This week, we’re LIVE at the US Open with former Wimbledon quarterfinalist and current voice of tennis on ESPN, TNT, and Tennis Channel, Chris Eubanks.

Chris is here to help me unpack one of, if not my favorite tennis moments ever.

It was 1991. I was a little kid watching the Yankees. Shortly after the game ended, I was swallowed whole by the raucous celebrations and charismatic energy of a 39-yard old Jimmy Connors.

Connors was making an outrageous run at the US Open, upsetting one opponent after the next and slowly transforming a tennis crowd into a rabid New York crowd, one making noises normally reserved for a metal concert in a football stadium.

It was incredibly cool.

Connors didn’t get the job done that year, but the run has stuck with me, and every tennis fan who experienced that moment, ever since. More than three decades later, it remains a huge part of US Open lore.

Chris Eubanks wasn’t born yet when Connors turned Louis Armstrong Stadium into a rock concert, but he gives me his view of the moment from the perspective of a guy who’s been there. We talk about momentum in tennis, what it’s like to go viral as an athlete, and the greatest showmen in tennis history.

Oh, and I tried my best to get him to do the patented Connors hip thrust and fist pump.

I tried.

Welcome to Episode 008 of REAL DEAL! I’m Tony Reali, and I’m so happy you’re here.

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As we enter the 2026 college football season, Indiana is the reigning national champion. They're kings of the college football world, led by their bespectacled and perpetually irritated savior, Curt Cignetti. Before he arrived, Indiana was known for plenty of things—its business school, Hoosiers basketball, Mark Cuban—but not football. Never football.

Since Cignetti arrived? Indiana has won a national championship, and its quarterback went first overall in the 2026 NFL Draft. Not bad for a two-year run.

Of course, it took hard work, smart roster building, and a little luck to pull it off. But it also took a shift in attitude. And I think that shift began at Curt Cignetti's introductory press conference.

"I win. Google me."

Those were the four words Cignetti delivered when asked how he would sell recruits on Indiana. For most coaches, a line like that would become the punchline to a failed experiment—the clip everyone digs up after a disappointing season. For Cignetti, it may one day be engraved beneath a statue if he keeps this up in Bloomington.

Today I'm joined by college football expert—and the woman I call the "Smiling Assassin of College Football"—Jess Smetana to revisit that unforgettable press conference. We break down the moment, retrace how Cignetti transformed Indiana into a champion, and ask one question:

Does Curt Cignetti have the most “aura” of any college football coach to ever exist?

Welcome to Episode 007 of REAL DEAL! I’m Tony Reali, and I’m so happy you’re here.

Subscribe for new episodes of REAL DEAL every Tuesday. You can also listen on the iHeart app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the early 2000s, there were three indisputable truths: boy bands were dominating the world, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? was must-see TV, and the biggest feud in all of sports belonged to Roger Clemens and Mike Piazza.

They hated each other.

Roger hated that Mike absolutely owned him at the plate. Mike hated that Roger responded by beaning him in the head. Then, in the 2000 World Series, the Subway Series, it all came to a head. Mike Piazza's bat shattered on a pitch from Roger Clemens. Clemens famously picked up a shard of the bat and hurled it toward Piazza. The result was a staredown for the ages, and the unspoken promise of eventual revenge.

The next time Clemens would face the Mets, and have to hit (pitchers used to have to hit in NL games!), was in 2002. Opposing him was Shawn Estes, a man who had certainly witnessed the incident that defined the 2000 World Series but had no dog in the fight. Well, he didn't, until he was forced to.

On paper, the Estes-Clemens showdown at Shea looked like a success for Shawn. He won. He hit a home run. But...he missed Roger Clemens with the pitch that was supposed to pacify a rabid Mets fan base that, through bites of Premio sausage and peppers, was screaming unspeakable atrocities at The Rocket. Don't forget, Shea once had to build a roof over the bullpen because fans were throwing batteries at John Rocker. This fanbase didn't mess around.

In the end, it was a feud that ended with a muted thud instead of the bang everyone expected.

Years later, Shawn Estes tells his side of the story, what it was like to inherit someone else's beef, and the pressure that came with it.

Welcome to Episode 006 of REAL DEAL! I'm Tony Reali, and I'm so happy you're here.

Subscribe for new episodes of REAL DEAL every Tuesday. You can also listen on the iHeart app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.