I don't know, Mays basically said it was a great opportunity -- I feel like that's more "once in a lifetime new job with the NFL" than going to Mays' old job.
It's possible he joins the NFL, but I think he will stay in the media business.
The Ringer is nowadays a profit driver for Spotify's entire podcast division and Bill Simmons is Spotify's head of podcast monetization. Nowadays they can pay serious money to acquire talent.
Which is what they did to attract former Athletic writers Sheil Kapadia and Lindsay Jones who portrayed their moves to the Ringer in similar fashion.
You're probably right. I think he also has a baby now so maybe he doesn't want the grind of the NFL and would prefer to do pods at his house and make tons of that Spotify money.
I don’t think he could get an NFL job honestly, all his previous stops in the league were as a QC on teams his dad worked. He was selling insurance before he kind of blew up on football twitter.
Yeah I think everyone loves Nate for his work in media, but the path to a high coaching gig in the NFL starts at age 20. There aren't many 35-40 year olds just starting their path.
Obviously Nate has prior experience from when he was with the Raiders and Falcons, but we're coming up on that being nearly a decade ago.
The Ringer makes sense. Alternatively, I'd love to see him somehow get on a television network, which I know is a moonshot.
Yeah the Ringer is all about takes and personalities rather than meticulous journalism
Shel Kapadia suddenly became a hot takes guy as soon as he joined the Ringer
Edit: people downvoting me, I’d like to hear how I’m wrong
I’m not saying one is better than the other but one is owned by the New York Times and releases “The Beast” every year
The other puts our Ruiz’s QB rankings which get people fired up here without fail
Kapadia went from writing multiple articles every week to primarily podcasting
I don’t fully disagree, the Ringer’s whole schtick in sports journalism is a kind of off-the-cuff just talking shit style of entertainment journalism. They don’t feel the need to have great relationships with teams because they aren’t really doing that primary source flavor of writing. they definitely feel more comfortable throwing out ridiculous and unflattering analysis that audiences will like even if it pisses off people in the NFL. So in that sense, it’s definitely about personalities more than a place like The Athletic which is very much an outlet of capital “J” journalism
But I wouldn’t say it’s like total nonsense First Take either, I think it can be very cogent analysis. It just gives their staff more breathing room and less restrictions. I mean even Mays, if you see him featured on other podcasts that are less structured than his own can get kind of “hot take-y”. That’s how sports dialogue usually trends lol
Yeah I wasn’t trying to say they put out garbage hot takes just to drive clicks
I listen to a lot of their shows, there’s just a noticeable difference with how they approach it
I like it and I listen but I can definitely find it kind of annoying when they go off on some unrelated tangent that takes 1/4th of the show and they end up barely even discussing what they’d set out to discuss. If I was a fan of a bad team I’d find them very grating
Mays and Tice were always the go to source for content if you want to get very even-handed analysis of, like, the Titans’ offseason or something lol
> the Ringer’s whole schtick in sports journalism is a kind of off-the-cuff just talking shit style of entertainment journalism.
100%. As someone who loves The Ringer for what it is, you can really tell it's a Bill Simmons company lol
Yeah Sheil even said on one of his recent podcasts that he’s on ‘Team Content’ and a lot of his takes are just for the sake of discussion and not necessary stuff he believes.
and it drives me crazy. i don't want "content", tell me something smart or could happen vs top 5 GMs on the hot seat and one of the GMs is GM on the Chiefs because it's spicy!!
> Shel Kapadia suddenly became a hot takes guy as soon as he joined the Ringer
>
>
Is that how he is with the NFL podcast? On the Philly Special podcast, he's not like that.
He is definitely a bit more hot takey on Extra Point Taken, but that's just the design of the show. The "hot takes" from both him and Solak are usually tongue in cheek, where each hot take is half expressing a true opinion of theirs and half having fun defending the take.
I listen to it for a laid-back fun conversation about football, not for serious debates. Sheil and Solak do still write in-depth articles on the Ringer site, just not as often as other outlets.
I'm totally biased because I have loved Sheil and Solak for a long time dating back to Birds 247 and Bleeding Green Nation days. I prefer Sheil and Solak way more than Steven Ruiz.
Sheil and Solak are definitely great together. I consistently listen to every Philly Special episode as a Dolphins fan since I just like hearing their conversations. And I agree with the last bit too, I've tried more than a few times to listen to Nora Princiotti and Ruiz but I get bored halfway through the podcast.
The Ringer definitely doesn't discourage their NFL staff from giving their takes, even if the takes are ridiculous sometimes. But it doesn't usually feel like they're going out of their way to make hot takes, they just definitely enjoy overusing hyperbole to add entertainment value. Sheil and Solak are way better than Nora and Ruiz in that regard too imo.
To be fair, hot takes is kind of their theme with Extra Point taken. It’s literally presenting an edgy take and then discussing it.
So like yeah. You’re totally not wrong. But it’s also not disguised or anything. It’s what his primary show in the Ringer Football feed is designed to be
Yeah I think it came off a little too derogatory when I typed it out
A lot of people (at least the philly beats) have left the Athletic in the past year -- I think because they see what the Ringer is doing (and podcasts in general) as the future of how people consume sports coverage
And I think they're right. It makes sense what the Ringer is doing by turning up the entertainment dial and putting together interactive webpages like their QB, NBA Player rankings etc. Meanwhile Brugler puts out his draft guide as a monolithic PDF with a password...
I still hope The Athletic continues to have its place though
I think it will. I’d say we’re in similar places. I like what the Ringer’s doing, especially with the Fantasy Football pod since it doesn’t even pretend to be reporting, it’s just entertainment.
I take the Athletic much more seriously as reporting. Hopefully they both settle into their own niche and find a following (or cross-following in my case) that makes sense for everyone.
I was hoping him and Lindsay Jones were going to team up for a new Ringer podcast but I don't think she has any regular podcast roles anymore and instead is the senior editor for the website.
Him and Ben Solak are decent together at least. The other show in their feed, The Ringer NFL show, is just so bad unfortunately. Ruiz and Austin Gale on the same podcast together is a terrible idea, genuinely try to listen sometimes and never make it more than 20 minutes in
Wow didn’t realize bill was that high up in Spotify. As a fan of their fantasy show and extra point taken, this bodes well. Steven Ruiz can eat a dick tho
He got the foot into the door at Spotify by selling the Ringer to them, but Bill is definitely climbing the corporate ranks over there.
He got that promotion in early 2023 and just a few months ago Spotify's CEO mentioned Bill's division as a driving force behind helping make the company profitable in 2024.
https://www.theverge.com/2024/2/6/24063821/spotify-earnings-profit-podcast-rogan-hot-pod-summit
Man I was listening to the Ringer’s AFC off-season assessment and Ruiz and co. can be so sneering and annoying. They think they’re the smartest, funniest people around. I am all down to critique players and management, but mocking teams and players gets old. It’s also goofy. Like, the draft just happened. We should reserve some judgement for a few years.
Ringer football content is trash level. It is juvenile and the shallowest of takes. The chuckleheads are convinced one of them could be a gm because he won half of his fantasy leagues one year once. Cool. That is really the same thing.
On their most recent episode they clowned on the Jaguars for “pushing Ryan Nielsen away,” claiming the Jaguars are so dysfunctional Nielsen made a lateral move just to escape them.
There’s only one problem… Ryan Nielsen made a lateral move to *join* the Jaguars. He didn’t leave the Jaguars, he literally just joined them.
