do this right now get into this oh man with this it's a cowboy here oh Oh, the new show, too. I want to plug the new show that's coming out.

Yeah, it'll be out end of February, beginning of March called Your Stupid Opinions. It's a new show that we're doing, a weekly show. We cannot wait. If you listen to Small Town Murder, you know there's a reviews section where we read people's reviews of the town. And usually that's the funniest thing in the town stuff ever because people's reviews are nuts they really are so this show is going to be reviews of everything you can imagine we're going to talk about it we did a bonus episode it's anything from the the diner in the newark airport to a sleazy rural motel in missouri somewhere where you can hear about the same razor blade being found months apart by different people.

And anything. Could be a cross-stitching class outside Fresno. Could be anything. We're going to find out. Hear what people complain about. Your stupid opinions. Look out for that. All right.

Now, let's talk about our guy of the week here. Let's do it. Last week, we, of course, had our lady of the week. And we don't have a lot of ladies. So much fun. So that was nice talking about Evelyn Stevens and her basically kind of a Sally McNeil prototype. Really? Yeah. Killed her body, built her husband. It's a very similar situation.

This is a totally different story. We're going to talk about Golden Richards. Oh. Do you know who Golden Richards is? Well, it's his middle name. His name is John Golden Richards. Now, if you're a football player with very blonde hair that comes out of the back of your helmet, do you go by John? No.

Or do you go by John Richards? Or do you say, hi, Golden here? John Richards, that's a bad name. John Richards you hire as your accountant you go okay john john it's your end what should i yeah that is we need right officer what but golden richards my god that's pretty solid sounds like a greek god doesn't it it sounds like or a porn sounds like a surfer you know golden richards oh man he's the best and then he got into porn afterwards too too, as well.

We were expecting it because by the time he came in from the surf, you could see his cock was hanging out the bottom of his shorts. So he said, man, this guy's got a career when this is over. And he did. So Golden Richards, born December 31st, 1950. Oh, New Year's Eve baby here. Born in Salt Lake City, Utah. And he is a Mormon, devout Mormon family in Salt Lake City. Very blonde people.

He's a blonde, a gaggle of blondes here. Best way to put it. So he he was all when he's a kid and like all in high school and stuff. No alcohol, no tobacco. Yeah, no any of that stuff. No caffeine. Very Mormon. Yeah, I mean, he was going by all the rules. He went to Granite High School, which we'll talk about.

His family had, he had five brothers and a sister, so seven kids, which is, you know, you're kind of slacking off, especially for Mormons back then. Jesus Christ, lazy. Mom probably had thin hips. That's what it was, thin, just real not good childbearing hips. Real narrow gal. Dad shooting blanks when he hit 35. I don't know what happened, but something bad's going on there. Did he get a vasectomy and didn't tell her?

Yeah, I mean, he still had two kids afterwards. It came through. But he was trying to have seven so you know so he uh they they did they weren't rich people they live pretty modestly which unless you're rich and you have if you have seven kids you're living modestly yeah those kids are expensive i can't imagine seven of them for christ's sake um two's too much for me yeah uh he also – his brothers have interesting names too. His one brother's name is Sterling.

They always do this, James. Sterling. And then his other brother's name is Royal. So he's got Royal, Sterling, Golden. Strange. A middle-class family? What the fuck? I don't get it.

Sterling. Like there's Sterling and Golden. Chicago stripper? Yeah. Sterling Golden sounds like a Chicago stripper. And so does – or Sterling Golden sounds like a Chicago stripper. And so does Sterling Richards sounds like a Sterling. The word Sterling. I see tassels and tits happening right there.

Don't you? I don't know what her act is, but it's something. By the way, I love how an old, like if you watch like an 80s movie and they go to a strip club, strippers all had an, every stripper had an act back then. Remember that? Like every stripper had like a character that they came out as. Like one would be like a cowgirl. The next one would come out like dressed like a coal miner or some shit and strip off her overall. Fireman girl.

They all had a fucking character. Like you had to be like, well, I got to get my costume ready. And it wasn't just like a latex bra with like like your tits hanging out that wasn't a costume you had to bang yeah no that's i mean you had to have a whole thing whole thing here she comes you dance to a specific song that goes with your gimmick and yeah you're a wrestler which is yeah which is very strange because they realize they don't need to do that now with guys they were like oh if we just show the guys tits they'll come anyway they don't realize they don't need to do that now with guys. They were like, oh, if we just show the guys tits, they'll come anyway. They don't care what she is out there. They just care that she's nude up here.

Whereas women's strip clubs, you always see like I saw the Chippendales documentary. And they all have like a character because that's part of what women are looking for. They're like, oh, he's a fireman and he's muscular but the fireman the fireman adds something extra on that side but for us we're like we don't care if she cured cancer we want to see tits we don't give a shit what she did she split the atom great oh she's a fucking moron with an 83 iq terrific too we don't fucking care it's not why we're here the male stripper's always got to be a public servant you know some sort of a guy that's strong for his own good yeah and earning under his wage potential but he's definitely ready to pop though he's definitely he's definitely

ready to fucking come out of his shell here you'd fuck him if he was homeless look at him he's oh my god jesus he could be you don't know he might be he could have got this costume from backstage he could have borrowed it we have no idea and the ladies are the same way maybe that's why we like him just to show us her tits because we're like we'd fuck you if you only owned a thong and that's it well yeah well men don't care show us the tits if a man walks in with 7-eleven and there's a hot chick behind the counter they don't they're like oh i'm try to get this chick. Whereas it's not the same thing.

We don't care what they bring to the table like that way. It's not part of it. It's just not. It's not part of how our brains work because we're short-range thinkers. We're not thinking clearly. And money generally doesn't make us cum. No, at all. We don't give a shit about that.

If we have it, it does. But if someone else does, we're like, oh, that doesn't make it. I don't care what't give a shit about that if we if we have it it does but if someone else does we're like oh that doesn't make it i don't care what they have i don't care what they have so that's the family we're talking about mormons with stripper names all right so stripper named mormons royal richards is also a porn name that's but that's a guy here royal golden and sterling are there are there more that are ridiculous like those love to name their kids bizarre shit though yeah well i guess there's so many kids so you maybe want to try to individualize at least with names it's different yeah you call a kid fucking john you're like oh great you're one of a 18 children at home and all these kids you're all blonde you all look alike and half of you are

named john terrific this is great it's got to be a you know blend into the group here those are the only ones i know of that are strange i assume that the newspaper article if you got three of the seven they're all weird but i mean i assume that the article would have said what the other strange ones were if it was if it had it i think maybe the only three of them are strange and then they got Or the article was like sterling golden. You get the idea. You get it. You know what they're fucking doing here.

You know what's going on here. You see these people, don't you? Okay. He meets Barbara Lynn Johnson when they're in the eighth grade. Okay. Young love here. They don't date, though, until their senior year of high school. Because, you know, I don't know.

I think you have to. Is that allowed? I was going to say, I don't know if you have to, like, be engaged to date. And that school because you know i don't know i think you have to i was gonna say i don't know if you have to like uh be engaged to date and that was you know i don't know how it worked in the 60s in fucking utah i have no idea how it worked that could be live no clue so mormons now yes you're still weird but i'm not i'm also i'm making fun of your weirdness 50 years ago which is a whole other level of weird you've gotten weird that you've gotten a little more away from but yeah not enough if 1968 weirds a 10 you know you're still at a six don't get me wrong but you've you know you've said that like you know black people aren't black because god hates them now and shit like that you've backed away from

stuff like that yeah you've backed away from some of the weirder stuff you've said hey you know one wife only seriously no wink wink but seriously one wife only like things like that you've tried to leaned into naming your children talmadge it's fucking weird yeah so you've gone with golden so he meets barbara lynn johnson they date then um he's very busy with sports and she's uh she is a model also so she does modeling outside of all this so they're both very busy with sports and she's she is a model also. So she does modeling outside of all this. So they're both very busy. He does not. He's not able to play football when he's younger or his parents tell him he's not allowed to play football.

We don't know. There's different. They say they didn't want him to play football because he had to do other things. They also say at certain points that they couldn't afford to have him play football because there's a lot of kids and couldn't afford to have them all in sports. So his mother didn't like the idea of him coming home bloodied and less blonde. You know what I mean? So his brother, his older brother, bought him a uniform because he needed it to play and hid it under a bush for him so he'd go play

and never told the mom so he'd go play football and had his put his dirty uniform back in the yeah back in the picker's brother tomorrow yeah his brother would get it for him so that's kind of neat um and then once he became a really good player like for school teams later on then he obviously had to tell his parents because he was like in the newspaper for right you know catching a touchdown pass you can't exactly say you know i don't know what you're talking about it's a different golden richards that goes to my school also there's a road game uh this week in boise so i'm not gonna be home for a while i'm not gonna be here so he used to play he played a bunch of sports too He's a really good basketball player, baseball player. He's about six foot tall.

When he's in the NFL, he's about 180 pounds. So not a big guy, decent-sized guy, but very, very, very fast, speedy guy. He played baseball in high school, and then he would jump the fence and go around the field and go be in track competitions. Wow. So he said sometimes it would be in his baseball uniform. He'd be doing track shit because he was cutting it close. Yeah, cutting it close like that. So he didn't drink, smoke, chew tobacco, didn't curse, any of that stuff.

Wild. Just wild, right? Can you imagine? How do you not just get frustrated one day? I don't understand it. Your credit cards declined? You got your kids there? How do you not just go, fuck?

I mean, I guess if you're happy enough to just be fine with that, then good for you. You're probably very stable. It's just nobody I grew up with fits into this category, you know what I'm saying, at all. But a lot oformons will say other words for the word so it's like yeah you're you're kind of swearing if you're using euphemisms if you're getting the point across then you're putting the thought out so what are you doing fricking or fridging or or fudging you're saying the same thing yeah that's but in a more embarrassing way because you're a fucking adult because Yeah, because you're an adult. Don't say that.

It's a good way to get your ass kicked in public. You better take it easy. No shit. He has, in this newspaper article, he has shoulder-length golden hair in high school there. He won track meets all the times. He would win the long jumps. He would do – he was really good he's also played shortstop on the baseball team which means he was you know the best fielder so he did well

there he's a shooting guard in basketball which is also good he also plays golf he's oh he's pretty good he's a good athlete yeah he's a really good athlete um he found in 1967, so he's like a junior in high school here, I found him going 10 for 17 at the foul line and having 24 points in a basketball game. Well, he better go harder in 1967 if he wants to avoid going to Vietnam. 10 of 17 at the foul line, yeah. That's not good enough. No, it's really not. So, you know, he's a good basketball player.

Not a good foul shooter, though. No. So he said that he used to try to hide weights in his pants at weigh-ins for games because he said, I only weighed a little over 160, and I knew they didn't want any 159 pound football players in college. So I had to get myself up to 170. So he'd do that. Here's an article. We're going to read some excerpts and later on a large excerpt from this really incredible thing this guy wrote. His name is Joel Reese. You can see his work at Joel C. Reese, R-E-E-S-E dot com. He wrote a paper. Golden Richards is his childhood hero.

He was his favorite player as a child. He later on, much later after a bunch of weird shit happens to Golden, as we'll talk about, he meets up with Golden to interview him. He went to the University of Montana about he meets up with golden to interview him and you know kind of uh he was he it's he went to the university of montana and he's writing his senior thesis on is it a good thing to meet your heroes kind of a thing oh yeah so he went to meet golden richards and has an epic couple days with this guy that's just like wow mind-boggling and wrote wrote an amazing paper. And if you want to hear the whole story of that, I implore you, please do that. So he did that.

But this guy wrote, he wrote, Jimmy. He writes about Golden, and we're going to take a lot of excerpts from that over the course of it, and I'll let you know when that is. But in high school, Golden is playing for the Granite Farmers. That's the name of the high school team. He's football, baseball, track, or football, basketball, track, and everything else, and he kills it in track. The colleges want him just as much for track as football.

Oh. Because it's, yeah, like Bo Jackson was the same way. They wanted Herschel Walker back in the day. They were also track stars. So 1969, he ends up going to BYU, and he's a red shirt his freshman year. His sophomore year, he actually plays, and he's good right away.

