Let's Huddle with Ed Cunningham

Long time college and NFL coach Keith Gilbertson discusses his work at the University of Washington during a golden era for the Huskies under legendary coach Don James. As a mentor and friend, Gilbertson brought fun and the opportunity to excel at a time when it was desperately needed by me and the entire football program, ultimately leading to a national championship.

Emmy winner Jack Arute discusses his long, fascinating broadcast career where he nearly won the Baja 1000 as a reporter/navigator, survived a plane crash while covering the Iditarod, witnessed the immense respect for Hall of Fame broadcaster Keith Jackson while working with him on college football, and overcoming his fear of heights to learn how to hang glide for a story. And how it all started at his families’ race track, when he gave up his job as the flag waver to become the public address announcer.

Canadian filmmaker David Bitton began filming a sport called Chessboxing – a professionalized mix of boxing and speed chess – over a decade ago and still finds the subculture fascinating and inspiring. With the release of his documentary, "By Rook or Left Hook: The Story of Chessboxing", we look back on the connections and similarities to "The King of Kong", discuss a sport and its participants that are surprisingly relatable, and he recounts the epically long production that included being mugged and having all of his gear stolen right before the project was to begin.

NFL Hall of Fame reporter Sam Farmer of the L.A. Times and Emmy winner Jeff Chadiha of the NFL Network talk about their long careers as beat writers covering the sport, how modern and social media have changed their jobs, and their reasons for picking a story and the responsibilities that come with that choice.

Legendary radio personality Jaime “Spike” O’Neill was a sports reporter, impressionist, writer, singer and key cast member of “Bob Rivers Twisted Radio” - the number one rock radio show in Seattle from the height of grunge through the collapse of web 1.0. Two east coasters, who arrived in Seattle about the same time and met when Spike offered Ed his first broadcasting gig, reminisce about how O’Neill had backstage passes to a golden era for arts, culture, business and sports and he takes us on a tour of his out-of-nowhere gig as a willing and able representative of Twisted Radio.

Broadcasting and ESPN legend Mike Patrick spent over thirty years at the World Wide Leader and helped usher in the era of non-traditional NFL game times while serving as the first host of Sunday Night Football. He discusses growing up in West Virginia and how he stumbled into broadcasting, his life’s work, while in college. Get to know one of the best ever play by play announcers in his own words, including his open heart surgery that nearly derailed it all while he was at a pinnacle in his career.

The NY Times bestselling author, Yahoo! Sports columnist, screenwriter, producer and podcaster Dan Wetzel has just about seen it all and gladly shared his take, but nothing has him leaning into the laptop more than the financial schemes and inequities baked into the NCAA’s handling of the athletes who make up their work force. We discuss how the amateur sports we watch on all the big networks are not contractually legal, how the greed of administrators finally reversed the flow of value and revenue back towards the amateurs and why covering the Olympics during a pandemic sucked. Yahoo!

AP Sports Writer of the Year Janie McCauley discusses how Ichiro Suzuki and the 2001 Seattle Mariners helped her grow as a sports writer, why Dusty Baker was the perfect manager for the scandal-plagued Houston Astros and how collecting and handing out foul balls during the 2020 MLB season helped fans, unable to attend games in person, stay connected to the sport.

Emmy winning broadcaster and former NFL player Solomon Wilcots discusses how the Jon Gruden email leaks revealed bigger issues within the league, his new, misunderstood podcast partner Adam “PacMan” Jones, and how he got started in journalism.

A clip from an interview with Ex-Raider and current Raider radio broadcaster Lincoln Kennedy who played for Jon Gruden and shares how betrayed, hurt and confused he was by the horrible, hateful emails Gruden sent while a broadcaster at ESPN that led to the coach’s resignation. When we spoke, Lincoln was still raw, processing what happened and how to feel about Gruden, and importantly, how to share how he feels with his teenage sons.