Nick Ferguson’s Career Journey and Thoughts on College Sports

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00:00my whiskey. Nick Ferguson, you know that song. Yes, I do know that song. I'm surprised that

00:09I know that song. Like how cool am I? So let me give you a little debriefing. So I used to work

00:16at CNN in Atlanta. Yeah. So I used to be good friends of Bobby Cremons.

00:22Well, I still am. But I mean, like back then, I was really good friends with him. And I used to do

00:26his basketball camp. I'm a baller. So I played ball my whole life. I went to Indiana. I worked

00:32with Bob Knight. Remember the crazy old basketball coach? So I knew Bobby. I knew all the coaches.

00:37And I've been doing this for 40 years. So I'm an old man. And I know everybody. But I knew Bobby.

00:41So Bobby used to take me to his Georgia Tech basketball camp for the kids, because I'm crazy

00:47and funny. And the kids love me and the players. And so yeah, and then he'd take me to his Georgia

00:52Tech luncheons for the, you know, boosters and all the people that contribute, donate money to

01:00the school and to the athletic program. And I've been friends with him forever. And so when I went

01:05to these events, they would bring like the band and the cheerleaders and the bee, the yellow jacket

01:13mask guy, right? And then they would say, around, around, around, Georgia Tech and hell of an

01:18hell of an engineer. And then once I got it and learned it. So now I do like sportscasts all the

01:25time. I do. I'm on in New York. I'm on everywhere. But I do, whenever I give a score, like last night

01:31I bet on him and they won in like overtime. And I don't just give this cry go, I'm a ramblin'

01:36ramblin' Georgia Tech and a hell of an engineer. Hell of an engineer and a drink my whiskey clear.

01:41Every single time I mentioned Georgia Tech in the last 40 years, I'm a ramblin'

01:47ramblin' Georgia Tech and a hell of an engineer. I do it every time. It drives people nuts,

01:52but it doesn't drive you nuts because you went there. So now you're, so you have to be like,

01:59educated. Like when you go to Georgia Tech, it's no joke. Like even if you're playing football there,

02:06today no one goes to class. No one goes to class. They get paid a million dollars to

02:11play football. Back when you played, you actually had to go to class. Am I trippin'?

02:17No, you're not.

02:18You had to learn something. Or they would throw you out. You'd lose your scholarship. Nowadays,

02:25if you don't go to class, you're rewarded. They probably give you a Beamer or a Bentley

02:29and a stack of money. And that's some bullshack. I don't like it. I think it's the worst thing

02:35that ever happened to college sports. It ruined it. When I went, you know, I had to get an

02:41education. I went on a scholarship and I had to get grades to live up to that scholarship.

02:47And now they just give these morons. So what they're doing is they're producing idiots.

02:53Am I wrong? Like how many idiots now are playing in the NFL compared to when you played in the NFL,

03:00when guys actually may have pulled off a 2-5 or a 3-0 or a 3-5 or a 3-8,

03:05but if you didn't get that 2-0, you weren't playing football.

03:08It's different because once again, when you give it all this NIL money,

03:12obviously you incentivize it from a financial standpoint. And those guys are like, well,

03:16why do I really have to go to class? I don't get paid this enormous amount of money. But you're

03:21right. The error then is different than what it is.

03:24Now how about this? They don't even have to go pro.

03:28Some of them make more money in college now than they would if they were a four or five,

03:32six, seven round pick. Like they're going to make no money when you're a seventh rounder.

03:37You're going to make some money. I know how it works. I'm not stupid.

03:40So the NFL pay scale, first round, second round, third round, down to the seventh round

03:45is like from the penthouse to the outhouse, right?

03:48Like, well, once again, it is that type of idea. But once again, we go back to the idea of how

03:53much money these guys are making is like, well, how can you, like, if you have kids,

03:58if you tell your kids to constantly clean their room, but they're making more than you are as a

04:02parent, then your kid was like, well, you know what? I'm not cleaning my room.

04:05It's the same thing with drugs. If you don't, I know you're working with Marshall Falk, my buddy,

04:11and he went to San Diego state. The only reason I mentioned that is because my son goes to San

04:15Diego state and it's great weather and there's gorgeous chicks in bikinis. I got to tell you,

04:20when I drop him off at school, I'm like, what is happening here? I got to get out of here.

