Carmen Vitali & Tracy Sandler React to the NFL Schedule Release, Talk NBA Playoffs & More!

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio Radio.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Welcome, Welcome, Welcome. It is another Fox Sports Saturday. I'm
your host, Carna Batally. I have Tracy Sandler with me
as well. She's in La I'm in Chicago. She's got
the benefit of being face to face with our wonderful
producers Chris purfett, Ian Roddy and Martin Weiss on the
news desk. It's a great Saturday. It's another great Saturday. Trace,

(00:24):
how are you feeling.

Speaker 3 (00:26):
I am feeling very very good. I was actually wondering,
is Chicago Chicago Marie today or just Chicago?

Speaker 2 (00:34):
This is what you call it? Callback call back from
last week's show where I talked about how there had
been things going around social media of cities and what
their middle names would be and how you can yell
at them with their first and middle name then, and
Chicago is Chicago today? She is just Chicago because it's

(00:55):
it's incredible right now. I think she's eighties eighty degrees.
Sonny on the sky I was we had lunch up
on our roof deck.

Speaker 3 (01:04):
Oh, how nice.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
Because we have a we have a little roof deck
that overlooks the skyline. It's very picturesque. So we also
in my household, we have something called Sandwich Saturdays where
we try a different deli for sandwiches and like try
a different sandwich.

Speaker 3 (01:19):
How many delis are you up to you right now?

Speaker 2 (01:22):
Honestly, this is a newer tradition, so we just kind
of started. We've probably Dave's done more than me. Okay,
Dave literally has it in his like Twitter bio, like
tell me about your favorite sandwich, and he means it,
like tell him about your favorite sandwich. If if you're
a follower of Dave Helman, go ahead and tweet at
him your favorite sandwich, especially for in Chicago. So we've

(01:43):
done We've done quite a few. But during this series,
which has only been like three weeks old now because
the weather just started to turn, it's probably been Yeah,
we've done like three, three or four. We did one
actually over the winter where we went to Lincoln Park
and it was like negative five out, but we did
it anyway, the name North Poinda Deli Lincoln Park. That

(02:07):
was great today. Shout out to Bodega Bay in wicker Park.
That's where we went for our sandwiches. I got a
salad because I have a wedding coming up.

Speaker 3 (02:16):
Yes, you do, you definitely do. Though I have a
question when you don't have a wedding coming up, what
is your favorite sandwich?

Speaker 2 (02:22):
Oh gosh, I don't know that I could like really
answer that, because it just depends on what I'm in
the mood for. I mean, I'm I'm Italian, so I
always go for like I usually go for some type
of like pershudo situation, something that has persudo and soapersada,
and like the Italian cold cuts that's probably my favorite.

(02:42):
But then I mean, there's a Chicken Caesar rap down
the block that I love. There's and I love a
good chicken Caesar wrap. You get me a good one,
and there's really nothing nothing better?

Speaker 3 (02:51):
Okay?

Speaker 2 (02:52):
Does it now? And then it begs the existential question
does a hot dog count as a sandwich?

Speaker 3 (02:56):
It does not.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
I'm with you. I think a hot dog is all
it sounds, and I don't.

Speaker 3 (03:01):
I feel like it's so definitively just does not. But
I know that we are not. We don't. Other people
believe differently than we do. Ahead Shouble getting that up.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
But other is a hot dog a sandwich? Now? The
other thing is is an Italian beef a sandwich. Now, objectively,
probably yes, but I also think Italian beefs are their
own thing, and that's a very Chicago thing. If you're
not familiar, it's somewhere between like a pistrami and a
sandwich and like a Philly cheese steak because the it's it.

(03:31):
You use beef, but it's like shaved really really thin,
like pistrami. Okay, and then they put what's called jardnaire.
This is making me hungry all over again, like which
is pickled like veggies, and it's like this really is
this special kind of sauce that's very traditional to Chicago.
You can get jardenery, you can get Miles Jardenaire, you
can just get straight up sweet peppers.

Speaker 3 (03:54):
Is that what the bear was like? Is that I
would start, Okay.

Speaker 2 (03:57):
That's mister beef. So mister beef is like they they
they say that they're they're original. I think Al's is
more the original here in Chicago. Italian beef the one
on Taylor Street. But yeah, this is more than anybody
wanted to know about the Chicago food scene.

Speaker 3 (04:12):
Well, I would say, you come for the sports takes,
but you you stay for the sandwich.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
Truck commended, like, I think this is the this is,
you know, the best of all worlds. At this point,
food and sports are so synonymous with each other too.

Speaker 3 (04:25):
They completely together.

Speaker 2 (04:26):
And until recently, the only redeeming quality about going down
to watch the White Sox play baseball was the fact
that Sox Park. I won't even tell, like, I won't
even call it by what its name is because it's dumb.
Which it's Rate Field. Now they have the best food
of any Major league ballpark I've ever held to.

Speaker 3 (04:45):
I did not know this.

Speaker 2 (04:46):
It's they had. They had to draw people somehow because
the baseball has been so bad.

Speaker 3 (04:50):
That's fair.

Speaker 2 (04:51):
Up until now, when they're over five hundred, it's Cross
time Classic. We're gonna get to that a little bit.
But first, before we get too far into this, I
do you want to start talking about the NFL schedule release,
because that's what happened on Thursday, and the NFL has
made a holiday out of this. Now each team knows
their opponents once the season is over, because they know

(05:14):
obviously what place in their division that they finished, and
so then that gives them the matchups of which opponents.
You know, if your fourth place in the NFC North
and the NFC North is playing the NFC South this year, Well,
then you're going to play the fourth place NFC South team,
and so on and so forth. So you know the
opponents in advance, but you do not know until mid

(05:35):
May when your team is going to be playing each opponent,
and how many primetime games they're going to have, how
many short weeks they're going to have, when their bye
week is going to be. So the NFL has made
a whole holiday and it is the super Bowl for
internal creative departments.

Speaker 3 (05:52):
That's a good statement. I think that's very true.

Speaker 2 (05:55):
As someone who worked in one of these departments for
a team, it is you work. I'm not kidding all
year for it. Like the ideation process starts literally right
after you're done with they're like, oh, well next year,
we can do this, And it is. And it's the
weirdest fire drill because you don't actually get the schedule

(06:17):
that much ahead of time if you're a.

Speaker 3 (06:18):
Team, No you don't. You didn't think everybody would be
surprised at how little ahead of time a team gets
a scheduled.

Speaker 2 (06:23):
Yes, like literally it's ours and it's it's such a
state secret, like I want to pull back the curtain
a little bit on this before we get into what
our favorites were from this year, because I think it's
such a funny process that nobody really knows how it works.
So the way that it worked for the Tampa Tampa
Bay Buccaneers when I was there is our CEO would
get a phone call from the league, and over the

(06:46):
phone like a landline phone, he would be read this
schedule and he would handwrite it on a piece of
paper and then wrote it wrong. Right, No, I mean
like this is there's there's a lot of room for
human error in this entire process, which is hysterical. So
he's writing the opponent the day, you know, the date,
the time if they have it, and then what network

(07:06):
it's on, and then that gets like that's kept under
lock and key, this literal like piece of paper like
notebook paper. And then if your department needs to know
the schedule in advance, for instance, the creative department that
has to edit whatever video and all the footage that

(07:27):
they've shot into the right order or however they've decided
to do it, this is like this happens at like
noon day of that the schedule's coming out, so it's
only like six hours notice and then you have to
get then that has to get to the creative department head.
Only the head of the department could then go and

(07:47):
make a single photo copy of the handwritten whatever, and
then they could take it back to their desk, and
then from there you could not copy it again. It
was just like you could take that physical sheet of
paper to the creative department and whoever needed to edit
it into the right order could do that, and then

(08:07):
it would kind of get like word of mouth disseminated
from there. So as a staff writer, I didn't even
have six hours heads up, and I had to have
like things previews ready to go for like every matchup
and like or just like kind of an overarching whatever.
I had to like write a bunch of stuff about
the schedule, like five things to know about the schedule
or this that the other, and like I had like

(08:29):
maybe a couple of hours.

Speaker 3 (08:30):
You don't get all the time, beat reporters saying we
get a little little time, but not much, I mean,
very very little time. So it's it's such an event
and it's so stressful. I mean, honestly, it's so funny too,
because listening to you talk about it that way and
breaking it down, you would think this was a matter
of national security exactly.

Speaker 2 (08:48):
I'm like, you would think these are the lodge codes.
Like you would literally think these were the lodge codes.

Speaker 3 (08:52):
And I know billions of dollars are in stake because
of the TV deals and the revenue and all of
the things, but you literally would think that this was
a matter of national security. That if somehow someone found
out that in week four Tampa Bay was going to
New Orleans before they were supposed to, like everything would
just fall apart.

Speaker 2 (09:11):
And I'm, I'm I don't know why. I guess it's
because the NFL, like I said, likes to have the
pomp and circumstances stay relevant each month. So like each
month of the calendar, you're you can point to a
specific NFL event that happens in that month, save for
like July. No not even because like the kids July
the trading camp shopping, and June is like mini camps

(09:32):
and so like you get six weeks in there. But
like each month, there's still like a marquee NFL event,
and that's what May is, Like May doesn't have one
because obviously the Draft is in April, and so then May.
It's just like OTAs are starting, like off season programs
are starting. Working mini camp doesn't move the needle. So
they've like manufactured schedule release to be this crazy thing
so that now every team pours over. Like I said,

(09:55):
it's a it's a year long process of figuring out
what you're gonna do for your schedule release video. And
this year was so interesting to me because I thought
that it's notable to say that every team saved for
acaus the years and the Cardinals. So many teams came
out and said, like, our schedule, these will not be
AI like they everybody took a stand against AI again

(10:17):
save for the Cardinals, and the Cardinals were chastised for
using AI.

