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 - S2.37 - Sports Unhinged, WNBA Salaries & Looking Ahead To NFL Kick-Off
When sports goes completely off-script, you get moments like a bear charging at an NHL mascot, an unprecedented MLB All-Star swing-off tiebreaker, and flying sex toys disrupting WNBA games. Welcome to Season 2 of Two for the Win, where we're diving headfirst into the wildest sports stories making headlines.
Baseball dominates our conversation with its remarkable string of historic firsts. Nick Kurtz of the Athletics went 6-for-6 with four home runs, earning the nickname "The Big Amish." His teammate Shane Langelier became just the second catcher ever to hit three home runs from the leadoff position. Most impressively, we witnessed Gurriel of the Diamondbacks become the first player to hit a home run off a 103.9 mph pitch, sending it 439 feet with a scorching exit velocity.
The sports business landscape is transforming before our eyes. ESPN has struck a massive deal to acquire NFL Network and other NFL media assets in exchange for giving the NFL 10% equity. They've also secured WWE Premium Live Events starting in 2026. Meanwhile, MLB faces internal conflict over a potential salary cap, highlighted by Bryce Harper's confrontational exchange with the commissioner.
We're celebrating breakthroughs for women in sports as Jen Powell prepares to make history as MLB's first woman umpire. Simultaneously, we're examining the WNBA's ongoing struggle for fair compensation despite increasing popularity and new initiatives like the Unrivaled League.
From debating the greatest sports nicknames of all time to unpacking Lamar Jackson's revealing story about how academic ineligibility changed his trajectory, we're covering everything that makes sports the ultimate unpredictable entertainment. Join us for the conversation and share your thoughts on our Facebook and Instagram!
August 6, 2025. Welcome back, everybody after our extended summer break and we are officially kicking off Season 2. Congratulations, Mike. We have made it to the second season of our show. I hope you guys enjoy some of the changes we're about to bring to you all. Once again, I'm Brian with an I and I'm Mike, and we are Two for the Win, Mike what we got kicking off season two of our show man.
Speaker 2:You know they say it's supposed to be the. You know not much going on time of sports because you pretty much just have baseball and WNBA. But, man, if sports was a person, you'd be like bro, you're drunk, go home. Because sports is going wild right now. Man, there's storylines abundant, there's plenty going on and you know, nfl's start of the season is right around the corner and we have preseason starting this weekend.
Speaker 1:I'll tell you what man it really is, kind of like the calm before the storm. And before we get started here real quick, just a shout out to our sponsors and partners. Okay, body by D Jim got two locations in Yorktown and Gloucester. Big shout out to Deshaun for us. He's the owner Solace Outfitters. Our friends over there, christian and Caden sorry.
Speaker 1:Kaden. I had a brain fart for a second, but our good friends Kaden and Christian two young athletes doing the best they can and going forward very fast, uh, and Giving Tree Chiropractic, located down here in Virginia Beach, they have a walk-in chiropractic service. Justin's very good at what he does. I highly recommend them. So thank you guys for being our sponsors and partners and we hope to continue doing business with you guys going forward. Mike, where are we?
Speaker 2:starting, bro. Look, you mentioned sponsors. Sometimes you've got to shoot promotional videos and stuff for sponsors and you've got to do things to kind of hype up your fan base or hype up your business. Well, sports is no different. They make sponsorships and do videos and stuff. Well, unfortunately, you don't anticipate things like this happening.
Speaker 2:So the Kraken NHL team, the Seattle NHL team, they were doing a promotion video, a promo video in Alaska, a little fishing adventure with their Ford, john Hayden, and they took along their mascot for good measure. And they're on this fishing trip and let's remember Alaska's pretty wild right, unless you're in a major city, which even in a major city, there's still some animals around. They're on this fishing trip and a bear just comes up out of nowhere and they're like, hey, we got to move. There's a bear and the bear started charging after their mascot. Maybe it thought it was another bear. Let me curve your anticipation of oh my God, they're okay. The bear charged but it did not attack. It veered off and walked away. But if you want an interesting video, go look at the Kraken mascot looking back at the bear charging towards them.
Speaker 1:I think this is hilarious because a lot of times bears don't typically mess with humans, but the mascot it clearly thought was another predator, probably in challenge mode.
Speaker 2:Oh they blamed him on the video.
Speaker 1:They were like hey we blame you.
Speaker 2:This is your fault.
Speaker 1:Yeah, don't stand up right in the mascot, bro. Get on all fours.
Speaker 2:It's like all right, just look big, look big, intimidate the bear. We don't want to offend the locals. Apparently Alaska's not into hockey.
Speaker 1:Which is weird because they're Alaska. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:You'd think that'd probably be the biggest sport there, yeah, their next-door neighbor's, canada, who loves hockey? Yeah, anyway, so moving on, like we were saying, you know some of these wild things happen in sports man. I don't know if anybody else caught it, but I caught it. The MLB All-Star game was nuts Nuts. I don't know if you watched it or if anybody else did, but you had to have at least caught the highlights where this game. It got tied up late and went into extras, but in an All-Star game there is no extra innings. This was the first time they went into a swing off where they basically did a home run derby with their players from each side, and whoever had the most home runs they win. So Kyle Schwarber came up clutch for them, hit some home runs to give them the lead, and that's all they needed for them. Hit some home runs to give them the lead, and that's all they needed. That's all they needed. It was amazing, amazing. It leads me to ask this Is MLB's All-Star game the best All-Star?
Speaker 1:game. Hmm, well, for starters, the NFL Pro Bowl isn't much of shit anymore. Yeah, they don't.
Speaker 2:It's a glorified game attack. It's a televised vacation.
Speaker 1:I don't know what it is now it's. A televised vacation is what it is. It's more like reality TV at this point.
Speaker 2:Skills challenge or something, I don't know yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's okay. Skills for flag football is different from skills in real football oh, I don't know.
Speaker 2:I saw them like jumping off trampolines catching passes. So I'm I'm not sure how many trampolines they're on at nfl field. I've never seen one, but you know and then the nhl and the nba. You know the nba has, like, a lot of different tournaments they go through throughout the season so I mean, you know, I always felt like the nba one was like the no defense game, like, yeah, like nobody just plays defense, yeah, they're just like let's see who can get to 200 yeah, everybody's just shooting and dunking on each other yeah, everybody's just like watching him go by, like oh look, oh I missed, and he just dunks in his face.
Speaker 1:Yeah I don't know, it might be. Uh, because it's pretty hard to veer from the core game of baseball, right like football. They veer from it for injury, you know. Basketball they veer from it, like you say, because they don't really play defense and probably also due to injury. Athletes tend to lighten up when they get to the all-star game, like that of their respective sports.
Speaker 2:Well, let's remember that hockey did the Four Nations this last time. Yes, and that was pretty intense. That was really fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah, honestly, I don't know. The Four Nations tournament in hockey might be a good compare, because baseball is rather, I don't want to say it's laid back.
Speaker 2:Well, they have the Home Run Derby, which is a blast, no pun intended, and the players they seem to all really want to play well, in the All-Star game. It doesn't really feel like there's any phoning in, and you could say the same thing for the Four Nations too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and hockey is always going to be a physical sport. I don't know, man, it's a toss-up. It's hard to veer from the core game of baseball, because they're going to play it no matter what, and baseball is relatively. They all want to play their best and that's why it's the all-star game. You just happen to have a lot of pro stars in one spot. But you know, baseball is a rather laid-back sport as well. You know, sometimes it goes kind of slow, sometimes it goes fast, but that's just baseball.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, I mean, the emergence of the pitch clock has helped, and the fact that they actually review stuff now at a faster rate has helped. And then you add in the fact that next year, I believe, they're going to add in the challenging a striker ball pitch by a batter tapping their head to do that, and they're only going to have so many, just like the NFL, where you only get a few challenges. Same thing with baseball. There're only going to have so many, just like the NFL, where you only get a few challenges. Same thing with baseball. There's only going to be a few challenges.
