Fox Sports Radio's Countdown Presented by BetMGM

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Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is Fox Sports Countdown.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
We're setting you up for the sports weekend and covering
all the action from the stadiums to the arenas.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
This is this is Fox Sports Countdown, brought to.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
The sports beforn in Vegas. The Countdown starts nine live
from the Fox Sports Radio studios. Here's Brian no, Rich
Hornberger and Jared Smith.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
Oh what is going on?

Speaker 3 (00:34):
Welcome in, Happy Saturday to you as man. We started
to get face first into ball, the waters of ball
football season right around the corner of the first week
of the preseason. A lot of headlines, lots to get into. Uh, Jared,
Good morning, Bridge, Good morning everything good with you guys,

(00:56):
Good thumbs up? Right.

Speaker 4 (00:57):
I went the game last night, indoor arena football games
in Vegas. That was an absolute thriller. Sixty eight all
in overtime.

Speaker 3 (01:06):
Wow, I hope you had the over.

Speaker 4 (01:09):
I didn't. He couldn't bet on it.

Speaker 3 (01:13):
You're just itching to bet on the over there He's
sitting there just like unbelievable. Well, I've bet the over
would be tremendous right now. But yeah, I know you
were watching earlier that night. You were watching, You're text
in the group. You were watching the Panthers hosting the
Browns and Shaduur Sanders debut, and it was a solid debut.

(01:33):
You think about everything that was said leading up to
the game, and it's wild how it turned out because
Shadeur Sanders played well and I understand a guy like
Lewis Riddick. He made some sense, and then he went
off the deep end where he was basically saying, Shadur
Sanders is skating uphill. He's in a rough spot. He's
not getting first team reps, he's not getting a whole

(01:55):
lot of reps in practice, and now all of a sudden,
he's with the he's starting the game. This is not
the best position to be in. But then he went
and took it to the next level. It's like this
kind of seems like a setup. Maybe they're rooting against him,
like that, come on, there's no way the Browns after
Shador Sanders played well last night, they're like, ah, man,

(02:15):
we missed our chance. They're ecstatic. There's no gain for
him to stink it up, so they're happy that he
played as well as he did.

Speaker 5 (02:24):
It's like purchasing a property and just crossing your fingers
and hoping for termites. Like what, I don't really understand
the logic if I mean, I guess among all of
the thirty two teams the only one that that would
actually make sense is the Browns, because they've been such
a dumpster fire for so long that you could imagine

(02:46):
only one team could possibly root against themselves. But let's
be honest, that's not what's going on here. This is
the preseason and they have a little bit of a
mess at quarterback.

Speaker 6 (02:58):
They don't know who's gonna.

Speaker 5 (02:59):
Be available or capable. I assume they wanted to be
Flacco to start the season. If that's even a possibility,
we'll we'll see when we get there. But in the interim,
you have to give the guys who are buried on
your depth chart an opportunity to prove themselves whether it's

(03:21):
their worth to your roster or potentially prove their worth
in terms of being an asset value to the rest
of the league, because who knows, maybe you could maybe
you could flip the pick, and that wouldn't be the
first time it's ever happened where, especially at the quarterback position.
After training camp breaks, a drafted quarterback now typically it's

(03:45):
not first or second round drafted quarterbacks, but third and
beyond can be flipped for some draft capital. You know,
So is that what the Browns are doing? Not necessarily,
but is that always an option? Yeh, certainly so. I
guess my point is whether it's to help their roster
or if it's to help them in trade. It only

(04:08):
benefits the Browns if Shodoor Sanders goes out and does
what he did, which is provide a rock solid performance
in a preseason game.

Speaker 4 (04:18):
Yeah, and Lewis did clarify he posted right after all
the hubbub Just so we're clear. I never said should
or were set up to fail. What I did say
was he wasn't necessarily set up for perfection due to
a lack of quality reps. And that's life being a
fifth round pick. Yeah, I think I think he caught
some backlash from not only the public, but I saw

(04:40):
our own Brady Quinn and Jonas Knox went viral with
their clip against this little rant. Yeah, that is the
life of a fifth round pick. Whatever Lewis meant, it's
a great talking point for this situation because Shador did
everything he was supposed to do. He went out there
and looked pretty darn good. If you asked me or
fifth round pick. He certainly was underdrafted in the fifth round.

(05:04):
And I think when you ask him to go out
there and run the offense, don't commit any turnovers, read
the field, make a couple of plays with your legs,
make a couple of nice throws, get your team into
the end zone. And what was it thirty something unanswered
points for Cleveland in the game. I mean, they dominated
that football game. Bryce Young came in with the ones

(05:24):
and look good for Carolina. The defense maybe for Cleveland
looked a little shaky early, but I know it's the preseason.
I don't want to go crazy with overreacting here, but
I think Shaudor looked all the all the part of
a young quarterback that has a chance to come into
this league and maybe over overplay the fifth round draft position,

(05:44):
and we all we talked about this. We got drafted,
I think the fifth round that was kind of a
statement and it probably should have been flopped. Gabriel probably
should have been the fifth round pick and shouldor probably
should have been the third round pick, but that's ancient
history at this point. Now, it's all about what can
you do on the field, and if you're gonna you know, hey,
a lot of talk but silence. A lot of critics
last night too. I think he looked pretty cool, calm

(06:06):
and collected, handled it well. After the game he talked
to you know, interview, seemed pretty humble, and I think
the future is bright for Shador.

Speaker 3 (06:14):
Yeah, it was a great first step, there's no doubt.
But as far as far as the Lewis Riddick and
I love lou but uh, I just got to give
it the the old sound effect. This is what was
going on many. I mean, I was just saying it
wasn't set up for perfection. Know the hell you were
not like we have for seed. Stop it. If you

(06:34):
want to walk it back, fine, but don't don't try
a Jedi mind trick. It's like, oh no, I was
just saying he wasn't set up for perfection.

Speaker 4 (06:41):
No one's nothing's perfect. Life is imperfect.

Speaker 6 (06:44):
Yeah, beauty of it.

Speaker 3 (06:45):
This was the original statement, And again I thought he
had a legitimate point and then took it too far.
Chaduur was not in a great spot. He was dealing
with a shoulder issue. There are five quarterbacks in camp
and they're all like getting a bit sized piece of
the reps. That's not the greatest position. But I just
thought he took it too far. Here's a portion of

(07:07):
what he said on get up to get everybody all
all stirred up here.

Speaker 7 (07:11):
I'm afraid he's gonna get on the field in preseason
games without a lot of practice reps, and then they're
gonna ask him to perform these heroic pasts in order
to prove that he's worthy of being a starter when
he hasn't had enough reps to really get comfortable. That's
the kind of battle he's dealing with right now.

Speaker 8 (07:25):
I know.

Speaker 7 (07:26):
I've seen it. Tom, You've seen it. We've been in
these camps. We know how that goes. You don't get
enough reps. They play a whole half of a game,
and then all of a sudden, coaches are going, why
are you making that mistake? Why aren't you making that check?
Why are you doing that technique? Well, damn, coach, I
never was in there in practice. You never even talked
to me during practice, But now you expect me to know.
That's what they're gonna expect of him. But if anyone
can get it done, it's this kid, because he's been

(07:48):
trained the right way. But I'm telling you he is
ice skating uphill.

Speaker 6 (07:51):
He just is.

Speaker 7 (07:53):
And every time you get this organization talk, you get
that feel.

Speaker 4 (07:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (07:57):
I mean there's some truth to that, but yeah, yeah,
with everything that was against Shadoor, again he played well.
It's a good first step. We'll get to Deon Sanders
a little bit later in the show. Proud Father, you
should have been thrown up the pomp poms last night?

Speaker 4 (08:12):
Yeah, you know.

Speaker 3 (08:14):
One of the tweets was like, now what It's like,
that's not a now what moment? It's like, that's the
first preseason game. What now? Is like, you know, we're
starting later in the regular season. He's throwing two three
touchdown passes and that's a what now moment? Not last
night against the Panthers, but again, great first step. Not

(08:34):
raining on the parade. It's like sometimes you can, you know,
instead of throwing the pomp poms, you're doing like some
shirtless cartwheels, and it's like, whoa, whoa, whoa. It's still
the preseason, you know what I mean. But I get it.
He's a proud father. He should be happy for his son.

Speaker 5 (08:48):
No, No, I get it too, and I do agree
with that logic. I think he should be happy for
his son as well. I'm going to respond to the
way Dion responded to Shador's start the same way respond
on into LeVar ball the entire time shepherding his son
Lonzo and LaMelo into the league different sport, but into

(09:11):
the NBA as pro basketball players. At some point, you
gotta just let it be about your kids, you know,
because as much as we realize like he was celebrating
his son's successes, you know, how many retweets and likes
did he get?

Speaker 6 (09:30):
How many quote tweets did he get?

Speaker 5 (09:32):
You know, there there is a feeling of, look, you're
a famous man, and obviously everybody's going to be looking
toward your very active Twitter feed, especially since you are
his former college football coach as well, to see your
appraisal of the situation. But there there's going to be
a point where I think the potentially, maybe I'm wrong,

(09:57):
but potentially the distraction of Dion constantly having a strong
take or a strong opinion about his son's performance, good
or bad, is going to be detrimental to his son
at some point. And we're not wandering anywhere near that
third rail yet, but we saw it with LeVar who

(10:19):
was obviously a very supportive and involved father in his
son's lives and their basketball journey.

Speaker 6 (10:26):
And we know what it's like.

Speaker 5 (10:28):
You know, you hear it all the time where you
experience you yourself as a parent. We know how involved
you have to be when your kids are involved in sports,
especially when they have a little talent, because they're gonna
get invited on club league trips and they're gonna be
playing in tournaments, and you're gonna be spending most of
your time in the car and you're gonna be talking
about basketball and practicing basketball or football or whatever sport, lacrosse,

(10:51):
it doesn't matter. You're gonna be living that life. But
at some point you got to understand your place in
all this. And so that's another one of the side
narratives that are going to be happening, maybe somewhere on
the back burner during this whole Shardoor Sanders charade in Cleveland,
and so.

Speaker 6 (11:10):
I'm curious where that goes.

Speaker 5 (11:12):
Last night, it all seemed pretty harmless and it just
sounded like proud father stuff.

Speaker 6 (11:18):
But it's something to keep an eye on.

Speaker 4 (11:20):
I'm fine with the tweets. I think if it graduates
to criticism of other coaches and other teammates is where
I would have a problem. But I'm fine with cheerleading tweets.
I'm fine with a with the parent on the sideline,
with the pompom saying my son's great. Yeah, let's go
like that's fine. Positive. When it flips to negative, that's

(11:41):
when I'll start to raise my antenna. I agree with
your take, Ax, But here's the difference. Lvar Ball never
was never in the you know, in the NBA. He
never played at that level where Dion was arguably one
of like the greatest athletes of our generation. So I
think there's like a there's like a I lived it
kind of you know, motif here that I actually think

(12:03):
Shador can learn from right and that he has obviously,
when you're the son of Deon Sanders, I'm sure he's
some of that is rubbed off organically through osmosis over
the years, and I think that's why shad Or was
able to handle this moment with such cool calm and
collectiveness like he didn't. That was the biggest thing I
noticed last night. I don't care about the throws, I
don't care about the runs. I don't care about how
many sacks he took. I think those are all things

(12:24):
that are physical that he will learn. I was more
impressed with how he handled the moment. You want to
say he had this entourage coming. I don't care about
any of that. How did he handle the moment? Did
he look flustered when I and I'm not, you know,
touting my coaching horn here because I coached twelve year olds,
But I could tell when a quarterback looks flustered, like
you could tell when a quarterback looks like he is

(12:46):
overwhelmed by the moment. He's got the deer in headlights. Look,
he's not going through his progressions, he's not scanning the
field correctly, he's looking off through the sidelines. He's doing
should or didn't show any of that last night. And
you want to criticize little things, Oh, he should have
made this throw, he shouldn't took this sack. That's fair,
and I'm not going to push back on any of that,
you know, analysis of his actual game. But the part
that I was most impressed with last night was how

(13:08):
he handled the moment. Didn't look overwhelmed. First preseason game
on the road, all the distractions, all the talk Lewis
Riddick in your ear, like and still you blocked it
all out and you just go and you played football,
and he played it pretty pretty well. So I think
that was the most impressive part of last night, just
how he handled it all emotionally.

Speaker 3 (13:28):
Yeah, and listen, you could minimize it and be like, hey,
it's a preseason game. There was real pressure on Chaudor
for to perform in that game, and not around first
stringers either. You know, got a lot of twos and
threes around you. The best pass all night was to
a white receiver wearing number thirty seven. Way, what do

(13:49):
you think the chances are that guy makes the team?

Speaker 4 (13:51):
You know what I mean?

Speaker 3 (13:52):
It was one of the best throws on the run,
one handed catch. It's a beautiful, nice play. It was
a really nice place. So yeah, I thought JA said
it best where it's like just clearly for anyone that's like,
oh no, no, it made sense that he fell to
the fifth round. It made zero sense that he fell
to the fifth round, Like what are we doing? He

(14:13):
was far too talented to go that late. But hey, man,
good first step. We'll see where it goes. One hundred
and thirty eight yards and two touchdowns, so he passed
four against the Panthers. So again great first step, hopefully
a great first step for us. On today's show, we've
got rich Oornberger, Penn State All American, Jared Smith FSR
betting analyst. I'm Brian No. Use code countdown at betmgm

(14:35):
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(14:56):
up next, this has to be the worst relationship in
the NFL. It's Fox Sports Radios Countdown presented by BETMGM.

