December 26, 2025 • 41 mins
On this Friday edition of 2 Pros & A Cup Of Joe, Jason Fitz & Buck Reising fill in for the guys as they discuss the collapse of the Detroit Lions this year alone as they fell from 1st place last year to out of the playoffs this year. Plus, the guys talk a little NBA action such as Charles Barkley calling the NFL pigs, a new top AFC team, and more!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Fox Sports.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
With their playoff lives on the line and absolutely everything
right in front of them, but knowing that the only
way they could get into the postseason dance was to
go out and win on Christmas Day as part of
that journey.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Knowing that they absolutely had to bring it.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
The Lions got thumped by the Vikings. The Lions didn't
just get thumped by the Vikings. The Lions got embarrassed
by a Vikings team that somehow wildly they had a
net total of less than ten passing yards. And the
Vikings still beat Detroit, and now Detroit is not going
to go to the postseason. Now Detroit is looking around
(00:42):
and Lions vans everywhere are asking has the window slam shut?
Its bucking fits takeover at Two Pros and a Cup
of Joe, He's buck rising out. Jason Fitz will be
hanging out with you all morning. Also, be sure to
hang out with our new YouTube channel for the show.
Just search two pros FSR on YouTube. Begin that's two
pros FSR. Hit the subscri button, don't stop there, Hit
that thumbs up bike on common away. Let us know
(01:03):
who on the show you agree with them. Who you
think is completely wrong. Check out the new channel on YouTube.
Begin just search two pros FSR subscribe Buck. Yesterday we
watched a lot of bad.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Football, bad football. It was glorious, glorious.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
You already it's six am and you're already telling you
you're gonna tell me that And Max Prosmer really made
you no, no, say yes yes.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
There is not a chance.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
That you were eerily You were really into Vikings line.
You watched Vikings lines painfully. You have to admit this.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
No, I was delighted by it. Are you kidding me?
The Vikings defense is unbelievable. It's not gonna be worth
anything because it's not like they're going to the postseason either.
Speaker 4 (01:42):
But to watch Detroit be put in a blender that way.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
And I'm no active rooting interest one way or the
one way.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
Or the other in that situation.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
But FITZI, we talked about this before the Christmas football
took place. We talked about how bad the games were
gonna be. We knew that this was gonna be the case.
I told you then, I was ready for it. I
was built for this. All I do in my life
is cover bad football. You know what I'm doing on Sunday.
I got the Titans hosting the Saints here in Nashville.
That's gonna be what my life is. So Welcome, America. Welcome.
(02:13):
It's that Homer Simpson meme where he's patting the couch
and staring at people with dead eyes, saying, come on
in here and take a seat on the playoff eliminated
football train. It was glorious to be able to have
the rest of the country participate in what I've been
doing for basically four seasons.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
I have now figured it out after all of our
years of knowing each other. You are the ghost of Christmas, past, present,
and future, all wrapped in one.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
All right.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
There's a little bit of darkness to what's happened, and
there's a little darkness to where there is, and there's
a little darkness for what's to.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Come, all in one. Okay, you are absolutely personifying all
of it.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Look, this is a Vikings team that I just looked
it up to make sure that I didn't have the
number one. The Vikings had a total of three net
passing yards three net passing yards, and they won this
game twenty three to ten. Like, you're right, part of
it was in a blender. Part of the Lions just
came out so flat. You have to admit that that
(03:11):
was surprising, right to see a Lions team look that disjointed.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Because here's my thing. Dan Campbell is supposed.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
To be the biiton kneecaps guy, right, So if you're
the biiton kneecaps guy, then what you expect is when
your team's back against the wall, that's where you expect
the biiton kneecaps guy to come out with the thunder
of the gods and have a team that comes out
of the tunnel feeling like they are ready to absolutely.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
Destroy the world.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
And instead it just it looked disjointed, which is kind
of how the Lions have looked.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Oh you're they're too talented to not even be in
the playoffs.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
This is I think of all of the fails in
the NFL this year, this might be the most shocking
to me.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
Mmm, that's an interesting question.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Of all of the fails in the NFL this year,
what would be the most shocking. I guess Washington would
not be because we felt like that was a regrets candidate. Anyway,
we did not have on the on the scorecard that
Jane Daniels would miss. I mean, at this point, almost
the entire season, and dealing with the level of injury
(04:12):
that he's been dealing with. I'm looking at I'm trying
to think of other NFL fails that might surprise me.
Are we surprised that the Raiders are this god awful
for all of the things that we thought might it.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Is early in the morning to throw that level of
Raiders shade right at me.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
I mean, no, no, no, no, it's not right at you.
It's just it's a it's five am here. This is
what you get from making me do radio this earlier.
I am I am surprised. I mean, I am surprised
that the Raiders are as just miserable as they are. Fitsy,
I don't know what your expectations is. For the rest
(04:51):
of America that may not know. Jason Fitz is a
Las Vegas Raiders fan, and he's been in hell for
basically twenty years at this point in time, they're two
and thirteen. I didn't think that Pete Carroll and Tom
Brady and Chip Kelly when he was still employed there,
and Gino Smith and Ashton Gent and Max Crosby and
all these different things I didn't.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
Think two and thirteen was in the cards.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
If I'm being honest, that's probably the biggest fail in
the NFL to me.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Okay, well, I wasn't even thinking of the bad teams,
because the bad teams are always bad.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
But they weren't supposed to be that bad, right, that's
some thing, Like they weren't supposed to be the worst.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
They are the worst?
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Is this start to feel like it's just a personal attack.
I don't know what's happening here.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Like this feels like maybe we're working on a little
Christmas aggression here, Like feels like maybe you're a little
Christmas hangler, and like maybe you need a little leg
nock this morning, because I feels like that's a person
of that.
Speaker 4 (05:38):
Look, here's what I just didn't I didn't get to.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
This is the first day all week later yesterday that
I didn't spend in front of a microphone. So I've
been I've just been building up the amount of amount
of sports talk dialogue that we were going to have
this morning. This is your fault forgive me a day
off yesterday.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
You're right, somehow, Sack, there's no doubt it'bsolutely mean. I
think a lot of people would name the Chiefs as
the biggest disappointment or the biggest fail of all of
the teams that aren't going to be in the playoffs.
I don't, only because the Chiefs are not that different
this year than they were last year. It's just last
year they caught every break. In this year they've lost
(06:15):
every break. Like the amount of one score games that
the Chiefs won in weird ways over the last year
and half, it's just sort of, you know, that is
regressed to the means. So I think Kansas City is disappointing,
but also Kansas City has been getting away with.
Speaker 4 (06:28):
It for a minute.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Also, maybe when I say biggest fail, I also think
about how difficult it is to rebound from that. Like
do any of us really believe that the Chiefs are
going to.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Be down and out? Not really, I don't anyway.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
I mean, they're still going to have at some point
Patrick Mahomes comes back healthy, at some point Andy Reid
and Patrick Mahomes reunited.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
It's all going to be fine.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
They're going to get a higher draft pick somehow this year,
and they're going to figure out a way to fix
some of this.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
The solution is in as easy for the Lions.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
I think part of it is when you gone from
being a darling that nobody expected to all of a
sudden now one of the more dominant teams, which the
Lions have been for the last few years. At some
point you got to seal the deal and they didn't.
And that's fine until you look at the future. They
are wildly over the cap next year, like they have
a tough cap situation, and they also have a bunch
(07:19):
of young guys.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
They got to start figuring out how to pay now.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
I do believe teams can get themselves out of salary
cap you just you change some of the contracts around.
But if it's a how do the Lions fix this,
I don't think it's easy to fix. If you're looking
at things down and you're like, oh, we're forty or
fifty million dollars over the cap, and by the way,
we're gonna have to figure out how we're about to
pay Jamier Gibbs, and we're gonna have to figure out
how we're about to pay Sam Laporta. Like they got
deals they're gonna have to get done for young talent
(07:43):
that has exceeded expectation or at least been you know,
epic players in this league.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
They got a lot of money to show out.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
There's no easy solution for the late for the Lions.
So maybe that's why it feels so drastic to me.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Yeah, I guess I'm just I'm not wringing my hands
that much. Because if you told me at the start
of the season that Detroit both of their coordinators on
offense and defense were going to get head coaching jobs
and the team that won, I mean, how many games
the Lions win last year?
Speaker 4 (08:12):
Fifteen? Is that right? Fourteen or fifteen? Last year fifteen?
Speaker 3 (08:15):
I believe it was fifteen because they got that one
over the Vikings at the end.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Yeah, the Loves or the Vikings won fourteen.
Speaker 5 (08:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
So if you'd have told me that that was going
to be the case, and that Dan Campbell was going
to take over play calling, you know, halfway through the season,
and that they would finish eight to nine, assuming that
they don't beat the Bears this coming in week eighteen,
and assuming the Bears need to continue to win games
to I mean, as they try to make the hell
(08:42):
they can make a push for the one seat if
they wanted to at this point in time, or if
things fell in their favor, I would have felt that
that was right. Like, it's not a bottoming out for
a team that's not a bottom dweller.
Speaker 4 (08:54):
But that's a lot.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
To overcome in a season where basically everything that you
needed to go right twenty twenty four went correctly because yesterday,
I mean, the thing that concerns you the most is
not even about their future fits a year, although I'm
sure fans are wringing their hands and talking about offseason
needs and I'm sure calling for coaches to be fired
and things like that, because Detroit, I mean, last year
(09:16):
was their year, right. I don't know if have you
been to Detroit recently when the Lions have been good.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
I don't know when the last time you spent time
in the city.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
It's been a few years since I was in Detroit.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Yeah, Titans played up there last year. It was my
first time in Detroit. The place is buzzing, right. They've
got this huge banner on the side of a skyscraper
right in the middle of dight downtown Detroit that says,
this is our year, and it's got all these different
things listing why the Lions are built for this, and
you know how the resurgence is going to bring everybody,
you know, everybody along with it, and how much it
(09:47):
means to the city and all these different things.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
And then you're eight nine. You're looking around me, like,
when is our year?
