Andy Furman & Bucky Brooks Talk Michigan's Controversial Win, Bucky's Cornerback Rankings, College Football Needs to Figure Things Out & More!

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. All right, here's the
question of the day. Was one team robbed? Was one
team robbed? I'm going crazy here. We'll let you know
in just about a minute. Good morning, everybody. This is
Fox Football Sunday on Fox Sports Radio. He's Bucky Brooks.
I'm Andy Furman. We're broadcasting live from the Fox Sports
Radio studios. And by the way, before we introduce Mr.

(00:21):
Bucky Brooks. With the iHeart app, you can stream us
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(00:42):
Sports Radio in the iHeart app. And I can't wait
to introduce this man because I've been busting a gut
since about maybe eight hours ago. I'm going crazy here. Mr.
Football himself, my friend, my partner, the man himself, Mr.
Bucky Brooks. How are you, Bucky? Take a bow. Take
a bow.

Speaker 2 (00:59):
What's up, Andy? How you doing?

Speaker 1 (01:00):
You know, I don't feel real good. The only good
saving grace is the fact that I'm not a member
of the Western Michigan football team because I'd go ballistic
if I was. I'm sure you watched the game and
I don't get it. And you know what the first
thing that came across my mind when Michigan won that
game on that ridiculous call, that do-over?

Speaker 3 (01:20):
I said.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
Who was betting on that game? You know, don't you
think in this day and age with so much betting
on games going on, don't you think that had to
be a cloud over that game after that? We'll get
into it in a second, but what do you think?

Speaker 4 (01:33):
No, like I know people are all upset about the
rules and those things, but in my mind, like we're
too influenced by like TV and what we think TV
timing is.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
As opposed to what the game clock is.

Speaker 4 (01:45):
And so I was firmly under the belief that there
was still a second remaining, that they were going to
get an opportunity to have another throw and then unfortunately
for Western Michigan they didn't defend the last play of
the game and I know there's gonna be a lot
of controversy and like Michigan was outplayed Western Michigan dominated
the game in terms of controlling the clock time possession
and all those things but I think ultimately Western Michigan

(02:06):
has to blame themselves for not executing on the final
play of the game regardless of all the circumstances all
they had to do was knock down the Hail Mary
and they didn't Right.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
You're exactly right. Here's the situation. For those who are
sleeping or in the bar drinking, whatever you may have been,
Western Michigan was robbed, I thought, Michigan beat in 13-12.
What happened? The officials restored one second to the clock
after an incomplete pass. That allowed the quarterback of Michigan,
Bryce Underwood, to find J.J. Buchanan for a 47-yard touchdown.
And all of a sudden, Michigan's a winner on opening

(02:36):
night for them, all right? I don't get it. It
was a Hail Mary pass. And you're right. Western Michigan
should have just slapped it down. It didn't happen that way.
But still in all, I just think that it was
just a bad taste in my mouth, and I'm sure
a lot of fans. And the good news is the
game was in Michigan, not in Western Michigan, because I
think there would have been a riot if the game
was in Western Michigan.

Speaker 2 (02:59):
I mean, yeah. I mean, certainly I get that. And
if it was played.

Speaker 4 (03:03):
At their place, like maybe they would have had a
little friendly clock operator and those things. Like some of
those things tend to happen when it comes to home
cooking at these games. But, look, there's a lot that
will be said about the ending of the game and
the controversy and those things. I think the bigger point
is Michigan found a way to win. It was an
ugly win for them. There are a lot of people

(03:25):
that would be disappointed to the beginning of the Cal
Winningham era. Um, but look, it's college football and in
college football, this is not the first time that we'll
have a controversial ending.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
It won't be the last time that we have it. Uh,
I know it's a.

Speaker 4 (03:38):
Big deal today, but ultimately I think when you're Western Michigan,
you have to be more upset at yourself in terms
of not finishing what would have been a historic win
for them.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
No doubt about that. Now, according to a statement released
by the Big Ten after the game, and I'm not
surprised about this, they said the officials got the call right.
It was determined that Western Michigan defender Micah Davis made
contact with the ball while out of bounds with one
second remaining. I get it. I said in jest, I
guess tongue-in-cheek, that maybe someone was wagering on the game.

(04:09):
I don't think so. I think 99% of officials in
sports are clean, and they don't really care who wins
the game. Agreed? I mean, it's true. But every once
in a while, there's a bad egg. I don't think
that was the case last night. It was an ugly call.
It was a stupid call, and I think they were robbed.

Speaker 2 (04:24):
No, no, no. It can't be a stupid call if
it's an illegal call.

Speaker 4 (04:29):
You can't step out of bounds and then be the
first person to touch the ball. Those are the rules.
So it can't be stupid. Like, what he did was illegal.
It's an illegal touch. So that has to be called.
It has to be adjudicated like that. Like, if not,
what are we doing? We can't pick and choose which
rules we like and which rules we don't.

Speaker 2 (04:48):
That's the rule.

Speaker 4 (04:49):
And actually, I will give the official credit for having
the courage to make.

Speaker 2 (04:55):
The call at that moment.

Speaker 4 (04:56):
Because a lot of people wouldn't have made the muscle
to swallow the whistle and moved on to the next game.
That would have been the easier thing to do.

Speaker 1 (05:02):
Well, you know, I say that because NBC went to
their analyst, I mean, Terry McCauley, he said that he
was shocked. He didn't understand what was going on. He
said the ball isn't even close to touching a player
when it goes to zero. This is what he said.
And again, you know, he's not on the field. He's
in a press box situation. Didn't see exactly what's going on.
And maybe he doesn't have the same replay equipment that

(05:24):
the officials are looking at. I don't know about that.
But I would like to hear from at least one
of the coaches and our executive producer who's leaving. Finally, finally,
today's his last day. Every Sunday we come in here,
it's his last day. Today, JB, today is your last day, right?

Speaker 3 (05:40):
Today is actually the last one that I'm with you guys.

Speaker 1 (05:41):
And your bags are packed. Gone. After today.

Speaker 5 (05:45):
Yeah, I'm leaving you guys. It's fully my choice.

Speaker 1 (05:49):
Can we hear from one of the coaches after the game?
Do you have anything from the Michigan coach, Carl Winningham,
his first game coming from Utah? Yes, Mark.

Speaker 6 (05:59):
Oh, yeah. Obviously, the extra second to do it. As
I watched the first Hail Mary end and the ball
sailed out of the back of the end zone, as
I glanced at the clock, I was pretty sure.

Speaker 1 (06:10):
There was one second left.

Speaker 6 (06:11):
That obviously not up to.

Speaker 1 (06:12):
Me, but.

Speaker 6 (06:13):
But as the refs went to replay, they confirmed it,
and so it gave us one more opportunity. And that
second time around, Bryce threw a perfect ball because the
first one he sailed it out the back, which gives
us no chance to catch it.

Speaker 2 (06:26):
And J.J.

Speaker 6 (06:27):
Made a phenomenal catch. It doesn't surprise me that's who
he is. I see him make contested catches every.

Speaker 7 (06:31):
Day in practice.

Speaker 6 (06:33):
And offensive line, he gave Bryce enough time to launch it.

Speaker 1 (06:38):
Kyle Winningham, Michigan coach after the win, and, you know,
his reasoning calmed me down. And you did, Bucky. You
did it because I watched the game last night. I
couldn't believe it. But again, you know, and you kind
of corrected me, and I appreciate that. Not a stupid call,
a gutsy call. More so than a stupid call, it
was a gutsy call. You've got to give the official

(06:58):
credit because everybody is saying right now that it was
the right call. It was a heartbreaking call, but it
was the right call.

Speaker 4 (07:06):
Yeah, I mean, look, it's a heartbreaking call. It's gut-wrenching
if you're on the other side, right? If you're the Broncos,
you're from western Michigan, you feel like you've done everything.
You feel like, hey, man, like a bit of an
inadvertent touch or whatever it is allowed them to have
another second, and here we just can't finish the game.

(07:26):
I understand all of that, but I also understand, like,
if you have officials and officials are supposed to call.

Speaker 2 (07:32):
The game a certain way, like you have to lean
on those guys.

Speaker 4 (07:35):
Here's the other part of it, because you mentioned Terry McCauley,
the rules analyst, being up in the booth and those things.
And I do believe that sometimes because we put those
rules experts in the booth that they are always right.
But in the heat of the moment, those guys also
get it wrong. So I think in all of these,
you see the frailty of the human element when it

(07:57):
comes to officiating.

Speaker 2 (07:58):
McCauley was wrong. Some would say the people on the
field were wrong.

Speaker 4 (08:02):
You had replay and those things. It just tells you
that it's an imperfect game. And sometimes you just fall
subject to the randomness of the bounces not going your way,
which unfortunately is what Western Michigan had to suffer from.

Speaker 1 (08:18):
Right. Do we have anything, JB, on the other side
of the coin, the Western Michigan situation? Do we have
anybody in their locker room?

Speaker 3 (08:25):
We have their head coach, yes.

Speaker 8 (08:27):
So I have not seen the clip. Several people have
mentioned it to me that the game was over. I think,
you know, our commissioner has already reached out. You know,
normally he handles those type of situations and reviews. At
the end of the day, you don't always control, you know,
those situations. Or is there a second left on the clock?

(08:49):
We talk a lot about, you know, just responding. regardless
of what the circumstances are. We can't control whether there's
a second left on the clock or not. We went
out the first time. We defended perfectly the Hail Mary situation.
I know when I looked up at the clock, it
was past zeroes before we touched it.

Speaker 1 (09:11):
Lance Taylor, correct? Lance Taylor, coach at Western Michigan after
the game yesterday. And I guess he's got to walk
away feeling pretty good, I guess, that his Broncos could
compete with Michigan, I guess. I mean, certainly upset with
that loss. And as you say, they should have swatted
down that last pass. The fact that a Western Michigan

(09:31):
could compete with Michigan, because, again, you know as well
as anybody else that Michigan probably gave them a big
payday to play them for a win. They're buying wins.
That's what these big-time schools do in opening week.

Speaker 9 (09:45):
Uh, yeah.

Speaker 4 (09:45):
I mean, this is the time if you're Western Michigan
and you're taking on a blue blood like Michigan, this
is time to catch him at the beginning of the year.

Speaker 2 (09:52):
I mean, it's the perfect storm. Actually, you got a
new coach, uh, who's trying to do it.

Speaker 4 (09:57):
You got the pressure of it all being, uh, at
home in front of the people and you just don't
know you're trying to put it all together and so
he had the right situation for them it worked out
for them uh in terms of being able to um Look,
take the game into the fourth quarter. They did a
great job of controlling the entire game. And what I

(10:18):
mean by controlling the game, meaning they were able to
dictate the terms. They were able to occupy the clock.
They were able to make it tighter. And in these games,
were you a heavy favorite? The longer the game is closer,
the more pressure jumps on you and the more that
it can be an impact.

Speaker 1 (10:36):
All right, I want to get into a couple of
more games, but before we do, I will say this
and see if you agree with this. I mean, now
with the advent of kids jumping from school to school
for paychecks and things like that, I think the playing
field has become a little better. I mean, when you
see Western Michigan competing with the Michigan, when you see
other schools, you know, like Boise State, You know, giving

(10:58):
heartaches maybe to Oregon. I mean, really and truly, in
years past, that never would have happened. So I think
maybe what's going to happen down the road is these
big-time schools are going to kind of shy away, perhaps,
playing the also-rans, they thought, and stop giving them the
big checks because they may be embarrassed and may lose
to these schools. Is that a possibility?

Speaker 4 (11:19):
I think that's always a possibility with the parity that
exists in college football now due to NIL and pay-for-play
and the transfer stuff. Yeah, it's going to be more
difficult in terms of what used to be the haves
versus the have-nots. it's going to be more difficult to

(11:40):
kind of find those lines because guys want to play.
And if you have a little funding, you can make
sure that you get enough good players to make you
competitive because what you've done is wiped away the depth
that some of the powerful teams are used to having. Yeah,
so we will see more competitive games like that. And
the college football fan base has to get used to
seeing some of these things that are more monumental upset-like

(12:03):
than not because that would have been a monumental upset
if Western Michigan knocks off Michigan.

Speaker 1 (12:07):
No doubt about that, really. And look, we go back
to Mr. Controversy, and it's not me. It's Lane Kiffin,
the coach of LSU. This guy, wherever he has been,
there's been some sort of a story dragging along with him.
I mean, with Tennessee, he was there for a year. USC,
he got fired after 2013. Florida Atlantic, Ole Miss, a
big to-do. And leading up to the game yesterday against Clemson,

(12:30):
You know, there was some talk that he was going
to play some of these ex-NFL guys who were cut
from the Cleveland Browns. Didn't happen, maybe because the conference
got on him. I don't know whatever it was. But
you know what? After thinking about this for a second,
I said, you know, he's somewhat of a genius because
he takes so much pressure off his team and off
him and everything else. because he has like an alternative.

(12:51):
He has some sort of controversy, which really has nothing
to do with the game itself. I mean, he really
is somewhat of a genius. That's all everybody talked about.
They didn't talk about the matchup between Clemson and LSU.
They talked about, will he be playing these pro players?
And after watching that game last night, 51-10, the final score,
he don't need pros. He's got them all on the
roster right now. These are returning guys. You know, LSU

(13:14):
does not need those pro guys playing for them right
now because they look like a machine last night. They
may have been one of the best teams I had
seen all day yesterday, really.

Speaker 4 (13:24):
I mean, look, they certainly were well-prepared. They were ready
to play in that game. And I think you have
to give Lane Kiffin a lot of credit for that.
And I know there was a lot of controversy surrounding that.

Speaker 2 (13:34):
There was a lot of noise. I'm going to say this, man.
I actually feel like Lane Kiffin is at his best
when he's in those moments, right?

Speaker 4 (13:43):
Some people are able to better deal with the noise
and chaos. And to me, I think chaos is his norm.
He lives for that.

Speaker 1 (13:52):
He creates the chaos.

Speaker 2 (13:53):
He loves that. I will say this.

Speaker 4 (13:56):
I think he frees the pressure on his players by
taking on all of that. They were able to line
up and play and go and do their things, and
so it worked for them. I am a little bit–
I can't say I've ever been more impressed with the
way the LSU looked coming out the gate. They were dominant.
They were fast. They were explosive. They were all over
the place. They looked great. You have to give him

(14:17):
a ton of credit for getting his team ready to play.
And I know there's going to be a lot of backlash,
a lot of people talking about Dabo and how far
behind they are in the NIL stuff. But to me,
this was clearly LSU being a superior team talent-wise and
also with their tactics from the coaching.

Speaker 1 (14:37):
I'm so glad you said that about Lane Kiffin. He
takes so much pressure off his players by the controversy
that he creates himself because he lives for that. He
thrives for that. For example, you know, most players or
most media people were talking about the starting quarterbacks of
these so-called big-time programs coming into opening day. No one's
talking about Sam Leavitt, the quarterback of LSU. They're talking

(14:59):
about Lane Kiffin. Is he going to play pro players?
He has taken so much pressure off Leavitt going into
that game. He did it. He intentionally did that. He
knows that, and he thrives on that. He lives for that.

Speaker 4 (15:10):
He certainly does live for all of those things. And
I will say this about Sam Leavitt. Sam Leavitt was
a really good player, and he was a, He was
a prospect. But the issue that you have with Sam
Levitt is he was coming off an injury, and you
just don't know. He left Arizona State under what some
would deem to be weird circumstances. So you link him up,

(15:31):
you put him with Lane Kiffin, and every quarterback that
Lane Kiffin has touched in the collegiate level has played
at a high level. That's just what he does. He
and now Charlie White Jr., they do a really good
job of making an offense quarterback-friendly so they can thrive.
And I will say, Sam Levitt's athleticism, was a bit
of a surprise. His ability, the impact of running game

(15:52):
while also making accurate passives, that is a game changer.
And for a team and a fan base that is
not celebrating their most recent Heisman winner in Jalen Daniels,
Jaden Daniels, they certainly have someone that they're going to
start pushing now, Sam Leavitt, because he did look like
a Heisman Trophy candidate.