Speaker 1:Yeah, everything's getting faster, you know, and you know, just like you know, the Unrivaled League and the three-on-three, you know, with women's basketball, like all the sports are evolving and getting faster and more streamlined. So that you know, I think that's just a you know, a huge clue as to where the world is going. The world's moving faster, okay Well yeah, I mean, you can't really.
Speaker 2:People don't sit down and consume sports like they used to. A lot of times now people are catching highlights or they only follow a particular player, so they're only following what that player is doing. Yeah, it used to be that somebody would say, oh, I'm a fan of whatever team, and they would know the roster up and down and it would just be that's their team. Now it's like you get people that they'll follow a player around. You know, kind of like when LeBron was moving from team to team, it kind of felt like people just kind of became a fan of that team. So like when he went from Cleveland to Miami, people were being fans of Miami. When he went back to Cleveland, they're back to being Cleveland fans. When he went to the Lakers, all of a sudden you have a bunch of fans. Well, the Lakers had a lot of fans, but they just cut a few more.
Speaker 1:He was just kind of in an era, I mean, there were household players, but he was kind of separated himself considerably from every other household player in NBA at that time. Now you have multiple names up and coming, but you know, back in the Jordan era, jordan was obviously the huge one, but, like you know, you had other players and stuff around him that were also household names. So here, lebron, for one reason or another, yeah right.
Speaker 2:For one reason or another, rodman marrying himself. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So, you know, everybody only cared about lebron for a long time. What's lebron doing? Where's lebron going, you know, yeah, um, so he kind of almost had like a whole era to himself.
Speaker 2:Well, that's kind of what you got with shohei otani. Yeah, people that they like the dodgers because shohei's with them. Now I might be one of them. I.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to lie.
Speaker 2:They're growing on me. Hey, don't get me wrong, I like Shohei Itani quite a bit, but it's funny that when it comes to baseball, you still have people that are pretty loyal to their teams. They stick around and I feel like you get that with football for the most part, especially college, like you get some diehard fans in college.
Speaker 1:That's for sure you do. You know, one fan base I feel bad for is the Rockies. Like as a Redskins fan, I mean sorry, as a Commanders fan. Rockies fans got to be brutal.
Speaker 2:Hey, well, they live in Colorado so at least they have, you know, some good, good surroundings to look at, you know yeah, at least they have some good scenery while they're losing, you know they still turn out a lot of fans even though their team isn't doing so hot. Hey, they do, they do. And speaking of not, being so hot the support's there not being so hot.
Speaker 2:The support's there Not being so hot. The Yankees man, they've been losing games. Man, if this was a boat, they have a leak and they're trying to bail it out with a paper cup. Man, it's bad.
Speaker 1:Yeah, even Aaron Judge can't get him out of that.
Speaker 2:Well, he can't do it alone, he needs some of the other guys to hit too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and he's had a little bit of a off streak himself up until you know, uh, what was it through? The mid part of the season or the beginning part of the season kind of wasn't hitting on all cylinders, so even he had a couple rough patches every.
Speaker 2:Every player goes through a little rough patch. I mean, mookie betts just got a double the other night and the fans cheered like it was, you know like he hit his 3000 hit000th hit or something you know, because he had been struggling. But a team that isn't struggling I've got to tip my cap to the Brewers. Brewers have been hitting on all cylinders, man. You know they've been winning games. They've got a best record in baseball right now, and this is after losing one of their ace pitchers to free agency. You know so like it's crazy. Like pitchers to free agency, you know so like it's. It's crazy like they just keep going. You know it's one of those teams. They just find a way. They find a way. Maybe it's their year, I don't know.
Speaker 1:I mean you got to get out at the right time and have the right scenarios I don't have their score, their scare, their, uh, their standings right in front of us right now. But you know, maybe they can, maybe they can slide on in there.
Speaker 2:Well, speaking of being hot at the right time, the Athletics recently, their rookie, went 6-for-6. Now you might say well, who is this guy? This guy is Nick Kurtz. Now, when he went 6-for-6, he went. He went six for six with four home runs. So his bat is going to Cooperstown because he's the first rookie to ever do this and after this feat that he has accomplished, he has been daunted with a new nickname the Big Amish.
Speaker 1:The Big Amish.
Speaker 2:And you might ask well, why are we calling him the Big Amish? Well, he's from Lancaster, pennsylvania, which is a predominantly known to be an Amish area, amish country, and so because he's from Amish country, they're just saying he's a big guy. They're like, all right, he's the Big Amish. So it leads me to ask you what are some of the best nicknames of all time? Like what are some nicknames when you hear them? It's Of all time. Like what are some nicknames when you hear them, it's like oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Like you can instantly know who I'm talking about if I say the name.
Speaker 1:Well, let's see here. We got to pull up this list real quick.
Speaker 2:Well, can I give you a couple?
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Okay, how about?
Speaker 1:Megatron. You know, I feel like somebody already had that and he doesn't play baseball.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm not talking, I'm saying of all sports, I'm not saying just baseball, I'm saying all sports, best nickname.
Speaker 1:So if I say Megatron.
Speaker 2:Who do you think that is? Calvin Johnson? Obviously Right. So if I say the Fridge, yeah.
Speaker 1:William Perry Of the Bears, yeah. And who could forget because we're talking about baseball the great Bambino and the Sultan of Swat, both of them belonging to Babe Ruth?
Speaker 2:Yes, sir, yes sir, I got probably one of the coolest nicknames. So Julius Irving, basketball player, right? What was his nickname? Dr J, dr J. It just has some smoothness to it, right, and then?
Speaker 1:Dr J, who could forget good old Pete Rose Charlie Hustle?
Speaker 2:Yep, yep, or gotta talk about him.
Speaker 1:Prime time Prime time Deion, Sanders Deion.
Speaker 2:Sanders, I'm Coach Prime Glad he's doing better health-wise and, you know, really pulling for him. Hope he does a lot better with his health issues we got some good names up here, go ahead what about from the boxing world, iron mike?
Speaker 1:iron mike. And then I was gonna say, who could forget? You know two of the greats, one you know, his airness michael jordan, and the black mamba kobe. B rest his soul.
Speaker 2:I'll give you a more obscure one that you probably won't know. Bartolo Colon, a former pitcher in the major leagues, pitched for a number of teams, most notably for the Mets, because he had a home run as a pitcher for them. He goes by Big Sexy.
Speaker 1:And then we have, you know, Manny Pacquiao's Pac-Man.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, that's a good one. That's a good one. Here's one. How about if I said the name Rod Smart? Hmm, I guarantee you, when I say this, you're gonna be like dang it that one's not on my list. I'll tell you who Rod Smart is, and most people will remember this when I say this, because it was from a very short stint of a league Rod Smart is. He Hate Me.
Speaker 1:He Hate Me. Yeah, that's funny. And then who can forget Beast Mode? Oh yeah, One of my favorite nicknames in all of sports.
Speaker 2:I mean, come on, you can't beat that. I mean like that's from Beast Mode. You had Beast Quake off of that run he did against the Saints. So I mean he earned a nickname big time. Or what about for hockey, the great one, Wayne Gretzky.
Speaker 1:That's right, wayne Gretzky, he was up there. You know. Broadway, joe, and the bus, joe Namath and Jerome Bettis, you know, respectively, run TMC Tim Hardaway.
Speaker 2:Or how about Clyde, the Glide Drexler from basketball?
Speaker 1:Nice. I think we've got some good ones here. Man we definitely. There's definitely been some interesting and some menacing nicknames as well throughout history.
Speaker 2:How about this one for Yankee fans? Reggie Jackson, mr October yeah, always came up clutch in the postseason, so I would like for our fans to give us some of the nicknames they like, if you can think of some and want to post them on our social media please do Be like guys, y'all didn't mention this one, you didn't mention this one. Yeah, go on over to Facebook and Instagram.
