Bernie Fratto talks the College Football Alliance and Hard Knocks!

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Don't listen Fox Sports. Do not, do not, do not
touch that dial. You heard the man. It's time for
Fox Sports Sunday. As we kick off the day with
great enthusiasm and we are ready, so please put your
seatbacks forward on your trade tables upright for takeoff. My

(00:21):
name is Bernie Fraddenham Comedy Alive from the Las Vegas
Fox Sports Radio Studios. We'll take you up to three
am Pacific, six am Eastern and along with my savvy
and capable crew bol Benson, Chris Perffett and Brian Finley,
he's on the updates. Well done, man the ship from
our Los Angeles compound. As usual, We've got a lot
on the docket tonight, including a full NFL division by

(00:44):
division preview. Yes, I'm gonna cover all eight divisions later
in the show with predictions, and of course, our weekly
Hard Knocks update coming up. My irreverent thoughts on the
University of Michigan study regarding certain foods and they can
shorten your life by what thirty six minutes? Huh? Seriously,
thirty six minutes? How they arrive at that? I'll have

(01:06):
some fun with that one. Plus, speaking of fun, I'm
going to introduce you to the Savannah Bananas, the most
entertaining team in all of baseball. Bill Veck would be proud.
I'll explain. But but but we start with the biggest
story of the week, his college football embarking on a
civil war. Pick your side. We've got a new alliance.

(01:30):
So what does it all mean? Peewee? Well, let's start
with the headline. On Tuesday, the Big Ten, the A
c C in the PAC twelve formally announced an alliance
regarding matters including college football playoff expansion and non conference scheduling.
So the three conferences they formed this Tuesday alliance in

(01:53):
the wake of of course, Texas and Oklahoma has moved
the SEC, which is supposedly related to go into affect
but I just feel that could happen sooner. And of course,
the other eight teams currently in the Big twelve, whether
they have not found future homes, uh, well, they have
not found a home in future years, and so we'll

(02:14):
see what happens there. But the alliance between the Big Ten,
A c C and PAC twelve includes what's called quote
a scheduling component for football and men's and women's basketball.
It's it which might make for some interesting matchups in
coming years. You know, there was a time when teams
like U C l A and North Carolina, Michigan, Arizona, Iowa,

(02:36):
they played each other during the regular season in nonconference contests. Well,
I hope that returns. That would be great to see.
So the Football Scheduleing Alliance will feature potential attractive matchups
across the three conferences while continuing to you know, honor
all their historic rivalries within the three leagues. Because the

(02:58):
Big Ten they've got their rivalry is you know, the
pactual of U s C, U C l A, the
Big Ten, Michigan, Ohio State at the A c C,
what North Carolina, Duke, Clemson, and in men's and women's basketball,
I would suspicion. In addition to football, they're gonna add
early and mid season games that will become man annual
events between the three leagues. For instance, one of the

(03:19):
things I'm understanding is they're going to propose something, for instance,
in football, to play eight or nine conference games, but
then they'll play one non conference game against each of
the other two conferences. So let's take let's say Michigan,
for instance, Michigan and football, they'll play their traditional Big
Ten schedule. But then they'll play saying nonconference game against

(03:41):
an SEC team like North Carolina or you know, Virginia
or somebody like that, which they used to do. I
remember when Virginia came to Michigan nine and Tiki Barber
is a great game. Or maybe they'll play u C
l A. They played u C a couple of times
in the eighties during the regular season Michigan did, or
maybe USC or they are actually playing Washington this year.

(04:03):
But I think this is going to formalize that. So
why did this happen? What? You know, what what's really
going on here? And I think you know, it's clearly
a direct reaction to the fact of when when in
Texas and Oklahoma announced they we're going to the SEC,
it kind of set tremors around the world of college football,

(04:24):
and it sparked all sorts of theories. What would happen next?
They're gonna be full blown realignment. Which teams are going
to be affected, Which teams can which which which other
teams could be poached by other leagues? Right? How would
the moves impact the next round of media rights negotiations?
There's no question Texas and Oklahoma going to the SEC.

(04:45):
It's strengthened the SEC from a marketing marketing standpoint and
very much weakened the Big Twelve. So the other three
par five leagues decide that they had to do something
in response. So it had actually been a few weeks
where the a SEC and the Big team of the
Pack to they were discussing an alliance with certain topics,
you know, in terms of what with the long term implications,

(05:07):
maybe can they find common ground and this power battle
versus the SEC. So did something come down to a vote?
The SEC can't necessarily rule the roost, right, I think
you can see these three conferences of the a SEC,
the Big Ten and pactwel sort of stuff the ballot box,
if you get my drift. So the SEC just can't
control the entire world, right, I think that you know

(05:31):
all the banner about this new n c A structure
and governance. So now you've got forty one toll institutions
here that all have similar values, right, the PAC twelve,
the Big Ten all outstanding very very very good academic
schools in each of these conferences. Right, So they're gonna

(05:51):
focus their points of view in a way that is
effective for all forty one teams. They're going to create
a vision. They're going to you know, build on their
common pities, the Big Ten and the PAC twelve. They've
been longtime partners around the Rose Bowl or the SEC
and the Big Ten. Well, they've been a real they've
had the basketball challenge for the last twenty two years.
And as I mentioned, a lot of the institutions are

(06:14):
very similar. Twenty seven of these institutions in these three
conferences are members of what are called the Association of
American Universities, which are leading research schools, right, and that
includes schools like what Wait Forest and Boston College. These
are top for universities. So there's more to than just
football and sports and TV rights and scheduling and responding

(06:37):
to the SEC. The question is what's is there a
downside here? Right? The biggest concern with the alliance might
be what it doesn't include, namely money. See now, with
the addition of Texas and Oklahoma, the SEC clearly is
going to be in position to more than double the
annual revenue of the a SEC or the PAC twelve.
And this alliance that I just mentioned a periods very

(06:59):
unlikely to address that issue in any significant way, but
they're claiming this is not a revenue play. There might
be value down the road because you're improving the quality
of your games and the marketplace is going to recognize that.
But they claim it's not a revenue player. Then what
is the focus of the alliance? What is it they're
really trying to accomplish, Because I don't know that. The
best research I can tell me is that football scheduling

(07:21):
is going to be the one thing where the average
fan could look at it and say, well, this looks different,
this is attractive, there's attractive non league games. It's gonna
help everybody in multiple ways, especially the big ten in
PAC twelve who have media rights agreements that are expiring
in respectively. So if you create a marketing plan and

(07:44):
a marquee schedule edition that helps teams that even perhaps
I would believe contribute to the upcoming expanded playoff system.
It gives you more flexibility since schedules are made far
in advance, but I think you can see them cobbledly
gather these things, add a few more games between the leagues.
What I don't think there's gonna be a thing anything dramatic, Okay,

(08:08):
anytime soon? And you know you you're going to see
I think immediate I would say marquee matchups like Clemson
in South Carolina, Florida State, Florida, Georgia Tech Georgia, Louisville, Kentucky. Uh,
you go back to all the great reasons why you
know some of these other smaller conferences didn't work and

(08:32):
why you know the SEC continues to dominate. It's because
of marquee teams, marquee matchups, and the ability to stay
within the forefront. Right. So, now what does this mean
for the Big Twelve? Well, the Big Twelve still remains
in purgatory. One unnamed source said. The remaining teams in
the league, well, they aligned better with the SEC philosophy,

(08:55):
but they now have a real fractioned relationship with Oklahoma
Texas and you know this really limits the revenue potential
of those schools. Right. So now there's you've got really
sort of power in numbers because when you have the
a SEC, the Big Ten in the Pac twelve, and
they have a similar academic profile, they have an expansive

(09:15):
set not just a football and basketball, but other what
you call Olympic sports that don't typically overlap that much.
There's real there's really what they're calling real connective tissue here, right,
So I think the Alliance on balance should help these leagues.
How I don't know, it remains to be seen. And

(09:36):
by the way, I didn't even mentioned Notre Dame. Remember
Notre Dame was in the a SEC last year. So
the inevitable question where is Notre Dame fitting with this alliance, Well,
at this point it really doesn't. And that's actually fined
by Notre Dame because despite their association with the SEC
and sports other than football, the Irish, well, they're they're
gonna remain obstinate, They're gonna remain stead fats and maintaining

(09:57):
their independence, right and I get so, I understand that
they've got their own TV contract. Uh they When you
look at all the rivals they play against, USC, Stanford, Michigan,
they play in addition to five A CEC teams. You know,
the Alliance could pave the way for Notre Dame to
keep playing those teams as part of a full Alliance member,

(10:20):
or they could just you know, still continue on as
if Notre Dame was a member of the Alliance. But
officially they're not a member of the Alliance. It's just
that they played so many of those same teams they
still get a sense of the same benefit. I've often said,
I will I go to my grade with this. Could
Could I be wrong? Yeah? I don't think you will

(10:40):
ever see Notre Dame in the Big Tent. The Big
Tent pursued them mightily, heartily in the early nineties, and
Notre Dame thumb their nose at the Big Ten and
the Big Tent is very proud, stodgy conference. Uh, they
don't forget this, remember, Uh, Penn State didn't in the
Big Ten till Nebraska a few years later than Maryland

(11:04):
and Rutgers many years later. The Big ten TV contract
is the creme de la creme. It is the one
that outpaces all of the other ones. People say, well,
why do they add Rutgers because that gave them a
New York TV market. There are more Big ten A
lums living around the country than any other conference. You've
got more Michiganders, Michigan alums living in Los Angeles. You've

(11:27):
got Ohio State alums living in New York. You've got
Northwestern alums living in Washington, d C. Right up and
down the conference that's why you add Maryland. Now you've
got a Washington d C TV market, so you've got
New York d C, all the major Big ten markets.
That's why people living around the country, those you know,
Michigan graduates living in Texas, They're gonna purchase that Big

(11:47):
Ten network for their cable channel. That's why this contract
is so rich. So the Big Ten, I think is
gonna be just fine. I would say this though Notre Dame.
I believe will still remain independent. I really really believe that.
I don't think they will ever men fences with the
Big Ten. So the one thing I do know is
there's gonna be an agreement where each football team and
each of the three conferences again I'm back to the

(12:10):
the alliance, the Big Ten, Pack twelve and a SEC.
There will be an agreement where each football team in
the three conferences would play one opponent from each of
the other two leagues on an annual basis, and in
most cases the opponents would rotate. That's gonna help maximize
revenue and upcoming television deals between with the Big Ten
and the Pack twelve. Remember the Big Ten deal alone,

(12:32):
it's through two and I believe it's currently on a
two point three billion and it's poised to go higher.
The Pack twelve there's, as I just mentioned, expires at
the end of the football season. They've never really gotten
off the diamond in terms of major revenue like the
Big tent. So under this plan, the Big Ten could
actually drop its conference schedule from nine games day eight

(12:55):
and require each school to play at least one game
against the SEC and a Pack twelve team each Here
so you could say I gave some earlier examples, here's
some other ones. Let's say Wisconsin Great great school in
football and basketball. They could play Virginian Oregon one year,
Florida State they can, Wisconsinant play Florida State the next year,
and U c l A the next year, and the

(13:15):
Big Twelves or the Big Ten schools would be allowed
to schedule the additional nonconference games as a c fit
now do. If this is adopted, the Big Tens conference
season would consist of six games with either the East
or West Division and two crossover games. There's currently three
crossover games the a SEC. They already play eight conference games,
so they would schedule the Big Ten and a Pac

(13:38):
twelve opponent. This would add great value to the a
SEC and their television rights, and they're stuck in kind
of a lopseted deal with ESPN until six in order
to obtain it, you know, their own television network. But
I don't know if the Alliance is going to be
able to help them get out of that deal. Be
that as it may, I still say scheduling these additional

(13:59):
crossover games with other conferences is going to start to
be very attractive. Look, people were excited to watch some
games today in Week zero, teams are going to be
even more excited. PACTROL members USC and Stanford. They'll still
keep their annual series with Notre Dame, you know, Michigan,
Michigan State on how State per Due. They've all got
you know, future games schedule with the Irish, and so

(14:21):
any big ten or PACTROL team already playing Notre Dame,
which already has its own scheduling deal that would still
you know, be able to count Notre Dame as an
a CC opponent. Right. The Pactrol, by the way, currently
has nine league games. They would consider dropping down to
eight as well, and then they would have one or
two or three nonconference games versus the Alliance What does

(14:42):
this all mean. I don't know except we are in
another changing landscape of college football, and if you're a
fan like we all are, all this has is an
opportunity to create new memories, new accept and new rivalries
and yes, new revenue as everybody scrambles to take up
for what happened last year during COVID. Too many bad

(15:04):
things happened, too many sports were canceled. This couple with
an expanded college football playoff, and I actually think in
three years college football could be in fine federal again,
and maybe they can restore some of those sports. Will see,
they need to find ways to cash that revenue. Discover
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(15:24):
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Learn more at discover dot com. Slash Yes report limitations apply,
all right, Hard Walk, Hard Knocks Week three is in
the books that I like it. I'll tell you coming
up next, I'm Bernie Fratto, come to you live from

(15:46):
the Las Vegas Fox Sports Radio Studios. Stick and stay.
You're listening to Fox Sports Sunday on Fox Sports Radio.
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
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Rob Parker. Check out my weekly MLB podcast, Inside the

(16:10):
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(16:32):
wherever you get your podcast. We're back on Fox Sports Sunday,
Fox Sports Radio. I'm Bernie Freddock come to you live
from the Las Vegas Fox Sports Radio Studios. Take you
up to three am Pacific six a m Eastern. All Right,
Hard Walk, Hard Knocks Episode three is in the books,
and uh spoiler alert, I liked it. I enjoyed this episode.

