The BOSS Podcast (The Business Of Southern Sports)

University of Georgia Director of Athletics Greg McGarity has announced his retirement effective at the end of the year. His Senior Deputy, Josh Brooks, will take over the duties on an interim basis January 1st of 2021. Under McGarity’s leadership, the annual budget of the Athletic Association grew from 89 million dollars in 2010 to 153 million today, and he has overseen more than 200 million dollars in facility improvements.  The job of an Athletic Director can be a thankless one.  You are the one who hires and fires coaches. You must look out for the welfare of student-athletes, win championships, and  maintain fiscal responsibility. And in McGarity's case,  he wanted to retire earlier in 2020 but the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Out of a sense of duty and loyalty, he decided to stick around for a few more months to help weather the storm.In this special podcast, we will hear from McGarity and University of Georgia President Dr. Jere Morehead as they meet the media to discuss Greg’s departure, his legacy, and the search for a replacement. 

It was recently announced that the Atlanta Motor Speedway would have two NASCAR races in 2021. From 1960 until 2010, the track hosted two Cup races a season. Therefore, this additional race for Atlanta next season is a return to tradition.We will speak with Brandon Hutchison, the Executive Vice-President and General Manager of Atlanta Motor Speedway, about that recent development. We will also discuss the way NASCAR has navigated itself through the COVID-19 pandemic.Brandon has been with AMS for a quarter of a century. He started as an intern in the mid 90's, and finds himself as the GM today. It's a great story of working hard to chart a path up the career ladder.

Chris Draft played college football at Stanford University and was drafted in the 6th round by the Chicago Bears. It is hard for a late round pick to "stick" in the NFL long term, but Chris Draft played pro football for 12 seasons at the linebacker position. His long career is even more amazing when you learn that Draft has asthma.While in the league, he started his foundation to focus on healthy living and mentoring young people. His foundation soon added cancer initiatives to their plans when he lost his wife to the deadly disease when she was just 37. In this conversation, we discuss his wife and her fighting spirit. It motivates him to move forward in the battle against cancer, and has taken him around the world. He has been in the White House and visited Parliament in the United Kingdom.In addition to his foundation, we discuss social justice, football, and just what life is really like inside an NFL locker room. Some teammates are just crazy! He'll give specifics.Enjoy the latest episode of The BOSS Podcast.

Todd Stansbury, the Director of Athletics at Georgia Tech, discusses the COVID-19 protocols for the Yellow Jackets' home football games. He also talks about the economic impact of the pandemic on the Athletics Department budget, and what they are trying to do to minimize the financial impact.

Let's talk lifestyle! What could be better than hanging out with friends, preparing a nice steak on a state-of-the-art grill, having a great cocktail, and talking sports? In this episode, we are joined by the team behind Rec Teq Grills and Durty Gurl Mixers as they share the phenomenal success stories of their products. We are thankful that they are the sponsors of The BOSS Podcast, and we are also incredibly proud of their success.It's a fun group that loves their products and they share that fun in everything they do, especially on social media. Oh, and we'll also talk a little bit of sports! Learn what all the fun is about by checking out the lifestyle in this episode of The BOSS Podcast.

Are you ready for some baseball? Jim Powell, the long time radio voice of the Atlanta Braves, joins us in this episode. We will get a status report on the team after 20 games of the shortened season. What's it like calling road games from your home stadium by watching a TV monitor? He'll tell us all about it.We will also discuss Jim's years in Milwaukee working alongside the legendary Bon Uecker. We'll learn about Jim's love of baseball which started as a child. As a young man, he set his sights on being a major league broadcaster, and he put in the work to achieve that goal. Time to play ball!

Sam Crenshaw has seen it all in his four decade career in sportscasting. As a kid, he fell in love with the voices "in the box" as he calls them...the radio voices who brought sports into the living room. He got the itch to learn more about the industry. In a great conversation, we'll discuss his career path, and some of the changes he has seen in sports over the years as an African-American. He shares a memory from his childhood about the one and only time he was in the presence of Dr. Martin Luther King. It's a sad, but important memory for him.Sam has worked in radio, TV, print, digital, podcasting...you name it..he has done it! And all the while, he is one of the nicest guys you would ever want to meet, or listen to! He's had a great career and his story is compelling. Please enjoy our conversation with Sam Crenshaw.