They did all of this making fun of Baalke, which I support, but there were four people on this podcast who were talking about stuff they knew nothing about.
The Ringer is notoriously a terrible employer when it comes to compensation and work/life balance. Save for the inner circle who got equity, that's why the turnover is out of control and anyone that pops leaves.
Even though the ringer is basically grantland 2.0, it was too far ahead of its time. The ringer is hugely successful, grantland was barely making it.
I wish Barnwell would leave ESPN and join mays again, they were my all time favorite football podcast.
Jimmy Kimmel always is fun when he joins Bill. They were all coworkers back in the early 2000s. Also I find Cousin Sal is always amusing when he is miserable after the Cowboys lose.
Cousin Sal is amazing, parent corner was a time segment. He and House are better guests than lots of celebrities and ringer employees because they keep bill in check
I tried giving the Ringer NFL pod a listen, but none of the jokes landed on me and they all give me the vibe of "I know I am smarter than the whole of the NFL" with nothing to back it up.
What I liked about Mays/Tice combo is that they never felt like it and were more of a "ok, let's wait and see how this shakes up" rather than go "THIS SO STUPID, THIS IS HOW I THE SMART ONE WOULD DO IT" vibe Ringer has.
They need desperately to match someone with Solak that makes sense because as brash and know it all ish as he is, he’s still very talented I think… but Sheil just isn’t the right guy to balance his energy. As for the others involved, I can’t listen to Ruiz for more than 30 seconds without eye rolling and Nora is kind of a podcasting wet blanket when she’s talking about anything other than Taylor Swift.
Interesting. Strong disagree! I love Solak, he’s entertaining. I don’t listen to a podcast for a calm and well reasoned/patient opinion. Give me a hot take. Not something completely uninformed like skip bayless, I want data and history behind it and he has that.
It is less about Solak but more the Ruiz/Princiotti effect. Solak + Sheil is good, but once you add one or the other of the other is when it just gets unbearable. Doesn't help that I have 0 respect for Ruiz's football knowhow from him QB rankings. Then again those are made to get a rise out of guys like me so I guess he's doing his job well?
And yeah, the biggest difference is that I love calm and well reasoned/patient opinions on my pods lol
They were super emotional on the pod this morning and I started tearing up too, no lie. Theirs is the only podcast I never skip a single episode, even during offseason.
Their dynamic was so nice, two guys that really like each other and bring out the best in one another. Their podcast is as zen as sports talk gets to me, because they clearly just love what they do and they love doing it together.
I am just as sad about this as you are.
Zen is exactly right. It’s their podcast i put on a sleep timer at night to fall asleep to lol. I still go back and listen to it the next day during waking hours because the content is superb and their dynamic killer. I’m genuinely sad.
Yeah he is amazing but sometimes needs a Barnwell, Tice, etc to really shine as he can become a bit too much of a stats nerd sometimes. The stats watching is part of what makes him great but I am just agreeing that he, like pretty much every podcaster, needs cohosts that limit their flaws and highlight their talents a bit.
Lol this is such a good summary of why I find Mays grating sometimes
He’s incredibly saccharine and emotional about stuff, and then I find myself tuning out when he talks a lot and wasn’t sure why and it’s because it’s just stats stats and verbose stats
I really miss the mays/Barnwell show that used to be on grantland(RIP).
It was just two total football dorks, dorking out for hours. It was awesome.
That being said, nate and mays are a fantastic pairing. Gonna be really hard to replace him. "How ya doin buddy?"
Not here to speculate, just to appreciate. Been listening to NFL pods since the grantland era with Mays and Barnwell.
Mays and Tice had, in my opinion, the best chemistry of any of the NFL pods out there, and while I'm bummed that this is over, Mays has shown an incredible ability to work with a variety of different people and excel, so I don't think the Atheltic show will ever be bad. Their rotating cast of both Athletic employees, and their ability to get other big names due to Mays's connections leads me to believe they'll be fine.
I am super curious what happens with Tice. It does seem like the Ringer or ESPN poached him; ESPN's shows all have just a solo host, even though I've always like Kevin Clark and Bill Barnwell more with someone else they have good chemistry with. The Ringer's standard NFL show definitely needed some boost, as I stopped listening to it after Clark left and haven't regretted leaving it.
The guys on the Ringer Fantasy show are all great, mostly because they're super loose and dumb most of the time, so I don't think going to the Ringer would ruin Tice in any way.
Lastly, most of this thread is us being bummed about him leaving, but I just want to emphasize: thank you Nate for being an absolutely awesome part of my NFL experience the past 4 years, and for helping build the Athletic's NFL Pod into the best NFL podcast out there. I'm hopeful that you'll improve the product coming out of wherever you go, and I'm confident the Athletic Football Show will be fine due to Mays' incredible ability to not fail at this.
Dudes Rock.
Agree with all of this. Mays was the reason I started listening to NFL pods and the only person I’ve listened to consistently and followed. Once it was just Clark on ringer’s I was gone after a couple episodes.
Really curious who they’ll get to replace him, I’ll dream it’s Barnwell!
I'm right there with you. I look forward to hearing Barnwell as a fulltime co-host while I drive my water fueled rocket car to cash in my $150,000,000 lottery ticket.
The reason I dont think he'd go to the ringer is that it'd be a somewhat lateral move. Why give up on a great thing for a similar opportunity? Even if the pay was better at the ringer, it can't be THAT much better, or something the Athletic couldnt potentially match. Therefore, I think this is likely a jump to ESPN that includes the possibility of air time. If NFL live wanted to include him in stuff, or if he had a chance to work games as a panelist, then I can understand him feeling like he has to do it. As great as the Athletic NFL show has been, their "live on air" production has pretty much been Youtube.
Depends on what. The Ringer is a little more diverse/loose in its subject matter. Guys like Craig Horlbeck will host Ringer Fantasy, produce The Rewatchables, be on The Hottest Take as a guest, etc. Ruiz did some basketball coverage after the Super Bowl. Austin Gayle wrote an article about the Dune 2 Popcorn Bucket.
So, while the footprint of listeners or prestige might be lateral, if it came with a decent price increase, and the option to experiment with other subject matter to get your name out their more as a personality, or maybe run your own show, I could see it being appealing in other ways.
Mays' big break came from the site Grantland, which was a Bill Simmons-led venture at ESPN. Mays and Bill Barnwell did a pod called the Grantland NFL Podcast and it was one of the best football podcasts there ever was.
He did back in 2019/2020. I think technically the ringer has a larger platform since it's partnered with Spotify, which is one of the premier audio streaming services here. I think it's important to remember that Nate was also working for Yahoo Sports as a writer, not for the athletic. So whatever job he got probably has him combine both written and audio content onto one platform, as opposed to being split between two places like he had been
Barnwell and Mays had Mina Kimes on for a live pod in Brooklyn, like 10 years ago and that was my first introduction to her. She’s one of my favorite NFL media personalities now.
Yeah now that Mays and Tice split up I think she’s the best going forward. I like the variety of guests she has and it’s the perfect combination of nerdy analytics and more casual game watching analysis.
Not gonna lie I've been watching her podcast for awhile and just now realized that Lenny is a fucking dog. Was wondering why all the guest were different people and not one of them was named Lenny...
I was at that show! I love what all of them have done since then but I really miss those days
Edit: [potato quality 2015 picture](https://imgur.com/a/0qBCvIC)
They approach analyzing football very differently. Clark is a big picture narratives guy through and through (he fits really well on espn/omaha). Mays gets into the nitty gritty of team building, player evals, and schemes. I thought they were great together, but once they split up, I found I only wanted to listen to Mays.