(16:56):
I know it was very critical of the first two.
Had cowboy fans coming at me. They were taking personal offense.
I don't care. Uh long and short of it is,
though this episode did some things that Hard Knocks is
supposed to do, and that's kind of take you behind
the rope, take you behind the scenes. For instance, I've
been to Valley Ranch, the old cowboy training camp where

(17:19):
the cowboys used to train, and this one took you
into the star. It was a really clever, spectacular opening
of the episode that gave viewers a very sort of
a bird's eye intricate view of the Cowboy headquarters courtesy
of of a drone, and that this is a campus
that covers anchors. It has a twelve thousand seat indoor stadium.

(17:40):
I believe the Texas high school teams play their championships there.
It's incredibly neat, cool looking, uh building, edifice as it
were the training It's it's opulent there. I just as
John Facinda would say, I would drain the list of
superlatives trying to describe this thing. I appreciated the way

(18:00):
they opened the show was very clever. And why is
it there? It exists because Jerry Jones, who continues to
carry himself as a you know, bigger than life, larger
than life, when everything he does is a bigger than
better you know, make it a perfect state, perfect fit
for the state of Texas where where everything is big
right now. This month, by the way, Forbes estimated that

(18:21):
the Cowboys worth is six point five billion dollars. So
they are the NFL's most valuable team for the fifteenth
straight year. And let's give that some perspective. When Jerry
Jones bought the Cowboys, he bought it for a hundred
and fifty million. Now they're worth six point five billion.

(18:43):
That some people hate to get hate the Cowboys. I'm
not one of them. People. Some people root against the Cowboys.
I'm not one of them, all right. I think the
Cowboys are incredibly important to the ecosystem of the NFL.
I've said it before. They're the Yankees in baseball there
Manchester United in the Premier League. You might dislike the Cowboys,
but the sport isn't nearly as enjoyable when they're not

(19:05):
front and center. The only thing we've ever seent is
they've make themselves front and center, even though they haven't
won a Super Bowl and twenty six years, not thirty years,
twenty six years, okay, which is kind of a long time.
So when they beat their chest and call themselves American team.
Some people are put off by that. You kind of
gotta win in America or people forget about you. But
I'm telling you, I really enjoyed this episode of Hard Knocks,

(19:29):
and I am not ruling out that the Cowboys win
their division this year. A couple of other things that
I noted Dak Prescott is he's really got quite a
personality and you know, a little weirdness. But he went
into an extended rant on his his distrust of people
in costumes. That was, okay, it was weird, but I

(19:51):
was into it. Right What it does he's talking about,
y'all think it's a faint effect effect chanceaw, fake chainsaw.
You don't know one of them as the efforts put
on a blade one day, and you know, blah blah blah.
I told my mom, it's a perfect place to kill
somebody when you're high behind the costume. What does it mean?
It means Dac is likable, Okay, And then you watch
Zeke do his thing at practice and you're like, you know,

(20:14):
you know, you're looking at just an incredibly dynamic, graceful,
world class athlete. Right then I got I I find
it interesting. It's sort of a human interest story on
their offensive guard a guy from Monterey, Mexico, whose name
is Isaac alercon Right. He's been in two or three

(20:35):
the episodes. Not to be confused with Isaac Longcron. He
works for uh Fox Sports Radio. But maybe maybe you know,
I've never seen the two together of the party, so
maybe it's the same person. But this is a guy
you say to yourself, all right, I'm sorry, I'm rooting
for this guy. Right. He was on the practice Guy
last year. Can you make it to the fifty three

(20:55):
man roster this year? I love it. He had said,
my dream was never to get to the NFL L
because but because in Mexico that always seemed impossible. But
then they created this international pathway program and all of
a sudden, now you know, he's a quote in the brochure.
I love the story about that guy. All right. How
about Trayvon digs Son. Don't tell me he didn't steal

(21:16):
the show. A cute kid. He was hilarious, just bursting
with personality, the conversation he had with his dad, and
then I think it all came together in the exhibition
game when Trayvon Dig's son was cheering for his dad
trying to call him by his name, and then you
heard the mother and the family of Isaac Allericon again

(21:37):
not to be confused with Isaac Loan cron uh cheering
for them. I'm sorry. That is an incredibly relatable event
watching watching the mother of Isaac Alerican in the stands
and the son of Trayvon Diggs. That was a tangible, visceral,
relatable moment that any parent watching or sibling can relate

(21:59):
to when they are in a situation when someone they
love is in the heat of battle on the field.
Sometimes you suffer in silence, sometimes you die thousand deaths,
or you act out and emote. And it was raw
and genuine and pure, and that was one of the
nicer I would say, uh, the highlights of episode three

(22:20):
of Hard Knocks. Really enjoyed it this last week, right,
And then I got to kick it out of the
mail room supervisor Jonathan Jackson getting fan letters of his
own and and and you know, he's again another likable dude,
wonderful disposition. And didn't they go into the backstory of
four generations of Jackson's working for the Cowboys. That's incredible,

(22:43):
you know. So they're they're in their own right. They
may have never played it down for the Cowboys, but
you can make a case they are Cowboys royalty. And
then finally, how could I forget? I really enjoyed the
the you know, the um feature that they did on
an undrafted free agent running back by the name of j.

(23:04):
Kwon Hardy, all right, and he he had issues with
his contact lens and then he tried to launch a
new expression for missing a contact lens and then his
teammates are ribbing him and he caught it in all directions,
and you know, then he did he transition to these
spect goggles. And so one of the players says, you
look like creative player. Put that man in a body bag.

(23:26):
Kind of takes you inside of how the locker room
banter and how the clubhouse banter can be when you
got grown men trying to craft a living and you know,
amongst the pressure, and their families are involved, and they're
they're human beings, right. So from top to bottom, from
the beginning of that drone survey of the Cowboys headquarters

(23:49):
known as the Star, all the way to the various
aspects of of of episode three four Hard Knocks, it
won me over. I enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to
episode four. I think it's time to call on the
crew and see what they thought about it again. I
was critical of the first two, but I'm fair and objective,
and I always want to maintain my objectivity. I enjoyed

(24:11):
episode three, and I'm rooting for the Cowboys to do
well this year. So coming up, we're gonna go around
the room and see what the crew thought of it
as well. But first let's go to the man. He
graduated with honors from the School of Hard Knocks is
Brewing Fairley with the latest Thank you, Bernie. If by
hard Knocks you mean UNC Greensborough, I'll take you at that.

(24:33):
In North Carolina, Ravens running back JK. Dobbins on Saturday
and apparently injured his knee. He will have tests on
that knee on Sunday, so later today he was carded
off the field and the Ravens thirty seven to three
emasculation of the Washington football team, and in that win,
Baltimore now twenty consecutive victories in the preseason. As that

(24:54):
as an NFL best, they should make maybe some shirts
that say preseason Champs. John Allen had two touchdowns for
the Bills as they take a baseball bat to the
Packers nineteen to nothing. Tom Brady had one four yards
passing and a touchdown as the Buccaneers hang on against
the Texans twenty three to sixteen. Justin Fields sported one

(25:16):
touchdown throw for the Bears as they side swiped the
Titans twenty seven to twenty four. In college football, Nick
Starkle continues to put up some huge numbers for San
Jose State, five touchdowns to his name in a romping
of Southern Utah forty five to fourteen. Illinois best Nebraska

(25:36):
thirty to twenty two. In Husker's head coach Scott Frost
looking for answers here is twelve and twenty one during
his tenure at Nebraska, U c l A blowing their
doors off of Hawaii forty four to ten. Zack Charbonet
had three touchdowns. He had one hundred six yards rushing
on six carries, while the Rainbow Warriors as a team

(25:59):
twenty one carries twenty six rushing yards in the game.
And the Bruins, by the way, are hosting l s
U next weekend at the Rose Bowl, and the Tigers
are currently not practicing in Baton Rouge as they are
trying to avoid the oncoming hurricane that is supposed to
hit the areas. So the Tigers are in Houston getting

(26:19):
in some prep work for the Bruins as far as
baseball is concerned. The Dodgers take down the Rockies five
to two, and now L A because the Giants won
five nothing against the Braves is two and a half
games back of San fran in the NL West, and
the Twins trampoline past the Brewer six to four. Milwaukee

(26:41):
still has a seven and a half game lead for
first in the A L Central, and the Angels take
down the Padres tend to two Jared Walls three hits,
three RBI as Bernie the San Diego Padres, a team
that seemed to be right in the hunt, seemed to
be contending, have made this depressing. Is sent down the
standings and now they're really hurting their chances of the postseason.

(27:05):
It's what they do say. As somebody from San Diego,
I've lived that life. I've seen it too many times.
Back to you. By the way, Brian, you mentioned uh
Scott Frost tenure, I thought only had been there for
year four year we said, you've been their tenure. Oh jeez, well,
you know, the way he's coaching, it might be wishful

(27:27):
thinking to see if he's there for a tenth year.
We'll see about that. Left, Let's just call a spade
a spade. I whiffed one. That one. Okay, went better
than rehearsal, by the way, So all right, let's bring
in the crew Hard Knocks Week three. I've given you
several talking points. The view of the Star via the drone,

(27:49):
Jerry Jones, Dak Prescott, Isaac Aller, Contryvandrick's sons, Quan Hardy,
the mail room guy, Chris Perfettam I missing anything? Uh?
What are your thoughts? I'm still a little behind on
this one. On Hard Knocks itself. I will say though,
that it's no surprise they put Cowboys Stadium front and center,

(28:09):
just because it feels like that has always been the
target that Jerry wants to sell, probably more than the
Cowboys themselves at this point, that he wants Cowboys Stadium
to be axiomatic with all sports in this country. Every
big sporting event, it seems, targets a T and T
stadium these days, be a to the N c a
final four be at uh any big giant ww E

(28:34):
event for professional wrestling. Even as I was looking with
a friend bids for the World Cup in a T
and T stadium is on there in Dallas. Even though
they have a fantastic stadium over in Frisco for the
FC Dallas devoted to soccer. He wants that stadium front
and center. That's probably a lot of the reason why
he wants to be on there is because that stadium.

(28:55):
He wants to sell that because that is his legacy
and that is how he makes the money is by
selling that place, that Death Star to the world and
says this is what American Sports says. Well, what's interesting
is we all knew that this Star. You know, it's
been around now fourteen years, so it's not like, uh
it's it's new, even though it still feels new because

(29:16):
you'll learn more about it. But the Star, the campus
where the Cowboys headquarters and they practice nine acres. It
includes a twelve thousand seed indoor stadium, a boutique shopping center,
and a luxury hotel. I mean that is like the
essence of Texas. Uh right there do any of those
personal you know, human interest stories grab you at all,

(29:38):
Chris or not so much, not so much. I think
part of that, though, is that it's getting close to
the season, so I think every one of those teams
has those stories right now. I've been in deep, you know,
I I cover the Lions for another for another gig,
So it's it's been I've been in on those personal stories,
so it but it's it's easy. This is the time
of year to get them, because you're gonna lose those

(29:58):
personal stories very quickly as everyone just focuses on the stats,
the plays and what you've done for what what they
have done for you lately on your fantasy team. You know,
Brian and your update you mentioned, uh a preseason champs
T shirt. The last year I covered the Lions was
two thousand and eight. They went on in sixteen, but
they were four and oh in the preseason under Rod
Marinelli and Chris can VOTs for this. They actually made

(30:20):
up preseason championship or preseason champs shirts. Anyway, Alright, I digress, Brian.
The Hard Knocks episode three thoughts, so Bernie, I did
not see it. I'd rather watch an old rerun of
Antiques Road Show. But I did see I did see
the droid, the drone in what it was able to do.

(30:41):
The choreographing behind that was phenomenal, which made me think, Bernie,
how about we set up a drone that makes this
way during shows at the Fox Sports radio studios, Because Bernie,
let me tell you, when you do these game shows
and you do the trivia and you throw us questions
and we're supposed to end, so let me tell you,
there are some people in this room and these studios

(31:03):
that cheat, and I can see their computer screens from here,
and one of the guy's names might rhyme with schmosh
Menson and I can see for effect who is doing
what honestly here, So it would be no But I
honestly think it would be a lot of fun if
we were to take a drone and able to circumnavigate
serpentine around the hallways here for all the fans to

(31:25):
check out. I might want to run that by Legal brand,
just just to be here. We're on the up and up,
and you know a little later we might have a
rosing addition. What my name? So, uh, I've never said
you couldn't look it up on the internet, you know,
I mean, you can fire up your Commodore sixty four
and knock yourself out. But Chris is pretty tough. On
that time clock. You got like five seconds, right, only

(31:47):
five seconds. And by the way, on the drone like
flying around the hallway, I don't want that because I'm
gonna get flashbacks to when we had a bat flying
around here during Ben Maller's show. Did you really yes, yeah,
we had a bat. I turned a round and there
was a bat above producer Coop Coop's head like it
was it was harroway, Yeah, that would be a little unsettling.

