The NIL Expert - Eddie Edwards Breaks it Down

fast-thinking, and smooth-drinking. The views in opinion shared on the better with bourbon podcast are our own, and those of our guests. Nothing we discussed should be taken as financial, legal, business, or gambling advice. Don't make investment, business, or betting decisions based on our conversations,

“as you should always talk to a qualified professional.”

Always drink responsibly, never drink and drive, and only consume alcohol if you are of legal drinking age.

Junior year English. It's the only class in high school that Jamie and I and our other best buddy, JD, had together. I do not think that's an accident that was the only one. The teacher was a guy named Mr. Markowitz. Mr. Markowitz was a great teacher. He would go back and forth with us. He would play with us, but we would get Rambunchas in his classroom, because I think he liked the banter. At least JD and I were relatively good students,

and we would carry Jamie along with us. One day, we're really getting in. We're like, we're having a really good time. I don't know what we were talking about, but we're really giving it to him, everybody in the class is laughing. Of course, I had to sit. I was a science

see. I was in the back, Jamie's over here, JD's over here. As far away from each other,

“we possibly could be in the classroom, so we can't conspire to do anything bad.”

He's like, okay, a people enough. We've been going along and up the three of you need to shut up, because we have to work now, and he turns around, and he walks back to the podium, and he says, okay, open a page. I don't know what I wanted to say, but I raised my hand as soon as he's, you know, he's turned around. He turns back around. He goes, he goes, he looks at me. He goes, is this your main? And with no hesitation, I go, Mr. Markowitz, I'm deacon. And everybody

of Rob's Jamie and JD are laughing. He's like, oh, you guys are beer and hot dogs. You're everything that's wrong with this country. And I shouldn't give it to him like that. He's just one of the best teachers we ever had, but he was just your main. Is this your main? Mr. Markowitz, I'm deacon. This is what we're dealing with. Okay, well, here we are. Better with Bourbon podcast episode three. We are back. This is February 2nd, 2026. Oh, February 3rd. Thank you.

“Oh, okay. It was yesterday. Yeah, yesterday. Yeah. Yeah. Apparently we have a long winter coming.”

We're coming to you from the better with Bourbon, media studios here in Indiana, Pennsylvania, in the man cave. We get the fire ripping. We got some Bourbon scattered around. You guys might notice our loyal fans that the scene looks a little bit different last week. We invested in some new we technology. We talked a little bit about this. We might be coming in a little clearer too, because we got the professional new idea of bones and all thanks to bunny tail Perry. And we also got

we're going high definition. So maybe we're coming in a little clear. You're going to see your beautiful face. And by the way, it's a work in progress. Eddie Edwards in the house. And it is not

casual Friday. I know. I'm doing tech, tech bro, I'll make your all dressed up. Eddie is always

dressed to the nines. You got to match the vibe. You know, you can try. You can put on what I want. I'm not going to match it. Nobody's going to pay any time. They're not going to do that. We got Hollywood Eddie here. So it can't wait. So we had a little bit of a different show for you today. Last week, we went through kind of three topic areas, kind of incessation. We spent some time on each. We talked in detail about AI and the data center economy. We talked about the drop

of drinking in the US. It's in an all-time low. And then we did some predictions. Each of those went on for a little while. This week, we have a different kind of idea. Because we have this guest in, we want to make use of the expertise that he brings and provides us. The topic today is going to be NIL, which means name, image and likeness. And this fits into our broader business theme. But specifically today, we're going to talk about the business of college athletics.

And what some believe is the advancement. Others may believe is the degradation of amateur athletics. Because now college athletes are getting paid. Sports World is very different. It's affecting some of the teams that we love and care about very much here in Pennsylvania like are dearly beloved Penn State Netanylines. Rough year for them are pit panthers. Rough year for them. They both want the balls, but they're kind of underachieving. Yeah. Elevator expectations.

But NIL is definitely a polarizing topic. When you sit down at the bar and you start talking about whatever game you're watching, invariably you get people offer in their own opinions. Again, some support, some against. But what we realize is that this is a pretty emotional topic, but very few people are informed. So we thought we'd bring to you a real expert in the field and he is the expert in the field. And I will book for that. I've known AD for 26 years and his expertise

turning by trade and just an expert when it comes to that. And so we're going to dig deep into the

“headlines that I'm sure everybody's reading about all these beautiful NIL deals that are going”

out to these athletes today. They're moving like professional athletes, they're out to collegiate the ranks. And we have just the guide to ask all the questions too and ask them, how has this come about and why is it taking place as it is and where's it going? Perfect timing here to do this. We're just coming off the football championship with one of Indiana's favorite sons, signetti, taking that title, not too far before the NCAA tournament's going to kick off.

So we're going to equip you to go drink smoother, sound smoother, be a little bit more articulate on a topic that people will listen to you talk about if you know it. And of course we're going to ask Eddie as a Super Bowl pick, you know, he's in the space so we got to ask who he thinks is going to win the Super Bowl this weekend. Totally. Totally. It's going to be great. So before we do that, a couple of other things we want to do. We want to circle back and kind of continue the dialogue

with some of the main themes that we introduced last week, both within our deep dives and then some of the predictions we offered. Relative to the AI space, we talked a lot last week about open AI in the video and some of the financing arrangements that they had introduced late last year. Well, new news popped off last week. We're going to tell you about what happened and what it means, what the market response has been. We're going to talk about the data center economy again resurfacing

one of the themes from last week because we have a very large data center project here in Western Pennsylvania that we're very proud of going on right down the street, not five miles from where we

“sit today. Some new news in the data center world coming out of Texas that I think is worth mentioning.”

And then third, you know, our predictions in an episode one, we talked a little bit about

market assets that are more commodity-based, specifically gold silver and then we spent some time on crypto last week. And if you were following this world, you have seen some massive price swings in these assets. If you own these things, hopefully, you're not looking at your portfolio day to day because you're going to think you're hallucinating with the ups and downs that have been happened. And recently, we're going to talk about why some of that volatility has been

introduced what the market response has been and maybe what to think about it going forward. But before we do any of that, right, we want to talk about we got a bottle this week. A really nice bottle. It's featured down down front here. You might notice that one of the small enhancements we put together this week is some of that lighting from underneath very professional looking Brad.

“That's a great choice. I think so. I mean, we've got to showcase the bourbon that we're”

that we are drinking and talking about because we got a special one in the house and we'll be talking with that with Eddie and while you brought it and what it's all about. Right, we're going to have some tasting notes. We're trying to do right by the will of people who have manufactured this beautiful spirit. But before we do any of that in detail, we're going to talk about the thing that we care most about us. And not really us. We're going to talk about

you and your response to our first couple podcast. Bradley, tell them about how we're doing.

Well, as I mentioned last week, we were climbing the rake springs. We were in the top 100 on apple podcast, which we were just humbled and honored since then and right before we went on set today, we are number six. So we're in the top five and climbing steadily. So really impressed is impressed. The heck out of me that we that we have that kind of response this quick after two episodes. But we do strive to provide good qualities. So we're going to continue to improve every

episode and we're going to try to bring great guests on great topics on. We love the AI space, the finance space and the sports topics of the day. So the drinking space and the drinking space. We are experts in that as well. So we are going to continue to do that and not take ourselves too seriously in the meantime. And you can't see it. But Perry did get a new pair of stilettos and they looked right. I mean, they'd really enhance your calves. So let's go to tell you a minute.

Thanks Brad. You're welcome. So first on the dock at today in this space, we're fast thinking meets smooth drinking. We're going to dig in and touch a little bit on again this in video open AI financing question. What what happened? Why are we bringing this up again? We talked a lot about it last week. We're just going to spend a few minutes here. Big news over the weekend was that in video CEO Jensen Wong walked back the widely reported $100 billion investment that he

committed to in September, relative to Nvidia's position with open AI. And what he said was he

wanted to clarify that it was never a formal commitment, so to say. The clarification came during

remarks when he was in Taipei on Sunday and was reported on by the Wall Street Journal. Wong at that time essentially explained that while open AI invited Nvidia to invest up to $100 billion in a very public format, Wong's response was certainly non-binding. It was an L.O.I. that

worked out later. This was signed in September. But do you think the market thought it was a

“done deal? Well, I think that's why this is important because this is where the headline”

doesn't always meet the reality given the timeline we're talking about. This happened in

September. A lot has happened in the world since then. Lots of things have changed. And there are some questions about, again, like we pointed out last week, not just the investment pertaining to open AI specific to Nvidia. But the broader demand that a lot of these emerging AI and data center companies have on kind of the capital markets. Everybody's looking for money. We talked about two really specific cases last week. But there are many, many, many more. We could do a different show

for 50 weeks in a row about a company that's looking for funding. What they want to use it for, the technology in their specific use case, who they're funding, who their relationships are, who the investors are. This is one of the biggest and most public. And the important point here is that what was announced in September in the market's reaction might have been a little bit premature given the kind of realities that are settling in today, right? So, Wang said that while this is

a non-binding agreement that we made in September, the $100 billion number is it's a ceiling

and it's not a promise. I didn't promise, I just kind of indicated that maybe we could do that. And he stated that Nvidia would invest kind of one step at a time. So, despite the retreat from this $100 billion number, Wang said that we're definitely an absolutely going to be participating in an open AI's current funding round. He definitely said that it's going to be the largest investment

“we've ever made as a company. And this is important because Nvidia is one of the three largest”

companies in the world. But reports suggest that today that number might be leveling in somewhere a little closer to $30 billion. So, 70% decrease. That's a big time. So, if you asked me to borrow 100 bucks and I said, well, sure. And then I said, I only got 30 to hand you. You might have to change your plans. Well, that also begs the question, does he know something that we don't that he doesn't want to commit to? Well, it's interesting because, of course, the good folks at Wall Street Journal

mean that this is what they do all the time. One of the digging on that and try to figure out why report surface that Wang has privately expressed some concerns regarding open AI's lack of discipline in their business strategy. Really importantly, they're focused on this idea that anthropic and Google's Gemini might be more formidable competitors than we thought last year. Certainly, Gemini's recent releases have been getting a lot more attention open AI's. Yeah, open AI. They've been great.

