May 26, 2025 • 33 mins
Jason Fitz & Buck Reising are in for the guys and talk about the Knicks coming back from a 20 point deficit in Game 3 of the ECF to defeat the Pacers, NFL players participating in Olympic flag football, straight seeding in the College Football Playoffs, and much more!
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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 and rating Win and Jonas Knox
on Fox Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
So you're telling me there's a chance, I mean, grease
up the light poles. Everybody can celebrate the Knicks with
the improbable comeback, just when we thought the Eastern Conference
Finals were done, just when you thought the Knicks were
left for dead, just when you thought the entire thing
(00:34):
was over. Now, like an eighties wrestling match with Hulk Hogan,
the arms in the air, it falls the first time
it falls, the second time it's about to hit the match,
the match is about ten, and instead the arms starts shaking.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Hulk Hogan gets up.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
That's what the Knicks did last night, breaking the hearts
of Pacers fans everywhere, both of them. And I'm sitting
with one of them. He's Buck Rising on Jason Fitz.
It's bucking fits.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
We're taking over two bros and a cuple this morning.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Buck Rising from Indiana. By the way, it should be
noted a noted Pacers fan. The one time you're gonna
listen to any radio show anywhere in the country today
that has a Pacers fan.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
And I'm just I'm just curious, Buck's what's the pulse like, Buddy,
how are we feeling?
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Because it sure looked with a twenty point lead in
the first half, a double digit lead in the fourth quarter,
and then a complete meltdown, which.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Is part of you know, the way next win games.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
How we feeling, Buck, Yes, turns out we do exist.
Speaker 5 (01:29):
Pacers fans were not feeling great after the nexts went
down twenty at this point. Turns out all you need
to do to motivate the New York basketball team is
to get them down by twenty points and the.
Speaker 4 (01:41):
Rest will take care of itself.
Speaker 5 (01:43):
Things are, you know, I'd say tenuous at this point
in time, fitsy I'm not.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
I'm not like, I'm not super upset.
Speaker 5 (01:52):
I mean I am upset a one oh six, one
hundred loss in Indiana after going up to oh in
New York and giving the next fans the choking sign
and pointing at Reggie Miller and evoking all the good
vibes that you could possibly have about this series from
the Indiana fan perspective, to be able to close out
game one or I guess game three. Technically, the first
(02:13):
game in Indiana would have been lovely, But I'm still
pretty confident about my basketball team versus this next basketball
team because I just don't think they can do this
too many more times.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
I mean, okay, so let's think about it.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
There's a couple of ways this can be taken this time,
because we do know you mentioned and we were obviously
looking at this series saying, okay, how does Indiana handle
the Garden? You and I have talked extensively about handling
the Garden not really.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Being that big of a deal. Right, So Indiana goes
in there.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Fine, But there were moments in both of those games
where Knicks fans were convinced.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
They won it. So if you talked to a Knicks
fan this morning.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
All they're going to say is, man, we got unlucky
the first couple of games, and we did what we
do in the third game.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Everything's in to be fine.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
If you talk to Basers fans as well, I mean,
we won two at the Garden, and then minus a meltdown,
we would have this game. I think what is wild
about all of this is just to oversimplify for a second,
if you'll allow me, Karl Anthony Towns is just an enigma.
I don't know what to do with the fact that
Karl Anthony Towns just played and flat out sucked for
(03:15):
three quarters in this game and then all of a
sudden in the fourth quarter, Karl Anthony Towns.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
Is like, no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
This is this is why I I this is why
everybody covets me at some point, like Karl Anthony Towns
is maddening because when he plays the way he played
in the fourth quarter, all of a sudden, the next
look unstoppable. But you just can't bank on that game
in and came out, which is in and of it
self frustrating.
Speaker 5 (03:36):
If I have to lose, I don't want it to
be because of Karl Anthony Towns. And that's how I
felt in Game one, to be honest with you, when
he started hitting threes, more threes than he'd hit in
the entire Celtics series combined.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
Coming out the way that they didn't.
Speaker 5 (03:48):
Then obviously they had the epic collapse the way that
Knicks fans feared, of course, But with Kat it's such
a it's such an interesting conversation, right because I don't know,
I mean, do you genuinely believe that Karl Anthony Towns
can be relied upon on a consistent basis to bail
the New York Knicks out when they need bailing out.
(04:10):
Because to me, I understand that he's an incredibly talented player.
There's some differing in opinion as to whether this is
somebody who is consistent enough at the NBA level.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
Obviously, he's got all.
Speaker 5 (04:21):
The physical tools and gifts that you want to be
able to put himself in these positions. But like, I
don't know that I trust Kat, if I'm a Knicks fan,
to continually do this, or to be able to continually
do this down the stretch when there is so much
on the line. I just don't know that he's that
kind of a player, even though he was the player
that they needed last night? Is that unfair? Am I oversimplifying?
Speaker 3 (04:43):
Now?
Speaker 2 (04:44):
No, you're a thousand percent right, And I will just
go back to the team that no longer has Cat
right now that could really use a second player that's
capable of doing what Kat does.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
And so the best of Kat would really help Minnesota
right now.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Right Like if Minnesota had the best of what Karl
Anthony Towns is, they would be in a much different
situation in their to.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
Them, they're in. They're in hell right now. Don't do
that to them.
Speaker 5 (05:07):
You're looking at two teams and the conference finals built
off the backs of a Paul George trade, which delights me.
But the idea that you're you're gonna you're gonna tantalize
Wolves fans. But that wouldn't it be nice to have
Karl Anthony Towns at this point in your season?
Speaker 4 (05:21):
Shame on you, really fencing that well?
Speaker 2 (05:24):
I mean, first and foremost, Like, look, when you're as
damaged a fan as I am, like you have no
no worry in your heart about saying something that hurts
fans hearts like I'm used to living in the world
to hurt.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
We need a big old support group with each other.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
I think, the hell, what is that to start a
Monday morning?
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Oh my god, I'm just you know, I'm a beacon
of light in a darker world. Brother, I'm a beacon
of light, my friend.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Thinking trauma, I'm just well, that's that's I mean, my god,
I'm sitting here talking to you on a Monday morning
with my Raiders shirt on, like I just I live
in trauma constantly. I My point is that Minnesota did
the right thing and saying, no, he's not, he's not
the him. We needed that position, right, like, he's not
what we need to be able to bank on for
(06:07):
our franchise. They were so comfortable letting him go. And
obviously tou Leius Randalls is, you know, sort of their
number two.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
He's supposed to be their robin now. But they were so.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Comfortable letting Karl Anthony Towns walk because they understood the
limitations of Karl Anthony Towns.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
I think that speaks to.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Something like when you are an NBA team that has
a superstar and then you've got the guy that should
be able to be your robin and you're comfortable just
letting him walk away.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
That makes a statement.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
And that's part of what we see for the Knicks
because I just believe that the Knicks inherited somebody that Again,
it's it's all like if we were playing two K,
you feel great about it, but we're not playing two
K right Like when you when you actually watch the
result on the on the court, what we had last
night was laying basketball for three quarters until all of
a sudden it woke up, which is which is again,
if you're a Knicks fan today, that's what you're smoking
(06:54):
your cigar and climbing up to the top of the
street lights with like you're.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
Hare smoking a cigar.
Speaker 5 (06:59):
At this point of time, let me just say, New York,
let's let's let's keep the cigars unlet at this point
in time, just keep your powder.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
So now they can't sell now, you hypocrite. Now they
can't celebrate because one of us on this show team
damn it no, okay, okay, well, I mean one of
us working on this show right now may have may
have questioned the amount of celebrating for the New York
Knickerbockers after their win over the Boston Celtics.
