December 26, 2025 • 41 mins
In Hour 2 of the show today, Jason Fitz & Buck Reising fill in for the guys as they discuss the growing frustration in Baltimore with the Ravens season this year and address the rumors of John Harbaugh getting canned and Lamar Jackson leaving. Plus, the guys wonder if the Patriots are actually really good or just beating bad teams, and more!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
It's a wild, wild year in the NFL and we're
reaching this point in the season and we're still trying
to figure out who's great and who's not. Who we
can actually manco And you know, there's there's this weird
line between what we consider great and he's Buck Rising.
I'm Jason Fitz on Fox Sports Radio, filling in on
Two Pros and a Cup of Joe. We were just
(00:24):
talking about the fact that nobody's paying attention to the Jags.
I'm not sure that right now we have a clear
cut dominant Oh my god, this team is the absolute
great team that's going to win the Super Bowl. Buck,
And I'm not sure right now that most if you
put twenty of us in a room, we would get,
you know, more than a few people that could agree
(00:44):
on any of who are the best teams in the
league this year?
Speaker 3 (00:47):
And the wild thing is that I don't.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Necessarily believe that the NFL has given us this incredible
product this year.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
But much like a game, how often do we say, oh,
that was a great game. No it wasn't.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
It was a terrible game, but a bad a great ending.
Right like when we get drama at the end. We
perceive it to be great. We're going to get a
hell of a lot of drama at the end of
this NFL season. So I don't know if football is
I don't know if the NFL is necessarily having a
great year, but I do know that I find it
to be incredibly interesting that we're this far into the
season and you've made a compelling case for why the
(01:18):
Jags are the best team in the AFC, and I
can't really tear it apart, and I can't really build
it up either way because it is so unsure. I
think this is actually a beautiful moment for the NFL
happening in front of us.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
So yeah, I guess that was going to be My
follow up is what would you consider to be what
would make it a great year.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
For the NFL.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
And let's discern here between a great year for the
league versus a great year for football fans. What I
guess is you're are you talking about what's best for
the National Football League, Because it seems as we talked
about Charles Barkley and his criticism of the NFL taking
over Smiths and doing so successful even though the games.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Are terrible and all these different things.
Speaker 4 (02:04):
It feels like the league is in as good of
a spot as it's ever been From a fan perspective,
Do you think that there is something about this season
that leaves you wanting or are you saying that because
because of the lack of clear and obvious favorites even
in the NFC. NFC feels wide open at this point
(02:24):
in time, because even if you spent most of the
season thinking that the Rams are the best team in football,
and the Rams probably are the best team in football,
You've still got that Seahawks result, both of those Seahawks results,
frankly to kind of make you think twice about how
good the Rams are or whether the Rams would be
able to hold up a third time around and come
out better for it. After just losing the most recent
(02:45):
matchup of the Seahawks in and overtime, I mean, what
was felt like the game of the year to me.
So what would make this a better year for the fans?
If you were trying to find the best case scenario?
Speaker 1 (02:56):
I guess I think.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
It's not necessarily for the fans. I just think that
sports are at their best when they put on their
best product, and I think most of us can agree
whether it's I mean, watching yesterday between the fact that
none of us had heard of half of these quarterbacks
and then you watch them play. I mean, when you
have a team that wins a football game with a
net three passing yards, that's not a good football game. Right,
(03:20):
So the question is, okay, that is an ugly football game.
That is an ugly, ugly football game, Like we are
not watching high quality football.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
You cannot argue that that Lions Vikings game.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Like if that was the first time you ever watched football, right, Like,
that's the first time in your entire life you turned
it on.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
I did not go on and say, oh my god,
this is amazing.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
I must see more of this, Like as someone that
attended in person the Vikings Raiders game a few years
ago that was three to nothing in overtime that the
my beloved Raiders lost, right, Like, there are certain games
you could admit that just set the game back to me.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
This year, there's just not a lot of great football,
but there are some teams.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
That put together moments. There's a lot of inconsistent football.
So I think for any product, like when you when
you just get the best, like Okay, I'll be the
old man for a second.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
Not that old. But like if you go back to
the Manning Brady, you.
Speaker 4 (04:11):
Are definitively the oldest person on the show by it
considerable bargain.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Okay, by age, yes, but but not by maturity at all.
I mean, I think we're in a we're in a
race on that one. Okay, you're an old soul. I'm
just an old man.
Speaker 5 (04:24):
Me.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Oh god, I'm forty forty eight. Yeah, yeah, I don't.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
I know married.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
I have been called a sneaky vampire by many of
my friends, and I'm luk at that.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
I just said that.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Damn you know, I'm doing a little too hard book. No,
don't be laughing.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
That's sixteen years difference between us and them.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
Gray hairs stay different.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
What do you take it?
Speaker 4 (04:51):
Put yourself on camera? Mary, you want to play this game? Okay,
play this game.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
I'm young and sorry, I mean buck, I think we
both know that if you and I walked into a
room together, most people would probably think you were a
little older than.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
I, especially with the Mary's right about the beard. I
did not realize that I had gray hairs in my
beard until I grew the beard out now a little
salt and pepper. Salt and pepper, Santa Claus at this point.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
In time, you know, just.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Keep it up.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
We got we got two hours left, yeah, the four
of us this morning, all right, Mary, keep it up.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
I mean this is by the way, Mary has to
deal with this every Saturday on Bucking Fits. Which if
this is the first time you're hanging out with us,
you should hang out with us. We'll be back again
tomorrow because tomorrow Saturday, I think six to eight pm
Eastern time on Fox Sports Radio, that's where you can
usually check out Bucking Fits. That's where we are usually
hanging out with you, and Mary has to deal with us.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
During that whole time.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
By the way, while we're Mary, okay, okay, oh I would,
I'm just going to change the subject on that you
find Mckiita tooles at the home Depo are built with precision,
without shortcuts, designed for the toughest jobs. It's the choice
for pros when the job calls for the best call.
The Maikida built to be the best available at the
home depot. How pros get more done. He's Buck Rising.
(06:10):
I'm Jason fitzwor In on two pros and a cup
of Joe. I just think, Okay, when we had the
Patriots and the Colts going through their years of you know,
absolute battles with Brady and Manning, we had a lot
of really good football. So you saw teams that weren't
just winning games, they were really good of Late in
the NFL, we often see teams that are able to
pop off for a year, but they're.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Not sustainably good.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Like Bill Barnwell's analytics showed why the Commanders were going
to take a step back this year because last year
they want to have a lot more games than they
probably should have. This year we're watching I think with
that same skeptical eye. Are the Patriots really good or
are they just taking on terrible football teams?
Speaker 3 (06:46):
I don't know, but.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Certainly there are more question marks about even the good
teams and the inconsistency of teams. Like how you see
a Texans team that I'm supposed to buy in on
the Super Bowl and then being super Bowl caliber and
then I watch them against the Raiders look absolutely dreadful. Dreadful, right,
and so great teams don't put those sorts of performances
(07:07):
on tape. So I think this year, while there are
some interesting storylines.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
The football is not as great. I'm not sure anybody cares.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
I don't know if anybody cares about quality versus drama.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
It's just it's just a transitional period for the league.
Speaker 4 (07:22):
So that's an interesting philosophical question, I think, getting deep,
getting meta on an early Friday morning. Here, does the
NFL Jason Fitz, in your opinion, want a truly great
team or truly great teams plural versus the idea that
you could have teams that look great by record but
(07:46):
are not actually great teams, like they're all fallible. Right
you look at the Eagles at ten and five. Nobody
feels good about Philadelphia right now, but that's indisputably the
defending Super Bowl champion with a winning record and a
winning twice as many games as they've lost. By the way,
They're going to Buffalo this weekend, which is a fascinating game.
The Bills are eleven and four, but you have questions
(08:09):
about them, the Bears, Niners. Speaking of eleven and four teams,
are they truly great teams or are they Is it
just something different? And in the case of the Niners,
an interesting division with all three of these teams at
the very top, jockeying for postseason position, even though you
can identify the things that would cause them to have
pitfalls against one of the other NFC West teams. You
(08:32):
mentioned the Patriots, and what we're talking about with teams
even like the Panthers and stuff like that. The Texans
and the Chargers both double digit win teams on the season.
I would maintain that in an honest moment, the NFL
doesn't want a discernibly great team.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
You don't want somebody.
Speaker 4 (08:49):
You don't want the Chiefs or the Patriots to rule
the roost for a decade plus if you can help it,
because that gives people a reason to pay less attention.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
To your product.
Speaker 4 (09:02):
You want the re emergence of Chicago and the Patriots
having a couple of down bad seasons and popping back
up all of a sudden. You don't want the Patriots
to be a twelve win team again next year, though.
You want the Patriots to struggle a little bit more.
You want you want the Dolphins of the Jets to
pop up. Now, the problem with the Dolphins and the
Jets and the Bills, frankly, for the vast majority of
that division and its existence is that the patriots have
(09:25):
dominated it the whole way through. But I would I
would imagine that in a truly honest moment, the NFL
would tell you, no, we'd rather just have a bunch
of middling teams and some of them look better than
the others, but they're not actually that much better.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
I completely disagree. Actually, So I think the NFL wins
both ways here. Number one, this year they get their
gateway drug. Like if you're again, if you're the forty
eight year old guy, you remember what it's like.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
What are you freebasing giants and raiders to two and
thirteen teams?
Speaker 2 (09:54):
No, but when you're my age, you remember when you
met your first you know, your first little weed dealer
on the street, right and like the street like a
buddy would introduce you. And what they always do, what
they always do. They gave you the first little taste
for free, right, they give it to you. They're like,
all right, if you like this, come back, and then
you always come back. That's what this year is gonna
be for all of these teams that pop off. This
one little year of hope is like like that's what
(10:16):
it was for Washington last year. Commanders, fans ready to
check out, ready to not have to deal with this anymore,
ready to be completely out on the NFL. Their team
gets that one good year and then they're.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
Like, oh, right back in boom.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
So now all of a sudden, this year they're getting
the little like they're getting the little gateway drug for
the Jags and for the Texans, and just just enough,
just to taste, just enough. Everybody wants to come back.
