Two for the Win
Mike is a U.S. Navy Veteran and Bryan has more than a decade of civil service experience. Together, these blue collar guys dissect the latest sports headlines and events.
Two for the Win
Two For The Win - S2.62 - What Does Fair Play Mean When Politics, Tech & Tanking Collide?
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
A week this wild doesn’t come around often. We go straight into the WADA funding freeze and what a push for third‑party oversight really means for clean sport at the Olympics, then shift to the hard question athletes face when risk meets ambition as Lindsey Vonn tries to compete through injury and suffers a second crash. Olympic neutrality gets tested by helmet bans and political messaging, while ski jumping’s “Penisgate” and microchipped suits show how far technology is now embedded in officiating. It’s all variations on one theme: what does fair play look like when governance, science, and human nature collide?
From there, we pivot to baseball’s uneasy moment. A betting‑rigging probe raises the stakes beyond suspensions, and a rash of hamate fractures reveals how modern swing mechanics stress a small bone that can derail a lineup. Even so, teams still know how to love their fans—Texas honoring Nolan Ryan’s bloody‑lip legend with a replica jersey and Miami reviving the teal connect nostalgia to the present in the best way.
On the hardwood, the NBA’s award thresholds finally give regular-season games some teeth, but load management and tanking still drain trust. The Lakers’ defense remains the swing factor, not just their star power. College hoops adds an eligibility twist with bracket ripples, while fights and suspensions prove the fire’s still there. And then the Super Bowl: Seattle’s defense wins on depth and repetition, Kenneth Walker pounds out five a carry, and New England never finds the quick-game answers. The MVP debate lingers, but the tape says trench wins and smart adjustments beat hype.
We also share the off‑field joy: Jerry Rice and Joe Montana moonlighting as Uber drivers, a coast‑to‑coast portal surprise, and why global halftime programming is here to stay. Hit play for a grounded, energetic breakdown that connects the dots across governance, strategy, and the moments that make sports unforgettable. If you enjoyed the ride, follow the show, share it with a friend, and drop us a review—what storyline had you shouting at your screen?
February 11th, 2026. Welcome back, everybody, for another episode of Sports Talk and happy early Valentine's Day weekend to those of you out there who will be celebrating that. I'm Brian with an eye. And I'm Mike. And we are two for the win. Mike, we have an absolutely loaded agenda tonight. Key us in on what we can look forward to.
SPEAKER_01Oh, there's a little thing going on known as the Olympics. You know, may have heard of it. Maybe not. I don't know. Maybe you're living on a rock and don't know what it is. Uh but we've got the Olympics to talk about. Baseball's got some stuff that's going on, uh, especially with the injury front. We haven't even started the season, we got injuries to talk about. Lord. And on top of that, we just had the Super Bowl. But the Super Bowl may take a back seat to all the wildness going on with the NBA right now.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I can you imagine? I mean, look, there's a lot of wild stuff going on in the Olympics too, which we'll get to here. But between the NBA and the Olympics, you know, there's a lot of crazy things in the world, and I can't wait to discuss it. But before we jump in, I just want to thank our sponsors and partners. Body by DGym, located in Yorktown and Gloucester. Uh Deshaun Wright, uh, doing a very good job up there. That's the lead man in charge up there. He is leading the way with that organization. He's a former bodybuilding champion and training future bodybuilding champions in their own right. Very community-based, a lot of youth uh-oriented organizations operating out of there uh sports-wise, uh, just absolutely family-friendly uh workout center uh in gym. So, congratulations, you guys. You guys do a great job. Um, our good friends uh Kate and Christian over at Solace Outfitters, which by the way, these guys are seniors, they graduate this year uh on the college basketball for them. Uh, and I believe they're gonna continue working at that business, Solace Outfitters. So good job, guys, and congratulations. And Christian actually plays his last game uh next Wednesday for his school. So congratulations, guys, and uh keep it going. And finally, the Giving Tree Chiropractic, located down here in Virginia Beach with us. Uh Justin's a very good guy, very knowledgeable, uh, very outgoing. Uh he's very good at what he does. There's not a lot of good, it's hard to find a good chiropractor, right? Uh, and he also has his pricing uh set up so that it's accessible, his services are accessible for anybody on anybody's budget. So thank you everybody for being our sponsors and partners. Uh, and we look forward to doing more business with you in the future, guys. Mike, we got a long one tonight, man. Let's dive in.
WADA Funding Freeze & Oversight Debate
SPEAKER_01All right, so let's let's kick it off with uh look. We don't get political on this show for good reason because honestly, we don't really care for politicians and pol politics in general. But when it starts lining up with some of the things we talk about, we got to touch on it. So, right now we're gonna be touching on the fact that uh President Trump has signed a law that withholds the United States dues to the WADA. Now, you might be saying, what is the WADA?
SPEAKER_00It's not the dodgeball one, I can tell you that right now.
SPEAKER_01No, no, no, no. In this case, it is the World Anti-Doping Agency, which basically helps oversees these athletes that are competing at a world level, such as the Olympics, which is going on right now. Now, the his whole reasoning behind Holt withholding this funding is because he feels like the uh WADA is a little more biased in their their assessments. Uh, he's he cites this from an incident, and normally they would the United States would be paying them uh$3.6 million in dues, but they're withholding that because of a situation that happened where there were 23 Chinese swimmers that tested positive for a banned substance back in 2021, but had not been published or accepted. Uh uh the WADA did not accept the Chinese official explanation that the swimmers had eaten tainted food, but nothing happened after they had popped positive for this uh particular situation. So he wants to enact where a third party gets involved with these testing situations of these athletes to just kind of be another body that goes behind the official body to make sure that everything's on the up and up. Which I can see that. I can see where, you know, let's get a third party entity to just double check the results and make sure that there is no buddy skirting the system.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean, corruption is everywhere in today's world, not just society world. So I can understand that, but Mike, what could these implications, what kind of implications could this have? I mean, at least there is somewhat of an answer and a response in place already as to what they're gonna do alternatively. They're not just saying, hey, forget you, we're not paying you, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and then often.
SPEAKER_01Oh, well, they're offering solutions to the so concerns.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And uh we'll see if it if it comes to anything. But yes, yes. But basically, you want a level playing field. It's just like when you have players in baseball, basketball, football, when all of them test on the regular, and the testing is not done by the league itself, it's done by a third party that has no affiliation whatsoever with the results. So they hire somebody to do the tests, they have no skin in the game, they're being paid one way or the other. They all they do is give the results to the league and say, look, player X pop positive.
SPEAKER_00Isn't the WADA the third entity, though, that the Olympics would like to use, or is that they're the ones that oversee it right now. But they want it, but Trump's administration, they want a different entity to do it.
SPEAKER_01They just want an additional party.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_01An additional party to oversee what they're doing just to kind of like just having a second second opinion.
SPEAKER_00They want it like they want an outside source. Is the WADA regulated and man uh staffed by the Olympics committee? Is what I'm trying to get at, I guess. Because there's a lot of political things happening here, even with the Well, I don't I don't know that for certain.
SPEAKER_01All I know is like they are the ones that oversee whether or not athletes do or they test the athletes to make sure that they are not taking things they shouldn't be, because all these athletes, you don't want them compete, you want them competing on the same field, same level. Like we don't want somebody who's you know been in this case what we had happen years ago where we found out that you had a blood doping issue within the cycling community, which actually wound up pointing out the fact that Lance Armstrong had been blood doping and is a big no-no in competition, yeah, but is very hard to figure out until you find out that somebody's been doing it and right until you test for it.
SPEAKER_00Now, did the WADA find that out? Were they did they have a hand in that? I don't know.
SPEAKER_01You're asking me a lot of questions I don't know the answer to. We're ill-prepared for this conversation. No, no, no. You're just asking questions I don't know the answer to. Yeah. Basically, the gist of it is he just wants oversight, a little extra oversight over over the WADA be just because of the fact of suspicious-looking situations with the Chinese team where you had a bunch of people pop positive and nothing happened. So now we get we were gonna hit on this again. This was years ago, though. Let me re let me remind when I say this. Oh, so this is kind of like old news then.
SPEAKER_00No, no, no, no, no. No, the Chinese, the Chinese got popped back in 2020. 2021. 2021. So that's the old part. But this new law that he once enacted is the new news, which is okay.
SPEAKER_01Sorry for the new law, the new law is preventing sending the payment to them.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and that that's what I'm trying to figure out.
SPEAKER_01It's a messy situation.
SPEAKER_00It is messy, and it typically is politically, no matter which way you lean. But I'm just trying to figure out what's the hold here. We may have to hit on this again. I think our listeners might want to dive into this more. We don't have to. It's just just putting it out there.
SPEAKER_01We're just putting it out there. I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna get too far in the weeds because I really don't want to go political when I really.
Lindsey Vonn Crash And Injury Debate
SPEAKER_00Well, I'm not trying to get political with it. I'm just trying to get more clarifying answers surrounding it, which is okay. Well, the main meat and yeah, potatoes of the story is this is how we talk about things, right? Like, but we don't have the level, you know. But we I digress.
SPEAKER_01It's it's just withholding money from the W W ADA because he's not he's not liking the practices that they're that they're doing, and he wants a little more oversight. I'm gonna dive in this.
SPEAKER_00I'm gonna dive into this some more because this is a good talking boy. But we'll hit on this again next week, I think, because this is fun stuff here.
SPEAKER_01Moving moving on into some Olympic news and and unfortunate news, uh, it actually happened right after we did our recording last week, uh, where Lindsay Vaughn wound up crashing, tearing her AC ACL, and kind of thought, okay, well, she tore her left ACL, that's it, she's not gonna compete. But come to find out, like she talked to a couple doctors, put on a brace, gave it a go. Actually, did some trial runs where she went downhill and things were okay enough that she felt it it was worth giving a go. Now, when her official run came, it lasted all about 13 seconds, and she wound up crashing again. Uh, except in this time this time around, the crash happened while she was going down and she was up in the air and she clipped one of the gates uh that kind of helped mark the trail so you can navigate the trail and stay on course. Uh, unfortunately, when you're in the air, you can't really course correct or move away, and you you wind up hitting one, it can throw you off because remind you that these skiers are going 60 to 80 miles an hour downhill. You don't have a lot of uh chance to course correct.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you know, I agree with you on that fact, and this is interesting to me, right? Because um, these are the kind of things, yes, I know she was cleared to compete. I know a lot of people go back and say, oh, well, she shouldn't have been competing, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Whatever. We already talked about that last week. What I'm trying to get to now is this is with competing with an injury such as a ligament tear like this, you may feel confident and strong, but that ligament is not going to perform to the way you like. And honestly, I watched one of her qualifying runs. I think it was actually her last qualifying run. Um, and I'm not an expert on downhill skiing, and I'll get to you in just a second, Mike. But um, my opinion, I think she did not look that comfortable. I think like she was just trying to tough it out and get through it and see if she can meddle, uh, which I commend her a lot for with dealing with that. But I just uh these are one of those things that like she was pushing it and it couldn't perform, and I think that that is a huge contributor to her crash.
SPEAKER_01Uh it had nothing to do with the crash. Well, she came to the case. She says, Well, she said it even herself. But mind you, she's in the air. So being in the air happens on the course, and you have no way to course correct when you're in the air. So the knee had no play in this. What actually happened, and she clearly said it herself. She said I was five inches too close in in on that run, and when I was too close in, and I got up in the air, that she clipped the gate, and the gate pushed her off course, and when it pushed her off course, she came down, smashed her left leg, causing the break. Which she's had now had three surgeries already to try to repair that broken leg. And she she said, like, look, despite the pain, despite what I'm going through, I would have done it all the same. Yeah. Because I mean, for all intents and purposes, this is pretty much probably going to be the end of her career as a down here's downhill skier at the Olympic level competing. I think we're the world championship compete.
SPEAKER_00I think even without the injury, this was probably her last hoorah anyway. Yeah. Because of her age and her body's just not. This is the last time her body will be able to perform on this level. Well, she's had multiple surgeries already. Yeah, multiple surgeries.
SPEAKER_01She's had a partial knee replacement on the right side, yeah, torn ligaments in that knee, which is why most people thought that she wasn't gonna come back at all because she's been away, she was away from the sport for almost six years. But even still, when you have what is it, 84 world championships, yeah, and you have multiple medals, there's no one that there's no one that could look at her and be like, Well, there's you didn't have a good career.
SPEAKER_00Well, there's gonna be there's gonna be wear and tear on a career like that. Now, it doesn't matter what you do in life, there will be wear and tear on your body, and you will pay for it at some point in the future. But I know that the injury didn't directly have anything to do with this. I know she was pushing her limits. That's what these athletes do. Not talking, I'm not mad about that at all, but I do think that her overestimation on the course when she went airborne, I think her route leading up to that, I do think that her ligament played a role in her being misaligned and sending her in the situation that she went airborne for may not have been the reason for it, but I think that the performance of that and trying to push it with that tear, I look, she didn't look comfortable to me in qualifying. And I saw her pushing it there too. She was way off course on a few on a few occasions on the qualifying run. I saw she looked by the end of it like she was just barely holding it together. Um but to see her be able to go and tough it out through that, despite what happened, I still commend her, but I also like I like I was saying, like, I still think that pushing her limits uh on that torn ligament probably played a role in her overestimation and what happened and all that. I'm a little more scientific with my analysis. I like to look deep into what leads up to things. Well, you know how I am. I'm a I'm an investigator.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but people people have playing with a torn ACL before. There have been plenty of instances where you have offensive linemen that brace up and still play even with a torn ACL, even middle linebackers in college who have still played on a torn ACL. I agree. That means their cut moves ain't the same, but the fact that you can't you can't say that the reason that she crashed is because of it.