Speaker 3 (09:52):
Because our year feels like it might have been twenty
twenty four, And at that point in time, it's to
your point, it's kind of slipping through their fingers. The
thing that concerns you the most, honestly, though, was golf.
And golf was terrible yesterday, and I think in part
it's because Taylor Decker, their left tackle, was ruled out.
He was dealing with an illness. They just couldn't run
(10:13):
the ball. They couldn't protect him well enough. The Vikings
defense is good against anybody, no matter who they play,
on any given night, if you've got your starters or
your backups out there. They had eight turnovers through week sixteen,
FITSI for the fewest in the NFL. The Detroit Lions did,
and they end with a season high six turnovers in Minnesota. Like,
(10:37):
I just have to think that that's a little bit
of an anomaly to not put too much stock in
moving forward. Now, Again, what you're saying is accurate, Like
they've got a lot of different things to work through here.
And this is why it's difficult to sustain a kind
of championship competitive window in the NFL. The sport is
(10:58):
kind of built to not allow you to prolong that
window beyond what would be.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
The normal cycle.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
In the normal cycle, I don't know, it feels like
three years for a team to be competitive at the
highest level, right, I.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Need that to not be true, Like you're right, but
I need that to not Like, think about this, think
about what you just said.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Your window opens and it's three or four years. So
if you are a Lions fan, you have.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Lived, I should say, through a level of suck that
is just a gut punch.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
And you mentioned that you cover the Titans. I'm a
Raiders fan. We know bad football.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
You spend a generation, generations, You spend years with your
grandparents apologizing for your fandom of a team that sucks.
Because the window to suck seems like it's I don't know,
thirty years, but the window to be great it's like
three or four.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Let me think about that.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
You suffer generationally, year in, year out, over and over
and over again. You finally get to the spot that
you're good. If you're a lion, you're looking around like,
finally we are not the laughing stock. We are one
of the teams that has a legitimate shot in the NFL.
And then it's like, well, you might have missed your window.
The window really only lasts three years. What the hell
like you would do thirty years of suck to get
(12:13):
three years good? That seems just holy I know fares
where a big gives a ribbon, but that just seems
wholly unfair in the life of any of us as
sports fans.
Speaker 4 (12:21):
Oh sure, no, it's not fair. It's not fair at all.
It's miserable. It's hell.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
It's it's the knife in the side that somebody will
just keep twisting. But that's the beauty of it, because
that's how the NFL keeps you hooked.
Speaker 4 (12:34):
Baby.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
They don't want you to realize that it's only a
three year window. They want you to think that you've got,
you know, ten years of a competitive cycle. They want
you to think that the franchise quarterback that you drafted
as somebody who's going to carry you for fifteen, you know,
ten to fifteen years. That's not how this works at all.
It's once you have the scales removed from your eyes
and you actually look at the way that this thing
(12:55):
is structured to understand, No, no, no. Three years is
about all you get. Like the best stretch of just
to bring things local. For me, the best stretch of
Titans football that I've covered was Mike Malarkey into Mike Vrabel.
Six consecutive winning seasons and they went to the postseason
what four times in that six years? They beat the odds.
(13:17):
That's the anomaly. Are you kidding me? That's Tennessee Titans
are not supposed to have six consecutive winning seasons and
make it of the postseason four times in those six years.
Speaker 4 (13:27):
Nonsense. But they did it, and it.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
Gave people unrealistic expectations, and it's going to keep people
hooked on the hope that they can do it again
and cam Ord is going to lead them to the
Promised Land and all these different things, when in reality,
you look at the percentage of time that a first
round quarterback is selected by a franchise that even wins
a playoff game, a single playoff game for the team
that drafted them.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
It happens like forty six percent of the.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
Time the odds are not in your favor when it
comes to NFL fandom.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
He's gone from Christmas Carol to all of the gritches.
By the way, you can join.
Speaker 4 (13:59):
My favorite timing year.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
God, that's so true.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Joint created professionals from around the world at south By
Southwest this March twelfth through eighteenth in Austin, Texas.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
One of the coolest things you can ever experience.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Experienced bold storytelling, thrilling live performances, cutting edge innovation, so
much more with the south By Southwest badge register today
at s x SW. Easy for me to say SXSW
dot com slash badges. He's Buck Rising, I'm Jason Fitz.
We're in on two pros and a cup of Joe.
I want to make sure to get this little nugget
(14:33):
in that doesn't help in the world of Buck telling
lines fans that your hearts are about to be broken.
For anyone that hasn't looked against Jared Goff's only thirty
one years old. There's plenty they can do with this
contract to work things around. Monetarily, it is worth noting
he is three years left on his deal of money
of cap number I should say only one year left
of guaranteed salary, so they're gonna rework his deal. His
(14:55):
cap number next year is almost seventy million dollars. His
cap number the year after that is forty f or
fifty five ish, and then sixty two ish. They're gonna
have to rework Jared Goff steal where this gets here,
and that's no big deal. That's where they're going to
create a bunch of room and maybe everything's going to
be fine, but eventually you kick the.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Can down far and up.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Eventually they are going to have to pay the piper,
and that piper is going to be Jared Goff.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
So it is a reminder that there's been a couple
of times.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
That we've seen Jared Goff be no less than what
we want Jared Goff to be in some of these
He was absolutely wretched yesterday and I just kept looking
at that saying, that's a seventy million dollar quarterback.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Texture Again, by the time they do the deal, it
won't be.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
They'll work his money around, but it's just who It's
going to be expensive to be a star for the
Detroit Lions.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
Yeah, I mean absolutely, And that's something that I think
that I think a lot of fan bases are having
to think about as we get towards this time of
year where you're preseason and really even mid season, expectations
were in a totally different place. And it's why I'm
looking forward to the conversation that we're gonna have next
about what Charles Barklay had to say about the NFL,
(16:03):
because I think there's a lot of interesting elements here
that are worth peeling back a little bit of a
sociological study, which I'm sure we're going to get people
fired up the day after Christmas on their sports talk radio.
So why don't you, why don't you tease what we're
getting ready to talk about, and I'll tell the good
people about what they're missing out on.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Hold on, hold on, I got Look, you're over here
trying to make things work and get us to I
still got to tell people about home Depot.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Okay, I got, I got, I got a whole sheet.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
You're supposed to do that, you're supposed to tell I'm
supposed to do home Depot.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
I have to tell people about home Depot. You have
to tell people about Blutchoo. Good God, did you not
pay attention in the text meeting Home depot, get tools
to perform at the highest late level on every job
without compromise. When you shop Mikita at the home depot
when the job calls, so the best call of Makitai
built a build to be the best available at the
home depot. Pros get more done. See I totally bought that.
(16:58):
Now too much pressure, with Buck looking at me with
I know, all right.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Come it up.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Charles Barkley called the NFL pigs and stirred up a
debate on whether or not we're paying attention to the
right thing on Christmas Day?
Speaker 1 (17:10):
Was Chuck right?
Speaker 2 (17:11):
We'll talk about it next, but first Buck Rising has
to tell you about blue Choo.
Speaker 4 (17:16):
See how that works?
Speaker 3 (17:17):
Buck, This is so disorganized they're never gonna let us
back on this show until next.
Speaker 4 (17:22):
Friday when we're here.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
Blue Choo isn't just a tablet. It's a cheat code
for your crotch.
Speaker 4 (17:27):
There you go.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
Blue Choo provides access to chewable tablets that can help
you feel and perform at your best, stronger, harder, longer,
last thing like someone gave you a downstairs pep talk
and a gym membership. Blue Choo is the original brand
offering chewable tablets for better sex. You can be more
confident where it counts. Blue Choo a small chew for
(17:52):
a big difference. It's not just about your performance. You
want to give her group chat something to talk about.
Nothing makes you more of a legend than a little
blue choo. Discover your options at bluechoo dot com and
we've got a special deal for our listeners. As always,
get your first month of blue Chew free. Just use
promo code LeVar l A v A R at checkout
and cover five bucks for shipping.
Speaker 4 (18:13):
That's it.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
Head to blue choo dot com for details and safety
information and a big thanks to blue Choo for sponsoring.
Speaker 6 (18:21):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live. Polly Foods Go here with Tony Foods Go Yeah.
Speaker 5 (18:36):
As everybody knows, we're the hosts of the award winning
Polly and Tony foodsco shop Yeah. But instead of us
telling you how great we are, here's how Dan Patrick
described us when he came on our show.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Quick, knowledgeable and funny, opinionated.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
What are you doing interrupting our promo.
Speaker 6 (18:51):
Yeah, it wasn't talking about you. You took those clips
totally of context.
Speaker 5 (18:56):
Oh yeah, well after this promo, I'm gonna take you
out and be let me put this into context.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
Shut up.
Speaker 5 (19:03):
Yeah, anyway, just listen to the Paully and Tony Fusco
Show on I on Radio Apple podcasts oherever you get
your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Yea, so bucking fits takeover of two pros and a
cup of Joe hanging out with you on Fox Sports Radio.
He's Buck Rising. I'm Jason Fitz not gonna lie book.
My email just crashed and I was about to tell
everybody about the play of the day, So you know
we're on a roll. You want to tell everybody about
the tire Rack Player of the day while I pull
my email back up.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
You know, just do you want to? Most?
Speaker 4 (19:30):
Certainly? Can you unprofessional broadcast?
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Are you?
Speaker 3 (19:34):
It's the tire rack play of the Day. For over
forty years, tire Rack has been helping customers to find
the right tires for how, what and where they drive
ships fast and free, backed by free road hazard protection
with convenient installation options like mobile tire installation, tire raq
dot Com the way.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
Tire buying should be.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
Can we hear the tire rack play of the day
from yesterday Spurs and Thunder game please behind us?
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Back screen from Cornette Fox weeds into the paint, pull
up jumper, no good Tellman Johnson, Johnny on the spot,
follow up slam, nobody bucks out kJ and he makes
some pain.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
Put back dunk action courtesy of the Spurs Radio Network
and Fitsie as we talk about the NFL on Christmas Day,
of course, that ignores the NBA was also on Christmas Day,
and this is the kind of thing that the NBA
should fear. Of course, one seventeen to one oh two
the Spurs again over OKC, who are you know, still
(20:42):
the best team in the NBA by record, but teetering
here a little bit in the last couple of weeks.