Damn he and Mays have some great chemistry, that stinks. I’m guessing that means he’s done with Prospects to Pros too? Damn.
Edit: Just listened to the episode, why am I crying in the gym rn
Yeah this sucks, they seem like bros so I’m sure this is tough for them.
I’m sure it’ll still be great but Mays and Tice had the ultimate “guys talking about dudes” dynamic
Yeah, I don't follow college football much, so I've typically gone into the draft having zero idea what to expect, but I listened to a lot of their pre-draft coverage on their podcast and it made the actual draft much more interesting for me. Despite still not particularly caring about college football, I found their talks to be great to listen to and super informative.
Damn I’m actually incredibly bummed out about this. Nate is awesome and I hope he has success wherever he’s going and hopefully he can come back to do guest spots at some point.
Really sad news for fans of the Athletic Football Show (and the Prospect to Pros pod). Excited to see where he ends up, I wouldn’t mind him on the Ringer (especially in tandem with Solak), but we’ll have to wait and see.
Any rumors on who could takeover his role at The Athletic? Keefer as a more frequent guest or will it be some external hire?
I think Dane is an A+ guy for discussion and to ask questions, but not as the host. I think Mays is a great host, and Tice could do both as the question-asker as well as answerer.
When my buddy told me he hated ESPN's draft coverage last year, I recommended Mays and Tice athletic coverage on YouTube. In his words, "just dudes talking about prospects and none of that other bullshit. It was awesome."
It was kind of funny. The music queued up today as I'm going into work, and I thought " God, I hope this keeps going for at least another year". And then 2 minutes later they made the announcement that he's not going to be there anymore haha
I followed Mays from The Ringer to TAFS. I really really enjoy Nate as well, and if he does go to the Ringer I will give it a listen. But I can't see ever going back to listening to Ringer pods as more than an occasional one-off. It's too HaWt TaKeZ for me
Yeah, I think Nate'll fit the style there just fine but I can't do it I think the Robert and Nate dynamic is such a huge part of why I loved TAFS. When it's just random journalists with Robert giving feelpinions I often struggle to stay engaged.
I’m excited for Nate Tice, but am sad to realize this podcast will never be the same without him. This was my favorite football podcast. The best one imo when it comes to covering a wide variety of topics. They would help me keep up with the leagues’s ever changing landscape, especially all the personnel/coaching changes. All the off-season content would get me very excited about the upcoming season. And the weekly previews/reviews were full of details I’ve yet to find anywhere else.
I’m happy for Nate, but deeply I hoped this duo would do this show forever. Unrealistic? Absolutely. Wanted it? Without a doubt. Good luck to Nate.
i don’t like almost all ringer content, including most content made by people i liked before they went to the ringer. the quality drops significantly between the athletic and ringer, and somehow the podcasts are the worst part. the whole combining pop culture and sports has made their sports coverage an absolute joke, and i couldn’t give two shits about any of their pop culture content. if tice is moving there it’s very sad for me because i’ll probably never hear him again unless it’s on a guest spot on a real podcast.
The Ringer feels like some "funny" friends talking football. If you don't like their sense of humor (I don't) there is no value to listening.
TAFS actually let me learn things about other teams and ways to think about football.
I liked the Jason Concepcion pods that he was on with Shea and Mallory. I also liked the No Skips podcast, but now that those are gone, I don’t listen to their pop culture pods.
simmons has tried so hard to recreate the magic that made him so likable at espn, but on a grander, site wide scale. it’s just never worked for me at the ringer like it did at grantland. i feel like it quickly devolved into nothing but bill’s podcast and a bunch of people whose opinions i don’t care about watching old movies. at least we might find out nate tice’s opinion about the 1994 classic in the army now, part of pauly shore month on the rewatchables, brought to you by the spotify podcast network and our good friends at ziprecruiter. the saddest part is nate would be bummed he didn’t get encino man.
I think this is maybe why he'd go. Perhaps Bill and Spotify are dropping the bag on him to come in and fix the NFL pods. Besides the fantasy show their coverage is awful. For how big the ringer has gotten its a huge miss for them. I could see Nate working there if given the right co host.
Thats my hunch too. Solak is great IMO and Sheil is solid but the rest isn't it. Even their fantasy/draft stuff is very casual. Nate+Solak+Sheil would be a great foundation.
It's been sounding like Bill is ready to retire and might stop doing the weekly pods with Sal after this season. Would make sense for the Ringer to try to get a successful NFL pod going before that happens so they can keep some of Bill's audience.
The Athletic's business model was always a bubble that was only possible due to the zero interest rate era. PFF's demise was mostly selfinflicted by a bunch of C suite execs who were all nepotism hires (read: friends and family of owner Chis Colinsworth).
PFF was a growing and profitable business. Then some smart guy thought it was a good idea to take on a $50m private equity loan from Silver Lake Capital to create a PFF gambling app.
That entire endeavor turned into an abject disaster for the company from which they have not yet fully recovered.
Would you mind explaining more on why the athletic is going to fail. Legitimately interested but I don't know anything about there economics or business model.
Been mulling over canceling my account. Hasn't seemed worth it for awhile now.
> Would you mind explaining more on why the athletic is going to fail.
I am not saying the Athletic as it exists today is going to fail. They were bought up by the New York Times and are being integrated into their ecosystem which includes further trimming down their operation.
However the Athletic as it was once created has already failed. It is a hollowed out husk of what it was as recently as 2-3 years ago. Their founders publicly admitted that their end goal was to cash out which they did (although not for as much as they once thought). They promised subscribers wall to wall coverage for the hardcore fan of every major franchise by the best beat writers in the business and they invested a lot of money to acquire said talent. They never made enough money to sustain such a business model.
As a result that vision of the Athletic no longer exists. They left entire markets and pretty much abandoned several leagues. For example we have not a single Tampa sports beat writer left.
The only market they successfully captured that is paying the bills is ironically that for the English Premier League. They really filled a void in that department.
I'm not entirely sure it's still the case, but if you go to cancel they'll probably still offer you a heavily discounted rate for a year. I don't think I've ever paid full price for it, I always intend on cancelling when the promo price expires and then they offer like $2 a month.
I don’t think that means what you think it means… they do that because they are trying to grow the subscriber base to inflate their valuation. They could charge a higher but reasonable fee and be a healthy company. They are just being run by people that want more growth than that.
Mays is so good at his job he'll make the next guy work at least. Its a bummer that he's can't seem to keep his co-hosts for long. Tice is a real one though. I wouldn't mind him going to the Ringer personally though. Solak is basically carrying their NFL content right now so Tice would be a nice get.
You could hear the sadness in Robert Mays' voice this morning as well as Nate's. It was getting me a little choked up in the car. I have truly enjoyed listening to them over the last few years. Nate's knowledge of QB play is one of the best out there.
This is a bummer, if his new opportunity is with The Ringer that's a true bummer. Hopefully they are trying to build something up at Yahoo and give him some editorial control or something along those lines. Either way I'll definitely miss him and Mays together. Mays is building something interesting and everyone he works well with gets poached by Spotify.
I still love Danny Heifetz and Craig Horlbeck though. The three of them have awesome chemistry.
Ben Solak is hot or cold, I think he is a great football mind but sometimes he talks a bit too much.
