World Cup Confessions, Tartan Army Magic & NFL in London | Andy Kerr | Ep 237

Scotland. Mac Engel, Fort Worth star, telegram, Ingle Angle podcast here on the Sunset Lounge, stolen water media, and I have been bitten by the bug that is the two thousand and twenty six world cup. Despite my considerable cynicism that I received a lot of criticism for, which is totally justified by the way. I will be the first one to tell you I was wrong. I'm gonna tell everybody that I was wrong. I have absolutely loved this world cup. This is the first time I've ever attended a world cup match either as a member of the media or as a fan, and it has been a ball. I've been to three matches so far, Japan versus the Netherlands as a fan. And then as a member of the media, England versus Croatia, followed by Argentina versus Austria. And I've loved all of it. I've absolutely it's been so much fun, and it has exceeded any and all expectations. Whatever I had out of the water, it's been so great. The matches have been fun, but really the party and the scene and the fans and the people have made the experience. The sporting event is the sporting event. I've seen a million of them, but it's the people. The people and the scene and the customs and the enthusiasm. And the other part is everybody's just so damn nice and kind and excited to be around people who are having fun. And there's just so much joy in the event. And it's so refreshing to see. And I know FIFA receives a lot of criticism for a lot of different reasons and all of it's more than justified. But when you get all these different people in the same spot and they're there just to have fun, it it really is a beautiful thing. And I've I've loved every minute of it. The world cup at the time of this taping, it is, let's see Wednesday morning on June 24. We are almost through group play. We are not quite into the knockout stage, which is important to note because my guest for this episode talks about a few things that are sort of time specific as it relates to Scotland and his native England. I I I've supported every team in this tournament. I've got an England hat. I've got a a Netherlands kit. I have a Netherlands kit, and I really want something from the Tartan Army, which is the Scotts fan base that has completely overtaken social media. And with all of these wonderful clips of playing the bagpipes and drinking Boston Drive, which seemed utterly impossible. And now they're down on South Beach, which normally you would think would be accustomed to rowdy party scenes, but even South Floridians seem to be taking in and soaking in the fun by the Scotts. This has been a great tournament so far. United States has done really, really well. They've won their first two matches. They've got another one coming up, but they have already, guaranteed a spot in the knockout stage, which is something that is always to be taken for granted for The United States in the World Cup. But my guest for this episode is a World Cup expert, even if he doesn't necessarily say that he is. And he's an expert. Why? Because he has a British accent. His name is Andy Kerr. And I met Andy Kerr when I was at a Texas Rangers baseball game the other day. And I noticed the sportscaster or newscaster, I wasn't sure which, was shooting a spot from the game. And I thought, well, this would be interesting. I go up and I introduce myself. And the first question I have was, do you speak English? And then I quickly realized that he is he's British. Andy is a veteran sportscaster in England. He works for Bee in Sports, b e, capital I n, Bee in Sports. And his specialties are football soccer in this country, but football covering the premier league and the champions league, as well as tennis and a little bit of boxing. Boxing is quite big in The UK and he's done quite a bit of that. He was born. He's a native Scott and pardon me. He's half Scott, half English. So we talk a little bit about that amongst other things, but he's a native of Northeast England, even though he lives in Manchester, I believe. So these are all we talk about, and this was a really fun conversation. If for no other reason than just to hear his accent. Talk a little bit about how England in world cup play or international play is basically the Dallas cowboys of the football world. The idea that the National Football League could have a permanent team in England. Brexit. I was interested in Brexit. That was a thing about ten years ago, and it's still very much a thing and a part of life for people in The UK. And he gave me a little bit of insight to that. And of course, the world cup, the Tartan army, and Ted Lasso. Without further ado, my very special guest, please welcome Andy Kerr. How have we done so far? How's The United States done as a host? Yeah, so far, so far so good. It's really enjoying it. Stadium's mostly full atmosphere. Amazing. Quality of football has been high. Most of the big players have turned up, which is good. So I suppose if you're not a massive football fan, you've seen Ronaldo, Messi, Mbappe, Decayne, all those big names have come to the party in their first couple of games. So coming into this tournament, there was a lot, and I don't know if you got it overseas in The UK, way we did here, but Andy, all the buildup and lead in to this event here was negative. The prices were over the prices for the tickets were obscene. There was going to be a crash in the secondary market and a bunch of empty seats. Hotel rooms were empty and that this whole thing by going to be a disaster. That, that was the buildup and lead in to this twenty twenty six world cup, at least here in The United States. Were you getting that, that same sense, in The UK? To be fair, no, but not, not because we were immune to it, but I suppose, so obviously in my, my job, I spend my life just watching, watching football. So primarily in Champions League. So I guess we were so wrapped up in the domestic and the European football, the club football that as much as we look forward to the World's Cup you're almost part of that and then you get to the end of the season then you turn your attention to it. So I was aware that people were talking about ticket