Most people know Jerry from his acting career. I’ve known about his passion for sports, and I’ve heard his takes and was impressed. I’m not easy to impress since I do this as well. He has a new podcast called, “Throwbacks” with Matt Leinart that debuts on September 5th.
We started talking about the Knicks and I mentioned that I witnessed their last championship and how I have gotten away from watching basketball.
“Yeah, I’ve been fortunate too. I’m a Knicks fan, a Yankees fan, a Giants’ fan, a Rangers fan so I saw the Rangers win, they only have one in that time, I’ve seen some championships,” Ferrara stated. “I was never mad at the Giants. Even though they might stink this year, that’s likely.
“I’m frustrated. I want them to be good. I have so much joy from those two championships. My first experience with the Giants was in 1990. I remember Scott Norwood missing the field goal. The Yankees have been very big for me. I fell in love with basketball as a kid and they were good when I first started watching. They were a relevant franchise for the first 10 years of my watching. Then they fell into the abyss and stood by them.”
It was easy to gauge that the Knicks were his favorite team.
“Now I’m looking forward to the Knicks more than the football season…It’s the highest Knick vibes in the city have been,” Ferrara said.
I then told Jerry about the time I brought a Sony Watchman to a Phil Collins concert in Philly watching the Knicks against the Rockets in the Finals and it drew a crowd. At that point, Jerry laughed. Then he responded, “I would have been there with you, watching right over your shoulder” and I laughed.
Jalen Brunson is a star with the Knicks and has fired up that fanbase.
For the longest time, the Knicks haven’t had that “1A” in a long time. It was supposed to be Melo and it kind of was him but they gave up all their assets to get him,” he said with regret in his voice. “They had Amar’e Stoudemire, he was pretty much on his last legs. I was in on Julius Randle, but Brunson is a Top 10 NBA player…It’s a well-built team…New York does have an energy when the Knicks are in the playoffs in May.
“I’ve been in the podcast game since 2012. I used to do it with my wife, but the kids have taken over. She doesn’t step in front of a microphone these days,” Ferrara mentioned. “I love the space. I knew early on its kind of where sports radio is going. I’m a sports radio junkie. That’s what I went to sleep listening to when I was a kid.”
And he continued.
“I would record Mike and the Mad Dog,” he confessed. “It was almost a side hustle to talk about sports. Acting is amazing and it’s a love of mine. My first love is sports. It just was. “I’m just looking for an excuse and a way in to watch and talk about it. And I got approached to do a show with Sinclair. We started talking about hosts then Matt’s name came up. I never met him but obviously I know a lot about him. Matt and I were in LA running around at the same time. He’s winning a Heisman, I’m starring in “Entourage”, we were at the same clubs. But we’d never met.
“It’s ironic he said his friends when he went out would call him Vincent Chase. Tall, handsome dude. He happened to pop up on my Instagram feed when he was doing amazing social media content about an 18-year-old son and two little boys. We had a call right away, and I’m not sure if you can relate to this Russ, but this isn’t just male friendship but all friendship. As you get older, it gets harder to make new friends. I thought this would work because we are becoming friends.”
I did relate. And I think many others will be able to as well. I did manage to squeeze in some Aaron Rodgers discussion. I mentioned I would have liked him and every other Jets starter to play a few sets of downs against the Giants since they would be friendlier in the last preseason game.
“I was at the Super Bowl this year and saw Dre Greenlaw blowing out his Achilles running onto the field. It was non-contact. If I’m a Jets fan I’m probably saying don’t play anybody. If you lose against the Niners, that would suck. You’re 0-1. That will be your preseason game. Then you start the season.”
Will Matt ever say to Jerry, “Yeah, but you’ve never played” I asked him about that scenario too.
“I come at sports as it really is from the fan perspective. Look, it may come up and I realized once when I had a sit-down talk with Justin Tuck. Something I did find that I do have a little in common with athletes. It’s similar to acting. It’s understanding the moment. With acting I am trying to portray this moment and I think that’s the same thing a lot of athletes go through. They just have to do it at warp speed. My whole sports experience is I am there for the story.”
I am looking forward to this show! It’s on my list.
