Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Welcome back into the program. I'm Todd Lebo sitting in for Seren Petro again today. He will be back on Monday. Jack Johnson has the helm tomorrow, Curtis Seabolt, Kyle Collier alongside. And it's our great pleasure to talk to our good friend Blair Kirkhoff of the Kansas City Star, who Blair, you've covered about everything.
And this is your first World Cup experience the past couple of weeks covering these things. So far, how's it been?
Different, but fun. It's strange to cover games at a stadium you know so well, and yet it feels somewhat like a stranger in a strange land, too. You look around the press box, and the usual cast of characters that are there for Chiefs games aren't there for this one. And not only that, most of them aren't speaking English, so...
Chapter 2: What insights does Blair Kerkhoff share about his World Cup experience?
It's a little bit different. Not only are they not speaking English, but in the case of Argentina and Messi, they're actually cheering for Argentina's success in the press box. So a little bit different, but a ton of fun. It's been a great experience. And you're right. It's true for, I guess, most of us. We've never covered this. event, and it's been a little bit of an adventure going forward.
So they don't make the announcement that you don't cheer in the press box?
Chapter 3: How is the atmosphere in the press box during the World Cup different?
This is different?
That is standard. People don't know that standard procedure, just about every press box for every sport, certainly for football, that cheering in the press box is disallowed, and if you persist, you'll be escorted out. I don't know if I've ever... Maybe once or twice in my life have I seen somebody escorted out of a press box for cheering.
But press box would have been empty, about empty, if that rule had applied for the Argentina game.
Yeah, in the last nine years when Patrick Holmes has been playing, we do get gasps. and laughter on some plays sometimes. It's not cheering, but there are a couple times they've been, like, settled down. I mean, you see some of these weird things happen, these no looks or things like that, and you just get, like, laughter.
It's an involuntary response when you see something you cannot freaking believe.
Yeah, it's wild. But, yeah, no cheering. So that's interesting. They just go ahead and cheer, huh? Wow, that's wild. They do.
Not only do they cheer, but some of them are wearing Argentina jerseys.
Oh, wow.
Which has been kind of fascinating to see.
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Chapter 4: What challenges did the hosts face during the World Cup matches?
they are a passionate lot, these soccer fans. And I guess we'll see it a little bit later with the Netherlands at Arrowhead with their orange. So, look, with Chiefs or college football or any football that you see out at Arrowhead, you'll see the cheering and the passion, but you see it, you know, certain plays. With the soccer, it seems to happen more often. And everybody participates.
So I'm not saying one fan base is more passionate than the other. I think the Chiefs fans are some of the best that I've ever been around, ever seen. And I'd compare it to some college football fans that we're both familiar with. It just seems to be a little bit different with soccer. And maybe there's a difference between rooting for your country and rooting for your team.
I've thought about that as well. What's In America, we don't have an equivalent of this. I love the way the U.S. team is playing, the national team, but it hasn't been a decades-long following of American sports fans for the U.S. soccer team, the way Brazil or the Netherlands or England or France, Spain, those people have followed their teams. So it really is. Sports is a bonding agent.
I think you see it as much in soccer at the World Cup as any sport.
Which is why I think when Nate had that video about, you know, this is different, and people just unloaded on him. What are you talking about? There's countless celebrations. He's like, I didn't say better. I said different. And it is different.
And for the reasons you just described, if you can't, you know, if you're so beholden to your red and gold, you know, jerseys and jackets you have in the closet, you can't see that it's a completely different animal. I can't help you.
Yeah, and I'm right about this, right? I mean, I can't think of an equivalent for us. We love our teams. And look, around here, you're not just a fan of the Chiefs. You're probably a fan of the Royals, one of the colleges. You know, you've got deep devotion for multiple teams. Look, I know these countries all have their pro leagues as well.
I don't know if people feel ā maybe outside of the English ā maybe I'm speaking out of school here. I think that Americans have such a strong feeling and association with the professional and college teams that they pull for. I'm not sure there's equivalent throughout the world when it comes to that. We just don't have the feeling of ā the nationalistic feeling for a national team.
Except every four years maybe when we play Olympic basketball.
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Chapter 5: What stories emerge from the local players drafted in the NBA?
So they're not playing for anything. It makes me ā as this World Cup has unfolded, I think of it like American sports equivalents to what we're seeing with the World Cup. This is not quite like the Chiefs clinching a playoff position ā You know, before week 18, do they rest starters? Because Netherlands is still playing for position. They're not in their group. They're tied for first.
But for Tunisia, what do you do if you're them? Are you out trying to, you know, bust a gut to win, even though you know you can't advance? What's You know, what's their motivation for showing up tonight and playing well? Pride, yeah.
Pride, yeah. Yes.
Pride, pride. Tunisian pride.
It's legendary around here. I have a T-shirt that has on the front. Tunisian pride. What's amazing about this, and it's not surprising because that's just what the people in this city do, it's how the locals have kind of like, oh, that's a party. Yeah. I'm going to be in that party. Yeah. And I was actually this morning coming into work. I stop off the quick trip and there were two young women.
