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John Boccacino: Hello, and welcome back to the Cuse Conversations Podcast. My name is John Boccacino, the communications specialist in 's Office of Alumni Engagement. I'm also a 2003 graduate of the SI Newhouse School of Public Communications with a degree in broadcast journalism. I am so glad you found our podcast.

Matthew Berry: I'll do interviews and people say like, "Oh, do you have your ?" And I'm like, "No, because when I was dreaming of jobs, who thought you could make a living talking about fake football on the internet?"

John Boccacino: Today's guest on the Cuse Conversations Alumni Podcast is one of the best known, most respected voices in the world of fantasy sports. He is , better known as the talented Mr. Roto. Barry earned a bachelor's degree in producing for electronic media from Newhouse in 1992. He has made quite the career for himself as a senior fantasy sports analyst at ESPN. At a time when fantasy sports were starting to rise in popularity, Berry seized on the opportunity and has been helping fantasy owners set their lineups ever since. He's a member of not one, but two halls of fame dedicated to fantasy sports. And he's our proud guest here on the podcast. Matthew, thanks for taking the time to join us.

Matthew Berry: It's my pleasure. Thanks for having me. Go Cuse.

John Boccacino: It's always great. Go Cuse. It's always great to connect with a fellow Orange alum who is achieving success out there. And clearly I gave you the hubris of that introduction, but is it surreal sometimes to think about this career that you've carved for yourself and fantasy sports?

Matthew Berry: It's very surreal. It's interesting. When I talk to college students, I've come back to Syracuse a couple of times over the years, and when I've talked to kids there or at other places, one of the things I always mentioned, as I said, when I was in college, when I was at Syracuse, this job didn't exist. I'll do interviews and people say like, "Oh, do you have your dream job?" And I'm like, "No, because when I was dreaming of jobs, who thought you could make a living talking about fake football on the internet?" Right? And that's an advice I give to college kids is like, "Follow what you love. Follow your passion." Because again, when I was at Syracuse, fantasy sports wasn't particularly popular. It was very niche. And the idea that you could make a full-time living, let alone a good living, talking about it, analyzing it, providing content around it was unfathomable back when I was in college.

Now it's been quite awhile since I've been back at Syracuse as a student. But still, yeah, it is a little surreal. Honestly, I still pinch myself that I get to be on TV and get to write for a big website or have my own podcast for popular company, again, just talking about fake football.

John Boccacino: It is. It's really unbelievable to think about how this has morphed into this. It's a multi-million, multi-billion dollar industry. People are on their phones all the time. Everybody wants the feedback. They love your Love/Hate column. It seems like

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there's so many ways to get fantasy sports. What can you point to as a nexus for this explosion in the industry? Was there a moment? Was there something when it all started to click together that "Boy there's really an interest and a demand for this?"

Matthew Berry: If felt more like a slow build than some sort of overnight sensation. I feel like it was more of a slow build. I mean, there's a couple of touch points that I can look to along that growth curve. One of them honestly is ESPN. ESPN hired me in 2007 full- time. And the very first job that I had with the company was, my title was actually Director of Fantasy Sports. ESPN Senior Director of Fantasy Sports. And how they explained the role to me here was that I was to be a cheerleader, that I was to be an advocate for fantasy football, not only to our fans in a public-facing manner, but also internally as a cheerleader, internally explaining to a lot of the stakeholders. Because at that time, not every Sportscenter producer played fantasy sports, not every NFL Live producer played fantasy football, et cetera, et cetera, not every radio producer.

And going to the producers of every show, going to the people in charge of various areas of content for the company and saying like, "Hey, this is what fantasy sports is. This is why it's important to our fans. This is why it's a potential revenue stream for the company." And so I think just a major media company like ESPN getting behind it in the way that it did and putting somebody like me on TV that wasn't some ex-NFL athlete that didn't know anything about fantasy sports, but was just sort of given a piece of paper saying like, "Oh, this guy might be good for your fantasy team," or whatever, "For all you fantasy guys out there." They were like, "No, no, no. Here's one of you. Here's somebody that is a born and bred, played fantasy sports since I was 14 years old."

