What is why? What is happening? Right. Let's talk about the Colts, man. Look, I want the Colts to be good, but you got to protect against apathy with this fan base. This makes you want to throw up with the fever.
I love your path, James. You're the man. This is LeBron James and that's the standard I kind of hold you to cuz you're the Olympic teammate of him. The Anthony Richardson tap out was crazy. I got the job and my dad just lost it. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you are, however you may be listening.
Thanks for tuning in to the Get Indiana Podcast Network. My name is Dominic Miranda and I've been covering sports for nearly a decade. Most of which right here in Indianapolis. This is the Get In Sports podcast. We're going to be covering everything in the Hooser State. High school, college, pro, in the sports capital of the universe in the greatest state on planet Earth.
Thanks so much for coming on this journey with us. Let's get into it. Joining us on this episode of Get In Sports, a man who's all over the place. I think I'm all over the place. This man's all over the place. All right.
Breaking news in more places than we can keep count. Currently a staff writer for the Athletic covering the Indianapolis Colts and the Indiana Fever among other things in our great city of Indie. A man you can most certainly hear in the mornings on the Fan Morning Show 1075 the fan. The Romeoville kid himself, James Boyd. Welcome to the show, man. Thanks for being here.
Yeah, this is dope, man. Pretty cool setup. A unique setting for both you and I because I feel like we always see each other at work. So, this is like work adjacent, which is cool. It It is cool, man. It was just such an easy ask for you.
We already had Kevin Bowen on. We got Tony East on. You were the next in the progression of just guys who are, you know, working their butts off. And, you know, this summer, uh, I really wanted to make it a point while I was kind of downtime. I know you do a lot of the Fever stuff, too. But, as we continue growing, get in sports and get the word out about it.
I've had the good fortune of running into a lot of people like you over the past three plus years. The Indianapolis sports media like beat Colts Pacers Fever. Awesome people. I just want everyone to realize that and they do an awesome job at what they do and they're all on the these paths to get to where they are super unique and I think that's awesome and I that's why I thought of you because you've just worked your your butt off to get to where you are and you have a really interesting story. So I want to just start there. I mean you have in the in the social media handle Romeoville Kid.
All right. That you obviously take a lot of pride in where you're from. Like where did it begin for you? your love of sports writing, sports media, just sports in general. Yeah. So, I'll start with the Twitter name, Instagram name, whatever it is now.
I guess it's part of like the brand. But I made my Twitter name as a joke when I was in college because everyone from Romeoville says they're from Chicago, which is like 45 minutes away. It's not really that close to Chicago. So, to not try to act like I'm some tough guy, I didn't come from a rough area. I had a nice suburban life. Everything's sort of white picket fence.
Yeah. I made my Twitter name as that. And then it kind of just stuck as I got into the media space. So I really didn't know um what I wanted to do growing up. I graduated high school, knew I was going to college, came into it majoring in communications and didn't take my first journalism class, I don't think, until maybe my sophomore year, junior year, because I was forced to. And that's kind of what piqued my interest.
So I want to say maybe like my junior year of college when I took sports writing, all that kind of serious. Actually, my teacher, she lives in Westfield now, Jennifer Fles, which is I know so like serendipitous. She told me after I kept bugging her after every single class, journalism 100, she was like, "James, I love you, but go refer the student newspaper. You kind of get on my nerves a little bit." Um, but it setting it in a loving way and that kind of set me on my path to sports writing. I knew I always loved sports, wanted to be around it, wasn't really sure how to do it, but I figured, okay, if I can remember where the commas go, where the periods go, I might be okay here, and I don't have to get a real job.
So, my parents were very supportive of it. I know some people are like, man, how'd you go to Illinois, which is a big engineering school and not majoring in engineering, not going to like, you know, something in STEM. They were just like, hey, you if you get this degree, you won't starve. You'll be able to, you know, sustain your life, but go for the dream first. And so that's how I got started into sports writing and it kind of took off from there. Go for the dream first, man.
And a a supportive system, a supportive support system is so important, right? For sure. And for them to tell you like it's all right. Like if you screw up, you screw up. It doesn't matter. Like go do it.
See what happens. And obviously paid dividends for you, sir. You talked about University of Illinois. I've been to Champagne. There's not a lot going on there. But I really do love the campus.
The campus is sweet. All right. Like it's like over here silo over here State Farm Arena. It's kind of cool. But uh obviously got a chance to cover the Alii like you kind of mentioned it there. That's kind of where this this love and this really want to passion for this industry kind of bloomed.
Uh how was that experience in college and how did it prepare you for where you are now? I would say a lot of it has to do with just getting the reps in and by going to a bigger school you by default are going to get attention even if they're not good. Because when I was in school, Illinois football, which I know they got beat down by the Hooers and I had to eat a lot of crow when I was talking my trash before that game. But in all seriousness, they were awful when I was in school. Love Smith was the coach there for a little bit. And even in men's basketball, they were pretty bad because Brad Underwood's first year was my senior year of college when he was kind of building this thing up to what it is now with the recent final four run.
So, all of that to say, when I was in school, I had a chance to write for our student newspaper. Um, work my way up from there. My first beat ever was men's gymnastics at the University of Illinois. And so, that will humble you. You think you love sports, you're going to come in there and write about football and basketball. I know.
And so, I had a really good relationship with the men's gymnastics coach. Only coach I think I'm Facebook friends with is Justin Spring. He's probably moved on since then, but he was a good dude and it allowed me to grow really and get the reps in and mess up and make mistakes, learn how to interview, learn how to write feature stories, learn how to hit deadline. And as I continue to do that, I graduated to being able to cover men's basketball my senior year of college and then I got an internship with the Associated Press. I was horrible Dom to start. I was in over my head because with AP everything is quick.
They want 300 words literally as the game ends. And I was not good at that to start off. I was pretty pretty rough to begin my career with that. But that was a person who also got paid to write and they were working with me. I had some great editors that were um very nice and gracious with their time and they were able to work with me to kind of get up a level and and really understand, okay, this is what it means not to just be at the student newspaper, but to be in every paper because AP, I mean, that's a story that appears in the ESPN app and things like that. So, it wasn't always easy.
It was really really hard actually to start off but I got better at it and I think that obviously having the AP on your resume helps a ton and you know another I had a couple full circle moments or a few but my editor now on the women's side women's basketball Shannon Ryan when I was in college she was the Chicago Tribune Illinois reporter so she would drive down every weekend for football and stuff like that. I had editor when I first started off that was really mean to me honestly he was not a nice person. He was very talented, knew what he was doing, but I just don't think he really had like the patience for where I was. And I'm not going to sit here and say I was great. I was not. I was really, really raw.
But I remember by fire. Oh, dude. Seriously, I remember going over some story ideas. He crushed them all. And as I I was going to quit. I was like, you know what?
I'm gonna I'm not going to spend my Saturday watching bad football and being told I can't do this. I'm going to just do something else. And as I was leaving the press box that day, I think actually Illinois might have played Ball State or something like that. And Shannon overheard our conversation with my editor and she came in over to me as I was leaving little old sad James head down and she's like, "Hey, by the way, that that idea that you pitched that you know this guy shot down, I'm going to use that same angle in the Chicago Tribune today." Gave me her number, told me, "Hey, if you need anything, let me know." Kind of became one of my mentors.
M and long story short, when she couldn't make it to one of the games for whatever reason, they ended up pulling my AP story, this was several weeks later, and putting it in the Chicago Tribune. And she took a picture of it and sent it to me. She was like, "See, you're figuring out, you're doing it." And so, she kind of talked me off the ledge. And so, it's crazy now that every fever story that I write, she's the one looking at it, editing it, and we're collaborating all these years later. Yeah, man.
That is so cool. Freaking crazy. It it just goes to show I mean there are in this business there's not a lot of time for patience. It's unfortunate to say it's pressure- packed but for someone who is doing it at a level of the Chicago Tribune to be kind to you to tell you look keep going. You got this. I mean you were what a junior in college.
Yeah. I was a nobody man. Like she didn't have to stop for me. She was already on her way to having a great career and and to do that and like it and helped you keep going and look at where you are now. so important to and and James, it's so obvious that you show that same kindness to people in this industry and like it's just I just think that's awesome and then for full circle for her to be with you now and I mean everybody nobody has it figured out but to have AP on your resume that early on in your career and to learn and just learn the ropes yet you're not going to be perfect and that's okay. But I just think that that just goes to show that it's kind of like riding with your left hand.
You mentioned men's gymnastics. You have to do the stuff you need to do before you can do the stuff you want to. Exactly. And if you can do master that and make it interesting and master the left hand, then look at you now. Men's basketball, women's basketball, football, all the all the big time sports. That what a story that I just love that.
That's awesome. Okay, so obviously that prepared you for post college. You get your first taste of the Hooser State. All right, the region, baby. for nearly three years you landed monster at the times of Northwest Indiana. What was that experience like?
That was uh your first lengthy time in the state of Indiana. So what you what' you think? Yeah. So I knew nothing about Indiana, which is crazy to say now because I've lived here for almost 5 years. I've worked in the state for almost eight years. And it's to the point now where people think that I'm from here, which I think is kind of a compliment because I do like Indiana.
I do love Indiana and where I'm based now. But graduating college, you know how it is. Dime. You're just looking for jobs. I applied to probably 35, 40 places, like you said, any job in sports. And another quick story.
I actually got interviewed for NBC Sports Chicago. And I thought, okay, man, like being a Chicago area kid, I'm going to be working with like David Kaplan, all these people like legends and stuff like that. Absolutely. I got a chance to go in and see the studio. I did five interviews for this job. Five.
Five. And you know the last one they're talking about insurance packages and stuff. I'm like, "I got this in a bag." Oh, absolutely. And you know, I was like, "All right." So, I finished that interview up.
They had a pair of Nike Jordan 1. Jordan 1 top three. If you know what that is, it's very expensive shoe. I I'll just say it now because it doesn't matter. But I paid 275 for these shoes. Most expensive pair of shoes I ever bought in my life.
That was back before I had like bills. I still live at home and parents. I didn't have to worry about all this stuff. So, I was like, "Okay, I'm going to reward myself." like, you know, went through the college grind. I've done the summer grind.
I've applied. I'm going to get this job. Like, you know, these shoes are probably going to like not be available in a couple days. Let me just get them now. Bought the shoes. And didn't get the job.
Oh my god. I didn't get the job. They called me and said they were going with a different candidate. Crushed my freaking heart, honestly. So, I'd start all back over and I was like, man, I got to go back to, you know, these shoes are nice, but I got to go back to ground one with reapplying to a bunch of different places. And long story short, the only other place I got a call back from was the Times of Northwest Indiana as a high school sports reporter.
Went on interview with them, got the job. And honestly, looking back on it, Dom, I don't know if it was like divine intervention. God was just looking out or something like that, but it was more of what I wanted to do anyway because at NBC Sports Chicago, I would have been more like a trending news kind of reporter sitting at a desk all day reacting to people like you on the ground doing the actual work. Whereas with the high school sports, was it as glamorous as the name? No. Like no one in my family knew where it was or what it meant to be in the region or 219 or whatever, North Indiana, but I learned to love it and embrace it because up there they don't really have a lot of prominent colleges.