SPEAKER_00I didn't say that at all. I said it contributed to it. And also, um football players aren't skiing downhill at 80 miles an hour.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but they still have to make cuts and go in one direction and change direction to their moments now.
SPEAKER_00And their ligaments, and we just said it here, their ligaments do affect their performance there too. So that goes back to what I was saying. Like, I'm not trying to start an argument or a debate, but what I'm saying is I think the torn ligament contributed to what happened.
SPEAKER_01Well, I'm I'm just taking it for what the athlete said, which is she said it had nothing to do with that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, she's never gonna admit that.
SPEAKER_01She's never- Well no, I mean, but she she clearly said I was five inches closer in than I should have been. Which is right, because she clipped the gate, which she shouldn't have, because she misaligned it.
Olympic Neutrality: Helmets, Protests, Bans
SPEAKER_00And part of that is because she lined it up wrong, part of that is performance-based. I'm not saying it is the end-all result, I'm just saying there was a multitude of factors that contributed to it, and I think that the ligament was one of them. But we can move on from that, and I wish her the best of luck in what she does moving forward, and a huge congratulations. Even though she crashed, still a huge congratulations to her for making it this far and still competing. Um, but here we go. Team Great Britain, they're banned. Now, this one's a little more political as well. They got banned from their skeleton ham their skeleton helmets uh spark an emergency legal dispute. Uh basically, Team Great Britain. Excuse me, Mike, if you want to help me a little bit. Some hiccup here. But basically, uh just to paraphrase a little bit, the British Bobsled and Skeleton Association uh asked the Court of Artation to overturn an international bobsled and skeleton federation decision ahead of the start of competition on February 12th, because they're not allowed to use these helmets, which help me buy some time, Mike. I'm sorry. Uh I saw some okay how our first robust aerodynamic kit has developed we can start the Olympics something with the phrase on the helmet. Yeah, that's what I'm trying to find right now. I had it just a second ago, but it's it had anti-war phrases or something political on it.
SPEAKER_01Um it just basically had to do with do with anti-warment, which which they basically the the Olympics wants nothing to do with political or any divisive because the Olympics is supposed to be about the world coming together. This is why you don't see them representing Russia in this Olympics. You have athletes that compete, but they do not compete as a Russian athlete, they they are an independent performer because of the issues that they're having with obviously war. So and this this is not the first time they've had things like this where they've banned countries for for things they're doing. So it's it it's it's one of those situations where the Olympics wants to be completely neutral and have a have a come together and everybody be good to one another, which I do one another reason why I love the Olympics.
SPEAKER_00No, and I agree with you, Mike, and I think that is right. Keep politics out of the Olympics because now you have a place of neutrality where all countries can come together, they don't have to worry about political retribution, anything. They come here and can compete. And honestly, I think that that helps the political atmosphere globally because now you have these places of neutrality where your country is crossing with paths with other countries. I honestly think it's a good thing for politics.
SPEAKER_01And a lot of these athletes, even when they're competing with one another, they're still cheering each other on. Like they still, you know, they might not get the goal, but they'll still come over and congratulate one another, hug one another, and you know, you see a lot of goodwill towards one another. And it's probably because some of them year-round compete against each other and train around each other, so they see each other a lot, but it's also, you know, in the competing aspect and spirit of the Olympics, it's just brotherhood and being together in a good manner, you know?
Medal Count And U.S. Highlights
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and I also want to add to that, like partially because there's no politics involved, you see uh civilians, citizens from all nations, even nations who are even at war with each other, you see these athletes commingling uh in a positive way. Uh, and I think that's very uplifting, especially if you're two countries are uh it's like that's just uh crazy to me. And moving right along, uh before we move to the next subject, we'll talk real quick about uh we are America, so we're gonna talk about how many medals America has before we move on to the next thing. Uh America has a total of four gold medals, six silvers, and two bronzes so far for a total of 12 medals. Not bad. We are actually second place overall in medals.
SPEAKER_01Just behind Norway, who has 13, and the host country, Italy, is actually uh just actually moved into second because they have 13 total medals.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so that has only having 12.
SPEAKER_01So that's it's a constant running thing here. You know, the Olympics is going on as we speak, so events are completing as we speak. So right now we've just moved down to third. That's right. But still, I mean there's still plenty of events to go on, still plenty of chances for medals. And I'm I wouldn't be surprised if a couple more of these countries start making their way up the list as well.
Figure Skating, Hockey, And Viral Moments
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and just a quick rundown. So far, we have meddled in alpine skiing, cross country skiing, curling, which is a big one for us historically. Weird. Um, figure skating, freestyle skating, luge, and speed skating. Uh, which is interesting because there is speed skating, there was an American competitor who uh slipped and fell, and a Korean competitor. Fell over her and they were both eliminated. And I didn't add that story, but I thought that was an interesting little tidbit. But here, moving on to the next story having to do with the Olympics. Women's USA hockey and men's singles and skating meddled together within minutes of each other. Okay. Women's hockey defeated Canada 5-0. Illa Malaninen, I hope I said that right, took the top spot in men's singles. Both of them, I believe, placing gold. You could just call him the quad god. The quad god. That's actually his handle on social media, the quad god. Yeah, his forehead looks like a quad. Anyway, I digress. Congratulations to both of them. Put some respect on that kid, dude.
SPEAKER_01He does backflips on the ice. You know how dangerous that is.
SPEAKER_00Actually, I heard he won on a controversial move. So congratulations to him for pulling that off.
SPEAKER_01Whoa, he's they call him the quad god because that dude hits moves that most other competitors can't even touch.
SPEAKER_00Yes. No. And if you wanted a tip on skiing, it's all in the legs. Yes. In the hips. Not in the quad. Not the crotch, though. And we'll we'll get to that in a minute. But uh it's we had a bizarre interview. Where was this guy from, Mike? Uh he was from Oh no, I want you to say that. I want you to say the name. Sherlock Holmes Lagrid won the second Olympic medal of his career Tuesday as he finished third in men. This is, by the way, via Sports Illustrated, uh, Stephen Douglas. Uh Tuesday as he finished third in men's biathlon 20 kilometers individual event at the interseveral and Milan Cotina Games. Fill that part in yourself. I'm sorry. But anyway, basically, so this man medals. The sport is rather irrelevant. It's the interview that's fun, Mike.
SPEAKER_01Well, it's no, the sport, the sport is entertaining, and the fact that he even meddled because there's tons of competitors in the butt but the fact that he gets there, he medals, he does an interview, and normally it here's the thing. Like, normally you you anticipate somebody wins a medal, they bring the mic over to you, and you're like, all right, you're expecting them to say, like, oh, I'm so thankful I'm here, you know. Um I I have to thank my family, my parents, you know, maybe they thank thank God or whoever. Like you're expecting that, right? You're expecting the the oh my god, I can't believe I won. You're expecting that out of him. And what you get is him basically pouring his heart out saying, I screwed up. And we're wait, wait, you screwed up? How did you screw up? And he's like, Well, I met a girl six months ago, she's amazing, she's great, she's the love of my life, and unfortunately, I cheated on her. And the interviewer's just like, wait, what? Like, where is this coming from? But he basically pours his heart out saying that he screwed up, he cheated on his girl, and she knows. This wasn't like he was telling the whole world their business, uh, and she didn't know. No, she knew. She just was pissed at him, and rightfully so, and was just like, All right, uh, I'm pissed, I'm done. And this is his grand moment to try to get her back. Don't know if it worked, but yeah.
SPEAKER_00Okay, so little do you know, I have another show in development to compliment our show, Mike. And it's about men's relationships and life experiences. I'm gonna give you a tidbit from that show right now. First of all, never tell on yourself, okay? Especially on international television, alright? If you're gonna do something like that, first of all, I feel for this kid, okay?
SPEAKER_01He already told her, though.
SPEAKER_00He already told her, yeah, she already knew. So I don't think this was a surprise, but as a man, Mike, we can relate to this. Like, men do exaggerative over-the-top things to try to win the woman, you know, the apple of their eye. I blame Hollywood. Exactly.
SPEAKER_01I just I blame Hollywood. This was like, he thought this was a rom-com and he was gonna win her back.
SPEAKER_00I blame Hollywood. I also blame Fast and the Furious, because if he had won, he might have got her. Anyway, you got bronze, bro. What does Fast and Furious have to do with that? Because that man didn't win the race and he lost his girls. The guy with the gold supra. We all know. Lord, Lord. We all know what happened in Too Fast, Too Furious, okay? And if not, I encourage you to go find out. But anyway, um I think it's hilarious. He comes immediately off competing and he's trying to pour his heart out for her. I'm not trying to joke him. I commend him for going out on a limb, honestly. Uh, but inevitably the move did not work out, as you told me, Mike, earlier. What happened?
SPEAKER_01Well, she basically said, uh, you know, that's uh nice and all, but she's still not okay with him doing what he did and not gonna really listen to him. You know, basically, she wasn't having any of it. And she was getting a lot of support from a lot of people online on social media going telling her, yeah, screw him, move on, don't go back to him.
SPEAKER_00These are the these are kind of things that exes get off on, okay? Not just women, exes of any gender, okay? Because when you see your ex on live television doing some stupid stuff like that, and then honestly, I think it opened a door for her to turn him down. Cause maybe, because everybody doesn't like to be out there in the open, right? To be honest, at least he tried. Everybody doesn't like to be out there in the open. So maybe he says, tells the world he cheated on her and wants her back. Maybe she's got to have some self-respect. Be like, nah, the world knows you cheated on him. I can't just keep keep you now.
SPEAKER_01At least he tried. You know, he won't have doubt in his mind of what would happen. There's no what if.
SPEAKER_00He didn't have that anyway. He already told her and she already said no.
SPEAKER_01I I realize that. But what I'm saying is he made one last ditch effort. Like, I'm gonna shoot my shot, hopefully it works. It didn't work, and he doesn't have to go on thinking.
SPEAKER_00I mean, I always I always commend a man for shooting his shot. I think it was a little idiotic, but I'll commend you for taking the try, right? Putting yourself out there. That is what being a man is, is putting yourself out there, okay?
SPEAKER_01Speaking of idiotic, why don't you talk about this next subject?
Curling Breakthrough And Finals
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we'll get past this, talk more about that, but that was fun. Okay, we talked about Norwegian team uh being disqualified for making adjustments to their crotch suits and the men's uh ski jump a week ago. We now have another crotch crisis on our hands, okay? Um this one is actually being referred to as penis gate, okay? And uh Mike, go ahead and say what you're gonna say while I get organized here.
SPEAKER_01How could we have more than one issue in the Olympics with the crotchal region when it comes to man, this is this is this is ridiculous. This is this is just beyond ridiculous. So if you wanted to figure out whether or not the Olympics is actually you know checking these athletes, oh yeah, they're checking. And as a matter of fact, I heard while I was watching the ski jumping events, they actually have uh devices in the suits in different places to monitor if their suits are illegally done.
SPEAKER_00By the way, with all this crotch uh manipulation going on, this has led the Olympic Committee to now place microchips in the crotches of all meeting suits.
SPEAKER_01That's what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_00Oh not just for skiers in this sport. And I think, and now this one, skiers were injecting acid into their genitals. I can't get the article to pull back up. Uh, but it's yeah, it's smart, dude. It's not coming back up. I had it in there, but basically, these athletes were injecting acid into their balls. I think it was it was performance enhancing pretty much. Is it a performance-enhancing modification or is it a performance-enhancing substance?
SPEAKER_01I think what I call it is stupid. It's performance-enhancing stupidity, is what Mike says. No, I'm I'm just saying it's stupid in general, and forget the performance. If you're if you're going to mess with the boys to do something in the Olympics a little better, uh no, you're wrong.
SPEAKER_00Don't do that. Oh, by the way, it's high hyaluronic acid into their generals genitals, according to a report that surfaced from German media last month. Jumpers' uniforms are now are measured by their stride strength, uh, which is determined by a 3D scanner from the lowest point of the general's area. So, um man, humans are smart because they do some dumb stuff, man. They're so smart you're stupid.
SPEAKER_01I I think by this article that you're talking about they're doing dumb things. They are anyway.
SPEAKER_00But let's get away with well, hold on, I got one more because I want to give Eddie Edwards a round of applause because he was one of the few famous he's a famous skier, by the way, here competing at the Olympics. He actually backed out. He's Eddie the Eagle Edwards. Uh he's the most famous British person ever to compete in ski jumping. Yeah, because he had a movie made by about him about his ski jumping. So basically, he backed out. He said he's not gonna do it, it's not for him. Uh so I gotta commend in a world where people will do anything to get an advantage, I gotta commend him for standing his ground and doing things the right way, okay?
