Denver legend Vic Lombardi joins Justin Simmons and Louie Romero for Episode 2 of ‘The Weekly Cut.’ Vic shares stories from his decades in sports media, reflects on Denver’s rise into one of the best sports cities in America, and breaks down why the Nuggets are judged only by postseason success. The conversation dives into media responsibility, athlete criticism, locker room dynamics, and what it really means to “tell the truth” in sports. Plus, Vic opens up about his upbringing in North Denver, his path into broadcasting, and why curiosity is the foundation of a long career.
Denver native and longtime sports broadcaster Vic Lombardi joins Justin Simmons and Louie Romero on ‘The Weekly Cut’ for a wide-ranging conversation that blends sports, media, and personal storytelling. Vic reflects on growing up in North Denver, learning English as a child of immigrants, and how curiosity led him into a decades-long broadcasting career. He breaks down why the Denver Nuggets are built for postseason success, calling this era the “golden age” of Nuggets basketball, and explains how Denver has evolved into one of the best sports towns in America.
The conversation also explores the realities of sports media — from being honest about players and teams to navigating criticism in the social media era — while Justin shares perspective from the locker room side. Vic offers insight into maintaining credibility, drawing the line between criticism and personal attacks, and why injuries should never be used to question a player’s character. The episode rounds out with lighter moments on fashion, grooming, and the importance of presentation in media, along with stories about Denver’s changing culture and community.
00:00 – Intro + Vic Lombardi introduction & career accolades
02:10 – Growing up in North Denver & local roots
04:01 – Nuggets outlook: why the season starts in the playoffs
05:28 – The “golden era” of Nuggets basketball
08:09 – Vic’s upbringing, immigrants & learning English
09:21 – First exposure to sports & football beginnings
11:22 – Why sports unite people more than anything else
12:06 – Denver as the best sports town in America
15:07 – Broncos history & shaping Denver’s sports identity
16:12 – Justin Simmons on Broncos tenure & playoff perspective
20:39 – Media narratives, locker room reality & fan perception
22:03 – Social media, trolls & athlete/media dynamics
23:46 – Responsibility of media: truth vs relationships
25:04 – Injuries, criticism & respecting athletes
25:51 – Longevity in media & staying motivated
27:02 – Training camp fatigue & storytelling evolution
28:08 – Community impact: second chances & barber culture
31:04 – Vic Lombardi, grooming & personal style
34:50 – Presentation, confidence & media professionalism
36:27 – Best dressed athletes & fashion in sports
37:44 – Jokic haircut story & behind-the-scenes moments
40:44 – Suits, style & evolving personal image
44:43 – Closing thoughts on Denver, community & growth
46:27 – Outro
‘The Weekly Cut’ is sponsored in part by: American Lore by Parker Thomas.
Visit American Lore at 3965 Tennyson St, Denver, CO 80212
Or online at AmericanLore.com
And in part by: R&R Head Labs
Visit RRHeadLabs.com to learn more.
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Justin Simmons
What's going on, everyone? Welcome back to the Weekly Cut. I am one of your co-host, Justice Simmons here and accompanied by my other co-host Louis Romero, his favorite barber, your favorite friend. And we.
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Vic Lombardi
Have today for you.
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Justin Simmons
All, a special, special guest, what I would call Denver legend in and of itself. Now let's see if you guys can guess a few of the things I'm going to rattle off. Join Altitude Sports and 2016. He's the studio host for the pregame, halftime, and post-game broadcast of the Denver Nuggets. I already gave it away. Vick Lombardi comes to Altitude Sports with more than 25 years of experience.
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Justin Simmons
I don't even know if you knew this, Louis. Listen to this. 32 time Emmy Award winner.
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Louie Romero
Did not know that the guy.
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Justin Simmons
Sitting next to you, 16 for best sports anchor and voted 2018 Colorado sportscaster of the year, is a University of Colorado graduate and also graduated from the University of Notre Dame. He resides in Denver, Colorado, and we're actually in his neck of the woods. So we're going to ask Vick. First of all, thank you so much for joining the show.
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Vic Lombardi
I can't tell you how excited I am, with one of the most respected athletes I've ever come across, I appreciate that. And a man who is Nikola Jokic is super power. Hey. So I mean so you affect my livelihood. Just so you know I appreciate it. Love. It is an honor and privilege. When I found out you guys were doing this I was like, really?
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Vic Lombardi
You want to talk to me? Let's do.
00:01:42:13 - 00:01:49:23
Justin Simmons
It. Are you kidding me? Who wouldn't want to talk to Vick when they come back after reading that? I didn't even know that. And so I look that up about you. That is impressive.
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Vic Lombardi
It means I'm old. It means I've been around a long time. I mean, you've been around a long time, Justin. Things sort of happened, so.
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Justin Simmons
Yeah, they.
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Vic Lombardi
Just happen it. Yeah. Well, you know, you work hard and it's funny that you're doing this year. You mentioned it. We're here in the in in North Denver. I call it North Denver. I don't call it the Highlands. I don't give it these fancy names since this is North Denver Lewis you know. So I grew up literally three blocks from where we're doing this.
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Vic Lombardi
And I went to school two blocks from where we're doing this. This was my hood. This is my home. That's so. So the fact that you guys, when you said you were doing it from here, I was like, hell yeah, let's go.
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Justin Simmons
I love that you pulled up and you and I want to I don't want to get.
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Vic Lombardi
My best.
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Justin Simmons
For the best, but that's.
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Vic Lombardi
Perfect for, you know.
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Justin Simmons
We love that. Okay, so we wanted to ask you before we jump right into Vic Lombardi, who you are, what you do, why you been doing it? We're in American law hat. Our custom hat shop. Parker Thomas who? You know, you spoke highly of his football career. He's a great hat maker. This used to be.
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Justin Simmons
And it's a really good Italian.
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Vic Lombardi
It did it did it was called Bulgaria for the longest time. Well, not long time, because there have been many different establishments that have come through here over the years. Yeah. You know, way back then, all of these, these places, a long Tennyson were broken down warehouses. Some of them were just handy stores. Some of them were. I didn't know what was here when I was growing up.
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Vic Lombardi
Yeah. And now, years later, they become established places where you're selling hats, you're selling liquor, you're selling restaurants, coffee, everything. So Parker's done a great job. And these hats. I have one of these hats. They're awesome. Right? Proud of him. And, you know, I told you before we started this, Parker Arms was one of the best high school football players I have ever seen.
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Vic Lombardi
And I'm not just saying that because, yeah, he's from the West side, Wheat Ridge. Because he was. He was an amazing football player.
00:03:36:14 - 00:03:45:04
Justin Simmons
Man, we love that. You know what? We'll have to come back. And I want to hear you tell this story with him. Sure. Present. Yeah. And we'll have to come back here and I'll.
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Vic Lombardi
Make him blush.
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Justin Simmons
That's right, that's right. Maybe get another hat. Just come kick it and hang out for a little bit. But this is an absolute honor getting to have you on the show you touched on earlier with Louis. Man, we want to know real quick before we dip in a little bit more about you. What are your thoughts?
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Justin Simmons
Right. And this could be a very broad question, I know, but what are your thoughts right now on the nuggets? I personally.
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Vic Lombardi
Yeah.
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Justin Simmons
I think they're a scary team. I think they're getting healthy now. I think the only downside is that they didn't have a lot of continuity throughout the season. But am I am I off on that today?
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Vic Lombardi
I think this is a team. Justin and Louis, as you well know, because they want to get to the playoffs. This is when the season starts for them. Yeah, there's a lot of veterans that have been through the rigors of a regular season. So like the Spurs, for example, the Spurs are playing kick ass basketball. Yeah. That's a young up and coming team that's still trying to prove itself.
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Vic Lombardi
They take every game seriously. They go 100 every game. Yeah I'm not saying the nuggets don't go 100. They've had injuries. But I think the season for them really starts in the postseason. And that's when I'm going to evaluate them properly. Right now it's hard to evaluate. You could see it in their eyes. They've been there. They've done that.
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Vic Lombardi
Let's go. Yeah. For them it starts in April.
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Justin Simmons
Yeah. It's just the postseason. Yeah. They're trying to get yeah no doubt.
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Louie Romero
Yeah it's really how bad do you want it I feel like you know we're almost there what 7 or 8 games. Something like that left. But every game it's exciting for fans just because every game feels like a playoff game right now.
