Two For The Win - S2.73 - NFL Draft Fallout, NBA Bracket, Umass' new AI coach!

A playoff crowd shatters the glass behind an NHL bench, an MLB pitcher “catches” a 107 mph comebacker with his jersey, and a ball strike challenge helps an entire stadium score free pizza. That’s the kind of sports week we’re living in, and we’re breaking it all down with the stuff that makes you rewind the clip and ask, “Did that really happen?”

We run through the NHL playoffs and why postseason hockey punishes overconfidence, then jump to college baseball history as Olivia Picardo becomes the first woman to pitch in a Division I game. From there, the mood turns when we react to Alexei Ramirez testing positive for multiple anabolic steroids during the World Baseball Classic and what it does to fan trust anytime an older athlete is still performing at a high level. On the MLB side, we hit freak injuries, ridiculous ricochet plays, creative giveaways, standings, manager firings, and major milestones from stars like Mike Trout and Chris Sale.

The bigger questions show up fast: March Madness expanding to 76 teams, an NCAA gambling investigation involving a Texas Tech quarterback, and the rumor that UMass may lean on an AI coach model to save money and optimize decisions. Then we finish strong with NFL news and real NFL Draft fallout: surprise first-round picks, teams that attacked needs the right way, picks that felt like reaches, and the drama that follows a QB selection when a contender thinks about the future.

If you like smart sports talk with humor, weird stories, and real opinions, hit play, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave us a review. Which headline from this week feels the most unreal to you?

Transcript

Welcome And Sponsor Shoutouts

SPEAKER_01 0:06

April 29th, 2026. Welcome back everybody and thank you for joining us once again for another episode of Sports Panther with us. I'm Brian with an eye, and I'm Mike, and we are two for the win. And Mike, real quick, before you clue us in, I just want to tell our listeners, I messed up. But we're gonna redeem ourselves here tonight because last week I just want to wish a very happy belated birthday to our man Mike. Cause we messed up, folks. We all missed it. But happy birthday, happy late blur birthday, buddy. And tell us what we have to look forward to this evening.

SPEAKER_03 0:39

Well, the playoffs are showing us just when you think you got things figured out, you don't. Playoffs are always worth watching because crazy things happen. And the college ranks picking up some news, and we need to figure out what that is and give it a little discussion on that. And the NFL draft happened. And there are plenty of discussion points coming off of that.

NHL Playoffs And Wild Moments

SPEAKER_01 0:59

Quite a bit of fallout from the NFL draft and from the college uh tabloids here the last couple days, Mike. Uh before we get started, I'd like to take a moment to thank our sponsors and partners. Body by D Gym, located in Yorktown and Gloucester. Uh, Deshaun Wright's a uh very outgoing individual, very community-driven individual. Uh he's a former bodybuilding champion, training future bodybuilding champions in their own right, as well as many other youth and community-oriented programs coming out of there. Uh, our good friends Caden and Christian at Cellus Outfitters, the Giving Tree Chiropractic down here in Virginia Beach, our friends at Paul Swith Tuning, who have that tuning app, is now available for all Superos out there. Uh our good friends over at Made in Norfolk Clothing Company and Moneymaking Dub, who we hope to do some business with here soon. And our partners over at Mid-Atlantic Territory Wrestling. By the way, their next show coming up live taping from Body by D Gem uh May 9th, next Saturday. Be there, be swear. And if you're in the area of Shenandoah uh on May 23rd, they have a free showing for there as well. So everybody clue into those and go enjoy a good show, man. These guys put on quite a performance. So, Mike, shall we?

SPEAKER_03 2:12

Yes, we shall. We're gonna jump in with hockey to start out, and kind of no real surprise here because the Colorado Avalanche were playing so great, they have advanced to the next round. But in a recent game against the Kings, before they bounced him out, there was actually an incident where the fans were so rowdy they shattered the glass behind the Kings bench. So they had to have a pause in the game and clean up all the glass and replace it. Isn't that glass supposed to be shatterproof? Oh bro, it happens all the time. It gets shattered. You just it just you hit it at the right point because I mean, guys are being slammed into it, you know, pucks are bouncing off of it. So it can take a beating, but you get enough people pushing on it, banging on it, and enough force, it'll shatter. It's nonetheless.

SPEAKER_01 3:05

I I agree with this because ask me how I know the tip of a pneumatic etcher can shatter the back window of a Dodge Ram. Go ahead and ask me. I'll tell you later.

SPEAKER_03 3:14

Anyway, so congratulations to the Colorado Avalanche. They swept the Kings and advancing the NHL Western Conference. So they move on. Uh moving over to the Stars and Wild. Right now it's being led by Minnesota 3-2. Looking like they're gonna advance unless the stars can pull it together. The Golden Knights and the Mammoths, another series that we've been highly interested since one mammoth. One band, one sound. Yeah, but there's multiple people.

SPEAKER_01 3:44

Yeah, one band says multiple people in a band.

SPEAKER_03 3:47

Anyway, getting back to it. It is singular, seriously. This series is tied to two, and something that we screwed up on. We didn't congratulate them on their first playoff victory as the mammoth. That's true. Congratulations, guys.

SPEAKER_01 4:02

And honestly, they're making a case to be my favorite hockey team.

SPEAKER_03 4:05

So, tough series. I mean, we'll see what happens if the Golden Knight or the Golden Knights or the Mammoth advance.

SPEAKER_01 4:13

You're exactly right. Yeah, the Golden Knights, they eye, their eyed is golden.

SPEAKER_03 4:18

But moving down, Oilers and Ducks, the other series that Brian has been very interested in because he's been cheering for the Ducks and he's he has the advantage here. Ducks leading three to two. I also love the Oilers. They're so oily. I think I like the Oilers for another inappropriate reason. He did moving over to the Eastern Conference side, the Sabres and the Bruins, with Buffalo leading that series 3-2. Hopefully, Buffalo can advance because they haven't advanced in playoffs, let alone been in the playoffs for quite a while. So hopefully they make it.

SPEAKER_01 4:52

The Sabras and, as I like to call them, the Bryans. I know he said Bruins, but let's be real, it's the Bryans.

SPEAKER_03 4:58

Good lord. And moving over to the Lightning and the Canadians, this has been one of the matches I've liked watching because it's been very physical and very back and forth. Like it's it's really felt like either team on any given night has had had the upper hand, and it's just been a fun series to watch. Right now it's 2-2, and the game's actually going on right now, into the first period with Canadians up 1-0. So the Lightning need to figure it out, they need to get it together to try to keep this going.

SPEAKER_01 5:31

Yeah, yeah. True, true.

SPEAKER_03 5:32

And the other series sweep that happened this time on the east side, the Hurricanes knock off the Senators. Last victory for them, it was four to two. Hurricanes move it on after that sweep. And they will be met by whoever wins between the Penguins and the Flyers, the Battle of Pennsylvania. Right now, you have the uh Flyers leading that series three to two.

SPEAKER_01 5:55

My lifelong dream is to see a Penguins Ducks Championship. Yeah, I keep dreaming.

SPEAKER_03 6:02

Anyway, so right now, I gotta say out of that series, I gotta say birds. I gotta say out of that series. I mean, Penguin's kind of long in the tooth. I think the Flyers will pull that off.

SPEAKER_01 6:14

I think the Flyers can pull it off. There you are. Classic playoff NHL team.

College Baseball Makes History

SPEAKER_03 6:19

Yeah. Well, let's uh sneak over here to college baseball. I know we don't really bring up college baseball very often, but when you have something happen that's historical, you have to. You gotta bring it up. So there was a first in the realm of college baseball, uh and actually at a D1 game, a Browns University baseball game, uh, they had the very first woman to pitch. And our favorite segment, you know, Brian.

SPEAKER_01 7:00

I really thought we were gonna get AI to do this. Her name is Olivia Picardo. I'll buy that. Any relation to uh Picard of the USS Enterprise Star Trek?

SPEAKER_03 7:15

Oh lord. Anyway. So she came in relief and retired, the only batter she faced. So congratulations to her. She finally got her chance getting in one of the games. Congratulations. So we have a first woman pitcher in a college baseball game.

SPEAKER_01 7:37

Did she pitch it like a baseball or did she pitch it like a softball?

SPEAKER_03 7:42

It's baseball, dude. Yeah, I know. You pitch baseball. Yeah. You you don't do softball and and baseball.

SPEAKER_01 7:49

Sir, you're telling me. I'm asking questions.

Steroids Talk And A New League

SPEAKER_03 7:52

Yeah, I am telling you. I'm telling you the answer. Responsive listening. Anyway, speaking of listening, uh, as we saunter over to baseball, uh MLB baseball, that is. Unfortunately, uh a player we brought up for the World Baseball Classic, uh, I got some unfortunate news that came out recently. Uh, so we had talked about this player and how great it was that he was in the world baseball classic, being that he's 44 years old. But it has just come out that XMLB player player Alexei Ramirez tested positive for steroids while he was performing in the world baseball classic. Very unfortunate scenario because he tested positive for four anabolic steroids while playing in the world baseball classic. So yeah, that's that's not a good look. That's not a good look, and I really hope this doesn't become a common thing. I got nothing. Uh look. I bring it up only because we brought him up and I was astounded that he was playing at 44 years old, but now we know how. Now we know he was on the gas. I hate to say I I really don't want that to be the first thought. Anytime you hear of an older player still playing, I don't want it to be, oh, he must be on the juice. Because come on now. Now everybody wants to look at Tom Brady. You do know that they're going to have a league here soon. They're trying to get it all worked out, but they're gonna have a league here soon where everybody's on the gas. Why? Somebody's willing to back it, and they they have people that are willing to get on the roids and do it.

SPEAKER_01 9:40

So this is interesting to me. What does this league have a name? Do we know where it's coming from yet? Anything?

SPEAKER_03 9:47

No, I I I heard about it. It's it's still in the infant stages, they're trying to figure it out. But it's literally gonna be these guys are gonna play sports and they're all on the gas. No thoughts or opinions.

SPEAKER_01 10:02

I'm still trying to analyze it. Still wrapping their head around the game. Because professional players are already pretty pretty highly performing, you know, humans. Uh, so I'm I'm just interested to see how this is gonna go. You this is a baseball league, right? That's gonna be like this.

