The founder of Fanatics, the executive chairman, and here in Los Angeles for the Fanatics inaugural Flag Football Classic presented by Fanatic Studios, Michael Rubin is back here on the program. Good to see you, buddy. How are you?
Good to be here, dude. You're psyched, right? This is a big weekend.
I'm psyched. I can't wait to see what happens on Saturday. I literally have no idea.
You listen to our sports book? Yeah. They say Team USA 6 and 12 point favorite. I think there's a line on this stuff, huh?
Yeah, there's a line. I thought they were going to like I thought the line would be like, you know, the NFL guys minus 20.
Yeah. Right. And they were like, "No, the flag guys are favored because they're used to doing this." Is that the general?
It's a different sport. By the way, it's a sport that's growing like crazy. My flag is flag is doing amazing. I mean, women too, girls too.
Doing great across the board globally. It's been also great to work with NFL to have them, you know, work with us to really build this game. But for me, the original format was we were going to have three primarily NFL-based teams compete against each other in round robin, right?
And then someone said, wouldn't it be so much more fun to see who was better? Is it the team USA flag football, which by the way has won the last five championships, the best flag football team in the world, right?
Or is it a team filled with the best NFL players in the world? So having Jaylen Hurts and Tom Brady, one squad leading that, having another one with Jaden Daniels and Joe Burrow, and then having Team USA, I have no idea what's going to happen on Saturday.
Yeah, from I I should know this, but the Team USA quarterback is the kid who said he's better than Mahomes, right?
Yes. I'm told he seems like a nice guy. By the way, they seemed like just they were very humble. But I could tell you there's a lot of confidence from those guys and the NFL guys last night. They were taking this seriously. This was not like, "Hey, we're just going to glide by and have a little bit of fun." They're like, you know, we ain't letting these guys embarrass us.
I mean, you got Brady involved like that. He's not just gonna half-ass it and just say, "I'm here for the fun."
Tom is the most driven person on planet Earth. He's called me every day and told me he's destroying these guys. He said, "I'm going to destroy Joe and Jaden. I'm going to destroy the Team USA guys. Like, these guys are little punks. I'm going to kill them." Right? So, I talked to him this morning. He's ready. He can't wait to get out there and practice today. I'm actually going to my first practice ever in the history of my life today. I've never been to a practice before.
Come on, Michael. Never. And I can't wait to go. You've never been to Sixers practice? No. Of any sport?
No. What? My I've never been to a practice.
I would have taken the over on that many.
Yeah. So, I'm going to my first practice today. I'm going to see there's going to be a lot of serious training. How do we get these flags? I heard there's some very unique techniques. I was actually using YouTube about 3:30 a.m. to just see exactly how this works. So, what do you mean like this is not a Velcro situation?
No. No. I mean, just like you there's I mean, if you listen to the flag guys, they you know, look at the size of them versus the NFL guys. I mean, you could take about two and a half flag guys per one grank, I think.
Um true. So, like a Russian nest, you open one up and you just stick them inside the ground.
Kevin Hart look like a giant relative. Back here on our radio outfit, ESPN radio and SiriusXM 80 have just rejoined us here on ESPN cable, ESPN the app, and Disney Plus. Michael Rubin, Fanatics founder and executive chairman is here right now. Fanatic Studios presents Fanatic's inaugural Flag Football Classic taking place at SoFi Stadium right here in Los Angeles on Saturday. If you're in the area, Ticketmaster is your place to get tickets. It's streamed internationally because we do have a lot of international viewers and listeners. It's on the Fanatics YouTube channel. Fox Sports Fox 1 and Tubi from 4:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Eastern time is your way to watch all of this and Michael Rubin is here on the program. What's the first time you ever met Tom Brady? When was the first time you ever cross with him?
Robert and Jonathan Kraft have probably been the most helpful family to me in my entire business career. So through Robert and Jonathan, I probably met Tommy back, you know, 15 years ago, but we didn't really become super close till the last, you know, five or seven years. And he's obviously, you know, best person to ever play football. He's the most, you know, he's one of the most important athletes to Fanatics overall. We do so many things together. But, you know, for me, the thing that's so amazing about him is to see the drive that he has. And you realize when you get to know him really well why he won seven Super Bowls. There's no question about it. He's got my work ethic. He's up I talked to him so many times 4:00 in the morning, 5:00 in the morning. He's grinding. He's fighting every day. If you look how seriously he's taking this game, like when I hear people say, "Oh, you know, a mixture of former and current NFL greats." He's like, "I could go kill any of these current quarterbacks today. Like if I didn't own, you know, if I was one of the owners of the Raiders, I'd be one of the top quarterbacks in the NFL." So last weekend we were in Las Vegas for a friend of ours opened Zero Bond in Vegas and Tom walked up to Joe Burrow and said, "I'm going to kick your ass this week."
