SPEAKER_00 0:00

question for Bill and Sean because I don't want me to feel left out if I never do this process. Because because of where we are in the South, there is a lot of interest in Nick Sabin's role in all of this. How much influence did he wield throughout this process in finding Chris?

SPEAKER_02 0:18

Yeah. The guy we all know he's a winner, right? Biggest winner we all know. But the presence that he has and the way he evaluates things, it changed the entire interview process for us. I there are times we were looking at him saying, oh, I wish I asked that or I wish I saw it that way. But the other is the credibility that he gives you when he reaches out, you know, to Chris and they talk, it just changes, you know, everything that you can do or or would do. But I think it made the entire committee a little bit, you know, better in how we approached it, how we evaluated it. The amazing thing after each interview was his process as he analyzed what he heard, why he heard it, what he thought wasn't said. And it it it saying it's impressive is such a slight to him. It was incredible.

SPEAKER_01 1:01

As you all know Nick believes in process in a big way. And so he brought that same mindset A to our process of hiring somebody but B as he was questioning people and he was involved with everybody we talked to, you could see him drilling down well, okay, then what? Then it wouldn't he wouldn't he doesn't ever take the easy first answer. It's like ask the next question then the next one that sometimes you don't want them to ask then he'd ask that. So incredible I'm I'm Sean nailed it incredibly helpful and really thankful that he was willing to you know jump in and and be vitally involved in the

Intro

SPEAKER_01 1:36

process good morning afternoon or evening to you wherever you're listening from it is Saturday June 6th my name is Russell Reese and this is the Nashville Sports Report

Preds Hire Chris MacFarland

SPEAKER_01 2:06

okay well we started off today's show with a clip from predators owner Bill Haslum and CEO Sean Henry speaking this week about minority preds owner Nick Saban and their hiring process at the introductory press conference for the new general manager Chris McFarlane.

SPEAKER_05 2:24

But it also ties into the conversation I had with this week's guest Scott Viebrens. More on Scott later but first after a four month long process the Predators finally got their man announcing this week they have hired the former Colorado Avalanche GM to be their new GM and president of hockey operations here in Nashville. McFarland becomes only the third GM in Predators history after David Poyle and Barry Trotts. He is however the first one to be hired from outside the organization and I think that represents a new era and approach for the club. To continue with that theme a few days after his hire it was announced that the Predators have hired former LA Kings GM Rob Blake to serve as the executive vice president of hockey operations and that Brian Poyle the son of former GM David Poyle and a longtime Pred's front office employee would be leaving the organization. While there will surely be more changes to come, most importantly a decision about the current staff among them while there will surely be more changes to come, most importantly a decision about the current coaching staff among them, the hirings of McFarlane and Blake represent an injection of new and fresh ideas into an organization that, while successful, had become somewhat stagnant the way the Predators appear to be building their front office reminds me of what Mike Borganzi has done with the Tennessee Titans there he brought in former NFL GMs Dave Ziegler and Reggie McKenzie to serve as part of his decision making brain trust. From his early moves it appears that Chris McFarlane will be using a similarly collaborative approach to build his front office team. Personally I think that bodes well for the long-term future of the Nashville Predators organization. But that doesn't mean that this new group won't decide that a full tear down and rebuild will be necessary to get to where they want to go. We should start to have a clearer picture of the approach they will take after the draft later this month and more importantly the decisions they will make during free agency, which starts in early July, and then the rest of the offseason do they look to add a few proven veterans to bolster the current roster as is that would indicate that maybe they think they

Tennessee Titans

SPEAKER_05 4:40

can win with something that looks like the current team or do they start trying to move on from some of the players already on the team in favor of future assets which would of course signal that the start of some sort of rebuild. It'll be interesting to see what they decide to do over the next few months. Moving now to the Titans there's not much news to report they continued with OTAs this week and have mandatory minicamps coming up later this month where we should see or at least hear reports about the full 90 man roster coming together for the first time. After minicamp, the Titans like the rest of the league will be off until the start of training camp in late July also this week it was announced that the Titans will be playing at the San Francisco 49ers week one of the preseason and will then be at home against the Seattle Seahawks and the Chicago Bears for weeks two and three. Given that the 49ers are Coach Robert Sala's former team and a roster

USMNT / World Cup

SPEAKER_05 5:36

with which he is intently familiar I wonder if we won't see the Titans heading out to the West Coast earlier in the week for joint practices before the game. It would allow Salah to see his new team in action against a known quantity and could serve as a good early gauge for him to learn more about his football club. Something to keep an eye on in the next few months or so while it's not

Nashville Sounds

SPEAKER_05 5:58

specifically Nashville related here's a quick reminder that the United States men's national team has a final pre-World Cup tune up friendly against Germany this afternoon at 130 on TBS and then they kick off their World Cup schedule for real this Friday at 8 p.m against Paraguay that game will be available on Fox

Scott Viebranz Intro

SPEAKER_05 6:19

finally the Nashville Sounds are currently 36 and 25 second in their division one game behind the Memphis Redbirds they are right now finishing up a six game series in Jacksonville against the Jumbo Shrimps and they will return home for a six game series against the Durham Bulls which starts on Tuesday my guest this week is Scott Viebrand Scott is a retired sales executive who has worked

Scott Viebranz Interview

SPEAKER_05 6:47

for a number of large national and international companies such as Proctor Gamble, Energizer and Done Pet Care. We spoke this week about his experiences with sports growing up in New York City what it's like moving to Nashville right after the arrival of professional sports to our town and the importance of culture within an organization amongst many other things. I thought it was a very interesting conversation and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Okay Scott, thank you so much for making the time to join me today.