SPEAKER_03 10:17

I think it's just sports. Like they're gonna play sports, and these dudes are on the gas.

SPEAKER_01 10:24

I don't know. As we get more information, we'll hit back on it. I got no thoughts on it. I don't know if I'm gonna be able to support it or not, but I'm eager to see it. So, well.

SPEAKER_03 10:34

I gotta show you something that happened in a baseball game recently that was rather interesting. Interesting. So check this out.

SPEAKER_02 10:43

Oh, that came up and got him in the face. That did.

SPEAKER_00 10:47

Wow. You you don't see that too much. Obviously, he is ailing. I'm just waiting for this slow play on here.

SPEAKER_01 10:58

Look, look, look, there it is. Oh. I don't know if I've ever seen that before. The crazy thing is, I think he was wearing a helmet with a built-in jaw protector on the side. But it hit it.

SPEAKER_03 11:11

But it hit the other side. Yeah. So what I'm what I'm showing Brian here is Junior and Camonero of the Rays in a game again against the Guardians. Uh he hits a ball, foul tips it, it comes straight back up and catches him right in the jaw. And for anybody who hasn't played baseball uh and had this happen, I have. It hurts. It does not matter. Like it, like any ricochet, it just sucks. Like, okay. Little story from the past. And I will say, even with a cup, it sucks. So I foul tipped a ball and the ball came straight back and hit me right in the junk. And I don't care. I mean, you can wear a cup. I was wearing a cup. It still hurt because it hit me flush. And I went down. And they're like, Are you okay? What do you think? I just got nailed in the balls. It's not okay. Anyway, so Junior Cameron came out of the game for precautions because he got hit, obviously, in the chin, and they want to make sure he's all right and he was sensitive to touch. Overall, they said he's okay, but it comes kind of at a bad time because he was coming alive. Like right now, he's hitting 259 on the season, has eight home runs and 15 RBIs. But most of that work has been happening recently. He is hit safely in 12 of the last 14 games, batting 293 with six home runs and 12 RBIs. So he was on a hot streak and you know have being derailed by injury, or in this case, freak play injury insult and injury, yeah, is kind of like dang. But we go from one freak play to another. I gotta show you this one. This one was wild because even the pitcher, even the pitcher was confused as to what just happened. So I'm gonna show you this play if I can get it to pull up. Ah, dang, it's not gonna, it's not gonna pull up. Anyway, so the Mariners had a game where their starter, Logan Gilbert, he was on the mound and he throws he throws a pitch. They're playing the athletics, he throws a pitch to Carlos Conteras or Cortez. Anyway, horrible with names. So Carlos hits the ball at 107 miles an hour off the bat, and when he does, the ball goes straight at Gilbert, and Gilbert is like, oh no. He tries to readjust himself, but come on, it's 105 coming at you, or 107 in this game.

SPEAKER_01 13:55

Yeah, 107.8, almost 108.

SPEAKER_03 13:57

Yeah, so it's coming at him. Great next speed. He tries to defend himself, and then he realizes oh no, the ball like glanced off me. Where is it? Where is it? He's looking for it, can't find it because the ball is in his jersey. It went right in between two of the buttons and the small gap between the buttons and went into his jersey and was stuck in his jersey. So he he pulls it out and he has it, and it's an out because he caught it. It caught it with his jersey, but he caught it. Hey, a catch is a catch is a catch, right? Well, the mariners wound up winning this game game to five to four, but but what a crazy scenario where I wish I would have had the video. I'm sorry, I had the article, but not the video. But it was kind of crazy. He literally is looking around for the ball and he feels it in the back of his jersey because it had literally wrapped around him.

ABS Challenges And Free Pizza

SPEAKER_01 14:53

We need to start. This is hilarious. We need to start a blooper for this. Okay, the golf ball and the shopping bag, the 107 mile per hour pitch to the jersey. We've had a couple others. I can't think of them off the top of my head, but we need to start tracking this.

Pokemon Crossovers And Fan Giveaways

SPEAKER_03 15:09

So the fans are liking this ABS, you know, the automated balls and strike zone where Yeah, I think it's a great idea. Where people challenge it and the ump, the ump goes, all right, they're challenging, and they go to the screen and look at it. But we just had a first for this ABS system that it did something for fans of the Reds that has never happened before. And it's a great scenario. Uh, there was a call late in the game where one of the Reds players, the catcher, challenges the pitch. Lo and behold, it's a strike, which led to a strikeout, the 11th one of the game. Now, there is an ongoing partnership with the Reds and a La Rosa's pizza shop. If they get 11 strikeouts in a game, they get all fans in attendance can use their ticket stub for a free pizza. So ABS just assisted all the fans in that stadium and getting a free pizza. Now they have a week to get the pizza, but you can see his pitch, it was in. And there's nothing to do about it. 11th strikeout? Guess what? All the fans get free pizza. And now for uh interesting mashup. So we've all seen you know Pokemon. I love Pokemon. We've all seen baseball. Love baseball. But have you ever seen Pokemon and baseball together? So intrigued. Here recently, uh a player on the Dodgers, they found out about his love of Pokemon and a partnership he ha has with a certain group. Is his name Shohei? No, it was not Shohei. It was not Shohei. Uh it was Will Klein. And actually, there's actually a pretty cool little video, and I'm gonna see if I can play it for you all where you can listen to him.

SPEAKER_00 17:21

I've been a 44 guy ever since I got drafted. Uh made some cool custom gloves with them, but this is why I take the cake. Um they messaged me like about a week ago asking like what my favorite Pokemon was. And I was I was gonna set the right answer because it's the only right answer. But then they're like, all right, like they went to work. Uh I had no idea what it was gonna be. They send me you know, mystery package, basically, like in you know, kind of aluminum foil wrapping, and then they're like, all right, like it's a complete surprise, like kind of record your reaction here, like want to see what you think. And you know, I I whip this bad boy out, and I didn't even know you could do anything like this. They kind of create like a cool little pocket in there for you know, they put a way to hold a top loader, and then it's in the top loader and then the sleeve. So I don't know if it's game legal, but this is probably that would be the coolest thing I own. So Tyranitar is number one. What's the top three Pokemon? Ooh, uh Tyranitar, Nidto King, and then Flygon slash Swampert.

SPEAKER_01 18:15

This guy is out of his mind.

SPEAKER_00 18:17

I mean, I fire red yeah, when I was six, and I played that for endless hours uh in elementary school.

SPEAKER_01 18:24

Okay. This told me this just told me how young this guy is, okay? Because everybody knows it's all about Bulbasaur, Squirtle, or Charmander, okay? If not, then it's about the Mew and Mewtwo, okay? Maybe you're telling everybody how old you are. Or Eevee, okay. My personal favorite Gengar, all right? Snorlax, you can't forget Snorlax. All right, I don't know where this man comes from. But so anyway, whole different generations of Pokemon.

SPEAKER_03 18:50

So getting back to what he said, 44 is a company that makes baseball gloves, and they asked him what his favorite Pokemon was, and they made him a custom glove, you know, and put a Pokemon card in the glove. I think it's pretty cool. It's part of the glove. Now, obviously, he probably cannot wear this in a game. It's probably, like you said, it's not game legal, but it's kind of cool, you know. Like the company he does, you know, get it get his stuff from is like, hey, we're doing something custom we want to know. And I wonder if they're this cool gift.

SPEAKER_01 19:22

Maybe this is something they're gonna start doing on a large scale. This is like a test run.

SPEAKER_03 19:27

Well, at least you know he liked the gift, and I think it's a great idea. Another thing that we know certain fans love, they love giveaways. Yeah, they love when ballparks are doing giveaways. And you know, if you're in Canada, you know one thing about Canada. They love their hockey. Canada. So America Light. How do you get baseball and hockey to become one? Well, that's simple. You take the Blue Jays, you take the Blue Jays' favorite player, the fans' favorite player, and Clement, and you make a hockey jersey and do a giveaway. Fans literally lined up seven hours early to get this giveaway where they were giving away these hockey jerseys. And I gotta say, man, these things, these things are pretty awesome. I I it looks pretty damn sweet. And Clement even walked out before batting practice, sporting his hockey jersey and was wearing hockey gloves, a hockey helmet, had the stick, and even walks over to his own teammate and lets his teammates try on the the gloves and the helmet and the stick. You know, just goofing off in batting practice. But I think that's kind of cool. I think that's pretty cool, you know. Taking a favorite player of the fans and just saying, hey, look, we're gonna do a cool giveaway.

SPEAKER_01 20:53

One of the So I love creative marketing, and I love when that really uh benefits the fans. This is cool to me.

SPEAKER_03 21:02

Oh, yeah. I mean, like if you get a chance, go look up this jersey. It's the Blue Jays Clement jersey, and it's pretty pretty cool. I'd sport one. I'm I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_01 21:12

Yeah, I'm looking, I'm looking at it, I'm like, dang, I'm like I want one. I mean, I like the Blue Jays, I don't care. I like a few teams, so I'm not committed.

MLB Slumps, Firings, And Milestones

SPEAKER_03 21:24

Well, speaking of like, there hasn't been a whole lot for uh a couple of organizations like here lately, uh, being the Red Sox and the uh Phillies. Here recently, the Red Sox uh after their abysmal start, they're 12 and 19 right now, they went ahead and fired their manager, Alex Cora.

SPEAKER_01 21:43

Is that this guy here?

SPEAKER_03 21:44

No.

SPEAKER_01 21:44

Okay, because he looks like Tony Romo, and I was gonna say that could be why he sucks.

