05/09/2021 - FOX Sports Sunday with Steve Hartman and Rich Ohrnberger - Fox Sports Radio

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio living the dream once
again on a fabulous Sunday, Hartmann and Ormburger with you
from the Fox Sports Radio studios. A happy Mother's Day
out there and his mom's special day. I would imagine
your beautiful bride and and tackling those two boys of yours.

(00:26):
I know you appreciate her tireless efforts to make things
right in the Ormburger House. So what what did you
do special for mom today? I kept the I kept
those two little brats away from her. Yes, that's what
you do. Like I mean, there's no better, in my opinion,
Mother's Day gift than like giving your wife a hotel

(00:50):
room by herself. Yeah, like the fortress of solitude. What
would be would be perfect? But I guess you could
settle for a Marriott. Yes. Do you do you feel
any guilt at all when you prance out of the
house to head down to the station to do your
radio work. And there's always been guilt chaos as in

(01:11):
the house as you're literally trying to get out the
door to get out of there. Everything I've done, uh,
basically since I've started working, I work. I worked. Uh,
I worked in Adelhia as a high school kid and
were it wasn't work. I just went there and ate
the entire time and just make myself sandwiches. And I

(01:31):
thought it was the best job in the world. It
didn't feel like a job. I went there. I had
a couple of buddies who worked with me, a cousin,
and we slung lunch meat and I ate every other
bologny slice. It was amazing. And then I played in
the NFL and did college football and all that stuff,
and yeah, it felt guilty. Well, everybody goes to work.

(01:51):
I go to play, and now I'm in radio, and
so yes, there is a fair amount of guilt associated
with it. When I walk out of the door, I'm like,
all right, I'm off to work. And now she's sitting
there with you know, the rolling pin, waiting for me
to come home and hit me with You could be worse,
you could to do what I did to Denise back
in the day. So we lived in San Diego and

(02:14):
I was doing my Monday through Friday radio show, and
then I got an offer to do television on the
weekends in Los Angeles, and I got hired right after
our second son was born, literally my hired day was
the day after he was born. For the next five years,
five plus years, I would were I would leave Saturday

(02:37):
morning and come home late Sunday night and leave her
with not only the two boys because we got the
third in there as well, alone on the weekends with
the baby. Well, the truth is, I mean I can't
even imagine the hellscape that that was for her for

(02:57):
those five years piece of when I would leave on
that Saturday morning, it would be unbelievable. And then I
come back, like Saturday night I would spend I would
spend a night either at my parents house at the time,
or I would get a hotel room in Hollywood, and
I would kick back like in this. Yeah, you know,
I was a regular. You start building up points because
you're there every Saturday. You're like, gosh, it's been a

(03:19):
really tough day over here. Meanwhile, you're like language. I
would never even like on a Saturday because I wasn't
even doing I was just doing this show called Sports Central.
I hauld do commentary. I wasn't anchoring, so Saturday nights
was all my own. I go to the movies by myself.
I'd order like a plush meal in the hotel room. Meanwhile,

(03:43):
I just picture it's like seven thirty at night. You're
you're this has to be years ago, so you're you're
wrapping up. You're wrapping up like watching I don't know
what major league in the movie theaters. It wasn't that
far back this, This would be around this is the
early two. Okay, so you're walking again. You're walking out
of a Bruce Willis Armageddon exactly just saved the world,

(04:09):
and your poor wife is at home and she's just
going drake, I have no idea how you got this
much poop on the that's how did you know? Because
I have kids. She actually send me photos. She goes,
look what your son did. She took that diaper off
and rearrange it, did some artwork, little caveman drunk. Meanwhile,

(04:29):
you're like, I don't want of clothes. I'm so busy.
I'll call you later. I'm busy right now. I got
a lot of things going on up here, so take
that time. I don't. We don't have to ask you
because we know how special the moms out there, So
happy mothers stayed all the moms listening out there and
take care of moms. They absolutely deserve it, all right.
We got a lot of things going on. By the way,

(04:50):
we have one breaking story right now. We would not
normally talk about this, but we had the Derby last
week and apparently the derby winner of medina Spirit it
failed a drug test and Bob Badford has been suspended
from racing horses at Churchill Downs. They may try to
fight this, but they may withdraw obviously if it is

(05:13):
held up that Medina's Spirit, the upset winner of the Derby,
will be de cued. I always wonder about this because
obviously everyone cashed in their tickets. Do you get your
how do you get the money back? I mean, I mean,
what happens there? You're hard up? I I don't know.
I honestly don't know the answer to that. I'm guessing
all bets are final. That's just the way it goes.

(05:36):
The horse that one dirty or not, that's the horse
that one. But yeah, yeah, I mean, who didn't see
this coming? I saw that Jim that horse in the
gym prior to that race, and I'm just like the biceps, Well,
if you watch that race, this Medina's Spirit was so
much smaller than these other horses, and just blew by
the field and you're like, wow, actually I had a

(05:58):
power pack to that little horse. I know a little
bit about horse racing. Racing, Um. I have family who
used to own parts of race horses, and it's it's
an interesting business. When you get to go to the
stables and you see how many people one horse employs,
it's absolutely absurd. Um. But I will say this about
I don't know what the drugs do. Like some obviously

(06:20):
are nugs do with they do to humans, this performance
enhancing DRUSS, right, But some of them it's it's different
though some of them are in horse racing, I think,
like blood doping and everything like. Some some of it's
for endurance, some of it's for for building more muscle,
like you know, like steroids would anabolic steroids for human beings.
Some of it's you know, to numb pain, you know,

(06:43):
so these horses don't don't feel as much or don't
hurt as much as they're racing. There's all sorts of
things that are banned for many different reasons, some because
they lead to horse injuries and some obviously because of
competitive advantage. All right, so well we'll keep an eye
on that one, but not good news for Bob for
celebrating his record seventh win at the Derby. You know,

(07:03):
universal praise. Apparently. By the way, this is the fifth
horse that he owned or trained, uh that has tested
positive for drugs in the last year. He says, he
that horse has never taken the drug. That's who he says.
That's what Bob Bafford says. All right, So we got
a lot to cover today, by the way, for us,

(07:25):
for Rich and I this weekend series. I don't know
if you watch baseball, you ready for this last night.
So I am doing my l a sports anchoring and
the Dodger Angel game is running late, so you love
this highlight, right, So my producers are like, all right,
they're gonna stick it in because the game was still
not finished yet, so we're gonna stick in the highlights.

(07:47):
So if you missed this game last night, this was
the craziest game. The Dodgers have been absolutely in a
free fall, and they started thirteen and two. They came
into this game seventeen and sixty right, fourteen losses in
the last eighteen games. So I'm doing these highlights and
it ends with Mookie bats getting a base hit too

(08:08):
right to put the Dodgers up thirteen nothing. Here's how
the copy reads. That puts the Dodgers up thirteen nothing.
They win at fourteen to eleven. That's how it ends.
And I'm like, wait, hold on a second there. If
I've watched it at home, I'm like, wait a second,
up thirteen nothing? They went at fourteen to eleven. If

(08:29):
I'm missing a highlighter, two here, what exactly happen? It's
difficult reading this story. And I'm sort of like, but
that was an amazing comeback. And you have a game,
well where there's twenty eight hits, uh, there's twenty five
runs score d and that's what we had and says

(08:49):
that basic put the Dodgers up thirteen nothing. They went
at fourteen to eleven, and I'm like, until later, I said, guys,
you need to head at least one angel highlight to
the telecasts, explaining almost all of their runs. I don't
know if any team has ever brown thirteen run league,
but they almost did it last night. Meanwhile, the Padres,

(09:12):
we were promoting that the Potter has had a chance
to take over first place in the NL west of
the big weekend in San Francisco. Instead, the Giants. They
really have been an amazing story. But now that this
is the oldest roster in the National League, actually they
have the oldest lineup in the major leagues, the Giants,
and they're having a resurgence. I mean, buster post has

(09:36):
been on. Here's a guy who sat out last season,
sat out the entire year. He's hitting three nineties seven
this year. Brandon Belt, Brandon Bell. I mean, these are
Evan Longoria, digging guys up from the dead, and they're
sitting in first place in in in fact, they have

(09:58):
the best record in the National From r I Peter
r b I, it's just I don't know, it's it's
a it's a long season. In fact, I want to
get to that. On the other side, right now, you know,
we have we sort of have this post NFL draft
a little bit. We have a lot of NFL news
we're gonna get to so all of a sudden, we

(10:20):
focus on the NBA as they inch ever closer to
the playoffs, and on all the ramifications of this play
and tournament, if you want to call it that, and
Major League Baseball that at this point, thirty plus games
in the season, we're more than halfway home. To the
end of the season a year ago. So will the

(10:41):
NFL continues to lap the field in terms of popularity.
Where exactly do we stand right now with the NBA
and Major League Baseball? We'll talk with the talk about
the American pasttime coming up next. You could come on there.
Sam just starts talking. I was just telling that the

(11:03):
frontman has band died of COVID sadly, but I remember
that good Mother's Day song to play it is, did
you ever have that friend of yours that had the
hot mom? Oh? Yeah, yeah. And I made no qualms
about letting letting that be known. And I look, I was.
If I was anything, I was a brave or courageous

(11:26):
young man. And uh I I look back now, and
I mean, I'm sure opportunities wasted. No no, no, no, no,
I quite the opposite. A lot of stones overturned, but
also a lot of those cringe worthy moments where you
close your eyes and you try to picture your the predicament.

(11:47):
I put people in sometimes as like an adolescent and
and I just think to myself, like I can't belie,
I can't believe I made it to my thirties, Like
I let most of us feel that way, and then
when you get to my age, he'll really be a
marvel that you've survived this love. I mean every day
as a journey. I want to I want to get

(12:07):
into a little baseball right now. This the highlight of
this baseball week was the celebration of William mays ninetieth birthday.
And as I said before, I was happy for them
to put the spotlight on, say hey, Willie Mays, because
when we talk about the greatest baseball player of all time,
Babe Ruth is sort of in a class by himself
because of his ability to pitch at the highest level

(12:30):
and hit. But when you talk about five tool players,
Willie May stands alone. I mean, think about a guy
who led the league in home runs four times but
also led the league in stolen basis four times. It
was an incredible athlete playing a sport where in his day,
there weren't a lot of great athletes baseball players. They

(12:52):
didn't look like Willie Mays. They didn't play like Willie Mays.
They they looked specialized to whatever it was they were.
They were good at right, you're a groundball hitter, you're
a home run hitter, you're a great picture. Nobody looked
like an athlete or really played like an athlete like
Willie Mays did. Absolutely. I mean, he was a chiseled

(13:14):
five eleven pounds and he had abilities beyond belief. He
was a ten on a one out of ten in
all five phases of being a five to a player.
But you know, it's interesting how history can change, uh
and and we we we changed with the times. Mike
Trout has won three MVP Awards, He's been a runner
up four times, despite the fact his Angels teams never

(13:36):
even won a playoff game. And that's because of the
War stat. The war stats suddenly was a new gauge
to value, you know, how valuable players were. And so
Mike Trouts won three m VP, has been runner up
four times. Willie Mays there wasn't a war stat back
in William Mays his day. He won two m VP Awards,
but now retro actively they've put the war stat on

(13:57):
all those seasons. He led the Ashe Lincoln War ten times.
So if the m v P voting during his career
in the fifties and sixties was done like it is
today with Mike Trout, there is no doubt that he
would have won at least eight Most Valuable Player awards,
which would be the all time record. Yeah, you know
these awards that are given out again, I'm I'm not

(14:21):
a fan of Halls of Fame. I'm not a fan
of Pro Bowl voting or All Star voting in in
the n b A or NHL or any sport, major
League baseball. I I think there's far too much subjectivity
factored into these things, like these writers are broadcasters, are
people who are the gatekeepers to these awards. They know

(14:42):
better than the statistics or you know, to to to
a certain extent, I think when you look at especially
game like baseball, where everything is picture batter everything is
ball in air. Can you track it down and catch
it or not? It's it's mathematic there there. It's undoubtingly

(15:04):
the case that Mike Trout won those m vps, right
because you can look at it and say, oh, no, no, no, yeah,
he's the best at this. I so William Mays did
not have the same luxury back in the day, and
it was a different set of criteria in those days,
a determined m VP. So when you see William Mays
one two MVP awards, the reality is had he put

(15:27):
those numbers up today, he would have won eight and
eight most Vailable Player awards. Think about, you know, the
viewership and the membership of baseball at that time. You know,
this was a sport that was still exclusive almost to
the white race. You know, I mean like and and
and I understand like these days, this is something that

(15:48):
gets brought up all the time. But back then, especially
this what he meant to baseball, what he meant to
a lot of young African Americans in this country looking
at a player of his albrov his ability and and
in a more limited fashion. Because that's when All Star
games actually were somewhat important. When they reached these stars

(16:09):
of the game were able to reach a broader arm.
It's a great point if you play. Like growing up
in Los Angeles, obviously I could see William Mays because
the Dog the only Dodge games that were broadcasts with
their games on the road against the Giants. But when
you have an All Star game where William Mays would
show up obviously every single year, I also loved this.
They would bat him lead off, you know, because you

(16:30):
wanted a spotlight. And by the way, he wouldn't come
out after the fourth inning he played nine. I mean,
will William Mays would play an All Star game from
the beginning to end because he was the biggest star,
and he put on a show in these All Star Games.
And he saw the power, he saw the speed, he
saw the skill set. Defensively, he was without Pierre. I mean, this,
this guy off the charts. I bring that up though,

(16:53):
because in bringing up William Mays, you could feel like
there was a lot of nostalgia going on, like an
era when baseball reigned supreme. I mean, baseball in the
fifties and sixties was the kingpin of the sports scene
in America, and obviously no longer is that. And I
feel like once again we're at a crossroads for baseball.

(17:16):
I don't know if you've been taking notice here, Richmond,
I'm sure you have. Batting averages have plummeted. The month
of April historically bad April as far as batting average goes.
And this is you know how it is in football
where offensives come and change. They make a change, and
then eventually the defenses figure it out. So now all

(17:37):
the offensive people have got to go back to the
drawing board to figure out something new. Until the defenses
could catch on. And I feel like all these analytics
that have instilled in baseball, they're catching up with it
and all that run production and swinging for the fences.
We've had four no hitters already this year. We're only
a fifth of the way through the season. The record

(17:58):
for no hitters in a year is Devan. We got
four already. We're on pace for twenty no hitters. Now,
why do we have so many no hitters? Well, when
you got guys swinging for the fences instead of just
trying to get a base hit, which is how you
break up a no hitter, you're gonna have a lot
of no hitters. So I'm I'm wondering now, with all
these analytics, as the batting averages fall and everything else,

(18:19):
whether or not they're gonna go back to the drawing board.
Because here's the problem. So hits her down, run production
is down. You know what's not down? Time of games.
So the games are still over three hours a game,
but now less appealing to watch than ever. These games

(18:40):
are a bore fest. And when you watch guys just
walking back to the dugout after another strikeout, it's unwatchable
and I'm just wondering if Major League Baseball, with all
their talk about you know, we got to bring in
a younger audience, we got to get a new audience,
and is realizing that the product that continue to put
out there is not getting better, it's getting worse. Well,

(19:03):
and it just sort of feels like if if you
were in your house and your ceiling was leaking. You
know what I'm talking about a house, right, Uh, you
would You wouldn't just patch the ceiling. You would try
to find the source of the league. Is your roof bad?
Is there a plumbing situation? The problem with baseball is

(19:23):
they're not addressing the the root cause of the reason
why the sport is slowly evaporating in in gameplay, base runners,
all that stuff. You know, they deaden the ball this offseason.
What it's led to, like you just pointed out, is
this boost in no hitters and this drop of batting averages.

(19:43):
Now I understand the juice ball from a year ago
was leading to home runs or two years now, the
past two years has led to this gigantic surgeon home runs,
which isn't good for the sport either. But stop screwing
around with the ball and address the eight pound gorilla
in the room, which is the shift. The reason why
you're deadening the ball in the first place is because

(20:05):
batters now have a choice. I either make contact and
I put it in the glove of one of these
fielders who's in a perfect place because of you know
my spray pattern for off my bat or I put
it or I strike out, or put it over the fence.
So your goal is to lift the ball over the
defense or to go down swing, because that is it.

(20:29):
You die on your shield. It used to be embarrassing
to strike out. Never everybody. The two outcomes that happened
most often are strikeouts and home runs. Look, change the
rules to make sure that you have outfielders within a
certain threshold. I mean, draw circles in out field for
all I care. Make sure you have two in fielders

(20:50):
to the left of second base, two in fielders to
the right a second base. All these problems start slowly dissipating,
all right. So, unlike last year where we didn't take
much notice of it because we are in a full
out sprint to get through a sixty game season, as
we embark on this month of May and realized, wow,
we got four full months before we even get to
a September run. It's gonna be a critical time for

(21:12):
Major League Baseball. But they gotta do something because right
now a game that has been teetering is heading in
the wrong direction as far as the visual appeal of
the game. All right, on the other side, we'll get
a little bit into the NBA as well right now
because the playoffs are right around the corner. Whether the
implications of these play in games. But first, that's fine, Ow,

(21:34):
it's trending right now. David gas God is in the house, fellas.
So when I did the podcast with you and Bend,
one person reacted to it saying, my disdain for you
is clear, and I was like, how how would that be?

