Hi Jake. So, as a mini introduction, you are a national sports talk show host, and you host your own show every weekday from 9am to 11am eastern. You also cover local sports in Houston. When researching you a bit, I saw that you majored in television and radio. Is this something you always wanted to do? How did you get to where you are now?

Growing up, I was a huge sports fan. I loved my teams, being from New York and growing up on Long Island, but I was never a great athlete myself. I loved playing basketball, baseball, and throwing the football around in the yard, but I knew I was never going to be a professional athlete. But, as I grew up loving the teams I would root for, I also kind of fell in love with the announcers and the people that did the play-by-play. I started listening to the radio with my dad, and I got addicted to sports talk radio. The first ever 24/7 radio station, WFAN, is based in New York, where it’s almost ingrained that if you’re a sports fan, you listen to sports talk radio. So, I started hearing that radio station and as a ten-year-old, I’m like, “Wait, people get paid and make a living to talk about sports?” I always kind of had it in the back of my mind that, “Well, I’m not going to be a professional baseball player, but maybe something in sports media could be a career path.” I was really lucky. The high school I went to on Long Island, Syosset High School, was one of just a few schools in New York state that had its own high-school run radio station in the basement of the school. So as a ninth grader, I had the opportunity to get on the air once a week and do a sports talk show, and that experience was huge. I basically went into Ithaca College with four years of radio experience already. I fell in love with it early on, and the fact that I had an opportunity to get involved early on was also huge. I had a passion for it and decided I wanted to make a career out of something in sports media. 

I think it’s so rare for people, aside from maybe medicine or biology, for people to have their major and career directly link up, let alone to also have their minor be complementary. You minored in Sports Studies, and looking at your career now, you didn’t waver. You went straight for what you wanted, and you now have a career in what you majored in. Did you ever question it right away, or you knew the whole time? 

It’s tough to say. There was a period where I was out of school for a year, and I was working two part-time jobs and neither of them paid anything significant, you know, I wasn’t making a living. I was still living at home and thankfully, I had the opportunity to live with my parents and save up for that year, but I don’t know if I ever really questioned if I was on the right path because I always believed in my ability. I always believed in my passion. I loved being a talk show host, I loved covering big games, I loved being on screen when those opportunities presented itself. I always tell people that it’s a really tough business, it’s super competitive, and there’s just not a whole lot of jobs that open up, especially early on at the entry-level. When you’re first getting your first couple jobs in the business, it doesn’t pay very well. They see a news reporter on TV, they think they’re making millions of dollars, and that’s actually quite the opposite.

There’s definitely challenges with it, but I loved sports radio and sports media so much that I never really allowed myself to think of another career option, because I was so passionate about what I was trying to achieve.

Right, and something I have found to be true is that so much of sports is storytelling, much more than one would think. It’s not necessarily the scoreboard that makes things exciting, but the narrative surrounding it - that’s just my perspective as a spectator. How do you balance factual reporting with creating a story that’s going to capture people as well? 

That’s what’s great about sports talk radio. There are some journalistic things that are a part of it but, ultimately, a sports radio host is basically what a newspaper columnist would be. You’re giving your opinion. What I try to do is be informed on whatever the topic is going to be discussed on the show that day, and put together what my take on it is, or what my opinion on it is. Sometimes you use stats to back up your argument, sometimes you use your sources. Sometimes you kind of just use your wealth of knowledge of covering a certain league or a team over the course of a long time. Some of it is just trying to be entertaining as well. There are some journalistic things that you do as a sports radio host, but you’re also trying to be really entertaining and interesting for your listeners. The person that reads the sports report on TV is different from what I do every day for two hours, trying to come up with entertaining topics to give my opinions on and bring on different people as guests to talk about those topics. I think it’s just good to be well-versed in everything happening. Be prepared, be well-informed. If you give your opinion, be prepared that not everyone is going to agree with that opinion, and that’s okay.

Some of the best segments I think you can have on a radio show are when you’re debating something that you and your co-host, or you and a caller, totally disagree on.

But that’s okay; it’s sports at the end of the day. It’s supposed to be fun. So, I always try to remind myself that at the end of the day, it’s not that serious. There are way more serious issues going on in the world, as well all know.

