<v Speaker 1>Wednesday, May twentieth, twenty twenty six, you are listening to

<v Speaker 1>the Daily Dose Sports podcast and I am your host,

<v Speaker 1>Clinton Daily, coming to you from the Myhi City here

<v Speaker 1>in Denver, Colorado, and we are back for another week

<v Speaker 1>of talking sports with a dose of common sense. Hey,

<v Speaker 1>Happy Wednesday to you. I hope you had a good weekend.

<v Speaker 1>I hope your week is going well now and that

<v Speaker 1>you your family or friends, everyone is staying strong and

<v Speaker 1>staying healthy right now. And Hey, I'm telling you today

<v Speaker 1>on the Dose, I've got something a little bit different

<v Speaker 1>for you. I want you to think about something. Imagine

<v Speaker 1>for one minute, if this past season in the NFL,

<v Speaker 1>the Las Vegas Raiders, the New York Jets, and the

<v Speaker 1>Arizona Cardinals all got bumped down to the minor leagues.

<v Speaker 1>I think I kind of like that. Imagine in the NBA,

<v Speaker 1>if say the Washington Wizards and Utah Jazz were no

<v Speaker 1>longer allowed in the big leagues, big up, bump down.

<v Speaker 1>Imagine in Major League Baseball, if the Minnesota Twins, the

<v Speaker 1>colaud of Rockies, the Oakland A's were no longer in

<v Speaker 1>the big leagues, they were sent down to play Triple

<v Speaker 1>A ball. You hear that. I'm gonna be honest, it

<v Speaker 1>kind of sounds amazing, right, I agree, I wish it

<v Speaker 1>would happen. Well, this week's guest actually drilled down on

<v Speaker 1>this exact subject and it actually made for a really

<v Speaker 1>interesting story. Right now, let's get over to our interview

<v Speaker 1>with author Todd Smith, joining us this week on the

<v Speaker 1>Daily Dose. Hey, I'm telling you I have got a

<v Speaker 1>guest that you are going to want to hear. If

<v Speaker 1>you're a fan of maybe like Ted Lasso or Welcome

<v Speaker 1>to Wrexham. I have got a book you're going to

<v Speaker 1>need to check it out. A book is coming out

<v Speaker 1>literally this week. It came out yesterday with the title

<v Speaker 1>of Relegated, and it takes you on this hilarious, fascinating

<v Speaker 1>journey through the United Kingdom. It's football clubs, the rich

<v Speaker 1>tradition of English football culture. But Todd Smith is the

<v Speaker 1>author of Relegated, and he tells a story. It's got

<v Speaker 1>some really, really fun stuff, and it talks about the

<v Speaker 1>consequences that English football teams face when they underperform. That

<v Speaker 1>is something honestly, I wish we would do here in

<v Speaker 1>American sports. But Todd took things one step further. He

<v Speaker 1>went and traveled to see what it's like when you

<v Speaker 1>get relegated. Todd is joining us today on the Daily

<v Speaker 1>Does Todd Welcome to the Daily Dose. We appreciate you

<v Speaker 1>being here.

<v Speaker 2>Yeah, this is awesome. It's a true honor to be

<v Speaker 2>here and talk all things relegated in English football, in

<v Speaker 2>American sports, and the wild ride that I went on.

<v Speaker 1>It is a wild ride. And I have read your book.

<v Speaker 1>I thoroughly am enjoying it. I'm just about done with it.

<v Speaker 1>I kind of don't want to end. I've reached a

<v Speaker 1>point now where I'm like, oh, I want to kind

<v Speaker 1>of hurry and get it done. And I'm like, wait,

<v Speaker 1>take your time, enjoy it, because it's not often that

<v Speaker 1>I get a book that I enjoyed this much. Just

<v Speaker 1>a little background, Where did you grow up? Where are

<v Speaker 1>you from?

<v Speaker 2>I grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and my dad is

<v Speaker 2>a Hall of Fame athletic trainer, and so he was

<v Speaker 2>in collegiate sports and pro sports my whole life. So

<v Speaker 2>I grew up literally in sports. And my first paying

<v Speaker 2>job was as a locker room attendant for the indoor

<v Speaker 2>soccer league in Minneapolis, and so I'm tied to all

<v Speaker 2>the sports from a very early age. I went to

<v Speaker 2>college in Missoula, Montana, at the University of Montana, and

<v Speaker 2>afterwards I decided that I kind of wanted to maybe

<v Speaker 2>become a writer. And my good fortune was I had

<v Speaker 2>all these sports stories. He's kind of kicking around, you know,

<v Speaker 2>in my life, and I've decided to put pen to

<v Speaker 2>paper and see if I could get I could turn

<v Speaker 2>myself into a sports writer, and luckily I did. But

<v Speaker 2>it all starts with my dad introducing me to all

<v Speaker 2>the players in the sports and the teams and English

<v Speaker 2>football in particular, because my dad was the trainer for

<v Speaker 2>the Minnesota Kicks and the Minnesota Strikers, and so that

<v Speaker 2>was the beginning of a lot of these stories. Whereas

<v Speaker 2>in my family's kitchen, where all these English or Welsh

<v Speaker 2>or Scottish or Irish football players were literally in our

<v Speaker 2>family kitchen telling me these wonderful stories that were coming

<v Speaker 2>from places that seemed like a fairy tale, right. They

<v Speaker 2>had names like Nottingham in Blackpool and Grimsby and stuff

<v Speaker 2>like that. Into a young kid in Minneapolis, it seemed

<v Speaker 2>like the coolest. These dudes were the coolest people I

<v Speaker 2>would ever meet, and so that was a big part

<v Speaker 2>of this book, Relegated. Was it started? You know back

<v Speaker 2>when I was a child so.

