Two for the Win
Mike is a U.S. Navy Veteran and Bryan has more than a decade of civil service experience. Together, these blue collar guys dissect the latest sports headlines and events.
Two for the Win
Two For The Win - E21 - Stories From Beyond The Scoreboard, NFL Free Agency Madness
The sporting world never stands still, and in this jam-packed episode, we navigate through the whirlwind of developments happening across multiple leagues as spring competitions heat up and professional teams reposition themselves for success.
We kick things off with a bizarre headline about a former Olympic snowboarder turned international drug kingpin before diving into Tiger Woods' latest setback – a ruptured Achilles that threatens to derail his Masters comeback. The injury comes just as Woods was finding his groove in the innovative TCL virtual golf league, where professional golfers compete on simulators with mechanized greens that shift to replicate real course conditions.
As MLB spring training gains momentum, we explore the upcoming Tokyo series between the Cubs and Dodgers that will officially launch the 2025 season on international soil. The Red Sox face an interesting dilemma with Trace Thompson (brother of NBA stars) who's scorching spring training pitching, while former MVP Mo Vaughn makes headlines with his admission of HGH use during his later career to manage knee pain.
The conversation shifts to basketball, where Angel Reese's threats of a WNBA player sit-out over collective bargaining negotiations have raised eyebrows – particularly as the league experiences unprecedented attention with Caitlin Clark's arrival. Meanwhile, Steph Curry continues his remarkable Madison Square Garden dominance, and smaller market teams like Cleveland and OKC are challenging the NBA's traditional power structure.
The meat of our discussion focuses on the explosive first days of NFL free agency. We break down the Buffalo Bills' strategic moves to support Josh Allen, the Patriots' gritty rebuild under Mike Vrabel, Washington's acquisition of Debo Samuel, and the 49ers' calculated approach to weathering their mass exodus of talent. Each transaction tells a story about team direction and championship aspirations.
Whether you're preparing your March Madness bracket, tracking NFL roster transformations, or simply trying to keep pace with the constant evolution of professional sports, this episode offers the context and analysis you need to understand what matters most in today's sports landscape.
welcome back, everybody on this march 13th 2025 evening. It's a little chilly, a little cloudy out there. Thank you once again for joining us for another fantastic conversation all about sports. I'm brian with an eye and I'm mike and Two for the Win. Mike, give us a glimpse of what we got on tonight's agenda. Man, we got a lot of things packed in here.
Speaker 2:Yeah well, I mean spring training's off and running. We're heading towards that start of the MLB season. We're heading towards March Madness. Everybody's ramping up. I mean we've got all the different brackets and conferences figuring out their winners right now to round out that bracket. And you know nba is hard charging towards the postseason. So we're going to check in with them. And if you haven't been paying attention to nfl this past week, you have missed a lot oh yeah are flying absolutely.
Speaker 1:Nfl offseason get ready to kick off actually kind of has kicked off with free agency been a wild first three days of free agency period, but we'll get into that a little bit later here. Kicking off the top of our agenda here tonight uh, just a little bit of funny business here. Maybe y'all have heard a former olympic snowboarder turned drug kingpin. Uh, this guy has had a 10 million dollar bounty, uh, put on his head. This is like a movie plot. Let me, let me try to get his name here real quick mike, what do you make of this?
Speaker 2:this is like the plot of a bad movie here well, I mean, you know, he knows a little thing about powder, in more ways than one. I guess you know if he's becoming a drug kingpin.
Speaker 1:Somebody should have told him, the 80s is over yeah, I mean I'm sure you know, I'm sure cocaine's a hell of a drug yeah and and uh, you know, this guy, kevin andrew crease, uh, you know, won the olympics for snowboarding, was very competitive snowboarder, but you know, like you said, I mean guy's a big fan Snow, so he's a drug kingpin got a $10 million bounty. I just thought that was a hilarious headline. We're not going to dive too deep into it, but it just sounds like a bad movie plot to me.
Speaker 2:All I can think of is like that Dave Chappelle skit with the crackhead. It's like hey, joe Rogan, you ever done crack before?
Speaker 1:How do you go? I mean, I can only imagine there probably are avenues, but how do you go from being an Olympic athlete to international drug kingpin, by the way, depending on how you view it? Congratulations on your success, sir, I mean if you're going to go that way, but at the same time, I don't.
Speaker 2:I mean, you must have done something right. $10 million bounty on you, yeah, geez.
Speaker 1:But that's crazy to me. I thought that was funny. Hopefully you guys enjoy that bit of news as well and take it to your daily watering hole. Shout it out, anyway. Next we've got a little more serious news here Coming out of the world of PGA. Tiger Woods trying to make a comeback, his career, trying to get in there one last time. Uh, major setback. Uh has ruptured his achilles ahead of starting the 2025 master season. Uh, his last major action was in the summer 24. Uh, just hasn't quite made it out since then. Well, what do you make of this, mike? How does this affect him?
Speaker 2:Well, it's crazy because it wasn't like he was doing something out of the norm, he was just practicing at home and he ruptured his Achilles. So I mean no one accuses Tiger of not being fit or not putting forth the best effort to get in shape, because I mean he's dealt with some serious injuries over the years.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And it has affected his play. I mean so much so that he's gotten different swing coaches and different changes to his career over the years to get himself ready to play in these conditions that he's unfortunately gone through, ready to play in these conditions that he's unfortunately gone through, and I mean he was recently just playing in. They have this new virtual league. What is it? I think it's TCL. Yeah, I saw that TCL they can practice indoors too.
Speaker 2:For those of you who haven't seen it or know about it, espn put together this thing with Tiger Woods and a bunch of other sponsors a lot of people that aren't even involved with golf and so they have a golf simulator and they're basically shooting at the screen and playing around a golf, but not having to walk to each hole. Now I understand you're probably thinking well, you have major golfers playing at a simulator, like what good is this? Well, they also have a green in this facility that actually moves and manipulates and changes its shape, so they can still set up, like when they get on the green putt. So there's an extra little level there. And Tiger Woods actually had a little faux pas a little while back. He asked his caddie what the distance was and his caddie said 199. What Tiger heard was 99. So he grabbed his pitching wedge and he hit every bit of like 110 with his pitching wedge and he's like well, what you told me, 99. He goes. No, I told you 199.
Speaker 1:So he came up way short.
Speaker 2:He came up way short and all of his buddies were laughing at him.
Speaker 1:But why the caddy didn't stop him man? Hey man, you grabbed the wrong club.
Speaker 2:Okay, think about this for a second. You're going to tell Tiger Woods that he's not using the right club after you told him the distance.
Speaker 1:But if it seems arbitrarily off, don't you think you'd want to double check? Hey man, you heard I said $199, right? Not you know.
Speaker 2:Hey, either way, it made for good TV because the other golfers by the way, these golfers are miked when all this is going on. The other golfers looked at Tiger and was like what were you thinking? What was going on?
Speaker 1:He's like I heard the wrong thing, like uh-huh okay, and here you see a real life example of don't question, don't question, but so don't ask questions.
Speaker 2:that that whole simulated golf scenario. It's. It's interesting like they have them broken up into different teams, kind of like you would with any sport. They're from different regions, different areas and they team up to play other golfers from different areas. It's a very interesting thing. It usually happens on a Tuesday night. So what are you doing on a Tuesday night? Probably nothing.
Speaker 1:It's worth checking in. Honestly, Tiger's injury aside, I like the advancement in sports technology, not just for sports medicine, but now also for sports advancement.
Speaker 2:Entertainment.
Speaker 1:Advancing your skills. Yeah, it is entertainment too. I've heard of TCL Well it's faster.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's faster. They don't have to walk the course, they're right there already.
Speaker 1:I think it's a great idea, an interesting idea. Sorry for Tiger Woods and his injury. Unfortunately he'll have to wait a little bit longer to make his comeback, if at all.
Speaker 2:Well, let me ask you something Do you think he wins another Masters?
Speaker 1:You know, I think if he can get back on the green absolutely I think it's a possibility I think he could win another Masters. He's easily one of the most decorated golfers in history.
Speaker 2:I know, but I don't know man, Personally, I don't think he'll ever win another one. I think the injuries have caught up to him.
Speaker 1:The Achilles rupture yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, he's not too far removed from when he had the car crash. You know where he basically drove off a cliff.
Speaker 1:You know, that was like 10 years ago, right.
Speaker 2:It doesn't feel like it. It feels like it was. I know it feels like it was just yesterday, but you've got to remember like he really screwed himself up in that, like he hurt his back, he screwed up his hip, his knee. I think he fractured one of his ankles. He's all screwed up from that. And then let's not forget his wife smacking him over the head with a golf club years ago.
Speaker 1:Hopefully it was a graphite club so it breaks easier, not a steel rod club. But yeah, you're right, the injuries seem to add up and I definitely feel, especially now, with the Achilles. I mean when you hit that ball you're snapping your ACL and you're snapping your Achilles as hard as you can on that leg. So it doesn't seem likely, but I think if he could get back up, well, there's a will, there's a way. I would like to think he could, but you know, I could just be being optimistic.
Speaker 2:I'm not saying this might be optimistic me. I'm not saying I wouldn't want him to, I'm just saying I don't think it'll happen no, I would love to see it happen, because I mean, let's face it, before tiger, was anybody really paying attention to golf? Yeah he kind of made golf cool, I mean he did, and I'm along with you.
Speaker 1:Know his name slips my mind now, but he's the other high-character guy. I like him, dang man. Why can't I never? Why does this always happen when we go on air?
Speaker 2:Anyway, don't worry about it, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I see what you're saying, but I'd like to have confidence that he could do it again if he really wanted to. But again depends on how and if he comes back from another injury.
Speaker 2:Exactly, exactly.
Speaker 1:But you know, good luck to him in that. Let's move on into the world of MLB here. Mike, where are we going with this one? Oh man, we're going to change the trajectory a little bit here. Switch up gears.
Speaker 2:So I wanted to bring this up in case people didn't know, the MLB season is going to have like a mini pre-kickoff. Now what I mean by that is the Cubs and Dodgers are actually going to kick off the season early in about a week and, you know, it kind of snuck up on everybody. The reason being is they're going over to Tokyo to play some games. Over in Tokyo, which you know, you're getting Cubs, dodgers and, let's face it, dodgers got a lot of Japanese players now, so it's going to be very cool for them.
Speaker 1:Took the words right out of my mouth.
Speaker 2:So that will be officially the start of their season. Now, opening day is not in March, it's in April, but these teams will kick off these games. These games will count towards their season.
Speaker 1:And not only that they're going to have the current reigning world champs in their country for the first game of the season against another prominent MLB franchise, mind you, with a long storied history themselves in the Cubs. So, this should be a great matchup and one well worth it for Tokyo, so I think they should be excited. I'm excited just to read about it.
Speaker 2:Well, speaking of Dodgers success, it kind of led to something else that happened with the Dodgers. Dave Roberts, their manager, recently agreed to a four-year extension worth $34.2 million. So you win the World Series. It's the perfect time to negotiate for a contract.
Speaker 1:So he got his extension. Hey, you want a winner on your team, right, right, I'm a winner.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. Well, that's the funny thing. You say that he is a winner. He won with the Red Sox back when the Red Sox were winning their World Series championships, and he also did it as a manager with the Dodgers, so he's done it twice. But moving on speaking of Red Sox, the Red Sox have an interesting dilemma on their hands, so Alex Cora, the manager of the Reds, is going to have to make a really tough decision on a player on his team right now, trace Thompson. Trace Thompson has been lighting up spring training baseball. He has six home runs throughout spring training so far and in that time he has batted 9 for 23, for a 9.31 batting average with those six home runs and 12 RBIs.
Speaker 1:Is it 9.31 or 3.91? 3.91. Sorry about that.
Speaker 2:Fine, 3.91. Anyway, point being, he's lighting it up, he's playing great baseball and he did this all in a 15-game span, so that's not a lot of time to already be up to 12 home runs or 12 RBIs. That means he's almost had an RBI every single game. Scorching, he's just scorching, based on average, this guy's red hot. Here's the fun fact about Trace Thompson he's the brother of one former NBA player, michael Thompson, and his brother.
Speaker 1:Clay.
Speaker 2:Thompson, who's also an NBA player. You should know because he was with the Golden State Warriors and playing with Steph Curry and all them and winning championships. So little fun fact that their brother is also athletic, but in another sport.
Speaker 1:No surprise there.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I mean you've got to give a tip of the cap to somebody like that because he's making the manager's job a little harder when he's got, when he's got to sit there and go. Do I make an extra spot for this guy?
Speaker 1:it's all down to the miners.