This is the kind of thing that the NBA has
to be concerned about, right, fits We talked about this,
what was that on Tuesday night when we were filling
in on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
Welcome back to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
By the way, he's Jason some buck Rising filling in
for the guys on Two Pros and a Cup of Joe.
We talked about the idea that people would basically be
asked to make a choice between what you want on
your television all day. Sure, you could flip back and
forth between network broadcast television and streaming if you wanted to.
Speaker 4 (21:16):
Because the two at Netflix.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
NFL games and one on Prime yesterday versus the NBA
being broadcast on network television, Charles Barkley kind of irate,
I would say, maybe as irate as Charles gets in
those situations talking about the NFL and the NBA and
the kind of head to head that they were being
(21:38):
put up against to I don't know if we have
Barkley's comments, but perhaps you could read them if we
don't have them. Offhand, he seemed a little bit perturbed
by the idea that the NFL would even bother on
Christmas Day.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Yeah, I mean, I've got it here, and it says
the NFL got greedy and started adding Christmas games. We
used to have this day to ourselves, but Roger Goodell
and then pigs at the NFL always want to hog
every day of the week. Now Christmas is an NBA day.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
I understand the concept of what.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
Barkley is saying here, but but to me, it's not
the NFL's job to sit back and say, oh.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
Man, well, that's really the NBA's day.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
In fact, the NFL has done this to college football
the last couple of the years. The minute the college
football calendar changed to have more playoff games, I thought, well, maybe.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
On that Saturday, the NFL is stay out.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
Nope, the NFL clearly looks around and says, oh, college
football wants a Saturday.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
Now, we'll take that. We're going to make sure that
people watch our product.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
When you're the biggest bully in the land, you can
do kind of whatever the hell do you want. And
I don't even mean bully in a negative way, because
to me, this is as simple as give the people
what they want. Like, it's not the NFL's fault that
terrible NFL games are going to absolutely throttle the NBA
Christmas Day ratings.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
They just are. Like it's just.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
And it's shocking to me because you mentioned something that
we've talked about, but I think is important here. This
isn't the NBA versus the NFL on Fox or the
NFL on ESPN or ABC or any of those. No,
the NFL went standalone on Christmas Day, which absolutely requires
anybody that doesn't have two televisions in their living room
on Christmas Day to make a very conscious decision, would
(23:17):
I rather have the NFL on all day?
Speaker 1 (23:19):
Or would I rather go back and forth?
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Because you can't split screen Netflix and whatever device you're
watching the NBA on.
Speaker 4 (23:26):
Right.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
So, not only did the NFL come in and get
greevy about Christmas Day, I don't think it's accidental that
the NBA turned around and said, wait, we can sell
those games to streaming services for a ton of money,
which will force people to come to our product, which
will at some level not only boost us up, but
it will curb stomp the NBA. Like, this is all
very intentional, good business, if you ask me. Like, it's
(23:48):
not in the NFL's job to pull back so the
NBA can compete. It's the NBA's job to figure out
how to damn compete.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
So it's seventy eight years that the NBA has had
games on Christmas, and so I get why anybody, whether
it be Charles Barkley or just diehard NBA fans, or
anybody in this sphere, this sphere or this space that
has some kind of you know, some kind of tradition
associated with the NBA and Christmas Day because it has been.
(24:17):
It has been a tradition to that point. But just
to me, it sounds like sour grapes if I'm being
honest with you, because what Charles is saying again the quote,
the NFL got greedy and started adding Christmas games. We
used to have this day to ourself. But Goodell and
then pigs at the NFL always want to hog every
day of the week. Now, No, Charles, sweet baby Angel,
(24:39):
it's not about Goodell and them getting greedy. I mean
it is, but it's our greed. It's the sports consuming
public's creed. I want more NFL football. I don't want
less NFL football. Give me as much football, good or bad,
as humanly possible. That's my greed as the consumer. Now,
obviously I also work in the NFL. I'm a reporter
(25:02):
for one of the thirty two teams, or covering one
of the thirty two teams. I don't work for a team,
But you get my point, Like, I'm more interested, more
invested at this time of year, even as we get
to the tail end of the regular season in the NFL,
on what's going on in the NFL teams I don't
get to watch on a regular basis.
Speaker 4 (25:20):
In a setting where I don't have.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
To work a game that day, I am vastly I'm
going to seek out football over anything else, NFL football
over anything else that you put on television. FITSI I
kept I was aware of what happened in the NBA yesterday,
just because I knew we were probably going to talk
a little bit about it on a national sports talk
(25:44):
radio show. Had this been the local show that I
do here in Nashville, I wouldn't have turned on a
basketball game for anything yesterday, even as I love Wembin
Yama and watching the watching the Thunder, and I consider
that to be one of the premier matchups in the
NBA right now, I'll watch this bad football over any
of it, though, if you give me the option. It's
not the NFL's greed. It's the NFL taking advantage of
(26:06):
our greed.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
That's the ownership element that people forget all the time.
It's like we talk about corporations and entertainment and business
and all these things, like at the end of the day,
it's not all consumer driven.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
It is consumer driven. Speaking of consumer driven, Sesame Street
helped raise us all. Now it's our turn donate this.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
Holiday season at sesame dot org because the world needs
Sesame and Sesame needs you.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Great way to get back to something that helped raise
us all.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
He's Buck Rising on Jason Fitzwerin for the guys on
Fox Sports Radio. Here's the thing, Buck, So I looked
it up from twenty twenty four. Okay, let me give
you some impressive numbers here. You ready for this. In
twenty twenty four, the NBA saw an eighty four percent
jump in Christmas.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Day ratings from twenty twenty three. That's a huge jump, right.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
They averaged five point two five million viewers across five games.
That's an eighty four percent jump from twenty twenty three.
It was the best christ Miss Day that they'd seen
in five years. The primetime Lakers Warriors got seven point
seven to six million.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
That's up huge over what they'd have. So those are
all great numbers. Last year.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Last year, Chiefs Steelers Ravens Texans were the two Netflix
games that we got. Those averaged twenty four million viewers.
Reached sixty five million total viewers but averaged.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
Twenty four million.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
So last year the NBA put up the best numbers
it's put up in years, and it's still still got
what a fifth of what the NFL pulled in that day.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
And here's the sad reality. And I think this is
just I don't even know if it's sad.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
This is just the reality. To Chuck's point, the NBA
yesterday gave us the Knicks. It gave us OKC versus
San Antonio, which truly is trying to turn into right
now one of the better new rivalries in the NBA.
They also gave us the Warriors, and they gave us
the Lakers throughout the course of the day. They are
going to get murdered in the ranking ratings when they
(28:01):
come out. I'm sure Netflix will give us those numbers soon.
When those numbers come out, don't just remember that they
got murdered. Remember that they got murdered by a quarterback
you've never heard of playing for the Chiefs, and a
quarterback you've never heard of playing for the Vikings against
the Lions team that got eliminated. Oh and a Cowboys
Washington game that meant absolutely nothing. They could not have
(28:23):
given you three less meaningful NFL games with less brand
power at the quarterback position, and they're still going to
throttle the absolute best that the.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
NBA has to offer.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Like, if I'm the NBA and I'm looking around, now,
you got two choices. You can either decide that you're
very okay being a Christmas Day tradition that matters to
a lot of people, but not to most people, and
that's okay, like it's okay to not be everything to everybody.
Or you need to figure out how to own a
different day. Maybe you decide Christmas Eve is your new day.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
I don't know. But if your actual goal is.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
Ownership of the day, the NFL has taken that from
you and you are not getting it back. It is
never going to be an NBA a day again.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
It is an NFL day.
Speaker 4 (29:02):
Well that's that's why.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
And again Charles Charles is entitled to whatever opinion he
wants to have, of course, and Charles Barkley earned the
right to speak on whatever he wants to speak on.
But it's a dated perspective, you know what I'm saying,
Like it's just football has passed all of these things
by How how does baseball feel about no longer being
America's past time?
Speaker 4 (29:20):
Except clinking to the.
Speaker 3 (29:21):
Idea that they they they can still say, well, where
America's past time, No, you're not, really, It's football. That's
that's that's where football, football comes for us all after
a while. And and I don't think that it's that
it's a sad reality at all. It's just it's where
people's tastes have changed or where people's interests have changed.
(29:42):
And how the NBA or if the NBA or Major
League Baseball or any of these other sports that are
competing for I wouldn't even say second fiddle, uh to
the NFL, because college football is America's second most popular sport.
I would argue by a wide margin even is that
is a more region live sport than anything else. That
still beats the hell out of the NBA and Major
(30:04):
League Baseball. So I wonder how how that process, How
how the commissioners of these two sports, and specifically basketball,
because I don't know, Adam Silver feels.
Speaker 4 (30:17):
Like he's up against it on a regular basis anymore.
Speaker 3 (30:20):
Where he was thought of as one of the more
progressive and thought provoking commissions and commissioners in the league,
turns out he's not been overwhelmingly effective, and the problems
under his watch have only gotten worse. Maybe that was
always going to be what happened, regardless of who was
the commissioner of the NBA, given the changing landscape or
what the landscape of professional sports and consumption looks like
(30:44):
right now. But this, this to me is it's it's
not yet. It's going to sound like a shot at
Charles Barkley, but it really isn't. It just sounds to
me like an old like an older generation, shaking their
fist at the clouds and saying, why can't things be
like they always were?
Speaker 4 (30:59):
When in reality that's just not how it works.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
And someday that will be you and me and somebody
somebody younger than us will tell us, no, you idiots,
you don't matter anymore. And the thing that you think
is it should be because it's always been, it's outdated
and you don't know what you're talking about anymore. That
will happen to all of us at a certain point
in time. I just I know that Charles is aware
of the landscape and sports. I know Charles knows how
(31:21):
popular the NFL is. The idea that he would be
sitting there on the NBA Christmas Day broadcast and being
like this is our day.
Speaker 4 (31:28):
They need to get the hell out. No, they don't.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
You need to put on a better product or give
people a better reason of care. That's the only reason
that the NFL is taking all of your stuff.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
I think you also at some level. I say this
gently for everybody, but like, why yuck? Anybody's young? Like
you know is we've joked over the years. I hate pie.
