Sports Live! With Steve and Justin
Sports Talk Live! With Steve and Justin! NFL Offseason Analysis: Team Moves and Super Bowl Predictions. A Recording of our live Youtube Sports show every Monday Night 5pm EST.
Sports Live! With Steve and Justin
NFL Week 5 - Interceptions Everywhere - Yanks are getting pounded!
Summary
In this episode, Steven and Justin discuss the struggles of home teams in the NFL, particularly focusing on the Jets and Giants. They delve into officiating controversies and the impact of gambling on the game. The conversation shifts to coaching accountability and the changing landscape of the NFL, including the expansion into new markets. The hosts also analyze the disappointing season of the Yankees and the growing popularity of F1 racing in America, before looking ahead to upcoming NFL matchups.
Takeaways
Home teams in the NFL are struggling week after week.
The Jets and Giants have systemic issues with talent evaluation.
Officiating controversies are affecting game outcomes.
The influence of gambling on NFL officiating is concerning.
Coaching accountability is crucial for team success.
Super Bowl halftime shows are becoming more focused on market expansion.
The NFL is targeting new markets for growth, especially in South America.
The Yankees are facing a disappointing season due to poor management decisions.
F1 racing is gaining popularity in America, especially among younger audiences.
Upcoming NFL matchups could reveal more about team capabilities.
titles
NFL Week Recap: Home Teams Struggle
Jets and Giants: A Talent Evaluation Crisis
Sound Bites
"The Jets looked horrible."
"Winners want to win."
"Keep the receipts."
Chapters
00:00
NFL Week Recap: Home Teams Struggle
01:33
Jets and Giants: A Talent Evaluation Crisis
05:30
Officiating Woes: The Impact on Game Outcomes
11:44
The Role of Analytics in Modern Football
16:57
Gambling and Its Influence on the NFL
22:47
Quarterback Development: The Importance of Time
28:42
Parity in the NFL: Good Teams vs. Bad Teams
29:21
Quarterback Dynamics and Team Performance
32:10
Coaching Impact on Team Confidence
34:53
Philadelphia Eagles: Leadership and Performance Issues
38:16
Accountability and Integrity in NFL Players
44:06
The Shift in College Football Culture
46:20
Previewing Kansas City vs. Jacksonville
48:52
Yankees' Performance and Analytics Critique
53:11
Derek Jeter's Potential Influence on the Yankees
57:59
Investment Returns and Future Projections
58:25
World Series Predictions
59:23
Formula 1 Insights and Highlights
01:07:10
NFL Game Previews and Predictions
Hello, everybody, and welcome to um Sports Live with Steve and Justin. How are you, Justin?
SPEAKER_00:I'm good, Steve. Thank you for having me.
SPEAKER_01:Well, it's great for having you here. It's another week. Another week in the NFL where the home teams look worse than they did for the week before. Another week in baseball where the Yankees look worse than they did before. And no matter how many times you go back to sleep, you wake up again and the Mets are still not in it and have no idea how to get in it. So, I mean, it's pretty funny because that's all you hear is people complaining and saying that, you know, we're gonna make some changes. Every team says they're gonna make changes.
SPEAKER_00:They made changes five years ago.
SPEAKER_01:Right. So, I mean, if you want to start with the Jets, the Jets looked horrible. Right?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it doesn't sound good. Uh, it didn't look good. Uh, you know, I had a friend at the game who was texting that the Jets weren't getting any calls, which I know is typical for Jet fans, but having watched some of the replays, there's some pretty blatant calls that were not called, putting blatant penalties, I should say. Hands to the face, face masks, holding calls, all against the Jets that were not called. And those things can add up. I know there was some question in the Giants game as well with the officiating and holding on the defense that didn't get called. That was pretty obvious. But, you know, these teams can't, you know, good teams don't blame referees. So you got to play better. You got a quarterback sitting back there for the Jets, not reading the field correctly, not seeing open receivers. And, you know, that was the knock on fields in Chicago. They thought, well, it's because, you know, we keep changing offensive coordinators and it's taking time for him to catch up. He's still got all the tools and he's talented and he can run. But and you also have the fantasy people talking about how many points he scores every week, but those are garbage side points. That doesn't mean anything. That doesn't help you win football games.
SPEAKER_01:Remember the remember the coach that let fields go. That's all I'm gonna say. And what do we know about Jets and Giants? They have no idea what talent is. They have no idea.
SPEAKER_00:The Giants used to, you know, at least have a clue, but I think hard knocks proved us different on that one. But the Jets have never been, they have never been good at drafting talent. They just it's it's it's a systemic, malignant issue with the Jets, if you will. And there seems to be no end in sight. And as much as I want Aaron Glenn to succeed there, because I like him, I liked him as a player, I liked him as a coach. Uh he seems to have tremendous respect around the league, not only from the players that played for him, but other coaches. You know, that's something the Jets have to overcome. You know, the proof is in the pudding, right? They fired Mike Tannenbaum. Tannenbaum was not a good evaluator of talent. I don't care what anybody says. And Vernon Golstein proved that. He goes and watches film that has coaches shaking their heads, and he comes back and thinks that he's found gold. All these years later, he's working for a company that the Jets hired to help them pick their new channel manager.
SPEAKER_01:That's right.
SPEAKER_00:So the guy you fired from that position, you then hired his company to tell you who to hire. Well, if he can't evaluate talent on the field, how is he supposed to tell you who's gonna run your organization? It offends me so much. Not just because it's the Jets, but if you're an owner in the NFL and you don't have the wherewithal to hire somebody that knows what they're doing, you shouldn't own an NFL franchise. Excuse me. So ultimately it comes down to Woody.
SPEAKER_01:You know what they'll say. I have the money, so I could do anything I want.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Well, I mean, they certainly do have the money, but they have no clue. It makes you wonder how they made the money in the first place.
SPEAKER_01:The old-fashioned way. They inherited it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, they inherited it. Yeah, we mentioned that last week.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I mean, uh, you think about it. I mean, granted, he did run the company for a while, but it's Johnson and Johnson. Just keep making the drugs. People keep buying them.
SPEAKER_00:It's not it's not hard. Well, just keep making chicken wings and scars now.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Something like that. But he had a billion dollars before he was running the company, right?
SPEAKER_00:Yes, I believe so.
SPEAKER_01:And if he was really good at it, he'd still be running the company, right? And what do they do with the family members that can't run a company? They buy them out.
SPEAKER_00:So And, you know, I don't expect I don't expect the children to take over and be successful if it's not something that they, you know, grew up doing or had uh enthusiasm for or even went to school for, whatever you want to call it. If they don't have the knowledge, they don't have the knowledge. You know, if it wasn't their vision from the jump, then take the money and run. I don't begrudge anybody the money. Go right ahead.
SPEAKER_01:Right. So you know the interesting uh I think the interesting thing is about the Jets game, you want to stick to that for a minute, is there's always one thing, it seems, even though it's insignificant and it doesn't really mean anything and doesn't really adjust the the the game that people watch latch onto. It's like a flash point. The media latches onto it, and that is and and the fantasy too on social media, and that is this thing with the sky cam yesterday. Right? They're they're marching in, they seem to be moving the ball, it was uh opening plays, and and the pass is blocked and it hits the sky cam. And the rule is that anything hits the sky cam, it's an automatic do-over. I mean, you know, in professional sports, there aren't a lot of do-overs. Yeah, it's not really a golf term. Maybe you in golf you do because you you could take a stroke, but just you get to do it again, but there's still some penalty of it all.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and the last time I said I heard do-over, I think I was on a stickball court in Pelham.