So he's playing for Brigham Young University, the hometown Mormon school and all that kind of shit. So in 70, the team was bad back then. They were like 3-8. They sucked. But he was really good. 36 receptions, 512 yards, averaging 14.2 per reception. So that's pretty good for a sophomore on a 70s college team.

By the way, that's leading the team in receptions and yards too. He's the main guy. On a bad team in receptions and yards, too. He's the main guy. On a bad team. Yeah, on a shit team. I'm sure wasn't good at throwing, you know? Probably had a bad line, and the quarterback probably running for his life. So to get 500 yards out of him on the season is not bad. Not bad.

And from what I understand, they were a run-heavy offense, too. Because back then, most of them were. There was a few that were passers. But I don't think BYU was probably the flashiest of the group. Come on, guys. Let's go out there and show some swagger, eh? Come on. Let's go. Talmadge deep to Talmadge and intercepted.

Pop those garments and show them what you're made of, guys. Let's go. Pop that. Pop it out. So 1971, I find he's at a track meet there. So he was on the BYU track team. And he won three first places with wins in the 100-yard dash and the 180-yard low hurdles and the long jump. Wow.

So he's killing it. He's a crazy good athlete. That's the thing. He's fast even with hurdles. Crazy fast and good He's a crazy good athlete. That's the thing. He's fast even with hurdles. Crazy fast and good jumping and just a good athlete. So the next year he plays in 11 games, only has 14 receptions for 287 yards, but averages 20.5 per reception, which is pretty big. That's a lot.

So that's leading the team, by the way. 14 receptions leads the team. That's hilarious. Think about that. In 11 games. Yeah. That's insane. Not, by the way. 14 receptions leads the team. That's hilarious. Think about that. In 11 games. Yeah. That's insane. Not even two a game.

That's fucking crazy. Barely won a game. So he also had 33 punt returns for 624 yards and four touchdowns, which was huge. That's a big deal. He's dangerous. And touchdowns. Well, he was first in the nation in punt returns and 16th in all-purpose yards. In the whole nation.

100-something teams. He set four NCAA records for most punt return yards. 219 against North Texas State in a game. And also most kickoff returns in a game as well. And he was all the WAC conference. He's the Western Athletic Conference. He's all WAC that year. But he says that he doesn't like the run-centric offense of BYU

because he only has 14 receptions. So he's transferring to Hawaii. Going to Hawaii, which couldn't be any more different than Utah, honestly. Rainbow Warriors, go in there. Go in there. He's moving there. He says that's what it was. BYU coach Lavelle Edwards disagrees, though.

He says he left, quote, it was grades. He had difficulty keeping his eligibility because he didn't attend classes conscientiously. He flunked out of school. Oh, shit. It's a little bit of a different way here. Why don't you run to class, motherfucker? How about run to, shit. It's a little bit of a different way here. Run heavy. Why don't you run to class, motherfucker?

Yeah. How about run to, yeah. How about if we throw you the ball in math class? Can you get it then? Can you catch it and take it to math class? Tell you what, class is a touchdown. How's that? Does that work for you?

So 1972 BYU Press Guide says, quote, It's the unexpected losses that are painful. And the Cougars experienced a major setback with the departure of Golden Richards, an academic casualty. So that's the story the school had even back then. It's not like revisionist history. They didn't put it in fucking newspaper. No. Yeah.

They put it in the Press Guide, for Christ's sake. They gave it to everybody. So all the announcers can go, oh, it's a shame they don't have Golden Richards anymore. Flunked out of school. moving on academic casualty is a that's a very soft way of saying dumb as shit didn't didn't use this lazy just lazy just not into it so academic casualty so that joel c reese guy here's an excerpt from his deal he said quote i asked him about the grades. This is obviously much later, asking Golden Richards about it.

And Golden said, I've heard that. It's a bunch of bullshit. So, yeah, he's. What did you say? By then he is. That Mormon shit has gone. I mean, he might still be Mormon. No, no, no.

This is. Don't worry. This is after, like, four overdoses and everything else so i think it loosens up at that point john something loose in there yeah when you're yelling at paramedics to get the pulp fiction fucking poker and get in there on you i think at that point you're gonna curses are gonna come out so he said that um he said it's a bunch of bullshit. I had a B average and 23 more credits than I needed as a junior. So, in fact, he's a he's saying he was a scholar. He says smart and above and beyond.

That's a verifiable fact. He said. Then Reese says, I told him that the BYU press guy does verify a fact, but not in his way. And Golden said, quote, Look, why would I be eligible at Hawaii and not BYU? They're in the NCAA. It doesn't make any sense. That's what Golden says. But then he looked into it, Reese, and said there's a provision at the University of Hawaii

because it's way the fuck out there. Yeah. They have to. They give them special kind of a few concessions left behind thing out there so people can go there and so it says that athletes who transferred there didn't have to sit out a year before playing as they do at most schools so he could go there and the school stuff didn't matter so it's they whatever so 1972 he had torn ligaments in his in his knee by the end of this year that'll kind of fuck him up but But he's recovering.

He is running. They have an Olympic gold medal winning sprinter in practice, and he's running him to ties. Wow. Like he's that fast. Really, really good. He's running back kickoffs and punts and all this type of shit. But then in November, he has his knee injury and has some surgery on it

to clean his knee injury up here. But he does make the all whatever, the all-coast college football first team. The UPI, United Press Internationals, little all-coast. That's the league Hawaii was in, I guess, at that point.

He caught 23 passes for 414 yards and five touchdowns before going down to a knee injury, which is pretty good. He only played in like five games. So he was doing great. He's part of it. Yeah.

I mean, it's very surprising that someone would go from BYU to Hawaii, but not as surprising as the sales, Jimmy. Yeah. Oh, the sales. In Hawaii? as the sales jimmy yeah oh the sales in hawaii if you happen to be in honolulu hawaii and it happens to be december 1st 1972 if you're walking around the you're reading the honolulu star bulletin as i was here yeah from 72 you're gonna see same prices as today here no no yeah probably yeah eggs twelve dollars a dozen so the uh we have here an amazing card to go see here for boxing you're gonna go see some boxing i found some boxing here first up

in the in the in the evening alberto uh cabanig is gonna fight his sao nichi or N-I-S-H-I. Now, I think Nishi, I looked it up, and the first guy he ever fought, his name was Lobster. The man's name was Lobster. Or he just fought a lobster. That's pretty good. It says under this, Kabanig is a Filipino action fighter. Nishi is great puncher from japan that's what it says

here so it's giving you a little uh a little prelim and then the main event jimmy oh baby it says grudge fight spectacular all right grudge fight spectacular it is jose lujan whose ears are enormous. It looks like he picks up satellite signals from this shit. Versus Buzzsaw Yamambe. Yamambe. Yamabe, not Yamambe. I wanted to say Yamambe.

Yamambe. Buzzsaw Yamambe. Buzzsaw Yamambe. Are these any good? I think he was like 16 and 7 in his career or something. I looked this up. But it says Lujan has a unanimous win over Yamambe. Grudge fight spectacular.

That's what they're advertising. They have pictures of these guys. Look at these guys. Just roll your fucking chair over. What am I doing? Look at this. Oh, that's Lujan. Oh, and look at these guys well just roll your fucking chair over what am i doing look at this yeah is that oh that's luke oh and look at buzzsaw he looks 11 he looks like an 11 year old asian kid and then we have he's a buzzsaw that's a buzzsaw and here's the other i'd watch this looks so old it looks like the 20s man and then it says plus action prelims. So those are the good fights that we got there.

From there, head over to the Cam Drive-In Swap Meet with over 10,000 bargains. So there's that after that. Over 10,000 bargains. Over 10,000 bargains where you can get some zesty soft pretzels. I didn't know you could put a number on how many bargains were at. Over 10,000 bargains. For Christ's sake. Well, how many bargains you got there?

Well, let me let you know. It says sellers $2, buyers $0.35, I guess, to get in. Oh, yeah, to be there. So $0.35 to access 10,000 bargains. You know what? 10,001 bargains, I'm going to say. Because that's a bargain, mister. Those might be two of the bargains. You know what? 10,001 bargains, I'm going to say. Because that's a bargain, mister. Those might be two of the bargains.

That's two of the bargains. We concluded that in only over 10,000 bargains. So 1973 is when he is eligible to go to the NFL. Golden says he doesn't think he's going to be drafted because he had the knee injury and he was in Hawaii, kind of off the radar. He's going to be drafted because he had the knee injury and he was in Hawaii, kind of off the radar. First number one overall pick, 1973 NFL draft. Jimmy, you nailed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar the other week.

I was proud of you for that. 1973? 73. Johnny Unitas? He's like 1955 Johnny Unitas. I was close. 57 or something. No. John Matuszak. Oh, Johnny Unitas. I was close. 57 or something. No.

John Matuszak. Oh, the twos. John Matuszak. Do you know who he is? No, I don't. Yes, you do. You know him very well because he is Sloth from Goonies. Oh.

Yes. He played on the Raiders later on. He's the number one pick. Yep. Number one pick. He's a defensive end. Houston picked him number one. Wow. Ends up being a very good player for the Raiders later on and in a shitload of movies, too. So Matuszak was in a lot of things.

Number two, Burt Jones, who was Baltimore quarterback for a long time. Jerry Sizemore, wow. Jerry Sizemore was the guy. Number three overall, do you remember the Lawrence Taylor episode? We were talking about that Eagles offensive lineman who said that Taylor just walked over him and he said, Well, I got to retire. And it was the end of it. That was him?

That's Jerry Sizemore. That's the guy. Pick third. Third. Fourth is John Hanna, who's a Hall of Fame guard for the New England Patriots for a long fucking time. So first round, who else? Oh, Daryl Stingley, who broke his neck, is also first round here. So a lot of very familiar names.

Chuck Foreman. Maybe the best story of post-NFL life ever. It's interesting. It's pretty funny. Ray Guy, Hall of Famer there, the punter. He was a first-round punter. So that was a crazy year, this draft. Second round.

First round punter? Punter. First round. Isn't that wild? That's why it was such a crazy thing al davis is nuts but yeah then ray guy became like the best punter in the history of the nfl so a good punter is very valuable that's the thing a guy who especially one like him he was above and beyond he was fucking amazing if you don't know when crystal pepsi was discontinued what was in al

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by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. The wait is over. So far, you're not losing. The only thing you're losing is my patience. Quickly, I see that. Ding! The queen of the courtroom is back.

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Only on Freebie. So after that second round here, what is this? Number 46 overall. Second round. The Dallas Cowboys select Golden Richardsards is that right absolutely they do they and then they got harvey martin a few picks later who was a super bowl co-mvp uh after that so really good uh good draft for them the tech shram who ran the cowboys forever he was the general manager and president for, what was it, 29 years? Jesus. He said that he saw the game against North Texas State

where Golden ran all those punts back and shit. He saw that game, and he said that he was awed by his speed. Cowboys, like the Raiders, are always looking for 40 times. And he said, we were always looking for speed in receivers, and Golden had that speed. He said he was so fast, and he could use were always looking for speed and receivers and golden had that speed he said he was so fast and he could use it on the football field that's an important difference between a track man and a football player some can't use their speed on the field but he could he's good and uh bullet bob hayes is a guy who didn't even play fucking football and the cowboys

drafted him he was an olympic sprinter is that right back in the day and the cowboys drafted him he was an olympic sprinter is that right back in the day and the cowboys drafted him in like the 15th round just to see if maybe he wanted to play football and he ended up being on their team for over a decade it was a great player fast to make a little more money than olympics yeah only every four years that's the thing so bob hayes who was still on the team he said he was stunned that the Cowboys selected a receiver that high. He's like, I can't believe that. They asked Golden, can you believe you got drafted in the second round by the Cowboys? How do you feel about it?

He said, quote, I was absolutely stunned. So stunned seems to be the word of the day here going around. He said, I had told my dad before the draft that I didn't think I'd be drafted. But if I could just get the opportunity to be a free agent, I would be happy. Like a walk-on that tries to make the team. All I wanted was a chance. If I had told my dad that I wanted to get to the moon first, he would have supported me 100%. So I guess his family's supportive is what he's getting at.

