August 15, 2025 • 40 mins
Jason and Buck, in for the guys, react to the AP Top 25 and Arch Manning not making the Manning Award watch list. Are sports trying to build drama like the WWE? The state of parity in the NFL is a farce. Plus, Cam Ward puts foot in mouth and more!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, thanks for listening to the Two Pros and a
Cup of Joe Podcast with LaVar Arrington, Jonas Knox, and
myself Brady Quinn. Make sure you catch us live weekdays
six to nine am Eastern or three am to six
am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. You can find your
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Joe Show over at Foxsports Radio dot com, or stream
(00:20):
US live every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Let's give this part you're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Could you ever imagine, as an NFL fan, or an
NBA fan, or an NHL fan, or a Major League
Baseball fan, a system where before a single game have
been played, everybody would sit down and simply buy arbitrary
vote decide how your favorite team is ranked, which will
(00:55):
decide how your favorite team is perceived, which could decide
the entire fate of your season, all based not on
a single game, not on a single snap of football,
not on a single meaningful moment, but instead on the
presumption of what it's gonna look like. That sounds asinine,
that feels stupid, and it's exactly what. For some reason,
(01:17):
college football still gives us every single year. It's two
pros and a cup of Joe. He's Buck Rising, I'm
Jason Fitz. We're in for the guys on Fox Sports
Radio and Buck me a people came out this week. Now,
I'm a long since believer that the college football coaches
poles should not exist. Coaches that you talk to will
tell you they can't watch enough football to vote. In fact,
how are they even supposed to have the time to
(01:38):
watch all of the top twenty five games before they
submit their vote every week? And why are they wasting
all of their time as voters just sitting there getting
no I gotta take a look at this number twenty
UNLV gotta watch that game to see how I'm gonna
vote on them. Like, that's not realistic. The Coach's Poll
is just it should be non existent at this point.
I understand the value of the Associated Press Poll at
(01:58):
some point, but I don't under stand the value of
the Associated Press Bowl. Today, Texas is the number one
team in the country. Based on this presumption that Arch
Manning is going to come in having played two started
two games, He's thrown less than one hundred collegiate passes.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
Arch Manning is just going to lead them to the
promised land.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Like the amount of guesses, the amount of sure, the
amount of throws spaghetti against the wall and see what
sticks from the A people is just stupid to me.
And it does weirdly impact like there just it impacts
the perception of certain teams.
Speaker 4 (02:29):
It impacts the way we think this season's gonna go.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Like, I don't see any positive that comes from the
A people other than the hype of being able to say, oh,
Texas versus Ohio State, so one versus A three.
Speaker 5 (02:42):
Well there is that, And so the networks and the
places that put these rankings out would also benefit from
being able to have additional hype around because now you
see what the week one or yeah, the first week
of college football matchups look like, where you've got Texas
and Ohio State and that's it's It sells it self
under normal circumstances, but given a little extra juice, if,
(03:03):
for example, you know Texas has never been number one
in the preseason ap pole, like it's crazy again, and
you would think Brandon as big as Texas at some point,
with as much talent and as many NFL players as
have gone through that University would be number one. It's like,
I mean, not quite as crazy as Vandy never having
been ranked in a preseason AP pole, even though Diego
Pavia will tell everybody at every turn that he's gonna
(03:25):
win the national championship at a place where nobody expects
him to win a national championship, and just think it's
cute otherwise, respectfully to the commodores. But I, I mean,
I enjoy the dialogue around at FITZI, even though I
understand that it doesn't actually mean. This one doesn't actually
mean anything, because I you know, I would do away
(03:45):
with the with the AP pole altogether if you'd let me,
because we do we eventually do away with the AP
pole or devalue the a peopole when the college football
playoff rankings come out, and then we have the AP pole,
which doesn't matter anymore, juxtap against the thing that actually
matters for the purposes of seating and all these other things.
But that's that's less sexy, that's less conversational. And we
(04:07):
understand that, you know, we've you and I have done
two hours of radio today. We'll do another fifty six
minutes based on how much time that we have left
and I've got three hours to do on the local
show today, and you know what, We're going to talk
about a lot of college football, baby, because this is
the last weekend that we will have, the last Saturday
that we will have without college football in our lives.
(04:29):
Praise be to the football gods. So while the value
of it, it's just it's how much value do you
actually want to put it in? Do you take the thing
for what it is, or do you actually want to
have serious preseason conversations about the ranking of things, Because
I'm sure there are Tennessee fans that are but hurt
about the idea of Indiana being ranked higher than them,
(04:49):
And even though it's a preseason bowl, because then you're
trafficking and fan base pride, and that's a good way
to stir up conversation. It's a good way to stir
up intrigue and interest. It's a good way to get
people talking about, you know, programs that you might not
otherwise be talking about. Where should South Carolina is the
thirteenth best team in the country, of the thirteenth ranked
(05:09):
team in the country ahead of the season, actually be
ranked higher we discounting them because South Carolina is not
somebody that we normally talk about as a college football
playoff contender. But with Leonora Sellers and the record that
they had last season and the recruiting talent that they've
been able to compile, they absolutely should be. Does a
university like Miami belong as high as ten with as
(05:31):
much turnover as they've had, even though their offensive coordinator
is saying or at least propping Carson Beckup is potentially
having another number one overall pick in his quarterback room,
which I think is a bit nonsense.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
I mean, yeah, what's just it's what else is he
gonna say? Man, we paid Carson back a ton of money,
and boy does he suck.
Speaker 5 (05:50):
But yes, I hear, he's too busy cheating on a
Cavender twin and doing all the things that the rest
of us would probably do in our early twenties in
South Florida.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
If I was rich in my early twenties off Florida,
There's there's absolutely nothing I wouldn't be trying to put
in my body and nobody wouldn't cheat on So.
Speaker 4 (06:05):
I like it. Look, I get it. I'm not. I'm not.
Look in my early twenties, that wasn't the adult that
I am.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Now I think it's I do.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
I think you make a fair.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Oh god, I can't bounce back from that one. I
think you make our favorite point. Yeah, that is I
set myself up for that about conversation though, because I
will say, look, I'm an agent of chaos.
Speaker 6 (06:30):
I don't.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
College football is my favorite sport to cover, and it
is namely my favorite sport to cover because I don't
care who wins and loses. And the craziest thing about
that is that fan base is all They all got
so worked up that that's what I love. I don't
really What I need is for Alabama to be either
really great or really terrible, because either way people care. Right,
what I need is for Texas to either go out
(06:52):
and win a national championship or just get decimated and
fall off the rails, because either way people care, like
I want people to care about college football because I
love the sport. That being said, you make a good
point about the conversation. Part of the reason I've long
since been a champion of the College Football Playoff Committee
is if we simply create automatic bids where people get
into the college Football Playoff by where they finished in
(07:13):
their conference, there's no reason to talk about college football,
and you know, very real like watch shows like you
know across the ESPN and Fox Sports all day watch
Get Up, Right, and during a regular time of the year,
is Get Up gonna talk about college football on Tuesday
or Wednesday?
Speaker 4 (07:29):
The answer to that is no.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
And for the first month and a half of the season,
they'll barely cover college football right. But the minute the
college football playoffs starts to come out every Tuesday night,
in part because ESPN has the broadcasting right so that
oh man, Tuesday, there's a national media conversation what's the
committee going to do? And Wednesday there's a reaction to it.
I think that's good for the growth of the sport
it is. I've seen the numbers and frankly even at
(07:53):
Yahoo where I am now and incredible check out yah
Who Sports Daily by the way, Monday through Friday, nine
to eleven am Eastern Live.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
Thank you, No, it's a plug. That's not a fine.
Speaker 5 (08:04):
It's a plug that you should be fine for, even
though it is excellent content that you and Caroline Fenton
are doing.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
Thank you, Thank you very much. I appreciate that compliment.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Look, we look at the numbers and college football doesn't
do great ratings on podcasts, it doesn't do great rating
on national shows things like that. Monday Tuesday there isn't
really a big appetite for it. Friday there isn't really
a big appetite. I've hosted a ton of esp and
college football shows and my time when I was there,
and it's crazy how many of those shows were. Hey,
(08:35):
the ratings are okay on Monday, but they're terrible on Friday.
Like all of this is because college football has a
hard time cutting through the noise nationally for a lot
of people. And that seems crazy to everyone in the
South and everyone in the Midwest, but it's real to
the national perspective. I like having reasons to create a conversation.
So maybe you've changed my mind a little bit, because
you're right, we wouldn't be talking about Texas the same
(08:57):
way we are, but they're the preseason number one, so it.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
Creates a conversation.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
I just wish there was a way to do that
without propping up false value that can change, you know,
perception biases.
Speaker 5 (09:08):
Yeah, I get that, but if if there was, we
would have figured it out by now. You know what
I'm saying like, because it's not just cutting through the noise,
it's cutting through the NFL. And they're just one otherworldly
ability to suffocate the life out of every other sport,
even America's second most popular sport, which is of course,
(09:28):
college football. I FITZI I enjoy it, and not just
because I live in the South and in Nashville, Tennessee,
where you know, we don't have great local college football,
although Diego Pavey has given us some juice, you know,
I mean, if it's Pavia is like the preseason poll. Okay,
he making a lot of noise, a lot of noise
(09:49):
for people who are unfamiliar with Diego Pavia. He's the
quarterback of the Vanderbilt Commodore's. If you're unfamiliar with Vanderbilt
Commodore football, it is famously stinky.
Speaker 6 (09:57):
They upset Alabama.
Speaker 4 (09:59):
You like stinky. Stinky's word the buck rising lights like,
I'm you know, well.
Speaker 5 (10:03):
It seems it seems gentler then sucks out loud, which
I used to describe Titan's cornerback depth on the on
the Local show yesterday.
Speaker 6 (10:11):
It just seems a bit gentler, and I and I
enjoyed that.
