July 18, 2025 • 40 mins
Jason Fitz & Geoff Schwartz talk about Caitlin Clark pulling out of WNBA All-Star weekend due to a groin injury, how the WNBA doesn't do enough to promote Clark, the NFLPA Executive Director stepping down amid multiple controversies, and much more!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
S, two Pros and a Cup of Joe on Fox
Sports Radio, Jeff Schwartz Jason Fitz hanging out with the
big news for the WNBA this weekend.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
We were just.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
Talking about it.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Talks a lot of football this morning, obviously, but w
has got All Star Weekend this weekend, and that's an opportunity.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
It's an opportunity to.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Get casual fans to come in and just sort of
check these things out. I always make the argument that
all pro games and championship games are really for casuals
to try and grow your sports. So all pro events
having Caitlin Clark be a part of them are a
big deal. And that is not going to be the
case this weekend as she continues to battle injuries in
a year that has been a tough one for her
on the injury front. And now all I keep thinking
(00:38):
about is just the opportunity lost because the overwhelming narrative,
and I don't think it's an incorrect one, is that
the ratings and the interest in the event will plummet
without Caitlin being part of it, whether it's the skills
competition or the three point contest. But it all just
sort of speaks to what I think has become difficult
right now because to me, me Jeff like, I've been
(01:02):
pretty lucky in my career to cover a lot of
w for a lot of years. So the fact that
it's it's becoming really popular right now is an easy
transition for me. That's great, But there's this weirdness with
it where I feel like there are the subsets.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Of WNBA fans.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
There's the people that never watch it that have just
decided it sucks even though they never watch it. There's
the people that tell you it's great even though they
never watch it so they don't know what's going on.
And then there's a group of people that are just
really big fans. To me, I look at all of
this as like a cool, exciting opportunity time right like Caitlin.
The more eyeballs that come in for Kaitlin, the better
for everybody involved. But it feels like it's become way
(01:41):
more contentious than all of that, and it's not that simple.
And now everything with Caitlin has layers, and the w
has layers, and it's just it's an argument waiting to
happen constantly.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
So I'll tell you my background the WNBA so I
did not follow it very religiously until Sabrina and Nesque was
drafted by the Liberty, so Sabrina went Orgon. Her year
at organ was cut short and fortunately by COVID that
Orgon team probably win a championship. Unfortunately it was just
a bummer of a way to end. And I've always
(02:10):
enjoyed watching her play at Orgon. And she was, you know,
almost like Kayln Clark before Clark, right, I mean the
three points, shooting, the passing, not as dynamic of a
scorer visually, but obviously I think she averages like nineteen
points a game, an incredible score, passer, all those things.
So I started watching a little more and mostly just
for her, like when she was on and it wasn't
on National until ye as much, right, and obviously now
(02:32):
we know, And then I just started watching for Kaitlyn Clark.
I like watching her play. She gets me to a TV.
She's fun to watch, even when she's not scoring a lot,
which she has not been doing. Now she's averaging nine assists,
like she's having an incredible passer. Right. The Fever score
a ton of points. They're fun to watch. They they
(02:52):
move the ball, they shoot threes, like they they when
they're rolling, they're averaging in the nineties, you know, like
they're fun to watch. It's fun basketball to watch. My
background is probably not as yours when it comes to
learning about, you know, how the WA functions. And the
one thing that stands out to me, and no surprise,
officiating is awful. It's really bad. And I'm not saying
(03:15):
that you have to fix it for Kaitlin Clark exactly,
but you have an opportunity with the player who's this popular,
to really change fundamentally change your league. And some of
it has already happened. Right, they have private planes now, right,
they move games to bigger arenas Kaitlyn Clark. They just
played the Connecticut son who were like three and eighteen
(03:36):
in the garden in Boston, Like these events are huge
national events. When when Clark is playing and the answer
is not to change the game to make her stand out,
but it feels like they're actively rooting against Kaitlyn Clark.
At times the league is okay, like for example, they
put out yesterday advertisement or the All Star Game has
(04:01):
said Page Beckers is the first rookie to start at
All Star Games is twenty thirteen Kener Clark started also
named last season, Like, those are the mistakes. I just
don't understand. If it's like you, why are you not
acknowledging the superstar Kaitlin Clark. They just make these mistakes
to me that I do not understand why. They just
(04:23):
don't seem to put enough attention to promoting the most
popular players. But I get it. There are plenty of
players in the league that are better than Kitlyn Clark.
You won't find me arguing otherwise, especially this season. She's
not playing as well, but there's no one as popular
as her. There's there's no doubt about They're going to
lose the good lose viewers for the game this weekend.
It's gonna be very noticeable when the when the ratings
(04:44):
come out. Every game that she has a national television
even when she wasn't playing. This past weekend against the Liberty,
got like three million people to watch, and the league
just seems to have not embraced that to the level
that I would expect. The fishing stinks. It's bad she
gets zero calls. I'm not saying that she should get
the calls, but dude, she gets beat up in games
(05:08):
like she gets pushed, grabs, shoved, knocked down, and foul
calls never happened. I don't know why, but that is
the league. It's a very physical league. And fifth, it
does feel like though there's just not enough attention from
the league office to how big of a star she is.
And it might happen over the years and they get
to that direction. But I don't know if you feel
(05:30):
that same way as I do when it comes to
just the attention given to her and how I just
don't think they're tabolizing on this opportunity as much as
they should.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
I think it's the league. I think it's the players.
I think it's the super fans, like I think everybody.
At some point, people transcend and it doesn't matter if
they're the best to me, Like it doesn't matter if
Taylor Swift you mentioned earlier, you want to go to
Taylor Swift cut, Like Taylor Swift doesn't have to be
the best singer in the world. She's the most popular
singer in the world, like, right, I mean that's I
(05:59):
think most I don't want to get Swifties up in mimenties,
but I think most, you know.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Most very irtaining her beats, like everything's like it's fun,
like you, it's fun like going and watching her perform
looks like just a fun time, which I think a
lot of us will pay not maybe too grand a
ticket for fun, but will pay for three and a
half hours of fun. Like I think we all pay
for that.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
One hundred percent, and then there's opportunity for everybody else involved.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
And that's the thing that like, I just.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Can't wrap my head around why it feels like so
many teams, players super fans the league, Like I mean,
the league is not easy to work with. The WNBA
has never been easy to work with. And I'll say
say that loudly and proudly. I mean, my first radio show,
five days a week was with Sarah Spain on ESPN
at the time, and we were national and the day
(06:48):
I started with Sarah, She's like, we are gonna talk
about the WNBA, And that was that was back in
twenty seventeen, right, And so from that moment we we
fought to try and get WNBA players consistently on our
radio show as guests, and the league didn't help make
them available to this to this day. I mean I
tried last year to cover a bunch of w NBA
events and the W basically went to Yahoo, where I
(07:09):
make the primary portion of my income, and the W
was like, no, we don't want anybody in the to
get coverage opportunities that hasn't been covering the sport for years.
And I'm like, I have like the W makes things
really complicated to cover.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
They are not an easy media partner. That they get it.
I don't get it either.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
I didn't know that, but that's that's just it's disappointing
here because again they they should be capitalizing on this
opportunity as best they can. And and you know, the
last for me quickly, like the reaction to the jokes
of the SPS from some people like good, Bad and Different.
(07:50):
You got four jokes on a national television program by
a comedian about your league, like you might not have
liked them. I get it, mocking Caitlin Clarke for the
you know the wallf House joke, you know, the Britney
Hicks joke about about uh, you know, the oh, you know,
like you don't even know who the WNBA stars are. Okay,
(08:10):
I get they might offend you, but can you imagine
saying this three years ago that that that the SP's
you got, like I think it was in up being
four w NBA jokes and they're like lightening up a
little bit. It's good for the league to have to
be mentioned in this, like even if you don't like
the joke itself, like come on, man, don't take yourself
that seriously.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
And when you when you clap back to it the
way so many people have, what you also do is
you give fuel to the rest of the people that
are looking for a reason to tear it all down.
Like that's the other the other part of it. If
you're coming in and you're saying, oh my god, how
could they make these jokes? Well, now what you've done
is you've really empowered the people that are just desperately
waiting for a reason to tell the world how.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
Elitist the w A you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Like it it's it's a tough situation and I'm I'm
I know gently that I'm talking of some of my
friends in that situation. Like I just I think you
just have to step back and say, yeah, all right, cool,
Like you know, I hate to keep going back to
music stuff, but I will say, like if every time
somebody made fun of what they think country music is
(09:15):
the entire country music community would turn around and pitch
a fit about it.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Eventually it all becomes part of.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
The mockery, Like all you can do is just tip
your cap, Like you had a roast comic hosting the
sb's and he was roasting people. I don't know what
anyone expected, and I agree with you like it just
there is this opportunity that comes with attention, and attention
gives you the opportunity to make new fans, to convert people.
