For the third straight day, Rick's former radio partner and longtime Tampa Bay Times columnist Tom Jones, now at the Poynter Institute, joins the show. Tom was up until 3 a.m. writing his newsletter after election night, so they start with the media coverage: how results come in so fast, the "magic boards" on CNN and NBC, the Associated Press and decision desks, and the New York Times needle. That leads to Tom's gripe of the day. Standing in front of the First Amendment engraved outside the Poynter building, he says he defends anyone's right to say what they want, but out-of-town critics who tell Tampa Bay it doesn't deserve a team can, in his words, "shut up."
Rick takes the other side too. He says he can see why Yankees and Guardians fans would admire the Rays and wonder why more locals don't show up, and he talks about how players feel when the opposing team's fans take over the stadium. Tom and Rick get into the transient makeup of the market (Rick guesses the share of native Floridians is very small), whether it will ever change, Tom's sons (one in New York, one still in Tampa Bay) and their loyalties, exorbitant ticket prices and airline-style pricing, and Rick's decision to skip a pricey World Series game that turned into a 10-1 loss. They also wonder what a new stadium will do for attendance, and Rick says Bucs coach Todd Bowles gave the right answer when he asked about opposing fans: win more and you'll see fewer of them. Along the way Tom talks about being a Steelers fan and having to deal with Aaron Rodgers, why some national fans disliked the Rays (Rick and Tom point to the Junior Caminero bat flips), and why Yandy Diaz is one of his favorite Tampa Bay athletes.
The second half is a college football conversation. Tom talks about Penn State firing James Franklin and hiring Matt Campbell, and recalls Jim Leavitt building USF from a trailer. Rick says paying players "through the front door" and the transfer era have made college football more like the NFL, with parity instead of Alabama-style super teams and few undefeated teams. Tom says players should be able to move the way coaches do, that ESPN has a stake in the debate, and that scholarships were never guaranteed. They bring up the injuries that change a player's life while the game moves on with the "next man up." They also cover Florida State's firing of Mike Norvell and his reported $50 million buyout, Tom's Jimbo Fisher radio memories, whether Fisher could return, and Tom's Lane Kiffin story. They close with a plug for Tom's biweekly Poynter podcast (past guests Rachel Maddow and Fox News' Jennifer Griffin, and a teased election-coverage guest he won't confirm), and a note that the pair just recorded two shows.