prices and people have mentioned it to me since I've arrived in The States. They are on the high side, you can't get away from it. But it wasn't something that was sort of dominating my thoughts coming in, it was more a case of got to get to the end of the domestic club season and then turn your attention to the football. The turnaround is so fast. I mean, is for me the most striking thing about this tournament isn't that. It's it's how big it is. I mean, this is the biggest World Cup we've ever had. 48 teams is just immense. And so it was from a football point of view, it's it's more just can you get your head around all of these teams, all of these players and by definition 48 teams is almost impossible to know everything about everyone. Know when we used to play the world's cup you know 16 teams when I was very young and then sort of even 24 teams So for most of my life growing up, you could kind of learn about all the teams and like, you used to learn it as a kid. You get these, I don't know if you do it at this stage, Carnini sticker albums, you know? So before the tournament began, you know, like about all the players because you've been in the school year of collecting them. This, this one is so big that actually it's, it's been like a learning experience. Just trying to get your head around who's played, who's good, which teams could do something. Are the FIFA rankings accurate? And I think sometimes we let ourselves be shocked by results, but actually when you analyse it, it may not be as shocking. I was at the game the other day, Cape Verde or Cabo Verde, however you want to say playing Uruguay and all the talk I'd heard since they'd drawn this fame was this amazing Cinderella story, this team that shouldn't be here, can't compete and then I looked into the players a bit more and there were five players in that starting lineup who played Champions League or Europa League football, which is, I suppose, the highest level of club football you can guess. So we probably let ourselves be taken by the story sometimes. And actually, when you dig into it a bit deeper, you find out a lot that you perhaps weren't really aware of because it's just been so big. But yeah, to answer your question though, I'm going round in circles, no, hadn't heard probably as much negativity as you did in The States, but then again, I guess probably for the last six months, that's been all anyone's talking about in terms of football. I mean, certainly once the NFL season comes to an end and there's that sort of gap waiting for more news, I suppose it fills you need something else to fill it. Well, it's funny when all of the stuff that I've heard about the criticisms for this particular world cup, you're talking about expanding it to 48 teams and then inserting hydration breaks to me, we're conditioned for this as an American sports fan in terms of all we do is can continue to increase the sizes, of, of all these different leagues. You know, they go from four teams to eight teams to five to best of seven. And now the NCAA basketball tournament. I don't know if you follow that at all. The NCAA basketball tournament, all it does is it's just increased the pool to have more games to, to make more money. So when FIFA did this, I thought, yeah, this makes more sense. This makes it's completely logical. They would do it is because it's so much money to be made. What I didn't know was if there was a lot of criticism overseas. About adding to going to 48 teams. If, if the thought was, this is ridiculous. This is way too many teams. And now that we've seen it play out this way and I, we're almost at the end of the group stage is 48. Do you think 40 eight's a good number? Your answer to this question is basically going to depend on where you come from and yourself. If you are one of the, coming at it from one of the big European countries, and you're used to seeing your team here every, every tournament or most tournaments, and you think all the best players in the world are playing or most are playing in Europe and they're playing club football, which will be give or take 40 games a season in the league, maybe a cup competition. If they're top players, they're playing champions league football as well. So you can be playing 60 games in a season. And bear in mind, summer we had the club world cup. So you've got some of the best players in the world will have played literally all through that 2425 season, then done the club world cup with virtually no break into this season. Then you've got a full domestic season, potentially 60 games, then into this world cup. Then you're gonna say physically that's a lot of demand to put on on those players and you might end almost inevitably at some at some point there will be a drop off in quality. That's flip side is this is the world cup, so it's the world's game. So we're getting to see scenes here who we've never seen in the World Cup before, the likes of Curacao, Cabo Verde, Cape Verde, the Democratic Republic Of Congo, they played the World's Took Once and it was so long ago they were known as Zaire at that point. So there's a balance here and we want to see these nations play and they need the exposure to to play at the top level if they're going to develop. So I hate sitting on the fence because I did the same job as you and you want like a definite answer, but I find it really hard to give you an answer here because it totally depends on what your perspective. So forty eight feels big to me, but then I cover the champions league in the premier league every week. So I get to see all of this football all the time. But if I was coming from one of these smaller countries that are playing in the world cup for the first time, and this is monumental, this is groundbreaking. This is a chance to do something brand new. That's going to have a knock on effect on kids in those countries for a generation. So you can't really tell them that they shouldn't be here. So it's a strange one. Don't think anyone can give you an honest answer without balancing the pros and the cons. So 48 seems big and I suppose the only time we can really judge it is at the end of the tournament and if the quality stays