SPEAKER_01:Right.
SPEAKER_00:You know, that's for when the ball goes in the trees and you can't really determine Sheriff Fowler.
SPEAKER_01:It's very similar, right? It hits the sky cam. So, I mean, it was a dead play anyway, because the defensive guy hit the ball and it went up in the air and it hits the sky cam. It it seems to be something that's the ripping Aaron about Aaron Glenn, that he should have known the rule. Well, the officials didn't know the rule because they didn't call it.
SPEAKER_00:If you're if you if you're the head coach, you definitely have to know the rule. I can tell you that I didn't know the rule. It makes sense that if anything, I mean, I knew, you know, there was the thing in Dallas with the screen, if a punter hits the screen or whatever, the big overhang thing. Um, and I do remember a brief rundown of drones and sky cams, if the ball interferes with the play or whatever. For the refs, not to call it's just it's just so typical of a jet game, right? Like only the Jets. It happened in their game. Of course it did. I could see it going the other way. You know, I could see it if the other team threw the ball and the defender made a play, but the ball popped up in the air and hit the sky cam before the play was over. Oh, we have to do it over, even though the jet defense made a great play, you'd say, it would go the next play would go for a touchdown. You and I know that, for sure.
SPEAKER_01:But it's it's why does it seem that there's more in all sports all of a sudden that the officiating has gotten worse?
SPEAKER_00:Well, I mean, let's let's be honest. I think it's gotten a lot worse since the NFL made its its decision to get in bed with these gambling companies.
SPEAKER_01:That's that was my next line.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, well, I mean, it's that's the first place you're gonna look. That's the bad optic, right? It's if this is continuously happening, how are we operating under this? We're supposed to make things better. You know, are the officials not trained? Are they not paid? I don't know. I I know that you know the the officials are professionals in terms of they have other career paths, like, right? Like some of them are doctors or lawyers or you know, Indian chiefs, whatever. The that there is no professional, if this isn't what you do for a living, what standard can they really be held to? And I mean, you could probably take, you know, four or five fans out of the seats at these stadiums that know the rules cold. I mean, there are guys out there that that know these rules better than the officials on the field.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. I mean, look at it if you know look at when you play golf. When you play golf, people you're out with, they're like, that's this, yes, you gotta do that, you gotta drop it, you gotta measure it, it's back in the line, and this and that. People are rules crazy in golf.
SPEAKER_00:And it's important. I mean, it's it's a whole facet of the game. So, you know, it's one thing to miss a call because your your, you know, your line of sight was blocked or your vision was in following the play and you missed something, you know. But it when it continuously happens and it's a consistent thing, especially if you're the Jets, because, you know, I mean, like I said, bad teams, this is what this is what you look at. You blame the officials. You seem your team is so bad that you're looking for anybody to blame. But in this case with the Jets and the Giants to a degree, it's happening all over the league. And I think because, you know, I think the New York markets, or at least the East Coast Coast markets, but definitely New York, we consume a lot more football than everybody else does, right? We consume all day football. That doesn't happen on the West Coast, they're not watching our one o'clock eights. So, and with the advent of things like Red Zone and Apple TV having the all the flashing lights and bells and whistles and whatnot, probability of play and all this, when you consume it regularly and you watch it every weekend and you start to see it and you learn it, you you can call this call it out and see it in real time. So they've created kind of a problem where they everything's under a microscope because they're they're putting it all out there for us to see. Right. So there's no hiding it. And there's really no excusing it. You could say, well, you know, this happened before all this stuff. Well, not to the extent that it was costing people their jobs or their careers or their playing time or you know, their franchise.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_00:So I you know, I don't know I don't know that they can legislate it out. I do know that the more rules they put in, the worse it's got. That's probably the easiest way to say. They have enough guys on the field to call the plays, but they're not seeing all the penalties.
SPEAKER_01:Look at the kickoff. I mean, it's taken a long time for kickers or teams to understand what the NFL was after. They were after a run back. Yeah, they're pushing people to kick the ball in a little zone. Yeah. And if you don't do it, it's almost like you're being penetized.
SPEAKER_00:They've created a challenge that looks far into the game. That half, it seems, even the coaches, let alone the players, don't understand.
SPEAKER_01:But it it's a little league where you know you're playing T-ball. Okay, we're gonna give you a little spot. Everybody's got a thing is it used to be kick it. You want to kick it far, kick it far. You want to kick it short, kick it short.
SPEAKER_00:Kick the thing. Yeah, they they've taken coaching out of the game, which is you can't have that. And I again, when we watched that video of how they explained it, this is analytics. This is analytics in motion. This is what analytics looks like. Some nerd with stats on a computer decided, well, we should do something different to create more of this, but it's foreign to the game and it doesn't make sense, it doesn't look right, it doesn't feel right. You know, athletes can make it look good, but it's not I mean, use common sense.
SPEAKER_01:I agree.
SPEAKER_00:It sounds like common sense has gone out the window, and it's just all about what you can plug into your AI program to come back and give you a value percentage that is, you know, 0.2 points higher or 2% more. And for what? To make an extra 30 cents at the gate? I just don't see it translating into more dollars. Not that they don't make enough money already, but I don't see how that particular rule helps sell this game to people that never watched it before in other countries where you want to expand to.
SPEAKER_01:That's true. And I and I think, and it it just feeds into this whole hubbub about bad bunny at the Super Bowl. I mean, who cares? I mean, are you think I worry about the Super Bowl halftime show?
SPEAKER_00:I don't, I don't, yeah, I I I never really the one Super Bowl, well, I should say more than one, but I was I was much younger. You know, it seems like the ones that I like get canned and they bring in something like this. And ever since they pipped off Janet Jackson's bra, but it's been progressively worse.
SPEAKER_01:Here's the point. The commissioner goes to Jay-Z and says, Give me somebody for the halftime show. You know, obviously the commissioner isn't tuned in to the acts and things like that. I mean, you can't expect it to. So he goes to somebody that knows, Jay-Z, and he says, give me somebody. And by the way, in case you haven't noticed, we're looking to expand to South America. So if he happens to speak Spanish, maybe it's a good idea, maybe that'd be a good idea. You know, and that's the game. Then the president's got to chime in and say, Oh, we're gonna put ice if bad bunnies the now. I don't, you know, I don't think about this as politically motivated, okay? But bad bunnies from Puerto Rico, that is the United States. I don't know. Does somebody need a map? I mean, it's not a state, but Puerto Rico's an American possession, all right? Yeah, and and it let so not for anything, but that's America. America is largely, I'm not gonna say maximized, but is largely has Spanish-speaking people. And we're trying to get Spanish-speaking people to watch football games. That's what the NFL is trying to do, because that opens up a whole new audience. Forget about Europe. I mean, because in if we move south, we stay within our time zone, and it makes it easier to show the games.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. That's part of it. That's part of it. I think, you know, the bottom line is always money, right? How much more money does the NFL make from gambling when all of South America picks up their cell phone and starts betting on NFL games? Especially if they can understand the games, right? Because there's a lot of money in soccer, and I know it's very popular outside the United States. It's extremely popular in South America, Mexico, et cetera. So there's no question that the gambling plays a part in the decision making.
SPEAKER_01:But it's also jerseys and think about soccer. Soccer jerseys make more money than NFL jerseys. And you start treading into that jersey, hats, all those things.
