Two For The Win - S2.51 - Blackouts To Breakouts!

Start with the money, follow the power, and you’ll land right where fans live: can I actually watch the game? We kick things off with MLB’s new three-year rights package across ESPN, NBC, and Netflix—a near $800M-per-year statement that boosts reach without killing the very blackouts that frustrate loyal viewers. We unpack how the Sports Broadcasting Act still shapes your options and why Netflix wants live sports moments, not just documentaries.

From there, we swing into the AL MVP fireworks: Aaron Judge took the trophy, but Cal Raleigh’s historic season as a switch-hitting catcher reignites the “value vs numbers” fight. We talk scarcity at premium positions, defensive load, and how bat-tech like “torpedo” designs is changing contact, power, and development. Free agency sparks are already flying—Atlanta’s flexibility moves, Angels-Orioles needs swap, and why winter meetings will prioritize versatile gloves and sane pitching bets.

Our NBA segment turns into a spirited leaders quiz: Steph from deep, Jokic cleaning glass and dropping dimes, Wembanyama erasing shots, Luka cooking. The in-season tournament (our “Emirates Cup”) actually matters, condensing stakes and energizing matchups. We give group exit picks and talk viewership momentum. On the women’s side, the WNBA’s CBA momentum—a six-figure floor with seven-figure tops—signals overdue stability for a league that’s finally commanding its worth.

College football? Pure chaos. Ranked teams topple, playoff politics hum, and coaching rumors swirl around Lane Kiffin. We talk loyalty, the portal, and why “win out” is the only honest plea left in November. Then it’s the NFL where kickers break hearts, tempers spill (yes, we saw the spit), and identity beats flash. The Jaguars’ defense resurfaces, the Bears look organized, the Chiefs feel human, and Cleveland hands the keys to a rookie with realistic expectations: practice time first, verdicts later.

If you want clear takes without fluff, this one’s loaded: media rights that redefine reach, awards that reshape legacies, tournaments that spike engagement, and game plans that actually travel. Tap play, send to a friend who loves arguing MVP criteria, and don’t forget to follow, rate, and drop a review so we can keep the good stuff coming.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:12

November 20th, 2025. Welcome back, everybody, for another episode of Sports Banter with us. I'm Brian with an eye. And I'm Mike. And we are two for the win. Mike, how this year is going by so fast. What are we cooking up tonight, bro? Man, you know, things can be off.

SPEAKER_02 0:31

Much like our show can be off at times. But I mean, we're all saying an off-season is boring because there's plenty of things going on with the MLB, even though they just started the off season. We got some NBA topics to talk. As always, we got football. We're gonna talk some college football and some NFL.

SPEAKER_03 0:51

As they were saying in Spain, the football. Actually, that might be Germany. Oh my god. But we're starting out great. But before we get started, let's take a minute to thank our sponsors and partners, Mike. Body by D Gym, uh located one in Yorktown, one in Gloucester. Uh Deshaun's a very good uh owner up there. He's a uh former bodybuilding champion. He's training future bodybuilding champions. Uh the gym is very well rooted in the community, do a lot of community events, uh, very youth-oriented as well. They're doing a lot of good stuff up there, Body by D. Um, our good friends Caden and Christian over at Solace Outfitters, uh, two young athletes building their brand. These guys are just superb, man. Every time I talk to them, they're working on something new. They're gonna be successful guys. And the Giving Tree Chiropractic, located down here in Virginia Beach. Justin's very good, very knowledgeable what he does. Uh, he makes his practice uh accessible to everybody with his pricing plans and again, very effective. Thank you guys for being our sponsors and partners, and we look forward to continuing doing business with you in the future. Mike, let's dive in head first, bro. No concussions here.

MLB’s New ESPN, NBC, Netflix Rights Deal

SPEAKER_02 2:00

Oh Lord, no, I don't need another one. Oh, so moving right in, we're gonna talk some baseball. Yeah, I know, I know. The season's over. People are like, what do we have to talk about? Yeah, we we have some things to talk about. We gotta get the slow stuff out of the way first, you know. Oh, thanks. No, it's not slow. Come on, man.

SPEAKER_03 2:20

All right, it's nothing slow about it, actually.

SPEAKER_02 2:23

No. So recently, as in literally just yesterday. Yesterday, the MLB has come to an agreement with ESPN and a couple other providers, uh, MBC and Netflix, for a three-year, three-year deal for the rights to air their programming, which is big because MLB has been kind of like cut all over the place. Like they've they haven't really been locked in anywhere. I mean, you had MLB network that really only shows a game. I mean, you can pay for a package to watch some games. I mean, but to actually put your platform on something tangible, like Netflix, like NBC, you know, you're actually getting more options to more people.

SPEAKER_03 3:14

Yeah, and NBC owns Peacock, uh, ESPN, you know, putting it on Netflix actually would be huge. Netflix's been trying to step into the the realm of sports for about a year or two now.

Blackouts And The Sports Broadcasting Act

SPEAKER_02 3:24

Yeah, and this this deal is nearly 800 million per year. So that's a pretty uh sizable bump coming to the MLB. Gotta be proud about making a deal like that for the MLB. I mean, it unfortunately, and and most sports fans understand this because they've dealt with this. It's still not going to take care of the blackouts. The blackouts are still gonna happen. Yes. I can tell you, being a Braves fan that lives in an area that they have deemed is a Washington Nationals area, it's aggravating because they'll black out the games because they want you to go to their provider and their service to watch the game, and then you gotta listen to their announcers.

SPEAKER_03 4:10

Yeah, and this overlaps a little bit of something we touched on a few weeks ago, the SBA Sports Broadcasting Act. Uh, something we've been following. Actually, not much news out on it out on it right now, but uh really until they adjust the Sports Broadcasting Act, which was it's kind of outdated. Just to refresh you guys, uh Sports Broadcasting Act allowed networks and stadiums to block out games, local games, in order to entice people to physically come there, because that was when uh most sports teams' revenues uh was generated via ticket sales. Of course, now in the age of streaming, it's not that way anymore in the age of marketing as well. So as long as networks are the top dog when it comes to media rights, they're probably always going to make sure they get their dollar. And I think you're right, Mike. I think we will still experience some blackouts, but hopefully they took a step towards maybe mitigating some of that as part of this deal.

SPEAKER_02 5:05

I hope so. I hope this turns into a situation where it makes it easier on the fan to be able to consume the team they want to watch. Yes instead of instead of being force-fed the same games where it's like, oh, look, ESPN's airing Red Sox Yankees. Okay, great. Again, who cares? Like, I mean, come on. We've had Red Sox Yankees for years, and I I get it. I get it. They're two of the oldest and biggest brands in baseball. But come on, there's so many other good teams. There's so many other teams that need to be put in the spotlight.

SPEAKER_03 5:44

I think the Yankees should change their name.

AL MVP Debate: Judge vs Cal Raleigh

“Torpedo” Bats And Hitting Tech

SPEAKER_02 5:48

No, no, you you lost me on that one. But it's racist. But hold up. It it actually brings up a point that I need to discuss as well. Uh they finally did the MVP voting, and no surprise, Atani got it in the NL, and you know, nobody can really dispute that. The one that is a little disputable is over in the AL side, the AL side, everybody thought, and everybody was looking for it to be Cal Raleigh to win it, because most of the fans are like, yes, give it to him. He had a historic season for a catcher and just a great season for a team that they needed another star. I mean, not to say that the Mariners don't have stars, it's just like they haven't had somebody who's been up in the front like this since Griffe. Yeah. You know, not to say anything bad about Julio Rodriguez, but it wound up going to Aaron Judge. Now I get it. Aaron Judge led in multiple categories, you know, some of the biggest ones, except for home runs. Home runs, it was Cal Raleigh who led the way. Let's keep in context what Cal Raleigh is doing, or what he did this past season. He is a switch-hitting catcher. So now he not only set a home run record for catchers, he not only set a record for you know being a switch-hitting player because he hit the most home runs for a switch-hitting player. Now, mind you, there's been some good ones over the years. There's been Chipper Jones, there's been uh Mickey Mannell, very notable switch-hitting players. But here's the thing you're gonna take this player who not only did he win the home run derby during the year, he basically helped lead his team into playoffs further than Aaron Judge did, mind you. But he doesn't get the MVP. You know, this guy, this guy, I think, only missed three or four games the entire year. So he is literally going through more, have doing more to his body being a catcher, getting up and down. And not to not to take anything away, he was a better fielder than Judge. He's a catcher. That means on every single pitch he is involved. Aaron Judge goes goes and stands in the outfield. I mean, not to not to it's not that I don't like Judge. I mean, he's a great player, he'll probably go to the Hall of Fame one day. But you're talking about a man that in a World Series against the Dodgers basically missed an easy fly ball in the World Series. I mean, come on, people. Like we gotta we gotta give the nod to something that isn't as impressive for a singular position that almost never gets the nod, especially for a catcher. Catchers don't get MVP because they're too busy catching. Uh the the problem is most catchers they usually play half the games because they alternate catchers. So you might have a catcher if he's you know one of the dedicated ones, he might do 120 to 130 games catching, and then the rest will be done by the other catcher on the squad. But you know, you have you have Cal Raleigh doing almost the entire year. It just it floors me. I I get why the writers did it, I get why they voted the way they did. They did it by the numbers, and by the numbers, Aaron Judge wins because he had the better on-base percentage, he had the he had had him in batting average, he had him in OPS, like he had them in almost every other category except for home runs. But I think Cal Raleigh had the better year because he almost took his team to the World Series.

SPEAKER_03 9:54

Yeah. And you know, I was gonna I was gonna bring this up next week. We can just uh touch on it a little bit here. The the Yankees were one of the, I think the only team using those new rocket bats. Oh no, torpedo bats.

SPEAKER_02 10:07

They were all over the league. They were all over the league. Everybody, even Cal Raleigh used one.

SPEAKER_03 10:11

Do you think uh do they think they had you had they had a huge impact on players' performance? Yes.

MLB Free Agency And Early Trades

SPEAKER_02 10:18

Yes, because a lot of teams tried them, but not everybody stuck with them. Right. What they were finding, see, there's so much more information now than there ever was for baseball. Basically, you're finding the sweet spot on the bat. And for those who've played baseball, they know that if you hit the ball, it's it's a sound, it's a feeling, it comes off the bat, and you just you know, you know, because that's it, it's what they call the sweet spot because that's where you're gonna generate the most power. It's where it's gonna come off the bat, as they say, clean. You're not gonna be ahead of it, you're not gonna be getting off the end of the bat, right? You're not gonna be getting off the inside handle. It's that spot where every time you hit it off that spot, it just feels great. Like it's it's like, oh yeah. You know, it could be a hard single, it could be over the wall. Yeah, every time you hit off that spot, it's the it's the moneymaker, you know? Shake what your moneymaker. I don't think that's the lyrics. But wait, speaking of money, players are about to be making some money. Free agency is often running in. A lot of players, a lot of players about to make some big money in this offseason, but we have a we have a few that have already made made a little bit of money right now. Uh, the Braves have retained Russell and Glacius. He's gonna be on their team again. So not only did they bring him back, but they made themselves a little bit of a trade. They went to they went to the Houston Astros and made a trade for a two-time gold glove winning uh player. He's got he's a utility uh guy, so he kind of plays everywhere. He can play mostly he's listed as a second baseman, but he can play outfield, he can play second, short, third. Uh but it's you want to try the name? You're the name guy. Uh Mauricio DuBon. We'll go with that. So Du Bond Du Bond is going to the from the Astros to the Braves, and the Braves sent Nick Allen over in exchange. So Nick Allen, younger infielder, doesn't much have much of a bet per se, but he is a good he is a very good infielder. He's a very good shortstop as far as his glove and defense. So they're getting they're not they're basically freeing up money, is what they're doing because they're trying to get some pitching. Ashers need pitching bad. But they're not the only ones making deals. Recently, the Angels and the Orioles made a deal where Taylor Ward is going from the Angels to the Orioles, and Gryson Rodriguez, he is gonna go over to the Angels. Now, this is pretty is a pretty like one-for-one deal where both teams are getting something they absolutely need. You know, and Rodriguez, he was kind of that influx of young players a few years ago for the Orioles, where it seemed like they had, you know, top of the draft pick coming up all at once, and he was one of the guys, he was one of the pitchers that they thought was gonna be an anchor for them. And uh it's they're just moving on. Yeah, you know, sometimes sometimes you go for the best of both of us, we're gonna move on, we're gonna let you go over here, do your thing, and we're gonna pick up a player that we hope is gonna do his thing over here with the new change of scenery, it's gonna help, aka we think you suck now. No, he didn't suck. I tell you, I've watched him pitch a few times a few times for the Orioles, and he's he's got stuff. He's got stuff, man. Like he put some put some heat on that ball.

SPEAKER_03 14:04

But does he have the secret stuff? You know?

SPEAKER_02 14:07

Well, it's not secret if you see it a bunch. I'm just going by what Bugs Bunny said. So we do have some teams that are kind of happy because a few players didn't become free agents. So New York Yankees, they got Trent Grisham to sign his qualifying offer. So they're happy to have that in that outfielder back.

SPEAKER_03 14:28

Good for him and them.

SPEAKER_02 14:29

The Detroit Tigers have retained Gleber Torres, which was a big get for them because a lot of teams were eyeballing Torres. If he opted out, a lot of teams were like, oh yes, yeah, we want to keep him. We want to bring him over here. Y'all can't keep him. They wanted to pay him big money too. So he uh for whatever reason he opted in. He opted in. He would have made more money if he opted out, but he's staying. Uh and the Milwaukee Brewers, they're keeping Brandon Woodruff. Okay, good, good starting pitcher for them. Not bad, not bad. And the Cubs are re retaining their starting pitcher.

SPEAKER_03 15:09

The Cub pitcher uh Shoda Imanganara Imaga Anga. Hold on, let me see that again. Uh Shoda Imanaga. Emanaga. They're Japanese pitcher. Oh, speaking of Japanese, there's more coming. Mr.

SPEAKER_00 15:30

Imai. Mr.

SPEAKER_03 15:31

Imai is now coming to the MLB.

SPEAKER_02 15:36

So as we mentioned the Mariners earlier, they retained Josh Naylor by assigning him to a five-year deal worth 92.5 million dollars. Speaking of nailing it. With a full no trade clause.