(21:55):
I love David gas Guy. I've already proclaimed the twenties
are the decade of Gasco. Yeah. Yeah, I started off
with a bank. Yes, Oh my gosh, yes, I did
that before the pandemic. We go from a bank to
a job, and now we get something else, hopefully on
the horizon. Yeah. Somebody asked Dr Fauci to do a

(22:16):
baseball analogy of where we are right now. We are
we coming down the now on the strategy we're solidly
in the middle of the sixth inning. Yeah, they're like, wow, thanks,
thanks Dr Fauci out there. Well, I hope our hope,
our country doesn't have a bullpen. The Rivals, the Angels,
even the Dodgers that they got about eight guys and
the injured list right now, and hopefully, like the Dodgers,

(22:39):
we don't blow that. I thought they were gonna bring
Joe Kelly in the game to just wrap up the Wow.
That was one of the great signings of all time.
I I need to uh, I need to push back
on the baseball take. Yeah, you don't do you like
the game better than ever? Well, I don't like the
game better than ever because of the use of saber
metrics when we're thinking about like launch angles and eggs

(23:01):
of loss. I don't think that has any bearing on
the game. But I think the way that the states
in our great Republic are opening their doors no pun
intend to sports gambling. I mean, the Arizona Diamondbacks said
just a few days ago that they're gonna be opening
up a book at Jay's Fields. Okay, but but but
here here's and I love you bringing in In fact,
I want to get you in on this conversation later

(23:23):
because you're all over this and this is a big
time conversation. But basically, what you're saying right now is
no sport is in trouble, not even close to me
in trouble as the expansion of legalized gambling on sports
happens in this country. Because the more gambling opportunities there are,
the more money is going to pour into these sports.

(23:45):
So gambling is going to say basis, Well, here's the
thing is that when whenever you gamble or you place
wagers on like college football, the National Football League, maybe
even the NBA, you get immediate returns, at least you
feel like you do because the action that's involved, whether
you're betting a first half or a quarter or even
a full game. When it comes to the NBA. What

(24:05):
if you're not a gambler, Yeah, well, I mean even
if you're not, I mean, do you still play fantasy sports? Right?
What if you don't play fantasy sports? But how many
men out there do not play any kind of fantasy sports?
I just look at it from this standpoint. Even even
if gambling is going to help baseball, they're still gonna
be lagging the other sports leagues. You know, you're still

(24:25):
vying for the attention of sports fans. Yeah, but I
you look at the NBA. The NBA's viewership has gone down.
It's been continuing to go down outside of the markets
in Asia, especially in China. I mean, the NBA would
be in some serious economical trouble. I mean they're all
in bed with these gambling out But don't forget the
top fifty programs in the United States last year, more

(24:49):
than half of them related to the National Football League
or and or college football. Like, live programming is king
for all these networks. So whether it's Major League Baseball,
the NBA, the NFL, A college football, of the National
Hockey League, live programming is king and it trumps anything
else that we have out there. So I I although
baseball is a regional sport now as opposed to a

(25:11):
national sport, I don't think it's gonna die, and I
don't think it's gonna say it was gonna die. I
just said I'm watching the game. Well I'm good. Yeah, yeah,
visually unappealing for the most part, although I will say this,
you know, when you have a great matchup or you
have a game where you got a lot of base

(25:32):
runners that the excitement. Baseball is still beautiful sport. You
just you just need to have more pace. Yeah, you
gotta be paced, al right, but you're we'll get into
it later. Your attention levels have changed. Then it sounds
like Jellen again. But you're you're trying to make the point.
If you're if you're not in joint sports, dig in
your pocket, put a few bucks on a game. I'm

(25:54):
not saying that's what you should do. I'm saying that
that's what will happen. The the aesthetics of of getting
major League Baseball and more people intrigued in the game,
I think will come from gambling, because we'll have another outlet,
another means to get involved in these kind of games.
So we'll get to that later. You guys had mentioned
the derby obviously earlier with medinas spirit potentially being disqualified

(26:16):
because of a felled post race drug test, so it
happens with that. But Churchill Downs did issue with statements
and that they did suspend Bob Bafford the training of
Medina's spirit from any any horses at Churchill Down's racetrack,
and speaking of Major League Baseball, Jacob Degram and the
New York Mets taking on Arizona. There's no score yet.
Yankees and National is the same in the top of
the second from the Bronx. I don't know. We will

(26:40):
continue to discussion later because we have a lot to time.
The gambling is a big part of this, and there's
some huge gambling deals we have to address most definitely.
All right, David, thank you very much. Um. I want
to get to the NBA for a second here, and again,
I don't want to be hyper critical because these are
sports that are near and dear to me my entire life,

(27:00):
and that's that's getting on in years now. So this
NBA season from the get go, this season really has
been an abomination. So the NBA started the season because
of the late finish of the season a year ago
in the bubble, and they wanted to start the season

(27:22):
two months later than it normally starts. But and I'm
still blown away by this, we want to make sure
the season ends in time for the NBA's participation in
the Olympics. So they condensed the schedule from eight two
to seventy two games, but they condensed it way more

(27:43):
so where all of a sudden, you're almost playing every
other night So how's this season played out? Not well?
Your biggest stars have missed an amazing amount of time
this year, whether it's Lebron or Hardened or Durant, go
down the list. Superstar after a superstar has been on
the shelf for a variety of reasons, whether it's you know,

(28:04):
injuries or load management, whatever it is. This has been
as forgettable a regular season as I could ever recall
in the history of the NBA, and players don't seem
to be happy about it. The league certainly can't be
happy because the numbers are down. They haven't been able
to obviously get you know, fans into the arenas as

(28:25):
they try to start, you know, opening up the doors
for what I mean, I I just I don't understand
this impairedive How to think about this when this season
is all said and done and they finally limped to
the finish line when aver plays out, do you think
that all these superstars are gonna say, oh yeah, let
me jump in Zilla's Olympic games? Are you kidding me?

(28:45):
You have to find a way to incentivize it, unless
they're independently incentivized, unless they feel, well, this is great
for my brand, you know, especially the fact that this
is these games are being hosted in an Asian country,
and there is a huge amount of influence UH that
is obviously gone overseas. As far as the NBA expanding

(29:07):
its borders, we see this. You know, you have NBA
exhibitions played with with certain professionals in Africa, with certain
professionals in China, with certain professionals all over Southeast Asia,
UH included you in India. You have the game and
this was all prior to the pandemic, but you have
this game expanding its borders because like all corporations, n

(29:31):
BA needs to prove to its viewers and its shareholders
and its investors and and for their ownership in general growth,
that's how capitalism works. If you're not growing, you're shrinking.
And if you're shrinking, you're dying. And so to grow
the business, they need more eyes. And so that's the

(29:52):
reason why these sports have gone, these sports leagues have
gone international. And so I think some of these are
in Japan. Yeah, I do think some of these stars
will up and go because of the demographics they read. Right,
If the if the Summer Games are in Rome, if
the Summer Games or in Europe, somewhere or in South America,

(30:13):
the urgency would not be there because of the financial
dependence that the NBA has on the Asian dollar. There's
no question about that. It's a it's an outstanding point
riche because that's why. And this is also too for
the superstar players are making millions of millions of dollars
off their name overseas away to brand themselves. So I

(30:37):
just the whole dynamic, and then you got this play
in situation. So think about this. There there's sort of
a good and bad to the play in. So it
stands today, the Lakers are in a play in game.
Top six seeds are in the seven and eight seeds
will be termined by a play in. The seventh seed
plays the eight seed. The winner moves on to be

(30:57):
the seventh seed. The nine seed plays that tennessee, the
loser is eliminated. Then the loser of the seven eight
game plays the winner of the nine ten game to
determine the eighth seat. So you could have, now this
is the win for the NBA. Imagine a seven eight
matchup of Lebron and the Lakers versus Stephen the Warriors

(31:19):
as a set, That's what it would be today. That's
your seven eight matchup. Now, it's not an elimination game
because the loser would still have a chance to get in.
Right now, you would have Memphis the nine seed versus
San Antonio the Tennessee. Let's say the Lakers lose to
the Warriors. Steph has you know, what do you do?
Forty nine points and twenty nine minutes last time? So,

(31:39):
I mean it's not unheard of this Steff could go off.
Now the Lakers face an elimination game to be eliminated
from the playoffs. That's eliminating Lebron James and the Lakers
from the playoffs, and they're playing either Memphis as San
Antonio one game to get into the playoffs. What do
you think the chances are are that the NBA just

(32:02):
sort of make sure that the Lakers are not a
casualty in that game. I think odds are pretty good
that the Lakers win. I would I would also say,
though it depends on health. If Lebron James is still unhealthy,
if Anthony Davis is still unhealthy. I mean, Anthony Davis

(32:25):
had thirty six and twelve the other night against Portlands,
so it looks like he's fine. We have no word
on Lebron yet. We don't know is he gonna come
back at all? Is gonna just show up for this
playing games that they are in the playoff games, well,
they have five games left and a d missed time.
I I understand he came back and he's healthy, but
then he missed part of a game two nights ago
or three nights ago with an ankle came back from

(32:48):
that as well. So my huge night you have. You
have both your stars who have been battling injuries throughout
the course of the season, and so yeah, if they're
available and they're playing, then it's one thing. If they're not,
then I don't think I don't think it's You're gonna
get a lot of the hometown cooking, so to speak,
out of the officiating crew. If Lebron James and Anthony
Davis are unavailable, well if you limit, if you take

(33:10):
out Lebron James of the NBA playoffs, that is a
major hit to the NBA because he he rates like
a team. Lebron James so polarizing. Either love him you
hate him, but he will get eyeballs. You cannot have
him eliminated from the playoffs. I I I also think
it's odd or it's interesting timing that what it was.

(33:33):
Less than a week ago, he came out against He
called anybody who voted for this new play in tournament
circumstance an idiot, yes, and should be fired and should
be fired. And now the Lakers are going to be
playing in and especially if they lose two games in
it and are eliminated, then the NBA is in deep trouble.

(33:54):
You do not want the Lakers and Lebron James eliminated
before the playoffs even begin in a so called playing game.
I will say this though, a seven eight matchup between
Lebron and the Lakers and Stephan the Warriors will get
some eyeballs. It certainly will look. This is my argument.
Don't get me wrong. I I think it's abhorrent having

(34:14):
two thirds of your league in a playoff, whether it's
a play in or it's a true playoff where you're
playing series. It's ridiculous. You have thirty teams, twenty of
them make the postseason, only five per conference are left out.
It's outrageous, it doesn't make sense. It's gross. It makes
the postseason less urgent, it makes it less less special,

(34:37):
but having single elimination or in the case of this tournament,
double elimination for the loser um I I it makes
it a little bit more urgent as a a doorstep
to the postseason. I began a conversation with Gascon, and
that's something that has been front and center to major
acquisitions that have gambling ass texts to them are showing

(35:02):
you how the whole dynamic of professional sports is changing dramatically.
We'll tell you all about it coming up next. Hey,
it's Ben host of The Fifth Hour with Ben Mallory
along with my trustees sidekick David Gascon. Would mean a
lot to have you join us on our weekly auditory journey.
You're asking, what in God's name is the Fifth Hour.
I'll tell you it's a spin off of the Ben

(35:23):
Maller Show. Cold Hit Overnights on fs are Why should
you listen? Picture if you will the world will We
chat with captains of industry in media, sports and more
every week Explorer some amazing facts about a human nature
and more. Let'sten to the Fifth Hour with Ben mallow
on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast or wherever
you get your podcast. Steve Harbon, Rich Orenburger, I want

(35:45):
to bring gascon into this conversation as well. David, are
you there, I'm here, loud and proud, all right. So
there were a couple of major acquisitions this week. Clay
Travis is I'll kick the coverage got uh purchased up
by Fox Uh Dan Lovett Hards Group. They got purchased
out by Draft Kings. And even though they're not exclusively

(36:06):
gambling outlets, there's a major focus on gambling information. That's
what we all want in this day and age is
more and more people participate in legalized sports gambling in
this country. And I mean, David, it's and it's not
just these two, right we We had other acquisitions you
were mentioning the other day. Action Network got bought by

(36:28):
a company in Denmark. Better collective million dollars, huge money,
huge money out there. I mean, this is I almost
feel like, as I've seen the evolution of sports talk
radio over three decades, is that ultimately that's what it's
going to be about. You know. We we we started

(36:49):
out back in the information days before there was internet
and then personality driven and all that over the course
of many decades, but more and more people are just
turning to these media outlets for information who help me
make a more educated bet, whatever it may be. And

(37:12):
this is the sign that we're seeing guys right now,
is why they're these acquisitions of these incredibly huge money
involved for outlets that are providing that kind of information
that's being sought out even over the past five years. UM,
I know that. Look, my time in broadcasting is relatively short,

(37:32):
but since I started, versus where we're at now, uh,
the number of sports betting guests that I'll have on
my show or shows is is all much larger number recently.
And it's because, like you said, there's a real thirst
for this information. I'm curious about this information. I'm not
a guy who bets all the time. California, where we live,

(37:55):
is a state that doesn't um doesn't have legal sports betting.
So from an app standpoint, it's not like I can
get on fan duel or DraftKings and place bets or
you know, there's so many of those now where they
make it easy. But I will argue this well, and
and this is sort of opening the door of the

(38:16):
conversation we're having just moments ago, David. This idea that
we have a time where gambling sports betting is going
to save certain sports. I still have serious doubts because
there was a point where, you know, horse racing was
the sport. I mean, people showed up to the track

(38:37):
all the time. It was cover news. And now it's
been diminished. Boxing same thing it had its hay to
and it's been the people don't show up the racetrack
like they used to, but they're still betting. They still bet.
But I'm saying the popularity of sports, that's gonna be
the big question. How much people are gonna be showing
up at these huge prices for all these sporting events

(38:58):
we'll see. And you bring up a good point with
with the way that costs are now to go to
these venues and go to the stadiums of parking and
alcohol and things of that nature. There are ways to
overcome the loss of revenue, and this is one of them.
I mean, don't forget when you are investing in these
type of companies, like you're not you're not buying the
knowledge of all these guys. I mean they're like political pundits.

(39:19):
They're like these experts that we hear about on television
radio all the time. These guys really batting five hundred,
maybe fifty most of the time. So you're not saying, like,
these guys are the end all be all for my
sports information. But what you are doing is you're acquiring
their fan bases. You're acquiring that information, You're acquiring those
email addresses, those signatures, and those ways that you can

(39:41):
market out to them, because those your nuts and bolts
of of what you're looking to acquire, not necessarily the
name by itself, but more along the lines of the fans,
the viewers, the listeners that are are tied into all
of these platforms. Yeah, it's it's it's definitely where where
sports is go in right now. I mean there's no
question about that. And it's just I'm gonna make I

(40:06):
was talking to Rich during the break here. I'm gonna
make a prediction about two franchises. One is the Oakland A's,
the other is the Sacramento Kings. They're gonna both be
in Vegas. It's not gonna be long. Sacramento Kings, Bye bye,
They're gonna be moving to Vegas. Oakland A's, come on,
I mean, that's sewer that they're playing in right now.
Bye bye, They're gonna go to Vegas. The Bay Area

(40:28):
will have the forty Niners, will have the Giants, will
have the Warriors, they'll have the San Jose Sharks. By
the way, they're going to at some point all these
teams who are gonna end up in Vegas. If you're right,
they're gonna turn their businesses into casino businesses. The same
way you go to these gorgeous resorts in Las Vegas
and you pay pennies for rooms. The reason why they

(40:49):
want you there isn't to pay money for the rooms.
They want you at the tables. And it's gonna be
the same thing with sports betting at these different ballparks,
arenas and stadiums. They're gonna lower the price at the
gate to get you in there spending your hard earned
cash on bets. All right, we got much more, including
the latest news on Aaron Rodgers coming up next. Fox

(41:09):
Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation.
Catch all of our shows at Fox sports Radio dot
com and within the I Heart Radio app search f
s R to listen live. Al Right, rolling along here
on this Mother's Day Sunday and the Happy Mother's Day.
All the moms out there, take care of mom. I
know you don't have to be told because you want

(41:30):
to take care of a mom on this very special day.
Do you have big Mother's Day plans after the show today? No,
we celebrated yesterday. We did everything um a day ahead.
This way I could and basically would have boiled down
to again. Was was giving mom a gift. We are
The kids put their handprints on this little canvas thing

(41:53):
in glue and then we covered it with sand from
the beach we lived nearby and put some shells. It was.
It was perfect. She loved it and then we left
her alone the rest of the day. All right, So
your sons are held now they're two and five. Two
and five, okay. So our our mutual friend Nick Hardwig,
his boys are now nine and seven, and I had

(42:14):
him on the show Friday, and I told him that
when they're nine and seven, they need to do stuff
without dad, basically doing everything for them for their mom.
You know how it is. You make a card, you
sit down with the boys and say, just even if
you're scribbling something down, love you Mom. That's all you

(42:36):
need to do. But they has to come from them.
See when they're you're you know, you're still at the
point where you still have to fake it all and
not I love you, Mom. I'm dipping their hands and glue.
That's as far as their contract want you to get
to a certain point. And I know I did this
with my boys. No no, no, no, no no no.
You guys have got to make something for mom. There. Yeah,

(43:00):
that's coming. And I'll tell you what that's the goal
is is to start delegating more of this responsibility because
thinking of it. And in fact, when I mentioned that, Nick,
he goes, you're right, Yeah, you're right. That's and and truthfully,
you know, for Father's Day, this is usually my request
because I'm always asked every year. I'm like, all I
want is to have very least have coffee and bacon

(43:23):
in bed. Yeah. And then Father's Days And afterthought, Father's
Day was one of those when they created Mother's Day.
Well it's nobody father no, but Father's Days of zero.
I mean, it really is. It's all about Mother's Days.
So anyway, but when your boys, you know, a couple
of you know, tie, your oldest, he's getting close. Borderline, borderline.