But realistically, I think every single sport will tell you
the ratings, and you know, the eyeballs and interests.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
They love the climb to dominance.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
They love the initial planting of the flag of dominance,
and then they love everybody trying to chase them off
the mountain. So the rise of the pa of the
Chiefs and then the demise of the Chiefs becomes the
great story. But if you look back at the NFL
throughout history, whether it was the seventies.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
Where it was the Steelers, the Raiders.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
The Cowboys that were the great teams, in the eighties,
the forty nine Ers, in the nineties, the Cowboys, then
it was the Brady and the Patriots, then it's the Chiefs.
The NFL has been dynastic in every single generation. They
always want one team that's dominating, and everybody else is
playing hunger games, trying to get their way, climb their
way up to the top of this thing and take
(11:29):
them out. So I think the NFL wins on both
sides because they get a little bit of each side. You,
by the way, always win with Louisiana Hot Sauce. A
hotly debated topic is who's this year's MVP the most valuable?
Poor mine is the original Louisiana Hot sace. Dress your
favorite eats with ease or Nacho's pizza, gumbo, egg whites,
a lot of egg whites with a little bit Louisiana
(11:50):
hot sauce.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
The taste is gonna score. That's my VP.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
That's Louisiana Hot Hot sauce. Buy you some, Oh, buy
you some is so well damned done.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
That's very I like that.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
Oh did you like my MVP? Did that?
Speaker 5 (12:04):
No?
Speaker 1 (12:04):
I didn't like that at all.
Speaker 4 (12:05):
I like that.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
I like Buy you some.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
BB that's clipped, it's getting, it's getting. I like that
one get into a drop. Buy you some too, I
mean by your friends when not catching this. This is
spelled like to buy you you know b a y oh,
you buy you some. I'm hammering this ad right into
the crowd.
Speaker 4 (12:23):
By you you you whispering sentially VP into the microphone
talking about egg whites and hot sauce.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
That well, we were doing more time mm VP. The
most valuable, poor mine, is the original Louisiana hot sauce.
Oh just your favorite eats with ease, not just pizza cumbo.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
My this works.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
It's too good.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
What do you mean it's too good? What's going on
back there? Patrick?
Speaker 3 (12:58):
Nothing? What happens behind the board stays behind the board.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Let me let me just tell you. Careless Whisper is
a go to karaoke jam. You can just oh my god,
I love that song. Let's go, Let's go. I want
to learn to play the saxophone, just to play that one.
That'll be the only thing I learned how to play
on it. And then I'll, like, I'll show it off
for parties and then just walk in with the sacks,
play it, walk out, And that is the most impressive
(13:24):
thing anybody could ever do. Buck Rising Jason fitz Bucket
fits on two person a cup of Joe.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
What are you out on? Careless Whisper? Buck you can't
be out on careless whisper.
Speaker 4 (13:33):
No, I'm not out on careless whisper at all. I'm
out on you.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Okay, that's fair. Had count that you're not might be Nate.
I'm just saying the league to answer your question. I
think this year is the gateway drug. But if the
league could have their way, their their cake and eat
it too, next year, we would be right back to
some dominant team.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
That is taking over.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Like they're gonna want the Eagles to go on a
run or the Rams to go run that had been
there before. They're gonna want asserted dominance. They want everybody
playing chase the flag on the biggest, bestest team that
they could possibly be going after.
Speaker 4 (14:09):
Yeah, I get that, I do because that drives interest,
It drives engagement.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
I remember doing.
Speaker 4 (14:17):
This a couple of years ago with a team that
I covered, and again for people who were just now
hanging out with us for the first time. My day
to day is I'm a Titans reporter. I covered the
Tennessee Titans on a day in, day out, practice game
basis or whatever. There was a period of time when
they were pushing teams like the Bills and the Chiefs
(14:38):
and the Ravens in the AFC, And I remember talking
to Kevin Byard who's now on the Bears, and if
I'm not mistaken, he's leading the league in interceptions.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Very happy for KB and it's cool to see him doing.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
Up there, doing that up there and being a part
of the Chicago Bears turnaround. But I remember talking to
Kevin Byrd about this, and I think they were getting
ready to play the Bills on a Monday night, and
he said that is a team they would rather be
the team chasing than the ones being chased.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
And I struggled with that.
Speaker 4 (15:09):
Just conceptually because I was like, well, yeah, but at
a certain point, if you're gonna, like, if you're gonna
be one of the teams sitting at the adults table
as opposed to being relegated to the kids table, don't
you want to be the big dog a little bit?
Don't you want to be the team that's fending people
off at the top.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Of the mountain.
Speaker 4 (15:25):
And maybe, you know, the professional athlete mindset is different there.
But even then, like I'm kind of I'm kind of
of two minds on that because as a fan, at
least as a an agnostic football fan, I don't have.
I don't have a single team that I root for.
I root for players that I've covered, or people that
i've covered that I want to have success, and plenty
(15:47):
of good people that I've worked with throughout the course
of the years, or worked worked around, or whatever the
case may be. I would rather see as somebody who
doesn't have a vested rooting interest in one specific I'd
rather see a handful of teams just budgeting each other.
That's why I love the NFC NFC West because every
(16:08):
year it feels like that, like that's my favorite division
in football. I think, top to bottom. Maybe you could
say the AFC North has been that in previous years.
This year is obviously taking a step back. I just
I guess as a football fan, I don't want to
go in every week thinking about how X team is
going to fend off the latest you know, the latest
(16:29):
team that's going to try and usurp them. I'd rather
see a bunch of good to solid teams without one
actually being definitively better than all of them, trying to
see who can come out.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
I just want a.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
Different result, I guess, is what I'm what I'm looking
for here, and maybe that's just because I spend so
much time around football on a regular basis.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
No, but that comes back to something we talk about
all the time, you and I, even off air.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
Parody is sold as.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
The truth in the NFL, but it is the farthest
thing from the actual truth. Like the The funny thing
is the NFL has been for most years, they've been
very top heavy, and so parody exists in the chance
for bad teams to every once in a while pop
off and have an OK year, but not typically for
teams to turn around and have a great year.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
Just how bad was yesterday?
Speaker 2 (17:11):
By the way, Max Prosmer of the Minnesota Vikings is
the only NFL quarterback in the Super Bowl era to
play the entire game, finished with under seventy passing yards
and seven or more sacks and still get the win.
That is an alarming stat on house. Oh yeah, and
you love every second. I love the road to Milan.
(17:32):
The road to Milan runs through Saint Louis, c. A
bunch of names I can't pronounce competed the twenty twenty
six Prevergon US Figure Skating Championships January seventh through eleventh.
Be there as the twenty twenty sixth US Olympic Figure
skating team is named live.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
Who doesn't want to see that?
Speaker 2 (17:49):
That's badass tickets at US figure Skating dot Org.
Speaker 4 (17:52):
All right, what you were so scared of those names
that you just read that you said champion SIPs.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Not championships. I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
You can correct me now when you tell everybody about
Louisiana Hot Sauce coming up next on Bucket Fits, we're
gonna figure out if Lamar Jackson is actually not going
to be a Baltimore Raven next year.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
Wild reports out there will tell you.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
About it next, but in the meantime, buck has to
tell you about Louisiana Hot Sauce. Make it better than
my sultry MVP. You better make it better than that.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Game day's rule.
Speaker 4 (18:23):
And when you add the hand crafted tang of the
original Louisiana Hot Sauce to your food, it doesn't matter
what day it is.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
It becomes a little more like game day.
Speaker 4 (18:34):
Pour our hand crafted recipe on pizza and you'll feel
like leaping up from the recliner to clap drop it
on wings and every bite will hit with the same
euphoria you feel when your team's wide out toadrags for
a touchdown. Dash the simple three ingredients of the original
Louisiana Hot Sauce onto your plate, and you'll turn any
(18:57):
old Tuesday into a tailgate, complete with all the crawfish
you can stuff in your face. With an almost one
hundred year legacy of turning winning dishes into championship ones,
the original Louisiana Hot Sauce is kind of like your
foods Lucky Jersey. So no matter what day it is,
don your team's colors, fire up the grill and grab
(19:19):
the original Louisiana Hot Sauce at a little game day
to every day, that's Louisiana Hot Sauce by you.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
So.
Speaker 5 (19:28):
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 3 (19:40):
Polly Foods Go here with Tony Foods. Go Yeah.
Speaker 6 (19:43):
As everybody knows, we're the hosts of the award winning
Polly and.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
Tony Foods, Go shop Yeah.
Speaker 6 (19:46):
But instead of us telling you how great we are,
here's how Dan Patrick described us when he came on
our show.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Quick, knowledgeable, and funny, opinionated.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
What are you doing interrupting our promo? Yeah, you wasn't
talking about you.
Speaker 5 (20:00):
You took those clips totally out of context.
Speaker 6 (20:03):
Oh yeah, well after this promo, I'm gonna take you
out and beat you.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
Let me put this into context. Shut up.
Speaker 6 (20:09):
Yeah, anyway, Just listen to the Paully and Tony Fusco
Show on IoT Radio, Apple podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Yea, it's two Pros and a Cup of Joe on
Fox Sports Radio. But it's a bucking fits takeover. He's
buck rising out Jason Fitz. Be sure to check out
our brand new YouTube channel for the show. Just search
two pros f s R on YouTube agin. That's two
pros FSR. Be sure to hit the subscribe button. Don't
stop there. While you're doing that, check out that thumblup
(20:36):
icon comment away. Let us know who you agree with,
who you think is completely wrong. Check out our new
channel on YouTube agin just search two pros FSR subscribe.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
Bucks.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
Dancing around, you're feeling this like this, this was this
a request? Or like what what?
Speaker 1 (20:52):
What?