More into the space race? I think, yeah, I think he was going to be an astronaut and then he changed his mind he's like oh i have to go to more school for that jesus so 73 cowboys here they're 10 and 4 that year tom landry the coach with the hat and all that shit they beat the rams in the first round of the playoffs lose to the purple people leader vikings in the championship game this is the roger Staubach fucking that's that team, Calvin Hill at running back. And you know,

it's the, yeah. Craig Morton was their backup quarterback. That is that right? The future Bronco Superbowl loser. Yeah. So, uh,

uh, uh, golden that year, 12 games he plays and doesn't start any. He's a rookie receiver on a, on a good team, a good established team. He has six receptions for 91 yards, uh, but he's also a punt returner. So he's a rookie receiver on a on a good team a good established team he has six receptions for

91 yards uh but he's also a punt returner so he's doing that he meets hollywood henderson as we know about from we did an episode if you don't know on a hollywood henderson who uh who forcibly face fucked a quadriplegic as we know of this one of his things he raped a quad's face and he also figured out new and innovative ways to do cocaine while playing so that's like literally like while he was on the field not i'm saying like the same time hollywood said quote i always wondered was that his real name or his stage name about golden richards oh the hollywood yeah because yeah he said quote they loved him in Dallas. You know,

he was Golden Richards. He had a choice of women he could see. A choice of women he could see. Why does Hollywood seem so jealous? He loves it. He said the Golden Boy from Paul Hornig, the ex-packer, to him, always been kind of a wonderment for white athletes, that one Golden Boy thing. He said said with a name like golden being the golden wide receiver on america's team he fit perfectly so he said he got he got a lot of uh a lot of yeehaw pussy down there in dallas is what he's talking about popular at the stockyards if you know what i'm saying there. Real popular down there. So 1974 in July, he has plenty of women to choose from, and he chooses to marry Barbara, his high school sweetheart here.

From Utah. Yeah, from Utah. He marries her. He joins the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and the Big Brothers Big Sisters organization. He's active in the Special Olympics. He's active at the West Texas Boys Ranch, which is a charitable thing that he's doing out there. He's blonde. Everybody thinks he's all handsome.

He's catching passes for the Cowboys. He's got a nice personality. He's not a dumb guy. Good with little quips and shit like that. He's the public public relations dream in dallas is exactly what they want to show people here so he gets married to barbara in july after his rookie season there right before training camp here he goes in a married man so 1974 the cowboys are eight and six not as good that year. Golden, though, starts 13 games, plays in all 14, 26 receptions, 467 yards,

18 yards per reception, which is dangerous. That means he's a deep threat. That's pretty good. He has five touchdowns. He's fucking killing it. He's damn good. So 75, Cowboys go 10-4 again. They beat the Vikings in the first round of the playoffs,

beat the Rams in the second round here in the championship, go all the way to the Super Bowl against the Steelers, and fucking lose the game. Yeah, I mean, what are you going to do? That's the game where the ball bounced off that poor tight end's chest in the end zone. It hit him right between the numbers and bounced off, and they lost the Super Bowl. Whoops. And the announcer went, he's got to be the sickest man in America right now. It's like, yeah, you think?

It hit him in the chest, bounced off. He watched it with this look on his face like, how is that ball not in my hands? And then punched the ground with both hands and straightened out stiff as a corpse on the ground wanting to die. The announcer says those words he's gotta be the sickest man in america while he's laying stiff as a board on the field looking like if the ground could just soak me up right now and take me down to be fucking nutrients for this grass i would be happy with that better than having to talk to landry after this god damn it fuck texas gonna kill me shit so golden has a good year though uh plays all 14 games 21 receptions 451 yards 21.5 per set per reception amazing 76 they're 11 and 3 uh but they lose in

the first round of the playoffs to the Rams. So not great there. Golden, though, good year, 21.8 yards per reception. So the guy is dangerous. He also copyrighted the name. Golden? Copyrighted it. Yeah, Golden Richards. Golden Richards is copyrighted.

I think you're the only one, too. Don't worry. It was a publicity stunt. Yeah. That's like when a famous actress insures her ass. It's just a publicity stunt. What, is someone going to come and chop her ass off? It doesn't cover wear and tear.

It doesn't cover just sagging when you're 50. That's if someone literally came and said, I'm going to take your ass from you and cut it off with it's that's if someone literally came and said i'm gonna take your ass from you and cut it off with a machete which doesn't happen often just loses her ass only my ass has never been the same man i went to nam and they took half my ass i've never heard that before no not the usual injury not a common thing to say no No. So 1977, quickly, 12-2 for the Cowboys. They beat the Bears in the first round of the playoffs, a rare playoff appearance for the Bears back then because they were terrible in the 70s.

Beat the Vikings in the second round, and then beat the Broncos, old Craig Morton, in the Super Bowl, 27-10. And Golden catches a beautiful touchdown pass in the Super Bowl. Is that right? That makes him very well known for this catch with his blonde hair flapping behind him and all that poor shit. So that year

he also, drugs begin to really become a big part of his life this year. This starts to take hold. Yeah they talk about his ribs are always hurt and his back's always sore. He's a wide receiver and not a particularly large physical one. Sure. Getting knocked around.

In an era where you can murder people almost. Yeah, back then you could go up, jump for a ball, and a guy could go, oh, great, and take your legs out and make you spin like a fucking helicopter. And that was considered good play. Matter of fact, that was Jack Tatum's job. Yeah. helicopter and that was considered good play you know in fact that was jack tatum's job yeah you could hit a guy the second the ball touched him not like now where you have to wait for him to catch it then make a spin move and then you're allowed to fucking then it's a one-on-one competition fucking stupid so um he does that uh he gets a lot of a lot of hits to the head um

he had a lot of uh uh dental problems from getting hit in the face and knocking teeth in different ways and cracking shit and having shit come in his helmet and under the face mask back then guys would go under the face mask and punch you in the face and do shit like that and just the hit alone would knock your teeth together so hard you'll crack one yeah he had uh i guess seven different times he had to have root canals to repair damage from blows to the face from playing uh you could clothesline back then it was legal to a guy could catch a ball running full speed running across the field and the instant his fingers touched the ball you could clothesline him in the face literally perfectly

legal back then it's why daryl stingley was in a fucking wheelchair fucking intense man so um he had to do all this shit after one of the root canals he i guess his teeth something else was wrong with his teeth is the dentist said you should get caps on your teeth uh but there was another problem he kept having his teeth getting filed down and during all this dental work he got his first prescription for Percodan. And Barbara says, quote, this is his wife, Golden could never tolerate pain. For him, all the dental work was unbearable.

So he said that pain wasn't even the issue because he knew a cowboy-friendly pharmacist. Yeah. So he didn't even have to have pain. He said, when I first started getting busted up bad, I started using Percodan. There was no prescription. Dallas Cowboys didn't need that in those days. You can just walk in and go, yeah, man, what do you got for me? And they just toss you some pills.

Right. He said there was a pharmacist. All the players knew him. For two tickets to a game, he gave you free rain in his candy store. Wow. And this is normal. The team would have thanked him for that. The team would have said, oh, thanks for taking care of our guys back then.

Two tickets to a game and we used to get whatever we want. That's what they used to do back then, though. I'm sure they had to pay for it like a drug dealer, but they were allowed to buy it. So that back then they talk about like in the 70s and 80s on football teams, a trainer would go up and down the aisle of the plane just handing out handfuls of pills and guys just take them. They don't even know what they're taking. Just pop them it was like in the usfl the houston gamblers had a giant syringe in their fucking in their dressing room in the fucking locker room a giant grab pills out of it no no a five foot tall syringe like haha because they're all on so many steroids oh god yeah

that's a joke what movie was that there's a movie where a kid goes one of those colleges everybody's on steroids movies where they symptoms symptoms the simpsons no i think it was the programmer one of those fucking do they have one in it a syringe there's one of those movies had like a big syringe oh is johnny be good with anthony michael hall oh okay you had a big syringe in the fucking locker room that's after the gamb, which was actually as decor as decor. Yes. Ha ha. We all shoot up a lot.

So Golden said that the Cowboys, he doesn't say they forced pills down his throat, but he said that he thought it was better to take them and play than to not take them and not be able to play. Not a bad argument. He said, when I was hurting, which was often, I was told you can sit out a week or we'll give you an anti-inflammatory drug to control the swelling and something else to control the pain. So, yeah, he says, understand I'm an athlete trained to compete. At noon on Sunday, it was important to be there when the bell rang. We called kickoff showtime. Being right for showtime well that was all that mattered yeah that's it look i'm i don't begrudge him at all for taking pills for dental pain is probably brutal it's fucking horrible you can't eat you can't do anything you can't do

anything yeah it hurts your whole head it makes you drool it's the fucking worst if you can't eat or talk you're not a person. You know what I mean? You're right. If you're used to eating and talking, it's tough. And if you can take a pill to fix that, and then all of a sudden I don't feel my knee either, I might fucking keep going too. And now when I run, it doesn't hurt anymore. His wife said as it went on, he needed more and more pills as it goes. And she said, quote, he had a great fear of losing his starting position.

Yeah, absolutely. We were talking about this earlier. But then that was compounded by the fear that he would be exposed. He couldn't tell anyone about his problems. There was there was such a tremendous amount of pressure for maintaining an image. He was one of the fair haired boys on America's team. So he couldn't come out and say i'm a drug addict that would fuck up all the pr so she said she pled with him to try to stop

and uh you know he told her that he would stop but then he wouldn't she'd find pills hidden around the house even when there was no apparent injuries he was still taking pills off season with no dental work he's just popping pills uh she said the pills he took after practice made him drowsy and lethargic in the middle of the night she would wake up periodically to wake him and turn him over and check on him to make sure he was still alive still breathing and not choking on his vomit so she said he was taking so much he was consumed i was afraid i just wanted to make sure he was still breathing that's poor bastard that's deep man i feel bad for her that's tough that's tough to live with so

that the year they won the super bowl in the uh championship game against the vikings he caught a 32 yard touchdown pass that was a a big deal so in both games he had big touchdown catches after the game he was um you know he was celebrating and all that kind of shit and then he said uh he started weeping out uncontrollably outside the stadium yeah he said quote i had to pull off to the side of the road i had decided to get help after the season. I knew then it would be two more weeks of propagating my addiction. I cried my heart out. He said that he would, you know, then the Super Bowl was coming up, though. So he goes to the Super Bowl, and he got the touchdown pass, and it was a 29-yard pass.

So he was very happy about that. He says, people always think of that game as the highlight of my career, but it wasn't. Every game I played was the highlight. Having my mates hold me up in the huddle when I had just gotten nailed and the wind knocked out of me, that was the highlight. The camaraderie of the game, every game, that was the highlight.

Having my teammates hold me up so I could fucking regain my consciousness. My teammates parading a junkie. Wow. And a concussed junkie. So the NFL has no drug policy. There's no anything. They just sweep it under the rug is the drug policy.

And so he just kept doing it. He said, I never took drugs to get high. That's one thing he said. I took drugs because I couldn't stand the pain. At first, I never took drugs to get high. That's one thing he said. I took drugs because I couldn't stand the pain. At first, that's true. But then after a while, he didn't have pain and he just took drugs to get high. So he said, no matter how much everything hurt, he had to get out there. That's just the way it was. He said, the organization or one of the doctors later on, one of his doctors said, the organization knew there was a dependency.

We tried to help, but a person has to want help. And he did not. That's fair. Roger Staubach, Hall of Fame, All-American. He's Mr. He came out of the Navy to fucking, you know, Mr. Roger Staubach. He says, quote, Every player has taken pain pills.

Obviously, players take them when they have pain. Toward the end, I had a feeling that something wasn't right with him, but I didn't recognize the severity of Golden's problems until much later. I had lunch with Golden about 10 years later, and I understood soon after we sat down. So he was that fucked up where it was pretty obvious here. And Tech Schramm said that he doesn't doesn't quote have a recollection of richard's having a problem no idea no clue my hair was just i was combing my silver hair and i didn't notice he said but i'm not saying it's not true you know he said i didn't notice it's just not my fault or my responsibility or anything like that i don't i'm not it wasn't my turn to watch him

as a businessman or a human being. So after the Super Bowl, I mean, not that it's his responsibility, but it's also sort of his responsibility. Yeah, that's your guy. I mean, you're the owner, so you technically own him. He's the GM. You're generally managing, right? Yeah, he's the guy running the fucking thing. You should be well-informed.

