July 30, 2025 • 26 mins
In this episode, Todd Erzen breaks down America’s sports addiction—and how it's turning too many men into passive spectators of life. From his days as a sports umpire to his current role in media, Todd shares his powerful personal journey and hard-earned insights on modern masculinity, regret, and the urgent need for men to reclaim their role as engaged citizens.
He challenges men to get off the sidelines and back into the game that really matters: their families, communities, and country. The Karol Markowicz Show is part of the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Podcast Network - new episodes debut every Wednesday & Friday.
Follow Clay & Buck on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/clayandbuck
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hi, Welcome back to the Caviar Food Show on iHeartRadio.
My guest today is Todd Or is an editor and
daily contributor to The Steve Dace Show on Blaze TV. Hi,
Todd's so nice to have you on.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
It's a privilege. This is going to be fun. Thanks
for asking.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Well, I've been noticing recently and I thought it was
really funny and I wanted to talk to you about it.
You have a problem with sports. You don't like sports,
and you kind of make fun of people who do.
Is that true?
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Well, I make fun of people who do too much,
but I'm doing it because I'm trying to save them
from themselves. I actually love sports. That's oh yeah, So
this is going to be a fun rabbit hole to
go down to. I'm glad you're asking.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
So tell me about it. What's the problem? People just
are too into it?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Well, for sure, I mean, it's a gigantic idol and
it's making American men, and not just American men, but
I live here, so that's what's important to me. It's
making American men very very passive and shallow. But listen,
I grew up playing sports, and one of the other
issues we end up talking about in terms of your questions,
(01:09):
I will address that with more specificity. Is one of
my regrets. But I went after college. I went to
professional umpire school, and I graduated at the top of
my class. So I umpired minor league baseball for a season.
I got invited back for a second one, and I
just moved onto other things. I'm the father of four daughters.
(01:30):
The two oldest ones are in college, and both of
them are athletes in college, and the other two play
in high school. So I absolutely love sports, but it
is supposed to be something that elevates us and instead
the modern American male. Ultimately, there's a great meme out
(01:54):
there about Mel Gibson as William Wallace is face screaming
and what happens when my team loses? And then right
below it it shows a sheep and what happens when
you know my country has taken away from me? And
so that's the problem. We're not supposed to care that
much about this and let everything else fall by the wayside.
(02:15):
And I once I saw this, I couldn't unsee it.
A lot of our modern American problems have to do
with men, not only with sports. I call them the
sports pros, but they're they're too consumed with Marvel superheroes,
they're too consumed with playing video games. I mean, we
had all those fantastic Marvel movies, yea, all that heroism
had informed us going out into the real world, and
(02:37):
then made sure COVID didn't use an abuses like it
did our borders, all manner of issues the entire Biden administration.
But instead they made us couch potatoes. We just go
down into our man cave and we're voyeurs. We're actually,
I've used the term, we're actually cuckolded by this whole thing. Yeah.
I like watching other people do it, but god forbid,
(02:59):
I actually get into the arena and we have a
lot of systemic problems because I think we don't realize that.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Do you think it's because people feel like they're doing
something now with sports, Like you used to watch sports,
but now it's like you do fantasy football, or you
feel like you're involved. Gambling has become obviously sports gambling
is as is through the roof, Like does it give
people Like I say this about online dating a lot.
I feel like people don't move from online dating to
(03:26):
real life dating because they feel like they're dating, but
they're really not, and it's it's sort of the sensation
of doing something without actually doing anything.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
It's that bad and worse. And I think I'd never
thought about it in terms of the online dating world,
but I think you're probably right about that because these
guys they talk about my team, they're so invested on
the amount of time, talent, and treasure they spend in
following their team and buying their merchandise and wearing their
jerseys and getting all of the subscriptions that they need
(03:58):
to watch and get on all the online chats and
making sure involved they absolutely consider themselves to be part
of the team. And these are grown men. It's one
thing when you're doing that as a young man, but
when you are a grown man and you're spending that
much time, talent, and treasure, not only is a lot
(04:19):
of the society going by the wayside, but quite frankly,
this is what your wife and kids are seeing. This
is the man and the home, and I'm watching how
his emotional filter is totally driven to this thing, and
it affects everything around you. It affects your relationships. Again,
I firmly believe it affects how children are being fathered
(04:41):
because there's a lot of fathers that this. They can
only get to everything else after these boxes get checked.
And the amount of hours in the day that they
give to this. I mean, right now, there's a countdown
clock all summer long. Football seasons come and football seasons come,
and yeah, it's making men really soft and s. But
they actually think they're part of the team. And they'll
(05:02):
tell you that I'm not making this up. They will
tell you that they care more about it than the players.
How dare you not care about his meat? Might I
suggest that if you care about this more than the players,
it might be a you problem.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
So do you watch any football?
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Oh? Yes I do, but it's not even close to
a priority in my life. There's not up to including
you know, the Super Bowl, everything like that. If they
there's any number of things that can take priority over it.
