#589: NFL Week 1 overreactions

0:00What is up, Jester's welcome. We're welcome back to another episode of The Just of It. Today's Tuesday, September 15th. We're your co-host. I'm Ellen Hisslepp and I'm Sephiroth. There was a lot going on on the television this weekend. There was a lot happening on social media over the weekend and last week. There's a lot for us to talk about. We aren't talking about the US Open MENT or Women's Finals, although I found both of them to be pretty good. The Women's Final, much better than the Men's Final. I really felt like Angela Shelton was always going to lose to Zverev. I don't know. I just felt like he didn't have it. But as you know, the first NFL Sunday in my house is like a holiday, essentially. And there was so much going on that are producing as well as myself. I feel like I have some early opinions on where we think that the season

1:00is going to go. There was just so much that was expected but also unexpected. I think thankfully the one thing that we did expect was that Cleveland Brown's quarterback to Sean Watson was absolutely terrible. And I'm so excited that we can talk about that today. So that's one aspect of what happened on TV that we're going to talk about in our one big story today. Yeah, I'm really excited that after one week, we're going to give some predictions. We're going to say, we're delusional. I think we think we know how the season's going to go. And so we're going to tell you and then you can take notes and let us know how right or wrong we are at the end of the season. Yeah, you can truly fact check us later. I think one small part of this, so like we're going to give our quick dates, but then we have not Mama Kelsey joining the podcast because one day she'll come on here though because we are Kylie Kelsey showed us so like Mama Kelsey is going to come on at some point. But we do have Katie Dijene who is Cooper Dijene's mom and he is a Philadelphia Eagles quarterback who I'm like obsessed with. Maureen interviewed her before the season begins. We're also going to have her on the podcastes

2:03are like a first official mom of the pod. The way so Cooper Dijene's name is DE Capital J, EAN the way we want to go to John. Yeah, but we know whenever they set it on broadcast, I'm like, surely it's not to Jean. Like does he does Cooper Dijene know that it's actually Cooper Dijene? Like it's the French of it, right? Yeah, but I'm like he there's clearly some like French origins here. Like does he know that? You know, like this is totally. I'll tell you like them about their name. Yeah, this is totally Americanized or like angle sized or whatever. But it's a really good conversation because it's such an interesting perspective. Like I'm sure we've all thought about what it might be to have a professional athlete for a child. At least anyone who is thinking of conceiving or has conceived because you're just like, what if they're the best listen really? I'm like, I'm literally stuff. I'm like so Mickey people are like, oh, is she going to like sports? I'm like, for sure, she'll do whatever

3:07she wants to do. Meanwhile in my head, I'm like, and Mickey will be playing in the PWA show. Like there's no doubt in my mind is that we're going to see Mickey playing in the PWA show one day. Bob skates when on the baby literally. I'm like, an anti-stuff will be buying her her first pair of skates. It's a guarantee. It's going to be coming out. Teachery out of skate and hockey skates. While she's also teaching me how to skate and hockey skates, like I love this perspective. And it's a new perspective as a mom. I also think that there's something else that we need to call an audible on today. And this is a joint audible that also I have fresh perspective as a mom of a baby girl. Unless you are happy enough living off of social media or TV, you've probably seen this ad. Last week, I mean, we won the talk about on the podcast last week, but I was also pissed off about the US Open. And so we were picking our battles. But last week last Wednesday, it came across our desk that the sports prediction market app Novig dropped in ads starring famous actress Sydney

4:11Sweeney naked, like purely naked while holding various sports equipment items. So if you saw the ad, you'll notice that Sydney Sweeney was naked, but covering herself with footballs, basketballs, footballs, pads, as part of Novig's just sports campaign. And the premise behind this campaign essentially is like other prediction market apps allow you to predict on things like the weather or politics or what anything that's kind of going on and reality shows whatever. And they're saying they are just sports. And that was the whole campaign. But for whatever reason they needed to have a naked woman deliver that message. Yeah, I also only want to talk about it because I just feel like for lack of a better phrase, she's fucking with us. Like they're all messing with us in the sense of like, they knew we would all be mad. They knew that we would be upset. They knew what they were doing.

