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Speaker 1: As we usually do on a Sunday night, you hear
Speaker 1: it Monday or maybe Sunday night. Former NFL scout three
Speaker 1: and ounced the podcast and we chat it up for
Speaker 1: about fifty five minutes to an hour. Let's start with
Speaker 1: Caitlin Clark. I watched it on a plane. Generally, the
Speaker 1: great team beats the great player. I think Ukon is
Speaker 1: going to beat Zach Edy. I think, I mean South
Speaker 1: Carolina's one point had thirty points. Ioways had none, So
Speaker 1: the better team. I frankly I thought Yukon women were
Speaker 1: better than Iowa. I thought the last two games, Caitlyn
Speaker 1: Clark just kept him close. I've heard Trey Young. She's
Speaker 1: a better passer than Trey Young. Yeah, I mean it's
Speaker 1: if at this point, even Lebron came on X and said, listen,
Speaker 1: if you don't like your game, stay away from those people.
Speaker 1: Those people are crazy people. Between the continuity and chemistry
Speaker 1: of women's basketball, because they're all coming back juniors and seniors,
Speaker 1: the quality of basketball is really good. I mean, but
Speaker 1: the product's good when I watch it.
Speaker 3: I thought these last two games, and listen beside a
Speaker 3: couple of times last year, it's not like I've been
Speaker 3: glued to Caitlyn Clark's season. I was riveted. I mean
Speaker 3: that yukon Game one because you think she's gonna lose. Yeah,
Speaker 3: clearly you're playing geno in all time program, and she
Speaker 3: willed her team to win. Colin I was tempted at
Speaker 3: they were a big underdog. I almost gamble on women's
Speaker 3: college basketball game and it wasn't going to be a
Speaker 3: small amount, but I got obviously South Carolina had lost,
Speaker 3: and you knew earlier, Like God, this South Carolina team
Speaker 3: is loaded with athletes. They had five new starters from
Speaker 3: last year. It's like the Alabama of college basketball right now.
Speaker 3: But she is what I don't understand, and I get it,
Speaker 3: Like I defend the guys in the NBA from the
Speaker 3: eighties and nineties who could be negative towards the newer
Speaker 3: guys that they're not talking about Steph Curry and Giannis.
Speaker 3: They're talking about the percentage of guys making these two
Speaker 3: hundred million dollar contracts that should not be making that
Speaker 3: I'd be bitter too if I was them. You saw
Speaker 3: a lot of former women's stars come out. It's like, guys,
Speaker 3: this is I'm going to pay attention to what she
Speaker 3: does in the WNBA now claiming I'm going to get
Speaker 3: the WNBA package here. But she's the first player to
Speaker 3: get me to pay attention. Obviously, college basketball, women's or
Speaker 3: men's that their brand, IOWA brand is infinitely bigger than
Speaker 3: the WNBA as a whole, right, So it's not it's
Speaker 3: hard to compare, but she clearly has transcended it at all.
Speaker 3: And to just we don't feel and see this that often, well, right,
Speaker 3: it happens every so often, and especially in a sport
Speaker 3: like women's college bat it is cool.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, Cheryl Miller got twelve million viewers back
Speaker 1: in eighty three. I went and looked it up on YouTube.
Speaker 1: The women's game is much better, but it is a phenomena,
Speaker 1: and phenomenons don't grow to the sky like the numbers
Speaker 1: will come back down to earth. The games that get
Speaker 1: ratings are ones with Caitlin and the game following one
Speaker 1: with Caitlin, which retains about you know, about sixty.
Speaker 3: Fifteen million people are watching these women's college basketball games.
Speaker 3: I mean that's an incredible ACCOMPLI yeah, and the quality
Speaker 3: is just better.
Speaker 1: But I think Cheryl Miller. I can remember being fascinated
Speaker 1: with Cheryl Miller. Nancy Lieberman was great, but I don't
Speaker 1: know if I was. I wasn't fascinated by her. She
Speaker 1: was just great. But I think Caitlyn's got the magic dust,
Speaker 1: and I don't think you get it very often. I
Speaker 1: think Michael had it. I think Tiger had it. Tiger
Speaker 1: changed my viewing habits on Sunday. The Sopranos and Tiger
Speaker 1: would change my viewing habits. I mean, oh, Tani, I'll
Speaker 1: tell you a guy that had it. I don't know
Speaker 1: how long he had it, but when jose Canseco all
Speaker 1: the steroid rumors came into Major League Baseball. I can
Speaker 1: remember getting off a plane in San Diego, going down
Speaker 1: to the luggage carousel, go down the escalator and everybody's
Speaker 1: gathered around the bar and I'm like, what I mean,
Speaker 1: like more five deep at an airport luggage. Jose Canseco
Speaker 1: was at the plate, and I can remember going to
Speaker 1: a Mariner's game. I got great seats like a one, two, three, four,
Speaker 1: and the A's were in town. Mariner games didn't sell
Speaker 1: out back then. There were fifty thousand people in the
Speaker 1: Ugly Kingdom. So there are for various reasons, some people
Speaker 1: are controversial Connor McGregor, Jose Canseco, but I think she
Speaker 1: falls under its magical. It just doesn't look I mean,
Speaker 1: she did a she missed a shot today, but she
Speaker 1: took a step back. I'm like, that's a twenty eight
Speaker 1: foot shot. That's that's Steph and only Steph's range.
Speaker 3: Well, I think when Steph did that at Dave and
Speaker 3: it was unlike anything we'd ever seen. And obviously he
Speaker 3: went on to become I don't know, a top ten
Speaker 3: player of all time, but it was clear like I've
Speaker 3: never quite seen anything like this, and maybe this has
Speaker 3: happened in women's college basketball to some form or fashion before,
Speaker 3: but people weren't watching. That's not being mean or anything.
Speaker 3: That's just a fact. Yeah, And for whatever reason, this
Speaker 3: girl got people. And I mean, my mom, I'm driving
Speaker 3: around today. I see random people walking around with Iowa
Speaker 3: T shirts all over Scottsdale.
Speaker 1: It is done.
Speaker 3: It's a powerful thing. I don't know what else to say.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I was flying back from Chicago. So the game started,
Speaker 1: and then at halftime, that was about the time that
Speaker 1: I could board the flight. But I was sitting there
Speaker 1: in the lounge and I looked over and every single
Speaker 1: person was on their phone watching, and I went to
Speaker 1: grab something to eat and I just kind of looked
Speaker 1: at everybody.
Speaker 3: Everybody.
Speaker 1: You don't see that in the NBA playoffs. You see
Speaker 1: it in the NFL, where I can literally drive down
Speaker 1: the street in Los Angeles and if I could see
Speaker 1: inside houses on a Sunday night or a Saturday night.
Speaker 1: With the NFL playoffs, everybody's watching, like every television in
Speaker 1: LA sometimes a dispassionate football town. Everybody's watching. Everybody in
Speaker 1: the lounge. I was in two man to Women young old.
Speaker 1: So if it got twenty four million people, I would
Speaker 1: not be shocked.
Speaker 3: I think there's something that resonates with people. I mean,
Speaker 3: Tiger's a good example. When Phil Knight was following his
Speaker 3: career in high school, right, I mean, Peyton Manning could
Speaker 3: have gone wherever he wanted in high school. Steph Curry, remember,
Speaker 3: couldn't even get recruited to his dad's alma Modern Virginia Tech.
Speaker 3: Now Caden Clark, I think was a different level high
Speaker 3: school project. But like Gino, wouldn't call her back. Yeah, so,
Speaker 3: I mean clearly she feels like one of the great
Speaker 3: girls that would have been at Yukon, that would have
Speaker 3: been at Tennessee under Pat Summit or at South Carolina,
Speaker 3: but she ended up at Iowa. With I don't have
Speaker 3: the scouting report on all the top colleges, it doesn't
Speaker 3: quite feel like their squad is as good as some
Speaker 3: of these other squads from a talent standpoint, definitely from
Speaker 3: a side standpoint. So what she did is just something
Speaker 3: that we will know however her career goes on from here,
Speaker 3: it'll be something that no one will ever forget, which
Speaker 3: is cool. Like that what sports it about having some fun?
Speaker 1: Well?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 1: It's what boxing needs. You know, boxing's been dying, Allie Tyson.
Speaker 1: They just don't have anybody. And you know, the great,
Speaker 1: the great male athletes aren't going into boxing. If they
Speaker 1: want to fight, they go UFC. Sure, but it's just
Speaker 1: you don't get these stories very often you get them.