I don't like pie. And every year that it comes
up that I don't like pie, people are just absolutely
offended that I don't like pie. And my answer to
that is like, cool, Like I don't like pie. So
(31:57):
if I show up the same Christmas gathering as Buck,
you have all the pie you want. I'm not taking
it into your pie. You go enjoy your pot. I'm
gonna enjoy cake. Anything pibly can do, Cake can do better,
Like I love cake. Right, So it's fine, I love cake.
Somebody else can love pie. No big deal. I don't
understand why in this landscape everything has to make the
NFL a villain. And frankly to your point, you know,
I just looked at it because the college football playoffs
(32:20):
this year and gave us head to head yet again,
as we mentioned, right, So I looked at it and
the ratings head to head for college football playoff games,
understanding that Miami, Texas A and M was before the
NFL was kicking off, Right, they fourteen point eight million.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
People watch that?
Speaker 2 (32:34):
Well, Tulane Ole Miss drew six point two million viewers,
and then the NFL game started between Philly and Washington,
by the way, also a meaningless game that had fifteen
and a half million viewers versus another playoff game, JMU
versus Oregon had four point four million. Right, But I
don't hear college football fans coming out all over the
(32:55):
place just screaming about, Oh, the NFL is stepping on
our playoff Why can't they get out of the way.
Why can't they make this day about college football? Why
do they have to do these things? Like, I just
don't hear that. As much there is to me an
entire section of NBA fans, NBA media, NBA coverage that
is all about what the rest of the world should
(33:15):
be thinking or should be doing, or.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
How much everybody should love their PROBA.
Speaker 4 (33:19):
Like I don't care.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
You know, if Christmas Day is about the NBA to you,
then enjoy the NBA that day.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
And if it's about the NFL. Do you enjoy the NFL.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
I don't hear the NFL complain about much anything because
at the top of the top of the pecking order.
But I don't hear college football fans complain the way
that basketball fans do about the lack of appreciation for
their sport. And I think at some point it just
all feels fail to me enjoy what you enjoy.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
Well.
Speaker 3 (33:46):
But I wonder if that's not a reaction because of
how much basketball has to deal with this in general.
I live in the Southeast, right there's a whole portion
of the country that will tell you how much they
don't care about the NBA and how much the NBA
is varable now and all these different things, and they'd
rather watch paint dry than watch an NBA game or
whatever the case may be. Right, Like, the NBA, I
(34:08):
feel like, more than any other any other major American
sport has to deal with the constant what you described
as yucking somebody's young. If you like basketball, there's ten
other people that will tell you, no, it's a terrible product.
Speaker 4 (34:22):
All they do is shoot threas. It's a tough watch.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
The regular season doesn't matter, like the NBA BI percentage
deals with a greater volume of that criticism where people
aren't actually watching but are comfortable submitting their opinions on
what they think about the NBA no matter what because
of rightly or wrongly, the NBA in the last decade,
let's say, has become a level of polarizing by a
(34:46):
portion of the population that it probably didn't want anything
to do with and wish that it hadn't been, hadn't
been associated with whatever kind of political belief you seem
to have, whether that's fair or not. The NBA is
kind of the sports poster child for that in the
last couple of years, and it's created a polarizing element
with a good population of the country, even though that
(35:09):
population in the country, like I said, is not actually
watching the basketball to criticize. If they did, they'd probably
enjoy the holy hell out of it, because there's some
really fun players in the NBA right now and some
really excellent teams, regardless of if you think that the
inventory of the NBA is too much.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
Yeah, I think to your point there, it's interesting because
you're absolutely right. How many people I say this all
the time about the w If you're a WNBA person
or not. This is just a fact to me. You
can take the WNBA yelling and you can split it
into thirds. There are a third of the people that
are truly passionate about it that watch it and they
yell about it. Then there's a third of the people
(35:47):
that have never watched the second of it and they
think it sucks, so they yell about how much it
sucks even though they've never watched the second of it,
so they have no idea. And then there's a third
of the people that have never watched the second of it,
but simply because they need to prop tell you how
great it is even though they've never watched the second
of it. So like it's only a third of that
yelling actually ever feels real.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
What is real as DraftKings.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
By the way, this show sponsored by the DraftKings sportsbook
and official sports betting partner of the NFL and NBA.
Right now, use the promo code two pros to claim
your special offer at DraftKings again. Promo code is super easy,
two pros at DraftKings. The crown is yours. There's no
easy solution to this, and I know I'm oversimplifying when
(36:28):
I say NBA fans enjoy what you enjoy. NFL fans
enjoy what you enjoy. But I do think one truth
is here. I mean, I'm ever the sort of capitalist
I guess in this like, these things aren't being played
for no reason, They're being played for money. So the
only real change anybody can ever affect is their eyeballs.
So I guess the answer is that if you truly
believe that the NFL is taking something from you, and
(36:51):
you're an NBA fan just to make sure that you
don't watch a single second of it, the one thing
that will ever change anything is eyeballs. We just don't
want to empower ourselves to actually make that change. All right,
he's Buck Rising, Jason Fitz coming up. We're gonna figure
it out. Buck has the most shocking thing you ever
need to hear about the AFC. There's one team that
stands out to Buck as clearly the super Bowl favorite
(37:12):
from the AFC, and it's not who you think it is.
We'll tell you about it next. He's Buck. I'm Jason.
I don't know why I used our first name. It's
Bucket Fitz takeover on two Prosonly Cup of Joe on
Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 6 (37:22):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live. He's Buck Rising. I'm Jason Fitz. It's Bucking
Fits taken over two Cup of Joe on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
We've reached such an interesting point in this NFL season.
And I mean interesting because we spent so much of
this season trying to figure out how to make sense
of some of the teams.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
That aren't good.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
We started the show talking about the Lions, who are
going to miss the playoffs. Obviously we all know that
the Chiefs are going to miss the playoffs, The Cowboys
are going to miss the playoffs, The Vikings are gonna
miss the playoffs. You can look all over the place
at the disappointments in the NFL and probably have a
pretty good conversation about which one of those are the worst.
Speaker 1 (38:08):
But there's a flip side to all of this, and that's.
Speaker 2 (38:10):
Some of the new teams that maybe we didn't think
would be here, and we are now in this weird
AFC where all of a sudden we're trying to figure
out how good the Patriots are, And what does it
mean for the Broncos who last night, I mean frankly struggled.
They struggled to get a win over at Kansas City
Chiefs team that couldn't really generate any offense, but was
still in the game all the way to the very
(38:32):
end of late touchdown seals that win for the Broncos
who desperately needed it. And I'm looking around Buck and
I'm trying to figure out, Like most years, right now
we have a good idea who the best team.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
Is in the AFC. As we say, right now, I
have no idea.
Speaker 4 (38:45):
Oh I do, pick me, pick me, I know who
is it?
Speaker 1 (38:49):
Who is it?
Speaker 4 (38:50):
It's the Jags. It's the Jacksonville Jaguars. It's at least.
Speaker 3 (38:56):
Right now, I don't think there is a better team
in the month of December as we get ready to
put a bow on the NFL regular season. Obviously we'll
get our work our way through the rest of Week
seventeen moving forward starting tomorrow.
Speaker 4 (39:11):
But as we sit here, and not just.
Speaker 3 (39:14):
Because they beat up on a bunch of bad teams,
they went to Denver and handed the Broncos their first
home loss of the season.
Speaker 4 (39:21):
Did the Jaguars. Trevor Lawrence is playing excellent football right now.
Speaker 3 (39:24):
Their offense looks and we talked about this a little
bit on I think it was Tuesday night, if I
remember correctly, that the offense completely changed when they put
Jacoby Meyers into the mix. There after they lost Travis
Hunter for the season, so much so that they felt
comfortable giving Jacoby Myers a three year, sixty million dollar deal.
Speaker 4 (39:44):
The defense is awesome.
Speaker 3 (39:45):
They did not a great pass rush defense, not a
great pass rush defense, but their tops against the run.
They can make you one dimensional, which allows them gives
them more opportunities to create these turnovers that they're capitalizing on.
The Jags the best team in the AFC right now
in the month of December. There is not a better
team in that conference than the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Speaker 2 (40:05):
Opportunistic defense, a first overall pick at the quarterback position
that maybe hasn't lived up to some of the hype,
But my god is still Trevor Lawrence. Obviously they've got
explosive players. Now, you're right, Shcoby's been a huge pickup
for them. Why are we not buying more into maybe
just because it's the brand of the Jags, because it
certainly feels like everybody's welcomed in the concept of the
(40:29):
Patriots being great again, and everybody's welcoming in Sean Payton
and what he's done to the Broncos and how good
that Broncos defense is, even though again they struggled last
night against Kansas City team with nothing to play for.
I have not felt that same level of buy in
for the Jags yet.
Speaker 3 (40:43):
Well, I mean it's because I've done this before with
the Titans, right, they were one of the best teams
in the AFC for years with the Chiefs and the Ravens,
and before really the Bengals arrived on the scene, were
competing with the Bills, all of these teams, and people
would discount the type at the time, even though they
made it to an AFC Championship game, didn't get it
done ultimately, didn't win a Super Bowl. With that current
(41:06):
iteration of the window with Derrick Henry and Ryan Tanneh
and all that. But like I've lived that experience before,
it'll take a couple of years of this happening for
people to really want to give the Jags any kind
of credit.
Speaker 4 (41:16):
And even then they'll find ways to discount them.
Speaker 1 (41:18):
Yeah, you're probably right.
Speaker 2 (41:19):
There's just certain brands it just takes everybody a little
bit longer to fall in love with it. I don't
think it's just market size or any of that. It's
just been there, done that. But it's weird that the
Jags are sort of stuck in no man's land. But
in this AFC, why not the Jags. There is one
team we haven't mentioned yet to Texans. How did they
fall into all of this in the AFC power structure.