Speaker 3 (10:23):
Chargers. That Halo Gate I'm not super familiar with. It
was that not AI.

Speaker 2 (10:27):
No, that wasn't they. They made it a point to
say they so they worked with the creators of Halo. Okay,
and Halo is a massive video game franchise has been
for years and years and years and years. They made
it a point to say, hey, we worked with the
developers of Halo to do this. None of this is AI.
It is all done with them, like in conjunction with

(10:48):
their their director of social Megan, she like put out
a tweet where she tagged all of the individual creatives
that were involved with it. And the Chargers have become
the gold standards. So let's start there with the our faves,
because that was obviously my favorite. It is every single
year for the most part. I mean, the Titans had
the one year where they were on, but they've got Broadway.

(11:09):
That's such a cheat code to just go and talk
to people on Broadway. But the Chargers are the gold
standard for everything. Their content is so layered and they
just they use schedule Release as a way to just
roast all of their opponents. But it's so well done
and so meticulously well done that like you have no

(11:30):
choice but to respect it, and that this year was
no different. I mean you would have to go through
I mean I've scoured Twitter to like see the different
screenshots and stuff because you would probably have to watch
their schedule release video which was like five minutes. You
would have to do that like one hundred different times
to catch seventy five percent of all of the stuff
that went in. They're all the little details, all of

(11:53):
like the little jokes, and they blend pop culture and
like clearly their people are terminally online like the rest
of us, and it's just it's so layered. It's my favorite.

Speaker 3 (12:04):
So I normally agree with you on the charters, and
I did think it was really well done. I had
one phone to pick. And perhaps this is me being
over sensitive or to people's feelings or whatever. I thought
they're roasting of Keon Coleman for the bills was really

(12:24):
not in the best of taste. Yeah, I mean I
did not like that. I it's I just think they
were I think you could have done it in a
way that was a little less.

Speaker 2 (12:33):
I don't know, well, to be fair, they used the
Cam Newton they did, but saying Newton saying.

Speaker 3 (12:40):
They still so I didn't. I just for me, just
for me, I did not love it, the thing with
the cookies and you're our guy. I mean it just
I felt like, probably could have done something else when
it comes to the bills. There's there's plenty of choking
going on in the organization when it comes to plays.
I just felt like, and I think I'm being like
so oversens this. I understand that, but like it's mental

(13:02):
Health Awareness month and We're seeing a lot of things
happen with athletes, and I just felt like, did they
really have to do that? It just felt that to
me felt super mean spirited. And normally I think they
do it great and the rest of it I thought
was great. But normally I think they do such a
great job, and I think normally they do roast in
a way that is still funny and appropriate and you know,

(13:25):
pushing the envelope and all of that. I just didn't.
I just thought that was kind of I just thought
that was in very poor taste.

Speaker 2 (13:34):
Well, the quote from Cam isn't short either, so that
spent quite a bit of time.

Speaker 3 (13:38):
Yes, they did. It was long. It would have been
one thing if they just were like he liked cookies
and then they moved on. I mean, it was a
very They spent a long time on it. So that
was my one. That was my bone one, right with
the Chargers, And so I that those also.

Speaker 2 (13:54):
Wondering the Chargers did do the thing that we were
all curious that they were going to do or you
don't have to talk about it, but were going they
when when New England came up, because New England's on
their schedule, they did the thing. Yeah, and I thought
it was I thought I thought it was tame enough.
I really did.

Speaker 3 (14:10):
I thought, see's I feel like they did a good
job with that. If you were going to do it,
you couldn't have done a little. I mean, and I
get it was the Cam Newton code. But anyways, that
is that was my one bone to pick. Otherwise, I
think they did a great job and it's so clever
as usual. I just don't know why. It just like
kind of hit me wrong, and that was.

Speaker 2 (14:28):
It's a fair. It's a fair. It's fair to bring
up that it's health awareness and that these are young
guys and you want them to be able to have
the freedom.

Speaker 3 (14:34):
To you know, and we've just seen a lot of
very tragic things happen with you.

Speaker 2 (14:38):
You want them to, yeah, like be given some grace
all of that kind of stuff. Yeah, that was my way.
What was your then? Who was your favorite?

Speaker 4 (14:46):
So?

Speaker 3 (14:46):
I know it's a cheat code, but I did think
the Titans was amazing.

Speaker 2 (14:49):
I mean, yeah it was.

Speaker 3 (14:50):
And I also really liked the Falcon It's like the
whole I think they were very clever in their video
and all of that. But the Titans, I just think
it was so perfect and I and it made me
wonder like did they have to get these people's permission
to use their photos or did they just.

Speaker 2 (15:05):
Use these people? Oh no, no, they they have to do.

Speaker 3 (15:08):
But it just was so funny and the people's different reactions,
Like some people were like, no, I'm not Jerry Jones,
what are you talking about. I'm so and so from
I think he was from like London, and then other
people who were like just not very not into it.
But I do think it's it's really a clever way
to do it, and it's funny and it like moves quickly,
and I know, I did love it. The falcons definitely
made me laugh.

Speaker 2 (15:29):
Yeah, the falcons, I god, along with the no AI
stuff too. The packers was very very intricately done. They
worked with the Robot Chicken studios to construct this set
essentially of like like claymation, like stop motion animation, like

(15:49):
that kind of animation that Robot Chicken is so well
known for. And they went through like they released a
video then too of like the behind the scenes of
them all like painting each individual thing and how like
it was just it was so it was just such
a funny thing. Because I feel like so many teams
went after the AI issue by like going the other
direction and being like, we're going to do it like

(16:11):
old school style. We're going to do it like you know,
we're going to do something really really intricate. We're going
to show you that you can still do this without
having to get AI involved. My one of my favorites,
and I was like, oh no, I have the same
algorithm as the New York Jets. Oh my god, me too.

Speaker 3 (16:26):
I follow that account.

Speaker 2 (16:28):
I love that account. It's if you haven't seen it,
it's I don't know if any of anybody out there.
Your algorithm populates the videos where it's paint mixing. I
know it. Well now if you're listening to this and
they mix like two different colors to make another color,
then they name that color and it's like it's one
of those ASMR kind of just very visually satisfying videos

(16:51):
that like just catch fire on the Internet because like
we all just need a break for our brains. And
the Jets did that. And then on top of that,
each of the two colors that they started with for
each team had something to do with the team, So
like the Titans, for instance, was like bachelorette blush and
like Dolly's blue jeans or something, and I was like, okay,
that's brilliant. Like so the it was like little clever things.

(17:12):
And then they you know, it made the Titans blue
and it was like, that's how they revealed their opponents.
And that's also something that's very easy then to splice
and get together. When we're talking about all of that
time that you're just like, it's a fire drill for
these creative departments that you can shoot each of those
individually because again, you know the opponents and then you

(17:33):
can very easily put them in order once you get
the schedule. So hats off to the Jets, Hats off
to it. Honestly, every single creative department across the league.
It's not an easy task. It's such a bearer of
a thing, but it's so much fun and it's so
rewarding when you get to see your visions come to life.
So congratulations to all of the internal creative services teams
across the league. That was your super Bowl. Hats off

(17:54):
to you, And for right now, hats off to us
because we have to get to a break on the
other side of this. We're gonna talk a little bit
of baseball as well. So you're listening to Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 5 (18:08):
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(18:28):
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Speaker 2 (18:52):
Oh that was a little nod to our last segment
about the NFL schedule release. That was, of course, is
of course breaking. Benjamin.

Speaker 7 (18:59):
Yeah, bra this so I am a big fan of
the Halo games, and this plays in a really nasty
part of the second game. I'm not gonna borry with
the details. Just giant aliens coming at you everywhere.

Speaker 2 (19:11):
Wow.

Speaker 7 (19:11):
Okay, I just have this seared into my brain. It's
one of my highlights playing Halo so well. I love
the Halo. I love the Halo schedule release. I mean,
my Lions did almost nothing because they're they're teed off
about last year, so I had to live vicariously through them.

Speaker 2 (19:26):
That's fair. I mean, the Chargers of the gold Standard.
If y'all haven't checked out their schedule release video from
this past week, it is Halo. It is very well done.
There is they push them over a little bit. As
Tracy and I talked about last last segment, I'm carra
vitally Tracy Sandler. That was Chris Bophfett, who is controlling
our music today. I yeah, it's it's such a fun

(19:49):
It really is a fun thing though that I'm really
glad that we've the NFL did a good thing by
making it kind of like a holiday thing. In my opinion,
because of being on the other side of it and
getting to create these schedule release videos. It's a lot.
It's it's a good time.

Speaker 3 (20:03):
You know what else is a good time?

Speaker 2 (20:04):
What's a good time?

Speaker 3 (20:05):
Fox Sports Radio YouTube channel, Yeah, it is, and you
guys should be sure to subscribe to it. You just
search Fox Sports Radio and YouTube and you'll see our
best videos from all of our shows. Hit the thumbs
up icon and common away. Let us know who's takes
you agree with and even those you don't. Just search
Fox Sports Radio on YouTube and subscribe.

Speaker 2 (20:24):
Well, it may not be football season, but it is
baseball season, and it actually feels like it outside. Like
I said, I'm in Chicago. The weather's like eighty degrees,
it's sunny, and it couldn't possibly be a better day
for Game two of the Crosstown Rivalry Series, a Crosstown
Classic here in Chicago between the White Sox and the Cups.