Speaker 1:Those are the only two things we have because we're old so far. Probably going to get younger as we try. But go on over to social media. Let us know some. You know. If you got some we didn't mention or some that you just think not well-known, or maybe just one that's your favorite, Go ahead and throw it up there.
Speaker 2:Or, even better, if you have a nickname for someone that you think would be perfect for them, throw it in there. That's perfect. Give the nickname that you think a player that doesn't have one. What nickname should they have?
Speaker 1:And I'm down for nicknames for us as well, while we're at it. I mean, we're in Season season two now, so the legend has begun, shoot, I mean I'm pretty sure they come up with some good ones for us. I'm not gonna go down that road, but but anyway pinky in the brain, which is which, oh good lord anyway.
Speaker 2:So kurtz is not the only one on the A's that's doing pretty good right now.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:His catcher on his team is doing quite well himself.
Speaker 1:Doing some catching, huh? Why are you looking at me like that Pause?
Speaker 2:Hold up, sir, not like that.
Speaker 1:Boy, I'm not being derogatory this time.
Speaker 2:So their catcher Shane Langelier is Say that three times fast. Shane Langelier, shane Langelier.
Speaker 2:I can't do it you can't do it, I can't do it. So Shane Langelier he has led off their lineup and typically a catcher is not a leadoff guy. He debuted a history making second catcher to ever do three home run games atop of the lineup. So a leadoff home run from your catcher at the top of the lineup usually you put like a fast guy, like a shortstop, a center fielder, you know somebody with some speed at the top of the lineup. Hey, it's working for him. If Langelier's hitting these home runs and he's his second ever to do it and actually there's kind of a connection there because the first to ever do it was kind of a somewhat of a former teammate of his, so actually they both played for the Atlanta Braves. Travis Darnot Travis Darnot, he wasn't a Brave when he did it, but back July 15th of 2019, he accomplished the feat for the first time, being in the leadoff spot.
Speaker 1:You said that was 2015? 2019. 2019. So this recent recently Seems like so far ago.
Speaker 2:I know it still seems so close, but still I mean, you've got to think about it. How long has baseball been around and these are the first two guys to do it? The oldest sport in America? Hey, they're saying something. You do something in baseball that hasn't been done. They're saying something.
Speaker 1:I think so, especially as the game continues to evolve.
Speaker 2:But speaking of doing something that's never been done, here we go. Gurriel of the Diamondbacks accomplished a feat the other day that has never been done in baseball. So they were facing the San Diego Padres and Mason Miller came in to pitch to them. And Mason Miller threw a pitch to them at 103.9 miles an hour. And what did Gurriel do with it, you might ask? Gurriel Left field, and what time he got him. 439 feet, gurriel's second tonight. Hmm.
Speaker 1:So, gurriel, just hearing that puts a smile on my face.
Speaker 2:You could hear the crack off the bat. Gurriel hits this pitch out at 107.1 miles an hour off his bat. He is the first player to hit a 103 mile an hour pitch out for a home run. Lord, wow, that is moving man.
Speaker 1:I mean, you just think about that. That is fire. I can only imagine a ball of flame going through the air. It must have looked like a comet going through the air for real. Yeah, look out for the person who's catching it With some smoke on it. How long is that tail? We, the person who's catching it With some smoke on it, how long is that tail? We can decide. We can, you know, judge the size of it, how hot it's burning.
Speaker 2:So Scientific shit Again. We're not done with firsts in baseball, man. Do you know what's happening in this upcoming Braves and Marlins series?
Speaker 1:This is rather interesting to me because I wonder if they're paving the way for some other things here in the future.
Speaker 2:I think only good will happen because of this. Yeah, but what we're alluding to is in the upcoming Marlins vs Braves series, jen Powell makes history being the first woman umpire to umpire an MLB game series.
Speaker 1:Wow first, I think this is interesting because you see women making their way into men's professional sports in one capacity or another, typically through coaching. With this one it's as an umpire, uh well the nfl has has women referees. We saw they have a female referee, and there are female coaches in the nfl as well, oh you know, and throughout other sports as well, on a couple different levels, even in the college game. So, like you know, I think this is honestly a good thing. It is. It is because it's showing.
Speaker 2:If anything, most people are probably thinking took you this long?
Speaker 2:And you know, in softball there are men, umpires and officials they do have the that women's softball league now, which they just stood up. Yeah, but recently I read an article that said uh, I don't know if you remember monet davis, who was a popular player during the little league world series, uh, she actually went to Hampton University here playing softball, yep, but she was playing baseball. Then she looked really good playing baseball Like she was just as good as any of the guys on the field. And here recently she's being offered a tryout to try out with, I think it's, 600 other girls. They're going to be standing up a professional baseball league for women.
Speaker 1:Now, that's interesting because they have the professional softball league, yes, which they stood up, but to have a baseball, baseball is a little different than softball. For one, the balls are different sizes. That's what she said, anyway. Anyway, it's in its infant stages.
Speaker 2:They're still trying to work out the details. They're going to have a number of women try out and they're hoping to have this league stood up by 2028.
Speaker 1:Now, baseball is not necessarily an overly physical sport like some of these other sports.
Speaker 2:Say that to somebody who's catching and blocking the plate when somebody goes barreling down. That's true. That's true.
Speaker 1:That's true, but if there was ever a sport that could probably handle being unisex, baseball might be one of the first ones.
Speaker 2:Look, I can tell you when I'm growing up playing sports and you do occasionally see when you're playing. You know little league baseball. You will have co-ed teams yeah and I can tell you the girls are playing just as tough as the boys look if it's not a matter of man, woman, it's just a matter of they can play tough don't forget if you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a. Look, they have a league for that too.
Speaker 1:And that is also co-ed, by the way. Yes, yes, it is. It is. That's funny and I think that's great for Jim Powell, definitely making history as the first woman umpire in the MLB. Huge step forward for women and again, just a lot of great things happening in the world of women's sports right now, mike. This is a good time to be around.
Speaker 2:And you know what? We've had guy umpires for so long and we all sit there and say the same thing that damn ref is blind. How do you call that a ball?
Speaker 1:Get into an argument with a female umpire. Let's see how that goes.
Speaker 2:They can throw you out just as quickly as the guys.
Speaker 1:Have you ever argued with a woman before? You're never, right, anyway Not. If you want to be happy, let's move this one on, though on, we got a little bit wmba, maybe a little bit nba mix up. We got a couple things here. Uh, the wmba is taking its licks right now. Y'all. Let's just be honest, okay. Not only do they want to pay raise which we'll get on, we'll hit on here shortly but people are throwing sex toys at them now, and I don't necessarily find this uh, it's, it's acceptable.
Speaker 2:It's three times that somebody has thrown a dilly on the court. So but you know, the first time, okay, kind of funny. Second time, it's still kind. Of.
Speaker 1:Third time, it's it's not not as funny, yeah and this time it actually hit one of the players.
Speaker 2:Oh, I didn't hear about this.
Speaker 1:It actually hit somebody, it actually hit. What's her name? My notes are going wild here.
Speaker 2:Well, while you look for that, you know this isn't the first time sporting events have seen dillies thrown onto the court field.
Speaker 1:Whatever sophie uh, sophie cunningham, it actually like hit her and luckily she went to the bench to laugh at all, but it's, you know, exponentially inappropriate okay.
Speaker 2:So I can recall that it's funny. It it the bills mafia were the first ones. I remember doing something like this against the patriots and they were throwing dillies at tom brady. So I mean, if, if it's good enough for tom brady, I think it might be good enough for the rest, the rest of the sports.
Speaker 2:Because if, if throwing dillies at adam got maybe led to him having six super bowls in some way, I don't know maybe more people should want dilly started yeah, and you know this, you know kelsey plumb, and luckily she still nailed the three free throw.
Speaker 1:This was during a free throw shot, so luckily it didn't affect that too much. But as it was thrown right in the middle of the shot and hit Sophie Cunningham, I think, like in the leg or the ankle or something you know, just I don't know what to say about that. I don't want to make fun of it, but it's really not appropriate.