Speaker 3 (20:53):
What?
Speaker 1 (20:53):
What am I?
Speaker 3 (20:53):
What do I not know?
Speaker 4 (20:55):
No? Just Mary speaking my musical love language. That's all
it is. Little uh, little little Middle Eastern flare for
you makes me happy.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
It's shoulders moving fitsy.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
You know, I can't now in my head.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
All I'm going to think is that this is what
you're listening to while you're going back for thirds at
the Golden Corral, Like this is this is what uh
bok buck rising he's got in the pods, like, well,
he's us.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
This is it's Buck rising at the Golden Coral music.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
No, no, you you you Sadi, you uncultured swine.
Speaker 4 (21:26):
This is this is sitting on the banks of the
River Nile, smoking a hookah and uh having a little
bit of a little bit of a little bit of mintee,
maybe some lamb wrapped in some grape leaves.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
He doesn't even know, you philistine, You don't know anything.
You've never been more Caucasian than you are right now.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Lamb and grape leaves. That there there's no not Look,
I just you're not No. I grew up of fact
hit that play the violin like I'm not hit that.
That's been a revelation since I was a child. I
never expected to be hip. Come on, I mean, I'm
just imagining buck just for anyone that spends two minutes around. Buck,
Everything you just described sounds beautiful, but it also sounds
(22:10):
like you're laying out a blanket and sitting on the ground,
which is not something you're ever gonna do.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
So I'm just I'm just curious.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
Where you, Buck, are just absorbing all of the earth
and the River Nile, and the lamb and the grape
leaves and the hookah. When you are at your core,
you are a person that prefers, you know, to go
to nice establishments and have people whine and dine.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
You listen, redneck, I'm not sitting anywhere on the ground.
I'm at the Heliopolis Club.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
I'm not I'm not a blankets in what world? Fancy?
Speaker 4 (22:44):
The only thing, the only thing that your hip too
is your hip. At forty eight years old, at this
point in time, your actual hip. You need to check yeah,
I mean check in on that.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
When you start doing hip cars all the time just
because you need hip flexibility, that's when you know things
are are going in a certain direction.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
I can't wait till you get there.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
Buck.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Of course, by the time you get there, I'll be
in the fifty five and up housing that I cannot
wait to buy into because like, Hey, they sell you
cheaper houses once you hit fifty five plus.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
Come on now, I'm waiting for that. Also, everyone, speaking
of things you're waiting to try, ever wanted to try.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
An Olympic and Paralympic sport? Try fencing, fast, safe and
easy to start. Find a beginner class near you at
USA Fencing dot org slash try fencing. That's USA Fencing
dot org slash try fencing. I would love for Buck
and I to try fencing just one time.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
Just have you ever fenced? Buck?
Speaker 4 (23:37):
No, I can't say that I have, although I feel
like that is something that would take place at the
Helopolis Club.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
Not to see that seems like it's not brown. Okay.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
I'm trying to make sense of one of the more
disappointing teams in the NFL this year, the Baltimore Ravens.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
We know that there is not an easy fix. I
did this about a month ago.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
I watched three Ravens games in their entirety on the
All twenty two, and I asked myself this question, why
why are things not good? Because so much of it
has been about injury. So much it has been about
the defense isn't playing well? They've gotten better over the
last month, but everything looks disjointed, and part of that
disjointed look is that Lamar hasn't necessarily been himself.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
Well we get a what I must stress, the entire.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
Internet is blowing up over what is an opinion piece
in the Baltimore Sun from someone that covers the Ravens
talking about the fact that the Ravens and Lamar have
a very clear path to possibly parting ways this offseason.
And it's crazy to me because I hear Ravens fans
talk about wanting Harball gone, and now I see, Oh,
(24:39):
is Lamar going to be back.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
I don't know why we as a society want to
make patient.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
Patient organizations impatient, because continuity is something that I think
the Ravens have shown as an organization that they value, right.
I don't buck look at a bad season and suddenly
think and I think, this is like get a problem
for so many sports fans. You look at something bad
and immediately like fire everybody.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
Some years you just have a bad year.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
And so I find it hard to believe that there's
a situation where either Harbaugh or Lamar is not a
Baltimore raven next year. I understand Ravens fans are disappointed
with the outcome, and as you said earlier, the windows
are short.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
You've been in a window. I understand everybody's frustration.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
I don't think you suddenly just trash everything you've done
because it hasn't met the result that you want.
Speaker 4 (25:31):
This is kind of like what Steelers fans do every year,
right with Mike Tomlin now in their case. Like it,
I understand that it's not enough to win more games
than you lose if you lose all of your playoff
games or the last playoff game that they won was
what twenty seventeen?
Speaker 1 (25:46):
Is that correct?
Speaker 4 (25:47):
I believe we've talked about this before so that I
do get from an organization that is overwhelmingly patient, but
like you just keep banging your head against the ceiling.
The Ravens, I mean, it's been since tooth and twelve
since they won a Super Bowl and they haven't had
the postseason success with Lamar that you would like to see.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
I just won.
Speaker 4 (26:10):
It is. It's a fan thing, right, It's not an
organizational thing, because the organizations that behave like fans want
them to behave are the ones that end up being
the worst. And I'm not saying that at certain points
that fans don't know what is best for their organization.
I'm just saying that fans deal in a lot more
emotion than you would want people running the business of
(26:32):
your favorite football franchise to operate with. I feel like
I've made a lot of references to the team that
I cover on a regular basis, which is the only
reason to talk about them on national radio. But like
Amy Adam Strunk is the controlling owner of the Titan,
she has fired four people, won every off season the
last couple of years, and the team just gets worse. Right,
(26:53):
They are worse than when John Robinson was fired for
trading AJ Brown when they were seven and four at
the time. They are worse than when Mike Vrabel was
fired for Again. In her statement, she said, it's not
enough to win more games than you lose, and all
they do is lose games. Now they are worse even
than when they fired Ran Carthon as the general manager,
and then they fired Brian Callahan six games into the
(27:16):
season with the number one overall pick. And honestly, I'll
tell you I give her a lot of crap here
locally because I don't think she's done a good job here,
but cam Ward and the Titans looked better since Brian
Callahan was fired. Sometimes it can be the right decision,
even though it's rash. It's just when you have such
a pattern of behavior to look back and say, would
(27:36):
you just pick a plan and stick with it at
a certain point in time? You cannot behave so erratically
and expect the results to be microwaved the way that
I think some fans do, and even some NFL owners
who operate basically like their fan bases do. I think
that's the biggest thing, the best thing that you could
say about places like the Steelers and the Ravens, and
(27:58):
I mean even the Giants. Honestly, the Giant's giving day
Ball as much time as he did. I think it
at least allows for the opportunity that you did just
have a bad season, and you can get better. And
if you don't improve, okay, the results pile up and
after a period of time you need to move, make
a move in the right direction, or correct things before
they get appreciably worse.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
But just the Harball thing, I would get though.
Speaker 4 (28:23):
He's the second longest tenured coach in the NFL, and
some of the things that are wrong with the Ravens
beyond Lamar just being hurt. I just don't understand how
John Harbaugh, it's almost like a little bit of Pete
Carroll w or Pete Carroll was still having enough success,
but you just felt like it wasn't like the message
wasn't quite hitting as hard as it used to. Those
(28:45):
things can run still, it's a really hard thing to
maintain that over what.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
Are we coming up on.
Speaker 4 (28:50):
I mean it's something like seventeen eighteen years for Harball
in Baltimore. That's a really difficult thing to maintain over
any period of time.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
But all of that is true when you have gone
to your to the playoffs before this year six of
the last seven years, right, That's just that to me
has such meaning And I understand you know that this
is where everybody turns around and says, well, that's not enough.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
Blah blah blah blah blah.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
I think what sometimes happens to successful teams is they
forget how bad it can be when you hire the
wrong guy.
Speaker 3 (29:25):
You know.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
And the funny thing is part of the crux of
the article that was written was that, you know, when
you talk about the Lamars, standpoint, his cap hit next
year is seventy four and a half million dollars, and
after next year there's an out in the contract, so
for the next two years he has a salary cap
hit of seventy four point five million dollars.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
They could easily eat And this is the point that
they're at with Lamar. They either have to.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Decide that a twenty nine year old Lamar Jackson can't
believe he's only twenty nine.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
Multi MVP is seventy four and a half million dollars
this year.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Next year they're okay that, or they have to decide
to do something long term and do an extension, which
will save them a bunch of money and is probably
the smarter thing to do. Right Like, so it's time
to extend Lamar Jackson, is the point of it?
Speaker 3 (30:12):
Maybe? Or do they trade him.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
I just can't imagine the concept of I'm gonna get
out of the Lamar Jackson business, or I'm gonna get
out of the of the Harbor process. I'm gonna get
out of the Joe Burrow business, like I got it.
I've said this on y'all who supports Daily I will
say this here. I think that a team could come
in and offer the Bengals every single draft pick they
have for the next ten years, and the Bengals would say,
(30:35):
go to hell, we're not giving you Joe Burrow, which
also I think is the right answer. I'd like, I
think it's absurd. It is absurd, and I'd always been hurt,
and there's been some issues with Lamar, but like, it
is absurd to think that a two time MVP that
was also, by the way, an MVP caliber player last
last year last year, and it has been hurt this year,
and you're suddenly going to say, you know what, I'll
(30:57):
take some first round picks for him, Like, like anybody
has any idea if Fernando Mendoza can ever turn out
to be anywhere near what Lamar Jackson is. Like I
just this whole video game mindset for so many fans
of Fine, screw it, We'll just get rid of that
guy and we'll bring in somebody else. I think people
forget how many bad draft picks there are, though. People
(31:20):
forget how many bad coaches are hired every year. So
this is where, yeah, I hear you. You know, when
you're not getting Super bowls, you say, well, what's the point.
Everybody tells me, this is loser's mentality. Fine, the point
is to not be so terrible that you are that
you have proximity. I don't think that sports are about championships.