high all the way through then brilliant. But if we if we see a drop off and if 48 teams and seven, six weeks of football feels like it starts to drag and you might see the, you know, if the, the attendance will stay high because people have bought the tickets. But if maybe the TV viewing figures start to drop, then maybe someone will say maybe, maybe it's too long, but I guess the time to judge is probably going to be at the end of the world cup or even a year from now when we look back and then you can make a kind of assessment as to whether 48 is too many. So yeah, I I'm kind of sitting on the fence here, which I hate, but that's, I think that's kind of where you have to be on this. You covered the English national team. You're familiar obviously with its history. It's off to a pretty good start. Then obviously its second match didn't go as well. Draw a game that they totally should have won by the way. What is the temperature back home about the state of this team? Because I think here in The States, England, the English national team is the equivalent of the Dallas cowboys, a team that we think should win the biggest matches. And then for some reason or other, it just doesn't happen. What do, do fans have some kind of sense of foreboding about the English national team that ultimately, while they're really good expectations, they think, in the end, they won't win at all. Or do they think this time they're actually going to do it? Oh, no. You see, if I'm half English, half Scottish, so I come into this with a, with a good perspective as as England fans. So we always expect England to do well. And we should really because on paper, England squad will always, for the last probably twenty five years, give or take, one that do exceptional tournaments has been on paper as good a squad as just about anybody in the world. There's been one of the two teams who've been slightly ahead. So in this tournament, probably you'd say on paper, France and Spain have a stronger squad, but there's always expectation, but there's a really famous song, England, that gets played every, every world cup. It's, it's a three lines. It's the song that goes, it's coming home thirty years of hurt. And actually, no, was released thirty years ago, thirty years since England won the world's cup. It's now sixty years of hurt, but it's so, it's so fitting because every single tournament England fans will think it's coming home and they'll think this is the year, but there's also, there is a sense of foreboding as an England fan. You just know that they'll go close and something will go wrong. They got to the final of the European championships, last two tournaments lost on penalties to Italy in '21, a game that they probably should have won. They lost to Spain in the final two years ago, a game that they actually they shouldn't have won Spain were better and England didn't play well in that whole tournament but somehow found a way to get to the final. So I think yeah, as an England fan, you always have this expectation and you go back to 2006, called the golden generation. You think of that team that had sort of, it was Frank Lampard, David Beckham, Paul Stolz, midfield, Rio Ferdinand, John Terry, Ashley Cole, Gary Devil, and Michael Holmes playing up front, but got injured in the tournament. You had this team that on paper was unbelievable and no one can understand how that team didn't win the world cup. They called it the golden generation, but then you look back and look at the of the Brazilians, the Portuguese, the French, the Italians at that tournament, they had brilliant teams as well, but sometimes you get a bit insular and just look at what England has. But then we have the premier league in England, which is probably the best league in the world. Certainly the most popular, the one that gets the most, the most viewers. You understand why people would look at England as it like you used the analogy to Dallas cowboys that you get so much attention. I mean, we carried this tournament really good, really well England. We came in, the two the two war games were pretty disappointing, but the qualification was good. They won eight out of eight. They didn't concede a goal. So take out those games in March and then they were good. The first game against Croatia, they looked really good going forward. Defensively, they were a bit weak. The squad probably looks like it lacks a bit defensively. There's not a lot of cover in the fullback positions. Centre backs, it's quite a big call by the coach to leave Harry Maguire at home, the Manchester United centre back, probably was England's maybe most experienced centre back. But then that wasn't the problem against Ghana. There's no issue defensively. They just couldn't break down a really resolute low block defense. So I expect they'll get better. Historically, England haven't done well in the second game in tournaments. It's happened a few times there. Good start. Second game, a little bit disappointing. Third game, they'll pick it up. You can only really judge any of the teams once they get into the knockout stages. Once there's that jeopardy of, you know, losing the home, then you find out how good the sides are. So, yeah, don't don't judge England on the first two games. Wait and see what happens in the knockout stages. Then we'll find out how good this team is. So you mentioned you were half Scottish, and I'm sure that you're aware of the Scots and specifically the Totten army has won the twenty twenty six world cup, at least on social media with, a festive party scene that really has no equal in sports. I've never seen anything like it. And I've had friends, Andy, who have told me they, they thought about buying a ticket and flying up to Boston just, just to party with them or going down to Miami and just to party with them. But I know in the world of influencing forty or fifty seconds, video clip that goes viral isn't always, or the picture isn't always an accurate reflection of the entire scene. You're there. You've seen it. The scene of the Scotts partying in Boston or on South Beach, Is it an accurate reflection of what we're seeing in these viral video clips? Yeah, everything