Aaron Torres and Jason Martin talk Caleb Williams and 49er’s QBs!

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Fox Sports. Welcome in everybody, Fox Sports Radio,
Aaron Torres, Jason Martin. We are company live from the
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(00:22):
dot Com the way tire buying should be. He just
heard from Martin Wise and VJ Husky, Aaron Torres and
Jason Martin taking me till to a m Eastern. Jason
was out last week. Uh, somehow we still kept the
show with Arnie Span you're filling in for you. He
didn't say anything that got us in trouble, got us fired,
but it's gonna have you back. Jason Martin. How you
do him? M Well? I felt like I needed to

(00:43):
come back this week because had he been here two
weeks in a row, I guarantee there wouldn't have been
a show for me to come back to next week.
So you can let Arnie in one week. You do
that back to back, That's where things get treacherous. It's
like the club. You know you can sneak by that
bouncer maybe once, but you let him in twice. There's
gonna be chaos. So he was in your seat last week. Uh,
and it's gonna have you back, you know. You know,

(01:04):
I don't want to like uh, you know, obviously we
do so much college football in this show. I don't
want to kind of relitigate a lot of the stuff
from last weekend. But in a minute, I do want
to get your thoughts on the college football playoff, you know,
the final four. Uh. Yeah, we gotta talk Dion at
some point here this tonight. But and obviously we got
to talk about all the other stuff that happened this week,
grinder stuff, obviously, the NFL, Baker Mayfield on Thursday night, etcetera.

(01:27):
But let's start with obviously the news of the evening um.
In a surprise to I think absolutely no one, uh,
Cayleb Williams is named the Heisman Trophy winner. Cayleb Williams
the USC quarterback first USC winners technically, says Matt Liner,
but really we know since Reggie Bush. But um, he
wins it. He wins it over Max doug in Ohio State.

(01:49):
Max Duggan from TCU, C J. Stroud and Stetson Bennett
were in New York. C excuse me, CAYLEB Williams five
hundred forty four first place votes a comfortable win for
Caleb Williams. Any surprised here and he shot here from you,
Jason Martin. No, I think I was one of the
first people that said, is he the front runner? Like
even before Hendon Hooker got hurt, I started to look

(02:11):
and saying, well, Caleb's right there, like we've got to
see how this goes. The only surprise I have was
that Stetson Bennett was a finalist. Like he had a
good year. I'm not saying he didn't, but he also
played on the you know, best team in the country
with that defense and that running game coming off a
national championship. He had twenty touchdowns at six interceptions. He

(02:34):
threw for thirty four hundred yards. Caleb obviously thirty seven
touchdowns four interceptions. It wasn't close. I think you could
have put three or four other guys in there, but
you just put the best quarterback. You put the starting
quarterback from the best team in the country in there.
But no, not to slam on that, but Caleb Williams

(02:54):
was the best player in college football this year. You
can make arguments for Marvin Harrison Jr. And a few
other guys at other positions and things like that, but overall,
the biggest needle mover in all of college football, it
wasn't even close, was Caleb Williams. They're gonna be multiple
NFL teams that are gonna hope to lose enough to
draft that guy in the future. And you think about

(03:16):
an all time horrifying defense that Lincoln Riley continually puts up,
not just this year at USC this this is the movie,
this is the rubric, this is what's always happened, and
eventually that that's gonna have to change if they want
to win a national championship. Cayleb Williams had to score
on almost every possession and pretty much did right up
until the Utah game the second time around, where he

(03:37):
got hurt very early in the game and and really
probably shouldn't have played at all and still tried to
gut it out. But he was the most dynamic, the
most indispensable, the best player in college football. Well deserved award.
Congratulations to Cayleb Williams. Yeah, that last point, and I
remember talking about it. You and I were on air
Thanksgiving weekend which was two Saturdays ago when USC was

(03:59):
running away from the or name, and I think, you know,
that was when I think he essentially clinched it at
that point. I mean, you know, Henn and Hooker had
been injured, Blake Coreum had been injured, Um, you know
c J. Stroud. Okay, in theory, we could see what
he would do against Uh oh no, no, that was
the night they played in Michigan. Alright, So I take
that back. So I guess in theory, you know, Max

(04:19):
Duggan probably made up some ground. But the point that
you just made is the one that I remember us
talking about after that Notre Dame game, which is it's
not just that he has the stats which are incredible
thirty seven touchdowns, four interceptions, over four thousand yards passing
this year, but it's that his team needed every single
one of those plays or they weren't gonna win the

(04:40):
games that they did. And you know, listen, we could talk.
You know, the the USC defense is gonna be a
topic that we discussed going into the bowl games, going
into the off season, and going into next season. But
the bottom line is, yes, it's your one. Yes it's
being rebuilt, but to your point, and I'm not as like,
you know, there's there's some people in the media that
that are already you know, you gotta get rid of
the fensive coordinated, you gotta get rid of Alex Crrench. Whatever.

(05:02):
The point I'm trying to make is that this was
year one and the defense was bad, and they needed
Caleb Williams to be great every single night. And so
that's what stands out to me. That's why I believe
that he's a deserving winner if he wasn't great every night.
First of all, USC was an incredible story right up
there with TCU among the best stories probably as a
team in college football, alongside Tennessee and some others. But

(05:25):
they were a great story because Caleb Williams was great
every night. And so that's why fundamentally I had no
issue with it. I mean, look, the best stories in
college football this year, we're probably USC, TCU, and Tennessee.
Those are the three that really stand out. And Max
Duggan was your runner up, and deservedly so, considering what
TCU was able to accomplish, I think you honor that guy.

(05:47):
I think you bring him there. I still think Handin
Hooker deserved it more than Stetson Bennett, even though he
didn't even play the last couple of times. I'll jump in,
I think he deserved it more than c J. Stroud
And and it was funny because you know, I talked
to the guys VJ and Martin Weiss when we were
changing up the studios here and they were kind of
asking me my thoughts. And I'll be honest, is I
actually think you could have made an argument after Caleb

(06:08):
Williams lost the Pack twelve championship game for for Hendon
Hooker to actually win the award. Um, I don't have
a vote. If I did, it probably would have been
Caleb Williams at number one, And then I would have
struggled between Max Duggan and Hendon Hooker at number two,
because Max Duggan did elevate his entire program like Caleb
Williams did, like Hennon Hooker did. But I look at

(06:29):
Hendon Hooker and you know Tennessee as we both just said, uh,
you know, an unbelievable story. They were number one when
that first playoff poll came out. The only reason that
they aren't number four and going to the College Football
Playoff is because they lost a game to South Carolina
that you and I were on air for where their
defense gave up sixty three points, and so you can't

(06:52):
hold it against him that that you know his team
isn't in the playoff because the team wouldn't have been
anywhere close without him. So I you know, I have
no fundament issue with Caleb Williams being or winning the award,
But I would say my secondary take on this entire
thing came on Monday night when the finalists were announced.
I thought, actually, Hennon Hooker and Blake Corehum both deserved

(07:12):
to be in New York. Frankly, no disrespect over certainly
at least c J. Stroud and probably Stetson Bennett as well.
But that's probably my number two overall takeaway is I'm
disappointed that the voters did not do what needed to
be done to honor Hendon Hooker and have him in
New York tonight. Yeah. Look, if you look at just
pure on passer rating this year, he's second in the

(07:34):
country right now at one seventy five point five. C J.
Stroud was actually number one, Caleb was number looks like
he was number five. All of them really high. But
Hennon Hooker through yards twenty seven touchdowns and two interceptions,
and of course didn't play the last couple of games.
Who knows what his stats would have been, especially considering
who they were going to play against in their final,

(07:56):
you know, in their final game of the year. So
I agree. Also, just think you honored that guy and
you bring him to New York, even if it's Caleb's
award to win. That's That's the other thing for me.
I'm glad Dougan went because somebody needed to represent that
TCU team and dug In just how hard he played
and look, thirty touchdowns and four interceptions. Yeah, you deserve it,
you do you You They overperformed c J. Stroude, you

(08:19):
could argue underperformed. That team has underperformed what some expected,
especially considering the talent and Bennett. To me, it's just
kind of like, I don't know what we're even doing here.
If we're bringing stetson Bennett, we're leaving guys like Hennon
Hooker and Blake Corum at hole. Caleb Williams is your
Higswood Trophy winner here on a Saturday night, no surprise.
And again the other finalists in New York, Max dug

(08:41):
And finished his second, Stetson Bennett and c. J. Stroud,
Henn and Hooker is fifth. We actually found out that
Bryce Young is sixth, Blake corm is seven. Fox Sports
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(09:03):
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green egg dot Com. Coming up, we continue the conversation
on college football as we put a bow on the
regular season. Did the committee get the four right in
our first thoughts on this playoff field? And oh, by
the way, we got a story in Boulder Jason Martin

(09:25):
that we gotta get to. As we'll get to the
coach Prime had a busy week out there in Colorado.
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(09:46):
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(10:10):
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Fox Sports Radio. Aaron Torres, Jason Martin, coming to Alive

(10:33):
from the entire wreck dot Com studios. Jason, before we
continue kind of the conversation we're having, Caleb Williams wins
the Hisman. I want your thoughts on this college football
Final four, maybe some early thoughts on the you know,
on the four teams that made it in the matchups
that we have on New Year's Eve. I'd be remiss
if I if I didn't mention kind of the news
of last night out of out of Qatar. And obviously

(10:54):
the World Cup is going on, and we found out
late last night that Grant Wall, who's kind of almost
the you know, iconic it doesn't seem like too strong
of a word to use, but but probably the foremost
voice of American soccer, at least from the journalism perspective.
You know, he passed away last night in Qatar. Um.

(11:14):
And so the World Cup is going on and it's
been a great event, and uh that we had two
great games today. But I'd be remissed really quick if
I just didn't mention this guy because he is he
was is an icon of American soccer. Uh an incredible writer,
worked at Sports Illustrated, did some stuff with us at
Fox Sports here over the last couple of World Cups. Uh. So,
I just wanted to quickly acknowledge the passing a Grant Wall,

(11:35):
and obviously our thoughts are with him, you know, him,
his family, everything, because it was a shocking piece of
news out of our Gatar last night. Yeah, I don't
know what to say, I mean, you you laid it
out and it just sucks. There's not really much else
other than he was really good at what he did,
and I know that there's a whole lot of there's

(11:56):
just a cloud of uncertainty surrounding the nature of all
of this, and we don't necessarily have to get into
all of that, but it's it was just kind of
really sad to see that. And of course today there
were tributes over there, and certainly they're gonna be tributes
throughout the soccer community and certainly here in the United States.

(12:18):
But it's just one of those guys that was a
giant in the profession and to lose him at that
age and in such a shocking fashion that had to
shake everybody to their knees. And a matter of fact,
I know it did yesterday. Yeah absolutely, and uh, you know,
last little thought. But but you know, just I know
him a little bit more. He was a great college

(12:38):
basketball writer before he went full time to soccer. But
but yeah, he he was the guy. For people who
do not know, he wrote the original Lebron James profile,
the Chosen One, you know, maybe the most famous sports
illustrated cover of all time. Lebron James sixteen years old.
So Grant Wall passed. Uh, you know, our thoughts are
with him, his family, etcetera. Just wanted to acknowledge that
really quick. Jason. Let's get back to college football. As

(12:59):
we just told you, Aleb Williams is your Hisman Trophy winner.
We just discussed that, and I want to get your
thoughts really quickly on the playoff because you know, as
I said to lead the show, you were out last
night or last week, excuse me, Arnie Spanier was in,
and Arnie and I spent quite a bit of time
arguing about who should be the four. Everybody knew that
Georgia and Ohio State we're gonna Georgia, Michigan, we're gonna

(13:21):
get in. He and I actually felt very good that
Ohio State was gonna get in. And the debate came
down to seemingly TCU versus Alabama, although based on the
way the seatings went last Saturday, last Sunday morning, excuse me,
with TCU getting the three seed Ohio State getting the four,
I don't know that the committee ever seriously considered anyone
other than the four that we got. But uh, you know,

(13:42):
before we get to kind of some of the early
thoughts on the matchups and stuff like that. Um, what
do you make of the field of four? Do you
think the committee got it right? Yeah? I do. I
don't know what else you're supposed to do. Alabama, I
understand the case that they lost on the last play
a game twice, they lost two teams that were in
the top ten, they lost on the road, all of

(14:03):
those things, but they still lost the games. The problem
was TCU was undefeated and had to play an extra
game that Alabama didn't even have to play because they
didn't qualify for a chance to play in it. They
lost it, and they lost it in overtime. It's not
like they got destroyed by Kansas State in the process.
They actually looked good in that game, like in defeat.

(14:24):
You could tell watching that game, Oh they're not. They're
definitely in a college football playoffs. Like you didn't need
to watch the rest of the day to understand that
Alabama had the opportunity to play their way in throughout
the regular season weren't able to do it. Ohio State, Yeah,
you have a little bit of a sour taste there,
just because they didn't really distinguish themselves a lot throughout

(14:45):
the course of the year, really like they were basically
living on their composite talent rankings and what you knew
they were coming into the season more than what you
actually saw them do outside of when they would play
Rutgers and beat them by ninety or something like at
that um so. But at the same time, the only
game they lost was to another undefeated football team, and

(15:08):
it was a rivalry scenario and all of that. So
I just don't know what else you were supposed to do.
I understand why you think you were so close if
you were in Alabama in this case, But I still
think you could argue that Tennessee deserved to be there
more than Alabama did because they both had the same
number of losses. Now at the same time that you
look at the South Carolina lost being much more lopsided. Yeah,

(15:31):
but you still beat that other team head to head.
So if I were a Tennessee fan, I would be
really miffed had it been Alabama. The fact that it
wasn't I think killed the argument for for Tennessee as
well as for Alabama. Yeah, you know, it's funny, you know,
I love I love working with you, But I do
enjoy working with Arnie sometimes, and one thing I love
with Arnie is um, you know, sometimes you could just

(15:52):
poke holes right through all of his arguments. And basically
that was what I spent three hours doing, four hours
doing last week, because you know, I don't really know
what the argument was for Alabama because you know, first,
you know, and I think Arnie was making the same
arguments that Nick Saban was while he was going on
you know, the the Big Ten Championship game, in the
SEC Championship game and everywhere else that he was at. Um.

(16:14):
You know, if your argument is, well, you know, we
have a couple of close losses, well TCU lost on
the final play of the game to a top ten
team in Kansas State. Uh. If your argument is the
strength of the SEC, well Tennessee finished with the same
record and has a head to head win, and so
they're really and by the way, no good, no great wins. Uh,
you lost to the two best teams on your schedule.

(16:34):
And so I really thought it reminded me. You know,
I've been in this time slot now for five years,
and the first year that Arnie Spanier and I did
the show together was the year that Georgia lost a
narrow game in the SEC championship game to to Alabama,
and Georgia spent in the next twelve hours arguing that
a close loss should put them in and that was
basically their entire resume, and that that was there. Ironically,

(16:57):
we just talked about Kyler Murray and Oklahoma. UM. That
was the year that Kyler Murray and Oklahoma got in
is the four seed. And so the point I'm trying
to make was I remember arguing with Arnie that year
and it never seemed like the committee seriously considered the
two loss non SEC champion um. And that's kind of
what I felt like was what was gonna happen this
year's is it's a it's a great conversation. You know,

(17:18):
Nick Saban, uh you know, uh, you know, was on
making these absurd arguments about well we would play nobody
would be favorite over us, or we'd be favorite over
all the teams. When when Nick Saban starts talking point spreads,
that's what you know. They basically didn't have an argument,
and so I think you and I are both in agreement.
The four the four right teams are in and really quickly,
you know, we got three more Saturdays to really break

(17:41):
this down before the games on New Year's Eve. But
you know, obviously I think that the matchups are intriguing
in their own right. I think the one that most
people are intrigued by is Georgia and Ohio State, which
would will will be the night game at eight o'clock
Eastern time kickoff there on New Year's Eve. Uh, just
quickly out your thoughts on on the games themselves, because
I think I think two interesting matchups. Um, I have

(18:04):
certain thoughts on George Ohio State, but I want to
go ahead and here years first. Yeah, I mean you
look at it and you think, well, Michigan should bet
TCU easily, But Michigan generally played. They have a tendency
because of their style to play closer to teams than
some of these others, like because they rely so much
on running and defense. Unless Macarthy is able to air

(18:24):
it out all game against TCU, there's a good chance
that game is actually gonna be relatively close, which would
be nice for the College Football Playoff because we haven't
we don't get that too often. Yeah, when you get
to Georgia Ohio State, that's sort of the glitz matchup,
and it's the one going into the season that a
lot of people would have wanted to see because you're
seeing a lot of NFL future NFL players on that field.