(20:45):
All it is rivalry weekend across the league. It just
so happens that the rivals that are taking or the
rivalry that's taking place in Chicago is between the two
Chicago teams. It's such a fun thing. I am. I
grew up directly west of the city, so I kind
of got to choose my own, my own path, choose
my fighter. So I am a Socks fan because I

(21:07):
realized that the Cubs were ONWGN when I was growing up,
and so they have a much like larger fan base.
They just have like kind of a national fan base,
and nobody outside Chicago likes the Socks. I was like,
I'm gonna like the Socks, and then in two thousand
and five they won a World Series, and then in
twenty fourteen they hired me to be an intern. So
I'm a Socks fan, been a Sox fan. However, I
don't hate the Cubs, even though this is a really

(21:28):
legit rivalry. I did like, if you're going to bring
a championship to the city, I'm not gonna be mad
at you.

Speaker 3 (21:34):
That's full, that's fair.

Speaker 2 (21:36):
So but between but this weekend, I am not a
Cubs fan at all. I am absolutely a White Sox fan,
and it is happening at Rate Field right now. The
Cubs did win last night ten to five. Their bats
woke up after scoring I think like five runs over
their last four games. They finally they got double that
in one game against the Socks, and the juices were flowing. Clearly.

(21:59):
The Socks are still at five hundreds. This Crossdown Classic
is actually a historic one because both teams are over
five hundred for the first time and I don't even
know how long.

Speaker 3 (22:08):
That's crazy that they're both and that it's such a
big thing. I mean, which makes sense, I guess even.

Speaker 2 (22:13):
Like if the Cubs are good, very rarely are the
Socks also good and vice versa, Like both of these
teams are never really good at the same time because
Chicago couldn't handle itself. If it's like if it would
be way too much, like if you want to get
the city of Chicago spontaneously, can bust you put the
Cubs in the Socks in the World Series, and like
that will signal the end of days. But it's it's

(22:36):
a really fun thing that both teams, like our at
least competitive Socks are second in their division. Cubs are
leading THEIRS. Cubs are second in the NL overall, right
ahead of the Dodgers. I think they're two games ahead
of the Dodgers.

Speaker 3 (22:47):
Yeah, at Tracy's Dodgers and the Dodgers.

Speaker 2 (22:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (22:52):
A little bit of an injury update this week. Apparently
this year's injury of the season is loose bodies in
a pitcher's elbow. Sounds gross, it sounds terrible. So Edwin Diaz,
who's dealing with some other stuff right now, he had
surgery for it. He should be back after the All

(23:12):
Star break. Trek school ball from the Tigers dealing with it,
and then Blake Snell, who came back for one start
and pitched a few innings. He now has it, so
it's tpd as to whether he's going to have surgery.
But this seems to be the the injury of the summer,
which I think is the kind of thing of the
summer you don't want. You want a song of the summer,

(23:33):
you want a cocktail of the summer. You don't want
an injury of the summer. But that seems to be
where we're at. Yeah, not right, not great.

Speaker 2 (23:40):
Well, why don't we see what the what? What what's
going on just across the world of sports this summer?
And actually what's going on right now? While were checking
with Martin at these days.

Speaker 8 (23:54):
Well all summer. You know OTA's are coming up. You
know you have the NBA Finals on the show, all right.
Earlier today in Toronto, Blue Jays beat the Detroit Tigers
two to one Dalton Varshall with an RBI singles scoring
Blad Guerrero Jr. That one was ten innings, top of
the seventh inning. That Cardinals lead the Royals three to one,
bottom of the fourth. It's a three to one leader

(24:16):
for the Rockies over the Diamondbacks. Going to the bottom
of the second scoreless between the Orioles and Nationals. Top
of the third film, top of the second, Philly has
a three to nothing lead over Pittsburgh. They jumped out
to that one at the first inning. Bottom of the
second inning, Miami and Tampa Bay are both scoreless. And
at the PGA Championship, you got Aaron Ryan first place

(24:36):
right now, five under. John Robinson moved up now into
one of those tiges for second. He's at four under,
just jumped up from three. It's been real jammed up
in let's see right at Dry McElroy is now three under.
Patrick Reid three under as well. Nick Taylor now alone
the second place at four under.

Speaker 9 (24:53):
Let's see then.

Speaker 8 (24:54):
And soccer, you had Montreal Montreal, No, that's hockey one
second here Manchester City there we go. Defeated Chelsea in
the fa Con Hup Final one nothing at London's Wembley Stadium.

Speaker 10 (25:07):
In college football, Texas Tech.

Speaker 8 (25:09):
Quarterback Brendan Soresby a big nil transferred.

Speaker 10 (25:12):
Portal guy that they got this offseason.

Speaker 8 (25:15):
He's trying to get his eligibility reinstated that his lawyer
said to the ncaa legal challenge is quote eminent. His
status fell into uncertainty in an apparent gambling addiction, which
prompted him to seek impatient treatment a row that kind
of came up. It was about two weeks ago that
he reports surfaced that Swords be hired attorney Jeffrey Kessler

(25:36):
to assist with his efforts to go ahead and get
back on the field. And NHL Eastern Conference second Round
Game two, Montreal has a three two leagal Buffalo Canadians
yet to lose to in a row this postseason, one
and one in serious clinching games this postseason.

Speaker 9 (25:51):
NBA with an off day, ladies.

Speaker 2 (25:53):
Back to you, Thank you, Mark, you Martin, and now
to talk a little bit more about the holiday that
is NFL's guy release. We have a friend of the show,
probably best friend of the show at this point. It's
fair the Athletic Football shows. Dave Hellman.

Speaker 3 (26:09):
Hi, Hey guys, Hey day, that's it going.

Speaker 11 (26:14):
It's going great, Happy to be on.

Speaker 3 (26:17):
I just have a very important question to start us off, please,
and I need to know for sandwich Saturday, Dave, what
is your go to sandwich? This is what the people
want to know right now.

Speaker 11 (26:27):
Like type of sandwich or place you get to choose.
I mean, the beauty of living in Chicago is that
you can change up the place an infinite number of times.
There are so many good delis and sandwich shops in Chicago.
Me personally, I'm a little bit of a traditionalist and

(26:47):
I want something like I want something that's not going
to end my day, you know. So I'm I'm looking
for like cold cuts. I like something with a like
turkey on it.

Speaker 12 (27:00):
Turkey maybe like.

Speaker 11 (27:01):
Salami, I mean, and Italian is always good, but maybe
even lighter than that. Like I said, like maybe with
some turkey on it. Love like red vinagrette, get some
onion on there. It's in Chicago, so I'd love some
spicy jardinaire on there as well. Uh yeah, I need
I need a good mix of textures, like brunch with
the meat. Yeah, like like a turkey and maybe like

(27:27):
capacla sandwich with some cheese and a whole bunch of
ruffige on it is like my ideal sandwich.

Speaker 2 (27:33):
Yeah. I think you think he lived in Chicago his
whole life, the way that he just rattles off Chardenaire.
I'm so proud of him. I did say that I
talked about Bodega Bay today. Uh in the Wicker Park
neighborhood of Chicago. Go check out Bodega Bay. It is
an actual corner store. They have household essentials on top
of all the drinks that you could want, and yeah, it's.

Speaker 11 (27:55):
Right in and the chop cheese and the burgers look
really good. Like I said, I just didn't want to
have to take a nap after lunch today.

Speaker 2 (28:01):
Yeah, thanks fair? All right, Well, the NFL schedule release
was this week, and as someone who also worked for
a team, Dave was with the Dallas Cowboys for ten years.
If you didn't know what did this week mean to
y'all when you were working in the building within the
walls of the Star And how sad or happy are

(28:25):
you to not have to steal them anywhere?

Speaker 11 (28:28):
Oh my god, I mean happy, because really, the crazy
think about schedule release week, now that I don't work
in an NFL building, is just how stressfully it is
compared to I mean, I think it probably goes without
saying because of the amount of effort and production that
goes into the schedule release videos that we all see

(28:48):
every year, but like the planning for that starts in January,
and the social teams are pitching ideas, trying to book celebrities,
you know, like if there's a famous fan of the teams,
like can we get in touch with them? Are they
interested in doing this? What's an idea that they're going
to want to work on? When can we book them

(29:08):
to be available to make the video with us? How
long is it going to make or how long is
it going to take to make? Those videos are like
four month efforts and so and on top of that,
there is like the stress of when are we going
to get the schedule, When are we going to have
the games? How long are we going to have to
put this together? Am I going to get fired because

(29:29):
I accidentally leaked a game two days ahead of time
when I wasn't supposed to. It is such a stressful
proposition being on the inside of making those videos and
putting the schedule out, and this year I barely know
what happened, and it felt really, really good.

Speaker 12 (29:47):
I have a tremendous amount of respect.

Speaker 11 (29:48):
For the people that put all that stuff together because
I know how much goes improved.

Speaker 3 (29:52):
Well, you mentioned potentially getting fired for a leak, but
leaks are now part of the whole week. I mean,
by the time we get to Thursday, we have a
relatively decent idea of the NFL schedule. Obviously there's a
lot we don't know, but that is something that the
NFL has made a thing of over the week, which
I think kind of goes to Carmen's point, like the
NFL makes everything a holiday, and so somehow it is

(30:14):
not schedule release day, it is schedule release week. And
you got to give them props, right, Dave. I mean,
they're the NFL knows how to do it, right.

Speaker 11 (30:24):
I mean they're they're diabolical.

Speaker 1 (30:25):
They know how to turn.

Speaker 11 (30:28):
They know how to turn the most boring stuff in
the world into a week long event. And like, don't
get me wrong, I get excited about the schedule release,
like I want to know when the big games are happening,
and I want to know who's playing on the holidays.
But you can't convince me. Like my joke is, like
this meeting could have been an email, Like you could
just drop you could just.

Speaker 2 (30:48):
Drop this.

Speaker 3 (30:50):
Totally a graphic on the on the team's Instagram phasion.
We're good to go.

Speaker 11 (30:55):
Well, why why would you do that if you can
turn it into a week long event and yeah, put
out a new game every twelve hours or whatever it
is they do. It's inspirational how committed they are to
creating content.