You want to make people that never pay attention into fans.
(09:43):
You want to take basic fans that convert him into
super fans. There's a conversion opportunity whenever you have a megastar,
and that's what Caitlin Clark is.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
And instead of conversion opportunity, I feel.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Like they're just a ton of people trying to push
everybody away from it. And whether it's you know there
are better players, like I don't think right now most
kids give a damn about what NBA Superstar in the
seventies was actually better than SGA, Like it's a meaningless argument.
Who cares if somebody loves SGA, let them love SGA.
If somebody loves Caitlin Clark. It doesn't mean that they
(10:16):
need suddenly a lecture on the history of the greatness
of the w Just let them fall in love with
where the sport is and maybe eventually they find the history.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Maybe they don't. But who cares you played football?
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Like does a current NFL kid that's growing up to
become an NFL fan? And maybe all they love is
Patrick Mahomes and maybe they say Patrick Mahomes is the
best quarterback of all time? Do they need a lecture
about Joe Montana in that moment? I don't think they do.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
But the NFL media wouldn't go after them for saying that,
you know, like and it feels like there's just this
active campaign to like discredit Clark from people that cover
the league. Dude. So when when Caroline pet comes out
(11:02):
two weeks ago and says Indiana is more dangerous without
Kaitlin Clark, like you, I would anyone say would would
would anyone in the NBA media, And I have an
issue with them as well. NFL look all their issues,
but when anyone say the Chiefs are better without Patrick
Mahomes last season when the Packers missed Jordan Love for
(11:23):
two years and Milik Wilson went too to zero. Did
anyone come out and say that the Packers are more
dangerous without Jordan Love, No, that's a ludicrous thing to say.
That's and and over. A point was like the offenses
moves better, which it doesn't. It does, It just doesn't.
Nothing works better without Clark. The numbers prove it. They're
four and six without either, eight and five with her,
(11:45):
they scored fifteen less points and have less rebounds and
less assists when she's on the game. They just got
blown up by a liberty two days ago. Look lifeless
goes back to back, but still, uh, I like it's
these I just don't. I don't get that mindset of
just trying to find every way when you're a legend
(12:06):
of the league and Peck knows what she's talking about.
She's been a winning coach, right like, she knows the
league very well. Just to have that come out and
say things like that to me, I don't get that
mindset of not embracing Clark at all, when again, you
don't have to go out of your way to say
things like you can say she's not playing well this
season offensively, she's certainly not. You can say she's a
(12:27):
very popular player and all these nice things about it,
but also knowledge how poorly she's playing offensively this season
and talk about the turnovers, all things are wrong with her.
But to say things like they're more dangerous without Clark
in any way you try to cut that, it's a
ludicrous thing to say because they're absolutely not more dangerous
without Caitlin Clark. And it's these continued sort of comments
(12:49):
and from people that are respected within the league that
I don't get that mindset of saying things like that.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
No sport does a better job of building its stars up.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
In the NFL.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
That being said, the NFL isn't.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
They are not, though currently without their own controversy. We'll
get into a bit of that. He's Jeff Schwartz. I'm
Jason Fitzper, hanging out with you. It's Two Pros and
a Cup of Joe on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 4 (13:13):
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Speaker 3 (13:27):
Hey, it's me Rob Parker.
Speaker 5 (13:30):
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(13:52):
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Speaker 1 (13:57):
It's two Pros and a Cup of Joe on Fox
Sports Radio. You Here's Jef Schwartz. I'm Jason Fits hanging
out with you this morning, beautiful Friday morning. Football season
is finally basically here. I mean, we got training camp?
Speaker 4 (14:10):
Does that?
Speaker 1 (14:10):
Does that still give you, like, does give you all
the good fields to make your no nose say yes?
Speaker 2 (14:14):
Yes? Like?
Speaker 3 (14:15):
Do you miss training campital?
Speaker 2 (14:16):
I mean I would have loved to play in this
version of training camp. That would have been nice. So
the version I that I played in, which was double
days and full pads, I would have loved to have
every fourth day off. Now it just seems to be
like the new thing. And you know, and and oh
we've we've been in pads two man days in a row.
I don't know if we could do it again for
a thirty in to row. One of the reasons the
(14:37):
Chiefs are so good, by the way, Patrick Mahomes was
one of them, obviously, but you know, Andy Reid still
hits in practice, right, Like they still go full pads
and they tackle each other in practice, like they have
heard they have hard they have hard camps. I mean
that pays off in the end. It feels like maybe not.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
I love the way you mentioned that though, because there
is this concept and I have this debate with some
of my buddies that just love the league all the time,
Like there's this concept of Reid is being this great, jovial,
fun guy that's just running a fun program and everybody's
out there having a good old time, and it's like, no,
like he's he's every every former player I've talked to
reiterates what you said, like he kicks the snot out
(15:13):
of him over and over and over.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Yes, he in training camp is a very hard training camp,
even for standards now now. But the trade off obviously
is the winning and like that. I remember my first
year there, well, yeah, we had super hard camp and uh,
I was uh. And we get to Week one, we
played Jacksonville and they weren't terribly good then either, but
we didn't know what we were that season as well. And
(15:36):
we get to we get to the first game in Jacksonville,
we were in better shape than they were. It's why
the Chiefs start faster for a year. It might be
like they just in better shape than their opponent because
of training camp.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
It's it's funny how the league is constantly evolving in
everything's copycap but nobody can really figure out the right
way too.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
I mean it's easier said than done to copycat the Chiefs.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
By the way, Like every time somebody says, well, we
got to find a way to beat the Chiefs, I'm like, cool.
So all you're trying to do for your organization is
get the best quarterback in the league and the best
head coach in the league and one of the best
defensive coordinators. Other than that, it's easy, yeah, yeah, I
mean all you gotta do is absolutely and you don't
(16:17):
just need like a good coach, good quarterback, good defensive coordinator.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
You literally need one of the best at.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Each you know, top let's say top three at each
to have a fighting Chance from oh and one of
the best gms too.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
Let's just just acknowledge that they draft well too.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
So it's fine, it's fine, it's but it's not all
fine for the NFL NFL Players Association.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
A little bit of controversy here.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
Lloyd Howell, who's the executive director of the NFLPA, resigned late.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
Last night amidst more controversy.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Now, there was a story broken by Florio and Pablo
Torre about collusion where the courts found that it was
more likely than not that the owners had attempted to
collude against fully guaranteed contracts after the Deshaun Watson deal.
That is something that it seems like the Players Association
(17:09):
was aware of in this process and it wasn't really
brought to light, and all of it was hidden behind confidentiality,
which was controversial. And then you get another report again
from Florio and Tore about the NFL basically busting the
NFL Players Association for faking injuries as a way to
effectively hold out, but also not publicized, like what the
(17:32):
hell is going on right now between the league and
the players Association.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
So let's talk about both the stories quickly. So the
first one that came out was that the NFLPA NFL
went to arbitration about collusion, and it was revealed in
the arbitrary rule that the NFL Management Council most likely
advised the NFL owners to not give out the Deshaun
(17:59):
Watson contract, right, which in it's in itself like makes
a lot of sense. I mean, it was very clear
at the time the NFL is not gonna honor that contract. Remember,
Seauan Watson got a fully guaranteed contract, which is rare
have a fully guaranteed contract as a veteran, and even
more rare after a trade. And then the allegations that
were surrounding Deshaun Watson. It was just a very odd deal,
(18:19):
and the NFL basically ignored that deal. But the arbitrare
did rule in the end that that there was not
enough proof that NFL teams actually followed it followed the order, right,
which again it's that's someking about collusion. Like you you're
not never gonna find a pay portrayal of actual collusion,
even though we can we can agree that it probably
has happened, right, it probably does happen. So and then
(18:41):
the NFL and NFLPA entered an agreement to not share
those results that publatory got them. Then announced yesterday from
publatory was that the another ruling had come down. There
was I guess a another you know sort of dispute, uh,
and it was ruled that the NFL players were faking
(19:05):
injuries to hold out essentially right, and the judge sighted
arbiter cited things that were said by our past president J. C.
Tretter on a podcast with Ross Tucker.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
And good for Ross gattings out of him former player
as well, that you know, he was encouraging players to
fake injuries to basically hold in correct, and that ruling
was was obviously not you know, made the public as well.
And then the NFLPA director ended up there's a bunch
of things with him and with his confidence of interest
(19:40):
and fits it is. The NFLPA has a very tough job.
There's seventeen hundred players. They're all different views on things.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
It's a it's a different mindset than baseball and the NBA,
and and so there's just a harow difficulties when it
comes to to being you know, to being the union.
But you can't have leadership that doesn't look out for
the best interest of the players, and it feels very
clearly here that there is avoid the top of people
that actually care about making sure that the NFL players
(20:13):
have the best collective bargaining agreement and have the best
opportunity to just get the most out of their careers.