I think they're about proximity to championships. Are you putting
(31:41):
yourself every single year within shooting range of actually winning
a Super Bowl? And yeah, if you're doing that, I
don't think you make drastic changes just because you aren't
happy with the way that it takes so much luck
to win a championship. If you haven't been lucky, you
don't get rid of everything and think that that will
change your luck.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (32:00):
I think by that same logic, Like, that's kind of
the that's the kind of premise that we operate with
when it comes to the NCAA tournament, right, Like, if
you make an Elite eight, you don't win a championship,
but you're still considered one of the best teams if
you made a Final four or an Elite eight. Elite
eight feels like the cutoff in college basketball where it
(32:20):
feels like you meaningfully accomplished something in a single elimination
tournament after having a successful regular season to prove that
you are at least one of the eight best teams
out of a field of sixty four, one of the
eight best teams in the country. When you're dealing with
what I mean, how many college basketball programs are there,
like one hundred and thirty six at Division one.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
Or something like that, Like, it's a fair amount.
Speaker 4 (32:39):
So if you're one of the best date out of
one hundred and thirty six or whatever the number is,
that's still a good thing. You've equipped yourself to be
in the conversation to win a championship. Even if you
don't get across the finish line, somebody will and somebody
will be named greater than the rest of them. But
it doesn't mean that your season was a wash if
you made it to the Elite eight or the Final four.
(33:00):
In football, obviously you're dealing with thirty two clubs, so
it's a little bit of.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
A different conversation.
Speaker 4 (33:04):
But like if you're in an AFC championship game, if
you're a game or an NFC championship game, if you're
a game away from the game, like I still think
that's a reasonable amount of accomplishment, because yes, you are
going to have to be both good, well three things
good healthy, and the combination of those two things luck to.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
Be able to actually get this thing done.
Speaker 4 (33:28):
And if you are so far and be above and
beyond special like in the case of Mahomes or Lamar,
maybe this is a conversation we could even flesh out
because we still have what an hour and ten minutes
left to do throughout the.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
Course of this sport.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
Get an hour left?
Speaker 1 (33:46):
Well, I'm just saying, like, relax, I'm I'm not in
a rush to go anywhere.
Speaker 4 (33:51):
If Mary keeps playing that sweet, sweet Middle Eastern music,
I'll sit here all day if you let me. My
point is, though, I think there's a conversation had about
how many quarterbacks basically have the same ceiling versus the
select few that have the ability to be above and beyond.
(34:12):
Because Finci, at my core, I believe that eighty percent
of quarterbacks basically have the same ceiling, even if they
don't have the exact same skill set.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
So to that point, he's buck rising up, Jason fitzbucking
Fits hanging out with you on Fox Sports Radio. Don't forget.
I don't know what I was gonna tell you not
to forget. Never mind, you can forget it. Look, I
tried to go over to the other sheet, and the
other sheet didn't work. My computers are giving me difficulty. Buck,
here's the point. Would you like me to read something
for you now?
Speaker 3 (34:39):
No, no, no, no, We're good. We're good to the
point you were just making.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
If we applied the NFL logic to the NCAA tournament,
people be calling for Izzo said, right, because oh man,
all he ever does is get to Sweet sixteen and
Elite eight and final fours. Man, if you can't win
a championship, got a fire of the bum. That's what
we do in the NFL. And you're right, there's less teams.
But to me, when you start talking about do you
have I think this is what you have to ask
yourself organizationally. Do you have a quarterback that can compete
(35:08):
with the best of the league in the system you're in.
Do you have the right coach to be able to
compete on any given sunday in the system that you're in.
Those are the two things that I think you have
to sort of figure out. So I look across the
board and say, Okay, maybe maybe there are questions, Maybe
there are long term questions about some of the guys
in this process. But I don't fault the Bills or
(35:29):
the Ravens for the lack of Super Bowls over the
last several years because they're taking on Mahomes and Andy Reid.
Speaker 3 (35:35):
So if you don't have the best coach.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
In the game, the best defensive coordinator in the game,
and the best quarterback in the game all at the
same time, you're probably not going to beat the Chiefs
a lot. Now, this year has been a down year,
but you still have to ask yourself, do we have
the guys that can actually beat Mahomes? Like I don't
think Brock perty is a world beater, but I do
think that Kyle Shanahan looks around and says, with Brock
Purty in my system, I believe that we can beat
(35:58):
Mahomes right like on any given son, I believe we
can be the best team in the NFL. I believe
we can beat the Eagles for example from last year.
If you look at at the it's a very simple
equation for me for Baltimore, Ken Lamar beat Mahomes with
this team long term.
Speaker 3 (36:14):
Yes, this year, no, they.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
Got beat up. Things didn't go well. It was a
little disjointed, It wasn't good enough. Can they beat Mahomes?
Speaker 5 (36:22):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (36:22):
Do you make massive sweeping changes when you could beat Mahomes?
Speaker 4 (36:26):
Don't?
Speaker 2 (36:27):
I don't think so. So for me, I just don't
think that there's any real world where these guys aren't back.
I want to get bucks thoughts on some of this. Plus,
We've got two matchups this weekend that I'm gonna call
Buck Rising matchups.
Speaker 3 (36:41):
They might be two of.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
The worst football games you'll ever see in your life, Yeah,
but they're two of the most important.
Speaker 3 (36:48):
We'll tell you about it next. Bucking Fit's taking over
two Pros and a Cup of Joe on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 5 (36:52):
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 2 (37:03):
He's Buck Rising. I'm Jason Fitz. It's a Bucking Fits
takeover of two pros and a cup of Joe. I
know it's chilly up here in Connecticut. Cold Knights call
for better sleep. Shop mattress firms once a year's sailing
cleared to save up to five one hundred bucks on
select Temperpedic mattresses with next day delivery.
Speaker 3 (37:21):
Restrictions apply.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
Next day delivery available on select mattresses and subject to location.
See store for more details. There are two matchups in
the NFL. Hear me out that right now are trash.
They're the trash use of trash. They are the oscar
the grouches of the entire football slate. They are trash matchups.
But how far are we off from the NFL turning
(37:43):
these trash matchups into massive marketing opportunities. I know it
sounds weird, but you have the Saints taking on the Titans,
all right, that's a terrible football game. You also have
the Giants taking on the Raiders. That is right, Giants Raiders,
a game nobody wants to see. The loser of that
game will have the inside track for the first overall pick.
Speaker 3 (38:05):
In the NFL draft. There are still it gets very complicated.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
The methodology and the strength of schedule is going to
come into play, all these things, but the loser of
that game has the inside track to the point. Then
now suddenly, what we've seen is, you know, the Raiders
put Brock Powers on injury reserve and they're starting safety
Jeremy Chin on an injury reserve. What do you know
comes out in the practice report. Max Crosby hasn't practiced
the last few days. Prom usually he would play in
(38:29):
these situations.
Speaker 3 (38:30):
Who knows.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
The Giants put out their list of inactives because the
injury expected for this game, and it's basically half their roster.
You've got two teams, like we in a world book
where everybody screams constantly about tanking in the NBA, You've
got two teams that are outwardly tanking for the first
pick in the NFL draft.
Speaker 3 (38:48):
And as popular as draft content.
Speaker 2 (38:50):
Has become, I just think it's amazing that not only
are fans buying in, fans are okay with it, Like
the same fans that hell about tanking in the NBA
all good with tanking the these games in the NFL,
and everybody.
Speaker 3 (39:02):
Believes that it's going to be this great hope that
gets you to the first overall pick and that's kind
of fixed everything.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
When will the NFL start selling this misery as the
reason to watch these games?
Speaker 4 (39:11):
Ooh, that's an interesting perspective. I just I don't know
that that can ever be a viable marketing plan for them.
Like they can't say the quiet part out loud, can
they in that league more than any other league. I
know the NBA is dealing with a variety of different
legal situations right now that you know, beyond just acknowledging
(39:32):
that tanking would be a thing and actively trying to
find ways to keep teams from tanking. I just fitzy,
I don't ever think that that by definition, I don't
think that tanking is real in the NFL because you
will never get me to believe in a world that
we have professional football players and coaches who don't care
(39:52):
about the draft picks out there playing football games, that
the people on the field actually involved with the games
are going to give less than full effort.
Speaker 3 (40:02):
We do agree on that.
Speaker 2 (40:04):
I don't believe a player ever tanks. That's why these
players are left inactive. They know a player will never
tank during the game.
Speaker 4 (40:10):
I agree with you on that, sure, So in these situations,
I don't know if there is a huge economy around
the NFL offseason, whether it be draft, free agency, coaching carousel,
all of those different things, like we've turned it into
economy unto itself, into an industry unto itself.
Speaker 1 (40:29):
Hell I would I would.
Speaker 4 (40:30):
Argue based on some of the draft stuff I see
or some of the popularity of it that some people
actually like the off season more than they actually more
than they enjoy the actual regular season. I don't think
that the NFL can, can, at least outwardly ever, talk
about it in the terms that you're talking about it.
Speaker 1 (40:48):
Even though they understand.
Speaker 4 (40:50):
There's plenty of executives that understand the popularity that is
the personnel acquisition process.
Speaker 3 (40:57):
You're probably right, and you know yes.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
I think the draft has become so wildly huge because
it sells hope.
Speaker 3 (41:04):
Every single fan base.
Speaker 2 (41:06):
Believes that their team just turned the corner, even though
the numbers show that your team won't turn a corner,
especially if they're picking first. Overall, they're not going to
pick a turn a quick corner for sure. I just
wonder how far off we are from saying the quiet
thing out loud just because the NFL gets in front
of everything.
Speaker 3 (41:22):
So the NFL gets.