SPEAKER_03 7:17

I really appreciate it and I'm just going to go ahead and dive right into the standard questions that I ask everybody who comes on the show starting with what is your favorite sport to play well first let me say thanks for having me and uh I think it's important that you you know take on the old guys screaming into the sports void demographics I I'm glad you're reaching out to uh us old guys that's great my favorite sport to play right now is golf I think I probably every I'm I'm retired and and it takes up a good bit of my time. When I was was more active and my favorite sport to play was basketball. I played a lot of basketball in high school and some in intramural college used to play recreationally up until gosh I was 45 50 in some in some leagues in in St. Louis and some places down here. It was a great way for me to get the aerobic exercise I needed because I'm not a guy that's going to run around a track and or or run run along a trail. So that was my way of getting my aerobic exercise but I've also been a big basketball fan for a long time. So nice well I got two questions coming out of that first of all what's your favorite course to play locally you know I I belong to Vanderbilt Legends club which is a club that is the the uh home of the men's and women's Vanderbilt golf teams and I think they've got they've got 36 holes and they're they're they're a great course both great courses and I enjoy that I've got some great friends there now and but I also like McCabe but we live within walking distance of McCabe here here in Sylvan Park and I think that's a really great great facility and I can kind of walk on there play nine holes and it's it's a challenging course too. So I think those are probably my two favorite courses in Nashville.

SPEAKER_05 9:00

So nice yeah I think McCabe is definitely my favorite of the public courses as well in fact I I think we're going to be taking my father in law there for his birthday fairly soon. He he's got a regular and then on the basketball front what teams are you cheering for?

SPEAKER_03 9:16

Do you cheer for any NBA or college teams in particular or so I I'm not a big NBA fan although I'm watching obviously the NBA finals here with the Spurs and the and the Knicks because I grew up in New York and I know how important the Knicks are to a new the New York fan base. I'm more of a college basketball fan and you know I went to Duke actually the sports director of the Duke radio station and did play by play and color of the basketball games while I was there. And so I think it's a requirement for your diploma to root for the Duke basketball team and I get to Cameron once a year with a friend of mine who's got tickets. So that's that's been uh being a Duke basketball fan has been a passion for me. So that's my connection to the sport in addition to playing it.

SPEAKER_05 9:56

That's pretty awesome. I'm curious to know do you have any memorable games that you called while in college anything that sticks out as like the defining moment?

SPEAKER_03 10:04

You know, we were really bad when I was there. I graduated in 73 and we were we were in the dark days of Duke Basket before Shushewsky arrived in the early 80s. And I will say one of my big memories was actually being in the spectrum in Philadelphia when Leitner hit that shot against Kentucky and so that's one of my my my fun sports memories I was there with a bunch of college buddies and we were we were there when he hit that shot I you know with two seconds left.

SPEAKER_05 10:28

So that's incredible that's probably my most memorable moment if you will so absolutely I mean that's probably one of the most iconic college basketball plays of all time to be able to see that live is is amazing. Yeah that's really Kentucky fans still haven't gotten over it so well you know Kentucky fans they got a long memory and a lot of angst well that segues nicely into my second question which is uh what is your favorite sport to watch?

SPEAKER_03 10:54

Well you know it it might have sounded like basketball but and and quite honestly I'm just a sports fan. I I think sports the stories around sports are what attract me to it's not just the result but the stories of the cities and the clubs and the fan bases and the players playing and so I I connect really strongly to sports generally and I'm a big baseball fan and I think that baseball is probably the sport I most love to watch either on television but obviously in person. I grew up in a baseball family my dad was a big baseball fan and that's been kind of the through line of our family for a long time. So baseball's the sport I love to watch I haven't spent much time at the Sounds but we we were living in St. Louis before I moved here and by marriage I became a Cardinal fan because my wife Kristen is from St. Louis and it's the best baseball city in America I think and so I'm a Cardinal fan and also an Oriole fan from my from my youth with my dad.

SPEAKER_05 11:50

Oh okay even though you were in New York you guys were following the Orioles huh? Yes yeah you just liked pain or or what?

SPEAKER_03 11:56

Well you know in the 60s and 70s the Orioles were actually pretty good. I you know it's been painful since the mid-80s but my dad became a big Oriole fan he actually had a small owning owning stock in the Orioles back when I was 10 12 years old and so the fact that he was rooting for the Orioles was good enough for me so I ended up being a lifelong Oriole fan which has been very painful since since the mid-80s as you said so I do appreciate them.

SPEAKER_05 12:23

I think they have one of the most unique logos and color combinations in all of sports and it's yeah kind of forgotten a lot of times but uh you know more power to you.

SPEAKER_03 12:32

Thank you thank you it's just proves I'll hang with a team that's not that great. So it's good.

SPEAKER_05 12:36

I appreciate that for sure. And again another nice segue what is your earliest sports memory?