I mean, there's no other way to put it other
than that they're just they're in it for themselves. It
doesn't feel like they're in it for the whole of
the NFL players.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
The hard part about this because you know, one thing
that really blew my mind when I first started working
with athletes, and the reason I love working with former
athletes is you get context on this right And so
you know, I remember when I first started in this
business yelling about the franchise tag and it was Michael
lig Senior that said, hey, it's never going to change because,
correct the franchise tag impacts thirty two players out of
(20:50):
three thousand. So having a better understanding of the fact
that you've got a bunch of people with different timelines
on their career, a different monetary spots in their career
makes it tough for the union to come together in
one way that really negotiates against thirty two ownership groups
that do have one common vision, one common timeframe, and
much more commonality when it comes to financials. So you're
(21:12):
not negotiating on even ground, and I want to acknowledge
that as part of the difficulty.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
I also though, you.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Know, I mean, I was a member of SAG after,
which has one hundred and sixty thousand members. I was
a member of the American Federation of Musicians, which has
eighty thousand members. So like, I understand what it's like
for a union to negotiate for large groups and how
difficult that can be. What I have a problem with
is I talked to a superstar in the league, a
household name one of the biggest billboards in the NFL.
(21:41):
I talked to the superstar in an interview recently, and
as we were talking, I asked about his thoughts on
the collision case. And I've interviewed him enough times to
know when he's, you know, skirting around something. We have
a pretty i'd say good relationship. In the interview, and
he just looked at me blankly, and he had absolutely
no idea. He had no idea what I was talking about,
(22:02):
and no idea what it was referencing. Even when I
gave him the thirty second elevator pitch of Okay, here's
what's going on, he still blankly looked at me and.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
Said, I need to talk talk to people about this.
I don't even know.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
To me, when one of the faces of the league
is unaware of something that you know, Flora and Florio
and Andy are telling us is a huge deal, Like,
why are more people not talking about that? I become
distant to giving a damn if I feel like the
actual union that I'm supposed to be giving a damn
about doesn't give a damn about themselves.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
So let's talk about this. One of my biggest uh
it's not even a gripe with a PA, but I
think that's how the players can be better about negotiations,
is they need to have superstars care about the union.
And you mentioned the unique difficulties with you know, the
(23:00):
mindset of players within our union, Right, So it's a
you have a short career window, correct, three years. Three
years is the average. So it's hard for players to
think about the future of the league when they're in
the league right now. Correct. A lot of us are
just searching for the next contract. We're searching for that
guaranteed money. We're not gonna put ourselves in a situation
(23:20):
to be in the union, and it's spent an extra
time when we're just trying to get better ourselves. Correct,
it's very selfish, I understand that. But there are players
who are secure enough with their contracts that they are
not sort of in the same boat the rest of
us are. And those are the superstars. Correct, that's t J.
Watt getting one hundred and eight million dollars guaranteed. That's
(23:41):
a quarterback getting x amount of dollars guaranteed. And the
union leadership desperately needs those guys to be in the room.
They need those guys to be player reps. They need
those guys to be the guys that negotiating, those guys
to be the head of the table because for Copanies
is one. They tend to be leaders. Correct, Their their quarterbacks,
(24:02):
they're leaders of the team. Players look up to them,
they follow them, right, they listen to them. They tend
to be smart, like they're the only there's their quarterbacks like,
they they're smart, smart guys, right, And we need those
guys in leadership positions. If you look at the history
of of the of the NBA, part so that Chris
Paul was was the president for many years. Max Schurzer
(24:23):
at the height of his career was was was involved
heavily in the in the Baseball Players Association and and
fits we we have a we have a we have
a gap right now, I think uh in in our
leadership where those guys are not part of it. I'm
not saying that that that you know, that would fix
all the problems, But imagine if Patrick Mahomes was at
(24:46):
the negotiation table and part of this process, Josh Allen
was part of the prost Lamar Jackson, it would probably
look a lot different. And I just I again, it's
kind of a hope of mine. It's you know, it's
very hard to pull off with these guys, to them
to do these things, but it would be so helpful
for the players. If the superstars were were in charge
(25:08):
in leadership positions that really cared about what's happening with
the PA, it would help us a lot.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
I mean, to your point, I'll go back to sag Aftra.
When there's an actors strike, nobody wants to hear from
a bid actor. You saw on one TV show even
though that's the person that really.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
Needs the help.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Like you're hearing from Tom Cruise for a reason, right, So,
Like your point is an important one because there is
a a process in my mind of you know, half
the point of this is to fight the pr battle.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
You know, it just has to be because.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
Through it all, and this is one of the weirdest
parts of fandom. We sit here constantly and yell. There're
gonna be people that sit there and say TJ Wat's overpaid.
Every single time a player gets paid, we yell and
I remind people that the salary cap is based on
a percentage of the overall earnings of a team.
Speaker 3 (25:57):
So it's fifty percent essentially of of what was earned.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
Right, So if the salary cap this year is three
hundred million dollars, then the fifty three players active or
splitting three hundred million dollars over simplification of math, But
that also means that Jerry Jones is making the other
three hundred right. Like, So we see here constantly, and
we got to understand that no matter how rich these
I mean, Eli Manning can't afford to buy into the Giants,
(26:21):
Like the owners have so much stinking money they can
take time off, they they can out They'll always be
able to outweight, outspend and out patient that the players association.
So part of this has got to be a PR battle,
And if you're going to find a PR battle, I'm sorry.
JC Tretterer was never the guy to do that. It
needs to be somebody that we see every day that
(26:41):
if we were doing a cartoon about the NFL would
be one of the star featured players on it. If
it's not, then people just aren't going to give a damn.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
They're not. They're not. And you know, again, it's about
the players, you know, having a voice and wanting to
own to own this. And I look, I get I
get that short term thinking is a big process in
the NFL, because again, careers are very short and I
totally understand. I know what I thought that way as
(27:09):
a player as well, and unfortunately a lot of us
as we get older, we realize how important, you know,
being involved in the PA can be to our careers
and to our post career plans. But it would just
it would help just tremendously if one of these quarterbacks
stepped up and became the voice of the players. I
don't think we've been in a situation where the PA
(27:30):
presidents being you know, not fired, but having you know,
to go away after two years. I don't think we
would have hired someone like that. Again, I don't think
that the leadership seems to be looking out for the
best interest of the players to be looking out for
the better of themselves at the moment. You know the
collusion thing, Imagine knowing that as you go into contract negotiations,
(27:52):
like to imagine an agent knowing that the NFL was
colluding behind the scenes to to limit your your your contract.
It would be so powerful. And the PAH just decided, nah,
we're not going to use that for a lot. It
just there's no explanation for why they decided that. I
can't imagine the reason they wanted to hide that from everybody.
And again it makes me wonder if they have the
(28:15):
best interest of everyone when they again decide to make
decisions they make.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
I remember the first time I ever talked to Damian
Woody and I asked Woody about.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
What we were talking about NFLPA stuff.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
And I asked Woody, I said, what's the one thing?
Speaker 1 (28:29):
And I didn't even finish my sentence before Woody started
screaming lifetime healthcare and that's just not gonna happen.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
That's too unrealistic.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
Yeah, one hundred percent. But like, those are the things
that I think when you first start in the league,
you're not thinking about it, right, Like you're just you
don't care about that. Then you get out of the
league for a few years and you realize some of
the issues that you're having, and certainly there are other
ways to try and get some help on that. But
it's just it's amazing how when you're in it, it's
hard to think about I do wonder and tell me
(28:58):
what you think, Like, now that we're in this in
a world where college kids are making you know, they're
their their grown ass professionals, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
You got you got high school kids making nil?
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Does it change the way that they come into the
league with the business mindset in a few years, coming
in from day one knowing that they've already got something
in the bank. Many of these kids, and they're negotiating
from a different spot in the process of where their
life is.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
So the idea they'll be better better negotiators because they
don't need the money exactly.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
They don't need as much.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
Well, I mean like, if you walk into the day,
you walk in you've already got a few million bucks
in the bank and you've already been dealing with business dealings.
Do you come in with the better mind?
Speaker 2 (29:40):
I get yeah, I could see that, but you have
to to want there to be a chane. Look the
leverage NFL players have or just not playing right? And
have those young players made enough money to miss a
month of of NFL salary because we get paid for
game we play right, you pay during the regular season.
(30:03):
You know? Is that is that? Are players willing to
sit out for a month to gain the leverage they
need to make more money? It's that simple. And if
the premise is that they have more money out of
college and that means that they're more willing to do that,
I agree with you there. But those are the tough
decisions that have to be made. And I think again,
(30:26):
I go back to say we keep going. It'd be
a lot easier to make them. If Patrick Mahomes was
trying to tell you guys, it's okay, you know, like,
we got you guys, We're going to figure this out together.
We're going to do what's best interest in the NFL,
and just trust this on this. We got your back.
