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 - S2.69 - Yoshi Bobbles, Out Like A Lion, Welcome: The Flippin Problems!
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
A $75 souvenir cup. A blown call so bad even the managers laugh. A new ABS challenge system that might finally put bad strike zones on notice. Baseball is back, and the first week already feels like a full season’s worth of storylines. We start with a serious update on Tiger Woods and the tension between public scrutiny and the basic right to handle recovery in private, then we hit the weird and wonderful side of MLB: Dodgers opening-day spectacle, a Yamamoto “Yoshi” crossover bobblehead, and the Ohtani cup backlash that forced a real-time price walk-back.
From there, we dig into early-season performance swings, why pitchers can get unfairly punished when defense falls apart, and how strikeout records and viral moments shape the way fans judge teams in April. The ABS conversation is the centerpiece: limited challenges, instant review, and a cleaner path to fairness without wrecking pace of play. If you love baseball tech, MLB officiating, and the future of “robot umps,” you’ll have plenty to argue about.
March Madness brings the heartbreak, with Duke’s collapse and the smallest decisions deciding who reaches the Final Four. We also talk NIL and how college basketball recruiting now looks closer to a pro front office, including more international talent entering the pipeline. Then we pivot into the NBA with a feel-good fundraising story, a tough roster move tied to public comments, record-setting stat lines, and a quick tour of playoff seeding in both conferences. We finish on a fun note with an on-site interview featuring MATW tag team The Flippin Problems, Terry Sequoia and Preston Jeter, on building chemistry, traveling for shows, and chasing the big-stage dream.
If you like fast-moving sports talk with real opinions and a few laughs, subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave us a review. What was the wildest sports story of the week to you?
Welcome And Sponsor Shoutouts
SPEAKER_04April 1st, 2026. Welcome back everybody for another episode of SportsBanter with us. I'm Brian with an eye. And I'm Mike. And we are two for the win. Hope everybody got your April Fools in. Mike, what are we not fooling people with tonight?
SPEAKER_06Yeah, we ain't doing no April Fools around here, y'all. I tried, but it didn't. We're gonna he dicked it. No, we're gonna be messing around talking about some baseball since it's finally kicked off with its regular season action. Uh we're gonna catch up with the March Madness, which is down to the final four. I love catch up. And we're gonna touch in with basketball as well as got a few things we'll talk on with the NFL.
SPEAKER_04Man, it feels like basketball is winding down just as it seemingly got started, doesn't it, man? Oh, it ain't winding down. But before we get started, I just want to thank our sponsors and partners, Body by D Gym, located in Yorktown and Gloucester, uh, owned and run by uh Deshaun Wright. He's a former bodybuilding champion himself and training future bodybuilding champions in their own right. Our good friends Caden and Christian over at Solace Outfitters. Christian's received some of his first offers to play college basketball. I believe Caden is gonna coach basketball. I forget where, but I know he's been accepted somewhere. Congratulations, guys, and congratulations on continuing to build your clothing line, Solace Outfitters, guys. The Giving Tree Chiropractic located down here in Virginia Beach, our friend Bruce with his uh new app Pulse with Tuting and MATW, Mid-Atlantic Territory Wrestling, and their next show, by the way, coming up April 11th, 2026 at Body by DJem. It will be a live TV taping, which by the way, you can see on Roku or right now TV. Mike, are we ready to dive in? Of course.
SPEAKER_06Of course we are. So, with the added bringing in of the new year for baseball, sometimes teams like to do a little something special. You know, like, hey, we gotta we gotta do something to opening day, we gotta do something special.
SPEAKER_04I'm so sorry, Mike. Hold that thought. We are gonna continue to do something special, but real quick, I forgot one thing. Coming up later on this episode, we have another special guest interview live. Well, it was live for us, it's not live for you. The flipping problems, okay? Preston Jeter and Terry Sequoia. We're gonna talk with them later on this episode. Stay tuned. Mike, continue with your thoughts, sir. I am so sorry.
Tiger Woods Crash And Privacy
SPEAKER_06Man, we are being discombobulated today. And actually, it's April Fools. Scratch that. We ain't starting with baseball. We're gonna start with a little situation that most people have already heard of, but we're gonna touch on it. Uh, Tiger Woods having another situation driving his car where he rolled his Land Rover, and from all accounts, he was not in the right state of mind to be driving because according to the police, he was sweaty and eyes looked glassed over, and they found some pain medications on him, and he refused to take a urine test.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, they after his refusal, they end up charging him with uh driving under the influence or driving while intoxicated, I think. One of the two. Um, you know, uh Tiger Woods, I think, actually is kind of a good guy, but he makes some you know hairy decisions here. You know, I don't know what's behind this. Obviously, as well, his family and some of his close friends are doing some things to get him some help as well, as you just mentioned.
SPEAKER_06Well, it it it just uh I think today was announced that he's going to be seeking uh a uh rehab of sorts, but he wants to do it outside the United States because he doesn't want to get uh he wants privacy during this time, which in all fairness, if you're going through any kind of like recovery or anything of that nature where you're dealing with substance abuse, you should have privacy. There shouldn't be a bunch of eyes gawking at you. We we honestly trying to look over the fence and take pictures, like leave the man alone.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I agree. That's a that's a huge problem with being popular in celebrityism in this country, regardless of where the celebrity notoriety comes from. Sometimes people just need their privacy, and I I really feel like that should be respected.
SPEAKER_06You know, I heard a lot of people kind of make this argument that you know he's got enough money. Why doesn't he have a driver? Now, I I feel like there's two things happening with that that notion. Uh one, you're basically missing the whole point of what happened in the situation where he rolled a car and caused property damage. And two, not everybody wants to just be driven around. Sometimes people want to do their own thing, you know, get in their car, have their own space, their own time, you know, drive around and listen to their music and not be bothered. Well, you know, it's it's your time, your space. But yeah, but you know, by saying that, you know, just get a driver, well, what about the fact that this situation is one where he's fortunate? He's fortunate that it wasn't much worse, you know, because he did have the the incident a while back where he went basically off a cliff out in California and got really messed up from that. So the the fact that he's not needing a bunch of surgeries and the fact that he didn't ultimately hurt somebody else, you know. You hear about this stuff all the time where somebody winds up dying. Yeah, his girlfriend thinks they're okay.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, his girlfriend, I forget her name, she's one of the Trumps. She was actually at the golf course, I think, where he was headed to or coming from. I don't remember which direction he was going, but she was there. Uh, I think it was just like barely a couple miles away from where the incident happened. Um, but you're right, like it's not always as simple as just getting a driver. Like, everybody thinks these celebrity sports stars and you know movie stars just can go out and get these things. Like it's yeah, he could pay for one, but that doesn't mean that that I mean, what if he can't pay for one? Just because you're a polarizing figure doesn't mean you necessarily have a pot full of cash readily available to spend.
SPEAKER_06Bro, he's got a yacht, he's got the money for a driver, trust me.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, he probably does. I'm just trying to play a little devil's advocate here.
SPEAKER_06Bottom line is I I I know what I know what you're trying to do, but the bottom line is it's a situation where hopefully now he's going to get the help he deserves. Yeah, I agree, I agree. Because more so, he needs to think about what about your family? What about your friends? You know, like think about that. You know, like those those people are gonna be the ones affected. Yeah. And you know, I I I get some people might say, Well, your family will be fine. You got all that money. Yeah, but having money doesn't have somebody sitting there when it's your birthday and you want to see your dad wish you a happy birthday. It doesn't equate to zero problems. Well, it doesn't, it doesn't replace the person. Exactly. You know, like you're not you're gonna wake up Christmas morning and there's there's your dad's not there.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, there's just some things money can't buy in this world.
SPEAKER_06Right, right. And I mean, it's it's the things you would lose and miss out on for your from from your family's point of view, and then the things you could affect inversely. Like you, if he had gotten to a car wreck and killed somebody, then that person's not going home, you know?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, but either way, we wish Mr. Woods the best. I've watched him pretty much my whole life. Uh he has done some great things uh in the community. He really is not a bad person. Uh maybe makes a bone-headed mistake such as this, but you were all human and things happen. And I wish him the best, and I hope to see him back out on uh you know on the golf course one day, hopefully soon. Well, this might be a wrap to that. It could be a wrap, but hopefully gets the help he needs. Maybe he comes back better than he was, maybe not better. He's kind of aging now, right? You know, just wish him well. But I do wish him well, and you always want to see him, okay? Good luck, you know, Tiger Woods to you and your family, and we are thinking about you. Mike.
unknownYes.
SPEAKER_04Let's jump up. I thought you were jumping me. I was about to go in deep there, brother. Let's just go.
Dodgers Opening Day Spectacle
SPEAKER_06I know you were, and I was trying to calm you down, bring you back, bring you back to the ground so we could get into this. So we had started in on baseball, and now we're gonna jump in. So whoop-whoop teams usually they want to do something special. They want to get you know fans going for their first game. You know, it's the home opener, we gotta do something to make things awesome, right? So, for the Dodgers, I mean, come on, it's it's Los Angeles. You gotta do something big, right? You gotta do something. So, what they did, they got Mr. Will Farrell to drive out Freddie, Freddie Freeman, and Miguel Rojas onto the field with both of their trophies for their last two World Series, just driving them convertible right out to the field. And not to be outdone, when they brought their brand new reliever Diaz out, they instead of playing over the loudspeakers playing Timmy Trumpets, you know, his his song he comes out to, they actually had a real person there playing the horn and playing the part. Now, granted, you know, a little nice twist. So kind of a cool way to kick off the year, you know. You get to see Will Farrell driving out your bet some of your best players.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, the Dodgers clearly sparing no expense when it comes to fan experience.
SPEAKER_06I'm sure, I'm sure Will Farrell did it because he's a Dodger fan and he wanted to do it, you know.
SPEAKER_04Speaking of sparing no expense, what do we have here, Mike?
SPEAKER_06So, uh, as we all know, we have a player on the Dodgers, Yamamoto, who uh his first name is and I love making Brian do this. Come on, Brian.
SPEAKER_04Oh, come on. This is an easy one. If anybody's a fan of the Mario Brothers, you know it's Yoshi. We'll say the full name. Oh. Yamamoto. Oh my god. No, say the first the first full name. Oh, sorry. Now I see it. The one in blue. Okay. Okay. The one in blue. Yoshinobu. Yes. Yoshinobu.
SPEAKER_06So think. Yoshinobu. Yes, yes. So they did a kind of cool thing. They wanted to do a bobblehead day. Bobblehead. And because, you know, his name is Yoshi, and there just happens to be a pretty famous character named Yoshi. Ironically, they went ahead and did a Yoshi bobblehead wearing Yamamoto's jersey. And Yamamoto actually got to meet Mr. Yoshi in person, and he actually signed a bunch of the bobbleheads for his teammates, as you can see here in this photo. It's Yoshi wearing a Dodgers jersey as well.
SPEAKER_04And he signed the he signs the snout, too. So I think that's honestly really cool.
SPEAKER_06So, you know, a few Dodger players asked Yoshi if he would sign it for them because it was kind of a keepsake, and and that's kind of cool. And we'll we'll post this on social media so you guys can see these Yoshi Yamamoto bobbleheads because it's kind of cool. I mean, I'm not gonna lie, I'm not like a huge Dodger fan or nothing, but I am a Yoshi fan and the cart the cartoon video game character fan of him. But this is kind of cool. This is kind of one of those one-off things where you know it's kind of neat, you know? Oh, they're hugging. Yeah. I love it.
SPEAKER_04Yoshi and Yoshi hugging. We will put this on in uh well, not just Instagram, but all of our social medias, which is only Facebook and Instagram right now, but we are getting more.
The Otani Cup Backlash
SPEAKER_06So I gave you a success for the Dodgers, you know, a successful promotion or what whatever. The success. Let me give you the uh uh we screwed up version for the Dodgers. Okay. So we've all heard of different promotions going on with different places, theme parks, ballparks, and they all have their own little spin on things they're doing. And we all kind of know who Otani is. I hope by this point you know who Otani is. We brought him up enough times.
SPEAKER_04Does his name start with a shoe?
SPEAKER_06So here's the thing Dodgers have decided they were gonna do a souvenir Otani cup. Ooh, right? Now, Brian, souvenir cup. How much do you think they will make you pay for this souvenir cup? But wait, let me tell you. You get refills as much as you want on this cup during that game. Just that game, right? Just that game. This is what it started out as. So just that game. How much do you think you're gonna pay for a commemorative cup?
SPEAKER_04Alright, using the word commemorative, it's probably made of some weird plastic, probably has some cool design on it, it's probably huge. I'm gonna go ahead and say theme park pricing, 65 bucks. You're close. It is$75.
SPEAKER_06Ooh, God, I can't even say the words that I want to say. You wanted to say it, you wanted to say it, you almost slipped up. Lord. So this was met with instant backlash because fans are like, wait a second, we're gonna pay how much for a cup and refills only for that game? So here's the cup on right here. You're right. It is a big cup. It is done up, you know, kind of looks like the jersey, whatnot.
SPEAKER_04Not gonna lie, now that you as a tiny on the back of it. I'm not gonna lie, I probably would not spend$75 on this cup either. First of all, it doesn't light up. Okay, it doesn't come with food or a hooker. Uh so I think$75. Yeah, it doesn't come with any of that.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, that's not that's not part of the package. Yeah. Anyway, it does come with a straw, though, not a reusable one. It might be. It is California.
