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 - S2.38 - Celebrations gone wrong, Qb Rankings & A BlackOut Of The Sports Broadcasting Act?
When celebration turns catastrophic, sports headlines take unexpected turns. In this episode, we explore NASCAR driver Connor Zilisch's victory circle mishap that left him with a broken collarbone and concussion, joining the peculiar pantheon of athletes who've injured themselves during moments of triumph.
The business of sports continues evolving at breakneck speed, with the Boston Celtics shattering records at a $6.1 billion valuation, while basketball legend Michael Jordan demonstrates his competitive spirit extends beyond the hardwood, netting $389,000 in a high-stakes fishing tournament. Meanwhile, NFL preseason action delivers its share of oddities – from the Panthers' six-fingered linebacker JJ Weaver to Jaguars kicker Cam Little's unofficial 70-yard field goal that won't count for the record books.
We analyze which NFL quarterbacks truly excel in specific skills, breaking down arm strength, accuracy, mechanics, decision-making, pocket presence, rushing ability, and second-reaction capability. Who deserves the top spot heading into the new season? Our predictions might surprise you.
The episode takes a poignant turn discussing the Lions-Falcons preseason game suspension after Maurice Norris's injury, where players from both teams united in prayer – a powerful reminder of brotherhood transcending competition. Finally, we examine potentially groundbreaking developments as Congress reviews the outdated Sports Broadcasting Act, potentially ending the frustrating blackout rules that have plagued fans for decades.
Join us for this wide-ranging exploration of sports' most fascinating stories happening beyond the scoreboard, where human moments, business decisions, and athletic oddities converge.
August 13th 2025. Welcome back everybody rolling hot and heavy into our season 2, the second episode of this season, episode 38 overall all time. Thank you again for everybody joining us. I'm Brian with an I and I'm Mike, and we are 2 for the win. Mike, what do we have on the agenda tonight?
Speaker 2:Well, we're going to discuss this preseason action that's going on. I mean, yeah, I mean people want to say preseason doesn't matter, but we still get some storylines and things pop off every once in a while that are interesting. So we're going to talk on that, baseball doing its thing, we're going to check in with that and you know some odd sports lines and things that are happening.
Speaker 1:We're going to discuss that too. A lot going on in the world of sports, and preseason definitely is important to the players maybe not as much to the fans. And before we get rolling, I'd like to take a minute to thank our sponsors and partners. Body by D Gym. There's two locations, one in Yorktown and gloucester. Deshawn's a very good guy building a great business up there. He's a former body building champion and training other body building champions, future champions, himself carrying on that knowledge and that skill for others. Solace outfitters our good friends caden. Caden and christian, two young athletes building a brand together. Very up-and-coming fellas, very outgoing, smart guys as well. And the Giving Tree Chiropractic, located here in Virginia Beach. Justin's very good at what he does, making chiropractic services accessible to anyone and everyone. So highly recommend all three of those folks, all three of those businesses, and thank you again for being our sponsors and partners. Mike, let's get rolling. What's first on the list, buddy?
Speaker 2:So a topic we don't normally hit on is NASCAR. I mean, it's not because we don't really care about NASCAR, it's just you know, let's face it, majority of the world loves football and loves, you know, the other sports. Not saying NASCAR is not good, just saying you know, once in a while we're going to jump in and say some things.
Speaker 1:Oh, I love doing.
Speaker 2:And we have something really interesting that happened recently in the world of NASCAR Word, in the Xfinity series of NASCAR. There's a driver who recently won an Xfinity race and was in the winner's circle. And you know, you hit the winner's circle, you're happy, you're celebrating, you're ready to, you know, sit there and celebrate with your team, because NASCAR they do have teams, they have a pit crew and you know, crew coach.
Speaker 1:That's where the real athleticism is in racing. Hey look, it's not the driver.
Speaker 2:The G-Force is a NASCAR driver feels in one race is insane. They said it's the equivalent of doing like a thousand push-ups or some shit like that. Lord yeah, it's crazy.
Speaker 1:I can't even do one push-up.
Speaker 2:Anyway, so Connor Zillage, I think that's how you say his name. Let me try.
Speaker 1:Let me try. I love this. Can Brian guess the name? Connor Zillage? I think you did right Zillage, zillage or Zillage.
Speaker 2:So he's a 19-year-old and a very up-and-coming great driver because he's already won like six races. He was because he's already won like six races. He was getting out of his car to celebrate and, as you know, with most of these cars they have like a little net to cover the window when the driver gets into the car. Right Well, he put the net down. He's trying to climb out and stand on the window ledge and get up on top of the car. Well, when he did so, his foot got caught and he came head first down towards the pavement, woo-hoo.
Speaker 2:So when he fell down, he cracked his head, knocking him out and he got a concussion, but worse yet, he also broke his collarbone. Oh, Lord.
Speaker 2:So now he's going to be unable to drive and he's going to be dealing with concussion symptoms. So he got a double whammy and one of his fellow teammates who, funny enough, he wrecked during the race, who didn't have hard feelings about it, was like I'll give him some advice because he went through a similar thing breaking his collarbone, where he's going to basically teach him how to come back from it. But it's a thing, it's going to be a while to come back. I mean, it's collarbone and you think just think about everything you do with your arms is affected by a collarbone injury.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and Mike, this is kind of crazy to me because we just and we may circle back to this later in the episode, but we just got done talking about sports injuries coming via celebration, oh yeah. There's a long history of celebration injuries I mean, we watched a whole video on this just a few minutes ago Like this falls right into this category. My man's ghost riding a whip got a concussion, broke his collarbone.
Speaker 2:Well, he didn't ghost ride. It's parked in the winner's circle and he just kind of slipped and fell off.
Speaker 1:I'm going to call it ghost ride, because it makes me feel better.
Speaker 2:But it's not accurate. Look it only matters so much, well, what it did for us like. When you see things like this, it kind of takes you back to other times. You've seen celebration injuries. You know there's some notable ones that most people know, like the Bill Gramatica one where the kicker for the. Cardinals kicks a field goal, 42-yarder jumps in celebration and when he comes down he's torn his ACL. And to add insult to injury, they lost the game.
Speaker 1:You know that's funny, especially with some of the— Not because he missed the kick. Well, especially with some of the NFL-related injury or football-related, because some of them were in college. They were celebrating an injury themselves, they were already losing the game or would go on to lose the game. So it's kind of ironic.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because you had Lamar Houston, that he was a bear defensive lineman or defensive end and he celebrated after sacking Garoppolo in a meaningless fourth quarter.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they were already down like 30, 40 points or something like that. Yeah, they weren't going to win the game. Why were you?
Speaker 2:even celebrating. But he jumps up, comes down, boom, three minutes left in the game too, tears his ACL. He's done for the year. Terrible, you know. And another one soccer has some pretty brutal ones, man. Because there was a player over in India, he made a goal and he goes to do these series of somersaults and flips. And he tries to do this back flip and he doesn't make it. He lands straight on his head, breaking his neck, and he dies a couple days later in the hospital. Five days later he passed away.
Speaker 1:Yeah, terrible. And then one what's with soccer players?
Speaker 2:and doing flips. Hey, one that you might remember, good old Washington quarterback Gus Farratt, going to celebrate and headbutting a wall and winds up hurting his neck. And then he's out for a while because he hurts his neck. Yeah, yeah, it's like what are you thinking?
