July 3, 2025 • 41 mins
It's Jason Fitz and Buck Reising in for Jonas and LaVar on today's 'Best of' edition of the show! They open things up with their thoughts and reactions to the Knicks hiring Mike Brown as their next head coach. Do they see him as an upgrade over Tom Thibodeau? Then they get into the Lakers signing DeAndre Ayton... how will he fit with the existing pieces? That leads into a conversation on the importance of ownership in a team's success, lamenting the fact that there's no consequence for sustained incompetence. Buck and Fitz also look ahead to the season in store for the Pittsburgh Steelers. How far can a 41-year-old Aaron Rodgers take them? What do they think of the decision to trade Minkah Fitzpatrick for Jalen Ramsey and Jonnu Smith?
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the best of two pros and a couple
Joe with Lamar Arings rating Winn and Jonas Knox on
Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
I have at times been lightly accused by Buck Rising
being anti Nicks. I've been lightly accused at times of
maybe finding too much negative around positive for the Knicks.
So I say that knowing full well that this doesn't
(00:35):
sound very pro Nicks. But I'm just wondering, after all
the weight, after all the time, after sitting around for
weeks wondering who the head coach would be, we really
feel an a static.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Over Mike Brown's fucking fits hanging out with the on
Fox Sports Radio. It's just coming straight out in New York.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
As we start on the third of July edition, he's
Buck Rising, I'm Jason Fitz. He's smiling at me as
I even started this, because all al acquies know that
the next law they win in the second round and
they change the name of streets and they parade, and
I and Bucket and I were hanging out at the time,
and we were on radio, and I said, I just
don't get it.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
They don't raise banners for second round wins.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
And you know it felt looking back at it felt
like maybe I was a little harsh for the Knicks
against the Knicks, so buck, I've been, you know, sitting
here trying to figure out am I polishing a pig
or am I doing the opposite? Here, Like, after weeks
of wondering who the next head coach would be, Mike
Brown is the next sit coach. And that's fine, that's fine,
but it's just fine right Like you're not doing cartwheels
(01:34):
in the street. If you're a Knicks fan today, are.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
You look at you? I imagine that the New York
radio audience is waking up to enjoy potentially a holiday
for some, potentially a drive to work for others, and
they're thinking, Okay, I'm gonna get to hear about my
new head coach on Fox Sports Radio, and then they're
greeted with that smug I can hear, even if I
(01:57):
wasn't looking at you, Lubody smugs mud on you in
Connecticut and me in Nashville today, I could hear the
smugness in your tone. I could hear the smile on
your face knowing that you got to wake up.
Speaker 5 (02:12):
And bother the Knicks fans.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
Here's the thing, though, Mike Brown may be too good
for the next based on the way that the Knicks
have gone about this thing. It's it's it has to
be irritating. And we've talked about this VICI. I'm a
Pacers fan, all right, So there's no love loss between
me and the New York market and my sports fandom.
I am not in a position to throw rocks from
a glass house because I would argue that the Indiana
(02:36):
Pacers have one of the worst ownership groups in the league,
and that's just because they're cheap, not just because they're incompetent.
Speaker 5 (02:42):
But to fire Tom.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
Thibodeau the way that they did, and I I couldn't
make it make sense. I could make it make sense
because I understand who that coach is. I have seen
situations in covering professional sports teams for my entire career.
Speaker 5 (02:58):
You doing the same.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
We have both seen situations where you think a coach
has a ceiling and though they may have excelled in
a certain year and been successful over a period of time,
and in the case of TIBs it was five years
in New York, you might understand, Okay, there's more that
this thing has to give, but you have to have
(03:20):
a plan. You have to have a plan to be
able to maximize this thing, especially when you are dealing
with something as fragile as the New York sports fan psyche.
And I cannot imagine that news broke in the middle
of my local show here in Nashville yesterday was probably
sometime during the eleven o'clock Central hour, and I just
made a face like I smelled something bad, and then
(03:41):
immediately realized, God, it must be so easy to do
New York sports talk radio today because all you have
to do sit back, open up the phone lines, and
let people vent because New York cannot be happy. Not
with Mike Brown. Mike Brown, to your point, is fine,
but with their organization for wasting this much time firing
a successful coach just to turn around and hire somebody
(04:04):
who is fine.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
It For me, the big kick in the no no
Places out of this is that, frankly, what we all
want is hope when your team gets eliminated and it
doesn't end in a championship. As a fan of a
team that stinks, what I want is I want to
have a little bit of hope going into next season.
And it's hard for me to find just gratuitous overflowing
(04:27):
hope for Mike Brown, not because he's not good. I mean,
obviously he's been a Coach of the Year twice, right,
But in the NBA that that feels like that's a
common thing.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
I don't know why.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
It just feels like you can be Coach of the
Year one year and you're just you're on the trash curb.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Next the next month, and it doesn't That's kind.
Speaker 5 (04:42):
Of the thing in the NFL too. I don't know
if you've looked.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
At the latest coach of the year, what happens to
them after the fact?
Speaker 5 (04:47):
Shout out Brian day Boll, Yeah, that.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
You weren't wrong, and it's but there's this moment for
me where you got to have a plan and this is.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Why you cannot react emotionally.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
And the hardest part of all of this is that
at at the end of the season, when you lose
in the playoffs but it was a great run, how
do you compartmentalize all of that? And I don't have
the answer for this, right like, I honestly don't have
the answer of how you sit back and you make
sure that you're reacting logically and not emotionally when frankly
(05:16):
you own these teams, and he becomes so emotionally invested.
But this is the problem with an emotional rejerk, knee
jerk reaction, because the minute you make that, if you're
firing your coach without a clear, succinct plan on how
you're going to bring in somebody that's better, and you
just can't tell me that that was this, Like they've
been denied too many interviews from other teams and from
other people.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
They just couldn't get any interest anywhere.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
And I don't understand how they didn't organizationally know that.
That's the fatal flaw on the higher to me is
that you had to know you've got your own people,
your own channels that you can work, your own phones
that you can work. You've got to have a better
idea the minute you fired Tims on exactly who you
can talk to and who's interested. You don't wait a
month and then give every Mike Brown because he's the
(06:01):
only person you could even talk to.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
The only person you talk to twice.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Like all of this just feels like settling book. And
that's that's a loss from the minute it starts.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
And it's it's compounded because of what you just said
who they hired to be this franchise as president, or
you're familiar with Leon Rose, Yeah, Leon Rose, For people
who don't know. As a former sports agent, he worked
for a behemoth called CIA Creative Artist Agency.
Speaker 5 (06:27):
If you don't know what CIA is in.
Speaker 4 (06:29):
The general public, they basically run your sports and entertainment world.
If you see Peyton Manning, Chick fil A, and Coca
Cola all in a Super Bowl commercial together, although I
suppose that would be conflcting brands, even if even so,
you understand that those brands and those individuals are all represented.
Speaker 5 (06:45):
By CIA, and CIA put.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
Together your Super Bowl commercials, right, This is what Leon Rose.
Leon Rose was hired as somebody who should have the
inside track on these things, right, who should be able
to maximize those connections, who should be able to take
advantage of industry connections to make sure, all right, if
we make a move like firing a coach who we
feel like didn't have quite enough, even though he got
(07:10):
us to our first conference finals for the first time
in twenty five damn years. I was six years old
the last time the New York Knicks played in an.
Speaker 5 (07:19):
Eastern Conference finals.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
Fits okay, not in my cognizance sports lifetime have the
Knicks mattered as much as they did in this most
recent postseason. And like I said, that's fine, if you
have a plan, you hire Leon Rose, who's been in
this position for several years now to have a plan.
And the fact that they still couldn't get it right
and still got turned down interview after interview, and still
(07:44):
got blocked for the ability to interview other teams, candidates
and things like that, just to end up with Mike Brown.
That has to be the most disheartening part of this.
You thought that you were in a position and had
the right people in place to be able to take
advantage of a week and do like this, and now
you're looking around shrugging your shoulders. And again I want
(08:05):
to reiterate, it's not to me about Mike Brown. Mike
Brown is a fine basketball coach. He's a completely competent
professional NBA basketball coach. Nobody would dispute this. And by
the way, he's somebody who's familiar with pressure, though this
is a different kind of pressure that he is getting
ready to step into. Because immediately I don't know, and
you might be able to tell me or hell I know,
(08:27):
we don't. You and I don't typically do phone calls,
but maybe we do this morning on Fox Sports Radio
eight seven seven nine nine six sixty three sixty nine.
Speaker 5 (08:35):
That's eight seven seven.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
Nine nine six sixty three sixty nine if you want
to weigh in on the situation with the New York
Knicks hiring Mike Brown.
Speaker 5 (08:44):
By the way, not yet.
Speaker 4 (08:45):
Official, so there's still time for him to look around
and be like, I don't know about all this. This
feels different because immediately fits what happens. He is walking
into a job where his entire fan base is already
knives out.
Speaker 5 (08:58):
He gets no grace, period.
Speaker 4 (08:59):
He is walking in to an absolute buzzsaw.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
He's walking into a situation that the last guy got
fired for not winning a championship.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
I mean, there's just no.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
The last guy got fired for not making it to
the NBA finals.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Will say it.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
At least that for a team that hasn't made it
to the NBA finals.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
In a very long time.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
So what you immediately find out is that, Okay, you're
coming in for the expectations better be better than Tibbs, Right,
you got to be better than Tibbs for all of
this to matter. And if you're the Knicks, you were
sitting right on the precipice. It feels like of you know,
you've got something that is working for you. Whenever a
new coach comes in, book the other part of it,
and you've lived through, you've worked through multiple coaching changes
(09:42):
in the NFL level working around the Titans is what's
the first thing a new coach does when they come
in in any sport, they bring in their guys, right
Like they start to figuring out how to to If
I'm going to run a bakery, then I want to
hire chefs that I know, And I think that's pretty.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
Common in most businesses.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Like if I'm going to work in radio, I'm going
to work with people I like and people know. If
somebody works at.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
A stockbrokers firm and they change firms, what's the first
thing that they do.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
They try and bring all of their usual team and
their assistance and their junior brokers over with them, because
you want to work with people, you know, this is
a business one on one.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Well, now, Mike Brown, who again was hired because.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Tibbs apparently just wasn't good enough because he didn't go
to the NBA Finals, I'm still stunned by the fiery
If you're Mike Brown, you're coming into a situation where
you want to bring in your own which is going
to be a little of an adjustment, but you don't
have an adjustment period. Like all of this just feels
chaotic to me. And everything since TIB's got fired feels
as you know, frantic, as the pace that he plays with, right,
(10:39):
it all feels like it's just rolled downhill faster than
the Knicks organization was prepared for. And I love your
Leon Rose point because we saw Rich Paul in the
news this week.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
We saw everybody.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Talking about Rich Paul making a phone call to The
Sun's owner about trying to maneuver the draft.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
And people were freaking out, like this whole thing's rigged.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
No, that's what agents do, Like, that's what what the
best agents do. Is they're constantly on the phones and
they're constantly trying to work it to get their guys
where they want their guys or girls to be.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
Like this is one on one. I'm a little stunned
that between the value the money of James.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Dolan, the reputation of the Knicks, between Leon Rose and
the connections that he has when you just look at everything.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
The Knicks shouldn't be.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
The guy stuck at the party, just sort of settling
for whoever's there at three am, And.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
That just that feels like what's happened.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
It feels like the Knicks have looked around and said,
you know what, at the beginning of the night, we
weren't really all that into Mike Brown. But they're playing
closing time. It's three in the morning, gotta do something.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
Might as well do this one.
