New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce - Caitlin Clark on “Life Changing” Rookie Season, Chiefs Fandom, NBA Ratings Debate and more | Ep 120

Episode Date: January 2, 2025

Happy New Year 92%ers, we’ve got an incredible episode to kick off 2025. Joining us today is WNBA Rookie of the Year, Caitlin Clark! Caitlin and the guys talk about everything from winning Time Magazine’s Athlete of the Year, why she isn’t a bandwagon Chiefs fan, what it was really like hanging with Travis at the Eras tour, and the biggest takeaways from her historic rookie season. We also find out just how close she came to playing for Notre Dame, who can name the most Iowa NFL players, pitch ideas to help the NBA ratings, her GOAT basketball shoe, and so much more. We will be back next week to break down the NFL Playoffs and maybe some other surprises! You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify....Download the full podcast here:Wondery: https://wondery.app.link/s9hHTgtXpMbApple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/new-heights/id1643745036Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/1y3SUbFMUSESC1N43tBleK?si=LsuQ4a5MRN6wGMcfVcuynwFollow New Heights on Social Media for all the best moments from the show: https://lnk.to/newheightshowSupport the Show:  AUDIBLE: Sign up for a free 30-day trial at https://audible.com/newheightsSEATGEEK: Use our code for 10% off your SeatGeek order. https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/NEWHEIGHTS $25 max discountFARMER’S DOG: Get 50% off your first box of fresh, healthy food at https://TheFarmersDog.com/newheights. Plus, you get FREE shipping!AG1: New Subscribers head to http://DrinkAG1.com/newheight for a a FREE $76 giftwhen you sign up. You’ll get a Welcome Kit with a bottle of Vitamin D3K2 AND five free AG travel packs in your first box. ALLSTATE: Checking first is smart. So, check https://Allstate.com first for a quote that could save you hundreds. ACCELERATOR: Use code 10BUCKSOFF to get $10 off a case of Accelerator through 1/8! Limit one per customer https://www.amazon.com/stores/page/FB06B38E-F0C2-479F-9DA5-FD4A1C852B07/?_encoding=UTF8&store_ref=See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to new heights early and ad free plus unlock access to exclusive episodes of the show Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app Apple podcast or Spotify today 90 percenters. Are you tired of fine print contracts getting ripped off by overpriced? Wireless providers. Yes, let's face it. I think that's a resounding. Yes for all of us Well, if you're tired of it, then you need to check out our friends at Mint Mobile. That's right, but their wireless plan's starting at $15 a month when you purchase a three-month plan. Trav, what's the catch?

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for Monday night football, podcasting, parenting, and everything else I got going on this year. Peloton is great for when you're traveling between games, at the gym, or when you just need a moment to recover. Find your push, find your power with Peloton at OnePeloton.com. That's right. Again, that's OnePeloton.com. You know the NCAA, like they don't have many rules on much anymore. Women's sports has blown up with the NIL stuff. It's been great for everybody, honestly.

You're a little bit closer to the NIL world. Have you heard of anybody paying their taxes? I definitely wasn't fucking ready to pay taxes when I was in college. Like I wasn't thinking about that shit. I know, that's what I was thinking about. Hey. Hey. Hey.

Hey. Hey. Hey. Welcome back to New Heights, ladies and gentlemen. How's it going? A wondry show produced by Wavesports and Entertainment. And big thanks to our presenting sponsor, Audible. Oh, start listening today when you sign up for a free 30 day trial

at audible.com slash New Heights. I love some audible. All right now, audible getting in there, sliding in there for a little. Shout out audible. We're your host. I'm Travis Cous he's my big brother, Jason Kelsey out of Cleveland Heights, Ohio Cincinnati Bear, Cattle Lumps subscribe on YouTube, one dream plus or wherever you get your podcast and follow the show on all social media at new Heights

show with one s Jason. Let the people know who we have coming up. I'm not going to beat around the bush guys. This is a big one. Yes, you guys have all been waiting for. Marshall S. We all have been waiting for. Dr. Justin Marchegiani I mean really been demanding. And we finally got her. One of the, probably got one of the business schedules out there. Caitlin Clark is here. That's right. You heard it. That's right. You heard it. Right. She's in the building folks. And we're gonna hear a nice conversation from her in just a few seconds. And we're not going to really do too much before that because we're going to get ready to do this conversation because it was fantastic. But first, we are going to get to a little

bit of that new news. New news is brought to you by Accelerator, the orange ice pop. There we go. Nice Accelerator. Do you like, do you finally? I do. I'm a fan of the orange ice pop. I still prefer the grenadine. I still prefer grenadine cherry ice pop, but okay I think it's good. I'm a fan. I'm always in on a little orange soda They call it late night with Jason Kelsey premieres this Friday January 3rd Jafus Jason Jafus Jason Can you give us a tease or an anecdote?

A tease or an anecdote? Um, I don't know. I don't know what to say. I think we're going to have some awesome guests, uh, on, on hand. Uh, really the whole purpose of this show is to just celebrate and the sport of football. And uh, you know, obviously we got playoffs coming up, uh, this is the last week of the regular season coming up, you know, It's just honestly an excuse to get together a bunch of guys and bullshit about a sport that we all love, do a bunch of fun, creative

comedy bits with some incredible writers. Being creative is just a joy. I think that we have between the band, between the audience, between the players and all the people that are going to be there, I think it's just going to be a lot of fun. Incredibly intimidated by it. I'm terrified of how this is going to go. But at the same time, it makes you feel alive. There's something about being afraid that makes you excited, right? Every time, man. So every time. Yeah. Anyways. Well, that's all, man. I'm happy as hell for you, brother. I can't wait. You said something

about a band and now I'm, I gotta ask, are you breaking out the sax? Listen, I got you know what these what this is. No, not focusing. I'm still too far away to be able to read that. Oh, you got some new got some reads got some reads. It probably won't happen. Show one. I don't know. I didn't I didn't know pun intended. I didn't read that on the box. I just thought in my head, what could this possibly have to do with a saxophone? And yeah, the reads I bought some reads. I still you know, I don't know when we got some plans. We'll see. We'll see what happens.

I don't know if it's a show one. We got some there's a whole litany of things that could happen in this episode. So anyways, excited again. That's Friday, January 3rd, ladies and gentlemen, they call it late night with Jason Kelsey, the man, the myth, the legend. And we also will be back for our regularly scheduled episodes starting next week.

Football schedule in the holidays threw us off a little bit with me playing on Christmas and having all these short games or short weeks back to back to back. So it's making it a little tough to keep knocking these episodes out with you guys. But New Heights will be back talking all things NFL playoffs and whatever else comes next week. Sounds good, Bubba.

And that's it for new news brought to you by accelerator. Upgrade your energy and get you some of this orange ice pop. Shit's fucking fucking popping son. Alrighty, our guest today is a six foot guard from the University of Iowa, the NCAA all time division one scoring leader, the first pick of the WNBA draft, WNBA assist leader all star and 2024 WNBA rookie of the year. She's the most requested guest in the history of our show

and the Time Magazine Athlete of the Year, Ms. Caitlin Clark. Please welcome everyone. I appreciate it. I'm excited. I don't get excited about many things, but this is on top of my list. We made it, Jason. We've made it. How many accolades did we leave off? How many accolades do you have right now at this point, Caitlin? I think you might've made some up. I don't know. Yeah, I don't think so. I'm pretty sure not. I feel like you're kind of like Wayne Gretzky for basketball right now.

Oh, I like the Gretzky. I mean, the amount, if you go to the Wikipedia page and you look at like the list of like awards and achievements, it's endless. So, yeah, we had to limit it to this list just to get the show started. I appreciate it. Thank you. Is there any accomplishment, I guess, of all these accolades that has meant the most to

you? Oh, gosh. That's a good question. Well, I'd give you the answer my mom would say is probably academic All-American. She was proud of me for being a good student in college. So nobody talks about that. I did all right in school, so hung in there. But other than that, I mean, they're all cool, but you don't really care.

Kind of just comes with it comes with having fun. And I think that the time athlete of the year was cool too. Just because you see the list of like all the athletes that they've had prior to me and a lot of those people I idolized growing up and LeBron's been the only other basketball player. So, and it's cool as a woman, like they haven't had many females on the cover too. So for women's sports, it's kind of special, but you know, just kind of comes with playing the game and having fun as you guys know I love it. What did you what'd you study in college? What was I was in the business school? I got my degree in marketing. So you're marketing major. I'm a marketing major

There we go. Yeah, you guys you guys are great at marketing We're all right You got a figure I got to go on like dating shows just to get my name out there. I actually have a funny made the Dean's List like once in my life and it was when it was when I got kicked out of school and it was a part of the criteria that I had to get that I had to reach just to stay on the team. So you're capable of doing it. Exactly. That's all that matters. Ed Kelsey always said I was capable. You just have to focus.