SPEAKER_03 21:48

So no, they fired No, they fired Alex Cora and they brought up their AAA skipper, and this is the triple A skipper you're looking for. At here. Okay. Uh, so they bring up their triple-A skipper to take over the team, which is kind of cool for him because he's getting a shot at the majors, and you know, kind of a cool gig. He's bringing some of his coaching staff with him too, so that works out. Yeah, but when Alice Corps got fired, the Phillies went ahead and they fired their manager, Rob Thompson. And because the Phillies have been off to a historically bad start, right now they're 10 and 19, right there with the Mets being 10 and 19. And they actually hit up the Red Sox old manager, Alex Corr, and said, Hey, do you want to come be our manager? And Alex Corr, nah man, I'm good. I'm just gonna hang with the family. He was like nuts to that. So the Phillies were like, uh, okay, well, shit, what do we do now? So they turned to Don Mattingley, who was a former manager, former manager of two different MLB teams, and was their bench coach, and said, Hey, uh, hey Don, you wanna you wanna help us out take over? And he was like, sure. So now Don Mattingley's taking over. And I gotta say, this feels like one of those things we talk about where if you don't have a plan, why are you doing something before you don't have a plan? They fired their manager and then found out real quick Alice Corrett didn't want nothing to do with them. That's pretty bad. Well, that's just poor planning. Well, moving right along over to a congratulatory thing. Uh, we're gonna congratulate Chris Sales for moving up to seventh among lefties all time on strikeout list. Congratulations. He did this on his last start, so congratulations to him. And this this comes at at kind of a cool scenario because, you know, it was thought of like his career was going to be taking a downturn because injuries had kind of caught up with them and like he might not be able to keep going. And he's kind of founded again being with Atlanta. He's kind of gotten not back to who he was when he was with the White Sox, you know, but like he's kind of he's kind of becoming a better version of himself, if you could say. You know, so it's nice to see when players can self-awareness like just transform themselves into something better.

SPEAKER_01 24:29

Transcend to the clouds, like those non-existent home runs they always hit.

SPEAKER_03 24:36

Well, and while we're in a congratulatory mood, we need to bounce over to the Angels and say congratulations to Mike Trout for becoming the all-time record for with uh seven seven hundred and ninety-seven extra base hits. He got that in a loss recently with the Angels, but he becomes the franchise's extra base hit leader. Sorry for stumbling on that. Man, that's a that's a really big feat. And remember, we just talked about that Garrett Anderson passed away, and that was that was probably his record that he just passed.

SPEAKER_01 25:10

If we have any more congratulations, I'm gonna go get some confetti and fireworks. We're gonna have a party.

SPEAKER_03 25:18

Well, you might you might have to do that because we're gonna congratulate, congratulate uh Mason Miller, reliever for for the Padres, for unfortunately he broke, he had his streak snapped, but he had a streak of three or thirty-seven or not thirty-four and two-thirds innings pitched, scoreless innings. That's that's impressive. That's a pretty good streak there. Yeah, if you break it up in nine increments of nine, that's more than three complete games of not allowing a single run. Well, the Cubs got to him and got a run the other day, but to go that far, not giving up a run, that's pretty impressive. And you know, I don't know that anybody's gonna do that anytime soon. So congratulations to him. Yeah, congratulations. Quite a milestone to have met there. And kind of it was really quiet. This did this really didn't come up. I didn't I don't know if anybody else really noticed, but they had a game in Mexico City for the MLB between the Diamondbacks and the Padres. Nobody saw that coming, right? I I mean it kind of makes sense, you know? Everybody else is doing games outside the US. Why not? You know, especially baseball.

SPEAKER_01 26:38

I like their jerseys there.

SPEAKER_03 26:41

Are those diamondbacks? Yeah. Well, in this particular game, Diamondbacks came away with the win 12-7, and they were getting a lot of love from the fans down there in Mexico City, and they they really fed off of it to get them this win. So congratulations to them on the travel and the win. The traveling win. And I really gotta say, you know, it's nice to see when uh people write wrongs. You know, recently there was a game between the Rays and the Guardians where a young a young girl, she's trying to go for a home run ball, and a grown man steals the ball away from her. And it's a little kid, you know, like, come on, dude. Like, why you gotta do that?

SPEAKER_01 27:29

This wasn't the Karen situation, was it?

SPEAKER_03 27:31

No, no, not like last year. No, this this particular situation, it was just it was appalling. And she's a Guardians fan, like she's wearing a Guardians hat, Guardian shirt, has her little sunglasses on. Well, they look little, but they're not little, they look really big on her because she's a little kid wearing adult sunglasses. Yeah, but the rays reporter saw this and made it a point to go find that fan because it was a home run ball and give her a ball to make up for it. That's cool. And I really, I really love that. That's so cool. I think that's incredible.

SPEAKER_01 28:10

I might cry a little.

SPEAKER_03 28:11

Hey. That just goes to show you, you know, baseball, it's about a kids. They love their fans, their younger fans, and they take care of them.

SPEAKER_01 28:21

I mean, I agree, like you it's you know. I had something to say on it, but I lost it. But we can keep on rolling. Uh, that's a very heartwarming story, and uh, you know, good job.

SPEAKER_03 28:33

Bravo. So, Brian, if I asked you who is the home run leader right now with the most home runs in Major League Baseball, who would you say?

SPEAKER_01 28:42

I'm gonna say this guy's name that's in front of me.

SPEAKER_03 28:45

But if you weren't looking at that, who would you have said?

SPEAKER_01 28:49

Uh I would have probably said, well, Judge, I I would have probably wanted to say Judge, but he was a little cool for a bit. Shohay's another good pick. Um, you know, I had my eye on Schwarber for a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 29:06

Well, none of them are actually leading in home runs.

SPEAKER_01 29:10

I don't think any of them are even close, to be honest with you.

SPEAKER_03 29:12

No. Actually, the leader in home runs right now, as it stands, with us about 30 games into the season with 12, is more comm of the White Sox. Remember, this was kind of a low-key sign in by the White Sox, but I told I told everybody that this dude, watch him. You're gonna see.

SPEAKER_01 29:34

And look what he's become. Isn't this the guy who said, I don't want to play with Shohei, I want to play against Shohei? No, that that was a Maya or Maya or Maya.

SPEAKER_03 29:43

Oh, yeah, that was the Astros. But no, this this dude, I told you, return on investment. First three games with his team, he had three home runs each, he had a home run each day.

unknown 29:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 29:54

So he's just he's on a pace, man. Definitely a name to watch there. They're they're saying he's on pace to have like over 50 home runs this year. First year. I'm down. Might be looking at him being rookie of the year. And well, we always know the Savannah Bananas like to get themselves some you know, interesting celebrities or former players to come out and play, and they actually snagged themselves Russell Wilson to come out and play in a Savannah Bananas game.

SPEAKER_01 30:21

And Russ we trust can't even play for a legitimate professional organization.

SPEAKER_03 30:25

Look, Russ did have some baseball skills. He was drafted by the Rangers. Yeah, yeah, and he did play some spring training ball with them. And look, I think it's kind of cool.

SPEAKER_01 30:35

I think it's cool too.

SPEAKER_03 30:37

You're gonna go out there, have a little fun, you know.

SPEAKER_01 30:40

I'd love to be a banana. A savannah banana? No savannah, just a banana. Just the banana, just a banana. The banana pill, I like the banana pill.

SPEAKER_03 30:51

Lord, you would be popular with minions.

SPEAKER_01 30:54

Yes. I like to mingle with my own.

SPEAKER_03 31:05

Anyway, so before we exit baseball, let's go ahead and chat about who the division leaders are. Right now in the AL East, the Yankees lead 20 to 11. Them damn Yanks. The Cleveland Guardians are leading 16 and 16. I hate that team too. And the AL West, the Athletics are leading 15 to 14. I'm okay with them. 15 and 14, I should say. And in the NL East, the Atlanta Braves lead 21-9. I hate them. In the NL Central, the Reds are leading 19-10. I'm indifferent there. And in the NL West, the Dodgers are leading 20 and 11 losses.

SPEAKER_01 31:46

I support this, and is anybody surprised? Where the hell are the Rockies in all this? I'm watching you, Rockies. You're about to change your name to the Ravines.

SPEAKER_03 31:54

Rockies are at the bottom of their division in the NL West, but right now. They're on top of the world physically. But right now, bottom dwellers is the Mets and the Phillies.

SPEAKER_01 32:07

Man, two teams that sh historically, I mean, sometimes they have their droughts, I guess.

SPEAKER_03 32:14

Not like this. This is a pretty bad start for both those teams. That's why they that's why those teams have fired managers, although the Mets haven't fired their manager yet.

SPEAKER_01 32:22

But it's been discussion. Yes. It's been discussion. You're 11 games back from the leader of your division. It's probably coming any day now.

NBA Playoffs And Rookie Buzz

SPEAKER_03 32:30

The sea is warm. The T is warm. We'll just say that. The T is warm. And speaking of hot, I don't know how hot this scenario is, but the college basketball game, uh, both men's and women got the news that they are expanding the March Madness to 76 teams.

SPEAKER_01 32:48

God dang. Are we all just gonna get trophies for participating or what? Is there even 76 college basketball teams?

SPEAKER_03 32:57

Bro, are you kidding? That was more than enough teams.

SPEAKER_01 33:02

Look, that was rhetorical. Don't answer that.

SPEAKER_03 33:04

Look, look. Yes. At this point, if you're getting to this kind of number of teams that are in, you almost have to just be a blunder as a coach not to get in. And this will almost make it to the point where coaches, if you don't make it in, it's gonna be like, what's wrong with you?

SPEAKER_01 33:24

I just figured out how to make it in. I just figured out how to gamble on this setup. Now I have a whole new setup to learn. And there's no history on this. You're just getting extra teams. I don't want that.

SPEAKER_03 33:36

Too bad you're getting it. They didn't ask you what you wanted, they're just telling you what you're getting. Kind of like it was when we grew up as kids. I guess you're right. This is what we're having for dinner. You're right. I don't want that. Too bad.

SPEAKER_01 33:47

The NCAA is not a democratic system. You're correct.

SPEAKER_03 33:52

Certainly not. Uh so over in the NBA, we got some news on rookie of the year. Remember, we debated would it be the nipple or would it be the flag?

SPEAKER_01 34:05

You know, I always vote for the nipple.

SPEAKER_03 34:08

Well, the flag edged the nipple in this case.

SPEAKER_01 34:12

Yeah, Cooper Flag. Not surprised that he's come out as a strong uh and final rookie of the year. There were a few good names, I feel like, in this running. Uh and Khan Kanubu, let's just say, like, he was really right on his tail Knipple. He was right on his tail. Okay. They to me this was a close, close call.

SPEAKER_03 34:36

I believe so. I believe it was. But with that being said, such an underwhelming end to I know, I know, I know, and we still haven't gotten MVP yet. But you know, one of the reasons I I I liked putting that thing in there about the uh Pokemon card with the glove is we also had a scenario here recently with Kevin Durant signing signing a Pokemon card. I did see this as well. And the reason Durant signed it is because the Pokemon's called Durant. So we went ahead and signed a Durant Pokemon card, and they had it graded. So now an 8.5 graded card, Pokemon card is out there with Kevin Durant's signature on it.

