When you and I talked,
I guess it was a year and a half ago.
We talked about your career and
how much longer you thought you
would want to keep doing this.
What made the decision for you
that you know what? It's time,
it's just a lot of different little things.
I am 73 years old and I and I
know I look like I'm like 68 and
I appreciate that very much,
but I just thought that I'm not
happy with it in some cases where
where our business is going,
I I just don't enjoy dealing with
the athletes the way I used to
because we don't get to deal with
the athletes the way we used to.
The games themselves tend to bore me a lot,
which is not a healthy thing for us.
Your your main sportscaster
but as much as anything.
I've been driven by the simple fact
that I always wanted to leave a
year early instead of a year late,
and I think too many people in in
our business. It's hard to give up.
I mean, it really is,
but it's like the great athletes.
Most of them don't want to retire until
they eventually have somebody kind of
pushing him toward the door. And I.
I wanted to find the door on my own.
Now it's Joe Trahan stern.
It's Mike Leslie Stern is Jonah Javad stern.
And you know, I'll,
I'll find my happiness at A at a card
table or a patio party or something.
I I think I will.
Well,
certainly a lot of hardware that
I think serves approval of the
impact that you made during your
time here in Dallas Fort Worth.
But I I remember hearing back
in the day and I'm hoping you
got to clear this up for me that
you would get those phone calls
as people in high profile jobs.
Do hey this is ESPN.
This is Fox and then you turned
it down because you wanted to
stay in North Texas. Yeah
yeah yeah yeah, I mean,
ESPN called me and there's my favorite.
One of my favorite stories with 1983
and I had just started at WFAA so one I
didn't feel like I could bail on him,
but as my 12 year old son at the time said,
you know it's ESPN.
Yeah, I've always loved sports.
Like like most kids do.
I always grew up loving sports, but I don't.
Really care if Philadelphia
is playing the Giants.
I just don't.
If Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith and
Michael Irvin and Kevin Gogan and
Darren Woodson are playing the Giants,
I care a great deal and I don't care if
Boston beats the Lakers nearly as much
as I care if Dirk Nowitzki and his team,
you know,
and at the same time I'm serious about this,
I I fell in love with North Texas
when I stepped off the plane.
I called my girlfriend at the time.
Now my wife and I said you
want to die in Dallas, TX.
And she's really talking about as well.
I'm going to die in Dallas,
TX and I'd like you to come
down here with me. And she did.
Romantic, yeah she did.
He's got everything I want.
It's got everything I want.
So why would I leave that
to pursue some gold?
Somebody else wants to put on
me? I want to talk about
legacy. What do you hope your legacy
is in this marketing as a broadcaster
do you think about that kind of thing?
I I probably should say no but but but I do.
Yeah, of course I do.
I think we all do. Quite frankly,
II shouldn't be want to be remembered as
the guy who tried to make it a better place.
Make it a better place for my my kids.
Almost more importantly for my granddaughter,
tried to do everything I can to make
that world just a little bit better.
I I would kind of wish that people
are buying, you know, he's crazy.
You know he's crazy but the man
made you think because that's
all I ever tried to do. I
mean it is interesting to hear you
talk about legacy because I feel like
I am in some ways a little bit of your
legacy because interning in the sports
department underneath you. Not that long.
I remember the reason I wanted
to Internet channel it was because I
grew up watching your sportscasts and
what I enjoyed about it most was you
weren't up there trying to do your best.
ESPN Sports Center now, right?
Right, right? Right?
You were telling a story.
You had to take on whatever
we were watching and you
had an opinion. Love it,
hate it. You had an opinion and I
like that aspect but it was when
I got to channel 8 as an intern
and I watched you work on Sundays.
The amount of time you spent writing.
Rewriting and revising your sportscast,
you didn't go up there and wing it.
You really spend a lot of time on
the craft and and that made such a
huge impression on a college aged.
Well, the words matter to me. I mean,
the words mattered to me a great Deal II.
I think I I can't write relatively
quickly for the most part,
but I do go back and and I revise
a lot of stuff that I write
and the other part of that.
Did you talk about is?
I've always almost always
done sports with an opinion.
I think the best part of sports
is the opinions you know the
the Cowboys win 22 to 10.
Yeah, OK, fine,
but arguing about who and
how and why they won.
That's the fun of it.
That's the real fun of it.
So I brought that to the sports
cast which in the beginning was a
little bit raw for some people,
but I. I mean, I appreciate
that because listening to you as the
color voice of the Cowboys for some.