Speaker 2 (41:23):
Away with saying the quiet thing out loud all the
time and people buy into it. I am alarmed at
how accepting everybody is of the fact that great players
is going to be left on the field off the
field just for the purpose of tanking. There is one
team we haven't talked enough about that could surprise the
entire NFL. We'll talk about it next. Two pros and
a couple Joe Fox Sports Radio
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
It's a wild, wild year in the NFL and we're
reaching this point in the season and we're still trying
to figure out who's great and who's not. Who we
can actually manco And you know, there's there's this weird
line between what we consider great and he's Buck Rising.
I'm Jason Fitz on Fox Sports Radio, filling in on
Two Pros and a Cup of Joe. We were just
(00:24):
talking about the fact that nobody's paying attention to the Jags.
I'm not sure that right now we have a clear
cut dominant Oh my god, this team is the absolute
great team that's going to win the Super Bowl. Buck,
And I'm not sure right now that most if you
put twenty of us in a room, we would get,
you know, more than a few people that could agree
(00:44):
on any of who are the best teams in the
league this year?
Speaker 3 (00:47):
And the wild thing is that I don't.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Necessarily believe that the NFL has given us this incredible
product this year.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
But much like a game, how often do we say, oh,
that was a great game. No it wasn't.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
It was a terrible game, but a bad a great ending.
Right like when we get drama at the end. We
perceive it to be great. We're going to get a
hell of a lot of drama at the end of
this NFL season. So I don't know if football is
I don't know if the NFL is necessarily having a
great year, but I do know that I find it
to be incredibly interesting that we're this far into the
season and you've made a compelling case for why the
(01:18):
Jags are the best team in the AFC, and I
can't really tear it apart, and I can't really build
it up either way because it is so unsure. I
think this is actually a beautiful moment for the NFL
happening in front of us.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
So yeah, I guess that was going to be My
follow up is what would you consider to be what
would make it a great year.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
For the NFL.
Speaker 4 (01:40):
And let's discern here between a great year for the
league versus a great year for football fans. What I
guess is you're are you talking about what's best for
the National Football League, Because it seems as we talked
about Charles Barkley and his criticism of the NFL taking
over Smiths and doing so successful even though the games.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Are terrible and all these different things.
Speaker 4 (02:04):
It feels like the league is in as good of
a spot as it's ever been From a fan perspective,
Do you think that there is something about this season
that leaves you wanting or are you saying that because
because of the lack of clear and obvious favorites even
in the NFC. NFC feels wide open at this point
(02:24):
in time, because even if you spent most of the
season thinking that the Rams are the best team in football,
and the Rams probably are the best team in football,
You've still got that Seahawks result, both of those Seahawks results,
frankly to kind of make you think twice about how
good the Rams are or whether the Rams would be
able to hold up a third time around and come
out better for it. After just losing the most recent
(02:45):
matchup of the Seahawks in and overtime, I mean, what
was felt like the game of the year to me.
So what would make this a better year for the fans?
If you were trying to find the best case scenario?
Speaker 1 (02:56):
I guess I think.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
It's not necessarily for the fans. I just think that
sports are at their best when they put on their
best product, and I think most of us can agree
whether it's I mean, watching yesterday between the fact that
none of us had heard of half of these quarterbacks
and then you watch them play. I mean, when you
have a team that wins a football game with a
net three passing yards, that's not a good football game. Right,
(03:20):
So the question is, okay, that is an ugly football game.
That is an ugly, ugly football game, Like we are
not watching high quality football.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
You cannot argue that that Lions Vikings game.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Like if that was the first time you ever watched football, right, Like,
that's the first time in your entire life you turned
it on.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
I did not go on and say, oh my god,
this is amazing.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
I must see more of this, Like as someone that
attended in person the Vikings Raiders game a few years
ago that was three to nothing in overtime that the
my beloved Raiders lost, right, Like, there are certain games
you could admit that just set the game back to me.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
This year, there's just not a lot of great football,
but there are some teams.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
That put together moments. There's a lot of inconsistent football.
So I think for any product, like when you when
you just get the best, like Okay, I'll be the
old man for a second.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
Not that old. But like if you go back to
the Manning Brady, you.
Speaker 4 (04:11):
Are definitively the oldest person on the show by it
considerable bargain.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Okay, by age, yes, but but not by maturity at all.
I mean, I think we're in a we're in a
race on that one. Okay, you're an old soul. I'm
just an old man.
Speaker 5 (04:24):
Me.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Oh god, I'm forty forty eight. Yeah, yeah, I don't.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
I know married.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
I have been called a sneaky vampire by many of
my friends, and I'm luk at that.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
I just said that.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Damn you know, I'm doing a little too hard book. No,
don't be laughing.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
That's sixteen years difference between us and them.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
Gray hairs stay different.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
What do you take it?
Speaker 4 (04:51):
Put yourself on camera? Mary, you want to play this game? Okay,
play this game.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
I'm young and sorry, I mean buck, I think we
both know that if you and I walked into a
room together, most people would probably think you were a
little older than.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
I, especially with the Mary's right about the beard. I
did not realize that I had gray hairs in my
beard until I grew the beard out now a little
salt and pepper. Salt and pepper, Santa Claus at this point.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
In time, you know, just.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Keep it up.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
We got we got two hours left, yeah, the four
of us this morning, all right, Mary, keep it up.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
I mean this is by the way, Mary has to
deal with this every Saturday on Bucking Fits. Which if
this is the first time you're hanging out with us,
you should hang out with us. We'll be back again
tomorrow because tomorrow Saturday, I think six to eight pm
Eastern time on Fox Sports Radio, that's where you can
usually check out Bucking Fits. That's where we are usually
hanging out with you, and Mary has to deal with us.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
During that whole time.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
By the way, while we're Mary, okay, okay, oh I would,
I'm just going to change the subject on that you
find Mckiita tooles at the home Depo are built with precision,
without shortcuts, designed for the toughest jobs. It's the choice
for pros when the job calls for the best call.
The Maikida built to be the best available at the
home depot. How pros get more done. He's Buck Rising.
(06:10):
I'm Jason fitzwor In on two pros and a cup
of Joe. I just think, Okay, when we had the
Patriots and the Colts going through their years of you know,
absolute battles with Brady and Manning, we had a lot
of really good football. So you saw teams that weren't
just winning games, they were really good of Late in
the NFL, we often see teams that are able to
pop off for a year, but they're.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Not sustainably good.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Like Bill Barnwell's analytics showed why the Commanders were going
to take a step back this year because last year
they want to have a lot more games than they
probably should have. This year we're watching I think with
that same skeptical eye. Are the Patriots really good or
are they just taking on terrible football teams?
Speaker 3 (06:46):
I don't know, but.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Certainly there are more question marks about even the good
teams and the inconsistency of teams. Like how you see
a Texans team that I'm supposed to buy in on
the Super Bowl and then being super Bowl caliber and
then I watch them against the Raiders look absolutely dreadful. Dreadful, right,
and so great teams don't put those sorts of performances
(07:07):
on tape. So I think this year, while there are
some interesting storylines.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
The football is not as great. I'm not sure anybody cares.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
I don't know if anybody cares about quality versus drama.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
It's just it's just a transitional period for the league.
Speaker 4 (07:22):
So that's an interesting philosophical question, I think, getting deep,
getting meta on an early Friday morning. Here, does the
NFL Jason Fitz, in your opinion, want a truly great
team or truly great teams plural versus the idea that
you could have teams that look great by record but
(07:46):
are not actually great teams, like they're all fallible. Right
you look at the Eagles at ten and five. Nobody
feels good about Philadelphia right now, but that's indisputably the
defending Super Bowl champion with a winning record and a
winning twice as many games as they've lost. By the way,
They're going to Buffalo this weekend, which is a fascinating game.
The Bills are eleven and four, but you have questions
(08:09):
about them, the Bears, Niners. Speaking of eleven and four teams,
are they truly great teams or are they Is it
just something different? And in the case of the Niners,
an interesting division with all three of these teams at
the very top, jockeying for postseason position, even though you
can identify the things that would cause them to have
pitfalls against one of the other NFC West teams. You
(08:32):
mentioned the Patriots, and what we're talking about with teams
even like the Panthers and stuff like that. The Texans
and the Chargers both double digit win teams on the season.
I would maintain that in an honest moment, the NFL
doesn't want a discernibly great team.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
You don't want somebody.
Speaker 4 (08:49):
You don't want the Chiefs or the Patriots to rule
the roost for a decade plus if you can help it,
because that gives people a reason to pay less attention.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
To your product.
Speaker 4 (09:02):
You want the re emergence of Chicago and the Patriots
having a couple of down bad seasons and popping back
up all of a sudden. You don't want the Patriots
to be a twelve win team again next year, though.
You want the Patriots to struggle a little bit more.
You want you want the Dolphins of the Jets to
pop up. Now, the problem with the Dolphins and the
Jets and the Bills, frankly, for the vast majority of
that division and its existence is that the patriots have
(09:25):
dominated it the whole way through. But I would I
would imagine that in a truly honest moment, the NFL
would tell you, no, we'd rather just have a bunch
of middling teams and some of them look better than
the others, but they're not actually that much better.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
I completely disagree. Actually, So I think the NFL wins
both ways here. Number one, this year they get their
gateway drug. Like if you're again, if you're the forty
eight year old guy, you remember what it's like.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
What are you freebasing giants and raiders to two and
thirteen teams?
Speaker 2 (09:54):
No, but when you're my age, you remember when you
met your first you know, your first little weed dealer
on the street, right and like the street like a
buddy would introduce you. And what they always do, what
they always do. They gave you the first little taste
for free, right, they give it to you. They're like,
all right, if you like this, come back, and then
you always come back. That's what this year is gonna
be for all of these teams that pop off. This
one little year of hope is like like that's what
(10:16):
it was for Washington last year. Commanders, fans ready to
check out, ready to not have to deal with this anymore,
ready to be completely out on the NFL. Their team
gets that one good year and then they're.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
Like, oh, right back in boom.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
So now all of a sudden, this year they're getting
the little like they're getting the little gateway drug for
the Jags and for the Texans, and just just enough,
just to taste, just enough. Everybody wants to come back.