Yes. And you have that daily two- hour show. I think when people sometimes think about the media, they have this idea in their head of the person doing the talking who has a whole team that preps everything for them, and it’s really not like that. You put in a ton of work, and you have to know your subject because, like you said, if there’s a minute of space, you don’t have someone to do the work for you on the spot. It’s on you. What is all of that like?

The prep process never really stops, and that’s a really great observation by you because the second I get off the air at 10 AM central time every day, you’re already kind of starting to think, “Alright, what are we doing on tomorrow’s show?”

The grind is nonstop. I’m on the radio six days a week.

So, it’s a lot of content you’re constantly trying to think about. And hey, maybe you’re still talking about the topic, but how could we advance the conversation the next day? What’s a different angle I could take on this? Is there a follow-up? Is there an interesting guest that could weigh in on this topic that would be insightful for the audience? You’re always constantly prepping. My routine is probably similar to a lot of sports radio hosts’ routines. I watch games at night, and I’m thankful that it looks like we have some games to watch again. I’m taking notes down, I’m trying to grab my thoughts on what I’m watching. And then every morning, I wake up and for about two hours before the show, I jot down some bullet points. I wouldn’t say I script the show, because I don’t like scripting anything; I like to be off-cuff and improv and kind of seeing where the conversation goes, but you want to have some sort of a rundown put together. “Okay, in this segment we’ll talk about this but hey, if we’re having a really good discussion on this topic, maybe we’ll carry it over into the next segment.” So, I have a loose rundown in place every day, but you kind of see where the show goes. Then there’s some days where breaking news can happen in the middle of the radio show and then you basically throw the rundown out the door and say, “Okay, well, time to do something else now.” That happened the other day when a bunch of the Miami Marlin baseball players tested positive for the virus out of nowhere, and it went from a couple players had it to all of a sudden, they had fifteen players that had this thing and the question was asked, “Well, is baseball going to have to shut down?” That’s why you always try to be as prepared as possible on various topics, because you never know when your knowledge on a certain topic becomes important, like what happened with the Marlins’ pops up and you have to address it live on the air in real-time. You’re not really getting a whole lot of time to prep what your thoughts are going to be, but you also never really stop prepping so you are prepared to deliver an entertaining segment. 

Wait, let’s talk about that really quick. I never thought I would see a day where sports shut down, you know? Even looking back on 9/11, there was a break, but then sports came back and almost unified everyone, or helped to do that in some way. I think sports help people rally around difficult times, also looking at the Boston Marathon as an example. This year, the Olympics were postponed, and I never could have foreseen something causing that to happen. Whether it’s from the media side or a fan side, what are your thoughts on all of it and pushing to open things up? Do you think the bubbles work? What’s your take on the whole situation happening?

I think if these leagues are going to come back, they’re going to do everything possible to do it as safely as possible. It’s a tricky spot because you look at hockey, which is in a bubble in Edmonton in Toronto; they split up the eastern and the western conference. You look at basketball where just they took the playoff teams and put them in a bubble in Orlando at Disneyworld. It’s a lot safer and the data has proven a bubble works. The NBA just did a recent test of all their players, and not a single player tested positive and that’s been the case, really, since they got into the bubble. So, the NBA and the NHL so far have gone about it the right way. It’s difficult with a sport like football because you have thirty-two teams, fifty-three people are on a roster. You have the coaches and coaching staff, the front office, the trainers and the equipment people, and it’s just not feasible for the NFL to do a bubble - and baseball, kind of the same thing, because the players didn’t agree to it. Every sport is different. I think these leagues should absolutely try and come back because there are so many people’s livelihoods that depend on it. Not just, you know, these millionaire athletes and billionaire owners, but the equipment people, the media that cover these teams, so many people will be out of work. When these league games don’t get played and they’re not broadcasted on TV it has an effect on the entire industry because all of a sudden, the advertising dollars that all these companies are bringing in for airing these games, well, they no longer have it. It affects everyone and obviously, health and safety have to be the number one thing. I think so far, we’ve seen these leagues do everything possible to try and protect their players. There’s going to be positive tests; that’s just a reality. It’s going to happen, but hopefully, the protocols are on par and in place where you isolate and you make sure it doesn’t infect an entire team. What happened with the Marlins is a learning situation for baseball and for everyone. They have to figure out: how did they get exposed? How did it spread to the entire team? But there are still twenty-nine other teams that were tested earlier that day and not a single player had it. It’s an evolving situation with each sport, and as long as they can try and do it as safely as possible, I think you’re going to continue to try and see these leagues do what they can to come back and play.