It would be easier than jac trying to tell you
that you know yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
And it's the craziest part about all of this is
that you're right. The only recourse for players is to
sit out games. And at some level, I've always contended
that if you put true serum in most fans veins,
they don't care as long as their favorite team wins.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
They don't care.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
And it's a harsh way to say it, especially I
realize I'm saying it to a former player, and so
it's harsh to say this, but they don't care. And
I made the argument for years that you know, God forbid,
the worst thing you could ever imagine what happened on
the field to a player, it would take two or
three days before people are like, well, who's the new linebacker.
I made that comment for years, and then it was
(31:25):
on radio when DeMar Hamlin suffered his incident, and I
remember after two days the bosses came. It was Harry
Douglas and I were doing radio at the time, and
the bosses came to Harry and I two days in
and said, hey, we gotta change the pace of this.
You got to start talking about what's next. We got
to move off of this topic. And like it took
two days and someone almost died on the field. So
like when you were dealing with the level of apathy
(31:47):
that at some level the buying audience just wants their
football and they just want to see their favorite team win.
I think you've got to understand that in your business dealings.
But it also that's why the pr portion of it
becomes even more important, because you are fighting it up,
will battle the entire way.
Speaker 3 (32:02):
As inhumane as that sounds to say it out loud, fans.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
Would get over it quickly. They wouldn't like it, they
would get over it. And if you about the fans,
it's it's so fascinating to me when you social media
is not real life. I was actually playing with someone yesterday.
I sent them a text like praising them for something,
and they said, they get they get so caught up
and the negativity on social media, and I said, well, yeah,
I mean, social media is not real life. Don't worry
(32:26):
about it, like, don't take it seriously. But people side
with the billionaire owners all the time over the millionaire players,
and I get it's a battle between you know, people
that have more money than most and I get how
how that would make someone feel. But as an employee,
you would never take the side of ownership. You take
(32:48):
the side of the employee. And yet when it comes
to these negotiations and some of these these things that happened,
so many people on social media to take the side
of ownership. I find it so funny, Like they would
they would in their in their own personal life. They
would not take the side of ownership at the company
they work out, they think the side of the employee,
of the labor and yet for some reason, on the
Internet they take the side of of of the of
(33:09):
the of the management all the time. I find it
so fascinating how that dynamic is. And if players set
out for a month, the majority of fans, at least
on the internet would take the side of management, and
of course when football came back, they'd be football fans again.
They're not losing any fans over this in the end, right,
I mean, people would say I'm not watching NFL anymore. Yeah,
the same thing you said, you know, with with the
(33:30):
kneeling with COVID, you it's oh they paint and racism
on the on the ends. I'm not watching it anymore. Okay,
you all watch come on, don't lie to yourself, don't
lie to us. But people fits take the side of
management all the time. Uh, and when they wouldn't do
that in their own personal life.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
The funniest part about it is it's always entitled players,
and it's like as opposed to the billionaire that is
the owner. And the other part is I love the
fact that the fans love to just absolutely destroy Roger
Goodell and all I think the entire time is is
it really that hard to understand that all Roger Goodell
is doing is exactly what the owners tell him to do, Like.
Speaker 6 (34:08):
He's not out here with his own mind. Yeah, I'll
take I think he's done a good job. I mean,
I look at the NFL growth, you know, I would
imagine that you know he's done a good job. If
you were, say, hey, man, like you know when you
were hired to where you are now, you probably give
an a plus for what he's done. I think there
are missteps along the way when it comes to some
player discipline issues. I think they didn't handle the concap
(34:30):
and anything correctly. Obviously they lost it in court about that,
But as far as just like general things the NFL
has done well. They do a lot of things well,
and they're they're it's the best sports league in America
for a reason.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
Yeah, and you're right. At the end of the day,
people are going to flock to watch it no matter what.
That's been proven.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
The government's not going to step in and save the NFL,
but they're trying to step in and say college football
will tell.
Speaker 3 (34:59):
You about it.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
Next to Jeff Swartz, I'm Jason Fitz hanging out on
Two Pros and a Cup of Joe.
Speaker 3 (35:03):
I'm Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 4 (35:04):
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.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
It's Two Pros and a Cup of Joe on Fox
Sports Radio. Jeff Schwartz, Jason Fitz hanging out for the guys.
You know, I always feel better when the government gets
involved and makes everything easy. Look, I'm just not a political.
Speaker 3 (35:31):
Guy, Jeff.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
I'm not like it's not a part of my being
a bucket rising and I were laughing about that yesterday.
I am that guy that's pretty pretty honestly out on
all of it like I just I don't care, and
it shocks most people. But like the number of times
I'll get tweets after a show that tells me that
I'm a liberal idiot and a conservative idiot all in.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
The same show, It's just that that's fine.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
Like everybody, everybody wants me to have passionate political opinions.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
I don't. I just don't.
Speaker 1 (35:59):
So I just want to preface that portion of the conversation.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
My friend, Well, I wasn't yet political. I mean, I
have strong political opinions, but I was. This is not
the I mean, like three hosts to go on this show, possibly,
but not today, So I'm not this morning. It's time
Saw in the morning. No, I get it, though, I understand.
Speaker 1 (36:21):
Yeah, I just like to qualify that before I say
anything that could be conceived like misconstrewed by.
Speaker 3 (36:28):
Anybody to be able sort of a political take.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
So the President's getting involved in an executive order about
nil in college football, and the first thing I thought
is what I just said, Like, the government rarely comes
in and just fixes anything, you know, So I just
look at this.
Speaker 3 (36:46):
And think, man, everything going on in the world.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
We got executive orders about nil and I'm not sure
what the point of it is.
Speaker 2 (36:53):
Okay, so let's start with this. Executive orders in the
end don't actually mean much, to be honest with you.
They they are directives oftentimes that have to be implemented
by Congress or by local governments. So like a president
can say whatever they want executive order. They can make
(37:15):
executive orders being like I want nil to be Uh,
there would be a salary capin nil, And well, it
doesn't actually mean anything. It's just a directive oftentimes to
get things done. And so this is the way I
look at at at this where you know, the people
in charge want help from the government because they can't
(37:35):
do it themselves because the n is double A. And
the people in charge just put their head in the
sand this entire time and thought that the courts would
help them out. Do you know hardest to lose nine
nothing in the Supreme Court? I follow the politics closely.
I follow court cases closely because my mom was an
attorney and I wanted to be a lawyer. And I
find it interesting, you know, the hardest to lose a
(37:56):
case nine nothing, that's doably lost nine nothing, And honestly
they've lost everything since then. They're not gonna win anything,
because what's ended up happening most likely is, you know,
there's going we have to be of the union at
some point of college athletes. But we'll that's down the road,
I think, many years away from now. This is something
where where the people in charge are hoping that the
(38:16):
President and Congress can get involved because they didn't take
action when it was necessary. And it's it's interesting when
you think about this whole thing just holistically, right where
the people that are in charge right now in Congress
and always have been this way. I think you know,
(38:38):
they're free market fans, right that they believe that all
of us should have the opportunity to go make the
most money we can in a free market, right except
when it comes to college athletes. Where when college athletes
are making money in a free market, it's not a
fair system. And it might not be a fair system,
you know, holistically for the entire sport or sport or
(39:00):
the athletics. But the fact is any any way that
they try to limit their earning potential of a college
athlete or almost a professional athlete, same thing without a
collective bargaining agreement, that is not going to pass. It's
not courts are not going to let that happen. That's
not allowed. And so I think no matter what happens,
(39:24):
nothing will be implemented, no matter how many executive orders happen.
Even if if there's a law put in place, which
seems unlikely in Congress, they'll go to court like it'll
they'll lose. So the people in charge had an opportunity
to make this happen. They failed to make it happen,
and there's no going back. There's just no going back.
There's no way to put the genie back in the
(39:45):
bottle unless there becomes a collective bargaining agreement, a union.
They're laborers. Like all the things that happen, you know,
down the road, I think they will eventually happen here.
Speaker 1 (39:56):
Which is why I continue to say. If your comment
is I want college football to go back to what
it used to be, or if your comment is I
want to limit the athletes on this or that and
what they make, if those are the thoughts that you have,
understand that you have been challenged constitutionally and you have
lost it every single I.
Speaker 2 (40:14):
Don't even know what they do go back to what
right now? Texas Tech like these teams are. I'll tell
you buying rosters to be competitive. We're getting more parodies,
don't you guys beg all the time for we're getting
more parody all the time.
Speaker 1 (40:27):
I would argue college football is better than it's ever
been in a lot of ways right now, and the
numbers continue to bear that out.
Speaker 3 (40:34):
We'll keep breaking that down.
Speaker 1 (40:35):
Plus a wild proposal for the new college football playoff format.