They're probably in their 20s. They were getting. getting their drinks and their stuff for the day, and they both had Netherlands stuff on, and they had NED painted on their cheeks. You could tell they were talking. Probably going down to the parade. Yeah, they're doing it. They probably grew up in Johnson County or whatever, and they're like, we're going down to the party. They were so excited.
Part of that is the way the people are in this city, but how could you not want to be involved in something like that? It's just amazing.
It looks awesome. And listen, for me, this is going to be a fun time tonight with these two games going on because Japan and Netherlands are tied, and they tied each other, and they have the exact same goal differential. So I think, depending on weather, how it's going to go, I think Netherlands is going to try to pour it on because, by the way,
it's a much better thing to be first place in this group than second because if you finish in second, you're playing Brazil. If you finish first, you're not. So, you know, it's Morocco. Morocco's pretty good, but it's not Brazil. So I think we're going to see a fun window this evening with Netherlands trying to score, Japan trying to win and score as well. So this is the fun side.
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Chapter 6: How does the energy of a World Cup game compare to NFL games?
The Netherlands crowd is going to be wild tonight. People have gone to these games And it's just been fun. I mean, it's just been a fun thing so far. And I hope that we get even better matchups coming up ahead on July 3rd and July 11th.
And another fun thing we'll be able to see tonight is that one of the things I thought was interesting, you don't get to see a lot of crowd shots on TV, but you see a lot on social media. to see that stadium that we've spent so many years seeing filled in red. It was filled with white once. That was an interesting look we hadn't seen before. Yellow. And tonight it's going to be bright orange.
It's like, wait, are the Broncos playing here? It's wild. That's the first time that that place has been filled with orange and everyone's happy.
I'll give you one more quick one. So I was working my way downtown today, did my stop at Quick Trip, and there were two people with orange shoes
shirts on and i just asked if they were going to the fan walk and they said yeah but they were having trouble getting a ride share so i gave them a lift there you go downtown and uh and they were from mississippi uh and uh they said this was the cheapest place to of the three places where the dutch were playing it was the most inexpensive to get to and access for tickets
and have been here for a couple of days and just had nothing but good things to say about their experience in Kansas City and the way the city has treated them, treated the fans. They were so impressed with FanFest yesterday. So, yeah, look, there have been issues, right? The traffic going out, too. You've heard it.
If you didn't experience, you've heard about the traffic issues on Tuesday and ticket prices and FIFA's greediness throughout the whole thing. All of that's true. All of that's part of the story. But when you're in it, and we're in it for another couple weeks, I think the... The feeling has been nothing but good vibes for the most part.
We've heard just in the first couple few weeks a lot of those individual stories about interactions. That might be the best one I've heard. That's just fantastic. You're going to go, I want you to ride with me. And the stories they're going to be able to tell when they get back home.
Almost the same thing happened to me, and I almost did this. So on Tuesday, we were going to the match. My wife and I, we live in Lee's Summit, and I'm smart. I know how to get to the stadium. So I was going up Blue Ridge Boulevard to sneak up that way. But then I didn't realize that this is where I had gotten a little trouble, that you weren't going to be able to cross Raytown Road.
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Chapter 7: What are the key differences between soccer and American football fandom?
We know what you did, and this is not going to work for us. They basically suspended him for a year, kind of. Now, maybe his lawyers are going to try to do something with the NFLPA, but it ain't happening. This guy's not playing. Where do you think we are right now in the message the National Football League sent about gambling?
Well, I'm glad that the NFL decided not to hold the supplemental draft and the whole thing turned with the Texas judge, right? I mean, if he hadn't ruled the way he did with the injunction, then this would never have been a story, right? He would have entered the draft or he would have had an opportunity to play football this year. But that wasn't the case. And so Texas Tech pursued it.
And it's the right outcome. It took a while to get here. And I think Texas Tech comes out of it looking not great. And, you know, it created the animosity between the school and the Big 12. And not just the Big 12, but all the college sports, but especially the Big 12. You had state attorneys general fighting each other. You know, with this, just a bad look all around.
And so it's kind of a, it's ended the way it should end. And look, I hope Brandon Sorsby gets the help and care that he needs to fight this problem that he has. But he, you know, he violated the most basic principles tenant of sports. You absolutely can't bet. You can't bet on your team. You can't do what you did. What good is a rule book if he would have been allowed to play?
So it ended the way it needed to end. And so we will not have Brandon Sorsby to cheer or boo this year.
Like Nixon, you won't have Sorsby to kick around anymore. That's right. I asked this question. We discussed this point yesterday with Grunny, but we were up against the clock. From the minute this thing came to light, Sorsby and his team seemed to have only one objective, to minimize what he had done and to get him back onto the field so he could make money.
I would think that he would be in a much better position today looking forward if he had shown contrition and said this is this is a serious thing. I shouldn't have done it. I'm willing to do this to whatever it takes. He's going to lose out probably on more money in the long run or standing in the long run than he would have if he'd have been able to play this year.
He's he and his team have horribly botched this situation, have they not?
I agree with that. I think if he had thrown himself on the mercy of public opinion, apologized and admitted to the problem, tearful press conference, all that, I think a lot of people would have felt differently about this. Maybe not everybody, but a lot of people would have felt differently. But that's not the case. Battled it and never said much about it. And I don't think tech...
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