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Vic Lombardi
Bro. I mean, you know, you grew up here, you know that. I mean, this is the golden era of nuggets basketball. Absolutely. People don't understand I mean, it was never like this before. I mean, they had great teams but never a team that is a contender for a championship on a year in, year out basis. Now, if you want to stay up there, you got to do certain thing in the postseason and that's where they're going to be.
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Vic Lombardi
They're not to be measured in February, March in it. Nobody cares. You're going to be measured in April and May. Yeah.
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Justin Simmons
Love that.
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Louie Romero
Love that. Well, good time for a nuggets basketball. And, yeah, I'm just excited as a fan and, Pleasure.
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Vic Lombardi
And are you from here?
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Louie Romero
Yes. I'm from West Denver, which is what I said about first and said, oh, my, my, my older siblings went to West High School. Yeah. I grew up and I went to Lakewood High School.
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Vic Lombardi
Oh, you went to the suburbs? He's he's an elitist man. Right. The local schools. 202 before. It's all right. I get that all the time. I should have on the north. And I went to Holy Family. Oh, there. Yeah.
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Louie Romero
Oh that's awesome. But, no, my my mother, being a Denver native myself, my mother went to Manual High School. My dad went to us. That's great. And, I know, man, even just being in North Denver here, you're a staple in the community legend. Even though we may not know each other on a personal level, I feel like, you know, watching you for years on TV and everything.
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Louie Romero
It feels like we're still your family. Like you're the uncle or the cousin or something.
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Vic Lombardi
Louie. That makes me feel great. I mean, is is a fellow native. There aren't many of us around. I mean, all these transplants like Justin that come in here. I can understand why you want to live here, but, Hey, hey. Well.
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Justin Simmons
I'm a I'm a Colorado.
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Vic Lombardi
I know I'm for the years.
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Justin Simmons
How many years? Ten years now. All right.
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Vic Lombardi
See, here's why I love guys like Justin. So many people that come in, play in Colorado, you know, so mean, end up staying here.
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Justin Simmons
I actually said, I take it back now. Don't don't take it back. I said when I first got here after like year three, I'm like, I don't know why people retire here because at that point, like, you know, T.J. Ward had went on and played with the bucks and he still had a place here. Derek Wolfe, I think, was transition to play with Baltimore.
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Justin Simmons
He was going to stay here. Peyton Manning stayed here. Yeah. And I'm like, I don't get it. I don't see it. You know, seven years later you.
00:07:05:18 - 00:07:06:09
Vic Lombardi
Have a family.
00:07:06:09 - 00:07:06:19
Justin Simmons
And then I have.
00:07:06:19 - 00:07:22:08
Vic Lombardi
A family. Yeah. Danila Gallinari just came to town about a month ago and he's begging his wife he wants to move back here. But she is from an island in Sardinia. So she wants to live in Miami near the water. But he desperately wants to move back to Denver. This is where he wants to make home.
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Justin Simmons
It's a it's a it's truly a one on one place. We touched on that last, last week when we spoke. It was just like, we're.
00:07:28:06 - 00:07:31:23
Louie Romero
Just we have everything, but we're just missing the beach, man. That's how I feel. You know, good weather.
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Vic Lombardi
Claims are for.
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Justin Simmons
Yeah, right. There you go. That's our bad. Yeah. Okay, we got it. Let's transition a little bit. You want to talk a little bit more? Like, personally, you feel like you're always behind the camera or I mean, in front of the camera, doing the interviews, asking people why they do this, why this is so cool. This is a cool passion.
00:07:49:20 - 00:07:58:14
Justin Simmons
Obviously, breaking down sports for so long. The credentials speak for themselves. Why do you love doing what you do? Did you see the kid.
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Vic Lombardi
That was.
00:07:58:22 - 00:08:09:17
Justin Simmons
Riding round down the dangerous streets of tennis and growing up? Why? Like, did you always have that vision of wanting to be a sports broadcaster, or was it you was like meeting people?
00:08:09:17 - 00:08:24:21
Vic Lombardi
And it's a great question. Yeah, I'm in the process of writing a book, and it's very difficult to write a book because I didn't know what to write about. Yeah, I don't want to make it necessarily all about me. I want to make it about why I chose the path I chose and, and and into the core. It's because of this.
00:08:24:23 - 00:08:44:19
Vic Lombardi
I'm the son of immigrants that came from a foreign country, and I didn't speak English until I was seven, eight years old. So when I was a kid in kindergarten, went to kindergarten about two blocks from here with the Holy Family. I didn't speak English till I got to maybe second, third grade. Sister Rita taught me how to speak English, so I think my reasoning is to.
00:08:44:23 - 00:09:04:21
Vic Lombardi
I was a genuinely curious kid. Curiosity. I wanted to know more about this, about that. And when I, went to my first football practice, my mom and dad were cleaning out a school in North Denver. They were janitors, you know, they were immigrants. They worked whatever they could. They were janitors. They were cleaning out of a school called Horace Mann.
00:09:04:23 - 00:09:21:09
Vic Lombardi
And I went with them, and I think I was six years old at the time. And I'm watching these kids with these uniforms and helmets, and they're playing the sport. I'm like, what is going on? And I told my mom at the time, I want to do that. And so they went there every day and they asked the coach if I could play, and they let me play on the team.
00:09:21:09 - 00:09:32:05
Vic Lombardi
And that was my introduction to sports, and it was basically out of genuine curiosity. And that's to this day I'm curious. And that's and I think most people that get into this business, that's the number one.
00:09:32:05 - 00:09:33:04
Justin Simmons
Reason is they're curious.
00:09:33:05 - 00:09:33:21
Vic Lombardi
Yeah.
00:09:33:22 - 00:09:37:13
Justin Simmons
I didn't hear that right. So football was football.
00:09:37:13 - 00:09:39:12
Vic Lombardi
Was my favorite sport. My first sport.
00:09:39:16 - 00:09:40:03
Justin Simmons
Versus oh.
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Vic Lombardi
Is your favorite sport. My first thought oh yeah. Rough ride. I played for the local Police Athletic league. They don't have that anymore. Do you remember that valley? Yeah. Yeah.
00:09:49:08 - 00:09:49:15
Justin Simmons
That's the.
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Vic Lombardi
Thing. Oh, yeah. That's the. That was the big. Oh yeah, it was big bad man.
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Justin Simmons
So it wasn't Pop Warner or like I that's what I grew up playing.
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Vic Lombardi
Oh no. Oh no I was just like Pop Warner okay. Yeah. I mean, the former mayor, I used to play against him who were the same age. Oh, no. John Mike Hancock. Okay. He played for the Pirates.
00:10:04:16 - 00:10:05:21
Louie Romero
I got it, I got it.
00:10:06:00 - 00:10:24:15
Vic Lombardi
Oh, I told him all the time, but when he came around the edge. So. So football was my indoctrination into sports. Man. And I loved it. I lived it just. And I couldn't have enough of it. You know in your in grade school and we played for the Catholic League I think. So I went to Holy Family, my greatest achievement in organized sports.
00:10:24:15 - 00:10:32:09
Vic Lombardi
I'm not like you. I didn't have the genetics to do more than that. But my greatest achievement in eighth grade we won the Catholic eighth Grade League.
00:10:32:10 - 00:10:33:05
Louie Romero
Oh, there we go.
00:10:33:05 - 00:10:48:03
Vic Lombardi
And it was intense, man. You know, we're playing some of the teams we're in. We want it. And I'm thinking myself I'm going to be professional football player. Yeah that's right. And then and then I got to ninth grade I said shit, I that ain't going to happen. Yeah I better start reading a little bit.
00:10:48:05 - 00:10:54:21
Louie Romero
Yeah, I was, I was comparable to you, Vic sense that, you know, I got to, I think my sophomore, junior year, I just kind of quit growing up. Yeah.
00:10:54:23 - 00:10:57:07
Vic Lombardi
Still hope I never grow, I never know.
00:10:57:07 - 00:11:00:01
Louie Romero
Well, we're on the same page. One on the same page?
00:11:00:03 - 00:11:00:14
Vic Lombardi
Yeah.
00:11:00:16 - 00:11:06:16
Justin Simmons
That's actually insane. I didn't know that football was like your your baby. That was your number.