They have Valpo and a couple others, but their thing is high school sports. So being the high school sports reporter meant something. I was taking over for some guys that had been there for quite some time. I was the new kid on the block. Um the new young black kid on the block, honestly. And so a lot of that was different too.
And it was really cool to kind of immerse myself in the community and just try to treat it as if the job was and I always said it funny enough treat it like it's a New York Times and now I work for the New York Times. So my editors are great back then. I'm still in contact with them to this day. A lot of them are like family to me and they help me kind of build my resume up, build my voice up and just again get the reps in, make mistakes and um because of that, I think I have a huge second family in Northwest Indiana from all the kids that I cover that are now adults graduating college and things like that. The region sticks together. They take care of their own.
And I like that they're like the underdog part of the state, so to speak. They got an edge to them. Yeah. And so I feel like I'm I don't know. I go back and forth. Like I love central Indiana, but my heart will probably always be with the region cuz they gave me my first shot and I'm always going to be loyal to the place that gave me my first shot.
100%. Man, that is so awesome. I mean to wrap your head around possibly NBC Sports Chicago and I mean when we're talking 2018, talking heyday, David Kaplan, like you said, that dude is the man. And NBC Sports Chicago is the dream for a lot of people. Oh yeah. To have that.
I mean, five interviews, I think I have it locked up, too. I didn't get it. We're talking insurance. Talking insurance. we're ready to rock like oh that but to use that adversity and like you said man when you have faith things seemed to work out and and like they should right like there's no question about it like when I started in Teroot I thought I should be in Indie right away but it's because of that experience in Terote and because of my other experiences that when I finally did get to Indie I was ready for sure they allow you to make mistakes they're not going to fire you because you screw up on air you you can just get those reps and it's so important those reps so even owes $24,000 a year. All right, we made it.
We made it work and it was 100% worth it. And it sounds like that's what it was for you in the region, man. In high school sports in Indiana, it's it's important. Yeah. I think I mean like that that's what I love about this place. Exactly.
And that's why I still see you all the time. Even when I'm not working, I'm usually at a game that you're covering for WTR. And so I think there's just a lot of uh mutual respect between those who grew up here and those who learn to embrace it and learn to you know embrace what it means to be a hooer to uh understand that at least on the basketball side of things it's 49 different states you know it's just basketball here and I I thought it was like cliche but then I go to some of these big like crazy games and I'm like yo it is kind of different here and the gyms I think the facilities are probably what set it off for me going to Newcastle every year I've been to a lot of the bigger gyms, Michigan City and others. And so I've learned to really embrace the culture. And also being an adult and kind of getting older and more mature, it's like being from Romeoville, which I'm very proud of, you want to not lose that, but you also don't want to be so stubborn to where you're from where you never really expand your perspective on like what could be.
Like even the 500, I wasn't a driving racing dude ever in my life. But okay, if 300,000 plus people are going here every year, it must be something that I can enjoy or take away from this experience. I might not be the most diehard fan, but I can understand why it's appreciated by others. And I think when I was younger, it was always like, nah, that's I'm too cool for that. Even when I moved here, I was so focused on just the Pacers. I knew nothing about the Colts, nothing about the fever really.
And so I started, you know, forcing myself to just experience what everyone else was because I was like, you why am I being left out when I literally live right in the middle of the state? So, I've learned to have fun with it. And I think others appreciate it, too, when you're not from here, but you're willing to at least see where others are coming from, what makes it special. I think that's why people embrace you, James, cuz you've embraced what makes Indiana special and what are what is important to people here. Like you said, you don't have to be a gearhead and understand, you know, Joseph Newton's path to where he got today, but can you appreciate why people love the Indianapolis 500? Absolutely.
And can you love it and have a great time? And look at you now. you hosting a show in the morning of carve day. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like you got people telling me, "Oh man, like you know, we appreciate listening to you guys coming in every morning.
I got to deal with this on my job and you guys kind of give me that, you know, comedic relief." And and again, not pretending like I think when people are you're authentic about it. Hey, I'm going to the 500. This is my second year going this past year. What should I do? Hey, I missed this the first time.
What should I wear? Hey, what should I go and eat? And I think a lot of people love to tell you what to do and you know give you some perspective, but it's one of those things too where like if you don't fake it and you're honest about it, a lot of people will embrace you for it. And u I think that's why again I get confused sometimes of being from here and it's like well at this point I'll take it. Authenticity, it gets you a long way, James. That's why we love you.
All right. So, the Times of Northwest Indiana gives James Boyd his shot and uh I would assume they were very happy that they did because not only did it work out for you, but man, they can say, "Yeah, we uh we saw his talent before everybody else." But after that stop in Monster uh you were there for what almost three years. Okay. So, and now we're maybe going back home uh to where we went to college, Champagne, Herald, and Review. But you weren't there that long and the indie star comes calling.
So I want to know how that all transpired. So and this goes back to the work and understanding especially when I tell younger reporters this, those who are in college or aspired to do what we do full-time, Dom, you never know who's watching because the guy who hired me at Indie Star had been following my work as a high school reporter in Northwest Indiana and I didn't even know about it. I was just doing the work, kind of promote myself. And y'all thought I'd be your biggest cheerleader. I shared everything on I don't do it as much now, but I posted every story on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, everywhere I could to put myself out there. And I was tagging all the kids, tagging all the coaches, tagging all the programs, and trying to just create this buzz to the point where, you know, it's undeniable that my voice kind of matters in this part of the state, in this part of high school sports.
So did that, you know, got the reps in there and got hired to go back down to where I went to school in Champagne for the Herald interview in Indicator. Uh never went to my office very much because indicator but I was based in Champagne and for those who not familiar with central Illinois. It's like an hour apart but Oh jeez. Yeah. Yeah. It was kind of unique setup but a great opportunity and again I thought hey that's a logical step.
I was with the same company. They promoted me. They created this new position for me. Go back to school. think I was going to be there forever or at least for the next couple of years. And the guy who had been following my uh high school work in Northwest Indiana, he called me for the first time and was like, "Hey, our Hoosiers job opened up to be the, you know, IU reporter.
Do you want to come work for us?" And I was like, "Ah, you know, to me it was kind of like a lateral movement type of job. Like it's the same level. I'd rather stay with the school that I went to, closer to home, things like that." College reporter, college reporter. Exactly.
And then he told me, "Well, one day I'm going to hire you." And so the Pacers job opens up. He hits me back up. And this wasn't like a guarantee. He was like, "Hey, are you interested in this? I know you love basketball.
I've seen your work. You know, you're pretty young. I don't know if you're going to get it, but we it is open if you want to get give it a shot to apply." I applied. Remember coming down here, doing the interview, and then going back that same night to cover a high school game because I was like, "Hey, you know, bills got to get paid. I still got to get these experiences, these stories in for my regular job right now."
and ended up getting it which was unbelievable. I just didn't expect that because 20 what? 25 I think at the time. Gracious. And so yeah, my dad, you know, Father's Day just passed. He acts like he's a tough guy.
He ain't that tough, you know. He he got some softness in him for for his kids. I have a twin sister. He's proud of us, a mom as well. But I remember getting the call to get offered the job. And I remember being at my grandma's house.
We're all over there for something. I don't know if it was a holiday or a Sunday or whatever, but grandma's house is where we all hang out when I was growing up. And uh get off the phone call, she's on the back porch and I tell her, I was like, "Grandma, like you know, just between us, she's like my best friend." I was like, "I got this job. Like, I'm going to take this job. I'm going to work in the NBA."
And she was all happy. I was like, "Don't tell anybody." And so I let them, you know, have the rest of their night. And so we go home to Romeoville. And because my grandma lives in Chicago and I remember uh, you know, getting home and I told my family, I said, "I got something I want to tell you guys." And my dad was actually he had gone to sleep.
I go and wake him up. I said, "Hey, man." And I knew he wasn't going to get up if I didn't make it seem like it was urgent. I said, "I got something going on with my car, man." Like, he's like a big car dude. I'm like, "Man, my car is acting kind of funny.
Like, I need you to come out. Come downstairs." So, he comes downstairs. He starts putting like his shoes on. They knew I had to interview for the job. And so, I I just I told him, "Hey, hold up, hold up."
I said, "I got the job." And my dad just lost it. Like my mom my sister ran and jumped in my arms. And I'm like, "Girl, you was you grown like me. What the heck are you doing?" So I caught her.
My mom's jaw was on the floor. My dad, who again, tough dude. He just started crying and was just running around the house like, "Thank you, Jesus." Like, "Thank you, Jesus." He was so happy for me because I think for him that was like, and for all of us really, it was like, "You really made it. Like, you're going to you're going to work with all these people you dreamed of seeing on TV or, you know, playing against.
I'm like, I'm not going to play against LeBron, but I might be able to talk to him one day." And so you look up from that moment to this one. It's like, yeah, I have had a chance to be in the same room as some of the greatest players ever. Ask LeBron a question, Steph Curry, and now it's Caitlyn Clark, and I remember being in an All-Star weekend party for the WNBA, and Lisa Leslie walked by and it's like, what the heck? That's Lisa Leslie. So having those experiences, man, um was really, really cool.
But that's how I got, you know, long story short, to Indiana was the Pacers job, moved down here in 2021 and started maybe like a month into the season. got pretty tight with Rick Carile. He was always great to me. Um, straight shooter. He wasn't always easy to cover, which was good. But again, that's why those reps matter because you're more prepared for the bigger stage.
Yeah. Cover them when they're bad and then when they're good and they respect. I was there for the Hallebertton trade though. So, as much as you want to tell me I was like the bad luck charm cuz those teams were so bad that I was covering. Look, man. Tyrese came when I was there.
That's all I'm saying. All right. You're good luck, man. I gotta tell you that that gets me emotional just because we talked about the support system and how much that means. I mean, I'm I'm a big faith guy. I'm a big tell my family everything type guy.
And like the joy that your hard work paying off gave your family and then to feel that love back. Oh, absolutely. I that's that's just the stuff, man. Like that's what it's all about. I'll say this real quick and especially with my dad, man, we're pretty bonded because he's always been black and white. Like you can never really have a gray area with my dad.
He's I'm with you or against you, up, down, right, left. Like you knew where he stood at all times. But one of the things that he always did for me and my sister was dream. And we were not really allowed to not think recklessly or believe we could do anything. And so, yeah, I always wanted to be in the NBA or play. And he would tell me I could do it.
But when it became more of the journalism thing, he was always like, "Well, you see everybody else on TV, they had to start somewhere. So why can't that be you?" And so I tell this story all the time where this little saying I could tell my dad I'm going to the moon tomorrow and all he would ever do is ask for a photo when I get there. That's it or send a postcard back. Like he will never doubt my dreams or what I wanted to do. And so having that validation I think it helps along the way.
Not in an arrogant way but to always kind of have that belief of like okay I might not get there tomorrow but there is a pathway for this dream to kind of happen. So now having these experiences, going overseas to cover Colts games and stuff like that, meeting all these great athletes and being in the same room as billionaires and stuff like that, it's humbling, but it's also in my mind exactly what I'm supposed to be doing because I was told for so long just to dream, go for it. And his his thing was like if you if it doesn't work out, at least you went for it, right? And to him it was always like don't be a coward about it. Like if you're scared of failure, you're never going to do anything. Like fail, mess up, go for it if it work.