You have to give it your all. My mom was actually the one paying for my tuition at that point, so I had to make sure I did my mom right. I could just throw away the grades knowing my mom was paying for them. That's right. I share that with my mother. Let's talk about your biggest accomplishment. Being a part of Chief's Kingdom. How long have you been a part of the Kingdom?

I'm sorry, Jason. I'm an honorary member. I'm a Midwest kid. So there's this picture that's been circulating a couple from a couple years ago when I was on Peyton Eli's Monday night show where I'm in a full Chiefs outfit. I had family in Kansas City and I grew up in Des Moines, Iowa, which is only three hours from Kansas City. So that's just the closest NFL team.

So my dad was a big Chiefs fan growing up. So people think I'm like a bandwagon Chiefs fan. I'm like, no, I was there before, before Patrick and Travis. Like we were, we were at our dies. So we've been big fans and now obviously all the success you guys have had has made it a lot of fun for us. Who do you, who, who was your childhood? Like my brother loved Tony Gonzalez.

Like that was his guy. Yeah. What a guy. So I, we would go to like one game a year growing up with my cousins down in Kansas City. What? Oh, that's so fun. And we still try to go.

We went to the Christmas Day game last year. I think the year before you might've played on Christmas Eve maybe. We went to that. We were sitting outside for that one. My toes were like about to fall off. My fingers about to fall off. I don't get how you guys play in that type of weather,

but it's fun. And like obviously, We got heaters on the sideline. They let us chill. Arrowhead's not too bad, so good spot. It's a blast, you already know. Have you ever messed with those heaters on the sideline? Have you ever seen those things?

So we played a basketball game outside in college, like an exhibition game. Oh. And they had those on the sidelines. And I was like, I didn't really never know what they were, but they had them and they're, they get so hot. Like danger. It's too hot.

It's too hot. I know. It's funny. You'll see, you'll see some guys throw on those winter coats and if it gets too close to the heaters, you just hear them pop. They'll just like, Really?

And you'll just see feathers start flying everywhere. It's crazy. I had to tell them to like turn it off. I'm like, just let it be like a normal bench. Yeah, I'm not I'm out on I'm out on the heaters. It has to be like below 20 degrees for me even to think about sitting on the heaters. That's why I'm sitting on the water coolers right now every every time we're off the field. I hate it. I can't feel too hot. For sure. If I feel too hot, I'm gonna start to like it's like a a heated blanket or something. I'm gonna start falling asleep I think they like said like yeah, there's an air fire marshal like over there like watch and make sure

Yeah, do our own safety check you just got these things yeah, yeah So you said your brother your brother's favorite player was Tony Gonzalez. Who's your favorite player or or is oh is I mean obviously? Travis is up there. Yeah! Ha ha ha! Ah, I made it. But I'm obviously a big Patrick fan, too. How can you not be?

Like, the both of you, you're pretty great. Uh, I'm here. But it's been fun, and obviously I've known Brett Beach for a while, it's actually kind of crazy. So when I was in college- You know Brett Beach, okay. We played the Big Ten tournament in Indianapolis and it was at the time of the combine.

So Brett was staying in our hotel and that's kind of how I first like got to know him. Like my sophomore year of college. And then we kind of just stayed in touch ever since. So yeah, Brett's the man. Yeah, he's obviously done really well and he's fun. He's cool too. Oh, the whole family is the the beach family is the best.

I love people. When I first got into the league, beach was like Andy's assistant in Philadelphia. How crazy. So to see where he's at now and the success he's had, it's pretty awesome. Yeah. But yeah, eagles had all this right there in there.

Don't shut up. I'm not gonna do that. I'm not gonna do that. You guys are killing it right now. We're doing just fine. You guys are doing great right now. That's funny. All right, Travis earmuffs, put your earmuffs, take your earmuffs now. You guys are doing great right now. That's funny. All right, Travis, earmuffs. Put your earmuffs, take your earmuffs off.

They technically are on. Okay, well, take your earmuffs off. What do we think about 2024 Chiefs, Kailin? What do we think about where the team's at? I'm feeling good. You feeling good? I'm feeling good. I mean, we're what? 13 and 1 right now. Pretty good. Oh, did someone what 13 and 13 and one right now. Pretty good. Oh, 13 and one.

That's not too bad. But also like you guys have made it interesting as a fan. We've had everybody at the edge of their seat. I know. I think that's what I appreciate about you guys the most. And like you and Patrick, especially is like you guys just have that edge to you, like that clutch factor and like a lot of people don't have that. So when you get the ball with a minute 30, you need to go 80 yards and score. Like I'm feeling pretty good, but. We like the ball in Pat Mahomes hands for sure.

We do. Our defense has been saving our ass a lot this year. Let alone our like field goal block team and our like, yeah. So it's been a full team effort this year. Is it 10 games consecutive one, like single score games or something like that? Yeah. I don't know.

There's like some crazy stats, like the first team ever to do that, but. Something like that. You killed it, great performance. So last time Night 2 Percenters saw you with Travis was the heiress tour. How was that? Oh, that was so much fun.

Electric, it was great. My mom was like begging me to take her. She's like, I gotta go, like everybody's talking about it. I'm like, okay, okay. Yeah, it was right there in Indianapolis. Yeah, I literally live right downtown too, like right next to Lucas Oil. So I'm like, the night I didn't go,

I'm like on my balcony trying to listen. But no, obviously it's just a great show and a lot of fun and full Swifty., turned my mom into a full Swifty now. And two of my puppies were there too, so good time. Good time. Was that, you mentioned that was like your second night going to it, right? Yeah, second night in a row and that was my third show.

I went early on when Taylor first went on tour in Minnesota at US Bank. I went for early concerts and that was a lot of fun. Went with some of my college friends and we had a good time together. Marshall It's hard not to have a good time at a concert. Tawny I don't know how you couldn't have a good time at something like that. Marshall This is so fun, man. Marshall Well, we mentioned earlier that a few weeks ago, you were named the Time Magazine

Athlete of the Year. Time asked you to define your year in one word and you said historic. We can do better. We can give you two words to define your year. What would they be if you could do that? Two words. Two words. That is hard. Yeah, one word is easier. And I can't use historic?

Yeah, I mean, I guess you can. It's your definition. It's your words. Majorly historic. I would say like, I don't know, life changing maybe. That's a good one. That's a really good one. And like, all in a good way. Like, I mean, things just change really fast. Like, as you guys know, like, that's just how the world works and especially with social

media, people see a lot of your life, but that's what makes it fun and why I've had so many cool opportunities too. So it's crazy, like looking back at a year ago today or around this time, like I was just beginning my senior year of college. And obviously, you know, people knew who we were and people attended our games,

but it's obviously not in the magnitude that it is now. Yeah. So like life just changes fast, but that's, that's what makes it fun and cool. And you know, quickly started a new chapter of my life too, like moving here to Indianapolis and feel lucky I'm still in the Midwest. I know you guys like the Midwest. So I think, yeah, I've been in the Midwest my entire life. Jason's officially an East coaster now.

Yeah, but Philly of all the East coast cities kind of has like some Midwest feel to it. It's the most west of the East. I don't think Philly wants to hear that. They'll probably hate that I said that, but whatever. Yeah. They're not going to like that comment. They want to be far from the Midwest. No doubt.

Exactly. I mean, it was just a crazy year because you go all the way up into the national championship game and then you're playing right away. Yeah. You know, one of my coaches early on in my career said, you know, your rookie year is always so hard because you're in a new city, you're in a new place with a new team, new coaches. There's so much that's not part of the routine that you're so used to. And you had that as like magnified. I mean, are you looking forward

this year to like kind of having some like, I don't know, maybe more of a routine. Familiarity. Yeah. Yeah. The familiarity. For sure. Yeah. I mean, it's just so unlike any other professional sport really from the standpoint of, so I played in the national championship

and I basically went to the draft right after it got picked. And then you basically pack up and move. Like you're moving in April. You don't even finish senior year college. And I guess for you guys, like, what was it? You go to the combine. How long do you have to prepare for the combine? Few months. And then you get drafted and you still got a little time to get acclimated to the new city. For sure. You have camp, whatever.