Speaker 5 (10:14):
I'm enjoying the Pavia the Pavia thing, and I don't
want to denigrade him just for the sake of denigrating him,
even though I you know, his program is not to
be respected just yet, even though they're coming off a
nice season where they had one of the biggest college
football upsets we may ever see in our lifetimes, upsetting
Alabama in Nashville last year. But Pave is doing a
lot of talking, right He's going on Paul Finebam, and
(10:35):
he's saying that the that the standard at Vanderbilt is
national championship win.
Speaker 6 (10:39):
It has never been the standard at Vanderbilt. A hell.
Speaker 5 (10:41):
Winning seasons are an upset at Vanderbilt. Bowl eligibility is
an upset at Vanderbilt. Their Twitter account put out the
fact that they got rings for their bowl game win
over Georgia Tech this year, and they were the laughing
stock of the college football world, even though that's an
accomplishment for Vanderbilt, So diego. Pavia doing a lot of
talking in the preseason's going to put a big old
target on his back. But it is at least going
(11:01):
to get people interested in Vanderbilt and following along, whether
you're rooting for him or against him. You want to
see him continue to talk his talk, or you want
to see him silenced because you don't like that kind
of arrogance from a player at a program that does
not historically make waves that way. So the preseason poll
is my equivalent to Diego Pavia. And also because FITZI,
like I, college football is a better product.
Speaker 6 (11:22):
And I say that as an NFL reporter.
Speaker 5 (11:25):
And it's not just because, like the NFL is my job,
and you know, I it's it's the best job in
the world.
Speaker 6 (11:31):
And getting to travel all.
Speaker 5 (11:33):
Over the country and do do local radio for three
hours a day, do national radio with you, and all
the different opportunities that's afforded me. Like, I love my
job and I love covering the NFL, but college football
is way more fun, way more fun. And and to see,
you know, to see people not not necessarily interested in it,
because you know, in the Northeast, what do they care?
(11:54):
What are you gonna you're gonna pull for Rutgers on
a week by week basis, there's there's gonna be a
big alvaizing effect of the big ten power Rutgers and
things like that. No, of course not. But in the Southeast,
in the Midwest. It is tribal this way, and the hatred,
the hatred that fuels it as a sport is delightful
to me. And the way that people will end relationships
(12:15):
over college football fallouts and things like that. I just
find it thoroughly satisfying, beyond just how much more those
fan bases care about their programs versus the NFL, where
there is far more national attention but far less community.
It feels safe places like green Bay, Wisconsin, where there
(12:36):
is really nothing else to do but go to a
green Bay Packers game, which, by the way, respectfully of
the city of green Bay wildly overrated.
Speaker 4 (12:45):
The Packers games in the city of green Bay.
Speaker 5 (12:47):
There's nothing to right about green Bay. Green Bay is
a god forsaken wasteland in the middle of nowhere. I mean,
Lambo's fine. I did a primetime game at Lambeau a
couple of years ago. It was, ironically enough, one of
the last fun Titans games I've covered, and then the
offensive coordinator got a DUI afterwards because they can't handle success.
Speaker 6 (13:06):
So I yeah, I mean it was fine.
Speaker 5 (13:09):
I wasn't blown away with it like I was going
to Kneeland for the first time. One hundred and ten
thousand on your next screaming the entire time when they
haven't mattered on a national championship level for you know,
the previous fifteen to twenty years.
Speaker 6 (13:21):
That's that's unique.
Speaker 4 (13:23):
Yeah, you're right. We played the arena right next to.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
Right next to Lambeau several times, and every time I
was there, I was like, Yeah, it's Lambo.
Speaker 4 (13:32):
It's right, and you're not wrong.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
I think for me, it's always a weird situation to
be in that nothing moves my soul the way watching
an NFL game that I care about does, like and
specifically the Raiders for me, but obviously like the big
Sunday night football game, a great Monday night football game,
the afternoon game like when we get these Thanksgiving Chiefs
Cowboys game sort of things like that moves my soul.
(13:54):
But if I turn on the TV and the only
game on the early window where I'm at, if I
didn't have the ticket, was I don't know, Jets Jags,
I'm much more likely to sit down and say, hey,
this is a terrible Missouri team taking on a terrible
Buffalo team.
Speaker 4 (14:09):
I watch that.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
There's something about the environment about college football that to
me makes it a better watch. All of this, though,
has tied me into one thought. Maybe all of sports
actually have taken too many notes and aren't any better.
Speaker 4 (14:23):
Than the WWE. I'll explain what I mean next.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Be sure to catch live editions of Two Pros and
a Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn, LeVar Errington, and
Jonas Knox weekdays at six am Eastern, three am Pacific
on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
It's Two Bros and a Cup of Joe on Fox
Sports Radio. He's Buck Rising, I'm Jason Fitz. We are
in for the guys hanging out with you this morning.
Everyone knows first impressions start with the first coat. That's
why you can trust Kills Primers for a smooth and
pre professional finish. Kills Primer is now available exclusively at
the Home Depot if you're a p bro, oh you know,
sponsored by the Home Depot. Buck, you were talking about
(15:06):
the lead up to college football, the conversation that comes
around the first poll, you know, the conversation that comes
from certain players using a microphone to get everybody excited
about it.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
And the more you talked about.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
It, maybe even think of the NBA and the way
we spend so much time in the offseason just getting
ready for these huge storylines that rarely actually materialize and
we end up with something far less sexy than anybody expected.
And even in the NFL, where every few months there's
this next moment of storytelling.
Speaker 4 (15:35):
And I'm not sure that sports as.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
A general landscape haven't become full WWE. Like if you
think about WWE, WrestleMania is their main event every year,
and the minute they finished WrestleMania, they start a long
form storytelling that will take you all the way to
the next WrestleMania. Now you don't have to be a
big wrestling fan to understand this concept, but essentially, they
build up the good guys and the bad guys, and
(15:58):
then over the course of the year.
Speaker 4 (16:00):
They give you enough up and down that they hope
you stay.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
Tracked on it, and then by the end of it,
oh yeah, you get the big payoff at WrestleMania. Isn't
that essentially what we're trying to do everywhere? And maybe
maybe that's society wanting to create the good guy the
bad guy in all the friction in between. Maybe that's
the sport buying into it. Maybe it's just the new formula,
but it certainly feels like in order to cut through
storytelling of some sort of dramatic fashion. Like I'm not
(16:26):
sure that there's a huge difference anymore between getting ready
for the college football season.
Speaker 4 (16:31):
And watching Love Island.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
It's just gonna be drama that we all expect, and
we all know exactly what's gonna happen, and we all
know that by the end it's going to be sort
of disappointing. But we're still sitting here just living on
every word.
Speaker 6 (16:43):
All right? So am I the only person on the show?
Lee Lorena? I don't know. Are you Love Island consumers?
Speaker 3 (16:51):
I guess they're not. They're on our talk. Okay, well,
you can use any trash TV here. You don't have
to be a Love Island consumer. You could be a
blow Deck consumer. Is your trash TV guilty pleasure.
Speaker 6 (17:04):
Titans football.
Speaker 4 (17:06):
I knew he was going to say that the minute
I asked.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
I was like, Ah, he doesn't have any reality like
there's no bar rescue, Like, I don't know.
Speaker 5 (17:14):
I all right, So I get I get what you're
saying conceptually, even if I'm not a reality TV consumer
that way, and there's nothing wrong with it. Like I've
dated women that will throw on an episode of the
Bachelor or something like that, and I'll get, you know,
I'll get fired up because I find these people inherently
ridiculous or stupid. And it's it's like kind of rooting
(17:36):
for or against a sports team, right, That's that's kind
of that's kind of the the rudimentary infrastructure of all
of this stuff.
Speaker 6 (17:43):
But why shouldn't sports be more like professional wrestling?
Speaker 5 (17:46):
I wish that more people would take the approach that
somebody like Diego Pavia, who we referenced earlier, the Vanderbilt quarterback,
who's now saying that the standard at a place like Vanderbilt,
which has famously been a poverty college football program, is
all of a sudden the national championship because they had
the rare good season and won a bowl game for
(18:08):
which is a rare enough thing at a place like Vandy.
That's that's all well and good. And I also do
believe there's something to Fitzy to the idea of manifesting
this and inspiring people. Because you, as a professional athlete
or really any kind of performer, you understand this, uh
to an extent. I'm sure you can be the most
prepared person in the world. You can. You can have
(18:30):
had as many practice reps or as many sound checks
or as many whatever things that you need to get
you as fine tuned as humanly possible for whatever your
performance on the field, on the stage, whatever it might be.
Hell for broadcasting, you have to have some level of
(18:51):
unrealistic confidence about who you are and what it is
that you're capable of, and that you can exceed whatever
it is that you're capable of because of certain point,
you just have to get yourself into a certain mindset,
regardless of whether that is realistic or not. And maybe
you don't achieve that every time you go out to perform,
but you at least have to get yourself in a
(19:12):
place where you think that you can, no matter whether
you can or cannot in that particular situation, no matter
who is telling you that you can or cannot. So
I'm for the idea of trying to speak some of
this stuff into existence, and also to get more intrigue
around it, to get more interest around it by hyping
it up. I think that's you know, Fitzy, you brought
(19:33):
this up the other day because I told you. I
went to a WWE match for the first time in
my life. One of the producers on the local show,
he's a diehard WWE fan, so I've got him fifth
row seats for his birthday, and we went in particular
because buddy of mine, Jelly Role, is doing a lot
of stuff with WWE.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
Oh that's a fear, by the way, that's a fine.
You just a buddy of mine, Jelly roll that's a fine.
That is a name drump, that's a fine.
Speaker 6 (19:59):
I mean, it's what it is, like it fine.
Speaker 4 (20:01):
It's a fine to me.
Speaker 6 (20:03):
Is a body of mine Jason fits a fine?
Speaker 3 (20:06):
No, I'm not famous, Jelly rolls famous. You're the one
that told me when we name drop all right, that
that's a fine. You find me earlier. I have now
find you.
Speaker 5 (20:13):
I need I need anal Lorna's listening to me, not
when I asked her if she watch watches.
Speaker 6 (20:17):
Love Island or not?
Speaker 4 (20:18):
I hate that show.
