April 14, 2025 • 40 mins
Huge controversy in college football as Tennessee parts ways with quarterback Nico Iamaleava after he and his father tried to bargain for more NIL money. Kenny Pickett and Joe Flacco will try to establish themselves as starters in Cleveland. Plus, broken molars and backs on the FSR IR.
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Speaker 3 (01:34):
Jonas Knox today helped me out for the next couple
of days. So it's two pros and a cup. That
sounds awkward. Something else that was awkward. Nico Ia Malaiava.
For those that don't follow college football or can't pronounce
the name, I just want to call him Nico. That's
cool too. He was Tennessee starting quarterback last year and
probably most famous for signing a gigantic nil deal on
(01:58):
the way into college at the University of Tennessee. Reportedly,
it was like eight million dollars a deal about two
million per year, something like that. We never know the
true details because well, there's no transparency in college football,
and there's a lot of other issues. Some of those
issues came up just this past week. Before Tennessee's spring game,
(02:19):
Nico Io Malaiava decided he wasn't going to play, and
he wanted to renegotiate what he was being paid for
this upcoming season. Now, according to reports, niko Ia Malaiava,
his family, his representation, whoever you want to point the
finger at. He was scheduled to make two point four million,
but they were asking for four million. In their way
(02:41):
of leveraging the University of Tennessee to do this, was saying,
we're not going to play in the spring game. So
let's actually hear the words of their head coach there
at Tennessee, Josh Haipel before the spring game. Lee coach Hopeil,
you wrap.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Up spring practice today, obviously, lots of.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Attention, a lot of people want to know what's the
status of your quarterback room as you've worked through today.
Speaker 5 (03:04):
Yeah, we got two guys in that room, excited watching
go play. They've had a really good spring, they've grown
throughout it. Excited about getting out having a chance today,
get out in front of our fans and our guys
go compete today.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
What has the last forty eight hours been like in
dealing with that man?
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Listen, it's the state of college football.
Speaker 5 (03:24):
At the end of the day, no one's ever bigger
than the program that includes me too, and we got
an opportunity. We got a bunch of guys are going
to give their all for Tennessee and.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
We move forward. Got a great group, let's go compete.
So there's Josh Haipel giving us two cents on it. Right,
No one person's bigger than the program. And I think
those are words that probably some Tennessee volunteers fans are
excited to hear. The probably words that some of the
boosters who helped fork over the cash to pay Niko
you Maliava are excited to hear too, not allowing a
(03:59):
young man in basically holding them ransom. And I think
most people who are Tennessee fans would tell you there
was a lot to be desired based on his play
last year. And there's reports that he supposedly tried to
do this, And I shouldn't say he could be his family,
could be his agent. I've got more on this that
where I think it's more maybe his representation. But he
(04:21):
tried to do this before the playoff last year, tried
to leverage again the system and the amount of money
he was being paid before the playoff game, threating and
not playing the playoff game if he wasn't compensated more
compensated additionally to what he was already being paid. So
this is the state of college football of far, and
this is how things are working out. You now have
(04:41):
a young man who's put his name in the transfer portal,
the University of Tennessee has moved on, some would say, rightfully,
So I'm not sure there's too many people who are
being sympathetic to the player in this instance. You know
they're hoping things work out. But just give me your thoughts.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
You know, we talked about this on Saturday and it
turned and into a pretty passionate conversation. I mean, for me,
my takeaway from it stems maybe beyond the player themselves himself,
because this now marks a new it's a new approach,
(05:18):
or it's now out there this approach Like, Okay, if
you were to take a list of all the players
who have done what Nico has done around the country
at some of these top schools, I think people might
be blown away that there was a true list of
(05:38):
the players that have maybe tried to do this. And
so for Hypel to come out and basically say we're
not doing it, like, we're not doing it this way,
it now has to open up the conversation of what
are moving forward, what are going to be the rules
(06:02):
of engagement because I think it's going to this thing
is going to get worse before it gets better without
there being any more real organization connected to what's taking place.
Like we joked about it the other the other week
and talking about anyone can represent these guys at this level.
(06:23):
There's no real you know, monitoring or you don't.
Speaker 4 (06:27):
Have to pass a test to represent the kid.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
So you know, now the question comes into play, is
this is this somebody ruining the kid's opportunity and ruining
his career because they see dollar signs for themselves in
this opportunity. You know, it's it's sad to think that
that is a harsh reality that has always been connected
(06:51):
to sport when thinking about some of the backgrounds and
areas that.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
Some of these young men come from.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
So to me, when I when I saw the news
and I heard the news, you know, it just makes
me start thinking like it's a sad state of affairs
right now in my estimation, because these are going to
be the stories that continue to come out, and these
are going to be the stories that start to dominate
(07:20):
college football and maybe even college sports. And I just
wonder how long how much time is it going to
take for there to be a realization and an understanding
that one while knowing that I believe it's a good
thing to be able to pay the players, you know,
that are generating money for the university, I have no
(07:42):
issues with it, But I think we're starting to get
away from the idea that going to college is an
institution of learning. And it just seems as though education
is being put so far in the in the rear
view and the periphery that it becomes a little, you know, disturbing.
(08:06):
And that was one of the first things I thought about,
like what are you going.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
To school for?
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Are you going to school to just make money or
are you going to school to build your your mind,
build your community. I don't think that there has to
be necessarily one or the other. Qu I just think
that now that we had this happens, it's going to
open the flood gates to now coaches got a man
(08:32):
up or not man up, Like it's either we got
to find a way to keep the kid here or
we're not going to be held hostage by any kid,
and we're going to get rid of them, and then
what does that mean? You know, how does that play out?
Because one of these kids, some of these kids, they
are good enough. Some of these kids they do they
do project out where you'd say, I don't want to
(08:54):
lose this kid, but can we afford to pay them
this amount of money? So I just think that the
lack of structure and the lack of preparedness to getting
to this point in college athletics and seeing how the
lack of structure and the lack of preparation to me
from the governing body, I just think that it's a
(09:18):
sad It's a sad story. Until we start seeing, you know,
solutions that are brought to the forefront that could actually
maybe begin to stabilize the rules and the regulations of
how you engage and how you do things and how
contracts are done. It's just going to I think there's
going to be more and more sad stories that come
(09:40):
out because for what is worth Q, this is a
sad story. This is a sad story for that young man.
It's a sad story for Tennessee's program, and it's a
sad story for college sports.
Speaker 4 (09:51):
If you ask me, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
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buying should be. There's a lot of layers to this.
I mean, the first one, aside from everything you just said,
was how Tennessee actually found out about this. Tennessee initially
(10:18):
was informed that Nico Iomaliava, his agent and his family
whoever's ball behind the scenes as far as his party,
if you will, was sniffing around for NIL deals. Dan Lanning,
the head coach at Oregon, reportedly was who tipped off
Josh Heipel that the representation from Nico Imaliava was sniffing
(10:39):
around for a better ANIL deal. Like that's the wild part.
And by the way, kudos to Dan Lanning for stepping up,
being a man and forming another coach this crap was
going on, because this is the only way in the
current structure, but this can actually work is if other
coaches are able to hold each other accountable and say, hey, man,
(11:01):
I would want this to happen to me. And so
just so you know, like, this is what this kid's doing,
this is what his family, this was representations doing. And
again I don't want to put it all on the kid.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Because it could be the same thing that somebody else
is doing it on his behalf.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Right, sure, hold on, let's let me finish. There's an
agent that's a part of this. Obviously, there's the family
that's a part of this. But I will say this,
when you're twenty years old, all right, we ask young
men and women at eighteen years old to go serve
our great country. And if we're asking them to be
able to make that decision work, we're asking them and
we're really putting them in charge of some incredible responsibilities.
(11:37):
I also think we need to stop acting like these
young people aren't capable too of making decisions and understanding
how this is going to impact them and understanding how
this looks like. We're not getting them to understand at
any point in time. He's been at Tennessee now for years.
We're not getting him to understand you made a commitment,
like you signed it, you agreed to it, and by
(11:59):
the way, okay, you haven't necessarily outperformed it like I
understand there's probably a time and in place in professional
sports where a player signs a contract, he performs it,
and then he wants a new one. This is not that.