Speaker 4 (07:24):
Brave early in the morning.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
They well, you know, I'm swinging. I'm you don't.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
You don't win swinging for singles, brother, when swinging for
home runs. At this point, that's a that's a terrible
baseball analogy because it's really not true.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
But we're gonna go with it this early.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
I'm just just allowing me this moment, I'm just in
celebrating that level after a second round win. I may
have been the one of the two of us that
said you don't raise banners for second round wins. Maybe
relax a little bit. You said I was a thief
for joy. Now when you're losing, Like, if you're a
Knicks fan and you're losing in the Eastern Conference Finals,
you feel kind of stupid if you celebrated that much
(07:59):
and all of a sudden, you're like, we ran.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
In the streets, but then we lost to Indiana in
the next round. I'm just saying that was the reality.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Until about ten minutes was left in that basketball game
last night, Knicks fans were definitely tucking their tails.
Speaker 5 (08:09):
I was in on Knicks fans until they started throwing
bags of garbage at that poor Pacers fan. And since then,
I've changed my tune. I don't think we've done a
show since then. But the other figure that needs to
be mentioned in the middle all of this is Tom Tibodeau.
Because they went with a different starting lineup last night.
They had backup center Mitchell Robinson in place of Josh
Hart when Miles McBride got in the foul trouble. When
(08:33):
Brunson got in a foul trouble early, that completely changed
the look of their rotation. They started going to role
players that really has not been a part of the
Knicks bag, at least to this point. So I think
Tips deserves credit in the middle of all of this
too for being able to manage the moment and manage
his lineup in ways that we haven't really talked about
him doing to this point.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
You disagree, No, I agree, But I also I'm Tony.
I'm full eighties wrestling today. I'm like Jimmy Mount to
the South Heart with my little megaphone in my hand,
and I'm the troll in the corner. Because I will
remind everybody that part of the reason that they needed
to put Mitchell Robinson into the lineup was because they
needed the size where Karl Anthony Towns was a liability
on the defensive side of the court for how much.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
For the first couple of games.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
I'm just saying that part of the reason they had
to make a change was because Cat was so poor
at certain things. So it just supports my point that
you can't rely on Cat over your troll. In the
morning after, I should be very pro New York. I
feel bad about it now, Buck.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
I'm still trying to figure out the wrestling reference. You've
just married. How the hell old are you?
Speaker 2 (09:33):
I'm old enough, I mean, yeah, like I'm almost I'm
about to turn forty eight, man, Like this is just
what happens.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
Like I grew up on.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Eighties wrestling, Like I grew out of eighties wrestling, but
I grew up on eighties wrestling. So like I got
a bunch of eighties wrestling toys in front of me,
I got macho man facing me right now, Like it's
inevitable these things are gonna happen for me.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
This is what happens when you're.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Old, dude, Like I'm old enough that, like there were
genuinely people that thought wrestling was real when I was
a kid, Like the Internet didn't even exist, dude, Like you.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Know how old I am?
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Buck I typed my papers in high school on a
typewriter because we couldn't afford a computer.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
Dude, Like that's how old I am.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
Again, we are working through it.
Speaker 5 (10:11):
Why does it always seem that when you and I
do one of these radio show togethers that we're just
working through what to me sounds like trauma, but you know,
at least for the next st So.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Being old is trauma, now, book, that's what you're gonna say,
Being old is traumatic.
Speaker 5 (10:23):
It sounds terrible. It just genuinely. It sounds terrible at
this point in time, but it's okay. These are emotional
times for you. I understand it would have been emotional
times for Knicks fans have they not been able to
get this done. And that's kind of that's kind of
the sense that you got from the post game press
conference comments. I don't know how much of that you
paid attention to, or may have watched on SportsCenter after
the fact, what have you, but you know, basically talking
(10:44):
about how it's emotional, they're playing the long game. Things
can happen, things can go not your way in these moments.
But I think Brunson said last night, you can easily
crash out or you can respond the right way. So
what are we gonna do this morning, FITZI We're gonna
crash out or we're gonna respond the correct way, because
I feel like we need to get our act together.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
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 Buck Rising.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Jason Fitz a little bit of flag football talk here
and hear me out flag football as it relates to
NFL fans, because we all saw the news last week
the NFL approved the process of involving football players NFL
players in the Olympics with flag football, and I keep
hearing people roll their eyes to it, and I just
(11:38):
want to explain buck a little bit of why this
is such a key moment for the league because we
were getting ready for Inside Coverage, one of the NFL
shows I host for Yahu Sports, and our insider Charles Robinson,
when we were doing our production meetings, said well, you
know what this is all about, right, and the rest
of us were like, no, no, please go on tell us.
So we started this deep dive explanation that I frankly
(11:58):
had never thought of about why the league for years
has been looking at the particularly the success that basketball
the NBA has had in places like China, and one
of the advance's advantages that the NBA has in China
is all you need is a ball in a hoop.
So as long as you have a ball in hoop,
you can play. Part of the globalization of soccer has
always been all you need is field in the ball.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
Well you can't do that in the NFL.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
There's so many rules and so much to explain and
so much that goes into it. It's hard for new
places to pick it up. And for years they've been
trying to figure out how to grow flag football because
specifically it's the easiest way to make sure that all
you need is a ball in a field. So they
look at this and they say, Okay, there's monetizing opportunities here,
like we need to find a way to grow internationally
(12:40):
above and beyond the series of international games, and they
look at flag football as a huge way to do this.
And then the players are looking around and they're looking
specifically at the growth in marketing for somebody like Kobe
when he started to go over to China and have success,
and what do they get to do over there. Well,
if you're a NFL player playing in flag football and
you're Nike athlete, right when we hit the Olympics in
(13:02):
a couple of years, Nike's gonna trot.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
Those athletes all over the world during the summer. They're
gonna go everywhere, and they're gonna play without helmets on,
which is rare.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
So like, if you're a Titans fan, and you're watching
cam Ward, you're really watching the side of his head.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
You're seeing a.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Helmet, right, Like it is tougher for football players to
be recognizable on the street because so many of them
are known for the helmets that they wear.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
This is your opportunity to suddenly be trodden all over
the world.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Make a ton of marketing money out of your shoe
deal because your shoe company's sending you everywhere, while the
league is growing its sport in front of people that
otherwise may not be willing to pick it up. And
it's the introduce, it's the gateway drug that gets you
into football. So when you start thinking about the money
and what it means for the NFL, I think what
we have to understand. NFL fans have to understand this
(13:50):
game is not for you. It's not it's not being
geared to it Like, the NFL doesn't care if NFL
fans like flag football. The NFL needs people in China
and Egypt and Asia and and all of these places
that right now aren't flocking to the sport. They want
them to fall in love with flag football is a
gateway drug that gets them into the NFL. As the
International Series grows, and that's why when you follow the
(14:11):
dollars and cents, you understand that this is a huge
initiative for the league.
Speaker 5 (14:16):
To your point, the NFL already has the NFL fan base.
Speaker 4 (14:21):
This is kind of the thing.
Speaker 5 (14:22):
And I don't know if we are going to get
to this today, FITZI, or if this is a topic
of discussion for another day. But the changes that are
happening happening in collegiate athletics and most specifically college football
right where college football fans are up in arms about
what they consider to be I think, on a lot
of cases, certainly in this part of the country in
(14:43):
Tennessee where I'm at, almost a direct attack on the
traditions of college football and kind of the ethos of
what the sport is, because it's being taken over by
essentially the television networks as they try and squeeze every
last dollar, last viewership opportunity out of America's second most
popular sport by not completely transforming it into an NFL
(15:07):
like model, but trending more in that direction than college
football fans are certainly comfortable with it. But it's not
about college football fans, because college football fans are already there.
They're trying to figure out how much further they can
expand the footprint of the college game to make sure
that they can, to your.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
Point, grab every last dollar and cents that's in front
of them.
Speaker 5 (15:27):
That way, the NFL has always been the king of this,
Roger Goodell most recently just getting another contract extension, because
I don't think any person is more single handedly responsible
for transforming the fortunes.
Speaker 4 (15:40):
Of a league than Roger Goodell is.