Speaker 2:He's got to figure it out that's right.
Speaker 2:It's all in the flick of the wrist, said the pitcher speaking of figuring things out and trying to, you know, get your career going or keep your career going in this case. So one of my favorite players from way back the longtime Boston Red Sox first baseman, mo Vaughn, who was a MVP in 1995 in the American League, admitted that he used HGH or human growth hormone. Now it's coming out as a lot of these players used to use this stuff or admitting to using these products. Now, mind you, during Mo's time, hgh was not banned. Hgh did not become a banned substance until 2005. His career ended in 2003. So he fell short of the being suspended era, but during his career, you know, he was a good player. Like I said, he won an MVP and he is in the Red Sox Hall of Fame. He was inducted in 2008 for the Red Sox but his name was included in the 2007 Mitchell's Report.
Speaker 2:Now the Mitchell's Report was a senator who did some investigating on MLB and finding out which players used steroids or used human growth hormone and trying to figure out how this all came about. Now Mo Vaughn admittedly said he only used human growth hormone to inject into his knee because he was having knee issues later in his career. So he played one year with the Angels and he had the unfortunate situation where he rolled his ankle and screwed up his knee all at the same time and so he was kind of really suffering at that point in time and he only played one year with the Angels and then he went to the Mets. Now a Mets trainer openly admitted that he used the HGH because he said he got him the HGH. He said he never used steroids because he was too afraid of the needle. He said the needle was too big and he was too scared of using it.
Speaker 1:How ironic Man's afraid of needles.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but it's not the first player you've heard say that, hey, I use this stuff to help continue my career or prolong my career, because, let's face it, every year you've got more people trying to come up and take your job, so you're trying to keep in the game and keep your consistent level up. And I don't know, I mean, should this affect his legacy?
Speaker 1:Well, a lot of these guys, especially winners, once people start winning, they feel like they have to keep on winning and find a way to stay winning.
Speaker 2:Is it, is it that or is it there? I don't condone it. They've had a lifetime of being on top, and not being on top makes them feel less.
Speaker 1:Well, I think there's also that too. Like, I think, if you're young and you're winning, you want to stay winning as long as you can. But, like you say, the flip side of that is number one, you got to do it safely and legally. But number two, every athlete and this is just part of having a career in general for anybody learning when the time to begin to step back or to step back right, learning when to change your role. You might not quit the sport, but you might have to come to terms with the fact that you are not the 22-year-old player that you once were and maybe it's time for a role change. Maybe it's time to gracefully step back.
Speaker 1:A lot of players can't do that. A lot of top of players can't do that. A lot of top-name players can't do that. As far as trying to, you know, step out of the limelight or let the next generation, you know, pass the torch, so to speak, I think a lot of people do have trouble with it. But again, I think their need and hunger to win and keep on winning and, like you say, for some of them, the need to stay at the top because they just simply, whatever the case, it would be the end of them or it's just whatever kind of deal breaker it is. So you know, I think a lot goes into it, but I don't think using steroids hgh is a good answer. Uh, I never have thought that. But again, you know, um, I've never, I've never been a pro level athlete. But I'm gonna go ahead and let you take this from here, mike, what you got for me bud.
Speaker 2:So it's funny you should say that sometimes players don't really know when to say when sometimes, or they don't know what they're going to do. I heard an interview with Joey Votto, former first baseman of the Reds, now Joey Votto. Through his career he had been an outstanding player. Now Joey Votto through his career he'd been an outstanding player, perennial, all-star, just fan favorite throughout baseball kind of respected guy. But his last season with the Reds he was basically told hey, man, we're going to move on, so you won't be a redneck season if you want to play. And he came to grips with that and he went into free agency and he wound up signing with the minor league affiliate of the Blue Jays. Now you would say, okay, well, if you've had a career where you've been in the majors for almost 20 years, you're going to take a step back and play at a lower level of ball. You're going to take a step back and play at a lower level ball.
Speaker 2:And he told this story where he says he was sitting on the bench and the manager comes up to him to say we need you to get the bat and go up there and take a designated hit. Go up there and hit for this guy and it was like almost an epiphany moment. He said he was sitting there and he kind of he rubbed his knee for a second and he looked up and down the bench and he looked over at his hitting coach and he looked over at his skip and he said I don't think I want to do this anymore. He's like what, Let somebody else have the hit. And he said, right at that moment, it's when he realized I don't want to play anymore. You know, like right in the middle of a game in the minors, he realized I don't want to play anymore, I'm done with this chapter. And it just hit him right then and there, you know it wasn't like in an offseason, he was sitting at home, he was convinced I don't want to play anymore. It's just like it came to the moment.
Speaker 1:Sometimes it happens like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sometimes that's what happens. You know players don't know when it's win. You know when to say my career is done. You know not every player gets the send-off. You know where they win a championship or win a Super Bowl, or you know it just ends. And you know, for some of these players, when they were using growth hormones to keep them in the game some of them, I understand, because of the age, because of what they were doing, where they were doing it you know if the guy has knee pain, he's ejecting his knee, he's not. He's not taking steroids to get bigger, stronger, faster, to hit home runs, he's just trying not to play in pain yeah, so I can understand that he's.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's just trying to get a temporary fix to get through the next event or get through this part of his career but at the same time, if you've never tried to hit a fastball over 95 miles an hour, you have no idea how hard that really is. Until you're standing there and someone throws it and you go. What the heck was that? Because the ball comes, I'm, I'm telling you.
Speaker 2:You hear the laces ripping through the air yeah that ball is moving so fast and it when it hits the glove and you know you hear it just kind of go swag as it hits the glove and it's like god dang well, I I can just imagine like a ball moving 95 miles an hour.
Speaker 1:okay, have you ever been clipped by a car doing 30 to 40 miles an hour? By the mirror or something? Right, yeah, you know how bad that hurts. Imagine a baseball.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Which has more density than a car mirror, by the way.
Speaker 2:Remember when I said I've had cracked ribs before. It's because I got hit in the ribs. It hurts by a car in fact I'm just kidding.
Speaker 1:No, no, it wasn't by a car Anyway.
Speaker 2:Ironic we're on this subject. But point being for me, I'm not going to hold it against Mo at all, you know, at least he admitted it and for me he was a good player. He was a good player before he used it, because he didn't use it until he got hurt and he was in the Mets organization. So to me that means all that stuff he did with the Red Sox we can't be mad about it because he probably was clean the whole time.
Speaker 1:We hope.
Speaker 2:I hope so.
Speaker 1:We give him the benefit of the doubt.
Speaker 2:I mean, yeah, you give him the benefit of the doubt and most people, you've got to take them for their word until they've proven otherwise you can't. Yeah, but I'm going to take him at his word because to this point he hasn't done things to make me feel like I can't trust his word. You know, yeah, he finally admitted to it. You know, but he didn't have to, he didn't have to. There's a lot of guys on that list from that Mitchell report that have never openly said they did or didn't do the things they were accused of. Mark McGuire he kind of admitted to it. There were plenty of players after all this that got multiple times suspended that are still involved in baseball, which I have an issue with. Alex Rodriguez, I mean you.
Speaker 1:A-Rod.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you get banned not once, not twice, but three times for doing the same shit.
Speaker 1:Wait, isn't banning. Doesn't that mean never again?
Speaker 2:When you get banned.
Speaker 1:Does it mean you're never coming?
Speaker 2:back. Let me rephrase that Suspended. He was suspended three different times for using banned substances Three times.
Speaker 1:Well, some people are just always going to try to skirt the system and go figure.
Speaker 2:Majority of those times was when he was with a New York team, the Yankees.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it didn't seem to help him because they just lost to the Dodgers at home.
Speaker 2:Well, and the Yankees at that time remember this was a different era for them, true, true, true. They had multiple players on that report during the time where they made them stretch runs, where they were owning baseball. So, yeah, you might as well just delete everything from the Yankees from about 90 to about 2013, because all tainted.
Speaker 1:Damn Yanks.
Speaker 2:So in my opinion, so you guys can make your own opinion on that one, but I'm just saying, when you have multiple people pop and you got multiple trainers that admit that they helped.
Speaker 1:It's funny.
Speaker 2:I'm beginning to think it's an organizational problem.
Speaker 1:It's funny. What if they were only going for one or two people and then they pulled a a group sample and then, like suddenly all their players started popping. They're like whoa, we got a problem here, bro. We. We thought we were only targeting one guy, but we got a lot of guys this guy was confused.
Speaker 2:He shit in the cup. Why didn't he pee in it?
Speaker 1:yeah, this guy. He went number two in the cup. Let's run where let's. Can we cut this guy? This guy's gone, he he's never going to make it All right.
Speaker 1:Well, moving on through that though interesting story let's get into some WNBA action. We don't have a lot, but the one thing we do have is kind of a big deal. You know you want to take the lead on this, mike. You want me to lead in with it.
Speaker 1:Angel Reese, basically, you know she was a rookie last year at the WNBA, so I guess now she has a voice among her superiors but comes out. You know, if you're not aware, the WNBA is in the middle of trying to renegotiate their collective bargaining agreement. Angel Reese says that they're quote sitting out trying to renegotiate their collective bargaining agreement. Andrew Reese says that they're quote sitting out if the players don't get what they want in the new deal. Now, for me personally, this is slightly unprofessional. I get that sports stars say, oh, I'm sitting out because I was especially nfl stars, right, um, I get kind of where she's coming from. But at the same time, is this a professional dynamic when, as wmb player wmba player you clearly know the wmba has mostly lost money for the entirety of its existence. Go ahead, mike.
Speaker 2:This isn't the first time we've had collective bargaining agreements go awry and people strike or sit out or decide they're not playing. Because this is the reason we don't have a World Series winner in 1994, because the baseball season was abruptly ended and they went on strike. So the fact that they want to try to barter a better agreement now, it depends on what they're asking for. To me, if you're just flat out going, y'all need to pay us, you know 10 times what more. And but if you're saying, hey, we want better healthcare, hey, we would like better training facilities, you know, to get back from injuries, better, we want, you know. You know, maybe, maybe they want an extra day of rest in between games or something. These things I can agree with and understand. But if this is just, you know we want more money, well, you need to go ahead, turn back around and look at who's been paying for your league for the past few decades.
Speaker 2:The NBA has been flipping the bill for this league to be standing up. So if you're going to sit here and say we want more money, well then you need to stop pissing on the cash cow that you have, because your cash cow right now is Kaitlyn Clark. She's drawing more eyes to the sport, opening eyes to the rest of the league, which should be a good thing. Now, granted, are you mad because she's getting all this hype and she's getting all this notoriety? Probably because you might feel like, hey, I'm just as good, if not better. Maybe Not saying the NBA doesn't have other good players, because they do. They have always had good players. Nobody has noticed. So what is happening at this point is don't look a gift horse in the mouth, just accept the fact that she is helping bring eyes that will bring money to your sport. You guys already have private planes now, which you didn't before. What you got there, brian?
Speaker 1:No, no, you're good. Take your time, man. I think this is a good conversation. Honestly, I'm not going to get into whether or not who's good players who's not, because this is not about who's good and who's not. This is a political play. In my opinion and I think Angel Reese is I think some of it has to do with Kate and Clark, because they have a very fiery feud ever since, obviously, they've been in the NBA draft.
Speaker 2:The thing I see here— Well, it goes back to college. Yeah, yeah it goes— Because, remember, Angel Reese won a championship and Kaitlyn didn't.
Speaker 1:Yeah and they—yeah it goes back to college, but what I'm seeing here, I'm not seeing any other WNBA players. Echo Angel Reese's public comments.
Speaker 2:And don't get me wrong. Well, think about it. Sometimes you don't want to be the tall nail and get hammered. Sometimes people will elect to say you know what you stand up for us, go to management and you be our for lack of a better way of saying it you be our voice. Pass through everything we're saying to them so they understand where we're coming from.
Speaker 1:I think that could be going on a little bit. I think this is a political play for it. I think she sees an opportunity to make her name bigger is a political play for it. I think she sees an opportunity to make her name bigger, um, just because and give me just a second. But like I, I, um sorry, I lost my thought for a second. It happens sometimes, especially when we're on air for whatever reason. But I, I think this is a political play. I I think this should stay behind closed doors because what I think she's hoping for, kind of like the NFL right, I think she came out publicly because she was hoping for public outrage. She was hoping for public pressure on the owners to increase. And don't get me wrong, they don't make a lot. I mean, as a shipyard worker, I make more than she does right now. They only make about $70,000, $80,000.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well the W. As a shipyard worker. I make more than she does right now. They only make about $70,000, $80,000.