This is not that. I don't think any Tennessee volunteer
tier fan would say he exceeded our expectations based on
the hype coming in, what he was signed for and
(12:20):
what he was producing, what he was doing so in
no part, in no way, shape or form, and by
putting this all on him. But you're also not naive either,
Like you've grown up in an era where like, you
know this stuff is coming around, you know how this works,
you understand how this is going to impact you, and
there's an element of like, hey, you're still the player,
(12:42):
Like ultimately, at the end of the day, you still
make the decision, even as a twenty year old, to
put on your helmet, go out there and say, I'm
still gonna participate in the spring game. We'll figure this
out after the fact. I'm still gonna honor my commitment.
We'll figure this out at some point and if we don't,
so be it, like that's more of the issue. Like
you brought up the point of you know, academia and
(13:05):
how getting your degree plays a role or factor in
all this. Here's the one thing that I challenged because look,
I'm as big of an advocate for getting your education,
getting your degree if it's going to lead you to
what you want to do, what you want to work
your profession later on in life, or provide you that
foundation to do that later on in life. I think
(13:25):
there's two ends of the spectrum here. There's that portion
of it whether you've got a lot of young people
who go into a college having an understanding of what
they want to do, or they want to play sports
and get their education and go off in the workforce.
There's others that just go through the motions of it.
They're going to college just to go to college. They
get in debt, and they leave not really having anything
(13:46):
that's going to help them, no tangible asset to help
them in the future with what they want to do professionally.
So they're in debt and on top of that, they
don't even know what they want to do. So the
reality as to where college sports are at right now
is we've now it basically said you guys should be compensated.
Now the structure of that is more of the issue.
(14:07):
We came out with name, image and likeness. These players
are supposed to be supported because they're so great, they're
gonna get marketing deals. The reality was it's just been
paid for play, mostly because a lot of companies are like,
wait a second, we're gonna they're supposed to pay out
millions to these kids when they're college kids. We're not
sure if they're gonna make it to the pro level
and they're gonna be gone in two, three, four years.
(14:28):
Like it just with the transfer port and everything else,
Like there's no long term commitment. There's no reassurance of
that player being what they hope they're gonna be. And
to be quite frank, there's not really any brand value
because a lot of these young people don't have a
brand yet. It takes time. You have to get into
the pro level and then create greatness from there moving forward.
That's usually how that works. Or you've got to be
(14:50):
in college at least for a little bit. You know,
some of these kids who come out of high school
because they're a part of whatever all star game, they
feel like they've already got that. They haven't reached it yet.
So to your point about the system, yes, it's entirely
messed up. And there's two routes moving forward. There's the
route of getting a collectively bargained agreement, which you know,
you'd need the players to unionize, and that's one way
(15:12):
of hoping to solve some of these issues. And then
there's the route of getting an anti trust exemption that
allows the NCAA and these schools at be to handle
all this and make it work, which seems rather unlikely.
I mean, you could get federal legislation, but it seems
like that's a long ways down the road. So there's
(15:35):
not really a solution outside of the adults in the room.
And I keep saying this, and that's exactly what Dan
Lanning has done in this case, step pick up and
saying we're not going to allow this to happen. Like
you don't always need there to be a rule, all right,
for people just to agree like we're not going to
break that. We're not gonna do that. And in this instance,
again like huge fan of Dan Lanning for doing it
(15:58):
because and by a huge fan of Josh Hipel for
the way he's taking a stance saying like I'm not
gonna let this kid do it because if I let
this kid do it, then the next kid's gonna do it.
The next kid's gonna do it, and everyone's gonna think
it's okay. And so we could say it's a sad situation.
I try to look at the other side of it
and saying it's actually a good thing, because if he
doesn't land on his feet, or he doesn't find someone
(16:20):
who's gonna pay them, the money's looking for every other player,
every the slap agent will slappy agent that that's a
part of these nil deals. They're all gonna be like, oh,
I don't want to do that, Like like, look a
look at how this just worked out for this player,
and look at look at how it impacted his career
and everything else. It's gonna be a scary tale from
here on out moving forward for a lot of players
that try to do something like this.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
I think it's a sensible approach. The way you're you're
talking about it and you're looking at it. I just
don't know how realistic it is because those people that
are leveraging like they are, these these young men are
old enough to understand, you know, what's going on. They are,
But if you ask me with all of the young
men that I have dealt with through the years, some
(17:05):
of their biggest challenges and some of their biggest downfalls
have come from people other than themselves. The decision making
isn't generally on them. It's they're dependent upon the people
that they love and they trust, And that to me
is where this all gets a little. It gets a
(17:27):
little shaky and understanding. There isn't that brand value coming
out of high school. So that protection that or the
professionalism that you're going to get from some of these
guys that are taking on college guys to represent them
in the pros that's not present. That's not available for
(17:50):
the vast majority of all of these young men coming out.
So to me, when I look at these situations, for
every one time that could be this kid is actually
the main reason why there's a problem here, because of
what they want and they're demanding and what they do.
Sometimes it's not as cut and dry and it's not
(18:10):
as simple as all, get your head, your helmet, get
your paths, get in the meetings and practice and we'll
figure it out later. They're being dictated to by people
that they love and trust that they're going to listen
to what it is that they're saying to them, and
they're going to do it for better or for worse.
They're going to if somebody's dad, if their dad comes
to them and say, this is what we're doing, this
(18:31):
is how you're going to do it. A lot of
these young men, while old enough to go serve our country,
while old enough to even go get a drink, they're
going to listen to those figures in their lives. And
that's why this whole culture of transferring in high schools
and now the transfer portal in college, the seven on
(18:52):
seven circuits, it's like everybody puts their their their hooks
in on these these young prospects, know who they are
young age, and they build these relationships four times like these,
for times like these. So it's going to be interesting
to see how these things begin to unfold and play out,
(19:13):
and how do you protect sometimes these kids, these young
men from themselves in these situations, in these circumstances, because
you're right in the sense that this could be costly
for this young man's career, but you're always going to
have that one guy that's sitting there like God, that
ain't us, that's not going to be us. We're going
(19:34):
to do it differently than that we're better than that kid, Dad.
There's always going to be a reason and an excuse
to go ahead and continue to press forward what it
is it's going to be for you and your situation.
Speaker 4 (19:45):
And that doesn't mean or equate that it's the.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
Right decision to make or the right thing to do,
and based upon qualification, like why are you doing this?
But that's what these kids are, These young I can
say kids, these young men are are facing this at
the college level now other agendas, and I felt like
that will become a part of the nil era and
(20:08):
the transfer era of time in college sports. And it
seems to be like this is the one story that
hits and it hits home because it has a different
feel to it in terms of, you know, coming out
of it, why this would happen the way that it did,
and handling it the way that it's been handled.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
There's layers to the timing of it too, only because
if you look at the house NCAA settlement which they're
they're trying to go back over some of the language,
the roster limits, some of the things that are that
are within what the judge wilk and I believe once
from this but once from the settlement. But there's also
the thought that they're not sure the role that NIL
collectives will play when it's all said and done, And
(20:49):
so there's a revenue sharing piece, which there's still not
again clarity on that as to how each university will
be tasked with spending the or sharing that revenue. Does
Title nine play an aspect of that, does it not?
You know, is it going to be equal funds to
both men's and women's sports? Is it? Is that not
the case? So there's a lot of questions surrounding that.
(21:10):
There's questions surrounding again what portion of the funding they're
getting has to be allocated to which sports and is
at the discretion of the university. So even even just
in looking at the house, ncaa settlement which everyone's like,
oh great, there's revenue sharing, which is essentially pay for play,
which is what this has been, which is what it
always should have been. Right, the university has taken a
(21:32):
piece of the TV revenue and sharing it with the athletes,
which makes sense. But now we don't even have clarity
on how that's going to happen from school to school,
And so that's a question mark what role, if any,
what the collectives play, because if the collectives can still exist,
then they still create an advantage for those schools that
are able to thrive and do the sort of thing.