Speaker 5 (15:42):
With the NFL, the opportunities that they've been able to take,
the way that they have pushed this globalization of the game,
in the ways that they're still finding that they're still
finding other opportunities to further globalize the game. It's all
a part of the grand plan, right, And at the
end of the day, the answer to all of your
questions is always money. The only I mean, what's the
(16:02):
only real drawback of the flag football thing?
Speaker 4 (16:04):
Can you? Can you tell me?
Speaker 5 (16:05):
Because there's only one thing that immediately comes to my
mind injury?
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Right, the only the only drawback in my mind is
the potential for catastrophic injury. But when pressed, our insiders
have talked to people around the league, and there there
are two different mindsets on this.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
Let me be clear.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Coaches and gms want nothing to do with it. They
want their players to have nothing to do with this.
The guys that sit in the owner suites look at
all of the players and the risk of injury as
collateral damage. If there's a chance that a superstar player
goes down with an injury in the Olympics, but it
grows their business by billions of dollars, which they think
international growth can do.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
Man owners don't care. They're willing to take that risk.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
So the one risk that we as fans are sitting
here just obsessed about, Like, yeah, I'm the first to
admit that as a Raiders fan, I would love for
none of my favorite team's players to make the Olympic squad.
And I do think that's one portion of this that
we have to remember, Like all these players talking about
wanting to play, how are they going to feel when
they have to actually go out there and try out
for this team?
Speaker 3 (17:07):
And like who's going to be selected and how are
they going to be selected?
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Like are players going to be willing to take the
ego hit that comes with the possibility they don't get selected?
Like all of these things, but above and beyond that,
if your favorite player is in the Olympics, any God
forbid gets hurt. The Jerry Jones of the world have
made it clear behind closed doors that they're comfortable with
that risk if it means that suddenly they can sign
(17:30):
a new TV contract in China worth billions of dollars,
you know, And I.
Speaker 5 (17:35):
Do wonder just to push back slightly on what you're
saying about coaches and general managers, because FITZI and maybe
it's just talking to coaches locally down here and obviously
the Titans of the team that I've covered my entire
career as a reporter, and the NFL. You pick up
people throughout the court. More time you spend in the league,
the more people you get to know. People start to
(17:55):
spread out, They go to other places, they coach in
other spots and things like that. You try to keep
connections that way. But when you talk to coaches about that,
there's almost and it may be begrudging, it may be
more begrudging for some than it is for others, but
there's almost an understanding of it is very difficult, especially
in the NFL, which is supposed to be successfully built
(18:18):
for parody, and I think in a lot of ways
is even though the NBA is getting ready to give
us a seventh different champion year over year, in the NFL,
it's really just you're talking about Kansas City, You're talking
about Philadelphia. Before that, you were talking about the Patriots
and things like that. There seems to be more runs
of dominance in the NFL than there is at a
championship level than there has been just about every other
(18:39):
major sport that coaches will acknowledge, there is something singular
to be able to win a gold medal for your country.
This is to kind of get back to the Knicks
by you know, a little bit of a different kind
of a conversation. This is Carmelo Anthony in the Olympics, right.
Carmelo Anthony is one of the greatest basketball players in
(18:59):
US say basketball history. He is one of our greatest
champions when it comes to playing in international competition. He
mellow did more good for himself and for I just
I just general goodwill around the sport by being such
a willing participant in USA basketball despite not having championship
(19:22):
success in the NBA the NFL, I think coaches are
at least willing to acknowledge there is something so singular
about competing for your country that way, about the experiences
that it brings. Yes there is growth, Yes there is
financial opportunity. Those things will always be a part of
the conversation because it is what drives all of this stuff, right.
(19:42):
But I think that more coaches than you might then
you might realize, are okay with the idea of it's
really really hard to do what we're trying to do
here at the NFL level. If you can give yourself
the opportunity to go to go metal for your country,
that maybe it's not as important to the NFL coach
(20:03):
because at the end of the day, they're keeping their
job based on their ability or inability to win Super
Bowls in the National Football League. But coaches will also
acknowledge that the competitors at the highest level, there's just
there's not anything else like this, and this is the
first time that NFL football players have really been presented
with an opportunity like this.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
To that end, that's part of the reason.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
You know, again, I'll go back to Charles Robinson at
Yahoo Sports talked a little bit to some people in
the league that seem to think, oh, players aren't going
to really want to go through this process. But when
you talk to people around the players' union, they'll tell
you exactly what.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
You just said. Fifty three players every year plus but
at least fifty three players walk with the Super Bowl
ring every year no matter what.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
Right, You've got about a dozen players total that will
get a Olympic medal every four years. And then when
you start to talk about some of the legacy conversation
in twenty years, it's not just going to be well,
how many Super Bowls Holmes win.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
It's like, well, Mahomes won three.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Super Bowls, five Super Bowls, and he also won three
gold medals.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
Like that's all very real for these players.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
And so yeah, I mean it's a huge and look,
one of the coolest experiences I've ever had. Like when
I was with the band, we had the song for
Team USA in twenty sixteen, so we got to go
to Rio and we spent a couple of weeks out
there and like did the Today Show and all that stuff,
all the NBC shows while we were out there, but
we got to perform at the Team USA house and
(21:29):
just watching the Olympians that were coming in with their
medals after they won them, because once you're done with
the Olympics, for a lot of the guys, you just
get to hang out.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
Guys and girls you just couldn't hang out.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
So they were coming in with their gold and silver
medals and watching everybody myself included, flock to just see it,
to hold it, like it's such a special and rare
thing to get the opportunity to even be around. And
then you think about what that means, Like baseball players
have been dealing with this for years, Like if you're
a baseball player lucky enough to represent your country and
then you go out and win a medal, you come
(21:59):
back into the locker room man like that, there's power
to that.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
So I one hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
For players, it's such a huge incentive, Like it's a
huge incentive for the moment to have the metal. It's
a huge incentive for the moment to be all over
the world, especially this first one, you know, the Olympics
in La. You just think about all of these different pieces.
Of course, if you're a player, in my mind, like
it's simple, you want to play, you want something to
do with this. Now, flag football players, it should be noted,
(22:26):
are pushing back and the most air quotes, the most
famous flight football player, a quarterback that has already told
everybody he's better than Mahomes has made a clear look.
Speaker 4 (22:36):
At flag football.
Speaker 5 (22:38):
At flag football, make sure you make sure you give
him the appropriate contract. I mean, he's not saying that
he's a better quarterback than Patrick Mahomes, but.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
He is saying he is a better quarterback in flag football,
and it's a different game, and his football IQ understands
that different game. Okay, I couldn't roll my eyes any
harder to this. Are we going to presume that the
IQ required for flag football is so outside the nomenclature
of what is required to play in the NFL that
Patrick Mahomes can't figure it out? Like Patrick Mahomes is
(23:10):
gonna look at the tape on flag football and be like,
oh no, man, this I don't know. This guy over
here that's like five nine with tiny baby hands that's
throwing the football.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
It looks it looks.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Difficult in the footage and throwing the throwing the football,
like that guy is suddenly gonna outperform more Like I
hope it'd be awesome if we got into trials and
all of a sudden, all these NFL players went in
there and tried out and got their asses kicked by
flag football guys.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
Like good glory be to God. Good on. I'm like,
go get your medal and become a superstar.
Speaker 4 (23:38):
But I really have just experience watching flag football.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
Hey, you don't know me and my God come out
like my my football.
Speaker 4 (23:47):
Got Okay, that's fine.
Speaker 5 (23:48):
I will not pass judgment at this particular time, though,
I am I am skeptical.
Speaker 4 (23:54):
I'm skeptical.
Speaker 5 (23:55):
So the quarterback, the aforementioned flag football quarterback that you're referencing,
his name is Darryl Ducett. They call him Whosh all right,
And he gave an interview recently to the Washington Post
upon the news that the NFL unanimously approved the opportunity
for NFL players to participate in the upcoming Olympics in
the flag football competition. And this is the quote, the
(24:17):
flag guys deserve their opportunity.
