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Good morning, afternoon, or evening to you, wherever you're listening from. It's Saturday, June 13th. My name is Russell Reese, and you are listening to the Nashville Sports Report. All right, well, we started the show today with a clip from the United States men's national team game last night. They won their opening game of the World Cup against Paraguay 4-1. The call you heard to start the show was the Fox broadcast call of Florio Balagun's first goal, which ended up being the game winner. This was probably the best U.S. men's team performance in a World Cup during at least my lifetime. Paraguay is no slouch. They finished third in South American qualifying and gave up six goals during that entire stretch. The fact that the U.S. were up 3-0 at halftime and cruised to a 4-1 victory is therefore very, very encouraging to me. They've still got two strong tests in their group against Australia and Turkey, but their win last night and their plus three goal differential mean that it is very, very likely that the U.S. will advance to the knockout round if they can get at least a draw in one of their other two matches. Of course, they will be looking to win the group, and last night's victory over a decent Paraguay squad will go a long way towards that goal as well. All in all, about the best start that the team and their fans could have hoped for. They play again next Friday at 2 p.m. against Australia. A win will secure what already looks very likely their advancement to the knockout stages. That game as well will be shown on Fox. The Titans wrapped up OTAs this week and will have their team minicamp next week before breaking Intel training camp, which begins in late July. A lot has been made about the fact that Cam Ward has been inconsistent during the past couple of weeks. Firstly, I want to say no one should worry too much about his numbers during voluntary off-season practice, but also that this is to be expected during the off-season when the team is installing a brand new offensive system with a number of brand new receivers and tight ends. Now is the time for Cam to learn the new system, test it and his limits and learn what he can and cannot do within that system. Cam is a gunslinger and he's gonna take chances. It's important that he use this time to master the offense and learn what he can get away with inside the structure of the system. Frankly, I'd be much more worried if he was putting up perfect numbers right now because that would mean he isn't doing anything to challenge himself to grow. For his part, Robert Sala feels great about having Cam as his QB and isn't worried about what his numbers look like right now. Here's what he said at his press conference on Thursday.

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There's situations that kind of dictated that, but how do you feel he's been?

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I think he's been great. You know, like this is the time of year where where he's got to try some things, he's got to see what he can and can't do, and and then you mix that in with a whole new scheme. Like I I think it's uh I mean I'll put myself out there. I think it's very safe to say that we've we've got a really, really, really good quarterback and we're in really good hands.

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Great words there from Robert Sala about his quarterback Cam Ward, and I completely agree. On now to the Predators, there's not much news in their world, but new general manager Chris McFarlane did announce this week that he intends to expand the Pred's data analytics department. I think that's great news and another clear sign that McFarlane is putting his stamp on the organization. While I don't think analytics is the end all be all for an organization, if McFarlane thinks that there are elements missing from that department, it's good to know that he's taking steps to address them. The team should be using every avenue to improve and beefing up the data team seems like a good step in that direction. Outside of that, there hasn't been much news from the Preds. We should get a clearer idea of how McFarlane intends to build out the organization when we see what happens during the NHL draft, which starts on June twenty sixth, and then in free agency, which starts on July 1st. Regardless, these are exciting times to be a Preds fan. They have a new GM, good prospect pipeline, a roster that was competing for a playoff spot at the end of the season, and a bunch of draft capital that was acquired by Barry Trotz over the last few seasons. McFarlane has tons to work with, and it will be interesting to see what he does over the next few months. Finally, the Nashville Sounds are 41 and 26 and still just a game back of the Memphis Redbirds for the division lead. They are also four and a half games up on third place St. Paul, so they and Memphis have really started to separate themselves from the rest of the pack. The Sounds finished their series against the Durham Bulls here in Nashville today and tomorrow before heading to Memphis to start a huge six game series against the Redbirds on Tuesday. It will be very interesting to see where things stand with Nashville and Memphis this time next week, so make sure to check back in. Normally, this is the time in the show when I introduce the guest interview. While I do have a few very interesting guests that I'm lining up to join the show soon, we're unable to make our schedules align this week. Instead, I thought I would use this time to give my answers for the same nine questions that I ask our guests. So without further ado, here we go. Number one. What is your favorite sport to play? Growing up, it was basketball on lacrosse. I was pretty decent lacrosse player in high school, but this was when Tennessee only had like seven or eight teams, so you know I guess it was kind of easy to