SPEAKER_03 12:42

Well you know we just talked about growing up in New York and as a baseball fan my dad's company had box seats behind the Yankees dugout in first base in Yankee Stadium. And so where we live was about a half hour train and and subway ride into New York to go to the uh Yankee Stadium. And probably my earliest sports memory is you take the train down to 125th Street, grab the Brooklyn Ferry line to Yankee Stadium and when you got to the stadium the tracks were elevated and you could come right into the stadium and actually look into the stadium as you were coming into the the subway station. Oh and so that was a big sports memory for me is just that that view of the stadium as I I remember doing that the first time and seeing you could see out from right field through into the you know cavernous part of the stadium. And the other great thing about going to the games then was if you were in box seats at the end of the game they would let you walk out a door and walk onto the warning track and you could take the warning track all the way out to right field and then out the Yankees bullpen. They had a door out there. So that's how you exited the stadium which I can't imagine anybody would let you do now but back in those days they'd have you know security guys to keep you from going on the field but I remember holding my dad's hand and walking down the the warning track all the way from the uh Yankee dugout down to right field and then out the bullpen which was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_05 14:01

That's incredible. Wow okay one more on this before we move on what were some of your favorite ball players you got to see growing up seems like you probably saw some big names back then.

SPEAKER_03 14:10

Well I did you know I I you know at that time with the Yankees it was the 60s and it was you know I I saw Mickey Manlow, Yogi Berra, later Elston Howard, Whitey Ford, saw Maris saw Maris hit I think home run 58 or 59 the year he hit 61. Wow saw Mantle hit a upper deck home run against the Cardinals in 64 to win a World Series game. So we I was I was really right there in the in the middle of the big Yankee teams in the early 60s and that was that was you know quite out of time for sure.

SPEAKER_05 14:43

Yeah incredible stuff. When I was a kid I had a VHS tape called the 500 home run club hosted by Bob Costas and Mickey was in it Maris I don't think ended up at 500 but uh just it was the gravitas of Bob Costas and the this music and all those guys were just kind of mythical almost beyond legendary sort of creatures in my mind and and it's one of those things to know that people actually saw them play ball in the flesh you know watching Mickey Mannle hit a World Series winning home run. That's that's quite a special thing. Oh absolutely absolutely I've got you know those are those are great memories from that time for me obviously so you mentioned being in St. Louis previously and my next question is how did you end up arriving into Nashville?

SPEAKER_03 15:26

So we lived in St. Louis for a bunch of years we've done a we I did a good bit of traveling around because I was working for consumer products companies and in in sales management and executive sales management. So I moved a good bit but we were in St. Louis for a good bit of time unexpectedly and it was was fun to be there because Kristen had grown up there and I took a job here in Nashville in in 99 I was commuted for a year because my son was a senior high school and then moved down here in 2000. It was an interesting time to come into Nashville it's just the beginning of the explosive growth of Nashville from a sports standpoint but also just generally and so we've been here for 25 years. Both kids are here now grandkids are here but to just be here and see how sports have changed here in that 25 years and come from a city that was an established sports city and come here to a city that was beginning to establish itself as a sports city, I think it's been really really interesting as a sports fan.

SPEAKER_05 16:20

Yeah I bet you know I think that 98 99 when those teams came in I I personally attribute the explosive growth to actually the arrival of a lot of the sports teams. I think it put Nashville on the map in a way that it wouldn't have otherwise I can't justify that with any stats or anything but I've always felt like getting the Preds and the Titans is really what launched us on this trajectory to where we are today. So it's neat that we got to come in early and and watch that.

SPEAKER_03 16:45

Yeah I I I think you you know it's interesting you say that because I don't know if you know this, but Vanderbilt's applications exploded this year and the missions department attributed a lot of that to the growth in Vanderbilt sports. And so I think that's just a statistical point that kind of supports what you're saying about the growth of the city. I think it's really important for a city to have a healthy you know sports culture going on and and you know we were in St.

SPEAKER_05 17:09

Louis when when the Rams were you know we don't talk about the Rams around here Scott.

SPEAKER_03 17:15

I know you don't by the way I'm I'm I'm I'm not gonna mention that my greatest sports memory involves the Titans because it uh it involves the Rams so I'm gonna I'm gonna not not gonna talk about that one but you know I think it's really important to a city to to have a healthy sports culture and I think the Rams lost something when they lost the football team although they seem to survive it. But I think that's important.

SPEAKER_05 17:39

Yeah I agree I think losing the Rams to LA was it seemed like a big hit to St. Louis not that I'm at all familiar with the city but I'm really glad that they have recently got the St. Louis soccer team joined the MLS two years ago.

SPEAKER_03 17:50

Yeah it's well St. Louis is a huge soccer town. I think you probably know that St. Louis University has always had a great soccer team and when the famous U.S. soccer team beat England back I think in 1950 a lot of those players were from St. Louis and so it's got that culture and I and the the the team is being really well supported. They got a great stadium up I've been in it so it's I think it's gonna be a great soccer town for sure.

SPEAKER_05 18:13

Yeah I think once they get their academy built up and they can start mining the local talent they're gonna just see hand in foot above everyone else. For sure for sure scary scary thought as a Nashville SC fan but you know it's good. I think it'll be a good away day forward to traveling up there sometime and checking it out. Okay so we know it's probably not the Titans but do you have a favorite Nashville sports team?