SPEAKER_03Anyway, it's a paper reusable straw.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, yeah. A paper straw that's no good after. It's a paper reusable straw. Anyway, point of the matter is fans were outraged. They threw a fit. They're like, this is trash, you were gouging us, this is crap. So now Dodgers have walked that back. Now the souvenir cup, now the souvenir cup is gonna be$68.99 and refills, if you bring it back, the entire season. Still overpriced. Bro, 70 look, 70 bucks, and if you bring it back, it's refilled for free. Hey, you know how much ballpark stuff is? All I gotta say is if you go to seven games, you've more than got your money. I'll tell you, we're gonna fill it up twice.
SPEAKER_04Dodgers, I'll make you a deal. You put up a slip and slide from the top deck down to the field. I'll buy that cup as long as it comes with a ride on that slide.
SPEAKER_06No, sir.
SPEAKER_04Alright, no deal. No slip and slide, no slip and slide. No money, no sale. No sale.
SPEAKER_06No slide, no sale. Anyway, the point of the matter is they walked back because the fans said, Y'all are messed up. We're not doing this. And they're like, alright, retire year. They won't miss out on that much selling those cups.
SPEAKER_04Anyway. I don't I don't think so either. They may tweak it again. I don't know, it's still too expensive. It's it's crazy though. It's crazy though, but if you think about it, if you go to a lot of games, I mean if you go to at least five or six games, it probably pays for itself. Because those are those are probably what, ten to fifteen dollar drinks.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. And then think about the fact that there are 81 games at home. So if you have season tickets, you it's a smart investment. Question.
SPEAKER_04Is anybody going to 81 games a season? Not this season, any season.
SPEAKER_06There are a lot of people that are diehard fans that do. Alright.
SPEAKER_04Well, they will benefit from this, and I hope the Dodgers lose money because I still disagree with it. I'm sure.
Early MLB Stars And Rough Starts
SPEAKER_06I'm sure. But let's move on ahead and other baseball news. Other baseball news. That is actually about the sport. So so Brian, when I say R O I, what do you think of? Return on investment. Okay. I'm glad you picked up on that. So this player mentioned the name and letting Brian do it. Blue riding right there.
SPEAKER_04Blue riding, uh Kunamatata. No, sorry, it's uh Munatakak uh Murakami. That's the best I got, bro.
SPEAKER_06So Murakami, we have mentioned him before. He was the slugging hitter that was signed by the White Sox. And they're already getting return on their investment because first three games, he's yeah, I read about him.
SPEAKER_04He's been working it out.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, he's had a home run in the first three games.
SPEAKER_04Well, get your parlay set, because this man clearly has a bead on the ball no matter where or how fast it's going.
SPEAKER_06Right. So the point of the matter is this dude is gonna quickly, if he keeps doing things like this, he's gonna quickly win over fans and and be seeing himself in an all-star game as well. But that's really cool. And he did it against a team in the Brewers who were in the playoffs last year. So it's not like he, you know, did it against some team that was a bottom dweller, you know, he did it in cool fashion. Yeah, to break up to him.
SPEAKER_08Yeah.
SPEAKER_06And the pirates pickup, Lowell, we mentioned him. Yes, he also leaded off the year with three home runs for his new team. So these low-key moves paying big dividends for some of these teams that were kind of not doing so hot. I mean, it didn't help the pirates, but and I'm glad you know what I'm kind of glad I brought up the Pirates because I I gotta bring this up. So Paul Skeens, who we all know is a really good pitcher in baseball, had a not so great start to the season because he only lasted two-thirds of an inning and he was gone after giving up five runs. Yeah. But the point the point I want to get to is the fact that should those runs be accounted for on him when you have your outfielder, your center fielder, misplay two balls twice in the same inning causing those runs. Shouldn't this be on the fielder, not on schemes? I mean, it it look, if you hit a ball to the outfield and the center fielder comes in and goes, oh crap, it's over my head, and starts running backwards, that shouldn't be on the pitcher. He's supposed to field that ball.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that's on the yeah, he should have stayed. You gotta track the ball and you gotta get underneath it. Okay.
SPEAKER_06He didn't do that either. Twice he misplayed a ball where he's supposed to, it's an easy routine pop-up, get it, and then he loses it in the sun or something, misplays it, and oh look, more runs scored. It's weird, it was nighttime. But all of these runs were tallied against skeins. I think it's unfair.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I mean do they tally against other so I'm I'm still learning a little bit about baseball. Do they tally against other field players, or is it just the pitcher that gets that knock?
SPEAKER_06So the way that a pitcher's ERA works, it's based on the amount of runs he gives up. So the more runs he gives up in a shorter period of time, the higher his EA ERA is gonna be. And if you have a player who is misplaying the ball, it doesn't count against them. Now, let's say let's say I pick up the ball and I'm supposed to throw it to first base, and I let's say I'm a shortstop. If I throw that ball over the first baseman's head, I get an error because I misplayed the throw. Like I threw it over the guy's head, that's an error on me. If I'm supposed to make that throw routinely.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_06Now it doesn't count the same for an outfielder who kind of misplays. Now, like if the ball went into the outfielder's glove and just bounced out on a routine deal, yeah, he'll get an error. Yeah. But in this case, no error is awarded to Center Fielder, and Paul Skeens takes it on the chin and gets pulled in the in the season opener.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that's tough luck. Sometimes you're just in the wrong place at the wrong time, but uh, you just got to up your game and offset it. You know, it's it's tough break, but in that situation, you just keep on playing better. I don't know what to tell you in that. That's hard, man. That's yeah, that's that's just what I'm saying.
Umpire Blunders And Baseball Karma
SPEAKER_06I'm saying it's kind of difficult. Keep your head up. Bro. So from bad to kind of cool. Blue Jays have started off pretty excellent from a pitching standpoint. They set an MLB record with 50 strikeouts in three games.
SPEAKER_0450 is going to be our lucky number tonight. Keep that in the back of your mind.
SPEAKER_06So 50 strikeouts, and that's crazy. So this isn't like one player, it's like multiple pitchers that accounted for these strikeouts. I mean, obviously, one pitcher is not going to get 50 in a game because you can only have 27 outs in a game per side. Kevin Gossman kicked it off with 11 strikeouts in his six innings on his game on Friday. Dylan Sees the next day on Saturday got 12. And then the pitcher making his his in his making his debut for the Blue Jays. And I'm gonna let Brian do this name.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, Brian say the name. Right here. Eric. Erlik Lauer. Lauer?
SPEAKER_06Classic uh Scottish American name. Anyway, he struck out nine in Sunday's game. So, I mean, I know that doesn't tally up to 50 right there. Obviously, some of their other pitchers tallied in some strikeouts. Yeah, yeah. Over a three-game. That's just the starting pitchers.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, over a three-game sweep. You know, not bad. Not a bad start for them.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, not a bad start for them, but I gotta show you something that happened in the Mets and Pirates game where a certain pitcher made a certain all-star batter look embarrassing. Check this out.
SPEAKER_12Soto at bat. Montgomery strikes out Soto. Two pays in the inning for the battery. Look at how bad Soto looked.
SPEAKER_08He fell Soto of taking that foul.
SPEAKER_06Soto was being was facing Mason Montgomery, and Mason Montgomery made him look foolish. If you get a chance, go look this up. I mean, Soto falls to one knee and is like falling all over himself, bats falling out of his hands, hitting him in the head. Like it's it's a bad look. Like go look it up. Give yourself a laugh and go look at that if you get a chance. But from bad look to good look, how about Washington Nationals? They started out winning their first three games of the season. Yeah. Writing writing their one of their batters, Jordan Wiemer. Joey Wiener. Joey Weemer. Sorry.
SPEAKER_04I said Wiener, I meant me Wiemer. Weemer. I thought it was two Ns. No, it's Weemer. Okay. You choose yours, I choose mine.
SPEAKER_06This guy. Anyway. So he did something tying a major league record for consecutive plate appearances reaching base to start out the season. He did it 10 times reaching base. That's impressive. Not bad. 10 in a row on base. That's a good way to start. You win a lot of games the more people you get on base. So good job to him. I mean, since then, I mean they did embarrass the Phillies 13-2 in their Monday night game. Uh most of their wins came off of the Cubs, but they, you know, you go and face your division rival putting up 13-2.
SPEAKER_04I mean, against a team like the Phillies, who are considered a strong team once again this year. I mean, not bad.
SPEAKER_06Not bad at all, but pretty impressive.
SPEAKER_04Probably one of the handful of favorites to make a deep playoff run as well. So good show.
SPEAKER_06So I know you're gonna want to say Homer on this. I know you're gonna want to say Homer on this. I hate you for this. No, no, no, no, no. I gotta do this because there's a reason I have to do this. Okay, I see the sparkle in your eye. Okay. No, no, no. Hear me out, hear me out. So there was a game against the Kansas City Royals and the Braves, and the game was tied 2-2 in the ninth when this happened.
SPEAKER_13And here's Smith to try to win it. Dom Smith hits it deep to right field, back on it, and what a win it closed! Walked off grand slam and his Braves debut! Dom Smith, welcome to Atlanta.
SPEAKER_06So the reason the reason I am showing you this is not because it was a walk-off win for the Braves and not because of it being a grand slam, but because of this story behind Dominic Smith. Now, Dominic Smith has played for other teams within the division. He's playing with the Nationals and Mets, and he's on the other side of it now, you know, playing for the Braves. But we tend to forget how people are people. These are athletes, but they are people at the same time. So people, people quietly during spring training, Smith did not play for like a week, week and a half or so, and there was no mention as to why. It just said that he was gonna be away. All right. So the team didn't say nothing, he didn't say nothing, and what later came out was the fact that Dominic Smith was going to see his mother because his mother, who has been battling cancer, was probably gonna be on her way out. So the team, he now mind you, he doesn't have a roster spot yet. So he needs as many bats and as many things as he can have for to make his attempt to be on the team whole. So he needs these bats. But the team said, Don't worry about it. Go do what you gotta do. So he goes to see his mom. And unfortunately, and I'm uh I want to get this part right, bear with me. I am so sorry.
SPEAKER_04I'm trying to find exactly while he's doing that. Happy April Fools, everybody. I hope you guys came up with some good jokes. We did not play any jokes on our end. We were gonna do one for the podcast, but Mike nixed it because he's no fun. Or because I or because I had a bad idea, maybe both. I don't know.
SPEAKER_06Anyway, I I I can't find it in the article, but bottom line, his mother passed away, and he has not played a season in the major leagues where his mom did not watch him play. And his very first game playing, he hits a grand slam, and all he could say is I know she's here with me. I feel her with me. Yep, and for him to be going through that, and the team knows it, and they put him in there, and he hits a home run like that, it's just you gotta love that because through sports, you find some healing when you're going through tragedy or you're going through things. It to me, this kind of conjures up, you know, like Brett Favre playing that Monday night game, throwing three touchdowns after his father passed away, or Jordan collapsing in the locker room with the NBA trophy because his father had passed away. You know, these these moments where you see these people being people, but sports being kind of a catalyst healer to tragedy.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah. Well said, Mike.
SPEAKER_06So but I move on to talk about something that is probably not so good for Mr. Bochette, who is kind of getting the nickname Bochet from his uh Met's Faithful. So Mr. Bochette uh is a brand new Met. They paid a lot of money for him to be there, and uh it's not working out so great. He's a like one for 14 to start out the season with like eight strikeouts.
SPEAKER_03It's horrible.
SPEAKER_06So the fans, when he comes up, they're going boo. So I kind of get it, but it's like it's like, hey bro, careful what you wish for. Those Mets fans, those New York fans, they're brutal. You gotta wear it on the chin because you deserve them booze. Yeah. You striking out eight times. So let's rebound and talk about some success though. Love rebounds. We talked about we talked about the Brewers. Their rookie, or not, he's not a rookie anymore anymore, uh, and Mesowski set a record with 20 Ks in his game the other day against the White Sox. Now, mind you, he still gave up a home run to our our boy we mentioned earlier, but yeah, 20 K's in a game, that means that seven of the outs in that game were not strikeouts.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I I gave it to him. I mean, obviously the the one home run he gave up, you know, not good news. But 20 K's, you know, overall decent performance. I'm not mad at it.
SPEAKER_06I told y'all last year, get on that train because Mesarowski's gonna be good, and I was right. Where can I find tickets to this train? So, from pretty excellent to pretty awful, I gotta show you guys a little polar segments tonight. Oh, we do, we do hot cold, hot cold. Hot cold and hot cold is is right. But it comes from a game between I believe, I believe it was Tampa and the Brewers.
SPEAKER_09I believe. I believe, I believe, I believe I can fly.
SPEAKER_06So here we go, folks. Check it out.
SPEAKER_14Powers! Oh, in and out of the glove of Williamson throws up first, it's wide. It's backed up by Fortez. That should be a base tip for Valley.
SPEAKER_01Never did make a move toward second base.
SPEAKER_00Did not touch first base, and then was put out.