Speaker 1: I mean, I just I can count, you know, two
Speaker 1: hands in my lifetime. I mean, as good as Phil
Speaker 1: Micholson is and he drives me to a TV. But
Speaker 1: I'm a sportscaster. Tiger was different. I always said, my mom,
Speaker 1: my late mother, didn't know sports. She was from Great Britain.
Speaker 1: She had no idea who Derek Jeter was. She knew
Speaker 1: who a Rod was. That's a superstar. Sports fans, you know,
Speaker 1: they know who Josh Allen is. My mom knew who
Speaker 1: Brett Farv was, or Peyton Manning was, or Tom Brady was.
Speaker 1: There's a big difference between There's a lot of good
Speaker 1: basket Sue Byrd. I mean, there's been like dominant players before.
Speaker 1: It's like, yeah, Caitlyn Clark's different. That's a comment. That's
Speaker 1: a whole different ball game. So it's one thing to
Speaker 1: see Caitlin Clark and women's basketball driving numbers. It's another
Speaker 1: when the men are getting pretty good numbers and they're
Speaker 1: not getting like Caitlin Clark numbers, but the march madness
Speaker 1: for the men, you're not getting the continuity or the chemistry.
Speaker 1: Zach Eaty was not changing channels last year. Yukon is
Speaker 1: the most anonymous great program in the country's history. They've
Speaker 1: had multiple coaches Kevin A Lee, Jim Calhoun, Dan Hurley.
Speaker 1: They don't have one coach k And I was thinking
Speaker 1: about this. I've gone back and forth on I understand
Speaker 1: the Caitlyn Clark number, but the college basketball number is
Speaker 1: maintaining its strength this year. And and I've thought, well,
Speaker 1: we have legalized gambling in more and more states. That's something.
Speaker 1: There's more and more people gambling on these games. It's
Speaker 1: not a quality argument. Women's is a quality and icon argument.
Speaker 1: Caitlyn's an icon. The quality is better. Men's college basketball
Speaker 1: quality is not very good. And there's no Zachy. He's
Speaker 1: a seven foot four guy. They're not gonna sell shoes
Speaker 1: like Caitlyn Clark and I And a lot of it is,
Speaker 1: I think, is that we like basketball in this country.
Speaker 1: We like Olympic basketball, we like women's Now we've always
Speaker 1: you know, magic, Steph Michael. There's been iconic players, and
Speaker 1: we always like Men's March madness. But I do think
Speaker 1: for a variety of reasons, the NBA feels like it's
Speaker 1: just not it. There's not a you know a lot
Speaker 1: of these stars Yo kich Yannis, they're not real andmbraceable.
Speaker 1: They're just gifted. They're just fantastic players. And you know, Lebron,
Speaker 1: there's a Lebron fatigue, John. I mean, let's be honest,
Speaker 1: we've watched it. We've been in the league twenty one years. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a Lebron fatigue. And I love Lebron. Also, STEP's
Speaker 1: on an average team. I mean they're slightly better than
Speaker 1: average and New York. I watched them Friday night in Chicago.
Speaker 1: They're going nowhere. So I think it'd be one thing
Speaker 1: if there were these riveting, compelling NBA stories. Kevin Garnett,
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant's great, but he's never been somebody like we
Speaker 1: get up and cheer for. He's a wanderer, he's sort
Speaker 1: of a his own cat. He's a different dude. And
Speaker 1: I think, to myself, do we want basketball like we
Speaker 1: love football so much now that we need a little
Speaker 1: break and the NFL Draft will come pouring in. The
Speaker 1: country is looking for basketball, and I'm an NBA fan,
Speaker 1: but it just feels like it's that Spurs dynasty where
Speaker 1: it's like I'm not in love with anybody.
Speaker 3: I think this gets back to the way society is
Speaker 3: in twenty four are options and the women's tournament felt
Speaker 3: really big. It did. I mean these last her the
Speaker 3: last three games, than the Elite eight, to the Final
Speaker 3: four to the championship game. You just couldn't miss. If
Speaker 3: you like sports, march madness does and continue. It is
Speaker 3: a big event, right, We're gonna see the Masters this weekend,
Speaker 3: even with the split of golf, like people are gonna
Speaker 3: pay attention. Why it's a big event. And I think
Speaker 3: the NBA two things won. The brands like Yogic is
Speaker 3: and all, he's one of the greatest players I've ever seen.
Speaker 3: The Nuggets, no one has, you say, the Nuggets, no
Speaker 3: one cares. Yeah, okay, the Clippers, okay, see that, These brands. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it's just that's where the Warriors and Lakers, you know,
Speaker 3: I mean, the Warriors is gonna be the ten seed.
Speaker 3: They easily could be won and done. The Lakers actually
Speaker 3: probably should win a game and be a factor that'll
Speaker 3: be big for the NBA. And like you said, I
Speaker 3: mean the Knicks now with Julius Randall being injured, they're
Speaker 3: not going anywhere. The Celtics could just run through the East.
Speaker 3: I do think it just doesn't feel that big. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I kind of just pay attention to the Dodgers because
Speaker 3: I just know they're big and important. Like what's Otani
Speaker 3: Mookie Bett's doing today? Yep. And I've kind of changed
Speaker 3: the way, like I watched less and less NBA basketball, definitely,
Speaker 3: and I just focus on big things, right, and I
Speaker 3: just pay attention to things that matter. I'm not a
Speaker 3: huge UFC guy, but like with Connor McGregor his next fight,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna buy it. I'm gonna watch it because I
Speaker 3: feel like I Jake Paul, Mike Tyson, I'm not gonna
Speaker 3: miss it, and neither are most people in my life. Well,
Speaker 3: but a lot of people aren't gonna watch the first
Speaker 3: round of the NBA. I prompt you that. Yeah.
Speaker 1: In college football this year, ratings Michigan and Harbaugh felt huge.
Speaker 1: There was a mass Sama fatigue, Georgia fatigue. Harball was controversial.
Speaker 1: Their numbers were unbelievable.
Speaker 3: He got suspended twice in the season, twice beginning an end.
Speaker 1: If you look at what's happened to society since the
Speaker 1: iPhone came around, we are so distracted regular seasons in hockey, baseball,
Speaker 1: in the NBA, if you don't have a star, people
Speaker 1: aren't interested. They just move on to other shit. My
Speaker 1: wife's on TikTok for an hour every morning. I'm sitting there.
Speaker 1: You'll go to see it. She'll play wordle, she'll go
Speaker 1: seenn and then she's on TikTok for forty five minutes
Speaker 1: having a coffee, and I'm you know, I'm going through
Speaker 1: sports stuff. And it's just like I think, in a
Speaker 1: distracted market, Otani feels big. A UFC three hundred doesn't
Speaker 1: have a superstar, but it's got twelve champions or former champions.
Speaker 1: It'll get talked about this weekend. Caitlyn Thart felt big,
Speaker 1: and I think to your point, Zach Edie and Purdue
Speaker 1: is a Big ten team in the final. That feels big.
Speaker 1: The Big ten has always been a ratings monster when
Speaker 1: they get a great team.
Speaker 3: I think the Brands. I was texting with a buddy
Speaker 3: who played golf at Oregon who now works in the
Speaker 3: golf industry, and he's just like, can't wait for the
Speaker 3: schedule to come out. I mean the games that are
Speaker 3: going to be played in football, and that only benefits
Speaker 3: I'll never forget Calipari. I was watching an interview. He's like,
Speaker 3: I'm the Wildcat's biggest football fan. The better they do,
Speaker 3: the more money for us. I'm not an idiot. We
Speaker 3: may be a basketball school, but I want the football
Speaker 3: program to be good. Stoops, wins. We all all make money,
Speaker 3: we all benefit. And I think the explosion of college
Speaker 3: football and just football in general has benefited the brands
Speaker 3: in college basketball because the casual fan I would fall
Speaker 3: under that, and I'm a high end sports fan. I
Speaker 3: don't know these players in men's college basketball, and I've
Speaker 3: been watching men's college basketball for thirty years, but I
Speaker 3: know all the schools, and the schools drop me. And
Speaker 3: that's why it was pretty easy to watch the women's tournament.
Speaker 3: Like I knew Kaitlyn Cakark, didn't know anyone else, but
Speaker 3: I know South Carolina. I can name fifteen NFL guys.
Speaker 3: You know Steve Spurrier. I feel I recognize the brand.
Speaker 3: That's the one thing in the NBA, Like, I care
Speaker 3: nothing about the Clippers. They do nothing for me. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean they just and their players don't really doesn't,
Speaker 3: you know. Just that's one thing the NBA really battles
Speaker 3: is the brands, and I do think just it's turned
Speaker 3: a lot of people off over the last couple of
Speaker 3: years with the effort.