SPEAKER_01 15:49

Ooh, so you are stuck. Cannot be moved. You're stuck, sir.

SPEAKER_03 15:55

So that's probably his doing, though. He probably wanted that.

SPEAKER_02 15:58

Now, there'll be more moves to come. We need for the winter meetings to happen. And once those happened, you're going to start seeing players fly off the board. You're going to start seeing players like Kyle Tucker, who's a free agent right now, he's going to sign a big deal somewhere. Probably not with the Cubs. And Kyle Schwarber, who was almost MVP MVP, he was actually a runner-up in uh this last voting for the NL. Not bad. He's going to be out there available for any team that wants to pick him up. There's been rumors swirling around. I mean, Pittsburgh Pirates are all in if they can get them. So we might be seeing that happen.

SPEAKER_03 16:35

The Pirates, the Yankees, they should all change their name.

SPEAKER_02 16:39

Look, Yankees are off. Obviously, they're going to make a run at anything they can possibly get at this point in time.

SPEAKER_03 16:46

Including a name change. They're not.

unknown 16:48

Come on.

SPEAKER_02 16:50

Speaking nonsense. We're going to press this tonight, Mike. We're going to have to get you a we're going to have to test you, man. There's something up with you.

SPEAKER_03 16:58

Speaking there, there is going to be some tests, actually, I think.

SPEAKER_02 17:01

Yeah, because something special up with you.

SPEAKER_03 17:04

Something special. And it's not the good kind of special either.

SPEAKER_02 17:08

It's the kind that like we had him tested. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:12

Usually ends up.

SPEAKER_02 17:13

I'm not crazy. My mother had me tested.

SPEAKER_03 17:15

They usually assign me a helmet.

SPEAKER_02 17:17

So I got I gotta play a game with you real quick. I love games. Okay. So we're gonna start talking some NBA here.

SPEAKER_03 17:25

Especially when they involve women.

NBA Leaders Quiz: Who’s On Top

SPEAKER_02 17:27

So good Lord. No words, no words. Alright. So I'm gonna ask you a question, and you're gonna try to tell me I love questions, but we're gonna do it with the NBA league leaders and things. Alright, let's rock and roll. Are you ready? So hear me out. Okay, hearing. So three pointers made per game. Who do you think leads that category?

SPEAKER_03 17:59

I'm going, you know.

SPEAKER_02 18:02

I'll give you a hint. He's known for shooting threes. Well, yeah, I would I would he he can pretty much hit a shot anywhere he wants.

SPEAKER_03 18:11

I'm gonna go with Steph Curry because he historically is the leader.

SPEAKER_02 18:15

That's him. That is him. Steph Curry leads Ding ding ding. Got one. He leads it with 4.5 a game, is his make per game. Uh right after him is Donovan Mitchell. Right after him is uh the Sixers Maxie. After him is Phoenix's Allen. And number five is a Utah jazz player. Oh.

SPEAKER_03 18:44

You have a guess? No, I don't on this one. I I probably could, but I'm gonna let you go ahead and feed it to me. It's Markinen.

SPEAKER_02 18:53

Oh. We've talked about him a couple times. Yeah. Here we go. Okay. Alright. Here's another one. Alright. Who leads the league in rebounds? Oh. Average rebounds. Well, average rebounds. I'll give you a hint. He plays for a West Coast team. He's a big name player. He has a nickname. They all have nicknames. Well, yeah, they kind of all have nicknames. Who is it?

SPEAKER_03 19:31

He's not US born. I wanna. I'm having trouble putting names. It's not S A G. He's not. He's on the East Coast. I was gonna say SAG, but I don't know. S A G? Who's S A G? Sean Gellus Hugs. Or S G A, sorry.

SPEAKER_02 19:48

Yeah, no, he plays for our West Coast team. He plays for he plays for Oklahoma.

SPEAKER_03 19:53

Yeah, so he's he's Midwest. No, who is this one? I can't put my finger on this one. As soon as you tell me, I'm gonna wish I said it, though. You're gonna wish you said it because it's Joker. Oh man. 13.2.

SPEAKER_02 20:06

Yeah, I failed. After him is Wimbenyama. After him is Carl Anthony Towns. After him is a. I'm not sure who this player is. Sabonis? Okay, Sabonis for for Sacramento. I want a bonus.

SPEAKER_03 20:28

Can we get bonuses?

SPEAKER_02 20:30

Anyway. I can't believe I missed that. Okay. Anyway. Oh well. Alright, you better get this one. I hope so. You better get this one. Let's find out. Who's leading in blocks? Who's leading in blocks? Who's leading the league in blocks? Like, average per game in blocks.

SPEAKER_03 20:52

I'm gonna throw out my guy, Katie. He's not even on the list. Yeah, I know. He's probably nowhere in here now.

SPEAKER_02 21:00

I'll give you I'll give you a hint. He's one of the tallest players in the league. He's French.

SPEAKER_03 21:14

Throw it out there, Mike. Victor Wimbanyama. You know, I was gonna say him. I was gonna say three 3.1 per game. It's not a good night for critical thinking, y'all.

SPEAKER_02 21:27

Alright. Well, here. How about I do an easy one for you? Easy one for you. Alright, let's hear it. How about points?

SPEAKER_03 21:37

Okay, so this one's a toss-up. I really want to say the Rockets, but I think I'm gonna throw the room.

SPEAKER_02 21:41

No, no, no, no. It's single players. Single players. This is not team. Points. Who leads the league and average points?

SPEAKER_03 21:48

Cooper Flag.

SPEAKER_02 21:49

No, I'm just gonna go. Get serious. Come on now.

SPEAKER_03 21:52

Like, you know that's not see here. Who leads the league in point? Is it our three-point leaders, uh Curry? No. Okay. No, he's not even on the list. It was a good shot. Nice try. What's his name from the Pacers?

SPEAKER_02 22:12

I'll give you a hint. He's on a West Coast team. And when I say West Coast, you can't get much more West Coast than this team.

SPEAKER_03 22:21

Seems to be a trend.

SPEAKER_02 22:23

Yeah, there's a lot of there's a lot of good players in the West. I get it. But no, he's he's on a West Coast team. He was involved in a trade that horribly embarrassed one team, and the other team was like, oh, yeah, of course we'll take him.

SPEAKER_03 22:39

You know what? I had to cheat on this one, but I'm gonna go SGA. Name that I said earlier, Shea Gelix Alexander.

SPEAKER_02 22:46

I said a West Coast team, and you can't get much more West Coast than this team.

SPEAKER_03 22:50

You did. Well, my good friend Chad GPT lied to me. Yes, it did. He's with the Yeah, okay. Whatever. Yes, he did. Well, in that case, I give up.

SPEAKER_02 23:01

Luka Doncic. God dang it. See every time. So like Luca, but I'll give you this. The next one is SGA. Okay. The next one is SGA. Then Ty Tyrus Maxie. Then Andres Ander Kupo.

SPEAKER_03 23:16

De Kupo.

unknown 23:17

And the Kupo.

SPEAKER_02 23:18

So then Lori Markinen. We're at a point in my Which that one, that's the one that threw me off. Is Markinen is.

SPEAKER_03 23:27

Well, we're we're at a point in my fanship. I don't know about your fanship, but as I'm relearning the game of NBA, all these names we said tonight, most of them were names I wanted to say, but just did not have the confidence to throw out there. So I feel good that some of these are names that I wanted to say. But you know, I digress.

SPEAKER_02 23:45

I felt like it would be wrong if you said it.

SPEAKER_03 23:47

Well, I yeah, you know, but it's okay.

SPEAKER_02 23:49

Okay. How about this one? Assis.

SPEAKER_03 23:52

Assists?

SPEAKER_02 23:53

Yeah, assist. Who do you and I'll give you a hint. We've already said his name once for another category.

SPEAKER_04 24:04

When Bayana. No, no, he's Joker.

SPEAKER_02 24:10

Yes. Okay. Yes. Yes. Well, if he's going to be. Joker leads it with 11.1.

SPEAKER_03 24:16

That also makes sense if he's the lead if he's the rebound leader, because he's hanging out up there under the basket. So.

SPEAKER_02 24:22

Well, well, then you also have have Cunningham from Detroit after him, Giddy out of Chicago, then Luca makes it in at number four. And you'll like number five. KD. No.

unknown 24:40

God.

SPEAKER_03 24:41

I thought you said I was gonna like it.

SPEAKER_02 24:43

No, you're gonna like it because he's a player that you like, and it's not KD.

SPEAKER_03 24:46

Well, that's a weird way to say that.

SPEAKER_02 24:50

He's I'll give you even more of a hint. Okay. He used to play for the Rockets.

SPEAKER_03 24:57

Oh, Mr. Harden. Yes. James Harden. I can't believe I even even said his name once in this whole conversation.

SPEAKER_02 25:05

I know. I'm very surprised you didn't.

SPEAKER_03 25:08

Terrible. Shame on me. Yeah, where are you? What the hell, dude? We even have matching beards. We could be brothers. How could I forget you, sir?

SPEAKER_02 25:18

I don't know that you have matching beards. Well, we did. You may have a beard, but I don't know that you guys have matching beards.

SPEAKER_03 25:26

My goal was to have a beard just like his. I'm gonna stroke it just like I watched how he's gonna be like I'll give it to you.

SPEAKER_02 25:32

You probably have the same singing talent as him. Well you ever see that commercial with him?

SPEAKER_03 25:36

I did. And by the way, I'm gonna say right now, we do not share the same talent because I can actually almost kind of sing, and he can't sing at all. So I grew up a choir boy, not the inappropriate kind, the real kind. Oh Lord, we're not and not the Catholic kind either. Oh Lord, we're not going down that road. Come on now. We won't because we're trying to keep a PG show here, guys.

SPEAKER_02 26:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 26:05

Well, we want it to be generally mostly friendly to everybody over the age of twelve. If if you're below twelve, you maybe you shouldn't listen. I don't know.

In-Season Tournament: Schedules And Picks

SPEAKER_02 26:15

Let your parents let your parents decide. Anyway. So on the 21st for the NBA, the next round of Emirates Cup games will happen. Yes, sir. So that's tomorrow night.

SPEAKER_03 26:27

This actually should conclude this part of the tournament. They should be going into the playoffs part of it, the championship part of it.

SPEAKER_02 26:36

Well, just the next round of it, I guess.

SPEAKER_03 26:38

Well, they should be going into eliminations next, semifinals and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_02 26:43

Right. So as far as games for the Emirates Cup tomorrow night, we're gonna have Pacers and Cleveland playing each other out of group A. Out of East Co East Coast group B, we have the Brooklyn Nets and Boston Celtics. Out of the East Coast group A, we have Wizards and Raptors.

SPEAKER_03 27:06

That'll be a good matchup, I think.

SPEAKER_02 27:08

And out of East Coast group C, we have the Heat and Bulls. I like that matchup a little bit more. Yeah, I kind of like that matchup too. And out of West Coast Group B, we have the Pelicans and the Dallas Mavericks. Out of West Croast West Coast Group A. West Croast. Yeah, Croast. West Croak. Yeah, words are hard. We have the Minnesota Timberwolves and Phoenix Suns. That actually I think is going to be a high-scoring game. That'll be a fun game. But I like this game even more. That is West Coast Group C. We have the Denver Nuggets and the Houston Rockets. That game will be a better game to watch. Yep. And Jazz. West Coast Group A, as you've already said, Thunder and Jazz. Sorry, I got ahead.

SPEAKER_03 28:00

I'm reading ahead of us. I read out loud. My bad, because I can't read in my head. But that'll be enough. A lot of good, a lot of good matchups here to wrap up this part of the Emirates Cup.

SPEAKER_02 28:10

And West Coast Group C, we have Portland Trailblazers and the Golden State Warriors. So yes, we have a good slate of games going on for the Emirates Cup tomorrow night.

SPEAKER_03 28:21

Yeah, it comes up tomorrow. Should be good.

SPEAKER_02 28:23

Should be good some good matchups. We need here. Here we go. Emirates Cup standings. Let's see. Let's see what we got here. Let's see what we got. Let's see what we got. So let's just go over the leaders. Toronto leads group A in the East with two and no losses. Detroit leading group B, two with no losses.

SPEAKER_03 28:48

Nothing's really changed here because this is the next round of Emirates. Nothing's changed since the last time we talked about them. Yeah, it does look that way. Everything's pretty much the same as a week ago.

SPEAKER_02 28:59

Well, um, well, here, how about this? Who do you think's moving out of group A?

SPEAKER_03 29:05

Out of group A, who's moving out? Well, see here, we'll look at the bottom two teams here. I'm surprised to see the Pacers, honestly, in the bottom of this ball.

SPEAKER_02 29:13

They were not playing good this year.

SPEAKER_03 29:14

Yeah, uh, for a team that that played exceptionally well all the way through the playoffs, um, you know, and a competitive, you know, championship game as well. I'm surprised to see them down there. I think honestly, in an upset, we're gonna see we if the Pacers don't clean it up, I think we can see the Pacers moving out.

SPEAKER_02 29:35

Yeah. I think out of this group, I think that the team that's gonna come out is the one that's leading it right now, the Toronto Raptors, because Oh, you mean at the top?

SPEAKER_03 29:43

Sorry.

SPEAKER_02 29:43

I thought you meant No, no, no, no, no. You took it the way you're gonna take it. And that's fine.

SPEAKER_03 29:49

No, the Pacers are not advancing, is what I'm trying to say. I thought we were talking about it. I think the team that's leading is gonna be the team that's going to the next round. Yes. So you're taking Toronto. I'm taking Toronto.

SPEAKER_02 29:59

Okay. Out of group B, I'm definitely sticking with Detroit Pistons moving out of that group.

SPEAKER_03 30:06

Yeah, just an overly competitive team there. The next closest being the Magic. The Celtics are kind of falling off here recently. 76ers have some potential, but I'm with you, Mike. I like the Pistons to lock that one up.

SPEAKER_02 30:20

I just find it odd that the Sixers have been just not doing well in the Emirates Cup.

SPEAKER_03 30:26

Yeah, another team that was up and coming a year ago and even in the beginning of this season now is kind of, you know, I don't know what's going on in the Cup, but obviously there's a different level of competition in this championship round.