<v Speaker 1>Well, and you played a little yourself, you must have

<v Speaker 1>been a pretty decent player. You played a little at

<v Speaker 1>that next level. What kind of player were.

<v Speaker 2>You I was?

<v Speaker 1>I was.

<v Speaker 2>I'm very I'm a hobbit. Basically, I'm very short, but

<v Speaker 2>I played with a lot of My dad would say,

<v Speaker 2>piss and vinegar. I was a left footed left back.

<v Speaker 2>I still play. I'm fifty three. I've toned things down.

<v Speaker 2>Glad to report, but I played year round as a kid.

<v Speaker 2>I played varsity in high school the whole way, and

<v Speaker 2>then I played one year in college Division III, and

<v Speaker 2>then now I currently play. And I formed my own

<v Speaker 2>league called the Donkey Soccer League for basically fat dads.

<v Speaker 2>Anybody over forty is welcome to play. We're no longer thoroughbreds.

<v Speaker 2>We are donkeys. You can see the donkey above me.

<v Speaker 2>I shoulder here. Then there's a trophy here of just

<v Speaker 2>the horses. Ass those are the Donkey Awards. So I

<v Speaker 2>do have a very rooted, organic love for the game,

<v Speaker 2>just as a player.

<v Speaker 1>And now growing up. Obviously you're a fan of Minnesota sports.

<v Speaker 1>You're a fan of your local team, but were you

<v Speaker 1>a fan of a Premier League team. Was there a

<v Speaker 1>team that you kind of adopted that was kind of

<v Speaker 1>your team.

<v Speaker 2>Yeah, my family's team is Wolverhampton and that's because of

<v Speaker 2>one particular player, a gentleman named Mike Bailey, who was

<v Speaker 2>the captain in their heyday. And Mike Bailey was so

<v Speaker 2>good and so cool that he was Robert Plant's favorite

<v Speaker 2>player when Robert Plant was a kid. So Robert Plant

<v Speaker 2>is from the Midlands, which the Wolves are from, and

<v Speaker 2>Robert Plant was he loved Mike Bailey. Well, Mike Bailey

<v Speaker 2>played for the Minnesota Kicks where my dad was the trainer,

<v Speaker 2>and my dad and Mike Bailey are best friends, and

<v Speaker 2>so Bailey was in my like, you know, looking back,

<v Speaker 2>Bailey was like James Bontas. He was he had played

<v Speaker 2>in the top English leagues against all the top players,

<v Speaker 2>and he was one of those guys that was sitting

<v Speaker 2>in our kitchen table. So we became Wolves fans, and

<v Speaker 2>but Wolves were our yo yo club.

<v Speaker 3>Right.

<v Speaker 2>They go up and down, up and down. Now you

<v Speaker 2>know the last six years they've been in the Premier League.

<v Speaker 2>Guess what they're gonna get relegated in the spring. They're

<v Speaker 2>they the lowest amount of points. But being a fan

<v Speaker 2>of an English football team is it's a journey, right,

<v Speaker 2>It's not just one season you ride the relegation and

<v Speaker 2>the promotion. But yeah, and so Wolves will get relegated.

<v Speaker 2>But I mean, I'm obsessed with Thinkers football, so I

<v Speaker 2>will I watch all the teams. But yeah, so Wolves.

<v Speaker 1>So I'm assuming because of that, because you did have

<v Speaker 1>that team that was going up and going down, and

<v Speaker 1>that is where this whole idea for this story came

<v Speaker 1>from because you experienced it. You your team. Hey, I

<v Speaker 1>wish we had that here in America. I wish that

<v Speaker 1>we had, although I have to say a lot of

<v Speaker 1>our my Colorado college teams would be relegated down to

<v Speaker 1>I don't know D two or something immediately. But I'm

<v Speaker 1>assuming that's where this all came from.

<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I mean, let's be honest. Minnesota sports are you

<v Speaker 2>know for American cities that have the four major men's sports,

<v Speaker 2>our women's team in the Twin Cities, they're awesome. The

<v Speaker 2>men are terrible. We have the longest drought of any

<v Speaker 2>city that has the four teams with out a title.

<v Speaker 2>So I started thinking about this book and relegation, and

<v Speaker 2>you can correlate it directly to two clubs that I'm

<v Speaker 2>a fan of, the Timberwolves and the Twins. The Twins

<v Speaker 2>should have been relegated like a decade ago. I mean

<v Speaker 2>even last year they were the second worst team in

<v Speaker 2>the American League, and they had a fire sale at

<v Speaker 2>the end of the season and now record low attendance.