you see is exactly how it is. It was, I was down there yesterday and it was absolutely wonderful. It was just, I'm guessing, say, probably maybe three or 4,000 fans marching down, I think, Ocean Drive to South Beach, being led by Pipers, playing Flower of Scotland. I mean, if that doesn't get you in the mood for a world cup game against Brazil, nothing will. They are if the world cup was won by fans alone, then Scotland will win the world cup. And and my my all my English friends will, you know, they'll they'll laugh at me saying it, but Scotland fans are incredible. They are just a superb bunch, and it's so friendly as well. I mean, it's so welcoming, that it doesn't matter if you are, you know, if you're half and half like I am, if you're English, if you're any nationality, you know, if you want to come in and join the fun, it's just come on. Here we go. This is, we're going to, we're going to enjoy ourselves. We might not be here for a long time, but we're gonna have a good time. Come into today, they need a point against Brazil. I don't know how soon we get a chance to broadcast this. If Scotland could get a point today against Brazil, it will be the you will see scenes of celebration up there with anything you see at the World Cup so far because Scotland have a great football history, but they've never got to the knockout stages of the World Cup. You know, they've had some great teams down the years and some great moments, but to go to the Knock supposed to throw back to that that point before about 48 teams, you know, nobody in Scotland will will care that it's 48 teams. If they get to the knockout stages for the first time, there will just be unbridled celebration, and Miami tonight will be incredible. Hello. It's Mike Reiner of Your Dark Companion here. Let me ask you. Are you looking for something to fill the long dead air hours of your day? Well, join the Sunset Lounge DFW and your dark companion on patreon.com, YouTube, and wherever you get your podcasts. Replace those sad, slow hours with sports, pop culture, music woven into interesting conversations. So step inside the green door, have a seat at the bar, and get in the groove with those shows and so very much more. So, you know, you mentioned something that I, I, I visited England a few times and there's one detail to this. I'm always fascinated by because, you know, the history between Scotland, Ireland, and England is obviously very, traumatic, I would say, but here we are in 2026. What is the state of relations between, Scotland, Ireland, and England now? How would you, how would you describe that to, to someone like me? Politically, that's a conversation that would just take so long to, to, to go into in a sporting context. The basically Scotland and I want to beat England, right? Take all the history, whatever your politics are, whatever happened in there is, yeah, traumatic is a good word. But from a sporting context, they just want to beat England. England have historically been like the big brother, the big nation. So they want to beat England, but in the football sense they probably still are. I don't know how close you fall in rugby right now but Scotland and Ireland are both beating England quite regularly and that kind of becomes like the big fixture everyone looks forward to. So I'm looking at the fixtures now in this world's cup and as it stands, and this could all change in the last group of games, but as it stands England and Scotland could meet in the quarter finals in Mexico City, which, by the way, that stadium, the Azteca, is the same stadium where Diego Maradona scored the famous hand of God goal. And so the banter levels between England and Scotland fans are going to that stadium where that happens for a for a place you know, maybe not quarterback, round of 16, for a place in the quarterfinals would be incredible. There there are some fans who will who will tell me that the Scots hate the English, English hate the Scots. For me, that's that it kind of doesn't exist because half of my family, Scotland's half England. So I grew up growing up watching football in Scotland and then living in England. For me, it'd be, it would be great. The game would be terrible by the way, If England and Scotland play, the quality of the football is very rarely anything special. It's such an occasion that the actual football is if you're outside of those two countries is a spectacle, it'll be terrible. It'll be physical and it'll be agricultural and it'll be intense, but actually to watch it, it won't be, it won't be great, but as an occasion it will be, it will be amazing. And the two sets of fans will be so desperate to beat each other. It would be, well, if you could get a ticket for that game, if it happens, you know, that would be one of the big games of the world cup. So you, when you and I met, the other day at the baseball game, you briefly mentioned to me that you'd done some coaching here in The United States. Is that correct? Yeah. So one, one subject that I love talking about because my daughter played some youth soccer here and I'd heard about it. And then I was living it when she was playing. It was America's youth soccer system. I have written about this. I have whined about this. I have talked about this a million times. One of her coaches, happened to be, British. And, and he and I visited about this for a long time, Andy, and I have said from the top of any mountain I could find, do not look at the results of how this us team does here in the two thousand and one twenty six world cup as a rationalization or justification for its developmental system. I hate this developmental system and a lot of other Us former Us Men's Players say the same thing. What is it about this developmental system from someone who grew up in it overseas, where it's ingrained from the time you're an infant that you think merits so much criticism? The US system? Yes, sir. So I guess I'm probably not the best person to tell you because I don't know enough about it. Historically, so from my point growing up, I played a lot of youth football, youth soccer, had trials with a couple of clubs did that the school of excellence. Manchester United