SPEAKER_03 18:35

I actually my my favorite Nashville sports team is Nashville Soccer Club. I was a season ticket holder have been since 2018 when they were in the first Tennessee bank and I've been season ticket holder since then it's been really fun to watch the team grow and the stadium is a great place to go. I've got about a third of a season ticket with a couple other guys and I really love soccer. I kind of abandoned football frankly because the way the NFL and and Stan Cronkey screwed the city of St. Louis when they moved the Rams to LA I kind of carried that and a friend of mine said you know if you're interested in finding some other sports distraction the English Premier League might be your yeah a good good thing to do. And so I started really getting into soccer and and it and it's a great game and so when Nashville acquired a team or got a team I I naturally just gravitated to it. So it's that's that's probably my favorite Nashville sports team right now. That's awesome and it's really cool you've been watching them since the USL days you know before the beginning in a way yeah with a dirt dirt flying up in the infield in first Tennessee park when they were playing games games in the baseball stadium. So yeah.

SPEAKER_05 19:41

Yeah I remember the first time they played Atlanta when we were they were still in the USL and Atlanta was you know the high flying MLS team and what a big deal that was to play there. It's crazy to think how far they've come since then and now to be entering the World Cup break and the lead of the supporters shield with Sam Surge coming back.

SPEAKER_03 19:58

It's a whole different world and it's it's very exciting to be watching and witnessing yeah it is and the stadium is it's it's fun to see that you know they had a little lull there for a couple seasons as they transitioned from Gary Smith to Brian Callahan but I I think the the atmosphere in the stadium is really you can see it's picked up.

SPEAKER_05 20:14

You know I haven't been to too many games it's maybe it's I have a two year old but also I I don't like the parking situation there. It's a really I'm really avoiding going because of that.

SPEAKER_03 20:23

I got some secrets for you.

SPEAKER_05 20:25

All right well we'll connect after this that that's good to know. Okay so do you have a s a favorite national sports memory or moment?

SPEAKER_03 20:33

You know we had we were blues ticket holders in in St. Louis season ticket holders and so coming here and seeing the growth of the predators franchise is really a great memory for me because you know we we came from a relatively sophisticated hockey town. Obviously the blues have been there since late 60s my wife Kristen was a huge hockey fan excuse me huge hockey fan and I was a Rangers fan growing up in New York and so it was a lot of fun for us to see the team growth see the way the Predators franchise kind of tried to get people to understand the game and become knowledgeable about the game. And that run to the Stanley Cup was a a really great memory for me. I went to a couple of games and the atmosphere in that in that arena was just so electric because it was kind of an unexpected run and you know the and people outside in the plaza there by the Hilton Hotel it was just that whole atmosphere really spoke to what I what I think about sports in terms of a a collective memory and a and a and a and a story that was really very memorable for me. So I think that's my biggest Nashville sports memory.

SPEAKER_05 21:37

Nice. Yeah I love that that's absolutely a great one. Okay so moving on to who would you put on your Mount Rushmore of Nashville sports?

SPEAKER_03 21:47

Understanding that I've only been here 25 years, although you know I've been here for most of the big big moments in Nashville sports I think I I've I've listened to some other people on your podcast talk about it. McNair and and Eddie are are really The two people that I think most deserved to be there because of their the impact on the franchise and on the city through the Titans football team. I would put Shea Weber on the Mount Rush War because of how important he was to that franchise as it was growing into itself. He wasn't here obviously for the run because he got traded the year they went to the finals for Suban. But he, I think he embodied the franchise, was the face of the franchise. And I think people connected with him in a in a in a very unique way. And I think that really was important for that franchise to have that kind of player be out front for the franchise. So I thought I would put him on the Mount Rush more personally. In the same way, I think I might put Hanni Mukhtar on the uh Mount Rushmore as well, because I think he's a person who's committed to the team. He probably could have left Nashville at SC, you know, a few years ago, but I think the team recognized the importance of him to the team, and he recognized how important he was to the city. And they were obviously able to agree on a contract. And I think that connection, I think any sports franchise that's starting out needs to have somebody they can put in front of the fan base that the fan base can attach to. And I think Mukhtar is an example of that. If I were going to add more than four, I think we're in the process of somebody seeing somebody that that will be on that Mount Rushmore at some point, and that's Candace Lee. At Vanderbilt, she's obviously been supported by Chancellor Dearmeyer. But the the turnaround in Vanderbilt sports over the last three or four years and how much she's contributed to that. My wife worked with your mother-in-law at USN and they they got to know Candace really well because she used to come over as the compliance manager to talk about the athletes of in the recruiting process. But the work she's done to get talent into that, into that school has just been amazing to me.