<v Speaker 2>They've made beer two dollars to bring fans in. But

<v Speaker 2>guess what, nothing happens to the Twins. They will keep

<v Speaker 2>losing and nothing really happens to them. And I was

<v Speaker 2>thinking about this when you correlate this directly to the

<v Speaker 2>English football teams Wolves. You know, when Wolves get relegated,

<v Speaker 2>they're going to lose like one hundred million dollars and

<v Speaker 2>those are real stakes for a town like Wolverhampton. Where

<v Speaker 2>As a Minnesota sports fans, I mean, we've had just

<v Speaker 2>decades of dog years and our club should have been

<v Speaker 2>relegated a long time ago. But you know they're fighting

<v Speaker 2>their way back. But at the same time, a lot

<v Speaker 2>of this story is rooted in the fact that I'm

<v Speaker 2>from the Twin Cities and watching our teams just every

<v Speaker 2>year just bottom out or you know, the ownership does

<v Speaker 2>not put any effort into supporting the clubs, and uh yeah,

<v Speaker 2>it's just one of it's embarrassing really, I mean yeah.

<v Speaker 1>Well, and hey, you're speaking the choir here because I

<v Speaker 1>am stuck here in the in the home where we've

<v Speaker 1>got Hey, we've got the Apps, and we've got the Nuggets,

<v Speaker 1>We've got the Broncos, and we also have the Colorado Rockies.

<v Speaker 1>Same thing. The owners don't care. They're not going to

<v Speaker 1>invest any money, and why should they. They sell out,

<v Speaker 1>they still get plenty of gate. They don't even care

<v Speaker 1>that much. I wish they could be relegated. I wish

<v Speaker 1>we could get benchor league baseball here in my home state,

<v Speaker 1>but unfortunately we get right now, I understand your your

<v Speaker 1>feelings there completely. I've got to ask you. And and

<v Speaker 1>just going into your book a little bit, what the

<v Speaker 1>book does. Todd goes and he travels from Hey, some

<v Speaker 1>of the biggest cities and and the and the biggest

<v Speaker 1>premier clubs and goes to the big stadiums, and he

<v Speaker 1>also goes to the little relegated small towns and meets

<v Speaker 1>the small fans, plays soccer with them. Actually plays with

<v Speaker 1>a lot of them, apparently holds his own a little bit.

<v Speaker 1>Here's my question to you, because this was a journey

<v Speaker 1>you went everywhere. How in the world did you get

<v Speaker 1>your wife to sign off on this? I've got to know.

<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I mean to be like, honest, that was the

<v Speaker 2>biggest question.

<v Speaker 1>I'm genuinely wondering one.

<v Speaker 2>Hundred that's a legitimate question. I felt like, I can

<v Speaker 2>tell you, I felt like Doc Brown, the scientist character

<v Speaker 2>in Back to the Future, right where I was like,

<v Speaker 2>I got an idea.

<v Speaker 4>I have no money, I have no agent, I have

<v Speaker 4>no book deal, but I want to go travel in

<v Speaker 4>the UK for three months.

<v Speaker 2>And I don't have a book deal to pay for

<v Speaker 2>any of it. But I think I'm gonna do it.

<v Speaker 2>And and Sarah, God bless her. I mean, who, by

<v Speaker 2>the way, is allergic to sports.

<v Speaker 1>See, that's where it's difficult.

<v Speaker 2>My wife does not like even care for the sight

<v Speaker 2>of it, the sound of it. She's she grew up

<v Speaker 2>really cool. She didn't have any sports in her household.

<v Speaker 2>It was all like velvet underground and like all the

<v Speaker 2>things grateful dead, like all the cool stuff. Right, And

<v Speaker 2>then she married a rube who just is infatuated with sports,

<v Speaker 2>who grew up eating Nacho's out of a plastic helmet. Anyways,

<v Speaker 2>so I told her that I believed in this idea

<v Speaker 2>of this book. At this time, I said, I can sell.

<v Speaker 5>This book, and I just need to get over there,

<v Speaker 5>right and I just the stories are waiting for someone

<v Speaker 5>to go over there, and I think I can do this.

<v Speaker 2>I found all these storylines and she signed off on it.

<v Speaker 2>But she, you know, under a couple of pretenses. She

<v Speaker 2>was like, you know, one of them was like, could

<v Speaker 2>you wait a year? Because we had a kid going

<v Speaker 2>to college and newsflash, college isn't cheap, so we needed

<v Speaker 2>to know how much it was. And we don't have

<v Speaker 2>any money to begin with. And I didn't have an agent,

<v Speaker 2>I didn't have a book deal. But I knew I could.

<v Speaker 2>I knew there was some heat behind this because of

<v Speaker 2>what you just said, Ted Lasso Wrexham relegation promotions. So

<v Speaker 2>she gave me a year and I went to plan

<v Speaker 2>for an entire year, all these little storylines and all

<v Speaker 2>these forgotten places, and I figured out how to get there.

<v Speaker 2>And once we were over there, and she traveled with

<v Speaker 2>me for an entire month, right, and every day I

<v Speaker 2>would go out and do my reporting and then we

<v Speaker 2>would circle back at dinner time. And it was great.