We'll figure it out next on Two Pros and a
(41:40):
Cup of Joe
You're listening to Fox Sports.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
With their playoff lives on the line and absolutely everything
right in front of them, but knowing that the only
way they could get into the postseason dance was to
go out and win on Christmas Day as part of
that journey.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Knowing that they absolutely had to bring it.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
The Lions got thumped by the Vikings. The Lions didn't
just get thumped by the Vikings. The Lions got embarrassed
by a Vikings team that somehow wildly they had a
net total of less than ten passing yards. And the
Vikings still beat Detroit, and now Detroit is not going
to go to the postseason. Now Detroit is looking around
(00:42):
and Lions vans everywhere are asking has the window slam shut?
Its bucking fits takeover at Two Pros and a Cup
of Joe, He's buck rising out. Jason Fitz will be
hanging out with you all morning. Also, be sure to
hang out with our new YouTube channel for the show.
Just search two pros FSR on YouTube. Begin that's two
pros FSR. Hit the subscri button, don't stop there, Hit
that thumbs up bike on common away. Let us know
(01:03):
who on the show you agree with them. Who you
think is completely wrong. Check out the new channel on YouTube.
Begin just search two pros FSR subscribe Buck. Yesterday we
watched a lot of bad.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Football, bad football. It was glorious, glorious.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
You already it's six am and you're already telling you
you're gonna tell me that And Max Prosmer really made
you no, no, say yes yes.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
There is not a chance.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
That you were eerily You were really into Vikings line.
You watched Vikings lines painfully. You have to admit this.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
No, I was delighted by it. Are you kidding me?
The Vikings defense is unbelievable. It's not gonna be worth
anything because it's not like they're going to the postseason either.
Speaker 4 (01:42):
But to watch Detroit be put in a blender that way.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
And I'm no active rooting interest one way or the
one way.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
Or the other in that situation.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
But FITZI, we talked about this before the Christmas football
took place. We talked about how bad the games were
gonna be. We knew that this was gonna be the case.
I told you then, I was ready for it. I
was built for this. All I do in my life
is cover bad football. You know what I'm doing on Sunday.
I got the Titans hosting the Saints here in Nashville.
That's gonna be what my life is. So Welcome, America. Welcome.
(02:13):
It's that Homer Simpson meme where he's patting the couch
and staring at people with dead eyes, saying, come on
in here and take a seat on the playoff eliminated
football train. It was glorious to be able to have
the rest of the country participate in what I've been
doing for basically four seasons.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
I have now figured it out after all of our
years of knowing each other. You are the ghost of Christmas, past, present,
and future, all wrapped in one.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
All right.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
There's a little bit of darkness to what's happened, and
there's a little darkness to where there is, and there's
a little darkness for what's to.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Come, all in one. Okay, you are absolutely personifying all
of it.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Look, this is a Vikings team that I just looked
it up to make sure that I didn't have the
number one. The Vikings had a total of three net
passing yards three net passing yards, and they won this
game twenty three to ten. Like, you're right, part of
it was in a blender. Part of the Lions just
came out so flat. You have to admit that that
(03:11):
was surprising, right to see a Lions team look that disjointed.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Because here's my thing. Dan Campbell is supposed.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
To be the biiton kneecaps guy, right, So if you're
the biiton kneecaps guy, then what you expect is when
your team's back against the wall, that's where you expect
the biiton kneecaps guy to come out with the thunder
of the gods and have a team that comes out
of the tunnel feeling like they are ready to absolutely.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
Destroy the world.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
And instead it just it looked disjointed, which is kind
of how the Lions have looked.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Oh you're they're too talented to not even be in
the playoffs.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
This is I think of all of the fails in
the NFL this year, this might be the most shocking
to me.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
Mmm, that's an interesting question.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Of all of the fails in the NFL this year,
what would be the most shocking. I guess Washington would
not be because we felt like that was a regrets candidate. Anyway,
we did not have on the on the scorecard that
Jane Daniels would miss. I mean, at this point, almost
the entire season, and dealing with the level of injury
(04:12):
that he's been dealing with. I'm looking at I'm trying
to think of other NFL fails that might surprise me.
Are we surprised that the Raiders are this god awful
for all of the things that we thought might it.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Is early in the morning to throw that level of
Raiders shade right at me.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
I mean, no, no, no, no, it's not right at you.
It's just it's a it's five am here. This is
what you get from making me do radio this earlier.
I am I am surprised. I mean, I am surprised
that the Raiders are as just miserable as they are. Fitsy,
I don't know what your expectations is. For the rest
(04:51):
of America that may not know. Jason Fitz is a
Las Vegas Raiders fan, and he's been in hell for
basically twenty years at this point in time, they're two
and thirteen. I didn't think that Pete Carroll and Tom
Brady and Chip Kelly when he was still employed there,
and Gino Smith and Ashton Gent and Max Crosby and
all these different things I didn't.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
Think two and thirteen was in the cards.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
If I'm being honest, that's probably the biggest fail in
the NFL to me.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Okay, well, I wasn't even thinking of the bad teams,
because the bad teams are always bad.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
But they weren't supposed to be that bad, right, that's
some thing, Like they weren't supposed to be the worst.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
They are the worst?
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Is this start to feel like it's just a personal attack.
I don't know what's happening here.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Like this feels like maybe we're working on a little
Christmas aggression here, Like feels like maybe you're a little
Christmas hangler, and like maybe you need a little leg
nock this morning, because I feels like that's a person
of that.
Speaker 4 (05:38):
Look, here's what I just didn't I didn't get to.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
This is the first day all week later yesterday that
I didn't spend in front of a microphone. So I've
been I've just been building up the amount of amount
of sports talk dialogue that we were going to have
this morning. This is your fault forgive me a day
off yesterday.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
You're right, somehow, Sack, there's no doubt it'bsolutely mean. I
think a lot of people would name the Chiefs as
the biggest disappointment or the biggest fail of all of
the teams that aren't going to be in the playoffs.
I don't, only because the Chiefs are not that different
this year than they were last year. It's just last
year they caught every break. In this year they've lost
(06:15):
every break. Like the amount of one score games that
the Chiefs won in weird ways over the last year
and half, it's just sort of, you know, that is
regressed to the means. So I think Kansas City is disappointing,
but also Kansas City has been getting away with.
Speaker 4 (06:28):
It for a minute.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Also, maybe when I say biggest fail, I also think
about how difficult it is to rebound from that. Like
do any of us really believe that the Chiefs are
going to.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Be down and out? Not really, I don't anyway.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
I mean, they're still going to have at some point
Patrick Mahomes comes back healthy, at some point Andy Reid
and Patrick Mahomes reunited.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
It's all going to be fine.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
They're going to get a higher draft pick somehow this year,
and they're going to figure out a way to fix
some of this.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
The solution is in as easy for the Lions.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
I think part of it is when you gone from
being a darling that nobody expected to all of a
sudden now one of the more dominant teams, which the
Lions have been for the last few years. At some
point you got to seal the deal and they didn't.
And that's fine until you look at the future. They
are wildly over the cap next year, like they have
a tough cap situation, and they also have a bunch
(07:19):
of young guys.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
They got to start figuring out how to pay now.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
I do believe teams can get themselves out of salary
cap you just you change some of the contracts around.
But if it's a how do the Lions fix this,
I don't think it's easy to fix. If you're looking
at things down and you're like, oh, we're forty or
fifty million dollars over the cap, and by the way,
we're gonna have to figure out how we're about to
pay Jamier Gibbs, and we're gonna have to figure out
how we're about to pay Sam Laporta. Like they got
deals they're gonna have to get done for young talent
(07:43):
that has exceeded expectation or at least been you know,
epic players in this league.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
They got a lot of money to show out.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
There's no easy solution for the late for the Lions.
So maybe that's why it feels so drastic to me.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Yeah, I guess I'm just I'm not wringing my hands
that much. Because if you told me at the start
of the season that Detroit both of their coordinators on
offense and defense were going to get head coaching jobs
and the team that won, I mean, how many games
the Lions win last year?
Speaker 4 (08:12):
Fifteen? Is that right? Fourteen or fifteen? Last year fifteen?
Speaker 3 (08:15):
I believe it was fifteen because they got that one
over the Vikings at the end.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Yeah, the Loves or the Vikings won fourteen.
Speaker 5 (08:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
So if you'd have told me that that was going
to be the case, and that Dan Campbell was going
to take over play calling, you know, halfway through the season,
and that they would finish eight to nine, assuming that
they don't beat the Bears this coming in week eighteen,
and assuming the Bears need to continue to win games
to I mean, as they try to make the hell
(08:42):
they can make a push for the one seat if
they wanted to at this point in time, or if
things fell in their favor, I would have felt that
that was right. Like, it's not a bottoming out for
a team that's not a bottom dweller.
Speaker 4 (08:54):
But that's a lot.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
To overcome in a season where basically everything that you
needed to go right twenty twenty four went correctly because yesterday,
I mean, the thing that concerns you the most is
not even about their future fits a year, although I'm
sure fans are wringing their hands and talking about offseason
needs and I'm sure calling for coaches to be fired
and things like that, because Detroit, I mean, last year
(09:16):
was their year, right. I don't know if have you
been to Detroit recently when the Lions have been good.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
I don't know when the last time you spent time
in the city.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
It's been a few years since I was in Detroit.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Yeah, Titans played up there last year. It was my
first time in Detroit. The place is buzzing, right. They've
got this huge banner on the side of a skyscraper
right in the middle of dight downtown Detroit that says,
this is our year, and it's got all these different
things listing why the Lions are built for this, and
you know how the resurgence is going to bring everybody,
you know, everybody along with it, and how much it
(09:47):
means to the city and all these different things.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
And then you're eight nine. You're looking around me, like,
when is our year?
Speaker 3 (09:52):
Because our year feels like it might have been twenty
twenty four, And at that point in time, it's to
your point, it's kind of slipping through their fingers. The
thing that concerns you the most, honestly, though, was golf.
And golf was terrible yesterday, and I think in part
it's because Taylor Decker, their left tackle, was ruled out.
He was dealing with an illness. They just couldn't run
(10:13):
the ball. They couldn't protect him well enough. The Vikings
defense is good against anybody, no matter who they play,
on any given night, if you've got your starters or
your backups out there. They had eight turnovers through week sixteen,
FITSI for the fewest in the NFL. The Detroit Lions did,
and they end with a season high six turnovers in Minnesota. Like,
(10:37):
I just have to think that that's a little bit
of an anomaly to not put too much stock in
moving forward. Now, Again, what you're saying is accurate, Like
they've got a lot of different things to work through here.