SPEAKER_15So the call from Stevie Buckner is that Jake Bowers missed first base and then was tagged out. Not that he made a move to touch base, right? It was tagged out that he flat out missed the bag. The foot clearly touched first face. The umpire is looking over here, though.
SPEAKER_01Where is Stevie Buckner looking at? Why would he even say that? No kidding. Look at the manager.
SPEAKER_14Kevin Catch is laughing. Look at Murph! Those two guys are laughing. The managers are laughing at this call.
SPEAKER_04When was that? Was that yesterday? This was the other day.
SPEAKER_06So so Early April Fools. That had to be early April. No, no, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_04This was a real not mess up that bad.
SPEAKER_06No, you can, and that's why I bring it up because it is 100% real. C.B. Buckner is looking at the catcher where there's an overthrown overthrown ball, it's going to the catcher. He's looking at the catcher. He's not even looking at first base. He's the first base umpire.
SPEAKER_04Exactly. Why are you looking back at home plate, man?
SPEAKER_06So I just showed Brian, he can attest to you that this player clearly, full foot on first base, is safe. And they called him out. And so obviously, call got overturned. Even both managers are looking across from each other laughing, like, really?
SPEAKER_04So hey, boneheaded things happen. You know, refs are not impervious no matter what sport they're having on.
SPEAKER_06So I will say that last year, CB Buckner was voted one of the worst empire umpires in baseball. And he's off to a stellar start this year. He's had a few ABS calls against him. But um in that game against Meserowski, uh, how I said Mesorowski had 20 strikeouts, a ball got tipped and hit the very next game that the after this whole missing first base issue. The very next game, CB Buckner's behind the plate, a fastball that is thrown at 100 plus mile an hour gets foul tipped right into his mask in the second inning, and he leaves the game. Well, that's a concussion. I think that's a little bit of the baseball gods going. Get right. Get this guy out of here.
SPEAKER_04Get right. Go take some officiating uh courses, man. Maybe get your eyes checked.
SPEAKER_06But yeah, I'll show you here, Brian, so you can see how.
SPEAKER_14Oh, that got CB Buckner and he is down. Yeah, I think that's a good one. How badly he got hit. I like immediately the Brewer's trainer Lee Myers is out to check on C.B. Buckner. That was a direct shot right off of his mask.
SPEAKER_01And those kind of helmets have the kind of protection that the conventional catcher's mask.
SPEAKER_06Right in the grill, like right dead center on that mask hits him. No, and they immediately they immediately take him out because remind you, that's a hundred mile an hour in your face.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, he's probably seeing stars even with a mask. And you just heard him, those umpire masks do not have the same level of protection as a regular catcher's mask. So uh he's probably feeling that I would be surprised if he had a light concussion from.
ABS Challenges Change The Game
SPEAKER_06He probably did. He probably didn't, but they did pull him and they replaced him with another another umpire. But ABS, dude. We have got to talk about ABS. There was people saying, oh, this automatic balls and strike system, it's gonna slow down the game. Nah, bro. All it takes, each team has two challenges per game. If you if you get it right, you keep your challenges. So you can tap your head as much as you want to get a challenge, and that's how you initiate it. Only the catcher and pitcher and batter can initiate it. And it has to be instant tap your head.
SPEAKER_08Yep.
SPEAKER_06Can't make another move. So, in this scenario, my first forte with this, I was watching don't give me a homer. I was watching Braves in Kansas City Royals, and I was amazed at Salvador Perez, the catcher for the Kansas City Royals. Now, Salvador's been in the major leagues for a long time. He's been around for a minute. Great catcher, multiple time all-star. And there was three times in a row where there was a low pitch, and he instantly tapped his head, was like, no, ump, it's it's it's a strike. It's not a ball, it's a strike. And all three times, he was 100% right. There was even one where it literally caught the very tippy point of the strike zone, and he he got it right. So, but mind you, this is not a new umpire. He had been in the league since 1998, so he's got experience. Yeah, but Salvador Perez, who's been in the league less than him, is like, nah, bro, you're wrong. Give me my strike.
SPEAKER_03Give me my strike.
SPEAKER_06So the Yankees the other day, five for five on their ABS challenges against the umpires. So, what this is really doing is it's really taking away those absolutely horrible calls or those borderline calls and giving some power back to the players and maybe shining a little light more into bad umps. Just saying, I mean.
SPEAKER_04I mean, it sounds like they're starting to have an officiating problem like the NFL. Well, they've always had issues with this. There was yeah, it sounds like it's getting worse.
SPEAKER_06This reminds me of like one of the worst calls I ever saw. There was a pitcher by the name of Armando Galaraga who was pitching for the Tigers, and he was literally one out away from a perfect game. So a perfect game means you have allowed no base runners, means you didn't walk anybody. Oh you're striking out players, you're getting players out, there's been nobody on base, period. Oh very last play, right? It's an infield play, it's a slow roller over to second, Mondo Gallaraga runs over, steps over on first, ball gets thrown over to Mondo Gallaraga, and it's clear that the runner's out. The umpire called him safe. There is no challenge system at this point in baseball. The game has now allowed it. He has gotten allowed the first safe base runner, per the perfect game gone. No hitter, gone. He winds up getting the next out, so he gives up a one-hitter through nine innings. Chevy wound up giving him a Corvette as a gift for his performance, but but still, I mean, like to go down as a pitcher who threw a perfect game, there's only a handful of guys who've done it.
SPEAKER_08Yeah.
SPEAKER_06So I really feel for him and not getting it. So this AB, this ABS is kind of cool. If you haven't seen it, it's pretty cool. They literally show in the Jumbotron. You tap your head, boom, it's either in the zone, out of the zone.
SPEAKER_04Fans love it. Honestly, I like it, and you're we're in an age now where we're starting to see technology make its way not just into supporting sports, but now also helping us officiate and manage these games and matches. I like the ABS. Uh, I think it makes the game more efficient. I don't think it slows it down horribly.
SPEAKER_06And just to show the other side, the Braves catcher, he had tapped his head at one point and it was it was the ball.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. So it's obvious you don't always win. It's obviously proven to be making a difference, right? Um for the better, I think.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, I I think so too. And it's it's not slowing down the game any. And it like I said, you know, Yankees had five in a row. They were right.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_06They didn't slow the game down, and they retained their challenges.
March Madness Elite Eight Fallout
SPEAKER_04I think I'm always for checks and balances and trying to keep the game as fair and level as possible. And I agree with it. So I have nothing more to say on that. Excuse me. Now, that's gonna wrap up our baseball section for the night. A lot of lot going on to kick off the baseball season. Uh, a lot of hot action. I'm eager to see how this season goes with some of these teams who are the favorites to go far. We're gonna talk a little bit about uh some college basketball and the uh March Madness tournament going on. Anyone, first of all, all my Duke people, we're on Duke Watch right now. Are you guys okay? Because I wish you all the best, and I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_06I'll be whoa, whoa, whoa, hold up, hold up, sir.
SPEAKER_04But there's tell the story. Well, yeah, there's some things to take away here, okay? Duke was obviously they were they were one of they were the clear favorite to win this bracket, and they made it pretty far Elite Eight, right? At least they get knocked in the second round. Anyway, anyway. Um, but they got knocked off by number two Yukon. Honestly, not a bad position to get knocked out in the Elite Eight by one team ranked below you.
SPEAKER_06Well, it's more so kind of questionable because the team like we were Duke, Duke was up 19.
SPEAKER_04This is where we were trying to get to. Yeah, they were up 19. Uh I don't they blew the lead. Uh, and then in the last 10 seconds of the game, right? Excuse me, I'm so sorry, huh? So last 10 seconds of the game, Duke gets the rebound. All they gotta do is hold the ball, man. Okay. Oh, yeah, they inbound the ball, sorry. Uh this dude, so Caden Boozer tries to make an overhead pass to another player, uh, and it gets stolen straight out the air. Okay, bone-headed mistake. Honestly, take the foul, bro, uh, in this situation, if there is one to take.
SPEAKER_06But UConn, what's where was the coaching? Where was there why was there not anybody saying, time out, get all your Duke players together and say, look, this is what we're gonna do. They're gonna force us to try to try to pass it. Don't just hold the ball, keep the ball.
SPEAKER_04I think I I think that he acted on his own. I think it was literally just a bone-headed self-called play. And usually you see these things happen. When the player acts outside of what he's been taught and coached, you usually see these bonehead mistakes with colossal failures. This one that's where coaching comes into play. Yeah, that's where coaching comes into play. But sometimes, you know, your players they just do something and it doesn't make sense. He might have just been pressured, he might have been the moment he wasn't thinking, whatever the case was a horrible mistake. I'm not gonna r drag him through the ringer for it.
SPEAKER_06Well, he he had probably one of the most crushing things he said in his in the interview after the game. Which is kind of feel for him, like you lose the game, and like here, here's a mic. We're gonna put it in front of your face. Talk to us. But he he says, I feel gutted because I cost my team our spot. Like I cost our team. And he admitted that and said it outwardly. And you know none of his teammates are gonna be like, bro, it's all your fault. It's all y'all's fault because y'all lost a 19 point.
SPEAKER_04He took the words right out of my mouth. Okay, one band, one sound, okay? When y'all lose, you all lose. When you win, you all win. When one of you sucks, you all suck. Okay? You're only as strong as your weakest link. Well, I wouldn't say they suck.
SPEAKER_06They did make it to the elite.
SPEAKER_04I'm not saying I'm not saying they suck. I say when you suck, you all suck, okay? I'm not saying that the Duke such Duke's a very historical good basketball program. But what I you understand what I'm saying, right?
SPEAKER_06Kudos to Yukon to hit the three to get the win.
SPEAKER_04Yo, that was the that was the fastest heads-up play I have ever seen. That dude snatched it, put it up three points. I didn't even know what I had to replay it.
SPEAKER_06Bro, the crazy part was the what happened before that. His teammate was working over towards the sideline, realized he didn't have a good shot, kicks it out to his teammate who had a better shot. Hadn't having the whereath all to know that I don't have it, kick it out, get that guy the open look for the chance to win, and then you hit it. And I don't know if you've seen this, but like there was a lot of controversy over what their coach did, Dan Hurley, where he they they called it a headbutt, but it wasn't really a headbutt. He kind of just like met heads, foreheads with the referee. And it he said like him and the ref, they know each other. Like they it it not like in a you know, it was rigged situation. It was no, they've been around each other, they've done so many games where he's been the ref, they know each other, they know their personalities, and a lot of people are like, there should be a technical. He intimidated the ref. He put his forehead on the ref, he headbutt him. It's not a headbutt, he just touched heads. No pause on that. That's not what it is. Not what not foreheads.
SPEAKER_04I mean, I mean, this is common in sports. This has been around since I was a youth in sports, like you know, ass slaps, you know, light headbutts, forehead, you know, all these things are celebratory things. I've even seen kissing, not lip kissing, but you know, cheek kissing, you know, you get really excited, especially more among coaches. But you know, I don't have a problem with it. Uh congratulations to Yukon on their 73-72. They might be a heavy favorite because now they are the new number one and they're and they're part of the bracket.
SPEAKER_06So well, with that said, let's just dive into some of the other matchups and tell you what happened. We had Arizona beating out Purdue 79 to 64. And then Iowa, the last Cinderella, getting getting bounced out by Illinois, who's been playing some really good balls. So Illinois wins that one 71 to 59.
SPEAKER_04Yep.
SPEAKER_06Sorry, Iowa. But Illinois moves on to play Duke, not Duke. See how one to say Duke. They go on to play Yukon.
SPEAKER_16Yep.
SPEAKER_06And then Michigan routing Tennessee with their 95-62 victory. Sorry, volunteers, you're right.
SPEAKER_04And don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to talk shit about Illinois, but it's unfortunate that Duke did not get past Yukon because Yukon, in my opinion, was a harder test than Illinois would have been. I think they would have had no problem getting to the championship.
SPEAKER_06Well, I mean it's now we got Yukon and Illinois on one side, and then we got Arizona and Michigan on the other. And some people are saying that the true championship is really more on the Arizona-Michigan side than it is the championship we're gonna get. Well, because both of those teams have been powerhouses.
SPEAKER_04Oh, and by the way, I was looking where all these starting players for each of these teams are. Arizona actually has, I think, like two or three foreign starters on their team. I think Michigan has one.
NIL And A New College Basketball Era
SPEAKER_06Oh I'm glad you brought that up, sir. Because this is what we're getting out of NIL.
SPEAKER_08Yes.
SPEAKER_06And what we're getting is a brand of college basketball that is unlike any other. Because now the foreign player who normally would just stay and play in foreign leagues overseas and then maybe get discovered a few years later, they're coming over and they're getting coached up and playing in college basketball. Yes. So now we're getting a level of competition that's just getting a little bit more than we've seen in years past, where you're getting guys that like a Cooper Flag. When Cooper Flag came out, he was a little more prepared because the level of competition he is seeing in college is at a level that is higher than what it's been in the past.
SPEAKER_08Yep.
SPEAKER_06Where you're getting these foreign players who may have played a little pro are coming over and making some money because NIL and being a star for a college team for a few years, if not getting drafted themselves into the NFL, or not NFL, NBA. I don't know why I say it keeps saying NFL.