SPEAKER_02 30:38

So the East Coast group C, the bracket's pretty tight, or the grouping is pretty tight for these teams. Uh it may be a homer and saying it, but I'm sticking with the Bulls.

SPEAKER_03 30:50

Who you who you got? So this is a weird one for me. I'm gonna pick the Bucs, but I really hope the Bulls upset them. I really hope it's the Bulls, but I I think it's gonna be the Bucks. The Bucks are just a little more competitive, I think. Okay, so out of West Coast group A, who do you got? Uh again, another highly competitive team in the Timberwolves, but um I I would like to see the Suns rise up and upset them. Uh Oklahoma defending champs, they're doing okay. Uh you know, not terribly too much has changed for them. They're not scoring all the points they were scoring last year, but um uh thunder's a favorite of mine. Timberwolves could lock it up, they're the only one with two wins, but I'm gonna place bids on the Suns to maybe throw an upset there in that division. Uh that group. Sorry.

SPEAKER_02 31:44

Uh I'm I'm sticking with Thunder. I'm just gonna stick with the Thunder on that one. That's understandable.

SPEAKER_03 31:51

And West Coast group B. Who we got going out of here? Uh honestly, you know, I I'm thinking the Clippers are gonna catch up and pull this one off.

SPEAKER_02 32:04

Well, I'm sticking with the uh Lakers because they're they they just got LeBron back. That's true, it made his season debut, actually. They were looking you know what was kind of funny about that though? We actually had Bronny with the Lakers and LeBron and the G League for a little bit. So you you had the reverse of what we've had this last year. And uh I actually saw a meme that was really, really funny. You know how sometimes they'll put up somebody's stats and they'll be like, oh, this player had you know 26, 10, and 10. And you know, it'll be like 26 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists. Somebody, somebody made this this post, and it was like 26, 10, and 10, or or something like that, you know, some some arrangement and numbers. But if you didn't pay attention, you would be like, oh man, the Bronny had a good game. And it wasn't it wasn't that. It's it was like, you know, pass the ball or played 26 minutes past the ball 10 times. By the way, 20 times.

SPEAKER_03 33:16

Yeah. Speaking of Braun, by the way, finally making his NBA season debut after hanging out with the G-League for a little bit. Um, this something fun uh kind of interesting here. This is LeBron's 23rd season. You know who wore number 23, the GOAT, in my opinion. Yeah. Uh this is LeBron's 23rd NBA season and is now and is the longest in NBA history.

SPEAKER_00 33:42

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 33:42

Uh is he the new poster boy for the NBA? I don't want to delve dive off the deep end too much here, but this is just kind of interesting to me.

WNBA CBA Momentum And Salaries

SPEAKER_02 33:50

Okay. So this debate, and I I don't really want to get into this debate because it is you're never going to convince somebody one way or the other. Well, yeah, you're not going to get somebody who's a LeBron fan to say that Jordan's the best. You're not going to get somebody who is a Jordan fan to say LeBron is the best. But what I can say is both of those players in their own era dominated. Yes. And both of those players have done significant things for the teams they are on and have made huge bids for them to be in the Hall of Fame. Now, look, LeBron is still playing, but let's not get it twisted. When he retires and he is up for the Hall of Fame, he's in. Yeah, he's guaranteed in nobody is gonna go, you know, on second thought, nah.

SPEAKER_03 34:42

Yeah, he's he's guaranteed in. I agree with you. Um, and you're right, like in the two different eras, you know, these two players competed almost 15 to 25 years apart. So the the game was not the same when Jordan played as when LeBron is playing it. Go ahead, Mike.

SPEAKER_02 34:59

So I heard a crazy stat about LeBron recently that LeBron himself has more playoff wins in his career than most franchises have had in that same span. Yeah, he has had he has had more play in some times, in some cases, these teams, these teams have been back multiple times. Remember, there were teams that had runs where they were in the playoffs multiple times, made runs and won championships like the Spurs. He alone has more wins in the playoffs in that time than the Spurs do as a team. It is nuts. It is nuts to think that one player can have that many playoff wins.

SPEAKER_03 35:52

Yeah, it is crazy, Mike. Oh, he's just had a hell of a career, man. Now, uh, who do you think is next? Like, we've had Jordan, we've had Braun. Who do you think when Braun is gone, who's the next guy? Who is the next, we'll call it goat, as you say, right?

SPEAKER_02 36:13

I mean, honestly, there's a few of them up and coming. I I think we're in a good position with the NBA. Uh unlike when, you know, there was okay, so for a while there, the NBA was kind of listless until you had bird magic come along and kind of revitalize the NBA. It brought more interest to the NBA. Yeah. And then Jordan kind of took it over from there where his stardom kind of pushed ratings because there was no denying the fact that when he left the game, the ratings just dropped off. They were just almost almost to the point where people are like, what's wrong? Well, yeah, people why are we not getting eyes on the league?

SPEAKER_03 36:54

Well, yeah, there were people who only watched basketball just for him.

SPEAKER_02 36:58

Right. Right. It was an appointment kind of situation where you could be you could be in in Portland and at Portland all season long probably didn't sell out a single game, but when the Bulls came to town, that entire game sold out because people wanted to go see him play. Yeah. And LeBron has much the same way with a lot of people. Yeah, granted, you know, load management and stuff kind of affects that because some people pay money and they don't get to see their player and not going down that route. Yeah. I understand that. The point of the matter is there's so many good players in the NBA right now that I don't know that we'll see the same kind of lull. I don't think we're gonna wind up with a dip in ratings because LeBron walks away. Because we we have stars, we have, you know, we have the Lucas, we have the uh Wimbenyamas, the the SGAs, you know, uh Ant-Man with the Timberwolves, you know, like we we we have players that are building stardom to a point where you know people are watching just to see those players, yeah, or they're just going and look at those players' highlights. I mean, let's face it, a lot of people they don't watch games like you know, we used to back in the day where you would sit and watch the entire game. They're watching players, they want to see the highlights from that player, yeah. They want to see that player's highlights. So, I mean, we're just it's it's a different league, it's a different brand.

SPEAKER_03 38:32

It is, it is. It's a whole different league, whole different brand, probably even a little bit bigger because they've added teams over you know since then too.

SPEAKER_02 38:40

Yeah, well, I mean, yeah, there's some teams like the Pelicans that weren't in existence. Uh I mean, they were the Hornets back in the day, but we have the Hornets again now. So and they and they're still not done. They're talking about possibly expanding into a couple more teams.

College Football Upsets And Rankings Shake-Up

SPEAKER_03 38:56

Yeah, and I mean, and this is across, you know, the NBA, the NFL, uh, I think maybe the the NHL maybe, but I know definitely the NBA and the NFL have been steadfast in trying to grow their sport, grow the exposure of their sport, uh, maybe even expand, and they want to get beyond the US borders. They want to become an international uh they want to become international leagues. I mean, they kind of already are. I mean, you're on a corporate leagues everywhere now. I mean, on a corporate level, that is really the next logical step, you know, if you're talking about it from a business perspective.

SPEAKER_02 39:36

Yeah, well, the the cool thing is they said that the the average viewership through this point in the league has been the highest viewership in like 16 years. Yeah. You know, they they were averaging something like 60 million viewers or something like that over the uh first first few weeks. Yeah. So I mean that's that's a lot of eyes. That's like Super Bowl numbers. For I mean, like, granted, yeah, you're not talking like, you know, 60 million on one game. You're talking about 60 million over a span. But still, if you're doing numbers when everybody was saying, hey, these these rights and deals that they're doing are not gonna work out, you're gonna make it so hard for people to watch the games, people are still watching. Yeah, you're finding a way to watch their games or their players, you know.

SPEAKER_03 40:28

They are, and you know, uh real quick, I know we're talking MBA, but when we get out before we go on to the next thing, I have something real quick on the WNBA as well, which I did not add to the agenda. Uh, but when we get ready for that part, we'll get to it. Uh, real quick with what we were continuing. We have one more group here. Uh Group C of the West. Group C of the West. Uh, we'll finish this conversation real quick. Uh, get back on track. Who do you see, Mike? This might even this might be one of the harder picks of all the groups.

SPEAKER_02 41:02

Yeah, I guess everybody's one and one.

SPEAKER_03 41:03

Everybody's one, yeah, everybody's one-on-one. It's very this might be the most competitive group in this tournament.

SPEAKER_02 41:08

If Wimbenyama was healthy, I'd probably go Spurs. But since he's not, I'm probably gonna lean more with the Rockets.

SPEAKER_03 41:18

Yeah, I mean, um all five of these teams aren't bad. The Nuggets and the Rockets were playoff contenders last season. Um, I really like the Nuggets, especially with their new direction uh under their new coaching. But I I am I'm picking the Rockets to come out of this one and go to the next round.

SPEAKER_02 41:38

Yeah. I mean, I I picked the Rockets too, but but the thing is, like, I would it's such a slim margin for me to pick them over the Nuggets only because both those teams are playing some really good ball. Yeah. And I'm they're not even I like Joker. Yeah. Only because like it's crazy that if you watch him play, it's so it looks so effortless for him. Yeah. You know, and he just quietly gets a triple-double, it seems like almost every night.

SPEAKER_03 42:08

And it's like Yeah, and if you look at points per game between the Nuggets and the Rockets, uh, they're not even a whole point apart. I think the Nuggets are scoring a hundred and twenty-four, one hundred and twenty-five, and some change, and the Rockets are right behind them at 123, 124, and some change. So it's not even a whole point between them when it comes to points per game.

SPEAKER_02 42:30

Yeah. Emirates Cup has definitely added an extra little flair to this uh MBA situation.

SPEAKER_03 42:37

It has absolutely. Uh what we got next here? Are we diving into the next sport? Before we go into that, I'll talk about the WNBA just real briefly here. Uh that it seems they are making headway on their CBA, their collective bargaining, because the women are getting paid, Mike. And I'm not saying women to be sick, it's just they're women. They play the WNBA. But anyway, these ladies are getting paid, maybe not as much as they want, but there's new potential parameters come around. It's not agreed on yet, and nothing's been signed, but this is a very good sign for the NBA and their players. Um they're promising a minimum six-figure salaries to start uh as low as two hundred thousand. So guaranteed in W WMBA now, it's gonna be two hundred thousand starting salary or higher with a cap of one and one and a half to two million at the highest, which is I don't know why you would cap it.

SPEAKER_02 43:34

Nobody, no other sports really cap, but well, that's probably because they they basically were looking at it from a we give a little, you're gonna have to give us a little. So in the deal, yeah, you know, like if we're gonna raise the minimum, you gotta at least do something on the high end, so we can't have these inflated numbers. Um and when the league, but overall, yeah, this will be a win for the league in general because you're gonna have you're gonna have girls that let's face it, we we found out that majority of these women were not making what you know the rest of them were. Like the bottom, like the bottom was so low.

SPEAKER_03 44:15

I mean the average NBA salary, if you were not considered like a star player, I think was like maybe 75 to 85,000, depending on the team you played for. So here now, being able, that will go up considerably for those players.

SPEAKER_02 44:31

And that and that's not much for for a player that you know, you're you're traveling, you're playing through injuries, you're getting injured, and you don't know how long this career is gonna last. And I mean, like that's not that's not the type of money where you know these NBA guys, the the NFL players, the baseball players, where they walk away and they're just like, all right, I can retire.

SPEAKER_03 44:54

And I think that is part of the axiom for their rationale of wanting to get paid more because just like every other professional athlete, tomorrow is not guaranteed. So they want to know, are we gonna make it or not? You know, they want to get theirs. I and I agree with them, they deserve it. They've worked very hard to get to that level.

SPEAKER_02 45:12

And and here's the thing you know, for a while it was the numbers aren't there. The numbers aren't there. But you can't say that anymore. No, no, no. Because the numbers are there, the numbers are there to the games.

SPEAKER_03 45:24

And now with the the three by three leagues popping up, you know, it they're getting more attention. As a result of though that endeavor, the WNBA is getting more attention because the players that play in the WNBA regular season are playing in the three-on-three leagues as well. So they're gaining notoriety, they're obviously making more money. Should we be thanking Ice Cube for coming up with three by three?

SPEAKER_02 45:47

Because like he he did kind of start his own thing first. He did, he did. They're kind of I don't want to say they're copying, but they're doing the same model. And you know, that's kind of been a a place for the older statesmen of the different NBA teams to find a way to keep playing. I mean, yeah, because let's face it, you have when you're playing in the NBA, you got to keep up and run. But when you're just playing half court, yep, and you don't have to run up and down the court, you know, the big guys they can still play a little bit longer, you know, or you you know, the guys that don't want to be track meet all all game long, they can still play. They can play a little half court ball and have fun with it and still be all right.

SPEAKER_03 46:28

Yeah, I mean, basketball, just like the game of football, basketball is evolving. And if you look at the age we were in, right, the age of streaming, the age of instant gratification, you know, even football, it's not played like it used to be played. It used to be run-heavy offenses. You know, you would be lucky to see a pass play, right? Now it's all pass plays. Same thing with the courts, with with basketball.

SPEAKER_02 46:51

You know, at one point they never threw a forward pass. You know, you know how crazy it would have been if you've been used to the just run the ball, run the ball, run the ball. Yeah. And then all of a sudden, all of a sudden, some dude's like backing up, and he's like, what is he doing?

SPEAKER_03 47:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:07

Why is he holding the ball? Hey, what is he doing? Could you imagine it?

SPEAKER_03 47:12

That was one of the dynamics that probably shook the quality in the future of the NFL. Could you imagine? Like, we argue about little things these days, the tush-push, you know, things like that. Whether or not whether or not it should be legal. You're talking about changing an entire dynamic of a dick of a game. Now they can throw the ball. I can't imagine the debates that they had back then. Jerry Jones must have been, this is blasphemy.

SPEAKER_02 47:38

This is this is one of those things where you had the the old guys going, this is not my football, this is not what we play.

SPEAKER_00 47:46

We didn't do this type of stuff. Where did this come from? I want the rugby version. You're supposed to run the ball. Why are they throwing it?

SPEAKER_03 47:57

You know, I was in Dick Sporting Goods the other day with my son. They sell rugby balls now.

SPEAKER_02 48:04

Well, it is the place of sports.

SPEAKER_03 48:07

So I mean I remember when they didn't though. I remember when they you couldn't find niche sport things like that anywhere.