You’re right. It’s so different from sport to sport, but like you said, with sports, you have to think about everyone down to the people who manage facilities. There are so many people involved, but sometimes people only see or think about the top-level, star athletes. It’s a weird juxtaposition. You mentioned that sometimes things will sometimes break in the middle of a show. What role does social media play in your job? Do you feel like you have to be on and active with your social media accounts all of the time?

I’m constantly checking Twitter and Instagram and whatnot, but I like to use my social media to put out a creative opinion on something, or a funny comment I have if I’m watching a game and I think that’s why Twitter is really fun; it’s kind of that online sports bar if you’re watching a big sporting event. I’m a Yankee fan so I watch the Yankee games, and I always see the same people that are on Twitter tweeting things about the team, but Twitter is also huge for show prep. People might have an opinion they put out on Twitter that I disagree with that I want to bring up on the show the next day, or maybe someone makes a great point and I didn’t think of a particular topic the way that this person did, so that inspires me to come up with a segment based off of this opinion that someone had. I try to use Twitter as a news source. I also use it to engage with listeners of the show. I always say, “Hey, you can tweet me throughout the show and I’ll read the best responses over the air.” It’s definitely a really cool tool to be able to engage with your audience. I think the one thing you don’t want to do, though, is base your opinion solely on what the cool thing on Twitter is. I think you want to be unique and authentic and have your own opinion, and if that maybe contrasts what the vast majority on Twitter feel, alright, fine. You don’t have to agree with everything I say, and maybe that can make an entertaining couple minutes of radio. I use Instagram in particular to post clips for my show every day to try and promote the show to get new listeners to maybe come on board. Instagram, I think, is becoming just as popular if not already more popular than Twitter. I try to be engaged on those two apps especially. And then, I have a YouTube channel where I upload clips and whatnot. My main two things for a while now have been Twitter and Instagram.

Do you ever get burnt out balancing everything?

Sometimes you do. I think that’s natural, right? I’m pretty lucky with my schedule right now, where I’m on for two hours in the morning and then if I really need a nap, there’s usually time in my day where I can do it. I’m having fun at the end of the day, so there are times where I might feel like, “Oh, I’m so tired. I don’t feel like getting up at 6 a.m. to start preparing two hours for a radio show,” but I think overall, I’m just so grateful to be working right now in an industry that has just been ravaged by COVID-19 with so many people taking pay cuts and losing their jobs and furloughs, so I always try to remind myself to just be thankful that I’m working and doing what I love. I think getting burnt out happens sometimes, but you try to use your off-time to recover and do things that interest you. Talk to your friends, talk to your family, and do the best you can. At the end of the day, I always say that this beats having a real job, so I’ll never make being burnt out an excuse just because I’m working a lot.

I think for me, when I have time off, I’ll do kind of sporty things – mini golf, Top golf, catch. What does off time look like for you, if your world is centered around sports a majority of the time?

Honestly, since I love just being a sports fan, watching a game with some friends is really fun for me. Yeah, it’s work, but that’s what is so great about this job – when we have games being played, I’m watching a big game, and then the next day I get to talk about it with listeners. That’s a blast. I love spending time with my friends even if we’re not watching something – going to the movies. You mentioned mini golf; I love mini golf as well. I was just on vacation back in New York for ten days and me and my friends played mini golf a couple times and we had a blast doing it. I like to hang out and watch a Netflix show. Right now I’m in the middle of watching Billions on Showtime. If it’s a really good TV show that my friends are telling me to watch, I’ll try to get to it. Right now, it’s kind of tough to do, but I like going out to restaurants and hanging out and spending time with people I enjoy being around.

You mention that you were on vacation in New York, which is where you are from, but you’re currently based in Houston. What was that move like? 

