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 - E33 - Softball Goes Pro, Rodgers & Co? AND - Special Guest Announcement!!
From championship showdowns to emerging superstars, this week's sports landscape is delivering non-stop excitement across multiple leagues.
The NHL Finals have kicked off with a bang as Edmonton secured a thrilling overtime victory against Florida in Game 1. Both goalies put on a clinic with spectacular saves against relentless offensive pressure, while Panthers' captain Alexander Barkov continued his defensive dominance by securing his third Selke Trophy.
Baseball fans have plenty to celebrate with the launch of the new American Ultimate Softball League (AUSL) – a professional women's league partnering with MLB that debuts this Saturday with four teams playing across ten cities. Meanwhile, the regular season continues with remarkable moments including the Washington Nationals scoring nine runs before recording a single out against the Diamondbacks, upholding a 77-year-old NL record. The Detroit Tigers currently reign supreme with baseball's best record at 41-23.
The WNBA spotlight shines brighter than ever as Angel Reese signs a groundbreaking deal with Reebok projected to grow into a billion-dollar shoe brand by 2035. Rookie sensation Paige Buckers is making history as the first player with 60 points and 30 assists in her first five games despite recently entering concussion protocol.
NBA drama unfolds with the shocking dismissal of Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau despite leading the team to their best season since the 90s, while the Thunder and Pacers battle in Game 1 of the Finals. NFL headlines feature Travis Hunter's attitude creating waves in Jaguars camp, Frank Ragnall's retirement after seven seasons with the Lions, and Aaron Rodgers expected to sign with the Steelers.
Most intriguingly, the NFL Players Association is preparing for a potential European division with four teams, sparking debate about the global future of American football. With summer heating up and championships on the line, sports fans are in for a treat across all major leagues.
Don't miss next week's episode featuring our first guest interview with talented young athlete-entrepreneurs Caden O'Brien James and Christian Wright!
June 5th 2025. Welcome back everybody for another show of sports talk with us. Yours truly, I'm Brian with an eye and I'm Mike and we are two for the win. Mike, what's cooking man?
Speaker 2:well, it's that summertime feeling. We got barbecue starting up everywhere, but what's cooking, man? Well, it's that summertime feeling. We got barbecue starting up everywhere, but what's really hot right now? We got finals action in both the NBA and the NHL, but you know, that's not all. We got baseball doing its thing and we have NFL news and we're getting ever closer to the start of NFL preseason and the NFL season, as well as college football.
Speaker 1:All of that's very exciting, mike, as well as a huge step forward in the future of our podcast. We have something very exciting to announce tonight. We have our first show guest coming on the show next week for an interview Mr Caden O'Brien James and young Christian Wright. These two young guys and, by the way, happy birthday, christian, his birthday was today, by the way, mike, I believe he's 17 years old these two young fellows are up-and-coming athletes, they're very talented and they are entrepreneurs. They also own a business together. So we're very excited to bring them on the show and have a talk with them, and you guys should tune into that because it's going to be interesting. It's going to be a very good one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, please join us and get to know these two up-and-comers. Absolutely, Mike.
Speaker 1:Now let's move on into the show here. Nhl Finals man Florida, edmont, florida, edmonton, edmonton getting florida in the first go at it. What do you think, mike?
Speaker 2:well, I tell you, the score for the, for the first game, which was literally yesterday, uh came out with edmonton winning in overtime, uh, 4-1. And I tell you, man, like this game, this game is living up, because last night I watched this game and I saw the hits, I saw the fast play that they were having and I saw how Edmonton, even though they were down because they were down going into the third period I saw they didn't give up. You know, they were putting shots on goal. They had more shots on goal than the Panthers did, and not only that, the Panthers goalie, like he, was doing his darndest to keep them in this game.
Speaker 1:They were hanging.
Speaker 2:And it wasn't for a lack of effort. You know, both goalies really, really deserve some kudos because some of the saves they made, not just one or two. I'm saying these guys are making three, four saves on attempt, where these guys are dealing with defenders, rebounding pucks and shooting them back at them, and they're still getting a leg in there, getting a stick over there.
Speaker 1:They were doing something. I I gotta give it to him. I I think it might have been in the second or third. Somewhere midway through the game I actually thought the panthers might come away with with number one. Well, yeah, they did second.
Speaker 2:There they did look like they were in control.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they look like they were gonna ride out this victory, you know, because, like I said, they had the lead, they had the lead it was three, two for a while and then, you know, edmonton tied it up and they held, they held tight to take it into overtime and they, just, they puck, bounced their way yeah, and speaking of the panthers, by the way, mike uh team captain alexander barkoff uh, he's won the silk trophy uh again as the nhl's uh best defensive forward, this being his second straight season uh also making it his third total time that he's won the award and his 12th season ahl career. So um 2021, 2024, 2025. So congratulations to him. This guy is on fire and you can clearly see a reason why the Panthers have had such a strong run that they have having a player like him on their squad. So, you know, and that's exciting, and I know we're eager to see how the rest of this plays out, because it's going to be competitive.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, I'm very much looking forward to the rest of the series. I would so love this series to go seven, but that's just me. I like when series go deep, only because that means each team is getting victories, and getting victories in the most crucial of times. So I really want to see a good series. I don't want to see anybody have a sweep. I don't want to see anybody just kind of run away with it being like a you know four, one you know series, victory we want to see a competitive in series.
Speaker 1:I think we're going to get just that. Uh, you know, just like with another sport, we'll get to here shortly. But uh, you know, you're ready to move into some MLB action, bro. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm really I have to bring this up. It's kind of exciting. Mlb is actually partnering up with a new league. So for a while there we've had an uptick in people following softball, especially the college softball. That's right. Mlb has taken notice of that and they have partnered up with a league and they're starting the AUSL, the American Ultimate Softball League, which literally starts this Saturday, june 7th. Now this league is going to be comprised of four teams. Now this league is going to be comprised of four teams. These four teams are going to play each other in 24 games, 10 different cities, and it will all culminate in Tulsa, alabama, for the final game on the final series of three best of three. It will be in July, from the 26th to the 28th in Tulsa, alabama. So this is going to be a professional league.
Speaker 1:This is exciting. It's a professional league.
Speaker 2:It's going to start out with these four teams and let me I want to make sure I get the team names right. I don't want to misspeak here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, while you look for that, you did mention their schedule already, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, they start Saturday. Start Saturday. And each team is playing, I think, what like 25 games or something like that 24 games, 24 games, 24 games and the team names are the Bandits, the Blaze, the Talons and the Volts. So these will be the first four teams to kick off this league, and I want to get the cities right because that might be important to people yeah, maybe a little bit.
Speaker 1:We'd like to know where they're from so.
Speaker 2:But the other thing you need to know is they're actually filling these team with some notable softball players and it's actually being, uh, led by the florida marlins former uh, you know, the florida marlins former uh, former lead exec. So they're going to have some people standing this league up and supporting it. So we're really excited for these women to bear the fruit of a brand new, brand new inaugural season for this softball league.
Speaker 1:Dang, I'm having a little difficulty finding finding this well, you know it'd be like that, but you know why, again, why you look for that. I just want to talk about the significance of this for a moment. This is a, you know, women's sports in general are getting a boost right now, uh, all across the board, right, so this is exciting for a new professional league to stand up, uh, you know, and take place here, so that's, you know, that's just a great thing, in my opinion, as far as what's going on and I, I think they deserve it. I mean, they're there should be professional sports, you know, across the landscape, okay, okay.
Speaker 2:What do you got, mike? So I found it. There's 10 cities this league is going to participate in and it's kind of impressive. They're going to be all over the place. So they're going to be in Rosemont, illinois. They're going to play in Wichita, kansas, sulphur, louisiana, chattanooga, tennessee, sulphur, louisiana, chattanooga, tennessee. Norman, oklahoma, omaha, nebraska, seattle, salt Lake City, red Rock, texas, or Round Rock, texas Sorry, not Red Rock, round Rock, texas. And then the final, which I've already said, is in Tuscaloosa Alabama. I think I said Tulsa Alabama, my bad people, it is Tuscaloosa Alabama. I think I said Tulsa Alabama, my bad people, it is Tuscaloosa Alabama. Man, I'm doing horrible tonight.
Speaker 2:You are incorrigible, sir, I am in a bad way with this Anyway.
Speaker 1:Usually I'm the one tripping.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, well, I guess it's my turn.
Speaker 1:It's all right, we all have off days, my friend.
