Fox & Friends is the top-ranked cable news program in the mornings in the United States and the sport of Pickleball has been a popular top of conversation among its three hosts Brian Kilmeade, Steve Doocy and Ainsley Earhardt.
“It is the sport that is sweeping America and you know how much America needs sweeping” said Doocy.
After reporting that Super Bowl champion quarterback Tom Brady was investing into a professional pickleball team, the three hosts discussed that they would like to own a franchise and before a segment on October 20, 2022, further discussed the sport in two segments before ending the show with a seemingly disorganized and confusing pickleball exhibition match on the plaza out near the street in New York City.
Here is the transcript of the conversation between Kilmeade, Doocy and Earhardt before their show-ending pickleball exhibition.
FIRST SEGMENT
Brian Kilmeade: …where I will, for the first time, have a chance to witness and then take part in pickleball. It’s a plastic pickleball. A composite of wooden or paddle. You have a wood paddle, I understand. First played in 1965 in Bainbridge Island, Washington, USA. It took a while to kick in, but now it is the rage of this nation.
Steve Doocy: Well, and in fact, I was down in The Villages a couple of weeks ago, and this weekend I was practicing with my daughter Sally….It is a lot of fun. But The Villages, they’ve got 200 pickleball courts. They are regarded as the mecca of pickleball for the world. And we learned about that like 15 years ago when we were down there doing the show.
Ainsley Earhardt: Now Tom Brady’s buying a franchise.
Steve Doocy: Yeah, I know.
Ainsley Earhardt: A lot of people are looking into that as well. It’s a new sport but it’s a fun sport. A fairly new sport.
Steve Doocy: Well, let me just tell you Ainsley, we might be buying a franchise.
Ainsley Earhardt: I would love a Fox franchise.
Steve Doocy: Because right now you need $50,000 in liquid cash. You need a net worth of $75,000. And $35,000 to start your team. I don’t know if that means jerseys. I don’t know the locker room, chewing gum.
Brian Kilmeade: See, I think you are trying to get to the place where we would play Tom Brady’s team.
Steve Doocy: We would run.
Brian Kilmeade: We would have to be in the same league.
Steve Doocy: Well, let’s be it. Let’s do it.
Brian Kilmeade: It’s up to the league.
Steve Doocy: I’m sure the league will accept us.
Brian Kilmeade: Draymond Green and LeBron James and Tom Brady. How great would that be? I’m sorry guys. I’m a little tense today. Got Tom Brady tonight. I’ve been dying to say that my whole life.
Ainsley Earhardt: You’re not ready to play us? Because he played this past weekend. I played Saturday and Sunday.
Brian Kilmeade: Never played.
Ainsley Earhardt: You’re going to love it.
Brian Kilmeade: But I’m going to be, We have made up the teams. Is this correct?
Ainsley Earhardt: Yes.
Brian Kilmeade: Should we announce it?
Ainsley Earhardt: Yes.
Steve Doocy: Yes.
Ainsley Earhardt: The two of us are playing you and Carly (Shimkus).
Steve Doocy: That’s right.
Ainsley Earhardt: And Janice (Dean) is going to judge with this wonderful pickleball coach.
Steve Doocy: Because Brian, if you remember when we first mentioned this last week when we said we should play each other, you said, “Okay, fine. I’m taking Ted.” You just deserted the two of us. And it’s like, I’m going to take Ted. Ted’s a great tennis player.
Ainsley Earhardt: Carly how you feel? You’re, You’re the second choice.
Carly Shimkus: I am the alternate.
Brian Kilmeade: What happened to Ted?
Steve Doocy: Ted is not playing.
Ainsley Earhardt: Ted is such a good tennis player. That is, you would have the advantage.
Steve Doocy: Yeah. No kidding. What? Carly?
Carly Shimkus: Brian’s smart. I should be second choice.
Steve Doocy: Well, are you wearing heels?
Carly Shimkus: I’ve got my sneakers already to go though. And leggings.
Ainsley Earhardt: Yep.
Carly Shimkus: To be aero-dynamic.
Brian Kilmeade: All right. I’ll wear a leggings too then.
Ainsley Earhardt: We might not play well, but you’ll look good.
Carly Shimkus: That, so That’s right.
Brian Kilmeade: We might, You’re looking at possibly the… You could be in our ownership group, the future owners of a pickleball franchise.
Ainsley Earhardt: I love it.
Brian Kilmeade: Try outs Wednesday at noon.