SPEAKER_05 23:50

Yeah, that's such a great point on a few of those. I agree, Eddie, Steve, obviously. I think the stoicism of Shea Weber and the sort of silent leadership that he provided was such a boon to the team, but I think it also causes him to maybe sometimes not get remembered in the conversation a little bit. You know, you just had this talking big guy with a massive slap shot. He was never the sort of verbose one. He was just kind of the consistent Ryan Suter leaves, everybody gets mad at Suter. Here comes Roman Yossi, Shay's still there, still doing his thing. You know, he did go and sign the contract with Philadelphia that really kind of put the preds in a bind for what, another two years almost? Like, I mean, I think they're still waiting for it to get out from under that, but I think that's a great, great point about him and about Hani too. Like, I think you're right. I, you know, if he's not there yet, he's very close. It's an amazing, amazing thing to be able to like build the team, the culture, everything around an organization. You come in on the ground floor in modern day soccer, football, and be able to have that kind of impact. And I was reminded of something Sam Serge said when he signed his extension recently, which was along those same lines, is like, yeah, I could probably go back to England, but I could stay here and get get a statue built, you know. Like I can there's there's more opportunity for a greater and longer lasting impact for players like that. And I love that either Nashville SC has really helped show them that vision or that that vision is is prevalent with them. And on Candace Lee, I couldn't agree more. I remember, and I've I've spoken about this previously, going to Vanderbilt football games when I was a kid in the 90s, and my dad would just let us run around the stadium because he could see us wherever we were. You know, he could just sit there and oh, there they are. And to see what they've done now, to see the way the facilities have changed, the way the attitudes around the sports have changed, particularly around football. I mean, I think men's basketball, okay, women's basketball used to be great, and they come back to that. Vandy Boys baseball team, bowling, soccer, all these things, uh, she's done so much to push them so far forward. It's really impressive. And I think that's a great, great point.

SPEAKER_03 25:54

Well, and even in the time that we've been here, to just, I mean, I remember going to Vanderbilt football games and and just the yeah, the student section went empty out by halftime. And you go now, and and that's what you really need is you need uh that student involvement. That's what makes Duke basketball so great. They're they're there rocking and rolling through the fourth quarter now, and that just gives you an indication of how far that's come in my mind, anyway.

SPEAKER_05 26:18

You know, I was reminded of uh sort of a similar thing when you were talking about the Preds Cup run in 2017. I had enjoyed as a Preds fan up until then, you could walk up to the stadium, wait for the game to start, you know, puck drop, and you could go find a scalper and go, all right, like let me let me get in for 10 bucks or whatever. I'm gonna help you, you know, otherwise it's a lost cause. And I remember distinctly seeing shots of Broadway just packed full of people and thinking, like, well, that era is over. Never like never gonna be able to just walk up and wait for the game to begin and get in cheap, which I you know, I'm so glad. Gosh, I remember the Save the Preds era in like 2007, 2008.

SPEAKER_03 26:56

Yeah, remember they were going to Hamilton, yeah, Hamilton, Ontario, right?

SPEAKER_05 27:00

And they had a pretty stacked team too at the time. I mean, they had Forsburg, Korea, they had a bunch of guys, and like Nashville just didn't care. And now, yeah, now it's it's annoying that you know you can't get in on the cheap, but it's it's amazing to to see and realize where we've been to where we are. 100%. Okay, so given that little my little theory on sort of preds tickets and and whatnot, do you have any Nashville sports conspiracy theories or hot takes that you want to share with the world?

SPEAKER_03 27:29

I've got uh two hot takes and a conspiracy theory. Awesome. Um I think M NSC is gonna win the MLS Cup this year. Love that. I really feel if they can keep Surge healthy, their style of play, you know, they took Gary Smith, brought him to as far as he could, and and they spent the last last year and this year building a team that I I just think they're they're primed. They seem to be and they've yeah, I was at the LAFC game when they beat LFC LASC a couple of weeks ago. That to me was a seminal game for them to just establish themselves in their own minds that, hey, we can go toe-to-toe with anybody in this league. And so jumping off from that then to obviously beat the revolution a week or so later and going into the World Cup, as you said earlier, as you said earlier, being up first in the league. I think my prediction would be they'd win the MLS Cup. Second hot take is that Vanderbilt will have a national championship team. It'll be women's soccer this year. Their women's soccer team almost made it to the Final Four last year. They made it to the Final Eight, and they've got people coming back. It's a terrific team. Fun watch if any of your listeners want to head out to the Vanderbilt. It's a small soccer place, but a really fun atmosphere, very kid friendly, and the team is just really, really good. And I think they've got a really, really good chance to win a national championship this year, which would be really, really big thing for Vanderbilt, as you know. That is awesome, yeah. And so my conspiracy theory is that the Titans knew about Frabel and Roussini before they fired him. And that one of the reasons they fired him may have been that they knew that this was there. They weren't gonna expose it because it was Vrabel's obviously personal thing to do at some point, although it he didn't have a chance to to manage it. But I think I give the Titans a little bit of credit, maybe that they may have known about that when they parted ways with Vrabel, because it predates their firing Vrabel, the relationship does. So I just think it's that may have happened. So that's my hot take, I guess.

SPEAKER_05 29:32

Yeah, I think that's a very valid hot take. And I thought about that when it started to come out that the whole narrative around the Titans letting go of Vrabel and then him going to the Super Bowl, and everybody's like, oh, the Titans, blah, blah, blah. And it's sort of like a totally different perspective if you if you take that into consideration. And you know, I remember back when Vrabel was here and Diana Roussini was getting all kinds of scoops on the Titans, and and you know, there were kind of jokes about, oh, who's she sleeping with to get all that, you know? And it's sort of like, well, yeah. And given the fact that so many photos have come out since then, I think you're right. Like, I don't think that they were very subtle about it. You know, there have been like five or six different articles, oh, new photos on ours from X, you know, 2021, 2020. And it's like, I just thought this was Mike Vrabel with his wife, and it turns out it was Mike Variable and Diana Brussini and X Place hanging out publicly. It's sort of like, I bet you're right. I bet that the Titans were aware, given that he and she, I'm not not gonna lay it just on him, but they didn't seem too um too bothered to keep it under wraps.