I mean, I've been using the Gemini pro lately and I'm telling you what, it's awesome. We use it for the research. It's a wonderful product. Yeah. Open AI's five release was a little bit underwhelming. Some critics thought that it could have done a little more. There might be some again strategy drift. And, see, really, there've been a lot of folks kind of quietly leaving open AI to pursue similar endeavors with other competitive models, the anthropics, the XAI, the Gemini's. So,

what's the market impact? Why are we talking about it? Why does anybody care? Well, when this came out last week, again, it was over the weekend, but on Monday, immediately, Nvidia's shares traded down. And when we look at the peak, when they closed last week, on Thursday, to the morning, stocks traded down about 9% through today's close, as investors reacted to the uncertainty that the circular nature of the financing might introduce into the deal. That's a term that we

introduced last week. Talk a little bit about. We talked quite a bit about that. Yeah, right. So,

“I think this is one of these points we say, like, not sure we necessarily got it right, but we're”

circling around the right themes that Wall Street's looking at investment community is looking at outside of Wall Street. There's a lot of private capital in here. There's a ton of money in these deals that has come from Asia. And some of those investors in Asia are questioning whether or not they have the patience to hang out if this timeline for returns is going to get it long-gitted. What if

Johnson Wong doesn't come up with a hundred billion? It's only 30. How long is it going to take

open AI to find that other 70 billion that they need? Because $100 billion is the need. If that financing takes longer to arrange, what happens is some of the physical build out with some of the data centers that are associated with this. And we're going to talk about how data center development can impact economic returns on the back end. So, interesting story, but Nvidia is now down from its Q4 highs about 17, 18% through today's close. I feel like we call this one out right,

no victory, and somebody kind of lose in money, but we're going to keep looking at this. What do you think? I mean, well, I mean, I like Nvidia as a long-term star, just because they are involved, and they have invested in a lot of different different players as we talked about that circular investing, not just open AI, but others in the industry and their chips are and as high

great buying opportunity. Potentially, potentially. But this week, we also got earnings from Microsoft,

“which is the other Microsoft Amazon Nvidia are kind of the three companies that are driving this.”

If you on Microsoft stock, everybody does one way or another, whether it's in a pension of 401k or just outright. It's getting hammered. There are earnings this week. We're really good, but there were some questions about forward-looking commitments, very similar to the conversation we're having here. So, this is a topic. We're not going to dig in much beyond this right now. No, but we're definitely going to continue to talk about it and watch it very closely to see where

the market is going and where the infrastructure is going to. Definitely. Second topic. Let's talk

a little bit about the data center economy. Very related to AI, I can't produce AI without data centers. So, we're sitting and we're coming to you from Indiana, Pennsylvania. Right down these streets, again, not five miles from where we sit today, is a town called Homer City. Homer City, for many, many years, had one of the largest coal-fired power plants in the world. And it not only

“powered kind of residential Pennsylvania, but all the way down into West Virginia, Maryland,”

up into Upstate New York, New Jersey was one of the biggest power generation facilities in the country until Pennsylvania decided to take it off the grid because of the carbon imprint that's making on the environment needed to upgrade that facility. The interesting thing about that piece of land is even though it's stop producing power, the piece of land still had lots of advantages to it. Water rights that were already permitted transmissions, transmission lines that

could get electricity out of that space, massive natural gas lines that would fuel that space for cleaner power generation using that gas as we as we transition from coal. We're sitting right here in the Appalachian Basin, that we have more natural gas than the demand is currently meeting. And a lot of the natural gas in the basin is shut in, so this is just waiting for opportunities to utilize it and this will help. Real source of pride for the area because we haven't had

a development project like that going around here for a long time. Certainly something that we get a lot of chatter about at the bar while we're sitting there talking about NIL and why the Steelers are so bad this year and what we got to do to fix that invariably, the Homer City Development Authority and what's going on there come up. So the Homer City plant just inspects there so we can compare it to this new development in Texas. It was initially a spectabe between

a 4.5 and a 5 gigawatt gas and hydrogen powered station which one announced was the largest industrial site in the country under development and the largest gas-fired power plant ever envisioned in the world. The site is about 32,000 acres big, not that we have any means to understand what that means, but we bring up this Texas thing and we'll get an idea. And the investment that's going to be

required to get this online is going to be about $10 billion big. So that's awesome and was the

celebration of the AI and data center space for many years until the world's largest title was stolen from Homer City and Pennsylvania by a new development project in West Texas called the Giga Ranch. This was announced as an 8,000 acre site with a massive 7.65 gigawatt gas plant. So this moves the AI power wars into a totally new phase. This is unquestionably the biggest industrial development projects that's ever been undertaken in the U.S. certainly one of the world.

“And the amount of money that is necessary to build this thing out there is going to be massive, right?”

So let's just talk a little bit about the differences between the two just so we can create more kind of constructive tension between Pennsylvania and Texas. We compete with pretty much everything and I'm just going to point out the thing that matters most, which is football. All right, they're also golf. We've had in the history an ongoing match played tournament with our friends in Texas once a year

which was going on for a long time that we always enjoy the competition. We're going to beat them up there

just like we do on a gritter. Right? So the most significant differences between these two isn't just the size. It's relative to the strategy that they're going to use to get power out of the grid. We've heard a lot of negative news about power demands from AI. This is kind of an interesting take that they're using down in Texas. So while Homer City is leveraging the existing PJM transmission lines, which I mentioned to you, these are the approved regulated power lines that are regulated

by the PJM authority, which is the power transmission authority here in the Northeast. These lines feed both a data center and the power that it's going to generate that's going to be available to sell back to the public. That's the one way to do it. The giga ranch in Texas is being built as a completely private off grid or as they say in the industry behind the meter solution where they will generate all of their own power, there will be no public energy used and they're actually going to

power authority to get their own state regular regulatory authority. So this is interesting because

this strategy requires much less regulatory approval. In states where you typically have to take power from the grid and we're talking about, in this case, a great big giant natural gas line. The Homer City folks don't just say to the regulator, "Hey, can we just get kind of a great big giant fat extension cord? We'll plug it in your side. We'll plug it in our side. We're

“ready to go." You have to do years and years of what's called interconnect work. You have to run a”

study about what it'll cost, how it'll affect the local economy, the technical feasibility of the physical solution, and then that interconnect work has to be done before you build one rack of server space or one cooling chamber. In the permitting process is much more intense. It's massive, right? So the Texas folks are going to undo this because they, much like us here in Pennsylvania, have a great advantage. We're here in the middle of the Marcellus scale. They there are in the

middle of the Permian Basin, right? And specifically the Waja gas hub, right? So by piping that gas directly out of the ground to a private behind-grid structure, they're trying to kind of exploit the same strategy that it's being used here. They're just doing it all behind the grid, right? So they're used to the natural gas because before they would have to burn it off because it was

“nuisance gas. So they're putting good use to something that otherwise was just being wasted.”

Yeah, so this hybrid model is going to get them faster of approvals, because shovels in the ground a lot quicker and potentially as they say benefit the local economy through the amount of energy they're going to be able to sell back into the space. So this is something that we're going to be watching. We take a great pride in this project popping up here in Pennsylvania. It's neat to know that others are seeing this as successful enough to this point to push the

envelope and create something that's potentially a multitude better. There it is. Right, right, right, right.