SPEAKER_04Whatever. I just really like NFL. We talk about so many sports, I get them mixed up. Just a side note, I was talking about with somebody at work today, because we I'll get back to Tuesday. No, no, no, you're fine. I was talking about somebody at work today. We were talking about potential NFL prospects, and one of the players coming up, I got his name wrong, and we started talking about basketball. It was just that seamless. I was like, wait a minute, where are we just talking about NFL prospects? The sports all crossover to me now, but continue Mike's on that.
SPEAKER_06They're just good subjects. So the point I'm getting to is the landscape for college coaches and and and college basketball is changing in a way where you have to almost be like an NBA team. You're trying to scout and recruit and get these players in and trying to make these deals, and but you're also the the level of player you're probably going to get is be is going to be a little different as well. So now you can get a guy and hopefully maybe keep him for a while. And you're seeing with some of these rosters that are left, these are not one and done rosters, these are built rosters, these are guys that they have had for a number of years or they have brought in for the intention of them being there for a few years. So these guys that are on these teams now, you might be seeing some of these guys being future NBA players.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I I largely agree with you. And uh, you know, going back, talking a little bit of bracketology with these guys. So uh I I like I don't know who I'm gonna pick. I don't think Yukon or Illinois. Yukon could win the championship, but I think honestly, it's probably gonna be Arizona or Michigan. Uh historically speaking, the trend shows that's why people say that's the championship for real.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Historically, the championship goes to a one, two, or three. Now, my this is not advice, but this is how I've discovered profitability through uh parlaying the bracket, right? Uh positions six, nine, and eleven, you bet early on in the bracket for upsets and early runs. Uh, and then all of the ones, all the twos, and all of the threes, you place as many parlays as you can afford on them. We love our Cinderellas early and love our powerhouses late.
SPEAKER_06That's right. That's how you look at it. That's right. So with this being said, catch the final four action April 4th, both games. I think the first game starts at 6.09 uh Eastern time, and then you'll have the other game following after. Yeah, you do. So first will be the championship. Yukon, Illinois, and then Arizona, Michigan, right thereafter.
NBA Feel Good Story And Controversy
SPEAKER_04And then two days later, we got the bracket championship, uh, which will largely be probably I think it could be exciting, but it may be underwhelming just because we have the two number ones here instead of in the championship. Uh, but I digress. But anyway, that was uh that's what we got for March Madness is some college basketball. We're gonna talk a little bit about NBA and get on to some pro basketball. Alright? Now, to start our NBA segment out tonight, we have a very heartwarming story here, okay? I'm gonna read this to you word for word, alright? Uh, an 11-year-old boy was hit by a car and hospitalized. Uh, was fighting for his life. This was a few days ago. Uh the family turned to Facebook for help, okay? Uh Jay Morant, single Morant.
unknownWhatever.
SPEAKER_04John Morant. John Morant. I say Jay Morant, John Morant, maybe it's the Southern thing. I don't know. We agree or disagree. But anyway, this kind gentleman single-handedly covered the entire original fundraising goal. He shared the post to bring more attention to it, and now the family has raised over$40,000. I don't remember, I think the original goal was$10,000. No, I'm seeing what people have donated. I don't know what the original goal is, but to raise over$40,000 uh for this 11-year-old boy is just absolutely marvelous. And I love hearing feel good stories about this, Mike.
SPEAKER_06I love the fact that, you know, after all the bad stuff that's been going on with John Morant these past years, that he's finally doing doing some good stuff now. You know, I'm not saying he did it to get good press. I'm saying for him to keep away from the bad and doing good. I'm happy for that. I'm happy for the the the good that he's doing.
SPEAKER_04Well, he's not he's not trying to profit from it, right? He saw something, he did something about it. Sure, because he's an NBA player, it's gonna bring him a little more notoriety. That's part of the territory. But the thing is, he's he himself is not trying to profit from it. That's where I take issue with these things when somebody's saying hey, look at me, what I'm doing, you know, he didn't do any of that. Because of his notoriety in the NBA, I think it's gonna come with some of that, but that I don't believe was his intention. So I I say bravo to him. This was a good thing. Um, and then our next thing, this one's a little politically polarizing. We're not gonna get into the political side of it, as you all know, but we are going to address it. So the Bulls have waived guard Jaden Ivey. Uh, if you're unfamiliar, he made some inflammatory uh homophobic comments uh a few days ago uh that were also echoed by NFL running back Trayvon Henderson. We have more on that. This is kind of a wide dynamic story we want to cover, and we want to make sure uh we cover it properly, right, Mike? So you have a little more information on this than I do. I don't, I'm gonna be honest, guys. I have not had time to listen to or read what for word was said, nor what Trayvon Henderson said.
SPEAKER_06Well, I I'm not gonna repeat what Jaden Ivey said, but I can say this. I don't think yeah, I don't think. Jaden Ivey, he was looked at as possibly the second scoring option in Detroit for the Pistons next to Cade Cunningham. And they moved on from him because of stuff like this. They kind of said that he's a little I don't want to say a cancer, but it's like he just uh you ever met that guy that like he just it that he always has something, he always seems like he's in a bad man. There's always something wrong, there's always something that's got him spun up. Well, in this case, he's been posting a lot of social media stuff where he's been against you know the NBA doing stuff with LGBT and other people nights and stuff like that. Yeah, he's just had some remarks to make, and you know, with only a few games left in the season, the Bulls just outright said, bye Felicia, and kicked him to the curb, you know, because they're like, We'll be we'll be good without without you. So they just kicked him outright because again, he's showing where it sometimes, and and I I I love this, I forget who said it. Um, but somebody said the the quickest way to kill a good team is to have a cancer in the locker room, and sometimes all it takes is a guy to be like this, you know, when it's like causing issues. Not necessarily that they're you know walking in and punching a dude, but they're just causing flack, causing issues.
SPEAKER_04And not just that, but this thing with religion and LGBTQ, same issue in the NFL. These professional sports leagues want to get away from the politics. Okay, they want it to be only about the game. Do they have LGBTQ nights? Yes, this is for inclusivity, whether you agree with it or not. All right, they want to appeal to all fans, all audiences, and this is how they want to do it. And I I agree with being inclusive. I don't think anybody should be excluded from anything. I definitely don't think you should be publicly ridiculing them for their personal beliefs.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, I mean, who cares? They're they're if they're a fan of the sport and they want to see their team, you know, you don't have to agree with what they're doing. That's the beauty of being in this country. You don't have to agree with everything everybody does, you know, just live and let live. Let them do them, you do you. Yeah, you don't have to take issue with everything. Like live your life, let them live theirs.
SPEAKER_04And and real quick, we got a little bit of NFL crossover with this. We aren't on the NFL yet, but I'm gonna go ahead and read Mike Vrabel's response to what Trayvon Henderson said. We're not gonna read what Trayvon's saying because that also doesn't matter. But basically, uh Vrabel was asked about Trayvon's response, and this is his direct quote. He said, I love Trayvon, he cares deeply about his faith. I want them to be able to express what they believe. I also want to make sure that they've that they're educated to be inclusive, right? This to me, and I I don't I'm gonna walk a line here, Mike, and I I don't want to go on either side. The the thing with inclusivity that conflicts with people's religious beliefs, okay. We in America, bro, your neighbor might not share your beliefs, but we have to live next to each other, okay?
SPEAKER_06So I'll simply put it this there's a time and a place for things. When you're at work, it's work time, it ain't time to be talking about things that are divisive, things that are hot topics. I agree. You know, like you're already dealing with stress as it is because you're at work. Yeah, don't make it harder on yourselves by talking about things that might not go over well with all involved. Now, what you said, it kind of reminded me of something that I saw one time. So I had been on a trip out to California and I was going to San Francisco to see a Niners game, and my buddy pulls off the highway down into San Francisco, and literally the first light we stop at, there's a church, and then right next to the church is a building that has a bunch of rainbow flags hanging off of it. And I'm like, bro, you think them neighbors get along? Rainbow church. I said, I bet them neighbors don't get along. But the wave church. The point of the matter is I think that's you don't have to agree with everybody's opinion or everybody's view, and that's the that's fine. We're allowed to disagree. That's but we should be able to disagree civilly. Yeah, I agree with that one.
SPEAKER_04And that's a big problem with politics and religion in general, is that people don't know how to disagree and remain cordial. And I I think that is sorely, a sorely lost skill here in this society because, you know, I'm gonna be honest, I'm the kind of person, I'm not religious, I don't, you know, I'm not gonna talk smack about religion, but if I go to somebody's house and they're Jewish or they're Hindu, I am gonna partake in their culture out of respect. Okay, I'm gonna experience that. It's gonna, it's gonna expand my horizons a little bit, okay? Everybody's not like this, but that is that's how I view it, right?
SPEAKER_06It's like if you go to Thanksgiving at somebody's house and no everybody says, uh, can everybody join hands and we're gonna say we're gonna say a blessing. Are you gonna beat a person that sits there and goes, nah? Like, and there are people out there like that. Go ahead. You do look, you don't have to to say a blessing, but you know, at least take your hat off, cross your hands, bow your head.
SPEAKER_04Be part of the group, okay? You might not believe in what they believe in. You don't have to tell her to do that, though.
SPEAKER_06You know, but you're there and be respectful of the people you're doing. I agree. And look, it's it's just as simple. Live and let live.
NBA Records And Playoff Race
SPEAKER_04Yes. Live and let live. I agree with live and let live. And speaking of live and let live, we have a couple of record setters coming up here in the last few days, all right. Wimby, everybody, well, everybody's one of one of everybody's favorite players. So this tie this ties in.
SPEAKER_06Um I wanna I want to bring it. So this was a game on Monday night where the I hate to say it because I'm a Bulls fan. Bulls lost to the Spurs 129 to 114, but in this game, it was a record-setting game for Mr. Wimbayama because he is the third fastest double double since 1997. Double double. He literally in this game, let's see, he got his 10th rebound with a minute and 55 seconds into the second quarter. So he had 10 points, 10 rebounds in the first eight minutes and 31 seconds on the court. Think about that. He had more points than minutes on the court. So he got to a double-double in the quickest time. Third quickest time ever.
SPEAKER_04I mean, it's probably a little easier when you're taller than everybody else.
SPEAKER_06Well, remember, I said if I was starting my team, I would start with Wimanayama.
SPEAKER_08Yeah.
SPEAKER_06Now you get why. I'm pretty sure his arms are as long as my legs. That that kind of hurts back to Uber to college. There's actually a guy who he was playing with Florida who was 7'9, but he wasn't getting much playing time. So now he is the tallest player to enter the portal. There's actually going to be 1,100 players in the portal. But if this guy ever makes it the NBA, he's going to be taller than Wimby. Thank so that is just because he's the tallest right now doesn't mean you're always the tallest.
SPEAKER_04That is crazy. And another record, uh, you remember we interviewed Preston Jeter, the problem child, right? He mentioned Kawhi Leonard as one of his favorite NBA players. Kawhi Leonard is now just the 10th player in NBA history to record 50 straight 20-point games in a single season. Congratulations, Kawhi Leonard. I'm not gonna lie, I kind of like Kawhi Leonard.
SPEAKER_06I love Kawhi Leonard. But you know the only problem is if he was gonna play. But he's been playing a lot this year in order to get those points. But since you're bringing up points, how about Lucas Month? Lucas uh we close out the month of March with Luca totaling 600 points in the month of March. Wow. Bro, the only other players that have done stuff like this, you're talking about names like you know, Wilt Chamberlain, you're talking about Michael Jordan, you know, players of that ilk, like you're talking Hall of Famers. That's pretty impressive, man. It really is pretty impressive.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, you start getting your name in there with the likes of those guys, especially at his stage in his career now. Uh I don't think they're gonna miss LeBron all that much.
SPEAKER_06Oh, I mean, Luca's the future.
SPEAKER_04Luca is definitely the future. And uh is Reeves with them or is he with the is he with Golden State? He's with them. He's with them. So they have Reeves.
SPEAKER_05Austin Reeves.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, so they have Austin Reeves coming up with them as well.
SPEAKER_06Luca and Austin Reeves are going to be the future of the Lakers because Austin Reeves is starting to be more of a number two to that to that scenario. And the the one thing that I find fascinating with the Lakers is the fact that LeBron has kind of become a what do you need kind of player. Like instead of being like the guy, he's becoming the what do I need to do for my team guy. So if he needs to be the guy that's facilitating, he's gonna facilitate that night. If he needs to be the guy that's hitting, hitting shots and making making tough rebounds, he's doing it.
SPEAKER_04You know, I gotta he's fitting in with these players. I'm glad you. Brought that up because a lot of people will talk smack on LeBron. Beeple? People, sorry. Beeple, people. I call people as fake people. We're all NPCs in this world, okay? Anyway, uh LeBron. I'm glad you brought this up. Words are hard. Because a lot of people talk shit about LeBron and they, you know, they call him selfish. They say, oh, he's gotta be the guy everywhere he goes. And although historically uh he was the guy, but I I think that he seamlessly is acting selflessly uh in the latter part of his of his career here. Obviously, he wants to stay on the court and he wants to stay relevant. I like how he has shifted, and I I kind of feel like he's always been a what is my team need guy, even though he hasn't always been viewed like that.
SPEAKER_06He's a little overbearing. No, I mean like he's he was the guy.