SPEAKER_01 35:32

So now Durant is my favorite Pokemon.

SPEAKER_03 35:38

Wait, the player or the the Pokemon?

SPEAKER_01 35:40

Both. Oh. The player is my favorite Pokemon, and the Pokemon is my favorite Pokemon.

SPEAKER_02 35:46

I mean it in all fairness, I mean the card is kind of underwhelming. It's kind of underwhelming when you look at it.

SPEAKER_03 35:57

You know?

SPEAKER_01 35:59

Well, his signature probably improved its very if you told me if I didn't know that was a Pokemon card, I probably would not have guessed it was a Pokemon card.

SPEAKER_03 36:08

Yeah. Yeah, it's kind of it's lacklustered, but you know what? It's signed by Kevin Durant now.

SPEAKER_01 36:15

Yeah. So now I see why they named it Durant, but it's not a reflection of the KD Durant. Uh so bravo Zulu anyway, my friend. I still like it. And I say go. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:29

So you want to take the next one there, Brian?

SPEAKER_01 36:32

Yeah, I can try. Uh let's see here what we've got on the roster here. Okay, 76ers. Edgecombe makes history with a 3010 to stun Celtics. All right, let's see here. Um, this is quite meaningful here. So 76ers who got absolutely and this is this writer's words, not mine. Okay. But the 76ers, 76ers, who got absolutely demolished uh in the opening game of the series and remained without star Joel Embiid uh for his epectominemy. I don't know how to say it, whatever. Appendicitis entered game two as a staggering 14.5 point underdog, but handled everything the Celtics threw at them. That included both a 16-0 first quarter run that gave Boston a 26-13 lead and another late push by the Celtics that made it 91 to 89 and got the crowd roaring in the fourth quarter. See where this is going here. So um I'm kind of shooting from the hip here on this mic.

SPEAKER_03 37:41

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 37:42

But I'm assuming something incredible happened. But let's look at the 76ers and the Celtics recap here. Is that this game? That's this game. So they beat the Celtics 111 and 97 to bring the series to. We'll get to where the series is.

SPEAKER_03 38:01

Okay, well, we'll hold off on that, but it's a significant win here. Edgecombe comes off with 30 30 points and 10 rebounds, which is a high for a rookie. And Jalen Brown had 36 points and seven rebounds in that game, but it just wasn't enough to get them the win.

SPEAKER_01 38:19

Oh, now he gets 36 points. Okay, homie. I had a parley on him on the last game. He didn't meet it. Now he has surpassed it. Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_03 38:31

So I thought that would be a significant thing. I thought that yes, the game is a bit old because it's back on Tuesday the 21st. But I thought it'd be a good significant thing to bring up, given the fact that Edgecombe had a stellar game in the playoffs for a rookie.

SPEAKER_01 38:48

Yeah, not bad at all.

SPEAKER_03 38:50

Gotta give him his nod.

SPEAKER_01 38:51

Now let's jump ahead here. Uh these last couple of nights of games. Uh the Sixers still on top, 113 to 97 as of last night. Um Boston leads the series right now 3-2.

SPEAKER_03 39:07

Lead 3-2, but the go ahead. Go ahead. But in that performance, Joel Embiid came away with 33 points and 8 assists, looking like the all-star he used to be. I mean, that's not taking anything away from him. He's he when he's been healthy, he's been playing great, but they really needed this kind of performance out of him to get this victory. And if they keep playing like this, this series will be tied, you know, 3-3 and it might push him to a game seven. Tatum came away with 24 points, 16 rebounds, and three steals in that game, but it wasn't enough to get them any further.

SPEAKER_01 39:40

Yeah, 113 to 97. The Sixers are making a late series push here to try to knock the Celtics off. Uh, but I think if the Celtics just get it together one more game, if they come out strong for one game, it's locked.

SPEAKER_03 39:53

So the Knicks kind of found their stride last night against the Hawks, uh, coming away with the 126-97 victory. And it was it was all Knicks the whole game. They just kind of ran away with this. They kind of found a little bit in this game. Jalen Brunson coming away with 39 points and eight assists. Good lord. Um, they still are attacking Brunson. You know, the the uh Hawks on the offensive side, they're still going at Brunson. It's kind of been their MO this whole series. And the Hawks have been playing really tight defense on them, but they're just not it's not coming together for them like they like they had in the first few games.

SPEAKER_01 40:28

They might want to switch up because he just put 39 points up on them, and that's not well he he can get his buckets.

SPEAKER_03 40:34

He just he's just a liability on the defensive end. Yeah, he's just you know, they kind of go at him, and there's nothing they can do about it. But uh Johnson coming away with the uh 18 points, 10 rebounds, and six six assists for the Hawks. And the Hawks need to figure something out because this is uh now led by the Knicks three to two in the series. Yeah, the Knicks pull more win, it's over. Yeah, it's over there. We'll see if the Hawks can come out strong one to two more times. And speaking of a series that is over, the Spurs come away at the 114 to 95 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers, Wimbayama having 17 points, 14 rebounds, and six blocks.

SPEAKER_01 41:17

Um, I like the Patriots, I mean the Spurs to make a deep run here.

SPEAKER_03 41:23

Yeah, I mean, no reason not to like the Spurs right now with the way they're playing and the fact that Wimbayama is good after his little concussion scare is a good sign, and you hope that that continues.

SPEAKER_01 41:35

Yeah, Wimby, you know, clearly becoming Ari have been, you know, a face of the NBA.

SPEAKER_03 41:42

Um so speaking of teams that have advanced, really now only in the West we've had teams advance. The Thunder swept the Atlanta Thunder The Thunder swept the Suns. Thunder Sun. The last game, they had 131 points to 122 for the Suns to cap off the sweep and move on. And actually, uh SGA, they were he was kind of asked about being the villain. He was like, I don't care, I don't have time for that. We're trying to win, you know. We trying to rock and roll it off.

SPEAKER_01 42:22

We're trying to rock and roll, brother. Uh, I think the Lakers, I I I wish the Rockets could make it out of this round, but just being matchup against the Lakers is poor luck.

SPEAKER_03 42:32

So well, and and so that's kind of crazy, crazy thing, right? So, like coming into this, everybody was like, Lakers got no shot, right? They don't have they don't have Luca, they don't have Reeves, and they're going against the Rockets. Now, granted, we didn't know Durant was going to be down for most of these games, which that kind of sucks for for the Hawks right now. But even when he was in, they were double teaming him, making it hard for him, and it was just not a good look. They just couldn't get anything going. So they gotta hand it to LeBron. Yeah, he's he is turning into a complimentary player that can get other people to elevate themselves. He's basically putting people in good position to be better, like he's getting people looks based off of the way that he dishes out the ball or he gets the ball rotation going to set them up for their shots. Like it's it's it's it's and it's not just him. We can't just say it's only him, it's also their coach, JJ Reddick, and some great coaching coming from him and how they're handling these games. So I you know, right now Lakers are up 3 1 in this series and really looking like they're gonna come away with this victory and be playing the Thunder next year.

SPEAKER_01 43:50

Yeah, and now that will be also a hell of a matchup. Yeah. Uh and down here right below, uh, and I'm eager to well, we'll talk in a minute, but I'm eager to talk. About what's going on right now as we talk about these things, but here over on the west side, still, uh, the Nuggs and the Timberwolves, uh, Minnesota is leading three to two over here.

SPEAKER_03 44:11

Yeah, but some unfortunate information come out here recently.

SPEAKER_01 44:17

Yeah, go ahead and clue us in.

SPEAKER_03 44:18

Uh so they got a double dose of it. Unfortunately, uh Dante D. DiVincenzo, uh, it's come out that he has torn his Achilles and he's done. So the Timberwolves are not gonna have him for the Vinci DiVincenzo.

SPEAKER_01 44:39

DiVincenzo. Da Vinci. Anyway. He's Da Vinci now. See how this works? He's one of the Villanova guys. Remember, just like that guy, he's now fat. Anyway.

SPEAKER_03 44:50

Well, now he's Da Vinci. Anyway, he tore his Achilles, so he's done. He's gonna be he's gonna be just in the same boat that Tatum was just in. And actually, Jason Tatum put a message out there saying, saying uh that he's gonna be in his corner. He's like, if he needs me, I'm in his corner. I'll let him, you know, he give him advice, give him pep talks, help him out. Because remember, this time last year, same kind of stuff happened to Tatum, you know, as part of the Celtics. He non-contact injury, and this is the same thing. Non-contact injury. Yeah, he tried to make a cut and he just fell, and it was it. And not to add any more frustrations for the for Minnesota, but they also had Ant-Man go down too. Like he he's gonna be out. They said weeks with his injury. So that's time. I mean, you're losing you're losing one of your premier guys. I mean, you're saying weeks, the playoffs ain't but a few more weeks long, so you're you it walls might get it.

SPEAKER_01 45:57

They really need to rely on their um rotational players, you know, some depth, get in there and keep this thing rolling. Because you're thinking you got one more round, two more rounds, and then you're at the championship, you know. That's you're right there, guys. I mean, you're still so far, but at the same time, you've also come so far. You know what?

SPEAKER_03 46:20

I forgot to mention when we were talking about Lakers that they might get Austin Reeves back for game five. There's a yeah, there's a chance. Yeah, they're hopeful. They're hopeful for that. If that happens, I mean, we could pretty much put a cap on the Rockets and stuff like that. Yeah, the Lake the Lakers will be in their like swimwear. But yeah, like we said, Spurs moved on, so the West is rounding out pretty nicely. Yeah, as we are talking right now, the Pistons are up on the magic 73 to 69. And it's like crazy to me that what's going on, guys? What is like happening here? This is this is like this. If you would have gone back, I think a 20, 20, 23 years ago, you had this same series where you had Tracy McGrady and the Magic. They were they were up on the Pistons in a similar fashion, but Rasheed Wallace and the Pistons kind of came back and beat the Magic after some trash talking by Tracy McGrady. I know. So I hope I hope the Magic are not trash talking until it's over. But right now they're up 3-1 in the series.