(21:54):
And maybe there is someone out there who's, you know,
wants to pay a nico Ila Maliava an extra one
point six million compared to what he was making. So
all those things are still out there. That's part of
the reasons why there's a lot of people who are
looking at this portal window this spring and saying, let's
try to get all we can while we can, because
we don't really know how the House NCAA settlement is
(22:16):
gonna fair, and we don't know what the future holds
in regards to federal legislation. All these are the things
around college sports, so let's take advantage while we can. Now,
So I see that perspective of it. The problem is
that everything you're saying, I'm sure as a reality. The
quickest way of just squashing that is saying you're gonna
have to have a collective bargain agreement with a union
(22:37):
that approves these agents and not saying there's not gonna
be foul play with agents even when you have that,
but it limits some of that, and it limits some
of what we're talking like the tampering that goes on
from team to team or even you know this, you
know what we what we would say right now is
going on some of the holdouts. I mean, you still
have hold outs at the NFL level. Well, that's in
(22:58):
essence kind of what this was, because he was already
under contract and he's basically saying I'm not going to
play unless you pay me more. I mean to a degree,
that's in essence what this was. So none of that
really solves you know, a player doing what Nico Eo
Malialva done, or even what I guess his parents or
his representation his team is telling him to do behind
(23:19):
the scenes. So it doesn't solve that necessarily, but at
least creates enough safeguards where hopefully you have more people
giving these guys sound advice and not you know, putting
them in a position where who knows where he's gonna
be again, I mean, he was draft eligible after this
upcoming year. Like I made a big case for arch banning,
Nico with his potential and upside and talent ability, could
(23:41):
have been the next guy taken. Probably maybe he could
have made a case for being the first guy taken.
Now all that's kind of thrown up in the wind
as he's got to find a home and he's got
to learn a new system, he's got to develop chemistry
with the guys he's throwing to. All that stuff. It's
tough to do. We've seen some guys transfer and be
successful before, but even Joe Burrow, it took into the
second half of his first year and really the second
(24:02):
season for him to light everything on fire, win a
national championship, heisman, everything else. So that's the tough part
is now thinking about the ripple effect of how this
wimpac Nico's career is more my concern. I think there's
a lot of players who have experienced that unfortunate end
of having to transfer and having to deal with a
(24:22):
lot of those things. I hate to see that for them.
And to your earlier point, there's no really, there's nothing
they're going to get from the educational component of it either.
You know, they're not walking away with a degree.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
It's a bad situation until there's more education on how
to handle you know, and the rules and the parameters.
Speaker 4 (24:39):
Like you said, it's just it's going to.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Be hard for coaches and staffs to deal with it.
It's going to be hard for players and families to
deal with it. I mean, I'm, I'm I have three
kids in college, and I know we got to go
to break But I got three kids that are our
athletes in college right now, and you know, I steer
clear of it outside of doing like just regular above
(25:05):
board things. In terms of conversations to my children as
to how to grow and build their brands, I steer
clear of that and tell tell them to focus in
on their studies and focus in on being the best
people they can be and being the best athletes they
can be to serve their communities. I just wish it
was that simple, you know, in terms of approaching it.
(25:26):
Here's the opportunity, here's where here's where you can make
your money. Here's you know, like you said, if they
approve the deal where they're able to pay them and
they can more streamline all of this and it's not
like a wild wild West type of deal, I think
it'll be better. But it's it's definitely an unnerving and
it's it's definitely a sad feeling you get when you
(25:49):
see guys going after you know, pipe dreams, you know,
instead of building good, strong bonds and courts of loyalty
and just endearing yourself to a community. It's like now
it seems as though work becomes a four higher your
your mercenaries. You don't really belong to any any community. Really,
(26:10):
it's just what you can get out of it in
the moment. And you know that may work for some people,
but I would say for the ones that you know
get away from it and are now are able to
look back on it and understand it the way that
they could have handled it, which would have been more
valuable moving on. It's a sad miss and you don't
(26:30):
get that opportunity back.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
Coming up next on Two Pros and a Cup of Joe,
it's a big time opportunity for a couple of quarterbacks.
Has this team found their quarterback? We'll talk about it
here on the other side of this break.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
Be sure to catch live editions of Two Pros and
a Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn, LeVar Errington, and
Jonas Knox weekdays at six am Eastern three am Pacific
on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (26:55):
Well, doesn't appear like Tennessee is spending those those geeze
whatever the case may be. One team you could make
the case though, was Cleveland. The Cleveland Browns this offseason
have acquired Kenny Pickett, former first round pick out a
pit offtously drafted to the AFC North Division rival Pittsburgh
(27:19):
Steelers and after going to the Philadelphia Eagles, has now
found his way to the Cleveland Browns. But they've also
signed Joe Flaco a four year deal one million or
excuse me, one year deal four million dollars but up
to thirteen million with incentives, and so LeVar, I know
this is the team you love to bash on. But
(27:39):
the question the question is whether or not the Cleveland
Browns has found their quarterback for the season between these
two or do you think, even though the odds wouldn't
say it, do you think the Cleveland Browns are going
to find their quarterback of the future or even for
the right now in the draft?
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Say this, I believe they are trying to find their
solution for this year already having brought in Picket and Flacco.
Speaker 4 (28:09):
That's what I believe and.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Ultimately what they do in this year's draft, you could
almost merit to the conversation that we were having earlier
about the New Orleans Saints. I mean, maybe this is
a team that says, look, the next opportunity, opportunity we
get could be maybe getting Archie Manning next next season.
(28:35):
I mean, it wouldn't be that far of a stretch
to think that Cleveland could go another year where they
could end up being in position to try to get
arch for the future. And then I would assume next
year is the soonest, this is probably the last year
of the Deshaun Watson, you know experiment. We'll call it.
(28:56):
I mean, we could call a lot of other things,
the backle you know, mistake, I don't know what you
want to call it. But I would assume that it's
coming to an end after this season. So if that
is the case, then I would think that conventional wisdom
would say they're going to try to get through this year,
would pick it and Flacco and if Deshaun Watson comes back,
(29:20):
which I don't think that they'll ever reactivate him. I
just get this feeling when that owner came out and
said we struck and we struck out and we miss
I don't know that they're going to ever reactivate him
to play again. So I think they do feel as
though they have their their starter, the guy that can
get them through this season, and even the backup with
(29:41):
what they've done and free agency. But with that being said,
I wouldn't be surprised. Now, I don't think they're going
to use their first pick, but I wouldn't be surprised
if they take a quarterback in the draft and then
now Picket and Flacco have to fight for one of
those roster spots. I mean, I don't know how easy
(30:02):
it is to let one of those guys go with
the deals.
Speaker 4 (30:05):
I'm not up on the deals all like that. I
know that's more year.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
Forte, but I wouldn't be shocked if they took a
quarterback later on and that quarterback was allowed to compete
for what would be seemingly the second, second, or third
roster spot for a quarterback.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
Yeah, I think you'd like to think that Kenny Pickett
still has the talent ability and capability of doing it,
and so I'm not sure. I mean, like he's talked
about saying, I'm not here to sit and watch. He's
here to start, and that's his plan, which you'd expect
every quarterback to say that, but in this case, you know,
it's third team in four years. He's looking at trying
(30:46):
to prove to all the doubters out there that he
can be the quarterback that he hopes to be. And
I think with Cleveland's offensive line, they're talent around them,
even their defense, and Kevin Stefanski is an offensive play caller,
and Tommy Reese now taking over as doc, He's gonna
have the opportunity to prove he can do that. Now,
what I'd say about Flacco is I think he's fine
(31:08):
signing a deal, kind of sitting back and waiting until
they feel like they want to give him the shot
to do it. He's what forty years old now, so
there's a good chance that if he can catch fire
like he did a couple of seasons ago where they
went four and one, you know, he's thrown for over
three hundred yards a game, and everyone in Cleveland's going
(31:30):
to wacko for Flacco, and yeah, maybe he kind of
catches that momentum again. And even last year he played
pretty decent football for the Colts again coming in for
a guy and Anthony Richardson who battled some injuries battled
a benching and I think at that point provided some
stability and maybe that's where this Browns team feels like
it's at that it just needs a steady hand in
(31:51):
there so they can get through and move on from
Deshaun Watson. And during this period of time, you know,
Joe Flacco's the captain to get them the smooth sailing,
if you will. Either way, I'm not sure. I think
the problem is is most people will look at it
and say, like, does this make them then a roster
with so much talent? But are they even a playoff contender?
(32:13):
Or are they And arguably the toughest division in the
NFL just still looked at as the fourth best team
because when you compare to Lamar Jackson, when you compare
to Joe Burrow, when you compare it to well, we
don't know what Pittsburgh quarterback situations as of right now.