So once ESPN got into it, I think then you saw other major media companies sort of follow suit. The NFL and Major League , and some of these sports leagues that for years sort of held it at arms length, that said it might be too close to gambling. Is it some form of sports gambling? Which it isn't. But they held it at arms length for a long time. And then eventually after they saw ESPN and myself sort of really championing this and talking about it openly and in a positive manner, they sort of got on board and they realized, "Oh, this is something that can help our fans. And also help drive revenue and interest." There was a study that came out in that showed that the average football fan watches about three hours of football a week. But the average fantasy player watches over six hours a week. And when the NFL saw that and they saw ESPN, they were like, "Oh, maybe instead of pushing it away, maybe we should actually embrace it." And then all of a sudden you started seeing fantasy commercials for the NFL on games.

So those things, I think we're all big catalysts. Obviously the advent of the internet a little bit earlier than that was a big thing as well. '95, that era, so suddenly you didn't have to keep stats by hand. You could follow games along live, and there was a system online to keep track of your teams and your draft and your statistics. And so that was obviously something that helped bring it to the forefront. Major media

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getting behind it also in a big way. But it's more of a slow growth, I feel like, than any one big particular instance.

John Boccacino: You must get all sorts of requests, questions, advice. Run the gamut for us. How do people approach you? And how often are you approached for fantasy advice outside of your column?

Matthew Berry: All the time. All day, everyday, any which way they can try to reach me. Right? They email me, they tweet at me, they slide into my DMs. I've been at ESPN now for over 15 years, and I have multiple years left on my contract. But if for some reason I ever left ESPN, I feel pretty good about sort of where I am in the space. And I feel like I'd find another job. So I don't really need a LinkedIn. Right? I'm not looking for my gig. Mine is the kind of job that you don't find on LinkedIn anyway. But whatever, I have a LinkedIn. And then people will send me LinkedIn requests and it's just somebody that's, whatever, the office manager of like a Home Depot in Wyoming. And no disrespect to Wyoming or Home Depots or office managers, but it's nothing that I have really in common with that person professionally.

And they'll be like, "Yeah, Hey man, I'm just a big fan. By the way at my flex spot this week are you thinking Giovanni Bernard or Mike Davis?" Or whatever it is. Right. "Do you think Matt Breida's going to play?" And you're just like, "Wow. The thirst is real." I'll be out in public and be with my kids or something like that, and I've had people follow me into a public restroom. I've had people interrupt my dinner with my kids or something like that. I mean, it's really insane. I remember one time I was at a Super Bowl party, and so I'm at the super bowl party and I'm there with my wife and this person comes up and she's a PR person. She says, "Hey, Matthew, I'm a big fan. And I have the Maxim Hometown Hottie of the Year with me. And would you mind taking a picture for the magazine? Would you mind taking a picture with this woman, the Maxim Hometown Hottie of the Year?"

And I'm "Yeah, yeah, sure." And so my wife is fine with it. So it's a day party around the pool. Right? And so anyway, they bring her over and we're like, "Oh, so do you want this to be a candid photo? Or do you want a pose photo? Whatever." And so she's there. And she's in a very skimpy bikini. She looks the part of the Maxim Hometown Hottie of the Year. And I'll never forget this. So as we're sitting there talking there, it's me and her, and it's the Maxim PR person, it's my wife. And all of a sudden this guy pushes her out of the way. And literally pushes her out of the way and says, "Matthew Berry. Oh my God. I got to ask you." And he has a fit.

And I'm like, "There's literally a half naked woman right here." You know what I mean? "And your..." We talked about it afterwards. We joked about it. She was like, "Well, that's never happened to me before." She'd never had some guy try to push past her to get to talk to a dude. So yeah, the fantasy question thirst is very real.

John Boccacino: That's crazy. And to think about what people are prioritizing when you got this beautiful woman and a fantasy expert. Their matchup must really mean a lot that

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week for the flex spot.

Matthew Berry: 100%. And so I've just seen a bunch of crazy stuff like that. I did an episode of The League, which it was a sitcom on FX. I don't know if you've seen the episode. But in the episode, in essence, one of the characters on the show... For people who've never seen the show, it's about a fantasy football league. It's a comedy that was on FX. It's now on Netflix. It's really funny. Highly recommend watching it, definitely adult humor. But anyway, so the particular episode that I'm in, it's season three, episode three if you're looking for it. But anyway, the premise is one of the characters, Kevin, basically discovers me in a bar and he basically tries to pick me up. And so there's a line in the scene where Kevin says, to his buddy Taco, he says, "Matthew Berry is the prettiest girl in this bar, and I'm going to go hit on him and it's over." And so he comes over and he hits on me trying to get fantasy advice. And so the episode then goes on from there in terms of our relationship and how that works out.