didn't make the grade. I did a little bit with the advanced program, in Newcastle and so I was getting coached by some really good people. In England what they do is you go through the program that way when you're very young they'll take you on now it's an academy system and they'll pick out the best kids and they'll put you in the academy. And then, if you're good enough that you'll work through year by year. So you're attached to a club, right from a really young age. And if you're not attached to a club, you will play, I guess in the local league. And that's, and then eventually you hopefully pick it up. From what I understand in The U S you kind of have to go through the college system. You? You don't necessarily get picked up by, you wouldn't have get attached to an MLS club from 10 years old. No, those, so it's different. They've tried to do, they've certain teams, MLS teams have tried to start their own development, all systems and academies, but where the, the real big line is if you have the money, If your family has the money, then you can join these clubs team, these club teams, and this is men or women, but usually, yeah, it's usually men or women because colleges and a decreasing number of colleges can sponsor. Men's soccer teams because of what we have here, our title nine, guidelines, which is a scholarship thing. And that, that takes too long to, to explain if you didn't already know about it. So basically it comes down to Andy, if your family has the money, then you can pay for to join these clubs. And the big criticism is that a, you've gotta have the money and b, they really don't stress fundamentals and development as much as they do stress playing in tournaments and winning matches. That that's the priority. And from what I understand overseas, it's it's it's a flip. It's an inversion where the priority is developmental play, have fun, make sure you want to get out there and continue to play and develop. And the game is secondary. Is that right? So I can only answer the second part of that. But in England, the idea with the academies is the coaches will generally say the result is secondary. It's about getting kids through and into sort of the first team level and that's when results matter. So you can't listen, even when you win the game, but the idea in the academies is that's not what the coaches are in theory looking for. They're looking to develop the player and then bring them through. And then if you're a successful academy of family league or a championship level club, you will be judged on how many players you can get through to first team level. Because even if you produce players, you've got two, two things really. Either you develop players to put into the first team, which obviously then puts gives your first team more chance of success, or you will develop players to a level that they are good enough to go into someone else's first team and you sell them and that will pay for your academy. So that will be that's that will be the academy's priority rather than than winning the leagues in the fourteens, under sixteens. That would be no one would really be judged on that. Although I suppose if you really need to tell you you've got good players, but that should never be, in theory, where a priority. So all I can tell you is when I was over in The States, so I coached over there, '99, 2000, 2003. So we're going back a long time, like way over twenty years, but I always said to the kids, so I did my coaching badges and it was for me, was, it was like recreational. I was, I went over because I was a student, had my coaching badges and I just love traveling and coming overseas. And obviously football was a passion, but I always said to the kids, even then you have to enjoy this. This is the most important thing is enjoy it. And if you're, if you're enjoying it and I was with my coaching like years ago, I always tried to mask what I was trying to teach the kids or what I was trying to, to get out of them, mask it with something that was fun. So if, if, if you were five years old, you know, wasn't going to tell you that I'm trying to teach you how to pass the ball better or strike the ball better. I'm just going to try and find a way to make it fun so that you're doing it without even knowing it. As you get older, 16, 17 year olds and you can be more honest with the kids and try and explain the goal and the process and what, and why you're trying to do it. But it's always, but every, no matter what age you are, it has to be fun. You have to enjoy it because if you're not enjoying it, then you've got no chance of getting to, to reaching your, your best to, to get the best out of yourself. So Andy, I'm 52. And I have said this many times. If you would have told me thirty years ago that the state of football, soccer would be where it is today here in 2026. I wouldn't have believed it because none of this really existed. Certainly the United States women's national team, we have a women's professional league. We have a stable, successful professional league for men, natural league soccer, all these different developments. But I am curious from an outsider's perspective, somebody who's grown up in it, and I don't even know if you follow MLS. What is the outsider's, the foreigner's perspective of the state of the, of the game here in The United States as a national entity, so to speak? Well, if you take the women's and men's game separately, every time we go to women's world cup, The US will start as a favorite. So I guess the women's game globally is catching up to the men's game, but I think The US probably were leading the way in that sense. With the women's world cup stars you always expect The US to be there or thereabouts so you can't really, you can't criticize that because they were ahead of the game. The men's game in The U S obviously seems like it's, it's out to play catch up. And it's, it's really difficult in that sense because obviously in The U S you have four big sports, like the NFL, the basketball, the baseball and the ice hockey to compete with. So it was, it was always going to be hard, hard start point for the, for the Americans because it won't be run