(43:44):
Now border got to do something. Get out those thick crayolas.
Let's get cracking here. And you know what. She will
absolutely love it all right, Um. Aaron Rodgers. By the way,
Aaron Rodgers is not even in Green Bay right now,
pair Lee. He's shooting an episode of the comedy series
The Connors where he plays the host of Jeopardy. So

(44:08):
this episode of The Connors, I don't know. I guess
they're on the show Jeopardy, And so he is playing
the role of the host of Jeopardy, which, of course
we've already seen him fill in as the host of Jeopardy.
But the one thing he's not doing right now is
hanging out in Green Bay. I want to throw something
at you because you know the argument that he needs

(44:29):
a number two, right, you know the idea, Hey, why
don't you make a deal with Atlanta. They're shopping Julio
Jones around. If I had Davonte Adams and Julio Jones,
and all I kept thinking was, Gee, how many times
did Tom Brady get handed a legit two? How about
even a number one? He's had to Hall of Fame

(44:52):
receivers in his career in New England. He had Randy Moss,
which was really two years and Gronk as a tight end.
Those your two haul of Fame receivers that he had
over twenty years in New England. You know what Tom
Brady did, instead of complaining about give me a number
two receiver, he created them. He created Wes Welker, he

(45:13):
created Jillian Edelman, He created his own number two receivers.
Some guys that were cast offs are never deemed to
be that level of receiver. So if I'm Aaron Rodger,
I'm getting a little tired of the Aaron Rodgers act
in the sense that you know, do do for me,
do for me, do for me, do for me. When

(45:34):
if he were, if he's aspiring to be Tom Brady,
then be Tom Brady. Take less money, make more money
available to bring more players in. Don't complain about the
talent that you have around you. Make more of the
talent that you have around you. That's what Tom Brady
has done during out his career. This is why the

(45:57):
difference between the goat and a guy who is deemed
that he has a greater skill set than Tom Brady,
what hasn't had the same results. Well, the reason he
hasn't had the same results is that he's not Tom Brady.
There's more to winning super Bowls than just you know,
being able to throw the ball accurately. It's the way
that you lead a team, the way that you conduct

(46:17):
your business to put your position in the best opportunity
to win a championship. Tom Brady has done this throughout
his entire career. That's why he is the goat. And
all we hear from Aaron Rodgers are complaints. Well, yeah,
I I don't disagree with a lot of what you said.
They're different people personality wise, and you can have success

(46:40):
with different personalities. Just because Bill Belichick has found success,
you know, keeping the media at Bay and and being
very sort of closed off and having a closed culture
and all that stuff, doesn't mean that a guy like
Pete Carroll can't have success who's very welcoming, very very open,
very uh gregarious with his his media appointments, you know.

(47:04):
And similarly with quarterbacks. I mean, you could be like
Tom Brady or you could be like Aaron and both
have been successful. And then as far as your commentary
about the receivers, I mean, he was there for the
end of the Donald Driver era in Green Bay, and
uh he had Greg Jennings that he turned into a really,
really great receiver in Jordy Nelson and James Jones and

(47:28):
uh Davante Adams involved a scantling recently. I mean he's
he's had a couple of different generations of receivers who
he's really helped create along with their individual performance. By
the way, the guys has actually had more All American
receivers coming out of college. All those those guys were

(47:49):
all Americans in college. Davante Adams on that list as well,
that have joined the Packers. How many All American receivers
were drafted by the New England Patriots. Not many. And
I don't think that's necessarily an indication that the Patriots
took worst care of Tom Brady than the Packers did.

(48:09):
For have to take care of him because he could
take a Westwalker, recognize what he does right, put him
in a position to succeed the same thing with Julian
Edelman other receivers. Right, we're talking about scouting departments, though
now we're not talking we're talking about how good are
your talent evaluators? Like when when Tom Brady first met
Julian Edelman and I was there. I was drafted the

(48:31):
same year as Julian Edelman with the New England Patriots.
I'm sure. I know he didn't look at Jules and say, oh, yeah,
that's gonna be my next great receiver here. But what
happened was these evaluators who went to Kent State and
saw him play quarterback said yeah, we have used for
an athlete like that, brought him into the system and
then helped develop him. And alongside Tom Brady and his

(48:52):
own work ethic, Julian Edelman has risen to a potential
Hall of Famer. I'm not saying you Willie won't. In
my opinion, he is um and there are some who
share that opinion. But the point is, these great talents
at quarterback helped create those who are grade around them,
and there's no questioning Aaron Rodgers has done that. And
I know from guys who have played with Aaron Rodgers,

(49:15):
former teammates of mine, who are former teammates of his,
UH speak highly about him. There are definitely some people
who he rubbed the wrong way. It's impossible to go
through life without doing that. And is he does he
bristle more than Tom Brady towards the media or is
he a bit more honest and transparent about how he
feels about certain things? There's no question. But just the

(49:39):
same way we saw down the home stretch of Tom
Brady's era in New England. There was contention, there was
real life issues being portrayed to the media by both sides,
Tom and the Patriots New England, and so it wasn't
like a really pretty divorce, but it was one that
had to happen. I think we've reached Aaron Rodgers. But

(50:04):
Brady handled it. I mean, at the end, obviously his
last season New England, the cover was bare. I mean
he had nothing left that was that. It was so sparse,
the talent that he had at the snow positions. There
was nothing he can do. And then he found riches
in Tampa and let's see what happens. He wins the
Super Bowl. I just think we're seeing two different approaches.
I think that Tom Bridge one is the approach the

(50:25):
greatest of all time, and the other is a guy
that's complained it hasn't led his team to a super Bowl,
and over ten years, you're minimizing the accomplishments of the
the now reigning m v P. I just don't see
it the same way you do any m v P
or reigning Super Bowl champion. What do you like. Well.
From a team standpoint, there's no question that I would
rather be a super Bowl champion. But from an individual standpoint,

(50:49):
when we're talking about individual greatness individuals, Aaron Rodgers is
an individual. That's the whole point. It's always about Aaron Rodgers.
It's always been at Aaron Rodgers. He's one of those
guys that equates team success as his success and Tom
Brady doesn't. But he doesn't do it to the same

(51:09):
extent the reason in order to put his team. He
just proved the same thing by talking about how Tom
Brady realized the cover was barren, he went and found
riches in Tampa Bay. Look, he wants to chase down
the dividual Tom He lost the company alongside his Patriot

(51:32):
brand that was growing as a great teammate. And guess
what he's capitalizing on that that's not getting shared by
anybody else. Look, I get it. Aaron Rodgers again, is
a bit of a grumpier dude. He wears a frown
more often. He doesn't smile every time somebody says he
doesn't jump or ask how high every time somebody says jump,
That's not who he is, but it does it. Unfortunately,

(51:55):
sours the way the media feels about him. He is
a great talent, there's no questioning that. And then the
other side of it is Tom Brady is a great talent.
They've achieved it differently, all right. On the other side,
So if he leaves green Bay, how does this work
for the Packers and how does it work for the
team that he goes to. It's not pretty. We'll tell

(52:18):
you why. Coming up next. Oh yeah, I love that.
Harmon and Orenburger. On this Mother's Day, we're talking about
Aaron Rodgers and the predicament that the Green Bay Packers
find themselves in. There's a couple of things here rich

(52:39):
about why all of a sudden the Packers are making
it clear that Aaron Rodgers is going nowhere. There could
be two reasons. One, when you say there's no way
we're gonna trade him, that means we haven't seen an
offer that's good enough yet. He could also mean that
the acquisition of Jordan's Love is not out the way

(53:00):
they had hoped. In other words, a year ago we
see Jordan's Love drafted by the Packers. And then you're thinking,
all right, so you're gonna make a transition because the
two previous seasons were not vintage Aaron Rodgers. Maybe he's
sort of coming to the end of the line and
we see a lot of talent potential in Jordan's Love

(53:21):
and he we're gonna make that transition from Aaron Rodgers
to Jordan's Love. So what happens. Aaron Rodgers has a
monster season. He is the league's m v P. And
maybe the more you look at Jordan's Love, the more
you think, wow, he isn't quite what we thought. We're
not ready to hand the ball to Jordan's Love. So

(53:44):
if you're the Packers right now, I'm guessing that. And again,
if you're making a deal. And let's use the Broncos
as an example. So the Broncos say, all right, we're interested.
What what what's the cost? All right, let's run down
the list. Let's art with Jerry Judy. We'll start with him.
We want Jerry Judy, I want Bradley Chubb, multiple ones, players, picks,

(54:07):
everything else we're gonna get. You are the best players
you have, but you're gonna have Aaron Rodgers. And then
Aaron Rodgers arrives in Denver and he's like, where's Jerry Judy?
I don't think that's gonna happen, And I'll tell you
why you don't. Don't. Then why would Green Bay make
a trade for anything less than that for the league's
m d P. Well, look, I mean he is also
thirty eight, so you have to understand what you're training.

(54:29):
And Tom Brady's forty two. I think the he wasn't
traded though he was a free agent signing. But he's
a success at forty two. Oh, I'm not arguing that
he isn't. But I'm also going to just add to
the conjecture the thought process that, uh, thirty eight year old,
because one forty two year old has had success in
the history of the entire game, that a thirty eight

(54:51):
year old should be given the I mean, that's that
doesn't make sense to me. That doesn't compute. There have
been more thirty eight year olds who started going in
the wrong direction than the right direction. I mean, So
I look at it from the standpoint of you know,
ripe bananas, you know what I mean, You only have
so much time before they start turning brown. You have
to strike while the iron's hot. So for Denver or

(55:14):
any team interested in a hot when he had the
raging m v P. I think that what you have
to do is you have to trade draft capital and
nothing else. Oh boy, no way. I want proven talent here.
I want the Chubbs. I want the Jerry Judy's I want.
Guys got to think about trajectory. I mean draft picks,
and if you are taking Aaron Rodgers, what you're doing

(55:34):
is you're onboarding a great talent, a quarterback, but one
that has a very very short window. Well I'm not
saying Denver would make the trade. That's my whole point.
In other words, if if suddenly Green Bay said we
want Judy, want want Chubb, we want somebody your young talents. Yeah,
like I said, because there's no team, there's no general manager,
there's no front office who's gonna say we're gonna take

(55:55):
on a thirty eight year old and then build around him.
The reason why you take on a thirty eight you're old,
is so that you can have instantaneous results. That's the
reason why they signed Peyton Manning. The Denver Broncos did
and had because they had a young team of good defense,
they had some talented skiale position. They needed a quarterback
and so they brought in the field general, and he
ended up having success. Even though his arm talent was

(56:18):
diminishing and obviously wasn't the same player he was in
Indianapolis all those years after the neck injury, he still
had enough to get them a Super Bowl victory. This
would be a similar situation, except he'd have to trade
for him. And if you're gonna trade for him, you
cannot give up proven talent at the NFL level. You
have to. I mean, the conversation starts at three first rounders,

(56:38):
but you can't give away a Jerry Judy or a
Bradley Chub. I mean, that would set you so far back,
and you only have maybe three more years of capable
play out of Aaron Rodgers, if that's my guess. I mean,
the Packers are looking like if we if we're going
to handle ball to Jordan's love, who obviously is not
ready to be anywhere near Aaron Rogers, we gotta give

(57:01):
him some help. And so the receiver that you were seeking,
Aaron Rodgers, speaking of Jerry Judy, We're gonna give Jordan's
loved Jerry Judy to go with Davante to give him
a better chance. This is what you go with draft picks.
This is what you do. You don't want to take
a step backwards. If you're the Green Bay Packers, You've
been in the NFC Championship game the last two years. Oh,
I'm not disagreeing with you, but they made the mistake,

(57:24):
not Aaron. The problem was when guten Kuhn's drafted traded
up to draft Jordan's Love. Now, I understand this is
the same way that Brett Farve was treated on his
way out of Green Bay when Aaron Rodgers was taken
in the first round. I understand that there's a little
bit of a circular path here as far as his

(57:44):
career goes. But I mean, Aaron Rodgers just turned in
an m v P performance the year after, you drafted
a quarterback again and traded up to get him. Sure,
whether or not Jordan's Love is ready to go, what
are the odds that he's gonna be as good as
Aaron Rodgers was a year ago? They're not. But but
he's a young player, and if you're sure, if you're

(58:05):
confident that you made the correct selection, you want to
build around that player. I don't think they're confident in him. Well, see,
that's not Aaron's problem again. Now, if Aaron wants out,
if he wants to hold out, if he wants to retire,
the Packers are screwed. The Packers are screwed. If Jordan's
loves not ready, So then who does it? Who's the
common denominator here, Who's the reason why all this is happening?

(58:26):
Your general manager, whoever was in the room when you
made the decision to trade up and get a quarterback
last year's draft instead of getting help to put around
Aaron Rodgers, And well, everybody's making a big stink about well,
Tom Brady didn't have that much help. Well, Aaron Rodgers,
over the course of his career has turned pretty good

(58:46):
talent into very good talent. He's done it many times
over with a lot of his skill position players. He's
talented like Tom Brady is. You didn't need to take
a quarterback in the first round, or you didn't need
to do it. If you're the Hackers, you didn't need
to do it. The Patriots never did that. They never
took a first round quarterback because it's a waste of
draft capital when you have arguably one of the greatest

(59:08):
players to ever play the game at that position. Well,
the irony was they had that in Brett Farve, and
they drafted a quarterback named Aaron Rodgers. And Brett Farve
was like, the hell you doing here? We're trying to
win Super Bowls and you drafted in a quarterback. And
by the way, he kept Aaron Rodgers at Bay for
three years. And I get the idea, trust me, and
I'm a fan of anyone should know about the situation.

(59:30):
It's Aaron Rodgers. I'm a fan of it. In certain cases,
what the San Francisco forty Niners are doing brilliant. Even
though people say, well, Garoppolo is overpaid for just being
a shepherd of a new quarterback. It's like, no, no, no,
you he's he can help raise that quarterback if you
if you have it the right way. Alex Smith. Same
thing with Patrick Mahomes in Kansas City. But those are

(59:51):
Alex Smith and Jimmy Garoppolo. You know where It wasn't
like at the end of the tenure of Tom Brady
in New England, there were th can you know what
we ought to do? We ought to use our our
first round capital to get a new quarterback. That would
have been absurd, No, I mean they traded down sometimes
and got more draft capital and would take a bunch

(01:00:11):
of receivers and running backs and lower rounds and things
like that to try to get better value adds. But
they never took a quarterback in the first round. It's
just it's it's it's yeah, but you have to go
back again. The two years preceding the drafting at Jordan's
Love were down years by Aaron Rodgers standards due to injury. Well,

(01:00:33):
but injuries as you're in your mid to late thirties
suddenly can be a serious situation. So I mean the
fact that he responded with the kind of season he
had put it right back in their face. It's just
like what Brett Farve did. So the Packers where they
they took Aaron Rodgers that fell in the draft, and
he said he's the best player, best value on the board.
And far response the next thing, you know, the Packers

(01:00:55):
were in an NFC championship game, so you know, he
responded to the challenge that was laid out there by
drafting the quarterback of the future. I think everybody has
sort of thrown off by what happened with Kansas City
with Alex Smith and Patrick Mahomes, Like It was the
most seamless transition ever. You know, Alex Smith, just being
who he is, accepted his fate and he went out there.

(01:01:18):
He led the Cheese to a playoff season. They had
Mahomes on the sidelines. They started Mahomes in the last
regular season game. And the thing that Alex Smith was
able to do and why he was the ultimate professional,
he made it great for the Cheese because he had
a really good season. Yeah, he was marketable. They were
able to get value for Alex Smith with the same way.