But the funny part is, is so Jeff and Jackie Shaffer, who are the creators and the executive producers of The League, and they're friends of mine, longtime friends of mine, they wrote that episode because they had been out in public with me and they saw just sort of what happens when people recognize me or figure it out and just sort of the fantasy thirst, as it was. So that episode came out of a real life experience that Jeff and Jackie had with me when we were out one night.

John Boccacino: It was great to see how close to real life, Matthew, that seems to be when it comes to the obsession that people have with fantasy sports. You mentioned earlier, you started this sport, being in fantasy sports, when you were 14 years old. What drew you to fantasy sports in the first place?

Matthew Berry: Listen, I was a nerdy kid, honestly. I was a nerdy kid that loved sports and loved numbers. And in 1983, I'm dating myself as to how old I am, but in 1983, there was a book that was written called Rotisserie League Baseball. And so the man that founded it, that invented , a guy named . He's a literary type. He was a former public editor of the New York Times, and he's edited and written a number of books. And he had all these sort of literary friends, people that wrote for and Esquire and Wall Street Journal and so on and so forth. And so they used to get together and have lunch every Thursday as a group at a now defunct French restaurant in New York City called La Rotisserie. And so he invented this game, and so he basically brought it to his lunch group and they decided to form this fantasy baseball league. And they called themselves Rotisserie League Baseball because they all would have lunch at this restaurant, La Rotisserie.

And so they wrote a book about, and it came out in the winter of 1983. And I devoured the book. And it's a really fun, interesting book, very well written. And it just made this league sound like so much fun, playing in a fantasy league. Just made it sound like so much fun. And so, because I was a 14-year-old kid, and I was a voracious reader. So, "Oh, it was a sports book? Cool." And so I read this book and it sounded like so much fun. And I'm actually, believe it or not, at least back in the

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day, I was a really good tennis player. I was ranked in the state of Texas and had a lot of scholarship offers and to play D1 tennis.

And so I was taking private lessons at the time and I walked up to my tennis lesson and my professional tennis coach was there talking with his best friend, and they're in this kind of weird language. And I'm like, "Are you guys talking about Rotisserie League Baseball?" And they're like, "You've heard of it?" And I'm like, "Yeah, just read the book. You guys have heard of it?" And they're like, "Yeah, we want to form a league." And I'm like, "All right, I'm in." And so few people had heard about it, and again, this is the spring of 1984, so you had to keep stats by hand. No one had personal computers back then. The internet didn't exist in a way that the public could access it.

And so you kept stats by hand and you faxed in your moves. It's all really old school stuff. But listen, it was a league filled with like 20 and 30 and 40 year old guys, but they needed a 10th member. And I was willing and I knew what it was. So, I was a 14 year old kid in the league with a bunch of adults. But I fell in love with the game. So I've been playing fantasy sports ever since. So, I mean, I just turned 50. So whatever 50 minus 14 is. I was told there'd be no math. Right?

John Boccacino: Yes.

Matthew Berry: My 36th year of playing fantasy sports.

John Boccacino: And for those that are listening, there's a great called Silly Little Game that features Daniel Okrent and all of those originators of fantasy sports and rotisserie baseball. And it's so crazy again, to keep talking about how this sport, this obsession, has exploded during the decades. I love, Matthew, your writing style that you bring to a lot of your columns. And what I mean by that is, you're not afraid to admit when you're wrong. You're not afraid to brag when you get something right. And you have this self-deprecating style about you. How did you develop that writing?

Matthew Berry: Well, I appreciate that. It's something that I've honed quite a bit. When I mentioned I was a voracious reader, I'm a voracious reader. And so some of the influences I had when I was growing up as a kid, I think are probably surprising because they weren't sports writers. I mean, Dave Barry, who's the humor columnist. He won a Pulitzer. He wrote, I believe he still does, but for the Miami Herald. But, I read a lot of Dave Barry as a kid. Always really loved his style. This is going to sound really weird, there was a guy named Joe Bob Briggs. He was a comedy writer and he had this character named Joe Bob Briggs. And he would write movie reviews of drive-in movies back in, when I was growing up in the 80s. And there are writers like Carl Hiaasen. And so I always gravitated towards writers that... William Goldman is another writer. Some of the books he's written about Hollywood. I always gravitated towards writers that wrote in a very conversational style. And so I always tried to bring that to my to my writing.