Speaker 2:But, like I said, this league's kicking off, it's the again American Ultimate Softball League. Give them a look-see. I'm sure some of these games will be highlighted, and if you can't actually go to the games, maybe they'll be virtually streamed somewhere.
Speaker 2:Guys, make sure you give us a look, see. But moving on into MLB news, so so recently, uh, the White Sox field or out outfielder, luis Roberts Jr, who's the best player they have, honestly, uh, he hasn't been in the lineup for like three games and he's just having a rough go right now because this last game it was such a freak thing. He was going to be expected to play, but wouldn't you know it, this guy is just having a bad stretch because he's in the batting cage practicing and he ricochets a ball back to him and hits himself in the head.
Speaker 1:So now he's hurt and now he's not playing. Could you imagine getting knocked out by your own ricochet?
Speaker 2:I don't think he knocked himself out, but he hit himself in the head.
Speaker 1:This is some cartoon level stuff right here. This should definitely be well have been recorded.
Speaker 2:Look, it's like that phrase that's baseball you know that's baseball.
Speaker 1:I've begun applying that to my life here at this point.
Speaker 2:That's baseball well, in your case it might be that's brian yep, that's Anyway, so hopefully he gets better.
Speaker 2:He'll be playing again soon, hopefully, but another player that's missing some time here recently, for a much different reason, the Reds their manager, announced Terry Francona announced that Eli De La Cruz plans to return home after the passing of his sister. He's from the Dominican Republic, so he's going to be going back to the Dominican Republic to be around family, friends and loved ones while they grieve for the loss of his sister, who is suffering from illness and finally passed.
Speaker 1:Yes, and Mr De La Cruz, we send our thoughts and prayers to your family and those affected by what's going on with your sister as well. So good luck to you all. We wish you all well. You're in our thoughts.
Speaker 2:So hopefully, you know, nothing but good things for them in the future. Absolutely Speaking of good things, you know, for the Nationals, who you know beyond their World Series win a few years ago I think it was like 2019, they've kind of had a down last few seasons where they're not as good, but they had something interesting happen this past game with the Arizona Diamondbacks, right when they were playing, the Diamondbacks in their stadium and they had a nine-run outburst in the first inning. Now, not only did they have a nine-run outburst, but when they scored those nine runs, they didn't have a single out. So it wasn't like oh, we scored two runs, there's an out Score. Three runs, there's an out score. Three runs, there's an out score the remaining five runs. No, they scored nine runs before one out was ever recorded and by doing this they they are holding a record as 70. It's a 77 yearyear-old NL record.
Speaker 1:Now, Dang, that's a hell of a record right there yeah. Longstanding record.
Speaker 2:Obviously they wound up winning this game. When you have an outburst in nine runs because they won the game by a final 11 runs to the Diamondbacks' seven runs but kind of impressive when you can put out nine runs in the beginning you kind of feel like man, we got this game. You could almost turn it off and walk away. You know so, but from the front of the game to the back of the game, I got to talk about this and I hate to talk about it because it's so embarrassing when this happens to your team.
Speaker 1:Listen, this is life. Sometimes we do things you don't want to do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So this is one thing I don't want to do, but I'm going to do it.
Speaker 1:All right.
Speaker 2:So this happened today, recently. This afternoon the Braves played those same Diamondbacks and the Diamondbacks were on the other end of this kind of outburst in runs. So in the seventh inning, or seven runs were scored. In the ninth inning my apologies, there they scored seven runs to come back and win the game against the Atlanta Braves. Pains me to say that, it pains me to say that, but silver linings pains me to say that. It pains me to say that, but silver linings I like when you get something bad and put something good in there.
Speaker 2:Hey man so look, despite them losing this game, there was a bit of good news that came out of this. The Braves have brought back and called up Craig Kimbrell. We alluded to him. Going back to the Braves, he is coming back up. He has had I think it's like 18 appearances and is supporting a two ERA, so that's pretty good ERA for a reliever, and in his 18 innings he has struck out 23 batters.
Speaker 2:That's pretty good. You're striking out at least one or two batters per inning, so that's a pretty impressive thing. So yeah, we lost the game.
Speaker 1:We got some good news at the end of it. Not bad at all. Yeah yeah, we'll work with it, we'll take it.
Speaker 2:Speaking of. You know good and bad, Speaking of Good and bad, Good and bad. So I got to put out this recent article I read, where they kind of highlight the Detroit Tigers shortstop Glaber Torres. Now, for some of you who may know that Glaber Torres, he used to be a New York Yankee and he used to be the New York Yankee shortstop.
Speaker 1:The Yanks.
Speaker 2:So Glaber. Torres you know, for most people they were just kind of like well, how good is he really? Well, he's been pretty darn good for the Detroit Tigers. Pretty darn good for the Detroit Tigers. He right now has a .272 batting average, with five home runs and 29 RBIs, with an OPS of .793.
Speaker 1:Good Lord, and we're just getting started.
Speaker 2:He is doing quite well.
Speaker 1:We're just getting started. The Yankees on the other hand they have been having infield struggles.
Speaker 2:They're kind of playing mix and match. Having infield struggles, they're kind of playing mix and match, so they're kind of in and out. Third baseman Jazz Chisholm just returned back to the lineup. On Tuesday night he homered, so that's kind of a bright spot. But Torres, his OPS is better than DJ LeMayhew, better than Anthony Volpe, better than Oswald Pereira and the injured Oswald Cabrera. So he is doing better at getting on base than all those players that the Yankees chose to keep over him on base, than all those players that the Yankees chose to keep over him.
Speaker 2:And, might I add, detroit, they have the best record in baseball Nice, so they're nice Success. Sometimes you don't want players to disappear when they, when you lose a player, you don't want him to go somewhere else and play well, necessarily.
Speaker 1:When you lose a player, you don't want him to go somewhere else and play well, necessarily. Well, you know. That brings us into our next thing here. You know, don't want players to go away, but unfortunately here well, this is really unfortunate Two legends of the game who share one jersey number. Seattle Mariners announced today that they will be retiring Randy Johnson's number 51 jersey, joining Ishiro Suzuki, who also is having Ishiro Suzuki.
Speaker 1:Ishiro Suzuki Sorry, I read that wrong. Come on man. Look man, words are hard. Ishiro Suzuki, who also is having his number 51 retired in his honor. So you know these two guys. You know clearly legends of the game retiring now. I know I said today, but this was actually just a few days ago.
Speaker 2:So Well, both these players were amazing.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 2:Amazing players Like Ichiro as a rookie.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:His rookie season over 200 hits. That's pretty good rookie.
Speaker 1:His rookie season over 200 hits in his rookie season Now granted was he a real rookie Because he was playing professional ball overseas. So eh, yeah, give and take.
Speaker 2:But he also. If you combined his hits from overseas and his hits in the major league, just those alone make Hall of Fame careers, Plus the fact that if you combine them because they're professional hits, he is the all-time hits leader. Now I know Pete Rose, before he passed away, was like no, I'm the all-time hits leader, those don't count, that wasn't an MLB and fair enough, he has a bit of an argument.
Speaker 2:I mean, I think it depends on who you are to be honest with you, Ichiro was an impressive hitter and an impressive fielder and he played well into his career and deserves a lot of kudos. But so did Randy Johnson, and for a guy who threw really he threw hard, that guy man I wouldn't want to face Randy Johnson with the way he pitches.
Speaker 1:And don't get me wrong, going back to your earlier statement, I see where Pete Rose was coming from, but in my opinion, at some point you've got to pass the torch. Who better to pass it to than Ichiro?
Speaker 2:Look, I'm telling you right now Pete Rose is the type of guy he'd run over his own mom to win a game. So he doesn't care.
Speaker 1:He doesn't care, no, mine all day.
Speaker 2:Yes, exactly.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's okay.
Speaker 2:But Randy Johnson. One thing if you've never seen this and most people have, but if you've never seen this, there was actually a time when Randy Johnson was pitching and the timing of this was crazy. He throws his fastball and he hits a bird as the bird is flying across in the path of the goal and you just see a plume of feathers and then the bird just kind of flopped and the ball flopped to the back of the backstop.
Speaker 2:And it's just like what did I just see? You will watch it, take it back and watch it again, take it back and watch it again, Like dang. So if you haven't seen it, go check that out.
Speaker 1:I think that's crazy and incredible. That's pretty funny.
Speaker 2:And speaking of things unseen, man. So the Florida Marlins and the Rockies recently played a series and, man, I don't believe the attendance that they said they had at this game, because if you look at the photo, there is nobody at this game, like there is no one in the stands.