Speaker 3 (40:40):
We'll tell you about it next
S, two Pros and a Cup of Joe on Fox
Sports Radio, Jeff Schwartz Jason Fitz hanging out with the
big news for the WNBA this weekend.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
We were just.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
Talking about it.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Talks a lot of football this morning, obviously, but w
has got All Star Weekend this weekend, and that's an opportunity.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
It's an opportunity to.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Get casual fans to come in and just sort of
check these things out. I always make the argument that
all pro games and championship games are really for casuals
to try and grow your sports. So all pro events
having Caitlin Clark be a part of them are a
big deal. And that is not going to be the
case this weekend as she continues to battle injuries in
a year that has been a tough one for her
on the injury front. And now all I keep thinking
(00:38):
about is just the opportunity lost because the overwhelming narrative,
and I don't think it's an incorrect one, is that
the ratings and the interest in the event will plummet
without Caitlin being part of it, whether it's the skills
competition or the three point contest. But it all just
sort of speaks to what I think has become difficult
right now because to me, me Jeff like, I've been
(01:02):
pretty lucky in my career to cover a lot of
w for a lot of years. So the fact that
it's it's becoming really popular right now is an easy
transition for me. That's great, But there's this weirdness with
it where I feel like there are the subsets.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Of WNBA fans.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
There's the people that never watch it that have just
decided it sucks even though they never watch it. There's
the people that tell you it's great even though they
never watch it so they don't know what's going on.
And then there's a group of people that are just
really big fans. To me, I look at all of
this as like a cool, exciting opportunity time right like Caitlin.
The more eyeballs that come in for Kaitlin, the better
for everybody involved. But it feels like it's become way
(01:41):
more contentious than all of that, and it's not that simple.
And now everything with Caitlin has layers, and the w
has layers, and it's just it's an argument waiting to
happen constantly.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
So I'll tell you my background the WNBA so I
did not follow it very religiously until Sabrina and Nesque was
drafted by the Liberty, so Sabrina went Orgon. Her year
at organ was cut short and fortunately by COVID that
Orgon team probably win a championship. Unfortunately it was just
a bummer of a way to end. And I've always
(02:10):
enjoyed watching her play at Orgon. And she was, you know,
almost like Kayln Clark before Clark, right, I mean the
three points, shooting, the passing, not as dynamic of a
scorer visually, but obviously I think she averages like nineteen
points a game, an incredible score, passer, all those things.
So I started watching a little more and mostly just
for her, like when she was on and it wasn't
on National until ye as much, right, and obviously now
(02:32):
we know, And then I just started watching for Kaitlyn Clark.
I like watching her play. She gets me to a TV.
She's fun to watch, even when she's not scoring a lot,
which she has not been doing. Now she's averaging nine assists,
like she's having an incredible passer. Right. The Fever score
a ton of points. They're fun to watch. They they
(02:52):
move the ball, they shoot threes, like they they when
they're rolling, they're averaging in the nineties, you know, like
they're fun to watch. It's fun basketball to watch. My
background is probably not as yours when it comes to
learning about, you know, how the WA functions. And the
one thing that stands out to me, and no surprise,
officiating is awful. It's really bad. And I'm not saying
(03:15):
that you have to fix it for Kaitlin Clark exactly,
but you have an opportunity with the player who's this popular,
to really change fundamentally change your league. And some of
it has already happened. Right, they have private planes now, right,
they move games to bigger arenas Kaitlyn Clark. They just
played the Connecticut son who were like three and eighteen
(03:36):
in the garden in Boston, Like these events are huge
national events. When when Clark is playing and the answer
is not to change the game to make her stand out,
but it feels like they're actively rooting against Kaitlyn Clark.
At times the league is okay, like for example, they
put out yesterday advertisement or the All Star Game has
(04:01):
said Page Beckers is the first rookie to start at
All Star Games is twenty thirteen Kener Clark started also
named last season, Like, those are the mistakes. I just
don't understand. If it's like you, why are you not
acknowledging the superstar Kaitlin Clark. They just make these mistakes
to me that I do not understand why. They just
(04:23):
don't seem to put enough attention to promoting the most
popular players. But I get it. There are plenty of
players in the league that are better than Kitlyn Clark.
You won't find me arguing otherwise, especially this season. She's
not playing as well, but there's no one as popular
as her. There's there's no doubt about They're going to
lose the good lose viewers for the game this weekend.
It's gonna be very noticeable when the when the ratings
(04:44):
come out. Every game that she has a national television
even when she wasn't playing. This past weekend against the Liberty,
got like three million people to watch, and the league
just seems to have not embraced that to the level
that I would expect. The fishing stinks. It's bad she
gets zero calls. I'm not saying that she should get
the calls, but dude, she gets beat up in games
(05:08):
like she gets pushed, grabs, shoved, knocked down, and foul
calls never happened. I don't know why, but that is
the league. It's a very physical league. And fifth, it
does feel like though there's just not enough attention from
the league office to how big of a star she is.
And it might happen over the years and they get
to that direction. But I don't know if you feel
(05:30):
that same way as I do when it comes to
just the attention given to her and how I just
don't think they're tabolizing on this opportunity as much as
they should.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
I think it's the league. I think it's the players.
I think it's the super fans, like I think everybody.
At some point, people transcend and it doesn't matter if
they're the best to me, Like it doesn't matter if
Taylor Swift you mentioned earlier, you want to go to
Taylor Swift cut, Like Taylor Swift doesn't have to be
the best singer in the world. She's the most popular
singer in the world, like, right, I mean that's I
(05:59):
think most I don't want to get Swifties up in mimenties,
but I think most, you know.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Most very irtaining her beats, like everything's like it's fun,
like you, it's fun like going and watching her perform
looks like just a fun time, which I think a
lot of us will pay not maybe too grand a
ticket for fun, but will pay for three and a
half hours of fun. Like I think we all pay
for that.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
One hundred percent, and then there's opportunity for everybody else involved.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
And that's the thing that like, I just.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Can't wrap my head around why it feels like so
many teams, players super fans the league, Like I mean,
the league is not easy to work with. The WNBA
has never been easy to work with. And I'll say
say that loudly and proudly. I mean, my first radio show,
five days a week was with Sarah Spain on ESPN
at the time, and we were national and the day
(06:48):
I started with Sarah, She's like, we are gonna talk
about the WNBA, And that was that was back in
twenty seventeen, right, And so from that moment we we
fought to try and get WNBA players consistently on our
radio show as guests, and the league didn't help make
them available to this to this day. I mean I
tried last year to cover a bunch of w NBA
events and the W basically went to Yahoo, where I
(07:09):
make the primary portion of my income, and the W
was like, no, we don't want anybody in the to
get coverage opportunities that hasn't been covering the sport for years.
And I'm like, I have like the W makes things
really complicated to cover.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
They are not an easy media partner. That they get it.
I don't get it either.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
I didn't know that, but that's that's just it's disappointing
here because again they they should be capitalizing on this
opportunity as best they can. And and you know, the
last for me quickly, like the reaction to the jokes
of the SPS from some people like good, Bad and Different.
(07:50):
You got four jokes on a national television program by
a comedian about your league, like you might not have
liked them. I get it, mocking Caitlin Clarke for the
you know the wallf House joke, you know, the Britney
Hicks joke about about uh, you know, the oh, you know,
like you don't even know who the WNBA stars are. Okay,
(08:10):
I get they might offend you, but can you imagine
saying this three years ago that that that the SP's
you got, like I think it was in up being
four w NBA jokes and they're like lightening up a
little bit. It's good for the league to have to
be mentioned in this, like even if you don't like
the joke itself, like come on, man, don't take yourself
that seriously.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
And when you when you clap back to it the
way so many people have, what you also do is
you give fuel to the rest of the people that
are looking for a reason to tear it all down.
Like that's the other the other part of it. If
you're coming in and you're saying, oh my god, how
could they make these jokes? Well, now what you've done
is you've really empowered the people that are just desperately
waiting for a reason to tell the world how.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
Elitist the w A you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Like it it's it's a tough situation and I'm I'm
I know gently that I'm talking of some of my
friends in that situation. Like I just I think you
just have to step back and say, yeah, all right, cool,
Like you know, I hate to keep going back to
music stuff, but I will say, like if every time
somebody made fun of what they think country music is
(09:15):
the entire country music community would turn around and pitch
a fit about it.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Eventually it all becomes part of.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
The mockery, Like all you can do is just tip
your cap, Like you had a roast comic hosting the
sb's and he was roasting people. I don't know what
anyone expected, and I agree with you like it just
there is this opportunity that comes with attention, and attention
gives you the opportunity to make new fans, to convert people.
You want to make people that never pay attention into fans.
(09:43):
You want to take basic fans that convert him into
super fans. There's a conversion opportunity whenever you have a megastar,
and that's what Caitlin Clark is.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
And instead of conversion opportunity, I feel.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Like they're just a ton of people trying to push
everybody away from it. And whether it's you know there
are better players, like I don't think right now most
kids give a damn about what NBA Superstar in the
seventies was actually better than SGA, Like it's a meaningless argument.