Like, it's not like that. Like camp for us is like a week and a half. And then you're popped on the floor. Yeah. But I think it was good a little bit too. Like you don't have time to overthink things. Like it's just like boom, boom, boom, boom. Like you're just on to the next. But at the same time, like you don't like, I feel like I never really ended the chapter

of college. Like it was just like, you left, but maybe that's good. You don't have a lot of time to think about it. So I think that's definitely the weirdest part of, you know, women's professional basketball and obviously college basketball too. It's just that change, but that's kind of how it has to be too. It's just different, but I feel lucky too because we had the Olympic break. I got a month off in the middle of the season because we had to pause the WNBA season because

the 12 girls go and play in the Olympics and everybody else, you're not doing much. Got like a month off, which I really needed, obviously, because I had been playing basketball for just a year straight. But obviously so much different from the NFL or the NBA or whatever it is. I remember my coming into the NFL. One of the biggest challenges for me was like kind of like finding my like professionalism in a sense. I am I was such a leader on my team at Cincinnati.

At least I felt like I was like the main one of the voice of the team. And when I got to Kansas City, there was guys that had just been perennial pro bowlers and guys that had already had that culture set. And then on top of that coach Reed and I struggled trying to find my lane and like really like feeling like I could give a piece to the team or like find a role on the team. Was there anything like that that happened to you early on knowing that it all happened so fast? For sure.

And like you come in as a rookie and like you said, like you're trying to figure out a new environment, new teammates, like you don't want to say too much. You don't want to say too little and it's just so hard. But like in my scenario and obviously you guys too, like you don't want to say too much. You don't want to say too little. And it's just so hard. But like in my scenario, and obviously you guys too, like you're already highly thought of, like people are turning to you to like be something or be someone. So it's hard.

Like you're trying to find your, get your feet wet, but also not do too much. And I think that's kind of what I struggled in early on is like, I don't know what to say. I don't know how to say it. I don't know how they're going to react. For not knowing you nailed it. Yeah. Who else? Yeah. But also like I had a lot of really good vets I don't know how to say it. I don't know how they're going to react. For not knowing you nailed it.

But also like I had a lot of really good vets around me too. So I feel very grateful for that. And we've had a fairly young team too. So like people had been through it fairly recently. So they knew how I felt, but like I feel like that definitely is a huge challenge. And that goes for whatever professional sport, like you're trying to learn, but also people are looking at you like, you got to perform and

be what they drafted you to be and that can be tough. Yeah. I remember Jason, you got tossed into the fire early, your rookie year, especially because you guys didn't even have off-season workouts. So we missed the whole off-season workout. And if you weren't a first or second day pick, you didn't get the playbook. So, I got the playbook like two days before training camp. So, we just started right from there. But that was one thing, you mentioned the vets and I think, you know, there's, for me at

least, there was a lot, some vets were incredible. Some of the vets, obviously, you're competing for jobs. So, there's a little bit there, but you lean so much as a young player on your vets and you lean so much from like even just like in Philly, there's so many great players that played for the Eagles that like Harold Carmichael, who was a legendary Philadelphia Eagle was like always around and willing to lend advice or anything. Did you have many former players or current players like reach out to you that really helped you in transitioning into the WNBA? Yeah, there was, you know, quite a few. Somebody that comes to the top of my head is Tamika Ketchings, who was an MVP in the

WNBA. Yeah. She won their championship here. I think I want to say 2012 when the Fever won their championship. She was like what made the Indiana Fever really good? Like that was our prime. That was when we were really good. And then after to make her retire, the fever kind of went down a little bit,

as every team does once your franchise player retires and moves away from basketball. And she's still really big here in the Indianapolis community. And she was one of the first people to text me after I got picked and still checks in on me. So somebody that's not in your building every single day, but it means so much to your community and to the organization. And to have that, like, she's like a legend. Her number's up in the rafters.

Like that's somebody I idolized and looked up to. And for her to just take two seconds to check in on me and see how I'm doing, and that's obviously really special. So I would certainly say her. And we still have that relationship and it's still growing and she still comes around now and then and her Championship trophy that she won like sits in our locker room. It's like right next to my locker. I'm like great Yeah, so I have to look at it every day these are the the shoes. It's got like its own like glass case.

I'm like great. Oh yeah, better. Hell yeah, better. Just a little motivation. Just say this is what we're working for. No doubt. Absolutely. So, but yeah.

We were not drafted in the first round. What was it like being a first round pick? Oh well, I felt like, so it's crazy. Because of COVID, I could have actually gone back to school for a fifth year. Were you considering that? Well, early on, yes. It looks like you're having a good old time over there in Iowa. Yeah.

I'm not gonna lie. It looked like you were having a good time. I mean, it's college. You're there with your friends and the game's just easier. It's just how it is in there. You don't want that chapter of your life to end. It's fun. I hear you. You do fun things. You guys know how it is. It's easygoing and whatever. Marshall S. Holt I imagine that decisions probably made even harder now that there is on NIL. Like when Travis and I played, there was no ability to make any money. It's obviously

way different. J.C. Holt Yeah. Marshall S. Holt I'm gonna capitalize on this check. J.C. Holt But yeah, so I was like kind of considering that. But then I got to the point where I was like, yeah, I'm totally leaving. Like I know this is going to be the end for me. Just like I felt very content in that. And then obviously like I have a very good feel that I was probably going to be the first

pick. But like you're still sitting there and like you everybody gets nervous and jittery no matter where you're projected or what you're going to be. Like this is a moment you've always dreamed of as a kid. Oh, Jason was a train wreck. Are you kidding me? He was, the guy was pacing back and forth in the room. Yeah, like how did you guys feel going into the draft?

We, I knew, yeah, I guess Travis, do you wanna, I guess I'll go first. We'll go chronological. I'll go first and you go, all right. So first day, I wasn't doing anything because I knew I wasn't gonna get drafted in the first draft. I was just like, man, this is cool. Watching the draft second day for, for,

I think the later on guys you have your agent is like taking any inkling of like positivity. He can. So he's like, there's a chance you'll go in the third round, even though there's no chance. So I'm like watching that. I'm like, all right. But the third day, Trav, me, Trav, mom and dad, Uncle Don, we all went bowling. Because I didn't want to sit there and watch it go by and watch a bunch of people get picked that like, it's like just piss me off even more. So it's like, all right, I'll just go bowling, ignore it, and somebody will call me at some

point. We finished bowling and I still hadn't got a call. So it was super awkward. It was like, all right, let's just go back to the house. We paid for the two hours. Yeah, we did the two hours. Did we keep fucking rolling these things so we could draft it? The third day was still going. Yeah. So it was like the sixth round. We went back to my house and then finally got a call from a 610 number, I believe it was. Or was it 216, 215? I think it was, yeah, it might have been

215. Either way, Philadelphia area code popped up and so it all kind of went down there. Dad came rushing and crying. There's nothing better than, and then you can hear when it finally, because I was in a separate room and they were all in the living room kind of watching on TV. And I was still on the phone. And then I knew when they all knew because they all started cheering in the liver room. So that was exciting. But it was nerve racking until the moment you get picked. And then it's like, forget about all the other crap. You're like, yeah, I'm in the NFL now. Yeah. My situation was a little different because I did have the year that I missed playing, but that ended up being the year that I switched into the tight end room.

So it was a perfect match for me. That's when I really thought that, oh wow, I actually love this game. Like before I was just back there playing the old backyard sport. Now I like have like, I don't know, I felt like I could give more to the game, give more to the team.

I was in Pittsburgh, because that's where my agent was, had all the friends and family out. I knew first round wasn't there, but I always thought in the back of my mind I I could like all the tight ends that were that were gonna get drafted. I could play with those guys You know, I might not have shown on film that I'm better than them But I know that I'm I've shown that I could play in the NFL just as much as they can Yeah, I ended up just getting kind of like Jason said getting told that maybe maybe second round here, if this guy doesn't get picked, they're thinking about you.

And finally got a call from a Missouri number thinking I was going to St. Louis because I had no idea that Kansas City was even in Missouri. And from there, it was Coach Reed on the phone telling me, you better not mess this up. You didn't? No, I didn't. I almost did a few times. How many rounds are there in the NFL draft? telling me, you better not mess this up. You did. No, I didn't. I almost did a few times. How many rounds are there in the NFL draft? What? Like, so there's seven now. Yeah. It's been seven for a long time. There used to be like something crazy. Yeah. It's like the MLB where they had like a thousand rounds. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. And now it's seven and then undrafted. And really, once it gets to like this later round,

sometimes it's better to even be undrafted. Yeah. So you can just try to pick a good situation to go to. Exactly. You get autonomy in that. But yeah, what was harder, high school, college or going from college to the pros? Oh, that's a good question. Well, my high school to college transition was so weird because I was COVID. So like, I didn't even know when I was going to go to college transition was so weird because I was COVID. So, I didn't even know when I was going to go to college. I didn't even technically graduate high school.

