New narrative pod out this evening. TC says I’m in big trouble for saying The Killers never lived up to their most popular track, but it seemed fitting for me.
Thanks for listening.
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Looking forward to the pod, just came here to say I just saw the Killers live (again) a couple weeks ago, and they slap. Would encourage everyone to see them live, they are awesome. Mr. Brightside forever.
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Mr. Brightside is my 3rd favorite Killers song. Give me When You Were Young and All These Things I’ve Done.
Excited to listen. I’ve watched the YouTube video of the playoff a bunch of times and it really was an incredible back 9 and playoff from Rickie.
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This video of The Killers pausing their concert to show penalty kicks at the 2024 Euros semis and then immediately launching into Mr. Brightside as England wins always makes me happy (and I’m not particularly an England fan).
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Would’ve been crazy awkward if they lost
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Never forget
(I earnestly loved this and still do)
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@KVV !!! The killers have 100000% lived up to Mr Brightside. May I present all of their sophomore album, Sam’s Town, as evidence. Hell, it’s a Sam’s town track that closes the encore almost every night because it is so good - When You Were Young!!
I love hot Fuss, but I am insanely excited about maybe getting a 2026 Sam’s Town 20th anniversary show AT Sam’s Town here (they did it for the 10 year and I still kick myself for not going).
Also, saw them 2 weeks ago in Laughlin (I will see them any and every time I can!) and god damn they do such a good show.
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Agree!!!
Enterlude and Exitlude can make it a little dusty in my truck when they come on.
Title track Sam’s Town…read my mind….bangers only!
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This was such a good Sunday from the kid. Really thought he was gonna be great that year after 2014 and all.
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Can’t wait to listen to this…honestly this was probably about the peak of my PGA Tou fandom and the title may be a cross section of two of my favorite interests in 2014. The Killers and BDR
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In the multiverse there is a world where Kevin Kisner’s putt on 18 dropped. The second he hit it I knew it was going in because he had the read and the speed perfect… except it just didn’t go in.
I was assisting my photographer wife that weekend, schlepping gear and pointing her at the golfers who mattered. There’s a possibility that my rooting against Kisner, a relative nobody who would have been an extremely boring magazine cover the following year, helped keep the ball out of the hole.
In the end, Rickie was the man that day and his win was gutsy and thrilling enough to justify a look back. Looking forward to listening to it, @KVV.
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Just ask yourself, who else could’ve created this much joy:
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Seriously!
The whole course was buzzing from Rickie’s heroics. A Kisner win would have been the ultimate dud and Sergio would have been dud-adjacent. To @paroutfromhere’s point, it seemed like Rickie was poised to be one of the greats after that.
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Many people were wondering if it was a Big 4!
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Completely forgot about that part.
We were denied this and got LIV instead:
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Another amazing narrative pod.
I went looking for the 2015 Players broadcast on YouTube and could only track down the playoff.
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Idc what anyone says I legitimately enjoyed the content from the guys being dudes in the Bahamas.
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Awesome stuff from KVV and the team on this. As an unapologetic but realistic (and now 39 year old) Rickie diehard, let me offer my two cents if I may (cent two is long).
Cent one: “Goodnight, Travel Well” by The Killers was not a commercial hit, but it is a tour de force of a song and everyone should love it as much as I do / appreciate it as such.
Cent Two: I’ve got nothing but love for the Big Guy, but the idea that Rickie isn’t entertaining or interesting is a subjective opinion (that he’s free to have) which I would argue is demonstrably untrue, and the idea that he “wasn’t dominant” on the course is an unserious purity test to assign anyone before they appear in a commercial. I’m aware of one dominant player in my life. More than one has appeared in a commercial.