But then he was like, but what if they say yes? That's always he always like what if they say yes what if you get that one yes it changes your life and yeah life has been changed pretty uh crazily in the last five six years I would say that is so awesome it's just the support is everything it just makes in belief it just makes you feel like you can do anything and then when it pays off you're like wow you don't need to know every step right now today but you you can do the next step and then the next thing and just do the work in at the times of northwest Indiana and then here you are at the age of 25 in Indianapolis apolis, a huge market covering an NBA team at a very well-renowned paper in the Indianapolis Star. Did that feel like your big break? It had to. Oh, absolutely. I mean, the first time and just growing up, my parents did a great job.
Like I said, I don't have no sob story. There is no tears to really be shed. I had everything I ever wanted pretty much growing up. But the one thing we didn't really do as a family was travel. Like we, you know, took road trips. Typical Midwesterners.
Well, we didn't fly a lot. So, even just figuring out, and this is just a true story, I didn't know. I don't think I've ever said this on a podcast. I didn't know that you could leave your car at the airport. So, you had to get a taxi or something. Like, I was freaking out.
Like, when I got the job and I started like booking my travel, like remember asking might have been Tony like, "Where do I leave my car? Like, when I go on these road trips and he's like at the airport, the parking lot." Yeah. And I'm like, but again, I probably before I got the Pacers job, I had probably been on a plane maybe three or four times in my life and maybe once as an adult before getting that Pacers job. And so now, you know, I've flown all the time. I got all these points and I'm used to it.
I'm one of those people that can go go to sleep in three minutes on a plane or whatever. But before that, I'm the guy, you know, hey, you know, what can we bring on in our carry-on and what's travel size and things like that. And so you got three full water bottles. No, seriously. I remember bringing like a bottle of lotion one time. They're like, "You can't read the whole thing, dude."
Like, so yeah, a lot of rookie mistakes that I I've I've made along the way and learned along the way. But again, it was just a good perspective for me. I think traveling, not just for the job, but for life, it expands your perspective. As you know, different foods, different cultures, different people, um, different accents, things like that that helps you become a more well-rounded person. And so, I've been very appreciative of that throughout the years. That's awesome.
What were your first impressions of Indianapolis covering a a franchise like the Pacers? It's a lot of heartbreak, heartache. Reggie Miller, can't can't get over the hump. Then Rick Carile comes in. Like, how was that for you? I think Indian in particular, what was your first impressions of Indianapolis?
I would say when I when I cuz I I came a few times before. Um, funny enough, the first time I ever came to Indianapolis was for an award ceremony in college. I won some award for some story, third place in like the I think it's like the professional sports journalists or journalist society. There's a million of these things. Um I think it's SPJ, but came down there for that and we got there an hour late cuz we didn't know there was a time change from Champagne to Indianapolis. So that lets you know again that had never been here before.
But moving here, I think when I wasn't living here, the downtown area seemed so much bigger. Yeah. And then when I moved here, I learned to because I stay about 10 minutes outside of downtown to really embrace and love how logistically everything makes sense, right? Yeah. And so very walkable, very easy. And so from a sports fans perspective, my first impressions were, "Oh, dang."
Like the basketball arena is a 15-minute walk from the football stadium, which is also a 10-minute walk from the minor league baseball and also from all the food. like you can just get that what I love about Indianapolis is once you get downtown you're fine if you're a sports fan you're you're you can get everywhere on foot long as you're pretty mobile in 20 25 minutes and so I really enjoyed that being from Chicago area I mean there's no way you're walking from United Center to Soldier Field like you're walking for days they're nowhere near each other and so much bigger so I like that it's kind of compact but there's still enough to do I guess if you're a sports fan and still have fun different things to do different options small town big city exactly and enough you know surrounding suburbs and different things. Like I've been in Greenwood many times now and Caramel and other places and Noblesville.
A lot of that because of high school basketball. Yeah. But I've, you know, learned that it's not as big, but it's big enough to have fun in. And I'm one of those people, too. Like you make the places or you your attitude kind of decides where your experience. So if you sit in the house all day, of course there's nothing to do.
But I've learned, okay, people like the 500, for example, why don't I go? Yeah. Even with the Pacers, which was kind of hard cuz covering them full time, you're always gone. Yeah. And I think that made me a little less not like enthusiastic to see the city, but it was just trying to figure out, okay, when am I not tired and when am I not like working? When can I chill?
Yeah. And so getting to like that first off season was kind of good because I got a chance to kind of explore the city a little bit more because when I got when I got here I was so focused on don't mess this up job. And now I think I have a better work life balance because I'm like securing my reporting ability bosses trust me I've proven myself. Not that I've taken my foot off the gas by any means but like there's just more of like there's less paranoia of like hope they don't like get rid of me anytime soon. first get somewhere, especially somewhere you really care about it for like 6 months to a year, it's like I'm going to earn these people's respects and work my butt off and I'm not going to mess up. I totally get it.
I was terrified to be like, "Oh my god, they're going to be like, "This 25-year-old doesn't know what he's doing." Exactly. But you get to a point where it's like, like you said, that was a great way of putting it. You're secure in your ability to do your job. I know I'm doing a good job. Let me chill and make sure I have a life as well.
I totally get it. Especially because you care about what you do. Oh, absolutely, man. and and and again, everyone was pretty nice to me when I first started. I remember Rick Carile took me out one of the first nights I was on the beat and and kind of showed me the team facility and was asking me like, "What do you want to do career-wise and things like that and maybe about a month or two into the job, he got he had my number and he reached called he called one night and was like, "Hey, what are you doing?" I'm like, "Nothing now that you called, right?"
And said, "Hey, meet me here. took me out to dinner and we sat down and we were talking. He said, "Uh, hey, I see you're serious about this. How can I help you, you know, kind of career-wise, not like gonna give you anything, but I see you're a straight shooter. You're not afraid to ask the tough questions. You know, we've butt heads a few times already, but there's mutual respect there."
And he was like, "I don't want you doing this for the rest of your life unless you want to." And so, fast forward to getting the coach job, you know, nine 10 months later. It's kind of weird being scooped in reverse because I had told my boss at Andy Star like, "Hey, I'm going to take this job at the Athletic. I'll still be in Indianapolis. I'll see you around." And he text me.
He's like, "Sources saying that you're leaving. I I didn't think you were going to be leaving this soon, man. When I told you, you know, to think about bigger things. I didn't think you would like talk about tomorrow. Did I scare you away?" Exactly.
So, he Well, we've we've we've stayed in a pretty good contact and and had, you know, good relationship ever since. He still comes on our radio show during the season um every Tuesday. And then Tyrese is the same way. when I was on my way out of the Pacers that covered him, even him even less than Rick Carlau for about four months after that trade went down and he shot me a DM on Twitter and said, "Hey, if you ever need anything, let me know. Like, I appreciate how fair you are in the coverage." So, even now that I'm at around every day when they had the deep playoff run last year, there's that like relationship that's been cultivated and built over time to the point where you can ask still the tough questions.
You can kind of give context what you're seeing. And so it's been fun to I think my job now even though it's mainly Colts, I've been able to float a little bit more. So it's fun to kind of be the guy who's not so new to where I was here for a lot of the things that we see now kind of manifested over time. It's I love seeing you float with the fever and pain flex that basketball muscle still a little bit. But I couple things. Number one that says that speaks volumes about Rick Carile.
a guy who's been around and obviously if he's doing that that means you're doing something right because I have a fair amount of confidence that he's not doing that with everybody. Okay, Rick Carile gets this reputation of kind of being a hard ass, right? And like don't want to mess with him. He's going to he's going to eat you up. But if he respects you, he respects you and he's going to try and help you. And I think that's awesome.
I think when you have good people leading franchises, good things tend to happen. So A+ from Rick Carla right there. But then to hear that from Rick say that we've buted heads but I still respect you. Four months covering Tyrese Halurn and for him to DM you say you were always fair. That has to feel good. I know it's a lot of like humility in this industry and like very genuine humility like it's not you're not the story.
We understand that. But that has to make you feel like all right I'm doing something right. Oh absolutely. And I think there's a balance of making sure you're not the story but not forgetting your own story. Right. So, in a way, I'm like, look, man, again, I don't have a side story, but I did kind of get it out the mud.
I didn't have anybody in my family that was big into newspapers. I don't have this journalistic background that's been generations of cultivation. Like, I wasn't dreaming of this when I was 10 or 11. It kind of just found me and I found it and kind of went for it. But with Tyrese in particular, Yeah, man. He was It kind of shocked me to get that message because I hadn't known him that long.
And to put a button on that story, I did reach out to him one time. We were, this had to be maybe two or three years ago. We were doing a Father's Day piece and they were looking for it was last minute. Our athletic staff was like, "Look, man." We had a couple athletes kind of follow through with like telling us like basically like just Father's Day stories about how much they love their dad. Does anybody know anyone who has a dad who's kind of like pretty cool, kind of out there?
And of course, John Hallebertton. We know John Halbert. you know, Giannis beef John Hallebertton, you know, cuz you know, he rides for his son, man. But I remember shooting Tyrese the DM a couple maybe like a year after I finished basically covering him. I said, "Yo, this is last minute." I said, "We got like two or three days to get this story out."
I said, "But if you, you know, you got five minutes talking about how much your dad means to you for Father's Day, hit me up, you know, please." And he messaged me the next morning. Yo, it's Ree. He text me, "Yo, it's Ree. I got you like right after this workout, called me after the workout, sent me baby pictures of him and his dad or whatever. And he ended up being I think the lead of our story, the first part of the story.
And I remember thinking like, dang, like you don't get that unless there is a mutual level of respect. And again, it ain't like I've written everything has been great for Tyrese, like when he went through a shooting slump a few years ago and it was rough. Yeah. I talked about how bad that was when he didn't talk after that four-point game against the Cavs last year in the playoffs. I did crush him for that. Not in the sense of he's a terrible person.
He's a terrible person or he's a terrible leader, but I was just in the sense of you've pretty much done everything right, but I'm still not going to let you slide for this. Like, I get it. You don't want to talk to us. It was a bad game, but the stars talk. This is LeBron James. That's the standard I kind of hold you to because you're the Olympic teammate of him.
You got to talk to us after things like that happen. So, uh, even then I remember after writing that story and kind of criticizing him about it, obviously it helps. They came back and won the next game and he's sitting there right in front of us. I remember asking him, I said, "Tyres, do you kind of regret not facing the music?" And he sat there and was like, "You know what? I do."
And I didn't realize like how big of a deal. And I think when you leave room for grace on both sides, for media and for athletes, the relationship is usually a lot better, even if it isn't always smooth because we wouldn't be doing our jobs if everyone always got along, not everyone wins every game. So yeah, looking looking at it now to be respected by some of the more prominent figures in the city for what I do in sports is a good thing. I don't let it get to my head. And I think be the way I balance it is like you don't want to abuse it. You don't want to think you're part of like their inner circle.
