Episode 81: The Magic of the World Cup

>> Welcome to Wisdom from the Aerial View,

the podcast [music] for those who want

to crush their anxiety and find meaning

and purpose in their lives.

Good morning, Dr. Klein. How are you?

>> Hello, Enid. How are you?

>> I'm good. I'm very good.

>> didn't I didn't answer your question.

I'm very good.

>> question?

>> You asked me a question. How am I? And I

didn't even answer it, but I'm great.

And I'm glad you are, too.

>> I am great. You had sent me an email or

text or something.

Why don't we talk about

the World Cup and how it brings people

together and why we're so excited about

it. And I said, "All right, I I'll be

honest.

Uh I am not into the World Cup. I'm not

into soccer. I I don't understand it. I

think it's boring. I think it's the

low-scoring game. I don't think there's

any excitement. Um a lot of people say

that about my favorite sport, which is

baseball, but I think just the opposite.

But I did a little searching about the

World Cup and about FIFA. I don't even

know what FIFA stands for. Do you know

what it stands

>> That's That's Fédération Internationale

Football Association or something like

that. It's French, I think.

>> They call it football. I you know.

Right.

>> Right.

>> FIFA claims that 6 billion people 6

billion people watch it. Almost 3/4 of

the world's population will engage in

the World Cup in one way or another.

That's a lot of people. Um

it was fascinating to me how many how

many people are really enamored of this

silly sport, including you.

Um

But but I read something too about it

that interested me. And of course again,

they call it football cuz technically it

is football. They play play with their

feet.

In its purest level, football's appeal

lies in its universality.

It's simple and accessible in a way that

most team sports are not. At any given

moment on pitches or beaches or strips

of concrete in any city of the world,

there are people of all shapes and

sizes, young and old, rich and poor,

kicking a ball around.

Passersby will often stop to watch,

silently hoping the ball runs out of

play so that they have a chance to kick

it back. All right. So, what Why this

thing about soccer? Why would Why did

you want to talk about it?

>> Because of what you just said, 6

[clears throat] billion people are

watching it.

>> Yeah.

>> Three-quarters of the population of the

Earth.

>> Yes.

>> I mean, think about that.

>> I mean,

there's nothing even within

a standard a order of magnitude within

that. I mean, I think I think I think

the the Super Bowl can get a billion

people. A couple things can get a

billion people, but nothing gets 6

billion like this.

>> if you added up nine Super Bowls, you

get one.

>> I think so. And here's the other thing.

So, we also live in There's so much I

wanted to talk about here about this. Uh

The other thing about it is when we grew

up, everybody watched The Jeffersons

show it

8:00 on Sunday night or 7:00 or whatever

time it was on. I don't remember. Right.

>> [clears throat]

>> Everybody watched MASH at the same time.

>> Yep.

>> So, we all had these shared experiences

where people and the next day you go to

school or I assume people go to work,

although we were too young. We weren't

going to work.

And they were talking about the show,

right, or what happened the night

before.

Everybody watched the same thing at the

same time. We had basically three

channels in this country.

So, everybody's watching the same thing.

It was a shared experience. We're all

doing it together. So, what happens now?

Now, somebody's watching something on

YouTube on their phone, somebody's

watching something on YouTube on their

computer, somebody's watching something

on, you know, another screen streaming

service, Netflix, Prime, Hulu.

Everybody's watching something different

at the same time. Nobody said The number

And even worse, people aren't going to

office like they used to. A lot of

people are work are still working some

degree remotely.

So, we don't have these shared

experiences anymore. And it's to the

detriment We've talked about this. It's

to the detriment of the society because

we as as we as I've talked about ad

nauseam

>> [laughter]

>> is that

in order for us to agree on a certain

certain set of rules and regulations, we

have to we have to have shared values.

And those shared values come from a

common purpose.

But there's no shared anything anymore

in a lot of ways. So, why should we

surprised that there's

a lot more instability in society than

there used to be. Now all of a sudden

comes the World Cup. 3 weeks, a little

over 3 weeks,

where everybody on the planet is

watching the same thing at the same time

and going through the same emotional

experiences. Now, what team A's, you

know, yesterday was and the other day

was Argentina was playing Cape Verde.