<v Speaker 2>But I did sound like a crazy person. I mean

<v Speaker 2>I will not. I mean I was ready to give

<v Speaker 2>up writing because I was feeling relegated as a worker

<v Speaker 2>as a writer. But then this idea came in like

<v Speaker 2>a lightning bolt, and that's where the Back to the

<v Speaker 2>Future reference comes in. I was like, I got an idea.

<v Speaker 2>Listen to me, now, let's do this. Yeah, And I

<v Speaker 2>figured it out and I did it, and now the

<v Speaker 2>book is done. It's coming out soon, and it feels like,

<v Speaker 2>did I really do that? Did I really go to

<v Speaker 2>all those places?

<v Speaker 1>But I was reading your account of telling your what

<v Speaker 1>and I just had this image of her just rubbing

<v Speaker 1>her eyes, going, what are we doing here? Yeah?

<v Speaker 3>Yeah?

<v Speaker 1>Literally? How long that lasted?

<v Speaker 2>Yeah? I mean I But the best part about it

<v Speaker 2>is I got the map of the UK that had

<v Speaker 2>all the locations in the names of all the football

<v Speaker 2>clubs in England and Scotland. And it's a huge map

<v Speaker 2>and I taped it to the wall that's right over there,

<v Speaker 2>to the kitchen wall, and I would just stare at

<v Speaker 2>it and then I would go on this computer, and

<v Speaker 2>I would look it up on Google, and she knows

<v Speaker 2>better than anyone that what it looks like when I

<v Speaker 2>lock in to a story, because this is my third book,

<v Speaker 2>and so she was very in tune with all of this,

<v Speaker 2>but she agreed. She said, this book in particular is

<v Speaker 2>the one that's been living inside me, and I need

<v Speaker 2>to basically get this out to the people like yourself

<v Speaker 2>to read it and your listeners because in a lot

<v Speaker 2>of ways, you know, we have an MLS team here.

<v Speaker 2>And I went to a game and there was twenty

<v Speaker 2>thousand people there on a you know, a beautiful Saturday

<v Speaker 2>summer in Minneapolis, and I looked around that stadium and

<v Speaker 2>I had that single thought that I would venture to say,

<v Speaker 2>seventy five percent of the people in that stadium, this

<v Speaker 2>trip that I was planning would be their dream trip. Yeah,

<v Speaker 2>And I just decided to take that trip for all

<v Speaker 2>of us, right. I decided to like just go do

<v Speaker 2>it for every single working person who dreamt of maybe

<v Speaker 2>doing something like this but maybe can't doesn't have the

<v Speaker 2>means to do it, or does it have the schedule,

<v Speaker 2>or they have young kids, or their job is too demanding.

<v Speaker 2>Where I just decided to just roll with it and

<v Speaker 2>take this trip for everybody. And I'm so happy to

<v Speaker 2>be sharing it with the world because my life story

<v Speaker 2>is very It's a good example of a lot of

<v Speaker 2>working people because I work full time and I write

<v Speaker 2>books as a side job, and so I'm no different

<v Speaker 2>than you or any of your listeners. I just figured

<v Speaker 2>out a way to fund this whole thing. So there

<v Speaker 2>you go.

<v Speaker 1>Well, and I'm so glad that you did, because not

<v Speaker 1>only does the story give you this insight as to

<v Speaker 1>these different towns and these different people, You've got a

<v Speaker 1>lot of personal interest stories where you're going Holy count Like,

<v Speaker 1>there's some touching moments in the book. Hey, remember you

<v Speaker 1>should be stopping by Daily Dose works dot com every

<v Speaker 1>single week to see what new things we have going

<v Speaker 1>on over there. We have links to podcasts, we have

<v Speaker 1>links to new articles, we have links to videos, we

<v Speaker 1>have links to Daily Dose gear. Also, remember you can

<v Speaker 1>always email the podcast at Daily Dose Sports at gmail

<v Speaker 1>dot com. We hear from listeners regularly and it is

<v Speaker 1>always good to hear from you, so make sure you

<v Speaker 1>drop us a line if you've got a question, a comment,

<v Speaker 1>or a concern. We would love to hear what you

<v Speaker 1>have to say. Now let's get back to our interview

<v Speaker 1>with author Todd Smith. It is phenomenally done. Okay, I've

<v Speaker 1>got to ask you a few questions. I'm gonna we're

<v Speaker 1>gonna kind of go rapid fire here, and I'm gonna

<v Speaker 1>put you on the spot a little bit. Favorite stadium

<v Speaker 1>that you visited. It could be one of the big dogs,

<v Speaker 1>it could be one of the little tiny ones. Was

<v Speaker 1>there a stadium that went to their heres just like No,

<v Speaker 1>that spot was amazing.

<v Speaker 2>Yeah, that's a great question. I mean because some of

<v Speaker 2>the point some of the grounds are like cathedrals right there. Yeah,

<v Speaker 2>they're like still trustes in there, hundreds of years old,

<v Speaker 2>and the app everybody's crammed in very spiritual, very religious

<v Speaker 2>vibes mass you know, like all the rituals, all of

<v Speaker 2>that stuff. Yeah, I got to tell you that, you know,

<v Speaker 2>the americanization or the NFL experience is now going abroad.