00:11:06:16 - 00:11:22:07
Vic Lombardi
One, you know? And that's American in a nutshell too, right? You come to this country. My parents didn't know anything about sports, about football. And now they're passionate Broncos fans. My mom and dad don't miss a Broncos game. Don't miss a game. They don't miss. And then you nothing about it. Because sports is one of the few things we have.
00:11:22:07 - 00:11:42:02
Vic Lombardi
And the reason I get into sports and not news or weather is because sports, unlike anything we do, brings all walks of life to get so good. Everybody. Yeah, you know, it does it more than religion. It doesn't mean everybody has different religion. You just endeavors. Everybody has. But but sports is the same. Yeah. Sports at a parade.
00:11:42:02 - 00:11:45:06
Vic Lombardi
Everybody's from a different walk of life. And duty is sports.
00:11:45:06 - 00:12:06:08
Justin Simmons
That's really good. That's really good. And you touched on it earlier this week. We talked about this a lot. This is the obviously for nuggets basketball. But I would even argue especially now that Denver's the Broncos are coming back. You know we'll talk about the Rockies in a little bit. But this is kind of like the golden age of the big.
00:12:06:10 - 00:12:07:16
Justin Simmons
It is really. It's the best.
00:12:07:16 - 00:12:28:16
Vic Lombardi
Sports town in America, Justin. I mean, we have every major sport and every major sport has won at some level, even the Rockies, when they went to the World Series, we sell out everything. Yeah. You know, we just had a women's soccer game here. That was it's set. So record by the way, and I'm watching that game. I watch the whole game and I'm looking at the stadium and I'm saying, God, who would have ever imagined this?
00:12:28:21 - 00:12:35:15
Vic Lombardi
Only in Denver, Colorado. You put it as you put a sporting event in the city. Yeah. It's going to be you're going to have people to support it.
00:12:35:15 - 00:12:48:08
Justin Simmons
Yeah, I agree, that's so cool. And I saw one of the star players for and I gotta, I gotta get better with knowing the names. Know that that's going to be another staple here. Well this star players for the summit the next day went to the nuggets game and she was the nuggets.
00:12:48:08 - 00:12:56:12
Vic Lombardi
She was there. Up up pickle. Oh I forgot her last name. So to the team it starts with the Picard I can't remember her name but I know exactly what you're talking about.
00:12:56:14 - 00:13:01:14
Justin Simmons
I just I'm like yeah, that dude that speaks yes to sports fandom in Denver.
00:13:01:14 - 00:13:12:14
Vic Lombardi
You're at all the nuggets games I love. I see, I see, I see that's just in the beauty of Justin. And guys like you is you show up with these games because you just want to watch the game.
00:13:12:17 - 00:13:17:10
Justin Simmons
That's the beauty of it. Those guys are so fun to watch. Basketball was my first love very much.
00:13:17:10 - 00:13:17:22
Vic Lombardi
Basketball.
00:13:17:22 - 00:13:29:08
Justin Simmons
Body. I. I loved basketball like I thought I was going to be when I was a point guard. Okay. But when you're six three and South Florida in high school, I was a point guard. But my coach is like, you're our center.
00:13:29:08 - 00:13:31:03
Vic Lombardi
So the six three center.
00:13:31:03 - 00:13:31:13
Justin Simmons
Is not going to.
00:13:31:13 - 00:13:32:13
Vic Lombardi
Work. If you have any handle.
00:13:32:16 - 00:13:33:05
Justin Simmons
I do.
00:13:33:07 - 00:13:33:11
Vic Lombardi
Okay.
00:13:33:13 - 00:13:51:08
Justin Simmons
But not good enough to I had a as small D1 offers FSU would have been Florida Atlantic would have been my best one. And they look at the development like all these kids athletic. He can do x, y, z. So we could develop them. But at that point I already chose Boston College. You go to school and all that wrote it.
00:13:51:08 - 00:13:52:21
Justin Simmons
So did you play sports?
00:13:52:23 - 00:14:11:01
Louie Romero
I play sports. I play basketball and football. Yeah, I got I got four older siblings, so I think, boxing was someone in there somewhere in there. Just because, you know, you got the older sibling. So you used to beat up on me a little bit. But yeah, man, I it's awesome how, like, we're talking about, you know, fans, I think just even the players and whatever bone aches.
00:14:11:02 - 00:14:24:07
Louie Romero
Some of the guys were at the game. The nuggets game. So yeah, just to kind of cross-promote and see you know, it's more than football as you being a football player or it's more than basketball. So having having Peyton Watson and some of the guys go to some of the Broncos games, it's awesome to see just.
00:14:24:09 - 00:14:51:12
Vic Lombardi
Seeing that's why, this nuggets era that we're in. You never used to see that back. No, it just didn't happen. Now that's crazy. Now Broncos come to watch nuggets games. It never happened I mean very rarely happened I should say the Broncos ran this town for years I mean right. Yeah. When 1977 I don't know how far back, you know Broncos lore, but the very first team that turned this city on its head was the Broncos team of 77.
00:14:51:12 - 00:15:07:19
Vic Lombardi
They went to the Super Bowl. Yeah. I was a kid. I was 7 or 8 years old that that week, the week that they played the Raiders in the AFC Championship, we had to wear orange and I forgot to wear my orange. And the nuns sent me back home because then you had to go switch back.
00:15:07:19 - 00:15:26:23
Vic Lombardi
Yeah. That's right. Yeah, yeah. And that was serious back then. I mean the Broncos and that's what turned this town into a sports town. It really was. That was the first team. And the Broncos ran the show for a long, long time. Not to say that they don't. The Broncos are still number one in this town. But other sports have come along and taken a piece of that pie, too.
00:15:27:00 - 00:15:27:23
Justin Simmons
It was, oh, go ahead.
00:15:28:01 - 00:15:31:13
Louie Romero
But let's just say that's awesome to hear, no pun intended. But the nuns even took it religiously.
00:15:31:13 - 00:15:31:21
Justin Simmons
I was.
00:15:31:21 - 00:15:32:23
Vic Lombardi
Joking, hey hey.
00:15:33:01 - 00:15:33:23
Justin Simmons
Hey hey hey.
00:15:34:01 - 00:15:38:15
Vic Lombardi
Hey, man, the priest did. Too bad they got the mascot cut real short on Broncos Sundays.
00:15:38:17 - 00:15:39:18
Justin Simmons
We'll worry about prayer later.
00:15:39:18 - 00:15:41:13
Vic Lombardi
You need to go on. Yeah, exactly.
00:15:41:13 - 00:15:53:15
Justin Simmons
That's that's what's really going to do it. That's, No, that's that's really cool. I got to see. It was so cool last year. Obviously we talked about it last podcast, and I'm not going to harp too much on it, but I had a chance to sit out with being picky what teams I want to play, but it was so cool.
00:15:53:15 - 00:16:12:14
Justin Simmons
As a fan of the teams, like I'm always going to be a Denver Broncos fan. John Elway took a shot in the third round with me. George Payton came in and extended me. I'll always, forever be invited to Broncos Country and what they've done for my family. It was so cool to see the city light up after those long eight years of the drought.
00:16:12:16 - 00:16:24:00
Justin Simmons
You know, the year, the year prior, they when they lost first round to Buffalo, I mean, to see them get to get back in the wild card that to me was like I got to see the streets lit up. The jerseys were hung up.
00:16:24:02 - 00:16:40:18
Vic Lombardi
I gotta ask you as a human, because you were one of the classiest individuals I've ever come across. Did any part of you go, damn it, I wish, I wish I was here. I wish this happened when I was here. How much of you how much you. You said that all. All of you. There's good. See, honesty is.
00:16:40:22 - 00:16:43:23
Vic Lombardi
I mean, because you're not human. If you're not the heart.
00:16:43:23 - 00:17:02:03
Justin Simmons
I said it in my like goodbye letter I have. I'm not a regret guy. Like I don't believe that. I walk with a certain purpose and a certain passion and certain belief that, like all things. But the one thing I said in my letter was like, I was the. And I'm not going to make this about me because I don't want it, and I'm not here, about this, but I was for eight years.
00:17:02:03 - 00:17:12:11
Justin Simmons
There is. I played with six head coaches. I played with, I don't know, 20 different quarterbacks. I played with, the whole mess of the GM.