5:12They knew how damaging this is and they just don't care. Like the statement that Sweeney has given back to the obvious backlash that was swift was that quote unquote, the campaign was about embracing a fun idea. The concept is simple cut through the noise and put the focus entirely on sports, which is obviously not at all what the campaign is doing. The focus is not on sports. The focus is on the objectification of women that is exactly what the focus is on. So she's never going to get it. And she's going to keep throwing it in our faces. And she's going to keep saying she's not political by while while making extremely political decisions with her body over and over again. And I say, Seth, when you say they're fucking with us, maybe they are. Maybe she is. I think the biggest issue though is that the people who are loving this ad and enjoying this ad are not saying, oh, they're fucking with us. They're like, oh, finally a prediction app that gets it. Oh, finally, of course, this hyper sexualization of women is going to make me download this app

6:17because no big just gets me. And so a lot of the social commentary afterward was basically sparking conversation from criticism, mostly from female athletes, women in sports, et cetera, et cetera. And I shared a bunch of these reels to my story over the weekend because I thought they were, I don't know, fantastic responses to this ad essentially showing this is what a women in sports looks like from a on field as well as off field perspective. And I think what really, again, pisses me off. Maybe this section is going to be this, we're taking it from Giggly squad. And page to Sorbo and she's like, think that piss me off this week. That's what Colin Audible is turning into. But like, I think stuff like this is a huge reason why we started the just way back in 2017, 2018 is because then it still felt like the only way that we were welcomed as women in sports was if we were in tight skirts on the sideline. If we were wearing shirts with low, low front so

7:25that you had cleavage while you were a sports reporter, your makeup had to be blown out. It was only if you were the prettiest if you could make it because you were ultimately talking to a guy or if you were a girl who legitimately love sports, everyone looked at you and said, oh, you only do this so that guys will like you or do whatever. And so I just think back to 2017 when we came up with the idea for the gist, I'm like, we have grown so much from a female athlete, female fan perspective. And I think also from a perspective of everybody, but mostly men respecting women, finally respecting women's sports and then finally respecting women in sports as fans or working in sports. And then an ad comes out like this and it kind of reminds me of good good and cowboy where it's like, all of that locker room talk is just in front of us again and you see all the guys in the comments and you're like, oh, this is this is what we're relating to. And a part of me is like, our men that simple, like, is it really that simple to get a man to download

8:27an app? Like, are we okay? I'm begging for them to have more than two brain cells. Like, it's just so upsetting. You're right. Because I remember having a conversation when we first started this podcast with a grown man, like a boomer age and talking about so and so on a sports, like a sports center, I can't remember who we were talking about, but she was a beautiful blonde white woman. And his question to me was, do you think she even like sports or does she just want to be a brother? Exactly. And I go, oh, no, I'm pretty sure the day job she's created in sports, the incredibly hard job that she's gotten. No, no, I'm pretty sure she likes sports, my dude. And that's exactly your right. Like, we've come so far, the concept of the woman sports fan sports caster, we've just had to claw our way to normalize that. And so to create this campaign, just create so much damage. And I hope that we are at the point where a lot of people can see through it. And the people who are going to be celebratory of it are going to like hate us no matter what,

9:30I feel like at this point too. Yeah. And it is like from no big, they're like, oh, prediction app only men are going to download the app like, no, hello, are you forgetting this whole other subset of fandom? It's really just ridiculous. She has what the other thing was city speedy. So she said the same thing that you said, but she's also posted photos of other athletes posing nude like serena Williams, like ronda rousey and like Carl Anthony towns. And I'm like, get them out of your mouth. She doesn't get it. She's never going to get it. She doesn't get it. I'm like, those are from ESPN's the body issue. And the body issue is all about celebrating what all athletes bodies look like. I'm like, you know, who's actually gotten the most flack in their career for what their body looks like serena william. She's still getting flack for what her body looks like. Are you what she wears? Or what she wears? What she weighs? What she's eating? What she's not eating? Like, are you kidding me, Sennie Sweeney? Like that? It's like the sexualization of everything. I'm also like, I don't know. She probably got paid