(01:01:40):
Farv was pissed, justified because far as a Hall of
Famer and he was still playing at a high level
when they drafted, uh, Aaron Rodgers. But you could sulk,
there's no doubt, but Jimmy Garoppolo is in a very
different situation than Aaron Rodgers or Brett Farve ever was.
You know, I I just look at quarterbacks and I say, yeah,

(01:02:01):
middle tier guys, you know who hover around maybe the
twentieth best quarterback in the league, like a Garoppolo, who's
really in that lower third tier. But or like an
Alex Smith, he's in the lower third tier. You weren't
telling me this when they acquired him. From the pay tips.
He were singing the praise Jimmy and everybody was because

(01:02:21):
out of the Patriot system. I can't tell you how
high they were on Jimmy Garoppolo. And you're telling me
Jimmy Garoppolo was going. Jimmy Garoppolo is Jimmy Garoppolo was
going to replace Tom Brady. I mean, Belichick was trying
to trade Tom brad Arlo. He got hurt. But when
he's playing, he's as a starting tour up his knee.

(01:02:44):
He's been He's made of glass. Look, there are certain
guys I wish could stay healthy, and Jimmy Garoppolo is
one of them, because the whole story could be very different.
But he can't stay on the field all right. On
the other side, speaking of the forty nineers, I got
a observe by someone about the drafting a trail. Lance.
I want you to address on the other side. But

(01:03:04):
right now, let's bring on David Gascon once again. Here
I'm here, I'm here, I'm here, just rolling along. So
Sam was out there offering food everybody. Uh no, it was.
It was a nice gesture. He's got moments, yeah, But
unfortunately the one place he had his mindset on was close.
Steve bailed because yeah, the Greek places closed, so yeah,

(01:03:25):
I thought, you know, maybe a little change up. But
outside of that, I mean, I have food. I mean,
that's I appreciate the offer. I thought people were hungry
today and I with the bill coming up a gascon,
I'm sorry. Then no free lunch today because Steve bailed.
It happens. What what happens because he's only twenty nine. Yeah,
what happens if Jim mcg stays healthy and plays his

(01:03:47):
ass off and maybe he's even elected to a Pro Bowl.
Those those are good problems to have, because let me
tell you, if there's anybody who's gonna have no problem
waiting in line behind a guy who has a Pro
Bowl season, it's a guy like Trey Land who has
a ton to learn at this level. This is an
FCS anymore, you know what I mean. This is in
North Dakota. This is what happened with Drew Brees and Rivers. Yeah,

(01:04:11):
but where they drafted Philip Rivers, Drew Brees was considered
just a guy. And then the first season that they
had drafted Rivers, suddenly Breezes twelve and four and in
the Pro Bowl and they're like, holy crap, he's better
than we thought he was one. I mean to be
fair though, with San Francisco last season, their entire roster
was decimated with major injuries, so although Jimmy G's were

(01:04:32):
pained up, they had problems on the defensive. Well, the
other thing that never made sense to me about this
whole quarterback they're not depending. They're not throwing the ball
forty times a game. It's a run oriented offense, but
a complimentary passing game. Rich when you say draft capital,
if Jimmy G plays his tail off, makes it to
a Pro Bowl, or there are viable team in the NFC,

(01:04:55):
don't you think that they burn up some of that
capital wasted on trade lance? Because yeah, I mean if
if he plays and it plays as good as Steve
menshe with his record and stays healthy at twenty nine,
and he plays like this into his thirties, then what
do you do with tray Lance? Well you have you
have a really difficult, but again a good decision. You

(01:05:17):
have to make, which which one of these quarterbacks do
you want to move on from? Because there will be
draft capital available with Tray Lance, I mean, and everybody
will understand why he's riding Pine. If Jimmy G is playing, well,
there's not gonna be speculation. Well maybe Tray Lance is
a question will be well, yeah, this is simply Jimmy
G played out of his mind. But let me ask

(01:05:38):
you this at three years ago after the Jets draft
at Sam Darna considered the best quarterback talent in that draft,
if you would have said they would trade him three
years later and we're lucky to get a second, very
very different situations because Sam Donald started all those games,
Sam Darn, there's tape out there, Sam making mistakes at

(01:06:00):
the NFL level, doing things that talent evaluators don't like.
Day he got drafted. No one could have predicted that. No, no,
I agree with you, I'm not saying. And look, Adam
Gaze blames himself and we know the whole story in
New York never surrounded him with talent. Whatever excuses you
want to make. But the point being, if Trey Lance
rides Pine while Jimmy G is having, you know, hit

(01:06:21):
the best years of his career or year of his career,
nobody's gonna think, well, Trey Lance can't play. They're gonna think, well,
Jimmy g held him down on the bench. Yeah. But see,
here's the point, though, is that you just brought it
up with with having these quarterbacks picked high. Is that
the expectation now is that these guys are thrown into
the fire and they're playing Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Sam Donald,

(01:06:44):
Baker Mayfield, like, these guys have all had the expectations
of you're getting drafted and you're playing now. Well, but
hang on, that's not necessarily true. He's a top ten pick.
He played behind Fitzpatrick for most of the season. The
plan with Justin Herbert was to have him play behind

(01:07:04):
but due to injury, Yeah, but didn't due to injury. Look,
I'm not saying Jimmy Garoppolo ken and most likely unfortunately
will get hurt. The exactly what are the chances he
survives the seventeen game season. I don't see it happening.
We have no proof that it will. The longest consecutive
Gamestres had his twenty one, and the next longest is

(01:07:25):
in the single digits. Yeah, but if he plays well,
gets injured, you're not gonna ben him because of an injury.
I'll put it this way. If he wins the Super
Bowl this year, he still will not be. And by
the way, by the way, it's interesting we're talking Alex Smith,
and it's interesting that you just made that comparison because
in San Francisco, Ax Smith was bench dudent injury and

(01:07:45):
Kaepernick took old. So yes, it can happen when you
guys are talking about far Van Rodgers. Far was teetering
on retirement multiple times. I think it's a different dynamic
than with Aaron Rodgers. So um, guys. Major League Baseball
Mets to one over the Diamondbacks right now, rulers one,
Marlin's nothing. Yankees have a one nail advantage over the
Washington Nationals in the NBA. The only game in town

(01:08:07):
has Boston and Miami going at heat with a twenty
point lead in the third quarter. Eighty to sixty is
a score in that ballgame. Trevor Reason's got seventeen points,
Jason Tatum's got third to Mazilla. That's the only game
right now, and Nixon Clippers will get things underway in
about sixty minutes from now. From Los Angeles. Drama, drama,
a lot of drama. There's always dramas, and if there

(01:08:29):
isn't drama, will create drama. I think I think it'd
be appropriate now if you guys can allow Iowa Sam
to go across the street pick up lunch for all
of us. We're out. You don't worry about it. Close
to I just found out everything's closed Mother's Day. You
know you're having brunch. Any place that has brunches a

(01:08:50):
big time off. This is no offense use Sam, but
maybe have someone else call. Yeah, you know, maybe maybe
it's what I'm just saying, like a looking at these
here's what you do answer I was, Sam, were closed?
Instead of spur of the moment, Sam, do a little
planning for next week, all right? Just started usually bring along,

(01:09:12):
let breathe Along, which Bryan is now produced in the show.
And he's like, yeah, a little planning, none of the spontaneous.
Brian's gonna go get me a burrito. Thank goodness, he's here,
all right, David, Thank you very much. We'll get back
to you in a moment here. So one of the
great things about having a son that's into sports, like
my younger son Garrett h And he's gonna be twenty

(01:09:34):
three at the end of the month. I mean, he's
all in knowledgeable. I mean he he follows sports differently
than I do. Okay, there's the new generation on how
they follow sports, and we talked about the analytics and
everything else, and he's it's it's ridiculous. I mean, he
exhausts me because he just you think I can talk.
I mean, it's unbelievable. So he's really NBA first, but

(01:09:58):
he's very much into the nf fell as well, and
he just got his mindset on tray lance, like I've
I've got to I got to find out more about
tray lance. So he is going to multiple sites from
the school, from everywhere else to get as much film

(01:10:19):
on trail lance that he could possibly muster up. And
then he calls me, so, Dad, I've been watching a
lot of trail lance. Okay, so what what have you
seen in tray lance? He says, I'm watching him throw
to a lot of wide open receivers. So I'm explaining him.

(01:10:40):
I go, here's the North Dakota State. North Dakota State
is really like an FBS school playing against FCS competition.
When you win eight out of nine championships, when you
have that kind of domination, it's not just your quarterback
it's your entire team. Is that much more talented than
any other team that you're playing. That's what North Dakota

(01:11:01):
State has been over the years. By the way, they
got a limited in the playoffs earlier this year because oh,
I don't know, their quarterback quit on them, Torey Lance
to go into the NFL Draft. So my question, again
from the forty Niners standpoint, when you really were presented
a choice between Trey Lance and Justin Fields and you're

(01:11:22):
giving up two future number one's to make this selection,
I'm looking at the forty Niners like you really rolled
the dice on this one. No doubt you rolled the
dice on an FCS quarterback who played one year. And

(01:11:42):
we have a long history of one year college starters
who have flamed out quickly in the NFL, but they
were major college guys. This is an FCS guy playing
on a team North Dakota State that was just so
much better in every team they played. That's why they
roll through season after season and trying to check his

(01:12:05):
game out, as opposed to Justin Fields two years starting
at the highest level at Ohio State against the highest
level competition, a guy that put up six touchdown passes
against Clemson, and you're going with Trey Lance giving up
two future number one for this guy. I mean one.

(01:12:29):
I'm a big fan of John Lynch. I'm not the
biggest fan of Kyle Shanahan. But for their sake, I
hope this works out because I'll tell you one thing.
If the Bears find they've finally getten their franchise quarterback
in Justin Fields, heads could roll in San Francisco. Well.
I will say this. Kyle Shanahan, whether you a believer
in him or not, likes to work with cerebral quarterbacks.

(01:12:52):
He's the type of guy who wants to work with
a guy who he has limitless capabilities as far as
his understanding of the game. That would be the like
the best place to start for Kyle Shanahan. Now, Matt Ryan,
really smart guy, had been in the league a long
time before him and Kyle Shanahan cross paths and it
worked out. He ended up having an m v P season.
Jimmy Garoppolo, even though he can't stay healthy as an

(01:13:13):
elite processor, he can run any offense in New England.
That's what you're hearing. Like he is just like Tom Brady,
except he might be a better athlete. That was the
word from my former teammates who I left behind. I
didn't get to meet Jimmy Garoppolo or play with him,
but all these guys are singing his praises. So Kyle
Shanahan got into a room with Justin Fields and Trey Lance,

(01:13:35):
and when you look at them on the field, you
see a lot of differences, obviously because the level of
PLAYOFFCS versus FBS, Ohio State versus North Dakota State. But
they are definitely talents, athletic talents, big arms, They have
capabilities to change your offense immediately. The difference had to
have been on the white board. The difference had to

(01:13:56):
have been on the white board. And I'm not even
necessarily talking about like what Justin Fields new versus what
Trey Lance knew. I'm talking about what they were able
to throw at them and what they were able to
process in the room. Look, I mean when you're talking
every time this every quarterback, they can talk a good
game in a room, actually can translate it into the field. No,

(01:14:20):
but that's where I think they took this gamble. That's
where I think Lance, that's one big gamble. I I
understand that. I mean, if you just use the first
round public to future number one, yeah, you you bet
big that this is going to pay off well. And also,
let's be they needed to trade up somewhere if they
wanted a new quarterback, they were gonna have to get

(01:14:41):
into the top ten. As it turns out, well they
could have. As it turned out with Justin Fields falling
to eleven, they were sitting at twelve. I mean, well
they would have missed him. You wouldn't have to give
up two future number one to move up one spot. Well,
you can't get You can't guess where they's gonna go.
They wanted to be able to part of the game
of the draft, and they guess they wanted to be
able to pick one of these three. They knew it

(01:15:03):
was gonna come down because everybody knew Wilson was going
number two, Lawrence obviously going number one. They knew they
were going to be able to choose from Jones, Lance
or Fields. They weren't sure who they wanted, but they
knew that this was a good crop of quarterbacks where
you could move up and take that gamble and evaluate,
or maybe they had already done the evaluation. Process, and

(01:15:24):
they knew who they wanted, so they moved up to
get Lands. Either way you look at it, I'm telling
you the difference had to have been because there's no
reason why Fields should be taken later. Right, There's no reason,
right unless he got in the room, got on the
whiteboard and froze up. Maybe it was a little stage fright.
Maybe he isn't the processor that they were hoping, some

(01:15:46):
of these talent evaluators were hoping. And that's the reason
why stocks fall. Now it's not supported. I'm not gonna
sit here and tell you Fields is going to have
a bad career because he, you know, quote unquote flunked
the San Francisco forty Niners white board visit. That's not
what I'm saying. He could end up being a Hall
of Famer in Chicago for all I know. But I

(01:16:07):
am telling you that is the reason why the Niners
felt more comfortable with Lance. It had nothing to do
with play. It had everything to do with the interview process,
rolling the dice time, rolling that ice. Because I I
didn't went back to some of the sources my son
game and I was like, wow, you're right. Everybody was
wide open, wide open, and then when when he anytime

(01:16:29):
you wanted, he could take off of the ball and
then he could run and you run through everybody. All right.
On the other side, there's another brewing story in the
NFL that has to do with the players union and
an offensive tackle for the Denver Broncos. I'll tell you
about it coming up next. Hey, it's Ben host of
The Fifth Hour with Ben Malley, along with my trusty

(01:16:51):
sidekick David Gascon. Would meet a lot to have you
join us on our weekly auditory journey. You're asking, what
in God's name is the Fifth Hour. I'll tell you
it's a spinoff Benn Mallard Shaw Cold Hit Overnights on
fs are Why should you listen? Picture if you will
the world will? We chat with captains of industry in media,
sports and more every week Explorer some amazing facts about

(01:17:12):
a human nature and more. Listen to The Fifth Hour
with Ben mallow on the I Heart Radio app, Apple
Podcast or wherever you get your podcast Steve Hartman and
Rich arm Burger. Alright, so you're the Denver Broncos and
in T nineteen you sign Juan James, who had played

(01:17:34):
five years with the Dolphins, former first round pick of
the Dolphins offensive tackle and he signed him away for
a four year, fifty one million dollar deal. Okay, it's
about right for an offensive tackle that has good potential,
never made a Pro Bowl. But you know, actually, when
I look at some of his numbers in Miami, I'm

(01:17:55):
questioning why they signed him to that deal without a
side all right, So you sign him to the deal,
and then his first year with the Broncos, he plays
three games and he suffers a knee injury and that
is it. He played three games that year, he made
five million in salary and twelve million with his signing bonus.
Then last year he decides COVID not for me, opted out. Now,

(01:18:22):
Juwan James has apparently suffered what could be a season
injury and achilles injury in an off site workout. Now,
according to the Collective Bargaining Agreement, because he suffered this
injury in an off site facility, they can terminate his
contract right now. But they're not obligated to terminate his contract.

(01:18:49):
But you know who wants him to have that contract
nullified the NFL. Because the NFL is trying desperately to
send the message that we need players to show up
for the so called voluntary workouts, and now Tom Brady
has stepped into the fray on the players union side,

(01:19:11):
saying that the off season is overly competitive, that they're
the only sport where these overly competitive drills in the
off season. And I will be ready for this call
from Tom Brady. He said, there's no effing pro baseball
player that's throwing nur in mid December. And he's right,

(01:19:31):
He's right. So how do the Broncos handle this situation?
Would you want James? Well, it's gonna come down to
many many meetings and discussions between him or his representatives
and the team. I don't know how much sway the
league has here. Obviously the Denver Broncos can choose to
spend the money. But where the Broncos. Do you want

(01:19:52):
to side with the league? Are you more cautious and
side with the players union on this and have his back?
I don't. I don't really, you're not. You're signing with
your your shackled to making the decision on your own.
Do you do you want? Do you want to be
a team? And put this out there to all the
other free agents in the future who signed with you,

(01:20:13):
who cancels or nullifies a contract. Uh, due to doing
it off off season. I guess as you do not
want to be that No, because again, like why is
Tampa Bay attractive to Tom Brady and now going to
be attractive to their free agents? It's because, Wow, look
at this place, they treat us really good when we
sign here. You don't want to do that to yourself.
So I think they'll probably figure it out and the

(01:20:35):
quickly here. You know, the money that they would lose
out on him is pennies. I mean seriously, it's you
know when he taught all. You know, you paid this
guy a twelve million dollars signing bonus. He want three
million back. They're gonna be pennies. They're gonna be alright. Now,
back to the off season stuff I want. Tom Brady said, Look,
the off season, the voluntary workouts, all that nonsense, it's

(01:20:59):
for the coaches. These these coaches, some of the head
coaches are getting paid ten plus million dollars, okay annually.
Assistance are are routinely paid in the six six digits,
all right, if not a million or better dollars. We're
talking about coordinators over a million for sure, and all
these other assistants are making six digits. We're talking about

(01:21:20):
big money now. If they don't have the actual players
on their roster in the buildings, they have to just
get on the white board, draw plays, they have to
scout film, they're doing all the boring stuff. They love
working with the players because it's a nice rest for
their eyes. We're just they're just, honestly, they're just justifying

(01:21:47):
these salaries and the amount of time they have to
spend away from their families by having the players back.
They don't need them back, I promise you. The players
get very little out of it. The coaches don't get
very much out of it. They say they can evaluate talent,
but you could do that during training camp. It's a
big waste of time. Why is this an argument, though?
I mean, you just navigated successfully a season and the

(01:22:08):
height of a pandemic without any physical offseason, very limited
training camps, no preseason games, and everything was fine. I
don't understand why the NFL is still trying to hang
on to something that obviously has passed his time. Alright,
rolling along on this Mother's Day, you might be enjoying

(01:22:29):
a little brunch today. That's sort of be that's sort
of a tradition. You know, Bloody Mary's mimosas. Mom likes
to get bombed on a Mother's Day. Why not? I
love when uh you know there there's all these like
TikTok and social media video posts these days of like
people making their mimosas where they take an eye dropper

(01:22:52):
of orange juice and they're like, and that's a mimosa technically,
just for a tint of a little color, little coloring
in there. Uh, nothing nothing better than making sure mom
has a really fun day, however you have to go
about it. Make sure it's a really fun day for
mom out there. All right. I wanted to take pause

(01:23:15):
right now, Rich because you and I, along with many
others in our industry, we're in a predicament. A year ago,
at this time, we had nothing but uncertainty as far
as the sports world is concerned. As we were heading
into the middle of May, it looked like we're gotting it.
We were gonna have no sports. I remember nothing at

(01:23:37):
that point in it was late May. As a matter
of fact, I remember looking at you at one point
during one of our broadcasts or no, is that break
of one of our broadcasts because we're all in separate studios,
we're all working out of the same building. Still, uh.
For portions of this, there were sometimes where you were
remote or one of one of us. We're back home.