Speaker 1:There's been quite a bit of them. And then guys jumping out of the dugouts, players jumping over fences.
Speaker 2:Yeah, aubrey Huff hurting himself jumping over. When Matt King got a perfect game, he wound up hurting himself.
Speaker 1:And then the guy who got his finger ripped off the soccer player. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, that was crazy.
Speaker 2:There was a soccer player. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, that was crazy, there was a soccer player. You never think of a soccer player having a devastating injury. That is this gruesome. But he was wearing his wedding band and he climbs up on this fence celebrating with his teammates and when he goes to jump down, his ring catches on the fence and takes the tip of his finger off and the doctors could not put it back on should have got a silicone one.
Speaker 1:What a silicone tip.
Speaker 2:Sure no silicone wedding ring I was like what are you talking about anyway? Okay, chubs with the wooden hand over here. Or you know Lindsey Vonn. She famously got hurt celebrating, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Champagne bottle tore a tendon in her thumb yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and put her down for a little while, but she got back on the slopes not that far after that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but some of them were rather lucky to be able to continue their career and the same season. But a lot of these folks no.
Speaker 2:Not so lucky. Yeah, I mean it just goes to show that maybe some of the celebrations that some of these players used to do, where they would just spike the ball and go back to their sideline or kind of do the cross thing and point up to the air, remember pretend you've been there before, right. Yeah, sometimes you need to.
Speaker 1:But you know that aside, hopefully, if you are an athlete, you be careful when you are celebrating. I mean, like I said, most of these things happen during jumping. You know ACL tears, tendon tears, so you know, moving on with that.
Speaker 2:Well, we hope. Before we move on, I just want to say we hope that connor recovers okay from his concussion and his collarbone. It's gonna be a long road ahead, but he's 19, he has a bright future ahead of him he should heal quickly.
Speaker 1:He still got them young boy healing powers. So yeah, yeah, I remember getting hurt at 19 and like the next day I was back up and running you, you know. So maybe less so for him with a broken collarbone yeah, broken collarbone, he can.
Speaker 2:He can get up and run, he just can't do anything beyond that.
Speaker 1:You know, concussions. Concussions are a serious thing too, because they, they can also just never fully heal, you know. So that's kind of significant. No, they and you're prone to getting more.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was going to say, once you've had one, you're more susceptible to getting more. I've had three. So I'm certain I've probably had. I kind of know a little bit about this subject.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think I gave you one. I'm pretty certain I've had like a million, but they've not been recorded, which is probably what's wrong with me. But we can skip that part.
Speaker 2:Which part? The part about being injured or the part about things being wrong with you, that one. Let's move on into the world of baseball. Give a little tip of the cap here to Pete Alonzo. Pete Alonzo has set a record for the Mets the Mets for the longest time Daryl Strawberry has been their home run leader. All time for their club I think it was like 252 home runs career, for when he was with the Mets I mean he had more home runs in his career, but he had 252 with the Mets. Well, pete Alonzo has finally passed him in a game against the Braves the other night, unfortunately and he hit two home runs to give him 254 home runs. Nice, so now he is the all-time Mets home run leader.
Speaker 1:And he's standing. What is this? He said it was with the Mets, but now he's standing.
Speaker 2:Okay, never mind, I misread that first so, which it brings two things to mind. Right One, when Pete was trying to get his contract situation sorted out with the Mets and the Mets were just kind of letting him test free agency and people were just like you know, kind of giving him lowball offers and not really giving him a good contract. It kind of goes Mets, what are you doing? This guy is like your guy, he's the guy for your team. He's been there.
Speaker 2:Why would you be so insulting to this guy? He's having a better year than the guy you gave all that money to, in Juan Solo, as I like to call him now Juan Solo.
Speaker 1:I like that name too. I'm a big Star Wars fan.
Speaker 2:Well, here's the thing, soto.
Speaker 2:This year he has 28 home runs. So you think, okay, if Juan Soto has 28 home runs, he must have a lot of RBIs. No, no, he lot of RBIs. No no, he has 63 RBIs. The reason being is Juan Soto normally hits a solo shot later in games when they're already being blown out or when they have nobody on base. So hence the name Juan Solo for his solo shot home runs and for Star Wars fans everywhere which Pete Alonso is not that guy he is hitting with people on base. He's having a great year. He should have been the one that got a bunch of money, Not Juan Soto, in my opinion. But you know, we'll move right along from that and we gotta shine some light on something that almost doesn't happen in baseball.
Speaker 2:Shine your light on me. You see plays in baseball and sports in general that are just amazing when you see them, especially if you get to see them live. But one of the most rare plays you see in baseball is a triple play, and we just had one is a triple play and we just had one. We just had a triple play in the Dodgers and Angels series.
Speaker 1:Hmm, we like this? Yes, we do. Our good friend Shelly Orton Hitting streak right now. Two balls, two strikes, Lined up to middle Nettles got it Stops on second Throw to first it's a triple play.
Speaker 2:Wow, netto's got it. Stops on second Throw to first, it's a triple play. Whoa, a pitcher's best friend, shohei, hits into a triple play to win the inning.
Speaker 1:Oh my goodness, Zach Netto involved in a triple play.
Speaker 2:Right there, perfectly placed right up the middle Angels, get out of the jam with a triple play. You heard right. Shohei Shohei, who has been one of the more consistent players for the Dodgers here, recently Hits into a triple play late in the game. Got to give some kudos to Netto for being right on, you know, johnny right on the spot.
Speaker 2:He got the ball tagged second, threw to first, they tagged the base runner, and the base runner looked just awful because I don't know what he was trying to do. But he tries to tag up on first base, slips, falls and just looks so bad. But to make matters worse for the Dodgers, you know they tied the game up with a Shohei late home run, and then they lose it in extras in a walk-off to the Angels, losing three games this last, their last three games they lost, so now they're a half game back on the San Diego Padres. So the thing that's interesting about this, though, is the fact that, at the deadline, the Padres were the ones going out and getting the Mason Millers to put in the back of their bullpen. They were the ones making moves.
Speaker 2:The Dodgers really didn't do anything. They kind of sat still and said we'll be fine. We got guys coming back from the NL. Well, they've been scuffling. They have not been playing like a good team, they have not gelled and been cohesive, so they are looking very much like they might not win their division and wind up being a wild card. That's not a good look for a team that spent the most money in the NL. It's not a good look, just saying.
Speaker 1:No, no, not at all, not at all. But you know what? Sometimes you have off games and Shohei, you know great player, but sometimes you just miss right.
Speaker 2:Well, shohei has been the one consistent guy. Like I said last, last week they gave a standing ovation to mookie betts for breaking his slump by getting a double. Good job, but you would have thought he had a game-winning shot, you know. But it's just, it's just one of those things. It's kind of just crazy, crazy stuff going on. That's baseball. Yeah, yeah, that's exactly. You hit the nail on the head with that. That's baseball. When you can't explain it, you just say that's baseball.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and moving in here, this is kind of a little bit slightly NHL news, but it's probably bigger news for the NBA. Hurricanes owner is buying the Portland Trailblazers, I think somewhere in the neighborhood of like $4 billion sale. Congratulations to him and the. Trailblazers for selling for $4 billion.