10:33like, bajillion. She also like this. Oh, and to stake it in or something? Like, she's promoting it like wild. But I'm wondering stuff. I'm like, I don't know. But she, I don't know how many, like women are fans or whatever. But I do feel like from this ad, so many women are going to be like, I actually am not interested in seeing Sydney Sweeney on my screen. Like, I'm not going to be tuning into Euphoria. Like, I'm not. I'm not going to be watching her actually in any other movies. Like, I'm so not buying into anything that she's selling or anything that she's on screen with, because I don't want to be associated with her, especially with everything after the American Eagle campaign and the, the good genes. Like, I just, she's making poor decision after poor decision. And she's coming after the wrong thing. She's doing it the wrong way. The take that has been really bothering me from other news outlets who were writing about this before the backlash came when the, the Adam immediately launched was the empowerment angle

11:34because she is a part owner or something like that. Like, she has financial stake in the business. And they're like, look, she's like really taking it in her own hands. And I'm like, deep breath, deep breath, deep breath, that's not, that's not at all what's happening here. And like poor Sydney sweetie doesn't understand that these men don't think of her as a full human being. Like, they, they, the people she is leaning into in the audience that she is cultivating do not care about her. And she is also just like digging her own grave in that sense. Like, she's not helping her case. The one thing about this past week, I'd say between, or the past couple weeks, between the horrible good, good ad Sydney, sweetie and the Philadelphia flyers creating an AI image with their new arena featuring zero women on the outside as fans. The one thing. Yeah. Did you not see this? No. Steph. It's our most engaged with posts from over the week for we talked about it. It's not gonna stop. So basically, yeah, you do. So basically for those who missed it, the Philadelphia flyers,

12:36the 76ers and the new WNBA team are creating a new arena that's going to be launched in Philly. Y'all know I'm Philly down. Like I love Philly. Love. Unfortunately, whoever made the AI renderings when you look at all of the fans who are outside of the stadium walking into the arena, all of them are men. There's like kids. I think there's even a dog and there's maybe one woman in the way off distance. And between all three of these cases, Steph, the one thing that I'm so proud of is that women are speaking up and we're doing it fast and we're doing it eloquently and we're not taking bullshit and we're making people change things. Like we have enacted change when it came to Calloway and Good Good. We have enacted change when it came to the Philadelphia flyers. They updated their renderings. They apologize. I don't know if we're going to enact change with someone like Sydney, Sweetie or NoVig, but like I don't this last

13:39week to this last couple of weeks, if anything, nobody can underestimate a woman in sports any longer. Period. Okay, now that we've got that off our chest, we have some NFL reactions. There's a few on field, a few off-field things and we're going to make some of those predictions. I think to start, though, Steph and I have a shout out because you know we are concussion girlies. We are all about protecting your brain. It's the most important part of your entire body and it makes you who you are and so many men in the NFL suffer from CTE, from concussions. We know this and it has really long term impact and they created these Guardian caps, which is basically a cap that goes on top of the hard helmet that have statistically shown to significantly reduce your chances of getting CTE.

14:44It doesn't look the best. It's a little bit dorky looking and so of course, with male fragility, so many of them do not wear the Guardian cap even though it is good for them. But every year, there's a cool couple fellas who say, hey, this is actually what we should all be doing and so I think this was actually probably my favorite. Well, I had a lot of favorite moments from the weekend, but this was my favorite. Come at me. Of course, I'm going to wear Guardian capa. It's cool. Having my brain is cool. Can I say his decision when asked about it, like his response, when asked about it? So it's Chris Olave, who's the New Orleans Saints wide receiver. So he said, all the head injuries I've had shoot. I got kids now. I want to be able to live the long game. I want to live a regular life after football. I don't care how it looks no more. And honestly, that's such maturity. I love that. Did you know that I wear a Guardian cap during hockey? No, I didn't know that. I bought it. It was on when it was on sale when I was concussed because I was spiraling that maybe I may never be