Speaker 2 (15:05):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
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Speaker 3 (15:17):
It is Fox Sports Radios Countdown presented by bet MGM.
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live bets, and so much more. All Right, some unfortunate

(15:41):
news in the preseason. So got a lot of injuries, right,
And one of the most notable injuries thus far is
Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson where he had a shot. I
guess he still technically has a shot to be QB
one four week one, but against the Ravens, dislocated his
right pinky thing. That was on Thursday night. Against the Ravens.

(16:02):
Second possession, Richardson drops back, gets sacked. It's an unblocked
linebacker David o'jabu plants them in the turf, you know,
the whole thing. This is actually how it sounded on
Colts Radio Network. Here is Richardson getting planted.

Speaker 9 (16:18):
Anthony Richardson goes out of the gunball in the near
hash backs to throw and he is deck from the
left and he has sacked and buried. He took a
big time hit, but more importantly, hangs on to the
football and the Ravens with a sack off the left
edge and.

Speaker 6 (16:33):
He's going off the field. Matt he got hit unobated.
There was no one blocking.

Speaker 4 (16:38):
The protection was totally not there.

Speaker 3 (16:42):
Well, kind of, the awareness was not there at all.
That was the play. It's a five man protection. So
the five offensive linemen they're blocking, and everyone not named
Anthony Richardson, you know, like the three wide receivers, the
tight end, the running back, they're all running packs. They're
all so Richardson has to be aware of where that

(17:04):
pressure is coming from, and he wasn't. He was looking
the opposite way. Even explained this, here's a little a
rich after the game. He kind of took accountability, but
not it's on me, it's my bat. Here's a rich
after the game.

Speaker 10 (17:18):
It was just gonna be hard for me to see
anyway because my eyes are looking a certain way. But
I just gotta be keyed on when when everybody bringing
pressures like that, I start it was about to be
the nickel, but they brought it from the other side,
So I gotta be ready to just get the ball out.

Speaker 3 (17:31):
Yeah, gotta be ready. To get the ball out and
he was anticipating it was gonna be a corner blitz
on the other side, and there's this big, angry man
named Ojabo that just planted it. You can't be looking
at the wrong side.

Speaker 6 (17:46):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (17:46):
That's just as basic as it gets. You got a
tackle that can block one of two guys. He picked
one guy, Anthony Richardson has to see the other guy.
He didn't, and that could have been a season. Legitimately, thankfully,
it doesn't seem like this pinky and is going to
be that that bad. But uh, that's basic stuff. And
he's not even there with that.

Speaker 5 (18:07):
Yeah, what this means is he's not seeing the whole picture,
and it's it's not good when when you're a quarterback,
you you can't get stuck in the box. And what
I mean by that is you can't just look at
the defensive lineman and the linebackers their posture, their positioning.
And I'm including the nickel in this conversation as a

(18:29):
linebacker because if a nickelback is hovering in the slot
anywhere close to the box, which is basically where the
offensive line sets up, you include him a lot of
a lot of the time as a linebacker, you know,
he could be considered, you know, will or Sam a
weak side or strong side linebacker, depending on you know
the strength of your formation.

Speaker 6 (18:51):
But I digress. I don't want to get too far
in the weeds.

Speaker 5 (18:54):
When when you get stuck in the box, it means
you're not seeing the safety's intentions, you're not seeing the rotation.
And in the preseason these are really vanilla defensive sets.
It would be very easy from the quarterback's vantage point
to see which safety is rotated down to make sure

(19:15):
that you understand who's supported and what it means by
that is like to the slot side, to the nickel side,
that it was very obvious that the nickel wasn't coming
based on the defensive formation. It was very obvious where
the pressure was coming from, and it was very obvious
that he was hot from that side, which means that

(19:36):
you had an unblocked free rusher screaming.

Speaker 6 (19:39):
Upfield that you have to take care of.

Speaker 5 (19:41):
As a quarterback, he's a good enough athlete to outrun
that guy if you set him up appropriately. He's also
tall enough to throw over a free rusher and get
it to the running back who is escaping behind the
free rusher on a route, who, by the way, was
his hot look, and he never looked that way. And
it's because he didn't know, and it's because his eyes

(20:01):
aren't trained to take in the full picture, which is
a really really bad sign for the Colts. If Anthony
Richardson's gonna be your day one starter in is now
what is it his third season?

Speaker 6 (20:13):
It's just it's not good. It's not good.

Speaker 4 (20:16):
No, this is basic stuff. I mean again, I'm not
a professional football player, nor am i a professional football coach.
And I watched this pre snat look five times and
it was blatantly obvious based off of how deep the
safety was on that nickel side, and based off of
just the way that they were aligned. That linebacker off

(20:39):
the edge was coming and you had Goodson right there
to either change the protection or on the hot and
you didn't do either of those things. Your eyes the
whole time were on the slot corner who was just
in his drop defending that slot receiver like there was
no there wasn't even any like sometimes you could tell
I'm sure Richie, you've seen and it's like, you know,

(21:00):
they tense up a little bit there and they're kind
of coming at the line and then they back off
a little bit. That slot corner was just relaxed and
he was just getting into his drop and running his set,
and Richardson was staring him down like you know he
was he was trying to, you know, steal money from
him or something like it just it just didn't make sense.
And then Ajaba comes off the backside and Goodson just
runs right by him, Like Goodson could have chipped or

(21:23):
Richardson could have just floated him, you know, floated a
little hot you know, a little swinger oute right right there,
and he was open. I don't understand how that, especially
on like the first real draw. Actually, excuse me, it
was a second drive at the game Colts had already scored.
I thought the play, I thought that might have been
their scripted drive and then it would have been even worse.
But yeah, like these are the types of plays that
end your season because you get hitting the wrong spot

(21:45):
and you're done. Now the upside here, maybe it's upside,
maybe it's downside, depending on how you Dane Daniel Jones.
I actually have Daniel Jones right. It's slightly higher than
Anthony Richardson. So so maybe in the long run it's
good to get Jones more reps. But I heard today
Richards's gonna be back at practice and he's gonna be
you going with the Ones again. And the Colts are

(22:06):
splitting the baby. They're giving Richardson reps at one, they're
giving Jones reps at one. I think that's gonna hurt
whoever ends up winning the starting job in the long run,
because they're getting fewer reps with the Ones than they
should be if they were just the starting quarterback. So
you've got this cluster in Indy. I don't know how
Styken figures it out, but I think at some point
you got to make a decision and figure out who
your quarterback is.

Speaker 3 (22:26):
There was a funny tweet I saw the night of
the game, and it just said, whenever you think your
team has it bad, just remember someone's favorite team has
an Anthony Richardson versus Daniel Jones quarterback battle going on.
It's like, yeah, that's the reality for the Colts right now.
It's a rough reality, and that's the bigger picture. I
think that this is the worst relationship in the NFL

(22:49):
by far. It's the Colts and Anthony Richardson, neither has
done right by either. If you look at the Colts,
you have a guy and Anthony Richardson, fourth overall pick.
He had under four hundred passing attempts in college. That's nothing.
He had no experience, and they couldn't wait. They threw
him out there as the starter in week one. Week

(23:10):
one is rookie season, and then he got banged up
and he was further behind in his development. And then
you look at Anthony Richardson. It works both ways. Where
Anthony Richardson, going back to Thursday night preseason game, this
is as basic as it gets. You have to recognize
where the pressure is coming from. Shane Steiken, the head coach,
after the game, he was asked about that and he

(23:32):
just went, it's a five man protection right there, and
that's the hot side right there. That's what happened. So
the translation is Anthony Richardson has to see that and
he knows better. This is year three and he's still
not there. He's got numbers that rivaled Tim Tebow's quarterback
numbers in the pros. I mean, they're almost identical with

(23:52):
the amount of starts, the yards passed for. It's shocking
how close they are. That is not who you want
to be neck and neck with. Is Tim Tebow's NFL
quarterback numbers. That's where Anthony Richardson is. So they're bad
for each other. The Colts did a hideous job of
bringing him along slowly, making sure he's ready. He digested

(24:13):
the playbook. You know, he's getting a bunch of reps
in practice. We're bringing him along. They threw him out
there week one. Mahomes had almost a thousand more passing
attempts in college. He only played one game his entire
rookie season, and they threw Anthony Richardson out there in
week one. I thought that was crazy by them. But
I don't want to put this all on the Colts,

(24:34):
and that's why he hasn't played. Well, it's year three.
You should know, hey, look at a jobo. You should know, Hey,
the rush outside linebacker probably gonna be rushing. I know
there are simulated pressures and they do some exotic things,
but that's as basic as it gets. And he just
wasn't ready for that. He should be, but he wasn't.

Speaker 5 (24:53):
And I agree with your assessment here, and maybe from
a different perspective or a different angle, but overall, I
completely agree with it's on Anthony Richardson. From a personal
accountability standpoint, you've been in these meeting rooms, you you
should understand where the pressure is coming from. In a
five man protection, there's just I mean, there's really no excuse.

(25:14):
Especially like I said in the preseason that defensive formation
was not confusing, It wasn't exotic. There was nothing interesting
happening with this defense. It was very everything. I mean,
it was as if it was torn out of the
playbook from the Ravens, like you know, it's it looked

(25:36):
like it looked like something that you know it would
be day one install, you know, to to borrow the term,
these could have been trash cans instead of defensive linemen.
Linebackers and defensive backs out there. They were exactly where
they were supposed to be. And it wasn't even a blitz. Really,
it was an on the ball linebacker, a defensive lineman.

(25:58):
You were just sliding the protection away from that player.
So unless that player drops, you're hot off of that player.
This is when I tell you this is as simple
as it gets. This is day one install stuff. He's
going into his third season, so from a personal accountability standpoint,

(26:19):
this really does kind of fall all on Anthony Richardson. However,
from an organizational standpoint, you gotta know sometimes when you've
messed up, and.

Speaker 6 (26:29):
This could be a top down issue.

Speaker 5 (26:32):
We know how involved ownership has been in decisions there,
and obviously that's an ownership that's been in flux recently
for obvious reasons. There could have been, and there may
still be some sort of impetus for him to continue
being considered for the starting job. You know, so while
Shane Steiken may see it because he's an offensive minded

(26:54):
head coach, he may be saying, like, I don't understand
why we're still wasting our time. This was a mistake,
need a cut, bait and move on. And by the way,
the way answer that question, that was pretty curt That
was pretty That was pretty concise. Hey, five man pressure.
That was the hot side. He needs to know that's
the hot side. Moving right along, which means like, I'm

(27:15):
tired of this. I've already coached this. Coaches don't like
to recoach simple stuff, so this could be organizationally something
that's being force fed to the coaching staff and they're going, look,
we tried, there's something wrong here. We need to move
on and spend our time, which is the most valuable resource,

(27:36):
investing ourselves into finding an actual starting quarterback because he
ain't it. And so I agree with you, Brian, personal
accountability and organizationally, this is a failure.

Speaker 6 (27:46):
This is a failure.

Speaker 4 (27:48):
Well, here's the dilemma. Either you either keep giving him
reps and the failure continues and you take reps away
from Daniel Jones by doing that, or you mention him
and you admit failure. I think those are your only
two options, and frankly, neither of those options sound great.
Like I don't know what the right answer is because

(28:11):
I agree with you, rich I do think that there's
something behind the scenes that's pushing Richardson back into this role.
For example, he just dislocated his pinkies practicing I think
tomorrow from whenever they practice again. Like he's back on
the field right away, and I think he knows like
if I step off the field for even a minute,
they're gonna let Jones run with the ones, and he's

(28:33):
going to at least like say what one about Daniel Jones.
I think he is at least going to diagnose that
situation better because That's not a very difficult situation to diagnose,
and I think probably Jones has more feel for a
lot of these intricate quarterback decisions that take place at
the line of scrimmage. But Jones is not as physically

(28:54):
talented and also not as ingrained with the offense. It's
his first year on the team, so it's like this
weird catch twenty two. Richardson obviously is the more physically
talented player, but in year three of this offense, cannot
grasp the simple stuff. Jones probably can grasp some of
these more high level concepts, but it's his first year

(29:14):
in the offense. He needs the reps. But if he
takes the reps then Richardson can't get the reps that
he desperately needs to improve. So it's like, what do
you do here? It's a rock and a hard plays.
I think at some point they have to make a decision.
What Steve Spurrys say, you got two quarterbacks you got none?
I don't really know, because they listen to both as
one on the depth chart. At some point you have

(29:37):
to pin the tail on the donkey, make a decision
who is your starting quarterback? And let's move on because
we're in this limbo period and I think it's only
hurting the rest of the team's development. And the season
starts in like four weeks, so you got to figure
this out.

Speaker 3 (29:51):
You know, it's crazy too, is okay? If you look
at Anthony Richardson in college, three hundred and ninety three
passing attempts, Okay, Anthony ridgards in the NFL three hundred
and forty eight passing attempts. So the guy combined college
and NFL has thrown less than seven hundred and fifty passes,
Like that's hardly anything. To compare it to Daniel Jones

(30:12):
just in the NFL, the guy has thrown over twenty
two hundred passes. That's a lot of experience. And we're
not saying Daniel Jones walks on water, Clearly that's not
the case. We're just saying he's like three times as
experienced just in terms of passing attempts. And so you
could look at this and say, well, let's not give

(30:34):
up just quite yet. He's still coming along. Or you
could look at Thursday nights preseason opener and being like, wow, dude,
he's not even getting the basic stuff. He was hurt
for seventeen games in the first two seasons. Think about that,
they played thirty four games in two years. He was
hurt for seven, He's hurt for half of them. He
can't stay upright. And then remember the epic he tapped

(30:55):
out he was tired. Who's the old allel was? Really
that's rough. So the handwritings on the wall, it's basically
they took a shot on Anthony Richardson, used the top
five pick. He's clearly not going to be their quarterback
of the now or the future, and so you probably
just going to it's gonna be a mixed bag. It's

(31:15):
gonna be a little Daniel Jones, a little bit of
let's give it one last shot with Anthony Richardson. But
what's really gonna happen is they're gonna have to do
this all over again. They're gonna have to try to
use a higher first round pick. Maybe they have a
bad season and they're in that range. Maybe they just
trade up a little bit, and your best bet is
the twenty six NFL Draft, and hopefully you get it

(31:36):
right with a quarterback that you draft this time. Because
you don't have a guy, you don't have a quarterback
of the future right there in Indy. That's the reality
right now.

