HeyJaredBenchMarks
BenchMarks is an audio-first documentary series from the Empty the Bench Network, where the biggest moments in sports aren’t just remembered — they’re re-examined.Hosted by Callan McClurg and joined by voices from across the Empty the Bench Network, BenchMarks lives at the…
- Indexed episodes, last 90 days
- 5
- Latest publication
- Jul 20, 2026
- Audience
- Checking…
- Earliest in this view
- Jul 6, 2026
Latest episodes
BenchMarks: Beckham's Blueprint (opens the original)
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On this episode of BenchMarks , we break down The Beckham Blueprint: When the World Came to MLS . Join host Callan McClurg as he tracks the historic, game-changing arrival of David Beckham to the Los Angeles Galaxy in 2007 and how it permanently transformed Major League Soccer from a fragile domestic experiment into a billion-dollar global destination. From locker room culture shocks and staggering wage gaps to the massive European invasion that followed—featuring Thierry Henry, Andrea Pirlo, Da
BenchMarks: Bite Sized (opens the original)
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June 28, 1997. The MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The world was tuned in for "The Sound and the Fury," a heavyweight rematch that promised to settle the score between Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield. But as the third round began, the fight didn't just break the rules—it broke the sport. In a moment of primal, psychological meltdown, the "Baddest Man on the Planet" traded his gloves for his teeth, leaving a piece of his opponent’s ear on the canvas and his own legacy in ruins. In this epis
BenchMarks: Victory of a Generation (opens the original)
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In this landmark episode of BenchMarks , Callan McClurg takes us to the sweltering heat of Pasadena, where the tournament rested on the left foot of a defender from Santa Clara. Brandi Chastain walks to the spot. She isn't supposed to be using her left foot; she’s a natural right-footer. But her coach, Tony DiCicco, made a high-stakes gut call just minutes prior: "Take it with your left." He wanted to show the Chinese goalkeeper, Gao Hong, a psychological variable the "Great Wall" couldn't predi
BenchMarks: The Decision - An Hour That Changed Everything (opens the original)
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On July 8, 2010, the center of the sporting universe wasn't a stadium or an arena; it was a Boys & Girls Club in Greenwich, Connecticut. For seventy-five minutes, nearly ten million viewers sat through a stilted, high-tension interview until nine words shattered the status quo: "I'm going to take my talents to South Beach." In this definitive episode of BenchMarks , Nick Morgasen deconstructs the televised announcement that turned LeBron James from a hometown hero into a global villain—and event
BenchMarks: Summer of '96 (opens the original)
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The air inside San Jose’s Spartan Stadium on April 6, 1996, was thick with the suffocating cynicism of a thousand American sportswriters. It had been twelve grueling years since the North American Soccer League (NASL) collapsed under the weight of its own financial excess, leaving first-division outdoor soccer in America dead, buried, and forgotten. But on that spring afternoon, the silence officially ended. In this episode of BenchMarks , Callan McClurg takes you back to the definitive watershe
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