SPEAKER_04He was the he was the guy, but he still has been a team player overall by and large, okay? But here I feel like when he got the team he wanted. Yeah, but here I yeah, true, but true. But here I feel like he really is kind of falling into that role, but I feel like he knows, okay.
SPEAKER_06So let's talk a little bit about since the NBA season's getting close to wrapping up, let's talk about players that have kind of clinched, or teams that have clinched, teams that are on the borderline. So let's I was about to say players clinching what? Their cheeks? It must have been uh hanging out hanging out with Diddy with some caveat.
SPEAKER_04They might be they might be if they only have a few games left until playoff time.
SPEAKER_06All right, so over over in the east, right now, teams have been eliminated. Teams have been eliminated Milwaukee Bucks, Chicago Bulls, Nets, Wizards, Pacers, all out. No chance they're out. So the ten teams that are gonna be in, starting at number 10, Charlotte, Miami Heat at number nine, Orlando Magic at eight, and number seven, the Sixers. Those teams are biting for the playoff or play-in games. Seven six. We'll see where they're gonna wind up. I think it's six seven. Coming up to the teams that are in and not having to deal with the play-in unless they lose some games. The Raptors at six, the Hawks at five, Cleveland at four, New York Knicks at three, Boston at two, and Detroit at number one.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, they Detroit was a very strong contender last year. I think that they're looking to keep that going this year. I'm not surprised.
SPEAKER_06And major kudos to them. They've been playing well without Cade Cunningham. So they're gonna that's gonna do them wonders when they get into the playoffs, if they can keep that kind of production still going. Because you're gonna need other options than Cade.
SPEAKER_04Not just that, but keep an eye on the Hawks and the Raptors. They are playing better than their five and six seeds uh currently suggest.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, I'm I you don't want to be in the playing games as much as you can help it.
SPEAKER_08Yeah.
SPEAKER_06But coming over to the West, teams eliminated. Teams eliminated the Grizzlies, the New Orleans Pelicans, the Mavs, the Utah Jazz, and the Kings are eliminated.
SPEAKER_04A lot of these teams were playoff bound teams last season.
SPEAKER_06Yes, but when you have injuries or you have players that leave and go elsewhere, it changes.
SPEAKER_04I mean, who you tell the Pacers made you know the championship game and this year they're never gonna make the playoffs. You think they're hurting? I think they're hurting. So right now hurting.
SPEAKER_06So right now, as it stands, uh the really the only team that can change its position is the Phoenix Suns. They're in a play-in position right now, but they could possibly catch up to the Rockets, but unlikely. So right now, the play-in the play-in game teams are the Warriors at 10, the Portland Trailblazers at nine, the LA Clippers at eight, and the Suns at 7. So those teams are trying to do their plan thing. The rest of the teams that are actually in and have you know better positioning, yeah. The Rockets at 6, the Timberwolves at 5, the Nuggets at 4, Lakers at 3, San Antonio at 2, and Golden State, or not Golden State, the Oklahoma City Thunder at 1. So past years champs still, they have the best record right now at 60 wins, looking like a champ.
SPEAKER_04Hey, they might be looking to repeat, and they were a young, high score, they were the highest scoring team in the NBA last year, especially when it comes to three-pointers. Uh OKC might be in line to repeat again. I'm just gonna call it what it is. That but the top six teams in the Western Conference, excuse me, I don't know what's going on tonight. Those top six teams, I think they're the they're gonna be the last team standing. I don't I don't know if these teams in the bottom four or in the play, well, they're out, but in the play-in bracket, I don't know if they have uh the firepower to make it beyond the first or second round.
SPEAKER_06I can tell you this for the Lakers, it's all about positioning because they really do not get much defense from Luca and Austin Reeves, so they need to find a way to get to a not so great team. Yeah. Because the the Timberwolves took him out last year and embarrassed them. If they were to get the Rockets, the Rockets are kind of weak with Ahmed Thompson and his defensive skill or his offensive and defensive skills, so that would be a point of exposure in the playoffs. If they don't find a way to shore up their defense, at least from the Reeves and and uh Lucas side, yeah, the Lakers might be winding up in and out like they were last year. Just my opinion.
College Football Tragedy In Wisconsin
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and I I think it's gonna be a very competitive NBA uh playoff bracket once again this year. Uh so that's what we got for some NBA. Good luck to those teams in the last few games of their regular season. We're gonna talk more NBA action next week, obviously, as they come into the playoffs. Uh let's talk a little bit of college football, Mike. You want to take this one? Our thoughts and prayers, right? My heart.
SPEAKER_06So, unfortunately, uh last night, Tuesday, uh, we got some unfortunate news out of Wisconsin. Uh they they found out that their tight end, Jack Puig, had died at Pew Puig, died at the age of 24. Cause of death is not given yet. So, kind of a just crazy scenario because I mean he's only 24, or was 24. Yeah, and uh you know, you you're not expecting this kind of stuff to happen with 24-year-olds.
SPEAKER_04So And you know, we just had another college tight end, I think it was from the University of Colorado. Um around the same age, also passed away. I don't remember uh I think that had something to do with a practice drill and exhaustion, but uh again, tight ends might need to focus on what's going on in the college ranks. We got two passed away in a few weeks apart, you know.
SPEAKER_06Well, and I'm sure more will come out later. I mean, it's so new. I mean, they're probably not releasing anything because probably you know, the family needs time, and the it it just it's not a good situation. So we feel for them.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and then we'll uh our next one I don't think we're ready to talk about. Yeah, we're gonna move on down.
SPEAKER_06Uh so that was just that was just a quick little college. Yeah, a little quick little college. We didn't want to we didn't want to not mention it and not bring it up. So hopefully, you know, family and them and those affected.
SPEAKER_04Our thoughts and prayers go out to him, his family, his teammates, and the community affected by his loss. Terrible, terrible loss at such a young age, too, man. Uh, we had something else, but I'm gonna move it to closer to draft time because I think that's a good draft time talk. But Mike, do we have anything else on college football? No, no, let's go into the NFL. That was a quick segment, okay? Who all is ready to jump into the NFL with us? Can't I hear something? No, we don't have NFL. No, no, you can't hear anything. We don't we don't run a live show. I just hear you. We don't run a live show. I hear myself, unfortunately. But anyway, let's jump into some NFT.
SPEAKER_16What?
SPEAKER_04Means you're loud. I am loud. You are. I gotta talk over myself. The thoughts in my head. Ah, Jesus. Anyway, the NFL and TMRW, which I'm sure is short for tomorrow, uh, they are partnering to finally start. Who can we say finally, Mike? A pro flag football league. Bro, we used to play flag football back in the day. I know. It's about time they finally have some, and I think the Olympics, I think this year's uh flag football Olympics really turned them on to this partnership here.
SPEAKER_06I mean, flag has been growing in popularity over these last few decades. And I mean, like like you said, we had played flag ourselves. I mean, I I literally was playing playing in a league, indoor league, uh, which honestly was kind of fun because there's no out of bounds. I went I went a few times, I missed it. There was there was uh glass all around the outside, so sometimes you get guys that would be going for a flag and it's more like a tackle, and they hit you into the boards, and you just hit this boom echoes in the building. Yeah, it sounds way worse than it was. It was fun. I had a lot of fun playing in that league, even though I got hurt.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it was it was good times, man. And then we used to play our old, you know, our street football back in the day, but we could have another shot at professional football careers, Mike. We two dad bots and middle-aged men could have a career in professional flag football. No, no, don't say no, sir.
SPEAKER_06No, don't say no. I I say no because the the level of athlete that is playing in it now, you're not gonna be able to keep up with them. Look, I'm quarterback, I just throw the ball, bro. Sure.
SPEAKER_04You know, I mean, I can play receiver, but you know I'm not gonna catch it unless somebody's in my face. But probably a good defensive guy, but I'm good on the rush.
SPEAKER_06Okay, okay, hold on, hold on, hold up. Y'all okay. This man, it made no sense. If he was wide open, nobody around him, there could be nobody within 20 feet of him, straight wide open, straight butterfigures boom, like he had brick for hands. But if somebody is in his face, like he could have a hand literally in the center of his face, yeah, and and he would like to snatch it right out the air and pin it against the side of his head, do some gumby ass shit, and catch that ball in the weirdest way, and it's like, what is that? I threw you a perfect pass earlier and you couldn't catch it.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I mean, I it was not a good look, but I looked great catching it in coverage, just don't throw to me when I'm uncovered, because obviously I never did.
SPEAKER_06But I was open, I'm throwing to somebody else.
SPEAKER_04When I was a defensive guy, I loved playing linebacker and edge rush. That was my thing, okay? But we'll move on from that. This is not really about us anymore. Uh pro football flag coming. Pro football, pro flag football coming down the pipeline. I'm kind of excited for it, honestly. It sounds better than the XFL already. But Ted Ginn Jr., AJ McCarran, and Chris Redman begin pro coaching careers in familiar spots, okay? Um let's see where they're going to. They're gonna be coaching in the UFL. The XFL or UFL. I don't know what they're calling it. It's UFL. I thought it was. XFL merged with them. I thought they were gonna call it the XFL.
SPEAKER_06No, it's the UFL. Bro, I have told you. It's UFL. They merged. They're so confusing. They merged. No, it's not confusing. It's simple. I just told you. They merged.
SPEAKER_04The UFL. The USFL and the XFL merged.
SPEAKER_06There's just the UFL.
SPEAKER_04Move on. Look, I think they need to clear this up if they ever want to compete with the NFL, okay? But anyway.
SPEAKER_06We don't need to clear anything up. It says even on the article, it says UFL.
SPEAKER_04Well, anyway, they're gonna be coaching with the Columbus Aviators. Uh all of them?
SPEAKER_06They're all coaching with the Aviators, or just I'm confused.
SPEAKER_04It looks like they're gonna be coaching with the Aviators. Okay. Play with the UFL, AJ McCarron play with the UFL, which by the way, AJ McCarron actually won a championship with the Battlehawks uh in their inaugural season.
SPEAKER_06Um Genn's appointment, one of the eight head coaches in the UFL is all I remember from AJ McCarron is when he was in college football and uh and that one announcer getting suspended because he was just had goo goo eyes for AJ McCarron's girlfriend, then girlfriend, now wife, where he's like, he's basically like every every young man now is looking at looking at the this woman on the screen and going to pick up a football in the back backyard to become a quarterback.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I I'll post this to social media so it's less confusing. But yeah, Reggie Pro, he'll be with uh he was returning to St. Louis Battlehawks uh as an assistant. Uh Agent McCarrant, obviously with the Aviators, Redmond. Uh let's see here. He's I think he's gonna be with the Aviators as well. Uh that's what I'm seeing here. Uh Todd Ginn, uh Ted Gunn. Well, again, it's his father, Ted Sr., was a coaching legend in Cleveland. Uh so it it looks like they're mostly going to the aviators, with the exception of one going back to the Battlehawks.
49ers Injury Study And Player Care
SPEAKER_06Ted Genn, former 49er, my favorite special teams guy when he was there. But speaking of He also played for the Panthers, didn't he? He did. Speaking of the 49ers, though, all that talk that had been happening where they were like, oh, the Niners play next to a substation, it's causing all the soft tissue injuries. Oh no, they're basically playing in a wasteland. Well, 49ers said, We hear this, and we're going to dissuade your notions of this. They hired a scientist to come in and investigate the electrical substation near their facilities in order to see if this really is a thing where where the electromagnetic interference causing disruptions in the team's soft tissues and causing more injuries. And this is a legit study. Like they literally had a science team working on this, and their findings were yeah, it's not a thing. It's not a thing. And even so, the Niners have uh boosted their their funding for all recovery efforts for the team. So they have put more money into rehab, their facilities, their training, all of that.
SPEAKER_04This stems, I gotta give it to the 49ers. This stems as a result of the quote report cards that the NFL PA did that the NFL deemed illegal. Uh, they took that seriously and are actually diving into it, the details of it, and they are actually trying to improve the team. Uh, facility and perks and benefits, things like that for the players.
SPEAKER_06So back in the day, the Niners were like one of the first teams to really go above and beyond for their players. Like they they were like one of the first ones that did a lot from like a standpoint of the food that they gave their players, made it a thing to create a family and friendly environment, doing these big parties for the families, not just the players, and we're you know, having them travel in style and giving players individual rooms to help them rest better. Yes, and just like they Eddie DeBarlow started all of that where it was let me give into my players, and he dude, like as an owner, he was literally going down to the locker room and handing tallow towels out to his players.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I mean, uh, that is a sign of good ownership, and 49ers have been one of the more family-friendly, player-friendly teams in the NFL history, one of the better teams to play for, even in their down days, you know.
SPEAKER_06But just so people aren't thinking that I still think Eddie DeBarlo is in charge, but he's not. His sister took over, and now his sister's son, Jed York, is in charge.
