The Show Episode 549

LeBron's Future, NFL Schedule Release, Ex Steelers Defensive Comments. Redsox Fans

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Um the uh beauty of working with the software I have, and I figured out some new things. Everybody's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, where's the where's the music? Post where's the music? Well, I I'm explaining that. Um I came across of how to edit a little bit better with um some recording. So what I did is um I already recorded uh episode 548. Um I just didn't release it. And it wasn't, it was uh when you go it's gonna come on here in a little bit and you're gonna hear it, hear the show. Um it didn't have really um anything significant of what happened over the weekend. I recorded it um last Thursday night, and I said, well, I don't I don't need to be put out because one of the reasons is um I see the algorithm of the shows and how they get distributed and how they get released. I was the last few weeks I was releasing shows on a Friday, and the numbers have been great. You guys have been fantastic, you've been listening to them and all that. I wasn't achieving the downloads that I would do if I would release it Monday or Sunday to Thursday. So when I release an episode Sunday to Thursday, I tend to get more downloads. And I think one is a lot of people are working. Uh maybe people go home and they do things out in their garage or they're out in the backyard, and they want to put yours truly on the host. They want to get a few uh you know insights of what's going on in sports, maybe a few laughs here and there. Um, you know, they just want to hear the host. And um, so I held on to the episode for that reason. But uh the episode, you'll hear it. Uh, I'm gonna talk about Libron's future. I'm gonna talk about the schedule, the NFL schedule came out, and I got a few other things uh to talk about uh in the episode too. So that's gonna be in there, and you're gonna hear that. And I just I did I didn't hold it back because it was bad, I held it back because I wanted to see how it eventually plays out. And again, like I said, there's stuff in there, it's great. Uh, we there's stuff the host goes over that maybe a lot of people don't know what's really going on with certain things. And I you got my opinion of what I think is gonna happen with uh Libron. But I found uh how to uh insert uh audio clips into episodes. So I inserting myself in front of uh episode uh, what was it? Five 549, I think it is, that uh you guys are gonna be listening to. So hey, enough of me babbling on. Why don't we get to the uh episode? Uh right, hosting. No, that's my host to long time Rochester Democrats, black time dude, sports college, Bob Matthews. That's how he used to start his radio show every night as I used to listen as a kid. So once in a while I'll say that. I should say it on every episode. I should say that in a tribute to him, but sometimes I forget to do that. So before I get out of what I want to talk about, um I got several emails about the host being a jerk for not wanting to tip. Now remember, we closed out the last episode of the tipping story here in Las Vegas, how the couple won $10 million and they didn't tip a dime. And the host agreed with them. I'm not gonna tip. And I don't care what you people say, I'm still not gonna tip uh on on that. So you you're not gonna change my mind. You can call me every name in the book uh you want. And there's some great emails here, but we could have a whole show of people calling out the host as a big jerk. Uh, people don't want to listen to the show anymore. People that know the host was cheap, people don't want to be seen with the hosts, they're they're afraid they're gonna be out and they're gonna know that the host is not a tipper. And again, these people don't know anything about me out in public. And if you knew about myself, the host, and Mrs. Host, we are very good tippers when we go out. If the service is there and it requires something, the host and Mrs. Host tip very well. So, you know, you can say what you want about the host. In that situation, right there, winning that money, I'm not tipping. And by the way, uh to just add one more thing about the tipping story, another guy we listened to uh from time to time, uh, me and a couple other guys who listened to my show, he had on a guy specifically talking again about that whole situation about the couple tipping. He said the couple should have tipped the call attendant $100,000. $100,000. Man. And the guy that hosts that show, who had the guy on who said he the guy said you should have tipped $100,000. The guy that hosts that show said, I only would have tipped $5,000. And the guy, the guy who said he should have tipped $100,000 was appalled. Said he said he hoped some bad things would happen to him. And his argument was the guy who said, I would only tip $5,000 because I would feel bad. And you know what I would say to the call attendant? Well, you're $5,000 richer than you were when you woke up this morning. So shut up. He's gonna tip $5,000. I still wouldn't tip anything. I don't care. This is ridiculous. But anyway, I got so