We think it's going to be Aaron Rodgers, but we
don't know that for sure, but let's assume it is
(32:33):
Aaron Rodgers. You're not put in Cleveland ahead of any
of those teams. So that's I think more of the
greater issue that they're battling here is yes, this provides
them maybe some stability with young and old and experience
that a guy who's won a Super Bowl and won
the MVP Super Bowl MVP and Joe Flacco, and maybe
there's been some promise with Kenny Pickett at times, but
(32:57):
ultimately that's just for this year and I'm not really
sure solves the long term plan. Maybe you're hoping Kenny
Pickett will be that, and maybe he will be, but
there's a lot of maybes in there. In a division
where you have solidified franchise quarterbacks on two of the
teams and the third you'd say, well, they're still gonna
have a first bout Hall of Famer if everything works
(33:18):
out the way they're expecting them to in Pittsburgh.
Speaker 4 (33:21):
Yeah, And I don't know how that's going to play out.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
But if I am Cleveland, I am looking at Joe
Flacco out of the two and saying out of the
three even with Deshaun Watson, and I have confidence that
even at his age, I have more of an opportunity
of Joe standing up in in the pocket and standing
up in those games against those quarterbacks. You know, I
Pickett is familiar with it because he's played in the
(33:46):
AFC North and understands, you know, the level of competition there.
Just won a Super Bowl in Philadelphia, so understands the
highest level of competition in terms of winning. And maybe
that's played a very valuable and critical role in his
development and maybe that will show out or show up.
But if I'm looking at it from what you just said,
(34:07):
I'm looking at flack On, I'm like, all things given,
he's a little older, but maybe he's a little bit
more wiser. Maybe that little bit more wiser is going
to pay dividends again for us, in particular one more
time and buying us time to figure out what we're
going to do with Deshaun Watson and do in the future.
(34:28):
But that's got to be the main thought process of
Cleveland is how do we best navigate these next few
years or this last time, this last bit of time
that we have with Deshaun Watson and preparing for what
that position is going to entail once we are able
to get away from that situation definitively and put it
(34:49):
to bed.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
Coming up next on two pros and one Cup Thumps
and Bruses from the weekend, We've got a great story
from Lee to Lap it's always got a bumper, a bruiser, nosebleeds,
something going on. We'll recap it here on Fox Sports
Radio on the FSR IR.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
Be sure to catch live editions of Two Pros and
a Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn, LeVar Arrington and
Jonas Knox weekdays at six am Eastern three am Pacific.
Speaker 3 (35:17):
You can stream the show and all of our Fox
Sports Radio shows live twenty four to seven and the
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in the app stream us live and one of the
newest features in the app, this is pretty awesome, is
you can select Fox Sports Radio is one of your presets,
just like the presets on your old radio dial. So
be sure to preset Fox Sports Radio in the iHeart
(35:37):
Radio app and it will always pop up at the
top of your screen. All right, Lee, I know you've
got a story from this weekend. You usually have one.
We really didn't talk much over the weekend. So my
assumption is because you're a bit ineburated. Is that one
way of putting it.
Speaker 6 (35:53):
Yeah, I mean, definitely that's part of it.
Speaker 3 (35:55):
Saturday more so, right, Saturday.
Speaker 6 (35:57):
Is always more so, definitely hung out with watching Masters
all day, so he didn't get into too much mischief.
But right now what's accumulating is the sleeping on the couch.
And maybe it was that I had too much to
drink and slept in the wrong angle or something like that,
but this couch is really hurting the lower back these days.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
Guys.
Speaker 6 (36:16):
I had to bust out. You know, I'm usually on
the couch because I snore.
Speaker 3 (36:21):
But that's why you're on the couch. I mean, yeah,
it is.
Speaker 6 (36:24):
I mean I'll start off in bed and then I
get kicked out and I was like, all right, gotta
go crash on the couch. But now I'm like, last.
Speaker 1 (36:35):
Are No, there's another guy in his big not enough
room for the sandwich. They probably got a twin double bit,
so you gotta go to uh, you know, only one
of these babies sitting the cat though. That's that's the
only time, you know, when the cat's being babysat.
Speaker 4 (36:53):
But go ahead, go ahead. No, yeah, so your back
is a little sore.
Speaker 6 (36:56):
Backstore, I've had to bust out the the inflatable mattress,
which actually leads very nice. I very much appreciate it. Uh,
And the a c's out in the complex. So yeah, uh,
hot and uncomfortable at the old casad lap.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
You don't need a c right now. Bruh, you don't
need a c You don't need heat. That's why they
don't be putting the units in people's house, h.
Speaker 3 (37:17):
Eighties right now.
Speaker 4 (37:18):
Suck it up, Suck it up. I got one for y'all.
I had nuts in my mouth yesterday.
Speaker 3 (37:26):
Yeah you did.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
And yeah, yeah, I had a whole bunch of nuts
in my mouth and I was chewing on them. And
as I was chewing on them, I broke a crown,
split a crown right in half.
Speaker 4 (37:38):
And now I.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
Gotta I gotta go in on an emergency, you know,
dental appoint Yeah, that's a pretty you know, it hurt
like it didn't. It didn't hurt like the root of
my tooth. But some way, somehow, something that I did
when I.
Speaker 4 (37:55):
Broke it, it hurt.
Speaker 1 (37:57):
And so now my one of my mowlers, molars, molars
are really it's really sore.
Speaker 3 (38:05):
And what kind of nuts were they?
Speaker 5 (38:08):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (38:08):
It was clustered, So it was an assortment of different
nuts from different backgrounds, different places.
Speaker 3 (38:14):
Sounds like bonnie blue.
Speaker 4 (38:16):
And they were Is that what it sounds?
Speaker 1 (38:19):
Like they were all put together and and you know,
drizzled with honey and stuff like that. It's a very
it's a Keto Keto deal. So I was enjoying my
nuts while I was watching, Uh what was I watching yesterday?
I was watching Amazon Prime more so than anything yesterday,
and yeah, cracked my tooth.
Speaker 3 (38:40):
So there you go. Did you make a dentist appointment
for it for today?
Speaker 1 (38:44):
I just did it yesterday, yesterday afternoon, So that's I
wasn't even thinking about it, like, dang, yeah I do
have an eye our, but yeah, I'll make that appointment today.
So there you go, broken crown. I hope that's not
foreshadowing it is taxis.
Speaker 3 (39:00):
Oh gosh, I didn't think about that. I don't really
have an IR story necessarily from a physical ailment, but
just ventured into our first weekend of like like women's
lacrosse games girls lacrosse, so that was fun. However, I
did have a guy, and it's a dad on our team.
But my dad shows up tends to be a little
more outspoken, and he's always disappointed with with youth sports leagues,
(39:24):
like he's like they're never teaching these kids right, Like
at my youngest daughter who's playing in their league. They
don't have a goalie, so a lot of the girls,
you know, they kind of find some open space after
they passed a couple of times, you know, they're able
to just go kind of fire will and for the
most part, if they can control the ball, they'll score. Well.
My dad's like yelling. He's like what. He's like, what
(39:45):
are you doing? Go shoot? Shoot, shoot, And the guy
kind of turns back. He's like, sir, they have to
pass twice. Okay, this is a developmental league, and shoppers
like develop an ass.
Speaker 1 (39:57):
You know.
Speaker 3 (39:58):
He's like, score goals is development and he starts kind
of getting on him, and eventually I'm like, Dad, I
need you to back away, Like you need to back
away from the field. Everyone's just trying to have a
good time and enjoying this. I was like, please stop
harassing the other parents that are at this Wooden's lacrosse.
Speaker 4 (40:13):
Event, all right, way to get them.
Speaker 3 (40:15):
Chopple tries man, He tries
Hey, thanks for listening to the Two Pros and a
Cup of Joe Podcast with Brady Quinn, Jonas Knox, and myself,
LeVar Arrington. Make sure you catch us live weekdays six
to nine am Eastern or three am to six am
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. You can find your local
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(00:20):
show over at Foxsports Radio dot com, or stream us
live every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching f
s R.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Get this, you're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
I don't understand. So you take my hour two when
you take over the show?
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Gods? Oh yeah, the whole thing, the whole thing, got it?
Speaker 4 (00:46):
You got it?