(01:23:58):
I mean it was crazy, but I remember like kicking
open the door of our studio and and saying to you, I, buddy,
I don't know if we're ever gonna have sports again,
because it felt that far from home. It felt I mean,
of course we were going to but it didn't feel
like we were. Oh no, there was as we got

(01:24:19):
late into May early June, when the NBA was still
trying to scramble to figure out when they were going
to restart their season. Baseball was going back and forth,
can we get a season together? The NFL seemed to
be going about their business but where you're just sort
of like you're kidding yourself right now. And then there
was college football, which turn out is one of those

(01:24:41):
years we're gonna look back in the record books like
what was this? I mean, it's all over the map.
How did Ohio stayed, only play six games and end
up in the playoffs is strange. The reason I mentioned
this right now is the FCS playoffs are going on
right now. Of course. I mean you may have turn
on the TV yesterday and you're seeing James Madison against

(01:25:05):
Sam Houston State semi final and you're like, what year
was this? And it's like, although technically it's the season,
even though not a single game was played in it's
gonna be called one season. Um. But it reminded me
again because college football. When the Big Ten and the

(01:25:32):
Pact twelve announced that they were going to go to
a spring schedule, Mountain West Conference was another one of
the conferences. It was out of the It started with
the MAC. So suddenly the dominoes were falling that there
was not gonna be any fall football. And I told
you at the time, because you were absolutely convinced that
that was what everything. Every SEC, a SEC, Big twelve,

(01:25:55):
all the major conferences are going to fall like dominoes.
And I was always hesitant because I'm looking at the SEC,
like the SEC is like the NFL. They played by
their own set of rules. And if they feel like,
you know what, no way, no, no, no, no, we're
gonna play in the fall. We're gonna play in the fall,
they're gonna do it. And they did, and and so

(01:26:16):
then all of a sudden, it was the Big Ten
and the Pact twelve. They've realized, Wow, we got to
do something here because we can't be the only ones
playing in the spring. I want to ask you this.
Let's say they had all succumbed. Let's say the college
football season had been played, the FBS had played like

(01:26:37):
the FCS has done all in the spring. How would
that affect how would how would that affected the NFL?
I mean, we just had the draft. Trey Lance dropped
out of the FCS, knowing he was gonna be a
high draft pick. He bailed on North Dakota State. So
they're not gonna win a championship this year because they

(01:26:57):
lost their quarterback who opted out to play in the NFL,
which was a wise decision by him. How do you
think it would have all played out? Though, if we
were now watching not just the FCS playoffs, but FBS
National championship? How would the NFL do you think would
have handled? It would have worked out similarly from the
standpoint the players would have sat out well a lot,

(01:27:19):
a lot um. It would have worked out similarly from
the standpoint of I mean, this spring comes all those
players who were drafted obviously aren't with their teams anymore, right,
you know, so you're you're missing him one way or another.
You're just missing them for your season as opposed to postseason.
So it would work out basically the same way for

(01:27:39):
these college postponed because the one thing I remember, there
were very very few if you don't know this about
this draft that just came and went, there were very
few FCS players taken. That's were taken. That's my point.
Not a lot would have changed from that front. Either.
You would have seen the NFL going to sign all
these kids as soon as that play is over. What's

(01:28:00):
the deal. But these FCS players, well, no, unfortunately there
are There's gonna be roster room for some of them,
but but not nearly as many as there there have
been in the past classic right, because a lot of
these scouts they want to meet these guys in person,
they want to go down to the schools and the campuses,
they want to watch a couple of practices. They don't
want to just watch the film. So this has really

(01:28:23):
been a disaster for a whole class of players. There's
a lot of talented players who won't get their opportunity
where they used to be able to. But that's yeah
to me. Whether or not they postponed the season, you
would have seen virtually the same thing we saw, which
is a lot of big school teams getting players drafted
as opposed to some of these lesser known programs. And

(01:28:45):
forget about just the FCS, I mean also think about
the Wyoming's and the the Northern Illinois, the Rice. Like,
there are some FBS programs Temple that will pump out
for fessional football players and it's not out of high clip,
but they come out everywhere. There's a hundred twenty plus

(01:29:06):
schools in FBS football Division one programs that pump out
pros two. All of them are getting less less. Imagine seriously,
if the Big Ten Impact twelve it stood by their
original decision to move their season to the spring while
everybody else played in the fall, it would have been bizarre.

(01:29:26):
It would have been completely Remember we were even talking
about you know, I'm so into the history. I was
thinking like the Associated Press would have separate all American
teams like the one for one one tier team and
a second tier team like voting would have been been
so but I was all this was going through our
heads when that announcement was made by the Big Ten

(01:29:47):
and the Pack twelve that they were gonna say, no,
no fall sports, We're gonna move to the spring, thinking
apparently that everyone was gonna fall in line, and they didn't. Well,
they didn't, and they were There were obviously conferences that
opposed this. And then and as a matter of fact,
I mean Justin Fields was one of the faces of
the movement in the Big Ten to get football played.

(01:30:07):
Wasn't this a Penn State doctor they got the whole
thing started about the potential of long term ill effects
if a player got well. Yeah, So myocarditis became a
word that many people were not familiar. That's what they
were throwing out at the time. It's it's inflammation caused
by viruses. They have not always COVID. It's sometimes the

(01:30:29):
influenza can cause it. No, it's it's something that occurs.
It's just rare that That was what they were citing,
that we're not going to be at risk. They didn't
know our student athletes, they didn't know what the propensity was.
But at the same time, the SEC doctors are dismissing,
like where is this Yeah, yeah, again, Look, there were
a lot of decisions made during the course of this

(01:30:51):
pandemic that were good and bad. The problem with medicine
is everybody thinks of medicine is like this stable, constant thing.
It's like, well, you have heart attack, you take these medicines.
You have cancer, you take these medicines. You get sick,
you take It's like, but no, no, no, how do
we get to those points? Is all trial and error,
you know what I mean? Like, over the course of

(01:31:11):
time me medicine is just honed. It's we throw different
things that different problems and eventually we have things that work.
And that's exactly what happened at the start of this pandemic.
There were so many different opinions, good opinions and bad
that we needed time to see how they bear and
say good opinions. That doesn't mean they were the right opinions. No, no, no,

(01:31:33):
different opinions and different opinions is a better way to
put some of those opinions. Positive step. You got one
scientist saying one thing and another guy's a hunter of
the complete office opinions on good faith, like you you
think you're you're going in the right direction. Yeah, well,
and also I think they all believe they're going in
the right direction. That is learned things over the last year. Science.

(01:31:56):
Science again, is just experimentation. That's that's all science is.
You You you have an educated guest an hypothesis, right,
and then you take that hypothesis and you test it.
You know, it's like, oh, this medicine should work to
prevent COVID, All right, Well how do you prove that.
You gotta test it on people. You gotta test on
animals and tested on people, right, you know, Uh, this

(01:32:19):
cold medicine works as a therapeutic. Well maybe maybe it doesn't.
We gotta try it before we know. That was the
problem at the start of this is you had, obviously
with amateurs, you're talking about people's kids in the custody
of these coaches in these programs who did not want
to bear the brunt of potential and severe lawsuits if

(01:32:40):
they didn't handle this situation carefully. And so you had
medical advice being given on by certain doctors saying, well,
this is an obscene risk, and then you had other
medical doctors saying, well, the stats don't really bear that
out for this age range. And and the answer obviously
was we're gonna play football. But we're going to have
all these protocols in place and testing in place and

(01:33:02):
all those things, and it ended up working out. It
ended up working out, thankfully, it did. I mean, that's
the whole point. The fact is is that we did
get our college football season in as cockamamie as it was.
FCS is gonna finish off their season and hopefully we're
just gonna get back to a normal sense of normality.

(01:33:23):
Let me say, yes, Sam, there was one FCS game
in It was Central Arkansas Wigs in North Dakota State.
I remember that, and uh and Trey Lance played in
that game. Yes, I think he had four total touchdowns
and he also I think he threw two interceptions in
that and he had to remember he had no interceptions
when he played the full season, and he actually threw
a pick in that game. It's in the record books.

(01:33:44):
You're right, Yeah, the Niners cut him, Yeah, exactly. All right.
On the other side, we mentioned earlier that the NBA
has had a less than highlighted regular season. We're a
week away from the playoffs, Guys, is there a matchup
in the NBA finals that would get people excited? We're

(01:34:08):
gonna weigh the possibilities, and we're coming up with the
answer of the best possible NBA Finals matchup that we'll
get people excited coming up next. I'm excited, Steve Iran
rich Armburger. For hot water that never runs out, I'll
go tankless and Navy and Navy and Tankless water heaters

(01:34:29):
provide endless hot water for spotlight comfort. Visit Tankless made
Simple dot com and save hundreds with local rebates Tankless
made Simple dot Com. The NFL season railer season is
coming down the stretch, got four or five games left,
depending on which team we're talking about. As we're getting

(01:34:50):
ready for playing games, five of the top six spots
in the Western Conference playoffs have been clinched, three in
the East, so pretty soon we're to get ready for
the playoffs. We had the great luxury in the NBA
where you had four consecutive years of Lebron versus the Warriors.

(01:35:11):
I say Lebron versus the Warriors. Technically it was the Cavaliers,
but it was really Lebron. So you had Lebron versus
the Warriors. First couple of years pre Durant, next couple
of years with Durant, and you know how it was
for those playoffs, which we would talk about, can we
just get to the finals, because that's what we all
want to see. Everything was just sort of a lead

(01:35:33):
up to the ultimate matchup, and we got what we wanted,
and the ratings reflected that. Love Lebron, hate Lebron. People
watch It's gonna move. The Needle Warriors were wildly popular,
but the more success they had, they also became polarizing.
Either were in out, whatever, and so the NBA was
very fortunate to get that matchup four consecutive years in

(01:35:57):
the NBA Finals. Now, last year, of course, was not
quite that well. The year after that, yeah, the Raptors
going against the Warriors, and then of course last year
Lakers heap, but no one was watching because well no
one was watching. So the m A really needs a
rebound year as far as the playoffs are concerned. They

(01:36:18):
need something that's going to get us excited. And when
I look at a potential matchup, really before the season began,
the optimum matchup, in my opinion, would have been Lebron
and the Lakers versus the Nets. Try with the star
power of the Nets, And of course that was even
before they got James Harden but it's about star power.

(01:36:41):
You want to see stars on the court on the
biggest stage, and that would have been the optimum NBA Finals.
Now when I look at this mixed bag of what
we got, I mean, seriously, can you imagine a matchup
let's just say the top two seats, the seventies sixers

(01:37:03):
versus the Utah Jazz Sixers first Jazz Wow, exactly. Look here,
I'm I'm not somebody who necessarily chases down a series
just because of the players who were in it. I
like to see good basketball playing. I like to see
competitive basketball playing. You know, I can turn on a

(01:37:26):
Son's Pelicans game, which you know arguably has stars on
the court, There's no question about um and be just
as entertained as if I turned on any any high
powered Nets Lakers game where every single one of your
stars are on the floor. Clippers Lakers. You can be
entertained by those games, There's no question about it. But

(01:37:49):
the NBA is a star driven league nationally. You know,
from a viewership standpoint, what people want to see are
their favorite players, and they're so visible. Johanne and Lebron
and Durrant and Staff. I mean, these guys have become
ratings equivalents of teams. That's how the NBA works, and

(01:38:09):
these players know it. And unfortunately for the owners, they
know it too, and they know they have to sort
of count out to the players in some ways. But
when you have a situation where you can have a
largely anonymous potentially an anonymous Eastern Conference final, uh, potentially
an anonymous at least on one side, Western Conference final

(01:38:32):
leading to a rather nondescript final, you have a big
problem on your hands and you gotta find a way
to make to to add some juice. This is the
problem for this team. I mean this league right now,
the n b A and it really started with Michael
Jordan's and it paid huge dividends for the NBA at

(01:38:56):
the time, and that was spotlighting the individual rather than
the team, where the individual players became much bigger than
any teams there on. It's almost like, who are they
playing with? I want to see this player. So when
you're banking and marketing your sport on the individual rather
than the team, if you don't have those individual players

(01:39:18):
in the spotlight. Now again, you looked out. You had Lebron,
you had Steph you had Kevin durand you got your
stars boom there they are full display where it's not great.
And even two years ago you had Kawhi Leonard, you know,
even though he's not a guy that you know, draws
a lot of eyeballs, but he is a star. And
you still had Steph Curry on the site, claytops and

(01:39:38):
everything else. And last year I had Lebron. But I mean,
if you had Philadelphia versus Utah and you're trying to
sell Joel Ebad against Rudy Gobert as like, you know,
the ultimate big man matchup, no matter how good they are,
they're legitimate all stars, that's gonna be a tough sell.
So when you when you create a sport where you're
really leaning on star power and circumstances prevent your stars

(01:40:03):
from getting to the ultimate stage, you're gonna pay a price. Well,
in my lifetime, obviously, I grew up as a kid
in the era of Michael Jordan's and I do agree
with you. I was a Jordan fan growing up in
New York, and that was unpopular at that time because
that's when pat Riley and the Knicks were really going
and the Bulls were fierce. Eastern Conference competitors with the

(01:40:25):
Knicks at the time, but I couldn't be convinced otherwise.
I was a Jordan fan. I wanted to be like Mike.
I had the bedspread, the starter jacket, the posters, I
had it all um And it was the best thing
the league could have ever done because it elevated their
game from you know, and I understand you're putting a
lot more attachment to the players than you are to

(01:40:45):
the teams, but it elevated the game from you know,
maybe something that fans liked to something that fans became
obsessed with. When you could connect with a person rather
than you know, a franchise, it's it's it's a lot.
You know, why do you go to the same store
all the time? You know, I'm asking anybody right well,

(01:41:07):
you know, sometimes it has nothing to do with how
close it is to your house. Sometimes it has nothing
to do with, uh, with how nice of a store
it is. Sometimes it has everything to do with the cashier.
You just like talking to Joe. You know, when there's
a personal connection, it changes everything. And that's what's happened
with Jordan's and that's what's happened with uh. Patrick Ewing

(01:41:29):
and Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant and Lebron James and
now Janice and Steph and Clay and all that Durant.
You know, people connect with people. So look, I I
do understand it'll be devastating for the league if they
don't have star power in the finals. But but there's
no other way to go. This is that they've made

(01:41:50):
more money over since Jordan's than they ever would have
had without leaning on individuals. Speaking of individuals, Russell Westbrook
h Oscar Robertson. Robertson's career record for triple doubles one.
By the way, this will be the fourth time that
Russell Westbrook will have a season in which he has

(01:42:10):
averaged a triple double for an entire season. He's averaging
twenty two points, eleven point six rebounds, eleven point five
assists this year for the Wizards, who, by the way,
right now are the nine seed. Normally you would be out,
but at this point they might actually get a play
in game. Uh. They also had the leads leading score
and Bradley Beal. But you know, it's interesting about how
history changes. When Oscar Robertson played as great as he was,

(01:42:36):
and he was a superstar of his era. Do you
know how many mentions there were of triple doubles in
his career? That would be zero? Uh, never heard the
term before. There wasn't that. No one ever talked about
triple doubles in terms. This is one of those creations
after the fact where they go back. I mean, Oscar
Robertson is almost laughing right now seeing what record did

(01:42:58):
I hold? Or eight one triple doubles? He was like,
I just got that at in and out. But I mean,
no one, no one ever ever ever any reference to
him having a triple double in a game. Also, what's
interesting is position only where that was possible. You know,
back then it would be impossible for a guard to

(01:43:20):
average points and rebounds and assists away that uh that
we're seeing Russell Westbrook today. But it's an outside in game.
It used to be an inside out game. Well, let
me explain Oscar Robertson. If you've never seen I'm gonna
I know you probably haven't. First of all, he was
an interesting physical specimen. He was very heavy legged, he

(01:43:41):
was big. I mean he was a very thick body
six ft five. He played forward in college they moved
him to the point he was a score. I mean again,
he was a triple double machine. But he was one
of those guys that he wasn't a skywalker by it
because he was heavy legged. He would just people live.
He was so physically he had, you know, sort of

(01:44:04):
a big caboose and he could just back you in
and just make it. But but think about it. So
they would feed the paint and then you know he
would find somebody open on the wing. And he wasn't
like a high flying Magic Johnson. That wasn't his game.
Everything was very regimented and efficient in the game of
Oscar Robertson. Typically, you know, the rebounds were way shorter.