many emails about that, but I just don't want to get it. I just don't want to read them and get into it. I the host doesn't want to read emails about him being called a jackass and an idiot and uh a worthless piece of garbage for the next 20 minutes. But anyway, uh, what I want to talk about was um there was all this talk a few nights ago of when the Lakers lost to Oklahoma City when they got uh you know broomed by them. Um was that the last time we're ever going to see Libra play uh an NBA game? And I said to myself, oh, enough of this talk. Um, there's no way he's going out like that. There's no way he's going out of the playoffs being swept by a team. That's not his style. Um, and plus, he's got that big of an ego where he's gonna let everyone know when he's done playing. Uh, we're gonna know when it's his last game. Just like when Kobe told us it was gonna be his last game and he scored all those points in that game. We're gonna know when it's LeBron's last game. There's no way uh a player of that magnitude who's played at this kind of level for 20 some odd years is gonna just say, you know what, I'm done. That's it. That's the last time you saw me getting swept by the Oklahoma City four games and none in the Western Conference Cemetery. There's no way that's gonna happen for LeBron. So he's gonna take some time. He's gonna decide what to do. He's gonna see where everything falls into place this offseason. I don't think he's coming back to the Lakers because one, um, the Lakers don't have the roster to compete with the other Western Conference teams that are better than the Lakers. Oh, we've seen Oklahoma City destroy them. We know San Antonio would destroy them, we know Minnesota would destroy them. So the Lakers at best are fourth, fifth, sixth best team in the conference. And um, by keeping Libron and what he makes, you're not gonna be able to get other talent on the team. So that's not gonna be the best spot for Libron to go and return the Lakers. He did what he did there. He got the Lakers another championship. Yeah, it was in the bubble. You can say what you want about it, but he got him another championship. He got the carry on the celebrities buying the high-priced front row seats. They got Luka Dotics there because of probably LeBron in that trade of Anthony Davis. So Libron did what he had to do with the league. Now, moving on, where's the best scenario for Libron? I'm gonna tell you right now. I'm gonna tell you right now, and this is what he should do. You know how the host has been harping on one team, jumping on a certain team's bandwagon. I've said it here. I think the Knicks are gonna go to the finals. Whether what happens in this Cleveland uh Detroit series that's going on, and uh where are we at in that series? Game six is now gonna be played. Whoever ends up winning, uh Cleveland might have a chance because they're at home in game six. But um, wherever that ends up happening, I already said the Knicks are gonna go to the final. And um now that Oklahoma City is in the Western Conference Finals, they're probably gonna end up playing San Antonio because I think San Antonio is gonna take care of uh Minnesota. Minnesota just uh, you know, Anthony Edwards just isn't right and losing the bread man. I don't think they can pull off that series now. So Oklahoma City and San Antonio are gonna play for the right to go to the finals. Whatever one of those teams wins is eventually gonna play the Knicks, and they're gonna beat the Knicks. The Knicks aren't the Knicks, the Knicks aren't good enough to beat Oklahoma City and San Antonio. But there's a certain player that could join the Knicks and make them a potential candidate, a potential championship team to beat one of those. And that's Libron. I think that's the best place for Libron to go. How great would it be to play one more season in Madison Square Garden to have every game heightened, to have every game have some kind of meeting when you're playing at home in front of those crazy fans. And then to have the team with the way they're structured, with the way they play, to get into the playoffs and then make a run with Libron on the team. He already knows the coach. He's already played for the coach. He's gone to the NBA Finals with that coach. He already knows that coach's tendencies. And he would fit in, feeding the ball to Jalen Brunson, Mikhail Bridges, Carl Athlete Towns. Libron would fit right in, fit right into their rotation, too, of players. Those guys already play enough minutes now. Josh Hart played 48 minutes in one of those games in those playoff games. This is exactly what the Knicks need, regardless of the Knicks' outcome this season. Even if somehow they don't beat Detroit or Cleveland to get to the final, getting LeBron would automatically put them in the next category and automatically lift them to get to the final. That's my Libron scenario. That's my theory. That's who I think is the best spot for him. Now, the only thing, the only thing that could hold that up, and you heard if you watched the game against Oklahoma City, Libron's last game against Oklahoma City, you heard they had his buddy Dwayne Wade on. Dwayne