15:47able to play hockey ever again. And so I bought it. And there are less studies on it for the use of hockey. The only studies have been really used in hockey practices. And apparently, according to the Guardian cap website, so grain of salt, I would say, it's actually more effective in hockey than in football. Interesting. With their early studies. So it is extremely effective. And the NFL are really cute. Like they have fully branded ones. So I have just like the silly little black bubble that I put on top of my hockey helmet. But there is our fully branded. They look like the right, like the other guys's helmets just a little bit more bubbly. Totally. And you might be dorky, but I'm telling you everyone, like, Steph, it's hot that you protect your head to this guy. It's hot that you protect your head. I'm like, oh, and that's who I want to be friends with. That's who I want to be hanging out with. That's a girl. I'm trying to protect her head. She couldn't really remember. We had played together once before really briefly. And she didn't remember my name. And then when I got on the ice, she goes,

16:49oh, I was like, yeah, I'm bubble girl. You're like, yo, yo, tie my girl. Yeah. She's like, I remember you now. I was like, yeah, you do. Yo, bubble girl. Anyway, that's our hit. That was our favorite off-field moment. I think one of my favorite on-field moments was just like how lights out quarterback Josh Allen was for the Buffalo Bills. Steph loves the Buffalo Bills. On Sunday, he finally beat the Houston Texas in a road game for whatever reason. Houston was a problem. Houston was a big problem for Josh. He never won in Houston before. But on Sunday, he threw for 334 yards, including two touchdowns and ran for another two touchdowns. And so Steph, I'm going to say it. But I think you probably want to say it. I do think that the Bills are an early favorite for Super Bowl 61. Are we going to curse them? That's kind of what we've been doing. But I really, I don't know. I'm like feeling pretty good about them. They've

17:53been knocking out the door every year. They're constantly in the divisional playoffs, constantly in the conference side of things. It got the new coaching staff. Josh Allen is on my Josh Allen's dad. And in some betting market, not to bring it back to betting, but a lot of people bet on new dads. And there's something about dad's strengths where people want to know because they play well the next year. Oh, they got something to live for. They've something to live for. They've something to play for. The second thing coming out of the weekend, I don't know if you had a chance to watch the Chicago Bears versus Carolina Panthers game, but the Bears beat the Panthers 59 to 37. It was so much fucking fun. Obviously watching Red Zone. So Red Zone for those of you who don't watch, it basically has all of the games up at once at the 1 p.m. or 4 p.m. slot. And then it basically takes you to all the different games when they're in the red zone, which is 20 yards into

18:53the end zone. And I felt like I was watching this entire Chicago Bears carol out of Panthers game because they were in the red zone legitimately constantly. It's the highest scoring season opener and NFL history. And I think on top of that stuff, like Caleb Williams was looking so good. I'm like, could he actually be MVP this year? And that's it. That's pretty big take, considering how young he is still in this league. And I still think that the Bears have so much to prove. So we've got two predictions so far, early contender, early favorite Buffalo Bills, and MVP contender, Caleb Williams. Yeah. And we love Caleb also for his fashion, for painting his nails in honor of his mom, like for just being himself. I think the biggest surprise over the weekend stuff was the LA Rams. Like we were literally, we literally just talked about them in the just forecast, the podcast before. Their defense, like was shit. It was absolute shit. And they did not play well. And they did start their season

19:55Australia. And they ended up losing to the San Francisco 49ers, but it was 27 to 7. And so I feel like for a team that has like such high expectations, they didn't do well. Aaron Donald, who we talked about in the just forecast, didn't play like he didn't travel with them, but he will be on the field next week. And then Miles Garrett, who has been the talk of the town in the off season, will not be on the field because he's going into Arthur Scoptic, like discovery, knee surgery, and won't be back until week six. So rethink the LA Rams. And for those of you who have fantasy teams, like whoever's playing the LA Rams might have a chance to put up some more points than what we thought. Do you think the tribal schedule itself has anything to do with it? Like they didn't allow any buffer time. Where's their opponents did they got there early? Like in China? Yeah. How when they got to Australia? I wish I understood that more. You know what I mean? Like I wish I understood the impacts of travel as to athletes, like the signs of it all.

