You must be crazy. Use a d. o. g. And if you was my man. I would have been kicked you out of my house by now. This is what had happened all right. Thank you for that and welcome back to the show rectal with you. Coast to coast and around the world on the american forces radio network. It's our pleasure to welcome to the show. Sports writer and author jon finkel. He has a new book which is coming out tomorrow. Called nineteen ninety-six reliving. The legend packed dynasty stacked most iconic sports here ever available from diversion. Books john welcome to the show. And it's interesting. Because when i thought of ninety six i asked dominic here too i what pops into your head first and he thought well the olympics. And it really wasn't i know was they're not maybe a signature moment but just kind of an amalgamation like a combination of all these these great athletes. Is that what you're looking at here. Well what What jumped out at me for ninety six Really is like the icons that were active and having an impact that year. So it's it's the year that Kobe bryant and alan iverson both drafted into the nba. It's the year. The tire woods turns pro out if he's going to be going on tour leaving stanford. Wnba announced its existence. The mls has its first season Last dance hall most of the seventy two. Win season culminates in nineteen ninety. Six can't get junior. Does the whole running for president campaign nineteen ninety six muhammad ali. The torch the olympic. Like it just kind of goes on and on. It's kinda signature year. When i look at you know tennis. That was when america kinda still mattered. At wimbledon you with agassi in in san ras and those guys. You take a look at the tennis too right. Well yeah actually interesting. We we the. Us emphasis was at the top of his his game around there. But you know he was always you know from a star. Standpoint wasn't like a mainstream that the the last big star that we've had agassi and he was having a bit of a down year that year but then he comes out of nowhere and wins the gold at the olympics in atlanta. So it's like every big name star you think of when you think of the nineties jordan griffey gretzky. They all had a signature moment That year in addition to like i said the next crop of really stars and even leagues Coming to well. I remember that year. The The raiders had just moved back to oakland the year. Before and i was at the coliseum there are playing the cowboys and Dion sanders Intercepted i think it was hostetler at the time but i just remember dion. Sanders intercepted a long pass. He held the ball high up over his head like the first five yards of his return. Just to say here it is. I mean it was just the most brash thing and even though i was rooting against the cowboys i couldn't help but admire that type of swag during aim and that team of course all the hall of famers we know from you. Know aikman and emmitt smith and michael irvin. I mean they re the cowboys were pretty unbeatable. There for a while. That year was the third championship. They won the superbowl. They went at the beginning of that year. And it was kinda like obviously. We didn't know at the time that i was going to be the last one. They would all win together but it was it was a triplets plus on plus all of the you know there was i think twelve or so hall of famers on that team Added up. and then you had you know barry switzer. You're coaching them. And the way it ended up working out. You can't go with sunday right now. Twenty five years later without being reminded of that team. Dion has subway commercials. And he's all over the place. Aikman is the signature guy. You know with joe buck you know michael irvin's all over the place and his his his broadcasting and things like that know moose's doing tv. So that team. Jimmy johnson on. What the major morning shows like that teams still in our face. Twenty five years later. You know it's interesting you mentioned mls. Because when i worked at the world cup out here in in at stanford and ninety four one of the stipulations fee forgave us was that we had to have our domestic league up and running. Well it took us two more years. After that. And i went to the first ever. Mls game at san jose state and eric wynalda scoring the the final goal in that game and of course that's when they kept the time on the on the clock and they had a shootout at the end but You know now. Mls is expanding so much now. I think they're kind of watering down but I mean it's it's still going though which is good news. Yeah actually have a chapter on that on kind of went out. A sort of the way they portrayed. I remember the time like the last thing they wanted when they finally launches his league because in addition to soccer not having kind of the the us magnetism that habit like the knock on it was always like boring. It's oh soccer's zero right like and the last thing they wanted in that game to have the first game being zero zero tie so when all this goal like in a way it was like a like the collective sigh from the whole. Us stock universities. huge couple. More questions for jon finkel the new book one thousand nine hundred six. The the ken griffey can remind me a little bit about the president thing. I i think i forgot about that. Yes oh griffey. In nine hundred ninety six with you know obviously. A presidential election and nike put out this humongous like month months several months long ad campaign griffey president. He was talking about how we get rid of the designated hitter like they made these ads. Basically as if they were Political ad but it was all about. You know snarky baseball stuff yet. Reggie jackson and george clinton instead of bill clinton and it was all these cool. Thanks you gave up campaign buttons like you went to almost you know. They made this stadium. They were giving these buttons out And they ran it like a political campaign called griffey and ninety six. And i think you know with baseball having sort of drops in the public consciousness below football blow the nba. It's hard for people to remember that in ninety six like there was jordan and it was griffey and everybody else in junior was the signature. Not only baseball athlete but us. He was on par with jordan for kids growing up And so the campaign with a huge success And for for back then. When there was no baseball packages internet really follow any of the stuff. I mean the most time would see griffey with sportscenter highlights and then these commercials you know when i think about college. Football ninety-six was that's when the pac ten at the time still mattered. So what else was going on in college. Football time mattered but they choke a couple. They choke the that one year Because they had the shoe in To get to the national game and they ended up losing. And that's how florida and getting in after losing the florida state. The first time. But like the the the way i positive thing in the book is the reason. Ninety six is so important is because the teams that had dominated that whole decade brassica. Florida and florida state. Basically tacoma i think six of the ten tiles by european national championships. And we're in all the other games That was the year. Like the one of the last eras where there were still the signature name coaches like single name. Coach was bowed dog more spurrier. You had the legendary offense with you. Know tommy fraser Still over in nebraska. You had body bowden with work done. And before that charlie ward and all those guys just like running it up and then you had the fun and gun like easter. You're basically kind of started. What we're leaving last year joe burrow and all these guys like. Danny danny werfel was the first guy to just like. Set the sec on fire with just all these touchdowns and all these throws and always passing yards and so those three teams kinda dueled every year for the championship through the mid nineties and the end of that year After losing in ninety five championship game to finally came back on ninety six what was going on in the movie theaters sports wise.