Mark Willard and Ephraim Salaam talk Brady & Rodgers and the Lakers!

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Fox Sports. Yeah, back at it again.
Here we go. Week seven in the National Football League
is winding down, two games to go, and confusion still Reigns.
Will explain that in just a second alongside a from
salam Mark Willard, and we are broadcasting live from the

(00:22):
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this is Fox Sports. This is not Little League. So
those of us who are broadcasting here in this kind

(00:44):
of a situation, I think we we like to think
that we've achieved a certain level here in the broadcasting injury.
We like to think that about ourselves. And therefore, you
from I like to think about myself that I'm okay
at this, right, I feel like I'm okay at this.
But he from, I'm not sure what I would be
if I didn't have people like you to do the

(01:06):
show with. The point is it matters who's around you, right,
no matter what you're doing in this world, it matters
who's around you. Is that why Tom Brady and Aaron
Rodgers suddenly don't look like Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers anymore.
Well that's that's um a small portion of it. But

(01:29):
I'll tell you this by watching these two uh elder
statesman quarterback backs played today in their teams. Let's start
with Tom Brady. I've been very critical of him all week, UH,
speaking about his lack of focus, his lack of attention

(01:51):
to detail, and you know his overall one ft in
one ft out of the league. And that goes back
to training camp. When you leave for eleven days in
the middle of training camp and everybody makes excuses for you, Oh,
he's the goat, Oh he can do this. Nobody is
more committed than Tom Brady. Look what he's done in

(02:13):
his hiss seven Super bowls. And I said, well, that
may be true, but the last I checked, UH, football
isn't something you do on your spare time. Football comes first,
and if you can't dedicate that amount of focus to it,
then you shouldn't do it anymore, especially with someone what

(02:34):
the acculates that Tom Brady has. You can't short change
the game. No matter how good you have been. Football
is not one of those sports that you can do
that too. Not very many sports can you do that too?
And so when he decides that he wants to work
on family things in the middle of training camp, where

(02:55):
all his contemporaries are in training camp, no one gets
to leave for eleven days, almost two weeks for family
stuff unless there's a crisis in terms of a death, birth,
things of that nature. It still didn't come out what
he was doing, but it was you know, was it
a family vacation, was it a trip, Well, we don't know.

(03:17):
But what we do know is he did not travel
with the team last week to go to his friend's wedding.
I do remember that I've never seen that before as
a thirteen year veteran, I never saw someone miss a
team playing and walked through to go to his friend's wedding.

(03:40):
So to me, it seems like they're more important things
to Tom Brady than actual football. And that manifested itself
today against the Carolina team who had no business even
showing up. And when you get out played by a
named P. J. Walker, you know what are we doing? Right?

(04:09):
I mean, it's a FA's a fascinating sort of unloading
of thoughts on this because it's sounding to me very much.
If you were a teammate of of Tom Brady's and
this is Tom we're talking about, you know, but if
you're a teammate of Tom Brady, this sort of ticked
you off. Of course, why wouldn't it have. Look, I

(04:31):
don't care what you've done last year or two years ago,
or three years ago or ten years ago. There are
guys on that team that this is the first time
they've been teammates with Tom Brady, so anything he's done
in the past doesn't matter to them. And that's the
way you approach it. Every single year. You come in,

(04:52):
you prove yourself and you do your thing. When you don't,
you look up and you have a fifty five qbr
are an eighty one passing rating, and your team is
sitting at three and four. He's played at a level
where he knows exactly what it takes to get there.

(05:13):
So when you see him making conscious decisions to not
stay focused to that level, then you have to question
what is he even doing still playing? You know, It's
interesting because I do not want to get into anybody's
personal life ever, but what it feels like, and I
think this is what you're getting at. Whether it's football,

(05:35):
whether it's whatever has happened with Tom Brady's family life
since this conversation started last offseason. It feels like we're
talking about a man who might have gotten caught in
the middle, which is that he didn't really have both
feet on the ground on either side and therefore, and
again this is I'm not I have no clue what's
going on in his personal life. We know the stories

(05:57):
that came out a week ago. Divorce lawyers have been hired, whatever,
I like, that's not our business. But the point is,
I mean, Giselle has literally been in the public speaking
about how difficult it has been to not have Tom
Brady around as a husband and a dad, and now
it really does have the feel of somebody who tried
to put one foot on each side of the fence,

(06:20):
and therefore you don't have a whole person in either spot. Now,
it's difficult to play this game at this level, at
that position when you're not fully focused. If you're missing
team planes, didn't walk through to go to a wedding,
you're not focused because if it was your daughter, you
wouldn't have scheduled the wedding when you had a game right, right, like,

(06:44):
so you that's the level of this is what I'm
talking about. Anyone in your life knows I can't get
married now or this time because my dad or my
uncle or whoever won't be there because they're in the season.
That's how big football is. This is this is how
football takes up the oxygen in the room. Right. There

(07:07):
are certain things that you can see, the certain things
that you sacrificed, right, Like I didn't have a summer
for twenty years, including college, because that's when you train
for football. There was no Halloween's, right, no Thanksgivings because
normally there's probably like this is what, no hey, Christmas vacations.

(07:28):
You sacrifice all those things when you play a sport
at the highest level during this time of year. You
mean to tell me he went to his friend's wedding.
Robert Kraft has is the owner of a team. He
knows what the schedule is. So to me, it just
seems like it's just slap in the face of all
those guys in the locker room willing to show up
and show out every day, and when you can't back

(07:51):
it up on the field, you thought about fifty times
you only have two D nine yards five point nine
yards average per attempt with zero touchdowns. Who are you, sir?
Who are you? Because that's not Tom Brady that team
needs or that team wanted back. He's killing Todd both slowly. Yep, yep.

(08:15):
I mean the famous argument was it Brady or Belichick.
He has definitely had the the upper hand. But now
for those of us who sort of followed the story
through last offseason where it very much felt like Tom
Brady said, I will retire if you don't remove Bruce Arians,
and then all of a sudden he's back and Bruce

(08:36):
Arians is removed, And now you have to wonder if
the organization felt like it sort of sold itself out
with what it's getting. Now. Three points, I mean, you
gave a lot of stats. I'll give a simple one.
Three points. That's that against Carolina. Against Carolina, they don't

(08:57):
have a quarterback back or any receivers. Think about that, well,
they don't like that they don't have receiver. They don't
have a starting quarterback, a starting running back. Are our
three starting are two starting receivers, two starting receiver? Yeah,

(09:17):
it's fair, I mean, this is what we're doing. Tom
Brady got beat by that team. And I don't want
to be disparaging the Carolina, but they're in free fall
right now, all right. They don't have a coach today,
they don't even have a coach right although after today
they're a game out of first. But you get what,

(09:38):
you get what I'm saying. Yes, yes, but that's what's
amazing about the NFC. Do you know what I mean?
I mean, like, and we're gonna have to do this again.
I feel like it's gonna be a weekly deal. We're
gonna show up and go, Okay, the New York teams
won again. You believe yet, I mean you already. You
laid it out last week that these two teams, right,
there's an inner belief. The locker room is there and

(10:00):
that's gonna work. And both of them found ways, not
perfect games, not pretty games, found ways. They don't care.
These are ws on the scoreboard again, right, And so
the the the interesting thing about the NFC. And we'll
get to the other guy. We'll get to Aaron Rodgers
here in just a second. Out. I mean, outside of
the New York Giants, we see the Eagles, the Cowboys

(10:23):
are doing their thing. The Vikings were off this week.
They're fine, um, but I mean you can be three
and four, you can be two in five. Right in
the thick of this thing, I mean Geno Smith, who
was roundly ridiculed throughout the off season. We thought Seattle
was going into take mode by deciding that he was
gonna be their quarterback. Uh, that would be the first

(10:45):
place Seattle Seahawks balling enough league in completion percentage. He
hadn't started in eight years. Year. This is the landscape
of the league, and I know we've got to take

(11:06):
a break soon, So I'm going to hold my thoughts
for one. Aaron Marsupius Rogers, Mr Rogers. We'll go to
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(11:50):
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(12:33):
I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
your podcasts. Rich give me a hell yeah all I
with a from Salon Mark Weller. We'll get to Aaron
Rodgers in just a second. It's it's that time of day,
you know, about four hours ago. They call it the
witching hour, when when everything is just coming to a
head with like six, seven, eight early games, and they're

(12:55):
all coming down the stretch and I've set on red
zone at about Pacific. It's the greatest television there is
right now in our world. It's absolutely the greatest television.
But this, uh, this five o'clock hour here in the
West is like the depression hour because you go on
social media and it's just a list of who got

(13:15):
knocked out for the year. I mean, we're watching all
these coaches head to how the press conferences, and it's
sounding like Breeze Hall has a torn a c L
and it's sounding like Mike Williams might have broken an
ankle and J. C. Jackson significant injury. Do you have
any of these? Did you have any of these five
o'clock Like A from salam has is feared to having

(13:39):
a significant injury. I had one where I had um
I tore momaisk is really bad in October. Well, I
want to miss one game, So I guess it wasn't
you know? It started started nine days after the surgery.
You you be bowl pain for pain for it now,

(14:01):
but you know y'all are nuts. Yeah, so it's you know,
I was I was blessed enough not to you know,
have to have a season end in catastrophic injury in
my career. But it's it's well, that's good. Yeah, I
mean we're watching themselves. I mean it's like, bro, it's like,

(14:27):
come on, do you make anything of that? By the way,
this is a question here in the San Francisco Bay
Area that the people have been working on real hard
for the last two weeks, as the forty Niners are
by dad of the most injured team in football, and
it's the six or seventh year in a row that
they're one of the ten most injured teams in football,
and so people are trying to figure out can you

(14:49):
can you blame someone for that because there is there
something that could be going on with the team. You
mentioned the Chargers, same thing there this year. Joey boasts out,
Mike Williams, Jacy Jackson, Keenan. Allen has been struggling all
year long, even justin Herbert. I like, when I watched him,
I'm like, whatever that thing was that happened to his
ribs a month ago, it looks like it's still affecting him.