Speaker 6 (20:20):
Okay, thank you.
Speaker 5 (20:21):
I appreciate that that figged back with I'm welcome instead
of me just listening listening for a response that received
received none whatsoever.
Speaker 6 (20:29):
Is that a fine or not?
Speaker 5 (20:31):
I mean, because that's genuinely like a friend of mine,
and he just so happens to have made it as
a very very famous human being in the last like
three four years.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
Look, you you are the one that instituted a fine
system on this show for name dropping.
Speaker 4 (20:43):
You just said a buddy of mine, jelly roll. You
didn't have to throw that into the story. You went
to WWE.
Speaker 5 (20:48):
I mean, I think it's a necessary part of the story,
because what the hell would I be doing at a
WWE match if not for seeing a friend perform.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
You You went with a buddy to WWE, That's all
you have to say.
Speaker 4 (20:58):
I mean, I mean I did.
Speaker 5 (21:00):
I'm not knowing things that its so we cover sporting
events for a living. I'm not going to anything where
I can't get some kind of special treatment or access.
You know, I'd be clumb out. I'm not doing it.
I'm not doing it with the unwashed masses anymore.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
But okay, number one, when we were on air and
I mentioned that right after the show, I was going
to stand on stage with Little Big Town and play
a song. You find me for that because you said
that that was me humble bragging.
Speaker 5 (21:22):
Also, I also think I called them the band Perry
because I don't distinguish between the two.
Speaker 4 (21:27):
Well, there's there's a substantial difference. Also Number two.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
I went to a WWE event about a year ago
with a bunch of ESPN friends.
Speaker 4 (21:37):
That's a simple story. See how I can tell that.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
I don't have to sit there and say, oh I
sat in the front row because Field Yates took me
because we were going to hang out with Roman Reigns.
See like, that's where it becomes findable.
Speaker 4 (21:47):
You mentioned Shelly Roll. Oh, now I'm getting this this
fine system.
Speaker 6 (21:51):
I'm not a subject to my own fine system. That's
not how it.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
Oh my god, Lee, Lee, Just somebody somewhere on this
show backed me up. And Buck is the worst and
deserves just a multitude of fines for this.
Speaker 4 (22:04):
Correct I think it is definitely a finable offense. You
can't be you cannot be like out on your own rules.
You know what I'm saying. If you find this man,
he can find you the same. No, no, now, events, I haven't.
Speaker 5 (22:22):
Introduced me to Roll. So he came by the local
show the other day. He gave some kind of motivational
speech to the Titans. Titans and wanted to do a
couple of segments where I ripped his football team because
I'm routinely telling them how terrible they are. Anyway, Uh
my point with that is you were telling me that
WWE has incorporated a lot of people that used to
(22:45):
work at ESPN as far as the production, right, Like
they have a lot of college game day people now
working in the WWE space. Nick Conn, I believe has
who's was a long time fixture in the in the
ESPN c AA adjacent world, like the people that put
these things on, and also the people that put together
you know, Peyton Manning and Chick fil A and whatever else,
(23:07):
brand and athletes and all these different things, right, because
they're all they're all they can all run off the
same construct. Storytelling in sports matters, storytelling in WWE matters.
Storytelling and soap operas matter. It's all some version of
the same thing. So why shouldn't it take on more
of a WWE role or WWE style, because I think
(23:31):
that engages more people. It's a successful formulat WWE is
a billion dollar business, a billion dollar business, and it's
it's I mean, as is the world of college football,
and the NFL is just trying to get into God knows,
they're trying to get into the trillions with the deals
that they're doing, because it doesn't seem like the NFL
is competing with the NBA or Major League Baseball anymore.
It feels like they're competing with Apple and Netflix and
(23:51):
everybody else with some of the some of the media
deals that they've done of late, and incorporating private equity
and all these different things that people don't really care about.
They just want to know where to get their football
and who their football team's playing on any given weekend.
But yeah, I love the element of the drama for
the same reason that we all do, because it just
makes that much more compelling. What the hell else is
(24:12):
supposed to get people interested in a Cardinals you know, Cardinals?
What's another Cardinals Jags Week fifteen game in the middle
of the NFL regular season if you can't squeeze some
additional drama out of it or storytelling out of it,
because otherwise, I mean, for what you're gonna you're talking
about an undersized quarterback who likes to play call of
duty instead of studying his playbook.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
There is I mean, allegedly there is some element of
all of this. I mean, we just saw with the
NBA schedule release. The NBA tried desperately throughout the course
of the schedule release to you know, at least give
us some hype, give us some reason to get really excited, and.
Speaker 6 (24:49):
Happened recently because that was not even remotely on my radar.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
Well, and see that that's the point, right, Like, no,
this week, they've given us the Christmas Day games and
the Opening Day games, and they're trying to.
Speaker 4 (25:00):
Do the NFL thing.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
And I think what's wildly disappointing about that for basketball
lovers in general, is that they did all of these
things during the middle of the NFL preseason and still
couldn't get traction. And in fact, with the new TV
deals that they have in place coming in, there's gonna
be NBA games on I think every day of the
week now the way they're splitting it out to all
(25:21):
of their different providers, and you know, they've given us
their slate of national games and they're trying to get
everybody super excited.
Speaker 4 (25:28):
They announced how.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
Many games the Lakers that you get on national TV,
all of these things.
Speaker 4 (25:32):
And nobody cared.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
And so it is this weird like there's a weird
balance here of selling the sizzle that leads up to everything,
but then also having a.
Speaker 4 (25:41):
Product that backs it up.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
College football has given us some particularly dramatic results over
the course. Like over the course of a season, you
get enough upsets, you get in just enough change. Like
we talk so much about the wild change in college
football of NIL and the transfer portal and blah blah
blah blah blah. Well, look at the top ten teams.
In the top ten teams are still Texas, Ohio State,
(26:02):
Penn State, Oregon, Alabama, Georgia. Like it's the usual brands,
the usual names. But because of the NIL transfer portal
and all the controversy around it, even though we're getting
the usual brands, it doesn't feel like it's a foregone
conclusion and it's still feels sexy.
Speaker 4 (26:20):
So it's the perfect.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
Blend of, Hey, you're getting the most important commercial brands,
you're getting the best stories out of it, and there's
going to be enough chaos that that's how you win.
Like I think what is dumbfounding for me sometimes is
the NFL always talks about parody, parity, parody, and you
and I've talked about this before, but parody doesn't really
exist in the NFL get you can get to mediocrity,
(26:42):
So yeah, you can sort of. You're supposed to be
able to get from really bad to mediocre. But if
we're being honest, the teams that have sucked for the
last twenty years have mostly sucked for the last twenty years,
and the NFL has been dominated by one team at
a time in every stinking generation.
Speaker 4 (26:57):
So it's funny that the league that.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
Taken the world by storm they can get two point
two million viewers for a Shad Or Sanders preseason game
on the NFL network, is the one that's actually kind
of the easiest to predict.
Speaker 6 (27:11):
You know.
Speaker 5 (27:11):
That's that's such smart marketing by the NFL to just
keep using the word parody over and over and over again,
to convince us that mediocre is actually parody.
Speaker 6 (27:20):
Why there there.
Speaker 5 (27:23):
Are so many reasons why the NFL is as successful
as it is, But that that thought had not occurred
to me until until you just remove the scales from
my from my eyes fits a you know, famously, I'm
i'm I'm I'm too optimistic about professional football to to.
Speaker 6 (27:42):
What's the word that I'm looking for? Willing to overlook?
Speaker 5 (27:46):
Uh, you know, the the the bumps and bruises, the ugliness,
the warts of professional football because it is America's favorite sport.
Speaker 6 (27:53):
I say that, of course, tongue in cheek, but like.
Speaker 5 (27:56):
But that's like, that's one of the smartest things that
they ever did, just to keep saying that word to
the point where we all start to believe them.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
We got the Chiefs in yet another Super Bowl, which
is continuing. They lost it, fine, but it's continuing in
a period of dominance, which is what we had before
that with the Patriots, and what we had before that
with the Cowboys and the forty nine ers.
Speaker 4 (28:18):
It just keeps going back and back and back.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
Every era has had a dominant team. Also, let's not
forget my friend. Last year, what a dozen teams lost
more than ten games. I mean a dozen teams.
Speaker 6 (28:29):
I know I covered one of them.
Speaker 4 (28:31):
Awful, awful, We're awful.
Speaker 3 (28:34):
And we're sitting here now this year saying, well, I
can't wait for football season.
Speaker 4 (28:38):
Everybody has a chance, No they don't. Like everybody does
not have a chance for the.
Speaker 3 (28:42):
Most part, more often than not, the Raiders, the Jets,
the Browns, the Titans. You can go up and down
the list. The group of teams that have sucked for
the last twenty years are probably gonna suck again. And
then there's gonna be a whole bunch of people in
the middle class that are competing somewhere between eight and
nine and in ten and seven, and they're all going
to be competing for these playoff spots, and we'll convince
(29:04):
ourselves that that's really parody. And at the end of
it all, we're probably gonna end up with a Final
four that still includes Buffalo, Kansas City, Baltimore, some version
of that, and in the NFC, we're likely to still
have the Eagles and the Lions. In that conversation, there's
very little unknown in the NFL this year compared to
a lot of years, and we still talk about the
(29:24):
league like they have just championed the ability for anybody
to go. Somebody will go from worse to first, where
they'll be eliminated in the first round the playoffs.
Speaker 4 (29:32):
And nobody will give it him.
Speaker 6 (29:34):
I do think that it was.
Speaker 5 (29:38):
More visceral last season, though, because like, the haves have
never looked better and the have nots have never looked worse.
Speaker 6 (29:46):
I mean, so.
Speaker 5 (29:47):
Many wretched teams to where I mean seven weeks, eight
weeks into the NFL regular season, you're still usually if
you're covering or if you're interested in watching the league
as a whole, you're you're still having to pay at
least some attention to all of these teams across the board.