SPEAKER_00:I would imagine the apparel is, I'd love to see the numbers, but I'm gonna imagine that the apparel, yeah, I mean, they'll explode if it becomes popular. Right now, obviously, the soccer jerseys are probably at the top of the list. But that being said, everybody has access to gambling on their phones or on their computers, and it's spreading. And you're able to download these apps and bet on things across the globe. So the NFL wants their peace. So nothing's stopping anybody from going online and buying a football jersey. It's just, yeah, you need the exposure. How much exposure is the NFL going to get in South America that's going to make it relevant to them for selling jerseys and apparel versus how much money are they making if somebody can just pick up their phone and put a hundred bucks or fifty bucks or ten bucks on their favorite team to win?
SPEAKER_01:I agree. I think gambling makes you not trust anything. I think when like I don't trust the damn thing. Like in Saturday night when the UFC title fight that was gonna happen, light heavyweight. We'll leave the names out for now. And the Challenger knocks out the champion in the first round, basically with one punch, but then beats the crap out of them. It's UFC. After they fall down, they get hit a thousand times before somebody stops it. But it always makes you think, is this rigged? Is it compromised? I didn't are they compromised? Did the I mean, it almost looked like they went in and the champion wasn't prepared. He almost looked, he had a look on his face from the moment it started.
SPEAKER_00:And we've seen stuff like that in other sports, especially boxing, maybe, where the the fighter comes in unprepared, Mike Tyson. But UFC is a different animal altogether. I mean, these guys train extensively, and it's they're not just running and working out. I mean, these guys are fighting daily. I mean, the training is uh I I couldn't imagine going through that and then not being prepared for a for a whipping. I mean, you're even the even the good fighters get hit, right? Everybody's got to be able to take a punch.
SPEAKER_01:So just to stay focused here for a minute and just going through some of the other NFL games, Indiana Jones had another great day. Yeah, almost the best starter anybody ever had at his position.
SPEAKER_00:Tremendous. He's also, their running game is outstanding.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and and Gino Smith finally got back to the Jets caliber yesterday. He was horrible throwing interceptions.
SPEAKER_00:Gino looked like a player that came from another city and all of a sudden got the start in Las Vegas. So there, that that goes to what we were just talking about. He does not look like the same player he looked like last year at all.
SPEAKER_01:And not for anything. Pete Carroll's never been in this position. He's never been in a position where his team was one and four in the starting. So he's a little bit taken back. Listen, he's not 20 years old, but that has nothing to do. He's got more energy than you and I put together, right?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And he's never been in this position, and he's got to be under a spotlight there in Las Vegas.
SPEAKER_00:It's certainly not a lack of coaching that's going on in Las Vegas.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, he should have came to the show.
SPEAKER_00:I don't care how old he is. He, like you said, he's got a tremendous amount of energy. He's always been that guy. But Gino looked so bad yesterday throwing balls to open defenders. It was like, wow, that just happened. To the tune of 40 points by Indianapolis.
SPEAKER_01:Then you had Miami and Carolina, who went right down to the end. So many games went down to the end last night.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, Carolina seems like they're growing, you know. Each week there's a little give and take, but they're progressing, sort of, I guess. But not a good football team.
SPEAKER_01:Tampa Bay and Seattle. I mean, say what you want. They love Darnold there. I mean, Seattle lost yesterday. Donald's changed that team.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. I mean, they they have tremendous talent on offense. They've got a decent running back. They've got an offensive line that can not only protect their quarterback, but they can ground it down too. As long as he's plays within himself and they don't ask him to be a superhero, which he doesn't have to be, pocket passer. I know they like to roll him out once in a while. It's it's amazing to see the progression. When the Jets made the decision to let him go, I remember talking to my buddies, Mike and Mario and Frank about where the organization was going at that moment. And I said, I think they need to give Sam one more year because there's no clear answer to what you're gonna get out of this draft coming up. Give him one more year. What difference does it make at this point if he if he comes back next year and can't get it done? You gotta let him take one more shot at it to see if he can progress. And if he does, you make a decision. Do we keep him or do we let him go? Or get somebody else in. But at least you'll know with having given him enough time and enough chance. I didn't think he would be good, but at that time, it seemed like the right thing to do would be you gotta give him one year one more year, as painful as it seemed at that time, because I didn't feel that he was really, you know, not that he wasn't given a fair shot, but he hadn't had time to take a step forward and kind of establish himself. And then, you know, it fell apart, obviously, after that. But he good for him. He went to two different places, he found two coaches that took him under their wing, taught them everything they know, taught him everything they know. He learned from it. And isn't that what you're supposed to do? As opposed to you're a rookie and they throw you in the in the fire and they expect you to win right away and you don't, and then they they blame you, but then you find out later, oh, the coaching staff wasn't very good, the talent level around you wasn't very good. There's all these other factors. So, you know, I would have I would have liked to see Jackson Dart sit until week eight, you know, and come out maybe after the bye, but the Giants chose to go forward, and that's probably, you know, as we learned, coaching decision, we think. But rushing these guys in and the pressure for them to rip win right away, it stunts their growth in most cases.
SPEAKER_01:I've never seen so many ill-prepared teams as I have this year. I mean, I don't know what else to say. Certainly, certainly the Giants, you want to say what you want about Jackson Dart. He was horrible yesterday. He threw a million interceptions. He the team looked not ready or not really ready to play. And you want to go down.
SPEAKER_00:The Saints are not the Saints are not a good football team. They're bad.
SPEAKER_01:They're not a good football team. Knicks looked like a hero yesterday.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:The Saints will be the next team that gets a former Jet or Giant quarterback to take them to the playoffs.
SPEAKER_01:And Arizona yesterday, my God. Inexcusable. I mean, to drop the ball before you go into the end zone.
SPEAKER_00:We were just talking about it last week. The kid from Indianapolis. What amazes me is the amount of people defending him, saying, oh, his foot was on the line. That's not a touchdown. He did not cross the plane with the ball secure in his hand. He let the ball go. It may have been rattling around or rolling off his bomb. The ball was out. He did not cross the line. I mean, you it was frustrating enough last week talking about it. Then seeing this happen on top of it, like I said last week, if you don't scold that guy to some degree and let him know he messed up and bench him, this guy doing it a week after that happens, you first of all, you just made your coach look like a complete moron, right?
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00:Because that's a reflection of your coach, regardless of who you are. And I don't care about, oh, you know, like Jimmy Johnson used to say that I treat dip players differently because Troy Aikman's Troy Aikman and the kicker is the kicker, and you go over there. This this kid had an opportunity to establish himself as their lead back, right? And makes it look like he could care less about that opportunity.
SPEAKER_01:In the old days, they used to find people.
SPEAKER_00:Find you, he'd be on the bus to Cleveland. See ya, get lost. We'll find somebody else that wants to be here.
SPEAKER_01:Cleveland's another story. But so if I had to pick the worst team, and we're not talking about the Jets and Giants because I think they're both the worst teams, you definitely have to talk about Cincinnati to some extent. I mean, the Cincinnati team that you and I both talked about was gonna really go after it this year. Without their number one quarterback, they can't seem to play.