Speaker 6 (31:44):
But yeah, it's a tight spot to be in it. Look,
you I lived it.

Speaker 5 (31:49):
You guys watch it every weekend when you don't have
a quarterback.

Speaker 6 (31:54):
Man, No, those aren't fun seasons.

Speaker 5 (31:56):
When you when you're looking at that position and you
say to yourself, we don't have much to compete with there.

Speaker 6 (32:03):
It's hard. It's so much harder.

Speaker 4 (32:07):
Yeah, you start Jones week one. What do you think, guys,
Jones the week one start, he.

Speaker 3 (32:10):
Will Yeah, I think he will.

Speaker 6 (32:12):
Choice. Yeah, I would agree.

Speaker 3 (32:14):
It's a tough deal right because it.

Speaker 4 (32:16):
Is rocking a hard place. I honestly don't know what
I would do. I think it's there's there's gotta be
someone in that organization that is pushing richardson continuously.

Speaker 3 (32:24):
Well, they want it to be him. Yeah, But when
you objectively look at it and you see Daniel Jones
going there, and you're like, gotta be just moving faster.
He's seeing things quicker, he's getting the ball out faster.
It's like it's staring at you right in the face,
you know, And.

Speaker 4 (32:40):
It's like when you ignore all the red flags when
you're dating someone and you're just like, I hold you
see all the positives, You're like, this person could be it,
and then it's like, yeah, but they're sleeping around and
they're going out every night past midnight, and it's just
like there's so many you're ignoring the red flags.

Speaker 1 (32:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (32:54):
People, Right, there's the best case scenario and then there's
the reality. You know, you gotta go buy reality. That's
what it is.

Speaker 4 (33:02):
All right.

Speaker 3 (33:02):
We've got Rich Hornberger, Penn State All American, Jared Smith FSR,
Betting analyst. I'm Brian Note. With the iHeartRadio app, you
can stream us wherever you happen to be. Catch us
in all of your Fox Sports Radio shows live twenty
four to seven in the new and improved iHeartRadio app.
Just search Fox Sports Radio on the app to stream
us live all day, every day, and be sure to

(33:22):
select Fox Sports Radio is one of your presets in
the iHeart app, so it'll always pop up at the
top of your screen.

Speaker 6 (33:29):
All right.

Speaker 3 (33:30):
Coming up next the parlay platter. It's an exclusive platter
and it has season long implications. We will throw that
your way. Coming up, it is Fox Sports Radio's Countdown,
presented by BETMGM. It is Fox Sports Radios Countdown presented
by bet MGM. No time to waste. Let's dive into this.

Speaker 1 (33:55):
Check this out parlay flatter Okay.

Speaker 3 (33:59):
The platter to day a little bit of a different approach.
It's exclusive. Jared is boxing us out. He's going up
for the rebound solo here, which is fine. I have
no problem taking my feet up, little lemonade, little umbrella,
and my Drake. You have had it, Jay Smith, what
do you have for us? Buddy?

Speaker 4 (34:15):
Well, this is a repeat again. Last year, around this time,
I think it was the first or second week of
the preseason, we gave out our four team division winner parlay.
It was the Chiefs, the Lions, the Texans, the Eagles.
It was eleven to one and oh nating it in smack.
So I've got to run this thing back again this year.
I'll give you four division winners, three layups, one long shot,

(34:38):
and hopefully we get back to the win column. The
odds are actually higher than they were last year, so
a little bit bigger payoff. Let's start with the layup.
The Bills to win the AFC East. This is minus
three twenty five. I mean they've won five Drake titles.
Nobody can question the regular season success of Josh Allen
and John McDermott. Can they get the defense fixed in
times for the postseason? Don't care, it doesn't matter for
this bet. Patriots, the Jets, I think it's fair to

(34:59):
say those are the bottom theaters. Dolphins, we'll see what
to his injury status is, but I think the Bills
when the AFC S feels like a very safe bet.
Next one also kind of a layup Ravens to win
the AFC North. This is minus one sixty two straight
AFC Nord titles. The Bengals defense obviously very suspect. Steelers.
I think it's kind of a five hundred team for them,
and the Browns are I don't think they're ready to

(35:20):
win yet. We need to clean up the penalties on
defense with the Ravens, but obviously I think they are
very talented. Lamar Jackson and Todd Munkin, you're three very
excited to see what that looks like. I think you
should have won the AMVD last year. Maybe he wins
it this year. The Chiefs to in the AFC West.
You're actually getting a little bit of a discount here.
Last year we had this in the Parla it was
minus two fifty. This year's minus one eight. Maybe Denver's

(35:43):
a little bit better. I don't know either. This is
another this you just bet this solo nine straight AFC
West titles for the Chiefs. The last time they didn't
win the division, Peyton Manning was quarterback in the Broncos.
It's been a minute, and I just think Raiders not
there yet.

Speaker 8 (35:58):
Right.

Speaker 4 (35:58):
Maybe the Broncos continue to improve with Nicks. I think
the Chargers they just lost Slater. I feel like this
is still the Chiefs division to lose. So Chiefs, Ravens,
and Bills, these are your layups. Now, let's get juicy
o jay. Packers to win the NFC North at plus
to seventy five. They went eleven and six last year
despite going one in five in the division. I don't

(36:20):
think the Lions and the Vikings are gonna go a
combined twenty nine and five this year. Jordan Love is healthy,
they added weapons on offense. I think this is the
Packers year. Maybe they're not quite Super Bowl contenders, but
I think they're at the top of this division. So
Packers to win the North, Chiefs in the West, Ravens
in the North, Bills in the East, and plus thirteen

(36:42):
to seventy two over at bet MGM, who was ruining
out the four team division winner Marlaga.

Speaker 6 (36:48):
Okay, so the Packers you mentioned it. It's the juiciest
for a reason.

Speaker 5 (36:53):
I'd argue that division is the most difficult, or quite frankly,
the most competitive, from the standpoint of the Packers, I
think that's the fairest way to put it. The Vikings
last year they were able to make all that noise
with a bridge quarterback. Now they have the guy they
wanted to start back in the fold. Obviously, the Lions
are who they've built themselves into being. And if Caleb

(37:13):
Williams is worth it at this level, which this is
the proven year, we're gonna find out a lot about
the Bears. So Packers easily the wobblyest leg of the parlay.

Speaker 6 (37:25):
But I like it, and I also like the odds.

Speaker 5 (37:27):
I think I think it's it's kind of nice to
get a payout like that because there are some surefires
in there.

Speaker 6 (37:33):
Obvious.

Speaker 4 (37:34):
Sure, I love the Chiefs, love the Chiefs, but that's solo, right, come.

Speaker 3 (37:41):
On, it's begging you to bet it solo and look
man like I was filling in for Ben Maller a
couple of times this last week, and one of the
members of the militia called in and was like, I
feel like the Chiefs have been exposed, and I couldn't.
I couldn't be like, hey, you know, I hear it.
I'm like, let's walk through that for a second, you
know what I mean? Like, the Eagles had arguably the

(38:05):
best roster in the NFL last season, and granted they
were amazing, especially in the first half of that Super Bowl,
But how many other rosters have what the Eagles had?

Speaker 4 (38:17):
Right?

Speaker 3 (38:17):
Like, you had Saquon two thousand yard rusher, all the
weapons for Jalen Hurts to throw to, best offensive line
in football, number two scoring defense, a great pass rush.
Not every team has that. So this idea that the
Chiefs have just been exposed and it's downhill for them
from here, I don't buy it at all. I think

(38:38):
the Chiefs that they drafted Josh Simmons, who would have
been a top ten pick, had a knee injury at
Ohio State, Chiefs are raving about this guy. They love
him as an offensive tackle. He could pay dividends. And
when you get Rashie Rice back, you'll it'll be suspended
for a few games. But you get Rashie Rice with
Xavier Worthy, You've got Hollywood Brown healthy again. Travis Kelce,

(38:59):
you got a lot to work with.

Speaker 6 (39:00):
Man.

Speaker 3 (39:01):
That defense was a top five scoring defense last season.
I still think. I'm with you, Jared. It's their division.
Mahomes is thirty five and five against the AFC West.
You expect that to change dramatically this season? I don't.

Speaker 4 (39:17):
Yeah, this one feels like with winning again. Yeah, the
Packers are the one. I mean, listen, the Ravens in
the North. You want to make the case the Bengals
are gonna win it. That defense is Swiss cheese.

Speaker 6 (39:29):
It is.

Speaker 4 (39:29):
The Bills is a layup. Like I'm sorry for your Dolphins,
but the Bills in the AFC's barring a Josh Allen injury,
is just an absolute layup. It's really Can Lamar Jackson
continue to look like Lamar Jackson and Todd Munkin's done
a great job?

Speaker 6 (39:42):
And can?

Speaker 4 (39:44):
Is this the Packers year? I think this is a frankly,
I think this is a thirteen to one bet on
whether or not the Packers win the division. I agree,
now you go, yeah, I love it?

Speaker 6 (39:52):
Yeah, I agree.

Speaker 5 (39:53):
I think the Bills, And like I said, there's a
lot of shortfire here. It's just it's just those Packers.
And look, you know, I think what makes things conversations
like this a lot easier quarterback head coach combination amongst
that division.

Speaker 6 (40:08):
Who do you feel the best about?

Speaker 5 (40:10):
Yeah, I mean obviously you look in Detroit first, but
right after that laflor in love.

Speaker 6 (40:16):
They are burgeoning success story.

Speaker 4 (40:19):
Losing Ben Johnson matters.

Speaker 3 (40:21):
It does it does?

Speaker 8 (40:23):
It?

Speaker 3 (40:23):
Does? Lines have a brutal schedule. JJ McCarthy first year starter.
I could see a path for the Packers. Was anybody
else in the running? Any other team?

Speaker 4 (40:31):
You're like the Texans in the South. But I think
that division's open this year.

Speaker 6 (40:36):
Nice all right?

Speaker 3 (40:37):
Coming up next? It's gotten completely out of control. Oh
what is going on? Happy Saturday to you. Hope your
day is off to a fantastic start. Oreo is here.
Oreo has climbed the cabinets, the neighborhood cat. She's meditating
right now. She finds this to be soothing. I feel
like she's just hanging out. Paul, make it Oreo and

(40:59):
Jackpot together. Oh, they would be out of control that
fantastic time. That's right, it's gotten completely out of control
that in a couple of seconds. Be sure to subscribe
to the Fox Sports Radio YouTube channel. Just search Fox
Sports Radio on YouTube and you'll see our best videos
from all of our shows. After you subscribe to the

(41:20):
Fox Sports Radio page on YouTube, click the bell icon
on the homepage and turn on all notifications so you
have easy access to our very best videos. Just search
Fox Sports Radio on YouTube. Okay, so the sex toys
keep flying on WNBA courts. My goodness, So we've got

(41:41):
four Now this has happened four times where a sex
toy has been thrown onto the court. And going through
these stories and I'm like, wait a minute. I thought
on Tuesday earlier this week, there was a sex toy
that made it to the court and either hit Sophie
Cunningham or landed in front of her. Kelsey Plumb kicked

(42:02):
it off the court real fast. And I'm reading these
stories and I'm like, wait a minute. There was an
eighteen year old who was arrested trying to throw a
sex toy on the court. It didn't reach the court,
and I'm like, wait a minute. There was another There
were three games on Tuesday, August fifth, one sex toy
was thrown on the court. There were two other games
where they tried to do it didn't quite make it

(42:23):
to the court. So there's a sub section here. There
are the toys that made it to the court and
the sex toys that didn't quite make it. I'm like,
oh my gosh, we got more than just four. We've
got many more like flying through the air at least
that didn't reach the court. This is crazy to me, Like,
if you thought this was funny to begin with, I'd

(42:44):
be lying to you if, like the first time, you're like,
holy gosh, what that's the sex? What are we doing here?

Speaker 4 (42:49):
You know?

Speaker 3 (42:49):
And some of the tweets are hysterical. I have to
be honest with you. But it's gotten to the point
now where it's like, just let them play basketball. If
there was anything funny to begin with, it's played out.

Speaker 6 (43:01):
Man.

Speaker 3 (43:01):
It's it's like showing up and be like, hey, where
are we going tonight, guys, and like doing the dab
and you're like, we don't do that's so outdated? Why
are we doing this still? That's where I'm at with
the sex toys. Man, It's just like, let's turn the
page on this whole thing. Goodness.

Speaker 6 (43:17):
Yeah, I'm not a fan.

Speaker 5 (43:19):
I'm a little bit curmudgeonly about you know, fan interaction
with players on the court. Like I'm not a fan
of storming the court. I'm not a fan of the
fans rushing the field and tearing down the goalposts and
carry them off the fields. I think I think we're
getting closer and closer to having like a real incident,
like something awful happening in our society. We've seen things

(43:43):
like this happen outside of sporting events, within sporting events
where you know, fans can get into fights, and that
happens quite frequently, but you know, things happen in the
parking lot. It's it makes me very nervous when I
see a bunch of z Ellis idiots. I'll turn it
that way running onto a playing field to celebrate. Now,

(44:05):
don't get me wrong, most of them are harmless, and
almost all of them are there for the right reasons
to cheer and to be to share in the excitement
of a moment. But there are some really bad interactions
where somebody gets into somebody's face. You know, there's you know,
the harassment that happens from the stands but then all
of a sudden it happens on the court or on

(44:27):
the football field or whatever playing field, and that's when
it gets a little obnoxious.