Like you can't just start to ignore teams at the
(30:09):
halfway point of the season, Whereas I mean, and again,
mine is a very specific lens here because I'm a
beat reporter for a one of those particularly wretched teams,
like FITZI the Titan season was over in the third week,
in week three, it was done last year, So like,
what what do you do with a team like that?
(30:32):
Where fans spend all this time getting themselves ready, getting
themselves into the mindset by drinking the kool aid that
the NFL is selling them all for Will Levis to
fart out an interception and out the you know, out
out to the side to a trailing Bears defensive back
to literally throw away a game and end their season.
Speaker 6 (30:52):
Before it really ever begins. It's craziness.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
That's what the wildest part of the NFL is that
it is the most functional relationship in most of our lives.
Like when this season ended, it's just like the day
you broke up with well yeah, now, but hear me out.
You'll believe me. You will understand this when the season ends. Okay,
you have the most real it's the day you broke
up with her. You understand that she's crazy and you
(31:17):
want nothing to do with her. And then all of
a sudden, you get about a month out and you're like,
I don't know, I miss her a little bit. That's
the scouting combine and you're like, oh, you know, it
wasn't all bad. That is that's gonna get us a
straight to free agency. And then that's that's you seeing
some pictures on Instagram and you're like, oh man, you know, god,
I kind of I kind of miss I miss a
little of this, like it wasn't bad. And then all
(31:39):
of a sudden, you see more pictures. You see she's
out somewhere you guys used to go to with the friends,
and she's hanging out and that that's the draft and
you're like, oh my god, no, like we had good times.
All of a sudden, you're forgetting the crazy and you're
right back to the good times. And you're sitting there
in your house and you're you're doom scrolling. You're going
back watching some of the highlights from last year. Your
doom scrolling, you're like, this is better. You get to
(31:59):
the like the OTAs, and that's when it's you know what,
I really it's not as much fun without her, because
now you're in the summer, and now you're in the
summer and you want to you want to have your
boo back. That's favorite football team, and all of a
sudden you're getting just a little bit farther from it.
By the time you get back to it, now you've
just all your friends are like, dude, don't do it.
She's crazy. That's all your friends right now in the
football Like my friends are looking at me, they're like,
(32:20):
don't do it, man, don't fall for this Raiders thing again.
Speaker 4 (32:23):
And I'm like, this is gonna be the year. Man,
She's not going to be crazy. And then you're gonna go.
Speaker 3 (32:27):
Out on like two or three dates and you're gonna realize, well,
now we did all this work, we got back together.
Speaker 4 (32:33):
She's still crazy. But I gotta wait it out. I
gotta get through it. And that's the whole NFL season.
Speaker 3 (32:39):
That is what most of us are about to hear
the NFL is a dysfunctional, abusive relationship.
Speaker 6 (32:44):
My god, does that hit home? I can't.
Speaker 5 (32:55):
Oh my god, I've never related to anything that you've
said more in my entire life.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
That is that is why we all fall back in love.
And here's the thing in it. Today you're convinced she's
not crazy. Come see me in a month when you
realize she's crazy again. And then in six months when
you guys break up again, and then is your friend.
I'll sit here and say, hey, I got your back.
I know you're gonna do this exact same cycle in
just a few minutes.
Speaker 4 (33:17):
He's about anything.
Speaker 5 (33:19):
More about my relations This sounds toxic, guys, this sounds
real toxic. I right off, you could not pick two
better equipped people to have this particular conference.
Speaker 4 (33:32):
Oh God, all right, where you are?
Speaker 2 (33:37):
Uh?
Speaker 6 (33:38):
You up?
Speaker 3 (33:38):
That's an excellent WEEKNT Rising Jason Fitz We're filling in
for Two Pros and a Cup of Joe.
Speaker 4 (33:43):
We'll keep the fun going on Fox Sports Radio next.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
Be sure to catch live editions of Two Pros and
a Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn, LeVar Errington, and
Jonas Knox weekdays at six am Eastern three Am Pacific.
Speaker 5 (33:56):
There's nothing wrong with trying to manifest things into existence,
and that's exactly what this year's number one overall pick
in the NFL Draft is trying to do. Welcome Back,
It's two Pros and a Cup of Joe here on
Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 6 (34:14):
And unfortunately for the rest of.
Speaker 5 (34:16):
You, you're stuck with me for this final segment because
FITZI speaking of finable offenses, FITZI thinks he has bigger
and better things to do then finish out the last
That's what I'm saying, Lorena, no respect.
Speaker 6 (34:30):
We get no respect around him.
Speaker 5 (34:32):
Team No, No, I've never been accused of being a
team player in my life.
Speaker 6 (34:37):
I'll be honest with you on that.
Speaker 5 (34:39):
But FITZI has tried. In fact, FITZI is a far
better team player than I am. But it is appropriate
that now I would create even further of a toxic
culture in this relationship and try and take shots at
him while he's on his way out the door. By
the way, if you missed any of today's show, you'll
catch the podcast, or you'll want to catch the podcast.
Just search Two Pros and a Cup of Joe wherever
(35:01):
you get your podcast. Right after the show, the podcast
will be posted, so be sure to follow along. Rate
at five stars, and you can even provide a review. Again,
just search two Pros and a Cup of Joe wherever
you get your podcast, and you'll find today's full show
and even a best of version posted right at the
end of today's broadcast.
Speaker 6 (35:23):
I'm not sure what would consist of a best of.
Speaker 5 (35:26):
I don't know how much best of we actually did today,
but that's all well and good. We'll finish strong this morning.
Hell Y is right. So preseason football is on our
televisions again tonight.
Speaker 6 (35:38):
I'm in Atlanta. I cover the Tennessee Titans, and.
Speaker 5 (35:41):
As a part of that is bad football, a lot
of bad football in the state of Tennessee of late.
But you know, as a result, they earn worse than Stink.
I've said many worse things about them than Stink. But
they earned the right to draft the number one overall
pick this year. And cam Ward is very unassuming, very
(36:02):
not discussed. I think he's spectacularly boring. I think he's
exactly the kind of player that you want for a
dysfunctional franchise or a franchise that lacks direction and you
want to see that kind of person succeed. But he
said something this week while we have been down here
in the midst of a ten day road trip with
(36:22):
joint training camp practices with the Atlanta Falcons ahead of
their preseason game later this evening, and he gave a
press conference at the end of the joint training camp
practices in which they just definitively looked like the worst
team against a team that's not exactly world beaters. Nobody's
looking at the Atlanta Falcons this year as Super Bowl contenders,
and yet they were the better team on the field
(36:43):
for two days. So what on earth is cam Ward
referencing here when he's talking about a top ten offense
and a top five wide receiver corp can I hear
from this year's number one overall pick please?
Speaker 7 (36:55):
I think also have a top five receiver court in
the NFL. Include the young guys we're able to make plays.
It's really all about just us or myself putting the
ball in their frame of word, letting them make a play.
And then as also those guys being aggressive to make
plays for the team.
Speaker 5 (37:12):
Lorena Lee, I leave this to you. When you hear
cam Ward utter that or say those words, can you
name me a Titans wide receiver?
Speaker 4 (37:20):
Calvin Ridley? Okay, I can't do anything for you. Trailing Burks,
But isn't he injured?
Speaker 6 (37:27):
Yeah, perpetually?
Speaker 4 (37:28):
And Westbrook? But does he have one of those hyphenated names.
Speaker 6 (37:32):
No, he plays for the Dolphins.
Speaker 4 (37:33):
Now, yeah, see that?
Speaker 3 (37:35):
And then I know they got some rookie who's supposed
to be good, but I couldn't tell you his name
if you put a gun to my head.
Speaker 6 (37:41):
They've got two of them.
Speaker 5 (37:42):
They're both were picked in the fourth round him Ray
DK and Eleck iyaman Or. I don't think you would
have gotten those names even if you were the biggest
draft knick.
Speaker 6 (37:49):
But that's who we're talking about here. Okay.
Speaker 5 (37:52):
Now people are going to hear that and make it
an easy conversation to have.
Speaker 6 (37:57):
Around well, what the hell is he talking about?
Speaker 5 (37:58):
This guy doesn't know anything, and it's going to be
an easy punchline to have. But the thing that I
love about that clip is the fact that he's talking
about It's not necessarily I mean, it is a support
for his guys, or words of support for his guys,
but he's talking about his belief and self and the
idea that We're very quick to make that a laughing
(38:20):
or something to laugh at, to point and laugh at
just because they are a bad football team and they
don't expect to be much.
Speaker 6 (38:25):
Better in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 5 (38:27):
I think that's exactly the kind of personality type that
any franchise would kill for. He's trying to inspire. This
is something. This is a franchise that has been wretched.
You can talk about the teams that are picking at
the top of the draft. The Cleveland Browns have a
fan base that is passionate, that is loyal, but is
a bit broken in the amount of trauma that they've
(38:48):
had to survive, so much so that they're willing to
place an inordinate amount of his on his own roster
just because they're looking for any shred of hope anywhere.
The idea that these guys are coming into the NFL
manifesting or trying to manifest these things into existence is
(39:08):
a redeeming quality, not something to be mocked. I got
no problem with a quarterback who is interested in inspiring
as opposed to submitting. They are conditioned their entire lives
to come in here and think that they are going
to be the thing that helps turn broken franchises around.
Speaker 6 (39:28):
So, whether it be cam Ward or.
Speaker 5 (39:31):
Jackson Dart or Dylan Gabriel, Shador Sanders, any of these
guys who are talking as if they don't because they
don't come with the baggage of all of the bad
football that came before them. I'm so fascinated to see
how these guys, this particular class of rookie quarterbacks goes
(39:51):
through the rest of their careers and preseason the value
of it. How much can we learn from fifteen snaps here,
a quarter or two there. It's very, very granular type
stuff that's more for the coaching staffs than it is
for the fans or the media who's not privy to
the meeting rooms to see all the different ways that
they're trying to implement this stuff. But it's just good
(40:14):
to have football back at our lives. And I'm so
looking forward to covering a preseason game tonight, which is
a disgusting way to exist. And I know that you
can continue to hear all about it here on Fox
Sports Radio. We appreciate you hanging out with us this morning.