Speaker 2:Well, this game, because right now, if the willard marlins pack their stadium, they have over 37 000 seats. According to their attendance. For a game between the rockies, they had 5,894 people show up for this right. So you would think, okay, well, the Rockies have the worst record in baseball. You would say, okay, well, they got to have the worst attendance no, not always necessarily. Not so much. They averaged 27,621 fans even though they were a losing team, making them 16th in baseball. For how many fans show up for their games?
Speaker 1:Middle of the pack.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're middle of the pack, but you have teams that are playing better baseball than them because, let's face it, they're at the bottom. You have teams playing better baseball than them and can't get people to go to the stadium. That sucks, that just sucks.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, that's terrible. I don't know how you change that, you know, but I gotta give it up to fans of all sports who are dedicated and still come out. I mean, as a Redskins fan, I can relate.
Speaker 2:But anyway, getting back to the topic here, but let let me finish, man there's a reason to celebrate over this this particular series, oh so something happened in this series. Oh, the colorado rockies found out how to win. They won this series and they swept the series. They swept the series against the, against the florida marlins. They are now double-digit winners. They have a 12-50 record.
Speaker 1:Congratulations to the Rockies. So they have made it to double digits, like everybody else in baseball. Congratulations, there's hope yet.
Speaker 2:But there's more, there's more. I'm not done. The Rockies having made it a sweep. This is the first time they have swept a series since last year may. So it's been over a year since they have swept a series. So that means that these, these guys have basically lost at least one or two games in every series that they've played since last may. Dang.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, you got to start somewhere right and at some point progress rears its head, hey, I got to give it to them.
Speaker 2:They still get fans out and their fans still love them, despite them not winning games.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you got to love that. I'll give their fan base credit on that, oh, 100%.
Speaker 2:But let's make a rundown of who is leading in which division.
Speaker 1:So in the AL.
Speaker 2:East, we have the New York Yankees leading the division 37-23, with the Blue Jays right behind them at 33-29, making them five games out.
Speaker 1:Change their name to Red Jays because they're getting hot, so moving over into the AL Central.
Speaker 2:as I said before, five games out. Change their name to Red Jays because they're getting hot. So, moving over into the AL Central, as I said before, the Detroit Tigers, with their 41-23 record, are leading baseball with the best record and they are followed by the Cleveland Guardians at 33-27, making them six games back.
Speaker 1:The guards.
Speaker 2:Moving down to the AL West, we have the Houston Astros. Like I said last week, the Mariners needed to watch out and lo and behold they are.
Speaker 1:Honestly, this may be the tightest division in baseball.
Speaker 2:Well, they're pushed out of the top place for now, with the Houston Astros leading 33 wins with 28 losses, and the Seattle Mariners are 32 wins with 29 losses. They're only a game back, so they have a chance. They have a chance to get past them, the Rangers and the.
Speaker 1:Angels and, honestly, the athletics hot on their heels, not terribly far behind.
Speaker 2:Well, the athletics are 10 and a half games back in the last place. They've had a slide. They've lost like six or seven games here recently.
Speaker 1:But they're hanging a little. They're slipping back, but they're hanging.
Speaker 2:They're in the 20s.
Speaker 1:They got 24 wins.
Speaker 2:Well, they're one of nine for their last 10 games, so they're not doing great.
Speaker 1:Well, I stand corrected.
Speaker 2:Hopefully they figure that out. So right now, uh, we're going to move over to the NL, the NL East. The New York Yankees have climbed back atop the division that's New York Mets, or, yeah, mets, my bad.
Speaker 1:Words are hard, yep, yep. So is reading.
Speaker 2:I heard I just said New York and I thought Yankees. I don't know why, screw the Yankees. Anyway, the AL East, the damn Yanks. No, the NL East is the Mets, with a 39-24 record, with the Phillies right behind them with a 37-25 record, making them only game and a half back. And my lonely Braves are below 500 again. That sucks. So, moving on to the NL Central, we have the Cubs with a 38-23 record, with the Cardinals directly behind them with a 34-27 record, making them four games back. The Dodgers they're still holding on strong. They have a 38-25 record at top of the NL West. They have a 38-25 record at the top of the NL West and they have the Padres right behind them with a 35-26 record, making them two games back. And the Giants are tightly behind, still with a 35-28 record, making them three games back of the Dodgers.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you see, yeah, we're just looking at some of these things here, you know, starting to get some separation between the top dogs and the lower tier teams. I see a good pattern here in most of the divisions. I mean, you see the low man of divisions, the high man divisions, you compare them across the board. There's a trend here. We're starting to see some separation from the top teams early in the season well, and we're moving.
Speaker 2:We're moving further into the season, getting closer to the trade deadline and really the most exciting thing in baseball come trade deadline is seeing who's going where and who's sellers and who's not who's sellers?
Speaker 1:who's buying?
Speaker 2:yeah, you really want to see how it all shakes out.
Speaker 1:All right, let's go on here. I know we're moving right along tonight, not too bad, making good time, not that we're in a hurry, but we actually have quite a bit to talk about tonight with WNBA Mike. They're gaining more and more attention here on our show and we'll start this segment out. So Angel Reese has a new deal with Reebok and is projected to be a billion-dollar shoe brand by 2035, which, by the way, is only 10 years away. That's quite a timeline for a business venture. It's expected to compete with the Air Jordan brand.
Speaker 1:Some details on this all right, and this is via Elite Grid Honor, which I'm sure they got it from somewhere else, but she's you know CEO Todd Krinsky. You know this was a deal that he apparently pioneered with Angel Reese's camp himself you know he's a Reebok representative as well apparently pioneered with Angel Reese's camp himself. He's a Reebok representative as well. It's expected to launch her shoe brand in 2026. It's going to be her signature shoe, reebok by Angel. It's supposed to be next spring.
Speaker 1:These shoes are supposed to retail at $150 a pair, which is crazy to me right now, but not too bad. They have some other sales projections and stuff like that. I won't go all down that. But they're expected to price increase annually by 5%. So they're expecting to not just gain value but push this value high and really fast. That pushed this value high and really fast. So these things are. You know, basically the female version of Air Jordans is what she's trying to gun for here, mike. So I think this honestly is kind of exciting, especially with it being Angel Reese's name on it. So and you know.
Speaker 2:Okay, so my take on it is and I got nothing against Angel Reese at all, but let's understand that Angel Reese isn't nearly the player that Jordan was for the NBA.
Speaker 1:And she's still quite young, yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, she's quite young.
Speaker 1:She's year two.
Speaker 2:But what I'm saying is Jordan, we knew we started seeing flashes of his greatness and we knew what he was becoming and that deal that was made with him he didn't even originally want to do His parents, kind of made him, his parents made it, but he was Well.
Speaker 1:His parents made them go talk he had already found some success in the NBA. By then, though, I think he was a little bit further down the line than where Angel Reese is now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and but the the thing is with Angel Reese. I don't know that if they really want to grow that brand beyond that, I don't know that having one singular person be the the push for that is going to work. You know, because in this day and age, if they're not a WNBA fan, maybe they're not going to be interested in it. Maybe you need multiple stars to help push the brand, is what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:Not just that, but let's face it, reebok. They were on top for a long time until Nike came around.
Speaker 2:Nike and Adidas and some of these other companies Well let's not forget that they used to have some stars you know, namely Shaq and AI, who were part of their brand. And then, you know, shaq came up with his own shoe and well, ai moved on as well, and you know, both of them are out of the NBA and you know, for people who didn't watch them, it doesn't mean anything really yeah.
Speaker 1:to me and I don't know a lot about shoes-to-shoe world, so forgive me here but this seems like Reebok is really trying to get their brand name significance back and establish it alongside not just Nike but the Air Jordan brand.
Speaker 2:They're looking to step into that same arena, so well, I I condone them for for giving that effort and hoping that they can make that happen, and I I hope they do yeah because, I mean, obviously they're making moves to try to make the brand stronger and you know, time will tell yeah, and you know, good luck with it.
Speaker 1:I'm eager to see how it unfolds. And speaking of young players, right, everybody talks about caitlin clark, angel reese, uh, but dallas may have another young star in their own right. And page beckers, right, uh, she put on. She had a great game this few days ago I will go over it here shortly but she was also injured. Uh, entered concussion protocol, unfortunately. She is officially now back at practice. She collided, actually, with Sky's Courtney Vandersloot last week. So she's actually back at practice and, I believe, expected to be back in the next game, but she had a hell of a game just a few days ago. She's the first player in WNBA history with 60 points and 30 assists through her first five games. Okay, paige Becker's putting on a clinic for a rookie over here in Dallas, right?