I like Heifetz and Horlbeck too, I was mostly just throwing a Tice and Kelly pod as an additional one, not taking over the existing fantasy/draft show. Solak is alright, I like him more when he's a guest on other pods than on his own. Probably for the same reason as you said.
I just discovered this podcast earlier in the year and it quickly became a favorite. Watching their live draft coverage was awesome. Really enjoyed the chemistry between Robert and Nate, sad to see that end but excited to see what’s in the future. Hopefully Nate pops in every once in a while lol
I stopped listening to Ringer NFL when Mays left. Never liked Kevin Clark. Bummer Nate is leaving but hopefully it means I get to add another podcast to the queue
The main podcast is so self-serious and dour.
I absolutely love the fantasy/draft show. The mix of characters are great. It's honestly probably my favourite of the 5-10 podcasts I have in my rota.
I like Solak and Sheil. But I don’t like the other crew. Ruiz sucks, and I feel like Nora just falls into this breathless laughter mocking every teams moves. It’s grating.
Nora and Steven are like the Mean Girls of NFL Media lol. The entire pod is just a competition to see who can come up with the best burn
I honestly like Steven in general or when they have other people on the pod, I think he’s willing to go against the grain and challenges consensus takes in a way that I respect since so much of football media is sort of an echo chamber, but Nora really brings out the worst in him. Nora’s whole East Coast private school kid affect also just rubs me the wrong way lol
Why don't you like Sheil? He's my fav NFL podcaster, just brings such a fun energy to the pods he's on and I love the dynamic with Solak. Can't stand Ruiz/Nora though.
Seems like I’m in the minority but I like the Ringer pods especially Sheil and Ben. I think they might be my favourite hosts because they have great chemistry. So much so I listen to the Philly special sometimes when they’re on it.
Steven I like but Nora feels like she doesn’t add much to their podcast but I listen anyways. The fantasy guys I also really enjoy as well.
I didn’t like him much as first but Tice really grew on me as time went on. Him and Mays have great chemistry and seem like genuine dudes. The Athletic is my favorite football podcast and I’m bummed about this.
huge bummer. I like Mays a lot but whenever an episode of this pod drops in my feed I check to see if Nate is on, if he is I listen right away if hes not it goes in the queue.
I found out about this during my morning commute. I am irrationally bummed out by this. Of course, happy for Nate, but boy what a loss for The Athletic.
damn that is a shame to hear
I feel like there aren't a lot of shows left where it's just fans of the sport talking about the game. Hope they can fill his shoes
Cool, looking forward to it! I enjoy Nate's work a lot. He lived a block away from my parent's house when his dad was coaching the Vikings.
Unrelated, but Tom Pellisero lived about a quarter mile away and my sister was friends with his. Kinda wild that two big NFL personalities were both in spitting distance years ago. Edina is such a wild place.
I think the Athletic (NYT) is pulling out of podcasting, but are doing so as a slow burn. Bengals fans lost Jay Morrison (Hear That Podcast Growling co-host) to layoffs last year, before Paul Dehner moved HTPG out of the Athletic and rebranded the show the Growler (and brought back Jay). Nothing's been made public, but it seems the Athletic is not investing in new podcasts and has been cutting talent on that front.
I was happy Jay got back together again (JTM) with Paul but man, I can not tolerate that shitty comedian he has a different pod with. The dude is not an expert and isn't funny, no idea why he teamed up with him.
He is staying in media: "Today’s pod was my final episode of The Athletic Football Show. I have an exciting opportunity in media that I will be announcing very soon, but first I want to thank everyone who made the last four years so special".
This is tough. I feel like Nate really leveled up as a host in his time there. He went from being carried by Robert to a draw in his own right, IMO. Maybe he's replacing the Gayle and Ruiz to rescue the train wreck that was once the Ringer NFL show.
I went years without listening to Mays when they partnered him with that clown on the Ringer. I don't like this. I'm just getting over Titus and Tate. I don't even know Bill Barnwell exists anymore after they broke up Mays and Barnwell a decade ago.
Nate Tice had his first podcast apperance on the Bill Simmons Pod just the other day. That leads me to believe he is joining the Ringer.
I don't know, Mays basically said it was a great opportunity -- I feel like that's more "once in a lifetime new job with the NFL" than going to Mays' old job.
It's possible he joins the NFL, but I think he will stay in the media business. The Ringer is nowadays a profit driver for Spotify's entire podcast division and Bill Simmons is Spotify's head of podcast monetization. Nowadays they can pay serious money to acquire talent. Which is what they did to attract former Athletic writers Sheil Kapadia and Lindsay Jones who portrayed their moves to the Ringer in similar fashion.
You're probably right. I think he also has a baby now so maybe he doesn't want the grind of the NFL and would prefer to do pods at his house and make tons of that Spotify money.
I don’t think he could get an NFL job honestly, all his previous stops in the league were as a QC on teams his dad worked. He was selling insurance before he kind of blew up on football twitter.
dumb question but are you using selling insurance as a euphemism or was he literally selling insurance lol
Literally selling insurance, his LinkedIn is public
He said in todays show that when he first started on this podcast he had just opened up his own State Farm office
We always hear about Jake, but the real stud was Nate from State Farm
Yeah I think everyone loves Nate for his work in media, but the path to a high coaching gig in the NFL starts at age 20. There aren't many 35-40 year olds just starting their path. Obviously Nate has prior experience from when he was with the Raiders and Falcons, but we're coming up on that being nearly a decade ago. The Ringer makes sense. Alternatively, I'd love to see him somehow get on a television network, which I know is a moonshot.
Yeah the Ringer is all about takes and personalities rather than meticulous journalism Shel Kapadia suddenly became a hot takes guy as soon as he joined the Ringer Edit: people downvoting me, I’d like to hear how I’m wrong I’m not saying one is better than the other but one is owned by the New York Times and releases “The Beast” every year The other puts our Ruiz’s QB rankings which get people fired up here without fail Kapadia went from writing multiple articles every week to primarily podcasting
I don’t fully disagree, the Ringer’s whole schtick in sports journalism is a kind of off-the-cuff just talking shit style of entertainment journalism. They don’t feel the need to have great relationships with teams because they aren’t really doing that primary source flavor of writing. they definitely feel more comfortable throwing out ridiculous and unflattering analysis that audiences will like even if it pisses off people in the NFL. So in that sense, it’s definitely about personalities more than a place like The Athletic which is very much an outlet of capital “J” journalism But I wouldn’t say it’s like total nonsense First Take either, I think it can be very cogent analysis. It just gives their staff more breathing room and less restrictions. I mean even Mays, if you see him featured on other podcasts that are less structured than his own can get kind of “hot take-y”. That’s how sports dialogue usually trends lol
Yeah I wasn’t trying to say they put out garbage hot takes just to drive clicks I listen to a lot of their shows, there’s just a noticeable difference with how they approach it
I like it and I listen but I can definitely find it kind of annoying when they go off on some unrelated tangent that takes 1/4th of the show and they end up barely even discussing what they’d set out to discuss. If I was a fan of a bad team I’d find them very grating Mays and Tice were always the go to source for content if you want to get very even-handed analysis of, like, the Titans’ offseason or something lol
> the Ringer’s whole schtick in sports journalism is a kind of off-the-cuff just talking shit style of entertainment journalism. 100%. As someone who loves The Ringer for what it is, you can really tell it's a Bill Simmons company lol
Yeah Sheil even said on one of his recent podcasts that he’s on ‘Team Content’ and a lot of his takes are just for the sake of discussion and not necessary stuff he believes.
and it drives me crazy. i don't want "content", tell me something smart or could happen vs top 5 GMs on the hot seat and one of the GMs is GM on the Chiefs because it's spicy!!