Speaker 5 (11:39):
God, that's so relatable.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
I one of us lists.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
In Nashville, the bars are at least opened until three am.
Speaker 5 (11:50):
I oh, well, you know, we try.
Speaker 4 (11:52):
We try to get home anymore by two am, Fitzy,
just just for the sake of I'm in my thirties
now I need my beauty sleep.
Speaker 5 (11:58):
But damn, damn if that.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
One didn't hit home a little harder here recently.
Speaker 5 (12:03):
But I sympathize, I really do.
Speaker 4 (12:06):
And I'm rare for me to have pity on New
York sports fans, But like today has to be so
disappointing because you're riding that high of what they were
able to accomplish, and you were very dismissive of them,
And I told you that you were very dismissive of
them when they beat the Celtics and a Celtics team
that was on literally one bad leg with an injured
superstar in Jason Tatum and a coach who I feel
(12:30):
is completely incompetent.
Speaker 5 (12:31):
In Joe Missoula.
Speaker 4 (12:32):
For as bad as the strategy and the lack of
adjustment in that postseason series was, but like they they
felt like they had momentum, did they not? That's the
most That's the hardest thing to quantify or to wrap
your hands around, momentum, right, But it's something that you
can look at me like, all right, the Knicks have
an infrastructure, They have a roster that you think is
(12:53):
going to be able to at least compete at a
reasonably high level in an East that's wide open. I mean, look,
would mentioning Boston they're done for the year. They just
blew it up. If you're not paying attention to the
NBA free agency period and the trades that have taken
place in the last couple of weeks, Indiana is going
to be I think a non factor in the East
next year because of the situation with Tyrese Haliburt and
(13:15):
they let Miles Turner go to the Bucks.
Speaker 5 (13:17):
That's fine.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
Cleveland's looking around and be like, hey, are we going
to win the East by default? Just because we are
returning as many good players as we as anybody at
this point in time, And we just got hurt in
the first round of the postseason or leading into the postseason,
so we lost steam as a team that looked like
an absolute wagon for the vast majority of the regular season.
The opportunity was there for the Knicks to just reach
(13:40):
out and take it, and instead the Knicks fans just
have to be throwing their hands up in the air,
be like, what the hell, man, come on, just let
us enjoy this for a period of time. At least,
let me have an off season of hope. Nobody loses
the off season. That's the beauty of the off season.
We're in the middle of the NFL offseason right now.
Not a single fan base, even Browns fans, whose management
(14:01):
seems to be completely incompetent top to bottom with their
quarterback strategy and things of that nature. Even Browns fans
have a little bit of optimism in the offseason.
Speaker 5 (14:10):
Knicks fans have to be in an unrelenting hell.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
We are just getting rolling. We'll take the unrelenting.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Hell coast to coast because for all the conversation about
the Knicks, what do we think of the Lakers today?
Speaker 3 (14:22):
We'll get into it. It's a big day on two
PRIMI cover showbody.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
We're just gonna be smoking everybody. We're throwing fireworks out,
That's what we're doing. We're throwing fireworks out everywhere.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
It's a two day takeover, So.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Buckett I will be here today and tomorrow for all
of your two pros and cup of Joe fun. But
we will get into the Lakers big moves, questionable moves.
We'll figure out what they're doing in La next these
buck Rising on Jason Fitz. We're hanging out with you
on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 6 (14:49):
Hey, it's Ben, host of The Fifth Hour with Ben
Mallor with mean a lot to have you join us
on our weekly auditory journey dressed. What in God's name
is the Fifth Hour? I'll tell you it's a spin
off of it. Ben Mathershaw could hit obernights on FSR.
Why should you listen? Picture if you will? A world
will We chat with captains of industry in media, sports
and more every week explore some amazing facts about human
(15:12):
nature and more. Listen to the Fifth Hour with Ben
Mather on the iHeartRadio App, Apple Podcast, or wherever you
get your podcast.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Be sure to catch live editions of Two Pros and
a Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn, LeVar Errington and
Jonas Knox weekdays at six am Eastern three am Pacific
on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Fandom is so often about hope, right, It's about hoping
that your favorite team is going to do something unprecedented,
that you're gonna have memories for the rest of your life,
that you're gonna have a wall full of memorabilia for
a championship, right, Like, that's what we're all hoping for.
And some of that hope has to come from the
(15:54):
organizational structure. So the question really becomes, what do you
do when your favorite team simply has an owner that
isn't any good at owning a football, basketball, or baseball team?
Where do you find your hope when you realize that, frankly,
the entire system of how the business is built for
your team is failed. He's Buck Rising on Jason Fitzen.
(16:16):
This all comes from the Knicks.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
We're hanging out with you on two pros and a
cup of Joe. The Knicks sort of.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Led us to a conversation about the NBA, which led
us to an overall thought press us on team ownership
and Buck what's interesting and Buck covers the Titans down
in Nashville. Obviously you see team ownership up close and personal.
But it just really gets interesting to me because at
some level, most professional sports teams are owned by somebody
(16:47):
that at their core is a fan. And so you
want that very rich fan to do something wildly impossible.
You want that very rich fan that's made so much
money in their life that they can afford hundreds of millions,
if not billions of dollars depending on the sport, to
buy a franchise. And then you want them to invest
that money smartly. You want them to hire great people.
And then this is the really tricky part. After they've
(17:07):
invested the money and after they've hired the people, you
want that owner to then just go away, right.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
You want that owner to knock it in the way.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
And I'll say, James Dolen, the owner of the Knicks,
has been absolutely destroyed time and time again. I've looked
at it from the outside looking in and said, man,
what do you want the guy to do? Like when
everybody said that Dolan was meddling too much, we went
out and hired Phil Jackson because oh my god, like
Phil Jackson's biggest name, and that doesn't work. And all
of a sudden, it said, well, Phil wasn't even really
(17:36):
that into the job. He just took the money. Well
that's not Dolan's fault, you know.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
And then well he still gets in the way of
all of it.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
I'm a Raiders fan, as most people know, right and
Mark Davis Raiders have just absolutely been garbage as a
franchise for.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
Most of my adult life.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
But I can also look at Mark Davis and say, Okay, yeah,
he brought in John Gruden, which I can understand why
he thought that was probably a good idea.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
Turned out to me.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
They brought in Josh McDaniels, which at the time, he's
just getting the biggest name he bossible. Again, now he
brings in Pete Carroll. At some point, you're just you're
a guy with a ton of money that's trying to
figure out how to turn that money into wins, and
all of this just leads you back to that same point,
what do you do if the person that runs your
team just isn't really capable of running a football team?
(18:22):
Like now, you can't change the owner of your team
a football, basketball, any of those bucks. So, like, it's
just interesting to me because I think there's there are
more bad owners in sports than good and I don't
think that's a fixable problem.
Speaker 4 (18:34):
No, I wouldn't imagine that it is. And it's interesting
that you bring up that. I would know ownership up
close and personal. That's not the case. Here in Nashville,
Amy Adams Strunk is the controlling owner of the Tennessee Titans,
and she does not do public appearances. She does not
take questions and press conferences. She has fired three straight
(18:57):
heads of state here in Nashville, where John Robbinson the
general manager, then Mike Rabel the head coach, then Ran
garth On the general manager. Now she's on to Brian
Callahan and Mike Borganzi. Is a combination of people, and
she has done all of these things through statements released
by the team or she has done interviews with team employees.
(19:18):
Mike Keith, the former voice of the Tennessee Titans who's
now doing games in Knoxville, Tennessee. Not to get hyper
local with it, but my point is she doesn't put
herself in a position to be questioned on these things.
She gets to make these decisions from an ivory tower.
She can put out a statement and she can let
other people be the fall guy or gal for her,
(19:38):
depending on the role. And that is certainly a style
of ownership, right, That's kind of the thing that Fitsie
you're alluding to a little bit where she'll make these decisions,
she'll hire people to do the job, and then she'll
take a step back until somebody gets in her ear
and says, well, yeah, that person you hired a couple
(19:59):
of years go, maybe they're not doing as good a job.
Speaker 5 (20:02):
I'll do a better job.
Speaker 4 (20:03):
Why don't you put me in this role, and then
I'll be to do and then I'll be able to
do it better. Then creates a Game of Thrones type
of environment within an organization that you just have to
have the ear of ownership to be able to influence
a multi billion dollar industry, which is crazy, crazy, but
that's a very Sports is a microcosm for society and
(20:27):
life at large. Right, So anything that you see happening
at a sports level could also be you know, there's
politics in every industry, whether you want to attribute those
behavior behavioral characteristics to politics or not.
Speaker 5 (20:41):
There are office politics.
Speaker 4 (20:43):
And that exists in the NFL and the NBA and
in professional ownership professional sports. No matter what level you're
looking at, there are more bad owners than good. But
to your point, I just don't know what There is
no perfect solution here because you want somebody that cares,
(21:03):
but you also don't want somebody that cares enough to
get involved or get in past their depth, past their
point of competency, when they have probably hired people to
do those jobs, and now all of a sudden they
are lending their or they're sitting in on.