If I have nothing else to do that day, and
we're hanging around on a cool November and there's you,
(05:36):
we're cooking chili and just hanging out. My wife's reading
on the couch. We don't have no errands. Yes, because
I do foot football sports in general. It's fun. I love, right,
But like I'd much rather watch my daughters, yeah, in
their soccer games or their track meets. That's but I
there's there's real they know me, I know them. We've
been in this together. We've built that. Those people on
(05:57):
those football teams, they don't know you, they don't care
who you are. You're not supposed to be that invested
in this, right, You're not supposed You're not supposed to
have your literally emotional well being tied to it as
much as it is while the rest of the country is,
you know, in New York voting for may or whoever
this guy is. That's why this is happening a lot.
They've just they've got other things to do. They've got
(06:19):
as long as the Jets and the Yankees stay on schedule.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Whatever, right, Mickey Mannle doesn't pay your rent. As the
line went in a Bronx tail, if you've ever.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Seen Wow good poll.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Yeah es, So how did you get into this media world?
Umpire school? These usually not part of the story.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
No, No, I got into this media world to uh,
kind of through the back door. But I was a
reporter at the Des Moines Register for twelve years and
I didn't progress along very well because when you're me
in a very liberal newsroom, you just kind of first
you just get ignored and tolerated, and then by the
(06:59):
end you have to be purged. And that's ultimately what happened.
But I live in the same town as Steve Dason.
We got to know each other and then we got
to be uh friends, and uh so now we have
been doing this together for it's a decade and it's
a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Did you always want to be in media?
Speaker 2 (07:18):
I always wanted to be involved in politics on some level.
It wasn't I'm not I'm not a journalist. I hate
that word it I got. Thank god I never went
to journalism school because yeah, yeah, look what it does
to people just more utter morons. You end up being
Jake Tapper and nobody wants that. Uh So, no, I
(07:41):
I but I wanted to be. I mean, I I'd
like the idea of running for U political office someday.
I like being on this side of it. I did
enjoy being uh local political reporter, but I like I
like that entire world. Uh that calling. One of the
questions you have, I think that we're going to talk
(08:02):
about later on, is you know, advice for having a
better life. I think a lot of it has to
do with citizenship. Basically, it's an honor to be an American,
and I don't like I don't like taking it for granted.
And I saw, these are the gifts and the talents
God gave me to be involved in it on some level.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
So why didn't umpire school? Why didn't you stay in
the umpire world?
Speaker 2 (08:24):
You know, it's one of those I don't have any regrets.
And I love because again going back to the sports
thing I love. Yeah, I love sports, and my main
love was baseball, and I wanted I wanted to be
involved in at the highest level possible. And it wasn't
going to be as a player. I mean I wasn't
good enough to play college or anything like that. But
(08:45):
also once you get in there and you check the
box and you realize the realities of it, and you
meet some of the people, and while I hadn't met
my wife at that time, it doesn't really lend itself
to being the dad, the husband and the dad I
wanted to eventually be all that time on the road,
so I did it again. I graduated at the one
(09:06):
of the in the top of my class, and so
that was enough for me.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Any path not taken, any Plan B that you had
that you didn't pursue.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Oh no, really, the fact that I'm here doing what
I'm doing with Steve. I mean we were just at
the White House not very long ago. Steve just interviewed
the Vice President yesterday, visited him a couple of months
when we were out there. No, this is I'm never
(09:39):
going to look that gift horse in the mouth. I'm
doing more than I deserve, and it's an absolute blast.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
I love that. I love how you talk about your job,
as you know, I like a calling and just really
something that is giving back. I really love that perspective.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Yeah, it keeps you, he keeps you honest, because, as
you know, there is a lot of selling out in
this business, saying whatever needs to be said in order
to what you've view is getting ahead, being popular. But
we really enjoy we enjoy the fight more than anything else,
(10:21):
the fight for the good, the true, and the beautiful.
We talk about that a lot. Keeping the first things
first and so how many I mean, one way or
the other, you have to pay the bills in this world,
and you and I get to do it in a
pretty cool way. Not everybody gets to say that, and
I would. I hope people when they tune into our
(10:43):
show they see that. And we just we were just
in LA this weekend for a function and got to
do a meet and greet and the people the kindness
from them and saying thank you for helping us. Steve
and I wrote a book together, Fauci and Bargain during COVID.
It was the number one best seller in the country.
And the people send letters about you know, I would
have been nowhere if you guys had not broken help
(11:04):
us break through the chaos and things like that. So
that's that's deeply meaningful that we can have that relationship.
I don't want anybody to turn into us for like
talking points memo, not that there's not messaging is really important.
We're pretty darn good messengers. But ultimately there has to
be you know, poor baseline principles that you were willing
(11:25):
to fight for through thick and thin, because they're just
existentially important, and we we take those for granted very
much in this modern American world. What do you worry about, Oh, well,
that's you. You already went there with this quite I
genuinely it's not just a shtick. It's my way of
I mean, I do it with comedy and I.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Yeah, you know, it's funny, it's very funny. Like I
when I see those tweets, I like smile to myself.
But yeah, a.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Lot of it enrages a lot of the guys. They
can't stand it. But I just then I know I'm
over the target and I'll do it responding to like
they'll you know, there's a lot of exicounts that are
like philosophical quotes and things like that, really deep stuff,
and then I'll just come over the top rope with
the the funny sports bro thing and things like that.