I did, obviously, but I didn't ever walk, really. We had an outdoor thing, but other than that, it was so weird. And then two weeks before, we're in the summer, and Iowa was like, yeah, we want you to come to campus. And literally the only people there were us and the football team and men's basketball. Wow. It was so weird. Like in the dorms, it was literally just athletes in the dorms, no RAs.

It was like a huge like mansion with just college kids running wild. I'm not gonna lie, that sounds so much fun. Sign me up. It was a bit concerning, but it was also, it was a lot of fun. Um, I don't know if they knew that. I still don't think they know that that was the situation. At least that was the situation where on few floors that I was near, but it was a good time, honestly.

And it was just so weird. Like I didn't have that normal college experience. Like I think my first semester, like I was taking everything online. Um, just trying not to get COVID cause we're testing every day and just trying to play. And gosh, thank God we're out of that. I know. So just kind of crazy. But and then obviously going from college to the pros, I think it's just like the time

span. That's just what's so weird about it. It's just so short and condensed. Like you don't have much time, but at that point it is what it is. Everybody has to deal with the same thing. So that's what I told myself is like,'s no no point in complaining everybody's dealing with it It's not any different. It's a good mindset to have yeah What's your what's your welcome to the WNBA moment if you could have one?

Welcome to the W. I tell people this I It was early on I want to say it was like our tenth game of the year We're playing in New York for celebrity who ended up winning the championship this year. Yep. Yep. And somebody set a screen on me and like I hit my ear like just perfect on the girl where like my eardrum popped and like ruptured. And I knew it right away because I've done it before

and I was just like, it hurts so bad. I don't know if you guys have ever done that. I've done it, how did you do it before? Can I guess, can I guess? Oh yeah, I guess, it was very Midwestern. You did it. How did you do it before? Can I guess? I was two, oh yeah, I guess. It was very Midwestern. You did it in water. You did it in water.

Something with water. Yeah! I got launched off a tube. Why did you just get so excited? What are you, some brainiac? That's how I did mine. I went off the dive before, tried to do as many flips as I could

and smacked my side of my head in the Heights High School swimming pool. Yeah. Jason was a male swim cadet, so he had to be a swim cadet. Don't put me on blast like that, Trace. That's funny. But yeah, I got launched off a tube in the middle of a lake. I was like underwater. I'm like, am I OK? That's some Midwest stuff right there. But yeah, so that was my my welcome to the W moment.

Wait, so when you pop your drum, what happens to that? There's not really much you can do. It takes months to heal. So after the season, the doctor had to go back in and look and see if it closed. And if it doesn't close, you have to have a minor procedure. But lucky enough, it closed, so it's fine. Oh, thank gosh. Yeah, you have to be careful about getting water in there. You can't go in lakes and pools. It's weird. Sometimes it'll bleed when it pops but mine didn't thankfully so yeah, it's just really annoying. Like your hearing is like really off and Jason you're probably not as like your hearing is just kind of off for like a few weeks.

Yeah, it's like muffled and just like feels weird for sure. What um, because you brought this up because you're from the Midwest, I love the fact that you hurt your ear tubing. What is, are you a lakes or are you an ocean? We're pro get outside. Because Kylene's big time ocean and I'm, I love both. It's hard because like my family would always vacation down to Florida. Like that's for spring break. Like that's what we would do. I'd go with my cousins. So like we love to beach. My parents are beach people, but like you just grow up around lakes in the Midwest. Like you just, that's what you do. What beach down there in Florida? St. Pete's. Nice. We were Marco Island. Okay. Yeah. So that was our spot, but I love lakes and they're just easier. And I'm not as scared going in the water, like not going to it in the ocean. For sure. I don't know what's down

there. I'm not messing with that salt water. Exactly. At a lake, you feel a little more confident. But yeah. Was a snake gonna get me? How about you guys? Doubt it. I'm the lake guy for sure. Yeah. I mean, like you said, I like both. We actually, we have a shore town in Jersey. They call it the shore. Jersey shore. Jersey shore. Not the North Jersey shore. Jeffery McIlwain Not the shore. We're South Jersey.

Katelyn Pfeiffer Okay, I've been to the shore. Jeffery McIlwain We're civilized out there in South Jersey. Katelyn Pfeiffer All the shores over there in Jersey are the same. Jeffery McIlwain He's trying to hype one up over the other. Jeffery McIlwain Yeah. Jeffery McIlwain But yeah, I do love the shore. I love the ocean. And we grew up going to Florida, but there's just something about lakes. And in particular, I like four season lakes. I like when the lake freezes over. We played hockey growing up. I like going on snowmobiles. I like the summers. I like

hiking. Like I think there's so much- A big hiker. All right. I have been hiking and I enjoy it. That's his new hobby. He picked it. How to pick it up. I didn't know you were a hiker. Well, you did. You've hiked Mount Kilimanjaro. That's right.

I'm lighter now. He's a retired athlete. He just picks up hobbies. All right. We don't need to put me on blast. All right. Here we go. Thanks again to our presenting sponsor, Audible.

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Once I got to high school, I switched over to basketball because it was the same season. Trav hurt the entire Cleveland Heights hockey community because he was the best hockey player Shut up. ever in Cleveland Heights youth hockey. He was very dominant.

And then when he chose basketball, it just really deflated. You had to be a pretty solid basketball player. I just couldn't dribble. We were known for basketball and all the basketball games were absolutely rocking. Really sold out. Yeah, and I had I had a hoop dreams. So I chose basketball. But yeah, I definitely I definitely loved playing hockey the most hockey was so much fun.

It was probably because of the guys that I played it with, more so than actually getting out there, but yeah. Yeah. That's half of the youth teams I was on anyways, but. Yeah, I just like, I like to put a helmet on. You get on the ice and play a little or what? Were you always a hooper or whatever sports did you play? I played soccer growing up. It was soccer and basketball.

Honestly, like hockey isn't really that big in Iowa. Like it wasn't really a big thing, which is kind of weird. Like you think it would be, but it was more of, nobody really did it. I feel like wrestling's so big in Iowa. So like all the guys wrestle. Wrestling is huge. Like all the Iowa football players

like usually are really good high school wrestlers. Tristan Wirfs, freaking Tyler Lindemann. Yep. Jason was a wrestler. Like really athletic, but big and athletic. Great wrestlers, state champion wrestlers, but that would be like freak O lineman or like good tight ends or whatever it was. I love watching me two big old muscle bound men just wrestling it out.

Give me the heavy weights. I want to see the heavy weights. That's funny. How did you end up at Iowa? You almost ended up in Notre Dame. I did, yeah. What led to the decision to go to Iowa? So I was, I basically narrowed it down pretty early on when I was going through my college

recruitment that I wanted to be like in the Midwest, just kind of a homebody family person, just wanted to stay fairly close to home. So that narrowed a lot of stuff down. And I visited like Oregon and Texas and a few other places and I liked them but it was just like I know it was too far. And then visited Notre Dame a bunch of times. And I was like I love Notre Dame and I like as a kid like you want to go to Notre Dame like it's the same with Notre Dame football. It's like it's like the coolest thing in the world. It's Notre Dame. It has that tradition. They've had so many great players go through there and every single sport, but I just knew something.

I could feel it in my gut. I was like, ah, I'm not supposed to go there. So I picked Iowa, and Iowa was really good at women's basketball before I went there too. Made a few sweet 16s, made the lead eight. Our coach had been there for quite a while, but they hadn't been to the Final Four since 1992. So I wanted to go somewhere that was good, but maybe hadn't been to the final four since like 1992. So, I wanted

to go somewhere that was good but like maybe had it been like a blue blood for say in like quite a few years and kind of help them get back to that and then it was obviously my home state too and two hours from where I grew up. So, perfect distance where like your parents can't show up but also like you could go home if you wanted to. Marshall? No doubt. Stan? Yeah. Marshall? It's important. Stan? It just kind of all worked out perfect and obviously I made an okay decision and it worked

out pretty well but... It worked out real well. Yeah, dude. Did you take visits to Notre Dame and Iowa? Yeah. I took quite a few to both. Yeah. Okay.