Speaker 5 (21:17):
The meetings and.
Speaker 4 (21:19):
Doing one of these numbers where they're like, oh, you
won't notice me at all.
Speaker 5 (21:23):
I'm just sitting in the.
Speaker 4 (21:24):
Middle of this while all of you who work for
me and your professional livelihoods depend on me, don't pay
any attention to me. While I sit here in field
Foald calls about likely your job viability.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
I've had this awakening because a lot of what you're
describing here, by the way, is also Jerry Jones, right,
Like Jerry Jones cares deeply about the Cowboys.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
I don't think you no question.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
You're spent two seconds around Jerry Jones can question that,
but he's just not. I mean, when you want to
look at why they haven't won a championship, at some
point you have to continue to look at Jerry Jones.
But here's what has hit me as you were talking.
There's no recourse for these owners. There is absolutely no
(22:06):
recourse because in my blood I joked earlier about being
a lifelong, diehard six month Dodgers fan. I don't care
about the Dodgers. If they suck, I'll just go somewhere
else and root for somebody. I don't care well way
they are that I didn't grow up with a favorite
baseball team, I don't care. I am a lifelong die
hard Raiders fan, and it doesn't matter. I grew up
an Oakland or an LA Raiders fan that became an
(22:26):
Oakland Raiders fan that is now a Vegas Raiders fan.
I don't care what city they play in, right, I
don't care. I grew up with it watching Al Davis
and now I got Mark Davis.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
I don't care.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
Like at the end of the day, I cannot change
the fact right or wrong. As much as I'm a
grown ass man admitting this into a microphone, I cannot
change the fact that the way the Raiders play moves
my heartbeat on Sundays like it makes me feel things, rage, joy,
all of these things that nothing else does.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
It is ingrained in who I am. Thanks Dad.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
It is part of my culture of how I will
be described for the rest of my life. In my
sixth grade yearbook, one of the teachers wrote, go Raiders,
because all the way back then, I was just wearing
a Raiders hoodie every day in my life. Nothing changes that,
So at the end of the day, there's really no
recourse to Mark Davis if the Raiders suck, like I'm
(23:17):
still gonna buy the gear. I'm still gonna watch it
like most people, and as often as somebody on Twitter
wants to be a Karen and be like, I'm never
coming back to this restaurant. Yeah, yeah, y are I
mean if you if you turn around and say you
know this. The Titans fan base might be small, but
they are mighty, and they are loud right like the
are they are a handful said kindly there is.
Speaker 4 (23:37):
Mighty is not how I would describe that, but that's
very kind of you.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
They are they are passionate, let's say, but they're passionate.
And the fact is, if this team wins three games,
they're still gonna be passionate. Like, if this team wins
three games, they're still gonna have a beautiful, swanky new stadium.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
That is going to make the team money.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
And at the end of the day, Amy Adams Strunk
is still gonna get her porche of all of the
profit sharing that is part of being an NFL owner.
So when you know as an owner of whatever, whether
we're talking about the NBA, the NHL, major League Baseball,
it doesn't matter.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
When you know as an owner that your stadium is.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Going to be full enough that you're making your money,
you know that you're going to get profit share out
of the agreements that are already there across the board.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
And you know that through all of it fans because
it's ingrained in them.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
The majority of fans are never going to be able
to quit being fans of your favorite team. Like I
got killed on air at the time during the entire
Colin Kaepernick controversy that was going through saying, hey, if
you don't like the way your favorite team is handling it,
just don't be a fan of them anymore. If you're
so passionate about it, just put away the gear.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
And the answer to that was, well, that's impossible. Owners
know that, So they stick.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
Of their job because who's ever going to stop them
from sticking at their job?
Speaker 4 (24:59):
It is is one of the more frustrating parts of
being a fan because it's completely out of your control,
even though you think you have some level of control,
and by the way, you think you are entitled.
Speaker 5 (25:09):
To have an opinion.
Speaker 4 (25:11):
I am critical sometimes of a rational fan reaction.
Speaker 5 (25:16):
God knows, Titans fans.
Speaker 4 (25:17):
Would probably snort and laugh hearing me describe it that kindly,
But I think that some of it is a bit
off the wall. But that doesn't mean that you don't
have a ride as a fan to express your emotion.
And I think that goes both ways. That describes hate
and that describes love. Like I think that you should
be able to operate on the full fan spectrum. If
(25:40):
you are somebody who has put the amount of time
investment financially personally into your favorite team, you should be
able to have an opinion about the way that that
team is run. But the idea that that opinion has
actual impact is the thing that I think fans forget
at the end of the day, or that that entitlement
to that opinion gives you the ability to impact change,
(26:03):
when in reality, the only people that have the ability
to impact change with your your favorite sports team are
the people who own it, because it's it's a plaything
to them, it's a billionaire's play ground.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
We could impact that change, like you and me. No, no, no, fans,
this is where see I think fans, all.
Speaker 5 (26:24):
Play is going to make us almighty. And you know,
because we have the power of the microphone.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
Baby, we got them, no, no, no, but we have
the power of the dollar. Like you really want to
impact change, stop making it a profitable business.
Speaker 4 (26:35):
But even then, FITZI, I just think there are so
many different avenues of revenue. Because you bring up the
Titans new stadium, and the Browns have announced a stadium plan,
and the Bills are getting a new stadium.
Speaker 5 (26:47):
Right, there's there's.
Speaker 4 (26:47):
Stadium for sure, for sure, But that Titans stadium is
not about the Tennessee Titans. The Tennessee Titans just happened
to exist in Nashville. That stadium is going to happen
because now Ashville, the city in Ashville wants to host
a Super Bowl, The city in Nashville wants to host WWE.
They want the biggest international events. They are pissed that
(27:10):
they missed out on the World Cup and that Kansas
City is going to be a World Cup host site,
which is nonsense. The worst airport in America, even though
I know they're getting a new one, is going.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
To be at airport.
Speaker 5 (27:21):
That airport is trash.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
It's time.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
It's all separated, like once you go through the security
in these four gates, you're con.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
It's so disorienting that airport. Anyway, we don't have to
religate that. My point is the Tennessee Titans are like
the least important thing in that stadium that's going to
be occupying that stadium's time.
Speaker 5 (27:39):
Because how many dates is it? In reality, it's ten.
Speaker 4 (27:42):
It's a couple of preseason games, and depending on the year,
eight or nine regular season games, and god knows, they
don't host playoff games around here because they don't make
the playoffs.
Speaker 5 (27:51):
But there are so.
Speaker 4 (27:52):
Many other things three hundred and sixty five days of
the year that are going to be occupying that stadium
that are going to.
Speaker 5 (28:00):
Make her way more money her Amy, Adam.
Speaker 4 (28:02):
Strunk, or any ownership group than the actual team that plays.
Speaker 5 (28:05):
In there on Sunday.
Speaker 4 (28:06):
So even the ability for a fan to impact how
ownership responds to things with their dollar has been mitigated
because well, I'll just take somebody else's dollar, or I'll take.
Speaker 5 (28:18):
The opposing fans dollar.
Speaker 4 (28:20):
Because Nashville is a destination city, baby, and if the
Vikings fans want to come in here and take it
over where their money spends just as well as yere does.
In fact, their dollar probably goes further because they spend
it on tickets, they spend it on concessions, they spend
it on Lower Broadway getting drunk before the game, and
after the game when their team beats the Titans, they
spend it on hotels. They stretched that visiting fan dollar
(28:46):
five times more than they would a local dollar. So
it's this really difficult spot that fans are caught in into.
Speaker 5 (28:53):
And I don't mean to you know, this.
Speaker 4 (28:54):
Whole diatribe to say, well, it's hopeless and you can
control nothing about it. But at the end of the day,
thing ittt what's the team that's most recently changed over
ownership in the NFL the Commanders Washington.
Speaker 5 (29:06):
Yeah, how hard was it to do that?
Speaker 4 (29:08):
And that guy had you know, he was getting congressional
subpoenas while hiding out in the south of France on
a mega yacht.
Speaker 5 (29:14):
Like you had to track that.
Speaker 4 (29:15):
Guy down and drag him through court over a period
of twenty years to get him out of there.
Speaker 5 (29:21):
And that's the extreme, right.
Speaker 4 (29:22):
These things just don't they don't You struggle as a
fan with it because you, at the end of the
day understand that they are playing an entirely different game
than you are.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
He's Buck Rising. I'm Jason fitza.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
You mentioned all of this, and it just takes me
straight to Cleveland, where fans are going to be upset
because Cleveland, the Browns may have destroyed what little home
field advantage they actually have.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
Will tell you about it. Next, Two Pros and a
Cup of Joe. He's Buck Rising. I'm Jason fitz hanging
out with you on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
Be sure to catch live editions of Two Pros and
a Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn, LeVar Arrington and
Jonas Knox week days at six am Eastern three Am Pacific.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
We live in a sports world where everything has to
be a massive deal. It has to be absolutely this
team is all in, or absolutely this team is all out,
where everything has to be clearly good or bad and
there's no in between. And I guess this week I
want to challenge that because as much as we.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
Want to talk about the names involved.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
With the Pittsburgh Steelers, isn't it at least possible that
the Steelers are not doing anything revolutionary, that the Steelers
aren't doing anything, that mortgage is their future, and in fact,
the Steelers are just doing what they have to do
to make it through this year.
Speaker 3 (30:39):
It's not a sexy take, but sometimes the right take
is maybe it works out. Stuo Bros. And a cup
of Joe.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
He's Buck Rising on Jason Fitzen, Like I just push
back sometimes to hot take culture, which we're all part
of because we sit here in front of microphones every
single day, and you don't get to the point that
you sit in front of a microphone unless you're opinionated.
Speaker 3 (30:58):
I feel like.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
Buck and I share a common trait in that we're
both the type of person that in a bar you
can say almost anything, and we're gonna say, well.
Speaker 3 (31:07):
Yeah, Bud, have you thought about it this way?
Speaker 2 (31:09):
Like, I think you have to be at some point
argumentative to get into radio in general or sports media
in general. But that being said, Buck, the Pittsburgh Steelers
make a trade Jalen Ramsey for make and Fitzpatrick, and
they also acquire John new Smith. This is shortly after
signing Aaron Rodgers, and I've just heard all sorts of takes.