(15:10):
What can you put something on that or is it
just dumblock? It's the way the ball bounces sometimes, man,
And as we know that football doesn't always bound straight.
It really, um you can say, you know, it's it's
how they train, but most of the guys train in
the off season themselves, different types, different ways. Practices are

(15:32):
pretty set across the league, you know, not a lot
of hitting, not a lot of you know, stuff like that.
Guys have nutritionists across the board. It's just I don't
know what it is, man. The Charges have been cursed
with with injuries for decades. I don't know if it's
you know, is it the the San Diego curse, leaving

(15:55):
leaving the whole city and now you just have to
muck through the injuries, or is it you know something
Niners as well. The thing to look at the Niners
last three years in terms of, uh, the injury book,
and you know, it's other teams the other things, other
teams that that that fall victim two injuries. And it's

(16:19):
the nature of football. And that's one of the main
reasons why they don't have guaranteed contracts for the most part. Seriously,
think about that. You gotta pay somebody a hundred million
dollars and they may not play again, you know what
I mean? I mean, listen to the dog. The dog
knows exactly what's going on. Well, that scares me because
the game's about to kickoff. So now I think the

(16:40):
Steelers are gonna win because when my dog starts barking
right at kickoff, that tells me that you gotta be
wearing them dogs. Um and uh. And the Steelers are
big dogs tonight. But anyway, we'll keep an eye on that.
Is to a tongue of by Low is making his
return to prime time football, which scares everybody as well
because the last time we watched him here it ended
up with an ambulance on the field. So we'll we'll

(17:02):
keep an eye on that and uh and keep our
thought on that. With it from salam it's Mark Willard.
All right, it's not a beautiful day in the neighborhood.
It is not a beautiful day for a neighbor. So no,
I won't be yours. I won't be yours. I won't
be your neighbor. What the hell is wrong with Mr? Rogers?
What are the Packers doing it? From? So you know,
we talked. We had I had this whole opening monologue

(17:25):
and soliloquy about Tom Brady and good too. Yeah. I
mean I try to, you know, I try to, you know,
inject fact with my opinion to to to give me
satisfied you know, substance to stand on like right, it's
it's uh, these are all opinions. But when you can
riddle your opinion with facts and people are like, okay,

(17:46):
well that makes sense. So that's what I try to do.
And when I'm looking at Aaron Rodgers and his inevitability
to be a elite quarterback anymore, it's almost is similar
to what Tom Brady is going through, only that the
past few years with Aaron Rodgers. And I know last

(18:09):
year was his in a VP year, in the year
before that was an m v P year. But even then,
even with all of that, there was discord there, right,
there was um, this arrogance, this strife. You know, you
had the the vaccination thing, you had the turning your

(18:31):
nose up at people, like talking to people like they're
dumber than you, right, or like you're the smartest person
in the room. This is Aaron Rodgers. This is why
he alienates teammates and coaches, and this is him. So
what happens is when you create that type of environment
and now you're in a situation where things aren't working,

(18:54):
like they don't remember he had to relax year and
they went on and did great things all, you know.
So you so people expect, Okay, well he's struggling now,
but we know he's gonna bounce back. Well, now you're
at a place where you can't bounce back because there's
nothing to bounce back with. And so all of that

(19:18):
showing up receivers and and and teammates and all of
those things, right, came out press conference that we have
to simplify things, and head coaches like, I don't know
what he's talking about. I don't know what he means
by simplifying things, right, And so it's a situation now
where he's put himself in a position when the first

(19:42):
of all, no one feels sorry for him. And if
you are that guy, some people say it's the greatest
throw of the football ever, not me personally, but some
people say that. They argue that then it doesn't matter
who's running routes. I'll tell you this, every single person
that we saw in an NFL game today as a

(20:04):
professional athlete, every single person was the best at their
high school, the best at college and now they're in
the NFL. Now, some are more skilled than others, but
they all got here for a reason. There are no
guys in the league that shouldn't be here. The process
is too intense to even get to the league, let

(20:25):
alone dress up in an opening day roster. So you
may not have the chemistry with some of these guys,
but whose fart is that? Right? You may not feel
as comfortable with them as you did with Vants, But
whose fart is that right? Like? So, now, if you're
going to be that guy, then you must take the

(20:48):
brunt of the blame and do not try to dish
that off on everybody else. We've seen Tom Brady for
decades play with guys like you and me, right, guys
you never heard of before. He made white receivers of
a viable option in the NFL. For the last twenty years.

(21:10):
He had guys out there who could double as c
p A s right, our insurance salesman, all pro receivers.
So you can't tell me, why don't you. Indeed, we
don't have the receivers, we don't have the nobody cares man. No,
it's facts, it's facts. I mean, it's not even just

(21:32):
Tom Brady, Like, quite frankly, Aaron Rodgers. If you play
fantasy football, we know that you elevate receivers simply because
they're playing with that guy. You know, you come into
this year uh and Alan Lazard. People are like, oh,
I love this Romeo Dobbs guy. You don't love Romeo Dobbs.
You don't even know who that is. You love him

(21:53):
because he's a packer, and because he's playing with Aaron Rodgers,
and therefore you think there's going to be something there.
How many times have we watched receivers be something in
Green Bay or New England, then goes somewhere else and
they're not something anymore. Danny m and Dolan never really
caught on anywhere else. Randall Cobb left, it didn't work.
He had to come back, Like we've watched that over

(22:17):
and over and over again. And and so I think
your point is absolutely spot on. If for years we
define you by your great because you can turn average
receivers into something, well, then all of a sudden you
get to a spot where you're like, well, I can't
be good anymore because I only have average receivers. I mean,
in theory, that's kind of all you've ever had. I mean, sure,

(22:40):
Davante Adams is not an average receiver, but I mean,
how many receivers in Aaron Rodgers career outside of Davante
would you even really call great? Or were they, at
least on some level a creation of Aaron Rodgers, Greg Jennings,
Donald Driver. We could go on receiver to that point.

(23:02):
Receivers don't make elite quarterbacks. Elite quarterbacks make receivers period.
Elite quarterbacks make receivers. Think about Peyton Manning, think about
the receivers, the Dallas Clarks and uh um, the Reggie

(23:24):
Waynes and and I'm not taking anything away from their talent,
but I tell you what, when we saw Randy Moss
with Tom Brady, it was special. Outside of that. Tell
me at first ballot Hall of Famer that Randy Moss,
I mean that Tom Brady threw the ball to not
not I mean's turning. It was a Super Bowl m

(23:47):
v P. No one's heard from him since. You get
what I'm saying. So when you sit at the press
conference and you throw everything on the offense, it's not
the it's this, it's that when you do that at
that level to be held at that high esteem. You

(24:09):
can't you can't fool me. You cannot fool me. This
has nothing to do with what's in the cupboard. You know.
It's single moms all over the world making four course
meals out of bare cupboards. I need you to get

(24:29):
your single mom on, our single dad on. And Rodgers,
don't don't cry me a river brother blood. We don't
know one cares man. The fact of the matter is
you're not very good right now. You're not a good leader.
We've seen that. We've seen that. And when you don't
have everything that in place the way you want it,

(24:52):
that's when leadership really matters. That's when that's when you
get people to buy in and play above their their capabilities.
That's what a leader does. And if you're not that guy,
Aaron Rodgers, then I mean, I don't even know what

(25:12):
to tell you. That's good stuff right there. That's good
stuff right there. And speaking of good stuff, by the way,
the dog you keep hearing from, uh, that is my shepherd.
Her name is Penny and her timing is on point again.
She knew kickoff was about to happen, so she started barking,

(25:33):
and that that other one that just happened. She's like,
she's trying to tell us you're late. It's time for
Kevin Figures. I haven't had an opportunity to be hanging
here on the show with Kevin Figures and what feels
like about I don't know, eight years or something like that.
So let's get k figin right now with what's going
on in the latest. How are you, my brother, excellent Marcus,
been forever man. I hope all as well. It is

(25:56):
good man, and same to you. Yes, all right. Well,
we have Sunday Night football under way, and the Dolphins
wasted no time on their first drive. They go seventy
one yards and nine plays, taking an early seven nothing
lead on a two attack of Bolow a touchdown pass
to Raheem Moster. Tour was nearly perfect on the opening drive,
six of seven passing for sixty eight yards on the score.
He would have been perfect have Mikeaseki not dropped a

(26:17):
touchdown pass. It went through his hands and hit him
right in the face mask. That was the only incompletion
that too, I had on that drive, seven nothing to
lead for the Dolphins with ten forty five to go
in the first quarter. Earlier at the Chiefs, racking up
over five hundred yards of alphins in a forty four
to twenty three drubbing of the forty Niners in San Francisco.
Mahomes for in twenty three yards, passing in three touchdowns
for Kansas City, Josh Jacobs a hundred and forty three

(26:39):
yards and three scorers for the Raiders and a thirty
eight to twenty victory over Houston Gino Smith a couple
of touchdown passes, while Kenneth Walker ran for one hundred
and sixty eight yards and two scores for Seattle. They
rough up the Chargers in Los Angeles thirty seven to three.
NFL Networks eating rappaport is reporting that Chargers Pro Bowl
cornerback J. C. Jackson suffered a dislocated kneecap he'll let
undergo or they're testing tomorrow. Seattle head coach p Carrollton

(27:02):
reporters X rays on Seattle receiver DK Metcalf's knee were
negatives the Jets and proving to five and two with
a sixteen to nine win in Denver for running back
breefe Hal left the game in the first half with
what is believed to be a serious knee injury early
early game wins for the Titans, Ravens and the Panthers,
who upsate the Buccaneers one to three. In baseball, they
are underway in Game four of the American League Championship Series.

(27:25):
Astro is looking to complete the sweep of the Yankees
in advance of the third World Series birth in the
last six years. Currently scoreless in the top of the
first inning, and of course, earlier today you at the
Philadelphia Phillies punching their ticket to their first World Series
since two thousand and nine. They notch a four to
two victory over the San Diego Padres. Back to market
NI from KF great stuff, Thank you, appreciate you. As always,

(27:48):
we are live from the tire rack dot Com studios.
Um speaking of things that that that that had been
called elite, Uh that suddenly, at least as of today,
did not feel like that. I want to get to
one of those teams coming up in a couple of
minutes as well. But uh, quick aside, since KIG was
talking about baseball in the Astros are one win away

(28:10):
from joining who the Philadelphia Phillies I want? I mean,
they're in Bryce Harper with the big contract. Hell you'd
pay that contract just for that home run that he
hit earlier today. And it just made me chuckle a
little bit, because you and I have gone through this
a couple of times the last few weeks. Uh, the Dodgers,
the Braves, they get knocked out, and all of a sudden,

(28:31):
everybody doesn't like the new baseball format. It's not fair
too many regular season games. If we're gonna play this many,
we're gonna be this good. Why should we be allowed
to get knocked out in the playoffs that quick? Of course,
with that kind of talk, literally the last seed in
the entire National League playoffs, of course, that team is

(28:53):
going to head to the World Series. And I and
I and I could not be better with it. By
the way, when when the city of Piladelphia is alive
in sports, the Phillies are in the World Series and
the Eagles are six and oh, it's a good place
to be. I love it. I love it, and it
and it and it. It lends to what professional sports are,
It lends to what playoffs are. Hey man, no one cared,

(29:16):
guess what. It's two seasons. Everybody who plays professional sports,
the team sport knows there are two seasons. What you
did in the regular season doesn't matter. When the playoffs starts,
it does not matter. And if you're holding onto what
you used to be, then you're gonna used to be playing.

(29:41):
Shout out to the Phillies. They didn't care. All they
wanted was a chance. Have they even lost in the playoffs? Uh?
Well they were it was four one ye ye yeah.
So now the the astros of the team that hasn't
lost the game yet. Hey, look, yeah, show up when

(30:02):
you need to show up, not when you want to
show up. But but you could get the American League
in the National League together, and no team had fewer
wins in the playoffs than the Philadelphia Phillies. And there
they are in the World Series, just waiting for somebody
to come along. The funny thing is, and I would
love sports fans to admit this. You can have whatever

(30:24):
opinion you want. Look, it's your life. You can oh
too many games, not enough games. You are allowed to
have whatever opinion you want. You can watch whatever you want,
you can turn whatever you want off. But you better
admit this. Everybody yelling about this is a five game series.
It's too quick. If baseball through a seven game series

(30:44):
that you right out of the gate, you'd say the
same thing you've been saying in the NBA for the
last ten years. This is too many playoff teams and
it's too dragged out. This is taking way too long.
Why are the playoffs two months long? No matter what,
somebody is gonna find fault with something. I have a
real easy rule when it comes to these two things.