Speaker 2:I'm not making fun of it from their standpoint as much as I'm making fun of like how stupid fans are getting Bro who's worse Basketball fans, nfl fans or baseball fans?
Speaker 1:Now there's a lot of shit been going down with baseball fans, bro, they are mean, they're irresponsible. Okay, they're just downright derogatory.
Speaker 2:So if we're getting down to like, derogatory fans being like okay, so like I know, with the dodgers and and and the giants, their rivalry they literally had somebody die from a fan interaction where they fought in the parking lot and they killed a Giants fan, so like, and there's, there are people getting wild like that. But you got, you got people like okay, they used to have in the the seventies and eighties they used to have what they call the bullpen car. Right, the bullpen car was the car or or golf cart that would bring players out from the pen to the mound. So they would just drive up In New York when the visiting team would have the bullpen car come out. They're throwing everything at this car. There's hot dogs, hamburgers, there's sodas, there's beer like mustard, and they're throwing everything at this car. This car was just coated with stuff by the time it dropped somebody off and you know that's funny.
Speaker 1:But going back to the fan dying, like something recently happened. I believe it was an eagles fan. He got jumped by some cowboys fans going home, I think, from the bar restaurant or something like that. I forget the the whole story kind of skimmed it but, like good lord, you know as bad as eagles fans are.
Speaker 2:This is kind of a flip they have a jail in the eagles stadium to hold their crazy from what I heard, that they threw snowballs they threw snowballs at santa, yeah. And batteries in new york, they throw batteries at players that's terrible, because what if they explode?
Speaker 1:what?
Speaker 2:if it's a decel them, things hurt yeah, they're heavy. And then there's the chance, you know, of other things happening look, I will say this at least you know the bills mafia when they're throwing snowballs or doing whatever they're doing, it's all in jest like yeah they're throwing dillies on the field at tom Brady.
Speaker 2:That's kind of funny. I'm sorry. That is funny, you know, like I'm sure, I'm sure. And when I saw it, dude, the funny part was I remember that they were replaying it going. What was that? Something got thrown at Tom Brady, what is that? And they backed it up. Hey, is that a? Oh my lord.
Speaker 1:That is exactly what you think it is. It is exactly what you think it is, but moving on from that. But then somebody has to go out there and get that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, somebody had to pick it up. What if it was used? Anyway, we're not going to go down that road much longer. We're just going to hit on this real quick, this one's kind of phasing out. But I believe this is probably what sparked the dilly situation. Uh, the wmba. They want more money now. Granted these girls a lot of the top ones anyway. They have endorsement deals and whatnot, so I'm not sure they really need the pay raise.
Speaker 2:But you know well, no, no, I think so. Despite the girls that are getting endorsement deals and stuff for the overall, you got to think about the average. You got to think like the girl that just made the roster kind of girls, like they may only have a year or two in the league and it's not a lot of money. I mean they're making, like I think, $60,000 a year. When you talk about pro sports, that's next to nothing for a pro sports athlete.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean, I mean just for reference, kaitlin Clark and Angel Reese, who are both in their second year on rookie contracts, clark's making a base salary of $78,000. Reese is making a base salary of $74,000. This is without bonuses and incentives. Okay, or endorsement deals, or endorsement deals, or endorsement deals which, by the way, are in the millions and billions, especially for Angel Reese's. Kaitlyn Clark has a shoe deal, I believe, with Nike now.
Speaker 2:Her shoes sold out instantly. The second they went on sale gone, Wiped out.
Speaker 1:Some other rookie contracts are a little bit less, but the average seems to be in the mid-70,000s here, you know, going down to some of the bigger name players. You know, just like in any other sport, you got to earn your way right. Go ahead, mike Right.
Speaker 2:Well, so part of the reason that there's been some pushback on this is the WNBA has been stood up and supported by the NBA for so many years. Because the WNBA has actually been not making money. Yeah, they've been kind of losing money, so the NBA has kind of been keeping them afloat. So the profits haven't been there. So if there's no profits, there's no money to really disperse down, because the owners aren't going to lose money.
Speaker 1:They're going to basically say look, we're giving this much because you ain't bringing in enough, and again, for context, the highest paid player, aces, jackie Young, who is making the super max amount per year is only $250,000, a little over that $252,000 a year and then it kind of goes down, you know, with one of the lowest ones being Tiffany Hayes of the Valkyries, ironically at a base of $200,000. Even so, they are the top paid. Veterans are making considerably more but, like obviously NBA players, are making multiples of millions. Like obviously NBA players are making?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, they're making multiples of millions. They're making that in a quarter.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so like. And then you know they've stood up, the things, uh, like, what was that league? The um, the unrivaled league, to help get them more pay opportunities which, by the way, the unrivaled League, is gaining popularity exponentially.
Speaker 2:Right. Right, and I think part of that might be because you already have the Ice Cubes League, the Big Three, where they've kind of shown a traveling three-on-three league can make a draw and actually make some money. Wnba is doing a better job of promoting their players and putting them out there, making names of them. You can stand up a three-on-three league a lot better because people you know young fans will go. Yeah, I really like that player. I want to go see her. She's going to be playing here.
Speaker 1:And you can stand up more teams three-on-three, because I think the whole team is six players and with three on the court. So you've got a good rotation there. Uh, this is not terribly far off from a regular size team. I mean, it's a few players less and half a court and half a court as well, uh.
Speaker 1:But you know, like, uh, just you know they want to get paid. This brings us back to the product of the WNBA. Overall, it is a harsh reality that they're not profitable. You're right. They're largely supported by the NBA. You can't get rid of them and I'm not advocating that we should, but you can't get rid of them because it becomes a huge equal rights thing. Look, you just don't want to go down that road.
Speaker 2:Well, let me ask you this though Would you say that the WNBA now has more hype and popularity now than it ever has?
Speaker 1:I think yes and no. I think yes and no. I think that it is much more widely supported and watched, especially since they just stood up the Valkyries as their 13th team. So there's expansion there and they're trying, but they're still not bringing in the income because although it is widely supported probably more than it ever has been it's still not quite there. And even the NBA has been losing money and popularity over the years yes, it has.
Speaker 2:It has and that's, and that okay. To me, the reason that is people like you were alluding to before are more consumed with highlights and being, you know, supporting their favorite players and not so much a team Like they don't watch the games as much as they go on and look for highlights of the game or highlights of the player they love, player they love. So it's not as it's not like when we were growing up as kids and you would sit down and you would watch WGN because the Bulls are playing and you're going to see Michael Jordan play and you're going to see the Bulls play and the salary caps are different.
Speaker 1:And now that I talk salary caps, I hate to jump back to baseball, but you mentioned something the other day about there being a proposal on the table for the.
Speaker 2:MLB. I am glad you brought that up, because, because that, thank you. Thank you, sir. Yes, sir, because I really want to talk about this. We're going to revert back to baseball real quick.
Speaker 1:We're going to jump back into that a second While we're, because this will lead into what we're talking about Player salaries as well. So baseball.
Speaker 2:Baseball doesn't have a salary cap and they have players that are basically like the head for the players association, like they're the representatives of the players in the meetings.
Speaker 1:We are the liaison, basically, yes.
Speaker 2:So basically they choose certain players and they let them be kind of the voice and face for MLB players that are active. So one of these players is Bryce Harper of the Phillies, now recently the commissioner had to laugh out loud.
Speaker 2:Recently, the commissioner of baseball was at a Phillies game and he decided that he was going to go down and talk to Bryce Harper, because they are talking about competitive balance in baseball, one of the reasons you have a salary cap and we can look at the NFL for this. The salary cap does create somewhat of a competitive balance. You do have to spread the players around, because you can't load up on players, you can't load up on bloated salaries. You've got to let some people walk and you've got to make those tough decisions and build your team accordingly. Now, with that being said, baseball is thinking about going to this model because of the fact that you have so many players with bloated salaries. Dodgers, did I say that Dodgers?
Speaker 1:And the.