Speaker 2:Yeah well, the WNBA has historically not made a lot of money, and I do believe that what you're saying is true. She's hoping to gain some notoriety out of it, but I think that it's not so much that she's doing it to elevate herself as much as they're using her celebrity Because, let's face it, everybody's probably seen it by now she has her own meal at McDonald's. So obviously she's one of the faces of the league, and when you need people to stand up to voice for a league, you get the people that you can that have notoriety to stand up.
Speaker 1:You get the people that you can that have notoriety to stand up, because it's going to mean more getting her to stand up and say something than you know somebody off the liberty that you've never even heard of, and I like that she's standing up and that she is kind of taking the front runner position on this. In the grand scheme of things, there should be a more experienced WNBA player with more WNBA clout leading this charge, so what you're saying is more of a veteran.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there should be a veteran leading this charge. To me, what this looks like is there's a very young, still very new player trying to make a lot of noise, politically getting involved, but listen.
Speaker 2:I don't know if I would say politically. I think I would say more she's trying to be polarizing.
Speaker 1:Well, she is polarizing because she has a platform and she does talk a lot and her boyfriend plays for the Bears, or maybe he did, I don't know if he got that. No, no.
Speaker 2:She's dating an NBA player. I thought You're thinking of the Bears player dating the Olympic gymnast. Oh, yeah, yeah, that girl. Why do you do this to me? I'm drawing a blank on her name. It's like a disease. Simone Biles, simone Biles, I'll just pass it on, simone.
Speaker 1:Biles, simone Biles. I'll just pass it on Simone Biles, simone Biles. Yeah, that's who I'm thinking of. Sorry, I got my information mixed up.
Speaker 2:She's dating Owens. He's a special teamer on the Bears, that's right.
Speaker 1:I got my information mixed up on that. I'm sorry y'all.
Speaker 2:But no, reese is dating an NBA player.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I forget which one. Negotiations are always going to be hard between players and CBAs and the leagues, because everybody wants something and usually you have to give up things to get things. And I think if they can come to an agreement where they say, as the league grows, the wages should grow as well, and if they can come to that realization that, hey, our league is pulling better money, better odds, they should be able to then get part of those odds. The more money you bring in, there should be a trickle-down effect. If that's what they're trying to do, they should have every right to do that. If you work for a company that started out with a stock price that's down around $4 a share and then the share's up at $130 a share, you're going to be looking at your boss like, hey, we were here.
Speaker 2:Share, yeah, you're going to be looking at your boss like hey, yeah, we were here from the from the jump. Can we, can we start getting a little extra out of here? And this might also lead to some other things, because it's not necessarily always about the active players too. This could be that retired players, like you know, retired NFL players they get some healthcare and stuff after they're done with their career, provided from the NFL if you meet the vet minimum. Now, that could be something they're trying to agree upon too, because, let's face it, after you're done with your WNBA career, you might have some lingering injuries, knee issues, hip issues, maybe a shoulder issue and maybe you need that health care later on in life. So this could be a lot more to it than just simply pay us.
Speaker 1:I mean, I'm sure there's more to it, it's just the optics looks bad to me, Like you're a very young player and I love young players getting involved, but this is also a closed-doors conversation. Like why are you dragging this out into the public?
Speaker 2:Well, again, they're not the only ones that have done this in the past.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're not.
Speaker 2:There's been other leagues and other players that have done this in the past. Oh yeah, I think what you're saying by having one person who's very young and very new in the league is a very bad look.
Speaker 2:Um, but I think that if you could band some players together to have a press conference with multiple players, yeah some new, some old and I don't mean by age, by age, but they've been in the league for a few years kind of thing where we can say, look, hey, look, this is what we've been going through. All we're asking is for better amenities. We're asking for better training facilities or better healthcare or just simple stuff. If they're asking for these simple things, well yeah, sit down and have a press conference and make it known and say, look, it's not just Angel Reese, it's not just a money grab, it's multiple things. Worries collectively.
Speaker 1:No, I agree with you and I think if this really is a united front, if she really does have support, then I think she should get it. It doesn't have to be a whole group of them, it could be like three of them. Right, as long as you got somebody standing shoulder to shoulder or behind you when you're making these statements. That is what carries legitimacy. Ok, one player coming up, especially a player who just got drafted.
Speaker 2:Also too okay, one player coming out, especially a player who just got drafted. Well, also too. I mean like, is this? This is a tmz kind of thing, you know, where somebody runs up and puts a mic in your face and says, hey, what do you think of the collective bargaining agreement?
Speaker 1:no, she's come out with this multiple times, has doubled down on it multiple times. Podcast tv shows like this is angel reese is what she's saying. What I want to know is does she really have the support to be saying these things, which I'm sure she's said it enough now, you know. But you know, maybe some of these girls are thinking about sitting out the next season. But if they, are.
Speaker 1:We'll find out if there's not a season but if I'm saying, if you want to be taken seriously and I'm not saying Angel Reese isn't a serious person or a serious promoter, okay, what I'm saying is her experience level is not there, her age and maturity is not there and she doesn't have anybody publicly backing her up. That is my issue with it backing her up. That is my issue with it. So what?
Speaker 2:if somebody came out and supported her. A veteran player came out and said I agree with Angel we do need these things. If somebody came out and said that, would you feel that there's more truth to what she is saying or it gives it more clout?
Speaker 1:I would feel that they're putting up a more organized effort to get what they want. Instead of, okay, angel reese is saying this, caitlin clark's over here not doing anything, she doesn't want to sit out. These girls over here from mercury they're like kind of cool with angel reese, but they're gonna go about a different way. I want to see a unified front that you guys have said okay, this is what we want, this is how we're going to attack this and we're going to stand together in one right. I feel like angel reese is going a little rogue here with this so, but I, I think just my opinion.
Speaker 2:I think that if they do go this route and sit out, that they might not understand, you know, the long-term consequence of doing so. And what I mean is I'm not saying, like you know, they shouldn't sit out because you know, go play basketball, you're a sports star. No, no, no. What I'm saying is, right now the WNBA has more eyes than it has ever had on it. It has had more attention than it has ever had on it.
Speaker 2:Now's not the time to sit out because, let's face it, we have in a society that has the attention span of a goldfish. Five seconds later they forget you. So if you're not playing or you're not doing things to draw those eyes and bring that attention in, people might just on to the next thing you know and you might damage the reputation of the league more than you're really helping the league by doing a sit-out. So I think, like you were saying, going rogue doesn't help things, because you need to sit down and have a collective conversation with the WNBA players as a collective. Have you know, like what most teams would do when they're playing bad? They have a players-only meeting. Have a WNBA players-only meeting where you collectively, as a group, come together and say what are your concerns, what are the things that we want out of this, and collectively get everything organized to a point where you say, look, this is how we feel, this is what we want, this is the direction we see the league going in, and we want to be a part of the growth.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I agree with you. Going back to the opportunity of right now, they've got more eyes and attention than they've ever had. Yeah, it may not be bringing in the profits quite yet, but the first thing you do.
Speaker 2:It'll happen.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it'll happen. The first thing you do is build your awareness right, and there's things you can do right. Players have charities, players get involved in communities. When you're investing and growing a business, your main goal should be to invest in the product and, if you can, your employees, which would be the NBA player or the WNBA players, but you want to try and enhance the experience of the product. And, if you can, your employees, which would be the nba player or the wmba players, but you want to try and enhance the experience in the product as much as you can. So maybe some of that might be going on, as well as the salary cap stuff I mean, come on, man, like there are commercials, national commercials for wmba stars.
Speaker 2:Now you're seeing WNBA stars in car commercials, fast food commercials, insurance commercials and hell, even some of the college athletes are getting in on it from the future WNBA stars like Juju Watkins. Right now you're getting more eyes and more love than you ever have, and it's showing because you're getting more eyes and more love than you ever have. And it's showing because you're getting, you know, sponsorships that weren't there in the past. I mean, hell, they have women now in the WNBA that have shoe deals.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know there weren't shoe deals 20 years ago for these players, you know. So, like, take notice that there's growth, there's things happening. Like, take notice that there's growth, there's things happening. And, yes, you want to be at the forefront making the dollars, but also understand that when a train is set in motion, you don't just stop on the tracks.
Speaker 1:Look, the NFL and the NBA couldn't stop making money if they tried right now. Okay, that's where you want to be at. I say ride the momentum. I say, yeah, you, if you want to really contribute to a movement, contribute to the movement of building the wmba into what the nfl and the nba and the mlb are and they can.
Speaker 2:I believe the wmba can, because, look, I'm not gonna lie, I didn't watch much WNBA before all this stuff started happening and we started getting more players that were getting more notoriety and being more visible. But I'm telling you from what I've seen, those girls they go hard, they play look, I'm going to say this and NBA guys are going to be mad. Those girls play tougher than you guys do. They play through contact. There is a ton of contact and those girls are about it. You could see the passion and heart when those girls play. So don't tell me, nba, when you've got guys load managing, that the WNBA out-hearts you guys. They have more heart than you.
Speaker 1:And let me tell you what to add to that as well. Women's sports is not just With men's sports, it's pretty much about the brawn, pretty much about the physical. Who's the better competitor? Right With women's sports, you have to be the better competitor. Right with women. With women's sports, you have, you have to be the best competitor, but they play mind games too. Right, you have to deal with the psychological warfare. It's not like warfare between men, this is real psychological no, no, no.
Speaker 2:I can tell you right now, in the bad boy piston era, jordan could tell you. They're playing mind games. Every time he's getting clotheslined and elbowed and look and thrown to the ground as a man. There are, there are mind games.
Speaker 1:There are there are mind games. I can handle mind games with other men maybe it's because I'm not a woman but I can't handle women's mind games. So to have to deal with that while also trying to dunk on your ass I couldn't imagine like having to go through through that, because it's just a different level of psychological warfare to me when women are on the court versus men.
Speaker 2:Men do things, but I encourage everybody, come this next season if the WNBA does play actually carve out some time to watch a few games and you'll see what I'm talking about with how physical they play. It's kind of refreshing to see, you know, because sometimes with the NBA we don't get that.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Sometimes you see guys taking plays off and they're just kind of standing off to the side. You know that kind of deal. Yeah, yeah, that ain't happening there.
Speaker 1:But either way, good luck to her and her endeavors. Good luck to all the players of the wmba in this new cba. I think they have a very bright future of them. I just worry. I just don't want them to misstep. But uh, likewise, let's go ahead and move on into some men's basketball action here. Uh, what we got mike? What's the first thing up here? I can't read very well, right?
Speaker 2:now I'm a little dyslexic at the moment.
Speaker 1:cut me off, bro, go, bro, go ahead and cut me off.
Speaker 2:All right, all right, all right. So recently we had Steph Curry doing his Steph Curry things, where he won another game against the Knicks. Now you would say, okay, what's the big deal with that? Well, steph Curry hasn't lost in Madison Square Garden against the Knicks in 4,388 days. He has gone 12-1 against the New York Knicks in Madison Square Garden in his career in. I mean, that's impressive.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You're in the opponent's house and you're just owning them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Steph Curry off to a rolling start. I mean, I think the last time he lost was in 2013 in Madison Square Garden, and even in that game he had 54 points with 11 three-pointers made.
Speaker 2:So he put on a hell of a show the one time he did lose there yeah, well, I mean, and I don't know if you saw his shot the other night from half court, man, that was impressive. He just like, he just kind of all right, like turns and lobs this ball up. It's like a moon arc going up and just bang right down it. It's like, oh my goodness, even the announcer's like he just made that, oh my.
Speaker 1:God, I definitely believe Steph Curry belongs in the conversation as one of the next GOATs of the NBA, next generation of GOATs. He definitely is up there.
Speaker 2:I would say he's been one of the most impactful players from a standpoint that he has a lasting mark on the game. Because if, okay, not everybody is 6'7 and you know can dunk a basketball, but everybody can shoot a basketball. And Steph Curry, you know, with his wild shots from half court and all over the three-point line, you know people started throwing up a lot of threes, you know kind of the Steph Curry effect. So you know he kind of he came out of nowhere. I mean he didn't come out of a powerhouse school, he came out of, like Davidson or something you know, one of the small schools.
Speaker 2:Small-time school something you know, one of the small schools, time school and you know most people didn't even think he was going to last in the league because he kept having ankle issues early on his career. But then he turned it around and stayed healthy and he's just been a phenomenal player for a long time yeah, yeah, they've been great uh.