Cape Verde is about the size of a

postage stamp. It's off the coast of

West Africa.

500,000 people. Argentina is a big

country. They've won multiple World

Cups. They have the best player in the

world in Messi. So, this should have

been a slaughter.

6 6 6 billion people are watching.

>> And it wasn't a slaughter and Cape Verde

almost won.

So,

all the emotions that people go through

at that point. The Argentinians, of

course, are ready to commit seppuku,

ready to kill themselves. Oh my god,

we're going to lose to the the smallest

nation in the World Cup ever.

And of course, the Cape Verde team

people get very excited. But there's six

six billion people who are not

affiliated with either of these teams

more or less.

And they're going through the same dumb

and they're and they're watching this

phenomenon. So, what happened after

that? Everybody's talking about it.

Friends calling friends, family members

calling family, and neighbors talk to

neighbors.

You know, you can talk to people about

the World Cup in a supermarket now.

>> Remember this country is not

what we grew up with, right? Baseball

was the number one sport. It's probably

at best third now, right? Um

but we are now experiencing the same

thing as people did when the Yankees

when the Dodgers finally beat the

Yankees in the World Series and

everybody in the country watched it. Now

it's the whole world. So you talk about

bringing people together, when you see

people

sharing a common experience, something

happens. And what happens, in my view,

is that the sense that, "Hmm, maybe we

are all are all on the same team in some

degree. Maybe we all do have something

in common. Maybe we shouldn't be yelling

and screaming and shooting at each

other. Hmm, this is interesting, right?"

And so it opens up this possibility to

see the world from perspective. You

know, what do we talk about all the

time? We talk about the the aerial view,

a different perspective. Now people are

getting a different perspective. So you

see people coming together. Now here's

the other cool thing.

So we'll talk

let's stick with that cuz I've been I

want to hear hear your opinion of that.

>> Well, I feel you. I I I what Again, me,

I love sports, as you know. I I make no

bones about it. I love it. This is just

not a sport that I'm familiar with. I

don't understand it and I do I would

admit um

I find it boring. Okay, that's fine.

But what I find fascinating about this

whole notion of the World Cup is exactly

what you say. I I want to read something

to you that I just read this morning.

For those of you who are listening, I

just read the Sunday New York Times and

and something in it speaks to me and it

is this and it and it's um

I'll read it quickly because this is

what I find fascinating about the game.

It said, "Because this tournament is

being played in large part in the United

States with short forays into Canada and

Mexico, we're experiencing the twin

wonders of the United States of America

discovering soccer world

uh heal and um and discovering America

the soccer world discovering America in

a healing spirit of wide-open curiosity

and mutual respect.

What's fascinating that meant listen to

this seeing an estimated 22,000

Dutch fans clad in orange bouncing left

to right through downtown Kansas City,

Missouri behind a lot I mean this

they're coming to our country and

they're learning about us in a way they

never did. They're when the the Irish

going to Boston and drinking the It's

just fascinating

>> tell us for the Scottish by the way.

>> Yeah, Scottish. They're learning about

See, I didn't learn that They're

learning about us, we're learning about

them. I live in in in Alexandria,

Virginia and we're hosting in our hotel

the Croatian national team.

And everybody in this town now has

Croatian flags outside. Everybody is

excited.

They're learning about our culture,

we're learning about theirs. They're

eating the food that we unfortunately

eat and they're they're mesmerized by

it. They went to Katz's Deli and they're

eating, you know, kosher pastrami

sandwiches. It's a wonderful thing. It's

a melding of cultures. It's It's beyond

sports. That to me is the beauty of

sports and then I will give you this It

is the beauty of the World Cup. So, to

me

to me it's in this case it's not exactly

the sport, but what the sport means and

what it means to people and what now it

means to countries. This is to me is

wonderful. It's wonderful.

>> So, what I was going to say

uh I was going to go to that next

uh

>> So, I beat you to it.