(18:46):
So I mean, I I think these are the best
matchups that you could have gotten right now based on
everything that was out there. Without handing Hooker playing Tennessee,
it's just not quite the same to really quick let
me jump in because that was another one of Arnie's
arguments these matchups would be better, And I said, why
are we convinced that Alabama will make a better matchup
than than TCU will, Like, Alabama's lost the only two

(19:10):
only the two best teams they've played, and they've played
down to their competition all years. So that was another
part of the argument which I didn't really understand. Well,
the Alabama will give us a better matchup, and I
was like, I'm not sold that they will, but anyway,
go ahead and continue Jay's Yeah, I mean that's really it.
I mean, I think that you're doing that again based
on the talent level that you think Alabama has. But

(19:30):
if you watched them play this year there, look, they
could have lost to Texas A and m if A
and m and at a quarterback. They almost lost to
Texas without their starter when they lost them in the
second half. The most impressive win was against an Old
Miss team that collapsed down the stretch in a regular
season and this said, look, you know this, Aaron, I'm
an Alabama fan, but I also want to tell you

(19:50):
what's actually real, Like I can actually take the glasses
off and tell you what's going on here. And this
Alabama team just staying in chief. This is not the
one we said it at the beginning of the year.
You started to see it relatively quickly. It's why I
made the argument that Bryce Young was so dagon good. Basically,
he is kind of bargain basement Kayla Williams this year

(20:12):
because Bryce had to do everything for them and actually
wentn't able to because his health betrayed him for a
couple of games, and he just didn't have as much
in the skilled talent side, even as Kyla Williams did
when he came to his receivers and things like that.
So this Alabama team just didn't show enough. There's no
reason to think based on how hard TC you had

(20:32):
to fight all year in a really good league. The
Big Twelve is a really good league. There's no reason
to think, just because there's a whole lot of talent
future NFL talent that plays in Tuscaloosa, that they're actually
going to give Michigan a better game than Alabama or
the reverse. I guess I should say, TC, you given

(20:53):
them a TC, you could easily give him a better game.
I I don't disagree with that at all, By the way,
that was the other other other argument was, well, you know,
by the way, their their best win was at Texas
without quinnuors TCUs. One of their better wins was at
Texas with Quite or so there was really no argument
for Alabama. Really quick, do you think you know? Ohio

(21:14):
States another team kind of like Alabama where and again
we have three weeks to talk about this, but where
we kept waiting it for it to totally click. Now
they put up great stats against bad teams, but in
the big games this season, trail Notre Dame at the
half rally to win, trailed Penn State going to the
fourth quarter rally to win, got smoked by Michigan. And
that's another narrative going into this, this this playoff that oh,

(21:36):
you know, home man George Ohio State. It's gonna be
a heck of a game. I'm just not sold that
it's gonna be. I haven't seen anything from Ohio State
in two years that they played great in big games.
And we know, as you and I have discussed for
the last two years on this show, that Georgia has
all of a sudden now become maybe the best big
game team in college football. So are you sold that
will at least get an interesting one in that George

(21:57):
Ohio State game? Because I think it looks great on
pay paper. I'm not totally sold that we do, though.
I don't know. Again, there are moments where I waiver
on how good I think Georgia is, but then I
go back and I remember watching that Tennessee game, and
that's where you really saw how good Georgia was when
they were able to sty me that offense. If they're
able to sty me that offense, they can sty me

(22:19):
any offense. And Ohio State at times has been very conservative,
and they've been very kind of timid in the way
that they've approached things on the offensive side in particular,
which unfortunately is sort of a mirror of the personality
of their current head coach Ryan Day. I look at
that matchup and I say, Kirby Smart has become a killer,

(22:40):
and Ryan Day is still kind of in shallow end.
And if the teams play as their coaches coach or
as their coaches sort of whatever their aura is, then
George is gonna beat the brakes off of Ohio State.
Fox Sports radio Errantrys Jason Martin Company live from the
tirect dot com studios. Coming up, We're to get to

(23:00):
the man that has I think shaking up college this week.
The man was in the headlines every single day. I'm,
of course talking about the new head coach of the
Colorado Buffalo's coach Prime. Gonna discuss that next before we
do though first time this evening, Steve de Seger, what's trending, hello, gentlemen.
And in college football semifinals, I believe the average margin

(23:20):
of victory is about twenty one, so Georgia Michigan was
was more than that, as I recall. But as far
as UH scheduling notes, Georgia, ranked number one, will be
in Atlanta, New Year's Eve in the late game eight
pm Eastern Time against Ohio States in a playoff semifinal.
The day game December thirty one in Phoenix four pm

(23:41):
Eastern time is number two Michigan against TCU. The final
will be in l A. January nine. Number five ranked
Alabama will be in the Sugar Bowl against number nine
Kansas State. That is also December thirty one, a day game.
As far as the Rose Bowl, it's January two this
season because January one is a Sunday. Number eight Utah,
it's number eleven Penn State. USC will play earlier on

(24:03):
January two in the Cotton Bowl, ranked tent the Trojans
against number sixteen Tulane. Of course, Trojans have a quarterback
that injured his hamstring last game. We're about three minutes,
three weeks away from this game, and quarterback made a
little news tonight. US c QB Caleb Williams won the
Heisman Trophy. Finishing second was TCU quarterback Max Duggan. The

(24:23):
ceremony was in New York City this evening. So if
you want to ask somebody a quick trivia question, which
university has the most Heisman Trophy wins all time? It's
kind of a trick question because if you include the
Reggie Bush Heisman, the answer is now USC with eight
Oklahoma with seven, Ohio State with seven Heisman's in its history.

(24:43):
Notre Dame was seven. Nobody else really is even close.
BAM is up to four since they won the two
previous years with Bryce Young and Davonte Smith. Stanford as
a new head coach Troy Taylor from Sacramento State. He's
a former quarterback and assistant coach at rival Cal. In Philadelphia, today,
Army and double overtime beat Navy seventeen. There were nineteen

(25:04):
punts combined and the winning team Army had about a
hundred fifty yards of offense. The Pittsburgh Steelers activated kicker
Chris Boswell. Also linebacker T J. Watt is off the
injury report as his wide receiver Deonte Johnson. Baltimore activated
running back JK. Dobbins. The Ravens play at Pittsburgh tomorrow.
Dobbins missed all of last year after a c L surgery.

(25:25):
Quarterfinals at the World Cup today, Morocco wins again beat
Portugal one nothing. Morocco is the first African team ever
to reach the World Cup. Semis France eliminated England to
to one as England star Harry Kane missed a penalty
kick in the eighty four minute. The Toronto Blue Jays
signed out fielder Kevin Kermeyer in the NBA. Right now

(25:45):
at Golden State, eight minutes to go, Warriors still lead
Boston one oh three to ninety. Clay Thompson with thirty
two points Earlier, the Clippers sent Washington to a sixth
straight loss one fourteen, one oh seven upset. In college basketball,
Number eight Alabama comes back to win at number one
Houston sev Bama was down fifteen early in the second
half per Due one in overtime at Nebraska. Arizona beat

(26:08):
Indiana in Vegas. Tonight, Memphis upset Auburn Penn State one
at Illinois, St. Mary's down San Diego State. And there
is a game underway on FS one. It is number
twenty one rank Craton against b y U crateing up
twenty seven twenty three in the first half. Back to you,
Thank you, Steve Saga, Fox Sports Radio, Fox Sports Saturday

(26:28):
eron Torres, Jason Martin Company live from the Tirac dot
Com studios and Jason, another thing, you know, we talked about,
you know, just some of the Caleb Williams stuff from
the last time that we were on air together two
weeks ago, the how the the you know, the four
team college football playoff came together, and one piece of
news that broke list some point during the day on

(26:48):
two Saturdays ago was that Dion Sanders had been offered
the Colorado job. And I asked you, I said, you
think it's gonna happen? And I will say, on that Saturday,
I think both of us kind of agreed. I don't
really see the fit whatever. But what I would say,
why wouldn't you wait? Right? Because it's Colorado? That's I
think that was more of what we said, right, just like, wait,

(27:09):
Colorado doesn't seem like that seems like a job you
take if you're desperate and you're not gonna get another one.
And you never really felt like that was Dion, Like
Dion was gonna be able to pick a job that
was probably gonna be a better drop than Colorado. Well, yeah,
but then I would also kind of counter that by saying,
and I don't disagree with what you said, certainly in
that moment, But then the Auburn job gets filled right away,

(27:33):
and then the Georgia Tech job gets filled pretty quickly.
The Nebraska job had essentially been filled by that point, altho,
I don't think it's official. And all of a sudden,
a couple of things come up. One um, you know,
you look up and and there really weren't that many
jobs available by Monday, Tuesday of that week after the
end of the regular season. And I'll tell you, you you know,
I I'll give myself a little credit, you know. I

(27:54):
remember thinking on late Tuesday, early Wednesday, I said, wait
a second. Now, all these jobs are are are being filled,
one after the other after the other. Every school appears
to be in a rush to get their head coach
in place so he can start recruiting. And it got
to Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday. I said, so we know,
Colorado is offered, and they're just sitting here without a

(28:15):
head coach into Wednesday Thursday, fright, And that's when I thought, okay,
we might have something. Well fast forward. Dion Sanders is
the head coach at Colorado, has made waves basically NonStop
since he got there, calling out his current players, which
I had no problem with, saying, you know, I'm bringing
my own luggage. It's Louis, you better be ready. Whatever. Uh.
He also today got his first marquee commitment a Notre

(28:37):
Dame d commit top three according to ESPN high four
star Dean Sanders role, Man, he's at Colorado, and I
will tell you the content is flowing out of Boulder
right now, my man. Yeah. I mean that's the one
thing about Dion is he's gonna bring the show to you.
I like that. That's what's going on. It's the same
thing as when Tom Brady went to Tampa. Here comes Grong,

(28:59):
here comes a b whips And maybe you shouldn't say
ab out loud right now, but there are other things
that happened, as if Tom Brady comes to your team,
if Lebron James comes to your team, if Dion Sanders
comes to coach at your school, you're gonna have a
new opportunity. Look when like I went to Western Kentucky,
at least I was the second school attended w K
you and Bowling Green. I was there when Bobby Petrina

(29:20):
got hired. I covered that job. I knew Petrina wasn't
gonna stay, but I also knew that it was going
to put Western Kentucky into the cycle. People were gonna
pay attention because Bobby Petrino's name was attached to that program.
That university, all of those kinds of things. Dion comes

(29:40):
to Colorado. Colorado hasn't been good in a long time.
I do remember times when Colorado was a pretty dominant power.
Year it wasn't ever like a sustained thing. The one
advantage that he would have is if he's able to
get this thing going downhill, and we know, we know
people are gonna want to come to play for him.
We understand that already he's gonna be able to bring

(30:03):
in a lot of young men that want that to religion,
want that shine, and want that rub and all of
those things. If he's able to get it going, man,
it's not gonna take long to become a legend if
you want to stay there. And if you think about
where Colorado finds itself right now and the fact that
powers in U, C, l A, and USC are about

(30:25):
to leave the conference, it could make it even more
open in whatever the new pack twelve looks like to
be able to step up faster and then be maybe,
you know, maybe put that that team that university higher
on the map than you would think, faster than you
would think. Plus, of course, we have in I L
and Transfer Portal and all that well, And it's really

(30:46):
interesting because I think people like as consumers of college football,
need to recalibrate, like how jobs are perceived. So I'll
give you an example. So when the Auburn job was open,
there was like a half a second moment. I don't
even think we discussed it on this show where Dan
Landing the Oregon head coach. And this was when Oregon
was probably eight in one, nine and one playing really well,
where Alburn he became a candidate at Auburn. And I

(31:09):
said to myself, I said, in the twelve team playoff era,
I think you can legitimately argue that Oregon is one
of the best jobs in college football because you have
every resource that any SEC school has. Now you don't
have natural recruiting base like they do, but you have
every resource that that every SEC every you know, financial
resource facilities, whatever. You're playing in a much easier conference

(31:30):
with much easier expectations. And so your last point about Colorado,
he's gonna get players because players here is he he
got players at an FCS school Jackson State, no disrespect,
but I wonder how many kids would have come to
play for him there. But because it was a level
down because they had the opportunity go to the SEC
or the Big ten or whatever they pass it up. Well,

(31:50):
now he's in a Power five. And the important part,
Jason's exactly what you just said. This, ain't you know
two thousand and twenty two anymore that we're that we
have to calibrate these things. And he's gonna be able
to flip a roster with the trans reporter we saw
at USC and l s U. But more importantly, he
is going to have access to a twelve team playoff
where you don't have to be twelve and oh and

(32:13):
be perfect or eleven and want and be perfect. You
just gotta be the best team in the pack twelve.
And that is something that I think he can do
very quickly, especially when Lincoln Riley specifically in USC exit
stage left. If nothing else, it's gonna make Colorado interesting,
and that's something Colorado hasn't been in a long period

(32:34):
of time. And so like we're gonna pay attention. I
paid attention to Jackson State once he got that gig
because I wanted to see how it how it went,
and of course it went very very well. And now
he finds himself and then the question is only this,
and if you're Colorado, maybe you don't care because of
what it could do for your program in the short term.
I knew Patrina wasn't gonna stay at Western Kentucky. I

(32:57):
don't think Dion's gonna retire at Colorado. He may only
be there for another year or two and then take
the bigger job after that. We've seen many coaches before
him do it. We will see many more continue to
do it. But it is going to be a fascinating
thing to watch because this is a huge step moving
from Jackson State to Colorado in a conference where that

(33:19):
team is not good and hasn't been good in a while.
That there is a task to be accomplished. If he's
able to pull it off, he may be able to
write his ticket into a true, true dream job. Well,
let's I'll tell you what. We'll continue that conversation because
I want to know from you how quickly will Dion
flip things in Colorado, because I I think it's coming
quick and I think it's gonna be fun to watch

(33:39):
Fox Sports Radio Aero towards Jason Martin more on Coach
Prime coming up. And then we get to the NFL,
We get to some other stuff. Busy night. We're until
two a m. Eastern. This is Fox Sports Radio. Welcome
back everybody, Fox Sports Radio, Aaron Torres, Jason Martin here
on a Saturday night. And I should mention, by the way, uh,
in about ten minutes, Chad Brown, who actually played at Colorado.

(34:02):
He now works in Denver as a radio host, and uh,
you know he he played at Colorado. I had him
on one of my fill in shows over the summer.
Uh and it was very interesting to talk to him
because he was kind of the belief I don't know
if Colorado can compete at the highest level in college
football going forward in this n i L Transfer Portal world, well,

(34:22):
a lot has changed. We're excited to have Chad Brown here.
At the top of the hour. With that said, Jason,
let's let's let's stick with coach Prime here for a second.
First of all, a couple of things. One, did you
have any fundamental issue that this was kind of the
talking point on Monday and Tuesday the the first speech
that he gave to his team where he said, I'm
bringing my own luggage. It's Louis. In other words, I'm

(34:45):
bringing in transfers. This is the world we live in,
some of you guys aren't gonna make it. First of all,
did you have any fundamental issue with that? No, not really.
I mean, and I know that's a simple answer, but no,
not not in particular. I think that you can build
a mountain out of any mole hill on the kind
of saw it more in that vein. Yeah, I agree,
And I think in this transfer portal n i OL world,

(35:06):
I will say I am less sympathetic to a student athlete, right.
I mean, you know, for for years we've kind of
said players should players shouldn't be bound to schools if
they don't want to be there. Uh, players should be
allowed to make money. Well, if you know, if you
can leave whenever you want. I think that, you know,
there's probably a little bit more fluidity to coaches kind of.
I don't think anybody gets forced out. I think it's
more you get told, hey, we're bringing in players at

(35:28):
your position and you might not be good enough to
make it here. And then I also think in the
n I O world, you're getting paid and if you
don't deliver um, you know, you're you know, you're you're.
It's the world we live in, so Anyway, with that said,
I do think it's gonna be interesting to kind of
go back to some of the conversation from the last
segment about how quickly things can turn for Dion Sanders

(35:49):
and and and Colorado. They are coming off a one
and eleven year, but I think what we know at
this point, he's bringing his son with him, who I
don't claim to be an NFL draft expert, but people
are saying his one as a quarterback is a draftable prospect,
so probably an upgrade already a quarterback. As I said earlier,
they got a high four star running back commit today

(36:09):
that was previously committed to Notre Dame. I think he's
gonna flip this roster really quick, and I think they're
gonna be good really quick. And I think the other
thing that's important to note on Dion, this isn't just
a famous football player who is taking over a major
college football program. This is a guy who went twelve
and oh this year at Jackson State. Last year they
went eleven in two. One of their losses was to

(36:29):
an FBS team, So basically, you take out a game
where he's playing against an upper level of competition with
more scholarship players and all that stuff that would be
what that would mean that he is twenty three in
one in his last twenty four games against FCS opponents.
And I think that's the important part to note here. One,
because of who he is, he's gonna create excitement, like
you said, Jason too, because of the world we live

(36:52):
in with the transfer portal, he should be able to
get players really quick. And then three, here's the thing
that nobody gives him credit for. He's proven to be
a really good football coach and a really good runner
of a program. I'm excited to see and I think
this team surprises some people when they take the field
next fall. I'll be very interested to see how accurate
that last one turns out to be, Like how surprising

(37:13):
they are in a positive sense. But he's definitely a
needle mover. He's also somebody that will stir the pot
and we'll say some things and he will step out there.
Colorado is gonna make news because he's gonna do things
and say things that are going to be news worthy.
He's gonna have a little bit of Jim Harball in
him in terms of how Jim Harball would talk when

(37:35):
he was at Stanford and some of the things that
he's done at Michigan and some of those antics that
have happened. There's a lot of personality behind Dion Sanders,
and some of it is a good thing, some of
it is bad. But right now, if you're Colorado, it's
absolutely worth the risk, especially in the college football landscape
that we see, not just with the expanded playoff, but
with the expansion of how you can acquire talent. And

(37:56):
not only is he gonna be able to say and
every dad of a potential athlete that could go to
school to be like, yeah, Deon is one of the
greatest of all time and what he did, if you
watch the film is still impressive today. Like if you
watch this in two your son is still gonna be like, well,
that dude's the truth. And that's that right there matters.

(38:19):
It matters a tremendous amount that you know. And that's
the point. I know others have brought it up. We
haven't brought it up in this segment, but um is that. Like,
that's the other part that I think that we probably
underestimate a little bit is because of who he is
in the excitement he creates he's going to catch the
eye of of high school players and transfers and whatever.

(38:39):
I think we underestimate how many parents are just going
to are gonna basically peer pressure their kids into hey,
keep them in your final five. So we could get
Dion in the house to to for for an official visit.
So that's the other element of it too. I just
think this is a really cool moment in time for
college football because this guy is going to be able
to sell the NFL. He's gonna be able to sell

(39:00):
success on the field. He's gonna be able to get
people interested in not only this school, but you know,
it's just it's gonna be good for everybody, right. Like
I heard the PAC twelve commissioner, and I think he
was a little being a little facetious, but like basically saying, like,
you know, we haven't signed our negotiate our our our
TV contract yet because we knew this was gonna happen,

(39:20):
And like, I think that was probably made up. But
this was great not only for Colorado, the PAC twelve
West Coast football US who are going to be doing
gay doing this show probably at this time slot next
year when Dion is coach is just it's just a
win for everybody who loves college football. Yeah, it is.
It absolutely is. The more good stories that you have,
the more places that are relevant, the better your sport is,

(39:42):
the better your organization is, the better your company is,
whatever it is. And that's exactly what you get here.
Colorado has not been something that we've had to pay
attention to for a long long time, and that changed
instantly the second that Dion Sanders accepted that job. And
that's a big deal. It is a big deal, and
it is going to be fun and it is part
of what is uh, you know, certainly a busy week

(40:05):
in sports, and we got plenty more coming up on
basically everything. First of all, if you like the Colorado conversation,
we are bringing on Chad Brown top of the next hour.
Chad Brown played at Colorado, he covers the team, he
covers the program in Denver on radio. Also talked to
him about the Broncos. And then of course we transition
to week fourteen in the NFL where Baker Mayfield got
things off in style. Plenty on that plenty on two

(40:28):
of versus Herbert plenty on UH, Tom Brady going back
to the Bay Area. It is a wild Sunday coming
up in the NFL, follow following a wild week in football.
This is Fox Sports Radio. Welcome in Everybody Hour to
Fox Sports Radio. Aaron Torres, Jason Martin. We are broadcasting

(40:52):
live from the tirect dot com studios. Tirect dot com
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Tirerac dot com the way tire buying should be. So
if you listen to the last hour, we talked quite
a bit about Dion Sanders headed to Colorado, the new

(41:15):
head coach of the Colorado Buffaloes and joining us now.
Uh a Colorado legend. Chad Brown played for the Buffaloes.
Uh lives you know in the Denver area. Chad Brown.
We appreciate the time. How you doing, my friend? I
am fantastic tales. How you guys doing, We're doing good?
And so I'll be honest, Chad. Uh, you probably do

(41:37):
not remember me at all, but when deon I'll say this,
when Dion Sanders was named the head coach at Colorado,
I actually thought of you. And let me tell you why. Uh.
This summer I was filling in for Doug Gottlieb on
these Fox Sports radio airwaves. We had you on to
talk about a lot of different things, and one thing
I asked you, I said, how do we get the
Buffaloes back to the top of college football? You were

(41:59):
there for those iconic years in the late eighties and
early nineties, and I thought you gave an awesome, you know,
an honest answer, which was, I just don't know if
in the world of the n i L Transfer portal stuff,
if Colorado can do it. So what has changed over
the last couple of months and how excited are you
for this new era of Colorado football? I am quite excited.