I've heard everybody yelling and screaming. Even we've played on
(31:31):
Fox Sports Radio. To be completely fair, this morning, we've
been playing some of Colin Cowherd saying, oh, this is
all in?
Speaker 3 (31:38):
Like why is this all in? I guess my whole
thing is.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
Like, look, the Steelers are who they are, and yes,
they've acquired some big names.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
They've given up a big name in the process of
doing it.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
But what if in doing this, what they've really done
is they've brought some people in for this year. They
haven't mortgaged their future to do it. They haven't sold
off future draft picks.
Speaker 3 (31:57):
To do any of this.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
They haven't screwed up their salary recap in the process
of trying to figure it all out. They put themselves
in a situation where, knowing that they don't have short
term solutions to want to be more competitive, they've gone
out and done the best they can to put in
short term solutions to wanting to be more competitive.
Speaker 3 (32:14):
Is it gonna work? Maybe? Is it going to be meaningful? Maybe?
Are the Steelers actually gonna be much better? I don't
think so.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
It makes them a conversation piece, and that to me
is really just what the Steelers are. They're not a
terrible football team. They're not a great football team. They're
just a football team that because of name recognition, brand recognition,
their coach.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
And their quarterback.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
We're going to talk a lot about this year, but
I think the takes have gotten out of control this
week about what all of it means.
Speaker 4 (32:39):
Which is always the case, right, somebody's gonna fly off
it only you mentioned cities that would take an NFL
team off in other city's hands if they weren't willing
to pony up the cash for a new stadium. It
only takes one person to have the extreme opinion before
everybody starts flying off the handle. The reason why the
Steelers are interesting in this specific situation, and I would
(33:02):
describe them as the most interesting team in the NFL
offseason because of the moves that they've made, but not
necessarily just because of the moves that they've made, but
because it's so uncharacteristic of how the Steelers typically go.
Speaker 5 (33:15):
About roster building.
Speaker 4 (33:17):
Now, I know Omar Khan has been in that job
for a couple of years now at this point, and
I'm blanking on the name of the former Steelers general
manager who was in that role for a very very
long time. Perhaps fits you can use the internet to
assist me there. But this is a different approach that
we are seeing them take. It doesn't mean that it
(33:37):
will be a bad approach or a good approach. It's
just not the typical behavior that we're accustomed to seeing
from them, which is they don't have a long term
quarterback solution. They are going in maybe not all in,
but they're going in on forty one year old Aaron Rodgers,
who still has something. The biggest detriment to Aaron Rodgers
(33:58):
game right now versus who Aaron Rodgers used to be
is his mobility. And he was behind a bad offensive
line last year in New York and that was a
contributing factor. And also he's got his own he's got
his own baggage that he comes with on and off
the field, specifically as to who he'll favor as far
as his targets and who he'll try to get you
to acquire if he doesn't like who you've already acquired,
(34:20):
which is also an interesting component to this. But it's
because like they they don't make moves like trading for
Jalen Ramsey, who's still a good player, right but Mega
Fitzpatrick is also a good player. So if it's if
it's a push as far as what they gain versus
what they lose in this trade with Miami.
Speaker 5 (34:42):
And they also pick up a tight end in John U.
Speaker 4 (34:46):
Smith, who Arthur Smith, the offensive coordinator there is familiar
with that.
Speaker 5 (34:50):
Could be of benefit.
Speaker 4 (34:51):
And you look at the Steelers tight end depth chart
and you think, okay, Darryl Daryl Washington and out of
Georgia a couple of or is it Darnell or Daryl Washington?
I can't remember exactly, Darnell Darnell, thank you. Darnell Washington
out of Georgia a couple of years ago, one of
the physically freakiest athletes you've ever seen. And Pat Fryarmouth
who's going to be their obvious tight end one, and
John who's an interesting move tight end type of piece.
(35:14):
And then I kind of look around and say, well
that that would be a fun schematic thing for Arthur
Smith to work with if Aaron Rodgers was willing to
go along.
Speaker 5 (35:24):
With Arthur Smith's scheme.
Speaker 4 (35:25):
Like, there's just they have created here more questions from
my standpoint than answers, which is why I think people
are are either interested or confused by what the Pittsburgh
Steelers are doing, and then it leads you down the
rabbit hole of the hot take.
Speaker 3 (35:42):
Okay, so I'm going to create an imaginary scenario.
Speaker 5 (35:47):
Follow me. Okay, have a choice. But we're here now,
that's right.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
Yeah, Buck Rising and I are cogms of our new team,
the Indiana Risings. All right, it's a I put them
in Indiana just for the Indiana Risings.
Speaker 3 (36:01):
They play like, I.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
Don't know, in the middle of nowhere, Indiana, very small stadium,
not a great team.
Speaker 5 (36:06):
Paints basically the entire state.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
But okay, yeah, so it's not in Indianapolis, but you know,
it's the Indiana Risings.
Speaker 3 (36:12):
I'm gonna paint paint the scenario. Okay, fully round, yeah,
fort Wayne good, Yeah, that's good. Col fort Wayne Risings.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
We look around at our roster and we say, okay,
we've looked around to the roster.
Speaker 3 (36:24):
We got some good pieces on defense. We feel pretty
good about where we are. We've got a really.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
Good pass rusher wants to get paid, but I'm not
sure what we can do on that right now. We're
under contracts, so we're not gonna worry too much about that.
We feel good about where things are overall. But man,
we don't have a quarterback. We know we don't have
a quarterback. Okay, well, what are we gonna do? I mean,
there's no real option. We couldn't draft one. We didn't
like any of them in the draft, so none of
them were worth mortgaging a draft pickover. And the free
(36:49):
agent pool is pretty minimal. But there's this one guy
over here that might be pretty good. We can do
them for a one year deal. If he's got anything
left in the tank, then we can get something out
of him for fortyeen million dollars, right Like, if there's
nothing left in the tank, it's a one year deal,
doesn't cost us anything. Okay, we're also going to acquire
this tight end that this tight end that you know,
we know, but it may or may not have been
(37:12):
a one year wonder last year based on the production
compared to other years of his career.
Speaker 3 (37:16):
And to do that, it's a pick.
Speaker 2 (37:17):
Swap of a seventh and a fifth round pick, like
they We're not talking about a lot there.
Speaker 3 (37:21):
Okay, I feel pretty good about that.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
As you go up and down the list, I think
if you take the Steeler's brand off of it, if
you make them the Indiana Risings, what we see is
that Pittsburgh just looked around and said, Okay, there are
no options right now that truly go all in for
the future that fix our problems. And we don't want
to just walk into this season and suck, So why
not at least roll the dice on a couple of
(37:43):
things and see if it can make us more competitive
this year while we continue how to.
Speaker 3 (37:48):
Try and figure out how to fix our long term problems.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
Like that, to me is the most reasonable explanation of
what the Steelers are doing.
Speaker 5 (37:55):
But that's not a roll of the dice organization.
Speaker 4 (37:58):
That's a very thoughtful planned out And to your point
about taking the brand off of it's That's the thing
that I'm having the most difficulty overcoming is that this
is not what I have come to know as the
Pittsburgh Steelers in the way that they go about doing
their business. It also makes me wonder, Fitzi, and you
can tell me if I'm unfair about this, but it
also makes me wonder about the future of Mike Tomlin
(38:20):
that that's not an organization that makes rass decisions. They
are going to be They are going to try and
be as competitive as humanly possible, and they've probably identified
a window where they're gonna have some limitations, but that's
not going to keep them from being outright competitive, right,
they're not going to NFL organizations don't tank, and when
they try to, like the Dolphins did, they get fined
(38:41):
and they lose first round draft picks over it. Like
there are things to keep teams from doing this blatantly,
and I don't think the Pittsburgh Steelers would ever, It's
not in their DNA. The fan base would riot if
they thought that there was anything close to that. But
the fan base is always also pretty agitated about the
Mike Tomlin situation. It's how long has it been since
the Pittsburgh Steelers under Mike Tomlin won a playoff game.
Speaker 3 (39:04):
A very long time. Eight years.
Speaker 5 (39:07):
Eight years is how long.
Speaker 4 (39:08):
It has been since the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Pittsburgh Steelers
a championship caliber organization. They think you're in and year out,
but more often than not, has not won a playoff
game in eight years. They get in there, they get
into the wild card, they got dusted by the Chiefs
or whichever wild card opponent that they face, whichever higher seed,
and then Steelers fans go back to the drawing board
(39:30):
and be like, all right, how are we going to
break through this Tom Brady ceiling or this Patrick Mahomes ceiling,
whichever fire breathing dragon at that particular point in time
exists in the AFC, where now two of them exist
in their very own division in Cleveland, just because they're
you know, they're the Dunce cap of the AFC North.
They can't figure it out. But you still have to
figure out a way not just around Patrick Mahomes or
(39:51):
Josh Allen, but around Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow, which
is a difficult enough thing, and they're doing it well
enough to get by the Bengals right. The Bengals nuked
themselves because their defense was terrible last year, even though
Burrow and Chase arguably both playing at MVP caliber levels.
I just I don't know how you feel it about
it as a fan, and we could only the Steelers
(40:12):
fans could be the only ones to answer this. If
your team is doing enough to be competitive, but it's
just competitive enough, right, It's not meaningfully competitive, Like, I
don't think nobody. Are you looking at the Steelers with
Aaron Rodgers, yes or no? As a Super Bowl contender
in twenty twenty five. No, No, I think most people
(40:33):
would probably take that tech. But they are going to
be competitive enough, one would think to mess around and
win eight, potentially nine games if they surprise us ten,
that's not good enough. That's just going to keep you
in this weird purgatory that they've been existing in for
the last eight years. And I'm not saying that the
Pittsburgh Steelers should either blow it up or go all in,
but I just it's neither of those things, and I
(40:56):
could argue that that's worse.
Speaker 3 (41:01):
I there's a lot on this, There's a lot on this.
Speaker 5 (41:05):
Well, we have forty five more minutes. You don't have
to do it all.
Speaker 3 (41:07):
Now, You're right, I'll never say there. Look, I'll say this.
I believe that this is going to go off the rails.
You and I have talked about this. I believe the
Steelers are going to have a tough season. You and
I have talked about this.