Speaker 1 (16:11):
Yeah. Let me go to this Oregon game yesterday. A
game in Eugene, Oregon. Oregon wins 34-27. They I think
Boise State gave them everything they wanted, really. And Boise
State was leading. I was rooting for Boise State, really.
I'll tell you why I say that. I'm not a
big person that follows these rankings. I mean, I think
it's great fodder for people to talk about. I don't
think they mean anything. But first off, how could Indiana

(16:34):
not be ranked preseason number one as the defending champs? That,
to me, was a joke, really. And number two ranked
team in the country, Oregon?

Speaker 7 (16:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (16:45):
I mean, really? I mean, come on. I mean, Ohio State,
I could maybe see them being ranked number one or
maybe a tie with Indiana. The team that's returning as
a defending champion has to be, in my mind, the
preseason number one team, really. But they were not. Ohio
State is. And they looked the part yesterday. But to
have Oregon number two, where the hell was Indiana? I mean,

(17:06):
Indiana's not even the first two. I mean, something's wrong there.
And Oregon didn't look good at all yesterday. They looked out.
They probably even more– well, you know, Boise State and
Western Michigan, two heartbreakers yesterday. More so maybe Western Michigan,
but Boise State had a shot too.

Speaker 4 (17:25):
Yeah, I mean, Boise State certainly took Oregon down to
the nails. But I think you have to understand that
rivalry and that matchup, whenever these teams have kind of
lined up and played each other, there's always been a very,
very competitive matchup between the two because for the longest time,
there was so much exchange between coaching staffs there that
they knew each other really, really well. In this game,

(17:48):
which is a really difficult game for Oregon, I would say,
is because you line it up and you're trying to
figure out, okay, how can we– take on this team?

Speaker 2 (17:57):
How can we put it together?

Speaker 4 (17:58):
Obviously, everyone has talked so much about Oregon and national
title and those things that sometimes you can get lost
in the watch in terms of your focus, your preparation
on the opponent that is right there in front of
you in the Boise State Broncos. But Boise, this is
a statement game for them, meaning that everything can go
into this game. If we do this, man, it puts

(18:18):
us on the national map again. It allows us to
have this. And so sometimes the motivations being different can
lead to that. But I'll say this as a coach.
First games are always tricky. Turnovers, mistakes, penalties, all these things.
And everything that you say that you don't want to do,
Oregon did. They had a lot of mistakes. And give
Boise State credit for that. But I think you also

(18:40):
have to give Oregon credit for not being at their
best but finding a way to win.

Speaker 2 (18:46):
Ultimately, at the end of the day, you want to
win games, and they were able to do that.

Speaker 1 (18:50):
You know, but that's like a crutch. That's an excuse
for the big-time school that should have done better. Let's
talk about the Broncos for a second, Boise State. They
came on the field. They were ready to play. They
scored on their first drive, and then they stopped the
first two drives for Oregon. So, I mean, to me,
I guess they're not ready. I think there's something to
be said about when an Oregon team goes out there

(19:12):
with that preseason hype and sees a team like Boise
State that's not in the top 20. I think that
you played the game. You've seen it with players. They
don't have a respect factor for the team they're playing.
They're just going to roll over them, and it doesn't
happen that way. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (19:29):
Yeah, but I would say it goes beyond like that.
I think they respected them. I think sometimes you just–
those first games are tricky. I think the one thing
that we always talk about, and you've advocated for this, right,
because you say like in pro sports, why do we
need preseason games? Like in college, they just go play. Well,
this is why you need preseason games because they don't
have a scrimmage. Like you can't work through some of

(19:51):
the things that you can work through at the pro
level and preseason games. You don't get a chance to
do that in college. Literally, you roll out the balls
and it's your first game. You don't have a scrimmage.
You're just going us versus us. You don't even know
what kind of team you have until you start playing games.
So some of this is just the way that training
camp and the preseason is done at the collegiate level

(20:11):
where you just don't know what you don't know. And
sometimes you can't find out until you get into the
game that, hey, this game doesn't work like we thought.

Speaker 2 (20:19):
This player isn't ready to play. All those things. You
have to manage it in game while still.

Speaker 4 (20:24):
Trying to get a win. Oregon will be better. because
of what they experienced in week one. I think what
Dan Leonard has to do is make sure that he
keeps his guys focused so they don't hear the outside
noise about how bad they were, and they just focus
on the fact that, hey, we found a way to
win the game.

Speaker 2 (20:38):
Let's learn from the mistakes, and let's be better in
week two.

Speaker 1 (20:41):
There we go. He's Bucky Brooks. I'm Andy Furman. We're
broadcasting live from the Fox Sports Radio Studios. Get Bucky
for Ask Bucky later in this hour at Bucky Brooks,
at Andy Furman FSR on X, or 877-99 on Fox.
That translates to 877-996-6369, as mentioned. S. Bucky in this hour.
Yayona in hour number two. The Blaine game in hour
number three. And believe it or not, one coach, well,

(21:03):
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All right.

Speaker 1 (21:55):
Good morning, everybody. This is Fox Football Sunday. Yes, it's
football time right now. He's Bucky Brooks. I'm Andy Furman.
And we're live from the Fox Sports Radio studios. We'll
have this Bucky in about 12 minutes from now. And, Buck,
I want to go over some of those games yesterday
because some of them were lopsided there. I'm talking about
Ohio State. They're making a statement right now to be

(22:15):
number one. But you're playing both states. I mean, 56-3.
And I want to run this by you. You played
the game. You know the internet. You know more football
than I'll ever forget, really. I mean, you're the man.
You're the maestro. I mean that. I'm not sucking up.
I learned so much from you. As a matter of fact, Thursday,
I think it was Friday night. Friday night, I'm turning
on the TV. and they had Kansas who's playing LIU,

(22:39):
Long Island University, which is in Brooklyn, but they have
a Long Island campus. So I wanted to see how
they would do, and they got killed by Kansas, all right?
Then I'm looking at the Ohio State game, 56-3. They
beat up on Ball State. Is it possible? I need
to ask you. Is it possible that the athletes on
one team are that much bigger, better, and stronger than

(23:00):
the athletes on the other? I don't understand.

Speaker 2 (23:03):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (23:04):
Really?

Speaker 4 (23:04):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (23:04):
There's a major difference there. Okay.

Speaker 4 (23:06):
Yeah, there can be. Yeah, there certainly can be. There
can be differences. There's levels to it. You talk about
some of the guys that will end up on Kansas,
who Kansas won't even be considered maybe like a top 30,
top 35 program. But, yes, those things– certainly can play
out in their favor just because there's a talent disparity.

Speaker 2 (23:27):
And when you see that, it shows. Like blinking lights,
it shows right away.

Speaker 1 (23:34):
You know, what I noticed, and look, you have the football.
I don't see the tackling as good. Like I saw
LRU playing Kansas, and they couldn't tackle these guys. I mean,
they couldn't bring it down. Maybe they're not taught tackling.
I don't know. Maybe they started their football careers later
in life, I don't know the answer, but they just
didn't look as good as the Kansas team. They're just

(23:57):
better athletes or better prepared. I don't know. But to me,
they shouldn't be on the same field. Like, Ball State
should not have been on the same field as Ohio
State yesterday.

Speaker 2 (24:08):
No, I mean, but it's a different– I mean, we're
talking about different levels. You know what I mean?

Speaker 4 (24:12):
Like, different levels in terms of talent and all that
other stuff. Like, it shouldn't be that. Now, the gap
will close considerably when we talk about the depth of
that has been changed due to NIL and people moving
around and transferring and those things. But starter for starter, yeah,
it shouldn't be a comparison when you're talking about the
teams that you're mentioning and their opponents.

Speaker 1 (24:34):
Okay, but there's a little bit of hope. There's a
ray of hope, and I'll tell you why I say that.
University of Massachusetts beat Rutgers on Thursday night, 37-21. The
University of Massachusetts Minutemen had not won a game in
two years. They had not beaten an FBS opponent since 2023.
And their last major conference win was in 1978. And

(24:56):
they beat up on Rutgers. And I love that because
Rutgers paid out $ 1. 5 million for a win. And they
lost the money and they lost the game, all right?
So maybe there is hope that a team... That shouldn't
be on the same field as another one could win.
And now all of a sudden you've got to believe
that Greg Sciano, the coach of Rutgers, is on the

(25:18):
hot seat. Got to believe that right now for losing
to UMass.

Speaker 4 (25:22):
Maybe we'll see how the season plays out. I thought
he had been pretty solid for Rutgers coming back in
his return.

Speaker 2 (25:30):
But he does look good. I mean, you can't lose
to Rutgers. That I do know.

Speaker 4 (25:34):
It's not a great look for a team that I
want to say, like, Rutgers last year had a 16.
They ended a 16 game losing streak last year, finally
getting on track and finally winning some games. Not a
great look, but we also, what we don't know is
what did UMass do to kind of get back on

(25:56):
track of late.

Speaker 2 (25:57):
So now I'm looking at Greg Shiano.

Speaker 4 (25:59):
Yeah, it's a lot of, a lot of average five.

Speaker 2 (26:05):
Okay.

Speaker 4 (26:05):
Since he's been in his return, 3-6, 5-8, 4-8, 7-6, 7-6, 5-7, 0-1. Man,
that's a lot of average right there. I mean, that's
a lot of average. But he's the best coach that
they've ever had.

Speaker 2 (26:22):
You know, you got to remember, like, he led them
to higher heights. And the way that it started out,
his career, those first– Five years when he was at Rutgers,
they were middling around.

Speaker 4 (26:33):
500 before they had 11-2 year.

Speaker 2 (26:35):
Then back to like eight wins, eight wins, nine wins.

Speaker 4 (26:38):
So this is kind of what he's done traditionally there,
and it's the most success that they've had.

Speaker 2 (26:43):
So do you move on from that?

Speaker 4 (26:44):
It'll be interesting to see how it lives, but that's
definitely not a good look to lose to UMass.

Speaker 1 (26:48):
Now, I ask you this because you've got your pulse
on these colleges across the country. I understand that in
this day and age, if you've got a checkbook, there's
a good chance you could put together a pretty good team,
and Ohio State has done that, although they've been pretty
good before the checkbook situation. Or maybe they were doing
it back then when it was illegal. I'm just saying.
I don't know. But I think doesn't it go all
the way up the ladder to the president? If the

(27:10):
president of a university or college is a big sports fan,
a big football fan, He will do everything in his
power to make his school competitive because realizing when athletics
are in the limelight, it helps enrollment and visibility and
everything else. The alums go crazy. So isn't that a
factor right there? So if the president of Rutgers is

(27:31):
a big sports nut and loves football, there's a good
chance they could turn that program around.

Speaker 4 (27:37):
Yes, because the investor, whatever you put your energy and
your efforts to, normally you'll see success.

Speaker 2 (27:43):
Drastic improvement. And that's what Most teams do.

Speaker 4 (27:46):
So if they pour it all in to make sure
that they want to be good and that they're good
in football, then, yeah, they're going to be good.

Speaker 2 (27:53):
And that's what they've done.

Speaker 4 (27:54):
They really made a commitment to become a better football team,
a better football program.

Speaker 2 (27:58):
And so it used to be the facilities.

Speaker 4 (28:00):
Now it's just the investment in terms of money into
the program, whether it's coaching staff, whether it's the player pool,
all those things. If you invest in it, then the
odds of your program being more successful, being able to
compete at the highest level, it goes up.

Speaker 1 (28:15):
And I will say this. I could be way off base,
and if I am, I know you'll smack me around
and tell me. I think back in the day, it
used to be the president and or the athletic director
that makes a decision on the schedule, the hiring or
firing of a coach. I think right now, with alums
opening up their checkbook, having a bigger say right now,
if Greg Sciano would lose his next game... or if

(28:37):
Dabo Sweeney would lose in several weeks to Miami and
lose big time, these alums that are putting up the money,
they're going to balk and make a stand and say,
we want him out. And if you don't get him out,
we're not giving you any more money. So I think
the alums right now, or at least the givers, the donors,
have more power than they've ever had before.

Speaker 2 (28:56):
For sure.

Speaker 4 (28:57):
They definitely do. They definitely have more power than they
ever had. They definitely are feeling themselves when it comes
to using that power in whatever way they see fit.
And I won't say it's an issue, but yeah, it's
a changing landscape. And you have to get used to
that landscape. If you're a coach, you just have to
know that there are more voices. And those voices that

(29:19):
have deep pockets, they have a lot of influence and
a lot of sex.

Speaker 2 (29:23):
Right.

Speaker 1 (29:24):
And look, I don't root for a lot of teams.
I watch a lot of games, but I kind of
root for Deion Sanders. I really do. I loved him
when he played for the Cincinnati Reds. I just think
he's a good guy. I feel for him, his health
and whatever it might be. I can't believe it's his
fourth season right now at Colorado. And I did say
coming into this segment, i'd rather be lucky than good
and they were pretty lucky beating georgia tech the other
day 14 13 on the road against georgia tech so

(29:46):
i'm pretty happy about that i think the squad had
to go ahead touchdown with about 30 seconds left in
the ball game it was pretty good deal but uh
I don't know how good they're going to be, but
at least they got that one win under their belt.
And I think when you win a game like that,
coaches love that. They get the W, but they can
go back and say, you haven't done anything yet. We
have a lot of work to do.

Speaker 4 (30:05):
Yeah, I mean, coaches do love to have that thing
that you can hold over people's heads in terms of– Look,
you have a little setback. You have a little adversity
and those things. I will say this about Deion. Deion
has done a really good job. When you go and
you look at the program and all the noise around
the program and all the people taking shots, to go
down to Georgia Tech and be the Georgia Tech team

(30:27):
that people respect as one of the toughest teams in
football in terms of their physicality, toughness, and the intensity
with which they play. For them to go on the
road and do that with a young quarterback in Juju
Lewis speaks volumes to them. And they're just getting going.
with offensive coordinator Brendan Marion, who's a star in the ranks.
He was head coach at Sacramento State. He took basically

(30:48):
a demotion to come down to be an offensive coordinator,
knowing that it will lead to a promotion in a
year or two if he's able to kind of get
this offense going under Deion Sanders.

Speaker 2 (30:59):
Yeah, they played better.

Speaker 4 (31:00):
So all the people, all the critics, all the naysayers,
they couldn't say anything because, look, they went down to
Georgia Tech and got a big win on the road
in dramatic fashion.

Speaker 1 (31:11):
No doubt about that. Have you heard any feedback from
your buddies at North Carolina? Because I think their next
game is East Carolina, and there's a good chance that
North Carolina and Bill Belichick, they'll be 2-0 real soon.

Speaker 2 (31:23):
I mean, look, I don't know.

Speaker 4 (31:24):
Like down in Carolina, look, there's a lot of noise
around the program, right? Mike Lombardi resigns. There's a lot
of stuff that is coming out about that investigation. I
can't quite call it allegations. I can call it questions.
that people are passing on, that investigators may have asked questions.
So there's just a lot of conversation, a lot of
noise around it. I think with North Carolina obviously winning TCU,

(31:47):
they look much better. There's more drama around it. Can
they keep them focused? I think the big thing is
can Belichick keep the team focused on the things that
they have on their plate that they're in control of
and not worry about those non-controllable things. If they can
do that, they can take a big step and go
to 2-0. And then I want to say they may
play Clemson or something. They've got a big game after

(32:08):
this somewhere down the line.

Speaker 1 (32:10):
You know, I was kind of impressed, not only that
they won the game in Belichick style a week ago,
but Jordan was never mentioned. I mean, the female friend
of Bill Belichick, she's out of the picture right now.

Speaker 2 (32:20):
I mean, his fiancée?

Speaker 7 (32:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (32:22):
His fiancée? I don't know. Like, maybe she's.

Speaker 4 (32:26):
Taken a step into the shadows, kind of backed out
of the spotlight and done those things.

Speaker 2 (32:31):
And some of that might have been. She's better. Him
trying to get it. I don't know, man. We say that, right?