But realistically, I think every single sport will tell you
the ratings, and you know, the eyeballs and interests.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
They love the climb to dominance.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
They love the initial planting of the flag of dominance,
and then they love everybody trying to chase them off
the mountain. So the rise of the pa of the
Chiefs and then the demise of the Chiefs becomes the
great story. But if you look back at the NFL
throughout history, whether it was the seventies.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
Where it was the Steelers, the Raiders.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
The Cowboys that were the great teams, in the eighties,
the forty nine Ers, in the nineties, the Cowboys, then
it was the Brady and the Patriots, then it's the Chiefs.
The NFL has been dynastic in every single generation. They
always want one team that's dominating, and everybody else is
playing hunger games, trying to get their way, climb their
way up to the top of this thing and take
(11:29):
them out. So I think the NFL wins on both
sides because they get a little bit of each side. You,
by the way, always win with Louisiana Hot Sauce. A
hotly debated topic is who's this year's MVP the most valuable?
Poor mine is the original Louisiana Hot sace. Dress your
favorite eats with ease or Nacho's pizza, gumbo, egg whites,
a lot of egg whites with a little bit Louisiana
(11:50):
hot sauce.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
The taste is gonna score. That's my VP.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
That's Louisiana Hot Hot sauce. Buy you some, Oh, buy
you some is so well damned done.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
That's very I like that.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
Oh did you like my MVP? Did that?
Speaker 5 (12:04):
No?
Speaker 1 (12:04):
I didn't like that at all.
Speaker 4 (12:05):
I like that.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
I like Buy you some.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
BB that's clipped, it's getting, it's getting. I like that
one get into a drop. Buy you some too, I
mean by your friends when not catching this. This is
spelled like to buy you you know b a y oh,
you buy you some. I'm hammering this ad right into
the crowd.
Speaker 4 (12:23):
By you you you whispering sentially VP into the microphone
talking about egg whites and hot sauce.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
That well, we were doing more time mm VP. The
most valuable, poor mine, is the original Louisiana hot sauce.
Oh just your favorite eats with ease, not just pizza cumbo.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
My this works.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
It's too good.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
What do you mean it's too good? What's going on
back there? Patrick?
Speaker 3 (12:58):
Nothing? What happens behind the board stays behind the board.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Let me let me just tell you. Careless Whisper is
a go to karaoke jam. You can just oh my god,
I love that song. Let's go, Let's go. I want
to learn to play the saxophone, just to play that one.
That'll be the only thing I learned how to play
on it. And then I'll, like, I'll show it off
for parties and then just walk in with the sacks,
play it, walk out, And that is the most impressive
(13:24):
thing anybody could ever do. Buck Rising Jason fitz Bucket
fits on two person a cup of Joe.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
What are you out on? Careless Whisper? Buck you can't
be out on careless whisper.
Speaker 4 (13:33):
No, I'm not out on careless whisper at all. I'm
out on you.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Okay, that's fair. Had count that you're not might be Nate.
I'm just saying the league to answer your question. I
think this year is the gateway drug. But if the
league could have their way, their their cake and eat
it too, next year, we would be right back to
some dominant team.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
That is taking over.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Like they're gonna want the Eagles to go on a
run or the Rams to go run that had been
there before. They're gonna want asserted dominance. They want everybody
playing chase the flag on the biggest, bestest team that
they could possibly be going after.
Speaker 4 (14:09):
Yeah, I get that, I do because that drives interest,
It drives engagement.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
I remember doing.
Speaker 4 (14:17):
This a couple of years ago with a team that
I covered, and again for people who were just now
hanging out with us for the first time. My day
to day is I'm a Titans reporter. I covered the
Tennessee Titans on a day in, day out, practice game
basis or whatever. There was a period of time when
they were pushing teams like the Bills and the Chiefs
(14:38):
and the Ravens in the AFC, And I remember talking
to Kevin Byard who's now on the Bears, and if
I'm not mistaken, he's leading the league in interceptions.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Very happy for KB and it's cool to see him doing.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
Up there, doing that up there and being a part
of the Chicago Bears turnaround. But I remember talking to
Kevin Byrd about this, and I think they were getting
ready to play the Bills on a Monday night, and
he said that is a team they would rather be
the team chasing than the ones being chased.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
And I struggled with that.
Speaker 4 (15:09):
Just conceptually because I was like, well, yeah, but at
a certain point, if you're gonna, like, if you're gonna
be one of the teams sitting at the adults table
as opposed to being relegated to the kids table, don't
you want to be the big dog a little bit?
Don't you want to be the team that's fending people
off at the top.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Of the mountain.
Speaker 4 (15:25):
And maybe, you know, the professional athlete mindset is different there.
But even then, like I'm kind of I'm kind of
of two minds on that because as a fan, at
least as a an agnostic football fan, I don't have.
I don't have a single team that I root for.
I root for players that I've covered, or people that
i've covered that I want to have success, and plenty
(15:47):
of good people that I've worked with throughout the course
of the years, or worked worked around, or whatever the
case may be. I would rather see as somebody who
doesn't have a vested rooting interest in one specific I'd
rather see a handful of teams just budgeting each other.
That's why I love the NFC NFC West because every
(16:08):
year it feels like that, like that's my favorite division
in football. I think, top to bottom. Maybe you could
say the AFC North has been that in previous years.
This year is obviously taking a step back. I just
I guess as a football fan, I don't want to
go in every week thinking about how X team is
going to fend off the latest you know, the latest
(16:29):
team that's going to try and usurp them. I'd rather
see a bunch of good to solid teams without one
actually being definitively better than all of them, trying to
see who can come out.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
I just want a.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
Different result, I guess, is what I'm what I'm looking
for here, and maybe that's just because I spend so
much time around football on a regular basis.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
No, but that comes back to something we talk about
all the time, you and I, even off air.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
Parody is sold as.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
The truth in the NFL, but it is the farthest
thing from the actual truth. Like the The funny thing
is the NFL has been for most years, they've been
very top heavy, and so parody exists in the chance
for bad teams to every once in a while pop
off and have an OK year, but not typically for
teams to turn around and have a great year.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
Just how bad was yesterday?
Speaker 2 (17:11):
By the way, Max Prosmer of the Minnesota Vikings is
the only NFL quarterback in the Super Bowl era to
play the entire game, finished with under seventy passing yards
and seven or more sacks and still get the win.
That is an alarming stat on house. Oh yeah, and
you love every second. I love the road to Milan.
(17:32):
The road to Milan runs through Saint Louis, c. A
bunch of names I can't pronounce competed the twenty twenty
six Prevergon US Figure Skating Championships January seventh through eleventh.
Be there as the twenty twenty sixth US Olympic Figure
skating team is named live.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
Who doesn't want to see that?
Speaker 2 (17:49):
That's badass tickets at US figure Skating dot Org.
Speaker 4 (17:52):
All right, what you were so scared of those names
that you just read that you said champion SIPs.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Not championships. I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
You can correct me now when you tell everybody about
Louisiana Hot Sauce coming up next on Bucket Fits, we're
gonna figure out if Lamar Jackson is actually not going
to be a Baltimore Raven next year.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
Wild reports out there will tell you.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
About it next, but in the meantime, buck has to
tell you about Louisiana Hot Sauce. Make it better than
my sultry MVP. You better make it better than that.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Game day's rule.
Speaker 4 (18:23):
And when you add the hand crafted tang of the
original Louisiana Hot Sauce to your food, it doesn't matter
what day it is.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
It becomes a little more like game day.
Speaker 4 (18:34):
Pour our hand crafted recipe on pizza and you'll feel
like leaping up from the recliner to clap drop it
on wings and every bite will hit with the same
euphoria you feel when your team's wide out toadrags for
a touchdown. Dash the simple three ingredients of the original
Louisiana Hot Sauce onto your plate, and you'll turn any
(18:57):
old Tuesday into a tailgate, complete with all the crawfish
you can stuff in your face. With an almost one
hundred year legacy of turning winning dishes into championship ones,
the original Louisiana Hot Sauce is kind of like your
foods Lucky Jersey. So no matter what day it is,
don your team's colors, fire up the grill and grab
(19:19):
the original Louisiana Hot Sauce at a little game day
to every day, that's Louisiana Hot Sauce by you.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
So.
Speaker 5 (19:28):
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 3 (19:40):
Polly Foods Go here with Tony Foods. Go Yeah.
Speaker 6 (19:43):
As everybody knows, we're the hosts of the award winning
Polly and.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
Tony Foods, Go shop Yeah.
Speaker 6 (19:46):
But instead of us telling you how great we are,
here's how Dan Patrick described us when he came on
our show.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Quick, knowledgeable, and funny, opinionated.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
What are you doing interrupting our promo? Yeah, you wasn't
talking about you.
Speaker 5 (20:00):
You took those clips totally out of context.
Speaker 6 (20:03):
Oh yeah, well after this promo, I'm gonna take you
out and beat you.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
Let me put this into context. Shut up.
Speaker 6 (20:09):
Yeah, anyway, Just listen to the Paully and Tony Fusco
Show on IoT Radio, Apple podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Yea, it's two Pros and a Cup of Joe on
Fox Sports Radio. But it's a bucking fits takeover. He's
buck rising out Jason Fitz. Be sure to check out
our brand new YouTube channel for the show. Just search
two pros f s R on YouTube agin. That's two
pros FSR. Be sure to hit the subscribe button. Don't
stop there. While you're doing that, check out that thumblup
(20:36):
icon comment away. Let us know who you agree with,
who you think is completely wrong. Check out our new
channel on YouTube agin just search two pros FSR subscribe.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
Bucks.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
Dancing around, you're feeling this like this, this was this
a request? Or like what what?
Speaker 1 (20:52):
What?
Speaker 3 (20:53):
What?
Speaker 1 (20:53):
What am I?
Speaker 3 (20:53):
What do I not know?