>> No, no, I'm glad you did because it's a

natural segue. Yeah, so

people like you said, they're coming to

the people eating in a Waffle House,

right? You talked about a deli. People

eating in a They're amazed by our

supermarkets. They're amazed by our

restaurants. They're amazed by

by so many things. Of course,

uh some of them have most of them are

not going to get a chance to see the

greatest part of the United States in my

opinion, which are the our national

parks, the great the greatest treasure.

For those people who have not gone to

see our national parks, drop what you're

doing and start because they're the

they're the coolest part of the United

States. When I'm in When I'm abroad, I

always tell people don't go to the

American cities when you come here. Go

out to see our national parks."

But, meaning that that's so mad. But,

still, what you're talking about is

people who are in our cities, Kansas

City, Boston, New York, Dallas,

um Seattle, San Francisco, LA,

so they're they're seeing our cities and

they're seeing what America really is

and it is

almost uniformly positive. I've not read

a negative study where people from fans

from around the world said, "Oh my god,

I was mistreated. I had a terrible

experience. It was I can't believe this

is the worst country ever." I've not

heard one story and believe me, if the

Washington Post or New York Times could

find a story like that, they would,

right? No offense, but you know, they're

all There's always a They're always

trying to take a shot.

And nobody's written a story about this

because it's not happening. It's not

happening. People are enthralled by what

they're seeing and they see America in a

different light. You know, when they

just see the news, which is always

interpreted in any city and any country

by the people who are making these just

as it is here, there's no such thing as

pure news, then this they get a certain

sense of America, America the bully,

America the tyrannical, whatever, the

America the violent.

Well, they're in Washington, D.C. now,

and they're

you know, because a lot of them will

come and they'll stop and some of them

even though they'll go to the games, but

they'll also want to see some other

cities. They come to Washington, they

go, "Whoa,

this place is beautiful, right?" So,

and and the people are really nice and

everybody's welcoming and cuz Americans

are welcoming people. We are welcoming

people. I mean, I wouldn't go to, you

know, certain areas where, you know,

like South Side of Chicago where, you

know, people shot or I thought I saw in

Coney Island, Brooklyn where a bunch of

people were shot from a gang incident

yesterday. So, there we still have our

pockets, but generally speaking, what

they're seeing is pretty much real

America and they love it and I think

that is great. And so, this whole So,

this is why I wanted to talk about the

World Cup. It is very easy for us to

to lu- to get wrapped up in our own

individual worlds, our own individual

politics, our own individual points of

view. We don't do shared activities like

we used to. We don't watch Ed Sullivan

on Sunday night anymore like we did 50,

60 years ago.

You [snorts] know, and he and yet this

we're doing together. It is fantastic.

So, the two sides of this for me are

the the the together part. That's to me

the number one part. We are sharing an

experience. Not just Americans, the

whole world is sharing this experience,

right?

You know, I'll give you another example,

Mexico.

You know, Mexico has gets a bad rap for

a lot of reasons, you know, there's all

the the cartels and so on. But, they

suffer the same problem that we suffer

from, which is that that's only part of

the story.

Mexican culture is fantastic. The food's

incredible. The the scenery in parts of

Mexico is is magnificent, absolutely

magnificent. So, now people are getting

to see another part of Mexico. They're

seeing Mexicans in the stands at the

Azteca, which is their

biggest stadium in Mexico City, historic

stadium.

They look just like the fans in LA or

just like the fans in Toronto. All the

fans look the same, right? You can't

tell. You know, nobody's saying and and

whether they're from the Middle East or

Asia or North America or South America,

the fans really pretty much look the

same. I mean, you can tell they're from

a different culture, but they they're

acting like fans. They're doing the same

things. They're experiencing the same

emotions. This whole idea of the world,

three-quarters of the world is seeing

this. How great is it it it you know,

it's it's so under under not only

underreported, but underappreciated.

Three-quarters of the world is

experiencing the same thing at the same

time. And it's a good thing. It's not

like we're invaded by aliens and now

three-quarters of the of the planet is

fighting off bad guys some some some

other galaxy. No, we're celebrating a

game that even though you don't like it,

three-quarters of the world loves or

more probably, right? Um

and and just just to go back to the

beginning, you know, why is soccer so

popular? And you mentioned at the very

beginning and that article mentioned it.