at it like the rest of the world. Most countries will find football is sports. It's the national sports. And then the countries where it's not where, you know, huge sports, huge countries, like India has a billion people in it, but I don't think they ever qualified for a football world cup because cricket dominates. I think that's probably a good way to look at it. Football is the national sport. You have to touch it at advances because every kid wants to play it. One thing I sense in in The US now is that more kids want to play football, soccer, and it's it's becoming more common. And I hate the fact that you said there that, that money depends on how your access to the game because that's the one thing in the rest of the world that it's it's never been about money. It's it's such a cheap sport to play. All you needed is in growing up would be you need a ball and you get a group of your friends together and really, ideally, a piece of grass and you can chuck your jump. Literally, they they jump us for goalposts, but it's not true. When we used to grow up, you know, I would literally be going out all through the summer. Granted, it's not quite too hot in The UK as it is in some of, you know, some of the states, but we just go out and we play for hours, put jumpers down and you play football. And even in The UK, it's a lot more organized and a lot more formal than a lot of people put their kids into, you know, arranged formal, you know, organizations play. You don't see it even like when I was growing up, you don't see the kids playing on the streets anymore, which is a shame because that's where, you know, we talk about the generation of street footballers and they were different. You don't get very few kids nowadays who are mavericks who just want to like play football for fun. You know, it's not the same as it was, you know, that jet brought, you know, the pea. I don't know how much you fall in that football growing up, but players like George Best, Gaza, know, those players who just do like crazy stuff, Matt Lattista type players who just do things that just make you go, wow. I'm guessing like I know he's at Barcelona from a young age but must have played a bit on the streets because you just see the way he manipulates the ball, Ronaldinho, those guys who just make you just take your breath away. You don't see it much nowadays which is a shame, but that's that's how football used to be. That's how it should be. You want kids just to play. And it's I don't know how you get back to that. And I guess some, you know, that's just life changing, doesn't it? And this dies little thing. But that's how it should be. It should be the easiest game in the world is to pick up a football and go play. It's amazing what you just said. That's the exact same thing that has happened here with virtually every sport. You're talking about just going down to the park and just playing. No one does that here anymore. You see a little bit of it with basketball a little bit, but even then it's not the way it used to be. You know, you would go past a park and you would just see kids playing different sports. And now it's all practiced. It's all organized. It's all, like you said, very formal. I I I didn't know that. I I I certainly wouldn't have guessed that that sort of state of the game or games has made the jump overseas to, first world countries because everybody's now, and I think a lot of it has to do with cell phones. I think a lot of it has to do with parents worrying about where their kids are and just, and I think that's global. I, I don't, I don't think that's a, I remember talking to somebody about that, about the state of the game last year, he said, you're not gonna find a player coming off the beach anymore. That that's, that's, that's done. You said all these players now from a young age are being put into academies and systems where they learn how to they're coached and the spontaneity of the game that, that, that led to so many of these sort of improvisational elements to the sport. And we're seeing it, everything, all the swings are the same in tennis. All the swings are the same in golf, all the mechanics, all the fluidity, all of it is coached now. That kind of improvisation and just sort of innate skill that a player developed on their own seems to be, I don't wanna say dying, but there's a hell of a lot less of it. It just seems everything's now very coached. So that's yes. But if you're a good coach, there's still going be a way that you can allow players to develop this way. You can put put, young kids into a situation where they can still figure this out even if it isn't a formal step. You still have to coach them. You can coach but allow them that sort of freedom. Do it, guess, because I'd hate to lose that from the game altogether. So if we accept that society has changed and kids aren't on the beach anymore, aren't on the parks anymore, like we growing up, then someone has to figure out a way to make sure they still have that ability to do that. See, I always think when I was reading them, I always played with boys who were much bigger than me and I think it's brilliant for you because if someone is physically stronger then you've got to find a different way to be better than them. That's usually by, you know, you'll manipulate the ball differently, be clever with it. And so you find a lot of canopies now in England, I can only refer to, where they'll put good kids a year or two above themselves and I think maybe that's a good way of trying to sort of replicate that what we had growing up to try and put them in a situation where physically they're not playing with equals, they have to find another way. And you have to do it because otherwise everyone loses. Have to have kids who can't be mavericks, can try and do something different because you know what? If we lose that, the game will become quite boring. If everyone becomes the same, it will become robotic. All those fantastic moments that you've seen highlight reels will disappear. I totally agree with everything you just said. I don't want to lose that. And I've noticed that now an increasing the number of sports, even in basketball, because