Ruling Sports

Sophie Cunningham is a six-year WNBA veteran who has played her entire career for the Phoenix Mercury after being drafted out of the University of Missouri in 2019. As the WNBA skyrockets in viewership, attendance and popularity, Sophie joins to discuss: The competitive advantage she's gained working with a sport psychologist and the percentage of WNBA players who are turning to professionals...

Jay Dixon played NCAA Division I football at the University of Nevada and pursued an MBA at Columbia University. He is a three-time founder and author of, "After the Game: Bridging the Gap from Winning Athlete to Thriving Entrepreneur." In this episode, Jay discusses: How he navigated the loss of his athletic identity following the end of his football playing career; How his experience i...

Bailey Moody is a member of Team USA Women's Wheelchair Basketball who won bronze in the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games and will compete in the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games. She is also a 4x wheelchair basketball national champion at the University of Alabama, who recently graduated with a degree in Psychology. In this episode, Bailey discusses: How basketball became her first love and her pathway...

A highly decorated track and field and football athlete turned attorney, Lee Hutton is currently the Commissioner of the Arena Football League. Notably, Lee is the first Black commissioner to spearhead a professional sport league in the United States. In this episode, Lee discusses: How his path through athletics prepared him for a successful career in law; How he navigated racism in the legal fie...

Trigger warning: This episode discusses suicidal ideation. Phil Heath is a seven-time Mr. Olympia champion, winning seven straight titles from 2011 through 2017, tying him with Arnold Schwarzenegger for the second-most Mr. Olympia wins of all-time. Recently, he released his first documentary film, "Breaking Olympia: The Phil Heath Story" from Universal Pictures Content Group. In this epi...

Dev Sethi is the Chief Operating Officer of Athletes.org, known as "AO," which is a players association for college athletes that is working to give them a seat at the table with college athletics leaders. Before this role, Dev carved a path cutting across the sport and technology landscapes, working for companies including YouTube, Instagram, Meta and more. In this episode, Dev discusse...

In 2023, 14% of Americans played pickleball at least once, according to data from the Association of Pickleball Professionals and YouGov. Despite growing interest in pickleball and other paddle sports, to date, there hasn’t been a gathering uniting consumers with all racquet sports. Today's guest is changing that. Robyn Duda is the co-founder of RacquetX, a world-class festival of thought, con...

A career in sports is a dream for many, but how do you break in to the hyper competitive industry? Once you’re in, how do you move up and get promoted? As the President of Nolan Partners, guest Chad Biagini is part of an executive search firm that has helped place close to 1,000 senior executives across all segments of the sport industry. In this episode, Chad shares: The skill to focus on if you...

Jori Davis is a former WNBA player who competed in FIBA basketball in a number of countries and played NCAA Women's Basketball at the University of Indiana where she was All-Big Ten and scored over 1,000 points. Today, she is the founder and CEO of WEVOLV, an app that provides professional athletes with contract analysis, salary benchmarking and agent matchmaking. In this episode, we discuss:...

Zach Neal is an MLB Pitcher who most recently played for theOakland Athletics. Drafted in 2010 out of the University of Oklahoma, Zach didn’t make his Major League debut until 2016. In the six long years leading to that moment, Zach worked his way through Minor League Baseball, navigating not only new assignments, but new homes and team cultures. In this episode, Zach gives us a great glimpse into...

Fraser McConnell is a professional race car driver who competes in Nitrocross and in 2023 competed in Extreme E for Lewis Hamilton's X44 team. He is the most competitively successful Jamaican driver in the history of international rallycross racing and has attained notable wins early in his career. In this episode, Fraser discusses: How a stubborn mindset has allowed him to achieve seemingly u...

David Adelman is a partner in Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, which owns and operates the Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Devils. An entrepreneur and active investor, since the age of 25 David has served as the CEO of Campus Apartments, one of the nation's largest providers of on- and off-campus student housing. He is also the co-founder and vice chairman of FS Investments, a lead...

Toni Breidinger is a trailblazing American racecar driver who has made significant strides in the world of motorsports. Toni is known not only for her speed on the track, but for breaking barriers in a traditionally male-dominated sport. Starting her career in go-karting, she made history in 2016 as the first woman to win a United States Auto Club race. Today, she competes in the ARCA Menards Seri...