You know, if you want to play hockey,

one of my grandsons play ice hockey and

you got to buy a ton of equipment. It's

expensive, right? You got you can't go

outside and play ice hockey, you need a

rink frozen. They live in Texas, it's

hot, right? So you got to it's expensive

to have a to operate a hockey rink. So

you need you can't unless you live in

Canada or Russia or some

or the Scandinavian countries where

during many months of the year you can

go out in your backyard and go onto a

pond or go onto a frozen lake or

something and play

a lot of places in this world, the

majority of places in the world, you

can't do that.

But you can take a soccer ball anywhere

in any country. And you can unless it's

unless the ground has 2 ft of snow on it

you can play and you can all you need is

a bunch of people and say bunch of kids

get together and go let's play. They

don't and they don't even need a net.

They the net they draw they take a piece

of chalk and draw a line on a wall,

that's the goal, right? Uh so you can

play it anywhere and it's super cheap.

All you need is a ball. So

so that's why soccer it became the world

sport. It's accessible to everybody. So

basketball has also become a very

popular international sport. Why? A ball

and a basket. Baskets are cheap, right?

That's all you need there. You know, you

don't really need a court, you need a

piece of you can play it on a dirt

driveway, just put a hoop up. So that's

why basketball has become popular as

well. It's it's also very inexpensive

and very accessible. But nothing touches

soccer. One piece of equipment, one

ball, that's it. Can be played anywhere

in the world.

Hey, as long as it's even if it's

pouring people you know, play they play

a lot of soccer games in the rain. So

that's the point. And and so

when you have the opportunity to take

advantage this is like an to me this is

like

the world cleverly taking advantage

of something that everybody does

and then bringing everybody together

through it. Now, I don't think that's

FIFA's goal.

You know, the FIFA is tends to be a kind

of a corrupt organization and it's

always about the money. But having said

that, uh the the end product is worth

it. So, you know, I don't know if you I

know you don't follow this, but there

were all these there's always some

controversy with FIFA, some uh uh

accusation of graft or corruption or

cheating or so on. And

on the way to the World Cup every 4

years, you'll read article after article

about FIFA and this and that and the

other thing. And then the game start.

>> Well, I'll tell you there there's

>> And then it's over.

>> There's a book called The Power and the

Glory, a new history of the World Cup.

And I just have a quote from it. The

competition survived its association

with Benito Mussolini's fascist regime

in Italy

in 1934 and with the Argentinian

military junta in 1978, and it will

survive the many indignities of Russia

2018, Qatar 2022, and whatever the next

few weeks might bring.

It will. And the world will be

captivated as it always is. And some of

us will feel like kids again, marveling

at Messi, Mbappe, Mbappe.

>> Mbappe. Mbappe.

>> That too. Jamal and the way we once were

marveled at Zico, Michel Platini, and

Maradona. Whatever else is happening,

however corrupted and exploited the

institution of the World Cup may become,

the magic goes on. And so yeah, I want

to talk to you about that. There is this

dark side of this sport and this World

Cup. And I read that, I think, "Hmm, I

mean the guy wrote a book, Jonathan

Wilson is his name, The Power and the

Glory." I mean, the history of the World

Cup

it's not been a very terrific history,

has it?

>> It's been a fan- No, no, it's been a

fantastic history marred by by by a

group of people doing what corrupt

people do.

>> So, that's the point. The point is that

all this goes on and and as soon Here's

another one, Qatar.

Now, Qatar hosted the World Cup 4 years

ago, and because it's in the Middle East

and it's hot, normally the World Cup is

in the summer, like it is here right

now. Usually June, July.

But, in Qatar, they moved it to the

winter. It was January, February, I

think.

Because it's too hot to play in Qatar in

the in the summer. So, how did Qatar

get the World Cup?

Yeah.