(01:44:29):
Also shot free throws every free throw. See in those days,
he used to see they used to have more rebound
opportunities because they shot free throws on every foul. They
would have like one free throw. That's another You look
at these insane rebounding numbers like the Wild Chamberlains and
the Bill Russells had like world had rebounds in one game.

(01:44:50):
You're like, how, how's any impossible that you could have
that many rebounds? But they used to shoot free throws
after every foul games were five and a half hours long.
I don't know, I didn't see that long. I mean,
but it was a very different sport. I let's find
out what's trending right now. Let's bring back Mr David Gascon,

(01:45:11):
big Oscar Robertson's fan. Did your father ever tell you
about Oscar all the time? My dad's a huge Jerry
West fan, though, and I was obviously growing up as
a Laker fan. I mean, there was always a question
of Jerry versus Oscar. Jerry to me was a better
all around guy because he could do it at the
defensive end as well, and he also played in an
era where there's no three point line. Well, I mean

(01:45:33):
that's but Oscar Robertson was not a guy that would
take threes. His idea he would just back people down,
and his idea was to be efficient. You know, I'll
take a fifteen footer, if I could get a ten
foot I'll make a tent footer. So that's how he played. Yeah,
it's just amazing because people talk obviously about like Steph Curry,
the Clay Thompson's of the world, how they've they've evolved
the game of basketball and almost eliminated the big man.

(01:45:57):
When you hear the old time stories about some of
these guys that did it in eras where there was
no the rules were different. You know, you go back
to no three point line with Jerry West. You go
to when freshman couldn't play on the varsity team back
you know, obviously the golden days, the Creme ab dul
jabbar um, the infamous story where the freshman squad beat
their national national championship team at u c A and

(01:46:20):
a scrimmage um. There's some wild stories, man, Yeah, there was.
You know what's interesting also in college basketball, when Kareem
then lou Al Sinder came to u c l A
after his sophomore season, they banned the dunk for nine years.
They banned the dunk, and what emerged from those nine
years were some of the best shooting big men that

(01:46:41):
the NBA had ever seen. Because they couldn't dunk. They
actually so Bob mcindow and Bob Lani or these are
guys that actually learned how to shoot the basketball because
they couldn't dunk, and then they carried those shooting skills
onto the NBA adopted die Yeah, guys. Major League Baseball
and Jacob de Graham left in the fifth inning. After

(01:47:02):
the fifth inning, Uh, he had tightness in his side.
Mets right now three one lead over the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Yankees right now tie with the Nationals to two, Red
Sox three two of the Oriels, and in the NBA
Miami one three Boston one fifteen. There's about nineties seconds
to play in regulation. Back to you guys, all right,
are we ready with John Paul Morosie. Ladies and gentlemen,

(01:47:24):
join us right now, Fox Sports Radios, MLB Insider working
with the MLB Network and the NHL Network, the one
and only JP Morossy, John Paul, how are you on
this Mother's Day? I am outstanding, my friend. I extend
the happiest Mother's Day wishes to everyone listening. Hopefully lots
of quality family time and uh, whether it's in person

(01:47:47):
or distantly, lots of warm moments in conversation. Let's hope
today for everybody listening. Right all right? Well, first of all,
happy Mother's Day to your wife and everybody out there,
all the moms. But I want to get to a
little Major League Baseball Rich and our are discussing this
earlier April was like a historic month for low batting averages.
Batting averages are plumbing. We have four no hitters with

(01:48:10):
one fifth of the season gone. We're projected for twenty
no hitters this year. The record for a season is seven.
It seems like some of the analytics that they brought
in to increase the offensive numbers in baseball are now misfiring.
And I'm wondering that because you would also think if

(01:48:30):
scores are down a little bit this year, the games
will be shorter. They're not, so we got even less
action going on. The games are still well over three hours.
It would seem that major League baseball is approaching a crossroads.
He here, JP, Are we gonna see some kind of changes,
because there's nothing worse than a three to two game

(01:48:53):
that last three hours and twenty minutes. We'll see. That's
a great question, and it's an important question. And year
is the quick way that I'll start the answer, which
is the rules have changed, but the personnel has not.
And it is going to take a long time, unfortunately,

(01:49:14):
for different modes of player development to become prevalent enough
that the actual population of major league players turns through.
By that, I mean we have an entire generation of
players who have been raised on the notion that velocity
on the mound gets you a partial college scholarship and

(01:49:38):
or signed to play pro ball, and that power at
the plate, home runs and doubles is what gets you
signed and promoted. And until that fundamental reward system changes,
and until the people building the teams look for different
sorts of players, unless you do something drum mattic, which

(01:50:00):
has been one thing I've talked about, which is you
start every single count at one and one, Which is
which is really where we're going with this. If if you,
if by your point, steve the fact that the changes
that have occurred this year have not meaningfully changed the
play on the field or made the game faster than
the way that you address it as either we go

(01:50:22):
seven innings all the time or everybody starts with the
one on one count that gets things moving. But aside
from that we can make small moves around the margins.
The fundamental reason that the games still take a long
time and there's long breaks in between pitches, a lot
of foul balls is because of the velocity on the
mound and the the intentional focus on power at the plate. Yeah,

(01:50:46):
there's no question about it. The game has changed a lot,
and it's changed a lot in a very short amount
of time. Back in the last uh full length season
we watched, there were home runs, I mean ver Trulie
every at bat it felt like the ball was just
flying out of the yard. It didn't matter what ballpark.
And now with the dead ended baseball and maybe some

(01:51:08):
of the colder temperatures through the month of April, we
have a really low batting average. Can we see the
return of small ball? Could we see the bunt which
appears to be a lost art come come back to
this game in May? Well. So here's the interesting question
about that, Richard, and and why it's it's a good
point that you raise what wins in the postseason. And

(01:51:29):
this is so funny because it's almost as though baseball
people watch the postseason and then they go back and
build the team based on the data from the regular
season or what they think you're supposed to do. Go
back and think about the last full season. Who won
the World Series? The Washington Nationals with the oldest team

(01:51:53):
in baseball, with guys who were coming up with clutchits
like Howie Kendricks, like Ryan Zimmerman, Adam e veteran players, okay,
who were putting the ball in play and didn't strike
out a ton the previous year. Who won the World Series,
the Red Sox. How they do it with a lot
of situational hitting. Who was the m v P of
that World Series? Steve Pierce? Who's he playing for now?

(01:52:17):
No on, He's out of baseball, Okay, So what wins
in the playoffs and the situational hitting that prevails in
the most important games of the year. It's almost as
though the people that make decisions on teams just totally
forget about October and go back to the team that
won back, that went to back to back World Series
in the Kansas City Royals. What were they built on?

(01:52:40):
Relief pitching, contact, hitting and great defense? That there was
one year they made into the World Series hitting the
fewest home runs in baseball. That was not nineteen sixty four.
That was like, that was not that long ago. And
I just think people who build baseball teams, guys, they
just forget that stuff. Then they get six sited on

(01:53:02):
the power and not how you play the game. And
and I know I'm kind of getting gold here, but
this to me guys, I love this game, and I
wish more people paying attention to what actually results in
winning the sport in the most important games of the season.
End of rant. All right, I'm gonna give you another

(01:53:22):
opportunity to do a little I'm gonna give you some numbers,
and then I want an explanation from John Palmer ROSSI.
In his eleven seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals, Albert
pool Holes made a hundred and four million dollars and
had a war of eighty six point six. In ten
years of the Angels, he made two hundred and forty

(01:53:44):
million dollars, handing of a war of twelve point nine. So,
when people ultimately will ask you, as the consummate historian
to explain the career of Albert pool Holes, what is
your explanation of his Cardinal years versus his Angel years?

(01:54:06):
The first part is that was one of the best
decades we have ever seen by any player in baseball history,
full stop period. Those of us who witnessed it covered it.
I don't see how you could argue with what I
just said. That was one of the best decades ever.
And what happened was he was a high priced free

(01:54:28):
agent there. In his early thirties, he signed a mega
deal near the end of the era of the mega
deal for the thirty plus year old power hitter, and
he diminished significantly. He had some injuries, and it really
became difficult to watch him play through such pain late
in his career and not be the player that he was.

(01:54:50):
Not his fault, I will will say that again, not
his fault for for getting old, because every player gets old. Uh.
And I think that the the rear arc of pools.
We can call him really in many ways one of
the last of his kind, because we're not going to
see a first baseman, a slugging, power hitting first baseman

(01:55:14):
at at a non premium defensive position get paid like that.
Maybe ever Again, that's of course Miguel Cabrero was around
that time. But and you see what Miguel is doing
right now, is batting under two hundred That the aging
curve now is simply especially in this power velocity era,
just doesn't work anymore for players that have aging curves

(01:55:36):
like Miguel and like Albert and so I right now
I realized, there's the news story of Okay, he's cut
by the Angels. Is he gonna play somewhere else? Does
LaRussa want him back in Chicago? There's that news story,
and then there's the appreciation of the player that he was.
And for me, no matter what happens the rest of
this year beyond, I will think of Albert as the

(01:55:59):
player and say Lewis. The last game he played there
was a victorious World Series Game seven, and certainly what's
happened since then has been different, obviously, But I look
at him as the memories I have of watching some
some pretty amazing baseball games in St. Louis has a
pretty cold nights in October, all right, So I just
a quick follow up here, and let's let's make this

(01:56:19):
clear our pool. Holes is been a model citizen for
Major League Baseball, and he and his wife have been
engaged in numerous charities over the years. They've done a
lot of good things for a lot of people. He
is well liked. But there are two things that always
circulate when you have this dramatic of a drop off
in production, not just because of change of address. One

(01:56:41):
was the use of p E d s. Because, let's
face it, he played for a manager that turned a
blind eyed to p E d s. Throughout his career
all the way to the Hall of Fame. That's what
Tony Larusa did with the A's and the Cardinals. And
then the age factor, like how old is Obert pool Holes?
Because I know why the Angels gave him the ten
year deal. I remember they came out of left field.

(01:57:03):
They figured we'll give him ten Well if we get
five years of Albert pool Holes, Well then he never
even got that. So how do you address the questions
of whether or not he may have been involved with
p E d S. I know, as former hitting coach
at one point Jack Clard accused him. He renegged on
that story and the age factor as well, which by
the way, was circulating when the Angels gave him that

(01:57:25):
ten year deal. Well, the first part here. First of all,
I would not in any way personally, I would not
link him to p E d S at all. He
has passed every test he's taken. I think what's fundamentally different.
And you mentioned LaRussa. The Oakland years for Tony were
before there was testing in in MLB for it, and

(01:57:48):
I think that that era occurred in Oakland during a
pretesting era, and Albert arrived at a time where he
has been tested basically that program started in oh five.
He has passed every test during the lifetime of the program.
So that to me, as where I sit as a journalist,
it's not fair to uh for for I think, for

(01:58:10):
the speculation to continue forward because he's passed every test.
And as it relates to the age again, that's certainly
there have been to your point, people who have asked
the question, Uh, he has answered the question. I have
no reason to disbelieve him. I would also make the
point that from a standpoint of documentation, um, in a

(01:58:30):
in a post nine eleven world. Of course, he made
his MLB debut debut previous to that, but in a
post nine eleven world, birth certificates and records have been
much more diligently recorded. Uh. Ever since then, and again
I have I have no reason to believe that Albert
is not exactly as old as he says that he is.
So I understand, uh, Steve, I understand asking the questions.

(01:58:52):
But for me, I have zero concerned, zero worry on
either of those topics. Alright, So let's put that aside
and celebrate a great career. No question about that. No
age questions about John Paul Marossi. Although I did watch
the MLB network they posted a photo of you from
several years ago as we're doing our morning show. When
when was that photo taken? That was being so thank

(01:59:14):
you for watching, first of all, and for asking me
about that. That was that was two thousand four. I
think I was at the All Many Times Union. That's
pretty funny picture. And uh so that was I suppose
what five years removed from when I was playing high
school football, and I was probably a little huskier back then.
Um and and maybe my my eating habits have been

(01:59:35):
improved a little bit since then. But but that was
kind of a big joke, like and and Mark de
Rosa was in the background as we were talking about it, said, hey,
it looked like you were actually like lifting weights and
and you look like more like an athlete back then,
which is probably true. But but yeah, a little a
little different these days that you know what, you know what, uh,
what probably keeps me somewhat smelt is just chasing my
kids around all the time, making sure they're staying out

(01:59:56):
of trouble. And when you've got three kids under the
age of nine, you kind of do the a lot.
So that's uh. That's uh. First and foremost, it's it's
Mother's Day to all the heroes out there raising families
and and certainly I I'm inspired by my wife to
try to do the best that I can in the
same pursuit. Well, we appreciate you as always. JP. We'll
talk to you next week. All the best guys. Enjoyed
the conversation is always, Thanks so much, John Paul Morosi. Hi,

(02:00:23):
By the way, I'm still I'm marvel at some of
these numbers. When pool House was a card, it's like
two different players. Yeah, it was. It was just it
was really night and day. All right. Coming up on
the other side, Well, we'll follow up with a little
more baseball. Here is the grand ole pastime, fizzle the
way in the season and four no hitters. How's that happened?
We'll tell you coming up next. Hey, it's Ben host

(02:00:46):
of The Fifth Hour with Ben Mallory along with my
trustees sidekick David Gascon. Would mean a lot to have
you join us on our weekly auditory journey. You're asking
one in God's name is the Fifth Hour? I'll tell
you it's a spin off of the Ben Maller show,
Cold Hit over and nights on FS are Why should
you listen picture If you will the world will? We
chat with captains of industry in media, sports and more.