You're not, right? But you do want to be in that spot where hey something hits the fan or something goes down you can be trusted to reach out and get real information whereas you know others might be able to you know aggregate or assume like nah man I I'll go straight to the source and they know again straight shooter that means on good days and bad days you're straight down the middle most times and you're able to get real reaction real emotion real stories and I think that usually helps even just the fandom around the city to understand okay Tyrese is human mess up right here. Things like that. That's what I was just going to say. Like these guys and these ladies are human beings and a lot of times they're in their mid to young 20s like just thrust into this life of money and everything they do. Like Tyrese is like, "Yeah, you does he want to talk to the media every day?"
Probably not. That is the responsibility for right or for wrong you have as the franch face the franchise for a team that just went to the NBA finals. And he's a great dude. Like he's just a good person. like you can just tell he's rare in the sense of your best player is also your best talker and your best personality and he's very self-deprecating which I think is also endearing I think anybody in any space like we make fun of ourselves like I mean I don't know how many times I've messed up a tweet or something like that or I've asked a stupid question in a press conference and it's like ah that's going to get clipped like oh man but even with him there's been times where I remember during the playoffs last year and I don't think he even care now of me telling this story, but with Tyrese, he's so funny, man. I remember he had the Netflix crew like following him around.
Yeah. And he he had a big playoff game and he goes back into the locker room and they were like, "Hey, you got to do media." He was like, "Oh, I thought I was done." Like, "No, you got to come out here and talk to the media, whatever." Whatever. He's about to get treatment on like his back or something, but he goes and puts on his suit again.
And I'm like I said, man, like I said, like don't you got to get treatment after this? He was like, yeah, but they got to see this outfit. I was like I'm like what the heck? Like he's like he's like, "Leave that part out." You know, he's selling the Netflix like leave that part out. But you know, I guess I might have spoiled it right there.
But yeah, he he made sure that he was fresh when he came out to the see the all the cameras and stuff and then went right back in there, took it all back off and went and got treatment. I'm like, Tyrese, you could have just kept on this warm-up or whatever. He's like, "No, they got to see the nice suit and shades tonight." He's just a goofy Midwest guy. He's a good dude. A great player.
I just love it. And yes, he is a great player. And we'll get to the whole Pacers thing a little bit later on, but I just think it it's easy to see why you're respected, James, because you give grace. Like you said, you get it back and you get the respect back. And I think that's why you're extremely good at what you do. So that I just love talking that stuff because I don't people who read your stuff or watch us on TV.
It's like, oh, you know, they put their whole their whole week is based on how the Pacers do or how the Colts do. It's like, you know, these guys go home and just go to sleep like the the rest of us. Like they talk to their mom, they're disappointed. The only difference is their bank accounts are a lot bigger and everything they do is under a microscope. That's basically the only difference. And that's why I try to give the grace because I don't think that it's as easy as people think it would be.
It's like, "Oh, well, if I was making this money, I would do this." Well, yeah, but you still have emotions. Yeah, exactly. And I've never been 22, 23, 24, right? And everything that I ever said was being reposted by millions of people every day or being streamed on ESPN as soon as I say it. And so, it's easy to look at an interview and say, "Oh, I would have said XYZ."
But that's after the fact in the moment when they don't know what you're going to ask. Sometimes it doesn't always come out the prettiest or the best way. That's good for us cuz we want the raw emotion, but at the same time, yeah, I try to give grace cuz I'm like, could you imagine if we had mics in our face when we were 22? Oh, I was just going to say that would have been bad news bears. I don't know if I would have I think it would have gotten cancelled or something. That's what I'm saying, man.
Oh, man. That's awesome. All right, but yeah, you kind of teased it there uh before we got off on just athletes in general and the reporter athlete relationship, and I want to dig into that a little deeper, but you you mentioned it. Okay, you you know 6 months at the Herald and Review, nine months at the Indie Star. So 15 months you went from the Times of Northwest Indiana to the Athletic. Yeah, that is crazy.
You talk about big break Indie Star. The Athletic is one of the most respected sports media companies out there. Okay. And and that is a crazy jump. Um before you were 30. Yeah.
So how did the the athletic opportunity come? Um it feels like the it sounds like the indie star was okay with that because that feels like a can't miss opportunity. Oh yeah. What a thrill for you. Yeah. Every job that I've left for another one, my editors, my co-workers, they were all very supportive.
Even when I left the time zone for Indiana, that was still the same parent company. But moving on from that, they were kind of like, "Yeah, we we loved him in this space, but we need to move him to a bigger platform where he can get, you know, a little more notoriety, I guess." And so leaving that, they were supportive. Then leaving, I remember calling my boss, uh, Justin Con back in the day. Justin Khan, I'm sorry. Back in the day and telling him, "Yeah, I I got to take this NBA job."
And he was like, "I'm just glad you called me." He was like, "Of course I'm going to tell you to go for it." He wasn't telling me he was upset or mad. He was like, "You have to go. This is a probably a once in a lifetime opportunity." And the same thing sort of happened with the Pacers.
So, the way that kind of came together was, and again, every job that I had, except for the high school job, I think when I got to maybe two and a half years, I was like, "Okay, I'm looking for something a little bit more." But obviously, five months on the Illinois beat, I wasn't trying to leave. I wasn't actively looking for jobs. They kind of approached me. Same thing with Indie Star. I get there.
I think I'm going to be settled. You know, it's my favorite sport. It's the biggest league. You know, the the the paper of record. I think I made it. And so, uh, shout out to Steven Holder, who's now at ESPN for the Colts.
He had my job now previously at the Athletic, right? And I didn't even know him that well, but he reached out. He's like, "Hey, I want to talk to you about some things." You know, we had maybe like a journalism conference that was going on at the time in Indianapolis. He said, "Hey, you get free whatever day it was. Stop by this hotel and I'm going to, you know, just chop it up with you."
And that's when he started laying it on. He's like, "Hey, by the way, you know, you ever thought about, you know, covering the NFL?" Cuz, you know, I was a basketball guy at heart. Yeah. I'm like, "Not really." And he he kind of like let me know, hey, I'm going to be leaving this position.
They have kind of pegged you as somebody who's a little bit of a rising star. You're also right in their backyard. You would know the lay of the land. We could teach you all these things. But you think about it, and I do give him a lot of credit for kind of helping me see the bigger picture because he was like, "Look, the job you have is great." It really is.
But the opportunity you also have to possibly come to the athletic is something that you probably don't want to pass up either because it's not only the NFL job security-wise, NFL jobs, if you're a beat writer, are probably a little more secure than NBA jobs depending on what outlet you're at. But also, it's a national brand having that behind you. 100%. And I mean, at that time, they were still kind of independent of the New York Times, right? They had got the merger done maybe like a year into my tenure with the athletic. But that's kind of how that came about.
He he kind of pitched me on it and I talked to him, talked to Mike Wells who used to um work for ESPN. Great guys, by the way. Yeah. As as a Colts reporter and they were kind of letting me know like career-wise kind of what to do. And I've never said this really publicly, but Stephen Holder has been one of my best mentors as far as just navigating my career. Yeah.
what I should do, what I shouldn't do, how I should go about, you know, negotiations, contracts, things like that. and not only him but even Joey Ericson, Zack Kefir, Nate Atkins, one of my best friends now who joined us over at the athletic covering the Rams, you know, Mike Chapel, the dean, like they've all been so helpful, not just in, you know, learning how to cover the Colts or learning the lay of Atlanta Indianapolis, but just career-wise, like those guys, yeah, we're competing, but they've never been too proud to kind of let me know, hey, here's what I'm thinking. Hey, I need an extra thought on this career decision or this or whatever. Or, hey, if I ask this question, how would you frame it? Or, you know, we might get past something. They might have a scoop or a story that was really amazing.
I'm like, okay, well, you know, not to get too into the weeds. I'm not going to steal your story. Obviously, I have respect for the craft, but you know, how did you build this? What were the questions you asked? How did you navigate this relationship? I mean, Joel has been one of the best people I've learned from on how to work the agent game and things like that where again, we're competing, but they've all been super supportive, super helpful, and to the point where when I got to the athletic to cover in the Colts, yes, I was super super green to the NFL to all of it.
And Zach Kefir was there at the time. We were like doubling up on the beat, but the plan all along they told me from the beginning was Zach's going to go national, but we're going to groom you and get you ready. But all of them were very helpful. So when I did make that jump to being like the solo cult reporter, I was ready for it. But yeah, it was a whirlwind to go from I bet, you know, high school sport celebrated this big break and all of a sudden I remember thinking like the like I remember telling myself up until like the very last possible chance I could do it. We were like in Dallas covering a Colts game.
I remember telling myself like after this December game or whatever, like this is pretty much it cuz I'm like I kept I kept telling myself, well last year technically I was still covering high school sports just last year. It's insane. And then it kind of went crazy like that. But I guess it's just a testament to the hard work, the timing. I can't and I tell the time, I can't tell you, you know, I'm talking to high school classes or college classes like do these XYZ steps and you'll get this reward at the end. But I will say if you put the work in and you grind and you care about it and your work ethic is a certain standard, it will help you for when you do get that break.
because I never really felt like I had to raise my level of care or you know enthusiasm that was always at a high level perfectionalism you know being a perfectionist not professionalism but perfectionist those types of things um I never had to really change that because it was born in me and really bred in me because my parents just didn't play that school grade sports you had to give effort and I think that helped me along the way so yeah it was crazy man I couldn't believe it I had a lot of W2 forms to coordinate and 401 1ks to try to move over, but it worked out. Man, there's two things in this life you can control, James. Your effort and your attitude. If you got those right, you're going to do okay no matter what you're doing. And it is so important, and I've said this off the top, and I mean it. This Indianapolis sports beat, there's just good people.
Like, they they want to help you. They want you to feel comfortable. Yes, we're competing, and I understand that, but like it's not that deep either. Like, we're all trying to do the same job. We're all trying to make it. And you know, it's awesome to hear about Steven Holder and what he meant to you and Zack Kefir.
I used to and when I was in Tallahassee, I used to listen to Zack Kefir and Steven Holder's podcast and then you came on. I'm like, "All right, who's who's this James guy?" All right. What's his deal? And uh, no, man, you did great. And like I loved listening to it.
Obviously, I don't do that anymore because I'm like on kind of on the beat, if you can say that. But it's like it's weird now. But it it's just been awesome to watch you grow and do that because I I mean you're 30, I'm 29, right? You're 30. Yep. You're 30.
I'm 29. Like it's just it's just really cool to see where and it's so important to balance because yes, you're like your mom, your dad, your like significant other, you you always go to them like ask them for advice. But for someone in the industry who knows the ins and outs is like actually I don't know. I know you are feeling maybe this, but you should probably go this way and like this is how you negotiate. Like things you really need to know. Yeah.
The higher you get, right? No, I give a lot of respect to my mom in that regard because and my dad too, but because they got to a point where they were like, "Look, we love you and we love you so much that we don't want to misguide you, right?" And so I remember her sitting down with me and saying like, "Look, I wasn't in this position that you were at this age, right? So, I need you to go find that mentor, someone you trust to kind of give you that career advice because she was like, I can tell you what I think, but I don't know. And so, with Stephen Holder, Joey Ericson, Mike Chapel, they know, they've experienced, they've done it, you know, three, four times over when it comes to a contract situation or how to know, even when it's not just business, but just how to navigate story building, how to work a beat, how to balance different things, how to balance a week on the beat. Like I I got to the NBA and it's all over the place with practice and schedules and stuff like that and travel.