<v Speaker 2>So some of those big stadiums, you know, the atmosphere

<v Speaker 2>is okay, but the stadiums look like any sort of

<v Speaker 2>NFL stadium. But there was one particular stadium which is

<v Speaker 2>known as Craven Cottage that is in West London where

<v Speaker 2>Fulham plays and I was in the away and at

<v Speaker 2>Fulham with the Everton supporters and it was like a

<v Speaker 2>Monday night. It was a night game, so the lights

<v Speaker 2>were on and Craven Cottage has one stand that is

<v Speaker 2>a historical building and I was facing it right and

<v Speaker 2>that one was as close to it like a religious

<v Speaker 2>experience that I've had at a sporting event. And in

<v Speaker 2>fact that's where I had my basically my epiphany. I

<v Speaker 2>had a turning point at that stadium where something fundamentally

<v Speaker 2>in me changed as a football fan yep. And it

<v Speaker 2>happened largely because of the stadium. So I would say

<v Speaker 2>a Craven Cottage in West London.

<v Speaker 1>For sure. You discuss a little bit about some of

<v Speaker 1>the food that you have. You talk about the meat pies,

<v Speaker 1>you talk about the side or that you drank, Give

<v Speaker 1>me the give me the best one, what's the best?

<v Speaker 1>What was the what was the the food that you

<v Speaker 1>went out and were like, hey, I would do that again, yees.

<v Speaker 2>So I mean it's really it's really obscure, but that's

<v Speaker 2>how the book happens because I was organically going in

<v Speaker 2>all these little places. But I'm not going to give

<v Speaker 2>it too much away because I don't think you've got

<v Speaker 2>part yet. But I was on an island in Scotland,

<v Speaker 2>in a in a in a pub on an island

<v Speaker 2>with Celtic supporters and in the pub there was a

<v Speaker 2>kitchen and there was about a hundred Celtic supporters that

<v Speaker 2>and they were playing there the longtime rival which is Rangers, right,

<v Speaker 2>so the Celtic Rangers is one of the most heated

<v Speaker 2>rivalries in all of sports. And they were playing each other.

<v Speaker 2>And I was in the pub with the with the

<v Speaker 2>Irish and the Catholics, and I went in there and

<v Speaker 2>this pub had a kitchen and there was a bunch

<v Speaker 2>of old ladies in the kitchen making handpies. And a

<v Speaker 2>lady came up to me and she said, Todd from America,

<v Speaker 2>would you like a meat.

<v Speaker 1>Pie, which, by the way, is your name. It dropped

<v Speaker 1>the book Talk from America. I love it.

<v Speaker 2>Yeah, So I just was like, of course, I didn't

<v Speaker 2>know what was in it. And I just like, when

<v Speaker 2>you're on a Scottish island and somebody says eat a

<v Speaker 2>meat pie, you just eat the meat pie. So I

<v Speaker 2>ate it. And it was Hagis, which I've never had,

<v Speaker 2>but it was in a pie form, and my god,

<v Speaker 2>it was like it hit me and I thought, Wow,

<v Speaker 2>this is like the ending of the book, right, this

<v Speaker 2>is like the ending of the journey in so many

<v Speaker 2>ways that I journeyed for three months through the UK

<v Speaker 2>to finally meet this meat pie in God, it was

<v Speaker 2>so good.

<v Speaker 1>Okay, but you gotta flip it. What was the worst,

<v Speaker 1>because I know you had you had to have some

<v Speaker 1>bad stuff.

<v Speaker 2>Oh my god, I mean like full like full honesty,

<v Speaker 2>Like I mean, I have chrone disease and so I

<v Speaker 2>haven't like really drank alcohol for like over twenty years.

<v Speaker 2>And it's not because I have sobriety issues. It's because

<v Speaker 2>I have crone disease and I just kind of had

<v Speaker 2>to eliminate that. But I got myself into some pretty

<v Speaker 2>tough situations where as a reporter. If I was in

<v Speaker 2>certain tough parts of town, if I said, you know,

<v Speaker 2>like oh can I get a tea or whatever, like

<v Speaker 2>I'm gluten free, you know, it would just like kind

<v Speaker 2>of change things. So I was in a place called Grimsby,

<v Speaker 2>and these two lovely blokes were just feeding me pints

<v Speaker 2>in the fan zone, and I was just hammering them

<v Speaker 2>because why wouldn't you in a place like Grimsby, and

<v Speaker 2>I was, I mean, I was tuned up. And then

<v Speaker 2>afterwards we went for fish and chips, which again I

<v Speaker 2>have Crohn's disease, So a giant platter of deep fried

<v Speaker 2>fish with the chips and the peas and in the

<v Speaker 2>grate and the brown gravy, and I just housed it

<v Speaker 2>again because why winch you and went in Rome and

<v Speaker 2>then they dropped me off in Grimsby at my airbnbing man.