stand out. Nowadays it's probably golf, although I don't play very often. Do enjoy getting out there. I feel like if I can get one good drive, one good chip, and one good putt, I feel great about things. So that that's about the level I'm on. Number two. What is your favorite sport to watch? I think football and soccer are my favorite sports to watch on TV. Just been a football fan all my life. Remember spending all day sitting on the couch eating so much hummus that I got sick of it for years just watching college football by myself. Soccer I really enjoy, not just because of the World Cup and Nashville SC right now, but I really like the 45-minute continuous viewing opportunity, although uh Fox is kind of ruining that, running commercials during the hydration breaks uh in the World Cup right now. But uh, I do really enjoy football and soccer on TV. In person, I'm gonna go with what Derek Pell said the other day on the show. I agree with him. I think hockey is hands down the best life sport. I know the Preds have done a lot since they came to Nashville to really make it entertaining and make it more than just the game, but I think the game itself speaks for itself. Number three. What is your earliest sports memory? I thought about this one for a while, and for me, I think it's sort of tangentially sports related, and it was more being a Bo Jackson fan in the mid-80s. When I was a little kid, he was like the biggest thing going, and then of course, you know, playing Super Tech Mobile as him when it came out on the NES. It was a big deal. Bono's, you know, that poster that a lot of people had. I had a Bo Jackson jersey. It was kind of a knockoff. It didn't say his name or anything, but it was black with the white 34, and I was just a huge Bo Jackson fan. I also remember kind of around that same time, my buddies and I used to watch a BMX movie called Rad. It was about BMX bike racing, and my buddies Thomas and Hilson and I used to watch it all the time as little kids. So I think that one actually kind of counts as well. Bo Jackson and the movie Rad. I will go and find the trailer. They recently re-released Rad. I'll go find the trailer and I'll put it in the description. It was, as the title says, Rad. Number four. How did you end up in Nashville? Uh this one's pretty straightforward. My father was from Jackson, Tennessee, and my mother is from Knoxville. So when they moved back to Tennessee around the time I was two years old, they picked Nashville because it was in between their hometowns. So I've been in Nashville ever since. Right around the time of my Bo Jackson obsession. Number five. Which is your favorite Nashville sports team? So I really do love all of them, but if I have to pick just one, I'll say the Titans. Before they came to town, I'd I'd watched NFL games all the time, but I didn't have a favorite team. I just liked football. And then I remember the NFL Yes campaign that started and I think it was like late 95, early 96, and how exciting it was, just as a sports fan, to think that we might get our own professional sports team. And then they voted yes, and the Oilers came, and all of a sudden I immediately had a team I could feel attached to. And then of course the Super Bowl run submitted them as a favorite in town. And we got to enjoy a few more years of like really top-tier football with Steve and Eddie, Keith Bullock, Javon Kurse, all those guys, you know, until about let's say 2003 or so. But them just coming to town and being really good for that early stretch was was so exciting for me to go from like a kid who was watching whatever was on and enjoying it, but like, you know, not really having a rooting interest to all of a sudden I had a team and my team was awesome. Number six. What is your favorite Nashville sports memory or moment? You know, a lot of people have said Music City Miracle, and that was definitely a really big and important moment for me. But actually, my favorite Nashville sports moment or memory is a specific day. December 26th, 1998. The rest of my family had gone to visit relatives after Christmas, but my dad and I stayed in town because I was going to go with my Boy Scout troop on a cold weather camping trip to Ely, Minnesota the following day. So we had the whole day to kill. My dad had bought us tickets to see the Oilers play the Vikings at Dudley Field, that's Vanderbilt's stadium. This was the second year that the Oilers had moved to Tennessee. Of course, they moved to Memphis first, and people in Memphis were like, why would we watch this? You're just gonna leave. So that second year, rather than staying at the Liberty Dome or the Liberty Bowl or whatever it was called, they came and played their games at Vanderbilt. And you know, we got to see in that game we in addition to the Tennessee Oilers, we got to see Randall Cunningham, Chris Carter, Randy Moss as a rookie. I remember he caught a one-handed two-point conversion that was just incredible. He just kind of got it, jumped up and spun. That was just an outstanding game to watch. The Vikings won that game and went on to finish the season at 15-1. I actually got to see two games that year of Vanderbilt, the Vikings and the Jets, and both those teams were the teams that lost in their respective conference championships that year. The Vikings lost to the Falcons, and the Jets lost to the eventual Super Bowl champion, Denver Broncos. There was a moment there where I was thinking, like, oh, I can see both I might have seen both Super Bowl teams play live. Anyways, while we were at that game, we decided we should try and go see the Predators game that evening. It was their inaugural season. So right after the Oilers game ended, we drove down to the box office at the Somme Center, which is what Bridgestone Arena was called at the time, and bought tickets to see the Preds play. It was the Washington Capitals that evening. It was the very first time the Preds had played