(02:01:07):
Every week Explorer some amazing facts about human nature and more.
Listen to the Fifth Hour with Ben Mallow on the
I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get
your podcast. Alright, so Sam is trying to come up
with Mother's Day themes songs throughout the day, and so
the Mama's and the Papas is like the perfect Mother's
Day group, That's what you're saying, I think. So plus

(02:01:30):
is this just a great song? I mean, yeah, great
talented group. Neither one of the women in the Mamas
and Papa's at that time were mother's right, And didn't
they both die young? Or one of them didn't know? Yeah,
mama cast died young, she passed away. The shell Phillips
is very much still with us, good goody. She was gorgeous,
absolutely gorgeous back in the day. It's amazing, you know,

(02:01:52):
they just you know, you come up, those are the
days write some good music there. Yeah, I mean I
always wonder and you can say, oh, you're funny, duddy,
but how many songs like this? Song here will stand
the test of time where you can play it fifty
years later, sixty years later, and people still know the song. Right,
This is one of those songs. Well, there are certain again,

(02:02:15):
like you said, there can be one hit one wonders,
but you can have songs that I don't know, they
just sort of almost capture a year, right, Like you
you think back to a summer, or you think back
to a year. I think we all think of songs
and make that connection and and for some for for
certain songs, a lot of people make that connection. And

(02:02:37):
so that's how you know. There are so many different
playlists out there available to you where you can you
can literally go and find a playlist of songs from
a certain month of a year, like what were the
top ten songs that were circulating back in the day.
And I do that every once in a while, you know,
and you'll start playing the series of songs and it

(02:02:57):
literally takes you back. Like, man, when I was listening
to the radio back in those days, that's exactly what
it was playing during that month. You need to play
Mother by Danzig? How about that? All right? We're looking
at up Mother songs here. Mother's a lot of mother

(02:03:20):
references some NFL news to get to coming up next.
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Fox sports
Radio dot com and within the I Heart Radio app.
Search f s R to listen live officials show the
Mamas and the Papa's right here. You can say that

(02:03:43):
without any hesitation, we're the only only show of our
kind featuring the Mamas and Papa's. Thinking about all the
mothers out there. Let's bring on David Gascon right now
on this Mother's Day. Speaking of mother's Yeah, he's kind
of like the team mom here. He brings in the
orange wedges. He's always telling us things. He tells me

(02:04:06):
it's not about whether you win or lose. He's always
laugh in the hand of Sam. I know that behave yourself.
Don't touch that pie. Wow, don't touch um guys. You
know obviously, the NFL offseason is an interesting one. Juwan
James a few days ago uh ruptured achilles um DK

(02:04:27):
metcalf Today ran the one heat ran a time of
ten thirty six. Now he finished in ninth place. The
winner was at ten ten twelve. He finished in ninth,
but he looked good, right out of the blocks, and um,
you know, obviously he was excited, didn't pull up or
anything of that nature, but didn't finish last, but still competed,

(02:04:50):
and he looks strong in this thing. I know that
the NBC had twittered out just a couple of moments ago.
But gave it a hell of a run he did.
I mean, like you said, finished last at ten point
three six is nothing to sneeze at. I always, you know,
for years and years and years, Darryl Green, the Hall
of Fame corner for the Washington Redskins, was deemed the
fastest player in the NFL. Of course, I got to

(02:05:14):
see Bo Jackson the day he showed up at our
Raider facility at two hundred thirty pounds. He was he
was supposedly running a four two. He could fly. I mean,
and you here for it too, and you're like, nobody
runs up four to like maybe maybe four three five.
I saw him. He was he was at that point

(02:05:35):
when he came in as a rookie with the Raiders
at age three twenty four at a chiseled to thirty. Yeah,
he was that fast, like it was insane. He was. Now, Steve,
how do you rate that compared to his game speed,
because obviously there's was even greater track speeding game speed

(02:05:56):
you always you always watch and going back to his
infant miss Monday night football game. So we go up
to Seattle that year and the latter the two previous hears,
the Raiders have gotten blown out in Seattle. And one
thing about the Old Kingdom you talked about acoustics. That
place was so loud it was insane, like you could
not hear like our offensive line rich you could certainly

(02:06:19):
feel about this. The noiseless was so loud that you
literally could not even talk to the guy next to you.
I remember there were games that I played in where
opposing crowds can raise the volume to such a level
that you can't even hear your own voice. You're shouting
at the top of your lungs and you can't even

(02:06:41):
hear your own voice. I would be sitting in the
press box obviously at the Kingdome, and you could not
carry on a conversation. So and the two previous series,
the Raiders are lost by a combined seventy two three.
So we go into Seattle having lost seven straight games
seasons of loss, and all I'm thinking is this is
gonna get really ugly today. And then we're up seven

(02:07:01):
nothing and Bow breaks that infamous ninety yard run where
he runs through the tunnel and everything else. And if
you watch that play, Kenny easily Hall of Fame safety
for the Seahawks, great U c l a star. He's
got the angle on him, There's no question he's got
the angle. As bowheads up the sideline and he just
outruns the angle. So when you talk about it, guys, fast,

(02:07:23):
he's fast, and then all of a sudden he kicks
it into another gear and he's he was just one
of those just freak of nature. Yeah, freaking nature is
the right way to free that big and that fast
just impossible. Oh, here it is. I just pulled it up.
It was the run. Now, where do you guys put
Bow with Chris Johnson? Chris Johnson and his prime rich

(02:07:45):
I mean, he had tremendous speed. I'm trying to think
of who are the fastest running backs out there? But again,
he wasn't as big as Bow. That was. That was
the fascination with Bow was not only that he was
fast and he could outrun a defense, there's no doubt
about it, but also he so brutally physical. He would
just put his head down and hit you with those
giant shoulder pads. I mean he'd square you up and

(02:08:10):
he would knock you on your on your butt. My
buddy Eric Dickerson in his prime. Now he had a
unique stock because Eric's a big man. He's six three
and he was a tall runner. So he was and
he stood tall because he ran tall. He never seemed
as fast as he was. But you watch him, and
you watch Eric Dickerson when he broke in the NFL,
forget it. It was very strange. He would just no

(02:08:32):
one would catch him because I I didn't grow up
watching and might have to go back and look at
like game film or highlights. And when you watched him run,
it was different. Like Bo Jackson has more of that
classic you know, blast through the line of scrimmage and
off to the racist style. Eric Dickerson glided around the field.
It was very strange to watch. It was like it

(02:08:53):
was as if he was doing something different than a
lot of the other running back. The one guy we
failed to mention who was great at USC, O J. Simpson,
who had who had world class speed as well. I
mean he he was he was way ahead of his time.
And o J is also a big man. I mean
he's not a he's not a little guy's six two
played at two hundred plus plowns. He was a big

(02:09:13):
running back with that world class And he ran track
at USC, didn't he He was on a USC track
team that actually set the world record for the old
four hundred and forty yard relay. You know they had,
but the usaid because we were in yards in the
so they had the four hundred and forty yard relay
in the USC team, this is just a school team

(02:09:37):
tied the world record. Rold McCullough was on that, but
o J was part of that. Yeah. So I mean
you get these guys with that tremendous to me. I
mean you remember your high school days, Rich when you
were a four four, four five Oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
Actually I was. I was a sub fivety. I was
four nine an offensive test. What wait, would you say

(02:09:57):
to fifty to sixty between two sixty and two seventy
that's pretty good? Well, I was always I was always
pretty good with the forty I was. I mean, like
you kind of, let's put it this way, unless you're
a giant man, unless you're like one of these three
hundred forty pounders or four hundred pounders. You kind of

(02:10:19):
have to be quick, otherwise you're not gonna make it
to college. You're not gonna certainly not going to make
it to the NFL because you have to be able
to out angle people at the line of scrimmage. And
that was more my game. Yeah, I've never I never,
I've never understood though, the idea of forty yard types.
How many times would you say during the course of
your football career that you ran forty yards in a
straight line, not in a game. Not once. I'm not

(02:10:43):
even kidding, not once. I think there's only two players
that come to my mind in situations like that, DK Metcalf,
when I forget who chased down in that Arizona game,
and then when Ben Watson went a hundred yards to
chase down Champ Bailey. And I think that wild that
wild cred of Division round game between Denver and New England. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
that I was. I got drafted by New England the

(02:11:05):
year after that happened, and we played. Bill must have
played that clip twice a year every year to show
everybody what it meant not to give up on a
play and DK metcalf. He replicated it perfectly this past season. Yeah,
there there are certain times where you sort of can
unleash it. But even for receivers, think about how many

(02:11:25):
times you see a receiver run forty yards uninterrupted. It's
so rare in football, it really is. In fact, I
remember working with the Raiders. You know, we were such
a mom and pop operation. So but Al Davis was
always obsessed with speed, and so they would drag me
out of my office and hand me a watch, you know,

(02:11:45):
stop Watch, and they would set me up. They would
set up markers at ten, twenty thirty and forty yards
and I would be at the ten yard mark doing splits,
doing splits, you know, you know, and by the way,
that was tough. I mean, why I'm Mike, Why am
I at the ten yard markets having the guys are
it's exploding And there were certain guys who maybe weren't
as fast in terms of the forty times, but their

(02:12:09):
tanyard ties were off the charts. Yeah, that that explosiveness
out of the blocks is actually that makes way more
sense to me, and it's more important frankly, because if
you think about suddenness, Like if you think about football
from a game of you know, the ability to change
direction quickly. Why is Bo Jackson great. It's not because
he's fast. I can't assure you that Bo Jackson was

(02:12:31):
great because he was so sudden and explosive. He could
set you up and then change directions very quickly at
near top speeds, and that's difficult to handle. That's the
reason why guys like Wes Welker had careers and Julian
Edelman had careers, not because they were the fastest guy
on the field, but that suddenness. Out of those breaks,
they were virtually unguardable, you know, especially on those short

(02:12:54):
option routes. Keenan Allen is another great example of an elite,
elite route runner. He's not the fastest guy in the league,
there's no question about it, but he's the top five
receiver every single season, and the reason is because he
has that incredible change of direction ability. There was a
player that played for the Oakland Raiders name Warren Wells.

(02:13:17):
This is the late sixties early seventies. He was some
cast off that the Raiders had signed. If you look
at his numbers in his career, he averaged twenty three
point one yards to catch. I mean, he had a
season where he had twenty six point eight yards of
catching fourteen touchdowns, and then there was a sudden end
of his career. There was some legal matters or something

(02:13:40):
along the lines. But I was always curious about this
guy because he was he had legal problems, and he
was had a conviction for something, and he was basically done.
He was at the height of his career before it
really got going. So I was always curious about this guy.
So always asking the rawn wolves of the world that
you know, you know, brought this guy, And I said,

(02:14:00):
how did this guy put up these numbers? They go
He was so unique because he wasn't that fast, but
he was always open. He was always open, he goes.
He had the ability. And I've talked to t J
houshman Zada about this. He says, you know what, it's
not how fast you can run, it's how fast you

(02:14:22):
can stop. It's how quickly you can put on the breaks.
J has talked about this all the thing. And that
was the thing about this Wells guy that he could
separate like no receiver they had ever seen. And there's
there's a look there, there is something about running one

(02:14:42):
or two routes really well, but that's not going to
get you wide open when you are when when you
align in the slot, virtually you could break either direction
out towards the sideline to the interior of the field,
or he could go straight down the field. Uh. You
can run a short route, you can run a long route.
When you have the capability to run any route and proficiently,

(02:15:04):
it makes you so much more dangerous as far as
a wide open threat because you can set guys up.
And that's Look, if you watch any good counted receiver,
it's not just about the ability to change direction, although
that is wildly important, it's also about their ability to
influence the defense ahead fake I mean a stutter step

(02:15:25):
at the top of a route stem or sometimes just
a hesitation. It could be a steam route, it could
be a go uh sideline or interior position as a slot.
But if you just stutter step a little bit, sometimes
that's all it takes to get a defender going flat
footed and then you can blow right past them. I saw,
you know, speaking of the Old Kingdom, obviously the Seahawks
had Steve Largent, you know, one of the greatest receivers

(02:15:47):
of all time. Again, not a speed guy, but he
ran routes like nobody ever ran routes dizzy and and
and Lester Hayes used to hate going against large And
because even if it was a straight handoff and large
and even is part of the play, he would run
his routes and as a quarter you're on this guy,
and then less there would like that was an off

(02:16:07):
tackle play. You were not even in the play and
you're running routes on me. Yeah. Yeah, guys, real quick,
Since you're talking about route running and speed, do you
think this motivates Tyreek Hill to get on a track. Well,
that's what j That's what That's what Metcalf wants. He
was to see Tyreek Hill out there, which is crazy
because he's a fraction of his size. Yeah exactly, so Yeahtcalf.

(02:16:32):
I mean he's basically an action figure, you know, Montes
he ran at six six sixty pounds supposedly a four three,
And you want to talk about an action figure, I
mean that guy six six to sixty. We are maxing
out the human frame, Like how much how much further
does this go? Wow? All right, all right, we got

(02:16:54):
a little sites right, But I like that kind of stuff.
On the other side, I want to get back again
to this off eason and some of the challenges and
some of the uncertainty they has come out of this
NFL draft, And there are a lot of general managers
talking about they've got their fingers crossed. Why we'll tell
you coming up next. This one is for all the

(02:17:17):
moms out there. Hello Cleveland moms. Yeah, wolf Mother, that's
the name of the band. Yeah, you think moms are
playing this throughout the Country's no doubt, There's no doubt.

(02:17:39):
This is a very popular brunch song. As a matter
of fact. By the way, we got multiple baseball games
we're watching right now. Is a lot of pink pictures,
a lot of pink on the field right now, Press
awareness and press cancer awareness and everything else. But uh, yeah,
you see a lot of pink on the field on

(02:17:59):
this Mother day. Yeah. Victor Karattini behind the plate for
the padre is almost all pink. I think. Yeah, his
he's got the chest protectors pink and the ball that
just I don't know if it's a foul tip or
if he lost track of it, but one of the
pitches I think got underneath his chin. Yeah, I think
it caught him in the neck. That's not a comfortable thing.

(02:18:22):
But he is decked out in full pink. Yeah, I
think that's a distraction. It's like a raw hot though
he is really layered in pink. Yeah, right now, like
a fresh slice of liver. Worst. Hey, um, I was
watching uh post NFL draft. Tom Talasco, the general manager

(02:18:43):
of the Chargers, said something and it made a lot
of sense because you know they're always asked afterwards, you know,
how did you do? You know, did you get what
you want in this draft? And he really sucked. Uh No,
but he's look any and he and he said, I
think I can speak safely for a lot of guys

(02:19:05):
in my position. This has been the most challenging draft
that I've ever been a part of because the process
has been entirely different. We did not have a combine
and we've talked many times rich about you know, what
are the things you take away from a combine of
value And the two things will always cite are the
personal interviews, the one on one interviews, and the extensive

(02:19:27):
physicals that are able to give all these players. But
the one thing that we never mentioned, and it really
holds true. It's just the interaction of all the general managers,
scouts and everybody else that are involved in the combine.
Because these front office folks they go to st almost
and they order the horse radish and the stakes man

(02:19:48):
I've I've been the same stuff, and they and they
discuss their war room, their draft board, trade prospects, thank you. So,
in other words, part of them. There's two processes in
getting ready for the draft. Obviously, that is to put
together your own draft board at the same time trying

(02:20:08):
to figure out other people's draft boards. And when everybody's
hanging out the combine and they're exchanging notes, you you
have a pretty good idea, Like you're like, all right,
the Broncos are picking a couple of picks ahead of us, right,
I know them, I know what their board looks like.
We were at the combine. He liked this guy, was

(02:20:29):
a while about this guy. You know, we have open discussions.
So all of that was gone gone, And so not
only did you have challenges putting your own draft board together,
but to try to guess other people's draft boards without
that interaction was next to impossible. So there's a lot

(02:20:50):
of teams right now obviously keeping their fingers crossed that
they picked the right players, but maybe keeping their fingers
crossed they didn't pass on the wrong players. I'll tell
you what, Ask any use car salesman um, what's it
like trying to sell a car on the phone versus
in person? And they'll tell you, well, one's impossible and

(02:21:12):
one's not. That's that's the obstacle you face because first
and foremost these guys are all a little bit paranoid,
So they're not gonna say anything on a telephone call
in fear that it could be recorded, in fear that
you know that like this this separation, this distance between
these two parties will somehow, it's just convers language, body language.

(02:21:38):
Do you just get a read for somebody how they're
reacting to certain players and everything else. And also like
let's also be honest with each other. You you go
out with a couple of general managers or front office folks,
directors of personnel, what have you, and you have a
couple of drinks. All of a sudden, the truth series
Sirium does its work and somebody uh starts divulging a

(02:22:01):
little bit more than the information game. That's how general
managers are. It's an information game. You're trying to decipher,
you exchange your notes and everything else. So you've got
that uncertainty coming out of the draft. And then on
top of that, you don't have a normal off season,
at least the way it used to be, where you
have that extended time of evaluating players, watching them in

(02:22:24):
person on the field. So this this there's gonna be
a little bit of an unknown going into this season
that we didn't even have a year ago, because at
least last year they had the Combine. You know, we
were able to get through the draft pretty much normal. Now, yeah,
the off season was a little different, but the process

(02:22:45):
leading into this draft was unlike anything we've seen before.
And then on top of that, how much time will
you actually get a chance to see these guys and
see what they got in the off season on the field.
And also, the combine is a collection not only of
the top tier talent that everybody wants to get full
medical on and have interviews with and obviously are being

(02:23:07):
potentially tied to huge money selections, but there's also a
fair amount of smaller school guys. Again, going back to
this earlier conversation about fcs being so wildly underrepresented this
year and in last year's draft players drafted due to
the pandemic. But then throw on top of it, what
about that BS schools that our Division one, but they

(02:23:29):
just don't get the acclaim because team wise they don't
have as much success as the Alabama's Ohio States to
Clemsons like the Northern Illinois and the Boise Easy but Rich.
I want to get back to this because I agree
with you when you talk about veteran players, and this
goes all the way back. You know, veteran players are like,
come on, I know how to get myself ready for
a season. I don't have to go through all the shenanigans,

(02:23:52):
you know, I don't have to have the at of
risk of maybe an unnecessary injury. But when you have
young players that you're trying aim to figure out, I mean,
there's still has to be some value of having eyeballs
of them on the field, right, yes, of course, oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah yeah. Well you're talking about watching and observing and

(02:24:14):
trying to evaluate young talent during the normal process that
we've had in the passing training camp, see how they
fit in where maybe we maybe we didn't have the
right idea of where this guy fits maybe actually fits
over here. This used to happen all the time. Were
you saying, you know what, you might be a I mean,

(02:24:35):
like I remember there was going back into where maybe
a guy you thought was going to be a strong safety,
you know, like you know what, maybe not, maybe he's
a standard outside back or I mean, are we are
we missing out on that element with the lack of
actual training camp time where guys are on the field.
I don't think so. And I know there are certain
veteran players, retired players who would disagree with me because

(02:24:56):
they felt like the beginnings of their career was sort
of cemented uh and fundamentally uh uh created maybe in
the off seasons. And I'm not. Look, I I was
a player who needed time to mature into an NFL player.
I wasn't ready out the gates, and so training camps
are important for me. Preseasons weren't important for me. But

(02:25:19):
I don't for a second think that if film was
shared amongst all the other thirty one franchises in the NFL,
from practice, scrimmages or otherwise, and I still had opportunity
to compete during training camp, I would have found my
route into becoming, uh, the six year NFL veteran. I

(02:25:40):
became like that. To me, it's there's there's many ways
you could do this. You don't need to play as
many preseason games, you know, the really the final two
are kind of superfluous. You you don't need to have
that long of an off season. Yes, the young players
have a lot of catching up to do, but the
evaluation of players without pads on, I mean, it's an

(02:26:04):
apt You need to put these guys in pads. You
need to have them hit each other. You need to
figure out who is is a football player and who isn't,
and like you said, who's playing maybe the wrong position
or who You could maybe create some different scenarios for
whether it be offensively or defensively. All those things happened
during training camp certainly, but you could do it with

(02:26:24):
last time. And I'm confident of that. I am completely
confident of that. Alright, let's bring on. By the way,
we just watch Jake cronin Worth of the padres land
is shot in McCovey Co. Yeah, lucky Kayaker sit on
that kayak out there. How about David gas Kind or
you ever have the desire to sit out in the

(02:26:45):
kayak all day thinking that maybe a ball is going
to be hit out there. No, the only uh time
I'd ever sit in a kayak and just hang out
would be a Newport Beach. And if and if you
don't know what I mean by that, take a trip
out here to write southern California during the summertime. Newport Beach.