(31:06):
Stop telling all the leagues to shorten up their season.
Why do we want less sports? Okay, that's just my Now, football,
I understand you don't want to go to game schedule.
Everybody's gonna get hurt. But you know what I'm saying, right,
they'll all be done. But but when it cuts all
baseball is too long? Where do you have to be?
Do you need to be somewhere? Basketball shouldn't start till Christmas?

(31:26):
Is there a problem here? Like? Is the basketball hurting
your television set? And then we get to there's too
many of this and there's too much of that. Look,
that's actually how we do it. You just went to
in and Out and had someone not put one Patty
but two on there. Stop telling me you want less stuff.
Everybody wants more stuff. And of course the league is

(31:49):
gonna give you more stuff. So if you hate this,
just go away, quite frankly, because we're gonna keep getting
more and the money is going to be more, and
the playoff teams are gonna be more, and it's gonna
be more and more stretched out. And and as you said,
it doesn't matter what the format is. The deal is,
you win your games, you move on, and if you don't,

(32:11):
you don't. It's pretty simple. Yeah, Look all the winding
and crying because your team didn't show up to the
big to the big to the big table, to the
big dance, to the big meal. There's nothing to do
with us, has everything to do with them. That's it.

(32:31):
You gotta show up and you gotta show out. That's
what the playoffs are for. I mean, legacies are built
in the playoffs. About legacies, all right, I mean the
legends are made, ready, Jack, come on, you kidding me.

(32:55):
There's a history here across all the sports where some
one stepped up. They called this man Mr October for
a reason because when the lights were the brightest, he
was the best. And that's what you need. You can
hit sixty one, sixty two sixty three home runs during

(33:18):
the year. I need something in the playoffs. That's it.
You can strike everybody out, have a e r A
of of of one point whatever I needed in the playoffs.
You can hit three hundred in the regular season. I
don't need one in the playoffs. Does me no good, right,

(33:44):
So look, let's not let's stop bickering and arguing about
the games is too many. And it is to that
and to this. The teams that show up and show
I'll get a chance to win. And that's the bottom line.
And I like it like that because now things man better.
Speaking of showing up and showing out, they were elite

(34:06):
until they got their come up. And today I'll tell
you exactly who we're talking about coming up next with
the from salam It is Mark Willard on Fox Sports Radio.
A couple of old adages in sports. People say things
like defense wins championships. They also say that win an

(34:27):
elite defense takes on an elite offense. Usually historically the
elite defense wins. Then that's actually true. That's true come
playoff time, come Super Bowls. That has often been the case. Um,
look it's just Week seven, but so far here in
the regular season, I thought we had the opportunity to

(34:50):
see what many believe to be at least one of
the best offenses. It was, by doubt, of the highest
scoring offense so far in the NFL. L going up
against what many believed to be the number one defense
in the NFL. Didn't look great last week, but they
were missing half of their starters. Well, everybody was back
today and the San Francisco forty Niners didn't do it

(35:14):
damn thing to make Patrick Mahomes look even a wee
bit uncomfortable. Even spotting the forty Niners a double digit
lead because of an early interception, tend nothing forty Niners.
They end up getting completely outclassed, totally blown off of
the field. Uh, when an elite offense takes on an
elite defense, the defense doesn't always win. No, and the adages,

(35:39):
I'll take elite offense over the lead defense, right, because
when you have the uncannon ability to score in a
multitude of ways, that's what makes you elite and that's
hard to stop no matter how good a defense is. Right.
We see all the time in the NBA. You watch Kobe,
you watch Mike and sometime times Lebron. Some of the

(36:01):
greats you got perfect defense on them and they still
hit the bucket. I mean, what can you do right?
What can you do right? If you have perfect coverage
as a cornerback on DK Metcalf are one of the
top receivers and they still go up and make the kid.
What can you do? That's what makes you elite. When

(36:25):
you have a receiver bracketed and covered in the quarterbacks
still through a key hole fits it in. That's elite
when it comes to coverage. I mean, if we know
what we know in the NFL these days, all the
rules are set for the offense, they're all set for

(36:46):
the quarterback. Um, so it's already hard enough to cover
anybody down the field, like you said, and now that
people have learned how to do the back shoulder throwing
all this, it's like, you know, someone doesn't even need
to be open. If you've got one these great quarterbacks
and a really good receiver, they don't even need to
be open, and they've learned how to complete a pass.
So the bottom line for me is, especially with this

(37:08):
particular forty Niner defense that we're talking about in this example,
like go back three years ago, these two teams ended
up in the Super Bowl, the twenty nineteen season. The
season prior to that, the forty Niners as a team
for the year had two interceptions. That's a stat Go
look it up. I'm not kidding. For the year. The
very next year there were a Super Bowl defense with

(37:31):
the exact same secondary. So how did they do that?
To me, it's all about the pass rush from It's
all about guys like you being able to stop defensive
ends from getting to the quarterback. And if you can
do that, well, hell, there's not a darn thing in
the world that the secondary can do to stop Mahomes
and Travis Kelsey and shockingly, today with a healthy Nick

(37:54):
Bosa and what has been the best pass rush in
the NFL, they didn't get to him. They flat out
didn't get to him, and he could do whatever the
hell he wants. If you're only gonna get to Patrick
Mahomes one time, good luck, brother, good luck and and
and on the flip side of that, you know, Kansas

(38:17):
City got after um uh, the forty Niners and Jimmy
Garoppolo and they had five tacks and you had your
your all pro, all everything, best tackle, best lineman in
the game, Trent Williams back you give up five tacks.
So that's the game right there, applying pressure and stopping pressure.

(38:39):
You give any quarterback in this league enough time to
throw the ball down the field, they'll make good things happen.
You give someone like Patrick Mahomes time to throw the
ball down the field, they're gonna make everything happen. I mean,
I'm gonna give respect in the NFC to the teams
that actually have the record. The Eagles are six and oh,
the Giants are six and one, Vikings or five and one,

(39:01):
and the Cowboys are five and two. So by data,
those are the elite teams in the NFC right now. However,
if we look at roster, and maybe we do this
a little bit too much, but the names on a
piece of paper, especially after the acquisition that Christian McCaffrey,
it feels like the forty Niners have more talent than
anybody else in the NFC. Still, see if it works

(39:23):
out that way, right there, totally stacked. So did we
just get a perfect view right now of the elite
of the a f C versus the elite of the NFC.
Because if we did, uh, then then the Super Bowl
is when the Bills play the Chiefs in the a
f C title game, because I mean it was it
wasn't closed today, my man. No, I know, but you can.

(39:44):
You can be great on paper, but you gotta show
up and play thet are great on paper? Right? Did
you just added Christian McCaffrey two days ago? He out
there playing right like they need time to get right.
I mean it's crazy. Uh be good too, I mean
he's gonna be. He's running back, he's gonna be. Jimmy

(40:05):
Garoppolo said to himself, if he doesn't know where to
or what to do, I'll tell him at the line
of crimage, I tell him the huddle right, right, right,
there's the ball. It's look, we've rotten. We're going zone left,
zone right. Fifteen week, fourteen week, you know, eighteen strong,
nineteen strong. It's it's not rocket science. But what happens

(40:26):
is you all have to be on the same page. Yeah. Absolutely,
And I'd love to ask you a little bit more
about Christian McCaffrey paying a running back. All that is
it smart? That's coming up? Yeah. Week seven in the
National Football League is all coming to a head. It's
unfolding in front of our eyes, and we're unpacking it.

(40:47):
For you alongside he from Salon Mark Willard, and I
bet he from I bet you're thrilled that we come
in here on Sundays and there is just football a
plenty to talk about, because at minimum that delays you
and I talking about the Los Angeles Lakers. Let's get

(41:09):
into it. Do you want to do it now? Do
you want to like, you know, will you kick the
kid down the road a little bit more like I do?
I do want to know real quick, just because we
were there real quick. Um, I found a couple of
things funny. I found a couple of things interesting, and
then I have questions about it too, And I'm all

(41:29):
of these things I put together in a Christian McCaffrey package,
if you will. Um, I find it funny that, as
you point out, it's not rocket science. Hey dude, this
is what we're running. Here's the ball go over there.
And yeah, he's a veteran player, But UM, I watched
Christian McCaffrey play two days after arriving in San Francisco

(41:50):
and a supposed very difficult and full Kyle Shanahan playbook. Um,
if you can just do that, if you can just
like show up and be like yep, ago, here we
go and just run places and he looks good. By
the way. I don't never really want to hear a
rookie running back again, say wow, you know gos's only
been here for a couple of months training camp o

(42:11):
t s. I mean, I get it, you're getting used
to NFL life, But apparently running backs uh turn key
turning burn that is not necessarily true. Um so what
did you mean? Christian McCaffrey has been around Kyle Shanahan
for a long time, probably longer than anybody else on

(42:33):
that Um, that team are an organization, that's true. He
baby sat for him, you know that. Yes, I do
know that Kyle Shanahan baby sat for Christopher. I know
I've known Christian McCaffrey since he was a baby, literally, right.
It was my teammate his mom, Lisa, love her to death.

(42:56):
She is a spark plug, right, And I remember him
and his brothers and and when they were kids. I
remember Kyle shanahan when he was you know, young, prior
to being a coach, you know what I mean. So
it's it's not as unfamiliar as one with one would think.