Okay, third really quickly here before we move on to what you want to hear. Gold, silver, and

crypto. We talked a little bit about it last week and certainly in week one, we made some of our predictions about the year, about relative of what was going to happen with these assets. Just a level set. Gold was up 65% and 2025. Silver was up a whopping 148% somebody called it. Yeah, right. And if only somebody would have told you Bitcoin was was pretty flat. It was about it was down about a percent last year. But as we moved into Q4 last year, all three of these assets

just moonshot. We talked a lot about it. We're not going to repeat it until last week. Last week, we told you two weeks ago that this run might be getting a little long in the tooth might be time to start to fade some of this, this moonshot action. Low and behold, silver down 41% in three days. Gold, healthy correction down 10%, but for an asset like that's pretty big move in such a short time. Bitcoin just like silver down 42%. What in the world would cause this? And what's it

mean? So there's a couple reasons why you'd see something like the speculative shake out, you know, the guys that were late to the party are now getting really punished. We've seen these assets take months to get this high, multiple weeks to get this high. They lose all that, lose all that

“gain in a matter of hours. There's kind of two or three main reasons. Number one, and I think”

probably most important. We got some insight in the last few days on who were the administration's

pick for the next chairman of the Federal Reserve is going to be. For a long time, it was believed to be a gentleman that was named Kevin Haslet. Kevin Haslet was seen as somebody who would widely kind of bow to the administration's demands for lower interest rates. And it was kind of seen from the perspective of the financial community from Wall Street as kind of a yes man for the administration. And while lower rates would certainly be good for the economy, there's a reason why the Fed operates

independently from the other three branches of government turns out that Trump did not decide on that Kevin. He picked a gentleman named Kevin Warsh who was an economist who traces back to Stanford, brilliant guy. Listen to him talk for about 50 minutes on a podcast over the weekend. Would recommend you looking him up in here. He is a brilliant communicator, a very steady hand, a very confident guy. But he is a guy who is not going to just take direction. He is going to

he's going to think on his own. And some are questioning whether that means interest rates are going to fall immediately. If interest rates don't fall, that essentially raises the purchase price for people not buying in dollars for commodities that are priced in dollars. We can talk about that later.

When you see gold and bitcoin, massive assets fall 40% a couple of days,

either there was people way overplaying their hands on the long side or we're totally caught off

“guard by this decision. I think it was a little bit both, right? Well, and I think the few of those”

that have heavily on bitcoin were shaking in their boots a little bit because it was getting down to the point where it was in the mid to high 70s, I think at one point and it's just creeps back slightly since then. But where is it going from here? Well, anytime you get some question about interest rates not getting cut or potentially being raised, the dollar rises. And when the dollar rises, it can have a knock on effect to non commodity assets like the market that certainly could

be contributing some of the weakness we've seen this week and assets like Microsoft or just

kind of broader weakness in tech after this great run. But there was a kind of a less obvious trigger that definitely played a role in these three assets specifically coming down. The CME, the commodity markets exchange, which is essentially the exchange where commodities are trade. Sometimes when big investors want to want to capture a commodity, it really lay into an asset class and make a big bet, they'll trade on what's called margin, right? And margin for non

investors is essentially like me giving Brad a credit card and saying, here's the rate of the credit card, go ahead and spend all you want. CME allows people to invest with borrowed money.

But just like with a credit card, sometimes interest rates move. And when those measures rates move

up, investors who have bought gold silver Bitcoin on margin either have to do one or two things. They either have to post additional collateral to accommodate the fact that they're now have to supposed to hire interest rate to borrow that money or they have to sell that asset to meet that margin call. So why would that affect the price of Bitcoin? What would any of this have to do with Bitcoin, right? Then I just read though I thought in headlines here when Bitcoin

started going on a downward trend that one of the major institutions sold it off. Yeah, in a big big way. Yeah, absolutely. And it's interesting because a lot of these institutions have holdings that have massive Bitcoin holdings. But now they also have a ton of gold and silver, right, because these things will run up. If that starts falling and you don't want to sell your silver because you bought it with borrowed money, you can't sell the thing you want to sell,

you get to sell the thing you can sell, right? And that would certainly play into the narrative about why somebody would sell a massive chunk of Bitcoin over the weekend and have it open yesterday down the way it was. It may be also showing where they prioritize their top assets. Gold and silver still seem to be on top. Gold and silver are projected to run. I can't imagine how they could go any higher than where they are right now. Again, like we said last

“few weeks, I think we need to see some sideways action and the amount before those become”

investable again. But I think that's enough on this, huh? No, let's get to what we're here for and that is Eddie Edwards. Yeah, and we come back. We're going to bring Eddie onto the set and get into the bottle of Ron. Yeah, when we come back, there'll be three of us here. What happens when work disappears when money dissolves and when freedom becomes something you earn, not something you're born with. A new kind of power is rising, not a government,

not a corporation, but the algorithm. In the algorithmic state, no jobs, no money, little freedom, Amazon best selling author, Bradley J. Martinowe, reveals the world we're stepping into. A world where your reputation is computed, your opportunities are filtered and your identity is shaped by systems that know you better than you know yourself. This is not science fiction. This is the operating manual of the future forming around us right now.

“If you want to understand the forces that will define power, belonging and freedom in the decades”

ahead, start here. The algorithmic state, no jobs, no money, little freedom, available now on Amazon. And we're back. We're fast thinking we can make smooth drink in here, but with bourbon podcast. You might notice we have an additional participant here. Bradley, who is this guy? Oh, who is this guy? I think he comes known before I even have to introduce him. It's Eddie Edwards. Hollywood himself. Welcome to the set, bro. I don't know about Hollywood, but the build-up here.

Oh, man, it's good to have you back in Indiana. That's great to be at Indiana. With good people. Good bourbon. Great podcast. Congratulations.

You're attention. We get now. You know what I watch it. We don't take it for granted.

“I watch it. It's good. Great content. I and I let Brad do a good, better and different.”

That's right. That's right. You know, always as. So we go way back in.

We got to set the stage your how you and I got to introduce each other to each other and it goes back to law school. Absolutely. You know, and Brad, you're humble. I don't know if Brad's mentioned this. Did you know he was number one in our law class? Only, you know, about once a week. Yeah. He was the foremost mind in our law class, but me and Brad met in law school. Cultivated a friendship over now. What 26 years? Met the very first day of law school.

Very heart state of law school. Right. Where we dominated intermerels. We did. No doubt. We weren't division one athletes. We were intermerely athletes. No, and I all for us. None. But you know, we we we've been able over over time to spend a lot of time with one another.

Our families could know our families watch our families grow, watch the kids grow, and you know, look for opportunities to collaborate.

So, you know, when when Brad called and said, hey, I got this podcast with Deacon, who we know each other in a different way, which is even more strange when we come to find out how small the world is to learn where, by the way, I happen to be going to school in eerie, Pennsylvania, that you two actually met before I met you 26 years ago. Can I tell it real quick? Tell the story. Okay, so a couple years ago, Brad and I didn't know each other very well.

“He calls me one day. He says, hey, one of my main guys is coming up. I think you guys would get along.”

We're going to play golf have some lunch. Maybe have a drink or two, you know, I show up. We start talking. Hey, how are you? What kind of business you in? What do you do? Oh, great. You married got kids. Yeah, you married. No, no, no. I'm going to kind of do in the area. Okay, let's go play golf. So we get about to the, I think it was the seventh hole at Indiana Country Club best greens in the world. And I'm looking at Eddie as he's stepping off to the team and muscular back, all thing,

talking. I said, you look like an athlete. When was your sport coming up? And he goes, I play a little basketball, played basketball up at Penn State up in eerie. And I said, no, you didn't Penn State eerie. And I said, yeah, you remember the, you know, James, you know, like, ah, the oak tree. So we found out that we had met. This would be, let's see, your, what was it your junior year or freshman year? Your soft AP 95. Yeah, 95. I went up to see Jamie play. Only time I got to see him play in college.

And as you do with that age, we stayed and, you know, had a couple of drinks with the ladies in the dorm. And invariably, I fell asleep on somebody's floor come, come to find out. That was your floor. I slept on. There were many people. It's left on that floor. We go way back. It happened. So I knew him before you did. I knew him before you did. I knew him before you. Anyway, keep going. And even before that. Yeah. The La Trobe Rotary tournament.

Oh, heck. Simon Grats. Sorry, first met Okenak because La Trobe would bring in a top tier basketball team every year. Yeah. And we were on our finals break. And our coach was recruiting Jamie. Oh, so he said, hey, what are you doing? Would you like to, you know, it's so we went down.