Speaker 6 (44:32):
And that's where it gets dangerous, quite frankly.

Speaker 5 (44:34):
So I digress on that point to get back to
the sex toys being thrown. I mean, okay, so I'm
a dad, I bring my two boys to a WNBA game,
and then all of a sudden, one of my children
gets hit with a sex toy. Oh man, yeah, like
so it comes flying down from an upper seat. Now,
look as a human being and as somebody with a

(44:57):
sense of humor, can I also see? Okay, Like, yes,
obviously there's something cosmically hilarious about all of this.

Speaker 6 (45:12):
But do I find it dangerous? Yeah?

Speaker 5 (45:14):
In some way I do. Do I find it completely inappropriate? Yeah,
obviously I do. And do I see a spot for
it in any sport? I mean they do this at
bills games, you know. I mean it's not good because
it could lead to It's It's almost like, okay, if
we think it's fun, and it's funny, but it leads

(45:35):
to something real bad, why don't we nip this whole
thing at the bud? And I think they're trying to.
But you're right, Brian, the teas and the payoff of
the tea's is completely on on Q on par It's
it's gotten, it's gotten completely out of hand. This is
this has gotten shockingly bad really quickly.

Speaker 4 (45:54):
By the way, Yeah, this is different than other incidents
that are more isolated. This is a serial sex toy incident. Now, yea,
it is coming. And by the way, kudos to Brian
know for keeping a straight face during that entire open
when he had to utter sex toy about what I
caught four or five sex toy mentions in there, keeping

(46:15):
his composure during that introduction. That's why he is a professional,
and that's why he's leading us here on the show.
But there is a certain level of humor involved here,
and I think anyone who doesn't have that funny bone
that can kind of laugh at this, I think you
need to reassess that part of your life. But then
there's the safety part of it, where this is not

(46:38):
just an isolated incident. Now, this is multiple times happening,
and it's happening at multiple times in individual games. It's
one thing for it to happen at one game. Here
one person does it then another game at a different venue,
it happens. It's happening multiple times inside the same game,
and it's not the first time we've seen things like
this take place on a more regular basis. For example,

(47:03):
I'll give you a great example. The Florida Panthers do
this with rats and not real rats like rubber rat.
And I don't want to get twisted people, but I remember
I was ten years old, nineteen ninety six, going to
Florida Panthers game, sitting very close to the ice. I
was scared, like the goal would be scored and it
would be like a deluge of rats. Like hundreds of

(47:26):
rubber rats get thrown on the ice. They don't all
make it to the ice. Yeah, some of them fall short. Now,
if you're familiar with the types of sex toys that
are being thrown significantly heavier and thicker than just a
rubber hollow rat, these can hurt you if they're being
thrown from the upper deck and hurled down towards the court.

(47:49):
If they hit you directly in the head, that could
really damnity. Like, these things are thick and they are
how do want to get into those specifics after that?
But they are not light like they are, they're weighted
like they have some they have some girth to them.
So I think you just we have to use a
little bit of a little bit of discernment here with

(48:12):
the types of things we're throwing on the court, because
now it has become like a punchline and people are
doing it for attention, and they're doing it because they
want it's clickbait and they want to get their name
out there. And that's where it gets dangerous, where it
becomes a thing. And now it's a thing, and we
have to try to I don't know how we nip
it in the bud because the bud seems to have

(48:32):
already left the station here, but we have to figure
out a way to just use some common sense with
what you're throwing on the court here.

Speaker 3 (48:38):
Yeah, it's just too much. It's too much at this point.
And that's the thing it's turned into, like the commentary
on it, like what's behind this, And that's when the
opinions can really vary. For instance, Shannon Ryan, she covers
women's basketball, she's a managing editor at The Athletic, and
she had a column about this whole thing, and she

(49:00):
laid it out very well. I disagreed with most of it,
but one of the lines stuck with me. She wrote, humiliation,
often lewde or sexual has long been used as an
attempt to make women feel uncomfortable in sports or diminish
their place in this space. Now, she's right sadly about
the backstory, but I don't think that's what's happening here

(49:23):
and now. And I'll give you an example. One of
these sex toy throwers is this eighteen year old kid,
an eighteen year old kid who was arrested and booked
for doing this. And he was the one who accidentally
hit the uncle and the niece at the Phoenix Mercury game. Right,
it's a nine year old niece, little girl that's there,

(49:44):
and then all of a sudden, it's terrible, right, But
he apologized to the officers and said he was sorry
and was following quote a stupid prank that was trending
on social media. End quote like this idea that these
sex toy hurlers are like this is away to keep
the women down. Like it's an eighteen year old kid

(50:04):
who's there. Yeah, it's good fun, right, Like I was
thinking about when you're eighteen the dumb things you did.
I wasn't like throwing sex toys on the course of games,
but some things that I thought would be hilarious in
the moment turned out not to be funny at all.
For some reason, we thought one of our buddies, we're
just gonna trash his car. We're just gonna throw a

(50:25):
bunch of sugar and flour. I have no idea why
we thought this would be funny. We did that. My
buddy took his car to get detailed. They said, get
out of here. We're not due. It's no way. It
was that bad, horrible idea, not even funny. But sometimes
that's how your teenager brain works. You think it's gonna
be funny in the moment, and it's not. And a

(50:46):
lot of this is only that this idea that we're
just trying to objectify women or keep them down. I
just don't think that's the case. I'll give you one
last example. You guys take over on this. But there
was a tweet went viral. This guy Greg just wrote,
uh oh, just spotted this about a mile from a

(51:07):
WNBA arena, And it was a picture of a flatbed
semi right. Yeah, and he's transporting this whatever. It was
this huge contraption, but there was tarpa around it, and
the way that it was strapped to the truck, it
made it look like a gigantic sexuality like yeah, right, yeah,
it got seventeen million views. Yeah, Like the likes are

(51:30):
through the roof. So my question is anyone who laughed
or liked the tweet do you think it's because it
was a stupid joke or do you think they're like, yeah,
we're laughing at female athletes far and wide, like come on,
what are we doing here? But it's turned into that,
and I just don't think that's what it is. I
understand how you could get there and how you could
think that. I just don't think that's what it is.

Speaker 5 (51:53):
I think I think most members of our society can
hold two truths in their heads simultaneously and one like again,
even if I was pelted with a sex toy from
from a higher vantage point sitting closer to the court

(52:14):
in an arena at a WNBA game and was annoyed
by it, I can still understand like the humor that
can come from something like that, landing maybe suction cupside
down and wobbling around on a hardwood floor during the

(52:34):
middle of a game, Like, is that is that funny?

Speaker 6 (52:38):
Yeah, I mean in a very sophomoric way. Yeah, I
guess so.

Speaker 5 (52:43):
But again there's an element of danger to it, which
I don't think belongs in arena. There is also a
confusion of the message, Like you just said, this writer
spent ten thousand words exposing some deeper truth that may
or may not be involved in the thinking behind this.
In fact, I would say more often not, because again,

(53:05):
you can hold two truths in your head at the
same time. Maybe you're not a WNBA fan, but you
just think that's funny. Maybe you are a WNBA fan
and you don't like the fact that these women are
being mistreated in this way, but you can still even
see the humor. And that's maybe more the camp that
I'm in. And also, by the way, if it goes

(53:28):
away completely, I'd be much happier because I don't think
there's any room in that for sports altogether. But then
there's also certain people who say, yeah, like that's a
funny joke.

Speaker 6 (53:38):
But also can we, just as a side quest, talk
about how.

Speaker 5 (53:42):
Nauseating the messaging from the WNBA has been overall, Like
pay us what we're worth and things like that, like
you know, the angel Reeses of the world. The attack
that Caitlin Clark has been under since basically she's joined
this league and has tried to this league to publicity

(54:03):
and acclaim and interest level they have never known before,
and it feels like they're rebuking her every attempt to
bring this league to the forefront, Like can we.

Speaker 6 (54:14):
Talk about that too as a side quest?

Speaker 5 (54:16):
It doesn't have to be related to the sex toys
being thrown on the court and literally having almost in
a comedic fashion, a janitor with one of those wide
broom mopping them off the court, like like like we
can hold that truth as somewhat oddly funny in one

(54:36):
side of our brain, while also saying, hey, Wnba, you've
got bigger fish to fry, Like that is to me
small potatoes compared to how unlikable your league and many
of its players are as a result of how Caitlin
Clark has been handled and literally the welcome matt was
rolled out for a bunch of non fans who became

(54:59):
interested in in your sport and you basically box them
out saying this is our lead. She doesn't belong bizarre,
absolutely bizarre, because I know I can hold those two
truths in my head.

Speaker 4 (55:10):
I think a lot of this is related, as crazy
as that sounds. And the reason I know this is
because the WNBA pun intended here, has become the butt
of the joke. And it's because they're just not that likable.
And that's why people are feeling like they can pile
on to this very sophomore joke with the sex toys

(55:34):
because they're okay with the WNBA being the butt of
the joke, because the WNBA is asking for it right like.
And this goes back to the bully in school who
does the bully pick on. The bully picks on the
weaker one, and also the one who is kind of
the nerd, kind of the one that's the outcast, kind
of the one that asks for it, maybe puts themselves

(55:54):
out there in a unique way, and they get bullied
for it. I know because I was bullied relentlessly when
I was growing up. I was the chubby kid, I
was eccentric, I was outgoing, and I was not in
the popular crowd. I got bullied a lot. I understand
that side of it. That's how that's what the WNBA
is and the landscape of sports. That's what the WNBA is.

(56:14):
They're trying to get a seat at the popular kids table.
They've got a couple of you know, cool kids maybe
hanging with them, but at the end of the day,
they're still not at They they're not the NFL, they're
not the NBA, they're not the NHL, they're not Major
League Baseball, and they're going to have to go through
this initiation process in order to raise to that level.

(56:35):
And now we're kind of seeing the ugly side of
it because it's becoming cool to make fun of the WNBA,
and I'm not down with that. I think there's a
lot of positives about the league, but yeah, they're kind
of asking for it in a sense, like the bully
kind of is, you know, poking fun at the WNBA
and then the WNBA like they're running our way and
then all of a sudden they trip and fall and

(56:56):
everyone laughs at them. Like that's kind of the cycle
that we're in right now with this. Yeah, it's it's
becoming a political statement too, which is driving me absolutely nuts.
Anytime politics and sports start to mix, it never ends well.
And to Brian's point, about the article that is a
politically charged statement about feminism and about how women are treated,

(57:18):
and it's not. It doesn't apply to this statement. This
is a league that is trying to find their stance
in this greater sports landscape, and they're struggling because they
keep shooting themselves in the foot. Whether it's sex toys,
whether it's Caitlin Clark, it doesn't matter. It's all part
of the same stew which is the league has not
yet figured out how to get on stable ground in

(57:40):
the greater sports landscape. Maybe they figure it out, but
right now they're the butt of the joke.

Speaker 6 (57:45):
Literally.

Speaker 3 (57:46):
Interesting take. That's Jared Smith, FSR betting analyst. We've got
Rich Orenberger here, Penn State, All American. I'm Brian No.
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(58:09):
the business. Again, use code countdown and you'll get up
to fifteen hundred dollars back in bonus bets if you
don't win your first bet. Coming up next, our main man,
Seamus McGee, lots to get into with him. We'll get
his shamous special as we always do. Coming up, we'll
have a pick for us. I don't know if it's
gonna be under seventeen soccer or I have no idea.
We'll find out. It is Fox Sports Radios Countdown, maybe

(58:31):
NFL preseason. Who knows, pretty mainstream for him, could be
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and so much more. All right, let's do.

Speaker 1 (59:00):
This follow the money, real good money.

Speaker 6 (59:04):
Ah.

Speaker 3 (59:04):
Yes, we welcome in our good friend, Seamus McGee, team
lead of Sports Trading at bet MGM. Good morning, Seamus.
So I'm curious right like if we look at micro
bets and prop bets in general. There are governors that
are angling, let's get rid of these, you know, these
one pitch micro bets and and maybe it trickles into

(59:26):
prop bets. Do you think that with some of these
MLB investigations, federal investigations like NBA, MLB all that stuff,
do you think that we're not that far away from
the prop bet menu getting reduced in a dramatic way.
Do you think that's gonna happen at all sometime soon?

Speaker 8 (59:46):
Hey, guys, great to be back. I'm trying not to
speculate too much on how regulators and the leagues are
trying to operate. You know, it's a it's a bran
new world sports betting for a lot of these leagues
and states. So yeah, the the more we get into this,
the more you know, we are seeing like what's going
on in Cleveland with the Guardians right now, and myriad
of NBA players getting involved in some gambling stuff. It's uh,

(01:00:10):
it's anything. And how the states won't operate completely up
to them. I think, if anything, the most drastic thing
you see you won't see player props go away. Too
many people like them, They love the parlays. They love
betting on players, so you won't see them go away.
I could see the most drastic step being you can
only bet overs or you know, outcomes where a player

(01:00:34):
is trying to you know, better for their team. That's
the most chrastic thing I could see going. I saw
what Ohio is trying to do, which could end up
leading you know, goodno does not less. A couple of
states could follow their lead. But yeah, we'll see what
plays out. You know, it's our job to adapt to
whatever you know, rules and regulations we have to apply to.