I would say so. And that's a matter of just I'd like to have him on the field and if he's if he's gonna die right after we cut him that's his problem but can we get a touchdown pass out of him that's what it is so after the super bowl he retreats to salt lake city yeah and um after the super bowl celebration he found a doctor who started helping him get drug helping wean him from drugs. He said, but there was a scheduled April Fool's Day. So April 1st speaking engagement in West Texas. So he and Barbara went there and his wife, Barbara, said, quote, it was

Abilene or Amarillo. I don't remember. I do remember. I didn't want him to go. I was worried. So part of his speech in West Texas addresses the evils of drug abuse, which is fucking amazing. And he also got his hands on some prescriptions down there because he has all his hookups in Texas. While he's giving a speech about the evils of drug abuse.

Yeah. Abusing drugs. But he's been weaning himself off and now he's just going to take what he usually takes. So what happens when that happens? Oh, dear Christ. Yeah. So his wife, Barbara, said it was a little more than he could handle. So he was in North Dallas at his house on April 2nd, and he collapsed.

Barbara called an ambulance and then called one of the cowboy team doctors and asked him to meet them at the hospital um the doctor says quote it wasn't an overdose it wasn't that bad but he had a problem i don't know if he was an addict but he was abusing the stuff yeah wow wow i would say so um so he said that he never evan said he never would have prescribed a narcotic such as Percodan for any cowboy. And that when Richards was released from the hospital, that this guy Evans recommended treatment for Richards drug abuse. So Richards said he went to one session at a drug rehab and never came back. So that'll do it. There we go.

All cleaned up, man. All cleaned up, man. All cleaned up. Evans also said he always said he didn't have a problem. He said he just needed something for the pain. Well, yeah. Right. That's what a lot of people say. Part of the addiction hurts, too, though.

Yeah, it's all of it. So Hollywood Henderson has some thoughts on it. Oh, boy. He said, quote, let me tell you something. I it oh boy he said quote let me tell you something i love when he starts out with let me tell you something tell me something it's good it's definitely going to be a hard opinion you know at that point let not not i've been thinking about something or i have an opinion let me tell you something means i know the facts and i'm going to lay them upon you now and you're going to accept them at face value or go fuck yourself.

That's what that means. This is not a consideration. This is I've investigated. Yeah, this isn't this isn't a quorum. I'm going to tell you what's going on. Let me tell you. Let me tell you something. When you play the game of football, it looks graceful.

These guys look like gazelles running around out there. But when you're running 24 miles an hour and some guy hits you and you strain and fall and hit the ground, it hurts. Sometimes it hurts forever. First you start on aspirin, then Tylenol 3, then codeine, then Percodan. Then you know some doctor and he gives you 100. He just described it, though. That's the thing. He just told us something.

Thanks, Hollywood. I did. That's it. yep that's he just described it though that's the thing he just told us something that's thanks thanks hollywood i did that's it mike ditka has a different thought on it oh great of course i love when there's a fucking guy he has a fucking idiot and i love the bears and i love the chicago thing and i love the 85 bears yeah he's a fucking moron though an absolute moron he says quote um he thought later on he talks because they cross paths here in chicago later on and he says that ditka thought that yeah he might have gotten pills from a team doctor at first but it's all golden's fault anyway he said quote i don't think it's so much a sickness as a weakness. I never think you can blame the doctor. I think the option is always there for the player.

We've all done it, but you don't become hooked on it because when you do get hooked on it, it's a one-way road to nowhere. Thanks, Mike. You just said a lot of things that make sense and everybody nods to but are physically impossible to enact. Good job. Just don't. Oh, all right. Fine. Then I'll just stop. Great. enact. Good job. Just don't. Oh, all right, fine. Then I'll just stop.

Great. Jesus Christ. But what if I do and then I have trouble? Well, it's a one-way road. We'll never see you again. You know like Skid Row in L.A. that has like all the – we should take just – I don't know why I never thought, just take Ditka there, give him a bullhorn and tell him that,

and then they can all pass. They'll go, hey, everybody. He says that you just can't get don't you guys he said he said you don't get hooked on it he said so guys don't become hooked on it cool everybody all right break let's do this coach said don't do it all the time otherwise we'll end up well we're already here coach and the problem is genetically certain people are certain different people are more susceptible to certain things that will you know what i mean so the other thing is that i'm not a doctor so i'll take the amounts that i think i can handle but if a doctor tells me oh don't do that because bodies can't handle that yeah then you don't do it so yeah

you do kind of blame the doctor. If you have a doctor that's handing you more than you should have and medically saying that's okay, yeah. I mean, how many of our people are going to have to fucking watch die over this shit? How the fuck am I supposed to know how much is okay, Mike? Yeah. Thanks, Mike Ditka. Chew on more cigars, coach.

I'm pretty sure Ditka said that at Prince's funeral, delivering the eulogy, right? Didn't he say that? Because I can't get hooked on it because that's a one-way road to nowhere. It's a one-way road to nowhere, you know. That's how you get hipped on it there. Jerk. It's just insensitive. It's just a twat.

While he's chewing gum. I just don't get hooked on it that's all did he did he play uh oh yeah very long yeah he was a dick was a badass player he's a good player he's a tight end how long because was it years no he played so he's he knows oh he's been hit over the middle plenty of times and he's just like i don't care he has so much brain damage that he doesn't realize that his knee hurts i think that's his fucking you know when you hear him talk you go oh yeah he got hit in the head a lot i forgot about that yeah before he was a coach he went over the middle quite often so um he had to be so anyway he was in the hospital. He did all of that. And he said that – or Barbara said, quote, it was the old, gee, I have a toothache.

There's a doctor who can give me a prescription line is how he got the drugs in Dallas. He said – and they did, and it was a pretty serious drug. I can't remember what it was, but it was something you wouldn't want to mess around with. And he took a lot. By 9 o'clock, he was pretty out of it. By 10, you could tell he wasn't all there. Then he started seizing and turning blue. Oh, my God.

That's not good. So that's when Pat Evans said, it's fine. It's not that bad. By the way, Barbara angrily, quote, angrily disagrees with Dr. Pat Evans' assessment. He said it wasn't that bad. She says, quote, that's crap. I was there.

It was a big deal. Later it was dismissed, classified as routine flu symptoms. Who knows how they covered that up? Well, they're the Cowboys. If he's seizing and turning blue, that is a big deal. That's a gnarly flu, James. That's a poof. That's nasty flu.

Jesus, if that goes around, we're really fucked. We're in a lot of trouble. Jesus Christ. The Smurf seizures flu, they call it. You don't want to get the Smurf seizure flu. You'll really be fucked then. So Golden said, people would do anything for me in Dallas. I love Dallas and the people in Texas, and I believe they liked me.

So they give me pills. So they end up trading him to the Bears before the season. That's so funny. I think he plays one game for them, and then they trade him to the Bears. After that, they're like, we can't have this. When he falls apart, let's have him do it on someone else's time here. So he's traded to the Bears for two undisclosed draft picks. Just gave them away, basically.

So the Bears coach said, quote, we're happy to have a player of the caliber of Golden Richards with the Bears. He's been a big playmaker for the Cowboys. So ready to go. He's traded there. He talks about here, this is from Joel Reese's article. Quote, he talked about how he got hooked on drugs. Sad. Said the Cowboys started him on painkillers to keep playing. I went to my doctor in Salt Lake City because I felt so damn terrible. He said, I thought the world I thought I had the world's first worst flu. The doctor asked me if I was on any medication. I told him not anymore. He asked me what I'd been taking, and I told him I didn't know. He said, what did it look like?

I told him it was yellow and said 135 and endo. He sat back and said, you're going through withdrawal. Yeah, it's called a heroin withdrawal, son. Yeah, when he got to Utah, he's like, why do I feel so shitty? Yeah. Wow, this is like I'm hot, I'm cold, I'm burning up. up like what's going on puke i turned well it's weird you are withdrawing stupid so uh finks here was his name i think it's jim finks is the guy he's the he's it was a bears uh he was a bears guy and then later on with the saints he he said that the Bears trainer and team doctor had told him that the Illinois Drug Enforcement Agency's monitoring prescription drug sales were looking into Richards' propensity for buying large quantities of Percodan.

He's got the state DEA on his tail. That's how much Percodan he's buying for one person. For one person. one person for one person um so they said that the cat and this guy fink said that he knew that uh the cowboys knew this before him he said if i was being told as soon as he got here you can't fucking tell me the cowboys didn't know about this shit beforehand so they just dumped him off and tried to sweep it under the rug fink said though golden was a good player for us i don't remember specifics but he had problems. His problems never seemed to affect him on the field.

Now, meanwhile, while they're saying he seems fine, he's looking good, he's good now, he says that he would be standing outside supermarkets near the Bears practice facility waiting for the doors to open in the morning. He said, quote, it was me and the winos. They couldn't wait for their wine. I couldn't wait for my prescriptions. Fascinating. He'd bust in there. Yep.

So the 78 Bears here, they go seven and nine. Very mediocre team. Bob Avellini. Bob Avellini is the quarterback. He's Italian. How many good Italian quarterbacks have there been? Dan Marino, and that's it. It's very disappointing for me, but that's how it is.

Walter Payton, obviously, on this team. So, you know, some guys like that. Golden this year in 78. He plays for 15 games with the Bears here. And 27 receptions, 379 yards. So, not bad. Not bad at all. 1979 the bears he plays in five games has five receptions and then he's put on the injured reserve list after his right knee is hurt again same knee hurt in college he also figured that figured out he had hurt his arm in training camp and figured out that he played the five games that season with a broken arm jesus so that's why you're on pills too or you're on so many pills you don't realize

you're playing with a broken fucking arm that's wild taylor swift is soaring high her every move captured in the news cycle and devoured by her devoted fans she's broken billboard records and made grammys history not to mention becoming a billionaire in the process. But along the way, Taylor has had to wage war, first by taking on a very powerful, very famous manager, Scooter Braun, and then by going up against the biggest live events company, Ticketmaster. Hi, I'm David Brown, the host of Wondery's show Business Wars. We go deep into some of the biggest corporate rivalries of all time.

And in our latest season, Taylor Swift will shake up not only the music business, but Hollywood and the NFL. Follow Business Wars wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen ad-free on the Amazon Music or Wondery app. So April 22, 1980, the headline is Bears Golden Richards on team's unwanted list. Unwanted. I've heard of injured list. I've never heard of the unwanted. Unwanted.

We call it the orphan list. We just were kicking them into the streets. So Golden said he was very surprised they don't want him back. He's like, I thought everything was going great. The general manager said we have three receivers equal to or better than he is and that we like. So we're taking them who aren't on shitloads of opiates. So Golden said, you bet I'm disappointed. I felt I had more to give.

When I was playing, they weren't throwing me the ball. Then after I got hurt, they started playing well and throwing the ball. I don't throwing the they weren't throwing me the ball then after i got hurt they started playing well and throwing the ball i don't call the plays so he said that he had started contract negotiations and then all of a sudden they were like no we don't want you anymore so um yeah he said i he's very upset about the whole thing and uh they said that the team just said we have other receivers so may 9th 1980, 1980, he signs with the Broncos. Oh, hey. Denver Broncos looking to strengthen the old passing attack. They sign him up, and a couple months later,

the headline is, Golden Richards fails to report to Broncos. Oh, he didn't even show up. He fucked up. He will later say he hurt his leg in the offseason and didn't show up because he hurt his leg. And they said, though, he had, quote, personal problems is what team officials said. So, yeah, I think you hurt your leg for a paycheck.