“That's right. And and saw them play against La Norge Stewart. I think it was Sean Smith and”

Terrell Stokes. What a lineup. Well, Rashid almost ripped a goal off the roof. Yeah, that was the year before. But the year after that came back with, I mean, they just kept producing him at

Simon Grats. Oh, they always did matter. They were, and I'm sure they still are having

followed that close, but when they were top. Top tier was a crazy team. Crazy. Small world though, right? Yeah. They, they would have had in my old money back then. If all could you imagine that that's a great question that I, I always posed to athletes, so I know from yesterday year. What do you think your and I all value would be today? It's already. Oh, my God. If we could have done that back then. Yeah. Because again,

there was a lot of, a lot of athletes that could have benefited big time from those opportunities. Exactly. And it's as a athlete that, at least in the high school ranks back then, I've experienced and played against some of them, and I could, and I'm sure you could do. I mean, just name off a few that, this is Sean, but they couldn't benefit from it. Well, and I told Brad, you know, we do pre-production. So when me and Brad were in pre-production here today before before you started

to film, let's tell them a story about when I was a young man. I, I say young man, I was aging myself, but when I was younger, I was helping with the McDonald's on American game, when it was here in Pittsburgh in 1996. There's a little listeners, when we were talking about the story, we were rocking on our rocking chairs, out for absolutely. Back when I was at, so, but I was Tom Brad, part of my duties was escorting some of the celebrities,

you know, around. You were an escort. I was an escort. I don't know. I can pass it. Okay, it is not an I can pass it, but I was escorting some of the celebrities around from event to event, and one of the individuals was a, you know, a top tier

in major basketball this day, but, you know, he was talking about buying Christmas gifts for his

“parents in the student store, and he was buying his own jersey and didn't get anything for it.”

It's amazing. See, it's like, I'm going to go into our bookstore, and I'm going to spend $150 on two jerseys, I just, you know, I want to give that a gift back to my parents, but what's wrong with the thought of me actually going to buying my own jersey that I get nothing for, and that benefit's going to go back to the university. Makes no sense. No, that doesn't make any sense, and before we go any further down that road, I want to let the listeners know, just a little bit

more about yourself. How did you get into, you know, I always find it fascinating, because you

know, you and I were very close and in law school, we hung out, we played intermereal basketball, we even played intermereal football, one semester, because we just accidentally signed up for the wrong league, but that was, we hung out all the time, and I knew you had a sports background, and you're, you're, you come from a very talented family, your, your father gifted gifted athlete, what got you into the space? So sports from a young age, you know, I wasn't much of a reader.

So the way that my parents enticed me to read was to read the sports section. In back then, we had to Pittsburgh post Gazette, which was our morning edition, and to Pittsburgh press, which was our evening edition. In the Pittsburgh post Gazette's going away here. It's going away now, but I would read that sports section cover to cover every single day. So I could recite stats. As I got older, my mother got me probably the most valuable thing that I had was my sports

illustrated subscription. Oh, yeah. Remember, though, I read it in front of the back, which he versioned and membered in the back with his, uh, his editorial face from the crowd, right,

at, at the end. I got to be honest, I never read it front the back. The only the swimsuit issue,

the only swimsuit issue. The only swimsuit. That was, that's the one I've been most attention to.

“It's so much. And he still hasn't, right? It's still as old as it was. They're valuable, right?”

But I, I would read sports industry. I would consume as much as I could, passion, not for I didn't have any business purpose, whether it was just passion, then at that same McDonald's, all-American game. You know, when I was escorting some of the guys from Penn State, I asked one of the guys that, you know, who handles all this stuff for you? And when you told me who the agent was, I was like, you know what, I think I can do that.

But then, do you know any agents? Just so happen that the honorable Dwayne Woodruff, who's now a judge, former Pittsburgh Steeler, former Super Bowl Pittsburgh Steeler, and very well respected attorney, was an agent. As well as an attorney, he was certified. He happened to be my family's attorney. He represented my dad on matters. So, you know, of course, I corner him one day, and I'm like, judge back then it was Dwayne Mr. Woodruff.

You know, I want to be an agent. Can you help me out? Like, how can we do this? We'll do that. I know my dad had already went to Dwayne and said, hey, my kids are going to

count new. He wants to be an agent. But he got to go to law school first. So we're not doing this before

it before he goes to law school. So I got to, I'm so happy he said, well, I got to judge Woodruff and he said, you know, Eddie, when you're done with law school, the minute you're done with law school, you call me and we'll figure this out, right? So the minute, I literally, we probably walked out to stage once the, you know, the graduation party thereafter and he was there and I said, you know, what? We're doing this. And we did it. It's been fantastic. I mean, now it's almost 25-year

ride of representation of, of athletes. Now, as a certified NFLPA contract advisor, you know, and BPA certified agent in an attorney. When I tell people, I'm going to attorney with those licenses, not necessarily, you know, the moniker of agent, you know, everybody kind of looks at, you know, can look at you differently when you can you come out and say, hey, I'm an agent. But I'm going to attorney with certification. And just so folks know, you don't have to be an attorney to be an agent.

You do not, even though you are dealing heavily with contracts, heavily with contracts. And that negotiating background, you know, dealing with with complex business issues, things of that nature

“comes in really handy. You know, it's a deficit. It's an advantage. It's an advantage, right?”

To be able to do those things. So, you know, the sports thing was pretty natural. I know I play as a kid growing up, you know, was a modest athlete, but love the sport. And then I, you know, you get married life goes on. You have kids. You don't know where your kids are going to end up. You hope they end up doing some cool things. Your kids did some really cool things. I mean, lo and behold, 3D1 athletes, right? Man, like, from this D3 kid, mom, 3D1 athletes.

Well, that is the, and had a real story. When we have portion on, and we talk about the real athlete and the family, and the real reason that he had to become an agent, it was just, and it's funny because my oldest played baseball University of Buffalo. So at that point, there's no an aisle, right? That wasn't even a talking point. Then my middle goes and plays basketball at the Air Force Academy. The same time, it was there. Yeah, and when James was a,

and, and, you know, because our service academy, the an aisle stuff wouldn't amount at any

way because they can't take it, right? Right. So then my youngest, who arguably is the most athletic

“of the three. Well, she made USA today. Yeah. I remember that story. That was USA to the rest of”

stories. She calls me the data that's approved. It says, Dad, you're in a business. I need deals. I'm like, honey, it's not that easy. It's not that easy. You know, at that point, she's playing the Patriot League, um, which is a great league. It's a great academic league. But, but Lehigh, Bucknell, Lehigh, Cole Gate, West Point, right? They're all there. But when you're looking at opportunities, at least back then in the collective days, it was based on your following, right?

You know, they, they wanted to see, like, what kind of reach can the business get, you know, for, for engaging, but especially athletes at that level, like at the, more higher profile, back then P5, now P4 schools, a little bit easier because of the visibility. So, you know, saying you're dotted by, I just, this is going to be rough. But, you know, helping our figure out even for product. So it was a great teaching tool, right? How to, how to be a brand ambassador.

Now, how to build out that brand. People forget name, image, likeness. That's right. Intellectual property. This isn't paid a play. But we have, we have to tell the quick story on, uh, on Lauren and how she got, she went from being, uh, a graduate assistant to all of a sudden being the starting point guard. Yeah, that was, that was, that was, that was really crazy. So my daughter, um, is that Loyola Marilyn, uh, had an extra year. Everybody had the COVID year. So everybody

is afforded an extra season, right? And she was one of the COVID kids that was enrolled and playing at that time. And she's, she's exhausted, her eligible as far as academics, right? Because now she's, I shouldn't say exhausted eligibility. But academically, she was graduating. So she's like, "Dad, you know what? I'm, I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to put my name in the portal. Let's see what happens." Right? So she got five opportunities. Well, none of which

she wanted to return to. So she's like, "All right, no, no, what am I going to do?" And there were five division opportunities. Some local, some not so local. But just, nothing really resonated with her. Yeah. So she, um, she gets a call from one of her previous coaches and says, "Hey, we have a graduate, uh, assistant position available at our school." And she interviews for it, and unfortunately doesn't get it. But that coach calls another school and says, "I have a great

candidate." She calls Providence. Does that have a great candidate for you? This young lady

“played for me, I think she'd be fantastic. Providence hires her. Well, that first year, Lawrence”

killing these girls in practice. And I'm hearing this from the Coach. She's given it to her. Right? It's in practice. Right. Right. You take a pencil being your girl up to New England. She had a dominator. No, that's a big basketball here. A big basketball here. I didn't realize how big it's, so I got their Fall River Dreams. Right. Right. The book? Oh, I know. It's not far from

there. No, I know. Well, I mean, I get the experience of the first hand. Yeah, first hand. So then

the second year, she's doing the same thing in practice and the coach says jokingly. Do you have any eligibility left? Yeah. Wow. Lawrence said, actually I do. Maybe eight days later. She's suited up playing against Columbia. Right. Right. Two games later. She's starting. Yeah. Playing 38 minutes in a big, aggressive. Wow. And she played great basketball. I mean, it was a, it was a great, uh, unforeseen. I'm sure by on her part, the thinking that she was going to get

that extra year. But it made USA today. We were fortunate. You were nice enough to invite Tony and I up to watch her play Yukon. If we got right behind the bench with the product was fine. That was a lot of fun. And what about, I mean, you see it on TV, but then to go to experience it firsthand, when you have a sold-out crowd on a Tuesday night and you got fireworks going, I mean, these, these ladies and that coach up there, there are rock stars. I mean, rock stars. It's amazing.