basketball has become so popular and it's so coached now, And we're just seeing a little bit less of that. I, I, I hope you're right. I have a couple more questions for you and I'll let you go. So I I'm sure you're familiar with this a few years ago, the apple TV show, Ted Lasso caught on and was huge here in The United States. And now Jason Todakos is gonna bring the show back. And this time he's gonna be coaching a women's football club. Was the show popular in England? Yeah, very. I was certainly, I watched the first two series sort of passed me by originally. And so, and I kind of caught on, I binge watched the whole first two series in about three days. Absolutely fantastic. And I haven't seen each of those for the four series, but yeah, absolutely brilliant. And I think really popular in England. Do you know the the one thing that was a shame about that show though is it was it was what made it funny was the stereotype. Right. It a real unfair stereotype on American soccer coaches because there's some we've had some brilliant ones. Do you know, you know, Jesse Marshall coaches the Canadian national team now? He had a spell, didn't he? At Leeds United? And it almost felt like he didn't quite get a fair crack of it because he was doing everything right. But it almost felt like because he was American, he was sort of judged differently. You know, had he had like an Italian sounding name and he jumped to that, then someone about he would have been given a different, you know, he would have been judged differently. But he was, I mean, that's a nice notion. I'd had lots of greats. I mean, absolutely superb TV. I've even been, last time I was in London, I tried to find the pub that Ted Lasso and, and he's number two used to supposedly drinking. Yeah. No. Brilliant. I'm glad there's a fourth series coming out. Superb TV. I loved it. One other question that has fascinated me about English society, and this happened about ten years or so ago. And that was the word Brexit. That became very much a talker here in The United States. Right? It's a headline, it's easy, it's digestible. And just the concept of it, even though it didn't necessarily affect The United States, it was something that I think a lot of Americans could relate to at the time about sovereignty, about immigration and all this other stuff. But the only thing that, as I understood it, that had a potentially cataclysmic effect was on, basically the economy there in The UK. And I noticed when I went back to London a few years ago for the first time in twenty years, my dollar went way farther than it had twenty years ago. What was the effect of Brexit on a regular British citizen, going to the grocery store, just living their lives? You know what? That's, don't know. I just need the honest answer. And Brexit is a really was, was quite divisive. It was probably a really bad idea to have a referendum on something that was so monumental that asking the people to make that decision when probably most people who voted didn't really know what they were voting for, the intricacies of what it meant, what the outcomes would be. But it happens and it's done, I think there's pretty much no going back from I don't know if it's Brexit that's made your dollar go further. I mean, I do notice, so I came to America so many times through the early 2000s and the last time I came before the strip I think was about 2011. I feel like I did a world title fight. I used do a lot of boxing. And I think, I think the last fight I did was about 2011. And even at that point didn't feel like going to The States was expensive. It feels a lot more expensive now, even just going out for a meal seems way more expensive fifteen years later than it did then. So I don't know if our pounds has weakened or your dollar has strengthened, whether America has just got a lot more expensive or whether we haven't got, can't answer your question because I probably don't know the politics enough, but I've noticed it massively. I mean, the difference in how much things cost now. I noticed the Rangers game, the baseball, but the stadium wasn't full. Now I've never been to Texas Rangers before, but I've been to watch the Dodgers, the San Francisco Giants, the Red Sox two or three times in Boston. The stadiums had always been full. And the game down in Arlington was probably somewhere between half and three quarters. I don't know whether that's, I don't know whether that's to do with the fighting seems to be more expensive in America, where people have been more picky and more choosy with what they spend their money on or whether it was, I was at games, the Rangers haven't done so well this year. Certainly one of the games I went to was, it was midweek and it was an early start. So I guess a lot of people won't work, but you you can tell that things are certainly more expensive here than they used to be. Absolutely. And and, you know, just for your own knowledge, the three baseball stadiums that you went to watch a game at Fenway Park, San Francisco, and the Dodgers, Those are three of the, probably best to, to me, three of the best venues to see a sporting event, professional sporting event in The United States. You know, Fenway Park is a museum. San Francisco's viewpoint of the bay is spectacular. Dodger Stadium is one of the best stadiums in The United States and was built back in the fifties. So you have an element of tourism that influences the, attendance at all three of those venues. Whereas the one at the rangers game, you're not gonna get that element. And like you mentioned, the team's not doing very well. It's just kind of average, but those other ones, you hit the three right ones. Those are great stadiums to go watch a game. Last thing I wanna ask you about, and I don't know if this is something that you have covered, but I'm sure it's something that you're aware of, and that is the presence of the national football league playing games in Europe. And they've, they did a trial balloon, obviously at Wembley Stadium. They've done it in London several times. It's been successful. They've sold the games out. Andy, one theory that continues to float around is that eventually the NFL