What was your guys' dream schools growing up? Or did you even have one? Because I like, I wouldn't even say Notre Dame was like my dream school. It was more so like I just thought it was super cool. Like it just sounds cool. No, for sure. I would say dad was a big Notre Dame fan. He grew up Catholic and he went to Catholic school growing up. I think that like anybody who's like Irish Catholic, like that's like the like, especially in the football world. And then Ohio State was really good in high

school. Ohio State was probably the one school that I was like as a kid, I was like, that's the school. No, you like Michigan. You just stop. I like Michigan. You were always a Michigan fan. You can't like Michigan and Ohio State. Exactly. Exactly, Caleb.

The thing is, is I can, I can and I did. He liked the helmets. I mean, you can, but like Michigan and Ohio State fans are not going to be happy about that. Exactly. I didn't go to either one of them, so it's all good. I will say this was when he was younger. This was when he was younger. By the time he was high school, he was on the Ohio State.

Like it was just like, anyways. Ohio State Stadium is legit. When we would go to play at Ohio State, I would be like, we would drive past and I'm like, it would make Iowa Stadium look so small and it still seats 70,000. But like that place is just gigantic. Yeah, I do love Iowa Stadium, though. There's something like very awesome there. Obviously, the thing they do with the Children's Hospital is awesome.

The wave is really cool. What's I'm trying to remember the name of it. I watched the game. I took a visit to Iowa. Kinnick. Yeah. Kinnick. Yeah, yeah. Kinnick. Yep. Great atmosphere.

It's great. You can visit Iowa. Kinnick. Yeah. Kinnick. Yeah. Great atmosphere. It's great. And the wave is pretty awesome because the Children's Hospital looks right over on the stadium. So it's cool. It's always been a thing, but the wave has really become a thing probably in the last eight years, I want to say, because we have a kid captain for every game because the hospital

is such a big deal. And it's usually a kid battling some sort of disease or has beaten some sort of disease, not always cancer, but whatever it is. And that's always fun. They get to pick a song that plays after the first quarter and I get the chills every time. It's sick. It's probably one of the best traditions in all of sports, if not the best, honestly. Wait, so what's this thing about the wave?

The wave just started? So yeah, so after the first quarter, everybody turns because the Children's Hospital like looks on top of the football stadium. And so I remember seeing them wave. Yeah. The patients are talking about. I thought you're talking about the wave. And I started doing the wave, incorporating the wave.

I mean, maybe we can get that started. Maybe you're onto something. Iowa fans are fired up now. They're going to be doing it at the same time exactly so stupid but no it's pretty cool we heard you got your first recruiting letter in seventh grade yeah is this true yeah so at the time like that's insane it's insane were you playing with high schoolers at this point? Yeah, it's honestly sad. Like, where college recruitment has kind of gone, it's just insane. But also, I feel very fortunate. Like, my parents were just like, they told my older brother like, go get the mail. Like, we don't want your sister to see that. They like wanted me to be in seventh

grade and like enjoy middle school and like hang out with your friends. Like, you shouldn't be worrying about where you're going to college. I love that so much. Yeah. So I didn't really take any visits until after my freshman year of college, and then I didn't decide until my senior year. So I was never in a rush. And my parents did a really good job of make sure I have a good circle around me. It wasn't always about college recruitment. I wasn't posting my offers. Also, that wasn't really a thing when I was growing up. So- But it is now. It had to be close to when you were growing up. I mean, it was close.

Like people were starting to do it like posts like, oh, I got an offer from here. I got an offer from here. And especially in basketball. Now it's all you see on social media. It's like only people talk about. It's crazy. But obviously times have changed, too. But oh, times have changed. Yes. Seventh grade was wild.

And I was playing up like two years, so I was playing with high schoolers. But yeah, I didn't really like think anything of it. Like I was just going out there and hoping and having fun and it's kind of just what came with it. How much basketball did you play? Because nowadays, like these kids play, it's like nonstop. I know.

It's crazy. Crazy. Yeah, it's crazy. It's crazy. Yeah. It is crazy. And I, so I played AAU and then I played for my high school team, but my mom would be like, she is not playing more than like three games or two games in one day. Like that's crazy. Cause sometimes they would want me to play like for the seventh grade team and the eighth grade team.

So my parents were like really good about that. Like they didn't want me to lose the love of it. Like you don't want to get burned out. Like you still want to be having fun when you're doing it as a pro, if you're lucky enough. And maybe as a kid, I was like, mom, no, like I can keep going. Like I can keep playing. But looking back, like I'm very fortunate for that because I haven't lost that fun

of it and that passion for it and always wanting to get better. And sometimes that's why people get burned out is because they did it too much as a kid and their parents forced it on them or whoever forced it on them too much. And that was never something I really had to deal with. So I feel very fortunate. Got to have that balance. That's awesome that your parents, you know, made sure of that or at least were cautious of it. Yeah, absolutely. I think the only recruitment letter Travis got in seventh grade was to St. Ignatius. St.

Ignatius was trying to get him over to the high school. To play hockey. Was that what it was for? Yeah. Nobody, that's the only sport anybody wanted to be in seventh grade, seventh, eighth grade. It was that in lacrosse. We need the hockey highlight tape. We're going to get back out there. We got to get out there with the Watts. That's the goal. We got to get out there with TJ and JJ and all those dudes. All right. Let me

ask you this. We're going to try the segment. We've never done it. It's probably going to be very short-lived. It's called name a person. We're going to go around the horn and each name an athlete from Iowa until we can't anymore. I feel like you're probably not going to struggle. Can you name current players? No, no, they just have to be an athlete. Have to be former players? Can they be current? No, they can be former. They have to be former. Have to be former. Can you know current players? No, no, they just have to be an athlete. Have to be former players? Can they be current? No, they can be former. They have to be former.

They have to be former. Can you name current? No, they can be, they can be current. I'm going to try to do like NFL current players. See if I can do. You might beat us in that too. Travis has like the, actually we both really have the positions. So let's see how that happens.

Alright. Who's starting? I'll start George Kittle. I knew that was going to be the first person he was going to say. I'm going to say Sam Laporta just to take Travis's answers away from him before. I'm going to go Tyler Linderbaum on the raid. No. Nice. Nice.

I'm going to go Claire Kittle. Tristan Wirfs. That's right. That's a solid answer. The Eagles actually rookie, Cooper Dejean. Nice. What about TJ Hakkasan? Oh, that's right. I always forget about him. He's on the Vikings, right? Yes. Yes. He's finally back healthy doing his thing. That's awesome. I'm going to get a throwback here. I'm going to get a throwback. Robert Gallery. His wife actually played basketball at Iowa too.

What? There we go, look at that. Yeah, they actually came to quite a few of our games the last couple of years, great people, cool people. Oh gosh, okay, let's see. This is tough. We stumped her, we stumped her. I'm thinking about NFL players.

What's she still thinking about NFL? She's going all day. I'm gonna go Gino Stone. I think he's on the Bengals now. I'm pretty sure he had. What's she still thinking about NFL? I'm gonna go Geno Stone. I think he's on the Bengals now. I'm pretty sure he had a pick six this past week. Alright, alright. I'll take it. Alright. We respect Geno. I'm gonna go

a little Chief's tight end when I first got to Kansas City. Tony Mowiaki. My dog, my Chi-Town brother. Shout out to T-Mo, man. I'm gonna go city, Tony Moe, yaki, my dog, my shy town brother. Shout out to Timo, man. I'm gonna go, another former teammate, Julian Vanderveld. Julian Vanderveld.

Did anybody say Dallas Clark? No, the legend. I was holding onto that one. No gloves, no gloves. The man. I'll stay in the tight end world over there. Noah Phan. That's right. Big hot tight end.

Seahawks, I think? Yes, yep. 8-7 over there in Seattle. All right, all right, I'm going, I'm gonna go Marshall Yanda. This dude is pulling out this random name. I'm pulling up the old schools. I'm gonna go Riley Moss on the Broncos.

I'm going with the younger players. Going to school with me. Well, I'll show my age and Jason's as well because he was the same recruiting class. He was also a Kansas City chief when I got to Kansas City. Ricky Stanzy quarterback. I oh, man, this might be right. This is where it ends. I'm pretty sure.

I'm pretty sure. Tobin, I'm pretty sure. Good. Pretty sure. I'm pretty sure Matt Tobin played Friday. Sure. I'm next to positive. Then you lost. If you're pretty sure you lost. All right, we'll end it there. I think we've all did very respected. We did great.