Speaker 2:Yankees. Yankees have always been that way, I know, but they still count. It's funny, though, because a lot of times they're that way and they don't win. Don't contradict the argument. Back in the 90s it was that way, when they would just buy up the latest free agent. Back in the 90s, it was that way when they would just buy up the latest free agent, anyway. So the commissioner of baseball goes down to the locker room to talk to Bryce Harper, and Bryce Harper instantly sees him and says get out of my locker room. He cusses the commissioner of baseball out and tells him to get the NFL in the locker room.
Speaker 1:Well, that's just terrible business.
Speaker 2:Now you know, there's an old adage that when somebody shows you who they are, believe them the first time. Exactly, I have been saying for years, years, ever since he was with the National, that Bryce Harper is a douchebag, ever since he was with the National, that Bryce Harper is a douchebag. And thank you, bryce Harper, for giving me another reason to say you're a douchebag and you know.
Speaker 1:With that being said, like you're supposed to be a representative of the players on your team and maybe even some of the other players around the league, right Like this man came to you for your insight, okay, on the situation, and he wants to hear what you have to say. So, as a business person, an entrepreneur myself, like the owners, are just going to do what they want to do. If you're going to tell them to fuck off, okay, they're not going to consider your wishes at all because you can't be cordial enough to discuss what actually matters to you. Go ahead, sir, I'll tell you why.
Speaker 2:Bryce Harper has a problem with this. Bryce Harper has a problem with this because of the way the Phillies are constructed. They're ace pitcher free agent signing. They're shortstop free agent signing, their shortstop free agent signing. Their leader in RBIs this season, kyle Schwarber, free agent signing. Oh, bryce Harper free agent signing. And you might say, well, okay, so what? They can sign free agents. They can get the players they want. They get the players they want because they pay these players bloated salaries. At one point, bryce Harper's salary was the best salary in baseball, the biggest, best salary. They did the same thing with Turner when they got Turner. They paid Turner more than the Dodgers were willing to pay him.
Speaker 1:They go to the highest bidder.
Speaker 2:So with the Dodgers, with all they've paid for the players they have, now they outbid the Dodgers. So that should tell you something. They outbid the Dodgers to bring this guy in.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they go to the highest bidder every time and it's easy to you know. When you have no cap, it's easy to buy championships.
Speaker 2:To buy the best team available. Now, that being said, it doesn't mean you'll win, but it'll keep you contending, It'll keep you going. And you know, it was kind of funny when Harper did sign this deal, because the Nationals were willing to give him the similar deal to be with them and stay with them. But he decided no, I'm going to go over here to Philly. And you know what happened the next year, the Nationals won the World Series. That was the only reason I was going to be happy seeing the Nationals win, because Bryce Harper was not there.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Now going back to the WNBA and the NBA, they have somewhat of a cap salary. Now if you think, for instance, say they take you know this is not a good business model, but we're going to play devil's advocate here, okay? Say they borrow some of the money from the NBA, or maybe the owners just put up some more money, right? Say, these WNBA players get a significant higher payday. Do you think that is a good thing for the sport? Do you think that increases competitive play? Do you think that will increase viewership or do you think it will hinder the business further If they increase their salaries.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just say they come out and say, okay, we're going to start generated by the teams that you might rest of the players a little boost.
Speaker 2:And then maybe you look at the revenue share and maybe that helps bring it up as well. But you've got to be making the revenue to make that happen. So there has to be a little give and take. So there has to be a way to make this work for all parties involved, because the owners are going to make money regardless. They're going to make their money.
Speaker 2:And if that means they're not nobody who owns a professional sports team is looking to lose money. So they're going to do what they have to do to protect themselves. But this day and age, yes, with the popularity of the league now, with the way that they're playing now and not saying that the women in the past didn't deserve it, they did. There were some darn good players before, but it was an infant league. When things start out, you're not making the best money. Take, for instance, that banana ball league, the Span of Bananas. They don't make huge money, money.
Speaker 2:Well, there's another team out there but the more popular they become, the more money they make. The more revenue they bring in, the more they can disperse that amongst the players they sell out almost everywhere.
Speaker 1:They go exactly like in minutes.
Speaker 2:It's very hard to get their tickets and the WNBA can get there Everywhere they go, exactly Like in minutes. It's very hard to get their tickets. Yes, and the WNBA can get there by taking and doing one thing and one thing only Playing banana ball. Promoting their players Sorry, getting their players out there and trying to make the league more profitable by getting the word out there.
Speaker 1:We're in a day and age where it's so easy to promote yeah, and I don't know if they're not necessarily promoting it, uh, but maybe they're getting the viewership on the level of investment they're putting in. But also, you gotta contend, you know somewhere it's a business, but you got to spend money to make money too, right? So like there's a lot of moving parts to this equation, right? Yes?
Speaker 2:One of the reasons that you know you brought up the Valkyrie, one of the reasons you'll do an expansion is because in order to have an expansion, the city and the owner that is coming in for that team have to pay in to have it. So it means all of the owners make a profit. That's why you expand, so they're all going to be okay with it. It's like when teams move, when a team moves like okay, for instance, when the Rams moved from St Louis and went to Los Angeles their owner— Such a cold move, by the way. Their owner paid through the nose to make that move.
Speaker 1:He wanted out of St Louis so bad.
Speaker 2:He wanted to because there was two major things, two major things You're going to one of the most profitable cities you can be in, in Los Angeles, because all you have to do is show up and show out. How do you show out? You build that fantastic new stadium and you promote your players and bring in big name players to play. And they did that.
Speaker 1:And look what happened the Chargers are in Los Angeles now too, aren't? They aren't?
Speaker 2:they sharing a stadium with?
Speaker 1:yes, they're sharing a stadium with the rams because, uh, san diego wouldn't give them a new stadium, they wouldn't approve it yeah, but I was.
Speaker 2:I was out there around the time that this whole thing was going down, where the chargers were moving, and I am not kidding you, you could not find a moving company within san diego that would help the chargers move their facility at all they're like no they had to go like 450 miles away to find somebody that would help them move like nobody would do it. Figure it out. Carry it on your backs, yeah, they like you. Better pile up your own cars. We ain't helping you move nothing.
Speaker 1:You better hike your ass out of here, bro. If you want out, you going on foot.
Speaker 2:But speaking of NFL, let's roll into it.
Speaker 1:Moving into some NFL action, by the way, our flagship sport of the current season. First of all, our thoughts and prayers go out to all the victims, their families and the communities affected by this week's. You know happened this past Monday, august 4th, which, by the way, was my birthday, so happy, belated birthday. Thank you, sir. What a damper, but you know our thoughts and prayers go out to those affected by him. This took place at the NFL's Midtown office in New York, killing four people and injuring a fifth. What did?
Speaker 2:Before what's that you said? It took place in the midtown office. What went down?
Speaker 1:Oh, the gunman. Yeah, the gunman. Sorry if I skipped that part. He was targeting it came out now he was targeting NFL personnel. Again, killed four people, injured a fifth, before you know, shooting himself in the chest, committing suicide in an elevator. You know, and this is via the Wall Street Journal. Here just a quick excerpt In quotations it appears as though he was going after the employees at the NFL. He said the suicide note suggested he believed he had chronic traumatic encephalopathy. That word Encephalopathy, Whatever you figure it out, Medical word, that word Basically a brain disease associated with head injuries, Not quite like CTE, but along the lines of CTE. The shooter, who has a history of mental illness. Anyway, he blamed the NFL for his condition. I'm not sure how accurate that could be. I have never heard his name before. Accurate that could be. I have never heard his name before. I don't even know if he was in the NFL for any amount of time. I don't know. But he was blaming the NFL. So you know, thoughts and prayers go out to that community.
Speaker 2:I'm just thankful it wasn't worse Not to say that anybody dying is good. I'm just saying that when you think about it, it's an office building.
Speaker 1:And being here in Virginia Beach that rings a bell, right, Because that happened here several years ago. Was it the?
Speaker 2:courthouse building. The courthouse building 13 people died.