SPEAKER_01 47:29

I know what's happening here. I have a parlay on the Pistons to win the championship. So you're the mush. So naturally they're gonna get knocked out by one of the weakest teams in the bracket.

SPEAKER_03 47:39

Well, part I think part well, I know part of the issue is the fact that Kate Cunningham, they're you know, making him work for everything and he's pressing. Like there's no real second scoring option for them, and he's pressing on everything and he has a bunch of turnovers. But what happens when you press? You create turnovers. Yeah. So this is not all on him. I mean, like somebody needs to step up and provide that second threat, you know, where they can't just double up on Kate Cunningham and pressure him to where he's throwing up bad passes and throwing up shots that aren't good shots.

SPEAKER_01 48:15

And and right now, you know, with a little under seven in the third, pistons are up, but they gotta hang on to it. You got a nice little cushion, but they gotta hang on to it. Uh, and then down right below them, trying to set up, you know, for the next bracket, actually, here uh the raptors on top of the Cavs. Underdogs. Yeah, this is this is a season of underdogs, apparently.

SPEAKER_03 48:40

This this is what I said. Just when you think play you know the playoffs. Uh-uh. Right now, that series is tied 2-2 between the Cavs and Raptors. And really, you gotta give it to the Raptors. I mean, they've just been making every every opportunity work for them.

SPEAKER_01 48:57

Yeah, and the Raptors, uh, the Raptors and the Hawks actually, but more of the Raptors were an early favorite to make a playoff run. And they got a little sluggish here towards the end of the season. Uh, but I also like the Raptors. I would not think it's the Cavaliers. I'd love to see the Raptors hold off the Cavs, though, going to the next round. Man, I can't believe you said that against Harden. Remember, he's with the Cavs. I know. It pains me. It pains me to say it, but I am a bigger fan of the Raptors advancing. Uh you just want chaos. I love, I love, I do. At this point, I just want chaos. I'd love me some good old James Harden, but you know, I would like to see the Raptors move forward here.

SPEAKER_03 49:38

As we alluded to, Knicks are up on the Hawks in the series three to two. Knicks should probably close this out and move on, but the Hawks have not made it easy on them, which kudos to them on doing that. Uh moving down to the Boston Celtics and the 76ers. Boston leaves three to uh three to two, but if they keep messing around, they're gonna find themselves tied 3-3 because the Sixers playing some good bowl here lately. That's why they're bringing this series back.

SPEAKER_01 50:06

Yeah, I I think the Celtics better be careful here because the Sixers are trying to lock this down, man. They're trying to make that comeback, as you just mentioned. So very exciting uh beginning of this tournament already. Yes, agreed, agreed.

College Sports Expansion And Controversy

SPEAKER_03 50:20

Uh speaking of locking down, for all those Bama fans that said they hate Caleb De Boer. Hey, guess what? Now he's locked up for seven years at$87.5 million on a contract with them. He's not going anywhere. Y'all better get used to Caleb Debor.

SPEAKER_01 50:38

It's okay. He'll be replaced by AI soon. We'll allude to that.

SPEAKER_03 50:43

A little little prelude to that.

SPEAKER_01 50:45

Uh you like what I did there.

SPEAKER_03 50:47

Yes, I do, I do. But but oh man, I I really hate this next story. So NCAA is now eyeing the quarterback quarterback of Texas Tech, Sworesby, for his gambling issues because they have found that he has made bets. And he's not supposed to be. If you're a college football player, you're not supposed to be making call making bets on college sports, period.

SPEAKER_01 51:16

Well, yeah, this is like this is like the pros in the at the NFL level, like you're not supposed to be gambling.

NCAA Gambling Scandal And Ethics

SPEAKER_03 51:25

Right. It it's it's a seriously bad look. He's actually going to rehab because he says he has an addiction, and apparently before he got to Texas Tech, his previous school knew about his gambling issues and still had him come in, and he's slated to be the quarterback for Texas Tech next year. Bro, like the penalties they're talking about handing out are so bad that they're talking about him being banned, like kicked out. You can't play college football. I mean, was he winning or like what's going on? It doesn't it doesn't matter. So his former his former college was Cincinnati, but he can't he transferred obviously over to Texas Tech. Uh let's see, he was supposed to get five million dollars this year being the Texas Tech quarterback. But look, this is this is not something they want to play around with, and this is gonna have repercussions for it. Like he's gonna have to pay for it. You know, I know he's I know he's trying to make it look good because he's going to rehab and he's trying to do the right thing, but this is bad. This is seriously bad because if you put any doubt into fans' mind minds that the product they are seeing is not legitimate and that these players are on the take.

unknown 52:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 52:47

You've had scenarios like this in the past where the mom got involved and was making these players, you know, point shave or or sacrifice wins, and now you got players that can just do it on their own.

SPEAKER_01 52:58

Yeah, I I think that's I think it's a bad look. It's kind of like the code of ethics if you're a journalist, right? Like you're you're expected to follow a specific code of personal ethics uh as related to your profession because you are in the public eye and you have to keep that objectiveness there. You're responsible for that.

SPEAKER_03 53:19

Yeah, unfortunately, we'll see what comes of this. And I'm not saying that he was doing anything like setting up games or anything, but he definitely is being eyed as you know, he's been making bets, they've they have pulled his name from betting sites where he has placed bets on sports and college sports at that. It's a very bad look.

SPEAKER_01 53:43

Yeah, it's not a good look for him. Go bet on hockey. Something you don't play. Well, just don't bet. Bet on poker. In fact, become a poker player. That would be uh just don't bet.

SPEAKER_03 53:56

Don't bet. Look, don't you're already you're already gonna get a ton of money from playing football. And I get it. People will be like, oh, he's young, young people make mistakes, and I get that. Yes, young people make mistakes, but that does not mean that you are absolved of any responsibility. You know, if you go and get in your car and go 120 down the highway, you know, being a young person, and you get pulled over, the cops don't go, oh well, you're young, we'll let you go. No, they're gonna be like, here's your ticket, show up to court if they don't haul you off to jail right then and there.

SPEAKER_02 54:31

Anyway, that being said, um hang on, sorry about this.

UMass And The AI Coach Rumor

SPEAKER_03 54:42

Moving right along, we're gonna talk about an interesting interesting little scenario that happened where uh I don't know the the legitimacy of this. I I had a very hard time finding a bunch of sources, but I'm real, I found out. I I grabbed this source off of Tiger Net, so the Clemson Tigers, uh, and this is actually Shane Tuttle uh at Shane Tuttle NCAA. Uh UMass is is set to hire the first ever AI coach in NCAA football. So they're create uh created by the UMass students, student engineers. Uh it will analyze trends in real time to help decide live game strategy, recruit, and more. This decision was made to save money on staff and redirect the budget towards NIL.

SPEAKER_01 55:38

So this is, and I didn't even think about this too. I wonder how much manipulation somebody has over this. But if the idea is what it appears to be, this is a very uh intriguing time to be alive. Uh, because we could see so AI is designed to help enhance productivity, uh, in my opinion. Uh, but we know the day is coming where it might replace a few jobs. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 56:10

Well, part of it they say is to aid the coach. Uh dang, I'm not gonna attempt this name. Joe, what is that?

SPEAKER_01 56:24

Uh head coach Joe Harrismeek. Harismick. That's the best time we're gonna say it. Harismick? Harismeck. Anyway, Coach Joe.

SPEAKER_03 56:34

So Coach Joe of UMass. Anyway, he's arismatic. So the point the point of the matter is they're gonna be using AI to aid in their coaching and basically cut out the high-paid coach. So, hey Caleb DeBore, good thing you cashed in while you could.

SPEAKER_01 56:55

Yeah, I'm I'm interested to see how this goes for them because and I'm interested to see how they really utilize it. Are they really just gonna use because there are times where referees have to confer with coaches on the sideline? So I'm I'm wondering how is this uh gonna roll out? How are they going to do this?

SPEAKER_03 57:17

I don't know. I I I this is so new. Like I heard this today that they are doing this, and I mean, honestly, I I don't know what it would look like. I don't know how it would even work. I mean, because you think about it, you're used to if your team's down, you go into half, and the coach gives like a you know rallying speech to get you guys fired up, or comes in and says, Hey, we're failing at this, fix this. And how are you supposed to get, you know, that's fired up for an AI coach?

SPEAKER_01 57:54

Well, and well, that as well, but I'm eager to see there's just a lot of factors in a live game that I I don't know, like first of all, there's just the human factor of rationale, okay? Everything AI does is from an analytic uh standpoint, but sometimes we as humans don't act on analytics, we act on our gut, and sometimes that's the right call. So I I'm eager to see like how this works. I'm I'm eager to see how this goes.

SPEAKER_03 58:23

Yeah, let's let's let's see how it goes. So good luck to UMass and seeing what happens with that.

SPEAKER_01 58:30

And I if it is indeed a true thing, I mean we've seen it in a couple sources, but you know, it's probably not being widely talked about because it's in development, but I I think it is a real thing from the sources I've seen, and I hope UMass a lot of success in the future.

SPEAKER_03 58:46

Yeah, yeah. So let's let's uh roll on over to football and give us the story you found.