00:17:12:12 - 00:17:13:04
Vic Lombardi
Yeah, it was crazy.
00:17:13:04 - 00:17:13:17
Justin Simmons
And the.
00:17:13:17 - 00:17:14:14
Vic Lombardi
Ownership.
00:17:14:14 - 00:17:36:03
Justin Simmons
Was changing. And so like the one, what it felt like was the one constant that was part of Broncos football was just in how to get up to the podium and talk all things. And it was never positive like it was always negative. Spied on how I played individually just by how the defense. Not every year we are great, but we kept us in a lot of games like despite of all those things to get up there every single.
00:17:36:03 - 00:17:49:22
Justin Simmons
And I like, you know, as my wife, like I used to come home and like stress about things that, starting safeties shouldn't be stressing about. Like, I just want to go win because I heard winning here makes it all worth it. And I wanted to be a winner.
00:17:49:23 - 00:18:07:08
Vic Lombardi
I feel bad for guys like you for that reason, because this guy was a go to guy in the locker room. He was the go to guy after any win or loss, and guys like you should taste that. You should savor victory. And the unfortunate part about it, you can't go back in life and who knows you. You may have another opportunity come in front of you.
00:18:07:09 - 00:18:09:17
Justin Simmons
No doubt you might have that. So yeah, no doubt I was.
00:18:09:17 - 00:18:10:05
Vic Lombardi
The best for.
00:18:10:05 - 00:18:11:07
Justin Simmons
You. Yeah. No, I'm pretty good.
00:18:11:07 - 00:18:31:02
Louie Romero
On the other side of that just is, you know, we've come co-host obviously client friends, family. We touch on that all the time. But, just being a friend of yours. Yeah. You know, being around you for the eight, nine seasons, it's like, man, I wanted that for you for so bad as well. And then, I will say to see you coming here against Denver with the Falcons.
00:18:31:04 - 00:18:32:07
Justin Simmons
Bro, that was weird.
00:18:32:09 - 00:18:32:21
Louie Romero
Do you remember that?
00:18:32:22 - 00:18:33:19
Vic Lombardi
Because that was weird.
00:18:33:19 - 00:18:42:20
Louie Romero
So, to see you. Yeah. Opposite huddle. Yeah. Which some of the fans know. You know, you got to get up. You're the leader of a team. You're a leader with the Broncos. But, it was a little heartbreaking to see you.
00:18:42:20 - 00:18:43:09
Justin Simmons
You know.
00:18:43:10 - 00:18:45:10
Louie Romero
Obviously colors in the opposite go I'm gonna.
00:18:45:10 - 00:18:53:20
Justin Simmons
Touch on this both before. And I brought this up to you last week. Yeah. I'm gonna touch on this before, and then I. We're done with with Hester and Justin about the end of.
00:18:54:01 - 00:18:55:16
Vic Lombardi
Last, last time I said.
00:18:55:18 - 00:18:59:03
Justin Simmons
They were going back into gorilla, because that's what. That's what he doesn't.
00:18:59:05 - 00:19:00:21
Vic Lombardi
He doesn't think I picked up. I'm so.
00:19:01:01 - 00:19:01:06
Justin Simmons
Good.
00:19:01:06 - 00:19:07:05
Vic Lombardi
At this. I'm interviewing with the assistant club with Vick Lombardi.
00:19:07:07 - 00:19:27:22
Justin Simmons
And only vague Lombardi. I don't know if you saw this and it actually bother me. And I learned a long time ago, sometimes it's better to say nothing, say nothing to say anything at all. So we're getting ready to play. We, as I was with the fathers, were getting ready to play Denver and, all week in Atlanta, like, everyone is only talking about me coming back on the blah.
00:19:28:00 - 00:19:43:15
Justin Simmons
And it was good. I had nothing but great things to say. That's how I truly felt like. Loved the city. We still lived there. This is home. Like whatever. And all week with my teammates and private never said anything that was like, okay, I'm paying. He's going to do this like he's a genius. He's going to be fine, but he's going to fine.
00:19:43:15 - 00:20:01:20
Justin Simmons
We got to go back and watch last year's tape on stuff because that's what he's going to be pulling. The whole nine didn't talk bad about anybody. Didn't talk bad about the organization. I don't even remember the gentleman's name. He he might even work closely with you. And I apologize for speaking poorly about him as he does. But there's that pre-game huddle.
00:20:01:20 - 00:20:18:18
Justin Simmons
I don't know if you saw this clip because it was like going viral. I got tagged in it multiple times, but I was in the pre-game huddle with the Falcons and I never set. So I'm like, the first thing. And I did it strategically. The first thing I was going to do in that huddle was get my team hyped up.
00:20:18:18 - 00:20:20:07
Justin Simmons
Sure. You know? And I was just like.
00:20:20:09 - 00:20:20:15
Vic Lombardi
I don't.
00:20:20:15 - 00:20:21:14
Louie Romero
Care. Rightfully so.
00:20:21:16 - 00:20:22:19
Justin Simmons
Yeah, I'm I'm not here for.
00:20:22:20 - 00:20:29:16
Vic Lombardi
You know, I mean, they didn't want me back. Yeah. I didn't have a chance to come back. I'm here with y'all. I was like, yeah, but you do a whole.
00:20:29:16 - 00:20:39:09
Justin Simmons
Night, like just getting them hyped up. And then there was like a little small clip out of there. It was like, oh, this is what he really thinks about you. And fans are running and running with that. I don't know if you bro.
00:20:39:13 - 00:20:41:05
Vic Lombardi
Let me tell you something sophisticated.
00:20:41:05 - 00:20:41:18
Justin Simmons
I was I.
00:20:41:18 - 00:20:57:05
Vic Lombardi
Was just in it. People that understand that I'm not I say people that have played sports, but people that understand sports understand what that's all about. I get into these arguments all the time. When a guy leaves here and goes to play for another team, like when Nolan Arenado left Colorado, went to the Cardinals, right? His first features.
00:20:57:05 - 00:21:14:04
Vic Lombardi
Man, these fans are great. His fans were great. Like yeah, what do you expect him to say. So you're doing what athletes do. Yeah. You're helping your current team. Yeah. It doesn't speak poorly of your former team. Yeah. And those who assume that and go to that, it always cracks me up. It has nothing to do with the former team.
00:21:14:04 - 00:21:25:10
Vic Lombardi
Yeah. Right now we're getting a bunch of people from CU that are finding new schools to play for it. Yeah. Oh yeah I love it here. You know I'm getting coached up and it was like oh she they hate Dylan. No it doesn't, it's just.
00:21:25:12 - 00:21:26:02
Justin Simmons
I know exactly.
00:21:26:03 - 00:21:41:12
Vic Lombardi
Always jump to these conclusions. What do you expect the kid to say. What do you expect a guy to say in their new place. Yeah, they're going to speak nicely of it. Yeah. It doesn't always mean that their old place was bad. It just means you're speaking nicely when you play. So I get it. Okay. That must have been frustrating for.
00:21:41:12 - 00:21:46:06
Justin Simmons
You and I. I like there's so many times where I, you know, I was getting ready.
00:21:46:06 - 00:21:46:18
Vic Lombardi
You're ready to.
00:21:46:18 - 00:21:48:07
Justin Simmons
Say this like godly.
00:21:48:09 - 00:22:03:19
Vic Lombardi
Man. One thing I've learned, just man, it's so hard to battle people on, on Twitter, whatever the hell you want to call it. Social media. Because every time you think you make a cogent point or something that is authentic, some idiot out there will just trash it and you can't win.
00:22:03:19 - 00:22:20:12
Justin Simmons
I'm so glad you brought that up. I don't know if you follow Vic on Twitter. He's like one of the few. I'm going to start following everyone back now. I like had a rule that I wasn't going to follow anyway, but, you're one of the few I do follow. Appreciate. One of my favorite things about you, though, is you going after the troll.
00:22:20:12 - 00:22:22:16
Justin Simmons
You got a little bit of Katie in you like I.
00:22:22:16 - 00:22:23:08
Vic Lombardi
Do where you.
00:22:23:09 - 00:22:30:05
Justin Simmons
I just like, you know, I forget it, I do. It was a tough game. I'm ready to just go at it with guys like I do. I love the I love the troll.