Speaker 2:So these young WNBA stars are making themselves known in this next generation here I'm liking this because it's it's showing these girls are coming in and they're not afraid. They're coming in and they're performing. Yep, you know right away they're ready to step in. We just and the more we have these players that start in college, come into the WNBA and they star, they show up and put these good performances up early. It's going to just keep making names and brands bigger and it's going to make the league better and bigger.
Speaker 1:And they're showing that the moment's not too big for them, right, they're ready to step in a lot and and they're coming in hot and fast. And that's what she said. But you know, speaking of some WNBA legends, you know Paul George. He says Kaitlyn Clark is the rightful face of the NBA currently as it stands.
Speaker 2:WNBA.
Speaker 1:WNBA Sorry if I missed the W part WNBA WNBA. Sorry if I missed the W part WNBA. He's saying Kaitlin Clark is 100% the current face of WNBA. That's a good argument to make, but there's a lot of other stars also still in the WNBA. So what do you make of this, Mike? Who are you calling the face right now? If you had to pick?
Speaker 2:a face right now. If you had to pick, well, I would have to say say you know, you have to really take an account. You know, when you have a back-to-back mvp and asia wilson, asia wilson, I think you kind of have to lead with her. You know, yeah, no, no, no, shade at at you know clark for what she's doing, but you can't really say face a league and not be holding hardware, you know like you got to have some hardware to back it.
Speaker 2:You know, whether that's championships, mvps or both, you can't really argue it too much.
Speaker 1:I mean like seriously yeah, and I mean I think that's a good argument. Don't get me wrong. The fever did have a good season last season. Uh, very good actually, uh, but I think you're right, she's got mvp twice.
Speaker 1:Now I go along with your vote, uh, you know, we don't typically dive into individual matchups too much. Uh, typically we normally talk about standings. We dive into the matchups when they get around playoff time, regardless of sport. But here I just got to mention, right, just, this is actually just a couple nights ago, uh, new york liberty put on a just an absolute clinic versus the sun. Okay, the final was 100 to 52. Uh, they had a 48 point win, which is the second largest win in wmba history. So, not not great news for the sun, but liberty, you know, maybe maybe the sun, you know uh, might need some work, might have some work to do here. So let's, what are the standings here for the wmba? Speaking of that, you know, colossal, beat down by the liberty. Uh, where's sun standing at? Okay, they're standing at one win. So they're making an argument for being one of the worst in the wmba this season well and the doubt.
Speaker 2:The dallas uh wings, despite having Paige Beckers play well, they're still at the bottom of the league with a 1-7 record.
Speaker 1:I know they're praying to have her back in the next game. I think she is going to be cleared if she's already back at practice. But you know Chicago Sky not opening well for the season. But let's go to the top. Minnesota, the Lynx links, eight wins one game ahead of new york liberty who, by the way, we're just talking about who have seven wins. Neither team has any losses, so it's a tight race early on. And just on their heels we have atlanta dream, followed by las vegas las vegas aces, excuse me with five wins and four wins respectively. Along with them in the same pack, phoenix Mercury five wins, seattle Storm here's where we start to drop off the lower end of the pack. Seattle Storm's four wins, fever's sitting at three wins. Again, Fever and Sky both had very good seasons last season, so maybe they turn it on midway through and get some wins. But Fever's.
Speaker 2:They have some time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they have some time. Fever's sitting with three, mystic's three, valkyrie's two it's their brand new franchise Sky's two, spark's two, sun again one and Wing's one. So we have some separation at the top of the pack early on, but largely midway and down through the bottom. It's still a fair game, I would say, for this league. So, mike, do you have any thoughts on this?
Speaker 2:Well, no, I mean it's clear right now who the two best in the league are. You know, when you have no losses yeah, you know that back and forth.
Speaker 1:You know, you know it's, you know it is what it is so we'll have to see if they can get to double digits now losses before we move into some nba action, we have a little bit of college news here.
Speaker 1:We're just going to talk a little bit of college politics here. Okay, this isn't even really it's about the sport, but we're going to talk about the effect of the nil for a second right. Okay, mike, get this cooper flag number projected. Number one overall pick in the nba has been projected it's, it's, that's gonna happen. You know like look, people can speculate there ain't no speculation.
Speaker 2:He's gonna be to be number one and everybody fucking knows.
Speaker 1:You're right, probably, but I'm going to say projected, because we've seen crazier things happen. But over his college career he made $28 million in NIL.
Speaker 2:That is already a starter level salary for some pro sports but it's not like he got all of that up front and remember this is just what he made in deals endorsement deals so like, yeah, this might be money paid over time, but yeah yes, technically you could say he has that kind of money.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's kind of way different from you know where the day and age you wanted to get to the pros because you wanted to make money. Some guys now and this might be the added benefit to having players make more money in NIL and stuff than they would with their college, or not their college, their rookie contracts You're going to have more players that decide to stay longer because they'll make more money, yeah, going to have more players that decide to stay longer because they'll make more money.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so well, now that might make some of these college games across the board, not just basketball, but football, baseball, all of it well, not just a little more?
Speaker 1:intriguing well, that and I I think it changes the mindset a little bit, because now you are kind of playing for the passion of it, right, you're not paying because you want to get. Well, you might be wanting to get paid, but I'm pretty sure they want to get paid.
Speaker 1:They all want to get paid, but what I'm saying is it changes how they view their passion for the game. Right, If they're making $28 million at NIL, I'm sure they want the money that's going to come from actually playing the sport, but they may not be stressing over it as much when they already have a significant cushion to fall back on.
Speaker 2:So I'm telling you right now, based on the projections that they talk about with Cooper Flagg and by him going in early, he's looking like he can have multiple contracts over the life of his NBA career, assuming health, and he stays playing. They're saying that he could be one of the first players to make a billion dollar over the life of his NBA career.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that is the age we're coming into, especially with the way NIL has been built. So again, again, congratulations to him. I'm I'm never mad at anybody's success because I'm trying to be successful. I think we should all try to be successful.
Speaker 2:So well we should never be mad for somebody's success. We should be like how'd you do it?
Speaker 1:yeah, give me no either way. Yeah, show me the pathway.
Speaker 2:Unfortunately, when it comes to athletics though I mean, if you're blessed with, you know, the body and ability to be that kind of athlete well, some people just win the genetic lottery, and that's just how it goes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, yeah, I get that. And here we go, speaking of genetic lottery New York Knicks relieving Tom Thibodeau.
Speaker 2:Breaking news as of a few days ago. Are you saying Tom Thibodeau won the genetic lottery? I would fair to say that he's pretty upset about the amount of hair he's losing.
Speaker 1:Look, we had to transition somehow, yeah, his hair is transitioning off his head. Yeah, he might lose a little more after losing his job here recently.
Speaker 2:I know, I know, Like this is crazy, right Between them and the Nuggets.
Speaker 1:What?
Speaker 2:is going on here, bro. Okay, this has been one of the best Knicks seasons since the 90s Since the 90s. So you finally get to the playoffs and you're in the playoffs Four out of the five years he's coached there, and one of those four he takes you to the conference championship game and then you fire him. This kind of reeks to me like there's maybe a little more behind the scenes going on, you know, because Tibbs he is known for playing the crap out of his starters and not really playing his bench much and the Knicks kind of got exposed in this last series. The Pacers kind of showed the Knicks have two players they rely on for scoring in Jalen Brunson and Cat, and both of them are defensive liabilities. Both of them they were literally in these last few games they were taking turns being on the floor because of their vulnerabilities, and then Tibbs was relying on his bench a little more so he could have those rotation of his two top scorers who are defensive liabilities yeah, no, mike, I wholeheartedly agree with you.
Speaker 1:I was honestly kind of gonna say the same thing. I mean, despite their recent success and I think that's great for them this last round of playoffs, like you said, they were exposed. I think that it was egregious enough and the performance was low enough that ownership said, okay, maybe we need to go another direction here, because they clearly have talent. It's just you know, maybe someone's misfiring somewhere, right?