Yeah, 100%. Joe's like, "What did he just say?" It was I mean, the banter's been very strong, much stronger than what Tom played in the NFL. And everyone's charged up for this weekend.
I bet. So you said the Krafts were instrumental. Absolutely. So, how did you cross paths with them?
Yeah, you know, I was lucky enough actually the NFL introduced me to Jonathan Kraft back in 2006, 2007. And we actually met, it's a crazy story. He actually there were things that he didn't like about Fanatics and he had issues with the strategy that we had. And so the NFL was kind of sick of, you know, trying to facilitate. They said, "Can you guys get together?" He had so much, you know, great ideas and we're like, "You're right about everything you're saying." And we used it to just make a better company. And we've been, you know, brothers ever since. So Jonathan's been family to me for close to 20 years and Robert for close to 15 years. But legitimately there's not a group of people, a family, anyone who's been more helpful to me in my business than Robert and Jonathan.
Right. So it's obviously Brady's by Robert's coming here this weekend.
Oh, he is. Yeah. He's coming out for the game. Roger's coming tomorrow. Robert called me yesterday. He said to me that he'd been grinding so hard. He was tired. He wasn't sure he was going to come. I called him back. I said, "Robert, like I get it. You're going to be 85 soon. You're getting older. You're getting tired." Right. He said, "I'm coming."
Oh. Oh, you challenged him.
Yeah, 100%. All I had to do was call out, you know, he had a birthday coming up soon. He was going to be 85. Maybe he's getting too tired. He doesn't have it anymore. And he's like, I'll be He called me back. He said, "I'm coming." You know, I slept good. I'm ready to go. I slept three hours, four hours.
RG1, as I like to refer to him. He's coming. Robert Kraft or Roger Goodell.
Yeah, Roger's coming as well. Yeah. Look, Flag is obviously a huge initiative for the NFL. Yeah. And you know, they're putting so much behind. I think we I don't think either one of us could have put this game on this match on without helping each other and they've been incredible partners and there's just you know so important to grow the flag game globally but to get out the quality of stars that we have that's what's so exciting to see you know in one game you know by the way I mean Tom reminded me yesterday him and Jaylen Hurts have eight Super Bowl rings on their end. He was of course poking at Jaden and Joe Burrow for a couple Heisman trophies. He wasn't valuing those as much, right? I would imagine. So yeah, but you just got so many incredible athletes, you know, by the way, I grew up in Philly, seeing, you know, having Jaylen Hurts with other guys from the Eagles. I mean, just amazing.
Yeah. And so, well, that's part of your brand now, man. I mean, as I was talking to you in the back, you know, being at the last few Fanatics Fests, your head's on a swivel and you're like, I can't, oh, wow, he's here. Oh, wow, she's here. Oh, wow. You are a collector of stars in the way that people who come to your event are a collector of collectibles like right now you know like that's what's happening.
Look, I'm really fortunate we work in the best industry in the world. I mean like you can't not love working in the sports business. You know that everyone in this building we're so lucky to wake up and do what we do every day. We work around the best sports fans in the world and you know a couple billion of the most passionate fans of the world they all make us better they push us to do great things and Fanatics Fest is I think one of the hardest things that we do is one of the most rewarding things that we do.
Now, by the way, we were talking about your little race there. I'm thinking there's going to be a rematch this year between you and Chef. I heard you didn't have the right gear last time.
Well, I mean, Chef is the one who challenged me and I'm like, what? Am I going to turn down this challenge? I'm not.
So, do you feel like you became with the right shoes were mentally prepared? You smoke them?
Okay. So, we're going to see this at Fanatics Fest 3 this year.
Um, yeah. I just didn't know I had to wear the proper footwear for that sort of thing. I didn't know. I guess I should be ready at any time.
That is the Michigan like I should take my cue from Brady that you should wake up and be able to compete no matter what.
By the way, so we created the Fanatics games last year at Fanatics Fest. Yes. We took 50.
Saw that wild. It was wild. So we took 50 of the best athletes, artists, celebrities, mostly athletes versus 50 average Joe fans. By the way, it was a million dollar first prize. It was at like a half million dollar Ferrari is the second prize and like a quarter million dollar Topps LeBron James rookie card is the third prize. And the competition was insane. It was basically six different sports like you know how do you do throwing a football? How do you do hitting a golf ball? How do you do throwing baseballs? How do you do getting hockey into a washer and a dryer? And your WWE walk out. How hard can you punch? And so I walked and this is a great this is maybe indicative of what we're about to see this weekend, right? So I walked with Brady for the first competition. We matched two people up and it was him and Eli Manning. And so I watched Eli was like he looked like he was the most incredible pitcher ever. And he looked a lot better than Tom. And so I like just was talking smack to him like you suck. You're old. You don't got it anymore.