Speaker 4 (32:37):
But we never said anything about Nick Saban's and Miss
Terry being everywhere. We've seen some coaches, whether it's their wives' girlfriends,
out prominently. I think the only thing about it, it
was the age factor that made it. Like, it's Bill
Belichick and it was the age factor. If it was
someone else, it wouldn't be the story that it is.
But because of the stuff... that follows Belichick from the

(33:01):
NFL and the people that do or don't like him
and all that other stuff, that's the only reason why
it's a story.

Speaker 2 (33:07):
Like, trust.

Speaker 4 (33:08):
Like, older men going out with younger women has been
a thing forever. It's only because Belichick is in it.

Speaker 1 (33:15):
Those that are commenting are jealous. That I'll tell you
right now. Last but not least, we've got to mention Indiana. Indiana.
defending champ, 52-16 over North Texas. And last but not least,
second year in a row, I was shocked because I
used to live in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Tulsa beat Oklahoma State 24-10.
Second year in a row, Oklahoma State loses to Tulsa.

(33:35):
That should never happen. Never happen. That's amazing.

Speaker 2 (33:39):
No, it shouldn't. It should never.

Speaker 4 (33:43):
It really shouldn't happen. It shouldn't be a thing where
you're worried about that, but it does. And so now
you've got to figure out what to do with it.
But anytime you have change, coaching change, dramatic stuff like that,
sometimes it takes a while for it to get going.

Speaker 2 (34:00):
And that's all you're seeing.

Speaker 4 (34:01):
You're seeing some of these guys first time out trying
to put it together. And without preseason games and scrimmages,
it's hard. You just don't know what you can get
until you start playing.

Speaker 1 (34:12):
JP, what's up?

Speaker 5 (34:14):
Yeah, so Bucky, I'm looking at the schedule here. And
North Carolina in two weeks plays Clemson. And then two
weeks after that, they play Notre Dame. So they got
a couple of big games coming up.

Speaker 1 (34:25):
Oh, man, I love this.

Speaker 4 (34:27):
Based on what Clemson looked like, it might be the
right time to get them.

Speaker 1 (34:30):
Yeah. All right. He's Bucky Brooks. I'm Andy Furman. We
all are Fox Football Sunday on Fox Sports Radio. And
he's the man with the answers. He's on deck. And
we'll hear from him next. Fox Sports Radio has the
best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of
our shows at FoxSportsRadio.com. And within the iHeartRadio app, search

(34:51):
FSR to listen live. All right, here's Bucky coming right up.
This is Fox Football Sunday on Fox Sports Radio. Here's
Bucky Brooks. I'm Andy Furman. We're live from the Fox
Sports Radio studios. And for one last time, one shining moment, JB,
let's wrap it up. This is it for you.

Speaker 3 (35:08):
This is it.

Speaker 5 (35:09):
And I was going to say, you normally say, are
you ready? I was going to say I'm not ready
because it's so heartbreaking. All right, Bucky, let's get started.
My UCLA Bruins defeated Cal 45-24 last night, making it
a huge first win of the Bob Chesney era.

Speaker 3 (35:23):
Is UCLA football back?

Speaker 4 (35:26):
Yeah, everyone that I know that has met Bob Chesney
are all about him.

Speaker 2 (35:30):
Not only the enthusiasm, the passion and obsession for the game.

Speaker 4 (35:34):
But the way that he communicates and relates to the kids,
you can see that. For the Bruins to get 21
in the fourth quarter against a Cal team that also
is a loaded roster on the top of the boy,
give them credit. I can't say that all the way back,
but they certainly look more competitive and fun than they've
looked in recent years.

Speaker 5 (35:50):
I'm excited about it. This is an exciting time to
be a former Bruin. All right, going into the next one. Bucky,
what is your boldest, and I mean boldest, take for
the upcoming NFL season?

Speaker 7 (36:02):
Ooh.

Speaker 2 (36:03):
Boldest take for the upcoming NFL season.

Speaker 4 (36:06):
Let's go with Myles Garrett to be the first defensive
MVP that we have seen since Lawrence Taylor in 1986.

Speaker 2 (36:11):
I think the stage is.

Speaker 4 (36:14):
Set for him to be able to do it because
there's so much fanfare about this team. If he puts
up close to the numbers that he's done in the
past and they roll through the league like many of
us expect, yeah, I think Myles Garrett could be the MVP.

Speaker 5 (36:26):
What stat line do you think would garner that? What
would it take from Myles Garrett statistically to win that?

Speaker 2 (36:33):
It's so interesting. I went back and looked.

Speaker 4 (36:34):
Lawrence Taylor, when he won MVP, he had 20 and
a half sacks. He had two interceptions and maybe five
forced fumbles or something like that.

Speaker 2 (36:42):
So, like, it won't take anything ridiculous.

Speaker 4 (36:45):
He's had double-digit sacks in eight of the nine seasons
last year at 23.

Speaker 2 (36:49):
I think he gets anywhere from 18 to 20.

Speaker 4 (36:51):
That'll put him in conversation if the Rams' defense looks
dominant to go with a team that I think is
going to win 14 or more games.

Speaker 5 (36:58):
So here's another follow-up on that. Is that a prediction? Well,
I asked for a bold take, so you gave a
bold take. Does that come with QB play maybe being
down this year or just him being that good and
the team being that good?

Speaker 4 (37:12):
No, him and the team being that good. There's a
lot of eyes on it. So we think about it
being a bit of a popularity contest. How many of
the Rams games are going to be on primetime TV
now because.

Speaker 2 (37:20):
Of the fanfare? And then playing with Aaron Donald, all.

Speaker 4 (37:24):
The other stuff, it's kind of like a dream scenario
for a defender. to have this much interest in his team,
even if Matthew Stafford plays well, I think you'd be
able to make the case that miles Garrett is deserving.

Speaker 2 (37:36):
If he puts up those kinds of numbers on that stage.

Speaker 3 (37:38):
All right. Awesome. Moving on.

Speaker 5 (37:40):
Oklahoma tight end, Rocky beers had an incredible 40 yard
hurtling touchdown and Oklahoma's 51, nothing blow out against UTEP. Bucky,
have you ever heard of a tight end with a
more tight end name than Rocky beers?

Speaker 2 (37:54):
No, that's, that's a, that's a hell of a name.

Speaker 4 (37:56):
Um, I mean, I think the only name that you
can talk about is just the way you have to
pronounce it.

Speaker 2 (38:03):
Mike Dicker. It has to have a feel and a
flavor to it. But that, I mean, that's a nice name.

Speaker 1 (38:08):
That can't be Israel's first name, Rocky, is it?

Speaker 2 (38:10):
It is.

Speaker 1 (38:11):
Really?

Speaker 3 (38:11):
Rocky Beers.

Speaker 1 (38:12):
I thought they just called us his nickname, I thought. No?
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (38:17):
I think it's his real name.

Speaker 1 (38:19):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (38:19):
All right.

Speaker 5 (38:21):
All right, Bucky, the Miami hurricane started their season with
a dominant 45 to six win over Stanford Duke transfer,
who I'm a enormous fan of Darian Mensah went 27
for 30 at 401 passing yards and five touchdowns. And
then again, one of the most exciting players in all
of football, Malachi, Tony had 12 catches for 234 yards

(38:41):
and three touchdowns. What is the ceiling for this duo
and the hurricanes as a whole? And do you think
they're the most exciting team to watch in college football?

Speaker 2 (38:50):
Ooh, that's a lot off one game.

Speaker 4 (38:53):
I would say that LSU is more exciting to watch
based on what I saw.

Speaker 2 (38:56):
But they're really, really good.

Speaker 4 (38:57):
I think the ceiling is what it was last year
to reach the national title game. That's why they went
all in to get Daniel Mensah. They made a ton
of concessions and a lot of money they paid out
to get him. And he's a solid quarterback. Everywhere he's gone,
he has won. We saw a little taste of that
with Malachi Toney being the business fisher of some of
his passes. But let's see what he's like when it's

(39:19):
time to hit the fan, meaning when it's nut-cutting time
and they need him to make plays under pressure in
big moments.

Speaker 2 (39:25):
Can he deliver?

Speaker 4 (39:26):
But right now, man, the Canes look good. I can't
say they're the most exciting, but they certainly are. are
one of the best teams in college football.

Speaker 7 (39:31):
Awesome.

Speaker 1 (39:32):
You know, you got my curiosity about how to check
it out. Rocky Beers, real name is Rocky Beers. He
was born with that given name.

Speaker 5 (39:39):
A great name it's a great name it is and
yeah bucky malachi tony is only 18 years old uh
he turns 19 on the 17th of september it's pretty
ridiculous all right one last one here bucky uh nfl
coaches on the hot seat who would you say are
you're betting on to get axed first.

Speaker 4 (40:01):
Axed first i mean i don't know i would say
like The seat is warm, obviously, in New York on
Aaron Glenn.

Speaker 2 (40:08):
I'm not rooting for my guy. That's a buddy of mine.

Speaker 4 (40:11):
But I think there's going to be a lot of
intrigue because of the market and because of how poorly
they played last year.

Speaker 2 (40:15):
I think he's on the seat to show some progress.

Speaker 4 (40:20):
You know, outside of that, I can't think of anybody
right now that walks into a storm. I think Aaron
Glenn is the one to watch just because there's so
much intrigue about the Jets.

Speaker 3 (40:29):
You said Dan Quinn last time we talked about this.
That was one.

Speaker 2 (40:33):
Well, I mean. I don't even know if anyone is
really talking about the Commanders.

Speaker 4 (40:36):
No disrespect to you and your fandom, but I don't
know if people are really talking about the.

Speaker 2 (40:40):
Commanders right now. So maybe you can flatten the radar.
But I just think there's more interest right now in
the Jets. There we go.

Speaker 1 (40:48):
By the way, we're live from the Fox Sports Radio studios.
And will this player go both ways? That and more
right here on Fox Sports Radio. Oh, it's a real
numbers game.

Speaker 4 (40:56):
Yes, it is.

Speaker 1 (40:56):
We'll explain that in just about a minute. All right.
Good morning, everybody. This is Fox Football Sunday on Fox
Sports Radio. He's Bucky Brooks. I'm Andy Furman. And you
know what? We're broadcasting live from the Fox Sports Radio studios.
And be sure to subscribe to the Fox Sports Radio
YouTube channel. Yes, just search Fox Sports Radio on YouTube.
And you'll see our best videos from all of our shows.

(41:17):
And don't even stop there. Don't even think about that.
Hit that thumbs up icon and comment that way. Let
us know whose takes you like and even whose takes
you don't like. Just search Fox Sports Radio on YouTube
and subscribe. And now without further ado, Fox Sports, Fox
Football and Fox Sports Sunday. It would be appropriate to
introduce Mr. Football himself, my partner, Mr. Bucky Brooks.

Speaker 9 (41:38):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (41:38):
Yes. Thank you. Take a bow. Take a bow.

Speaker 2 (41:41):
What's going on? What's happening, Andy?

Speaker 1 (41:43):
You've got to be excited. You love this time of year,
don't you? This is it. This is it for you.

Speaker 4 (41:47):
I mean, look, it's a fun time of year. Everything
is kicked off in full earnest. You've got high school, college,
and pro football kicking off this week.

Speaker 2 (41:56):
Football is back.

Speaker 1 (41:58):
There sure is. You know, I got a question because,
you know, you told me a story way back when
about the number that you wore because you wore it
in high school or whatever it may be. So numbers
and uniforms. First off, I got to ask, what's the
big deal? Because there was a story that came out
the other day about Von Miller now on the Dallas Cowboys.
He wanted number 40. And a teammate had it. But
what is the big deal about numbers? I don't get it.

(42:21):
To me, and I've been involved with athletics, but I
never played and I never wore a uniform. But, you know,
I've seen sometimes the kids just line up in high
school and the coach just hands them out a jersey
and that's it. There's no question in high school, if
it fits, it's yours.

Speaker 7 (42:36):
Mm-hmm.

Speaker 4 (42:38):
I think you get attached to numbers, like for whatever reason,
whether it's superstitious reasons, whether it's to pay homage to
somebody in your family, in your life, whether it's to
mimic your heroes.

Speaker 2 (42:48):
Numbers have always....

Speaker 4 (42:50):
Resonated in sports like they're iconic, right? I think when
you go to the stadiums, what do you see? You
see retired Jersey numbers hanging up either on the outfield
fences or up in the rafters and games or around
the awning when it comes to the stadium. And so it,
it matters a lot and people are really, really attached to,
to their numbers and they can have various reasons. Like
I wore 22 because it was my birthday, but it

(43:13):
was also my dad's number and high school and college.
And so you, you cling on to those things. I
know my brother wore 24 because it was his birthday, whatever.
Like we all gravitate towards certain numbers. And when you
had a lot of success in that, the superstitious nature
that some of us have may lead you to believe
that I only can play well when I have my

(43:34):
right number on.

Speaker 2 (43:35):
So that's what it is. I mean, Some people can
adapt and adjust. It doesn't matter as much. But for some, man,
the number is everything.

Speaker 1 (43:42):
I guess. And for Von Miller, we know Von Miller
is going to be a Hall of Famer. No doubt
about that. And I can't believe he's entering season number 16. That,
to me, is more amazing than anything else. 16 years
in the National Football League, getting banged up like that.
But he's not with Dallas. He said it was a
lifetime dream to go for his hometown team, playing for Dallas.
He played for the Rams. He played for the Buffalo Bills.
and the Texas A & M, and he all wore,

(44:04):
all those teams, he wore number 40. So he comes
to Dallas, and they got this fullback, Hunter Lipke, wearing
number 40. And Von Miller wanted number 40. So what
does he do? He says he gave Lipke equity in
his poultry business called Greener Pastures Chicken just to get

(44:24):
the jersey number. That, to me, is an amazing story.
It really is.

Speaker 4 (44:30):
It's an amazing story, and it's probably an amazing deal
for the fullback because Von Miller has been very successful
off the field. He's had that company for a few years,
and so rather than give him a cash payment, he
gave him equity and something that could blow it bigger
just in exchange for the number. Hats off to him
for approaching it the right way in terms of Von
Miller approaching the young guy, not just– Big Bank take

(44:54):
Little Bank, go into the equipment management, I want that number,
give me that number.

Speaker 2 (44:57):
They worked it out, and so everybody should be happy.

Speaker 4 (45:01):
Von Miller gets the number that he wants, the kid
gets a little scratch that he needs, and it works out.

Speaker 1 (45:08):
You know what? Von Miller has now set a precedent
right now for anybody else who wants a number, and
if I have the number, a guy comes to me
and says, I want your number. I say, wait a minute,
Von Miller gave such and such equity, you've got to
give me something. I think the precedent has been set
right now, don't you think?

Speaker 4 (45:23):
I mean, it's already been said people have done that. Now,
there's some people that flat out refuse to. Cam Newton
wanted a jersey number from Jimmy Claussen, number two. Jimmy
Claussen refused. He wanted some ridiculous. Cam Newton pivoted and
decided to wear number one. I mean, everything has a price,
and you have to be willing to either go up

(45:44):
to the price or find a new number to wear.

Speaker 2 (45:46):
It's personal preference.

Speaker 1 (45:49):
And I never thought I'd ever see the day in
the National Football League where players would wear number one
or number zero. And they have that even in the NBA. Obviously,
Oscar Robertson wore number one, and he should be. He
was number one. But I never saw guys wearing one
or zero, and they're doing that now. I guess it's
a big deal, right? Well, back in the day, they

(46:10):
used to wear double zero.

Speaker 4 (46:11):
A guy that used to follow, Kenny Burrow, used to
wear double zero.

Speaker 2 (46:15):
Jim Otto for the Raiders. Jim Otto, yes. Yeah, he
used to wear 00.

Speaker 4 (46:20):
So they brought that back. It's recent that they brought
00 back. They haven't brought back 00, but they've changed
the numbers because, one, they were running out of numbers
with the old eligible numbers things where you don't have
80s if you're a wide receiver and you have restrictions
on the teams where just like your quarterbacks, your receivers,
and running back couldn't do it unless it was training camp.

(46:42):
But they opened it up where everyone except the offensive
linemen can.