SPEAKER_02 48:16

So I had a I had an ex back in high school that was so was so enamored with trying to get banned from that store. And I was like, why do you want to get banned from that store? And she's like, so I can have the bragging rights. And what bragging rights? Say I'm banned from dicks.

Coaching Rumors: Lane Kiffin And Mobility

SPEAKER_03 48:38

You know, there is an easy way to go about this. You know, if you just go ask them to ban you, they will in fact ban you. Yeah, but where's the fun in that? Look, when you set goals, it doesn't matter how you achieve them, as long as you achieve them, right? That might be terrible advice. But I said it. Lord. Anyway, moving on, let's let's talk some college football stuff. Let's talk, let's jump into some college foosball, y'all. That's enough about basketball, and it was a very good conversation we had, but all good things must come to an end. Now it's time to talk some foosball, okay? College to be specific. So yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 49:18

I don't know how we we must really want to talk football when we start bringing up in WNBA stuff anyway.

SPEAKER_03 49:24

And somehow we tied football to WNBA, so it was like weird. We always talk about football no matter what. Clearly, we're football fans, right?

SPEAKER_02 49:33

Right. So as always, Ohio State, they beat up on Purdue. Well, not that they always beat up on Purdue, but they always seem to be winning these days. They won 34 to 10, so pretty easy win there. But the game, one of the games last week we said would be interesting, and it held up Indiana against Penn State with Indiana getting the 27 to 24 victory, barely edging out. I'm telling you, dude, their quarterback, Mendoza. You know, I think he's gonna be one hell of a prospect. Like, I'm telling you, that dude's gonna do something.

SPEAKER_03 50:14

I think so too. And you know, watching Indiana here now. Ohio is probably gonna ride this all the way to the college football championship, but I guarantee you Indiana is gonna meet them right there, and I'm betting Indiana's gonna edge out Ohio. I'm calling it right now. Indiana here first.

SPEAKER_02 50:33

He's making his bets now.

SPEAKER_03 50:34

Indiana is. I'm saying Indiana is slightly better than Ohio State, and I think that they're gonna, in the end, they will edge them out.

SPEAKER_02 50:44

So, moving on to Texas AM against Missouri, a number three Texas AM against a number 22 Missouri, with Texas AM coming away with a 38 to 17 victory. Now, there was a bit of controversy in this game, man. Did you hear about this?

SPEAKER_03 51:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 51:01

So for those of you who didn't, uh so there were two players from Missouri that on a play, they kind of ran up the tunnel. You know, kind of, you know, sometimes your momentum and you kind of go off the field, you go up the tunnel, and you come back out. So these two players are coming out of the tunnel, and one of the sheriffs, because you know they have sheriffs and cops and you know, security on the field, uh, decided that this was his chance to kind of be involved. He kind of walked in between the players, kind of had his elbows out and was kind of trying to separate them out and kind of I don't know, kind of trying to do a uh not in my tunnel kind of deal. Like I don't know what he was trying to not in my tunnel. I don't know what it was he was trying to do. He's trying he's just trying to break up whatever it is they were doing, and it just He got banned. Like they sent the guy home. They're like, Nope, go home, dude. And granted, I think they're in the right to send him home. But what were they doing again? All they do is run up the tunnel. Like they the play happened, the player runs up the tunnel, his buddy follows, they come back walking next to each other, one of them has their head head down as they're coming back, and this sheriff just decides to walk in between them to try to split them up or whatever it is he was trying to do. And it's been met with a lot of controversy.

SPEAKER_03 52:25

Well, yeah, I mean if all they were they were going to they were going through the tunnel, right?

SPEAKER_02 52:29

Yeah, they were going up the tunnel, but it was not their tunnel. It was it was the Aggie's tunnel.

SPEAKER_03 52:37

Well, maybe some maybe this weren't paying attention. Maybe somebody should be like, hey bro, you guys are over there.

SPEAKER_02 52:43

Well, no. It just like, okay, think about all right, you seen a movie Forrest Gum. I have. Where they tell Forest, you know, run the ball this way. And he's like, okay. Run home, Forrest. And he just keeps running up the field into the tunnel.

SPEAKER_03 52:58

And he runs home.

SPEAKER_02 52:59

And he just keeps running. Like, look, it's kind of I don't want to say it was like that, and you know, they didn't just keep running up the tunnel, but they they ran up the tunnel a little bit and came back, and I guess they took offense to it, and or at least the sheriff did, and he got involved. Which I honestly, you're there to do something, not to be involved with the game.

SPEAKER_03 53:18

Look, I'm telling you right now, I know this kind of sheriff, he was against passing plays. I'm telling you right now. He wanted them to keep running that ball. Oh, good lord.

SPEAKER_02 53:27

Anyway, we'll move off of that subject. He was not in favor of what we'll move off that subject and move on to the LSU Alabama game, number four rank Alabama against non-ranked LSU, with Alabama coming away with the 20-9 win. And further cementing that what are Alabama fans crying about? Y'all are four. Y'all are four.

SPEAKER_03 53:48

Yeah, that must be that coach. Must be that college playoff bias, ranking bias that they say is out there. Oh, geez.

SPEAKER_02 53:57

Anyway, so next game up, Georgia against Mississippi State, 41 to 21. Georgia coming away with the win there. What else we got down here? Let's see, we got number seven. Number seven and number eight and number eight ranked Texas Tech going against each other with Texas Tech edging out number seven ranked BYU players.

SPEAKER_03 54:19

They'll be switching spots in the rankings at the minimum.

SPEAKER_02 54:22

Oh, at least.

SPEAKER_03 54:23

Notre Dame beating the hell out of the Navy 49 to 10. Notre Dame in the top 10 trying to climb higher.

SPEAKER_02 54:31

So Oregon, number number nine ranked Oregon, went against 20th ranked Iowa, and it was a close game.

SPEAKER_03 54:39

18 to 16. Here's an interesting matchup to me. I know I'm not we're we're not really trying to go through every single matchup, but this is interesting to me. UVA's kind of been on the rise here recently, and they just lost to Wake Forest. Uh number 14 ranked Virginia UVA losing to unranked Wake Forest. Uh Wake Forest typically plays a pretty competitive football game.

NFL Kicker Chaos And Worst-Ever Debate

SPEAKER_02 55:02

Never a good thing to lose to unranked teams. Yeah. I mean, I mean, look at Vanderbilt going to overtime and edging out Auburn.

SPEAKER_03 55:12

Send there Louisville. Louisville and Cal and Cal going to overtime and barely. Actually, Louisville lost too. What is going on? All three of these teams, all three of these ranked teams lost to unranked teams. Well, Miami won against their unranked team. Well, I wasn't talking about them. Oh, okay. I'm just saying. They didn't all lose. I was well, the three we were honed in on had lost. Number, I don't know the numbers, but I know it was 14, 15, and I think eight. But 10, 14, and 15. Well, and 16. No, 14, 15, and 16. Wow. They're in chronological order, and they all also lost. No, Vanderbilt won.

SPEAKER_02 55:57

16. Ranked Vanderbilt won. Oh, yeah, they did. They did.

SPEAKER_01 56:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 56:02

Okay, so yeah. In Miami. Yeah. One. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 56:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 56:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 56:08

Anyway. What ev's? Let's get over into the let's see what we got.

SPEAKER_03 56:13

Yeah, let's talk about the rankings and let's see what we got coming up for next this weekend's matchups. Starting at number 10. I know there's 25, but we only care about the top 10 because those are the ones that are going to make the bracket. Number 10, Alabama. Coming in at number nine, Notre Dame. Notre Dame. Number eight, Oklahoma. Number seven, Oregon. Number six is Ole Miss.

SPEAKER_02 56:36

And number five is Texas Tech. Hmm. Number four, Georgia. Number three, the Aggies, Texas AM.

SPEAKER_03 56:44

And number two, Gary, Indiana. Oh, good lord.

SPEAKER_02 56:49

You don't have to say Gary, Indiana every time you say Gary.

SPEAKER_03 56:51

I do. Just like I have to sing the Oklahoma song when we say Oklahoma.

SPEAKER_02 56:55

Anyway. And as always, at number one, Ohio State. They've been there the entire year. And, you know, I don't know what this bias is when you the top three teams are undefeated.

SPEAKER_03 57:08

Yeah, undefeated, and the SEC in the Big Ten certainly making their presence felt there in the top ten. You got a one Big 12 team in there. Oh.

SPEAKER_02 57:17

And most most of the teams, most of the teams in the top 10 only have one loss. It's only really, it's not until you get down to Oklahoma who have an 8-2 record. Alabama has an 8-2 record. But Oklahoma. So I know Miami's a little bit. Oh, we got another song, Mike. Oh, good lord. I know they're upset because they have the same record. But here's the thing. Prove it. Prove it. Win out. Just win out.

SPEAKER_03 57:58

At this point in the season, you better go undefeated because uh you ain't got a lot of time left to convince anybody that you deserve a spot. You don't.

SPEAKER_02 58:07

You don't at all. Yeah. But we do have some shake-ups here in the situation of non-ranked teams getting themselves back in the mix. So we do. Look who's climbing back in. Arizona State back in there. Another one Tulane making an appearance at 24. Surprise appearance by Tulane. Nice to see you. Houston out of the Big 12 making an appearance, never been ranked. I don't know why they put by the way. Well, no, Missouri's didn't move. They're still the same spot. I don't know why they put non-ranked, because they were.

SPEAKER_03 58:45

Maybe they weren't last week. I don't know. Are you saying ESPN is a liar? They could be.

SPEAKER_02 58:54

And look at Texas.

SPEAKER_03 58:56

Texas hanging around 17, dropping a whopping seven spots. That might be the worst this week, only behind Alabama, who dropped six, almost dropping out of the top 10.

SPEAKER_02 59:07

So yeah. I mean, so so there's been some shakeup. There's been some shakeup, but here's the thing. We like shake up. You know, if you're if you're in the top 13, you got a shot. You got a shot. You got a shot.

SPEAKER_03 59:23

Well, yeah, if you're in the top 13, really you'd like to see yourself in the top 10. Obviously, you don't want to put yourself at risk of not being picked, but you know.

SPEAKER_02 59:35

Yeah, I mean, like if it it's kind of like in fighting. You don't want to leave it up to the judges. Yeah. You want to you want to go ahead and get that knockout. That's right. Get that knockout.

SPEAKER_03 59:46

I feel like sometimes Mike wants to do that to me. He's not wrong. He's not wrong. Especially when I start singing.

SPEAKER_02 59:56

Good lord. You guys probably want to hit him too. When he starts singing it. I think they like it.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:02

I have a very soothing voice. Very endearing.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:07

He's like a young Bobby McFair.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:09

Well, I was gonna say um Rick James, but we can go with that.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:16

You think you have a voice like the super freak?

SPEAKER_03 1:00:19

I think I can compete.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:22

Well, he's n he's no longer with us, so there's not much of a competition between y'all.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:27

Sir, why do you have to take the dark turn?

SPEAKER_02 1:00:32

Look, don't bring that don't bring this back to Chappelle. You say take the dark turn. The darkness.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:39

Why do you gotta go to the darkness? Charlotte Maffey. Charlotte Maffe. Anyway. Highly recommend that show. If you're under 18, probably not. But for those of us out there who have moved past the PG era, they'll probably still enjoy it. They probably will, but they won't know what's going on. I know I do. Just don't get hurt feelings. Anyway.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:01

Yeah, right. Anyway. People need to not be sensitive.

NFL “What If” Busts And Alternate Histories

SPEAKER_03 1:01:04

They should. But let's talk about some upcoming matchups here in college football. Let's pick a couple out real quick before we move on to the NFL. I'm disappointed in Ohio State.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:17

Why, Mike? Because they're playing Rutgers. Like Luck of the Draw.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:26

Did they choose to play Rutgers? Probably. I mean, you might be right. Probably. This is supposed to probably be like their playoff warmups, and then Ruckers ended up sucking.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:37

Yeah, well, alright. So Missouri's gonna play Oklahoma, so you got a 22 against eight. Oh, yeah. And that's in the noon time frame.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:46

And Missouri right next door.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:48

Anyway, Georgia playing a cupcake in Charlotte.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:52

Can we talk about JMU for a second? They've kind of quietly been doing alright.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:58

Most people probably don't even know who JMU is. Well, I suggest you read.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:06

Or listener. Or better yet, listen to our show.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:09

Look at. Look at okay. Maybe I'm okay with Ohio State because Alabama's gonna go play Eastern Illinois. When you start playing colleges that have a direction, they're usually not good teams. They're borderline community colleges. When you start having a directional school, you're not really getting the best school possible. Yeah, unless you're I'm not trying, I'm not trying to throw shade. You are. I am. But I'm not trying to. Like, look, seriously, it's not taking anything away from these schools because when these big programs go and play these smaller schools, they wind up making a crap ton of money off these big schools.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:49

So it does help them out. And unless your name is Northwestern, you're probably borderline community college. I don't know. I mean, Middle Tennessee State comes and plays us. Well, you know, and they're taking on Sam Houston. They don't even have a direction. They have a guy's name. That's might even be worse than having a direction.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:09

Anyway, moving on to Oregon, number seven rank Oregon going against USC, who's ranked number 15. That'll be a game on at 3.30 in the afternoon. I like an upset here. We have a Syracuse going against a non-ranked Syracuse going against the Notre Dame at number nine, right? At 3 30 as well. Taking the favorite.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:32

So. Taking the favorite. Arkansas and Texas. That'll be a nice matchup. Good classic matchup there. Kentucky and Vanderbilt.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:39

Kentucky should be an easy win for them. We got a battle of North Carolina between Duke and North Carolina.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:45

Chapel Bill. Rivalries and Bass Ball. By the way, speaking of Chapel Bill, he was joining his girlfriend at um cheerleader practice. I think he's going to be a cheerleader. No, I think she's the cheerleader. Maybe he'll be cheering for her.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:03

He'll be supporting. Supporting. Is that what we call it? Yeah, he's supporting.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:06

You can't cheer for a cheerleader. You have to support a cheerleader. Yeah, you support a cheerleader. Well, if it's the same thing, same action.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:12

Well, most of the time when the guy's in there, he's supporting the cheerleader up in the air.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:16

I I forgot. Support involves a financial factor. So you're probably right. That's probably there.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:22

Good lord. So two lane as a ranked team will finally get their first game against an unranked opponent. Right. So it'll be two lane against Temple. And coming down to one lane in that fact. Anyway, do we got any other ranked against ranked coming down the line? Uh no. Well, I mean, we got a this will be an interesting matchup. You know, Tennessee ranked 20 against Florida. Well, I got Florida was ranked at one point.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:47

Florida was. They're not now, but two matchups I'm looking at: Illinois and Wisconsin and uh BYU Cincinnati. I think Cincinnati was ranked at one point, too. They were at the bottom of the tier. They never, I don't think they made it above 15, but they were there at one point. I don't see any other matchups though coming up this weekend.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:10

I mean, two unranked opponents between Nebraska and Penn State.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:13

Well, yeah, that'll be a good classic matchup. Two teams who are kind of in and out of the rankings year in, year out. Penn State historically a little more successful. By the way, speaking of Penn State, I believe the last two coaches, I need to double check myself. The last two coaches for Virginia Tech were from Penn State, and now I'm glad you brought that up. That's right. What's his name? Um James Franklin. James Franklin is now the new head coach, also prior Penn State coach.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:41

Did you know he used to be a JMU wide receiver coach back in the day?