would like to put a franchise in London now. I, and some of it's based on supersonic travel that if, if they could get, if they could develop a plane, that's somewhat affordable, that they could do it. Do you think an NFL franchise could work in London now? So as a big NFL fan living in The UK, I would I think I would love that. I think the idea of having nine home games a season in London I live in Newcastle, so I'm three hours away, so that's and it's I'm not gonna benefit hugely, but the idea of having a team in London, really exciting to to probably British NFL fans. However, would I like that if I was on your side of the Atlantic? Would I want to be having to go every season, especially if you were in a division with one of these with the English side, so you have to travel there every single season. That makes it tricky. Although there is an element as well that maybe it benefits the rest of the American sides because you only get nine home games a season. So as much as we in The UK love having the games at Wembley or Twickenham, I guess if you're the American side and you have to give up one of those home games, you get nine seasons, so one is a big percentage. It's not like basketball or baseball where you play in what is 8,160 odd games a season. One out of nine is a big one to lose. May maybe gets better for that to happen. But then if you had one if you had a UK franchise, if it was only one, if it was only UK, does that mean some, one of the teams in the current NFL has to cease to exist to allow it to come in 32 teams is a good balance out of everything. You know, the, the math is quite easy for getting to the playoffs to go to 33 would be quite difficult. Yeah. One division of five. Is that fair? So there's probably a lot of questions to answer. I think the travel doesn't seem to isn't the biggest one. It is what it's from, from, London to New York. It's about seven hours flights. And I'm guessing if you fly New York to LA, it's probably about four, six hundred. It's seven. I think it's six. I, so there's been a lot of talk about this and I know that Andy it'll happen in our professional lifetimes. It might happen in our lifetimes. I don't know if it'll actually get it done in the time we're, we're covering this kind of thing. There's a lot of stakeholders that you're going have to satisfy to make that happen. I think that's, that would be the issue. And I it's, but from it, from our side of the pond and as an NFL fan, I would love to see, a team, based out of, it would be London, obviously. It would be amazing whether or not you could make everyone happy on your side of the Atlantic. I guess it would be the difficult team. If anybody could do it, if any league could do it, I think the NFL could, I think the, the, the players would really complain about that one because they they've all complained about justifiably so, about the travel, you know, whether playing games in Australia now and in Brazil and in Spain and Germany and England, which is great. It's, it's terrific for the game. It really is. But it's very hard on those guys because if they don't have a week off and usually they always have a week off so they can, their bodies can kind of catch up. But if, if you were to put a team in London and then I, the scheduling format and that matrix would be challenging. I'd like to see it. I just didn't know if you thought there would be enough support in the greater. And in England to support selling 70,000 tickets or however many tickets the stadium sells, if there would be enough support to do it for an entire year. It's hard to know, isn't it? At the minute, the games always sell out, but then you have the attraction, don't you? Yeah. They're all the stuff we get to see on TV. Part of the attraction, we we watch these games every week through, you know, on on a television set. To see them in person is brilliant. But then if it became our team and so the London team, whatever it was to be called, had to develop its own stars, would we adopt it? Would that change the culture? Would we buy into it in the same way that we do? Our team comes up what I don't know is those seventy, eighty thousand fans that buy the tickets to go and see the games in London. Are they the same 80,000 that go every year? Or do you wait till your team comes up and you, okay, cowboys are here this year. I've got to go and see cowboys or it's the dolphins or it's the giants or however, whoever it may be, do people pick and choose that? I guess that was, that's the research you have to do to find out because if it's the same 80,000 or if it's even half of the fans are going, just because it's a chance to see the game that probably suggests that they would love the chance to have their own team. And in the travel sense, it's probably going to be much worse for the British based team because they're the ones who don't have to travel eight times a year over The States. But at least if you're the American side, going do it once it's decent at the most. It's a really interesting prospect. As we, you know, it'll be, if it happens, I think personally, would be something I would, I'd love it. And if I could make it work and I could get decent ticket, traveled down to London to watch the get every week. Think I think it's trying to set it on your side is going be the harder, the hardest task. Andy, how much longer are you here in The States before you go home? What have we got left? About a month left? I think of the world cup now. It feels something like that. We speak, I feel like it may be three and a half weeks, four weeks. Wow. Well, listen, I really appreciate you making time for me today. I know you're busy. This has been great. I've really enjoyed it. Thank you so much. I'll certainly continue to follow your work and, my best to you. And I, I really, for the sake of, of your job, I hope Scotland wins so you can have some fun covering those guys. That looks like a hell of a lot of fun. A draw will be fine. A draw would do it. I'm happy with the draw. All right, Eddie. Thanks a lot. Take care of yourself. No, my pleasure. Thanks. Nice chatting to you, Mike. Mike, thank you. This is a Stolen Water Media production.