Speaker 2 (46:46):
Kind of use all of those numbers.

Speaker 4 (46:48):
Now, it's created a bit of chaos when you're seeing
some of these guys with single digits that you're not
used to seeing at linebacker or defensive end and the like,
but in college you can do it.

Speaker 2 (46:57):
So they just open it up.

Speaker 4 (46:58):
It's a little different to look at early, but in
high school you can do it, so it's really no
big deal.

Speaker 1 (47:04):
JB, I know you had a number, I think, when
you were in San Quentin, right, in the penitentiary.

Speaker 3 (47:10):
Yeah, something like that.

Speaker 5 (47:13):
Yeah, this made me think of one of the more
popular funny number exchanges in NFL history a couple years
ago when Devontae Adams got traded to the Jets. He
went to Malachi Corley for number 17, who was a
rookie at the time, and Corley said, give me a million.
Devontae Adams went straight to Woody Johnson and got the.

Speaker 1 (47:32):
Number for free.

Speaker 2 (47:33):
Wow. I mean, I mean, you got it. You got
to understand your leverage and whatever.

Speaker 4 (47:40):
I mean, look, there was a bit of a controversy
a couple of weeks ago in Indianapolis. Keenan Allen signs
once number 13. Laquan Treadwell is already occupying 13.

Speaker 2 (47:51):
Didn't want to give it up.

Speaker 4 (47:52):
A few days later, Keenan Allen gets to DUI arrest.

Speaker 2 (47:55):
And we haven't heard about the number of controversy since.

Speaker 1 (47:57):
There we go. All right. Now, this is right up
your alley because you're with the Jacksonville Jaguars, and you
talk about a guy who's living a double life on
the football field, and that's Travis Hunter. All right. He
was hurt a little bit at the end of last year.
First of all, you're close to the situation. How is
his health right now?

Speaker 2 (48:15):
He's good. He's fully returned.

Speaker 4 (48:16):
He's hitting speeds that exceeded his speeds before when it
comes to the GPS. He's good, and he's doing a
pretty good job of kind of blending in more defense
than offense now, but he's certainly going to be an
impactful player.

Speaker 1 (48:31):
Okay, you wrote about this at NFL.com as you write
every single week, and I love what you write because
I can't wait to read it, and it is a
great story how Liam Cohn, the and the general manager
of Jacksonville, James Gladstone, they're committed to having Travis Hunter
play both ways, really. He won the Heisman in 2024. And,

(48:51):
you know, is that a wise move? I mean, how
many snaps could a guy take? I mean, prone to injury.
I mean, you've got to get injured. There's a good
chance if you're an NFL player, down the road someday
you're going to get injured. Minor, major, whatever, maybe you will.
But you're playing both sides of the ball. I think
that rate increases twofold.

Speaker 2 (49:11):
I mean, I don't know if it necessarily increases.

Speaker 4 (49:13):
I think there are ways that you can do it
while protecting the player and not overworking the player. Some
of that is rotation. which on offense it's easier to
rotate than on defense. It's understanding how to manage his
reps in practice. It's making sure that you have a
plan outside of it when it comes to strength and
conditioning to ensure that he is always feeling at his best. Yeah,

(49:36):
it's a huge investment, but one of the reasons why
you traded up to get him at two is because
you knew how special he is and what impact he
can make on both sides of the ball. So you
fully want to tap into that. You don't give up
on the experiment because let's be honest, he got hurt
in practice. He didn't get hurt in a game. He
got hurt at a non-contact practice drill. whereas he has
a torn LCL and those things. If we were able

(49:59):
to make the case that, like, hey, in the game,
because he was so tired, he was fatigued in the
fourth quarter, something happened, then that's one thing.

Speaker 2 (50:05):
But we can't do that.

Speaker 4 (50:07):
So the Jaguars are going to try and give him
every opportunity to be a two-way player. Our categorize him
as more of a one-and-a-half-way player, meaning full-time offense, part-time defense.
But that could change based on how he impacts the
game when he's on the field, on offense, and then
how some of the others around him play.

Speaker 2 (50:25):
Do they need him to take.

Speaker 4 (50:26):
An elevated role, or are they okay with it as
it is?

Speaker 1 (50:30):
Okay, before we get into the meat and potatoes of
him playing both ways and how is he going to
do it, whatever it may be, which you've written about
on NFL.com, I'm talking about the most important thing in
the world, which is money, the greenbacks, okay? If I'm
his agent, do I negotiate and say, hey, look, you're
getting like almost two players for one. Does his contract

(50:50):
go up because he's playing both positions? How does that work?
I don't know what he's making, but would he make
more than just being an offensive player because he's playing
both sides of the ball?

Speaker 4 (51:00):
Well, he's second overall pick, so he has to play
through his rookie deal first, and he's entering year two.
They can start negotiating on another one at the end
of year three, four going in.

Speaker 2 (51:10):
So it depends on how he plays.

Speaker 4 (51:12):
I think if you're Jacksonville Jaguars, you wait and see.

Speaker 2 (51:13):
He got paid a lot of money being a big-time draft.

Speaker 4 (51:16):
Pick, so let's see if he plays to what the
expectations are when you draft it second overall. But if
he plays there, yeah, he has an opportunity to change
how money's– passed around and distributed between wide receivers and
defensive backs. And if he also does it, he'll open
up the floodgates to a number of guys that want
to come in and do two-way stuff. We're already seeing

(51:38):
more guys at the collegiate level do it. I want
to say Deion the other night had a lineman that
played D-line and some offense.

Speaker 2 (51:45):
So it's possible.

Speaker 4 (51:47):
All things are possible if you are the right way
in terms of character-wise and you're able to handle it skill-wise.

Speaker 1 (51:56):
All right, you wrote that last year in 2025, he spent,
talking about Travis Hunter now, spent two-thirds of his snaps
from scrimmage on offense. 305 out of 459. He had
28 passes for 298 yards and a touchdown, okay? And
then he had that non-contact knee injury. and he's getting
a more prominent role on offense. So, no, what's going

(52:16):
to happen now on defense? How does he fit in?
And what happens at practice? You know, how do you practice?
I mean, people take snaps in practice as you work
with the offensive team on one day and the defensive
team the next day. How does that work?

Speaker 2 (52:28):
He has a reversible jersey, and he goes back and forth.

Speaker 4 (52:30):
Meaning, so if you go to a practice, there's an
equipment guy who has multiple jerseys, so he flips it over.

Speaker 2 (52:36):
White for defense, teal for offense.

Speaker 4 (52:38):
And depending on what they're doing and how they're going
about it, some days he's a more defensive guy than
an offensive guy.

Speaker 2 (52:44):
But he gets work on both sides of the ball
each day.

Speaker 4 (52:47):
They just divvy up the practice rest based on what
they need and what they need from him in terms
of the preparation.

Speaker 2 (52:53):
Now that we're into the regular season and getting ready
for games.

Speaker 1 (52:56):
Okay, you've seen him up close and personal. Is he
a better offensive player or a defensive player?

Speaker 4 (53:01):
Look, I think he's special with the ball in his
hands on offense, but I think his most natural and
impactful position would be to be a zone corner where
he can play off and just see ball, get ball.
When he does that, like he did at Colorado, he
is fantastic. Offensively, he makes a ton of plays. He
has some of the best– hand-out coordination, ball skills that
you can imagine. I think you tap into it a

(53:24):
little more when he's on defense, but certainly I'm going
to try and play him on both ways because coming
from what he's always done, he has always been a
two-way player going back to his time in high school.
I want to make sure if he's done it at
a high level in college, he certainly can maybe do
it as a high level in pros. And I'm going
to be honest, Deion Sanders and Roy Green are the

(53:44):
only guys in my time that I can remember doing
this on a full-time basis that And people don't talk
enough about Roy Green, who was a Pro Bowl player
for the Cardinals, the St. Louis Cardinals, who did it
at wide receiver and corner. I want to see Travis
Hunter do something that people say they can't because I
don't think people should put limits on what people can
do on the field. If you're talented enough, you should

(54:05):
push the limits and see what you can do.

Speaker 1 (54:07):
No doubt about that. This guy, Travis Hunter, must be
one heck of an athlete because you wrote that he
hit field goals in practice now. He was kicking field goals.
I mean, he must be one heck of an athlete.

Speaker 9 (54:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (54:18):
I mean, look, he's super talented.

Speaker 4 (54:20):
And I think anytime you have a talent like that,
you want to see if you can maximize it. You
want to do it within reason. You want to be smart.
But no, this is a talented dude. You want to
give him a chance to do what he does really well.

Speaker 1 (54:30):
All right. Now let's get into the crux of the
matter here because you picked the top five cornerbacks of 2026.
And I want to know, how do you do it?
How do you tell that one cornerback is better than
another one? I mean, it's kind of a stupid question,
but the truth of the matter is this.

Speaker 7 (54:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (54:46):
The guy has a lot of interceptions. He's a pretty
good cornerback if he breaks up plays, whatever it may be.
But how can you tell? What separates, in your mind,
number one to number five? Is it height? Is it speed?
Is it reflexes? What makes one better than the other?

Speaker 4 (55:02):
Well, the first thing I look for, having played a position,
I'm looking for toolbox. How expansive is your toolbox? Meaning,
how many different techniques can you do and do really,
really well? And are you a guy that is kind
of pigeonholed into just being able to do one thing?
Are you just a man only cover can corner? Can
you play zone? Can you play zone and utilize different techniques?

(55:23):
Meaning can you line up and, uh, play press bail
where you're turning your sideways running down the field? Are
you one that can play off simply vision on the quarterback?
Can you bump and run when it comes to man
to man, man to man, those things matter. Then do
you take on the challenge of taking on a number
one receiver, um, meaning can you shadow, can you travel,

(55:44):
can we put you on their best guy and feel
comfortable that you can take care of that side of
the field? Are you smart enough to go from playing
outside to playing in the slot, which is the hardest
position to play because you have to deal with what
we call two-way goals and you've got to be a
mix in the run game. So a lot of it
is not only the natural skills that they bring talent-wise,

(56:04):
but how do they use the tools that are in
the box and how big is that toolbox that we're
talking about?

Speaker 1 (56:10):
Okay, now you were always talking about systems and things
like that. If you get a guy who has all
the physical attributes of a good quarterback and he's not
doing well, and all of a sudden the defensive coordinator
gets fired, they got a new guy coming in with
a new system, he could really shine under that system.
So he may be good, but his, I guess, skill
set has not been shown up to the max because

(56:33):
of the system he plays in.

Speaker 4 (56:35):
I mean, it's the number one thing in the evaluation system.
How does a person's talent fit into the scheme? There's
only about 10% of the league that can play in
any system and still have the same impact. Most players
need to be in a system that plays to the
strengths of their athletic talents, their IQ, all those things. So, yeah,

(56:56):
it matters what system you're in, what you're being asked
to do, and if those responsibilities match up with the
strengths of your game and your athletic package.

Speaker 1 (57:07):
Okay, I'm going to go with number one on your list,
and I think he said it was Patrick Sertan, okay,
from the Denver Broncos. And what you said about this
guy is that he blankets receivers. That, to me, right there,
is bingo. To me, that's the most important thing. See,
he must have all the attributes. He must have the

(57:27):
speed to be able to blanket the receivers. So he's
your number one. Matter of fact, you said that here's
a guy that should use his film to teach the
position to others.

Speaker 2 (57:37):
Yeah, it's a clinic. It's a clinic.

Speaker 4 (57:39):
Now, you got to remember, Pastor Tan II is the
son of an outstanding player. And Pastor Tan, who played
for the Miami Dolphins for years opposite Sam Madison, they
used to put bar receivers in a chokehold on the perimeter.

Speaker 2 (57:51):
Well, dad certainly passed along.

Speaker 4 (57:53):
Some of that information, some of that insight and wisdom
to his son. Passer 10 is as complete a corner
as you will find in terms of his ability to
do whatever you want a corner to do in any system. Man-to-man,
he can go nose-to-nose and challenge anybody. Zone coverage, you
can put him off. He can sit back there. He
can read the three-step. He can clue the quarterback, all
those things. He'll come up and tackle. He can do everything,

(58:15):
bump inside and slide.

Speaker 2 (58:16):
Yeah, I can do that.

Speaker 4 (58:17):
He can do all of those things, which is why
as a complete player that can do all those things,
that's why I had to put.

Speaker 2 (58:23):
Him number one.

Speaker 1 (58:24):
Okay, and honestly, to me, the cornerback is the last
mode of defense because if you have a good defensive
front and good linebackers, the secondary could be maybe not top-notch.
Am I correct on that? Could that possibly be if
you've got a good pass rush and good linebackers?

Speaker 4 (58:42):
Yeah, if you can do anything, man, you invest in
the front line because they impact the game far more
than the guys on the back line impact.

Speaker 1 (58:48):
Yeah, and that's why I don't see, and you're top five,
no one from the Cincinnati Bengals on there. You know,
probably not deserving to be on there.

Speaker 2 (58:55):
No.

Speaker 1 (58:56):
I mean, you're down in their defense big time. I mean,
I have it written down.

Speaker 2 (59:02):
I'm not down in their defense. They don't have the personnel.
They don't have the defense. No, we're talking about top
five corners. They don't have a top five corner.

Speaker 4 (59:09):
They don't have it. a top 10 corner in the conversation.
They don't have anybody in that conversation.

Speaker 1 (59:14):
And you know what? The more I listened to you,
the more I believe that there's a good chance that
they may not make the playoffs. You said they won't
make the playoffs this year, right? We talked about that. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (59:24):
I don't, I mean, I don't, I don't think they'll
make it.

Speaker 4 (59:25):
No.

Speaker 2 (59:27):
All right.

Speaker 1 (59:27):
Because, uh, Devon Witherspoon from Seattle. This guy's the highest
paid corner, right? And I wonder how he feels that
in your ranking. Have you heard from him? Because you
made him number two. I mean, if he's the highest paid.

Speaker 4 (59:41):
Yeah, but like the highest paid, remember, it's when you
get paid. Like if I got paid a couple years ago, well,
the next person that gets paid that is up there
is going to surpass that because that's what a good
contract negotiator would do. That's what a good agent would do. Well, hey,
if Pastor Tan makes this, we want a dollar more
than him. Because we're next up and we feel like
we're better than him regardless of whether it's real or not.

Speaker 2 (01:00:04):
Devin Witherspoon is outstanding.

Speaker 4 (01:00:06):
He's outstanding because out of all the things that I
talked about with Pastor Terry, you can say the same
thing about Witherspoon. He can play outside at right or
left corner. He can play inside in the slot. He
can cover with the best of them in terms of
being in your hip pocket down the field. But he
has an added benefit of being a blitz specialist. He
is terrific coming off the edges in the blitz. And

(01:00:28):
we didn't see that until the Super.

Speaker 2 (01:00:29):
Bowl where he harassed Drake May all over the field
in the pocket.

Speaker 4 (01:00:33):
His ability to blitz and play in the slot to
bring some physicality and violence to the table, yeah, that
puts him up there. And, look, man, we're splitting hairs
when we talk about the top three, right? The top
three would be Pastor Tan, Devin Witherspoon, and then I'm
going to say Derek Stingley from the Houston Texans. All
of these guys are deserving of being number one. You
can make a case, a strong case, for any of

(01:00:53):
them being CB1. They're all that good.

Speaker 1 (01:00:57):
JP, I wanted to say one thing. I didn't see
anybody from the Washington Commanders on that top five list either.

Speaker 5 (01:01:02):
You're not going to see anyone in the top 32. Yeah,
to your point, Bucky, I'm looking at the list here.
Patrick Sertain is the eighth highest paid corner in the league,
so it's all about timing, and that's just criminal.

Speaker 3 (01:01:13):
He'll get a new deal soon.

Speaker 7 (01:01:15):
Right.

Speaker 2 (01:01:16):
Yeah, he'll get a new deal.

Speaker 4 (01:01:17):
Christian Gonzalez wants a new deal. He's due for a
new deal. Yeah, he's due for a deal. So, like,
you've got to pay those guys.

Speaker 2 (01:01:24):
Right.