SPEAKER_01So uh one of the medals that we had mentioned was curling. We got a medal in curling. So it's kind of a historic medal because it was the first time that we've gotten a medal in mixed doubles, making it a mixed double means one man one woman for a mixed doubles, and in that case, we actually have our first woman to ever win an Olympics curling medal, and that's uh the team of the Coreys. Uh, actually, Cory Thesi is the name of the woman, and Corey, I think it's Dropkins, yeah, Dropkins is the name of the man. Uh, they actually took out the reigning champ from last time, the Italy team, and in order to go for a chance again against Sweden for the gold. Uh, unfortunately, they came up short, they wound up losing 6'5 in the final match, but because they were going for the gold, they still wound up with a silver medal, which honestly, you cannot you cannot be disappointed with at least I know you want to go home with the gold, but coming away with a silver medal and becoming for for These being the first female to win for the Olympic or for the United States an Olympic curling medal, the first one, it's gotta feel pretty, pretty good.
SPEAKER_00And by the way, who'd they lose to, Mike? Sweden. Yes, yeah, Sweden. Sweden.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but look, Sweden, they deserved the win because their their mixed doubles team, uh, I forget the the the female's name, but she was shooting at a 90% accuracy rate. When she would take a shot, 97% of the time she hit her shot. So 97% of the time she was on point. So can't can't really hate on that. Can't really hate on that at all. So congratulations to them, congratulations to Coreys for their placement. Uh, because getting just getting past Italy was tough.
MLB Giveaways, Throwbacks, And Fan Culture
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and honestly, congratulations to all the Olympic competitors, not just the American ones. Um, and good luck to the ones who have yet to compete and still are competing. Uh, we're gonna hit more on the Olympics next week. We're gonna go ahead and wrap that up for now and jump into it. Um let's talk about some best bowl action. We have quite a bit of news here to cover as well. Let's jump right in, Mike. I'll let you take the lead here.
SPEAKER_01All right. So right now is about the time of year when a lot of the teams are starting to put out, you know, hey, we're gonna have an event, you know, maybe it's bobblehead night, maybe it's bat night, maybe it's, you know, come get come get a jersey night, you know, whatever it may be. Uh, because they'll they like to do these event nights.
SPEAKER_00Admit to cheating on your girlfriend night.
SPEAKER_01No, that's not a thing. That only happens in the Olympics, sorry. No, that's not a thing. So in this case, uh the Rangers have a pretty interesting uh replica night where they're gonna give away a jersey uh that for for you know true Ranger fans that have been been following the team for years, they'll know exactly what this is. But at first glance, you look at this Ranger jersey, it's number 34. And in case you didn't know, number 34 was worn by Nolan Ryan. And the the jersey they're giving away, or replica, uh looks like it's blood. Like there's blood all over it.
SPEAKER_00You know, I saw this. I'm glad we're covering this.
SPEAKER_01So here's the thing: like you're like, well, wait a second, why am I getting a jersey that looks like it's got blood all over it? Well, it actually stems from an interesting game that happened back September 8th of 1990. Uh, in which case, uh Nolan Ryan, who was pitching that day, uh, tried to field a one hopper ball that was hit off the bat of Bo Jackson of all players. And Bo Jackson that dude he was spectacular at baseball and football. But he hits he hits this one hopper, and as Nolan Ryan tries to field it, he misjudges it, it bounces off his glove and pops him right in the face, busting his lip, requiring six stitches, but he doesn't come out. He just continues to pitch. He stays in, he winds up pitching seven scoreless innings with a bloody lip.
SPEAKER_00So I mean, I suppose people have fought through worse.
SPEAKER_01I mean, we talk about hockey players and football players being tough, but when you take a if you've never been hit by a baseball, it is not forgiving. It's not like being hit with a basketball, it's not like being hit with a football. That thing is solid like a rock. When it hits you, it hurts. It hurts. Like a rock. But anyway, because of like a rock, because of that memorable moment with Nolan Ryan, who's one of the best to ever do it, and one of the only players to pitch in four different decades, uh you gotta you gotta really appreciate that, especially from a fan of the Rangers, or just a fan of Nolan Ryan, uh, who regularly still goes to games. But speaking of jerseys, the Marlins, the Marlins have they've changed their jersey over the years, and the fans, the fans have kind of been a little uh upset because they really like the classic jersey they had, the teal jersey that they used to wear from the beginning of their their team back in the 90s. So what do the Marlins do? They hear their fans out. They look they realize that they don't like the fact that they do not have those jerseys anymore. So on social media, they hinted in the past month the Marlins on Saturday reveal revealed uniform highlights of the teal jersey that will be worn Sunday home games, they will wear the teal jerseys again.
SPEAKER_00You know, I love that sports teams across all sports are doing more creative things with their fans. Um, you know, the Nolan Ryan Bloody Jersey replica, Mullen's bringing back the teal uniforms. Uh, do you know just real quick? Uh James Harden's with the Cavaliers now. Uh they came out with beards on a stick for his debut. And the Mighty, the the Duck, I called him the Mighty Ducks because I'm a I'm a 90s kid. But the Ducks for the NHL for their home games, and I know for their season opener, gave duck masks away, duck goalie masks away. They put a duck mask on every seat. So, like, I love these things that these that these sports teams are starting to do in this age for fans.
MLB Injury Wave And Hamate 101
SPEAKER_01Well, so moving on from a couple of good news about giveaways and stuff, and we have to get into this weird scenario where we got a lot of players before the season has even started for Major League Baseball that are hurt. And uh right now, uh, we're gonna talk about the Blue Jays. The Blue Jays are having a horrible time with injury right now, especially with I'm gonna let Brian do the name.
SPEAKER_00Oh, Kim Brian's say the name. Dr. Keith Meister player right there, blue letters. Oh, my bad. Colorblind. Anthony Santander.
SPEAKER_01Yes. A key free agent acquisition last year. Uh, he is having shoulder surgery that is gonna have him out the entire season. So he's done. He's he's not playing next year, so they are screwed to that.
SPEAKER_00This one hurts, and I know their other injuries hurt too. This is gonna affect their postseason run for sure. Oh, yeah. They're but I I'm not done. I'm not done. This this is yeah, let's get through the let's get through the other ones here.
SPEAKER_01But this is not the only injury they're dealing with.
SPEAKER_00They're they're gonna have a fun time trying to make a late season run here. Uh good luck to them.
SPEAKER_01Well, no, no. I mean, they okay. So here's what's going on. So not only do we have Anthony hurt, but Shane Bieber has popped up as hurt. He he was uh ramping up and will be a little delayed now because of for because of right forearm fatigue, according to their doctor. So he's now gonna be a little delayed and might push back his ability to be a starting starting pitcher for them at the opening of the year. I've had right foreign. So hopefully hopefully he's he'll be okay.
SPEAKER_00It's a very hard thing to overcome, but I can tell you from experience.
SPEAKER_01But Bowden Francis will be undergoing use uh UCL reconstruction surgery, which will make him miss the entire season. So the season hasn't even started, and they're already down two players.
SPEAKER_00Done for the year. Better pull an Adrian Peterson and come back fast. So championship windows closing.
SPEAKER_01The Phillies also are dealing with their ace, Zach Wheeler, possibly not going to be making the opening day lineup because of a uh he underwent.
SPEAKER_00He underwent thoracic outlet decompression surgery. I'm not a doctor, so I'm impressed I could pull that off there.
SPEAKER_01Always fun to let Brian say what say some of these things and see see if he gets them. But yeah, so he's gonna be out for a little bit. And just so happens that in a matter of a day and a few hours, we found out that Francisco Landor is going to miss some time because of a hammock bone injury. Corbin Carroll is going to be missing some time and missed the World Baseball Classic because of a hammock bone injury.
SPEAKER_00Good lord.
SPEAKER_01And Jackson Holliday, the second baseman for the Orioles, is also gonna miss time with uh do you want to take a shot? What what injury he has? Thigh bone. No, a hammock bone injury. Oh my lord. So in case people are wondering what a hammock bone is, not the ham bone. Let me let me see, let me see if you can guess. Where where is your hammock bone?
SPEAKER_00I'm guessing it's on the ham bone, which is located on the ham of the pig. What? I don't I don't know. First, first I'll I'll help you out. I'm not good with human biology or physiology. I'm not a scientist nor a doctor. I know where your eyes, your nose, and your mouth is.
SPEAKER_01Look, sir.
SPEAKER_00I got you.
SPEAKER_01Here's what it is. Okay. The hammet bone is in your hand. The ham bone. No. Hammet. It's H A M A T E. It's a hand bone. No, it's a particular bone in the hand. It's more toward towards the base of your hand, kind of near your wrist, but there are two bones before you get to your wrist. So it's a small bone within the hand.
SPEAKER_00Exactly, it's a hand bone.
SPEAKER_01Hammet bone.
SPEAKER_00Hammet bone, but it's a hand bone. The hand.
SPEAKER_01Here's the thing. Now that we've explained what the hammock bone is.
SPEAKER_00As well as we can, anyway.
SPEAKER_01Now we're you're probably wondering why are all these players winding up with an injury to the exact same bone at the exact same time. Thigh bones connected to the hand bone. Well, this is because of the way that baseball players grip a bat and go to swing a bat. With the way that their hand lines up with the bat and lines up with the base of the knob to the bat, it causes pressure on the hand. Well, now after thousands of times swinging and putting pressure on that bone, you can eventually cause a stress stress fracture. And in this case, is probably what has happened to a number of these players. And it just so happens it happens to be some of the best players in the game that are all screwing up this bone at the same time. In Francisco Landor, Corbin Carroll, and Jackson Holiday. Now, the good news is it's not going to end their season, it's just a few weeks. You get the surgery, they fix it up, you're gonna miss a little bit of time. Unfortunate for us because we're losing Corbin Carroll for the World Baseball Classic, so he won't be playing for the US, which sucks, which also means Jackson Holiday won't. Francisco Lindor, I think, was playing for the Dominican Republic, if I'm not mistaken, so might help us there. But thankfully, we've gotten through some of the injuries. I'm not gonna go over all of them.
SPEAKER_00God, man, they are mounting up. And I feel for the Blue Jays because this is gonna hurt their early season stats and could hurt their late season run.
Betting Scandal Fallout And MLB Moves
SPEAKER_01So the good thing is they're stacked at pitching, they've made a few key offseason moves to add some depth. They might be okay, they might be able to get past us and make a good strong run and bring players through trade possibly later in the year. But we had talked about the baseball scandal and and the two pitchers from the Indians, Emmanuel Classe being one of them, who we were talking about how they were betting on baseball or setting up for people to bet on baseball. And it has been found that Classe has rigged about 48 games with his pitches. So 48 games where they have found he has doctored or done a pitch in such a manner that it made it a questionable scenario where the betting lines were kind of shooting up during those points when he was pitching. So now we're in a scenario where the evidence against you is mounting. He's gonna be in some serious trouble because this is not this is not like oh you bet on baseball, you're gone. Or you set up you set up a rigging system and you're gone. No, this is you defrauded and scammed, yeah, and illegal gambling, you're going to jail. Yeah, this isn't like stealing signs or yeah, this is this is this is uh you you screwed up, you go to jail kind of situation. Yeah. So getting over to transactions. I know, no, even worse, dude. But let's get into some transactions that happen. We've still got players signing, even though we have spring training already happening where we have baseball players, pitchers, and catchers reporting already. Uh, we still have players finding new homes, or in this case, returning to the same home. Jordan Montgomery, a starting pitcher, is returning to the Rangers. Uh, he's recovering from surgery, but he will eventually get back to health and be able to pitch again. But he will be doing it for the Rangers this year. Moving on to uh the Oakland A's, they have found themselves a new starting pitcher and not so new, he's a veteran pitcher, he's been around the league, and I want to let Brian do the honors of pronouncing his name.
SPEAKER_00Can Brian say the name? It is going to be Lou right there. Aaron Cavale. Good job. He got it. I'm gonna say Aaron Cavale.
SPEAKER_01Yes, he is going to pitch for the Oakland, or well, see, you got me again. It's not Oakland, it's just the athletics. He's gonna pitch for the athletics for one year. So congratulations to him. I bet they are athletic in Oakland running from all them police officers. So one of the big questions that the Braves had uh being that one of their two two starting catchers uh had a serious hip surgery in this offseason and is probably not going to be back till later in the year. The question was, what are they gonna do for catching depth? Well, we got our answer. They added on a one-year deal, they added, and let's let Brian do the name.
SPEAKER_00Oh man, we're on a roll tonight. Brian getting three chances in a row. Sean Murphy. No, Sean Murphy's the one that's hurt. My bad. Jonah Haim.
SPEAKER_01Yes. Jonah is the new catcher. And if the name sounds familiar, he was with the Rangers and had a pretty pretty good year that the year that they made a run. Uh in that particular year, where he was doing excellent. Uh, I want to find the stats. I want to give you the correct stat line here. He was batting 258, had 18 home runs and 95 RBIs in the 2023 campaign, which was his best yet. But he was non-tendered contract by the Rangers, became a free agent. So we will have hopefully a good season with him filling in until Sean Murphy can come back. Or maybe we just hang on to him and we trade Sean Murphy. I don't know. We'll see. I'm down with anything because I'm not a fan for either team. So the Red Sox finalize a one-year deal with, and I'm really gonna love you trying to say this name.