Stay tuned
Hey, thanks for listening to the Two Pros and a
Cup of Joe Podcast with LaVar Arrington, Jonas Knox, and
myself Brady Quinn. Make sure you catch us live weekdays
six to nine am Eastern or three am to six
am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. You can find your
local station for the Two Pros and a Cup of
Joe Show over at Foxsports Radio dot com, or stream
(00:20):
US live every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Let's give this part you're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Could you ever imagine, as an NFL fan, or an
NBA fan, or an NHL fan, or a Major League
Baseball fan, a system where before a single game have
been played, everybody would sit down and simply buy arbitrary
vote decide how your favorite team is ranked, which will
(00:55):
decide how your favorite team is perceived, which could decide
the entire fate of your season, all based not on
a single game, not on a single snap of football,
not on a single meaningful moment, but instead on the
presumption of what it's gonna look like. That sounds asinine,
that feels stupid, and it's exactly what. For some reason,
(01:17):
college football still gives us every single year. It's two
pros and a cup of Joe. He's Buck Rising, I'm
Jason Fitz. We're in for the guys on Fox Sports
Radio and Buck me a people came out this week. Now,
I'm a long since believer that the college football coaches
poles should not exist. Coaches that you talk to will
tell you they can't watch enough football to vote. In fact,
how are they even supposed to have the time to
(01:38):
watch all of the top twenty five games before they
submit their vote every week? And why are they wasting
all of their time as voters just sitting there getting
no I gotta take a look at this number twenty
UNLV gotta watch that game to see how I'm gonna
vote on them. Like, that's not realistic. The Coach's Poll
is just it should be non existent at this point.
I understand the value of the Associated Press Poll at
(01:58):
some point, but I don't under stand the value of
the Associated Press Bowl. Today, Texas is the number one
team in the country. Based on this presumption that Arch
Manning is going to come in having played two started
two games, He's thrown less than one hundred collegiate passes.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
Arch Manning is just going to lead them to the
promised land.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Like the amount of guesses, the amount of sure, the
amount of throws spaghetti against the wall and see what
sticks from the A people is just stupid to me.
And it does weirdly impact like there just it impacts
the perception of certain teams.
Speaker 4 (02:29):
It impacts the way we think this season's gonna go.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Like, I don't see any positive that comes from the
A people other than the hype of being able to say, oh,
Texas versus Ohio State, so one versus A three.
Speaker 5 (02:42):
Well there is that, And so the networks and the
places that put these rankings out would also benefit from
being able to have additional hype around because now you
see what the week one or yeah, the first week
of college football matchups look like, where you've got Texas
and Ohio State and that's it's It sells it self
under normal circumstances, but given a little extra juice, if,
(03:03):
for example, you know Texas has never been number one
in the preseason ap pole, like it's crazy again, and
you would think Brandon as big as Texas at some point,
with as much talent and as many NFL players as
have gone through that University would be number one. It's like,
I mean, not quite as crazy as Vandy never having
been ranked in a preseason AP pole, even though Diego
Pavia will tell everybody at every turn that he's gonna
(03:25):
win the national championship at a place where nobody expects
him to win a national championship, and just think it's
cute otherwise, respectfully to the commodores. But I, I mean,
I enjoy the dialogue around at FITZI, even though I
understand that it doesn't actually mean. This one doesn't actually
mean anything, because I you know, I would do away
(03:45):
with the with the AP pole altogether if you'd let me,
because we do we eventually do away with the AP
pole or devalue the a peopole when the college football
playoff rankings come out, and then we have the AP pole,
which doesn't matter anymore, juxtap against the thing that actually
matters for the purposes of seating and all these other things.
But that's that's less sexy, that's less conversational. And we
(04:07):
understand that, you know, we've you and I have done
two hours of radio today. We'll do another fifty six
minutes based on how much time that we have left
and I've got three hours to do on the local
show today, and you know what, We're going to talk
about a lot of college football, baby, because this is
the last weekend that we will have, the last Saturday
that we will have without college football in our lives.
(04:29):
Praise be to the football gods. So while the value
of it, it's just it's how much value do you
actually want to put it in? Do you take the thing
for what it is, or do you actually want to
have serious preseason conversations about the ranking of things, Because
I'm sure there are Tennessee fans that are but hurt
about the idea of Indiana being ranked higher than them,
(04:49):
And even though it's a preseason bowl, because then you're
trafficking and fan base pride, and that's a good way
to stir up conversation. It's a good way to stir
up intrigue and interest. It's a good way to get
people talking about, you know, programs that you might not
otherwise be talking about. Where should South Carolina is the
thirteenth best team in the country, of the thirteenth ranked
(05:09):
team in the country ahead of the season, actually be
ranked higher we discounting them because South Carolina is not
somebody that we normally talk about as a college football
playoff contender. But with Leonora Sellers and the record that
they had last season and the recruiting talent that they've
been able to compile, they absolutely should be. Does a
university like Miami belong as high as ten with as
(05:31):
much turnover as they've had, even though their offensive coordinator
is saying or at least propping Carson Beckup is potentially
having another number one overall pick in his quarterback room,
which I think is a bit nonsense.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
I mean, yeah, what's just it's what else is he
gonna say? Man, we paid Carson back a ton of money,
and boy does he suck.
Speaker 5 (05:50):
But yes, I hear, he's too busy cheating on a
Cavender twin and doing all the things that the rest
of us would probably do in our early twenties in
South Florida.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
If I was rich in my early twenties off Florida,
There's there's absolutely nothing I wouldn't be trying to put
in my body and nobody wouldn't cheat on So.
Speaker 4 (06:05):
I like it. Look, I get it. I'm not. I'm not.
Look in my early twenties, that wasn't the adult that
I am.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Now I think it's I do.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
I think you make a fair.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Oh god, I can't bounce back from that one. I
think you make our favorite point. Yeah, that is I
set myself up for that about conversation though, because I
will say, look, I'm an agent of chaos.
Speaker 6 (06:30):
I don't.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
College football is my favorite sport to cover, and it
is namely my favorite sport to cover because I don't
care who wins and loses. And the craziest thing about
that is that fan base is all They all got
so worked up that that's what I love. I don't
really What I need is for Alabama to be either
really great or really terrible, because either way people care. Right,
what I need is for Texas to either go out
(06:52):
and win a national championship or just get decimated and
fall off the rails, because either way people care, like
I want people to care about college football because I
love the sport. That being said, you make a good
point about the conversation. Part of the reason I've long
since been a champion of the College Football Playoff Committee
is if we simply create automatic bids where people get
into the college Football Playoff by where they finished in
(07:13):
their conference, there's no reason to talk about college football,
and you know, very real like watch shows like you
know across the ESPN and Fox Sports all day watch
Get Up, Right, and during a regular time of the year,
is Get Up gonna talk about college football on Tuesday
or Wednesday?
Speaker 4 (07:29):
The answer to that is no.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
And for the first month and a half of the season,
they'll barely cover college football right. But the minute the
college football playoffs starts to come out every Tuesday night,
in part because ESPN has the broadcasting right so that
oh man, Tuesday, there's a national media conversation what's the
committee going to do? And Wednesday there's a reaction to it.
I think that's good for the growth of the sport
it is. I've seen the numbers and frankly even at
(07:53):
Yahoo where I am now and incredible check out yah
Who Sports Daily by the way, Monday through Friday, nine
to eleven am Eastern Live.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
Thank you, No, it's a plug. That's not a fine.
Speaker 5 (08:04):
It's a plug that you should be fine for, even
though it is excellent content that you and Caroline Fenton
are doing.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
Thank you, Thank you very much. I appreciate that compliment.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Look, we look at the numbers and college football doesn't
do great ratings on podcasts, it doesn't do great rating
on national shows things like that. Monday Tuesday there isn't
really a big appetite for it. Friday there isn't really
a big appetite. I've hosted a ton of esp and
college football shows and my time when I was there,
and it's crazy how many of those shows were. Hey,
(08:35):
the ratings are okay on Monday, but they're terrible on Friday.
Like all of this is because college football has a
hard time cutting through the noise nationally for a lot
of people. And that seems crazy to everyone in the
South and everyone in the Midwest, but it's real to
the national perspective. I like having reasons to create a conversation.
So maybe you've changed my mind a little bit, because
you're right, we wouldn't be talking about Texas the same
(08:57):
way we are, but they're the preseason number one, so it.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
Creates a conversation.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
I just wish there was a way to do that
without propping up false value that can change, you know,
perception biases.
Speaker 5 (09:08):
Yeah, I get that, but if if there was, we
would have figured it out by now. You know what
I'm saying like, because it's not just cutting through the noise,
it's cutting through the NFL. And they're just one otherworldly
ability to suffocate the life out of every other sport,
even America's second most popular sport, which is of course,
(09:28):
college football. I FITZI I enjoy it, and not just
because I live in the South and in Nashville, Tennessee,
where you know, we don't have great local college football,
although Diego Pavey has given us some juice, you know,
I mean, if it's Pavia is like the preseason poll. Okay,
he making a lot of noise, a lot of noise
(09:49):
for people who are unfamiliar with Diego Pavia. He's the
quarterback of the Vanderbilt Commodore's. If you're unfamiliar with Vanderbilt
Commodore football, it is famously stinky.
Speaker 6 (09:57):
They upset Alabama.
Speaker 4 (09:59):
You like stinky. Stinky's word the buck rising lights like,
I'm you know, well.
Speaker 5 (10:03):
It seems it seems gentler then sucks out loud, which
I used to describe Titan's cornerback depth on the on
the Local show yesterday.
Speaker 6 (10:11):
It just seems a bit gentler, and I and I
enjoyed that.
Speaker 5 (10:14):
I'm enjoying the Pavia the Pavia thing, and I don't
want to denigrade him just for the sake of denigrating him,
even though I you know, his program is not to
be respected just yet, even though they're coming off a
nice season where they had one of the biggest college
football upsets we may ever see in our lifetimes, upsetting
Alabama in Nashville last year. But Pave is doing a
lot of talking, right He's going on Paul Finebam, and
(10:35):
he's saying that the that the standard at Vanderbilt is
national championship win.