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Brother, I mean, are you against this song? You got
you got a problem? Fat Pat to start the show.
Speaker 4 (00:52):
I'm just here for the riote, my guy. That's it.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
I mean, it'll be back at says rapper is rappers Delight. Yes, yeah,
thats cool, it's cool. I really thought you'd be more
enthusiastic about some of these songs. Oh for two, so far,
not at all, not at all. Maybe maybe the third one.
Maybe you'll enjoy the third one.
Speaker 4 (01:17):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Well, it's all good man, I just you know, I
just I just do the show man. That's that's it.
I'm here to do the show. I'm here to support
you and when Jonas is around you and Jonas, that's
what I'm here for.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
There's two pros and a cup of show. That's Lathara Aronson.
I'm Brady Quinn.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
No.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Jonas Knox today helped me out for the next couple
of days. So it's two pros and a cup. That
sounds awkward. Something else that was awkward. Nico Ia Malaiava.
For those that don't follow college football or can't pronounce
the name, I just want to call him Nico. That's
cool too. He was Tennessee starting quarterback last year and
probably most famous for signing a gigantic nil deal on
(01:58):
the way into college at the University of Tennessee. Reportedly,
it was like eight million dollars a deal about two
million per year, something like that. We never know the
true details because well, there's no transparency in college football,
and there's a lot of other issues. Some of those
issues came up just this past week. Before Tennessee's spring game,
(02:19):
Nico Io Malaiava decided he wasn't going to play, and
he wanted to renegotiate what he was being paid for
this upcoming season. Now, according to reports, niko Ia Malaiava,
his family, his representation, whoever you want to point the
finger at. He was scheduled to make two point four million,
but they were asking for four million. In their way
(02:41):
of leveraging the University of Tennessee to do this, was saying,
we're not going to play in the spring game. So
let's actually hear the words of their head coach there
at Tennessee, Josh Haipel before the spring game. Lee coach Hopeil,
you wrap.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Up spring practice today, obviously, lots of.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Attention, a lot of people want to know what's the
status of your quarterback room as you've worked through today.
Speaker 5 (03:04):
Yeah, we got two guys in that room, excited watching
go play. They've had a really good spring, they've grown
throughout it. Excited about getting out having a chance today,
get out in front of our fans and our guys
go compete today.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
What has the last forty eight hours been like in
dealing with that man?
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Listen, it's the state of college football.
Speaker 5 (03:24):
At the end of the day, no one's ever bigger
than the program that includes me too, and we got
an opportunity. We got a bunch of guys are going
to give their all for Tennessee and.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
We move forward. Got a great group, let's go compete.
So there's Josh Haipel giving us two cents on it. Right,
No one person's bigger than the program. And I think
those are words that probably some Tennessee volunteers fans are
excited to hear. The probably words that some of the
boosters who helped fork over the cash to pay Niko
you Maliava are excited to hear too, not allowing a
(03:59):
young man in basically holding them ransom. And I think
most people who are Tennessee fans would tell you there
was a lot to be desired based on his play
last year. And there's reports that he supposedly tried to
do this, And I shouldn't say he could be his family,
could be his agent. I've got more on this that
where I think it's more maybe his representation. But he
(04:21):
tried to do this before the playoff last year, tried
to leverage again the system and the amount of money
he was being paid before the playoff game, threating and
not playing the playoff game if he wasn't compensated more
compensated additionally to what he was already being paid. So
this is the state of college football of far, and
this is how things are working out. You now have
(04:41):
a young man who's put his name in the transfer portal,
the University of Tennessee has moved on, some would say, rightfully,
So I'm not sure there's too many people who are
being sympathetic to the player in this instance. You know
they're hoping things work out. But just give me your thoughts.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
You know, we talked about this on Saturday and it
turned and into a pretty passionate conversation. I mean, for me,
my takeaway from it stems maybe beyond the player themselves himself,
because this now marks a new it's a new approach,
(05:18):
or it's now out there this approach Like, Okay, if
you were to take a list of all the players
who have done what Nico has done around the country
at some of these top schools, I think people might
be blown away that there was a true list of
(05:38):
the players that have maybe tried to do this. And
so for Hypel to come out and basically say we're
not doing it, like, we're not doing it this way,
it now has to open up the conversation of what
are moving forward, what are going to be the rules
(06:02):
of engagement because I think it's going to this thing
is going to get worse before it gets better without
there being any more real organization connected to what's taking place.
Like we joked about it the other the other week
and talking about anyone can represent these guys at this level.
(06:23):
There's no real you know, monitoring or you don't.
Speaker 4 (06:27):
Have to pass a test to represent the kid.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
So you know, now the question comes into play, is
this is this somebody ruining the kid's opportunity and ruining
his career because they see dollar signs for themselves in
this opportunity. You know, it's it's sad to think that
that is a harsh reality that has always been connected
(06:51):
to sport when thinking about some of the backgrounds and
areas that.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
Some of these young men come from.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
So to me, when I when I saw the news
and I heard the news, you know, it just makes
me start thinking like it's a sad state of affairs
right now in my estimation, because these are going to
be the stories that continue to come out, and these
are going to be the stories that start to dominate
(07:20):
college football and maybe even college sports. And I just
wonder how long how much time is it going to
take for there to be a realization and an understanding
that one while knowing that I believe it's a good
thing to be able to pay the players, you know,
that are generating money for the university, I have no
(07:42):
issues with it, But I think we're starting to get
away from the idea that going to college is an
institution of learning. And it just seems as though education
is being put so far in the in the rear
view and the periphery that it becomes a little, you know, disturbing.
(08:06):
And that was one of the first things I thought about,
like what are you going.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
To school for?
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Are you going to school to just make money or
are you going to school to build your your mind,
build your community. I don't think that there has to
be necessarily one or the other. Qu I just think
that now that we had this happens, it's going to
open the flood gates to now coaches got a man
(08:32):
up or not man up, Like it's either we got
to find a way to keep the kid here or
we're not going to be held hostage by any kid,
and we're going to get rid of them, and then
what does that mean? You know, how does that play out?
Because one of these kids, some of these kids, they
are good enough. Some of these kids they do they
do project out where you'd say, I don't want to
(08:54):
lose this kid, but can we afford to pay them
this amount of money? So I just think that the
lack of structure and the lack of preparedness to getting
to this point in college athletics and seeing how the
lack of structure and the lack of preparation to me
from the governing body, I just think that it's a
(09:18):
sad It's a sad story. Until we start seeing, you know,
solutions that are brought to the forefront that could actually
maybe begin to stabilize the rules and the regulations of
how you engage and how you do things and how
contracts are done. It's just going to I think there's
going to be more and more sad stories that come
(09:40):
out because for what is worth Q, this is a
sad story. This is a sad story for that young man.
It's a sad story for Tennessee's program, and it's a
sad story for college sports.
Speaker 4 (09:51):
If you ask me, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
It's an interesting time. By the way, we're coming to
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buying should be. There's a lot of layers to this.
I mean, the first one, aside from everything you just said,
was how Tennessee actually found out about this. Tennessee initially
(10:18):
was informed that Nico Iomaliava, his agent and his family
whoever's ball behind the scenes as far as his party,
if you will, was sniffing around for NIL deals. Dan Lanning,
the head coach at Oregon, reportedly was who tipped off
Josh Heipel that the representation from Nico Imaliava was sniffing
(10:39):
around for a better ANIL deal. Like that's the wild part.
And by the way, kudos to Dan Lanning for stepping up,
being a man and forming another coach this crap was
going on, because this is the only way in the
current structure, but this can actually work is if other
coaches are able to hold each other accountable and say, hey, man,
(11:01):
I would want this to happen to me. And so
just so you know, like, this is what this kid's doing,
this is what his family, this was representations doing. And
again I don't want to put it all on the kid.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Because it could be the same thing that somebody else
is doing it on his behalf.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Right, sure, hold on, let's let me finish. There's an
agent that's a part of this. Obviously, there's the family
that's a part of this. But I will say this,
when you're twenty years old, all right, we ask young
men and women at eighteen years old to go serve
our great country. And if we're asking them to be
able to make that decision work, we're asking them and
we're really putting them in charge of some incredible responsibilities.
(11:37):
I also think we need to stop acting like these
young people aren't capable too of making decisions and understanding
how this is going to impact them and understanding how
this looks like. We're not getting them to understand at
any point in time. He's been at Tennessee now for years.