(43:21):
There's familiarity there, there's a history there, there's you can
get acclimated quick when you're doing it with someone you know,
when someone you trust, opposed to going to a situation
where you just pop on the scene and you're just
trying to figure it out. New guy, a lot of talent,
trying to find your place. It's it's not like that
for for him in San Francisco and he's coming home,

(43:43):
he's playing. You know, he went to college out there, right.
He he feels comfortable playing in San Francisco and being
around that energy. So this is gonna be an exciting
chapter f him. It's gonna help San Francisco a lot,
It's gonna help Jimmy, Jimmy Garoppolo out a lot um
And this is an opportunity for Jimmy to really try
to continue to be a starter in this league, whether

(44:06):
it be with them, are are some other team? M hmm,
well right, and there are three yeah, there are three
more years left on the deal for Christian McCaffrey. So
assuming he continues to be a forty niner for a while,
in theory, it will help Trey lance Ahole, assuming right
when when he comes back and if he's the starter

(44:27):
next year, and uh, and is starting his fifth career
game next September. Uh, it changes everything that Christian McCaffrey
will be on his team. Um, the mobility coming out
of that backfield is actually pretty scary to even think about.
The other side to it, though, is and it sounds
to me like you're really into the deal and into

(44:47):
the idea, and so am I. Uh. That said, there
are so many questions about the way that Kyle Shanahan
and the forty Niners have put together the running back
position through the years, because they seem to continually move
up in the draft and use second and third round
picks on guys like Joe Williams and Trey Sermon and
now it's t d P out of out of L

(45:10):
s U um and and and they've never ever wanted
I shouldn't say never ever wanted, because they did break
Jerick McKinnon off a really big contract and Tevin Coleman
is somewhat big contract. But the idea behind the last
name Shanahan, and you know this better than anyone, is
that they can just seemingly get production out of the backfield. Right,

(45:31):
We're gonna go find that you d f a Raheem
Moster Matt Breda, whoever you are, We're gonna get production
out of you. And then all of a sudden they're like, Nope,
next year's draft and twelve million a year for the
next three years for Christian McCaffrey. Right after they drafted
all these guys and you got Eli Mitchell coming back

(45:52):
into three weeks who was really productive last year. So
it's not to say that this move is wrong. I
love up the move, but some people are scratching their
head in terms of trying to figure out what is
the philosophy. I'll tell you this, and all of that
is right. You can in that system, you can you
can find a guy and the system will bold wall

(46:16):
for But when you add someone special into that system
Allah Tarrell Davis, Right, Clinton portis when you add guys
into the system that are elite guys, you take them

(46:37):
to another level. Clinton portis his rookie year, didn't start
the first four games of the season and still rushed
for over yards. Then he came back the next year
and rushed for over fift d yards. Right, That's you
don't just find that. Tarrell Davis was a sixth round
draft pick who turned out to be one of the

(46:59):
greatest running back to ever play, right, That's not everybody.
So when you find when you have an elite talent
like a Christian McCaffrey, and you can put him in
that type of system I used to when I left
Denver and I went to UH Jacksonville, Fred Taylor was
running back. Fred Taylor as a monster. Just watching how
smooth Fred was and how he was, I said, dang

(47:21):
for I said, man, if you were in Denver, brother,
you have two thousand yards every year. That's the difference,
I said, Fred, you would have if you were in
the Denver Broncos offense, you would have two thousand yards
every year because you you wouldn't be able to be stated.
It's you're too good. You're too good. And that's the difference.

(47:46):
When you get somebody like a Christian McCaffrey. And I
know he's been hurt, you know he hasn't played a
lot of games the last three years. But when he
is healthy and that offense, brother is gonna be a
problem for defenses. Trust me. So you tell me right now.
As that team sits at three and four, they get

(48:09):
there at the Rams next week and then they're going
into their by and they're coming off of back to
back losses, and they've had some weird losses to some
teams that you juice with. You're like, with that roster,
how are you losing to the Bears? How are you
losing eleven to ten to the Broncos? How are you
doing this? Um? But now it's Christian McCaffrey and they

(48:29):
only got a small dose of him today, and for
those of you who missed the game, he looked very explosive.
He looked very very good. As you're sort of discussing,
tell me what you expect not only from the team,
but specifically from McCaffrey, who's gonna get a little bit
more than half a year now in that system. Well,
I think they I think they make the playoffs. I

(48:53):
think they You know, this is a good week to
play the Rams next week because whatever reason, the Rams
have complete difficult time trying to be couch and in
in in the Niners. I mean, it's just it's tough.
It's tough for him to do. And so I think, um,

(49:13):
you know, just go back to the game earlier this year, right,
and they not only beat him, they whooped him to nine.
And so that's a great game for them to go
into their uh, go into their by and then come
back with more time, getting people healthier and and just

(49:35):
restart the season. Right, you you will finish that off one, two, three,
four or five, six, seven eight, Right, that's where the
halfway mark was. That's when you always wanted your by
after week eight because you can assess what you've done
the first eight weeks of the season and then you

(49:55):
can completely change course or continue what you've done if
it's on the you know, the plus side. So if
they go in to the BUYE four and four this
is that's a perfect time for them to all, you know,
get together and and really determined and figure out who

(50:17):
they want to be and what they want to be.
So paying a running back, which we've decided largely in
the NFL, is a bad idea. And you know the
headlines on this, Levian Bell even execue Elliott now and
quite frankly the Panthers who just decided to sell them off.

(50:38):
I know that sort of circumstantial, but selling off Christian McCaffrey. Um.
And And it's funny also because the last name Shanahan
is probably the name of the book UH which and
the book is don't pay a running back a whole
lot of money. But but but you're in favor of
this the other twelve million a year, three more years

(50:59):
after you think this is a smart mode, Let's make
it happen. He's dynamic. He's not just a running back,
because he can hurt you a lot of different ways.
He's not ezekiel A. Well, you gotta hand on the
ball twenty five times a game. Right, you can hand
the ball to him fifteen times and throw it to
him another fifteen times. Tell me where you're gonna get
that at? Right? Where are we finding in the right?

(51:21):
That's the guy. It's not a lot of those running around, right,
He's not He's not you know, um, Derrick Henry. Right,
he's not Derrick Henry. You're not gonna lie Derrick Henry
out as a as a as a uh, you know,
outside receiver and let him run routes. But you can
take somebody like Christian McCaffrey, uh, with the mind and

(51:42):
in the approach to offense, like a Kyle Shanahan, and
you can get maximum value out of that twelve million,
maximum value barring he stays healthy. All right, want to
let you know about the Fox Sports Radio tail Gate
presented by the Big Green Egg. Nothing eats the flavor
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(52:04):
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free delivery at Big green egg dot com. Lifetime warranty,
free home delivery Big green egg dot Com. Today. It
was a big return, but even in a win, did
it fall flat? Plus? Yeah, Well, we'll get to the
Lakers along with you from Salam, Mark Willard. This is

(52:26):
Fox Sports Radio with you from Salam. It is Mark
Willard on Fox Sports Radio. Football fans, be sure to
tune into Fox Sports Radio's Countdown to Kickoff, presented by
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three hours before kickoff. Tune in Sunday morning, ten a
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(52:47):
to kick Off right here on Fox Sports Radio and
the I Heart Radio app presented by bet MGM. We
are coming to you live from the tire Rack dot
Com Studios. Mark Willardy from Salon Um. I don't know, man,
Sometimes I I look at things and I bet people
sometimes feel this way in their own lives. You know,
you look right, you look left, and you're like, how

(53:09):
did I get here? How did this happen? This wasn't
the vision. But in some of those cases, I feel
like you spill out and and things just happened. Other
times you're like, man, this was really obvious. How you
don't end up here? It felt like there was a drumbeat,
you were asking for it and you ended up here. Anyway,

(53:33):
from how the heck is Russell Westbrook on that team?
How is he there? How on earth did no one
within one of the flagship organizations in all of sports
not realize what the whole world realized all off season long,
which is one way or another, you're gonna come back

(53:57):
and that man is not gonna be on that team.
How did we get here? Um? You ever heard? Um? Well,
have you ever just dug a hole right? Whether it
be in the backyard gardening, whether it be the beach

(54:18):
you know with the kids? You know, yeah, you know,
you do go right. And the thing with digging a
hole is if you continue to dig the hole, you're
gonna get deeper and deeper. And the more you dig,
the deeper you get. And then you say, oh, okay,
this is too much, and then you realize you have

(54:42):
a problem. You can't get out of the hole. Right
there's no steps, there's no steps in the hole. Right
you you're you dig a hole that's higher than your
reach because all you're focusing in going down, I gotta
get this, gotta get the saying, gotta get this dirt
out of here. And then you look up and you're like,
oh my god, I'm too deep in this hole. The

(55:03):
Lakers are too deep in the whole. When they acquired
Russell Russell Westbrook, the price tag that came with him,
along with the two price tags they had in Lebron
James and A d. Rightly, so was the whole. And
when they began to dig that hole, they gave up

(55:25):
a lot of valuable assets. The Caruso's, the uh uh,
casey ps, the uh all of these young Kyle Kulisimas,
all of these talents, all of these young talents. And
so now you find yourself in the hole and realize, oh,
we don't want to be in here anymore. But you're

(55:47):
at a depth to where you can't get out of it.
It almost be like, in order for me to get
out of this. I have to break my leg off
and use my leg to try to climb out, and
that's what they would have to do. Nobody wanted Russell
Westbrook at forty seven million dollars a year, no one.

(56:10):
No one wanted him at that price tag. That is
what the price tag was. He had a player option
he opted in. Normally, in the last year of a
player's contract, their player option, they opt out because they
know there's a long term deal. On the other side,
we saw two guys not do that, Kyrie Irving and

(56:30):
Russell Westbrook, because there was no market for them at
that level. The Lakers the only option would be to
sit him down or send him home. So that's forty
seven million dollars sitting at home. I don't know too
many people who would just sit forty seven million dollars
on the shelf. Me personally, because I'm a fan, I

(56:53):
would because it's killing the team. Like you're you're It's
funny that a mental gymnastics deal that you just mentioned there,
because okay, you can't send forty seven million home. Okay, well,
but you could also play forty seven million and that's
even more painful. This is the Lakers here, million dollars,

(57:15):
a whole lot of money. I get it, but not
really this this is going to matter to them, and
and they're paying it no matter what. So that's out
the door. It's already gone. Nobody is forcing anyone, at
least I don't think to put Russell Westbrook on the
basketball floor. And why why? I mean right, Lebron James

(57:37):
is here, Lebron James is in Los Angeles. This not
too long ago, was the most powerful voice in the
entire league. And I'm not sure that I should be
saying that. In the past tense. This person controls everything.
He's the biggest control freak in the history of sports.

(57:57):
I know, I know. So it's interesting you say that
exactly right. Well, okay, so here's the painful question. Here's
the question that nobody wants asked and nobody wants to
answer it. Now I come from let me just put

(58:18):
this out up front. I come from the school of
a pandemic. Championship is something, It is not equal to
other things. That's my school. You can disagree. That's where
I come from. It was different playing in front of

(58:38):
in a in an arena with no fans, a baseball
season that was sixty games. Congrats, it's a thing harder
to do it that way. You can call it that, absolutely,
I can under that's fine, but it's still to me,
is different and less valuable because oh no, no, now

(58:59):
here's You're like, we've already been through this. You can't
do that. You can, but I can do that. You
can't because I did in discount. But you know, the
NBA season was pretty much done right when when when
they stopped down, Man, my man, I watched the Warriors
go into Boston where t shirts are being made and

(59:21):
chants are being put together. That literally got into the
head of Draymond Green and on certain nights made him
look like nothing more than a whimper. And when you're
playing games that were home court advantage doesn't exist. It's
just different. I'm not saying it's not hard, it's just different.
It was different hard, but it's just different. I can

(59:43):
see that game baseball season, you know what I mean.
But I can see that in football where you don't
have the actual advantage of the crowd, right, But in basketball, yeah,
I mean, it just doesn't hit me the same way.