(32:09):
Now when last, it's gonna be the drone before I
get to bowl. The one thing I will say is
at the beginning and I went back and watched it again.
If you haven't, guys, go at least watched the first
five or ten minutes of Hard Knocks. Because to navigate
that drone they did it in that entire opening scene
was only about two minutes. It was visually spectacular. That

(32:29):
took a lot of skill to navigate that drone and
you know, in around some uh some tight areas, so
it would you know, the difficulty to degree it, difficulty
to just execute that scene was not lost on me,
bol Benson, have you watched Hard Knock? Did you watch
Hard Knocks Episode three? Uh? Much like everybody else here,

(32:51):
I have not watched Hard Knocks this year, um, beyond
not having any interest whatsoever in the Dallas Cowboys. UM.
I think Hard Knocks is kind of in an interesting
spot because it seems like every team does their own
version of Hard Knocks now. Anyway, Like if you're a
Browns fan or an Eagles fan or Alliance fan, whatever
you are, Um, you can go on their YouTube channel

(33:11):
and watch the same content you'd get from Hard Knocks,
but for the team you actually care about. So I'm
not sure how much longer Hard Knocks is really going
to have uh that big market share? And just real quick,
I I don't know what Brian Finley was talking about
a minute ago. Um, that was an odd as side.
I might have to take a broom and sweep up
over and they're just like the Dodgers did earlier this

(33:32):
week with the Padres. Wow, geez, how about those U.
C l A. Bruins though, wink wink. The last time
I saw vu Celia Bruins I was in person at
the Rose Bowl watching Oklahoma. I think they won like
forty to fourteen or something that game. Who's the quarterback?
Jalen Hurts? How's he doing with the Eagles right now?
I don't know. We'll see, Yeah, we'll see about that.

(33:54):
But okay, don't stop now, keep going, guys, I'm enjoining this.
I mean, you know, ding ding ding. Well, I'll tell
you what. Everybody, take your places. We'll come back for
round two just a little bit later. But coming up,
you know and me love me, can't lie without him.
We're gonna bring you back out to Las Vegas here
because profits are more popular than ever. Uh, and there

(34:16):
are some would you would consider what well, I guess
he would describe them to be profits of the variety
that are very very actional, actionable. What is wrong with
me tonight? Last time I run a tongue from that place?
Very actionable? As we are just literally days away from
another glorious NFL season. Discover matches all the cash back

(34:39):
you earn on your credit card at the end of
your first year. It's amazing because discovers accepted at the
places in the US and take credit cards. Learn more
at discovered dot com. Slash Yes Nielsen report limitations apply.
I'm Bernie Fraddock comany Alive from the Las Vegas Fox
Sports Radio Studios. Keep it locked. You're listening to five

(35:00):
Sports Sunday on Fox Sports Radio. We're back on Fox
Sports Sunday, Fox Sports Radio. I'm Bernie Freddo Company live
in the Las Vegas Fox Sports Radio Studios. We'll take
you up to three am Pacific, six a m Eastern.
All right, you know what I mean, Love me Candy
without him, Just bring it back out to Las Vegas.
Back and on Sports from the Kenzie Rivers. Mackenzie, I'm

(35:21):
not a prop guy. Uh, somebody wants some punk on
Twitter said I don't have the guts to play props.
I don't care what you think. There are horses for courses.
I don't waste my money on props. I don't want
to type my money that long. But Candy, there are
a lot of people that do. You've got the floor.
Pros are picking a part the prop market currently. It's

(35:42):
a bonanza. It's a feeding frenzy. Let me give you
the details. So every single season, every year, the potential
injury risk makes unders almost always at least something to
look at, an often a valuable proposition. Why do I
say that everybody knows. Dak Prescott didn't miss a game

(36:02):
for four years, averaged two or eight yards passing, great raiding,
great stats. His over hunder was said, at what yards
he passed that in his last three years? What was
the problem with going over? Well, there was about an
eight percent chance that you would have no chance of
going over with Dak passing yards because he did get

(36:25):
hurt in that Week five game against the Giants, tried
to put his ankle back together. Turns out humpty dumpty
was unable to do that and he had to miss
the rest of the season. That's always a factor. So
if the line is set right where if they play
every game and they're over under his ex well, then
you gotta at least make it point nine five x.
Otherwise the under is going to be a valuable proposition.

(36:45):
Last week we gave out Dak under forty passing yards.
I like that even better because now we see over under.
How many games is he gonna play? Only fourteen and
a half, so he's expected to miss two and a
half games if he does. If he misses two, then
I'm loving my underplay. And this is just I mean,
there's too many to get into. There's a lot of

(37:06):
propositions that people have told me. Don't even tell people
about this because I haven't been able to get my
second bricks truck over to uh particular william Hill property,
and I gotta get my piece of the puzzle before
you know, everybody knows about it. But here's one that
is widely available at that same book William Hill. That's
a great example of what's being underappreciated about this year

(37:29):
and the extra game. So there's a prop and it's
flat minus one tent either way over under six and
a half games with a player receiving two hundred or
more receiving yards. Shout out to the hitman out in
Jersey who first told me about this. And it makes
a lot of sense that it's gonna be higher than
usual because there's an extra game, seventeen extra games, actually
a whole week, a whole slate. If you look at

(37:49):
the average over receiving yards two hundred, I mean this
is the passing air of the modern era, we say,
two thousand and twelve, after the new cb A and beyond,
it's only about five per game. All right, Well, there's
an next your seventeen games, maybe six and a half.
Here's the calculation. Teams can't play their guys like it's
a sixteen game schedule. You only have so much stamina,
so much health. So, like r J mentioned earlier in

(38:11):
the offseason, teams are gonna be cognizant of that fact.
If I'm Andrew Reid, I don't want Tyreek Hill out
there anymore than he has to get those stats. Historically,
this hasn't hit over seven times ever, even with an
extra slate weekly games under six and a half total
players in the whole year to get two receiving yards,
it's set at fifty. I think it's seventy thirty to

(38:33):
the under. There's plenty more props, But what are you
interested in, burnion, Well, see a prop like that, I
could get behind as long as you're willing to tap
your money for five months and you get some return.
That's just simply not my style. And I would say this,
this is my personal thought that props across the board,
if you're going to play them, I'm always going to

(38:54):
lean under. I don't care whether it's passing yards for
a quarterback, rushing yards for a running back, over under
for teams, whatever the case may be because there's always
a threat of injury, there's always a threat of something
unforeseen happening. And I did some research on this, McKenzie.
I brought it up a couple of shows ago. If
you just blindly in the last three years, bet every
prop under preseason in the NFL, and it's not like

(39:16):
the super Bowl where you got eight hundred bets. There's
not that many. There's a ton, but there's not that
many you'd be if you blindly bet unders. So I
also happen to think McKenzie, a lot of these profits
are shaded to the over as well. Well, yeah, it's
because people like to bet on their favorite players. If
I'm the cousin of some great quarterback, I'm not gonna,
you know, throw shade on them by putting my money

(39:38):
against them. I'm gonna put my money for my guys,
for my team, for my guys. It's the number one
factor in most public people's betting. What do I want
to happen? If you want to make money, just you know,
go the opposite with Well, no, that's very true. People
bet with their heart. They bet on what they hope happens,
versus on what's likely to happen, or the research on
what's gonna happen, And a lot of times when we

(39:59):
talked about this, there's nothing wrong with that if you're
an action junkie, if you're an adrenaline junkie. Most people
get their high making the bet, not winning the bet,
because it enhances the viewing participation of the sport they're watching.
It feeds their competitive spirit. Most most betters, as you know, Mackenzie,
they're educated, and so what they like to do is

(40:19):
prove to themselves they're smart. Right, that's part of it, right, definitely,
And it's leisure and by the way, shout out to
those people. If it wasn't for those find people out
there not really thinking about it, considering it too much,
kind of just betting with their hearts makes it a
lot easier. That likes to use our head like you
and me, Bernie freddo to make a little coin on
the weekend every now and then. Well, this in thinks
this is not easy to do, as folks well know,

(40:41):
even the pros they are off forty percent at the time.
So it's a it's a marathon, not a sprint, all right, Mackenzie,
be back in an hour. We'll have more stuff for you,
and frankly, we are just getting started tonight. Coming up,
we are going to break down every division in the NFL,
every divisional preview, from top to bottom, all out of them.
So stick and stay keep it locked. Right here. You're

(41:05):
listening to Fox Sports Sunday on Fox Sports Radio, the
Fox Sports Sunday Train Rules on. You heard the man.
I'm Bernie Fratto Coman. You live in the Las Vegas
Fox Sports Radio studios. I'll take you up to three
am Pacific, six am Eastern, and we're just getting started.
One hour down, two to go. I don't remind you

(41:29):
that our crew will also be a big part of
the show tonight. We'll be getting their opinions and we'll
be even also having a rousing edition of what my
Name coming up at the bottom of the hour. Discover
matches all the cash back you earned at the end
of your first year. It's amazing because discovers accepted at
the places in the US to take credit cards. Learn

(41:50):
more at Discovered dot com. Slash Yes, Nielsen Report limitations apply. Alright,
We're gonna tackle in rapid fire fashion all eight NFL divisions.
I'm gonna give you my thoughts who I think is
gonna win them? And I'm even going to project records
And let me tell you something, Uh, this is not
easy this year because it's a weird year. It's a

(42:12):
new seventeen game schedule. The clubs are gonna be playing
moving forward, and so, for instance, barring a random eight
eight and one finish, five seasons are now a thing
of the past. So the crooked records, they just don't
they like twelve and four right that back back in
the day, you know, like last year when we were
still in sixteen game seasons, twelve and four finish felt

(42:33):
like a really strong campaign, But twelve and five doesn't
sound quite as impressive. But a twelve one season, it's
still a twelve win season, and very few teams can
do that, right. And also keep in mind a final
cuts are in. There are some some some significant unknowns
that face multiple teams. So I'm gonna proceed with the
best information to have possible and just let her rip.

(42:57):
I'm gonna start out West. I want to start art
with the NFC West. We'll do the NFC first. Now, Uh, Matt,
Matt Stafford had kind of, you know, a little bit
of amnesia this last week talking about how he he
never got to play in a meaningful fourth quarter, and
I might talk about that little later and he might
have a little bit of amnesia, you know. And they

(43:17):
never had good Look, I get it, By and large,
those Lions teams in his tenure not so good. But
how about his two thousand four teen team, Matt Stafford, Right,
they were eleven and five, They had the number two
overall defense, they had five Pro Bowlers. Oh yeah, that
team lost to Dallas in the playoffs. Match chipped in
with two key fourth quarter turnovers. And that's why he's

(43:39):
ten and sixty five against teams who finished about five
hundred oh and three in the playoffs and seven teams
of playoff implications. Oh and that two thousand and fourteen
team that was eleven and five, their five losses were
two teams that made the playoffs. So I'm I am
not picking the Rams to win the NFC West. I'm

(43:59):
picking to San Francisco forty niners, which should make Mackenzie happy.
I've got them going eleven and six, And you know,
it's a tightly packed division, and when you have to
play you know each other, it's it's you know, Seattle,
Arizona Rams. There's not a there's not a break in
the bunch there. But the Niners do get to play

(44:20):
five games against last place teams from and that should
be a real advantage to them. The Niners open up
at Detroit and then go to Philadelphia, so it's not
gonna hurt to have George kntle back and Nick Boston
or Hugh Mosterton, Diebo Samuel and I'm assuming that Jimmy
g is gonna start at the beginning of the season.

(44:41):
Remember he and eight as a starter their one year
removed from a thirteen and three season. Uh And and
I would just say, look, the Niners are. They had
a rough year last year because of all the injuries,
but they got the players back, and again this is
the same poor group that was thirteen and three in
it up in the Super Bowl. Even though they got beat,

(45:01):
they were leading late. I would just say this, Uh,
you know one thing to watch. Kyle Shanahan is breaking
into new coordinators. But the Niners are a little with talent.
I've got them going eleven and six, Rams, I've got
them going tenant seven. In this last week, the news
that cam Akers will miss the season with a torn
achilles and that puts a major damper on the team

(45:23):
that was was banking on hoping Matt Stafford would be
the arrival to offset the departure of of Staley and
four starters some the number one defense last year. Uh,
Matt Stafford is not gonna be your savior. If he doesn't, fine,
I'll take my penance and prove I'm wrong. They we're
a long way from that. The Rams are gonna be
tested early. Okay, for their first five opponents are twenty.

(45:46):
We're playoffs from last year. I think the Rams have
a respectable year. I think they go tenants seven, but
I don't think they win the division. The Seahawks have
got him nine and eight. Now, you can never count
them out. When you've got Russell Wilson, They've only missed
the playoffs once in the last nine seasons. And as
long as you've got Wilson and Bobby Wagner, they've they've
been there the whole nine years. The Seahawks are going

(46:08):
to be formidable. They're gonna be a tough out. But
the Seahawks, they've really don shifted from being a perennial
championship contender to you know a viable playoff team. They've
been to reliant on bringing in all these old veterans
from from other teams who haven't won, and so the
bottom line is it's gonna fall a lot on Russell

(46:29):
Wilson's shoulders this year. He's got to have a clear
head to get this team over the top. The Arizona Cardinals, Yeah,
do I think they're gonna be competitive? Yeah, I do,
but I think they're gonna finish up around seven and ten.
The pressure is really gonna be on coach Cliff Kingsbury
this year because both the last two years, the Cardinals
started well and faded big time in the second half
combined five and eleven record during the first two years.