They, they played that game in the Hartford Civic Center. Yep. It was a big East Open and both

“teams. I think were tied at that point for first place in the biggest, right? So we go and it's”

like a Laker game. I mean, the, the, the, the atmosphere was unbelievable. And I happen to know one of a, a graduate who played at Yukon. So I'm, you were there. I was texting door and again, like, you guys got pyro techniques. I'll music. And the response I got was we want to defeat you before the tip off. They do, they, they did it all. It's intimidating. Think about it. You're coming from an arena where, you know, they got pre game music. You got fansch. I mean, this was a spectacle.

It was, it was, it was incredible. Jump, jump, jump, jump, jump. I mean, but, but wait a second.

we're talking, we're talking about to the, to the, to the rafters. Just loud as can be. Amazing. So again,

really proud of her and happy for her because this is about life experiences. It is, and what

“right. What, what, what a, what a great story, what a great experience. You have to be so proud. All,”

all three of your kids and I, I've gotten to know, uh, each of them in a different way, uh, our soul special. Uh, it's, I mean, you and you, of course, uh, I've just, uh, and likewise. And, and, and the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. I mean, you guys are special people. I mean, that was one of the common bonds we had in law school when we first met is that we were, one of the, a few only, uh, married couples, uh, we're going to the law school. And we got to

talk about that in the commonality of basketball. And then obviously, law, and we just took it from there. Yeah, I was dragging kids to class some time. So, you know what, this is a perfect opportunity for me to break in and do something that's totally self-serving, but for all of us. Thank you, Pennsylvania. Thank you, Pennsylvania, for instilling in us and in your children, um, the drive and commitment associated with trying to be graded athletics sports makes you a better person if you commit yourself

to it. And I also want to say thank you, Pennsylvania, for having such a wonderful set of world class universities. We just named how many of the local here and we could name 20 more. Thank you, Pennsylvania, for everything you do for us. Thanks for taking such good care of us. Cheers to that. Yeah, cheers to that. Yeah, I'm reaching out. I'm reaching out. I'm reaching out. I'm reaching out. I'm reaching out. I'm reaching out. I'm reaching out. If I listen to your song, I'm like,

I went from this side to that side as we're getting used to these new boom mics, which are very nice. Uh, but now I can see where I'm talking and I'm not going to hit it again unless we get really animated. And I'm coming across the chair. And that might be the bourbon or the ice cube. You might at the watch out. You guys off the watch, he outtakes. You already got a close impression of what the guys are. What did Mike miss happen the night? I did. It might not

anything else. Well, we'll just keep track of that. So far, it's only the the bottle, the microphone, that lamp. If I may add though, the reaction, the cat-like reflex. He's so quick, because we kept the bottle. He realized what was important. How would the mic get the bottle? So let's get into some of the main topic here. Let's do, let's, let's dive in. You know, because we've got a little bit of Mr. Edwards background. He is well respected. And I just want to say, you know, he,

before we do, I do want to, since we are in Super Bowl week. Oh, nice. I do want to talk about two more topics before we get into the really dive into the NL, because when we get into the NL, this is just got you. It's going to be intense. Yeah, okay. And we're not going to go

“around for a little while. So I got two things that I think we need to talk about, Super Bowl week,”

you know, you being in the space. That was how you've started. There was before NL was, you were NFL. That was your, your focus. So tell us a little bit how you got into the NFL.

Who was your first, if you can, tell us. So I don't know, that is actually a cool story.

And you know, I know he won't mind me telling the story. Which is good. And I got to meet him through you at, we were at Oakmont and he's really nice guy. So Andy Lee was my first client, University of Pittsburgh. And I, you know, so you take the agent, test you for the NFL, PA, you apply in January, you take the test in July. You know what, find out, talk to over. So in the recruiting cycle, if you're recruiting new clients, you're behind the eight ball. Right. So it's enough to make a

drink. It's enough to make you drink. So I get, get my certification in October. Oh my god, not, not what do I do. No, I, this is real. I got to get you guys. So I had a friend who reaches out to me. So tell me, I don't know if I could help you how I can help you. But here's a phone number for Andy Lee. He is a, the Biggie special teams player the year two years consecutive, you know, pick guy, you're a pick guy. The pit log. Great, great guy. So I'm like, all right, he's like,

“here's his number. It's all I got. So I remember the so vividly, it was, it was a black Friday”

after Thanksgiving. I'm like, I'm going to get this guy call another at home. So I give him a call. I said, you know, the Sandy Lee, he's like, yes, this is Andy Edwards. Look, I'm a brand new agent. I just got licensed. I have zero clients, but I'd love to represent you. I'm like, and I promise you, I'll give you everything I got. I will work my tail off for you. I will consume all information everything. You know, a few more meetings meet mom and dad, season zover, you know, you

got to do everything by the book. You know, can't give the kids anything. So these are just, you know, you're a lot to talk. He signs with me. So my first year as a, as a certified contract advisor

by the NFL PA. I had a draft pick. Right. I got used in the combine. He was amazing. I mean,

So let's, let's, let's, let's, let's, let's be honest. I mean, because punders don't usually get

“that kind of spotlight, but Andy Lee brought that spot. He, he, he was an all pro how many years. I mean,”

he, he, he, he went on with so many great teams. I mean, he was one of the best punctures that ever played the game. Absolutely. One of the best punders, one of the best people that ever played the game. Yeah. Because Andy Lee is, is, is one of the best as a human being, you know, off the field, as a family man on the field, you know, performed at the highest level. I mean, 19 years. Thank you about that. 19 years. 19 years. He had one person represent him over 19 years.

And I'll tell you what the best part of it is. We're still friends to this day. Just, you talk to him last week. You know, we talk probably every other week a couple times a

month. I mean, that's the value in this, in what you get out of it, because there's always going to be a

beginning and a net, right, to every, every professional career is a beginning and a net. But when you have those relationships that extend beyond, I mean, Brad was with us last year at an event, you know, we were golfing, you got a chance to meet them. I mean, I don't view it as transactional. No, what we do is transactional, but at the end of the day, it's the relationship, it's all about the individual. Right. So, and I tell people say, "Why, why, why, law?" Like, why, law versus that,

you know, the contractual stuff with the, with the age of business. And I do both. But I tell people, if I'm working as your agent, that's a sync period of time. I could be your attorney forever,

right, for all your endeavors. So, and I like being that piece of the puzzle, being the piece

of the deal team, you know, a lot of these people consider, consider us family after a certain period of time. I consider you, and I consider you family, and I, and I like being a part of that fabric. Right. I enjoy that. Again, passion for what you do, you know, being a zealous advocate on

“behalf of your client. That's what I like to do. It's fantastic. Now we get a little bit of insight”

into your personality. We do. So, you know, what do we, what do you say we take a break? We're going to take a break, and then where she's glass, we're going to reverse our glasses, stoked the fire, not Michael, not Mike the former, right? I can't even talk, you know, it is, you have your last slide, but this happened for the night, Brad. I know, but now's two. You know, so we come back, we get into some of the nuts and bolts about the world, and I

all develop some of your ability to understand and learn from this man's experience. We're going to get his super bowl pick before we get the super bowl pick. You know, got to see who he's, who he's looking at. We'll be right back. Cheers, here we go. In a world increasingly governed by algorithms, what happens to the soul? AI and God can the two co-exist is a bold and timely book that explores faith, agency, and ethics in the age of

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“We're back and I can't wait to hear what you have to say and I'm sure our listeners are on”

the edge of their seat to hear about your NFL pick, but we're going to take one pause because we've been enjoying this bourbon and we have to share a little bit what you brought today. So I brought Ron's Creek. It's a Willet product. It's funny. I didn't start drinking bourbon until I think 2018. A good friend of ours, Curtis Akin. It's a connoisseur. He's a connoisseur. He's also

dressed to that. That's not even close. Curtis. He is. He is. I never feel like I'm dressed like a farmer.

“The night we went to hang out together. I'm on as well been wearing Dungaries. It was it was”

very embarrassing. Curtis is always, I mean, he looks the part. He's so smooth, plus being a pit fan and watching him in the 80s when he dominated the point guard position. I mean, he was one of the best. You know, I know we've been telling stories about one of the interesting things. So I've no encouraged since I was in middle school. Always looked up to my pit guy, you know, pit basketball, their media guide, one, you're had a picture of the team. And I kept it for years. I finally gave

it to Kurt. But the team picture was the entire team at suits. And I promised you at 21, 22 years old. You know, we're the best dressed man in that photo. So he now owns Provado 14, which is the premier. Oh, thank you for taking us there. Yes. No, it is the premier. It is the premier. And it is the exclusive. And it's so, you would not know it's at least his first, uh, Provado and Pittsburgh. You would not even know it exists. It's very discrete. Right next to his business, uh,

gated entry. You walk in it. Courage is putting green in the back. Of course, which caught my eye. And then this beautiful showcase room. Uh, we're all the members have their own locker. You have a beautiful bar. Like the night the first night you brought me and it left such an impression because they had a little jaw jazz ensemble. Absolutely. Going on in the corner. And of course, of course, I mean, Kurt, you know, just dressed to the nine. I mean, he is the perfect host.