We're not getting him to understand you made a commitment,
like you signed it, you agreed to it, and by
(11:59):
the way, okay, you haven't necessarily outperformed it like I
understand there's probably a time and in place in professional
sports where a player signs a contract, he performs it,
and then he wants a new one. This is not that.
This is not that. I don't think any Tennessee volunteer
tier fan would say he exceeded our expectations based on
the hype coming in, what he was signed for and
(12:20):
what he was producing, what he was doing so in
no part, in no way, shape or form, and by
putting this all on him. But you're also not naive either,
Like you've grown up in an era where like, you
know this stuff is coming around, you know how this works,
you understand how this is going to impact you, and
there's an element of like, hey, you're still the player,
(12:42):
Like ultimately, at the end of the day, you still
make the decision, even as a twenty year old, to
put on your helmet, go out there and say, I'm
still gonna participate in the spring game. We'll figure this
out after the fact. I'm still gonna honor my commitment.
We'll figure this out at some point and if we don't,
so be it, like that's more of the issue. Like
you brought up the point of you know, academia and
(13:05):
how getting your degree plays a role or factor in
all this. Here's the one thing that I challenged because look,
I'm as big of an advocate for getting your education,
getting your degree if it's going to lead you to
what you want to do, what you want to work
your profession later on in life, or provide you that
foundation to do that later on in life. I think
(13:25):
there's two ends of the spectrum here. There's that portion
of it whether you've got a lot of young people
who go into a college having an understanding of what
they want to do, or they want to play sports
and get their education and go off in the workforce.
There's others that just go through the motions of it.
They're going to college just to go to college. They
get in debt, and they leave not really having anything
(13:46):
that's going to help them, no tangible asset to help
them in the future with what they want to do professionally.
So they're in debt and on top of that, they
don't even know what they want to do. So the
reality as to where college sports are at right now
is we've now it basically said you guys should be compensated.
Now the structure of that is more of the issue.
(14:07):
We came out with name, image and likeness. These players
are supposed to be supported because they're so great, they're
gonna get marketing deals. The reality was it's just been
paid for play, mostly because a lot of companies are like,
wait a second, we're gonna they're supposed to pay out
millions to these kids when they're college kids. We're not
sure if they're gonna make it to the pro level
and they're gonna be gone in two, three, four years.
(14:28):
Like it just with the transfer port and everything else,
Like there's no long term commitment. There's no reassurance of
that player being what they hope they're gonna be. And
to be quite frank, there's not really any brand value
because a lot of these young people don't have a
brand yet. It takes time. You have to get into
the pro level and then create greatness from there moving forward.
That's usually how that works. Or you've got to be
(14:50):
in college at least for a little bit. You know,
some of these kids who come out of high school
because they're a part of whatever all star game, they
feel like they've already got that. They haven't reached it yet.
So to your point about the system, yes, it's entirely
messed up. And there's two routes moving forward. There's the
route of getting a collectively bargained agreement, which you know,
you'd need the players to unionize, and that's one way
(15:12):
of hoping to solve some of these issues. And then
there's the route of getting an anti trust exemption that
allows the NCAA and these schools at be to handle
all this and make it work, which seems rather unlikely.
I mean, you could get federal legislation, but it seems
like that's a long ways down the road. So there's
(15:35):
not really a solution outside of the adults in the room.
And I keep saying this, and that's exactly what Dan
Lanning has done in this case, step pick up and
saying we're not going to allow this to happen. Like
you don't always need there to be a rule, all right,
for people just to agree like we're not going to
break that. We're not gonna do that. And in this instance,
again like huge fan of Dan Lanning for doing it
(15:58):
because and by a huge fan of Josh Hipel for
the way he's taking a stance saying like I'm not
gonna let this kid do it because if I let
this kid do it, then the next kid's gonna do it.
The next kid's gonna do it, and everyone's gonna think
it's okay. And so we could say it's a sad situation.
I try to look at the other side of it
and saying it's actually a good thing, because if he
doesn't land on his feet, or he doesn't find someone
(16:20):
who's gonna pay them, the money's looking for every other player,
every the slap agent will slappy agent that that's a
part of these nil deals. They're all gonna be like, oh,
I don't want to do that, Like like, look a
look at how this just worked out for this player,
and look at look at how it impacted his career
and everything else. It's gonna be a scary tale from
here on out moving forward for a lot of players
that try to do something like this.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
I think it's a sensible approach. The way you're you're
talking about it and you're looking at it. I just
don't know how realistic it is because those people that
are leveraging like they are, these these young men are
old enough to understand, you know, what's going on. They are,
But if you ask me with all of the young
men that I have dealt with through the years, some
(17:05):
of their biggest challenges and some of their biggest downfalls
have come from people other than themselves. The decision making
isn't generally on them. It's they're dependent upon the people
that they love and they trust, And that to me
is where this all gets a little. It gets a
(17:27):
little shaky and understanding. There isn't that brand value coming
out of high school. So that protection that or the
professionalism that you're going to get from some of these
guys that are taking on college guys to represent them
in the pros that's not present. That's not available for
(17:50):
the vast majority of all of these young men coming out.
So to me, when I look at these situations, for
every one time that could be this kid is actually
the main reason why there's a problem here, because of
what they want and they're demanding and what they do.
Sometimes it's not as cut and dry and it's not
(18:10):
as simple as all, get your head, your helmet, get
your paths, get in the meetings and practice and we'll
figure it out later. They're being dictated to by people
that they love and trust that they're going to listen
to what it is that they're saying to them, and
they're going to do it for better or for worse.
They're going to if somebody's dad, if their dad comes
to them and say, this is what we're doing, this
(18:31):
is how you're going to do it. A lot of
these young men, while old enough to go serve our country,
while old enough to even go get a drink, they're
going to listen to those figures in their lives. And
that's why this whole culture of transferring in high schools
and now the transfer portal in college, the seven on
(18:52):
seven circuits, it's like everybody puts their their their hooks
in on these these young prospects, know who they are
young age, and they build these relationships four times like these,
for times like these. So it's going to be interesting
to see how these things begin to unfold and play out,
(19:13):
and how do you protect sometimes these kids, these young
men from themselves in these situations, in these circumstances, because
you're right in the sense that this could be costly
for this young man's career, but you're always going to
have that one guy that's sitting there like God, that
ain't us, that's not going to be us. We're going
(19:34):
to do it differently than that we're better than that kid, Dad.
There's always going to be a reason and an excuse
to go ahead and continue to press forward what it
is it's going to be for you and your situation.
Speaker 4 (19:45):
And that doesn't mean or equate that it's the.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
Right decision to make or the right thing to do,
and based upon qualification, like why are you doing this?
But that's what these kids are, These young I can
say kids, these young men are are facing this at
the college level now other agendas, and I felt like
that will become a part of the nil era and
(20:08):
the transfer era of time in college sports. And it
seems to be like this is the one story that
hits and it hits home because it has a different
feel to it in terms of, you know, coming out
of it, why this would happen the way that it did,
and handling it the way that it's been handled.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
There's layers to the timing of it too, only because
if you look at the house NCAA settlement which they're
they're trying to go back over some of the language,
the roster limits, some of the things that are that
are within what the judge wilk and I believe once
from this but once from the settlement. But there's also
the thought that they're not sure the role that NIL
collectives will play when it's all said and done, And
(20:49):
so there's a revenue sharing piece, which there's still not
again clarity on that as to how each university will
be tasked with spending the or sharing that revenue. Does
Title nine play an aspect of that, does it not?
You know, is it going to be equal funds to
both men's and women's sports? Is it? Is that not
the case? So there's a lot of questions surrounding that.
(21:10):
There's questions surrounding again what portion of the funding they're
getting has to be allocated to which sports and is
at the discretion of the university. So even even just
in looking at the house, ncaa settlement which everyone's like,
oh great, there's revenue sharing, which is essentially pay for play,
which is what this has been, which is what it
always should have been. Right, the university has taken a
(21:32):
piece of the TV revenue and sharing it with the athletes,
which makes sense. But now we don't even have clarity
on how that's going to happen from school to school,
And so that's a question mark what role, if any,
what the collectives play, because if the collectives can still exist,
then they still create an advantage for those schools that
are able to thrive and do the sort of thing.