(46:51):
In the second half, the Cardinals have got to run
the ball better and they can't be quite as relying
on quarterback Kyler Murray. They've got to find a way
to advert third downs and keep the team fresh down
the stretch. They fade late, right so they open up.
They have five playoff teams on the schedule in the
final seven weeks. So again, this is where the pressure

(47:15):
is gonna be on Cliff Kingsbury. They fade late every
year and now They've got five playoff teams in the
final seven weeks. Be that as it may. Have still
got Arizona at seven and ten. I've got the forty
Manors winning the the NFC West. All right, let's go
to the NFC South. Come on, man, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
I don't care who the haters are, and you know

(47:36):
who you are. I'm not gonna mention your names. Uh
Tom Brady, Oh nothing? What did last year at AE
He threw for more yards and Aaron Rodgers more touchdown
passes and Patrick Mahomes and beat the Chiefs by twenty
two points in the Super Bowl. Okay, I've got the
Bucks going fourteen and three this year for the first
time in the salary cap era, a reigning Super Bowl

(47:57):
champion starting lineup returns intact. They're bringing it back all
twenty two stars. And that doesn't include wide receiver Antonio Brown.
That doesn't include ju Bernard, who's a stud running back.
That doesn't include O. J. Howard, who They're not targeted
a lot, but man, he's a stud. He is coming
off of achilles tear. And it doesn't account That doesn't
even include Joe Tyron check that try on who was

(48:21):
a first rounder. He's an elite pass rusher. You're throwing
the established chemistry they proved after starting seven and five,
and Brady surgically repaired me and his team has the
makings of a group that could be the team to
the first team in seventeen years to go back to
back and who did it, of course that was Brady's Patriots.
I got Tampa Bay going fourteen and three. Carolina, I

(48:44):
love Matt rule, and if Christian mccath caffrey is healthy,
he can have his usual dual, you know, thousand yard
rushing and receiving output like he had back in It
does take pressure off Sam Donald and donald his potentially
he can do. Liver on what I think he has
far more potential that's been buried because he's been stuck

(49:04):
on bad teams with bad coordinators four and four years.
It's manageable that this team who lost eight of its
last eleven games, but they only lost him by one score, right,
so they compete. This is gonna be a real solid
opportunity if you consider the fact that Eric Carolina, eleven

(49:25):
of their first thirteen opponents this year didn't make the
playoffs last year, so This is a real the door
opens for this team to get off to a decent start.
The New Orleans Saints. They're gonna miss Drew Brees tremendously.
I understand. Jamis Winston is the starter. I wish him well.
He's twenty eight and forty two as a starter. The

(49:46):
Saints I still think end up eight and nine this year.
They're eight and one over the past two seasons without
the now retired Drew Brees because they had a stud
by the name of Teddy Bridgewater. I'm gonna get to
in a minute. I love him and Tason. He'll split
those starts very capably. And actually, that gaudy record kind
of masks some some poor opponents, and there it kind

(50:08):
of hid the fact that offensively New Orleans wasn't great
in those games. They just were able to pull those
games out because they have a pretty good defense. Still,
I think New Orleans is an eight and nine team.
Atlanta Hot Mass five and twelve. They do bring in
a new coach, Arthur Smith. He inherits Matt Ryan, who
still pretty much at the top of his game even
though he's thirty six years old. But how well does

(50:30):
Arthur Smith and his offense work he left Tennessee. He's
not gonna have Derrick Henry. You're not gonna have a
running back like that. He's not gonna have a pro
bowler by the name of Julio Jones, who coincidentally ironically
went to his old team, and he joined Henry with
Smith's former employers. As I said in Tennessee, Yet, Smith
might be relying heavily on Matt Ryan more than he should.

(50:54):
And now there's one other thing with the Atlanta their
past defense, it ranked last in any and it's shaky
as hell. That thing could fall apart like a chief suit.
I don't know what's wrong with that team. Um, you know,
they came so close. They had new Land down three
in the Super Bowl a few years ago. You know
what happened next. They have never been the same. Let's

(51:15):
go to the NFC North. Come on, it's Green Bay
and everybody else. They're gonna be at least twelve and
five now. Whether or not Aaron Rodgers is one and
done this year, which I'm not believing he's going to,
it's worth noting that a team that's lost consecutive NFC
championship games, they are still very much playoff caliber. They're
not gonna have to rely on Jordan's love, but even

(51:36):
if he's forced into the lineup, there's still gonna be
somewhat competitive. I will say this though, as long as
you've got Aaron Rodgers motivated, Matt Lafloor and six to
last two years, Um, you cannot count Green Bay out.
They're gonna win the NFC North. The will be twelve
and five. The Minnesota Vikings, there's an offensive ranked fourth
in and they can actually be even better this year

(51:59):
if they're off pensive line issues are straightened out. Uh,
they've got to protect Kirk Cousins. Uh. They've got an
offensive Player of the Year candidate and Dalvin Cook. However,
Mike Zimmer has got to restore that defense right. He's
got Daniel Hunter and Anthony Barr their back from injuries.
They bring in a free agent defensive tackle, Sheldon Richardson,

(52:19):
a couple of good quarterbacks Patrick Peterson even though he's
getting older, but Shot Brelan they joined the lineup. So
this is gonna be a team that you know, they
didn't look too good in the preseason, but don't go
to sleep on the Vikings. They're they're gonna be under
the radar until they start winning. Here's the problem. It's
gonna get dicey late because once again, the Vikings wrapped
up the regular season against five consecutive playoff teams, three

(52:44):
of those contests and Cousins primetime Windows, which has been
his bugaboo. You know when he doesn't play at one o'clock. Well,
the numbers count speaker himself, I think the Vikings are
tenants seven. I think they're a good team. Uh. The
Chicago Bears, they're rebuilding. Okay, they're gonna be evident, and
everybody in the Windy City whether they're waiting to see
how long i'm's gonna take rookie Justin Fields to win

(53:06):
the job. I thought it looked good today. By the way,
Justin Fields, he's progressing, operating from the pocket much more efficiently,
keeping his eyes down field, making plays the kids. A winner.
I love him to death. I don't know why everybody
wants to rush him, but they do. The Fields factor
could mean a wider variance of outcomes if he does well.
But I think the Bears just to get to five

(53:26):
hundred is it's going to be a challenge for them
this year. Then there's my levable Detroit Lions. You know,
pick your points. What are they? Three and fourteen, four
and thirteen? Right, This is what you call a philosophical overhaul.
I mean they are completely overhauling everything. They've re emphasized
the run game. They have a brand new general manager
and Brad Holmes. He hasn't asked a ton of future

(53:48):
draft capital. In the next two or three years, Allions
could actually climb the ladder. But they've got so many
holes on this roster right now. This is uh. You know,
no one's joking about the kneecaps or I D kneecaps anymore.
You know, that's a that's a bygone quote. But I mean,
could the sports gods have been anymore cruel to the

(54:09):
Detroit Lions. Look at the Lions schedule in September. They
gotta play the forty Niners, the Packers, and the Ravens.
It's not fair. No one said life was fair. The
Lions are gonna be three and fourteen, four and thirteen
this year through a throwaway. So I've got Tampa Bay
winning the NFC South, San Francisco winning the NFC West,

(54:30):
and I've got the Green Bay Packers winning the NFC
North coming up. I'll go over the NFC East and
then we'll take a trip around the a f C.
I'm Bernie Frattle Company line from Las Vegas Fox Sports
Radio Studios. Keep it locked right here, don't go away.
You're listening to Fox Sports Sunday on Fox Sports Radio.
Back on Fox Sports Sunday, Fox Sports Radio and Bernie

(54:51):
Fraddle Company a line from the Las Vegas Fox Sports
Radio Studios. And I want to continue with our NFL
prognostication by division, and we had to the NFC East.
You know that the Chinese have a proverb that says
you can curse the darkness or you can light a candle.
And when I hear that, it makes me think of
Dak Prescott. The football gods. Oh, this guy one. He's likable,

(55:16):
he's effective. He the fortunes will come and go of
the Dallas Cowboys. The fortunes will come and go as
Dak Prescott comes and goes. You have to anticipate that
he does recover from his compod leg fracture. Remember he
dislocated his ankle. That was gonna be, you know, one
of the headlines heading into this year. And now he's

(55:36):
got the shoulder issue. But if he stays healthy, If
Zeke stays healthy, if the offensive line can be glued
together and the defense was completely maul than if it
can just compete, It's not hard to envision the Cowboys
could win the NFC East, especially since they face eight
consecutive teams did miss the playoffs in following the opening

(55:59):
night game him in Tampa, So non overreact to that
opening night game in Tampa. I think the Cowboys. Yes,
I said it can be ten and seven. It all
goes out the window if that gets hurt or if
that can't play. But barring something uh, you know, catastrophic,
I will just say this that I will not rule

(56:20):
out the Cowboys winning the East. Go in to my head.
I'll give it to him. Why I am not sold
on the Washington football team. I loved him. Last year.
They snuck up on everybody through the reigning division champs
even though they were under five, they were seven and nine. Look,
I think they're gonna be like eight and nine this year.
They're gonna be a dominant defense. And this is a great,
uh you know, physical team, well coached under Round Rivera.

(56:42):
You got thirty eight year old journeyman Ryan Fitzpatrick on
a one year deal. Right, Yes, he's fitz Magic, but
he's always fits magic when he's coming off the bench,
and I just don't know that it's the same if
you hand him the keys to the car. It never
seems to be. And I like the guy he's By
the way, Washington's final five game games are against NFC
to East teams, which is a golden opportunity to salv

(57:05):
wage the season if they're you know, still behind the curve.
I just can't see Washington. Well, no one's gonna sneak
up on him this year because they were good, and
they made the playoffs, and they gave Tampa Bay a
little tussle before losing. New York Giants, another eight and
nine team whold home aside from s Kwan Barkley, but
I don't know if he's healthy. You know, Joe Judge

(57:26):
his approach, I would say that, you know, he we'll
see if it works. This year they almost stole the
division a week sevent team. But for the team to
take the next step, especially if Barkley is healthy and
he's wall shy, it's very simple. Daniel Jones has to
substantially progress over last year. And he's got a couple

(57:49):
of big ticket wide receivers. He's had Kenny Golladay in
the fold now, but they got a suspect old line.
He was a turnover machine last year. The Giants only
have three home games after November seven. How that happens,
I don't know, but it matters. That's not gonna help.
I don't like the Giants. The Eagles. If this was
a fight, they'd stop it. They're gonna be three and fourteen. Uh.

(58:11):
McKenzie said it earlier. He knows damn well that Jalen
Hurts who. I don't know how you don't love this guy.
He's got a reputation for me and a phenomenal leader.
And I don't know that his coach, Nick Sirianni, he's
gonna be able to manage and get the best out
of him. Uh. They've got an incredibly problematic defense in
Philadelphia and their first six opponents. They got the forty Niners, Cowboys, Chiefs, Buccaneers,

(58:36):
you know, among their first six. I would say Philly
will start slow and fade. So they're three and fourteen team.
Gun to my head, I'm gonna give the NFC East
to Dallas. I can't believe this is on taping, on
being recorded, but I might look like a hero in December.
But again, if Dak Prescott can't play, or he's diminished

(58:58):
or misses more than three games, forget it. All bets
are off. But let's go with it here and now,
and let's believe that Dak Prescott the football gods o
game one or set over the a f C. Because
one team that intrigues me and trigues a lot of
people because they made such a quantum leap so quickly.
And this is why a recent number seventy four, while
you always hear me, uh, you know, diminished. Matt Stafford

(59:21):
never went to never never won a playoff games. I'll come,
Josh Allen can go to the Buffalo Bills and they
went to play. You know, he went a couple of
playoff games the first three or four years. Same with
Baker Mayfield. Well the question is now can Buffalo follow up?
Right there? I've got him twelve and five Alan, he
led the team to the a f C title game
and he was the league's MVP runner up in And

(59:44):
I would say one of the things that makes that
so significant is last year, the bills southern defense and
their ability to run the ball downgraded significantly to what
they were able to accomplish in So presumably, if Buffalo
can put everything together in defense, running game, and Josh
Allen the Lombardi Trophy, well Buffalo is gonna be on

(01:00:07):
the shortlist. All right. Again, They've got their gaunt like
everybody else. They've got to survive the opening six weeks,
which include four playoff teams. However, if they get through
that after November, they only play one playoff team the
rest of the way, Miami Dolphins. You heard me sing
to his praises last week. Not everybody agreed. I don't care.

(01:00:30):
I'm comparing his rookie season to other guys who went
on They have very good second, third, four year campaigns.
I believe in tah We'll see if I'm right. They
were one win shy in the postseason and they are
now banking onto a to take a big, significant step forward.
He did play efficiently. He's a little to risk adverse.
He wasn't healthy last year either. Okay, he had that

(01:00:50):
terrible hip, terrible ankle. He got crushed and I think
it took a year to heal right, so I I
think Miami made some good offseason moves and I believe
elevated the Dolphins in the talent department, especially bringing in
some stud receivers. Jalen Waddle will Fuller right now, Zavian Howard,

(01:01:10):
he's an All Pro quarterback. Him holding out is a
troubling sign. But the Dolphins are the only team this
year they won't have a by following the trip to London.
But they also only have two World Games after Thanksgiving,
so these things sort of even out. You gotta get
through these speed bumps. I've got the Dolphins going eleven
and six, and I think they're gonna be in the playoffs.
The Pats, I haven't decided whether to be nine at

(01:01:33):
eight or eight and nine. Alright, Belichick his his last
losing season in two thousand when he followed that up
with his Super Bowl, But unfortunately Tom Brady ain't walking
through that door. There are a lot of question marks
in New England. Let's just say this, Uh Camels started.
As long as he can win or he doesn't get hurt,
and then mac Jones will come in. Mac Jones is
gonna be a fine quarterback. New England is not built

(01:01:55):
to win in his millennium right now, Uh, they don't
have the big playmakers. Are a ball control, old field
position team. They're a physical team. They're a power team,
which bowes well for Cam but it doesn't bode well
when you have to keep up with the Buffalo Bills,
another offensive juggernauts. So I've got a new Windham. I'll
give him the nods eat or nine and eight? Alright?
The Jets to throw a dart five and twelve? All right?