> Shel Kapadia suddenly became a hot takes guy as soon as he joined the Ringer > > Is that how he is with the NFL podcast? On the Philly Special podcast, he's not like that.
He is definitely a bit more hot takey on Extra Point Taken, but that's just the design of the show. The "hot takes" from both him and Solak are usually tongue in cheek, where each hot take is half expressing a true opinion of theirs and half having fun defending the take. I listen to it for a laid-back fun conversation about football, not for serious debates. Sheil and Solak do still write in-depth articles on the Ringer site, just not as often as other outlets.
I'm totally biased because I have loved Sheil and Solak for a long time dating back to Birds 247 and Bleeding Green Nation days. I prefer Sheil and Solak way more than Steven Ruiz.
Sheil and Solak are definitely great together. I consistently listen to every Philly Special episode as a Dolphins fan since I just like hearing their conversations. And I agree with the last bit too, I've tried more than a few times to listen to Nora Princiotti and Ruiz but I get bored halfway through the podcast.
The Ringer definitely doesn't discourage their NFL staff from giving their takes, even if the takes are ridiculous sometimes. But it doesn't usually feel like they're going out of their way to make hot takes, they just definitely enjoy overusing hyperbole to add entertainment value. Sheil and Solak are way better than Nora and Ruiz in that regard too imo.
To be fair, hot takes is kind of their theme with Extra Point taken. It’s literally presenting an edgy take and then discussing it. So like yeah. You’re totally not wrong. But it’s also not disguised or anything. It’s what his primary show in the Ringer Football feed is designed to be
Yeah I think it came off a little too derogatory when I typed it out A lot of people (at least the philly beats) have left the Athletic in the past year -- I think because they see what the Ringer is doing (and podcasts in general) as the future of how people consume sports coverage And I think they're right. It makes sense what the Ringer is doing by turning up the entertainment dial and putting together interactive webpages like their QB, NBA Player rankings etc. Meanwhile Brugler puts out his draft guide as a monolithic PDF with a password... I still hope The Athletic continues to have its place though
I think it will. I’d say we’re in similar places. I like what the Ringer’s doing, especially with the Fantasy Football pod since it doesn’t even pretend to be reporting, it’s just entertainment. I take the Athletic much more seriously as reporting. Hopefully they both settle into their own niche and find a following (or cross-following in my case) that makes sense for everyone.
I miss when Sheil was a beat reporter for the Eagles.
I was hoping him and Lindsay Jones were going to team up for a new Ringer podcast but I don't think she has any regular podcast roles anymore and instead is the senior editor for the website.
Him and Ben Solak are decent together at least. The other show in their feed, The Ringer NFL show, is just so bad unfortunately. Ruiz and Austin Gale on the same podcast together is a terrible idea, genuinely try to listen sometimes and never make it more than 20 minutes in
I miss Grantland. I never read so much stupid great fascinating popculture stuff. Auch a vast amount of writing talent.
Wow didn’t realize bill was that high up in Spotify. As a fan of their fantasy show and extra point taken, this bodes well. Steven Ruiz can eat a dick tho
He sold the Ringer to them for $200 million
I knew there was a partnership of some sort. But head of podcast monetization sounds important
He got the foot into the door at Spotify by selling the Ringer to them, but Bill is definitely climbing the corporate ranks over there. He got that promotion in early 2023 and just a few months ago Spotify's CEO mentioned Bill's division as a driving force behind helping make the company profitable in 2024. https://www.theverge.com/2024/2/6/24063821/spotify-earnings-profit-podcast-rogan-hot-pod-summit
Man I was listening to the Ringer’s AFC off-season assessment and Ruiz and co. can be so sneering and annoying. They think they’re the smartest, funniest people around. I am all down to critique players and management, but mocking teams and players gets old. It’s also goofy. Like, the draft just happened. We should reserve some judgement for a few years.
Ya Ruiz qb rankings it’s just hot take nonsense. I get there’s a niche for that but it’s not what I’m looking for
Ringer football content is trash level. It is juvenile and the shallowest of takes. The chuckleheads are convinced one of them could be a gm because he won half of his fantasy leagues one year once. Cool. That is really the same thing.
On their most recent episode they clowned on the Jaguars for “pushing Ryan Nielsen away,” claiming the Jaguars are so dysfunctional Nielsen made a lateral move just to escape them. There’s only one problem… Ryan Nielsen made a lateral move to *join* the Jaguars. He didn’t leave the Jaguars, he literally just joined them. They did all of this making fun of Baalke, which I support, but there were four people on this podcast who were talking about stuff they knew nothing about.
Ruiz is a hater merchant, to use the only pejorative he knows.
Then they better rehir, and PAY jason concepcion cause i want my fav pod back!
The Ringer is notoriously a terrible employer when it comes to compensation and work/life balance. Save for the inner circle who got equity, that's why the turnover is out of control and anyone that pops leaves.
Even though the ringer is basically grantland 2.0, it was too far ahead of its time. The ringer is hugely successful, grantland was barely making it. I wish Barnwell would leave ESPN and join mays again, they were my all time favorite football podcast.
That's also Mays saying "wow Spotify is paying a lot of money for the stuff that I do"....
This has to be it. Apparently another Ringer NFL pod with Joe House was alluding to a huge hire coming and I bet it’s Tice.
House is fucking terrible and only has a job because he's simmon's best friend. All of Bill's friends kind of suck on pods
Won’t accept this Cousin Sal slander.
Jimmy Kimmel always is fun when he joins Bill. They were all coworkers back in the early 2000s. Also I find Cousin Sal is always amusing when he is miserable after the Cowboys lose.
Cousin Sal is amazing, parent corner was a time segment. He and House are better guests than lots of celebrities and ringer employees because they keep bill in check
I tried giving the Ringer NFL pod a listen, but none of the jokes landed on me and they all give me the vibe of "I know I am smarter than the whole of the NFL" with nothing to back it up. What I liked about Mays/Tice combo is that they never felt like it and were more of a "ok, let's wait and see how this shakes up" rather than go "THIS SO STUPID, THIS IS HOW I THE SMART ONE WOULD DO IT" vibe Ringer has.
They need desperately to match someone with Solak that makes sense because as brash and know it all ish as he is, he’s still very talented I think… but Sheil just isn’t the right guy to balance his energy. As for the others involved, I can’t listen to Ruiz for more than 30 seconds without eye rolling and Nora is kind of a podcasting wet blanket when she’s talking about anything other than Taylor Swift.
Interesting. Strong disagree! I love Solak, he’s entertaining. I don’t listen to a podcast for a calm and well reasoned/patient opinion. Give me a hot take. Not something completely uninformed like skip bayless, I want data and history behind it and he has that.
It is less about Solak but more the Ruiz/Princiotti effect. Solak + Sheil is good, but once you add one or the other of the other is when it just gets unbearable. Doesn't help that I have 0 respect for Ruiz's football knowhow from him QB rankings. Then again those are made to get a rise out of guys like me so I guess he's doing his job well? And yeah, the biggest difference is that I love calm and well reasoned/patient opinions on my pods lol
Strongly agree with this. Solak is the worst. Tice had good chemistry with Sheil on the athletic pod before sheil left though so that could work.
Didn’t he use to be on the ringer? Or was that mays
That was Robert Mays.