Speaker 4 (24:20):
That's all we want.
Speaker 5 (24:21):
We felt like we worked hard to get the sport
to where it's at, and when the NFL guy spoke
about it, it was like we were getting kicked to the side.
I felt like I was the guy who could speak
out for my peers, for my brothers that's been working
hard to get to this level, for us to not
be forgotten. So not to tug at your heartstrings any more. Fancy,
given the way that you started this radio show basically
(24:43):
fans plaining to everybody that was in, was was in
within the sound of your voice this morning, about how
they should celebrate their team and experience their sports joy.
Speaker 4 (24:54):
He du set is going to be such low hanging
fruit here.
Speaker 5 (24:58):
He's going to be an possibly easy target for people
like you and I to tee off on because of
course we think that the flag football players should be
pushed aside for superior athletes if that's what gives our
country the best opportunity to win the gold medal. It's
not about you know, and I don't want to sit
(25:19):
here and discount what he's saying, because I do think
there's truth in that. To get flag football to a
point where it is now in an Olympic sport, that
means something.
Speaker 4 (25:27):
These guys have.
Speaker 5 (25:28):
These guys are playing it purely for the love of
their sport, right. It's not about the financial gain that
comes with it, although I'm sure that there's more financial
incentive than you or I may actually realize, but at
the end of the day, the vast majority of the
public is not going.
Speaker 4 (25:43):
To care about that.
Speaker 5 (25:44):
This person knows that and is still putting his neck
out there anyway to be like, Yeah, I don't care
what you say about me. I feel a certain type
of way about this. I feel like we deserve our opportunity,
and I think he's right. And if he gets beaten
out by the people who are better than this, are
better at this, who are physically to him, and it
just takes a little bit of a learning curve, that's
okay too.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
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.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
The news this week came out that college football is
going to get rid of any of the automatic seeding
advantages you saw from the college football playoffs. So, for example,
the highest ranked group of five team is still guaranteed
a playoff spot, but now they will be in the
playoffs based on wherever their ranking is. So this year,
if the highest ranked group of five team is let's
say I don't know U and olv and their ranked
(26:36):
number twenty three. They will not suddenly find themselves in
a top four seed with the first round by none of.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
That advantage still exists.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
So while they will get into the playoffs, the seeding
the playoffs will be done in a way that matches
the rankings of the teams, which I think is important.
But Buck, look, I think this was a smart change.
It all makes sense. You watched Indiana football last year
sort of take the world by storm, but then we
watch some of these non traditional teams get their butts
kicked in the playoffs. To me, the one thing that
(27:04):
really stands out though, is like, at some point, if
your college football just rip the band aid off whatever
changes you got, because college football fans hate any change
that ever comes through the door, so it doesn't matter
what it is. And I'm so tired of this very
false narrative that NIL is killing that change, the playoff
expansion and NIL and conference expansion is all killing college football.
(27:25):
It's like, well, I don't know, the ratings are pretty spectacular,
and the money being made by everybody's pretty spectacular, and
people are getting rich and everybody's still going together.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
I don't think the system's broken.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
I just think that college football fans are traditionalists, kind
of like baseball fans, and they hate any change through
their sport. So to me, I would just take a
pause on everything. I'd look at it and say, what
do we want the playoffs to be? How do we
want it to be? I'd rip the whole thing apart
and make guy ginormous changes right now, all at once,
just in a way that it's like, hey, we've ripped
a partner sport, but here's the new version of it.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
Fall in love with it or don't? We don't care.
Speaker 4 (27:58):
Why do you think that hasn't happened yet?
Speaker 2 (28:02):
Genuinely, because honestly, I think everybody is scrambling to figure
out the wise, the house and the rights, and because
nobody has been sitting here thinking forward thinking like everything
that's happening to the NCAA right now is their own fault.
Nil is the is their own fault. They never managed
any of these situations when they had the opportunity to,
(28:23):
so now all of a sudden they're scrambling to try
and figure out how to do it, and piece by
piece is like, well that's a good idea, it's better
than what we have so let's just do that.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
I don't know that you can recover that way.
Speaker 4 (28:33):
You can't.
Speaker 5 (28:34):
And that's that's been the biggest issue, that they are
in danger of taking advantage of one of the most
loyal audiences in any sport whatsoever.
Speaker 4 (28:46):
Fitsy.
Speaker 5 (28:46):
It's not just because you you are obviously familiar with
the SEC country and I live in Nashville, Tennessee, which
is right in the heart of SEC country, and we
both understand that college football in the Southeast is try.
It's an entirely different It's as close to I think
(29:06):
European soccer and the passion that the fans have as
anything that we have in American sports.
Speaker 4 (29:11):
Right.
Speaker 5 (29:12):
It is singular that way is it is sacred, that way,
it is passed down, It is in people's blood. And
they are at risk because they are so reactive as
opposed to being proactive in the way that they're governing
their sport. And really it's collegiate athletics as whole as
a whole, but we understand that for the purposes of
(29:32):
revenue generation, college football is always going to be king
there and that is the thing that is going to
drive the change first and foremost, and everything else just
has to go along. In the wake of college football,
you have conference commissioners taking matters into their own hands
because the NCAA can't be trusted to govern their own
sport as the foremost governing body, and I say foremost
(29:55):
in air quotes which with as much sarcasm as humanly possible,
they have have been thoroughly and utterly inept. And I
know that again, it is the easiest version of the
conversation to say, well, the NCAA sucks, and they've wrecked
this for all of us, and they've let the corporations
and the television networks come in here and ravage the
thing that makes the most sense, because the question that
(30:18):
they are not asking themselves at the end of the
day fitsie, is is this good for the sport? That's
not the job of the television networks to consider, right,
It's not their job to consider what is in the
best interest in the health and the future viability of
this sport. There is supposed to be a body that
(30:39):
is tasked with overseeing that, with governing that, with policing that,
with protecting that. It sure as hell not respectfully, Fox
and ESPN and everybody else. That's bidding for live rights.
Their job is to do the best thing possible for
the network, for the shareholders, for all the people that
are financially invested in this thing. But it is coming
(31:01):
at the expense of the sport. And how we go
about trying to figure out the fact that we're just
putting a placeholder in on this straight seating model because
this isn't gonna matter next year, it's going to be
a sixteen team playoff. This is just kind of like
a one year all right, We'll see how it goes
(31:22):
f around and find out type of situation, and it
may be better, it may ultimately end up benefiting. I
don't know if you're going to ever eliminate there's no
perfect formula to eliminate blowouts in the postseason. I mean, hell,
we're getting ready to talk about or I mean, we
have talked about today a series between the Minnesota Timberwolves
and the Oklahoma City Thunder that was completely non competitive
(31:44):
in game three, and we're talking about conference finals, like
at the highest of highs. College football has protected itself
pretty well against that. But you're I mean, the SMUs
of the world and Indiana is there's always going to
be an SMU in Indiana in this model of the
college football playoffs. In fact, they're careering environment an environment
for more of those things to happen and just make
(32:05):
the games relevant later into the season and to get
more juice at a having, you know, college football playoff
games on campuses. But if there was somebody with the
foresight to do exactly what you're talking about.
Speaker 4 (32:19):
It would have been done.
Speaker 5 (32:21):
They've left this entire thing open to what they've chalked
up to the exploratory period. That exploratory period since the
Supreme Court voted that college sports in the previous model
was actually unconstitutional, We're going on four and five years
of an exploratory period of people just effing around and
(32:41):
trying to figure out and they've done so, I wouldn't
say poorly, because it still makes money, it's still rates,
it's still football.
Speaker 4 (32:47):
At the end of the day.