Speaker 4 (01:00:57):
Yeah, that's the thing that bothers me is that there's
a big there's a lot of gray area between regulate
or legalize all props and ban all props. Like, there's
a lot of in the middle there that we can
fall into. I think eventually, shame as we will get
to that happy medium. Because there are certain markets, and

(01:01:18):
these markets, these micro micro markets one pitch, one shot,
one at bat markets, they are very easy a to manipulate,
be very hard to book. See, they're expensive, they're juicier
than just like your average spread and total. Like, I
think those are the markets that i'd be okay getting
rid of But to your point, the traditional props, will

(01:01:38):
this player get to eighty yards receiving? Like like that
stuff I don't think is going anywhere because I think
it's more ingrained in the fabric of the actual game itself.
Where some of these microprops, will the first pitch of
an inning be a ball or a strike? Like it's
so meaningless in the grand scheme of the outcome of
the game. I think those are the ones that we
can kind of push to the side.

Speaker 8 (01:02:00):
Yeah, that's another thing we got to look at from
our side too, especially when we're working with States about like,
you know, if the States deciding should we get rid
of this market, should be is it worth keeping?

Speaker 1 (01:02:10):
Love?

Speaker 8 (01:02:10):
It is just how much handle do we take? Is
it significant enough to the you know, the industry, to
you know, the casual players betting these Like are they
markets that a lot of people are interested? So that's
definitely one thing I think the States are probably looking
at that we're helping them out with. So yeah, it's
it's just going to be really interesting to see how

(01:02:31):
this unfolds. And you know, you even go to the
college level where player props aren't even allowed, and the
probably half the states that operate that are have legalized betting,
and then I know, like a few states are worried about,
like especially college players and how they operate with you know,
stuff like player props.

Speaker 5 (01:02:50):
Yeah, you know, it's funny when you start thinking about
a sports book as like a mom and pop candy
shop where the lollipops at the front of the store
are causing some sort of problem and you don't sell
them too much anyways, Why do we even bother with them?

Speaker 6 (01:03:03):
You know what I mean. So it's it's funny state
to state.

Speaker 5 (01:03:06):
I'm sure some of those props vary in popularity, and
you could just see yourself severing ties with them all together,
just to you know, get rid of some of the
unbearable bad press that's attached to some of this. I
digress on all that to talk to you about something
of specific interest. Uh, because we did our parlay platter
and divisional odds came up. I'm curious win totals, divisional odds.

(01:03:31):
How much Seamus does the preseason have to do in
moving the needle.

Speaker 8 (01:03:37):
I would say not a lot. I mean you might
get some glimpses into, you know, how a team is
going to operate offensive or defensively. You have a few
guys that show up in preseason that look like walls,
like they could be real players. Like you saw Mike
Green just dominate against the Cults in his debut. You
might see some awards, but like I think he got

(01:03:58):
shipped in for defensive work year for instance. There as
far as wind toals, obviously, like if someone gets hurt,
like that's gonna move their win total, they're right, they're
playoff and division odds. But I wouldn't say by and large,
not that much. But unless you see like a rookie
coming in that like people get really excited about. I
think that's one where like maybe you know some steam

(01:04:20):
does come in on a certain price.

Speaker 3 (01:04:22):
Your bad news for the Chargers with Rashaun Slater going
down their left tackle, that's a huge loss. Feel terrible
for him and them, But as a better shamus, you
look to pounce, right. Do you take that into account
and look to apply it in any market? Maybe Week
one chiefs points spread the total of the game season

(01:04:43):
win total for the Chargers AFC West odds. Do you
look to play that in any way, shape or form
based on that big time injury?

Speaker 8 (01:04:53):
Well, as we do with most markets where big injury
news come up, we look, we let the market handle
what the price is going to be. If you know,
betters think that this is going to be the seismic injury.
He's great. I mean, he's a huge part of that
offensive line, especially for Justin Herbert that it would be
silly to sit here and say it makes no impact.
But so we just wait and see what the sharps

(01:05:14):
are betting. I know Joe Waalt is moving to the
left side of the line. He's a really good lineman
in and of himself, So we'll see how big of
a drop off there is.

Speaker 4 (01:05:23):
So preseason football, we talk about betting on the actual
games themselves, and it can be a tough watch. It
can be tough to figure out who's playing and who's not.
But based off of a very brief analysis, if you
just faded all of the big moves Seamus, all of
the six and we see a bunch of them over
the last few years, we've actually seen eight games steam

(01:05:46):
six or more points in one direction. If you just
waited for that move to come and then bet the
other side, you'd be eight to zero against the spread.
And I think the reason is the market is becoming
very sensitive to these starters are playing tweets and this
guy's gonna play this many minutes and then the market
just takes that news and runs with it and it

(01:06:08):
actually opens up value. On the other side, are you
seeing that on your end? Are you getting these bets?
And you're like, man, this this game for a starter
playing one quarter is moving a significant amount. Does it
surprise you just how volatile these preseason moves are.

Speaker 8 (01:06:24):
Nothing really surprises me doing this for like sixty years.
I've been doing this, doing booking preseason. You see these
moves all the time, especially whenever starters and that's and
you'll see a move starters are sitting. You'll see a
big move like this Broncos Niners game. I think it
already moved six points towards the Broncos.

Speaker 6 (01:06:44):
But we were.

Speaker 8 (01:06:44):
Texting the other day, but on Thursday, like it felt
like a lot of these numbers did actually move too
much just looking at them before kickoff, and we actually
didn't have a great you know, first few days of preseason.
We got to beat up a little bit from the
games the first few days, even with like the blinde
moves and whatnot.

Speaker 6 (01:07:02):
So you mentioned injury.

Speaker 5 (01:07:04):
Obviously, that's that'll play a huge impact in the preseason
onto the regular season. But are there any other preseason trend, Seamus,
that even casual betters may be able to follow into
the early red season, uh, to help them make better
choices at the window.

Speaker 8 (01:07:22):
I think this has been a trend, definitely. You can
notice the past couple of years. I remember Julian Edeland
had a big rant last year or two years ago
about this. I feel like it's growing more apparent. The
starters who play in the preseason they tended't. I mean,
they just start better than a lot of these teams.
I think that's why you're seeing like the Bengals, for instance,
they had their starters play. You know, it felt like

(01:07:45):
a lot more than you're used to seeing them playing
with Burrow out there. So I think there's a few
teams that you can count on like you'll come out hotter,
i'd say, than the teams that don't play their starters
in the preseason.

Speaker 3 (01:07:57):
All right, Seamus, that is that time the shame this special?
What do you have for us today?

Speaker 6 (01:08:03):
All right?

Speaker 8 (01:08:03):
Once again, I'm gonna ask for you know, some leeway
here follow me here. Besides betting SCS football and Low
D one basketball. My favorite thing to bet on. It's
the lower league soccer league in the in England. We're
going not too crazy here. We're stick with the Championship,
the league below the English Premier League, and we're going

(01:08:24):
to take Bristol City on the three way money line
to pull off an upset over Sheffield United, who is
a big favorite to get promoted back to the Premier League.
So Bristol City at twelve thirty in the Championship.

Speaker 3 (01:08:38):
You know what I'm gonna say. It sounds good to me.
I mean, I make a good argument. You sunch is
that Connecticut? Yeah, yeah, well we'll take your advice on that, Seamus.
You know, he sounds like you just got to say
it with confidence and people are like, you know what,
I think this is hitting. I think it's hitting, Seamous.

(01:09:00):
I always appreciate you. Well go ahead, yeah, there you go, buddy, great,
So I always appreciate you. There is Seamus McGee, team
lead of Sports Trading at BETMGM. Very good stuff. Hey,
use code countdown at BETMGM and receive up to fifteen
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your first bet. When you register with BETMGM, you'll get

(01:09:21):
instant access to a variety of parlay selection features, live
betting options, signature bets, and the best daily promotions in
the business. Again, use code countdown and you'll get up
to fifteen hundred dollars back in bonus bets if you
don't win your first bet. How about this? We got
history being made today. We'll have the first female umpire
in a Major League Baseball game. So Jen Powell, she's

(01:09:43):
gonna make history. There's a double header today between the
Marlins and the Braves. She'll be working the bases today
and then she'll be behind the plate tomorrow for Marlin's Braves.
So shout out to her. And how about this? The
gender barrier for game officials in the NBA, it was
broken twenty eight years ago. It was broken ten years

(01:10:04):
ago in the NFL when they hired their first full
time female official. So MLB's finally joined the party. We
still don't have an on ice female official in the NHL.
That has not happened yet, but MLB finally getting here
with Gen Pile making history today. How about that?

Speaker 6 (01:10:23):
Okay, Okay, yeah, I read this story earlier.

Speaker 5 (01:10:27):
Look, I think it's I think it's one of the
most difficult things in sports to call balls and strikes
from behind the plate. And you know, if this has
been only available to one gender this whole time, and
considering how poorly I feel like that that has been
umpired over the course of time, I am hoping for

(01:10:50):
better results because, my goodness.

Speaker 6 (01:10:54):
The home plate umpiring. I do give credit where credit too.

Speaker 5 (01:10:57):
It's really difficult, but I mean, we are steps away
from having robots behind home plate because it has just
been a mess.

Speaker 4 (01:11:04):
Yeah, we need the robots. Can we get female robots that?
Can we even do that? No? I think we need to.
I think we I I like these stories because I'm
all for meritocracy. If you are good at your job,
I don't care if you're a man, woman, black, white, Asian,
doesn't matter. If you're good at your job, you deserve
a chance to perform at the highest level, period, end

(01:11:27):
of story. I hope we get to a point where
it's not a story anymore, like oh, female umpire, Like,
all right, who cares? Is she good? Can she call
balls and strikes? Is she good at her job? Great?
I don't really care if she's a man or woman.
That's kind of where I'm at with these stories, and
we hear a lot of them. The first woman, this
the first that like, great, are you good at your job?

(01:11:48):
That is the only part of this that matters, because
if you're not good at your job and you're getting
promoted because of some kind of statement because the league
wants to make a political statement, that's getting promote for
the wrong reasons, that actually is something Lewis Riddick should
say being set up to fail. But in this situation,
I don't. I don't follow minor league, you know, umpiring.

(01:12:09):
I don't know if she's good or not. I hope
she is. We'll find out because they have very specific
I follow an account. I think it's called like umpire review.
I forget what the name of it is, but it
basically tracks how well you called the game after the game,
and it tells you got this call wrong, you got
this call right. I'll be watching, I will take a
look at her umpire review after the game, and we'll

(01:12:30):
find out if she's good at her job or not.

Speaker 3 (01:12:33):
Well, yeah, and you go back to it made me
think what you said, Jared, You go back to say,
like Tony Dungee and when that was a story like hey,
first black head coach to reach a super Bowl going
up against Lovey Smith, And yeah, he was saying at
the time, like, hopefully we get to a day and
age where this is not a story. It's just, hey,
you know, Mike Tomlin's coaching the Steelers, and you know
he's going up against so and so from the other side,

(01:12:55):
and yeah, it's a step in that direction. I just think, like,
how much harder it is for you to do a
good job, you know what I mean, Because when you're
the first, it's unfair. But a lot of people think
this way. If you're like the first black quarterback and
you miss a five yard out, there are a lot
of people that think, hey, maybe these black quarterbacks can't

(01:13:17):
throw the fight, you know what I mean. Like with
Jen Powell being behind the plate and she calls a
low strike that's really a ball, It's like, hey, maybe
these fits. You know, people think like that, oh, you
gotta be on point, and there's a lot of pressure
that comes along with that. So ump score cards.

Speaker 4 (01:13:37):
That's the uh handle. If you want to follow it,
I mean I follow it, and I look at them
all the time, they're interesting.

Speaker 5 (01:13:43):
Yeah they are, they are, And yeah, just to put
a bow on it, Brian, like when I look at uh,
when I look at first in general, the first of anything,
the first of anybody is going to always take the
most slings and arrows. And then as we continue to
to troll past this moment in history, it'll, like like

(01:14:05):
Jared was pointing out earlier, it'll become commonplace. It won't
it won't be discussed and bandied about with as much
publicity because all it'll be is just whoever's the best
at the job gets the job and we move on.
So huge credit and and a tip of the cap
because it's difficult. Like I was just pointing out, being

(01:14:26):
the first at anything, and I hope it goes smoothly.
I hope it goes swimmingly because we know, we know
how bad it can get when there are misses rather
than makes in first attempts.

Speaker 6 (01:14:39):
That is just sports man, that is how it goes.

Speaker 3 (01:14:42):
No doubt. All right, We've got Rich Orenberger, Penn State
All American, Jared Smith FSR betting analyst. I'm Brian No
coming up next, prop it up. That is right, we
go into the prop betting market. And Hey, when a
game projects to be ugly, sometimes you can pick out
some pretty stats, some pretty props.

Speaker 4 (01:15:03):
If you will.

Speaker 3 (01:15:03):
We'll discuss that on the way. It is Fox Sports
Radios Countdown presented by BETMGM. It is Fox Sports Radios
Countdown presented by Bett MGM. And it is that time.
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Speaker 1 (01:15:18):
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let's dive into this.

Speaker 2 (01:16:00):
Prop it up player plays Okay, prop bets go lore,
So many options, so little time.

Speaker 3 (01:16:09):
Jared, we go with you for a pick.

Speaker 1 (01:16:10):
What do you have for us?

Speaker 4 (01:16:11):
Yeah, we'll go baseball here, I'm you know, no, no,
NFL props yet, and it's just it's too tough the
dicet who's playing in the preseason. So I'll give you
a couple of young pitchers today. First, I'll give you
a quick over. Jack Perkins over four and a half
strikeouts Athletics young pitcher at the Orioles today, taking just
a second career start. I like betting young pitcher props
because the market hasn't really figured him out yet, making

(01:16:32):
it again just his second career start. His last start,
his first start was actually on short rest. He started
out in the bullpen, then they moved him to the rotation.
Only went sixty two pitches three innings, struck out four
guys though in three innings, I think he's gonna go
four plus innings about eighty pitches today, So over four
and a half strikeouts feels good. Against Baltimore, he strike
the Orioles strikeout of ton against righty's this season, and

(01:16:55):
another rookie, Carson wizen Hunt, the Giants starting pitcher to
under two and a half earn runs against the Nats,
making just his third career start the Nats. Oh my goodness,
go look up the Nationals numbers against lefties since the
All Star Break. They are dead last in every single category.
Seven straight lefties under two and a half earn runs
against the Nats. Wizard Hunts at home will go under

(01:17:16):
two and a half earned runs for the rookie south back.