Wade was the color guy on the show. He was doing the color analysis along with uh Kevin Harlan. He said, regardless of where Libron goes, he's not taking a discount. Regardless of Libron's age, of gonna be 42 years old next season. Dwayne Wade said, oh, he don't play for free. So there's something to think about, though. That might be the hang up of him not getting to the next. You would think if you're Libron, you've won four NBA championships. Two with Miami, one with Cleveland, one with the Lakers. You could possibly end the Knicks drought of winning a championship. How fitting and what a closing part of your career that would be to go to the Knicks and you win a championship in New York at Madison Square Yard. I don't know what he's waiting for. He should be sitting in front row right now. Watching those games, getting to know the team, and getting to know the players to be on that team. That's what I would do if I was LeBron. You can't play till you're 50. He may be able to play until he's 45. I don't know what his plans are. But being on the Knicks, that would be something next season to watch. Um, the NFL schedule is now out. And everybody now is all set to go. Everybody knows where you're playing, everybody knows what time of year you're playing, and everybody knows when you're playing. And most importantly, the host can get going now on his win-loss predictions for the 2026 season. We have everything we need to do to get going on that. So it is now officially summer on the hosts and this show because now we can start getting into our wins and losses with our divisions, our over and unders, our predictions, and we can then go back and see how we fairly did against last season's wins and polls. And you all know the record here on this very show. We've never had a losing season with wins and losses on this show, predicting wins and losses for NFL teams. I've given you winners every year. And now that the schedule is out, we're gonna be able to continue to do that. This podcast is a 97th ranked podcast. It should be the top 10 for giving you all those winners all the time with the win with the over and unders for NFL win totals. It should be the top 10 with those free predictions out there, people. Come on, get this show up there in the rankings. So this year, we got a new 11 international games. This is this uh crazy and insane at the same time. More and more the NFL adds international games to its schedule every year. And this goes to prove that eventually that the NFL is really being serious about every team playing an international game. Of course, we got the first week right away. It happens to be a Thursday night game because the season this year is the Seattle Seahawks are opening the defense of their Super Bowl championship. Instead of the usual Thursday night opening game, they're opening on Wednesday night against the New England Patriots. So we get a rematch of the Super Bowl right off the start on a Wednesday night. And then we move to our first international game on Thursday with Rams going to San Francisco. And then here are all the rest of the international games. Dallas and Baltimore in Brazil in week three, Indianapolis and Washington and London in week four, Philadelphia and Jacksonville in London in week five. Jacksonville again at home playing Houston in week six. Pittsburgh and the Saints travel to Paris, France in week seven. Cincinnati and Atlanta travel to Spain in week nine. New England and Detroit travel to Germany in week 10. And then to wrap up the last international game, Minnesota and San Francisco travel to Mexico City. So not only does Jacksonville have two international games this season, San Francisco got roped into two international games. One in Australia and one in Mexico City. And the Minnesota, San Francisco game, the one in Mexico City, is on Sunday night football. If you can believe that. Wow. That's just uh that's just unbelievable. How many international games? And then new this season, which I still can't believe, we now have a Thanksgiving Eve game. That game, of course, will be between Green Bay and the Rams. Uh that is now Thanksgiving Eve, and then look at this lineup on Thanksgiving Day. Chicago, Detroit. And Dallas. And then the night game, Kansas City, and Buffalo. And then the Black Friday game, Denver and Pittsburgh. I guess uh Thanksgiving, you know, it was known to be hanging out with your family. Uh the NFL said, no more, you're watching the NFL on these days. Thanksgiving Eve, you know, Thanksgiving Eve was a night everyone traveled home, and then whether you're when you were younger, you went out and met friends who you haven't seen since you left for college. Well, no more. You're at home watching Green Bay and the Rams, and then you got to get up the next morning and watch three more juggernauts games. And then you got to get back up on Friday and then just sit there and do all your Christmas shopping on Amazon as you watch Denver and the Steelers. And then they're not messing around either. We move to Christmas. We have a Christmas Eve game. We have Houston and then we got Green Bay and the Bears, followed by the Bills and the