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And I actually wrote, speaking of Syracuse, I wrote for the Daily Orange. I was a humor columnist, not a fantasy sports columnist. I was a humor columnist for the Daily Orange for two years while I was at Syracuse. And that helped getting into that rhythm of writing a weekly column, having a deadline. It doesn't matter whether you're feeling funny or not, whether you have anything to talk about or not. Come whatever it is, Wednesday at three o'clock, you have something you have to turn in while you're at school.

And so that was really important practice for me. I went to Syracuse. Again I never imagined doing this career. I came to Syracuse, as you mentioned producing, for electronic media. I thought I was going to be a TV and movie writer. That's what I came to Syracuse for. And the majority of the stuff that I did at Syracuse was in pursuit of that goal. I worked at, at the time it was called you UUTV, which it's now CitrusTV, the student TV station there. I wrote for the Daily Orange. And then I worked at a Z89, WJPZ. I was part of the crazy morning crew. And so I did a bunch of multimedia things, but sports was just a passion. But I didn't think you could make a living at this kind of nerdy silly game that I played for fun.

But my writing style developed that way, originally as a humor columnist for the Daily Orange. I used to write that way in high school too. I had a group of friends in high school, and I would do a newsletter for us, which when I think back is just insane. So I've always loved writing, and it's obviously been part of my life ever since I was a teenager.

John Boccacino: With the advice piece of it, Matthew, it seems like a lot of times... Again, you're authentic with who you are, your columns, you don't get to the meat of the bone right away. You give some anecdotes and personal stories. I loved the one recently about the jokes for Leroy, when you were talking about Syracuse University and your connections back there. Was it a conscious decision of yours to try to meld in your personality? Because I can imagine some people probably said, "Hey, give me the guys right away to start and bench versus having your anecdotes."

Matthew Berry: Yes. So it was always that instinct to do it that way. And not some people, everyone. When I started, everyone was just like, "What are you doing? Why are you talking about yourself? Who cares, blah, blah, blah. Just tell me who to start and sit, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah." But a big influence of mine was, and I've written about this, is Howard Stern. So I'm a big Howard Stern fan, and think he's a brilliant broadcaster. And whether you are a fan of his content or not, it's not for everyone it's edgy and it's adult obviously, but even if you're not a fan of his content, the approach that he takes is really, really smart, and really, really smart in terms of... And he basically decided that he was the most interesting thing in the world and he was just going to make it all about him.

And I thought, in 1999 as I entered the fantasy sports arena, and we can talk about that, how I got there. But as I got a job in 1999 writing for a website called Rotoworld. I just answered a blind ad. And I was working in Hollywood as a screenwriter, right? So I was working in Hollywood screenwriter, but I saw this by

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that. And I thought it would be fun to do on the side. So I decided to do that. And I sent them an email and they... Anyway, so we can talk about that if you want. But whatever. I get hired to do a free column in essence, for this, at the time, low- traffic fantasy sports website. Now it's a very big one. But I basically decide, as I looked at it, I felt like all the advice out there was kind of the same. "Start this guy, sit that guy." Right? There's only so many players. There's a finite amount of players. Right?

And so there's only so many different ways you can say... Whatever. "I'm worried about DJ Moore this week, but I think Carson Wentz has a big game." Or whatever it is. And so I thought to myself... I'm a big believer in sort of play the hand you're dealt and go with your strengths. And I thought, "Well, listen. I'm pretty good with stats, but listen, I'm not Nate Silver. Right? And I have some contacts. I certainly have more now than when I started. But while I might have a couple of sources here and there, I'm not . And while I'm pretty good at watching film and breaking it down, I didn't play the game. Right? There are ex players or ex coaches that certainly can break down X's and O's better than I can." I'm like, "Well, what can I do?" I said, "Well, the one thing I know, the one thing I know that I can do better than anyone in the world is talk about myself."