Speaker 2:Well, to be honest, man, there's a point in this that I have to make about Carl Anthony Towns, Like if they are upset that he is not playing defense or he is making bad reads on defense, that he is not playing defense or he is making bad reads on defense. Did y'all not watch him play when he was with the, the timberwolves? He was doing the same shit. Like he was doing the exact same stuff. He did, knew that. He did this playoffs. He was doing with the timberwolves right, making bad defensive decisions and making bad switch offs. Now, granted, he was still scoring, he was still showing up and on the offensive side, which is great. But come playoff time, you can't have a guy who is a minus on the defensive side which he is and have two of them and have them be your leading scorers. That's kind of that's a bit rough. So now we're leading into the speculation time of the year where everybody's going. What are they going to do now? Are they going to go out after kevin durant? Are they going to trade for for yannis?
Speaker 1:you know what are they going to do?
Speaker 2:how are they going to work this out? You know, and that trade they made for cat. That's going to really screw with them because they don't have draft picks to make a trade.
Speaker 1:Well, it's funny you mentioned Kevin Durant, because I've seen two different things right now. Supposedly he's only interested in the Celtics or OKC, yet there's a rumor floating out there he may get traded to the Knicks and that's kind of been floating around for a second now. And that's kind of been floating around for a second now. So if Katie ends up with the Knicks, you know, I don't think it would be necessarily unwarranted.
Speaker 2:I think it would be hard to figure out the financials and figure out draft or not draft compensation, but like just fair trade balance.
Speaker 1:Trade balance yeah.
Speaker 2:Because, remember, there's the thing now where you kind of have to have equal money in a trade, you have to do equal things in a trade. So the value of a trade is not the same as it once was, where you could just say, hey, we're going to give you X amount of picks. Well, there's value on that now. Yeah, we're not insane to say we're going to throw picks at you to get a player, and now you've got to add in players' salaries and stuff into the mix.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, and honestly, I think that's smart, because now you have ownership and management teams who are thinking in terms of value, right, right, they're not thinking of, we're not going to give you the world for one player. We need equal, equal, and that is the definition of a trade. It is equal and fair value between the parties, right?
Speaker 2:Well, and this is why we have teams like what we have right now playing in the finals. It's game one of the NBA finals, and what we have is two teams that are constructed in such a way kind of brilliant moves as far as moving players.
Speaker 2:Not only that, but the draft compensation being used wisely and constructing a team and playing a team in a manner that they're coached to be unselfish. They're coached to be. You know, we're going to work as a team to play on both sides of the floor, Not just one. We're not just looking for you to be the offensive guru, but we need you to be the guy switching up on defense and taking on more responsibility on the other side of the floor yeah, and you know, speaking of it, this game is live in front of us right now.
Speaker 1:Uh, last I checked they're on commercial right now, but I think okc's up by like a lot yeah, okc has definitely come out hot they are. They are killing it right now.
Speaker 2:Uh, in this, in this game here well, I mean that's not to take anything away from the pacers, because no, no and I I honestly, I really like the pacers.
Speaker 1:I like both these teams because the pacers tend to have hot playoff runs and this just may be their time, right. Okc is having a historical season. This would be the cherry on top winning the finals for them People, even the Pacers, who just sorely outscored the Knicks and the Cavaliers, coming up to this point, the Thunder is just nailing shots, man. You know, you're right on to this point. Uh, the thunder is just nailing shots, man. Yeah, we're on hallie burton's having a pretty good game. But you know, game one halliburton halliburton.
Speaker 2:I'm from hallie, I'm I'm from south. So we say things.
Speaker 1:We halliburton, halliburton, whatever. Sorry, you know who I'm talking about. Shut up up.
Speaker 2:Anyway. Well, you know what was kind of crazy though, what you know who won the trophy for their Eastern Conference championship? The trophy went to Pascal Siakam. It didn't go to Halliburton, right. So I wonder if Halliburton's like really autumn shots I hit, I don't get it. Okay, I wonder if he's gonna be like all right, I see y'all, yeah, I have to get it here in the championship and they are just for the finals, I should say, which is kind of yeah, okay, kind of a little little.
Speaker 2:That's a little wrong. You pluralize and it's the final.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and honestly You're pluralizing finals. And getting back to the score right in front of us coming into the third OKC 57, and Pacers I think they're 47, 48-47. The thing just went off the TV. So OKC's had a pretty comfortable lead. They had a bigger lead earlier. Pacers trying to close that up, they're playing faster. I like what I'm seeing in game one. I'd like to see the Pacers get a couple wins here and they really go deep, and that's what she said. But all of that is never-minded.
Speaker 2:Look for me. I think what I like most I'm seeing right now is the rest are holding that whistle. They're not pulling that whistle, yeah they're letting them play.
Speaker 1:Letting them play there's. There's been one or two, you know fouls and whatnot, but overall it's pretty, pretty decent game yeah, halliburton only has six points so far and Siakam has eight.
Speaker 2:I'm sure that will change as the game goes along. But, like we said, going into the third period it is 57 for OKC and Indiana 45.
Speaker 1:By the way, it's almost like we're live casting this, even though we're prerecorded, because, what would you know? The finals end up happening during when we record this show and we can actually talk on it live, as it's happening. This is actually pretty exciting, Mike.
Speaker 2:Well, it's just timing. There you go and Halliburton throws up a three and misses. He got the rebound.
Speaker 1:OKC picks up the rebound. 57-45 is the score starting the third quarter. You know Indiana's picked it up a little bit because they were down by a lot more. You know earlier, but I I don't know who to pick here um.
Speaker 2:Sga just hit, hits a two-point shot, fade away it was a. It was a fairly decent shot too but, you know we can't, we can't just simulcast and talk, talk.
Speaker 1:No, we're not gonna do that, but I'm liking it and you know it's only two teams left really to talk about. We don't have a lot of current news on our on our agenda for the nba, but I'm excited to begin this series right here because two of these teams are two of my favorites. Uh, I had thunder going all the way since we've been talking about this mess, and I had the pacers the Pacers as a dark horse team to get hot, and they did. So. You're looking at a high-scoring team versus a very fast team. I think this is going to be fireworks all the way through this series, mike.
Speaker 2:I've said it before and I say it again I want to see this go seven just because I want to see a good series. I want to see a finals that you know at the end of it we go. Man, that was great.
Speaker 1:By the way, speaking of what's great, as we're in June, which means we're officially in NFL minicamp time, we're getting ready for the Hall of Fame game. We're getting ready for September kickoff. We're just a couple months away now. I believe less than 100 at this point, correct oh yeah, we were less than 100.
Speaker 2:Last episode um I wasn't.
Speaker 1:I wasn't counting last episode. Yeah, well, I'm counting on this episode.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, last episode we were at 99, so take seven away.
Speaker 1:We were at 99, we were just under 100. We could have just we're at 92 92 days 92 is like a legitimate number to call less than $100. You can't call less than 100 at 99. Come on.
Speaker 2:Yes, you can. That's less than 100.
Speaker 1:That does not count, sir.
Speaker 2:That might as well be a dollar, that is a pure definition of being less than 100. It's the first number you can have, that's less than 100.
Speaker 1:Well, it doesn't work in finance, because 99 always means 100 in finance and in pricing.
Speaker 2:No, it doesn't. You never heard of the 99-cent store.
Speaker 1:I've heard of the 599-cent store with inflation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that's about right. These days, the dollar store ain't even a dollar anymore, they're dollar-ish store.
Speaker 1:But anyway, that's enough banter, let's move into some nfl stuff, right? Okay, jags, everybody seems to love travis hunter, up until maybe his recently by some of his own teammates, uh, notably brian thomas jr. Here's all business all the time. Um, so Travis Hunter, I think he's a pretty outgoing guy from what I've seen and read, you know, and getting drafted to the Jags. I think it's great for them. He's a little bit bubbly personality. He's always, you know, dancing on the field or doing something. But here recently he's been getting some complaints from some of his teammates as well as some fans saying they just want to see him about football. They want to see seriousness.
Speaker 1:Now, being a former athlete myself, I can get this right, especially if you're a young guy. Right, coming into a new area, you need a little bit of self-awareness and you've got to. Perspective is key, right, perspective is everything, right, mike. And you've got to. Perspective is key, right, perspective is everything, right, mike, he's just a young guy having fun, enjoying his fresh time in the NFL. Right, he loves being at practice. He loves what he's doing, he loves his teammates, he's jamming out, but it doesn't appear to a lot of people who are much more serious about their jobs. It does not appear to them that he's serious about his job at all, so I can see both sides of the coin.
Speaker 2:I don't really know what they're necessarily upset about, but I think you've got to do everything in perspective.