Chiefs Opener Talk And Steakhouse Rant
SPEAKER_04Sir, you are the biggest 49ers fan that this podcast has ever seen. I don't think anybody's questioning your knowledge on that. I'm just saying, like, you know, I I love my team. But moving right along here, and good job, 49ers, once again, on digging into those grades and trying to make life better for their players and their families. Uh, we have some fun thing. I don't know if you know Clark Hunt of the Chiefs is just full of himself or if this is a real stat. I think it's kind of a little bit of both. So the Kansas City Chiefs owner is saying that the Chiefs are not gonna open against the Seahawks, which is traditional, right? The last two Super Bowl winners usually face off open seasoner. Uh the open the seasoner. I'd love some seasoning. Anyway, uh so he's saying that due to Patrick Mahomes' injury and his timeline for return, that they're not gonna be playing the opener. Does this team revolve around Mahomes so much that just the simple thought of him possibly not being ready equates to a poor performance for the team overall? They just re-signed Travis to three years, by the way. We all thought he was gonna retire.
SPEAKER_06That's not a three-year deal. That's a one-year deal with options for two more years. Right, right. Same, same. Anyway, look, bottom line is they still don't really know who's gonna play anyway. I think this is just a getting out in front of it move by this owner. He's just basically getting out in front and saying, look, we want no parts of this. I mean, because look, what's the difference between them playing the Wednesday before Sunday or playing Sunday?
SPEAKER_04Look, you actually it doesn't sound like Mahomes is gonna be ready to go week one to be a either way.
SPEAKER_06Right. So it doesn't matter. You're gonna still be starting the season with Justin Fields being your quarterback. It's not gonna look like the same Chiefs that you've had the last five years or so.
SPEAKER_04I'm glad you said that because I think he's also thinking about the NFL as a whole. You know Mahomes is one of the most polarizing players, okay? The only reason you probably watch the Chiefs is probably for Mahomes, okay? Unless you're a Taylor Swift fan.
SPEAKER_06You know, it's funny because with the owners' meetings going on and them talking about wanting every team, well, at least certain owners, talking about they want every team to have an over uh international game. The Niners starting off in Australia with the with the Rams, Kyle Shannon has already come out and said like he he doesn't like it. And I I think I'm pretty sure a lot of other players and coaches with both those organizations don't like it because you're making these teams fly twenty plus hours to another country to play a game and then have to travel back another twenty plus hours on a plane. Now, granted, coming back's a little bit a little bit better because you're gaining time, but no. Losing time. Losing time. Anyway, neither here nor there. Time zones are a pain in the ass.
SPEAKER_04No, I agree, even though it's a good thing. Speaking from experience. Speaking of Travis and Mahomes, Mike, did you know they just opened a steakhouse? Yeah, I know. So uh I had heard my I was just trying to look up the ratings. I can't find it in Google. But there I read something today, somebody wrote a particularly blasting rating of the restaurant. Uh I won't go into it.
SPEAKER_06I don't know, a former or current NFL player opening a restaurant and having shitty reviews. That's never happened.
SPEAKER_04Well, obviously, these guys aren't managing this themselves. They obviously have people in charge, but a lot of the complaints are surrounded around service and service timing, you know, quality, as well as um the price of some of the things on the menu, including some of these stake cuts, right? Um now out here being in Beachtown, USA, right? We're in a tourist town. I got hiccups, man. I don't something's going on tonight. So I thank you all for bearing with me through this. But anyway, we live in Beachtown, USA, tourist town, heavy military area. There's a lot here that's overpriced. So we're kind of used to this, right? To me, some of this comes from this area is not used to seeing inflated luxury prices, right? I'll say it for what it is.
SPEAKER_06And and this is gonna be my opinion on this. Okay. Fuck a steakhouse. And I'm gonna say that openly because half these places they charge you ten times what that meat is worth, and then don't cook it worth a damn. I could sit here and cook that steak at home that actually happier was than than going to pay, you know, thirty dollars for a cut of meat, and then I could have bought four of that cost.
SPEAKER_04Like by the way, one of the chief complaints was that their steaks were not cooked properly. And by the way, these steaks average about a hundred dollars a cut, give or take. You know how many steaks I can buy for that? In Walmart? Probably a hundred steaks for a hundred dollars.
SPEAKER_06Bro, I bet you I can find a place online, get some good cuts for my damn good butcher butcher, probably over in Texas, and get that ship straight to my house and I cook that shit up.
SPEAKER_04And you were just telling me the other night, most butchers will ship meat to you. Yeah.
SPEAKER_06So I literally have ordered stuff like that before. Because let's face it, sometimes you go to grocery store and then not the stuff.
SPEAKER_04You know what we're gonna have to do though now, since I couldn't find this stuff online? Two for the win is gonna have to make a trip to 1587 cuts, and we're gonna have to we're gonna have to dive, we're gonna have to get hands-on, okay. OJT on the job training gear. We gotta go to this place, Mike. And we have to document our experience. I have no desire to go there. I have no desire to go there either, but we must do this for the podcast, okay? But moving on from that, when that day comes.
Browns Back Out Of A Signing
SPEAKER_06Okay, so moving moving right along and getting away from what seemed like a good venture to a bad venture, talking about a bad venture, what's going on right now with the Browns. The Browns have pulled a uh Ravens move here. They get a player and then opt out from said player. So the Browns opt out of signing AJ Epinesa after a physical. Was he a he was a free agent, right? He was a free agent. So you know what I can't say. I can't say that I'm sad about this for the Browns because I really would like to see AJ Epinesa come over to my Niners just saying.
SPEAKER_04What is with these high caliber players not passing physicals?
SPEAKER_06Well, before this, he had a one-year deal to uh five million dollars for Epinesa back on March 18th. Sources with uh ESPN's Adam Schefter at one time had reported this. And come this last Monday, they said deal is not finalized and it's off the table. This is after they had found found from a physical that they don't want to have him. Now, honestly, one of two things is gonna happen here. Either Epinesa's gonna go right back to playing for the Bills, or he's gonna find a new home. What is he? He's not gonna be playing to Brown. He is a defensive end, so he's a defense. He's a rotational defensive player.
SPEAKER_04Okay, so he's he's alright, he he could be good, he could be a good help to your team. Obviously, the Browns seeing something they don't like, like you just mentioned. Uh tough luck, but honestly, bro. Do you really want to play for the Browns? I mean, they have a good defense, but do you really want to be part? You know, right, you know, I'm not gonna say what I'm gonna say. But anyway, I don't know. It may be a blessing in disguise because I think he's gonna end up somewhere he might like more. I guess somebody is gonna want him. Uh it just might be a matter of time.
SPEAKER_06So Brian, has anybody ever gotten you so mad that you're like ready to throw hands, right? Like you're like you're they're just what for whatever it is, whatever it is with that person, they just they get you going and you'd be willing to jump in a UFC ring and have at it.
SPEAKER_04Every day, every mother every day, Mike. Let me tell you what. I want to beat the hell out of everybody. Not true. I didn't even fight you. What did I do? Nothing, it just seemed like a good matchup.
SPEAKER_06Let me let me get better better healed up, and maybe that might happen.
SPEAKER_04Anyway, that's right. That's right. You have a handicap. I have a handicap too, though. I'm I'm fat and out of shape.
Seahawks Banter And NFL Officiating
SPEAKER_06JSN recently was asked the very said question who he would like to fight if he ever was put into a UFC octagon ring.
SPEAKER_04And this is interesting considering we just had Logan Paul challenging everybody to everything. So, or was it Jake Paul? I don't remember. One of them Paul brothers. I think it was Logan Paul because he was the WWE.
SPEAKER_06So Jack he he was asked this question, and shortly after they asked, you know, maybe somebody on the Rams or the 49ers, maybe. And he said, nah. Joking, he said he wouldn't choose he would choose his Seahawks teammate, Devin Witherspoon, as a wild guy to fight in an octagon ring.
SPEAKER_04I don't think I would want to take on Weatherspoon. Have you seen how hard that guy tackles? I'm just saying he is a Weatherspoon was a safety, right? No, he's a corner. He was a corner, but he hits hard, man.
SPEAKER_06Okay. Just saying. JSN, I look JSN don't have to it doesn't have to fight for anything other than a football.
SPEAKER_04He doesn't have to. I don't even think he has to fight for that. Have you seen his catches? He just makes it seem so flawless.
SPEAKER_06He just goes up and plucks it out there, or just runs his route, plucks it.
SPEAKER_04Honestly, he keeps going. I could get behind that.
SPEAKER_06I'm just saying, like they ask him the question, it seemed like it was a divisive thing. Like, hey, who's basically what it sounded like is which corner do you want to fight? You know, that's what it sounds like to me.
SPEAKER_04As a receiver, I expect him to name a corner.
SPEAKER_06Well, he did, just one on his team. Go go figure, right? Just one on his team. He's just obviously joking around, but you know.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, joking around. But you know who's not joking around? NFL, NFL fans, and this officiating. Mike, this officiating thing, I think, been going on the whole time, I think 15, 20 years now, okay? I have a very important question for you before I read these two excerpts. Go ahead. Do you think that uh NFL officiating salaries should be directly tied to their performance? Uh, how many calls they get right, how many calls it get wrong, how many calls they botched. Do you think that their performance should dictate how much each referee makes?
SPEAKER_06No, because we can challenge calls now and we can get it right. So there's it's not like it's not like the days of old where if you got a call wrong, it cost a game their seat or cost a team their season. So I don't think it should be that way. What I do think they should do is they should have full-time referees now. They should have guys that are full-time refereeing. And here's why I say that because wouldn't you like to have the benefit of your holding practice in your practice field as being refed, not by your coaching staff, but by actual NFL referees who know the rules and could sit there and give the coach a heads up. I agree. Coach, player, I mean whoever is not, he's doing this, he needs to stop doing that.
SPEAKER_04I I agree with you, and actually, so does Sean Merriman. Uh there's so first of all, I have a few opinions on this. If you tie performance to referee's pay, I think that immediately you you you lose uh the beauty of objectiveness, okay? Because now they're worried about their performance and what they get right, what they get wrong.
SPEAKER_06What you're gonna wind up with is alligator arms for refs. You're not gonna get refs calling anything.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, they're not they're not gonna call anything. And I I think that it could tip the scales for more um fixed games, if call it what you will, right? I I think it could open the door to more collusion.
SPEAKER_06You know what I'd like to see? Yeah, more calls for the defense. I'm tired of this. They all of these calls, all these rule changes, aid the offense. Where's the where's the help for the defense?
SPEAKER_04I agree. They they will always protect the offense, especially uh receivers and quarterbacks, undoubtedly, no matter what. And we've seen it, we've seen perfectly clean hits happen on the field and they get called for personal foul, right? Oh I don't know that Petrie hit was something excellent.
SPEAKER_06I love that hit he put in the fool. Well, yeah, it doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_04Well, this is football. You're gonna get smacked, okay? As long as you do it legally. Sorry about your luck, brother. Don't get smacked.
SPEAKER_06I okay. There there used to be a thing, and and most fans now they they don't they didn't either they're too young to realize it because they never saw them, or you know, maybe some play some people have forgotten, but there used to be leading up to the game, they used to play these highlight reels of just like bone crushing hits, these plays where guys are just like up-ended, and you know you know, you could tell Dude was probably knocked out, you know, just these incredible hits where it's like, yeah, it gets you fired up, like, yeah, hit me.
SPEAKER_04You may call me a homer, but the first one comes to mind is Sean Taylor, the hardest hitting safety I have ever seen. Okay, rest his soul.
SPEAKER_06And when I hear you say Sean Taylor, all I can remember okay. We all remember, well, some of us remember what the Pro Bowl was.
SPEAKER_04Oh, I know where you're going with that.
SPEAKER_06The last point, the last point, the last point where the Pro Bowl was like still kind of watchable, yeah, was when Sean Taylor was still still with us, and he he he lit up a punter in a Pro Bowl, and it was just like, bro, chill out, it's a Pro Bowl, but he smacked the piss out of the way.
SPEAKER_04And then, you know, LaRon Landry, Meriwether, some of these safeties who were often penalized, were some of the hardest hitting safeties in the game. No, no. Okay, get off your team. And hey, Merriweather was a journeyman. Look, so was LaRon Landry. Look.
SPEAKER_06There were in the 80s, there were so many hard-hitting players. The fridge.
SPEAKER_05No, he was he wasn't, he was a defensive tackle.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, but he hit your ass.
SPEAKER_05No.
SPEAKER_06I'm talking about I'm talking about safety. I know, I know.
SPEAKER_04I lost my train of thought for a second, but I was just thinking of all this shit.
SPEAKER_06This is not me being a homer. This is something that I actually heard another player saying.
SPEAKER_04Tell me to stop being a homer, then you're gonna go be a homer.
SPEAKER_06No, listen, listen, listen, listen, listen. There was literally a former player who's interviewed, and they said they they were asking him all these questions about his playing day, and they said, they said, Hey, who's who's the hardest player to ever hit you? And he goes, Oh, Ronnie Lott without a question. And then he said, he were like he just right away, Ronnie Lott. And they said, Well, what is it like being hit by Ronnie Lott? He said, Here's what you do. He said, You go put your hands right up in the air, right? Right over your head. And I want you to go get your best friend to swing a Louisville slugger as hard as he can right into your ribs. That's what it's like being hit by Ronnie Lott. Yeah. You know, that's when you saw players back in those days, you saw players get alligator arms. They go up the middle and they they'd reach up, and oh, all of a sudden their hands, their hands can't get up over their shoulders because oh no, I'm about to get lit up by that safety. Maybe, oh, I I I can't get that ball.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah, I can't.
SPEAKER_06Oh, it's out of my reach.