SPEAKER_00:Completely dysfunctional to a degree. Lost. It's it's you know, it's hard for coaches, I guess, to come up with a plan B when you lose your quarterback, especially in today's NFL. But I think there what we're learning through all of this is that there really is a fine line between greatness and parity in the NFL, where everybody's well, a few more plays or one play. The Jets could have won this game or that game, Cincinnati could have done this differently, that the one bad play. A bad team is a bad team. You just you can't overcome that, okay? And it's it shows how bad. But also the the teams we think are good or great are not as as good or great as we think they are. Buffalo lost, Philadelphia lost, and to teams they should not have lost to. Now, I know, you know, New England and Buffalo, you know, division games are tough, but Buffalo's a better team, aren't they? I mean, I I'd like to think that from after watching them for so long, that they're we know that they're a better team. Yes, you're gonna have losses, but sometimes the way you lose says more about your team than how you win. Like Philadelphia, right? They were 4-0 and we knew they weren't playing their best football, they still aren't. And yesterday proved, you know, that they're not the same team that won the Super Bowl last year. For sure. They're not the same team. But they're not that far off, right? So how much better are they than the bad teams? Not much better. So it just seems like there's, you know, that's we're living in that world of parody right now where the good teams are not much better than the bad teams, but the bad teams are gonna, they're just bad. They're just really bad. The Jets and Giants not withstanding.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, well, Detroit looks pretty good. I don't know how to say that. Detroit is loaded.
SPEAKER_00:And they're healthy. They weren't healthy last year. They were still good.
SPEAKER_01:And your Chargers, who you talked a lot about, lost two in a row. The team lost two in a row, and Washington, I mean, the quarterback came out looking to play.
SPEAKER_00:He can sling it, man. He's not afraid to throw the ball. He sees the field, he reads the defenses, he can throw on the run. He makes, you know, sideline to sideline throws. They are a different team when he's the quarterback for sure. You know, how how far can they take it this year? I, you know, I know we had them, I think we had them listed as like the third or fourth best team in the NFC. They probably still are, or are at least capable of being. But that team's fun to watch for certain. They got a lot of good football players on that team. So on both sides of the ball.
SPEAKER_01:That's one of the teams you kind of woke up a little bit. I think moved up another rung. I think Detroit kind of moved up another rung in our eyes this week.
SPEAKER_00:Packers and the Steelers had the week off, so you know, we'll they're still they're still in the mix. But I also Baltimore Baltimore is cooked. Their their season is virtually over. Um, I was looking at their schedule. And their schedule actually looks, you know, on paper, like they could reel off nine wins in a row. But uh at this point, a one-in-four football team, they they don't I mean, they their defense is is porous at best. They can't stop anybody. They might be worse than the Jets.
SPEAKER_01:And Houston isn't that good of a team.
SPEAKER_00:Houston, Houston has talent, but they they haven't played well at all this year, really.
SPEAKER_01:They haven't really played together.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, they really haven't. They've got some, they've got some holes for sure.
SPEAKER_01:And another team that really woke up, I thought, was New England. I mean, the quarterback kind of came into his own against a very good team. He's been getting better every week. And you had Diggs, who was back to Buffalo for his first time, and he had a day and a half yesterday.
SPEAKER_00:He played very well, for sure. And it was it was the first time this season that it seemed like him and Drake May were all together on the same same page.
SPEAKER_01:And who else moved up another rung? Denver.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, we I mean, Denver's Sean Payton being one of the best, if not the best, coach in the NFL, one of the best for sure. They're they're bought in. You you can see a team is bought into what their head coach is is selling them. And they play together. They play well, obviously, at home. They play good on the road. They're they're well coached, they're they're disciplined, and they're prepared.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:They don't really make a lot of mistakes. They certainly don't make any like fundamental mistakes. They do all the little things right, and they're they're they seem to be progressing weekly, which a lot of people had written off bone a year ago, right? Like, I think no, it's it's it's the same thing. Like you bring in a young kid, you throw him out there, and you expect him to win right away. And these things, it takes time. That's why they brought Sean Payton in there to stabilize things, to give this kid a chance to progress. Once they committed to Sean Payton, you knew they were committed to this kid as their quarterback, and he set the tone for that whole team. We're moving forward with this.
SPEAKER_01:Think about where they were. They were in a total disarray when Peyton came in. Total disarray. Drafted, gave up, give it away, whatever. And he got it around, they went on that fourth down play. I'm I'm pretty sure it was like in the beginning. Uh because I watched it yesterday. I mean, they just went, he just gave them confidence. He gave them confidence yesterday.
SPEAKER_00:Even if they don't make the play, as long as the play call is right, if a defense makes a great play or just is better or tougher than you is one thing. But the coach has faith in you to line you up and go toe-to-toe with whoever's in front of you, that gives you so much more confidence as a player. And when you execute, then you feel like Superman, right? You feel bulletproof. Like you want to go for it on fourth down. Fourth and 60, we're going for it. You don't care because you know your coach has faith in you and you know that he's gonna put you in a position to succeed rather than just throw caution to the wind and see what happens and go make something, go make a play, kid. You know, when when you have the coach's back or backing and you feel the coach's confidence in you, it makes it easier to play the game for sure.
SPEAKER_01:And Philadelphia, they didn't seem to have their act together at all.
SPEAKER_00:It certainly seems like How do they not have a running game? Well, he only ran the ball, what, six times? Yeah, he didn't have a lot of carries. How is that possible? I think they get tunnel vision. I think they get tunnel vision. They they forget who they are, they panic.
SPEAKER_01:But no part of their game, when you watch that game, which I did, no part of their game worked. Their passing game, their running game. It was like, who are we again?
SPEAKER_00:I mean, do we do we did we really win the Super Bowl? It makes you wonder how much, you know. You see their offensive line struggling. Is it is it that their wanted defensive rotation at front seven or eight that they rotate in and out, couldn't seem to get any real footing in the game. They seemed off balance or you know, even unprepared, maybe. I I don't think they were unprepared, but at times they might have looked like it.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_00:So it's they are a talented football team. I still think they are well coached. You know, I might not like Sirianni's personality, but he seems to be a good coach. And if, you know, there's probably a handful of teams out there that wish he was their coach right now.
SPEAKER_01:Right.
SPEAKER_00:But I think they're in a position where it seems like there's no real leadership from the players on that team because they lost Brandon Graham on defense after last year's Super Bowl. You know, he came back and played from that injury and retired. You know, no one I think yet has stepped up to fill in that role. Doesn't mean they don't have that guy in the locker room. It just hasn't happened yet. And on offense, when you're star wide receiver, the diva is not happy and he's tweeting about it. That creates, I mean, and it happened in Philly before, right? With Donovan McNabb and Terrell Owens. Remember them carrying on on the sidelines one week, and then they were making fun of themselves a week later. So they haven't found something yet to galvanize them this year. And I don't know if it's gonna take a trade for a free agent to come in and like a veteran player to bring the locker room together. But look at the Ravens, right? The Ravens are the antithesis to that shit. Excuse me. They're just terrible. They don't have, it seems they don't have leadership anywhere. So, and they have a good head coach. So leadership reflects attitude. The coach, it's a reflection on him, the players back and forth. So the coach can only say so many things and do so many things, but someone's got to step up in that locker room and take control and say, hey, we are who we are. Let's be who we are. And galvanize the locker room, bring the team together, and start playing football that we know they can't. Listen, they're four and one. It's not like they're two and four or one and five or whatever, you know, oh and five like the chats.
SPEAKER_01:Right.
SPEAKER_00:They're not going to turn their season around.