(01:02:17):
Obviously they made a splash with Zach Wilson, the number
two pick of the draft. And he's a guy who
can prove that he can make these eye popping throws.
And you talked about him last week. Is aren't arm angles?
How fishing he is and he gets the ball out
of his hand and rhythm. He is gonna be fine.
And I actually like Robert Sale who's already transforming the

(01:02:39):
culture into a one that is looking towards positivity. Right
they have the longest playoff droughout the Jets ten seasons.
I don't think they're gonna make it this year. So
it's gonna be eleven, but you can there's reason to
be optimistic. All let's end to the f C North
Cleveland Browns, they're gonna be thirteen and four. If you

(01:03:02):
just took the name Cleveland off the team and didn't
look at the uniforms or anything like that, and you
looked at this roster, you would say this is a
championship possible team. They had all this buzz two years
ago and they went off a cliff like we knew
they would. But now they're coming off their first playoff
winning more than a quarter century. The Brons are a
legitimate threat to be their first ever Super Bowl entry
from Cleveland, especially if Baker Mayfield continues to trend upward.

(01:03:27):
And you know, the twenty nineteen team was was had
a terrible slow start, and I would say this that
there's no excuse for a slow start in one. Cleveland's
loaded and then their first eleven opponents, You're not gonna
believe this. Cleveland's first eleven opponents this year finished five

(01:03:47):
hundred or below last year. Can't make this stuff up, folks.
We're gonna continue on with the Raven Steelers, Bengals, the
a f C South and the a f C West,
and we're even gonna have a zing addition of what
my name but first, well, let's go to the man. Well,
he's a wise man. He once told me, Bernie, if

(01:04:08):
life gives you lemons, make lemonade. But if flat gives
you melon's, you might have dyslexia. Brian filling with the latest,
Thank you, Bernie, and the news for Ravens fans. They're
gonna be having a hard time trying to make lemonade
out of this. According to what we saw from J. K. Dobbins.
You saw visibly in the preseason game yesterday he was
not able to get off the field on his own power,

(01:04:30):
hurting his need to the extent of which we don't
know yet, But we're gonna learn that later today when
he will have more tests. But this came in a
Ravens thirty seven to three victory in a tune up
contest against the Washington football team. Josh Allen, who Bernie mentioned,
had two touchdown throws and the Bills blanket the Packers

(01:04:52):
nineteen and I think Tom Brady got in some last
preseason to work with one four yards passing and a
touchdown as the Buccaneers stopped the Texans twenty three to sixteen,
justin fields with a one touchdown throw and the Bears
came into Nashville and stuck it to the Titans twenty
seven to twenty four. As far as college football, we

(01:05:15):
had Week zero on Saturday and a little appetizer of
games that were able to be consumed. One the game
the finished last was a San Jose State with an
overwhelmingly huge win by the point total over Southern Utah
forty five to fourteen Nick starkle five touchdowns. And then

(01:05:35):
there was the keynote game in the morning on the
West coast. At least it was Illinois taking down Nebraska
thirty to twenty two, a game that could be seen
on Fox Television, and corn Husker said coach Scott Frost
continues to to to look for answers and not really
have any because his record in Nebraska and Lincoln is
twelve and twenty one. U c l A got their

(01:05:59):
first non conference win for Chip Kelly. It was a
forty four to tend thumping against Hawaii at the Rose Bowl.
And now the Bruins will have l s U next
weekend at the Rose Bowl. And the Tigers are not
practicing in Baton Rouge right now because of the oncoming
hurricane as they are getting ready in Houston. Just a
couple of quick mentions. In baseball, the Dodgers tower over

(01:06:22):
the Rockies five to two, and if you look at
the NLS standings, the Giants are still in front. They
won five nothing against the Braves on Saturday, but because
the Dodgers also were victorious, they're just two and a
half games back of those first place San Francisco Giants
in the division. And the Angels with a tend to
two victory over the Padres Gared Walls, three hits, three RBI.

(01:06:46):
And finally, the Milwaukee Brewers three losses in a row
after their defeat to the Twins six to four. But
don't fret, the Brewers are still in front of the Reds,
seven and a half game lead. In front of the
red in the a L Central speaking to a guy
who once was part of the Red's organization, Bernie Freddo,

(01:07:06):
a former professional baseball player in his own right back
to him in Vegas, and you can even see my
picture on my Twitter him. Yes, sir, longer here then,
as he would say. And on that note, why don't
we break into an impromptu ex temporaneous edition of what
my name, Chris, I've Got a little music there, buddy,
all right, soul I once played quarterback for U c

(01:07:30):
l A, and my sister married former General Motors automobile
magnet and inventor of the Dolorean car, John do Lorian.
What my name? Let's start with Brian Finley, go, oh
my goodness, Troy Aikman. I'm sorry, A valiant effort, but

(01:07:54):
it's gonna be a hard no. All right, let's try
Bo Benson. Uh, Dorian Thompson Robinson or whatever his name is,
or whatever his name is, Christopher Fount. I gotta feel
that you might get this one because you're a Detroit guy.
And it's repeated. I played quarterback for U C l A,
and my sister was married to former g M magnet,

(01:08:17):
an inventor of the famous sports car, the DeLorean, John DeLorean,
what my name? I don't know any of them besides
Troy Aikman with a bomb? Alright with This guy also
went on to be a famous movie TV star. Remember
you give it away now, Bernie Mark Carman. Yeah, well,

(01:08:37):
I can't give too many clues. Right in his dad,
of course, Tom Harmon, famous from the University of Michigan.
We'll come back a little later in the show, do
another rising edition of what my name? Nicely done? Guys,
all right, believe it or not, Yes, I have Cleveland
over Baltimore, and they're talking about has a league figured
out Lamar Jackson. The best of my knowledge, I don't
see how he's won his regular season games thirty seven

(01:09:00):
in his last thirty seven starts, they score more points
than anybody. Still, I got Baltimore eleven and six, Pittsburgh
I've got coming in nine and eight. I would say
they are a team that is going to compete, but
they're just not gonna have quite enough oomph. And then,
of course the Cincinnati Bengals will bring up the rear
at six and eleven. The spotlight will be on second

(01:09:21):
year QB Joe Burrow, hopefully he comes back from that
a CEO surgery. I think Cincinnati might be a team
of the future, but the truth of the matter is, uh,
they are a long way Cincinnati, and they are in
a tough division and Zach Taylor is going to have
a rough season. That said to the a f C South,
I love the Tennessee Titans, no joke here. I think

(01:09:42):
the twelve and five, with the exception of the Bucks.
Perhaps no team projects is a more prohibitive favorite to
just win its division, and they're they're an offense that
I believe is the top five offense with Julio Jones,
and they've got the great running attack Tennessee. I love
Mike Vrabel, their fists, their physics goal, and they're gonna
have a great offense. Twelve and five the Colts, I'm not.

(01:10:03):
I just don't trust Carson Wentz. I trust Frank Wright,
but it's hardly ideal to initiate Carson Wentz, you know,
and retry to reboot him with the schedule that's gonna
of the likes of the in addition to their division
where they've got Tennessee, uh and in Jacksonville and Houston,
which won't be tough, but they get to play the Seahawks, Ramps, Titans, Dolphins,

(01:10:24):
and Ravens right out of the shoot. Not gonna be
good for Indianapolis. There'll be above five hundred, but they're
not gonna win. The n C South Jaguars they were
one in fifteen last year. Best case scenario, they win
four games. You've got Trevor Lawrence and Urban Meyer. They've
got to calibrate their approach to the Pro game. I'm
not hearing great things, but I got a lot of

(01:10:44):
faith in Urban Meyer. But his buddy Ryan once said
about Jimmy Johnson back in when he was hired by
the Cowboys, They're not gonna find any Eastern Carolinas on
this schedule. East Carolinas, Houston, Texans. They'll be lucky to
win one or two games. All Right, you know what's
going on there. It pretty we don't need to talk
about it. So I've got Tennessee winning the a f
C South a f C West Kansas City. I think

(01:11:08):
minimum thirteen in twelve and five, maybe thirteen and four.
Patrick Mahomes was joking about going twenty and oh the
last month and backed away from it. But this team
is loaded, and I will say that they are focused.
Everybody was at minicamp, everybody was at O T A S.
They've got a lot of depth with Jave shown in
the in the in the preseason, and I would say,

(01:11:29):
you know, the schedule is front loaded, but after that,
if they can get through September into October, they only
played two playoff teams after October, the Chiefs. I know
that in past years returning Super Bowl teams check that
teams who were in the Super Bowl the year before
and lost hasn't been kind of them. Chargers, I think

(01:11:50):
can be better than people give them credit for. Right.
I know McKenzie doesn't like them, but they have there's
sort of an optimism there because Justin Herbert has a
tremendous amount of potential. He was an offensive Rookie of
the Year. He had a performance, you know, had four
consecutive wins, and now they have again this season. They

(01:12:10):
start with a brutal six week stretch, but then they
after the Buyer. You got like the Washington you got
the Washington the Cowboys. Uh, you know, every team you
play in the NFL is gonna be tough, but you're
gonna have stretches where you make your bones. The key
for the Chargers if Derwin James comes back healthy, the
Chargers will be the best team that the Chargers have

(01:12:32):
had in years. If they can stay healthy. I think
the Broncos are gonna be good as well. They're potentially
a nine tin win team. I love I'm gonna talk
about it more next week. I love that they gave
Tredy Bridgewater their job. I think the world of Teddy Bridgewater,
He's thirty five and fourteen against the number in his career.
He's twenty four and seven. Is an underdog. He's twenty

(01:12:53):
one and three against the spread on the road. He's
a winner. He took over for Drew Brees, won five
games in New Orleans with the team on his back,
and he did a great job in Minnesota thanks to
him his field goal. He was denied the spotlight in
the playoffs, but Teddy Bridgewater is the real deal the Raiders. Okay, Well,
Derek Carr finally appear in his first postseason game. He

(01:13:14):
did a great job in when they were twelve and four,
but then he got hurt. I don't know, man, I'm
concerned about the Raiders. They got the six toughest schedule.
They play seven playoff teams. Uh, their first four are
not gonna be easy. You got Baltimore, then you go
to Pittsburgh, then you go uh, I know they have
to go to the Chargers on Monday night football weekfore
and then you got Miami. So in Miami, I think

(01:13:37):
it's a playoff team. So look, one of the things
that Raiders have done the last two years is fade
badly down the stretch. I will say this though, with
fans in the stands this year, the Raiders are going
to be It's gonna be a very tough environment with
a raucous, loud Allegiance Stadium. That preseason game a couple
of weeks ago was unreal. So I think you know

(01:13:59):
you're gonna see the Chargers, Titans, Bills, Dolphins, Chiefs, and
Ravens in the playoffs. In the a f C, you're
gonna see the Packers, Seahawks, Forts, Vikings, Rams, and yes,
the hold my nose Cowboys, please stay healthy. Deck the
football Gods ou one in the playoffs for the NFC.
Let's fast forward. I can't believe I'm saying this. Well, well,

(01:14:20):
first of all, I can believe I'm saying this. I
think the Buccaneers are back in the Super Bowl and
I think they repeat. But who are they gonna play.
I don't think it's gonna be the chief I don't
think it's gonna be the Bills. Based on the roster
and based on the fact these guys got their heads
in the right spot and they're not beating their chest
and shooting beers at Cleveland Indian Games. I'm gonna predict
the Cleveland Browns are gonna go to the Super Bowl.

(01:14:41):
I can't believe I just said that. You never know,
I might look like a genius come October. Well maybe
not that, but I might be right about the Browns.
Somebody's got to go. Why not them? And just take
a look at their roster. Okay, they're good coming up.
You know him, you love me. You can't lee without them,
all right. I talked about the Cowboys. I got a
feeling macin is gonna throw cold water on that. Apparently

(01:15:05):
Vegas is not real bullish on the Cowboys and uh,
on the other hand, they're bullish on the other team
I talked about, and that would be the Tampa Bay
Bucks and young Man Tom Brady. I'm Bernie Fratdo Comedy
live from the Las Vegas Fox Sports Radio Studio. Stick
and stay. You're listening to Fox Sports Sunday in Fox
Sports Radio. You're back on Fox Sports Sunday, Fox Sports

(01:15:28):
Radio on Bernie Friddo come to you live in the
Las Vegas Fox Sports Radio Studios. Will take you up
to three am Pacific, six am Eastern. And I want
to remind you that Discovery matches all the cash back
you earn on your credit card at the end of
your first year. It's amazing because discovers accepted at the
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(01:15:48):
at discover dot com slash y has Nielson Report. Limitations apply.
All right, you know him, you love me, Candley without him,
bring you back out to Las Vegas. And I know that.
The first thing McKenzie is gonna say is I'm all
wet about the Dallas Cowboys. So I'll give you the
floor first. I'm not sure. I mean, if you want
to put your money behind Mike McCarthy, the one guy

(01:16:11):
that found a way to lose not once, but twice
more than half his games with Aaron Rodgers as the coach,
I'm not gonna stand between you and the counter. Well,
I'm not if I'm gonna go that far. I will
say this, though, they're gonna benefit from the fact they're
not in a great division. They're gonna benefit from the
fact they face eight consecutive teams that missed the playoffs
after opening night against Tampa Bay, and they've got weapons

(01:16:36):
on offense. Okay, if Ceedee Lamb and Marie Cooper and
and Ezekiel Elliott can stay healthy. This is the one
division where you nine and eight might win it. So
that's the only reason I'm saying that. But as far
as put my money on Barney Rubble, well, that's a
horse of a different color. I'm not really that's not
a horse I'm gonna ride. Well. To your credit, this
offense probably is being underappreciated, at least in terms of