You'll show up. You'll show up and limp around. Yeah, I'm here. At least they have to pay you if you're standing there. So he still gets by, though, on everything, even though football isn't going well. His wife said Barbarabara said quote golden was a charismatic person who was articulate and outgoing and kind and people always responded to him his method of operation was always the same gee i have a toothache he would say and

doctors wrote him prescriptions in dallas and utah it didn't matter so So that's him. I mean, that's all there is to it. So that's his whole NFL career. He's done now. Nobody wants him anymore. He just quit showing up. Well, he's a speed receiver who was pushing 30 years old and had knee injuries. Yeah, bad wing, bad leg.

And a wicked pill problem. So there's other guys with less issues that you can take. So his whole career, he had 122 receptions for 2,136 yards and 17 touchdowns. So kind of less than he could have, we'll say. He did average 17.5 yards a reception, which is big. That's big. That's a big play. 2,000 yards his career?

His career, yeah. Yeah, and a Super Bowl ring. Yeah, he's got a ring, definitely. reception which is big that's big it's a big play tooth 2 000 yards his career his career yeah yeah and a super bowl ring and yeah he's got a ring definitely well we'll talk about his ring actually he we'll see if he still has his ring so 1980 somebody has a ring someone's got a ring well it's disputed who though as we'll find out 1981 he gets a tv show because he has a personality and he's, you know, all that shit. So he gets a TV show on ESPN, which in 1981, it was brand new. They were looking for anything. That's awesome. If you had two guys fight each other with sticks, they'd put it on there if you had a camera.

And it's got a name. You could call it the Golden Hour. Fucking you could do anything. They call it ESPN Outdoors. Or that. Or that. What the fuck? Yep't they don't fucking they didn't capitalize on the guy not at all the show's producer lee martin said golden was an ideal host and that the producer never knew of any drug problem he said we never

had any situations where he was late for a shoot or didn't show up he was a great asset because because he got involved with everything he He was such a charmer. People really took to him. That's how he is. Yeah, I believe it. He's a charmer. He did some TV work in Chicago as well because he was on the Bears. And then he ends up returning to Salt Lake City to take a public relations job with an

energy company. So that's what he does. Charismatic spokesman, probably. Yeah. Now he's what he does. A charismatic spokesman probably. Yeah. Now he's got to get up in the morning though. He's got to put a suit on. To the electric company? That's crazy.

Yeah, for that. So his wife said that she quickly realized that the end of his football career didn't mean the end of taking pills. She thought, oh, well, if he's not getting hurt, maybe he'll stop taking pills. He's hurt forever. She said, I truly thought that was I truly thought that trying to play with pain was Golden's problem. I thought that when he stopped playing, he would change. But it didn't.

So 1984 in March, he and Barbara are divorced after 10 years. That was like, yep. She said, I finally gave up. And in July of 84, Golden checks himself into a rehab in Salt Lake City, the St. Benedict's ACT Center for the first of three stays there that he's going to have pretty soon here. He'll get married again pretty quick right after this. And then that'll last less than a year. And then he'll end up getting married again later on. Maybe you're the problem, Golden.

Well, let's find out what he's up to 10 years after retirement. By 1992, this is a dark story. By 1992, he gets up in the morning and immediately takes a bunch of pills. His stomach is so jangled from everything else and all the pills he's been taking that he'll throw the pills up after he took them. No, no. So then he fishes through the toilet to pick the capsules out. No! And take them again.

Oh, my God! That's a fucking, that's. That's an addiction, my friend. That's dope sick love behavior. You betcha. That's an addiction, my friend. That's dope sick love behavior. You betcha. That is. That's going way too far. Washing your needle out in the Wendy's toilet bowl to shoot up level of fucking, what are you doing, bro?

Eating your pills after you lurched them. If a toilet is involved with your drug ritual at all in any way, you need to stop what you're doing and take a step back. If you're using that toilet to facilitate your drug use, there's a problem, my friend. I don't care if it's picking it out of your own puke or cleaning your needles in it. Either way, not good. I hope there's a very bright light in there and you can see your reflection in that toilet water. I hope so.

So yeah, he said when he found whole capsules, he'd rinse them off and pop them in his mouth and pray he wouldn't throw them back up again i'm gonna throw that's what i mean right how do you do that is that a pill or a chunk of pot roast fuck it i'll just put them both in there that's disgusting you're playing carrot or pill this is gross this is not and he never eats good andenties just in case he doesn't want to have any confusion. No Mike and Ikes for me. No Mike and Ikes. So this is fucked up. Hot tamales, you're out.

Jesus Christ, man. That's what I mean. Oh, fuck. This is bad stuff. I feel bad for this guy. This is terrible. As he's doing that, this is going to kill me. I'm going to die.

I'm not long for this. And this has been 15 years now he's been doing this, this is going to kill me. I'm going to die. I'm not long for this. And this has been 15 years now he's been doing this. This is 1992. I mean, this has been going on a long time. This guy's living in hell. He's living in hell. There's no other way to put it. I'm so sweaty.

I know, me too. It was gross. When I found that, I was like, ugh. God damn it. And that was in a newspaper article with his picture right next to it. Oh, Jesus, what? His picture's right there, just like, here's the guy who, now, see his face? Imagine him wiping the chunks off of a fucking pill to pop it again.

Think about that. Very sad. So, have we reached rock bottom yet? It's gotta be. Well, not quite, Jimmy. Oh, my God. December 14th, 1992, he is arrested. Did he sift through shit because it went through too fast?

He was sifting through other people's puke for pills. That's the problem. You can sift through your own, but not other people's. Once you do that, then the law gets involved. Or at least the church. Somebody gets involved. i don't fucking know who who does you can pick through your poop you can pick through your friend's poop but you can't pick but you can't you can't pick your friend's poop yeah that's uh that's how that would go through your vomit you can pick through your friends vomit pick your vomit you can pick through your friends vomit yeah pick your vomit you can pick your friends but you can't pick through your friends mom oh my god dude i want to fucking vomit

look can i pick through it or no we just said i can't pick through it you can't pick through your friends vomit damn it it's the rule you can eat what you want to get the vomit you want, obviously, and you can, but you can't. Yeah, you're right. So he's arrested in Salt Lake City in a suburb there and accused of, this is very sad, forging his father's signature on 16 checks. He's stealing, forging from his parents, man. 16 transactions from his father. And he's 42 years old, so his dad's got to be an older guy, 70s, something like. Oh, my God.

Totaling not even that much. This is the sad part. $664.88. 16 checks totaling that. That's not. $60 a check? None of the checks were for over $100. They were all little things, so they wouldn't draw attention.

The money went to, it was all for painkillers. They were all checks to pharmacies. So he's buying pills. So when he gets arrested, as soon as he gets arrested, it goes public very quickly. He gets fired. He's working construction at that point. And he gets fired from his construction job as well. So they don't want him operating machinery and shit or hammering a co-worker to a two-by-four by accident. So the owner of the condo that he lived also, because he was staying in somebody that he knew who was staying in their condo,

that he lived also because he was staying in somebody that he knew he was staying in their condo called soon after to tell him he had to leave because he doesn't want drug addicts associated with his, with his apartment. Um, he said that, the guy told him that I have sold the apartment so he can't stay here anymore, but he thinks it was that. Um,

he said that, some of his Superbowl memorabilia, including the Jersey he wore in the Superbowl against the Broncos, he sold it to pay debts. Jesus fuck. His brother Royal said, quote, it's a sad situation. You wonder what the end is going to be. You hope things will turn around. You hope he says one day I won't use drugs again.

Yeah. You would hope. So December 31st, 1992 is his 42nd birthday. And he spends it being arraigned in a Salt Lake City circuit court on seven counts of forgery. Happy birthday to you. The golden birth. That's your golden birthday. 42nd, right?

That's your golden. As long as you're 40. Isn't it? It's 42's your golden birthday, 42nd, right? That's your golden? As long as you're 42. Isn't it? It's 42 is your golden. You spend it in court adjudicating. It's whatever your birthday is is your golden birthday, isn't it? I don't fucking know. I didn't know that was a thing.

I was kidding. His name's Golden. It is a thing. Yeah, you're 31st. Adults. Elizabeth is 31st. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Adults, stop with your fucking birthdays.

Sorry. Stop. Stop, stop, stop. But it's my birthday. I don't care. You're an adult. I don't fucking care about your birthday. Don't care.

There's only 365 days. There's 7 billion people. You're not unique. You're not the only guy born today. Guess what birthdays don't count? Your first birthday. Guess what? don't count? Your first birthday. Guess what? You don't remember that.

Doesn't fucking matter. That's for your goddamn parents to show off that they've kept you alive for a year. Wonderful. They've kept you drawing wind for 365 days. That's it. Besides that, the first birthday that matters is your 16th birthday. That's fine. Maybe 10 double digits, but 16, you can drive.

You can do shit like that 18 is big you're an adult 21 is big after that shut the fuck up and celebrate the decades done and this is we've this is not a new thought new concept plenty of people have said this but shut the fuck up shut up with this birthday month it's my birthday week you get one fucking day go to work come home have a decent dinner and shut the fuck up. Bang your wife and go to bed. What do you want from me? Otherwise, how are you supposed to make your 31st birthday matter at all, James?

It's got to be the one. It doesn't matter. That's the point. Not every day matters. You're a fucking adult. Jesus Christ. Stop it. Everybody's got to have another special day.

Oh, stop it with your special. No, you're not special. Nobody's special. I'd like to make an announcement. Hello? Mike Ditka here. Number one, it's a weakness. Just don't get hooked.

Number two, you're not special. Chomp, chomp, chomp. Understand? The only thing special is this gum. The only thing special is this dentine. Why do I like dentine? I don't know why I picked dentine. I guarantee that's what he chews.

It seems like what he would chew, right? Absolutely what he chews. I got this dentine. So not doing well. Richard said, quote, not quite what the golden boy had in mind for a birthday party. That's what he said. Jesus Christ. But the good news is, new year, new me.

Here you go, bud. Tomorrow you can start all over. Yeah, that's true. That is true. With all these fines you've got to pay. He's already confessed to all over. Yeah, that's true. That is true. With all these fines you've got. He's already confessed to all this. He faces, by the way, they're trying to get their charges reduced from third degree felonies to misdemeanors if they're unsuccessful, which is highly unlikely because he's not like a career criminal. He faces right now up to 35 years in prison for $600 worth of bad checks from his dad because it's it's it's he keeps doing he keeps doing it so 16 times how do you not how do you not go oh my god

it's i can't do this anymore it's bad so january 1993 the next month he pleads guilty they agree to lower the charges and he receives you sir may fuck off seven days in jail in order to do community service and pay a fine this isn't really that much of a criminal thing to me this is this is 35 years down to seven days seven days to me good reduction it's not bad but this is more of like a personal thing between him and his dad he stole from his dad it's not it's not a stranger so if his dad wants to forgive him and try to help him and say he's got a drug problem i don't have a big problem with it i don't really need the state to make it their problem you know what i mean i get it's forgery but on a scale

of sadness this is certainly sad some of the saddest yeah this is horrible if you steal from a stranger it's different but if it's your parents and they say, I want to help him. This showed me he has a problem and all that. Then I don't know. Whatever. I don't fucking know. But seven days is fine. He does probably need to cool off for seven days.

Yeah. Probably be good for him. That's going to be seven hell days for the other prisoners. Oh, my God. And he has to do community service, too. They said he's penniless. He's jobless. And he said at this point, once he's out of jail and everything, for five weeks he's been homeless going from friend's house to friend's house night after night sleeping on couches.

The man was on a float a few years ago. He was celebrated. As a hero. Now he is – well, now he's still on a float, but the float's a couch. It's a different kind of float. It's an Ikea float. He was on a float with people smiling as he drove over those two X's where JFK was. He was waving.

Hi. Now he is sleeping on couches, and he said it's a new reality. They're talking about this article in the paper he's sitting with his public defender and he acknowledges that he's a drug addict and he's dependent on prescription drugs and all that kind of thing he's by the way by he's chain smoking cigarettes now he's all the other stuff's out the window typical he's doing the real stereotypical drug addict guy especially one that's trying to trying to quit um he says i've been in hell and it's not pretty but i made my own hell and this is after three times of drug rehab going right back to it and all that kind of thing about rehab he said it helped for a while

but i wasn't ready to quit i wasn't ready until now he said that the arrest changed everything that was embarrassing he said you cannot fall any lower than standing there handcuffed with the only way out being to die. That's pretty low. He said that he began drinking after retiring from football and also enrolled in a hospital outpatient program and joined a local chapter of Alcoholics Anonymous as well because he was drinking and doing the pills, which is a great way to stop your heart. That's very nice. Also preparing to begin speaking to youth groups on the evils of addiction now. He's good now. Let's get you a couple months removed from picking your puke chunks off your pills in the toilet before you start talking to the kids.