20:56Yeah, exactly. Like I'm sure that they had the 49ers as well as the Rams both had their powers that be look at it. And they both came to different conclusions for a number of different factors or based off of a number of different factors where I couldn't say I would think the rationale would be get acclimatized, get used to the time change, what have you, but I don't know. Maybe there was something that the Rams weren't seeing or that the Rams were seeing that made sense for them to go later. They were trying not to fully acclimatize to the time change. So exactly. You can't win. I mean someone won. It wasn't them. Someone won. It wasn't them. And it also wasn't Cleveland Brown's quarterback to Sean Watson. And you know what? I'm so happy. Do you think he'll be benched by week two? Can we make that prediction? I think a girl can dream stuff. I think like I don't think he'll be benched by week two. I do think however, if he does not show well in game two or three week two or three week four, he will be benched. I think that they will give him

21:57a three strikes or a situation. Do they usually do that? Or is it just because he's coming back from injury? He's got a big contract. Normally. So normally the beginning of the season is still hard. You're still finding your chemistry, whatever. I think that a lot of coaches too, they stand by the quarterback. They stand by them and they stand by the decisions. But at a certain point, especially considering the types of quarterbacks behind him who could come in and I think still do very well, that they would excuse the Sean Watson at some point on hard, not hard knocks. Oh my god, on quarterback on Netflix, if anyone has watched quarterback on Netflix, Joe Flacco is one of the future quarterbacks this year. He was playing decently well and then started playing poorly and I think that the Browns gave him about two or three games if I'm remembering that correctly. So I don't know. I would say three's would be the max I would give him. But I think week four, like we can only hope that he plays like shit for the next three weeks so that we don't see his face on our screens in week four. That is some manifestation that I'm willing to get behind.

23:00Yeah. But in all of this, like don't trust me because actually in our NFL weekly pick-up, I selected so horribly. Everybody, I'm 757. Oh my god. You shared that. You shared that. You shared that. You shared that. I literally the producers were like, please share and I said, must I? Like, do I need to? Obviously our producers and our team are a lot better than me. I think what it was happening is I was trying to pick too many underdogs. And I was like trying to beat the system. And so believe, believe us or don't believe us. I don't know. All our producers are 58th of 100. No, 803 people. Yeah. Pretty good. Pretty good. And so if you haven't played pick-ups beforehand, essentially every single week, you simply pick who you think is going to win. And the reason why we started these pick-ups is because we felt like so many women were invited to play all the fun things that happen around football. So fantasy, office pools, weekly pick-ups, you name it. Like I can count on the number of on one hand the amount of times I've

24:03been invited to things in sports by men period. So we really wanted to build this. And so basically every week, you submit your picks before the first game. And there's cash prizes on the line every week. And then it's cumulative for the full season. So don't worry if you missed week one, like hopping it now. I find that it's a great way to just like keep your finger on the pulse and to learn more. And it's just you could go play at the justbore.com. Yes. And the link for that will also be in the show notes. So you can compete week to week. So I miss week one terribly tragically. I've been blocking myself from Instagram. And I will be a part of week two. Yeah. Anyway, that's it from us. Let's talk about Katie Dijin Cooper's mom. I am so excited. What a treat to wrap up NFL week one. This episode is being wrapped up such a beautiful way or this one big story because we have a personal training session. Yeah. We chatted and by we, we mean Lauren Tuscala chatted with Katie Dijin AKA Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Cooper Dijin's mom just before the season began. So a little bit of a timestamp there for you is a really sweet conversation between the two of them

