Hello everyone and welcome to America’s favorite game show that… has never actually happened before and no one has heard of it… it’s Pitch That Game!
Here’s how it works. As your host, I have one minute to pitch a sporting event to someone who is not a sports fan. If, after my pitch, they’re interested in watching, I get a point! That’s it! Why would we play such a game? Well, it’s a good way to quickly learn about a set of games to see if you’re interested in following any of them. It’s also a great way for me to learn from you about what may or may not make a sport interesting to a layperson.
During this episode I’ll be pitching the fifteen NFL football games that will take place during the first weekend of the NFL season on Sunday September 13 and Monday September 14. Our guest is Max Nisenbaum, a New York City resident, rock climber, and cognitive behavioral therapist.
Miroslav Klose is a 37 year-old German soccer player of Polish descent. Derek Blackman was born in New Jersey but moved to North Carolina when he was four. He kept his early allegiances to the New York Jets and New York Yankees, added a love for the Chicago Bulls, and adopted UNC as his North Carolina college basketball team. He became a soccer fan recently, during the 2014 World Cup. Germany and specifically Klose jumped out at him. He became a fan, and the rest is history. We captured some of that history in this podcast. Enjoy!
On why he roots for Klose:
He took it upon himself to be a leader… He was always creating opportunities and always scoring goals.
To me, Klose will always be the GOAT (greatest of all time). Some poeple say, “Oh no, Lionel Messi is the GOAT, some people say Pele is the GOAT… but this is my generation and I never really paid much attention to Klose before i started watching the World Cup last year, but he always stands out because he’s the greatest.
A little known Klose family fact:
Miroslav has a brother, Timm, who is 6’4″ and also plays soccer professionally.
On Klose telling a ref he scored a goal illegally with his hand:
When he said he scored a goal with his hand and told the ref about it, he was being modest. He didn’t want to take credit for a goal he didn’t score. I’m just going to tell the ref… so they might view me in a different light.
The one thing Derek would like a non-sports fan to know about sports or sports fans:
That sports unites all. Even if you don’t like sports, you can sit with someone who watches sports and you can ask them a question as a non-sports fan… like, “hey, why did they throw that flag” or in soccer, “why did the ref pull the yellow card.” And if you explain something to them, they might be actually interested in it.
I recently wrote posts for all 32 NFL teams, detailing what is special about each team. When I posted the articles on the Kansas City Chiefs and Seattle Seahawks, two fans began to squabble on Twitter. They were Brian Reich, a fan of the Seattle Seahawks, and Doug Weinbrenner, a Kansas City Chiefs fan. I took the opportunity of asking them to be on a podcast to tell me more about themselves and their favorite teams. Here is what they said.
What do people assume about you because you’re a ____ fan?
That I wear bad Zubaz pants and that my team will always lose in the playoffs
That I’m a fair weather fan who started rooting for the Seahawks during the past five years
What do you assume about other fans of your team?
That they are a life-long Seattle resident, and therefore nicer and more well balanced than other fans.
That they are year-round, die-hard fans.
What are some thing you do to rile the other person up about football?
Brian kills with kindness. Sends celebratory notes when something goes well for the Chiefs. Of course, this bugs Doug more than if Brian had done the opposite.
Doug has thin skin as a Chiefs fan, so he tends to punch back even when no punches are thrown. Clings to small victories, like the Chiefs win over the Seahawks in the regular season last year, and the current stadium noise World Record.
What’s one way that following your team has changed your attitude about the rest of life?
Doug uses tons of sports analogies in his professional life
Fill in the blank questions:
Winning is great, but when my team loses, _____.
I’m curled in a corner, unable to perform basic life functions.
My children hide.
____ is my favorite time of the week during football season.
Any day ending in “y”
Monday – because as much as enjoy watching the games, it can be very stressful. There’s something nice about stepping away from the emotion and processing what happened.
People should root for my team because ____.
The Seahawks are the most interesting franchise.
The Chiefs were one of the few teams that gave birth to football as we know it today.
Sports is no fun if you don’t know what’s going on. Every week we publish a calendar with everything you need to know to plan your week. And today we’re announcing a new feature – a table that shows which of the many baseball games happening each day are actually worth watching. Check it out on our MLB Forecast page. Here’s what’s going on today:
For email subscribers, click here to get the audio.
You can subscribe to all Dear Sports Fan podcasts by following this link.Music by Jesse Fischer.
Sports is no fun if you don’t know what’s going on. Every week we publish a calendar with everything you need to know to plan your week. And today we’re announcing a new feature – a table that shows which of the many baseball games happening each day are actually worth watching. Check it out on our MLB Forecast page. Here’s what’s going on today:
For email subscribers, click here to get the audio.
You can subscribe to all Dear Sports Fan podcasts by following this link.Music by Jesse Fischer.
Sports is no fun if you don’t know what’s going on. Every week we publish a calendar with everything you need to know to plan your week. And today we’re announcing a new feature – a table that shows which of the many baseball games happening each day are actually worth watching. Check it out on our MLB Forecast page. Here’s what’s going on today:
For email subscribers, click here to get the audio.
You can subscribe to all Dear Sports Fan podcasts by following this link.Music by Jesse Fischer.
Sports is no fun if you don’t know what’s going on. Every week we publish a calendar with everything you need to know to plan your week. And today we’re announcing a new feature – a table that shows which of the many baseball games happening each day are actually worth watching. Check it out on our MLB Forecast page. Here’s what’s going on today:
For email subscribers, click here to get the audio.
You can subscribe to all Dear Sports Fan podcasts by following this link.Music by Jesse Fischer.
Sports is no fun if you don’t know what’s going on. Every week we publish a calendar with everything you need to know to plan your week. And today we’re announcing a new feature – a table that shows which of the many baseball games happening each day are actually worth watching. Check it out on our MLB Forecast page. Here’s what’s going on today:
For email subscribers, click here to get the audio.
You can subscribe to all Dear Sports Fan podcasts by following this link.Music by Jesse Fischer.
Sports is no fun if you don’t know what’s going on. Every week we publish a calendar with everything you need to know to plan your week. And today we’re announcing a new feature – a table that shows which of the many baseball games happening each day are actually worth watching. Check it out on our MLB Forecast page. Here’s what’s going on today:
For email subscribers, click here to get the audio.
You can subscribe to all Dear Sports Fan podcasts by following this link.Music by Jesse Fischer.