Speaker 2 (41:20):
I believe that that is going to lead to the
separation of Mike Tomlin and the Pittsburgh Steelers at the
end of the season. And I also believe that is
a terrible, terrible thing to do. And I'll tell everybody
why after we take a break.
Speaker 3 (41:32):
He's Buck Rising.
Speaker 2 (41:33):
I'm Jason fitz We're sitting in on two pros and
a cup of Joe on Fox Sports Radio.
This is the best of two pros and a couple
Joe with Lamar Arings rating Winn and Jonas Knox on
Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
I have at times been lightly accused by Buck Rising
being anti Nicks. I've been lightly accused at times of
maybe finding too much negative around positive for the Knicks.
So I say that knowing full well that this doesn't
(00:35):
sound very pro Nicks. But I'm just wondering, after all
the weight, after all the time, after sitting around for
weeks wondering who the head coach would be, we really
feel an a static.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Over Mike Brown's fucking fits hanging out with the on
Fox Sports Radio. It's just coming straight out in New York.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
As we start on the third of July edition, he's
Buck Rising, I'm Jason Fitz. He's smiling at me as
I even started this, because all al acquies know that
the next law they win in the second round and
they change the name of streets and they parade, and
I and Bucket and I were hanging out at the time,
and we were on radio, and I said, I just
don't get it.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
They don't raise banners for second round wins.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
And you know it felt looking back at it felt
like maybe I was a little harsh for the Knicks
against the Knicks, so buck, I've been, you know, sitting
here trying to figure out am I polishing a pig
or am I doing the opposite? Here, Like, after weeks
of wondering who the next head coach would be, Mike
Brown is the next sit coach. And that's fine, that's fine,
but it's just fine right Like you're not doing cartwheels
(01:34):
in the street. If you're a Knicks fan today, are.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
You look at you? I imagine that the New York
radio audience is waking up to enjoy potentially a holiday
for some, potentially a drive to work for others, and
they're thinking, Okay, I'm gonna get to hear about my
new head coach on Fox Sports Radio, and then they're
greeted with that smug I can hear, even if I
(01:57):
wasn't looking at you, Lubody smugs mud on you in
Connecticut and me in Nashville today, I could hear the
smugness in your tone. I could hear the smile on
your face knowing that you got to wake up.
Speaker 5 (02:12):
And bother the Knicks fans.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
Here's the thing, though, Mike Brown may be too good
for the next based on the way that the Knicks
have gone about this thing. It's it's it has to
be irritating. And we've talked about this VICI. I'm a
Pacers fan, all right, So there's no love loss between
me and the New York market and my sports fandom.
I am not in a position to throw rocks from
a glass house because I would argue that the Indiana
(02:36):
Pacers have one of the worst ownership groups in the league,
and that's just because they're cheap, not just because they're incompetent.
Speaker 5 (02:42):
But to fire Tom.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
Thibodeau the way that they did, and I I couldn't
make it make sense. I could make it make sense
because I understand who that coach is. I have seen
situations in covering professional sports teams for my entire career.
Speaker 5 (02:58):
You doing the same.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
We have both seen situations where you think a coach
has a ceiling and though they may have excelled in
a certain year and been successful over a period of time,
and in the case of TIBs it was five years
in New York, you might understand, Okay, there's more that
this thing has to give, but you have to have
(03:20):
a plan. You have to have a plan to be
able to maximize this thing, especially when you are dealing
with something as fragile as the New York sports fan psyche.
And I cannot imagine that news broke in the middle
of my local show here in Nashville yesterday was probably
sometime during the eleven o'clock Central hour, and I just
made a face like I smelled something bad, and then
(03:41):
immediately realized, God, it must be so easy to do
New York sports talk radio today because all you have
to do sit back, open up the phone lines, and
let people vent because New York cannot be happy. Not
with Mike Brown. Mike Brown, to your point, is fine,
but with their organization for wasting this much time firing
a successful coach just to turn around and hire somebody
(04:04):
who is fine.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
It For me, the big kick in the no no
Places out of this is that, frankly, what we all
want is hope when your team gets eliminated and it
doesn't end in a championship. As a fan of a
team that stinks, what I want is I want to
have a little bit of hope going into next season.
And it's hard for me to find just gratuitous overflowing
(04:27):
hope for Mike Brown, not because he's not good. I mean,
obviously he's been a Coach of the Year twice, right,
But in the NBA that that feels like that's a
common thing.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
I don't know why.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
It just feels like you can be Coach of the
Year one year and you're just you're on the trash curb.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Next the next month, and it doesn't That's kind.
Speaker 5 (04:42):
Of the thing in the NFL too. I don't know
if you've looked.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
At the latest coach of the year, what happens to
them after the fact?
Speaker 5 (04:47):
Shout out Brian day Boll, Yeah, that.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
You weren't wrong, and it's but there's this moment for
me where you got to have a plan and this is.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Why you cannot react emotionally.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
And the hardest part of all of this is that
at at the end of the season, when you lose
in the playoffs but it was a great run, how
do you compartmentalize all of that? And I don't have
the answer for this, right like, I honestly don't have
the answer of how you sit back and you make
sure that you're reacting logically and not emotionally when frankly
(05:16):
you own these teams, and he becomes so emotionally invested.
But this is the problem with an emotional rejerk, knee
jerk reaction, because the minute you make that, if you're
firing your coach without a clear, succinct plan on how
you're going to bring in somebody that's better, and you
just can't tell me that that was this, Like they've
been denied too many interviews from other teams and from
other people.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
They just couldn't get any interest anywhere.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
And I don't understand how they didn't organizationally know that.
That's the fatal flaw on the higher to me is
that you had to know you've got your own people,
your own channels that you can work, your own phones
that you can work. You've got to have a better
idea the minute you fired Tims on exactly who you
can talk to and who's interested. You don't wait a
month and then give every Mike Brown because he's the
(06:01):
only person you could even talk to.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
The only person you talk to twice.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Like all of this just feels like settling book. And
that's that's a loss from the minute it starts.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
And it's it's compounded because of what you just said
who they hired to be this franchise as president, or
you're familiar with Leon Rose, Yeah, Leon Rose, For people
who don't know. As a former sports agent, he worked
for a behemoth called CIA Creative Artist Agency.
Speaker 5 (06:27):
If you don't know what CIA is in.
Speaker 4 (06:29):
The general public, they basically run your sports and entertainment world.
If you see Peyton Manning, Chick fil A, and Coca
Cola all in a Super Bowl commercial together, although I
suppose that would be conflcting brands, even if even so,
you understand that those brands and those individuals are all represented.
Speaker 5 (06:45):
By CIA, and CIA put.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
Together your Super Bowl commercials, right, This is what Leon Rose.
Leon Rose was hired as somebody who should have the
inside track on these things, right, who should be able
to maximize those connections, who should be able to take
advantage of industry connections to make sure, all right, if
we make a move like firing a coach who we
feel like didn't have quite enough, even though he got
(07:10):
us to our first conference finals for the first time
in twenty five damn years. I was six years old
the last time the New York Knicks played in an.
Speaker 5 (07:19):
Eastern Conference finals.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
Fits okay, not in my cognizance sports lifetime have the
Knicks mattered as much as they did in this most
recent postseason. And like I said, that's fine, if you
have a plan, you hire Leon Rose, who's been in
this position for several years now to have a plan.
And the fact that they still couldn't get it right
and still got turned down interview after interview, and still
(07:44):
got blocked for the ability to interview other teams, candidates
and things like that, just to end up with Mike Brown.
That has to be the most disheartening part of this.
You thought that you were in a position and had
the right people in place to be able to take
advantage of a week and do like this, and now
you're looking around shrugging your shoulders. And again I want
(08:05):
to reiterate, it's not to me about Mike Brown. Mike
Brown is a fine basketball coach. He's a completely competent
professional NBA basketball coach. Nobody would dispute this. And by
the way, he's somebody who's familiar with pressure, though this
is a different kind of pressure that he is getting
ready to step into. Because immediately I don't know, and
you might be able to tell me or hell I know,
(08:27):
we don't. You and I don't typically do phone calls,
but maybe we do this morning on Fox Sports Radio
eight seven seven nine nine six sixty three sixty nine.
Speaker 5 (08:35):
That's eight seven seven.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
Nine nine six sixty three sixty nine if you want
to weigh in on the situation with the New York
Knicks hiring Mike Brown.
Speaker 5 (08:44):
By the way, not yet.
Speaker 4 (08:45):
Official, so there's still time for him to look around
and be like, I don't know about all this. This
feels different because immediately fits what happens. He is walking
into a job where his entire fan base is already
knives out.
Speaker 5 (08:58):
He gets no grace, period.
Speaker 4 (08:59):
He is walking in to an absolute buzzsaw.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
He's walking into a situation that the last guy got
fired for not winning a championship.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
I mean, there's just no.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
The last guy got fired for not making it to
the NBA finals.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Will say it.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
At least that for a team that hasn't made it
to the NBA finals.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
In a very long time.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
So what you immediately find out is that, Okay, you're
coming in for the expectations better be better than Tibbs, Right,
you got to be better than Tibbs for all of
this to matter. And if you're the Knicks, you were
sitting right on the precipice. It feels like of you know,
you've got something that is working for you. Whenever a
new coach comes in, book the other part of it,
and you've lived through, you've worked through multiple coaching changes
(09:42):
in the NFL level working around the Titans is what's
the first thing a new coach does when they come
in in any sport, they bring in their guys, right
Like they start to figuring out how to to If
I'm going to run a bakery, then I want to
hire chefs that I know, And I think that's pretty.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
Common in most businesses.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Like if I'm going to work in radio, I'm going
to work with people I like and people know. If
somebody works at.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
A stockbrokers firm and they change firms, what's the first
thing that they do.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
They try and bring all of their usual team and
their assistance and their junior brokers over with them, because
you want to work with people, you know, this is
a business one on one.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Well, now, Mike Brown, who again was hired because.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Tibbs apparently just wasn't good enough because he didn't go
to the NBA Finals, I'm still stunned by the fiery
If you're Mike Brown, you're coming into a situation where
you want to bring in your own which is going
to be a little of an adjustment, but you don't
have an adjustment period. Like all of this just feels
chaotic to me. And everything since TIB's got fired feels
as you know, frantic, as the pace that he plays with, right,
(10:39):
it all feels like it's just rolled downhill faster than
the Knicks organization was prepared for. And I love your
Leon Rose point because we saw Rich Paul in the
news this week.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
We saw everybody.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Talking about Rich Paul making a phone call to The
Sun's owner about trying to maneuver the draft.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
And people were freaking out, like this whole thing's rigged.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
No, that's what agents do, Like, that's what what the
best agents do. Is they're constantly on the phones and
they're constantly trying to work it to get their guys
where they want their guys or girls to be.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
Like this is one on one. I'm a little stunned
that between the value the money of James.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Dolan, the reputation of the Knicks, between Leon Rose and
the connections that he has when you just look at everything.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
The Knicks shouldn't be.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
The guy stuck at the party, just sort of settling
for whoever's there at three am, And.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
That just that feels like what's happened.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
It feels like the Knicks have looked around and said,
you know what, at the beginning of the night, we
weren't really all that into Mike Brown. But they're playing
closing time. It's three in the morning, gotta do something.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
Might as well do this one.