SPEAKER_03 1:05:45

I thought we didn't know who JMU was. Hey, we do because of James Franklin. Thank you, James Franklin.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:51

But yeah, James Franklin will be the next coach for Virginia Tech.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:56

I want to call him Ben Franklin. He's going to pioneer a new way for Virginia Tech. I can feel it. Good lord.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:05

We still have something else we need to talk about from the college ranks, man. We do. There's been a lot of chatter and a lot of stuff going on with Old Miss because Old Miss has been playing well. Well, Old Miss is led by their coach, Kiffin. Lane Kiffin.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:22

So Lane Kiffin. He's been in and out of the NFL himself.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:26

Right, right. But there's been chatter. So not only the chatter from the NFL, because possibility moving on and going up to the NFL, but also possibility in him moving to a different college. Because there's been this talk about him having, you know, an ultimatum given to him from Old Miss. Oh. Where they're basically saying, hey, here's the deal, sign it. We don't like ultimatums. You know, they want a decision from him. And Old Miss has already come out and said, we'll we'll match whatever the other colleges are going to pay you. So whatever it is, we'll pay it. We want you here.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:07

One billion dollars.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:09

So the interesting thing about that is like if he does move on, you know it's because he wants to move on. Because he could wind up being the highest paid coach in the in the college ranks, or he could be moving on and going elsewhere. There's been rumors that he might go to the NFL and become the new Giants coach because his former quarterback, Jackson Dart, is playing there. And Brian Dable is out of a job. This is true. But there is plenty of talk about him getting another head coaching job in the NFL. Not Brian Dable, I hope. No, Brian Dable. Hey, I'm not gonna be a good team. You know, it's those teams on the borderline. But Kifin has addressed it saying it's not true. He has not been given an ultimatum.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:56

They're never true until they actually happen. And then it was true the whole time.

Thursday And International Games Recap

SPEAKER_02 1:08:00

It it's it's crazy how college operates, right? So it is the coaches come and tell these kids, we want you to be loyal to us. We want you to be with us. We're gonna we're all about this being a a team and a we're gonna build something together. Like you're you're you're the one that's gonna make this work. We need you. We need you. You're gonna be the Uncle Sam. You're gonna be the guy, you're gonna work with us, we're gonna make this a success together. And then quickly the coach moves on to somewhere else and leaves the player there. You know what?

SPEAKER_03 1:08:39

Go ahead and jump in that portal, bro.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:41

But since but since the portal has come around, now players can go with the coach to wherever his next destination is. They can follow the country. I mean, we've we've we've seen that with you know Shador and his dad when they moved from Jackson State over to uh the Buffalo. We've seen this. Yeah. So by the way, it's it's funny how you want these players to be loyal, but the coaches are not loyal. You know, like they're the ones being paid all the money, but they're not loyal at all. They're they're ready to culprit. They are worse than the players. But even the colleges aren't. Remember, Lane Kiffin, he got fired on a runway. He didn't even make it off the plane before they're like, hey, you're out.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:25

This reminds me of Mike Shanahan when Dan Snyder fired him. He was literally in his car in traffic on his way to Snyder's office and couldn't get there because of traffic. And Snyder was like, you know what? Don't worry about it. We just do this now. You're fired.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:39

You know what it, you know what it's just doing. No, you know what that sounds like to me? That sounds like to me when you're late to work and you pick up the phone, you call your boss, like, hey, I'm on my way, I'm stuck in traffic, and Dan Snyder's like, yeah, about that. About that. Uh we've already moved on. Yeah, yeah, don't even bother. Yeah. Just go ahead and go home. We don't know to who, but we've moved on. We're good. We don't need you.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:03

You know. Happened so many times. Well, what about my experience? What about my things? We'll send you your things. They're not your things anymore, is what he meant to say.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:14

What things?

SPEAKER_03 1:10:15

They belong to the team. You're not a Redskins coach anymore. Sorry, Commander's coach anymore. So those commander's things belong to the next person.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:22

This is like Friday with Debo. What about my chain? What chain? What chain?

SPEAKER_03 1:10:27

What stuff? What stuff? That's my stuff now. You you're about to be on a different team. You don't need no more commander stuff.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:37

Yeah, yeah. Oh man. I think uh God, I forget what team it was, but I remember I remember one of the coaches they interviewed one time uh on the Dan Patrick show. They uh they asked him, hey, what did you do with all of your old stuff? And uh he's like, I still got it. They're like, Do you are you gonna wear it? Do you want it? He's like, I don't care what happens to it. He's like, Will you send will you send it to us? And they they did, they sent it to him, and then Fritzy's sitting there wearing wearing some of this stuff on the show. Because it fed him.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:19

Like, okay, I'd be down, honestly. I'd wear it. Free swag. I'd wear it too. Hey, this is legit apparel, bro. This was worn by the coach. This was worn by the man himself. I can still be fired. I can still smell the sweat in the armpits. Whoa now. Whoa now. But here we go, Mike, and everybody else. The moment we've all been waiting for. Time to jump into our flagship sport. We only say that because we know it better than all the other sports. Yes, we proved earlier I know nothing about basketball, but we still try. So, Mike, we're gonna talk about some matchups here in a second, but we got a couple questions, okay. I kind of mixed it up a little bit tonight, all right? Um, since I'm very upset and you're also very upset, it's weird we're upset about the same thing and in agreement, right? It doesn't happen very often. Uh the kicking situation in the NFL is getting out of control, okay? I'm just gonna call it what it is, alright? All right. Uh you guys drop Moody, he goes to the Bears practice squad, just kind of chills out. We get rid of gay because he sucks. He's his last name might as well be Suck instead of Gay. Maybe not. You know what? I don't know where you're going with that. They're probably pretty closely related. Anyway, so we get rid of gay after we realize he sucks too. So what happens? Gay leaves. Y'all sign gay, we sign Moody, we basically traded kickers, they both suck, neither of us are happy. Mike, so I beg you to tell me, alright. Obviously, these are two terrible kickers. Who are some, or can we at least name one each, horrible kicker that we just did not approve of? What it what who do we think is the worst kicker in the history of the NFL?

SPEAKER_02 1:13:15

Oh, oh man, I used to know this player's name. There, there was a there is literally, and and I'm sure somebody will find it, you might be able to find it. There was a punter that for his career, he netted only one yard because he went in, kicked one time, the ball went off the side of his foot, went out of bounds, and the coach was like, That's enough of that. We're done. Like he after that game, his career was over. Nobody wanted him.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:43

Honestly, I I'm thinking Gano, he might even be worse than Moody and Gay. Because Gano literally has a nickname. Uh-oh, Gano. Why does it seem like everybody that was on the 2015 Panthers has a negative nickname? Yeah, Renovo Ron. No, no, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:00

I got the one for you, and it should have been a precursor. Uh-oh. There was a kicker a while ago. His last name was Blue It. I remember this guy. Why would you get a kicker with the last name Blue It? Because it's almost telling you, hey, we're going to put the kicker in for the last second kick. Oh, he blew it.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:22

It's not about the color either. No, it's just it's it's weird. And then you had uh Blankenship, who I don't know if this is fake news or if his social media posts are real. I'm not gonna repeat one of them.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:39

No, don't say anything that he said. No, I'm he was a good kicker, and then he started going off the rails. Look, no, I'll tell you the one uh I forget his first name, but for the Vikings, they had a kicker named Anderson, and this is back when you had you had Cunningham, Chris Carter, Rod Smith, uh a player named Randy Moss, and this team was just fire all year long. Everybody was ready for him to be like everybody was ready for this team to be in the Super Bowl. Like it's it's hands down, it's gonna happen. They went against Atlanta in playoffs, they were having their kicker roll out. He hadn't missed a kick, not a kick at all the entire year. The entire year. And even uh show uh How I Met Your Mother made a thing about this on their show.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:34

Ashton Kucher?

SPEAKER_02 1:15:36

No. No, the show How I Met Your Mother.

Jaguars Surge, Bears Rise, Packers Check

SPEAKER_03 1:15:39

I thought he was on that show.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:40

He no.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:42

Maybe I'm thinking of the 70s show.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:44

Yeah, yeah, you're thinking, you're thinking that 70s show.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:47

Well, this is why it's a sports show and not a TV show.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:50

Anyway, they made a thing about it in their show because one of their people in the show was a Vikings fan. But Vikings fans, they'll know who I'm talking about. Like Anderson. He hadn't made a kick the entire year, and the one time they need him to make a kick above any other, it would have given the win and sent him to the Super Bowl, he missed. Missed. Just uh, you know?

SPEAKER_03 1:16:17

I don't know, but it seems like a lot of people from the 2015 uh Panthers team had a lot of negative nicknames. We had Riverboat Ron, we have uh Ogeneau, Cam Newton is his own bad nickname.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:32

I don't know, he seems to be doing pretty well for himself.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:35

CMC's on your team now. They had CMC back then.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:40

What's wrong with the I I don't I don't know where you're going with this.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:43

Well, there's nothing wrong with CMC.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:45

No, I mean I don't know where you're going with this.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:47

They suck. Terrible nicknames for terrible personnel, kickers included. I said Gano was probably one of the worst. That was my pick. So that's why I'm talking about them. Yes. Okay. And he did miss every crucial kick in his career. It could be, you know, 40-yard kick in the first quarter, nobody's really worried about it, score still 0-0. He'll make it all day long. Put the game on the line, miss every time. Sounds like Moody. Yeah. His kicking was the game. His kicking was very moody, in fact.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:29

And so, you know, I just thought that'd be a fun little game, talk about kickers. You guys can go to our social media. We're on Facebook, Instagram, none of the others, but you can go to one of those social media sites, post on our page, let us know which kicker you think was the worst in history, and tell us why. That'd be great for us. Um, and then real quick before we jump into, we got a lot of uh peripherals tonight, Mike, before we before and after we jump into some matchups, okay? Okay. So we're gonna play another little game here. We're gonna play the what if game, okay? NFL buss. There's a handful of them, probably more than that. We're all very familiar with some of them. What I'm gonna say, let's make a prediction, okay? For instance, top of the list here, Jamarcus Russell, okay? Probably the poster boy for NFL bus, okay? Uh what if he actually turned out to be a good pick? What if he actually played well, competed well? What do you think the state of that team, his career, or the NFL would have been?

SPEAKER_02 1:18:35

How do you think it would have been affected? The the problem is there's there's no way for that to have happened because it was him. That's why it's what if it's his personality that needed the change. Yeah. Because he had talent, he had skill. Yeah. But the problem was he did not put in time. Yeah. He did not try to get better, he just went out there, tried to, you know, play off his skill. And even Vic said that he wishes that he would have put in more time to learn the game and be a better player. He was relying on his skill as well. It wasn't until he tried to make a comeback that he realized like how much time he had lost to improve.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:25

Do you think Jamarcus Russell, and we'll go to a couple other players here, we won't spend too much time, but last question on Jamarcus Russell. Do you think he could have been in the conversation with Brady and Peyton Manning? Hell no. Never. Never. Not even close. What quarterbacks would you put around him?

SPEAKER_02 1:19:41

Because here's here's the difference between him and those two players, other than the obvious. Those two players lived, breathed, and ate football. Like they were dedicated.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:54

Dedicated players. Meaning they're going, if they didn't do something right, they're going to go back and figure out what they did wrong and not do it the next time. They're going to keep trying to get better and they're going to try to get their minds better so they can see things before they happen. I mean, it's it's a well-known thing that many a player that played defense against Bait Manning has said the guy knew what we were doing.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:23

He knew what we were, what plays we were having. He would, before we even shifted into our blitz packages, he would already be pointing guys out and saying, look, that guy right there. And there was even there was even a situation uh where Steve Young said that he was going against uh oh who was the who was the DB? I wanna say I want to say it was Charles Woodson. Anyway, it doesn't matter. But he said that he had done enough film study one time that he knew if this DB wasn't looking at him before the snap, he was blitzing. And if he was looking elsewhere, I mean if he was looking at him, he wasn't blitzing. If he was looking elsewhere, if he's looking up in the stands or he's you know looking at his shoes, he was gonna blitz. And he learned that because of film study.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:20

Yeah. So the more you dedicate yourself now, assuming he played competent football, talk about Jamarcus Russell here. What quarterbacks would you put in his company, assuming he didn't fizzle out as a bust? We'll just say, you know, we're his talent level, say he came in and did to the best we thought he could do. What quarterbacks would you put around him as far as quality of play uh and legacy?

