https://theathletic.com/2012586/202...s-at-the-athletic/?source=user-shared-article Mike Rhyner: How I arrived at Square One with my new teammates at The Athletic By Mike Rhyner 5h ago 44 I never said it. Go back and look. The ‘R’ word. Retire. It was somebody else’s word. Never mine. When I posted the video on January 6, 2020, advising one and all that I was not coming back to my post at the Ticket, I didn’t couch it as retiring. I merely said I was stepping away from my gig at the radio station. At no time in there do I say the word ‘retire,’ ‘retiring,’ ‘retirement’ or any of its other forms. Still, I was very mindful that it might turn out to be just that. I had no idea where I was going, what I would do or even if anyone would want me to do anything. And that was the way most people framed it. They assumed that anytime someone of a certain age does something like that, they’re retiring. They took it and ran with it. I thought about saying, ‘No, I’m not retiring’. Something told me ‘Don’t do that. Let them take it and run with it if they want.’ And don’t get me wrong — I’m not pissed off by any of this. It’s just how things are. I get that. Still, I was staring into an enormous chasm. Deep, blue, great, wide-open. And I was not afraid. It was kind of invigorating. We’d see what was next. That was down the road. That down the road lasted three days. On January 9, I found myself sitting at the Lakewood Landing — come back, Landing!! — with Or Moyal and Kent Garrison. Or had been around; he spent some time at WFAA producing Dale Hansen’s sportscasts and running their online sports scene. I didn’t know Kent at all. But I did know The Athletic. And I dug The Athletic — lots. That’s where they were plying their craft these days, on the editorial/management side. They had something to talk to me about. I didn’t know what that could be. I was not known much for writing about sports. That was not what they were thinking. They wanted me in their podcast space. This excited me. I was not turned on by terrestrial radio, but the podcast thing was something I was probably going to look into one way or another, assuming I did anything at all. But I didn’t get the allure of a neither-fish-nor-fowl, sometimes-sportsy, sometimes-not guy like me for them. I told them that I was all over the place. They said, ‘Fine; we want What’s On Mike’s Mind.’ That was all I needed to hear. I was in. But first, there was that crazy little thing called the non-compete clause. I didn’t think that would be a player, as a podcast is not over the air. Cumulus Media informed me otherwise and that if I did this, I would be in violation. This caught me by surprise. I didn’t — and still don’t — see any point of contention between a podcast, which lives online, and over-the-air terrestrial radio. There are a ton of podcasts out there, and if the radio station was ever concerned with any, that was news to me. I thought about fighting it and talked to a few attorneys. They told me different things, but they all arrived at the same conclusion: This all comes down to who adjudicates the case and how he or she views non-competes. Some hate ‘em and live for the opportunity to smash ‘em. Others view them as a legitimate way for a business to protect itself. Still others will be on one side or the other, but look at you and say, ‘Did you know that was in there when you signed the contract?’ And I did. I just never thought it would matter. But one of those attorneys stopped things down, looked at me and said, ‘Look — I know who you are; I know what you’ve been doing. You’ve been in the grind for 26 years, and it’s not like this is a one-year or two-year non-compete. If you can take some time and do nothing and ride this thing out, that would be the best thing for you.’ And I could. So I did. That’s over now. It’s time to get about the business of a new scene at the Athletic. I hope you’ll subscribe, and I hope you’ll check out ‘Square One with Mike Rhyner.’ It’ll include conversations with people I have gotten to know as well as people I don’t know but am curious about. I will have some of the other guys who write for The Athletic on, guys I know and have great regard for such as Levi Weaver, Jamey Newberg, Tim Cato, Saad Yousuf and Jon Machota, just to name a few. And it’ll be a lot of ‘What’s On Mike’s Mind,’ where I pontificate on who knows what, just as I used to do.
I was of a mind that Mike had been mailing it in on non-baseball sports items for a decade or more, but this will be great. As the title implies, he'll get to talk about shit that interests him, no more Dak contract and Mavs rotation talk.
No the only conflict was that Cumulus wouldn’t let him do a podcast until his non-compete ran out. Don’t think there’s anything keeping him from doing that. Dan said today that he’s filling in for Jake again next Friday
I had no idea either. Thanks for posting that. Cancer will No No No Never Never Never No Never beat Norm.
Dad had bladder cancer when I was back in high school. Caught it early and he’s been cancer free the last 10+ years. Hoping this is easily treatable for Norm. Fuck cancer
the first Square One podcast was meh, mostly because it was Mike rehashing the start of the station and then his decision to leave, and the guy he had with him was annoying but the one that dropped today with him and Wilonsky just shooting the shit
the only thing better than an hour of the old grey wolf and wilonski bullshitting for an hour is the old grey wolf and wilonski bullshitting for more hours
not that anyone would notice, but 103.3 eliminated local programming and is going to just straight national programming I guess no more jokes about bringing home wings
I saw some scuttlebutt on Twitter that Elf is coming back on Sunday mornings. Was he on 103.3 as well? I wonder if JaM Session (a show I just learned existed) will be live on the weekends or if it'll be a replay.
Anybody know what Junior miller has talked about the last few days about being on the Fox pregame show? I cant find anything about it.
They picked up a clip of him talking on The Ticket and used it on the Fox show. He wasn't on the show.
I really really really hate dry dock season. Who the hell are these guys filling in for the Hardline? This is unlistenable.
Matt McClearin and JJT (famous for the “wings for P tweet). Came back over when ESPN affiliate disbanded. Will take them 100% of the time over “country force” or “work in progress”
He did admit he wasn’t hacked the one day he was in for the hardline last week because Dan brought it up in the cross-talk, but he clearly still didn’t want to talk about it. The fact that he can’t laugh at himself is reason #1 of many that he sucks
Weird, because when it was brought up Friday before Matt’s “Wings for P Christmas Song” he went back to denying it. Agree he would be a lot cooler if he owned it. Not sure if it has anything to do with trying not to scare away future employment but no one believes the whole “hacked” excuse
didn't he say "Ragonk'd one off a tree?"...that may one of the better Ragonk verb uses out there haha
My daaaaad.....EEEEEAAAAARRRRLLLL The non-living, barrel-chested vodka lover who five decades ago once got so horny that he started a war in Vietnam so that he could somehow be stationed in Thailand so that he could sniff out an ovulating Katilda and chase her all the way across Asia on horseback and then on a go-kart across Europe and then back to Asia paragliding after her and then through the water she tried to swim to the Pacific to get to safety in San Francisco where she heard there was a barn that took in women who Earl was chasing but caused her to get caught up on the island of Hawaii and he dated her real hard there in Hawaii and fast until his eyes rolled back in his head and his engorged baby plasma gun started firing rhythmically constant PGA into her meat cave incubator until 9 months later she had to squat down during a butter churning contest and fire a 15 major winning PGA fetus into a Mopar oil pan filled with burnt 5W-40 and old corn cobs. ...he says hi.
Ted Emrich is at it again on those pga championship updates. Just worked "staying hard" into one. Love that dude
Im pretty sure Gordo came up with Dutch for Blake so they could do an 8:40 bit. Just more Gordo genius. Speaking of, are yall gonna tune in tomorrow night at 10 for his hilarious house party?