And so I decided that I thought that would be a way to brand myself and to stand out and just make it all about myself. And when I started doing that, people were like, "Oh, you're so egocentric. Oh, no one cares. Why are you talking? Just get to the start/sits dude. No one cares, no one cares." And I get that some to this day. But I will tell you that that is the thing that has made my career, that has made my life. I appreciate you saying the one about, this one's for Leroy, the story I told about from a couple of weeks ago about, when I entered the student stand up competition at Syracuse.

But I have to tell you when I meet fans on the streets, they never say to me, "Ah, man, thank you so much for like Darren Waller last year." Because he was like this obscure tight end that I loved last year and he ended up being a top five fantasy tight end. "Hey, thank you. I avoided Jonathan Taylor because of you. Thank you very much." Or whatever it is. Right? They never say like, "This is a pick that you had that worked out. That I was very happy about. Thank you for DK Metcalf." I never get that.

What I always get is, is I'll get, "Hey man, the story about your daughter breaking her arms," or "I love the story about meeting your wife or buying your first house, or "The story about your heart attack or the bullying column." It's always that. You know what I mean? That's what they always bring up to me. That resonated with them. That's what they remember. And I think even you like. You and I have never met. This is the first conversation we've had. But what you want to talk to me about is, you're like, "Oh, you're self-deprecating and your style and this." It's not about starts and sits and "Hey, good call on Kyler Murray," or whatever. Right? You know what I mean?

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John Boccacino: Plus it's relatability. You put yourself out there. You're not just some guy. Because again, there's so many places to go to get those rankings. But when you bring it back to your personal experiences, it feels like you welcome people in. And yeah, you're going to get the occasional guy who follows you to a bathroom and asks you to start Darrell Henderson, or do I start Devin Singletary this week? But you're going to get that because you put yourself out there, you make yourself vulnerable.

Matthew Berry: Correct. The answer is Henderson by the way, between those two running backs this week. But yeah. No, 100%. And it's very, very flattering. And I'm really appreciative. And I feel like I have a true connection with my fans, and I think they feel the same way. ESPN did research... I'll tell you two quick stories. I once read an interview with Huey Lewis, right? Huey Lewis and The News. Right? So he's a bit of an older act, but some of your audience may remember him. But back when I was in school, he was a huge, huge star and Heart of Rock and Roll and Want a New Drug, and... Anyway. Huey Lewis and The news.

And so I read interview with Huey Lewis and The News, and they asked him about his appeal. And Huey Lewis says, he goes, "The truth is..." He goes, "Listen, we're good musicians, but they are better musicians than us. We're good songwriters. We can write catchy tunes, but we're not amazing or anything like that." He says, "I think our big appeal is that people look at us and they're like, 'Hey, that's a bar band that made it.' We're a bar band that made it. We're like that band you go see Friday night at the local bar that plays good tunes and gives it it's all on a stage and isn't fancy, but it's just pure rock and roll. We're a bar band that made it." And I've always thought about that. And I always remember that.

And ESPN's done research on this and what comes back a lot for them on me is that people feel like I'd be a good guy to have a beer with. And I like to think that I am. You know what I mean? So I believe the appeal, like what Huey was talking about, I feel like that's sort of the same with me that I feel like I'm a fantasy player that made it. I try not to talk down to my audience and be like, "I'm so much smarter than you. I'm coming here from Mount fantasy down to deliver you the tablets of fantasy knowledge." I'm like, "Nah, guys. Here's where we're at. I think this, this is why I think this. You tell me." I try to be, like I said, I feel like hopefully that I'm a fantasy player that made it. That I'm one of us, right? We're all sort of the same. And I'm a fantasy guy that made it.

John Boccacino: I want to revisit your time with Syracuse a little bit here before I let you get going. You mentioned being a tennis player from Texas. How did you go from there to Syracuse? Was it just Newhouse? Or what was the story?

Matthew Berry: It was two things. So first off, yes, it was definitely Newhouse. So I, when I was in high school, I spent my senior year of high school being a... I was a rock and roll DJ. There was an oldie station in College... I grew up in College Station, Texas, which is where Texas A&M University is. My dad's a professor there still to this day. And there was KTAM, rock and roll oldies. It's a classic rock station. And I got a job there. I got a part-time job there as a DJ, doing weekends and stuff like that. And

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my senior year of high school, I got the seven to midnight job. And I was the DJ. Matthew Rock and Roll Berry from seven to midnight.