NFL Odd News And Retirements

SPEAKER_01 58:55

Okay, so this is interesting, and I actually just found this today, not long before we started the show, Mike. Okay, so Mark Tuthacer, nobody probably knows who this guy is, but I know who he is now, and you soon will too after you hear this. Mark Toothacer, a man in Kentucky, laughed so hard at a botched young hoku field goal last season that it triggered a seizure, sending him to the hospital where doctors discovered a tennis ball-sized tumor on the left side of his brain. I'm gonna let you soak that in for a second. Now, the tumor was removed, it was deemed non-cancerous, and Toothaker believes that the missed kick saved his life. Okay, so this is a quote quotation from him. He said, The kicker saved my life because it could have happened any other time. Uh I wholeheartedly believe I was in the right spot at the right time, and he was the trigger for that happening. It was a miracle. Toothaker, 59, had no symptoms and no idea the tumor had moved his brain six millimeters to the right. Bro.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:01

That's just crazy. Bro, okay. I saw look, I know the kick he's he's talking about. I saw it, and I laugh. I laughed too. I know the kick he was talking about.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:10

It was so funny because we're gonna find this kick and put it on social media. So in the months before his seizure, he had driven and flown all over the country as part of his job uh as a stallion season as a stallion season manager, uh, including the previous Saturday to Louisville uh to see further auto went to Kentucky Jockey Club stakes, okay? On Saturday, Toothiger will be at Churchill Downs. Okay, I don't care about any of this. But for Mr. Toothiger, this is quite an impressive uh turn of events. Yeah. It's just one of those freak scenarios that everything just kind of worked out. And you know, crediting young ho coo, I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but shoot, if I'm cool, I'm taking it. You know what? All right, cool. Congratulations, my guy. Give me some NIL.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:00

That's when he just says, Hey, I kicked like that to save a man's life.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:05

Yeah, and then I and then I go over, hey, but whoever team he's with now, I think is the he's not with I don't think he's with the team. Well, then I'll go to wherever, I'll go contact. Hey man, give him some NIL, bro. This guy, this guy saved your life. Yeah. But anyway, I thought that would be a fun one to start out the segment with. Uh as we talk about here, Mike, do you want to clue us in here on Mr. Justin Simmons? He is retiring as a Bronco after nine seasons.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:35

I I think you just clued it in.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:38

Yeah, but I thought you had more to add to it.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:42

No, it's just Justin Simmons, a good good safety in the NFL, is calling it a career.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:46

Well, congratulations, Mr. Simmons. They ride off into the sunset with your bag, okay? And I mean your bag of money.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:52

Not your bag of bags. Speaking of a guy who just got got a new deal in his new bag of money, uh, the Texans middle linebacker Al Sheer has reached a deal for three years with for$54 million.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:06

And I'm dealing an incredible because they just locked up to Oto as well. Uh, the centerpieces of that defense, those guys rock. I think that's great.

NFL Draft Round One Breakdown

SPEAKER_03 1:02:18

So before we get into any extra news here at the bottom, because this other news has to do with what we need to discuss now: the NFL draft.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:28

NFL draft draft fallout. Let's talk repercussions. And where should we start? With the number one overall pick or with the next agenda item here, sir.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:41

I think we need to discuss just the first round and kind of I wouldn't say it was chaos, but the things that kind of happened that unfolded and made things interesting. Oh my god. So let's face it, everybody knew number one pick was gonna be from for uh Mendoza, and there was no question on that. Everybody knew it.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:07

You couldn't even you couldn't even gamble on it. It was such a foregone thing.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:10

Yeah, yeah. It was it was happening. And Jets, you you knew they were picking up somebody for defense. It was just a matter of was it gonna be Bailey, was it gonna be uh uh Brees or who was it gonna be? They wound up picking Bailey.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:23

I don't I don't know, and I still hold tight right here. I know they needed an edge, and I know edge rushers can go high, but I'm not a big fan of taking an edge guy, honestly, in the high side of the draft. Depends on who it is, it depends on who it is, but really I've you know it's happened plenty of times.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:45

It has happened plenty of times, and these players have turned into great players, they have, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:51

But they they like running backs, they have some of the shortest lifespans in the NFL. Depends.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:58

We still have some guys who carve out long careers at Drush. Yeah, I mean, there's always the exceptions of the rule. But most teams would tell you if we get super well out of it, we don't care. Uh, but the first the first thing that happened that kind of made people go, uh oh, okay. Uh, because all the all the you know mock drafts and everything didn't really have Jeremiah Love going to the Cardinals.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:22

Yeah, Jeremiah Love, the Cardinals coming right out the gate and saying, we're gonna mess everybody up right now here on pick number three.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:29

So they went ahead and took Jeremiah Love, which kind of started a chain reaction of kind of weird picks because everybody was thinking they were gonna pick Reese for the Cardinals, but no. So Titans, who were projected to be the love candidates, the one that were gonna pick him, uh, they wound up in picking Carnell Tate, who was projected as gonna be a pick for your team.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:54

I don't think a lot of people thought I don't think we were gonna ever gonna pick Tate. We'll get to our pick in a minute, but I think the Titans are dead set hellbent on getting their young quarterback and their new coaching some help. So they I think when Jeremiah, I think Jeremiah Love was their target. Yeah, and I think they scrambled to get another offensive.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:13

Yeah, I I think they just was like it's not a bad, it's not a bad backup choice, to be honest.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:18

They could have took Love's running mate from Notre Dame, like they could have took that other kid, but I guess they didn't end up draft grade on him.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:27

No, not not when you're that high up. That was too high up to pick him. Uh going to the number five pick, Reese went to the Giants. And then the the Chiefs, they had a, in my opinion, the Chiefs had a good draft. And this move they made to leapfrog up to the sixth spot, uh, you know, trading from nine with Cleveland to get their new corner and Delane, that was a that was a smart move for them. So now they're set at corner. They're set. Like they they got it set up, and then your team. Picking Sonny Styles. So I thought that was a great pick.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:04

I thought that was an absolutely great pick. They didn't even think he was going to be there at number seven. I think they were picking, they were going to look at that safety. What was that safety's name? Caleb Downs. We'll get to where he went. I think that they were going to target Caleb Downs, but I think Sonny Styles sitting there, they had to take him.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:21

And the projected pick for the Saints was Jordan Tyson, and they won a pick in Jordan Tyson. I think that was a pretty good pick. I think that was a good pick. The Browns making some some cool, some really smart moves for once, moving down, getting themselves a good offensive tackle, one of the best in the draft, even though they traded down from six to nine and picking up a few more draft picks in the process. And then everybody saw this coming. We even discussed that the Giants needed to get some line help, and they went ahead and picked a tackle out of out of Miami.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:56

Yes, I thought the Giants had a relatively good draft as well.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:00

Yeah, and they got the the next best tackle in the draft to help out Dart. So that was a great pickup for them. Yes. And Cowboys, who talked about making moves, they wind up making a move to move one pick. They moved up one pick to go ahead and get themselves Caleb Downs trading with the Dolphins.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:19

Well, I here's what I think happened. Because remember, they took Minka Fitzpatrick several years ago. I think the Dolphins said, hey, we want Caleb Downs. Do you want him? Make us an offer. And I think I think they really cornered them.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:35

I think the Dolphins fleeced fleeced the Cowboys like the Niners did to the Bears years ago when they moved up one pick. Yeah. So trying to say they were going to take Trubisky.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:45

Yeah, I I yeah, that's what I think. Whenever you see just a one-spot move, I think whichever team was ahead, they like the Dolphins. I think they called the Cowboys and said, hey, we're taking this guy. If you want him, make us an offer. And I think honestly that's what happened.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:00

So Caden Proctor was the choice for the Dolphins. Good tackle to start them off. Uh and kind of cool scenario because when he was playing with Alabama, they actually threw passes to this guy. They did a screen pass with him. And they even did plays where they handed the ball off to him, too. So he's not just a lineman, he is actually an offensive weapon.

Rams QB Pick Sparks Drama

SPEAKER_01 1:08:22

And hey, remember the Dolphins are known for having some big guys run the ball in, okay? Oh, tight, you know, number 13 here, another head scratcher. So this this right here, this right here.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:35

Okay. So here's the thing. And this is I love when you open with that. Here's the thing.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:41

Mike's about to tell us something.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:43

This is not me as a Niners fan coming at this team. This is all of the media and everybody coming at this team for what the hell? You know, as do as Charles Barkley would say, WTF, what the hell?

SPEAKER_01 1:09:02

What the hell? And now we know why Matt Stafford didn't want anything to do with this.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:07

So the Rams draft Ty Simpson at 13, which mind you, a lot of people had him projected as a late first round pick, if not a second day pick. Yeah, I agree with that analysis. The fact that he got drafted this high into this team made no sense because you've got to remember this team was a win away from the Super Bowl and considered all year long as a Super Bowl contender with what they already had. So for Matthew Stafford, it's like, hey, give me stuff to win, give me pieces that help. So to draft uh what is probably going to be considered the next guy up or a you know a uh project is a little weird. And then when they made the pick, Sean McVeigh in the draft room looked pissed.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:58

I mean inside himself. That didn't make any sense to me given what we're about to talk about.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:04

Well, because here's here's the thing. They said that part of the reason that Sean McVeigh looked pissed was it was a ploy to play on Matthew Stafford's emotions. He's gonna look pissed to make it look like I didn't want to draft this guy. Sorry, Stafford, they wanted to draft this guy. When all along through conversations today, that there was discussions with Ty Simpson leading up to this, you know, team meetings where they met up and talked with these prospects and they told him privately, hey, we're gonna take you. So if you knew this was gonna happen, then you're placating to your quarterback because he's too much of a diva to handle you drafting another quarterback, or were you actually upset and now you're trying to save face because somebody's everybody's been calling you out for being in the draft room mean mugging? Like, which is it? You're you're talking out of both sides of your mouth here, Sean McVeigh. Sean McVeigh is an idiot, too. This is this right here, this is this is Los Angeles. This is Los Angeles BS right here. We're gonna tell you one thing to your face, and then we're gonna be like, can you believe that bitch?

SPEAKER_01 1:11:26

This is like some relationship shit, like some old school drama shit to me. Like, bro, this is this is the OC.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:34

You remember that? Yeah. That's what this is. This is LA drama for no reason.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:41

This guy is an idiot to me. Like, first of all, you the coach, he's the player, and I know he's older than you, so you gotta get a juice box while he drinks a beer. But you should still be able to have the mutual respect enough to be like, hey man, uh, I'm gonna take a project, okay? And we're gonna take him at 13 because we're retarded. And I know you know this, so you're not gonna be around much longer anyway.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:03

Bro, first off, Jimmy Garofalo told him that he's planning on retiring or thinking about retirement. So this is probably because he wants more money.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:13

So they draft this guy because they need a backup. So first off, they're gonna draft him, pay him less than they ever would Jimmy. But then you have Stafford who needs a new deal, wants a new deal, wants to be paid like he's top of the line because he's with the numbers been top of the line. Now you're in a scenario where you're you're not helping the team. You didn't add to the team by making this pick. You didn't do anything other than this guy is not impacting next year. Literally, the team doesn't owe Stafford shit. Because what did they do? They got you up out of Detroit because you were getting beat up, knocked up senseless in Detroit, and they bring you into a scenario where they just did nothing but give you everything, trade and put everything around you to help you get a Super Bowl where they were basically saying your favorite phrase, F them picks, and trading away all their picks for players and got you to a Super Bowl, got you a Super Bowl win, changing the narrative on your career because you were just gonna be you were just gonna be another player who played for a team and was basically turning into the Falcons uh uh damn it, why am I forgetting his name? The quarterback, Falcons. Matt Ryan. Yes, you're basically gonna be the Matt Ryan of Detroit. So, like, come on. Well, I they they'd done enough for you.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:40

What I think narrative aside shit. Excuse me. Narrative aside, I feel like if they really wanted Ty Simpson, they should have played the smarter. Nobody else had their eye on a quarterback in round one, okay?

