Sacred Grounds featuring Robby & Uncle Paulie
May 21, 2026 · 48 min · 15 segments
Former Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald joins Sacred Grounds to talk about the behind-the-scenes process of bringing the NFL Draft to Pittsburgh, the transformation of the city, and why…
Rich FitzgeraldGuestRobby IncmikoskiHost
Paul HoganHostSo Fitz, I always debate topics, right? And they say in broadcasting, "Don't get into, in general, race, religion, politics," 'cause generally i- it only ends up in an argument one way or another.
... what, what I would love to broach with you, and I talked about this at the top of the show, is politics has found its way into sports in every, in, in every facet, right? But years ago, it wasn't always that way, and we're not talking about what anyone's individual politics are.
Just as a whole, why do you think where sports used to be a haven to get away from yelling and screaming at each other, now there is, there is no line of delineation anymore.
Why do you think that is? Just in your observation, being both a sports fan and a guy who's been a mover and shaker politically.
I, I, first of all, I don't know that I would agree that politics have never been in sports.
You know, what, what more of a political thing w- you know, when the civil rights movement, a, a, a post-war era of, uh, a decision that a guy by the name of Branch Rickey had to make, and some of his owners weren't real happy about that.
Um, and you've always had the, the political deal with, um, you know, whether you're using eminent domain to build a stadium in a certain neighborhood or using public money to build a stadium or what, you know, what have you, build the road system that's gonna feed the stadium, all those kind of things.
Um, you know, obviously TV, uh, changed a lot of things in the way the media's been able to fund so many things in, in sports.
So Fitz, I always debate topics, right? And they say in broadcasting, "Don't get into, in general, race, religion, politics," 'cause generally i- it only ends up in an argument one way or another.
... what, what I would love to broach with you, and I talked about this at the top of the show, is politics has found its way into sports in every, in, in every facet, right? But years ago, it wasn't always that way, and we're not talking about what anyone's individual politics are.
Just as a whole, why do you think where sports used to be a haven to get away from yelling and screaming at each other, now there is, there is no line of delineation anymore.
Why do you think that is? Just in your observation, being both a sports fan and a guy who's been a mover and shaker politically.
I, I, first of all, I don't know that I would agree that politics have never been in sports.
You know, what, what more of a political thing w- you know, when the civil rights movement, a, a, a post-war era of, uh, a decision that a guy by the name of Branch Rickey had to make, and some of his owners weren't real happy about that.
Um, and you've always had the, the political deal with, um, you know, whether you're using eminent domain to build a stadium in a certain neighborhood or using public money to build a stadium or what, you know, what have you, build the road system that's gonna feed the stadium, all those kind of things.
Um, you know, obviously TV, uh, changed a lot of things in the way the media's been able to fund so many things in, in sports.
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