00:00I would just say I was beginning to get a sense that this wasn't going to move forward
00:23with McCarthy and I don't have this confirmed yet, but my sense based on some of the conversations
00:29I've had is it doesn't sound like this was Jerry deciding that he no longer wanted Mike
00:36here.
00:37This might have been Mike saying, I'm going to move on.
00:44A lot of that, according to staffers that I've spoken with, had to do with this contract
00:48sticking point.
00:49He was already frustrated and he's done this on the record, off the record, Mike, with
00:56us reporters and even up at the podium with fans, frustrated about how he and his staff
01:01went into this year with expiring contracts.
01:06I think they felt like that limited them, that it was tough on their families.
01:10You know, as I've gotten a little bit longer in the tooth, even with this job, you get
01:13to know the families and it is hard, but I think everybody, as Jerry said, smallest violin
01:19in the room, everyone knows that that's part of the business, but I think what a lot of
01:25people don't have the appetite for is, all right, the season came to an end.
01:29They were already on expiring contracts.
01:32Should this decision, and if you were going to bring him back, at least some parameters
01:37already be in place, and that didn't seem to be the case.
01:40I mean, the way it was characterized to me, these conversations with Mike in the last
01:45week weren't about hard numbers or links.
01:48It was really just about the end of the season, how things could have gone, and I think that
01:53started to rub him a different type of way.
02:00And so I think when he ultimately came down here and then, you know, he was denied permission
02:04to interview for the Barrett's job, I think there was some frustration.
02:08Now I will also say when I first heard about the Barrett's job, I thought this is just
02:13a pulley to get his, you know, to sort of like put him in the water.
02:18But I was told by both sides on this that the interest in Mike was real in Chicago.
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