Whereas with the NFL, you really have to think about what you're going to write during the week because you don't have that extra game coming up to right, you know, give you something new to talk about, right? So that was a challenge for me going from NBA to NFL was like, well, NBA there's a game every other day. So if you, you know, don't really have a story on a Tuesday, all right, Thursday comes, there's a game, right? That ain't happening in the NFL. And you got to feed the beast throughout the season. So, learning how to look at things from a film standpoint.
I always joke with Joel that he's like my coach because, you know, coach Joel is always telling me, okay, I'm like, hey, when I first started, I was like, what the heck is cover three? I ain't never played football before. And so, having to look up YouTube videos and learning from him and things like different terminology and stuff like that. So, now I think I sound smarter, but there's still always like that learning curve and they've always been great to me. Yeah, you all you put in the work though and here you are now. All right, so everybody wants to cover sports, right?
You know, there's pros and cons to it. There's no question about it. like the work life balance, all that things. But it's it's something that I think 70% of males in America would like to do with their life. There's no question about it. But when you're working for the athletic, like there's pressure that comes with it, right?
I mean, we're talking about a national outlet, the the athletics just exploding, continues to. How do you balance that? That you're doing something that you love, but there is a high standard to do it. And maybe people don't quite understand that balance. Yeah. I've learned you probably shouldn't vent about these things on social media because you'll sound very jaded.
Yeah. Right. And I never want to come off as the guy who doesn't appreciate the job. So, when I do have those frustrations of like, yo, this week was crazy or I wish things would just kind of calm down or I'm kind of drowning because I got three, four stories I'm trying to work on, like I don't think fans realize sometimes that, and I make this joke now, and they understand to a degree, but I don't always love prime time games. You know, if I get a 1 p. m.
kickoff, that's great. That's money. Exactly. That is great for all of our lives when it comes to not having a rush or, you know, pre-planned things. I not stay up till 4:00 a. m.
Exactly. Cuz if there, like, for example, I was just booking my flights the other day, and again, I say this knowing full well I have a very privileged life. Job is great. I'm not really complaining. And it's just the job. This is the real stuff.
But Kansas City week two, 7:20 kickoff, that's on central time. So when we go there, they play my flight the next morning. I believe it takes off at like 5:15. So I got to be out of there, you know, be at the airport by like 4:30 or whatever. It ain't, you ain't getting much sleep. You might sleep an hour or two or something like that.
And I've learned to just embrace that. But it's not easy. Like it's fun, but it's not easy. And I think that having people like you in my life and other friends that you can kind of talk to and relate to like, "Oh man, how you hanging?" I remember talking to you during last year when it was fever. It was Pacers.
It was Indy500. I'm like crazy. I'm like, "Brother, I ain't sleeping. You ain't sleeping. We in it together." Like, you know, how you how you hanging.
Having that camaraderie helps. And I think before I really knew what this lifestyle was like, I didn't always understand the importance of having those relationships because running the social media or trying to tell your parents, you just don't understand. Correct. They don't really get it. Like my dad, he worked a manual labor job and he always wanted us to be kind of like the white collar jobs, not having to lift boxes and things like that. He didn't go to college, never made any excuses about it.
He was just like, I should have made better decisions and this is the life I I kind of chose for myself because of that. But within that, if I tell him I'm tired, pops ain't trying to hear that. Like I can't really go to him and say I got seven stories due in in five day or four days. He ain't the person to tell that to because he's gonna be like, well, it's not loading 18 wheeler in a 100 degree heat with no fans, so you'll be all right. That's right. And just learning to like, okay, maybe mom is the one to go to for this or dad is the one to go to for this or my friends, right, and close uh colleagues in the business.
So, I've learned to balance it, but at the same time, you also know like there's just certain times of the year where you got to lock in. Yeah. Like that's so real. You know how it is. Training camp in July, I know it's coming. There is no vacation time.
Ain't no time off. There's no foot off the gas. You have to make sure you're ready to go at certain points of the year. Playoff time is the same thing when it comes to NBA or NFL. I know the Colts haven't been there in a while. Maybe that changes this year, but just certain times either the NFL draft, for example, can't take vacation during the draft.
So, those are all things that I've learned. But, um, I've also learned too when you get time, you do have to kind of make it work. So, right. Even this past weekend, going back home, uh, seeing my family and kicking with them for Father's Day, seeing my god kids. I took my godson actually to DeForest Buckner's camp. Nice a couple weeks ago.
He started asking about my job and I was like, man, it's a lot of driving, but screw it. I'm like, it ain't nothing but gas and miles. I won't look I won't look up in 10 years and regret having went and got him because I put more miles on my car. Exactly. So just trying to find those pockets of opportunities to be with my family and kind of get away from this space which I love. But here in Indianapolis I'm James Boyd the sports reporter back home.
This is just you know the skinny kid from Romeoville or as my my mom and my dad. Both of them got to update their phones. My dad I'm thinking his phone I'm baby boy. Oh I love it. And my mom's phone mama's man. I'm like both of y'all I'm 30.
We got to change this. But to them I'll always be their little boy and that's who I am to them. And I think that kind of gives me that breath of fresh air. My sister as well. Um we have a thing where every year I come home and we have like a brother sister kind of just date where we spend the whole day together, hang out, catch up, like a yearly check-in. Um because we don't live I mean for so long we shared everything as twins and now it's like I'm I'm here, you're there.
How do we kind of make it work? But um I'm I'm thankful for it though because it's given me a lot of perspective and then you know when you do get that time you appreciate it more because you don't always have it. Correct. So that's where I'm at now. I I love that is a beautiful perspective. Every time I'm from Napony, Indiana, which is a very small city in northern Indiana, and every time I'm there, it's like this weight lifted off like, okay, yeah, I'll see people I know, but like they don't care what's going on at WTA, John.
Like, we're just going to talk about something different. This is going to be great. It's just lowkey. It's slow pace. And you're right, you when you can do it, do it. Because you know, my wife and I can find a hundred different reasons not to go on a vacation together, but we just did it this past April and all I missed was Fever Media Day.
And you know what? We can live with it. So my coworker did it, so it was fine. Uh and old me probably been would have been like, "No, absolutely not. I cannot do that." Uh, you know, we were we spent like a week and a half in Europe and like I'm going to remember that for the rest of my life.
I'm not going to remember missing 2026 FIFA Media Day. Exactly. But there's always going to be another game and I get it. We ain't talking about Super Bowl like the finals. Yes. But yeah, like I missed the Fever game last week because I went home to work a high school tournament for my high school coach and see all my old teachers, old coaches and things like, oh, you know, the old security guards and stuff like that who are always eager.
They see my stuff on Facebook or Twitter, but they like appreciate that I still am able to come home and, you know, be the same kid that they saw 15 years ago running up and down the court. It's awesome, man. Like I just love that perspective. You can't lose who you are. Yes, the job is important, but we're not curing cancer here, okay? Like, and yes, there are times during the year you got to lock in.
You just got to accept it. But it makes it also makes then like going to the NBA finals totally worth it. A final four in our backyard totally worth it. How much you pay to get in? Uh I I got paid paid to be there. That's what I'm saying.
The perspective is crazy. Like that stuff's crazy. I just like, you know, there's no Yes, you're going to complain some days and it's not always great, but then stuff like that happens. It's like, you know what? This is pretty sweet. This is pretty sweet.
The pros far outweigh the cons. 100%, man. All right. So, this is going to sound like I'm a college student asking this, but I was telling people I want to get a bunch of media members on, and this was the number one thing people ask me to ask you all because you're way more in this than I am for local TV station. Let me tell you that much right now. But, uh, like I said, lots of going in, lot goes into a working at a place like The Athletic, which means breaking news.
Yeah. So, you might laugh at this, but again, a lot of people want me to ask you this. What goes into developing sources and breaking news at the highest of levels? Can it legit be anybody like the janitor, equipment guy, or is it strategically, you know, front office members, players, even coaches who know you're not going to screw them. They trust you. I don't want you to give away all your secrets.
But this is a question a lot of people ask and I had the same one before I joined the sources game. But I would say everyone is a source to a degree, right? Meaning if I'm at the facility and I hear something from anybody, janitor, team trainer, videographer, whatever, I don't just take and run with what they say. I usually take it to a higher source and and in in my opinion, someone who's more rock solid. So, you know, for depending on what franchise that is, and I I talked to pretty much all the front offices at this point, whether it's Fever, Pacers, Colts, front office, coaches, agents, players themselves, they all have, I think, a higher standing when it comes to sourcing levels than, of course, the janitor or like the, you know, equipment guy or whatever. But they also have agendas.
So, you want to make sure that you're not right catering too much to one side or the other. And so it takes a lot of got to sniff that BS out sometimes. Yeah, you got to sniff the B BS out. I'm assuming they there is an unspoken understanding of anonymity. Yes. Okay.
That is but also there's other times where you got to be explicit with it. Like hey, can I use this on background? Yeah. Like I won't put your name on it. Do you? Sometimes they want their name on it.
I was like, all right. Well, like perfect example and and God rest his soul, Jim Ersce was one of the best cult sources for however long he was the owner. and I got pretty tight with him. I went to actual a couple of different Colts events and got a chance to talk to him one-on-one, build a rapport, build a relationship to the point where I did end up getting his number and he knew my face, knew my name and things like that. And I remember one year, this was maybe like 2023, I believe, or 2024, one of these seasons, and JT messed up his thumb. And I remember getting a tip about that from, again, not a source that I would just go with right off the bat.
Like I, hey, something's up with this thumb. like, "All right, like let me check around." And you know you're on to something when one, it's a star player, and two, no one's responding. I'm like, "Ah, you know, usually you'll get like a a quick like no or something, but I'm like I know you seen this text. I know you saw this." So, I got nothing.
And I was getting frustrated like, "All right, well, when do I push the red button?" Like, I got the the Green Goblin Mask was looking at me like, "When do I call Mr. Ers? When do I call Ers?" And so, I was like, "You know what? this is a transactional business.
I don't have his number to be best friends. Like he lives a totally different lifestyle than I do. True. So I called him, left a message shot in the dark and I was like, "Hey, like I'm hearing JT's got this thumb thing." I was like, I don't want to just go with it. I don't want to just report something.
I don't know if it's true or not. And you know, if you can help me out here, give me some perspective. I really appreciate it. So leave the message. I'm thinking whatever. That's that was I might have just he might just put me on the block list.
This freaking nerd is calling me. He called me back within maybe like 15 minutes and told me pretty much everything. He was like, "Yeah, JT mess up his thumb. He's going to be out for multiple weeks. Going to get surgery tomorrow. He's in LA, blah, blah, blah."
And I remember asking him like, "Hey, by the way, can I put your name on this?" Like, "Or you want me to just, you know, do per source." And obviously the best source of any source is a team owner. So, it wasn't like my editors are asking for me to get a second source. Like, it's the owner, right? He's like, "Oh, yeah, you put my name on it.