Speaker 1: Oh the load management stuff is horseshit. I hate it.
Speaker 3: It's one of the worst business decisions. David Stern would
Speaker 3: never you talk shit about them all you want. That's
Speaker 3: that's something that never would have loan because it hurt
Speaker 3: the it hurt your consumer, and you're only as strong.
Speaker 3: And the reason we talk about these ratings, I mean,
Speaker 3: that's where all the money comes from. That's the health
Speaker 3: of the business. Right Well.
Speaker 1: I watched Friday Night Bulls Nicks. If Julius Randall, who's
Speaker 1: a B level player, is in that game, it feels bigger.
Speaker 1: It didn't feel as big. It was Jalen Brunson and
Speaker 1: a bunch of guys, and then it was Demartyrosen and
Speaker 1: kind of a bunch of guys. If Julius Randold, just
Speaker 1: one more guy was on the floor, the game would
Speaker 1: have felt bigger. Nicks would have probably been able to
Speaker 1: win the game. So yeah, it's and I also feel
Speaker 1: the NBA. It's interesting. So the NFL media is critical
Speaker 1: of the NFL. College football media is critical. Baseball media
Speaker 1: can be harsh. The NBA is different. There's about six
Speaker 1: players that matter, two three agents that matter. It's a
Speaker 1: lot of cushy, soft reporting. And so instead of banging
Speaker 1: on these guys for load management, we'd bang on celebrate.
Speaker 3: It was celebrated a lot of it, a lot of it.
Speaker 1: And now data has come out said, guys, it doesn't
Speaker 1: make healthier. It doesn't. There's no data that says you're
Speaker 1: being healthy. So I think what has happened is load
Speaker 1: management ticks off fans. But the media has to protect
Speaker 1: their sourcing on the NBA because in the NBA, it's
Speaker 1: one thing. In baseball, if you cover baseball, you get
Speaker 1: around the batting cage. There's no team or you just
Speaker 1: you don't need any one team or player. Same in
Speaker 1: the NFL unless you're like the Chiefs beat Ryder Mahomes.
Speaker 1: But in basketball you need Lebron and Rich Paul and
Speaker 1: his seven clients. And if you start ticking.
Speaker 3: Them off, you may not get them they cut you off.
Speaker 1: They cut you off, and so I look at load management.
Speaker 1: I'm like, it's really and I and again, a lot
Speaker 1: of people out there just don't like the NBA.
Speaker 3: I do.
Speaker 1: I go to my third game this year in person,
Speaker 1: I get the NBA package. I watch it constantly, so
Speaker 1: I think it hurts it. The everything I was thinking
Speaker 1: about this weekend, we'll segue back to football, is that
Speaker 1: when when Belichick got let go, it's a little like
Speaker 1: John Caliparty. The culture changes and you kind of dig
Speaker 1: your feet in. Calipari said, this is who I am.
Speaker 1: Calipari's rumored to be going to Arkansas. By the way,
Speaker 1: there's a big rumor tonight he's going to Arkansas. And
Speaker 1: he would take the Kentucky money that'd have to pay
Speaker 1: him out Andy, the Arkansas money, I'll be making a
Speaker 1: guy who can making twenty five million year or something.
Speaker 1: So whether or not that comes to fruition, Calipari to
Speaker 1: Arkansas because Musselman took the USC job as a sage job.
Speaker 1: But it's interesting, so they're basically the same. The world
Speaker 1: changes for football after they wrote the billion dollar check
Speaker 1: for CTE, NFL's like, we're cleaning this game up. It's
Speaker 1: all offense. They pivoted exit stage right on all those
Speaker 1: defensive stuff you could do, and so the game changed.
Speaker 1: It benefited now Andy Reid and not Pete Carroll, Mike Tomlin,
Speaker 1: Belichick college basket ball the one and done thing. You
Speaker 1: can't win with freshmen if the teams that are winning
Speaker 1: in this tournament are junior senior late and it's twenty
Speaker 1: two year olds. And in both instances, Belichick's like, you know,
Speaker 1: this is what I do. Look at my rings. Cal
Speaker 1: Party was corded as saying, I don't know if I
Speaker 1: can change, and I'm like, John, you can't not win.
Speaker 3: In March.
Speaker 1: The world changes and you dig your feet in. If
Speaker 1: Calipari leaves Kentucky, because I'm watching Belichair in Husky gear,
Speaker 1: Belichick is cemented he's a top three coach. Ever, if
Speaker 1: Calipari gets leaves Kentucky, don't I think you failed. You
Speaker 1: failed that you didn't win.
Speaker 3: I was hanging out with a buddy yesterday who's from
Speaker 3: the SEC, and he went to Arkansas and one of
Speaker 3: the things, I mean, they have a lot of money
Speaker 3: at that program. Yes, I mean a lot of money.
Speaker 3: And there are rumors he's like the one thing people
Speaker 3: started noticing in the middle of the season, Muscle his
Speaker 3: wife stopped sitting next to a couple of the big
Speaker 3: money people. Yes, knew there were some riffs, and you
Speaker 3: know he was going to go somewhere, whether it was Louisville, USC.
Speaker 3: We were talking about how Cali Party brags that he
Speaker 3: has three billion dollars worth of NBA contracts. Right, that's
Speaker 3: always been its thing. Look at it, like, John, these
Speaker 3: guys spent three months with you, Anthony Davis was getting
Speaker 3: five hundred million in the NBA, whether Colin Coward, John
Speaker 3: Middlecoff or John callib PARTI coached them, right, I mean
Speaker 3: the majority of your players. What what are we talking about? Right?
Speaker 3: And to me, it just I think it gets back
Speaker 3: to the power of the money down there and the
Speaker 3: pressure of the cash flowing into these programs in basketball
Speaker 3: and football, and if Arkansas, if it pulls us off,
Speaker 3: because my guys, I thought it was going to be
Speaker 3: Chris Beard, remember got fired from Texas. Was an old
Speaker 3: miss who was a couple of years ago was viewed
Speaker 3: as like a rocket ship and had that incident with
Speaker 3: his I don't know if she's his ex wife now,
Speaker 3: but got fired. It turns out it wasn't as bad,
Speaker 3: but they will cut enormous check. I mean we're talking
Speaker 3: fifty fifty million dollars and not even blink. So I listen.
Speaker 3: Maybe he's one. I think he's tad bit overrated. I mean,
Speaker 3: the tournament's a little weird. Right when I lived in Philadelphia,
Speaker 3: we you know, around the tournament time, j Jay Wright
Speaker 3: was obviously close with Andy. Everyone was rooting for him,
Speaker 3: and I remember they were losing early and this is
Speaker 3: in the early twenty tens, and they could not like
Speaker 3: advance in the tournament. And finally he turns. We all
Speaker 3: acknowledge it's one of the best coaches of the last
Speaker 3: several decades. Yeah, tournament's weird. But to lose consistently, to say,
Speaker 3: winners to Oakland, I mean, give me a break. Yeah,
Speaker 3: so I think it's a little bit. Maybe I'm just
Speaker 3: over it. I'm leaving. I'm gonna go to someone who
Speaker 3: will like me. Sometimes you just you know, you break
Speaker 3: up with someone, you leave a company because someone else
Speaker 3: is showing you a little bit more love you're tired of.
Speaker 3: Let's face it, Kentucky basketball, Alabama football. I would imagine
Speaker 3: North Carolina basketball, LSU football. It's it's a different beast,
Speaker 3: you know. It's the pressure that and if you're not
Speaker 3: getting it done once they start paying you a lot
Speaker 3: and you're hanging your hat on a champion ship from
Speaker 3: two thousand and ten or eleven, like it's twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1: Yeah right, yeah, yeah. Musselman Apparently, I was told his wife,
Speaker 1: Danielle Musselman ticked off one of the boosters. It wasn't
Speaker 1: Tyson's Foods. The Tyson Foods is one of the baseball
Speaker 1: but it was somebody else. There's a third sponsor there
Speaker 1: and was I was told that. You know, Musselman's intense,
Speaker 1: He's not for everybody. I know Jen Cohen very well.
Speaker 1: She she wanted somebody that was, you know, a grinder
Speaker 1: and was really about basketball, and I think she got it.