SPEAKER_00Okay, I want to say falafel, but I know it's not that veteran Isaiah Kenner Falafeia. Fala, falafa. Falafel.
SPEAKER_01Oh, well, you got the first right. It's kind of falafa. But he's he's an infielder. He's he was with the Blue Jays, he's gonna be signing a one-year deal with with the Red Sox, playing for them this next year. Now, on to the big news. The big news Tigers have landed the number one pitcher out there in free agency, and that pitcher, I'm gonna let Brian say the name.
SPEAKER_00Oh, this is a good episode tonight. Whoa, this might be the best name tonight. Framer Valdez, the B might be silent, it might be Framer, like Kramer, but with an F.
SPEAKER_01Yes. Valdez, the former Tiger pitcher, is or now, no, now Tiger pitcher, former Astro pitcher, is signed a three-year$115 million deal to be with the Tigers. Congratulations, Framer or Framber or Valdez. But the Tigers weren't done. The Tigers, just a day later, wind up signing a familiar face to come back to pitch for them. And a former ODU alum, let me get you to say this name.
SPEAKER_00Oh man, we're on a road tonight. We should have practiced for this. Uh Verlander. There you go. Hey, sounds like something out of a Ben Stiller movie. We got that one.
SPEAKER_01Justin Verlander.
SPEAKER_00Wait, isn't he in that? Isn't he in that Ben Stiller movie? Which one?
SPEAKER_01You gotta be more specific about that.
SPEAKER_00The one where they're male models. I forgot the name.
SPEAKER_01No, he's not in there. Anyway, but his his wife is a model.
SPEAKER_00Ooh.
SPEAKER_01Kate Upton. Uh so Justin Verlander has found his way back to the Tigers. And it's even more good news, maybe not for the Tigers, but Terrence Scuble, he had his arbitration hearing. Now the Tigers said, nah, you're worth 19 million to us. He said, Yeah, no. So he went to arbitration and won. And now he's gonna make$32 million this next season, which is well deserved, considering that this guy has been in the conversation of Cy Young the past three years, basically. Damn. So you're you're sitting here saying, Oh, you're one of the best pitchers in baseball, but nah, you're more of a mid-level talent. Go get your money, man.
SPEAKER_00Let me show you how mid I am when I sue your ass. Congratulations, Scooby, winning his arbitration hearing.
SPEAKER_01Hey, you still think I'm mid? Moving on down to talk about how the Pirates are still making some low-key moves, but improving their team along the way. They just added, and I'm gonna I'm gonna love getting you to say this name. Oh boy.
SPEAKER_00Oh boy. Marcel Ozuna.
SPEAKER_01That was an easy perfect. You said it perfectly.
SPEAKER_00I'm starting to think you just can't read anymore, Mike.
SPEAKER_01No, I'm trying to get you to say these names, and I want to see how you pronounce them.
SPEAKER_00I need a hard name, like Anticupa.
SPEAKER_01No, no. Marcel Ozuna, long time veteran in the in the MLB. He was with the Braves for a few years. Before that, he was with a number of teams, including the Cardinals, Marlins. He was bounced around, but he's he's definitely big bad. He's a DH now. Not really hard to believe, but he does have a gold glove for playing the outfield. Not so much anymore. If you want a good laugh, I highly suggest you look up a the failure video of Marcelo Azuna playing left field for the for the Cardinals. It's a great watch if you need a good laugh. But congratulations to the to the pirates and adding a good bat to help their cause this next year.
SPEAKER_00I agree. Congratulations and good job on him for that. Now, my next thing up here, this is quite interesting. Uh, we're gonna get off baseball and we're gonna jump into a little bit of basketball action here, starting with men's college basketball. Okay, everybody knows March Madness is right around the corner. We'll talk about some rankings here, but I think Alabama and a few other uh competitor teams have a conundrum here, okay? Uh Charles uh Biaco, Bediako, I don't know how to say a name. I'll figure it out. I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_01I warmed you up with all those other names.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and then I stumble in basketball. My bad, sir. Anyway, uh Mr. Charles has been denied an injunction against the NCAA for eligibility rules. Um as Alabama returned, uh he so basically Alabama's five games in already. Uh or he's five games in with Alabama. And basically he's not eligible, okay? Uh he became the the reason he's not eligible, by the way. Let me start at the the beginning, all right. Um he was drafted by the NBA, competed in the G League, uh, had some issues, and then went back to college and decided. I don't know if he decided he wanted to try to get drafted somewhere else or just go back to college, whatever the case. Uh there's a whole article about it on CBS. But basically, they've ruled he's not eligible uh to compete. And there's two things that go on here, and I don't necessarily disagree with it because you have already stepped up to the next level, right? Go ahead, Mark Mike Wildlife.
SPEAKER_01Has he I mean, when you consider the fact that he didn't really get any playing time on any NBA court, he basically was sitting around in the G League. I mean, did he did he did he honestly get to the pro level?
SPEAKER_00I mean, I mean, he it's kind of a wishy-wash, right? Like, you know, if you got drafted by the NFL and then made the practice squad and decided you weren't happy and went back to college to compete and wanted to get redrafted.
SPEAKER_01Like you can't though, because the second that you declare for the NFL draft, you're removing the sorry, the student athlete tag, or you know, you basically become professional. That's why that's why players declare for the draft. I mean, some of them it's kind of obvious. I mean, uh, you know, the guy that's been there four years and you know just won a national championship, it's kind of obvious his stock's probably not going to get higher.
SPEAKER_00The reason why I agree with this, and why even though he was in the G League, he was getting professional coaching. So he has had an opportunity to uh to upgrade his skills and then step back to what should be an inferior level of competition. He should just go overseas now. He probably will. Just go overseas and play. He probably will once he graduates college again. But but um, so basically they upheld that he's ineligible. Now, three teams have already lost to Alabama, which hurts their rankings in the March Madness tournament. Mike, I beg you, I ask you, sir. And where I myself am still I like basketball how we always have, but I don't know it like I know football, okay? Same thing with baseball. So, what kind of implications do you think this has for those teams? Um, and what do you think happens going forward?
SPEAKER_01Well, honestly, they can try to appeal the losses, but I don't know that you're gonna get any result between now and March Madness, so I don't think that anything's gonna happen that could benefit them by this point. I mean, we're we we are literally just weeks away, not even not even a month, we're weeks away from getting to the March Madness tournament. And I'm sorry to say, like if you're losing games now, you're at the wrong point to be losing games. You should lose early and continue to win late if you want to make a push for a position within the tournament.
SPEAKER_00Now, I agree, one player doesn't make a team, okay, and I think these teams may just be looking for a loophole to get ahead a little bit, which is understandable, especially if they're weaker teams. I don't know which teams they are. I didn't look that deep.
SPEAKER_01Well, to be honest, there's 64 teams, and I know some people are still like, we need to add more, we need to add more. We have we still have, you know, where teams are playing in, and there's still like really it's almost like there's 84 teams at this point. Yeah, you know, because there's all these games where they're playing to get in, and it's like essentially it's like it's already started by that point.
SPEAKER_00I feel like if you don't pull off a big win this weekend, you're probably where you're gonna be at in the rankings. Yeah. I I I start talking, they're talking bracketology now. Oh, yeah. There's already the AP top 25 has said it's not gonna change much in the next seven days. They start putting the bracket together next week. Um so I mean, I don't know if it really was as big a disadvantage as maybe they want to claim. But I know what happens when teams cheat. The cheating team gets fined and penalized, and the team that lost to that team unfortunately just has to eat it. Uh, that's usually how this goes. It sucks. It sucks to get ripped off in life, it sucks to have an opposing team cheat against you, get away with the win, and then be penalized later, and you get nothing for it, right? It's almost like not having justice. So I feel for them, but at the same time, I feel like you should have been able to be competitive and you should have been able to be the team. One player should not make a team, right? Okay. So my you know, my sympathy only goes so far for them. And real quick, while we're on the topic of March Madness and college basketball, we're gonna hit on some of the top-ranked teams here that we can expect to see probably make uh the bracket. And they we only have the AP.
SPEAKER_01You know, majority of these teams. Well, there's pretty much all of these teams. You're seeing names that are familiar when it comes to the bracket. Yeah. When you're seeing, you know, the Dukes, the Arizona's, the Houstons, the Michigans, you know, the Gonzagas, the Purdue's, the Flor Floridas. Like these are teams that you you're used to seeing in there, uh, at least within the last well, some of these have been staples. I mean, Duke's been in there for North Carolina. North Carolina's in there too.
SPEAKER_00I mean, Houston makes a relatively good run every year. I actually I like a few teams. It's hard to pick just one team, Mike, but I like a few teams, but I actually like Houston to try to make a deep run.
SPEAKER_01Look, the one team in this that right now they're ranked number one. Arizona, based on AP top 25, they're ranked number one. But Arizona is the team that is the most aggravating to me because they are the team that without fail, they get into the bracket, they look like a strong contender, and for some reason they always bow out early. They always get bumped early, and it pisses me off because I've killed my bracket a bunch of times. So Arizona, I hope that that number one status serves you well, but it's not gonna serve you well come bracket time because you always seem to get bumped by some lower ranked team. And yeah, and and honestly, just watch. It'll probably happen again.
SPEAKER_00I know the the records play a big role in this, but I I think you're gonna see Louisville and Kentucky come alive in the March Madness bracket. Uh, they always do fairly well uh in that. I don't think UNC is gonna go very far. I don't know, man. A school whose history is built predominantly on basketball history. I don't I don't see them going terribly far this year. You don't see a school that's built on basketball history going forward.
SPEAKER_01Oh, they had a rough time the last couple seasons, although they they they stayed alive. But really, it comes down to who you who you're lined up with in the bracket. Sometimes it's just crumb luck when you wind up being going against you know your number one team in the bracket, but you're going against the number two team in the bracket, and you're very evenly matched. While you watched on the other side of a bracket where a team that's ranked number one going against a 15, it's like, oh, okay.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And and some teams seem to be, quote, losing at the right time now for their placement. So another team, really an under-the-radar team, St. John's, you know. Well, St. John's did did well last year. They did well, they did last well last year. They've done well in years past, but a lot of people really don't talk much about St. John's.
SPEAKER_01Honestly, St. John's was a powerhouse back in the 80s. They were doing quite well, but you know, they fell on hard times and just they were not anything basically in the 2000s.
NBA Awards Thresholds, Load Management
SPEAKER_00And I mean, just simply looking at the top 25 Gonzaga, like I'm honestly excited about almost all of these schools in here. Um, so I think we have very exciting March Madness bracket as we typically do every year, and we'll we'll step off that, talk a little bit about a little bit NBA action here, Mike. Okay, so uh LeBron James starting out, uh he missed his 18th uh game of the season Tuesday night, which means he's no longer eligible for NBA season awards. So his 21-year all-MBA streak is now coming to an end, okay. Oh this seems like what's going on here, Mike?
SPEAKER_01Well, this was part of the NBA's ongoing effort to try to keep players engaged and keep from having people do this load management or healthy scratches, you know, where guys need a break. And it's it's more so it's it's a big problem with the NBA right now. And and thank you, Popovic, for bringing this into the league. Uh, it's caused a lot of problems and is still going to cause problems because you know, you it's it's surprising that you have players, some players that make you know 50 million and they can't even be bothered to play a full 82 game schedule. And now I know LeBron has said in the past, like, today's NBA is not the same NBA that you had back in the 90s. But a lot of those guys back in the 90s played 82 games. It was kind of a badge of honor to play 82 games. Now, his his stance is does have some merit. It does have some merit. I will give him this that the players are a lot stronger and faster in today's game than they were back then. So that's not to take anything away. There was plenty of strong and good competitors back then, but I do know that some of the fouls back then were a lot harder than the fouls I see now. You know, they're I'm sorry, but when a guy goes by and he gets touched with basically a pointer finger and he clearly gets easily to the basket and you know gets his gets his bucket, and they say, hey, foul, and go shoot another shot, and nothing really happened, he barely got touched. Ah, that's a little uh that's a little BS to me. I don't like that. I don't like that at all. You know, to me, I remember the days watching, and here I am going a I mean, back in my day. Back in my day. But watching guys go to the rim, and it was like you had like the bad boy pistons. You come into the paint if you want, but we're gonna knock you around when you do. And I like to see that the Pistons now are kind of becoming that way again. Like they're beating up on dudes when they come into the paint.
SPEAKER_00They're literally beating up on dudes.
SPEAKER_01I think the Pistons. Yeah, we'll get to that. Like they lead the league in in fouls, and but they are also one of the top defenders in the league. So I can't really if you're drawing a lot of fouls, you're doing something, but hopefully you're doing it for the right reasons. But that's but that's part of part of the thing. You know, the league has changed. Yes. But you know, we've gotten to a point where, you know, back in the day, you had players, they would vehemently not like one another. Just flat out they did not like one another. This the league now, I mean, guys are boys, you know, teams are you know, pretty much they hang out, they talk to one another, they see each other, and and that's all good and fine. But the the rivalries that you used to have back in the day, like I said, you had the bad boy pistons that man, they they were beaten on Jordan. When Jordan would go down the hole, they were beaten on that man. It wasn't until he got you know some help. You know, that's one of the reasons he was so pissed when Charles Oakley got traded to the Knicks, because Charles Oakley was one of his defenders, you know, one of the guys that would go in there and throw down for him, and you trade him away. But then they got him Scottie Pippen, and you know, everybody knows the story after that. But uh they got him other players too. Don't get me wrong, Robman was down there creating havoc too. But the point of the matter is the good old days. The point of the matter is you had players like really throwing some weight around down low. Now it's like you know, guys kind of get out of the way, or you know, they barely touch a guy and oh foul. Yeah, come on, come on.