(12:18):
Just but I worry about it because we can't. We
can't autopilot this thing called America. It's it's we the people,
and when our comforts and our idols and our passions
become too distracting. I mean, look what we went through
over the last four years, not because it was democrat
versus a Republican. I mean, there's just they they are
(12:40):
all kinds of They were they were shutting us down,
they were canceling us, they were imprisoning us. They were
there was no due process, they were poisoning us. We
can't do that again. It's gonna take more from your
average I'm just I'm a average American male. So the
gals have their own problems and sometimes talk about that too,
(13:01):
and you're free to tell me what those are. But
like my guys, dads, men, we are way too comfortable.
We're just constantly looking to be left and known. A
lot of people who think they talk big on X
but they're behind anonymous accounts, And it's not that I don't,
and they're saying I have to protect you know, my business,
my family, things like that. It's not that I'm entirely
(13:22):
unsympathetic to that. But if you give up that principle
like I have to stay anonymous as your fundamental default,
you're conceding a lot of the game. But all of
us were just like, no, this is who we are,
and over my dead body, are you going to you know,
instead of going to the game where the boy is
competing against your daughter and you just sit there and
(13:44):
I say, I can't say anything. I got to be anonymous.
It's the same mindset because somebody might say a mean
thing about me or might get back to my boss
at work. The game is over, You've already lost, sooner
or later you lost, and way too many people men.
Why is there moms for liberty and dads for liberty?
Why are the moms having to carry all that weight
while the dads just say, well, you don't know, I
(14:04):
might have to be called into human resources. That's just
that's no way to live. And absolutely, I'm just I'm
naturally wired that way, I admit. I mean, it's not
hard for me to just say, yeah, screw you, screw you,
and screw you. But it's I don't know what the
critical masses of man it's going to take to change things,
but it's more than we have now. You got to
(14:26):
get in the game, and that that very much worries me.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Absolutely, Especially during COVID. It was there were so many people,
I mean famous people, names you'd know in my DM
saying I love what you're saying on opening schools. I
personally can't speak out on opening schools obviously, but I
like that you're saying it. And it was so galling,
like these people just expected other people to carry that
(14:49):
weight for them and to forge the fights for them
while they stayed in the background and kind of kept
their hands clean. And that was about their own children.
It was like, yes, yes, If they couldn't defend their
own children, what can they defend exactly?
Speaker 2 (15:03):
And when the other side knows those are the chains
you're attached to and they do, they will continue to
get away with it. We've been talking a lot recently
about how the Pride Month has been more subdued in
the past, and it has. But what one of the
biggest businesses in the entire country that came out on
(15:25):
Day one and celebrated as hard as ever before was
the NFL. Right, that's the man's man's games. Sports Bro's everywhere.
And here's why. It's because of what you're talking about.
The NFL knows that it's over their dead body that
sports Bro is going to stop watching twelve games on
the weekend, including college football. They're they're cultish like that,
(15:49):
and that's the problem.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
If they're not worried about losing their audience, they're like.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
They aren't at all. That's a and that's a huge problem.
And that audience is a bunch of able bodied men
who should be the one saying, you know what, yeah,
you're absolutely not trans and the kids. That's not gonna happen.
I don't care. You're gonna we're gonna walk out onto
the track, We're gonna walk out under the field. You're
gonna have to arrest us all. But we're not even
close to that because Atlanta just they're protecting. They think
(16:15):
they're they're protecting something vital, and actually they're they're guaranteeing
a loss. Sooner or later, we're.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Gonna take a quick break and be right back on
the Carol Marcowitch Show. What advice would you give your
sixteen year old self having to do it all over again?
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Well, because I like with umpire school, moving out west,
I always wanted to live in the Rocky Mountains, so
I did. I don't have many regrets about not doing
the thing, but I liked your questions and I wanted
them to be as organic as possible. And here's one
that I really have. I didn't wrestle, and because that's
(16:56):
the one sport that I think I could have done,
I was if you on the playgrounding. I mean, guys
are very young, Guys are very passive these days, but
we used to, you know, with your buddies testing each
other out, you know, getting into scraps things like that,
And I was always really good at it, but formalizing it,
I looked, I just said, I'm going to pass, and
(17:17):
I think I could have actually gotten. That's one sport.
I think I could have gotten to college scholarship.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
And what made you pass?
Speaker 2 (17:23):
What was the I just I chose? And I talk
about this all the time on the show, that being
a male is not a leisure pursuit, it's you're and
way too many men these days, of all ages, including
high school kids, default to that that's a really hard sport. Yeah,
and I don't to this day. I don't know why
(17:45):
I didn't take it on, but it's it every once
in a while. And I live in Iowa and it's
a huge sport here. And I think had I gone in,
you know, mind, body soul relationships, had I I gotten
on that matt over and over again, one on one
and tested myself, I'll never know what that might have
(18:09):
brought out of me. And I've done a lot of
other things where I've made sure I was certain. I mean,
for example, like when I did work at the Dewines Register.
I got arrested during the floods of two thousand and
eight while doing my job. The police knew they screwed up,
made up false charges against me. The pol Kanie attorney
(18:32):
didn't like the des Moines Register and just thought I
was a big lib like everybody else that really threw
everything at me. I was offered these Alfred pleas and
things to make it go away. I said, no way,
we're doing this. I didn't do anything wrong, and I
ended up winning the case. And so I love that.