Speaker 2:That's interesting because the owners of the Trailblazers is the same people who own the Seahawks. Yeah, because the owner died and his family basically said they don't want to hang on to this stuff, so they sold the Trailblazers. It makes you wonder are they going to sell the Seahawks?
Speaker 1:I think that the Seahawks may change hands. I believe that's a real possibility. They may have just been trying to shop one at a time.
Speaker 2:You get $4 billion for the Trailblazers. Imagine what they'll get for the.
Speaker 1:Seahawks the Seahawks, though. I would like to think they'd get more. And speaking of sales, the NBA approves the sale of the Boston Celtics, actually the highest value, highest selling American sports franchise in history, at $6.1 billion. That's the highest in the history of US pro sports for the sale of a franchise. I think what the commanders went for a little less than that right, it was like five point something billion when they sold to the Harris group. I'm not sure it was and that that was one of the highest selling pro franchise sales in history. So I don't think it was the highest. But so, like these, not only are we raising the bar athletically, but they're raising the bar in value.
Speaker 2:Well, this is showing a couple of things. Yeah, rich people are putting their value into sports franchises because they're holding value, whereas you have stuff that's kind of risky. You have your stocks and you could play that venture and you just don't know what's going to come of it.
Speaker 1:We're going away from single-handed ownership. Bill Chisholm was the leader of this, but he's actually leading a private equity group. Similar situation happened with the commanders. You're now seeing purchase groups. You're seeing entities buy up franchises. So they're becoming a little more corporatized now, and especially in an era where you you know you come from maybe the owner's not so great. You know Jerry Jones, dan Snyder, what's his name.
Speaker 2:Speaking from experience, huh.
Speaker 1:I forget the owner of the Panthers Some unsavory people. Shad Khan owns the Jaguars. He's not a bad owner, but he's just kind of behind the scenes. So now you're seeing sports groups being led by one primary owner as the face, buying these franchises, and I think that is also a testament to also how valuable they are, because even as rich as some of these folks are, it's hard to just put $6.1 billion of your own cash on the table. Right, that's like some people's life savings. I've never I haven't even made a million dollars in my life. I don't just have that in my back pocket.
Speaker 2:I couldn't imagine making that they did something to get there, but when you see these, generational wealth is what that is.
Speaker 2:When you see these franchises sell like that, you're seeing a couple of domino effects coming from that. With this sale we did see and it has to do with the new salary cap rules and stuff going on with the NBA but they have lost a lot of players and moved a lot of players to try to get themselves under the threshold. So they're not in the penalty this next season and part of getting some of those players that they want to keep locked up might be because they saw this coming and they don't want to be having messy contracts to figure out while they're trying to do the sale of the club.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and the Celtics sale is not even expected to be finalized until like maybe 2028. And they're saying by then the value could be over 7.3. So that value could climb exponentially here considerably higher.
Speaker 2:And the thing with these deals they never. It's not like going down to the store and getting a candy bar and you know, here's my money, here's my candy bar, I wish it was. It's never like that because there's all these contracts and legalese and you know everything has to be filtered through the court process to make sure that everybody gets what they want out of it and that nobody's getting screwed over.
Speaker 1:And you know there's financial checks and balances. And, mike, I want to own a sports team. I think I'm going to start a little league team and build up from there. I think that's how we're going to do it. Your team would be the Bad News Bears. I like it.
Speaker 2:I'd have to get the trademark, though you can't. It's a movie.
Speaker 1:Bad News Bears.
Speaker 2:They can be the Bad News Bengals then. Anyway, what isn't bad news, at least in a former NBA player's opinion? And what's going on with him? Michael Jordan has ventured into many different avenues since his playing career, and this is no different Since his playing career, and this is no different. So, for those of you that aren't aware, michael Jordan actually has an interest in fishing, and not just fishing, but like that deep water fishing where you're going after marlins and stuff, and he actually has a boat that he has named Catch 23. I like it. So recently that boat and his crew went on to fish in this white marlin tournament and it was out of Ocean City, maryland. Hmm, now everybody's competing in this, trying to win some prize money. Unfortunately, his group didn't finish first because the pot for first was pretty substantial.
Speaker 1:You know not that Jordan needs the money, jordan just likes it probably just goes to the team at this point, just using his name.
Speaker 2:Well, they finished second and they got $389,000 For coming in second. The first place winner Got $3.9 million, so pretty big jump once you get first. But look, either way it gets a little notoriety there and to come out second, you can guarantee they're going to do more of these tournaments and they'll win one eventually. I mean, he's from Carolina. He probably went out to hatteras and stuff and the outer banks and probably did some fishing and stuff when he was a kid yeah, I mean and you know I loved it.
Speaker 1:I credit jordan for seeing the value in this, because fishing is gaining a ton of popularity, especially competition fishing well, all those shows you see.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, all the shows and other things.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, all the shows and you know, living here on the coast, do you know how many of my Facebook friends post pictures of fish like every single day? Bro, like these guys out here getting it man and not to say anything bad, but I like fishing too, typically for women. Hey, I Type of fishing but I'm just fishing, but I'm just kidding.
Speaker 2:I like fishing too. I just don't have the money for this. Some of these things these guys have these man there's so much technology, so much, so many toys.
Speaker 1:Fishing has come a long way, just like any other hobby. It's come a lot like golf. The clubs are so engineered Go ahead bro.
Speaker 2:Well, it's like when one fishing reel just the reel, not the pole, just the reel is $1,000. It gets a little bit pricey when you go deep sea fishing.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I haven't talked about lures or gas or provisions, none of that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, forget busting out another thousand for the boat. You're busting out another thousand for gear. One piece of gear, one piece of gear. You should bring thousands. Let me put that thousand dollar reel on my stick. You just need something to extend it, right?
Speaker 2:We're good.
Speaker 1:Oh, good lord, I spent all the money on the reel. I'll buy the actual rod later, but we still want a fish. Just put it on a twig.
Speaker 2:Yeah, watch it. Snap the first fish that hits it.
Speaker 1:As long as we don't lose the reel, we can get another stick, put it on the edge of the boat and drop it in Right. But yeah, so that's funny and again fishing's getting in popularity. So I credit. Jordan's always kind of had his eye on up and coming things of value, so I kind of I gotta give him protection for having that.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean he's spread his wealth out over many things. I mean he has his own golf course now. And crazy part about his own golf course there's literally well, well, yeah, he loves to golf, but they literally have drones that will bring you beers. Can?
Speaker 1:I get one of those drones, right, can we get one that flies around the house and just brings me a beer on air when we're out? Yeah, need another one too busy recording, oh. But now I know it's kind of short-winded with some of these other side subjects, mike, but, ladies and gentlemen, and everybody in between, let's talk some football, getting ready to be our flagship sport of the season here. You know, I know things happen in other sports, but you know we got what we got here. But let's talk some football and let's start out rather light here.
Speaker 1:Okay, I need to ask you maybe it's because things are technology right and streaming and because there's cameras everywhere. Uh, maybe there's always been practice camp scuffles between teams, right, that are sharing a practice week, but it seems like this season there's been notably more scuffles in practice than I've ever heard about. I don't know if that's because exposure is at an all-time high or because teams are becoming less disciplined. Um, like today. Right, let me pull this up. Uh, sorry, my bad. Anyway, let me pull this up. The new york jets and the giantsants got into a massive fight during their, you know, combined practice, and then you know the Falcons who were they practicing with this week.