00:22:30:05 - 00:22:49:09
Vic Lombardi
Well, I mean it because I, I write what I believe, right. And and a lot of times people, what was the one today? Or something? I got into it with somebody over. Well, George Gervin, the former basketball player, is he's he may lose his trademark for Ice Man. I just said, man, how does this sportscaster in Chicago not know George Gervin is.
00:22:49:09 - 00:23:05:07
Vic Lombardi
So now I got these young generation guys coming at me and I'm like, man, why are we bragging that we're stupid in this era? Don't brag that you're ignorant. Brag about something else. So I get into I get into it and I have no problem doing it. And a lot of it stems from just, I guess, the way I was raised.
00:23:05:07 - 00:23:15:11
Vic Lombardi
Yeah. You know, being a little bit of a, I don't mean malcontent. I'm not a jerk. I just believe what I believe and I'll fight you on it. You don't take it personally.
00:23:15:11 - 00:23:26:15
Justin Simmons
And that's the other thing. You're you're talking behind the screen like you, you're you're not getting the face. Whatever you say. You could say the same exact sentence in person. And I'm like, oh, I could see that. As opposed to saying it online, it's like, yeah.
00:23:26:17 - 00:23:46:03
Vic Lombardi
Justin, you know, the toughest part about my job is if I'm speaking if I'm speaking about a team and a player, I have to be truthful. No matter what I do talk radio show every morning. And if somebody says to me, what you think about this guy's play, I've got to be truthful. Even with the nuggets, I host the nuggets.
00:23:46:03 - 00:24:04:10
Vic Lombardi
I'm truthful. I got to say things, I got to type things. And I've had conversations with athletes saying, I didn't like what you said. And so I will talk to that athlete. I'll go. I mean, several of these nuggets players, I've said, listen to it. You have to understand where I'm coming from. You have to understand if if I don't speak what I feel when I'm done, I've lost all credit.
00:24:04:14 - 00:24:19:12
Vic Lombardi
Why anybody listen? Why anybody pay attention? Yeah, I got my job. You got yours. I want you to win. I always want local athletes to strive and to win, I always do. I root for you. But if you're not doing the job, I got to see it. I can't ignore it. It's just the way the job operates.
00:24:19:17 - 00:24:30:06
Justin Simmons
Is there. Is there ever? I don't know, I don't even know if you would have a like a question to to match with that. Like is there it there's a, there's attacking the player and there's a line.
00:24:30:10 - 00:24:32:04
Vic Lombardi
There's a line. Oh there's something I said.
00:24:32:04 - 00:24:40:05
Justin Simmons
You feel like I've always felt like. And it's not just because you're sitting here. You and there's a few others that off the top of my head that I always thought did an amazing job.
00:24:40:05 - 00:25:04:01
Vic Lombardi
Well, you got to be. It's not personal. Like, I hate it when people. I hate it when the injury thing bothers me more. Oh, this guy is always getting hurt. Do you think guys want to get hurt? Yeah. Do you think guys want to leave the game with hamstrings or shoulders? Their body betrayed them. Something happened. I mean, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard where people, you know, slope off athletes because they're hurt and those guys want to be in there.
00:25:04:01 - 00:25:17:14
Vic Lombardi
I have all due respect to players that play hurt in the league for the first thing, but those who who get hurt has nothing to do with their character has to do with their body. Yeah, those are two entirely different things, no doubt. So I struggle with that a lot.
00:25:17:14 - 00:25:31:08
Louie Romero
No doubt. Not so much a question, but more a statement, I think. At the end of the day, a nice man kind of goes with the flow and whatever, but the difference between a nice man and a good man, which, you know, good man, stands up for what he believes in and has a little bit more conviction.
00:25:31:10 - 00:25:51:02
Louie Romero
And that's what I love and respect about you. Like Justin said, I love Victor Troll, but also, I love Vic that you you speak your mind and you do ask those hard questions in those tough questions. But being on the other side of that, you know, the athlete and then, you know, you asking the questions here, you've been doing it for so long, does it still bring you joy?
00:25:51:04 - 00:26:08:01
Vic Lombardi
I wouldn't be doing if it didn't bring me joy. I, I there's days where it's a great question. I'm not gonna lie. There's days where I'm like, Holy crap, I'm sort of tired of this. There's days where the highs aren't as high as they used to be. You know, I was doing training camp one year. You're probably still playing.
00:26:08:01 - 00:26:28:01
Vic Lombardi
Justin. And I remember sitting there at a training camp, and it must have been my 30th NFL training camp. That's how long I've been around. I'm going to be 57 years old. I think I'm done now. This will be this summer. This will probably be my 37th NFL training camp. And you know, when you go through camp, you've asked every question under this.
00:26:28:01 - 00:26:44:04
Vic Lombardi
What else are you supposed to ask? Yeah. So I remember sitting there one day and, this was before your time and I said, I'm just going to I'm just going to do something stupid here. And I asked one of the Broncos, defensive backs. I said, I'm gonna ask the longest question I've ever asked in my life.
00:26:44:06 - 00:27:02:23
Vic Lombardi
And I asked a question for a minute, 25 seconds. Oh, wow. And Darian. Darian Stewart, you guys, what do you do? The nicest guy in the world. And I remember asking this question. He's look at me gone. Are you like, did you have an attack? When are you going to stop talking? I asked him the minute 25 long question just for that.
00:27:02:23 - 00:27:13:22
Vic Lombardi
So you start experiment. You start doing things that you normally don't do. Not because you know, because you're bored. You get to that point. I mean, what else are you going to ask? Yeah, but that hasn't hadn't been asked already.
00:27:14:00 - 00:27:20:04
Louie Romero
Absolutely. Well, well, this season, I wish, we would have known what the minute 25, question was, but that's what.
00:27:20:04 - 00:27:26:03
Vic Lombardi
It was about. Defense. And then it's on YouTube right now. World's longest question. We'll look it up. We're going to have to check. It's really.
00:27:26:03 - 00:27:45:04
Justin Simmons
Stupid. Shameless plug. Go look it up. Yeah. We should all go look it up. Okay. We're transitioning again. At some point we had we wanted to talk about our good friends over at our in our head labs, and, I don't know if you caught any. You probably caught bits and pieces of the show last week, but, we have some friends.
00:27:45:06 - 00:28:08:20
Justin Simmons
Like I just said, are in our head labs. They're located in between Washington Park at Alameda and then and Penn, and then at Colfax and Penn and this is truly. I know you care about stuff like this, especially. You've been, you know, a local through and through, all about giving back. I mean, you've done you've MCD, my foundation charity one time.
00:28:08:22 - 00:28:31:04
Justin Simmons
We just want to get them on the radar because what they're doing is unbelievable work. So. So I'll put this into my own words, but basically, our in our head labs is, taking previously incarcerated individuals and giving them barbershop chow. I go ahead and cut people. And, you know, it's so funny. We met with, one of the gentlemen a few weeks back.
00:28:31:04 - 00:28:50:12
Justin Simmons
His name is Lucas, and, Yeah, it was so cool because getting to hear his story and just like how we're doing right now is like, okay, I'm just going to ask you a question that I'm sure people ask you to ask you. Does anyone ever, like, look at you a little funny when you know, you pull out the switchblade to go give them, like a straight edge or anything like that.
00:28:50:12 - 00:29:19:08
Justin Simmons
And he goes, thank you for even bringing that up, because, yes, of course that's a thing. And, you know, part of our part of what we do is we tell people our story. Yeah. And we want them to get to meet us as people are not just the headline of what we were, you know, we become. It's actually crazy too, because and Lou, who was telling me about this when they were chopping it up about the barbershop, so when you, when you're in prison and you're cutting people's hair, you don't just go to like and I'm not going to it's going to be very generic.
00:29:19:10 - 00:29:33:21
Justin Simmons
I think there's some truth to it. Like, I'm not going to go to sports glitz or, you know, anything like that. Like I'm going to go to a barbershop, right. And and when you go to a place like Sports Clips or not to bash on those on those places, but they can only cut certain types of hair. Yeah.
00:29:33:23 - 00:29:42:11
Justin Simmons
These guys like you, whoever shows up in your chair, they got everything. You got to be able to cut their hair. That's that's hard. Yeah, that's hard to do them right. Or am I don't know, 100%?