Speaker 5 (01:17:19):
Okay, I'm gonna give you an NFL preseason pick here.
I'm taking the under on the proposed nineteen and a
half receiving yards for Travis Hunter today against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Speaker 6 (01:17:30):
Here's why, dual roles are.

Speaker 5 (01:17:32):
Going to limit his offensive exposure. They want to try
him on both sides of the ball. Plus, look, there's
no guarantee the ball is gonna come your way in
any given play or scheme, so you can't control targets.
And even if they do have plans to get them
the ball early, do you think they're gonna do it often?

Speaker 6 (01:17:52):
I don't.

Speaker 5 (01:17:53):
So unless there is an explosive playoffensively, I think they're
gonna try to get him the ball, get him down,
get him out of the game so that their first
round high first round draft pick is healthy for the
upcoming season. So I'll take the under the nineteen and
a half receiving yards today for Travis Hunter.

Speaker 3 (01:18:11):
Okay, good stuff. I'm gonna go to the WNBA if
you freaking people won't. You know, someone's gotta go this
kidding Uh, I love that. Yet we've covered everything here, right,
we got baseball, we got NFL preseason. Let's go WNBA
as well. I'm looking at this Sparks game. The Sparks

(01:18:31):
have put on fire lately, so they've scored at least
one hundred points in five of the last six games.
They're going up against the Valkyries today. The line has
moved a ton. They were favored by one and a
half last night. They're now favored by four and a half.
The Valkyries are not very tall, and cayleb Thornton is hurt.
Unfortunately she's out for the rest of the season. So
I'm looking at the rebounding market. I'm gonna go with

(01:18:53):
Azaray Stevens over seven and a half rebounds. Again, the
Valkyries are just height challenged, and I look for the
Sparks to outscore them and beat them up on the
glass pretty good. You got the Deerica Hamby. This is
the funny thing with the prop betting market. Sometimes your
own teammate can screw up the total prop ben right

(01:19:14):
so you got Hamby on the boards too, and she's
at seven and a half. But I like Azure Stevens.
She's gone over twice out of the three times they
played the Valkyries, and I look for her to go
over tonight over seven and a half. So I'll go
with Stevens in that game. There you go, all right.

Speaker 6 (01:19:32):
I like it.

Speaker 4 (01:19:33):
The preseason props are really tough guys, I think, and
I like Rich's angle because the Hunter stuff is really
tough to digest. The market might be completely wrong on
Travis Hunter, we have. You have no idea how many
snaps he's gonna play on either side of the ball.
And I've said this before. I think, Brian, you might
have pushed back some curiouser thoughts. I think he's gonna

(01:19:55):
play more on offense. I think he's gonna be a
better offensive player, but I still think he has the
DESI I were to play defense, which means he might
get more preseason snaps on defense just a hunch. I
honestly have no idea.

Speaker 3 (01:20:05):
I think I think he's a better defensive player, but
I think with Trevor Lawrence, they're in let's get Trevor
Lawrence right mode. So I think he's going to play
more initially on offense.

Speaker 4 (01:20:17):
Interesting.

Speaker 5 (01:20:18):
Yeah, yeah, I could see that even just having more
weapons on the field, you know, creates a little bit
of a distraction, absolutely all.

Speaker 3 (01:20:25):
Right, coming up, it was a popular opinion a few
months ago and it turned out to be totally wrong.
Oh what is going on? Happy Saturday to you as
we inch closer not just to more preseason games, but
to regular season NFL games not that far away. And
it was at least a good debut last night for

(01:20:45):
Shadoor Sanders, his first preseason action through two touchdown passes
one hundred and thirty eight yards, a lot of pressure,
a lot of eyeballs on him. There was a comparison
made by one of the members of the Malord militia
between Shadoor Sanders and Bronni James and there are there
are some comps, right if you think famous fathers, you know,

(01:21:08):
under the microscope even more so because of that and
even like summer league Bronny preseason Shador, every little throw,
everything is dissected. So from that standpoint, yeah, I can
see it as far as a popular opinion from a
few months ago that I think at least so far
has turned out to be totally wrong, and I, in

(01:21:29):
my opinion, projects to be totally wrong. Remember when it
was like, oh, Dion Sanders, Oh you don't want to
draft Shador, you gotta put up with Dion Sanders. He's
gonna have hot takes every single day about the Cleveland
Browns and there's just gonna be a total headache and
you don't want that in your life. And what is
Dion Sanders said or tweeted that's caused like this mass

(01:21:54):
story for the Browns, like there's been nothing. I thought
that was a total overreaction. It's not as if Deon
Sanders is going to be in a press conference for
the Colorado Buffaloes and just way in on Schad or
not getting first team reps, or why is Joe Flacco
getting all the playing You know, it's ridiculous. It was
never going to be like that. I never bought it

(01:22:15):
at the time, and you're seeing now he threw out
a couple of tweets last night like go Sun basically
pretty much it It's not gonna be this relentless, you know,
NonStop nauseating thing where Deon Sanders is talking all things
Cleveland Brown's going forward, that just was never gonna happen.
He's a former pro. Like a former pro is not

(01:22:37):
gonna do that with his own son. That was never
even a possibility.

Speaker 6 (01:22:41):
I wouldn't. I wouldn't put it as not a possibility.

Speaker 5 (01:22:44):
And I also wouldn't say the stories over because after
his first start in one where things went exceedingly well,
that we have all the evidence we need that it
won't now if we're going to live in the world
of hypotheticals or potentiales like I mean, you could spare
me taking the deep dive there. But is it is

(01:23:06):
it possible that Dion puts his foot in his mouth
at some point over the course of should Or's rookie season,
especially when things are being more pressure tested, Like when
it's going well, it's very easy for everybody to have
a really good time saying all the right things.

Speaker 6 (01:23:25):
Well, what about when things aren't going well?

Speaker 5 (01:23:27):
What happens if Dion thinks his son is being misused
in the offense, or he isn't.

Speaker 6 (01:23:31):
Getting the protection or the play calls.

Speaker 5 (01:23:34):
That he thinks he should be getting, or maybe he
you know, at some point during the Browns football season,
he's struggling and somebody asks him out of Colorado Buff's
press conference, Hey, you know, why did Shoudor have so
much more success in your offense than he is in
the Browns offense. And that's a tough question to answer

(01:23:57):
because you want a herald what you're doing at your school,
and you also don't want to necessarily paint the Cleveland
Browns in a dim light. And it's gonna be hard.
It's gonna be hard, Let's just put it that way.
So I don't think based on one night of tweets
from Dion where someone was playing exceptional preseason football, has

(01:24:19):
really diminished the the opportunity for this storyline to re
emerge with a vengeance at some point this season.

Speaker 4 (01:24:28):
I would tend to agree Rich that there needs to
be some adversity first before we finalize this opinion. But
there's already been some adversity, Like you know, he had
the speeding ticket. He's been you know, I think he
started as like the fifth fourth team, Like he didn't
get the initial love that maybe he deserved, considering the

(01:24:49):
success that he had in college. Who his dad is, like,
I think he's been humbled a little bit by this process,
and we haven't heard an outcry, but I agree like
if in general, when the real adverse city strikes during
the regular season, I think that's when we'll really know
is Dion going to be negative with his vocality. I
think he also has other things to do, Like he

(01:25:12):
wasn't even at the game last night. Like imagine that
your son plays in his first NFL preseason game and
your dad's not there and it was for a good reason,
Like he's coaching Colorado. He just went through a healthy scar, right,
But like that in of itself, I think adds a
layer of Dion's got other stuff to do. Man, Like
he's got a team to coach, he's got stuff going on,

(01:25:33):
He's fighting his own health issues. I think there are
these natural barriers built in between Dion and the Browns
which will insulate Shador enough. But anytime Dion tweets anything,
it's gonna be headline news. So it kind of goes
back to I think Dion has to use his discernment

(01:25:55):
with when he is vocal, what he says, and how
it comes off, because even if it's supposed to be positive,
there's gonna be Lewis Ridicks out there that are gonna
spin up negative and I think that's where discernment really
is the word I'll use for when Dion is vocal
about his son this season.

Speaker 3 (01:26:14):
Shador made a comment earlier this week where I think
we got some audio check this out here, you go.

Speaker 12 (01:26:25):
I don't want him coming to see me right now
because I want to get to where I want to
go in for him to see me, I don't want
him to come and see me. You know, get a
couple of reptions. You know, he's cheering like a good dad, like, Nah,
you can't be proud of me right now. I got
to get to where I'm going, and I know it's
a lot I got to do to get there. So
it's kind of like I just want everything that I'm
doing is just like focus on this time. And I

(01:26:47):
don't want to know distractions because we know out the media,
we know how everybody would take it and take away
from the team just from him being my own dad
showing up.

Speaker 6 (01:26:56):
So you know, it's a gift that occurrence at the
same time.

Speaker 3 (01:27:00):
Okay, so that's Shadeur talking about his dad, Dion Sanders
possibly coming over and seeing him in training camp, and
Shadur's kind of like, hey, Pops, you know, like, you know,
it's gonna be a whole thing. Let's just not go there.
So that's the thing. Dion Sanders is smart enough to
realize that he doesn't want to be a hurdle in

(01:27:21):
the way of his son's success. And even it could
be a simple comment, could be a simple tweet, and
all of a sudden, it's this gigantic story and it's
just something that Shaudeur Sanders doesn't want right now. Yeah,
so Dion Sanders is smart enough to know that. And
even if there is adversity, Hey, listen, Dion might have
a very you know, minor tweet and just because he's

(01:27:43):
Deon Sanders turns into this gigantic thing or a very
simple comment. Maybe that happens if there's like, you know,
something's not going well for Chaudeur at all, and any
weighs in in a minor way. But this idea that
you know, Dion was gonna be preaching at the pulpit
all things Browns all the time is absurd. That was

(01:28:05):
never going to happen, and that sound but gives you
an indication as to why, like his son doesn't want it.
His son doesn't want this extra attention and extra heat
and it's just unneeded. So that's the last thing you
want to do as a dad is getting the way
of your son's There's no way Dion is ever gonna
do that.

Speaker 6 (01:28:24):
I think this family is a lightning rod.

Speaker 5 (01:28:27):
I think it's because, Look, I think Dion Sanders is
a better coach, a better person, a better speaker, a
better motivator, a better role model, and a better father
than the media portrays him. I think all of those
things are true, and that's my belief. I know there's

(01:28:48):
a lot of people who are listening to this radio
show who will vehemently disagree with me for their own reasons,
and that's fine. You can cast your own opinions. These
are public people. Dean Sanders has made a lot of
money off of Europe onions of him, I promise you,
and should or Sanders has followed suit. You know that
guy's driving a pretty dang nice car, and that was

(01:29:09):
before he graduated from college. I don't I'm not even
one hundred percent sure on his degree status. I don't
think it even really matters. But before he left college,
here's the thing. I knowing that Dion is a pro
both as a player and now as a college football coach,
and he works.

Speaker 6 (01:29:29):
In this field, and his son is too.

Speaker 5 (01:29:32):
He's now been indoctrinated, whether he you know, snaps a
football in a competitive game or not. You know, he's
suited up for a training camp, he's played in a
preseason game, he's seen what the pro game looks like. Now,
I think there's going to be an understanding of here
between he and his father of what needs to get done.
And frankly, what needs to get done is should Or

(01:29:54):
needs to concentrate on what he needs concentraight on, and
Dion needs concentrat on what he needs.

Speaker 6 (01:30:00):
It's gone straight on.

Speaker 5 (01:30:00):
Because Dion just lost a lot of talent on that
Colorado team, and Shoudor is fighting for his life after
being a low round draft pick to get some starting
action this season when he was prospective to be you know,
a top ten pick.

Speaker 6 (01:30:16):
So a lot of work to be done in both camps.
So I agree with you Brian.

Speaker 5 (01:30:20):
Overall, I would say this narrative has taken a sidecar
to maybe even a bus stop seat at this point.
But let's see, I'm very curious if this gets pressure tested.
You know, things are going sideways for the buffaloes. If
things are going sideways for should or if you know,

(01:30:42):
somebody strikes a nerve with a question, like we've seen
before with Dion, you know, is there a headline?

Speaker 3 (01:30:49):
We'll see, We'll see. I'm in the wait and see camp.

Speaker 5 (01:30:52):
But for now, I love how Shoudor is talking, and
I love Dion playing the role of supportive father I
And that.