Speaker 1: Tom Crean is Jim Harbaught text to me. You know
Speaker 1: a lot of people were in the Tom Crean corner,
Speaker 1: you know, they really really like Tom. I thought Tom
Speaker 1: would have been a fine choice, but I think Musselman's
Speaker 1: a good choice. But it'll be interesting with Calipari because
Speaker 1: it would be like Nick Saban was winning Natty's every
Speaker 1: other year. And Calipari was getting dusted every other year
Speaker 1: in the tournament. And those those were the two programs
Speaker 1: of No Bama football and Kentucky basketball. And I could
Speaker 1: argue it's easier in basketball because if you have one
Speaker 1: or two NBA players, you're gonna run through a conference.
Speaker 3: I think the hard part about basketball relative to football,
Speaker 3: Like he just had the equivalent of like a ten
Speaker 3: and two or eleven in one year season, but you
Speaker 3: get bounced in the first round, and it is just
Speaker 3: it's it equals all your games from the regular season,
Speaker 3: where in college football, well it's gonna change now with
Speaker 3: the expanded playoff, but if you lost in the final four,
Speaker 3: it was still a very successful season, right. But I
Speaker 3: do think and you're gonna see it this year in
Speaker 3: college football. Brian Kelly, who just might have the number
Speaker 3: two pick in the draft, they had an incredible They
Speaker 3: went nine and three and they lost Ole Miss and
Speaker 3: Lane Kiffin like that. It's not gonna fly down there
Speaker 3: for a long time. I mean, we've seen it. We're
Speaker 3: Jim mckaway guys. Once that's snowball and negativity, they start
Speaker 3: coming for you. Whether it's fair or not, there is
Speaker 3: no stopping it, And I would say Kentucky basketball is
Speaker 3: probably the closest thing in Who wouldn't you say to
Speaker 3: like Alabama l Ship.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, Oh they're gorgeous arena, It's like North Carolina in Kentucky.
Speaker 1: It's it's the the revenue, the facilities. I look at Calipari.
Speaker 1: My knock on him was I used to joke Calapanzi,
Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, I get the one and done scheme,
Speaker 1: Like it's not working anymore. Let's let's like get juniors
Speaker 1: and seniors.
Speaker 3: But if you and I were an ad, like who
Speaker 3: would you rather be in business with? Jay Wright? Bill self?
Speaker 3: And he start going to the other five guys, there's
Speaker 3: not many, Dan Hurley, you would choose them all over Califari.
Speaker 3: Well where even when Satan was a paying your ass,
Speaker 3: Everyone's like, wow, I'd go with Nick right, be a
Speaker 3: no brainer?
Speaker 1: Well yeah, And a lot of Mark Fugh is not
Speaker 1: going to go there. So a lot of the college
Speaker 1: basketball coaches, like Jay Wright was not leaving Villanova, Mark
Speaker 1: Fugh is not leaving Gonzaga. UCLA's offered him the job
Speaker 1: twice in Oregon once Kansas Nope. So what happens in
Speaker 1: college basketball more than these football coaches will bounce anywhere.
Speaker 1: But in college basketball, these guys that are they've got
Speaker 1: of got a they've kind of they know they're getting
Speaker 1: into the tournament every year. Like Beheim, you got it,
Speaker 1: kind of you're getting into the tournament. In college football,
Speaker 1: you can have a hell of a season you're Alabama,
Speaker 1: you lose to Georgia, you're not in the tournament and
Speaker 1: you're getting Remember that the time he lost to Auburn,
Speaker 1: he had to go. He had to go to Texas
Speaker 1: because his boosters were like, you know, Nick, I don't
Speaker 1: know if it's working. You're like, I got like three titles,
Speaker 1: what are you doing. Basketball guys will stay, so you're
Speaker 1: not gonna get Jay Wright or Bill Self or Mark Feud.
Speaker 1: They're not leaving. They're getting into the tournament every year,
Speaker 1: and they like their wife's like it. They've got a
Speaker 1: social circle. So and I understand that. For Calipari, I
Speaker 1: do think he's a good coach. But the Kentucky thing,
Speaker 1: if he leaves, is very interesting because he doesn't want
Speaker 1: to budge on that one and done stuff. That's that's
Speaker 1: his thing. And by the way, I've.
Speaker 3: Always easier, right, wouldn't you say it's easier. Well, it's
Speaker 3: in there out.
Speaker 1: I think, if you know, it's the old inner scoreboard,
Speaker 1: outer scoreboard. A lot of guys talk shit, but do
Speaker 1: you really have confidence if you really trust your coaching,
Speaker 1: like Jay Wright trust is coaching. He gets three star
Speaker 1: guys and developed he doesn't early Yeah, they know they're
Speaker 1: good coaches. Does Calipari have self doubt and think I
Speaker 1: just need better? Dudes? Because name a coach in any
Speaker 1: sport that has ever said, you know, I'm willing to
Speaker 1: give up complete continuity. No coach likes it. There's not
Speaker 1: a high school coach. There's no coach in the history
Speaker 1: of any sport that says I want a revolving door
Speaker 1: of players. Calipari is doing it because my take is,
Speaker 1: deep down he questions his coaching. No, no coach wants
Speaker 1: to cycle through players every year.
Speaker 3: He runs the most expensive AAU program in the country. Essentially, Yeah,
Speaker 3: it's a good way to put you know. I mean,
Speaker 3: I don't know what they generate, probably hundred million dollars
Speaker 3: something that he's what he's running. Where you watch Purdue
Speaker 3: or Dan Hurley, I mean they're running a college basketball program.
Speaker 3: He's running like a bed and breakfast, you're in and
Speaker 3: you're out.
Speaker 1: So I feel with some confidence that the first two
Speaker 1: players picked in this draft are going to be Caleb
Speaker 1: William and Jade and Daniel based on what I'm hearing
Speaker 1: on Jade and Daniels playing style in Cliff Kingsbury's history,
Speaker 1: that Washington thinks that's a better fit for the current staff,
Speaker 1: and they also believe Jade and Daniel's ability. And you've
Speaker 1: seen this to move buys you a couple of years
Speaker 1: of figuring out complex NFL defenses. We saw it with Lamar,
Speaker 1: which Jalen hurts, where you run around for Russell Wilson,
Speaker 1: you run around for a couple of years until you
Speaker 1: kind of figure out Josh Allen. You know, it's like
Speaker 1: I'm gonna run around for a couple of years on
Speaker 1: third and six, and it buys you drives, it buys
Speaker 1: you wins, buys you time to figure out complex defenses.
Speaker 1: Most quarterbacks say in year three, Mahomes, I think said
Speaker 1: beginning of year three everything slowed down. I get it now,
Speaker 1: So I am this is what I'm hearing that. If
Speaker 1: I asked two executs ktives in the league, they said
Speaker 1: their feeling was Caleb one, Jade and Daniels two. Drake
Speaker 1: May's inconsistency scares them. But if you go back a
Speaker 1: year to hit a year's ago, it.
Speaker 3: Was good two years ago.
Speaker 1: Yeah, if you go back to what it's a lot
Speaker 1: like Jordan Love, there's a lot to like. If you
Speaker 1: go back to the previous year, he ran for six
Speaker 1: seven hundred yards anticipatory throws. Sometimes you lose a coordinator,
Speaker 1: a left tackle, an NFL receiver, whatever it is. Jordan
Speaker 1: Love lost a lot of people good good junior tape
Speaker 1: or sophomore tape, bad junior tape. So anyway, I Cliff
Speaker 1: Kingsbury Jaden Daniels is what I'm hearing.
Speaker 3: I think two things can be true. I think the
Speaker 3: Caleb's in his own universe in this class. Yeah, So
Speaker 3: whoever goes to it's hard to make an argument that
Speaker 3: they made the wrong decision, right because, like you said,
Speaker 3: Drake kind of fell off this year. Jayden Daniels somewhat
Speaker 3: of a year. Wonder JJ McCarthy. His statistical profile, the
Speaker 3: way he's spent what he's been asked to do is no.