Speaker 5 (32:48):
But again, I am genuinely concerned fits that this is
the one sport more than any other, that is as
at risk of taking advantage of its fan base goodwill
as any that we're talking about purely for the sake
of the dollar
This is the best of two pros and a couple
Joe with Lamar Arings and rating Win and Jonas Knox
on Fox Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
So you're telling me there's a chance, I mean, grease
up the light poles. Everybody can celebrate the Knicks with
the improbable comeback, just when we thought the Eastern Conference
Finals were done, just when you thought the Knicks were
left for dead, just when you thought the entire thing
(00:34):
was over. Now, like an eighties wrestling match with Hulk Hogan,
the arms in the air, it falls the first time
it falls, the second time it's about to hit the match,
the match is about ten, and instead the arms starts shaking.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Hulk Hogan gets up.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
That's what the Knicks did last night, breaking the hearts
of Pacers fans everywhere, both of them. And I'm sitting
with one of them. He's Buck Rising on Jason Fitz.
It's bucking fits.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
We're taking over two bros and a cuple this morning.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Buck Rising from Indiana. By the way, it should be
noted a noted Pacers fan. The one time you're gonna
listen to any radio show anywhere in the country today
that has a Pacers fan.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
And I'm just I'm just curious, Buck's what's the pulse like, Buddy,
how are we feeling?
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Because it sure looked with a twenty point lead in
the first half, a double digit lead in the fourth quarter,
and then a complete meltdown, which.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Is part of you know, the way next win games.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
How we feeling, Buck, Yes, turns out we do exist.
Speaker 5 (01:29):
Pacers fans were not feeling great after the nexts went
down twenty at this point. Turns out all you need
to do to motivate the New York basketball team is
to get them down by twenty points and the.
Speaker 4 (01:41):
Rest will take care of itself.
Speaker 5 (01:43):
Things are, you know, I'd say tenuous at this point
in time, fitsy I'm not.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
I'm not like, I'm not super upset.
Speaker 5 (01:52):
I mean I am upset a one oh six, one
hundred loss in Indiana after going up to oh in
New York and giving the next fans the choking sign
and pointing at Reggie Miller and evoking all the good
vibes that you could possibly have about this series from
the Indiana fan perspective, to be able to close out
game one or I guess game three. Technically, the first
(02:13):
game in Indiana would have been lovely, But I'm still
pretty confident about my basketball team versus this next basketball
team because I just don't think they can do this
too many more times.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
I mean, okay, so let's think about it.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
There's a couple of ways this can be taken this time,
because we do know you mentioned and we were obviously
looking at this series saying, okay, how does Indiana handle
the Garden? You and I have talked extensively about handling
the Garden not really.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Being that big of a deal. Right, So Indiana goes
in there.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Fine, But there were moments in both of those games
where Knicks fans were convinced.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
They won it. So if you talked to a Knicks
fan this morning.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
All they're going to say is, man, we got unlucky
the first couple of games, and we did what we
do in the third game.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Everything's in to be fine.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
If you talk to Basers fans as well, I mean,
we won two at the Garden, and then minus a meltdown,
we would have this game. I think what is wild
about all of this is just to oversimplify for a second,
if you'll allow me, Karl Anthony Towns is just an enigma.
I don't know what to do with the fact that
Karl Anthony Towns just played and flat out sucked for
(03:15):
three quarters in this game and then all of a
sudden in the fourth quarter, Karl Anthony Towns.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
Is like, no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
This is this is why I I this is why
everybody covets me at some point, like Karl Anthony Towns
is maddening because when he plays the way he played
in the fourth quarter, all of a sudden, the next
look unstoppable. But you just can't bank on that game
in and came out, which is in and of it
self frustrating.
Speaker 5 (03:36):
If I have to lose, I don't want it to
be because of Karl Anthony Towns. And that's how I
felt in Game one, to be honest with you, when
he started hitting threes, more threes than he'd hit in
the entire Celtics series combined.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
Coming out the way that they didn't.
Speaker 5 (03:48):
Then obviously they had the epic collapse the way that
Knicks fans feared, of course, But with Kat it's such
a it's such an interesting conversation, right because I don't know,
I mean, do you genuinely believe that Karl Anthony Towns
can be relied upon on a consistent basis to bail
the New York Knicks out when they need bailing out.
(04:10):
Because to me, I understand that he's an incredibly talented player.
There's some differing in opinion as to whether this is
somebody who is consistent enough at the NBA level.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
Obviously, he's got all.
Speaker 5 (04:21):
The physical tools and gifts that you want to be
able to put himself in these positions. But like, I
don't know that I trust Kat, if I'm a Knicks fan,
to continually do this, or to be able to continually
do this down the stretch when there is so much
on the line. I just don't know that he's that
kind of a player, even though he was the player
that they needed last night? Is that unfair? Am I oversimplifying?
Speaker 3 (04:43):
Now?
Speaker 2 (04:44):
No, you're a thousand percent right, And I will just
go back to the team that no longer has Cat
right now that could really use a second player that's
capable of doing what Kat does.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
And so the best of Kat would really help Minnesota
right now.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Right Like if Minnesota had the best of what Karl
Anthony Towns is, they would be in a much different
situation in their to.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
Them, they're in. They're in hell right now. Don't do
that to them.
Speaker 5 (05:07):
You're looking at two teams and the conference finals built
off the backs of a Paul George trade, which delights me.
But the idea that you're you're gonna you're gonna tantalize
Wolves fans. But that wouldn't it be nice to have
Karl Anthony Towns at this point in your season?
Speaker 4 (05:21):
Shame on you, really fencing that well?
Speaker 2 (05:24):
I mean, first and foremost, Like, look, when you're as
damaged a fan as I am, like you have no
no worry in your heart about saying something that hurts
fans hearts like I'm used to living in the world
to hurt.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
We need a big old support group with each other.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
I think, the hell, what is that to start a
Monday morning?
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Oh my god, I'm just you know, I'm a beacon
of light in a darker world. Brother, I'm a beacon
of light, my friend.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Thinking trauma, I'm just well, that's that's I mean, my god,
I'm sitting here talking to you on a Monday morning
with my Raiders shirt on, like I just I live
in trauma constantly. I My point is that Minnesota did
the right thing and saying, no, he's not, he's not
the him. We needed that position, right, like, he's not
what we need to be able to bank on for
(06:07):
our franchise. They were so comfortable letting him go. And
obviously tou Leius Randalls is, you know, sort of their
number two.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
He's supposed to be their robin now. But they were so.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Comfortable letting Karl Anthony Towns walk because they understood the
limitations of Karl Anthony Towns.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
I think that speaks to.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Something like when you are an NBA team that has
a superstar and then you've got the guy that should
be able to be your robin and you're comfortable just
letting him walk away.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
That makes a statement.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
And that's part of what we see for the Knicks
because I just believe that the Knicks inherited somebody that Again,
it's it's all like if we were playing two K,
you feel great about it, but we're not playing two
K right Like when you when you actually watch the
result on the on the court, what we had last
night was laying basketball for three quarters until all of
a sudden it woke up, which is which is again,
if you're a Knicks fan today, that's what you're smoking
(06:54):
your cigar and climbing up to the top of the
street lights with like you're.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
Hare smoking a cigar.
Speaker 5 (06:59):
At this point of time, let me just say, New York,
let's let's let's keep the cigars unlet at this point
in time, just keep your powder.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
So now they can't sell now, you hypocrite. Now they
can't celebrate because one of us on this show team
damn it no, okay, okay, well, I mean one of
us working on this show right now may have may
have questioned the amount of celebrating for the New York
Knickerbockers after their win over the Boston Celtics.