(01:00:04):
And I get what you're saying. I understand what you're saying, Hey,
it's the Bubble Championship is yeah. Yeah, it was probably
one of the hardest championships someone had to do because
of the mental aspect, of the psychological aspect of it. Right,
I mean, no doubt, no doubt, just credit one way.
But then you can make that up on the other

(01:00:24):
side by like, well, you know, we heard from the
Clippers who will supported their odds on favors. Guys were
ready to jump out the window. They couldn't mentally compartmentalize
and focus enough to win a championship. Right, That is
totally fair. It's really fair. It's just it's just the
way I sort of feel about it. I'm not discrediting

(01:00:45):
or discounting. Obviously, Yes, the ring is there and it matters.
But here's the question to any Laker fan that nobody
really wants asked, and nobody wants it answer. I don't know.
It was one game. I don't know if you watch
the New Orleans pelt who are also known as Lakers
from Christmas past, I don't know if you watch them

(01:01:06):
play the other night in Brooklyn. But if you could
go back and undo this entire experience, because you got
a Bubble Championship. But look what you got now, if
you could go back, would you? I would have loved
to stay with the younger players. The problem was the

(01:01:29):
Lakers didn't have They don't have a track record of
developing young players. That's the problem, right, They don't have
a track record or a system in place to train
and maximize the abilities of young players. Look at D'Angelo Russell,
look at uh uh Ball looking I mean Josh Hard
brandon Ingram cal cous Like, I can't just go on

(01:01:52):
and on and on and on of these young players
who showed a lot of promise but didn't get the
the proper development of say that a Golden State does
with their with with their young players, and two years
those young players on on on Golden on Golden State,
they'll be splash two point oh right there, Wiseman, and

(01:02:17):
uh wasn't it Kobena and Andol like those guys Moody
right Wiseman, They're they're going to be two point oh
because that's what they do. They develop young players in
two stars. Stars come to l A. Listen to what

(01:02:43):
I'm saying. Stars come to l A. Outside of magic
Johnson and Kobe Bryant Stars come to l A right.
You feel me, I feel you, but don't know how
well it works anymore. It's not working work around because

(01:03:04):
it's not just the Lakers. Look around the NBA. What
you got, you got the Lakers, Stars got, Brooklyn Nets stars? Right,
what do you got? What are the teams that are
doing it right? Warriors draft and develop, Milwaukee Cleveland developed,
Boston Cleveland draft and develop. I mean, you know you

(01:03:26):
looking up and down even the Western Conference, like, sure
you're gonna sprinkle in free agents, Chris Paul Phoenix Suns
draft and developed, like there have been so many more
teams right now in today's NBA. And watch out New
Orleans Pelicans who are developing. Memphis Grizzlies draft and develop.

(01:03:50):
If you can't draft and develop, you don't know if
you can do this. And you know what it takes
to draft and develop. The one thing to pace the
Lakers have never had what's out patients every season at
the beginning of the year, the Los Angeles Lakers want
to win a championship. There's not been one season where

(01:04:11):
they were like, we're we're building, We're going to develop.
That's not what the Lakers do, and it hurts me
because I'm do you know me on It's like I'm
on the Lakers, Okay, and so and so. The one
thing the Lakers don't have is patients. That's why they

(01:04:33):
always trade away draft picks and always trade away young
talent because they don't have the patients normally, because there's
an aging megastar on the team and you don't have
time to waste. These are this is real. Normally it's

(01:04:55):
a good thing, and normally it's fans don't want to
have patients. This is this is where we are. I
just broke it down. I just gave you the complete science.
I know you weren't expecting that, but I'm tapped in
and you know I am. This is what I do read. Okay,
I'm ready for you. I can tell out the gate

(01:05:16):
tonight that you were ready. Yeah, yeah, yeah you are.
And we're ready for Kevin Figgers as well. Right here
on Fox Sports Radio, let's find out what's trending with
our man. Al Right, guys, we'll talk us Sunday night football.
The Pittsburgh Steelers look to have just hit pay dirt
in the end zone. Kenny pick At a touchdown pass
under review, of course, but thirteen to nine. Currently as

(01:05:39):
it stands, the Miami Dolphins with a thirteen now thirteen
to ten their lead over the Pittsburgh Steelers with about
a minute fifty to go in the first half. Two
a tag of a ten of eighteen for a hundred
and twenty three yards passing and it touchdown through the
air for the Dolphins. There. Earlier, you had the Jets
defeat the Broncos sixteen to nine in Denver. Breees Hall
had a sixty two yard touchdown run in the first

(01:06:00):
quarter but left the game with what is believed to
be a serious knee injury. Seattle lost dk Metcalf to
a knee injury, but still dominated the Chargers thirty seven
to twenty three. Kenneth Walker with a seventy four yard
touchdown there. Patrick Mahomes troup for four hundred yards and
tossed three touchdown passes for Kansas City. They dominated the
forty Niners in San Francisco forty four to twenty three.
Josh Jacobs a hundred and forty three yards rushing and

(01:06:21):
three scores leather the Raiders over Houston thirty eight to twenty.
In Major League Baseball, Jeremy Painion just hit a three
run home runs to tie Game four of the Alcs
at three apiece in the third inning. Houston, looking for
the sweep and a date with the Philadelphia Phillies, who
earlier today got a two run home run from Bryce
Harper in the bottom of the eighth inning. They beat
the Padres four to two to advance to their first

(01:06:42):
World Series since two thousand and nine. Back to market,
E fram okay fake, thank you very much, appreciate that
it is with from salam Mark Weatherard Live ti IRAQ
dot com Studios. Quick reminder Breeders Cup World Championships coming
to Iconic Keenland November four and fifth. Don't miss the

(01:07:02):
world's Best throw Brad's race for their share of thirty
one million dollars in persons and awards. Visit Breeders Cup
dot com to watch all the action live on November
four and fifth. Listen a from I'm gonna keep his
name out of my mouth, but a good friend just
texted he's listening to us talk right now, and he
simply said, the Lakers do not have the stomach to build.

(01:07:26):
They are too worried about glitz. Now, I don't know,
if it's glitz, I just think it's a um you know,
it's it's what the Lakers are. It's it's not about glitz.
It's about it's a reason why they have seventeen championships, right,
it's a reason why some of the greatest players to

(01:07:47):
ever play in ever have been Lakers. Um, it's it's tradition,
it's an honor. You get what I'm saying. Like, it's
it's both. Yeah, you can, but both to build from
the ground up takes I would give you, like the process, right,

(01:08:10):
Like I would say three years And no point ever
have the Lakers been like We've got three years to
just hang out. No, And I don't think anybody's asking
them for that. But again, that's what you mean those teams.
But those teams that I just brought up, Like and again,
the Warriors have proven this, the Milwaukee Bucks have proven this.

(01:08:31):
You can you can do your build and then once
you've got your star, you can regenerate at the same time.
And and like again, did the Warriors have some breaks
in this whole thing? Sure, Steph Curry's ankles allowed for
really affordable contract and the one year that Steph and
Clay get hurt. That turns into a number two pick

(01:08:53):
and James Wiseman and right like we you know, Minnesota
doesn't end up having the lottery balls fall their way,
Andrew Wiggins become something that he wouldn't in Minnesota. It
leads to Jonathan cominga as well. There there are definitely
breaks that is also coming from a whole lot of
smart moves. But just because Lebron and Anthony Davis are
on the team, I mean, you can easily make the case.

(01:09:17):
The response to my question, if you want to go
back pre a d trade, would you do it? I
think most Laker fans actually would answer yes. My bigger
question is this, because I sat down to watch that
Warrior Laker game on Tuesday night. I sat down, I'm like, okay,
I have read it in his opening night. It's ring
night at Chase Center in the Bay Area. Here come

(01:09:37):
all the Warrior names, Here come all the Lakers names.
And the Lakers are starting Lebron and Anthony Davis and
whatever you think about Russell Westbrook, this is an ex
m v P. Even Patrick Beverley has name value. And
then I went, I'm sorry, who's on the rest of
this roster? You got people named Bob and Alex and Jim, Like,

(01:09:57):
why what on earth? Who are these people? Bob Mann?
Come on, man, I mentioned pet Beeth, Like, I mean,
I've heard of Peteth. How how you put Pat bab
and Russell Westbrook on the same team. That's great, I
don't know, but how on earth is that how you

(01:10:20):
filled out your roster? And then you're gonna put Lebron
James in front of a Laker board at the end
of every game and give him a microphone and be like, yeah,
I don't know, We're just we're not a very good
shooting team. What like when who who's in charge here? Who?
Who hired these people? I honestly, I couldn't believe the roster.

(01:10:40):
I had no idea that was that terrible roster. Um,
it was a terrible roster last year. It the Lakers
get them? Like, like I said, when you're in that hole,
you start to do things, you start to panic and
try to get yourself out of that hole. This is
what that is. Right, you go out. You had a

(01:11:02):
chance to get uh buddy healed? And who was the
other person? Um, big guy? I can't remember, but my
mouth turned. Mom had an opportunity to get Buddy Hell
to Moustornity bona fide. Shooting and defense is what you
need Lebron James on your team. You need shooting, right,

(01:11:23):
and you exnay that and you decide, no, we want
to play with our friend Russell Westbrook. Right what he
can't play defense or shoot. So two of the things
that you needed that you had an opportunity to get.
You allowed a player to say no, we want him,
and he doesn't do either one of those things. Oh,

(01:11:45):
by the way, he turns the ball over like it's
on fire. Right, So this is what you do when
you dig that hole. It's too late to look up
now at the beginning. Note they were in the hole
at this all this whole offseason. So what they tried
to do is they try to add Lonnie Walker, who

(01:12:06):
can shoot a little bit, right, they a little a
tiny tiny bit. They add um Matt Ryan, who can
shoot sometimes, just not in the Laker uniform. They start
to add um uh one uh toscond and Donald and
who used to be able to shoot. Now they can't shoot,

(01:12:28):
my man. I mean fans were like Wan Toskono Anderson
is like a really good story. He was a local kid.
He was like Camera when he was a kid, right,
and so everyone loved him here. But like when he
came in as the sixth or seventh guy on the roster,
off the bench, Warrior fans were like, oh oh oh no,
no no, no, no, no, no no, that's not what

(01:12:49):
wand is want'll dive on the floor and be like
the soul of your bench. They're not gonna come in
there and score double digits in a basketball game. Like
when you have a bunch of shooters on the floor.
The Lakers have any shooters on the floor. None, they
have scores. Anthony Davis can score, Lebron James can score, right,

(01:13:15):
we look, I'm not gonna blame it all on on
on Westbrook, But as a professional athlete, sometimes you gotta
look at yourself. They stop being so sensitive, stop being
so senseless. I wanted to fight the fans. Stop being
sensitive and look at your body of work. My question
to you, Mark is how many games have we played

(01:13:38):
so far this year for the Lakers? Two? Three? Right,
meaning meaning the season just started. What have you been
doing all off season? If you can't shoot at the
beginning of the year, what have you been doing this

(01:14:01):
off season because it wasn't shooting, it wasn't getting ready
for the you feel me. So that's the question I'm asking,
Like I heard of slumps in the middle year, you retire,
you're fighting through injury, you're as healthy as you're ever
gonna be. This year, you're more rested than you'll ever be,
and you still can't shoot. Then you have missed you

(01:14:24):
your whole entire offseason, and you've been in the league
this long every year, you have misused your off season.
That's the problem I'm having. There's one more thing to
say on this, and it's very similar to what you
had to say about Tom Brady off the top of

(01:14:45):
the show. I'll explain that coming up next, and also
still ahead, he's back and was it It was a win,
but was it good enough? We'll get to that around
the corner with you from salam Mark Wellard. It's Fox
Sports Radio all right with you from Salon Mark Wellard,
live from the tire Racket dot Com studios, and we
remind you about the Fox Sports Radio tailgate presented by

(01:15:07):
the Big Green Egg. Nothing beats the flavor of live
fire cooking on a Big Green Egg. It's the most
versatile grill. You'll have her own, backed by a lifetime
warranty roll with the best shop online for free delivery
at big green egg dot com. Lifetime warranty, free home delivery,
Big green egg dot com. Okay, the numbers were fine.