Who cares if somebody loves SGA, let them love SGA.
If somebody loves Caitlin Clark. It doesn't mean that they
(10:16):
need suddenly a lecture on the history of the greatness
of the w Just let them fall in love with
where the sport is and maybe eventually they find the history.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Maybe they don't. But who cares you played football?
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Like does a current NFL kid that's growing up to
become an NFL fan? And maybe all they love is
Patrick Mahomes and maybe they say Patrick Mahomes is the
best quarterback of all time? Do they need a lecture
about Joe Montana in that moment? I don't think they do.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
But the NFL media wouldn't go after them for saying that,
you know, like and it feels like there's just this
active campaign to like discredit Clark from people that cover
the league. Dude. So when when Caroline pet comes out
(11:02):
two weeks ago and says Indiana is more dangerous without
Kaitlin Clark, like you, I would anyone say would would
would anyone in the NBA media, And I have an
issue with them as well. NFL look all their issues,
but when anyone say the Chiefs are better without Patrick
Mahomes last season when the Packers missed Jordan Love for
(11:23):
two years and Milik Wilson went too to zero. Did
anyone come out and say that the Packers are more
dangerous without Jordan Love, No, that's a ludicrous thing to say.
That's and and over. A point was like the offenses
moves better, which it doesn't. It does, It just doesn't.
Nothing works better without Clark. The numbers prove it. They're
four and six without either, eight and five with her,
(11:45):
they scored fifteen less points and have less rebounds and
less assists when she's on the game. They just got
blown up by a liberty two days ago. Look lifeless
goes back to back, but still, uh, I like it's
these I just don't. I don't get that mindset of
just trying to find every way when you're a legend
(12:06):
of the league and Peck knows what she's talking about.
She's been a winning coach, right like, she knows the
league very well. Just to have that come out and
say things like that to me, I don't get that
mindset of not embracing Clark at all, when again, you
don't have to go out of your way to say
things like you can say she's not playing well this
season offensively, she's certainly not. You can say she's a
(12:27):
very popular player and all these nice things about it,
but also knowledge how poorly she's playing offensively this season
and talk about the turnovers, all things are wrong with her.
But to say things like they're more dangerous without Clark
in any way you try to cut that, it's a
ludicrous thing to say because they're absolutely not more dangerous
without Caitlin Clark. And it's these continued sort of comments
(12:49):
and from people that are respected within the league that
I don't get that mindset of saying things like that.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
No sport does a better job of building its stars up.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
In the NFL.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
That being said, the NFL isn't.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
They are not, though currently without their own controversy. We'll
get into a bit of that. He's Jeff Schwartz. I'm
Jason Fitzper, hanging out with you. It's Two Pros and
a Cup of Joe on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 4 (13:13):
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 (13:27):
Hey, it's me Rob Parker.
Speaker 5 (13:30):
Check out my weekly MLB podcast, Inside the Parker, for
twenty two minutes of pipe in hot baseball talk featuring
the biggest names of newsmakers in the sport. Whether you
believe in analytics or the I test, We've got all
the bases covered. New episodes drop every Thursday, So do
your sofa favor and listen to Inside the Parker with
(13:52):
Rob Parker on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get
your podcast.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
It's two Pros and a Cup of Joe on Fox
Sports Radio. You Here's Jef Schwartz. I'm Jason Fits hanging
out with you this morning, beautiful Friday morning. Football season
is finally basically here. I mean, we got training camp?
Speaker 4 (14:10):
Does that?
Speaker 1 (14:10):
Does that still give you, like, does give you all
the good fields to make your no nose say yes?
Speaker 2 (14:14):
Yes? Like?
Speaker 3 (14:15):
Do you miss training campital?
Speaker 2 (14:16):
I mean I would have loved to play in this
version of training camp. That would have been nice. So
the version I that I played in, which was double
days and full pads, I would have loved to have
every fourth day off. Now it just seems to be
like the new thing. And you know, and and oh
we've we've been in pads two man days in a row.
I don't know if we could do it again for
a thirty in to row. One of the reasons the
(14:37):
Chiefs are so good, by the way, Patrick Mahomes was
one of them, obviously, but you know, Andy Reid still
hits in practice, right, Like they still go full pads
and they tackle each other in practice, like they have
heard they have hard they have hard camps. I mean
that pays off in the end. It feels like maybe not.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
I love the way you mentioned that though, because there
is this concept and I have this debate with some
of my buddies that just love the league all the time,
Like there's this concept of Reid is being this great, jovial,
fun guy that's just running a fun program and everybody's
out there having a good old time, and it's like, no,
like he's he's every every former player I've talked to
reiterates what you said, like he kicks the snot out
(15:13):
of him over and over and over.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Yes, he in training camp is a very hard training camp,
even for standards now now. But the trade off obviously
is the winning and like that. I remember my first
year there, well, yeah, we had super hard camp and uh,
I was uh. And we get to Week one, we
played Jacksonville and they weren't terribly good then either, but
we didn't know what we were that season as well. And
(15:36):
we get to we get to the first game in Jacksonville,
we were in better shape than they were. It's why
the Chiefs start faster for a year. It might be
like they just in better shape than their opponent because
of training camp.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
It's it's funny how the league is constantly evolving in
everything's copycap but nobody can really figure out the right
way too.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
I mean it's easier said than done to copycat the Chiefs.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
By the way, Like every time somebody says, well, we
got to find a way to beat the Chiefs, I'm like, cool.
So all you're trying to do for your organization is
get the best quarterback in the league and the best
head coach in the league and one of the best
defensive coordinators. Other than that, it's easy, yeah, yeah, I
mean all you gotta do is absolutely and you don't
(16:17):
just need like a good coach, good quarterback, good defensive coordinator.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
You literally need one of the best at.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Each you know, top let's say top three at each
to have a fighting Chance from oh and one of
the best gms too.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
Let's just just acknowledge that they draft well too.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
So it's fine, it's fine, it's but it's not all
fine for the NFL NFL Players Association.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
A little bit of controversy here.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
Lloyd Howell, who's the executive director of the NFLPA, resigned late.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
Last night amidst more controversy.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Now, there was a story broken by Florio and Pablo
Torre about collusion where the courts found that it was
more likely than not that the owners had attempted to
collude against fully guaranteed contracts after the Deshaun Watson deal.
That is something that it seems like the Players Association
(17:09):
was aware of in this process and it wasn't really
brought to light, and all of it was hidden behind confidentiality,
which was controversial. And then you get another report again
from Florio and Tore about the NFL basically busting the
NFL Players Association for faking injuries as a way to
effectively hold out, but also not publicized, like what the
(17:32):
hell is going on right now between the league and
the players Association.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
So let's talk about both the stories quickly. So the
first one that came out was that the NFLPA NFL
went to arbitration about collusion, and it was revealed in
the arbitrary rule that the NFL Management Council most likely
advised the NFL owners to not give out the Deshaun
(17:59):
Watson contract, right, which in it's in itself like makes
a lot of sense. I mean, it was very clear
at the time the NFL is not gonna honor that contract. Remember,
Seauan Watson got a fully guaranteed contract, which is rare
have a fully guaranteed contract as a veteran, and even
more rare after a trade. And then the allegations that
were surrounding Deshaun Watson. It was just a very odd deal,
(18:19):
and the NFL basically ignored that deal. But the arbitrare
did rule in the end that that there was not
enough proof that NFL teams actually followed it followed the order, right,
which again it's that's someking about collusion. Like you you're
not never gonna find a pay portrayal of actual collusion,
even though we can we can agree that it probably
has happened, right, it probably does happen. So and then
(18:41):
the NFL and NFLPA entered an agreement to not share
those results that publatory got them. Then announced yesterday from
publatory was that the another ruling had come down. There
was I guess a another you know sort of dispute, uh,
and it was ruled that the NFL players were faking
(19:05):
injuries to hold out essentially right, and the judge sighted
arbiter cited things that were said by our past president J. C.
Tretter on a podcast with Ross Tucker.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
And good for Ross gattings out of him former player
as well, that you know, he was encouraging players to
fake injuries to basically hold in correct, and that ruling
was was obviously not you know, made the public as well.
And then the NFLPA director ended up there's a bunch
of things with him and with his confidence of interest
(19:40):
and fits it is. The NFLPA has a very tough job.
There's seventeen hundred players. They're all different views on things.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
It's a it's a different mindset than baseball and the NBA,
and and so there's just a harow difficulties when it
comes to to being you know, to being the union.
But you can't have leadership that doesn't look out for
the best interest of the players, and it feels very
clearly here that there is avoid the top of people
that actually care about making sure that the NFL players
(20:13):
have the best collective bargaining agreement and have the best
opportunity to just get the most out of their careers.