Speaker 1:Golden state's been lucky to have a player such as them, uh, for as long as they've had them yeah. Yeah, you know just a very rare talent to have out there on the on the uh court, among several others as well, but he definitely rings very near dear to my heart as one of the greats of the future well, he's probably on the back end, I mean to be on a team based on the west coast and you're considered the owner of the garden on the east coast is a huge deal so it wouldn't be the first time a player has done well in other other teams settings.
Speaker 1:So yeah, and then moving into cleveland, here for the second time in their season.
Speaker 2:They've gone 15 straight yeah, look, some teams can't even rattle off 10 straight, let alone 15 straight. You know so Cleveland rounding off 15 straight wins twice in a season is pretty impressive. And they lead the East right now and had a major win over Boston, and you know so they're doing their thing and making it look like they're going to be formidable in the postseason. Yeah, their thing and making it look like they're going to be formidable in the postseason.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know they're. Probably we might wind up seeing Boston versus the Cavs in the championship game to see who goes to the NBA finals. And that'll be something, because to me I think right now OKC with Shea Gilgis-Alexander or SGA. Look, sga joins Michael Jordan as the only player in the last 40 years to record 30-plus points, 40-plus games over three consecutive seasons.
Speaker 1:Yeah, guys, if you didn't catch that stat real quick, let me read it again for you. He is one of the only players in the last 40 years to record 30 or more points in 40-plus games over three consecutive seasons. This guy is scorching hot, just like our guy Steph Curry over there at Golden State.
Speaker 2:Well, and Shea Gilchrist-Alexander is leading the way in the betting odds for MVP of the NBA and he pretty much might get it. Because, look, okc, smaller market team, cleveland, smaller market team. Now, both of those teams are in first place, one in the West, one in the East. So you would say, okay, well, okc, they came out, they're hot, they're leading, but you know the champ. Right now, the reigning champ is Boston. You know to be the man, you got to beat the man. And what did OKC do last night? They beat the man, they went in there and they exposed a weakness of the Celtics that they better fix before postseason happens.
Speaker 2:Now, what happens a lot of times in these games that really aggravates me is teams start getting into this three ball chase where they start going down. We shoot a three, then you shoot a three, then my team shoots a three, then your team shoots a three, but not everybody makes them. Yeah, did in this game. Is they got into the paint, they got fouls, they went to the line. The Celtics, they didn't do that, they didn't fight into the paint and get fouls and go to the line. Look, if you can get to the line, that's free shots, free points. If you make them, that's two free points if you're a good free throw shooter. Now this goes back to an earlier thing I said where, jason Tatum, you've got to have that killer instinct. Take it to the hole, get in there. You know, come crunch time, your lead dog has to be fighting into the paint.
Speaker 1:Lead dog. Get in there nice and deep like.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, show some toughness, that grit, that extra edge. Because, think about it, how many times do we see late in games where Kobe Bryant's just charging at the basket, getting fouled, going to shoot free throws? Same thing with Jordan Gets in the paint, gets fouled, goes to shoot some free throws, makes both free throws. They're free two points, yep.
Speaker 2:Go shoot some free throws Makes both free throws. They're free. Two points, yep, you know. And come crunch time towards the end of the game, you need to be having those free throws. You need to be having those points. If you're not getting to the line and getting opportunities to make those points, and possibly if you get fouled and make it a three-point play which, hey, a three-point playoff of a foul is a lot easier than sitting out up beyond the arc and hoping you can get a good shot yeah, just saying like, come on, like it's frustrating watching teams just sit there and trade missed threes all game long. Yeah, they're getting a lot more points in the NBA because a lot of these teams I'll say it for what it is they don't play defense anymore.
Speaker 1:It seems like I was just about to say if you start shooting a lot of threes and you're just not hitting, maybe it's time to reel back, slow the momentum and take control defensively.
Speaker 2:Okay when I say that I have an issue with the three. What I have an issue is you have a guy dribble up and then he just posts up a three, or he dribbles up, pass it to one guy. The guy tries to shoot a three. I find it aggravating. Move the damn ball, pass the ball around, find your shot. Work the dri dribble, get yourself a good position, find the shot, whether that's a three or a two, but get the shot I I.
Speaker 1:It just floors me that they would rather pass the ball and a guy throw up a contested off of one foot three yeah then make the extra two, two or three passes to find their shot yeah, you want to set your feet and you want to make sure you get a nice shot off. Why these guys rush these shots?
Speaker 2:I watched okc do that against the celtics, where they passed for the extra shot. They passed for the, the shot that was best for the team. You know, like they were getting multiple contributors throughout their lineup and they won that game because, flat out, they were the better team. They were the better team, they played better too and they beat the man. So now we kind of have to take notice, yeah, but this adds another level to it, right.
Speaker 2:So forever NBA went as the Lakers and Celtics did, because you know they're like the big teams, you know it's like Yankees, dodgers. You know they're the big teams and right now the lead dogs are two of the young teams, two of the small market teams. And I love it because it's forcing a lot of these other shows and other analysts to have to talk about them. It's kind of like that movie Airheads, where the guy's like man, you've got all these really great bands, you never play them. Well, if they're so great, how come they ain't lighting up the charts? Because you never play them? If they're so great, how come? How come they ain't lighting up the charts? Because you never play them?
Speaker 1:and I and don't get wrong, I I really like okc. Everybody thinks of as a small market. Oklahoma city is actually a big city and an up-and-coming city it's not los angeles or new york no, it's not, but they, they're getting there, they're up and coming and they've got the sports teams they got a long way to go to be LA or New York.
Speaker 2:I mean, come on, let's go, let's hope to God they're never LA.
Speaker 1:I hope they're never, ever dirty.
Speaker 2:We don't need an additional LA. One place that's the capital of plastic surgery, is enough.
Speaker 1:Oklahoma City is a very good, up-and-coming city, especially up-and-coming sports media market.
Speaker 2:What I'm excited about is a, a two small market teams are the ones that are leading the way, because you got yeah you got other other sports, like the NFL, where it doesn't matter where your team is, I mean they're all big markets for the most part.
Speaker 2:Well, all of the teams have their followings and all those teams can have success because, you know, they have faces, they have players that are more widely known and easier to see. The NBA has been riddled with the problem if a big market team is not in it, people don't pay attention. Problem if a big market team is not in it, people don't pay attention.
Speaker 1:but now we have situations where these smaller market teams they're interesting well, you have interesting players well, you remember when lebron went to the calves, when he, when he first yeah, he that brought that brought them a lot of notoriety brought the calves notoriety yeah because people were like this is the best player coming into the NBA and they all knew who he was before he ever set foot on a court for the NBA.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so having the biggest name player coming into the sport, going to your small market team, boosted them big time.
Speaker 1:And then, as you mentioned, small markets and big name players. James Harden's tearing it up out there in LA LA is not a small market.
Speaker 2:I was just about to say, you're going to say the Clippers isn't a small market. They're only a small market team because they're competing with the Lakers for new variety.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's the only reason they're a small market. It's like the Mets in New York More people have yankees hats than they do mets hats, unless you go to queens.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I get dropping some more stats here. James harding, one of my personal favorites, loved him in his early rockets days. Uh, dude, drops 50 points, four rebounds, five assists, one steal, one block, all as the la clippers beat the pants. Well, they didn't beat the pants off the pistons, but with those stats it seemed like they did at 123-115. Pretty slightly above average score there for an NBA matchup, but Harden dropping 50 points, man.
Speaker 2:It was the majority of the offense, it looks like.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he was about around 45% there, if I had to do a good rounding guess.
Speaker 2:Well, and the Clippers despite you know they haven't really been in the headlines, they've been holding their own. I mean, they're not up there with the Lakers and OKC but they're getting some production. Like I said, harden's been quietly having a pretty decent season. Yeah, but again Staying alive late in his career it's the clippers, so people don't really give them much much notoriety or much attention, because it's clippers and let's see it's an la town.
Speaker 2:It's an la lakers town, not an la clippers town. Yeah, so I mean, but that's not anything to take away from them. There was one thing I wanted to go back to, just for a second.
Speaker 1:Yes, let's take a rewind.
Speaker 2:So OKC actually played the Nuggets the other day and, man, that was the most fun watching that game, because, okc, they didn't come out with the win. The Nuggets won that game. But watching those two teams just play off of one another and move the ball around, finding the extra pass, finding the ability to set up people to score, or Jokic just man, jokic, his flat-footed shot is just something crazy because, like he'll have a guy right on him and he's just like, all right, I'm gonna take the shot, bang. Like well, shit, the guy's like I'm standing right in front of him and I can't stop it. No, you can't, and if you try to, he's just gonna pass it to somebody. So, yeah, I just thought I'd throw that in there. That was if you guys didn't catch that game. Yo, you missed a damn good one, because both those teams are amazing yeah, I, yeah, that was a good matchup.
Speaker 1:Uh, you know the nuggets another team people don't talk about very often, but take it at okc the the other night not bad, um, and down here. You know this. This other one, you know Lakers owner Jeannie Jeannie Buss. When I read this it was titled Jeannie Buss takes a dig at Anthony Davis. But it's really, the more I read it, it's really just more more her take on the Anthony Davis Luka Doncic trade.
Speaker 1:I'm just going to read a quote from her real quick. She says we gave up a lot to get Luka, we're happy to have him. We have lost last three years in a row to the Denver Nuggets speaking of the devil in the playoffs and we really didn't have anything that was going to look different going into playoffs again. So ad was complaining about where he was being played and he wasn't happy. Uh, so, according to her. So she says I think this was a positive for both teams and we know ad was complaining a little bit. Uh, he wanted a big man in there to help him get over, but they got their big man and shipped him out.
Speaker 2:Well, part of what Jeannie Buss said in this same interview. She said that the Lakers weren't looking to shop Anthony Davis, as much as when you know they have another team on the phone, they're offering Luka Doncic and they say that they will take Anthony Davis. You know it's kind of like oh, okay, so we're going to give you a player that is a little older than the player we're receiving and the player we're receiving could possibly be a focal point going forward for our team. It's kind of a no-brainer, like okay, yeah, I'm going to take this player that could possibly be the guy for the next 10 years for our team to ship off a guy that he's had his run. It's kind of at that point where we're like okay we need time.
Speaker 1:They definitely fleeced the Mavs to get Luka, so if they wanted another player in AD.
Speaker 2:I think part of that trade, I think part of it was emotional. I think that the Mavs were being emotional and they were annoyed with some of the things that Luka was doing and do. I think some of it was over inflated and over overblown. Yes, 100, I do look the man's in la now. La is kind of a fit city, like people are health conscious there. There's going to be a plenty of like, healthy places to eat, you know, and, and and healthy options. There's training gyms and all kinds of like, you know, fitness clubs everywhere. So he's going to have opportunities to find somewhere if he wants to get in shape. And, not to mention, he's next to LeBron, who spends a million dollars on his regimens and trainings yeah, every year. So I think that he has a good opportunity to figure it out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think so too. I think he'll do just fine out there. A&o. Obviously Lakers happy with having.
Speaker 2:Ludo on board. But speaking about the Lakers, with LeBron out, they lost to the Nets and that was a blow. That was a what I think. They looked up and went oh crap, it's kind of like when you're the older brother and you're playing your little brother and you always stomp him and all of a sudden he's beating you and you're like what's going on here?
Speaker 1:Why are we losing? What was that noise?
Speaker 2:on here. Why are we losing what, what, what, what, what was that noise? So you know, uh, I know they were. They were giving a lot of flack, flack to their coach, jj reddick, and uh, I mean come on this team is second in the west right now.
Speaker 2:They weren't that with their previous coach. Like, let's, let's give the man a little bit more time. I I mean, come on, this is his first year coaching the Lakers and, yeah, he probably got the job because of LeBron. But get the man a little longer leash here. Let's not be riding him after every single loss. Give it a minute. Let's have a full season and a full playoffs, because they're more than likely going to be in the playoffs. They might lose a few more games and wind up in a play-in situation, which would be horrible for them. But either way, just give them some time, let them figure it out. Yeah, like Jesus.
Speaker 1:No, I agree with that.
Speaker 2:I mean, what are you potty trained at? Gunpoint Like ease up.
Speaker 1:Potty trained at gunpoint. Like ease up Potty trained at gunpoint. That doesn't seem like it would work. That doesn't even seem effective at all.
Speaker 2:What are you talking about? You might get scared and just have to go right, sir that is not positive or reinforcement on either side. It's armed enforcement.
Speaker 1:But moving on here, past the NBA men's basketball, we're moving to some men's college basketball. Here We've got the tournament coming up. We're not going to dive into it just yet. We're going to save that for next week, because then we'll have the bracket set. We'll have a bracket of our own.