Speaker 1 (01:01:25):
And they'll get paid. There's no doubt about that. But
the Rams, this Rams team, I mean, if they don't
win the Super Bowl, there should be an investigation. I mean,
if they all stay healthy. And then they got Chuck
McDuffie as well. I mean, they're loaded in every position,
aren't they? I mean, they really are. The Rams team
right now should, if they're not in the Super Bowl, again,
an investigation should be there.

Speaker 4 (01:01:46):
Well, I mean, Dan, here's what we're saying. We're saying
all this about the Rams. I talked about Miles Garrett
being long shot MVP. You're talking about his criminal career.
If they don't win the thing, the defending champs are
in the division. The Seattle Seahawks are in the division.
The Seattle Seahawks didn't lose a lot of personnel. They
did lose Clint Kubiak, but it's not like they were

(01:02:07):
completely robbed of all the people that helped him hoist
the trophy a year ago. But yet here we are
saying it's a travesty if the Rams don't win the
Super Bowl.

Speaker 1 (01:02:16):
And look, I'm going on talent, and they have tremendous talent,
but I'm also going on the fact that once you
get to the top of the mountain, I think that
you kind of back off a little bit. It's just
human nature. I don't think they're going to be as hungry, Seattle.
They may say they will be. I just don't see
it happening. It's so very hard to repeat in any sport.
And the fact that they've been there, done that, it's tough.

(01:02:37):
You know that.

Speaker 2 (01:02:37):
It will be tough.

Speaker 4 (01:02:40):
And they'll get everybody's best shot. They're now viewed as
the measuring stick. They're on hard knocks. Everyone is looking
at them. It's a different feel. It's a different energy
that you have to face when you go from being
the hunter to the hunted. And so you have to
be able to welcome all the competitors, all the challengers.
But if done correctly, man, what better motivation than to

(01:03:02):
already know that, hey, you're the champ walking in. That
confidence that you have in being the champ, that can
go a long way. And I just think about those
Patriots teams that were always in the conversation for.

Speaker 2 (01:03:12):
Years, even most recently the Kansas City Chiefs.

Speaker 4 (01:03:15):
Man, there's a confidence and a swagger and just a
belief that they're going to win.

Speaker 2 (01:03:20):
Before they take the field.

Speaker 4 (01:03:21):
And sometimes you don't have to be the most talented
to be able to do that. You just have to
be the team that is the most connected and has
a belief that they can come through when it matters most.

Speaker 1 (01:03:30):
Well said. All right, he's Bucky Brooks. Get him on
X at Bucky Brooks at Andy Furman FSR. 877-99 on
Fox if you care to join us. That's 877-996-6369. We're
broadcasting live from the Fox Sports Radio Studios. And by
the way, yay or nay in this hour, the blame
game in hour number three. But the question of the day.
Does the penalty fit the crime? We'll tell you all

(01:03:51):
about it next. All right, why does everybody suffer? That's
right around the corner. Good morning, everybody. This is Fox
Football Sunday on Fox Sports Radio. He's Bucky Brooks. I'm
Andy Furman. We're live from the Fox Sports Radio studios.
We're going to have yay or nay with JB in
about 12 minutes from now. But right now, there's a
story out there that's got to be talked about. It
really has to be. Because about a year ago, just

(01:04:13):
about a year ago, Pablo Torre said, Pablo Torre finds
out he released an initial investigation into possible salary cap
circumvention by the L.A. Clippers on behalf of all people.
Kawhi Leonard. Why? Why Kawhi Leonard? The guy never plays anyway.
He's always hurt. I don't get how stupid the Clippers are, okay?
So after further reporting, they found out that... It was illegal.

(01:04:36):
It was under the table. NBA dropped the hammer last week, okay?
And this is what the investigation found that the Clippers did.
They worked around the salary cap to pay Leonard millions,
millions more that was in his contract. So here are
the penalties that the Clippers had. $ 30 million fine for
the Clippers, the largest in league history, all right? One-year
ban for the Clippers owner, Steve Ballmer. Fourth of the

(01:04:58):
five straight first-round picks from 2029 through 2033. Six-month ban
for president of basketball operations, Lawrence Frank. One-year ban for
president of business operations, Gillian Zucker. Five-year ban for Leonard's uncle,
Dennis Robertson. And a $ 700, 000 fine for Leonard. Okay, here's
my deal on this, all right? First of all, why

(01:05:19):
punish the team? Most of the guys on the roster
never knew about this under-the-table payment anyway. This is just like, Bucky,
when I say when a college coach cheats and he
gets fired, the remaining team suffers. They go on probation. Why?
Why slap the fans in the face and why hurt
the team by doing this thing? What they should do

(01:05:39):
is take Balmer, who owns the team. He's a cheat.
He did it. Fine him the 30 mil and throw
him out of the league.

Speaker 2 (01:05:45):
All right?

Speaker 1 (01:05:45):
Maybe one year draft pick, maybe, as a penalty. But
why hurt the fan base? Why damage this franchise for
five years right now with no first-round pick? And also,
why hurt players on this team? What free agent in
their right mind is going to want to go now
and play for the LA Clippers?

Speaker 2 (01:06:03):
Right?

Speaker 1 (01:06:04):
And the front office right now? No one's getting paid.
It's amazing. What is your take on this, Bucky Brooks?

Speaker 4 (01:06:11):
Look, you had to do something. They circumvented the salary cap. Like,
In essence, they were cheating. And Uncle Dennis, who's been
associated with Kawhi Leonard for a long time, like people
are alleging that this has been a pattern for a
long time, where they've used their power and.

Speaker 2 (01:06:26):
Influence to gain.

Speaker 4 (01:06:29):
Financially, separate and apart from whatever Kawhi Leonard was making
on the court. I think you have to go hard
at the Clips owner so other people will be discouraged
from operating in this manner.

Speaker 2 (01:06:43):
It just has to be that.

Speaker 4 (01:06:44):
And even though we talk about the fan base and, oh,
it's a death knell to the Clippers given the five
years they did without first-round picks, there are ways to
work around that.

Speaker 2 (01:06:54):
And regardless of what.

Speaker 4 (01:06:55):
You say, free agents, they will show up because if
you write a big enough check, they all can talk
themselves into finding a way to make it happen because
the check is so big.

Speaker 1 (01:07:06):
All right, here's the deal. My question is this. How
in the hell do you monitor these extra payments? And
I'm sure he's not the only one. I think there's
a lot of owners right now, not only in the NBA,
but in the NFL. They're a little nervous because I'm
sure they're doing stuff like this. In other words, if
I'm an owner of a team and I belong to
a country club, I could sign my guy, my quarterback,
and say, you know what? Here's a membership to the

(01:07:27):
country club, all right? Here's a bonus check, whatever it
may be. I own a car dealership. Here's a car.
You don't think that's going on right now? I'm sure
you've even seen and heard about that.

Speaker 4 (01:07:37):
Well, I mean, look, I just follow Pablo. When Pablo
shows up on the scene, it's scary. And unfortunately for me,
as a Dodger fan, the next thing that he has
his eyes on are the Dodgers.

Speaker 2 (01:07:47):
Mark Walters, who sold the Lakers.

Speaker 4 (01:07:50):
They're talking about, like, insurance stuff and how they maybe
inflated prices and money to be able to work these
deals and the cable TV deal that was significantly higher
than what anyone else was offering.

Speaker 2 (01:08:03):
All those things come into play. Yeah, so this is
a big part of it.

Speaker 4 (01:08:07):
And as it's been explained to me, the ones who
are holding the bag are the consumers.

Speaker 2 (01:08:14):
People are taking advantage.

Speaker 4 (01:08:15):
Because the prices have gone through the roof on pro
sports franchises, no longer can you have one person that
does it. So you have these funds that are coming
in and private equity groups that are buying up these
teams with 13, 14, 15 partners. It has just changed
the dynamic of what we know to be true when

(01:08:35):
it comes.

Speaker 2 (01:08:35):
To pro sports.

Speaker 1 (01:08:37):
No doubt about that. I just think that the penalty
doesn't fit the crime. I mean, Baum is the guy.
He's the cheat, all right? You know, and maybe in
the zest of wanting to win so badly, that's why
he bought that team at a ridiculous price anyway. But
just the winning meant so much to him. He would
do anything. And at the time, it was stupid what

(01:08:57):
he did. I mean, but it was illegal, and he
did it anyway. because he thought it would help. But
Kawhi Leonard, of all people, I mean, if I had
Giannis on my team, I'd do it to Giannis. If
I had Shaq at the time, Michael Jordan, you know,
big name, not Kawhi Leonard, who doesn't play anyway. The
guy's always hurt. I don't care.

Speaker 4 (01:09:13):
Yeah, but you also got to remember the timing of this.
This is when he just led Toronto to a title. Like,
he was playing arguably the best basketball of anybody in
the NBA at that time, and they were able to
pull it off. It was considered a major coup that
they were able to wrestle him away from the Raptors
at the time. So, yeah, at the time, he was

(01:09:35):
viewed just like we viewed Giannis. But remember, Giannis misses
a lot of games. Giannis is an imperfect player when
it comes to it. The Miami Heat invested significant capital
in getting him.

Speaker 2 (01:09:46):
It's just a part of it. You hope that while
they're on your watch, You can do.

Speaker 4 (01:09:50):
Things differently to prevent them from being the ticking time
bomb that some guys can be, but all you can
do is throw the money in the right direction and hope.

Speaker 2 (01:09:58):
That it works.

Speaker 1 (01:09:59):
Yeah, and look, I think that they got that kiss
of death situation at Clippers because when they did get Kawhi,
he got hurt. Then they got Paul George, and he
got hurt as well. I mean, they're just— for whatever the reason.
But Balmer right now paid an exorbitant amount of money
for that team, way over the market value, but pushed
up the price for every other team being sold. And

(01:10:21):
right now, he's a crook. I mean, there's no other
word to say. Look, Donald Sterling did some terrible— Ugly things,
all right? This is worse. This is worse. Donald Sterling's
just a bad guy, all right? And they threw him
out of the league. Now, Obama is still in the league.

Speaker 4 (01:10:36):
Yeah, but I don't know if this is worse. Like,
what Donald Sterling did was terrible. Now, Steve Ballmer cheated,
but what Donald Sterling did and all the racism and
the implications and all that other stuff, I can't say
that that's worse than my man trying to slide some
extra coins to Kawhi Leonard under the table.

Speaker 2 (01:10:53):
Wrong is wrong, and both guys are wrong. for what
they engaged in.

Speaker 4 (01:10:56):
Now for Steve Ballmer, who one of the richest people
on earth, like, yeah, $ 30 million hurts. Like no one
wants to write a check for anything, but $ 30 million,
like that's significant. And it does position the Clippers to
be in rebuilding mode.

Speaker 2 (01:11:11):
For a long time.

Speaker 4 (01:11:13):
But I'm a believer, creative minds, guys that understand how
to build great teams, they can figure it out. They're
a way to work around some of the challenges that
are before them. But yes, it's significant. Not only with
the owner, but several of the front office people. And
then I'm going to say this because people have already
put this out there about Lawrence Frank and how Lawrence Frank,

(01:11:34):
who got six months of suspension, but he was very
involved in all the deals, how he.

Speaker 2 (01:11:41):
Ratted on his people, Steve Ballmer.

Speaker 4 (01:11:44):
And so he could be the beneficiary because he signed
an extension and he probably held it overhead.

Speaker 2 (01:11:48):
But look, not enough has been talked about when it comes.

Speaker 4 (01:11:52):
To his part and all of these shenanigans that the
Clippers were involved in.

Speaker 1 (01:11:58):
Look, it puts them behind the eight ball with the
first round picks now for five years. This team couldn't
win when they didn't have that penalty. So how's it
going to be now with this penalty? I heard you
say they could be creative. Yeah, being creative. That's great.
It's a great term. They couldn't be creative and win
when they didn't have penalties on them. So this is death.
This is death.

Speaker 2 (01:12:18):
It's not death. It's not death.

Speaker 4 (01:12:20):
It's not that like, yeah, it can severely hinder them
in some way, shape or form, but It's not death.

Speaker 2 (01:12:25):
They'll be able to bounce back.

Speaker 4 (01:12:26):
They'll be able to kind of get back to being
competitive and scrappy and all that other stuff. I think
what we initially like to do are instant reactions. We
like to go wild, bold and bodacious with our takes.
I think we'll settle in. We'll kind of get a
feel for what it was, and we'll appreciate no more.

Speaker 1 (01:12:44):
This guy Pablo, he's unbelievable, really. He's like a marked man.
He's after the Dodgers now, huh?

Speaker 2 (01:12:49):
Yeah, you don't want to see him come in.

Speaker 1 (01:12:51):
No, stay away. Stay away.

Speaker 2 (01:12:54):
All right.

Speaker 1 (01:12:54):
Hey, Bucky Brooks. I'm Andy Furman. We are Fox Football
Sunday on Fox Sports Radio. Hey, this is a two-way street,
and we call it yay or nay, and it's all
yours next. Yay or nay, coming right up. This is
Fox Football Sunday on Fox Sports Radio. It's Bucky Brooks.
I'm Andy Furman. We're live from the Fox Sports Radio
studios about 12 minutes before the top of the hour.

(01:13:14):
But right now, JB, one last time, yay or nay.
okay let's begin rack those brains gentlemen these stories need.

Speaker 2 (01:13:23):
An answer i think we need a ruling on this
it's yay or nay.

Speaker 5 (01:13:28):
All right let's get into it andy i've i've never
heard you say such positive things about a person like
this one but wmba commissioner kathy engelbert is retiring after
the season yay or nay.

Speaker 9 (01:13:42):
Yay, yay, yay.

Speaker 1 (01:13:43):
It's about time. I mean, she may be the worst
commissioner in the history of sports.

Speaker 2 (01:13:47):
Really.

Speaker 7 (01:13:47):
Terrible.

Speaker 1 (01:13:48):
And they say Michelle Obama may be taking her place.
That would be great. I'd love to see that. You
know what, though? You knew she was out the door
when Adam Silver started making some comments about her. She
had one leg out. The controversy, the lack of officiating,
and just the consistency. You get those technical fouls and
they override those rules and let these girls play. Come on.

(01:14:09):
You're not qualified for the position. not a bad person
but you're just not qualified for that.

Speaker 4 (01:14:14):
Position yeah i wouldn't say that she was not qualified
i would just say that they had poor leadership uh
in key moments in crisis they didn't handle a few
crises that popped up the right way well whoever comes
in they need to make sure they understand great leaders
have answers in critical moments and they make sure they

(01:14:35):
give the answers to the players and to the entire
organization so it It can operate smoothly and not be
like a tree blowing in the wind when you have
multiple political interests involved.

Speaker 5 (01:14:46):
OK, Bucky, on to you. We're going to start with
you on this one. The 49ers and Rams open their
season internationally in Australia on Thursday. How do you feel
about teams starting with these international games? Do you think
it should happen to open the season?

Speaker 3 (01:15:01):
Yeah, your name.

Speaker 2 (01:15:03):
I mean, look, it doesn't matter what I think. I
know there's a lot of money to be made. when
they play in these games and they're.

Speaker 4 (01:15:08):
Playing overseas because it's like a Super Bowl overseas.

Speaker 2 (01:15:12):
Owners can sell out. The money is equally distributed to
the team. So there's a lot of intrigue in the
international game.

Speaker 4 (01:15:21):
Because it is a cash cow. I'll say this about
the prep and the process. It's hard to get a
team ready to play the flights, 15, 16 hours on
a plane. The Rams are going to do it where
they probably spend 48 hours.

Speaker 2 (01:15:34):
On the ground. The night is going to be there
the entire week. We'll see how it handles.

Speaker 4 (01:15:38):
But more importantly, we'll see what they're like the next week,
because coming back, readjusting to the time, that's going to
be the challenge.

Speaker 2 (01:15:47):
It's not week one.

Speaker 4 (01:15:48):
Week two is going to be a monster if you're
a player having flown over and then flown back. You're
going to be in a bit of a fog and
a haze.