Bengals-Steelers Spit Incident And Injuries

SPEAKER_02 1:21:47

Brad Johnson? Tampa, you know, old Vikings and Tampa quarterback actually won a Super Bowl with Tampa. I put him in that category. You know, where based on his playstyle? Based no, based on the fact that he probably would have, if he had dedicated himself a little more, maybe he might have done some things, but maybe not the guy that you're gonna go and have have up there with like greatest of all time, or he could have been Michael Vic before Michael Vic. I mean, they were kind of he was like right before Vic, but I mm-hmm. I I don't know that I would have made him a Vic. I I I don't know. It it's so subjective, it's it's really more of an opinion.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:31

Yeah, I agree. It kind of is, but it's a fun game. And uh, you know, we'll move off Jamarcus Russell. Let's go to Ricky Williams. Here's one that we know where he went wrong for sure. I mean, Jamarcus Russell, we know where he went wrong, but really don't know where we where he went wrong. Ricky Williams, we know what he could have stopped doing or what he could have done better in order to have a longer, probably better quality career. Yeah, just knock off the pot.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:56

Yeah, that's all you had to do. Stop smoking, dedicate yourself to playing football. He could have been oh man, he could have been so great.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:10

I mean, here's one for classic times. Here's one for classic times. Ryan Leif. Him and Peyton Manning went two totally opposite directions. What if Ryan Leaf doesn't get involved in all the shit he got involved in? What if he comes and plays competent football like Peyton Manning did? What company would you put him in?

SPEAKER_02 1:23:32

But that's just it. He was playing so poorly at one point that you know he's sitting there yelling at reporters in the locker room. They're asking him fair questions, you know. It sounds like he to in Junior Sayao like separating them and pulling him aside, like, bro, like it calm down. That's his soul, by the way. But um, yeah, I mean you know, I mean prep preparation. If you've never like Ryan Leaf has kind of turned things around in his life, he's he's doing much better now. Well, he's doing well now. Yeah, he's doing well now, and it's it's really interesting to hear him talk because he he actually says things that you know most people most people can't admit you know when they're wrong and when they've done wrong and what they could have done better. Like a lot of times people they wanna they want to almost be like, oh no, it wasn't me. It wasn't me, it's not my fault. Or they try to make excuses for it. Ryan Lee doesn't. He kind of he's like, Yeah, I was in a bad way. I was a dirtbag.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:39

You know, well he he's able to admit it, he's able to repeat it.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:43

He's able to admit it, but it it it's it's the way in which he says where he could have changed and how that change could have been a better it like how it could have affected the rest of everything going on around him. Like if he had just done X, it would have produced a better career. Yeah, he just would have done this.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:08

Hindsight's 2020.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:10

Right, right. But it's it's the way in which he reflects on it, it's kind of interesting. Like he does he does speaking now for other other uh events and stuff. Yeah, he's a public speaker now, yeah. And he does he does do a rookie thing where he comes and talks with the rookies and like yo, don't go down the road.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:25

I and they need it too, quite honestly. Uh, especially uh, and you know, it's funny you say that because we're gonna go down the rabbit hole on this one. We've already gone down it because these rookies, a lot of these guys are coming from nothing, okay? So to go from nothing to suddenly have a vast of wealth, a vast of popularity, being in the spotlight everywhere you go, having to manage that. You find out who your real friends are, and then you know, when you fail on the big stage, and it does happen because you're not a perfect athlete, you're not gonna win every single match, you're gonna have some hard games out there and some hard matches. So, you know, having to recoup that with dealing with the you know the public opinion of you.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:09

It's just like what Deshaun was saying when he said, you know, you you're you're the big dog in your area. That's right. You know, when you're playing in high school ball and maybe you go up to college, you're the big dog in your area. Yep. Once you get to the NFL, everybody's the big dog. Yep. And now you you have to try to stand out with the best.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:30

And that reminds me, because I grew up in football, but I really grew up in wrestling. That was my sport. So down here, we have a strong wrestling history here in Hampton Roads. But all of our state champions, all of our best wrestlers, they uh they go up to northern Virginia, or or even better yet. We traveled to a tournament in Pittsburgh, or not Pittsburgh, uh, Pennsylvania or one of the Midwest states where they don't have anything better to do but train. We all get our asses kicked. It's a whole different space. And wrestling was a much bigger space, it's it's getting bigger here, but it's a it is a way of like football, it is a way of life in other areas. So, like, as good as you think you are here in Hampton Roads, you go up north or you go in Midwest, you get your ass kicked, man. Because those guys just they live them cornfed owl boys. That's right. Them fucking, oh, excuse my language, them uh stupid strong guys, you know. So, and I experienced that myself as well. And I watched other teammates of mine. I mean, there was teammates where I was like, man, that's a generational talent right there. That guy's just killing, killing, killing. And then we go out like Ohio tournament, get killed. Okay, them guys were just good, and you know, but we'll get back to football here for a second. So um, I think that is important to note, right? Like these guys come up from largely another, so they need the guidance uh and how to handle that new stage that they're on because it is much bigger, and things can get hairy much more faster. If you don't believe me, ask Antonio Brown. He went from going to a club one night to running from the FBI to Dubai.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:16

Well, no, it wasn't a club, it wasn't a club. He went to a boxing. Oh, yeah, it was a boxing match.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:26

I still think his mouth I still think his mouth probably got him into that.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:31

Um, but I also feel firm when people start coming and trying to take your take.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:35

We had we had a situation like that in the NFL. We'll get to that here in a minute.

Niners Roll, Seahawks-Rams Turnover Fest

SPEAKER_03 1:28:40

Absolutely. But we'll jump off of this fun what-of game. I'm sure there's a number of names we can come up with, but we gotta keep it rolling here. Um I'll move this one down a little bit here since we're gonna talk about Shadur Sanders later. We'll move that anyway into their games.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:55

So let's let's start with the Thursday night game of last week. Uh, we had the Jets versus the Patriots, and this was the show for their running back Henderson, who had three touchdowns in this game, basically had all their points.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:12

Bro, let's just say, okay, Mike Vrabel hates rookies, but he loves it when they do great.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:17

Oh, yeah. Well, I'll tell you this. He definitely had a great night that night because he had two rushing touchdowns and one receiving touchdown. And I saw I saw a couple plays that Drake May made in this game where you know he's he's basically running towards the out of bounds being pushed out of bounds, being chased by linemen, and he literally just throws this quick little just kind of floater pop pass over to digs, creating something out of nothing, which was which was great. But on one of the plays to Henderson for his receiving touchdown, he was initially going for digs. He was going for the underneath the digs, but when he saw Henderson kind of Of breaking free with nobody around him, he just goes, Wait, oh, just throws a little touch pass over the top, gets it right to Henderson for the touchdown. I mean, they had this game in hand. It just the Jets just did not look like they were gonna have any form of uh comeback.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:19

And I gotta give this here, and we'll talk about uh Mr. Boyd in a second, but I I want to talk about the Patriots at 9-2 being arguably the best team in football right now. They a lot of people are saying Drake May is the best quarterback in football right now.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:34

Well, he's getting he's getting a little bit of uh odds for the MVP. Yeah, he's getting up the ticker. If you took if you took him, if you took him earlier, like way earlier, you're gonna make some money off of him. Yeah. But you know, nobody really thinks about that in the beginning of the year. Reminds me, I need to go set some parlays.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:52

Anyway, you had mentioned what's going on with Boyd, Chris Boyd. So Chris Boyd, spelled with a K, not the normal type of Chris. This guy is special already because of the spelling of his name. But basically, he was shot in the abdomen early Sunday morning outside a Manhattan restaurant. I don't know all the details of what happened. Very sad story. I hate when things like this happen. But anyway, he's now stable and beginning to breathe on his own has been upgraded to a stable status by the hospital and the police. So very good news for him. Very sad that things like this happened. Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:29

Oh well, and all the more proofs why, you know, back in the day some players would actually carry weapons with them. Like we all remember Plexco Burris like shooting himself in the leg with his own gun in the club in the club. But it's kind of becoming apparent why some guys did carry because of the city.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:51

Yeah, especially, especially if you didn't travel with security detail and you went by a lot, and a lot of these guys, especially some of the lesser uh popular ones, they don't have security. Sometimes they don't even go out with their teammates, they just go out. So you're right, there is a level of protection that I agree with you that they should maintain. Um, but they Plaxico, very good example, by the way. Um, and I like Plaxico. It hurt his reputation a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:19

By the way, he's from Virginia Beach.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:21

He is from Virginia Beach and from good old Green Run. You know, I'm a good old Green Run boy, and I love Plaxico just for that and even more. Uh, he donates to that football team every year, uh, donates to the school. Um, I I can't say so. When I heard, and I was actually we were still we were barely out of high school when that happened, I think, to Plaxico. Yeah, I was so I uh you know I felt for him when that happened because there was gonna be a lot of negativity around Plaxo's really good guy, really good player, really good role model, too. So he does a lot in the community. He's very quiet, very under the radar.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:59

So, you know, I like that well, not now. I mean, he's got a he's got his own podcast going on with a few other former vets. He does. But anyway, uh let's let's move on to the first game of Sunday, which was actually for the East Coast, was a Sunday morning game. The Dolphins versus the Commanders in Madrid.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:19

The mishaped, hapless commanders who have lost six straight games now. One of them, as you mentioned, to the Dolphins, just a very wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:33

Why don't you explain why this became a loss? Because I think your point from earlier will be made by what happened towards the end of this game?

SPEAKER_03 1:33:44

Listen, we missed two kicks this game, right? It wasn't a very high-scoring game. Both teams clearly suck. Neither nobody could do anything. But when a game comes down to kicks, okay, and this was one of those games, gay missed two kicks, all right?

SPEAKER_02 1:33:59

I don't I'm not worried about the two. I'm talking about what happened towards the end of the game. Y'all had a chance to win it off a kick.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:06

Just like this reminded me of the Bears game. They had it locked, man. What do they do? They let the Dolph what was this? They let the Dolphins get it at the end, drive down the field, and then they get a field goal to lock it up. And I said, I knew this was gonna happen. I said, this is exactly what happened in the Bears game.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:26

But didn't Gay miss a kick in the end of the towards the end of the game that would have given y'all the lead and would have given give y'all the win.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:35

It would have sent us to overtime. Well, you clearly we could have gone to overtime, but he missed, and then the Dolphins lock it up. I mean, this game was played on field goals. There were, I think there was like maybe two touchdowns scored the whole time. The commanders, man, look, I'm not one to pull the plug on coaches so early, but Dan Quinn's gotta turn this team around, man. They've lost six straight, okay? If my head coach lost six straight, I'd be talking about his replacement by. Well, okay. Especially with games that we should have won. Hang on.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:14

We should have won a couple of these games. But your kicker missing kicks is not the coach's fault. They put him in at they put him in position to make kicks that he should be making. That's not the coach's fault. He's on the team because of the coach. No, he's on the team because of the GM. You know, uh and m look, you guys obviously cut him, and for some reason my Niners picked him up. Look. But the point of the matter is your kicking lost the game for you.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:44

Look, Adam Peters is a great GM, but he is horrible at selecting kickers, okay? We have not had a competent kicker.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:52

He must have learned it from the Niners. Anyway, moving on, moving on to the Panthers and Falcons. So good divisional matchup here. Uh let's it's let's not forget. I have a question. A few weeks back, the Panthers beat the bricks off the Falcons. And we were kind of wondering if we're going to see a repeat of that.

Browns QB Shuffle And Chiefs Concerns

SPEAKER_03 1:36:13

So this is this is exactly what I expected, okay? The Panthers and the Falcons have both been very streaky teams, okay? The Falcons have been winning games that they should be losing, and they have been losing games that they should be winning. I consider this game one of them. The Panthers, who nobody's talking about, are six and five and in contention for playoffs right now. By the way, Mike, do you know how many quarterbacks have thrown for more than 400 yards this season in the NFL and we can include we can even include backups. Okay. We can include backups, Thursday. How many quarterbacks total this season in 2025 have thrown for more than 400 yards? I know the answer to this. I'm just waiting for us to get there.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:04

See, the weird thing is, like, I you you would think that some of the top names, like a Patrick Mahomes or Josh Allen, or you know, uh uh uh Lamar Jackson, you would think some players like that would be up there and have that, uh, but I know none of them have a passing game like that yet this year. Um so I'm I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:32

I mean And by the way, um you know, Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen, uh the Bills aren't really underwhelming, but Josh Allen has proven to be in slightly overly reckless. In fact, they're down to the Houston, they're down to Houston right now, nine to ten. They don't even have a touchdown tonight as we as we're recording this. And Mahomes, he has his flashes. He's had a couple 300 yard games here and some close ones, but they're just not these two teams.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:04

They're not answering the question, though. Who is it? What is how many players have had over 400 yards passing this year?

SPEAKER_03 1:38:10

Oh, I thought we were having a conversation. Sorry. Um I I was waiting for the answer. So ex we've had one, Bryce Young, mind you, of all quarterback, in fact, almost had a 500-yard game, 440 yards passing. That's just his passing against the Falcons. By the way, the Falcons have, I know they're only three and seven, but they have put out a fairly competent defense, okay? Yeah, I mean, this is a team that beat the Buffalo Bills a few weeks ago. And beat them and beat the Vikings as well. And I I think there's a couple other teams they've beaten too that they probably shouldn't have. Well, they've only had three, so yeah, and then, well, yeah, you're right. So probably all three of them they shouldn't have won. But, you know, the the Falcons have had pretty competent defense as well. So for the Panthers, Bryce Young to come out in year two. By the way, it is only year two of Bryce Young. Feels like it's been longer.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:04

Well, the Falcons got some bad news after this game because uh Michael Penix got knocked out during the game, and Kirk Cousins. Look, Kirk Cousins came in, and Kirk Cousins is gonna be the quarterback going forward because Bruce Young hurt his knee. Not the one he had surgery on, the other one.

SPEAKER_03 1:39:24

Well, only the Falcons can spend$180 million on a Pro Bowl quarterback, Pro Bowl Caliber quarterback, and draft a top 10 QB and still have a quarterback conundrum on their hands, okay? This must be they're trying. I gotta give them credit. I gotta give them credit. They're doing better than the commanders did in 20 years, but they drafted a quarterback in the top 10, Michael Penix, last year, okay, in 23's draft. They brought in Kirk Cousins with the intention of starting him ahead of Penix, paid him$180 million guaranteed. Neither of these guys are I mean, Cousins put up 27 points against the Panthers, but they still lost. Oh are the Falcons in quarterback hell, or are they just dealing with stipulations right now?

SPEAKER_02 1:40:14

Well, let's say it for what it is. They're not quite a complete team. I mean, like they the thing that aggravates me the most about this team is they have one of the best backs in the league and they don't use him right.