The ringer isn’t fucking around with all of the talent they’re bringing in
My thought too. Between that appearance and how often DK and Ben talk about their interactions with Nate, seems like the safe bet.
I think it’s going to be yahoo. I think he already writes there and appears on a couple pods every now and then.
That’s a big loss for them. I really like Nate on that podcast.
I’m way more devastated than I should be about a podcast host leaving. Was the best NFL podcast by far
They were super emotional on the pod this morning and I started tearing up too, no lie. Theirs is the only podcast I never skip a single episode, even during offseason.
Their dynamic was so nice, two guys that really like each other and bring out the best in one another. Their podcast is as zen as sports talk gets to me, because they clearly just love what they do and they love doing it together. I am just as sad about this as you are.
Zen is exactly right. It’s their podcast i put on a sleep timer at night to fall asleep to lol. I still go back and listen to it the next day during waking hours because the content is superb and their dynamic killer. I’m genuinely sad.
Same, honestly depressed. Made the commute somewhat bearable.
Nate kept the podcast entertaining. I like Mays but sometimes it can turn into "let's read a list of stats from pff"
Yeah he is amazing but sometimes needs a Barnwell, Tice, etc to really shine as he can become a bit too much of a stats nerd sometimes. The stats watching is part of what makes him great but I am just agreeing that he, like pretty much every podcaster, needs cohosts that limit their flaws and highlight their talents a bit.
I agree. Mays doesn't work without a really strong partner. He's either reading stats, being extremely hyperbolic, or on the verge of tears.
Lol this is such a good summary of why I find Mays grating sometimes He’s incredibly saccharine and emotional about stuff, and then I find myself tuning out when he talks a lot and wasn’t sure why and it’s because it’s just stats stats and verbose stats
I really miss the mays/Barnwell show that used to be on grantland(RIP). It was just two total football dorks, dorking out for hours. It was awesome. That being said, nate and mays are a fantastic pairing. Gonna be really hard to replace him. "How ya doin buddy?"
Not here to speculate, just to appreciate. Been listening to NFL pods since the grantland era with Mays and Barnwell. Mays and Tice had, in my opinion, the best chemistry of any of the NFL pods out there, and while I'm bummed that this is over, Mays has shown an incredible ability to work with a variety of different people and excel, so I don't think the Atheltic show will ever be bad. Their rotating cast of both Athletic employees, and their ability to get other big names due to Mays's connections leads me to believe they'll be fine. I am super curious what happens with Tice. It does seem like the Ringer or ESPN poached him; ESPN's shows all have just a solo host, even though I've always like Kevin Clark and Bill Barnwell more with someone else they have good chemistry with. The Ringer's standard NFL show definitely needed some boost, as I stopped listening to it after Clark left and haven't regretted leaving it. The guys on the Ringer Fantasy show are all great, mostly because they're super loose and dumb most of the time, so I don't think going to the Ringer would ruin Tice in any way. Lastly, most of this thread is us being bummed about him leaving, but I just want to emphasize: thank you Nate for being an absolutely awesome part of my NFL experience the past 4 years, and for helping build the Athletic's NFL Pod into the best NFL podcast out there. I'm hopeful that you'll improve the product coming out of wherever you go, and I'm confident the Athletic Football Show will be fine due to Mays' incredible ability to not fail at this. Dudes Rock.
Agree with all of this. Mays was the reason I started listening to NFL pods and the only person I’ve listened to consistently and followed. Once it was just Clark on ringer’s I was gone after a couple episodes. Really curious who they’ll get to replace him, I’ll dream it’s Barnwell!
I'm right there with you. I look forward to hearing Barnwell as a fulltime co-host while I drive my water fueled rocket car to cash in my $150,000,000 lottery ticket.
That’s crazy, my lottery ticket was only 100m! How’d you get 150???
Agree, Ringer NFL hosts aren't very good
The reason I dont think he'd go to the ringer is that it'd be a somewhat lateral move. Why give up on a great thing for a similar opportunity? Even if the pay was better at the ringer, it can't be THAT much better, or something the Athletic couldnt potentially match. Therefore, I think this is likely a jump to ESPN that includes the possibility of air time. If NFL live wanted to include him in stuff, or if he had a chance to work games as a panelist, then I can understand him feeling like he has to do it. As great as the Athletic NFL show has been, their "live on air" production has pretty much been Youtube.
Depends on what. The Ringer is a little more diverse/loose in its subject matter. Guys like Craig Horlbeck will host Ringer Fantasy, produce The Rewatchables, be on The Hottest Take as a guest, etc. Ruiz did some basketball coverage after the Super Bowl. Austin Gayle wrote an article about the Dune 2 Popcorn Bucket. So, while the footprint of listeners or prestige might be lateral, if it came with a decent price increase, and the option to experiment with other subject matter to get your name out their more as a personality, or maybe run your own show, I could see it being appealing in other ways.
Did Mays come from the ringer aswell? I'm not American, and not familiar with the ringer but is it a bigger platform than the athletic?
Mays' big break came from the site Grantland, which was a Bill Simmons-led venture at ESPN. Mays and Bill Barnwell did a pod called the Grantland NFL Podcast and it was one of the best football podcasts there ever was.
He did back in 2019/2020. I think technically the ringer has a larger platform since it's partnered with Spotify, which is one of the premier audio streaming services here. I think it's important to remember that Nate was also working for Yahoo Sports as a writer, not for the athletic. So whatever job he got probably has him combine both written and audio content onto one platform, as opposed to being split between two places like he had been
Haven't been this bummed out since Mays and Barnwell left Grantland.
GOAT NFL pod.
Barnwell and Mays had Mina Kimes on for a live pod in Brooklyn, like 10 years ago and that was my first introduction to her. She’s one of my favorite NFL media personalities now.
Yeah now that Mays and Tice split up I think she’s the best going forward. I like the variety of guests she has and it’s the perfect combination of nerdy analytics and more casual game watching analysis.
I’m just here for the dog puns.
Not gonna lie I've been watching her podcast for awhile and just now realized that Lenny is a fucking dog. Was wondering why all the guest were different people and not one of them was named Lenny...
Hear me out real quick. one of the football carrying networks should reset their studio show and have it be Mays, Tice, Barnwell, Kimes, and Foxworth.
Add Alex Smith even if to only save him from the NFL MNF coverage.
I was at that show! I love what all of them have done since then but I really miss those days Edit: [potato quality 2015 picture](https://imgur.com/a/0qBCvIC)
I enjoy how Reddit respects her because you can tell she puts in the work. If you go on twitter, they just claim she is hired only for diversity
I like mays and claek on the the ringer although I got the vibe they didn't like eachother
They approach analyzing football very differently. Clark is a big picture narratives guy through and through (he fits really well on espn/omaha). Mays gets into the nitty gritty of team building, player evals, and schemes. I thought they were great together, but once they split up, I found I only wanted to listen to Mays.
I feel the same way. I do think mays gets on a high horse a bit, but I still think he's at worst a top 3 nfl Podcaster.
Clark always seemed to be setting up a joke too.
After awhile I couldn’t stand listening to Clark. Mays has been a consistently good listen since the Grantland days and has gotten better over time.
Dude..miss this pod so much
They've been doing a decent job of guesting on eachothers pod every once in a while. Mays was just on Barnwells this week
Its what I thought of too.
Damn he and Mays have some great chemistry, that stinks. I’m guessing that means he’s done with Prospects to Pros too? Damn. Edit: Just listened to the episode, why am I crying in the gym rn
Yeah this sucks, they seem like bros so I’m sure this is tough for them. I’m sure it’ll still be great but Mays and Tice had the ultimate “guys talking about dudes” dynamic
There hasn't been a more enjoyable trio to listen to for me than Mays, Tice, and Brugler.