What do you say? We can still smell the puke on your breath. But that's the story you tell people. Don't tell them, oh, yeah, I was home. Kids don't think about money or future things. Say, I was so bad that I picked fucking my own throw up off of pills and reate them. They all go, oh, God. That'll stick in their fucking head.

They'll never forget that that's reality a guy that sucks dick for coke will go jesus jesus bro good god semen's less gross than puke so um he said that uh they said that this reporter is walking with him and they walk around after eating a dinner downtown in Salt Lake City. And he's pointing out hotels and stuff. And Richard says, and he's saying that he had dinner with Willie Nelson over here. He said, oh, there I hung out with Chris Christopherson over here, all this stuff. And Richard says, quote, This has been a horrible, horrible way of life. I will not lie.

Like any addict, I've been deceitful, manipulative and cunning. People who suffer from my kind of addiction can lose everything that means everything to you. I know I have. So he's fucked. Now, here's more from Joel Reese. This is Joel Reese. This is about the time Joel Reese encounters him in the 90s here. here so this guy talks about how he was a kid and his newspaper articles and uh all about golden richards on his wall in his room he bought even after the cowboys traded him he bought a bears

jersey that had 83 on it because it was golden richards and he was fucking all about mr golden richards there he said he always still carried carried a Golden Richards football card in his wallet. Really? Obsessed with this guy. So he said he fantasized about meeting him. And he said now he was writing an article. And, you know, he had been arrested, obviously, for the drugs and everything like that. So he said during his first year of graduate school for journalism at the University of Montana,

his first year of graduate school for journalism at the university of montana in the sports section of the missoulian uh was a one-page paragraph story that had said golden had no money no job and no place to live and had lost everything because of addiction to pills so like my hero can stay with me holy shit yeah he can sleep on my couch so he said he found him and persuaded golden to talk to him and he says uh quote here i was with golden on a sunny winter afternoon in 1994 in his hometown of salt lake city we were in his car the plan was to drive around that's like the next day that we'll talk about that when they met he says um he says that uh his life's been a series of turns for the worse, rehab efforts followed by relapses, near overdoses, and drinking binges. He said, apart from the forgery arrest, I had a vague idea at the time of our meeting of the extent of Golden's troubles. He said, it was our get acquainted night, his chance to check this guy out who'd driven nine hours from Montana to probe into his life.

I traveled down Interstate 15 through Dillon and, you know, the whole deal. When he gets there, he said he had to stop at a place that was 40 below zero. And it was a harrowing drive there. He meets Golden and he says, wow. He says, quote, here is the man I had idolized like a father since the age of 10. He looked a little haggard. His eyes were not as sharp as I thought they would be. And he moved slowly.

He was still trim and immediately friendly. But his skin had the leathery look of someone who smokes too much and sleeps too little. Perhaps an effect of having been addicted to painkillers on and off for more than 20 years. He said, Golden was pretty calm, but he drank several Pepsis while we talked. Several. He accidentally kicked his cup and spilled brown cola on the rugs. Shiite Muslims, he said,

as he dodged into the... That's his way of saying shit, apparently. Ugh, I hate that. As he dodged into the kitchen... Insolent. God damn it. So he said he was articulate and thoughtful and was open about his

past drug use. He said he occasionally clucked his tongue and shook his head. The crazy days of the NFL, he said with a slight smile. He sat back and looked at me as I talked, listening and thinking before answering.

He asked about my life, how I ended up here and why I chose him as my favorite player. He looked smaller than his six-foot height and wore new-looking Wrangler blue jeans and button-down white cotton shirt. He invited me into his tidy apartment. And he's talking about sitting across from each other and all that kind of thing.

He says, on the shelf next to a small plaster Jesus were pictures of him and his new 25 year old wife sitting by a tree so he's 44 he's an nfl player i guess but he's a yeah he needs so much he's so yeah this won't last by the way though no this is 25 poor lady yeah she's just in for a bad time here you were on the cowboys oh boy here we go we went out to his porch and he smoked a cigarette something he said maybe i shouldn't mention because he didn't want to be a bad time here. You were on the Cowboys? Oh boy, here we go. We went out to his porch and he smoked a cigarette, something he said maybe I shouldn't mention because he didn't want to be

a bad influence on kids. He told me that he was going to be starting a job that week analyzing data for a California-based health products company. He was back on track and I was happy for him.

Okay. So, the ride, though, they go for a ride the next day. And he said that, you know, he was a little disappointed in Golden not being as sharp as he thought he was going to be. But he says, quote, I forgot about my disappointment in him because I was riding with him in his wife's car, his third wife. He was driving and I was asking questions. God damn, my radiator light is on, he said.

We need to get some water. He pulled into a gas station and parked by the water hose in front of the pay phone. We went inside and he bought a Monster Pepsi. We went out to the car and he opened the hood and turned toward me. Say, listen, my teeth are killing me, he said, looking away. We know how that starts. My dentist said it's from being knocked around so much on Sundays. I've had three root canals.

I can't go in to see him till tomorrow. I took some Tylenol this morning, but it's not working. Do you have any painkillers? Tylenol three or anything like that? Anything better than, you know, regular Tylenol. Wow. So this guy says warning lights went off in my head last night at his apartment golden had told me about his addiction to painkillers

but he said he was clean and everything was okay he was good now now he's asking me for pills i don't have anything like that i said do you think your friend does he said dude referring ask your mom yeah referring to sean the guy whom i was staying with but didn't know very well i don't know i don't know if he's around i said can you give him a call and see if he's home he said pulling a quarter out of his pocket i'll give you a quarter if you call him wow this is 94 when you could still put a quarter in a box and call somebody. So the moment hung there, he says, Golden held out the quarter. I knew I should say no, forget it. This makes me really uncomfortable, but I wanted to cooperate with him so he would and dialed. I wanted Golden to step away so I could fake the call, but he stayed leaning over my shoulder. I could smell the leather of his bomber jacket. I want to hear what he says.

Oh, my God. His face was yellowish and the hands that had cradled so many touchdowns clasped the metal edges of the phone booth. Hello, Sean. Listen, I'm with Golden and his teeth are really hurting do you have any prescription stuff tylenol three i don't know let me look sean said he put the phone down what's he doing is he checking golden asked dude um let me talk to him and then he took the phone from my hand i could sell this better kid give Wow. What's this guy's name, he asked. I told him.

He doesn't even know his name. What's his name? All right. Hey. Hey, Sean. Golden Richards here. How you doing? He gets on the phone.

Listen, my teeth are really bad and I need something for them. I don't know how you say these names. I'm not a pill guy. Mepergen? Mepergen? Mepergen? What's that? Okay.

Well, listen, buddy. I'll be glad to reimburse you for them. You sure? Okay, buddy, well, listen, what do you do? Photography? Hell, buddy, I can set you up, get you all sorts of jobs, taking pictures of sports teams and stuff like that. I'd be glad to help you out. Now he's just manipulating them. That's all. He's just, yeah. Faking opportunities

yep oh i'll help you out totally yeah give me these pills this isn't this is a long relationship we're gonna have not just me taking pills from you yeah we drove to sean's apartment he wasn't home so this is the back to joel saying this so i used the key he had given me golden went to the dining room table where sean had left the pills. He looked at the label. You think he has anything else, he asked, his eyes splitting around the apartment. He still wouldn't look at me. Let's toss the place.

Let's see what else we can find. I don't know, I said. He said there might be more in the bathroom. Where's the bathroom, he asked. Oh my god. The guy never said that. So now he's robbing a man's house of pills. Now he's ryan leafing him so he said golden went down the hall i heard him rummaging through the medicine cabinet oh my god golden came out of sean's bathroom holding the bottle of pills they don't have

anything else he said he went to the phone and called a pharmacy a number he apparently had memorized to find out about mepergen, a brand of neperidine, also marketed under the familiar name Demerol, jackpot, which is a narcotic pain killer combined with an antihistamine. He asked a couple of questions, then hung up, and we left Sean's apartment to tour Salt Lake City. He drove. I tried to put the incident behind me i'm trying to forget that he just robbed my friend he just burglarized my friend's house it's cool it's cool it's golden richards man it's totally cool and now he's high on demerol

behind the wheel showing me things yep that's oh this gets really bad we drove around the city and he showed me the large pink house where his parents live the fields where he and his brothers played football where he had learned the moves that made him a star in high school i asked him about his second wife and what had happened with her he began a rambling tale about how she had attacked him one night and then called the police it was the craziest damn thing he said yeah yeah his voice slowly got softer and raspy and i could barely hear him he wasn't making much sense he talked for several minutes then asked me quote what was the question again yeah yeah kid you got him so high he kept kept licking his lips. We were talking about your second wife, I said.

Oh, right, yeah, he says. That was a messy situation. Boy, I tell you. Then he was mumbling again. He appeared to be lost and kept turning into dead-end streets and stalling the car. He can't try a stick now. He's lost the ability to clutch. He pulled into a strip mall to go

into a video store and i followed him this is when you're renting videos still back then say how much money do you have he asked i'm just wondering because you know he said trailing off now he's just spent my last quarter yeah now he's just starting sentences and then just trailing off like someone who's on a lot of pills in the store he seemed to grab boxes at random and stare at them his mind not processing the cover of weekend at bernie's not a lot to process there really oh boy they're dragging a corpse around so they just desecrate a corpse for a fucking week great okay um something was definitely off but i haven't seen him take any of the pills and i've been with him the whole time golden grabbed for the boys with bet middler and a

nintendo hockey game and walked unsteadily to the counter yeah he's gonna rent a hockey game do you want the instructions for that the teenage cashier asked him what the instructions for the game the kid said what golden rich replies this here this is a nintendo game a cartridge oh golden said holding the cartridge up in front of his face no i don't want this he doesn't even have a nintendo i don't even know what i grabbed he thought he was he was just picking up a hockey movie, apparently. He doesn't know what he's grabbing. He tossed two crumpled bills onto the counter, and we walked out. I carried the movie.

So he did get for the boys, though. He's very into that. I went to the— Yeah, he loves— You've got to hear her. You know what? I know she's not— I know it's not Beaches, but maybe, just maybe, I'll get one beneath my wings.

You know what I mean? Just maybe. You never know. We don't know yet yet i've never seen it i'll be surprised he said i went to the car i went to the car and turned and he was still standing on the curb he just said he left him behind standing there he looked pale in his jeans and bomber jacket mouth open knees slightly bent legs bowed like an old cowboy's he tried tried to put his sunglasses in his shirt pocket, swiping repeatedly and missing the pocket each time. Oh, my God. He wobbled to get to the car and got behind the wheel.

His skin was chalky. Why don't you let me drive, I said. Best idea of the day. No, I'll be fine, he said said he couldn't get the key into the ignition again and again stabbing the steering column oh my god no i'll be fine oh god he did get the car started but stalled it there in the parking lot then finally got out into the road jesus christ he was weaving crossing the center line suddenly he pulled into the parking lot of an office complex he parked and we sat there silent this is yeah finally i mustered the

courage to ask are you feeling okay good question this is the weirdest day of my life this is fucked up he was leaning back in his seat eyes closed mouth agape i'm just kind of like i don't know he said the rest of my head i asked are the rest of my the rest of my head that's what he said i'm just kind of like i don't know the rest of my head that was his response to are you okay so fucked up i asked golden how many of those pills he started to ask him and golden saying, say, do you want a cold drink? Motioning toward a restaurant at the end of the line. Fine. He said, that was a coherent sentence.

I thought maybe he's okay. That's good. No thanks is what the response was, though. The car started rolling toward the restaurant. I looked over at him. Golden's eyes were shut, his head lolling backwards. He was blacking out. Oh, my God, and the car's driving.