Speaker 2:Like understand this guy just out of college. He's young, he's having, he's enjoying life. But I did hear where the defensive guys are a little frustrated because they want him to come be more part of the defensive meetings. And I've got to say I think that it's more important for him to be on the offensive meetings because in defensive a cover two is still a cover two. He'll figure that out a lot easier because he already knows what those defensive schemes are Going into the offensive schemes, where you've got to learn when you're cutting, where you're cutting when you're in motion, it's much more finely tuned.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's got to get a lot of vernacular down that he wasn't probably using in college, because a certain play might be't probably using in college, you know, because a certain play might be a different name in college and it's something totally different in the pros, or he's looking at plays he's never even seen before, you know, depending on the type of offense that they're running. So he needs the offensive time. He'll get the defensive time too, don't get me wrong, but you, you got to have a balance, and right now the balance needs to be a little more weighted towards the offensive side so he can be prepared for when he's doing offensive plays yeah, and you know now if he's having trouble and not picking up the terminology, not picking up the playbook, if he's missing plays in practice, and also he doesn't really have anything on the pro field under his belt yet.
Speaker 1:So I can see like as an older, like as a veteran. Now Brian Thomas Jr is young himself. He's only coming into year number what two or three, two, so like he's much more focused right, and obviously they line up across each other every day at practice. So you know, don't we all have that one co-worker that maybe you love them, maybe you don't, but you know for fact they annoy the hell out of you every day. I'm probably that co-worker for some of my co-workers.
Speaker 1:so probably facts so, but it's always good attitude, it's always positivity. But what you want to take away from is is he performing? Is he doing his job? Is he performing honestly? As long as you're doing that, I don't care if you're doing handstands on the field.
Speaker 2:My guy's playing at pro bowl caliber honestly, like, minicamp is always going to have a little little bit of edge and little because, like, how many times do we see throughout you know, minicamps leading into the preseason where guys are literally getting fistfights? You kind of want that fire on your football team. You want guys to be a little amped up at times. Now, granted, you'd like it to be more amped up towards players not on the team, you know, go after the players on the other team. But I'd say it's kind of a nothing burger right now. Let it. Let it simmer down, it'll be fine and we'll see how it shakes out come pre-season time yeah, yeah, I agree with you.
Speaker 1:I say let's get into the season. If you're still not having a good season, if he's missing plays, if he's not quite firing on cylinders, then okay, maybe we give him some shit. But moving into the next thing here, four-time Lions Pro Bowl player center Frank Ragnall, set to retire after seven seasons in the NFL. For a center, and a Pro Bowl one at that, seven seasons is kind of just a hair longer than your average NFL player.
Speaker 2:Well, they say the NFL stands for not four long, because most careers are about three and a half years not really much longer than that on average, but when you're a good player and you're a four-time pro bowler it can seem a little bit shorter. He was definitely on his way to possibly being not just a perennial pro bowler but possibly a Hall of Famer. Now he's cited leaving early because he's doing it for health reasons. He wants to be healthy for later in early. Because he's doing it for health reasons. He wants to be healthy for later in life. That's what it is.
Speaker 2:He wants to be able to do things with his kids and his family and obviously he's had seven seasons so he's made his money. So it's not really an issue where he's going to have to sit here and be like you know, he can't get up and walk because he's got a bad knee or can't, you know, function because he's had too many concussions or you know how basically it comes down to health. And it's not the first time it's happened. I mean, the 49ers had uh, it was I think it was chris borland, a middle linebacker who was filling in for patrick willis and was playing great, had one great year, and then he hung it up. He, he was like I'm done.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you know they're either going to have to. Now let's talk about how this affects the Lions as well. Real quick, this guy is a Pro Bowl center. They're losing. Okay. Their backup is only 24 years old. He's only got one year's experience in the league. You know, kingsley, excuse me, I'm so sorry guys, Kingsley, aguacan, that's the best I got, aguacan. Y'all can look it up later if you want. Correct me on social media.
Speaker 2:He's fine.
Speaker 1:Kingsley Aguacan is the only center they have now on roster, so they're going to have to go out and get somebody, because I doubt they're going to let a year or two guy under center be in charge of calling protection they could always slide in one of their other guards into center and move.
Speaker 2:Move him into the guard position yeah, and that's, they'll figure it out this is the reason we have many camps and we have preseason is to figure your team out yeah, they, they only have two guards.
Speaker 1:Uh, you know both of them. You know they're. They're kind of good, they're middle of the pack as far as quality. Apparently uh, not old but not young guys, they don't really. You know, they got some o-linemen, they got more o-linemen than they do guards. So they probably kick an o-lineman inside and, like you said, maybe kick a guard into center or maybe they'll just go pick somebody up. I don't know, but it is quite a predicament because center is kind of crucial. Lions are losing some pieces here. Recently they lost both coordinators, defense and offensive. Their center is retiring, you know.
Speaker 2:Do you think they're going to keep up next year? Well, it's never a good thing when you lose coordinators. You know, I can speak from experience being a 49ers fan. We've lost coordinator after coordinator after coordinator to other teams. I mean, at one point it seemed like everybody was wanting to hire our coordinators to be their next coach. So, and it does. It does change things. It does change the dynamic of your team. So they're going to have to figure out as a team how to play under their new coordinators and we'll see how it pans out. You know, I mean, honestly, they they have solid pieces and they picked up some decent players in the draft.
Speaker 1:Time will tell what they can do I mean we'll, we'll find out this season their division improved it's not gonna take long to find out. Uh and mike, we got some news on your team, bro. All your favorite teams are getting some attention tonight, my friend, from baseball, uh, to football and whatever else you seem to like.
Speaker 2:Anyway, getting to the point. So the 49ers made a trade with the Philadelphia Eagles, sending them either a fifth round or a fourth round, depending on how Bryce Huff end plays for the 49ers. Now this is kind of significant because Bryce Huff, when he was with the Jets, he played for Robert Sala and during that time he tallied up a 10 sack season that season when he was with Robert Sala and there's been some talk about, you know, the difference for him in playing in a 4-3 and a 3-4 defense. So they're thinking that moving over to Robert Sala, where he had a better production, a better season playing for him, that he might be able to find his true form again, Because even some of the other players with the Eagles said that they weren't really using Huff in the manner in which he thrives. So this is probably a situation of we get him off the books, we get a draft pick if he works out for y'all, cool, but it's no love lost from the Eagles, Honestly.
Speaker 1:I think he's going to help the 49ers defense.
Speaker 2:I think it'll work.
Speaker 1:I think it's a good move. I mean, he might not be a Pro Bowl player for you all, but I think he's going to be a good, solid player regardless.
Speaker 2:That's what we need on the defensive line.
Speaker 1:And then the Ravens. You know, signing Rashad Bateman Bateman's been part of their offense for a couple of seasons now. This Signing Rashad Bateman Bateman's been part of their offense for a couple seasons now. This guy, they're a deep threat. Occasionally you see him lined up inside, but mostly you see him lined up on the outside. They signed him to a three-year extension worth $36.75 million, so he's signed through 2029.
Speaker 2:I think this oh sorry, I just saw that SGA got blocked. Yeah, that was a bad block. He went for the dunking guns, that was a bad block.
Speaker 1:But getting back to what I was, saying here no, you're okay. Rashad Bateman has been a part of their offense and clearly growing into their offense even more because they just signed him for a three-year extension. Mike, I think this is pretty good. Ravens, keep in players that work well and fit well with what they do.
Speaker 2:I know somebody beyond Mr Bateman that likes this.
Speaker 1:He's not necessarily a fantasy lightning rod, but he does do a lot for their offense, so I give him credit there. But I'm a fantasy guy so I need a little more. I need a little more from my players.
Speaker 2:So I know somebody who's happy about this.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Lamar Jackson, I know You're keeping about this.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, lamar Jackson, I know.
Speaker 2:You're keeping one of his more productive receivers. Yeah, one of his top deep threats. Yeah, you're keeping him around, he's got some speed.
Speaker 1:He's not necessarily one-trick pony, Like I said. Occasionally you might see him lined up inside, but Bateman's a pretty good all-around player and he's got some speed and he's hit for a few touchdowns. I don't have the numbers in front of me, but he was a key part of that offense last season.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:And then I love going into this next one, mike, because we just had an argument about this not more than a week ago. Okay, nfl Players Association is preparing I say that with quotes is preparing for the NFL to push for a European division contending four teams in the future. Mike, didn't we just argue about this? I literally called this. I said I guarantee you the NFL is going to try to move overseas as part of the NFL season. And here we are. Roger Goodell is trying to lay plans to put four teams, a four-team division, in Europe in the near future.