(01:16:59):
raw Island. The last time Dak played all sixteen games,
and he played all sixteen games every year of his
career except for last year, never got hurt before, they
had the number two offense in the world by football outsiders,
and they're supposed to be back to that. The Dallas
Cowboys during that year season Decks last full healthy season,
they had the fifth best run blocking and six best

(01:17:21):
packs pass blocking according to PFF. Well, now they're right
back there. According to Short Football they have the sixth
best pass blocking and according to PFF, their third on
the offensive line. So are they all the way back though?
I'm not sure. I don't think talent alone is enough.
Kellen Moore, Mike McCarthy, They don't impress me. What do
you think about that? Well, first of all, let me

(01:17:44):
juxtapose Dax. He seems to be the centerpieces conversation as
well he should be with the other quarterbacks in the division.
Would you take Zach over Ryan Fitzpatrick? Yes, you would?
Would would you take him over Daniel Jones? Without a heartbeat? Okay?
Would you take him over Jalen Hurts? We already know
the answer to that question. True. The only the only
unresolved mystery here is whether or not he can stay

(01:18:06):
healthy and if he does again for purposes of our
preview here doesn't mean I'm gonna bet it. I'm not
gonna bet it, but I think throughout the season, if
Dallas can start to build some momentum, gonna not play
from behind, they're gonna benefit. I don't I'm repeating myself,
but they're gonna benefit from the fact that they play

(01:18:26):
eight straight opponents didn't even make the playoffs, or that
we're less after that opening I debacle against Tampa Bay,
and I'm concerned that could be a debacle. It could be,
and it might be. According to the odds, it's gotten
more and more likely that the Bucks are gonna win,
and win comfortably. When this opened once upon a time
back in May, hard to remember all the way back then.
The Bucks are only a six point favorite, less than

(01:18:47):
a touchdown. You could tease him down to pick them.
It picked up the six and six and a half
within a day. Almost immediately, people thought that Cowboys, the
public team, were being a little bit over appreciated by
the market. And then this shoulder injury. You mentioned it
DA's health. That is the question. He went from you know,
the iron Man to a guy that the Vegas market
expects is over under his fourteen and a half games,

(01:19:09):
meaning he's exposed to miss He's expected to miss two
and a half games. If he plays fifteen out of seventeen,
that would be better than expectation. We've seen the Bucks
line move all the way up to eight. I think
if you like the Cowboys on the season win, we've
seen that drift down from nine and a half to nine.
They're gonna repost it after the Bucks kill him in
week one. I would wait, I really like the Bucks

(01:19:30):
position matchup mentality against this inexperienced Cowboys, this new team
trying to Jael together. So I think the Bucks are
gonna get him game one. I like that bet a lot.
I would still bet it at seven and a half
or you could tease it with my Niners and get
both of them just to win. But if you're gonna
look at the Cowboys, and I do think offensively, we
know this is an offensive league. They have a top
ten quarterback, they have a top five offensive line, they

(01:19:51):
have a top three receivers, and maybe if Ezekiel Elliott
is back to his old self, they have one of
the best running backs in the world. So it's all there,
but can they put it together. My money is on
that it will not happen for the Cowboys. I would bet,
if forced to, I would bet the Washington still plus
two hundred to win the division and the Cowboys to
win less than expected, less than nine games. It's got

(01:20:12):
to play out. Then you asked me via text if
I thought this is year Brady regresses that, I say not, no,
hell no. Remember last year they didn't have O T
A s. They didn't have mini camp. He's throwing rob
trees to his players out in the parking lot of
NAPA Auto Parts and someone's calling the cops. This year,
they had the team in camp, they got everybody back,
and after starting seven and five last year, they found

(01:20:32):
their stride. If he saw Brady tonight. He actually feels
like he's picked up velosity in that forty four year
old arm I I say, Brady has another sensational year
in Tampa Bay's back in the Super Bowl, didn't he
look awesome? Eleven for fourteen buck fifty. You mentioned the
end of the season. I just looked this up the
last seven weeks of the season, Tom Brady, pff, they

(01:20:54):
do great work. Grade nobody else above nine. At the
end of the season it was clear cut no one
was playing on that level. I don't think he's falling
off an inch. We've seen it. Six months later. He's
back at it, Tom Brady. Not this year. Maybe forty
five will get him, not forty four in my opinion. Right,
And if you look at the fact that Tampa Bay
will have one of the better defenses, and they're gonna

(01:21:15):
continue to play complimentary football, meaning that his defense will
plump and give him the ball back, Brady will know
what to do with him. You get that guy in
a shootout, he'll beat you. You get him in a
pitcher's duel, he'll beat you. Look, as I said earlier,
he threw more touchdown passes in Patrick Mahomes, more yards
and Aaron Rodgers, and he beat the Chiefs by twenty two.
Look out here here they come again. No denying it.

(01:21:37):
You know, the vaccine is one thing, but the Savannah
bananas they can really give you a shot in the arm.
I'll explain less on, Bernie Fratto. This is Fox Sports
Sunday and Fox Sports Radio. Keep it locked right here.
Fox Sports Sunday rolls on, two down, one to go on,
Bernie Fratto, come to you alive from the Las Vegas
Fox Sports Radio studios. We're gonna take you up to

(01:21:58):
three am Pacific, six a m. Eastern. Remember Discover matches.
All the cash back you earn on your credit card
at the end of your first year. It's amazing because
discoverers accepted at the places in the US and take
credit cards. Learn more Discovered dot com slash Yes Nielson
Report limitations apply. What we always hear about baseball. They

(01:22:20):
gotta win the youngsters back. Uh, They've got to find
the younger crowd. It's slow, it's boring, it's stagy. They
haven't kept up with the times. We don't tell that
to the Savannah bananas. As I said, the vaccine is
one thing, but the Savannah Bananas. Well, they could give baseball,
including Major League Baseball, a real shot in the arm. So,

(01:22:41):
without further ado, meet the Savannah Bananas. They are a
summer collegiate baseball team, and while they are a product
on the fielders baseball, it's far more reaching than that. Obviously.
They're in Savannah, Georgia. They played in nine year old
stadium and before the game even starts, a pep band
marches on the the field. By the first uning, the

(01:23:02):
places sold out seats are scarce. Uh, they have a
really Uh this generation's p T. Barnum. His name is
Jesse Cole. He's the owner of the team. He's got
these yellow canary tuxedos he wears. He roams the stands,
he shakes hands, poses for photos. And the Bananas, as

(01:23:23):
I said, sell out every home game because the fans
come to be entertained, and the Bananas their college players.
It's not even it's not even the minor leagues, not
even a professional baseball team. They're like a professional baseball team,
and a very good college player is a good college
summer league. But they play in a league called the
Coastal Playing League, and they put on a real show

(01:23:46):
and part of the show is the brandchild of a
marketing genius by the name of the gentleman I just mentioned.
His name is Jesse Cole and he played baseball in
college and his his career ended with an arm injury,
something I can relate to. But it's not just him.
They have a first base coach by the name of MACEEO. Harrison.
He break dances. Then there's the Savannah Nannis. It's the

(01:24:07):
senior women's dance team. They're funny, they're great, and the
Savannah man Nanna's male cheerleaders with dad bods, and again
the Pep Band, and they do all these bizarre between
any promotions. And they got a manager by the name
of Tyler Gill. I mean, where's cowboy Boots in third base?
And so people go to Grayson Stadium to party. And

(01:24:29):
this is something that Savannah fans have always had an
appetite for. And their motto is whatever is normal, we
do the exact opposite, right and the and the thing
is is that people see baseball is long, slow, boring,
and interestingly enough, baseball was tried in Savannah, Georgia for
almost ninety years and failed time after time. You'd go

(01:24:52):
to a game, there'd be less than three people, and
so Jesse Cole's idea was, how about if we create
a circus in a baseball game breaks out. So now
they're averaging I believe about four thousand fansy games. They're
sold out every game. And truthfully, Cole was influenced by P. T.
Barnum and Walt Disney and Bill Veck. And Bill Beck

(01:25:13):
was one of the greatest promoters of all time. He
brought the bananas to town. In case you've never heard
of Bill Veck. Bill Veck was considered the greatest promoter
of all time in the history of Major League Baseball.
He once famously signed a midget named Eddie Goodell who
stood less than four ft tall. He actually pinched hit
in an actual Major League Baseball game. True story is
in August one and five days later. He followed that

(01:25:37):
up with Grandstand Manager's Day, which was Bill Veck's most
elaborate stunt because with him and former Philadelphia legendary manager
of Philadelphia A's Hall of Fame manager Connie Mack, what
they did was the situation where thousands of fans will
hold up placards that said yes on one side or
no on the other and the idea would be too,

(01:25:58):
should we steal, should we on? Should we change pictures?
What do you want to do? They became these grandstand
managers who flashed their opinions. Now, not all of Bill
vex stunt's worked, right, um, but he's the one. If
you've ever been to a CODs game and you remember
Harry Carey singing take me out to the ball game
of the seven inning stretch, Bill Veck created that, and

(01:26:21):
uh he created he wanted his players taking curtain calls
after home ring and probably the worst idea ever had
they actually did this in nineteen seventy six. The Chicago
White Sox actually wore shorts for three games in nineteen
seventy six. Although maybe that wasn't the worst idea. Maybe
the worst idea was Disco Demolition Night. On June twelfth,

(01:26:43):
nineteen seventy nine, there was a double header, and what
they wanted to do was bringing into disco. There was
a local disc jockey there who told everybody to bring
disco records and in between games and the double header,
they were going to explode them. And that's what they did.
Only they didn't count on thousands of fans jumping onto
the field and policemen trying to restore her, and the
umpires finally postponed the second game. And the truth of

(01:27:05):
the matter is that Detroit Tigers won the second game
because of forfeit. Now, Bill Veck died in six but
he was elected into the Hall of Fame five years later.
And the reason it's simple because people discovered that when
he was in charge, going to a baseball game was
an event. It was a unique entertainment proposition. Okay, of
the likes to which people say, we'll never see this again. Uh,

(01:27:27):
Jesse Cole has recaptured that magic and he's had pushed
back as well too. The many the you know, fellow
owners are not happy about the breaking from tradition and
why the a lot of the league owners have kind
of sort of warmed up to the bananas and some
of their quirks. Not everybody's on board because they think
it's not honoring the game of baseball and it bothers them.

(01:27:48):
And you know, the truth of the matter is the fans.
The fans speak the loudest. They love it. They can't
get enough of it. Just look at the attendants. It's
sold out and there's a party after every game. It
is a legitimate circus atmosphere. And the truth of the
matter is it hasn't hurt the team's performance on the field.
The Bananas won the CPO championship and had their best

(01:28:09):
regular season record last season. So they all feed on
each other, right. I mean a professor from Georgia Southern
University and found out that in the Coastal playing league
with the hitters they use wood bats, they actually hit
better with wood bats than they did in college when
they were using aluminum bats. Why, the fans bring out

(01:28:30):
energy and they bring out positive energy that circulates around
the ballpark every single night. When you play baseball, you're
under a lot of stress and the game is predicated
on failure. And these guys they're trying to you know,
parlay they into pro you know, pro careers potentially someday.
But when they come to that environment, they're loose, they
have fun, and actually it helps their performance. It's it's

(01:28:53):
it's hilarious. If you can just you could probably YouTube
some of their games. You can. I have I've observed
what they look like and what they uh with the
product actually, you know, appears to be on the field,
with the fans, the players, the whole thing. Here's what's
also interesting. I mentioned their manager, Tyler give him. They're

(01:29:17):
getting thousands of requests a year from college players who
want to come from around the country to play for
this team. They don't have to recruit. It recruits himself
and every one of these people they're they're quote energy
givers because they just want to be around each other.
They want to be in a positive locker room, and
they want to be in a positive environment. And one
of the things that one of the most popular promotions

(01:29:39):
of all the things that Bananas do is the players dance.
They perform some sort of dance during the second inning.
Players in the middle of a game, between innings and
the second inning, they get up and dance. And some
of them they're really serious about it. They work on choreographs.
They're getting good at it. And what happens is if
you show up early during batting practice seeing practical, seeing

(01:30:00):
their dance moves, and then they lock it in and
they get ready to go and other things they do.
One of the other things they do is they actually
announced themselves on the way to the home plate, uh,
you know, with with a microphone in their hand, so
it's you know, instead of the announcer saying, now batting
Joe Smith, they announced it themselves. One of the things

(01:30:21):
I think that's so cool about this story, though, is that,
like a lot of success stories, Jesse Cole had to
dig himself out of a huge hole. They were literally
down to their last tittle dollar. They were overdrawn in
some of their bank accounts, and he only sold two
season tickets in his first two months that he got here.
But the first breakthrough was when the team held a

(01:30:43):
contest for the name and it was announced in February.
They had all kinds of entrance and they made a
big deal out of it in City Hall. And then
when they selected the Savanna the Savannah Bananas, almost instantly
it started trending on Twitter. And the next you know,
they're selling tickets and they're creating merchandise sales and things
are starting to happen, and they saw themselves is is

(01:31:06):
they're on stage right, this is a show that's on stage.
And the first time Cole used the dancer as the
first base coach, he said, you know what, he wasn't
even sure if it was gonna work, but it did
because he found a dancer who was legit dancer, and
he was unbelievable. He said, just go stand in the
coaching box and you know, you can fake about giving signals.