<v Speaker 2>I had the roughest night I've had in twenty years

<v Speaker 2>because of that. And it's such a great scene in

<v Speaker 2>the book, because yeah, it was just one of those

<v Speaker 2>things where I was so wrecked. The next day where

<v Speaker 2>I had to get I had to find pedialites and

<v Speaker 2>I was just guzzling pediolite on a train back to

<v Speaker 2>live from Grimsby to Liverpool and I had to like

<v Speaker 2>I had a train layover in some place called Doncaster,

<v Speaker 2>and I was just like, oh, I thought I was

<v Speaker 2>gonna die. This was like my Vietnam, but my internal

<v Speaker 2>organs Vietnam. But yeah, that was terrible, but I did it.

<v Speaker 2>And as a writer, you know, I mean, you're a journalist,

<v Speaker 2>like the worse it is sometimes the better of the story,

<v Speaker 2>and that.

<v Speaker 1>Better the story. No, you're kind of rooting for the

<v Speaker 1>best story. You're not always rooting for your team or

<v Speaker 1>your you know whatever, you know for the best story,

<v Speaker 1>which changes that. It absolutely does. Was there anywhere that

<v Speaker 1>you weren't well received for being an American? Because, like

<v Speaker 1>I said, your name over there was taught from America.

<v Speaker 1>Was there anywhere that was like are we It seemed

<v Speaker 1>like everybody was very friendly from what I've read.

<v Speaker 2>Yeah, everybody was. I mean, you're right. I mean I

<v Speaker 2>went in some pretty tough spots. Grimsby was like, I mean,

<v Speaker 2>I've lived in New York City in the nineties. I

<v Speaker 2>lived in Los Angeles in the nineties and they working

<v Speaker 2>in you know, Harlem and East la and stuff, and

<v Speaker 2>I was like, how bad could Grimsby be? It was terrible,

<v Speaker 2>pretty bad. But East London it's just gangster town. And

<v Speaker 2>keep in mind, I was out at these places at

<v Speaker 2>night alone, talking to people that you know, like out

<v Speaker 2>on the streets and stuff. But the time from America

<v Speaker 2>thing really was kind of like I could break people

<v Speaker 2>down that way really easy. I could say, I would

<v Speaker 2>play I mean, I'm kind I admit to my idiocy.

<v Speaker 2>You know, I'm kind of a fumbling idiot. Like if

<v Speaker 2>somebody was going to play Todd from America in a

<v Speaker 2>you know, the film rights to relegate it. My first

<v Speaker 2>pick is Charlie Day from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia,

<v Speaker 2>Like that's me.

<v Speaker 1>It's a.

<v Speaker 2>Look at that door, dude. See the door right there?

<v Speaker 2>One mark pirate.

<v Speaker 1>You think a.

<v Speaker 2>Pirate lives in there? See a door mark private? That

<v Speaker 2>is that the door you're talking about? No, I was

<v Speaker 2>talking about. Yeah, I didn't say, what did you hear?

<v Speaker 2>But the time from America was like I could break

<v Speaker 2>people down that way, just to say I'm a normal person.

<v Speaker 2>I've ever been here, Like where should I go for

<v Speaker 2>a meet? Like where's your favorite place to get a

<v Speaker 2>meat pie? And they would really like say everybody went

<v Speaker 2>out of their way to help me because I was helpless, right,

<v Speaker 2>And but I can tell you that every person I

<v Speaker 2>met wanted to talk about Trump and and I didn't

<v Speaker 2>know like how to kind of play that. And I

<v Speaker 2>didn't want to get into politics at all, whether you

<v Speaker 2>support Trump or you don't support Trump. That wasn't like

<v Speaker 2>I didn't care a shooting for the story. Yeah, and

<v Speaker 2>they have.

<v Speaker 3>So many questions about like what is going on because

<v Speaker 3>from them, like from where they're looking at like it

<v Speaker 3>looks crazy and so and I wasn't from a well

<v Speaker 3>known place.

<v Speaker 2>I was from you know, Minnesota, which they don't know,

<v Speaker 2>and so it was very kind of an easy conversation.

<v Speaker 2>But they really like had a lot of questions about Trump,

<v Speaker 2>and I would just kind of veer off and talk

<v Speaker 2>more largely about the country as a whole. I can

<v Speaker 2>tell you that there was a few hard individuals that

<v Speaker 2>where you know, we're talking hooligans, like from the height

<v Speaker 2>of the hooliganism, and there's not a lot of hooliganism

<v Speaker 2>anymore per se, but the people who participated are still

<v Speaker 2>out there. And I met them and that was really tricky.

<v Speaker 2>And I would say, I'm toded from America, but I

<v Speaker 2>know a lot about football, and I know a lot

<v Speaker 2>about English football, and so it was a very nice

<v Speaker 2>conversation about football. And so I realized that both todd

<v Speaker 2>from America and the language of football, I can meet

<v Speaker 2>anyone in the world and you could say who do

<v Speaker 2>you support, and all the barriers are gone and then

<v Speaker 2>you can have a conversation. And so that part was

<v Speaker 2>was actually quite enjoyable to meet people on a Scottish

<v Speaker 2>island or in East London super gritty, or the Cotswolds,

<v Speaker 2>which is like Downtown Abbey, lovely, rolling, very wealthy, you know,

<v Speaker 2>or in Northern City really industrial and gritty and the

<v Speaker 2>language of football. There's no other sport in the world

<v Speaker 2>that can can break things down, can break the barriers

<v Speaker 2>down quite like football. So as an American, yeah, it

<v Speaker 2>was it was hard. And also once you said like, oh,

<v Speaker 2>I've been to Grimsby, I'm been to Stockport, I've been

<v Speaker 2>to East London, then they're like, oh, okay, you know,

<v Speaker 2>like you're you kind of know what you're talking about. Yeah,

<v Speaker 2>So that's a great question though.