Speaker 1:Yep, and that was a blowback to our community. So we can certainly relate to an extent what this community and these families are going through. So our thoughts and prayers go out to them on that. Just an unfortunate accident and we're fortunate it wasn't worse. But again, the lives lost and the one person who's in critical condition, you know. We hope you heal fast and well, come back better than you were before, clearly so. And let's get on to some happy news here.
Speaker 1:Okay, 12-year-old Jace Garland. This guy's bravely battling bone cancer. Okay, this young man, he signed an honorary contract with the Carolina Panthers and they had a. They made his dream come true Saturday night. Okay, he led the team onto the field, held his own press conference, he scored a touchdown with the first team offense, by the way, in a very special make-a-wish moment. And when he was asked about, you know, the Mount Olive jar in front of him, garland smiled and said that's my NIL deal.
Speaker 1:So, you know, offsetting a sad moment with a very heartwarming moment the Panthers I love to hear about moments like this, just making a dream come true for a young fan. You know, obviously battling bone cancer, but anytime you make a young fan's dreams come true and you do something special like that. It's always a good time, right? Yes, so like I got to give the props to the Panthers and you know I really want to watch Bryce Young this season. He kind of caught on fire towards the end of the season. Last season he was looking like a pro-caliber quarterback. What do you think, mike?
Speaker 2:I think if they get him some better offensive line help and maybe another weapon or two, he might see some.
Speaker 1:He's got some good weapons already. They have been stepped up. Thielen's kind of aging a little bit. He's still productive. But they've got some young guys behind him, coker, and the one guy's name I can never remember. I'm really bad with names y'all, I'm not much better yeah.
Speaker 2:Horrible names that guy with the face.
Speaker 1:I honestly think the whole NFC South. Maybe not the whole NFC South, yeah. Maybe not the whole NFC South, yeah, maybe the whole. Yeah, like, maybe not the Saints, right, but majority of the NFC South should relatively take a step forward and the Buccaneers are clearly in control of that division. In my opinion, Baker Mayfield is playing lights out. He probably has the best offense at his disposal. Okay.
Speaker 2:You know you mentioned the Bucs and I got to say something about this. Teddy Bridgewater just got signed to be their backup, but it comes kind of with a weird note as to why he's coming back. So he was coaching at a local high school there in Florida, took him to the finals.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but he openly told the league, told them about how he was helping players, like with Uber rides and helping players, you know, with food or whatnot. You know, because sometimes these communities they're not, even though they're in a great city, like you know, miami or whatever it might not be the best areas, you know, because sometimes these communities they're not, even though they're in a great city, like you know, miami or whatever they might not be the best areas, you know, they might not be the best school in general, but Teddy Bridgewater, out of his own pocket, out of his own heart, was helping these players. And they suspended him, yeah, and he told them. He said, look, guys, I've been doing this. And they said, ok, you're suspended, but thankfully, you know, you land a backup role with the, with the Bucs, but it's just like what You're going to. I mean, I get it, rules are rules, but like, come on, man, like what is what is going to give them some sort of unfair advantage from a kid getting a cheeseburger?
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I agree with that, and you know this is a fine example of being knocked down and out and just coming back with a fire just finding a way to stand back up. I really got to give it to Bridgewater bro, he's a fighter, he's not going to take no for an answer.
Speaker 2:It's been 10 years he's been in this league.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he got knocked out, you know. Stepped back, he started over from scratch, showed what he can do. Obviously, you know, contributed to the community as well. Yeah, and he's now found his way back into the NFL. Yeah, well, I mean he was with the Lions last year? Well, yeah, he was with the Lions last year. But what I'm saying you know you understand what I'm saying, right? This is a perfect example of being a man and stepping up no matter what the circumstance, and my hat's off to him.
Speaker 2:Well, it also shows if you're a stand-up guy, you know, and you can play pretty decent. And do be professional. You can be in the nfl as a backup player for a long time yeah, as long as you're reliable, I mean shoot.
Speaker 1:Ryan fitzpatrick made a career being a backup, being a backup journeyman, and then alex smith, you know he eventually found his way into starting roles with Kansas City and Washington.
Speaker 2:He was a starter with San Francisco. He just got outshined by Kaepernick. He got Kaepernick and then they moved on from him, which I don't know about if that was the right move or not.
Speaker 1:Hey, hindsight's 20-20, right, but moving on to the next thing here, hey, hindsight's 20-20, right, but moving on to the next thing here, mike Vrabel jumps into a fight between Patriots and Commanders players at a joint practice. Now, these two teams historically have held joint practices. This is not a first time for these guys.
Speaker 2:Vrabel having flashbacks like he's still a player.
Speaker 1:He's jumping in.
Speaker 2:He's down there getting in the scrum.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and this is an excerpt from Zach Cox of the Boston Herald. Running back, trayvon Henderson took a commander's pass, rusher to the ground Zach Dilley, zach Dilley and the two players began fighting. Vrabel jumped in to break things up when rookie Patriots tackle Will Campbell accidentally hit his coach as he joined the pile. The contact from Campbell caused Rabel to start bleeding from his face. It appears to be on his cheek. Small cut things happen. Lattimore gets into the fight with Booty. You know they're thinking maybe Keyshawn Booty just made the team. Just a huge brawl breaks out at this practice, which is not the first time, to be honest with you, regardless of who's been the coach or owners here. So there were apparently multiple fights during this practice. Honestly, they're getting fired up. Honestly I don't condone the violence.
Speaker 2:But it's nice to see your teams fired up with some fight. I heard that in an interview where Belichick he welcomed that kind of stuff in his practices because it meant his players were passionate and fired up. So Vrabel, bringing that back to the Patriots, like yeah, y'all can fight, but you're only going to go so far.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So I thought that was rather interesting. And you know I as a Commanders fan you never want to see players fighting and potentially getting injured coaches or players. But at the same time I'm kind of like, yeah, boy, you know, get it. You know the next thing we have here. You know that was a good situation. That was kind of funny.
Speaker 1:The Giants you know brand-new shiny rookie quarterback, Mr Jackson Dart, is listed as QB3 on the depth chart at the moment. Russell Wilson, obviously starting Jameis Winston right behind him in QB2. Qb3 is like a borderline might make the team three on the depth chart at the moment. Russell willison, obviously starting james winston right behind him in qb2. Qb3 is like a borderline. Might make the team right, because some teams don't even carry three quarterbacks, active quarterbacks these days. They do, yeah. So my question to you is and I don't really mean to hone in on like a pointless team, but I thought jackson dart was rather interesting pick right pointless. Yeah, they're pointless. Uh, suffice to say the cowboys might be in slightly better shape. I don't know, they don't have malik neighbors. They do have cd lamb though. But anyway, um, enough without that bullshit. When do you think jackson dark moves starts moving up because, as you mentioned earlier, Shadurah Sanders is getting the shot with the first team this coming weekend.
Speaker 2:I think, basically, when it comes down to the Giants and figuring out when to put the rookie in, it all depends on one of two things One being how they start out, which they have a rough schedule. If you look at their schedule, they've got a tough schedule. If you look at their schedule, they've got a tough schedule, yep. And two, when do they have a cupcake game? Because you ride out with the veteran and then you throw the rookie in. Yeah, you have a cupcake game, one that you can get his feet wet and let him just, you know, you don't just shove him in the deep end, you let him, you know, tiptoe in the shallow end and then figure it out. So I think this is going to be a slow burn. They're just going to ride it out. Maybe they'll put Winston in, you know, if things get a little weird with Russell, which they probably will.
Speaker 2:They probably will. And then when you know Jame winston goes 30 for 30 on them, they, they'll switch it up.
Speaker 1:Well, james was that, had a good couple of games with the browns last year. But if, if dart was in the qb2 spot, I would say easily by mid to the you know, maybe november ish, we'd probably start seeing them slide in there. Because Russell Wilson, you know I'm not saying he's a bad quarterback, but especially based not the same, yeah, especially based on his time in Denver, you know like. You know how long does it really have to be effective, if at all? Shadur's getting an opportunity doesn't mean he's going to start, but Shadur's getting an opportunity with the first team. Tyler Shue is starting, uh uh. Cam ward is starting with the titans. You know well, he was first overall pick.