(42:22):
All of buff Country mufforation is excited about this move. Obviously,
Dean Santas comes in and he may be the college
coach with the biggest brand around himself, even more so
than Nick Saban. Nick Saban's got, you know, the Nick
Saban nis and obviously the success that goes with it.
But Gian comes with the brand, and that brand speaks

(42:42):
to two young people. So while you know, Dion may
not necessarily be my cup of key as a fifty
two year old man, uh a seventeen eighteen year old
kid that's the guy I want to play for. So
while I didn't see a possible way forward for the
Buffaloes and we talked, like I said, a couple of months,
act now with this higher and for Rick George the

(43:03):
athletic director to be able to pull this off. Uh,
Suddenly there is a window of hope, of opportunity, of
optimism that surrounds the bus program. Chad, Uh, star power matters.
That's what you were just saying. Basically, with Dion, the
brand of Dion, the brand of prime Time, everybody knows
who he is, everybody's dad that's telling him where to

(43:25):
go to school. We're saying this would be a good fit.
Remembers how good Dion Sanders was at what he did.
I don't know if this higher works twenty years ago,
but in this college football landscape, with a transfer portal,
with n I L with a lot of other concerns, Uh,
it seems to me that this makes more sense than
maybe it would have in the pass. Oh, there's no

(43:48):
about that. And to take it even a step further,
I'm not even sure if this is the best long
term fit. I can't even really see where this way
this works out long term. But on the short term.
Already immediately this has gotten Rick George and the folks
at for you to move the coaches salary into a
salary that is now sitting with other top programs around

(44:09):
the country. So now we're able to be raised a
salary floor for head coaches. Uh. The pool of money
for the assistant coaches that has now been raised as well.
That's been an issue in the past of the Colorado
Buffalo the transfer rule, which has really hampered Stanford and
see US programs in the last couple of years. Now
the kids are into transfer portal, it's very difficult to

(44:31):
transfer interested you order Stanford. Now the Chancellor is gonna
develop a pilot program to allow transfers are coming a
little bit easier. So all these things that have been
obstacles and hurdles for the Buffaloes in order to go
out and get Dion Sanders, you had to get this done.
So even in the very very short term here, I
mean just what we're a week into this, there's already

(44:52):
been changes made that will affect the Colorado Buffaloes program
better in the long term. Chad Brown joining US Fox
Sports Radio. Chad host the Players Club every day Monday,
through Friday, nine am to eleven am in Denver, also
a former Colorado Buffalo. Chad. Let me ask you this.
You know, we we obviously got the report two weeks
ago today from Bruce Feldman that this job had been

(45:13):
offered by Colorado to Dion Sanders. You know you mentioned
all of the things that had to change to get
this done. Did you guys get the sense that the
school was willing to accommodate if they could get a
guy the caliber of Dion Sanders or were you as
surprised by the offer itself two weeks ago, which obviously
turned into the full time opportunity. I know Rick George

(45:36):
really well, the athletic director. He was the recruiting coordinator
when I was playing for the Buffaloes thirty years ago.
And his desire to see the Buffs do well, and
his heart for the Colorado Buffaloes, uh, you know, is deep,
and he wants to see this program move forward. And
he's been as frustrated as any buff fan over the

(45:57):
last decade plus. So I knew he was going to
swing for the fences. And one of my favorite lines
from hip hop history is Biggie Small, real bad boys
move in silence. So for Rick George to be able
to pull this out before the news was broken by
Bruce Feltman and begin to have those conversations with Dion
and work with the Chancellor and work with the regions,

(46:19):
talking about what it's going to take to get this
guy and make it all happen. I'm impressed with Rick,
and again I love the fact that he had swung
for the fences. Again, I'm not sure if there's a
long term fit or even a medium term fit, but
in the short term it is a tremendous move. There's
no doubt about that. Chad Er in Denver up in
a Broncos fan my entire life. Um, I've got a

(46:40):
Broncos blanket five ft away from me right now as
a matter of fact, and I need to cry into it.
I I know you can't talk me down off the ledge.
How bad is it for the fan base that actually
lives out there? I mean, I'm here in Nashville and
I can't I can't watch my favorite football team play.

(47:00):
It's become that painful. How bad is sort of the
aura surrounding the team right now? Uh? It is is bad,
as you are feeling from thousand miles away, plus a
little bit extra here in town. I think you know
the steps of grieving for the Bronco fans. They are
probably now in the apathy phase because they can't stand

(47:23):
anymore hurt and disappointment and heartbreak. The Broncos have gone
from bad now they're bad and boring. There's no entertainment,
there's no players police, particularly the offensive side of the
ball that you want to root for or you can't
wait to see, you are expecting to make a big play.
So this, this apathetic viewpoint has has surrounded the team here.

(47:43):
Now it's such a sad place to be. You know.
Russell Wilson came in with such stands there and such
optimisum and the hope contract diond going to Colorado. But
when you get your hopes up and things don't work out,
that disappointment can be crushing. Has been absolutely crushing the
Bronco fans. The last one for me will let you
go the Players Club again. Chad hosts the Players Club

(48:04):
Monday through Friday, nine am to eleven am Mountain Time
in Denver. Like as somebody who you know, Jason, my
partner here watches every down the Broncos season, or maybe
up until a few weeks ago, he did you do
the same, like why is it? Like, like, what is
it about this situation with Russell Wilson. We know yet
he's been banged up, there's been some injuries. You know,

(48:24):
he had to have whatever, you know, whatever the situation
was a few weeks ago. Like I just I I
still go back to who he was in Seattle, the
the guy that you just trusted with the ball in
the final few minutes, and I see the guy that
he has become. Is how much is Russ how much
is coaching, how much is being in a new environment.
I mean, how do you even kind of contextualize the

(48:45):
fall of Russell Wilson. I think we're we struggle with
that because we've never seen a quarterback fall so quickly
and so far. Uh. You know, Russell Wilson was on
a Hall of Fame path. He's had some seasons last
years were folks were upset that he wasn't, you know,
more involved in the m v P conversation. So now

(49:06):
to see him be literally one of the worst quarterbacks
in the league who mrs Wide open receivers and every
media guy who's a former quarterback whether it's Kirk Walder
or Dan Alowski or any of those guys out there.
They put up these clips on on social media and
we're just like, oh my god, this guy has fallen
so far. He's not able to execute like football one

(49:27):
on one basics, quarterback basics. UM. So, to answer your
question specifically to what it is, it's a mix of
a lot of different office. Coach Hackett certainly has not
been prepared for his first head coaching opportunity early in
this season. All the delay of games and timeouse need
to just to prevent a penalty see and all that
kind of stuff. The football operations were poor. Uh, there's

(49:50):
a stubbornness to Russell Wilson that is really showing its
head here in Denver where he's not taking uh Coach
Hackett's plan and really did into action. He's got very
much his own fans, so the unwillingness to buy in. Um.
There's been a lot of injuries, particularly at some of
the skill positions. There's not a lot of help out

(50:10):
there either, and then offensive line is banged up too.
So you put those factors together, Russell Wilson has got
from what we would consider a called a top five,
top seven quarterback almost every single year of his career.
Uh to a guy who's now in the bottom two
or three in the league. It's just a sad turn
of events. Chad Brown, former Colorado Buffalo, now hosts radio

(50:30):
Monday through Friday, nine am to eleven in Denver. Chad,
we appreciate the time. One other thing too, I remember
last time, you know, I was lucky enough to speak
with you. I believe you hold you own a exotic
pet business? Is that correct? If I remember correctly, I
have a reptile and animal shipping company, so can pro

(50:51):
pro Tiles Reptiles, where I produced thousands of baby reptiles
every single year and sold them in the pet trade
and sold them internationally. I was one of the large
reptile bree is on the planet. And then I transitioned
to my shipping company where I specialized in shipping reptiles
and aquatic fish, core aquatic plants, things like that for
hobbyists and businesses all over the United States, and I

(51:13):
helped them different animals to their eventual customers. Well, thank
you very much. I'm really quick, And I asked, what
what got you into that is? It's just always been
a passionate eyears. You know, I was always been an
animal person. As the ship, I was very shy and
I studded um So animals were just kind of a
nice refuge for me. Um So I turned that passion
for animals into a business as soon as I got

(51:34):
into the NFL, and I started my reptile company, Poloxietics Reptile.
And I realized one of the more difficult things for
folks who wanted to start a reptile business was, once
I outgrow my little town and sell them from the
local pet store and from customers in town, how do
I get my animals out to other people. So I
started this company with the hopes of being able to
help folks and that part of the business, and it's

(51:55):
grown into a company where we do several thousand shipments
a week for customers all over the countries. That incredible.
Chad Brown, thank you for your time. Follow chat on
Twitter at Chad Brown. Chad. We appreciate it. And I
get the sense Coach Prime is gonna have us calling
you a lot throughout next season. We're on every Saturday
during this time slot, and I think the Buffs are
gonna be uh must watch TV. Thank you for the time,

(52:18):
appreciate you. Look forward to being on with you guys
discuss the Buffalo success that is Chad Brown. Thank you
to Chad. You can again listen to Chad Monday through Friday,
nine am to eleven in Denver, former Colorado Buffalo and
of course long time NFL VET. When we come back,
we will react to some of what Chad said and
turn our attention to this weekend in the NFL and

(52:38):
look back to that wild Thursday night result Baker Mayfield
the Rams beat the Raiders. We got a lot to
discuss that's coming up next. Fox Sports Radio, Welcome back everybody,
Fox Sports Radio, Aaron Taurres, Jason Martin. Christmas season football fans,

(53:02):
make sure to tune into Fox Sports Radios Countdown a
Kickoff presented by bet MGM on Sunday morning, three hours
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a m Eastern as we take you live all the
way to kick Off on Fox Sports Radio in the
I Heart Radio app presented by bet MGM. So make
sure you're listening to that show. And I'll tell you this.

(53:22):
Jason Martin this week got off to a bang. I mean,
I'm not saying that Thursday night was the best game
that we've ever seen, but it's certainly had a very
interesting result. As Baker Mayfield gets into town basically what
thirty six hours before the game? I mean, he didn't
land until Wednesday morning, gets on the field as the Ram.

(53:44):
He didn't start, but you know, Rams quarterback, and he
leads the Ramps to a victory seventeen sixteen over the
Las Vegas Raiders. What did you make? I guess he
did start. I thought for some reason he didn't. But anyway,
neither here nor there. What did you make a Baker Mayfield?
I made that It provided some of the worst sports

(54:04):
commentary I've heard in a long long time. Let's let's
add to that. Let's do this, Let's do it. Can
we not have an extreme take? Is it cool if
we just say that what happened in that final drive
on Thursday was awesome. It was fun to watch, It
was incredible, It was unexpected, it was super rare, It

(54:26):
had no business happening. It's one of the great things
about sports is the unpredictable nature that can happen on
any given Sunday. In this case, any given Thursday. It
doesn't mean Baker Mayfield's going to the Hall of Fame,
and it doesn't automatically require you to say that was
one time, he'll never do it again, Like is it?
Is it all right if we just hang out in

(54:47):
the middle and appreciate what took place without automatically having
to try and draw some conclusion while he's still young
and his career is continuing. That's what irritated me was
it was either this dude could be QB one or
that was one time and he's gonna be out of

(55:08):
the league in a year. I don't think that's fair.
I also don't think that is good. Uh in terms
of being a host or being a pundit, I understand
you're supposed to have opinions. My opinion just is that
was cool and Baker Mayfield showed that he could play
at least for one night. But I'm not gonna say
he's never gonna do anything good again. And I'm also

(55:31):
not gonna say go ahead and send him to Canton
if that makes any sense. Well, it's really funny because
there's another NFL topic this week that I don't find
particularly interesting, which is the Herbert versus to a debate.
I don't think there's actually a debate. I don't know
why people are trying to argue that there is Justin
Herbert's the better quarterback. If Dolphins had to do it over,
they would take Justin Herbert. But we can also acknowledge
to you know, with the right weapons, has been pretty

(55:52):
good this year. And it's like I didn't understand all
these sports talk radio show that well, like, well, you know,
if they had to do it over, would they take
Justin her Bird. It's like, no, yeah, they would a
thousand percent. And so that's how I feel about that topic,
and it sounds very much the same, like that's how
you feel about Baker Mayfield, and I tend to agree.
Is I think it's it's interesting, and you know, maybe

(56:13):
not ironic that you could argue maybe the two best
performances of his career, or certainly the two most memorable,
to say the least, or Thursday nights when he got
thrown into action certainly relatively unexpected, the first one being
his rookie year against the Jets, rallies the Browns to
the win, and then this one on Thursday night. And

(56:35):
and I think, you know, he is a guy that
has proven over time. I don't think he's an elite quarterback.
I think he's a solid NFL quarterback. You know, basically
everything that you just said. I think he's elite. I
don't think he's a lead Excuse me, I think he's solid. Um.
I think the longer he stays somewhere, he's going to
put his foot in his mouth at some point. And
so this was almost a perfect scenario for him. He

(56:57):
gets to town, they're not playing a very good team,
he doesn't play very well, but they're in a position
to win the game late. He doesn't have time to
overthink it. He doesn't have time to frankly kind of
piss off his teammates or his coaches or whatever. And
so I'm kind of with you. I thought it was
a cool moment in a weird way. I'm happy for him,
I guess I I think he's taken a lot of
of scorn, some of it which is through no you know,

(57:18):
some of it through no fault of his own, some
of it entirely through you know, his his fault. But
I also don't think that this is some like career
reviving play where it's like you know it's gonna be
week one of next year, or you know we're gonna
get to the end of the season and say, you know,
the Rams really gotta think of think about moving off
Matt Stafford to keep Baker Mayfield. Like, I think it

(57:39):
was a cool moment. I think it was fun. I
don't think it has some like deeper, higher meaning though,
if that makes sense. No, I don't either. I just
think that the rush to immediately discredit it as or
discredit Baker Mayfield because you don't personally like him, or
because you have a predilection not to like him, or
whatever it is, I think that's just mouthfeasance. I don't

(58:02):
think that is good journalism. I don't think that's good opinion,
aiding aiding aiding or whatever you wanna call it, like
good opining. It's just it's just garbage. It's just the
lowest common denominator stuff. I think that sports a lot
of times we forget it is a collection of moments.
It's a collection of special things that happen. Some of

(58:24):
them may have happened to your team and then didn't
happen again. And maybe this is gonna end up being
the greatest moment of Baker Mayfield's professional career, and outside
of that, there's not gonna be a whole lot more highlights.
But I stress the word maybe anybody with declarative statements
saying this is what will happen or this will not

(58:45):
happen again, those are people to dismiss going forward. If
you're out there listening to that do better, do better.
The people that are talking to you need to do better.
You can find something else out there where there's some
kind of nuance. It is been missing sorely in what
we do Aaron for a very very long time. And
I know sometimes we can get hot under the collar

(59:07):
and we can have very staunch opinions. But I also
think that one thing that we have done throughout the
course of this show over the last year, year and
a half is admit when we got it wrong. And
I think that you get it wrong a whole lot
less when you actually let things play out, as opposed
to adjudicating them after one performance positive or negative. Yeah,

(59:28):
I will say, though, and I agree with all that.
The one thing I will say in general, though, is
that I did think the career was basically over, and
I did think, first of all, I've said that since
before the season started. I said, I think he's a
below average quarterback um. And it was funny because I
remember talking to you about this going into you know,
during the preseason, where going into Week one, you know,

(59:51):
there was kind of that off the record comment about
I want to kick the Browns, you know what, and
people try to make it a story, and I said,
Baker Mayfield is no, we don't have to make every
word that Baker Mayfield says the story anymore. Like that
part of his career is over. He's not that good,
he's not that interesting. The one thing I will say
Thursday night did is I do think maybe in the
right situation, maybe with the right coach, maybe he can

(01:00:12):
get back to being at the very least like I'll
be honest, I thought his career was basically over. I thought,
maybe he gets one more shot, but it doesn't work
out because the caroline didn't work out. That this and
that I do think this kind of recalibrated to me
a little bit of who Baker Mayfield is, only from
the perspective of maybe he does have one more run
in him, and maybe maybe he has learned from some

(01:00:35):
of his mistakes. Now we're gonna find out. But maybe
Sean McVeigh, you know, maybe the way that locker room
is set up with those strong leaders Aaron Donald, Cooper
Cup where they're not going to Baker every week for
a quote, where you know, the guys in the locker
room are not gonna let him get, you know, give
weird quotes. I don't know. I do think it's sort
of recalibrated to me. I thought this guy was done

(01:00:56):
as a starter in the NFL. Now I do think
I think he's one of those guys. He's not Herbert,
he's not Mahomes, he's not Borrow. It would take the
right situation with the right coach and the right teammates.
But I it did recalibrate to me that maybe, just
maybe he could still be a high quality starter in
this league. I mean, look, there's a lot of quarterbacks
that have gone to Carolina to die, right Like there

(01:01:18):
there's a that that has not been a great place
to be a quarterback. There are other locations we could
talk about that are similar. That was a bad situation.
That's not say Baker Mayfield played well. It is to
say that he for him to go somewhere and be
a little bit rejuvenated. That shouldn't be shocking. I mean,
he was the number one pick and it wasn't twenty

(01:01:38):
years ago. Someone did see value in him. He did
lead a team to the playoffs two years ago as well.
Then he got hurt. Then he had all sorts of
things that probably wrecked him from a psychological perspective, with
whatever with with everything was going on with Cleveland and
Shawn Watson and everything else, and then with Carolina where
the coach was let go and he had Sam Donald

(01:02:00):
there and he had p J. Walker there and they
got rid of Christian McCaffrey, and he was still wasn't
he wasn't playing well. But I do think that he
is capable on any given Sunday of doing something positive
for your football team. So I think that's more it.
It's just no one is putting him into the Hall
of Fame, but no one should be pouring dirt on
him either. Like I feel like it doesn't have to

(01:02:23):
be one hundred or negative one hundred. We can be
somewhere in the middle where Baker Mayfield is a competent
football player that at times can do something to help
your organization and I also think, and this isn't discussed
because it's not particularly sexy, but if you hear what
was said about him in Carolina from teammates from coaches,
he didn't say much. He didn't cause trouble. There weren't

(01:02:46):
a lot of red flags. He didn't play great football,
but he wasn't like a bad teammate or a bad
person or bad with the media or any of those things.
So I think sometimes he takes a bum rap because
he was kind of a punkin college and then he
did a bunch of ads before he had accomplished anything
in the NFL, and I think some people will never
forgive him for that and continue to see him as

(01:03:07):
the guy that planted the flag and grabbed his junk
and all of that kind of stuff. Eventually, he's either
gonna grow past that in your mind, or you're never
gonna be able to let that go, which point your
opinion at that point to me, is invalid. Fox Sports
Radio rat towards Jason Martin here on a Saturday night,
coming up. I got another RAMS thing, maybe a little
bit of a conspiracy theory, you know, little X files whatever.