Speaker 6 (10:39):
It has never been the standard at Vanderbilt. A hell.
Speaker 5 (10:41):
Winning seasons are an upset at Vanderbilt. Bowl eligibility is
an upset at Vanderbilt. Their Twitter account put out the
fact that they got rings for their bowl game win
over Georgia Tech this year, and they were the laughing
stock of the college football world, even though that's an
accomplishment for Vanderbilt, So diego. Pavia doing a lot of
talking in the preseason's going to put a big old
target on his back. But it is at least going
(11:01):
to get people interested in Vanderbilt and following along, whether
you're rooting for him or against him. You want to
see him continue to talk his talk, or you want
to see him silenced because you don't like that kind
of arrogance from a player at a program that does
not historically make waves that way. So the preseason poll
is my equivalent to Diego Pavia. And also because FITZI,
like I, college football is a better product.
Speaker 6 (11:22):
And I say that as an NFL reporter.
Speaker 5 (11:25):
And it's not just because, like the NFL is my job,
and you know, I it's it's the best job in
the world.
Speaker 6 (11:31):
And getting to travel all.
Speaker 5 (11:33):
Over the country and do do local radio for three
hours a day, do national radio with you, and all
the different opportunities that's afforded me. Like, I love my
job and I love covering the NFL, but college football
is way more fun, way more fun. And and to see,
you know, to see people not not necessarily interested in it,
because you know, in the Northeast, what do they care?
(11:54):
What are you gonna you're gonna pull for Rutgers on
a week by week basis, there's there's gonna be a
big alvaizing effect of the big ten power Rutgers and
things like that. No, of course not. But in the Southeast,
in the Midwest. It is tribal this way, and the hatred,
the hatred that fuels it as a sport is delightful
to me. And the way that people will end relationships
(12:15):
over college football fallouts and things like that. I just
find it thoroughly satisfying, beyond just how much more those
fan bases care about their programs versus the NFL, where
there is far more national attention but far less community.
It feels safe places like green Bay, Wisconsin, where there
(12:36):
is really nothing else to do but go to a
green Bay Packers game, which, by the way, respectfully of
the city of green Bay wildly overrated.
Speaker 4 (12:45):
The Packers games in the city of green Bay.
Speaker 5 (12:47):
There's nothing to right about green Bay. Green Bay is
a god forsaken wasteland in the middle of nowhere. I mean,
Lambo's fine. I did a primetime game at Lambeau a
couple of years ago. It was, ironically enough, one of
the last fun Titans games I've covered, and then the
offensive coordinator got a DUI afterwards because they can't handle success.
Speaker 6 (13:06):
So I yeah, I mean it was fine.
Speaker 5 (13:09):
I wasn't blown away with it like I was going
to Kneeland for the first time. One hundred and ten
thousand on your next screaming the entire time when they
haven't mattered on a national championship level for you know,
the previous fifteen to twenty years.
Speaker 6 (13:21):
That's that's unique.
Speaker 4 (13:23):
Yeah, you're right. We played the arena right next to.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
Right next to Lambeau several times, and every time I
was there, I was like, Yeah, it's Lambo.
Speaker 4 (13:32):
It's right, and you're not wrong.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
I think for me, it's always a weird situation to
be in that nothing moves my soul the way watching
an NFL game that I care about does, like and
specifically the Raiders for me, but obviously like the big
Sunday night football game, a great Monday night football game,
the afternoon game like when we get these Thanksgiving Chiefs
Cowboys game sort of things like that moves my soul.
(13:54):
But if I turn on the TV and the only
game on the early window where I'm at, if I
didn't have the ticket, was I don't know, Jets Jags,
I'm much more likely to sit down and say, hey,
this is a terrible Missouri team taking on a terrible
Buffalo team.
Speaker 4 (14:09):
I watch that.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
There's something about the environment about college football that to
me makes it a better watch. All of this, though,
has tied me into one thought. Maybe all of sports
actually have taken too many notes and aren't any better.
Speaker 4 (14:23):
Than the WWE. I'll explain what I mean next.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Be sure to catch live editions of Two Pros and
a Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn, LeVar Errington, and
Jonas Knox weekdays at six am Eastern, three am Pacific
on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
It's Two Bros and a Cup of Joe on Fox
Sports Radio. He's Buck Rising, I'm Jason Fitz. We are
in for the guys hanging out with you this morning.
Everyone knows first impressions start with the first coat. That's
why you can trust Kills Primers for a smooth and
pre professional finish. Kills Primer is now available exclusively at
the Home Depot if you're a p bro, oh you know,
sponsored by the Home Depot. Buck, you were talking about
(15:06):
the lead up to college football, the conversation that comes
around the first poll, you know, the conversation that comes
from certain players using a microphone to get everybody excited
about it.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
And the more you talked about.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
It, maybe even think of the NBA and the way
we spend so much time in the offseason just getting
ready for these huge storylines that rarely actually materialize and
we end up with something far less sexy than anybody expected.
And even in the NFL, where every few months there's
this next moment of storytelling.
Speaker 4 (15:35):
And I'm not sure that sports as.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
A general landscape haven't become full WWE. Like if you
think about WWE, WrestleMania is their main event every year,
and the minute they finished WrestleMania, they start a long
form storytelling that will take you all the way to
the next WrestleMania. Now you don't have to be a
big wrestling fan to understand this concept, but essentially, they
build up the good guys and the bad guys, and
(15:58):
then over the course of the year.
Speaker 4 (16:00):
They give you enough up and down that they hope
you stay.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
Tracked on it, and then by the end of it,
oh yeah, you get the big payoff at WrestleMania. Isn't
that essentially what we're trying to do everywhere? And maybe
maybe that's society wanting to create the good guy the
bad guy in all the friction in between. Maybe that's
the sport buying into it. Maybe it's just the new formula,
but it certainly feels like in order to cut through
storytelling of some sort of dramatic fashion. Like I'm not
(16:26):
sure that there's a huge difference anymore between getting ready
for the college football season.
Speaker 4 (16:31):
And watching Love Island.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
It's just gonna be drama that we all expect, and
we all know exactly what's gonna happen, and we all
know that by the end it's going to be sort
of disappointing. But we're still sitting here just living on
every word.
Speaker 6 (16:43):
All right? So am I the only person on the show?
Lee Lorena? I don't know. Are you Love Island consumers?
Speaker 3 (16:51):
I guess they're not. They're on our talk. Okay, well,
you can use any trash TV here. You don't have
to be a Love Island consumer. You could be a
blow Deck consumer. Is your trash TV guilty pleasure.
Speaker 6 (17:04):
Titans football.
Speaker 4 (17:06):
I knew he was going to say that the minute
I asked.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
I was like, Ah, he doesn't have any reality like
there's no bar rescue, Like, I don't know.
Speaker 5 (17:14):
I all right, So I get I get what you're
saying conceptually, even if I'm not a reality TV consumer
that way, and there's nothing wrong with it. Like I've
dated women that will throw on an episode of the
Bachelor or something like that, and I'll get, you know,
I'll get fired up because I find these people inherently
ridiculous or stupid. And it's it's like kind of rooting
(17:36):
for or against a sports team, right, That's that's kind
of that's kind of the the rudimentary infrastructure of all
of this stuff.
Speaker 6 (17:43):
But why shouldn't sports be more like professional wrestling?
Speaker 5 (17:46):
I wish that more people would take the approach that
somebody like Diego Pavia, who we referenced earlier, the Vanderbilt quarterback,
who's now saying that the standard at a place like Vanderbilt,
which has famously been a poverty college football program, is
all of a sudden the national championship because they had
the rare good season and won a bowl game for
(18:08):
which is a rare enough thing at a place like Vandy.
That's that's all well and good. And I also do
believe there's something to Fitzy to the idea of manifesting
this and inspiring people. Because you, as a professional athlete
or really any kind of performer, you understand this, uh
to an extent. I'm sure you can be the most
prepared person in the world. You can. You can have
(18:30):
had as many practice reps or as many sound checks
or as many whatever things that you need to get
you as fine tuned as humanly possible for whatever your
performance on the field, on the stage, whatever it might be.
Hell for broadcasting, you have to have some level of
(18:51):
unrealistic confidence about who you are and what it is
that you're capable of, and that you can exceed whatever
it is that you're capable of because of certain point,
you just have to get yourself into a certain mindset,
regardless of whether that is realistic or not. And maybe
you don't achieve that every time you go out to perform,
but you at least have to get yourself in a
(19:12):
place where you think that you can, no matter whether
you can or cannot in that particular situation, no matter
who is telling you that you can or cannot. So
I'm for the idea of trying to speak some of
this stuff into existence, and also to get more intrigue
around it, to get more interest around it by hyping
it up. I think that's you know, Fitzy, you brought
(19:33):
this up the other day because I told you. I
went to a WWE match for the first time in
my life. One of the producers on the local show,
he's a diehard WWE fan, so I've got him fifth
row seats for his birthday, and we went in particular
because buddy of mine, Jelly Role, is doing a lot
of stuff with WWE.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
Oh that's a fear, by the way, that's a fine.
You just a buddy of mine, Jelly roll that's a fine.
That is a name drump, that's a fine.
Speaker 6 (19:59):
I mean, it's what it is, like it fine.
Speaker 4 (20:01):
It's a fine to me.
Speaker 6 (20:03):
Is a body of mine Jason fits a fine?
Speaker 3 (20:06):
No, I'm not famous, Jelly rolls famous. You're the one
that told me when we name drop all right, that
that's a fine. You find me earlier. I have now
find you.
Speaker 5 (20:13):
I need I need anal Lorna's listening to me, not
when I asked her if she watch watches.
Speaker 6 (20:17):
Love Island or not?
Speaker 4 (20:18):
I hate that show.
Speaker 6 (20:20):
Okay, thank you.
Speaker 5 (20:21):
I appreciate that that figged back with I'm welcome instead
of me just listening listening for a response that received
received none whatsoever.