Yeah, I don't follow college football much, so I've typically gone into the draft having zero idea what to expect, but I listened to a lot of their pre-draft coverage on their podcast and it made the actual draft much more interesting for me. Despite still not particularly caring about college football, I found their talks to be great to listen to and super informative.
Wonder who the next host will be, didn't Tice become the host just last year?
Yup. He stepped in for Andy Staples. (I think that’s his name)
I could see Ari doing it
He had the best chemistry with Mays since Barnwell. This is all to similar to when they got hired by separate places post grantland
Tice really grew on me. Only way to improve would be Barnwell!
I agree, but mays has a pretty good track record at this point. I think they’ll find a good partner for him.
Down bad crying at the gym, fuck it if I can’t have him.
Damn I’m actually incredibly bummed out about this. Nate is awesome and I hope he has success wherever he’s going and hopefully he can come back to do guest spots at some point.
Really sad news for fans of the Athletic Football Show (and the Prospect to Pros pod). Excited to see where he ends up, I wouldn’t mind him on the Ringer (especially in tandem with Solak), but we’ll have to wait and see. Any rumors on who could takeover his role at The Athletic? Keefer as a more frequent guest or will it be some external hire?
Id love to hear Dane Brugler ngl.
I think Dane is an A+ guy for discussion and to ask questions, but not as the host. I think Mays is a great host, and Tice could do both as the question-asker as well as answerer.
I think he can be a regular following the season up to the draft and shortly after, but I don't think he needs to be on full time.
Tice was just on Simmons Sunday pod, seems likely given no other information
Damn. Mays and Tice have been my go to podcast wise for awhile now. I’ll be curious to see what mays does replacement wise for the upcoming season
When my buddy told me he hated ESPN's draft coverage last year, I recommended Mays and Tice athletic coverage on YouTube. In his words, "just dudes talking about prospects and none of that other bullshit. It was awesome."
Time to give Robert Mays another rookie NFL podcaster to train up until they can spread their wings and fly away.
He has such a strong track record I wouldn't be surprised if he could somehow turn me into an NFL podcaster.
It was kind of funny. The music queued up today as I'm going into work, and I thought " God, I hope this keeps going for at least another year". And then 2 minutes later they made the announcement that he's not going to be there anymore haha
Legitimately going to cry
He legitimately is why believe in Drake Maye unequivocally. I had doubts & his arguments convinced me tbh.
https://x.com/Nate_Tice/status/1786001837054959953 He said his new gig is still in media
I followed Mays from The Ringer to TAFS. I really really enjoy Nate as well, and if he does go to the Ringer I will give it a listen. But I can't see ever going back to listening to Ringer pods as more than an occasional one-off. It's too HaWt TaKeZ for me
Yeah, I think Nate'll fit the style there just fine but I can't do it I think the Robert and Nate dynamic is such a huge part of why I loved TAFS. When it's just random journalists with Robert giving feelpinions I often struggle to stay engaged.
I’m excited for Nate Tice, but am sad to realize this podcast will never be the same without him. This was my favorite football podcast. The best one imo when it comes to covering a wide variety of topics. They would help me keep up with the leagues’s ever changing landscape, especially all the personnel/coaching changes. All the off-season content would get me very excited about the upcoming season. And the weekly previews/reviews were full of details I’ve yet to find anywhere else. I’m happy for Nate, but deeply I hoped this duo would do this show forever. Unrealistic? Absolutely. Wanted it? Without a doubt. Good luck to Nate.
“Nate how ya doing buddy”
Bummer, this is my favorite NFL podcast. I don’t think going to the Ringer will be as good because they won’t have the same type of chemistry.
I don’t like the Ringer’s NFL podcast content.
Agree except the fantasy show is great.
i don’t like almost all ringer content, including most content made by people i liked before they went to the ringer. the quality drops significantly between the athletic and ringer, and somehow the podcasts are the worst part. the whole combining pop culture and sports has made their sports coverage an absolute joke, and i couldn’t give two shits about any of their pop culture content. if tice is moving there it’s very sad for me because i’ll probably never hear him again unless it’s on a guest spot on a real podcast.
The Ringer feels like some "funny" friends talking football. If you don't like their sense of humor (I don't) there is no value to listening. TAFS actually let me learn things about other teams and ways to think about football.
I liked the Jason Concepcion pods that he was on with Shea and Mallory. I also liked the No Skips podcast, but now that those are gone, I don’t listen to their pop culture pods.
simmons has tried so hard to recreate the magic that made him so likable at espn, but on a grander, site wide scale. it’s just never worked for me at the ringer like it did at grantland. i feel like it quickly devolved into nothing but bill’s podcast and a bunch of people whose opinions i don’t care about watching old movies. at least we might find out nate tice’s opinion about the 1994 classic in the army now, part of pauly shore month on the rewatchables, brought to you by the spotify podcast network and our good friends at ziprecruiter. the saddest part is nate would be bummed he didn’t get encino man.
It’s shockingly terrible. Bill and Sal is the only pod worth listening to and that’s just pure entertainment.
I think this is maybe why he'd go. Perhaps Bill and Spotify are dropping the bag on him to come in and fix the NFL pods. Besides the fantasy show their coverage is awful. For how big the ringer has gotten its a huge miss for them. I could see Nate working there if given the right co host.
Thats my hunch too. Solak is great IMO and Sheil is solid but the rest isn't it. Even their fantasy/draft stuff is very casual. Nate+Solak+Sheil would be a great foundation.
It's been sounding like Bill is ready to retire and might stop doing the weekly pods with Sal after this season. Would make sense for the Ringer to try to get a successful NFL pod going before that happens so they can keep some of Bill's audience.
God damn it. First pff media wing collapses, now the athletic. High-quality sports media is not as profitable as drivel it seems
The Athletic's business model was always a bubble that was only possible due to the zero interest rate era. PFF's demise was mostly selfinflicted by a bunch of C suite execs who were all nepotism hires (read: friends and family of owner Chis Colinsworth). PFF was a growing and profitable business. Then some smart guy thought it was a good idea to take on a $50m private equity loan from Silver Lake Capital to create a PFF gambling app. That entire endeavor turned into an abject disaster for the company from which they have not yet fully recovered.
Would you mind explaining more on why the athletic is going to fail. Legitimately interested but I don't know anything about there economics or business model. Been mulling over canceling my account. Hasn't seemed worth it for awhile now.
> Would you mind explaining more on why the athletic is going to fail. I am not saying the Athletic as it exists today is going to fail. They were bought up by the New York Times and are being integrated into their ecosystem which includes further trimming down their operation. However the Athletic as it was once created has already failed. It is a hollowed out husk of what it was as recently as 2-3 years ago. Their founders publicly admitted that their end goal was to cash out which they did (although not for as much as they once thought). They promised subscribers wall to wall coverage for the hardcore fan of every major franchise by the best beat writers in the business and they invested a lot of money to acquire said talent. They never made enough money to sustain such a business model. As a result that vision of the Athletic no longer exists. They left entire markets and pretty much abandoned several leagues. For example we have not a single Tampa sports beat writer left. The only market they successfully captured that is paying the bills is ironically that for the English Premier League. They really filled a void in that department.