Broncos, followed by the Rams and Seahawks. You know, the NBA used to own Christmas Day. NFL said, hold my beer. This is what we're doing. Christmas Day is now the NFL's. Look at that lineup of games that they're gonna be throwing at you on Christmas Day. Look at the games on Thanksgiving. This is unbelievable. Now, if everything holds true and these teams end up being good when we're that far into the season, these games are gonna be something else to watch. But you know, you know how the NFL works. There's injuries, weird things happen, teams have bad luck. Not all these teams are gonna have a great record come those games, but man, this schedule, these games sure look so juicy right now. Now, here's the only thing this is the only thing that really bothers me about the NFL. You play all these great games on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. You got all these top-notch teams. Got it on going on on Thanksgiving. You got it going on on Christmas. What's left for Sunday? I gotta watch Tennessee and Oakland on Sunday. I gotta watch Carolina on Sunday? I gotta watch the Saints and the Falcons play. What what what good teams are left to play on Sunday? Sunday's supposed to be the big day of football. Sunday's supposed to have, you know, nine, ten, eleven, twelve games going on. What games are left now? NFL? That's my only gripe. It's great. You got all these big games. You got all these big teams playing. But what's left for Sunday? I gotta watch the Jets? I mean. Right? I gotta watch the Giants? I gotta watch Cleveland? What's left on Sunday? When you got all the top teams playing already? How are you supposed to get people? Yeah, you're gonna have you're gonna have great ratings on Sunday. You're gonna have all kinds of people watching on Thanksgiving. All kinds of people watching on Christmas. What about your ratings on Sunday? How are you gonna promote that? That just seems that just seems kind of weak what you did there. You're just stretching your product out. Just maybe a little too much. Just stretching it out just a little too much. And then I found this funny. Um I know there's gonna be some fans that are uh are not happy about this, but uh amount of primetime games by NFL teams this year. So you can clearly see in the primetime games what teams the NFL wants to showcase. Seven times this season the NFL as the Rams in that primetime slot. They are far the most team in the primetime, seven times. Green Bay, Kansas City, Buffalo, Seattle, sixth in the primetime game. Dallas, Chicago, New England, San Francisco, five, five primetime games, Minnesota, Giants, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Detroit, Houston, Washington, four primetime games. Jacksonville, Denver, Cincinnati, Atlanta, Carolina, San Diego, Tampa Bay, three primetime games, Indianapolis with two, New Orleans and Cleveland with one, and then with zero primetime games. Remember, I said, I said, well, what's left for us on Sunday? Well, apparently these teams. The Jets, Arizona, Tennessee, Miami, Oakland. That's what I'm talking about, NFL. You gave us those five teams that are going to be spread out on Sunday. I mean, at least we could still do this on Sunday with those teams. I mean, that's the only thing we can hope for, right? Put a little money down, right, folks? Yeah, I mean, that's that's what we got, right? I mean, that's the only way to entertain yourself when you're left with those crappy teams. My goodness. Yeah, talk about, talk about, if you were one, if you were an owner and you found out that your team didn't have any prime time games, wouldn't you be embarrassed? Wouldn't you want to say, hey, we gotta change that? I want this team to be noticed. I want this team to be looked at a different way. I want everybody across America to see this team. Wouldn't you, wouldn't you, if you were an owner, wouldn't you be fired up to get your team out there and in the spotlight and be and what be uh you know highlighted in one of those primetime games instead of being just thrown to the wolves on Sunday at 1 p.m. Boy, the NFL you know they might be shooting themselves in the foot. I mean, great, great, great games, great teams. But man, you might be this, you might kill your ratings book on Sunday NFL by doing what you did. But we'll see. We'll see how much how we'll see how these people love the NFL, including myself, because you know I'll be there still watching on Sunday. I'll be still doing this. So uh this week, um we had some NFL news uh with a couple running backs. Uh Brees Hall uh signed uh with the Jets uh signed a three-year $45.million dollar extension to remain with the New York Jets. Uh, of course, they still have Garrett Wilson, but that's it. Uh the Jets, of course, had a little fire sale last season where they let some of their uh better players go, but they said they were gonna hold on to Brees Hall. They said they were gonna hold on to Garrett Wilson. Uh, and that's what they did. The only problem is they still don't have a quarterback. Uh, you got Geno Smith. You're right, Geno Smith. But, you know, he played so poorly last year on Oakland that you have no idea what he's