Speaker 4 (07:24):
Brave early in the morning.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
They well, you know, I'm swinging. I'm you don't.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
You don't win swinging for singles, brother, when swinging for
home runs. At this point, that's a that's a terrible
baseball analogy because it's really not true.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
But we're gonna go with it this early.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
I'm just just allowing me this moment, I'm just in
celebrating that level after a second round win. I may
have been the one of the two of us that
said you don't raise banners for second round wins. Maybe
relax a little bit. You said I was a thief
for joy. Now when you're losing, Like, if you're a
Knicks fan and you're losing in the Eastern Conference Finals,
you feel kind of stupid if you celebrated that much
(07:59):
and all of a sudden, you're like, we ran.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
In the streets, but then we lost to Indiana in
the next round. I'm just saying that was the reality.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Until about ten minutes was left in that basketball game
last night, Knicks fans were definitely tucking their tails.
Speaker 5 (08:09):
I was in on Knicks fans until they started throwing
bags of garbage at that poor Pacers fan. And since then,
I've changed my tune. I don't think we've done a
show since then. But the other figure that needs to
be mentioned in the middle all of this is Tom Tibodeau.
Because they went with a different starting lineup last night.
They had backup center Mitchell Robinson in place of Josh
Hart when Miles McBride got in the foul trouble. When
(08:33):
Brunson got in a foul trouble early, that completely changed
the look of their rotation. They started going to role
players that really has not been a part of the
Knicks bag, at least to this point. So I think
Tips deserves credit in the middle of all of this
too for being able to manage the moment and manage
his lineup in ways that we haven't really talked about
him doing to this point.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
You disagree, No, I agree, But I also I'm Tony.
I'm full eighties wrestling today. I'm like Jimmy Mount to
the South Heart with my little megaphone in my hand,
and I'm the troll in the corner. Because I will
remind everybody that part of the reason that they needed
to put Mitchell Robinson into the lineup was because they
needed the size where Karl Anthony Towns was a liability
on the defensive side of the court for how much.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
For the first couple of games.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
I'm just saying that part of the reason they had
to make a change was because Cat was so poor
at certain things. So it just supports my point that
you can't rely on Cat over your troll. In the
morning after, I should be very pro New York. I
feel bad about it now, Buck.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
I'm still trying to figure out the wrestling reference. You've
just married. How the hell old are you?
Speaker 2 (09:33):
I'm old enough, I mean, yeah, like I'm almost I'm
about to turn forty eight, man, Like this is just
what happens.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
Like I grew up on.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Eighties wrestling, Like I grew out of eighties wrestling, but
I grew up on eighties wrestling. So like I got
a bunch of eighties wrestling toys in front of me,
I got macho man facing me right now, Like it's
inevitable these things are gonna happen for me.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
This is what happens when you're.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Old, dude, Like I'm old enough that, like there were
genuinely people that thought wrestling was real when I was
a kid, Like the Internet didn't even exist, dude, Like you.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Know how old I am?
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Buck I typed my papers in high school on a
typewriter because we couldn't afford a computer.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
Dude, Like that's how old I am.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
Again, we are working through it.
Speaker 5 (10:11):
Why does it always seem that when you and I
do one of these radio show togethers that we're just
working through what to me sounds like trauma, but you know,
at least for the next st So.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Being old is trauma, now, book, that's what you're gonna say,
Being old is traumatic.
Speaker 5 (10:23):
It sounds terrible. It just genuinely. It sounds terrible at
this point in time, but it's okay. These are emotional
times for you. I understand it would have been emotional
times for Knicks fans have they not been able to
get this done. And that's kind of that's kind of
the sense that you got from the post game press
conference comments. I don't know how much of that you
paid attention to, or may have watched on SportsCenter after
the fact, what have you, but you know, basically talking
(10:44):
about how it's emotional, they're playing the long game. Things
can happen, things can go not your way in these moments.
But I think Brunson said last night, you can easily
crash out or you can respond the right way. So
what are we gonna do this morning, FITZI We're gonna
crash out or we're gonna respond the correct way, because
I feel like we need to get our act together.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
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 Buck Rising.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Jason Fitz a little bit of flag football talk here
and hear me out flag football as it relates to
NFL fans, because we all saw the news last week
the NFL approved the process of involving football players NFL
players in the Olympics with flag football, and I keep
hearing people roll their eyes to it, and I just
(11:38):
want to explain buck a little bit of why this
is such a key moment for the league because we
were getting ready for Inside Coverage, one of the NFL
shows I host for Yahu Sports, and our insider Charles Robinson,
when we were doing our production meetings, said well, you
know what this is all about, right, and the rest
of us were like, no, no, please go on tell us.
So we started this deep dive explanation that I frankly
(11:58):
had never thought of about why the league for years
has been looking at the particularly the success that basketball
the NBA has had in places like China, and one
of the advance's advantages that the NBA has in China
is all you need is a ball in a hoop.
So as long as you have a ball in hoop,
you can play. Part of the globalization of soccer has
always been all you need is field in the ball.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
Well you can't do that in the NFL.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
There's so many rules and so much to explain and
so much that goes into it. It's hard for new
places to pick it up. And for years they've been
trying to figure out how to grow flag football because
specifically it's the easiest way to make sure that all
you need is a ball in a field. So they
look at this and they say, Okay, there's monetizing opportunities here,
like we need to find a way to grow internationally
(12:40):
above and beyond the series of international games, and they
look at flag football as a huge way to do this.
And then the players are looking around and they're looking
specifically at the growth in marketing for somebody like Kobe
when he started to go over to China and have success,
and what do they get to do over there. Well,
if you're a NFL player playing in flag football and
you're Nike athlete, right when we hit the Olympics in
(13:02):
a couple of years, Nike's gonna trot.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
Those athletes all over the world during the summer. They're
gonna go everywhere, and they're gonna play without helmets on,
which is rare.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
So like, if you're a Titans fan, and you're watching
cam Ward, you're really watching the side of his head.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
You're seeing a.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Helmet, right, Like it is tougher for football players to
be recognizable on the street because so many of them
are known for the helmets that they wear.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
This is your opportunity to suddenly be trodden all over
the world.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Make a ton of marketing money out of your shoe
deal because your shoe company's sending you everywhere, while the
league is growing its sport in front of people that
otherwise may not be willing to pick it up. And
it's the introduce, it's the gateway drug that gets you
into football. So when you start thinking about the money
and what it means for the NFL, I think what
we have to understand. NFL fans have to understand this
(13:50):
game is not for you. It's not it's not being
geared to it Like, the NFL doesn't care if NFL
fans like flag football. The NFL needs people in China
and Egypt and Asia and and all of these places
that right now aren't flocking to the sport. They want
them to fall in love with flag football is a
gateway drug that gets them into the NFL. As the
International Series grows, and that's why when you follow the
(14:11):
dollars and cents, you understand that this is a huge
initiative for the league.
Speaker 5 (14:16):
To your point, the NFL already has the NFL fan base.
Speaker 4 (14:21):
This is kind of the thing.
Speaker 5 (14:22):
And I don't know if we are going to get
to this today, FITZI, or if this is a topic
of discussion for another day. But the changes that are
happening happening in collegiate athletics and most specifically college football
right where college football fans are up in arms about
what they consider to be I think, on a lot
of cases, certainly in this part of the country in
(14:43):
Tennessee where I'm at, almost a direct attack on the
traditions of college football and kind of the ethos of
what the sport is, because it's being taken over by
essentially the television networks as they try and squeeze every
last dollar, last viewership opportunity out of America's second most
popular sport by not completely transforming it into an NFL
(15:07):
like model, but trending more in that direction than college
football fans are certainly comfortable with it. But it's not
about college football fans, because college football fans are already there.
They're trying to figure out how much further they can
expand the footprint of the college game to make sure
that they can, to your.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
Point, grab every last dollar and cents that's in front
of them.
Speaker 5 (15:27):
That way, the NFL has always been the king of this,
Roger Goodell most recently just getting another contract extension, because
I don't think any person is more single handedly responsible
for transforming the fortunes.
Speaker 4 (15:40):
Of a league than Roger Goodell is.