SPEAKER_03 1:13:55

Yeah, but it's the Sean Maveth effect. If somebody if they're looking at somebody and talking about it, everybody's gonna be like, oh, wait a second. Do we want to draft him?

SPEAKER_01 1:14:02

No, I thought I thought they should have traded back. If you took him at like 18 or 19. Nobody wanted to. Nobody wanted to trade with the Rams? Yeah, nobody wanted to.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:12

Nobody wanted to move up to 13.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:14

Well, the Rams moved up to get him because they took Atlanta's spot.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:20

Well, that's no, they had that pick from a trade they had made prior. Okay. So they already had that pick. They had two first round picks. Because remember, they gave their first round pick to the Chiefs, because the Chiefs had a second pick in the later round of the draft that afforded them the option because they had two picks. They were just like, screw it, we're gonna go ahead and we're gonna use this extra pick we have to go ahead and get this quarterback. So technically, they still had a first-round pick that led to them getting McDuffie, but this still is a side scratcher.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:53

Okay, so if they don't take Ty Simpson at 13 and they don't trade out of it, who would they have taken if they don't take Ty Simpson?

SPEAKER_02 1:15:05

Hold on. Um I'll find him.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:08

And I he went where is he? Where is right here? Makai Lemon. They would have taken Makai Lemon because Makai Lemon was taken six spots or seven spots after that, which would have been a help because remember they're having all these problems with Puka Nakua and Adams is getting a little older. Right. But they didn't do anything to help themselves on offense. I agree. So I don't agree with what they did. I know why they did it, but the way they played it off was so soap opera drama BS that this is what they are. It's all smoke and mirrors, and I I don't like it. Well anyway, anyway, moving on. Pick 14. Pick 14. I like I like a la Vega Ione. They just call him Vega. So the guard out of Penn State Vega goes goes to the Ravens. I like the pick. And then Ruben Baines going to Tampa. I'm a little surprised that he fell to 15. And the pick that I really like that the Jets made, other than the pick, the other pick they made, they got Kenyon Sadiq. He's a 6'3 tight end, but the comparison he's been drawing is Vernon Davis. A bigger fast receiver, but is more of a tight end, but not so much of a tight end. It's a great pickup for them.

Best Drafts And Sneaky Picks

SPEAKER_01 1:16:37

I'm not gonna lie, I like this pick by the Jets. I like that they got him at 16. Uh, very, in my opinion, a little bit underrated, but I like the pick. I think he's gonna be a breakout player. Maybe not this year, next year, but soon.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:48

Lions at pick 17 picking up Blake Miller, uh tackle out of Clemson, great, great idea for them. Uh kind of a head scratcher here at pick 18. Vikings picking Caleb Banks, a defensive tackle. I I know defensive tackle is kind of a deep thing in this draft, but I uh just didn't like that. It seemed like kind of a reach at that at that pick. But coming in number nine, the Panthers selecting uh Monroe Freeling.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:17

Tackle out of Georgia. It was a great pick. That was a great pick, especially with them trying to take it up to the next step.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:23

Yeah, they need they need O-line help to help out uh their quarterback Bryce Young. Yeah. And they're running and their running game. Yes, exactly. As we alluded to, Mikai Lemon going to the Eagles. So not a bad bad scenario there because this almost writes out that AJ Brown's gone. AJ Brown's on his way out somewhere, somehow. And Steelers doing something that most people didn't see happening. They actually went ahead and got O-line help.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:56

Maxi and Acker. And I only wonder that was definitely to bring to try to get Rogers to come back. They needed the help. They really did. They do, they they needed more protection. Rogers was kind of on the run uh for part of the year last year. Chargers are picked 22, going ahead and getting that that edge rusher help. I keep Messador. Yeah, Messador. It might be Messider, but I think it messador. And Cowboys coming in at the 23rd pick. Replacing Micah Parsons with Malachi Lawrence. They plan to plug him in there.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:36

And the Browns making another smart move and picking up KC Conception. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:42

And he will be conceptualizing some touchdowns.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:47

And at 25, the Bears making their pick, and this is the pick that pissed me off because I was so upset about this pick.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:54

Dylan Thinneman?

SPEAKER_03 1:18:55

Yes. I hated it because the Niners had the 27 pick, and that's who they were targeting. And once he came off the board, they were looking to move out, and I knew it was going to happen. So coming at 26, the Texans getting some guard help. Keelan Rutledge from Georgia Tech. And that was actually a trade up because the Bills traded out.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:18

Yes, they did. And I thought that they were traded down and traded out. I thought that was a good pick by the Texans.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:24

So the Niners traded back with Miami and Miami getting a corner, Chris Johnson, and then Patriots getting some O-line help. And Caleb Lamone. Lomo. And Chiefs coming in at 29 with Peter Woods, a defensive tackle. I thought that was a good pick for them. It was. It was a very good pick for them. And Jets with the 30th pick after they traded with the this is a crazy scenario. So it was originally Denver's pick, then became Miami's pick, then became the San Francisco 49ers pick, then became the Jets pick.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:00

So then they land with Omar Cooper Jr., who should be a great compliment to Garrett.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:08

That will be a great. I like their picks.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:13

They got a number one tight end, they got a number two receiver to complement their number one receiver. I think they already have Brees Hall uh and uh that other kid.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:25

And Titans moved back in after trading with Buffalo for the 31st pick. Keldrick Falk. An edge rusher out of Auburn. And the last pick, which kind of it made sense because of the running back needs of the Seahawks going ahead and getting Jadarian Price. Jadarian Price. Running back of Notre Dame. He was a second running back, but he really wasn't a second. It was really like It was like a 1A and a 1B.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:52

Yeah, 1A and 1B. Honestly, you keep Jadarian Price ain't mad. He's going to a high-powered, high-tempo Super Bowl team. The Seahawks, I don't think are going to miss a step next year. I think they will be more competitive than they were this year.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:09

So, in my opinion, there are a few teams I feel like they had pretty good drafts when you really go back and look at it. And the first team in mind would be the Jets. Because they basically addressed every need they had, but they did it in such a way that they got exceptional talent wherever they did. You know, getting getting David Bailey, getting Sadiq a tight end, so they got their edge rusher, their tight end, wide receiver help and getting Cooper, and then they addressed a corner need by getting D'Angelo Pond in the second round. Fourth round, they got a defensive tackle, adding to their their depth. And then they even drafted a quarterback out of Clemson in the late rounds just for that competition.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:58

This is one thing I didn't see was the Clemson quarterback and Kate Kate Klubnick. Uh as a fourth round pick, a high fourth round pick at that. He very much will be in the conversation for starting QB for them.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:13

Well, they're also talking about bringing in Russell Wilson as a QB too. And uh coming down, they also got a guard in in the sixth round. And in the seventh round, this was kind of a sneaky little pickup here, getting uh VJ Payne a safety out of Kansas State, who was rated pretty highly and it kind of a little bit of a late late round steal, which will give them great depth in their secondary. Yeah. So that to me was was just an excellent move by them.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:43

I think that I think the Jets, it's hard to say until we look at everybody's uh draft, but I think the Jets probably had one of the best, if not the best, uh draft. Um I really who do you think had the worst draft? I think I don't know, the Browns kind of fumbled a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:01

They had some good picks, but no, the Browns had a good draft. The Browns had a good draft.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:05

It took another quarterback.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:07

The no in the middle rounds. I tell you, one of the moves, late round moves that I liked, it was out of the Steelers. The Steelers made a pick late, late pick that kind of or not that late, actually in the third round, they pick up Drew Allard out of Penn State. Alard. Alar. Aller. Alar. So they pick him in the third round, and it I like the pick because he's 6'5, has all the power you want in his arm, and it kind of reminds me of when Josh Allen was coming out, and people were saying that Josh Allen wasn't a refined product, and he needed to be developed, and he needed to go to the right situation. Well, that happened for Josh Allen. Well, Drew Allard is really in the same boat, like he just needed a little refinement. Even his coach said, look, we didn't exactly do him any favors here because we were trying to make him fit our system.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:09

Not not really going to you know develop his talent more and help him out. I think it's a I think it's a sneaky good pick. So I I really feel like this is a good pick for them because he's gonna be there, and if if Rogers is coming back, then you have Rogers to kind of help teach this guy and kind of help show him how to be a professional and better quarterback at the NFL level.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:36

Man, look at this guy, Jennings Dunker. I would hate to be lined up in front of that guy. Look at that. Oh, yeah, yeah. Look at that that mullet that uh red-haired mullet, that ginger mullet. And he spells Jennings with a G. This is a and his last name's Dunker. I'm sorry. I don't want to line up against this guy. Just looks and sounds like somebody who's gonna dunk my ass.

Worst Drafts And Undrafted Storylines

SPEAKER_03 1:25:00

Uh so for bad drafts, I'm calling out my team. I'm no I'm calling out my team for a bad draft, not a good draft.

unknown 1:25:16

Homer?