25:07just about watching your kids compete on the biggest stages her own experience as a superstar athlete. And what these emotions can be like as a mom on game day. And I just think it's just such a beautiful peak inside an NFL stars life and a beautiful conversation. Katie Dijin, welcome to the gist of it. We are so excited to have you on the podcast today. I appreciate it. Thanks for having me. So excited to talk with you. NFL season is of course right around the corner. So we want to talk about Cooper and the upcoming season and everything on the horizon. But I want to start with you because I know you had an incredible athletic career as well. You were a standout basketball player at Breyer Cliff. Before we get into Cooper, I want to hear about you and how sports kind of shaped your life. I actually grew up in a small town. So everybody like sports Canada is where everybody congregated. So I did all the things in high school. But I think basketball was my favorite. So I actually went on to play basketball. I also played

26:08softball in college, but my main interest was basketball. So I went to a small NEI school in Sioux City. And I played basketball there for actually transferred there from a different school that had closed. So I only played three years at Breyer Cliff. But I did graduate from there. And yeah, I had a fun and exciting memorable basketball career there. I love that. We have a lot of sporty gistors. So they will love that story. I played softball in college. So I love anyone who does multiple sports. That playing time, of course, I'm curious how that translated to your family. And of course, you have a very sporty family. So I know there was an approach to playing multiple sports. How did that kind of transfer over into motherhood? I think multiple sports is very beneficial, I guess. I would recommend it. And actually all my kids, they also went to a small school. So they all played the various sports as well. I just think that helps you in all aspects of life. You know, just like teamwork and all the things. So I

27:14definitely encourage multi sport athletes. I love that. And of course, Cooper, multiple sports, but then football came. Is his true love. He's so good at it. Obviously, when did he get his start in football and kind of we talked about those early days for him? He started fairly young, just enjoying all the sports. He just enjoyed watching them, playing them, doing all the things. And he was the type that never sat still. He was always busy. So he was always playing some kind of sport inside outside wherever it may be. And I think that just evolved. And he continued and worked hard, lifted, did all the things in the off season. You know, the better himself for the season and just transpired into where he is today, I guess. When did you know he was going to be as good and good enough for the NFL? When was the kind of that moment of, oh, he's really good at this. Was it an early unlock? Was it later in his career? When did you know he was going to be destined for the pros? I think his life revolved around sports. I think it was at a younger age.

28:19He took his serious at a young age and did all the things to just be the best he could be. So I think at a young age is when I realized that maybe something was going to come of his sports career. Awesome. And that of course brings us to the NFL nowadays and where he's playing. So I'm curious for you, what is an NFL game day? It looked like for you. You're waking up on Sunday. What is that kind of routine for you getting ready for to go watch and play? I guess in relationship to my campaign, the Protect the Moment campaign, on game day, I'm just, I think I'm most excited. Well, I am most excited about just being present, you know, being in the moment, whether it's at the tailgate, like we enjoy starting the game days at the tailgate, seeing all the fans, friends, family. And then obviously it transfers into the game itself, but game days are full of a lot of emotion and energy. And as a mom, I just love being there to

29:21support him and be surrounded by those others that like to support him as well. So with my campaign, always discrete makes me feel more present. And I don't have to worry about bladder leaks and missing, you know, all the game day moments because there's so many and you don't get them back. So, you know, I just want to be present. I love that. It's so true. And with football, when I'm watching at home, I'm like, I can't, I got a time, those bathroom breaks, you got a time, the snack break, because you can't miss a play. You will miss sometimes you miss the entire game. So I love the campaign. I'm just curious a little bit more about why you decided to partner with them in particular. And kind of this moment for female fandom as well for NFL fans, just the origin story of the partnership. Right, right. Yeah. And you know, when I first talked, I always did treat and I learned how common bladder leaks were, you know, like 60% of all women deal with them and experience them. But I feel like a lot of them aren't really openly discussing those. And, you know, I wanted to join the Protect the Moment campaign as an ambassador,