Speaker 2:Well, let's face it, there are so many conferences and trying to go through all of the conferences and all of the matchups and giving all of them their due would take really long time. So we're we're not going to hit on on all that, we're going to wait for the main thing, the one thing that everybody really loves, which is the main bracket.
Speaker 2:But I do have one little side story that I want to talk about. Shoot is super embarrassing. Having been a military vet and knowing that the Navy and America game that happened the other night, it's kind of a really bad look when you're not even 90 seconds into the game and you get a teed up. And you're getting teed up for a fragrant of a flagrant two foul and getting escorted off the court and out of the game within 90 seconds. Now, for those of you who didn't see the game, one of the players on the Navy team decided that he was having enough 90 seconds in of one of the players on the American team and punched him in the junk.
Speaker 2:Go Navy yeah boy, this man's ready to go win a war I like, gives a whole new meaning to hit him low, hit him high, but he hit him low and he hit himself right on out of that game because they eat him up and send him out there you go, brother, I like this guy this man's gonna win a war for us you're supposed to be calm, cool and collected as as a cadet in the Naval Academy and you can't even go 90 seconds into the game and you're punching a dude in the junk.
Speaker 1:I would say he calmly collected his fist into that man's junk and then he was collected out of there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, he collected his ball and went home.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he was calm, cool and collected, all in major fashion. None of which we should mean, though, but I'll take it. I'll take it, I'll work with it. So that was fun.
Speaker 2:Sorry for my side note, but I had to let that in there, no that was a good time.
Speaker 1:I like that. And here we go. So UCLA versus USC. Battle of LA. Battle of LA UCLA walking away with their first Big Ten title. This is significant because both of these teams just left the Pac-12 about a year ago. So this is both of these teams' first championship competition in this division, ucla walking away with the win 72-67. They are the winners of the Battle of LA Nice. Congratulations to UCLA. The Bruins going all in and getting that one in the Big Ten in a bigger conference, Moving down a second, the next one we got here. This is a pretty big blow to UNC here. You want to take this one, mike.
Speaker 2:No, it's not UNC, it's Duke.
Speaker 1:Oh, it's Duke, North Carolina Duke has a huge hit.
Speaker 2:Sorry, I got my Carolina schools mixed up the odds hands down probably the number one pick in the next year's NBA draft, cooper Flagg, who's a very well-known college player, soon-to-be NBA player. He's going to be missing some time. He rolled his ankle pretty bad in the last game and this is a huge hit for Duke because he's one of the big focal points in their offense and on their team as a whole. So now this is even being shown in the betting odds. The betting odds are just changing overnight with this injury. So that tells you everything you need to know that Duke could possibly get into this NCAA college bracket and be bumped out early because no Cooper flag, they don't have much of a shot against some of these teams. Now I ask you, should he, for his own personal interest, sit out if he is good to go?
Speaker 1:You say he's just rolling his ankle.
Speaker 2:It looks like it's severe enough. I mean, they did have him in a wheelchair at one point, taking him to the back. So I mean, do you because think about it? If you're going to be the number one pick in the NBA draft, do you want to risk coming back early, trying to play on a bum ankle and hurt yourself worse?
Speaker 1:Well, I think it depends on the severity of his injury. If it's just a mild sprain or even if that maybe he sits out a week or two, get it back, but still gets to get in the competition though You're saying a week or two, get it back, but still, he still gets to get in the competition, though you're saying a week or two, we could be into the to the bracket well, that's true, they might be knocked out by then yeah.
Speaker 2:So I mean, does he just go ahead and say I'm shutting it down, or does he give it a go? I mean, let's face it, when you're younger you heal a lot faster than when you get older. When you get older, things seem to last lot faster than when you get older. When you get older, things seem to last longer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm feeling that now.
Speaker 2:You get hurt and you're like hell. You don't even have to do anything to get hurt. You wake up and you go to the bathroom in the morning and you're like, damn it, why does my knee?
Speaker 1:hurt, bro? Who are you telling At the age of 36, wrestling is not the same at 22 as I am at 36. Let me tell you what, bro? Let me tell you, I've practiced twice a week. I need the entire week to heal until the next practice. Good Lord it is the Lord. So, giving it back to our subject here, cooper Flagg, I don't know, man, it depends on the severity, because I mean, I've rolled my ankle skateboarding before but you know I wasn't a professional athlete at that time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, it's a little different when you're jumping up and trying to take shots. I mean, I think everybody who follows college basketball probably remembers the player. I remember the situation. I don't remember the player or the team, but I remember years ago during during a college game, and a player going up for a shot and when he came down his leg compound fractured and yeah, you could literally see the bone come out his shin, his shin fracture.
Speaker 1:I remember that game because he had.
Speaker 2:It was like again 10 years ago well, he had like slight fractures, yep, and I don't remember his name.
Speaker 1:I remember who that was.
Speaker 2:I remember the image more than anything, because I was like oh my god, I saw that, yeah like that's bad yeah, that's, that's right when you see bone, that's not a good thing sir, you might want to get that checked out.
Speaker 1:I'm not a doctor, just saying I mean, you could wrap it up with some tape but duct tape does not fix everything.
Speaker 2:Doctors would not advise just rub dirt on it. Yeah, get that seen.
Speaker 1:They would not tell you to walk it off, they are not your father.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't think you're walking anything.
Speaker 1:They're not your horrible stepfather. They would not tell you to walk it off.
Speaker 2:In my opinion, for Cooper Flagg, if he has the ability to go, I would say do it, because this will probably well, not probably this will be his only chance to do and experience the fun of March. Madness, don't pass it up.
Speaker 1:No, I agree. And don't get me wrong, I know our listeners don't want to hear two guys agreeing with each other on night. But I do agree with Mike here. I say, if you're good to go, especially your senior year, I say go.
Speaker 2:Oh, you don't want me to agree? No, he shouldn't play.
Speaker 1:He should play with no socks.
Speaker 2:What.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's my debate. What would that do, aside from make his the socks wouldn't be there to get sweaty and then move around in his foot, and his foot won't shift in his shoe.
Speaker 2:Look, if you want to talk about shifting shoes, you can talk about zion blowing the side out of his shoe when he was at duke who's blowing what? Look, I'm just kidding, anyway.
Speaker 1:Anyway, on a more serious. On a more serious no, uh, we're not, gonna, like we say we're not gonna dig too deep into college basketball, because next week we're gonna dive deep into that stuff because it's gonna be on uh. But here we go, uh, new, new running backs. Coach in colorado state, marshall falk maybe you knew, maybe you didn't now working with coach prime. Uh, I like what he said to some of his uh new players that came in for training, right, um, he didn't go down the road of giving him the spiel of who he is and all his great stats. He just said if you don't know me, I'm googleable. And then he said effort requires no talent. And something to this is serious to me. Something to me told me he's not talking about Googling him. I know he'd love for everybody to Google him, but I think he was talking more along the lines of a player Like you don't need talent to be a good, reliable player, you just need to work hard and put in the time.
Speaker 2:Well, I think what he's trying to say is effort.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:You don't need talent to put in effort.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 2:If you're putting in the time and you're doing the work and I think this is what he's trying to instill in these players is do the work, do the work. Work hard and you'll see success. I think the reason he's saying google me, because, yeah, like you'll understand where I'm coming from, this isn't just any old person saying it, this is a hall of fame. You know nfl running back who you know, in his day was one of the best in the league. And that's saying something, because there ain't too many of them.
Speaker 2:You know there's not. At that point in time you had one lead back on all the teams, so 32 of them. So to beat one of them and be hands down, probably the best one at that time.
Speaker 1:And don't get me wrong, you've got to listen to them and the draft is all about talent. The draft is all about talent. Nfl draft is all about talent, right, and he was drafted himself, but I've got two names that come to mind. Just off the top, there's a ton of guys who have made it into the NFL Hall of Fame, who have made hell of careers, who have had long careers and successful careers in the NFL. A lot of them. Two names come to mind. Number one, the easiest of all of them to pick, tom Brady. Okay, this guy was taken in the backpack back part of the draft, almost not drafted at all, passed over multiple times by every franchise until, like what I think, the sixth round, fourth or sixth round somewhere in there six round six round and then gets one shot and look at what he does with it.
Speaker 1:But all of that came from preparation.
Speaker 2:All of that came from hard work well, another player that I could kind of use in that same vein as a guy who worked hard and wasn't really highly recruited and mainly due because of injury Frank Gore.
Speaker 1:Frank Gore.
Speaker 2:Frank Gore. He was never the best back in the league but he was one of the good backs in the league, you know. But he was one of the good backs in the league and he was steady. You know, he was a steady, solid running back and when he was coming out of Miami he had gotten hurt and it hurt his draft prospects. So he fell on the draft and when he did get drafted he made the most of it. He made a long, steady career of being, you know, a guy who put in the work, showed up, was steady and solid and you could rely on him. And that's kind of what I feel is coming out of. Marshall's statement is look, I can show you how to get there, but you've got to do the work to get there.
Speaker 1:And one last name that comes to mind, one that wasn't drafted London Fletcher undrafted. Free agent. All pro. I don't know if he made the Hall of Fame yet, but definitely all pro. Many pro bowls. Adam Thielen, adam Thielen, another one.
Speaker 1:So I really like that. Marshall Falk is challenging his younger guys and I think for him it's going to show him because it must be a different experience being at a point in your life not even your career anymore, being at a point in your life where just people just don't know who you are anymore because you haven't been on the field, you haven't been in that light. Uh, your career was so long ago. It doesn't mean you're not worth anything or that you're nobody, it's just you've been out of the game so long and an analyst so long that, unless you're like me and you paying attention to those things, these young folks just don't know who you are.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Unless they look it up unless they look it up and that must be yeah, he's Googleable and that must be something. So for him, I can only imagine how he feels from that, but also using that to challenge his young players. You know, I I like what he did there. Um, and then here we have. You know, we hit on this last week, mike, just briefly, but there's been a little more news come out about it. This is surrounding the ufl. They're getting ready to kick off. Uh, we talked about the players.
Speaker 1:The ufo ufl owners were talking about getting rid of players who refuse to do media day. So it turns out there's more to this story. Okay, similar to the wmba, these guys want more benefits and a bigger paycheck and actually I didn't realize it until coming across this story. The UFL players are also represented by the NFLPA Players Association Union. So they came out publicly and said they stand with the players of the UFL as they fight for contracts ahead of the UFL season. A lot of what these guys seem to fight for, just like the wmba, is maybe not just more money, but better benefits, better perks, just a bigger share of the pie. Granted, the ufl is probably similar to the wmba. They don't have, they probably don't make profit right now.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, but they've. They've partnered with the NFL, which is why the NFLPA is in alignment with the players, because they're kind of going to be using this as a supplemental league to the NFL, and we've already seen this, with a few players like PJ Walker making their way into the NFL off of success from the UFL. So there's a chance here where there can be a partnership that is mutually beneficial for both the players who are trying to get in, or maybe a player who's trying to get back in. You know one that maybe suffered some injuries and he's trying to prove he can still do it. He can go there, showcase himself and make his way back in, whereas a lot of players, when you're hurt and you get a bad injury, sometimes that's it, it's just done. The NFL goes all right, we're good.
Speaker 1:We don't need you. And don't get me wrong. My opinion last week, like you know, yeah, it's a developmental league and sometimes you've got to take your lumps to get to the next level. But at the same time everybody knows they're not going to make it to the NFL, but they might get to the UFL and that is going to be their payday, that's their opportunity.
Speaker 2:This is a situation that allows for players who don't get a chance in the NFL to still play some professional ball Because, let's face it, a lot of players they love football and there are some players who just play because they just want to play football to get through college or use it for whatever means they can. But there are guys out there that they love the game, they just love football and for them it gives them just a little bit longer to still be in the action, to play, and whether your time's up in the NFL or whether you never had time in the NFL not everybody's going to go to Canada and play in the CFL.
Speaker 1:They're slightly different anyway, forget them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, running starts for their wide receivers.
Speaker 1:They're probably closer to rugby than American NFL, but you know the UFL is a great opportunity for somebody. You know I'm not NFL NFL caliber but I can still go and play, draw a paycheck and still have a relatively decent career. Now, before we move into our uh flagship segment of the night everybody knows it's NFL talk time. Let's go with some fun facts. I only got a handful, just like last week. It's fun facts time, mike. What do you think about fun facts time?
Speaker 2:mike thinks they suck probably but it's no, I mean it's interesting because it's random as hell. So it is, it is completely random.
Speaker 1:okay, first one on the list, okay, uh, everybody, if you're not familiar with mich Phelps when have you been, yeah? Well, probably unborn, considering it was almost 20 years ago.