SPEAKER_01:When you see quarterbacks like in Baltimore, you know, he has some adversity. He never seems to win the big game. You know, I think you see it again and again in the NFL where quarterbacks come out, you expect a lot of them, they get close a couple times, they never really get it. They end up getting the big contract, and then they kind of lose their hunger a little bit. They kind of say, well, I'm making$50 million a year, and all I have to do is play, and you know, somebody's always gonna want me, and it goes on and on. They don't have that Tom Brady, Eli Manning, on and on and on, we could probably name more than that, but they don't have that drive to always be successful. There's no one pushing them. I think there are, you know, you think about it, what do we see? We see from the moment they get drafted, sometimes we see a little college, but the moment they get drafted to the moment, you know, they retire. And we do see that interim. But these guys have been playing since they're little kids. They've been told since they're little kids they're the greatest things since sliced bread. That's right. And on and on. And if they're not going to be successful, some people lose interest and they don't have that fight in them to go the rest of the way. They talk about it and they get paid for it, but they don't necessarily do it.
SPEAKER_00:There's so that's accountability, right?
SPEAKER_01:Right.
SPEAKER_00:And you want guys that have integrity, because guys with integrity will hold themselves accountable and the people in the locker room accountable.
SPEAKER_01:Right.
SPEAKER_00:So when you talk about the best of all time, especially when it comes to Diva wide receivers, because I know I like to pick on that a lot. Jerry Rice was the best receiver of all time. Why? Not because he was the best talent, not because he was the fastest, not because he had the best hands or he was the most well-dressed guy in the locker room. It was because Jerry Rice was accountable. Jerry Rice did things off the field that no one else did except for a few guys, right? And that was a different generation of player. Nobody's running that hill that they talk about, like him and Marcus Allen and Marshall Falk and all the other guys that paid their dues that would put that time in and these crazy insane dedication to their craft, where it's not enough just to show up at practice.
SPEAKER_01:Look at Edelman, not even in that caliber of player. He he was with New England, he tried harder, he always had heart. He was out there fighting. There is that player, whether they have a super talent or not, that always have that drive to be successful.
SPEAKER_00:That's right. And and it's hard to find guys like that. And it's also hard to drown out the diva who doesn't pay his dues and is just all talent, right? Now we live in this world where these guys don't practice like they used to practice. So, like you say every week, they look unprepared. It's because they're they're not practicing. They're not out there going through reps, right? So imagine how many reps they get are limited as it is. And if you're the backup or you're the guy that needs to, you know, next man up, you're not getting the reps now that you used to get. And, you know, I don't expect that, you know, backups were getting many reps then either, but the attitude of the of the team in general is if your star players and your starters are just mailing it in every week, showing up for practice and doing the bare minimum, what message does that send to everybody else?
SPEAKER_01:Well, I'm not suggesting that they're actually just scraping by, but they don't have that drive to take the extra step. They come in, they play hard, they come to the practices, they play in a game, but they're not, you know, I always think about the Tom Brady and Belichick having meetings in the beginning of the season. There's two guys that don't really care for each other anyway, and that may be a myth, but I don't believe it is. Because why? Because they're both driven and they're competing for the those decisions, right? Yeah. So they want to win. And they get in there, and Tom says, Well, you know what? I'll take an extra few thousand dollars. I'm gonna make more money the rest of my life anyway, right? So he goes in, he does that, they sit down, they figure out what players guys aren't doing, not everybody with that talent. I mean, Tom Brady's the best because he believed he was the best. Was he more accurate than some? Is he more accurate? Did he throw farther? No. But did he lead more than anyone else? Yes. I mean And he led by example. He said, let's go. When he got drafted, they said he had the weakest arm in the world. He went out and every day would throw a thousand passes a day or something. Throwing through the tire. Throw it through the tire.
SPEAKER_00:Every day, you know. I think now, you know, with the amount of pressure on, especially young quarterbacks, you know, it's a lot. It's a lot for them to consume when they're learning the playbook and route trees and all things like, you know, timing. I mean, there's so many facets to the game, but they have to learn all at once.
SPEAKER_01:And what are we teaching them in college now? We're teaching them it's all about money. It's no longer about pride and team and history. It's about money.
SPEAKER_00:Tradition is out the window. Tradition is gone. There's no, you go play at Rocky Top and you sing Rocky Top. At the end of the day, win, lose, or draw, you're a volunteer. If you're, you know, if you're a buckeye, as much as I hate them, you know, it used to be your buckeye for life. Now, you know, they're rotate revolving door at quarterback. That's unheard of, especially in a place like that. And it happens, well, I'm not picking on those two colleges. Absolutely. It happens everywhere in every sport. We went from watching teams like Oregon be competitive because, or Boise State is probably a better example, because they brought young guys in and told them they were going to play right away, and they did. And that kind of started a whole new way of thinking in college football. Now we're we're looking at all this NIL where guys can come and go as they please through the portal, which I don't necessarily agree with, but like you said, it's made money the more important thing rather than, hey, I want to go to this school because they have that coach and their traditions are awesome. They can just go be today, I want to be a Wolverine, tomorrow I want to be a duck, and then when I graduate, I'm gonna be uh a volunteer, and then maybe I'll stick around my senior year and uh we'll go play in Florida and I'll get some sunshine.
SPEAKER_01:But now, now when the coach comes to them and says, I know you want to be a volunteer, I'm the coach of the volunteers, you know, please come and sign with us. They go, Well, how much? To be honest, Oklahoma's gonna give me this much. So, so are you guys gonna give me that much? Because I'll be a volunteer then, because I want to be a volunteer, right? But uh, you know, I may get hurt. And the mindset of and never play again. And I could really use that money.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and there's entitlement there. Like it used to be a generation of kids that would give their right arm to put on those school colors and go play. Now, no one no one thinks like that anymore. And and I think it's fair to say that Tom Brady falls under that ilk where he wanted to be a winner. He would give his right arm for a championship, and he puts, not only does he show up to practice, he puts the time in off the field. He just, like you said before, they want to win, they want to be the best. So their mindset is they believe they are, and nothing can stop them. Whereas today, they think they are, but do they really have what it takes to be the best? And they don't put the time in.
SPEAKER_01:So tonight we have a game, talk about it briefly, Kansas City and Jacksonville. I know you were just stayed.
SPEAKER_00:I could have done the podcast from the game.
SPEAKER_01:From the game, that would have been great. So, you know, tonight we find out if if Kansas City is as good as they were last week.
SPEAKER_00:So Kansas City has to come out swinging tonight. They cannot afford to get into a dog fight with Jacksonville, right? It's Jacksonville. At the end of the day, it's still Jacksonville. And I'm not dogging them because they're playing good football. The defense looks good. It seems like their quarterback is starting to finally progress to be where maybe we thought he could be. Jacksonville, again, same thing, right? I don't know that they can afford to be in a dog fight, but if it's a dog fight and they come out on top, man, that's they're so far ahead of where anybody thinks they really are.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_00:So I think, you know, what did we see? Was it last week? Who do we not expect to win? I forgot what game it was. Not the well, we can use the Packers as an example, going into Cleveland and and and you know, basically crap in the bed there. This is a little different in terms of where we think these teams are. Kansas City, the Baltimore game probably saved their season, and now they can build on that. So they're moving in the right direction. And Jacksonville, you know, it's a home game. It's a Monday night, you know, on national TV. You get to showcase everything. So, you know, they're gonna wanna they're gonna want to make a statement tonight. They they need to come out and punch Kansas City in the mouth right away.
SPEAKER_01:Right.