Speaker 1:It's coming to me the Titans the Titans and the Falcons are sharing. No, the Titans know that. The Giants and the Jaguars was it the Jaguars? No, the Jets. The Jets and the Giants got in a huge scuffle and the Falcons?
Speaker 2:and the.
Speaker 1:Titans got in a scuffle and then just last week the Commanders and the Patriots got in a huge scuffle. So like I feel like I don't know, are we, is this a norm, or is exposure just at an all-time high, that now these things are commonplace in the media? I think they've always been there.
Speaker 2:I think it's a normal thing. I mean, Bill Belichick used to love watching his players getting scuffles because he likes that grittiness, that toughness.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and here comes Ray Rowe jumping into the fight.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and winding up bloody, but that's neither here nor there.
Speaker 1:For all times, guys, superman, the ho.
Speaker 2:I think he just forgot who he was.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you know Penix was at the bottom of that fight there. So it just begs the question. Like you know, I like to see some gruff you know what they call some moxie, especially in football players.
Speaker 2:I mean honestly, if they're not passionate, you know I get it's practice, it's not a real game. But if they're not focused and they're not, you know getting into it and if they're getting in fights, that means they're into it, that means they're like all right, I've had about enough of this dude across me, yeah, and the Bengals had another one just between themselves, their rookie that was the holdout Hamilton.
Speaker 1:He came flying through the A-gap I mean, this one was more of an accident, but he come flying through the A-gap, bounced off one player and then bounced in the burrow, knocked burrow down pretty hard and he got an ass-chewing from his own O-line. So like that's a slightly different scenario.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but usually in preseason or practices you have the quarterback. During those situations, one in preseason quarterback, the starting one, is probably not going to have any downs, but Burrow did this last time. But in practice they normally wear a jersey that indicates do not hit this player, whether that's red, yellow, whatever color it. That indicates do not hit this player, whether that's red, yellow, whatever color it is. Do not hit this quarterback. Everybody else. Fair game. Everybody else can get some.
Speaker 1:Yeah and then. So I think that's rather interesting. Also, it's kind of a good thing especially with some of the Netflix specials and stuff out there just getting to see behind the scenes, and the exposure of what happens in these camps is at an all-time high and I think it's a great thing. But at the same time, you don't want players getting injured but you do like to see that grit out there on the field. The Colts introduced a pretzel. Guys, I've got to post this on our social media. If you haven't seen it yet or if you don't know what I'm talking about, you need to go check it out. The Colts introduced a pretzel in the shape of their logo that will be sold at their stadium's concession this season. I don't think it was thought through very well. Yeah, it kind of looks like a big old turd.
Speaker 2:Well, you said it, not me.
Speaker 1:In the shape of a horseshoe. We'll have to post that up there. That's kind of hilarious.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it very much resembles a turd.
Speaker 1:There's something on a little more serious effect here. Just brushing by some of the dumb stuff, john Gruden has beaten the NFL in Nevada's Supreme Court. If you don't remember Gruden's career, his coaching career was kind of cut short due to some emails that were released, and this was going on during when Snyder was on his dumb shit trying to keep ownership of the team, just bringing people down with him well, and I think it's because they were investigating Snyder that they found some of these emails, and it's not.
Speaker 2:it's not because because they were investigating Snyder that they found some of these emails, and it's not because, well, they were released publicly. Well, it's not because Gruden was emailing Snyder. It's because his brother was a coach at the time during that particular tenure with Snyder, where the emails he might have been included on between him and his brother.
Speaker 1:And so Now, don't get me wrong, if you remember the emails, what was said was not okay. Okay, I'll agree with that. They were. They were crossed the limits and they were a little bit racist. Okay, but that's not to say that I think john gruden himself is a racist. But you, sometimes people say things and you know, just don't say things you don't mean is really what I'm getting at with that. But yeah, so the case will be litigated in court. Gruden, age 61, he's alleging that the NFL forced his 2021 resignation which I can't believe. We're already, you know, looking at 26 here soon by leaking the emails with racist, misogynistic, homophobic language. We all remember what those are. I'm not going to go over those.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we don't need to repeat it.
Speaker 1:So the release of those emails kind of ignited the end of his career, right, that kind of became the end of him, and so he's suing the NFL for releasing those emails, and I think he's rightfully so. Now the emails, yes, what he said was not, was not good, okay, I'm not getting behind that, but I do think that he has a point. Uh, you know, they did release it on purpose. Somebody released it on purpose and he really wasn't involved in that investigation into Snyder. But you know, I'm eager to see where that goes.
Speaker 2:We're going to follow that one closely. So, moving back into some of the preseason action, cam Little he wasn't so little on his preseason kicking responsibilities. You probably have heard it by now, or somebody has mentioned it to you by now, but the jaguars kicker did something that nobody has done before. They decided it's preseason, what the hell you know, they're going against the steelers. They're like let's give it a shot. So cam little came in for a 70-yard field goal attempt and he made it, Bro 70 yards.
Speaker 1:Is that a record?
Speaker 2:He's kicking it from their 40. Now and I'm glad you brought, that's basically a kickoff.
Speaker 2:I'm glad you brought up. Is that a record? Because this is a preseason game and not a regular season game. It does not count. I hate that. I hate it too. I I was gonna ask do you think it should stand? And I guess I guess you have the same opinion I do. I think it should. I mean, granted, it's preseason, but let's, let's, let's keep. It's a gray area. Well, keep it in perspective, man, think about it. It's special teams. Both teams are playing their special team members. They don't have fourth stringers for their special teams. They have their special team unit. Now, granted, do you have maybe one or two guys who might be practice squad guys that are out there? Yeah, because you're trying to see if they do well on the practice squad or do well on special teams, you know, to see if they have a role on the team. But a 70-yard kick is still a 70-yard kick.
Speaker 1:That's where I'm getting at, like it's kind of a gray area because, yeah, it's preseason, it doesn't really count. But at the same time, kicks are largely field goal. Kicks are largely all executed the same way, unless you barely manage to block it, in which case we wouldn't be sitting here talking about it at this point.
Speaker 2:Well, this isn't the first time this has happened. There was a kicker years ago in preseason who hit a 67-yard field goal, which right now the present record for in a game A regular a game.
Speaker 1:A regular season game.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a regular season game. Is the 66-yarder kicked by? Do you know who it?
Speaker 1:was Legatron. It's probably not him. Is there a line? No? No, because I know he said it one time, was 61 or 62.
Speaker 2:If I said he pulled a massage. Watson, would you get it, Justin Tucker? Justin Tucker holds that record Now. Mind you, he set that record in a dome stadium when he kicked it, so Little he was outdoors when he kicked this 70-yarder.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So look, in my opinion, that guy has the record.
Speaker 1:I think he should, and if not, he should get an honorable mention. And if not, I say, week one, go out there, put that man on the 40, let him kick it again. If you do it once, you can do it again.
Speaker 2:Hey, at least if nothing else, you can do it again. Hey, at least, if nothing else, they put the league on notice. Try us in the late game, we'll roll them out there.
Speaker 1:I will be drafting him in my fantasy, yeah.