30:23just to help women feel confident and support them and know it's okay to talk about it. It's okay to have them. And in order to not miss those moments, there's products like always discrete that will help you be in the moment and not miss those. It's awesome. It's such a cool campaign. And there's so many things I feel like with NFL female fandom that people don't talk about them of, we got the clear bags and there's products in the bags and there's just so much that comes up. So it's, it's such a fantastic campaign. I really do appreciate it and what you guys are doing. I'm curious more to about those, those emotions on game day. We talk about kind of the getting ready and the highs and the lows. If you can just kind of talk us through your game day, the roller coaster of that day and how you experience it. I think to an extent, it's a little nerve-wracking, you know, because there's a lot that's going to go on on the field and, you know, you want your athletes to be safe and healthy throughout the games. Game days are a long day and, you know, it starts in the tailgate scene and then, you know, it transfers onto the field. And, you know, I just, I love being there in the moment,

31:27like prior to the game, to wishing a lot, giving my hug on the sidelines and I head up to my sea. You know, as we're at during the game, so I don't want to not ever be there. So hence the, you know, the Protect the Moment campaign, I want to be in the stands and not miss any of those moments. In case he does look up and see us, but I think game day is an emotional roller coaster, to be honest, in a good way, in a good way, you know, but it's tiring, but it's enjoyable. For sure. I know they always talk about the Monday for the players. They don't talk about the fans and the the supports as well as the family and your Monday must be that emotional low after all that exertion and everything. They don't talk about that often. It's an recovery day for the fans too. Totally. I feel that as just watching from the sidelines on the couch. And for our audience too, we have a lot of new mothers, people that want to become moms in the future. In our audience, and I'm curious, as a mom to an NFL player, what advice do you have for

32:28gisters who are thinking about putting their kids in sports? Maybe their kids are starting to play sports? Kind of can you talk about any advice for them? Yeah, I think the main thing is just be supportive. You know, you want to encourage them and you want them to do well, but don't, you know, overstep your boundary. Just be supportive. And I think it's a big part to keep them humble. You know, you want them to work hard and you want them to appreciate every level, I guess, that gets you to where you really want to be. So I think supportive is probably the biggest thing. Just be supportive. And don't push them too much, but be there kind of, you know, to help them along the way. I love that. Katie, thank you so much. Congrats on the partnership. It's such a cool campaign. I love everything we can do for NFL fans and female fans in particular. So really appreciate your time today. It was so great talking with you. Awesome. Thank you so much. Have a good day.

33:28All right, time for our personal training session. This is the segment we would love to get you involved. We would love to answer any questions that you have about anything in the sports world or amplify any sort of hot take that you might have. Yes. And in today's personal training session, we hear from Aaron. So thank you, Aaron for messaging us. She messages us on Instagram, stuff is at Stephanie Rots. I'm at Ellen at the dress. You can also email us at pod at the just sports.com. But Aaron, Demdesson said, so the National Bank tennis open has an ad featuring women tennis players with a voiceover talking about the cost of playing shows women practicing or seeing a baby on sidelines playing a match, then asked why aren't they paid the same? They brag that the National Bank open is going to pay players the same in 2027. So they identified this as a problem, duh, and then spent likely hundreds of thousands on an ad campaign to run during the US open in 2026 instead of taking that money and paying the players what they deserve this year. I think this is

34:29called fem washing the gist. Love to say. So there's a lot to this. I think that there's actually a lot of nuance. So I'm excited to get into this. I think that there's a commercial nuance. There's also some sponsorship nuance with National Bank open. And then I think that there's some business model side of things. So let's start with some context first in 2023, the National Bank open or the Canadian open. And now said it would award equal prize money to the men's and women's tournaments starting in 2027. Super exciting. So and in this might come as a you might be like, wait, I thought there was equal money in tennis, but that's only guaranteed in the grand slams. So it's not every single ATP or WTA tournament. So for this tournament, the Canadian open 2025, they reach 60% of the men's 2026 with 78% and in 2027, it will be 100% and it will have a $10 million prize pool, which is a 350% increase over four years. I think one thing just with the Canadian open and the National Bank,