I have a very romantic notion about like challenging myself,
(18:56):
standing in the gap, doing what must be done. But
somehow I passed on that, and I think because that's
one part of me where somehow the soft suburban kid
just let let the challenge pass me by. And so
really I don't have many regrets. And I wanted to
(19:17):
take you seriously, but yeah, and this is it's morts
is important, it really, but it's supposed to elevate, and
I passed on an opportunity to have my life elevated.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
You know, I was going to say this to you
after the show, but I may as well say it
on the program. But you have to write a book
about how to be a man. And I think so
much to say I just think it. I I just
I could picture the marketing, you know, data Four Girls
tells Men how to be men. I love it, like,
I think you have that book in you.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
That's kind of you. And I'd be lying if I
said I haven't thought about it. You should, But I've
based on how it's received on X, I think I
have more hater then I do have fans. I don't
know how much product I would sell on that front,
because it's not.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
Just going to be you know, sports. Don't let sports
take over your life. But you know, I could just
picture a kind of blueprint plan for how to be
a modern man. Men are, you know, really struggling with
what they're supposed to be right now? And I think
I could just see a totters in book. I really can.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
That's very kind of you. But I get way more
women saying that, I think than they're in lies. Part
of the problem interesting.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Maybe the women will buy the book for their men.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
It took my wife I've been married twenty three years now,
and it was funny. It was just like, I don't know,
eight years ago or so now, that she actually looked
at me and said, you really don't care if people
don't like you, do you? And I said, yeah, we're
all right, We're finally on the same page. There we go.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Well, I have loved this conversation. I've loved getting to
know you. I feel like I opened some doors that
I definitely wanted to open. Here. Leave us here year
with your best tip for my listeners on how they
can improve their lives.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Well, I've had a lot of fun too, and I'll
have to say I'll have We'll have to return uh
the favor and have you on our show. I book
the show awesome. Just yeah, email me something you want
to blab about sometime and we'll make that happen. Well, here,
this is a a very weird way. And to get
into answering this question, my advice is be very serious,
(21:28):
and this is male or female, about whether you identify
as a citizen or a consumer. And if you are,
if you are serious about determining that, it will make
a lot of decisions for you. It will get your narcissism,
your anxiety, your motions out of the way, because these
are the things that have been classically studied forever. What
(21:50):
are my duties within the polus? You know, the Democratic
Republicans of deciding this the whole time and here's here's
a way that I it's scarred Psyche. So if it's
got as yours, I think there's a success. Have you
ever seen that show Black Mirror?
Speaker 1 (22:06):
No, I haven't.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Okay, it's a it's been around for a while and
they do a lot of different standalone episodes that are
basically very uh dystopian or wellian, like what would happen if?
And I've only watched one and it was so well
done it totally broke me. And I'll never watch I'll
never wauch another one. But here, okay, so this is
(22:30):
here's the premise of this. This show was the British
Prime Minister. There was a kidnapping of somebody. Uh, and
the kidnapper approached the British Prime Minister and said, I
am going to kill the person I kidnapped. And here, folks,
if you're listening, and uh, for a second, this isn't
going to be a PJ show. But they demanded as
(22:51):
the price for releasing the person that the Prime Minister
have literally have sex with a pig. Yes, I know
it's bizarre, but if you've watched this is a semi
a pretty popular show, and so the whole thing then
becomes this social media craze about Willie here, Wonie should
(23:12):
he hear, shouldn'ty? And everything is about the becomes about
the consumer sensational appetite instead about being citizens, so much
so that the kidnapper ultimately is doing this as a
social experiment. He more than being just wanting the blood
and guts. And he proves this point at the end
(23:34):
when the the the British Prime Minister actually says I
can't let this kid die. I'm going to do it,
and he does it. You don't see it as the
person watching in real life, but he does it on
live television because that's part of the condition. It actually happens,
and the streets are emptied out and everybody is inside
(23:56):
in there in bars watching it like it's yes, like
it's the big game. I know, but everybody's watching it.
And the streets are so empty that the kidnapper just
drives up in a van in the middle of London,
the streets are totally empty, drops off the person that
he kidnapped and drives away and that's the last scene.
(24:17):
And I thought it was so powerfully done. I know
that's weird, but it's stuck with you forever. But because
it just goes to show that we can be manipulated
as people in our comfort, in our wanting to be
part of the crowd, what everybody's doing. That's exactly what
happened to us to COVID. Look at a lot of
people just take the jab, wear the mask because it
(24:38):
made them. They were manipulated to belong. And I really
think that it's largely because in being educated first as
children and then in keeping up to speed as citizens,
we don't ask ourselves what the real duties of citizenship.
The level of discernment the hero is in that requires
(25:00):
because true citizens never on every level, both the elected
ones and the vote, none of them would ever have
been to be played by like a super a super
villain like that. They if you let, if you let
evil be the only one that understands the true cosmic
forces going on the world, and everybody else just I
gotta I'm working for the weekend. If that's it, it's
(25:22):
really sooner or later we are going to be just
like the Romans. This whole experiment and representative democracy is.
And just because we not only did we not want
the duties of citizenship, we actually resented them. We're like,
how dare you tell me that? I have to raise
the bar on my own life, And so that's what
I do with sports Row. I'm actually think at the
end of the day and being pretty gentle about it
(25:43):
because it's just my fun way of poking at men, like,
come on, I'm not asking you to to, you know,
storm the beaches of Normandy. I'm just like saying, like,
actually go to the school board meeting and look them
in the eye and say, yeah, that's not happening here.