Speaker 2:Imagine being the guy like alright, the curtain has been pulled. Alright, this guy is down by six points and all he has is his kicker. I'm going to win this. Wait, where did he get seven points from?
Speaker 1:I think that's like a ten-pointer right there. I don't know, it'd be like seven, but you know that's interesting and here we're going to talk a little bit of shit dirt. The Browns quarterback room is in shambles right now. They are just injury plagued right now.
Speaker 2:Okay, Now, this isn't really. Stability is availability, man.
Speaker 1:Now there's not a lot of. I don't agree. Shadur did have a good preseason game. Okay, he lit it up a little bit, but at the same time it's not, it's a preseason game. I like his response to it. He said he did some good things and some bad things. He kind of played off nonchalant.
Speaker 2:But he also injured his oblique so he could be held out for the next game. Well, he better hope not. Yeah, he better hope not. He's still four on the depth chart. Which, even after that performance, he's still four on the depth chart.
Speaker 1:But D-Watt is dealing with his calf still, I think. What's his name, dylan? He's got a hammy Flacco's. Is it Flacco with him out there?
Speaker 2:Yeah, flacco, flacco's got a hammy. Flacco's the starting quarterback.
Speaker 1:He's the starting quarterback, but he's got a hammy. You know, Shadur has Oblink. There's only one other quarterback I forget who it is. They have so many Kenny Pickett, Kenny Pickett no, it's Pickett who has the hammy Flacco's, the only one that's like healthy right now. Yeah, so he's QB1. And yeah, Shadur is farther down the list, so I'm eager to see how that goes for them. I don't know what the Browns are doing, bro. You have five quarterbacks on your roster in training camp.
Speaker 2:Look, the Browns are a bit confused. They think they're playing Pokemon.
Speaker 1:They're trying to collect, them all they're trying to collect them all.
Speaker 2:Oh, you have another one. I need that quarterback too. We need that QB over here Come on man, get him on.
Speaker 1:I'm rather impressed that Flacco. Maybe he just didn't have a lot of options, but I'm rather impressed that he landed with the Browns. And I'm not impressed in a good way. I feel like maybe he could have had a better option.
Speaker 2:When you got picked up in the fifth round.
Speaker 1:you're just excited that anybody picked you up, bro, and before I move on to the next thing, here we have what do you think Odell's going to do? Man, he took a year off last year, just retire. He has no plans to retire. He does have some interest from teams, I think, notably the Steelers. What do you?
Speaker 2:think that would be dumb for the Steelers, because For what?
Speaker 1:I think you should just retire too. You're going to bring in another moody diva.
Speaker 2:They got two of those on the team already, and Rodgers and their newly acquired wide receiver, so I don't see it as being anything fruitful to pick up Odell and bring him on to the Steelers, but moving right along over to an interesting story that has kind of flown a little under the radar, but if you're paying enough attention you might notice this on the field.
Speaker 2:So there's a rookie on the Panthers who stands out, not just because of his play but because of a unique difference that he has, and that difference, you might ask, is on his hand. He has six fingers on one hand.
Speaker 1:Boy, you better catch that ball. I'm telling you right now.
Speaker 2:And not only does he have six fingers, but he has six functioning fingers, so he can use that sixth digit just as well as the rest of his hand. When we say he plays, he's a receiver. No, he's a linebacker. He played for Kentucky Missed opportunity.
Speaker 1:Missed opportunity. Missed opportunity Look look, I say receiver or DB all day long.
Speaker 2:No, but they still got to get picks, yeah, anyway, so Linebackers get picks. The player's name is JJ Weaver. He's a rookie on the Panthers right now. He's a linebacker. You should definitely keep an eye out for him. He was a you know, kentucky wildcat. I think that having that extra finger is going to throw some dudes off. I think when you see guy put his hand up and you're like, is he?
Speaker 1:turn them, turn the motion blur off. Oh wait, we're in real life.
Speaker 2:My bad, he's going to trip some people out. Obviously. You know he has to get special gloves made. Just cut a hole in it and let the other finger hang out, nah, he gets special gloves made. I mean, dude, it's the NFL, they can get him some gloves. Come on now. They got them on speed dial. Can you imagine what that's like? I mean, dude, it's the NFL, they can get him some gloves.
Speaker 1:I mean, come on now. They got them on speed dial. Can you imagine what that's like playing with a six finger Like I know? It may or may not be. I don't know if I'd consider it a disability. He probably gets some perks for it, but Well, everybody else is counting to 10.
Speaker 2:He can count to 11. He can count to 11.
Speaker 1:He's got one more than all of us. Now, do we see the fingers? Is it like a real full-grown finger, yeah or is it just like a?
Speaker 2:nub. No, it's a finger, it is a legit. He has an extra pinky. Let me use my strong hand, bro, like I'm telling you, like if you haven't seen it, go look it up. It's pretty crazy, it really is. He just has an extra finger on his hand.
Speaker 1:I think that's cool. It's functional and everything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's functional. It lines up with the rest of his hand. He's like. I just knew I was different and I was special. I can't imagine how much extra grip he has on things. Look, all I can say is this uniqueness might lend to a lot of endorsement deals and a lot of cool things, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but anyway, top five. Let's move right along here. Okay, this is an article we actually have bookmarked, but we're going to dive into ourselves. Okay, this thing has NFL quarterbacks ranked by trait best arm, accuracy, more and then we're going to talk about who we think are the top five quarterbacks coming into the season.
Speaker 2:Okay, Well, let's give credit where credit's due. This is a recent article put out by ESPN where they have ranked all the quarterback well, ranked the top 10 for all the best traits you want in a quarterback, right? So by traits we mean things like arm strength, accuracy, all kinds of different stats. So we're going to run down. Brian's going to lead us off with quarterbacks with arm strength.
Speaker 1:That's right, so we'll read it backwards. Number 10, okay, the Packers' Jordan Love. Number 9, Michael Penix Jr of the Falcons. Honestly, I like seeing Penix starting to pop up. Penix, I call him Penix, Sorry guys, it's Penix, I know, but I'm going to say it my way anyway. But anyway, I like seeing Penix pop up on some of these lists. Now he's getting some notoriety. I think he's a much better quarterback. People give him a great award.
Speaker 1:Anyway, number eight Caleb Williams of the Bears. Seven, Joe Burrow. Six, Baker Mayfield. Five, Matt Stafford, which is surprising to see Stafford still on. He's a good quarterback but I'm surprised to still see him rank so highly on some of these lists still at this point in his career. You know. Four, Lamar Jackson, who I think is I guess that's kind of a first, but he could be a little higher in strength. Three, Justin Herbert. Two is Patrick Mahomes and number one is Josh Allen. Honestly, I know I'm not going to argue with Josh Allen being at number one, given some of the things he does and some of the throws he makes.
Speaker 2:I'm just not sure about Caleb being on that list and being as high as he is.
Speaker 1:Yeah me either.
Speaker 2:That's the only one I really have a problem with there. Yeah, but moving down to the next category, ball placement or accuracy in this scenario. So for ball placement, at number 10, we have Geno of the Raiders. At number nine we have Baker Mayfield of the Buccaneers. At number eight we have Brock Purdy of the 49ers. Number seven, tua of the Dolphins, number six, matthew Stafford showing up on this list again Number five, patrick Mahomes of the Chiefs, Number four, josh Allen of the Bills, number three, lamar Jackson of the Ravens, number two Jaden Daniels of the Commanders and number one Joe Burrow.