I knew my first year out of school that the reality was you don’t just get to be on the radio in New York City right out of college. It just doesn’t just happen; it takes years to get there. New York is the number one media market, so I knew that at some point I was going to have to move. I just lucked out that there happened to be an opening at the time with SB Nation Radio, which is now SportsMap radio, and ESPN 97.5 as a reporter. The parent company that hired me is called Gow Media, and they own both stations. I was looking for a job my first year out of college while I was working the two part-time jobs, one at an internet radio station that was at the time called Sports on the Go 1, and then as a part-time producer for WFAN. I knew at some point that if I could find a full-time gig being on the air, I was going to take it and move. Houston became available and it’s a great city to be in. I have so many friends that are in small towns throughout the country, so to start in a big city like Houston – I think it’s the fourth most populated US city – and to be welcomed in by so many great people, and be around so many great restaurants and bars and things to do is great. Outside of three months in the summer, the weather is great year-round, so I got really lucky. I was always preparing myself to move, and then when it happened, I tried to hit the ground running. The two years I’ve lived in the city have flown by. 

I think we’re around the same age, and with our age group and even younger, I’ve noticed that there can be such a hesitancy when it comes to moving for work. I don’t know exactly why that is, but change is scary for everyone, but do you have any advice for someone who is going to make a big move for work, where they may not know anyone?

Embrace it. Change is not always bad; this could be a decision you make that you’ll look back on, and you’ll appreciate the fact that you did it. I’ve spoken to people that have moved for jobs that they didn’t like, but ultimately, they don’t look back on it as a bad decision because they got to experience living in another part of the country. They got to meet new people and build new relationships with people that they never would have met had they not taken the job in the first place.

I always tell young broadcasters that talk to me, “Hey, be prepared to take chances. Be prepared to move. Be prepared to not make a whole lot of money early on. You’ve really got to say yes to every opportunity, and you’ve got to earn your stripes. You’ve got to grind until you get a big break.”

I think if you’re serious about getting into sports media in general, the reality is you’re probably going to have to move. I think the sooner people realize that, maybe before they start pursuing a journalism degree or pursuing a TV/ Radio degree from Ithaca College like I did, the better. I think it’s just important to kind of know the realities of the career path that you’re going down, but if someone’s passionate about what they want to do, I don’t think moving should stop you. You might look back on it and go, “Thank God I moved for this job because I never would be where I ended up if I didn’t do that.”

I agree. Sports media or not, what is one thing everyone should know how to do?

You’re going to laugh, but I recently learned basic cooking during the quarantine. I taught myself how to make steaks and chicken on the grill, and a bunch of basic cooking stuff because I couldn’t go out to Chipotle every single night when we’re stuck in quarantine. Everyone should learn how to do some basic cooking, especially if they’re living on their own, like I am. It’s definitely a huge help because it saves you a lot of money and it’s also pretty good once you get decent at it. I’m by no means Bobby Flay, but I am at least an average cook now where I can make something and it’s not terrible. 

I don’t know how to cook, and I need to learn. I made grilled cheese yesterday and the dog spit it out. 

I could barely make scrambled eggs a couple months ago, so I totally get it. It’s been helpful though, being able to do simple things like heat up vegetables with some chicken. I would never do it; I was too lazy and then finally I was like, “Let me look up a couple YouTube videos and figure this out. It can’t be that hard.” My brother can do it, and he’s in college making his own food, so I’m sure I could figure out a way to do it as well.

I need to learn, but maybe start small. And speaking of Martha Stewart skills, I think a lot of times with sports media, people see you on screen and see the fun side of things. They saw you on Super Bowl Radio Row, with Martha Stewart herself, and a bunch of other people, including Dana White. But that’s not the full story - there’s so much work that goes into it, and behind it. What is one misconception about what you do that you think people should know?

Radio Row is one of the toughest weeks of the year. It’s the most amazing week of the year because it’s like a culmination of talk radio. There’s so many different public relations people. You have so many things pitched at you, like a person that wants to come on your show, and you’re also chasing down people that you want on your show. It takes a full team effort. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention my former co-host Cody Stoots and my two former producers, Jose Partida and Alex Lebowitz who were a huge part in making our Radio Row experience in Miami so successful. Also, our guest booker Brian Spector just absolutely crushed it that week with his contacts and leveraging what we already had planned. Total team effort there. It’s so rewarding when you do get a great guest to come on your show because maybe they say something interesting that makes headline news. Cam Newton came on our show and at the time, he was still recovering from an injury with the Panthers. This was before the team released him, and we asked him about his health and he gave a health update and all these news outlets ran with the story because it was a big deal that he was talking about this injury; no one had really spoken to him up until that point. So, Radio Row looks glamorous, and you’re right that it’s a lot of work but it’s also a lot of fun at the end of the day. I love that week every year; I’ve been lucky the last four years to get the chance to go and be a part of Radio Row and the Super Bowl. But the thing I would say that a lot of people maybe don’t realize is some people are like, “Oh, you’re on the radio from 9am-11am, Monday through Friday? That’s it? What do you do all day?” And well, it’s not that easy. There’s other responsibilities as well. You’re always, as we talked about, planning for the next show, reaching out to guests, getting rejected a lot when men and women can’t come on the show because they’re busy, so then you’re scrambling to try and find someone else. It’s kind of all day, you’re putting time and effort into the product you’re putting on the air that happens to be only two hours.