And so I really wanted to be in communications. And I knew that I was a good enough tennis player to play college, but I wasn't a good enough tennis player to go pro. And so I decided I didn't want to play tennis in college. I wanted to go and have a college experience. And Syracuse doesn't offer... It doesn't have a division one tennis team. At least they didn't at the time. I still think they don't. But I went to my high school guidance counselor and I said, "I want to be in communications. I'm doing this radio show. I want to be into TV and radio and film." And they opened up their book and whatever that year with that guidance counselor, whatever book he had, it said that Syracuse, that Newhouse, was the number one school for communications in the country. And I said, "Then that's where I'm going to try to go."

So it was really the Newhouse school that drew me there and they didn't have a tennis team. And it was great. It was interesting because the big communication school in the state of Texas is actually the University of Texas at Austin. And I went there and they took me on the tour. I take the tour and they're like, Yeah, and here's the student TV station." And the guy was telling me, he goes, "And when you're a junior, you actually get to use the equipment." I'm like "When you're a junior? And then I went to Syracuse and they take me to UUTV and they're like, "Yeah, you want to run a camera right now? We need somebody to help us out with a boom mic. Here, grab this." It was night and day. Syracuse was like, "You're going to get a real hands on experience with trying a bunch of different things in communications, and you're going to get to do that immediately." So yeah, it was the Newhouse School that brought me there.

John Boccacino: If you have to think back to a couple of memories from Syracuse, what stand out is some of your favorites from your time as an undergraduate?

Matthew Berry: Oh boy. That I can say on a podcast? So I signed up at UUTV, again which is now CitrusTV. And at the time it was in a very small space. I've since been back, and it's really professional. I mean, it's really impressive what they have now. But back when I went there, it was whatever they could get their hands on. And so, they had a small studio and they had two cameras in the studio. They only had two cameras. And most of the shows that they did then were what I like to call, two hosts in a plant. They did video countdown shows. They did talk shows. They did shows where it was literally two hosts sitting in chairs with a plant behind them, and they would just talk directly to the camera, or they would do things where they could take... They had a nightly news program, but they would take a remote camera out.

And I got there and I was like, "I want to do a sitcom." And the people at UUTV were like, "Well, really? I don't know if we can do a sitcom. Do you understand how much work that is? And that's a really hard undertaking to produce a fully scripted 30-minute sitcom once every other week or whatever." And I said, "I know, but I'd like to try." And I ended up going to a bunch of classes at Syracuse, and I talked to

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the professor and Doc Mason and a couple other professors, Professor Schoonmaker let me come in front of their class and say, "Hey guys, my name is Matthew Berry. I want to do a sitcom at UUTV. We're meeting Saturday at three. Please come if you're interested in and we'll figure it out."

And so I did that, and we had like 50 kids at the first meeting. And it was amazing. And we did it. We ended up doing it. We called the sitcom Uncle Bobo's World of Fun. And it was about a low rent TV show kids host. We designed it that way. So like, Oh, if you saw a boom in the shot or it looked a little red, it was supposed to. And it was unbelievable because again, we only had two cameras. So in order to do a three-camera sitcom, which is what they normally are, we had to bring in a remote news camera and put it on a tripod. So every third shot was grainier than the other two. And we only had enough room to build one set at a time. We have these bars and you would hang these flats from that you could design as the set.

So it's like in most normal sitcoms, you have sort of these standing sets. And we didn't have the room to do that. So basically what we would have to do is like, "Okay. This is Taylor's office." Taylor was the general manager of the station. So then basically we would set up Taylor's office and then we would shoot it movie style. We would have to shoot all three scenes in the episode that we're in Taylor's office in a row. And then we would break it down and then we'd set up the Uncle Bobo set or whatever it was, or a restaurant or whatever set we were pretending. And so it was a lot of ingenuity and a lot of hard work.

And the only time that we could get that much time, because we did it all day to shoot it. We needed all day to shoot a show that way. And so the only time that you could get the studio for that amount of time was Sundays. So asking college kids to show up Sunday at 9:00 AM to lift flats. And they did it. And we did 20 episodes over a two year period. It got syndicated to a bunch of other colleges through a college TV network. It won a bunch of awards. It was great. And so that was just an amazing experience. And to this day, I'm in a fantasy football league with a bunch of the people that worked on Uncle Bobo. We started a fantasy football league that year and it's still going on. And I'm in communication with a bunch of them. Like Chris Lindsey, who was my college roommate and Uncle Bobo himself was a groomsman at my wedding. And me and those guys, we do a virtual poker game once a week.