Speaker 4 (01:31:00):
Really is the only thing that matters to me right now.
If something happens later that like a nuclear bomb gets
dropped on this situation, and you know, and and all
of a sudden, all hets breaking lose Dion's chiming in Shadors,
you know, mouthing off, then I will reassess my opinion.
But my opinion after it's been the draft was four

(01:31:25):
months ago, like it wasn't like the draft was last week.
Dion's had four months to have an outburst about something.
I haven't heard a peep, even when Shaudor has faced
some adversity. Then the game last night, he said all
the right things. After the game. It was actually I
think it was in the third or fourth quarter. I
was driving to that Arena football game and I was

(01:31:46):
listening to the game, you know, in the car and
I heard the interview. They had the in game interview
with Shador, and the reporter was like praising him, like, hey,
you did great, Like it looked like, you know, from
our vantage point, you were settled in and blah blah
blah blah, Andhador's yeah, didn't play that well, Like I
didn't do this, and I need to do that, and
I need to you know, I'm just grateful for this opportunity.
He said every single right thing that a young quarterback

(01:32:08):
playing his first preseason game should have said. He did
not come off as this entitled kid that's the son
of this great NFL star that expects to just walk
on the field and be a starter week one. He
sounded like a fifth round rookie that has taken his lumps.
And until that narrative is different, who are we to
project this opinion of what Dion Sanders is going to

(01:32:31):
or not going to say right now? The reality is
Shador is playing well one game, one preseason game, and
he's saying all the right things. That is the only
thing that should matter to us as sports media people,
not what Dion might say if something happens, If and
when that happens then we'll reassess our opinion. But right
now I gotta give gold stars across the board to

(01:32:54):
this entire situation.

Speaker 3 (01:32:56):
Yeah, listen, it was a great debut. The one thing
that caught my attention Dion's tweet here where the first
touchdown he just put yes, Lord, yes, you know, typical
father like son, let's go. That's perfect. Then the second touchdown, it.

Speaker 1 (01:33:11):
Was, oh yeah, what now?

Speaker 3 (01:33:13):
As a uh oh h, it's it's the first preseason game.

Speaker 1 (01:33:19):
This is not the what now?

Speaker 8 (01:33:21):
What now?

Speaker 3 (01:33:21):
Critics?

Speaker 6 (01:33:22):
Huh?

Speaker 3 (01:33:23):
What do you have to say?

Speaker 8 (01:33:23):
Now?

Speaker 6 (01:33:24):
It's like we need.

Speaker 4 (01:33:28):
That. I'm okay with that.

Speaker 6 (01:33:29):
It did remind me.

Speaker 3 (01:33:30):
Of the first game for Deon Sanders at Colorado. You
remember this epic quote, Remember they beat TC.

Speaker 6 (01:33:38):
You do you believe?

Speaker 3 (01:33:40):
Now, it's like it's gonna take more. That's not like
it's gonna take more than just that. But hey man,
he jumps the gun a little bit. Can I share
you with you my favorite what now story?

Speaker 6 (01:33:50):
Yes?

Speaker 3 (01:33:51):
Oh, I love this story so much. It's with Aaron Rodgers. Okay,
Aaron Rodgers was with the Packers. The Packers were four
and eight a couple of years ago. Right rough start,
they had just won their fourth game in a row.
They've climbed to eight and eight, all right, And this
is what Aaron Rodgers had to say at the time.

Speaker 5 (01:34:13):
You know, we've all seen some of the commentary outside
as we went from four in eight to five and
eight to six and eight, and nobody's worried about.

Speaker 1 (01:34:20):
The Packers and blah blah blah blah blah.

Speaker 6 (01:34:23):
Now what are you gonna say? There we go?

Speaker 3 (01:34:25):
Now what critics?

Speaker 2 (01:34:26):
Boy?

Speaker 3 (01:34:27):
Yeah, what happened next week? He lost to Chris Perfets
Detroit Lions.

Speaker 4 (01:34:32):
That was before they lost the attitude.

Speaker 3 (01:34:34):
Yeah, that's right, that's right, goloyds. They finished eight and nine,
they missed the playoffs, and that was Aaron Rodgers' final
game with the Green Bay Packers.

Speaker 4 (01:34:43):
That was the beginning of Detroit's ascent too, it really was.
And then the next year they really kind of rose
to the occasion they.

Speaker 13 (01:34:49):
Had started that year. I don't remember what it was,
but I think they only had like one or two
wins through like the first ten games, and they had
to put out, like, you know, statements support for Dan
Campbell and then they just run through the entire rest
of the season and it's like they could have made
the playoffs. But you know, I think the Rams lost
to the Seahawks and they ended up getting into that

(01:35:11):
game was meaningless for the Lions. They still went out
there and kept the Packers out of the playoffs, and yeah,
put the end on the pack on Rogers.

Speaker 4 (01:35:18):
Okay, we're great. Ats that year too, they were like
a team that couldn't win a game, but they covered
every game.

Speaker 3 (01:35:24):
That's the thing though, you gotta be careful about angering
the what now gods. They have rabbit years. What you
gotta say now every now and then goes to fare.

Speaker 6 (01:35:34):
It was Dion saying it.

Speaker 3 (01:35:35):
Not that's fair, that's fine. I'm just saying, every now
and then you go out it, you know, after what now,
after beating TCU and you're thirteen and twelve, after two years,
it's like, you know then with.

Speaker 4 (01:35:46):
The dad saying it, if the sun is saying it, Hey, I'm.

Speaker 3 (01:35:51):
Just saying, you're gonna anger the what now gods from
time to time. It's something to be aware.

Speaker 4 (01:35:56):
We're worried about Colorado this year with the what now gods. Frankly,
then I have.

Speaker 3 (01:36:00):
That's true, you know what last little thing on this
we got to move it along. But you know as
well as Schadure played, you tell me if I'm wrong.

Speaker 6 (01:36:10):
Here.

Speaker 3 (01:36:10):
I was watching that game and I'm like, they have
the wrong guy from Colorado on this team. Shadure Sanders.
He I think that he's he can be a capable
NFL quarterback. He's got talent to work with. It's gonna
take time, gotta be seasoned, all that type of stuff.
But I'm like, man, they showed Mason Graham and he
got a few reps at defensive line. Now he was

(01:36:33):
the fifth overall pick, so the Browns traded with Jacksonville.
The Browns had the second overall pick. They could have
picked Travis Hunter and Stead. They moved down. They got
Mason Graham. And when I'm watching him play and I'm like,
I think they got the wrong guy from Colorado. Man,
Travis Hunter, I think is going to be a star.
I don't think Shaduur Sanders is going to be a star.

(01:36:53):
So we'll see. Time will tell if that's true or not.

Speaker 5 (01:36:56):
Yeah, it is an interesting take. And you know, I look, quarterback,
that's the elixir. If you can find the right quarterback,
you've you've done it all. I mean think about you know,
Brady in the sixth round with the Patriots twenty years later.
You know, he is the greatest who's ever played the sport.
So it's very hard to say to say whether or

(01:37:20):
not you know you got the right guy the wrong guy.

Speaker 6 (01:37:24):
But let's put it this way, they could have had both.

Speaker 4 (01:37:26):
You know, that's the key. You could eat that well.
I don't understand why you could have. Well, you really
what you should have went through the can Travis hunder
second overall and taking and taking Shador in the third
round and not down Gabriel right, and then you would
have had another fifth round pick too, I don't know,
draft and other defensive line.

Speaker 5 (01:37:39):
Name and everybody still would have said. And what people
are saying now Chador was a steal in the third round.

Speaker 6 (01:37:45):
But yeah, I digress.

Speaker 4 (01:37:47):
Ye, that is like he thought he was gonna be
a top ten pick. His draft position was like ten.

Speaker 3 (01:37:54):
It's funny you ever like all the mock drafts and
all that before the draft? Do you ever read that
stuff after the it's way better, it's way better.

Speaker 6 (01:38:04):
Draft.

Speaker 4 (01:38:04):
In the last three years, I have not done well,
I'm not okay with but a lot.

Speaker 6 (01:38:09):
Of then with draft bets though, where bets have been great.

Speaker 4 (01:38:13):
Yeah, not my analysis to some of these guys, it's hard, man.

Speaker 3 (01:38:17):
It's a tough guessing game, no doubt.

Speaker 4 (01:38:19):
All right.

Speaker 3 (01:38:20):
We've got Rich Hernberger, Penn State All American, Jared Smith
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use Code Countdown and you'll get up to fifteen hundred
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countless betting options, including new look, same game parlays, teasers,
live bets, and so much more. All Right, so preseason
action before we get to this weekend, and a number

(01:39:28):
of names will be out there on the field. How
about one of the biggest names that was on the
field Thursday night, Joe Burrow. Yeah, some of the Bengals
starters getting some action. I absolutely love this because the
Bengals have been such slow starters, it's insane. Joe Burrow
in weeks one and two his record in five years

(01:39:49):
of the NFL one in nine and it's actually worse
with Zach Taylor, He's one and eleven in the first
two weeks as the Bengals head coach. They start off
so slowly. Joe Burrow's numbers have been really low. He
doesn't get any reps in the preseason. But this year
they're like, you know what, let's change that. Let's get

(01:40:10):
Burrow out there. He was fantastic. He was nine for
ten a buck twenty three, two touchdowns, no picks, nearly
perfect passer rating, and they're doing this in hopes of
starting faster, and they've got a favorable start to the season,
but then it gets really tough right after. So they
start off at Cleveland and they host Jacksonville. So you

(01:40:32):
can't afford to go oh and two, one and one,
all that type of stuff, because three of the next
four games are on the road and they're all tough
opponents for the Bengals. So starting in week three, they're
at Minnesota, at the Broncos, they host the Lions, then
they're at the Packers. So you can't afford to get
off to a slow start this season. And I think
this can help them. It hasn't worked before you had

(01:40:55):
Burrow in five years. He threw eight preseason passes through
ten on Thursday. You know, I think it's smart. At
Chamar Chase was on the field. You just can't have
this growing trend continue and I think this is a
step trying to, you know, correct it, and I'm all
for it. I think it's a smart approach by the Bengals.

Speaker 5 (01:41:16):
I remember in New England, the rallying cry was we're
going to get the work we needed. This was, of course,
a different time in football. It was under Bill Belichick.
It was the Patriot Way during that time, and it
morphed a little bit.

Speaker 4 (01:41:30):
You know.

Speaker 5 (01:41:30):
Obviously Tom Brady became more empowered and became more responsible
for his own decision making within that organization before the divorce,
so to speak. But I remember feeling during those years
like we had an edge on some of our early
season competition, especially those who didn't participate as much in

(01:41:55):
the preseason as us, And it was just because on
film you could you could just see a more physical team.
And there were some times where we'd lose a game
or two, you know, within the first two or three games,
and it was never typically was never because we were
out physical or because we weren't in good enough conditioning.

Speaker 6 (01:42:17):
It was because, you know, obviously, football's football.

Speaker 5 (01:42:20):
It's an oblong shaped sporting implement and the ball bounces
in funny ways. Sometimes calls are made or you know,
catches would be catches or dropped things like that. But
I feel like the teams that have more of their
starters getting more action in the preseason have a little
bit more of a running start heading into the season.

Speaker 6 (01:42:38):
However, there is the risk reward exchange, and.

Speaker 5 (01:42:42):
Like any good insurance broker will tell you there's a
risk assessment that needs to be done before making any decision.
And so it's tough these days to be a head coach.
You know, it used to be commonplace. Hey, we're gonna
play our starters, it's just a matter of how much.
And now to play, hey, your starters at all in
certain circles feels controversial.

Speaker 4 (01:43:05):
You guys ready for a stat that's gonna blow your mind?

Speaker 3 (01:43:08):
Yeah, oh always so.

Speaker 6 (01:43:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:43:11):
Last year, five quarterbacks did not play in the preseason
that were starters. Watson, Prescott, Cousins, Kyler, Murray, Justin Herbert.
All of those guys started Week one besides Stafford, who
went off for three hundred plus yards went over his
passing yards prop that Sunday night game against the Lions.
The other four didn't throw for more than one hundred

(01:43:33):
and eighty yards in that Week one game. Wow, that's
how much preseason matters to these quarterbacks. If you're not
getting live reps in the preseason, that Week one game
is gonna look like World War three. And I applaud
Joe Burrow and Zach Taylor get like great. Yeah, Brian

(01:43:53):
mentioned the record, it's terrible one and eleven in the
first two games under Zach Taylor. But that ain't gonna
fix the defense. Based on what I saw the other night,
Burrow could score as many points as he wants. That
defense with Al Golden in his first year as defensive coordinator.
I mean, the whole handicap and the preseason betting wise

(01:44:15):
is becoming really tricky. We mentioned it was Seamus. I'll
give you the stat again. If you just blindly faded
the steam moves the games that moved six or more points,
if you just waited for that movement to come. You
see the tweet, this tarteart. The starters are playing for
the Bengals. The line moved seven points in favor of Cincy.

(01:44:37):
It was a pick them. It closed right around seven.
The Bengals were a seven point favorite in the game.
They lost. Why because their defense couldn't stop a nosebleed.
Philly marched up and down the field. Now, the Bengals
offense looked great. I think they scored two touchdowns in
those two drives that they were on the field the starters,
but the defense was a disaster. And if you are
just fading those moves, you're just allowing the market to

(01:45:00):
kind of take it shape. The starters are playing.

Speaker 6 (01:45:03):
Oh my god, the starters are playing a quarter?

Speaker 4 (01:45:05):
What about the other three quarters? Like, I think we
need to kind of reshape the way that we look
at these preseason games. When we hear news that the
starters are playing, they're probably playing for a quarter, maybe
a half at most, which means the second half of
the game when the game is decided. It's a coin flip.
So if the lines are moving significantly in one direction
because you heard the starters are playing for a quarter,

(01:45:27):
you might be better off just waiting and betting the
other side. But the Burrow stuff, I think he's gonna
have a good year. I just think that defense is.

Speaker 3 (01:45:35):
Really yeah right, I mean it could be a carbon
copy of last season. Who knows right, where Burrow goes
crazy and the defense sucks and they're an average football team.
It's possible.