35:33it wasn't always National Bank who actually was a sponsor for this Canadian open. And so if I'm remembering correctly stuff, which I hope that I am, the Canadian open was sponsored by another company. And it was the National Bank when they came in that said, we are going to get the women to that prize money by 2027. I think it was Rogers beforehand who was the title sponsor. And so I actually was like quite happy seeing with support from the National Bank that we were going to get to this place. I mean, I would hope so too, right? Like I do feel a sponsor like the National Bank has no excuses. But you did mention in your message area in the concept of fem washing. So let's break that down real quick. It is when companies use feminist slogans to appear more progressive than they actually are while failing to support gender equality in actuality and reality. And

36:35while I 100% feel your frustration seeing something like this ad pop up and just knowing how much that ads based does cost. I personally don't think that's 100% what's happening here. It would of course be incredible if we were already at equal pay. And then this didn't need to be talked about. But because like Ellen mentioned, it's not a guarantee at all of these events. I do think it is worth talking about, is it worth talking about at the US open slot? Maybe not. I don't know. But I do think that it is worth advertising. Yeah, it's it's so hard, right? Like this is where even like for us as business owners, there's always a pro and a con to how you're spending your money. And there's always going to be a question of where should it go? I think it's so hard and something like the Canadian Open or National Bank Open or what have you where 100% we want to get to the places

37:38equal money as fast as possible. And I think in 2023, they made that commitment that they could get there as long as different things panned out. And I think you can say you're doing that. But then you also have to make sure that you're able to drive ticket sales that you're able to drive viewership that you're able to drive fandom. And the only way to do that is by spending on media to actually help you reach the numbers that you need to get so that you can have equal pay. And so that's the that's the chicken and the egg and all of these. The pros and cons of everything of could they have maybe increased the prize pool to equal pay maybe two years earlier, perhaps but would it be as impactful or effective if they didn't have the marketing and media dollars around the tournament so that the tournament itself was successful? That's probably what they're dealing with and grappling with. And so I do really get where you're coming from Aaron because that

38:40is so hard to see, especially in a US Open slot. And I do also appreciate that's probably really hard where the National Bank is also coming from because they probably want to get there quicker. But they're also as a as a WTA and ATV partner, their responsibilities to also grow the game of tennis and to grow the game of tennis, you have to like talk about what you're doing. So this that that parts really tough to me. I'm not sure what the right answer is, but that's the I guess, both sides to just give some context on that business side. That is really good context too because as a viewer or as a fan, now I'm more likely to buy tickets to the Canadian Open. Now knowing that come 2027, it's going to be equal prize money. Whereas if you're maybe on the fence or if you didn't know that or if you weren't aware of this issue, you might not become a long-term fan or you might not actually go through the effort of physically showing up in person and buying tickets. So I do totally see both sides and I do think that there are frustrations when it comes to seeing ads. I have less of a frustration when it comes to seeing ads

39:47from companies like this who I know are just trying to create a long-term sustainable strategy and interest versus like governments. You know what I mean? Like I'm so sick of seeing my government create ad campaigns and I just know how much those costs. So I do feel we could also push some of that energy into different spaces. But again, I don't know if you're Canadian or American and so I can't can't comment on that. Not to Libra's seeing both sides. We could have seen that coming. Ontario is are you with me if we see another one of those freaking commercials? I have no idea what you're talking about. Yeah, oh you're so lucky. Oh my god, they're just really just turned in them out. Anyhow. But this is a strategy. This is a strategy. If you'd like to be featured on a future episode, as I already mentioned, reach out to us on Instagram at Stephanie Rott's at Ellen at the Gis or email us part of the Gisborne.com. Leave us a voice and know we love to hear it. And that marks the end of today's episode. Thank you so much for tuning in. We'll be back on your feed with a new podcast on Thursday in the meantime.

40:49If you enjoyed this episode, love you to great review and subscribe. This episode was edited by Savannah Hald and produced by Lisa Minnetillo and Alessandro Puchio. Again, I'm Ellen Hislip and I'm Separat and we'll chat with you again on Thursday.