Yeah. Golden, better hit the brakes. You're about to hit that wall. Oh, shit, he said, slamming on the brake pedal. Say, how many of those pills, how many did you take? A bunch of them, I asked. I just, I don't know, he said. Wow.

I felt crazy, like jumping through that window. His head tilted back again. That's what he said. Okay. Why don't I drive, I said. It looks like you're getting sleepy there. That's a good way to put it. He said, quote, blinding in my eye, can't function.

Okay. Wow. I got out and walked around to the driver's door and helped him out. He was no longer a man. He was a drowsy, disoriented child. He held on to the car as he walked around the back. He stopped and bent over the license plate. Is this the kind you punch, he asked.

What the fuck does that mean? It means he needs a doctor, right? Is this the kind you punch he asked what the fuck does that mean this it means he needs a doctor right is this the kind you punch and uh he said uh no i said the engine sputtered as i drove how many of those pills did you take i asked the ones we got at the apartment his answer all of them oh boy quote when you're an addict you have to take all of them oh my god he ate all of them he took the whole bottle oh jesus heard this from so many addicts you take them all you just always take out all that's how much you take all of it oh god that's as much as you can get um wow um then he suddenly semi he was said uh he said that he said it was like semi lucid when you're an addict you have to take all of them yeah uh he said that he said it was like semi-lucid when you're an

addict you have to take all of them yeah so he said quote do you think of yourself as an addict then golden said no not really and shut put his head back and shut his eyes yesterday i was wow i was about 20 minutes ago though now i could take it or leave it now i'm having a good time oh my god he said i drove in silence looking over at him occasionally to see how he was doing. They could come in 0-25 and beat the Cowboys, he mumbled. Who's that, I asked. The Rangers, he said. What?

He thinks the baseball team is going to play them? For baseball games, play more than 25 games. Football teams play less than 25 games. And baseball teams don't play football teams. So I don't know what the fuck he's talking about. I can't even find... They come in 0-25. Still beat the Cowboys.

In what sport are they 0-25? They could lose 25 straight games of hockey and still beat the Cowboys in basketball. What are you talking about? So you got any more pills? Do you have more of those? Can you call your mom? Does your sister have a rotted out vagina she takes pain pills for? Because that's what I heard they take them for, little girls.

It's rotten. I need pills. Oh, boy. He said, I got to his apartment complex, helped him up the stairs to his apartment, and sat down on his couch. I checked his jacket and found the pill bottle in the front left pocket it was empty they did take them all golden was crawling on or all fours in front of the couch don't put a cheeseburger in front of him wow holy shit i ran into the bedroom called an emergency hotline and told the attendant what had happened where is is he now, the attendant asked.

He's on the living room floor. Go see if he's still breathing, she said. Jesus Christ. My God, okay. I ran back to the living room, and Golden was passed out in the classic drunk position, face down on the carpet, arms at his side, knees bent. I leaned over and heard breath rasping out of his mouth. His hair hung around his purplish face and his eyes were shut.

I ran back to the phone. Yes, he's still breathing. Okay, call 911 immediately, they said. What's the other thing? Call the coroner? Well, I got two numbers here for you. Is he breathing? You don't need this number.

Let's go ahead and throw that one away. The paramedics arrived a few minutes later. One went over to Golden and started taking his vitals. I leaned against the wall, unable to watch. His blood pressure was 170 over 110. His pupils are unreactive and constricted, the paramedics said. They put oxygen tubes up his nose. They sat him up and asked him if he had taken any pills.

No, sir, he said said squat on the floor his legs flat out in front of him what day is it monday tuesday what day is it one asked him tuesday he said his eyes rolled back it was saturday oh man so the paramedic said, be straight with us here, Golden. What's going on? And Golden said, in regards to what? Oh, boy. We're in your living room. Do we live here? Are we normally in your living room?

Why do you think we're here? In regards to why we're here, they said you were unconscious on the floor. Golden's response waves him off and goes, probably a woman woman said that and then drifted his head back off probably a woman said that i've been married three times you can't trust them and their vaginas rot out wild shit their vaginas rot out and then you can take their pills though so i keep marrying them so guys you guys got pills j Hey, you guys. You guys got pills? Jesus. So you guys look like doctors. He said, paramedics said, you weren't unconscious on the floor?

And Golden said, that'd be one times, that'd be one, two, three, one, five. That is not a coherent answer. That is not an answer to the questions that are being asked. And it's not even like an answer to the last question. It's just random shit. One of the paramedics said his eyes keep going back. Bring the stretcher up. He's going to go.

He's going to pass out. So one of the paramedics looked at the picture on the wall of golden catching a touchdown for the cowboys and said this is golden richards yeah the other responded the first one said this is sad this is really sad yeah sure in the fuck oh that's terrible seen him a few years ago guys there was a pile of puke with pills and fuck man so this kid who's writing the article said he joel reese he said he's upset he said he's he's crying at this point yeah he said golden lay there on the stretcher as they wheeled him out eyes wild and uncomprehending blue tubes up his nose i followed as they took him to the

ambulance the neighbors looking at us from their porches a round-faced policeman started grilling me asking me how he got the pills yeah i got them for him i said oh shut up this is someone who doesn't normally do illegal things is what this is and a kid that's never been never had a friend that did illegal things yeah um uh then the guy said why did he pay you who are you then he started realizing what's going on the kid kid said, he's going to arrest me. I thought he thinks I'm Golden's pusher. So he says, look, I got them for him because he said his teeth hurt. I didn't know. I wanted to help him.

I'm his biggest fan. I don't know what the fuck. He scammed me. I wasn't pushing pills on the guy. So he said, I drove to the hospital and joined his wife, Amy, at the time. She'll be gone soon. Her son and her dad in the emergency room. We sat there against the wall under the stifling fluorescent lights there.

So she said, the wife, quote, this is it. He's going to Arizona, meaning the rehab center there. So she, wow. She said, I guess it's safe to say I don't know my husband very well with a nervous laugh. So he goes, I left the hospital. This is Joel again and drove back to Sean's apartment. Jesus Christ. I'm so sorry we burgled your place, Sean.

Yeah. He said, I remember trying to pinpoint when Golden took the pills and thinking he must have taken them in Sean's bathroom. He must have went right down there and done it. That night, Golden called me. Sorry about today, he said. Thanks for your help. That's all right, he said back. Then Golden said, yeah, the doctors don't know what happened.

They said it was either a grand mal seizure or an allergic reaction. Or? Well, he said, Golden, I found the empty bottle in your coat. Yeah. And he said there was a long pause, and then he said, Golden said, well, I don't know what the hell's going on, but it wasn't the pills. Okay. Yeah. He said that he called him a couple weeks later, and they chatted for a while, and he asked him about what had happened that day in Salt Lake City.

And he said, Golden said he thought the pills were a non-narcotic muscle relaxant and he took the whole bottle because they were old and he thought their potency might have expired. Pharmacy told you they were fucking Demerol, dude. You knew what it was. He said, I told him that people might not believe that and he became annoyed. Quote, I don't care what some people think. I don't have to explain myself to anybody, But since it's you, I'll tell you. He said that, Jesus Christ. Quote, the other day I went to a dentist, to the dentist, and the dentist was going to give me some pain pills.

I asked what was in them, and he said they were fine. I said, okay. Then I said, do these have any codeine? He said, yes. I said, whoa, no thank you kindly. And I didn't. And I didn't. I got a non-narcotic pain pill. That was the reality of my situation. Not what happened with you. That wasn't the reality. They're both reality. That's that's the struggle. One day you win. The next day you lose. That's addiction. That's that's what sucks about it. It's fucking you can be go off. Yeah. What's it's like. You can go from the biggest fucking.

It's like a baseball season. It's long and you could have a terrible streak and then be doing well. And then it's a fucking it's hard, man. So he says that he'd been told the whole incident was a result of a reaction to sulfa drugs he had taken for an upper respiratory tract infection. Yeah. So this is this is pretty fucking silly. He said that then the guy ends up saying, more than likely it will happen again, and maybe next time he won't wake up. Maybe there will be a couple of pills too many, and when the next person puts his ear to Golden's mouth, he won't hear anything.

So, yeah. Also, there's his Super Bowl ring. Yeah. This is from that article too about joel joel reese's article he said he had left it at a house of a former girlfriend who was now demanding money for it he said she was asking 2,500 to 3,000 when i visited with him several weeks later he told me a variation of the same story apparently forgetting that i had heard it before i asked him how much she was asking quote i don't even remember something like six seven eight hundred he said i asked for the woman's name but he said he didn't want to tell me so the lawsuit he was about to

file would surprise her jesus christ um but at this moment though there's a guy who manages the salt lakes baseball cards etc a baseball card store. He said Golden's jersey, shoes, and helmets, they have been coming in for sale. And he said they weren't that popular until he got arrested. He said within minutes of him being arrested, everything he had sold. He also said a friend of Golden's offered to sell him Golden's Super Bowl ring. said a friend of golden's offered to sell him golden super bowl ring he was asking eleven hundred dollars for it and i offered about half of that to see how serious he was wow eleven hundred dollars i don't think so well he said he then recalled how he had met golden years before and

then golden had let him see the ring i held it in my hand he said he'd call me back but he never did he was such a super nice guy he made me feel like i was the greatest thing in the world because i was letting me try his ring on he said i have no thoughts at all uh that he still has it i bet anything he doesn't yeah no shit i want it yeah that would be that's god it's somewhere out there there's some fucking dipshit Cowboys fan is way overpaid for that shit. Probably. I'm sure by now. Later in 93, he he also worked as a machinist for his father in law's plastic fabricating plant. Oh, my God. But he went to work one day and slowly lapsed into incoherence.

Yeah. His wife's Amy, his wife Amy's father Stan said he almost, he got almost non-functional. He got disoriented. My son took him home. He never did collapse. It wasn't as though he, it wasn't as though

he was really drunk. As he said at that point in time, he wasn't aware that he had taken anything. He said he thought somebody had put something in his soda as a joke, but I don't believe that.

Yeah. No shit. He took pills. Duh. Hollywood Henderson says, but I don't believe that. Yeah. No shit. He took pills, duh. Hollywood Henderson says, when I read about Golden's arrest in the papers, I called him and got a message to him. I said, if you need help, give me a call. This is after he,

because Hollywood's actually kept his life together for a long time now, for 20 years. He's kept it 30 years, Christ. He said, I said, if you need help, give me a call. He never called. I've been sober since 83. I was addicted to crack cocaine. He might think his addiction to pills is tough, but wait until you get your mouth around that

little crack pipe. I wouldn't give him any money, any pills, but I can tell him what I've been through, the hell of addiction, and I know what it's like. But I also know the beauty of recovery, and I know how to live. But does golden richards want to live i had to get over the myth of hollywood can golden get over the myth of golden can he be john richards there you go so june 2001 golden is arrested again sort of yeah um a metropolitan transit authority bus driver is arrested in 1996. And they said he was finishing his route, which was at the Buffalo Bayou facility, which is also our police headquarters. And they said the bus driver told co-workers he played for the Cowboys and all this type of shit so apparently this guy who got a job as a bus driver for the

city here said he was golden richards and he played for the cowboys and just told everybody he was golden richards so does he know yeah he just thought that i guess the man was identified later on as gordon golden richards so but they know and they the real golden richard said i have no idea what's going on he said people in salt lake city know that's not me he's like that's not me so uh the cowboys said that they emailed a picture of him and they they said they they emailed the cowboys and said is this golden richards and they said they emailed the Cowboys and said, is this Golden Richards? And they said, no, it's not. So, no, not the right guy.

So they said that he said he was very happy. He lives in Salt Lake City. He said, it isn't me. I've never been happier. He said, I just feel sorry for this guy. I'm not in the judgment business. God is. I wish him well.