Speaker 2 (31:09):
Well more than the actual schedule release. Then came the
actual schedule, and you get to see, like what teams
get screwed over with bye weeks or they've got back
to back games against like the Bears, for instance, play
back to back games against both Super Bowl teams from
last year, but they do get a week ten by,
which is nice. Like looking around the league and looking
at how the schedule shook out for a lot of

(31:31):
these teams, did you see any that were particularly egregious?

Speaker 11 (31:36):
You know, I think everybody thinks that they got screwed
by the league office. And yeah, especially in this day
and age where you know, Friday games aren't a short
week anymore. Apparently that's what the NFL has told us. Yeah,
I'm sure, I'm sure everybody is worried about the amount
of rest that they're getting down the stretch run.

Speaker 12 (31:56):
I did see one interesting.

Speaker 11 (31:57):
One that the Baltimore Ravens last four games are all
against the division, so the final month of the season,
you're playing the entire like you're playing the entire AFC,
nor if you're playing somebody twice, I don't remember who
it is. But like to spend like the whole second
half of December into January playing division games. I mean,

(32:19):
that's going to go.

Speaker 2 (32:22):
Far. There's played all three of their division opponents for
their last three games the season.

Speaker 11 (32:26):
Yeah, and I'm sure the Ravens aren't alone. Yeah, that
the Bears are doing it as well. I mean, and
I think.

Speaker 12 (32:31):
That's the NFL's goal, is to maximize.

Speaker 11 (32:34):
What's on the line in the final three four weeks
of the season.

Speaker 12 (32:37):
Oh necessarily, no, if I think.

Speaker 11 (32:39):
It's fair, And I don't blame people for complaining about
that or being upset about it.

Speaker 12 (32:45):
But like we said, content is king, And how do.

Speaker 3 (32:50):
You feel about I mean, the four Niners, we know
how they feel about it, about them going to Australia
and then later in the season Mexico City and then
aparent of the fans are up in arms because they
gave the Rams the Monday night game the next week
after that, but the fort nine ers a Sunday early game,
and there's a lot of talk among the fandom of

(33:10):
sure it will shock everybody that there's like a conspiracy
theory around this.

Speaker 11 (33:14):
I really appreciate Kyle Shanahan making like being willing to
complain about it and being willing to make it known
that he thinks it sucks and you know it's it's
not terribly fair, and well it's it's the Rams home
game that's going to Australia.

Speaker 3 (33:29):
Right, Yes it is. It's the Rams home game, and
so that.

Speaker 11 (33:32):
Sounds like a noble sacrifice.

Speaker 12 (33:34):
But if you've ever been to a Rams Niners game
at Sofi.

Speaker 11 (33:37):
Stadium, no it's not.

Speaker 2 (33:39):
No, it's not.

Speaker 11 (33:40):
That place is a sea of red when the Niners
comes down. So yeah, I don't blame the forty nine
ers for being pissed one bit. And like I said,
I think it would be easy to be diplomatic and
say like, well, we'll play wherever the league tells us
to play. But Kyle Shanahan's got enough skins on the
wall to be like, ah, this kind of sucks.

Speaker 3 (33:58):
Interesting. Do you always still the truth? He's not a
good liar.

Speaker 11 (34:02):
Yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, what
are you going to do?

Speaker 4 (34:04):
I mean, the.

Speaker 11 (34:04):
International schedule is getting bigger and bigger. There's like what,
there's like nine of them this year. There's there's some
crazy amount and I don't see it flowing down, and
so I guess my only like mycopium would just be
like that. Back in the day, there were only a
handful of teams that had to do this, and it's like, okay,
well is this really fair? But at this point, every

(34:28):
team in the league is playing on one or two
short weeks, and so many teams are going overseas, and
I really within the decade, I would guess every team
in the league is going to play an international game
once a year. Like that just kind of seems like
where we're heading. So yeah, it's not necessarily fair, but
that's that's the business that we're in, and I don't
think it's going to change.

Speaker 3 (34:49):
Life is not fair.

Speaker 2 (34:50):
Life is not fair. Life's top get a helmet. That
was my quote from my middle school graduation speech, and
it came from boy me thwirls. All right, Dave, thank
you so much for joining us. Go exercise our dog
a little bit and go pick up your talks for
our wedding.

Speaker 11 (35:07):
Thank you for putting my errand list onto the radio.

Speaker 2 (35:10):
I appreciate that I.

Speaker 12 (35:12):
Will talk to you all later.

Speaker 2 (35:14):
That was The Athletic Football Show's Dave Hellman. Stick around
because we have a whole other hour of Fox Sports
Saturday coming up for you on the other side of this,
we actually and before we do that, we're going to
get to the dudes and the dunts of the week.
So stay tuned. You're listening to Fox Sports Saturday.

Speaker 1 (35:34):

Speaker 2 (35:37):
Welcome back into Fox Sports Saturday. This is a perfect
vibe actually for its just being a lovely Saturday across
the country. I hope where you're listening from you're having
a great day. I'm Carnen Vitally, that's Tracy Sandler, and
we have we're we've got a we had a great
show so far. We have a whole other hour coming up.

(36:00):
But I really enjoy talking through some of the like
feeling back hurt in a little bit on what happens
in the NFL for schedule release week and how what
that means to all of these teams, talk a little
bit of baseball. We're gonna get to the NBA next hour,
but for right now, it's the dues and the don'ts
of the week.

Speaker 1 (36:17):
Highlight that putting a spotlight on the don't.

Speaker 2 (36:21):
The subject brings me no joy. That that's insane.

Speaker 1 (36:25):
It's time for the dues and the don'ts in sports.

Speaker 2 (36:29):
All right, I'm gonna I'm gonna start. I'm gonna start
with a little bit of a short one. Do just
dig my grave for me already? Who I know a lot.
I know. I'm so old, Tracy, we are so old.
I think you'll appreciate this. Well, what did you know?
This just happened yesterday? Madam chef to report it? Like

(36:52):
father likes Charles Woodson junior juniors committed to the University
of Michigan.

Speaker 3 (36:59):
I know it's a lot of excitement for us Fichhigan kids,
right Martin, let's go.

Speaker 2 (37:03):
Yes, I know I think it's funny that I don't
know if this was one of yours. But I'm bringing
it up because I just, for whatever reason, man, this
hit me. I'm like, no, Charles Winson isn't old enough.
Because Charles Woolson's old enough to have a son that's
committing to play college ball, that means that I'm old too.

Speaker 3 (37:22):
Well, Charles Winson is significantly older than you.

Speaker 2 (37:26):
He is, but like not by a lot.

Speaker 3 (37:30):
I am going to go out and say he's older
than you buy a lot.

Speaker 2 (37:34):
I don't know. I mean, it's it's like you know,
I had I had the same exidential crisis when a
Santa Samuel Junior started playing in the NFL, and I
was just like, I'm watching a Sanday Samit when he
was on the Eagles as a kid. Like, it's just
you know, when you when you get the guys that
you grew up watching now having kids that are old
enough to play, it's it's it's I'm going through it,

(37:55):
all right, I'm going through it.

Speaker 3 (37:57):
I'm just please, don't dig your grave that I don't
want that.

Speaker 2 (38:00):
No, I'm not. I'm not going to dig it. I
think people should start digging it for me though.

Speaker 3 (38:04):
No, I'm gonna I'm going to encourage people to not.
That's a don't. Don't anybody to dig Carbon's gray. That's
that's my that's my big don't of the day very much.
But I do understand what you're saying. It is kind
of crazy. Uh. And then I always wonder it'll be
like how much pressure that is for Charles Winston Junior,
because that's like an icon, a.

Speaker 2 (38:23):
Legend, I always I've always said that, like, if I
was the kid of Michael Jordan, the last thing I
would do is play basketball. I would absolutely go into
something else.

Speaker 3 (38:31):
Yeah, I totally agree with that.

Speaker 2 (38:34):
I totally of that.

Speaker 3 (38:34):
But thenetheless go blue Yay, Welcome, Welcome Woodson Junior.

Speaker 2 (38:40):
We love you.

Speaker 3 (38:42):
My dues are there. It's one due with two examples.
So do have fun at work. So the other day,
Marcella Zuna of the Pirates hit a home run and
Johann Ramirez in the bullpen caught it with a coat
with an orange cone, and I'm like, that's fun. I like,
I like the having fun interacting. Imagine the bullpen it

(39:03):
gets kind of boring at some point, and so absolutely
interacting it is very fun. And then I would have
been the same night might have been the night before.
But Sho he O Tani had a rare night off,
entirely no pitching, no hitting, just a complete night off.
And he's sitting next to Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Will Smith
comes over and Yoshinobu Yamamoto has a hoodie and he

(39:24):
starts putting all this gum in the hoodie, basically hoping
that Yoshi will put the hoodie on and the gum
will But Shohy is sitting next to Yoshi and they're
talking and Johey is trying so hard not to laugh
the giggles. I mean, it was like, I love it.
It's not a good team and it was just really funny,
and I was like, see, you know what, it's serious business.

(39:46):
There's a lot of money, it's taken all that, but
have a good time.

Speaker 2 (39:48):
It's a game. It's a game. Enjoyed the game, honestly,
if you can have if your team is having fun
with each other, that's gonna take you. That's gonna take
you pretty far. I've got it. I've got one more.
That's the kind of a short one do. Don't worry if
you get lost. There's a tweet going around social media
that you're not a bona fide sports writer until you
have abe been locked in a stadium or be a file.
The story from a weird place I can personally attest

(40:13):
so far is on my list of betrayals because somehow
I get lost there every time. I've also gotten stuck
in there and had to call security to let me out.
It's a labyrinth of a place. You've got you walk
in on the sixth level, you walk out on the fifth,
but you never went up and downstairs. It's bizarre. I'll
never understand it. But these are the bona fides of

(40:34):
being a sports writer. So we've had a great hour.
We have another hour coming up after this. Stay tuned
for that. You're listening to Fox Sports Saturday.