Laila Ali is the most successful female in the history of women's boxing. A four-time undefeated boxing world champion, Laila amassed a 24-0 career record, including 21 knockouts. Despite being the daughter of the late, great Muhammad Ali, Laila didn't learn about women's boxing until 18-years-old. When she began pursuing the sport, the person who objected the most was her father. In t...

A former minor league professional baseball player who played NCAA DI baseball at Rice University, Bobby Bramhall successfully navigated life after the game to blaze an impressive trail in business. Today, Bobby is an attorney, the co-founder of Athlete Licensing Company and a successful real estate entrepreneur who owns rental properties, a glamping location and wedding venue. Drawing on his path...

Darleen Santore, known professionally as Coach Dar, is a board certified occupational therapist, CEO, author and keynote speaker. Through her work blending psychology, life experience and her personal mission to inspire greatness, Coach Dar helps professional athletes, corporate executives and individuals achieve their loftiest goals. Recently releasing her first book, “The Art of Bouncing Back: F...

A broadcaster for over two decades, Jen Mueller is currently the Seattle Seahawks' radio sideline reporter and a member of the Seattle Mariners television broadcast team on ROOT Sports. The founder of Talk Sporty to Me, a company that provides training and consultation services for personal and business communications, Jen is also the author of three books on effective communication: "Tal...

Brooke Singer is a professional football player, model and fashion designer. A sport obsessed child, Brooke grew up playing soccer in her home state of Ohio. One of four children, Brooke watched her older brother play football and her father, a doctor, treat numerous football athletes. As a girl, she longed for the opportunity to play. However, she was told by the local coach that girls don't...

Kirsty Coventry is a seven-time Olympic medalist who competed in five Olympic Games and holds five swimming world records. Born and raised in Zimbabwe, she competed in NCAA swimming at Auburn University, where she led the women's swim and dive team to three NCAA championships. Inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 2023, Kirsty is also a member of the International Olympic Co...

Nicky Nieves is a member of the Paralympic gold medal winning 2016 U.S. women's national sitting volleyball team. Born without a left hand, Nicky set out to not let being a limb different individual define her. Instead, she adopted a mindset wherein she believed anything was possible--including being a highly competitive traditional athlete--and then went out and achieved it. In this episode,...

Jorge Sanchez is a gold medal winning member of the Team USA Paralympic Wheelchair Basketball Team. At eight years old, Jorge was diagnosed with osteogenic sarcoma, a bone cancer, and faced the tough decision of whether or not to amputate his leg. In this episode, Jorge shares how he made his decision and how a chance encounter led him to wheelchair basketball, which gave him renewed reason to liv...

Rachel Baribeau is a former national sportscaster who was the first woman to host a show on SiriusXM and also holds a vote for the Heisman Trophy. In 2016 following a series of headline incidents negatively portraying college football players and coaches, Rachel realized the industry and sport she loved faced a reckoning. Rather than backing away from a difficult moment, Rachel leaned in and found...

Dr. Mimi Nartey is a former professional soccer player who competed in the 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup for Ghana. Growing up in rural Illinois, Mimi came to love the sport through her father, who was born and raised in Ghana. After contracting malaria while training with the Ghanaian national team in Ghana, Dr. Nartey was inspired to utilize her education to find ways to promote public health....

Gabriel Muratalla, Jr. is a professional boxer who is competing in Overtime Boxing—also known as OTX. Boxing as a featherweight, Gabriel enters the competition with an undefeated record. Uniquely, Gabriel's day job is that of preschool teacher. In this episode, Gabriel discusses: What goes through a boxer's mind entering the ring What’s more important to a boxer’s success: their physical o...

Prince Daniels, Jr. is a former NFL running back turned high performance mentor and author who lives by the mantra, “nothing is impossible unless you truly believe it is.” Prince made it from a walk-on player at Georgia Tech to a starter in the NFL. While in the NFL, he spent time at a monastery to learn how to utilize mindfulness and meditation to gain discipline. In this episode, Prince discusse...