I hope he gets a hold of his life. He also says he's divorced and does yard work to support his sons, and he lives on a, quote, small NFL pension. Now, I don't know what it was in 2001, but right now, if you retired in the 80s or 90s, you get between $3,000 and $5,640 a month. That's not bad. As your NFL pension, if you played more than, what is it,

three and three-quarter years or whatever the fuck it is, which he did. He got all his time in. And then the amount is based on the number of seasons played as well. So he had seven seasons. He gets a decent amount nowadays. By 2011, doctors have said because of his drug abuse and constant hits to the head and everything else, they have diagnosed him. They say they think that's the cause of this. They have diagnosed

him with Parkinson's disease. Oh, no. So he's got Parkinson's now in 2011, which you can't do yard work with Parkinson's. Your edging would be terrible. Your chainsaw work is fucking dangerous. Dangerous. So he's living with his sons at this point who are getting grown now. He's still alive,

and he was diagnosed with Parkinson's 10 years ago, and I see nothing about him, so I think he's probably kind of laying low and trying to get his life together here. I did find, and this is stupid, on BleacherReport.com, they had the 100 worst players in the NFL ever, which is dumb because you could take tons of players who played for three games and put them on the list. Instead, they have Golden at number 49, which I think that's bullshit because he caught a touchdown pass in the Super Bowl that was a good play and in the championship game the

week before. That right there gets you off of this list. And I think it's stupid because um the next guy is a guy named king hill you know who this guy is no king hill he's this fucking idiot quarterback who played for the chicago cardinals for a year and the eagles for a while it was a backup and then the vikings for a year and the cardinals again for a year he's a total draft bust he was taken number one overall by the chicago cardinals and turned out to be a complete bust. He threw 31 intercepts in his whole career, 37 touchdowns, 71 picks.

Oh, my God. Not good. For like 11 teams. There's a documentary about a semi-pro team. it's like the pots damn or potsville i think it's pots damn eagles or something it's on youtube it's from the 70s it's this documentary about the semi-pro team and he's the fucking quarterback on the team come on king and he's the most arrogant asshole in the history of the world for every every touchdown, he's throwing two interceptions. It's fucking terrible.

And that's the guy below him and like, no, I'm sorry. This guy actually, Golden had a decent little career. You know, good for him. I feel terrible for him at this point because the drug thing is, that sucks. And, you know, these guys would. So shitty. Yeah, he's not hurting other people, so it's hard to be mad at him. If he was robbing people for his drug addiction, that's a different story, but he's not.

He almost killed a college kid in the 90s. He almost killed in the car. But I mean, he only hurts himself, and he's a fucking disaster. So it's like, Jesus Christ. He's pilled up. He says hilarious things. He says funny shit. That's the other thing.

He's very, very funny. Did a woman tell you that? it must have been a woman all righty this is nonsensical answer so that's golden richards everybody and quite the goddamn story of just i mean now he's 73 years old too he's still hanging in there with the with parkinson's that's rough if you like that story, tell everyone about it. Get on whatever app you're listening on. Find how to rate and review and give us five stars and say something nice. It really does help drive the show up the charts and let people know the show's still here. And we didn't quit and we didn't stop and we kept it going.

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Huge, like 150 episodes. And every other week, if anybody, $5 or above, you're going to get access to two new episodes every single week. One Crime and Sports, one Small Town Murder. And for this week, it's no different. We are going to give you, for Crime and sports, we're going to talk about the rise of fantasy sports. Where did it come from and how did it take over the personalities of 80% of men from fucking September to February?

How did this happen? What the hell is going on? We'll talk all about that. Then, for small-town murder, something very crazy. Kai, the hatchet wielding hitchhiker who has a documentary now about him. And he's a wild, crazy guy. And he's committed some murder. And we'll talk about him.

There is a crazy shit and everything, all that and more. And you get a shout out where Patreon Patreon.com slash Crime and Sports. Like I said, anybody $5 or above. If you want to follow us on social media, that is excessively easy to do. At Crime and Sports on Twitter and Facebook. At Small Town Murder on Instagram. That said, Jimmy, hit me with the names of the people who would never, ever, ever take a whole bottle of Demerol and make us call the paramedics on them uh after lying to us about a toothache jimmy hit me with them now this week's executive producers

are matt brit uh michelle miller dean kerr patrice wictor rescue what wictor zuski wictor rescue uh ben sullivan and happy birthday Jordan Bennett. Happy birthday Jordan. It's a big day. Happy birthday. One of our faves. Because you're not special. Happy birthday you and Simon. Have a nice day. And that's it. The next day didn't happen anymore.

It's over. Other producers this week are Peyton Meadows, Darcy Stander, Paul Egan, Teddy Hart Teddy Hart's Calico Butthole Foundation. Oh, boy. Frank Burchap, champion of the Crime and Sports Small-Town Murder Fantasy Football League. See? Congratulations.

Congratulations. Let's find out about what makes you this way. Ty Adkins made a showing in it also. Great job, guys. $17 and a Casio. Happy hour at home in marrero marrero louisiana cynthia cynthia cynthia jean willard katherine collado janice hill happy birthday jennifer stevens uh sarah surage is waiting on pal gus paul gaschioni you know we'll get there lucy cunniff happy birthday sue heil Paul Gascogne. Gascogne. Gascogne. You know. Gaza.

Yeah, we'll get there. Lucy Cunniff. Happy birthday. Sue Heil. Torres. Shitstains Family Foundation for Higher Learning, James. Other producers also. Paul Johnson.

Jackie with no last name. Carrie Ireland. Meg with no last name. Tim Beguret. Beguret. Beguret. Katie Ruddick. Matt DeLuke. Nope. LeDuke. LeDuke. Beguret. Beguret. Katie Ruddick. Matt DeLuke.

Nope, LeDuc. That's what it is. Cindy Bianchi. Beautiful. I wish I was better at this. Nick Kruger. Sarah Smith. Nick Clark.

Dustin Gray. Nicole with no last name. Quentin Casper. Gilly with no last name. Levi Wilson. Douglas Rydell. Emma Borelli. Lauren Veroff, I think. Bryce or Brees with no last name. Quentin Casper, Gilly with no last name. Levi Wilson, Douglas Rydell, Emma Borelli, Lauren Veroff, I think, Bryce or Breece with no last name. Mary Meeker, Shauna Myers. Nope,

that's just Sean. Sorry, Sean. Don't do too well. You just want to keep expectations low. That's all. You keep them low, you get celebrated for pronouncing fucking rachel correctly and it's fucking so just keep doing that it's good kevin wetclaw angela collier i think roe roe roe roy uh john glantz glancy sally west eileen hoffman opath opathy opathy one uh jessica p sarah keemsler uh samantha i i alice a lazy a lazy uh joshua braun lee c uh naomi mcknight daniel with no last name dolph lundgren probably not but i'm sure it is uh telly mckay alessa c taylor church spencer peterson huge crime and sports fan that guy he loves it he can't get enough uh charlie nope yeah castin castinia castinia can castany uh Mel would know last name, Aspen Anders, Nanette Roberts, Daniella would know last name, Katie Martin, Chris would know last name, Jim Barbado, Nicole

would know last name, Caitlin Froese, Kylie Rowan, Aaron Kennedy, Olivia Pracher, I think Bracker, Joanna Tiefenthaler, Tiefenthaler, Yeah. Tiefenthaler. Haley Moog, I think. Moog, maybe. Zach Barlow. Sue Clark. Renee Welch. Heather with no last name.

Michelle Craig. Andy Womack. Vanessa Cavanaugh. Savannah. Savannah. Savannah. Savannah Pearson. Nice and low, Jimmy.

Nice and low. Good job. You got to boot a grounder once in a while. So when you make a play in the hole, notices you know what I mean Vanessa yeah there you go Don even Jimmy can pronounce this more uh Robin no Rainbow Rainbow ASMR Samantha Weiler Dylan Hatcher Joe Mama Andy Smith uh Colin uh Sebastian, Asia Redgrave, Corin, maybe Corin, I don't know, Stevenson, Stephenson, maybe, who knows? Janet Walsdorf, Ryshawn Ralston Roach, Camden Whitney, Sean Young,

probably not that one, Nick Smith, Riley Foster. Wearing a bat suit in the studio. Earl Stevens, Amber Miller, Neville. Neville? Maybe. D. Kuntha. Kunha. Kunha. Kunha. Cassandra Nolan. Spencer with no last name. Wade McLeod. Andrew Bertram.

John Hope. Maybe Gene. Break the Mold. Shanika Morgan. Lisa Cox. Michael Velez. Rita with no last name. Chickadee Hill Cakes, Carrie with no last name, Christy Maverick, Teresa Blau, maybe Blow, Tiffany Tate, Paula Jordan,

Colin Alexander, and Asty Bearcat, I think. There's no fucking way I'm pronounced. Dick Butch, Dick Man, Dickman, maybe. Laurie Jenkins, Jay Joubert. Dylan Hauer. Nelson Colon.

Stephanie Thompson. Jackie Whitaker. Jamie Tibbenbets. Tibbenbets. Nokomis McGinnis. Nokomis? Nokomis. Nokomomis.

Vavi Arson. Samantha Plunkett. Jen Smith. Chelsea Mellick. Justin Mejicobe. Reagan Fish, Anthony Alvarez. Paige would know last name. Robert Heiner, Callie would know last name. Mariela Sanchez, Cody Kenner, Paige Kunkels, Rice Schwitters.

Rachel would know last name. Jorge Antonopoulos. What? How did I do that? Not bad. Joyce Erickson. You mixed up Spanish and Greek flawlessly like a fusion restaurant that's gone in the game that was a good job ruth defries i think deffries uh john bergen bergoon

uh kime kime goit what c-y-m-e kime chime chill me uh daniel anta Daniel Antonebedo. Antonebedo. I can't do it. It's a lot. He loses. He sputters out after the third vowel. He's like, I don't know. Antonebedo. Bingo.

Philip Johnson. Jenny Lyons. Stacey Gathers. Stephanie Russell. Elora. Elora guy. Jennifer DeMarco. Ala Medusa.

Akiya? Akiya Hardiman? A a la Medusa. Akiya? Akiya Hardiman? Akiya. It's Akiya. What are we doing? Thomas Martin. Even Ivan. Not even.

Ivan Castillo. Daryl 6283. Nikki Kane. Pickles. No last name. Ian Holt. I think. See you in Portland, Ian.

Bethany Hammonds. I think that's Ian. Ashley Martin. Rob Sanford. Allison S. Meredith Fisher. Abby with no last name. Robert Hogue. Liamany Hammonds. I think that's Ian. Ashley Martin. Rob Sanford. Allison S. Meredith Fisher. Abby with no last name. Robert Hogue. Liam Spurrell. Spurrell, maybe. Laurie with no last

name. Samantha Sargent. No, Dylan. Dylan. Dylan Larson. Kevin Sullivan. Dylan. Galina Gavilchik. Lily with no last name. Ian Furman. Jeff S. Lindsay Gillum. no last name. Ian Furman. Jeff S.

Lindsey Gillum. Jonathan Goldsmith. Daneen. Daneen? Daneen. Sean Madden. Emily with no last name. Amanda Marble.

Kylan. Kylan. Kylan. Sinclair. Taylor Thomason. Jessica DeFrost. DeFrost. Abby Shadoff.

Shadoff? Shadoff. Shadoff. Jammary Parsoneau. Jeremy Parsoneau. John Hennessy, Becca Moore, Paul Saley, Kendall Martinez, Samuel Andrew Lowe, Liz Dunn, COEL, Gen C, Liz Sanders, Malcolm Dial, Jessica with no last name, Mackenzie Brockman, Vivian Vaca. Landon Doherty. Alexandra Shea. Robert Bowden. Cindy with no last name.

Natalie Sue. Steven with no last name. Zach Stewart. Alex McCombs. Sherry Bourne and all of our patrons. You're fantastic. Thank you so much, everybody, for all that you do for us. And we hope that you enjoy the small pittance that we throw back at you with our episodes thank you for everything that you do

for us honestly you want to follow us on social media very easy to do shut up and give me murder dot com the links to anything show related you could possibly want is all right there so do that find us listen to small town murder listen to small town murder express listen to your stupid opinions when it comes out in a couple months and

keep coming keep hanging out with us. We'll be back more live from the Crime and Sports studios. We will see you next week. Bye. Bye. Hey, Prime members, you can listen to Crime and Sports early and ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen early and ad-free with Wondery Plus and Apple Podcasts. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at wondery.com slash survey.