We've already run through a bunch of guests. We have another ready. Let's see who this is.

Hey, Mike. This is Damon Amendolaara over at CBS Sports Radio. How are you? How are you? Good. Thank you. How's

everything? I'm doing well. And first of all, I'm in the studios and you're not here. I can't see you.

So this is kind of like talking to the Great Oz, which is actually how I imagine this going anyway when Monz asked me to do it.

I wanted to thank you for the genre that you helped define.

I obviously work in the industry in the same building, host a radio show, have a podcast that many of your listeners have probably heard about, about 4,000 too many times.

They hate me for that.

But you helped create kind of a landscape that what we did was

taken seriously and was part of the fabric of sports debate where the best of the industry mattered

and you're one of the best ever and you never took the low road when you went after somebody

you criticized them it wasn't about conjecture speculation or off or off the field stuff. It was about what they didn't

do on the field. And I never forgot that. I always kind of try to admire that and emulate that.

And I want to thank you for forcing CBS to pay you lots and lots of money because it helped set

the market for the rest of us, except the problem is you took all of CBS's money. So I'm paid in trade from Sal's Piz's in Staten Island.

Well, whatever you can get, you know, whatever, whatever, but thank you for all of that. And

I hope I left some there. So now I'm not taking any, so you have no excuse. Now you can go in there

and get whatever you want. So I'm not taking any anymore. And Salz has great garlic knots anyway, so I'm good there. That's very good, yes. Mostly, I want to thank you for, in all sincerity, giving me a few minutes more than 20 years ago when I was just a scared high schooler.

I came into the fan in 97 to do a high school project, and I asked if I could get a couple minutes with you.

And before you went on the air with dog, you gave me a couple minutes.

And you patiently listened to all my questions.

You thoughtfully answered all of them.

And even at the end of it, we were off air and you said, you know, not bad, Damon.

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