The Gametime Guru

Author: shane.g.larson@gmail.com

  • Jon Absey Was One -of-a-Kind

    I was so blessed to have been able to speak with Jon Absey on my podcast three years ago.

    During this conversation, we chatted about so many amazing things. Did you know Jon wasn’t even good at gymnastics yet he lied about it so he could get the job as the Utah Jazz Bear?!

    We talked about the various injuries he sustained while out there doing his job! There were some MAJOR injuries and MAJOR surgeries, yet he rarely missed an opportunity to create amazing memories for the different families out there at the Jazz games.

    Just a little over a year after our conversation, Jon was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and passed away in January of 2026.

    I was so saddened by this news at the beginning of the year. But I’m seriously so grateful I had the chance to speak with him and I’ll forever have this conversation to look back on.

    I’d HIGHLY encourage you to check it out too!

    My cousin John, was actually the one who connected us. What a fantastic connection. I’m forever grateful for John helping me out by introducing us.

    I have a lot of memories from when I was a kid going to Jazz games and I always remembered the Jazz Bear. Little did I know I’d connect with the man behind the fur, years later, on the podcast platform that I had built.

    Life is funny that way but also so awesome!

    Here’s my words that I just recently posted

  • We Really DO Incentivize LOSERS!!

    We Really DO Incentivize LOSERS!!

    The United States produces some of the greatest athletes on the planet. It’s always interesting when someone talks about a soccer player who is standing at 6’5 and running fast down the line, because that’s literally 84% of NBA Players and nobody even thinks twice about it.

    We have some great athletes and great teams who bring some great entertainment to all of us sports fans.

    But something caught my attention when the Head Coach for the USMNT said: “America Rewards Losers..”

    I got to thinking about this myself… And sure enough, if you think about it, we truly do.

    Rather than having our sports punish the ‘losing’ mentality, we incentivize losers. We provide them with the best draft pick and allow them to bring in the best players at that time in an attempt to ‘re-build’ their organizations. But isn’t that backwards of how it’s supposed to be?

    I mean, you lose and lose and lose.. yet you still ‘win’ somehow?

    And honestly, that mentality is trickling down to the youth. The whole system is messed up.

    Why do we allow people to be rewarded for losing?

    If your business you work for, does not move the needle and begin making revenue, then you might find yourself without a job. But I guess that’s part of the problem, because in American sports, they’re still making the money and generating revenue, even when they’re losing.

    So to them, they don’t find it to be a problem.

    I do though. I think we really need to take a hard look at this. Why are we teaching young athletes and people that you can just keep losing, be content with it, and just keep moving forward?

    I would love to see a relegation / promotion style format for American sports (not just soccer). But I would ALSO love to see us reward the WINNERS rather than the losers.

    Imagine a scenario where the NBA Finals Champion or Super Bowl Champion, got the pick for the #1 player in the draft the following year? Yes I know that’s a little strange and in theory, it would allow for the ‘best teams to keep winning and the lower-tiered organizations wouldn’t have a chance’ but it would sure as heck make things a lot more exciting.

    Would love to know your thoughts and see what anyone else has to say about this.

    Regardless, I will say I agree with Coach Mauricio Pochettino’s words. We do reward losers, and I would love to see it change.

  • Should American Soccer Have Relegation?

    The World Cup has more Americans paying attention to soccer than ever before. But the more I watch the sport internationally, the more I think one of the biggest differences isn’t what happens on the field. It’s what happens when the season ends.

    I recently sat down with Todd Smith, author of Relegated, to talk about promotion and relegation in English soccer, and why the stakes are so much higher than what we’re used to in American sports.

    Here’s the basic idea if you’re not familiar with it. In leagues like the English Premier League, the worst-performing teams at the end of the season don’t just have a bad year and move on. They get relegated. They drop down to a lower division entirely, and a team from that lower division gets promoted up to take their spot.

    That means every single game matters, all the way to the last week of the season. There’s no tanking for a better draft pick. There’s no “let’s just rebuild next year.” If your team finishes at the bottom, you’re out.

    And it’s not just the club that suffers when that happens. Local businesses, jobs, sponsors, entire communities can feel the impact of relegation. That’s a level of stakes we really don’t have in American sports.

    So here’s the question I can’t stop thinking about. Would promotion and relegation make American soccer better?

    Would it create more meaningful games late in the season? Would it eliminate tanking? Would it help smaller clubs actually have a path to grow? Or is the franchise model we’ve built everything around in the U.S. just the better way to do things for our market?

    I don’t think there’s an easy answer here. But I do think it’s a conversation worth having, especially with the sport growing so fast in this country right now.

    I’d love to hear what you think. Drop a comment, send me a message, let’s actually talk about it.

    The full interview with Todd Smith is up now on The Gametime Guru Podcast.