<v Speaker 1>I know, as you know, coaching and you know when

<v Speaker 1>I was when I was still coaching, you kind of travel.

<v Speaker 1>You go to these different colleges, you go to these

<v Speaker 1>different towns, you go these different cities. Whatever. You're a

<v Speaker 1>Wolverhampton fan, you're a Minnesota sports fan. I would imagine though,

<v Speaker 1>you kind of saw some teams or some fans or

<v Speaker 1>the environment and we're like, you know what, they're not

<v Speaker 1>my team, but I'm gonna kind of adopt them a

<v Speaker 1>little bit. Because how can you not. I would imagine

<v Speaker 1>you had to have that who did it for you?

<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I mean that those teams in the lower leagues.

<v Speaker 2>I mean I will always tell people that if they're

<v Speaker 2>gonna go over there to see a Premier League game,

<v Speaker 2>everyone should see a Premier League game, because it's the

<v Speaker 2>best league in the world, with the best players, the

<v Speaker 2>best teams, the whole thing, and it is dazzling to

<v Speaker 2>see it live. But when you go to the lower leagues,

<v Speaker 2>you realize that the lower leagues are just as good.

<v Speaker 2>I mean, the town's a little lower, but even League

<v Speaker 2>two is amazing, and the experiences are so much richer

<v Speaker 2>because it is these little towns and sometimes that's the

<v Speaker 2>only team they have, and the team is the town.

<v Speaker 2>Like if the team wasn't there, no one would know,

<v Speaker 2>no one would ever go to Wolverhampton, right, But there

<v Speaker 2>was there was one place in particular that kind of

<v Speaker 2>won my heart and then I was like, oh, I'm

<v Speaker 2>now a Stockport County fan. Okay, because Stockport is an

<v Speaker 2>industrial city just south of Manchester and so they're like

<v Speaker 2>a runty little brother to the big city of Manchester

<v Speaker 2>that has Manchester United and Manchester City two of the

<v Speaker 2>biggest clubs in world football. They have always for decades

<v Speaker 2>on Stockport, right, because this is runty little place and

<v Speaker 2>forever it was it was in the one of the

<v Speaker 2>worst industrial places in the Industrial Revolution. But they have

<v Speaker 2>a team Stockport County where I embedded myself with a

<v Speaker 2>group of lifelong Stockport County supporters and the particular the

<v Speaker 2>president of Stockport County Supporters Club. So this guy is

<v Speaker 2>the president of all the fans that support the club,

<v Speaker 2>and he took me in and they took me to

<v Speaker 2>a plu, a pub, the ye Old Vic, and then

<v Speaker 2>we went from there to the game and we sat

<v Speaker 2>in the Cheetah End, which is all the drumming and singing,

<v Speaker 2>and then after that we went to the Magnet, which

<v Speaker 2>was a former coach house from like eight hundred years ago.

<v Speaker 2>And in the course of that experience I get to

<v Speaker 2>know these guys and Dave, the president, he told me

<v Speaker 2>that his dad is buried behind the goal at Stockport

<v Speaker 2>County and he's literally they dug a hole behind the

<v Speaker 2>goal and they buried his dad's ashes. And that was like,

<v Speaker 2>I mean, how can you not love that? And Stockport

<v Speaker 2>County just became kind of my lower league club and

<v Speaker 2>so yeah, it's Stockport County. But I left my heart

<v Speaker 2>in all these places. There's a lot of touching moments

<v Speaker 2>in a lot of these places because it was just wonderful.

<v Speaker 2>It was just amazing to experience it all. But Stockport

<v Speaker 2>like for sure.

<v Speaker 1>That's a that's a great answer. Hey, we've got it here.

<v Speaker 1>Relegated My Pints and Pie's Journey from the Top to

<v Speaker 1>the Bottom of English Football by Todd Smith. Todd, where

<v Speaker 1>can people find your work? The book is being released,

<v Speaker 1>I believe it came out yesterday. But where is there

<v Speaker 1>is it? Do you have a website to go to Amazon?

<v Speaker 1>What's the best place they can find your work?