Hey, he's a perfect host. Again, better human being. Yeah. And help me to develop a bourbon palette. He takes, uh, members of the, of the club to, for certain bourbon tours. Right, so you go into bourbon trail. He took us to Buffalo Trace. Right. Where we met the original master distiller of Blanton's grandson. And, you know, one of the things that resonated with me, and Kurt probably has the most impressive bourbon collection I've ever seen. Like literally,

a hand down, top to bottom. He's got it all. And, and he's also got the red velvet room of our velvet room. Right. All on stairs. You drink and bourbon to, you know, sells to that price point sitting in a red velvet room, actually affects the flavor. I mean,

it does taste better. The ambiance is amazing. Yeah. Not to mention the four-screen, you know,

which is the best advice I got from this gentleman from Buffalo Trace, Freddie Johnson. So I'm going to say his name is easy, he's an amazing human being. If you're ever at Buffalo

“Trace, look him up. He said to me one day, he goes, Eddie, we're kind of bourbon's, do you have?”

I'm like, rattle off all these names. Brad, you've seen some of the things I have. Again, not even close to Kurt, but I've got, I've got a couple things in there. You have a pretty nice collection. And, and he said, Eddie, are they open? I said, oh no, they're on, Eddie. Bourbon's meant to share. He's like, it's meant to bring people together. Amen. I want you to open those bottles and share them. And that resonated. Well, I think about it. And it resonates with us,

'cause everything's always bitter with bourbon. Always better with bourbon. What a segue.

What a segue. See how we work together? Could you imagine us in court together? Oh, no. I don't want to be on the other side. Hey, let's get you in court. You're always on the contract side. I would love to have you in court. More likely to be a client. You do criminal. Actually, we set it up this way. Brad and I are representing Deacon here. Yeah, we are. May at least the court. No, but let's get into the real heart of the marriage. We are at the

Cusp of Super Bowl Week. And we got two other prominent teams. And I did call these two teams before yet. But again, what was the hard part of calling it? They were both the best in their division. So, but they survived. And there were some good games going through the playoffs. Could have gone either way a few times, a few controversial calls, Buffalo coming to mind and it cost a,

“I think it cost a coaching job. So, who do you see, and who do you like coming up?”

You know, I usually tell people I root for players, not teams, because of the business that I'm meant. Yeah, fair. You know, so I want to see a good game. I mean, I think at the end of the day, I mean, I've been to so many Super Bulls. So many Super Bulls. Why don't you go in your lane? Must be tough. And well, you know what? I'm going to share a little insight with you. If you haven't been to one and you can't go to one, great opportunity. Go to go.

You know, I got to take my dad to his first and last because he said he didn't want to go back because it's, it's a, it's a chore. But, you know, watching it at home, there's something about that. There's something about it. Because, you know, you go, there's security. There's lines. There's all that other good stuff. You don't get the replays. Right. Well, it's changed with 4K TV, with the, with the camera angles, with the sound. You know, it is, is the different game than the glory

game that we grew up watching. Absolutely. But, but the NFL does such a tremendous job. They do me. It's a show. Remember, at the end of the day, everybody forgets. This is entertainment. Right?

entertain. Well, from the pre show to the halftime show to the post show during the game.

It's been entertaining this year. And, and these two teams, I think, are going to battle it out. They're, they're both very strong. They both got great up and coming, you know, Sam Donald, I mean, you just, you know, his last few years have just been a fun to watch, becoming from Minnesota to now Seattle, and then Drake May, those shoes, those shoes are so big. How did he fill the goats shoes? And now look what he's doing. I mean, he, and speaking of shoes,

and maybe the good segue with Drake May, since you're wearing North Carolina shoes, North Carolina. Yeah. I'm a shoe efficient. I know you. I mean, I don't know how I put this in frame. Do I just lift

“my foot? No, just lift this lift right up. This is where it is. Yeah, you should pay and make Jordan.”

And he's got sneakers on payroll. Those are impressive. So, how did you come by those? I can't tell you. Okay. You got to have a plug. You got to have a plug. Such a thing as a sneaker plug, and I got a sneaker plug. Well, you can't buy those. No, you can't. I think they'd be hard to find, but it's a great shit. And look, it's about your personality. The great thing about professionals, I'm now, and if you notice it, you know, downtown around,

you see people with suits on. A lot of times, they'll have tennis shoes on. In the right environment, right? You can't do that all the time. You can't go into court, though. But it demonstrates your personality. So, I, look, the shoe thing for me isn't like some of these people doing it five or 10 years when it's become, you know, the cool thing to do. I've been doing it since the mid-80s.

You have. I could tell you my first shoe. The first shoe that actually met something was the

feel as back when I was in seventh grade. No kidding. Right. Then I got the conference school. They were the conference weapons. Yep. Oh, yeah. I was the first person in my school to have your Jordans. Oh, can I had the $1.65 at the time? Oh, the reblog. Yeah. They were also had the urge. No, nobody else had Hakeem, a lot as you want. It's ectonics. Oh, ectonics. I have them. Yeah, actually. That was our team. I want, I want it. I wanted it. Jordans, my dad's like, no, no, no. Tonex, a good for you.

No, and that's unique. And sneakers have evolved. And I, I joked to this day. I know this isn't the topic of our discussion. But, you know, I love the days where you had to go to the mall, get the weight in line or know somebody to get the shoe. Right. But now with all the bots and all this other stuff like, I, I'm going to look at. I got no shot unless you have a plug. Unless you have a plug. Yeah. Somebody could help you out. So, that's right. But, you know, speaking of shoes that

fits into this whole thing, because now the shoe companies are impacting. They are. And I, I, but you still haven't shared your super ball picks. Yeah, I'm not going to do it. I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was going to side, I got it. I got it. It's interesting. I mean, I got two new coaches with two new teams. Right. Yeah. I have a lot of dollars. No, but nobody picked either one of these teams to be there. Not, not in the beginning. You're, that's for sure. You know, if I, if I, if I, it's tough. I, I, I, I think from a momentum standpoint.

Maybe the Seahawks. They look tough because they look really tough. They look tough. But, but how can you not love Mike Rabel and what he's done in New England? I got an opinion. And, and, and, you know, Drake, Drake, man, what he's done up there with the opportunity. I think it's impressive. And he's won the, he's, he's won the, the city and the area back over again. I mean, unfortunately, when Bella check, you know, had to leave and, and talk, very retired or moved on to Tampa for, or what first retired and then moved on to Tampa. Right. And then, uh, you know, that, that's a

hard loss. I mean, I'm not even a New England fan, but I could feel it from down here. I mean, that's a heart, you're,

“you're talking about two legends that had a 20-some-year stretch going together. It's changed. It is inevitable. Right. And that's what's”

the most difficult for the fans. But they, but they've, but they've done a wonderful job this quick. To be right back, we're Tom Brady took him so many times. Uh, and, and again, Kudos to their personnel departments. Right. To finding the right pieces of the puzzle. People forget there's a lot that goes into this, right? It's not just in coaching the X's and knows. It's the Jimmy and the Joe's, right? So it's the individuals who are out there, the scouting departments who are working, you know, diligently to find those right pieces of the

puzzle. It's, it's free agency. You interact with those guys. Absolutely. You have to. Yeah. Right. Right. That's for the game. Well, but, but that's, you know, you pull back the curtain. Yeah. You have to interact with with personnel departments, right? You have to interact with college personnel for your college prospects. Right. You have to interact with pro personnel for your pro

“prospects, right? For, for, for, for free agency. You know, get data. How do you feel about this?”

God, how do you think you fits in your system? You know, again, and it goes back to what do we discuss? First and we, we got on the set here was relationships. You got to have those relationships. Sure. You know, you got to shake the hands and people say to me all the time, you know, you travel so much. You go to some cool places. It's hard. It's exhausting, right? Because you're on. You know, you're going to all star games, not just to see your guys, but to interact with

the scouts where they're evaluating that. That's right. Yeah. You never want to come out of times

those personalities and those people because these are humans we're talking about, but this is the

data, but sometimes the data is not going to portray the reality. You're going to have a relationship to help you see beyond the data, help you learn stuff that's not apparent in the data. Right. Remarkable the parallels. Well, it's not so much the good stuff they do either. You get to know

the bad things they do. I always ask. Well, it's a question. What are the knocks? What are we up

against? Yeah. And these are, this is all the due diligence that's so intense because the Super Bowl is the biggest betting game of the year. I don't bet on a normal basis, but I Super Bowl's probably the one time I do. I like to be squares. Yep. Let me too. I like to be part of that and I'm picking the Patriots. You know, when I'm at Seahawks for me, I'm just going to cut it off there. I won't be negative. Deacon, you told us. Yeah, I told you right. I'll tell you again last week.