SPEAKER_00:Otherwise, they'll probably be backpedaling all night long. So I agree with you. Um and they've got a situation at running back they need to take care of, which I'm interested in watching tonight with uh Brashard White, is they're they're gonna give them more snaps tonight in the backfield because they're not happy with Pachenko or uh um is it not Kareem Hunt? Is it Kareem Hunt? So we'll see what happens there.
SPEAKER_01:We'll we'll see what happens, and we'll talk about next week's game at the end. Uh I have to move on to the Yankees.
SPEAKER_00:Let's do it.
SPEAKER_01:I'm gonna leave it to you. I I don't understand anything.
SPEAKER_00:So I, you know, it's I was I was blown away by Cam Schlittler's performance in game three against the Red Sox. I I did not expect the Yankees to win those first two games, or at least win one. I didn't think they were gonna win one. Thankfully, they had the home field advantage, because I think if they played in Boston, they probably wouldn't have got out of there alive. But Cam's Cam Schlitzer's performance in game three was inspiring to say the least. Historic, he just looked every bit of what you want to see from a young pitcher. That was the best pitching performance I've seen in a long time from anybody in pinstripes, except for maybe like going back to Andy Petty, or maybe I just need to go to CC Sabathia. But if that's who he really is, man, I'm okay with that. That's that's Superman level performance.
SPEAKER_01:Agreed.
SPEAKER_00:Um so and again, the Yankees didn't really hit. They really didn't. At least not to the tune of what you know their analytics people want us to believe they can do. Um and I'm not gonna I'm not gonna point fingers, I'm not even gonna say it. Okay. I don't want to mush anybody, I'm not gonna say it. But some people are hitting and some people aren't hitting. Guys have to step up and be who they are. And right now, they're down two in a five-game series. Monday night or tomorrow night's game is, you know, it's at home. I know the Blue Jays have an incredible record at home, and they're not as they're, I think they're only one game over or under 500 on the road. The Blue Jays can hit. They've shown that. And they're a well-managed team. They're not afraid of anybody. And this is what I talked about a few weeks ago when I said no one's afraid of the Yankees anymore. They're not afraid of the Yankees. They don't, they, they're just not. And you don't, you know, the Yankees are hackling Jekyll. Are they coming out with the torpedo bats and getting 17 hits, hitting six, seven, eight, nine home runs? Are they gonna pound you to death? And then, wow, look at that. They're back. And everybody hits, everybody gets on base. I I don't see it happening. I mean, I hope I'm gonna be there tomorrow night, so I hope so. But these first two games in Toronto, you know, the Yankees look like who we we thought they were all alone. This team on paper, they're a 90-win team. They don't look that good. 90 something, whatever how many wins they got. They're they're just not a good team. It's it's not hard to see it. It's just not a good baseball team. Analytics has destroyed the Yankees. Right down to all the decision. I mean, the other night, I know Gil gave up two home runs, but he yanked them in the fourth inning after he gave up a two-out single. He's let him he settled down, let him pitch. And all those decisions are coming from, you know, if it's a crapshoot like they said. The wind. Yeah. Yeah. So I don't, I don't, I don't feel very comfortable with how the team, and we've talked about it. I don't like the way they're run, I don't like how they operate. I I disdain the utter disdain for analytics, especially when you're the Yankees. Spend money, and you don't have to spend a lot. You just have to not use analytics to tell you that, oh, this guy has a spin rate. I don't want to hear that. If they had, you know, if the Queen had balls, she'd be king. But if they had gotten Verlander instead of Sonny Gray, you know, it would be a different look. And they don't do that. They never used to not do that, right? They go out and get a guy. Does he pass the eyeball test? Can he hit? Can he pitch? Does he does he play defense? Go get him. Whereas now, well, we got a guy who does well after the seventh inning when it's about 47 degrees and it's a waning moon. I can't like that's not baseball anymore. It's just not.
SPEAKER_01:You know the r you know the rumor.
SPEAKER_00:That Boone's getting fired? Or that they're giving him an extension.
SPEAKER_01:That uh they're gonna sell a small percentage of the team to Derek Jeter.
SPEAKER_00:So we had spoken about that a couple years ago, Dom and I, um, that there's the preparing to sell the team to Jeff Bezos. But I never heard the the the Jeter rumor.
SPEAKER_01:So that's that's a new one. Is that the latest? Wall percentage,$250 million. What could that be? Uh a percent?
SPEAKER_00:That's A-rod's first contract. So yeah, what do you get? You get to coach first base for that.
SPEAKER_01:Well, maybe, but maybe that spreads a little that that Derek Jeter magic um onto it. Maybe that allows him to uh listen, he did such a great job in Florida, got fleeced down there. He financially fleeced.
SPEAKER_00:Well, he his his account of what happened was he was trying to basically sell all the assets of this team so that they could rebuild the way he wanted the team built. I don't know that that was the wrong idea, but yeah, they got fleeced for sure. And I don't think it was him that gave Giancarlo that huge contract to begin with, 13 years or whatever it was, 14, 13 or 14-year contract. So from that perspective, you know, I would trust Derek Jeter to do the right thing by the Yankees if he was gonna be involved in operations day to day or what have you, and identifying and seeing talent. And, you know, is it gonna happen? I don't know. Uh, you know, if he comes in and shuts down the analytics or takes some control away from them, I'd be very happy. Maybe that gets us back to real baseball, and we're not just diving into the analytics book trying to build a lineup every day.
SPEAKER_01:But what our complaints are always there there aren't any real baseball people running these teams. And if you're buying Derek, you're giving Derek Jeter a percentage of the team at a good price, he's a baseball man. He understands how it works, he understands what it takes to win, he understands players, he understands everything. And people fifty million dollars doesn't seem like a lot of money for a base for a$7 billion baseball team?
SPEAKER_00:Right. I mean, you know, maybe it's one of those things where the return on investment is that they're gonna get more people interested that have been walking away from the game because it's just hard to watch. I don't know.
SPEAKER_01:What do you think the team's worth? Six billion?
SPEAKER_00:The last I heard was well over that. I I and that was when we thought Bezos was gonna buy the team. The Yankees were gonna sell them the team for like$10 billion.
SPEAKER_01:Um that include the radio station, right?
SPEAKER_00:They're they're worth every bit of six or seven billion dollars.
SPEAKER_01:All right, so let's say seven. So if you divide seven billion.
SPEAKER_00:Insane money. Man, that is insane money.
SPEAKER_01:That's million. Seven billion, is that right? Divided by two hundred and fifty million equals twenty-eight. What does that mean?
SPEAKER_00:Fraction.
SPEAKER_01:Did I do it the wrong way?
SPEAKER_00:Sounds like you did it the wrong way. It's a quarter of seven. Right? It's quarter. 25 million.
SPEAKER_01:I was a physics major. Just think the space rockets would be smell smashing into the planet as we speak.
SPEAKER_00:It's a quarter of a billion dollars times or divided by seven.
SPEAKER_01:Seven hundred million, seven billion equals three percent of the team. Three and a half. If the b uh that's what you know. Right. Listen, if the team, think about it, if the team makes how much a year? Hundred million? 200 million? How much do you think it makes?
SPEAKER_00:Yankees?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, a year. 500 million?
SPEAKER_00:I mean, what's their their payroll?
SPEAKER_01:Their payroll's over 200 million. Yeah, so let whoops. So let's say what's the return on if they make 500 million Is that public information, or we'd is that not disclosed to the public? Not disclosed.
SPEAKER_00:Which means them and everybody else are probably washing money for somebody else.