SPEAKER_03 30:35

No, agreed. So it just seems it seems a little too coincidental to me. So anyway, that's my hot take.

SPEAKER_05 30:41

Love it. That's a great one. Okay, so my last standard question for everyone is what is your favorite restaurant in Nashville?

SPEAKER_03 30:48

So we like to go out to eat, been to, we like to go to new places, but our our go-to place is Answer on West 46 here in Silver Park. We've been going there since they opened. We've gotten to know the owner really well. It's always consistent, great vibe to it. The owner went to NYU, so she knows New York restaurant scene really well. And she tried to recreate that kind of vibe and ambiance there. We love to go to the bar and sit at the bar and have have dinner there. And when people come in from out of town, that's the place we we take people because we just think it's just a great place to go from an atmosphere, service, and food standpoint.

SPEAKER_05 31:24

That's a great answer. I I haven't been to Answer in some time, but I I do like sort of the neighborhoody vibe of it. It's got, in a way that not many other neighborhood restaurants have, you know, maybe Lachlan Table, but just sort of like being in literally right in a neighborhood, surrounded by houses, it's got that sort of hyperlocal vibe that I I think is really cool.

SPEAKER_03 31:45

And uh Yeah, and actually Lochland Table would be our second choice to that point because of the neighborhood feel to it. Answer, I guess, because we go there more frequently and uh it's closer. But uh Lachland Table's just that way. You're right.

SPEAKER_05 31:59

Those are two excellent restaurants. And I and I'll be honest, I think a lot of times Nashville's food scene is a little overblown, you know, just because of the focus and attention that the city gets nationally and maybe internationally. I think some places get away with it a little something sometimes, but I think at least my experience in both those restaurants is that they've got people behind them that are constantly bringing it and doing it right and and really care, and you can tell when you experience them.

SPEAKER_03 32:26

Yeah, well, I would having come from a a bigger city and and living other places like Philadelphia and New York in our in my life, I will tell you that the the the food landscape when we arrived in 2000 was

Culture in Organizations

SPEAKER_03 32:38

pretty bleak. So it's that it's uh Nashville's come a long way in the in that time frame, even though it may be overblown. It it there is progress that's been made.

SPEAKER_05 32:45

So sure. Yeah, I don't I don't mean to look at Gift Horse in the mouth or anything, but I will say, you know, in 2000 we had Kobe Steakhouse, which is R.I.P. one of my favorites of all time, and now we do not. So we are poorer for that. Please come back to Kobe Steakhouse. All right. Well, on that strange note, you and I have chatted a little bit off-air about cultures and and the way that cultures are built. You've had a long career working for a number of very notable and large companies where culture and the way it's established has been very important to what you do. I think particularly working in sales where you need to connect with people and you need to really present the face of the company. I know that you had some thoughts about some of the culture that we're seeing in sports today. So could you speak to that a little bit?

SPEAKER_03 33:36

I got thinking about this. I'm an English Premier League fan. Tottenham Hotspur is my team. They're the ninth richest team in the in the world, and they were going through a relegation battle this year. And in English soccer, you can be relegated. If you're one of the bottom three teams in the Premier League, you get relegated. For them to be in that position was indicative of me, to me, of how far they dropped and how lost they were in terms of their culture. That was for me contrasted with watching the San Antonio Spurs and OKC play in the Western Conference Finals of the NBA. Two teams that have got very distinct and well-embedded cultures that have developed over a period of time and have led to excellence in both cases. And, you know, for me, when I look at the contrast of those two, it's all about kind of a consistent plan and process and vision for what you want to be as an organization. This holds true in business, but it holds true particularly in sports uh franchises. And I think both the San Antonio Spurs and the OKC are embodiments of that. From their ownership through their management and coaching staff, and even down to their players, they are focused on process and hewing to that process a value system about how they want to present themselves to their fans and to their, to their other stakeholders. And I I see I see that in a lot of ways in the Nashville sports scene right now. I'll give you a couple of examples. And I have a great connection to Greg Popovich, who I think is a is a wonderful coach, but also has inculcated a culture at the Spurs that I think has been carried through from David Robertson to Tim Duncan and now to Victor Wembayana and and other players during that time as well. And he he gravitated to a quote from a guy by the name of Jakob Rees, which is spelled R-I-I-S. And I looked it up. He was a Danish American journalist. I don't know if if Reese is Danish.

SPEAKER_05 35:41

Not my particular one, but that might be a very distant cousin. We'll just go ahead and say my distant cousin, Jacob.

SPEAKER_03 35:47

But he he he had a quote that that that I connect to, but I I think Popovich in particular did. When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stone cutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times, without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow, it will split in two. And I know it was not that blow that did it, but all that had gone before. That speaks to an ethos and a philosophy. And this quote is in the Spurs facilities and practice places, and it's in different languages because the Spurs have been always been a multicultural team, but it just speaks to, you know, staying the course on a process and cueing to what you believe is what you should be doing, and don't stray off of that. And too many companies and sports franchises, and we've seen it here in Nashville, I think, kind of move back and forth so fast and don't really just stay on their process. And so hers are the same way. I mean, somebody asked Stan Presty, who's the president of the of OKC, how do you evaluate a good year? He said, I evaluated if we stayed on our process by how we stayed on our process. The result is secondary. What I want to know is, did we stay on our process? And though both those instances, I think, are examples of what I think a good culture looks like.