Speaker 5 (11:39):
God, that's so relatable.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
I one of us lists.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
In Nashville, the bars are at least opened until three am.
Speaker 5 (11:50):
I oh, well, you know, we try.
Speaker 4 (11:52):
We try to get home anymore by two am, Fitzy,
just just for the sake of I'm in my thirties
now I need my beauty sleep.
Speaker 5 (11:58):
But damn, damn if that.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
One didn't hit home a little harder here recently.
Speaker 5 (12:03):
But I sympathize, I really do.
Speaker 4 (12:06):
And I'm rare for me to have pity on New
York sports fans, But like today has to be so
disappointing because you're riding that high of what they were
able to accomplish, and you were very dismissive of them,
And I told you that you were very dismissive of
them when they beat the Celtics and a Celtics team
that was on literally one bad leg with an injured
superstar in Jason Tatum and a coach who I feel
(12:30):
is completely incompetent.
Speaker 5 (12:31):
In Joe Missoula.
Speaker 4 (12:32):
For as bad as the strategy and the lack of
adjustment in that postseason series was, but like they they
felt like they had momentum, did they not? That's the
most That's the hardest thing to quantify or to wrap
your hands around, momentum, right, But it's something that you
can look at me like, all right, the Knicks have
an infrastructure, They have a roster that you think is
(12:53):
going to be able to at least compete at a
reasonably high level in an East that's wide open. I mean, look,
would mentioning Boston they're done for the year. They just
blew it up. If you're not paying attention to the
NBA free agency period and the trades that have taken
place in the last couple of weeks, Indiana is going
to be I think a non factor in the East
next year because of the situation with Tyrese Haliburt and
(13:15):
they let Miles Turner go to the Bucks.
Speaker 5 (13:17):
That's fine.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
Cleveland's looking around and be like, hey, are we going
to win the East by default? Just because we are
returning as many good players as we as anybody at
this point in time, And we just got hurt in
the first round of the postseason or leading into the postseason,
so we lost steam as a team that looked like
an absolute wagon for the vast majority of the regular season.
The opportunity was there for the Knicks to just reach
(13:40):
out and take it, and instead the Knicks fans just
have to be throwing their hands up in the air,
be like, what the hell, man, come on, just let
us enjoy this for a period of time. At least,
let me have an off season of hope. Nobody loses
the off season. That's the beauty of the off season.
We're in the middle of the NFL offseason right now.
Not a single fan base, even Browns fans, whose management
(14:01):
seems to be completely incompetent top to bottom with their
quarterback strategy and things of that nature. Even Browns fans
have a little bit of optimism in the offseason.
Speaker 5 (14:10):
Knicks fans have to be in an unrelenting hell.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
We are just getting rolling. We'll take the unrelenting.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Hell coast to coast because for all the conversation about
the Knicks, what do we think of the Lakers today?
Speaker 3 (14:22):
We'll get into it. It's a big day on two
PRIMI cover showbody.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
We're just gonna be smoking everybody. We're throwing fireworks out,
That's what we're doing. We're throwing fireworks out everywhere.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
It's a two day takeover, So.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Buckett I will be here today and tomorrow for all
of your two pros and cup of Joe fun. But
we will get into the Lakers big moves, questionable moves.
We'll figure out what they're doing in La next these
buck Rising on Jason Fitz. We're hanging out with you
on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 6 (14:49):
Hey, it's Ben, host of The Fifth Hour with Ben
Mallor with mean a lot to have you join us
on our weekly auditory journey dressed. What in God's name
is the Fifth Hour? I'll tell you it's a spin
off of it. Ben Mathershaw could hit obernights on FSR.
Why should you listen? Picture if you will? A world
will We chat with captains of industry in media, sports
and more every week explore some amazing facts about human
(15:12):
nature and more. Listen to the Fifth Hour with Ben
Mather on the iHeartRadio App, Apple Podcast, or wherever you
get your podcast.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Be sure to catch live editions of Two Pros and
a Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn, LeVar Errington and
Jonas Knox weekdays at six am Eastern three am Pacific
on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Fandom is so often about hope, right, It's about hoping
that your favorite team is going to do something unprecedented,
that you're gonna have memories for the rest of your life,
that you're gonna have a wall full of memorabilia for
a championship, right, Like, that's what we're all hoping for.
And some of that hope has to come from the
(15:54):
organizational structure. So the question really becomes, what do you
do when your favorite team simply has an owner that
isn't any good at owning a football, basketball, or baseball team?
Where do you find your hope when you realize that, frankly,
the entire system of how the business is built for
your team is failed. He's Buck Rising on Jason Fitzen.
(16:16):
This all comes from the Knicks.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
We're hanging out with you on two pros and a
cup of Joe. The Knicks sort of.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Led us to a conversation about the NBA, which led
us to an overall thought press us on team ownership
and Buck what's interesting and Buck covers the Titans down
in Nashville. Obviously you see team ownership up close and personal.
But it just really gets interesting to me because at
some level, most professional sports teams are owned by somebody
(16:47):
that at their core is a fan. And so you
want that very rich fan to do something wildly impossible.
You want that very rich fan that's made so much
money in their life that they can afford hundreds of millions,
if not billions of dollars depending on the sport, to
buy a franchise. And then you want them to invest
that money smartly. You want them to hire great people.
And then this is the really tricky part. After they've
(17:07):
invested the money and after they've hired the people, you
want that owner to then just go away, right.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
You want that owner to knock it in the way.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
And I'll say, James Dolen, the owner of the Knicks,
has been absolutely destroyed time and time again. I've looked
at it from the outside looking in and said, man,
what do you want the guy to do? Like when
everybody said that Dolan was meddling too much, we went
out and hired Phil Jackson because oh my god, like
Phil Jackson's biggest name, and that doesn't work. And all
of a sudden, it said, well, Phil wasn't even really
(17:36):
that into the job. He just took the money. Well
that's not Dolan's fault, you know.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
And then well he still gets in the way of
all of it.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
I'm a Raiders fan, as most people know, right and
Mark Davis Raiders have just absolutely been garbage as a
franchise for.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
Most of my adult life.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
But I can also look at Mark Davis and say, Okay, yeah,
he brought in John Gruden, which I can understand why
he thought that was probably a good idea.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
Turned out to me.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
They brought in Josh McDaniels, which at the time, he's
just getting the biggest name he bossible. Again, now he
brings in Pete Carroll. At some point, you're just you're
a guy with a ton of money that's trying to
figure out how to turn that money into wins, and
all of this just leads you back to that same point,
what do you do if the person that runs your
team just isn't really capable of running a football team?
(18:22):
Like now, you can't change the owner of your team
a football, basketball, any of those bucks. So, like, it's
just interesting to me because I think there's there are
more bad owners in sports than good and I don't
think that's a fixable problem.
Speaker 4 (18:34):
No, I wouldn't imagine that it is. And it's interesting
that you bring up that. I would know ownership up
close and personal. That's not the case. Here in Nashville,
Amy Adams Strunk is the controlling owner of the Tennessee Titans,
and she does not do public appearances. She does not
take questions and press conferences. She has fired three straight
(18:57):
heads of state here in Nashville, where John Robbinson the
general manager, then Mike Rabel the head coach, then Ran
garth On the general manager. Now she's on to Brian
Callahan and Mike Borganzi. Is a combination of people, and
she has done all of these things through statements released
by the team or she has done interviews with team employees.
(19:18):
Mike Keith, the former voice of the Tennessee Titans who's
now doing games in Knoxville, Tennessee. Not to get hyper
local with it, but my point is she doesn't put
herself in a position to be questioned on these things.
She gets to make these decisions from an ivory tower.
She can put out a statement and she can let
other people be the fall guy or gal for her,
(19:38):
depending on the role. And that is certainly a style
of ownership, right, That's kind of the thing that Fitsie
you're alluding to a little bit where she'll make these decisions,
she'll hire people to do the job, and then she'll
take a step back until somebody gets in her ear
and says, well, yeah, that person you hired a couple
(19:59):
of years go, maybe they're not doing as good a job.
Speaker 5 (20:02):
I'll do a better job.
Speaker 4 (20:03):
Why don't you put me in this role, and then
I'll be to do and then I'll be able to
do it better. Then creates a Game of Thrones type
of environment within an organization that you just have to
have the ear of ownership to be able to influence
a multi billion dollar industry, which is crazy, crazy, but
that's a very Sports is a microcosm for society and
(20:27):
life at large. Right, So anything that you see happening
at a sports level could also be you know, there's
politics in every industry, whether you want to attribute those
behavior behavioral characteristics to politics or not.
Speaker 5 (20:41):
There are office politics.
Speaker 4 (20:43):
And that exists in the NFL and the NBA and
in professional ownership professional sports. No matter what level you're
looking at, there are more bad owners than good. But
to your point, I just don't know what There is
no perfect solution here because you want somebody that cares,
(21:03):
but you also don't want somebody that cares enough to
get involved or get in past their depth, past their
point of competency, when they have probably hired people to
do those jobs, and now all of a sudden they
are lending their or they're sitting in on.
Speaker 5 (21:17):
The meetings and.
Speaker 4 (21:19):
Doing one of these numbers where they're like, oh, you
won't notice me at all.
Speaker 5 (21:23):
I'm just sitting in the.