Speaker 1 (40:47):

Speaker 2 (40:50):
Welcome back into Fox Sports Saturday. I am Carna Vitally.
That is Tracy Sandler, and we have a great hour
two for you.

Speaker 3 (41:00):
But first, with the iHeart App, you can stream us
wherever you are. Catch us in all of our Fox
Sports Radio shows live twenty four to seven in the
new and improved iHeart App. Just search Fox Sports Radio.
Just stream us live all day, every day, and be
sure to select Fox Sports Radio as one of your
presets the iHeart App so it always pops up at
the top of your screen. Again, just search Fox Sports

(41:23):
Radio in the iHeart App.

Speaker 2 (41:25):
Sorry, did I catch your mid too? No? Oh, I
always have a snack with me for radio, so sometimes, oh, no,
I have a mint.

Speaker 3 (41:32):
I had a mint and mint I Do I take
it out or do I just keep going with it?
And I think I went with it, and the iHeartRadio
app I think will thank me. Yeah, that's fair because
people will remember.

Speaker 2 (41:44):
So there you go. My snack today is true through
strawberries and cream freeze dried. Oh I don't know if
you've had the.

Speaker 3 (41:52):
True free I've not.

Speaker 2 (41:53):
What is it?

Speaker 3 (41:53):
What is this?

Speaker 2 (41:54):
So there's like there's the there's the stuff in the
freezer section, which they always have a costco which is
like frozen strawberries covered in either white chocolate or regular chocolate,
sometimes both okay, but they also have a freeze dried version.
Now that I got hooked on because Cynthia Freeland of
NFL Network now ESPN, she held a pilates class at
the Combine this year. I at like eight am Wednesday

(42:17):
and first and in some way, shape or form, I
was able to get up and went to it.

Speaker 3 (42:22):
I was farm and at dinner the night before, so
I will attend.

Speaker 2 (42:26):
I don't know what I'm gonna do. Combine has historically
late nights and so but I did. I got up
and when he went down to do some pilates. Because
Cynthia is also a certified pilate's instructor, because of course
she is because she had all these goodies for us
and including these Truefoo freeze dried things, and ever since then,
I have been absolutely addicted to them. And you can't

(42:47):
like get them everywhere, Like they don't have them at
my grocery store, but they have them at CBS, but
they don't have like the bigger bags, and so I like,
I need, I need to get some sort of sponsorship
from Truefoo just because like I don't know where else
to get it, Like, can I just have it shipped
to my house. I'll even pay for it.

Speaker 3 (43:02):
I don't think you'll pay them to sponsor.

Speaker 2 (43:05):
You'll pay them to sponsor me. Just give me the
big bags of the strawberries and cream because it's delicious.
So I've been eating. I've been snacking on that during
this But there's been a lot of food talk today
and I'm sorry about that. Guys. I'm from Chicago. I
live in Chicago. I'm doing the show from Chicago. Food
is always on our minds.

Speaker 3 (43:21):
So well, i'd like you said earlier, food and sports,
I mean they do go hand in hand, they really do.

Speaker 2 (43:25):
But let's get back to sports, because the NBA playoffs
full full swing. We're waiting on one more series Game seven,
Game seven tomorrow between the Pistons and the Calves. Which
it's interesting because I think we all kind of we
like last week when we talked to Marcus Thompson, it

(43:46):
was like, what's wrong with Calves and He's just like
they stink and we were like, yeah, they're like, you know,
they've been playing real soft, like the Pistons clearly, you know,
they're the more physical team this that the other. Well,
the series is tied three to three, and they forced
it like there's a Game.

Speaker 3 (44:03):
Seven on Sunday. Actually actually on Sunday, we were getting
a couple days off from the NBA.

Speaker 2 (44:07):
Yeah, and uh, it's gonna be I'm really like, I'm
very I'm very interested in this game because none of
these other series have been particularly dramatic. No, they had
like San Antonio and Minnesota they went six games, but
the Spurs and Wemby. The Wemby ejection was nuts.

Speaker 3 (44:27):
That was n's the elbow to the esophagus area, literal throat.

Speaker 2 (44:32):
It was.

Speaker 3 (44:32):
It was not that was a very interesting part of
the series. It did go six games, but you knew
the Spurs were going to win the series, so it
was just a matter of when. But I mean Cleveland
Detroit are also not for nothing, gonna be exhausted because
both of them will have gone seven games in both
of their series.

Speaker 2 (44:50):
Yes, and they're going to be going up against whoever
wins is gonna go up against a Knicks team that
swept the seventy six ers.

Speaker 3 (44:56):
Yeah, they've basically on vac.

Speaker 2 (44:58):
They've been on Vaca and like they had no issues
whatsoever with Philly, like none that final four, that fourth
game the Knicks won one forty four to one fourteen,
and like both like almost all of their games against
the Sixers were like large margins of victory, like there
was absolutely zero suspense, mystery whatever. And then you look

(45:20):
at the OKC, who hasn't lost yet in the playoffs. Nope,
they've just they've played eight games and they've won two
series and now they're just sitting there twiddling their thumbs
so much so that it's allowed Jalen Williams to get healthy.
So now it looks like for the final, the Western
Conference Finals, they are going to be at full strength

(45:42):
with Jalen Williams back into the lineup, which I can't
imagine the Spurs are.

Speaker 3 (45:49):
Happy about, very excited from who not? I mean, I
think the Spurs have the best chance of giving Okac
a run.

Speaker 2 (45:58):
I just yes, which I think we said it from
me up right?

Speaker 3 (46:01):
We did. We definitely said that from the jump. We
said it last week. Should this, should this be the case?
We think they have the best chance. What's going to
be interesting is this Spurs team is a very young team.
Is we also talked about last week, and they're going
into going into a series with an Oka See team
that is the defending champions. Obviously they've had quite a
bit of experience and they're going to have a rest advantage,

(46:24):
but I think it's going to end up being in
the experience and the veterans that will ultimately be the difference.
Should Oka See get another trip to the finals.

Speaker 2 (46:34):
Yeah, the Spurs have been really interesting because they do
have some guys on the team that have have had
individual yes, playoff experience, but as a unit, as a team,
they are young and they are a little inexperienced. And
we've talked to a lot of people I feel like
over the last few weeks of the playoffs, where you know,
how much does that really matter? The thunder coming in

(46:56):
as the defending champs and then steam rolling their way
to the Western Conference Finals. I mean, clearly, experience matters
in that regard because they know exactly what to expect,
exactly how to attack their opponents, and exactly kind of
what that entails and how important this kind of rest
could be going into the last stretch and ultimately to
the finals hopefully. But how much does that matter versus

(47:21):
the Spurs who have individual experience but not experience as
a team, and you know, are they going to take
a little while to gel And does that make things
a little more interesting? I mean, objectively, I guess it does,
because their series against the Timberwolves went the Tea Wolves
went for six games, right, But I did think I
mean I thought that like early in the series especially,

(47:41):
that was really interesting. I really didn't know for a
little bit there who was getting out of it. But
then the Spurs turned it on. I think, honestly, do
you think that the Wemby ejection kind of like galvanized them?

Speaker 3 (47:53):
I think probably a little bit. It was it was
so unexpected, and I think it probably did because I
think it also showed a side of him that we've
never seen, and that can be very motivating for a team,
and it can it could definitely help bring a team
even more together, help them gel you know, you have to,
you know, make up for his absence in all of that.

(48:14):
But I think it showed kind of a vigor, if
you will, a little bit of a little edge, a
little bit of an edge, and I think it definitely did.
I mean, I felt I did feel in the series
that the Spurs were the better team, and so I
did think they were going to be the winners of
the series. But I think for this next series that

(48:35):
could be something that helps them. I think it also
is a little bit of a not a message to okay,
see on purpose, but it's a little bit like, okay,
so there is that other side. You can't he he
can get edgy, and that is something they're going to
have to be prepared for. So it's going to be
a good series. I really I don't think they're sweeping
this one. I don't even think be a gentleman to sweep.
I think this is going to be a really good,

(48:57):
really fun series.

Speaker 2 (48:58):
I think so many of us were like predicting a
gentleman's sweep in the Lakers series and that just didn't happen.

Speaker 3 (49:05):
There were well, there were some of us who felt
that it was now going to be gentlemanly at all.

Speaker 2 (49:09):
Well, and it was. It surely was not. I mean,
you know, with Luca out and you know, Austin reeves
in and out of the lineup throughout the playoffs, and
it's just like Lebron can't do it on his own,
especially at the stage of his career. So how how
viable was that Lakers team? And you know, they won,
they won a series, They won the series against the

(49:30):
Rockets in six games. But yeah, like when you're on
a crash course with the defending champs, who I mean,
I just didn't really feel like there was a whole
lot of mystery in the West at all. And I've
been saying that even leading up to the playoffs, where
I was like, I don't really this is Okayse's conference
until I'm proven otherwise. So we'll see them in the
Western Conference finals and they'll probably be the ones to

(49:53):
get out of the West. But you're right, the Spurs
could give him run for their money. The East has
always been the you know, there's all the there's just
more variety that there's more variables there. You know, you
have the Pistons on top of that conference, you know,
leading into the playoffs, and they get the number one seed.
And I mean, honestly, the craziest part I think so
far is that the Celtics went out against the Sixers,

(50:14):
especially for how a neemick the Sixers looked in that
series against the Knicks, where you were thinking, all right,
the Celtics are the second seed, like it's going to
be you know, some combination of like Pistons, Celtics, Knicks
like those are those are the three teams, the top
three seeds that you thought we're gonna come out of
the East. And the Celtics go down in the first
round to the Sixers. It was I guess the Sixers

(50:38):
just had their number. But now you know, the Knicks
have cruised, they get some rest, and yeah, the Pistons
Cavs game, that's going to be. I'm so excited for that.