Speaker 1 (01:15:55):
I have a different take on this because I'm not
worried about the athletes. They get paid really well and
they're filing first class, whatever it may be. I know
it's a pain. I worry about the fan base. You know,
people love the NFL. And every time they have these
international games, you're losing a home game. And I think
it's wrong. I mean, you wait all year long. And
right now, that 49er-Ram game is a pretty darn good game.

(01:16:15):
And if that was going to be a home game
for whoever, you're going to miss one game. So instead
of eight, you're going to have seven or seven-six, whatever
it may be, which is a 17-game schedule. So you
have eight home games. I mean, it's wrong. I mean,
I just think that you just don't do it. And
for the betterment of the league, I guess they hurt
the fan for the betterment of the league. I don't
like it. I don't care when the international game is
good in the middle to the end. The beginning doesn't

(01:16:36):
make a difference. You're taking it away from the fan.

Speaker 5 (01:16:39):
Well, the Jaguars do it every year in London. And
then this game is a Rams home game. And I
feel like the Rams home games don't really feel like.
Home games.

Speaker 3 (01:16:48):
So I don't think it's a big deal on this one.

Speaker 1 (01:16:50):
If I'm a Rams fan and I'm a Rams season
ticket holder, I'm losing one game. Period. End of story.
It's wrong.

Speaker 7 (01:16:56):
Fair? Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:16:57):
I mean, you are losing the game, but it's also prorated.

Speaker 4 (01:17:00):
And it gives you a chance to hang out with
your Rams buddies at the favorite bar.

Speaker 2 (01:17:03):
You can go to Manhattan Beach, Hermosa, Redondo, wherever. Hang out.
Orange County. They can go.

Speaker 4 (01:17:08):
They can do all those things that are fun. All
the fun things they can do without having to go
to SoFi to do them.

Speaker 3 (01:17:14):
All right, let's move on. Andy, back to you.

Speaker 5 (01:17:17):
A Houston DoorDash customer said he was shocked when he
went to fetch his food from his doorstep and saw
on his security camera that his delivery driver was naked.

Speaker 3 (01:17:27):
Yay or nay?

Speaker 1 (01:17:28):
You know, this is yay, and I didn't want to
get too personal, but it was my DoorDash guy. I
wrote Houston in there, but it was my house, and
the guy was naked. And, you know, I said, what
are you doing? I said, you got cheap.

Speaker 4 (01:17:40):
How do you ask the guy— Why are you walking
outside talking to the naked man at your door?

Speaker 1 (01:17:48):
That's a big issue. It's DoorDash.

Speaker 3 (01:17:50):
You don't have to.

Speaker 2 (01:17:51):
Interact with him.

Speaker 4 (01:17:52):
Yeah, that's dead.

Speaker 1 (01:17:55):
That's not a thing. He wants to be naked? Let
him be naked. I don't care. Yay.

Speaker 2 (01:18:02):
Nah, I'm good on that. I don't want any DoorDash deliveries.
Don't post me deliveries with the naked man at the door.
Put on some clothes.

Speaker 3 (01:18:10):
Andy, naked near the food? We talked about this like
a month ago when there was that restaurant.

Speaker 1 (01:18:15):
He had no clothes but just gloves.

Speaker 2 (01:18:18):
Unacceptable. That's nasty. That's nasty body hair all in your food.

Speaker 1 (01:18:21):
It was nasty, but the big question of the day
was how do you get changed? Because I gave him
a couple of bills. I said, where's my change?

Speaker 2 (01:18:27):
Where do you keep the change? Why are you even engaging?
It's not Domino's Pizza where you can engage. Yeah, like, yeah,
that's not.

Speaker 1 (01:18:36):
I was hungry. That's why. I was hungry.

Speaker 4 (01:18:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:18:39):
All right.

Speaker 3 (01:18:39):
All right.

Speaker 5 (01:18:40):
Let's get away from that topic. Bucky, that's probably the
most I've ever agreed with you. I agree with you
on a lot. Andy, the most I've ever disagreed with
you on anything. uh all right last one real quick
bucky after michigan's hail mary win how do you feel
about a team that is the 16th uh ranked team

(01:19:01):
storming the field after a win against an unranked mac
opponent Because they did that.

Speaker 4 (01:19:05):
Yeah, well, they stormed the field just because, look, I'll
give grace to exceptional moments.

Speaker 2 (01:19:11):
That was an exceptional moment doing that.

Speaker 4 (01:19:15):
But in normal instances, nah, they shouldn't rock.

Speaker 2 (01:19:18):
The court and rock the floor unless it's Ohio State
or something like that. So, yeah, I'm not a big fan.

Speaker 1 (01:19:24):
I will tell you this much, Bucky, and maybe I'm
wrong on this. I guarantee you 99% of the people
that were storming the field had no idea what the
score was because they were loaded. That's the problem, really.
It's a party thing. They're all drinking. They're all screwed up.
They had a good buzz going on, and they had
no idea. They didn't even know who won, all right?
That's my take on that. But to play or not

(01:19:46):
to play, that's the real question. That and more right here,
Fox Football Sunday. Next on Fox. Oh, the controversy always
follows his name. That's right around the corner. Good morning, everybody.
This is Fox Football Sunday on Fox Sports Radio. He's
Bucky Brooks. I'm Andy Furman.

Speaker 2 (01:20:02):
You know what?

Speaker 1 (01:20:02):
We're broadcasting live from the Fox Sports Radio studios. And
by the way, if you missed any of today's show.
You want to catch the podcast, just search Fox Sports
Radio wherever you get your podcast right after the show.
Today's podcast will be posted. Be sure to follow the podcast,
rated five stars, and you can even provide a review. Again,
just search Fox Sports Radio wherever you get your podcast.

(01:20:24):
Follow the feed, and you'll find today's full show posted
right after we get off the air. And, Bucky, you
know what? This is the last day for our guy.
And he is Bucky Brooks, my partner. Let's get Bucky
a hand. Give him a hand, please. Studio audience, thank
you very much. Bucky, how are you? It's our last
day for JB.

Speaker 2 (01:20:41):
I'm good, I'm good, I'm good.

Speaker 7 (01:20:42):
I know.

Speaker 2 (01:20:43):
Last day for JB. Unfortunate.

Speaker 1 (01:20:47):
Are you really sad, JB? I mean, rumor has it
that you requested to get away from us. Is that true?

Speaker 3 (01:20:53):
I am very sad. I really enjoy working with you guys.

Speaker 5 (01:20:55):
I think it's been like two and a half months,
I think. Maybe about 10 or so shows.

Speaker 3 (01:21:01):
It's been a lot of fun. I'm sad that it's ending.

Speaker 1 (01:21:04):
You're one of the longer producers that we've had. People
come and go like the wind. They really do. If
it was my choice, I'd stay. But we're not that difficult.
Bucky and I are not that difficult to work with.

Speaker 3 (01:21:17):
On air, I'll say, okay, Andy, you're not that difficult
to work with.

Speaker 2 (01:21:20):
Oh, okay.

Speaker 1 (01:21:21):
Very good. Well, we wish you the best in your
future endeavors.

Speaker 3 (01:21:25):
Thank you, sir.

Speaker 1 (01:21:26):
Keep us informed what's going on with the Clippers, and
we'll miss you.

Speaker 2 (01:21:29):
All right?

Speaker 1 (01:21:29):
Thanks, sir. We talk about controversy, all right? And Lane
Kiffin is Mr. Controversial. And you know what, Bucky? You
hit it on the head. His controversy is planned to
protect his players. All right? I really believe that. They
didn't need those pro players to beat up on Clemson
the other day, yesterday. 51-10 was the score. They didn't
play Daquan Ryder and Xavier Harris. They weren't on the roster.

(01:21:54):
And this is after one day after a Louisiana judge
gave preliminary injunction clearing the way for LSU to play
these guys.

Speaker 2 (01:22:03):
All right?

Speaker 1 (01:22:03):
So here's the question. We're not going to talk about
Lane Kiffin anymore. We're going to talk about why players
get paid in college, okay, and they get paid as pros.
So why can't they get paid in college and coming
back from the pro? I don't understand the whole situation. Look,
you've got to bend with the times, all right? Initially,

(01:22:24):
I was saying, nah, they shouldn't get paid. This is
like two, three years ago. You know, they get paid
to get a scholarship.

Speaker 7 (01:22:28):
No, no.

Speaker 1 (01:22:29):
They're workers. They do a lot for the university. Let
them get paid, all right? So they got a couple
of years' eligibility remaining. They went to the pros. They
didn't make the pro team. They were getting paid there,
but they're getting paid in college anyway. So that qualifies
you under the umbrella as a pro. Let them come
back and play, right? Don't you agree, Buck?

Speaker 2 (01:22:49):
Yeah, really interesting.

Speaker 4 (01:22:52):
It's funny to take on this, right, because of Dean Jackson.
I just feel like that class... really was robbed of
a lot of the things that they should have been given.
The 2022 class, look, they didn't have a chance to
get the extra year. And because these– I feel like
everything has just been kind of throw it up at
the wall and see if it sticks.

Speaker 2 (01:23:10):
But because of.

Speaker 4 (01:23:11):
These initial rulings, one, NCAA, five for five is here immediately.

Speaker 2 (01:23:16):
No grace period, no work in, no.

Speaker 4 (01:23:18):
Grandfather clause, just this is what it is and now
these are final. That's not right and that's why some
of the rulings in court have gone against the NCAA.
All of this still centers from the fact that the
institutions in the NCAA, they don't want to sit down
with the players and have a collectively bargained agreement, one

(01:23:40):
where the players get to say, the coaches, the institutions,
they get to say, they make a set of rules,
and then everybody has to abide by the same rules.
But because the power structure is trying to keep that
structure in place where they get all the money and
they're mad that they're having to give some of the
money to the players, That's what this is all about.
And so until they wake up and understand, hey, we

(01:24:01):
collectively can still make a ton of money, it'll continue
to be what it's been, chaos.

Speaker 1 (01:24:07):
And the people in power have got to realize one thing.
No one cares about you. You're not the show. The
show are the guys that wear the uniforms. That's the show.
That's what people pay to see. That's what's on TV.
Not you. It's the players. And finally, the players have
a pair of hanging downs, and they're using them. They
really are. I don't get it. And the leaders of

(01:24:28):
the college football playoff, this happened on Friday. They said
they strongly support the positions of conferences prohibiting players return
to college teams. This is a joke. Because it started
with the Big Ten and the SEC followed, then the ACC.
It was crazy. And then all of a sudden, in
the middle of this, there was a judge that granted
an injunction to the pro players... seeking the return to LSU.

(01:24:49):
And then Lane Kiffin was right there until the 11th hour.
He said, nah, nah, he didn't need him. He got
the pros on his team anyway at LSU. But I
just don't understand. If you're getting paid on one level
and you're getting paid on the other level, you're considered
a pro. Anything that you get paid to do, you're
considered a professional. If I want to change a toilet
seat and I'm a plumber, I'm a professional plumber because

(01:25:11):
I'm getting paid.

Speaker 2 (01:25:12):
All right?

Speaker 1 (01:25:13):
These kids are getting paid. It doesn't make a difference
on what level you're on. And I think they should
get paid and should be allowed to come back and
play in college if they have eligibility remaining and still
get paid. End of story. And you know what, Buck?
I think it's going to happen. It's going to happen.
They're going to win out.

Speaker 2 (01:25:29):
Well, here's what I wonder, right?

Speaker 4 (01:25:32):
Because so much of this is still being, like— adjudicated
while the season is kicked off.

Speaker 2 (01:25:38):
Like we kicked off the season.

Speaker 4 (01:25:39):
We're two weeks into the season and now we're still
talking about who can play, who can't play, injunctions, conference rulings,
all of these things. At some point though, you have
to make a decision what it's going to be. And
I think what the Big Ten and the SEC are
trying to do, they can't do. You can't restrict these things.
You can't put this stuff in place. It's been proven
time and time again in court. That's not how you

(01:26:01):
can go about and do it, but it looks nice.
And You know, there were some other things, some proposals
and all this other stuff that are being baked into
the cake that just continues to take away from the players,
but enhance and enrich all of the people that are
in administration and the higher ups that benefit from these
schools being really good in athletics.

Speaker 1 (01:26:23):
You know, if you look at the situation right now
and scratch your head and say, you know what? I'm
surprised it took so long to get this done now.
This should have been done there in practice years ago.
I mean, I hear horror stories back in the 70s,
maybe early 80s, when these guys were getting NCAA basketball
players were getting $ 15 a month. $ 15 a month. You

(01:26:44):
can't even go to a movie for $ 15 a month.
That was the money the NCAA... So they knew at
the time, the NCAA knew that these kids are working
and they deserve something, but they gave them peanuts. They
gave them peanuts. Now, all of a sudden, they want
the floodgates coming in. And it should happen. Open them up.
Open the floodgates.

Speaker 4 (01:27:04):
Well, I mean, going back to when I was in college,
we would get per diem at the end of every game.
And the per diem Back then, so $ 89. 94, it was
$ 25 per game. All right, so after the game, home game,
because the training table wasn't open, they would give you
an envelope with $ 25.

Speaker 2 (01:27:20):
However, at the time, we had a dress code.

Speaker 4 (01:27:24):
And so in the dress code, you had to wear
like a collared shirt and a sweater to games. Well,
they billed us for the dress code stuff. So the
money that we should get after the game to $ 25,
we would get $ 10 until we paid up. the amount
for the dress code requirement, which was a shirt.

Speaker 2 (01:27:44):
And a cardigan.

Speaker 4 (01:27:45):
So when the NCAA talks, I'm probably not the most
sympathetic ear to hear them because it was very restricted.
You couldn't work during those times. And so all of it,
out of greed, has led to where we are now.

Speaker 2 (01:28:01):
And so, like.

Speaker 4 (01:28:03):
You have to sit down with the players and negotiate
a thing. If you're tired of all the things that
are going on, whether it's NIL, pay for play, cost
of attendance, where the players are getting checks for those
things and all of that, if you're mad about all that,
then sit down at a table, figure out what's fair,
and set rules in place so that everyone is operating

(01:28:25):
with the same number monetarily and all that other stuff
so it's fair. But people don't want to do that.
They don't want to sit at a table with the players.

Speaker 1 (01:28:35):
Well, the players want to do it. I think the
players would do it. I think the power people would force.

Speaker 2 (01:28:39):
Them to do it. able to unionize.

Speaker 4 (01:28:42):
So you've got to figure out who is going to
be the representative of the players. They have to get
in a union to have representation. Some states in the.

Speaker 2 (01:28:51):
Country bust unions up. So all of these things have
to go into place.

Speaker 4 (01:28:54):
So, like, we're putting the cart well ahead of the
horse and all this other stuff because now we have
congresspeople involved in every state is different based on are
they pro-employer or pro-employee.

Speaker 1 (01:29:08):
Well, the problem also, I think, on the other side
of the coin is that who's in charge on the
other side? Is it the conferences? Is it the NCAA?
Is it the court system? That's the problem right there.
When conferences go one by one saying that we don't
want these ex-pros to come back and play in college,
then all of a sudden a judge order says, hey,
you can play. I don't think it's about the money bug.

(01:29:31):
I think it's about power. Who's going to reign the power?
And honestly, the players have to realize they have it.
They have the trump card. The players have it all.
They have the power. They just need a leader. That's
their problem.

Speaker 2 (01:29:43):
Yeah, they've always had the power.

Speaker 4 (01:29:45):
And because the power is the services, the game doesn't
exist without the players. Like you can have all the
great coaches, but the coaches don't have great players. It
doesn't matter. No one's going to tune in for that.
You're not tuning in. to quote-unquote watch Lane Kiffin if
he doesn't have great players with him. It can't be
the show that it's been. So the players need to
realize they have the power. They need to get together

(01:30:05):
and organize, unionize, and then with the union comes all
these things that people are talking about that will benefit
them because then they'll be able to talk about all
of their interests, not just to here and now, but long-term.
They can talk about the money they get now, but okay,
what's about later? What about insurance down the line 20,
30 years? What about annuities and those things or whatever.