Speaker 4 (21:24):
Middle of this while all of you who work for
me and your professional livelihoods depend on me, don't pay
any attention to me. While I sit here in field
Foald calls about likely your job viability.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
I've had this awakening because a lot of what you're
describing here, by the way, is also Jerry Jones, right,
Like Jerry Jones cares deeply about the Cowboys.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
I don't think you no question.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
You're spent two seconds around Jerry Jones can question that,
but he's just not. I mean, when you want to
look at why they haven't won a championship, at some
point you have to continue to look at Jerry Jones.
But here's what has hit me as you were talking.
There's no recourse for these owners. There is absolutely no
(22:06):
recourse because in my blood I joked earlier about being
a lifelong, diehard six month Dodgers fan. I don't care
about the Dodgers. If they suck, I'll just go somewhere
else and root for somebody. I don't care well way
they are that I didn't grow up with a favorite
baseball team, I don't care. I am a lifelong die
hard Raiders fan, and it doesn't matter. I grew up
an Oakland or an LA Raiders fan that became an
(22:26):
Oakland Raiders fan that is now a Vegas Raiders fan.
I don't care what city they play in, right, I
don't care. I grew up with it watching Al Davis
and now I got Mark Davis.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
I don't care.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
Like at the end of the day, I cannot change
the fact right or wrong. As much as I'm a
grown ass man admitting this into a microphone, I cannot
change the fact that the way the Raiders play moves
my heartbeat on Sundays like it makes me feel things, rage, joy,
all of these things that nothing else does.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
It is ingrained in who I am. Thanks Dad.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
It is part of my culture of how I will
be described for the rest of my life. In my
sixth grade yearbook, one of the teachers wrote, go Raiders,
because all the way back then, I was just wearing
a Raiders hoodie every day in my life. Nothing changes that,
So at the end of the day, there's really no
recourse to Mark Davis if the Raiders suck, like I'm
(23:17):
still gonna buy the gear. I'm still gonna watch it
like most people, and as often as somebody on Twitter
wants to be a Karen and be like, I'm never
coming back to this restaurant. Yeah, yeah, y are I
mean if you if you turn around and say you
know this. The Titans fan base might be small, but
they are mighty, and they are loud right like the
are they are a handful said kindly there is.
Speaker 4 (23:37):
Mighty is not how I would describe that, but that's
very kind of you.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
They are they are passionate, let's say, but they're passionate.
And the fact is, if this team wins three games,
they're still gonna be passionate. Like, if this team wins
three games, they're still gonna have a beautiful, swanky new stadium.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
That is going to make the team money.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
And at the end of the day, Amy Adams Strunk
is still gonna get her porche of all of the
profit sharing that is part of being an NFL owner.
So when you know as an owner of whatever, whether
we're talking about the NBA, the NHL, major League Baseball,
it doesn't matter.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
When you know as an owner that your stadium is.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Going to be full enough that you're making your money,
you know that you're going to get profit share out
of the agreements that are already there across the board.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
And you know that through all of it fans because
it's ingrained in them.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
The majority of fans are never going to be able
to quit being fans of your favorite team. Like I
got killed on air at the time during the entire
Colin Kaepernick controversy that was going through saying, hey, if
you don't like the way your favorite team is handling it,
just don't be a fan of them anymore. If you're
so passionate about it, just put away the gear.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
And the answer to that was, well, that's impossible. Owners
know that, So they stick.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
Of their job because who's ever going to stop them
from sticking at their job?
Speaker 4 (24:59):
It is is one of the more frustrating parts of
being a fan because it's completely out of your control,
even though you think you have some level of control,
and by the way, you think you are entitled.
Speaker 5 (25:09):
To have an opinion.
Speaker 4 (25:11):
I am critical sometimes of a rational fan reaction.
Speaker 5 (25:16):
God knows, Titans fans.
Speaker 4 (25:17):
Would probably snort and laugh hearing me describe it that kindly,
But I think that some of it is a bit
off the wall. But that doesn't mean that you don't
have a ride as a fan to express your emotion.
And I think that goes both ways. That describes hate
and that describes love. Like I think that you should
be able to operate on the full fan spectrum. If
(25:40):
you are somebody who has put the amount of time
investment financially personally into your favorite team, you should be
able to have an opinion about the way that that
team is run. But the idea that that opinion has
actual impact is the thing that I think fans forget
at the end of the day, or that that entitlement
to that opinion gives you the ability to impact change,
(26:03):
when in reality, the only people that have the ability
to impact change with your your favorite sports team are
the people who own it, because it's it's a plaything
to them, it's a billionaire's play ground.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
We could impact that change, like you and me. No, no, no, fans,
this is where see I think fans, all.
Speaker 5 (26:24):
Play is going to make us almighty. And you know,
because we have the power of the microphone.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
Baby, we got them, no, no, no, but we have
the power of the dollar. Like you really want to
impact change, stop making it a profitable business.
Speaker 4 (26:35):
But even then, FITZI, I just think there are so
many different avenues of revenue. Because you bring up the
Titans new stadium, and the Browns have announced a stadium plan,
and the Bills are getting a new stadium.
Speaker 5 (26:47):
Right, there's there's.
Speaker 4 (26:47):
Stadium for sure, for sure, But that Titans stadium is
not about the Tennessee Titans. The Tennessee Titans just happened
to exist in Nashville. That stadium is going to happen
because now Ashville, the city in Ashville wants to host
a Super Bowl, The city in Nashville wants to host WWE.
They want the biggest international events. They are pissed that
(27:10):
they missed out on the World Cup and that Kansas
City is going to be a World Cup host site,
which is nonsense. The worst airport in America, even though
I know they're getting a new one, is going.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
To be at airport.
Speaker 5 (27:21):
That airport is trash.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
It's time.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
It's all separated, like once you go through the security
in these four gates, you're con.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
It's so disorienting that airport. Anyway, we don't have to
religate that. My point is the Tennessee Titans are like
the least important thing in that stadium that's going to
be occupying that stadium's time.
Speaker 5 (27:39):
Because how many dates is it? In reality, it's ten.
Speaker 4 (27:42):
It's a couple of preseason games, and depending on the year,
eight or nine regular season games, and god knows, they
don't host playoff games around here because they don't make
the playoffs.
Speaker 5 (27:51):
But there are so.
Speaker 4 (27:52):
Many other things three hundred and sixty five days of
the year that are going to be occupying that stadium
that are going to.
Speaker 5 (28:00):
Make her way more money her Amy, Adam.
Speaker 4 (28:02):
Strunk, or any ownership group than the actual team that plays.
Speaker 5 (28:05):
In there on Sunday.
Speaker 4 (28:06):
So even the ability for a fan to impact how
ownership responds to things with their dollar has been mitigated
because well, I'll just take somebody else's dollar, or I'll take.
Speaker 5 (28:18):
The opposing fans dollar.
Speaker 4 (28:20):
Because Nashville is a destination city, baby, and if the
Vikings fans want to come in here and take it
over where their money spends just as well as yere does.
In fact, their dollar probably goes further because they spend
it on tickets, they spend it on concessions, they spend
it on Lower Broadway getting drunk before the game, and
after the game when their team beats the Titans, they
spend it on hotels. They stretched that visiting fan dollar
(28:46):
five times more than they would a local dollar. So
it's this really difficult spot that fans are caught in into.
Speaker 5 (28:53):
And I don't mean to you know, this.
Speaker 4 (28:54):
Whole diatribe to say, well, it's hopeless and you can
control nothing about it. But at the end of the day,
thing ittt what's the team that's most recently changed over
ownership in the NFL the Commanders Washington.
Speaker 5 (29:06):
Yeah, how hard was it to do that?
Speaker 4 (29:08):
And that guy had you know, he was getting congressional
subpoenas while hiding out in the south of France on
a mega yacht.
Speaker 5 (29:14):
Like you had to track that.
Speaker 4 (29:15):
Guy down and drag him through court over a period
of twenty years to get him out of there.
Speaker 5 (29:21):
And that's the extreme, right.
Speaker 4 (29:22):
These things just don't they don't You struggle as a
fan with it because you, at the end of the
day understand that they are playing an entirely different game
than you are.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
He's Buck Rising. I'm Jason fitza.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
You mentioned all of this, and it just takes me
straight to Cleveland, where fans are going to be upset
because Cleveland, the Browns may have destroyed what little home
field advantage they actually have.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
Will tell you about it. Next, Two Pros and a
Cup of Joe. He's Buck Rising. I'm Jason fitz hanging
out with you on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
Be sure to catch live editions of Two Pros and
a Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn, LeVar Arrington and
Jonas Knox week days at six am Eastern three Am Pacific.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
We live in a sports world where everything has to
be a massive deal. It has to be absolutely this
team is all in, or absolutely this team is all out,
where everything has to be clearly good or bad and
there's no in between. And I guess this week I
want to challenge that because as much as we.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
Want to talk about the names involved.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
With the Pittsburgh Steelers, isn't it at least possible that
the Steelers are not doing anything revolutionary, that the Steelers
aren't doing anything, that mortgage is their future, and in fact,
the Steelers are just doing what they have to do
to make it through this year.
Speaker 3 (30:39):
It's not a sexy take, but sometimes the right take
is maybe it works out. Stuo Bros. And a cup
of Joe.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
He's Buck Rising on Jason Fitzen, Like I just push
back sometimes to hot take culture, which we're all part
of because we sit here in front of microphones every
single day, and you don't get to the point that
you sit in front of a microphone unless you're opinionated.
Speaker 3 (30:58):
I feel like.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
Buck and I share a common trait in that we're
both the type of person that in a bar you
can say almost anything, and we're gonna say, well.
Speaker 3 (31:07):
Yeah, Bud, have you thought about it this way?
Speaker 2 (31:09):
Like, I think you have to be at some point
argumentative to get into radio in general or sports media
in general. But that being said, Buck, the Pittsburgh Steelers
make a trade Jalen Ramsey for make and Fitzpatrick, and
they also acquire John new Smith. This is shortly after
signing Aaron Rodgers, and I've just heard all sorts of takes.
I've heard everybody yelling and screaming. Even we've played on
(31:31):
Fox Sports Radio. To be completely fair, this morning, we've
been playing some of Colin Cowherd saying, oh, this is
all in?