SPEAKER_01:Divided by I'm sorry, m bu times 0.035 means that he would make$17.5 million a year on his investment. If they make$500 million.
SPEAKER_00:Well, I don't see where the return is.
SPEAKER_01:The return is that the$250 million is gonna be worth a billion. A billion when it's done. When it's done, that's right. That's the return, the investment. A lot of people don't make, you know, they make but it's gotta be more than that, to be honest. It's gotta be more than$500 million.
SPEAKER_00:But I wonder if they factor in selling his jersey.
SPEAKER_01:So who's gonna win? It's an interesting. I mean it's serious.
SPEAKER_00:Um that's a good question. I think I think uh it's gonna come down to whoever wins the National League. I'd like it to be the Phillies because I hate the Dodgers. I'm a 70s kid, and even though I'm a New Yorker, I don't hate the Phillies as much as I hate the Dodgers. Um and I didn't even grow up in in the 50s or 60s when they were the Brooklyn Dodgers. So I hate them from the time of the sorted days. I I think the Phillies are for real. Phillies aren't afraid to play anybody, but the Dodgers are just, I mean, they're just incredibly loaded. Watching them play baseball is just it's like it's gross sometimes. Everybody hits. When they don't hit, it falls in. When they pitch great, if they don't pitch well, they get a thousand home runs. They can beat you all kinds of ways. But I I don't think the American League is very good. Um and I I just I just think the Phillies or the Dodgers are probably the cream of the crop.
SPEAKER_01:I think it'll be the Dodgers if you really want to know, but we'll see.
SPEAKER_00:I think I think my my heart doesn't want to admit that, but yeah, or my brain.
SPEAKER_01:And I promise everyone I won't use a calculator ever again. Before we get to the NFL games for next week, I guess we'll just give a little F1. If anyone watched F1 from Singapore this week, I mean Singapore is one of those places that I always wanted to travel to. They have this really cool, and you saw it uh if you watched the broadcast, really some really cool um hotels there. One that's three towers with uh a swimming pool that goes across the three towers on the roof and where you could sit, and you could have sat in the pool and watched the race because the race is through town. There's actually a little bridge that goes over the water as well.
SPEAKER_00:That is pretty cool. I mean, that's one cars racing through your neighborhood.
SPEAKER_01:So, and it was Sunday night there. You know, the winner this week was George Russell, who was a Mercedes guy. The Mercedes cars seemed to have it together this week. Uh, maybe that's a newer thing. The Red Bull car, Max Verstappen definitely had some issues with his car, yet he still came in second, and there's still this fight for the world championship between Norris, Oscar Pelaschi, and and Max Verstappen from Red Bull. So you have the McLaren. The McLaren won the their team won won their award because they're so far ahead, it doesn't even make it to the end of the race that nobody at the end of the races nobody can catch them. And it's very well deserved, even though the CEO or owner just sold the, I don't think it's the entire team, but a chunk. Amazing. To give you an idea what they spend on these on these races there. It's incredible. Yeah, it's incredible. Absolutely incredible. And they do a great job showing every driver's supermodel girlfriend who's standing bored out of their mind in the in you know in the race. They're always standing there with the headphones on. They always look like they want to kill themselves because they rather be shopping, but that's yeah.
SPEAKER_00:They're just there for moral support.
SPEAKER_01:Mortal support, but I I think it's you know part of part of the allure is is they get this they get this this moment in the sun where they're.
SPEAKER_00:They get to showcase their pretty smile and make some more Instagram followers.
SPEAKER_01:And they all look the same. Every one of them are skinny, tall, beautiful.
SPEAKER_00:So I don't I don't particularly tune in. However, I've been noticing more and more in the bars when I'm out and all the football and baseball games are on. Someone always asks now for F1. Which I find because it's the race is always on everywhere I go if there's TVs. So at least one TV's got the race on. Someone always looked, he's looking to watch the races when it's on. Even when it's like a replay.
SPEAKER_01:It's on early, which is astounding to me. So it was on eight o'clock and Sunday morning, which is good for me.
SPEAKER_00:Doing football. There was football Sunday morning.
SPEAKER_01:And then the qualify qualifying comes the day before on Saturday. I watch all that. I enjoy it. Uh Ferrari's still all messed up, and they're not going to become unmessed up. My favorite line is one of the news people saw Lewis Hamilton on the way to the race in a Ferrari being driven by a chauffeur or whatever, someone. And he had his window down and he broke over the microphone. What is it going to take Ferrari to win the race this this week? And he looked at him and said, a miracle. Wow. So uh that's how bad their cars are. They're nothing ever right for him with the car. They're really in a disarray. It's not a match made in heaven. Whether you regret say they're not.
SPEAKER_00:They need a change at the top.
SPEAKER_01:Well, they're all new car sticks here. They changed the cars completely. They're smaller, maybe faster, more electronic, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So there's more wheel-to-wheel racing and other stuff that remains to be seen. They change the cars a lot. So that's one of those things. But I think you'll see a push in bars around America because this is the first time we're going to have an American team next year. Cadillac is coming into the full and they're going to be racing their cars, which I believe is going to happen.
SPEAKER_00:I hope they don't get embarrassed.
SPEAKER_01:Their engines. Well, they can't be more embarrassed than some of the other teams, like Williams, who were disqualified for qualification, had a race 2019. There is some really good rumors that Audi is going to buy one of the teams and turn it into an Audi team. But we'll see.
SPEAKER_00:Wow. How many teams are there in terms of the city?
SPEAKER_01:Well, there's 10.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:So there's tw each team has two racers, so there's got to be 10 teams. But I'm sorry. But Red Bull has two teams. And it's because it's split up with two big sponsors, Red Bull being one of them. And it's like an A team and a B team. But last week, not this week that just came by, but the week before, the B team came in third when the Red Bulls didn't come before him. So that was an unusual event, and I'm sure it was a driver used to race for Renault who doesn't have a team anymore.
SPEAKER_00:So it sounds like it's Mercedes and then everybody else.
SPEAKER_01:Well, that's not really true. It's really McLaren and everybody else.
SPEAKER_00:McLaren, sorry.
SPEAKER_01:But they haven't really been uh this week, they weren't their usual selves for whatever reason.
SPEAKER_00:They had to keep it interesting. They had to sell more TV time.
SPEAKER_01:Because the two drivers, Oscar Piestri and Lendo Norris, um are fighting for the world championship along with another driver, Max. Two drivers from the same team. Same team, and they went at it where they bumped each other in the beginning, and this isn't the first time. Oh wow.
SPEAKER_00:And there's so they're more rivalry than than they are teammates.
SPEAKER_01:You know, you know what it is? I mean, you want competitive people. Winners want to win, man. Winners want to win. You want them to be compatible? You gotta do. So that's gonna play out this year.
SPEAKER_00:Maybe one of them can play quarterback in New York.
SPEAKER_01:I think they'll have another collision together before the end of the year because they they race right on each other's tail and pass in bad spots and you know get mad and get in aggravation fights and all this stuff.
SPEAKER_00:But they probably know each other inside and out.
SPEAKER_01:Well, it's funny because most of the drivers know each other from when they were children because they begin racing like go-karts and all the same people competed.
SPEAKER_00:It's amazing.
SPEAKER_01:And it goes up the chain. F3, F2, F1, you know, it it it really is. And a lot of these guys know each other since they're 14 years old. So all right, enough of F1, enough of baseball. We can't do anything. They're just gonna suck it up. So let's try to talk a little bit, if you don't mind, for just a couple of minutes about next week. Next week football, what do we got? We got Dallas and Carolina.