Speaker 4 (20:55):
No? Just Mary speaking my musical love language. That's all
it is. Little uh, little little Middle Eastern flare for
you makes me happy.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
It's shoulders moving fitsy.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
You know, I can't now in my head.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
All I'm going to think is that this is what
you're listening to while you're going back for thirds at
the Golden Corral, Like this is this is what uh
bok buck rising he's got in the pods, like, well,
he's us.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
This is it's Buck rising at the Golden Coral music.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
No, no, you you you Sadi, you uncultured swine.
Speaker 4 (21:26):
This is this is sitting on the banks of the
River Nile, smoking a hookah and uh having a little
bit of a little bit of a little bit of mintee,
maybe some lamb wrapped in some grape leaves.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
He doesn't even know, you philistine, You don't know anything.
You've never been more Caucasian than you are right now.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Lamb and grape leaves. That there there's no not Look,
I just you're not No. I grew up of fact
hit that play the violin like I'm not hit that.
That's been a revelation since I was a child. I
never expected to be hip. Come on, I mean, I'm
just imagining buck just for anyone that spends two minutes around. Buck,
Everything you just described sounds beautiful, but it also sounds
(22:10):
like you're laying out a blanket and sitting on the ground,
which is not something you're ever gonna do.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
So I'm just I'm just curious.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
Where you, Buck, are just absorbing all of the earth
and the River Nile, and the lamb and the grape
leaves and the hookah. When you are at your core,
you are a person that prefers, you know, to go
to nice establishments and have people whine and dine.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
You listen, redneck, I'm not sitting anywhere on the ground.
I'm at the Heliopolis Club.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
I'm not I'm not a blankets in what world? Fancy?
Speaker 4 (22:44):
The only thing, the only thing that your hip too
is your hip. At forty eight years old, at this
point in time, your actual hip. You need to check yeah,
I mean check in on that.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
When you start doing hip cars all the time just
because you need hip flexibility, that's when you know things
are are going in a certain direction.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
I can't wait till you get there.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
Buck.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Of course, by the time you get there, I'll be
in the fifty five and up housing that I cannot
wait to buy into because like, Hey, they sell you
cheaper houses once you hit fifty five plus.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
Come on now, I'm waiting for that. Also, everyone, speaking
of things you're waiting to try, ever wanted to try.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
An Olympic and Paralympic sport? Try fencing, fast, safe and
easy to start. Find a beginner class near you at
USA Fencing dot org slash try fencing. That's USA Fencing
dot org slash try fencing. I would love for Buck
and I to try fencing just one time.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
Just have you ever fenced? Buck?
Speaker 4 (23:37):
No, I can't say that I have, although I feel
like that is something that would take place at the
Helopolis Club.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
Not to see that seems like it's not brown. Okay.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
I'm trying to make sense of one of the more
disappointing teams in the NFL this year, the Baltimore Ravens.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
We know that there is not an easy fix. I
did this about a month ago.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
I watched three Ravens games in their entirety on the
All twenty two, and I asked myself this question, why
why are things not good? Because so much of it
has been about injury. So much it has been about
the defense isn't playing well? They've gotten better over the
last month, but everything looks disjointed, and part of that
disjointed look is that Lamar hasn't necessarily been himself.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
Well we get a what I must stress, the entire.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
Internet is blowing up over what is an opinion piece
in the Baltimore Sun from someone that covers the Ravens
talking about the fact that the Ravens and Lamar have
a very clear path to possibly parting ways this offseason.
And it's crazy to me because I hear Ravens fans
talk about wanting Harball gone, and now I see, Oh,
(24:39):
is Lamar going to be back.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
I don't know why we as a society want to
make patient.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
Patient organizations impatient, because continuity is something that I think
the Ravens have shown as an organization that they value, right.
I don't buck look at a bad season and suddenly
think and I think, this is like get a problem
for so many sports fans. You look at something bad
and immediately like fire everybody.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
Some years you just have a bad year.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
And so I find it hard to believe that there's
a situation where either Harbaugh or Lamar is not a
Baltimore raven next year. I understand Ravens fans are disappointed
with the outcome, and as you said earlier, the windows
are short.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
You've been in a window. I understand everybody's frustration.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
I don't think you suddenly just trash everything you've done
because it hasn't met the result that you want.
Speaker 4 (25:31):
This is kind of like what Steelers fans do every year,
right with Mike Tomlin now in their case. Like it,
I understand that it's not enough to win more games
than you lose if you lose all of your playoff
games or the last playoff game that they won was
what twenty seventeen?
Speaker 1 (25:46):
Is that correct?
Speaker 4 (25:47):
I believe we've talked about this before so that I
do get from an organization that is overwhelmingly patient, but
like you just keep banging your head against the ceiling.
The Ravens, I mean, it's been since tooth and twelve
since they won a Super Bowl and they haven't had
the postseason success with Lamar that you would like to see.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
I just won.
Speaker 4 (26:10):
It is. It's a fan thing, right, It's not an
organizational thing, because the organizations that behave like fans want
them to behave are the ones that end up being
the worst. And I'm not saying that at certain points
that fans don't know what is best for their organization.
I'm just saying that fans deal in a lot more
emotion than you would want people running the business of
(26:32):
your favorite football franchise to operate with. I feel like
I've made a lot of references to the team that
I cover on a regular basis, which is the only
reason to talk about them on national radio. But like
Amy Adam Strunk is the controlling owner of the Titan,
she has fired four people, won every off season the
last couple of years, and the team just gets worse. Right,
(26:53):
They are worse than when John Robinson was fired for
trading AJ Brown when they were seven and four at
the time. They are worse than when Mike Vrabel was
fired for Again. In her statement, she said, it's not
enough to win more games than you lose, and all
they do is lose games. Now they are worse even
than when they fired Ran Carthon as the general manager,
and then they fired Brian Callahan six games into the
(27:16):
season with the number one overall pick. And honestly, I'll
tell you I give her a lot of crap here
locally because I don't think she's done a good job here,
but cam Ward and the Titans looked better since Brian
Callahan was fired. Sometimes it can be the right decision,
even though it's rash. It's just when you have such
a pattern of behavior to look back and say, would
(27:36):
you just pick a plan and stick with it at
a certain point in time? You cannot behave so erratically
and expect the results to be microwaved the way that
I think some fans do, and even some NFL owners
who operate basically like their fan bases do. I think
that's the biggest thing, the best thing that you could
say about places like the Steelers and the Ravens, and
(27:58):
I mean even the Giants. Honestly, the Giant's giving day
Ball as much time as he did. I think it
at least allows for the opportunity that you did just
have a bad season, and you can get better. And
if you don't improve, okay, the results pile up and
after a period of time you need to move, make
a move in the right direction, or correct things before
they get appreciably worse.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
But just the Harball thing, I would get though.
Speaker 4 (28:23):
He's the second longest tenured coach in the NFL, and
some of the things that are wrong with the Ravens
beyond Lamar just being hurt. I just don't understand how
John Harbaugh, it's almost like a little bit of Pete
Carroll w or Pete Carroll was still having enough success,
but you just felt like it wasn't like the message
wasn't quite hitting as hard as it used to. Those
(28:45):
things can run still, it's a really hard thing to
maintain that over what.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
Are we coming up on.
Speaker 4 (28:50):
I mean it's something like seventeen eighteen years for Harball
in Baltimore. That's a really difficult thing to maintain over
any period of time.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
But all of that is true when you have gone
to your to the playoffs before this year six of
the last seven years, right, That's just that to me
has such meaning And I understand you know that this
is where everybody turns around and says, well, that's not enough.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
Blah blah blah blah blah.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
I think what sometimes happens to successful teams is they
forget how bad it can be when you hire the
wrong guy.
Speaker 3 (29:25):
You know.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
And the funny thing is part of the crux of
the article that was written was that, you know, when
you talk about the Lamars, standpoint, his cap hit next
year is seventy four and a half million dollars, and
after next year there's an out in the contract, so
for the next two years he has a salary cap
hit of seventy four point five million dollars.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
They could easily eat And this is the point that
they're at with Lamar. They either have to.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Decide that a twenty nine year old Lamar Jackson can't
believe he's only twenty nine.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
Multi MVP is seventy four and a half million dollars
this year.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Next year they're okay that, or they have to decide
to do something long term and do an extension, which
will save them a bunch of money and is probably
the smarter thing to do. Right Like, so it's time
to extend Lamar Jackson, is the point of it?
Speaker 3 (30:12):
Maybe? Or do they trade him.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
I just can't imagine the concept of I'm gonna get
out of the Lamar Jackson business, or I'm gonna get
out of the of the Harbor process. I'm gonna get
out of the Joe Burrow business, like I got it.
I've said this on y'all who supports Daily I will
say this here. I think that a team could come
in and offer the Bengals every single draft pick they
have for the next ten years, and the Bengals would say,
(30:35):
go to hell, we're not giving you Joe Burrow, which
also I think is the right answer. I'd like, I
think it's absurd. It is absurd, and I'd always been hurt,
and there's been some issues with Lamar, but like, it
is absurd to think that a two time MVP that
was also, by the way, an MVP caliber player last
last year last year, and it has been hurt this year,
and you're suddenly going to say, you know what, I'll
(30:57):
take some first round picks for him, Like, like anybody
has any idea if Fernando Mendoza can ever turn out
to be anywhere near what Lamar Jackson is. Like I
just this whole video game mindset for so many fans
of Fine, screw it, We'll just get rid of that
guy and we'll bring in somebody else. I think people
forget how many bad draft picks there are, though. People
(31:20):
forget how many bad coaches are hired every year. So
this is where, yeah, I hear you. You know, when
you're not getting Super bowls, you say, well, what's the point.
Everybody tells me, this is loser's mentality. Fine, the point
is to not be so terrible that you are that
you have proximity. I don't think that sports are about championships.