SPEAKER_03 1:25:17

How is this a homer? Because you're a 49ers fan. But I'm calling out my team. I'm saying my team didn't do well. I'm not sitting here trying to cover up anything. Look, you pick a different shitty team, sir. Look. First off, let me just go through this and stop trying to shit all over everything. Anyway, so here we go. First off, I do like what the Niners did by trading out of the first round and trying to gain extra picks because we absolutely needed them because we didn't really have a third round pick, and we didn't have much in the way of picks after the fourth round. So we gained a number of extra picks because we went from having just a second round pick to having two third-round picks, three fourth round picks, and five or two fifth round picks. So they they did do themselves some justice to getting some extra depth. However, you get to the first pick in the second round, and you could have picked an edge rusher because you had Zion Young there. You could have picked, you know, uh was it uh Denzel Boston. You could have picked him. They picked Deshaun Stripling. Now, don't get me wrong, this guy is an excellent run blocker, pretty good hands, good route runner. I I've seen him play for Old Miss. He's a good receiver. He'll probably work out okay. But was a bit of a reach. They could have probably picked him up in the third round.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:50

Get to the third round, and alright, get to our pick at pick 70. They pick Romeo Heights, edge rusher. Romelo Heights.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:59

Romelo Heights. Height. It's not Blurro. Dang. He is not a skyscraper or a neighborhood.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:06

Anyway, the point being, you pick an edge rusher who, again, was projected as being somebody that you could pick later. So they wait, they could have waited to pick him. They could have picked him with their second third round pick. But no, we get to the second third round pick, and they pick. You want to do the name since you're Kalen Black. Okay. Kalen Black, they pick him, and this dude was projected as maybe a fourth round pick. So there's a theme. They kept picking guys who could have been picked up later and not really filling every need that they had. Like we didn't pick up a center and we didn't pick up a safety in this entire draft. Although we did get the linebacker, Jaden Duggar, who is a converted safety to linebacker. So I don't know, maybe they're gonna convert him. It was just a head scratcher.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:54

We'll see what happens with it.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:55

Um who was who was your pick then?

SPEAKER_01 1:27:58

For the worst draft?

SPEAKER_03 1:27:59

Yeah, for worst draft.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:00

If you're gonna bust my balls. Um, I was gonna pick, I mean, I know the Browns had some good picks, but I was gonna pick either the well, the Cardinals here. Um let's see here. Okay. Let me see what because I thought the Cardinals started out astronomically horrible.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:22

If you look at Nick.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:23

They took Carson Beck, wasn't he already in the NFL?

SPEAKER_03 1:28:26

Carson Beck looks like Timmy from South Park. Move up here. You notice their needs. Their needs was quarterback, O-line, edge, defensive line, and linebacker. The only thing they picked up was quarterback and linebacker.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:43

And by the way, wasn't Carson Beck already a quarterback in the NFL?

SPEAKER_03 1:28:50

No, sir. He just played in the college championship football game for Miami. Forever.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:55

He must have been like a nine-year-old I swear he was already in the draft at one point. Oh am I? I I don't know where I'm seeing his.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:03

I don't know who you're thinking about, but no, it was not Carson Beck. He literally was just playing for Miami in the national championship.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:09

I thought that they had an astronomically bad draft, and it started with their first pick with Jeremiah Love. And Jeremiah Love, and don't get me wrong, there's some good players on here. I think Jeremiah Love was a good is a good running back, but I I just really feel like I don't know what the hell the Cardinals were doing. They really would just kind of, you know, just shooting from the hip there, I guess.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:33

Yeah. Well, speaking of, you know, how players, you know, go get drafted or not drafted in this case, uh Pavilla being Diego Pavilla, the quarterback uh out of Vanderbilt was a bit miffed that you know he didn't win the Heisman and kind of went on a rant and kind of uh led to some falling in the draft to the point where he didn't even get drafted.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:00

Wait, he didn't win the Heisman and had a rant about it? Yeah. Well, that's why you didn't get drafted. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:06

Well, it well, part of it. And, you know, he kind of says he's uh boys with Menzel and you know, kind of see how he acts like him. But that also doesn't help your case. He didn't get drafted, but he did get signed by the Ravens. He was invited to Minicamp and he act they actually signed him to a three-year deal.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:26

Well, I I think that's good for him. Uh to me, this is probably like a reality check. I think the NFL, they the NFL sometimes acts as a cohesive cell, right? Um, and we already had a guy like Jenny Man Johnny Mandel. Johnny Johnny Mandel.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:45

Were you trying to say Howie Mandel and Johnny Mansell at the same time? Johnny Mansell.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:50

We already had a guy like him, and he was a train wreck, okay? Yeah. And all he did was talk, talk, talk, talk, talk. And he never really put up any anything with substance. And I think the NFL just doesn't want another guy like that, okay? And there's been a couple other guys like that. Uh so when they saw that rant, the NFL's very, very touchy, okay. The Colin Kaepernick situation. They don't want distractions, they don't want politics, they don't want bad looks. They got enough of it, okay? So I I could see, you know, maybe him not getting drafted as at the end of the world, but obviously he got a job still. His agent was good enough to get him to land somewhere. You can't be mad about that. To me, that's a reality check, okay? Check yourself.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:35

Yeah, this was a this was a well kind of like a Shador thing.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:39

Yeah. And if the Ravens were the lone team to bring him in and sign him, they were probably would have been the team to draft him.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:49

Well, he already had stuff going against him because he was undersized, or he is undersized. He's 5'10, which is very short for a quarterback. Russell Wilson? Basically. Um But a cool scenario. Uh, do you know who the wrestling legend Scott Steiner is?

SPEAKER_01 1:32:08

Um I would be an idiot if I told you I didn't, as I used to be in pro wrestling training.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:15

Anyway, so Scott Steiner, his son has been playing wide receiver at Jackson State, and he didn't go he didn't get drafted, but the Titans did sign him as an undrafted free agent. So his son, uh, and I'll let you do the name because I love doing this to you.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:33

Uh Brock. Brock Rex Steiner. I'll buy that. Yeah, Brock Rexiner. Yeah, he's gonna be It's the long version of Steiner.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:45

That's the full name. He's gonna be with the Titans this next year. So he'd be looking out for his son.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:52

And remember how we said that not everybody loves the draft? Apparently there was a little bit of controversy with neighbors not uh not really liking that Harbaugh didn't pick Caleb Downs with their first pick.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:04

Well, that's because he wants to be the number one, he hasn't won any competition.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:07

Well, their first pick wasn't even about competition. The first pick was a was a defensive player, remember? Alvel Reese. Arvell Reese, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:17

And I I honestly thought that was a great pick for them. I thought it was a great pick for them. I thought it was a great pick when they picked that. I thought the offense, I thought the OG uh Maguire was also a great pick. I think that they nailed it with the. I thought it was a great draft for them.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:31

But I will say this though. I do like how Harbaugh handled this. Apparently, they met, you know, not through the media, not through, you know, channels. Like they met and talked. And everything's good. It's like, oh, look, great. There's an adult in the room, and we figured it out.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:49

I know why, I know why he's intimidated though, because Malachi Fields, they took him in the third, but he probably easily could have been a day one or day two guy. Um, you know, neighbors has had some injury issues off and on since he's been in the league. Um you know, John Harbaugh's in here. I like I do like how Jar.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:14

An ACL tear is like one of those freak things. It's not like he's pulling hammies and quads.

Rodgers Tag Talk And Wrap-Up

SPEAKER_01 1:34:19

Well, yeah, and I I think they want to know if he's gonna fully re come back from that, which I think he will. He'd be fine. He he will, but sometimes you still don't quite perform the same way. But I I'm not worried about that. I think, like what you said, I think John Harbaugh handled it very well. Yeah. Especially as a new coach in the scene, because I don't I don't think neighbors Well new coach to them. Well, new coach to them, yeah. I I don't think neighbors was nefarious about it. I think I agree. I think his head was in the right place, I think his heart was in the right place. I don't know if calling him out publicly was the right thing to do, but I you know I I like how he handled it.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:58

So the Steelers put a unique tender on Aaron Rodgers. They put a UFA tender on Aaron Rodgers, which basically comes down to they'll pay him 15 million this next year uh if he cut if he comes. But he has the option to go explore elsewhere, but he can't get more than 15. They place a transition tag on him. Yeah, it's a it's a UFA designation tag, a transition tag, that only allows him to make up to 15 million this next year, and he can go talk to other teams, but it grants the Steelers the right to match or you know, basically the cap is 15. Like DMA.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:39

So basically, Roger's just saying he's not sold on the Steelers. He wants to see if anybody else is interested.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:44

No, this is just saying by training camp, he has to sign this. Well, one way or another, he has to engage with the Steelers. This is a Steelers saying, We ain't waiting around forever. Yeah, get your stuff together.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:57

Well, yeah, last year he barely even made it into training camp. OTA's on time. So, like, he's he took his sweet ass time, you know, while the rest of the team's like, yeah, what the f what are we doing?

SPEAKER_03 1:36:10

Yeah, but people around the league said that the Steelers didn't even look concerned when that was going on. So it kind of like it was one of those scenarios where there was no smoke, no.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:21

They probably they probably weren't concerned, and I I think that there were some things going on internally with the Steelers that they probably weren't concerned, like you say. They were probably indifferent. He comes great, he doesn't come, whatever, we'll figure it out. And you know how Mike Tomlin is, he ain't gonna sweat nothing.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:41

Yeah, yeah. Well, Mike Tollin is not the coach anymore.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:45

No, but he was when this fiasco was.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:47

Yeah, when he was yes, yes, that's true, that's true. But his former coach is now the coach now, Mike McCarthy. Yes. But as we alluded to earlier, Jets are looking to sign Russell Wilson to be their backup.

SPEAKER_01 1:37:00

Yes, yes, they are. I think it's an incredibly horrible idea. Hey, they're just they're just pairing him and Gino up again like it was in Seattle. This is a train wreck waiting to happen. I think that by all accounts, they've done pretty well in the offseason, but this would just they are never handled the quarterback right.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:20

Well, you know what this is. This is just to get them up into the top of the draft next year.

SPEAKER_01 1:37:27

Yeah, yeah. They want more number one picks so they can win. I mean, they are maybe we need an anti-tanking uh uh what is it called?

SPEAKER_03 1:37:38

I dude, they already have I think three picks in next year's first round. So like they're good. And it's impressive that they suck this much and they always picks, but they they traded players to get them picks. So yeah, they did. But they didn't say F them picks, we'll have them picks. Yeah, give them to us.

SPEAKER_01 1:37:58

Yeah, but I digress on that. And uh it certainly was a wild ride this year for the for the NFL draft. And uh likewise, I look forward to seeing how the NBA playoffs and the NHL playoffs uh play out, Mike. Um for the last time tonight, I want to thank our sponsors and partners, Body by D Gym, Solids Outfitters, the Giving Tree Chiropractic, Pulse with Tuning, Made in Norfolk and Makin' Money Dub, and MATW Mid Atlantic Territory Wrestling. For the final time tonight, I'm Brian with an eye. And I'm Mike, and we are two for the win. Thanks everybody.