S&P’s Why Not Us?!

Look, I’m not gonna lie—Episode #8 almost didn’t happen. I left our podcasting equipment at my other place, which, in the grand scheme of things, isn’t the end of the world, but when you’re two co-hosts who’ve been settling in to a new routine, it’s quite the curve ball. One mic? Zero PodTrak audio interface? Plus personal space infringement! No problem.

Peter and I decided not to make a whole thing out of it, and it might’ve been the best decision we made all day.

The chaos started with my opening line. I had this absolute banger ready to go: “Welcome to S&P’s Why Not Us?, the podcast that trusts soccer’s VAR more than it trusts LeBron to make a decision.” I was proud of that one. I had it locked and loaded. And then—wouldn’t you know it—LeBron went and signed with the Sixers, and suddenly my carefully crafted intro was outdated before we even hit ‘record’.

So there I was, scrambling to salvage something from the wreckage, and I pivoted. That’s what 50 years of friendship gets you—the ability to laugh when your best material gets torpedoed by an NBA free agency decision. I ended up using it anyway, just with a caveat about “the new-look Sixers, King and all.” Welcome to Philly, King James. And game on!

The World Cup conversation was a fun capper for the non-soccer guys finding a credible way to talk soccer. We got into the VAR stuff pretty heavy, including the so-called smart ball—offsides on ‘hair’, but ‘play on’ a ball bouncing off the wires. Fascinating. We also enjoyed debating whether Erling Haaland—Norway’s sublime striker & instant fan favorite in the U.S.—could be the first 20-something European soccer star to turn in Premier League spikes for the MLS.

By the time we got to the trade deadline and Keith Hernandez’s Hall of Fame case, we were in full stride. No fancy equipment, no perfect setup—just two guys who’ve watched 50 years of sports together, riffing on what matters and what doesn’t.

Sometimes the best episodes are the ones that almost don’t happen.