It doesn't seem like too much to ask.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
I agree. I love this and I really think you're
a fascinating person. He is todd Erzen. Check him out
on the Steve Days Show. Thank you so much for coming.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
On, Todd, It's been a privilege. Thank you so much. Carol,
I have a new friend.
Hi, Welcome back to the Caviar Food Show on iHeartRadio.
My guest today is Todd Or is an editor and
daily contributor to The Steve Dace Show on Blaze TV. Hi,
Todd's so nice to have you on.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
It's a privilege. This is going to be fun. Thanks
for asking.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Well, I've been noticing recently and I thought it was
really funny and I wanted to talk to you about it.
You have a problem with sports. You don't like sports,
and you kind of make fun of people who do.
Is that true?
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Well, I make fun of people who do too much,
but I'm doing it because I'm trying to save them
from themselves. I actually love sports. That's oh yeah, So
this is going to be a fun rabbit hole to
go down to. I'm glad you're asking.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
So tell me about it. What's the problem? People just
are too into it?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Well, for sure, I mean, it's a gigantic idol and
it's making American men, and not just American men, but
I live here, so that's what's important to me. It's
making American men very very passive and shallow. But listen,
I grew up playing sports, and one of the other
issues we end up talking about in terms of your questions,
(01:09):
I will address that with more specificity. Is one of
my regrets. But I went after college. I went to
professional umpire school, and I graduated at the top of
my class. So I umpired minor league baseball for a season.
I got invited back for a second one, and I
just moved onto other things. I'm the father of four daughters.
(01:30):
The two oldest ones are in college, and both of
them are athletes in college, and the other two play
in high school. So I absolutely love sports, but it
is supposed to be something that elevates us and instead
the modern American male. Ultimately, there's a great meme out
(01:54):
there about Mel Gibson as William Wallace is face screaming
and what happens when my team loses? And then right
below it it shows a sheep and what happens when
you know my country has taken away from me? And
so that's the problem. We're not supposed to care that
much about this and let everything else fall by the wayside.
(02:15):
And I once I saw this, I couldn't unsee it.
A lot of our modern American problems have to do
with men, not only with sports. I call them the
sports pros, but they're they're too consumed with Marvel superheroes,
they're too consumed with playing video games. I mean, we
had all those fantastic Marvel movies, yea, all that heroism
had informed us going out into the real world, and
(02:37):
then made sure COVID didn't use an abuses like it
did our borders, all manner of issues the entire Biden administration.
But instead they made us couch potatoes. We just go
down into our man cave and we're voyeurs. We're actually,
I've used the term, we're actually cuckolded by this whole thing. Yeah.
I like watching other people do it, but god forbid,
(02:59):
I actually get into the arena and we have a
lot of systemic problems because I think we don't realize that.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Do you think it's because people feel like they're doing
something now with sports, Like you used to watch sports,
but now it's like you do fantasy football, or you
feel like you're involved. Gambling has become obviously sports gambling
is as is through the roof, Like does it give
people Like I say this about online dating a lot.
I feel like people don't move from online dating to
(03:26):
real life dating because they feel like they're dating, but
they're really not, and it's it's sort of the sensation
of doing something without actually doing anything.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
It's that bad and worse. And I think I'd never
thought about it in terms of the online dating world,
but I think you're probably right about that because these
guys they talk about my team, they're so invested on
the amount of time, talent, and treasure they spend in
following their team and buying their merchandise and wearing their
jerseys and getting all of the subscriptions that they need
(03:58):
to watch and get on all the online chats and
making sure involved they absolutely consider themselves to be part
of the team. And these are grown men. It's one
thing when you're doing that as a young man, but
when you are a grown man and you're spending that
much time, talent, and treasure, not only is a lot
(04:19):
of the society going by the wayside, but quite frankly,
this is what your wife and kids are seeing. This
is the man and the home, and I'm watching how
his emotional filter is totally driven to this thing, and
it affects everything around you. It affects your relationships. Again,
I firmly believe it affects how children are being fathered
(04:41):
because there's a lot of fathers that this. They can
only get to everything else after these boxes get checked.
And the amount of hours in the day that they
give to this. I mean, right now, there's a countdown
clock all summer long. Football seasons come and football seasons come,
and yeah, it's making men really soft and s. But
they actually think they're part of the team. And they'll
(05:02):
tell you that I'm not making this up. They will
tell you that they care more about it than the players.
How dare you not care about his meat? Might I
suggest that if you care about this more than the players,
it might be a you problem.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
So do you watch any football?
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Oh? Yes I do, but it's not even close to
a priority in my life. There's not up to including
you know, the Super Bowl, everything like that. If they
there's any number of things that can take priority over it.
If I have nothing else to do that day, and
we're hanging around on a cool November and there's you,
(05:36):
we're cooking chili and just hanging out. My wife's reading
on the couch. We don't have no errands. Yes, because
I do foot football sports in general. It's fun. I love, right,
But like I'd much rather watch my daughters, yeah, in
their soccer games or their track meets. That's but I
there's there's real they know me, I know them. We've
been in this together. We've built that. Those people on
(05:57):
those football teams, they don't know you, they don't care
who you are. You're not supposed to be that invested
in this, right, You're not supposed You're not supposed to
have your literally emotional well being tied to it as
much as it is while the rest of the country is,
you know, in New York voting for may or whoever
this guy is. That's why this is happening a lot.