Speaker 5 (15:42):
With the NFL, the opportunities that they've been able to take,
the way that they have pushed this globalization of the game,
in the ways that they're still finding that they're still
finding other opportunities to further globalize the game. It's all
a part of the grand plan, right, And at the
end of the day, the answer to all of your
questions is always money. The only I mean, what's the
(16:02):
only real drawback of the flag football thing?
Speaker 4 (16:04):
Can you? Can you tell me?
Speaker 5 (16:05):
Because there's only one thing that immediately comes to my
mind injury?
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Right, the only the only drawback in my mind is
the potential for catastrophic injury. But when pressed, our insiders
have talked to people around the league, and there there
are two different mindsets on this.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
Let me be clear.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Coaches and gms want nothing to do with it. They
want their players to have nothing to do with this.
The guys that sit in the owner suites look at
all of the players and the risk of injury as
collateral damage. If there's a chance that a superstar player
goes down with an injury in the Olympics, but it
grows their business by billions of dollars, which they think
international growth can do.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
Man owners don't care. They're willing to take that risk.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
So the one risk that we as fans are sitting
here just obsessed about, Like, yeah, I'm the first to
admit that as a Raiders fan, I would love for
none of my favorite team's players to make the Olympic squad.
And I do think that's one portion of this that
we have to remember, Like all these players talking about
wanting to play, how are they going to feel when
they have to actually go out there and try out
for this team?
Speaker 3 (17:07):
And like who's going to be selected and how are
they going to be selected?
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Like are players going to be willing to take the
ego hit that comes with the possibility they don't get selected?
Like all of these things, but above and beyond that,
if your favorite player is in the Olympics, any God
forbid gets hurt. The Jerry Jones of the world have
made it clear behind closed doors that they're comfortable with
that risk if it means that suddenly they can sign
(17:30):
a new TV contract in China worth billions of dollars,
you know, And I.
Speaker 5 (17:35):
Do wonder just to push back slightly on what you're
saying about coaches and general managers, because FITZI and maybe
it's just talking to coaches locally down here and obviously
the Titans of the team that I've covered my entire
career as a reporter, and the NFL. You pick up
people throughout the court. More time you spend in the league,
the more people you get to know. People start to
(17:55):
spread out, They go to other places, they coach in
other spots and things like that. You try to keep
connections that way. But when you talk to coaches about that,
there's almost and it may be begrudging, it may be
more begrudging for some than it is for others, but
there's almost an understanding of it is very difficult, especially
in the NFL, which is supposed to be successfully built
(18:18):
for parody, and I think in a lot of ways
is even though the NBA is getting ready to give
us a seventh different champion year over year, in the NFL,
it's really just you're talking about Kansas City, You're talking
about Philadelphia. Before that, you were talking about the Patriots
and things like that. There seems to be more runs
of dominance in the NFL than there is at a
championship level than there has been just about every other
(18:39):
major sport that coaches will acknowledge, there is something singular
to be able to win a gold medal for your country.
This is to kind of get back to the Knicks
by you know, a little bit of a different kind
of a conversation. This is Carmelo Anthony in the Olympics, right.
Carmelo Anthony is one of the greatest basketball players in
(18:59):
US say basketball history. He is one of our greatest
champions when it comes to playing in international competition. He
mellow did more good for himself and for I just
I just general goodwill around the sport by being such
a willing participant in USA basketball despite not having championship
(19:22):
success in the NBA the NFL, I think coaches are
at least willing to acknowledge there is something so singular
about competing for your country that way, about the experiences
that it brings. Yes there is growth, Yes there is
financial opportunity. Those things will always be a part of
the conversation because it is what drives all of this stuff, right.
(19:42):
But I think that more coaches than you might then
you might realize, are okay with the idea of it's
really really hard to do what we're trying to do
here at the NFL level. If you can give yourself
the opportunity to go to go metal for your country,
that maybe it's not as important to the NFL coach
(20:03):
because at the end of the day, they're keeping their
job based on their ability or inability to win Super
Bowls in the National Football League. But coaches will also
acknowledge that the competitors at the highest level, there's just
there's not anything else like this, and this is the
first time that NFL football players have really been presented
with an opportunity like this.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
To that end, that's part of the reason.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
You know, again, I'll go back to Charles Robinson at
Yahoo Sports talked a little bit to some people in
the league that seem to think, oh, players aren't going
to really want to go through this process. But when
you talk to people around the players' union, they'll tell
you exactly what.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
You just said. Fifty three players every year plus but
at least fifty three players walk with the Super Bowl
ring every year no matter what.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
Right, You've got about a dozen players total that will
get a Olympic medal every four years. And then when
you start to talk about some of the legacy conversation
in twenty years, it's not just going to be well,
how many Super Bowls Holmes win.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
It's like, well, Mahomes won three.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Super Bowls, five Super Bowls, and he also won three
gold medals.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
Like that's all very real for these players.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
And so yeah, I mean it's a huge and look,
one of the coolest experiences I've ever had. Like when
I was with the band, we had the song for
Team USA in twenty sixteen, so we got to go
to Rio and we spent a couple of weeks out
there and like did the Today Show and all that stuff,
all the NBC shows while we were out there, but
we got to perform at the Team USA house and
(21:29):
just watching the Olympians that were coming in with their
medals after they won them, because once you're done with
the Olympics, for a lot of the guys, you just
get to hang out.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
Guys and girls you just couldn't hang out.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
So they were coming in with their gold and silver
medals and watching everybody myself included, flock to just see it,
to hold it, like it's such a special and rare
thing to get the opportunity to even be around. And
then you think about what that means, Like baseball players
have been dealing with this for years, Like if you're
a baseball player lucky enough to represent your country and
then you go out and win a medal, you come
(21:59):
back into the locker room man like that, there's power
to that.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
So I one hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
For players, it's such a huge incentive, Like it's a
huge incentive for the moment to have the metal. It's
a huge incentive for the moment to be all over
the world, especially this first one, you know, the Olympics
in La. You just think about all of these different pieces.
Of course, if you're a player, in my mind, like
it's simple, you want to play, you want something to
do with this. Now, flag football players, it should be noted,
(22:26):
are pushing back and the most air quotes, the most
famous flight football player, a quarterback that has already told
everybody he's better than Mahomes has made a clear look.
Speaker 4 (22:36):
At flag football.
Speaker 5 (22:38):
At flag football, make sure you make sure you give
him the appropriate contract. I mean, he's not saying that
he's a better quarterback than Patrick Mahomes, but.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
He is saying he is a better quarterback in flag football,
and it's a different game, and his football IQ understands
that different game. Okay, I couldn't roll my eyes any
harder to this. Are we going to presume that the
IQ required for flag football is so outside the nomenclature
of what is required to play in the NFL that
Patrick Mahomes can't figure it out? Like Patrick Mahomes is
(23:10):
gonna look at the tape on flag football and be like,
oh no, man, this I don't know. This guy over
here that's like five nine with tiny baby hands that's
throwing the football.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
It looks it looks.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Difficult in the footage and throwing the throwing the football,
like that guy is suddenly gonna outperform more Like I
hope it'd be awesome if we got into trials and
all of a sudden, all these NFL players went in
there and tried out and got their asses kicked by
flag football guys.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
Like good glory be to God. Good on. I'm like,
go get your medal and become a superstar.
Speaker 4 (23:38):
But I really have just experience watching flag football.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
Hey, you don't know me and my God come out
like my my football.
Speaker 4 (23:47):
Got Okay, that's fine.
Speaker 5 (23:48):
I will not pass judgment at this particular time, though,
I am I am skeptical.
Speaker 4 (23:54):
I'm skeptical.
Speaker 5 (23:55):
So the quarterback, the aforementioned flag football quarterback that you're referencing,
his name is Darryl Ducett. They call him Whosh all right,
And he gave an interview recently to the Washington Post
upon the news that the NFL unanimously approved the opportunity
for NFL players to participate in the upcoming Olympics in
the flag football competition. And this is the quote, the
(24:17):
flag guys deserve their opportunity.