Speaker 1:I can't argue with that and, honest to god, as a commander's fan, I love seeing jay and daniel's right there at number two. I thought he should have been in the arm strength category.
Speaker 2:He wasn't even mentioned, but I digress again what I say before people that probably shouldn't have been on the list Could have been replaced otherwise.
Speaker 1:I agree with that and I'll go off with the mechanics here, which this is a very important part of a quarterback's game. This is how you throw and release the ball here, starting at number 10, justin Herbert, falling considerably down the list, but in a different category. Number nine, jared Goff of the Lions I only think Goff is on this list because of his work in Detroit. Number eight Dak Prescott, who I don't think belongs on any list. Number seven Geno Smith, six, cj Stroud, five is Josh Allen, four is Lamar Jackson, three is Matt Stafford Excuse me Two is Jaden Daniels and one is Joe Burrow. So that was the list 10 to 1, for quarterback mechanics.
Speaker 2:Moving on to decision-making, with the football Coming in at number 10,.
Speaker 1:Bo Nix, another one who I like to see make this list.
Speaker 2:Yes, Number 9, jalen Hurts of the Eagles, number 8, Tua of the Dolphins and number 7, justin Herbert. Wait a second before I continue on this list. I just remembered something when President Trump was trying to announce Tua as part of his initiative of getting the presidential test for kids getting in shape. He was like Tua Falawea. He was like what did he just say Tua Falafel? He just like not even close to saying his name. Right, it was so fucking hilarious Two falafels. You know he had been sitting there going what?
Speaker 1:That's not even close. Is he trying to order breakfast?
Speaker 2:Anyway, seven was Herbert, six is Matthew Stafford, five is Patrick Mahomes, four is Jaden Daniels, three is Lamar Jackson, two is Josh Allen and one again Joe Burrow. So we're seeing Joe Burrow's name multiple times on this list.
Speaker 1:I think Lamar gets a boost from his tight ends and receiving core because he really doesn't have a bad option anywhere on that list. The next list here which is considerably far down pocket presence all right, this is interesting here. Number 10 jayden daniels all right. Well, okay, I'm not gonna say anything just because I'm a commander's fan.
Speaker 2:You relax, you're. You're being biased. If I had the homer button, I'd hit the homer button all I'm remembering is the noah brown.
Speaker 1:You know, hail mary, but he was pretty anyway. Number nine, bryce Young, who it's nice to see him get on a list as well too. He balled out the end of the season there. Number eight Baker Mayfield, seven Geno Smith, six is Josh Allen, five is Brock Purdy, four is CJ Stroud, Three is Patrick Mahomes, two is Lamar Jackson and one is Joe Burrow. Joe Burrow leading a lot of these categories here tonight.
Speaker 2:I'm not surprised. To be honest, this next list I don't expect him to be very high on which is rushing ability, so I'm not expecting him to be on this list very much, but at number 10. Caleb Williams, number 9, brock Purdy, number 8, justin Herbert, number 7,. Kyler Murray, which maybe he needs to be a little higher. Just saying is Kyler Murray, he is pretty elusive.
Speaker 1:He is always running for his life.
Speaker 2:But number 6, patrick Mahomes, which feels like a little bit of an insult, especially when I say this next name, number 5, is Justin Fields. Number holmes, which feels like a little bit of an insult, especially when I say this next name, number five, is justin fields. Number four, jayden daniels. Number three, josh allen. Number two, jalen hurts, which okay, fair enough. Number one, which is nobody should be surprised by this one, lamar jackson, with the best rushing ability. In my opinion, anybody that tries to argue that is a fool.
Speaker 1:He's the best rusher. In my opinion, lamar is probably. There's an easy argument for him being QB1 overall in the league right now, so to see him at the top of some list is great. Second reaction ability. I don't know how many more lists we have down here. This is the last one. This is the last one.
Speaker 2:This is the last one. This is the last one to make up the list.
Speaker 1:I'll bring up the caboose. Second reaction ability Number 10 is Bo Nix, 9 is Drake May, which is that's kind of surprising, I mean, but also kind of not. 8 is Caleb Williams, 7 is Joe Burrow, 6 is Kyla Murray, five is Jalen Hurts, four is Jaden Daniels, three is Josh Allen, two is Patrick Mahomes and again number one, lamar Jackson. You know the pump fake.
Speaker 2:I really wouldn't argue him not being number one, Like I would not argue Lamar not being number one in that category now, having gone through some of this list, and obviously we disagree with the way some of these lists were put together.
Speaker 1:But coming into the season here, right, uh and I'm not talking about fantasy, just the football overall mike, I'll give you my five, you give me your five. Who do you think the top q5, who do you think the top five quarterbacks are gonna be in 2025?
Speaker 2:oh, you, you talking regular season regular season regular season. Uh, do you want me to start? All times, that's five to one.
Speaker 1:Uh, just name five. They don't have to be in order, just give me five quarterbacks that you really like to lead the league this year. Oh, lead the league.
Speaker 2:Uh well, obviously you got to have Lamar in there, you got to have Burrow in there, you got to have have Josh Allen in there. Those make a lot of sense. The next probably you got to include him Patrick Mahomes. Beyond that, probably going to have to go with Jaden Daniels to make the fifth, bringing it over to my side.
Speaker 2:And that's really only based on what he did last year and hoping that he doesn't have a sophomore slump. Yeah, you know, I could have just as easily have gone over and said you know Justin Herbert. Or I could have said you know, well, actually not Justin Herbert, because a hardball offense does run the ball a lot and his numbers were down last year anyway. But you need the run action to be successful to get the play action to work. But I could have also gone with bo nicks at second year with you know his sean payton.
Speaker 2:Yeah, second year with sean payton who is doing a phenomenal job in denver, by the way right, and they have a lot more on both sides of the ball, so we could see some pretty big steps made by him this next year as well as and I know we're going more into more quarterbacks, but again, I'm eager to see what Michael Penix and Bryce Young bring to the table this year.
Speaker 1:Bryce Young was playing lights out towards the end of the season.
Speaker 2:He was definitely looking very much like a good pick at number one overall, with his last six games of the year last year where he just seemed it's almost like things just clicked, yeah.
Speaker 1:And I I coming together for him and you know my list. I don't think I disagree too much with your list. Um, even including Jaden Daniels on that list, uh, I think you kind of nailed it Lamar, josh Allen, patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, and then the fifth one it could be Jaden Daniels, but there could be other.
Speaker 2:Bo Nix could step into that fifth spot, if you ask me to be honest, honest with you if we're just going off the regular season, I I could possibly, just based on past years, I could move patrick mahomes out of the top five. I can, and the only reason I say that is anybody who plays fantasy football can tell you he has been dreadful these last two years. From his points and statistics category. He was awful for the last two years and I agree the majority of these quarterbacks were doing better than him.
Speaker 1:I mean, I agree with you, I'm not terribly hot on Patrick Mahomes, but he's got the history there. But, like I said, and especially this last year, even though they made the Super Bowl, they had a statistically bad year, one of their worst years on paper.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and they had a lot of one-score games they did. As history has shown us, when your team is heavy in one-score games, they don't tend to flip your way. The next year, yeah, you know, like the next year, you're not as formidable in those one-score games. A lot of times you get them flipping in the other direction.
