House of Strauss Ethan Strauss

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We are joined by Mike Pesca, host of The Gist, and (much to his great shame), House of Strauss super fan. On today’s pod we unpack the various overlapping dramas surrounding Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker’s commencement speech. The NFL has disavowed Butker’s words. But has “the NFL” really disavowed his words? Topics include but aren’t limited to…
* Mike and I like a good hypocrite
* Is there any throughline to the social justice causes (Why is Greta Thunberg now protesting an Israeli singer’s inclusion on Eurovision?)
* The Harrison Butker media freakout
* Can fervently followed religion co-exist with the secular ideology of institutions?
* The modern issue with telling women to “be a homemaker”
* Bill Simmons succeeds because he still has takes (and others don’t)
* A take or two on Glenn Greenwald
* Mike questions me on my NBA takes over the years

Grant Cohn is a) The originator of the now multimillion dollar media ecosystem known as “49ers Youtube” b) Most prolific critic of 49er coach Kyle Shanahan and, now, c) In a beef with Athletic reporter David Lombardi.
We start with that last part, because it’s an intriguing entry point. Why are Cohn and Lombardi openly fighting? Does Grant represent the gate crashing threat of New Media? Or is Lombardi heading him off at the pass by taking team-friendly coverage to Grant’s Youtube territory?
We get into all of this, plus discuss hurting athlete’s feelings, Kevin Durant’s personality type, my least favorite 2024 Niner draft pick, and, who else? Brock Purdy. Enjoy!
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Ben Kaplan and Danny Parkins are best friends and co-creators of this particular passion project. It turns out that the ranks of NBA decision makers and coaches are replete with guys who cut their teeth in obscure Division 3 college programs. The sheer amount of influence out of D3 is pretty incredible, as the book chronicles and conveys. So why has this happened? How come the lowest level of college competition is fueling the highest level of decision making in pro competition?
We get into that, plus question big shot Chicago radio host Danny about Caleb Williams…
House of Strauss is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.





This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.houseofstrauss.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.houseofstrauss.com

Ryan, our nation’s preeminent sports media critic, is here to discuss reports that NBC wishes to offer the NBA a tremendous amount of money. What does this mean, other than that Adam Silver is our lord and savior?
Topics…
* Can Warner Bros. Discovery (TNT) possibly come up with a competing offer?
* What’s with WBD CEO David Zaslav sitting at Knicks-Sixers with Goldman Sachs tycoon Lloyd Blankfein?
* Do Barkley and the other TNT guys join NBC in this scenario?
* Irony of WBD needing the NBA most, but being most likely to be forced out
* Oddness of young Thunder players doing that “What a pro wants” ad
* Which TNT halftime guy is least essential?
* NBA playoff ratings are all over the map. New Nielsen system or something else?
* That traditional space at end of pod where we talk Israel/Gaza campus protests
* Are these protests being received by the public in a totally different way had Elon not bought Twitter?

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.houseofstrauss.com

Ace New York politics reporter, all around culture writer and crazed baseball fan Ross Barkan objected to my “Is Baseball Dying?” article. Naturally I had him here to say his piece and boy did we hit on a range of other topics.
* Contra conventional wisdom, is baseball more international than basketball?
* Why might baseball survive the future?
* Pete Rose was insanely famous in the 1970s, and we’ve forgotten
* Is household name sports celebrity over, post LeBron James and Steph Curry?
* Is Patrick Mahomes anywhere near as famous as prime Tom Brady was?
* Taylor Swift and parasocial fandom
* Will Swift exist outside her time?
* Travis Kelce’s obvious bid for fame
* Tucker Carlson vs. Bari Weiss on Israel
* Campus fight over Israel

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.houseofstrauss.com

Joe is really smart about the sports + business overlap, as evidenced by his viral story about Glen Taylor thwarting his own sale of the Timberwolves to the ARod + Lore duo. We got deep into that deeply reported article and hit other topics of interest, such as…
* The Pat McAfee + Bill Belichick combo
* Robert Kraft’s Dynasty hit job on Belichick backfiring
* Roger Goodell expanding the NFL season
* NBA TV rights reports
* The paradox of why NBA broadcasters might pay more while asking for less inventory
* The Minnesota mess
* Glen Taylor’s sneaky trick to recapture team control
* Those Forbes team valuations matter more than you’d think
* Why the WNBA can’t pay Caitlin Clark a lot of money
* The articles arguing that Clark got a big Nike deal in large part because she’s White