Speaker 2:I honestly think that this is not going to be, you know, NFL playing against Europe. I think it's going to be Europe having their own NFL experience.
Speaker 1:I don't think so.
Speaker 2:I just don't like, logistically, I don't see how you're going to change time zones that it would require in order to play these games. Man, I mean you're talking.
Speaker 1:It sounds like the NFLPA is trying to figure out how it can work.
Speaker 2:There's a reason why, when games are played in London, is trying to figure out how it can work. There's a reason why when games are played in London, they start at 9.30 in the morning.
Speaker 1:For us. For us Because we're at. It starts at different times all around the world. For those who follow it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but no, no no. Listen, if it's starting at 9.30 in the the morning, that's because over there that's one, two in the afternoon for them yeah, so now. Now think about this as a european fan.
Speaker 2:Your team goes over to play the rams in los angeles, so now you've added three more time zones they already do, they're gonna, if they and they already play los angeles rams already playing the four o'clock window, so now you're adding six more hours to that. So six more hours. Your game is not coming on till late in the evening.
Speaker 1:Well, they're already doing it they already they already do it, because not only do we have NFL International Games now, but there is a significant following Hold on there is a significant following throughout Europe, most notably in the UK for the NFL, so they're already used to that schedule. It's 1 pm for us here on the East Coast. Do you know what time it is over on the West Coast? Their games start at 9.30 in the morning for.
Speaker 1:East Coast-based games You're looking at it from a fan perspective, I'm looking at it from an nfl player perspective.
Speaker 2:Boy, the nfl players aren't going to like it listen.
Speaker 1:This man woke up and chose violence today I just want to say that the.
Speaker 2:They are not going to like it because even even okay no, they're not gonna like it.
Speaker 1:I'm not saying they're gonna like it, I'm just saying right now.
Speaker 2:Travis kelsey has already come out and said that their game that they're playing when they're going out of the country. He's like I'm be sweating my ass off. He's like it's gonna suck. It's gonna be a horrible fucking game he's talking about the environment. He's not even talking about the time zone he doesn't want to travel to, to the game.
Speaker 1:He doesn't want to go there Because he doesn't want to go to that country, it's not because he doesn't want to travel and play football.
Speaker 2:okay, no it's not that he doesn't want to travel and play football. It's that he doesn't want to go out of the states and go to a place to play. That isn't normal for playing football.
Speaker 1:Look, nowhere is normal you go. Different environment in every nfl city. I mean playing in green bay is not the same as playing in tampa ever, no matter what time of season it is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know that, I know that, but you're talking jet lag well, there's well they have jet lag going east coast have you experienced jet lag? Have you traveled multiple time zones?
Speaker 1:no, I don't do things like that I have.
Speaker 2:It sucks, it is I know it sucks.
Speaker 1:I have experienced it on a smaller level going across the continental us, but they already deal with that a little bit, especially if you're going west coast to east coast they have a little bit worse, but I don't think this is going to be as big a deal as what we're making it right now. Honestly, I think this could be a big step forward and especially if the NFLPA gets a way to figure it out, I think it's a good idea.
Speaker 2:I think it's going to dilute something that we already like.
Speaker 1:I don't think it'll dilute anything.
Speaker 2:I think it will. I think it's going to. Okay, there's such a thing as too much of a good thing, nonsense. No, I'm telling you.
Speaker 1:How about love, love?
Speaker 2:I bet that if you're with somebody and you start loving somebody else on top of loving them, that ain't going to go so well.
Speaker 1:Okay, all right, dr Phil, all right.
Speaker 2:Dr Phil. But the point of the matter is. Getting back to NFL stuff, there are so many logistical things tied to this that involve more than just the fans. Sorry, there is more to it than fans. There is more to it than fans.
Speaker 1:There is a player's ball. There is more to it than fans. There's logistics and there's production. There's all these things. I don't mean to cut you off, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:Well, there's Okay. You got to think about the fact these players are going to be playing overseas. So you're talking a different type of money aspect, because these players are going to want to be paid in conjunction of where they live. There's going to be different demographics because, let's face it, some countries it's a lot cheaper to live and some countries it's expensive as an. American the exchange rate.
Speaker 1:I think it's going to open the door for young athletes across Europe to make their way into professional American football, because I think that they'll probably start bringing. Maybe they'll start.
Speaker 2:We've already been doing that. Well, they've already been doing that.
Speaker 1:Where I'm going with this is that a lot of they don't have a lot of American football in colleges and universities over there. It's other things right. Maybe that opens the door for them to open a NCAA-level football game across their universities.
Speaker 2:They already have teams travel over and play college football games over there. Okay over and play college football games over there, okay. So I don't like we're.
Speaker 1:We're starting to reach for things that don't don't necessarily mean the same thing, like they don't that one doesn't necessarily mean the other is going to happen well expansion and growth is the name of the game, and that's what the nfl is trying to do here and I honestly, in today's day and age, I believe it is more than feasible. That's my where I think.
Speaker 2:If you expand too much, too quickly and you try to overload something to a point where people just stop caring, you're going to wind up destroying the thing that you are.
Speaker 1:I don't think that's it at all, but I'm going to digress for a moment. We're going to move into the next topic, but this was a very good, heated debate debate.
Speaker 1:Mike, thank you for taking part with me. Y'all go on our social media, uh, preferably facebook, but we have instagram. We'll probably never check it over there, though. Go on our social media and let us know your opinion and how, how you think this is going to shake out and what you think of it in general. Okay, because we want to hear from you guys. All right, uh. And, by the way, speaking of leaps and bounds, uh, saquon barkley had to reenact his backwards hurdle for the cover of madden 2026 sorry, eagles fans uh, he had a very good interview in trying to do that.
Speaker 1:Uh, I'll let you guys go look it up if you want. We won't go too deep into it. But you know, the highlight of this is congratulations to him for being selected for the Madden cover. For them doing the reverse hurdle like that was pretty. They pretty well nailed it. I'm not gonna lie. They had pictures of how it's supposed to look like. They did all right, took some practice, but they got it madden curse man I don't think so curse mean anything to you?
Speaker 2:I don't think so.
Speaker 1:It's not real, it's not it's not real, it ain't it's not real the hell, look as a commander's fan. I'm not gonna be crying if the former champion that's.
Speaker 2:That's why you don't care but look the point of the matter is most of the players who have ever donned the cover have had something horrible happen to them following being on the cover of Madden.
Speaker 1:Look, that's just some voodoo shit, okay, no, it is not. I'm not trying to hear that.
Speaker 2:No, it is not. I am telling you 100%. Like Damian Thomason didn't want to be on the cover, he was offered the cover and he said no. And one of the reasons was the pay, but the other was the Madden curse.
Speaker 1:Wait, wasn't he inevitably on it, though, at some point?
Speaker 2:No, he was not.
Speaker 1:Oh, he didn't Look A little bit before my time.
Speaker 2:Sean Alexander running back cover. Career disappeared almost immediately after being on the cover, the very first player ever on it. Garrison Hurst, 49ers running back Next year. Devastating knee injury.
Speaker 1:Things happen all the time. Ended his season.
Speaker 2:Who was on the cover last year?
Speaker 1:Who was it last year? Who was on the cover last year?
Speaker 2:uh, who was it last year? I forget christian, christian mcafree yes, had an injury to his knee done for the year.
Speaker 1:He was already injured. He had already been injured before, that doesn't count, and he was on the cover. But not, no, he was injured before, he was on the cover as well. That's why you know.
Speaker 2:Peyton Hillis Browns cover Immediately out of the league within the next two, three years. Look, shit happens Due to injury.
Speaker 1:Shit happens, bro. It happens to athletes. Just look at the beginning of the season. The last two seasons there have been more star player injuries than I've seen ever.
Speaker 2:Antonio Brown grace the cover as a stealer. We all know what happened to Antonio Brown after that. Look, he's just crazy.
Speaker 1:Look, he's just legitimately insane, all right, he's just crazy, he's not broken, he's just insane, no, no, he just needs medicine.
Speaker 2:Look, I'm going to tell you right now. I'm going to tell you right now. I'm going to tell you what I think happened. I'm telling you, do you remember a player by the name of Vontaze Berfic?
Speaker 1:that played with the Bengals.
Speaker 2:Yes, I'm very familiar. I'm telling you the hits he did to him, concussing him, headshots and intentional headshots to Antonio Brown. I think Antonio Brown is suffering from some really, really horrible head trauma and he's acting this way because he hasn't been medically diagnosed with the issues he's dealing with due to the head trauma he has suffered.