the Caps. And the Preds ended up winning three to one. Years later, when my dad passed away in 2021, my mom found the ticket stubs from both those games amongst his things. And it was it was a very special day for me, and it was a very special day for my dad, and uh just something I I will always hold and think of fondly. Number seven. Who is on your Mount Rushmore of Nashville Sports? Okay, so like everyone else who has come on the show, I've got Steve McNair and Pecarina on there. I think there's enough been said about both those guys. You know, Pekka's the first and only professional athlete to have a statue built in Nashville, led the team to the Stanley Cup Finals, uh, is probably the best finished goaltender of all time right now. I don't know. Juice and and Big Juice might have something to say about it down the line, but no. I mean, Pecca's just incredible. Obviously, Mac, the way he led the team, the way he brought him into town, both just huge, huge guys in my mind. But outside of that, I'm I'm a history buff kind of guy, and my other two come from previous eras of Nashville sports. First and foremost, it's Wilma Rudolph. She is the original track and field goat. First woman to win three gold medals in an Olympics game, and the best runner from an incredibly stacked Tennessee state team. In fact, that 1960 U.S. track team was pretty much just the Tennessee state team in USA outfits. In my opinion, Wilma Rudolph is still the single greatest athlete ever produced by or associated with Nashville. And frankly, I think the city should be doing more to highlight her legacy and proclaim her greatness. What exactly that would look like, I don't know, but it it should happen. Finally, my fourth member on my Nashville Mount Rushmore is Perry Wallace. Mr. Wallace is the only one of my four who was actually born and raised in Nashville. He attended Pearl High School before becoming the first black varsity basketball player in the SEC while he played at Vanderbilt. He averaged 13 points and an 11 and a half rebounds during his collegiate career. And then after graduating Vanderbilt, he went on to earn a law degree at Columbia University and had a distinguished legal career as both a lawyer for the Justice Department and then later a law professor. In addition to being a trailblazer, civil rights icon, awesome basketball player, great Nashville. He also had an incredible legal career, just truly a remarkable man. So those are my four. Steve McNair, Pekarine, Wilma Rudolph, and Perry Wallace. Number eight. Do you have any Nashville sports conspiracy theories or hot takes you want to share? I've got a couple that I might make into longer show topics later on down the line when, you know, middle of summer when things are kind of dry. And I I think I'll keep my powder dry on those, but something I think is slightly hot take-ish is that I think Nashville's next new pro team should be a WMBA team. I want to go on the record. I think the Grizzlies should stay in Memphis. But if there was to be an associated WMBA team like how you see in a lot of MBA towns, I think that they should be located here in Nashville. So, you know, you could have Bridgestone, it's it's available most of the summer. And other than the sounds, they would be the only game going in town, particularly once the Nashville SC and MLS move to their winter schedule next summer or next winter as the case may be. I think bring a WNBA team to town, that's my semi-hottish take. Number nine. What is your favorite restaurant in Nashville? Until about a few months ago, I would have said Pelican and Pig. Unfortunately, they closed, and my wife and I actually got to go about a week before they closed. We didn't even realize they were going to close and just fortunately got a chance to go. Love that place. One of the best steaks I've ever eaten in my life. But they are no more, sadly, which is a running theme for restaurants in Nashville. Nowadays, I'm not really sure, but some of my favorites that still exist include Green Chili, the Indian restaurant out by the site of Rivergate Mall, which is now getting torn down. Jay Alexander's, of course, homegrown chain, but still a banger. Anatolia, which I think does not get enough love for being an old school Nashville restaurant that has continued to hang on. Anatolia has been doing their thing for what, like 30 years now over there in Lion's Head, and it continues to be awesome. The people that work there are super friendly, super nice. They remember you. All around great experience, and sort of one of the last old school Nashville vibey kind of places. They've just got a little restaurant built in, and it's some of the best Thai food in town. And China Cottage up in Madison. China Cottage, I feel like, is the closest thing to what used to be the old Green Hills Chinatown restaurant, which was kind of my favorite Chinese restaurant in town growing up. The egg rolls at China Cottage are very similar to what they would have at Chinatown. There's a number of other dishes there at China Cottage that are very reminiscent of Chinatown. And I also just love their walnut shrimp dish. I think it's outstanding. So there you have it. That's me. Those are my nine questions that I have asked other people and am now answering myself. And with that, we will head out. Thank you so much, as always, for tuning in. A reminder that you can contact us on social media at Nash Sports Report. That's at NSH Sports Report on Twitter and Blue Sky. You can also reach out to us through the link down in the bottom of the description. Any videos referenced or mentioned during this podcast will also be linked down in the description. As always, I'd love to hear from you. Love to have you on. If you'd like to come on and talk about national sports, past or present, or future even, I would really, really like to have you. And with that, we'll let the music take it out. Hope you have a wonderful weekend.