SPEAKER_00The foul game play it, play it out. Yeah, the foul game gets annoying after a while.
SPEAKER_01So, still speaking about Lakers, what about this Rob Palenka situation?
SPEAKER_00So, yeah, Rob Palenka, uh, unless they catch fire in the second half of the year, and this is a quote, by the way, coming directly from Heavy on Sports. Uh unless they catch fire, which by the way is uh courtside heat, uh unless they catch fire in the second half of the year uh and make a run in the playoffs, um they're thinking their coach's career is on life support right now. So uh Well Robinka's GM, right? Yeah, uh yeah, sorry, I misspoke GM. Uh they're thinking he is on the hot seat right now, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him as well as the coach replaced. Uh, you know, usually when GM goes, the coach goes to nine times out of ten.
SPEAKER_01Uh well they've they've kind of they've kind of committed uh to their head coach, but like Rob Polinka. Well, yeah, things are different in the NBA though. You're right.
SPEAKER_00So the GM could go.
Lakers Heat Check And Front Office Pressure
SPEAKER_01Well, the GM they're possibly gonna move on from because they they've kind of got new ownership going on. But um, and Rob's part of the old regime, but because the Bus family has sold off majority ownership to a new to basically the same company or the same group that has the Dodgers. So there's gonna be some changes probably coming along. But the Lakers, man, I hate to say it. Like right now, right now, the Lakers, they're sitting sitting here all the way. Let me get down here. Let me get to the Western Conference. Let's see, let's see. They're in the fifth spot, right, in the Western Conference right now. So they're they're right in there, middle of the pack. They're they're they're they're in an okay spot. They're gonna make the playoffs. But here's the thing they suck on defense, they do not play defense well. You know, like right now, they're sitting with a 32 and 21 record. Now, could they probably catch fire and go on a run? Sure. But when you start having to play these teams that are good on defense and can match you point for point, you gotta make stops. And I just don't see that with their team. I just don't see them making stops.
SPEAKER_00Look, it is not gonna be enough for the Lakers to simply make the playoffs, okay? They need to make a deep, deep run. I don't see it. The standard for the Lakers franchise is always making the playoffs. So if you don't make in my mind, Mike, I'm thinking if they don't make the cup, if they don't make the NBA finals, I'm thinking that's the bar. You might not have to win it, but if you don't even make it there, I'm thinking that's gonna be a straw for them because you have LeBron on your team, bro.
SPEAKER_01And yeah, but LeBron's not the same player, man. He's not he's not looking for a little bit. Hold on.
SPEAKER_00No, I only waited. I only pause.
SPEAKER_01Let me let me say this. Let me say this. Let me say this, let me say this. The days of taking and turning your team over and saying LeBron save us, that's not a thing. Like, can he give you a quarter? Can he give you, like, down the stretch at the end of a game, give you a flash? Sure. But the him basically taking over a series, that's not a thing anymore.
SPEAKER_00I'm not disagreeing with you. I agree with you totally on that as far as his athletic ability and age goes. But LeBron is not all about athletic ability. LeBron's a look, part of the reason. He's still great. He can't him. Hold on. Athletic ability aside, basketball talent aside, LeBron is great because he's a gig he's great at preparation. Okay, he's just like the Tom Brady of the NFL or of the NBA. Sorry. Um, he prepares well, he studies well, he practices well, okay. They wanted him to bring that to the team. They didn't want him to put the team on his shoulders and say go win us a championship, although they'd love it. They kind of did. They did, but I think they really wanted him to bring that level of championship caliber preparation to the team, which was already a championship caliber team, talent-wise. Uh I think they wanted him to bring a little more edge to them and help them get past that final hump. They were expecting to have won a championship by now with LeBron on the roster. You good?
SPEAKER_01Okay. All right. Let's move on.
SPEAKER_00That was my that was my passing it off to you. We're are we are we just dropping the LeBron thing there? Okay. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01We're we're gonna move on to the ball.
SPEAKER_00Nothing more on LeBron, everybody.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00I guess I just ended it. But okay, let's move on to the next thing, though. We'll we'll discuss the layers a little more as the season continues.
Fights, Suspensions, And Rising Stars
SPEAKER_01So recently we had uh interesting uh Detroit and Charlotte game. As we said, you know, the Pistons are trying to, it's almost like they turned back the clock. They're turning into the bad boy Pistons again and and getting into a bit of a uh Turn back the clock, roll back the rock. Getting into an aggressive situation uh where they decide to throw bones. Like they're getting they were getting uh and it really they weren't the ones that started throwing bones, it's more the Charlotte player. But uh anyway, between Charlotte and Detroit, they had a game recently where it got a little ugly and some players started to uh throw down, and they have now dished out the suspensions. And I think penalties, suspensions, and fines. I gotta say I kind of agree with how it panned out, but the Detroit center uh Isaiah Stewart suspended seven games by the NBA as of today, while three other players were also penalized for their roles in the fight during the game between the Pistons and Charlotte. The Hornets forward, Miles Bridges, and Musa What did you say? Diabetes? Debates. How do you say that last one?
SPEAKER_00Musa Diabet A. Sure. Diabetes without the S. I'll buy that for a dollar. Diabetes without the S.
SPEAKER_01We're each suspended four games for fighting and escalated an altercation while Pistons Center Jalen Durden got two games for his initial escalation and fighting. So this this if you haven't seen this, this is like almost malice in the palace kind of situation where you know, despite you know, going into the stands, I mean, they they had they had players coming off the bench that were trying to fight. It was like almost like a bench clearing situation, like an MLB.
SPEAKER_00This is not the first time we have talked about Isaiah Stewart and being involved in an on-court con uh confrontation. This actually we talked about Isaiah Stewart last season uh with that tussle with the Timberwolves. And this is my point about the piston starting to be like the old by the way, Isaiah Stewart is still banned from both of those pizza locations. I'm sure it's twisted.
SPEAKER_01But I I implore everybody, if you haven't seen it, go look at what happened in this situation because it kind of it almost it almost came out of nowhere because I mean Stewart's trying to go up and he gets fouled by Musa, which by the way, he wasn't owning it, but now he's owning it. Musa is actually owning his nickname of Moose, and when he gets a rebound, he'll do the like moose ears with his hands. So like I kind of like he's owning it now. But uh and it and it will actually put some more eyes on him. He needs a little more attention than he's getting, but but he needs good attention, not this bad attention. Uh yes, but anyway, because of this, uh these suspensions being handed out, it's it's it it's all to me, it's all showing where there are still some players in the NBA that care and that they they still have passion. You know, like we just discussed about them doing load management and how it's kind of a pain and and more so, we're we'll get more on that, but I hate the fact that like you think about it, right? Most fans they can't really afford to go to a bunch of NBA games, let alone take a family of four. Because you take a family of four, you gotta buy four tickets, right? You gotta pay for parking, you gotta buy food, you gotta, you know, the kids are actually gonna want something, so you gotta go buy something in the stands.
SPEAKER_00So I am the family of four. I buy four tickets for myself because I like space.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. But anyway, so you go to these events, you spend hundreds of dollars, and then you sit down in your seat, and then you go to look at the starting lineup, and you see, oh, they're sitting all the starters. Well, darn, I spent all this money. My kid wants to see their favorite player, they're not playing. Kind of a huge issue with the NBA right now, you know, where they're they're having to deal with load management taking over the league, and there's been a lot of uh discussions about how this load management and not only load management, but now you have teams that are starting the tanking now.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and my question are there too many games in an NBA season? No. Are there not enough games?
SPEAKER_01Okay, let's let's think about this logically. You're an NBA player, you don't play a full game typically, right? You're probably playing somewhere between 23 to 30 minutes per game on average. We'll say that's just about average. Because you have rotations, so yeah. You have rotations, but you have some guys, they don't play the full you don't, you know, they rotate in and out, and you're not gonna play one full go-round. You know, usually you bring in your your star players when you need them, which you know, some teams have been sitting their starters for an entire fourth quarter, uh uh uh Utah, uh, which we'll get to that as well. But you're you're having teams sit their starters, but if you're playing 30 minutes over 82 games, there's no more, there's really no more back-to-backs. So, really, in a given week, if you have three games, you're only doing an hour and a half worth of work in those games. But yes, you are training, you are traveling, you are, you know, still involved. You're not doing the same amount of work that somebody that works, you know, average person now is working between 40 to 60 hours just to maintain a lifestyle and to feed their family and keep things going. I agree. You're sitting here complaining about that, and some of these guys making 50 million a year, the average fan, no wonder they're not watching. If you're s if your players don't even care about the regular season, how do you expect the average fan that now has to go and hunt and find the games? The games just aren't on TBS, or not TBS, TNT, they're not just on. You have to go find it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I agree.
Ninth-Year CFB Eligibility Oddity
SPEAKER_01Uh you know, the sourcing and everything like that, uh such as you know putting in the effort for it and uh so recently we've been seeing teams that are obviously tanking, and I like I said, the Utah Jazz obviously tanking. Because they're sitting their starters. Bro, they're not just sitting there starters, they're like they're just not playing. They're sitting their starters an entire fourth quarter. They're sitting there having players not even dressed for games, and it's not just them, it's other teams too. And kudos to the Miami Heat to saying, uh-uh, we're gonna still let you win. We're not gonna let you have your tank-a-thon because like teams are trying to win the draft lottery. The draft lottery is not gonna necessarily be an automatic, but they're saying this draft is gonna be a better draft. But when you when you trade for you know players and you set you you're setting your team up for success, and you have pretty good squad right now, and you're just losing out games which looks like you're full on tanking, it's not a good look. It's not just them. I mean, hell, you have you have other teams that are at the bottom of the league, yeah, like the the Kings, the Wizards, that are all sitting starters, you know, healthy scratching some players, saying rest or whatever. You know, it's ridiculous.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I they'll they'll have to figure that out. Um, and then the the it's contributing to tanking as well. I don't like tanking. I think you should always compete your best, even if you suck.
SPEAKER_01Well, think about it from a standpoint of a fan, right? It's your team, you love your team, right? You've been following them for years. Maybe your dad followed them, maybe your uncle followed them, maybe your grandfather followed them, and now they're your team, and you're watching your team, and your team's just like giving up.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I mean, how would you feel? How would you feel as a fan? You're sitting here watching your team just just obviously not trying when you've got great players and they're not playing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think that's contradictory to the integrity of the sport. Like, I don't like tanking for any reason. I don't care if you're trying to get yourself in position, I don't care if it's for the draft or for the bracket. Like, I think the results should be true and honest. I think you should compete to the best that you can compete at, and the pieces fall where they fall. That's just me though. Like, even if I know in my mind that I'm gonna lose a matchup in whatever sport I'm playing, and I've been through a few of them in my time, an adult now. I still went out there and did the best I could, because there were a few times that I won. I grew up a wrestler, okay, collegiate wrestling, and uh Matt Wrestling pretty much. There were matches that I won that I knew in my head I shouldn't have won, just on the sheer fact that I went there and I performed my best, and my best happened to be better than their best on that evening.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Well, going from that to speaking about another altercation that happened. Uh so there was a game, there was a game between between the Hawks and Timberwolves, and I gotta love it. Come on, Brian. Yeah, we ought to roll.
NFL Coaching Trees & Hall Of Fame Class
SPEAKER_00What is this? Number seven tonight? Names at the top. Names at the top. Uh Muhammad Guy. And Nas Reed. There we go. We've talked about Nas before. He we talked about him last season. I remember Nas Reed. Okay. Everybody loves Nas Reed.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so these guys had an altercation in their last game. Uh is resulting in a$35,000 fine that was handed out today for both of their grabbing of jerseys tussling situation. So not even not even like really a fight. It's more like a hey, you get over here, you know, tugging in on each other's jerseys kind of situation. But hey, they both cut slap with a fine. I couldn't afford to pay no$35,000. But you can't, but they can. Oh, I'm sure they can, but you know, here it is again.
SPEAKER_00$35,000, I might as well buy a new car.
SPEAKER_01So Jason Tatum, who we all saw last year in the playoffs towards Achilles, uh his timeline is still unclear. They don't know when he'll be back. Although, a good sign, he has been seen participating on some five-on-five light drills, so that's a good sign towards trending to coming back. Yep. So he's got to put a little excitement in them. I don't think that he'll necessarily be back to play this year. Uh, but seeing that he's getting back out there has to give the fan base a little bit of hope.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think so. Uh, I know it was a tough injury last year and an absolutely bad time. Uh, I know they're trying, I know they'd like to have him back uh before too long because they want to try and make another run. Uh but like you say, man, it's just it's up in the air. Obviously, maybe he's having some complications here or there with the recovery process.
SPEAKER_01Well, they're doing pretty well without him. They're 34-19 right now and second in the east. So uh that's a pretty uh pretty good spot to be in right now.