Speaker 1:One name I want to watch closely here Geno Smith. Running that Raiders offense with Pete Carroll Okay, they got some explosive stuff down there. You know they had their preseason game against the Seahawks. Running that Raiders offense with Pete Carroll Okay, they got some explosive stuff down there.
Speaker 2:You know they had their preseason game against the Seahawks, and I'm glad you brought them up because I wanted to talk about this. So, geno Smith, you know he was a Seahawk last year and so he was sitting. Had a relatively good year. Well eh, for what they did. He's sitting there interacting with the fans because the fans oh yes, I remember what they're taunting him. And one fan in particular holds up a sign. Ask you know, with the. The question on it says who's the bigger bust? Uh, jamarcus russell or geno smith.
Speaker 1:And geno just flips him the bird lord and cusses him out that is an insult, if I've ever heard it and you remember when jamarcus russell was kind of made an attempt at coming back look geno is not a bust.
Speaker 2:No, it's not a bust. If no, it is not a bust If anything. You look at what Jamarcus Russell did. You look at what Geno did. It is light years.
Speaker 1:Look, everybody's not a franchise quarterback. Okay, some people make their money and make their living on going and playing temporarily for teams that just need a good quarterback, a good moderate quarterback, and I don't think he's moderate, I actually think he's a little bit better when he gets credit for it. I mean, he started no.
Speaker 2:Gino is a serviceable quarterback. He's about he's middle of the pack kind of quarterback. Yeah, but early on in his career had he not been so immature. He might've been a franchise guy. He might've been. He was basically Baker Mayfield and Johnny Manziel. Basically Baker Mayfield and Johnny Manziel. Before Baker Mayfield and Johnny Manziel, their antics. Now, johnny Manziel could never get right and so he got bounced out of the league and Baker had to take some lumps.
Speaker 1:Baker also really matured. And look at Baker. With the Bucks Very, in my opinion, flying under the radar, very underrated, he might be one of the better statistical quarterbacks in the league. I mean, he had that offense rolling, they were lighting it up quite a bit.
Speaker 2:They were doing great until injuries caught up to them. When injuries caught up, it just got bad.
Speaker 1:They couldn't keep anybody on the field I would say I'm eager to see what Sam Darnold does, but let's face it, they don't have DK Metcalf anymore, lockett's getting old. They do have Jason Jackson, smith and Jibba. I think they drafted another young receiver who I'm keeping my eye on. But you know, I'm eager to see what they do in Seattle. But you know, I think we got a good idea of, hopefully, who the top quarterbacks are right now coming into the season. But we also have a good look at some of these up-and-comers. Okay, jj McCarthy another another one got arguably the number one receiver in the league on his team to throw to, with jordan addison right behind him well, not for the first few games, because addison is suspended well, yeah, addison suspended four games, three or four games, uh, but still like when he hits his stride.
Speaker 1:If he does, I'm eager to see what mccarthy does, and I'm hearing trade rumors around Kirk Cousins now. So maybe Kirk Cousins lands with a quarterback-needy team. And I mean don't get me wrong, excuse me, don't get me wrong Cousins plays very good himself. Okay, he's also not what I'd call a franchise quarterback, but he can get you pretty far. Not last year he did. Yeah, true, yeah, he kind of flopped with the Falcons there and then Pennix really took over. But you know, this is how it goes sometimes. Sometimes it's just not a good fit. So I like sorry about that. So I like where we're going. I think there's a good crop of quarterbacks up and coming and we have a good crop of established quarterbacks who will continue to be around. We are in the next generation of QBs and notice, we did not talk about Aaron Rodgers at all.
Speaker 2:Bro, now you just broke that. You brought him up.
Speaker 1:Well, I was feeling bad a little bit. I mean, you know, even Santa Claus likes to be talked about.
Speaker 2:Look, we don't need to talk about him. Look, he's having a tough. He's having a tough enough time. You know, they got him some bus out there now for his health and wellness. And, bro, he's all sad because they've rejected his helmet, so now he has to choose a new helmet and doesn't know what to do why because he had a spinny thing on the top of it?
Speaker 1:no, is that the kind of helmet he had.
Speaker 2:No, he did not have a propeller on his helmet. I think no, they just I health and safety commission for the, for the nfl. They're basically like, look, you cannot wear this helmet anymore it's not approved.
Speaker 1:Tomlin doesn't say much, but I think tomlin hates rogers bro but, anyway, he doesn't hate him, I mean I? I digress. We got a couple more things to talk about here. These things both kind of hit home. The Lions-Falcons preseason game was suspended for a short bit after. Let me see what position this guy plays. I believe it's defensive back, defensive back for the Lions. Where's his name at?
Speaker 2:Norris.
Speaker 1:Maurice, norris it's norris, or yes, norris it's norris maurice norris.
Speaker 1:Uh, I forget what happened, but he went in for a tackle and he got yeah, he just basically got knocked out he got knocked out and carted off the field and this is not something. What happens next? They actually forfeited a snap. Uh, the falcons did forfeited a snap, and you just kind of see these guys standing around on the field and, when you realize it, both these teams the lions and the falcons come together center field for a prayer in the middle of this game. I think it wasn't very much long left in the game anyway.
Speaker 2:Well, no, there was probably about if I saw it correct, it was like 13 minutes or so. There was still quite a bit left in the game and they snapped the ball. And you know, usually you snap the ball and the play just goes for a minute and then the play stops. But they just kind of stood there and just let, like both teams.
Speaker 1:They just stood there and just let the clock run.
Speaker 2:It felt like they let it run for like six minutes or so and then they just came over. The announcers basically said and it's been suspended. The game is over. You know we're not going to complete this game, which you, which they ask. Well, is this a good thing For guys that are on the back end of the roster and trying to make a spot? It's not a good thing for them, but, given what the situation was, it was the right thing to do.
Speaker 1:I thought they did finish the game. No, they didn't, okay, so they let it run out. They just let it run out. You know the referee was just. Everybody knew what was going on and at one point you can see head coach Raheem Morris talking to head coach Dan Campbell. You know about it. And to see these players come together, even though, despite being on opposing teams and you know, uh, hold each other and say a prayer Like this was very reminiscent of DeMar Hamlin. Okay, this is just a heartwarming. I love to see stuff like. I don't like to see injuries, but I love to see when players put their differences in the competition aside and they come and grace each other because they all know they play a dangerous game.
Speaker 2:Okay, they all know that could be them on the ground it could be them. They all understand that. You know these injuries happen, but sometimes injuries happen and it's going to be the end of your playing career, which thankfully, Norris is okay. They put out that he's doing all right. He's, you know, obviously going to be under more observation and stuff and they're just going to wait and see on him, so he's hoping he'll be all right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and our thoughts and prayers go out to Maurice Norris as well, wishing him a quick recovery, and I just thought that was amazing and I wanted to mention it here on the podcast and we'll post that up on our social media as well. The last piece of news we have is actually kind of significant. Maybe he's getting some good changes. Blackouts may be going away, guys.
