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Before the football season got underway, Sinclair announced an expansion of their podcast division and added two new sports podcasts with big name hosts. One was The Triple Option which features Urban Meyer, Mark Ingram II and Rob Stone. The other sports podcast features former USC and NFL quarterback and current FOX Sports college football analyst Matt Leinart along with actor Jerry Ferrara, who played the role of ‘Turtle’ on the HBO hit show Entourage. I was a little skeptical about an actor doing a weekly sports podcast and whether or not that would really work, so I eavesdropped in on Throwbacks with Matt Leinart and Jerry Ferrara to find out for myself.
The first episode dropped on Sept. 5 so there’ve only been six episodes of the show so far, but if listeners get more of what the two have delivered in the first handful of episodes, the show is most likely headed to becoming a hit. Simply put, the formula of having big name hosts with great stories and cool friends, mixed with passion and knowledge for the topics seems to work rather well in podcasting. Throwbacks is just a really fun show to listen to.
You’re probably familiar with the memes that make the rounds that say something like, ‘You might be cool, but you’ll never be Frank Sinatra getting out of a helicopter with a drink cool’ or something along those lines. Those memes pop in my head as I’m listening to Throwbacks. ‘You might be cool, but you’ll never be Matt Leinart, Turtle from Entourage and Ashton Kutcher talking sports fandom cool’. When you are listening to the show, the vibe is one where you do feel a little bit like you’re hanging out with the cool kids.
I think it could actually be a great poll question for guys between the ages of 35-55, to ask them which they would rather be: the handsome, 6-5 quarterback at USC turned pro football player turned broadcaster or a television star on one of the best shows our generation has had the pleasure of enjoying and someone athletes want to hang out with. I won’t lie, ‘Entourage’ is one of my favorite shows of all-time and Jerry Ferrara’s character was always my second favorite (you can’t top Jeremy Piven as Ari Gold), and of course I would trade with either of them, but I’m picking Leinart.
It becomes pretty clear after listening to a couple of episodes that this isn’t just an actor wanting to talk sports or a sports guy wanting to hang with an actor. Ferrara’s sports knowledge is much greater than I expected as far as not only current events in all sports, but history as well. And while we know Leinart is an excellent college football analyst, what we may not have known is that he has strong knowledge and opinions in all sports.
In one of the episodes I listened to, a couple of the topics were great sports nicknames and whether or not that is a trend that’s going away in sports and which NFL division has the best quarterbacks overall. That same show also had an interview with MLB All-Star and FOX Sports baseball analyst Dontrelle Willis. They also recalled a topic from a previous show where Leinart and Ferrara disagree about whether or not adults should wear player jerseys.
The Willis interview came about because Leinart’s work at FOX Sports during college football would overlap with Willis and the FOX Sports baseball team doing coverage of postseason games back when Big Noon Kickoff was done from the studio. He said the two crews would watch games all day together and he would love to listen to the stories that would come out of those Saturdays.
During the interview you were taken back into some of those conversations at FOX where Leinart and Willis would be in rooms with the likes of Pete Rose, Frank Thomas and David Ortiz. And because Willis and Leinart had a previous relationship, Willis was completely at ease, and it was truly just three guys talking sports and telling stories.
Willis was really funny and said that when people tell him he was the original Shohei Ohtani with his ability to pitch while he was still a pretty good hitter, he said, “I’m the lunch version of Ohtani.” Later when he was asked how he would pitch Ohtani, he answered, “A lot of prayer and belief.” It was also interesting to hear Ferrara and Leinart react in real time when Willis mentioned the possibility of Shohei Ohtani being available to pitch if the Dodgers make it to the World Series. It was the same way I recall reacting when I had recently read the same and probably how most sports fans reacted.
The more you listen, the more you realize as well that these guys have lives just like a lot of us. Both hosts talked about how they’re able to watch football on the weekends when they have young kids at home. Ferrara hilariously described the deal he makes with his wife where she takes the kids out of the house for a few hours, but because of that he has to meal prep for the week while he is watching the games. So, he gets to watch football in peace, but he is chopping vegetables and cooking chicken as he does. And here most of us thought Johnny ‘Drama’ did all the cooking.
Speaking of being a big fan just like the rest of us, the first guest they had on the show was Ashton Kutcher. Kutcher is famously a huge Chicago Bears fan and talked about not being able to sit down for the first half of games and other fanatical things he does while watching games. He said during the interview in explaining his love for football, “If there was a drug that was football, I would take it every day.”
Listening to Kutcher and Leinart tell stories about coaching their kids in flag football was also great content. While they talked about how they become a little obsessed and Leinart even went as far as trying to steal another team’s signs and watching entirely too much game film, they also hit on whether or not they would want their kids to play tackle football.
Other guests who have appeared on the show include Jay Glazer and on the most recent episode, the guys talked with Charles Barkley who hit on a number of subjects including giving his take on Ferrara’s beloved Knicks and their recent personnel moves. The episode also has some great ‘peel back the curtains’ Entourage talk fans of the show will enjoy.
Throwbacks is definitely one to add to your list of podcasts to take a listen to. If you like big name guests, conversation centered around sports with fun topics, hosted by a couple of guy’s guys with stories of their own from locker rooms as well as television and movie sets, along with an occasional Greg ‘The Hammer’ Valentine reference, you’ll like what you hear.
Dave Greene is the Chief Media Officer for Barrett Media. His background includes over 25 years in media and content creation. A former sports talk host and play-by-play broadcaster, Dave transitioned to station and sales management, co-founded and created a monthly sports publication and led an ownership group as the operating partner. He has managed stations and sales teams for Townsquare Media, Cumulus Media and Audacy. Upon leaving broadcast media he co-founded Podcast Heat, a sports and entertainment podcasting network specializing in pro wrestling nostalgia. To interact, find him on Twitter @mr_podcasting. You can also reach him by email at Dave@BarrettMedia.com.