>> Well, anybody who's paid any attention

knows,

even though they haven't proven it, that

a lot of money passed through a lot of

hands to make this happen. I mean, it's

just it's just the way it is in the

world, right? Corruption. Here in the

United States, we don't have any

appreciation for what corruption is in

the world. It the corruption is a

killer. Corruption has destroyed and

keeps billions of people in poverty and

uh in living below the standard of

living and living in dangerous ways.

Corruption is

the most one of the most heinous things

on this planet. We don't appreciate it

here in the United States because we

don't Even though we have a little bit

compared to the rest of the world, it's

nothing compared to what we're talking

about. Yeah, we talk about Trump or

whatever, it's not even close. It's it's

not even in the same

We just don't have it here, fortunately.

Which is why a lot of people want to

come here. That Why do you think people

want to come to the United States? One

of the reasons is because they don't

have to deal with that, right? They

don't have to pay somebody off to be

able to open a business or to be able to

get a driver's license or whatever it

is. They don't have to do any of that

stuff here. So, that's one of the major

attractions of the United States. So,

getting back to the corruption part,

if In Qatar, when that thing occurred,

people go, "You're moving the World Cup

from the summer to the to the winter?"

And you have to understand why that's a

problem. Because the worldwide soccer

goes on from like October to May. So,

that's the season for worldwide soccer,

and there are leagues in every country,

So, what So, at the time of the World

Cup, and when and the leagues end

generally in May and then they take the

summer off and they reconvene in

sometime in August, more or less, right?

So, now you you're going to interrupt

all these seasons, the Premier League in

England, the Serie A in in in Italy, La

Liga in

in Spain, Bundesliga in in Germany.

These are usually these are equivalent

to like the NBA or the

NHL here in our country. These are big

leagues. You're telling them you have to

stop your league for a month

or more

to have the World Cup.

>> Hm.

>> So,

how many people you think wanted to do

that? So, how did that happen? Clearly

there was some kind of corruption. I

mean, I can't prove it to you, but I

mean, it's pretty well accepted, right?

Having So, in the run-up to that World

Cup, there were I had I I was talking

about how the Qataris were bringing in

slave laborers, paying them nothing in

the heat to build these stadiums. There

was a tremendous amount of press on

this, negative press, all negative.

>> And then the game started and that was

the end of that. After that it was just

Messi winning the World Cup and Mbappé

and France and Argentina in the final

and

all the things that led up during the

opening rounds and so on. That's all

anybody talked about. Nobody, once that

first ball was dropped, talked it was

kicked, talked for a second about the

corruption leading up to it. Because the

World Cup is is it because you have 6

billion people to whom it means an awful

lot and they're willing to just ignore

all that to get to this part, to get to

be able to root for their teams, to see

their heroes. In this particular World

Cup, you have Messi who's in his final

World Cup, who's got the most goals. You

have Mbappé who's a young much younger

guy, he's in his 20s, things like

mid-late 20s.

You have who's playing fantastically

well. You have Ronaldo who's 41, over

41, who was one of the greatest players

ever playing for Portugal.

You have Harry Kane playing for England,

their superstar goal scorer. So, all

these stars, the stars are coming out,

right? It's like the It's like the

Oscars. All the stars are coming out and

they're performing and people are going

crazy and they just they live through

this. You know, a lot of people's lives

are not so easy. They're they're they're

full of turmoil and and and difficulties

and challenges around the world, right?

We have it easy here, but it's certainly

around the world not everybody does, but

here they can just forget about it and

watch Messi work his magic or whatever

team you're rooting for have a Cape

Verde almost, you know, David almost

take down Goliath. It's fantastic

theater. And the games, here's the crazy

part, so many games have been decided in

the last seconds. It's insane what's

gone on.

And it's just so exciting. And again,

the most important part is

that we're all sharing it together.

Everybody's seeing this at the exact

same moment. It's fantastic. So, it

gives you hope. It's one reason to have

hope that yeah, we are all the same. We

know we do want the same things. We do

enjoy the same things. We We have the

same emotions. It It It This is not Now,

will last? No, it won't last too long.

But even for this one period we should

be grateful to have this period where

we're where we can celebrate and and

share together.

>> Let me take a U-turn for a second here.