Speaker 2:He was typically or they're going to be the one that starts well.
Speaker 1:Typically, yeah, but they don't always have to be so. You know a lot of young quarterbacks around the league getting their opportunity. So jackson dart, sitting at qb3 do you think he's not as good as they thought he'd be? Or do you really think that, hey, we have two quality quarterbacks on the roster, let's let him really learn and sit out for a year? I mean, where do you think that? I think that's kind of what I'm getting at here. You do you think he's not as good as they think he was?
Speaker 2:no, I don't think he needs some, you know no, I don't think it's anything like that. You're not going to make two veteran quarterbacks that have proven themselves in the league. You're not going to make them QB3. You're going to make the guy with the least experience QB3. This is almost standard practice at this point. So the only way he would be pushed ahead of those guys is if, somehow, some way, he was showing so much that they just couldn't say no.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and, like I said, he's had a rough practice to begin with his team so far. I mean throwing picks just being off timing. He hasn't necessarily shown out in practice to this point in camp. So I'm interested to see where that train goes off the rails or to its destination, whichever one. I'm down to watch the show. Well, it's the Giants, we'll see. Yeah, this makes it even more fun for me. Anyway, you know the NFL is banning smelling salts and this has a lot to do with concussion protocol, I believe. How do you feel about this, Mike? And your tight end is not having it. By the way, george Kittle, he's actually considering retirement over this.
Speaker 2:He's joking, but no, yeah, he may be joking, he's joking he says stuff like that yeah, he's kind of.
Speaker 2:But Kittle has widely made it known I mean he's done it before where he'll just go and get a little bump, he'll go smell the smelling salt and just you know, get wired and if you've never smelled it before, it's just basically straight ammonia. So it does like give you a little bit of a whoa, it widens you, makes you wide awake. I remember joking with a buddy of mine saying hey, man, smell this. It smells like weed. And he smelled it real deep, his eyes got real wide. He was like what is that? It's awful.
Speaker 1:This ain't weed bro, but I like it, but anyway.
Speaker 2:so yeah, I mean the whole purpose of the smelling salts in the past. I mean you've seen them used in boxing matches where they try to wake up the guy who's been knocked out. Or you see players get a hit where they get their bell rung and then they go and wave this under their nose and it kind of snaps them out of it and they get up. I mean, albeit they have have a concussion, so they're going to kind of stumble around. Basically it's masking what's really there. If what really is there is something severe, then yeah, these things kind of have to be addressed.
Speaker 2:Now give it to the NFL. They have really stepped up the concussion protocol and stepped up their ability to identify players that may be having these symptoms, but they're banning it in a way that the teams can't provide it. So if a player brings in a couple of these smelling salts himself, that's on him. Yeah, but it's kind of a why are we even doing this now? It should have been done a while ago.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it seems like a little late to the party thing, given the concussion, the controversy surrounding concussions over the last decade, at this point. But you know just a little small detail to head on and here we go. We got something big here. Uh, espn, one of the premier sports casting and sports um telecasting productions. They have officially announced a non-binding agreement under which espn is going to acquire an NFL network as well as other NFL media, as well as other media assets owned and controlled by the NFL, including NFL's linear red zone and NFL fantasy, in exchange for NFL getting 10% equity in ESPN.
Speaker 1:We're getting ready to hit a double whammy here because WWE Premium Live Events is also headed to ESPN platforms beginning in 2026. So ESPN hitting an absolutely two-for-one banger here, pulling all of NFL's controlled media outlets as well as WWE Premium Live Events media outlets as well as wwe premium live events. Uh, this kind of leaves peacock in the dust because they for the last I don't know year or two, have had the rights to that um. So you know, like mike, what do you make of all this?
Speaker 2:I know we don't talk much wwe here, but this is kind of a huge move and they come at the same time well, since you brought up wwe, I wanted wanted to say, uh, you know, hearts and heartfelt goodbye to hulk hogan, who passed away at the age of 71. Um, I grew up watching hulk hogan and look, you know, hold on if we're to go back and remember some folks. Look, hold on, I'm bringing that up because you started to bring up WWE.
Speaker 1:You're right, but if we're going to start remembering people who have passed, we need to speak on Mr Ozzy Osbourne as well. I was going to get there, sir.
Speaker 2:God rest his soul. I was going to say that too. Yes, I'm a big fan of Ozzie.
Speaker 1:This is like the closest thing to Tupac's death that we've had in a while.
Speaker 2:Well, both of them were up there in age and both of them lived kind of hard lives. So the fact that they made it this far is commendable and, you know, definitely sorry for both their families. Commendable, and you know, and definitely sorry for both their families. But back to this story at hand which we're talking about, which is the merger of all these brands and stuff. The only thing I take from it is consumers, get ready to be screwed, because that's what's going to happen. There's going to be. We're going to have to pay out more to get everything. You know, because, like, if ESPN Plus is any tell as to how bad this is going to be. Espn Plus is such hot mess. You know you're paying for what. Majority of the time you can't watch something because, oh, it's not on ESPN Plus, it's on ESPN or ESPN 2. You can't watch it. We might get ESPN Plus. It's on ESPN or ESPN 2, you can't watch it we might get ESPN 3 and 4 out of this look, this is going to be hot mess.
Speaker 2:I don't like it. I think everybody's going to wind up having to pay through the nose for things that they didn't have to before, and you know, it used to be able to get Red Zone, no matter what, no matter what provider you had. Now that's probably going to go out the window and you're probably going to have to pay more to get it. You're going to have to buy all the other stuff even if you don't want it.
Speaker 1:So I mean, you could always get the disney hulu bundle along with espn look espn.
Speaker 2:Don't screw it up. Do not screw up red zone. Leave it alone. Don't screw up any of the other stuff with the NFL Network. Just leave things alone. Just leave them alone. It works. Don't screw it up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and there's not a lot of details out yet on how the deal is going to work. But if they're acquiring these, I'm assuming NFL is still going to hold the ownership of these media products, but ESPN is going to be in control of the broadcasting from now on. So I'm eager to see where they take that and how this deal works out. It's kind of an unorthodox type acquisition, if you ask me, and then giving NFL 10% equity in ESPN. So I think that ESPN is going to hold this for a while, as well as the WWE. I don't know what that deal is going to entail and who ownership or anything like that, but you know, triple H has obviously been leveraging all of his you know sponsorship deals and partnerships that he can, and this is probably part of that. The next thing I have here. So, wrapping up that which was, you know, rather interesting to talk about as well Baltimore Ravens star, you know, and quarterback Lamar Jackson. So he revealed in a 2018 interview Now, this was 2018 was like rather eight years ago at this point, when he was in high school, he had a 1.5 gpa.
Speaker 1:In his sophomore year, by the way, he went to boynton beach high school of florida. Oh. So, due to academic ineligibility, he wasn't allowed to play football that year, so this was kind of a wake-up call to him that motivated him to take school seriously, moving forward, and I rather agree right, because if you don't do well with the priorities that matter, you're not going to be able to do the things that you want to do. Right, like, if you're in. Like, school is a very serious topic. Okay, everybody doesn't like school and some people don't even finish it, but if you play a sport, you know how important it is to keep your grades up.
Speaker 1:Okay, on top of it, professional sports want to employ smart players who have good judgment, and you get that from actually getting a good education. Right. They're not going to take the guy with a one and a half GPA who almost barely flunked out of college, right, because they don't think it's good judgment, they don't think he makes good decisions. Right, you want to do the best you can. Right, and I think education is also important because when you're processing things on the field, you're exercising your brain in class, especially in math. So, like, I agree with him. This is kind of just a side note, so take it from somebody who's currently at probably one of the highest performance levels of his career in the NFL right now, easily arguably QB1 in the league right now, putting an emphasis on education. If you want to play the sport and move ahead, you've got to do what's right by yourself first. That means getting a legible education right. We'll skip this next one.