(21:54):
And maybe there is someone out there who's, you know,
wants to pay a nico Ila Maliava an extra one
point six million compared to what he was making. So
all those things are still out there. That's part of
the reasons why there's a lot of people who are
looking at this portal window this spring and saying, let's
try to get all we can while we can, because
we don't really know how the House NCAA settlement is
(22:16):
gonna fair, and we don't know what the future holds
in regards to federal legislation. All these are the things
around college sports, so let's take advantage while we can. Now,
So I see that perspective of it. The problem is
that everything you're saying, I'm sure as a reality. The
quickest way of just squashing that is saying you're gonna
have to have a collective bargain agreement with a union
(22:37):
that approves these agents and not saying there's not gonna
be foul play with agents even when you have that,
but it limits some of that, and it limits some
of what we're talking like the tampering that goes on
from team to team or even you know this, you
know what we what we would say right now is
going on some of the holdouts. I mean, you still
have hold outs at the NFL level. Well, that's in
(22:58):
essence kind of what this was, because he was already
under contract and he's basically saying I'm not going to
play unless you pay me more. I mean to a degree,
that's in essence what this was. So none of that
really solves you know, a player doing what Nico Eo
Malialva done, or even what I guess his parents or
his representation his team is telling him to do behind
(23:19):
the scenes. So it doesn't solve that necessarily, but at
least creates enough safeguards where hopefully you have more people
giving these guys sound advice and not you know, putting
them in a position where who knows where he's gonna
be again, I mean, he was draft eligible after this
upcoming year. Like I made a big case for arch banning,
Nico with his potential and upside and talent ability, could
(23:41):
have been the next guy taken. Probably maybe he could
have made a case for being the first guy taken.
Now all that's kind of thrown up in the wind
as he's got to find a home and he's got
to learn a new system, he's got to develop chemistry
with the guys he's throwing to. All that stuff. It's
tough to do. We've seen some guys transfer and be
successful before, but even Joe Burrow, it took into the
second half of his first year and really the second
(24:02):
season for him to light everything on fire, win a
national championship, heisman, everything else. So that's the tough part
is now thinking about the ripple effect of how this
wimpac Nico's career is more my concern. I think there's
a lot of players who have experienced that unfortunate end
of having to transfer and having to deal with a
(24:22):
lot of those things. I hate to see that for them.
And to your earlier point, there's no really, there's nothing
they're going to get from the educational component of it either.
You know, they're not walking away with a degree.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
It's a bad situation until there's more education on how
to handle you know, and the rules and the parameters.
Speaker 4 (24:39):
Like you said, it's just it's going to.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Be hard for coaches and staffs to deal with it.
It's going to be hard for players and families to
deal with it. I mean, I'm, I'm I have three
kids in college, and I know we got to go
to break But I got three kids that are our
athletes in college right now, and you know, I steer
clear of it outside of doing like just regular above
(25:05):
board things. In terms of conversations to my children as
to how to grow and build their brands, I steer
clear of that and tell tell them to focus in
on their studies and focus in on being the best
people they can be and being the best athletes they
can be to serve their communities. I just wish it
was that simple, you know, in terms of approaching it.
(25:26):
Here's the opportunity, here's where here's where you can make
your money. Here's you know, like you said, if they
approve the deal where they're able to pay them and
they can more streamline all of this and it's not
like a wild wild West type of deal, I think
it'll be better. But it's it's definitely an unnerving and
it's it's definitely a sad feeling you get when you
(25:49):
see guys going after you know, pipe dreams, you know,
instead of building good, strong bonds and courts of loyalty
and just endearing yourself to a community. It's like now
it seems as though work becomes a four higher your
your mercenaries. You don't really belong to any any community. Really,
(26:10):
it's just what you can get out of it in
the moment. And you know that may work for some people,
but I would say for the ones that you know
get away from it and are now are able to
look back on it and understand it the way that
they could have handled it, which would have been more
valuable moving on. It's a sad miss and you don't
(26:30):
get that opportunity back.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
Coming up next on Two Pros and a Cup of Joe,
it's a big time opportunity for a couple of quarterbacks.
Has this team found their quarterback? We'll talk about it
here on the other side of this break.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
Be sure to catch live editions of Two Pros and
a Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn, LeVar Errington, and
Jonas Knox weekdays at six am Eastern three am Pacific
on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (26:55):
Well, doesn't appear like Tennessee is spending those those geeze
whatever the case may be. One team you could make
the case though, was Cleveland. The Cleveland Browns this offseason
have acquired Kenny Pickett, former first round pick out a
pit offtously drafted to the AFC North Division rival Pittsburgh
(27:19):
Steelers and after going to the Philadelphia Eagles, has now
found his way to the Cleveland Browns. But they've also
signed Joe Flaco a four year deal one million or
excuse me, one year deal four million dollars but up
to thirteen million with incentives, and so LeVar, I know
this is the team you love to bash on. But
(27:39):
the question the question is whether or not the Cleveland
Browns has found their quarterback for the season between these
two or do you think, even though the odds wouldn't
say it, do you think the Cleveland Browns are going
to find their quarterback of the future or even for
the right now in the draft?
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Say this, I believe they are trying to find their
solution for this year already having brought in Picket and Flacco.
Speaker 4 (28:09):
That's what I believe and.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Ultimately what they do in this year's draft, you could
almost merit to the conversation that we were having earlier
about the New Orleans Saints. I mean, maybe this is
a team that says, look, the next opportunity, opportunity we
get could be maybe getting Archie Manning next next season.
(28:35):
I mean, it wouldn't be that far of a stretch
to think that Cleveland could go another year where they
could end up being in position to try to get
arch for the future. And then I would assume next
year is the soonest, this is probably the last year
of the Deshaun Watson, you know experiment. We'll call it.
(28:56):
I mean, we could call a lot of other things,
the backle you know, mistake, I don't know what you
want to call it. But I would assume that it's
coming to an end after this season. So if that
is the case, then I would think that conventional wisdom
would say they're going to try to get through this year,
would pick it and Flacco and if Deshaun Watson comes back,
(29:20):
which I don't think that they'll ever reactivate him. I
just get this feeling when that owner came out and
said we struck and we struck out and we miss
I don't know that they're going to ever reactivate him
to play again. So I think they do feel as
though they have their their starter, the guy that can
get them through this season, and even the backup with
(29:41):
what they've done and free agency. But with that being said,
I wouldn't be surprised. Now, I don't think they're going
to use their first pick, but I wouldn't be surprised
if they take a quarterback in the draft and then
now Picket and Flacco have to fight for one of
those roster spots. I mean, I don't know how easy
(30:02):
it is to let one of those guys go with
the deals.
Speaker 4 (30:05):
I'm not up on the deals all like that. I
know that's more year.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
Forte, but I wouldn't be shocked if they took a
quarterback later on and that quarterback was allowed to compete
for what would be seemingly the second, second, or third
roster spot for a quarterback.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
Yeah, I think you'd like to think that Kenny Pickett
still has the talent ability and capability of doing it,
and so I'm not sure. I mean, like he's talked
about saying, I'm not here to sit and watch. He's
here to start, and that's his plan, which you'd expect
every quarterback to say that, but in this case, you know,
it's third team in four years. He's looking at trying
(30:46):
to prove to all the doubters out there that he
can be the quarterback that he hopes to be. And
I think with Cleveland's offensive line, they're talent around them,
even their defense, and Kevin Stefanski is an offensive play caller,
and Tommy Reese now taking over as doc, He's gonna
have the opportunity to prove he can do that. Now,
what I'd say about Flacco is I think he's fine
(31:08):
signing a deal, kind of sitting back and waiting until
they feel like they want to give him the shot
to do it. He's what forty years old now, so
there's a good chance that if he can catch fire
like he did a couple of seasons ago where they
went four and one, you know, he's thrown for over
three hundred yards a game, and everyone in Cleveland's going
(31:30):
to wacko for Flacco, and yeah, maybe he kind of
catches that momentum again. And even last year he played
pretty decent football for the Colts again coming in for
a guy and Anthony Richardson who battled some injuries battled
a benching and I think at that point provided some
stability and maybe that's where this Browns team feels like
it's at that it just needs a steady hand in
(31:51):
there so they can get through and move on from
Deshaun Watson. And during this period of time, you know,
Joe Flacco's the captain to get them the smooth sailing,
if you will. Either way, I'm not sure. I think
the problem is is most people will look at it
and say, like, does this make them then a roster
with so much talent? But are they even a playoff contender?