SPEAKER_04I can't reach it with my spirit. It's out of your reach, it's like a foot over your head. I just imagine a receiver with spirit fingers by his head. I can't reach it.
SPEAKER_06They all of a sudden find the turf monster.
SPEAKER_04Oh, I tripped. I tripped, I have turf tow now. Can I get 45 days of you know, worker?
SPEAKER_06Not to say, I mean, obviously, we're seeing some big hits still, but like it used to be a thing. They used to advertise all the big hits, but they don't do it anymore.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah, they want to get away from that. They think it's a little on the violent side. Um, you can't advertise hits and then be like uh concussions. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, with the with the age of concussions and CTE, but you know, real quick, we'll check in, and there hasn't been a lot going on in free agents. Free agents is kind of winding down now. We've got a couple of trades here and there. The draft is coming up, which we will hit on more in a couple uh weeks.
SPEAKER_06Uh well, let's let's keep in mind that after the draft, you're gonna have teams pick up a few more players in free agency if to fill needs that they didn't feel fill in the draft or with you know undrafted uh college players. Right. But there also will be players who get released by their said teams or traded because there'll be contract situations like after June 1, they can start trading these players and it'll be less of a cap hit, less of a penalty against the team. Players like AJ Brown, players like Brandon Ayuk, so bigger name players that may still be on the move, but it's gonna be a minute. Yeah. So don't think that because your team didn't make a big splash, they still aren't going.
MATW Interview Setup
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah. Look for things to happen around draft time and draft day, and then again after the draft. Then again, yeah, and right after the draft. It's gonna quiet down until probably they hit training camp and the beginning of the season. That's usually when the hot spots for trades in the NFL are. But, you know, we got a lot of good things coming. We got a lot of good football to look forward to the draft. Uh coming up, we have our uh special guest interview with MATW tag team, uh, the the flippin' problems, comprised of Preston Jeter, the problem child, and Terry the Flip Sequoia. Okay, coming up here in just a minute. I hope you guys enjoy it. Stay tuned.
SPEAKER_03We're out here at Chef's Market in Newport News for another MATW event. We're sitting here uh with the flippin' problems, Terry Sequoia and Preston Jeter.
SPEAKER_07Welcome to the show, guys. We appreciate you guys taking the time to sit down with us, especially at last minute. It's a beautiful day out here. Uh you guys looking forward to the show today.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yes, we are. Thank you so much for having us on. What are we doing today, Preston?
SPEAKER_11What are we doing today? What are we doing today? We're gonna be in singles action tonight. Singles action. Yes. We're out of our out of our comfort zones here at MATW. Yes. Who are you facing in singles action, Preston? I've got Don O Hefner. Don O'Hefner.
SPEAKER_02Wow. Can you tell me a little bit about Don O'Hefner?
SPEAKER_11He's a guy, it's his first time here at MATW. From out of from out of Georgia. He's where he was trained.
SPEAKER_03Is there any relation to a Hugh Hefner?
SPEAKER_11Not that I know of.
SPEAKER_02And I am in singles action as well against BBL.
SPEAKER_03Okay, Big Body Lopez. Yes, Big Body Lopez, yes.
SPEAKER_02Uh no stranger to each other. Um, BBL can be something else. Oh, BBL can be something else. Something way better. It could.
SPEAKER_03BBL so is way more sexual, so we're gonna roll with that.
SPEAKER_11We've got a lot more history with the other BBL. So typically you guys tag though, right? Yes. We're pretty good at it.
SPEAKER_02I'd I'd say I'd say like pretty good. Yeah. Board of line, cross a line, right? Yeah. Yeah. Anywhere we know. Um I think I think if someone had a board and they'd draw a number on it, I'd say they'd say ten. That's what I would say. Tens across the board? Yes.
SPEAKER_11I'd go tens across, maybe like a nine in there somewhere. Not but that's just because that guy's got bad taste.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I mean, you guys are very entertaining, by the way. I love watching y'all. So oh Mike, I'm gonna steal your question here, as we were talking about earlier, but uh, how'd you guys come up with the flipping problems? Where did this come from?
SPEAKER_11Okay. Um you came up with the flipping problems.
SPEAKER_02I guess I did. I guess I did.
SPEAKER_11Um what happened?
SPEAKER_02Well, so we were on a show, uh, no correlation to M A C W And we got word that we were gonna be tag teaming together through another source, and we were like, what what could we call what could we call this grand team of ours? He is the problem child, Preston Jeter. I'm the flip Terry Sequoia, so I think it was obvious what we had to make the name here.
SPEAKER_11It wasn't, but it wasn't. Because we could not think of a name for a while. I think no, maybe you said it that first day, and you just decided to hate it. Yeah, I didn't like it at all.
SPEAKER_16I mean, given both your independent names, it would make sense.
SPEAKER_07It seemed like it would have been an obvious.
SPEAKER_11It made a lot of sense. But when he first brought it up, he said, you know, maybe flipping problems. I said, absolutely not. Why would we do that? And you came around. I came around. It's it's it was the Hank. Is that typically how it goes with him?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. The taste is right. That's typically how it goes with him. I mean, it was the complete opposite for the for our first music that we had to come out to. He tricked me into picking um I think it was Mighty Wings. Mighty Wings. Mighty Wings. I I love it. I love it now, but at first, I think it was because we were we were newer at the time, so um, I was stressing about like what should we come out to? And he came out of nowhere with Mighty Wings, and I was like, sure, whatever.
SPEAKER_11And turns out I was like, I mean, I just I gave it to the guy. And then later I was like, Oh, I gave him our music. You were like, What'd you give him? I said, Mighty wing. And you said, What? Dude, why would you do that? But it's like the best song to come out of each other.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, no, it worked out. I like it now. I like it now. But that's usually how it goes. You know, we come at each other with something, we obviously disagree, blatantly disagree as well. But then at the end of the day, you know, we're the flipping problems. We gotta be on the same.
SPEAKER_03The level of disagreement is important between partnerships. Just ask me a mic. I hate everything he does. So I I I feel you, Mr. Chair.
SPEAKER_11Yeah, sometimes I'm not the biggest fan of a flip. But other times I'm his biggest fan. I wear your shirts a lot.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I mean, you're the problem child in our group, so I get it actually.
SPEAKER_02So, how long have you guys uh been tag teaming together for once there's a lot of things? Now it's been I think close to two years. Right? Yeah, I think it's close to two years now. Yep. When we figured out the name. Um our first our first uh our debut tag match was against um the the real life freaks.
SPEAKER_04Okay.
SPEAKER_02If if we uh They're not METW right now, but Joe King and Bradley. I like that match. That was a great match.
SPEAKER_11Yeah, it was fun, but it was it was obvious that we'd been teaming for as long as we had. You know what I mean? We weren't very fluid. Oh, yeah. Over the time we've we've we've yeah, yeah, we've um we we're much more of a unit now than we were. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03You guys got some chemistry now, a lot better. Is it like a relationship where you can kind of almost finish each other's thoughts in the ring? Like you see Terry going to the turnbuckle and you know what's about to happen. You know what moves coming, you know the timing.
SPEAKER_11Yeah, that's that's what we that's what we're always working towards.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, the chemistry is way better, I'd say. Like, especially two years after, yeah. It's but it also comes with like what we do outside the ring too. Like now, man, now he's he's my buddy, he's my best friend. I love him. I love him more than I love McDonald's. It's a big one. It's a high bar to step.
SPEAKER_11My cat, my cat Chavo, is one of the flip's biggest fans.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yep, yeah, yeah. Chavo loves me. Big shout out to Chavo, yes, yeah. Chavo Chavo's actually part of the team.
SPEAKER_11Yeah, where we're looking into we're looking into a third member member, and Chavo is a good thing.
SPEAKER_02He's like he's like top top two, I'd say. I'd say. Top two. Right there with your shoulder, like a tag. I can't. Yeah, yeah, we can't. Yeah, we can't talk about the name just yet. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03So how long have you guys been wrestling?
SPEAKER_02Totally. About the same time we've been tagging. We've been tagging about well, you started before me. I started, yeah.
SPEAKER_11No. So you're I forgot.
SPEAKER_02I forgot about that. Sorry.
SPEAKER_11You're our tag memory is just like Yeah, our tag memories are kind of taking over the all of the memories, but no, I've been um on the scene for about going on four years now.
SPEAKER_02You're old now.
SPEAKER_11I'm a vet.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I'm I'm half of that, though. I'm I'm two years. Um so really you've you've seen me throughout my whole career.
SPEAKER_11I was there on his first day of training. That's crazy.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04You guys came up through the same wrestling school.
SPEAKER_02Yes, yes. Okay. I learned a lot from this man. Yes. Nice. Not anymore, though. Now I'm like better than him.
SPEAKER_11Um on a person-to-person basis, I'd say most people would say that I'm like far better than Flip Terry Sequoia, but it's it's kind of what that means. A lot of people are saying it.
SPEAKER_10Oh no, you guys might have to go head to head in the ring and find out.
SPEAKER_11That's I would love to do that.
SPEAKER_10I wouldn't hurt you.
SPEAKER_11I wouldn't, I don't want to hurt you, but I kind of do.
SPEAKER_06I think they should work up to it. Just start competing in other things. You know, or maybe each of you have a single. Hold on. Why are you guys trying to drive a wedge between us?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you know what? You know what? We gotta be doing that here. All right, guys. I love you. Friendly competition is to my P Dog right now. We are on the same page usually. All the time. I'd say 100% of the time.
SPEAKER_04Maybe you each could face the same people individually, and then who beat them better or faster?
SPEAKER_16That way you don't have to beat each other.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Alright. Yeah, but if one of them loses to him, then they got bragging right. If you lose tonight, then for Halloween, you gotta dress up as uh a baby. A baby. Yeah, yeah, like with a diaper baby. Like a big baby. Like a big baby.
SPEAKER_11I don't think I could do a small baby.
SPEAKER_02I can't baby. No, like a like one of those tubby babies. Yeah, those are the biggest. Okay. So then what is what do you have to dress up for?
SPEAKER_11Okay, so if I lose, if you lose your match tonight, you are going to have to dress up as. Damn, I don't have any ideas for this at all. Wasn't prepared. That fits for the show. We shoot from her sure.
SPEAKER_10So um that's kind of fun, isn't it? Let's go off Sailor Moon. I'm sorry, what? Sailor Moon?
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_06Does anybody know what the blue hell that is?
SPEAKER_10It's that she has the blue hair.
SPEAKER_06It's uh uh one of those Japanese.
SPEAKER_11Yeah, one of those Japanese characters.
SPEAKER_06At the Rumble of Fury. Okay, I'll look very popular in it. You will be fittingly embarrassed wearing it. Uh well who's gonna be a good one.
SPEAKER_11Just like him being a giant baby.
SPEAKER_03I think he would look good in it, but that's not his reaching fans that you will never before reach. I guess we'll find out.
SPEAKER_04I feel like Taylor Smith Kelsey. I guess I guess we will find out. Travis Kelsey got all the Swifties.
SPEAKER_11Yeah, maybe I'll be in PBL's corner tonight, honestly. If that's what's on the line.
SPEAKER_02See, there's a wedge being driven right now.
SPEAKER_11You know, yeah, you know what? The flip is right. You two are trying very hard. You know what? It's making me it's making me uncomfortable. Let's make sure the mics pick this up. Okay.
SPEAKER_10Dragon.
SPEAKER_06Oh, it's okay.
SPEAKER_03Dap up her, brotherly Dappa Purr. So I love you, P Dog.
SPEAKER_04We don't mean to bring drama into your lives.
SPEAKER_11Yeah, and I think that's exactly what you're trying to do. But I think what you know what? Win or lose tonight, you can be whatever you want for Halloween flip. How about that? I can do what? You can be whatever you want for Halloween. Really? Yeah. Win or lose? You know what? Same to you, buddy. You know what? You know what? And that's why the flipping problems are on the same plate. Okay. And that's why we're gonna win our matches tonight. Yep.
SPEAKER_03We like plates too. It's good. So let's shift gears here real quick. Um where are you guys from? Were you born and raised? Um, what was life like before wrestling? And then what what where did you both decide to hey, this is what I'm gonna do, I'm going after it. I know you said he influenced you a little bit, but just dive into that a little bit, both of you actually, a little more in detail.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean, we are we are built from Fliptown, USA. Um, I guess if we want to get a little bit more specific. Um I'm from uh Smithfield, Virginia. So um born and raised there, loved it. Um moved to Yorktown, okay, found a school, um, and that's where I met my amazing partner, Preston Jeter.
SPEAKER_11PWA. Hey man, short and short and simple. Very romantic. It is. I like it. Yeah, a lot of people are saying that. But um yeah, I was I was I'm from Chesterfield. Okay. I've been living in Williamsburg for the past few years. Will I Emsburg. Will I Amsburg? That's what a lot of people call it that. So um yeah, I just found out about the school because I was just looking up schools in the area and it was the only one. Um so I got in touch with the guy who runs the gym. Uh made sure it was cool that I was 16 and coming to train, and it was yeah, you but that was in North Carolina, right? No, I started training here. My first match was in North Carolina.
SPEAKER_02Oh, okay. Yeah, that's what's up. See, I wanted to start at 16. I started at 18. You're beating me by two years.