Speaker 1:The House Judiciary Committee has requested briefings from the NFL, nba, nhl and the MLB commissioners on broadcast blackouts. They're thinking of revisiting what's it called, the decades-old antitrust exemption. It's an antitrust exemption. I forget what it's called, but basically this rule it's been around since, like the 50s and 60s. It was created during a time when NFL ticket sales were the primary form of income for sporting events and blackouts were created to entice fans to actually come to the stadium to watch the game. So what they're doing is they're talking about revisiting this rule and now in the age of streaming and in cable networks. So if you're watching a local game and you want to stream it, for instance, but the regional local network has rights to it, they'll black it out on the streaming network and now, even though you're paying for streaming, you'll have to go pay for their platform or go get cable TV or whatever, just so you can see the game.
Speaker 2:Well, most of the time, at least for the NFL, you have a local provider, a CBS an.
Speaker 2:NBC, an NBC, a Fox that can provide it. But when you're talking other sports, like NBA or baseball or hockey, you know that's a bit different, because you do have to get specialized channels in order to watch that Yep. So if you don't have those channels, you can't watch the game via the stream you're paying for. So, for example, if you have NFL Sunday ticket and, let's say, you live near, you know Buffalo, and you want to do the four game display, where you have four different games going on and you're a Bills fan, but you got your buddy over, he wants to watch his game as well and he's a he's a Washington fan and you want to put the games up so you can watch them both. And you can't do it because the blackout will happen for the Bills game. So then you have to make the choice we're going to turn on the antenna and watch the game locally, or we're just going to not watch my game and we're going to watch your game, which can make for some interesting scenarios there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and the name of this bill is the Sports Broadcasting Act, the SBA for short, and it creates antitrust exemptions in the case of blackouts, which really gives the power to the sporting leagues to create blackouts. Well, really not to the leagues, actually to the RSN's regional sports networks, because a lot of teams are broken down into their own regional sections. Right, go ahead, mike.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so this whole blackout was originally invented to encourage people to go to the games if they actually wanted to see their teams play. Because if it's being aired over the television, most people would just say screw it, I'm going to stay home, I'm not going to go to the game and watch it, yep. So they were just trying to boost their revenue and sale at the actual games by doing so. But in say, like our case, if you live near and I say near hours away from Baltimore or DC, they black those out for us, then well, that kind of screws us, because what are we supposed to do?
Speaker 1:Drive hours away, spend thousands of dollars just to go to the game every week and by the time we got there because from Norfolk to DC is like a good three and a half yeah, like I said, the game would be over by the time we got there would be hours there, hours back.
Speaker 2:It's just not feasible. And you know, you've got areas where, yeah, they don't have a team anywhere near them but they get subject to those blackout rules because of, like you said, regions. They'll have regions for those teams and maybe you don't even like that team.
Speaker 1:Now I think that they're going to make this change. I don't know what the change is going to be, but I think that they're going to make this change because it would actually benefit the consumer for a number of reasons. Here you could see like a Netflix type of effect.
Speaker 2:We've just seen this recently. Where this last year, if you wanted to watch every NFL game now and this is not just Sunday ticket, this is across every single platform if you want to watch every single NFL game, you would have spent over $800 between all the different platforms and packages in order to watch every single game.
Speaker 1:Last year I think it was higher than that, but I think you're close to it and you know, I think if they'd make this change, it would force leagues to make games accessible in all home markets. So now the regional sports network and these leagues can't have these disputes, and usually they get blacked out during a dispute too, if there's like a contract dispute or something, so you could see more personalized or more fine-tuned streaming options start to pop up. Uh, and now you have, because this actually just happened. 10 days after they announced uh, the nfl is selling all of their media networks to the espn network in exchange for 10 stake for the nfl. So it's like, okay, well, what is espn going to do with these broadcasts now? And what happens when they want to stream it? But the regional sports networks say Fox, they have, they think they have rights to it. So now your streaming services get blacked out. But everybody doesn't have cable TV. Cable TV is becoming ancient now.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, in some places don't even provide that anymore. So what's happening now is ESPN and Fox are talking about combining and doing a sports streaming package that we might see coming down the line. That would at least handle some of the sports markets. I mean, I'm sure NBC and CBS would still have something to say about it wanting to be involved.
Speaker 1:Sorry, go ahead.
Speaker 2:Because, I mean, cbs normally carries a lot of the golf and stuff, and you get NASCAR on NBC sometimes, and you know, a lot of the college football gets placed over all of these networks, yep, except for ESPN, who carries a lot more of the college football games now. So now you're running into a scenario where what's going to happen when you have the NFL and the reporting body of ESPN are now in bed with one another. Are we going to start getting full stories on stuff? Are we going to get, uh, we'll just sweep that under the rug? No, that didn't happen.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't know what you're talking about and, honestly, the MLB is one of the biggest perpetrators of this Because, like you said, like you know, if the local network thinks they have rights to it, but MLB, you can pay for MLB+ but they might get blacked out because the sports network thinks they have the rights to it.
Speaker 2:The Orioles being so close. You know I'm a Braves fan and when I try to watch my Braves games, if they're playing either one of those teams, I can't watch the games Because for them they air their games on Masson and Masson. If you go look them up, everybody who has that Masson network or is involved with them, they hate it. Even the teams that are doing business with them hate being involved with them because of the way they do business and it makes it to where I can't watch the games period. I would literally have to go and have cable in order to watch those games, even though I pay for a streaming service to watch my MLB games, which you know. I know most of you are probably thinking, bro, there's ways to stream it without paying for it. You just go get one of the legal streams.
Speaker 1:Yeah, go, it's not illegal, it's called free.
Speaker 2:Hey, hey, I'm not encouraging it, but I ain't saying don't do it.
Speaker 1:But yeah, and I mean, this rule obviously predates even modern cable at this point, and now we're in an age of streaming, because there's a lot of gray area now Bro when they put that out. There was like three channels. Yeah, so I mean, this was primitive over-the-air broadcasting. Now we have digital cable and Fios, and now we're in the age of streaming. Let's call it what it is. We are in the age of streaming and there's a lot of gray areas to this.
Speaker 2:Bro, people are spoiled these days, and I'm going to say that because people— Busy, spoiled. No, look, look, you can have any form of entertainment via streaming, however you want to get it. You have internet. You have hours and tons of ways to entertain yourself. Back in the day most people don't remember this, but TV networks would, literally they would stop airing every night at the same time, like they would play the national anthem, and then TV would just cut out and you're done, like no more, until early am the next morning.
Speaker 1:So you, you would just get that static and fuzz, but most people don't remember that yeah, but uh, we're gonna follow this story closely as well and uh see what happens with it. I think only good things come from it if they make the change and clear up some of, or maybe at least clear up some of, the gray area. Uh, we're gonna wrap up the show tonight, ladies and gentlemen, and everybody in between. Once again, I want to thank our sponsors and partners uh, body by D Gym locations in Yorktown and Gloucester Deshawn's building a great business, a great gym up there. Former bodybuilding champion himself now training other future bodybuilding champions. Up and coming Solace Outfitters. Our friends Caden and Christian, two young athletes building their brand. Very up and coming guys, very smart guys. And the Giving Tree Chiropractic Justin's very good at what he does, making chiropractic services accessible to everybody, located down here in Virginia Beach. Once again, everybody, thank you for listening. I'm Brian with an I and I'm Mike, and we are Two for the Win.
Speaker 2:Thanks everybody.