04:24I'm going to get arrested. I'm an old man. I'm creepy. Like I'm 60 people like,

04:27what's that old man doing here? I'm like, I'm looking at girls like it's crazy. So he's,

04:32he's cool. But you know what you guys are doing for kids, like teaching them, showing them,

04:38showing them, Hey, look, I'm going to show you a guy tweaking and tripping on drugs.

04:42You don't want to be a loser like this. It hits home with these kids, as opposed to them

04:47listening to their stupid moronic friends who tell them to smoke weed or to do blow or to do

04:54meth or to do H or to accidentally do fentanyl and die. Am I, am I right? No, you're absolutely

05:01right. And that's the thing. Like for me, even at Georgia Tech, I'm a visual learner, right? You can

05:06tell me something, but I want to go ahead and see it. And once you show kids the pamphlet,

05:11you show them the videos, you show them someone going through kind of a drug with withdrawal,

05:16then you hope that impinges on them and they go, you know what? I don't want that to be me.

05:20Do you remember when you're growing up, when your parents used to say,

05:24I'm going to take you down to the police station and show you the jail and show you somebody

05:29overnight drunks in there sleeping and see if you want to live here one day. Remember that

05:34when they'd scare you? I think they call that the scare straight program. And the idea is once you

05:40take that philosophy, but you use it towards drugs and use it when you start showing kids these

05:45things, it starts making sense to them because for the most part, they think in drugs, right?

05:50Wrong drug paraphernalia. It's cool. You show them that it's not, it's not cool. It's loser

05:55bill. Now, let me ask you, you're from Miami and I lived in Miami and I worked in Miami. I was on

06:01the canes and, uh, and, uh, Panthers and Marlin station for 30 years. My show was on there forever.

06:07I've been doing this 40 years. And so my, my radio show was on in Miami always. And then I lived there

06:13a couple of times and I would, I had a place there for 50 years and I would go down there and

06:17Boca is where I stayed with all the rich idiots and losers. Uh, you know, the ass hats that live

06:22in Boca, the Beverly Hills type. Right. But I was a normal dude living on the intercoastal chilling

06:27the most eating food, you know, going to the pool, getting raised. But, um, I'm a canes fan. How did

06:35you leave Miami for Atlanta and Georgia tech? Did you want to play for the canes when you were a kid?

06:42What happened to you? Who brainwashed you? Well, it wasn't a thing of being brainwashed. I wanted

06:47to go to my university in Miami, but I wanted to escape, you know, and grow up, experience the

06:55world and get away from my parents. I wouldn't have been able to do that. So you didn't love

06:58your parents is what you're saying. Every kid knows that there's certain times in your adolescence

07:04that you don't write your parents, but I wanted to get away. I wanted to see the world. I want

07:09to see something different. And Georgia tech was challenging within itself, but I'm not disappointed

07:14with my, you were, you were more worldly when you tasted New York, uh, with the jets and Denver in

07:20a mile high city. Uh, and then Houston, let me ask you a question. When you lived in Colorado,

07:25did you ever notice that the noodles didn't boil the way they did in Miami? Like, uh, the tennis

07:32balls didn't bounce the way they did in Miami. And when I went to Colorado for the first time

07:36skiing at like Breckenridge, I drank six beers and I, I vomited. Like I drank 24 because it's

07:43different. Everything's different there. I think there are Martians. All those people there are

07:48Martians. I do not believe that they're normal. There'll be, I think they're on drugs. And I think

07:53that we need to scare the kids and show them people that eat noodles that don't cook, right?

07:59Bad tennis balls that don't bounce right. And beers that get you three times as effed up as one beer.

08:05It's just unbelievable. I think it's the worst thing that ever happened to the world. That state,

08:08there's something funny going on out there. The same thing too, is when you're baking pizza,

08:12it's different. You got to set your, your temperature on the oven at a certain

08:16it's unbelievable because Nick, I love you. Thanks for saving children and keeping them

08:21off drugs. You're a bad-ass. You're a lot of fun. Thanks for coming on C2C. My man.

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