(01:15:29):
The completion percentage was right where you'd wanted to be,
nineteen of two hundred seven yards, didn't turn the ball
over at a nice little quarterback rating of one thirteen,
and you blew out your opponent to six. However, underwhelming,
which I guess is fine, was Dak Prescott's return. Everything

(01:15:53):
you think he and the Dallas Cowboys wanted it to
be today or I heard a lot of people saying, man,
this is They're gonna put a game plan together against
questionable Detroit Lions defense and make DAC look really, really
good in this one. They didn't do that. They won
the game, and I think that was the number one

(01:16:13):
thing that they wanted to accomplish with Dak Prescott coming back.
They couldn't lose to Detroit. It didn't matter how it looked,
because the only thing that really matters at the end
of the day is the win. They had to be
five and two, couldn't be four and three, and I

(01:16:35):
think that they accomplished that defense played tremendous number one
defense in the league. For a reason. They put constant
pressure on Jared Goff and who you know in Detroit's
missing pretty much everybody, uh that could make a play
for him. And and so I think Dallas did exactly

(01:16:58):
what it needed to do. It wasn't flash to you,
wasn't great, but they came out with the W and
and that's the most important thing that they had to do,
especially being in uh the NFC Beast. Is that the
new name. It's fair. It's fair with the records that

(01:17:26):
are there, especially because outside of that, let's see, look
up and down the NFC. Outside of that division, do
we have what two teams with a winning record? Am
I right? And one of them is Seattle? UH Minnesota
five and one. Seattle's four and three. That's it outside
of the NFC Beast. I'm gonna have to say that
without laughing, but yeah, I get it, that's where we're at.
I do want to point out though, because again, you know,

(01:17:47):
we get the end of a Sunday and there's so
many games and there's no way you can watch them all,
even if you're a red zone person. Three minute mark
of this game, the Cowboys had ten points against Detroit.
Mm hmm. That's hey, look, that's what that's what film

(01:18:07):
studies for. Hey, we can do this a little bit better, because, hey, guys,
you know, if you're drying off from from from the
you know, the the champagne and all of that, you know,
from from the win. Dak Prescott just wants to win.
You can't take over four quarterback who went four and
one in your absence and lose. You can't do it, right,

(01:18:29):
you you you can't do it. I mean, now you've
got a problem. Now. You got guys in the locker
room like man, you know, I mean, come on, especially
to a team like Detroit. And it's gonna be the
same way next week at home against This is a
perfect opportunity for Dack to come back at home against
the Lions. Next week at home against the Bears, right,

(01:18:52):
and you gotta ramp it up. You see what happens
right after that, but to New York. But that at
Green Bay. It's not what you think right now. It's
also after a bye. It's after a boy. They have
a bye after the Bear and then it's at Green Bay.
That's still lambeau Field. It's still a hard game. Let's
put it that way. I don't know, man, I just

(01:19:13):
I'm not I'm not going to give anything. I mean,
it's not going to be one degree. Well, they like
Lambo in December and in January. Is a different lambeau
than than that. Trust me, it is a completely different Lambo,
I know for a fact. And so you don't have

(01:19:35):
that added you know, weather component to you know, downlads,
they play inside. It's nice and the air condition is
you know, breezy. It's everything you want. It's very comfortable
when you go out and play in Green Bay. When
when it's one shield of negative twelve, brother, it changes
your mind. We will know by the time we fall

(01:19:58):
asleep on the couch I'm Thanksgiving evening. How for real?
This team is though, because after the Bears next week,
in that month of November, it goes by at Green Bay,
at Minnesota and then home to the Giants on Thanksgiving.
So that's different. All right, We'll get to the lebron
thing next Yeah, let's go, let's do it. We continue

(01:20:21):
to look at week seven in the National Football League.
DAC is back the Chiefs absolutely dominate, although Christian McCaffrey
makes his debut and Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers. Suddenly,
maybe in the minds of some finally look ahold, it's
Mark ward Any from Salam broadcasting live from the tire

(01:20:43):
IRAQ dot com studios, ti rack dot com. We'll help
you get there an unmatched selection, fast, free shipping, free
road hazard protection, and over ten thousand recommended installers ti
rack dot com the way tire buying should be from.
If I may just to compliment you again, I thought
it is one hell of an unloading off the top
of this show. Uh and and really good stuff what

(01:21:05):
you had to say about Tom Brady. And just for
those who worked with us a couple of hours ago,
you intimated that in your mind, what's going on in
Tampa Bay has to do with a quarterback and a
leader who's not all in. Um, he's been halfway in
part of the way in not their family vacations heading
to Robert Craft's wedding. I think it's a little less obvious,

(01:21:27):
but as we talked through the Lakers last hour, there
is a piece of me that feels a portion of
what you said applies to Lebron James, I mean Lebron.
I'm not saying he's not trying on the court. I'm
not saying that at all. But if this person um
has has clearly always had his hands on the joystick,

(01:21:49):
if you will. He is part player, part leader, part businessman,
part mogul, part GM of any team that he's on.
So when you go to him after a game and
he's sort of just blase like, yeah, we don't really
have any good shooters around me, it's like, well, you've
always been the guy that puts the teams together. And

(01:22:11):
so my mind starts to go backward to when Lebron
first joined the Lakers, and it was not a secret
around Los Angeles. Agents are talking, Hollywood's talking. Lebron came
to the Lakers for more reasons than just the Lakers.
You're in the entertainment industry in Los Angeles, I bet

(01:22:32):
you know this. Lebron has all kinds of things going on,
from business to Hollywood to where he wanted Brawnie to
go to school. And it really feels now all of
a sudden, like we're seeing this play out in real time.
Lebron feels like he's got many priorities. All of them
are valid, not all of them are about the Lakers

(01:22:53):
winning a championship. Yeah, it's a lot going on out here. Um,
you got that was one of the things I really
respect Stid about Kobe bryant Um. And that was some
of the disconnect between Kobe and Shaq. They've said it
themselves and they're you know, they're one on one thing
that they had on in the BA TV, which I
thought was great, they're sit down. You know, Shaq was

(01:23:13):
under the you know, under the guys that I would
come into camp and get into shape during the season
or and and Kobe was I'm coming in ready to
take over from the from from the get go. And
Shaquilleton said it, he said, look, I knew I had you,
so I knew I could afford to, you know, go
be on a movie, said all you know all summer

(01:23:35):
are you know, do an album or whatever whatever it is.
And you know the thing that keeps lebron lebron as
no one works harder than him in the off season.
And you can tell you can't play at this clip
at this age, like it's not very many people who

(01:23:56):
can average that amount of points at this age I
think Karl Malone the only other person to do that.
So you have to understand that Lebron can only take
care of himself. And he has to understand this. Right.
He's been able to compartmentalize the things he does off

(01:24:17):
the field are off the court excuse me, uh to
what he brings to the table. And yes, when he comes,
he comes to play, but some of his decisions have
not always benefited the way he plays. And that's what
we're seeing now. The whole he began to dig is
now too deep for him to get him Are the

(01:24:39):
Lakers to get out of it? And and Ropol Linca
and Jenny Buss said it last year at the trade deadline,
when the whole team wonted, Russell Westbrook traded. No, you
guys wanted it. You guys figure it out. And I
think that's where they are because they're there. There wasn't

(01:25:00):
a suitable trade. Now, maybe something happens by this trade deadline.
Are they're willing to just you know, let him go
for whatever, half the season being gone. But look, there's
no wonder fix here. There's no we can snap our fingers.
And Russell westbrookly traded and then we're contender all of

(01:25:23):
a sudden, this team isn't built to contend, not with
the Golden State Warriors, not with the Minnesota Timberwolves, not
with obviously the Portland's. Portland put it on them that
they not with New Orleans, not with the Clippers. Yeah,
it's I mean it's deep, like you can keep going,

(01:25:43):
you know, you can go in Memphis and and and
the Clippers and or they don't want any stoke with
any of these teams. The eight seed is going to
be a squad this year. Come Western Conference playoffs. Look,
it's only three games in there, oh and three um,
but I mean I had my thoughts before the season

(01:26:06):
even started off of last year about whether or not
this is even a playoff team, Like, forget contending people,
they're they're not even a playoff team. And so there
is there is a narrative that that that was born
out of last year that I think already three games in,

(01:26:28):
I'm not going to call off a season or call
off the playoffs three games in, but I will call
something else off, which is anybody anybody who's spent all
of last year going well if they had been healthy, No,
not close, right, These teams. These teams in the West
are common. Man. There, you just listed a bunch of them.

(01:26:51):
It is so good. So it's almost disrespectful to just
be like, yeah, if Lebron and Anthony Davis are healthy,
then uh then it's really they've been healthy this year.
I'm gonna let's play a game. I'm gonna ask you
who the Lakers are better than, and you just give
me a yes or no? All right, Okay, Denver Nuggets nope,

(01:27:14):
Minnesota timber Wolves no, Oklahoma City Thunder Yeah, Portland Trailblazers.
I got no Utah Jazz, no Golden State Warriors, no Clippers,

(01:27:35):
no Phoenix Suns, no Sacramento Kings. Maybe I'll say yes,
Dallas Mavericks, no Houston Rockets, yes, Memphis Grizzlies, no New Orleans,
New Orleans Pelicans, no San Antonio Spurs. Now, so out

(01:28:01):
of all of those teams, perfect, So we got him
as what the eleven seed out of all those teams
there were to note, there were there were two yeses okay,
see uh, no three yeses okay, see Sacramento Kings in
Houston Rockets, And I thought about San Antonio and I'm like, yeah, now,

(01:28:26):
there's superior coaching overrides whatever aging talent de layers have
and that's the reality of the situation. And Mark, I
hope you know. It pains me to talk like this.
It pains me. But one thing, one thing I pride

(01:28:47):
myself on in this business, which I've been in for
over twenty five years in broadcast, is that I am
a truth teller. Okay, if my team sucks, you will
be the first to hear from me, because I want
it fixed, right. I'm not a fan of illusion. I

(01:29:10):
see what's about to happen. They're the freshest that they're
going to be all year, and they can't beat anybody
mm hmm everything, everything that goes forward, they're gonna be
tired or there will be banged up, bruised here and there.