I'm impressed. That was fun. That was fun. I would, who would die? I knew it. So there was a fun one. What was your what was one of your most favorite memories from playing at Iowa though? That's tough. There's a lot. Yeah, maybe one that that everyone doesn't know about.

So every four years in college basketball, you get to take a foreign trip and you like go and play some teams overseas like in the summer before your season. What? Oh, that's the summer before your season. What? Oh, that sounds like fun. That's great. So we went to Italy and Croatia, like two great spots. Would you like more? Which one?

Which one would you like more? Honestly, Croatia. I've heard that. I've heard Croatia is awesome. So many people. It's great. I went to Split and do Brubnik. It's awesome.

I tell people, I'm like, if you're gonna go one place like overseas, like that has to be the spot. It's clean. The water's awesome. I tell people, I'm like, if you're going to go one place, like, overseas, that has to be the spot. It's clean, the water's beautiful, things to do. Oh, that's cool as hell. Food's great. Nice. The basketball wasn't that serious. We beat everybody by like 80. But it was just so much fun. We had so many fun nights together.

You guys were like the dream team over there. Yeah. People don't get to hear like those type of memories with your friends, like your college friends and we'd just... Oh my gosh. Really? Yeah, what is it? Croatians? The uh, we found out, we just recently found out we were Croatian.

We didn't even know. That's why I got so excited when you said Croatian. Yeah. I was like, yeah, yeah, I got some blood. That's me. That's funny. We talked about NIO earlier. How much did that change when that became a thing your senior year?

Because you were unique where when you first got to college, it wasn't a thing and all of a sudden it became a thing. It became a thing after my freshman year. And it was kind of weird because like everybody was like, okay, so like what is it? And like- Trying to maneuver. You know the NCAA, like they don't have many rules on much anymore. So like, what is it? And like, trying to maneuver, you know, the NCAA, like they don't have many rules on much anymore. So like, right, there weren't many rules.

And it was more so like, okay, like, what can we do? What can we don't? Can we not do? And like, we're also the first. So like, you're trying to figure it out as you go. My family helped me a lot. But as you get going, you know, you just figure things out and it's fun. And like, and obviously has been should have been a thing for a really long time.

It's like the NIL part of it, like the true endorsements. Like you're doing a commercial for the local coffee shop or like whatever it is. Like it's something so easy and so simple. And I think, you know, like a normal student can do that, but like why couldn't an athlete? Like it's just like such a simple thing that should have been a thing for a long time.

But also it was like challenging to navigate and it still is, seeing these college students that they don't have the right resources around them. Right. It's tough. It stinks. It's hard. I think that's something that needs to become more prevalent.

I know universities are trying to start having in-house NIL people or whatever it is, or in-house lawyers or whatever it is to kind of try to manage that. So they're doing the best they can too, but obviously there's not many guidelines or rules so it makes it hard as well. But it obviously changed a lot and it's made it fun. And I think it's also helped women's sports grow too. I think you've seen- Yeah, it's a great point. Women's sports has blown up with the NIL stuff. That's such a good- Everyone's becoming more familiar. Yeah, absolutely

So it's been it's been great for everybody. Honestly, nice. Have you ever heard of anybody? You're a little you're a little bit closer to the NIL world Have you heard of anybody? paying their taxes Because that's what in my mind. I'm like, I definitely wasn't fucking ready to pay taxes when I was in college. Like I wasn't thinking about that shit. I know, that's what I always think about.

And lucky enough, I had like obviously great parents and people that helped me with that. But like these people are like getting this money and like little do they know, like, you're not gonna, you're gonna see like maybe half of that. Especially, yeah. And so I don't know, like I just, and like they're spending and like, you just worry.

But if you guys got to pick any NIL deal in college, what are you going with? Adriatico's Pizza. I could sell that shit in a heartbeat. I used to go there every fucking day. If you're ever around University of Cincinnati, go on up there to Clifton and have some Adriatico's Pizza. Get you a Bearcat Pizza. It's one of the best.

All right. I'm going to do it. I like it. If I'm going for business-wise, you want to get into the P&G family. Procter & Gamble. That's a marketing major right there. The correct answer is go to the biggest brand in the city. The biggest oversight of all these brands. You mean something like a little. I would go a little like selfishly. The one that I would do would be Skyline because it's just like it's such a representation

for Cincinnati area. Well do yourself a favor. Don't go. You absolutely hate it. Don't do it. It's very acquired. You have to be. You have to drink it at least three.

You have to eat it at least three or four times. You're drunk. Really. really true. I've actually, I've seen Jason eat more Penn Station at the University of Cincinnati than I did Skyline. So Penn Station is good. Penn Station is one of the best cheesesteaks in the land. Great cheesesteak. What do you think about that? Jason, as a Philly guy, you're going to put me on blast because I love Penn Station cheese steaks. And this is a heated debate between Kylie and I. You're about to divide a family, Kylie. Kylie, I took her to Penn Station to have a cheese steak.

I'm like, you're going to love this cheese steak. It is so good. And she was like, this is a cheese and steak sandwich. This is not a cheese steak. I'm like, what the hell? You can't just switch it. It's the same ingredients. It's the same thing.

Yeah. She could not stand it. It was like flabbergasted that this thing would even be called a cheesesteak. I do love Penn Station cheesesteaks, but I'm Philadelphia. Kiley likes the nacho cheese on the cheesesteak though, so that's a little- See, I don't like the nacho cheese. She does American style. I'm not going to let you do this to Kylie. The one thing that I think everybody's a little bit with is the transfer portal, right?

Like there's a kid, Penn State, like more recently, what is it? The starting quarterback just announced he's transferring right before the playoffs. Yeah, I saw that. I was thinking it was their backup, but like. Oh, was it? Okay, sorry. But he played in a few games, even like quite a few games, because I think Drew Aller or whatever his name is got hurt or something.

That's what it was. But yeah, the transfer portal was crazy, especially in football. like quite a few games, because I think Drew Aller or whatever his name is got hurt or something. That's what it was. But yeah, the transfer portal was crazy, especially in football. Like I think that's where it's gotten the craziest. Everybody's a free agent every year. This is every year. It's like twice a year, right? Adam Schafter is like reporting like, yes, they've negotiated a new deal for him to stay

at the university. I'm like, yeah, like where else is he gonna go? It's like crazy. And it's kind of sad. Like, it just, you lost that little bit of like, I don't know, amateurism of college sports. And I don't know, that's why it's so fun. But also like, it's the world we're living in. It's like-

Like the level right below being a profession, like that, I don't know, get you ready for the- It's like a minor league football basically now. Yeah, that's exactly what it is. I don't know. What do you guys think about the transfer portal? Do you think there should be different rules? I'm too old school.

I didn't get the opportunity to transfer. I don't think that people should be leaving before the playoffs. I think that they should figure that out. I kind of think that there should be a commitment level from the player to the university that there isn't right now. And I don't know if that means signing like term contracts, like maybe it's like a two, three year contract that you're like agreeing to stick with a team or a university as long as there's not like a coaching change.

Yeah, that's what I thought it was. I thought it was the original reason why they came up with the transfer reporter was one because of COVID, but two because coaches just were up and leaving and players were being forced to just be there with whoever came in. Yeah. Knowing that the new coaching staff wasn't the ones that really wanted them or recruited them. So they were kind of put on the back burner. I think if a coach leaves, then a

player or whoever on the team gets to be able to enter the transfer portal. But it's- For sure. It should go back to the old rules. If you ask an old timer like me to where if you transfer, you have to sit out a year. I know. I agree. Or I think like you get one free pass. Every situation is different, but for sure. Or you get a free pass if your coach leaves or whatever. That makes a ton of sense. Having one free. Yeah. But now we got people on like their fourth school in their seventh year. It's just getting it's getting egregious.

Insane. I was I was being a kid. And when NCAA football, the video game came out, I was like, I just have to. I have to buy that, have to play this. I have to act like I went to every university. And then I was like, oh, I don't have to just go and create a new like player. I can just transfer. So I played at four different schools, won the Heisman at each school. I'm just like, man, could you imagine a player doing this? Because NIL, if he wins the Heisman like early on enough, like he's going to get or they're going to get enough money to stay

to stay at their like college. Yeah, to stay in college for as as long as they want or as long as their eligibility to let them. And what do you have to say, in college for three years in college football? What do you guys think about that? You think that's good or you think... That should remain. Remain, yeah. Yeah, I'm kind of in favor of that. Yeah.