SPEAKER_00Pretty good and commend their coaching for that, because uh they have to. I mean, without one of your star players, you gotta get by. And there's they're obviously they're getting by. They're doing it, so I give them commend them for that.
SPEAKER_01But speaking of getting by, how about those Spurs right now, man? How about their their star player, Wimbayama? He put up 40 points in 26 minutes against the Lakers, giving the Lakers a loss. Like, remember when you asked me who I would start my team with if I was choosing a young player?
SPEAKER_00You say Wimby.
SPEAKER_01Yes, yes, this is why. This is why I say Wimby because think about this. He's only 22 and he's already putting up 40 points in a game. And with this 40-point game, he has more 40-point games than Tim Duncan.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and think about that. And he did it in 26 minutes, which is barely over a third of the game time play.
SPEAKER_01I mean, 60-minute game, so it dude, it's just insane to think that he did this, you know, like he he really is just incredible.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, incredible player. I think he obviously a generational talent uh to boot. And on that note, uh, Mike, uh let's talk about a little bit of college football action here. I know we don't have a lot on that, but moving on from the NBA here, Montana linebacker Solomon. Uh this is another one of my name moments here, okay? Linebacker Solomon Tullia Pooh poo. Tolia Poo poo. For okay, that's where I'm settling. For Solomon. Let's just stick with Solomon. Let's stick with linebacker Solomon, okay? Former 2018 USC uh signee granted an he has been granted a ninth year of eligibility uh after completing this season. Uh uh, they went ahead and go ahead and got that out of the way. So he's been playing college football coming up now for what will be this coming season, nine seasons, okay. Is this man's real name Van Wilde or Mike?
SPEAKER_01He's he kind of joked about that when he was asked about h getting his ninth year of eligibility. But this man has completed a bachelor's bachelor's degree in business administration from uh USC Mar Marshall School of Business, a master's degree in project management in from USC uh Boulder Boulder, Colorado? No, it's Boy Brevard? Brevard?
SPEAKER_00Brevard USC's Brevard College. Okay. I haven't I'm not familiar myself.
SPEAKER_01And a graduate certificate in Enterprise Relations or Enterprise Let me try.
SPEAKER_00He's got a graduate certificate in entrepreneurship at the University of Montana with a college. Is that what you're trying to do? Yeah. Yeah, entrepreneurship.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. That's what I do. That's what we are doing with this podcast.
SPEAKER_01Yes, anyway, from the University of Montana in progress right now. So I don't know how our certificate gives you eligibility to play football, but apparently it does. So he's going to play.
SPEAKER_00Hey, as long as he never goes to the pros, they probably let him stay as long as he wants.
SPEAKER_01This is insane. Like I this is this is a new world of college football, and it's just it gives me hope.
SPEAKER_00I'm going to go try out for ODU's football team, Mike. Don't do that.
SPEAKER_01You don't need those problems.
SPEAKER_00Probably as an assistant coach or a water boy. But either way, I hope NIL is involved. I hope NIL is involved. But congratulations to him. Not a lot to hit on in college football. We're going to go ahead and scoot along into the NFL here and talk a little bit. We will get to some uh Super Bowl fallout ramifications here soon, but we're just talking a little bit personnel moves here first. Okay, Kingsbury, Clifford, in fact, is his first name, and I'm going to call him Clifford because I now no longer like him. Uh left the Commanders, didn't have much sex, didn't have much success in finding a head coaching job. Uh he's gonna join Sean McVay's Rams uh sponsor.
SPEAKER_01It almost sounded like you said he didn't get much sex.
SPEAKER_00He didn't get much sex. So he left for D. So he left DC. No. What I meant to say, and my apologies, he didn't have much success. And uh let me enunciate that a little bit better. My apologies. He did not have much success in finding a head coaching job. Um, honestly thought he was a pretty good candidate for it, but given what happened in Washington this year offensively, maybe hurt his uh reputation a little bit. But I I like him joining the Rams offense because I think they do more of what he wants to do.
SPEAKER_01I think he's just hoping this gets as much success as he's had with all the other coaches that just get close to Sean McVeigh and they seem to get interviews. Like everybody seems to get picked up once you've been around McVeigh. I mean so I think this is his attempt to get another another shot.
Super Bowl Week Antics: Ubers & Portals
SPEAKER_00I mean, if you look around the league, the Shanahan coaching tree is very strong. The Mike Shanahan. And I I want to know which coaching tree Mike Shanahan. Did he come from Parcell's or what did Mike Shanahan's coaching tree start at? Do you remember? We'll we'll look at this for next.
SPEAKER_01Wait, wait, wait. Mike Shanahan is the father of Kyle Shanahan, and he started uh he was part he was part of the San Francisco 49ers before he went to coach with the uh Broncos, and when he was coaching with the Broncos, he was the coach when L Way won his two two goals. That's right. But from his tree, you had names like Mike Home, Mike Holmgren came from him. Uh well I was trying to say, where did Mike Shanahan himself come from? Because he Oh, he he can't he came from uh oh dang uh the Walsh. He was part of Bill Walsh. That's right.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, Bill Walsh's tree. And that system uh even in its evolution is whole strong because look at how many coaches from that tree system are yeah, the West Coast system are actually all about timing and rhythm. Yeah, I mean Kyle Shanahan being probably the most notable as Mike Shanahan's son, Sean McVay, as we're talking about now, Mike McDaniels actually uh come from that um Mike McConnell in uh Minnesota, uh, and there's like two others that came from the Shanahan coaching tree when he was in Washington. At one point, he had six head coaches that had come from the Shanahan coaching tree, uh, which derived from the Bill Walsh coach in the West Coast office. So I agree here, moving on. Uh you're right. I think he's looking for some of that success, maybe some of that magic sauce that the once youngest coach in the NFL had.
SPEAKER_01It seems like anybody that's you know, the barista at Starbucks that gave Sean McVeigh his his coffee is probably gonna get interviews next year.
SPEAKER_00You know, it seems like anybody that's been near McVeigh, I mean he's he's a young coach, he was the league's youngest coach. I think he still holds that record, even though he's not young anymore. Um he's a very good coach, and again, I I don't blame Kingsbury. Also, they were Super Bowl competitive, even though they didn't make the Super Bowl, they were playoff competitive. Um he's got Matt Stafford, they have a lot of offensive pieces in place, and that's what Kingsbury's looking for. He's looking to be set up for success. Uh, maybe he finds it with the Rams.
SPEAKER_01Oh, so what you mean to say is you know, it's kind of like how, you know, you had McVeigh and Matt Stafford go to the exact same resort at the exact same time on vacation when he was still with the Lions and just happened to wind up in the same place where they just needed a quarterback. Yes, and this time so except this time, this time Kingsbury is not in Cabo or wherever. They went to the same Starbucks. Yeah, they probably went the same Starbucks.
SPEAKER_00They went to the same Starbucks in like Ohio somewhere, halfway between them, just passing through. Hey, Sean McVay, you're here. I'm here. Let's agree that's how that goes. And we know uh Bill Belichick did not make it on his first billet, but two first ballot uh Hall of Famers, Drew Brees and Larry Fitzgerald, along with Adam Venateri, Roger Craig, and Luke Keekly for the player side of the Hall of Fame ballots. Congratulations to those five.
SPEAKER_01Well, uh wanted to say a few things on on this this ballot. Uh Drew Brees and and Larry Fitzgerald 100% deserve to be in. And I'm not surprised both of them went first ballot. I'm a little surprised it took so long for them to get Adam Venteri and Luke Keekly in. But I'm even more surprised that it took this long to finally get Roger Craig in. Roger Craig, and this is not me, Niners take whatever, but when you're the first player to do something, be the first player with a thousand yards rushing and a thousand yard receiving in a season, and you're a multi-year troll bowler, multi-super bowl winner. I mean, come on. Why did it take this long? Like, seriously, why did it take this long?
SPEAKER_00And I'm not disagreeing with you and congratulations, Roger Craig. I want to turn the focus to Luke Keekly here.
SPEAKER_01Oh, I I have one more thing before you before you move to Keekley. What you got? I do love how they wound up introducing him and letting him know he was getting in the hole. So they got Ronnie Lott and Charles Haley to show up at his house to knock on his door to let him know. And before Ronnie Lott had a chance to even knock on the door, he flings the door open and he's like, he's like, oh, he's startled because the door opened before he touched it. And he goes, He goes, Ronnie! And he's like, Hey, you made it! And then they're just all like hugging and jumping in and crying.
Halftime Show, Global Reach, And Ratings
SPEAKER_00That's that's an awesome story. And I want to highlight Lou Keekly because he retired early, just like um Andrew Luck did. Um yeah, but Keekly's Keekly, but this but this is what I want to say, like Keekly's level of talent and what he did for the Panthers, uh, clearly is still a longstanding effect. Because to be a first-time Hall of Ballot sorry, to be a first-time Hall of Fame uh first time ballot Hall of Famer. He's not first. This is his first time being eligible. No, it's not. It's oh wait, that's right, Fitzgerald and Breeze.
SPEAKER_01But either way he's been eligible for a few years.
SPEAKER_00That's why I said he's he's been eligible for a few years, but even just to make the Hall of Fame, which is where I was going with this, even just to make the Hall of Fame, because you did not play, quote, a full, what we consider a full career. Um he prioritized his health, which I agree with. So I think getting inducted into the Hall of Fame and playing on a short career in the NFL speaks volumes to not just his uh athletic ability and his talent, but also his kind of character and what he brought to that team.
SPEAKER_01Keekly suffered from multiple concussions, neck injuries, and multiple other injuries that kind of shortened his career. And I actually was watching one of the game, one of his final games, when he got a concussion, and he was literally on the cart crying because he knew it was probably over.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Now, in a short span, he had major impact on that defense and major impact for offenses that had to face him. So his stats alone and and the way that his play elevated that team when there was nothing else really around, is the reason he's making it in, and he is deserving of that nod.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And I'm not disagreeing with you. Um, and I know injuries played a role in that, but you don't usually see people with shortened careers make it into the Hall of Fame. Um, and I'm not knocking them or him. I think that's great for him, and I think he absolutely is deserving of it because his character alone is enough for me, and then you add his athletic talent to that. So, congratulations again to all five of those uh players, former players.
SPEAKER_01So, moving along and talking about uh an unusual situation. Like we just had we just had the Super Bowl and it was in San Francisco, well, Santa Clara, really. But uh a side story that happened from here uh that has nothing to do really with the Super Bowl other than proximity, and because it has to do with the San Francisco 49er player. Uh recently there was news put out that Keon White had to get surgery on his ankle because he sustained a gunshot to his ankle, and apparently there was an altercation between him and the rapper Little Baby that then turned into a gun situation.
SPEAKER_00Lil L I L. There's no T's.
SPEAKER_01Okay, whatever. Rapper.
SPEAKER_00Also, what is it with the 49ers and gun incidents? It's not a requirement.
SPEAKER_01I can tell you this. It is not a requirement for you to be shot to be a part of the 49ers, but I didn't know that you know San Francisco's turning into Compton here with players getting shot left and right.
SPEAKER_00It's not San Fran, it's it's uh Santa Clara now.
SPEAKER_01Look, look, the incident with our our wide receiver, Ricky Pearsall, was in San Francisco. I'm pretty sure this one was in San Francisco. Santa Clara. They're the Santa Clara 4 winners. It didn't happen. I'm sir, I'm telling not where the team plays. I'm telling you where the incidents happened. The incidents happened in San Francisco. I I know not in Santa Clara.
SPEAKER_00I hear your frustration. I'm just making it look.
SPEAKER_01I'm giving you the facts. It literally says in the article that these both happened in that area, not in Santa Clara. All right.
SPEAKER_00We're on two separate pages right now. But I anyway. Yeah, that's fine. But real quick, before we jump into the Super Bowl, I have a question for a 49ers fan. A true lifelong die hard bleed the blood 49ers fan. Mike, are you ready for this question? I think I know what it is because I put this article in here. I don't think so. Anyway, before we go on to your audio, what was it like having a gigantic banner of Seattle Seahawks starting quarterback Sam Darnold hanging from the exterior of your stadium? What was it like having a division rivals picture hanging from your stadium? Honestly, don't care. Look, don't give me that. I I'm being honest, I didn't care. Alright, well, I need another 49ers fan because this one's broken.
SPEAKER_01No, I'm just saying I don't. Look, most people didn't like this Super Bowl, didn't like what happened. But I want to talk more about some of the festivities going on before, around, and during the Super Bowl. I want to talk about this situation that if you happened to be out in San Francisco and ordered an Uber, more so an Uber XL. Now you know that's the more expensive one, you get all that extra room and stuff. But if you just happened to order one during last week's festivities leading up to the Super Bowl, you might have just been catching a ride with future with two Hall of Famers and Jerry Rice and Joe Montana. They were actually doing some Ubers. And you know, it was quite funny because I want to get this right. I want to find, I want to find what Joe put in here. Because he put a he put a you know, classic Joe, he put it, he always puts something funny in there. He said, he said it in his little little banner, been making clutch drives in Bay Area since 1979. Strive to always maintain maintain a five-star rating.
