Skoal

... it's probably still in the top 10.

I think it's, yeah, it's still a good place to bum a can of Skoal off of somebody, too, I think.

You got it, man.

You know? It's, that's never lost it, man.

Yeah.

In rural parts of Nevada, chewing tobacco, Copenhagen, Skoal.

I got to launch Copenhagen Wintergreen when I was at Altria.

Nice.

Skool is-

I used to chew Skoal I think back in-

[laughs]

... my softball days.

Oh, for sure.

Um, so what are the UNI, uh, pr- program, what do they have for a pre-game? Is there, uh, anything that they do exciting, you know, like the, uh, the Skoal chant or the ro- ro chant that the, uh, U of M now has?

Um, we'll do the Panther walk.

So we will, we'll have t- in the morning we'll have walk throughs, meetings, and then we'll go have a team meal somewhere.

And that is the story of January 1st, 1971, the very last day America sold you a cigarette on television and radio.

Now, because I used to work for a tobacco company, I can tell you there's a reason that you don't see, oh, Skoal or Copenhagen.

They used to do commercials.

You know, "Skoal, I get a pinch between my cheek and gum.

Feels real relaxing in there." That's because at a certain point, the cigarette companies started getting sued by the government, uh, concerning all their advertising, particularly Joe Camel, which they said was aimed at children and all these other things.

So because they didn't wanna get sued, the cigarette companies banded together and if...

So Winston used to sponsor a million things.

Now they could only sponsor one thing.

Oh, I know what you're talking about.

Like, like, like a s- a pocket of Skoal.

Like no, yeah, like a Zin pocket.

Yeah.

I feel like like-

Well, Skoal is the reason that the Zins are shaped that way.

Oh, 100%.

100%.

So when I was a kid, [lips smack] coming to a family that's very dysfunctional, very fragmented, uh, divorced parents, and, um, really experienced a, a cultural duality in that my mom was, uh, very progressive and liberal, born and raised in Berkeley, smoked what we called pot in those days, you know, and, like, listened to, uh, Marvin Gaye and Neil Young, and it was cool.

You know what I mean? Um, burned incense and whatnot, right? And my dad was, like, a staunch Republican, listened to Hank Williams, chewed Skoal, hunted and fished his entire life.

Like, his whole life was about hunting and fishing and just being in the outdoors, and he's a very rugged guy.

He's a rodeo, rodeo star, really, you know.