Speaker 2:but no, it's not 20 years ago, almost 20 years ago.
Speaker 1:Bro, I don't know about you, but I was still in high school when this was going down.
Speaker 2:Anyway, Michael.
Speaker 1:Phelps, world-class Olympic swimmer, one of the most decorated actually the most decorated Olympic gold medalist of all time. He Actually the most decorated Olympic gold medalist of all time. He has 23 to his name. If he were a country, he would rank number 35 on the all-time Olympic gold medal list, ahead of 97 other countries.
Speaker 2:Okay, Well, let's keep in mind that some of these are tiny countries. Yes, that you know, most people probably have never heard of. So, yeah, it's it, it's very possible, because, let's, let's face it, if you watch the ceremonies for the olympics, you see tons of nations, some of them you go yeah, who are they?
Speaker 1:and? And by the and, by the way, like these are nations who actually have at least one gold medal. So there are even more nations behind him who have been to the Olympics, who don't have anything. So that list could grow exponentially, but we're not going to go that far down tonight. Next one up Cleveland Browns are the only team to neither play in nor host a Super Bowl. They've never been, they've never been, they've never hosted one. That is the bottom of the barrel for the NFL, if you ask me.
Speaker 2:Well, there's plenty of teams that don't host them because they're in crappy climates, but they've never even been either. Yeah, I know they've never been, but what I'm saying is there are some stadiums, they just don't host them.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Tell me the time you've seen a super bowl in the patriots stadium no, I agree with that.
Speaker 1:You know patriots went to the super bowl like 15 times in a row so, but always winning them in somebody else's stadium so, but the browns are the only team that have never even been and have never even hosted it. They are just nowhere near a Super Bowl at all. Horrible being a Cleveland Browns fan. I'm so sorry you guys. Next stat during the 1974 World Cup in Munich, national teams were given BMW buses for transportation. After being eliminated, though, the country of Zaire unsuccessfully tried to drive theirs back to Africa.
Speaker 2:So yeah, so they're pulling the. You mean, we can't keep it, it's not ours.
Speaker 1:It is not ours.
Speaker 2:We can't give it, we can't take this home, we will take this home.
Speaker 1:Thank you for the gift. Yeah, I would be taking it back too. You guys were totally in the right. You should have took that bus home. I don't care what nobody says y'all, uh. Starting in 1990, michael jordan, the chicago bulls never had a three game losing streak. For eight straight years, 1990 to 1998, never lost three in a row. Bro, is there a there a stat that doesn't have Michael Jordan's name on it?
Speaker 2:in the NBA Probably plenty of them, but the main thing that they did three in a row, then is win championships. So if they won one, they won three in a row.
Speaker 1:Three in a row. Twice. And real quick, just to add to that stat with Michael Jordan. I saw it earlier, I didn't get to add. And real quick, just to add to that stat with michael jordan. I saw early, I didn't get to add it. Um, while he was pursuing his career in baseball, the owner of the bulls paid his salary for that whole time from the nba so a little side note on that.
Speaker 2:there's a lot of speculation that the reason that he went to play some baseball was because he got found betting and instead of adding some shame, he said look, how about you just go play baseball or you go do something else for a minute and we'll let this die down and you can come back, but most people haven't heard that or know about that. And look, I'm a huge michael jordan fan and when I found out I was like what? No?
Speaker 1:no, he what oh, okay.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, jordan does like to gamble, but yeah, but shit.
Speaker 1:Before we get to the last one fact, it just goes to show look, people are good human beings, but even good human beings make boneheaded mistakes.
Speaker 2:Okay, it happens well, and let's let's grant the man a little bit of grace, because around that time he did lose his father yeah, I mean, people go through things as well.
Speaker 1:Um, you just don't know what people are dealing with or what they're thinking in their head. But the last fun fact we have for the evening before we get into our flagship segment this is a fun one the 19.
Speaker 2:I watched this movie just the other day. I love this movie.
Speaker 1:It's one of my all-time favorite movies. Uh, the 1994 movie angels in the outfield probably some of your guys's favorite movie as well featured two actual angels players who would eventually go on to win best actor oscars. Uh, this one I didn't even know until I read. This one is aj and bro, the other one, can you guess? Huge Washington Commanders fan as well, matthew McConaughey. Alright, alright alright alright, alright, alright look, look, look.
Speaker 2:So I knew this before you said it. I knew all about this. I knew they were in that film. There is way more people in that movie that you don't realize who are in multiple other movies. Shows, I mean hell, jason Gordon-Levitz he's the kid.
Speaker 1:He was the kid in that and, like you say, there's people in this movie who had not even made their namesake yet and went on to do bigger things. Their household names now.
Speaker 2:so this movie and not to mention the. The main angel, al is doc from. From back to the future movies. Yeah, that too.
Speaker 1:So this movie was just an incredible pinnacle creation for its time and era.
Speaker 2:Got a crappy rating on IMDb. But what do they know? Who cares about IMDb? What do they know? Go to.
Speaker 1:Rotten Tomatoes, which wasn't even around back then.
Speaker 2:They don't know shit either.
Speaker 1:They weren't even around back in 1984. They all suck but let's move into our flagship subject of the night the NFL. Everybody, what have you been waiting for? Where are we starting that mike?
Speaker 2:wow, okay. So it's funny that we call it legal tampering before it's actually official, like basically, hey, guess what? This small window, we're going to just have all these moves that magically got done. And it's always funny, like right, when it starts it's like, it's like boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, it's like fireworks. Finale, you know, like here's a move, there's a move, move, move, move, move.
Speaker 1:Only in the NFL.
Speaker 2:This player went here this player went there and it's like wait a second, y'all got a deal done in a second, and it's not just the NFL but, it's, but the NFL is the one that is the most like out there with. Come on y'all.
Speaker 1:Y'all did not get this move done in a minute, yeah they're the most out there with tampering, but I also feel like they they have more rapid fire moves in the first 72 hours of their free agency than any other sport. I mean we have trouble we track all the moves across sports.
Speaker 2:All right. When we get to the baseball deadline, you're going to see that one's just as fun too.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, they have a lot of movements too, but again like this one, just trying to track this one this year, man, we got so many notes up here we could barely keep up with all of them. We're not going to hit all of them but you know, mike, what do you think of all these things here? Where do you want to start, man? What do you think the biggest splash move so far is?
Speaker 2:Oh man. Okay, so it wasn't so much a free agency move as much as it was a move that just makes total sense. If you have one of the best quarterbacks in the league, you give him an extension early. And what did the Buffalo Bills do? They signed Allen to an extension early.
Speaker 1:That's huge. That's what you do.
Speaker 2:You do that and you know what he said. I heard this in an interview. He told his agent he's like look, what's another 5 million if I'm already rich? You know he said just do what works for both. Do what works. You know, get me a good deal, but let's not handicap the team, because you know what he realized, what a lot of these other quarterbacks in the nfl don't realize. You need to have flexibility.
Speaker 1:Tom brady took hometown discounts all the time so they could pay players to be there yeah, and, and you know, a lot of people will talk shit about tom brady, and I mean it just seems to be a natural thing. And it's happening with kansas city right now. When you're the winner, when you're the biggest winner, you got the most haters, and but tom brady did a lot to help that franchise. He took discount after discount after discount well, I mean restructure after restructure.
Speaker 2:He did it a lot yeah, but but at the end, when they weren't making deals and he was kind of left with nothing and he was still taking a cut, he left for good reason. But even Mahomes does it Like Mahomes. Look when he signed his deal, we all went oh my God, they're going to pay him that much, they're going to give him that big of a Look at it now. Compared to the rest of the league, he's making pennies on the dollar compared to the rest of the league.
Speaker 2:You know, and that's Patrick Mahomes, probably considered one of the best quarterbacks in the league. So it's a little it. It's just funny the comparison. But I will say there has been teams out here that are making moves that are like they make so much sense and kind of you could see where the team's going, so like being on that buffalo bills kick, they bring in joey bosa yep to add to their pass rush honestly, I think that was a great move huge move I think that was a great move it fills a huge need for them.
Speaker 2:So bringing in a joey bosa to help with your pass rush is going to help on the back end as far as having players that can cover downfield, because you're getting pressure to the quarterback so the quarterback has to get off his spot. The timing's messed up so you have more ability when you have a good pass rush.
Speaker 1:I think Bosa could help them get over the.
Speaker 2:But that's not all they did. Not only did they do that, but they brought back Shakir, locking him up with a four-year deal.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 2:And then they said hold our beer, we're not done. They went and got Josh Palmer, who used to be with the Chargers. He was one of their best receivers down the stretch.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he did it right.
Speaker 2:They signed him for a three-year deal, getting another weapon for Allen, and not to be done. They signed Greg Russo to add to the pass rush as well. So you can see where the team, having that flexibility, have been able to add to the team.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you, you know. Going back to Joey Bosa, for a second he seemed like he was a little stale. Uh, on Jim Harbaugh out there not to take away from the Bills talk. I think it was a great addition for the Bills and I think them walking up Josh Allen was absolutely the right move, um, but uh, joey said harbaugh, uh, he said he was shifting the culture and he said he was shifting the culture in a michigan way and he just wasn't down with that.
Speaker 2:Remember joey bosa's a buckeye, so getting away from harbaugh was probably a good thing for him yeah you know, because he's not, he's not down with that michigan stuff.
Speaker 1:So yeah, it seemed like bosa might have been looking at leaving, uh, anyway, but you know what do you? What do you think he means by that?
Speaker 2:I mean, you know jim hardball pretty well, like well, not personally, but you know, as as a niner fan, I had him as our head coach as well as you can know him as a Virginia Beach East Coast based fan. So, alright, harbaugh is a wild dude. He is 100% who he seems when you see him and hear him talk. That's not an act. That's how he is. He really is that way.
Speaker 2:I heard a story when Peyton Manning was looking around for teams and he had come to the Niners for an interview. Now, harbaugh did the same thing to Manning that he did to Herbert. When he got to the Chargers he said, let's go through the ball. And then they just started like winging the ball at each other back and forth really hard because you know Harbaugh can't be shown up. Well, he did the same thing with Peyton Manning and Peyton Manning didn't take it the right way. Peyton Manning was like what's this dude's problem? You know, like he kind of was off, put by it and probably one of the reasons he didn't come to San Francisco instead of going to Denver, you know. So I don't think it's so much just that incident, but I think Harbaugh's personality for some people. They latch onto it because it's all energy and it's all. You know. It's that. Who's got it better than us? Nobody.
Speaker 1:Except the people that just beat you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, they didn't win, so yeah they got beat.
Speaker 2:But speaking of teams that are shifting gears, shifting cultures and changing who they are, the Patriots they have Vrabel. Now their cupboard has been bare. The last two years They've been trying to rebuild this team. They have made a flurry of moves and all of these moves tell me what they're trying to do here with the Patriots. They're trying to be Vrabel. They're trying to be tough, gritty. Listen to these players that they got and what they did.
Speaker 2:So they need line help, so they sign Morgan Moses. They need pass rush so they get Harold Landry, who got released by the Titans and was their best pass rusher on a bad team. Still had nine sacks on a bad team. So now you have him. Then they go and get Milton Williams from the Eagles. As you know, a great defensive guy, you know defensive lineman. He'll be right there clogging up the middle and they're not done. They go and get Robert Spillane, who was one of the leading tacklers the last two years for the Raiders, who's a very gritty and fast player. You know up the middle that you's a very gritty and fast player. You know up the middle that you know I can see him having a big-time jump in his numbers being with them. And then they get Carlton Davis. A tough corner, a good corner. He was with them, yeah, that was a good pickup there.
Speaker 1:He was with the Lions last year. I do like that pickup as well.
Speaker 2:So they're filling a lot of veteran needs and building out the personality of their team. So now they're going to go into the draft filling in some holes. They even got their young quarterback some help by bringing in Matt Collins, who was with the Buffalo Bills.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's not bad at all. That's a good pickup for them. And you know, just going around the league while you're talking about that, I'm thinking. I'm thinking jets fans must be really fuming right now because they've watched sam donald and geno smith both go have hell of careers in two different franchises, and now sam donald's going to light it up in seattle well, well, does this mean that Justin Fields is looking at this like his launching pad?
Speaker 2:I'm going to go suck with the Jets for a year or two and then I'm going to go play excellent somewhere else.
Speaker 1:No, because he had a chance to play for Tomlin. Those other two guys didn't have that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but Tomlin's a defensive coach. Man, come on Beyond Big Ben. When have you ever said man Tomlin really got the best out of that quarterback?
Speaker 1:Not about the quarterback but about the Steelers franchise. Maybe Never said that about the quarterback.