I don't know, I don't like restricting kids. Like if they're good enough, go. But there's like a physicality that I feel like is still like very different. But it'll get to the point where it's not even the physicality. It'll just be guys will leave knowing that they have the potential to become that. You know what I mean? So guys will just like get drafted based off of potential even more. All right now. Happy New Year's Night at Jumper Centers. The NFL playoffs are around the corner and that's why we need to tell you about our special hookup from today's sponsor, Seakeek, who are back for their third season with New Heights. And we have a special discount for the 92%ers.

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slash new heights plus you can get some free shipping. Just food at thefarmersdog.com slash new heights plus you can get some free shipping. Just go to thefarmersdog.com slash new heights to get 50% off. That's thefarmersdog.com slash new heights. Alright, before we get back into the action, let's talk about something everyone needs as we roll into the playoff season and the new year. Jason, tell the people about AG1. Oh man, AG1 is a game changer. It's like your morning fuel. It's a daily health drink that's

just one scoop mixed with water, of course, like a smoothie or water, just plain water fueling, like not being fancy. It's got vitamins, and pre-amp probiotics and more. Well, you said Probiotics, that's right. So it helps to to keep things moving like cuz After all those holiday meals 92% of mine need to you know, little extra help getting it out Okay, I don't think that's what probiotics necessarily are but I feel you age1 does have probiotics and digestive enzymes to keep everything moving smoothly. Less bloating, not being backed up, that's right. It helps to keep your gut healthy basically. So you can focus on the important stuff. What about taste? I'm not trying to choke down something that tastes bad.

It's got kind of a fruity taste that's actually good. you can't trust me it tastes better than it looks it's not just some green juice they have to choke down it actually tastes bomb. So how do your listeners get in on this Jason? Easy! Head to www.drinkag1.com slash new heights and hook it up right now AG1 is offering new subscribers a free $76 gift when you sign up you'll get a welcome kit and a bottle of vitamin D3K2 and five free AG1 travel packs with your first box. Just head to www.drinkag1.com slash new heights. That's www.drinkag1.com slash new heights to get your free gift and start your new year on Healthier Note. We end all of our conversations with a segment we call, We Gotta Ask, but You Don't Have to Answer,

Katelyn, so it's as simple as that. Alrighty, Katelyn, you're up and you don't have to answer these. You can tell us to just fuck off. Did you see the new NBA All-Star format? I did. I did. And how do you feel about this? Oh, see, that's tough. Four teams of eight, with one team being the rising stars.

So I saw Kevin Durant said this today or maybe yesterday or whenever it was, but they should go back to the East versus West. And that's when I loved it. I think it should be East versus West. Like that's true all stars. Like East versus West, battle it out. That's what it was about.

Yeah, so I think that's what it should be, but obviously not the commissioner. I'm on board for East versus West all-stars. I think that's the whole point of it. That's why you're an all-star. It's the best from the East versus the best in the West, play each other, see which side's better. I'm with you. I'm not gonna lie.

I'm not a fan of any of these in season tournaments that the NBA is doing. Yeah. I was actually talking about this today. How are you not? What is there to not be a fan of? All the funky floors and then there's tournaments and they don't mean crap. Funky floors? Can we just play basketball? I'm getting like a migraine looking at the neon green.

I'm getting like a migraine looking at the neon green. Yeah. I'm like. What? What? Just. But no. I feel like it was a hit the first year, the NBA Cup, the commitment or whatever it was.

And it kind of like toned down a little bit this year, but it's interesting. They're trying to spice it up a little bit. I don't know what team is what team. The jerseys aren't the same. The colors aren't the same. Jason is such a, he's such an old stubborn dude. This is hilarious. Alrighty. That's funny. Obviously, Caitlin, you don't need to help with the ratings,

but it's been in the news a lot recently that the NBA ratings are down. Should we brainstorm a few ideas besides changing the NBA courts to bring back ratings into the NBA? What do you think? That's a great marketing major. Come on. I've been asking a lot of people about this and why they think they're down. But also like it's interesting because I'm pretty sure opening day was NBA's best opening day in a while.

So it's interesting. And obviously I think I think the calves are back, baby. The calves are right now. You know what I'm saying? It just makes the league better when Cleveland's thriving. They're really, really good. Fucking pulled that out of my ass. They are fun to watch right now.

So, well, let's ask this. What are your suspicions potentially as to why the NBA ratings should be down? Honestly, like I feel like the average, just like basketball fan doesn't understand how good NBA players are. And they think it looks like they're not trying. I promise you they're trying.

They're just like so good. Like that's why it looks like they're not trying. And obviously the physicality of the league has changed a lot and I wasn't around when it was like much more physical and maybe people want more like beef and physicality and people think it's gone soft. But I think that's also because the skill has just changed

and like that's what's great about basketball. Like it's always evolving. Like it's gonna be different than when MJ played. It's gonna be different in 10 years than it is now. So it's hard for me to like put my finger on like why it has gone down. And also it's competing against a lot of football right now. You have to take that into consideration.

Like football is just, you know, that's America's favorite thing. I think people should like, I mean, I love three point shooting. I love seeing guys just like launch threes, but not everybody loves that. So I don't know. What do you think about a four point line? I love that.

Let's do it. That's actually a genius. That is genius. Four point line. How does the criminal justice major come up with the best marketing plan right here? Sometimes you just got to open your eyes, Jason. Look at the sheet of paper in front of you. Or we can get like just two spots. Yeah

I what about what about you're saying that there everybody's questioning how physical the the game is What do you think a hockey style fight one once a game? Just everybody picks a fighter Who doesn't like a box gloves? Box and you can come back just you don't get ejected. That's what I'm saying All right. You've got some reach on it. Bring that physicality back. The hockey guy wants that.

What about like an NBA Jam rule where like if you start making like a third bucket, it's worth more. It's like heating up. Like you're on fire. If you're on fire, it's worth more. So like, I don't know. That would be cool. That would be cool.

That would be cool. It just made me want to play NBA Jam. Have you ever played NBA Jam, Kailin? Yeah, I used to have this like, it was like the whole arcade, like the arcade NBA Jam. That's so sick. Oh, I'm jealous.

Yeah. Literally. I haven't played in a while, but yeah. Is it potentially because they're playing too many games? I think that's for sure, probably something like 82 games on like somebody's body. Like- That's so many. It's insane. Like they like they're not practicing a lot. Like it's just hard. If it's to the point that guys are that your star

players are having to take time off. Why don't we just play less games? I know. So the star players don't have to take time off because I don't know. I just I feel like the NBA and Major League Baseball grew up in times where ticket sales were what like was your main source of revenue. And now it's all driven by ad dollars from TV contracts. Yeah. So to increase TV revenue, it's like just play less games in more impactful times. I don't know. Yeah, there's definitely ways to solve that. I mean, like 82 games and we don't even we play half of that and that's going to go up as we add more teams to our league. But I can't imagine playing eight.

I know. Heard Kansas City is shopping around for a team. Hey yo. Pat's trying to bring one, I know. And they got a good basketball arena there. What is it, the Sprint Center or T-Mobile? Oh yeah, Sprint Center, oh yeah. Or whatever.

You're right, Lee, you just took me back. It used to be Sprint, Sprint sold to T-Mobile, so now it's the T-Mobile Center. Yeah, I knew it was one of them. Big 12 tourneys there every year. Yeah, it's a great spot. And then Power and Light District down there, like it's, it would be a big, like, For a great women's basketball could be great there.

For sure. So I'd support it, but yeah, I don't know. I think 82 games is a lot on somebody's body and like mentally, like that's hard. And what is it for football? I mean, you're playing what 15 or you're playing 17 regular season 17 and they're trying to add 18. I think the NFL should be playing less regular season games but I'm losing that battle. And what are you playing Travis?

You're playing like three in the next three and like 11 days or something like that. Yeah so it already started. I'm going to be playing two the next, what is it, eight days? Yeah. Like how do you even prepare for that? Like, that's crazy. You just put your shoes and pads on just like the other team. And go out there. Well, we're in this together. And you put your face in the fan. You just know it's coming.

We're all in this shit now. To be honest, we're ending that skit on or like the three games in 11 days, we're ending it on Christmas and it's like who can't get excited to play on fucking Christmas? Tawny. That's true. Marshall. We didn't last year and you saw that firsthand, but this year I think we're ready. Tawny. We're gonna rebound on Christmas. Tawny. On Netflix or whatever.

Marshall. We learned from last year. Yeah, exactly. Marshall. You recently played in a Pro-Am with Anika Sorenstam. I did. You hit a person on a T-box. I don't know how you do that. Okay. Who would hit a person on a T-box? I know I can relate.