00:29:42:11 - 00:29:59:06
Louie Romero
You're 100% right. Walk into any shop. I think you know, you want to walk in there with, knowing what Barber is behind the chair. Can you confidently cut. You know, I won't keep it, but can you cut, cut black hair? Can you cut, you know, Latino hair or whatever, whether it's straight or curly or whatever, but you want somebody, they can cut kind of walks of all life, right?
00:29:59:06 - 00:30:12:23
Louie Romero
No matter what color, gender or whatever. But, that's what they have. It, our in our head labs, more barbers that are impacted by the justice system, justice system that are trying to make, you know, a difference in the community, have a second chance. And those guys take care of everybody.
00:30:13:00 - 00:30:24:10
Vic Lombardi
I've seen them before. I saw them at a school. They were doing some recruiting after guys got out and, you know, trying to make sure that kids understood that these were good people that changed lives change.
00:30:24:10 - 00:30:43:00
Justin Simmons
And I'm sure once you're in that space, I have relatives that unfortunately have have been a part of that and being a part of the, you know, incarceration and just it makes it so hard for you to get a second chance at life and especially find it work. So we thought what what they were doing was worth mentioning.
00:30:43:02 - 00:31:04:09
Justin Simmons
For you, everyone, you can check them out at Red labs.com. That's our our head labs. All one word.com. And, you can find their Instagram handles, their social media, the whole nine on there. And one of the reasons why we brought this up is we were looking that's why Luis Latina, we were looking at something like, oh, this vic's out there.
00:31:04:09 - 00:31:12:02
Justin Simmons
He's he's he's got so much fun stuff to talk about. So we for some we typed in Vic Lombardi and then you know how Google like we did it.
00:31:12:02 - 00:31:15:02
Louie Romero
We did our homework. Do a little bit of homework before he sat down with us.
00:31:15:02 - 00:31:20:03
Justin Simmons
What came after we typed in Vic Lombardi and like top two right Martin. Yeah. Ricky Martin right.
00:31:20:06 - 00:31:25:08
Vic Lombardi
What's his name? Yeah. Because. Oh yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah I know where you go with this. Yeah.
00:31:25:10 - 00:31:28:22
Justin Simmons
There is a victim party and then like, right after this, it was great news.
00:31:29:03 - 00:31:30:09
Vic Lombardi
So we, you.
00:31:30:09 - 00:31:31:11
Justin Simmons
Look great, but I just.
00:31:31:14 - 00:31:41:05
Louie Romero
Yeah. Yeah. Hey. So have you ever cupcakes? Sarah was like, no, I'm not sure if he's a salon guy. Well, he's a barbershop, guys, so it's like it's Louie, Louie, Louie.
00:31:41:07 - 00:32:01:23
Vic Lombardi
Louie. My hair. This is a very sensitive and not sensitive. It's. I'm proud of my hair. For me, my life. It introduced me to my wife because the lady who did my hair in Austin was my wife's roommate. My. I had two aunts that did hair. My grandfather did hair. I had all kinds of relatives. I had people at the ready to do my hair all my life.
00:32:01:23 - 00:32:19:17
Vic Lombardi
So I'm sort of like, spoiled by it. Right? And I'm really into my hair. I'm sorry. I'm really. Well, I'm into it, like, because it's just always been. I take care of it. I do, I do everything I can. So after the Super Bowl, I saw Ricky Martin. I said, some bitch looks young. What the hell's going on?
00:32:19:19 - 00:32:20:14
Justin Simmons
I get that, yeah.
00:32:20:19 - 00:32:35:02
Vic Lombardi
Like, yeah, because he dies is here. I go, I'm dying my hair. Yeah, I'm going to go. So I went, got my hair dyed, my wife took me and we went, got my hair dyed. And I said, are you sure I should do this? She goes, yeah, do it. And at first when I saw myself, I, oh crap, I can't go to work tomorrow.
00:32:35:02 - 00:32:36:08
Vic Lombardi
I know.
00:32:36:10 - 00:32:37:19
Justin Simmons
But you really thought it looked that bad?
00:32:37:20 - 00:33:05:10
Vic Lombardi
Well, it it was bad. I look great, but it just was so different, right? I was like, I don't I can't, I can't show up at work. But now it's fine. You know, the bottom line is this, hair turns gray. I'd rather it turned gray than lose it. Yeah. So that's that's for a good point. I always had dark hair, until I was 49 years old, and all of a sudden, like a light switch going back, and we gray and I always wondered, I wonder, wonder what it's like going back and taking a few steps back to when I had dark hair.
00:33:05:10 - 00:33:11:16
Vic Lombardi
I thought it'd make me feel young again. It didn't. So long story short, I ain't no Ricky Martin brother.
00:33:11:17 - 00:33:17:04
Justin Simmons
I just thought that was so weird. Bring it up. Like I weird looking. I was like, no way. We saw the whole clip. You, like, turn around in the chair.
00:33:17:04 - 00:33:27:23
Vic Lombardi
Let me ask you the one. Why can girls get their hair colored any time? And there's no nobody ever thinks anything of it. But a guy gets his hair done, and all of a sudden people are googling Ricky Martin, right? Well, we.
00:33:27:23 - 00:33:30:22
Justin Simmons
Were googling party. Just happened to Ricky Martin. Just happened.
00:33:31:01 - 00:33:47:12
Vic Lombardi
But why is it that every every girl watching this, you got highlights, you do whatever, and it's like it's expected. How? My mom is 80 years old. She gets your hair and it's bad, but God forbid some 50. Some sports guy gets his hair dyed and the world falls off. Its axis.
00:33:47:12 - 00:33:52:23
Louie Romero
I got, I got I got a little gray in the beard, you know, a little, little salt. Pepper myself were well seasoned and you still got a great head of hair, by.
00:33:52:23 - 00:33:54:12
Vic Lombardi
The way, I think. I think we're breaking.
00:33:54:15 - 00:34:08:19
Justin Simmons
I think it's a slow mo. That's being broken though. Like that. Got more guys are going to go get their. The pedicures and manicures are starting to take care. Went like when I was girl. I know it wasn't like I was like a my dad was like, what the hell are you not doing?
00:34:08:19 - 00:34:26:01
Vic Lombardi
Well, bro, I'm so different than than my I, I'm a full blown metrosexual. Like, I like, take care of my body. Yeah, and it's just the way it is. I mean, even my brothers make fun of me. I, I when I get dressed, I dress carefully. My grandfather was like that. My grandfather Victor, he was really you two on the Cologne.
00:34:26:01 - 00:34:34:22
Vic Lombardi
And the whole car would smell like frickin Aqua Velva. And you're like, what the hell's going on? And I sort of took on his awkward, though. I cooked on that stuff.
00:34:34:22 - 00:34:50:15
Justin Simmons
Yourself, all right? I was like, that went up. No, that's. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I think I think that, and I think that shows in the way that people not even look, but the way they walk, the confidence, the aura that you have about yourself when you you feel clean and it presents.
00:34:50:18 - 00:35:18:02
Vic Lombardi
Okay. Can I say something right now? And this is not a knock. I don't know how many media members going to watch this, but I tell young people in the media, if you really want to make an impression, worry about how you look, worried about how you look, and because if you show up, if you show up looking like shit, people are going to think, yeah, if you show up looking the part, you will gain attention from day one, I guarantee it.
00:35:18:02 - 00:35:31:09
Vic Lombardi
I say that all the time. It's a big deal because it means that you carry yourself a certain way. Yeah, you carry yourself. Now, I'm not saying you have to go buy the nicest clothes, but do the best you can. Do the best you can with what you got.
00:35:31:15 - 00:35:42:18
Justin Simmons
You. I was going to. That was actually a you segmented into what I was going to ask you about that because you're one of the I take fashion seriously at least like and certain aspects like I love just wearing my casual, well.
00:35:42:18 - 00:35:44:04
Vic Lombardi
You always had it on dude on.
00:35:44:04 - 00:36:12:11
Justin Simmons
Game day. So that and I and I recognize that when you're doing media locker room availability like you always had on nights, it didn't matter if it was Wednesday after practice or Sunday after a big game. Like whatever the case may be, you always had. So that was always mentality for you. Like every time I step into it doesn't matter if I'm interviewing coach for the 50th time, this is a first interaction where it might actually take a little bit more time to see how I'm dress and answer my question more professionally is that.
