Ask football (sorry, “soccer”) fans what game they wouldn’t dare to miss, and they will all uniformly say the World Cup final.
In 2006, Michael Davies and Roger Bennett were forced to do exactly that. “We were at our homes watching the game, but were yanked out by our wives to get aboard a boat from the South Street Seaport to go to a wedding,” remembers Davies (known to most as Davo). “We found each other in our misery.”
Over the past 10 years, that misery of their first meeting grew into a soccer-related podcast and, now, has fully blossomed into the “Men in Blazers” show on NBC Sports, which airs Mondays at 11 p.m.
From their tiny studio in Soho (called the Panic Room), the pair take a sideways look at the week’s events in the British Premier League — now making global headlines thanks to the 5,000-to-1 long-shot Leicester City team clinching the championship on Monday.
The soccer pals show highlights, poke fun, and bring on guest soccer fans as varied as Will Ferrell, Carmelo Anthony, US Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Drake to join in the discussions and banter.
“We’re the Kathie Lee and Hoda of soccer,” quips Davies, 50.
“But what we do is also a natural expression of our friendship,” he adds. “It’s what we talk about in the pub when we’re drinking.”
The duo, Brit natives who have both lived in the US for more than 20 years, might chat casually, but they’re dressed to kill.
Their sport-jacket look is an homage to American sportscasters of old. “The blazer is their symbol of authority,” explains Bennett, 45. Between them, they have dozens, custom-made by Freemans Sporting Club on the Lower East Side. “We have a linen blend for spring, seersucker for summer, corduroy for fall, and then back to tweed,” Bennett adds. “I have more blazers than I have hair!”
Their cult status mirrors British soccer’s growing popularity, which is peaking with Leicester City’s captivating Cinderella story. The medium-size club was almost demoted to a lower league this time last year for being so bad, only to bounce back with a modestly priced squad to succeed over giant, free-spending clubs such as Manchester City, Manchester United and Chelsea.
Leicester’s story is so romantic, there’s even talk of a movie. Bennett and Davies are tipping Aziz Ansari and Jamie Bell to play the team’s main goal-scorers Riyad Mahrez and Jamie Vardy, respectively. Oddly, they’re suggesting either Tilda Swinton or Kevin Hart to play Claudio Ranieri — the white-haired 64-year-old, Italian-born team coach. But that oddball thinking is part of the soccer buddies’ charm.
“She’s versatile,” reasons Bennett, of his Swinton pick. “And Kevin needs to break out of the comedy mold!”