John Middlekauff did not have your traditional route into broadcasting. His was more like the route athletes, specifically football players, would take. Spend time in the game and then later on, use that experience to jump into your next career.
Before media, Middlekauff started out as a graduate assistant at Fresno State and was eventually hired to work in the scouting department of the Philadelphia Eagles. It was Chip Kelly who changed the course of Middlekauff’s life, but not in the way you would think. He saw the type of passion Kelly had for the game and what it really took to do that job well as far as the amount of time you had to put in to be great at it and realized, in the end, the life was not for him.
Eventually, that led him to try his hand at media as he started out in radio with 95.7 The Game in San Francisco. He then found his way into the world of podcasting and his show, 3 and Out with John Middlekauff, which I eavesdropped in on this week, was picked up by Colin Cowherd’s The Volume. Today, Middlekauff’s YouTube channel has nearly 60,000 subscribers.
As the January 17 episode got going, Middlekauff launched right into the main topics at hand which of course consisted of the NFL playoff games coming up that weekend and the CFP Championship game on Monday.
“The reason I love sports, is because I like watching the best,” Middlekauff said excited about the games ahead. “When I was a kid, I loved watching the 49ers play the Cowboys…I loved watching Michael Jordan, I loved when Tiger Woods came on the scene. And I think ratings and interest would show you, so do most people.
“And I think [that is] what has made the NFL so special…and it has gone to popularities that most people probably thought were never possible and have created the most popular sport in America by a country mile. It’s so big that it has taken college football and has made it by far the No. 2 sport in America, it’s not even close.”
You can tell the passion Middlekauff has for football is off the charts, even if it isn’t quite to the level of Chip Kelly. As he talks about the young quarterbacks the league has who will be featured in the playoff games, he centers in on the two who are playing in what most consider the biggest game of the weekend, Josh Allen of the Buffalo Bills and Lamar Jackson of the Baltimore Ravens. He made a great point saying the two could earn a combined billion dollars and even if they never get to a Super Bowl, it really won’t change anything.
“When it comes to the ability to earn and change the course of your family’s life…it’s not about the playoffs,” he said. “But what I think is awesome about the playoffs, is that Josh Allen will make the same amount as the 43rd guy on the roster dressing. The playoffs are not about money, the playoffs are truly about your legacy.”
Middlekauff knows his stuff, but it’s his style and delivery that set him apart. He is a great talker and has excellent recall of games and the history of the sport. He is also not afraid to make bold statements.
“Not a soul in America is expecting Houston to win,” he says when talking about the Houston Texans-Kansas City Chiefs matchup. “Mahomes has never missed the AFC Championship game, that’s fu–ing insane,” he says later.
With that said, he doesn’t just throw out gratuitous hot takes. He adds depth to what he says, such as when he adds about Mahomes, “It’s going to be very difficult for anyone to ever do what he’s doing again, just rattle off that many AFC Championship games in a row, where only once during that run he had to go on the road.”
After some really insightful discussion about the quarterbacks, the next topic was all the head coaching vacancies and the latest news. The information was followed by strong thoughts on the whole interview process and the disadvantage the assistant coaches on the top teams have.
Middlekauff says the NFL can’t seem to figure out the interview process. “It’s just very janky,” he said. “…I don’t have a great solution. A lot of the people you want to talk to are in the playoffs and it makes it difficult.”
Middlekauff points out that for most assistant coaches it really isn’t a big deal for them to do an interview or make a trip during game week. For the coordinators, however, it’s a much bigger deal. He adds that the only way it works is if your team has the No. 1 seed and you have the bye week to talk with teams. Middlekauff thought Philadelphia Eagles offensive coordinator Kellen Moore talking with the Dallas Cowboys during game week in the playoffs, “seems fu–ed up.” He offers a suggestion where all teams would have to wait to start doing interviews until either the bye week between the championship games and the Super Bowl or after the Super Bowl.
Middlekauff has a lot of inside information to offer, but you never sense during the show that he is trying to make it about him being the expert. It is a conversation between him and the audience even though he is the only one talking most of the time.
Later, a sponsored segment called ‘Hottest Coach and Player of the Week’, appropriately presented by Louisiana Hot Sauce, was both informative and entertaining. Middlekauff starts it out asking, “Has a player ever had one catch for ten yards, looked more angry on the sideline, yet had a more impactful week?” He then goes on to talk about Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown who has gone super viral for being shown reading a book while on the sidelines during a game. Middlekauff informs us that Brown’s attempt to calm himself had the book go from outside the top 500,000 books on Amazon to No. 1 overall. “That is an amazing accomplishment,” he says.
The coach he chooses is the Los Angeles Rams’ Sean McVay. Middlekauff presents the information that McVay has 8 playoff wins and he’s not yet 40 years old. “He has a Super Bowl and 8 playoff victories…If he goes on the road to Philly and upsets the Eagles, it would be one of the most impressive stretches… [McVay is an] awesome football coach,” he said.
Up next in the show was something else where I both learned and laughed. ‘Fugazzi Friday’ was the name of the segment and the winner overall was college football’s NIL and specifically some of the reporting that is out there about what certain deals are really worth.
Middlekauff points to a report he saw which said former Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers was offered $8 million from a school to transfer instead of going in the NFL Draft. “I don’t buy that for a second,” Middlekauff said. “One, if you watched him play this year or really the last couple years, he’s not a first-round player, I would argue, he’s not even a second day player.” He then compared what was reported to some NFL contracts, one of which was Sam Darnold getting a 1 year, $10 million deal with, as Middlekauff put it, “the Minnesota fu–ing Vikings!”
He would later add, “This NIL is becoming the biggest Fugazzi we have ever seen when it comes to some of these numbers being thrown around.” He also said Ohio State reportedly had an overall NIL budget for football of $20 million, which is one of the highest he had heard of. Using that as an example (not suggesting OSU was who offered Ewers), he then hilariously said, “You’re going to spend 40% of your budget on … Quinn Ewers?”
To put a bow on the topic, he suggested, “If I were you and I see these headlines, I would just assume most of them are fake.”
The rest of the episode featured Stuckey from The Action Network on to talk about the gambling angle of the football weekend. “For my money, it’s the best weekend of the NFL season,” Stuckey said.
While the energy level of the show took a drop, the conversation between the two was filled with great information. Right off the bat Stuckey had said, “We haven’t had multiple favorites cover 7 or more points on Divisional Weekend since 2001.” He said 16 times there have been multiple favorites of more than 7 points and all 16 times, at least one of the underdogs covered.
Washington’s win over Detroit the next evening would keep that streak alive.
Later, it was Middlekauff who said he liked the prop bet of Travis Kelce scoring a touchdown in the Chiefs-Texans game, saying, “I think it’s an auto-hammer if you can get plus money odds on Travis Kelce scoring a TD in any playoff game the Chiefs play.” Stuckey would add, “Kelce props are free money, no matter where the books put the line, historically. It’s insane.” They would turn out to be correct.
They covered it all as far as the games and it was never a situation where Middlekauff was just throwing games to Stuckey to get his opinion. They went back and forth and talked through why they liked or did not like certain bets.
They wrapped the episode looking at the college football championship game coming up between Notre Dame and Ohio State. Neither gave Notre Dame much of a chance, although they did lay out how it would happen if an upset did occur. Stuckey said, “It’s hard for me to see Notre Dame moving the ball here at all.”
Overall, listening to 3 and Out with John Middlekauff was not only like moving the ball, it was like moving it across the goal line and into the endzone.
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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.