(32:13):
Or are they And arguably the toughest division in the
NFL just still looked at as the fourth best team
because when you compare to Lamar Jackson, when you compare
to Joe Burrow, when you compare it to well, we
don't know what Pittsburgh quarterback situations as of right now.
We think it's going to be Aaron Rodgers, but we
don't know that for sure, but let's assume it is
(32:33):
Aaron Rodgers. You're not put in Cleveland ahead of any
of those teams. So that's I think more of the
greater issue that they're battling here is yes, this provides
them maybe some stability with young and old and experience
that a guy who's won a Super Bowl and won
the MVP Super Bowl MVP and Joe Flacco, and maybe
there's been some promise with Kenny Pickett at times, but
(32:57):
ultimately that's just for this year and I'm not really
sure solves the long term plan. Maybe you're hoping Kenny
Pickett will be that, and maybe he will be, but
there's a lot of maybes in there. In a division
where you have solidified franchise quarterbacks on two of the
teams and the third you'd say, well, they're still gonna
have a first bout Hall of Famer if everything works
(33:18):
out the way they're expecting them to in Pittsburgh.
Speaker 4 (33:21):
Yeah, And I don't know how that's going to play out.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
But if I am Cleveland, I am looking at Joe
Flacco out of the two and saying out of the
three even with Deshaun Watson, and I have confidence that
even at his age, I have more of an opportunity
of Joe standing up in in the pocket and standing
up in those games against those quarterbacks. You know, I
Pickett is familiar with it because he's played in the
(33:46):
AFC North and understands, you know, the level of competition there.
Just won a Super Bowl in Philadelphia, so understands the
highest level of competition in terms of winning. And maybe
that's played a very valuable and critical role in his
development and maybe that will show out or show up.
But if I'm looking at it from what you just said,
(34:07):
I'm looking at flack On, I'm like, all things given,
he's a little older, but maybe he's a little bit
more wiser. Maybe that little bit more wiser is going
to pay dividends again for us, in particular one more
time and buying us time to figure out what we're
going to do with Deshaun Watson and do in the future.
(34:28):
But that's got to be the main thought process of
Cleveland is how do we best navigate these next few
years or this last time, this last bit of time
that we have with Deshaun Watson and preparing for what
that position is going to entail once we are able
to get away from that situation definitively and put it
(34:49):
to bed.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
Coming up next on two pros and one Cup Thumps
and Bruses from the weekend, We've got a great story
from Lee to Lap it's always got a bumper, a bruiser, nosebleeds,
something going on. We'll recap it here on Fox Sports
Radio on the FSR IR.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
Be sure to catch live editions of Two Pros and
a Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn, LeVar Arrington and
Jonas Knox weekdays at six am Eastern three am Pacific.
Speaker 3 (35:17):
You can stream the show and all of our Fox
Sports Radio shows live twenty four to seven and the
new and improved iHeartRadio app. Just search Fox Sports Radio
in the app stream us live and one of the
newest features in the app, this is pretty awesome, is
you can select Fox Sports Radio is one of your presets,
just like the presets on your old radio dial. So
be sure to preset Fox Sports Radio in the iHeart
(35:37):
Radio app and it will always pop up at the
top of your screen. All right, Lee, I know you've
got a story from this weekend. You usually have one.
We really didn't talk much over the weekend. So my
assumption is because you're a bit ineburated. Is that one
way of putting it.
Speaker 6 (35:53):
Yeah, I mean, definitely that's part of it.
Speaker 3 (35:55):
Saturday more so, right, Saturday.
Speaker 6 (35:57):
Is always more so, definitely hung out with watching Masters
all day, so he didn't get into too much mischief.
But right now what's accumulating is the sleeping on the couch.
And maybe it was that I had too much to
drink and slept in the wrong angle or something like that,
but this couch is really hurting the lower back these days.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
Guys.
Speaker 6 (36:16):
I had to bust out. You know, I'm usually on
the couch because I snore.
Speaker 3 (36:21):
But that's why you're on the couch. I mean, yeah,
it is.
Speaker 6 (36:24):
I mean I'll start off in bed and then I
get kicked out and I was like, all right, gotta
go crash on the couch. But now I'm like, last.
Speaker 1 (36:35):
Are No, there's another guy in his big not enough
room for the sandwich. They probably got a twin double bit,
so you gotta go to uh, you know, only one
of these babies sitting the cat though. That's that's the
only time, you know, when the cat's being babysat.
Speaker 4 (36:53):
But go ahead, go ahead. No, yeah, so your back
is a little sore.
Speaker 6 (36:56):
Backstore, I've had to bust out the the inflatable mattress,
which actually leads very nice. I very much appreciate it. Uh,
And the a c's out in the complex. So yeah, uh,
hot and uncomfortable at the old casad lap.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
You don't need a c right now. Bruh, you don't
need a c You don't need heat. That's why they
don't be putting the units in people's house, h.
Speaker 3 (37:17):
Eighties right now.
Speaker 4 (37:18):
Suck it up, Suck it up. I got one for y'all.
I had nuts in my mouth yesterday.
Speaker 3 (37:26):
Yeah you did.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
And yeah, yeah, I had a whole bunch of nuts
in my mouth and I was chewing on them. And
as I was chewing on them, I broke a crown,
split a crown right in half.
Speaker 4 (37:38):
And now I.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
Gotta I gotta go in on an emergency, you know,
dental appoint Yeah, that's a pretty you know, it hurt
like it didn't. It didn't hurt like the root of
my tooth. But some way, somehow, something that I did
when I.
Speaker 4 (37:55):
Broke it, it hurt.
Speaker 1 (37:57):
And so now my one of my mowlers, molars, molars
are really it's really sore.
Speaker 3 (38:05):
And what kind of nuts were they?
Speaker 5 (38:08):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (38:08):
It was clustered, So it was an assortment of different
nuts from different backgrounds, different places.
Speaker 3 (38:14):
Sounds like bonnie blue.
Speaker 4 (38:16):
And they were Is that what it sounds?
Speaker 1 (38:19):
Like they were all put together and and you know,
drizzled with honey and stuff like that. It's a very
it's a Keto Keto deal. So I was enjoying my
nuts while I was watching, Uh what was I watching yesterday?
I was watching Amazon Prime more so than anything yesterday,
and yeah, cracked my tooth.
Speaker 3 (38:40):
So there you go. Did you make a dentist appointment
for it for today?
Speaker 1 (38:44):
I just did it yesterday, yesterday afternoon, So that's I
wasn't even thinking about it, like, dang, yeah I do
have an eye our, but yeah, I'll make that appointment today.
So there you go, broken crown. I hope that's not
foreshadowing it is taxis.
Speaker 3 (39:00):
Oh gosh, I didn't think about that. I don't really
have an IR story necessarily from a physical ailment, but
just ventured into our first weekend of like like women's
lacrosse games girls lacrosse, so that was fun. However, I
did have a guy, and it's a dad on our team.
But my dad shows up tends to be a little
more outspoken, and he's always disappointed with with youth sports leagues,
(39:24):
like he's like they're never teaching these kids right, Like
at my youngest daughter who's playing in their league. They
don't have a goalie, so a lot of the girls,
you know, they kind of find some open space after
they passed a couple of times, you know, they're able
to just go kind of fire will and for the
most part, if they can control the ball, they'll score. Well.
My dad's like yelling. He's like what. He's like, what
(39:45):
are you doing? Go shoot? Shoot, shoot, And the guy
kind of turns back. He's like, sir, they have to
pass twice. Okay, this is a developmental league, and shoppers
like develop an ass.
Speaker 1 (39:57):
You know.
Speaker 3 (39:58):
He's like, score goals is development and he starts kind
of getting on him, and eventually I'm like, Dad, I
need you to back away, Like you need to back
away from the field. Everyone's just trying to have a
good time and enjoying this. I was like, please stop
harassing the other parents that are at this Wooden's lacrosse.
Speaker 4 (40:13):
Event, all right, way to get them.
Speaker 3 (40:15):
Chopple tries man, He tries
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I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com