SPEAKER_03So if my math is correct, you said you've been in the business around four years, you started around 16. So what does that make you about 20 now? Yeah, I'm 21 now.
SPEAKER_11Well, yeah, I was I was going based off of when I started actually. Okay. Flip how are you now? 20.
SPEAKER_04Okay, so you guys are still very young and very promising skill set, mind you, by the way. I'm very impressed as well. Where do you guys see yourselves in five, maybe even 10 years from now?
SPEAKER_02Well, hopefully in one of the one of the big companies, you know, one of the feds. Um, you know, every everybody's dream is to get to WWE.
SPEAKER_11Yeah, yeah. I mean, yeah, the dream is to kind of make this my job, my real job. You know, the wrestling business doesn't owe us anything, but you know, if I could make it to where I don't have to work my real job and I could just do this, that's all I think that's the goal, right?
SPEAKER_07In fact, talking to partying we fly just a couple weeks ago, he said this business is what you make it. Would you guys agree with that? 100%.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. If you don't put in the work, it shows. You know, you can't come in pretending to be a wrestler and expect great things to happen. That's it's not how it works.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you gotta work hard for it. And honestly, I agree, and I said this to him. I mean, anything worth doing, it's not easy to do, it's hard. And if it were easy, everybody would do it right. That's true. Yeah.
SPEAKER_07So I really I really have a lot of respect for the amount of work that you guys put in, not just y'all, but all wrestlers, and regardless of anybody's capacity in the production, where they're at in the show, like it really does take a lot to put together what you guys do.
SPEAKER_03Thank you. And then you guys are a tag team. So then you got that's a whole nother extra area of practice that you guys have to work on.
SPEAKER_07So I can't say enough about it. Um, I really appreciate just having been part of that one time.
SPEAKER_02We appreciate you having us on.
SPEAKER_07Yeah. Um quick question.
SPEAKER_06I see you look wearing a Lakers shirt.
SPEAKER_11Yeah.
SPEAKER_06Are you a Lakers fan?
SPEAKER_11Basketball fan? I'm not I I do like basketball, more of a Spurs guy. Big Kawhi Leonard fan. Okay. That's my guy. It's always been my guy. This I found this at the time. So it should be a Clippers shirt then. I found this at a thrift shop and it looked really cool. Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_06Like it's got the Tasmanian.
SPEAKER_11I'm a big fan of Tasmanian.
SPEAKER_06So do you guys follow any other sports? Like, or is there any other?
SPEAKER_11I'm a wrestler. I know you're a wrestler. Well, I'm a wrestler, bro. I'm a big football guy. Okay. Don't don't I don't get into college NFL though for sure. Okay. Who's your team? Cowboys fan. Oh lord. People like to hear that. He's a commander's fan. Ah.
SPEAKER_06You went down in his book now.
SPEAKER_03This is where this is where the the wedge may have come from. It was better.
SPEAKER_11I mean, if it's better than hearing you're an Eagles fan.
SPEAKER_03That's true. We can agree on that.
SPEAKER_07Yeah. No Philly type. Nobody likes it. I can at least wear my colors in Dallas. I can't do that in Philly without getting to shoot.
SPEAKER_11Well, Fooby's got some some commander's gear in his car. Some what? Your floor mats. Dude, don't talk about my floor mats.
SPEAKER_02He's got good taste. Yeah, but like, I don't mean it. You know?
SPEAKER_06They came with the car. He just wants to wipe his feet on again.
SPEAKER_02They came with the car. Damn it. I don't know what else to do with it.
SPEAKER_07It's just like getting out of the shower. You know, you need a towel. You don't care that it's pink. Somebody's gonna need a towel. You know, it's flight low. That might not be a good analogy, probably. I don't have the worst at all. I have I have the worst analogy. I think it works. Let's try to make it work.
SPEAKER_03If you're right, that's how that's how I am.
SPEAKER_11We could call a move the analogy. Like a what?
SPEAKER_10The analogy.
SPEAKER_11What about the analogy? We can make a move and call it the analogy. Oh no, I'm okay. Alright. It's not it's not your best work.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, okay. I'm sorry. Honestly, I love brainstorming with you guys, or even watching you guys brainstorm, because that was good.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. That's usually how it goes.
SPEAKER_11Yeah, like an idea and he'll say that's stupid, and I'll say, I'm sorry, I'll never talk again. That's usually how it goes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But then he comes around, so much love there. Then he comes around. It comes around.
SPEAKER_16Yep. Yep.
SPEAKER_02Two sarcastic, good-looking guys.
SPEAKER_11Emphasis on the last one. Yes. Emphasis on the guys' part. A lot of people are saying that we're good looking guys. More for me, but you know. So I'm saying that.
SPEAKER_06If you could have a dream match, who would it be with? Oh my. As a tag? Tag, single, whatever? Who would you want to face?
SPEAKER_02I think the Hardy's is like I would love to face the Hardys. I think I think that's that would be my dream match.
SPEAKER_11I mean if we're going full on dream match. You gotta be Eddie Guerrero. Well, are we talking singles or tag? I mean you covered the tag.
SPEAKER_02Oh, okay. Alright, so we agree on that then. Yeah. Okay.
SPEAKER_11I think uh he would he would bring such a good like match out of me. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_16Guerrero is a good pink. Classic, rest is soul.
SPEAKER_02What about you? Yeah, singles. Um I'm thinking for singles, uh I think Seth Rollins. Seth Rollins would probably be mine. Because I it's still doable. It's still doable. I can still do it.
SPEAKER_16You know, I I can't say I'm surprised, but I think it's also a good pick as well. Yeah, I mean you can't really wrestle Eddie Guerrero anymore.
SPEAKER_08You have to watch a dream match.
SPEAKER_06He says, hey, it doesn't have to be reality.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, come on now. Luthe is man. I live in the present, brother.
SPEAKER_11Okay. We're talking present. Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_06I like how he throws out the Hulk Hogan brother. So he's like, I live in the present.
SPEAKER_11Yeah. We're talking presents a whole different story, because I mean, right now Andrade is so hot. Um they're Will Ospreay sort of sort of guy. Will Ospreay. Yeah, that's one.
SPEAKER_02I'm thinking Rey Mysterio. Yeah, maybe. Yeah, Mysterio is well.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, he's loving some 619. Always always good.
SPEAKER_02Isn't his son wrestling now?
SPEAKER_11Yeah. Yes, yeah. Yeah. Dominic. He's doing his thing too.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. Yeah, he's a good one. He saw a ranking where he was he was he was up there in that ranking of young young stars. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, he's he's been making the climb up follow him a little bit. I'll ask you guys one more if Mike has another one, or if you guys have anything for us, and then we'll wrap it up. Um I asked this to Party McFly uh a couple weeks ago.
SPEAKER_07I'll ask you guys uh here now. So this industry is all about leaning on each other, right? It's all about helping each other get over and get up.
SPEAKER_04Um have you guys experienced that from somebody uh in this industry? Has somebody helped you significantly continue to press forward or get over a hard time in your life to keep going in this industry, or have you been able to help somebody else uh that's been having a rough go of it?
SPEAKER_08I'm the internet company.
SPEAKER_07I mean, and if you don't have an answer, it's okay. It's kind of like a wild shot.
SPEAKER_11I think um in general, the problem is they always want to end it. I've had it pretty pretty good in the business. I've been surrounded by mostly like good folks who are you know, we're all we all want to see each other win. You know, I I haven't been around too much of the the the bad the bad side of wrestling, you know, where I've mostly mostly the people I meet are are great and we all just like frolic. Yeah, we all just we all we all just love wrestling and that's what we you know came together for. Common interests. Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_02I mean there's definitely there's there's definitely some places that'll um you know that are different than others, different locker rooms, different places that you travel. Um I mean there's definitely some places uh in Virginia that just like the egos are a little bit more there than than others. Like um like but there but then then again there's there's some there's yeah but um but like then there's other locker rooms where everything's you know hunky dory in there, everybody's just trying to better each other. Um people are okay with taking criticism, and that's that's great. That's interesting. I th I think I think that's one of the biggest things that someone can do is just take in someone else's advice. Yeah.
SPEAKER_08Um I mean how do you grow if you don't?
SPEAKER_02Exactly. But you know, there's a lot of people that don't know that, and there's a lot of people that do know that.
SPEAKER_06So I mean don't they won't grow. Yeah, you'll still be doing the same thing five years later and you guys will move past them.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, but you know, there's there's definitely people that do help as well, you know. I mean, we we have our trainers, we have our coaches. Um, PWA's got um PQ, Preston Quinn, and uh Jason Register. Bane trained, yes, Bane Train, yep, and Joe King.
SPEAKER_03Um in my eyes, too, at this point, legends now at this point, considering what they've been all you guys kind of are in my eyes.
SPEAKER_02I mean, they they they they know what they're doing, yeah, and and they're uh they're inspiring a whole brand new generation of superstars, you know.
SPEAKER_03So they are. I I really feel like MATW is doing something to set itself apart uh from some of the other promotions.
SPEAKER_02And I think it's a it's a unique approach. It is. Um but but that that goes back to your point of like who have we had to lean on, you know, is uh you know, Joe King, um Preston Quinn, um Preston Jeter shit. I I yeah uh you say that.
SPEAKER_03There's a certain level of bond with everybody that comes around and you guys have been able to identify and develop talent as well, which I think is important. Uh it is you know, for the company overall. You guys have standards as well, you know, it's not to be mean. For sure. You know, you have to have standards. It's not that it's open to everybody, it's that you gotta fit the part, right? And they have standards for knowing what you're doing, looking apart, carrying yourself a certain way.
SPEAKER_07That's what they expect. Um I think that's bigly hugely advocacy, because there are some promotions out there. You just show up on their doorstep on show day, they'll just throw you in there.
SPEAKER_11Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_06That's how you get people hurt.
SPEAKER_11That's a that's a good point because that does happen a lot. And there are definitely places where there's people maybe shouldn't be in there.
SPEAKER_14Yeah.
SPEAKER_11But you know, uh, make a point here to like, you know, if you weren't if you weren't good enough to be here, you wouldn't be here. Yeah, you know, and then and they drive that home, you know, in our locker room meetings and all that. Yeah. That we all deserve to be here and we're all we're all good, and if we weren't good, they wouldn't book us here.
SPEAKER_10Exactly.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. Earlier you said you went to Carolina for your first match. What's the furthest you've had to travel? Actually, you might need to come a little further. For for a match. Insane for you.
SPEAKER_11It's a tough one. Um nothing crazy. I haven't gone. Except I did um went to this place in Tennessee, which was about eight and a half hour drive. But I didn't drive, so I wasn't tripping.
SPEAKER_04It's nice when you can kind of ride or rotate the driving.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I'm I'm around the same. Seven hours, seven hours. Yeah. I I mean said seven. It's about around seven hours, yeah.
SPEAKER_11Places like this are great because I live 30 minutes down the road. So yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, but no, drive driving's a different, uh, definitely a uh a big portion that I didn't see forthcoming at first when when I wanted to be a wrestler. There's a lot of driving involved. It's it's nice though.
SPEAKER_03Gives you time to yourself if you're in the car alone, or how do you balance uh your road schedule, your show schedule with your personal life?
SPEAKER_04Uh we talked about this with party as well, and I'm I'm actually rather interested to see how you guys, especially you both having two lives you have to match up as a tag team. How do you guys balance where you have to be at with what you have to contend with personally? Family, work, school, whatever it is you guys have.
SPEAKER_02I mean, like, I I think it's I think it's simple enough. I mean, um you know, I think I think we got everything pretty tightly packed as far as getting places in one piece and everything. Um sometimes it's driving together, sometimes I mean, um it comes down to having Saturdays off of work. I'm a good like scheduler. It's a big help. Yeah, I'm a good scheduler. So like I'm I I make sure not to get my my like my personal life mixed in with the wrestling. So it's very organized. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You gotta be organized. I have a calendar, so so I'm good. I'm good with the calendar.
SPEAKER_04That seems to be one consistent thing I'm noticing is organization plays a big role uh in the success of or how successful you could be.
SPEAKER_06So especially if the event's eight hours away. I mean, yeah. You can't just wake up and be like, yeah, no, that was five hours to the show. You won't make it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Well, guys, I know we got a few minutes coming up. Uh well, we got a few minutes until showtime here. We won't run y'all too close. Yeah, once again, we gotta get prepared. The problem child, Preston Jeter. Yep, uh, Terry Sequoia, the flip. These guys are thank you for joining us guys.
SPEAKER_07Thank you for joining us on our Two for the Wim podcast show. I hope you guys enjoyed it.
Thanks To Guests Sponsors And Signoff
SPEAKER_04All right, thank you, everybody. I hope you enjoyed our uh talk uh with the flippin' problems. Uh Terry the Flip Sequoia and Preston Jeter, the problem child. Look forward to seeing their development and the professional wrestling careers. Uh two young guys. Uh, and thanks again to our sponsors and partners, Body by D Jem, Solace Outfitters, The Giving Tree Chiropractic, Pulse with Tuning, and MATW Mid Atlantic Territory Wrestling. For the last time tonight, everybody, I'm Brian with an eye.
SPEAKER_06And I'm Mike, and we are two for the win. Thanks, everybody.