(01:31:27):
The guy didn't even know anything about baseball, he hadn't
even played baseball, but he was the first base coach
and boom, the next thing you know, Michael Jackson song
comes on and he's doing a moonwalk and a split,
and all of a sudden, cell phones come out. Everybody's
taking pictures. And the question then becomes and I think
it's time to bring in the crew. Is this a
lesson for Major League Baseball? Right? Major League Baseball acts

(01:31:50):
like it puts focus on the fans and the fan
experience and not just a game. But I don't know
if they're really effective at it. Why do people keep
calling baseball boring? Now, look, I'm not I'm not that
big of a purist. I will say that when baseball
does these things in the major league level, what they're
essentially saying is they don't have faith at the game
itself can sell and the essence of the game can

(01:32:11):
be exciting. But when you see what the Savannah Bananas
have done, and I google, I encourage you to google
and YouTube some of their antics and see what they've done.
The question then remains, could major League Baseball benefit from
what the Savannah Bananas have done and incorporated into a
real major league game? Chris, if you went not to
America Park and saw the Tigers play and you saw

(01:32:33):
some of this goofiness, what would be your impression, Chris Perfett,
Brian Finley like, what would be your what would be
your impression? As far as what we would do? So Bernie,
when it comes to baseball with the way millennials and
gen Z's attention spans are going, like, you have to

(01:32:55):
have something to entice the listener of the view were
the fan more than what you have right now? As
far as a product, I don't know if you do,
like you every in between in you you throw out
wads of cash and you allow fans to jump on
the field, like you've got to be creative here just

(01:33:16):
to get people. Because, like Bernie, how many times is
there a sport more where if you go with somebody
else and a bunch of friends and maybe you're having
a beer or two. There's never a sport more that
I can think of where you go to and you
have no idea what's happening, or you can't recall other
than baseball. You show up and it's a social experience

(01:33:36):
and you really have no idea. You can leave the
game having a good time but having no clue what
is going on, more than any other sport as a patron,
I think, which is because we can't assume that all
fans understand the nuance of baseball, or even any sport
for that matter. Bull Benson, I know you're a big
baseball guy, and you and Ryan have your have your podcast,
and uh, you know, the bottom line is, what are

(01:33:59):
your thoughts on on the Savannah Bananas. I kind of
agree with Brian Um in terms of like the watchability
of the sport and all that stuff, But I don't know.
I think it's it's it's hard because you have people
that are super into baseball, Like I love going to
a to a Dodger game and seeing the old man
up in the reserve level section with their their radios

(01:34:22):
and their scorecards. So that's fair because even the bananas
get pushback. Not everybody's down with it. It just say,
went from no tickets to selling out and it's gone
craziness and if you haven't seen it, it's hard to describe.
I recommend all you guys, you know, if you can
the next couple of days, just google and YouTube the
Savannah Bananas and you won't You'll be laughing as what

(01:34:45):
you see. Christoph Fett, you wanted to check in, Yeah, sorry,
I was just trying to get my headset set up here. Um,
I this is funny because I lived in Savannah, Georgia
for five years, and when I was there, they still
had a single a team the affiliate for uh the Mets,
the Savannah sand Dats so and I know that had
like you know, when when MLB was trimming the minor leagues,

(01:35:07):
they Savannah lost their team. I think a few years
before that trim happened. I don't think they were gonna
get one back. So yeah, the Bananas doing well down
there has been just kind of a godsend just because
like there's that old stadium there. It's it's a very
fun place to go to see a baseball game. Bracy Stadium. Yeah,
I know, I've been there. I went there like three
four times when I lived down there, So it's, uh, look,

(01:35:29):
it's I think baseball you see it a lot in
the Caribbean countries to like it's a it's a sport
where if you can have fun at the park, it's
there to entertain people of all ages. So you know,
the more they can try to put that out there,
the better. And I think that just again, for a
town like Savannah to have a team back in some
form just means a lot too. Boy, I kind of

(01:35:50):
cut you off there. Did you have anything else because
you and Ryan have to have the baseball podcast. No,
it's just I think it's interesting too, like baseball kind
of trips over itself when you know, uh, how many
times do we see a guy out there having fun
and then immediately the next day every writer reporter is
talking about how he needs to not do that. Um,
So I think baseball is a sport needs to kind

(01:36:10):
of get out of its own way if we're going
to embrace these dudes having fun, which they've done better
as of late, but you still kind of see that
creep up every once in a while. So I think
the sport itself needs to also start working with the
fans if they want to improve the experience in the
way that Savannah Bananas do. It's all back to promotion.
Jesse Coole likes to quote P. T. Barnum, and P. T.

(01:36:32):
Barnum once said, without promotion, something terrible happens nothing. And
he actually talks to people on the way out in
the concourse, he greets them and they all say, wow,
that was something I just saw the show. And Jesse
Coole said it best. He said, people are hungry for fun.
They're hungry to feel like they belong. They're hungry to
feel like they're part of something. You go to a
Savannah Banana's game, You're gonna dance, you're gonna sing, you're

(01:36:54):
gonna see things you've never seen before in a baseball field,
and everybody is in this together. And you know P. T.
Barnums set up best. The noblest art is that of
making others happy. And no one ever made a difference
by being like everyone else. And I can tell you
the Savannah Bananas are not like everyone else. And maybe
Baby's League Baseball Sunday takes a page from that, just

(01:37:17):
like Bill Veck back in the days. Speaking of ballparks,
one of the one things you'd like to eat at
the ballpark hot dogs. When it turns out a certain
university are they're telling us eating certain foods could take
minutes off our life while others could. Maybe at time,
we'll chop it up. I'm Bernie Fraddo Company Life from
Las Vegas Fox Sports Radio Studios. Stick and stay. You're

(01:37:39):
listening to Fox Sports Sunday on Fox Sports Radio. We're
back on Fox Sports Sunday, Fox Sports Radio on Bernie
Friddock Company Live. The Las Vegas Fox Sports Radio Studios
take you up to three o'clock Pacific, three am Pacific
and six a m. Eastern. What if I told you
a hot dog? Eating a hot dog get the ball

(01:38:00):
park or anywhere could cost you thirty six months of Wait,
not thirty six months, thirty six minutes of healthy life. Seet.
It turns out a study done at the University of
Michigan showed that eating certain foods takes minutes off of
your life, while others could add time. Okay, so they
have determined that eating a hot dog could cost you

(01:38:21):
thirty six minutes of your life. However, choosing to eat
a serving of nuts could instead help you gain twenty
six minutes of life. All right, Well, I know they're
not spending a lot of time studying how to win
football games in Michigan. So I guess that's what they're
doing now in Michigan. Now. The study was actually published
in the journal it's called Nature Food, and they evaluated

(01:38:45):
more than five thousand foods and they ranked them by
the nutritional disease burden to humans and their impact on
the environment, and found out that substituting ten percent of
daily caloric intake from beef and process meets for a
mix of fruits, vegetables, nuts, beans, seafood, well, they can
reduce your dietary carbon footprint by one third and allow

(01:39:07):
people to gain forty eight minutes of healthy minutes per day.
How they Okay, let's continue. So also, based on their findings,
the researchers suggested that decreasing foods with the most negative
health and environmental impacts, including high process meat and beef shrimp,
followed by pork, lamb, and greenhouse grown vegetables, and increasing

(01:39:31):
them with what they call beneficial foods like field grown
fruits and vegetables and beans and nuts. She's wonder how
the cattle farmers feel about this. To check in with
those guys. What I'm trying to figure out. I don't
have a simple guy. Okay, really, I'm a simple guy.
How I had a lunchables for dinner last night. I
try to keep it easy in life, man, I don't.

(01:39:51):
I don't go to a T M machines. I always
get stuck by somebody trying to do a leverage bank
buy out. I just want to do by two and
get the hell out of there. I'm always stuck behind
the wrong guy. I rarely go through drive throughs. I
just want to get my happy meal and get the
hell out of there. I'm usually stuck by somebody ordering
food from the fifth Fleet's almost simple guy. I want
to keep life simple. What I'm trying to figure out

(01:40:13):
is how do they quantify the foods with minutes? And
what if you combine What if you combine peanut butter
with your hot dog, that means you lose thirty six minutes,
but you gain thirty three, so it's at a net
loss of three minutes. I don't know. If you put
ketchup on your hot dog, you shorten your life dramatically
because you're not enhancing the taste. You're camouflaging to taste.
That's like eating pizza with a spoon or drinking beer

(01:40:35):
with a straw. But I digress because the study has
got me crazy. I got to thinking, in addition to food,
what other events could add minutes to your life? So
we did our own research, and research has shown if
you listen to this show every week, it's gonna add
two hours to your life if you listen to the
entire show, and if you go back and listen to
the podcast, you're gonna add another four minutes and forty

(01:40:57):
four seconds. Now you can eat the hot dog all
the times you want. Just listen to the show. You
could just eat nothing but hot dogs. By the way,
if you listen to Brian Finley's updates, you're gonna add
fourteen more minutes to your life. That's like another twenty
eight hot dogs. Hell, you could be the next Joey Chestnut.
Even live longer. Now, if you root for the Detroit Lions,
you're gonna really addmentis to your life. You're gonna live

(01:41:18):
forever because you're gonna show your sympathetic and you have
a kind heart. Now you might lose all your marbles,
but you'll live longer. See here's why. You See, if
you root for the Detroit Lions, what you do is
and Chris can vouch for this. You put a mull
full of marbles in your mouth, that's what you do.
And every time the Lions lose a game, you take
a marble out of your mouth. And when you've lost

(01:41:39):
all your marbles, you become a bona fide Lions fan.
And see, there's a special place in heaven for you.
So when you die, you immediately regain consciousness like Carl
Spangler and Caddy Shack. All right, guys, I don't know, man.
I went to high school the full six years. I'm
no dropout. Brian Finley, what are you making this study?
Eat a hot dog, lose thirty six minutes? You know,
I'm thankful that I stop eating hot dogs probably like

(01:42:01):
five years ago. What's wrong with you? You know? I
am on this keto thing, and I'm not try keto.
You can have hot dogs on keto, you know what.
I'm a little bit more strict, I guess than you are.
If I guess, it's just been I don't know, Bernie,
I I don't see. I don't First of all, catchup

(01:42:22):
is absolutely disgusting because it's pure sugar. Yeah, I do
hot dogs. Yeah, so if I'm gonna eat a hot dog.
I'm gonna eat it with nothing on it. And by
the way, I don't put anything on anything. I eat
everything dry. I'll leave it. I don't want, you know,
I don't want to drop a radio drop to be
taken out. But yeah, so I'm not a hot dog guy.

(01:42:42):
And some people on radio or hot dogs because they
show up. But that was a horrible Oh my god,
hang on, take a quick time out there, big fellow.
But I will admit one thing. You are more disciplined
than me when it comes to Keto boll Benson, what
are your thoughts on this whole study? I sounds bogus. Uh,

(01:43:02):
you kind of already made the joke, But I would
much rather learn how much time watching Michigan football takes
off of someone's life than the amount of hot dogs
they eat. Um, but you know, here for a good time,
not a long time. So if you want to eat
hot dogs, eat hot dogs. Who cares? And only but
of goody? Right, Chris Perfette, your thoughts on this Michigan

(01:43:22):
study Eating a hot dog takes thirty six minutes off
your life? These things are always a little more lurid,
and for the headlines, they actually are in for informational,
But I guess the kind of vetter, uh vindicates my
own decision that I don't eat a lot of hot
dogs in my life. I kind of go for other foods.
But I also don't know what's going to add time
to my life. And to be honest, I don't think

(01:43:44):
I'm gonna find out anytime soon either. Well, all I
can say is this is somebody woke up one day
and said, let's study all these foods, and let's tell
the public. Will study five thousand foods, and we'll tell you, Uh,
if you eat certain foods, how many minutes it will
take off your life? For how many minutes it will
add your life. That's where I throw a flag. I

(01:44:05):
have no idea how they arrived at thirty six minutes?
Why not thirty four? Why not thirty eight? Uh? Why
not sixty? That's a that's a football game, right, All right,
I'm done. Somebody stopped me before I kill myself with
a chainsall coming up, Chris Perfens got major news in
the world of soccer, and this is major news. But

(01:44:26):
first let's go to the man. He is so cool
when he goes to picnics Mosquitoes refused to bite him
out of respect. It's brewin finling with the latest. Thank you, Bernie,
and I you're welcome. And I must say I would
love to know what the estimate of how much time
that was taken off my life I went through. I
just stopped this because I was having some issues with,

(01:44:49):
you know, pushing things through. But I would do. I
ate a can of almond butter, a full can. I'm
talking about, like the full thing once a day for
a month. And let me just tell you, I'm not
gonna get into particulars. I'll just let your mind go
from there, and I well, you're already gonna be suited

(01:45:11):
for defecation of character there right now fell exactly so,
making that comfortable, smooth, healthy transition into NFL football. Ravens
running back j K. Dobbins suffered a knee issue in
yesterday's preseason game, which was a thirty seven of three
win against the Washington football team. He was carted off

(01:45:31):
the field and then later on today, Dobbins is going
to learn his fate as to how significant that injury
is to what was his left knee. Josh Allen o
issues with his knee as he was slinging it around
for two touchdowns and the Bills win against the Packers
nineteen to nothing. Tom Brady getting in some last prep
work before the regular season starts a one touchdown, one

(01:45:54):
fifty four yard passing performance for him to super charge.
The Buccaneers passed the Texans twenty three to sixteen. Justin
Fields getting some playing time in Nashville as the Bears
visited the Titans in Chicago, triumps twenty seven to twenty four.
Just a couple mentions in college football will have to

(01:46:14):
hit on Illinois with that win against Nebraska thirty to
twenty two, as the corn Nuskers continue to struggle to
regain that level of relevancy or dominance or something that
they used to have back in the nineties. U c
l A trying to regain their own dominance of their
own and this is a good way to start with

(01:46:36):
getting back on the right footing forty four to tend
victory over Hawaii. The Dodgers winners against the Rockies five
to two. Will Smith with a two run single in
the eighth thning to break the tie and the Twins
overcome the Brewery six to four. Milwaukee three straight losses
and they still lead the n L Central said a
L Central last hour NL Central by seven and a