(02:27:07):
The kayaks, the code gascon just keeps getting older. And
the babes they just stayed the same age or they
get you know, are they they also get older. The
other marriages just dissipate into the oc. Here's the scenes,
here's the deal. But as you get older here and
I know you know this because of the player that
you are, the field expands, Yeah, and expands and expands

(02:27:36):
and expands. You notice that It's It's fascinating because when
I was younger, Yeah, I I typically never dated my age.
It was always older. And now that pendulum is swinging
um dramatically another way commands on Safari Hunt, it's a
little bit different. I'm happy you guys brought that up,
because you know, during our pause in the show, I

(02:27:57):
had gone into the control room to talk to and
Iowa Sam about maybe some vacation plans, and uh, you know,
Ryan and I are are are proud Americans and patriots,
and so we're thinking about I'll say name of me
like Yellowstone or your seventy things of that nature. And
Iowa Sam's like, go to Nantucket, Nantucket, Go to Nantucket.
There's just ton of women out there, young, beautiful woman.

(02:28:19):
That's what vacation is all about. Women. You know, I
don't know, I didn't get it. Check it out talking
about looking at some wildlife and nature and Iowa Sam
and just you know, the other way, it was like,
I'll put you in the direction of the birds. There are, yes,
there's plenty nature in Nantucket. Oh boy, guys. NBA today,

(02:28:41):
Miami beat Boston in their own backyard. One four Nixon
Clippers going at it from Staples Center right now, Los
Angeles with a seven point lead at forty seven to forty.
In this ballgame, Derick Rose has done himself pretty fine
job off the bench, twelve points, the six of seven
from the field, and twelve minutes worth of work. Major
League Baseball Yankees just walked off on the Nationals and

(02:29:03):
nine young color Stanton Rbi single brought home the winning
run Mets for two winners of the Diamondbacks. Jacob Degram
left the ball game in the fifth with tightness in
his side. Brewers in ten beat the Marlins to one,
and it's all White Socks six to two at Kansas St. Lucas.
You know started this ball game. He's getting plenty of
runs support today, Steve. I mean, for being the man,

(02:29:27):
the workaholic that you are working seven days a week. Um,
have you had a chance to visit at least half
of the states in our our great republic. Oh, I've
been to all but six stays uh, six states. I
can tell you the six states. Six. Yeah, I've been
to forty four states. Yeah, I mean I I actually
know this quite well. There are six states that I

(02:29:50):
am not into. Well, I mean, part of it was
I took a big cross country trip when I got
out of college, so that that knocked off a number
of states. The six states I have never want to.
By the way, by the way, I'll put it this way,
the six states are all separated two two and two.

(02:30:11):
They're they're there are cases of neighboring states, but they're
in different region. Nor that rules out Alaska, Hawaii. You've
been to both. Yes, I've been to both. So Idaho, No,
I've been to Idaho, and don't talk about yourself that way.
I've been to Idaho. I've been to Moscow. Yeah, like
a lot of people with the vandals right, Oh, Wyoming, No,

(02:30:34):
I've been. I've seen Devil's Tower. Oklahoma. Have you've been Oklahoma?
There's one there. Go Now, you've got to think of
a neighboring state of Oklahoma that I have. Kansas, Now,
I've been to Kansas, Texas. It's a neighboring state of Oklahoma.
Of course. It is Nebraska. New Mexico, Nebraska. That's a

(02:30:55):
good one. New Mexico borders. You guys are really good
with yours. I'm to pull up a map because I'm
embarrassing myself. I was a geography major in college, and
this is Yes, it was kas that's it. I've not
been to Oklahoma or Arkansas. Fly fishing in Arkansas here, alright.

(02:31:16):
So that's two of the six about North Dakota. North
Dakota is one. Yes, I've not been to North Dakota.
So what's the neighboring state? Oh, Montana, Montana. So I
haven't been to Oklahoma. Arkansas, Montana, and you haven't been
to Maine in Vermont? Perfect? What's up? Those are the

(02:31:37):
six states that I've never been to. That's incredible. Yeah,
so I've been to every other state I have been
of Maine and Vermont. You you're better than me. You
have forty four states. Yeah, you know, I got quite
a few. But I never thought I was going to
get Alaska. But I got Alaska in a few years ago.
I wanted to Disney cruise up there. It was a
great I'm missing a lot. Actually, I'm looking at the country.

(02:31:59):
I mean, I been to a ton of the states,
but I'd really have to do the work to count. Yeah. Yeah,
maybe we're close, we might be closed. I might be around. Well.
I mean, first of all, you grew up in the Northeast,
so you pretty much have that blanket, right, I mean yeah,
I mean there's a lot of little states, and they're
like Rhode Island, Delaware. I mean, they're not even like states,

(02:32:22):
are they? All those states? You drive right through the
Rhode Islands and uber ride. Yeah. Puerto Rico, Steve, I
have never been Ato. That is a what they call it,
a territory. Have you been to the Cayman Islands. I've
not been the only for my banking all right, So
now you got me completely thrown up. Oh, I know

(02:32:43):
what I wanted to ask you. I know what I
wanted to ask you this. So there you talk about
always these crazy rumors, But I'm gonna throw a potential
trade to you and you tell me if you do this. O. Hey,
you're the Cleveland Browns. Yeah, you just made the playoffs
for the first time in eighteen years. You just want
your first playoff games since the restart of the Cleveland

(02:33:06):
Browns in would you trade Baker Mayfield for Aaron Rodgers?
Would you trade Baker Mayfield for Aaron Rodgers? Oh? Would
I trade Baker Mayfield for Aaron Rodgers? I mean there
might be other little things, but those are the two
main players. If you were the Cleveland Browns and you

(02:33:28):
obviously have playoff talent because you just got there, would
you trade Baker Mayfield for Aaron Rodgers. Well, you could
tell by my pause that I really am in deep consideration.
So my knee jerk reaction is yes, okay, because I mean,
obviously the Browns have receiving talent. Would you say the

(02:33:50):
Browns might actually have more skilled talent than the Green
Bay Packers. I really like the Browns defense. I mean
I really like the Packers defense too. But I mean,
when you look at the skill positions, the Brows have
got talent, do they not? I'm trying to think of
what the Browns need that they don't have though, well,

(02:34:11):
I mean it would like the question is if you
if you were to take Baker may Feel the way
and insert Aaron Rodgers, do they go from a marginal
playoff team to a super Bowl champion? See? That's my
point is are were they a quarterback away? I Look,

(02:34:32):
I mean Aaron Rodgers is that type of talent where
if you have a very good roster, he can make
it great. You know that's uh with Aaron Rodgers, wouldn't
you argue that's a team that you automatically have to
consider uh super Bowl contender? A. Right? So you got
Kareem h and Nick Schub right, two premier running backs.

(02:34:53):
Are we in agreement there? Absolutely? Okay? So you've got
Jarvis Landry there. What is the Beckham's situation? By the way,
these days missed part of the season due to injury. Right,
And then you got Austin Hooper a tight end. You've
got Higgins there, you got a couple of tight ends. Actually,

(02:35:15):
I mean, look, they could. Would that be an upgrade?
I mean, first of all, when you have a two
headed monster like Nick Chubb, who only averaged five points
six yards to carry last year, is splitting time with
Kareem Hunt, you suddenly take Baker Mayfield out and put
Aaron Rodgers in. Does that make the Browns a legit

(02:35:37):
Super Bowl contender? Look? Yeah, I do. Actually, now that
I'm thinking about it more and more. Yeah, I knew
I threw this one out of left field for you. No, Well,
the reason I even mentioned this there was something about
the fact that the Browns are not entertaining that thought
that there was somebody apparently had already thrown it out
there in the Browns said were not interested or fine

(02:35:59):
with baker Field. Okay, let me thinking that again, they
have found their franchise quarterback for the next ten years.
Let's let's address the obvious reason why you don't do
this is because of Aaron Rodgers age and like you
just said, the potentiality of Baker Mayfield being your quarterback
for the next decade or longer. So yeah, I I

(02:36:20):
understand you have to then consider didn't make Mayfield really
turned the corner in I think, look, he's gotten better
to my eyes every year. I think that he's really
a great rookie. Year took a step back. Yeah, well,
he took a step back in fairness because of the
changes at the top. This gut in play for the
same coach for longer than a cup of coffee each

(02:36:41):
time over the first two seasons of his coach came in,
was Coach of the Year and Kevin Stefanski turned things around. Yeah,
and this is another year in that system. Now, you
know what. Like I said, my knee jerk reaction is well,
of course Samon Rodgers makes your team that much better,
But the trajectory you're on with a Baker Mayfield. I
feel similarly about the Buffalo Bills. You know, there are

(02:37:03):
certain young quarter trade Josh Allen for Aaron Rodgers. No,
because the team and all think Aaron Rodgers makes you
a super Bowl winner. There's so much potential with Josh Allen.
Is Aaron Rodgers going to well a team like Denver
who has zero potential at their quarterback? Denver? Again, Green
Bay is asking a boatload of Denver, of course, and

(02:37:23):
they're not. You said that would be stupid for Denver
to give up all that talent, I said, I said,
it would be stupid for green or Yeah, for Denver
to give up more than draft picks, because Denver has
got a defense that you can win now with. Denver
has an offense you could win now if they needed.
First of all, green Bay, I'm thinking this. Are we
a hundred percent certain Jordan's Love? Is that? Because otherwise

(02:37:44):
I want a quarterback and return. I'm not interested in
Drew Lock? What about Teddy Bridge? You want? Not interested
in second Mafield? Yes, Josh Allen, Yes, here's the deal though,
if you're the Green Bay Packers and you're not sold
on George and Love, then it means you've made a
massive mistake and you reap what you so. So not

(02:38:05):
only have you piste off your starting quarterback who's the
reigning NFL m v P, but you drafted you. You
chose poorly in the first round for a quarterback who
you trade it up to get? What do you think
Matt LaForge his mind? Is there anything Matt lafor can do?
He can remind them they've been to back to back
NFC Championship games together. Well, I think the gauntlet has

(02:38:27):
been thrown down by an Aaron Rodgers and they're playing
a game of chicken. He I mean, if you're trusting
sourced material, it sounds like he wants the GM fired.
So the packers have a decision make do you want
to discontented Aaron Rodgers or do you fire your general manager?
I don't think there are a lot of options to
be honest with you, because it also has to be

(02:38:49):
a place that he's happy with. You're not just gonna
go anywhere. No, no, no no. And and that all
came out with the Schefter sourced materials from the night
of the draft. There were Oakland, it was Denver with
San Francisco. It wasn't just Schefter, Rappaport, Glazer, all the

(02:39:09):
big wigs, all the big NFL all simultaneously got that story.
Who did it come from? If the En Rappaports, the
Jay Glazers, the Adam Schefters are all getting this story
on the eve of the draft about said that, and
this is you're either trusting him or or not. But
this is what he said. This was a culmination of

(02:39:32):
research done multiple sources uh information Rappaport and Glazer Guy
at the same time, And and he said that he
released it because he couldn't sit on it any longer. Okay, okay, okay.
Are you calling Adam Schefter a liar? I'm not. I'm
saying Schefter is as good as it gets in the
business because he knows how to play the game. Are

(02:39:55):
you saying Jay Glazer has not been is the best
of the business, but he else understands he ends very good.
The thing about it is, if you're gonna be in
the information game in the NFL at that level, you
gotta understand how to play the game. Are don't start
playing the game with potentially that Aaron floated this story.

(02:40:16):
All right, we need to figure out exactly the ultimate
Mother's Day song and exactly what we're gonna eat next week.
Courtesy of Byah with Sam Yeah all coming up next. Hey,
it's Ben, host of The Fifth Hour with Ben Mallery
along with my trustee sidekick David Gascon. Would mean a
lot to have you join us on our weekly auditory journey.

(02:40:39):
You're asking, what in God's name is the Fifth Hour?
I'll tell you it's a spin off of that. Ben
Maller short cold hit overnights on FS are why should
you listen? Picture If you will the world will? We
chat with captains of industry in media, sports and more
every week Explorer some amazing facts about a human nature
and more. Let'sten to the fifth hour with Ben Mallow
on the I Heart Radio app, app podcast or wherever

(02:41:01):
you get your podcast. Yes, yes, I looked at a
list at the Ultimate Mother's Day Songs and listed at
number one more than a woman speechess. It a Barry
GiB More man, old woman to me. Yeah, jeez, did

(02:41:27):
you did you see the documentary on the BGS. I
did not. You have to see. It just came out
like in the last year, and it really talked about
when we talk about harmonies, how brothers family members just
have an advantage because you come from the same source
and you can meld the voices. I mean, you think

(02:41:48):
about great harmony families like the Everley Brothers, you know,
or the Osmond's whatever it is, the Jackson five, you know.
I didn't got great harmony. I didn't know until recently
that the b g S stood for the Brothers Brothers brothers.
What do you think it was? I don't know. Barry

(02:42:10):
Barry is the only one left and he was the oldest, ironically,
but Maris Maurice and uh Robin you have passed away,
and of course their young son son, their brother Andy,
you know, unfortunately too much cocaine. Tremendous, tremendous, all right, Um,
so we've decided that right, the ultimate Mother's Day song here,

(02:42:34):
uh a far more importance because all of the intentions
were good. I was Sam was a little disjointed today
coming up with some last second idea of treating us
to a special me on Mother's Day when it turned
out that every places close. So now that you're now
that you're gonna put a little more thought into this thought, Bryan,

(02:42:54):
do you have any thoughts? By the way, I want
to thank I was Sam, David Gascon and Ryan now
is our our Are we going to call you our
new producer here on this show? Ryan? Yes, Yeah, that's
that's perfectly okay here that Ryan in Yeah, I don't
even know if he's been hired. I'm not even sure
if he worked here now, but he's just sort of
stepped in front of the microphone. Every nobody told him
to leave, so he's just gonna stay. Well, we were

(02:43:16):
talking about the pecking order when it comes to the
producers based on seniority. Well, actually, and you have seniority
over bull, right. You used to go that way. Now
they they do it the old Greco Roman way, which
is naked wrestling. Not ready for that, Ryan, I continue
to win at that, but he's also disturbing. Ryan outstanding

(02:43:38):
job today. I mean, look a look at those pages
right there, tremendous. He came in handed us he did
write down John Paul Morossi there the two slices of
blank paper and said, God, Dad, n boys down. All right.
So now that you've had a little more time to
think about it, Iowa, Sam, what are your thoughts about

(02:43:59):
next week? I mean there's a lot of out there,
but there's a lot out open on a Sunday. I mean,
it's that's tough for me. Let me do some research
on what will be I mean Mother's Day. Maybe there
were some places closed. I don't want to alarm you.
Maybe it was Mother's Day. There was this called the internet.
I used the thing called the yelp. By the way

(02:44:22):
on Sinco to Mayo, there was a place down in
San Diego called La Puerta that you recommended, And they
had these tacos that were just redicted carne asada bottomless
mimosas on Sunday, not that I not that I know that,
let me tell you. And I had and by the way,
I had a spicy margharita what was her name? Uh?

(02:44:44):
I had both. Yes, it was really really good. Wild
Mother's Days

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05/09/2021 - FOX Sports Sunday with Steve Hartman and Rich Ohrnberger

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}05/09/2021 - FOX Sports Sunday with Steve Hartman and Rich Ohrnberger