(01:30:27):
What about if I leave and I don't graduate? Are
there other things that are put into place to help
me go back? Like all of those things you can negotiate.
So if the institutions still want to remain the institutions
and believe that college sports are about higher learning and
those things, there are things that can be negotiated in
place to ensure that it has that look and feel.

Speaker 1 (01:30:50):
I'm surprised there hasn't been an enterprising attorney that has
come to the forefront and say, look, I'll handle this.
I'm going to bring it all together. I'm surprised some
attorney or some firm has not come together and say, look,
I'm going to represent the players. I'm really shocked that
no one has thought about that.

Speaker 2 (01:31:06):
I think they have done it.

Speaker 4 (01:31:08):
I think some of these things that you're seeing, it's
the same handful of law firms that are involved in
these cases, and they know it's going to be very
lucrative for them at Sometime or another. And so these
people are definitely benefiting from that and they're making it happen.

Speaker 1 (01:31:26):
Well, I will say this. Sometimes change is good. Sometimes
not only change is good, sometimes change is needed. And
this change has been needed for a long time. There's
change now in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, too.
Thank goodness. Thank goodness. But it's too bad that our
good friend Bill Belichick had to be the reason for
the change because he was snubbed. He was snubbed from
the Pro Football Hall of Fame during his first year
as an eligible candidate last February. How in the world

(01:31:50):
could Bill Belichick not get into the Hall of Fame
on a first ballot? That is the biggest joke ever.
I mean, really and truly. And there has been a
lot of pushback about that. But now the president of
the hall, Jim Porter, announced that they're going to make
some massive changes. It's about freaking time, really. And some
of the changes are committee size. The selection committee reduced
from 50 to 28. All right. And you know what?

(01:32:12):
I think it has to be a little more transparent.
I have no idea who's on that committee of 50,
and I don't know who's on there for 28. I'd
like to know who's voting and who didn't vote for
Bill Belichick. Wouldn't you like to see that? I think
the public needs to see that.

Speaker 4 (01:32:25):
I mean, yeah, it'd be nice to be able to
see it. But I mean, those things are what they
are when it comes to it. Like, I'm glad that
they've changed the process and they've created a little more
transparency in the process. They got rid of some of
the people that, like before, let's just say I was
last playing for Jacksonville. So the beat reporter from Jacksonville
or the representative down there would basically state my case,

(01:32:47):
which is great. But Ultimately, if the players deem to
be one of the best players in.

Speaker 2 (01:32:53):
Ball, we all should know them.

Speaker 4 (01:32:55):
We all should have a feel for them, and we
should know their arguments and those things.

Speaker 2 (01:32:59):
I think cutting it down.

Speaker 4 (01:33:01):
From 50 to 28, really to 25, really helps them
narrow the focus, and it allows them to keep the
standard high when it comes to who can come in and.

Speaker 2 (01:33:09):
Who's left out of the hall.

Speaker 1 (01:33:12):
Okay, here's an interesting one. There's about seven changes. I'm
not going to go through all of them. One of
them that really struck me is player eligibility. The seniors
category was going to be eliminated now. Everyone now goes
into a single pool of all eligible candidates following the
mandatory five-year retirement period. So the thing that dawned on
me when I read this is that Kenny Anderson, who

(01:33:33):
I loved to death and he was an MVP, played
quarterback for the Cincinnati Bengals, he should be in the
Hall of Fame. Now I think it's going to be
even rougher for him because there's such a backlog of
regular players that have waited five years. He would have
been in the senior category. He'll never get it now.
I mean, I think that's wrong. I think they should
keep that senior category like they have in baseball. Baseball

(01:33:55):
has the senior category, too. You know, guys like Bill
Mazeroski made it on the senior category. He never would
have made it if it was a regular category. I mean,
his lifetime average is like 260. His claim to fame
is that home run in the 1960 World Series. Bill Mazeroski,
in my heart of hearts, is not a Hall of Famer,
but the veterans got him in on the Veterans Committee.
But they're not going to have that in the NFL.

(01:34:16):
What's your take on that?

Speaker 2 (01:34:19):
Yeah, that's sad because there's fewer guys that can go in.

Speaker 4 (01:34:21):
They talk about having classes where you're only going to
have five to eight guys that are admitted every year,
cutting down the number of finalists, maybe 13 plus two contributors,
and there's another category that pushes it to 15. Yeah,
it's going to be hard to get into the Hall,
but I'll be honest with you. It should be hard
to get into the Hall of Fame.

Speaker 1 (01:34:40):
I agree.

Speaker 2 (01:34:41):
We talk about what the Hall of Fame is.

Speaker 4 (01:34:43):
It should be reserved only for the best of the best,
and Every draft class doesn't produce a Hall of Famer.
Every year doesn't showcase a Hall of Famer. We just
have to be careful of anointing people as gold jacket
guys before they have a long track record of gold
jacket caliber performers.

Speaker 2 (01:35:03):
Right.

Speaker 1 (01:35:04):
This is your category, the contributor eligibility, okay? I love
you to death, but you're not going to get in
there as a player, all right? We agree. It's not
a knock on you. You made the NFL. That's tremendous.

Speaker 2 (01:35:14):
Right.

Speaker 1 (01:35:15):
But this category could be for Bucky Brooks. It's going
to expand from individuals who contributed to the game outside
of playing or coaching to to consideration of a candidate's
full football resume that's you i mean what you do
uh nfl tv fox sports radio nfl.com you need to
be in the hall of fame all right with the

(01:35:35):
contributions you've made to the game what do you think.

Speaker 4 (01:35:39):
I mean i can't vote myself in there if i
could vote myself in i would but i can't.

Speaker 1 (01:35:43):
Um how do you get that going how can we
get that.

Speaker 4 (01:35:46):
Move i mean i think i think you have to
be where your feet are so for me that is
just doing a really good job of the work that
I'm giving. And when you get bigger opportunities, you take
advantage of them. And once you do that over time,
people begin to respect your work to the point where
they're like, oh, okay, we have to consider him for X, Y,
and Z. The only thing that you can do in
all these circumstances is control the part that you can control.

Speaker 2 (01:36:08):
Your effort, how hard you work, your attitude. Do you
stay positive about it or do you get negative? That's
all that matters.

Speaker 1 (01:36:14):
Do you have to be nominated? In other words, if
I were to write a letter to the hall and
say I'm nominating Bucky Brooks, would that help? Does that count?
How does that work?

Speaker 4 (01:36:23):
No, I don't think that helps. I think you have
to be in. I think they come up with a
list of nominees based on eligibility.

Speaker 2 (01:36:30):
My name would hurt you.

Speaker 1 (01:36:31):
I don't want to hurt you. So ask permission first.

Speaker 2 (01:36:34):
Yeah, no, they talk about it.

Speaker 4 (01:36:36):
They know, like, okay, this class, here are the guys
that are eligible, the new eligible players, because we get
an email. Players get an email about that. And they're like,
all right, these guys are five years removed or whatever.
So now, and they continue to do that. You have
a working list that you operate on. But everyone knows
within reason. Everyone knows what a Hall of Fame player

(01:36:58):
looks like, feels like, or whatever, whether you're on their team,
whether you're in the press box, or just a casual fan.
You have a tendency to know what that looks and
feels like.

Speaker 1 (01:37:08):
There's one more rule change. It's carry over candidates. Under
the old rule of the Hall of Fame, if a
player was a finalist for the Hall, he would automatically
return as a finalist the following year. That's not going
to be the case. I like that rule. It doesn't
necessarily mean if you didn't get in one year, you
shouldn't get in the next. I mentioned this once before
to you. Pete Rose once told me this, that You know,

(01:37:29):
the Hall of Fame should be, if you don't get
in the first time, you shouldn't get in at all.
Because you don't get any better. It's logical when he
says that, but it's never going to happen. But it's true.
You don't get voted in the first time. You're not
going to get into the Hall. You're not getting any
better the longer you wait on that list. So you
shouldn't be automatically put back on that list again. You know,
if you get in, you get in. If you don't,

(01:37:50):
you don't. You've got to be the best of the best.
It's tough. It's a tremendous honor to be in the Hall.
And everybody doesn't get in, and they shouldn't.

Speaker 4 (01:38:00):
Yeah, I mean, like, it's exclusivity that it needs to have.
And you're always going to have some bruised feelings and
some hurt egos, but who cares? I mean, that's just
kind of what it is. You're trying to tighten it down.
You're trying to make it where it is for the
best of the best. And you're also trying to adhere
to the NFL couldn't tell a story without the contributions
of this person. Like, that's also what it's really, really,

(01:38:22):
really about. Like, so let's make sure that the people
that you bring in did contribute at a level that
it impacted the game and it put the story along.

Speaker 2 (01:38:31):
Let's not just.

Speaker 4 (01:38:34):
Stat chase or hunt or whatever, but let's make sure
the dominance was real and it was felt by everybody
when that person was.

Speaker 2 (01:38:39):
In the building.

Speaker 1 (01:38:40):
Yeah, and I'll tell you this much. I'm not too
keen on voting these owners into the Hall of Fame.
I get it. You got the money. You bought a team.
Big whoop. Okay, Woody Johnson should never– should not be
allowed to be in the Hall of Fame, let alone
be in the Hall of Fame in Canton. I mean,
just because you buy a team doesn't mean you're a
Hall of Fame guy. And that's what happens most of

(01:39:02):
the time. I mean, you got guys– I mean, Jerry Jones–
Kind of changed the marketing aspect a little bit of
the NFL. But, again, is he a Hall of Famer?
Should he be in the Hall of Fame, Jerry Jones, honestly?
I mean, he has three Super Bowls, right? He will
get in. I know he will.

Speaker 2 (01:39:16):
Yeah, he has three Super Bowls. He did change the landscape.
You can't tell the.

Speaker 4 (01:39:22):
Story of the NFL without Jerry Jones and the Cowboys.
Think about the rise of the Cowboys. Think about what
those independent marketing deals did. When the league was with Visa,
he was with Amex. When the league was with Coke,
he decided to go with Pepsi. Whatever it is, like
he was a contrarian. Think about how he raised the
valuation of the Cowboys, like of ownership.

Speaker 2 (01:39:45):
He does that.

Speaker 4 (01:39:46):
And then whatever deals that he's responsible for on the
whatever committees he used to chair, part of the reason
the league is what the league is is because he
played a big part in growing the brand of the
National Football League, which is why he certainly deserves to
be in there.

Speaker 2 (01:40:01):
And Robert Kraft is going to be next.

Speaker 1 (01:40:04):
And he did help the even Stephen of sharing of
revenue of merchandising and marketing, which is great. Because, you know,
in the years past, a market like L.A. or New York,
they're going to get more monies because they've got bigger
populations than at Green Bay. But now everybody gets equal,
which is good, which is a deal that he did.
So I can see that with Jerry Jones. But other owners,

(01:40:26):
I don't know. I just don't see it. All right.
He's Bucky Brooks. Get him on X at Bucky Brooks
at Andy from an FSR or... 877-99 on Fox. If
you want to say goodbye to JB, because it's his
last day today. And JB, you told me you got
a phone call from someone from Jacksonville. Where was that from?

Speaker 3 (01:40:45):
Yeah, it was from Jacksonville. A very nice man. We
had a nice conversation.

Speaker 1 (01:40:49):
Now, wait a minute. Was it a family member of yours?

Speaker 3 (01:40:53):
I have no family in Jacksonville.

Speaker 1 (01:40:55):
Okay, just checking. I thought, you know, it's a planted
call or something. All right, say goodbye to JV.

Speaker 3 (01:40:59):
Bucky, put him up, too.

Speaker 1 (01:41:00):
Say, hi, Betty. Maybe. 877-99 on Fox, 877-996-6369. We've got
the blame game at the bottom of this hour on
Fox Football Sunday, and we are live from the Fox
Sports Radio Studios. But we saved the worst for last.
That's next. All right, these are the cellar dwellers in 2026.
And you know what? They're all yours coming right up.

(01:41:22):
This is Fox Football Sunday on Fox Sports Radio. He's
Bucky Brooks. I'm Andy Furman. And, of course, we have
the blame game coming up in about 10, 12 minutes
from now. But believe it or not, Bucky, this is
an amazing stat that our guy JB, Julian's leaving after today.
And he's got a support system. People are calling up

(01:41:44):
to say goodbye to him. I can't believe this. I
want to hear it for a fact. Wayne in L.A.,
you're on Fox Football Sunday with Bucky Brooks.

Speaker 7 (01:41:53):
Good morning. I was saving my ammunition for the season
to start, but when I heard about my man J.B. leaving, man,
let me tell y'all something. That's breaking a wheel that
ain't even broke. You know, it's an old saying, like,
if it ain't broke, don't fix it. What's happening? You know,

(01:42:14):
without JB, you know, that's like, what, taking James Brown
from the JBs. You know, it ain't no JBs without
James Brown. You know, JB got to be in there.
He's the main man.

Speaker 1 (01:42:29):
Thanks, man.

Speaker 9 (01:42:30):
I feel good.

Speaker 7 (01:42:33):
You know what I'm saying? Come on now. But J.B., man,
every Sunday, well, not every Sunday, but when I call
in consistent, he's always consistent on the phone and everything.
You know, we talk for a few minutes and he
put me on. And, you know, let me give him
a little few words in which I really appreciate. You know,
but J.B. is a good guy.

Speaker 2 (01:42:55):
I don't know.

Speaker 7 (01:42:56):
I don't have no saying in it.

Speaker 9 (01:42:58):
I wish I did.

Speaker 1 (01:42:58):
Neither do I. Bucky and I had nothing to do
with this, right, Buck? We're out of here.

Speaker 2 (01:43:03):
No.

Speaker 3 (01:43:03):
Me neither.

Speaker 7 (01:43:05):
But I'm just saying, you know, as a bona fide
Fox Sports listener, man, look here. Don't break the show
down without J.B.

Speaker 2 (01:43:15):
Hepner.

Speaker 7 (01:43:15):
Well, make sure to get J.B. in time for the
season opener. I'm out, and I will be calling y'all
next week, and I hope I'll be able to get there. J.B.,
my man, you take care of yourself, for sure.

Speaker 3 (01:43:27):
You're the man.

Speaker 1 (01:43:28):
Thank you for the call. Thank you for your support, Wayne.
There we go. The Bear! The Bear in Tennessee with
Bucky Brooks on Fox Football Sunday. Bear, what part of
Tennessee are you from?

Speaker 9 (01:43:38):
I'm from the middle of the north, right above Nashville. And,
you know, I want to second what the caller just said, man.
You know, this is my first time calling, but, you
know what I'm saying, JB the ringmaster, you need something
out of the ring, you in, Andy. So I commend
him for that. And justice for JB, that's all I'm

(01:43:59):
going to say about that.

Speaker 3 (01:44:01):
Thanks, man.

Speaker 9 (01:44:01):
But I do, yes, sir, I do enjoy the show
and just, you know, I agree with– I mean, I
pretty much agree with him all the time, you know,
even though I'm a Titans fan. But, Andy, I love.

Speaker 1 (01:44:14):
You, man.

Speaker 9 (01:44:15):
For all accounts, man, you're like the nicest man in radio. But,
you know, you got an awful lot to take sometimes.
But I just wanted to really comment on the– I
kind of disagree with Bucky, but, you know, he lived it.
You know, he played college sports, and I understand, you know,
the way the players– because, you know, scholarships was year

(01:44:35):
to year. They could come to you and kick you
out any time you want. So I'm glad– I'm for
the players having, you know what I'm saying, a cut
of the pie and everything. I just want to push
back a little bit on the union stuff. I just–
First of all, like the logistics of that, man. How
many college players is it? I mean, it's going to
turn around every year. And, you know, I just, in

(01:44:58):
my mind, just envision college players striking. I just, oh,
that would just destroy me. So I'm just going to
leave it kind of like it is, let the schools
play them all an equal amount, and then let the
boosters come in and clean it up however they want
to do it, man, and just let everybody do what
they're doing. Maybe I'm wrong, but, man, just the idea

(01:45:19):
of a union just– I mean, look, you should have unions, but,
you know, employees do get treated unfairly in this world. But,
you know, just in that, I just, God, just thinking
of them striking and missing game, that's just a little
bit much for me. But, man, I love the show, man,
and I'm going to hang up and listen, man, and
y'all have a great day.