(01:29:32):
It's been. It hasn't even been seven days of the
NBA season and there oh and three. That is the
reality of the Los Angeles Lakers. And they cannot shoot
their shooting twenty percent from the three point line. Guess

(01:29:55):
what I would do. Guess what I would do. I
would stop shooting threes. I would I would stop shooting
get it, But you also can't do it in the
like you can't win. But what I will tell you
is I'm going for points. I'm going for buckets and
free throws. Now, I won't look if you if you

(01:30:19):
shoot fifteen threes a game and you hit five, okay,
But what you cannot do if you know you don't
have a shooting team. This is and I'm being honest,
what you can't do, Mark, is you can't shoot thirty
three three pointers and make six. You can't allow the

(01:30:46):
opposing team to shoot less than you and make more
from three point range. That is the analytic That is
the science of it, right that and think about that.
That is very very deep math. It is. It is
cut and dry, and I'm getting a little nerdy and
a little deep here, but I want people to understand
my knowledge of this sport. You cannot allow your opponent

(01:31:11):
to shoot less threes than you and make more. Yep,
you're shooting from the three and they're shooting on less attempts.
Make it makes sense. The scary thing that you said
through all of that was that as a fan, you

(01:31:34):
want to see it fixed. So if you're a Laker fan,
you can see what's coming this year. The problem is
is you can't see the forest through the trees right now, Lord,
the Fix does not feel like it's anywhere near Brownie James,
and he's coming. Throw myself in. It's coming right now. Well,

(01:32:00):
I don't want to hear that, because I would like
you to stay alive, and I can promise you it
is coming, all right. Mark Willardy from Salam and we
welcome me in Fox Sports Radio Tailgate presented by Big
green Egg. Nothing beats the flavor of live fire cooking
on a Big green Egg Most Versatile Girl. You'll have
her own back by a lifetime warranty roll with the
best shop online for free delivery at Big green egg

(01:32:22):
dot com. Lifetime warranty, free home delivery Big green egg
dot Com. E from We had the conversation two weeks ago.
Apparently it didn't work, so we need to have it
again because a bunch of coaches went out on the
field and did it again today and so we're gonna
have to talk it out until someone hears us. So
we'll do that next on Fix Sports Radio. Actually be

(01:32:45):
nice and they blow the whistle a little bit. Less
yellow laundry every damn where throughout the NFL Sunday Live
from the tire rack dot Com Studios with you from
salam Mark Willard. Okay, this is the one I'm gonna
spotlight today. I could use any of a thousand examples
e from but I am here to try again to

(01:33:06):
put male athletic machismo in the trash can and take
it out. It's funny because they sit here in San
Francisco where all day people were like, don't kick field goals,
don't kick field goals because you'll lose. And that's true
because you're playing Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs.
But damn it, Jacksonville Jaguars, you're the one I'm going

(01:33:29):
to point to today because I don't understand this. Six
minutes to go in a football game, you lead seventeen
to thirteen, you lead by four, Okay, it is fourth
down at the opponent's twenty yard line, fourth and one.

(01:33:53):
Something has happened to our society where coaches believe if
it's fourth and one, or even fourth and two and
you don't go for it, someone is going to run
over to the sideline and take your man card away
from you. It's not true. You're allowed to kick a
field goal and go up by a touchdown with six
minutes to go. It's called a powerful position in sports.

(01:34:17):
To be up by a full score with six minutes
to go, this is a winning spot. The Jaguars decide,
we are going to run the ball right up the
middle and go nowhere against the New York team that
seems to have a pension for fourth quarter place so far.

(01:34:40):
I don't know if you've noticed that. The Giants are
six and one, and the Giants take the ball and
go right down to the other end of the field,
get a touchdown of their own, and now they are
in what is called a powerful winning position, and it
was a position they then made good on and won
the football game. I don't know what to tell people.

(01:35:01):
You're not gonna get called a little whimp if you
kick a field goal and win like that, Like that,
that's a good thing. I don't know what happened, man,
fourth and two or less. You're not allowed to kick anymore.
You're just not allowed to. We see it happened in

(01:35:21):
multiple games, and and in that same very in that
very same game, New York was in a position to
kick a field goal as well, and they went for
it on fourth down and didn't get any points out
of it as well. So you really have to if
this thing is it's it's it's an epidemic. It really is.

(01:35:44):
Amic it's getting to the to the point where I
don't even know, like who's making the call. I've always
been under the assumption that points are valuable. Look, and

(01:36:09):
the more points you can accumulate, you have a better
opportunity to win, whether it be one point on an
extra point, three points on the field goal, or six
points on a touchdown. If you get a safety, that's
bonus points. So this notion of we're not going to

(01:36:32):
kick the field goal for whatever reason makes zero sense.
Unless you're in the last two minutes of the game
and you're down by four points. If you know you're
going to get another possession, are several, please take the

(01:36:53):
points every single time. Take the points. It makes zero
sense to me. I don't care what guy is looking
at analytics and telling you that these points are not
valuable enough or it won't matter enough, you know, and

(01:37:14):
in the landscape of the game, I don't know what that.
I don't know who's doing that, but fired that guy
because od Man, Yeah, like I I mean, I it's
not that I'm not open to context and situation and personnel.
The Ravens ended up in a situation where it was
fourth and goal at the one, and Lamar Jackson's on

(01:37:37):
your football team and you're rolling, and you're also in
a situation on the goal line where if you don't
get it, the other team is now backed up and
you potentially can have good things happen there. They went
for it, they got it. I get it. I get it.
It's not that you're never allowed to go for it
on fourth down because you and I are not gonna
put analytics back in the box and make it go away.

(01:37:59):
That's not happening. But there are too many situations where
I'm like, I just don't even understand what happened. I
don't know if you've got the game on in there
in there in the studio. But about twenty minutes ago,
the Miami Dolphins are up by six. It's the third quarter.
They go down the field, they're well into the red zone.
It's fourth and three from about the where were they

(01:38:20):
thirteen yard line, fourteen yard line, something like that. Fourth
and three. Chase Edmonds had just been stuffed on third
and three, So now it's fourth and three you're up
by six. It's only the third quarter. A nine point
lead isn't that big of a deal. But you're also
going against a rookie quarterback, and a nine point lead
is is not nothing at home in the second half

(01:38:41):
of a football game. Fourth and three, I'm thinking, yeah,
nineteen to ten sounds pretty good, Mike McDaniel. Like, the
thing is, now, if you looked at the sideline, they
don't even look at each other. It's not even like,
I don't know, what do you think, should we call
time out? Should we should we go for this? I
don't know. They don't even stop. The place sheet immediately

(01:39:03):
goes over their mouth because apparently the world's full of
lip readers. The place she goes straight over their mouth,
and they start making the call for what their fourth
down play is going to be, and they just walk
out there and go for it. And in this particular case,
it was Chase Edmonds right up the middle again and
he got the same amount of yards as what he
got on third down, which was stuffed. And the Steelers

(01:39:24):
have the ball. And now we still sit here with
about three and a half to go in the third
quarter in Miami, is still only up by six, which
means someone from the Steelers at any moment could slip
a tackle and take off and get the lead. It's
just I don't know, it's bizarre to me. Yeah, it's
hard to watch because it's breaking out. It was breaking

(01:39:44):
the norms, right, it's it's breaking the you know, the
the natural uh adjustment in Like these things shouldn't happen,
Like you mean to tell me three win? Did three
points not become valuable? You get three points if you're

(01:40:06):
a pretty decent team. You they give you three points
in the odds if you're playing at home. So how
is how is how is all of a sudden three
points not valuable? Noah? So I he look, man, I
just wanted to charge. I watched the charges do it
all the time. I wanted the charges the man, the

(01:40:33):
San Diego Chargers, that that that squad. I tried to
tell people at the beginning of the year. And I'm
not here to dance on anybody's injuries. They lost J. C.
Jackson today. It looked like Mike Williams had something bad happened.
We know Joey Bose has already gone. Justin Herbert couldn't
breathe on Sunday Night Football a few weeks ago. It's
gone sideways, but people were looking this year at this squad.

(01:40:57):
You're giving me edge rushers on both sides, Khalil Mac
Joey Bosa, one of the most exciting young quarterbacks in
the game, Justin Herbert Fantasy, Darling, Austin Ekeler, Mike Williams,
and Keenan Allen on each side. And I go, well,
you guys are all forgetting that they're they're Chargers, So
I'm not gonna go to the playoffs and do something

(01:41:18):
that's not the way it works from ownership on down.
That organization will find a way to not play in January.
And and and oh, look got done blown out by
the Seattle Seahawks in their own building today. And I'm sorry,
if not their own building, because they don't have a
building of them. Busted them, absolutely busted them all right.

(01:41:43):
Speaking of a man who knows all about the right
decision at the right time, can we bring Steve Disager
in here? And Uh? As fun as it was to
hang out with Kevin Figgers for a while, UH certainly
also missed uh the Disager contributions to our Sunday Evenings
and before we get out of here, we get a
little bit of that. What's up, Steve Hello, We'll update

(01:42:04):
the NFL game in a moment. Miami still leading at home,
but the Yankees have tied it up four four after
four against the Houston Astros on an Anthony Rizzo RBI single.
Yanks in the American League Championship Series trying to keep
their season alive tonight. Astros are up three games to
none or rain delay of about an hour and a
half at the start. So here we are at ten
thirty in New York and we're in the top of

(01:42:25):
the fifth now in a four four game, Game five
of the NL Championship Series was the last. Philadelphia eliminated
San Diego four to three as Bryce Harper hit a
two run homer in the bottom of the eighth. He
was named NLCS m v P NASCAR win for Kyle
Larson and Rory McElroy took the golf tournament in South
Carolina moved back up to number one in the world rankings.

(01:42:46):
Now to the Sunday night NFL game. About three minutes
left in the third quarter at Miami, the Dolphins were
ahead of Pittsburgh thirteen nothing after the first period. It's
now Dolphins six ten in the lead to a tongue
of by Loo with one touchdown pass for him Moastered
with ten carries for fifty one yards rushing. Meanwhile, the
two running backs for the Steelers have it combined twelve

(01:43:07):
carries for just thirty eight yards on the ground. Can
you picktt one touchdown, one interception. Kansas City's win at
San Francisco was forty four to twenty three. Patrick Mahomes
over four D twenty yards passing three touchdowns, one interception
at Las Vegas in a win Josh Jacobs three t
D runs Raiders thirty eight twenty over Houston. Seattle largely

(01:43:28):
dominated the Chargers in l A thirty seven twenty three
is Kenneth Walker at a hundred sixty eight yards rushing
two touchdowns, including a seventy four yard or Jets one
at Denver sixteen to nine. Jets rookie running back Breefe
Hall was carted off with a possible torn a c
l Cincinnati and Dallas with home injuries Tennessee as well,
although Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill is in a walking boot

(01:43:51):
now after an ankle injury. Washington Edge Green Bay twenty
three twenty one wins for the Giants. Again win for
Baltimore and Carol I know which beat Tampa Bay twenty
one to three. Deonte Foreman on fifteen carries at a
hundred eighteen yards rushing running back Chuba Hubbard left with
an ankle injury. The top six remained the same in
the new AP College Football Pool TCU up to number

(01:44:13):
seven and updating the NBA. The Warriors lead early fourth
quarter one over Sacramento. Kings might be going to oh
and three on the season. The Lakers are oh and three.
They lost by a couple of points at home this
afternoon one oh six, one oh four Portland Damian Lillard
forty one points and underway the late game in l A.
Suns leading the Clippers back to you alright, Steve, thank

(01:44:37):
you very much. Good stuff from Steve to Sagra And
by the way, while he's updating that baseball game, I
got something uh for you and ends up to ask
you uh. Aaron Judge related who, by the way, apparently
got a hold of one earlier this evening that everybody
in the building thought was gone, got caught at the wall.
Um So, a very good friend of mine is a
big time Yankee fan. Um, but around these parts where

(01:44:59):
I live in the San fran Cisco Bay area, there's
been a drumbeat, a lot of talk about Aaron Judge.
The Giants are reportedly preparing just the offer of all offers.
They will not be overbid. It's just gonna be a
matter of whether Aaron wants to come to northern California,
which is where he grew up. And word on the street,
because this has been my only question all along a

(01:45:20):
from Um, he not leaving New York unless in the
process at the beginning of the year, somebody hurts some feelings.
And now I'm starting to hear that that might be
the case. Ic nous between Aaron and Brian Cashman, icy
nous between Aaron's wife and Brian Cashman. I've heard this,

(01:45:42):
and so if that's the case, um, then I sort
of put the San Francisco Giants in the favorites chair.
And a good buddy of mine, who's a die hard
Yankee fan, goes, you want him take him? I'm like, wait,
what what do you mean by that? He just said?