They've just they've got other things to do. They've got
(06:19):
as long as the Jets and the Yankees stay on schedule.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Whatever, right, Mickey Mannle doesn't pay your rent. As the
line went in a Bronx tail, if you've ever.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Seen Wow good poll.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Yeah es, So how did you get into this media world?
Umpire school? These usually not part of the story.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
No, No, I got into this media world to uh,
kind of through the back door. But I was a
reporter at the Des Moines Register for twelve years and
I didn't progress along very well because when you're me
in a very liberal newsroom, you just kind of first
you just get ignored and tolerated, and then by the
(06:59):
end you have to be purged. And that's ultimately what happened.
But I live in the same town as Steve Dason.
We got to know each other and then we got
to be uh friends, and uh so now we have
been doing this together for it's a decade and it's
a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Did you always want to be in media?
Speaker 2 (07:18):
I always wanted to be involved in politics on some level.
It wasn't I'm not I'm not a journalist. I hate
that word it I got. Thank god I never went
to journalism school because yeah, yeah, look what it does
to people just more utter morons. You end up being
Jake Tapper and nobody wants that. Uh So, no, I
(07:41):
I but I wanted to be. I mean, I I'd
like the idea of running for U political office someday.
I like being on this side of it. I did
enjoy being uh local political reporter, but I like I
like that entire world. Uh that calling. One of the
questions you have, I think that we're going to talk
(08:02):
about later on, is you know, advice for having a
better life. I think a lot of it has to
do with citizenship. Basically, it's an honor to be an American,
and I don't like I don't like taking it for granted.
And I saw, these are the gifts and the talents
God gave me to be involved in it on some level.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
So why didn't umpire school? Why didn't you stay in
the umpire world?
Speaker 2 (08:24):
You know, it's one of those I don't have any regrets.
And I love because again going back to the sports
thing I love. Yeah, I love sports, and my main
love was baseball, and I wanted I wanted to be
involved in at the highest level possible. And it wasn't
going to be as a player. I mean I wasn't
good enough to play college or anything like that. But
(08:45):
also once you get in there and you check the
box and you realize the realities of it, and you
meet some of the people, and while I hadn't met
my wife at that time, it doesn't really lend itself
to being the dad, the husband and the dad I
wanted to eventually be all that time on the road,
so I did it again. I graduated at the one
(09:06):
of the in the top of my class, and so
that was enough for me.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Any path not taken, any Plan B that you had
that you didn't pursue.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Oh no, really, the fact that I'm here doing what
I'm doing with Steve. I mean we were just at
the White House not very long ago. Steve just interviewed
the Vice President yesterday, visited him a couple of months
when we were out there. No, this is I'm never
(09:39):
going to look that gift horse in the mouth. I'm
doing more than I deserve, and it's an absolute blast.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
I love that. I love how you talk about your job,
as you know, I like a calling and just really
something that is giving back. I really love that perspective.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Yeah, it keeps you, he keeps you honest, because, as
you know, there is a lot of selling out in
this business, saying whatever needs to be said in order
to what you've view is getting ahead, being popular. But
we really enjoy we enjoy the fight more than anything else,
(10:21):
the fight for the good, the true, and the beautiful.
We talk about that a lot. Keeping the first things
first and so how many I mean, one way or
the other, you have to pay the bills in this world,
and you and I get to do it in a
pretty cool way. Not everybody gets to say that, and
I would. I hope people when they tune into our
(10:43):
show they see that. And we just we were just
in LA this weekend for a function and got to
do a meet and greet and the people the kindness
from them and saying thank you for helping us. Steve
and I wrote a book together, Fauci and Bargain during COVID.
It was the number one best seller in the country.
And the people send letters about you know, I would
have been nowhere if you guys had not broken help
(11:04):
us break through the chaos and things like that. So
that's that's deeply meaningful that we can have that relationship.
I don't want anybody to turn into us for like
talking points memo, not that there's not messaging is really important.
We're pretty darn good messengers. But ultimately there has to
be you know, poor baseline principles that you were willing
(11:25):
to fight for through thick and thin, because they're just
existentially important, and we we take those for granted very
much in this modern American world. What do you worry about, Oh, well,
that's you. You already went there with this quite I
genuinely it's not just a shtick. It's my way of
I mean, I do it with comedy and I.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Yeah, you know, it's funny, it's very funny. Like I
when I see those tweets, I like smile to myself.
But yeah, a.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Lot of it enrages a lot of the guys. They
can't stand it. But I just then I know I'm
over the target and I'll do it responding to like
they'll you know, there's a lot of exicounts that are
like philosophical quotes and things like that, really deep stuff,
and then I'll just come over the top rope with
the the funny sports bro thing and things like that.
(12:18):
Just but I worry about it because we can't. We
can't autopilot this thing called America. It's it's we the people,
and when our comforts and our idols and our passions
become too distracting. I mean, look what we went through
over the last four years, not because it was democrat
versus a Republican. I mean, there's just they they are
(12:40):
all kinds of They were they were shutting us down,
they were canceling us, they were imprisoning us. They were
there was no due process, they were poisoning us. We
can't do that again. It's gonna take more from your
average I'm just I'm a average American male. So the
gals have their own problems and sometimes talk about that too,
(13:01):
and you're free to tell me what those are. But
like my guys, dads, men, we are way too comfortable.