Jason, I don't know if you've played in enough Pro-Ams yet to hit anybody. The video that was going viral where I like completely topped it. So it's crazy. Like we're playing like these long par threes that are like 200 yards. I'm like, I'm not good enough to hit a par three, like 200 yards. Like, so I whip out my hybrid. I'm like, team up my hybrid club.

Just top it like straight out of the van to the left. But I think they dodged it. Down the third baseline. But I nailed somebody on a different par three, like some woman, like right in the shoulder. Like shoulder. And I saw it, I saw a TikTok like the next day, just like black well on her arm.

Well, that's just kind of black well. Are you more competitive in golf or basketball? That's hard. I think like golf makes me more mad because I'm not as good at it. Like I'm just like the average hack and like you want to be good. Like you're competitive, just like basketball or football.

Like it's like, why am I not good at this? So, and it's like, it's like, it's an individual sport and we're used to team sports. So I think that's what pisses me off too. It's like, it's all on me and I know it's all my fault. So I share your pain. Are you more nervous on the free throw line or at the first tee? First tee, not even close. I like shaking., I can't put my ball on the tee. You're like, can't get it to stay on the tee, you're shaking so bad, trying to put the tee in the ground. I mean like you're average at golf,

at least you're confident in the actual sport you play. Touche. According to your teammates, you are quite the karaoke person. What is your karaoke song of choice? or what's your go-to? That's tough. It switches up. Yeah. It depends on what mood you're in. Does. You know what's good? Where's the love by the Black Eyed Peas. That's a good karaoke song. She gets it. Yep.

Honestly, it changes up. I like a little duet action so you can go up there with your friends. Okay. Nice. I haven't done karaoke in a while. What's your guys' go-to song? If you had to pick. I have one song and I go to it routinely. That is Total Eclipse of the Heart by the Dan Band.

I will sing that at any time. I'm anything 80s rock and roll. 70s, 80s rock and roll 80s 70s 80s rock and roll throw it on Springsteen you name it any of it I'm like ACDC I can only do one though if I'm gonna do ACDC I can only do one. Yeah that takes a lot of video. I can only stay I can only stay like that for so long. And then my voice is gone. So. I will go Colt 45 Afro man. If I'm feeling like the crowd is the right.

Colt 45, that's what he's saying. What's the goat basketball shoe? Ooh, so I play in only Kobe's. I like Kobe's online. I'm a big Kobe fan. What numbers? The five and the six. I like the six probably better, but five and six, I'm a big Kobe fan. What numbers? The five and the six. I like the six probably better, but five and six, they're low tops.

So yeah, that's where I was like, I can do the ones that's about it. But they look cool. Yeah, they look cool. And trust me, I've sprained my ankles a thousand, a thousand times. There's no stopping it anymore. I forget which number it is, but he came out with the ones I think after he popped his Achilles with the, I actually like went up like halfway up the calf. Yep.

And they're making those again. Yeah. Are they really? Yeah. I got a pair in like white and maybe red. So that should be, that could be the shoe you hoop in. There it is. Goes all the way up his leg.

Make sure you just. I'm not rolling my fucking ankle on these. I know that for sure. Just wearing a winter boot. Yeah, literally. If you weren't playing basketball, what would Kaitlyn Clark be doing? You said you were a marketing major,

would you have gone more into that world or you think you would have jumped into something else? Oh man, that's tough. I think if my basketball career would have ended, I still would have loved sports, just because it was such a huge part of my childhood and what I did. So, I don't know, maybe like try to work in like a front office of a sports organization

or something like that. I think that would be cool. Not like the coaching side of it, but like the operations side and getting to do like free agency stuff and I think that would be really cool. Marshall S. Noo. Apparently you have talked about opening a rib restaurant. Is this true? Are you ready to do this? Kasey Panetta. Yeah. Marshall S. Noo. And this was like such a random thing when I was growing up. I like told my mom, like, yeah, there was like this plot of land, like by where we would like, where we lived. And I like had this weird obsession with like ribs. It was like what I asked my mom to bake

me for my birthday. Ain't nothing weird about it. Let me tell you, there ain't nothing weird about that. So I was like, yeah, I'm going to open the rib crib, like have this barbecue joint. Heck yeah. We'll see. I've kind of phased out of, like I love ribs still, but I've never made ribs for myself, but I'll just hire a chef. Maybe he can run the restaurant. You can just be the face behind.

What's, are you baby back or spare ribs? Baby back. Baby back. All right. All right. You know, baby, baby, baby. Are you Kansas City style barbecue sauce or you're going? I'm Kansas City. Yeah. Yeah. All right. That makes sense. That adds up.

Half the day. What about there? What size are we having? What size are we having? This dude didn't talk about it. He's all right. I haven't had. An offensive lineman at heart. Have you eaten today, Jason? Full disclosure. I haven't had offensive linemen at heart. Have you ate today, Jason? Full disclosure, I haven't had dinner yet. Not in my office, Salvator.

I gotta go with some mac and cheese. Okay. What else are we going with? Cornbread. Some cheesy cornbread. We have to have cornbread. Yeah. Maybe some green beans with bacon or like... Green beans with bacon. I don't even know. Baked beans.

Baked beans. Baked beans are great. Jason's just answering his own question. Burnt ends. Baked beans are great. I don't even know. Baked beans. Baked beans. Baked beans are great. Jason's just answering his own question. Burnt ends. Baked beans are great. I love baked beans. I haven't had barbecue in forever.

You're going to make me crave it. My mouth is legitimately watering right now. Come on down to Arrowhead. We'll get you some barbecue. Can I get the banana pudding for dessert? Ooh. All right. Piece of advice for the next Caitlin Clark watching.

That's tough. I think just enjoy every single moment because it goes so fast and like life changes so fast and you only get to do a lot of things once. So have fun, enjoy it, remember why you do it because like you love it, you're passionate about it, don't take it too serious. So I would say that. That's how I've tried to live.

And obviously some moments are better than others. As you guys know, you get competitive and caught up, but just enjoy it. Have fun and keep loving it. I think that is a very wise answer. Yes. Especially for someone going into their second year. I took so much shit serious when I first got in the league. I was just like, I have to do this.

I have to do this and this. Now I'm just like telling everyone, to do this, I have to, this and this. And now I'm just like, telling everyone, like, you know it's not that serious. Yeah. I'm just like. That's funny. Before we wrap, do you have any questions for us? Ooh.

You got any? Feel free to ask none. I mean, feel free. I don't have any, it was fun. You guys were great, so thanks for having me, I appreciate it. Kaitlin Kloos! Yeah, baby! Thanks, Kelsey Bros. You guys were great. So thanks for having me. I appreciate it Caitlin Thanks, Chelsea gross

You're absolutely amazing can't wait to see you in the fever go at it again next season When are you guys starting up for a training camp April April? Oh nice. You got some time I got some time. So hopefully I can make it to a chiefs game here soon. Maybe a playoff game or something. So I'll tell you what we punched our tickets. So we're definitely here. We're gonna at least have I would assume we at least got one at Arrowhead. But you know, you're you're invited to a mall. So I appreciate you guys. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for coming on Caitlin. Hi, and that wraps up another episode of

new heights. Thank you so much to our guest, Caitlin Clark. We will be back next week for a brand new episode. Make sure you're subscribed on YouTube to the New Heights channel and follow New Heights on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Reminder, you can listen to new episodes of New Heights early and ad free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.

Once again, New Heights, a Wondry show produced by Wavesports and Entertainment. And a big thanks to our presenting sponsor, Audible. Start listening today when you sign up for a free 30-day trial at audible.com slash new heights. Follow the show on all social media at New Heights show with 1S as usual. And thanks to our production crew and 92%. You guys are our favorites for tuning in and also making us look better than we are. Love you guys. See you guys next week.

That's right. Happy New Year. Ariana. ["Wonderful New Year"] Follow New Heights on the Wondry app or wherever you get your podcast. You can listen to New Heights early and ad free. Plus, enjoy exclusive episodes of the show by joining Wondry Plus in the Wondry app, Apple podcasts, or Spotify today. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at Wondry.com slash survey.

What's up guys, it's your girl Kiki and my podcast is back with a new season and let me tell you it's too good and I'm diving into the brains of entertainment's best and brightest. Okay, every episode I bring on a friend and have a real conversation and I don't mean just friends, I mean the likes of Amy Poehler, Kel Mitchell, Vivica Fox, the list goes on. So follow, watch and and listen to Baby. This is Kiki Palmer on the Wondery app, or wherever you get your podcasts.