Speaker 3 (50:47):
Well, and I think you know, you mentioned we talked
to Marcus Tomson last week and had Detroit's a much
more physical team. I think tomorrow is going to be
a very physical game. Oh yeah, and you know, for Detroit,
I think anything less than getting the Eastern Conference Finals
is going to be a massive disappointment. I think people
will consider it a not an epic fail, but it

(51:08):
will be. It'll be a conversation. Detroit Sports Talk radio
will have lots to say about it. But this Cleveland
team has shown some grit and some guts. You know,
both of these teams kind of have similar things they
have to work on. Both of them have to cut
down on the turnovers. It was Detroit's bench that really
helped the other night, and they're going to have to
continue to do that. And it's going to be a

(51:30):
fun I think it's gonna be a really really fun
game to watch at the rebounds and not turning the
ball over and who can really be that difference maker?
And I feel like it's going to be the Pistons
because I just think that their bench is the difference maker.
But that being said, after we after the show last week,

(51:50):
I figured the Cavs were pretty much done for and
look where we are today, So I could be wrong.

Speaker 2 (51:56):
James Harden woke U and Donovan Mitchell has never made
it to the conference finals. Despite the fact that he's
not missed the playoffs, he's also never made the conference finals,
So crazy, I know, but we'll see, uh, we'll see
who who comes out of this. But yeah, you're right,
I think is really going to come down to who's

(52:16):
more physical in this game and who has enough left
because they're both they're they're and.

Speaker 3 (52:26):
If of all sports, this one to have to go
game seven in two series is the hardest one. Because
in baseball, we saw it with the Blue Jays. They
had Game seven in the ALCS LAS year, Game seven
the World Series. They didn't lose the World Series because
they had two game sevens in a row. It's it's
a different kind of thing. This is basketball so much
I think more physically strenuous obviously, like minute to minute

(52:48):
that like you said, who's who's got enough left, who
can get that final push and whoever it is is
going to be rewarded with going to the Eastern Conference
Finals starting I believe on Tuesday.

Speaker 2 (52:59):
Yes, I watched it reel just recently and it was like,
what of the major North American sports, is the hardest
championship to win just by like physical exertion standpoint, And
it actually ended up going to hockey. Okay, because again,
but like you know that it's one of these sports
that have a seven game series. Right, Like, for as
physical and violent as football is, the playoffs, you're playing

(53:22):
like four extra games if you make it to the
Super Bowl. Right. But with the NBA, with the NHL,
I mean you know baseball too, but NBA and NHL,
like you could you have the potential of having to
play what fourteen twenty one yeah extra you know.

Speaker 3 (53:41):
Finals.

Speaker 2 (53:41):
Yeah, if you go to a game seven in the championship,
in the finals, you're playing twenty one extra games, which
is wild. And then you have to I think, and
then it may became which of the sports between basketball
and hockey is more physically exerting, And I think that
you do have to give that edge to hockey because
it's got a little bit they're on skate, it's got
a little bit of violent football nature to it, with

(54:03):
the cross checking and all that. Like you just you're
going into boards. There's there's an injury culture in hockey
that is just laughably vague, where it's it's an upper
body injury, it's a lower body injury. That's all you get. Yeah. Yeah,
So it ended up being Stanley Cup is the hardest
champion or the hardest trophy to win from a physical
exertion standpoint. But basketball was right there obviously, So the

(54:26):
Epistans and Calves are gonna feel every bit of that.

Speaker 3 (54:29):
They sure are, But you know what if they whoever wins, will.

Speaker 2 (54:34):
I'm glad there's some I'm glad there's some mystery though,
because again, like these other.

Speaker 3 (54:39):
Series, just not so much with the mystery. I think
this looks gonna be fun. And I think, you know,
in the Western Conference finals, I think Oklahoma City does
come out of it. But I think this one, I
think it goes six games, and that in itself would
be a fun thing, but this one will be great.
It's funny because the first round had so many game
sevens and this round has this one game seven and

(55:01):
you know, Cleveland at Detroit, Ohio, Michigan generally have rivalries
all over the place, so it becomes just be fun
and it's it's short town.

Speaker 2 (55:11):
Yeah, it's great. It's great. And I'm happy for the
Pistons for you know, forgetting the number one seed and
and you know, it's weird being a Bolls fan and
saying that, but the Bulls aren't relevant, And I know.

Speaker 3 (55:22):
That that's big of you to say. I think that
shows a lot about your character.

Speaker 2 (55:26):
Well, thanks, You're welcome. We're going to talk about some
somebody else's character. We're gonna talk about the NFL's character
on the other side of the next this next break.
But we've got more Fox Sports Saturday coming your way.
I'm Karen Vitalie. That's Tracy Sandler. Stay tuned after this.
Welcome back to Fox Sports Saturday. I'm Caren Vitally. I'm

(55:46):
got Tracy Sandler with me today in our La studios.

Speaker 7 (55:51):
I don't know how to pronounce this at all. You
were saying right before I put your mic up, you
don't know what this is.

Speaker 2 (55:55):
I don't know what this is.

Speaker 7 (55:57):
I've seen this from a few friends. I can't pronounce
the name Angie to Nope into the French.

Speaker 2 (56:04):
I think so maybe okay. I, as is pointed out
by my new Orlenian for a husband or soon to
be husband, I can't pronounce French sounds or the French language.

Speaker 1 (56:17):
Worth Oh no, me, neither I have.

Speaker 7 (56:20):
There's a there's a recording of me on a podcasting
or Dwarves as whores de war.

Speaker 2 (56:25):
Oh that's bad. I at least know that I speak
I speak Italian like conversationally, and it's really funny. We've
come to this like realization that Italian is just pronouncing
every single letter in the word, every single vowel especially,
and French is just like pronouncing half of it like

(56:49):
and it's true. They was just like and so like
when Dave tries to speak Italian, he like tries to
cut things off, and I was like, no, you have
to say the whole thing, like that e at the
end isn't silent, Like you have to pronounce the e.
And he's like, well, I don't know because in French,
like you won't even say half of these souths, which
is true.

Speaker 3 (57:05):
It's very It's very interesting, yes it is. You know
what else is interesting?

Speaker 2 (57:09):
What else is interesting?

Speaker 3 (57:10):
I know, I love the segue for the best pregame
show every weekend. It is very interesting. So be sure
to tune into Fox Sports Radios Countdown presented by MGM,
every Saturday and Sunday morning from nine am to New
Eastern six to nine am Pacific. We will count you
down to all of the biggest games of the weekend.
Tune into Countdown presented by Bet MGM, every Saturday and
Sunday morning right here on Fox Sports Radio and the

(57:33):
iHeart app.

Speaker 2 (57:34):
All right. Another thing is interesting because I want to
talk about this a little bit. With the NFL schedule
coming out, you also get to see like where each
game is being, like what network is broadcasting each game?
Right For the most part, there's some that are like
can get flexed and this that and the other and whatever. However,
there are more games on streaming than ever before, and

(57:57):
this is a trend that has that has happened where
you now need like seven or eight different channels, I think,
some of which are streaming services.

Speaker 3 (58:09):
I think it's ten.

Speaker 2 (58:10):
Is it ten? Now?

Speaker 3 (58:11):
I think it's ten. So so I asked AI and
they said ten. But we can go through. But Amazon, Prime, Netflix, Peacock,
Paramount Plus, ESPN, APP, CBS Sports, Fox, Sports, NBC Sports, ESPN,
and then there's like NFL Plus, Premium YouTube TV. It's
a lot of places.

Speaker 2 (58:30):
It's it's a lot so Okay. So there was on
Pabulatory Finds Out this week. Former ESPN president John Skipper
was on and he had a really like there was
a really good conversation and he has a really interesting,
like a really interesting kind of take on all of it,
which was that so the mad the legacy networks like
the CBS's the NBC, Fox like whatever. They essentially buy

(58:54):
these NFL packages for billions of dollars, right, and they
operate at a loss, like they're not selling two billion
dollars worth of ads during an NFL season. But it's
essentially live sports, and the NFL in particular is what's
keeping legacy cable networks afloat at this point like they

(59:15):
need it. It's it's a relationship where they need the
NFL package, like they are not going to survive without
the NFL package. Now, you enter into these streaming sites
or these streaming companies that are owned by tech companies
that don't need the NFL's money to survive, and if
you keep pushing out and and and outpacing what the

(59:40):
legacy networks can afford, and then you are because you
know that the tech giants and stuff can't afford it, well,
it's it's a it's a dangerous game to play because
then if you're all on streaming because you knew that
they can afford it, they also don't need you. So
it's like the balance of this is I feel like

(01:00:03):
we're and I don't know that it's necessarily even gonna
be Roger Goodell's problem. It's probably gonna be the next
commissioner's problem. But if you keep moving things onto streaming,
you're gonna eventually run into a wall where they're not
gonna pay you anymore, because they're gonna be like, hey,
we can walk away from you, right, we don't need you,
and we like stay afloat. And that's gonna be very

(01:00:24):
interesting for the NFL, which I mean these broadcast deals
also are the reason that you see the salary cap
go up exponentially every year now and like how like
there's so much more money being generated in these revenues,
and like right now you're in the sweet spot where
you can kind of pit the legacy networks against the
streaming networks, and you know, the streaming network's gonna pay
these exorbitant amounts of money and like this that the other.
But I hate this for the NFL in general because

(01:00:49):
what I think that the NFL owes its popularity to
the fact that it was on cable or like not
on cable. I really it was on it was on
the It was on the channels that we all got
growing up, no matter if you had k or not.
And then there was like the move to ESPN, where
it was like, oh, now it's on cable, and now
it's like there's another pay level where it's now on
streaming and you have to pay extra to have that,

(01:01:11):
and so that's like excluding little by little, that's excluding audiences. Yeah,
and I think that's really unfortunate because you're you're diluting
your product. And I've gone off on this, I think
on previous shows where I'm just like, you're diluting your
product by putting them on to you know, separate nights
and all the like. All pretty soon, I feel like
there's gonna be an NFL game on every single night, Okay, I.