It's fine." And so, I I reported it like like that. Hey, Colts owner tells James Boyd of the Athletic or whatever. I remember thinking that was probably my biggest scoop since I had gotten to that. Hey, look, got little stuff here and there. You know, I remember when the Pacers traded for Buddy Heels and I got it a scoop saying, "Hey, they're not going to flip him somewhere else.
He's going to stay in Indiana." That was my big one. But that was like a massive one cuz he was a star. It was a pretty significant injury. He was out for I think three or four weeks. And I remember thinking like, dang, like that was that doesn't happen if you don't cultivate the relationship years in advance, if you're not checking in every now and then.
And I've also learned too with sources, you don't want to be the guy that's just asking for information, right? Because there are times where like I'll reach out to different people and just to get perspective on something like hey I see this trend in the NFL like you know I've asked a million people whether it's you know executives coaches players what do you think about NIL should there be control over it should there not be control over even something as trivial as like the NFL allowing different people to wear numbers that are not traditional to their position like do you care about you know if a linebacker wears number 20 or something does it matter to you keeps your finger on the pulse Exactly. And I think when you have those relationships, that helps. And then from a player standpoint, you see them throughout the season, one of the things I try to do is, you know, on Fridays when it's pretty light, everyone's in a loose mood.
I'm not going over saying, "Hey, you know, for this story I'm working on, you know, can you be my anonymous s?" Nothing like that. But I'm checking in saying, "Hey, how's the family?" You know, "Hey, college game is coming up this weekend. Who you got?" And I think having those like more human interactions makes it easier when crazy things happen or you know player gets traded or player gets hurts or whatever the case may be, you're able to reach out to those in the locker room and get have understanding of where things stand, you know, without being and then knowing you won't burn them and I and vice versa, they won't burn me.
Yes, there is a two-way street to it. So yeah, there's usually an unspoken rule of like you're not going to just blast me or put me on the record, but there are times where sometimes they do want that to be out there. And I think that it's it's a nuance business. Every person is different. Relationship is different. Every, you know, text exchange can go a different a million different ways.
Like I've had people call and yell at me before and get mad that I reported something. I know it's right, but it might not be best for their interest, you know, when it comes to a risk you run. Yeah. Exactly. But I think again being a straight shooter, you're able to have I've had it happen like I've got a call and I've gotten yelled at and you know there have been times and I will admit I could have done things differently like and I was like dang you know what I did mess up here. It wasn't like I to be clear I didn't put out something that was wrong but it's like the way I frame something could have been a little bit different.
The wording could have been better. Those types of things or I could have protected this source a little bit better. Those types of things I've learned along the way. But again, when you're a straight shooter and you're honest, I do think that helps you a ton when you inevitably make a mistake. You don't want to be the guy obviously making a bunch of mistakes and you always got to, you know, retract tweets or stuff like that. But I think I've had relationship now where I'm not going to be Adam Shaper or Ian Rap report.
But if I do break something, there's that trust factor of it's real because it's coming from him and he ain't burned me before or messed something up before. So yeah, a lot of it though is just being human, texting people and stuff like that and making sure you're not only asking for something. You got to be able to have a conversation. Not like I'm not every week like, "Hey, how you doing? How's it feel?" But like every now and then it is good to remember that that person you're leaning on for information is a human being and so you treat him as such.
That that's a great answer because it's something being in this industry like I've kind of come to terms with like I'm not going to be the source guy. All right. I'm I'm not going to be chef stressful though, man. I bet it is stressful and I bet you got to be looking at your phone a lot of the time and just be ready, be on guard. But I think people in the media are almost like afraid to ask someone who is very experienced in breaking news. Like how does this work?
Like you don't know unless you ask, right? Like so I think that's I think that's a great answer. And just as players are humans, so are front office members too. Sometimes they want information out there, okay, for their benefit or just just because. Um that that's a great answer. I love it.
Uh do you do you find people like do you have to do the searching or do people sometimes just reach out to you? I think it's is vice versa. It works both ways in certain instances. I mean an example would be like if a player is going to a contract year and I'll just use you know Daniel Jones for example. Yeah. And he's not in a contract year now because he's signed.
But you're you're probably going to hear from some people on the Daniel Jones side when he's up to get paid. It's the same thing with every athlete. So, I got Yeah, but it's not necessarily you just take whatever anybody ever tells you, right? And you run with it, right? But you do want to at least have a pulse on, okay, what's going on? Have I checked in with all the right people and and making sure that you're not Yeah.
not being some person that's completely out of the loop when it comes to your beat because it does matter. And again, I understand 99% of the time like you don't I'm not going to be first, but at least I'm in the know. Am I prepared for But you're going to be right. Exactly. you know, am I ready for certain scenarios? And to your point, I would rather be second and right or confirm something than to just go with something and be wrong because once you're wrong and it's a big wrong, it's hard to regain that reputation or reel it back in.
Yeah. Exactly. And I again know that's a thousand. But I would say discernment is probably the word that comes to mind when it comes to getting information because you can't if I tweeted everything that I ever got in my phone. Yeah. Yeah.
Some of it will hit before others, but then some of it will make me looking like I'm I'm the dumbest person alive because I jumped the gun on something. So, yeah, usually I'm trying to vet things a lot more. But I I like that question because that's so interesting. It's so inside baseball, but it is people love to hear this. No, it's it's Yeah, I trust me. Well, why is you know Adam Shfter and Ian Raport have millions of and WO and Shams, they have all these followers and they make all this money.
It's because like they're on it and like I think people would be interested to see how that happens. Yeah. And and they're to like the nth degree. They're like the highest example of what it could be. Whereas I'm just focused on one team. They're focused on Exactly.
and things like that. So it can be a little dicey. But again, it's all about respect. And again, you're not going to always have great interactions. I I remember when I was pressing the fever about the Kaylin Clark back thing and why she missed that game. I didn't get the greatest messages during that week or so.
But yeah, by the end of it, shake hands, you know, we see how it goes. And you know, I'm not just doing like I'm not the one guy coming in for this one topic. I've been here all along writing the good, the bad, and everything in between. And as if everyone in the world wasn't after the same answer, you know what I mean? Like Exactly. And that's the other thing, too.
Just doing your job, man. I've tried to like pride myself on respectfully asking the question, and you've done it, too. All of us have done it. I think any market does a good job being respectful. I think so. But asking the question that we know has to be answered.
Like respectfully, we I love the Fever. I do love covering them. It's been great. Yeah. But if Kayla Clark don't play, you know that's a story. We all know that.
We're the frontfacing indie media group. Okay. But we're not Skip Bis wrongly saying Stephanie White was Exactly. Okay. We have to ask the question. We didn't create the narrative.
We didn't create the story. Like, you know what I It's just it's a tough spot to be when Clark's in your backyard. Man, this that's awesome conversation. All right, we want to talk some indie sports to finish us off today. I love your path, James. You're the man.
Seriously, awesome to hear about where you got to where you are today. That is really, really cool stuff. But let's talk Colts, man. And you've It's a It's a big bag of chips here, but uh you've covered the Colts for a while. I mean, it has not been normal since you've gotten here. No.
First year was 2022. Matt, Ryan, Jeff Saturday, and then we got like Richardson, Rivers, Jones, everything in between, JT contract, the whole nine yards. But what's like, if you can put it in a nutshell, what it's like covering the Colts or like the craziest story you've had to write or situation? I mean, there's so much to pick from just in the what, four years you've been doing this? Yeah, I would say it started off weird. So, I'm going into my fifth year covering the Colts, hoping the athletic picks up with that fifth year option, baby.
You know, that's right. I don't know if I was a first round pick though. I was going to say I might have been a second round pick. So I might I might be trying to get the second deal done. All right, there you go. But when it comes to starting off on this beat, my first game was a tie in Houston 2022.
So the first NFL game I ever covered, no one won or lost. So I let you know that was a bad omen right there. The beginning of the end that crazy game. That was weird. I didn't even know how to write because I never really covered too much soccer growing up. Even when I was a high school sports reporter, when I got to playoff time, there was a winner and a loser.
Like I I didn't cover ties hardly ever. So that was a weird experience. But probably the craziest story probably had to be the Jeff Saturday hiring. Unreal because I'll never forget that press conference. The press conference was so wild and out there. And I remember texting cuz I'm in a group chat with some of the other Colts reporters.
remember texting them when that came out and because I was still new to the beat. Yeah. I was like, is this normal? Because NFL, I was thinking, "This sounds ridiculous. He has no coaching experience. This is happening mid-season.
He was a great player for them, but he's only coached at the high school level. What the heck are we doing?" And the Jim Ers press conference, just a wild night of different quotes and the upper quartile or whatever it was. Compare Chris Ballard to Michael Jordan and he was saying Jeff Saturday and Chris Ballard wanted to be anywhere else in the world other than that. Yeah, Chris got pretty red that night. And I remember asking him, you know, well, why do you think Jeff Saturday is the best guy for the job?
And Ers said, well, you just said it. He's the best guy for the job. And I was like, I didn't say that. I'm like, what the And everyone's like laughing at me or whatever after we had finished with the press conference. like, "Well, there's your first Jim Ers experience." Cuz I want to say it was the first time I ever asked him a question was in that press conference.
Yeah. And I got so many text messages that night. People were laughing at me saying like, "You just covered the most bizarre wild thing." And I think we all knew. Yes. Respectfully to Jeff Saturday, of course, it wasn't going to go well.
Like that was going to be a train wreck. And it was. I mean, they won their first game against the Raiders. And honestly, it's Yeah, you're right. It's not even like a bad thing towards Jeff Saturday. Like, he just should never have been in that position.
No, I I just And I don't blame him. I mean, people were mad at him for taking the job, but if someone says, I don't know what the number was that he got paid, but let's say he got $800,000 to coach this team. Yeah. You turn that down. And you also do want to coach. Yeah.
I wouldn't do that. But what a weird season that was because I covered again the end of Frank Reich, Matt Ryan being like bad, benched, and then got reinserted, then got benched again. It was just like the weirdest season. And so that whole ordeal prepared me for anything else after that because I think even with Philip Rivers coming out of retirement I was like that's nothing compared to what I had to experience. Awesome by the way. Exactly.
So between I would say if I had to rank him you know a couple different moments definitely the hiring of Jeff Saturday is in the top five. I'll give you my top five. That Philip Rivers coming out of retirement is definitely in the top five. The JT contract saga thing was wild. weird. The Anthony Richardson tap out was crazy.
Yeah. I'm trying to think of a fifth one if I you know, there's probably something out there I'm missing. Yeah. But yeah, there is always I mean, oh well, I'll throw this in there and this shout out to Daniel Jones. He played through a broken leg last year. Yeah.
Like, and we just acted like that was relatively normal when, you know, a tough dude. Played through all the injuries, tried to. So yeah, I've had some some moments here on the Colts beat and people tell me I still can't really sit up there and say, you know, I had it hard because I'm looking at Mike Chapel and others. They cover it. Man Luck walking away, Peyton Manning's neck and right, you know, bad playoff losses. Oh, that there's my fifth one.