Personally, I found Rickie’s hair, fashion, tattoos, upbringing, dirt biking, backstory, politeness, and flat swing extremely interesting and different from the pleated pant, country club, WASPy, carefully curated, Lynx-sponsored, visor wearing Xeroxes of people I’d been offered by the Tour my entire life. I found someone who dared to wear a shirt that wasn’t beige interesting. I thought it was unique that his name is “Rick Yutaka Fowler” - a complete mad lib of ancestry and family dynamics which remains unmatched. I thought the Golf Boys video - while objectively stupid - showed a sense of humor and verve that nobody else had in any shape or form. I thought him crying his eyes out after he lost a WMO playoff to Hideki (because he hit his drive on 17 too well and it went into the water over the green) was humanizing. I thought the Spring Break stuff was relatable in its victimless, contained obnoxiousness. If nothing else, he was wildly different in a world of cartoon-ish conformity, and I thought that was cool.
He was also FUCKING AWESOME at golf and the argument that ‘well he didn’t win any majors so that means he’s not like actually that good’ is profoundly specious and honestly really lazy. I had always assumed that this was a crutch used to support the broader bit of Big not loving Rickie (much as Big ducking Rick at NB is a bit), but given Big’s passion on the pod I’ll treat it as though it’s a genuinely held belief.
Rickie didn’t win at Pinehurst because Martin Kaymer had arguably the single most out-of-body experience anyone has ever had in a major. He didn’t win the Masters because Patrick Reed’s ball on 12 defied all laws of gravity and physics and somehow didn’t bounce into the creek. He didn’t win the Open because Rory was in the midst of a 10-week heater, during which Rickie didn’t win the PGA because Rory’s necked 3 wood somehow rolled 100 yards and through a mouse hole to three feet.
He was the #1 DG player in the world at one point, was in the top 10 for like 5 straight years, won 3 times in 2015, and has played in more Ryder Cups than Tom Watson or Brooks Koepka. His record in said event is skewed greatly by playing said mid-heater Rory 3 times in 2014 - halving two matches while dragging around Jimmy Walker’s corpse and lost on Sunday when Rory made 6 birdies and an Eagle on the first 8 holes. For shame.
I get that he didn’t win a major, but it isn’t because he wasn’t good enough. I get that not everyone liked Puma’s “contributions” to on-course fashion, nor the douchey bachelor party vibes / behavior that it invited from fans, but the (non-orange) polos and shoes weren’t bad. I get that he isn’t the emotionally available coke train that Jordan Spieth is, or the shameless Greek tragedy that Phil (like you, my favorite player growing up) was/is, but he’s also not the corncob that ZJ is, nor the barn animal that DJ is, nor the recluse that Scottie is. He was, at the time, an elite, elite golfer who only won the 2015 Players because he got the break he needed on 16 and who only lost the Masters and the PGA because the breaks went to someone else.
He’s also never had to apologize for calling himself the (actually offensive) F word on a hot mic, isn’t a gambling addict with 100m in debt, doesn’t cheat on his wife, doesn’t cheat on the course, signs every autograph after every round instead of sulking and driving away when he has a bad Sunday, didn’t take the blood money and go to LIV, went to the Olympics cheerfully instead of saying they were a stupid waste of time, has lost with grace, has won with humility, didn’t ‘choose to be a Kardashian’ and instead dug himself out of the mud to become competitively relevant again (albeit briefly) and actually win again.
He’s in a lot of commercials. I get it. Commercials suck. I get it. He’s specifically in insurance and advisory commercials, which suck extra (but also fund the tour more or less). He’s not your cup of tea. I respect that and have never had a problem with anyone having a different opinion. But,
TLDR; Rickie wasn’t / isn’t boring, or uninteresting, or uncompelling, or unaccomplished as a player. He is in so many commercials because he was none of things. “What are you selling me”? You’re selling me a unique, new, awesome, fun, change of pace who didn’t treat the game like a museum tour. You were selling me this shot. You’re free to not buy It - just like you’re free to duck the pod after he beats the magnetic, commercial-avoiding Collin Morikawa in a playoff two summers ago - but doing so might make you a hater.
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