SPEAKER_05 37:08

That's really interesting. I've not heard that quote before, but I really like it. Speaking of sort of sticking to the process, I can think of a team, a major sports team here in town who has wishy-washy their way into a number of three and 14 seasons. Of course, I'm speaking about the Titans who have alternated between GM and coach, and GM and coach for what feels like way too long. I do personally think that now with Mike Burgonzi in charge, the new structure, particularly with Chad Brinker having departed, I think that they've maybe finalized a more consistent structure and then bringing in Robert Salah. Maybe we're moving into a new era of consistency. But what are your thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_03 37:48

Well, it feels like that. I I think it begins at ownership. And I wish for myself I had more trust in Amy Strunk, but we'll see how that plays itself out. One of the things that I think you need in an organization is have clear lines of authority and responsibility so that everybody knows what their responsibilities are and what authority they have in those responsibilities. That was one of the things that happened with Rand Carthon and Frabel. They got into it with each other, and Amy Strunk didn't make it clear who was supposed to be making decisions on what. And I think they got sideways with each other. And that didn't help the organization because the whole organization can see that. The staff, the players, they can all see that. And, you know, as a player, you want to have confidence in the stability and focus and direction of your organization. That attracts players, that keeps players. And I don't think the Titans have been able to do that because of this lack of consistency in the way they've operated. I do think the Titans are on the clock because they've got to get this right over the next two years. Their seat licenses, you know, they're asking fans to pay a lot of money to see the kind of product that they've seen the last four or five years. I think that's a disconnect if I'm a fan. And so I'm hoping that they've consolidated things under Borgassi. I think Sala and Dable will be really good additions in terms of the direction of the franchise on the field. And so I'm hopeful that that Amy Strunk has finally gotten the message and gotten the light to do that.

SPEAKER_05 39:14

I couldn't agree more. I've always felt you need to give whatever group running it three or four years to really establish, implement. Obviously, Indiana, Kurt Signetti, whatever he did up there is is an outlier. But you know, new coach, new new GM, whoever, and ideally they'd come in together or at least be aligned. But I feel like they've lacked the patience to, as you mentioned, stick to the process that whoever was in charge was trying to outline. I am hopeful that maybe we can see more consistency from them. But you know, something you you just said about the business side of it reminded me of I was just listening to the Chris McFarland press conference, the new Predators GM. And something that he said very early on in his comments was my job is to make sure that the players can focus purely on playing hockey and that they don't have to worry about anything else, that we can handle whatever it is, and they can focus on being the best hockey players they can be. And it's a simple concept, but I think that it's it's also a very hard thing to accomplish given sort of the state of the business world and sports as a business. It's so easy to lose sight of the ball and get distracted by the flashy things or whatever it might be. Uh so I thought that was a refreshing thing to hear from him.

SPEAKER_03 40:30

I I agree. And I I think that's the Kurt Signetti outlier is almost works in opposition to that thought and and becomes maybe an icon for other people to look at and go, well, you you can do it really quickly. Look what he did. And for me, when you if you if you're trying to build something to last, you've got to be committed to consistency and all the way through the organization and how you're operating. And and you look at the great franchises in football, the Steelers, the Patriots, the 49ers, those franchises who have stood the test of time. They've been very consistent in the way they've approached how they change coaches, how they focus on players and the kind of fit they have for players. So I think there's models there. It's just a hard model to follow because you do get into the trap of trying to move too fast to make change when things start going exactly the way you think they should, right? Yeah. And and I think Nashville SC is an example of a franchise that obviously John Ingram hired Ian Air from from Liverpool, a well-respected, well-known football man, brilliant hire by John Ingram. And they've nurtured this thing along. They they took Gary Smith. You need a good defensive team when you start out in a league like that, and Gary Smith was a defensive coach. But they got to a certain point where they realized, okay, we need to make make the next change. But it wasn't like a radical change, it was just a move on to Callion. And I think that's to me an example of a franchise that's doing it the way I think the good franchises do to be successful over the long term, right?

SPEAKER_05 42:04

For sure. I'd say too, another thing I really appreciate about John Ingram as an owner is that you don't hear a lot about John Ingram as an owner. I want my executives to be busy being executives away from the spotlight, doing the leadership things. I don't want to hear from the owner. I don't want to hear from the president. I don't want to hear from the CEO. You know, I want to know that those people are off, not wasting their time on these sorts of things to pop up when they need to. But I like that John Ingram doesn't make himself too much of a part of the story. He he kind of knows his role within it, which is to be the owner of the organization and provide the funds. And I'm sure he gets consulted on things all the time, but you know, he's hired people, he trusts the people he hired, he lets them do their jobs. Um and it's like you said, I imagine they have very clearly defined roles, expectations, responsibilities, and accountability. And, you know, I'm hopeful that the Preds, not that the Preds have been a poorly run organization, but I think with Bill Haslum coming in as a new owner, I think he might be a little more front and center. I think, you know, former governor and sort of seeing what his brother's doing up in Ohio. Like, I think that there's gonna be a little bit more of a public persona from Bill Haslam as the Predator's owner, but I do also think that he seems to understand how it should run and that he's got a serious hockey mind in Chris McFarland. And it seems like he's going to get his people in place, step back, hopefully let them do what they need to do and trust the process, as you said. Speaking of that, though, how can an organization or a team define themselves and their culture? What do you think the steps are for that?