I'm thinking about something we all

share, an emotion we all want to Not

all, but we want to share emotions. We

want to be part of something bigger than

ourselves.

And I'm I'm going to some maybe

something ridiculous, but it happened

this weekend as well. Besides the 4th of

July and besides the World Cup, a

marriage between two celebrities. It

took over not only the United States,

the world. People came from all over the

world to New York City to stand outside

in the sweltering heat at stand outside

Madison Square Garden to look at a

building

to see people get married. They're not

going to see the marriage. Of course,

you filmed it. You'll probably have a

movie of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce.

And why do I bring this up? Not because

I cared about it, cuz I didn't. Except

that it was about people sharing

something.

A common whatever it was. It wasn't the

World Cup. It was these two people that

people, for whatever reason, look up to,

whatever. And and maybe

with good reason, cuz I think Taylor

Swift's pretty darn good person. But I

think we are looking for something more,

something outside of ourselves,

something in common that we can share

together. Seriously, they stood in 102

heat

to stare at a building, cuz they weren't

going to see the the participants, they

weren't going to see Taylor and Travis.

But they were there sharing something in

common. And that's what we have at the

World Cup. Clearly, they're not 6

billion people looking for this wedding,

but it's been all over the news all over

the world. It's something that people

want to do. We want to share something.

And maybe what we want to share is a

common value of goodness, of hope, of

charity.

I don't know what it is, but it made me

think, you know what? Why not? You want

to You want to care about this silly

wedding? Good. That's good. It's

something we all Not all, but some

millions of people

wanted to see these two people get

married.

Something in common.

>> Well, yeah, but I think it's I think you

hit the nail on the head. What is it

about it? Well, it's

you see two people who have fallen in

love.

Two very famous people. Probably Taylor

Swift is one of the most famous people

on the planet.

>> Falling in love. Well, what emotion do

people want more than that? I mean,

anybody who's ever fallen in love

during that period, it's magical, right?

And so people say, "Okay, there is magic

in this world. There is love in this

world." You know, I you know, Taylor

Swift. So, I look at you know, I

you know, clearly I've never met Taylor

Swift, but I do have Taylor Swift songs

on my on my phone. I have listened to

Taylor Swift. And what I'm what

uh what impresses me is, you know, you

know I play music. You know, she has

written all her own songs. She writes

all her own words. She's very talented.

Like the songs or not, it doesn't

matter. She's done all this. She's

written a billion songs.

She's a performer. She's unbelievably

talented, and she did it all herself.

She came from nothing in the sense that

she didn't come from a

a family of artists or of Hollywood

types and or famous musicians. She did

it herself. She built the whole thing

herself. I mean, this is America.

That's the American story, right?

Really. She showed you how to do it.

Now, she works like a dog. And then what

did they do? They gave away like $28

million in honor of her wedding.

>> Yeah, right. I mean, great. And, you

know, people the people will say, "Oh,

of course they did." Well, cuz you know,

want to look good, but you know, but she

didn't have to do that. But, she has a

billion dollars. Okay, she still didn't

have to do it, right? They didn't have

to do that. They did it cuz cuz they're

they're trying to make a statement that

that this is the world we live in. We

need to take care of each other as best

we can. Let's celebrate. It's this whole

thing I I'm glad you brought that up cuz

the whole thing, the July 4th weekend,

the 250th anniversary, which by the way,

I want to we'll talk about that for one

for a second. The World Cup, all this is

the same thing. It's a shared

experience, just what you said. That's

what people want. We talk about this

time, this connection among humanity.

We're all part of the same story. This

is pure aerial view stuff, by the way.

If you're in the aerial view, none of

this surprises you. Everything is

obvious. This is exactly where it should

be. And, you know, then then when we get

this this distracts us from the

stupidity of our politics, not just the

politics of the United States, but all

over the world. It's the same story all

over the world. And we recognize this is

what we need. We need shared values.

Shared values, you get that's how you

agree on a set of rules and regulations.

That's how you have a stable society.

That's where people prosper. And what

we're seeing now, even in our politics,

is this undermining and I don't want to

get into which side is worse, but this

undermining of this shared experience.