I think a big misconception is I just show up, I talk, and then I leave. That’s part of the job, no doubt, but there’s also a lot more that goes into trying to do a good show for everybody. 

Exactly. And you mentioned this, but just to sum it up, could you walk me through what a day in your life looks like?

I wake up usually at 5:45 or 6 in the morning, depending on how many times I snooze the alarm clock. I get up, I shower, I get ready for work, and then I immediately sit down and I start hammering away at the rundown. I have some thoughts the night before that maybe I’ll put in there, but I start going through a bunch of different sports articles and looking at some of the headlines on ESPN.com, Fox Sports, or NBC, just kind of following what the trending topics people are talking about, and start getting an idea for what I might say. I’ll cook myself some breakfast now, either a hard-boiled egg or a scrambled egg, as I’m doing all of this, and then I start planning the show, slotting what I’m going to do in each spot. Usually by the day before, I book all the guests, so I have a list of where each person - if I’m having more than one guest - would be slotted. I kind of just start planning the show and we do a couple benchmark segments every day that are pretty consistent. There’s one called “Quick Hits” on the show where I play a lot of audio clips from various figures in sports, so I have to find that audio either off a website or someone’s podcast, edit it, and label it properly so my producer plays it at the right time. That takes some time, but basically it’s about two hours of show prep before the show, go to the show, execute the show from 8am-10am central time, off the air at ten. Some days, I’m also responsible for writing an article for Sportsmap.com which is the online website off of the radio station that my company owns, so maybe I’ll knock out an article that day, or I’ll have some fill-in responsibilities at ESPN 97.5. Maybe the host is off that day, so I’m doubling up and doing some local radio in the city. Every day is kind of different. It usually starts the same with prep and show, but some days are different than others. I try to go to the gym so I don’t get really fat just being stuck in my apartment all day, and call my family, check in with my friends, and follow the news cycle throughout the day because you never know when a big breaking news story is going to happen. So when it does happen, I kind of want to be ready and be prepared to start getting my thoughts on what I’m going to say about it the next day. It kind of goes back to the whole ‘you’re never really not prepping, even when you’re not on the air’ kind of thing. You’re never really off, if that makes sense. 

Definitely. I’m not one for five- or ten-year plans; they’ve always made me so stressed out. But what do you still want to do? Where do you see yourself?

I would like to continue to follow along the path I’m on, continue to grow the audience for the show I have, continue to connect with different people in the business that could become friends and could become people that I get to know that come on the show and provide great content to the listeners. I love the sports media field; I don’t think that I’m always going to say, “Oh, I’m just going to do radio and that’s it.” I’m always open to other opportunities on top of doing the radio show which I love doing every day. I’m very happy with where I’m at. I’m thankful to be working and I’m always trying to just stay informed and stay ready for whatever pops up next along the way, because you’re right. You talk about a five- or a ten- year plan, especially in the industry I’m in, and it’s so sporadic that you never know what’s going to happen and how things with technology can change the business. Twenty years ago, you would think the newspaper writer would always be the number one thing in sports media, and now it’s obviously changing with blogs and podcasts. I couldn’t tell you what the future holds; I just hope to be working in sports media, doing what I love, and getting an opportunity to interact with viewers or listeners every day. 

I love your positivity. I’ve learned so much from you, even from watching from afar. I think you inspire people to go after what they love while having a great attitude at the same time, you know? I’m sure it gets hard, but your gratitude for what you do is so infectious.

Thank you. I think gratitude is a great word. I’ve said this a couple times, but at the end of the day, I’m being paid to talk about a cheating scandal that happened with the Houston Astros, or why the team I root for in football – the New York Jets – can never consistently win games. So, at the end of the day it beats having a very serious job or working at a desk and having a 9-to-5.