(01:46:58):
half games, which is a lead over your Cincinnati Reds, Bernie.
So you know what I'm wondering, Bernie, if only they
had you and your prime batting for the Reds, I
think since he would make that steady climb up the
scannings and get into postseason play. It's what they're missing,
is Bernie Fratto. And I just don't know if you're

(01:47:19):
still up for free agency and whether that would work
for your schedule, because I know you've got overnights here
at FSRS. Yeah, I can't keep up my FSR gig.
I'm sorry, Brian, I just can't. I just can't stuck
with me. All Right, those are the dulcent tones of
the silver tongue devil bruin Familey, Uh, pushing it through
as we say, with another fabulous update. All right, one

(01:47:41):
of the grants of soccer, Christiano Ronaldo. He's heading back
to man United, one of the biggest clubs, one of
the most prestigious clubs in the world. This is a
blockbuster deal. Let's bringing Chris Prefet to break it down.
You said it, Bernie, This was kind of the So
in soccer we have what's called the transfer window, which
basically is their trade deadline before the season. The window

(01:48:03):
closes here at the end of August, and Cristiano Ronaldo
is on the move from Italian club Juventus, where he
spent the last I believe four seasons three excuse me
three or four and he is now on the way
to Manchester United. He last was with Manchester United back
in two thousand and nine. Bernie. When he was with

(01:48:25):
Manchester United back then, he was in uh appeared in
just shy of two hundred games and scored eighty four goals.
It's been a long journey from him since that time.
After two thousand nine he was sent over to Real Madrid.
That's where we saw Cristiano Ronaldo become the Christiano Ronaldo
we know right now. However, since in when he went

(01:48:46):
to Juventus in Italy, it wasn't great for him. They
went through about four different managers. He had a fine
career there, but it was always something a little nagging there.
And in this in this wind of transfers that we've
had right now in the soccer world, we've already seen
one of the two grades that play right now. Lionel

(01:49:07):
Messi Argentinian go from Barcelona who for some reason woke
up one day and found out they were unable to
to pay Lionel Messi's salary, and so he left, became
a free agent and went to the French club Paris
Saint Germain. Ronaldo, however, decided he wanted out of Juventus,

(01:49:27):
and for a while it looked like Manchester City, who
has all the money and they're the favorites to win
the Premier League, we're going to be the ones to
land him. They backed out. Manchester United came in to
the point where I believe that even their manager Ole
Gunner's skull share excuse me on that name, was he

(01:49:49):
was a surprised that they were even able to land
this deal. So I think he sculshare said, I didn't
think he was going to leave Juventus. Have been speculation
this morning and the last few days, and now he's
going to be landing pending a medical passport and all
of the transfer and he's expected to sign a new
deal with them there. So let me let me ask

(01:50:10):
you a question. Something equate that to something like here
in the States, is that, like you know, when Gretzky
went to the l A Kings, or you know, Lebron
comes to the Lakers, and how much can one player
like that make a difference in soccer? This is this
is I think like for him, this is a homecoming.
For Ronaldo, it's a home coming to come back to

(01:50:30):
Manchester United. He last played with a great Sir Alex
Ferguson as his manager. This would be like Lebron, I think,
coming back to Cleveland, except maybe maybe if like Cleveland
had won a lot more titles and was one of
the biggest brands. If Cleveland was the Lakers, I guess
if he had left the Lakers and yeah, but I
think this is going to come back to Edmonton after Yeah,

(01:50:54):
that's that's a great way there, I did. I'm not
up as much on on hockey, but I think that's
a great example there and him and Messy going back
and forth at the same time as being the greats.
That would be like if Jordan Lebron were playing at
the same time, or maybe like the rivalry that we
had of who's great between Kobe and Lebron when they
were both playing around the same period. Although Ronaldo and

(01:51:16):
Messy are about the same age to two years apart
between the two. Uh, it's there. There's a site out there.
It's like Messi vs. Ronaldo dot Net. Go and look
at it some time. Just the number of goals these
guys have going back and forth, the number of honors
they have. They used to play against each other in Spain.

(01:51:36):
They they've never really played too much head to head
besides that, but these are two of the greatest right now,
just clashing NonStop. And Ronaldo is going to go to
a very competitive domestic league. Now. I think it makes
it makes a big It's a big deal for United.
I think they're still lacking a defensive midfielder and someone

(01:51:58):
to play in the middle of the field on their formations.
But I mean, this is a prolific score. This guy
is I believe in his career has scored oh man,
what's seven hundred and forty eight goals in about over
a thousand appearances. So like the games he playing, he's

(01:52:19):
getting at least one goal. He's what sticks out to
me to Chris, is it we hear about the the
most in terms of marquee teams, the most lucrative, the
most successful, the richest, whether it's a Dallas Cowboys, the
New York Knicks, the you know, the Lakers. Man United
I think is the richest team in all the sport

(01:52:40):
and if I'm not mistaken, no, uh, they used to be.
So what's happened in the last few years that there
have been new extremely wealthy owners, especially with Paris St.
Germain and including Manchester United's in in City, their derby
rival Manchester City, who became a few who was always
for a very long time in the shadow of Manchester United,

(01:53:02):
and in the past ten fifteen years or so, they
got a ton of wealth thrown into them and they
have become a powerhouse both in spending and in winning
in both the English Premier League and at the Champions League,
which is the higher tier. It's like the n C
a tournament of these domestic leagues over there. So they so.
Manchester United, meanwhile, has been trying to get back on

(01:53:23):
its feet ever since Ferguson retired and it they they've
been in the shadow of City. With them getting Ronaldo,
this is them announcing to the world that they're no
longer content to still be second tier behind Manchester City. This,
this rivalry between the two Manchesters is back on and
Ronaldo is probably the biggest, most loudest shot they can

(01:53:46):
fire right now to say that they're not content to
finish behind Manchester City, that they want the title over
Manchester City and they want to beat their long hated
rival once again. Well, that speaks to a culture in
a stated entered like with the New York Yankees had
for many, many years or the u c l A.
Bruins under John Wooden. You get to a certain level

(01:54:08):
of success, you don't take it for granted. This is
frankly kind of a nurse shattering move if you put
it in the context of what you know, the great
teams here in the United States in any of the
four major sports. We're bringing back hall of famers. When
you talk about a guy who scored over seven goals
in soccer and he's rejoining a team that's one of

(01:54:29):
the most notorious in the history of soccer in a
good way, it's quite a story. Alright, good stuff, Chris,
anything else on that, No, just once again, I think
again that both Messi and Ronaldo both left Spain, I
mean well, both left their clubs this year to go
to new ones. It is once again reinvigorated. Everyone who's
interested in the rivalry between these two. Messi has gone

(01:54:51):
to a very easy I I can say it. France
is an eagy easy domestic league. Paris and Germaine has
no competition. Ronaldo has a lot of competition in England.
But both both clubs have their eyes on the Champions
League too, So it's going to be interesting to see
as they enter their upper thirties. Messis thirty four Ronaldo's
thirty six on where their careers are going to go.

(01:55:14):
As we continue to keep going back and forth on
which one of these guys is the greatest of all time.
We know these guys are the greatest of all time,
but it's a matter of one one a. So I
think Ronaldo gets some points in my book at least,
and that he is now playing in a very competitive
domestic league. So this is an effect is the ultimate
Lebron versus Jordan's saga, only they're both playing at the

(01:55:36):
same time, and they're both playing one of the most
prestigious clubs in the history of sport, of any sport internationally.
All right, thanks Chris, coming up, You know what I mean?
Love me can't lee without them? Yes, we bring you
back out to Las Vegas in the NFL will begin
their season here in just a matter of days, but
not without that crazy, crazy five little word called cool

(01:56:00):
of it. How is that going to affect the lines
in one particular team specifically? I'm Bernie Fratto, Comedy Alive
from the Las Vegas Fox Sports Radio Studios. Keep it locked.
You're listening to Fox Sports Sunny on Fox Sports Radio,
back on Fox Sports Sunday, Fox Sports Radio on Bernie
Fratto or Company Alive from the Las Vegas Fox Sports
Radio Studios. And before I go any further, I want

(01:56:21):
to thank my broadcast team back in Los Angeles who's
been working behind the scenes, turning all the dials, keeping
those glued together tonight so we can bring this fine
show to a grateful nation. That would be Brian Finley
on the updates, Chris Perfett, and of course Bull Benson.
All right, one final time, you know him, you love
me Cantley Without him, we bring it back out to

(01:56:43):
Las Vegas. Macin on Sports with Mackenzie Rivers and Mackenzie
I realized that the Titans have had what nine players
test positive with COVID. It doesn't surprise mel though the
line hasn't moved yet because they don't play an actual
game yet for fifteen days, and also the protocols are different.
Do we know how many of those players are actually vaccinated? Yes,

(01:57:07):
well we know that Ryan Tannehill was not vaccinated. I'm sorry, no,
Ryan Tannehill was vaccinated. Several players. I'm thinking of a
different story. Isaiah Mackenzie, Cole Beasley were fined significantly from
the Bills, and their whole seasons are going to be
different because they're not vaccinated. The Bills, Ryan Tannehill, they
were vaccinated. So you're right, Bernie, they will be back

(01:57:27):
in action week one. However, I have I have a
different perspective. But I'm curious. So you think the Titans
will be able to weather this ten days from now,
I'll be back to well, I don't know. I don't know.
I just saying the line is not moved right now.
And my question was, see, if you're vaccinated, it's o
Canada tests positive. They're not gonna throw it hit you

(01:57:47):
over the head with a hammer. They're only gonna heait
over the head with a hammer if you're not vaccinated
and you test positive. So I need more information. I'm
just not surprised the line hasn't moved yet, but go ahead. Yeah,
and the other players not really that influential. Ryant and
Hill really is the one player that matters. And he's
not only vaccinated, he was quick to say double vaccinated
and not experiencing any symptoms, so you know, good for him.

(01:58:10):
That's what we un generally like to see from our athletes,
you know, taking charge and being responsible in that way.
But here, I think there's something that mouse going on
here because this is the team last year, remember they
missed about three weeks in a row when more than
twenty members of their organization came down with COVID, and now,
not even at the beginning of the year, we're already

(01:58:30):
seeing it pop up. I think the line should move,
not only because Ryan Tannehill will misspractice time. Mike Rabel
also affected, will not be with the team, but just
the possibility, the potential, even if it's ten percent, that three,
four or five additional players closer to Week one tip
could be affected by a team that more than I

(01:58:51):
think this is fair, more than any team in the NFL.
COVID has been an issue for the Tennessee Titans. Well,
they have time on their side. They open up at
home against the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday, September twelve. There
were three point favorite. I've not seen that line move. Uh.
At the risk of sounding cynical or supercilious, here, the

(01:59:13):
fact that they're getting COVID now, couldn't that perhaps be
a blessing in disguise rather than getting it week three
between games or something like that. The season hasn't started
yet and you technically still have two weeks before the
real season starts. Very true, And people talk about the
difference between natural immunity and artificial immunity. Well, the best
kind of immunities to get the stab or get the
job and to get the disease that more antibodies the better.

(01:59:35):
I'm Bryan Daniel might be the most vaccinated person in
America in two weeks. But I still like the Cardinals
kind of a lot. Here here's why go ahead. It
was it was two and a half. The Titans were favored,
and they got Julio Jones. Julio Jones. You know he's
had three yard receiving touchdowns in the last couple of years.
A couple of years ago, he hasn't been that guy

(01:59:56):
The fact that it went from two and a half
almost immediately to Titans by three shows me that Julio
Jones might be overvalued. You know, last year I talked
about him a lot. I think Kyler Murray might be undervalued.
Had a lot of offensive line troubles. They just got
PF graded him the number one center in the league.
Rodney Hudson, longtime raider. I think that's gonna be a

(02:00:17):
big improvement. And I just think the possibility even if
this is it's a free role, even if it's fifty fifty,
if this line is right and then there's no more
additional troubles with the Titans said, Okay, I'll take three,
and I'll take my chances. But the possibility that Mike
Varabel has setbacks, that Ryan Tannehill has a Russell Best
Bricker cam Newton situation where he does just doesn't feel

(02:00:39):
right after coming back from COVID. We've seen it with
athletes before. The percentage that the Titans will not be
right week one to me is significant, greater than zero percent.
So I'm taking my free role. Best bet Arizona Cardinals
plus three week one, Okay, fair enough, And I do
like Arizona. I think they're gonna be a competitive team
this year. There are some questions on defense, although they
do add J. J. Watt and they're in a tough

(02:01:00):
division Arizona with the forty niners and the Rams in Seattle.
I talked about that a couple of hours ago. I've
got them bringing up the rear. But that doesn't mean
they're not going to be a very competitive team. Be
that as it may. Mackenzie quickly, I think Tennessee wins
their division, yes or no, the Colts, I'm gonna say

(02:01:20):
the Colts do. I'm gonna Carson Wentz, Winz comes back
Player of the Year and the Colts surprise everybody. Well,
that certainly could happen. And I do like uh, I
do like Frank Raick a lot. I'm not a Carson
Wentz guy. But that team will run the ball well,
they'll play defense. They don't commit stupid penalties, they don't
turn the ball over, they don't blow assignments. They are
a sound team and they're very well coached. I'm sticking

(02:01:42):
with Tennessee. I think they are a top five offense
with Julio Jones, and I think defensively they'll be adequate.
All right, stick and stay right here. On Fox Sports Radio,
I'm Bernie Fratto. Up next Brian No and Andy Ferman.

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