The Minnesota game when they blew the biggest lead in NFL history. Oh my god. Oh my god. I thought it was fake. I was driving I was driving uh home from Tallahassee, Florida, and I'm like, "This cannot be real." Dom, there is somewhere in my laptop to this day a version of them winning that game written out already.
We thought we had it easy. They were up 30 plus points. I have it done by half. Let's dunk this out. Zack Kefir's telling me, "Hey, get this done. We're going to, you know, make a reservation for a restaurant here in Minnesota.
We're going to get out of here early." Boy, did we jinx ourselves. that. So yeah, that's probably my in my top five for sure because I had never been in an environment until I was in Gamebridge for game six when they won to force to game seven in the finals. Yeah, that was the loudest basketball arena I've been in. The loudest football stadium was definitely that comeback in Minnesota cuz they had the open air press box.
So for those listening, there's no glass in between you and yeah, the the people. So you just you you're in the crowd. You hear it. Place was rocking. And yeah, I remember thinking I just covered history for all the wrong reasons. Right.
So, as the Indianapolis Colts beat, that was wild. Uh Minnesota's stadium is awesome. Oh, yes. Beautiful. Glad to go back this year for sure. Yes, 100%.
We'll be doing that. Uh what is your craziest Jim Ers story? Craziest Jim Ers story, man. There's a couple. I bet I would say what a guy when he finally signed JT. So they were going through the back and forth.
They were sending even, you know, some Twitter subliminal messages at each other. But when he signs JT in typical URS fashion, he just called an impromptu press conference over the phone. So, right, that's true. I remember like, you know, typing the story thinking, "Okay, I'm done. Like, it's kind of crazy. y'all have to have a follow-up story or you know hear from JT but we won't hear from those guys till tomorrow because it was a Saturday when he signed the man just calls and it's like a tele like a I don't know a teleconference call and it's him explaining the decision to San JT and I'm like why are you talking right now like what is going on like you'll be at the game tomorrow like what is why what is happening right and like that's when I knew like okay I must be in here now because I got the call right and I was on the call for that and that was just the craziest, weirdest thing.
And yeah, there there's probably a couple more that I can't share on the podcast. Yeah, I had a feeling nothing like nefarious, but just he's just he was such a crazy good dude. I know he had his problems with, you know, the addiction and things like that. Um, even said some crazy problematic statements every now and then. I'm like, I don't know about that, brother. But I do think overall he was a good dude.
Yeah. And again, honest straight shooter and uh someone who really loved his football team. I'll tell you that the perpetual optimist almost to a fault like just would say things that just like man maybe don't say that. I remember when he remember when JT was going through the contract saga saga or I'm sorry saga and he said I remember clipping that that part of the quote putting it out there and it went everywhere and my editor immediately texted me was like is this real? I was like, "Yes." He said, "At the field in Grand Park, if I die tonight and John Taylor's out of the league, the national football rolls on."
Not league cuz I had to put league in parentheses in my quote. He said, "The national football rolls on. No one's going to miss us or something like that." That is 100% everywhere. And at the time, I remember JT was had to be I rate. Yeah.
Cuz he's like, "Dude, I'm trying to get paid. You're talking about you dying and me not like me being out of league. I want to get paid." So, he was a roller coaster owner, but I will give him this of all the owners because I've only I mean, if you think about it, I don't think that Herb Simon for the patient. This isn't a knock on him. It's just preference.
He hasn't spoken publicly since I think 2021. Whereas Urs, every decision he made, whether you agreed or not, he would always at least speak his mind on why he made that decision, right? Which I think we probably took for granted as fans and as media because not every owner does that. So, I appreciated that. Like, you know, I might not agree. I trust me, I was thinking, I don't know what the heck you're thinking most of the time, but the dude was at least available, which I think fans can appreciate.
And he's also freehearted, too. Yeah. I I just What a guy. uh loved his football team. People are going to miss him. No question.
I think Carly say Gordon and the sisters are really great people as well. Doing a great job. Um love seeing him around and invested in it, right? I think that's really cool stuff. But let's talk about the Colts, man. Um Chris Ballard going on a decade.
Not a lot to show for it. Extended Alec Pierce and Daniel Jones. I mean, between the two of them making hundred million dollars, I want to say just this season, we don't even know if Alec Pierce or Doris Buckner be ready. Um, this season, Jonathan Taylor wants a new contract. Lot of rookies on defense. I mean, Zyra Franklin hits the road.
Nick Cross hits the road. I'm Michael Pman Jr. hits the road. Mo, Kenny Moore is gone. Yeah. Where do you stand with this?
I mean, this is a consequential season for Chris Ballard and Shane Stiken. I have to believe. It feels like we've been saying that for three years, but there and I didn't even mention Anthony Richardson. What What is your perspective? This is just an interesting franchise right now. Yeah, there's always a lot of tentacles going in a million different directions, but at the end of the day, I think the one thing that's different than in years past is that Chris Ballard is going to the last year of his contract.
Yes. which for those listening does not happen most of the time in the NFL or NBA or WNBA, any professional league, you usually do not have your coach or your GM going into the final year of the contract. You will extend them. So, they're not looked at as a lame duck GM. So, I do think this is the year if you don't make the playoffs, we could see some changes when it comes to the general manager or the coach. And then it's more like amicable almost.
Oh, his contract expired. Exactly. Part Yeah, the language always matters, but any job that you're not retained on, you're fired from. That's that's the business that we're in. Yeah. So, I think there's a lot of pressure on Ballard to deliver.
But I also question the resources put into this team going into 2026. I get you had to get younger and faster on defense, but like you said, you got a lot of rookies and they all got to kind of hit at the same time. They have to. But even on the opposite side of things, you it to me it comes down to you're hitching your wagon to a quarterback who's coming off a torn right Achilles and who through his first seven years only played one full season, right? And this isn't a knock on Daniel Jones, a leader even as a player. I thought he played pretty good football when he was healthy last year.
Better infrastructure than he ever had with the Giants here with the offensive line. JT, I think it's comparable with Saquon Barkley. the wide receivers are much better here than they were with him in New York. But he can't stay healthy and if he doesn't, what does that mean for your season? We're putting everyone seems totally and everyone seems to be totally accepting the notion that he's going to be fine and he's going to be ready for the season and he's going to play every game and he's worth $50 million. And I'm sitting here like, I like Daniel Jones.
He performed well last year, but that is a lot to put on a guy. what will be nine months post Achilles time and now and then we're talking about a battle for the backup. I'm of the belief it is best case for Colts, best case for Anthony Richardson for him to play two, three games and play okay because then maybe the trade market is resurrected there a little bit and you can get something for a guy you invested a fourth overall pick in. But I just don't see a scenario in which Daniel Jones plays all 17 games. I just can't it I if he does great but I and that to me gives me some trepidation. Yeah.
Some fear with how the season could unfold. And as you mentioned before we talked about Daniel Jones, Alec Pierce. Okay. We knew you had ankle surgery. We didn't know you were going to be out possibly six months. I didn't know it was significant.
Yeah. Four to six months. I mean, he was saying telling us just what last week, hey, possibly I could be ready to go for training camp throughout training camp or I might have to wait till we get around the start of the season. So, where is he at? And you look at Michael Pitman Jr. leaving.
Yes, other guys are going to step up. But they gave you that big bag of money, Alec Pierce, to be their top guy, and he's not getting those reps right now to be the number one guy. I'm not saying he can't be, but I think that time on task is important. He just hasn't had that. Same thing with DeForest Buckner. We know what he can do, right?
But if DeForest Buckner isn't the same one that we've seen in years past, the dominant dude that's drawing double teams. Yep. How does that affect your pass rush? I mean, Chris Ballard told us at the owners meetings, he came out and finally was just blunt about it. They did go after Trey Hendrickson and didn't get him. Yeah.
And tough. Now you got Latu Latu who we think will make a jump but what about the other side? You know Argan Key okay Michael Clemens okay they're trying to tell us that Jaylen Tui Molo after not starting a game last year not having a sack last year will suddenly be a big part of their defense. That's a big jump. So in a way I feel like they kind of ran it back but they didn't. Like they have a lot of the pillars here.
They're just hope. It feels like hoping hoping that DeForest Bugner and Grover Stewart are who they once were, but they're getting older and older. Hoping that Latu Latu gets home. I mean, he's close. We're all saying he's so close. Close to getting double digit sacks, but is he really?
I mean, you replace a leader like Zire Franklin. You have to replace a leader like Kenny Moore. Okay, Nick Cross is gone. I don't think people are talking about that enough. Like, it just feels like a lot of hope. I know.
And this is why I picked them to go eight and nine. Eight, right? And it just stays the same. Yeah. They always do enough to kind of get your hopes up, but in the end, in years past, the last half decade, they've let you down. And I don't trust them until I see it to win when we start getting to the colder months.
Yeah. November, December, January. the record hasn't been great throughout Shane Syikens tenure and even before that over the last couple years of the Frank Reich tenure or the Jeff Saturday tenure. Like it just hasn't really come to fruition with this group. So I we could see a very big off seasonason if the Colts don't make the playoffs, which I don't I'm not picking them to make the playoffs. I'm sorry.
No. Um they could start one and seven. I mean I'm looking here realistically they could start one and six, one and seven. Exactly. I would not be shocked. And so, look, if anybody's listening to get in, if Daniel Jones, you listen to this clip and you're saying, you know what, Tom James, you don't know what you're talking about.
Prove us wrong, please. I don't mind covering wins. I'm here for it. I don't mind, you know, being wrong in that sense, but I just think that there's so much change that happened, so much turnover, so many new starters that you're banking on so many things going right all at once. And you know, this sport goes, especially more than any other, it just doesn't happen that way. No.
And we will see. But I ultimately I think it will come down to Daniel Jones, how healthy is he? And even then, let's say he plays every game. But is the mobility there like it was last year? Because at least in my experience, every athlete that I've personally covered or seen come off an Achilles tear, they seem to always be better the second year post up. Like they'll be healthy and clear to play.
Yeah. But it's like the second year is when they kind of become themselves. Even Aaron Rogers I thought was better last year than he was in his last year with the Jets. Even though he was healthy, he just couldn't move the same. And so Daniel Jones can't move the same. Again, problems in paradise.
Yeah, that's why I'm happy Tyrus Halbert got extra time to heal because I think he's like 16 months whereas Daniel Jones is like nine, less than a year. Like I just can't. And I mean it was relatively quickly after he tore it that Adam Sheper's like he's expected to be good to go by training camp. And I'm sitting there doing the math like is he though right? Like I see him running after practice and he looks good. He's moving well.
But his mobility is a big part of what made him good. Oh yeah. You know what I mean? And look, I loved covering 8 and2 Colts, but let's not act like the wheels weren't falling off before he got hurt. Okay, everybody. We saw a little bit of slippage.
Like, let's just talk about that for a second. But we'll see. Look, I want the Colts to be good, but you got to protect against apathy with this fan base because running back the same stuff year after year, it's getting old. Yeah. I think the way I look at it, they ran it back in the sense of your regime, same coach, same GM, offensive coordinator, a lot of the same kind of pillars of the franchise, but then you also change some things up because a few of your team captains, Pitman, Zir Franklin, Kenny Moore are out the door. But at the same time, did you adequately replace them?
