‘The Odyssey’ Star Matt Damon Talks World Cup Love and MLB Pitch Clock Disdain

Matt Damon became a World Cup obsessive because of a newborn, and the origin story is better than most.

His daughter Isabella was born on June 11, 2006, right as the tournament was starting. Those first four to six weeks of her life were spent at home, and Damon thinks he watched every single game with her.

"I'm walking around with this baby and I just have the sound on, I'm watching," he told Rich. "I love it. I love it so much."

Two decades later the attachment has not faded, and neither has the specific grief of the knockout rounds. Damon and Rich both admitted to the same withdrawal. When it starts there are three or four matches a day. Then it narrows, and suddenly you have to wait another day for one of these things.

Rich compared it to the football playoffs, where you go from 12 games on a Sunday to a single one. What the hell? It's called the Super Bowl? What the hell?

That naturally routed the conversation to New England. Damon's review of last season was glowing even with the ending. "Oh, they were phenomenal. I mean, they were great. I mean, the Super Bowl was rough, but nobody picked them to get there. And they're young. Vrabel is awesome. And Drake Maye, we got AJ coming in. I can't wait."

Chris, the resident Patriots fan in the room, took that as an invitation. Outstanding. Super Bowl. We're back. He predicted AJ Brown would have a Randy Moss type season and that a duckboat parade is coming, before conceding there are a couple of other teams in the AFC to get through first.

Damon's take on Maye was less about production and more about temperament, and it turned into the most interesting stretch of the interview. He sees the Brady thing in him, that quality where pressure simply does not register.

"It's such a fascinating thing to me, those athletes who just, the pressure just does not," Damon said. "It's like Michael Jordan wanted. We just lived for that moment. And it's either in you or it's not."

His point is that you can now see it. High definition cameras are so good that you can watch a guy tighten up in real time.

Which is where the hot take arrived, unprompted and fully formed. Damon does not like the pitch clock. Not all of it, though, and the distinction matters to him.

"I like it in the regular season," he said. "I think in the playoffs I like the drama in the playoffs."

He wants the ability to threaten. He brought up the Vince Coleman clip, the one where the pitcher throws over to first base 17 times and then Coleman steals second anyway.

"I love that," Damon said. In the regular season, guys, let's go. In October, let it breathe. "That's my personal, that's my hot take."

On the automated ball-strike system, he was more resigned than opposed. It looks like it is everywhere now, and he does not think it is going backwards. He did float one thought about perfect games and the pitchers who lost them on a call, and Rich agreed that would be a good one to replay.