Yeah, you know you, you told it like
it was and when the times were great.
That was great, and when they
weren't so great, you know what
you got the hook, but they didn't hire
you to just inject flowers
or they. I thought they did.
Brad Sham had a great line.
We did the Cowboys game
objectively from the Cowboys POV,
and I love that line because
it really is the reality.
Back in the glory days,
if Aikman threw a great pass, well,
we like that a little bit more than
when he threw the interception.
But it didn't mean when he threw the
interception that we didn't say what
the heck was he looking at.
It was triple covered.
What do you see? What
what are you? What
are you looking at? Yeah,
well, you might appreciate this.
When I get my first on air job.
Weekend sports guy for the NBC
affiliate in Sherman Denison?
Yeah, then I would sit down to get
my sports cast ready and in my mind I
would ask myself what would Dale say?
At the time NBC launched the XFL,
yeah, and every time I would
reference the XFL, I thought
to myself, what would Dale say,
and I would call them the soon to be ex.
When they are general manager
calls me and it's a great life.
Thank you. I came up with it
on general manager calls me.
It's me down and says
hey, I appreciate what you're
trying to do here, but we're
NBC were part owners. Yeah XFL,
I would appreciate it if you wouldn't
call the XFL. And even though
I got in trouble for that,
I walked out of that meeting, thinking.
Nail would be proud.
I would be very proud.
I want to play just a little.
A little rapid fire.
OK, I'm not real good at this but oh.
Favorite athlete to have
covered in North Texas. That
that is an incredibly hard question.
If you want to just restrict it to
North Texas. Probably Troy Aikman.
Great athlete. Fun fun times in the
early 90s hanging with him and the
light favorite sport. Football.
Favorite team, so if you look back
over all the teams you know I want
like a year. So favorite team.
Dallas Cowboys, Early 90s,
Dallas Cowboys early 80s for that matter.
Yeah least favorite sport.
Soccer by a wide margin. It would be.
It would be such a route if you were
actually to put a number on it.
I would say it would be like two to nothing.
A favorite sporting event
you covered in North Texas
Super Bowl it Pasadena.
I mean, that's special. Every
game that matters should be played
at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.
You can't get there and
you can't get out of there.
But when you're there magic,
it's unbelievable magic. Do
you feel like you have a sense of the
lasting impact that you
have made on North Texas
soon? As I announced my retirement in April.
The response in the emails and the
letters I just just yesterday.
I'm sitting in my chair crying.
I probably I'm sitting in my chair
crying because people are telling
me and quoting things that I've said
in my commentaries from years ago.
One man sent me a picture of his
dog and he said I had to put my
dog down the other day and he said,
but I always remember what you said.
I choose the tears because every
relationship we have will end poorly.
It always does.
The only way you can avoid the pain.
Is to choose not to love.
I choose to tears.
This guy remembers that for some goofy
reason when I wrote about Michael,
Sam and a young man came up to
me at the sales party for Channel
8 and gives me a hug and says he
starts crying and says,
you know my my dad called me.
I'm like OK,
you still you don't stand my dad
threw me out of the house when
I was 18 'cause I came out.
And he called me there and I
guess Kate now like 30.
He said he called me there and I he said,
I I still don't understand your life.
But he said if that old
fat Hanson says it's OK,
then you and I are going to figure it out.
As arrogant as it does sound.
I think I've had an impact I
I hope I've added impact.
I've always wanted to be that guy
that that makes it just a little
bit better for those who come behind
me and I hope I've done that well.
I'll say sitting here.
I think I certainly am,
and part of that legacy is somebody
who watched you working and watched
you on television and and now gets
to work literally alongside you.
Just, I think the example that you set
in how you approach your on camera work.
You pushed the writing the
impact that you had.
You know, even shouting out the
attributes of our local high school
scholar athletes makes a big difference.
And I know for me,
it it kind of set the gold standard,
and obviously I think I'm not
the only person who thinks so.
You know,
if none of those viewers can say thank you,
I will, because it certainly made
an impact on me and it motivated me
to be better to try harder and to
try to do this job as well as I can.
And I and I'm.
I'm still getting better,
I hope.
Trying to improve
and I think you're gonna do alright.
I think you'll do alright,
so fingers crossed but deep
better gratitude. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
I appreciate it.
Alright, we're good.
Yeah, we're good.
I'm getting hard to interview.
I know I don't give you much
to talk about, you know.