“Yeah, I'll tell you again next week. Yeah. Yeah. That's what, that's because you had, yeah,”

what am I? We're not talking about it. Yeah, we're not talking about it. And I'm a fan and I'm not we're doing so. There we go. There we go. But I mean, great transition again into NIL. We're here to talk

about. So I tried to pull it on twice, but we're not going to get it. Yeah, he got it. It's fine. But

we're, we know that was a transition. That's a lawyer. That's a lawyer. And let me just tell as a close friend of yours for 26 years, I've done multiple business ventures with you, which I've been privileged to. It's been so much fun. And seeing you work behind the scenes, your ethics, which that goes so long. I mean, Eddie is, you know, and just so you know, he was the chair of the Pennsylvania Ethics Board. And yeah, I was a hearing committee chair. That's right.

The disciplinary boards. Which shows you that our peers think of Eddie so highly in regard to. So Eddie, I just want to put that out there. And look, I know it's teasing you trying to get it out. I know you can't do that, but the, no. Again, but it's interesting. We were talking about evaluation. Think about that in the sense of, you know, how you're putting together your, your roster's now for collegiate sports personalities, right? Personalities matter. Or Catholic matters. But,

“but the evaluation of talent, think about when the portal opens and how you have to evaluate”

to fill out your roster now. It's a whole different game, whole different model. Global, global. And it's talking about a 10 team league. No, global business now. It is. And I think this is what has really ruffled feathers on the NAL is because that predictability, that business model, that governance model, that was in sports, collegiate sports, especially, has changed overnight. It's been disruptive. It has. And so all the stuff that you work so hard and you got so good and

you got so familiar as a coach and you worked your way through the ranks, whether it was a grad assistant, whether it was playing and then getting into the coaching area. And you can see why some of these coaches are frustrated. You can see why some of these administrators are frustrated. You can see why the fans are frustrated because everything's changed. Well, I mean, you think about the ecosystem, right? It was grassroots basketball, you know, whatever it was football, NAL 717 will go evaluate.

We're going to identify these freshmen that come in our program. We're going to develop them over years. Hopefully you don't transfer. They graduate seniors go to the NFL, do whatever they do. Right? Now, in the advent of, you know, you can transfer after the years over, you've got a portal. You know, that's out the window, right? You know, there's still evaluation at the younger stages, but in a win society, where people want to see a, you know, that ROI in our business immediately,

right? They got to win. So, in order to win, you want to go to proven commodities. You talked about commodities early, you know, proven commodities. And what is that? As you go into the portal, you evaluate this guy played it maybe a mid major or a low major. He could fit well into my high major program. I see his film. I see what he did against in his non-conference games against other teams. And you go and you get those individuals. Now, who has been better in just on that

“evaluating commodities? Who has been better at finding the secret gems and Kurt Zignetti in”

Indiana? I mean, that, I mean, that story this last, I mean, that, that story this last year, you have won, right? Unbelievable. Yeah. They have mastered it. I mean, that was a master class in how to put together a roster. Is he maybe rewriting the script and maybe rewriting the book on how to perform at a high level? You know, Nick Sabin, his mentor, when he was at Alabama,

he had the script on. Right. He was the repeat guy that was always there, competing every year

in and out. And N-I-L's would drew him out of it, at least on the face of it, right? So, here he got Kurt Zignetti who was a part of that. But he's figured it out. He's figured it out quickly. They did a tremendous job. I mean, I'm not privy to what they spent in, you know, who got waterware, but when you just look at the constitution of the roster and going and finding like him and Dosa, then Dosa, wow. Right. That means, wow. That's incredible. There's that offensive

line when you got from Notre Dame. That's a huge pick up. They grab that kid. They brought a lot of

coached to. I mean, if you're willing to jump and go with him to the next level, that's just rough, though. Right. But now you have that buy-in from your players at JMU. And beyond that,

“how this statistics in front of you, but I think they had the least amount of four and five”

star players on their roster and any other school. The five stars, if they had any, if they had any. So, when you go back and look at it, you know, there's different ways to view talent. But, you know, they found the best combination versus the most amount of four and five star athletes that you hope turned into, you know, national champions. So, spot in that talent is a unique skill that maybe the signal he has in a way that others don't seem to pretty clear that he might. But

that ain't the whole story. You're going to have a pile of money to help pay for it. And, Indiana had that in a unique way as well. Right. So, how to, I mean, obviously they had, they had the support to do what they needed to do. You know, last year was a unique, the, the, the revs, one, it wasn't revsure at that point. But, you know, the opportunity to pay the players is a unique place because of the advent of the house settlement. Right. So, the house settlement didn't take

effect until July. So, just for listeners, what, what was that settlement? So, the settlement was a consolidation of cases, which finally allowed the universities to do two things. They were able to to pay a settlement to athletes that come through for a certain period before this time. You know,

over a ten year span, it was about 2.5 billion in the settlement. Right. To those student athletes

and allow universities not to directly pay. And they were legend that their name, images and likeness. Right. Right. Yeah. And, and I want to make that distinction. Yeah.

“Make, make, make the distinction. Yeah. I think it's important to understand what that case was.”

Well, well, I think the distinction of what this is is really important because I think, you know, when you talk about bantering and restaurants and family gatherings, it's, you know, it almost sounds like it's paid a play. It's not. It's name, image, likeness. That's an IP right. Right. Right. Sure. Right. To exploit your name, image and likeness. It's an IP right. Just, just like the beautiful face over here. And, you know,

the, the, the, in the beautiful face behind the camera with all that makeup on it. But, I mean, it is your face, your image, your likeness. Nobody else has a right to it, but yourself. And that's it. And that's yourself. So, now. I already, I'm sorry, let me ask you. It's, it, then it can be a hundred percent predicated on your skill on the field. But it doesn't have to be. If you have the ability is an athlete to go out and maybe you're,

you know, kind of a middling bench player. But you have something unique about your personality. The people are willing to sponsor.

“I mean, I mean, there's no lemma's to who can get name, image and likeness, when I'm not certain, right?”

That's it. And, in fact, I'll tell you this, something interesting. I've heard of programs that have brought in athletes that may or may not have made a roster in the past.

And they have an incredible social media following. Right. That's it. So, I just read that in the

early day and saw something here today that that is actually now becoming kind of trending. And because they're looking at it as a business. Right. They're looking at their rate of return that we're talking about. Right. And that's also been some of the negative sides, right? Well, it's a visibility. I mean, and just to go back to the name image and likeness, just piece of this just for clarity. Right. Again, now the student athlete can monetize that.

They can monetize that, you know, through the university, through revshare. And they couldn't be for it. And that was that was illegal. And you would get kicked out. If you got, if you, if you, if you did that, that was, it was, in fact, players that even took anything beyond the scope. Listen, when I was at my brief fleeting association with the visual and sports, I couldn't have a job for fear of there being some sort of impropriety or somebody paying me

for something to give me money that I wasn't, didn't last very long. I didn't realize the lack of pillow was a sport. Yeah. Right. Right. Right. But yeah, I mean, to the point, it's competitive, I could pile up by the way. Well, there was a way for his heat to compete like another point because I thought he would. Yep. Well, I'll have a karaoke sister. Yeah. I'm sorry to be interrupt. But no, but, but again, now they have the opportunity

through the college university to monetize that, that name image and likeness, right? You know, first service is allowing the college and university to exploit their name

image and likeness to the benefit of the program, right? Up to the $20.5 million cap,

which is funded by sponsorships, media, and ticket sales. Right. So now. No, this is so interesting because, you know, they set this arbitrary cap. Is that going to come under fire? Well, no, because I mean, they have their formula or how they came up with a number, you know, taking the average. That's all part of the settlement, right? It's all, it's all, okay. So let me say this to your listeners. The CSC has a great website,

college sports commission, breaks all this down for you. So for those, you know, marriage like us, who want to learn about the nuts and the crannies and, you know, really get behind the curtain. You can go there and find all the data that you want.

lawsuit that arose that ended in that $2.5 billion, they alleged, and how many years did they go

back? That they were alleging was a 10 years that athletes that had already been out of sports? Yeah, I think it went back to, I think the year is 2016, right? Was the year 2014,

“one of the two. But I mean, it started back if you want to go back, it started with a band”

and it had a band. Yeah, it had a band. You should have had a band band, and I know that complaint was, he's, he's, he's are, you know, I can remember playing, and I mean, it went back to EA Sports, right? You know, and say basketball, where, you know, you're using athletes, you know, their likeness in the game, you know, exactly who they are. That was a video game. It was a video game, right? It was a video game, right? It was a video game. There was licensing that came with that that didn't

go to the student athletes. That's right. So now you flash forward, the student athletes are saying

wait a second, you know, you're you're exploiting our intellectual property. And we get some of that.

