Sports Media is filled with an endless stream of personalities, stories, and gossip, and I'm here to cover it all.

I'm John Arran, Puck's Sports Correspondent, and I've been covering the media business for right around 30 years. I have a new

podcast called The Varsity where I will take you inside the executive suites and

owners boxes that run the entire sports business. Twice a week, I will bring on the smartest people I know

to break down the hottest topics in sports media

and give you a window into the inside conversations

that are happening throughout sports media. the best known personalities in the business, everyone from Payton Manning to Jimmy Battaro.

If you have designs to make the Varsity itself, you need to listen to the Varsity Podcast.

Don't be stuck on the JV Squad this year.

I'll be coming at you every Wednesday and Sunday,

so be sure to follow and listen to the Varsity Podcast,

a presentation of Odyssey in partnership with Puck, wherever you get your podcasts. The news came with dessert.

On Christmas Eve, 1929, not quite two months after the disastrous stock market crash.

President Herbert Hoover and his holiday guests were in the State Dining Room when they

were told that the West Wing was in flames. The Oval Office itself was

burning. In black tie and smoking a cigar, the president excused himself to inspect the fire.

The New York Times wrote, at times it seemed as if the flames were subdued, but there were occasional

bursts of blaze through the roof, and the firemen had great difficulty

in getting control of the situation.

In the main part of the mansion, the First Lady tried to distract her guests by asking the marine band to play on.

Metaphores don't come much more apropos. The Hoover White House at the onset of the Great Depression subject to the destructive

whims of an uncontrollable force.

...