(01:03:30):
We'll get into that next. Before we do that, let's
get over to the news desk. Steve the Seger, what's training?
My friend well S n Y, New York says. The
Mets are signing free agent pitcher from Japan, Codai Singa,
and the Toronto Blue Jays signed out fielder Kevin Kermeyer,
who spent ten years with the Rays, including three Gold
Glove Awards this year. Tonight, the Heisman Trophy ceremony was
in New York City. The winner USC quarterback Caleb Williams,

(01:03:53):
finishing second was TCU quarterback Max doug and Williams won
all six voting regions. Dougan was second in all reach.
Williams had over five hundred first place votes. Duggan had
under two hundred. Army beat rival Navy in two overtimes
in Philadelphia twenty to seventeen, even though Army had about
a hundred fifty yards of offense. Stanford's new head coaches

(01:04:14):
Troy Taylor from Sacramento State. The Pittsburgh Steelers activated kicker
Chris Boswell at the World Cup quarterfinal wins for France
and Morocco, the first ever African team to reach the
World Cup semis. They scored their goal just before halftime
Today it stood for a one nothing win against Portugal.
Great defense again for Morocco, even though Portugal had seventy

(01:04:34):
three percent of the possession in that game. France's win
was over rival England two to one as England star
Harry Kane missed a penalty kick in the eighty four minute.
So Wednesday in the semifinals in Qatar, Morocco against France,
the defending champions. Tuesday semi is Argentina against Croatia. In
the NHL. Among the eight games, Toronto in overtime beat

(01:04:56):
Calgary five four, Dallas in overtime beat Detroit three too.
We have one late game going on in the NBA.
It's at Portland mid third quarter Minnesota in the league
eighty one seventy six. Anthony Edwards with twenty three points. Earlier,
Golden State down Boston one three to one oh seven.
Clay Thompson thirty four points, Steph Curry with thirty two

(01:05:16):
The Clippers sent Washington to a sixth straight loss one fourteen,
one oh seven. Paul George had thirty six points for
l A. John Wall for the Clippers in d C
had thirteen points. Cleveland and Chicago with wins. San Antonio
and Brooklyn as well. The Nets rested eight players and
still wanted Indiana one thirty six, one thirty three, and
Denver beat Utah one fifteen one ten, a triple double

(01:05:38):
for Nicola Yokich. A couple of late college basketball games
of note, just early second half. Right now on FS one,
it is Craton rank twenty first, tied with b y
U fifty six fifty six in Vegas. Earlier in Vegas,
Arizona beat Indiana eighty nine to seventy five, and right now,
with about thirteen minutes left, it's number twenty four TCU

(01:05:59):
leading sm you forty two. Today number eight Alabama came
back to win at number one. Houston back to you,
Thank you, Steve the Sager, Fox Sports Radio, Fox Sports Saturday,
Aaron Torres and Jason Martin here on a Saturday evening.
We are broadcasting live from the tirect dot com studios.
So Jason, like I said, I have a little bit

(01:06:20):
of a pseudo conspiracy theory surrounding the Rams. The Rams,
of course, um, you know they went on Thursday night.
But it's a lost season, weird season four and nine overall,
and you know a lot of stuff that's out of
their control. Matt Stafford gets hurt, Cooper cup gets hurt,
all that good stuff. But something struck me this week.
I saw a piece of news that was a very

(01:06:41):
of of interest to me. Chris Mortenson from ESPN reported
that the Rams offensive coordinator Liam Cohen is expected to
join the University of Kentucky as the school's new offensive coordinator. Now,
for people don't know the story, Liam Cohen was an
assistant with the Ram goes to Kentucky last year and

(01:07:02):
was the offensive coordinator, then goes back to the NFL.
Is the Rams offensive coordinator this year? Uh. Sean McVey
was asked about he said, nothing's official yet, but you
know whatever, he's gonna stick through the end of the season.
Why I bring it up. If Liam Cohen leaves, the
Rams have actually lost two different assistant coaches already to
the college game. This college coaching care so where people

(01:07:24):
are putting their staffs together, and this guy would be
number three. And so my question is this is that
isn't at all possible and is it maybe even likely?
Is Sean McVeigh sneaking out the side door? And here's
why I asked, because we've heard he's he's mentioned on
the record. It's not like rumors. It's not like, uh,
you know, message board fodder. Sean McVeigh has talked about retiring.

(01:07:47):
We know he had a media offer at this time
last year, shortly after the Super Bowl with Amazon. He's
had three coaches during the season take other jobs, and
I was wondering, maybe they either kind of get the
scent that he's not gonna be back, or he has
told them that he's not gonna be back. What do
you make of my little half baked conspiracy theory there, Jason,

(01:08:07):
I mean, I don't know how half baked it is,
just because we know that Sean McVeigh has at least
flirted with the idea of being kind of short lived
in the NFL world as a head coach. It hasn't
been a good season for the Rams, so it's easy
to all of a sudden put McVeigh out to pasture
and say he's leaving. Saint Matthew Stafford's gonna retire, all

(01:08:27):
of those kinds of things, Aaron Donald's gonna retire, like
all of that kind of stuff can be out there.
But at the same time, you know, you heard those
rumblings even a few weeks ago, the Herb Street might
be one and done with Amazon, and Sean McVeigh might
be the replacement with al Michaels. And like there's been
a lot of stuff out there, the question is always
who wants it out there and who has the ability

(01:08:50):
to put it out there on on large scale. The
Rams have had about as bad a season as you
can have following what they did last year, and they
are hamstrong in the immediate future because of how they
went all in and put all their chips on the
table last year. So if you're Sean McVeigh, you're young,

(01:09:11):
and you're smart, and you realize, even if you get
out of this for five years, you can get back
into it. Even if you get out for one year,
you can come back into it. Maybe, if you really
want to take this conspiracy theory to the next degree,
you say, Sean McVeigh reads the writing on the wall
that the Rams, the best version of the Rams was
the one from last year that can't come back now

(01:09:32):
because they had guys off the offensive line they retired,
and because of where they are with a draft standpoint,
not having any draft capital, and where they are with
the luxury toil eventually, eventually you can't buy every single
person that you want. And maybe he sees this situation
as on the decline and he doesn't want to be
there long enough for some of that to rub off

(01:09:55):
on him and harm his reputation. See you brought up
actually the best point to Mike and sariracy theory, which is,
it's one thing if you have a down here, teams
have bad years all the time. There's no way to
get out of this though. I mean, you have Matthew Stafford,
who's a thirty five year old quarterback. You have um
you know again, Andrew Witworth retired Von Miller who we know,
you know whatever has gone on in Buffalo this year,

(01:10:16):
but he's out. Aaron Donald himself has talked about retirement.
And so that's probably the most important point to this.
You know, I don't even know if it's half baked.
You know. Theory of mine is that there's no way
to fix this. You don't have you're you're not you know, like,
you don't have multiple first round picks, you don't have
a bunch of cap space, you don't have guys coming
off the books. You've committed major money to four or

(01:10:39):
five players. You've sacrificed the future for the present and
maybe even the past at this point. And so that's
why I think there's something to it. And then the
last point you brought up, Jason is the other important
part two. Right, this guy is boy genius. This guy
was the guy that came into the league as the
youngest head coach ever, thirty two years old, makes Super
Bowl early, wins the Super Bowl last year. You know,

(01:11:00):
you stick around, you could start to to punch holes
in Sean mcveigh's resume. Uh if this thing falls apart
from the perspective that you know that the Jared Golfier
was unbelievable. But you know last year obviously, and we've
talked about it on this show. Yes they have a
super Bowl run, but they had a lot of things
break their way to get to that, to get that

(01:11:21):
Super Bowl title. Now you come back, got our aging
team and aging roster. No pis all of a sudden,
you have another year like this, You have another year
like this again, all of a sudden. You know what
it actually kind of reminds me of. It's it's a
little bit like the Bill Belichick conversation right eighteen months ago,
two years ago, it was no doubt about it, greatest
coach in the history of the sport. Can't even have
a conversation about anybody else. Now you lose Tom Brady,

(01:11:43):
Now you don't have a quarterback. Now you make some
staffing decisions that seem questionable. All of a sudden. We
we still loved, We still love Bill Belichick, we still
respect what he did with Tom Brady, but we're starting
to say it was probably a little bit more tom
Brady than we wanted to give it credit for the
day that Tom Brady signed with Tampa Bay. That's what
Sean McVeigh runs into. The longer he stays with the
Rams is all of a sudden, he's not that boy genius.

(01:12:06):
All of a sudden, it was the perfect storm with
the perfect group, and then you know, you had to
pay the price of all those high price contracts. So
I think it's an interesting thought, and I think you
brought up a lot of good points to kind of,
you know, kind of back my back my original thought.
The NFC is such a and we could talk about
this because we still luckily have two more hours to
talk about the glory that is sports. But the NFC,

(01:12:29):
this year. What in the world is the NFC this year?
It's the Eagles and the Cowboys and that's about it.
Like outside of that, we don't know what. I mean,
San Francisco without Garoppolo, that looked all right last week,
but how how is that going to look along to her?
And we will find out the Vikings. I still don't
know if the Vikings are good at all. I think
the Lions are playing excellent football, may beat them tomorrow.

(01:12:50):
And then you look at the rest of the conference.
It's just a bunch of teams you can't trust and
the Rams. The fact that the Rams couldn't take advantage
of this and FC, the condition of all of these
other teams Creen Baby and down Tampa Baby being week
to week and all this. Man, you never could have predicted.
If you would have said, here's what the rest of

(01:13:10):
the NFC is gonna look like and not talked about
what the Rams were gonna be at that point, you
would assume the Rams were undefeated. Right now, it has
been catastrophic how bad this season has gone for the Rams.
I don't disagree with any of that, and I do
think it's gonna be something interesting to follow and maybe
maybe there's nothing to it, but you have three coaches
essentially leave during the season. I know I said Liam

(01:13:32):
Cohen would stay throughout the season, but three coaches, you know, bailing. Um,
a coach that's talked about retirement. A disappointing season and
to your point, Jason, no way to get out of it.
Fox Sports Radio errantors Jason Martin here on a Saturday night.
Coming up, maybe we talk a little baseball. What's your
opinion on Aaron Judge. Jason will discuss that next aeron
towards Jason Martin, Fox Sports Radio. Welcome back, everybody. Fox

(01:13:54):
Sports Radio Aeron Torres. Jason Martin here on a Saturday night,
broadcasting live from the entire rac dot Com studios. Jason,
during the break, I actually heard not one, but two
of our colleagues, really three, because Cavino and Rich and
Ben Maller all weighed in on the Aaron Judge News
of the week. And we'll get back to the NFL

(01:14:15):
in a minute, but it feels like a good time
to kind of quickly break from the NFL and get
to the news of the week in baseball. Um, you
know you're a big baseball guy and uh, Aaron Judge.
He has headed back to the Yankees. Obviously, you know
the big story. We all know the deal. You know,
we all know the deal was was offered a contract
last year bet on himself, and of course took full advantage,

(01:14:37):
signing a contract this week that will take basically, uh,
you would assume that he will retire from me as
a Yankee nine years, three hundred sixty million dollars on
the deal. Um, real quick, I'll ask you what I
heard Corvino and Rich talk about. Did you ever believe
that there was a realistic shot that he was leaving
the New York Yankees obviously you know the Bay Area

(01:14:59):
where Warts and all that stuff. He's from, Sacramento, etcetera.
Because I always kind of felt like it was a
leverage deploy. I couldn't see him wanting to leave the
Yankees or the Yankees letting him go. What were you
at all surprised that he ended up back with the Yankees? No,
not at all. I mean when I first saw the
stories that because and I mentioned this before, and some
of you that you know, the Fox anchors, whether it's

(01:15:20):
Disager or whoever it is that's there, always sends the
updates to us multiple times a day, every single day,
letting us know what's happening, and that's what the big
stories are. And when I saw you know, Judge potentially
going to the Giants, I was floored because never did
I think he was leaving, like, not for a second,
because he seemed to be kind of the face of

(01:15:41):
the entire franchise, and it just didn't make any sense
from a just kind of a pr marketing. Uh, you
have to do what your fans want you to do
a lot to like Aaron Judge brings a lot of
people out to that yard. When you're responsible for fielding
a team, yeah, you have to win, and you have
to put the team out there that you think is
gonna win, but you also have to kind of bridge

(01:16:03):
the gap between winning and making sure that your fans
don't hate you along the way. You gotta do kind
of both things. And there hadn't been a ton of currency,
a ton of equity created for the Yankees organization in
recent years. But Aaron Judge just had a historic year.
You didn't pay him in the off season before he
had that year, so as price tag went up. But

(01:16:25):
I just never saw a universe where he was wearing
anything but pin stripes. So when I saw that he
had resigned, even when you want to get into the
money in the years and all that kind of stuff,
I just kind of said, Yeah, that sounds about right.
That's pretty much what I expected. And the Giants thing
not come into fruition was the most unsurprising news of
the week, No, I see, and that that was what

(01:16:46):
I agree with two. And I think Arnie and I
may have talked about this this this past week. But
you know, obviously I'm not the biggest baseball guy, but
you know, I grew up in the Northeast, and I
grew up obviously we all did when the Yankees weren't
a SLU juggernaut under George Steinbrenner. And I I can't
believe that there is a world where the New York Yankees,

(01:17:08):
you know, the organization that twenty five years ago, they
not only made sure to take care of their guys,
they went and got your best guys too, that they
were going to let this iconic player leave the organization
and frankly be outbid. And I know, one, it's a
new world. And I also understand they have you know,
a lot of money tied up to Garret Cole and
Giancarlo Stanton. But at the same time, man, it's like,

(01:17:29):
you know, for it's exactly what you said is you
gotta fill the ballpark on It's not just Saturdays when
the Red Sox are in town. You gotta fill the
ballpark on Tuesday nights and Wednesday nights. And this is
a guy that people want to come see play. But
more than that they want to come see him play,
it's that he has done it his entire career as
a Yankee. And so the idea that you were gonna

(01:17:51):
let him walk, that you were going to be potentially outbid,
that's the part that trips me up. It's one thing
that he's box office, but he's box office and he
is a Yankee. He's been a Yank a key. And
I do think there is some value in this world
of sports of the guys that do it with one team.
I mean, increasingly we're seeing it less and less, But
Kobe Bryant, you know, Dirk Nowitzki, Um, you know Derek

(01:18:15):
maybe Steph almost certainly is another one, like like, there's
just something different to playing your entire career one place. Um,
And obviously It's a two way street, right. The Yankees
have to offer him something, um, you know, worth keeping
him there. And obviously Aaron Judge maybe took a little
bit less to to be a Yankee. But I just
I I never I don't follow the hot stove religiously,

(01:18:37):
but I just never saw the scenario where they could
let him leave. Yeah, I mean neither one of us.
I mean, baseball is not the primary focus. Like usually
we're talking football, and football is out there, but we
pay attention to what's going on. I'm a giant Braves fan,
but I've always seen Aaron Judge is kind of the
next big figurehead past Derek Jeter, Like you had Jeter,

(01:18:58):
and then of course you have Mariano river Era and
you can name a bunch of other Yankees, but really
since Jeter, I mean a rod because of the way
he came in and where he was before and the
money he took in Texas and seat I don't and
everything else, it never quite felt the same. But Derek
Jeter was true blue Yankee guy, and I just always
got the sense watching Judge be there at the very

(01:19:19):
beginning that he was likely to be the exact same thing.
It's the exception, not the rule. But it's just he
feels the same to me as Patrick Mahomes does in
Kansas City. That's the comparison I would make is there's
a there's a guy and a team, and there's a
marriage that makes sense. And I feel the same way
about Judge and the Yankees. Absolutely no, I tend to agree.

(01:19:41):
And I just like I said, I just I feel like,
you know, I just especially the Yankees. I mean, it's
one thing if if it's the Florida Marlins or the whatever,
you know, but to be a Yankee, and I think again,
there's the element to which I heard Ben Mallard talk
about a little bit, which is uh being an icon
in that city, with that organised aation, there's just something
to it. I think it makes sense for both teams.