Speaker 3: I mean they could win games with him throwing nine
Speaker 3: attempts a game. It's like Jimmy Garoppolo twenty nineteen against
Speaker 3: the Packers. Yeah, I do think though, in knowing Adam Peters,
Speaker 3: and this is why it's kind of been a little
Speaker 3: cloak and dagger. He's kind of from the Belichick. He's
Speaker 3: not a big talker to the media lettingm know what's
Speaker 3: going on. Obviously, he's worked at places that are very
Speaker 3: beholden to the head coach, and it's smart to give
Speaker 3: the head coach and the operation who you want. But
Speaker 3: Cliff Kingsbury, if they were to have success, like he
Speaker 3: could get a college job. Like so anytime you draft
Speaker 3: because of your coordinator, it's one thing if you draft
Speaker 3: if Sean McVay is like, let's take Michael Pennix in
Speaker 3: the first round, why not. As long as Sean mcvay's there,
Speaker 3: he's the guy calling the place, or Lafleur or Kyle
Speaker 3: or Andy. But like is Cliff Kingsbury if they have
Speaker 3: success guaranteed to be there. That I always find that
Speaker 3: their head coach is a defensive guy. And we've seen
Speaker 3: before he's very predicated. His success was on Kyle and
Speaker 3: then they had a little success with Sark and then
Speaker 3: it kind of fell apart once they all left. So
Speaker 3: I think you should take whoever you feel the best
Speaker 3: player is. And it's hard if you throw on. Just
Speaker 3: go to YouTube watch Jayden Daniels and Malik Davers. He's
Speaker 3: really good. I mean, there's no disputing he's got a
Speaker 3: big time arm. He's obviously an elite athlete. He's accurate
Speaker 3: down the field. The knock is size. Wait that being
Speaker 3: not right, but the way he plays, he's one of
Speaker 3: Lamar's great attributes is he doesn't take big hits. Yeah,
Speaker 3: Michael Vick was kind of the opposite. He kind of
Speaker 3: took off. Jayden takes that on. And in the NFL,
Speaker 3: this might not be nineteen eighty three, but you still
Speaker 3: get hit hard.
Speaker 1: But if Dan Quinn says, Cliff, I'm gonna I'm gonna
Speaker 1: give you a lot of say in this, and Cliff,
Speaker 1: let's just say it's selfish, says, well, I've had the
Speaker 1: Jade and Daniels style before. I can win with that style.
Speaker 3: He knows he can't.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So I can see Dan relinquishing some to Adam
Speaker 1: and Cliff and saying, Okay, you guys don't want input,
Speaker 1: and Cliff's saying, well, I've worked with that before the
Speaker 1: Jaden thing, I can use, I can do. I'm just
Speaker 1: told that style Kingsbury, Jaden Daniels Right now, that's the
Speaker 1: feeling that that's where they're going.
Speaker 3: I was talking to a buddy who's a high up
Speaker 3: guy with a team that does not need a quarterback,
Speaker 3: and his comment was, after Caleb Williams, I'm glad I'm
Speaker 3: not in that business because it's it's just not that.
Speaker 3: I mean, all these guys are talented, but I'm even
Speaker 3: pro JJ McCarthy because my comp to him is a
Speaker 3: little Alex Smith. Yeah, clearly he's a high level guy,
Speaker 3: physical attributes, he goes to the rights place he can
Speaker 3: have success. But history shows more than half of these
Speaker 3: guys fail. Right, and it's an overwhelming position, even these
Speaker 3: guys coming from LSU, Michigan, these big even North Carolina.
Speaker 3: It's a whole different ballgame now. The popularity of the NFL,
Speaker 3: the pressure of the NFL. You've talked about it. By
Speaker 3: the second Thanksgiving, it's like either shit or get off
Speaker 3: the pot here, so it's pedal to the metal. Money
Speaker 3: doesn't matter anymore. We can pay you to leave. I
Speaker 3: mean the Jets, there's a decent chance. The Jets cut
Speaker 3: Zach Wilson. Clearly they're hoping to trade in. Well, no
Speaker 3: one's trading for an eight million dollar backup.
Speaker 1: The campbellay, Well, this is one of the most circumstantial
Speaker 1: drafts I remember. I'll give you a team, the New
Speaker 1: York Giants. I was told this two days ago by
Speaker 1: a higher up in the NFL in a front office.
Speaker 1: He said, take a look at the New York Giants.
Speaker 1: He goes, if Jaden Daniels or Drake May fall, they
Speaker 1: will take them. They're not moving up, they don't have
Speaker 1: they don't want to give up draft capital. They're stuck
Speaker 1: with Daniel Jones. But they could either take Jaden Daniels
Speaker 1: or Drake May. This executive said, that would make a
Speaker 1: lot of sense if they fell to you. If they don't,
Speaker 1: they would also potentially take a star receiver if Harrison
Speaker 1: or Neighbors is available, or they look at it and think, oh,
Speaker 1: those two receivers are now both gone. The Chargers can't
Speaker 1: get out of five. They take Harrison, go to Arizona.
Speaker 1: The Chargers can't move back. They take a receiver which
Speaker 1: they need, and the Giants trade down. And this executive
Speaker 1: said the Giants are a great example of you can
Speaker 1: do a million mock drafts. It's going to depend on
Speaker 1: what happens above them. Because his take is, it's really
Speaker 1: rich when you have an average roster and the Giants
Speaker 1: offensive roster is below average, below and that's for you
Speaker 1: cannot give up multiple firsts like you need hits, and
Speaker 1: the safest hits in this draft and any draft is
Speaker 1: a first round pick in the top twelve. So this
Speaker 1: person was just saying, the Giants are class example. They
Speaker 1: could take They'll take a quarterback if they fall probably won't,
Speaker 1: but they would. They'll take a receiver. If the Chargers don't,
Speaker 1: they'll move down potentially. And he said there, he goes,
Speaker 1: this draft is going to be outside of the top
Speaker 1: couple of picks. He said, Washington and Chicago aren't moving.
Speaker 1: After that, it's all circumstantial. It's who's is. If Minnesota
Speaker 1: goes hyper aggressive, he goes. The other thing, he says,
Speaker 1: keep your eye on Denver. Everybody's talking about falling back.
Speaker 1: He said, if you like bow Nicks and the Raiders
Speaker 1: jump ahead of you two spots and these quarterbacks start
Speaker 1: drying up, McCarthy got four of them gone and you're
Speaker 1: not into Pennix, which if you look at Peyton's offense,
Speaker 1: Penis isn't a good fit. So I think we're just
Speaker 1: gonna have kind of a wild draft. I do think
Speaker 1: there's gonna be multiple teams trading down and I can't
Speaker 1: wait for well.
Speaker 3: To me, the visits that you see come across the wire,
Speaker 3: like so and so visited the team random guys. Sometimes
Speaker 3: it can be smoke screens or whatever. But when you
Speaker 3: see the top ten guys, when like all the receivers
Speaker 3: are going to meet Harbaugh, when all the receivers are
Speaker 3: going to New York, when Pennix and bow Nicks are
Speaker 3: going to the Raiders and going to Denver, those are
Speaker 3: enormous job interviews, right. I mean there's already been parts
Speaker 3: of the job interview, but that's sitting down with the owner,
Speaker 3: eating a meal, spending time with the entire staff for
Speaker 3: large portions of a day. You feel one way or
Speaker 3: another when that guy leaves because you already know him
Speaker 3: as as a player, So it's like, do I trust
Speaker 3: this guy? And that can be the swing for a
Speaker 3: lot of these guys, right, Because this does not feel
Speaker 3: like a draft, like you said, where anyone's hiding anything.
Speaker 3: We all know who needs the receivers, we know who
Speaker 3: needs the quarterbacks. The Dave Ball thing, though, after his
Speaker 3: first year, is hard not to go. Got this guy's
Speaker 3: a star. What he did with a pretty average roster
Speaker 3: last year was pretty embarrassing. Yeah right, They doubled down
Speaker 3: on Daniel Jones. It was immediately ugly. The coaches weren't
Speaker 3: getting along. It's pretty embarrassing. It's not something that the
Speaker 3: old school owner likes. There's pressure. He can't just have
Speaker 3: another crappy season. Everything beat Kumbaya, especially Cowboys, and the
Speaker 3: Eagles are having Now Washington starts trending up. You got
Speaker 3: McVeigh and Shanahan crushing packers are good. It's like, what
Speaker 3: the hell are the Giants doing getting lapped in obscurity
Speaker 3: and embarrassment. So I would imagine if you're dable, you
Speaker 3: want players, you don't want a quarterback, right because if
Speaker 3: you get a rookie quarterback, the guy comes in, maybe
Speaker 3: by late October, you're already kind of bad. Your offensive
Speaker 3: weapons suck, and then you're you're gonna want one of
Speaker 3: those wider maybe the second round, take another offensive weapon
Speaker 3: and try to be competitive this year now that, And
Speaker 3: that's where in the NFL some of these sometimes these
Speaker 3: teams coming off bad years, the coach and the front
Speaker 3: office and the ownership can have different visions and that's
Speaker 3: where things can get weird. So if I was stable,
Speaker 3: I would not want a quarterback because there's no guarantee.
Speaker 3: The lasted four years, the Giants ran through like three
Speaker 3: coaches six years.