We're just constantly looking to be left and known. A
lot of people who think they talk big on X
but they're behind anonymous accounts, And it's not that I don't,
and they're saying I have to protect you know, my business,
my family, things like that. It's not that I'm entirely
(13:22):
unsympathetic to that. But if you give up that principle
like I have to stay anonymous as your fundamental default,
you're conceding a lot of the game. But all of
us were just like, no, this is who we are,
and over my dead body, are you going to you know,
instead of going to the game where the boy is
competing against your daughter and you just sit there and
(13:44):
I say, I can't say anything. I got to be anonymous.
It's the same mindset because somebody might say a mean
thing about me or might get back to my boss
at work. The game is over, You've already lost, sooner
or later you lost, and way too many people men.
Why is there moms for liberty and dads for liberty?
Why are the moms having to carry all that weight
while the dads just say, well, you don't know, I
(14:04):
might have to be called into human resources. That's just
that's no way to live. And absolutely, I'm just I'm
naturally wired that way, I admit. I mean, it's not
hard for me to just say, yeah, screw you, screw you,
and screw you. But it's I don't know what the
critical masses of man it's going to take to change things,
but it's more than we have now. You got to
(14:26):
get in the game, and that that very much worries me.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Absolutely, Especially during COVID. It was there were so many people,
I mean famous people, names you'd know in my DM
saying I love what you're saying on opening schools. I
personally can't speak out on opening schools obviously, but I
like that you're saying it. And it was so galling,
like these people just expected other people to carry that
(14:49):
weight for them and to forge the fights for them
while they stayed in the background and kind of kept
their hands clean. And that was about their own children.
It was like, yes, yes, If they couldn't defend their
own children, what can they defend exactly?
Speaker 2 (15:03):
And when the other side knows those are the chains
you're attached to and they do, they will continue to
get away with it. We've been talking a lot recently
about how the Pride Month has been more subdued in
the past, and it has. But what one of the
biggest businesses in the entire country that came out on
(15:25):
Day one and celebrated as hard as ever before was
the NFL. Right, that's the man's man's games. Sports Bro's everywhere.
And here's why. It's because of what you're talking about.
The NFL knows that it's over their dead body that
sports Bro is going to stop watching twelve games on
the weekend, including college football. They're they're cultish like that,
(15:49):
and that's the problem.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
If they're not worried about losing their audience, they're like.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
They aren't at all. That's a and that's a huge problem.
And that audience is a bunch of able bodied men
who should be the one saying, you know what, yeah,
you're absolutely not trans and the kids. That's not gonna happen.
I don't care. You're gonna we're gonna walk out onto
the track, We're gonna walk out under the field. You're
gonna have to arrest us all. But we're not even
close to that because Atlanta just they're protecting. They think
(16:15):
they're they're protecting something vital, and actually they're they're guaranteeing
a loss. Sooner or later, we're.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Gonna take a quick break and be right back on
the Carol Marcowitch Show. What advice would you give your
sixteen year old self having to do it all over again?
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Well, because I like with umpire school, moving out west,
I always wanted to live in the Rocky Mountains, so
I did. I don't have many regrets about not doing
the thing, but I liked your questions and I wanted
them to be as organic as possible. And here's one
that I really have. I didn't wrestle, and because that's
(16:56):
the one sport that I think I could have done,
I was if you on the playgrounding. I mean, guys
are very young, Guys are very passive these days, but
we used to, you know, with your buddies testing each
other out, you know, getting into scraps things like that,
And I was always really good at it, but formalizing it,
I looked, I just said, I'm going to pass, and
(17:17):
I think I could have actually gotten. That's one sport.
I think I could have gotten to college scholarship.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
And what made you pass?
Speaker 2 (17:23):
What was the I just I chose? And I talk
about this all the time on the show, that being
a male is not a leisure pursuit, it's you're and
way too many men these days, of all ages, including
high school kids, default to that that's a really hard sport. Yeah,
and I don't to this day. I don't know why
(17:45):
I didn't take it on, but it's it every once
in a while. And I live in Iowa and it's
a huge sport here. And I think had I gone in,
you know, mind, body soul relationships, had I I gotten
on that matt over and over again, one on one
and tested myself, I'll never know what that might have
(18:09):
brought out of me. And I've done a lot of
other things where I've made sure I was certain. I mean,
for example, like when I did work at the Dewines Register.
I got arrested during the floods of two thousand and
eight while doing my job. The police knew they screwed up,
made up false charges against me. The pol Kanie attorney
(18:32):
didn't like the des Moines Register and just thought I
was a big lib like everybody else that really threw
everything at me. I was offered these Alfred pleas and
things to make it go away. I said, no way,
we're doing this. I didn't do anything wrong, and I
ended up winning the case. And so I love that.