SPEAKER_00Oh my god. It was so good. First of all, gotta love Joe. I I absolutely love this. I love that marketing is getting more creative, no matter what company it is or sport. Uh two Hall of Famers out Ubering, and you know these guys, they probably didn't, they could have said no, right? They probably could have said no, but the fact that these guys, these two particular specific uh players, Jerry Rice, were out there ubering. Uh I don't know what to think of it. Could you imagine, Mike? I can imagine your reaction.
SPEAKER_01I would have been as soon as I got in, I would have been changing my drive to somewhere way far away. Just to be like get some more time with it.
SPEAKER_00I guess you had it. Wait a minute. This is Jerry, this guy looks like Jerry. This is Jerry Riot. You know what? I need to go to New York.
SPEAKER_01Like can we, can we, can we go, can we drive down to San Diego? That's a good 10-hour drive. We have some good conversations.
SPEAKER_00In fact, where'd you go to college, Jerry?
Game Plan: Seahawks Defense vs Patriots
SPEAKER_01Let's drive there. Let's go there. I don't think they want to drive down down to down to Mississippi.
SPEAKER_00You know what? It's not it, they have a job to do, okay? It's not their choice. But I think that's incredibly awesome. Uh and moving on, there's a lot of things going on here uh at the Super Bowl. They had a Super Bowl. Do you are you familiar with the the world portals, Mike? Uh so this is interesting to me. Uh, and I feel like sometimes the things that are interesting to me are usually only interesting to me, but I share them with you anyway. Uh, so they have a portal. Are you familiar with the portals? I think I just asked you that. Anyway, uh, so these portals they're like video feeds, right? Usually they're circular, they're set up in a few places around the world. America has a couple, France has one, I think the UK has one. I think there's like one in Australia. There's a handful of them. You stand in front of them, you can see somebody in that country or continent on the other side. You can interact, talk, wave, whatever. It looks like a portal, you literally just can't step through it. Yep, yep, yep. Anyway, uh, so they had a Super Bowl portal set up between Seattle and uh New England. So there's two things happening here. First of all, there are two random gentlemen, one a Patriots fan and one Seattle fan, both found their way onto the portal, and now they have been in a standoff. So they both are standing off against each other to see who lasts longer on the portal, and there's a few people walking by and seeing it. But while this standoff is happening, a group of four women uh who are also at the Super Bowl on the Super Bowl side um actually walk up to this portal. They walk up to this portal and uh they pretty much flash themselves and jump up and down a few times and they leave. They don't say anything, they walk in front of the dude in a line, lift up their shirts, bounce up and down, pull the shirts back down, they exit. No words spoken. I thought this was an incredible uh act. If you saw this, if you were part of this, I want to know what that experience was like. If you were there live when it happened. Um, so I like you say, you know, Jerry Rice, Joe Montana Ubering, the portals, the standoff, the girls flashing people. Um we won't talk about it too much, but the dude, second time offender streaking the Super Bowl, there was a lot of chaos surrounding this Super Bowl, Mike, uh, as there is every year. So uh I thought that was kind of funny. Could you imagine being on a portal and just four random women? You know, I need some input here before we move on. But uh so that was interesting. But now talking about the Super Bowl itself and Super Bowl entertainment, the halftime show. Again, we don't get terribly political up here, and we're not going to with this. But I do want to say the wedding involved in the halftime show was actually a real wedding. So this couple, it doesn't say their name, they randomly, I guess, invited Bad Bunny to their wedding, and in turn, Bad Bunny invited them to the Super Bowl to get married as part of his Super Bowl halftime show. Um, I thought, despite the controversy around this halftime show, I thought this was an incredible um event taking place. At first I thought it was show. At first I thought it was made up. Uh, but I did some more reading. That was a real that was a real marriage ceremony, Mike. I didn't know that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, just one just one thing on the halftime show. I mean, to be honest, you know, it for those who were like, I didn't like it, uh I'm not into that. It's not my uh it was the highest rated viewership for a halftime show ever. So you know what? For all those people that are like, I don't like it, they don't need you. They don't need you. They had plenty of people who did. And to be honest, look, not my not my cup of tea, but you know what? There there are plenty of people out there that do love it, and that was their thing. And not every Super Bowl halftime show is for you. Sometimes it's for other people. You just gotta enjoy it for what it is, you know. Think about the years where we had The Who as the halftime show, or we had Metallica, or we had InSync, or we had, you know, uh Prince or any number of halftime shows. So like we had what was the the one where uh uh was that LA? The one where they had all the the rap rappers come out at the same time? It was Snoop Dogg and uh uh that was just a couple years ago.
SPEAKER_00That was that was actually Jack Harlow's. They had Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar, uh I think they had Eminem, Dr. Dre. Uh, and then I think like I said, Jack Harlow had passed off. But I'm gonna uh interject here real quick.
SPEAKER_01But my point the point I'm trying to make is it's been a little different all almost every year, and it's not always made for the people that it's not made for everybody necessarily, it's for they're trying to appeal to everyone, and so maybe this year it's not your musical taste, but apparently it was a lot of people's, if it was the most viewed ever.
SPEAKER_00Okay, I have a few points to make here. Number one uh the NFL is in the midst of trying to become an international product. Okay, they have international games, they're trying to expand internationally, uh they're going to start having an International based artist, okay. Even though Bad Bunny is a huge American artist, he's a huge worldwide artist. So there you're gonna start you're gonna start seeing the focus shift from America to worldwide, okay? This is something I want to I really want to drive home, okay, because they have to now appeal to the world. Okay, this is no longer this is an American sport, but this is becoming less about America. Okay, they're trying to expand their product and appeal their product to multiple masses. That means now you have to be inclusive on all fronts. Okay. I know a lot of people didn't approve of the bad bunny thing uh because it's not American, it was done in all Spanish. There's all kinds of the music. They say the music was an appropriate. First of all, the inappropriate thing, I don't want to hear that because literally every artist ever to do the Super Bowl has done an inappropriate set.
Super Bowl Stats, MVP Debate, Takeaways
SPEAKER_01Hey, we have we haven't had appropriate since uh wardrobe malfunction with Justin Timberlake.
SPEAKER_00Another point I want to make every Super Bowl halftime show every year is the most watched halftime show in history. Every single year. Okay? Every year more people tune in, every year they break the record. Okay. So, and Bad Bunny, by the way, Super Bowl halftime show put on by Jay-Z's Rock Nation. The NFL actually has very little to do with it. They just say, hey, we want a halftime show. Jay-Z's company handles the rest. And usually whoever the top one of the top trending artists is, and by the way, Bad Bunny was, and we're coming into the digital age now. We're firmly in the digital age. Bad Bunny was the most streamed music artist in the world. Okay. I get he's not for everybody. I get people's political views behind it. I'm not trying to go, I'm not trying to go there. I'm trying to emphasize what the NFL is trying to accomplish. Honestly, just don't watch it. If you don't like it, don't watch it. Don't worry about it. And you're right, Talking Points USA had an alternate show to offer. And honestly, at first, Mike and our listeners, I'm gonna be honest with you, at first I was like, who the F are these guys? You're gonna make an alternate halftime show to the halftime show? Hold on, hold on, hold on. I got a little more. So I did some thinking. I said, you know what? The NFL is trying to be more diverse. This is not a bad idea, okay? The NFL has its NFL sponsored halftime show, but this could be money-making opportunity. This isn't new, this is not new, but this is the biggest it's ever been in the spotlight. This could be a new avenue for the NFL. Okay, we're gonna have this as our NFL sponsored show. But in case you're not in favor of this because they're trying to appeal to multiple crowds, they may have a concert here in Melbourne, they may have a concert over here in Japan with their preferred styles of music, and then we may have the American halftime show here in our time zones.
SPEAKER_01For 22 years, we've had an alternate of the puppy bowl during halftime. So we've had alternates for a long time, and let's be honest, there's no way you're gonna appease everybody. This is like trying to be the president, you're not gonna make everybody happy. So just what they're doing, go with the majority, get an artist that's hot and keep it going. I don't fault them. I say you don't like it, don't worry about it. Maybe Greg Sheer look at somebody you do like.
SPEAKER_00I agree, and I know a big part of this was the fact that it was not in English. And I understand that sentiment. No, I agree. No, I agree. There should have been there should have been subtitles. There's subtitles in every other thing. I agree. There should have been subtitles, and I'm not knocking it, but just a key list. I'm not gonna go through every one of them if you're upset about him not being American. By the way, there's a long list of non-American halftime performers, and just so you know, a couple Paul McCartney, Rolling Stones, Jennifer Lopez, uh to name a few, Rihanna.
SPEAKER_01Jennifer Lopez is American. She's she's Jenny from the block, she's from the Bronx. Rethink your list.
SPEAKER_00No, this is let me check this real quick. Jennifer Lopez is from here.
SPEAKER_01From Virginia? No, from the US. You said non-American. Well, non-American born stars.
SPEAKER_00She's from New York. Okay, she's from the Bronx. So this list is a little out there. The list is wrong. But there's still some good cold play is from the key UK. Like, there are some good the Who Forget the list. Come on. The list, the Rolling Stones. There have been non-American, and don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to go left or right with this, but and to be honest, Mike, I was not myself overly impressed with Bad Bunny's halftime show. Honestly, I think one I I don't think Jack Harlow's show was that gross, and that was the one with all the rappers, as we just mentioned. That looked a little disorganized to me. I think Bad Bunny did a little bit better than that one. Uh, but I don't want to beat a dead horse, and I don't want us to go terribly off script with this. Um so if you didn't enjoy it, that's okay. If you watch the alternate, that's also okay. I think that's a great avenue for the NFL uh to appeal to their fanship. Uh, but moving on from that and portals and weddings and other things like that, let's get on to some real NFL Super Bowl news here, okay? Matt Stafford wins his first MVP, says he's gonna be back in 26. I don't know how real that is. Competitors always say that.
SPEAKER_01I think this is complete and utter bullshit. And I'm not saying that as a as a Niners fan, I'm saying that as a fan of the NFL. You gave this man a MVP because of what? Because he had probably one of the two best receivers in the league at his disposal, because he had a two-back tandem at his disposal that could pretty much carry carry the game. This man had multiple games during the year where he threw multiple picks, and you didn't give it to a man and in Drake May. Oh, hold on. Okay, you don't give it to Drake May, who I implore anybody, anybody to go and name me any receiver on his team that is not Stefan Diggs. I guarantee you, before the Super Bowl, before the Super Bowl, you go ask an average fan, they probably couldn't name any of the players that he was throwing to. And mind you, he did a lot with a lot less.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I I think so.
SPEAKER_01Lesser lesser offensive line, he did a lot to get to where he was. And now, mind you, people want to point to he had horrible playoffs. Yeah, look at the defenses he faced in the playoffs. He faced the top three defenses in the league in the playoffs and beat two of them to get himself into the Super Bowl. Yeah. This man, he is young. He is gonna, he's probably gonna have more chances to get himself into the playoffs, but you give it to Matt Stafford, and Matt Stafford didn't even win his division.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, he did he did well, he didn't win his conference. He didn't win the division, didn't win the conference either.
SPEAKER_01Uh he he was a wild card team.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. They were a wild card team.
SPEAKER_01And I you didn't give it to the man that that that won his division and beat out beat out the the team that was considered number one all year in the Broncos. Now, granted, yes, I know they had to backup quarterback. They still had their number one defense in there.
SPEAKER_00I mean, I I uh and this goes to my next thing. I think Myers at least should have been Super Bowl MVP, if not MVP. Well, let's talk about the game first before we talk about Well we're well. I mean, Stafford wasn't even in the game, so Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Point in Drake May's favor. But they figured that stuff out before the playoffs anyway. Honestly, Sam Darn Honestly, Sam Darnold would have been a better given given the fact that that Stafford at the end of the year lost to the Atlanta Falcons who didn't make it in and picked him off multiple times in in that game, and lost to the Panthers by throwing multiple picks. Like, I don't understand. I don't understand the voters' thought of he is the hands-down MVP of the league when Drake May was doing a hell of a lot more with a lot less.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I I honestly agree with you, Mike, and um I don't I don't know where the MVP always comes out of the Super Bowl, okay? I don't know why this isn't Sam Darnold, and even better, I don't know why this isn't Myers, their kicker, because their kicker scored all their points for them in the Super Bowl.
SPEAKER_01You're talking about Super Bowl MVP. I'm talking about MVP of the league.
SPEAKER_00Well, MVP of the league, in my opinion, should be Sam Darnold.
SPEAKER_01No, because Sam Darnold didn't have the numbers that Drake May or Matthew Stafford had. But he won. Yeah, I mean, he gets the ultimate prize. He won the Super Bowl, but and that's getting ahead of everything that we were going to talk about with the Super Bowl. It all coincides. They all know what happened. No, but we're not we're not we're not describing the game, we're not talking about the game. We need to talk about what happened in the game. So going into this game, we were expecting a little bit more out of what we got out of the Patriots with the going into halftime, it was only 9-0 with Seahawks getting all their points off field goals, basically sitting here with a Patriots team looking completely inept. And the biggest surprise to me, and this is the one thing I cannot understand, is you had the veteran staff on the other side with the Patriots. You had Mike Vrabel, you had you had uh McDonald or McDaniels. Josh McDaniels. Yeah, Josh McDaniels. Sorry, I don't know why I screwed that name up.