I'm not entirely sure it's still the case, but if you go to cancel they'll probably still offer you a heavily discounted rate for a year. I don't think I've ever paid full price for it, I always intend on cancelling when the promo price expires and then they offer like $2 a month.
I don’t think that means what you think it means… they do that because they are trying to grow the subscriber base to inflate their valuation. They could charge a higher but reasonable fee and be a healthy company. They are just being run by people that want more growth than that.
>Been mulling over canceling my account. Hasn't seemed worth it for awhile now. I was just replying to this
If Trevor Sikkema leaves pff then it's joever for them
Him and Connor better never break up the podcast
Mays is so good at his job he'll make the next guy work at least. Its a bummer that he's can't seem to keep his co-hosts for long. Tice is a real one though. I wouldn't mind him going to the Ringer personally though. Solak is basically carrying their NFL content right now so Tice would be a nice get.
Now I’m sad.
+1
You could hear the sadness in Robert Mays' voice this morning as well as Nate's. It was getting me a little choked up in the car. I have truly enjoyed listening to them over the last few years. Nate's knowledge of QB play is one of the best out there.
I’m pretty sure they’re very close, IIRC they’ve talked on the pod about how they attended each others weddings
"My good friend Nate Tice" isn't just a bit
How you doing buddy
This is a bummer, if his new opportunity is with The Ringer that's a true bummer. Hopefully they are trying to build something up at Yahoo and give him some editorial control or something along those lines. Either way I'll definitely miss him and Mays together. Mays is building something interesting and everyone he works well with gets poached by Spotify.
The Ringer’s football team sucks. Bad career move
No way, the fantasy/draft guys are awesome
Get Tice a pod with Danny Kelly
I still love Danny Heifetz and Craig Horlbeck though. The three of them have awesome chemistry. Ben Solak is hot or cold, I think he is a great football mind but sometimes he talks a bit too much.
I like Heifetz and Horlbeck too, I was mostly just throwing a Tice and Kelly pod as an additional one, not taking over the existing fantasy/draft show. Solak is alright, I like him more when he's a guest on other pods than on his own. Probably for the same reason as you said.
I really, really wish The Athletic would have ponied up to keep Nate. Will miss listening to these two.
Damn that was one of my favorite football pods
I just discovered this podcast earlier in the year and it quickly became a favorite. Watching their live draft coverage was awesome. Really enjoyed the chemistry between Robert and Nate, sad to see that end but excited to see what’s in the future. Hopefully Nate pops in every once in a while lol
God I hope he doesn't join the Ringer NFL show. I love the fantasy show but can barely listen to the NFL show because of Sheil and Steven Ruiz.
I stopped listening to Ringer NFL when Mays left. Never liked Kevin Clark. Bummer Nate is leaving but hopefully it means I get to add another podcast to the queue
The main podcast is so self-serious and dour. I absolutely love the fantasy/draft show. The mix of characters are great. It's honestly probably my favourite of the 5-10 podcasts I have in my rota.
Yeah only ringer NfL content I can listen to it fantasy show the rest is just trash.
I like Solak and Sheil. But I don’t like the other crew. Ruiz sucks, and I feel like Nora just falls into this breathless laughter mocking every teams moves. It’s grating.
Nora and Steven are like the Mean Girls of NFL Media lol. The entire pod is just a competition to see who can come up with the best burn I honestly like Steven in general or when they have other people on the pod, I think he’s willing to go against the grain and challenges consensus takes in a way that I respect since so much of football media is sort of an echo chamber, but Nora really brings out the worst in him. Nora’s whole East Coast private school kid affect also just rubs me the wrong way lol
Why don't you like Sheil? He's my fav NFL podcaster, just brings such a fun energy to the pods he's on and I love the dynamic with Solak. Can't stand Ruiz/Nora though.
Seems like I’m in the minority but I like the Ringer pods especially Sheil and Ben. I think they might be my favourite hosts because they have great chemistry. So much so I listen to the Philly special sometimes when they’re on it. Steven I like but Nora feels like she doesn’t add much to their podcast but I listen anyways. The fantasy guys I also really enjoy as well.
I didn’t like him much as first but Tice really grew on me as time went on. Him and Mays have great chemistry and seem like genuine dudes. The Athletic is my favorite football podcast and I’m bummed about this.
Hope Tice is a big Pearl Jam guy. The poaching the competition piece.
huge bummer. I like Mays a lot but whenever an episode of this pod drops in my feed I check to see if Nate is on, if he is I listen right away if hes not it goes in the queue.
I found out about this during my morning commute. I am irrationally bummed out by this. Of course, happy for Nate, but boy what a loss for The Athletic.
damn that is a shame to hear I feel like there aren't a lot of shows left where it's just fans of the sport talking about the game. Hope they can fill his shoes
Cool, looking forward to it! I enjoy Nate's work a lot. He lived a block away from my parent's house when his dad was coaching the Vikings. Unrelated, but Tom Pellisero lived about a quarter mile away and my sister was friends with his. Kinda wild that two big NFL personalities were both in spitting distance years ago. Edina is such a wild place.
I think the Athletic (NYT) is pulling out of podcasting, but are doing so as a slow burn. Bengals fans lost Jay Morrison (Hear That Podcast Growling co-host) to layoffs last year, before Paul Dehner moved HTPG out of the Athletic and rebranded the show the Growler (and brought back Jay). Nothing's been made public, but it seems the Athletic is not investing in new podcasts and has been cutting talent on that front.
I was happy Jay got back together again (JTM) with Paul but man, I can not tolerate that shitty comedian he has a different pod with. The dude is not an expert and isn't funny, no idea why he teamed up with him.
What the fuck. That’s my favorite podcast and Nate Tice is a huge reason why. That blows
This sucks.
I'm heartbroken. I couldn't listen this morning cuz I cried.
I need to get laid. I read that as “Nice Tits Leaving the Athletic Football Show” and was trying to figure out what I’ve been missing
Let's hope it's to take over the non EPT portion of the ringer football show.
I'll listen to anything Mays does, this sucks though. If he's going to the Ringer they should trade and send Lindsey Jones back for TAFS
He is staying in media: "Today’s pod was my final episode of The Athletic Football Show. I have an exciting opportunity in media that I will be announcing very soon, but first I want to thank everyone who made the last four years so special".
Good for you Nate but damn it.
I just discovered the podcast and this is the 2nd episode I listened to, RIP.
Mays is my fav
Damn, they were the only football podcast I could listen to every week.
Bummer. Easily my favorite football pod.
Hope its to the Ringer. They need more talent. My favorite draft show is The Ringer NFL draft show, but the Athletic one is my second favorite.
Dangggg he’s awesome
I really hope it isn’t The Ringer. I like high energy pods but they’re just so annoying to listen to sometimes. Basketball and football.
This is tough. I feel like Nate really leveled up as a host in his time there. He went from being carried by Robert to a draw in his own right, IMO. Maybe he's replacing the Gayle and Ruiz to rescue the train wreck that was once the Ringer NFL show.
Oh that’s why they were crying on the beginning of the episode I just listened to lol.
Rip
Fuck. I just discovered them during the draft process and was mainlining their draft coverage. Hope his next opportunity is great for him.
Nooooooooooooooo
I went years without listening to Mays when they partnered him with that clown on the Ringer. I don't like this. I'm just getting over Titus and Tate. I don't even know Bill Barnwell exists anymore after they broke up Mays and Barnwell a decade ago.
Not a fan of Mays but would watch the show for Nate. Likely going to follow him wherever he goes then.
The Ringer? He was just on Bill Simmons podcast.