Vince Thompson, a small town kid from Alabama, has built his company MELT into one of the best sports marketing agencies in the country.This is a fascinating conversation about his career path, the successes and failures, which led him to start his own agency 20 years ago. Over the last 2 decades, MELT has grown into a power player of sports, entertainment, and lifestyle marketing.Vince also loves to pass along his experience and knowledge to younger generations so they can chart their own career paths. As always, we'll get a few great stories along the way...like the time, as a kid, when he met Pete Rose.  Please enjoy our conversation with Vince Thompson.

Kimberly Beaudin was recently named the CEO of the Chick-fil-A College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta, Georgia. It has been an unusual start to her tenure as the Hall was forced to close temporarily due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Most recently, the gift shop was looted as a part of the social unrest going on in America.But the Hall will be back in business soon! It is schedule do to reopen July 1 with safety protocols in place. In a fun conversation, we cover a variety of topics. What career path brought her to this position? As a woman in a sport dominated by men, what does it mean to her to have earned such an important position? Of course, we'll talk college football and the fan experience for Hall of Fame visitors, but we'll also talk pro wrestling! She grew up on Gordon Solie and Dusty Rhodes! Peyton Manning, Tim Tebow, Herschel Walker, Dan Marino, Snoop Dogg and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. might get mentioned as well. Please join us for a wide ranging chat!

Recently, the Truist Atlanta Open Tennis Tournament, a premiere event of the ATP Tour, was cancelled due to the pandemic.We talk with Tournament Director Eddie Gonzalez about the impact of that setback, but there is good news as well. Despite this 2020 cancellation, the tournament has incredible positive momentum toward 2021. With a fantastic venue, a large tennis fan base, and, of course, great tennis, the Truist Atlanta Open is an important part of the Atlanta sports landscape.The 10th anniversary wasn't quite what they had hoped, but there are brighter days ahead for the tournament!

In this episode, we'll talk with Chip Caray, the long time television play-by-play broadcaster for the Atlanta Braves.We'll talk baseball, of course. How might the game look as it navigates through the pandemic? What can we expect from the Braves? We'll go to the booth and discuss his relationship with his broadcast partners, and we'll take a deep dive into his game day preparation.We'll also go down memory lane to his days as a Braves bat boy, and his distant relationship with his grandfather, Harry Caray, and his father, Skip Caray. Everyone assumes the dynastic broadcasting family was always close. Unfortunately, that is not the case.Please enjoy this in-depth conversation with the TV voice of the Atlanta Braves.

D.J. Shockley currently works in television broadcasting as an analyst for the SEC Network, but he also does lots of other local television and digital things in his hometown market of Atlanta, Georgia.Shockley was a highly recruited quarterback out of high school, then starred in the position at the University of Georgia. A pro football career followed with the Atlanta Falcons before transitioning into his broadcasting career.Shockley takes his business seriously, and he uses the skills he learned as an athlete like preparation to help him in his current career. In addition to talk of loyalty and leadership, we'll also get a funny story about his recruitment out of high school. We'll get another funny story about a friendly wager with a pro football teammate over a college football rivalry.

The Atlanta Sports Council is the group responsible for bringing major sporting events to Atlanta. Their success over time is astonishing. We will talk with Dan Corso, the President of the Atlanta Sports Council, about the Council's long run of success. From Super Bowls to College Football Championships. Atlanta has long proven to be a great destination for the biggest sporting events out there. However, one recent major event, the NCAA Men's Basketball Final Four, was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We will discuss that loss, but also look to the very bright future. The 2021 MLB All-Star game is scheduled for Atlanta, and the Council is pursuing other events like the FIFA World Cup. 

Rece Davis is the host of ESPN's College Football and College Basketball Gameday shows. We will talk to him about his career path, the state of college football during the pandemic, and we'll throw in some pop culture and TV trivia for good measure. He'll take us behind the scenes at Gameday with info about how they select which campus they choose to visit each week, what his normal show prep work requires, and just how he and his on-air teammates get along. For added measure, we'll get his thoughts on the Sportscenter franchise at ESPN, and who he considers to be the greatest Sportscenter anchor of all time.