I never saw myself as someone that could be in finance or on Wall Street or being a doctor or a lawyer. This is something I’ve always felt passionate about, and I’m very lucky because I know so many people want to get into sports media, but not everyone can get a break and breakthrough.

I’m just appreciative of the opportunity and it always could be worse for someone else, so I’ve always tried to remind myself that and just go about each day and try and make it as good of a day as possible, right? 

Right. By the way, that cheating scandal was really something.

It’s unbelievable. Just, every day there’s something else that has a lasting fallout of what happened. And because of the pandemic, there’s no fans in the stands so when the Astros do go on the road, they can’t be booed by opposing teams’ fans. It’s ironic that none of the players were suspended for the incident in what MLB themselves called ‘a player-driven scandal.’ However the player on the Dodgers the other night that tried to throw out one of the Astros players got suspended for eight games and that’s eight more games than any single Astro player was suspended for being involved in what is one of the craziest cheating scandals that baseball has ever had. I mean, we’ve never seen a team install a secret camera in center field and in real time, know what pitch is coming by banging on a trash can. I mean, it’s an unbelievable story and living here through that has just been kind of wild.

I bet. And I have to ask: what’s your favorite sports story? 

I think in our country’s history, one of the most sentimental sports moments we’ve had is the Miracle on Ice in Lake Placid at the Olympics in 1980. They made the movie “Miracle” about it, obviously. If any of your readers haven’t seen it, it’s one of my favorite sports movies, if not my favorite sports movie. I’ve always wondered what it would be like if I got a chance to watch that game live, so that’s my favorite sports moment of all time. As a fan of the Yankees, the only championship I’ve seen them win where I’m conscious and can remember and was a real fan, was 2009. None of my teams have won championships in my lifetime that I can recall, besides the Yankees. On a personal note, the Yankees winning in ’09 was huge for me, and I hope that one day the Jets can win their first Super Bowl in fifty years, the Knicks can win their NBA title in fifty years, and the Islanders can win their first title since the early eighties. I don’t root for a lot of winning teams besides the Yankees, so personal favorite story is the 2009 championship. 

Lastly, because we are going through such a difficult and weird time right now, what is it about sports? They have the power to unify, to bring people together, to connect to people in a way that movies or other stories can’t. What is it about sports? 

Sports are so great because it provides an escape from the real world. For a few hours you can watch a game and forget about the stress of life and be entertained. Sports can unite people like no other form of entertainment can and I’m so happy we actually have plenty to watch again! 

seven questions with jake asman:

I can’t go a day without… Chipotle.

Everyone should watch… Saving Private Ryan. 

I watched it for the first time during quarantine and I can’t believe it took me so long to finally see it. Incredible acting and directing by everyone involved. 

Life is better with a little… having your family and friends around to support you.

Everyone in their 20s should… try and experience as much life as possible. If you’re deciding between staying in or going out to meet some friends, go out and challenge yourself to be social. Try to enjoy life to the fullest.

One insider thing to do in Houston… try either Houston-style barbeque or Houston Tex-Mex food. Some of the restaurants here for barbeque or Mexican food are just outstanding. I’m from New York so I love pizza and bagels and whatnot, and that’s the one thing Houston doesn’t have over New York, but as far as Tex-Mex and unbelievable barbeque, I don’t think there’s a better city in the country that has that combo like Houston does.

What the world needs right now is… for everyone to unite and be nice to each other. Treat people the right way. I don’t think we need to make everything a debate or a political issue. Just treat people with respect and show decency to others. Appreciate life because it could always be worse.

One way to spread love is… call or text and check in with the people in your life. I really love the app TimeHop that I’ve had downloaded on my phone for a number of years. It links up with your social media pages and tracks what you did on that given day going back for years. I saw one with someone I haven’t spoken to in a long while where, six years ago, we were on this trip when I worked at a summer camp in Lake Placid. I sent them the photo of us at the ice hockey rink we were at, and it’s a way to check in and say, “Hey, hope all is well, look what came up on my TimeHop.” That’s what I do for a lot of my friends. Stay in touch with the people you care about. Checking in with your friends and family goes a long way.

Be sure to tune into The Jake Asman Show weekdays from 9am-11am Eastern on SportsMapRadio.com. You can follow him on Twitter and Instagram, and don’t forget to check out his YouTube channel, too.

All photos courtesy of Jake Asman.