Speaker 6 (20:29):
Is that a fine or not?
Speaker 5 (20:31):
I mean, because that's genuinely like a friend of mine,
and he just so happens to have made it as
a very very famous human being in the last like
three four years.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
Look, you you are the one that instituted a fine
system on this show for name dropping.
Speaker 4 (20:43):
You just said a buddy of mine, jelly roll. You
didn't have to throw that into the story. You went
to WWE.
Speaker 5 (20:48):
I mean, I think it's a necessary part of the story,
because what the hell would I be doing at a
WWE match if not for seeing a friend perform.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
You You went with a buddy to WWE, That's all
you have to say.
Speaker 4 (20:58):
I mean, I mean I did.
Speaker 5 (21:00):
I'm not knowing things that its so we cover sporting
events for a living. I'm not going to anything where
I can't get some kind of special treatment or access.
You know, I'd be clumb out. I'm not doing it.
I'm not doing it with the unwashed masses anymore.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
But okay, number one, when we were on air and
I mentioned that right after the show, I was going
to stand on stage with Little Big Town and play
a song. You find me for that because you said
that that was me humble bragging.
Speaker 5 (21:22):
Also, I also think I called them the band Perry
because I don't distinguish between the two.
Speaker 4 (21:27):
Well, there's there's a substantial difference. Also Number two.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
I went to a WWE event about a year ago
with a bunch of ESPN friends.
Speaker 4 (21:37):
That's a simple story. See how I can tell that.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
I don't have to sit there and say, oh I
sat in the front row because Field Yates took me
because we were going to hang out with Roman Reigns.
See like, that's where it becomes findable.
Speaker 4 (21:47):
You mentioned Shelly Roll. Oh, now I'm getting this this
fine system.
Speaker 6 (21:51):
I'm not a subject to my own fine system. That's
not how it.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
Oh my god, Lee, Lee, Just somebody somewhere on this
show backed me up. And Buck is the worst and
deserves just a multitude of fines for this.
Speaker 4 (22:04):
Correct I think it is definitely a finable offense. You
can't be you cannot be like out on your own rules.
You know what I'm saying. If you find this man,
he can find you the same. No, no, now, events, I haven't.
Speaker 5 (22:22):
Introduced me to Roll. So he came by the local
show the other day. He gave some kind of motivational
speech to the Titans. Titans and wanted to do a
couple of segments where I ripped his football team because
I'm routinely telling them how terrible they are. Anyway, Uh
my point with that is you were telling me that
WWE has incorporated a lot of people that used to
(22:45):
work at ESPN as far as the production, right, Like
they have a lot of college game day people now
working in the WWE space. Nick Conn, I believe has
who's was a long time fixture in the in the
ESPN c AA adjacent world, like the people that put
these things on, and also the people that put together
you know, Peyton Manning and Chick fil A and whatever else,
(23:07):
brand and athletes and all these different things, right, because
they're all they're all they can all run off the
same construct. Storytelling in sports matters, storytelling in WWE matters.
Storytelling and soap operas matter. It's all some version of
the same thing. So why shouldn't it take on more
of a WWE role or WWE style, because I think
(23:31):
that engages more people. It's a successful formulat WWE is
a billion dollar business, a billion dollar business, and it's
it's I mean, as is the world of college football,
and the NFL is just trying to get into God knows,
they're trying to get into the trillions with the deals
that they're doing, because it doesn't seem like the NFL
is competing with the NBA or Major League Baseball anymore.
It feels like they're competing with Apple and Netflix and
(23:51):
everybody else with some of the some of the media
deals that they've done of late, and incorporating private equity
and all these different things that people don't really care about.
They just want to know where to get their football
and who their football team's playing on any given weekend.
But yeah, I love the element of the drama for
the same reason that we all do, because it just
makes that much more compelling. What the hell else is
(24:12):
supposed to get people interested in a Cardinals you know, Cardinals?
What's another Cardinals Jags Week fifteen game in the middle
of the NFL regular season if you can't squeeze some
additional drama out of it or storytelling out of it,
because otherwise, I mean, for what you're gonna you're talking
about an undersized quarterback who likes to play call of
duty instead of studying his playbook.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
There is I mean, allegedly there is some element of
all of this. I mean, we just saw with the
NBA schedule release. The NBA tried desperately throughout the course
of the schedule release to you know, at least give
us some hype, give us some reason to get really excited, and.
Speaker 6 (24:49):
Happened recently because that was not even remotely on my radar.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
Well, and see that that's the point, right, Like, no,
this week, they've given us the Christmas Day games and
the Opening Day games, and they're trying to.
Speaker 4 (25:00):
Do the NFL thing.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
And I think what's wildly disappointing about that for basketball
lovers in general, is that they did all of these
things during the middle of the NFL preseason and still
couldn't get traction. And in fact, with the new TV
deals that they have in place coming in, there's gonna
be NBA games on I think every day of the
week now the way they're splitting it out to all
(25:21):
of their different providers, and you know, they've given us
their slate of national games and they're trying to get
everybody super excited.
Speaker 4 (25:28):
They announced how.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
Many games the Lakers that you get on national TV,
all of these things.
Speaker 4 (25:32):
And nobody cared.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
And so it is this weird like there's a weird
balance here of selling the sizzle that leads up to everything,
but then also having a.
Speaker 4 (25:41):
Product that backs it up.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
College football has given us some particularly dramatic results over
the course. Like over the course of a season, you
get enough upsets, you get in just enough change. Like
we talk so much about the wild change in college
football of NIL and the transfer portal and blah blah
blah blah blah. Well, look at the top ten teams.
In the top ten teams are still Texas, Ohio State,
(26:02):
Penn State, Oregon, Alabama, Georgia. Like it's the usual brands,
the usual names. But because of the NIL transfer portal
and all the controversy around it, even though we're getting
the usual brands, it doesn't feel like it's a foregone
conclusion and it's still feels sexy.
Speaker 4 (26:20):
So it's the perfect.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
Blend of, Hey, you're getting the most important commercial brands,
you're getting the best stories out of it, and there's
going to be enough chaos that that's how you win.
Like I think what is dumbfounding for me sometimes is
the NFL always talks about parody, parity, parody, and you
and I've talked about this before, but parody doesn't really
exist in the NFL get you can get to mediocrity,
(26:42):
So yeah, you can sort of. You're supposed to be
able to get from really bad to mediocre. But if
we're being honest, the teams that have sucked for the
last twenty years have mostly sucked for the last twenty years,
and the NFL has been dominated by one team at
a time in every stinking generation.
Speaker 4 (26:57):
So it's funny that the league that.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
Taken the world by storm they can get two point
two million viewers for a Shad Or Sanders preseason game
on the NFL network, is the one that's actually kind
of the easiest to predict.
Speaker 6 (27:11):
You know.
Speaker 5 (27:11):
That's that's such smart marketing by the NFL to just
keep using the word parody over and over and over again,
to convince us that mediocre is actually parody.
Speaker 6 (27:20):
Why there there.
Speaker 5 (27:23):
Are so many reasons why the NFL is as successful
as it is, But that that thought had not occurred
to me until until you just remove the scales from
my from my eyes fits a you know, famously, I'm
i'm I'm I'm too optimistic about professional football to to.
Speaker 6 (27:42):
What's the word that I'm looking for? Willing to overlook?
Speaker 5 (27:46):
Uh, you know, the the the bumps and bruises, the ugliness,
the warts of professional football because it is America's favorite sport.
Speaker 6 (27:53):
I say that, of course, tongue in cheek, but like.
Speaker 5 (27:56):
But that's like, that's one of the smartest things that
they ever did, just to keep saying that word to
the point where we all start to believe them.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
We got the Chiefs in yet another Super Bowl, which
is continuing. They lost it, fine, but it's continuing in
a period of dominance, which is what we had before
that with the Patriots, and what we had before that
with the Cowboys and the forty nine ers.
Speaker 4 (28:18):
It just keeps going back and back and back.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
Every era has had a dominant team. Also, let's not
forget my friend. Last year, what a dozen teams lost
more than ten games. I mean a dozen teams.
Speaker 6 (28:29):
I know I covered one of them.
Speaker 4 (28:31):
Awful, awful, We're awful.
Speaker 3 (28:34):
And we're sitting here now this year saying, well, I
can't wait for football season.
Speaker 4 (28:38):
Everybody has a chance, No they don't. Like everybody does
not have a chance for the.
Speaker 3 (28:42):
Most part, more often than not, the Raiders, the Jets,
the Browns, the Titans. You can go up and down
the list. The group of teams that have sucked for
the last twenty years are probably gonna suck again. And
then there's gonna be a whole bunch of people in
the middle class that are competing somewhere between eight and
nine and in ten and seven, and they're all going
to be competing for these playoff spots, and we'll convince
(29:04):
ourselves that that's really parody. And at the end of
it all, we're probably gonna end up with a Final
four that still includes Buffalo, Kansas City, Baltimore, some version
of that, and in the NFC, we're likely to still
have the Eagles and the Lions. In that conversation, there's
very little unknown in the NFL this year compared to
a lot of years, and we still talk about the
(29:24):
league like they have just championed the ability for anybody
to go. Somebody will go from worse to first, where
they'll be eliminated in the first round the playoffs.
Speaker 4 (29:32):
And nobody will give it him.
Speaker 6 (29:34):
I do think that it was.
Speaker 5 (29:38):
More visceral last season, though, because like, the haves have
never looked better and the have nots have never looked worse.
Speaker 6 (29:46):
I mean, so.
Speaker 5 (29:47):
Many wretched teams to where I mean seven weeks, eight
weeks into the NFL regular season, you're still usually if
you're covering or if you're interested in watching the league
as a whole, you're you're still having to pay at
least some attention to all of these teams across the board.
Like you can't just start to ignore teams at the
(30:09):
halfway point of the season, Whereas I mean, and again,
mine is a very specific lens here because I'm a
beat reporter for a one of those particularly wretched teams,
like FITZI the Titan season was over in the third week,
in week three, it was done last year, So like,
what what do you do with a team like that?