I mean, there's no other way to put it other
than that they're just they're in it for themselves. It
doesn't feel like they're in it for the whole of
the NFL players.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
The hard part about this because you know, one thing
that really blew my mind when I first started working
with athletes, and the reason I love working with former
athletes is you get context on this right And so
you know, I remember when I first started in this
business yelling about the franchise tag and it was Michael
lig Senior that said, hey, it's never going to change because,
correct the franchise tag impacts thirty two players out of
(20:50):
three thousand. So having a better understanding of the fact
that you've got a bunch of people with different timelines
on their career, a different monetary spots in their career
makes it tough for the union to come together in
one way that really negotiates against thirty two ownership groups
that do have one common vision, one common timeframe, and
much more commonality when it comes to financials. So you're
(21:12):
not negotiating on even ground, and I want to acknowledge
that as part of the difficulty.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
I also though, you.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Know, I mean, I was a member of SAG after,
which has one hundred and sixty thousand members. I was
a member of the American Federation of Musicians, which has
eighty thousand members. So like, I understand what it's like
for a union to negotiate for large groups and how
difficult that can be. What I have a problem with
is I talked to a superstar in the league, a
household name one of the biggest billboards in the NFL.
(21:41):
I talked to the superstar in an interview recently, and
as we were talking, I asked about his thoughts on
the collision case. And I've interviewed him enough times to
know when he's, you know, skirting around something. We have
a pretty i'd say good relationship. In the interview, and
he just looked at me blankly, and he had absolutely
no idea. He had no idea what I was talking about,
(22:02):
and no idea what it was referencing. Even when I
gave him the thirty second elevator pitch of Okay, here's
what's going on, he still blankly looked at me and.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
Said, I need to talk talk to people about this.
I don't even know.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
To me, when one of the faces of the league
is unaware of something that you know, Flora and Florio
and Andy are telling us is a huge deal, Like,
why are more people not talking about that? I become
distant to giving a damn if I feel like the
actual union that I'm supposed to be giving a damn
about doesn't give a damn about themselves.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
So let's talk about this. One of my biggest uh
it's not even a gripe with a PA, but I
think that's how the players can be better about negotiations,
is they need to have superstars care about the union.
And you mentioned the unique difficulties with you know, the
(23:00):
mindset of players within our union, Right, So it's a
you have a short career window, correct, three years. Three
years is the average. So it's hard for players to
think about the future of the league when they're in
the league right now. Correct. A lot of us are
just searching for the next contract. We're searching for that
guaranteed money. We're not gonna put ourselves in a situation
(23:20):
to be in the union, and it's spent an extra
time when we're just trying to get better ourselves. Correct,
it's very selfish, I understand that. But there are players
who are secure enough with their contracts that they are
not sort of in the same boat the rest of
us are. And those are the superstars. Correct, that's t J.
Watt getting one hundred and eight million dollars guaranteed. That's
(23:41):
a quarterback getting x amount of dollars guaranteed. And the
union leadership desperately needs those guys to be in the room.
They need those guys to be player reps. They need
those guys to be the guys that negotiating, those guys
to be the head of the table because for Copanies
is one. They tend to be leaders. Correct, Their their quarterbacks,
(24:02):
they're leaders of the team. Players look up to them,
they follow them, right, they listen to them. They tend
to be smart, like they're the only there's their quarterbacks like,
they they're smart, smart guys, right, And we need those
guys in leadership positions. If you look at the history
of of the of the NBA, part so that Chris
Paul was was the president for many years. Max Schurzer
(24:23):
at the height of his career was was was involved
heavily in the in the Baseball Players Association and and
fits we we have a we have a we have
a gap right now, I think uh in in our
leadership where those guys are not part of it. I'm
not saying that that that you know, that would fix
all the problems, But imagine if Patrick Mahomes was at
(24:46):
the negotiation table and part of this process, Josh Allen
was part of the prost Lamar Jackson, it would probably
look a lot different. And I just I again, it's
kind of a hope of mine. It's you know, it's
very hard to pull off with these guys, to them
to do these things, but it would be so helpful
for the players. If the superstars were were in charge
(25:08):
in leadership positions that really cared about what's happening with
the PA, it would help us a lot.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
I mean, to your point, I'll go back to sag Aftra.
When there's an actors strike, nobody wants to hear from
a bid actor. You saw on one TV show even
though that's the person that really.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
Needs the help.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Like you're hearing from Tom Cruise for a reason, right, So,
Like your point is an important one because there is
a a process in my mind of you know, half
the point of this is to fight the pr battle.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
You know, it just has to be because.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
Through it all, and this is one of the weirdest
parts of fandom. We sit here constantly and yell. There're
gonna be people that sit there and say TJ Wat's overpaid.
Every single time a player gets paid, we yell and
I remind people that the salary cap is based on
a percentage of the overall earnings of a team.
Speaker 3 (25:57):
So it's fifty percent essentially of of what was earned.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
Right, So if the salary cap this year is three
hundred million dollars, then the fifty three players active or
splitting three hundred million dollars over simplification of math, But
that also means that Jerry Jones is making the other
three hundred right. Like, So we see here constantly, and
we got to understand that no matter how rich these
I mean, Eli Manning can't afford to buy into the Giants,
(26:21):
Like the owners have so much stinking money they can
take time off, they they can out They'll always be
able to outweight, outspend and out patient that the players association.
So part of this has got to be a PR battle,
And if you're going to find a PR battle, I'm sorry.
JC Tretterer was never the guy to do that. It
needs to be somebody that we see every day that
(26:41):
if we were doing a cartoon about the NFL would
be one of the star featured players on it. If
it's not, then people just aren't going to give a damn.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
They're not. They're not. And you know, again, it's about
the players, you know, having a voice and wanting to
own to own this. And I look, I get I
get that short term thinking is a big process in
the NFL, because again, careers are very short and I
totally understand. I know what I thought that way as
(27:09):
a player as well, and unfortunately a lot of us
as we get older, we realize how important, you know,
being involved in the PA can be to our careers
and to our post career plans. But it would just
it would help just tremendously if one of these quarterbacks
stepped up and became the voice of the players. I
don't think we've been in a situation where the PA
(27:30):
presidents being you know, not fired, but having you know,
to go away after two years. I don't think we
would have hired someone like that. Again, I don't think
that the leadership seems to be looking out for the
best interest of the players to be looking out for
the better of themselves at the moment. You know the
collusion thing, Imagine knowing that as you go into contract negotiations,
(27:52):
like to imagine an agent knowing that the NFL was
colluding behind the scenes to to limit your your your contract.
It would be so powerful. And the PAH just decided, nah,
we're not going to use that for a lot. It
just there's no explanation for why they decided that. I
can't imagine the reason they wanted to hide that from everybody.
And again it makes me wonder if they have the
(28:15):
best interest of everyone when they again decide to make
decisions they make.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
I remember the first time I ever talked to Damian
Woody and I asked Woody about.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
What we were talking about NFLPA stuff.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
And I asked Woody, I said, what's the one thing?
Speaker 1 (28:29):
And I didn't even finish my sentence before Woody started
screaming lifetime healthcare and that's just not gonna happen.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
That's too unrealistic.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
Yeah, one hundred percent. But like, those are the things
that I think when you first start in the league,
you're not thinking about it, right, Like you're just you
don't care about that. Then you get out of the
league for a few years and you realize some of
the issues that you're having, and certainly there are other
ways to try and get some help on that. But
it's just it's amazing how when you're in it, it's
hard to think about I do wonder and tell me
(28:58):
what you think, Like, now that we're in this in
a world where college kids are making you know, they're
their their grown ass professionals, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
You got you got high school kids making nil?
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Does it change the way that they come into the
league with the business mindset in a few years, coming
in from day one knowing that they've already got something
in the bank. Many of these kids, and they're negotiating
from a different spot in the process of where their
life is.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
So the idea they'll be better better negotiators because they
don't need the money exactly.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
They don't need as much.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
Well, I mean like, if you walk into the day,
you walk in you've already got a few million bucks
in the bank and you've already been dealing with business dealings.
Do you come in with the better mind?
Speaker 2 (29:40):
I get yeah, I could see that, but you have
to to want there to be a chane. Look the
leverage NFL players have or just not playing right? And
have those young players made enough money to miss a
month of of NFL salary because we get paid for
game we play right, you pay during the regular season.
(30:03):
You know? Is that is that? Are players willing to
sit out for a month to gain the leverage they
need to make more money? It's that simple. And if
the premise is that they have more money out of
college and that means that they're more willing to do that,
I agree with you there. But those are the tough
decisions that have to be made. And I think again,
(30:26):
I go back to say we keep going. It'd be
a lot easier to make them. If Patrick Mahomes was
trying to tell you guys, it's okay, you know, like,
we got you guys, We're going to figure this out together.
We're going to do what's best interest in the NFL,
and just trust this on this. We got your back.