And so the lawsuits that kind of arose after the get Austin. So it's what resulted from this settlement. There was, did Reb share also result from this? Where are at right now as a derivative of that settlement? Okay. So tell the listeners, how Reb, what Reb share is and how that came about. So again, the Reb share is the college university's ability to pay the student athletes for the exploitation of their name image and like this, right? And it's supposed to put everybody

on that somewhat of an evening, even playing field. But the issue is there's a cap. It's 20.5. And again, 20.5 is made up of, I predict that's coming to the end of Reb and take it sales and

“sponsorships. But here's the issue, guys. Just because that's the cap doesn't mean that's what”

you have to spend. Right? So, you know, P4s are automatically in that group. And if you're not a P4, you could opt in. What's the P4? Power 4 school. Okay. That's your SEC, SEC. Big 10, Big 12. Right. So my way of forced, even though they're part of that group, you're in that group. You're in that group. No, but, but what it allowed for a lot of schools to do if you opted in was, you know, you know, one of the biggest things which you got the roster spots,

right? There's increased roster spots now. So, you know, football is 85 scholarships, not 105 roster spots. Oh, my. Now, you read the article that's going to affect walk on to not their opportunities for student athletes on, you know, and that's been worked. That's been a very good, you know, if you're looking at the pros and cons of all this is all, but it's good. And if you look at sports like, I think baseball has 36 roster spots now

when it had 11.7 scholarships, right? Right. So that's phenomenal. And now, every spot you have above those scholarships spots that you previously had, they have to come

“out of your revshare cat, right? So that's how you fund it. But now, if you're a baseball program”

and you're fully funded, you could have 36 scholarship baseball players. It's me and so. And remember, I use baseball as an example because I'm a baseball dad that they could play. You know, those aren't, those weren't full scholarships. Only for some of them, you had to make 11.7 scholarships spread out across an entire roster. You're a golfer, sure, the same thing. These are drinkers. Anagolfer. I've golfed. He could play. But you know, when you think about that,

you think about the power of that. You think about, you know, non-revenue generating sports, what they call the Olympic sports now. Yeah, right. Now, that's a bonus for those student athletes.

Now, have the ability to actually be on scholarship. That's where the problem is football programs

carried a lot more than 105 student athletes, right? So that's where, in fact, that's the back end effect. Now, you know, instead of having all those walk-on, you've got 105 roster spots. Well, then the major case, you know, as two lawyers talking back and forth, and I think it's helpful, to understand why the college athletes athletics just did this, what seemed like to the normal person, a knee jerk kind of reaction, or they just one day you weren't allowed to do it. Next day,

it's game on. See, that's where somebody from like me comes in. It's like, we had this regulatory regime forever. And it's how we all understood amateur sports. And then one day, it all goes away. And it seems to the casual fan who doesn't keep up with this stuff every day. I'm not sure. You are a casual dresser. I mean, those crux are fantastic with those socks. And, you know, that hat, but you know, it seals, it seems like such a departure from

the way we all came to understand amateur sports. You know, I know that we all think about it as though this is like, okay, the kids are getting paid. But there's a whole another piece of this, which is the collective, right? And then there's the revshare, there's the collective. Well, there's the third party deals, because I mean, there's still collectives. But remember, out of the CSE, there's a whole new kind of process for how you view those, because they don't want

those to be, you know, there's third party deals to be a circumvention of the cat, which they theoretically could be if you used in an appropriate manner. Right. But under the CSE, you know, there's a, there's a, there's a process to go through. Any, any NIL deal over $600 has a go,

right, to see a, who are you doing a deal with? They want the deals to be with a real third party.

They can't be just wink, wink, not nod. It has to be a deal with a real entity for services. All right, Billy. So I'm going to fire back at that. Is that really free? Yeah, and we're talking, and that was a suit that resulted after the settlement, and that is the, is it the Austin, Austin. Yeah, Austin, Supreme Court suit, where they came under fire for anti-trust, because they were, you know, dominating this, and they were, and then in a concurring opinion,

I think Justin's cabinau said, you know, that if you're going to limit the players ability to do what they want to do, then they're not truly independent contractors, as they would be treated on any other industry, and the college athletics is not above that, right, they're not exempt from that. And if you're going to continue to do that, then you're going to consider an employer. And I think that's the white elephant in the room. But what my point in that regard is, if you're going to limit

their ability, and you're going to have to still go in front of a panel, you're still going to have to go in front of a commission. You're still going to have to just close all that. Are they not still

“doing the things that the Supreme Court said that you can't do, but you have to have a framework.”

I understand some type of framework. You definitely have to have a framework, but why do they have this framework? I mean, why don't they just let the free market flow and let the student negotiate their name, image and likeness to their own, why are they involved in that negotiation? Well, I think they're involved in trying to enforce the terms under the House Settlement so that you're not exceeding the 20.5 cap, right? Because you think about it, you could do these deals, you could say,

right Brad, Martin, I'm going to pay you a thousand dollars that's going to count against this

revshare cap, but then I'm going to pay it five million dollars. To see, this is where I, this and a

separate deal, and I circumvented the cap, right? So, but this is where I have a really big problem with, because it was a settlement that set this cap. It wasn't the courts. It's interesting. And there's non lawyers, that's well, and I would take this back to the Supreme Court and say, that cap is arbitrary. You're setting a cap on the free market. That would be must CTV people. Well, you're setting a cap for the colleges and universities and how they can spend that money. Well, they can

spend with it. That's within their confines, right? Right. So, no, the student athlete can go out. So, the student athlete, and then maybe that's where I'm confused. Those third party deals do not count against the cap. Okay, good, good. That's where I was looking at. So, not going to, and I appreciate you illustrating that for clarity, because a lot of people get confused. No, I, I do, and I'm thinking, so the cap involved, are we still not limiting that? No, the free market. There's

a cap on with the college universities can do to exploit their student athletes' revshare.

Got it. Got it. And that makes a lot of sense. And you have third party deals, which could include,

you know, some what collectors, but collectors have to have an actual business purpose. They can't just be a facilitator, so to speak. Right. You could go beyond that and do their own due to the kick-a-go-op beyond that, they could do their own deal, which is evaluated by the college sports commission. So, now they come in and they say, we need to make sure these are legitimate deals that fall within the confines of this new structure that we have.

And I can understand it, because there, otherwise it would just be a passing of the suitcase. And anyone, I make sure to college universities aren't setting up companies out there to facilitate and work their way around the cap. So, you know, we have so much more discussed, you know, I'm going to leave you with this. They want to know who the pay-or is, right? They want to make sure that the deal has a valid business purpose, and then there's a compensation range to make sure

the self. It's not where, look, you're going to see, I think litigation at some point, when certain deals get rejected by the CSC, because they do, not all of them pass mustard.

“I think that's what I was thinking of. You know, there's a third part of that.”

That'd be litigation, because when you talk about free market and when you talk about value, who am I to tell a Brad Martin now, what Deacon Palmer is worth to him and a third party deal, and conventional wisdom would tell you, you know, what is a social media, you know, followers look like, you know, what kind of outreach does he have in the community, all these other, you know, factors that you could use to try to determine. Deacon's a mystery. He's a mystery.

He's a mystery. We have so much to talk about. Maybe we can go on it on, and at times limited this week, but, you know, I do want to continue this conversation. I mean, there's so much to talk about with NIL, we're just starting to get below the surface of why it's here, and there's so much to talk about what's going on in this day and age, where the contracts are coming from, why they're moving, why the timing it all, where's it going in the future? And where do we see it going in the future?

So, we're going to wrap it up today, but we'll be back here and part two with Eddie Edwards.

“This is definitely one conversation. We want to continue to keep going, right, Deacon?”

Totally. And, you know, sending us out, we just really want to say, we really appreciate all of the love and support that we've gotten so early on. Hopefully this conversation is, is speaking your interest, you want to come back and hear the rest of it,

questions that I want to ask Eddie when I get a chance to talk. These guys are doing all the

“smooth thinking, I'm focusing on the fast drinking, but, you know, it was a bad here date, too.”

It was a bad here date. You never know, we were in the next week. We might do a lot more stuff

with that, but definitely want to say. Thank you so much for tuning in. Love you. Everything's better with Barbon, and we're looking forward to seeing you next week, everybody. Cheers to that. Cheers. Thank you guys. Thank you guys. Thank you guys. Appreciate it.

“Make investment, business, or betting decisions based on our conversations as you should always”

talk to a qualified professional. Always drink responsibly, never drink and drive,

and only consume alcohol if you are of legal drinking age.