SPEAKER_03 43:37

I think the the ownership and the stakeholders, and really I'm talking about sports franchise now, needs to think about what they want to be in the community and what they want to be as a team. And I think it's important for them to understand where they are in the fabric of the community and how they can connect to that and then develop a game plan and a vision for that. This quote. I gave you from Jacob Reese is an example of that where they just basically said this is what we're going to stand for. We're going to be, we're going to pound the rock, basically. We're going to pound the rock. And the rock may not break on the first pounding or the second pounding, but we're going to keep pounding the rock. That's who we're going to be. I think you need to establish that in some way, shape, or form. I worked for Procter and Gamble. Proctor and Gamble was like working for a military organization because they had a very clearly defined way they went to market, a very clearly defined hierarchy of how that went from the marketing department to the sales department. They had a very specific training program and the way you should approach a customer and how you should sell to that customer. It was all very routinized. In some ways, it was great training for me. In some ways, sometimes you wanted to break out of it, but it was a reason for their dis their success. It was very well defined. And then you need to hire people, or in the instance of a sports organization, bring people in that will fit that culture. That's why a guy like Tim Duncan fits so well with the Spurs or Shea Gilders Alexander fits so well with OKC or Henny Mukhtar fits so well with NASA. You bring people in who want to be in that kind of culture and that kind of environment and are know that they're going to be successful there.

SPEAKER_05 45:16

When you say that, I think of the Christian Espinoza signing this summer and how excited I think everyone around the team was. And yeah, obviously the talent's there, but when you saw that introductory presser, they spoke to more of what you're saying that we think Christian fits in with what we're doing, who we have, and what we're trying to accomplish. And I think the results on the field speak to that immensely. He's just hit the ground running in a way that's been amazing. It's so interesting because I work as a project manager in my day job. And a lot of what my role is is to try and sort of find structure within chaos or try and find alignment between disparate groups. And, you know, lots of times you're starting with a blank piece of paper. I think it's so easy for anyone or any group to, oh yeah, culture, blah, blah, blah, whatever. But you know, there's real concrete steps that have to be taken, but the direction is infinite. And until you sort of drill down into who you are, what you want to accomplish, you have to define the objective. You have to create a roadmap. You have to know how you're going to progress from where you are. You have to know where you are, and then how you're going to get to where you want to go. It's really impressive to see organizations that do it in such a way like San Antonio, you know, who a lot of I'd say a lot of basketball fans would probably say they were kind of a boring team, but they know who they are, they know what they want to be, and they've had a lot of success doing it. But the fact that that is it spun out a whole cloth. It's somebody had to go in there, Popovich, and and define it and be the beacon and drive the whole organization towards it. That I think is the really impressive part.

SPEAKER_03 46:50

Absolutely. And you know, they you can't vary from it. That's Popovich is is very good at not he he was, I mean, he just always what would bring people back to this is who we are. And and you know, he he he went into the locker room after the third game when San Antonio was blown out by OKC. And he's not involved, he's not the coach anymore. He's he's kind of an advisor, but that's the first time I've been in the locker room all season. He said to the players, that was not us. We were not us tonight. We cannot do that again. We need to be us. And the players knew exactly what he was talking about. They knew exactly what he was saying because they knew we were not us tonight. And so being able to say that to your employees or your team and have them understand, yes, you're right. We're we're not us because this is who we are. That tells me that you've got a good culture in my mind, anyway.

SPEAKER_05 47:42

So absolutely. I I think it's so easy in the down moments to lose sight of that or to just, I'm on a diet, but then I had a donut, so I might as well eat some ice cream, or you know, it's like the let these things snowball in a way that it's true. It's I think it takes a certain amount of courage to say, no, you know, I messed up this one time, but yeah, I I know where I want to be, I know how to get there, and and I'm still that thing. This one particular result doesn't define me or organization, whatever it is. And I think that's kind of a courageous act in a way, because it's hard to do in the moment sometimes.

SPEAKER_03 48:17

Well, and and sports is a results-oriented industry, as you know, and but you know, if you if you believe in the process and stay with the process,

Outro

SPEAKER_03 48:24

the results are gonna come. And and you know that's what Prusty was trying to say when somebody asked him about how he evaluates a good year, you know. I I think that's very, very important.

SPEAKER_05 48:33

Yeah. Well, that's such a great point, and I think it might be a great idea to end on. Do you have any final thoughts for the audience? Anything else you want to share?

SPEAKER_03 48:42

I don't. I I've really really enjoyed this time. It's been fun talking to you about this, and and thank thanks so much for having me.

SPEAKER_05 49:01

All right, my thanks again to Scott for coming on the show. My thanks to you for listening. We've got contact information and links to referenced videos in the description below. We've also got links to our social media. We're available on Blue Sky and Twitter at Nash Sports Report. That's at NSH Sports Report. Please reach out. I'd love to hear from you, love to talk to you, love to have you on the show. Otherwise, thanks for listening. Hope you have a great week, and we'll talk to you next time.