And this is why it's difficult to sustain a kind
of championship competitive window in the NFL. The sport is
(10:58):
kind of built to not allow you to prolong that
window beyond what would be.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
The normal cycle.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
In the normal cycle, I don't know, it feels like
three years for a team to be competitive at the
highest level, right, I.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Need that to not be true, Like you're right, but
I need that to not Like, think about this, think
about what you just said.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Your window opens and it's three or four years. So
if you are a Lions fan, you have.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Lived, I should say, through a level of suck that
is just a gut punch.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
And you mentioned that you cover the Titans. I'm a
Raiders fan. We know bad football.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
You spend a generation, generations, You spend years with your
grandparents apologizing for your fandom of a team that sucks.
Because the window to suck seems like it's I don't know,
thirty years, but the window to be great it's like
three or four.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Let me think about that.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
You suffer generationally, year in, year out, over and over
and over again. You finally get to the spot that
you're good. If you're a lion, you're looking around like,
finally we are not the laughing stock. We are one
of the teams that has a legitimate shot in the NFL.
And then it's like, well, you might have missed your window.
The window really only lasts three years. What the hell
like you would do thirty years of suck to get
(12:13):
three years good? That seems just holy I know fares
where a big gives a ribbon, but that just seems
wholly unfair in the life of any of us as
sports fans.
Speaker 4 (12:21):
Oh sure, no, it's not fair. It's not fair at all.
It's miserable. It's hell.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
It's it's the knife in the side that somebody will
just keep twisting. But that's the beauty of it, because
that's how the NFL keeps you hooked.
Speaker 4 (12:34):
Baby.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
They don't want you to realize that it's only a
three year window. They want you to think that you've got,
you know, ten years of a competitive cycle. They want
you to think that the franchise quarterback that you drafted
as somebody who's going to carry you for fifteen, you know,
ten to fifteen years. That's not how this works at all.
It's once you have the scales removed from your eyes
and you actually look at the way that this thing
(12:55):
is structured to understand, No, no, no. Three years is
about all you get. Like the best stretch of just
to bring things local. For me, the best stretch of
Titans football that I've covered was Mike Malarkey into Mike Vrabel.
Six consecutive winning seasons and they went to the postseason
what four times in that six years? They beat the odds.
(13:17):
That's the anomaly. Are you kidding me? That's Tennessee Titans
are not supposed to have six consecutive winning seasons and
make it of the postseason four times in those six years.
Speaker 4 (13:27):
Nonsense. But they did it, and it.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
Gave people unrealistic expectations, and it's going to keep people
hooked on the hope that they can do it again
and cam Ord is going to lead them to the
Promised Land and all these different things, when in reality,
you look at the percentage of time that a first
round quarterback is selected by a franchise that even wins
a playoff game, a single playoff game for the team
that drafted them.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
It happens like forty six percent of the.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
Time the odds are not in your favor when it
comes to NFL fandom.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
He's gone from Christmas Carol to all of the gritches.
By the way, you can join.
Speaker 4 (13:59):
My favorite timing year.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
God, that's so true.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Joint created professionals from around the world at south By
Southwest this March twelfth through eighteenth in Austin, Texas.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
One of the coolest things you can ever experience.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Experienced bold storytelling, thrilling live performances, cutting edge innovation, so
much more with the south By Southwest badge register today
at s x SW. Easy for me to say SXSW
dot com slash badges. He's Buck Rising, I'm Jason Fitz.
We're in on two pros and a cup of Joe.
I want to make sure to get this little nugget
(14:33):
in that doesn't help in the world of Buck telling
lines fans that your hearts are about to be broken.
For anyone that hasn't looked against Jared Goff's only thirty
one years old. There's plenty they can do with this
contract to work things around. Monetarily, it is worth noting
he is three years left on his deal of money
of cap number I should say only one year left
of guaranteed salary, so they're gonna rework his deal. His
(14:55):
cap number next year is almost seventy million dollars. His
cap number the year after that is forty f or
fifty five ish, and then sixty two ish. They're gonna
have to rework Jared Goff steal where this gets here,
and that's no big deal. That's where they're going to
create a bunch of room and maybe everything's going to
be fine, but eventually you kick the.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Can down far and up.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Eventually they are going to have to pay the piper,
and that piper is going to be Jared Goff.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
So it is a reminder that there's been a couple
of times.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
That we've seen Jared Goff be no less than what
we want Jared Goff to be in some of these
He was absolutely wretched yesterday and I just kept looking
at that saying, that's a seventy million dollar quarterback.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Texture Again, by the time they do the deal, it
won't be.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
They'll work his money around, but it's just who It's
going to be expensive to be a star for the
Detroit Lions.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
Yeah, I mean absolutely, And that's something that I think
that I think a lot of fan bases are having
to think about as we get towards this time of
year where you're preseason and really even mid season, expectations
were in a totally different place. And it's why I'm
looking forward to the conversation that we're gonna have next
about what Charles Barklay had to say about the NFL,
(16:03):
because I think there's a lot of interesting elements here
that are worth peeling back a little bit of a
sociological study, which I'm sure we're going to get people
fired up the day after Christmas on their sports talk radio.
So why don't you, why don't you tease what we're
getting ready to talk about, and I'll tell the good
people about what they're missing out on.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Hold on, hold on, I got Look, you're over here
trying to make things work and get us to I
still got to tell people about home Depot.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Okay, I got, I got, I got a whole sheet.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
You're supposed to do that, you're supposed to tell I'm
supposed to do home Depot.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
I have to tell people about home Depot. You have
to tell people about Blutchoo. Good God, did you not
pay attention in the text meeting Home depot, get tools
to perform at the highest late level on every job
without compromise. When you shop Mikita at the home depot
when the job calls, so the best call of Makitai
built a build to be the best available at the
home depot. Pros get more done. See I totally bought that.
(16:58):
Now too much pressure, with Buck looking at me with
I know, all right.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Come it up.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Charles Barkley called the NFL pigs and stirred up a
debate on whether or not we're paying attention to the
right thing on Christmas Day?
Speaker 1 (17:10):
Was Chuck right?
Speaker 2 (17:11):
We'll talk about it next, but first Buck Rising has
to tell you about blue Choo.
Speaker 4 (17:16):
See how that works?
Speaker 3 (17:17):
Buck, This is so disorganized they're never gonna let us
back on this show until next.
Speaker 4 (17:22):
Friday when we're here.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
Blue Choo isn't just a tablet. It's a cheat code
for your crotch.
Speaker 4 (17:27):
There you go.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
Blue Choo provides access to chewable tablets that can help
you feel and perform at your best, stronger, harder, longer,
last thing like someone gave you a downstairs pep talk
and a gym membership. Blue Choo is the original brand
offering chewable tablets for better sex. You can be more
confident where it counts. Blue Choo a small chew for
(17:52):
a big difference. It's not just about your performance. You
want to give her group chat something to talk about.
Nothing makes you more of a legend than a little
blue choo. Discover your options at bluechoo dot com and
we've got a special deal for our listeners. As always,
get your first month of blue Chew free. Just use
promo code LeVar l A v A R at checkout
and cover five bucks for shipping.
Speaker 4 (18:13):
That's it.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
Head to blue choo dot com for details and safety
information and a big thanks to blue Choo for sponsoring.
Speaker 6 (18:21):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live. Polly Foods Go here with Tony Foods Go Yeah.
Speaker 5 (18:36):
As everybody knows, we're the hosts of the award winning
Polly and Tony foodsco shop Yeah. But instead of us
telling you how great we are, here's how Dan Patrick
described us when he came on our show.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Quick, knowledgeable and funny, opinionated.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
What are you doing interrupting our promo.
Speaker 6 (18:51):
Yeah, it wasn't talking about you. You took those clips
totally of context.
Speaker 5 (18:56):
Oh yeah, well after this promo, I'm gonna take you
out and be let me put this into context.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
Shut up.
Speaker 5 (19:03):
Yeah, anyway, just listen to the Paully and Tony Fusco
Show on I on Radio Apple podcasts oherever you get
your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Yea, so bucking fits takeover of two pros and a
cup of Joe hanging out with you on Fox Sports Radio.
He's Buck Rising. I'm Jason Fitz not gonna lie book.
My email just crashed and I was about to tell
everybody about the play of the day, So you know
we're on a roll. You want to tell everybody about
the tire Rack Player of the day while I pull
my email back up.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
You know, just do you want to? Most?
Speaker 4 (19:30):
Certainly? Can you unprofessional broadcast?
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Are you?
Speaker 3 (19:34):
It's the tire rack play of the Day. For over
forty years, tire Rack has been helping customers to find
the right tires for how, what and where they drive
ships fast and free, backed by free road hazard protection
with convenient installation options like mobile tire installation, tire raq
dot Com the way.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
Tire buying should be.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
Can we hear the tire rack play of the day
from yesterday Spurs and Thunder game please behind us?
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Back screen from Cornette Fox weeds into the paint, pull
up jumper, no good Tellman Johnson, Johnny on the spot,
follow up slam, nobody bucks out kJ and he makes
some pain.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
Put back dunk action courtesy of the Spurs Radio Network
and Fitsie as we talk about the NFL on Christmas Day,
of course, that ignores the NBA was also on Christmas Day,
and this is the kind of thing that the NBA
should fear. Of course, one seventeen to one oh two
the Spurs again over OKC, who are you know, still
(20:42):
the best team in the NBA by record, but teetering
here a little bit in the last couple of weeks.
This is the kind of thing that the NBA has
to be concerned about, right, fits We talked about this,
what was that on Tuesday night when we were filling
in on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
Welcome back to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
By the way, he's Jason some buck Rising filling in
for the guys on Two Pros and a Cup of Joe.
We talked about the idea that people would basically be
asked to make a choice between what you want on
your television all day. Sure, you could flip back and
forth between network broadcast television and streaming if you wanted to.