gonna provide this year for the Jets. Uh, you know, being his age, being the uh condition he's in. And, you know, the Jets are just a uh a miserable team. Uh and then how fitting is it that, you know, they're probably the third or fourth best team in the AFC, and here they are giving uh a contract like that to Brees Hall. I know Buffalo gave James Cook last year a big deal, and now uh a few days after that, uh the Miami Dolphins gave Devon Achen a four-year, $68 million deal to remain with the team. So, two bad franchises right now. Oh, look at that. They're on the uh no primetime game list. Uh, and they just signed uh Brees Hall to extension the Jets, and then the Dolphins gave uh Achan a four-year, $68 million extension. And you know, Tyree Hill is just standing there with his arms up here, like, and you let me go? Well, yeah, you've got a bad leg uh knee. They weren't gonna give you any more money, Tyree. So uh they want to show their fan base, hey, look, we're trying to compete still. Look at us, uh, our running backs. We gave them a big deal. They're gonna stay and uh help anchor the third and fourth best team uh and in the AFC East. Which one of those two? Uh is the those teams are gonna finish? Maybe the Dolphins will finish third and the Jets fourth, or maybe the Jets will finish third in the Dolphins fourth. But uh, you know, two bad teams. But maybe, you know, only hope is uh Miami has Malik Willis uh that they signed, of course, from uh Green Bay, and they also hired Green Bay's defensive coordinator uh to be their Jeff Hatley to be their head coach. So I I would I would think by that right there, uh and you know, they would have more of a chance to turn it around before the Jets, because of course the Jets kept stupid ass Aaron Glenn, and like I just said, they got Gino Smith. So um that's we'll be uh continuing on uh with those uh NFL teams will be doing that. Um I found this pretty uh interesting, and I know it's some Steeler talk, and I know a lot of you guys don't want to hear Steeler talk, but I actually do have a lot of Steeler fans that follow this show. This came from an ex-defensive Steeler player. Uh, this guy, and again, I don't know who it is, but this is a guy who was recently let go from playing on the Steelers, and he played several seasons under Mike Tomlin and that Steeler defense. He was recently let go and he is signed on with another team. Now, this was all all these comments were uh kept keep his name off the record. They uh didn't want him, he didn't want his name getting out saying he was the person making these comments, but this is what he said about the Steelers' defense. And this is what I've been saying, by the way. This is this is what I don't understand. So he he came out and said this when I played for the Pittsburgh Steelers and Mike Tomlin, Mike Tomlin kept the defensive scheme very simple. It never changed from week to week. They kept it simple, and this let us do very simple things without really mixing it up. Mike Tomlin spoke all the time in practice and all the time in meetings, and the main thing that he always focused on was getting takeaways and getting sacks and making splash plays. That's all he focused on was getting the takeaway and getting to the quarterback. He said they had 10 to 12 looks that they would do on defense, and the scheme was the same thing on every play, on every defensive call, the scheme was the same, it never changed. It just we just mixed the lookup, look around 10 to 12 different ways. He said some teams figured it out right away and knew what to do offensively, some teams didn't figure it out until the fourth quarter, and he said some teams never figured it out. So think about that. You gotta think like Joe Burrow and the Bengals have figured out what the Steelers defense do because they always put up points against them. You gotta figure that LeMar and Baltimore figured out what they do because they're always scoring points against them, they're always guys wide open. But this think about that. This ex-Steeler player said Mike Tomlin kept things so simple that he never changed anything, and they kept the same defensive call every play, but just changed the look of the defense. And like I've been saying, that explains so much. Now, again, this guy kept his name out of the article, kept his name out of being thrown out there. I scurried, of course, scurried over the last few seasons, and I tried to find out of who it could have been. Now, there's several players that used to play on the Steelers that are all over the place right now on various teams. One cornerback that could have said all this, I think, would be Achillia Witherspoon, who played for the Rams, who plays for the Rams right now. He played on that Steelers team and he was let go. And of course, he he went on the Rams and he became a pretty good player. I almost want to think that was him. It was an anonymous player. I almost think it was him that could have said these comments. I'm not sure though. I'm not sure. I'm just saying it could have been him. But man, look at it this way. Think about this. If that's what they were really doing, and think about the