Speaker 1:Or maybe he's just crazy. I believe that wholeheartedly as well. Like I'm not saying he's not.
Speaker 2:It's very possible, especially as a football player, but look look when you're, when you're doing the, the double hooks, and on the ground multiple times because of the same player for being hit in the head. Yeah, I have to start leaning a little that way that maybe some of your antics, because he didn't have many antics before then, but after the second time of putting up the top of hooks, no, because Mike Tomlin kept it under wraps.
Speaker 1:He's always done that, and then you see it after they get out. And ironically, mike Wallace and Antonio Brown followed the same path. They both ended up with the Dolphins. After the time, the Steelers both ended up being locker room problems.
Speaker 2:Alright, I'm going to move on from this. We can move on. Let's talk about Derrick.
Speaker 1:Henry, y'all.
Speaker 2:I got this, I got this I literally heard this go down.
Speaker 2:So recently Derrick Henry was on the Dan Patrick show and he did an interview with dan patrick where the conversation of you know he didn't reach 2 000 yards last year, he got 1900 yards and he's like, yeah, I probably could have gone for it. He said, but I'm not worried about that, he's not, I'm not worried about 2000, he's Derek. But now you're going to get everybody saying you didn't get $2,000 yards. So the conversation came up of the fact that Derek Henry knows that Dan Patrick is good friends with Adam Sandler and he's like look, can you?
Speaker 1:just get him to say hey, he's like he's my favorite actor.
Speaker 2:If you could get him to just say hey to me or do something, he's like look, I'll do you a solid Derek, I'll get him to make a video and send it to you. So not only is he going to get him to send a video to him saying hey to him, but he said Derek, if you can get 2,000 yards next year, I'll get Adam Sandler to try to put you in his next movie.
Speaker 1:And Derek said year, I'll get adam sandler to try to put you in his next movie. And derrick said bet, I, I'm doing it, I'm doing it. Oh, and who better? And what better?
Speaker 2:team to be on. So every, every single team or in his division is probably going damn it. Damn, patrick, you had to give him motivation.
Speaker 1:Give him more motivation. He already, derrick. Henry already runs like hell. Okay, so now he's just gonna run amok. Oh, I want to see this play out. We're gonna.
Speaker 2:We're gonna revisit this later oh, it's gonna be all year long. We're gonna be like, come on, we're gonna, we're gonna come on derrick, we're gonna flag this one and we're gonna keep it watch him have like one of the best running seasons of all time next year.
Speaker 1:He breaks the record. I think he's gonna break the record. He could. He's got speed, he's got power. Derrick henry is everything since marshawn lynch what?
Speaker 2:what if lamar like, let me in on that yeah, live in lamar.
Speaker 1:Lamar could probably well he. He could come close. I don't know if he would. Lamar will probably put up a total of 8,000 yards between running and passing. So the Ravens are, needless to say, pretty exciting to watch right now, and John Harbaugh one of the longest tenured coaches in the NFL to date. Obviously he's doing something right. So good job on them, and I can't wait to see how this plays out.
Speaker 2:We're going to flag this. Remember last week, phil, we said people that need to show you something. Come on, john, show us something.
Speaker 1:He's been showing something.
Speaker 2:But no ring, not for a while.
Speaker 1:Well, he's got it, though he's got what two rings.
Speaker 2:He got a ring in 2012.
Speaker 1:That was 2012. Okay, yeah, the previous coach got it in what? 2007, 2008? It?
Speaker 2:was 2006. You're talking about the first year they won the Ray Lewis Championship. You're talking about Brian Billick. Yeah, okay, Billick had that when they had Trent Dilfer as their quarterback.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's back in the day Now I feel Taking it back.
Speaker 1:Now I feel like we're really back, man. We talk about 2012 like it was yesterday. Try going back to 2002. But anyway, so this next one. This is fun. Let's play a little bit of Devil's Advocate. I was literally talking to somebody earlier today about how I didn't think Rodgers was going to play if he didn't sign with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Okay, uh, I even went so far to say if he doesn't play this year, he's probably gonna retire. And five minutes later, after this conversation ended and said person had walked away from me, five minutes later I see on social media Rodgers set to show up for Steelers' mandatory minicamp, expected to sign a one-year deal. Of course, we don't have details on the deal yet. They may not even know the details, but he's expected to sign a one-year deal with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Speaker 2:I want to point out the fact that I said he's probably waiting for minicamp and he'll probably sign right before minicamp.
Speaker 1:I give you credit and that's exactly what he did. You did call that. I remember that. Good job, mike.
Speaker 2:Um, because that's the same crap he pulled before and the same crap he was doing in Green Bay, same crap he did with the Jets by the way, just a sidebar OKC 85, indiana 76.
Speaker 1:In the fourth 11.52 to go in the fourth. Who is that? That just went down.
Speaker 2:Alex Caruso Okay, looked like he got jabbed in the eye.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he looked like he got poked in the eye or something like that.
Speaker 2:Oh no, he caught a forearm to the face.
Speaker 1:Dang, take his head offouch down, you bro but anyway, back to football. Uh, this is probably exciting, depending on who you are. I'm not particularly excited about it because I don't think rogers did that great in new york.
Speaker 2:Um okay, I will say in the beginning yeah, it's, that's.
Speaker 2:But well in the year. He didn't do so hot, I'll agree to that, but he started as the season went along. He started to play a little bit better and I think a lot of it has to do with the fact he's coming back from an Achilles injury. Realize that you have to not only get your confidence back, your ability back the strength back, but you've got to get your confidence back within your head. That back the strength back, but you got to get your confidence back within your head that you can still do things he's been coming back from injury for like three years now.
Speaker 1:Last year was the year he actually probably fully recovered and came back and got the confidence back and they. They even went out and got davante adams. They did turn it on toward the end of the season, so I give him them credit. So you got a point there. I'll give you that one, mike, so maybe he comes into Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh is looking considerably scarier now with the weapons they have.
Speaker 2:Well, and speaking of weapons, I did see a little something about Gabe Davis was making a visit to the Steelers as well. So if Gabe Davis signs there, that's going to add a little extra to your wide receiver core.
Speaker 1:Gabe Davis, and I'm never going to remember this. Come on, damn it, seahawks. I know DK Metcalf. There you go, there we go, we got it.
Speaker 2:He got the DK Metcalf there you go, there we go, we got it. He got the DK Metcalf.
Speaker 1:Memory eludes me. Then you got.
Speaker 2:Pat Firemuth at tight end.
Speaker 1:Who's, by the way, a top five tight end Don't?
Speaker 2:forget they have that little receiver, austin, who's really good out of the slot.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:So they're going to have him as well.
Speaker 1:They're loaded Najee left, didn't he?
Speaker 2:Najee left. He's with the Chargers.
Speaker 1:So they're rolling with.
Speaker 2:They drafted a running back.
Speaker 1:They drafted a running back, but they're rolling with Jalen. Warren in the backfield.
Speaker 2:They're going to do a two-back set. They always do it where they rotate in and out.
Speaker 1:I'm kind of excited to see this.
Speaker 2:I'm happy for steelers fans for real. They still haven't figured out the offensive line, though that's well that.
Speaker 1:Well, if, if rogers felt confident enough to go there, either out of desperation or whatever he he probably feels okay well, he's probably feeling like it's no worse than the jets offensive line yeah, I mean they didn't they weren't too great.
Speaker 2:I favors. But I will say this though they're trying to make things work and they're trying to get pieces to make things better, and there's still plenty of receivers still out there veteran receivers so the hope is that they can maybe bring in some guys like Amari Cooper he's still out there and then you still have Keenanari cooper he's still out there and then you still have, uh, keenan allen he's still out there. So that's another guy that could possibly try to bring over I think they would pursue around before the other one.
Speaker 2:But well, I, it depends. It depends, who does roger want to throw to?
Speaker 1:well now, that's Well. Now. That's a factor. But you know, we'll see how this plays out and I'm excited to see it. Man, I'm excited for, you know, progressing towards the NFL season, I'm excited to see how these NBA finals play out. I'm excited to see how the NHL playoffs play out. We have a lot of good things going on in the world of sports right now, at this moment in time. Again, thank you everybody for listening to us, thank you for joining us and don't forget, next week, tune in. Mr Caden, o'brien James and Mr Christian Wright they're going to be on our show. We've got a great interview coming up, don't you all miss it?
Speaker 2:Once again, I'm Brian with an I and I'm Mike, and we are Two for the Win. Thanks everybody.