Speaker 3 (01:01:32):
Mean we are very very close to that, right, and.

Speaker 2 (01:01:35):
It's no longer appointment viewing, and and that really affects
kind of the tradition and the ritual around the NFL,
and to me, that sucks.

Speaker 3 (01:01:44):
Do you still look at Sunday as the day or
now because there's so many different days, it's it's the day,
but it's not not.

Speaker 2 (01:01:53):
I mean, it's still the day with the most and
like it's it's a full day of football. So I
absolutely still see, like view Sundays as NFL Sundays and
I think that that won't go away, you know. I like,
maybe that'll go away like in ten, fifteen, twenty years,
but like in the immediate future. I don't think the
thought's going away. But it's just it's it like, you know,

(01:02:15):
you can't get together with your absolute dogs like every
night of the week, correct, whereas like or like your
family or whoever it is that you watch games with.
It used to be that it's like Sunday nights, Monday
nights or like Sundays maybe Monday nights, and then like
even when Thursday kind of got into the mix and
you're like, oh okay, But like it used to be like, hey, yeah,

(01:02:37):
every Sunday. You know, when I grew up, like my
like family friends were coming over and we're gonna watch
the poall, we're gonna watch the Bears game, and we're gonna
watch whatever. Right, And now it's just like you can't
do that every night of the week.

Speaker 3 (01:02:47):
No, you know, you can't. I don't know, no, I
ho the NFL might find a way.

Speaker 2 (01:02:52):
It's it's I'm like the fact that you need all
of these different streaming channels, Like I just feel like
is it's it's going to bridge too far, and the
NFL is going to have to atone for it sooner
or later. And I don't want to see that happen
because I love the NFL. I also love our little
update breaks with Martin Weiss. So let's get to it.

Speaker 8 (01:03:16):
They got a ton of guys now tied at four
under the PGA Championship. John Rahm now and Aaron Rye
were up at five under, but now both fell back
into four under.

Speaker 2 (01:03:26):
You're thinking you're saying you're going about to say Aaron Rodgers.

Speaker 3 (01:03:28):
I know I keep thinking that too.

Speaker 2 (01:03:29):
I'm just like, what is Aaron Rodgers? He doesn't know
what he's been doing except instead of going out.

Speaker 8 (01:03:34):
It wouldn't make you know what, honestly, would you be surprised?

Speaker 10 (01:03:38):
What would you be surprised if Aaron Rodgers just was.

Speaker 8 (01:03:42):
Spotted on eighteen like high fiving John rom as he
walked off.

Speaker 2 (01:03:48):
I think the Steelers would be a little surprised because
this man was to sign with them soon apparently.

Speaker 3 (01:03:52):
I don't think the Steelers would be surprised. If the
Steelers are gonna be surprised by anything Aaron Rodgers, they
should not resign Aaron Rodgers.

Speaker 8 (01:04:00):
I mean that's just you know, the prodigal son maybe
returning back to Pittsburgh.

Speaker 9 (01:04:04):
We'll see, it's not going to be in this.

Speaker 8 (01:04:05):
Update though, I'll tell you that nor you know, Shock
are probably not in the next one either. When bottom
of the seventh any of the Rockies lead the Diamondbacks
a three to two Nationals.

Speaker 9 (01:04:14):
With they four nothing lead over the Oriols on the.

Speaker 8 (01:04:16):
Top of the sixth, bottom of the fifth is the
Phillies with they five nothing lead over the Pirates, and.

Speaker 9 (01:04:20):
Also in the bottom of the fifth, the Rays have
a one nothing lead over the Marlins.

Speaker 8 (01:04:24):
Two games in the book, Stalton var Show had a
go ahead single in the tenth inning for the Blue
Jays to beat the Tigers two to one, and Alec
burrowso drove in two roger as the Cardinals beat the
Royals four to two. In soccer, Manchester City defeated Chelsea
in the FA Cup Final one nothing played at London's
Wembley Stadium. Texas Tech transfer quarterback Brendan Soorsby is trying

(01:04:46):
to get his eligibility reinstated. His lawyers have requested from
the NCAA a expedited resolution. The attorneys also say a
legal challenge is quote imminent. Sowersby status fell into uncertainty
after an parent gambling addiction prompted him to seek impatient treatment.

Speaker 10 (01:05:04):
This was about two weeks ago. Report surface that Swordsby.

Speaker 8 (01:05:06):
Had hired in an attorney to assist with his effort
to move his football career forward.

Speaker 9 (01:05:11):
To get back out on the field.

Speaker 8 (01:05:12):
NHL Eastern Conference ground the second round game Game six,
Moncerell has a three to two lead on Buffalo Canadian.
Yet to lose two in a row in the postseason,
but one and one in series clitching games. Tomorrow we
have game seven between the Cavs and the Pistons, but
today no games in the NBA.

Speaker 2 (01:05:31):
Ladies, back to you, thank you so much, partner, and
we are going to talk though a little bit if
there might not be NBA games on today, but we're
going to talk a little bit more NBA. And to
help us do that again is Mark Medina. Mark Medina,
how are you, Carmon.

Speaker 4 (01:05:47):
I'm doing great, great to catch up with you and
Tracy and lots unpacked with the NBA as always.

Speaker 2 (01:05:52):
As as always, although we were talking about how this
last round there hasn't been a whole lot of mystery
with the next sweeping, and with the Thunder sweeping. The
Thunder han't even lost a game this whole, the whole postseason.
But we are getting a Game seven between the Pistons
and the Calves. What what woke up in the Calves
to get them here, because in the start of the

(01:06:14):
series looked pretty bleak.

Speaker 4 (01:06:16):
Yeah, it's it's pretty wild. I think there's a few things.
What woke up the Calves is that you know, they've
responded well to adversity when they're down. You have Donovan
Mitchell and James Harden elevating their play. But also you
look at Detroit like they've handled adversity. They were able
to force a game seven because they've won four. They've

(01:06:37):
gotten four wins and elimination games dating back to the
first round against Orlando. And so when you're looking at
this series, I don't know what's going to happen. I
would think because it's Game seven, there's gonna be some drama,
it's gonna be captivating. But it hasn't always been great basketball.
You know, de Troy played well defensively, that's what them
got back in the series. But Kate Cunningham, he's been

(01:06:58):
prolific but struggling with efficiency as turnovers, they're supporting cast.
They showed up in Game six, not so much the
rest of the series. And then you compare that to Cleveland,
Donovan Mitchell, James Harden. They either struggle with their shooting
or their turnovers or both. And you know Evan Moboy,
sometimes he looks like an elite center. Sometimes he looks
like someone that's a liability. So there's been a lot

(01:07:21):
of inconsistency across the board. But you know that I
think might contribute to the drama tomorrow.

Speaker 3 (01:07:27):
How much And this might be a silly question, but
it feels to me like in the NBA Game seven
to go to the Eastern Conference Finals, that the home
field advantage part of this has to make some sort
of difference.

Speaker 4 (01:07:40):
You would think historically that always makes a difference because
of the home crowd and the excitement there. Typically role
players play better on the home floor. But I think
in this series, like conventional wisdom is out the window
here because you know, Detroit has the number one seed,
They've been struggling throughout this postseason. Cleveland, on paper, was

(01:08:01):
considered before the season to be the favorites out of
the Eastern Conference, because you know, they have such a
stacked roster. They thought that they kind of had those
early lessons learned of coming off a historic regular season
last year that ended in playoff forecomings, that this would
be a different time. But their whole season has been
defined by inconsistency with either availability or player performance. So

(01:08:26):
flip a coin on what's going to happen. Both teams
have been consistently inconsistent.

Speaker 2 (01:08:31):
Yeah, on the other side of things, you got the Spurs,
they took the series. It took them six games to
win over the Tea Wolves, but advance onto taking on
the Thunder. But what's interesting to me is this series
I think was a little more It was a little
more unsure of it in the beginning going of it,

(01:08:53):
and then Wemby gets ejected and I think to go
with the Prebs kind of language and theme. Did that
wake something up in the Spurs a little bit? Or
did that galvanize them in a way that has them
playing closer to maybe their best ball within edge as
they go in to take on the Thunder.

Speaker 4 (01:09:14):
Yeah, it's a really good point. I think that there's
certainly other movie pieces here. The Wolves missed ante defense
in consistency with Anthony Edwards Julius Randall. But I think
that what you outlined was definitely a factor. The Spurs
already had something great goaling because Victor one Benyama has
shown that he's a generational talent, great two way player,

(01:09:38):
and they have a good nucleus of veterans and young players.
But I think what we saw with Victor one Minyama
is he's not just the skilled player and the stereotypical
European prospect. At the moment he meets physicality, he shrinks
a little bit. It, if anything, brings out the competitive
edge that he has, and you look at what that

(01:10:00):
means against the Thunder, the Spurs of beating them in
the regular season four times. There is this like different
rivalry that he has with chet Holmgren where you know,
both through actions on the court and comments in the media,
he doesn't seem to really respect Chet home Grin. So
I think that there is going to be that game
within the game. And while I do pick the Thunder
to still win, because playoffs are different beasts. They're the

(01:10:23):
defending champs. They've swept their opponents for a reason because
they just have so much depth continuity. The Spurs are
a whole different animal here. So I think it's going
to go seven games. I give the edge of the Thunder,
but it's going to be a really, really entertaining playoff series.
And that's good because we haven't seen a Thunder really

(01:10:44):
challenge at all this postseason, and there's been kind of,
you know, mixed excitement for the postseason at large. So
I think, finally we're going to see that epic seven
game series. So many twists and turns, player performances, trash talk,
in physical moments that make the NBA Playoffs special.