Speaker 4 (21:16):
Because the two at Netflix.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
NFL games and one on Prime yesterday versus the NBA
being broadcast on network television, Charles Barkley kind of irate,
I would say, maybe as irate as Charles gets in
those situations talking about the NFL and the NBA and
the kind of head to head that they were being
(21:38):
put up against to I don't know if we have
Barkley's comments, but perhaps you could read them if we
don't have them. Offhand, he seemed a little bit perturbed
by the idea that the NFL would even bother on
Christmas Day.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Yeah, I mean, I've got it here, and it says
the NFL got greedy and started adding Christmas games. We
used to have this day to ourselves, but Roger Goodell
and then pigs at the NFL always want to hog
every day of the week. Now Christmas is an NBA day.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
I understand the concept of what.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
Barkley is saying here, but but to me, it's not
the NFL's job to sit back and say, oh.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
Man, well, that's really the NBA's day.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
In fact, the NFL has done this to college football
the last couple of the years. The minute the college
football calendar changed to have more playoff games, I thought, well, maybe.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
On that Saturday, the NFL is stay out.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
Nope, the NFL clearly looks around and says, oh, college
football wants a Saturday.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
Now, we'll take that. We're going to make sure that
people watch our product.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
When you're the biggest bully in the land, you can
do kind of whatever the hell do you want. And
I don't even mean bully in a negative way, because
to me, this is as simple as give the people
what they want. Like, it's not the NFL's fault that
terrible NFL games are going to absolutely throttle the NBA
Christmas Day ratings.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
They just are. Like it's just.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
And it's shocking to me because you mentioned something that
we've talked about, but I think is important here. This
isn't the NBA versus the NFL on Fox or the
NFL on ESPN or ABC or any of those. No,
the NFL went standalone on Christmas Day, which absolutely requires
anybody that doesn't have two televisions in their living room
on Christmas Day to make a very conscious decision, would
(23:17):
I rather have the NFL on all day?
Speaker 1 (23:19):
Or would I rather go back and forth?
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Because you can't split screen Netflix and whatever device you're
watching the NBA on.
Speaker 4 (23:26):
Right.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
So, not only did the NFL come in and get
greevy about Christmas Day, I don't think it's accidental that
the NBA turned around and said, wait, we can sell
those games to streaming services for a ton of money,
which will force people to come to our product, which
will at some level not only boost us up, but
it will curb stomp the NBA. Like, this is all
very intentional, good business, if you ask me. Like, it's
(23:48):
not in the NFL's job to pull back so the
NBA can compete. It's the NBA's job to figure out
how to damn compete.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
So it's seventy eight years that the NBA has had
games on Christmas, and so I get why anybody, whether
it be Charles Barkley or just diehard NBA fans, or
anybody in this sphere, this sphere or this space that
has some kind of you know, some kind of tradition
associated with the NBA and Christmas Day because it has been.
(24:17):
It has been a tradition to that point. But just
to me, it sounds like sour grapes if I'm being
honest with you, because what Charles is saying again the quote,
the NFL got greedy and started adding Christmas games. We
used to have this day to ourself. But Goodell and
then pigs at the NFL always want to hog every
day of the week. Now, No, Charles, sweet baby Angel,
(24:39):
it's not about Goodell and them getting greedy. I mean
it is, but it's our greed. It's the sports consuming
public's creed. I want more NFL football. I don't want
less NFL football. Give me as much football, good or bad,
as humanly possible. That's my greed as the consumer. Now,
obviously I also work in the NFL. I'm a reporter
(25:02):
for one of the thirty two teams, or covering one
of the thirty two teams. I don't work for a team,
But you get my point, Like, I'm more interested, more
invested at this time of year, even as we get
to the tail end of the regular season in the NFL,
on what's going on in the NFL teams I don't
get to watch on a regular basis.
Speaker 4 (25:20):
In a setting where I don't have.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
To work a game that day, I am vastly I'm
going to seek out football over anything else, NFL football
over anything else that you put on television. FITSI I
kept I was aware of what happened in the NBA yesterday,
just because I knew we were probably going to talk
a little bit about it on a national sports talk
(25:44):
radio show. Had this been the local show that I
do here in Nashville, I wouldn't have turned on a
basketball game for anything yesterday, even as I love Wembin
Yama and watching the watching the Thunder, and I consider
that to be one of the premier matchups in the
NBA right now, I'll watch this bad football over any
of it, though, if you give me the option. It's
not the NFL's greed. It's the NFL taking advantage of
(26:06):
our greed.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
That's the ownership element that people forget all the time.
It's like we talk about corporations and entertainment and business
and all these things, like at the end of the day,
it's not all consumer driven.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
It is consumer driven. Speaking of consumer driven, Sesame Street
helped raise us all. Now it's our turn donate this.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
Holiday season at sesame dot org because the world needs
Sesame and Sesame needs you.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Great way to get back to something that helped raise
us all.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
He's Buck Rising on Jason Fitzwerin for the guys on
Fox Sports Radio. Here's the thing, Buck, So I looked
it up from twenty twenty four. Okay, let me give
you some impressive numbers here. You ready for this. In
twenty twenty four, the NBA saw an eighty four percent
jump in Christmas.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Day ratings from twenty twenty three. That's a huge jump, right.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
They averaged five point two five million viewers across five games.
That's an eighty four percent jump from twenty twenty three.
It was the best christ Miss Day that they'd seen
in five years. The primetime Lakers Warriors got seven point
seven to six million.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
That's up huge over what they'd have. So those are
all great numbers. Last year.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Last year, Chiefs Steelers Ravens Texans were the two Netflix
games that we got. Those averaged twenty four million viewers.
Reached sixty five million total viewers but averaged.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
Twenty four million.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
So last year the NBA put up the best numbers
it's put up in years, and it's still still got
what a fifth of what the NFL pulled in that day.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
And here's the sad reality. And I think this is
just I don't even know if it's sad.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
This is just the reality. To Chuck's point, the NBA
yesterday gave us the Knicks. It gave us OKC versus
San Antonio, which truly is trying to turn into right
now one of the better new rivalries in the NBA.
They also gave us the Warriors, and they gave us
the Lakers throughout the course of the day. They are
going to get murdered in the ranking ratings when they
(28:01):
come out. I'm sure Netflix will give us those numbers soon.
When those numbers come out, don't just remember that they
got murdered. Remember that they got murdered by a quarterback
you've never heard of playing for the Chiefs, and a
quarterback you've never heard of playing for the Vikings against
the Lions team that got eliminated. Oh and a Cowboys
Washington game that meant absolutely nothing. They could not have
(28:23):
given you three less meaningful NFL games with less brand
power at the quarterback position, and they're still going to
throttle the absolute best that the.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
NBA has to offer.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Like, if I'm the NBA and I'm looking around, now,
you got two choices. You can either decide that you're
very okay being a Christmas Day tradition that matters to
a lot of people, but not to most people, and
that's okay, like it's okay to not be everything to everybody.
Or you need to figure out how to own a
different day. Maybe you decide Christmas Eve is your new day.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
I don't know. But if your actual goal is.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
Ownership of the day, the NFL has taken that from
you and you are not getting it back. It is
never going to be an NBA a day again.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
It is an NFL day.
Speaker 4 (29:02):
Well that's that's why.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
And again Charles Charles is entitled to whatever opinion he
wants to have, of course, and Charles Barkley earned the
right to speak on whatever he wants to speak on.
But it's a dated perspective, you know what I'm saying,
Like it's just football has passed all of these things
by How how does baseball feel about no longer being
America's past time?
Speaker 4 (29:20):
Except clinking to the.
Speaker 3 (29:21):
Idea that they they they can still say, well, where
America's past time, No, you're not, really, It's football. That's
that's that's where football, football comes for us all after
a while. And and I don't think that it's that
it's a sad reality at all. It's just it's where
people's tastes have changed or where people's interests have changed.
(29:42):
And how the NBA or if the NBA or Major
League Baseball or any of these other sports that are
competing for I wouldn't even say second fiddle, uh to
the NFL, because college football is America's second most popular sport.
I would argue by a wide margin even is that
is a more region live sport than anything else. That
still beats the hell out of the NBA and Major
(30:04):
League Baseball. So I wonder how how that process, How
how the commissioners of these two sports, and specifically basketball,
because I don't know, Adam Silver feels.
Speaker 4 (30:17):
Like he's up against it on a regular basis anymore.
Speaker 3 (30:20):
Where he was thought of as one of the more
progressive and thought provoking commissions and commissioners in the league,
turns out he's not been overwhelmingly effective, and the problems
under his watch have only gotten worse. Maybe that was
always going to be what happened, regardless of who was
the commissioner of the NBA, given the changing landscape or
what the landscape of professional sports and consumption looks like
(30:44):
right now. But this, this to me is it's it's
not yet. It's going to sound like a shot at
Charles Barkley, but it really isn't. It just sounds to
me like an old like an older generation, shaking their
fist at the clouds and saying, why can't things be
like they always were?
Speaker 4 (30:59):
When in reality that's just not how it works.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
And someday that will be you and me and somebody
somebody younger than us will tell us, no, you idiots,
you don't matter anymore. And the thing that you think
is it should be because it's always been, it's outdated
and you don't know what you're talking about anymore. That
will happen to all of us at a certain point
in time. I just I know that Charles is aware
of the landscape and sports. I know Charles knows how
(31:21):
popular the NFL is. The idea that he would be
sitting there on the NBA Christmas Day broadcast and being
like this is our day.
Speaker 4 (31:28):
They need to get the hell out. No, they don't.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
You need to put on a better product or give
people a better reason of care. That's the only reason
that the NFL is taking all of your stuff.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
I think you also at some level. I say this
gently for everybody, but like, why yuck? Anybody's young? Like
you know is we've joked over the years. I hate pie.
I don't like pie. And every year that it comes
up that I don't like pie, people are just absolutely
offended that I don't like pie. And my answer to
that is like, cool, Like I don't like pie. So
(31:57):
if I show up the same Christmas gathering as Buck,
you have all the pie you want. I'm not taking
it into your pie. You go enjoy your pot. I'm
gonna enjoy cake. Anything pibly can do, Cake can do better,
Like I love cake. Right, So it's fine, I love cake.