It would be easier than jac trying to tell you
that you know yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
And it's the craziest part about all of this is
that you're right. The only recourse for players is to
sit out games. And at some level, I've always contended
that if you put true serum in most fans veins,
they don't care as long as their favorite team wins.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
They don't care.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
And it's a harsh way to say it, especially I
realize I'm saying it to a former player, and so
it's harsh to say this, but they don't care. And
I made the argument for years that you know, God forbid,
the worst thing you could ever imagine what happened on
the field to a player, it would take two or
three days before people are like, well, who's the new linebacker.
I made that comment for years, and then it was
(31:25):
on radio when DeMar Hamlin suffered his incident, and I
remember after two days the bosses came. It was Harry
Douglas and I were doing radio at the time, and
the bosses came to Harry and I two days in
and said, hey, we gotta change the pace of this.
You got to start talking about what's next. We got
to move off of this topic. And like it took
two days and someone almost died on the field. So
like when you were dealing with the level of apathy
(31:47):
that at some level the buying audience just wants their
football and they just want to see their favorite team win.
I think you've got to understand that in your business dealings.
But it also that's why the pr portion of it
becomes even more important, because you are fighting it up,
will battle the entire way.
Speaker 3 (32:02):
As inhumane as that sounds to say it out loud, fans.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
Would get over it quickly. They wouldn't like it, they
would get over it. And if you about the fans,
it's it's so fascinating to me when you social media
is not real life. I was actually playing with someone yesterday.
I sent them a text like praising them for something,
and they said, they get they get so caught up
and the negativity on social media, and I said, well, yeah,
I mean, social media is not real life. Don't worry
(32:26):
about it, like, don't take it seriously. But people side
with the billionaire owners all the time over the millionaire players,
and I get it's a battle between you know, people
that have more money than most and I get how
how that would make someone feel. But as an employee,
you would never take the side of ownership. You take
(32:48):
the side of the employee. And yet when it comes
to these negotiations and some of these these things that happened,
so many people on social media to take the side
of ownership. I find it so funny, Like they would
they would in their in their own personal life. They
would not take the side of ownership at the company
they work out, they think the side of the employee,
of the labor and yet for some reason, on the
Internet they take the side of of of the of
(33:09):
the of the management all the time. I find it
so fascinating how that dynamic is. And if players set
out for a month, the majority of fans, at least
on the internet would take the side of management, and
of course when football came back, they'd be football fans again.
They're not losing any fans over this in the end, right,
I mean, people would say I'm not watching NFL anymore. Yeah,
the same thing you said, you know, with with the
(33:30):
kneeling with COVID, you it's oh they paint and racism
on the on the ends. I'm not watching it anymore. Okay,
you all watch come on, don't lie to yourself, don't
lie to us. But people fits take the side of
management all the time. Uh, and when they wouldn't do
that in their own personal life.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
The funniest part about it is it's always entitled players,
and it's like as opposed to the billionaire that is
the owner. And the other part is I love the
fact that the fans love to just absolutely destroy Roger
Goodell and all I think the entire time is is
it really that hard to understand that all Roger Goodell
is doing is exactly what the owners tell him to do, Like.
Speaker 6 (34:08):
He's not out here with his own mind. Yeah, I'll
take I think he's done a good job. I mean,
I look at the NFL growth, you know, I would
imagine that you know he's done a good job. If
you were, say, hey, man, like you know when you
were hired to where you are now, you probably give
an a plus for what he's done. I think there
are missteps along the way when it comes to some
player discipline issues. I think they didn't handle the concap
(34:30):
and anything correctly. Obviously they lost it in court about that,
But as far as just like general things the NFL
has done well. They do a lot of things well,
and they're they're it's the best sports league in America
for a reason.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
Yeah, and you're right. At the end of the day,
people are going to flock to watch it no matter what.
That's been proven.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
The government's not going to step in and save the NFL,
but they're trying to step in and say college football
will tell.
Speaker 3 (34:59):
You about it.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
Next to Jeff Swartz, I'm Jason Fitz hanging out on
Two Pros and a Cup of Joe.
Speaker 3 (35:03):
I'm Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 4 (35:04):
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.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
It's Two Pros and a Cup of Joe on Fox
Sports Radio. Jeff Schwartz, Jason Fitz hanging out for the guys.
You know, I always feel better when the government gets
involved and makes everything easy. Look, I'm just not a political.
Speaker 3 (35:31):
Guy, Jeff.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
I'm not like it's not a part of my being
a bucket rising and I were laughing about that yesterday.
I am that guy that's pretty pretty honestly out on
all of it like I just I don't care, and
it shocks most people. But like the number of times
I'll get tweets after a show that tells me that
I'm a liberal idiot and a conservative idiot all in.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
The same show, It's just that that's fine.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
Like everybody, everybody wants me to have passionate political opinions.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
I don't. I just don't.
Speaker 1 (35:59):
So I just want to preface that portion of the conversation.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
My friend, Well, I wasn't yet political. I mean, I
have strong political opinions, but I was. This is not
the I mean, like three hosts to go on this show, possibly,
but not today, So I'm not this morning. It's time
Saw in the morning. No, I get it, though, I understand.
Speaker 1 (36:21):
Yeah, I just like to qualify that before I say
anything that could be conceived like misconstrewed by.
Speaker 3 (36:28):
Anybody to be able sort of a political take.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
So the President's getting involved in an executive order about
nil in college football, and the first thing I thought
is what I just said, Like, the government rarely comes
in and just fixes anything, you know, So I just
look at this.
Speaker 3 (36:46):
And think, man, everything going on in the world.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
We got executive orders about nil and I'm not sure
what the point of it is.
Speaker 2 (36:53):
Okay, so let's start with this. Executive orders in the
end don't actually mean much, to be honest with you.
They they are directives oftentimes that have to be implemented
by Congress or by local governments. So like a president
can say whatever they want executive order. They can make
(37:15):
executive orders being like I want nil to be Uh,
there would be a salary capin nil, And well, it
doesn't actually mean anything. It's just a directive oftentimes to
get things done. And so this is the way I
look at at at this where you know, the people
in charge want help from the government because they can't
(37:35):
do it themselves because the n is double A. And
the people in charge just put their head in the
sand this entire time and thought that the courts would
help them out. Do you know hardest to lose nine
nothing in the Supreme Court? I follow the politics closely.
I follow court cases closely because my mom was an
attorney and I wanted to be a lawyer. And I
find it interesting, you know, the hardest to lose a
(37:56):
case nine nothing, that's doably lost nine nothing, And honestly
they've lost everything since then. They're not gonna win anything,
because what's ended up happening most likely is, you know,
there's going we have to be of the union at
some point of college athletes. But we'll that's down the road,
I think, many years away from now. This is something
where where the people in charge are hoping that the
(38:16):
President and Congress can get involved because they didn't take
action when it was necessary. And it's it's interesting when
you think about this whole thing just holistically, right where
the people that are in charge right now in Congress
and always have been this way. I think you know,
(38:38):
they're free market fans, right that they believe that all
of us should have the opportunity to go make the
most money we can in a free market, right except
when it comes to college athletes. Where when college athletes
are making money in a free market, it's not a
fair system. And it might not be a fair system,
you know, holistically for the entire sport or sport or
(39:00):
the athletics. But the fact is any any way that
they try to limit their earning potential of a college
athlete or almost a professional athlete, same thing without a
collective bargaining agreement, that is not going to pass. It's
not courts are not going to let that happen. That's
not allowed. And so I think no matter what happens,
(39:24):
nothing will be implemented, no matter how many executive orders happen.
Even if if there's a law put in place, which
seems unlikely in Congress, they'll go to court like it'll
they'll lose. So the people in charge had an opportunity
to make this happen. They failed to make it happen,
and there's no going back. There's just no going back.
There's no way to put the genie back in the
(39:45):
bottle unless there becomes a collective bargaining agreement, a union.
They're laborers. Like all the things that happen, you know,
down the road, I think they will eventually happen here.
Speaker 1 (39:56):
Which is why I continue to say. If your comment
is I want college football to go back to what
it used to be, or if your comment is I
want to limit the athletes on this or that and
what they make, if those are the thoughts that you have,
understand that you have been challenged constitutionally and you have
lost it every single I.
Speaker 2 (40:14):
Don't even know what they do go back to what
right now? Texas Tech like these teams are. I'll tell
you buying rosters to be competitive. We're getting more parodies,
don't you guys beg all the time for we're getting
more parody all the time.
Speaker 1 (40:27):
I would argue college football is better than it's ever
been in a lot of ways right now, and the
numbers continue to bear that out.
Speaker 3 (40:34):
We'll keep breaking that down.
Speaker 1 (40:35):
Plus a wild proposal for the new college football playoff format.
Speaker 3 (40:40):
We'll tell you about it next
Hosts And Creators
Brady Quinn
LaVar Arrington
Jonas Knox
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