(01:46:04):
Sixty two old runs? He says, yeah, have you noticed
how often he strikes out in the playoffs. There are
a healthy group of Yankee fans who have decided that
Aaron Judge Stanton too are essentially playoff chokers and therefore
don't even want him on the team. Now. I don't

(01:46:26):
know the history of every at bat for for Aaron
Judge and gian Carlos Stanton in their full relationship with
Yankee fans, but this is one of those examples of
to me, that's the kind of fan base where I'd
be like, yeah, I'm good, I don't need to play
for this group. I mean, if you're gonna now you
and I had a conversation earlier, you gotta win your

(01:46:48):
playoff games. It's two different seasons, and that's true. But
if you're also gonna take a guy that has one
of the greatest seasons in the history of the game
and then dismiss him because of bad week, like, I
don't get it. I just to me, that's not understanding sports.
I mean the majority, and not to be disparaging to fans,

(01:47:12):
because fans are fans and we need them, and you know,
I'm a fan as well, but most fans don't look
at the big picture. You don't get to where you
are now without Aaron judge our Stanton you don't so, yeah,

(01:47:35):
go ahead, give him up. And then in the middle
of the year next year, when you're saying we don't
have any hitting, well, how are we going to get
to the postseason? Like? Fans live on both sides of
the coin, right, one minute, one minute it's head's the
next his tails. That's just you know what fan is

(01:47:56):
short for? Right? Well? Sure fanatics? What fanatic? Do you
know that rational? Uh thoughts when it comes to something
that that passionate about. Remember, guys, yeah, you get what
I'm saying, so right, But but but does irrational always

(01:48:18):
mean dumb? Did not? And I would argue no, irrational.
Irrational is emotional, right, I know? But emotional is emotional? Right,
Dick for Meal, couldn't get through a press conference without crying, Like,
there's there's emotion, right, and you don't. You're not supposed
to react based solely on emotion. Sometimes that's hard, that's

(01:48:39):
hard to go right, right, go to a room, breathe,
I don't know. Wait before you respond, boss makes you mad?
Wait till tomorrow morning. See if you still want to
send that email. I get all that, But irrational and
emotional does not always mean unfair and and just unintelligent.
I mean run scored, home runs, r B, I S, walks,

(01:49:05):
on base percentage, slugging percentage o p S OPS plus,
and total bases. Why am I yelling out stat categories?
Those were all led by Aaron Judge in the entire league.
This year, the OPS one thousand. This is I mean,

(01:49:28):
just an unbelievable year. I mean, like a memorable year
through all of the years. Not good enough, and they
want him and they want him gone because he's struck
out a bunch in Round one of the playoffs. I
can promise you they're gonna want him back at some
point during the season next year. If he does leave,
I can promise you that very same friend, we'll have

(01:49:52):
a conversation with you about Man, wouldn't you want to
have him back? Yeah? I think so, man, Yeah yeah,
I mean, like you know, sure, and and and that
fan will come back and say, wait a minute. They
went to the post season in twenty seventeen and nineteen
and one and twenty two. He's been there a lot

(01:50:15):
in his post season career. Batting averages to sixteen OPS
career in the postseason seven eighty six. That's still a
hundred and sixty seven total at bats spread out over
six years that we're talking about, you know, and uh,
you want to dismiss that? Just just wild to me.

(01:50:37):
I like it. It caught me by surprise. I thought
he was kidding when he first said it, like, yeah, yeah,
we don't need Aaron Judge. I was like, you're kidding, right,
excuse me, excuse me? See what? Uh which one of
the sixty two home runs bothered you so much this year?
People are crazy, brother, people are frenetics. I'm serious. Uh

(01:51:02):
that was that one was different? Uh? Speaking of different,
this coach caught everybody's attention. He caught everybody's love, and
this team became a darling. And then they came out
and played football. We'll get to them coming up next
with He from salam This Mark Willard on Fox Sports Radio.
All Right, Mark Wather and he from salam Or Live

(01:51:22):
in the tire rack dot Com studios. And oh, by
the way, the Breeders Cup World Championships coming to Iconic
Caanlynton November four and fifth. Don't miss the world's Best
thoroughbreds race for this year. If thirty one million dollars
in person awards. Visit Breeders Cup dot com to watch
all the action live on November four and five. Look,

(01:51:44):
I've watched a lot of their football games. I'll agree
they look a little different than they have in years.
Pasted there, a little bit more um, dynamic offensively, I
think some of their games have been closer then what
they would be. They've they've looked like a real squad
out there at times. Um, But this is the NFL.

(01:52:08):
You don't get orange slices at halftime. And they are
one in five. They have only beaten the Washington Commanders,
and they found a way to give up twenty seven
points to that team. And I don't know that that
team has scored close to twenty seven points since then.
I'm talking about everybody's favorite kneecap biting team, the Detroit Lions.

(01:52:31):
On Hard Knocks, Man fell in love with Dan Campbell
this offseason, and I get it. He's a big personality,
and Hard Knocks was really interesting. They've got some personalities,
they've got some pieces. Um, but do you see actual
progress here? Or is this much to do about nothing?
And just yet another season in Detroit? Well, just you know,

(01:52:52):
clear up the record, there there are actual orange slices
at halftime in NFL locker rooms. Just true. Yes, it's
very true. Wait a minute, but like is that it?
And did someone's mom bring them? No, one's mom brought them.
But you know there are aren't slices, so you know, okay,

(01:53:16):
my bad? Are there capri sons? Nope, there's everything. You know,
there's other you know, libations and and things like that. Okay,
but rice crispy treat after the game. How does this go?
You do get your your your vitamin c uh at halftime?
So now you know, not going to the Detroit Lions. Okay,

(01:53:39):
glad to clear it up. Look, the Detroit Lions um
are one of those teams that have been just ravaged
by injury. And when you're a young team and your
most talented assets aren't available, and when you're a team
trying to climb out of a dark cloud, um it

(01:54:01):
it hurts more and it has a more resounding uh impact.
And I think that's where I think that's where the
Detroit lines are. I think the Dan Campbell won the
locker room. I think the guys like playing for him.
I think the guys are willing to to to fight,
but if you just don't have the talent or the

(01:54:22):
talent that you did have to to enter that fight
is now on the sideline. Like Swift right, like one
of the most dynamic running backs in the league. He
just shreddened up people. I'm in. I'm in saying raw right,
like the their top receive. All of these these guys
are are They're not there, And I think you can
do only so much. Um, But I think the culture

(01:54:44):
is changing there. I think it's going to take probably
two more years before the Detroit lines can be spoken
and you know with you know positivity in terms of outlook. Um,
it's decades of of being being just not up to snuff,

(01:55:06):
too too to to put a product on the field
that you're proud of. And I think that's changing. The
only problem is once they start changing, then the whole
regime changes, which kind of starts you back at zero.
So they need that tough Motor City edge that Dan
Campbell brings. He played there, so I think they should

(01:55:29):
leave him in place. And I think it will get better.
I know it will get better, and you know, they
have an opportunity that turns this season around. I'm not
saying that they're gonna, you know, compete four playoff spot,
but they could, you know, try to fight for above
five hundred. I think that is something that that's very
doable for them, But they gotta they gotta get healthy.

(01:55:54):
The other thing about it is, I'm still, after all
these years, I'm just not sure, uh, what level of
a franchise quarterback Jared Goff is. And I say that
as both a compliment and a criticism because I'm not
saying he's not. I'm also just not ready to say

(01:56:15):
that he is. What I'm saying is he has been
at times in his career and he has very much
not been at times. He's he's been to a Super Bowl.
I look at him this year, he absolutely looks different
than he did last year. There's no question. Put aside
four turnovers today against the Dallas Cowboys, that's a really
good defense, and a couple of them came in that

(01:56:37):
desperation mode when you're down by two or three scores
with a few minutes to go. But it wasn't a
great game for him. But by and large, Goff's been
intriguing this year. The offense has been fine. It was
for the first five weeks They've only scored six points
now in their last two games, but prior to that,
they were absolutely moving the football. But if you say

(01:56:58):
a team has a cultured change and they're ready to
be good in a couple of years, we usually don't
say that about a team unless we really feel like
they've got their guy at that position. And I'm still
sitting here going do they they might? I'm not convinced though.
I'm not convinced either. I'm not convinced Golf is the guy. Um.

(01:57:21):
But there's a lot of so there's a bunch of
teams out there that don't have the guy right, but
still trying to shift the culture and do things like that. Right,
all you can do is prepare your locker room and
your organization so when the guy arrives, everything is in place.

(01:57:42):
You've already started the trajectory into in the upward direction
that you want to go. Right, you have to start it.
Sometimes you have to start it without the guy, and
then when that guy shows up on campus, then it's
time to you know, now you can eat now, it's
easier for you. Absolutely, yeah, yeah, yeah, no, I get it.

(01:58:07):
It's just it's an intriguing team because, uh, they they
did one thing that always makes me laugh, which is
they kind of won the off season. Um. The Texas
Rangers did that last year. They won the off season. Um,
they had a big press conference where Corey Seeger and
Marcus Simmy and We're both signed on the same day.
And then everybody who won that off season got fired

(01:58:29):
in the middle of the season. So they didn't win
the season, they won the off season. And so you know,
sometimes I think teams get a little, uh, a little
bit wooed by that. And and this was for a
different reason. It was. It wasn't because of glitz and
glamour signings. It was because of a glitz and glamour
TV show. It was because HBO was there the whole time.
So I get that. But the discussion around the Detroit Lions,

(01:58:53):
like we heard a lot about them in in the
months of July and August, and uh, you know, then
then September and October came and and and we didn't
hear about it nearly as much. It happens like that.
Before we get out of here, I want to ask
you a couple of questions. Okay, Number one, are the

(01:59:14):
New York Jets for real? Yes? Agree. Number two are
the New York Giants for real? Yes? Agree? Do you
want to talk about You want to talk about change
the culture? What we just talked about? They did right, right, Look,

(01:59:36):
we don't know if if if Robert Sala has the
right guy, but we don't know if if Zach is
that guy. But guess what I know that about Daniel
Ye may not know that about Daniel Jones. Pretty interesting
free agency. Um, we're heading towards the fitniest line.

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