00:36:12:11 - 00:36:27:00
Vic Lombardi
For me professionally and just sort of like, hey, this is a big deal. I'm dressed up to make this a big deal, right? You know, I like I'm not saying I'm dressed up right now, but I could have showed up and, you know, a tank top or something like that. I mean, you should address this is a podcast.
00:36:27:00 - 00:36:45:12
Vic Lombardi
It's a little different, but I'm glad you brought that up. Best dressed Broncos of all time Justin Simmons. There we go. All right I'm going to give you no necessarily you're up there. That's it Brandon McManus had some nice. Yeah. He Mac came to play Emmanuel Sanders back in the day. Came to play. He had some good stuff.
00:36:45:12 - 00:37:02:18
Vic Lombardi
Yeah. So those are the three I remember. And I'm sure I'm leaving guys out. But what you would do on game day because I appreciate it. Some guys don't I appreciate I'd say all right. That dude guy you got to look at Eric Johnson who used to play for the avalanche. He's now as a sportscaster. He does a hockey analysis work for ESPN.
00:37:02:20 - 00:37:05:15
Vic Lombardi
Okay. That dude's got a great ensemble.
00:37:05:15 - 00:37:07:10
Justin Simmons
He does? Oh.
00:37:07:12 - 00:37:26:05
Louie Romero
It's not just fashion, you know? Just talking about it, saying take pride in your appearance. You know, as far as even just dress nice, but also it's a part of it. I got to plug that. The weekly cut haircut. Right. Look good, feel good, play good. But you don't necessarily have to be an athlete as well. I think that carries over to whatever the career is or whatever your day to day are.
00:37:26:07 - 00:37:27:03
Louie Romero
You know, it's a confidence.
00:37:27:03 - 00:37:37:07
Vic Lombardi
Louis, we were cursing your name in the Memphis game, looking at Joker's hair. I remember sitting there with Louis on the phone. Get that shit cut. Let's go. This is.
00:37:37:08 - 00:37:37:21
Justin Simmons
Today.
00:37:38:02 - 00:37:39:01
Louie Romero
Oh. That's hilarious.
00:37:39:03 - 00:37:41:19
Vic Lombardi
So how does that work? Does he call you or do you call him?
00:37:41:21 - 00:37:43:00
Louie Romero
They call me when they're ready, man.
00:37:43:05 - 00:37:44:13
Vic Lombardi
When they're ready. It's one of those things.
00:37:44:15 - 00:37:59:10
Louie Romero
That's. I think it went viral. We've talked about this multiple times again, but, Christmas night, you know, I'm sitting there waiting third quarter to casually cut Joker's hair. I think the game went to O.T. or double. Okay. You know, sometimes it's a lot of sitting around, but they take care of me. And, you know, I'd like to believe I do.
00:37:59:10 - 00:38:01:01
Louie Romero
My small part that helps us. Maybe that.
00:38:01:01 - 00:38:10:18
Vic Lombardi
Was also. It was the funniest thing ever. Joker's hair is a certain length, and then he goes to his postgame press conference on that night and it's like, what the hell happened to him? I've never seen that in my life.
00:38:10:18 - 00:38:12:11
Louie Romero
We Joker Joker do a Joker thing.
00:38:12:12 - 00:38:13:03
Vic Lombardi
It was the best.
00:38:13:03 - 00:38:29:00
Justin Simmons
That was that. We talked about that a lot last time and I was I was actually like, legitimately asking because I don't pay attention much to that. Like, I might have seen a clip about it. That was a joy to me, asking, like, is this is this, is that common? Actually, like people are calling for his barber.
00:38:29:00 - 00:38:35:13
Vic Lombardi
We're gonna we're going to get to the point where the interview takes place with him in your chair, just sitting there. He's going to be, and you're just going to be in the back.
00:38:35:16 - 00:38:36:17
Louie Romero
Wasn't me, it was I.
00:38:36:17 - 00:38:47:01
Justin Simmons
I swear, I heard a little I heard a little rumor saying that, they don't even give you a call or, like, no one from his team because it's just both his brothers out at your door. Just like.
00:38:47:03 - 00:38:48:01
Vic Lombardi
It's not.
00:38:48:03 - 00:38:48:14
Justin Simmons
Like you're.
00:38:48:16 - 00:38:49:07
Vic Lombardi
Ready. Let's go.
00:38:49:07 - 00:39:04:03
Justin Simmons
Guys, you just got your briefcase. You're ready to go. That's awesome. No, that's. That's so good. That's so good. All right, so that is a thing that I'm just going to keep asking this week in and week out. Because now that Vic's like, y'all okay. Where's Louis? Yeah. We need him to come cut his hair. That I know, we.
00:39:04:05 - 00:39:15:01
Vic Lombardi
I know people in the media. They pay attention to that stuff. I mean, you know, athletes take pride like I. Valanciunas when he first got here I remember seeing in practice go dude that's good.
00:39:15:03 - 00:39:15:16
Louie Romero
Nice nice.
00:39:15:16 - 00:39:29:15
Vic Lombardi
Look at me. Yeah I was like I was like he goes because he's playing it off like it's no big deal. Goes yeah I go you take care of that. What do you use? He goes, I don't know. I go, oh, you know what? You, you don't, you don't play that guy because they play ignorant, right? Yeah. They know exactly what they do to take care of.
00:39:29:16 - 00:39:30:02
Justin Simmons
Oh yeah.
00:39:30:05 - 00:39:31:14
Vic Lombardi
Oh, I should have known you were behind that.
00:39:31:14 - 00:39:34:17
Louie Romero
Louis. Got to get some beard oil. Got to get him some stuff, man. You know.
00:39:34:19 - 00:39:35:03
Vic Lombardi
We're all.
00:39:35:03 - 00:39:47:00
Justin Simmons
Right. We're on the topic of taking care of yourself and looking good. I got to ask now because I've seen you wear the suits, and I'm just. So is it just. Just basic suit you're not looking to ever, like, would you ever wear a short suit?
00:39:47:02 - 00:40:02:13
Vic Lombardi
To work. You know, I'm. I'm a little too old. I would have back in the day. There's no doubt I would have. Yeah, I'm at that age now where if I did that, people would just think. Look at this idiot. But there's no doubt I would have. I tried everything, I mean, I, I wore stuff that at the time people are like, what are you doing?
00:40:02:18 - 00:40:21:22
Vic Lombardi
So I get a lot of my suits just in, we go back to Italy every summer because my parents are from there. Okay. And they're from a very small village about 70 miles east of Naples. And if you go to Naples, they have. That's the fashion is tops there. You can go to tailors in the inside of Naples where people don't normally go.
00:40:21:22 - 00:40:38:04
Vic Lombardi
My cousins take me and they'll make you a suit. Custom suit right there on the spot. That's awesome. And you get right there. They'll they'll size you up. They'll make you a custom to an dude for nothing. The price is there. I'll go to Naples. I'll bring an extra suitcase and come back with 4 or 5 suits. I'll do that every summer.
00:40:38:06 - 00:40:43:23
Justin Simmons
So you're not? I was about to say so. Those are. And there's no disrespect, but there's. Those are like Men's Wearhouse.
00:40:44:04 - 00:41:03:17
Vic Lombardi
Oh, no, I get no, you know, I get I get them here too. But most of my stuff comes from Naples. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, I, I specifically go back there to get close. Yeah. And that's, you know, drives my wife crazy because at our home, I might be the only male with our walk in closet is mine. And my wife has to use the little small portion over there.
00:41:03:19 - 00:41:07:13
Vic Lombardi
And she's like, you're the guy. I go, oh, well.
00:41:07:15 - 00:41:09:04
Justin Simmons
Hey, like I said, we're breaking.
00:41:09:06 - 00:41:13:12
Vic Lombardi
We're breaking that. We're breaking it right here. Yeah, I'm breaking the stereotype. We're breaking. It's exactly.
00:41:13:12 - 00:41:15:23
Louie Romero
Right. Custom Italian it with the wrong custom Italian.
00:41:16:02 - 00:41:27:10
Justin Simmons
I'm doing it with you in, one of the houses we had when we were here in Colorado, we had a, like a winter closet kind of downstairs. And it was all my suit. Yeah, like my wife had a couple of shoes and stuff down there.
00:41:27:10 - 00:41:28:22
Vic Lombardi
You guys try to, like, come on.