Speaker 2:I didn't even say that about Roethlisberger, because he was big and dumb. The Steelers have been handicapped by their own success. They latch onto this. We've never had a losing season under Mike Tomlin. Okay, how many playoff wins? I'm waiting, I'm waiting, I'm waiting. Last 10 years, how many playoff?
Speaker 1:wins. You're not wrong on that. I'm going to give it zero.
Speaker 2:Zero. But yet the Ravens have had playoff wins in that time. The Bengals have had playoff wins in that time. The Browns have had playoff wins in that time. The Browns have had playoff wins in that time, have they? Yes, they beat the Steelers.
Speaker 1:In the wild card.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they beat the Steelers, that's weird, I don't remember that. Your entire division has wins in the playoffs.
Speaker 1:In the last 10 years.
Speaker 2:Kind of like the Cowboys with your division. Everybody in your division has had a playoff win in the last 10 years, but the Cowboys haven't.
Speaker 1:That's because the Cowboys are Jerry Jones.
Speaker 2:Mind you, the Giants got theirs with Daniel Jones, so that should also tell them something.
Speaker 1:Terrible. But, now Daniel Jones is taking his very punchable face out to Indianapolis.
Speaker 2:Hey, you lay off of Indiana Jones, because that's what he's going to be now.
Speaker 1:He's going to be Indiana Jones. He's going to be Indiana.
Speaker 2:Jones Look, all right, look, going back over to the Browns man. The Browns man, they've done something. They've done something, they got a quarterback.
Speaker 1:Can he pick it, man? They've done something.
Speaker 2:They've done something. They got a quarterback, kenny Pickett man. Look, you ruined my punchline. I was going to say they have their saviors. They're putting their savior. They're putting him in small hands, not good hands. They're putting him in small hands.
Speaker 1:I feel like you stole this from me. Oh, I didn't even send you that meme.
Speaker 2:But look, kenny Pickett is now with the Cleveland Browns and that move just kind of it was like what are you guys doing?
Speaker 2:I don't understand. I don't understand. And another thing that people aren't understanding is the Texans. So the Texans last year they were looked at to be one of the better teams going into next year, or last year because of the year they had before. So you're thinking they're going to be right back where they started, you know, back in the playoffs doing well, they got back to the playoffs, but it was a struggle the whole season. I mean, they dealt with some injuries, but their offensive line play was garbage. So people are starting to question. They're like well, what are you doing, texans? What are you doing?
Speaker 2:You just traded away your best offensive lineman, thank you. Then you trade another. You just traded away your best offensive lineman, thank you. Then you trade another offensive lineman away and then you let other players that were on your offensive line walk. So it's like you're letting all of your offensive line walk. Yeah, because, think about it, we weren't good with them. The play sucked with them. We weren't good with them, the play sucked with them. Now, mind you, the one move where they let. Well, they didn't let him, they traded him to your team to Washington.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, I will say it. I will say it. They traded Jeremy Tunsell.
Speaker 1:Jeremy Tunsell.
Speaker 2:Now I think this was a two-factor thing. I agree he wanted a new contract. Texans didn't want to give him a new contract because he's not quite old but he's kind of in that middle point where he's not over the hill. He's still a good player, very good player, but they weren't good with him. So it's like why are we going to give you a huge deal when our offensive line play was shitty with you, so they can go ahead, move him, get draft picks and start to set up for the future? And it wasn't like they didn't pick up offensive linemen anyway, they actually did. They picked up quite a few offensive linemen.
Speaker 2:Let's see, I want to get this right, so I want to find their transactions, Transactions. So they bring in Ed Ingram, offensive guard, Lakeland Thomason, offensive guard. So they bring in those two guys. They add some much-needed pass rush help by bringing back Mario Edwards and Sheldon Rankins and a couple edge rushers as well. But they brought in two offensive linemen and I guarantee you they're going to draft one in this draft, if not two or three. So you can see what the Texans are doing. As much as it was confusing to people, understand that the moves say something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and they got some good value back for them. And the players that went elsewhere I know at least one of them is going to help with that team he went to team.
Speaker 2:He went to Well and you know there are plenty of moves that seem confusing at the time or make total sense, kind of like Geno Smith going to the Raiders Bringing. Geno Smith brings them. He's not the best quarterback in the league but he's a serviceable quarterback.
Speaker 1:I think it was a great move.
Speaker 2:It's a perfect fit for them.
Speaker 1:Because Pete Carroll knew what he had in Geno Smith. Geno Smith is Pete Carroll's guy now. Okay, Right, Geno Smith was ready to lighten it up out in Seattle. They didn't do a lot of it Play calling, I think in scheme was an issue.
Speaker 2:Geno was kind of wearing out his welcome because he was starting to get a little having pick issues and having holding onto the ball a little too long issues.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's coming from somebody who's seen the games and watched a lot of the games and even went to a game last year and watched him basically be the reason they didn't have a competitive shot at the end of the game, because of their picks.
Speaker 1:Well, they broadcasted a lot of their plays too.
Speaker 2:You can throw a pick early in a game and be all right. It's when you throw a pick in the fourth quarter that it starts making you look really bad. And I know some fans were getting all upset. But they brought in Sam Darnold. And not only did they bring in Sam.
Speaker 1:Darnold James Winston, anybody.
Speaker 2:Look okay, so understand that his contract is 10 times friendlier than what Gino's was. So they get him at a discount. And Gino wanted a new contract. He was already making $45 a year, yeah, so you're getting Darnold at like 26. 26 or 30, somewhere in that range. That means you can get more players. That means you have more flexibility. Don't you want that?
Speaker 1:Who do you think the better quarterback is Geno or Darnold?
Speaker 2:Well, I think Darnold's a better quarterback than Geno and he's younger, so you, I think Darnold's a better quarterback than Geno and he's younger, so you have more opportunity and potential with him. So I think, before you start going, what the hell are they doing? Think about that. They're turning over from the Pete Carra era and moving into their new coach's era, the Ryan Grubb era, yes, where they're trying to get away from what they were and moving into a new regime and new situation honestly always those coaches want their guy that last era ended when marshawn lynch left.
Speaker 1:That, in my opinion, it was just. They were just clinging to what they could salvage at that point. They've been due for overhaul for a while. When they drafted metcalf I was like, eh, good move, but in a few years y'all are just going to be looking to wipe the board.
Speaker 2:Well, and sometimes you've got to know when that's time.
Speaker 1:I mean when they moved Carroll into an advisory role. I kind of saw it coming.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean it's kind of like they did in Tampa when they moved. Who was the coach?
Speaker 1:Raheem Morris.
Speaker 2:No, that's the coach now, the one before, the one that was winning. He was the old Arizona coach.
Speaker 1:Bruce.
Speaker 2:Arians, bruce Arians. That's it, thank you.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Bruce Arians. They moved him up into the office to be an advisor and then he just like I'm done and walked away.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, it's kind of that was kind of the easy way to transition him out of there yeah, there, yeah, there was a lot of drama with that and then the separation of tom brady and all that going down during that time and there was there was some controversy so, speaking of another team that made some moves that make sense was do you want to run down this and explain why some of these moves you guys have made make total sense?
Speaker 1:I mean, we just talked about the Laramie Tunsil trade. That's great, locking up the blind side for Jaden Daniels. Interested to see they made some other offensive line moves. Interested to see if they draft. Yeah, trent Scott, i'mested to see if they draft. Yeah, trent Scott, I'm interested to see if they draft any. But they also traded with your team, the 49ers. This is, in my opinion, what great GMs do. Okay, we got Debo Samuel. They're going to pay the rest of his contract. Then we just gave up a fifth-round pick on top of it. But then we moved Jahanan dotson to philadelphia for a third round pick and he so like they're wheeling, didn't they're wheeling and dealing right now. Uh, scary, terry mclaurin and debo samuel on the same team next year, never mind who receiver number three is gonna be uh, you, you know. If you thought Washington was scary good last year, they're going to be better this year. I mean, they catapulted all the way to the NFC Championship game and now they're just building on top of what they've done. They have a very high baseline.
Speaker 2:Well, they've been. What I've noticed and what makes total sense is they've addressed a lot of issues that they had last year.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Last year the pass rush, so-so. So they bring in Javon Kinlaw, eddie Golden Wise from the Patriots. They brought in Sheldon Day Brought back Bobby Wagner.
Speaker 1:That was another good signing, yeah.
Speaker 2:So you got those moves and they brought in Jacob Martin as well. But the other moves that nobody's talking about, that make total sense for your team. They're getting secondary help. Yes, they bring in will, harris will harris they bring in jonathan jones from the patriots, which that was a good get. Jonathan jones, when he was with the patriots, he was a good player yeah you know.
Speaker 2:So you, you have those guys added to a secondary that needed help and you undoubtedly are going to draft some more corners. But the big move, the move that I think that nobody pays attention to, this move Nobody cares about, this move Y'all brought back Tressway. That's huge. Look, people do not understand the importance of having a good punter until you don't have one. Tressway has been one of the most reliable punters in all of football.
Speaker 1:Can we talk about Tressway for a second? Do you know how long Tressway has been a member of the Washington Commanders? No, since 2011,. Mike Shanahan's era. Since his first second yearanahan took over 2010. Shanahan brought him in in 2010 2011, he has been a member of the washington uh commanders. Where are we in 2025? Now easily 15 years. One of the longest tenured, not just punters, but one of the longest tenured nfl players uh, in history. Like you don't see players, specifically punters run 15 years on the same team.
Speaker 2:Because people don't value them like they should. But obviously Washington does. But to be honest, field position if you ask any coach in the NFL is the most important thing, and having a punter who can flip field position like the way Tress Way does and has done because he's had plenty of experience, let's face it.
Speaker 1:Number one in net yards.
Speaker 2:Hey look, your team has been pretty awful up until recently.
Speaker 1:Tress Way Having.
Speaker 2:Tress Way was like the best player you've had for a while.
Speaker 1:He's the number one in the nfl in net yards for a punter. He is the number one. He he can boom it inside the 20, inside the 10, almost every single time from the other end of the field and he does, plus his hang time. Hang time allows our players to get to the other side of the field. That's another thing. He brings a lot of other players, don't his balls hang in the air for a minute?
Speaker 2:that's what she said, but we'll move on wow, okay, so yes, we will move on, we'll move on I'm sorry, I had an easy one there we just opened that one up, oh jesus anyway. So, moving on to the bears and yes, I'm going to talk about the Bears because not because they got their coach, but because of what their coach has done in free agency their coach has decided offensive line is important. So what does he do? He gets three new offensive linemen for his rookie quarterback. Well, second-year quarterback, second-year quarterback yeah.
Speaker 2:So they trade for one from the Los Angeles Rams and Jonah Jackson. They go and trade with KC for Joe Tooney, who's an outstanding guard Tooney's a good pick-up. Which that's a great pick-up. And then they bring in a center, Drew Dahlman, which they're beefing up the O-line.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's outstanding, and they're doing the same thing on the defensive line They've picked up some defensive line. Help with Grady Jarrett and an edge rusher, and I'm not going to even attempt this dang name.
Speaker 1:I can read it.
Speaker 2:Go for it.
Speaker 1:I don't know when is it at.
Speaker 2:Nope, that's what I thought, not gonna try. Oh didn't I be? Yeah, and that's the letters I remembered first name dale.
Speaker 1:We're gonna call him dale.
Speaker 2:Your name is dale anyway, point being they're making. But see, he did something that most new coaches and GMs don't do, which is we've got to get the best players we can get and we're just going to round out this team with all the best players we can get. No, they made tactful moves and got players that helped them, and now they're going to go to the draft to fill in the rest, Instead of trying to build your team off a free agency which never works out and I know we had this conversation roughly about the same time, maybe a little bit, probably after they drafted caleb williams, but this time last year the bears were loaded again and we thought they were going to be huge.
Speaker 1:So maybe they get some protection, you know, and shore up some holes, you know. Maybe they have the year this year they were hoping to have last year.
Speaker 2:Now their division is going to be one of the toughest in football. It already is. They have all the moves they made with the Bears, but there was a move with one of their division rivals, the Lions, that didn't get much notice, but it should. They lose Carlton Davis, right, One of the better corners on the team, and you're like dang it, we lost him. Dude, I felt like it was right.
Speaker 2:After this move, they pick up DJ Reader who's like a number one corner in the league and they pick him up to replace him. He's a younger player and they brought him in to replace him and I love that move for them. I really do, because he's going to be excellent in that defense. But they weren't the only ones who made some moves. This is the move that doesn't make any sense to me Packers bring in offensive guard Aaron Banks from the 49ers and they pay him a four-year $77 million deal. What, yeah? The Niners weren't going to even come half that way to paying him that much, because, I hate to say it, man, I could tell you Aaron Banks is a so-so guard. I'm not saying he's bad, I'm not saying he's good, but he's so-so. And they paid him like he's the best guard in football. So good job, bonehead Packers.