I have a very romantic notion about like challenging myself,
(18:56):
standing in the gap, doing what must be done. But
somehow I passed on that, and I think because that's
one part of me where somehow the soft suburban kid
just let let the challenge pass me by. And so
really I don't have many regrets. And I wanted to
(19:17):
take you seriously, but yeah, and this is it's morts
is important, it really, but it's supposed to elevate, and
I passed on an opportunity to have my life elevated.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
You know, I was going to say this to you
after the show, but I may as well say it
on the program. But you have to write a book
about how to be a man. And I think so
much to say I just think it. I I just
I could picture the marketing, you know, data Four Girls
tells Men how to be men. I love it, like,
I think you have that book in you.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
That's kind of you. And I'd be lying if I
said I haven't thought about it. You should, But I've
based on how it's received on X, I think I
have more hater then I do have fans. I don't
know how much product I would sell on that front,
because it's not.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
Just going to be you know, sports. Don't let sports
take over your life. But you know, I could just
picture a kind of blueprint plan for how to be
a modern man. Men are, you know, really struggling with
what they're supposed to be right now? And I think
I could just see a totters in book. I really can.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
That's very kind of you. But I get way more
women saying that, I think than they're in lies. Part
of the problem interesting.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Maybe the women will buy the book for their men.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
It took my wife I've been married twenty three years now,
and it was funny. It was just like, I don't know,
eight years ago or so now, that she actually looked
at me and said, you really don't care if people
don't like you, do you? And I said, yeah, we're
all right, We're finally on the same page. There we go.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Well, I have loved this conversation. I've loved getting to
know you. I feel like I opened some doors that
I definitely wanted to open. Here. Leave us here year
with your best tip for my listeners on how they
can improve their lives.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Well, I've had a lot of fun too, and I'll
have to say I'll have We'll have to return uh
the favor and have you on our show. I book
the show awesome. Just yeah, email me something you want
to blab about sometime and we'll make that happen. Well, here,
this is a a very weird way. And to get
into answering this question, my advice is be very serious,
(21:28):
and this is male or female, about whether you identify
as a citizen or a consumer. And if you are,
if you are serious about determining that, it will make
a lot of decisions for you. It will get your narcissism,
your anxiety, your motions out of the way, because these
are the things that have been classically studied forever. What
(21:50):
are my duties within the polus? You know, the Democratic
Republicans of deciding this the whole time and here's here's
a way that I it's scarred Psyche. So if it's
got as yours, I think there's a success. Have you
ever seen that show Black Mirror?
Speaker 1 (22:06):
No, I haven't.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Okay, it's a it's been around for a while and
they do a lot of different standalone episodes that are
basically very uh dystopian or wellian, like what would happen if?
And I've only watched one and it was so well
done it totally broke me. And I'll never watch I'll
never wauch another one. But here, okay, so this is
(22:30):
here's the premise of this. This show was the British
Prime Minister. There was a kidnapping of somebody. Uh, and
the kidnapper approached the British Prime Minister and said, I
am going to kill the person I kidnapped. And here, folks,
if you're listening, and uh, for a second, this isn't
going to be a PJ show. But they demanded as
(22:51):
the price for releasing the person that the Prime Minister
have literally have sex with a pig. Yes, I know
it's bizarre, but if you've watched this is a semi
a pretty popular show, and so the whole thing then
becomes this social media craze about Willie here, Wonie should
(23:12):
he hear, shouldn'ty? And everything is about the becomes about
the consumer sensational appetite instead about being citizens, so much
so that the kidnapper ultimately is doing this as a
social experiment. He more than being just wanting the blood
and guts. And he proves this point at the end
(23:34):
when the the the British Prime Minister actually says I
can't let this kid die. I'm going to do it,
and he does it. You don't see it as the
person watching in real life, but he does it on
live television because that's part of the condition. It actually happens,
and the streets are emptied out and everybody is inside
(23:56):
in there in bars watching it like it's yes, like
it's the big game. I know, but everybody's watching it.
And the streets are so empty that the kidnapper just
drives up in a van in the middle of London,
the streets are totally empty, drops off the person that
he kidnapped and drives away and that's the last scene.
(24:17):
And I thought it was so powerfully done. I know
that's weird, but it's stuck with you forever. But because
it just goes to show that we can be manipulated
as people in our comfort, in our wanting to be
part of the crowd, what everybody's doing. That's exactly what
happened to us to COVID. Look at a lot of
people just take the jab, wear the mask because it
(24:38):
made them. They were manipulated to belong. And I really
think that it's largely because in being educated first as
children and then in keeping up to speed as citizens,
we don't ask ourselves what the real duties of citizenship.
The level of discernment the hero is in that requires
(25:00):
because true citizens never on every level, both the elected
ones and the vote, none of them would ever have
been to be played by like a super a super
villain like that. They if you let, if you let
evil be the only one that understands the true cosmic
forces going on the world, and everybody else just I
gotta I'm working for the weekend. If that's it, it's
(25:22):
really sooner or later we are going to be just
like the Romans. This whole experiment and representative democracy is.
And just because we not only did we not want
the duties of citizenship, we actually resented them. We're like,
how dare you tell me that? I have to raise
the bar on my own life, And so that's what
I do with sports Row. I'm actually think at the
end of the day and being pretty gentle about it
(25:43):
because it's just my fun way of poking at men, like,
come on, I'm not asking you to to, you know,
storm the beaches of Normandy. I'm just like saying, like,
actually go to the school board meeting and look them
in the eye and say, yeah, that's not happening here.
It doesn't seem like too much to ask.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
I agree. I love this and I really think you're
a fascinating person. He is todd Erzen. Check him out
on the Steve Days Show. Thank you so much for coming.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
On, Todd, It's been a privilege. Thank you so much. Carol,
I have a new friend.
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