(30:32):
Where fans spend all this time getting themselves ready, getting
themselves into the mindset by drinking the kool aid that
the NFL is selling them all for Will Levis to
fart out an interception and out the you know, out
out to the side to a trailing Bears defensive back
to literally throw away a game and end their season.
Speaker 6 (30:52):
Before it really ever begins. It's craziness.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
That's what the wildest part of the NFL is that
it is the most functional relationship in most of our lives.
Like when this season ended, it's just like the day
you broke up with well yeah, now, but hear me out.
You'll believe me. You will understand this when the season ends. Okay,
you have the most real it's the day you broke
up with her. You understand that she's crazy and you
(31:17):
want nothing to do with her. And then all of
a sudden, you get about a month out and you're like,
I don't know, I miss her a little bit. That's
the scouting combine and you're like, oh, you know, it
wasn't all bad. That is that's gonna get us a
straight to free agency. And then that's that's you seeing
some pictures on Instagram and you're like, oh man, you know, god,
I kind of I kind of miss I miss a
little of this, like it wasn't bad. And then all
(31:39):
of a sudden, you see more pictures. You see she's
out somewhere you guys used to go to with the friends,
and she's hanging out and that that's the draft and
you're like, oh my god, no, like we had good times.
All of a sudden, you're forgetting the crazy and you're
right back to the good times. And you're sitting there
in your house and you're you're doom scrolling. You're going
back watching some of the highlights from last year. Your
doom scrolling, you're like, this is better. You get to
(31:59):
the like the OTAs, and that's when it's you know what,
I really it's not as much fun without her, because
now you're in the summer, and now you're in the
summer and you want to you want to have your
boo back. That's favorite football team, and all of a
sudden you're getting just a little bit farther from it.
By the time you get back to it, now you've
just all your friends are like, dude, don't do it.
She's crazy. That's all your friends right now in the
football Like my friends are looking at me, they're like,
(32:20):
don't do it, man, don't fall for this Raiders thing again.
Speaker 4 (32:23):
And I'm like, this is gonna be the year. Man,
She's not going to be crazy. And then you're gonna go.
Speaker 3 (32:27):
Out on like two or three dates and you're gonna realize, well,
now we did all this work, we got back together.
Speaker 4 (32:33):
She's still crazy. But I gotta wait it out. I
gotta get through it. And that's the whole NFL season.
Speaker 3 (32:39):
That is what most of us are about to hear
the NFL is a dysfunctional, abusive relationship.
Speaker 6 (32:44):
My god, does that hit home? I can't.
Speaker 5 (32:55):
Oh my god, I've never related to anything that you've
said more in my entire life.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
That is that is why we all fall back in love.
And here's the thing in it. Today you're convinced she's
not crazy. Come see me in a month when you
realize she's crazy again. And then in six months when
you guys break up again, and then is your friend.
I'll sit here and say, hey, I got your back.
I know you're gonna do this exact same cycle in
just a few minutes.
Speaker 4 (33:17):
He's about anything.
Speaker 5 (33:19):
More about my relations This sounds toxic, guys, this sounds
real toxic. I right off, you could not pick two
better equipped people to have this particular conference.
Speaker 4 (33:32):
Oh God, all right, where you are?
Speaker 2 (33:37):
Uh?
Speaker 6 (33:38):
You up?
Speaker 3 (33:38):
That's an excellent WEEKNT Rising Jason Fitz We're filling in
for Two Pros and a Cup of Joe.
Speaker 4 (33:43):
We'll keep the fun going on Fox Sports Radio next.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
Be sure to catch live editions of Two Pros and
a Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn, LeVar Errington, and
Jonas Knox weekdays at six am Eastern three Am Pacific.
Speaker 5 (33:56):
There's nothing wrong with trying to manifest things into existence,
and that's exactly what this year's number one overall pick
in the NFL Draft is trying to do. Welcome Back,
It's two Pros and a Cup of Joe here on
Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 6 (34:14):
And unfortunately for the rest of.
Speaker 5 (34:16):
You, you're stuck with me for this final segment because
FITZI speaking of finable offenses, FITZI thinks he has bigger
and better things to do then finish out the last
That's what I'm saying, Lorena, no respect.
Speaker 6 (34:30):
We get no respect around him.
Speaker 5 (34:32):
Team No, No, I've never been accused of being a
team player in my life.
Speaker 6 (34:37):
I'll be honest with you on that.
Speaker 5 (34:39):
But FITZI has tried. In fact, FITZI is a far
better team player than I am. But it is appropriate
that now I would create even further of a toxic
culture in this relationship and try and take shots at
him while he's on his way out the door. By
the way, if you missed any of today's show, you'll
catch the podcast, or you'll want to catch the podcast.
Just search Two Pros and a Cup of Joe wherever
(35:01):
you get your podcast. Right after the show, the podcast
will be posted, so be sure to follow along. Rate
at five stars, and you can even provide a review. Again,
just search two Pros and a Cup of Joe wherever
you get your podcast, and you'll find today's full show
and even a best of version posted right at the
end of today's broadcast.
Speaker 6 (35:23):
I'm not sure what would consist of a best of.
Speaker 5 (35:26):
I don't know how much best of we actually did today,
but that's all well and good. We'll finish strong this morning.
Hell Y is right. So preseason football is on our
televisions again tonight.
Speaker 6 (35:38):
I'm in Atlanta. I cover the Tennessee Titans, and.
Speaker 5 (35:41):
As a part of that is bad football, a lot
of bad football in the state of Tennessee of late.
But you know, as a result, they earn worse than Stink.
I've said many worse things about them than Stink. But
they earned the right to draft the number one overall
pick this year. And cam Ward is very unassuming, very
(36:02):
not discussed. I think he's spectacularly boring. I think he's
exactly the kind of player that you want for a
dysfunctional franchise or a franchise that lacks direction and you
want to see that kind of person succeed. But he
said something this week while we have been down here
in the midst of a ten day road trip with
(36:22):
joint training camp practices with the Atlanta Falcons ahead of
their preseason game later this evening, and he gave a
press conference at the end of the joint training camp
practices in which they just definitively looked like the worst
team against a team that's not exactly world beaters. Nobody's
looking at the Atlanta Falcons this year as Super Bowl contenders,
and yet they were the better team on the field
(36:43):
for two days. So what on earth is cam Ward
referencing here when he's talking about a top ten offense
and a top five wide receiver corp can I hear
from this year's number one overall pick please?
Speaker 7 (36:55):
I think also have a top five receiver court in
the NFL. Include the young guys we're able to make plays.
It's really all about just us or myself putting the
ball in their frame of word, letting them make a play.
And then as also those guys being aggressive to make
plays for the team.
Speaker 5 (37:12):
Lorena Lee, I leave this to you. When you hear
cam Ward utter that or say those words, can you
name me a Titans wide receiver?
Speaker 4 (37:20):
Calvin Ridley? Okay, I can't do anything for you. Trailing Burks,
But isn't he injured?
Speaker 6 (37:27):
Yeah, perpetually?
Speaker 4 (37:28):
And Westbrook? But does he have one of those hyphenated names.
Speaker 6 (37:32):
No, he plays for the Dolphins.
Speaker 4 (37:33):
Now, yeah, see that?
Speaker 3 (37:35):
And then I know they got some rookie who's supposed
to be good, but I couldn't tell you his name
if you put a gun to my head.
Speaker 6 (37:41):
They've got two of them.
Speaker 5 (37:42):
They're both were picked in the fourth round him Ray
DK and Eleck iyaman Or. I don't think you would
have gotten those names even if you were the biggest
draft knick.
Speaker 6 (37:49):
But that's who we're talking about here. Okay.
Speaker 5 (37:52):
Now people are going to hear that and make it
an easy conversation to have.
Speaker 6 (37:57):
Around well, what the hell is he talking about?
Speaker 5 (37:58):
This guy doesn't know anything, and it's going to be
an easy punchline to have. But the thing that I
love about that clip is the fact that he's talking
about It's not necessarily I mean, it is a support
for his guys, or words of support for his guys,
but he's talking about his belief and self and the
idea that We're very quick to make that a laughing
(38:20):
or something to laugh at, to point and laugh at
just because they are a bad football team and they
don't expect to be much.
Speaker 6 (38:25):
Better in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 5 (38:27):
I think that's exactly the kind of personality type that
any franchise would kill for. He's trying to inspire. This
is something. This is a franchise that has been wretched.
You can talk about the teams that are picking at
the top of the draft. The Cleveland Browns have a
fan base that is passionate, that is loyal, but is
a bit broken in the amount of trauma that they've
(38:48):
had to survive, so much so that they're willing to
place an inordinate amount of his on his own roster
just because they're looking for any shred of hope anywhere.
The idea that these guys are coming into the NFL
manifesting or trying to manifest these things into existence is
(39:08):
a redeeming quality, not something to be mocked. I got
no problem with a quarterback who is interested in inspiring
as opposed to submitting. They are conditioned their entire lives
to come in here and think that they are going
to be the thing that helps turn broken franchises around.
Speaker 6 (39:28):
So, whether it be cam Ward or.
Speaker 5 (39:31):
Jackson Dart or Dylan Gabriel, Shador Sanders, any of these
guys who are talking as if they don't because they
don't come with the baggage of all of the bad
football that came before them. I'm so fascinated to see
how these guys, this particular class of rookie quarterbacks goes
(39:51):
through the rest of their careers and preseason the value
of it. How much can we learn from fifteen snaps here,
a quarter or two there. It's very, very granular type
stuff that's more for the coaching staffs than it is
for the fans or the media who's not privy to
the meeting rooms to see all the different ways that
they're trying to implement this stuff. But it's just good
(40:14):
to have football back at our lives. And I'm so
looking forward to covering a preseason game tonight, which is
a disgusting way to exist. And I know that you
can continue to hear all about it here on Fox
Sports Radio. We appreciate you hanging out with us this morning.
Stay tuned
Hosts And Creators
Brady Quinn
LaVar Arrington
Jonas Knox
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