SPEAKER_03 1:40:30

Yeah, I agree.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:31

They just they they don't you know what most teams, when they have a back of that caliber, they need to get him a certain amount of touches every week, and it's it's it's baked in. You're gonna get this guy touches regardless, whether that's getting or passing. Like it's baked in like if we get this back between 20 and 30 touches every week, he'll produce. And they there's literally been a game this year where they only gave him seven touches.

SPEAKER_03 1:40:58

They've been running Algier, and especially in the red zone.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:01

I'm like And I'm sorry, Algier is not your answer. Stop giving that guy the ball. You want to get your running back going, stop putting his back.

SPEAKER_03 1:41:11

He's the receiving back, but they haven't been like you say, they haven't been ground impounded as much as they can. If I had B. John Robinson, he might actually be the best running back in the league right now.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:21

He's just been using it.

SPEAKER_03 1:41:22

He's not been he's not been injured, he's been highly productive, he's been quiet. Like this guy, in my opinion, is number one.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:29

So moving on to Bills and Buccaneers, which we thought we were gonna get, you know, a slug fest. I mean, that's what we got out of this game. This was a really fun game to watch. And surprising everybody, the backup running back, Tucker, having a three touchdown game and looking like where's Sean Tucker, where's this guy been all year? Yeah, you guys have been just making him third on the depth chart and he's producing like this against the Buffalo Bills.

SPEAKER_03 1:41:55

I'm not surprised in their house. I'm not surprised by Sean Tucker coming out and having a game at all. Because um, if you look at um, I keep wanting to say Doug Martin. I know it's not Doug Martin. Bucky. If you look at how Bucky runs, right, these guys weren't necessarily highly rated prospects when they came out of college. I believe the scheme and the protection really elevates their game as well, and the threat of the pass, too. They have an absolutely volatile passing game, even with Evans and um what's his name, out.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:31

Well, Buffalo comes away with the win in this one in 44-2.

SPEAKER_03 1:42:36

And one of Josh Allen's most reckless games to date, by the way.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:40

Well, he he made up for it by getting three touchdowns in the game. But the probably the biggest surprise of last Sunday was the Jacksonville Jaguars just making the Chargers look inept, with them coming away with a 35-6 win, where they literally pulled Herbert out of this game, like I think it was in the third or beginning of the fourth quarter, and just said, All right, Trey, here you go, Trey Lance, go do something.

SPEAKER_03 1:43:07

Well, they knew it was Harbaugh's a smart coach. He doesn't need to wait till the fourth quarter to realize the game's over, okay? Let's save our starting quarterback, get Trey Lance in there, let's get some experience, see if maybe we can get something new going just for this game, right? Um I like how our stars hurt. I really like how Jim Harbaughes, and I thought that was a very smart move. Not like Dan Quinn leaving, you know, JD in there.

SPEAKER_02 1:43:31

But the good the crazy thing about this game, remember last week I said, what has happened to the Jacksonville Jaguar defense? Because they they had not shown up past couple weeks, yeah, and they showed up for this game.

SPEAKER_03 1:43:43

They showed up for this game, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:43:45

Now six and four, they're very much still in contention of possibly getting into a wild card spot and still possibly having a playoff.

Lions-Eagles Friction And Identity

SPEAKER_03 1:43:53

They could win their division at this point. Houston's not that far ahead of them. Well, no, because they got the Colts. Yeah, I was about to say check yourself. Yeah, the Colts. Sorry, Colts fans.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:04

Anyway, but they looked much better in this game than they have in the past few years.

SPEAKER_03 1:44:11

Yeah, and being down their starting tight end, Brenton Strange. So not too bad. Put up 35-6 over a dominating Chargers.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:18

And remember, they also didn't have their top wide receiver.

SPEAKER_03 1:44:22

That's right. And this was the first game for Jacoby Myers.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:25

Who had a decent game?

SPEAKER_03 1:44:26

Who did have a good game, by the way. Working out well for them.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:29

They're gonna be volatile when speaking of his team having good games here recently. The Bears went against the Vikings in the Vikings house and came away with the win. The Bears have been on a streak. Look, this team is playing so much better under Ben Johnson.

SPEAKER_03 1:44:46

Like the Bears are I agree. I I assumed wherever Ben Johnson was gonna go, as long as they had, and the Bears actually kind of have a lot of pieces. Like it's not a bad starting point if you're a first-year hit player.

SPEAKER_02 1:45:00

No, I mean you're getting you're getting a quarterback who is highly rated, drafted high, yeah, you know, drafted number one overall.

SPEAKER_03 1:45:07

You have an absolutely volatile receiving core.

SPEAKER_02 1:45:10

Well, and here's the thing this is a receiving core that had King Keenan Allen in it, but they let him go and he goes back to the Chargers, and he's looked great with the Chargers. But you still have weapons, even though you let him go.

SPEAKER_03 1:45:23

I think leading letting go of Keenan Allen actually did them a favor because they still have DJ Moore, who's now like a veteran presence guy, which is weird to say. And then they drafted Adunze, they drafted uh Colston Loveland. Uh Comet's injured right now, but can you imagine when they get DJ Moore, uh Adunze, Comet, Colston Loveland, and then they have uh Swift or Mononga guy in the backfield with Caleb Williams running this offense. This to me is a highly volatile offense in the making here, if not already there. They just got a few things put together. They can run it, they can run pass plays, the protection's there, they're seven and three. I think the Bears have really are what they should have been last year.

SPEAKER_02 1:46:11

On the flip side, though, the Vikings with JJ McCarthy is not, they're just not they're not looking like they did when they had Sam Darnold. You know, it's kind of like you know, JJ in this game, he was skipping balls to some of his receivers, so it's like, well, wait a second. You let a guy that was had your team running perfectly last year, yeah, walk away. I mean, granted, he laid an egg in the playoffs against the Rams, but up until then, he was playing good ball. He had this team looking competing up to the very end for the division. Yeah. So I think letting bad games and they they're like, oh, we're good.

SPEAKER_03 1:46:56

You know, I kind of had a feeling, right, you you should believe what's in front of you. And Darnold is a young player still, so the I would have kept Darnold another year until you could have really seen what you had in JJ.

Cowboys Optimism And New Weapons

SPEAKER_02 1:47:10

Yeah. Well, speaking of a team that sees what they have, the Packers. The Packers played against the Giants and the Packers coming away with the win 27 to 20, and this was the Jameis Winston game. We got to see if Jameis Winston was gonna be what they wanted him to be. Like they were gonna see get get a good look at Jameis as their starting quarterback. And I tell you what, I watched this game. Jameis, he made some throws now. Like, granted, I'm not gonna say that pick he threw at the end, that is not that's not on him. The receiver obviously did not do the the right route. And, you know, because that DB was wide open, right there to receive it, and that receiver just ran the wrong route. So don't don't put that on Jameis at the end of the game anyway. But he hit some receivers on some out routes and some some over-to-middles where he put it right on the receiver's hands. Like only his receiver could get it. So he was making some good throws. He had the offense going. It was just, you know, which defense was defense was gonna crack, and it just went the Packers' way. You know, Packers are playing good ball, you know.

SPEAKER_03 1:48:24

Down here, Bengals, big storyline out of the Bengals and Steelers game is Jamar Chase and uh what's his name? Ram is it Jalen Ramsey?

SPEAKER_02 1:48:33

Well, it's Jalen Ramsey, but but the final score in that game was 34-12.

SPEAKER_03 1:48:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:48:38

And as you were alluding to, the incident between Jalen Ramsey and Jamar Chase.

SPEAKER_03 1:48:44

Yeah, yeah. You know, Jamar denying that he didn't spit, then they go and get the video footage. That's the thing.

SPEAKER_02 1:48:52

There are cameras everywhere. You don't think that they have a camera angle where they get you spitting on him? And like, why like I don't get this. I do not understand the mindset. Like, I get if you're upset with a dude, but like, where in your mind do you think I need to spit on this guy? What do I always say? Lose your or what is it? Like, lose your mind.

SPEAKER_03 1:49:19

Lose your ice cream. I'm just kidding. Lose your cool lose your cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:49:23

Yeah, lose your judgment. Lose your judgment. Yeah, that's right, that's right. But why why not go to the move where you hit him? Yeah, like why you go to now, granted, you know they're John, you know they're talking trash, and uh Noah play before Jalen Ramsey had had hit hit him and even though he didn't catch the ball, he still hit him and drove him to the ground. Yeah. Which probably didn't sit well with him, but I just don't I don't understand it.

SPEAKER_03 1:49:51

I don't even know why these two teams are jabber jawing on each other because neither of them's gonna make the postseason. So somebody's got to out of that division, but the Ravens.

SPEAKER_02 1:50:01

I I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 1:50:02

And Shadur's gonna take the Browns to the wild card.

SPEAKER_02 1:50:05

Well, here's the thing like the the Steelers didn't come away scot-free out of this because Aaron Rodgers hurt his wrist.

SPEAKER_03 1:50:11

Yeah, broke his wrist. He'd been dealing with this for a couple weeks now because I remember a week or two ago, Adam Scheffter came out uh with a post. He said, you know, situation to monitor, Rogers is dealing with a wrist injury. Now he made it through that game. Well, obviously, this game, that injury overcame him.

SPEAKER_04 1:50:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:50:29

So, but they still, Steelers still get the win. We're gonna speed up a little bit here, guys, because we're running a little short on time.

SPEAKER_02 1:50:35

Well, Texans, Titans, Titans had this game, man. They just let the Texans come back. The Texans, kudos to them to come back, and with their backup quarterback and Mills coming back to get that win.

SPEAKER_03 1:50:47

Yeah, and with that kid Marks running the ball for them, you know, Texans kind of in limbo mode, but they're making it happen.

SPEAKER_02 1:50:53

By the way, just one more remark about that Ramsey and Chase thing. The suspension was upheld, so now Chase is gonna miss out on a game check for next next week. Yep. So that one spit is gonna cost him over half a million dollars. So I hope it was worth it.

SPEAKER_03 1:51:10

Well, sometimes it doesn't pay to be a high-paid player. Sometimes it doesn't pay to be losing your cool. Yeah, I agree with that. That never pays. But here we go to your game, my friend. I know you're happy about this because you damn near damn near doubled the score on a divisional opponent here. 49ers taking over the ever hapless Cardinals who looked strong to begin the season, but are clearly not.

SPEAKER_02 1:51:32

So the 41-22 victory, Brock Purdy's comeback, and he had a couple of really good throws in that game in his connection with George Kittle. That's right.

SPEAKER_03 1:51:42

And I picked up Purdy in fantasy, couldn't even believe he was on the fantasy waiver wire in a couple leagues.

Next Week’s NFL Picks And Trap Games

SPEAKER_02 1:51:48

Moving on to the Seahawks and Rams. Nothing to see here. No, no, no, no, no. We got to talk about this game because this is important. Because the Seahawks sitting at 7-3 and now the Rams sitting at 7-0-1. Both these teams were seven and two when they started. Keep in mind, they still got to play each other again. But the more the bigger storyline in this game is the fact that you had the Seahawks offense throw four picks. Sammy Darnold threw four picks. Now remember earlier, we discussed that Sammy Darnold, when he was with the Vikings in the playoffs, had a bad situation where he was throwing picks and had a bad game, and that was against the Rams.

SPEAKER_03 1:52:30

I prefer Sam Darnold. Sammy makes me think of a girl I know, and I'd rather not think of the Seahawks in the world.

SPEAKER_02 1:52:36

Anyway, Darnold threw a bunch of picks against the Rams in the playoffs, not causing him to exit the playoffs. But the the point I'm trying to make is the Rams seem to have figured out how to mess with Darnold. But if you throw four picks, for your team to only put up 21 points and the other team put up 19 points and almost had a chance to win this game, I think this speaks more to the Seahawks than it does the Rams. The Seahawks defense was holding them down and keeping them in the game because Darnold just throwing pick after pick. And the Rams, you sit there and your punter punts the ball and gets them on the half-yard line. Half yard line. So you're making them go 99 and a half yards to go and like you're making them go the full length of the field to get a touchdown, or at least you know, making it very difficult for him to get a field goal. And they almost got into field goal range, and they almost made the field goal range. They did. Like almost, I say almost. It was wide right. But the point of the matter is you left, you gave them a window. You gave them a chance to win this game, and you shouldn't have.

SPEAKER_03 1:53:55

You should have blown the doors off of them because you had four picks. By the way, Matt Stafford after this win is above 500 for the first time in his career. He is 116, 115, and one in his career. Uh, congratulations to him for that. It only took him 20 years.

SPEAKER_02 1:54:15

Well, I don't know about 20 years. It he just played with uh such a crappy team for so many years.

SPEAKER_03 1:54:21

Well, yeah, the the Lions were outside of Megatron, Calvin Johnson, they really didn't have a lot to work with back then. Uh, but I gotta give it to him. Finally reaching the above 500 mark for your career is a huge feat. It's it's hard enough to win in this league. Yeah. All right. Yeah, now we have another one. Ravens trying to stay competitive. The Browns, by the way, um, Daniel Gabriel comes out the game. They put Shadur in. Concussion. Concussion, yeah. And he's still in concussion protocol. Uh Shadur does not exactly play good, but coming in off the bench cold. Four for 16. Yeah, four for sixteen. You would have liked to see better production, but we're gonna give him a break here coming in cold off the bench. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:55:04

Here's the thing he's the backup. Backup does not get reps with first team.

unknown 1:55:11

Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:55:11

But it's been said over and over again a bunch of quarterbacks who are backups in the league for many years have said this is a guy coming in to work with players he has not worked with at all. Yeah, and I I agree. That's why you can't expect that out of him. Now, if this next game he looks like that after he's had a week's worth of reps, then you start saying stuff.

SPEAKER_03 1:55:34

Yeah, and I mean that that's why I give him a mulligan here because he came in cold off the bench, like you said, playing with you know a group of players he's never played with before.

SPEAKER_02 1:55:44

But your job as a backup is to be ready at all times.

SPEAKER_03 1:55:47

It is, but sometimes you're just not. Um sometimes it's just hard in that situation. I'll give him a mulligan here, but now all bets are off because he's had a week's worth of practice. He's had a week's worth of practice. He's coming in, and we will see, maybe see some of what Shadur can do here this coming week because he is the starter, he's starting for the Browns, and he's had a week's worth of practice with the first team squad. I'm not saying he's gonna come out and be Lamar Jackson or Patrick Mahomes since Lamar's not been playing well this year.