Steve Doocy: You will, listen-
Ainsley Earhardt: I thought they would be like millions of dollars. We could put our money together and buy a team.
Brian Kilmeade: In two years we’ll sell it for millions.
Steve Doocy: Yeah. Well first you should play it. You haven’t even played it yet. It’s so much fun.
Brian Kilmeade: It goes well I’m buying the team.
Steve Doocy: It’s so easy. Here’s the thing about pickleball. That’s great. You don’t really move.
Ainsley Earhardt: You really don’t.
Brian Kilmeade: Oh really?
Ainsley Earhardt: Although you still have a lot of steps though. Did you check your steps afterwards?
Steve Doocy: No.
Ainsley Earhardt: I did.
Steve Doocy: I didn’t move much. I’m just saying.
Ainsley Earhardt: All right, let’s talk. Should we talk about…
Brian Kilmeade: The last thing I will add is a lot of people wanted to invest in racquetball in the seventies. That was a mistake because no one plays it anymore.
Steve Doocy: Well, that was in the seventies Brian, that was 50 years ago.
Brian Kilmeade: I don’t want to be caught with the only guy with a pickleball rack in five years. It’s a pickleball, no one plays it.
Ainsley Earhardt: I think it’ll be an Olympic sport eventually.
Steve Doocy: Maybe.
Brian Kilmeade: Yeah. Why not?
Ainsley Earhardt: Some of these people are really good.
Steve Doocy: They’re really good.
Ainsley Earhardt: Have you watched any of them online?
Steve Doocy: They’re fantastic.
Ainsley Earhardt: You’ve got to watch the videos.
Steve Doocy:
And we’ve got a professional who’s going to be joining us to give us tips.
Ainsley Earhardt: Yes.
Steve Doocy: And the number one tip. Stay out of the kitchen.
Ainsley Earhardt: The kitchen is the top of the court. We’ll show you.
Steve Doocy: Stay out of the kitchen.
Brian Kilmeade: Really?
Ainsley Earhardt: They call it the kitchen.
Steve Doocy: Unlike what I’ve been saying over the last month, we learn to cook, which is going to the kitchen.
SECOND SEGMENT
Brian Kilmeade The kitchen….It’s a dead zone there.
Steve Doocy That’s the kitchen.
Ainsley Earhardt: Stay out of the kitchen.
Brian Kimeade Yes. Stay out of the kitchen. I feel like who’s on first? All right. So it’s got to bounce in the kitchen.
Ainsley Earhardt: It can bounce in the kitchen.
Steve Doocy: You can’t go in the kitchen. You can’t stand in the kitchen when you are receiving.
Brian Kilmeade: Right.
Steve Doocy: When you’re receiving. Nancy’s going to go over all the rules. Listen, this is so much fun. The reason we started talking about Pickleball a couple of weeks ago was the fact that Tom Brady is getting involved in it. And we want to know more about it. And we know a lot of people out there watching right now because I put up on Instagram a photo of me and my daughter the other day. 10,000 people responded and said, “Hey, We play too, we love it, it’s so much fun”.
Ainsley Earhardt: I played this weekend, I played on Saturday and then it was so much fun. We played again on Sunday and we played doubles. Did y’all play singles or did you play doubles?
Steve Doocy: We played singles.
Ainsley Earhardt: That’s harder.
Steve Doocy: It’s much harder.
Brian Kilmeade: The eye hand coordination for tennis, similar?
Ainsley Earhardt: The problem is, and I do hear once you get really good at Pickleball, your tennis game is effective because the tennis ball, you’re used to it coming to you, right? But you’re basically playing with a wizard ball. You have to go up together because it doesn’t bounce very far.
Brian Kilmeade: So Billie Jean King would not be a good partner?
Steve Doocy: No, I think she would be-
Ainsley Earhardt: She would be great.
Steve Doocy: The main problem I had to acclimate myself to firm tennis is that the racket is so much smaller. You think it’s bigger, but it’s just-
Ainsley Earhardt: I’ll tell you what it was, it was more fun. I love playing tennis. I’m not very good, but I play it a lot and it can be very fast. You walk off the courts and you really get a good workout in this one. It’s so fun. You can just do it with-
Brian Kilmeade: I don’t have to work out after I play. Am I going to have to work out after I play?
Ainsley Earhardt: No, you still get a lot of steps in.
Brian Kilmeade: Okay steps .
Ainsley Earhardt: You’ve never heard, everyone says you have to get 10,000 steps a day?