Somebody else can love pie. No big deal. I don't
understand why in this landscape everything has to make the
NFL a villain. And frankly to your point, you know,
I just looked at it because the college football playoffs
(32:20):
this year and gave us head to head yet again,
as we mentioned, right, So I looked at it and
the ratings head to head for college football playoff games,
understanding that Miami, Texas A and M was before the
NFL was kicking off, Right, they fourteen point eight million.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
People watch that?
Speaker 2 (32:34):
Well, Tulane Ole Miss drew six point two million viewers,
and then the NFL game started between Philly and Washington,
by the way, also a meaningless game that had fifteen
and a half million viewers versus another playoff game, JMU
versus Oregon had four point four million. Right, But I
don't hear college football fans coming out all over the
(32:55):
place just screaming about, Oh, the NFL is stepping on
our playoff Why can't they get out of the way.
Why can't they make this day about college football? Why
do they have to do these things? Like, I just
don't hear that. As much there is to me an
entire section of NBA fans, NBA media, NBA coverage that
is all about what the rest of the world should
(33:15):
be thinking or should be doing, or.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
How much everybody should love their PROBA.
Speaker 4 (33:19):
Like I don't care.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
You know, if Christmas Day is about the NBA to you,
then enjoy the NBA that day.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
And if it's about the NFL. Do you enjoy the NFL.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
I don't hear the NFL complain about much anything because
at the top of the top of the pecking order.
But I don't hear college football fans complain the way
that basketball fans do about the lack of appreciation for
their sport. And I think at some point it just
all feels fail to me enjoy what you enjoy.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
Well.
Speaker 3 (33:46):
But I wonder if that's not a reaction because of
how much basketball has to deal with this in general.
I live in the Southeast, right there's a whole portion
of the country that will tell you how much they
don't care about the NBA and how much the NBA
is varable now and all these different things, and they'd
rather watch paint dry than watch an NBA game or
whatever the case may be. Right, Like, the NBA, I
(34:08):
feel like, more than any other any other major American
sport has to deal with the constant what you described
as yucking somebody's young. If you like basketball, there's ten
other people that will tell you, no, it's a terrible product.
Speaker 4 (34:22):
All they do is shoot threas. It's a tough watch.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
The regular season doesn't matter, like the NBA BI percentage
deals with a greater volume of that criticism where people
aren't actually watching but are comfortable submitting their opinions on
what they think about the NBA no matter what because
of rightly or wrongly, the NBA in the last decade,
let's say, has become a level of polarizing by a
(34:46):
portion of the population that it probably didn't want anything
to do with and wish that it hadn't been, hadn't
been associated with whatever kind of political belief you seem
to have, whether that's fair or not. The NBA is
kind of the sports poster child for that in the
last couple of years, and it's created a polarizing element
with a good population of the country, even though that
(35:09):
population in the country, like I said, is not actually
watching the basketball to criticize. If they did, they'd probably
enjoy the holy hell out of it, because there's some
really fun players in the NBA right now and some
really excellent teams, regardless of if you think that the
inventory of the NBA is too much.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
Yeah, I think to your point there, it's interesting because
you're absolutely right. How many people I say this all
the time about the w If you're a WNBA person
or not. This is just a fact to me. You
can take the WNBA yelling and you can split it
into thirds. There are a third of the people that
are truly passionate about it that watch it and they
yell about it. Then there's a third of the people
(35:47):
that have never watched the second of it and they
think it sucks, so they yell about how much it
sucks even though they've never watched the second of it,
so they have no idea. And then there's a third
of the people that have never watched the second of it,
but simply because they need to prop tell you how
great it is even though they've never watched the second
of it. So like it's only a third of that
yelling actually ever feels real.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
What is real as DraftKings.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
By the way, this show sponsored by the DraftKings sportsbook
and official sports betting partner of the NFL and NBA.
Right now, use the promo code two pros to claim
your special offer at DraftKings again. Promo code is super easy,
two pros at DraftKings. The crown is yours. There's no
easy solution to this, and I know I'm oversimplifying when
(36:28):
I say NBA fans enjoy what you enjoy. NFL fans
enjoy what you enjoy. But I do think one truth
is here. I mean, I'm ever the sort of capitalist
I guess in this like, these things aren't being played
for no reason, They're being played for money. So the
only real change anybody can ever affect is their eyeballs.
So I guess the answer is that if you truly
believe that the NFL is taking something from you, and
(36:51):
you're an NBA fan just to make sure that you
don't watch a single second of it, the one thing
that will ever change anything is eyeballs. We just don't
want to empower ourselves to actually make that change. All right,
he's Buck Rising, Jason Fitz coming up. We're gonna figure
it out. Buck has the most shocking thing you ever
need to hear about the AFC. There's one team that
stands out to Buck as clearly the super Bowl favorite
(37:12):
from the AFC, and it's not who you think it is.
We'll tell you about it next. He's Buck. I'm Jason.
I don't know why I used our first name. It's
Bucket Fitz takeover on two Prosonly Cup of Joe on
Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 6 (37:22):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live. He's Buck Rising. I'm Jason Fitz. It's Bucking
Fits taken over two Cup of Joe on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (37:40):
We've reached such an interesting point in this NFL season.
And I mean interesting because we spent so much of
this season trying to figure out how to make sense
of some of the teams.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
That aren't good.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
We started the show talking about the Lions, who are
going to miss the playoffs. Obviously we all know that
the Chiefs are going to miss the playoffs, The Cowboys
are going to miss the playoffs, The Vikings are gonna
miss the playoffs. You can look all over the place
at the disappointments in the NFL and probably have a
pretty good conversation about which one of those are the worst.
Speaker 1 (38:08):
But there's a flip side to all of this, and that's.
Speaker 2 (38:10):
Some of the new teams that maybe we didn't think
would be here, and we are now in this weird
AFC where all of a sudden we're trying to figure
out how good the Patriots are, And what does it
mean for the Broncos who last night, I mean frankly struggled.
They struggled to get a win over at Kansas City
Chiefs team that couldn't really generate any offense, but was
still in the game all the way to the very
(38:32):
end of late touchdown seals that win for the Broncos
who desperately needed it. And I'm looking around Buck and
I'm trying to figure out, Like most years, right now
we have a good idea who the best team.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
Is in the AFC. As we say, right now, I
have no idea.
Speaker 4 (38:45):
Oh I do, pick me, pick me, I know who
is it?
Speaker 1 (38:49):
Who is it?
Speaker 4 (38:50):
It's the Jags. It's the Jacksonville Jaguars. It's at least.
Speaker 3 (38:56):
Right now, I don't think there is a better team
in the month of December as we get ready to
put a bow on the NFL regular season. Obviously we'll
get our work our way through the rest of Week
seventeen moving forward starting tomorrow.
Speaker 4 (39:11):
But as we sit here, and not just.
Speaker 3 (39:14):
Because they beat up on a bunch of bad teams,
they went to Denver and handed the Broncos their first
home loss of the season.
Speaker 4 (39:21):
Did the Jaguars. Trevor Lawrence is playing excellent football right now.
Speaker 3 (39:24):
Their offense looks and we talked about this a little
bit on I think it was Tuesday night, if I
remember correctly, that the offense completely changed when they put
Jacoby Meyers into the mix. There after they lost Travis
Hunter for the season, so much so that they felt
comfortable giving Jacoby Myers a three year, sixty million dollar deal.
Speaker 4 (39:44):
The defense is awesome.
Speaker 3 (39:45):
They did not a great pass rush defense, not a
great pass rush defense, but their tops against the run.
They can make you one dimensional, which allows them gives
them more opportunities to create these turnovers that they're capitalizing on.
The Jags the best team in the AFC right now
in the month of December. There is not a better
team in that conference than the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Speaker 2 (40:05):
Opportunistic defense, a first overall pick at the quarterback position
that maybe hasn't lived up to some of the hype,
But my god is still Trevor Lawrence. Obviously they've got
explosive players. Now, you're right, Shcoby's been a huge pickup
for them. Why are we not buying more into maybe
just because it's the brand of the Jags, because it
certainly feels like everybody's welcomed in the concept of the
(40:29):
Patriots being great again, and everybody's welcoming in Sean Payton
and what he's done to the Broncos and how good
that Broncos defense is, even though again they struggled last
night against Kansas City team with nothing to play for.
I have not felt that same level of buy in
for the Jags yet.
Speaker 3 (40:43):
Well, I mean it's because I've done this before with
the Titans, right, they were one of the best teams
in the AFC for years with the Chiefs and the Ravens,
and before really the Bengals arrived on the scene, were
competing with the Bills, all of these teams, and people
would discount the type at the time, even though they
made it to an AFC Championship game, didn't get it
done ultimately, didn't win a Super Bowl. With that current
(41:06):
iteration of the window with Derrick Henry and Ryan Tanneh
and all that. But like I've lived that experience before,
it'll take a couple of years of this happening for
people to really want to give the Jags any kind
of credit.
Speaker 4 (41:16):
And even then they'll find ways to discount them.
Speaker 1 (41:18):
Yeah, you're probably right.
Speaker 2 (41:19):
There's just certain brands it just takes everybody a little
bit longer to fall in love with it. I don't
think it's just market size or any of that. It's
just been there, done that. But it's weird that the
Jags are sort of stuck in no man's land. But
in this AFC, why not the Jags. There is one
team we haven't mentioned yet to Texans. How did they
fall into all of this in the AFC power structure.
We'll figure it out next on Two Pros and a
(41:40):
Cup of Joe
Hosts And Creators
Brady Quinn
LaVar Arrington
Jonas Knox
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
Two Guys, Five Rings: Matt, Bowen & The Olympics
Two Guys (Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers). Five Rings (you know, from the Olympics logo). One essential podcast for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics. Bowen Yang (SNL, Wicked) and Matt Rogers (Palm Royale, No Good Deed) of Las Culturistas are back for a second season of Two Guys, Five Rings, a collaboration with NBC Sports and iHeartRadio. In this 15-episode event, Bowen and Matt discuss the top storylines, obsess over Italian culture, and find out what really goes on in the Olympic Village.