I think they're about proximity to championships. Are you putting
(31:41):
yourself every single year within shooting range of actually winning
a Super Bowl? And yeah, if you're doing that, I
don't think you make drastic changes just because you aren't
happy with the way that it takes so much luck
to win a championship. If you haven't been lucky, you
don't get rid of everything and think that that will
change your luck.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (32:00):
I think by that same logic, Like, that's kind of
the that's the kind of premise that we operate with
when it comes to the NCAA tournament, right, Like, if
you make an Elite eight, you don't win a championship,
but you're still considered one of the best teams if
you made a Final four or an Elite eight. Elite
eight feels like the cutoff in college basketball where it
(32:20):
feels like you meaningfully accomplished something in a single elimination
tournament after having a successful regular season to prove that
you are at least one of the eight best teams
out of a field of sixty four, one of the
eight best teams in the country. When you're dealing with
what I mean, how many college basketball programs are there,
like one hundred and thirty six at Division one.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
Or something like that, Like, it's a fair amount.
Speaker 4 (32:39):
So if you're one of the best date out of
one hundred and thirty six or whatever the number is,
that's still a good thing. You've equipped yourself to be
in the conversation to win a championship. Even if you
don't get across the finish line, somebody will and somebody
will be named greater than the rest of them. But
it doesn't mean that your season was a wash if
you made it to the Elite eight or the Final four.
(33:00):
In football, obviously you're dealing with thirty two clubs, so
it's a little bit of.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
A different conversation.
Speaker 4 (33:04):
But like if you're in an AFC championship game, if
you're a game or an NFC championship game, if you're
a game away from the game, like I still think
that's a reasonable amount of accomplishment, because yes, you are
going to have to be both good, well three things
good healthy, and the combination of those two things luck to.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
Be able to actually get this thing done.
Speaker 4 (33:28):
And if you are so far and be above and
beyond special like in the case of Mahomes or Lamar,
maybe this is a conversation we could even flesh out
because we still have what an hour and ten minutes
left to do throughout the.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
Course of this sport.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
Get an hour left?
Speaker 1 (33:46):
Well, I'm just saying, like, relax, I'm I'm not in
a rush to go anywhere.
Speaker 4 (33:51):
If Mary keeps playing that sweet, sweet Middle Eastern music,
I'll sit here all day if you let me. My
point is, though, I think there's a conversation had about
how many quarterbacks basically have the same ceiling versus the
select few that have the ability to be above and beyond.
(34:12):
Because Finci, at my core, I believe that eighty percent
of quarterbacks basically have the same ceiling, even if they
don't have the exact same skill set.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
So to that point, he's buck rising up, Jason fitzbucking
Fits hanging out with you on Fox Sports Radio. Don't forget.
I don't know what I was gonna tell you not
to forget. Never mind, you can forget it. Look, I
tried to go over to the other sheet, and the
other sheet didn't work. My computers are giving me difficulty. Buck,
here's the point. Would you like me to read something
for you now?
Speaker 3 (34:39):
No, no, no, no, We're good. We're good to the
point you were just making.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
If we applied the NFL logic to the NCAA tournament,
people be calling for Izzo said, right, because oh man,
all he ever does is get to Sweet sixteen and
Elite eight and final fours. Man, if you can't win
a championship, got a fire of the bum. That's what
we do in the NFL. And you're right, there's less teams.
But to me, when you start talking about do you
have I think this is what you have to ask
yourself organizationally. Do you have a quarterback that can compete
(35:08):
with the best of the league in the system you're in.
Do you have the right coach to be able to
compete on any given sunday in the system that you're in.
Those are the two things that I think you have
to sort of figure out. So I look across the
board and say, Okay, maybe maybe there are questions, Maybe
there are long term questions about some of the guys
in this process. But I don't fault the Bills or
(35:29):
the Ravens for the lack of Super Bowls over the
last several years because they're taking on Mahomes and Andy Reid.
Speaker 3 (35:35):
So if you don't have the best coach.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
In the game, the best defensive coordinator in the game,
and the best quarterback in the game all at the
same time, you're probably not going to beat the Chiefs
a lot. Now, this year has been a down year,
but you still have to ask yourself, do we have
the guys that can actually beat Mahomes? Like I don't
think Brock perty is a world beater, but I do
think that Kyle Shanahan looks around and says, with Brock
Purty in my system, I believe that we can beat
(35:58):
Mahomes right like on any given son, I believe we
can be the best team in the NFL. I believe
we can beat the Eagles for example from last year.
If you look at at the it's a very simple
equation for me for Baltimore, Ken Lamar beat Mahomes with
this team long term.
Speaker 3 (36:14):
Yes, this year, no, they.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
Got beat up. Things didn't go well. It was a
little disjointed, It wasn't good enough. Can they beat Mahomes?
Speaker 5 (36:22):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (36:22):
Do you make massive sweeping changes when you could beat Mahomes?
Speaker 4 (36:26):
Don't?
Speaker 2 (36:27):
I don't think so. So for me, I just don't
think that there's any real world where these guys aren't back.
I want to get bucks thoughts on some of this. Plus,
We've got two matchups this weekend that I'm gonna call
Buck Rising matchups.
Speaker 3 (36:41):
They might be two of.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
The worst football games you'll ever see in your life, Yeah,
but they're two of the most important.
Speaker 3 (36:48):
We'll tell you about it next. Bucking Fit's taking over
two Pros and a Cup of Joe on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 5 (36:52):
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 2 (37:03):
He's Buck Rising. I'm Jason Fitz. It's a Bucking Fits
takeover of two pros and a cup of Joe. I
know it's chilly up here in Connecticut. Cold Knights call
for better sleep. Shop mattress firms once a year's sailing
cleared to save up to five one hundred bucks on
select Temperpedic mattresses with next day delivery.
Speaker 3 (37:21):
Restrictions apply.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
Next day delivery available on select mattresses and subject to location.
See store for more details. There are two matchups in
the NFL. Hear me out that right now are trash.
They're the trash use of trash. They are the oscar
the grouches of the entire football slate. They are trash matchups.
But how far are we off from the NFL turning
(37:43):
these trash matchups into massive marketing opportunities. I know it
sounds weird, but you have the Saints taking on the Titans,
all right, that's a terrible football game. You also have
the Giants taking on the Raiders. That is right, Giants Raiders,
a game nobody wants to see. The loser of that
game will have the inside track for the first overall pick.
Speaker 3 (38:05):
In the NFL draft. There are still it gets very complicated.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
The methodology and the strength of schedule is going to
come into play, all these things, but the loser of
that game has the inside track to the point. Then
now suddenly, what we've seen is, you know, the Raiders
put Brock Powers on injury reserve and they're starting safety
Jeremy Chin on an injury reserve. What do you know
comes out in the practice report. Max Crosby hasn't practiced
the last few days. Prom usually he would play in
(38:29):
these situations.
Speaker 3 (38:30):
Who knows.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
The Giants put out their list of inactives because the
injury expected for this game, and it's basically half their roster.
You've got two teams, like we in a world book
where everybody screams constantly about tanking in the NBA, You've
got two teams that are outwardly tanking for the first
pick in the NFL draft.
Speaker 3 (38:48):
And as popular as draft content.
Speaker 2 (38:50):
Has become, I just think it's amazing that not only
are fans buying in, fans are okay with it, Like
the same fans that hell about tanking in the NBA
all good with tanking the these games in the NFL,
and everybody.
Speaker 3 (39:02):
Believes that it's going to be this great hope that
gets you to the first overall pick and that's kind
of fixed everything.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
When will the NFL start selling this misery as the
reason to watch these games?
Speaker 4 (39:11):
Ooh, that's an interesting perspective. I just I don't know
that that can ever be a viable marketing plan for them.
Like they can't say the quiet part out loud, can
they in that league more than any other league. I
know the NBA is dealing with a variety of different
legal situations right now that you know, beyond just acknowledging
(39:32):
that tanking would be a thing and actively trying to
find ways to keep teams from tanking. I just fitzy,
I don't ever think that that by definition, I don't
think that tanking is real in the NFL because you
will never get me to believe in a world that
we have professional football players and coaches who don't care
(39:52):
about the draft picks out there playing football games, that
the people on the field actually involved with the games
are going to give less than full effort.
Speaker 3 (40:02):
We do agree on that.
Speaker 2 (40:04):
I don't believe a player ever tanks. That's why these
players are left inactive. They know a player will never
tank during the game.
Speaker 4 (40:10):
I agree with you on that, sure, So in these situations,
I don't know if there is a huge economy around
the NFL offseason, whether it be draft, free agency, coaching carousel,
all of those different things, like we've turned it into
economy unto itself, into an industry unto itself.
Speaker 1 (40:29):
Hell I would I would.
Speaker 4 (40:30):
Argue based on some of the draft stuff I see
or some of the popularity of it that some people
actually like the off season more than they actually more
than they enjoy the actual regular season. I don't think
that the NFL can, can, at least outwardly ever, talk
about it in the terms that you're talking about it.
Speaker 1 (40:48):
Even though they understand.
Speaker 4 (40:50):
There's plenty of executives that understand the popularity that is
the personnel acquisition process.
Speaker 3 (40:57):
You're probably right, and you know yes.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
I think the draft has become so wildly huge because
it sells hope.
Speaker 3 (41:04):
Every single fan base.
Speaker 2 (41:06):
Believes that their team just turned the corner, even though
the numbers show that your team won't turn a corner,
especially if they're picking first. Overall, they're not going to
pick a turn a quick corner for sure. I just
wonder how far off we are from saying the quiet
thing out loud just because the NFL gets in front
of everything.
Speaker 3 (41:22):
So the NFL gets.
Speaker 2 (41:23):
Away with saying the quiet thing out loud all the
time and people buy into it. I am alarmed at
how accepting everybody is of the fact that great players
is going to be left on the field off the
field just for the purpose of tanking. There is one
team we haven't talked enough about that could surprise the
entire NFL. We'll talk about it next. Two pros and
a couple Joe Fox Sports Radio
Hosts And Creators
Brady Quinn
LaVar Arrington
Jonas Knox
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
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
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.