(01:20:02):
I think it's good for baseball to to have a
star of Aaron Judges caliber with that organization, very likely
till the end of his career, signing that nine or
three hundred sixty million dollar contract. Fox Sports Radio erran
towards Jason Martin here on a Saturday night, coming up,
we go back to the NFL. Tom Brady's headed to
the Bay Area this weekend is that the first of

(01:20:23):
many games that we see him in San Francisco. Welcome
in everybody. Our three Fox Sports radio er towards Jason
Martin here Saturday night into Sunday morning on the East
Coast and we are broadcasting live from the tirect dot
Com studios. Direct dot Com will help you get there
an unmatched selection fest, free shipping, free road hazard protection,

(01:20:44):
and over ten thousand recommended installers. Direct dot com the
way tire buying should be. You missed any of the
first two hours, you can check us out on podcast.
We talked a lot. Caleb Williams wins his Heisman Trophy.
Coach Prime uh, We had Chad Brown on from Denver
to talk Coach Prime and of course the Denver Broncos

(01:21:05):
jameson really quick. We we don't have to spend the
entire segment on it for people who missed it. Very briefly,
do you want to hit on the news of the night.
Caleb Williams wins the Heisman Trophy. The USC quarterback was
not only won it, but when it pretty convincingly over field.
That included Max Duggan from from TCU, Stetson Bennett from Georgia,

(01:21:26):
and of course, on top of that c J. Stroud
from Ohio State. Caleb Williams receives five hundred forty four
first place votes UH two thousand thirty one points overall,
which was easily allowed him to win the award. UH.
We talked about it earlier, but very quickly. I I
assume you have no fundamental issue with Caleb Williams winning
this Heisman. Lord, No, I mean usually I don't. I mean,

(01:21:48):
it's been a long time since I can say I
would have gone with someone else. But in this case,
I just thought it was really easy. I think you
can argue about who the runners up should be, who
should have been invited, and and was and and and
things of that nature, but you cannot at all argue
that Caleb Williams wasn't the best player in college football
this year because, and we have discussed this ad nauseum

(01:22:11):
over the last month on this program, the pressure on
his shoulders to continually produce touchdowns, to continually move the chains,
to continually avoid turning the football over was larger than
for anyone else that played the single most important position

(01:22:31):
in all of American sports, quarterback. There was nobody else
even close, because Caleb Williams knew every time he failed.
If he did fail on a drive, the defense was
probably given up points. He wouldn't want to say that
out loud, but we all knew it. That defense was
an atrocity. We saw it against U c. L A,
We saw it against Oregon State, we saw it all

(01:22:53):
season long. Yet that's a football team that was playing
for a conference championship. He got hurt in the game.
I don't know if they wanted anyway, because you again,
you saw in the pack T WALLF title game how
bad that defense actually was. Caleb's numbers over four thousand yards,
his ability to move the ball without turning it over,
not make the crucial mistake, the the athleticism we know,

(01:23:18):
being able to make something out of nothing, and losing
running back one, losing wide receiver one from multiple games
during the year. I could make this case all day long.
Caleb Williams is as deserving as it gets as a
Heisman Trophy winner. Don't disagree with anything that you just said. Um,
nothing really to add there. I just think you know, again,

(01:23:39):
beyond the stats, thirty seven touchdowns, four interceptions, over four
thousand yards passing as you said, every single week they
needed him to perform at the highest level. And frankly,
we saw what happened when he didn't know. By the way,
even against Utah, he threw for three hundred sixty three
yards and three touchdowns and it wasn't enough. So um
so you have that. But you know, again when we

(01:24:00):
talked about it, but I had to put up you know,
defense gave up forty five points versus U c l
A thirty five, versus Cal thirty eight versus Arizona UH
forty three in the first loss to Utah. So every
single week this guy had to deliver. Uh. He is
a worthy Heisman Trophy winner. Let's get back to the NFL,
Jason where obviously Week fourteen started off with with the

(01:24:24):
big game in at SOFI Stadium, Baker mayfield the Los
Angeles Rams rally to beat the to beat the Las
Vegas Raiders. Funny game, interesting game. We talked about Baker
last hour. Want to get to some of the other
storylines in Week fourteen of the NFL, and what what
you know, there's there's actually a few pretty good ones.
But I mentioned it before we went to break and

(01:24:46):
I want to talk about this San Francisco Tampa Bay game,
and so so so to perspective. So so the first
one is I do want to talk about San Francisco
because I will say this um and I think that
these two storylines will obviously come together. But on I
gotta say, man, you know, I have been a Jimmy
G defender forever and and my stance is probably pretty universal.

(01:25:07):
The same reason that everybody likes Jimmy G. I think
he's gotten a bad rap. I think the guy you
know at the highest level. You know, he had them
in a Super Bowl. Everybody always talks about the big
misthrow that he had, but what people forget is that
he had the forty Niners going into the fourth quarter
with the lead. I've always thought he got a bad rap.
I never understood why everybody was in a rush to

(01:25:28):
replace him. But I do think last week was finally
the week where I sat there and said, he it's
time to move on from Jimmy G. Is. It's incredible
what he's done. He's incredible when he's in these games,
but he cannot stay healthy. And so last week was
the week that I officially said, Okay, it's time to
move on from Jimmy G. First of all, after last week,

(01:25:49):
and I know Brock Party came in and did an
admirable job in replacement of Jimmy G in that victory
over Miami. Are are you in agreement? Like it was fun? Yeah,
thanks for the memories, but but you probably can't commit
to Jimmy G. Because I do think by the way
as the season progressed, as we got further away from
the Tray Lance injury, I do think there was a

(01:26:09):
real kind of groundswell of maybe you do bring him back.
He is you know, he does win you a lot
of games. I don't think you can do it after
this week, It's hard to disagree with you. Jimmy Garoppolo
is a high floor, low ceiling kind of quarterback, and
there's several of those in the league. There are guys that, look,
they win a lot of football games, and they do

(01:26:31):
a lot, and they're good teammates and they're well liked.
Everybody loves Jimmy G in that locker room, just like
I think a lot of them, probably like Kirk Cousins,
a lot of them. I know a lot of them,
like Ryan Tannehill. Here in Nashville. There are guys that
are that there and there there are very few of
the Patrick Mahomes types in the NFL. But if you

(01:26:51):
can't be available eventually, I don't care how good a
guy you are, because I have to be able to
win games, and to win games, I have to put
together they're a game plan. Kyle Shanahan is one of
the best at doing this. That's why when Nick Mullins
was the quarterback, they were still able to move the
football and win some football games. You've seen this happen.
But you can't commit over and over to someone that's

(01:27:14):
going to let you down because their body is gonna
betray them like that. That's the thing. Like Garoppolo is
a good dude. He's not a terrible football player. He
went to a Super Bowl and he went to an
NFC Championship game, and those were in different years. It
wasn't one great year. He was a great I would say,
better than a game manager for them, and they had
this elite defense and they have a great running attack,

(01:27:37):
and that's his problem. It's the same thing with the Jets,
but in much different fashion. The Jets can't afford to
wait for Zach Wilson to get good because they're good
in so many other places. You've got to strike now.
You've heard me say many times, I don't believe in
a championship window. I believe in now because so many
things can change from one year to the next. You
can tell me you've got a five year plan that

(01:27:59):
you're gonna be and a you know, this team's guarantee
they're gonna be in four Super Bowls. Nothing is guaranteed.
San Francisco has got an elite defense. We know this.
They acquired Christian McCaffrey and he's already been good for them.
You know what they've got at wide receiver, and you
know what they've got on the sidelines with their head
coach Kyle Shanahan. They cannot continue to hinge their future

(01:28:24):
on a quarterback that can't be available to them, or
that at least you can't trust is going to be available.
It's just happened too many times when he's been out there.
More good has happened than bad. But he is not
He's not special, one of a kindness enough that you
can continue to wait on this. I think they're gonna

(01:28:45):
have to cut ties also, well a percent and that
was you know, and that was why, like I was
so anti Trey Lance to begin with going into the
season was basically like like the whole Tray Lance thing was,
you know, uh, Like why I I wasn't in favor
of it was because basically, as you just said, their
window is now. It's like the Jets, they have the

(01:29:06):
roster that's built to win the Super Bowl. And this
was what I kept saying about San Francisco. Why I
kept defending Jimmy g uh and I kept talking about
Trey Lances as just like I don't get it right,
is that there are times where you have the young
quarterback and it makes sense to play them. Trevor Lawrence
in in in Jacksonville, Joe Burrow of like you go
on and on down the list. The one time it

(01:29:27):
doesn't make sense to play a young quarterback is when
you have a team good enough to win the Super
Bowl right now, and you have the veteran that is capable,
that has proven capable to get you to a super
Bowl right now. And so it's the same reason that
Jordan Love can't get on the field in Green Bay
until maybe now with Aaron Rodgers injury, will see what happens.
It was the same thing with Jimmy G. It's like,

(01:29:49):
I get it. I get that that you know you
you want to see a glimpse of the future, but
the window to win is right now and you have
to take advantage of it. But unfortunately Jimmy G is
that I'll tell you what we may be looking at.
The guy who's gonna replace Jimmy G. Coming to San
Francisco this weekend. We'll discuss that next how's that sound,
Jason Martin, Yeah, oh, we're doing it, maybe, Eric Tords,

(01:30:12):
Jason Martin, Fox Sports Radio, Welcome back, everybody, Fox Sports Radio,
and this is the Fox Sports Radio Tailgate presented by
the Big Green Egg. Nothing be's the flavor of live
fire cooking on a Big Green Egg. It's the most
versatile grill you'll ever own. Back by lifetime warranty roll
with the best shop online for free delivery at Big
green egg dot com. Lifetime warranty, free home delivery, Big

(01:30:34):
green egg dot Com. All right, Jason, let's get to it.
So we just talked a minute ago. Obviously, the news
in the last week Jimmy Garoppolo done with that foot
injury for the foreseeable future. I know there's the report
that he could come back for the playoffs, but I
guess I'll believe that when I see it. But it
also kind of opens up the conversation that we just had,

(01:30:55):
which is, you know, what is next for Jimmy G?
What is next for this organization? Um? And where do
you go after this season? With a team that is
good enough to win the Super Bowl? You probably don't
run it back with Jimmy G. We don't know if
Trey Lance is good enough? And what do you do? Well,

(01:31:16):
you know where I'm going with this, San Francisco, of course,
this Tampa Bay Bucks. Tom Brady, forty six years old,
returned to the Bay Area. Is it happening, Jason Martin?
Are the wheels turning? Should Tom Brady just basically stay
in San Francisco right now and start prepping fore he's

(01:31:38):
got to retire, like go to the booth, especially after
he made the comment a couple of weeks ago that
you know he wants to be kind of the guy
that's more objective in the booth, something he doesn't think
is really present too much in football. He talked about
Johnny Miller and golf and how maybe he could bring
that and of course, with his cache and how many
rings he's got, if anybody has the right to go

(01:31:59):
be critic cool, of course, a lot of things are
gonna look critical for him. Um, I want to see
him in the booth. I know he can still play.
I get it. I understand this, but eventually you gotta
go to the cut. And if one thing we have
learned this year, it is sometimes you just gotta make
a decision to stick with it. And I still don't

(01:32:20):
know that he made the right actually know what, I
know he made the wrong call coming back, even though
because of the division that they play in and a
couple of these ridiculous endings to what otherwise we're bad
football games for they're gonna get a shot in the playoffs.
Why did he make the wrong call coming back? Though?

(01:32:42):
There's an easy answer. It's because he lost his family.
So that's my yeah, I mean, that's the point to
my My follow up though, is if you already lost
the family and they ain't coming back. Gazelle is already
hanging out with the taekwondo instructor from Brazil or whatever,
and I know she just can't. He just came out
of vacation for the kids, Okay, whatever. But if if
the reason it was wrong to come back was because

(01:33:05):
you lost your family doing it, well, the family ain't
coming back. You ain't moving back in with Gazelle. So
that makes it to me. And I was one of
those people when it was going down in the summer
and it was clear there was clear consternation in their relationship.
I said, not only do I I think Tom Brady
has done after this year. I don't even think he

(01:33:26):
might make it through this year. But now he made
it through the divorce, the papers are signed. She ain't
coming back. So what made it the wrong decision to
even come back? I think makes it more likely that
he comes back next year, If that makes sense, I
mean I guess so because he doesn't have anything more
to lose. I mean, that's that's really what it is.
It's like, well, what once you lose your family, what else? Like, well,

(01:33:48):
what what could be worse than that for him? And ultimately,
I think the choice that he made during the off
season was the worst thing he could lose was football,
not his family. Ye, So if he came back, I
don't think anybody would be shocked by it. I'm not
saying that, I'm saying I want to see this come
to an end, not because I don't want to watch
Tom Brady play football anymore. You're not gonna catch me

(01:34:10):
saying that out loud. After how many moments, even this
year has been able to provide some moments I just
for in sanity. Is it possible for him to get away?
Is it possible to go to booth and we can
experience Tom Brady in a new way, and we can
actually turn the page on this. We are seeing the
end of some careers. We're seeing near the end of
a few careers. We've already seen this, right Roethlisberger, Drew

(01:34:30):
Brees in the last few years. Soon we're getting to
the end of Aaron Rodgers. We may be nearer to
the end of Russell Wilson than people might have thought.
We were very close to the end of Matthew Stafford.
We could be done with Matt Ryan. It's time, right,
like all of these people walking away, Tom, you're the
greatest of all time. If you win another ring, I
don't think that that's gonna change the calculus. I don't

(01:34:53):
think anybody's gonna catch you first of all, But there's
nothing left for you to accomplish in the game of football.
We know you can still play at forty five years old.
We understand it, we've seen it. You coming back next
year would show that you have an unhealthy addiction to
playing football, like in a way that at some point

(01:35:14):
it almost becomes hard to watch. So that's that's my point,
is like to me, it's yeah, can you still do it?
And are you still doing it at a reasonably high level?
You are? I I just don't want to. And you know,
it's tough because I think that there's sometimes where we
sit there and say, oh, you know, we'll never forget

(01:35:35):
this aspect of somebody. You know, somebody stays a year
too long and it's tough to watch, and he say,
oh my god, well never and then and then five
years later, like nobody remembers Shack as a Cleveland Cavalier
or Shack as a Boston Celtic. We remember Shack as
a Los Angeles Laker. But I I do think there
is something to like retiring with grace and to your point,

(01:35:56):
like like I don't want to see him just bounce
around teams because he has nothing better to do it.
By the way, he doesn't have something better to do
make thirty seven million dollars a year to go podcast
for Fox. And so that's the part with me is
you know, I just Okay, you did it for twenty
years with New England and everyone said he couldn't. You
made it to forty when everyone said you couldn't. Then

(01:36:17):
Bill Belichick basically forced you out the door, and you
proved you could do it somewhere else. But you know,
I look at even the Tampa situation and it's like, dude,
you're not happy. The guys you came in with are
all gone a B. And I know you said it's
been an interesting week for a B, but you know
you brought a B with you, you brought Gronk with you.
They're gone. The coach that you came to play four

(01:36:38):
is gone. It's like, I, I just it's not even
like it's my my whole thing. You lost your family, okay, whatever.
I just don't want to see this like bounce from
team to team and who's gonna take me? And I
just want to keep playing. It's like that's the part
to me. It's just at some point you just like
you made it to forty five. Nobody said, everybody said
there's no way anyone can make it to forty. You

(01:37:00):
proved everybody wrong time and time and time again, and
you have the ultimate trump card. He left New England
and you won a super Bowl in your first year away.
I think it's time to go away now. I do
think it's a different conversation of whether he will, and
I do think if he stays, I don't think it's
gonna be in Tampa, San Francisco. I will say, I
do think makes a little bit of sense. I mean,

(01:37:22):
sure it does, right. I mean, that was the team
of his youth, that was the team that he loved.
He grew up a San Francisco fan, he grew up
at Joe Montana Nut and you know all of those things.
It checks off a lot of boxes. I just need
him to stop checking off the football active box, like
you can go make money. And I think a lot
of people are gonna be compelled and they're going and

(01:37:44):
you're going to be compelling, like we're gonna watch you.
We want to hear what you have to say, because
no one speaks with more authority from the especially and
look as quarterbacks centric as the league has become, that's
one the reasons why we care so much about Romo
and why he's been so successful, is we really want

(01:38:04):
to hear from the quarterbacks. Why Troy Aikman is making
big Tom bucks and has for a long long time.
But Tom Brady's in a different stratosphere than the guys
that I just mentioned, and they're great, but they ain't Tom.
Tom can go be something we've never seen in the booth.
It's like Michael Jordan's deciding to call NBA games, and
at this point in time, I want to see him

(01:38:27):
step to the next phase of his life. I actually
think he needs to realize that there is a next
phase that can also be good, that can also actually
provide him some degree of fulfillment, because it's almost like
he chose football overthings, over everything else because he fears
that nothing else can come close to matching that. That's

(01:38:47):
a shame, because look, he's in pretty good shape. He's
probably gonna live for a while. I don't want to
see him be miserable for the next four decades. The
decision that he made in the off season. I hate
what happened to his family, and it's maddening to me,
but it's also over, so at least don't make the
same mistake again and just football yourself to death. That
is an interesting point, is that, you know, is he

(01:39:08):
really addicted to football? And this is obviously psychoan analysis
and nobody knows except for him, and maybe he doesn't
even fully conscientiously realize it. But is he really addicted
to football? Or is he afraid of what that next
phase is? Um? Yeah, I just I'll say this. I
do think it is a more interesting conversation than it
was to me even you know, a month ago, about

(01:39:32):
the reality of him coming back, because I do I
do think he's obsessed with football. I do think, um,
you know, I do think that. I don't think that
he's comfortable thinking about that next phase. And I know
he already signed the contract and it's done and it's
this and it's that. But it's just a weird deal, man,
It's just a weird deal. And I will say, I
am curious to see. So I guess what I'm trying
to say is you don't think said Tom Brady is

(01:39:54):
gonna be in a San Francisco forty niners uniform? Next week?
Is that next year? Is that fair to say? I don't,
But save this piece of audio because the one thing
I will say, I'll say, no, I don't think that's
gonna happen. But if it does, it's not like I'm
gonna do anything but roll my eyes. I'm not gonna
it's not gonna be stunning because at this point, betting

(01:40:15):
against anything with Tom Brady, him winning a Super Bowl
or him continuing to play football until he's sixty, I
I just prefer to stay out of the betting on
what Tom Brady's future is gonna look like. Business. I
don't disagree, and I will say I I don't want
to see this thing. Just keep going and going like
like like like we said, you made it to forty five,