Speaker 1:Well, we'll see how it works out. Maybe's, maybe it's a scheme thing I don't know.
Speaker 2:Look, look and we'll get to the niners. We'll get to that. But, um, but the, the vikings, how?
Speaker 1:about the vikings?
Speaker 2:yeah, pick it up what do you think about them picking up?
Speaker 1:picking up a good couple moves. Getting john allen, uh, released from washington uh, I think hard graves and hard graves, I think allen. I think john allen is honestly a good pickup. Um, you know, he dealt with some injury history in washington. I think that's why they let him go. It wasn't his effectiveness on the field. I think it legitimately was. He's injured a lot and they drafted Josiah Newton last year to play in this spot and he did well when he was out. So obviously they feel that Newton can step in next to Payne. But I still think it's a good pickup for the Vikings. I think they've had a couple good pickups. I think the Vikings, honestly, I think the Vikings are going to keep it rolling next year. Honestly, I think they're going to pick up right where they like. They skid a little bit toward the end of the season this year, messed up a little bit around playoff time.
Speaker 2:You mean Darnold did.
Speaker 1:Yeah, darnold did, and they just absolutely got beat down by the Rams.
Speaker 2:Well, that's because their offensive line didn't provide much protection. Yeah, but if you look at what the Vikings did, they picked up three offensive linemen in free agency to improve their offensive line talent. So they witnessed what the problem was and they're addressing it. They witnessed what the problem was and they're addressing it, so I feel that's a well-deserved couple of moves they've made, or well-deserved moves they've made in free agency to help better some of their weaknesses, especially that they're going with a rookie quarterback next year.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and coming back towards the east coast, here, another team looking to make some noise and a potential breakout campaign. Uh, uh, for for bryce young, the the panthers are showing up their defensive secondary, making jc horn the highest paid db in nfl history 100 million dollar extension.
Speaker 2:I do not like this move $70 million guaranteed.
Speaker 1:Why don't you like this move? Tell me about this, Mike. Why don't you like? This Is his name.
Speaker 2:Patrick Sertan no.
Speaker 1:No, it's JC Horn.
Speaker 2:Is his name Sauce Gardner.
Speaker 1:No, it's JC Horn, exactly Sauce Gardner got traded. Look Sauce Gardner got traded. Look Sauce Gardner, oh, not Sauce Gardner Gardner. I always get these two mixed up, you mean Gardner Minshew. Gardner Minshew.
Speaker 2:He got released and he's with the Kansas City Chiefs now.
Speaker 1:Oh the Chiefs picked him up. He'll be.
Speaker 2:Mahomes' backup. But getting back to—.
Speaker 1:No, not Gardner Minshew. I'm thinking of somebody else. We I'm thinking of somebody else. We'll continue what you're saying.
Speaker 2:Move off your thought. We're going to move on to what I was talking about. I'll try, so I hate to throw. It's not that I don't like Horn, it's the number they gave him, making him the highest paid. Now, I watched a number of Panthers games. I know it's odd, somebody watches Panthers games, but I watched a number of thesethers games. I know it's odd, somebody watches Panthers games, but I watched a number of these games.
Speaker 2:Down the stretch they played some darn good football. They were playing a really good brand of football. Down the stretch they were competitive and, a matter of fact, they took Tampa into overtime and lost because of a fumble, not because they were driving down the field. They were going to win.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they almost beat Taylor in that game.
Speaker 2:There was a fumble late in that or not late. There was a fumble in overtime that cost them that game.
Speaker 1:Yeah, go ahead and say what you want to say, but getting back to Horn, yeah.
Speaker 2:In that game Horn got flagged and beat multiple times. In that game he literally had multiple times where he had back-to-back flags against him. You cannot be the highest paid corner and get flagged like that. I felt like I was watching Chris Culver from the Niners back in the day, where Chris Culver which you should remember because he went to Washington and did the same damn crap on your team where it's like flag 29. Is that, chris, damn it, chris, stop it, stop it. So that's how I feel when I watch him. Sometimes he can have outstanding plays, but then he makes bonehead plays where it's like dude, stop holding guys, stop, you know, like he just makes bonehead plays. That would drive me up the wall if I was his coach.
Speaker 1:Well, maybe Bryce Young and the offense take more control and take a little bit of pressure off of him.
Speaker 2:Well, what I'm seeing by the things they have done thus far. They're adding some depth and they're trying to beef up some areas of need which, for them, the defense was a big need.
Speaker 1:They don't have a good history with DBs.
Speaker 2:I mean Josh Norman and then Jeremy Chin both of which ended up in no, they get popular because they play well, and then they go somewhere else and then they don't play well. Yeah, because it's a scheme.
Speaker 1:They play well in the scheme. I think, with JC Horn the Panthers just don't want another one to walk away. But Jeremy Chin had a mediocre year. He did okay for us. And then Josh Norman was absolute. He was not effective at all when he came over to Washington. I agree with you, I don't know what they're thinking, but you know, maybe they see an opportunity with jc horn to spend a shit ton of money and be locked up in a situation they don't like very long.
Speaker 2:So well, speaking of locking up players, matthew stafford, he's not going anywhere. There was all that talk, all that speculation. He's leaving, he's going elsewhere, and it probably came down to number of years and money yeah that kept him, kept him where he was at now.
Speaker 2:Honestly, I think he would have done well with the raiders, given the talent that they have there. And you know, with the they have a good offensive line and it's only going to get better. And then they you know they have bowers, who is probably hands down, probably now the best tight end in football.
Speaker 1:He's probably going to be the best tight end in football for a long time.
Speaker 2:But he sticks around. They bring Jimmy back. Jimmy Garoppolo is his backup, but they release Cooper Cup. But they bring in Devontae Adams. So now you have Devontae Adams and Nipuka Nakua as your two major threats, and Nipuka's already said he's giving him 17, so Nipuka can wear 12.
Speaker 1:Dang Devontae Adams was already bullying Puka.
Speaker 2:No, Puka wanted to do it because he wanted to wear 12. Because 12 was his number before. Oh, okay, he was playing with Washington.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker 2:It's always been the number he's worn. So interesting how they've done that. But you could see what they're doing they're trying to have another run and they're trying to build up the team to make a run.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and Sean McVay is one of the most innovative coaches in the NFL. I like how he thinks, so he just finds a way to keep that team competitive year in and year out.
Speaker 2:So I have a take that I want to give here, because we're down to where. I want to talk about the Niners.
Speaker 1:Now we all know.
Speaker 2:We all know the players that are left. We know the hard grave's gone. We know the Hargrave's gone. We know that Greenlaw's gone, tuofunga's gone. We know that Leonard Floyd Did I say Leonard Floyd already? He's gone, leonard Floyd. We know that Givens is gone. Oh Michael.
Speaker 1:Floyd, that's who I was thinking of. Sorry, keep going.
Speaker 2:No, we're not talking about that. The list goes on. There's so many players. It's been a mass exodus of players. I didn't even mention Debo. Debo's gone, thank you. By the way, aaron Banks gone off of the offensive line. And then we lost our backup, left tackle to Kansas City. I don't know why I blanked there. Yeah, kansas City signed him up for $30 million for two years Now, granted, it might be an okay move, but he's 27, and he's a backup and you gave him $30 million. We'll see, we'll see, we'll see. Just kind of like the Aaron Banks move.
Speaker 1:Probably a situational thing.
Speaker 2:Look, all I'm saying is they have tackle problems. They brought him in and we'll see how it plays out. He did have 12 starts for us last year.
Speaker 1:Maybe they need a special teams tackle, I don't know.
Speaker 2:But with all this exodus yes, this is cap hell. We're basically getting what we asked for. We had all these players we signed up for big deals, big contracts, trying to keep it all in-house and keep all these players that yes, we have drafted Some of them Some of them were great moves that we made. Some of them Some of them were great moves that we made. But you would think, with all this exodus, that the team has no direction or they're not doing anything. You just think. All these negative thoughts, what are they?
Speaker 2:going to do next Release Sourdough Sam our mascot there's worse things. I can tell you what I see. In the moves we have made. The team has a clear direction that might not be apparent to people. So you pick up Mack Jones right, former number one or first round pick for the Patriots, was a starter for them, has made a Pro Bowl as an alternate and he was playing backup with Jacksonville. This was the guy that Shanahan wanted. He didn't want to draft Trey Lance, he wanted to draft he wanted Mac Jones, he wanted Mac.
Speaker 2:Jones. He didn't even want to move up. We could have sat at our pick and got Mac Jones, but they chose to make the moves they did, and thank God for Brock Purdy, because we would have been in much worse shape. But that all said. The moves that the Niners have made address a key issue for the Niners. Last year Our special teams was god-awful. I think we were ranked 24th in the league. So back half of the league, yeah, back, you know.
Speaker 1:The bottom, the bottom of the league in special teams.
Speaker 2:So we signed back our running back Patrick Taylor. Now you'd be like who, Patrick Taylor? Yeah, he had a few runs at the end of the season when everybody was hurt, but he's a special teams guy, one of our better special teamers. Then, not to be done, we go and sign Richie Grant from the Falcons, who is a safety, but he's a special teamer. He's been a special teamer for the Falcons. Then we go and sign Trey Brown, who was with the Seahawks, who's also a special teamer. We sign Luke Gifford, who's a special teamer for the Titans, Lifer, special teamer. So he's a good special teams guy. See the theme Special teams.
Speaker 1:They go special teams guy See the theme Special teams yeah. They're going special teams heavy.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So my point is they're addressing the need they can right now with the flexibility and money they have. And understand the Niners have 12 draft picks, six of which are in the first four rounds.
Speaker 1:Oh, they loaded up.
Speaker 2:So what they're doing is keep in mind we still have Fred Warner.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:We still have Nick Bosa, we still have Trent Williams when he's healthy and we still have Kittle and we have Purdy and we have McCaffrey when healthy and when we don't have McCaff and we have Purdy and we have McCaffrey Went healthy and when we don't have McCaffrey we have Mason Kittle is two years away from going to the WWE. But Mason also. He was leading the league. He was second in the league in rushing until he went down hurt.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So keep in mind, it's not panic mode, but that's solid O-line play too but if you look, no, our o-line was suspect last year and that's one of the reasons they let a lot of these guys walk that were in free agency.
Speaker 2:Because they're going to load up, I guarantee you their first or second pick is going to be o-line, yeah, if not d-line, because I guarantee you that michigan kid, the d-tackle out of Michigan, he's probably going to be the first pick up by the Niners. If he falls there, if he is picked before that and the corner out of Michigan will dang his name escapes me, but he's like one of the best corners in college If he falls and a lot of projections are showing that he'll fall down to 11, which is where we're at they'll probably pick him. So the point I'm making is they're addressing the need they can with what they have right now, with the flexibility they have now until they figure out Purdy's contract. So they're addressing special teams because they can do that right now. That's a smart GM. I think so too. So they're addressing special teams because they can do that right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's a smart GM.
Speaker 1:I think so too. I think that's good moves.
Speaker 2:Because if you can't fill the needs that you need to, like the big needs, you go and fill the small ones while you can. You know that's just how it is. You've got to fill your team the best way you can smartly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the key there is making smart decisions and smart moves. It's just like investing in anything you make dumb investment decisions, you're going to lose your ass right. Same thing with football and sports. You make smart decisions, hopefully you get good results in return um, yeah, and nobody.
Speaker 2:Nobody wins the off season through free agency. You got to do it through free agency and draft yeah.
Speaker 1:Now one last thing here. Uh, you know, find us on facebook, go interact with our stuff. We didn't get a lot of interaction, but we're gonna keep trying to interact with our stuff. We didn't get a lot of interaction, but we're going to keep trying to interact with you. Last week I asked do you think Cousins is going to be traded or released? My opinion I think Atlanta hangs on to Cousins. I think Atlanta hangs on to Cousins, at least through the draft, and if they don't have any suitors, I think they cut them and save them where they can save. That's my opinion on that. But again, find us on facebook, find us on instagram, find us on any streaming service that you tune into well they're already found us if they're listening to us, true, true story.
Speaker 1:I mean, I guess you're right the word pass the word, but thank you again for joining us everybody for another great conversation about sports. Once again, I'm Brian with an I and I'm Mike. And we are Two for the Win.
Speaker 2:Thanks everybody.