Speaker 3 (31:38):
Like why is this all in? I guess my whole
thing is.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
Like, look, the Steelers are who they are, and yes,
they've acquired some big names.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
They've given up a big name in the process of
doing it.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
But what if in doing this, what they've really done
is they've brought some people in for this year. They
haven't mortgaged their future to do it. They haven't sold
off future draft picks.
Speaker 3 (31:57):
To do any of this.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
They haven't screwed up their salary recap in the process
of trying to figure it all out. They put themselves
in a situation where, knowing that they don't have short
term solutions to want to be more competitive, they've gone
out and done the best they can to put in
short term solutions to wanting to be more competitive.
Speaker 3 (32:14):
Is it gonna work? Maybe? Is it going to be meaningful? Maybe?
Are the Steelers actually gonna be much better? I don't
think so.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
It makes them a conversation piece, and that to me
is really just what the Steelers are. They're not a
terrible football team. They're not a great football team. They're
just a football team that because of name recognition, brand recognition,
their coach.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
And their quarterback.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
We're going to talk a lot about this year, but
I think the takes have gotten out of control this
week about what all of it means.
Speaker 4 (32:39):
Which is always the case, right, somebody's gonna fly off
it only you mentioned cities that would take an NFL
team off in other city's hands if they weren't willing
to pony up the cash for a new stadium. It
only takes one person to have the extreme opinion before
everybody starts flying off the handle. The reason why the
Steelers are interesting in this specific situation, and I would
(33:02):
describe them as the most interesting team in the NFL
offseason because of the moves that they've made, but not
necessarily just because of the moves that they've made, but
because it's so uncharacteristic of how the Steelers typically go.
Speaker 5 (33:15):
About roster building.
Speaker 4 (33:17):
Now, I know Omar Khan has been in that job
for a couple of years now at this point, and
I'm blanking on the name of the former Steelers general
manager who was in that role for a very very
long time. Perhaps fits you can use the internet to
assist me there. But this is a different approach that
we are seeing them take. It doesn't mean that it
(33:37):
will be a bad approach or a good approach. It's
just not the typical behavior that we're accustomed to seeing
from them, which is they don't have a long term
quarterback solution. They are going in maybe not all in,
but they're going in on forty one year old Aaron Rodgers,
who still has something. The biggest detriment to Aaron Rodgers
(33:58):
game right now versus who Aaron Rodgers used to be
is his mobility. And he was behind a bad offensive
line last year in New York and that was a
contributing factor. And also he's got his own he's got
his own baggage that he comes with on and off
the field, specifically as to who he'll favor as far
as his targets and who he'll try to get you
to acquire if he doesn't like who you've already acquired,
(34:20):
which is also an interesting component to this. But it's
because like they they don't make moves like trading for
Jalen Ramsey, who's still a good player, right but Mega
Fitzpatrick is also a good player. So if it's if
it's a push as far as what they gain versus
what they lose in this trade with Miami.
Speaker 5 (34:42):
And they also pick up a tight end in John U.
Speaker 4 (34:46):
Smith, who Arthur Smith, the offensive coordinator there is familiar
with that.
Speaker 5 (34:50):
Could be of benefit.
Speaker 4 (34:51):
And you look at the Steelers tight end depth chart
and you think, okay, Darryl Daryl Washington and out of
Georgia a couple of or is it Darnell or Daryl Washington?
I can't remember exactly, Darnell Darnell, thank you. Darnell Washington
out of Georgia a couple of years ago, one of
the physically freakiest athletes you've ever seen. And Pat Fryarmouth
who's going to be their obvious tight end one, and
John who's an interesting move tight end type of piece.
(35:14):
And then I kind of look around and say, well
that that would be a fun schematic thing for Arthur
Smith to work with if Aaron Rodgers was willing to
go along.
Speaker 5 (35:24):
With Arthur Smith's scheme.
Speaker 4 (35:25):
Like, there's just they have created here more questions from
my standpoint than answers, which is why I think people
are are either interested or confused by what the Pittsburgh
Steelers are doing, and then it leads you down the
rabbit hole of the hot take.
Speaker 3 (35:42):
Okay, so I'm going to create an imaginary scenario.
Speaker 5 (35:47):
Follow me. Okay, have a choice. But we're here now,
that's right.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
Yeah, Buck Rising and I are cogms of our new team,
the Indiana Risings. All right, it's a I put them
in Indiana just for the Indiana Risings.
Speaker 3 (36:01):
They play like, I.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
Don't know, in the middle of nowhere, Indiana, very small stadium,
not a great team.
Speaker 5 (36:06):
Paints basically the entire state.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
But okay, yeah, so it's not in Indianapolis, but you know,
it's the Indiana Risings.
Speaker 3 (36:12):
I'm gonna paint paint the scenario. Okay, fully round, yeah,
fort Wayne good, Yeah, that's good. Col fort Wayne Risings.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
We look around at our roster and we say, okay,
we've looked around to the roster.
Speaker 3 (36:24):
We got some good pieces on defense. We feel pretty
good about where we are. We've got a really.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
Good pass rusher wants to get paid, but I'm not
sure what we can do on that right now. We're
under contracts, so we're not gonna worry too much about that.
We feel good about where things are overall. But man,
we don't have a quarterback. We know we don't have
a quarterback. Okay, well, what are we gonna do? I mean,
there's no real option. We couldn't draft one. We didn't
like any of them in the draft, so none of
them were worth mortgaging a draft pickover. And the free
(36:49):
agent pool is pretty minimal. But there's this one guy
over here that might be pretty good. We can do
them for a one year deal. If he's got anything
left in the tank, then we can get something out
of him for fortyeen million dollars, right Like, if there's
nothing left in the tank, it's a one year deal,
doesn't cost us anything. Okay, we're also going to acquire
this tight end that this tight end that you know,
we know, but it may or may not have been
(37:12):
a one year wonder last year based on the production
compared to other years of his career.
Speaker 3 (37:16):
And to do that, it's a pick.
Speaker 2 (37:17):
Swap of a seventh and a fifth round pick, like
they We're not talking about a lot there.
Speaker 3 (37:21):
Okay, I feel pretty good about that.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
As you go up and down the list, I think
if you take the Steeler's brand off of it, if
you make them the Indiana Risings, what we see is
that Pittsburgh just looked around and said, Okay, there are
no options right now that truly go all in for
the future that fix our problems. And we don't want
to just walk into this season and suck, So why
not at least roll the dice on a couple of
(37:43):
things and see if it can make us more competitive
this year while we continue how to.
Speaker 3 (37:48):
Try and figure out how to fix our long term problems.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
Like that, to me is the most reasonable explanation of
what the Steelers are doing.
Speaker 5 (37:55):
But that's not a roll of the dice organization.
Speaker 4 (37:58):
That's a very thoughtful planned out And to your point
about taking the brand off of it's That's the thing
that I'm having the most difficulty overcoming is that this
is not what I have come to know as the
Pittsburgh Steelers in the way that they go about doing
their business. It also makes me wonder, Fitzi, and you
can tell me if I'm unfair about this, but it
also makes me wonder about the future of Mike Tomlin
(38:20):
that that's not an organization that makes rass decisions. They
are going to be They are going to try and
be as competitive as humanly possible, and they've probably identified
a window where they're gonna have some limitations, but that's
not going to keep them from being outright competitive, right,
they're not going to NFL organizations don't tank, and when
they try to, like the Dolphins did, they get fined
(38:41):
and they lose first round draft picks over it. Like
there are things to keep teams from doing this blatantly,
and I don't think the Pittsburgh Steelers would ever, It's
not in their DNA. The fan base would riot if
they thought that there was anything close to that. But
the fan base is always also pretty agitated about the
Mike Tomlin situation. It's how long has it been since
the Pittsburgh Steelers under Mike Tomlin won a playoff game.
Speaker 3 (39:04):
A very long time. Eight years.
Speaker 5 (39:07):
Eight years is how long.
Speaker 4 (39:08):
It has been since the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Pittsburgh Steelers
a championship caliber organization. They think you're in and year out,
but more often than not, has not won a playoff
game in eight years. They get in there, they get
into the wild card, they got dusted by the Chiefs
or whichever wild card opponent that they face, whichever higher seed,
and then Steelers fans go back to the drawing board
(39:30):
and be like, all right, how are we going to
break through this Tom Brady ceiling or this Patrick Mahomes ceiling,
whichever fire breathing dragon at that particular point in time
exists in the AFC, where now two of them exist
in their very own division in Cleveland, just because they're
you know, they're the Dunce cap of the AFC North.
They can't figure it out. But you still have to
figure out a way not just around Patrick Mahomes or
(39:51):
Josh Allen, but around Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow, which
is a difficult enough thing, and they're doing it well
enough to get by the Bengals right. The Bengals nuked
themselves because their defense was terrible last year, even though
Burrow and Chase arguably both playing at MVP caliber levels.
I just I don't know how you feel it about
it as a fan, and we could only the Steelers
(40:12):
fans could be the only ones to answer this. If
your team is doing enough to be competitive, but it's
just competitive enough, right, It's not meaningfully competitive, Like, I
don't think nobody. Are you looking at the Steelers with
Aaron Rodgers, yes or no? As a Super Bowl contender
in twenty twenty five. No, No, I think most people
(40:33):
would probably take that tech. But they are going to
be competitive enough, one would think to mess around and
win eight, potentially nine games if they surprise us ten,
that's not good enough. That's just going to keep you
in this weird purgatory that they've been existing in for
the last eight years. And I'm not saying that the
Pittsburgh Steelers should either blow it up or go all in,
but I just it's neither of those things, and I
(40:56):
could argue that that's worse.
Speaker 3 (41:01):
I there's a lot on this, There's a lot on this.
Speaker 5 (41:05):
Well, we have forty five more minutes. You don't have
to do it all.
Speaker 3 (41:07):
Now, You're right, I'll never say there. Look, I'll say this.
I believe that this is going to go off the rails.
You and I have talked about this. I believe the
Steelers are going to have a tough season. You and
I have talked about this.
Speaker 2 (41:20):
I believe that that is going to lead to the
separation of Mike Tomlin and the Pittsburgh Steelers at the
end of the season. And I also believe that is
a terrible, terrible thing to do. And I'll tell everybody
why after we take a break.
Speaker 3 (41:32):
He's Buck Rising.
Speaker 2 (41:33):
I'm Jason fitz We're sitting in on two pros and
a cup of Joe on Fox Sports Radio.
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