(01:40:35):
proved everybody wrong. You proved everybody wrong by going to
Tampa and winning the ring. Get out, go to the booth,
enjoy retirement, and you know, try to spend some more
time around your kids and all that good stuff. Fox
Sports Radio aeron towards Jason Martin. Coming up, we look
at the rest of the week fourteen slates, some interesting
games to discuss. Before we do that, let's get to
Stave to Sager. What's up to Sega? What's trendy? Well,

(01:40:57):
we had the Heisman Trophy ceremony in New York City
to night. The winner USC quarterback Caleb Williams, which means
four of the last six Heisman winners have been transferred quarterbacks.
Finishing second was TCU quarterback Max Duggan, by the way
four qbs where the Heisman finalists Williams, Duggan, the guy
who finished third, Ohio State c J. Stroud was there

(01:41:18):
and then finishing fourth Georgia's Stetson Bennett. Army beat Navy
in double overtime seventeen, even though Army only had a
hundred fifty three yards of offense this season. Any game
in college football one fifty three from the winning team,
second fewest in yard just for a winning team. How
could that second fewest? Are you? Well? There is Iowa,

(01:41:41):
of course. Stanford's new head coaches Troy Taylor from Sacramento State.
New York Giants running back se Kwon Barkley is questionable
for Sunday with the neck injury. Seattle running backs Ken
Walker and d J. Dallas each game time decisions. The
New York Mats will sign Japanese pitcher Codai Senga five
five years, seventy five million dollars with an opt out

(01:42:03):
after year three. So the Mets payroll is hovering around
three hundred fifty million dollars. With the taxes they're no
doubt gonna be paying, it could wind up over four
hundred million dollars. I believe you start paying taxes when
it's over about two twenty, so they genuinely don't care
at that owner. He's got the bucks. Morocco and France
won their World Cup quarterfinals. Morocco the first African team

(01:42:25):
to reach the World Cup semis so Morocco versus France
on Wednesday in the semifinals. In quitar England is out.
France beat him two to one. England star Harry Kane
missed a penalty kick in the eighty four minute. There's
college basketball on a FS one with a second to go,
b y U has the lead on number twenty one
Creighton eighty three to eighty Earlier. Number one Houston at

(01:42:48):
a fifteen point lead at home early second half and
still got beat by number eight Alabama. BAMA takes him
down sixty five. Number four per Du had to go
overtime to win it. Nebraska's sixty five sixty two in
the NBA late game, twelve seconds left at Portland Blazers
leading Minnesota one one sixteen, Damian Lillard thirty four points,

(01:43:08):
Golden State down Boston one oh seven. The Celtics record
was twenty one and five coming in, but Jayson Tatum
was six for twenty one shooting for his eighteen points. Meanwhile,
the Warriors, Clay Thompson had thirty four points. Steph Curry
scored thirty two. Well, gentlemen, we've got plenty more coming
in fifteen minutes, and that will include, guys, two things

(01:43:30):
that I have literally never heard of happening, and they
each happened just in recent days. One in college basketball,
one in high school football. Will give you the details
in a few minutes. Wow. By the way, Torres, congrats, congrats? Uh?
What is that? Eleven in a row double digit wins
for Yukons? Like one of the five or six most

(01:43:51):
impressive streaks in recent memory and college basketball? So this one,
this one deserves actual props. Well, I mean, Jim Moore
getting the worst program in college football to a bowl
game in year one deserves props too. But yes, you
kon of eleven and oh h eleven straight double figure
wins to start the season, including over those Alabama Crimson
Tide who just by the way to say, maybe this

(01:44:12):
is the tease, but the Alabama just beat their second
number one team this season. Of course they beat uh,
North Carolina and four overtimes this year. Yeah, boy, they
were a number one for not that long long. But
Obama did defeat Michigan State, right, and then the loss
to Yukon they did, yes, and and the win over
number one Houston today. So second next Saturday, it's Houston

(01:44:33):
at number three Virginia and it's Alabama against Gonzaga in Birmingham.
That's gonna be good. That's right, there's there's actually a
lot of good. Arizona, who had the big win tonight
to Sega, plays tennesse See next week two, which is
the top. Yeah, Arizona beat Indiana on Fox today. Next
Saturday's Indiana at Kansas. By the way, this creating team,
I was about toy they play again on Monday in Vegas.

(01:44:55):
I was thinking about shooting out to Vegas for the
day to go to that game. Uh uh. They've lost
two in a row. They're basically the North Carolina of
the Midwest. They they can't stop losing, and so I
don't think I'm gonna drive out to Vegas for this one.
The final Yes, thank you the good update to Sega
because I did not tell the audience what actually happened.
But yes, number one, there's no graphics in radio. I

(01:45:17):
thought that is true. This is an audio medium. So
number one, number twenty one creaton falls. Uh third fourth
loss in a row, something like that, and four six
and four overall, all right, thank you to segor uh
segre as. He said, we'll be back in a couple
of minutes with some very interesting information for you. Fox
Sports Radio Eritwards Jason Martin. Let's get to some of

(01:45:38):
these other Week four teen games, Jason, and I'll tell
you I said it earlier and I'll say it again. Um,
you know, obviously, look, a very interesting marquee game that
I'm genuinely excited to watch is the Los Angeles Chargers
hosting the Miami Dolphins on Sunday Night football. This game
was the narrative game. Well, I don't find the narrative

(01:46:01):
that interesting. So you had your thing about Baker Mayfield,
and let's like not try to turn something into something
that's nothing. I kind of feel like, I watched a
lot of sports talk all week and heard a lot
of sports talk all week where they tried to turn
like Justin Herbert versus TWA into a thing and obviously
I think anybody listening at this hour would know, but

(01:46:22):
you know, to what was selected ahead of Justin Herbert?
And all week long I heard, oh, you know, do
you think the Dolphins regret passing on to over? And like,
is this really a narrative? Like is this this is
the conversation? Because I think we all kind of agree
Justin Herbert's the better quarterback, and I think we all
agree that if the Dolphins had hindsight, they would have
taken Justin Herbert. I understand that the Chargers missed the

(01:46:43):
playoffs last year. I understand that they might miss it
again this year. I don't really get how this is
like a talking point that like there were producers in
TV studios that were like it, it it would be a
great talking point this week. You know, the Dolphins passed
on on Justin Herbert to get to uh yeah, But
does anybody think that there's another side to the argument?

(01:47:04):
And I am I crazy, Like is there are there
people out there arguing that it was the right decision
to take to it. Did I missed that part of
the conversation. Yeah, I think it comes down to this.
Before the season, one thing was being said about the
Chargers and one thing was being said about the Miami Dolphins.
And you walk into this game and it's been reversed.

(01:47:25):
You and I don't know that it's the fault of
the quarterbacks. But here's the thing. I was talking to
somebody who I've worked with for a long long time
in Nashville who now lives across the country, and he
and we were talking about Justin Herbert and Toua, and
what he said about Justin Herbert was pretty telling. He goes, man,
it's hard not to look at Justin Herbert and see
Philip Rivers two point oh. And it's not because of

(01:47:48):
skill set away. I mean, Rivers won a lot of games,
but Rivers have never won the big Game and never
had a lot of playoff success, and some of that
was blamed on head coaching. But I look at Justin
Herbert and I'm like, if you took Philip Rivers but
also didn't give him back like LaDainian Tomlinson or a
tight end like Antonio Gates, what would we think of

(01:48:09):
Philip Rivers? Then, like, justin Herbert, we understand he could
throw it a mile, he's got incredible skills, he's always
it seems like he's in structure with his throws. But
I don't really believe in that head coach. I feel
like they've underperformed. I think they've made bad decisions at
the end of games. I think Herbert hasn't been as
good this year as we thought he was going to be.

(01:48:31):
And then to on the other side has been the
opposite to what you're trying to get him out of
town for the last two years. They go and grab
Tyreek Kill, They draft Jalen Waddle, they give him guys,
and there's a reason why too was taken high in
the draft, even with injury concerns a few years ago,
and you're seeing it right now play out. But you
also have the benefit for two of an excellent young

(01:48:53):
head coach who might be Coach of the Year in
the NFL by the time we get there. He's certainly
going to be in the conversation. So I think that's
part of it. But that's why the narrative is interesting,
is just because we thought one thing about the Chargers
and one thing about the Dolphins, and we now feel
the exact opposite about both of those teams. And because
it's the NFL, it's gonna be the quarterback that we're
gonna talk about. Yeah, I don't necessarily disagree with that,

(01:49:16):
but I also think the context of you know, if
you gave Justin like like, and this is where I
think the argument kind of falls flat, is like, I
think there's anyone with a brain is like, yeah, well,
if you gave Justin Herbert the receivers that to a
has and Mike McDaniel instead of Brandon Staley, who I
call coach spreadsheet because I don't think he knows what

(01:49:37):
he's doing and he relies too much on that spreadsheet. Like,
you know, I think we're seeing a different Justin Herbert,
And I agree, like Justin Herbert hasn't evolved the way
that we thought, and he's not doing some of the
things that we expected, and it looks like they could
miss the playoffs for a second straight year. But you know,
and and by the way, maybe he is being protected
by everybody in the media, by all of us blaming
Brandon Staley for it. Well, we'll find out about that eventually,

(01:49:59):
because as I don't think Brandon's Daley is long for
the job there. So I get the argument that, you know,
we all kind of thought one thing about the Chargers,
and we all thought one thing about to us specifically
in Miami. But I don't think you can dismiss the
idea of the context surrounding their situations where if the
Charges missed the playoffs again this year, I don't think
many people are gonna be pointing fingers to Justin Herbert

(01:50:21):
and saying he's the reason why. At the same time,
I think that the Dolphins are obviously trending not only
towards a playoff birth, but you know, potentially being able
to do some damage there. And if they get there,
and if they do damage, I don't think anybody's gonna
be sitting there saying, well, it's because of Tuah as
as opposed to Mike McDaniel and the wide receivers. That
makes sense. Yeah, No, it absolutely does. Um. And I

(01:50:43):
think that if the one point that you made this
absolutely right is you're taking Herbert if you're the Dolphins, like,
there's no ifs, answer butts about that, and that's no
disrespect to to Uh, it's just to show what immense
talent Justin Herbert has. Eventually though, and very lud Rivers. Eventually,
you are gonna be judged by what you do in

(01:51:03):
the postseason or don't do, and how many opportunities, how
many cracks at the apple you've got when it comes
to Super Bowls and things like that. Right now, I
wouldn't even call him Philip Rivers. I'd say that right now,
Justin Herbert is Matthew Stafford in Detroit. They're better than
the Lions where a lot of those years. But what
did Matthew Stafford have. He had one tremendous wide receiver

(01:51:27):
while he was there. He had Calvin Johnson. One has
Justin Herbert had. They have two receivers that are paid well.
But he's got one outstanding receiver that's been with him
through his career in Keenan Allen. So you look at that,
and you look at the organizations coaches where they just
they went from Anthony Lynn and now it's Brandon Staley.
I don't know if Staley was getting another go next year,

(01:51:49):
especially if Sean Payton happened to be interested in that job.
I think you probably have to make that maneuver. But
that's what I look at because eventually you gotta start
winning or the quarterback is going to take some of
the blame. Herbert is still kind of skating because most
of the people that cover the league that tell the
public what to think constantly seeing the praises of Justin Herbert.

(01:52:13):
But this is a team that's five hundred that barely
beats bad teams. It's just a disappointing year. They spent
a ton of money on J. C. Jackson and Khalil Mack.
That defense is not good in any way analytically. They've
been absolutely dreadful from that perspective. So there's there's a
lot to really break down about the Chargers and then

(01:52:34):
the Dolphins. On the other side. You give two with
some weapons, and all of a sudden, you see what
he what he is capable of. And I honestly think
there's probably some other quarterbacks in the league and said, yeah,
you give me those weapons, I can do it too.
But that's just the way it is. Most quarterbacks when
they have weapons, succeed, and most of them Aaron Rodgers,
when they don't find themselves looking at you know, an

(01:52:55):
early exit or not even making the playoffs. This is
gonna be the case in Green Bay. Fox Sports Radio
airon towards Jason Martin here uh from the tirect dot
com studios. Coming up. We throw it over to Sager.
He told you two historic notes from the world of sports.
You don't want to miss that. Next Fox Sports Radio,
Welcome back everybody, Fox Sports Radio, Aaron Torres, Jason Martin,

(01:53:19):
come to live from the diirect dot com studios. One
man who's not a grinch, Steve de Seger. Join us
every Saturday around this time. What do you got for us?
A second? Well, two amazing stories. But first, since we
did kind of preview it last weekend, there was a
certain college basketball game on the schedule today where one
and nine Florida State was hosting oh and eight Louisville.

(01:53:42):
Florida State dominated seventy fifty three the final Louisville basketball
now oh and nine this season, I saw a crazy staff.
Louisville is not only oh and nine, they're ow and
nine against the spread. And here was the statu I'm
trying to find right now. There oh nine against the spread.
They haven't come within seven points of covering the spread.

(01:54:04):
So They're not only losing, they're not only losing by
a bigger margin than Vegas projects, they're losing by a
significantly bigger margin than Louisville project. Now, you're the basketball
guy in the building, correct me, for this is the
same University of Louisville that used to always be good, right, yeah,
for like years. The whole thing, well, what what's crazy

(01:54:26):
is I'll just be brief on this, because nobody really
cares about Louisville basketball at this year apparently, Well the
hole in nine for crying out loud. Well, the whole
thing was, they hired Kenny Payne, who was a former
player UM and he was John Calipari's right hand man
as an assistant coach, and he was supposed to be
the ACE recruiter. And when Kentucky had that had those

(01:54:47):
struggles over the last couple of years, everyone Oh, it's
because Kenny Payne left. They didn't sign anybody in the transferportal.
You know, Listen, I don't know nobody on a national
radio show cares about the college basketball transferportal, but we've
seen how it can change a program. It changed USC,
it changed LSU and football. Obviously, I'm talking about changed
TCU and football and they signed nobody. And so it's
just it's a weird deal where you signed a guy

(01:55:09):
specifically to recruit, he doesn't sign anybody, and we see
the disasters. So he was a double agent going from
Kentucky Louisville. That's what we can conclude. Louisville. You you
you did? You dive deep enough on a Louisville message board.
Uh that that has that has been brought up. I
know a Dodger fan that when there was a general
manager with the first name of Ned that, after years

(01:55:30):
of working with the Giants, became the Dodgers GM, he
four years called him Agent Ned because he was convinced
that he was just working for l A to secretly sabotage. Well,
you may have heard the name Bucky Brooks, who has
been in a weekend co host here at Fox. Former
defensive back at North Carolina. Are you aware he is
a high school football coach Granada Hills High School about

(01:55:52):
ten miles north of our l A studios. This is
the alma mater of one John Elway from the late
nineteen seventies. In fact, I think their play there high
school football games in John Elway stadium now coach Bucky Brooks.
This is the epitome of somebody with a system to
fit his players. He believed or not went twelve and

(01:56:12):
two this season without his team completing a pass all year.
What they went over seven on pass attempts for the season.
Wait a second, seven pass attempts for the season over
seven passing and they went twelve and two and made
the state championship game, which was tonight in northern California.

(01:56:34):
And the update from the l A Times is Granada
Hills High l A City Division one champion completed its
first pass of the season tonight but lost to San
Marian thirty two to eight. Well, that's what they shouldn't
have done. I mean, why would you change up if
you hadn't thrown a completed pass all season. You had
five more wins entering that contest than you did attempted

(01:56:56):
passes during the year. You complete your first one and
lose that. Look, you don't change something if it's work.
Maybe maybe being down big at half they really had
to go big, I'm sure. And then just a couple
of nights ago, there was Grinnell College in College Hoope.
Some of us have heard this school's name because they
run the kind of incredibly fast paced offense like Loyal

(01:57:17):
La Marramount used to run in Division one. This is
a team that a decade ago had a guy score
a hunter points in a game. So Grinnell College Division
three in its Thursday night game beat Emas Bible College
one to sixty seven and set the n c A
record in a forty minute game with a hundred eleven

(01:57:37):
shot attempts, which is amazing in and of itself, but
every shot attempt was a three the entire game. A
hundred eleven shots, not a single one of them was
inside the three point line, and they shot over fifty
for the second half in the game overall forty for

(01:57:58):
one eleven. Got the win and Grinnell College moved to
four and six on the season. Wow, Well, we mentioned
not much passing. The Army Navy game was today in Philadelphia.
Army went two of twelve, passing only about a hundred
fifty yards of total offense and won the game in

(01:58:18):
double overtime against Navy to seventeen. Navy for the day,
and can I repeat it was a double overtime game.
Navy was one for four through the air, fumbled at
the goal line in the second overtime and lost. Armies
only touchdown in regulation came on a blocked punt return.
There were nineteen punts combined in this game. With two

(01:58:40):
minutes left in the fourth quarter, Navy was ahead ten seven,
but takes the l. So Navy goes oh and four.
Non conference, they lost Air Force. Army lost Air Force.
This year, Navy lost its season opener to Delaware. Now
in the American Conference, Navy went four and four, but
four and eight overall, Army finishes six and six. You know,

(01:59:01):
Army lost close games this season against Troy, which is
ranked number twenty four in the country, and to UT
San Antonio, which is ranked number twenty five. Bowl games
start next weekend and in Orlando next Friday. It's UT
San Antonio against Troy. And speaking of Troy, Troy Taylor
is the name of the new head coach for Stanford
football from Sacramento State. He is a former quarterback and

(01:59:24):
assistant coach at rival Cal. I'm not suggesting anything about
double agents, by the way here, but last night his
Sacramento State team, which was twelve and oh, lost its
FCS quarterfinal to Incarnate word sixty six to sixty three
College football FCS playoff at sixty six sixty three last night.
I will say this, I know very little about Troy

(01:59:46):
Taylor than what you just told me to see the sager.
I know he would he will be better than Jason Garrett. Yeah.
I was about say man, Thank gosh, it didn't turn
out to be Jason Garrett. Man. Good news is we
get to keep him on TV now where he really
he's really thrive. Yeah, we gotta go. We got Fox
Sports Radio, Eric Torres, Jason Martin coming up. We're not
talking Jason Garrett, we'll talk some other stuff. Welcome in everybody,

(02:00:09):
our four Fox Sports Radio editors, Jason mart We are
broadcasting live from the tirect dot com studios. TIRAQ will
help you get there and on match selection fest, free shipping,
free road hazard protection, and over ten thousand recommended installers
tirec dot com the way tire buying should be. Jason,