SPEAKER_00It's because Mike McDaniel and Josh McDaniel exist in the same football universe.
SPEAKER_01So you had these. Even though they're not related. One of them who's had multiple times to a Super Bowl as a coach, I do not understand why the game plan seemed to never change. They did not, they did not anticipate for the rush. They did not make any quick changes. Like if it was Tom Brady, there would have been quick outs, you know, quick pass play, runs up the middle to slow up that pass rush, but they did none of that. They did nothing to change the way that they were coaching this game. And it just, it was almost like they said, ah, it is what it is, and just kept doing the same thing.
SPEAKER_00No, I I agree with you. They didn't change much about the game script. Uh, they seemed a little ill-prepared. The Seahawks did not do anything different they haven't done all season. They went in, scored points, and the defense shut down the offense. Do you know how they did that, Mike? Their focus was on the quarterback. Their focus is always on shaking the quarterback, okay? They shook Drake May, they got him shook. He didn't, you know.
SPEAKER_01Well, it's not just his fault. I mean, they were constantly putting the offensive linemen on their back, but they they ran the same defensive play four times against them and got home. You know, got got to Drake May. But the problem is it they it's not just the fact that their left tackle, who they drafted high, they had a piss poor performance. And he didn't talk after the Super Bowl. And he said, Look, I didn't want to talk afterwards because I probably would have said something I would have regretted, which fair enough. Calm down, come back, talk. You know, don't don't, you know, in the moment, don't say something that will get you in trouble. But they didn't even really start scoring points till the end of the game. I mean, we're talking about in the third quarter, they were 12-0. So the field goal catchers carrying them, basically, because even even the defense of the Patriots is sitting there, you know, Christian Gonzalez had a great game. Like he very first run, he tipped a ball down that would have gone to JSN, which screwed a lot of people out of out of uh their parlays or or their bets where they would have had uh an any-time touchdown for him. I being one of them. Yeah. But which I broke even on my bets.
SPEAKER_00But um go ahead and finish. We'll talk about this shit in a second.
SPEAKER_01But after after they had 12 points, I I I have a buddy who's a Seahawks fan. I texted him, I said, Man, y'all really playing this 12th man thing up with being 12-0 in this Super Bowl. He didn't respond because he's probably nervous and wanted wanted not acknowledge anything until the game was over.
SPEAKER_00I love how you call him nervous just because we didn't name his name.
SPEAKER_01No, no, I said he was probably nervous. He might have been nervous. No, he was. He told me. He's like, I didn't want to respond because I was nervous about the game.
SPEAKER_00By the way, Micah, shout out. Love you, bro.
SPEAKER_01So, final score in the Super Bowl, 29-13. Most people already know Patriots lost and Seahawks won. They just had their parade today. Seemed like a pretty cool parade, seemed like things were going pretty well for them.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and and you know, uh the Seahawks scored like one or two touchdowns. Uh, their kickers scored most of theirs. I I honestly think the Broncos probably would have been in this instead of the Patriots. I think the Patriots did a lot with very little, as you mentioned earlier, Mike, uh, to make the Super Bowl. I think the Patriots have a very, very bright future ahead of them.
SPEAKER_01I heard a common theme when people brought up the Patriots and them with being in this game, saying they were ahead of schedule, meaning that this team was in a rebuild of sorts. And for the first year, Mike Variable, you get in there and you take them to the Super Bowl pretty much ahead of schedule. You know, so they did make some key free agency moves that kind of help them get ahead of the game at each each level, it seemed like, on all sides of the ball. And I think that's key to why they got to where they were.
SPEAKER_00I want to bring something up that I think it will blow a lot of NFL fans' minds. You can actually be a rebuilding team and still be uh successful in the playoffs. I know it's weird, I know it's uncommon, but you can be a high-performing rebuilding team.
SPEAKER_01Well, retooling and rebuilding are two different things. When you're totally stripping down and getting new players in and trying to build a whole new identity, that's a whole, you know, new coach, new quarterback, kind of like what the Raiders are doing. It it's it's a bit different. I want to point out something that might not be apparent to a lot of people that watch this game. Uh Sam Darnold's numbers in this Super Bowl were not particularly great. He he was out of he had 19 completions out of 38 attempts, giving him a 50% completion rating and only a 5.32 average when he was throwing. He had one TD. His passer rating was a 74.67. So he had over 200 yards passing. He had a touchdown, no interceptions, which everybody was trying to be like, oh, oh, you know, Sam Donald, he throws interceptions. Didn't in this playoffs.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, uh Sam Donald, I'm gonna be honest, throughout the season has really not had eye-popping numbers. What really sets him apart this season versus is he did a good job taking care of the ball. And also their run game. They had a really good run game as well in the Super Bowl. They had a really good run game throughout the year, but specifically in this Super Bowl, uh Kenny Walker, Kenneth Walker, or Kenny Walker, whatever we call him, uh he had 27 attempts on 135 yards. He didn't score a touchdown, but he averaged five yards of carry. Um that's pretty solid. That's pretty solid numbers for a run. 135 yards in one game.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and this is this is after they lost uh their their one-two punch combo with uh Charbonnet going down uh to I believe it was an ACL tear.
SPEAKER_00ACL tear, yeah.
SPEAKER_01So, and that happened against the 49ers, so they lost they lost him even before they played in the championship game. So for that for Kenneth Walker to step up and put it put up good numbers in both of those games, get them that Super Bowl win. Kudos to him, and he was the MVP of the Super Bowl.
SPEAKER_00He is their RB2, by the way. Well, Charbonnet is their RB two. Charbonnet is the RB two. Okay, so I I get confused on the roles from some time.
SPEAKER_01Honestly, they're they're like a change of pace. Like what they they alternate them pretty well.
SPEAKER_00What's significant here though is they didn't have Charbonnet, and Walker basically handled the Lions share almost 98% of the carries. You only had five carries split rushing-wise between three other players. Um, and then looking over to the Patriots, Drake May's numbers, uh he had 27 completions of 43 attempts, 295 yards, but his completion percentage was 6.8 for my completion percentage was 62 point.
SPEAKER_0162.8. He had a 6.86 average with two touchdowns, two interceptions. He was sacked six times and had a passer rating of 79.1. He had a better day stat-wise than Darnold did, but Darnold came away with the win because of the sacks and the interceptions leading to what happened. So the defense is owed a lot of kudos to this. And I'm gonna say something here that most people might find a little bit controversial, but I wholeheartedly believe this. I believe that this defense is better than the Legion of Boom. And I say this for for a couple of reasons. One, when you go with the Legion of Boom, you can name off the players from the Legion of Boom. You're gonna say people like Earl Thomas, you're gonna say Cam Chancellor, you're gonna say Bobby Wagner, and so forth. You're gonna say say these names, right? Before the Super Bowl, I don't think many people could name three people on this defense of the Seahawks. I don't think you could name three people. Now, unless you're a Seahawks fan, of course, but the one thing they have different is this defense has way more dip depth than that other defense did. They have players that are meant as reserve players, players that are meant to be your practice squad guys, but even those guys are rotating in and getting getting time. So everybody is expected to play at the level that everybody else is on the defense. Like there is no star necessarily, everybody's expected to play at a high level.
SPEAKER_00I I would like to agree with you, but the Patriots defense was actually weaker in the Super Bowl. I'm not talking about the Patriots, I'm talking about Seahawks. Oh, yeah, Seahawks. Well, in that case, yeah, I agree with you 100%. Point taken.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. You were you were totally misreading what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_00I I totally misread what you said. I thought you were talking about the Patriots. I'm like, I'm like, what the hell is Mike talking about, bro?
SPEAKER_01No, I'm talking about the Seahawks defense. I'm not talking about Patriots Stevens. Yeah. Although you do need to give some love to the Patriots defense because they held the Seahawks to only nine points going into half, giving their team an opportunity. All they had to do was retool at halftime and possibly give themselves a chance in the second half. And they just they could not do it. The clear the play schemes and the the non-adjustment by the Patriots just baffled me. Like you kept doing the same thing, expecting a different result. But you're yeah, you you know how to do this. You've seen it with Brady. They're blitzing the hell out of you. Okay, we're gonna adjust, we're gonna come up with some quick, quick options, maybe a screen, maybe a bubble, bubble screen, maybe we're gonna do do some quick in routes. Maybe we sit here and take the running backs and run them right up the middle just to kind of make the defense sit on their heels. No, none of that. Look, just I don't get it.
SPEAKER_00The the Patriots lacked a lot of a lot of things on defense. I don't think their offense was particularly their offense performed uh relatively deep. They had a bad rushing day. Uh, but Drake May carried that over for them and made up the difference in passing. Uh, but I I think that the The Patriots clearly could not stop the run game for the Seahawks. I think that that was probably the X factor. Um if you I mean you give up over a hundred yards, they gave up 137 yards rushing. That's a bad day for a defense. Uh, it doesn't matter what the passing statistics were. If you can't stop the run, you're not gonna win that game.
SPEAKER_01Sir, we wrote down what we did as far as our choices on possible bets and stuff that that we could have could have done for the game. We did, in fact. And and I I want to go over that list and see where we were right and where we were wrong.
SPEAKER_00All right, did we track any of this? We called the coin toss. Who all right, I'll let you take it over.
SPEAKER_01Mike's got the paper. So the coin toss, Brian said it would be heads. I said Seahawks would win the toss. Seahawks did get the ball, but I do not recall. Was it heads for the for the call or was not?
SPEAKER_00I'm gonna have to look it up. I didn't even pay attention. I missed the beginning of the game, so while we pull this up.
SPEAKER_01While you look that up, color of the Gatorade, Brian, you said it would be blue. I said it would be yellow. It was indeed yellow. So if you would have picked yellow and made that bet, you won. So at the end of I saw that one. That was on Facebook a few times. Super Bowl. End of the game, would it end in a field goal? You said no. That was correct.
SPEAKER_00By the way, the New England Patriots won the coin toss.
SPEAKER_01So, and it was heads? Heads or tails?
SPEAKER_00The New England Patriots won the coin toss. Let me find out.
SPEAKER_01While he does that, I you asked me if there would be an overtime. I said no. You asked me what the first score would be. Would it be a wide receiver? Would it be a tight end? Would it be a running back? I said tight end.
SPEAKER_00It was a kicker, it was a field goal.
SPEAKER_01No, by the way, first touchdown was a tight end. It was a tight end. It was Bonner. Remember, you asked me who it would be, and I said it would be a tight end. Who did I say? You didn't say anybody.
SPEAKER_00Okay, by the way, that coin toss was heads. So you remember it was won by the Patriots.
SPEAKER_01So let's see. Technically, so I was wrong because Seahawks didn't win the toss, but they were given the ball. So you were right about heads. You were wrong about blue Gatorade. I was right about yellow Gatorade. You were right about uh no field goal at the end of the game. I was right about no OT, no overtime. I was right about a tight end being the first touchdown scored.
SPEAKER_00It was this the game was also decided by seven points or more, which I called, which I wrote in there.
SPEAKER_01So that was a good one. So if you would have made some bets on what we had suggested, you'd made some money.
SPEAKER_00And if only I had betted, if only I had bet on what I had actually talked about, I would have made some money. Because you know, the Seahawks are very misleading. Okay. And so are the Patriots for that matter.
SPEAKER_01I do think we need to say something first, though, on before you continue on that. You got that. We do not suggest that you make bets off of our stuff. We're just merely for fun saying what we might bet or what we might do. By no means are we endorsing you make those bets.
SPEAKER_00Um, my girlfriend has all the good luck. I highly suggest asking her if it if it comes to things like that. I have no luck, obviously. Uh, and before we begin to wrap up the show this evening, one more person who lost tonight. Well, didn't you want to talk about the snub of the Super Bowl? Yeah, I did. That's where I was talking about Myers. Should Myers have gotten it uh instead of anybody else?
SPEAKER_01Uh I mean, he did kind of carry the team for the first three quarters.
SPEAKER_00He kind of carried the team, and I think so. Uh if anything, I think Sam Darnold or Jackson Smith and Jibba probably should have got MVP. What Jigba didn't do nothing. He was the number one receiver all year long.
SPEAKER_01That's not the Super Bowl, though, sir. No. You gotta be number one in the Super Bowl. Cooper Cup had a better game than he did.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and and and I kind of slightly agree with you, but honestly, anybody but Matt Stafford probably would have been acceptable. Uh but I digress on Matt.
SPEAKER_01Matt Stafford wasn't Super Bowl MVP, he was league MVP.
SPEAKER_00He was league MVP, but I I think the league MVP should be derived from the Super Bowl MVP.
SPEAKER_01It's it's voted on before the Super Bowl.
Props Recap, Disclaimers, And Closing
SPEAKER_00You know what? I don't know. This guy. This guy. You know, the world doesn't make sense anymore, but it's okay. I digress. One last time. Thank you, Body by D Jim. Solace Outfitters and Giving Tree Chiropractic. I thought I hope you've enjoyed uh our episode tonight. Uh once again, happy Thanksgiving to all of you couples out there. Thanksgiving? Uh happy Valentine's Day. Sorry, I'm a little misconstrued right now. Happy uh Valentine's Day to all you couples out there who will be celebrating. Well, last time tonight, I'm Brian with an eye. And I'm Mike, and we are two for the whip. Thanks, everybody.