00:41:29:00 - 00:41:35:23
Justin Simmons
And then she that she loves showing that room off when people came over, she's like, oh, yeah, let me show you guys our winter closet. And by ours, I mean just just.
00:41:35:23 - 00:41:53:06
Vic Lombardi
This, I suggested, this is what I'm into now because I've got I must have 150 suits, sports coats. It's just all over the house. Yeah. So now I'm in the process of unloading them, giving them the people, giving me this, wheelchair. I, you know, a lot of them are out of style. Some of the three button I like.
00:41:53:06 - 00:41:55:19
Vic Lombardi
So they'll come back and say, oh, they always do that. They always come.
00:41:55:21 - 00:41:56:09
Justin Simmons
Back.
00:41:56:11 - 00:41:58:15
Vic Lombardi
Yeah. What do you do with your old suits?
00:41:58:17 - 00:41:59:12
Justin Simmons
Donate them. Yeah.
00:41:59:12 - 00:42:02:22
Vic Lombardi
But like, do I do that? Who wants that? Yeah.
00:42:02:23 - 00:42:20:05
Justin Simmons
Well that's fair. We, we go through, like, I don't know how to say it. I'm strenuous is not the right word, but we go through a certain process. So, a lot of the times, like, what we've done is get a team will come grab all the suits. Shameless plug. Shout out to Jen Boyle on her lifestyle management.
00:42:20:09 - 00:42:38:04
Justin Simmons
They do an amazing job. Called him up, and they actually know kids high school even in college where it's just like they need a suit. And yeah, a little short little. It doesn't matter. But it's same pills ish. Yeah. And they'll just go ahead and give them the suits. And it's funny because there will be there's all my suits.
00:42:38:06 - 00:42:48:12
Justin Simmons
Shout out to Tom Martelli. Gentlemen's playbook. They all have like the number and the custom made. So they're sure they're suits. Suits. Even here in Denver where someone's rocking at 31.
00:42:48:13 - 00:42:50:22
Vic Lombardi
That's great. You gotta tell you, this is the next suit.
00:42:50:22 - 00:42:51:07
Justin Simmons
Yeah, dude.
00:42:51:07 - 00:43:08:01
Vic Lombardi
I get a genuine. Hi. I got this kid that's getting into the business fact he's working with girls sports. Mark, he came over. He's my neighbor. He came over. He's a little small to me, but they're like 4 or 5 jackets at them. I was like, oh yeah, yeah, let's do this one, let's do this. And I was like, I wish they all fit him because I want, I want my whole closet.
00:43:08:01 - 00:43:16:22
Vic Lombardi
I want it out there again. Just want him just. Yeah, yeah. When you get older, you. I'm not shrinking every year. So I still get to this day. I got to get suits that fit me.
00:43:16:22 - 00:43:28:10
Justin Simmons
Yeah. No doubt, no doubt. Everyone does. Everyone does. Okay, Ian, ready to wrap up here? Before we go, two things. Just two things to ask. One we've been sipping on, and this is, this is.
00:43:28:12 - 00:43:29:13
Vic Lombardi
I can do this all day.
00:43:29:14 - 00:43:33:01
Justin Simmons
This is Louis, baby. I don't know anything about it. That's all he was telling us.
00:43:33:01 - 00:43:50:21
Louie Romero
Last, a low dose, at all is a little bit different from your average tequila. Okay, see the agave? It's more of a wild agave where it's grown as opposed to, you know, actual farmed. And it's still organic. Still good stuff. This is a Chateau Blanco that we're sipping on here. I don't know if that's your first time trying to.
00:43:50:21 - 00:44:02:21
Vic Lombardi
Oh, I can do this. It's fun. This is dangerous for me. This is like juice for me. This is like when I used to feed my kid the Gerber, and I even half of it because it was so good. I don't know if he ever did. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean, I could do this all day here.
00:44:02:21 - 00:44:25:10
Justin Simmons
It's pretty good. Okay. So positive, positive reviews back. We've been, you know, we've been working closely with them, and trying to work more closely as, you know, those things come up, but, Yeah, we just wanted to get your honest thoughts and opinion. We're tequila. Well, I'm getting into the tequila savant word. Flow. Louis is the survivor.
00:44:25:11 - 00:44:32:13
Justin Simmons
But this is where the tequila. And so totally. It's different. So that was what he was saying. Like that wild, harvested agave and all this thing.
00:44:32:13 - 00:44:40:20
Louie Romero
So, yeah, harvested on more desert culture. Northern Mexico, like I say, where the agave is more wild and it's amazing. You know, just balance is, the ground.
00:44:40:20 - 00:44:42:19
Vic Lombardi
I don't have the talent to give you all that. I can just.
00:44:42:19 - 00:44:43:15
Justin Simmons
Tell you it's good.
00:44:43:17 - 00:44:52:05
Louie Romero
It taste good. Yeah. I mean, at the end of the day, I think that's what everybody wants, right? But not too many additives, not too many chaos going on, just, streets at all. So good stuff.
00:44:52:05 - 00:45:10:23
Justin Simmons
Is great stuff. Clean and smooth. All right. I guess all we had time for, this time. I mean, speaking too soon. Yeah. No, you're our first guest, but I don't know if it's going to be. I mean, Dick Lombardi, the stories, the culture, sports fandom over the years, being in the.
00:45:10:23 - 00:45:28:02
Vic Lombardi
Gold, it means a lot for, for you guys to ask me, first of all, that I'm privileged in it. I'm flattered. But to be able to again, do it here in my hood, and I'm walking. People walk by. I'm watching people right now outside there on Tennyson Street. Yeah. When I was a kid and you walked up Tennyson Street.
00:45:28:02 - 00:45:45:19
Vic Lombardi
This looks so different. And now it's a it's a city in its own. I mean, there's a lot of wealth that moved here. Yeah. Part of the sad because, you know, you lose sort of the, the context of where you grew up. A lot of that is good. It's called evolution. Yeah. Evolution happens in every city and we're watching it happen right in front of us.
00:45:45:19 - 00:45:59:03
Vic Lombardi
There's a park right down the street here. Yeah. It used to be called Al Alcott Park. Now it's Cesar Chavez. Now that name has gotten eliminated. So it's going to be on its third name. Wow. I'm on a third park name. That's how old I am. Three park.
00:45:59:03 - 00:46:04:17
Justin Simmons
Names. That's crazy. Well, it has been a complete honor to know you wanted to close out with.
00:46:04:17 - 00:46:20:05
Louie Romero
No. Just, appreciate you. Thanks for. Thanks for being our guest. North Denver legend. Colorado legend. All the things I can keep, you know, we can keep talking about you all day, but, and I've run into you here on tennis and multiple times. So hopefully we run into each other here at American Law. I ran into you and Parisi.
00:46:20:08 - 00:46:25:21
Louie Romero
What was. What was it? Vergara before. So, you never know who you're going to run into. You might run into Victor Louis.
00:46:25:21 - 00:46:26:05
Vic Lombardi
Thank you.
00:46:26:05 - 00:46:26:23
Louie Romero
We appreciate you, man.
00:46:26:23 - 00:46:27:18
Vic Lombardi
Justin. Thank you.
00:46:27:18 - 00:46:32:10
Justin Simmons
We'll definitely plan to be back at some point. We'd love to join you and talk sports.
00:46:32:15 - 00:46:32:20
Vic Lombardi
And.
00:46:32:23 - 00:46:34:20
Justin Simmons
Some of your shows whenever.
00:46:34:21 - 00:46:50:07
Vic Lombardi
The next time you're at the nuggets game, you got to let me know. I want to bring you up pre-game. Okay? I want to talk pregame with you. I want to talk to you. Not about football. I want to talk to you about how a professional athletes murder sport watches another profession. I want to know what goes through your system when you're watching another sport.
00:46:50:09 - 00:47:06:12
Justin Simmons
No doubt in your eyes. I would love that. I love that guy. Start prepping now. He's all right, everyone. That's all we had time for this week on the weekly cut. What an amazing guest and Vic from Bardi. Vic. Thanks, man. As always, everyone walk humbly. Always extend grace and we will catch you guys next week.
00:47:06:14 - 00:47:10:15
Louie Romero
Yeah. Wednesday, 5:00, a real sports weekly cut. Thank you. Shake.