Speaker 1: When you as we get ready for the draft in
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks when you were with the Eagles.
Speaker 1: From what I can tell is people are scouting up
Speaker 1: until the draft like they're just you just keep scouting,
Speaker 1: you keep digging, you keep getting reports and ship there
Speaker 1: are teams that will two days before the draft, they
Speaker 1: just won't like something they hear. I mean, give me,
Speaker 1: give me your insight on a player. A year where
Speaker 1: you felt like it was up to the draft, people
Speaker 1: were still looking for information.
Speaker 3: Well, I just think anytime there are question marks off
Speaker 3: the field, and I think around this time of year
Speaker 3: you and I have been talking about forever, the media
Speaker 3: can be so disingenuous, like some not everyone's a criminal,
Speaker 3: but people have questionable.
Speaker 1: The Texas defensive tackle WI.
Speaker 3: Well, think about that and I looked right before we
Speaker 3: hopped on. From what I read, he was arrested at
Speaker 3: like I think around lunchtime. Like to me, it's like,
Speaker 3: what's this guy drinking in the morning. I mean, it'd
Speaker 3: be one thing like was he playing golf with his
Speaker 3: buddies or was he just at a bar with the people?
Speaker 3: What the hell's going on? That's a good example most
Speaker 3: people I know, if they didn't start last week right
Speaker 3: up until pro days. That ends and you've accumulated all
Speaker 3: the information and then you go to meetings and now
Speaker 3: a lot of these meetings I think are kind of
Speaker 3: hybrid zoom and guys come in the high end guys
Speaker 3: come in the other guys are on zoom, and a
Speaker 3: lot of it is not going out you know, over
Speaker 3: like how much they can bend, how strong they are
Speaker 3: at this point, it's what is this kid's deal? Especially
Speaker 3: with the top I would say seventy five pick a
Speaker 3: guy that you would invest a first first two day
Speaker 3: picking obviously the top guys, you're a very very fine
Speaker 3: tooth comb, but even a second rounder, I mean that
Speaker 3: could change your franchise. If it's AJ Brown or Deebo
Speaker 3: Samuel or Nick Chubb or whoever. I mean, those are,
Speaker 3: but you better know the person. So it's easy when
Speaker 3: a guy gets at duy because then it's like, okay,
Speaker 3: we got to really are we sure we trust this guy.
Speaker 3: I think it's a lot harder when it's like, well, hey,
Speaker 3: I've talked to some of his teachers or his academic
Speaker 3: advisor and they just don't really trust them. Or sometimes
Speaker 3: it's the opposite, like a coach can have a bad
Speaker 3: experience with the player. We're all humans. You just don't
Speaker 3: like guys more than other guys. But then the people
Speaker 3: that you've trusted, that you've developed relationships in the program,
Speaker 3: swear by them. So you really try to figure that out.
Speaker 3: And this is why you're not drafting widgets. You're drafting humans.
Speaker 3: And everyone has a different opinion on every single person.
Speaker 3: How many people do you meet that someone's like, ah,
Speaker 3: that guy's a dick, and then you meet him like
Speaker 3: I kind of like the guy, or vice versa. You're like,
Speaker 3: you know, I didn't really like the but you know
Speaker 3: someone it's like I'm really close friends with him. We
Speaker 3: all have individual interactions with.
Speaker 1: People and bias.
Speaker 3: So one thing. Yeah, and the thing with football now,
Speaker 3: which makes it hard, and my scouting buddies that I
Speaker 3: didn't have to deal with is the transfer portal. So
Speaker 3: it's like, you know, you're at Texas one day and
Speaker 3: you're like, oh, I should ask that coach because he
Speaker 3: was with this kid at Washington who now transferred to Florida.
Speaker 3: But that's hard too because usually when a guy transferreds like, ah,
Speaker 3: it was kind of a diva, wouldn't listen. But then
Speaker 3: he goes to the other program people love him, right,
Speaker 3: so that balancing act. I actually think it's probably more
Speaker 3: difficult trying to keep up with that because usually bo
Speaker 3: Nix is a good example, like Michael Pennix is transferred
Speaker 3: because his coach went there. It wasn't that crazy. Bo
Speaker 3: Nicks had a bad experience at Auburn and then he
Speaker 3: goes to Oregon and has an incredible experience. So maybe
Speaker 3: if you're around some of the people at Auburn, their
Speaker 3: experience around him wasn't great. I don't know that. I'm
Speaker 3: just saying, using this as an example. You're not gonna
Speaker 3: hear a negative thing at Oregon about that, right, So
Speaker 3: you try to balance that and you can just go, well,
Speaker 3: he's matured, got to a good place, put him around
Speaker 3: the right people. So that's that that can make it
Speaker 3: difficult and trying to You gotta be careful with the
Speaker 3: head coaches because the head coaches have an agenda. The
Speaker 3: higher their guys get drafted, the more they can put
Speaker 3: them up on the boards. You know, when you enter
Speaker 3: the program and the recruits come in, you got to
Speaker 3: get with the assistant coaches, the graduate assistants, the people
Speaker 3: off the field, and that just takes years of knowing
Speaker 3: who you can trust and who you can't. Because most
Speaker 3: of these guys that are drafted high have the talent
Speaker 3: to play in the NFL. What separates them is all
Speaker 3: the off the field stuff, right that the character, the
Speaker 3: work ethic football sucks beside the games. Yeah, you lift
Speaker 3: really hard, you train really hard, you get screamed at
Speaker 3: NonStop in a meeting. This is you don't show up
Speaker 3: to work at new I mean you're getting there bright
Speaker 3: and early. You don't leave latest. You play once a
Speaker 3: week and it's only in the fall. Well, you're still
Speaker 3: like Harbaugh the charger driving practice right now, they're doing
Speaker 3: OTA's like it's it's a lot of work, and it
Speaker 3: it separates the men from the boys. Mentally, So that
Speaker 3: to me that those conversations are just NonStop in these
Speaker 3: meetings about kid, about the kid, what drives, how he's wired,
Speaker 3: And you're just trying to figure out to make the
Speaker 3: best educated guest humanly possible, because that's ultimately what you're doing.
Speaker 3: You're getting a twenty to twenty two year old who
Speaker 3: a lot of guys grow Tyron Matthews kicked off his
Speaker 3: college team that unless you kicked him off, He's been
Speaker 3: a team captain of four different teams. So it's like,
Speaker 3: you know, but you gotta be careful, like that's that
Speaker 3: could be an outlier situation. It's like, well this guy
Speaker 3: could be the next Josh Allen, or it could be
Speaker 3: the next Trey Lance. So it's this is this is
Speaker 3: always a fascinating time of year because within six months
Speaker 3: mid season, you're like gotta regret this one or God
Speaker 3: love this. We got lucky on you. Just you're just
Speaker 3: trying to mitigate all the potential potential land mines and
Speaker 3: take the best educated guests with all the information possible.
Speaker 1: Don't want to talk about this. I'm taking my wife
Speaker 1: to UFC three hundred, which is probably the most where
Speaker 1: is it it's in Vegas. I think there's twelve current
Speaker 1: or former champions. Great undercard. It's a stacked I mean
Speaker 1: it's three hundred day stacked it. Dana White stacked it.
Speaker 3: Dana's got it rolling.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he does. No Dana well like Dana doesn't take
Speaker 1: anybody's crap. I mean basically least an Island during COVID.
Speaker 3: I love that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, and it's interesting. So I was telling somebody
Speaker 1: this the other day. You could not get my wife
Speaker 1: to a baseball game. She's not going to a football game.
Speaker 1: NBA and UFC there are events. Loves going to NBA games,
Speaker 1: and I've taken her to UFC and she likes fights.
Speaker 1: And you know, you have a girlfriend. I don't know
Speaker 1: if she's a sports fan. But I was telling a
Speaker 1: buddy about this. I said, you know, my wife's not
Speaker 1: a sports fan. She's an event fan. So if it
Speaker 1: was a Dare Devil of a hysterical magician, a singing act,
Speaker 1: the UFC is it's crazy, like Trump will probably walk
Speaker 1: in the place erupts. It's nuts. There's movie stars and
Speaker 1: she likes the spectacle of it all. Plus, I mean
Speaker 1: the UFC fights are like they're jarring to watch. I mean,
Speaker 1: you're getting guys are kicking the you know what out
Speaker 1: of each other? Do you? And I And I've said
Speaker 1: before ufcson my top five World Cup NFL College Football UFC,
Speaker 1: I would say March Madness rekindled my interest this year.