Speaker 2:You mean like a legitimate education.
Speaker 1:Yeah, legitimate, legible, legitimate, whatevs. Tomato, tomato. We'll skip this next one because I don't think that's that important. But our last topic of the evening. This is another thing I thought was interesting. I just don't have much to say on it. It's kind of whatevs, but the last topic of the evening. Here, Do you think? And you can go to our social media and let us know what you think leadership or bribery?
Speaker 1:Okay, former Tampa Bay Buccaneers guard, ali Marpet, revealed on the Wham Bam podcast during his time with Tom Brady. This was between 20 and 21 time the legendary QB took the story. By the way, this is via Sports, keto, pro Football. He took the offensive line aside and offered them $1,000 each every time a screen pass went for more than 15 yards. Okay, this is kind of a smart tactic, especially from a quarterback right who's commanding the highest level of play from his offensive line highest level of protection as well. So every time a screen play went farther than 15 yards not just per game, every play that they pulled on that they had an opportunity to make a few thousand more dollars per game, depending on how many screenplays they called you can't use it too much, or teams will, honestly, they'll kind of buy into the play tactic and they'll say, oh, you're doing that again and again and again.
Speaker 2:Oh, we're going to look for that now, so you can't keep doing it well and again.
Speaker 1:Oh, we're going to look for that now so you can't keep doing it. Well, yeah, I mean it could have been maybe borderline breaking the rules, but there's really not a rule against it.
Speaker 2:No, I mean, but okay, I mean, you get players that get incentives all the time Like players.
Speaker 1:Will you know, like recently, Brock Purdy bought brand new SUVs for all of his linemen, okay.
Speaker 2:So I mean you get players that do all kinds of stuff. Joe burrow bought all of his linemen authentic japanese swords that are for tons and tons of money. Yeah, you know, so like it's not uncommon for a quarterback to kind of incentivize his linemen, I mean the quarterback will sit there and they'll take their linemen out for a big steak dinner and he knows he's paying a lot because linemen eat. You know they'll probably have four or five steaks. You know he's probably walking out there paying a couple thousand dollars.
Speaker 1:I mean, yeah, it's probably chump change to him, but hey, if it gets better performance.
Speaker 2:You keep your linemen happy. You're going to spend a lot less time on your pack.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, and they have to keep you happy as well. But real quickly, what you showing me over there.
Speaker 2:Well, what I was going to lead into was the Rams making an extension for Kyron Williams, giving him a three-year deal. Oh yeah, that's right. So he recently signed an extension, and this comes with a little bit of a conversation behind it. Yeah, let's talk about this. Remember a few years ago it was running backs dead. This is a passing league.
Speaker 1:There's no running back Like teams were just letting running backs go.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they weren't extending them. So this deal albeit you know it's a three-year deal, but it's more like a two-year deal Because when they get to the third one they could let them go and it's like no real harm or foul for them.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But this isn't the same right. This isn't the same as like, say, saquon's deal or Derrick Henry's deal, you know, because like those guys they have, I they have the kind of deal you want as a running back, because those guys are the top.
Speaker 1:They're the top, like Kyron's, obviously. I don't think on either their lab. Saquon Barkley, obviously very involved, probably the best in the league right now, and Derrick Henry is the new age beast mode. I would say this deal is.
Speaker 2:He earned this deal Like he played up to this deal. You know, this isn't a, this isn't a. Eh, all right, we'll give you some money. This is you've been well for us. We're going to reward you.
Speaker 1:This was a good appreciation sign and, like you said, it's a three-year deal, but it's really a two-year deal with a third-year out option, right yeah, so I do like the deal. I like that a running back is getting a deal, an extension at that matter, because his contract wasn't up.
Speaker 2:No, no, I mean he was going into the last year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he was going into the last year. The thing you've been seeing is a lot of those. You see these running backs. For a number of years they were just kind of shifting around from team to team. They weren't staying with one team and re-signing it was just like, oh okay, they were good for that team, now they're going to move over here. It wasn't like in the days of old where you got that star back and you're going to keep them for his entire career and when they were getting extended and getting new contracts, they weren't getting long-term contracts.
Speaker 1:It was like one to two years max, maybe three years if they really appreciated it.
Speaker 2:But well running backs. They usually don't last long in the nfl because of the wear and tear, yeah. So typically you wouldn't see a longer deal for a player, but yeah, but it it's. It's good to see that teams are actually valuing the running back like they used to and and he's not necessarily old either, and I mean Josh Jacobs and Green Bay.
Speaker 1:I think they gave him a three-year deal going there from the Raiders.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's a great example because he's an older back with proven years in the league and Green Bay said we'll pay you.
Speaker 1:They still runs hard and they protect his health too. They use him in a very reasonable, very smart way as well. And you know this leads me to ask another question. We're going to switch gears here. Do you think receivers can still perform after they hit 30? Now the trend says 30 to 31. There's a significant drop-off in performance.
Speaker 2:Well, I think it depends on who the player is, because you've had players that have shown proving success later in their careers, but you're not wrong in saying that players that get north in age that they don't perform as well once they get above 30.
Speaker 1:You don't see outside of the quarterback position. You really don't see any skilled position players going much farther than 30. I mean, you might see some defensive guys playing to their mid-30s. You know London Fletcher played until he was like 45. Homer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, being a Homer. Yeah, there was a Homer, sorry, but it was a good example.
Speaker 1:I was trying to stay away from it but that's all I could draw from. But, like just you know, defensive guys sometimes a little more, but as far as offensive skill players, you know you could have said somebody like Deion. Deion was another good one.
Speaker 2:Deion played until he was 37. Another good one Deion played until he was 37, I believe 37 or 38.
Speaker 1:So that's one you could have referred to, who, by the way, also played for the Redskins, tom.
Speaker 2:Brady could have been another.
Speaker 1:But I mean, if you want to go more skill, that was quarterback though Well, if you want to go more skill position player, you could have gone Emmitt Smith.
Speaker 2:He played well into his 30s. Yeah, you know, like that was, you know, all-time rushing leader. So but we're I'm not trying to be a homer here, but Jerry Rice.
Speaker 1:Jerry Rice. And, with that being said, I'm going to throw another homer at you. Terry McLaurin, do you think?
Speaker 2:Come on, man, terry McLaurin's not that old.
Speaker 1:He's 30. He turns 31 in the middle of the season. He'll be fine. I think he'll be fine too. I think they should pay him, but they're wondering. So there's some. He wants a very DK Metcalf like deal, but DK Metcalf is 27 years old.
Speaker 2:I would take Terry McLaurin over DK Metcalf any day.
Speaker 1:I would too, because he's had like six consecutive thousand plus yard seasons with different quarterbacks and coaches. So I think they pay the man, but obviously the new regime they're trying to penny pinch a little bit. But I just wanted to hit on that for a second Before we go ahead and wrap up the show Once again, I just want to give a shout out to our sponsors and partners Once again. Body by D Jim, one in Yorktown, one in Gloucester. Big shout out to Deshaun. He's doing a great job building that business. He's a champion bodybuilder himself and now training other future champions of his own, passing on that knowledge and skill.
Speaker 1:Solace Outfitters you know our friends Caden and Christian over there, two young athletes up and coming building their brand, building their skills up in basketball. Good job to those guys. They're going to go far, okay. And then, once again, the Giving Tree Chiropractic Service is a walk-in service. Justin's very good at what he does down here in Virginia Beach off Rosemont Road. Thank you once again, our sponsors and partners, for doing business with us and thank you everybody for listening to us and kicking off Season 2 with us. We hope you enjoy the first episode of this new season and we have much more to come, including some special guests here in the near future. For the last time tonight, I'm Brian with an, I and I'm Mike, and we are Two. For the last time tonight, I'm Brian with an, I and I'm Mike, and we are Two for the Win. Thanks everybody.