(02:00:29):
We've hit on a lot tonight. Uh, you know, ranging
from the Caleb Williams coach Prime if you missed it,
we had on Chad Brown, former Colorado Buffalo to talk
about them. You know, one thing we really haven't hit
on and it is a pretty heavy topic, but it
is probably the single biggest story in sports this week,

(02:00:49):
and you know, we don't have to spend a ton
of time on it. But Britty Grinder, of course, was
brought home from Russia. I think everybody at this point
we know the story. But uh, well, in the airport,
uh arriving back in February with a cartridge with some
you know, hash residue and all that on there, she
gets arrested, she's found guilty, she gets sent to a

(02:01:11):
Russian penal colony, and over the last probably you know,
eight nine months, there's been a pseudo ground swell to
get her back. It really kind of kind of got
ramped up in the summer a lot of people. It
was weird because nobody really said much for a while,
and then it got everyone started kind of speaking out.
At the same time. A lot of w NBA players,

(02:01:31):
Lebron James on the shop said if if it was me,
I would be back by now. Well, she comes back,
and obviously that's great news. Of course, the disappointing news
that I think everybody is kind of aware of. And again,
this is a sports show, we don't have to spend
a ton of time on it. But this is the
biggest story in sports. She's coming home. But obviously there
was another American, Paul Whalen, a former marine that was
left behind. Uh. And of course the US did have

(02:01:54):
to give up a a noted arms dealer, Victor Boot
uh to get Brittany Grinder back. So uh, you know, well,
well we're not we don't have to go too deep
on this, Jason, but but figured you know, it is
a big story. I'm sure everybody on the network has
talked about in some way, shape or form, and feel
like we should probably do seem Look, I'm happy Brittany
Grinder is home. She paid I know it was callous,

(02:02:16):
but I remember being with Arnie when this story first happened,
and I said, sometimes you end up paying a dumb tax.
You do something and you do it at the wrong
place at the wrong time, and it costs you and
it cost her for a long long time. And I'm
not trying to to make light of this situation. I'm
glad she is home. The trade that was made to

(02:02:37):
bring her home, that's where I've got a problem. And
we could you could talk about Paul Willen, you could
talk about a lot of other countries where we have
people that are imprisoned that shouldn't be, and that could
be a that's a conversation for a different day perhaps,
But I'm gonna read this directly from a former d

(02:03:00):
o J official in the Biden administration to the Washington
Post quote, if she were my relative, I would want
to do the swap. But trading a notorious international arms
dealer for a basketball player is madness. And further, a
former d e A agent then talked about, look, when

(02:03:22):
you've got an American in your back pocket, that's a
good thing if you're a foreign power, because you never
know when you're gonna need him to trade the I mean,
the Nicolas Cage film Lord of War was about the
guy that was let out, Victor Bout, who was the
merchant of Death, and you've seen that name everywhere. It is.

(02:03:43):
It seems like a lot was given up to get
Britney Grinder home. I'm glad that she's out. You're not
supposed to pay the dumb tax forever. And Paul Wheland
has been, you know, in his situation for over four years,
and we've seen all this stuff from his family and
we've seen the outpouring. I think you have to separate
feeling good about Brittney Griner's current status and what has

(02:04:06):
happened here over the last eight hours. I think I
think you've got to separate that from the overarching thing,
which is I'm glad she is free, but I don't
know that that deal should have been done. If that
makes any sense. It does, and it's tough because you know,

(02:04:26):
I'm I feel from my perspective. So so here's my
kind of overarching thing is. You know, I I can't
speak for everybody, but I was pretty outspoken in the
summer that something had to be done, that this should
be a bigger deal, that if it was a prominent
male athlete, something would have been done and we would
have figured out a way. Okay, And even back then

(02:04:48):
there was talk and I remember getting into it, not
getting into it in a negative connotation, but just discussing
this with Dan Buyer, and Dan Buyer kind of brought
up the you know, to use bad sports terminology. Uh,
you know, there's going to have to be a political
you know trade essentially. UH. And Victor boot even that
at that time, uh, it was known that this was

(02:05:09):
probably the guy that you're gonna have to give up
to get Britney Grinder back. And so everybody knew at
the time that was really following the story. And I
think there were a lot of people that parachuted in
on Monday or Tuesday or whenever this story came out.
I think it was actually Wednesday, um that parachuted in
and and you know, how can we do this and
blah blah blah blah and this and that. It's hard
for me to be critical because I was critical on

(02:05:31):
these air waves of the administration not doing more six
months ago, and this was always the stakes, and I think,
to be blunt, the more you learn about Victor boot,
the more you know. Again he's called the Merchant of Death,
as you said, Jason, for people who don't know what
that means. Basically, he is the guy that has armed
many civil wars overseas. He is the guy that has

(02:05:52):
armed many drug cartels, and he is a very He
has a very uh elaborate history of being anti American
and I actually watched the story of how he was
caught and essentially the people that were undercover cops sold
him on. You know, we hate America just as much
as you do. And so it's tough for me because

(02:06:13):
I can't sit here and be a hypocrite and say
that three or four months ago, in August and September,
whenever this stuff really ramped up, I said, you gotta
figure out a way, and these were probably the stakes.
But I also understand people that that for the first
time really did some digging on this guy, uh, and
the potential threat that he poses. And so I don't
really think I just added anything to the conversation. But

(02:06:36):
these were always going to be the stakes to get
Britney Grinder home. And I'm with you. I'm happy she's home.
At somebody who was critical for months that something had
to be done, Uh, it did get done. But obviously
there are much there are certainly other concerns based off
of who they released. And then oh, by the way,
obviously it goes without saying, Uh, it's disappointing that that

(02:06:58):
that there were some America and left behind. Yeah, and
there's again there's I don't know the number, but there are.
They're her countries, not just that one. Certainly where there
are Americans that are that shouldn't be detained, that are
and their families are probably asking questions, and certainly Paul
Wheeland's family was asking questions just like, well, why does

(02:07:20):
Britney Grinder get the special treatment and all these other things,
And then interestingly enough, six months ago is well, she's
not getting special treatment because she's not a male athlete.
So you have you've got both sides of the equation. Again,
I think the only real response that I've had is, Man,
I'm happy for her, I'm happy for her family. I'm

(02:07:41):
glad she's not behind bars. It was a dumb situation,
one that was self inflicted, but a dumb situation, and
I'm glad that it has found a conclusion. But boy,
I I feel like that is a high price that
was paid, and that's a bad price to pay because
if I'm another bad act or somewhere else in the world,
I say, Wow, So Brittney Grinder netted the merchant of death.

(02:08:06):
So next time there's a potential value target and I
can find a way to keep that person and then
we can maybe negotiate that. That then kind of kills
the leverage because the history is not on the side
of the United States. If that makes sense, No, it
absolutely does, it absolutely does, And and that's the scary part.
So you know, we'll continue. I don't really know if

(02:08:28):
there's anything else to add to the Britney Grider conversation,
So maybe we we get out of here a little.
Like I said, it's good, good that she is home
in a vacuum. Unfortunately it's not quite as simple as that,
and so you kind of like you're sort of curled
up in a ball in the corner, like, man, I'm
happy she's home, but at the same time, I don't
know if she should be based on what was done

(02:08:51):
to get her home. Absolutely, and it is worth noting,
like you know, she did break up, she did break
the law, she did commit a crime, and as you said,
I don't think that the puny Schmitt warranted it. But obviously,
like you said, when you look at what was had,
what was given up to get her back home, uh,
you know, it's a little scary to think about. And
and like you said, I think that's the important note,
right likely you know we talked, we talked kind of

(02:09:13):
tongue in cheek earlier in the show about context mattering
on a lot of sports topics. I think context matters here.
We're happy that she's back. We understand that there are
mixed emotions on what it took to get her back,
and I completely get it. Fox Sports Radio Eron Torres,
Jason Martin here on a Saturday night. This is the
Fox Sports Radio Tailgate presented by the Big Green Egg.
Nothing beats the flavor of live fire cooking on a

(02:09:35):
Big Green Egg. It's the most versatile grill you'll ever own,
backed by a lifetime warranty roll with the best shop
online for free delivery, Big green egg dot Com, Lifetime warranty,
free home delivery, Big green egg dot Com. Coming up,
we'll head out to Vegas. Bernie Fraddo of The Bernie
Frado Show will join us next. He's got all sorts
of good stuff on the NFL Week four teen that

(02:09:57):
is ahead of US college football and more. Fox Sports already,
Welcome back everybody, Fox Sports Radio, Aaron Torres. Arnie Spanier out.
I see Arnie Spanier sending his holiday gifts. That's what
made me think of it. Producer Bo just retweeted Arnie
Spaniards gifts and tripped me up. I'm not hosting with

(02:10:17):
Arnie Spanier tonight, hosting with Jason Martin. Bobo with the
Christmas Music I love every second of it. Boh, yeah,
you ruined everything there. Man. He's already sending his his
yearly uh gift baskets that I don't get anymore because
I don't work with him. So yeah, I just want
to make sure that he remembers me this year, because
he forgot me last year or the year before one

(02:10:38):
of those two. He's weird about who he actually sends
it to. I better get something, Artie, No, you better
send me something. You don't work Sundays anymore, don't matter.
I did the whole year up until about a month ago.
The best part two is that he sends gifts for
people that do not work here anymore, or people that
work like on the Herd, so we have to like
coordinate how to get them their gift because you know

(02:10:59):
they're in Center City or whatever. I'm sure Ernie probably
thinks that's gonna sway the decision makers to get him
on the Herd as a fill in host. And you
know he's listening right now too, because Bernie has nothing
better to do. Well, there's probably eight feet of snow
outside of Vermont, and we know he makes his wife shovel,
so anyway, Fox Sports Radio Erit Torres, Jason Martin, Arnie
will be in tomorrow with Chris Plank, but coming up

(02:11:19):
after us it's Bernie Fritto. And before we get to Bernie,
we gotta before we get to Bernie show, I should
say we should welcome in. Now we do every week
around this time Bernie Fratto, Bernie Frido Show. You can
hear at the top of the hour, Bernie. What's going on? Man?
How you doing? Guys? With all the news and there's
a ton of news, it's almost a afterthought. Now we
have got Week fourteen in the NFL, and it's a

(02:11:41):
crazy Week four team. We've got a five win team
favored over a ten win team. You've got the Detroit
Lions have a better record than the Green Bay Packers
and the l A Rams. You've now got Baker Mayfield
playing quarterback for the defending world champs. And you've got
two in the m v P conversation. Other than that,
how was your day? It's been a wild week or

(02:12:02):
while the year really in the NFL. Um let me
actually let's start there, Burn because you know Jason and
I were talking about this earlier. Is you know the
fact that you know the Eagles obviously have the best record,
and we get it. It's been an incredible season, but
I do still think there's a lot of people that
just don't buy that team. Um, just in general, you know,

(02:12:23):
I don't know if people are still made I'm sure
they are making futures bets. I mean, are the Eagles
catching a lot of cash in Vegas or are are
Are people still doubters of that team? Oh? I think
people respect the Eagles tremendously. There's not a lot of
money coming in now in terms of futures, but you
can be sure the Eagles will you know, will be
a team, uh that is most likely going to have

(02:12:46):
at least one home playoff game, maybe two home playoff games,
And I think the road to the super Bowl will
go through Philadelphia, and I think people trust them more
than they trust Dak Prescott or or Mike McCarthy, even
though they've had an outstanding year. You don't know what
you're gonna get with Brock Purdy now with the forty Niners.
I do believe that Tampa Bay and Tom Brady will

(02:13:07):
be looming there, but that doesn't mean they can go
into Philadelphia and win a game. So that's my long
winded way of saying, I actually think the US are
getting a lot of respect. Hey, so what do you
think about the Lions. The Lions are point of Vikings.
The Vikings are, you know, a two lost team. But
I think a lot of people, me included, I think
the Lions might actually be legit and playing better football
right now. The Minnesota Well, what's interesting is, yeah, that's

(02:13:31):
the game where you've got a five win team. Uh,
the Lions favorite over the Vikings, who are a ten
win team. It's the most bet game in Las Vegas,
and most money is on the Lions. They're now minus two.
Here's the deal. The Vikings simply do not profile is
a ten and two team. When you unpack the numbers, Uh,

(02:13:52):
they're being outyarded about seventy yards per game. Their point
differential is only plus ten in three key defensive categories.
They were last in two of the three and thirty
feet and the other one. So that projects to about
a six and six record. So I think you've got
to be very careful with this game tomorrow. Having said that,
the only game my research that I can find something similar.

(02:14:15):
Back in two thousand and four, the Falcons were nine
and two. Michael Vick was the quarterback of that team.
They were two point underdogs at Tampa Bay against the Bucks,
who were four and seven. The Bucks ended up winning
that game twenty seven and nothing. So the thing is
is that even though I'm not involved in that Vikings
Lions game, it wouldn't surprise me if the Lions one.

(02:14:36):
They've got their best offensive line in thirty years. Jerikoff
has proven what I always believed he could do. Keep
him upright, he throws a real nice ball. You've got
two good running backs, three good receivers, and Jamison Williams.
I think it's gonna make his debut. Now. We know
the Lions defense couldn't stop a nosebleed, but neither can
the Vikings. So one of the things you might look
on on that game is the over a fifty one

(02:14:56):
and a half because in ford Field this year, the
average amount of points and the aggregate per game has
been sixty one. But it is a game we're all watching,
and it's game heavily bet on burn. We'll get back
to the NFL in a second, but but really quickly.
Um college football playoff. Obviously, when we last spoke with you.
We thought we knew who the four might be. Now
we know it's official. What has the early early action

(02:15:18):
bet on the college football player? We ended up getting
all four in the red order as well. So the
action has come in. It's trickling and it's not been
heavy to the point, but heavy money come in and
on Georgia about four percent of the tickets are on
Georgia percent to the over, and then Michigan about scent
of the tickets around Michigan seventy one percent on the under.

(02:15:40):
I think that will pick up dramatically as you get
to game week. Uh. And I think you're actually I
think both dogs are live to hang around, and I
think one there will be at least one upset, but
we're still a ways away from really you know, it's
gonna be a matter of who can impose their will
because you've got four pretty darned good teams there. But
to your point, that's where the action has been thus far,

(02:16:03):
even though the handle hasn't been huge yet, Bernie, what
do you look at? Uh, we haven't talked about this
topic at all tonight, but I'm in Nashville. John Robinson
was let go, uh five days ago two days after
the Eagles throttled the Tennessee Titans. I know you watched
the Titans that have been fairly high on them the
last few years, because we've had conversations about it. How

(02:16:24):
surprised were you at that decision mid season to let
go of a general manager that had a winning record
and and a division that now goes through that football team. Uh,
it's not a market that I have any molls. I
would say this the operative word there is mid season.

(02:16:44):
When I saw the story, the thing that grabbed me
was the timing, Jason, why now, why not before the season?
Why not after this season? My you know, my pea
brain leads me to believe that there are some extenuating
circumstances there of what I don't know. But Tennessee was
the number one seed last year. They're not going to
be the number one seed this year. But but you know,

(02:17:05):
they get a lot of respect as well, and Mike
Varabele his you know, put together a unit that has
a legitimate identity, and uh, you know, I don't know
that anybody is excited to play them in the pollseason.
So I'm guessing that perhaps later more details will come out,
But I'm more baffled by the timing than anything else.
It seemed odd to me, Jason, that's from the outside

(02:17:26):
looking in. Burn I'm gonna go back to college football
for sex. Sorry for tossing jumping all around with you, Um,
but I am curious what It's really a two part question. Um,
you know, has there been early action on some of
the other Bowl games? But more importantly, how do how
do the people that create these lines? How? Maybe even

(02:17:47):
the better question is how does Vegas mitigate risk in
some of these games where I don't think as of
right now, we know if Bryce Young is gonna play
in the Sugar Bowl. We know if a couple other
marquee guys have not officially opted out yet that I
know of. Um, how does Vegas handle situations where we
think a couple of guys might opt out, but we're

(02:18:08):
not sure, and some guys are gonna play and some
guys aren't. How does that process work? Well? Not too
dissimilar from the regular season, Bowl games are an entirely
different animal for one simple reason. It all comes down
to motivation and when you get old kids. Typically, when
you get two teams in a bowl game, one is

(02:18:30):
happier to be there than the other one is in
terms of in terms of the squads. That's why you
see these upsets over the years, and why you've seen
teams you know, uh powerful check that group of five
teams beat power five teams, etcetera. What you're describing only
happens in very few games. And even a quarterback in college,

(02:18:50):
he's only gonna move the line of point or two
in these games are basically on neutral fields and exhibitions,
and the limits are a little bit less in bowl games,
so it's become one big exhibition. Vegas doesn't get hurt
too much on bull games. But you bring up a
good question because does the you know, when you have
a quarterback like a Bryce Young who might not play,
uh in some of the you know Jackson Smith and

(02:19:12):
jib but said he's not gonna play, does that effect
the line? It can, but it's not as dramatic as
it would be during the regular season or certainly in
the NFL, because these are really still treated basically his exhibitions.
Bernie thoughts on Dion and how interesting Colorado is gonna be,
both from just from your perspective, from a fan perspective,

(02:19:33):
from a media perspective, but also from a Vegas gamblike perspective, Well,
it remains to be seeing how he assembles the roster. Uh.
You know, Pete Rose said it best. Uh, winning college
football games is like, you know, riding a stagecoach without
the horses. He ain't going forward. He's going to get
the horses tonight. He just locked up the number eight
running back in the country, kid named Donovan Edwards. So

(02:19:54):
the bottom line is he's gonna get I think at
least ten of the Jackson State players are gonna come
with him. He's gonna it up the transfer portal. I
got the biggest kick of that. Well, it wasn't a
press conference. He was like an introductory conference. I kind
of liked it in a perverse way. I think Colorado
Jason is going to be relevant fairly quickly. Now. They

(02:20:14):
open up at TCU next year, so I don't know
how they're gonna do week one, but he's gonna get horses.
His son Shudor can play. He was recruited by USC,
he was recruited by Alabama. Dion is going to get
guys at that school normally wouldn't have gotten and I
think maybe not as quickly as Lincoln Riley did at
USC but I think within two to three years Colorado

(02:20:36):
would be near the top of the pack. Twelve partie.
Last one for me. You played college sports. Did you
ever coach come into your to your meeting and say,
we're bringing our own luggage and it's Louis. Did you
ever have a coach tell you that, Bernie, Dude, I
I love this well. My coach, Bob Palmer. I retired
my sophomore year, So that's not fun. I I these
things can happen. And what Dion did was he did

(02:20:58):
these guys a favor because anybody out there listening that
has been on a college raft, you know you have
your meeting with the coach at the end of the year,
no matter what sport you're in, and if if you
don't fit in, their plans are gonna look you right
in the sun. You do whatever you want, but you're
never gonna see the field again. Okay, well maybe I'll
transfer to Carson nowon when you call the coach for me,
absolutely right, Thank god that didn't happen to me. My
point of the matter is it's the only way to

(02:21:20):
deal with these things. It's not fun. It's not pleasant,
but he basically did the room a favor. And you know,
people need to know where they stand. Most folks in life,
they can deal with bad news. They will certainly deal
with good news, but they don't want to deal with uncertainty.
And I think Dion I can't. I don't know if
you guys saw the movie Trading Places. Did you ever
see that movie with Eddie Murphys. Oh my god, that

(02:21:40):
one scene towards the univeral they having the party at
the house and Eddie Murphy has had somebody's putting on
pool segrets on the floor. You get the f out.
I kept thinking of that scene with Dion Sanders, and
that's basically what he's saying. Guys, the more they hit
the portal, the more room we have for real players here.
You all were one on eleven. You stunk it up. Goodbye.
See it would want to be a It's brutal, But

(02:22:02):
you know what he said a tone in day one,
and I think he's got everybody's attention. I was asked
one quick when I was gonna say, what do you
think it was less surprising Caleb Williams winning the Heisman
or Aaron Judge staying a Yankee. Oh, I gotta tell
you guys, for about three hours on Tuesday there Aaron
Judge was a giant pending the physical. They offered him

(02:22:24):
three hundred and sixty billion dollars. He was going back
home to Northern California. Aaron Boone and Brian Cashman said
we can't let this happen, and so they matched the
offer and they said we're gonna make you a captain.
They couldn't go back and sell that to the fan base.
Although I've talked about moles in New York and not everybody.
You're not gonna see this in print a lot. It's
impossible not to like Aaron Judge. It's impossible not to

(02:22:45):
like Aaron Judge. But towards the end of that contract,
the Yankees are gonna take it up to took us.
He's gonna be thirty nine years old. He had two
eleven In the playoffs, they've already piste away three hundred
million on on Gian Carlos Stanton got nothing. They're not
getting them money back on Gared Coole. So not everybody
is enthralled, and if they don't win, there'll be a
lot of teeth gnashing so I'm gonna be honest with you, Jason.