Speaker 4 (24:20):
That's all we want.
Speaker 5 (24:21):
We felt like we worked hard to get the sport
to where it's at, and when the NFL guy spoke
about it, it was like we were getting kicked to the side.
I felt like I was the guy who could speak
out for my peers, for my brothers that's been working
hard to get to this level, for us to not
be forgotten. So not to tug at your heartstrings any more. Fancy,
given the way that you started this radio show basically
(24:43):
fans plaining to everybody that was in, was was in
within the sound of your voice this morning, about how
they should celebrate their team and experience their sports joy.
Speaker 4 (24:54):
He du set is going to be such low hanging
fruit here.
Speaker 5 (24:58):
He's going to be an possibly easy target for people
like you and I to tee off on because of
course we think that the flag football players should be
pushed aside for superior athletes if that's what gives our
country the best opportunity to win the gold medal. It's
not about you know, and I don't want to sit
(25:19):
here and discount what he's saying, because I do think
there's truth in that. To get flag football to a
point where it is now in an Olympic sport, that
means something.
Speaker 4 (25:27):
These guys have.
Speaker 5 (25:28):
These guys are playing it purely for the love of
their sport, right. It's not about the financial gain that
comes with it, although I'm sure that there's more financial
incentive than you or I may actually realize, but at
the end of the day, the vast majority of the
public is not going.
Speaker 4 (25:43):
To care about that.
Speaker 5 (25:44):
This person knows that and is still putting his neck
out there anyway to be like, Yeah, I don't care
what you say about me. I feel a certain type
of way about this. I feel like we deserve our opportunity,
and I think he's right. And if he gets beaten
out by the people who are better than this, are
better at this, who are physically to him, and it
just takes a little bit of a learning curve, that's
okay too.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
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.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
The news this week came out that college football is
going to get rid of any of the automatic seeding
advantages you saw from the college football playoffs. So, for example,
the highest ranked group of five team is still guaranteed
a playoff spot, but now they will be in the
playoffs based on wherever their ranking is. So this year,
if the highest ranked group of five team is let's
say I don't know U and olv and their ranked
(26:36):
number twenty three. They will not suddenly find themselves in
a top four seed with the first round by none of.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
That advantage still exists.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
So while they will get into the playoffs, the seeding
the playoffs will be done in a way that matches
the rankings of the teams, which I think is important.
But Buck, look, I think this was a smart change.
It all makes sense. You watched Indiana football last year
sort of take the world by storm, but then we
watch some of these non traditional teams get their butts
kicked in the playoffs. To me, the one thing that
(27:04):
really stands out though, is like, at some point, if
your college football just rip the band aid off whatever
changes you got, because college football fans hate any change
that ever comes through the door, so it doesn't matter
what it is. And I'm so tired of this very
false narrative that NIL is killing that change, the playoff
expansion and NIL and conference expansion is all killing college football.
(27:25):
It's like, well, I don't know, the ratings are pretty spectacular,
and the money being made by everybody's pretty spectacular, and
people are getting rich and everybody's still going together.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
I don't think the system's broken.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
I just think that college football fans are traditionalists, kind
of like baseball fans, and they hate any change through
their sport. So to me, I would just take a
pause on everything. I'd look at it and say, what
do we want the playoffs to be? How do we
want it to be? I'd rip the whole thing apart
and make guy ginormous changes right now, all at once,
just in a way that it's like, hey, we've ripped
a partner sport, but here's the new version of it.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
Fall in love with it or don't? We don't care.
Speaker 4 (27:58):
Why do you think that hasn't happened yet?
Speaker 2 (28:02):
Genuinely, because honestly, I think everybody is scrambling to figure
out the wise, the house and the rights, and because
nobody has been sitting here thinking forward thinking like everything
that's happening to the NCAA right now is their own fault.
Nil is the is their own fault. They never managed
any of these situations when they had the opportunity to,
(28:23):
so now all of a sudden they're scrambling to try
and figure out how to do it, and piece by
piece is like, well that's a good idea, it's better
than what we have so let's just do that.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
I don't know that you can recover that way.
Speaker 4 (28:33):
You can't.
Speaker 5 (28:34):
And that's that's been the biggest issue, that they are
in danger of taking advantage of one of the most
loyal audiences in any sport whatsoever.
Speaker 4 (28:46):
Fitsy.
Speaker 5 (28:46):
It's not just because you you are obviously familiar with
the SEC country and I live in Nashville, Tennessee, which
is right in the heart of SEC country, and we
both understand that college football in the Southeast is try.
It's an entirely different It's as close to I think
(29:06):
European soccer and the passion that the fans have as
anything that we have in American sports.
Speaker 4 (29:11):
Right.
Speaker 5 (29:12):
It is singular that way is it is sacred, that way,
it is passed down, It is in people's blood. And
they are at risk because they are so reactive as
opposed to being proactive in the way that they're governing
their sport. And really it's collegiate athletics as whole as
a whole, but we understand that for the purposes of
(29:32):
revenue generation, college football is always going to be king
there and that is the thing that is going to
drive the change first and foremost, and everything else just
has to go along. In the wake of college football,
you have conference commissioners taking matters into their own hands
because the NCAA can't be trusted to govern their own
sport as the foremost governing body, and I say foremost
(29:55):
in air quotes which with as much sarcasm as humanly possible,
they have have been thoroughly and utterly inept. And I
know that again, it is the easiest version of the
conversation to say, well, the NCAA sucks, and they've wrecked
this for all of us, and they've let the corporations
and the television networks come in here and ravage the
thing that makes the most sense, because the question that
(30:18):
they are not asking themselves at the end of the
day fitsie, is is this good for the sport? That's
not the job of the television networks to consider, right,
It's not their job to consider what is in the
best interest in the health and the future viability of
this sport. There is supposed to be a body that
(30:39):
is tasked with overseeing that, with governing that, with policing that,
with protecting that. It sure as hell not respectfully, Fox
and ESPN and everybody else. That's bidding for live rights.
Their job is to do the best thing possible for
the network, for the shareholders, for all the people that
are financially invested in this thing. But it is coming
(31:01):
at the expense of the sport. And how we go
about trying to figure out the fact that we're just
putting a placeholder in on this straight seating model because
this isn't gonna matter next year, it's going to be
a sixteen team playoff. This is just kind of like
a one year all right, We'll see how it goes
(31:22):
f around and find out type of situation, and it
may be better, it may ultimately end up benefiting. I
don't know if you're going to ever eliminate there's no
perfect formula to eliminate blowouts in the postseason. I mean, hell,
we're getting ready to talk about or I mean, we
have talked about today a series between the Minnesota Timberwolves
and the Oklahoma City Thunder that was completely non competitive
(31:44):
in game three, and we're talking about conference finals, like
at the highest of highs. College football has protected itself
pretty well against that. But you're I mean, the SMUs
of the world and Indiana is there's always going to
be an SMU in Indiana in this model of the
college football playoffs. In fact, they're careering environment an environment
for more of those things to happen and just make
(32:05):
the games relevant later into the season and to get
more juice at a having, you know, college football playoff
games on campuses. But if there was somebody with the
foresight to do exactly what you're talking about.
Speaker 4 (32:19):
It would have been done.
Speaker 5 (32:21):
They've left this entire thing open to what they've chalked
up to the exploratory period. That exploratory period since the
Supreme Court voted that college sports in the previous model
was actually unconstitutional, We're going on four and five years
of an exploratory period of people just effing around and
(32:41):
trying to figure out and they've done so, I wouldn't
say poorly, because it still makes money, it's still rates,
it's still football.
Speaker 4 (32:47):
At the end of the day.
Speaker 5 (32:48):
But again, I am genuinely concerned fits that this is
the one sport more than any other, that is as
at risk of taking advantage of its fan base goodwill
as any that we're talking about purely for the sake
of the dollar
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