Speaker 3 (01:11:04):
Are we kind of on the precipice of the NBA's
next really great robbery between these two teams?

Speaker 4 (01:11:10):
Without a doubt. I want to be surprised that we
see this playoff series for the next five seven years.
Maybe it's not always the Western Conference finals, but think
of just the core. They're all young, they're all in
their prime or not even in their prime. They're just
scratching the surface. They're well run as an organization, well coached.

(01:11:31):
They both teams have a good track record with player development,
and we've seen the rest of the Western Conference. Inevitably,
teams are going to try to make moves to offset
those two teams. But there's a lot of separation that
the Thunder and Spurs have with the rest of the
Western Conference field. And these two teams got to where

(01:11:51):
they are partly because they tanked and they rebuilt through
the draft, and some of these other teams like the
Lakers and Wolves. The good thing is they are have
a generational star on their team to build around, but
they can't do this whole tank, reload and rebuild. They
have to do it on the fly, and so sometimes
that makes it a little bit more challenging, even when
you have a star player, because you have to make

(01:12:14):
quick decisions in real time of elevating your team without
disrupting continuity, chemistry, or depth, you know, to a very
staggering degree. So yeah, I wouldn't be surprised. We see
this is a part one of Thunder you know, Spurs
of a part seven, eight, nine, ten documentary.

Speaker 2 (01:12:31):
It's so funny because we talk a whole lot about
how the Thunder have of the experience. They're the defending champs, this,
that and the other. But yeah, you're right, there's still
a young team and it's setting up for these two
teams to be able to go head to head for
a while in their current iterations. But one team that
sounds like it's going to change quite a bit. The
thunder just rolled over. It wasn't even a gentleman sweep.
It was just a plain old four h sweep with

(01:12:54):
the Lakers. And now they are faced with the decision
or Lebron is faced with the decision is he going
to remain a Laker? So I'm going to ask you, Mark,
is Lebron remaining a Laker?

Speaker 4 (01:13:04):
I think he remains a Laker. But anything can change here.
You know, I've been told that, and this is something
that Lebron reader is press conference, is that he'll consult
with his family. So this is certainly a family decision
of you know, his his family's in LA. He likes
playing with BROWNI But I think at the same time,
there's a danger in over stating that that's going to

(01:13:25):
be the predominant and only factor. It's still basketball fit.
What does the roster look like with the Lakers and
other teams that may be of interest, whether it's Cleveland,
New York, Golden State, And to what degree will take
up be required. I mean, it's clear that he's not
making fifty two million dollars as he did last year,

(01:13:45):
whether it's with the Lakers or somewhere else. But he's
also not taken a veteran's minimum or even a mid
level exception. So what does that tay cut look like?
Is it in a thirty million range, forty million range?
Anything can happen, but I think it's also contingent on okay,
Lebron will be willing to take a pay cut if
it's showing that this enables the Lakers or any other

(01:14:07):
team to still upgrade the roster. But with all those
moving pieces, I still think he comes back to the
Lakers because of the family connection, but also his comfort
level with the role that he's had with being second
third option with Luka Dacic and Austin Reeves, and his
respect level for JJ Reddick. The only question mark here
is what does the front office do? And there's no

(01:14:30):
way around it. There has been some healthy skepticism with
what the front office does ever since the Russell Westbrook trade.
But I think all those other factors that I mentioned
will ultimately prevail and he'll still be with the Lakers.

Speaker 2 (01:14:43):
Yeah, I mean it goes back to what you were
saying earlier though about, hey, they already have a star
and now you have to figure out how to get
your team to a place that it can contend again
without being able to tear it down and rebuild and whatever.
And does the contract given to Lebron, even if it
is a pay cut, be a little prohibitive of that,
I don't know. Thank you so much, though, Mark for
coming on for spending some time with us in the

(01:15:05):
thick of the NBA playoffs. I'm very excited to see
what happens between Pistons Calves in Game seven, so we'll
be tuned in for that and we'll be tuned into
your coverage for it as well. So thank you, thank
you so much, and we'll talk to you soon.

Speaker 4 (01:15:18):
Thank you, thank you so much as well. Carmen and
Tracy A flute honor and always enjoyed talking hoops with this.

Speaker 2 (01:15:23):
Appreciate it.

Speaker 3 (01:15:24):
Thanks Mark.

Speaker 2 (01:15:25):
All Right, you guys, somehow the show has flown by,
but we have one more segment for you on the
other side of this, So keep it locked to Fox
Sports Radio. You're listening. It's Saturday.

Speaker 3 (01:15:39):
Yeah, thanks you felt, that's fine.

Speaker 2 (01:15:43):
It's Fox Sports Saturday. Keep it locked right, here see
you on the other side of this. Welcome back in
to Fox Sports Saturday. I'm Carna Vitally. I've got Terracy
Sandler with me coming up in just a few minutes.
You're gonna get two of my favorites, although don't tell
him that you're gonna get Buck Rising and Bridget Condon.

(01:16:06):
Jason Fitz's out. Bridgets in and good luck to her
handling Buck as always, And I can say that because
I've known Buck for years, love the both of them.
It'll be a great show. In the meantime, though, Tracy,
tell us where you can find this one when we're
off the air.

Speaker 3 (01:16:24):
Well, I would love to tell you if you missed
any of today's show, you'll want to catch the podcast.
Just for search Fox Sports Radio wherever you get your podcast.
Right after the show, today's podcast will be posted, so
be sure to follow it. Rate it five stars, and
we would love if you wrote a review. Again. Just
search Fox Sports Radio wherever you get your podcasts, follow
the feed and you'll find today's full show posted right

(01:16:46):
after we get off there.

Speaker 2 (01:16:48):
Thank you, You're welcome. That all right, it's time for
our very last segment. I feel like the show always
goes by so quickly. Live It's true, it's the last
segment Trace. I know it's gonna be our feel good
story of the week, and I've got a really funny one.
I don't know if you've caught this, so do you.
I don't know if you read Right Thompson's stuff for ESPN,

(01:17:10):
but he's long been one of my favorite writers, and
he an any feature, even if I'm not personally connected
to whatever the subject matter is, it's just it's a mustery.
So right, Thompson on May fourteenth came out with a
whole piece on why Steve Kurr didn't end up retiring,

(01:17:31):
and it came out through the piece that he was
like ninety five percent retired and thought that this was
going to be it. And you know, he talked about
how Greg Popovich I couldn't walk away and he didn't
want that to be him. He'd been dealing with some
back pain that he hadn't told anybody about before. YadA, YadA, YadA.
It's this wonderful long form piece and it's just true.
It's journalism, and it's fine at so right Thompson does

(01:17:52):
particularly well. However, there's one part of this particular story
that I want to get out there because I was
just chuckling to myself. So in the story Right Thompson,
Steve Kurr tells Right Thompson about three years ago. To
entertain himself in his press conference to conferences, Steve worked

(01:18:14):
phrases from Taylor Swift's All Too Well into his interview answers.
And it was smoothly enough, Yeah, right, It was smoothly
enough though that no one has ever picked up on
it until now. So like, for instance, to get to
the I'm reading from the article to get to the
first line of the song. He took the podium after
beating the Rockets in March of twenty twenty three and said,
I walked through the door of the locker room at halftime,

(01:18:37):
and like he did this so like under the radar
that literally no one in those press commences ever picked
up on it, No Swifties ever even picked up on it.
But Taylor Swift ended up knowing about it because she
ended up seeing it through a mutual friend because his
son Matthew edited all of these phrases into a video

(01:18:59):
that was shared their family group chat. It was not public,
but somebody sent a mutual friend sent that video to
Taylor Swift and she was like, wait, is this real
because it's Steve Kerr, the head coach of the Golden
Sea Warriors, working her song lyrics into press conferences and
no one had noticed.

Speaker 3 (01:19:20):
That's amazing. That is iconic. I want to see that
video so badly.

Speaker 2 (01:19:24):
Apparently he was like, she asked to put it on
social me and he was like, could we please just
keep it?

Speaker 3 (01:19:29):
Oh? I hope she keeps asking.

Speaker 2 (01:19:31):
I really I know, right, especially now that the piece
has come out and right Thompson was able to get
this out of him. I was just like, Okay, now
we all need.

Speaker 1 (01:19:36):
To see it.

Speaker 3 (01:19:37):
That's that's amazing. I love that. That is a very
feel good story that the week, this Swifty. It feels
very good about that story. So thank you for sharing.
Welcome my feel good story of the week. And I
hope this doesn't embarrass you, but it is you because
you are getting married next week, and I'm so happy
for you and for Dave, and I think that is

(01:19:58):
a feel good because I love working with you, and
I just excited for you and Dave and for the
many wonderful things you have in front of you in
the coming week, so you carbon VITALI are my field.

Speaker 2 (01:20:10):
That story, Oh my god, it like literally I'm started
to tear up. Thanks. This is my last show for
about a month while Dave and I do go get married,
So thank you for saying that. We leave on Tuesday.
We are getting married overseas. We get married on May
twenty nights, so that will be our official wedding anniversary,
and then we go right on our honeymoon. So this
will be my last show for a week, so I know, Tracy,

(01:20:31):
you can hold it down, hold on. Thank you so
much for that, and thank you so much for that
sweet little feel good start of the week. All Right,
you guys, that's it for me. I'll see you in
a month while I go on my honeymoon and get married.
And thanks for listening. Okay, you're listening to Fox Sports Sturday.

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