Speaker 1: I've had a blast watching Mark. I kind of had
Speaker 1: two or three years with the men's game I thought
Speaker 1: was too deluded, too many transfers. I've loved men's and
Speaker 1: women's this year. Where is UFC rank for you? And
Speaker 1: by the way, if your girlfriend could choose, all right, John,
Speaker 1: we're going to this, what would it be?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I mean she's a huge forty nine er fan.
Speaker 3: She loves football. I mean she follows the forty nine ers.
Speaker 3: I mean every player very closely. I mean she's she
Speaker 3: has a missing snap since I've met her, I mean
Speaker 3: in northern California. Her dad was a big forty nine
Speaker 3: er fan. She just and that's I think she represents
Speaker 3: a lot of people. We talked about this a lot,
Speaker 3: the female fan base that the NFL has huge. It's
Speaker 3: not just like someone's wife watching the games, like, no,
Speaker 3: they're a fan of the Bills. Yeah, I have. When
Speaker 3: I was I went to cal Pauly where Chuck Lydell went,
Speaker 3: and my first couple of years there, Chuck was becoming
Speaker 3: a star and he also trained there, so it was
Speaker 3: a really really big deal. And Chad Mendez, who ended
Speaker 3: up fighting Connor McGregor was my year, was my college roommates.
Speaker 3: They lived in the dorms together, and I watched him
Speaker 3: beat the shit out of some people at a party.
Speaker 3: And I had never been around wrestlers in high school
Speaker 3: and then cal Pauly, I wouldn't put him in like
Speaker 3: Iowa Penn State, but they Chad ended up being like
Speaker 3: the runner up for the national championship his senior year
Speaker 3: had some good wrestlers. Chuck wrestled there once upon a time,
Speaker 3: and I just remember, these guys are crazy, that they
Speaker 3: were insane, and it was just in following Chad Mendes' career.
Speaker 3: He fought Connor, he fought Aldough and he just he
Speaker 3: didn't win, but he was just He's the toughest guy
Speaker 3: I've ever seen. He weighed one hundred and fifty five pounds.
Speaker 3: I mean he would be he could beat up I mean,
Speaker 3: he could he could handle Aaron Donald. I'm not saying
Speaker 3: he'd win the fight, but he'd have he wouldn't hesitate
Speaker 3: these guys. The respect I have for never being around
Speaker 3: these guys and then watching them just in a fistfight
Speaker 3: at a party take down ten people before you could blink,
Speaker 3: and I have listen you get in that octagon. You
Speaker 3: are such a badass. I watched the last fight because
Speaker 3: I started doing CrossFit a couple of days a week.
Speaker 3: I haven't done it in a while, but Sugar Sean
Speaker 3: was working out at that gym and so I was like, Oh,
Speaker 3: this guy pink hair. So I ordered the fight when
Speaker 3: he fought last time, and it was just it was excellent.
Speaker 3: I mean, he was just like, God, this guy's fucking badass. Yeah,
Speaker 3: so that's part of it. I just like, I'm not
Speaker 3: like a fight die hard, but I have nothing but
Speaker 3: appreciation because I've seen it firsthand. The level of craziness
Speaker 3: that it takes, and how talented these guys, the training
Speaker 3: levels of when these guys are preparing for a fight, right, Oh,
Speaker 3: it's just it's insane.
Speaker 1: And you know, it's what's interesting about UFC is you
Speaker 1: know you always knew the top fighters, you know made
Speaker 1: a fortune. The promoters made a lot of money and
Speaker 1: and in the end it was like the sport didn't
Speaker 1: have a central figure like Dana White.
Speaker 3: And you know, whenever they remember, they battled a lot
Speaker 3: of the political wins. I was just talking about this
Speaker 3: on the golf course. John McCain was pushing back against
Speaker 3: I remember, being like junior high and they couldn't do it.
Speaker 3: And they tried to do it in San Jose I remember,
Speaker 3: in like the late nineties and got in trouble, but
Speaker 3: McCain was like the driving force, like this is barbaric,
Speaker 3: remember that, and they just couldn't get and then they
Speaker 3: finally somehow crossed that threshold and it's they've never looked back.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean we have. You know, we have a
Speaker 1: rich history of boxing in this country and fighting in
Speaker 1: this country. And I think one of the things that
Speaker 1: Dana did very quickly to get in the Budweisers and
Speaker 1: the big brands was they had to clean it up
Speaker 1: about twenty years ago. They cleaned that there's eye gouging
Speaker 1: and shit, they got out of that stuff. Dana very
Speaker 1: smartly said, listen, we our guys are tough. We don't
Speaker 1: want their eyes getting gouged that we need them, you know.
Speaker 1: Nine weeks later to be in another fight. I think
Speaker 1: they cleaned it up. And then I just think you
Speaker 1: have to be forceful. I mean, running the volume every
Speaker 1: day is a challenge. You got to be forceful. You
Speaker 1: gotta have a plan of attack. And I think if
Speaker 1: you look at what is hurt college football, the quality
Speaker 1: of the product is great. There's no leadership boxing, there's
Speaker 1: no leadership, And so when you look at sports, Roger
Speaker 1: good I've been saying this forever, there's something about media
Speaker 1: doesn't like people that don't need them. Roger Goodell, in
Speaker 1: the NFL do not need newspapers, they do not need
Speaker 1: radio guys, they don't even barely need TV networks. Now
Speaker 1: is streaming is the NFL has almost no missteps. It's
Speaker 1: just really well run. They've made their schedule release a day.
Speaker 1: The combined is effective, like they have done the best.
Speaker 1: And now they've said to the NBA, now we're gonna
Speaker 1: knock you off Christmas. We're gonna take your ratings.
Speaker 3: There can we talk about some little inside baseball in
Speaker 3: the NFL that they've they clearly just laid off a
Speaker 3: lot of people and they are trimming down what they
Speaker 3: do and the media's take is consistently this business is
Speaker 3: making so much money. What are you doing yet? I'm
Speaker 3: someone who literally makes a living off the NFL, who
Speaker 3: couldn't follow it any more closely, and I never watch
Speaker 3: NFL network. So just because your business of the games,
Speaker 3: and one thing I've noticed at the gym I go to,
Speaker 3: you know, they have pen TVs and ones always on
Speaker 3: Fox News, the others on CNN, the others on ESPN,
Speaker 3: the others on Fox Sports, the others on NFL network.
Speaker 3: The only thing NFL Network now is playing is just games.
Speaker 3: Like I looked out. I went this afternoon and I
Speaker 3: looked up and it was the Colts Rams game from
Speaker 3: earlier this year, overtime game, and they're just replaying it.
Speaker 3: Could they probably getting the same rating. So it's like
Speaker 3: just because the WNBA, I don't know if they make
Speaker 3: money now, never made any money. The NBA just subsidized
Speaker 3: them forever. Yeah, like the NFL, just because the games
Speaker 3: are making money, the other entities they shouldn't. Just if
Speaker 3: it's not working, people don't watch NFL network.
Speaker 1: NFL network has been up.
Speaker 3: They don't have talented people or whatever working for the network,
Speaker 3: but it's not making any money.
Speaker 1: They've been that thing's been up for sale for seven years.
Speaker 1: They've been trying to sell that thing. I know somebody
Speaker 1: inside NBA TV that's dead because he watches that. Nobody
Speaker 1: watches now. MLB network is different because shows like mine, ESBN, Fox,
Speaker 1: we don't talk baseball. So the discussions you have on
Speaker 1: the MLB network are unique. Nobody else is at me.
Speaker 3: Golf Channel, Golf Channel work.
Speaker 1: Yep, yep. And so NBA and NFL network all those debates,
Speaker 1: they're on television all day. There's too much duplication. And
Speaker 1: then I mean, listen, I don't watch the NFL network.
Speaker 1: I think I know Peter Schrager very very well coled. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it doesn't write job.
Speaker 3: They're good.
Speaker 1: When you move a show to the West coast, you
Speaker 1: can't do a morning show out west, an effective morning show,
Speaker 1: because you can't. When I came from ESBN to Fox
Speaker 1: and they asked me what time, I was asked by
Speaker 1: my radio network, work by TV network, what time do
Speaker 1: you want to do? You pick the time slot? And
Speaker 1: I said, well you can't. I can't do anything earlier
Speaker 1: than nine am Pacific, which is noon Eastern. I said,
Speaker 1: because you can't get I can't ask my staff to
Speaker 1: get up at two point fifty and in Los Angeles.
Speaker 1: In New York, a lot of people come down a
Speaker 1: building and walk to work. In Los Angeles, everybody drives
Speaker 1: to work. So I have to if you get if
Speaker 1: you need to be there by my show right now,
Speaker 1: you have to be there about five fifty five to six.