That's my only question. Like, I understand why you might not want to have Zier Franklin around. Probably one of the fastest linebacker in space. Didn't help as well to always kind of be in some sort of little beef online with Pat McAfee and others when it comes to his podcast. But ultimately, yeah, people were asking me even about I know you didn't ask this question, but some people have asked me like, "How much do you think the podcast was a problem?" I don't think it was that big of an issue, but I think it didn't help when you're also not playing up to a certain standard.
So yeah, you replace him with C. J. Allen. Do I think that's going to be upgrade? I do think that would be an upgrade, but what about all the other spots? I that's where I'm like I don't know.
Like even Quiddy Pay, I think he was underwhelming as a first round pick. Yeah, he also was a pretty good run stopper. Do you have that? Did you find that in Ardent Key? I don't know. So, boy, it's going to get uh interesting.
But the cool thing about the weird thing about sports, at least football-wise, is that we can say all this, man, but there's always a team that shocks you that's like, we thought we'd be really good, they're really bad, or they're we thought they'd be really bad, they're really good, right? Whereas, unfortunately for us, the Colts, we always think they're going to be kind of middling. That's what they are. Yeah. So, we'll see. The NFL is the best reality TV.
Oh, yes. There is, man. Love Island. Come on. NFL. Even when the Colts are bad, they're interesting.
Yes. That's why I love it. It's like it's almost more sense of urgency as a reporter when they're bad. Like, all right, what's what's going to happen next? This is crazy. And with the Sauce Gardener trade, it's like you get those two first round picks, which I don't necessarily regret it because in the moment I was kind of on board with it, but now that that's set in stone, you don't really have a let's bottom out plan like that.
That isn't a thing. And not to saying most teams come into the season like, oh, we're going to lose. But we know once we get out to the halfway point, there's always a couple of bottom feeding NFL teams where you're like, "All right, you're going to be picking in the top five." And fans can find solace in that. Yeah. This time around, fans are like, "Yo, that pick ain't there.
We We need to go win." Yeah. And that's kind of the contract they given. Daniel Jones, this isn't a, you know, let's wait for you to, you know, figure it out five years. That was a win now contract. Yes.
It wasn't a long one. Exactly. You know what I mean? Like, and I've never And I was with you when the trade happened. I was like, "All right, Ballard, like we're at least taking a shot here." And Sauce Garner is a stud.
Um, I don't know if he can just carry a defense like I feel like he might be asked to do this season, but I rarely have I seen a trade that's aged as poorly as as that one just with the price you paid and where you are as a team. Uh, we'll see. Again, prove me wrong. I would love to cover a winner. Nothing wrong with that. Uh, just a couple more things for you.
I want to talk about the fever with you. I don't know if this team has an identity, the Indiana Fever. Um, the big three are awesome. I think Aaliyah Boston's one of the best bigs in the league. I think Kelsey Mitchell can score with the best of them. I think Caitlyn Clark is electric when she is playing point guard the way the position should be played.
I don't know though. Um, it's been interesting this season so far. What do you think? I think their record really reflects who they are. They're nine and seven right now going into tonight's game against the Mercury, but they just haven't put it together defensively to any degree. No.
And I saw a look in your face and then the groaning and impress me, brother. We've all done the same thing. The fact that they've given up 100 points in a 40-minute basketball game now about four times, I think this season in regulation, that's a problem. That is concerning for this team because even when we look at the the Pacers last year during their finals run, their defense at times throughout the regular season that is wasn't that great, but I remember Brick Carl saying something along the lines of we can just get to middle of the pack, we'll be okay. And so you look at their conference titles run, their finals run last year, these last two years, not the injury plague season, but their defense was at least passable. It was at least, you know, you could stomach it.
This makes you want to throw up with the fever because they can't stop anybody. And I and I think it's more of a personnel thing at this point because yes, I get your big three is awesome and you might just get to a point where you got to be like the Phoenix Suns or Mike Danton from back in the day where you got to just hope that you can outscore teams. Y but defensively, personnel wise, I look at their roster and I think to myself, okay, who is what I would consider a plus defender, someone who's not a liability on defense? That list is pretty short. Yes. I mean, even as great as Kelsey Mitchell is, Kaitlin Clark, I know Caitlyn Clark gets a lot of the heat because she's the star of the team and the others are stars, too, but she's the face of the team, right?
Kelsey isn't exactly the best defender either. Aaliyah Boston, I think, could be better defensively. But even Aaliyah, okay, let's say she's a plus defender. Raven Johnson, plus defender. Lexi Hall, plus defender. Sophie Cunningham, plus defender.
But who else? Like Mo really hasn't lived up to no the hype for what she was paid to come here. I think Demir's Dantis is she's basically out of the rotation at this point when it comes to some of your bigs in your rotation. So, I do wonder if this is who they are. And because of that, they're not going to be able to get to that next level, the next ceiling of play. And it can be frustrating because in a way, it's almost like the Fever are like a victim of their own success because last year they weren't supposed to go that far, right?
And they did. So now the conversation is, well, you got all your horses, why can't you get back to that same spot or go further, right? Which right now, I wouldn't pick them to go to the semi-finals. I wouldn't pick them to go to a basically an overtime period to get a birth to the finals. I wouldn't pick them to do that right now because they can't defend anybody. That is not a finals team that I'm watching right now.
And nobody is arguing that your big three isn't awesome, right? They're great, but I'm just not seeing a lot of jelling. And in conjunction with the defense, which is poor, like 60 points in the paint the other day for the dream. Like what? Yeah. And then they're averaging averaging 17 turnovers a game.
Yeah. You just can't do that. No. And you're fouling a lot. You're leading the league in fouls. I get that everyone's always on it with the refs, but look, man, if you lead the league in fouls, you're fouling every game.
It isn't just one bad game officiating. Like, that is who you are. That's who you are. That's what you do. You foul in bad situations. Aaliyah every now and then can get in foul trouble.
So again, I worry about the defense because the offense I'm not worried about. I mean, Caitlin Clark, Kelsey Mitchell, Leah Boston, they will help you and really carry you. And I think the skill level of all three helps kind of distribute the responsibilities, but defensively, I mean, 113 points given up the other night, that can't happen. And if you're serious about trying to go raise a trophy at the end of the year, when you score 100 points, you should win the game in the WNBA, in my opinion. and they've scored 100 points multiple times and lost. And I it when you're fouling, when you're giving up just Olay defense, points in the paint, and when you're turning the ball over that much, I mean, 17 turnovers a game.
I mean, at minimum, teams are scoring 10 points off of those turnovers minimum. That's the difference in a game just right there. So, I love this team. I love the personnel. I love Stephanie White, but you got you just got to I need more consistency. Yep.
Is that fair to say? And so they're consistently inconsistent. That's 100%. They consistently don't play defense well. So unfortunately, that's where they are right now. And again, they have a decent amount of time trying to figure it out.
But I can't sit up here and say, "Oh, it's early." It's not it's not that early. Yeah. Like you're you're over a quarter of the way through the season, getting to that halfway point, you want to be playing better defense than this. And what does that look like? I don't know.
What scheme changes can you make? It's not just an effort thing. They're trying. I think people kind of get confused. It's funny when you talk about basketball, offense is execution, defense is effort. It ain't the same.
Like there's some execution things you got to do better on that side of the floor, but I just wonder if they have the people to do it. Yeah. And so I I didn't think at the time when Natasha Howard left and went to a different team and free agency that she would be such a big loss. Yeah. For this group because if you're looking at your bigs, the only one that you can rely on night unfortunately is Aaliyah. Yeah.
the rest of them you're still trying to figure it out with KK Michaela Timson and Demirus and Mo like it just hasn't really gelled. I think Timson can be really good but she's still early. She's still early. She plays a lot bigger than she is. Uh she got some consequential minutes down the stretch on Thursday against the Dream and had a couple possessions in a row where it kind of dictated the game, right? So, we'll see.
Hopefully, they go on a mid-season run. I think they can. But, will they buy in defensively? We'll see. And, you know, that does fall on Stephanie White. As much as I like her, that's you.
You got to hammer that home and see if this team can can do it. Final thing I have for you, James. What makes sports in Indiana special? Oh man, what a deep question. I laid on the couch for this one. I would say a lot of it has to do with the tradition.
And not in like a bad way. I still people that yell at me about, you know, hey, back in the day it was one class for high school basketball and you know, right? you know, Milin, they were the heroes back in the day. We don't get those stories anymore. I understand that. But I do think when I'm at a high school game or I'm at the 500 or even with the Pacers, like hearing the stories of how they became Pacers fans or how they became involved with the 500, my dad, my grandma, whoever passed it down, I don't want to lose that.
And I think I feel that the most when I'm in a high school gym. Yeah. Because there's still that pride of this is where I went to school. This is my little neck of the woods. this is our little tournament or whatever, our rivalry. There's a couple more I got to check off the list.
That to me is what makes it special because it does feel like you're in a big family, you know, a big family reunion or a big rivalry or something like that. So, for me, a lot of it has always kind of felt pretty kindred spirit if you just learn to love where you're at and learn to love why it's weird. Like, you know, it might not make sense to everybody. It might not be everybody's cup of tea, but if you embrace it, if you're open to understanding why some random game between two 1A schools might mean the most to their neighborhood, right, I think you can enjoy it a lot more. So, I'm all for all the rivalry games, all of the, you know, marquee matchups and celebrating the kids that really I think represent our state in a good way, not only at the high school level, when they go on to other places. I I kind of take pride now in being able to name all the different players I see at different, you know, places whether it's NFL, NBA, WNBA.
Like whenever I see Jackie Young come back, I'm like, "Oh yeah, that's the, you know, awesome score for the state." There's that tradition. There's that pride in Indiana sports. So I can't be mad at it, man. Like I told you, this this day changed my life. So I tell all the kids even to this day.
Um they're adults now. Many of them have graduated college. Like they're always asking like, "Man, you interviewed LeBron, you interviewed Steph Curry. Like how'd you get there?" I'm like, cuz y'all allowed me to interview you, right? So, yeah, I think tradition and not being um I think this state has a good sense of not feeling like it has to be anybody else.
Like, we're not trying to be, you know, Chicago. We're not trying to be uh or Illinois as far as a state goes or we're not trying to be New York or something like that. We love our Indiana. We love how we do it here. And um I've learned that to love it here as well. And you know, cost living ain't bad, so I ain't trying to go nowhere.
That's exactly right. I love the way the pride of high schools and high school athletics. The way high school athletics is covered in this state makes it feel so big. Like shout out Greg Rakestraw for instance. The goat man. He is the goat man.
So couldn't agree more. James, this has been awesome. I told you an hour we went an hour and a half. I just love talking to you. I got time for you. This is good stuff.
James, thank you so much. Loved hearing about how you got here, time with the Colts, everything in between. go back and listen. This is this is going to be a good one that you're definitely going to want to listen to. That is James Boyd of the Athletic, the fan morning show 1075. You will not want to miss him on the mornings.
His sports perspective. You want to listen to James Boyd. James thinks, man.