Speaker 6 (01:45:46):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:45:46):
It's funny because Bill Krakenberger, who's on tomorrow's edition a
Countdown right always on Sundays professional sports handicapper, if he's
got a pick, a lot of times they'll say, hey,
I like this play, and then he'll get two three
points of closing line value yep, and it'll always put.
Now comes the hard part winning. Winning It's the worst

(01:46:08):
when you're sitting there, like, I got seven points of
closing line value in my favor, you know, I got
it at a pick them now it's minus seven. This
is beautiful, and then your team gets blown out and
you're like, what the hell was what was that? There
are a few names that are gonna be in action
this weekend. What playing time do you think matters the most?
So we've got the number one overall pick, cam Ward

(01:46:30):
Titans quarterback. We've got Travis Hunter, He's gonna play both
sides of the ball against the Steelers with the Jags today. Right,
We've got Jackson Dart Giants rookie quarterback, and also JJ McCarthy.
I think you put Jackson Dart to the side because
he might not play at all the entire season, right,
But between cam Ward Travis Hunter, JJ McCarthy, what playing

(01:46:52):
time do you think matters the most in the preseason here.

Speaker 5 (01:46:56):
Look, I think in terms of where these teams are
out of expectations, JJ McCarthy, because they're after seeing Sam
Darnold take the keys of the Vikings franchise and where
this team could go with somebody who wasn't suspected to
play very much competitive football last year. I would say

(01:47:21):
Vikings fans are very cure. Now you got an early
look last preseason. But he also got injured last preseason.
So with baited breath, I think Vikings fans are waiting
to see, Okay, now the keys.

Speaker 6 (01:47:32):
Are his, what is this going to look like? And
also injury?

Speaker 5 (01:47:37):
You know, I mean, is this going to be one
of those unfortunate but classic stories of a first round
quarterback who never seems to be able to keep himself
on the field for long enough to watch a maturity
and a career fully materialized. So I would say JJ
McCarthy is going to be amongst the starters you just mentioned,

(01:48:00):
the one that fans are gonna be focused on the most.

Speaker 4 (01:48:03):
I would agree. I think the Jags would be foolish
to give Travis Hunter a lot of run in the preseason.
The dude's gonna play like five million snaps this year, Like,
can we just relax with getting him the preseason work.
I'm sure he's getting tons of work on both sides
of the ball in camp. I'm sure he will play
both sides of the ball tonight. But I'm not gonna

(01:48:23):
overreact to a wide receiver slash corner doing anything. In
preseason Game one, it's always the quarterbacks. Cam wored being
the number one pick seems like very low hanging fruit.
We don't expect Tennessee to be very good this year.
Minnesota we expect to be good like they are projected
to be a playoff team. What Kevin O'Connell did with
Sam Donald last year needs to be put in like

(01:48:43):
a museum, like it's it's it's that good. I was
digging through some of the numbers. Twenty four percent of
Donald's first down attempts last year gained fifteen or more yards.
That was the number one highest rate in the league.
The dude was a machine on early downs, and O'Connell's
really good at disguising what the offense is trying to do. Now,

(01:49:04):
Donald was also fortunate last year. He probably should have
threw more interceptions than he actually did. His turnover worthy
play rate was very high, but his interception rate was average.
So there is a case to be made that McCarthy
might play within the structure of the offense a little
bit better than Donald, who was a veteran and probably
took some unnecessary risks or just made some bad reads.

(01:49:27):
When I went back and watched, like, we haven't watched
JJ McCarthy play a meaningful football game since the National
Championship against Washington two years ago. When I watched that game,
the two things I noticed the most one he was
great when he was creating right like running and kind
of creating his own play. You're not going to do
that in the NFL. A lot you're doing again against Washington,
You're not gonna do it against you know, really good defenses.

(01:49:47):
He didn't do a lot of under center play action
bootleg like. That's the stuff that Sam Donald excelled in
last year. When you're under center back to the defense,
when you've got to go play action. To me, that's
when a you have a better opportunity to make throws
down the field. But it's also harder to read a
defense when your back is to them for a small
amount of time. We're gonna see how JJ McCarty adapts

(01:50:08):
to that. They ran a ton of pistol at Michigan.
They ran a ton of shotgun. Donald was under center
a lot last year. Can McCarthy get in that mode
where he's reading defenses from top to bottom and not
just making one read on one side of the field.
Can you scan left to right. So there's a lot
of questions I have about McCarty and this being his
second year in the offense, hopefully he will be able
to accomplish it. So I would say McCarthy's got my

(01:50:29):
eyes on him pretty closely.

Speaker 3 (01:50:31):
Yeah, I think it's that's a layup because the Vikings
they won fourteen games last season, They've got real expectations.
They've got a loaded roster. If JJ McCarthy can produce,
especially early, that's gonna be huge for them, and that's
a big question mark. So seeing him out on the
preseason field getting some reps game like situation, I think

(01:50:52):
that's smart and I applaud Kevin O'Connell. JJ McCarthy got
hurt for the season playing in a preseason game last year.
There are a lot of coaches that would be like,
he's not even going near.

Speaker 10 (01:51:04):
Like the.

Speaker 4 (01:51:06):
Starters a lot in the preseason either historically.

Speaker 3 (01:51:08):
Right, But he's not. He's not shying away from this.
I look at it like this. I look at training camp,
joint practices, preseason games all like ramping players up toward
the regular season. Yeah, And I don't know why we
look at preseason like it's this unnecessary, like evil risk.

(01:51:29):
Why would you even think about doing that? You could
play that game with anything. What why go out on
the practice field. Rashaun Slater just got hurt. Injuries happened
there right, Like, why have joint practices? We've had injuries
there too. Why are you you could play the Why
are you taking a risk with anything? You can't just
be in bubble wrap do nothing and then just hit

(01:51:49):
the ground running in Week one. You gotta get out there.
You gotta practice, you gotta play, you gotta take some risks.
I love that JJ McCarthy is out there, but I
will say this, it's becoming more common to see bigger
names playing. We just talked about Joe Burrow getting preseason action.
Can you imagine for a second straight year JJ McCarthy

(01:52:09):
suffers like a big time injury.

Speaker 6 (01:52:12):
I hope.

Speaker 3 (01:52:13):
I hate to even throw it out there, but you
talk about like it's shifting back the other way where
teams are like, oh, oh, nope, we're not doing preseason
with our ones out there. I hope JJ McCarthy is
healthy and fine, but I think these reps are valuable
for him.

Speaker 6 (01:52:28):
He needs it for his development one hundred percent.

Speaker 5 (01:52:31):
Again, like you said about the National Championship game being
his last meaningful snap, think about how long ago that feels.
Now it's it's insane to think about. But this guy
hasn't played competitive football for over a year. The last
competitive football he's played was not at this level. And

(01:52:51):
so the more you see, the more adaptable you become,
the faster and so you have to see it, you
have to experience it. You have to feel the speed
of this level to even come close to being able
to exert your will at this level.

Speaker 6 (01:53:11):
So I think it's smart.

Speaker 5 (01:53:13):
Although again, just like you were mentioning, Brian, it's a
measured risk, and you kind of hold your breath from
the sideline and the booth and you hope everything turns
out all right, because that's all you got in this
situation is hope. You hope your offensive line holds up.
You hope the running back you know gets to his
blocking assignment. You hope that JJ makes good decisions with

(01:53:35):
his health, and you cross your fingers, you cross your chest,
and you just say, come on, JJ, make it to
the regular season for US.

Speaker 4 (01:53:43):
Buddy, Well, you know, in the Jerry Jones way, you
know it could get hit by a bus. You know,
you know you can't even step outside your house, like
you can't do anything. You've got to just completely be no.
I think the coaches, each coach, you make so many decisions.
As a head coach in the NFL, this is just
another one of those decisions, and each decision carries risk.

(01:54:05):
I would if I was a head coach in the NFL,
I would play my starters for at least one drive
in every preseason game. I would want my guys to
go through what it is like to warm up, start
the game, and then let's see how that first drive goes.
Maybe it's a three and out, maybe I'd give one
more drive, but just going through that process getting your

(01:54:30):
mind ready to play, because there's a different level. I
can't speak to this. I'm sure Rich can. When you
know you're not playing in a game, you warm up differently.
So I want my guys to go through the motion
of this is how we are warming up to play.
I don't care how long we play. We're still going
through that process and you gotta play like I would
play my starters at least one drive in every preseason game.

(01:54:53):
I don't care if they're the best player on the
planet or rookie right out of the starting gate. I
want them to go through that process now.

Speaker 6 (01:55:01):
No, I hear you.

Speaker 3 (01:55:02):
That's Jared Smith FSR betting analyst Rich Ornberger with US
Penn State, All American. I'm Pribyan.

Speaker 10 (01:55:08):
No.

Speaker 3 (01:55:08):
If you missed any of today's show, you'll want to
catch the podcast. Just search Fox Sports Radio wherever you
get your podcasts. Right after the show, today's podcast will
be posted. Be sure to follow the podcast. Rate it
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can even provide a review that could be dangerous. Please again,

(01:55:30):
Just search Fox Sports Radio wherever you get your podcasts,
and you'll find today's show full show posted right after
we get off the year.

Speaker 6 (01:55:37):
How about that?

Speaker 8 (01:55:37):
All right?

Speaker 3 (01:55:38):
Coming up next, rapid Fire. We each have a bushel
of picks for you. We'll throw them your way. Next,
it is Fox Sports Radios Countdown presented by BETMGM. It
is Fox Sports Radios Countdown presented by BETMGM. Score Bigger
at bet MGM when you win with boost tokens, odds,
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We've got you covered with no sweat tokens. And that's

(01:56:01):
not all. Sign up with bet MGM today and you'll
have access to countless betting options, including new look, same
game parlays, teasers, live bets, and so much more. Props
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Chris Purfet. Shout out to Sager on digital posting our

(01:56:22):
clips on social media. Appreciate his hard work. Top of
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They have got you covered in less than ten minutes
from now. Keep it locked right here on Fox Sports Radio.
All right, we got some picks to make. Let's do it.

Speaker 1 (01:56:43):
Rapid fire.

Speaker 3 (01:56:45):
All right, Jared, we start with you.

Speaker 4 (01:56:46):
What do you like fading esteem?

Speaker 6 (01:56:49):
Baby?

Speaker 4 (01:56:49):
If you just blindly faded the six point moves in
the NFL preseason over the last three years, you'd eight. No. Well,
the Giants were minus three and a half two days ago.
Now they're plus two and a half, three and a half,
plus two and a half. Yeah, that's six. No, Josh
Allen today, Mitchell Trubisky's gonna start, Russell Wilson's gonna start
for the Giants. Who cares? You're getting six points of value.

(01:57:10):
I know crossing zero isn't as valuable as just going
from one to seven, but I still will take the
Giants plus two and a half. We're gonna fade this
steam on the Vikings today. Seeing a lot of love
on Minnesota, I don't care. I'll take five and a half.
With the Texans. Koc historically limits his starting reps in preseason.
I know we're gonna see McCarthy. But for the Texans,
they're also working in a new offensive line, they need
some time together, and they're working in some skill position

(01:57:32):
dept as well. So I think the Texans are gonna
see plenty of their ones as well. And we'll go
under thirty nine and a half Chiefs Cardinals. I've seen
this total go up from thirty five. Now we're pushing forty.
If you can find a forty, that's a great bet
because under forty in the preseason. Totals of forty or
higher they tend to stay under in the preseason. That's
what the data says. So I will go under Chiefs

(01:57:52):
Cardinals thirty nine and a half later tonight.

Speaker 6 (01:57:55):
Okay, all MLB money lines for me. Braves over Marlin.

Speaker 5 (01:58:00):
Atlanta's offense is a buzz saw right now. Miami starters
have been giving up early, crooked numbers. That's a problem
against this offense. Astros over the Yankees. Okay, Houston's lineup
kills fastballs. Yankee starters rely on heat. It's a recipe
for a loud night for Houston. Give me the Stros

(01:58:20):
and then Red's over the Pirates. Cincinnati's top of the
orders hot. The Pirates bullpen has been a gas can.
I like the Reds in this spot. So give me Braves,
Astros and Reds all on the money line today.

Speaker 3 (01:58:33):
All right, you go all baseball rich, I go all WNBA.
How about that. I'm looking at the Sky against the Fever.
Give me under one sixty three and a half. A
couple of reasons. Injuries all over the place, right, the
Sky are bad and they're banged up. It's a bad
basketball team. The under is hitting nine of the last
ten games for the Chicago Sky right. Not great unless

(01:58:56):
you're betting the under. That's fantastic.

Speaker 6 (01:58:58):
The Fever. The thing to know what.

Speaker 3 (01:58:59):
They only have nine available players. Caitlin Clark is still
banged up. They have no true point guards. They just
had two injuries occurred. They have no true point guards.
I think it's gonna be a sloppy, ugly game. By
the way, Elijah Boston three and a half assists. She's
commonly sharing the ball as a big for the Fever.

(01:59:20):
I think she goes over. It's a little juicy minus
one fifty five. But keep that in mind. Not a
play for here because it's too juicy, too juicy for
rapid fire, But keep it in mind. I think she
probably gets there. My other two picks, I'm looking at
the Sparks man. The Sparks are the hottest team in
the WNBA. They are on fire right now. They played
great on the road. I'm gonna take their team total

(01:59:40):
over eighty four and a half again. They've been triple digits.
They've reached one hundred points in five in the last
six games. And I'll go with my girl, Azaray Stevens
lit zig Zaget. She had a rough performance last time
out against the Sun, only ten points, one for seven
from three. I think that changes against the Valkyries tonight.

(02:00:01):
I'll take her over twelve and a half points in
that one. I think the Sparks score a lot of points.
I don't think that Golden State slows them down. I would.
I'd take the Sparks, you know, minus the points. But
it's moved so much. I gotta get a little creative.
You gotta get a little creative right there.

Speaker 6 (02:00:16):
You know, like that a lot.

Speaker 3 (02:00:18):
Alright, let's go good, let's parlay everything together. Nine Laker

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