Speaker 1: I get there about six. Ten staff gets there about
Speaker 1: maybe six to say. We all get in at the
Speaker 1: same time. If I was doing meaning they have to
Speaker 1: get up probably at five ish shower at thirty five
Speaker 1: minute drive. That's reasonable. You get into four three forty
Speaker 1: five people have to get up. You can't get a staff.
Speaker 3: So if I was a betting man, the NFL network
Speaker 3: will not have a morning show in the fall. They
Speaker 3: will just show replays the games.
Speaker 1: Well, there's no way. If I live out East and
Speaker 1: you move the show and you're asking me to get
Speaker 1: up at three forty five, it's like I'm out. It's
Speaker 1: nothing against the people. It's like that's they're just doing
Speaker 1: that as a cost saving move and it's not a
Speaker 1: knock on the people. I mean, I know Eisen, I
Speaker 1: know Schreger really well, but it's like these people get
Speaker 1: caught up in They just tend to forget is that
Speaker 1: once there's duplication and you're not special. All these all
Speaker 1: these sports created these networks, but nobody talks hockey except
Speaker 1: the NHL network. Nobody talks baseball on a syndicated national
Speaker 1: level except like local stations in the MLB. Never Guys
Speaker 1: like me Steven A. Skipp, doesn't matter who it is, ESPN,
Speaker 1: Fox all day, we talk NFL and the NBA. You
Speaker 1: don't need the networks. They're dead something against anybody. So
Speaker 1: and I listen, even at the volume, we're doing very well.
Speaker 1: You're always you're always looking for ways to put your
Speaker 1: best people on your best shows to make sure you
Speaker 1: have the most efficiency. It's yeah, I'm not blaming anybody
Speaker 1: for it. I just know the NFL network's been for
Speaker 1: sale for like seven years.
Speaker 3: It's quietly been anybody wanted theory. I had what the
Speaker 3: Dolphins should do after what just happened. So the Bills,
Speaker 3: who I've said the overreaction that they're just gonna suck,
Speaker 3: which maybe they take a huge step back, but they'll
Speaker 3: be full by far, have the best quarterback who to
Speaker 3: me is the second best quarterback in the league. And
Speaker 3: clearly one of the great quarterbacks we've seen in recent memory.
Speaker 3: Taw it was. The Dolphins have a big question mark
Speaker 3: with their quarterback, who's turned out to be solid, but
Speaker 3: in the biggest moments these last couple of years, has
Speaker 3: crumbled like a cookie. And this year I remember talking
Speaker 3: to Veach and Andy at the combine and they said,
Speaker 3: and Veach specifically said, when you walked out on that
Speaker 3: playoff game, He's like, that's the coldest thing I've ever encountered.
Speaker 3: I was even nervous just for my own guys, even
Speaker 3: though I knew we had Mahomes versus them, but I
Speaker 3: was like, got it And it wasn't even close and
Speaker 3: they had no shot the Dolphins. So now, before you
Speaker 3: give a guy a couple hundred million dollars, wouldn't you
Speaker 3: go no excuses? Now Belichick's with his kid in Seattle.
Speaker 3: You got who knows what New England's doing. The Jets,
Speaker 3: I mean are three pulled hamstrings and achilles from being
Speaker 3: everyone getting fired, and the Bills lost a lot of
Speaker 3: talent they just have. If we can't do it this year,
Speaker 3: I mean, we just had it felt like a twenty
Speaker 3: game lead halfway through the season and then somehow we
Speaker 3: didn't win the division and they did. If we can't
Speaker 3: win it this year, we can't pay this guy. And
Speaker 3: then with that mean it's a home playoff game. We
Speaker 3: should win a playoff game. Wouldn't you just play this
Speaker 3: year out? You're already under the cap, like, he's already
Speaker 3: his money's his money this year. My wife's pay him
Speaker 3: this year. Let's let's kind of do approve it year
Speaker 3: a little Flacco style.
Speaker 1: Dak and Tua, in my opinion, will be available on
Speaker 1: the market potentially next year. There's no doubt in my mind.
Speaker 3: I mean, Jerry, I would not pay to a right now,
Speaker 3: given everything that just happened, I.
Speaker 1: Wouldn't pay back if you start.
Speaker 3: I think they're hesitant to do that.
Speaker 1: Literally, Yeah, so I think I think two.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 1: I think Tua is gonna be on the market next year.
Speaker 1: By the way, there's gonna be a Kirk Cousins level
Speaker 1: guy in the market one minimum two probably for the
Speaker 1: rest of the years. We do this for a living,
Speaker 1: because it's pretty clear in the NFL now, two quarterbacks
Speaker 1: get you to a super Bowl, a superstar. There's six,
Speaker 1: you know. Stafford Allen, whoever malves or a really talented
Speaker 1: young guy on a rookie contract.
Speaker 3: That's it.
Speaker 1: That's the only thing that gets in. So good guys
Speaker 1: getting paid handsomely. Kirk Cousins, Dak Tua. You can't pay Tua,
Speaker 1: So I think Tua will be on the market and
Speaker 1: there'll be a team that's like, listen, we're stacked everywhere else.
Speaker 1: Or competency gets rewarded. Kirk Cousins has made more money
Speaker 1: than Tom Brady playing quarterback. Competency plus and that's what
Speaker 1: Dak and Kirk Caarr. Competency plus gets paid in every
Speaker 1: business for sure.
Speaker 3: I mean, I think Houston's a good example. They go,
Speaker 3: we got the young quarterback who actually might be a
Speaker 3: top five guy. All chips in the middle of the table. Yeah,
Speaker 3: all of our chips are in the middle of the table.
Speaker 3: And one of my takes last week was like, that's
Speaker 3: kind of what all sports fans want. It's just teams
Speaker 3: to be really aggressive. I mean, look at the most
Speaker 3: popular teams over the last twenty years, the Heat, the Warriors, right,
Speaker 3: the Dodgers, Randy Moss teams, the Dodgers, the Chiefs over
Speaker 3: the last five years. Like, that's what we want. So
Speaker 3: I commend them for doing this and because it's polarizing
Speaker 3: all the press. You either win or if you don't,
Speaker 3: it's a disaster. Why the Jets last year they went
Speaker 3: all in for Aaron Rodgers and then it was the
Speaker 3: all time shit show. And part of the story is
Speaker 3: it gets even crazier when you don't win once you
Speaker 3: put all your chips in the middle of the table.
Speaker 3: So like I listen, I think the Houston Texans they
Speaker 3: have had one of the great twelve month stretches that
Speaker 3: they I would say they lucked in a little bit
Speaker 3: because I do think they would have taken Bryce Young
Speaker 3: if they would have had the number one pick. But hey,
Speaker 3: Tua went ahead justin Herbert and the Chargers got him.
Speaker 3: Who cares how you got the guy. You just got
Speaker 3: the guy right, And now they have a chance. That
Speaker 3: division is a little wonky, right. The Jags have a
Speaker 3: lot going on, a lot of pressure on Trevor Lawrence,
Speaker 3: the Titans that have no quarterback. I was actually peeking
Speaker 3: at the TV today when the NFL Network was replaying
Speaker 3: that Anthony Richardson when he was healthy in this rand.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, good. You know he was pretty talented.
Speaker 3: So they just got to kee him on the field.
Speaker 3: He's he's pretty intriguing. I was like, I kind of
Speaker 3: forgot about this guy. Uh, but it's I think they're
Speaker 3: trying to throw their hat in the ring, right with
Speaker 3: the Ravens, the chart or I mean with the Chiefs,
Speaker 3: and just give themselves a chance. Now, there's also, you know,
Speaker 3: part of being a great player in any sport or
Speaker 3: being successful in anything in life. It's not just about
Speaker 3: one hit or just one solid year of sales, like
Speaker 3: can you do it year in year out? There is
Speaker 3: just a lot of pressure on everyone's gunning for you. Now,
Speaker 3: you're not sneaking up on anybody. Everyone's studying your tape
Speaker 3: a little harder. It's no longer oh yeah, just playing out.
Speaker 3: They're doing deep dives on you in the off season,
Speaker 3: how to stop you. So I'm fascinated to watch this
Speaker 3: Texans team how they kind of handle it because talent
Speaker 3: is not going to be their issue.
Speaker 1: John Middlecoff is always on a Sunday night, buddy, great SENI.
Speaker 3: You see you, Colin.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for listening. If you've enjoyed the podcast,
Speaker 1: take a moment, rate and review