And what the World Cup and what July 4th

is telling us and what the wedding of of

Taylor and Travis telling us is that

want shared experience. They covet

shared experience. They they adore

shared experiences cuz it brings us

together and that's what people want.

And those who divide us

are unfortunately incredibly successful.

Uh and it takes something like a World

Cup or one of the events this weekend to

overcome that that um

smallness, that meanness to to get us to

where we are right now.

>> Yeah, and a couple of podcasts ago we

talked about the difference between

happiness and joy. And I think it's

reflective here.

What we saw with all these events, the

the 4th of July, the World Cup, the

wedding,

was pure joy. People were happy. Beyond

happy. They were joyful. And I think

that's what we strive for.

>> And what do we talk about where does joy

come from?

That the joy comes from the shared

the connection. It comes from something

much deeper than just happiness, right?

Joy is something different. And that's

what we're seeing, right? That's what

we're experiencing. So, this World Cup,

I'm not surprised ever since I was

I don't know. I mean, I I didn't watch

the World Cup we didn't have the

opportunity to watch it a lot when we

were very young, but I would say for the

last 30 years I've watched the World Cup

religiously. I try and watch as many

games as I can. I love the World Cup. Do

I watch soccer? Do I watch the Premier

League uh on Sunday mornings? You know,

yes, no. You know, I I coached my son's

soccer team one of my son's soccer teams

for many years. You know, it was it was

a joke cuz it was amateur hour. I didn't

know what I was doing, but they were

little kids and they needed a parent to

do it. And I did it. I had I loved it,

right? I didn't know what I was doing.

So, I'm not like a huge soccer fan, but

this I love. I think And it was the same

reason I always loved the World Series.

The World Series everybody's watching at

the same time. So, when we were growing

up it was baseball. Baseball was

absolutely number one. And everybody

watched it at the same time. These

shared experiences, these shared moments

when the Beatles were on the Ed Sullivan

Show. Things that the whole country

watched at the same time. This is what

we need more of. And that's why the

World Cup, especially in this country,

has been an absolutely beautiful thing.

I don't think it can be overhyped or

overstated. It has brought It truly has

brought the world together. As you said,

it's let people see the best of America,

which is really what America is, right?

America, good people by and large,

right? We're mostly good people who want

to help each other, who care, right? So,

this has been a magic a magical And I

think July 4th, I'm sorry that some

groups decided not to participate

aggressively in these July 4th

celebrations, the 250th anniversary.

That was a big mistake.

Because people what you say to people

is, "No, I want us to be divided." No.

Everybody from every political party

should have participated equally and

made this the biggest thing that they

could because that's what people craved,

the togetherness. Instead, it's July 4th

and all our different factions coming

together, the World Cup did it for us.

And also, Taylor and Travis's wedding.

>> That's right. I know, I was invited. I

didn't go. I was busy, but you know

>> You told me that cuz you wanted somebody

You wanted to give your place up for

somebody else.

>> I did. I gave it up for Adam Sandler who

could you know, he was the officiant and

I They asked me but I you know. I see

we've run out of time and I've run out

of excuses. I want to end with something

that I read in The Athletic which is a

wonderful

now owned by the New York Times.

It's about the World Cup.

The raw emotions and moments of shared

experiences which can be so hard to find

in a fractured society

is replicated all over the world

bringing families, communities, and

entire nations together uniting them in

hope,

joy, and of course,

despair.

Cuz guess what? Somebody's going to

lose. Anyway, I thank you for bringing

up this subject because um

it's important. It really is.

>> Well, you were a little skeptical. You

were a little skeptical, but

>> like this Yes, but

>> But you I think you appreciate what this

really has done, anyway.

>> It does. I did a deep dive into the the

sport of soccer. So, thank you.

>> over today and we'll watch a couple of

[music] games together.

>> I'm sorry, there's a baseball game on

one, and I will be in front of my

television watching baseball, thank you.

>> All right. Well, anyway, thank you

everybody for listening, and we'll see

you next time.

>> Peace. [music]