SPEAKER_00:Dallas at Carolina? Yeah. Yeah, that's probably it. Today they were talking about Dak Prescott leading uh the NFL right now for MVP votes. And I I'm I'm like, is have I not watched enough football to know that he's not an MVP? I mean, I know he's had some good considering his best wide receivers, but they just played the Jets. We're gonna make this guy the MVP of the league. Come on. They say I I heard it too.
SPEAKER_01:I heard it on Get Up this morning. I'm not ready to annoy Tim MVP of anything. How about you got the you got the Los Angeles Rams and the Baltimore Ravens, and the Ravens are plus seven and a half.
SPEAKER_00:So we would expect that at this point, based on what we've seen just from the Ravens, regardless of who they're playing. But the Rams, you know, they seem to be unable to finish. Plus seven and a half at home. At home. That's a lot of points. That's a lot of points. I mean, I I would still I mean, and Lamaris hurt, Cooper Rush played. I think that line's gonna go up.
SPEAKER_01:I do too. Wow. And so New England and New Orleans.
SPEAKER_00:So New Orleans is not is not a good football team, but they're not as bad as maybe we think they are. Of course, they look like world beaters against the Giants.
SPEAKER_01:Plus three and a half at home.
SPEAKER_00:Who's the opponent again?
SPEAKER_01:New England.
SPEAKER_00:So that's you know, if New England is on the path that we think they're on, using Buffalo as a stepping stone, they've got to win that game. There's no excuse for them. New Orleans is is a hostile environment, but they're not a good football team.
SPEAKER_01:I would take that. I would I think I would bet New England next week. Seattle and Jacksonville.
SPEAKER_00:Pending the outcome tonight's game. I mean, I'd probably take Seattle because Jacksonville's playing the Monday night game. But uh Seattle's coming on. Seattle is Seattle in control of that division right now? I think they are.
SPEAKER_01:I think they are too. And if she was I don't have that right in front of me. Tennessee, Las Vegas. Las Vegas are minus four and a half at home.
SPEAKER_00:I'm taking I'm taking Tennessee, the way Gino played. Then again, that could be Vegas, so maybe it's a trap. But I think Tennessee will get better every week.
SPEAKER_01:Maybe it's a trap. Cincinnati, Green Bay at Green Bay, minus 14 and a half.
SPEAKER_00:Way too many points.
SPEAKER_01:It's hard. Way too many points.
SPEAKER_00:Too many points. I'll take the points.
SPEAKER_01:I wouldn't take the points.
SPEAKER_00:14 points, a lot of points in the NFL.
SPEAKER_01:I would stay away from that game.
SPEAKER_00:They still got Jamar Chase, don't they?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. There'll be some garbage time, and maybe they they stay within the 14 points. That's just way too many points for an NFL game. And even though they're home, the team that lost to Cleveland.
SPEAKER_01:Wow. San Francisco Green Bay. That's a long San Francisco Tampa Bay.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_01:Minus three interesting game. Minus three in Tampa Bay.
SPEAKER_00:So the you know, San Francisco coming off a huge win, beating the Rams in a game that I don't think anybody thought they had a chance with all their offensive weapons out and the quarterback. So again, it's a you know, case in point, right? A general manager who knows how to draft, has depth, and a coach that keeps his players inspired, and a team that has rallied around itself despite all their losses. Whereas if you look at the Ravens, they can't get out of their own way.
SPEAKER_01:All right, so take a breath. Thursday night. Philadelphia New York Giants.
SPEAKER_00:That's a Thursday night game.
SPEAKER_01:At the Giants plus seven and a half.
SPEAKER_00:Thursday nights are gross. That's that's I I don't see. If the Eagles can get over themselves, they're gonna run away with that game. It's exactly what they need to write the ship at this point. And the Giants, you know, I don't want to say there's no hope, but their offense is a battering ram and and a quarterback with no weapons virtually. The tight ends, it's his biggest weapon. So I think the Eagles are gonna probably lay a hammer on these guys. If it was if it was on Sunday, I'd definitely take the Eagles, but these Thursday night games are so ridiculously gross. The NFL forcing it down our throats. They have to make a change.
SPEAKER_01:Speaking about forcing our down our throats, how about London, 9.30 in the morning, Denver, and New York Giant, Jets. Jets. So then here's Woody again, gonna lose his.
SPEAKER_00:Denver always has their number. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:All right, and we have Arizona, Indiana, at Indiana, Indianapolis, minus six and a half. I think I think they're gonna destroy them, other than that you think they're kind of due to lose.
SPEAKER_00:Indianapolis?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. They've been so lucky. Well I mean not a lot of luck, but I mean, nobody wins them all.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, no, I know what you mean. I mean, they're coming off a huge 40-point win this weekend. So, you know, uh on paper, it looks like they'll roll. Could be a trap game, but they don't they don't seem like they're playing like a team that is susceptible to something like that because they're still trying to find their way and they're growing every week and getting better. And they seem to be playing as a unit. Their run game is good. Obviously, the quarterback's been playing well, their defense seems to be getting better every week.
SPEAKER_01:So all right, you're gonna love the I don't have a lot of faith in Arizona, but coming off a bye week, Pittsburgh and Cleveland in Pittsburgh, minus five and a half. I think Pittsburgh's gonna destroy them coming off a bye week.
SPEAKER_00:I would agree with that. As good as the Cleveland defense is, I think they're you know, Pittsburgh is is poised for for greatness this year. So they can pull over. I mean, it's there's not a lot of competition.
SPEAKER_01:I got a coup a couple other good ones you're gonna love. Detroit and Kansas City, in Kansas City, minus one and a half. I mean, we have to see who they are tonight.
SPEAKER_00:Minus one and a half to pick them. Detroit. I I mean, I'm taking Detroit. I nothing is you know, again, it's one of those games where it's like, is Kansas City Kansas City? Uh can they ride the ship? I mean, if they can, they can. If they you know, Mahomes played great last week, but Detroit is is you know, I mean, they're loaded. They're just so loaded. But playing not in that dome, you know, on grass in Kansas City, hostile environment, you know, if things start not going your way, but I'll I'll take Detroit.
SPEAKER_01:Buffalo and Atlanta in Atlanta plus three and a half.
SPEAKER_00:I'm taking the Bills.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Chicago and Washington in Washington minus four and a half.
SPEAKER_00:That game could be a shootout.
SPEAKER_01:Maybe.
SPEAKER_00:But I'll take I'll take Washington because I think they're the the Chicago defense is uh a little porous, to say the least. Porous?
SPEAKER_01:Well, I think that about covers this, unless there's something else you want to talk about before we end it.
SPEAKER_00:I just hope the Yankees can figure out a way to stay in this series. Hopefully, when I'm there tomorrow night, it'll bring them some luck and we'll get uh an all-out performance from everyone before they they make their exodus, and we'll be talking hopefully about them again next week. Or we'll be talking about what changes need to be made in their offseason, which we probably won't see.
SPEAKER_01:And we'll leave it right there. Thanks a lot. Justin? Thank you, Steve, for having me once again. And uh incredible pleasure to come on every week. Uh next week we'll be talking about all the things we're wrong about once again. Keep the receipts. Oh, hopefully, we're we're wrong about the Yankees.
SPEAKER_00:Let's pray. Have a good one. I'll see you in a bit.