And so probably my favorite memory from Syracuse is just all of that, is the fun times and sort of the craziness and everything we did to try to get that show on the air. It was a great time at Syracuse.

John Boccacino: You mentioned the nostalgia and the fact that these people are in your wedding and the fantasy football leagues you still do. What does it mean to you, Matthew, to be an alum of Syracuse university?

Matthew Berry: I'm really proud of it. I'm proud of the university. I mean, this is just audio, so you can't see. So I'm at my desk, but like this sits on my desk. For people who can't see

Matthew Berry Cuse Conversation Podcast (Completed 12/04/20) Page 10 of 12 Transcript by Rev.com This transcript was exported on Dec 04, 2020 - view latest version here.

at home, I got a stuffed Otto the Orange sitting prominently on my desk. So it means a great deal. And people know that I'm from Syracuse. So if you see any pictures of me on social media hanging out, it's a lot of I'm wearing Syracuse sweatshirts or Syracuse sweats, Syracuse hat. I wear a lot of Syracuse gear. I guess for me, if you haven't survived those winters up there, you just don't understand. So I feel like there's sort of a family and a community of having been at Syracuse, of being a Syracuse alumni.

I'll tell you two things. Number one is that when I got out and I had a whole career as a screenwriter. We've gone sort of all over the place here with this interview. But I had a career as a screenwriter first. So I graduated Syracuse, as you mentioned, producing for electronic media, and I moved out to Hollywood with a bunch of Syracuse graduates, friends of mine, all the guys that had done Uncle Bobo with me. Right? We all moved out there. And we didn't know anyone. I mean, we're a bunch of dumb kids. And what I did is I went to the Syracuse alumni office and I was like, "Give me a list of everyone that's in show business that went to Syracuse."

And I sent them emails and letters, and just said, "Hey man, I'm Syracuse class of '92. I'm a big fan of what you do on," insert movie, sitcom whatever it is they did. "Would you have 20 minutes, 30 minutes for a fellow alum to pick your ear and just get some advice?" And a lot of them said, yes. And the ones that said yes, some of them were really nice and said, "Oh, you know who you should meet? You should meet this guy." "Oh, you need a job?

When I see somebody that emails me from a Syracuse email address or that they went to Cuse, they go to the top of the pile. And I'm really proud to be part of, we have such an amazing, an incredible alumnus in the rank of broadcasters, right? In terms of broadcasting in general. Ted Koppel's of the world, obviously, but specifically sports broadcasting. When you think about legends like Bob Costas or Marv Albert. And so, not that I'm anywhere near those guys, but just the fact that, if there's a kid at Syracuse right now, that's going, "I'm going to go to Syracuse. I'm going to the same school that Bob Costas went to, that Marv Albert went to, that , the legend Mike Tirico went to. Oh, and that Matthew Berry went to?" Just the fact that I can be on that list, wherever I am on that list, is really cool and special and amazing.

John Boccacino: It really is. And the power of the Orange network. You mentioned that yourself, we look out for our own, we take care of our own. If you have tact into and ask in a nice way and try to get some advice, the doors are always open to Syracuse alumni. Matthew, I really appreciate you taking the time. I know it's a crazy busy Friday in the fantasy football world, and the fantasy sports world in general. It's been a pleasure having you on the podcast.

Matthew Berry Cuse Conversation Podcast (Completed 12/04/20) Page 11 of 12 Transcript by Rev.com This transcript was exported on Dec 04, 2020 - view latest version here.

Matthew Berry: I appreciate it. Thank you so much for asking me. I'm happy to come on any time. Go Cuse.

John Boccacino: Thanks for checking out the latest installment of the Cuse Conversations Podcast. You can find our podcast on all of your major podcasting platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Google Play, and Spotify. You can also find our podcast at alumni.syr.edu/cuseconversations, and anchor.fm/cuseconversations. My name is John Boccacino, signing off for the Cuse Conversations Podcast.

Matthew Berry Cuse Conversation Podcast (Completed 12/04/20) Page 12 of 12 Transcript by Rev.com