SPEAKER_02 1:56:19

He just needs time. You gotta give him reps. He hasn't had the reps. Give it time. Yeah, and I'm tired of these people going, oh, they're trying to hold him down, they're trying to hold him down. Look, they don't give him first team. Backups don't get first team reps.

SPEAKER_03 1:56:32

I mean, look at I mean perfect example, Sam Darnold, right? Look at it. We are witnessing firsthand that it takes a couple years. Bryce Young, too. It takes a couple years for quarterbacks to really get settled in and start showing some progress. I don't know. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 1:56:49

Well, most of the time. Going over here to the Broncos and Chiefs, I mean, Bo Knicks seems to have settled in.

SPEAKER_03 1:56:56

Bo Nicks in year two. Only year two. And honestly, he didn't really have a bad year one, to be honest with you. He had a pretty modest year one, but it was not bad. Coming in year two, now they have a running game. Okay. They didn't have a running game last season. They got a good running game now. Well, me do. I give it mediocre.

SPEAKER_02 1:57:16

Yeah, they just didn't really have somebody they sit with the guy.

SPEAKER_03 1:57:18

It's helping them a little bit. J.K. Dobbins and RJ Harvey are doing it number one. JK didn't play in this game because of his foot injury. That's right, he was out of this game.

SPEAKER_02 1:57:25

But to this point, Harvey. And the Broncos 9-2, you know. Yeah, coming away with the 22-19 victory.

SPEAKER_03 1:57:34

I could see the Broncos and the Patriots in the AFC championship game right now. Well, here's the thing.

SPEAKER_02 1:57:41

Like, we've been told, and people keep saying, just wait. Just wait. Chiefs are getting Chiefs are gonna get Rice back. They're gonna get Worthy back. They're gonna get this guy back. They're gonna get that by. How how long do we have to wait for for this to be a thing? We're in week 12. Here's the thing. They're five and five. At this point in the season, if you're trying to be a true contender, you can't be 500 in week 10. We are in week 12. You there's only five more weeks of football left. Yes, yes, yes. Week 12, but what I mean is like their record, you know, exactly. How about how much played?

SPEAKER_03 1:58:22

Exactly. How much longer, you know, do we need to wait? Like around week six to seven is when the quote dominant teams begin to separate themselves, okay, and the weak ones start to fall off.

SPEAKER_02 1:58:34

I think what you're seeing here is a team that they they're they're aged, they're not the same team. You're paying some of these players that were the foundation pieces so much money that you don't have the things around you that you need. Their run game is a net. It really is. I mean, yeah, they get some clashes here and there from Kareem Hunt, and they're getting Pacheco back. Even when they can do better than Pacheco, even when Pacheco is healthy. Okay. Look, the point of the matter is in this game, even Patrick Mahomes has said that he's the issue. Like he has missed on plays that he shouldn't have. And in case in point, uh, I forget the DB's name, but he was wearing 29. He had an excellent game. I wish I remembered his name, but he he had you know a pick in that game. He actually had had a sack in that game against Mahomes where he came off the edge. And the problem was Mahomes didn't pick it up. He did not pick up the read to shift the blocking. Was it Shurton? I forget Patrick Shirton? Doesn't matter. We don't know now. Point of the matter is, and we all know I'm bad with names. He basically look, anyway, any quarterback, starting quarterback in the NFL will tell you you have to be able to produce produce and know the reads. Know that you have a a blith blitzer coming off of. Of the one side or the other and move players around to accommodate for that. Yeah. And in that in that particular play, when they had a third and long, he came off the edge, sacked Mahomes, almost guaranteeing the victory for the Broncos because they were going to get the ball and all they had to do is drive down and kick.

SPEAKER_03 2:00:19

Now, two games left to talk about last week, and then we're going to speed it up a little bit. Sunday night football, Lions, Eagles. This was supposed to be a marquee matchup. Yeah, Yon, this was expected to be a marquee matchup.

SPEAKER_02 2:00:33

This was an awful game that ended on an awful call. And like, dude, okay. Why is it that everybody keeps telling us out of out of the Eagles organization that everything's fine, everything's fine, everything's fine, but yet we keep hearing junk. We keep hearing crying and whining. We keep hearing people unrest in this locker room. And you've got players like AJ Brown, Saquon Barkley that are not playing well this year. They're not playing well. And it's coming out. You're starting to hear rumors, you're starting to hear things coming out of these reporters for the Eagles that are saying it's all rooted around Jalen Hurts. They're saying that Jalen Hurts, he has to play his way and he cannot adapt. He cannot adapt beyond the way he plays.

SPEAKER_03 2:01:27

I agree. And he's horrible from the pocket. Because if you look at this right, um, and I about forgot what I was getting ready to say. But Jalen Hurts, that brings me to another point. Jalen Hurts is, in my opinion, almost a one-dimensional quarterback because he's not passing very well right now. And this is what I said earlier, right? Did I not say at the beginning of the season that I think the Eagles are going to take a step back? Now they haven't taken a huge step back, they're eight and two, but everybody's talking about, oh, Saquon Barkley's the guy. He's being what I said Saquon Barkley was not going to be as effective this year as he was last year. Um and so far that has turned out to be a correct prediction. Now the Eagles being eight and two, I wouldn't say that's taking a step back. I'd say they're still competitive.

SPEAKER_02 2:02:10

It's because teams can load the box because they're not worried about Jalen Hurts throwing the ball. At this point, Jalen Hurts, he is, I think at this point, he's below 200 yards average passing. And that's not good for the quarterback.

SPEAKER_03 2:02:27

I don't think he's had a 300 yard game yet.

SPEAKER_02 2:02:29

No. No, he has not. And that's not good. I mean, they're finding ways to win, regardless. This is like the But it's their defense that's keeping them in these games. They're winning ugly.

SPEAKER_03 2:02:40

This and you may hate me for this, but this feels like the Chiefs from last year. They were kind of rudderless, kind of directional that really weren't blowing anybody's socks off stat-wise, but somehow they just kept finding a way to win, even though it didn't make sense. This is that's the Eagles this year to me.

SPEAKER_02 2:03:00

I'm willing to bet that the Eagles within the next few years are gonna ship Jalen Hurts out. Just like they did Carson Wentz. Just like I think they should have kept Nick Foles. Just like they did with Doug Peterson. Well, Nick Foles is old and they're they're done with him anyway.

SPEAKER_03 2:03:17

He's old now, but he's the one that won their Super Bowl game.

SPEAKER_02 2:03:19

He was a career backup, dude. But anyway, we'll see what happens with that. Moving on to the Monday night game, which is we did you have to watch the game to know this would happen? No, you didn't. Because the Cowboys went in, handled business, so am I and took out the Raiders 33 to 16.

SPEAKER_03 2:03:39

My favorite part about this my favorite part about the Cowboys at this point in the season, right now, and I hope none of you Cowboys fans are offended, but I'm probably about to offend you. I love all the all the Cowboys are back. We're going. Yes, they blew the pants off the Raiders, okay, but they're the Raiders, who are barely two and eight, probably shouldn't have even won the two games that they did win. And then even after that, they're still four or five and one. They still don't have a 500 record through 12 weeks of football. The Cowboys are not back, bro. I'm sorry. Well, how about this though?

SPEAKER_02 2:04:16

They do have something to be proud about. They do, I'll give you that. They do they do have something to be proud about because two two different things out of this game, or just out of this transaction-wise. So Quentin Williams, who they picked up. Quentin Williams, yes. Yes. I thought that was honestly a He had only had one sack on the year. He had one and a half sacks, I think before halftime last night. So he looks like a different player playing with the Cowboys. You know, maybe feels like he has a little more to play for now. But a certain receiver has kind of been breaking out, and I'm not talking about the receiver they've had on the team. I'm talking about the one they got out of Pittsburgh. For the Raiders? No, the Cowboys.

SPEAKER_03 2:05:04

Oh, yeah, yeah. Pickens. Pickens has been an Pickens has been an absolute lightning rod for this team, okay? Without Pickens, I don't even think this team has four wins right now. Because CD went down for quite a few weeks. Yes. Um, Javante Williams was running his ass off of the game. We go look at his stats here the last couple weeks has not been as effective. Um, if they don't have pickings, four, five, and one is not a great record, but if they don't have pickens, I don't think they're four or five-in one right now. No, I don't think so either. I honestly, and it's gonna hurt me to say this, I actually think the Cowboys are better than their four, five, and one record. I just like to talk shit. They have they have one of the most volatile offenses, they have one of the most volatile offenses in the league right now. So I, you know, they deserve some credit due. I'll give them that.

SPEAKER_02 2:05:55

And that's coming from Commanders fans.

SPEAKER_04 2:05:57

So all right.

SPEAKER_02 2:05:59

So moving on into next week, we're gonna go through a couple of these games. Obviously, we got the Bills and Texans going on right now.

SPEAKER_03 2:06:07

Let's just pick the marquee matchups. I know we're running short on time here.

SPEAKER_02 2:06:10

Yeah. Jets and Ravens going against each other. Ravens definitely hold on out any given Sunday. Ravens are only Ravens are only five and five. Get out of here with that. They're gonna win. And Jillers, Bears going against each other. I'm taking the Bears here. I'm I'm thinking Bears as well. Uh, we got Patriots, Bengals. I'm thinking Patriots in that one.

SPEAKER_03 2:06:34

I'm thinking the Patriots all day, especially without Jamar Chase on the field. The Bengals are they're out.

SPEAKER_02 2:06:40

So Lions, Giants is an interesting one because we might get Jackson Dart back for this game. And if they have Jackson Dart back, it might be a different game altogether.

SPEAKER_03 2:06:48

If Jackson Dart is back, I am taking Jackson Dart. I'm taking the Giants. I'm taking the Lions weird way, but it'll be a different game if Jackson Dart plays. It's weird that I suddenly like all the other teams in my division.

SPEAKER_02 2:07:01

I know, I know.

SPEAKER_03 2:07:02

There's something going on with you. I know.

SPEAKER_02 2:07:04

Maybe it's maybe I'm we might need to get you checked out. I might have dimension. Might have something wrong. I need to get checked. Anyway, divisional uh rivalry here going against the Vikings and Packers. Uh I'm thinking Packers for this one because it's in their house.

SPEAKER_03 2:07:19

If they're if the Packers are down Josh Jacobs and Christian Watson, it might be a Vikings game.

SPEAKER_02 2:07:24

And the game that I really want to see, I want to see this Colts Chiefs game. Because if the Colts come out and just lay waste and beat these Chiefs and make them five and six, you could pretty much guarantee it's gonna be a hard, hard road for them to make players. I'm picking the Colts for one reason.

SPEAKER_03 2:07:45

Run game.

SPEAKER_02 2:07:46

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:07:47

Jonathan Taylor is gonna run his ass off.

SPEAKER_02 2:07:50

Uh a get right game for the Seahawks because they're gonna be playing playing against the Titans. I think the Seahawks.

SPEAKER_03 2:07:56

I think the Seahawks get that.

SPEAKER_02 2:07:58

Cardinals are gonna lose another game against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

SPEAKER_03 2:08:01

Cardinals have nobody. They're banged up, and even Kyler Murray has probably shrunk two inches. Browns will probably get the win against the Raiders with Shador at the helm. You know, let's talk about that for a second. I don't want to spend too much time on it, but real quick, bold predictions. How many yards and touchdowns do you think Shadur gets against the Raiders? I think the Browns field a better defense than the Raiders.

SPEAKER_02 2:08:25

I think he barely gets over 200 yards and has one touchdown and maybe one pick. And I think most of their points come off the run game and defense.

SPEAKER_03 2:08:34

I'm saying 200 plus yards, two touchdowns, one pick. Maybe two picks.

SPEAKER_02 2:08:45

So good divisional matchup between the Eagles and Cowboys. I'm not taking either of them. I hope they both lose. I think it would be hilarious if the Cowboys upset the Eagles because you know how many, how many Philly fans will just be so beside themselves. I'm honestly kind of rooting for it at this point.

SPEAKER_03 2:09:02

I really like George Pickens. Falcons, Saints, another divisional another divisional uh wind up there, you know, kind of meaningless game. I like the Falcons to get this. They're playing better football than the Saints are. The Saints are still trying to find North.

SPEAKER_02 2:09:17

So and the Sunday night game, Buccaneers against the Rams. This is gonna be good. Okay. Here's the thing. If Todd Bowles does what Todd Bowles does and tries to blitz Matthew Stafford, this is gonna be a 40 burger for the Rams because Matthew Stafford is not gonna be fooled by your blitz packages. So you need to either rush four and get there with four, or he's gonna carve your team up and he's gonna win. Flat out. They have no shot if they just try blitzing them all again.

SPEAKER_03 2:09:53

This is a trap game for the Rams. I like the Buccaneers as a favorite, but the Rams have got to play damn near perfect football.

SPEAKER_02 2:10:00

And I'm actually thinking defense more than offense here. I think that's the other way around. I think the Buccaneers need to play perfect because any little mistake you make against these Rams, Matthew Stafford's gonna take advantage of it.

SPEAKER_03 2:10:10

Well, I I I think both of these offenses can take advantage of you. I I think the Buccaneers have the edge, but the Rams have a they've they've fielded a pretty good defense, but the Buccaneers, if you let them shred you, they will shred you to pieces, okay?

Closing Thanks And Schedule Note

SPEAKER_02 2:10:24

And moving on into the Monday night game, Panthers and 49ers. I who you taking? I know who you're taking. I know who I'm taking. I'm taking a homer. It's not a homer. Hey, look, it's it's 49ers house. It's a 7-4 team against a 6-5 team. Look.

SPEAKER_03 2:10:43

Yeah, it sounds like home to me all day. And but you know, go ahead and wind that up. But I I know you're gonna hate me, but I'm taking the Panthers in an upset here. I think Bryce Jung capitalizes on the game he had last week against a weak 49ers defense or weekend 49ers defense. I'd like to thank everybody for joining us once again. Thank you, Body Bide by D Gym, Solace Outfitters, and the Giving Tree Chiropractic Service. Thank you everybody for joining us. Next week, we'll be coming to you early before Turkey Day, so you have a chance to listen to us. I'm Brian with an eye, and I'm Mike, and we are two for the win. Thanks, everybody.