Speaker 1 (01:45:37):
All right.

Speaker 2 (01:45:38):
Yeah, I understand.

Speaker 4 (01:45:39):
Yeah, I understand the concerns over using this. Funny to me,
people are so worried about unions and those things. But
the only way that you can come to an agreement,
You have to have representation, which would mean you have
to unionize.

Speaker 2 (01:45:54):
Otherwise, it will continue to be the wild, wild west.

Speaker 4 (01:45:57):
What you have now are antitrust exemptions that the NCAA
has been granted, but they operated like a nonprofit entity
for so long, even though we have seen the bottom
line and the money and those things. Well, the reason
why the courts and the Supreme Court did this said that, hey,
you can't do these things because you've been granted these things.

(01:46:20):
If you want this, you have to give up that.
They're trying to live in both worlds and they can't.
And so unionizing for the players then allows them to
come up with a collective bargaining agreement that all the
parties can be satisfied in. And even though we're so
used to the NCAA and coaches and all these institutions

(01:46:41):
making decisions on behalf of the student-athletes, The student athletes
have say now.

Speaker 2 (01:46:47):
So you can't exclude them from the.

Speaker 4 (01:46:48):
Process when you're talking about what they can and what
they can't do. So unionizing is the only way to
be able to do it, unless there's another way to
kind of come up with a mediation or arbitration thing.
But you have to have someone that represents the players.
They have to have a seat at the table.

Speaker 1 (01:47:04):
I agree with you. I agree with you a thousand percent.
There we go. Mike in Florida, you're on Fox Football
Sunday with Bucky Books. Mike, what part of Florida are
you from?

Speaker 9 (01:47:14):
A Popco. It's right next to Orlando.

Speaker 1 (01:47:17):
All right. What's up? Like I told the other guy,
I mean, y'all were talking about players coming back.

Speaker 9 (01:47:25):
LeBron James hasn't played a minute of college basketball. Why
can't he play?

Speaker 1 (01:47:31):
He'll be lucky if he can play a full season
in the NBA. I mean, come on, really? I mean,
we're talking about football right now anyway, but, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:47:38):
But no, I mean, like, look, that's it. And look,
I am... I am for that.

Speaker 4 (01:47:43):
There has to be some standards and stipulation when it
comes to eligibility and when eligibility runs.

Speaker 2 (01:47:48):
Out in those things.

Speaker 4 (01:47:50):
And you have to have that in the marketplace. You
have to have those standards and whatever. I think what
everyone is trying to get is like, What is and
what isn't now when it comes to eligibility and earning
money and all those things. And now the courts have
said one thing. So that's the thing. Like we can

(01:48:12):
say like a eligibility this and that. But if it's
not binding by the core system then you can't prohibit
the players from not doing that so when we talk
about coming together and having a a clear set of
rules that they can go by they can do that
but they can't do it in terms of creating rules
without having somebody represent the players to make sure that

(01:48:34):
Their voice, their matter, they've said it is fair and
equal when it comes to putting together a deal. It
hasn't been that in the past, but that's been proven
to be untrue or not right in the court system.

Speaker 1 (01:48:44):
Yeah, he mentioned LeBron James. There has to be a
timeline when eligibility is expired. That's the key right there.
You're right. LeBron never went to college, and he probably
has four years under his belt, really. But it should
have expired by now, and he's not.

Speaker 2 (01:48:57):
Going to play.

Speaker 4 (01:48:58):
No, but like now, if he came in a different sport,
like let's just say because of the amateurism rule or whatever,
like he's gone to the pros, he's done all that
or whatever.

Speaker 2 (01:49:06):
But remember, his teammate, J.R. Smith, J.R.

Speaker 4 (01:49:09):
Smith competed for a long time as an NBA player.
But went back to college and was a collegiate golfer
because he hasn't used up his eligibility. He is now
on a side tour playing golf. So if LeBron James
wanted to go back and do another sport, go at
it because he wasn't a professional in that sport. He's

(01:49:30):
a professional in this sport. And so, like, that's the
difference when it comes to it. The definition of professional,
professionalism and those things, it's been great for some of
those guys that we're saying, hey, they're pros that are
coming back. We're not saying that, like, every pro, B.
John Robinson can't come back and continue to go play.
But what we're saying is some of those guys that

(01:49:51):
were in those gray worlds, those gray areas, based on
whatever it is, COVID or whatever, those guys have been
eligible to come back to return, so you can't begrudge
them for coming back.

Speaker 1 (01:50:02):
So LeBron could go back to a college and play
football if he wanted to.

Speaker 4 (01:50:04):
If he wanted to play football or another sport, yeah,
because he hasn't used up any eligibility in college. It's
just because he's a professional in basketball. He can't go
back and be a collegiate basketball player. He can go
back and be a collegiate whatever else he wants to be,
but not a basketball player.

Speaker 2 (01:50:22):
Right.

Speaker 1 (01:50:23):
You know, I think the public needs to be educated
on these rules as well. Because I think a lot
of the college athletes don't know the entire rules. Do
you think? I don't think they do. I think if
you were to ask a collegiate athlete right now, I
think they might be somewhat confused.

Speaker 4 (01:50:42):
Well, I mean, that's some of the problems when it
comes to some of the things that are going on.
Like the rules have been so confusing, so restrictive. So
toss it up against the wall and see what it
sticks like. that it's hard to understand. What can I do?
What can I do? I can, you know, I can,
I can, I can. Go to an autograph show or

(01:51:03):
I can't go to an autograph show. I can make
money or I can't make money. Like all those things.
And so because there hasn't been clear lines or clear
definitions on what you can and what you can't do,
that's why we're having so many issues because it hasn't
been a very buttoned up thing. And everyone can say
whatever they want. I would say this is the NCAA's

(01:51:23):
fault because they weren't very clear or consistent about with
what they put out. And if there was clear, consistent
rules and the litigation of rules and those things, that'd
be one thing.

Speaker 2 (01:51:35):
But it hasn't been that, which is why I said
Wild Wild West.

Speaker 1 (01:51:39):
You know, it's funny you mention that because yesterday, the
Ohio State University inducted Jim Trestle into their ring of honor.
But again, he was involved in a situation when the
football players on his team were trading memorabilia, championship rings
for tattoos and cash, right? Did that happen back then? Like, really,

(01:52:01):
think about that. For tattoos.

Speaker 2 (01:52:04):
And everyone was up in arms and, oh, my God. Like,
think about it. Like, that's what we're talking about.

Speaker 4 (01:52:10):
One of the great men or whatever is, like, sent
to the sidelines forever basically because.

Speaker 2 (01:52:15):
Of a tattoo scandal on that. But, yeah, like, that's.

Speaker 4 (01:52:19):
That's what we're talking about. We go back and we
look at some of the things that we're talking. I mean,
that we were really, really upset about is that.

Speaker 2 (01:52:26):
And I'll say this.

Speaker 4 (01:52:28):
Part of the reason why so many people are having
a hard time because it's been beaten into our head
about amateurism.

Speaker 2 (01:52:34):
Amateur. You can't do this. You can't do that. Amateur
to amateurs to amateurs.

Speaker 4 (01:52:38):
At no point were they ever amateurs, though, like like
60 hour work weeks for the students, you know, the
student athletes. And I know people talk about the scholarship
and all that. And that is absolutely great. And I
am an education advocate and I support it. However, we're
talking about a billion dollar industry where the only people
weren't weren't seeing the benefits of the money being exchanged.

Speaker 2 (01:53:00):
Were the players.

Speaker 4 (01:53:01):
And I'm not saying that players needed to get paid
like professionals. However, there needed to be something done to
level up that equation.

Speaker 2 (01:53:10):
And what happened is like, I mean, all pigs get slaughtered.

Speaker 4 (01:53:14):
So when you're so greedy and you consume everything and
you don't want to give out little things to the
players to make some of the student lives better. Well, yeah,
ultimately it comes down to this, and then we're seeing
a course correction that eventually will come back and we'll
find a meeting, like a middle ground. But, yeah, it's
been murky because the grief for so long and so
many people taking off of the backs of the players.

Speaker 1 (01:53:37):
No doubt about that. Well said. It really is.

Speaker 7 (01:53:40):
All right.

Speaker 1 (01:53:40):
He's Bucky Brooks. I'm Andy Furman. We are Fox Football
Sunday on Fox Sports Radio. And, yes, this is it.
The last go-round for JB. The blame game is freaking next.
All right, the Blame Game coming right up. It's about
11 minutes before the top of the hour on Fox
Football Sunday. And the top of the hour will be
9 o'clock on the East Coast. Countdown with Brian O,

(01:54:03):
Jeff Schwartz, and Bill Krakenberger. We'll be here on Fox
Sports Radio. By the way, he's Bucky Brooks. I'm Andy Furman,
and we're live from the Fox Sports Radio studios. And
for the last time, for the last time for JB,
it's time for the Blame Game.

Speaker 9 (01:54:15):
You ruined me.

Speaker 1 (01:54:16):
It's all your fault. No, it's your fault. This is
all your fault.

Speaker 2 (01:54:21):
This is all your fault. This is all your fault.

Speaker 1 (01:54:24):
Maybe it's everyone's fault.

Speaker 2 (01:54:25):
Who knows?

Speaker 1 (01:54:26):
He's a liar. That's why there's the blame game. The
blame game. Let's figure out who to blame.

Speaker 4 (01:54:32):
All right.

Speaker 1 (01:54:33):
This is you, baby. It's your last chance. The last
call for you.

Speaker 3 (01:54:37):
You ruined me, Andy.

Speaker 1 (01:54:38):
Stop crying. Stop crying. Dry your eyes.

Speaker 3 (01:54:41):
There's so many tears. I'm emotional.

Speaker 5 (01:54:44):
All right, let's get into this, Andy. The Pro Football
Hall of Fame completely revamped their selection process following Bill
Belichick's snub last year, including cutting the selection committee in
half from 50 to 25.

Speaker 3 (01:54:56):
Who do you blame?

Speaker 1 (01:55:00):
Well, I think you got to blame Robert Kraft. He
had a lot to do with that. I really believe
he did. But you know what? It was a bad
system anyway. It was a bad, stupid system. It's really
backed up. We'll see if it's any better right now.
50 people voting. I mean, really? And it needs to
be a little more transparent as far as I'm concerned.
So we'll see what happens. But not to have Belichick
in the Hall of Fame. It's a joke. I mean, really,

(01:55:22):
it's like having a football conversation without Bucky Brooks.

Speaker 2 (01:55:27):
All right.

Speaker 4 (01:55:28):
Look, it needed to change just in terms of there's
so many snubs and near misses, and there appeared to
be a lot of biases when it came into being
able to pick the right people to be inducted. And
I understand we want to keep the bar high, and
there are a lot of players that have done phenomenal
things in the league, but it should be the best
of the best. And I think sometimes the biases amongst

(01:55:50):
the selection committee prevented some of those best guys from getting.

Speaker 2 (01:55:52):
In right away when they should have.

Speaker 5 (01:55:54):
All right, Bucky, one of your top five cornerbacks in
the NFL, according to your recent article, Christian Gonzalez is
still without a contract despite being the best, arguably the
best player on their Super Bowl run team last season.
And the vibes are not good around that situation. Who
do you blame for this contract dispute?

Speaker 2 (01:56:15):
Look, both sides.

Speaker 4 (01:56:16):
I'm sure Christian Gonzalez wanted to be paid as the
highest paid defender ever. ball. And I'm sure Robert Kraft
probably constructed a contract that put him in there and
probably fudged the numbers. But I'm sure it's something about
either the guaranteed money, meaning the money that comes due
right away that I know I'm guaranteed to get, or
the length of the contract.

Speaker 2 (01:56:35):
Do I want a longer deal? Do I want a
shorter deal? Shorter deal brings me back to the market quicker.
Those things.

Speaker 4 (01:56:41):
Look, this is much to do about nothing. He'll get
his money, but He has to make a determination. Does
he give him a bit of a discount, or does
he have to take it all the way to term
to see if he can get the maximum amount of
dollars that he wants?

Speaker 1 (01:56:54):
All he's got to do is dial up Diana Rossini,
get it done. He'll get it done. Call Diana. She'll
get it done. According to Vrabel, he's done with that situation.
He doesn't want to talk about it anymore.

Speaker 3 (01:57:05):
It's over with.

Speaker 1 (01:57:06):
Just like you're going to be done with us, there's
no way. You'll be thinking about us the rest of
your life.

Speaker 5 (01:57:12):
I'll probably fill in at some point. All right, let's
move on. Andy, the 49ers have been in Australia since Wednesday.
The Rams haven't left yet and plan to arrive 24
hours before the game.

Speaker 3 (01:57:21):
Who do you blame?

Speaker 1 (01:57:23):
Their travel agent, for sure, right? I mean, I'd rather
go for a couple of weeks. I mean, they're going
for a week. It's great. And the Rams in and out,
I don't know. Maybe the Rams don't have enough changes
of clothing. Maybe that's the deal with the 49ers, you know,
for a couple of suitcases, really. I mean, the Rams
are going with an overnight bag.

Speaker 4 (01:57:42):
Actually, I've seen the Rams do this, like they did
last year going to London. And there's some science behind it.
Like you never allow your body clock to get on
a different time. Because remember, they're going to come right
back and have to play week two. So you're trying
to stay on California time. Hey, get to Australia. Let's
get down. Your body doesn't know. Let's play right away.
Let's get back on the plane and get back to

(01:58:03):
Cali because we've got a game in week two.

Speaker 2 (01:58:04):
To me, it makes a lot of sense.

Speaker 4 (01:58:06):
I've done the back and forth, to turn and burn
trips to london without really feeling it i think this
is a smart strategy for the rams and the best
long-term interests of their team to be ready not only
for week one but week two.

Speaker 1 (01:58:19):
I thought the 49ers were going by boat or they're
going by plane huh okay.

Speaker 3 (01:58:24):
The Rams have definitely earned the benefit of the doubt.

Speaker 2 (01:58:26):
All right.

Speaker 5 (01:58:27):
The next one, Kathy Engelbert is retiring as WNBA commissioner
after the season.

Speaker 3 (01:58:33):
Bucky, who do you blame?

Speaker 4 (01:58:35):
Look, she had a few misdeeds and missteps and the
I would say the PR crisis that was overshadowing the league.

Speaker 2 (01:58:43):
Had so many voices weighing in.

Speaker 4 (01:58:45):
People have made this a game of political football when
it comes to the WNBA.

Speaker 2 (01:58:49):
She just didn't manage it the right way.

Speaker 4 (01:58:52):
She could have put a kibosh on all of it early,
and her league would have continued to flourish without all
of this noise around it.

Speaker 1 (01:59:00):
You know, I don't want to use the term she's
retiring or leaving. She's getting the boot. They're asking her
to leave. Let's be honest right now, right? She didn't
get the job done. She's a poor commissioner for whatever
the reason. A lot of controversy surrounding her. Hey, she
did some good. They expanded while she was there. They
had Toronto. They got Golden State. They did okay there.
But other than that, too much internal chatter. Not good.

Speaker 3 (01:59:21):
All right, last one. Very, very quickly.

Speaker 5 (01:59:24):
Andy and Bucky, I'm yet to receive my tickets to
East Palestine, Ohio.

Speaker 3 (01:59:27):
Who do you blame?

Speaker 1 (01:59:29):
We'll take care of that end of the show.

Speaker 2 (01:59:30):
Oh, it is you. We figured it out.

Speaker 1 (01:59:32):
We're going to go with you. We're going to go.
We're taking a quick bounce game that weekend. There we go.

Speaker 3 (01:59:37):
Mark's coming, too.

Speaker 1 (01:59:38):
Oh, Mark will go. There we go. All right. It's
great having you, JB. God bless you. We'll speak to
you real soon.

Speaker 7 (01:59:44):
All right.

Speaker 1 (01:59:45):
Countdown next right here on Fox Sports Radio.

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