(02:23:08):
I was a little surprised, but at the end of
the day, now in retrospect, when you look back and
re envisioned his history, you realize the Yankees were probably
never gonna let that happen. But for about three hours
there he was a giant penning of physical im I'm
telling the truth. Very interesting stuff. Bernie Fratto. You can
hear him at the top of the hour of the
Bernie Fratto Show. Also make sure to follow him on

(02:23:28):
Twitter at Bernie Fratto. Bernie, we appreciate the time. Uh,
thank you. I was gonna try to make a joke
about luggage and Louis on the way out, but nothing
immediately came to me. We appreciate you, my man, and
we'll be listening to the top of the hour. Thanks, guys,
appreciate it. Alright, Bo, your work here has done. Okay,
we appreciate your support to thank you. Okay, Bye, that's
Bernie Fritto. That's Bobo for the final time. Let's toss

(02:23:51):
it over the news desk, Steve to say with what's training? Hello, gentlemen,
did you see the NFL dot com story that the
Saints were fine for faking an injury camp or they
will appeal, but the fine for the franchise is three
dollars because there was that memo that the league sent
old teams a week ago about competitive fairness. So two

(02:24:11):
coaches the player also find uh to. Dallas players were
fined about thirteen thousand dollars each for their celebrations in
the Salvation Army Kettle, Ezekiel Elliott and Dak Prescott. Bengals
wide receiver Jamaar Chase find over sixteen thousand dollars for
taunting and safety. Jesse Bates will appear appeal his fifty
thousand dollars fine for faking and entry. It's gonna be

(02:24:33):
the Ravens at Pittsburgh tomorrow. Baltimore activated running back JK.
Robbins Dobbins rather it's a Chris Boswell activated the Steelers
kicker and uh the running back situation with Seattle. Game
time decisions for both Ken Walker and d J Dallas
Giants running back Sae Kwon Barkley questionable for Sunday with
the neck injury. The Army Navy game was in Philly

(02:24:55):
and double overtime. Army won at twenty to seventeen Navy
with a fumble at the goal one in the second
ot Bowl game start next weekend. Stanford's new head coach,
Troy Taylor from Sacramento State. USC quarterback Caleb Williams won
the Heisman tonight. Finishing second was TCU quarterback Max Duggan.
And At the World Cup quarterfinals, amazingly, Morocco is still alive,

(02:25:16):
eliminated Portugal one nothing. Morocco is the first African team
to reach the World Cup semis now it'll be Morocco
Wednesday against France, which eliminated rival England two to one
as England star Harry Kane missed a penalty kick in
the eighty fourth minute. He had made one in the
fifty fourth minute. England outshot him sixteen to eight but
is out of the tournament. The New York Mets will

(02:25:38):
sign Japanese pitcher Code Sanga five years, seventy five million dollars,
with an opt out after year three. Toronto will sign
outfielder Kevin Kermeyer. In the NBA, Golden State beat Boston
one one oh seven, Clay Thompson thirty four points, Steph
Curry with thirty two Clippers sent Washington to a sixth
straight loss one four one oh seven. Paul George scored

(02:25:58):
thirty six points. The Brooklyn Nets had eight players out tonight,
including Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, and Brooklyn still wanted
Indiana one thirty three Cam Thomas with thirty three points.
Victories for Cleveland and San Antonio Chicago one forty four
to one fifteen over Dallas, which did not play Luca
don Sits due to a strain quad. Denver got a

(02:26:20):
triple double from Nicola Yokich and edged Utah one one
ten the late game at Portland to the Blazers over
Minnesota eighteen Damian Lillard thirty six points. College basketball up
state Number eight Alabama came from behind to win at
number one Houston Perdue one in overtime at Nebraska in Vegas,
b y U over Craton, Arizona beat Indiana, and in Atlanta,

(02:26:43):
Memphis was a winner against number eleven Auburn, and congratulations
in college hoops to uh a freshman who scored the
first points of his young career at Northwestern State in Louisiana.
Hansel and Manuel with a layup, got a huge ovation.
This is a player with one arm on the court.
Six ft six guard had a dunk in the game,

(02:27:05):
a win over Louisiana. Monroe finished at age nineteen, with
five points. Tonight free throws he was one of five,
but in eight minutes. He had two rebounds in this
game as well. Apparently he had played in four previous
games and not scored over two shooting a p says.
Emmanuel was born in the Dominican Republic. Was six years
old when a pile of cinder blocks fell on him

(02:27:25):
and the damage was so severe doctors had to amputate
his arm. Emmanuel later moved to Florida, became a scorer
in high school, scored for Northwestern State in Louisiana today.
Congratulations back to you. He is a cool story and
you can find video of him online. I actually was
watching one of the high school all star games where
they basically said, like if he had two arms, like

(02:27:48):
not to be crasped, but like he would be one
of the top freshmen now in college basketball. So happy
to see him continue his journey. Thank you to Seger,
Fox Sports Radio and towards Jay Smart. Jason really quick
by the way to say, you just got a couple
updates from the World Cup. Have have you Have you
been digging the World Cup watching it? Have you been
able to watch much? I've watched some. I wouldn't say

(02:28:09):
that I've watched a ton. Um. I certainly watched what
the US did, and I've watched a few of the games.
I saw the Southern Brazil upset. I saw pieces of
Portugal game. It's kind of just it's not like I'm
sitting down and I have a schedule in front of me,
but I've caught some of it really quick. Arnie and
I talked about this last week. Are you a believer?

(02:28:30):
You know? There there? You know when the US lost
the last Saturday to the Netherlands. Uh. There's two kind
of camps like you know, one is, oh, it's you know,
the US is one of the youngest teams in the
World Cup. Everything's really building towards when we're excuse me,
one of the host country. Uh. And then there's other
people like me. I've just I've been sold for you know,

(02:28:52):
since I've as long as I've conscientiously followed sports, that
the the US soccer boom, uh is is it's been
five years away my entire life, right, Like US host
the World Cup in ninety four. Oh you know what,
you know, all the kids that grew up watching the
World Cup. But give give us ten years, we're on
our way. Then it was the MLS, Then it was this,

(02:29:13):
then it was Freddy Ad, then it was that do
you believe you know, like like, do you believe the
US can eventually get there? Is this just not our sport?
Because I think there is this notion of like, well,
we've got all the athletes blah blah blah, this and that.
It's like we've had all the athletes forever um and
the analogy that I used with Arnie last week and
he didn't like it. But to me, it's almost like
SEC football. It's like, you know, we could sit here

(02:29:36):
and say that, oh, it's just it's gonna take more time,
it's gonna this, it's gonna that. But to me, I
still sit there and say, like, the reason that Brazil
or Italy or whatever are these powers is because it
means so much of the country they will not accept mediocrity.
They'll fire the coach, they'll do this, they'll do that,

(02:29:56):
they'll put in and in the US it's just we lose.
We move on to our favorite NFL team. Our favorite
NBA team, our favorite college team, or whatever. Where are
you at on the US World Cup in the you
know what's next? I mean, I just I'm skeptical. I've
always been skeptical. I'm on the side that, look, football
is king, and then we're watching basketball, and we're even

(02:30:16):
watching golf before we're watching soccer. I've never bought the oh,
soccer is just exploding in the country. Like no, it's
not like I don't have conversations with any I've worked
in sports now for over a decade. I've had less
than half a dozen conversations about soccer over a decade.
I know for a fact, Aron, whenever we start talking
about soccer in grand form on our program, people are

(02:30:40):
tuning out. It just are I mean, it's just the
way that it is the same thing, the same reason
we don't talk a whole lot of NHL on this show,
Like it's it's the exact same reason. So in we'll
tune in again and we'll watch what happens, and I
assume we're just gonna get beat early again, like I know,
was second youngest team, and you get out of the phase,

(02:31:01):
like right, yeah, you won in the first round and
you you only won one of those games, you had
two ties. All of this like, I don't want to
like pooh poo all over it, But at the same time,
it's just kind of like this is gonna continue to
happen in even when these guys are in their problem.
I hope it's gonna be different. You have to sell
hope if you're in the soccer world or if you

(02:31:22):
care about it, you have to sell hope that people
are gonna completely tune it out. But let's just be real.
We're gonna have more success on Torres and Martin breaking
down Ted Lasso episodes than we are World Cup games.
It's flat out that simple. So yeah, I know I
sound like a curmudge at this point, but I just
don't buy into soccer being more than it is. And

(02:31:43):
I tire of the same narrative of I just don't
get it and it's gonna explode, Like dude, I'm forty four,
or yeah, I'm forty four. I forgot for a second.
I'm forty four years old. I was here when the
World Cup is here in ninety four. I watched all this.
I play soccer growing up. Soccer is what it is.
There's some MLS teams that draw well. The one here

(02:32:06):
in Nashville does well, the one in Atlanta does well,
the one in Seattle does well. People go to see it.
I don't know the record of any of those teams. Now,
where do I care? Nor can I name three players
in the MLS right now. And I'm not saying that
to expose my own naivete I'm saying that so that
the rest of the people listening to us right now
I can raise their hands and say, preach brother. I'm

(02:32:27):
exactly the same. But it took the words right out
of my mouth. Um, I am with you, I am
with you. On that Fox Sports Radio eritors Jason Martin,
one segment left. We will come back make our week
fourteen NFL picks, and we will not be talking soccer.
Fox Sports Radio. Welcome back, everybody, Fox Sports Radio. It's

(02:32:49):
closing time here for Martin and Taurres. We are still
up dot com. Last call for Tours and Martin. But
following us on stage, Bernie Fratto of the Bernie Fretto Show.
Can hear him twelve minutes? Like Bernie Fretto probably has
some kind of uh hat that would be adequate to

(02:33:11):
step on stage and fill the role. Don't you like
a bowler, some kind of jazz hat. I could see
Bernie stepping up there with some kind of a saxophone
or something to that extent. I could see myself sitting
in a bar with Bernie Fretto listening to a jam
like this over cold cold whiskey or something like that.
But Bernie Fratto is next. He follows us at the

(02:33:34):
top of the hour the Bernie Fratto Show. Of course,
you just heard Bernie with us minutes ago, and he
will be back, uh in about ten minutes from now. Jason,
you know, we got ourselves. It feels like there's been
quite a few weekends this year where yeah, the slates
kinda hit or miss in the NFL. I feel like
we've got some good games this weekend. Let's get into it.

(02:33:54):
Let's break it down, uh, and let's talk about some
of these big games on Sunday. Obviously, Week fourteen is here.
Let's start early game. Jets Buffalo. Obviously the Jets have
made the move to Mike White. Buffalo of course is
rolling right now. They have won three straight, but earlier

(02:34:15):
in the year they did lose to these New York
Football Jets in New York. Is there any chance that
the Jets go to for two against the Bills. Sure,
there's a chance. They've got a great defense that is
built to do the things that make Josh Allen make
the kind of mistakes that lead them to two wins,
uh and lead them to losses. In the case of Buffalo,

(02:34:36):
I'm not gonna pick the Jets to win, but I
can tell you I think that I think everybody should
prepare for that game to be close. I know it's
Mike White, but honestly, I like that more than I
like Zach Wilson. I love that defense. I like that coach.
I like that intensity, and Buffalo has shown some cracks.
If they're not able to run the football, if they

(02:34:57):
can get a turnover two on Josh Allen, that thing
becomes real interesting, real quick. Let's keep it going with
the Sunday Slate. Bernie actually just mentioned this one a
minute ago. Minnesota at Detroit. Detroit a slight favorite in
this one. Detroit, of course, coming off of the win
last week against Jacksonville, and they've quietly won three of

(02:35:19):
four and five and seven. As a team. Does Detroit
get back to back wins against the Minnesota Vikings. Jason,
I mean, I asked a question that set Bernie up
to say that, and I didn't actually know at that
point that Detroit was favored. And like, I really like
the way the Lions are playing. I like the way

(02:35:41):
Jared Goff is playing. I like the way that offense
is playing. The defense has gotten a little bit better.
But I don't like the hype train moving towards the Lions.
I'm not ready for this. I'm not comfortable enough to
get into this. I think Justin Jefferson has that kind
of game because that secondary for Detroit is still not
very good. They're used to playing indoors in Minnesota too.

(02:36:04):
I actually think that. I think Justin Jefferson has a
big day in Minnesota wins the game. Let's go to
the divisional game in New York, UH Philly at the Giants.
The Giants are significant underdogs in this game. Philly, of course,
is coming off of that dominant win against your Tennessee
tight Ends, the one that got John Robinson fired. Even

(02:36:25):
if they say that it wasn't over that one game.
Philly has won three in a row, sitting in eleven
in one overall, I guess. I'm not asking you if
the Giants can pull the upset, but can they keep
it competitive? They can keep competitive, but it does seem
like the wheels are just barely hanging on with that team.
Barkley hasn't run the ball as effective as of late.

(02:36:45):
They really haven't taken the training wheels off of Daniel
Jones as of late either. I don't think it's gonna
be that much of a chore. I don't think should
be the blowout it was last week for the Eagles,
especially on the road in division. The Giants will be plucky,
they will play, they'll play hard. Table will have them ready,
but the Eagles are gonna win. He said. The wheels

(02:37:06):
are on the verge of falling off. In New York,
the wheels have fallen off and the train is just
off the tracks. In denver Um points spread in this
one casey not yet? Yeah, I saw nine and a half,
so eight and a half, nine and a half. Whatever,
it's a lot. Russell Wilson turned back the clock magic

(02:37:26):
head to head with Patrick Mahomes gets to win. What
do you say, Jason? I mean it's the NFL, so yes,
but no, kansascy is gonna win this game? Are they
gonna win it by nine points against a pretty good
Denver defense that's been asked to do absolutely everything because
the offense can't score. Were more than a touchdown in
a field goal or two per game? That I don't know.
I think Kansasy is gonna win the game by double figures.

(02:37:48):
I think the spread is right. I think my football
team is an absolute abject embarrassment, a complete disaster. It's
not getting better, it's getting worse. And tomorrow is gonna
be that one where Kansas City just absolutely leaves it
in Denver and we are really looking at Denver as
one of the worst teams in the league. Come Monday,
Tampa Bay at San Francisco. San Francisco actually the favorite,

(02:38:10):
despite the fact that brock Purty is starting. Uh Tom
Brady coming to town. First of all, Tom Brady, is
he your twenty three San Francisco forty starting quarterback? Now,
I'm just kidding. San Francisco at home against Tampa can
brock Purty outdual future San Francisco forty dior Tom Brady
at home? What do you got? The question is can
San Francisco's defense keep Tampa Bay in check to where

(02:38:33):
brock Purty doesn't have to do more than Mr Irrelevant
should be asked to do in this scenario, and can
they run the ball effectively. I think the answer both
those questions could be yes. I'm gonna take Tampa Bay
to go to the West Coast and win the game. Though,
because unlike brock Purty coming in in the middle of
the game last week, where no one was prepared, they
knew brock Purty was gonna be the guy all week.

(02:38:54):
That's what Tampa knows. They know he's Mr Irrelevant. There's
no adrenaline rush this time. He has to go out
there and play four quarters. I think I just feel
like Tampa Bay is gonna win that football game. Last one,
the team that brought Purtie beat last week to Miami Dolphins.
They stayed on the West Coast. They are playing in
Los Angeles against the Chargers Sunday Night football. This game
was flexed in four Chiefs Broncos. Does the Chargers pull

(02:39:18):
the upset real quick? Jason, No, I think Miami is
actually gonna win the game. I just don't buy into
the Chargers right now. I don't buy into anything they're doing.
We gotta get out of here. I want to thank
the crew Bow on the boards, producer producer, Bo Bobo
on the board, Steve de Seger. Coming up the Bernie
Frado Show. Bernie of course just joined us. Bernie will
have plenty on Week fourteen in the NFL, and much

(02:39:39):
more For my partner Jason Martin. I'm Aara Torres fun
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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;}Aaron Torres and Jason Martin talk Caleb Williams and 49er’s QBs!