How the World Cup Turned Adam Friedland Into a Sports Pundit

Throughout the World Cup, comedian Adam Friedland has been hosting The Beautiful Pod with Chris Ryan for The Ringer and Spotify. According to Spotify, the U.S. is now its No. 1 market globally for soccer podcast listening during the tournament, with soccer podcast listening in the U.S. up nearly 400% since the World Cup began.

With the event wrapping up, he spoke to Front Office Sports about how the show came together, his first interaction with Bill Simmons, his envy of Freddy the German tourist, and if he buys into the conspiracy theories that FIFA gave Argentina a favorable draw. 

Front Office Sports: How did this podcast with Spotify and The Ringer come together? 

Adam Friedland: We were talking to Bill [Simmons] and it was floated that they didn’t have a World Cup podcast. So we kind of came up with a loose idea. I’m not sure if it was theirs or ours. It’s all kind of a blur now. But, it’s been so fun—I got to be honest with you. 

FOS: What’s a funny interaction you’ve had with Bill that would make sports fans laugh?

AF: The first time I met him, at the Netflix comedy brunch, we were still negotiating the deal. And I was thinking, really, for the first time in my life, I need the Celtics to win. I think this is the difference for the show to get done. 

So, yeah, they just lost. And so I was like, “Oh, Bill, are you like, are you sitting shiva for the Celtics?” And he’s like [in Simmons’ voice], “Yeah, just still processing things, still talking to my dad. Played Tatum too much. There’s got to be a trade around the horizon.” But I was like, wow, he’s really just like he is in the podcast. 

FOS: On your podcast a few weeks ago, I remember you were talking with Pablo Torre about how you were jealous about all of the attention and engagement [viral German fan] Freddy was getting. Can you believe he threw it all away? [note: this was recorded before Freddy returned to Twitter/X.]

AF: His star, it shone so bright. You know, he’ll be back. I think the deep state has a lot more Freddys where that comes from … it was pretty clear that there was something nefarious going on, but in reality I just wanted to do numbers like Freddy by taking pictures of like a diarrhea sandwich or whatever the fuck he was doing. 

FOS: Now that you’ve gotten a taste of being in the mix with sports, do you think that you’re going to continue to pursue this avenue after the World Cup, which is over at the end of this week? 

AF: Yeah, I can’t say anything for sure right now, but definitely. 

FOS: What other sports are you into besides soccer? 

AF: I don’t know. I like the NBA. At this point, I kind of watch soccer the most, though, which is surprising. 

It’s a lame American thing to be, right? I think in England, I’ve been told that there are English guys that are like that, where the NFL guys are just like thought of as the biggest losers on Earth. But yeah, you don’t want to be like one that’s like, “Actually [Switzerland’s] Breel Embolo was on a yellow card, you know, and he was risking a second…” You don’t want to be that guy. 

I would say for a long time [being a soccer-first fan] was like kind of like how gay guys were in the 1950s. It was like you’re meeting other confirmed bachelors, but we’re kind of really very much in the closet about, you know, our passion for the game. But now, it seems like it’s really like taking hold in the States. I really hope that’s true. Even beyond the USMNT, I think it’s really taking hold. 

FOS: What does it look like at the club level, America being really into soccer? Is it EPL, Champions League, all the other European leagues? Can MLS get any of the spillage from this? 

AF: From what I understand, Liga MX gets higher viewership in the United States than does the MLS. 

FOS: Their games are on actual TV, and the MLS is streaming on AppleTV+ now with occasional simulcasts.

AF: I think that’s true. You know, it’s really a matter of the distribution deals that they have going on. Because I have Peacock and Paramount+, I can get every single Prem- and Champions League game. Obviously, the popularity is contingent on the availability, right? I used to have to go to websites called, like, “You’reDefinitelyGettingAVirus.ru” to watch Reading versus Arsenal like in the second round of the League Cup or some bullshit. 

Now obviously, it’s so accessible and available. I’m an Arsenal supporter and I think, oddly enough, their support base in the United States is the largest out of any team. It’s just strange ’cause we suck and we’ve sucked for a long time [laughs] and it’s been painful to support them.

I think a lot of people want to say it’s leftwing-coded to like soccer, liberal-coded to like soccer? I think it’s more demographically determined. I think younger people just like to watch sports that they have had available. So now with the content distribution deals globally, you can get these games way easier. 

FOS: That’s definitely a good point, where a lot of the NFL, NBA, MLB, and big college conference fans don’t like the way that this has all fragmented. But on the other side of that coin, it’s made it where you can watch every EPL game without going to You’reDefinitelyGettingAVirus.ru. 

AF: Yeah, precisely. 

FOS: What do you make of the conspiracy theory that the soccer deep state wanted Argentina to get to the final four and laid out this path for them? 

AF: I think a lot of it’s overblown. I don’t know. There were six Argentine refs in the French match. That probably would be the favorite in the tournament [before losing to Spain]. I didn’t see them get any disagreeable calls. Beyond that, I think that it’s just a determination of people not really understanding the rules. Like Embolo, it was a yellow. I’m sorry, and it sucks because they were coming back in that match, and they were beginning to dominate that match. 

There is a tendency now to view any result that you don’t like [as a conspiracy]. It’s like a January 6th kind of thing. Any result I don’t like has to be the product of some sort of nefarious conspiracy theory instead of like, “Yeah, FIFA’s always been corrupt.” In fact, they literally used to send Kissinger into the Peru locker room and tell them that Argentina needed to win by four goals to make the final.

FOS: Pivoting here, comedians are famously difficult to make laugh. Who are the comedians that succeed in making you laugh? 

AF: Charles Barkley? 

FOS: What is it about him? 

AF: He’s the best. He’s the funniest guy in the world. I mean, I do think that Inside the NBA is probably better than any comedy show they’ve ever made. 

FOS: You once talked about how your dad threatened to sue you for going into comedy instead of becoming a lawyer. Do you ever say, “Hey dad, I was on a podcast called Cum Town, ever heard of it?”

AF: On the name. I think he told me like, “Do you think a woman is ever going to marry a cum boy?” 

FOS: But for real, you have succeeded probably beyond what your wildest imaginations were when you embarked on this path. Do you ever kind of revisit that and say, like, you know, if I was a lawyer, that would really suck? 

AF: Yeah, I would be a terrible lawyer, and beyond being successful in comedy, my client would be screwed. I think I would miss a punctuation mark and someone would literally get the death penalty. 

What you find out is actually being a lawyer is being way more of a worksheets kid. I was like more of—I liked history and I thought it was all about giving an inspirational speech or something in a very naive way. 

So yeah, I think I’m quite lucky. I have a lot of gratitude for the opportunities that I’ve had in my life. It’s really a very unfair world, especially in comedy. I know so many people that are so talented that just haven’t been given the same opportunities. 

FOS: You’re on all of these social media platforms, audio podcasts, YouTube, etc. How do you draw the line between  making sure your stuff is getting wide reach and then not pandering to tech overlords and just obsessing over the stats how every little morsel does? 

AF: I don’t know, you pay like 23-year-olds to do it for you. Pretty much, I don’t really understand any of the buttons or the wires at this point. I’m like a grandma. I had one of my employees help me with the iPad the other day to use the airdrop. 

It’s cool. I’m in a position where I just get to think about the jokes. I very rarely have, like, infrastructure on me. I can kind of sort out all the other things that I’m ill-equipped to manage.