better teams figured it out. Cincinnati with their offense, Joe Burrow, Limar, Baltimore. They've they figured out how to be the Mahomes and the Chiefs, they figured out how to beat Pittsburgh's defense. Josh Allen and the Bills, right? Better better players figured it out. Some teams didn't figure out that they were doing the same thing until the fourth quarter. That's what this ex-player said. Okay, all right. At least you still figure it out. How dumb of a coaching staff do you have on your team that you couldn't figure out? Let's look at that. Wouldn't you love to know who those teams were? Oh, probably Cleveland. I mean, they hardly scored any points against Pittsburgh's defense. Think about that. Think about the dumb coaching staff. If this is all really true, that couldn't figure it out. I mean, you gotta be kidding me, you gotta be absolutely kidding me. If this is one of the reasons why I wanted to get rid of Mike Tomlin. But I didn't want to go down the Mike McCarthy road. But this was one of the main reasons why I wanted Mike Tomlin gone was because of situations that are coming up like this right here, what this ex-player is mentioning. This is why. I still can't believe it. I still can't believe that their defense with all those high-priced players was made that simple. Now I'm curious to see what this new guy does. And who knows? Maybe they'll be successful with it, maybe they won't be. But it makes sense, right? He said the key thing here that Tomlin used to focus on were the splash plays. And they did. And I'm not gonna take that away. We'll see if Patrick Graham, that now that he's taken over this defense, we'll see if those splash plays are still a high priority in the Steelers' defense. But man, does that make Mike Tomlin look bad, those comments? If they are really true. Wow. Um anybody see this the other night? Um the Red Sox are playing really bad baseball this season. Um, of course, they've already fired their manager. Um, fans are upset. Uh you know, just they made the playoffs last year, and things are going fairly well. Uh two Red Sox fans were caught in the second row behind home plate wearing paper bags over their head. Uh the Red Sox were getting beat really bad in the game, and two Red Sox fans were wearing paper bags over their heads. Now, we've seen all kinds of this before in the past. We've seen a lot of NFL teams uh fans wear bags over their heads. We've seen Jets fans do it. We've seen Giants fans do it in the last few years. We always see the Cleveland Browns fans wearing bags over their heads. You know, and that fan base is used to wearing paper bags over their heads. They probably keep one in their back pocket. Uh, Red Sox fans, uh, and the you know, the ownership and the team and the everybody there, they're not used to this kind of losing. Well, these fans, uh, security came over and they were told to remove the bags off their heads. The fans refused, and they were escorted out of the baseball stadium. Escorted right out of Fenway Park. Fenway Park and Red Sox management wasn't having it at all. No fans can wear bags over their heads, no matter how bad you're playing in Boston. That's how that's how highly they think of themselves, of you know, that's where they think of their their uh whether their uh franchise stands in the ranks of you know being up there. Oh, us Boston Red Sox fans. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. There's no bag, paper bag wearing over your head here on these stands. We don't do that. We don't stoop that low. So out the fans went when they refused to wear them, and that sends a message to the rest of the year that hey, you come into Fenway Park, you put a paper bag over your head, you're out. You're up out back on the street, out going to the bar, getting a beer there, and watching a game there. Because us Red Sox fans, we're not putting up with that. Oh man. Boy, tough times up there in Boston. Uh, with the Red Sox, uh, the Celtics, Mike Vrabel, oh the Bruins, tough, tough times up there. Now fans can't wear bags over their heads. Boy, oh boy, oh boy. See what happens? Not always good times up there in Boston. But that's all I got for you on this show, folks. Again, thank you as always. And you heard my um uh show last week about the whole thing with the um with about the tipping. I know, I know some of you want to hear emails. I I this is not an email show. So I appreciate the emails from from you listeners, from you fans out there. I appreciate them. But it doesn't always mean I'm gonna read them and what they say right here on the show. But anyway, you know where to get the show by now, that's the host of Steel DF on the Twitter, X, whatever. Spotify, iHeartRadio, Google Podcasts, Podcast Eck, and as always, Amazon Music. And yes, it's nice to be important, but more important to be nice. You know, this is my favorite band, of course, Iron Maid. And I feel like I I don't play enough show. I always drift away and play other bands. And I know I've played this song before, but this is of course after the last album that they came out with one. I I I saw them play this goal. I'm sorry, I saw him play this song live.