Or Eli's getting you again.
Yes. I was everything that could come out of my mouth. I give him a hard time. Never thought about it again. I got home. I said, "Let me go to the Fanatics app and see who's winning." I'm like, "Tom Brady's number one." I'm like, "No way. He's not really winning this thing." And of course, he called, "I'm the no one can beat me. I got these guys. I'm in everyone's head." And then he won for the weekend. He won the top prize. He was number one. He won the Fanatics Games out of 100 people. And so, he's the reigning Fanatics game champion, seven Super Bowl time champion, and he wants to be the champion this weekend. So, I will tell you, he's preparing for this like a Super Bowl. He's ready to go.
I don't know. Pardon me. What's the name of the Let's give him props. The name of the quarterback of Team USA.
Yeah, Daryl "Hus" Huson. Whoosh.
Right. Whoosh. He doesn't seem to be a wallflower. You know what I mean? And this is their but this is their way to basically say with the commissioner there, you're there, these athletes here that in the town of the Olympics to basically say we are the team like this is it.
So, I'll tell you a couple interesting things. One of the great things about business and sport is you always have to be iterating. And when Tom called me a year ago and said, "Look, I want to do the biggest flag football game ever. Can you help us put this together? It's going to be really hard. You know, we got to get everyone out, you know, to produce the game." Right. Absolutely. Tom, your family, let's go do this together. Our original idea was to have three NFL-based teams. And then literally three weeks ago, Mike Mahan, who runs our collectibles and trading card business, called said, "We can make this so much better. Let's see if we get Team USA into this. They're the best flag football team. Let's see how the NFL guys do versus, you know, the best flag football team." And that just took this from like a friendly match to like this is going to be serious. You know, people are really fighting to win this. No one wants to be embarrassed. I mean, if Team USA wins, NFL guys aren't going to feel so good. And by the way, if team USA loses, that's pretty embarrassing for the best flag football team to lose. So, I mean, and again, last night when we were doing some introductions, I reminded everyone from the NFL that they were six and a half point underdogs or six point underdogs from Fanatics Sportsbook. So, you're going to see serious competition, but I think this format is one that's great to showcase and highlight not only flag football on a global stage, but also what the, you know, I don't think the USA flag football teams had any type of visibility like this. So there's going to be I think tens of millions of people are going to watch this and tune in to this on Saturday. So to watch this competition is I think terrific for the growth of flag football globally.
I want to go back to what you said to start your response just that what you said you always need to be iterating. Is that what you're saying? Yeah. Look, what do you mean by that?
I mean 3 weeks ago we were doing this game in Saudi Arabia.
Yeah. With three NFL-based teams, right? Couple weeks later, we're doing this in LA where they're going to have the 2028 Olympics at this at SoFi where they're going to play like football games with a completely different format. I mean, that's about innovating, pivoting, figure out how to do it better. I mean, you tell me how much more interesting is this format of having two NFL-based teams and the best flag football team playing against each other. I mean, do you really have any idea what's going to happen? Because I don't.
No, not at all. I'm just talking about just growing businesses and things like that. You know, cuz that's part of what we're doing around here is we've done nothing but pivot on this show for like six years. And it's sometimes it's realities that cause you to pivot and other times you got to start thinking about it. And I think there's a lot of people out there maybe trying to start their own small business right now listening to us, watching us on our platform that would love to get your two cents on that for somebody who's grown Fanatics the way that you have over the last.
Yeah. Well, first of all, I think we haven't done anything yet. I think we're just getting started and we're always going to have that mentality. From my perspective, you know, I think to be a successful entrepreneur, you have to just have a will to win always and you always got to be figuring out how can you be better, never accepting where you are. You know, someone said, "How'd you feel about last night?" I said because we did the draft yesterday and by the way the draft was it was hilarious. I mean the guys just watching everyone just laughing for 45 minutes straight. But I'm like here are all the things we still do better because you have to have that mentality. If you ever accept whatever you do is good enough, you're never going to be good enough. So, and you also have to know you're going to take lots of L's in business. And that's, you know, that's part of growing a business. That's part of playing sports. That's part of business. Things never go the way you think they're going to go, you know, consistently. You know, some things go the way you do, some things don't. You just got to keep pivoting. You got to keep innovating. You got to keep listening to your customers and keep being better in everything that you do.
Fanatic Studios. What's that? What are you trying to grow here?