<v Speaker 2>Yeah, you can find it at toddsmithauthor dot com. It's

<v Speaker 2>published by Simon and Schuster, so it has a really

<v Speaker 2>big release. So you're talking Amazon, Barnes and Noble, all

<v Speaker 2>your independent bookstores will have it. You can, You'll be

<v Speaker 2>able to find it everywhere. Simon Schuster is so great

<v Speaker 2>to work with. They're one of the premiere, if not

<v Speaker 2>the premiere publishers in America. I will tell you and

<v Speaker 2>all your listeners that on toddsmithauthor dot com there's a

<v Speaker 2>gallery of all the photos in they're organized by chapter,

<v Speaker 2>and so when you read the chapter, you can go

<v Speaker 2>to the web, my website and look at exactly what

<v Speaker 2>I was writing about, and it will take you through

<v Speaker 2>the map as you read it. Then you can see

<v Speaker 2>the photos and it's you know a lot of those

<v Speaker 2>places right. You're like, did that really happen? And then

<v Speaker 2>you go look at the photo and you're like, oh,

<v Speaker 2>there's the meat pie, there's the vavral, there's the beef,

<v Speaker 2>there's the beef tea. Yeah, so there you go.

<v Speaker 1>That is outstanding. Todd. I cannot thank you enough. Relegated.

<v Speaker 1>I'm telling you, i'm reading it, I'm giving you first hand.

<v Speaker 1>This is an absolutely phenomenal read, perfect for a summer

<v Speaker 1>read if you want to pick it up, because you

<v Speaker 1>are going to be entertained NonStop. There are so many

<v Speaker 1>great little stories about little towns and people that are

<v Speaker 1>so passionate about sports. And you know, Todd mentioned it

<v Speaker 1>just a minute ago. Sports somehow unites people. Everything else

<v Speaker 1>aside politics, aside, religion, aside all that stuff. Sports somehow

<v Speaker 1>brings us together. And I absolutely love it for that.

<v Speaker 1>But Todd, I cannot thank you enough for stopping by

<v Speaker 1>the daily does. Hey, here's here's my final question. I'm

<v Speaker 1>gonna I'm gonna, you know, finish it up with this.

<v Speaker 1>What's next? What do you got going? Do you have

<v Speaker 1>something else in mind? Are you working on something else?

<v Speaker 1>What's what else is coming?

<v Speaker 2>You know? I mean to be honest, I want to

<v Speaker 2>write a sequel to this. I want this book Relegated

<v Speaker 2>to do really well so I can write a sequel

<v Speaker 2>called Promoted, Right, I mean, that's the other side of

<v Speaker 2>this coin. And I've already mapped my route. I've already

<v Speaker 2>found the places I want to go, and I want

<v Speaker 2>to do this again, and I want to branch it

<v Speaker 2>often to not UK just UK football, but world football,

<v Speaker 2>and take a bigger leap into more obscure places, but

<v Speaker 2>with the same tone. Right, this book is about hope.

<v Speaker 2>It's about those that are down that can rise and

<v Speaker 2>for relegated and promoted. So that's what I'm working on

<v Speaker 2>right now. But I it needs to sell for me

<v Speaker 2>to do that. So that's kind of what I'm working

<v Speaker 2>on now. So thank you for asking.

<v Speaker 1>That is excellent work. Like I said, Relegated, you will

<v Speaker 1>not regret picking it up. It is a phenomenal read

<v Speaker 1>Todd I want to thank you so much for stopping

<v Speaker 1>by the Daale Dose. I genuinely enjoyed our visit, hoping

<v Speaker 1>you'll you'll come back by again and you cannot wait

<v Speaker 1>for the next one.

<v Speaker 2>Yeah, thank you for having me. It's a true honor.

<v Speaker 2>And Yeah, if you want to talk about timber Wolves

<v Speaker 2>versus the Nuggets off air the later day, we could

<v Speaker 2>do that too, So thank you so much for having me,

<v Speaker 2>true honor.

<v Speaker 1>Hey, next weekcause I does, we will get back to

<v Speaker 1>our regular format and we'll be catching up on all

<v Speaker 1>that is going on in the world of sport. So

<v Speaker 1>be sure you check out the Daily Dose and be

<v Speaker 1>sure you let a friend know do the same. Hey,

<v Speaker 1>I want to say thank you so much to author

<v Speaker 1>Todd Smith for stopping by the Daily Dose. I enjoyed

<v Speaker 1>our conversation. I hope you'll stop by again. Hey, I

<v Speaker 1>encourage you all go pick up Relegated anywhere fine books

<v Speaker 1>are sold. You will be entertained. It is an absolutely

<v Speaker 1>great story and really really well done. But I also

<v Speaker 1>want to say thank you to each and every one

<v Speaker 1>of you for listening to The Daily Dose every week.

<v Speaker 1>Thank you for the emails, thank you for the text

<v Speaker 1>thank you for the tweets, but more than anything, thank

<v Speaker 1>you for sharing the show, for sharing the videos. I'm

<v Speaker 1>for sharing the articles with some of the email. We

<v Speaker 1>absolutely love it when you do that. Have they?

<v Speaker 4>Thank you, Jess P.

<v Speaker 1>Could not do any of this without you. I will

<v Speaker 1>see you on next Wednesday. Have a great week, everybody.

<v Speaker 1>Look at that door, dude, See the door right there,

<v Speaker 1>one mark pirate?

<v Speaker 2>You think a pirate lives in there? I see a

<v Speaker 2>door mark Private. Is that the door you're talking about? Now?

<v Speaker 1>I was talking gonna Maybe I didn't say no.

<v Speaker 2>What did you hear